The subject of this study consists of 17 ancient glass fragments from the island of Ustica (Palermo, Italy) obtained from local museums. All the 17 glass fragments are stratigraphically ...decontextualized, as they were collected by archaeological surface surveys. Each fragment was analyzed by Electron Micro Probe Analyzer coupled with an Energy Dispersive X-Ray System (EMPA-EDS) and by Laser Ablation-Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) to obtain the composition of major, minor and trace elements. Surface analyses revealed the presence of corrosion layers in most of the glass fragments which was evident also in the chemical data. Nevertheless, reconstruction of the glassmaking processes and the approximate period of production was possible for almost all the glass fragments. Less than half of the examined fragments are attributable to recognizable typologies as unguentaria, beakers, bottles, and vases; all the other small fragments are typologically undetermined. Out of 17 fragments only one fragment is of HLLA composition possibly being produced in 17
–18
century AD, while all the others can be attributed to soda glass with different periods of production: natron glass from Roman and Early Medieval period, plant-ash glass from High or Late Medieval period with the exception of possible Byzantine glass from 6th century AD, and synthetic soda glasses typical of modern era. These data confirm the discontinuous habitation of the island from the Roman period as well as the import of glass objects to the island.
The combined PIXE–PIGE method was used for the analysis of 43 glass fragments from the archaeological site Tonovcov grad in western Slovenia, with 10 of these additionally being analysed by ...LA-ICP-MS. The glass objects were attributed to the Late Antique production of the 4th–7th c. AD, with two examples of early Roman glass and three glass beads, one of them presumably of oriental origin. The analysis showed typical natron-type glass, produced in the Levantine region around the river Belus, and a few examples of HIMT glass, which could be recognized also in several other recycled objects. Only one glass bead, found in Early Medieval context, was made of the ash of halophytic plants.
“Material Analysis in Cultural Heritage” describes the application of modern analytical techniques in the studies of selected historical materials, their properties, and processes they undergo. The ...topics include glass and ceramics, metal preservation, functionality and testing of historic and modern building materials, origins of specific stones, decomposition of painting pigments, and the construction of historic violins.
This paper reports and discusses the typological characteristics and chemical composition of 93 Roman glass fragments discovered in the Roman fort and baths from Mălăieşti, Prahova County, Romania, ...dated to AD 102–118. The elemental analysis was performed by simultaneous external particle-induced X-ray emission (PIXE) and particle-induced gamma-ray emission (PIGE) at the AGLAE accelerator from the basement of the Louvre Palace, Paris, France. This study is part of a larger project, targeting the understanding of the daily life in a military fort at the fringes of the Roman world. The compositional data on glass finds allowed for discussions on the raw materials, the provenance, and the manufacturing techniques. The archaeometric investigations of these Roman glass items pointed to a rich palette of chemical types of glass, offering circumstantial indicators on the connections of this rather remote site with the rest of the empire during the early second century AD.
This work aimed to investigate the origin of different red hues of Roman copper-based red opaque glass sectilia, to shed light on the production technology behind them. This objective was achieved by ...the depth study of the samples of glass sectilia, which decorated the villa of co-Emperor Lucius Verus (161–169 AD). These were selected for analysis due to their abundance, the certainty of their date and of their different red and orange hues. Using OM (optical microscopy), colourimetry and FORS (fibre optical reflectance spectroscopy) spectroscopy, four red and four orange hues were individuated. A set of representative samples for each hue was analysed by EPMA (electron probe microanalyses) to detect any correlation between colour and chemical composition. Crystalline phases were investigated through high-resolution FEG–SEM (field emission gun scanning electron microscope), μRaman spectroscopy and XRD, for the identification of colouring and opacifying agents and to understand how the different hues are affected by their shape, concentration and dimension. Sub-micrometric particles of metallic copper and cuprite crystals were identified as both the colouring and opacifying agents. These were not present in the same samples and were manufactured by two distinct colouring techniques, corresponding to two different glass chemical compositions. The size and the number of the colouring particles were the main factors that distinguished one hue from another. Although produced through different colouring techniques, some red samples appeared to be very similar to each other. These data enrich a period of the Roman age through some analyses and allow the identification of the type, as well as some of the production conditions of opaque red glass produced during 2nd century AD, which could be considered to be a period of transition from one technology to another.
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