Ancient Glass
An Interdisciplinary Exploration

A detailed interdisciplinary exploration of ancient glass, examining why and how glass was invented and various contexts of its subsequent development and use.

Julian Henderson (Author)

9781107551909, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 4 February 2016

453 pages, 119 b/w illus. 5 maps 11 tables
25.3 x 17.7 x 2 cm, 0.95 kg

This book is an interdisciplinary exploration of archaeological glass in which technological, historical, geological, chemical, and cultural aspects of the study of ancient glass are combined. The book examines why and how this unique material was invented some 4,500 years ago and considers the ritual, social, economic, and political contexts of its development. The book also provides an in-depth consideration of glass as a material, the raw materials used to make it, and its wide range of chemical compositions in both the East and the West from its invention to the seventeenth century AD. Julian Henderson focuses on three contrasting archaeological and scientific case studies: Late Bronze Age glass, late Hellenistic-early Roman glass, and Islamic glass in the Middle East. He considers in detail the provenances of ancient glass using scientific techniques and discusses a range of vessels and their uses in ancient societies.

1. Glass as a material: a technological background in fiaence, pottery and metal?
2. Ways to flux silica: ashes and minerals
3. Silica, lime and glass colorants
4. Glass chemical compositions
5. Early glass: archaeology
6. Scientific analysis of early glass
7. Hellenistic to Roman: a change from small- to large-scale glass production?
8. Scientific studies of Hellenistic and early Roman glass
9. Islamic glass: technological continuity and innovation
10. Chemical analyses of Islamic glasses
11. The provenance of ancient glass
12. Conclusions.

Subject Areas: Archaeological science, methodology & techniques [HDW], Archaeology [HD], Ancient history: to c 500 CE [HBLA]