The production, distribution and consumption of black glass in the
Roman Empire during the 1st - 5th century AD
An archaeological, archaeometric and historical approach
Peter Cosyns
Proefschrift ingediend tot het behalen van de academische graad
van doctor in de Archeologie en de Kunstwetenschappen,
Vakgroep Kunstwetenschappen en Archeologie
Faculteit Letteren en Wijsbegeerte, Vrije Universiteit Brussel
promotor: Prof. dr. Karin Nys (VUB)
co-promotor: Prof. dr. Koen Janssens (UA)
Brussel 2011
Table of contents
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .............................................................................................................................................. vii
INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................................................................... ix
1.
The delimitation of the studied material ................................................................................... xi
2.
The chronological delimitations ............................................................................................... xii
3.
The geographical delimitation ................................................................................................. xiii
4.
Delimitation of the research topic ........................................................................................... xiii
5.
The delimitation of black-appearing glass or the colours of black ...................................... xiii
6.
Methodology ............................................................................................................................. xiv
7.
Previous research on the various issues of Roman black glass ....................................... xviii
ABBREVIATIONS .................................................................................................................................................... xxi
Chapter 1
Defining ‘black’ and the perception of colour ........................................................................... 1
1.1
Introduction ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 1
1.2
Colour perception in Antiquity ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1
1.3
Linguistic and psychological approach to colour perception ---------------------------------------------------------- 2
1.4
Colour perception in archaeology -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3
1.5
Proposed application ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 4
1.6
Initial observations --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7
1.7
Conclusion ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------11
Chapter 2
Technology................................................................................................................................. 13
2.1
Introduction -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------13
2.2
The production -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------13
2.2.1
The raw materials ........................................................................................................................ 13
2.2.2
The workshops ............................................................................................................................ 15
2.2.3
Built-in basins and crucibles ........................................................................................................ 16
2.2.4
The tools ...................................................................................................................................... 16
2.2.5
The production waste and recycling ............................................................................................ 19
2.3
The Artefacts ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------19
2.3.1
Vessels ........................................................................................................................................ 19
2.3.2
Jewellery ...................................................................................................................................... 26
2.3.3
Architectural decoration ............................................................................................................... 31
2.3.4
Counters ...................................................................................................................................... 32
2.4
Comparative survey of the various colours of black glass in relation to the applied technology ------------34
2.4.1
Production ................................................................................................................................... 34
2.4.2
Vessels ........................................................................................................................................ 35
2.4.3
Jewellery ...................................................................................................................................... 38
Chapter 3
Chrono-Typology ....................................................................................................................... 45
3.1
Introduction -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------45
3.2
Vessels -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------46
3.2.1
Introduction .................................................................................................................................. 46
3.2.2
Cast vessels ................................................................................................................................ 47
3.2.3
Free-blown vessels ...................................................................................................................... 51
3.2.4
Mould-blown vessels ................................................................................................................... 66
3.2.5
Rod-formed vessels ..................................................................................................................... 70
3.2.6
Summary ..................................................................................................................................... 77
3.3
Jewellery ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------80
3.3.1
Arm rings ..................................................................................................................................... 80
3.3.2
Finger rings .................................................................................................................................. 93
3.3.3
Beads ........................................................................................................................................ 105
3.3.4
Pendants ................................................................................................................................... 116
3.3.5
Gems ......................................................................................................................................... 121
3.3.6
Hairpins ..................................................................................................................................... 124
3.4
Architectural decoration ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 126
3.4.1
Tesserae .................................................................................................................................... 126
3.4.2
Twisted rods .............................................................................................................................. 127
3.4.3
Bichrome plaques ...................................................................................................................... 130
3.4.4
Inlays or intarsia......................................................................................................................... 131
3.5
Counters ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 131
Chapter 4
Chronology............................................................................................................................... 137
4.1
Introduction --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 137
4.2
Production ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 137
4.2.1
Primary production..................................................................................................................... 137
4.2.2
Secondary production ................................................................................................................ 138
4.2.3
Recycling ................................................................................................................................... 140
4.3
Vessels --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 140
4.3.1
Period I ...................................................................................................................................... 142
4.3.2
Period II ..................................................................................................................................... 143
4.3.3
Period III .................................................................................................................................... 146
4.3.4
Period IV .................................................................................................................................... 146
4.4
Jewellery ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 147
4.4.1
Arm rings.................................................................................................................................... 147
4.4.2
Finger rings ................................................................................................................................ 155
4.4.3
Beads ......................................................................................................................................... 157
4.4.4
Pendants .................................................................................................................................... 158
4.4.5
Gems ......................................................................................................................................... 160
4.4.6
Hairpins ...................................................................................................................................... 162
4.5
Architectural Decoration ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 162
4.5.1
Tesserae .................................................................................................................................... 163
4.5.2
Twisted rods............................................................................................................................... 164
4.5.3
Bichrome plaques ...................................................................................................................... 165
4.5.4
Inlays or intarsia ......................................................................................................................... 165
4.5.5
Written sources .......................................................................................................................... 165
4.6
Counters ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 166
4.7
Conclusion ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 170
4.7.1
Period I....................................................................................................................................... 170
4.7.2
Period II...................................................................................................................................... 171
4.7.3
Period III..................................................................................................................................... 172
4.7.4
Period IV .................................................................................................................................... 172
Chapter 5
Context analysis ...................................................................................................................... 175
5.1
Introduction --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 175
5.2
Civil contexts ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 179
5.2.1
Domestic context ....................................................................................................................... 185
5.2.2
Funerary context ........................................................................................................................ 192
5.2.3
Ritual context ............................................................................................................................. 203
5.3
Military contexts --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 206
5.3.1
Funerary context ........................................................................................................................ 209
5.3.2
Ritual context ............................................................................................................................. 209
5.3.3
Public contexts ........................................................................................................................... 210
5.3.4
Domestic contexts ...................................................................................................................... 210
5.4
Other ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 216
5.4.1
Caves ......................................................................................................................................... 216
5.4.2
Rivers ......................................................................................................................................... 217
5.5
Conclusion ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 218
Chapter 6
Production, Distribution and Trade ........................................................................................ 221
6.1
Introduction --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 221
6.2
Production ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 222
6.2.1
Organisation of the production of coloured glass ....................................................................... 224
6.2.2
Analysis of secondary workshops .............................................................................................. 227
6.3
Distribution and trade -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 234
6.3.1
Vessels ...................................................................................................................................... 234
6.3.2
Jewellery .................................................................................................................................... 241
6.3.3
Architectural decoration ............................................................................................................. 263
6.3.4
Counters .................................................................................................................................... 263
6.4
Conclusion ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 266
Chapter 7
Use and function ...................................................................................................................... 271
7.1
Introduction --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 271
7.2
Reflections on the use and meaning of colours in Roman society ----------------------------------------------- 272
7.3
The vessels --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 273
7.3.1
Cast vessels............................................................................................................................... 274
7.3.2
Free-blown vessels .................................................................................................................... 274
7.3.3
Rod-formed vessels ................................................................................................................... 277
7.4
Jewellery ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 278
7.4.1
Arm rings.................................................................................................................................... 279
7.4.2
Finger rings ................................................................................................................................ 284
7.4.3
Beads ......................................................................................................................................... 285
7.4.4
Pendants .................................................................................................................................... 288
7.4.5
Gems ......................................................................................................................................... 290
7.4.6
Hairpins ...................................................................................................................................... 295
7.5
Architectural decoration ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 296
7.5.1
Tesserae .................................................................................................................................... 296
7.5.2
Rods........................................................................................................................................... 297
7.6
Counters ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 299
7.7
Conclusion ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 301
Chapter 8
Chemical analysis .................................................................................................................... 305
8.1
Introduction --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 305
8.2
Methodology ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 318
8.2.1
SEM-EDX................................................................................................................................... 318
8.2.2
LA-ICP-MS................................................................................................................................. 320
8.3
Studied material --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 322
8.4
Results --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 325
8.4.1
SEM-EDX .................................................................................................................................. 325
8.4.2
LA-ICP-MS................................................................................................................................. 333
8.5
Archaeological Relevance -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 336
8.5.1
Augst vs Avenches .................................................................................................................... 336
8.5.2
Deviant material ......................................................................................................................... 338
8.6
Conclusion ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 340
8.7
Addendum ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 343
8.7.1
p-XRF and µ-XRF ...................................................................................................................... 343
8.7.2
Portable X-Ray Fluorescence (p-XRF) ...................................................................................... 343
8.7.3
Micro X-Ray Fluorescence (µ-XRF) ........................................................................................... 346
8.7.4
Raman spectroscopy ................................................................................................................. 351
Chapter 9
Optical analysis ....................................................................................................................... 357
9.1
Introduction --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 357
9.2
Absorption spectroscopy on Roman glass artefacts ----------------------------------------------------------------- 358
9.3
Methodology -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 363
9.4
UV-Vis-NIR Spectroscopy results on Roman artefacts in strongly-coloured glass appearing black ----- 370
9.5
Use of photonics and its efficiency in relation to archaeological questions ------------------------------------- 392
9.6
Conclusion ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 399
Chapter 10
Historical Analysis ................................................................................................................... 404
10.1 Introduction --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 404
10.2 Case study I: Macro-level --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 406
10.3 Case Study II: Meso-level --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 410
10.4 Case-study III: Micro level --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 418
10.5 Conclusion ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 420
General Conclusion ......................................................................................................................................... 422
THE CATALOGUE ................................................................................................................................................... 429
APPENDICES
................................................................................................................................................... 435
LIST OF REFERENCES ............................................................................................................................................. 489
LIST OF FIGURES ................................................................................................................................................... 511
LIST OF TABLES ................................................................................................................................................... 519
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to express my deep gratitude towards the staff of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) who enabled me
with a grant from the Research Council (OZR 1247 BOF) to write this dissertation within a research project on
black glass, and by enabling the implementation of this research to encourage the collaboration between research
groups with expertise in different research disciplines through the funding of the Horizontal Orchestrated Action
project HOA15, under the supervision of Prof. Dr Hugo Thienpont (TONA), Prof. Dr Karin Nys (SKAR/MARI) and
Prof. Dr Herman Terryn (MEMS).
My most profound appreciation, however, goes to my supervisor Prof. Dr Karin NYS. From the very start, she
believed in me and my work. Although I am quite sure that I drove her to great despair with my line of action, she
never seized to coach and to encourage me to complete this work.
Further I wish to thank every member of the research team MARI and all the others of the ‗Vakgroep
Kunstwetenschappen en Archeologie‘ for being interested in my work and for encouraging me to accomplish this
research.
A special note is essential concerning the generating of the Chapters 8 and 9. Chapter 8 has only been made
possible thanks to a partnership with the Department of Chemistry, Universiteit Antwerpen (UA – MiTAC) of Prof.
Dr Koen Janssens and his team at the Centre for Micro- and Trace AnalysisDr Olivier Schalm, Dr Veerle
Vander Linden and Drs Simone Cagnofor the time and energy they spend in the chemical analyses, but also for
their significant input to achieve the here presented results. Yet it is noteworthy to add the substantial
contributions by Dr Bernard Gratuze (CNRS Orléans, France) for having executed the initial LA-ICP-MS analysis.
I am highly indebted to the participation of the Department of Applied Physics and Photonics (VUB – TONA) of
Prof. Dr Hugo Thienpont and the outstanding collaboration with his assistant Dr Wendy Meulebroeck, whose
contribution by means of absorption spectrometry analysis was of considerable importance. Without her zealous
scientific commitment and her fascination for archaeology, Chapter 9 could not be written.
I would like to thank curators, curator assistants and archaeologists for allowing me to study theirprimarily
unpublishedmaterial and especially everybody who granted me permission to sample material for analyses:
In Belgium:
KMKG-MRAH, Brussels
Provinciaal Gallo-Romeins Museum - PGRM,
Tongeren
ARON, Tongeren
Musée Archéologique, Namur
Grand Curtius, Liège
Erfgoedcel, Tienen
VIOE, Brussels
Universiteit Gent - UGent, Ghent
Provinciaal Archeologisch Museum - PAM,
Velzeke
Stedelijke Musea, Brugge
Université Libre de Bruxelles - ULB, Brussels
Université Catholique de Louvain – UCL-CRAN,
Louvain-la-Neuve
Ministère de la Région Wallonne – MRW, Jambes
Musée du Malgré-Tout, Treignes
Archeologisch Museum, Grobbendonk
formerly Katholieke Universiteit Leuven – KUL,
Leuven
Antwerpse
Vereniging
voor
Romeinse
Archeologie – AVRA, Kontich
Anne Cahen-Delhaye; Eric Gubel; Cécile Evers; Natasja Massar; Luc
Limme; Dirk Huyghe; Claire Massart
Guido Creemers; Bart Demarsin; Else Hartoch
Petra Driesen; Elke Wesemael
Jean-Louis Antoine
Constantin Chariot; Jean-Paul Philippart; Jean-Luc Schütz
Staf Thomas; Tom De Bruyne
Rica Annaert; Marleen Martens; Alain Vanderhoeven; Sophie Vanhoutte
Roald Docter; Wim Declercq; Partick Monsieur
Marc Rogge; Kurt Braeckman
Hubert De Witte
Eugène Warmenbol
Fabienne Vilvorder; Raymond Brulet
Jean Plumier; Frédéric Hanut; Olivier Vrielynck
Pierre Cattelain
Danielle Horemans
Arnold Provoost
Rik Verbeeck
And abroad:
Vienna and Magdalensberg, Austria
formerly Rheinisches Landesmuseum Bonn,
Germany
Römermuseum Augst, Switzerland
formerly Musée Romain d‘Avenches, Switzerland
Schweitzerisches
Nationalmuseum
Zürich,
Switzerland
Barbara Czurda-Ruth; Eleny Kaudelka-Schindler
Anna-Barbara Follmann-Schulz
Sylvia Fünfschilling; Sandra Ammann
Anne de Pyre-Gysel
Heidi Amrein
vii
University of Koper, Slovenia; formerly Proskrajina
Musej Celje, Slovenia
Musée des Antiquités Nationales, M.A.N., SaintGermain-en-Laye, France
CNRS, Aix-en-Provence, France
CNRS-Lattes, France
CNRS, Maison de l‘Orient Lyon, France
Israel Antiquities Authority - IAA Jerusalem, Israel
Department of Antquities, Nicosia
formerly LAARC and University College London,
UCL, London, UK
Petrie Museum for Egyptian Archaeology, London,
UK
formerly English Heritage, Portsmouth, UK
formerly Durham University, UK
Cardiff University, UK
Colchester Archaeological Museum, UK
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, UK
Gemeentelijke Archeologische Dienst, Nijmegen,
Netherlands
Museum Het Valkhof, Nijmegen, Netherlands
Irena Lazar
Hélène Chew
Danièle Foy
Michel Bats
Marie-Dominique Nenna
Yael Gorin-Rosen
Pavlos Flourentzos; Despo Pilides
John Shepherd
Stephen Quirke
Justine Bayley
Jennifer Price
Ian Freestone
Paul Sealey
Helen Whitehouse
Peter Vanden Broecke; Harry van Enckvort
Louis Swinkels; Annemie Koster
I wish to thank in particular for all their help, support, discussions, ideas, advice, scholarly attitude and/or
contributions to my research over the past years: Dirk Pauwels, Eugène Warmenbol, Frédérique Hanut, Souen
Fontaine, Jennifer Price, Danièle Foy, Florence Doyen, Jean-Marc Doyen, Bernard Gratuze, Justine Bayley, Yael
Goren-Rosen, Marie-Dominique Nenna, Sylvia Fünfschilling, Jean-Marc Doyen, and Alexis Wielemans. The team
members of doctoral researchers at the VUB university department SKAR (Sara Adriaenssens, Tamara
Berghmans, Barbara Borgers, Danielle Caluwé, Jan Coenaerts, Pieter-Jan Deckers, David Dewilde, Marie
Geraerts, Ariane Jacobs, Nelleke Teughels, Hilde Wouters).
This PhD is no exception to the rule: it alwaysalwaystakes longer than originally planned. The decision to
write in an international language was often regretted and certainly did not advance a smooth wind-up. Stratton
and Sarah were so kind to review a few chapters for which I am utterly grateful. I claim all responsibility for the
many remaining mistakes and I solemnly apologise to native speakers for the desecration of their beautiful but
complicated language.
And it would have taken even longer if not for the logistic support from Tinny and Koen, Ilse and Peter, Jonas.
They offered me their homes as a welcome and necessary seclusion from my ever alive and active offspring.
Marianne was always willing to help out were possible, which she did. In no time Bruno conjured the very
professional cover. I hope this does not get readers‘ hopes up too high...
Without a doubt, for years my mother‘s phone calls would always end with an enquiry about the progress of my
work. She, and my father, were and will remain a great support to me.
Yet, I am most indebted to Ann Hasendonckx. During this giant‘s labour I was not much of a companion. Although
at times physically present, my mind often strayed to Roman black glass. She spent lots of time alone with the
children. Her criticism on me and my work was mostly fierce but true. Nevertheless she supported me every
single day during these last tough years.
Finally, our two little ‗kakkewieten‘, Martha and Emiel kept me going. They, and maybe you too, would have
preferred a book on princes or wild animals, but unfortunately my topic is merely black glass.
viii
INTRODUCTION
The original idea for having undertaken this research on Roman black glass arose from the poor availability of
comparative material when studying the glass finds from the 1996-2002 excavations of the Roman site at TienenGrijpenveld (BE). The scattered availability of related information clearly illustrates that black glass artefacts occur
regularly on Roman sites albeit the number of artefacts remains, in most cases, limited. Despite the ubiquitous
occurrence of Roman black glass artefacts, these objects have been mainly discussed in the margin of entire
glass assemblages, barely receiving attention as a subject of research. Furthermore, the problem of the colour
perception, the black appearance of an object, was neglected. On the other hand, the main research focus within
the world of glass researchers remained up till now limited to vessels and production. The pervasive disinterest in
other functional types resulted in the reduced number of publications with regard to black glass artefacts, the
majority of which consists of jewellery. Reading through these publications resulted in several observations: 1)
that black glass artefacts have been produced all through the Roman imperial period; 2) that black glass was
used to make the whole range of consumer goods, with only a few exceptions such as window glass; 3) that its
distribution covers the entire Roman Empire; 4) that all over the empire a great uniformity in the shape prevails, at
most showing minor variations in the decoration; and 5) that some commodities demonstrate a regional
production and consumption. Because the study of a rather scantily occurring material on excavation sites like
black glass only can give interesting results when taking into account a wide-ranging geographical area, like the
Roman Empire, and a long chronological period, like the entire Roman imperial period, we therefore chose to
cope with the black glass through a vertical study approach instead of a horizontal one. Hence, the main
objectives of this manuscript were to understand the different operating processes influencing Roman glass
production in general and consumption of Roman black glass within the Roman economy, considering the
globalizing character of glass production and the local or (inter)regional character of glass consumption. Present
observation necessitates considering whether these black glass artefacts are commodities of 1) local; 2) regional;
or 3) long-distance trade. The empire-wide use of similar objects indicates an aspect of uniformity within the
Roman material culture but also results in questioning on how to understand this omnipresence of analogous
objects. The fact that a specific type of object was a local commodity but produced all over the Roman Empire in
a similar way or that a commodity coming from one single production centre was traded all over the Empire
demonstrates that all through the imperial period, the Roman material culture was overall mainstream up to the
tiniest artefact, whatever the prevailing economical organization.
We therefore set up a large-scale status quaestionis in the attempt to recognize workshops that produced black
glass artefacts, or regions where workshops should be identified, to better understand the impact of its
production. But when uniformity of shape is preponderant, the stylistic features appear everywhere analogous and
not distinctive. Hence, technological aspects can be crucial to recognize idiosyncrasies, given that every
workshop should have had its own specific technological know-how. The small technical features within the
production process of the glass artefact may reveal the fingerprint of a glass blower or generation of glass
blowers from one workshop on the one hand or the technological tradition of a workshop on the other hand. The
technological expertise of a workshop can also become recognizable through the identification of different recipes
and production techniques used to make glass appear black. For that reason, we sampled a wide range of
material from various places of the Roman Empire and from every phase within the Roman imperial period. This
was also necessary to assess whether the glass workshops used imported black glass to make artefacts or
whether the glass workshops themselves coloured ‗naturally coloured‘ or decolourized glass. Two approaches will
thus verify whether it is possible to detect different workshops and if such detection can offer new insights on the
production, distribution and use of Roman glass.
The main aim of this study on Roman black glass has been to focus the greatest scientific assets possible on a
minor segment within the Roman glass studies by putting forward a holistic study. Hence, the interdisciplinary
character of the research is executed with an interaction between the archaeological, the archaeometric and the
historical disciplines, verifying if this vertical analysis is supplying new information to the study of Roman glass.
This vertical analysis comprises a diachronic study on the composition, production, function, and distribution of
material from the entire Roman Empire. So we can ascertain geographical differences based on synchronic
variations within the entire Empire as well as chronological variations by means of diachronic variations within a
regional or supra-regional area. Possibly it also will help to refine dating as well as interpreting the archaeological
context, given that the obtained knowledge can provide a better insight into the social and economic aspects of
Roman society. Such approach is perhaps not new, but needs greater valorisation because ―only rarely does one
find an explicit and focused critique of the various sources and approaches employed, as well as their integration,
especially when archaeometric analyses are included in the equation‖ (Martinón-Torres, Rehren 2008, 13).
ix
Various theoretical models on how the Roman economy was organized have been proposed through centuries.
The aim of this research is to verify whether a minor segment within the Roman material culture can add fresh
information to this discourse and provide modification proposals.
The study of Roman black glass covers a wide range of material that has been produced and consumed within
the entirety of the Roman Empire and this during the first five centuries AD. Considering on the one hand the
immensity of the studied area, the long-term period, and the large extent of the discussed materialabout
production, vessels, jewellery, architectural decoration, gaming pieces, and, on the other hand, the holistic
approach of the research, it was neither possible to be exhaustive nor possible to process in detail the many
discussed issues. If the here-presented research on Roman black glass does aim to examine one particular
issue, it is regionalism versus globalization, showing a Roman material culture that confronts regional and
globalizing consumption. Given that we in the first place wanted to provide an overall picture of the production,
distribution and consumption of all commodity types diagnosed as black glass, we verified the studied material on
the basis of chronological and/or regional idiosyncrasies. Hence, the focus of the research lay in assessing as
many approaches and parameters as possible, in order to improve the knowledge on Roman black glass, but
above all to demonstrate that a holistic approach to a minor segment within the material culture can have a great
effect on the understanding of the glass production and consumption in the Roman Empire.
Although we initially designed an arrangement of the different issues per commodity type to obtain
comprehensible units, we became convinced that an arrangement of topics provides the reader a more
convenient overview of the assembled data on Roman black glass. We therefore turned the structure inside out
by upgrading the chapter sections to individual chapters and downgrading the initial chapters to the level of
chapter sections.
The dissertation is subdivided into four parts:
The first seven chapters that form Part I give a detailed overview of the compiled dataset from an
archaeological approach. In separate chapters are discussed the colour perception in antiquity (Chapter 1),
the techniques utilized to make black glass artefacts (Chapter 2), the classification of the various
commodities in black glass (Chapter 3), the typo-chronology (Chapter 4), the provenance of these artefacts
(Chapter 5), the production and consumption (Chapter 6), and finally the use and meaning of the various
commodities in black glass (Chapter 7).
The two chapters with the archaeometric approach, representing Part II, discuss various archaeological
issues on the basis of chemical analyses (Chapter 8) and optical analysis (Chapter 9). The selection of
various types of commodities from different areas and periods made it possible to characterize geographical
and chronological groups of black glass that can work as a tool to solve archaeological queries.
Part III consists of a historical approach (Chapter 10) integrating the analysis results from both previous
approaches into specific cultural and socio-economical questions examined on three different levels: microlevel, meso-level and macro-level. The black glass artefacts have been set into a wider and more general
view of the Roman society during the imperial period.
The catalogue constitutes Part IV. This card index gives an account as detailed as possible of every single
black glass artefact recorded depending on the availability of information per object and within the feasibility
of the project. The dataset worked out in Access 2007 has been put on CD-ROM to suit the qualifications for
a user-friendly and fast consultation. Yet, extended lists of the finds are on hand in the tables and appendices
of various chapters. The dataset is supported by a comprehensive card index of every single piece on the
supplied CD-ROM.
The source of the general discussion varies throughout the subsequent chapters. That in Chapters 1, 2, and 7
reflects what is available in literature on the respective topics. That in Chapters 4-6 is based on the catalogued
material in the database and that in Chapter 3 has been developed from both sources. The general discussion in
Chapters 8–9 is built up from the analysis results.
The final discussion in Chapter 10 compares the compiled datasets of all previous chapters in comparison with
what is available in literature.
Concerning the established distribution patterns, we had to take different parameters into consideration. It is
important to note that the actual observed concentration zones are, like always, the result of different factors not
related to the real trade distribution but rather due to the availability of the archaeological and bibliographical
records. The conspicuous concentrations observed can be explained by intensive excavations (e.g., Karanis [EG];
Colchester [UK]; Pompeii [IT], but also by the nature of the archaeological site (e.g., cemetery) or its historical
x
circumstances (eruption of Mt. Vesuvius). We therefore had to bear in mind these factors when dealing with each
type of material.
1.
The delimitation of the studied material
The initial aim was to generate an exhaustive study, but due to practical reasons this could not be carried out
fully. First of all, we encountered various limitations when recording published material. The colour of the glass
artefacts is sometimes omitted from the description. Therefore, we took into consideration that we possibly
th
overlooked a number of published objects in black glass. Sometimes the opposite happensespecially in 19
th
century and early 20 century excavation reportsso that we might notice the discovery of black glass artefacts
but without any description, illustration or measurements. Fortunately, we received from various institutions in
Belgium and abroad the opportunity to study their collections. As these collections included unpublished material,
we are aware that we had to take into account an unknown amount of material that remains unknown to us. For
practical reasons, we had to make a selection of museums and archaeological depots we planned to attend. Not
only was it impossible to gain permission to visit all museums with a collection of Roman glass, but we also have
been confronted on several occasions with selected museums being inaccessible due to renovation. For instance,
the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan (USA), with large glass
collections from various Egyptian sites such as Karanis, was closed for researchers until April 2010.
The large quantities and high diversity of black glass material made inevitable the choice of material to
accomplish our research aims. Most information accumulated from published material concerns the glass
production, the vessel assemblages and the bracelets. Consequently, we could discuss extensively on these
topics, but jewellery other than bracelets has been considered as well. We therefore could focus on the various
jewellery types. More restricted is the treatise on the architectural decoration material (e.g., cakes, rods and
tesserae) and the counters. Different reasons made these functional types receive only little attention. The
specificity of the architectural decoration material and the ubiquitous counters makes it more convenient to
consider separately each material category in view of the entire range of colours wherein both categories have
been produced. The discussion of both categories, however, includes guidelines for more penetrating future
1
investigations. The very rare examples of glass sculpture meant that we did not consider this category.
