In this study, the use of trace elements as a provenance indicator for Roman natron glass is evaluated. Suitable glass‐making sand raw materials are analysed for their trace elemental composition and ...compared to glass from known production centres. It is shown that the combined use of Nd isotopic and trace element analysis can be efficient for the provenancing of Roman glass. Trace elements associated with (de)colourants of glass are only present in small concentrations in glass‐making sands. Background levels introduced to the glass by the sand raw material are defined and a lower threshold for the concentrations influenced by recycling is determined.
Substantial databases of elemental and isotopic analyses of ancient glass exist and are used to investigate raw material origin, trade, exchange, and processes such as mixing and recycling. However, ...the chemistry of archaeological glass may be challenging to the untrained. The paper provides structured information on the origin of chemical elements and their isotopes in ancient glass. It details some of the functions of individual elements in the glass and from which raw material(s) or process(es) they originate.
In Roman and Byzantine times, natron glass was traded throughout the known world in the form of chunks. Production centers of such raw glass, active from the 4th to 8th century AD, were identified in ...Egypt and Syro-Palestine. However, early Roman primary glass units remain unknown from excavation or scientific analysis. The ancient author Pliny described in 70 AD that besides Egyptian and Levantine resources, also raw materials from Italy and the Gallic and Spanish provinces were used in glass making. In this study, the primary provenance of 1st–3rd century AD natron vessel glass is investigated. The use of combined Sr and Nd isotopic analysis allows the distinguishing and characterizing of different sand raw materials used for primary glass production. The isotope data obtained from the glass samples are compared to the signatures of primary glass from known production centers in the eastern Mediterranean and a number of sand samples from the regions described by Pliny the Elder as possible sources of primary glass. Eastern Mediterranean primary glass has a Nile dominated Mediterranean Nd signature (higher than −6.0 ɛ Nd), while glass with a primary production location in the western Mediterranean or north-western Europe should have a different Nd signature (lower than −7.0 ɛ Nd). Most Roman glass has a homogeneous
87Sr/
86Sr signature close to the modern sea water composition, likely caused by the (intentional) use of shell as glass raw material. In this way, strontium and neodymium isotopes now prove that Pliny's writings were correct: primary glass production was not exclusive to the Levant or Egypt in early Roman days, and factories of raw glass in the Western Roman Empire will have been at play.
The origins of raw glass used to fashion Mycenaean beads were explored using trace elements analyzed by laser ablation ICP-TOFMS. The use of this minimally destructive technique for the
in-situ ...analysis of these beads was ideal given that the material is exceedingly rare and thus too sensitive to make use of traditional micro-sampling (e.g., by scalpel). A wide range of trace elements were measured to compare these Greek glasses to other Late Bronze Age glass coming from Egypt and Mesopotamia. Of the eleven beads analyzed, four blue glasses colored with cobalt and two blue/green glasses colored with copper have trace element compositions consistent with an Egyptian origin of manufacture. The other five of the glasses, all colored with copper, were found to conform to the composition of Mesopotamian glass. These data are the first to demonstrate direct and clear evidence for the trade of raw glass to the Mycenaean states.
In Central Africa, copper ore occurs in only a few locations and copper appears to have been a scarce commodity in the past—contrary to iron, which is attested more widely and earlier in the ...sub‐Saharan archaeological record. This paper presents the first detailed characterization of an early copper‐working region in Central Africa. Located along the southern border of the Republic of the Congo, the Niari Basin has revealed several copper production sites ranging from the 13th to the 19th century ce. The evidence, specifically in the Mindouli, Mfouati and Boko‐Songho areas, includes various production remains as well as different types of copper ingots and artefacts. In the context of a broader copper technology study, the chemical and lead isotope characteristics of the ore deposits in this region are presented. The results of the chemical and lead isotope analyses of copper objects and production remains from archaeological sites are then interpreted against this geological background data, with an emphasis on copper provenance features. Combining these results with archaeological and historical evidence for regional metallurgical activity, new and significant insights are given on the production of copper in the Niari Basin, emphasizing the potential of this research for forthcoming work on copper use and trade in a wider Central African context.
This paper re‐analyses a considerable corpus of glass from the Late Bronze Age site of Nuzi, found near Kirkuk in Iraq. SEM–WDS and Sr and Nd isotopic analysis were applied, in addition to ...cataloguing the glass. The work showed that the glass technology at Nuzi was subtly different from contemporary Egyptian sites, using different ways of opacifying and working glass. At least two, perhaps three, Near Eastern production sites are postulated. The range of glass colours and the skill of their application at Nuzi was perhaps not on a par with the Egyptian sites. This led to a reconsideration and review of the accepted wisdom that the Near East is the source of the innovation that is glass‐making. This opinion is based on limited textual and iconographic sources and is dominated by an erroneous early date for a very developed Nuzi glass industry along with a few finds of glass vessels in early contexts. Some of this evidence has now been at least questioned, suggesting that glass‐making in Egypt, at least as early as the middle of the 15th century bc, and probably earlier, is no later than that in the Near East. It is argued that it is far from clear that the Near East was the source of the innovation and that a more cautious approach would better fit the evidence.
Aspects of Roman pottery production at the workshops of Kontich, Tienen, Rumst, Grobbendonk and Clavier‐Vervoz in the Civitas Tungrorum of central Belgium are explored. A total of 150 wasters from ...five sites were studied macroscopically, as well as via a combination of thin‐section petrography, geochemistry and scanning electron microscopy, in order to gain insights into ceramic technology and aspects of the organization of production. Particular emphasis was given to the individual technological sequences and shared strategies of raw material selection, paste preparation and firing employed at the five adjacent sites. The integration of petrographic and geochemical data permitted the establishment of compositional reference groups for the Roman kiln sites of Civitas Tungrorum, which can be used to track their products within the surrounding landscape.
In this study, we have evaluated the applicability of Nd isotopic analysis for the provenancing of Roman glass and we present a database of Nd isotopic compositions of possible sand raw materials ...from the western Mediterranean, as a means of comparison for the growing number of isotopic studies on ancient glass. The 143Nd/144Nd isotope ratio of sands is a good indicator for their geological (and sometimes geographical) provenance. The use of the isotopic signature of Nd as a proxy for the source of silica in glass is, however, not always straightforward because of the possible overlap of signatures from different suppliers.
Pliny the Elder describes the discovery of a process for making natron glass, which was widely used for much of the first millennium
bc
and
ad
. His account of glassmaking with natron has since been ...corroborated by analyses of archaeological glass and the discovery of large-scale glass production sites where natron glass was made and then exported. Analyses of Egyptian natron have shown it to be a complex mixture of different sodium compounds, and previous experiments to make glass with Egyptian natron have been unsuccessful. Here, natron from el-Barnugi in the Egyptian Nile delta, a site which also probably supplied Roman glassmakers, is used to produce glass. The experiments show that high-quality glass, free of unreacted batch or bubbles, could have been produced from natron in its unprocessed form in a single stage, that larger quantities of natron would be required than has previously been anticipated, that the presence of different sodium-containing compounds in the deposit aided melting, and that negligible waste is produced. The implications for the identification of glass production sites, for the organisation of trade and for the supply of natron within and outside Egypt are discussed in the light of Pliny’s accounts.
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