Roman glass across the Empire: an elemental and isotopic characterization

Late antique glass distribution and consumption in Cyprus: a chemical study

“…First of all, because the Roman historian Pliny the Elder in his Naturalis Historia (c. 70 AD) mentions the existence of primary glass production in Italy, Spain and France. In addition, recent work on Nd isotopic signatures of ancient glasses suggests that Western sand deposits could have been used for certain glasses (Degryse and Schneider, 2008;Ganio et al, 2012;Degryse, 2014).…”

PIXE–PIGE investigation of Roman Imperial vessels and window glass from Mt. Kosmaj, Serbia (Moesia Superior)

“…Further, some samples of Iulia Felix colourless glass CL 1, decoloured with antimony only show similarity with our K2 group for the elements representing characteristics of the sand (Al 2 O 3~1 .98%, CaO~5.76%, Fe 2 O 3~0 .35%, TiO 2~0 .06%). Recent isotopic studies by Ganio et al (2012) on Roman glass including Iulia Felix colourless glass (CL), showed a rather homogenous isotopic signature of possible Levantine origin, but slightly different from that of the mouth of river Belus. Samples of K2 group are different for slightly lower levels of Na 2 O~15% compared to the mentioned groups.…”

“…This is described in the writings of Pliny the Elder in the 1st century AD (Silvestri at al., 2006), and can be concluded from finds in western Germany (Wedepohl and Baumann, 2000), in Britain (Baxter et al, 2005) and partly from colourless glass of Iulia Felix shipwreck (Silvestri et al, 2008 and references therein). Isotope ratio analyses of Sr and Nd were made by several authors to indicate the source of the sand (Wedepohl and Baumann, 2000;Degryse and Schneider, 2008;Freestone et al, 2003;Brems et al, 2012Brems et al, , 2013Ganio et al, 2012). The results suggest that most of sand used for production of the Roman glass originated from the Eastern Mediterranean, but that some of the samples could have been produced with sand from the Western Mediterranean or from Northern Europe.…”

Glass Production in the Early Byzantine Period (4th–7th Century) at Gadara (Umm Qais), Jordan, Area W, 2011 Season of Excavation

“…Chemical compositions can be compared to those from the Palestinian Byzantine workshops at Jalame and Beth Shean (Fig. 2) (Freestone et al 2000;Brill 1988), the glass fragments at Barsinia in Jordan (Ganio et al 2012, Table 1), and other glass fragments from Gadara and other sites in northern Jordan (AbdAllah 2012, 278-79, Table 1). The similarity in the composition of all of the pieces analysed indicates that they represent a single source for the glass and came from the same furnace.…”