Some categories or unique pieces have been excluded from this present study for various practical reasons:
the exceptional occurrence and little information about the date and provenance makes it impossible to
classify correctly some specific artefacts
Firstly, there is the cylindrical bucket (situla) with silver handle of the San Marco treasure (Harden et al. 1987,
220-221, no. 122; Brown 1991, 85, no. 1). This unique piece has only been excluded because it turns out to be
impossible to classify it with certainty. Cast in deeply violet glass appearing black, the vessel would perfectly fit in
st
the overview of 1 century cast vessels in a monochrome deeply coloured glass. The bucket, however, is dated
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on stylistic grounds in the 4 5 centuries AD, considering the wheel-cut technique and the figurative design
(Albizatti 1923, 51-63; Fremersdorf 1951, 24; Harden, Toynbee 1959, 201). The few known equivalents are the
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rd
early Hellenistic cast situla now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York dated in the late 4 –early 3
century BC (Lightfoot 2003, 19-20, figs. 3-5) and the 3rd century AD diatretum-situla also in the San Marco
Treasure (Hahnloser 1971, no. 13; Brown 1991, 85, fig.1a). It is not unrealistic that the piece was made in the
Hellenistic period and that it survived for centuries (as it has done until now!) before it got decorated with a wheelcut scenery depicting Dionysus together with Satyrs and Maenads. The present silver handle on its turn is dated
7th century AD (Brown 1991, 85, no. 1). An answer will probably only be reached when chemical analysis can be
done to compare its composition.
Another example is the fragment of a horse leg of a life-size statue now in the collections of the British Museum,
London. Depending on the author, the piece is said to have been made of deep purple glass appearing black
(Harden et al. 1987, 220-221, no. 122) or made of obsidian (Grose 1989, 342). A chemical analysis can establish
the used material as there is a difference between both materials [see Chapter 8]. Apparently, the piece has been
analysed on its composition and is said to confirm Grose‘s statement that the statue was made of obsidian, but
2
the analysis has not been published so far.
1
Concerning the sculpture in black glass/obsidian, we more or less are relying on the brief notes by Pliny the Elder (Naturalis Historia XXXVI,
196197).
2
Personal communication by Jennifer Price 2009.
xi
Also not integrated, although much more eye-catching, are the cameo-vases and the cameo-plaques, because
incorporating them would only create confusion and the extensive discussions would lead us too far from the
present one (Goldstein et al. 1982; Harden et al. 1987, 53-84, no. 29-36; Journal of Glass Studies 32, 1990). The
huge interest in this very specific commodity category had already led to plenty of detailed discussions and
publications. These lavishly decorated vessels are customarily discussed with their true hue leaving little
discussion within this research. The bichrome cameo vases however cannot be excluded from the discussion on
strongly-coloured glass vessels appearing black, and therefore we will refer to this material on various occasions.
This luxurious class shows the masterful craftsmanship of the 1st century AD glass workers creating a black-andwhite contrast by combining an opaque white decoration on a poorly translucent deep blue and violet glass.
the material is characteristic for the pre-imperial period or post-Roman period
Some artefact categories have been removed at some point from the database because of their inconsistent date
vis-à-vis the here-discussed material. One of these is a group of black appearing bangles in deep purple, blue
and brown glass occurring on early Roman sites in the north-western provinces are in fact re-used late La Tène
bangles which have been made in a different technology and received a different shape and decoration
uncharacteristic for Roman jewellery. Another group of bracelets omitted from the database is classified by Maud
Spear as type B4 (Spaer 1988, 57). This type of bracelet, made of deep purple glass appearing black, is
characterized by five to seven lengthwise ribbings and a very clear circular widening at the seam. Present in
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ample museum collections, this type of glass bangle is generally dated late Roman–early Byzantine (5 7
century AD), and its provenance is situated in the east Mediterranean, although most pieces have no provenance.
th
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Maud Spaer says that this type was particularly fashionable in Syria during the 6 7 century AD (Spaer
2001,199-200, no. 449). Coincidently a jeweller‘s shop close to the entrance of a church has been recently
excavated at Kala‘at Seman (SY) where were retrieved a large number of bracelets, including type B4, together
th
3
with a number of coins dating to the mid 7 century AD. The shop seems to have been suddenly abandoned
after a collapse, making it a very well-datable closed context. Considering the dated context and the nonstandard
features for Roman glass banglesthe use of deep purple glass; the wide, flat closed shape with one end
creating a circular bezelwe believe this to be an early Byzantineearly Islamic type we did not find in any late
Roman context. Another category that has been omitted due to its principally post-Roman dating is the so-called
linen smoother or slick-stone, a solid hemispherical glass cake with rounded edge resembling a gigantic plano4
convex counter. Its top surface is convex and its bottom surface is concave, repeatedly showing a large pontil
5
scar in the centre. The diameter varies between 65-95 mm, and the height is in the order of 20-40 mm, whereas
the weight averages between 250-300 grams. This very recognizable type of artefact in black-appearing glass is
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perhaps characteristic for the 9 to 13 century, but a number of pieces also occur in earlier Carolingian contexts
(Haevernick, Haberey 1963; Isings 1980, 233, fig.156; Macquet 1990; Mainman, Rogers 2000, 2534, fig.1236,
nos. 6592-6594; Gratuze et al. 2003b; Munier 2009, 68, fig.6; Isings 2009). But some of these semi-circular
blocks seem to appear already in Merovingian contexts, like the two pieces in the Musée Archéologique of Namur
(respectively inv. no. 1788 and inv. no. A2776) one from a Frankish tomb at Saint-Denis-Nausipont (BE) (s.n.
1862, 223) and another from Flavion (BE) (unpublished). The production of these hemispherical glass lumps thus
appears to precede even the Carolingian era, probably starting from the Merovingian period onwards, with the
stemmed pieces from Augst (CH) (Rütti 1991, 165-166, fig.105-106) as Roman forerunners. The two pieces from
the late Roman military camp at Oudenburg (BE) (unpublished) probably have to be considered medieval
artefacts, since both pieces are not from well-dated Roman contexts but from the thick black earth layer covering
the entire site. Besides the fact that the massive pieces are commonly considered late medieval and postmedieval objects, the material is only regarded as appearing black due to its thickness. Because this type of
artefact lasts for many centuries and had a vast distribution area, it is apparent that chemical analysis can help
identify chronological and regional clusters (Gratuze et al. 2003b; Bayley 2009; Wedepohl 2009).
2.
The chronological delimitations
Artefacts in deeply coloured glass appearing black have been produced and distributed all along the Roman
imperial period for five centuries and even beyond. Within the East, black glass remained in use all through the
3
personal communication by Danièle Foy 2009
Chemical analysis already provided evidence to the contrary that ―linen smoothers‖ functioned as cakes of raw glass metal to be processed in
the batch on the basis of a too-high concentration of impurities or the presence of elements not present in other glass artefacts (Foy 2004, 32;
Gratuze et al. 2003b, 101107).
5
It appears that these so-called linen smoothers were produced by gathering a mass of hot glass from the batch using a large metal rod followed
by pressing the hot glass in a hemispherical or slightly conical shape. That the metal rod has been swivelled round is clearly visible from the
spiralling creases at the convex under side.
4
xii
early Byzantine period up to Islamic times until today, while in the West its use only lasted in the Merovingian and
th
Anglo-Saxon cultures for a short period of time, although again from the 17 century onwards for the production
of wine and liquor bottles. When sorting out glass artefacts that appear black, it becomes clear that black glass
occurs from the very early times of glass production until today, as well as during the pre- and post-Roman
period. It is clear that the production and use of black glass was not restricted to the Roman period only.
3.
The geographical delimitation
To understand best the distribution and trade of the black glass artefacts, we took into consideration the objects
from all countries that coincide with the former Roman Empire, not limited by artificial modern borders. The
validity of this more general archaeology is, for instance, well explained by Michel Feugère with his TPC-team at
the CNRS Lattes (2008, 26-28), who describes the approach of ‗Technique-Production-Consommation‘ as:
…difficile en effet de se limiter à une période ou à un territoire, tant il est vrai que les frontières seraient, sur une telle
thématique, impossibles à fixer ou à respecter. Tel quel, notre thème d‘étude possède cependant une vraie légitimité, que cette
contribution me donne l‘occasion d‘analyser en détail.
(Feugère 2008, 21)
The studied area is defined as largely as possible, encompassing 32 actual countries around the Mediterranean
and on the European continent, reaching from Portugal to Syria and from Egypt to Scotland. Conscious that a
fully exhaustive study for such a vast region was not realistic to accomplish within the given term, we therefore
decided to work on specific items about black glass. We sampled material from different areas to obtain an
overview on the production and use of black glass within the Roman Empire. We also checked as far as possible
the occurrence of black glass items from beyond the empire because some commodities are considered to be
non-Roman.
4.
Delimitation of the research topic
Besides the long date range and vast area of distribution the project planned to consider, we were aware of the
enormous difficulties of assembling all material from all different functional types from all countries of the former
Roman Empire. In a first stage, we checked all possible publications within our reach and started to go to
museums and archaeological depots to study the unpublished material. Some striking aspects were visible at
once:
(1) several regions are not providing material as abundantly compared to others, which is partly due to
the limited excavation activities on sites or layers of the concerned period and partly due to the limited
excavation results published;
(2) the concentrations of specific material are featuring chronological and/or geographical assemblages.
Soon a large variety of material emerged, including vessels, a wide variety of jewellery (e.g. bracelets, beads,
pendants, finger rings and hairpins), but also architectural decoration material and counters. For practical
reasons, we narrowed the core of the studied material to vessels and jewellery, even though the architectural
decoration material and the counters were, to a certain degree, taken into consideration.
5.
Within the extensive range of use of black glass by the Romans, the existence of some material type
will only be mentioned, but not extensively, like the glass gems imitating nicolo, the mosaic tesserae
and other architectural decoration material, and the counters.
The main material discussed here are the vessels (cast, free-blown, mould-blown, rod-formed);
jewellery (bracelets, beads, finger rings, pendants).
A comprehensive overview of the black glass material from the provinces Gallia Belgica and
Germania Inferior is provided and an outline of that from Britannia and Germania Superior with a
literature study and as much material as possible.
The delimitation of black-appearing glass or the colours of black
The studied corpus groups diverse objects having the main feature of being deliberately deeply coloured to
appear black, and this black aspect is the result of the density of the colouring and the opacity of the fabric. We
assumed it was necessary to explain how we looked at the very deeply coloured Roman glass in the first place.
Additionally, we described what sort of glass artefacts we considered to be black even though the glass matrix
consists of a particular hue, and we excluded artefacts that we categorized as black-appearing. Therefore, we
considered within the introductory Chapter 1 a discourse on the colour(s of) black with respect to the Roman
xiii
glass. Further, we have described and discussed the black-appearing glasses with an archaeometric approach
looking at their chemical composition [see Chapter 8] and their colour properties through optical analysis [see
Chapter 9]. Different chemical analysis methods were used to define different groups within the so-called black
glass compositions, discriminating among different periods and different geographical zones of production [see
Chapter 8]. In parallel, an optical investigation by means of absorption spectroscopy was employed to define
systematically the delimitations of the black appearance of glass [see Chapter 9], making possible operating in an
objective way with the homogeneity of the considered glass material with a black appearance.
The subjective character of the colour perception affects specifically our heuristic research. Probably by tradition,
the terminology used to define the colour aspect of a glass object appearing black varies from author to author
and with the category of artefacts. Some publications give the subjective evaluation by limiting the description as
―black glass‖, while others only report the detected colour by means of light in transmission, without defining in
what way the piece appears black. While it is commonly known that black and white are not to be considered as
coloursthe former absorbs all colours of the colour spectrum, while the latter reflects themboth tones had
serious meaning in antiquity and consequently a great impact on the material culture. Nevertheless, in reality socalled black and white glass will always have one dominant tinge. Through the absorption of all reflective light,
black glass is so densely coloured that it is usually said to be opaque (Bayley 1999, 90; 92) [see Chapters 1; 9].
The investigating eye is therefore the best medium to discriminate the true colour of black glass, particularly with
the assistance of a strong light. When one uses light in transmission, one dominant colour will become visible
which makes it possible always to determine the true colour of black-appearing glass, such as green, brown,
purple, blue or even red. Similarly, white and colourless glass will always contain a greenish, bluish, yellowish or
pinkish tinge. These prevailing tinges are the result of their particular chemical composition owing to different
behaviours of the (de-)colouring process and thus are of great interest to the archaeologist interested in the
production of glass and its distribution pattern.
Within the study of glass in general and archaeological glass in particular, the colour description plays an
important role. It has long been standard knowledge that the colours of Roman glass and even the tinges within
almost colourless glasses are inextricably bound with chronology. However, this colour chronology is subject to
certain conditions. The colour description gives a certain idea of the chemical composition, particularly when it is
6
combined with the typological determination of the artefact. However, these colour observations can only serve
as a guiding principle for explaining the typological analysis and always need verification from analysis of the
chemical composition. The description of glass colours is rather complex because the observation of the colour
varies depending on who determines the object and under what conditions it was done. Not only the individual
perception of the colour is biased, but also the terms used to describe colours are subjective.
It is therefore essential that the black appearance or the will to make the glass appear black should be considered
in selecting the studied material. If we keep in mind the intentional black colouring and not the colour itself and its
eventual opacity, we can start inquiring about the particularity of this specific group of objects. Are we dealing with
a tinge or do the black glass artefacts have to be seen as a particular group that surpasses the strict framework of
hues? In other words, do the types and shapes in so-called black glass coincide with those in all other colours, or
do they show a characteristic typology? Can we detect different concentration zones within the distribution of
these so-called black glass artefacts vis-à-vis whether the same material in intensely coloured, natural coloured or
decolourized glass, and do we find them within similar contexts? Is there a difference in distribution when taking
the functions into account (e.g. vessels, bracelets, finger rings, beads)? Can we distinguish concentration zones
when observing systematically the used colourants to make glass appear black, or in other words, are the socalled black artefacts indifferently brown, green, blue or purple or can we discriminate particular distributions or
chronological attributions or subcategories inside each category?
6.
Methodology
In the first place it was essential to define the criteria to select black glass and the samples. The discussion above
makes clear that black (glass) in fact never occurs, causing a primary problem in the methodology for researching
something that in se does not exist but was definitely used and referred to by Romans. The fundamental question
here is a priori to define when a piece of glass can/may be described as black. Although the problem is primarily
to create a scientifically-based, objective arrangement, it is equally important to check to what extent it is possible
to understand the Roman perception of colours and its meaning. In addition to the problem within the research on
6
Recently presented work on the selected glass from the military camp of South Shields, UK provides evidence for production groups depending
on the selection of glass colours (Jackson, Price forthcoming Annales of 18th AIHV conference Thessaloniki-2009).
xiv
the colour of black glass is that of the sometimes carelessly established material description. In particular concerning
the jewellery, we are aware of the problem caused by describing black glass material mistakenly, e.g. in jet, obsidian
or even bronze. But an inspection on all published material in jet, obsidian… in national and international museum
collections and archaeological depots was beyond the scope of this project.
The used methodology distinguishes three approaches: (a) an archaeological approach, (b) an archaeometric
approach and (c) a historical approach.
(a) Archaeological approach
This approach defines the research criteria for the study on Roman black glass and provides a framework (Figure
1) wherein the research will be carried out to come to:
Technology
Context
Typology
Date
Typo-chronology
Figure 1: Schematic view how to reach a typo-chronology
a. An analysis of the chrono-typology
The technologies used to make the wide variety of black glass artefacts have been the basis of the typology and
have been linked with the dated contexts wherein such materials were retrieved. This analytical research will result
in a chrono-typology within each function (vessels, bracelets, beads, rings and gaming pieces), which will be
compared to morphological parallels in the different materials.
b. Contextual analysis
One of the additional aspects of the archaeological research consists in identifying how (and consequently also
why) artefacts got left behind at a specific place. Important therefore is to read correctly the archaeological
feature, which is the last archaeological context wherein small finds became part of. The different aspects of use,
function and meaning of every type of the acquired chrono-typology have been approached by means of a context
analysis (military, burial, ritual, domestic or workshop). The obtained data have been interpreted in particular from an
historical approach to get a better understanding of consumption patterns and social, economic and cultural aspects.
c. Analysis of production, distribution and trade of black glass
Determining the provenance of each object is important to set out distribution maps of the vessels as well as of
the jewellery (bracelets, finger rings, beads) and gaming pieces. It provides a deeper understanding of the local
consumption patterns and the regional and interregional distribution and trade in the whole Roman Empire during
the imperial period. The set up of distribution maps helps to define whether local, regional and/or interregional
distributions are identifiable by means of similarities or differences for specific commodities (relation within one
civitas; between several civitates within one province; between different provinces).
xv
Was the market supplied through a few workshops responsible for a long-distance distribution, or was the
production of black glass artefacts carried out by a wide range of local production centres for local and regional
distribution? In the first case, we merely can deduce a chronological significance for the various types of material.
Concerning the second possibility, we should check whether regional differences can be observed and if they
evolve differently over time. In the last situation, the set up of a typology will not be useful unless there has been
uniformity in production in all workshops or in those of a specific region. When everywhere the stylistic features
are analogous, then technological aspects become crucial, given that every workshop should have had its own
specific technological know-how. This expertise can be linked to the different recipes used, and therefore we
sampled a wide range of material from various places of the Roman empire and from every phase within the
Roman imperial period. Small technical features within the production process of the glass artefact could also
reveal the fingerprint of a glass blower or generation of glass blowers from one workshop. So there are two
approaches that will verify if it is possible to detect different workshops. Therefore, the aim of the here-presented
research questions on Roman black glass has been to apply the greatest range of scientific assets possible to a
minor segment within Roman glass studies by putting forward a holistic study. We set up a large-scale status
quaestionis of this uncommon or perhaps even peculiar type of glass artefacts within the Roman society in the
hope of developing new insights on the production, distribution and use of Roman glass.
The three above-mentioned goals on the selected material can only be acquired in the first place by means of
publications but also by consulting the national and international collections/depots, their unpublished archaeological
reports and their archaeological diaries.
The heuristic part requires a series of criteria for the selection of black glass and for the selection of samples to
set up a databank of published objects.
A digital cardindex in Access 2007 was worked out to enable an identical analytical registration for all material
from every site, with attention for measurements, colour, shape, decoration, technology, preservation,
conservation and provenance/context [see Part IV]. The digital cardindex was designed to integrate drawings and
photographs of the object.
The analytic research involved the registration of the research material reaching the selection criteria of black glass
(e.g., description [see above], photograph, drawing and occasionally sampling) within Belgian and a number of
important European museum collections/archaeological depots.
It is important to place the studied material within the Roman glass tradition and compare it with similar shapes in
non-black glass from different regions in the Roman Empire and throughout the imperial period. This will help in
the study of consumer patterns by looking for the chronological and geographical differentiation in the use of
different materials for similar shape and/or decoration pattern. To accomplish a correct overview on the consumer
patterns of black glass artefacts, it is important to compare the Roman black glass in a similar way with
comparative shapes in materials other than glass. Also is taken into account a comparison between the black
glass of Roman times with that of the pre-Roman period and the post-Roman period.
(b) Archaeometric approach
This approach gives valuable information concerning the colour, date and origin of black glass. The acquired data
helped to solve the archaeological and historical questions by means of cluster analysis, seriation or other
statistical methods. Only diagnostic material were taken into account for sampling. Black glass fragments which are
undeterminable were not sampled for physico-chemical analysis as well as most pieces without context information.
a.
Determine what makes green, blue, purple or brown glass so dark and/or opaque that the coloured glass
appears optically black.
But when can we start speaking of so-called black glass? To understand what black means or stands for, we had
to select a system to define black. Besides inquiring what black is, it is even more important to unravel and
understand how the Romans did see all this. When dealing with black glass, the identification of its colour remains
very important as glass in all kinds of colours can appear black. The method used to come to reasonable results
was acquired through optical spectroscopy (UV-Vis-NIR) by Dr ir. Wendy Meulebroeck at the Department of
Applied Physics of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB – TONA).
b. Determine what black glass is made of and define how the Romans made glass appear black.
To fully understand what black glass was made of in Roman times, we were assisted by Prof. Dr Koen Janssens of
the MiTAC at the University of Antwerp, under whose supervision Dr Olivier Schalm, Dr Veerle Van der Linden and
Drs Simone Cagno analysed the selected samples by means of electron probe micro analysis (SEM-EDX) at the
University of Antwerp and using laser ablation inductively coupled plasma micro spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) at the
xvi
University of Warsaw (Poland) and the University of Ghent (UGent). These physico-chemical analyses form the
basis to (a) define clusters by means of plotting the chemical composition into graphics; (b) detect clusters which are
to be linked with glass workshops (determining the origin); and (c) detect clusters which are to be linked with a
specific period (determining the date).
The obtained results are to be checked with other results of national and international natural science research,
but a selection of samples measured by the Antwerp team with LA-ICP-MS was checked by Dr Bernard Gratuze at
the CNRS Centre Babelon, Orléans (France) to see if the results corroborated.
c. Acquire insight in the recognition of different productions, in time as in space.
Can we come to a geographical and chronological subdivision of the differently coloured glass appearing black by
sampling all kinds of well chosen samples? To what extent is there an evolution definable within the Roman
period itself? Are there any differences observable between Roman black glass and that of previous or later
periods?
The performed physico-chemical analyses on selected samples included an intensive course at the University of
Antwerp to initiate Peter Cosyns into learning all different stages of sampling, embedding in resin, preparation for
the measuring and the measuring of the samples with the JEOL 6400. The latter was always done under
supervision of Dr Olivier Schalm or Drs Simone Cagno for a number of the resins, but most have been measured
by them or Dr Veerle Van der Linden. The calculations of the analysis results were done under the supervision of
Prof. Dr Koen Janssens. By plotting the obtained data into graphics, we were able to compare and deduce the
acquired results to understand the characteristic material-technical features of the analysed black glass samples.
Although it was also the aim to determine if the production of black glass was intentional or coincidential by
defining how long the material was heated, how frequently and at what temperature the material was heated, we
7
have not been able to arrange techno-morphological analysis by using vibration spectrometry. Defining the
thermic history of black glass would give very important information for discerning glass workshops and
production periods, but partly due to time limitations this investigation has been omitted from this research.
(c) Historical approach
This approach concentrates on the social, economical, cultural and religious aspects of the use of black glass by
means of written sources combined with the obtained results from the archaeological and archaeometric
approach. After a review of the literature (e.g. ancient sources, historical and archaeological publications), it is
necessary to integrate the archaeological and archaeometric data with the acquired data from the study of
literature to acquire a better knowledge of the social, the economic and the cultural impact of black glass in
Roman society.
a. Socio-cultural and religious aspects (function, meaning and acculturation processes)
For what purpose did the Romans make objects in black glass? Can it all be interpreted as purely functional
(tableware, hairpins, counters) or ornamental (bracelets, finger rings, pendants, tesserae), or are there some
specific objects made for a particular reason with a special significance attributed to them? We tried to define why
a specific object has a specific shape and check if black glass objects were used for specific rituals within a
specific social group within a specific period, integrating morphological parallels. We made an attempt to
determine what meaning Romans gave to the wearing of black glass jewellery and the use of black (glass)
vessels.
b. Socio-economic aspects (production and consumption)
We hoped to determine which mechanisms within the Roman society were responsible for the emergence of
nd
rd
black glass vessels in the second half of the 2 century AD and the disappearance in the second half of the 3
century AD, while black glass remained in production for jewellery. In connection with this, we needed to
th
determine the reasons for the vanishing of the production of bracelets in western Europe in the first half of the 5
century AD, while in the Byzantine Empire and later in the Islamic world the production remained stable.
Important in the research of Roman black glass is the detection of the eventuality of chronological and
geographical differentiation within the variety of black colours by use of distinct colouring agents. Combining
7
This technique can detect how black glass is made and is to be executed at the CNRS of the Université de Lyon 1, under the supervision of Prof.
dr. Bernard Champagnon, will define the thermic history of specific selected samples to determine whether or not the production of Roman black
glass was intentional.
xvii
typology with chromatography and chemical composition is a necessary approach in the challenge to solve
fundamental questions: Were the different black colours produced in different periods and/or different regions?
What are the technical aspects with a link to chronology, distribution patterns and origin of the material?
Publications referring to black glass objects, unfortunately, do not always distinguish its true colour from its black
appearance by only pointing out its black appearance or by identifying the hue without mentioning that the object
appears black.
When choosing a research topic on a subject such as the Roman black glass, one of the questions that were
raised spontaneously dealt with the issue of how the subject is to be approached. Restricting the research to a
minor fraction within the glass researcha material group representing not more than a small part in the
archaeological findsmight give reason to some scholars to raise doubts regarding the value of the research if
not objections to the aim of it.
While black glass is scarcely attested on excavations, it is found on most sites all over the Roman Empire, and
st
th
this within contexts from the 1 century AD up to the 5 century AD. Consequently, this vast research domain
required a different approach than is usually the case. To date, glass studies ain general consider all glass items
from one specific site or region and ultimately are limited to one specific period or function. Mostly without any
limitation concerning the colour, this type of research is to be seen as a study with a horizontal approach. When
the research queries are focussing on a limited range of material with a specific restriction in colour or function but
covering a vast area and a long-lasting period, only a thin section is taken into consideration, so that we can call
this type of research a vertical approach.
The primary aim of this research is to verify to what extent this characteristic study can enhance glass research in
general. Some fundamental questions leaped to the forefront: How did the Romans produce black glass? Were
different recipes used to reach black glass? Can productions be discerned clustering different regions and/or
different periods? Is there a difference between vessels and jewellery? What material is idiosyncratic for a certain
region and/or period? Can the context give a comprehensive insight of the social, economical and cultural
function of the black glass artefacts?
These and many other questions can only be answered comprehensively with a multidisciplinary approach,
combining the archaeological data with archaeometric analyses and by examining the historical facts.
The archaeological approach resulted in accumulating information on different aspects like technology, typology,
context and date. These aspects are interrelated since the typology is the initial group subdivided into main
groups by means of the used technology. These main groups can enclose an amount of variants based on
decoration. This methodological approach is not always used in previous researches like in the study of the preIslamic bracelets from Palestine (Spaer 1988) where the typology is based on the opposite way. This approach
resulted in a subdivision independent of any chronological grounds, as not the decoration but the technology
seems to have an important role. However, to be useful for archaeologists confronted with the material, it is vital
to study the dated contexts to come to a functional and valuable chrono-typology.
The archaeometric approach is of essential assistance to the archaeological approach by pinpointing the
chemical composition of all kinds of material from different geographical areas and consecutive periods.
The historical approach resulted in collecting information on glass in general and on black glass material in
particular by ancient writers and work from present-day historians on Roman economics and socio-cultural issues.
7.
Previous research on the various issues of Roman black glass
A thorough study of the Roman black glass can add value within the study of the material culture of Roman
Antiquity. Therefore, it is surprising that at present no overall study on Roman black glass has been carried out.
