Certified Authentic Ancient

Roman Glass Vessel from circa 100-200 A.D.
5.7cm Tall x 2.9 cm Wide 9.9 grams

You are bidding on an authentic ancient Roman glass vessel from circa 100-200 A.D. The Romans produced large quantities of glass from the inception of glass blowing in the first century B.C. This beautiful glass vessel has survived the millennia, unscathed and is very rare to be so well preserved being so fragile. Own this unique piece of ancient Roman history today!

You are bidding on the exact item pictured, provided with a Certificate of Authenticity and Lifetime Guarantee of Authenticity.

From Hellenistic times glass production sees considerable technological developments culminating with the introduction of glass blowing in the 1st century BC. Glass objects could now be made in large scale production, with less raw material and faster and as a consequence became more common. From the early Roman times, to Byzantine and early Islamic periods the glass from Northern Europe to Eastern Mediterranean shows an incredible compositional homogeneity in its major elements. Unlike the LBA glass, Roman glass was made from the melting of sand and natron - mineral soda - from the Wadi Natron in Egypt^[6]. With one raw material being common to all glass it should be possible to differentiate between glass made from different sands using composition variation of the trace elements and certain isotope ratios^[7]. These compositional analyses aimed to investigate two models for glass production: Glass was produced in large scale primary workshops along the Levantine coast^[6] and Egypt^[8], mixing natron and sand from the mouth of the Belus river - as mentioned by Pliny - and then traded to local glass working workshops.If natron was traded and mixed with local sands following a strict recipe could result in the homogeneous composition.

Glass making furnaces have been uncovered in Israel at two sites - 17 at Bet Eli’ezer and 3 at Apolonia^[9]. These are rectangular in shape measuring about 2m x 4m and matching in size a glass slab found inside a cave at Bet She’arim. The resulting slabs would be broken up into chunks that were traded to glass workshops in the Middle East and across the Mediterranean as evidenced by the contemporaneous shipwrecks carrying such glass chunks^[9].

The situation is not so simple, these workshops are dated from the 6th to the 11th century AD and although similar the compositions do not exactly match those of the earlier Roman period. Pliny, writing in the 1st century AD, describes glass making in the Levantine coast but also in Italy, Spain and Gaul - however the installations that produced the large quantities of primary glass needed to supply the Roman industry have yet to be located^[10]. These same authors report a difference in isotopic ratios for oxygen and strontium that differentiates between Middle eastern and Roman glasses. Other authors counter idea of a unique centralised production with primary production reported from Northern Europe^[11] and inferred for Italy^[12].

Evidence for large scale production has only come the Eastern Mediterranean and from latter dates and assumes a continuing glass making tradition. That there was a large scale and centralised production even this early is evidenced by the Ouest Embiez I shipwreck - 3rd century - carrying 8 tons of raw glass^[13]. This however does not exclude the smaller scale local production reported elsewhere. The Julia Felix, also sunk during the 3rd century AD, was carrying as part of its cargo glass cullet presumably for recycling^[14]. Trace element analysis of colourless glass showed these were made using sands from different sources and giving some support to the de-centralised production hypothesis.

By the 9th century the raw materials for glass shift again to quartz pebbles and plant ash and the ‘forest glass’ of medieval Europe. Natron was no longer in use and the low lime composition of the Bet’eliezer glass would be suggestive of a decline in access to the material from at least the 6th century onwards^[15]. This could in turn be suggestive of a shift from a trade both in natron and raw glass to tighter control over natron and increase of centralised production.