The First Thousand Years of Glass-Making in the Ancient Near East

Compositional Analyses of Late Bronze and Iron Age Glasses

Wendy Reade

• Publisher: Archaeopress Archaeology
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN:
  9781789697032
• eBook ISBN:
  9781789697049
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Archaeology
• Index: Social Sciences

Glass-Making in the Ancient Near East explores glass composition and production from the mid-second to mid-first millennia BC, essentially the first thousand years of glass-making. Multi-element analyses of 132 glasses from Pella in Jordan, and Nuzi and Nimrud in Iraq (ancient Mesopotamia), produce new and important data that provide insights into the earliest glass production. A novel method for data interpretation and presentation has been developed and used to characterise the glass types and to investigate questions of composition, raw materials, regional differences and similarities, and changes through time from the earliest consistent glass manufacture as represented at 16th century BC Pella, which is compared with Late Bronze Age Nuzi, to the Iron Age at both Pella and Nimrud. These compositional data are compared with available glass compositional data from the widespread regions of the Levant, Mesopotamia, Egypt, Iran and France, uncovering fascinating connections that, when placed in the archaeological context, reveal much about glass production, raw material sources, and distribution of finished and raw glasses. Technological innovations, including the introduction of natron-fluxed glasses, early decolouring with antimony, and the use of Egyptian cobalt colourant in Near Eastern glasses, are explored as part of this unique investigation of the critical developments in sophisticated and complex glass-making that laid the foundations for the establishment of large-scale production in the ensuing Hellenistic and Roman periods.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright page
• Contents
• List of Figures
• List of Tables
• Preface
• Acknowledgements
• Abbreviations
• Chapter 1
• Introduction, Background and Aims
• Chapter 2
• Methods for Compositional Analyses and Data Interpretation
• Chapter 3
• NUZI: Late Bronze Age Glasses Results of Compositional Analyses
• Chapter 4
• Pella: Late Bronze Age Glasses Results of Compositional Analyses
• Chapter 5
• Pella: Iron Age Glasses Results of Compositional Analyses
• Chapter 6
• Nimrud: Iron Age Glasses Results Of Compositional Analyses Part 1
• Chapter 7
• Nimrud: Iron Age Glasses Results Of Compositional Analyses Part 2
• Chapter 8
• Late Bronze Age Glasses - Comparisons and Interpretations
• Chapter 9
• Iron Age Glasses – Comparisons and Interpretations
• Chapter 10
• Conclusions and Future Research
• Chapter 11
• Epilogue: Published Research 2009-2019
• Bibliography 2009 – 2019
• Bibliography
• Appendix I
• Model for Compositional Investigation of Ancient Glasses
• Appendix II
• NUZI: Results of Compositional Analyses (Chapter 3)
• Appendix III
• PELLA: Results of Compositional Analyses (Chapter 4)
• Appendix IV
• PELLA: Results of Compositional Analyses (Chapter 5)
• Appendix V
• NIMRUD: Results of Compositional Analyses (Chapters 6 and 7)
• Appendix VI
• EGYPT: Results of Compositional Analyses (Chapters 8 and 9)