Nevertheless, this type of glass is integrated in general studies on Roman glass (e.g., Vessberg 1952; Isings
1957; von Saldern 1980) and in archaeological reports (e.g., Harden 1936; Van den Hurk 1973; Rütti 1991; Cool,
Price 1995). The information is in general limited to a description of the artefacts and of their context. The
technology, chemical composition, origin, function and meaning of black glass objects are only described
sporadically and very generally. Some publications give an insight on a specific aspect of Roman black glass, but
with limitations in time and space: Isings (1964) gave an small overview of the then-known black glass vessels
st
from the 1 -–3rd century AD in the western part of the Roman Empire; De Witte (1977) discussed the typology,
chronology, function and technology of Roman black glass bracelets from Belgium in his thesis; Spaer (1988)
mapped out a typology on pre-Islamic glass bracelets from Israel; and finally recent research, on the basis of a
xviii
chrono-typological study of the black glass vessels in northern Gaul, pointed out the unique opportunities black
glass can provide archaeological contexts as a ‗type fossil‘ (Cosyns, Hanut 2005).
Bracelets
The research on Roman glass bracelets has remained rather marginal until now. We see that the scarce
information at everyone‘s disposal makes this material remain unpublished or only mentioned in a very limited
sense. The rarity of this material as such on Roman sites and the absence of an in-depth study and an userfriendly manual prevents this type of material from being known by archaeologists. This becomes obvious when
reading through general publications on the small finds of large archaeological sites. Sometimes it is easy to
verify doubts because of the proximity of the museum or archaeological depot where the object is deposited. We
know now that the so-called jet bracelets from the late Roman cemetery of Oudenburg (BE) which are exhibited in
the Archaeological Museum of Bruges (Mertens, Van Impe 1971, 128, no. 100: 7-8, pl. XXXII: 5-6; 208, no. 194:
3, pl. XL: 4) and those from a number of tombs in Amiens and now in the Archaeological Museum of Amiens
(Dilly, Mahéo 1997, 120; 123) are made of black glass. Far away material and indistinct publications are less
easily checked. For instance, it is unclear whether some bracelets of the Roman cemeteries from Pécs (HU),
ancient Sopianae, are not rather of black glass than of jet (Fülep 1977, 29, grave R/151-163, pl. 14: 2; 43, grave
R/227, pl. 26: 4; 55, grave R/307, pl. 39: 4) and if mentioned as being of glass, it is not always clear from which
colour of glass they are produced (Fülep 1977, 50, grave R/275: 8; 55, grave R/307: 1).
The main studies on glass bracelets concentrated in the first place on the pre-Roman Celtic bracelets (Haevernick
1960; Peddemors 1975; Gebhard 1989a-b; Venclová 1990; Karwowski, 2004; Wagner 2006) and to a lesser
degree on the Islamic and Byzantine material (Spaer 1992; Shindo 1996; 2001; Boulogne 2007; 2008). On
Roman glass bracelets, several studies were discussed local or regional material (Kilbride-Jones 1938;
Stevenson 1956; De Witte 1977; Spaer 1988; Riha 1990; Wagner 2006) but an attempt at synthesis was never
undertaken to come to a convergent classification system with a corresponding chronology.
Beads
Compared to the pre-Roman glass beads (Haevernick 1960; Guido 1978; Zepezauer 1989; 1992; Venclová 1990;
Wagner 2006) and early medieval glass beads (Guido 1999; Destexhe 2003; Brugmann 2004), we see rather little
interest in the research of Roman glass beads (Guido 1978, Swift 2000; 2003). This type of jewellery is, within the
here-presented work, almost entirely restricted to the comprehensive publications on Roman cemeteries where all
material is discussed (Keller 1971, 87-94; Mertens, Van Impe 1971; Vanvinckenroye 1984; Riha 1990; Chéhab
1985-1986).
Gems
Similar to the intaglios in semiprecious and precious stones, those in glass can be plain or decorated, small and
large, and in different colours, while shapes seem to remain limited [see Chapter 3].
Restricting this survey to black glass gemstones only is considering hardly more than a limited group of the wide
range of gemstones used for insertion, above all in finger rings. We are aware that we are excluding a large part
of the glass intaglios, made entirely of or partly of black glass. This commodity group is so vast that it is very
suitable for a separate research. Accordingly, we only wanted to verify to what extent this study can be of added
value to the entire body of knowledge regarding Roman black glass production and consumption.
A wide range of detailed studies on the engraved gems from the different Roman provinces in the West are at
hand, making available a comprehensive comparative dataset: for the British Isles (Henig 1978²), France
(Guiraud 1988; 1996; 2008), Belgium (Sas 1992; 1993), the Netherlands (Maaskant-Kleibrink 1978), Italy (Sena
Chiesa 1966; 1978), Germany (Henkel 1913; Krug 1975; 1977; 1978; 1980; 1995; Platz-Horster 1984; 1987;
1994), Switzerland (Vollenweider 1979) and Austria (Zwierlein-Diehl 1973; 1979). Unfortunately, it appears that
the study of gemstones, thus far, has been focussed on the intaglios in various (semi)precious stones and in
particular on the rendered image, whereas it is only too obvious now that the majority of the gems found in the
archaeological record has been produced by moulding glass [see Chapter 1]. In particular, those made of blue8
on-black glass imitating gemstones in nicolo seem to form the bulk of the gemstones (Sas 1993). It is for that
reason all the more strange to observe that the study of so-called inferior, bulk-produced artefacts in cheaper
8
It is interesting to see that in antiquity imitations of (semi)precious stones were common and that nobody seemed to notice these except for
taking a disparaging opinion towards the people who dared to fake genuine gemstones with glass (Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia XXXVII, 197).
xix
materials and of rather mediocre workmanship never received the same attention as the more precious
counterparts decorated with comparatively higher-quality workmanship. This lack of interest has previously been
noticed too when considering the technological part of the glass gemstones:
Die moderne Literatur zu Gemmen berührt die Frage der Glaspasten-Herstellung kaum, und auch die umfangreiche
Spezialliteratur zu Glas lässt diese Frage beiseite.
(Krug 1978, 486-487)
The importance of these less luxurious objects with inferior decoration that remains certain is that glass gems are
not unique pieces. In contrast with the (semi)precious stones, engraved by hand and thus considered exclusive
pieces, the cast or moulded glass gems are characterised by the possibility of serial production. Such sets can
give interesting information: 1) on the distribution pattern and thus the trade radius of a specific piece of jewellery;
2) on the date range of production and of its (re)use.
Counters
Due to a lack of synthesis or any in-depth research on glass counters, thus far, only a narrow view of this topic is
available. Considering only those counters made in a deeply coloured glass appearing black, it is pretty obvious
that the here-presented contribution cannot be considered as a comprehensive study. The black glass counters
should be considered together with those made in other coloured glass metals. Additionally, we have to
emphasise that within the scope of the present research, we were unable to work exhaustively on this type of
artefact in black glass. The heuristic research would have taken us too far from the main issue of the research.
Aware of the restricted approach, we are, nonetheless, convinced that interesting new information on the matter
has been supplied here by investigating separately the standard features, and likewise the other material in black
glass (e.g., the technology, the dimensions, the contexts, the typology, the distribution). A first step has been to
check what shapes were made in (black) glass. Secondly, we verified whether the different types can be linked to
chronological and/or geographical models. Further, we have related the technological aspects to the chemical
composition, to the various colours of the glass metals used to produce black glass counters, and to the ancient
literature referring to the production of glass counters.
xx
ABBREVIATIONS
Countries
Listed are the countries where Roman black glass artefacts have been retrieved. The codes are based on official
international codes for the representation of names of countries ISO 3166. This standard is published and
maintained by the ‗International Organization for Standardization‘ (ISO) at Geneva (CH) and defines the names of
countries and country codes. More specifically is made use of part 2 (ISO 3166-2) country subdivision codes.
Online information:
http://www.iso.org/iso/english_country_names_and_code_elements
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_3166-2
Table 1: Country subdivision codes
alphabetical per code
AL
Albania
AT
Austria
BE
Belgium
BG
Bulgaria
BS
Bosnia
CH
Switzerland
CY
Cyprus
CZ
Czech Republic
DE
Germany
DZ
Algeria
EG
Egypt
ES
Spain
FR
France
GR
Greece
HR
Croatia
HU
Hungaria
IL
Israel
IT
Italy
JO
Jordan
LB
Lebanon
LU
Grand Duchy of Luxemburg
LY
Libya
MA
Morocco
MK
Macedonia
MN
Montenegro
NL
Netherlands
PT
Portugal
RO
Rumania
SB
Serbia
SI
Slovenia
SY
Syria
TN
Tunisia
TR
Turkey
UA
Ukraine
UK
United Kingdom
AL
DZ
AT
BE
BS
BG
HR
CY
CZ
EG
FR
DE
LU
GR
HU
IL
IT
JO
LB
LY
MK
MN
MA
NL
PT
RO
SB
SI
ES
CH
SY
TN
TR
UA
UK
alphabetical per country
Albania
Algeria
Austria
Belgium
Bosnia
Bulgaria
Croatia
Cyprus
Czech Republic
Egypt
France
Germany
Grand Duchy of Luxemburg
Greece
Hungaria
Israel
Italy
Jordan
Lebanon
Libya
Macedonia
Montenegro
Morocco
Netherlands
Portugal
Rumania
Serbia
Slovenia
Spain
Switzerland
Syria
Tunisia
Turkey
Ukraine
United Kingdom
Measurements
d.
h.
w.
l.
th.
max. pres.
diameter
height
width
length
thickness (of the wall for a vessel)
maximum preserved
xxi
For the vessels we use max.pres.l. and max.pres.w. when the orientation of the fragment is unclear, and
max.pres.h. and max.pres.w. when the orientation of the fragment is known; th. defines the thickness of any part
(rim; wall; foot; handle) of the vessel; d. defines the diameter of rim; foot; body (maximal diameter).
For the beads we use the same codes as for the arm rings and the finger rings:
d. (in) = interior diameter or opening; d. (ex) = exterior diameter or top surface; d. (section) = diameter of
an O-shaped section;
h. = distance from basal (inner) surface to top (outer) surface or height of the section (equal to thickness
(th.) when discussing vessels); egularly confused with width for jewellery;
w. = distance from the left side to the right side or the width of the section but regularly defined as
‗length‘ = l.);
l. = maximum preserved length of a bead, arm ring or finger ring (i.e. max.pres.l.).
Dating system
I, II, III, IV, V
A, B
a, b, c, d
1,2,3
century
half a century
quarter century
third century
To simplify the reading and writing of dates, we adopted the abridged dating system introducing Roman numbers
for each century, the capitals A and B to define respectively the first and second half of a century and the
minuscules a, b, c and d to specify the successive quarters of a century.
st
Example: ‗Ic-IIB AD‘ = ‗the third quarter of the 1 century AD to the second half of the 2
150/200 AD
nd
century AD‘ = 50/75-
This shortening system is especially used in the tables and in continuous explanations on dated finds or dated
contexts, but in the main sections of the text the classical full description will be kept. When a source is giving a
clearly defined date of the context wherein the black glass object was retrieved, the dates are given between
brackets.
Publications
The applied abbreviations of the main typologies in use on Roman glass vessels:
I = Isings
AR = Augusta Raurica
T = Trier
AV = Avenches/Aventicum
Clasina Isings (1957)
Beat Rütti (1991)
Karin Goethert-Polaschek (1977)
Françoise Bonnet-Borel (1997)
xxii
PART I
THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL APPROACH
Chapter 1 DEFINING ‘BLACK’ AND THE PERCEPTION OF COLOUR
Colour is one of the most prominent features of human experience, but has often been ignored or overlooked in archaeological
research…
Colour awareness and colour sensitivity must however be an integral part of many archaeological analysis concerned with the
development and nature of human cognition.
(Viewpoint in Cambridge Archaeological Journal 9:1 (1999), 109)
1.1 Introduction
When dealing with black glass, we are confronted with a heterogeneous visual interpretation of the material.
Therefore, it is essential to articulate our reasoning about the visual examination of colours in general and of glass
hues in particular. This approach determined our definition of black glass and our classification of certain artefacts
as ‗black‘ glass described by others as deeply coloured glass.
1.2 Colour perception in Antiquity
When thinking of black glass artefacts, we have to bear in mind not only the limited perception of colours by the
naked eye but also the variation in the perceptions of each human being reading colours individually. ‗Black‘ is a
saturation of any colour by absorbing all light and reflecting any, making the hue of the material, e.g., the glass
matrix, not (directly) visible to the naked eye. This was noticed already in Antiquity by Theophrastus or Strato,
th
rd
Aristotle‘s successors at the Peripatetic School in Athens (late 4 or early 3 century BC), to whom Aristotle‘s
9
book on colours, peri chromatoon is attributed:
… black appears to us in three ways. In the first, that which is not seen is, generally speaking, black naturally (for any light from
such things is reflected as black); or secondly, black is that from which no light is conveyed to the eyes; for that which is not
seen, when the surrounding region is seen, gives an impression of black. Thirdly, all things appear black of the kind from which
a very small amount of light is reflected.
(Aristotle, On colours I [transl. Hett, W. S., 1963, 5])
We may thus assume that three degrees of black were distinguished in Hellenistic times and in all probability also
10
during Roman times. Firstly, the passage proposes a number of things to be black that in nature reflect black
light, most likely corresponding to shiny black materials. Secondly, black objects are considered as not reflecting
light at all, presumably referring to matte/dull black materials. Thirdly are those items reflecting light very poorly,
thus making perceptible the true colour of the object. Most interesting is that in the two latter cases, the
explanations have been translated as ‗gives an impression of black‘ and ‗appear black‘. Put in plain words, these
two descriptive passages mean that the author(s) of de coloribus considered a certain category of objects as
black, even though they must have observed these objects appearing differently from what they viewed as true
black, whether it involved a more greyish tinge or a specific colour.
The use of the words υαντασία (‗impression‘) and υαίνεται and υαίνονται (‗appearing‘) indicate the knowledge in
Antiquity that (a degree of) very deeply coloured materials were defined as black.
Furthermore, we have to be aware that in Antiquity, the complexity of colour perception was already recognized
(Bruno 1977, 47-51). The people in Antiquity, for instance, knew that the colour of an object could vary due to the
lighting conditions, the degree of opacity-transparency, and the physical aspects of colour perception.
We do not see any of the colours pure as they really are, but all are mixed with others; or if not mixed with any other colour they
are mixed with rays of light and with shadows, and so they appear different and not as they are. Consequently things appear
different according to whether they are seen in shadow or in sunlight, in a hard or a soft light, and according to the angle at
which they are seen and in accordance with other differences as well.
(Aristotle, On colours III, 793b, 12-19 [transl. Hett, W. S., 1963, 17])
So that all colours are a mixture of three things, the light, the medium through which the light is seen, such as water and air, and
thirdly, the colours forming the ground, from which the light happens to be reflected.
(Aristotle, On colours III, 793b, 34-35; 794a, 1-3 [transl. Hett, W.S., 1963, 19])
9
This tractate was also translated into Latin: de coloribus.
It is, however, essential to take into account a possible discrepancy between this theoretical description of various gradations of black and its
visual identification from the individual perception by common people at that time.
10
1
Finally, it is essential to mention that Romans like Pliny the Elder actually gave huge importance to the technical
discourse on colours. Providing a multitude of very precise information on the pigments in, for example, metals,
he failed to give much attention to the colours in artistic works unless it were within a moral discourse (Naas
11
2006). The reason is that in Antiquity, there were no rules nor parameters established to categorize the colours
with basic colour terms (Brécolaki 2006).
1.3 Linguistic and psychological approach to colour perception
From the papers of the conferences ‗Farbe. Material-Zeichen-Symbol‘ held in 1983 in Berlin (Kurzrock (ed.) 1983),
on colour semantics and colour symbolism, and ‗Progress in Colour Studies‘ held in 2004 in Glasgow (Pitchford,
Biggam (eds.) 2006a-b), on colour perception and colour categorisation, it is clear that the discussion on colour is
a hot topic in linguistics and a pertinent issue in psychology. During the Glasgow meeting, two aspects were
discussed in more detail:
1) the issue of categorizing the colours, which is mainly an anthropological debate focussing on variance
correlated to age, gender and ethnicity (Bornstein 2006)
2) the issue of naming these ordered categories, which is chiefly a linguistic aspect, although the anthropological
discourse is never far away, seeing the interest of ethnographical research (Berlin, Kay 1999)
A milestone in a better understanding of the medium of colour is the anthropological work by Brent Berlin and
12
Paul Kay. Studying twenty different languages, they verified the terminology used to designate the colours by
paying attention to the hue and brightness. This was made possible by plotting the results on a Munsell colour
chart.
Clusters were formed, and after analysis of the results, seven linguistic stages could be determined incorporating
22 combinations based on 11 perceptual categories encoded in the basic colour terms (Berlin, Kay 1999, 2-3; 2245, tab.1, fig.3):
Stage I:
Stage II:
Stage III:
Stage IV:
Stage V:
Stage VI:
Stage VII:
2 terms (white AND black)
3 terms (+ red)
4 terms (+ (a) green OR (b) yellow)
5 terms (+ yellow AND green)
6 terms (+ blue)
7 terms (+ brown)
8 or more terms (+ purple; pink; orange; grey OR combinations of these)
Brent and Kay also demonstrated that a linguistic group in, for instance, Stage I can perceive more colours than
black and white. However, these languages ignore any basic colour term to designate those hues as they
apparently give importance to the degree of brightness distinguishing ‗brilliant‘ and ‗dull‘ colours (Berlin, Kay 1999,
23-25). Languages within Stage II use the term ‗dark‘ to designate black, including all dark colours, except when it
is a ‗warm‘ colour, such as brown, yellow, or red. Remarkably, languages in this stage, for instance, consider
blood as ‗black‘ and not as ‗red‘ (Berlin, Kay 1999, 25-28). Within the same line, we can refer to the Greek µασρος,
meaning ‗black‘, which is used on Cyprus to designate dark brown objects while other brown objects are called
κόκκινός, meaning ‗red‘ (Berlin, Kay 1999, 28). Conversely, the word µασρος is also used in Greek to describe the
so-called red wine, which is in fact characterised by a very dark purple colour. Within Stage III, a basic colour term
for green or yellow is introduced, while blue and violet are termed ‗black‘. Important to these observations,
nonetheless, is that besides the use of basic colour terms in a language, a number of particular colours can be
named after the colour of an object, after the origin of the material, or simply by evoking a situation to name a
colour for which no basic term exists. In Latin, for instance, no basic colour term existed for blue. But this colour
was described in several ways: aeri similem, meaning ‗likewise the sky‘, or caerulea, referring to ‗cerulean blue‘.
The blue pigment is labelled with words such as indicum, referring to ‗indigo‘ pigment balls that were supposed to
come from India, and lapis lazuli, referring to the blue stone. Conversely, Vincent Bruno (1977, 85) refers to a
11
In Antiquity not only a dress code was applicable in Roman society and culturally embedded, the use of colours and colour combinations seems
to have been socially stratified and gender fixed. This issue however could not be worked out any further within the limitations of this project, in
particular because it is not explicitly relatable to the consumption of black glass. Though, we touched this matter when some examples are
described within the chapter on use and function of black glass commodities [see Chapter 7].
12
Although its high impact on researchers dealing with colour and colour perception since its publication in 1969, criticism grows for the last
decade (Saunders, van Brakel 1997; Saunders 2000).
2
passage in Pliny‘s Naturalis Historia (XXXV, 46) describing the use of the Indian blue pigment indigo for painting
with an initial black (nigrum) aspect that turns into purplish blue (purpurae caeruleique) when diluted with water.
Also Vitruvius describes various methods to obtain black, one of which is gained from burning dregs of wine that
can result in a blue pigment, indicum. what makes that black pigments have been used to produce various blue
tones in painting.
The use of the finer wines will allow us to imitate not only black but indigo.
(Vitruvius, de architectura X, 4 [transl. Granger, F., 1962, 123])
The Romans thus not only used the words niger or atramentum to indicate ‗black‘, but also to mean ‗darkened‘ or
13
‗darkener‘ like the meaning of the Greek word μέλας (Bruno 1977, 84). Furthermore the quotes by Vitruvius and
14
Pliny make clear that the terms for black in Latin have also been employed to refer to a blue hue. Vincent Bruno
explains that there must have been no necessity for the Roman writers like for instance Pliny the Elder and Cicero
to use a specific term to refer to blue as a pigment (Bruno 1977, 73-87). It is, of course, not our intention to
evaluate here any further the significance of the presence and absence of specific colour terms in Latin and the
use of colours in the Roman material culture. We therefore wish to refer to the various papers in the
aforementioned proceedings of the Berlin and Glasgow conferences and to the work by Berlin and Kay, but also
to recent work debating colours in Antiquity (Bruno 1977; Kurzrock (ed.) 1983; Berlin, Kay 1999; Cleland, Stears
(eds.) 2004; Rouveret et al. (eds.) 2006).
Hence, the linguistic and psychological issues are very complex themes that would bring us too far from the
archaeological discussion, especially when encountering the specific difficulties and research challenges
encompassing colour perception and colour categorisation. We therefore have to be conscious of the biased
assumption on how to look at Roman glass hues due to the current determination of colours influenced by the
scientific colour spectrum and digitisation (Hunter, Harold 1987) [see Chapter 9].
1.4 Colour perception in archaeology
Various classification systems have already been adopted to categorize Roman glass in the hope of establishing
an objective method to quantify the finds from archaeological contexts. The system most widely adopted by
®
others dealing with Roman archaeological glass is the PANTONE colour chart by Letraset, introduced by Beat
Rütti when he considered the glass from Vitudurum (Rütti 1988, 13) and Augst/Kaiseraugst (Rütti 1991, 109; 344,
Taf.220). Rütti discerned 76 colour variations to describe the Roman glass vessels from Augst/Kaiseraugst which
can be grouped into seven main hues: 9 blues; 20 blue-greens; 26 greens; 5 yellows (of which 1 is orange); 7
15
browns; 6 purples (of which 1 is pink) and white (Rütti 1991, 110). These very detailed subdivisions, however,
are primarily useful for establishing possible clusters that coincide with particular chemical compositions. The
motivation behind over-subdividing glass hues is the need to determine regional and chronological sets of vessel
shapes which have been produced with a distinct type of raw glass. Similarly Rupert Gebhard observed after
studying the material from Manching (DE) that the 21 different tinges of blue glass used for the production of late
La Tène arm rings correspond with specific chronological periods (Gebhard 1989b, 99-102).
Other methods were proposed earlier. Ludwig Berber used in his work on the glass from Vindonissa (CH) a chart
that was initially set up to describe pencil colours (Berger 1960, 96). Marianne Stern used the Munsell colour
chart when examining various large glass collections (Stern 1977; Stern, Schlick-Nolte 1994; Stern 2001). AnnaBarbara Follmann-Schultz made use of the colour terms employed by stamp collectors (Follmann-Schultz 1988,
2). Despite these efforts, the usefulness of these colour charts is limited to opaque colours providing their hue by
reflection of light. Most Roman glass, on the other hand, is transparent or translucent, meaning that the thicker the
glass is, the more the intensity or value of the colour increases (see below). Hence, two vessels with different wall
thicknesses but produced from glass of the same batch will show a colour shift. This explains the tendency not to
name the variety in glass colours narrowly but rather by using a subjective though consequent system with broad
13
Niger stands for ‗dark‘ while atrantum stands for ‗black as soot‘ – respectively referring to a tinge and a hue. To describe the blackness of glass
the ancient writers used obsianum, cf. ‗vitrum obsianum‘ (Pliny) - referring to the resemblance of pitch-black obsidian.
14
Vincent Bruno, using a passage in Aristotle‘s ‗de coloribus‘, explains in a very lucid way that this was also the case for the Greek word μέλας
(Bruno 1977, 92-93).
15
It is surprising that black is prominently absent within Beat Rütti‘s colour chart on glass vessels of Augst/Kaiseraugst, while 5 pieces of a total of
5,067 or 0,1% have been designated as black (Rütti 1991, 109, tab.18). Furthermore, after checking the catalogue, 51 pieces described as
‗schwarz erscheinend‘ have been excluded from his colour list. When taking into account all excluded black-appearing pieces, the ratio opposed to
all glass fragments recorded then increases 10 times up to 1%. This ratio is the same as that for the black glass from the cemetery of En Chaplix
in Avenches (CH), containing 88 so-called black pieces out of 9,989 items. With 0,88% of the total, it consists of 23% of all the strongly-coloured
objects, seeing that this group covers 4% of the total amount of glass objects (Martin-Pruvot 1999, 175, fig. 342).
3
descriptive terms as explained by Hilary Cool and Jennifer Price in their publication on the glass vessels from
Colchester (UK) (Cool, Price 1995, 7-8). They distinguish four categories: 1) strongly-coloured glass; 2) lightly
tinted glass; 3) colourless or decolourised glass; 4) blue-green or ‗naturally coloured‘ glass. The black glass
fragments recorded for Colchester are described as strongly-coloured pieces appearing black, with the
description mentioning the true hue of the glass unless not visible. This is also the case in the publications on the
glass from Augst/Kaiseraugst (CH) mentioning ‗eine dicht gefärbte, meist olivgrüne oder braune Glasmasse‘
(Rütti 1991, 110) and Avenches (CH) stating ‗le ―noir‖, c‘est à dire du vert olive très foncé ou brun vert foncé à
peine translucide d‘apparence noire opaque‘ (Bonnet Borel 1997; Martin-Pruvot 1999, 175-176, note 17).
When looking more specifically to definitions given to black glass one immediately understands that the
subjectivity on the perception of the colour black and the interpretation of its definitionin particular in relation
with the transparency of glasscan easily induce confusion and thus inaccuracies in the colour designation.
The wide-ranging concept of black glass and subjectivity towards its perception has been well described by Willy
th
th
Van den Bossche when discussing glass bottles of the modern ages between the 16 and mid 19 century:
(1) A popular term for a glass bottle colour of dark green, dark brown or any other colour that is so dark as to appear almost
black. (2) A bottle term used since the 16th century for dark brown or dark green glass resulting from the inclusion of oxides of
iron, manganese and sulphur combined with the use of a reducing furnace atmosphere (e.g. from coal, peat…). When
increasing the melting temperature and the residence time the colour changes from brown to olive-green and light green. Black
glass was first made in Lorraine, North-east France, and Southern Belgium in the early 16th century, where it is called ‗verre
noir‘…
(Van den Bossche 2001, 392)
He for instance mentions a glass workshop in the north of France that was called ‗verrerie de verre noir‘ while
only dark (olive) green to dark brown glass bottles were produced by the workshops around Darney (FR) (Van
den Bossche 2001, 52; 310).
Another definition concerns the study on early medieval Anglo-Saxon glass beads found in England (Guido 1999).
