The provenance of some glass ingots from the Uluburun shipwreck

Transition in the use of cobalt-blue colorant in the New Kingdom of Egypt

“…Deep blue glass colored with a cobalt-blue colorant has been identified in some of the earliest known Egyptian glasses (Lilyquist and Brill, 1993) and its use became common and mass-produced at the glass workshops in Malkata (early 14th century BC) and Amarna (mid-14th century BC). Egyptian cobalt-blue glass was exported to the Mediterranean region (Walton et al, 2009;Jackson and Nicholson, 2010;Polikreti et al, 2011). In addition, at these sites, cobalt-blue colorants were commonly used in making blue faience (Lucas and Harris, 1962;Kaczmarczyk and Hedges, 1983;Tite and Shortland, 2003).…”

XRF analysis of glass beads from the Mycenaean palace of Nestor at Pylos, Peloponnesus, Greece: new insight into the LBA glass trade

“…From these workshops the finished product was transported by ship to destinations all over the Eastern Mediterranean (Pulak, 2008). Recent analysis of three blue glass ingots from the 14th century BC Uluburun shipwreck off the south coast of Turkey (Jackson and Nicholson, 2010) shows a trace element composition that is consistent with Egyptian glasses. More recent analyses also support this suggestion: eleven Mycenaean glass beads dated to 1400e1300 BC were found to be of mixed Mesopotamian and Egyptian origin (Walton et al, 2009) while another eleven glasses from an LBA tholos tomb at Kazanaki, near Volos, Magnesia were found to be of an Egyptian origin too (Smirniou et al in press).…”

“…Shortland et al (2007) analysed 54 LBA glass fragments (24 Mesopotamian and 30 Egyptian) with LA-ICP-MS and found that Mesopotamia is characterised by low values of Ti (<300 ppm) and Zr (<20 ppm). The data of Shortland et al (2007) together with the data for 11 Mycenaean relief beads (analysed with LA-ICP-TOFS, Walton et al, 2009) and three ingots from the Uluburun shipwreck (Jackson and Nicholson, 2010) are plotted in comparison to Pylos data in Fig. 5.…”

Analytical Plan for Roman Glasses

“…When ancient glasses were discarded, buried with a person as part of ritual, or went under water as the result of a shipwreck, long-term experiments were started. These experiments have been ongoing for periods of approximately 4000 y (Jackson, and Nicholson 2010). With advanced analytical techniques such as trace element analyses (Jackson, and Nicholson 2010), isotope ratios (Longinelli et al 2004), and others, the provenance (origin) of these glasses and other factors surrounding their history are becoming known.…”

“…These experiments have been ongoing for periods of approximately 4000 y (Jackson, and Nicholson 2010). With advanced analytical techniques such as trace element analyses (Jackson, and Nicholson 2010), isotope ratios (Longinelli et al 2004), and others, the provenance (origin) of these glasses and other factors surrounding their history are becoming known. This means that there are fewer unknowns in these long-term experiments; the experiments are becoming better constrained.…”