Coloured glass is a complex subject as many different factors affect the final appearance of the glass. Among the most
important are the impurities it contains (which may have been added accidentally or deliberately), the furnace conditions under
which it was founded (such as the time for which it was heated, the temperature it reached and the furnace atmosphere, which
can be oxidising or reducing) and its bulk composition.
(Bayley 1999, 89)
1.5 Proposed application
The perception of colours is an individual and thus extremely subjective observation with sometimes very arbitrary
16
and even biased judgments. In search for a definition to categorize black glass artefacts, it is important to realize
what should be understood under colour.
It is essential to recognize that our modern perception of colours has changed from that in Antiquity. Nowadays,
colour is subdivided into three different aspects: 1) hue; 2) saturation; 3) value. Hue refers to the position of the
colour in the colour spectrum, e.g., yellow, red, and blue [see Chapter 9]. Saturation is also called chroma and
represents the purity of the colour. The higher the number, the purer the colour, with 0 for neutral grey. Finally,
value stands for the intensity of a colour, referring to how light or dark the colour is from white (10) to black (0).
Today we use a very elaborate categorisation method to label colours where the ‗hue‘ of a colour is essential. In
Roman times, no classification system for colours was used (Brécoulaki 2006), and it appears as if then the
‗saturation‘ and the ‗value‘ of a colour were much more important.
On the other hand, it is equally essential to realize that various reasons are the basis for why black glass material
lay within a twilight zone:
The techniques of production, inherently connected with the types of object, make researchers describe some
functional types more easily as black (e.g., counters, bracelets, and beads) and others as deeply coloured (e.g.,
vessels, particularly those produced by the free-blown technique);
16
Under variable circumstances. the same observer might even attribute various colours to one and the same object (e.g., daylight vs. artificial
light; morning vs. evening; sunny vs. cloudy; white light vs. yellow light).
4
The difference of perception among researchers dealing with black glass objects causes discrepancies in colour
categorisation. Some researchers do not pay attention to the true colour and speak purely of black. Others, when
perceiving the true colourbasically by using strong light in transmissionignore the black appearance of the
object. A third group, however, combines both features by giving the true colour of the glass matrix and by
mentioning that the artefact appears black.
In literature, it can be observed that some vessel types are constantly regarded as black or black-appearing even
if the true colour of the glass matrix is quite easily recognizable (Figure 2a-c), while others are barely considered
black-appearing (Figure 2d-e). The salient detail that we noticed is that the first group consists of artefacts in a
green glass, whereas those in blue, brown, and purple glass basically fall into the second group.
Figure 2: a) Carchesium of Heel (NL); b+c) Bulbous cup of Heerlen (NL) (photographs by author, by courtesy
of Limburgmuseum, Venlo); d+e) Bulbous jar (picture d) from Foy, Nenna 2001, 85, fig.93; picture e) from Harden et al. 1987,
111, fig.44)
nd
rd
This means that the late 2 –early 3 century AD vessels in very dark green glass are easily accepted as blackappearing because everybody assumes that the purpose was to produce black-looking artefacts. More debate
st
and disagreement exists when, for instance, the famous cameo-glass vessels from the 1 century AD are taken
into account. In a barely discernible very dark blue to violet glass, the cameo-glass vessels are, in fact, blackappearing objects, making the true colour only detectable with the help of a light source in transmission. Yet they
are nearly always described as deep blue translucent glass (Harden et al. 1987, 54). However, the intention to
contrast this deep blue glass with opaque white glass of the superimposed figurative scenes clearly supports the
description of the deep blue glass as black-appearing. While this issue remains a matter of debate for the cameoglass, it is clear for the fragment of a foreleg of a life-size horse statue in the British Museum or the numerous
black tesserae from Les Houis near Sainte Menehould [cat.no.1411], although they were made from blue, bluegreen, blue-grey, green and purple glass (Cosyns 2009, 93) [see Chapter 3]. The true colour of black glass
tesserae is not recognized, particularly not when the tesserae are embedded within a mosaic. On the other hand,
artists have been using the tesserae to show elements or aspects that are commonly deemed as black.
5
Furthermore, the life-size horse statue is always recognized as that of a black horse whether it is produced in
17
deeply purple glass or in obsidian [cat.no.2836] (Harden et al. 1987, 28, no. 6).
Bichrome artefacts incorporating white opaque glass cause another dilemma. The reflection of light due to the
underlying marvered white opaque glass makes the black glass become visible in such areas, as the counter from
Cortil-Noirmont (BE) (Lefrancq 1989, B13, no. 30) [cat.no.228] or the globular cup from Heerlen (NL)
[cat.no.2898] clearly demonstrate (Figure 3). When the true hue of the black-appearing glass is made visible, a
translucent coloured glass can be observed. Considering these pieces as black, makes defining black glass
objects difficult.
Figure 3: a) Counter from Cortil-Noirmont (BE) (left part reconstructed); b) Globular cup from Heerlen (NL) (photographs by
author, a) by courtesy of KMKG-MRAH, Brussels; b) by courtesy of RMO, Leiden)
Besides the two possibilities of logical observations dividing these strongly-coloured glasses into a ‗black‘ group
and a coloured group, it is important to mention the black appearance of the glass objects even if the colour
matrix is observable. However, Justine Bayley says that opaque black glass which is obtained by adding iron to
the batch is, in fact, neither opaque nor black (Bayley 1999, 90). This pseudo-opacity is best demonstrated by the
large quantities of glass counters in various poorly translucent colours. Sometimes the true hue becomes only
visible after the flaking of a chip, as with the black glass counter from Tienen (BE) [cat.no.531] (Cosyns et al.
2006b, fig.1b). The observed hue, with the use of a strong light in transmission, shows that sometimes counters
combining various translucent glass colours have been produced as demonstrated with for instance the two
pieces from Nijmegen (NL) and Oudenburg (BE) (Figure 4a-b) [cat.nos.4466 and 465].
Figure 4: a) Black glass counter from Nijmegen (NL) with light in reflection (left) and light in transmission (right); b) Black glass
counter from Oudenburg (BE) exposed to white light in transmission (photographs by author, a) by courtesy of GAD, Nijmegen;
b) by courtesy of VIOE, Brussels)
To cut this Gordian knot and bring to a close the discussion, we define Roman black glass when it is perceived as
black by the naked eye as well as when it appears black when placed on a white paper and only light in reflection
is used. Yet we are aware that the study of colours involves more than defining colour categorisation by outlining
colour terms and colour perception. It is also important to discuss, even though only briefly, the use of black glass
in view of colour symbolism [see Chapter 7].
17
A debate exists between those who regard the piece as being made from glass (Harden 1987, 28, no. 6) and those who claim the piece is, in
fact, made of obsidian (Grose 1989, 342). At the latest AFAV-meeting in Fréjus (November 2009), Jennifer Price informed us that unpublished
analysis results pointed to obsidian.
6
1.6 Initial observations
A more careful look at the 4475 inventoried entries demonstrates the mass of black glass artefacts can be
18
confined within seven distinctive colour groupsblue, blue-green, brown, green, grey, purple and red. However,
the opacity of the glasscaused by the intensity of the colouring agents within the glass matrix [see Chapters 8
and 9]makes it not always possible to identify the glass hue of black glass artefacts within first view (Figure 5;
19
Table 2).
Table 2: Overview of the different colours of Roman black glass
colours
appearance
true hue
quantity
unknown
unknown
9
black
unknown
3175
black
blue
49
black
purple
123
black
brown
72
black
green
873
black
blue-green
143
black
red
26
black
grey
5
4475
%
0,2
71,0
1,1
2,7
1,6
19,5
3,2
0,6
0,1
100
colours of Roman black glass
1%
3% 2%
black unknown
black blue
19%
black purple
3%
4%
black brown
black green
black blue-green
71%
1%
0%
black red
black grey
Figure 5: Pie-chart with different hues of Roman black appearing glass artefacts
18
Within the chapters 8 and 9respectively on ‗chemical analysis‘ and ‗photonics‘we elaborate on the archaeological relevance concerning the
use on the different glass hues.
19
A more thorough examination of the material will support the identification of the glass hue either by electronic binocular or after pinching of a
flake from the artefact.
7
colours of Roman black glass
black blue
black purple
68%
11%
13%
black brown
black green
black blue-green
black red
9%
2%
0%
4%
black grey
6%
Figure 6: Pie-chart with different hues of Roman black appearing glass artefacts
(excluding the unidentified group)
When excluding the black glass artefacts with unidentified hue it is clear that the green tinted artefacts are most
frequent with more than 2/3 of the recognized items (Figure 6). This group includes a wide range of different
greens without distinction. The second largest group, blue-green, is connected to the green groupas will be
discussed in the here aforementioned chapterscovering together 79% of all black appearing glass artefacts.
The two remaining groups of some importance are purple (9%) and brown (6%). The reason why black appearing
artefacts in blue glass remain marginal is partly due to the easiness of discerning the blue hue as has been made
clear previously, but also because most vessels in black appearing blue glasslike for instance the cameo glass
vesselshave been systematically excluded from this project [see introduction]. The artefacts in so-called red
glass seem to have this colour superficially due to an extreme oxidation during the manufacturing process and
probably need to be incorporated in the green group [see Chapters 8 and 9]. Nearly all red glass entries originate
from the late Roman glass workshop at Les Houis nearby Sainte Menehould (FR) [cat.nos.1415; 1428; 1429;
1431; 1433; 1486; 1535; 1539; 1562; 1576; 1586; 1589-1592; 1594; 1596-1599; 1601; 1603] (Cosyns 2009, 10,
fig.5). The amount of artefacts in grey glass is negligible but may cover important information on recycling by
adding obsidian to the batch (Cagno et al. 2010) [see Chapter 8].
Another issue considered within the following chapters is the use of applied decoration in one or more contrasting
20
colours (Table 3). The majority of black appearing glass artefacts are monochrome and remain ‗undecorated‘,
but the number of entries decorated with a contrasting colour is not insignificant (Figure 7a). Most decorated
artefacts are bichrome (88%) meaning artefacts with only one extra colour contrasting with the black appearing
core (Figure 7b-c).
Table 3: Categorization of decorated artefacts (n = quantity)
colour
%
colour
n
n
unknown
9
0,2 unknown
9
undecorated
3845
85,9 monochrome
3845
decorated
621
13,9 bichrome
541
polychrome
80
4475
100 TOTAL
4475
TOTAL
%
0,2
85,9
12,1
1,7
100
decorated glass
black core + 1 colour
black core + 2 colours
black core + 3 colours
black core + 4 colours
TOTAL
n
541
64
14
2
621
%
87,1
10,3
2,3
0,3
100
20
The here discussed numbers do not consider the decorated monochrome artefacts by tooling, casting or pressing. Also excluded here are the
artefacts with applied decoration in black glass similar to the core.
8
coloration of Roman black glass
coloration of Roman black glass
2%
14%
12%
monochrome
undecorated
bichrome
decorated
polychrome
86%
86%
decorated Roman black glass
black core + 1 colour
10%
3%
2%
black core + 2 colours
black core + 3 colours
87%
black core + 4 colours
1%
Figure 7a-c: Pie-chart with the ratios between undecorated vs. decorated black appearing glass
artefacts (excluding the unidentified group)
Figures 8a-b and Table 4 do not provide additional information of the over-all impression of monochrome artefacts
as it is clear that the ratios of the range of glass hues applied is nearly identical to that of the general overview in
Figures 5-6 and Table 2. Conversely a quantification of all black artefacts with coloured decoration can give a
clearer idea on the use of the glass hue applied and its combinations (Figure 8c-d; Table 4). About 2/3 (62,1%) of
the applied decoration on bichrome artefacts is done with blue glass (including pale blue, turquoise and
ultramarine blue) (Figure 8c; Table 4). Together with white, yellow and redthe other most popular applied
colours on black appearing glass artefacts, correspondingly 20,5% (1/5), 7,0% and 2,6%the group of blue tinted
glass encompasses nearly all bichrome artefacts. Black glass artefacts show in only very few occasions a
decoration in greenish yellow, green, brown or guilded. When looking to the polychrome material it is clear that
the four most popular hues display all possible combinations when combined in pairs. Polychrome artefacts
combining three or more colours show to be of negligeable quantity but white and blue are the most applied glass
hues, respectively with seven and six combinations out of a total of eight.
Further verifications of the database reveals particular colour combinations of applied glass trails on a specific
hue of the core (Tables 5-6). The overview of the combinations is incomplete seeing the large amount of entries
listed in Table 4 of which the glass hue of the core remains unidentified. The listing of specific colour
combinations between core and applied decoration in the Tables 5 and 6 might be evidence for possible
workshop practices and demonstrate the necessity to check the various colours used in Roman glass workshops
vis-à-vis applied technology, commodity type and shape, and the various periods within a five century lasting era.
The use of opaque white is predominantly applied and not related to any particular core glass hue. This
occurrence seems very logical seeing that a black-and-white contrast is the most coherent contrast. The four
major glass hues of applied decorationblue, white, yellow, red - are present on green glass artefacts; yellow is
absent on blue and blue-green glass objects as well as on brown pieces; blue is absent on brown, purple and red
glass. Only artefacts with a core in brown or green glass have received a polychrome decoration and always
demonstrate combinations with white. The observation that brown core glass is known combining white with
yellow illustrates bichrome artefacts with a brown core and a yellow decoration might have existed.
9
Table 4: List of colours and colour combinations (n = quantity)
monochrome
%
monochrome
n
(excluding undefined hue)
undefined
n
%
bichrome
+ 1 colour
%
unknown
36
6,7
45
3,6
blue
336
62,1
n
2607
67,8
45
1,2
blue
brown
67
1,7
brown
67
5,4
greenish yellow
1
0,2
purple
102
2,7
purple
102
8,2
red
14
2,6
blue-green
142
3,7
blue-green
142
11,5 white
111
20,5
red
26
0,7
red
26
2,1
yellow
38
7,0
grey
3
0,1
grey
3
0,2
green
3
0,6
853
22,2
green
1
0,2
1
0,2
541
100,1
n
%
1
50,0
1
50,0
2
100,0
blue
green
853
68,9 guilded
brown
3845
100,1
n
%
blue/red
28
43,8
white/blue/pink
1
blue-green/red
1
1,6
white/blue/red
4
7,1 white/blue/
28,6 red/green
white/yellow/blue/red
white/yellow
4
6,2
3
21,4
white/blue
9
14,1
white/yellow/
blue
white/yellow/
2
14,3
3
21,4
1
7,1
14
99,9
TOTAL
polychrome
+ 2 colours
polychrome
+ 3 colours
white/red
15
23,4
green
white/yellow/red
white/green
1
1,6
yellow/blue/red
yellow/blue
3
4,7
yellow/blue-green
1
1,6
yellow/red
1
1,6
yellow/green
1
1,6
TOTAL
64
100,2
1238
99,9
n
%
monochrome black glass
polychrome
+ 4 colours
monochrome black glass
4% 5%
undefined
blue
blue
brown
0%
brown
22%
8%
68%
red
2%
69%
grey
0%
green
1%
0%
unknown
7% 7%
blue
1%
2%
5%
blue/red
blue-green/red
white/yellow
red
white
yellow
white/blue
44%
23%
yellow/blue
guilded
brown
white/red
white/green
green
62%
grey
polychrome black glass
(2 colours)
greenish yellow
20%
red
green
2%
2%
0%
blue-green
12%
blue-green
bichrome black glass
3%
0%
purple
purple
1%
2% 4%
2%
1%
yellow/blue-green
14%
6%
yellow/red
1%
yellow/green
Figure 8a-d: Pie-charts defining the ratios of glass hues utilized for the core of the artefact (a + b) and for the applied decoration
(c + d)
10
Table 5: Overview of colour combinations between core and decoration of bichrome artefacts
hue of the black appearing artefacts
hue(s) of the applied decoration
blue
blue; white
blue-green
blue
brown
white
green
blue; white; red; yellow
grey
white
purple
white; yellow
red
Table 6: Overview of colour combinations between core and decoration of polychrome artefacts
hue of the black appearing artefacts
hue(s) of the applied decoration
blue
blue-green
brown
white/yellow
green
white/blue; white/red
grey
purple
red
-
1.7 Conclusion
Summarizing the relevance of these colour studies to the discussion on Roman black glass, we have to highlight
the complexity of the colour perception of glass in general. This is attributable to the heterogeneous visual
interpretation of the material and to the variety of ways to categorize Roman glass artefacts. Hence, it has been
essential to formulate a reliable method for the visual evaluation of colours. We explained our definition of black
glass and the basis of our decision to include a category of ‗black‘ glass artefacts elsewhere described as deeply
coloured glass. The individual approach of colour, in casu black, is one of the main reasons why the research on
Roman black glass presented here could never develop into an exhaustive corpus.
The linguistic and psychological studies on colours are focused on the understanding of colour perception by the
human being and the use of colour semantics within a linguistic group. However, the development of an unbiased
categorisation system is critical to enable comparative studies on glass assemblages on various levels: 1)
between successive excavations on the same site; 2) between consecutive periods on the same site; 3) between
a range of sites of the same period. Furthermore, each glass hue is related to a particular chemical composition
as well as to specific furnace conditions (Biek, Bayley 1979, 14; Henderson 1985; Brill 1988; Bayley 1999).
The listings of specific glass hues and colour combinations between core and applied decoration, which is likely to
be linked with particular workshop practices, will be demonstrated in possible relation to technology [see Chapter
2], typology [see Chapter 3], chronology [see Chapter 4] and distribution [see Chapter 6]. Consequently, a colour
categorisation can be valuable to distinguish different workshop assemblages [see Chapters 8 and 9] because
the recognized workshops can be related to regional customs (tradition) or believes (ritual). In Chapter 7 we
discuss the use of colours and their meaning in Roman society with a special focus on the ‗colour‘ black. A
pertinent question that remains is whether an unbiased method exists to categorize black glass or, more precisely,
deeply coloured glass that appears black in order to enable an impartial quantitative study. To verify how to
categorize the Roman black glass artefacts, we carried out optical analysis using absorption spectroscopy;
making available quantifiable data for comparative studies [see Chapter 9].
We defined Roman strongly-coloured glass as black: 1) when no colour is observable but the glass remains black
even illuminated by a light source in transmission, as well as 2) when it appears black to the naked eye when
placed on a white paper and illuminated only by light in reflection.
11
12
Chapter 2 TECHNOLOGY
2.1 Introduction
In this chapter we focussed on the glass technologies which were used in the production of black glass artefacts
during the entire Roman imperial period. We prescribed this focus primarily because this aspect is here utilized as
the basis for establishing a classification of glass artefacts, thus enabling better archaeological processing.
Another reason is that this facet is essential to better oversee and understand the various glass assemblages to
recognize possible chronological and geographical idiosyncrasies.
The intention was by no means to bring a full discussion on Ancient glass technology, but neither was it to provide
a simple synopsis. Hence, the information formulated herewhich can be partly seen as a glossarywill rather
be an endorsement of what has become general knowledge. However, we assume that within the limits of this
overview, the chapter includes information that supplements the current knowledge on various aspects of Roman
glass production which will adjust some prevailing assumptions.
We based the terminology adopted here on only a few of the very many publications covering technological
21
aspects in Roman glass production. For instance, ‗Glass of the Caesars‘ (Harden et al. 1987) provides a
comprehensive description of the variety of techniques used to produce glass in Roman times. In addition,
Marianne Stern gives comprehensive outlines on technical terms related to vessel glass production on various
occasions (Stern 1995, 19-44; 1999; 2001). In their handbook on Romano-British glass vessels, Jennifer Price
and Sally Cottam provide valuable information about manufacturing, characteristic vessel parts, and decoration
techniques (Price, Cottam 1998, 10-39). Maud Spaer‘s impressive work includes technological aspects
concerning glass jewellery and other small glass finds (Spaer 2001). This has been combined with information by
Birte Brugmann, who studies Anglo-Saxon glass beads (Brugmann 2004).
Because these publications give very comprehensive descriptions and illustrations, we only aimed in this chapter
to provide information and explanation on the technological aspects to better understand the production
techniques employed by the Romans for the manufacturing of the various types of artefacts in black glass within
an evolution period of five centuries. The challenge of this chapter is to provide particular chronological and/or
geographical boundaries helpful in dating and/or in establishing the distribution pattern of these various artefact
types‘ technological features.
2.2 The production
Seeing that the production of black glass was not different from that of glass in any other hue, the same
categories of archaeological evidence have to be considered as those that are recognized when examining the
glass production in Roman imperial times and glass working in general: raw materials, furnaces, crucibles, tools,
and glass waste from the production process.
2.2.1
The raw materials
st
nd
Ancient writers in the 1 and early 2 centuries ADe.g. Strabo (64 BC-20 AD), Pliny the Elder (23/24-79 AD),
Flavus Josephus (37/38-post 100 AD), Tacitus (c.55-115/120 AD) reported on the raw materials necessary to
22
produce raw glass and explained the location of sand suitable for making glass:
Then one comes to Ptolemais, a large city, in earlier times named Ake [Akko]…
Between Ake and Tyre there is a sandy beach, which produces the sand used in making glass. Now the sand, it is said, is not
fused here, but is carried to Sidon and there melted and cast. Some say that the Sidonian, among others, have the glass-sand
that is adapted to fusing, though others say that any sand anywhere can be fused. I heard at Alexandria from the glass-workers
that there was in Aegypt a kind of vitreous earth without which many-coloured and costly designs could not be executed, just as
elsewhere different countries require different mixtures; and at Rome, also, it is said that many discoveries are made both for
21
For practical reasons, we focused on publications in English, but we are well aware of the existence of equal standard works in, for instance,
French, German, Greek, and Italian.
22
More references on glass and glass working in Ancient literature are available in Trowbridge 1930; Humphrey et al. 1998, 375-380; Stern 1999,
Whitehouse 1999; Stern 2007.
13
producing the colours and for facility in manufacture, as, for example, in the case of glass ware, where one can buy a glass
beaker or drinking-cup for a copper [obol].
(Strabo, Geographica XVI, 2.25 [transl. Jones, H.L., 1961, Strabo VII, 271-273])
That part of Syria which is known as Phoenicia and borders on Judea contains a swamp called Candebia amid the lower slopes
of Mount Carmel. This is supposed to be the source of the River Belus, which after traversing a distance of 5 miles flows into the
sea near the colony of Ptolemais. …
The river is muddy and flows in a deep channel, revealing its sands only when the tide ebbs. For it is not until they have been
tossed by the waves and cleansed of impurities that they glisten. Moreover, it is only at that moment, when they are thought to
be affected by the sharp, astringent properties of the brine, that they become fit for use. The beach stretches for not more than
half a mile, and yet for many centuries the production of glass depended on this area alone. …
Now, however, in Italy too a white sand which forms in the River Volturno is found along 6 miles of the seashore between Cuma
and Literno where it is the finest grained, and reduced to powder in a mortar or mill. Then it is mixed with three parts of soda,
either by weight or by measure, and after being fused is taken in its molten state to other furnaces. There it forms a lump known
in Greek as sand-soda [hammonitrum]. This is again melted and forms a lump of clear colourless glass. Nowadays sand is
similarly blended also in the Gallic and Spanish provinces.
(Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia XXXVI, LXV.190-194 [transl. Eichholz, D.E., 1962, Pliny X, 149-155])
At a distance of about two furlongs [stadia] from the town [Ptolemais] runs the diminutive river Beleus. On its bank stands the
tomb of Memnon, and close to it is a very remarkable region, a hundred cubits in extent. It consists of a circular basin which
produces vitreous sand. Numerous boats put in to this spot and empty the basin of its sand, whereupon it is filled up again by
the action of the winds, which, as if by design, drift into it the common sand outside, the latter being all promptly converted by
this mine into vitreous matter. But the phenomenon which, to my mind, is even more remarkable, is that the excess particles of
glass which overflow from the cavity become ordinary sand as before. Such are the curious properties of this spot.
(Flavus Josephus, Bello Iudaeica II, 189-191 [transl. Thackeray, H.S.J., 1967, 397])
The river Belus also empties into the Jewish Sea; around its mouth a kind of sand is gathered, which when mixed with soda is
fused into glass. The beach is of moderate size, but it furnishes an inexhaustible supply.
(Tacitus, Historiae V, 7 [transl. Moore, C.H., 19989, Tacitus III, 187-189])
Not having the intention to start a textual analysis between the available ancient sources, it is clear that most
Roman writers remain rather brief and that they, most likely, got their information from a thus far unknown older
source. The location of the areas discussed by the ancient writers where the Romans extracted the sand is still a
23
matter of discussion. However, Pliny the Elder also talks about the extraction of sand in Italy to produce glass,
and mentions similar activities in Spain and France (if we consider it equal to Gaul). Possibly in Classical and
st
Hellenistic times the Belus sand dominated the glass production, while in the second half of the 1 century AD
new sand sources suitable for the production of glass were discovered all over the Roman Empire. Sand provided
the necessary silica for the creation of a glassy substance, although quartz pebbles or obsidian also provided
silica. Silica from quite pure sand was the basic network former of Roman glass, but a flux or network modifier
was required to lower considerably the melting point of the silica. This was necessary because the melting point
24
of sand in Roman times was too high to be technically attainable and subsequently not profitable. The standard
flux used in Roman times was soda, a mineral alkali extracted from natron and trona, although an alternative
could be supplied through vegetable alkali such as potash from plant ash. Egyptian natron and trona from Wadi
el-Natrun in the western Nile Delta between Alexandria and Cairo were the classic soda-providers in Roman
th
times and this up to about the 8 century AD (Décobert 2003; Nenna 2008a). A third essential element in Roman
glass is lime which is used as a stabilizing agent against water infiltration. Strangely the deliberate adding of a
stabilizer to the batch such as lime has never been mentioned by ancient writers and consequently its presence is
interpreted as a coincidental adding through the use of calcareous sand.
On the whole it is usually acknowledged that black glass is obtained by adding a strong colorant to the batch such
as iron (green, brown), manganese (purple) or cobalt (blue). How black glass is made in Roman times and how
we have to look at its production and distribution is fully discussed in the appropriate chapters [see Chapters 6
and 8]. In Chapter 8 is demonstrated via chemical analysis that both ‗naturally coloured‘ and decolourized raw
glass have been used to produce black glass. To decolourize the ‗naturally coloured‘ raw glass antimony oxide
and manganese oxide are known to have been added to the batch in Roman times. Also discussed more in detail
within Chapter 8 is the regional and chronological variability of applied oxides responsible for the black hue of
‗naturally coloured‘ or decolourized raw glass, and in what kind of concentrations these colorants were added. In
23
We can refer to recent and on-going research focussing on the location and characterisation of these sands: Israel (Brill 1988 264-269;
Freestone, Gorin-Rosen, Hughes 2000), Italy (Silvestri et al. 2006; 2008), and Spain (personal communication Degryse). It is generally
acknowledged that the Belus River is to be located in the north of present day Israel between Haifa and Akko, and more exactly in the area of
modern Nahr Na‘man (Thackeray 1967, 397, note a). Question is whether Brill‘s samples from the Belus river bedding were taken at a correct
location, if it can be determined where sand was extracted during the Roman imperial period.
24
Pure silica has a melting point of 1410 °C (periodical table of Mendeleyev). Furthermore, experimental archaeology has pointed out that heating
up to c. 1000 °C is quite easy, but once above it the amount of combustion and necessary time to acquire higher temperatures increase
exponentially (Nicholson, Jackson 2000, 19) [see also Chapter 8].
14
addition it will be made clear that the commonly available glass used for production of black glass artefacts during
the Roman imperial period was a silica-soda-lime glass. Accordingly recognized characteristic compositions such
25
as the late Roman so-called HIMT glass are important to develop the trade and distribution patterns on the
various types of black glass artefacts.
2.2.2
The workshops
The production of glass in Roman times involves two types of workshops. Firstly there are the primary glass
workshops – mainly located in the south-eastern Mediterranean [see Chapter 6] – where raw glass was produced
from raw materials. In a second stage, the chunks of raw glass were distributed all over the Roman Empire to
26
secondary glass workshops, where artefacts were produced by re-melting the raw glass together with cullet.
Unfortunately, unambiguous artefactual evidence is generally lacking where the production of black glass
artefacts is concerned. In most cases, the furnaces have been largely destroyed over the course of time or on
purpose when the area changed use. On the other hand, evidence of Roman glass production is difficult to
identify and to interpret when present. This is perfectly described through a well-reasoned comparison on the
availability and degree of fragmentation of glass vessels in various contexts:
There is a marked contrast between the wide range of vessels and objects, which survive complete in burials or, more
frequently, are found in fragments on settlements, and the ephemeral and episodic nature of the evidence for the production
processes by which they were formed.
(Price 2002, 81)
In recent times Marie-Dominique Nenna stated that archaeological evidence for Roman primary glass workshops
is nearly non-existent (Nenna 2008a; Nenna 2008b, 61-62), and contrasts greatly with the massive quantity of
sites where secondary glass workshops have been found (Foy, Sennequier 1991; Sternini 1995; Amrein 2001;
Foy, Nenna 2003, 40-60; Nenna 2008a, 132-136). An ensuing assumption is that the production of glass artefacts
could have taken place in nearly any settlement throughout the entire imperial period. In relation to this concern it
is worth mentioning Jean Andreau who most recently drew attention to the difficulty in determining the distribution
patterns of glass vessels and to discern the trade routes that result due to the very high homogeneity all over the
Roman Empire (Andreau 2010, 114-115).
Les formes de tous ces objets sont très homogènes d‘une région à l‘autre et même d‘une moitié de la Méditerranée à l‘autre.
(Andreau 2010, 114)
We have to stress that all raw glass hitherto excavated at primary glass workshop is ‗naturally coloured‘ or
decolourized and that deeply coloured raw glass including black appearing raw glass has not been retrieved yet
on such sites. Conversely, various secondary workshops yielded pre-fabricated lumps of deeply coloured glass
similar in shape and size to the rough blocks of raw glass found in the shipload of shipwrecks all over the
Mediterranean (Foy, Nenna 2001, 24-39; Nenna 2008a, 130-131). The homogeneous chemical composition of 16
sampled chunks of differently coloured raw glass from the glass workshops of La Montée de la Butte at Lyon (FR)
(Robin 2008, 43) demonstrates that the chunks are all made of the same type of raw glass which must have been
imported [see Chapter 8]. Although a number of secondary workshops contain chunks and/or cullet of deeply
coloured glass, none of the known workshops hold available evidences to testify the colouring of imported
decolourized or ‗naturally coloured‘ raw glass was done locally. In view of that, it seems excluded that the rough
27
blocks of black glass were locally produced in a secondary workshop. Where these glass blocks were produced
28
is uncertain. To this point it was impossible to determine where and how the black colouring of ‗naturally
coloured‘ and decolourized raw glass has taken place. As mentioned in the previous paragraph the chemical
analyses, discussed in Chapter 8, will help to broaden our understanding on the regional and chronological
variability and to increase our knowledge on the distribution patterns. In Chapter 6 is verified how from the
archaeological data we can discern distribution and consumption patterns on the various types of artefacts in
25
HIMT [High Iron Manganese Titanium]: HIMT-glass is produced by using less pure sand with much higher concentrations of iron oxide,
manganese oxide and titanium oxide, present as impurities [see Chapter 8].
26
Cullet refers to recycled broken glass vessels as well as production waste such as knock-offs, moils, and misshapen artefacts to lower the
melting temperature of the raw glass. Cullet only becomes a significant alternative to raw glass from the medieval period onwards as can be seen
in the Serçe Limanı shipwreck (Bass et al. 2009).
27
In Chapter 8 are discussed the results from the chemical analysis on the irregular chunks of black glass from the glass workshops of ‗La Montée
de la Butte‘ at Lyon [cat.no.1224-1225] (Robin 2008) and of Les Houis nearby Sainte Menehould (FR) [cat.no.1570] (Cosyns 2009) secondary
workshops respectively dated mid 1st–early 2nd century AD and 3rd–5th century AD.
28
In Chapter 6 are considered various models on the organization of glass production in the Roman Empire and evaluated against the available
information from the black glass data. In Chapter 10 the archaeological and archaeometric evidences are put side by side to discuss the
organization of black glass production and consumption in the Roman Empire.
15
black glass. In addition we verified in Chapter 6 whether these blocks were imported from primary workshops or
from specialized intermediate workshops in order to supply the local market?
The secondary workshops known to have processed black glass are considered more in detail in Chapter 6 when
discussing the production of black glass. Important to take into account is that secondary workshops never
processed solely black glass, on the contrary it only formed a (minor) part of the assemblage. For this reason it is
impossible to verify in what proportion a workshop processed glass in various hues. Nearly all secondary
workshops are located in an urban centre even though sometimes in its periphery. The exception is the workshop
of Les Houis nearby Sainte Menehould (FR) that is a prominent rural production centre within the then very
dynamic Argonne region. Because evidence of clear structures such as furnaces is quasi nil we, however,
identified the presence of workshops on the basis of characteristic distribution patterns [see Chapter 6].
2.2.3
Built-in basins and crucibles
In secondary workshops, the crushed raw glass chunks were melted in built-in basins or in crucibles. It is
impossible to discuss the matter here in detail as this topic is a research on its own (see for further reading
Sternini 1995, 73-82; Fischer 2009, 92-106). Generally speaking the built-in basins can be considered
st
nd
characteristic for the early imperial period (1 and 2 centuries AD), whereas the crucibles were typical from the
st
late Roman period even though crucibles have been reported on 1 century sites too (Foy, Nenna 2001, 64). In
relation to the workshops where black glass was utilized, the workshop ‗Äussere Reben‘ from Kaiseraugst (CH),
nd
rd
dated mid 2 –early 3 century AD, yielded crucibles likewise the workshop ‗Palais Kesselstatt‘ at Trier (DE)
th
which is dated second half 4 century AD [see Chapter 6].
The built-in basins have never been the issue of a systematic study, although a few examples have been
excavated, such as those at ‗La Manutention no. 1‘ at Lyon (FR) (Foy, Nenna 2001, 42-43), and at the Legionary
camp at Bonn (DE) (Follmann-Schulz 1991, 36-37). None of the known built-in basins contained traces of black
glass processing. The number of fragments of red fired clay with black glass on one side yielded at ‗Äussere
Reben‘ workshop in Kaiseraugst [cat.nos.3688-3740] (Fischer 2009) might be considered as remains of (a) builtin basin(s), but can equally be the remnants of the furnace opening where the glassblower spilled glass while
gathering his gob of hot glass from the molten pool whether it be a crucible or a built-in basin [see Chapter 6].
Numerous crucibles are known and are consistently thick-walled open vessels with a glass layer inside the vessel.
The pottery used as crucibles was, in fact, ordinary cooking ware made from refractory clay so that these
receptacles could stand the very high temperatures (Bayley 1992). Some late Roman examples from Trier (DE)
show antique repairs of cracked walls by inserting a thick layer of pumice [cat.nos.2069-2070; 2073] [see Chapter
6].
The use of plain wares results in a wide variety of shapes due to the regionalism of the cooking ware production
[see Chapter 6]. Hence, the pottery shapes of the crucibles can help determining the date of the workshop [see
Chapter 4].
2.2.4
The tools
The tools used to manufacture black glass artefacts appear to be similar to those used to produce artefacts in
other glass hues, and can thus be divided into the traditional categories: moulds and stamps; blowing pipe and
pontil rod; pincers and shears; and marver.
2.2.4.1
Moulds and stamps
The difference between a mould and a stamp is that the latter is pushed-in into the glass, whereas the former
shapes the glass by pouring or blowing the hot gob of glass into the mould shape.
In the production of glass vessel the application of two different production techniquescasting and mouldblowingmade use of moulds [see below page 22]. The recognized mouldseither open or closed and
consisting of one piece or comprising multiple sectionscan usually be attached to either casting or mouldblowing. Casting was done in late Republic and early imperial times by using open moulds in one single piece
st
[see Chapter 6]. This assertion is attested by a number of characteristic features on the 1 century AD cast
vessels in monochrome deeply coloured glass: 1) small and/or shallow shapes; 2) plain and uncomplicated
shapes; 3) an absence of any seam. Mould-blowing, on the other hand, was performed in Roman times by using
16
closed moulds considering the mould-blown vessels are high and have a closed shape. The moulds employed for
mould-blowing consisted, in contrast to those used for casting, of two or more sections. The number of mould
29
segments used can be determined from the presence of ridges on the outer surface of the mould-blown object.
A seam appears when inflating the hot gob of glass and forming a small space between the different segments.
Roman glassworkers appear to have adopted black glass infrequently in the production of mould-made vessels
[see Chapter 3].
The use of stamps in the production of glass vessels is limited to the creation of medallions to decorate some
specific vessel shapes in imitation of metal ware [see Chapters 3]. Stamps were mainly used in the production of
glass jewellery to mould the decoration swiftly. Seeing the smallness of some types of jewellery the use of moulds
cannot be excluded in the production of jewellery in black glass [see Chapter 3].
2.2.4.2
Blowing pipe and pontil rod
a.
b.
c.
Figure 9: a) Irregular circular mark from a massive punty gob; b) Thick ring-shaped mark from a hollow punty gob or ring pontil;
c) Thin irregular annular scar from the moil of the blowing pipe (photographs by author)
Both blowing pipes and pontil rods are related to glass blowing and more particularly the blowing of vessels. With
a blowing pipe, the glassmaker gathers the hot glass from the crucibles in the furnace to blow a vessel. To finish
the object, a pontil rod or punty is used. The massive iron rod is preheated before being dipped in the hot glass.
When the vessel was cracked off from the blowing pipe the gob of the punty got attached to the base to finishing
off the vessel by rendering the rim and eventual handle(s) as well as to apply glass trailed decoration. When the
vessel is finished, it is knocked off from the punty and placed in the annealing chamber. Interestingly, knocking off
the object from the pontil leaves a scar on the bottom surface. It not only can be used to estimate the diameter of
the pontil rod but also determine the type of pontil. On the basis of the scar size and shape it can be recognized in
the first place whether a pontil rod or a blowing pipe was used and secondly how the glass end on the pontil rod
was shaped (Figure 9a-b). The pontil mark is a distinctive feature that can help determining regional and/or
29
When the mould-blown shape has angles as, for example, the square bottles no seam is observable, even though five mould segments were
used (four sides and one base). Sometimes the type of mould results in a clear seam like for instance on the grape-shaped amphoriskoi [see
Chapter 3].
17
chronological idiosyncrasies. This issue is discussed more in detail when examining some specific vessel shapes
to establish the fingerprint of a glass workshop and glassblower [see Chapter 6].
Roman sites seldom yield glass working tools, though a 380 mm long iron blowing pipe fragment with a maximum
diameter of 16 mm was retrieved at the glass workshop at Les Houis near Sainte Menehould (Chew 1989, no. 36;
rd
th
Foy, Nenna 2001, 77, no. 59), a 3 5 century AD glass house where black glass objects were produced [see
Chapter 6]. It consists of an ordinary tube made by enfolding a 3 to 4 mm thick sheet of iron. The full length and
variety in diameters of the Roman blowing pipes as well as of the pontil rods are unknown due to the lack of
evidence.
2.2.4.3
Pincers and shears
Various jacks (types of pincers) and shears were used during the modelling of an artefact under
productionwhether it was a vessel, bracelet, finger ring, bead or pendantand in applying a decorative design
onto the object. The use of jacks in the production of vessels helped in modelling the foot, handles and mouth, or
to apply a constriction at the neck for instance. From several pieces of production waste it is clear that jacks of
various size and shape must have been used in Roman glass workshops. Some glass waste with pincer imprints
are very pointed and narrow, but others appear to be wider.
a.
b.
c.
d
Figure 10a-d: Various uses of jacks and pincers
a) to model a base-ring [left: cat.no.595; right: cat.no.414]; b) to apply glass trails [Kaiseraugst - cat.no.3721]; c) to model
handles [Liberchies – top: cat.no.413 ; bottom: cat.no.407]; d) reconstruction of how pincers were utilized to apply glass trails on
an artefact (drawings and pictures by author, by courtesy of PAM, Velzeke; Musée Archéologique, Nivelles; Augusta Raurica,
Augst; CRAN, Louvain-la-Neuve)
18
Traces of pincers used for shaping the foot sometimes remained visible, such as on the base fragments of
carchesia from Velzeke (BE) [cat.no.595] and Liberchies (BE) [cat.no.414] (Figure 10a). The oblique incisions are
the result of a clockwise rotation of the blowing-pipe when modelling the base-ring in a smooth movement. Two
pieces of production waste from the Kaiseraugst workshop [cat.nos.3712; 3721] excavated between 1978 and
1980 are very probable what remained after applying a trailed decoration on vessels (Figure 10d) as regularly
30
attested on both extremities of the body of globular cups (Form IIB4-5) and finally ending up as waste. The
Velzeke piece, measuring 43 mm in length and 20 mm in width, shows the print of a wide, pointed pincer over a
length of 32 mm, measuring 8,5 mm at the edge and tapering towards a rounded point of about 4 mm width
(Figure 10b). The trail-end of c. 3,5 mm diameter is the remnant of its drawn-out/stretched application giving the
idea of the thickness of the applied trails. Pincers were also used to model the handles; this is for instance clearly
observable on the two handle fragments of a skyphos from Liberchies (BE) [cat.nos.407; 413] (Figure 10c).
The importance of pincers and shears in the production of arm rings is inherently connected to the rod-formed
rd
th
technique employed during the 3 and 4 century AD. The numerous types of open bracelets with ends tooled
into various shapes are the optimum effect of using pincers in the production [see Chapter 3].
2.2.4.4
Marver
A marver is a sort of working table on which the inflated hot glass or gather, also called paraison, can be rolled
into shape during the blowing process. Another function is to roll-in colouring elements were placed on the marver,
such as specks, or directly applied to the object, such as applied trails. A flat stone slab, for instance in marble,
was most likely used in Roman times, but one in metal is not excluded. When the artefact is anymore reheated in
the furnace the thermal shock the hot glass undergoes when touching the colder surface result in characteristic
chill marks. A metallic surface results in irregular concentric chill marks (Figure 17), while a stone marver leaves a
pitted surface on the glass object, as can be seen on the exterior of square bottles (Figure 14). Marvering could
also have been done by using a wooden tool. A wooden marver is most likely used to shape the small polygonal
bottles seeing the irregular shape of each side and the smooth surface. A wooden tool was possibly also used to
marver the decoration on the late Roman counters with polychrome decoration [see Chapter 3].
2.2.5
The production waste and recycling
The characteristic production waste included:
1) moils: the glass parts between the blowing pipe and the cracked-off vessel detached from the blowing pipe
2) knock-offs: the glass remaining on the blowing pipe or pontil rod from the blowing pipe or the pontil rod.
In Roman times, all this waste material together with the malformed objects were usually recycled as cullet,
31
leaving few indicative bits and pieces for the archaeologists. Accordingly, it is clear that not much diagnostic
material is available to identify a glass workshop where black glass was produced or where black glass working
was done to manufacture various types of artefacts, whether it were vessels, jewellery, counters, architectural
decoration material, or sculpture.
2.3 The Artefacts
2.3.1
Vessels
Various techniques were used in the production of black glass vessels. Three main techniques have been
distinguished: casting, blowing, and rod-formed. Within the group of blown vessel glass, free-blown vessels
constituted by far the largest group, but a number of mould-blown vessels show that this technique was also
applied in the production of black-appearing glass (Table 7).
30
However, after the application of a handle, the remaining glass was also discarded as waste.
Such activities demonstrating the abundance of recycling in Roman times – in particular in the late Roman period – are discussed in chapters 9
and 11 in perspective to the research results from very recent chemical analyses on late Romano-British glass and the hypotheses inferred from it
regarding the organization of glass production in the Roman Empire (Foster, Jackson 2010).
31
19
Table 7: The ratio of different techniques utilized in the production of black glass vessels
technique
quantity
percentage
cast vessels
86
13,2
free-blown vessels
421
64,7
mould-blown vessels
24
3,7
rod-formed vessels
48
7,4
undefined
72
11,1
TOTAL
651
100,1
2.3.1.1
Casting
This technique enfolded any heat-forming technique by which monochrome and polychrome glass were moulded,
whether it was by mould-pressing or by sagging. Single-piece open moulds as well as multipartite closed moulds
were used to carry out mould-pressing (Stern 1995, 29-30, fig.15).
Sagging involved the reheating of a glass disc in the furnace by putting it on top of a mould so that it slowly
sagged over or into the mould (Grose 1989, 33, fig.8-9). The most common sagged shapes were the linear-cut
bowls and the ribbed bowls or so-called ‗pillar-moulded bowl‘. This technique resulted in a different surface
property, with a shiny external surface and a dull inner surface. This was due to the fire-polishing of the top
surface in the furnace and the contact of the underside with the mould. The technique also resulted in an irregular
rim that got grounded. Very few examples of sagged monochrome black glass vessels are known. Some pieces
have been found in Liberchies (BE) [cat.nos.417; 425] as well as in Augst (CH) [cat.no.3474]. They all reveal their
true colour when a strong light beam is used, as when an art photographer takes pictures for an exhibition
catalogue. Some interesting pieces are the ribbed bowl in the Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo (Ohio,USA) (Grose
1989, 266, no. 240) and the bucket at the San Marco Treasury, Venice (IT) (Harden et al. 1987, 220-221, no. 122).
Most cast black glass vessels were mould-pressed within a single-piece open mould implying the use of a
pressing object to compress with force the hot glass into a shape. By using a presser, the inner side became
smooth, but with an uneven wall thickness; this method contrasted with the creation of mould-blown objects using
air as the compressing force, which resulted in a vessel with consistent wall thickness, thus allowing a negative
32
relief on the inside of the moulded vessel. This presser could be made of stone or clay, but most were probably
made of metale.g., copper, bronze, or iron. It seems that no evidence has as yet been found, other than the
design pattern in the centre, as David Grose explains in a more detailed discussion of these types of
manufacturing (Grose 1989, 31-33).
2.3.1.2
Blowing
33
Characteristic to blowing glass was the use of a blowing pipe in iron that was not only used to inflate air in the
paraison to start modelling the glass bulb but particularly to gather the hot glass from the very blazing furnace,
keep enough distance from the hot glass in the furnace tank. Based on information from for instance the glass
workshop at Les Houis nearby Sainte Menehould the blowing pipe was made of tubular folded and hammered
iron sheet (Chew 1989, no.36; Foy, Nenna 2001, 77, no.59). Based on the knowledge from Renaissance period
onwards the glassblower‘s tools remained basically unchanged until today. Because we assume that already from
the invention of glassblowing the perfect instruments for manual blowing must have been developed from the
Roman imperial period. Taking into account this assumption we may suppose that the Roman glassblowers used
blowing pipes of about 1,2m to 1,5m long and with a diameter ranging between 15-25 mm.
o
Free-blowing
Characteristic to the free-blowing technique was the gradual inflating, reheating, and tooling of the paraison to
end up with the desired shape:
1)
pre-heating of the gathering-end of an iron blowing pipe until it reached the furnace temperature and
consequently that of the hot glass
32
Only angular-shaped vessels show a difference, as the spherical inflated bulb in a square, rectangle, or polygon has to expand further to the
corners, while the bulb already touches the mould. Hence, the wall thickness will diminish towards the corners.
33
We do not want to ignore the proposal by Marianne Stern arguing for the use of blowing pipes in clay (Stern 1995, 39-42, in particular 40-41;
Stern 1999, 446-447, fig. 8; Stern 2005, 17-18), but no archaeological indications are hitherto available to suggest this method was employed by
the Romans. We do have knowledge of such a ceramic tool from excavations in Sagalassos (Lauwers et al. 2005, 28, fig. 4; Lauwers et al. 2007,
194-198), but the use of this 50 mm long and 9 mm in diameter thick rod fragment stuck in a chunk of glass remains rather vague. This could have
been used in the preparation of the glass melt as stirring rod, in the production of glass beads, or in glassblowing as a pontil rod. However, it could
not have been used as a blowing pipe, since it is not hollow.
20
2)
3)
4)
5)
gathering hot glass (if necessary repeatedly in several times running until the required glass mass [was]
reached to blow the desired vessel);
modelling the paraison by:
a. blowing a small air bubble in the paraison;
b. swirling the blowing pipe to elongate the paraison to the required length;
c. modelling manually the inflated paraison into the desired shape by using various tools such as a
marver, jacks, and a mailloche;
knocking-off the vessel from the blowing pipe;
eventually the use of a pontil rod to finish the vessel.
This technique thus resided in manipulating freely the blowing pipe and the gathered paraison, resulting in
specific shapes. The fingerprint of a glass worker linked to a workshop makes it possible to characterize
idiosyncrasies related to a well-defined period and/or region of production. Some publications show visually the
consecutive stages in the production of various types of free-blown glass vessels (Tait 1995, 213-241; Dily,
Mahéo 1997, 21-27). Their purpose was to explain in a clear but general way the various aspects of glassblowing
technique. The challenge here has not been the chaîne opératoire as such, but rather improving our
understanding of particular regional and/or chronological assemblages by studying in detail the variation of explicit
technical features on a particular type of vessel shape in black glass [see Chapter 6].
o
Mould-blowing
The mould-blowing technique covered the same actions as the free-blowing technique. The only difference
compared with free-blowing lay within step 3 (modelling the paraison). The final stage involved a modelling of the
inflated paraison into the desired shape by using a mould. From the mould-blown vessels can be discerned two
different types of moulds: 1) plain circular ones (eventually with concentric circles); 2) angular moulds or circular
moulds with a more complex design. The former mould-type allows the glassworker to turn around the glass
blower‘s pipe while blowing the vessel in the mould, whereas the later mould type consists of blowing very briefly
but powerfully without moving the blower‘s pipe. The use of a single, bi- or multipart mould made possible to
produce ad infinitum identical objects. Differences between two objects from the same mould could occur in the
modelling of handles, rim, and neck, because these parts were freely shaped after taking out the inflated paraison
from the mould. This is noticeable from the absence of a seam on neck, rim, and handles on all Roman mouldblown vessels. It also makes clear that the moulds just reached up to the shoulder of the vessels, possibly
meaning that closed moulds were unusual or not used at all in Roman times. Detailed work concerning the mouldblowing technique became recently available (Stern 1995; Foy, Nenna 2006a-b; Fontaine-Hodiamont (ed.) 2010).
We therefore refrain from a detailed discussion on all features concerning mould-blowing, instead we refer to
these reference works.
The moulds into which glass recipients were blown were mainly made from limestonemainly of marble, but
34
Roman glassblowers also must have used moulds in metal and clay. The type of vessel likely influenced the
choice of the mould material. Square bottles seem to have been blown singularly in limestone moulds built up
from five piecesa bottom piece and four side pieceslike the examples known from Augst (CH), Avenches
(CH), Bonn (DE), Cologne (DE), Lyon (FR) (Rütti 1991).
A typical feature of mould-blown vessels is the flashing or seam caused by the imperfectly closed mould
segments. This is not visible on the square and rectangular bottles because the mould segments joined at the
corners and stopped at the start of the shoulder. This means that the shoulder, neck, and rim were not mouldblown. This would only have been possible with an open mould.
Other forms such as juglets and amphoriskoi in the shape of shells, animals, human heads, or fruit show a clear
seam up to the rim, providing evidence of the number of mould segments used.
In black glass, not many mould-blown examples have been known up till now. This is striking in comparison with
the loads of mould-blown vessels in ‗naturally coloured‘ and decolourised glass, and in contrast with the relatively
large quantity of free-blown black glass vessels. Besides some head flasks, the only two other shapes recorded
are the grape-shaped amphoriskos and the prismatic bottle [see Chapter 3, more particularly 3.2.4. mould-blown
vessels]. Given the very poor occurrence of mould-blown vessels in black glass, it seems very likely that this
technique was barely adopted during Roman times to produce black glass vessels. The paucity in number can
34
Most likely in bronze as those surviving from early Byzantine and early Islamic times.
21
possibly be explained by the technical complexity of blowing vessels in black glass. The usual working time for
hot glasscharacterized by a low iron concentrationaverages around 20 seconds from the moment of removal
35
from the batch. Present-day glassblowers state that the glass metal becomes ‗shorter‘ the more iron is added to
the batch. Technically speaking, this means that the higher the iron content (FeO and/or Fe 2O3), the shorter the
workability of the hot glass, with a limit that can result in an unworkable batch. An incident at the glasshouse ‗Het
glaspaleis‘ in Lommel (BE) where a part of the steel covering of the furnace tank fell into the batch resulted in a
black glass metal that became unusable because the too-short working time ended in a hot glass that could no
36
nd
rd
longer be inflated. The highly elevated concentrations of iron oxide (up to 14 %) in use during the late 2 and 3
centuries AD in the north-western provinces of the Roman Empire must have resulted in a drastically lower
working time for the black glass metal. Therefore, this technical aspect must have had its consequence in the
shaping and blowing of free-blown vessels too, perhaps explaining a part of the reason why these vessels
demonstrate harmonic observed proportions which seem to be connected to the golden section giving an object
aesthetically pleasing proportions [see Chapter 3, more particularly 3.2.3. Free-blown vessels].
2.3.1.3
Rod-formed
37
The rod-formed technique consisted of applying hot glass around a metal rod or mandrel and then shaping the
hot glass in a specific form. The insides of rod-formed vessels took the shape and size of the metal rod and were
therefore cylindrical. Tapering inner sides were created by later manipulations with pincers when the vessel was
removed from the rod to form the rim. Hence, the only resemblance the technique bore to the core-formed
technique was that neither involved blowing. The shapes of the inside and the wall thickness were substantially
different from each other. The pre-Roman core-formed vessels, produced around a pre-shaped core in clay,
therefore did not need much glass to obtain a particular shape, while large amounts of glass were necessary to
produce rod-formed bi-conical and globular-shaped vessels around a bare rod. Accordingly the inside of coreformed vessels corresponded with the vessel shape, whereas that of rod-formed vessels took the shape of the
metal rod.
Only very few rod-formed vessels were undecorated. On the whole, they were decorated with wide ribbings,
either vertical or twisted, with pushed-in decoration or with applied opaque glass trails in zigzags [see Chapter 3].
The production of rod-formed vessels was very coarse, giving these recipients a very clumsy appearance. The
technique was not restricted to black glass only. Black glass accounts for the large majority of rod-formed vessels,
but ultramarine and pale blue glass were other commonly used glass colours for the production of rod-formed
vessels. Many of these coloured vessels have a large quantity of air bubbles.
Limited to the production of toilet ware, i.e., unguentaria, generally assumed to be kohl tubes and wide-mouthed
jars, the technique is idiosyncratic for the later Roman-early Byzantine period in the Levant and Egypt [see
Chapter 3, more particularly 3.2.5. Rod-formed vessels].
2.3.1.4
Decoration
It appears that a large set of decoration techniques, if not all modi operandi, have been employed on the vessels
produced in black glass. The plain vessels are the most generally seen, but the decoration is very diverse: applied
glass trails, abraded concentric lines, engraved figurative motifs, indented, marvered, painted, and so forth.
Vessels of the same shapesuch as the small bulbous cup (Form IIB.4/5) were embellished using various
decoration techniques or simply left undecorated [see Chapter 3].
o
Applied glass trails
The applied glass trails could be executed in the same black glass as the body, but regularly contrasting opaque
colours like white, turquoise blue, yellow, or red were also used. Depending on the production technique, different
colours and decoration patterns were favoured. The free-blown vessels had no opaque red trails and the applied
glass trail consisted of one concentric line on the shoulder and one on the lower side of the body, or, when all
over the body, with an upward festoon pattern. The former had no marvered trails, whereas the festooned trails of
the latter were always marvered. The trailed decoration on rod-formed vessels was mostly applied in zigzags with
35
Personal communication by Danny Theys, a professional glassblower of the glasshouse ‗Theys-Miseur‘ in Holsbeek/Leuven, Belgium.
Personal communication by Jeroen Maes, head of the glasshouse ‗Het glaspaleis‘ in Lommel, Belgium.
It is not clear whether the surface of the rod was enveloped with a coating layer to facilitate the removal of the mandrel from the finished product.
Seeing the clean inner surface of these vessels clay is excluded.
36
37
22
contrasting colours such as opaque yellow, white, and turquoise blue glass, whereas black-on-black was never
used. Occasionally, more than one trail was applied. In those cases, different colours were combined.
o
Wheel-cutting
st
The abraded concentric lines occurred mainly on 1 century AD free-blown vessels such as the so-called Hofheim
cups (Isings Form 12 – see Chapter 3, Form IB.1) [see Chapter 3]. These wheel-cut concentric lines were
designed in the same position as the applied trails below the rim (on the shoulder if there was one) and at the
lower part of the body (generally coinciding with the largest diameter of the vessel).
The other decoration on black glass vessels were engraved figurative motifs on the body. The bulbous cup in the
Römisches Germanischen Museums in Cologne (DE) [cat.no.1840] is decorated with several registers of floral
motifs representing ivy leaves alternating with undulations. Even if the authenticity of the decoration has been
questioned, we agree with Fremersdorf‘s view that it is genuine (Fremersdorf 1958, 42-43, Taf.72).
Real wheel-cut vessels in black glass are unknown thus far, except for the bucket in the San Marco treasure in
Venice which was made from a deep-purple glass that appears black (Harden et al. 1987, 220-221, no.122)
th
[cat.no.2827]. The cylindrical bucket with silver handle is dated 4 century AD on the stylistic basis of the wheelcut design and technique, although the vessel shape, the cast technique and the poorly translucent deep purple
glass are not common for this period. Another wheel-cut piece in deep purple glass appearing black is the
fragment in the Petrie Museum for Egyptian Archaeology, London (unpublished) [cat.no.931] (Figure 11) or the
fragment in Corning Museum of glass which is also said to be from Egypt [cat.no.996].
Figure 11: Wheel-cut fragment in the Petrie Museum for Egyptian Archaeology,
London (photograph by author, by courtesy of Petrie Museum)
o
Marvering
38
st
Marvered decoration was limited to free-blown vessels and was typical for the 1 century AD black glass
vessels. This technique consisted of applying small particles of coloured glass in the hot glass by first rolling these
small bits onto the hot glass when not yet inflated (Figure 12). After reheating the paraison, the coloured glass
particles were marvered into the hot glass by rolling it again on the marver (mainly a smooth plate of marble).
During the blowing process, the coloured glass particles enlarged according to the repeated blowing to achieve
the required shape (Figure 2d-e). Although opaque white glass was used principally, it also occurs in combination
with opaque yellow and opaque pale blue glass. A variant of this technique was to roll on a marver the applied
white opaque glass trails and pull it afterwards up and/or downward to obtain a festooned or feathered pattern
such as the bulbous cups (Isings Form 94 – see Chapter 3, Form IIB.4 and 5) and the larger jugs (Isings Form 54
– see Chapter 3, Form IIB.12) and amphoriskoi (Isings Form 15 – see Chapter 3, Form IIB.14).
38
This decoration technique was also used on late Roman and early Byzantine jewellery in the eastern Mediterranean.
23
Figure 12: Vessel with rolled-in glass particles in a contrasting colour to be marvered from the Canal Bianco necropolis, Adria
(IT) (photograph taken from Barovier et al. 2003, 231, no.3; cat.no.2586)
o
Pressed-in decoration
The true pressed-in decoration was only applied to rod-formed vessels. Probably this was due to the great wall
thickness of the body. The stamps were circular in shape and were equal to the stamps used on the discoid
beads and pendants (see below).
The stamps sometimes modified the original shape of the vessel. A piece in Grand Curtius, Liège has three
pressed-in decorations on a regular distance, thus changing the globular body into a triangular shape. Some
vessels had a stamped decoration. This consisted mainly of an applied medallion in relief placed at the start of a
handle on the body of a vessel. When the handle was vertical, there was only one medallion applied; when the
handle was horizontal, a medallion was attached at either side.
o
Tooling
By using pincers or rods, various decorative patterns could be obtained, such as a dented surface. A pin caused a
circular indent, whereas a flat tool was needed to obtain elongated indents. Indented decoration was regularly
applied on free-blown cups and goblets to give it a polygonal shape with rounded edges [see Chapter 3 – Form
IIB.4-5]. The indents were circular or elongated. The dented decoration was created by pushing in the body with a
pincer or another pointed tool for the circular indents, and a wide metal tool for the elongated indents. The former
was typically applied on cups with a globular body, while the elongated dents were applied on taller vessels with a
cylindrical shape. Sometimes indents and applied glass trails were used in combination on one single vessel. This
ornamental pattern was not restricted to black glass vessels. Similar vessels with identical decoration are known
to have been produced in colourless and ‗naturally coloured‘ blue-green glass. Indented decoration seemingly
st
was not applied on the 1 century AD black glass vessels although the technique was already adopted in other
glass hues (Isings 1957, Forms 32; 35).
A variant on these vessels were shallow bowls with scalloped edge showing a wavy body and rim caused by the
indented upper part of the body until the rim [see Chapter 3 - Form IIB.7] like the one from the tumulus III of Esch
(NL) [cat.no.2880]. Occasionally, tooling was applied on the late Romanearly Byzantine rod-formed vessels of
the Levant, as seen on the rod-formed vessels with large and coarsely twisted ribbings [see Chapter 3, more
particularly 3.2.5. Rod-formed vessels].
o
Moulding
Mould-blowing in Roman times implies the blowing of the prepared paraison in a mould to obtain vessels
continuously in an identical shape with an identical size and an identical design. A main marker is the very
characteristic seam. Yet not all shapes needed to be blown in such a way that seams are inevitable. Plain
cylindrical vessels have the advantage to allow the inflating of the paraison while rotating the blowing pipe so that
a seam can be avoided. According to us there must be a number of vessels mould-blown in a rotating way that
these forms are in general described as being free-blown. For instance the cylindrical cup from Tongeren
[cat.no.562] (Vanderhoeven 1962, 23, no.15; Cosyns et al. 2006a, 31-34, figs.1-2) is to us an example of rotated
mould-blown vessels [see Chapter 3, Form IC.1]. Some moulded effects, conversely, are obtained during a short
moment to finish the free-blown shape of a specific vessel type. But is it correct to call the applying of a
decoration by using a mould when free-blowing glass as mould-blowing? For instance, the carchesia or carinated
24
beakers (Isings Form 36b – see Chapter 3, Form IIB.1) have a very characteristic carination just above the foot,
which cannot be obtained by free-blowing only or achieved by simple tooling. We rather would like to suggest that
the Romans used for the shaping of this form a wide ring or open mould. By pushing the spherical lower part of
the inflated hot glass against a wide ring, a part of the convex surface was flattened, thus creating this specific
carination (Figure 13). The pinprick pitted surface of the flattened lower body part of various carchesia, like for
instance, the one of Heel (NL) [cat.no.2883] (unpublished) (Figure 14) or Grobbendonk [cat.no.291] (unpublished)
is due to thermal shock when the hot glass touched a much colder surface. It is not clear what material the mould
was made of. A tripod with metal ring may well have been used, but based on the observed chill marks, an open
cylindrical mould in stone was most likely. Similar pitted surfaces are observable on the walls of mould-blown
vessels such as the ubiquitous square bottles, of which several mould segments are known in marble and in
terracotta (Rütti 1991, 163-164, fig.103; Hochuli-Gysel 1993, 87, fig.5-6; Sternini 1995, 90-95, figs. 129-136, 141142; Foy, Nenna 2001, 51). The opening of the ring-mould used to blow the carchesium of Heel must have been c.
60 mm in diameter, while that of Grobbendonk c. 50 mm. This pitted surface is not attested on all carchesia. We
may, therefore, attribute this technical feature as an element to help recognize the fingerprint of a glassblower and,
consequently, the production of a specific workshop [see Chapter 6].
Figure 13: Reconstruction of possible production process (drawing by author)
Figure 14: Pitted surface due to a thermal shock on bottom of the Heel carchesium (NL)
[cat.no.2883] (photograph by author, by courtesy of Limburgmuseum, Venlo)
25
2.3.2
2.3.2.1
Jewellery
Arm rings
In the Celtic world, the knowledge required to produce glass bracelets already existed for three centuries before
the Romans conquered most of their territories. The Celtic way of producing has already been discussed in detail
on various occasions (Haevernick 1952, 212-215; Haevernick 1960, 23-32; Kunkel 1961; Korfmann 1966;
39
Küçükerman 1988, 30; Wagner 2006, 32-34; Gérardin et al. 2010).
Briefly, the Celtic way consisted of gathering some glass from the furnace by means of a metal rod and preparing
an annular object by first perforating and afterwards by swirling it around until the required shape was obtained,
and/or by rolling it over a cone in terracotta or stone to give the bracelet the desired diameter. Possibly, both
actions were done consecutively but then definitely ending with the cone, given the very characteristic section of
Celtic glass bangles, which is not straight and pure semi-circular. Firstly, the slanting section made the inner
diameter different from one end to the other. Secondly, the end with the narrower diameter is pointed, whereas
the other end is much thicker and rounder. A partial process of this gathering technique was also used to produce
the glass beads in the late Iron Age (Küçükerman 1988, 30).
The Romans, and, in fact, the entire Mediterranean world were not acquainted with glass arm rings [see Chapter
3]. Surprisingly, when they became fashionable in the Roman world, a proper way of producing glass bracelets
was introduced instead of adopting the Celtic technique. As an alternative to the gathering of a small gob of hot
glass with a metal rod and the use of a cone, the Romans used prefabricated glass canes to produce bracelets.
This rod-formed technique is called here rod-made to contrast the technique of shaping rod-formed vessels on a
metal rod. The rod-made technique was also adopted for the production of most other glass jewelleryfinger
rings, beads, pendants, and hairpinsbut in particular for the production of utensils and architectural decoration
material. How these rods were made is difficult to proof but most likely the Romans produced glass canesplain
and twisted, monochrome and polychromeas nowadays is still the case in artisanal glass workshops in India by
drawing a glass wire after having wrapped the hot gob of glass around a fixed pin (Kock, Sode 1995, 21). Most
interesting is that the production of twisted glass rods in present-day northern India are made by drawing a
quadrangular gob of hot glass. The variations in density of the twists resulted from the fastness of turning the
metal rod while drawing the glass into a cable (Kock, Sode 1995, 16). To obtain rods with a uniform thickness the
complete gob of glass needed to have the right temperature and keep it as well during the entire wire drawing
process that could last for hundreds of metres (Kock, Sode 1995, 16). After cooling the cables were cut into
shorter rods of a specific length. The twining of glass rods needs to be considered as the result of deliberate
movements during the production process. Considering that a clockwise movement of the wrist is the least
demanding the S-twined rods must be the work of right-handers whereas the Z-twined rods must have been
made by left-handers. The mixed occurrence on the secondary glass workshop of Les Houis nearby Sainte
Menehould (FR) is evidence for the unsuitability of this feature to detect idiosyncrasies.
39
The recent discussion on the making of Celtic glass bangles by Simone Wick (2008) simply needs to be ignored, as the described experiment is
full of flaws in the argument. We assume an interpretation of observed technical features on archaeological material that is as objective as
possible is more appropriate than high-tech interpretations without base. Our investigations can be supported by ethnographical research on the
technological knowledge of artisans working with glass under rather basic conditions, but with a more correct technological and socio-economic
impetus (Kock, Sode 1995).
26
Figure 15: (left) Thin elongated pointed elliptical scar of a punty on apex of the top surface of an open elliptical bracelet from
Poitiers-Vienne (FR) [cat.no.1345] (drawing by author, by courtesy of MAN, Saint-Germain-en-Laye); (right) Closed, circular
bracelet with clear seam from Kaiseraugst (CH) [cat.no.3687] (drawing taken from Riha 1990, pl.74:2930)
This rod technique also made it possible to produce easily open bracelets by using pincers, jacks and scissors.
Concerning the closed bracelets, it resulted in the characteristic seam where the two ends of the glass rod joined
(Figure 15-right). It is obvious that fragmentary bracelets might miss the part with the seam, but when present, the
seam is easy to recognize. Some intact bracelets even though show very high qualitative workmanship making it
sometimes difficult to discern the seam. The use of glass canes in diverse thicknesses has been observed for the
making of open bracelets. Another technological element detected on a number of open and closed bracelets is
the presence of a thin elongated pointed elliptical scar centrally on the apex of the top surface like for instance on
the piece from cemetery "la Pierre Levée des Dunes" at Poitiers-Vienne (FR) [cat.no.1345] (Figure 15-left).
Considering such occurrence on pieces of the secondary glass workshop at Les Houis nearby Sainte Menehould
we believe the mark is the result from a distinct action within the chaîne opératoire of the bracelet production
caused by using a small punty or pontil rod or the scar of a broken off glass gem or applied beaded decoration
and consequently a decorative remainder. A more careful look at this feature might be useful to detect possible
finger prints of different workshops, as it can have to do with the making of specific types of bracelets or point to
the technological routine of a specific workshop. Or is it a generally introduced technique utilized by a particular
generation glassworkers within a wider region independent from the workshops modelling bracelets?
Looking more careful at the Roman black glass bangles, a range of features point at the use of various
techniques that are reflected in the various sections observed:
1) Bracelets with an O-shaped section were made with circular rods and must have been made without the use of
a support when modelling the bangle. Open and closed bracelets were produced, and the latter show a clear
seam;
2) Bracelets with a broad D-shaped section probably were made with the same circular rods as those for the
bracelets with O-shaped sections, but flattened at the inner side by using a support. Open and closed bracelets
were produced, and the latter show a clear seam;
3) Bracelets with a very wide and flattened D-shaped section probably were made with circular rods too, but have
been strongly flattened by being pressed with a indented tool on a flat support. This would explain the very broad
width and the limited height. Only open bracelets were produced;
4) Bracelets with a narrow D-shaped section have not been made with rods but must have been made using the
La Tène technique, implying the gathering of a gob of hot glass with a metal or ceramic rod and pulling it over a
conical tool in metal, stone, or clay until the required shape was reached. Only closed bracelets were produced
without leaving a seam.
Black glass bracelets with an angular shaped sectiontriangular and quadrangulardo occur but are very rare.
Even though there was no opportunity for a close look at the technical particularities of this unusual material, we
27
presume these bangle types were rod-made and not gathered and rolled over a cone as was usual in the late Iron
Age. Most likely a mould or other tool must have been used to give the glass an angular shape.
It is the challenge in the following chapters to verify whether this is due to chronological, regional, or purely
40
practical reasons (read: mechanical and technical). Therefore, we based the classification of the bracelets in the
first place on the technical aspect.
Only bracelets of type 1, 2 and 4
using only a few techniques:
41
show undecorated examples, but when decorated, a wide variety occurs by
- Twisting rods with pincers only were used on bracelets of type 1, but pincers were also used for creating the
spatula-shaped ends of open bracelets; the twisting was done clockwise
(S-twined) or anti-clockwise (Z-twined);
- Glass trails in one or more colours applied before twisting only were used on bracelets
of type 1;
- Jacks were used on bracelets of type 2, 3 and 4;
- Combs were used on bracelets of type 2 and 3;
- Stamps were only used on bracelets of type 4;
- Polychrome mottled decoration was only used on bracelets of type 4;
- The application of a glass gem is presumed on all types of bracelets.
2.3.2.2
Finger rings
Finger rings in glass are, in contrast to the bracelets, typical for the Mediterranean period and totally absent in the
Celtic world. Worked out in only a small number of colours, black glass appears predominantly to have been used.
The same classification per section type can be made parallel to the bracelets, and similar decoration techniques
have been adopted by twisting, applying glass trails, and using stamps or jacks [see Chapter 3].
2.3.2.3
Beads
...any relatively small object, irrespective of shape, color or material,
that has an opening (or openings) for stringing.
(Spaer 2001, 43)
The majority of all glass beads were rod-made (Guido 1978; Spaer 2001), yet a considerable number of black
42
glass bead types were produced by folding and pressing. Particular decoration techniques were used on
specific types of beads. The annular, globular and cylindrical beads basically were decorated with applied glass
trails and dots. This decoration was principally in one or two colours, but sometimes even three different colours
were combined. Normally, they were not marvered, showing the glass threads laying in relief on the core of the
bead [see Chapter 3].
o
Rod-formed
Two technical movements‘ variations can be distinguished. To make a bead there is on the one hand the
gathering of a small amount of hot gob of glass by means of a metal rod, called a pontil or punty. On the other
hand the term can refer to the aforementioned rod-made technique characteristic to Roman bangles [see here
above in this chapter Bracelets] implying the use of prefabricated glass rods to manufacture beads. With both
techniques the hot gob of glass is wound around another rod, also called a mandrel.
o
Folded and pressed
Pressed beads were made in two different ways: 1) by pressing the hot glass in a mould, or 2) by pressing a
stamp in the glass mass, usually when on a marver. This technique is very old and was already in use in the
Bronze Agee.g., the Mycenaean cast beads (Pini 1981, 48; Demakopoulou 1988, 219, nos.203-204).
A very characteristic bead in black glass obtained by folding the hot glass and pressing a stamp in the glass mass
is the ribbed spacer better known as the ‗Trilobitenperle‘ (Haevernick 1983) [see Chapter 3]. Some confusion
40
Our classification system is different from that established by Maud Spaer (1988), whose taxonomy of the Palestinian pre-Roman glass
bracelets is developed on the basis of decoration [see Chapter 3].
41
From Chapter 3 onwards these will be named correspondingly Type A; Type B; Type D; Type U as adopted in the catalogue database.
42
For further reading on technical aspects in bead manufacturing we refer to Spaer 2001, 4456.
28
exists apparently about the correct use of the word ‗Trilobitenperle‘, as it is sometimes used to describe any
folded-pressed beads with a double perforation such as the theatre-mask beads from Cesenate (IT) (Fadini,
Montevecchi 2001, 51).
A detailed examination of this type of bead demonstrates they were made by applying black-appearing glass on a
working table and by putting two thin rods next to each other before folding the glass mass (Figure 16). Yet,
elsewhere the technique is described differently as ‗rod-formed and furnace wound‘ (Spaer 2001, 76). An
undecorated example from Tielrode (BE) [cat.no.529] not only shows the bead was folded, but the flat basal
surface also contains chill marks, irregular concentric circles caused by the thermal shock of the hot glass on a
cold(er) metallic surface (Figure 17).
Figure 16: Possible reconstruction of production process (drawing by author)
Figure 17: Basal side of the so-called ‗Trilobitenperle‘ from Tielrode (BE) [cat.no.529] showing concentric chill marks
(photograph by Marc De Meirelaer, by courtesy of Museum Van Bogaert-Wauters, Hamme)
The ribbed decoration sometimes was simply applied by using a sharp utensil in metal, but basically this was
done by pressing a stamp onto the top surface. Finally, the two rods were removed. The production method
explains the presence of a clear seam at one side up to the perforation and in between the two perforations. This
manufacturing feature illustrates that the folding of the glass mass was done around the second rod. It provides
43
additional information useful in recognizing the difference between the so-called ‗Trilobitenperlen‘ in jet and
those in black glass (Table 8), even though a trained eye can immediately distinguish both materials. We noticed
that ribbed spacers described as being made from jet sometimes show a clear seam on the drawing (Keller 1971,
pl.47:6). Considering that there is absolutely no reason for the jet-carver to have cut an imaginary seam on the
bead, it shows that the draughtsman looked more carefully at the artefact than did the archaeologist. For that
reason, we are persuaded that Erwin Keller erroneously described at least one of the ribbed spacers from the
cemetery of Göggingen as being made of jet, but presumably all are made of black glass (Keller 1971, 87, 232
(10), fig.27:5, pl.9:15-18) [cat.nos.1888-1890]. Other indicative aspects demonstrate the difference between
‗Trilobitenperlen‘ in black glass and those in jet: 1) these beads remain very rare in Britain, the region emblematic
for jet objects; and 2) those in jet show very distinctive features:
43
That a wide range of coals have been used during Roman times to produce artefacts, e.g., Kimmeridge shale, durain, etc we are owing to
Lindsay Allason-Jones (see for further reading Allason-Jones 2001 and 2005). However, since we are not focussing on this issue, we describe
them all as made from jet.
29
Table 8: Differences between the so-called ‗Trilobitenperlen‘ in jet and black glass
feature
jet
black glass
surface
colour
texture
decoration pattern
proportions
shape
smooth but cracked
solid opaque brownish black
soft and shiny
very symmetrical
well-proportioned
nearly semi-circular (resembling half a melon
bead)
smooth with iridescence
poorly translucent to opaque greenish black
hard + air bubbles and inclusions
asymmetrical
disproportioned
irregular and flat
The pressed decoration implies the use of small moulds or stamps. Although no such moulds/stamps have been
recorded yet, they most probably were made in baked clay, as is demonstrated for the glass gems [see below in
this chapter], or metal. The use of such moulds/stamps resulted in beads with an identical decoration pattern.
Hence, a very detailed study of this type of bead carries with it a very interesting research potential in dating the
various stamps, but in particular the distribution impact of each stamp because these so-called ‗Trilobitenperlen‘
are widely spread all along the Rhine and Danube limes and beyond [see Chapter 6]. Well-dated contexts can
also lead to specific dating of the various decoration patterns.
2.3.2.4
Pendants
Pendants, unlike beads, have apertures placed off-center to facilitate suspension, as their name suggests. … The distinction
between beads and pendants is not always clear-cut.
(Spaer 2001, 151)
Pendants can be considered as beads with a suspension loop, whether it has been applied separately or as a
perforation within the bead itself, whether it is protruding or fully integrated within the shape of the object.
The various techniques used to produce pendants in glass during the Roman imperial period were identical to
those used for the beads. Casting, mould-pressing or stamping, rod-forming, gathering and drawing, and
combinations of different techniques were adopted to produce pendants in black glass. Yet it is clear that a
number of techniques were never or rarely used to produce pendants in black glass, while other techniques were
adopted in abundance.
The various decoration techniques applied on pendants are identical to those that were used for beads, but the
main style was the applying of opaque, coloured glass trails spiralling and in zigzag. The used colours were white,
yellow, turquoise, and red.
Another method was the stamped or mould-pressed technique, but, as with the matching beads, this technique
was mostly executed on brownish-yellow and ultramarine blue coloured glass. It was adopted to produce discoid
beads and pendants.
A shape that does not exist as a bead is the vessel-shaped pendant. All vessel-shaped pendants were rodformed by gathering and trailing. The decoration sometimes was open worked by trailing (Spaer 2001, 171-172,
fig.79-80), but this variant does not occur in black glass.
2.3.2.5
Gems
Usually gemstones were engraved in different styles dependent on the period of manufacture [see Chapter 5] and
probably also in relation to the skills of the engraver. In contrast with the gemstones in semiprecious stones, the
glass gems appear on the whole to have been moulded, yet high-quality cutting or engraving do also occur on a
number of glass gemstones (Platz-Horster 1987, Taf. 43, no. 211) [cat.no.2176]. Sometimes a combined
technology can be noticed in the decoration, as can be seen on the Xanten gemstone no. 250 with trireme (PlatzHorster 1987, 139, Taf. 50, no. 250) [cat.no.2159]. The ubiquitous gemstone using black glass was the so-called
pseudo-nicolo gem having a bottom layer in black glass and a topping in opaque blue glass, into which the
decoration was pressed. However, gemstones in monochrome black glass or with an opaque white strip in the
centre also were made, all in imitation of the very popular but expensive or rare semiprecious stones. The
gemstones were mainly oval in shape but were also circular, and they had, in general, an abraded sloping edge.
o
Moulding – casting – pressing
No clear factual evidence is thus far at hand to give a full and correct picture of the chaîne opératoire of glass
gemstones during the Roman imperial period. No workshop has been excavated specialized in the production of
glass gems. However, given the sometimes partial impressed image or the perfect resemblance in size and
decoration, it is clearly deducible from the material itself that most glass gemstones were moulded. It has been
30
reported that the material in which the moulds were made remains unknown. Wax and plaster are excluded as
unusable, whereas stone should be considered as most appropriate to be used as a mould; stone is hard as well
as workable and heat resistant (Krug 1978, 486). An example of a mould to cast gemstones in glass is said to
have been found representing in slightly high relief a standing woman looking to the left with the right arm resting
on a pillar (Ogden 1982, 129). It is not clear whether the piece can be excluded as a clay sealing, but if the piece
was used as a mould to cast glass gemstones, not only the size of the gem but also its figurative motif should be
very recognizable. Such evaluation is far beyond the scope of this study seeing the amount of gemstones present
in the large museum collections worldwide.
Careful examination of the gemstones provided information on how the manufacturing process of glass
gemstones must have been. Glass gems were cast into a mould and by pressing of the gob of hot glass to obtain
a flat rear (Krug 1978, 486-487). The technique could also imply a more complex course of action as for instance
the layered gemstones combining two or three layers in different colours. The most frequent types are the blueon-black gemstones also called pseudo-nicolo gems in imitation of the semiprecious nicolo, and the white striped
black stone in imitation of the semiprecious sardonyx.
o
Polishing
When the gemstone was shaped, it had to be polished in order to remove the rough edges and any irregularities
to obtain a natural character similar to that of the semiprecious gemstones.
Mainly of oval shape, circular ones do occur, like two undecorated pieces one from Augst (CH) [cat.no.3389] and
another from Kaiseraugst (CH) [cat.no.3655] (both unpublished). The edges of both pieces were bevelled but
were left with a very rough top surface, while all pseudo-nicolo gemstones had a very neatly cut and polished
edge [see Chapter 3]. May we interpret both pieces as examples of a provisional stage in the manufacture of
gemstones?
o
Engraving
The engraving of glass gemstones was done by drilling in a similar way, as attested on intaglios in semiprecious
and precious stones. The various styles already discerned can also be recognized on glass gemstones, for
instance, the golden finger ring with black glass stone in the Rheinishes Landesmuseum Bonn (Platz-Horster
1984, 87, Taf. 22, no. 78) which is decorated with an engraved grape in front of a hare in a very realistic style.
2.3.2.6
Hairpins
Hairpins in glass had typical features: 1) they were relatively short (60-70 mm, although longer ones do occur
sporadically); 2) the diameter of the shaft thickened from point to pinhead, but just below the pinhead a
constriction created a sort of shoulder; and 3) most of the time the pinhead remained a plain globular end
although sometimes flattened, narrowed or shaped into a cone. It was correctly observed by Donald Harden when
looking at the hairpins of the cemetery at Lankhills that these objects could not be cast, but must have been
drawn and tooled (Clarke 1979, 315). The constriction below the head makes clear that hairpins in glass were
made by holding a gob of hot glass in the middle with a tool while the bottom part was pulled down to a point with
the other hand or by a second person. On rare occasions, hairpins have been recorded with a shaft in iron
decorated with a head in (black) glass (Harden 1979, 249; Cosyns 2009, 90).
2.3.3
2.3.3.1
Architectural decoration
Rods
Rods were used for ornamenting wall and vault mosaics, in particular for bordering polychrome panels but also as
stirring rods [see Chapter 7]. Both types were made by pulling hot glass into trails with pincers and subsequently
by twisting them, while both types are not fully contemporaneous [see Chapter 4]. The earliest rods were used for
architectural decoration and have a rather complex production process.
2.3.3.2
Tesserae
Tesserae are small blocks of inlay with an irregular cubic or triangular shape (Figure 18). Normally in stone, the
glass tesserae have also been regularly recorded in various opaque and poorly translucent colours. Based on the
black glass tesserae from the glass workshop at Les Houis nearby Sainte Menehould (FR) we determined smallsized (4-5 mm side) or medium-sized (8-10 mm side), weighing between 1 and 2 grams. It is noteworthy that
31
Frank Sear mentions the use of ―exceptionally small‖ glass tesserae in the octagon of Nero‘s Domus Aurea of 3-4
mm side and 5-6 mm side (Sear 1977, 92, no.62).
The tesserae were apparently made in multiple ways. Chunks of raw glass were used to chop off bits and pieces,
as the presence of chunks of raw glass in various colours in early Byzantine churches shows, e.g., at Bir
44
Messaoudi, Carthage (TN) (unpublished), Itanos (GR). However, normally discoid glass cakes, i.e., round and
oval flat pieces with rounded edges, are correlated with the production of tesserae (Rütti 1991; Foy 2007; Marii,
Rehren 2009). That glass cakes have been made for the production of tesserae is again most obvious from the
finds in early Byzantine churches, as from the Petra church (JO) (Marii, Rehren 2009, 296). Chunks of raw glass
and handy glass cakes were thus concurrently utilized.
Figure 18: Tesserae in various shapes and sizes from Les Houis, near Sainte Menehould (FR)
(drawings by author, by courtesy of MAN, Saint-Germain-en-Laye)
2.3.3.3
Inlays
Inlays are very well known in various polychrome panels, like, for instance, the hexagonal tile from Pompeii (IT)
(Beretta et al. 2006, 293, no. 3.19) or the fish from the Revetment Panel at the Corning Museum of Glass (Glass
of the Caesars, 31, no. 9). Other mosaic plaques consist of inlays combining polychrome and monochrome parts,
such as in the ‗Birds in Thicket‘ at the Corning Museum of Glass (Glass of the Caesars, 32-33, no. 10), or are
made from monochrome sheets, such as the Panel with Thomas presumed to be from the Faiyum (EG) at the
Corning Museum of Glass (Glass of the Caesars, 34, no. 11) or the remarkable panels from Kenchreai near
Corinth (GR).
Opus sectile panels were flat sheets that were cut into shape or rather sawn, as grinded edges are not observed,
but the panels were also cast in moulds. Inlays and mosaics in opus sectile integrated polychrome and
45
monochrome glass sheets in all sorts of colours, but parts in black glass never seem to have been used. For
four years we searched in vain for opus sectile panels made of black glass. Recently, it emerged from the Roman
46
collections of the villa of Lucius Verus, but we have not been able to study the material in detail. Even though
the ratio between the panels in black glass and those in other colours is negligible, it is now proven to have been
used and more will appear.
2.3.4
Counters
In whatever colour the glass counters were made, they all had the distinct plano-convex shape featuring a convex
top side, a flat bottom, and a rounded edge [see Chapter 3]. Only on rare occasions has an unevenly pinched off
edge been noticed; for instance, on the Oudenburg piece [cat.no.465]. Was the piece intentionally tooled, or is it
only due to long use? Concerning the method by which glass counters were made, they are generally described
as ‗formed by dropping a small blob of hot glass on to a flat surface‘ (Price 1995, 129) or as ‗made by placing
small ―spoonfuls‖ of molten glass to set on a bed of sand‘ provoking ‗a typical sand-roughened underside‘
(Crummy et al. 2007, 186). However, when examining the bottom side of the counters in black glass, two distinct
surfaces are noticeable, implying different techniques: the first group has a flat and smooth bottom side (Figure
19a), whereas the second group has a more irregular, pitted surface (Figure 19b). Jennifer Price has already
noticed these two groups within a set of 87 glass counters from the fortress at Usk (UK) (Price 1995, 129).
44
Presentation by Coutsinas, ‘Le materiel en verre de la Cité d‘Itanos‘, at the glass conference of the Association Internationale pour l‘Histoire du
Verre in Thessalonica, Greece (September 2009).
45
The Panel of Thomas incorporates opaque and translucent glass such as red, yellow, dark blue, turquoise, pink, brown, green, white, purple,
and gold sandwich glass (Glass of the Caesars, 34, no. 11).
46
With ‗Glass technology colours, forms and shaping in the 2nd century opus sectile glass materials from the villa of Lucius Verus in Rome‘ Marco
Verita communicated on the opus sectile panels from the Gorga collection, Rome at the glass conference of the Association Internationale pour
l‘Histoire du Verre in Thessalonica, Greece (September 2009).
32
a.
b.
c.
Figure 19: Two counters from the castellum Oudenburg (BE) a) with a flat and smooth lower surface [cat.no.465]; b) with a
slightly irregular, pitted surface [cat.no.466]; c) counter from a re-fused glass sherd from Utrecht (NL) [cat.no.2989]
(photographs by author, a-b) courtesy by VIOE, Brussels; c) courtesy by ACVU, Amsterdam)
She describes the first group, consisting of more than 20 pieces, with little or no signs of wear, as having shiny
surfaces and slightly irregular, pitted basal surfaces. The remaining pieces, forming the second group, have dull,
slightly worn, or heavily used surfaces and flat, smooth basal surfaces (Price 1995, 129). Presumably, this
variation of the basal surface is due to different technological methods. The irregular, pitted surface on the glass
counters can be explained as the result of a sudden thermal shock that the hot and viscous glass underwent
when touching a cold(er) working surface (an aspect that also can be observed on mould-blown vessels). The
absence of such chill marks on the counters with a straight and very smooth base surface has to be interpreted as
the fusion effect by remelting shaped pieces, placed in the furnace on a smooth heat-resistant plate that gradually
took the same temperature as the shaped glass sherds. This latter technique is described by Pliny the Elder, who
explains the production of black glass counters:
Pieces of broken glass can, when heated to a moderate temperature, be stuck together, but that is all. They can never again be
completely melted except into globules separate from each other, as happens in the making of the glass pebbles (calculi) that
are sometimes nicknamed ‗eyeballs‘ (oculi) and in some cases have a variety of colours arranged in several different patterns.
(Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia, XXXVI, LXVII. 199 [translation by Eichholz, D.E., 1962, Pliny X, 157])
An example that illustrates best the re-fusion of broken glass into calculi comes from recent excavations at
Utrecht (NL) [cat.no.2989], showing at the basal side not only a flat and smooth surface but also a corner of the
presumably square sherd that has not melted fully because of a restrained heating temperature as mentioned by
Pliny (Figure 19c). That explains also the not-fully-round shape of the counter, as the rounded edge did not reach
the bottom to swallow the fused sherd. Strange here is the preservation condition, without any sign of iridescence
such as that seen on other re-fused counters. Most probably, the re-fusing of glass sherds into plano-convex
calculi or oculi affected the stability of the glass metal. Less resistant to water infiltration, metal oxides dissolved,
creating an iridescent corrosion layer at the surface. This resulted in a diluted composition and made such
material ill-suited for chemical analysis, or at least the changed conditions should be taken into consideration
when choosing to do so. Since the Utrecht counter has remained entirely intact, no sampling has been carried out.
Future chemical analysis on the fused counters will determine whether the used recipe is related to the
preservation conditions.
This would then imply the fused counters with flat and smooth basal surfaces are dividable into two subgroups. A
more in-depth research can provide more information in discerning the chronological and geographical variability
of glass counters.
Within the last sentence of the passage by Pliny, we construe the making of polychrome counters, or, in other
words, the remelting into counters of fragments from polychrome vessels. The emerald green glass with yellow
circles is prevalent in vessels, in particular shallow bowls like the ones from a tomb at Hollogne-aux-Pierres (BE)
(Fontaine-Hodiamont 1994). Such counters have been recorded all over the Roman Empire, e.g., Egypt (Harden
47
1936, 294; Cooney 1976, nos. 831; 843; 846; 855), Hungary (Fülep 1977, 32, grave R/170:5, pl.17:15).
Counters in other polychrome glass such as those combining translucent brown with opaque white or translucent
purple with opaque yellow are also equally known from vessels. Keeping in mind the remark by Pliny the Elder, it
is very likely that broken polychrome vessels were recycled into counters. If so, we can easily imagine a similar
application with vessels in black-appearing glass. This hypothesis put into perspective the assessment in the
47
The piece was found together with a set of undecorated bone counters and probably therefore erroneously determined as a yellow and green
painted bone counter.
33
attempt to come to a comprehensive overview of black glass so that the impact of black glass production within
Roman society can be better understood.
While counters were mainly monochrome, bi-chrome and polychrome counters have also been recorded. A
purple or olive to bottle green hue can be observed when using light in transmission on counters in blackappearing glass. Sometimes the true hue becomes only visible when a chip has flaked, as is the case with the
black glass counter from Tienen (BE) [cat.no.531] (Cosyns et al. 2006b, fig.1b). Some, coincidentally, seem to be
made from various translucent glass colours, like a black counter from Nijmegen (NL) (unpublished) [cat.no.4466]
(Figure 4a) ranging from yellowish green over pale green to dark bottle green glass. Others are partly in
colourless and dark purple glass, like the counter found in the late Roman castellum of Oudenburg (BE)
(unpublished) [cat.no.465] (Figure 4b) or the counter from Grobbendonk (BE) incorporating pale blue-green glass
(unpublished) [cat.no.290]. The only convincing explanation for this phenomenon seems to be that these fused
counters were made by putting various sherds of recycled vessel fragments on top of each other to reach a
thickness of 6-7 mm.
Some black glass counters have a coloured decoration, making visible the true hue of black- appearing glass. So
are the pieces from the very rich tumulus of Cortil-Noirmont (BE) (Lefrancq 1989, B13, no. 30) [cat.no.228] with
wavy concentric circles of opaque white glass and purple in the centre, clearly dark purple glass. Considering
these pieces as black creates a dilemma regarding how to define the black glass objects. Should we then not
integrate in the corpus the large number of bichrome white marbled ribbed bowls in dark purple glass appearing
black? The purple hue of the glass utilized to produce these objects becomes visible due to the marvered glass,
resulting in layers of translucent black-purple glass covering parts of the white opaque glass. The effect is a
reflection of light making the black glass become clearly purple in these areas (Figure 3a). This is also observable
on the black-appearing vessels such as the globular cup with white opaque festooned decoration pattern (Figure
3b).
Finally, some black counters are reported to have tiny opaque red dots on their convex surfaces, as reported for
several counters from the Roman fortress at Usk (UK) (Price 1995, 129-130, nos. 1; 5). Jennifer Price suggested
an accidental cause rather than an intentional action to apply a decoration. The rare presence of red opaque
spots at random on various black glass vessels confirms the unintentional purpose and is to be explained as
minor defects by oxidation of iron or copper/bronze particle on the glass surface [see Chapter 8].
2.4 Comparative survey of the various colours of black glass in relation to the
applied technology
2.4.1
Production
48
A large part of the 204 entries related to production remain indefinite (Table 9). The only waster of a cast object
is restricted to a sole piece in green glass. Of the chipped material roughly half is of indefinite hue (14 ex.), and
except for two pieces in brown glass and one in grey glass all others are of green (7 ex.) or blue-green (6 ex.) hue.
Approximately 10% of the registered production material shows tooling marks. Of three pieces no distinct glass
hue could be discerned; one piece from the glass workshop ‗Äussere Reben‘ at Kaiseraugst (CH) is of purple
glass [cat.no.3692]; all other are either green (15 ex.) or blue-green (3 ex.). Nearly 1/5 of the production material
is molten glass from either a built batch or a crucible. Only six pieces have an indefinite hue; nine entries are of
green glass; and the remaining 23 ex. have a blue-green hue. Both re-fused pieces are made out of blue glass
and appears to be bichrome.
48
Due to practical reasons we have omitted the architectural decoration and counters, but within the different following chapters we briefly attend
to the matter and its impact on production and distribution on these commodities.
34
Table 9: Overview of various types of black glass production material
technique
quantity
percentage
indefinite/unknown
111
54,4
cast
1
0,5
chipped
30
14,7
tooled
22
10,8
molten
38
18,6
re-fused
2
1,0
204
100,0
TOTAL
2.4.2
Vessels
From the 651 entries related to vessels 580 have been selected for an evaluation of the applied technology in
relation to the used glass hue (Table 10). The 71 omitted pieces were removed because: 1) we could not define
the production technique (59 ex.), either because we had no detailed information on the item or because the
piece was too fragmentary; 2) six entries are pressed or stamped appliqués applied on a vessel as medallion to
adorn the start of a handle. Normally such decorative items are applied on free-blown vessels but as there is no
certainty we excluded these from the quantitative comparison; 3) the six tooled items are also excluded from the
evaluation. These are all handle fragments which are most likely from blown vessels, but too indefinite to be able
to determine the adopted technique.
Table 10: Overview of various adopted techniques in black glass vessel production
vessels
shapes
individuals
cast
13
86
free-blown
38
421
mould-blown
3
24
rod-formed
3
48
57
579
TOTAL
The majority of the Roman glass vessels appearing black has been free-blown and embraces 2/3 of the entire
vessel production in black glass (Figure 20). Together with the casting technique 90% is covered. Rod-forming
and mould-blowing represent two much smaller assemblages. But while the rod-formed vessels were restricted to
a specific consumption market within a limited distribution area from only the late Roman period [see Chapters 3;
4 and 6], mould-blowing seems a much lesser practised technique for the production of black glass vessels in
comparison with the contemporaneous mould-blown vessels in ‗naturally‘ coloured and decolourized glass, an
empire-wide production technique which has been applied on a very large scale. Most likely this observation is to
be related with the specificity of the technological properties which are caused by the composition of (black) glass
matrix. We therefore considered important to look at the ratios of the various glass hues defined for the production
of black appearing glass.
vessels
5% 5%
23%
cast
free-blown
mould-blown
67%
rod-formed
Figure 20: Ratios of the various production techniques for black glass vessels
The largest group of the total vessel production is made in green tinted glass (Table 11) and when omitting the
pieces of undefined glass hue the vessels in green glass comprise 2/3 of the totality and 3/4 when the blue-green
glass is involved (Figure 21). The blue glass vessels are poorly represented, but should be considered at about
10% like the brown and purple glass hue seeing that the black appearing cameo-glass vessels have not been
taken into consideration here.
35
Table 11: Overview of various adopted glass hues in the production of black appearing vessels
vessels
quantity
percentage
undefined
188
28,9
green
307
47,2
blue-green
44
6,8
blue
11
1,7
brown
40
6,1
purple
60
9,2
red
1
0,1
651
100
TOTAL
vessels
0%
6%
2%
0%
UNDEFINED
GREEN
9%
29%
7%
vessels
13%
BLUE-GREEN
2%
BLUE
BLUE-GREEN
9%
BLUE
10%
66%
BROWN
47%
GREEN
BROWN
PURPLE
PURPLE
RED
RED
Figure 21: Ratios of the various production techniques for black glass vessels in relation to the adopted glass hue
Compared to the general view, the glass hue of the cast vessels remained undefined to a much larger extent
(Table 12). This is due to technological aspects as cast artefacts are much thicker than for instance the freeblown vessels. Blue-green and red glasses have not been recorded to cast black appearing vessels and the
segment of the blue and brown hues remain very poor. When omitting the objects with undefined hue the green
glass artefacts cover about 1/2 of all cast vessels (Figure 22). Striking however is the much higher ratio of purple
cast vessels compared to the general viewcorrespondingly 33% and 13%. It is very tempting to believe at this
stage that a number of glass workshops (eventually in a particular region) used solely purple glass to cast
vessels, while others used green glass, but it could equally be a chronological feature, where the cast vessels in
one hue are younger/older than those in the other hue.
Table 12: Overview of various adopted glass hues in the production of black appearing cast vessels
cast vessels
quantity
percentage
undefined
green
blue-green
blue
brown
purple
red
TOTAL
36
26
0
2
5
17
0
86
42,4
30,6
0,0
2,4
5,9
18,8
0,0
100
cast vessels
0%
cast vessels
0%
UNDEFINED
GREEN
GREEN
19%
6%
42%
2%
0%
BLUE-GREEN
BLUE-GREEN
33%
53%
BROWN
31%
BLUE
BLUE
PURPLE
PURPLE
RED
BROWN
10%
4% 0%
RED
Figure 22: Ratios of the cast black glass vessels in relation to the adopted glass hue
36
By far the largest group of free-blown vessels is made of green glass (Table 13) and when the records with
undefined hue are put aside the green glass covers about 3/4 of all free-blown vessels (Figure 23). Most other
groups represent each not more than 10%. Due to the very large number of records it is obvious that the obtained
ratios more or less correspond to that from all the vessels (Figure 21). It is however a striking coincidence that the
black appearance of the much thinner free-blown vessels is in general more easily accepted for the artefacts
made of green glass even if the green hue is as observable as the other hues. In the following chapters we will
discuss what might the possible reasons be behind these ratios as it can be connected with the technological
know-how or the economical factors in choosing for specific recipes to produce more adequate very dark coloured
glass to manufacture black appearing vessels.
Table 13: Overview of various adopted glass hues in the production of black appearing free-blown vessels
free-blown vessels
quantity
percentage
undefined
green
blue-green
blue
brown
purple
red
TOTAL
88
241
26
6
27
32
1
421
21,3
57,0
6,1
1,4
6,4
7,6
0,2
100
free-blown vessels
6%
2%
6%
free-blown vessels
10% 0%
8% 0%
UNDEFINED
21%
GREEN
GREEN
8%
BLUE-GREEN
2%
BLUE-GREEN
BLUE
8%
BLUE
BROWN
BROWN
57%
72%
PURPLE
PURPLE
RED
RED
Figure 23: Ratios of the free-blown black glass vessels in relation to the adopted glass hue
The number of mould-blown vessels in black appearing glass remains so far very low and is therefore not fully
representative (Table 14). Striking fact is the high proportion of blue-green glass (Figure 24). But here again we
have to take into account that the black aspect of most mould-blown vessels made in very deeply blue, brown or
purple glass is mainly ignored in contrast to the vessels in green and blue-green glass. On the other hand we
have to preview what will be discussed on production [see Chapter 6] as all blue-green records come from
Augst/Kaiseraugst (CH). The use of a particular glass hue is here related to a workshop.
Table 14: Overview of various adopted glass hues in the production of black appearing mould-blown vessels
mould-blown vessels
quantity
percentage
undefined
green
blue-green
blue
brown
purple
red
TOTAL
9
7
5
0
1
2
0
24
34,8
30,4
21,7
0,0
4,3
8,7
0,0
100
37
mould-blown vessels
mould-blown vessels
0%
0%
UNDEFINED
4%
0%
9%
GREEN
GREEN
35%
22%
BLUE-GREEN
7%
0%
13%
BLUE-GREEN
47%
BLUE
BLUE
BROWN
33%
BROWN
PURPLE
30%
PURPLE
RED
RED
Figure 24: Ratios of the mould-blown black glass vessels in relation to the adopted glass hue
The overview of the colour ratios for rod-formed vessels is not representative at all, even though more records are
available. The glass hue of 3/4 of the material remains undefined due to the wall-thickness of the rod-formed
vessels (Table 15). When the records with undefined hue are dropped, brown seems to be the most frequent
glass hue (Figure 25).
Table 15: Overview of various adopted glass hues in the production of black appearing rod-formed vessels
rod-formed vessels
quantity
percentage
undefined
green
blue-green
blue
brown
purple
red
TOTAL
36
3
1
2
6
0
0
48
rod-formed vessels
0% 0%
2%
4%
75,0
6,3
2,1
4,2
12,5
0,0
0,0
100
rod-formed vessels
0% 0%
UNDEFINED
GREEN
GREEN
13%
BLUE-GREEN
25%
BLUE-GREEN
6%
BLUE
BLUE
75%
50%
8%
BROWN
PURPLE
17%
RED
BROWN
PURPLE
RED
Figure 25: Ratios of the rod-formed black glass vessels in relation to the adopted glass hue
2.4.3
Jewellery
This group encompasses a wide range of jewellery types to adorn body and dress and is by far the largest group
of black glass artefacts (Table 16). Seeing the variety of techniques adopted to manufacture a wide range of
jewellery types the quantified and percentage ratios have been plotted in two different views in order to obtain
supplementary information. The first two stacked bar charts show the quantity and percentage composition of the
different commodity types for each technique (Figures 26a-b). The two following stacked bar charts show the
same amount of pieces but giving an idea of the ratios of the different techniques applied per commodity type (in
terms of quantity and percentage) (Figures 26c-d). The plots show that a technique has been applied for the
production of a specific commodity type, such as for instance the folding for beadmaking and the gatheringswirling in the bangle production. This is possibly the result of specifically introduced (innovative?) techniques to
produce particular artefact types within a particular region or period of the Roman Empire. Accordingly the
analysis results on technology of black appearing glass artefacts hold information to define idiosyncrasies within
the Roman imperial glass production and consumption.
38
Table 16: Quantitative overview of the various jewellery types for each technique
gathered-swirled
jewellery
undefined
cast
rod-made
rod-formed
cone-rolled
arm rings
133
0
669
36
613
finger rings
0
1
1
202
0
beads
6
6
24
472
0
pendant
0
17
3
113
0
gems
0
339
0
0
0
hairpins
0
0
42
1
0
139
363
739
824
613
TOTAL
+ folded
total
0
0
295
0
0
0
295
1451
204
803
133
339
43
2973
jewellery
folded
arm rings
gathered-swirled + cone-rolled
finger rings
rod-formed
beads
pendant
rod-made
gems
cast
hairpins
undefined
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
800
900
jewellery
folded
arm rings
gathered-swirled + cone-rolled
finger rings
rod-formed
beads
pendant
rod-made
gems
cast
hairpins
undefined
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
jewellery
hairpins
undefined
gems
cast
pendant
rod-made
rod-formed
beads
gathered-swirled + cone-rolled
finger rings
folded
arm rings
0
200
400
600
800
1000
1200
1400
1600
39
jewellery
hairpins
undefined
gems
cast
pendant
rod-made
rod-formed
beads
gathered-swirled + cone-rolled
finger rings
folded
arm rings
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
Figure 26:a-b) Stacked bar charts of the different commodity types per technique (in terms of quantity and percentage); c-d)
Stacked bar charts of the different techniques applied per commodity type (in terms of quantity and percentage)
Because of the diversity of commodity types jewellery encompass we discuss the applied glass hue for each
jewellery commodity seperately. It is important to observe that the very high amount of artefacts with undefined
hue is observed for all jewellery commodity types up to 98% of the recorded items (Tables 16-22). A more
detailed examination of the material should be considered in order to come to a more correct analysis of the
variety of applied glass hues and their ratios.
2.4.3.1
Arm rings
Green glass is mostly used for the production of bangles and when taking into account the blue-green glass items
91% of the black appearing is covered (Figure 27). Concerning the six so-called red pieces it is important to notify
that this hue is only observed on small fragments from the glass workshop of Les Houis nearby Sainte Menehould
(FR) (Cosyns 2009) [see Chapter 6] and never within the main consumer‘s market. An additional argument is that
reddish brown to purplish brown colour is, on the basis of close examination, the surface colour only. It is
therefore more likely to consider these pieces as production waste. There is no clear connection between the
applied glass hue and the adopted manufacturing technique because the rod-made and gathered-swirled bangles
show similar ratios as showing in the general pie-chart of Figure 27 (right). In the following chapters we verified
whether the concerned glass hues are dependable to specific types or production/consumption regions [see
respectively Chapter 3 and 6]. All fragments of gathered-swirled bangles in purple glass are possibly of late La
Tène bangles which occur in early Roman contexts in the north-western provinces.
Table 17: Quantitative overview of the various glass hues applied for arm rings
arm rings
quantity
percentage
undefined
green
blue-green
blue
brown
purple
red
grey
TOTAL
1021
359
31
11
7
15
6
1
1451
70,4
24,7
2,1
0,8
0,5
1,0
0,4
0,1
99,9
40
1% 1%
1%
2%
bracelets
3%
UNDEFINED
0%
0%
GREEN
3%
2%
bracelets
1%
0%
GREEN
BLUE-GREEN
25%
BLUE-GREEN
7%
BLUE
BLUE
BROWN
BROWN
PURPLE
70%
84%
RED
GREY
PURPLE
RED
Figure 27: Pie-charts of the colour ratios of the bracelets; (left) with undefined hue incorporated;(right) with defined hues only
2.4.3.2
Finger rings
Striking is that, except for one piece in dark blue glass, all identified black appearing finger rings are made of a
green glass (Table 18, Figure 28).
Table 18: Quantitative overview of the various glass hues applied for finger rings
finger rings
quantity
percentage
undefined
green
blue-green
blue
brown
purple
red
TOTAL
166
37
0
1
0
0
0
204
0%
1%
0%
finger rings
finger rings
0% 0%
UNDEFINED
18%
81,4
18,1
0,0
0,5
0,0
0,0
0,0
100
3% 0%0%
0%
0%
GREEN
GREEN
BLUE-GREEN
BLUE
81%
BLUE
BROWN
97%
PURPLE
RED
Figure 28: Pie-charts of the colour ratios of the finger rings; (left) with undefined hue incorporated (right) with defined hues only
2.4.3.3
Beads
Seeing the very small amount of defined glass hues the obtained ratios are possibly not fully representative for a
generalizing idea on the applied glass colours in the manufacturing process of black appearing beads (Table 19,
Figure 29). But similar to the bracelets is the green glass predominant and have other glass colours been used to
manufacture black appearing beads. There is apparently no correlation between the applied manufacturing
technique and the used glass colours, but the folded spacer-beads are in contrast to the cast and rod-formed
beads for the most part known in green glass and in a lesser degree in blue-green and brown glass.
41
Table 19: Quantitative overview of the various glass hues applied for beads
beads
quantity
percentage
undefined
green
blue-green
blue
brown
purple
red
grey
TOTAL
731
51
2
9
2
5
1
2
803
1%
0%
7%
91,0
6,4
0,2
1,1
0,2
0,6
0,1
0,2
100
beads
0%
1% 0%
0%
beads
1%
UNDEFINED
3%
GREEN
3%
GREEN
BLUE-GREEN
7%
BLUE-GREEN
BLUE
BLUE
12%
BROWN
BROWN
3%
PURPLE
71%
PURPLE
91%
RED
RED
GREY
GREY
Figure 29: Pie-charts of the colour ratios of the beads; (left) with undefined hue incorporated;
(right) with defined hues only
2.4.3.4
Pendants
The representativeness of the here presented overview is insignificant seeing the low number of pendants with
recognized hues. It is therefore of no use to link the applied manufacturing technique with the used glass colours.
The only clear element is that besides the ubiquitous green glass the black appearing pendants have been made
of blue and purple glass (Table 20, Figure 30).
Table 20: Quantitative overview of the various glass hues applied for pendants
pendants
quantity
percentage
undefined
green
blue-green
blue
brown
purple
red
TOTAL
121
8
0
1
0
3
0
133
pendants
1% 0%
0%
2%
0%
91,0
6,0
0,0
0,8
0,0
2,3
0,0
100
pendants
0%
UNDEFINED
GREEN
6%
GREEN
25%
BLUE-GREEN
BLUE
BLUE
BROWN
91%
PURPLE
0%
67%
8%
PURPLE
0%
RED
Figure 30: Pie-charts of the colour ratios of the pendants; (left) with undefined hue incorporated (right) with defined hues only
42
2.4.3.5
Gems
The comparative survey of the gems is impossible because nearly all remain of undefined colour (Table 21). The
pie-chart at the right in Figure 31 is only a reflection of 2% of the totality recorded. The items with identified colour
are all monochrome cast pieces. Nearly all undefined pieces are the bichrome nicolo-paste gems where an
opaque blue glass is topping a black glass layer. The difficulty in observing the true glass hue is because the
pieces seldom show cracks or are still sealed within a finger ring. A closer examination is however indispensable
in order to enable the colour observations of the pieces. Within the chapters on archaeometric approach we
verified whether the hue of the so-called nicolo-paste gems can be determined through chemical analysis and
optical spectroscopy.
Table 21: Quantitative overview of the various glass hues applied for gems
gems
quantity
percentage
undefined
green
blue-green
blue
brown
purple
red
TOTAL
331
5
0
1
1
1
0
339
0% 0%
0%
2%
97,6
1,5
0,0
0,3
0,3
0,3
0,0
100
gems
0%
0%
gems
0%
UNDEFINED
13%
GREEN
GREEN
BLUE-GREEN
13%
BLUE
BLUE
12%
BROWN
98%
62%
BROWN
PURPLE
0%
PURPLE
RED
Figure 31: Pie-charts of the colour ratios of the gems; (left) with undefined hue incorporated;
(right) with defined hues only
2.4.3.6
Hairpins
The lower ratio of undefined hue for the hairpins compared to the other commodity types is mainly due to the
closer examination of most items we were able to execute at the Musée des Antiquités Nationales (MAN), SaintGermain-en-Laye (FR) and at the Centre de Recherche Archéologique Nationale (CRAN) of the Université
Catholique de Louvain-la-Neuve (UCL), Louvain-la-Neuve (BE). Likewise the other jewel types most hairpins are
of green glass (Figure 32, Table 22). Striking is that blue-green and brown glass are the sole alternatives seeing
the absence of any other glass colour. We will verify in the following chapters whether the recorded hairpins are
idiosyncratic to a region and/or period and whether one or more workshops can be identified that produced such
material [see Chapters 3 and 6].
43
Table 22: Quantitative overview of the various glass hues applied for hairpins
hairpins
quantity
percentage
undefined
green
blue-green
blue
brown
purple
red
TOTAL
16
23
2
0
2
0
0
43
5%
5%
0%
37,2
53,5
4,7
0,0
4,7
0,0
0,0
100
hairpins
hairpins
0% 0%
0%
UNDEFINED
0%
0%
GREEN
7%
8%
37%
GREEN
BLUE-GREEN
BLUE-GREEN
BROWN
53%
BROWN
85%
Figure 32: Pie-charts of the colour ratios of the hairpins; (left) with undefined hue incorporated; (right) with defined hues only
44
Chapter 3 CHRONO-TYPOLOGY
If your types do not survive a critical examination, your whole work may lose its meaning.
(Crawford 1921, 147)
3.1 Introduction
A classification of black glass artefacts was not the goal of the research, but it is essential for an enhanced
analysis of all levels within the chaîne opératoire to better understand the consumption of black glass artefacts.
Aiming for a useful quantifiable set of types to enable valuable analytical processing a workable labelling system
49
was necessary. This results in a primary workable classifying tool for identification of material groups to
establish chronological and regional idiosyncratic subgroups.
A classification system of archaeological artefacts always takes into account the external propertiese.g., colour,
shape, size and decoration. With the abovementioned phrase by Osbert G.S. Crawford in mind we gave priority to
the external properties related to technology to come to a workable categorization of the different functional types
in black glass. The variability of this issue seemed most suitable to indicate a regionalism of production and/or
consumption (provenance of the object), or a production within a well-defined period (dating of the object). Hence,
a taxonomy built on technological features can be particularly helpful to the archaeologist. Conversely, decoration
patterns barely illustrate more than the variations of a specific type generated from an applied technology in use
within a particular period and/or region. However, decoration techniques are taken into account as they appear
idiosyncratic to a certain region, providing information on the success of particular variants of one type in
civita(te)s or provincia(e) [see Chapter 6]. It is true that a typology for archaeological artefacts can only turn out to
be a useful classification to archaeologists and historians if the division of classes and types are well-considered
and definite (Hill, Evans 1972, 232). Besides, the old sore of any classification system is its transience, as stated
in the past (Klejn 1982). A vivid polemic clearly exists on evaluating the effectiveness of a typology, but the most
logical and interesting criterion for evaluation is its usefulness in predicting correlations or making visible
correlations between types and with other artefacts found through excavations (Klejn 1982, 29). We are however
fully aware of the limitations to take into consideration solely those artefacts made of black glass in particular
considering the large amount of artefacts produced in other glass hues than black glass. We therefore checked all
available classification systems for their usefulness within the wide diversity of functional categories of black glass
artefacts and proposed new classification systems where necessary.
New discoveries from very recent and present-day excavations, particularly from areas where such material has
been scarce, have put constant pressure on the taxonomies. The wide variety of black glass artefacts
necessitated looking at each functional type (vessels, bracelets, finger rings, beads, etc.) individually to come to a
structured overview of typological classifications useful throughout the archaeological approach. Particularly in
regard to the bracelets the formulation of a useful new classification system for the benefit of the field worker is
challenging. A similar sorting has been done on the finger rings, although the much lower amount of material
50
made it less profitable. But it was certainly not the purpose here to set up random classifications just to produce
listings of different shapes in black glass. Where available, we verified the validity of existing typologies and tried
to make use of them to integrate the different black glass artefact shapes. For the vessels, the problem has never
been that explicit, as we can incorporate them into the wealth of existing classifications and catalogues (Isings
1957; Goethert-Polaschek 1977; Rütti 1991; Cool, Price 1995; Bonnet-Borel 1997; Price, Cottam 1998). Not only
limited to the late Roman period, the black glass beads and pendants can give interesting information on the
possible continuity of the production and consumption of glass beads and pendants all through the early medieval
period, whether it is Byzantine or Merovingian/Anglo-Saxon/.... For the hairpins and counters, an attempt has
been made to formulate a limited typological classification, insofar as this was possible. The black glass gems,
rods and tesserae have also been reviewed, but a typology is hardly manageable and senseless, due to the very
51
limited variety of types or the specific character of the material.
49
Inevitably we therefore choose to tag each form type with numerical categories. We nevertheless decided to extend this somewhat impersonal
system by nominating each form with a description so that the reader can find swiftly for what stands these intangible numbers. Further
specifications on the implemented classification system have been discussed per functional type.
50
Compared to the arm rings which were nearly all produced in black glass, many finger rings were produced in hues other than black.
51
Only a more thorough study of the gems, the rods and the tesserae in other glass hues will demonstrate whether it is meaningful to classify
these functional types.
45
In Chapter 6 the location and organization of the workshops producing black glass artefacts are discussed to
better understand their distribution and consumption. Our account of the workshops responsible for black glass
production, therefore, only focused on furnaces, crucibles, tools, production waste, etc., within the issue of the
consumption of black glass finished products.
Even though the chronology will only be discussed in detail in the next chapter, we considered useful in this
chapter to describe already the various shapes of each functional type in chronological order. The five centuries
concerning this diachronic study are roughly defined in four consecutive phases of 100 to 150 years:
Period I
Period II
Period III
Period IV
1st–mid 2nd century AD
mid 2nd–mid 3rd century AD
mid 3rd–mid 4th century AD
mid 4th–5th century AD
0-150 AD
150-250 AD
250-350 AD
350-500 AD
The identified periods are relative phases in history that are not strictly linked to the traditional historical
development of the Roman Empire, but are stages in the evolution of a small segment within Roman material
culture. The four chronological phases observe the general knowledge on the emergence and disappearance of
archaeological glass artefacts established by prior works (e.g., Isings 1957; Riha 1990; Rütti 1991; Cool, Price
1995; Bonnet-Borel 1997; Price, Cottam 1998; Martin-Pruvot 1999). A more thorough discussion implementing
the black glass material from dated contexts is presented in a subsequent chapter aiming for a refinement of the
dating of this type of material [see Chapter 4].
The underlying objective of this chapter was to establish a chrono-typology providing suitable information to the
archaeologist and the museum curator confronted with Roman black glass artefacts. We are persuaded that
every type of black glass artefact can grow into a fossil guide. When the typologies developed on the basis of
technological and stylistic features are combined with contextual analysis, they can provide a dating criterion.
When typologies are combined with distribution maps, it creates the possibility of observing regional patterns and
influences among regions. Establishing sequences of types that are idiosyncratic for a specific region and/or
period is the most important advantage in building up classification types. The categorization is based on
objective observations on the various shapes within each functional type (vessels, jewellery, and counters).
Bearing in mind Ian Hodder‘s statement that any scheme of archaeological theory is in itself subject to theoretical
critique (Hodder 2002, 80), and Andrew Jones‘ discussion on the effect of cultural conditioning on the description
and categorization of archaeological objects (Jones 2002, 3-6), the chrono-typologies presented here are
inherently open to question and improvement.
3.2 Vessels
3.2.1
Introduction
st
rd
A first synopsis encompassing 10 shapes discussed 29 black glass vessels dated between the 1 and the 3
century AD (Isings 1964, 176-179). For the most part, these were from the Benelux and the German Rhineland,
but they included some Italian examples from the Gulf of Naples. This paper basically was a reassessment of
what Clasina Isings already discussed earlier in stray notes in her major publication ―Roman glass from dated
finds‖ (Isings 1957, Forms 1; 14; 25; 26; 32; 36b; 39; 42d; 88b; 94). Unfortunately, some vessels were
erroneously defined:
-
The carchesium from Blehen (BE) is made of pale blue glass;
52
The black fragment of an indented beaker from Mettet (BE) is not of the early Form 32
The small jug from Schaarbeek (BE) has been defined as Form 88bi.e., jugs with trefoil rim and
without base-ring. Conversely, the Schaarbeek piece has no trefoil rim and has a base-ring. Furthermore,
Form 88b jugs have ovoid or globular bodies, whereas the Schaarbeek jug has a carinated body like a
carchesium (Isings Form 36b and here Form IIB.1). Even though it concerns a unique piece, at present it
52
The Mettet piecediscussed here as a Form IIB.5 variantrather resembles the metalescent beaker type Gose 199 what corresponds with
Isings Form 94.
46
is considered a separate type, Form IIB.2, whereas the characteristic Isings Form 88b jugs are described
as Form IIB.3.
When only considering the free-blown vessels of Period II from within the north-western provinces, 14 vessel
shapes have been recorded from 41 sites (Cosyns, Hanut 2005), and since then other sites have provided more
examples and more shapes have emerged (Cosyns et al. 2006a).
Upon examining the Period I vessels in the western provinces, we attached to the list 8 cast vessel shapes and
13 free-blown shapes (Cosyns, Fontaine 2009).
A number of common shapes that were so far not known to have been produced in black glass – such as the
aryballos, the grape-shaped amphoriskos, the ink-well, and the square bottle – have recently been incorporated in
the database, mainly supplied by unpublished material from Nijmegen (NL) and Augst/Kaiseraugst (CH).
The here proposed classification of vessels is not to be considered as a typology but rather a listing of the
different shapes sorted per technology or per period according to the major general works on glass (Morin-Jean
1913; Isings 1957; Goethert-Polaschek 1977; Rütti 1991; Price, Cottam 1998; Pirling, Siepen 2006, 239-304). The
subdivision per technological class is done by using capital lettersA (cast), B (free-blown), C (mould-blown),
and D (rod-formed). To come to a clear reading, a further subdivision is done per consecutive period by assigning
a Roman numeral (I, II, III or IV), depending on the period corresponding with the form, as explained in the
general introduction. Because of practical reasons and the continuous accumulation of material we were not able
here to present lists per function, making that cups, dishes, plates, jugs and flasks are not presented one after the
other. We are aware that this amalgamation gives a somewhat chaotic overview that needs reviewing.
3.2.2
Cast vessels
Cast vessels in black-appearing glass appear to be solely manufactured in Period I and nearly all during the JulioClaudian dynasty [see Chapter 4]. We were able to define 13 different shapes which can be nine can be
catalogued as cups and bowls (forms 1a; 2; 3; 4b; 5; 6; 11-15); dishes (forms 1b; 4a; 10); plates or stands (forms
7; 8); and a boat-shaped pyxis (form 9). These were generally made of a green glass, but purple, brown and blue
coloured glass was also used to produce black glass vessels. The resemblances in shape and in production
technique remind of the contemporaneous stone vessels and in some extend also the colour (obsidian vessels)
(Gasparri 1999) what raises questions such as: Were the stone vessels and those in cast and wheel-cut glass
made in the same workshops or even by the same workmen? Or were all workshops working separately with a
53
particular material but using the same techniques?
53
We have to notice the equal similarities in shape with the metal ware (silver and bronze) and the pottery (particularly the terra sigillata). The
study of skeuomorphism can help to verify the possible implications of the consumers‘ mentality in approaching specific shapes in different
materials and its impact on the Roman material culture. Such approach needs an extensive research we were unfortunately not able to fulfil within
the present research project.
47
1a.
1b.
5.
2.
6.
10.
3.
4a.
7.
11.
4b.
8.
12.
9.
13.
14.
Figure 33: Period I cast vessel shapes in strongly coloured glass appearing black (Forms IA)
3.2.2.1
Form IA.1: Shallow hemispherical cup or bowl without foot
[Isings 1/18; AR 3; Trier 5-6; Cosyns, Fontaine 2009, 1]
The hemispherical cups and bowls in black-appearing glass conform to the examples in other monochrome vividly
coloured glass. The black examples are made from purple or olive-green glass.
This open hemispherical vessel shape is shallow, with a height averaging between 45-50 mm. Both variants,
derived from the (rim) diameter, occur in black glass (Figure 33.1a-b): a) cups with a small diameter around 80
mm (Isings Form 1), like a piece from House II, Pompeii (IT) with a diameter of 82 mm and a height of 45 mm,
and b) cups with a large diameter (Isings Form 18), like, for instance, the pieces from House VI, Pompeii (IT) with
a diameter of 200 mm and a height of 50 mm, and from Avenches (CH) with a diameter of 160 mm (Amrein 2001,
71, pl. 7, no. 145). The shape of variant a and that of the free-blown hemispherical cups (see Form IB.11), or the
so-called ‗Hofheim‘ cups, are very much alike, but the cast pieces have a thicker wall and are more shallow.
Normally having a convex base without a foot, these vessels do have an annular base-ring on rare occasions, as,
for instance, the Pompeian piece from House VI [cat.no.2765] (Beretta et al. 2006, 211, no. 1.28). Most often, the
body is decorated with wheel-cut concentric lines. The Pompeian cup from House II [cat.no.2767] (Beretta et al.
2006, 207, no. 1.17) has a wheel-cut line on the outer side just under the rim, which is cut and ground straight.
The piece from House VI, on the other hand, has two wheel-cut parallel concentric lines on the outer side halfway
the bodyone deep and one superficial – and one on the inner side just below the rim. The rim is cut straight but
ground round.
3.2.2.2
Form IA.2: Shallow bilobated cup with base-ring
[Isings 2; AR 6.1/6.2; Trier17/7; Cosyns, Fontaine 2009, 2]
A convex body with strong constriction slightly below the rim gives the cup a bilobated shape (Figure 33.2). Other
characteristics are a horizontal or obliquely everted rim and a short diagonal base-ring. Known in polychrome
glass, this vessel type is also manufactured in monochrome strongly coloured opaque glasse.g., white, red,
deep blue, deep green and black-appearing glass. Only olive-green to brownish glass is utilized to manufacture
black-appearing vessels. The shape has a noted counterpart in terra sigillata (Dragendorff 27) and in silverware.
48
The examples in black glass are mainly fragmentary, but they are identical to those in other glass hues, with a
height ranging around 40-50 mm and a foot diameter of 35-40 mm. The ratio between the rim diameter and the
height is about 3:1, whereas that between the foot diameter and the height is about 1:1. The rim diameter of this
form averages between 90 mm and 140 mm (Trier 17), but pieces with a wider rim diameter (Trier 7) from 160
mm up to 230 mm occur occasionally (Price, Cottam 1998, 49).
3.2.2.3
Form IA.3: Shallow hemispherical cup or bowl with base-ring
[Isings 20; AR 8; Trier 18; Cosyns, Fontaine 2009, 3]
This shallow, open shape is a bowl on an annular foot with a hemispherical body and a thickened rim bulging
outwards (Figure 33.3). Mainly reported as black, the hue of the glass is apparently always olive-green when
detected, e.g., Magdalensberg (AT) (Czurda-Ruth 1998, no.433; 2001, 426, no.1; 2004, 266; 293, nos. 40-41).
The diameter of the foot is about the same as the height of the vessel, while the diameter of the rim is 2 to 3 times
the height. The average size of this vessel type ranges around 40 mm (h.), 115 mm (d. rim), and 40 mm (d. foot).
The black glass example from Adria (IT) [cat.no.2587] is somewhat larger, measuring 58 mm (h.), 118 mm (d.
rim), and 58 mm (d. foot) (Bonomi 1996, 155, no. 345; Diani 1998, 34). The hemispherical bowl from Richebourg
(FR) [cat.no.A4491] (Arveiller-Dulong et al. 2003, 147, fig.2) is higher in proportion to the diameter of the rim and
of the foot, resulting in a narrower bowl with a more vertical side. The piece in the Newark Museum is 33 mm high
with a rim diameter of c. 70 mm and a base diameter of 30 mm (Auth 1976, 193, no. 297) [cat.no.A4492].
This vessel shape is also produced in the blowing technique (Isings Form 42), in the majority by using blue-green
glass.
3.2.2.4
Form IA.4: Shallow cup or dish with rounded rim and basal ridge
[Isings 22; AR 9.1; Trier 20; Cosyns, Fontaine 2009, 4]
This shape is a shallow cup or dish, depending on the small or large size of the diameter (Figure 33.4).
Characteristic are the projecting rounded rim and basal ridge, and the short cylindrical body averaging 25-30 mm
in height, although some have a small diameter and are proportionately taller. The side can sometimes be slightly
convex but is in general slightly tapering downward, like the example from the Gulf of Fos (FR) [cat.no.A4476],
measuring 27 mm (h.), 65 mm (d. rim), and 61 mm (d. foot) (Foy, Nenna 2003, 237, no. 27). The cups have a
proportion between the diameter and the height of 2:1, whereas that of the dishes is 6:1. Very popular in various
strongly coloured monochrome glass, the black-appearing examples recorded are all in a green, olive-green or
brownish glass. This shape shows moulded concentric circles and/or a raised disc with a central dot on the base,
mainly at the outside but sometimes at the inside.
This vessel shape is also produced in the blowing technique, in the majority by using blue-green glass (Isings
Form 41a for the cups and Form 48 for the dishes).
3.2.2.5
Form IA.5: Shallow hemispherical bowl without foot
[Isings 25; Cosyns, Fontaine 2009, 5]
The baseless bowl with two vertical handles from Pompeii (IT) (Figure 33.5) is decorated with inlays in gold, silver,
bronze and cornelian (Isings 1957, 39-40), and is reminiscent of the obsidian skyphoi and patera with semi54
precious incrustations from Castellamare di Stabiae (IT) (Haevernick 1963). This shallow hemispherical cup in
black appearing glass is a unique piece of 57 mm high with a wide rim diameter of 193 mm. Another pristine piece
made in black appearing purple glass must have been the vessel said to have come from in or around the
imperial villa of Tiberius on Capri (IT) and now in the Metropolitan Museum of Arts, New York (Winfield 1949, 59;
Goldstein et al. 1982, 102) [cat.no.A4695]. The rim fragment of this dish or plate which is decorated with marine
creatures in opaque white and translucent pinikish glass has an estimated diameter of 527 mm.
3.2.2.6
Form IA.6: Cylindrical cup with vertical base-ring and winged handles
[Isings 39; Trier 29a; Cosyns, Fontaine 2009, 6]
Skyphoi are sometimes made in strongly coloured glass but are mainly made in colourless glass. Up to now, one
single example of a cast skyphos in black appearing glass has been recorded. Coming from Pompeii (IT), it
formed part of the antiquarium (no. 771/4) (Isings 1957, 56). Typical features are the cylindrical body with vertical
54
Not being able to study the material on location, we incorporated the piece in the list on behalf of Clasina Isings‘ description reporting the piece
is made of black glass even though it is not excluded that the vessel is made of obsidian.
49
rim, flat base with a vertical base-ring, and winged handles (Figure 33.6). Some pieces are said to be in obsidian
like for instance those from the villa of Boscoreale (IT) but it is not impossible that they are made of black
appearing glass (Cagno et al. 2010, 9-10). Skyphoi in black glass are also manufactured with the free-blowing
technique (see Form IB.7).
3.2.2.7
Form IA.7: Tripod table
[Cosyns, Fontaine 2009, Form 19]
This vessel shape is a tripod with a quadrangular or circular tablet (Figure 33.7). This shape needs to be
considered together with the plates of Form IA.8, seeing that small body fragments of this type can easily be
confused with the other. The legs are not rendered with decoration, but the similarity to the silver examples with
lion‘s paws is apparent as discussed by Michel Feugère on the tripod table from Cruzy (FR) (Feugère 1987, 62).
3.2.2.8
Form IA.8: Rectangular tray or plate
[Cosyns, Fontaine 2009, Form 20]
Flat, rectangular plates decorated with outsplayed rim and two handles (Figure 33.8) are well known from various
sites in the Mediterranean in strongly coloured glass, while only two have hitherto been reported as appearing
blacki.e., the piece from Adria (IT) [cat.no.2584] (Bonomi 1996, 203, no. 452) and the fragment from the urban
villa of ‗de Hondstraat‘ in Tongeren (BE) [cat.no.565] (unpublished). Both pieces are made from a deep purple
glass.
3.2.2.9
Form IA.9: Boat-shaped vessel
Boat-shaped vessels are known in various monochrome strongly coloured glasses (Harden et al. 1987, no. 24)
(Figure 33.9). The one from Santa Elena di Melma, Silea (IT) in deep purple glass has a black appearance
(Casagrande, Ceselin 2003, no. 244, Barovier et al. 2003, 71, no.8) [cat.no.2805] as does the one at the British
Museum (Tait 1995, no.69) [cat.no.A4591]. Characteristic are the four small triangular-shaped feet, quite centrally
positioned, and the wheel-cut decoration. The prow of the Silea piece is broken off, but other examples
demonstrate it to be pointed and only slightly gradient, whereas the stern is rounded and erected.
3.2.2.10
Form IA.10: Wide rimmed bowl or shallow plate with base-ring
[AR 15/24; Trier 25; AV V23/32]
These bowls have in general an almost horizontal, wide rim, shallow convex body and high vertical base-ring
(Figure 33.10). A piece from Avenches (CH) [cat.no.3611] in dark olive-green glass appearing black has a
diameter of 200 mm, a horizontal rim of 12 mm width and 2,5-3 mm thickness with a thicker rounded edge and a
wall thickness of 1,5-2 mm (Bonnet-Borel 1997, 23, pl.5, no. 23). Because the bowls determined as AR 24 by
Beat Rütti (1991, II, 245, pl.33; 251, pl.39) and AV V32 (Bonnet-Borel 1997, 23; 25) show minor differences we
consider the incomplete piece from Bahnasa (EG) that is now in the Petrie Museum for Egyptian Archaeology,
London [cat.no.812] (unpublished) rather as a variant with its somewhat anomalous wide everted rim and low or
absent constriction. These bowls and plates have generally been cast in polychrome or in deeply coloured and
decolourized monochrome glass. Decolourized glass is mainly used for the production of the well-known variant
with faceted decoration on rim and body (elliptical and circular).
3.2.2.11
Form IA.11: Shallow dish with wide overhanging rim
[AR 16; Trier 23]
Only one example of this shallow dish with wide overhanging rim has been recorded in black- appearing glass
[cat.no.4145] (Figure 33.11). It is the London piece reported by Jennifer Price and Sally Cottam as a very dull
brown glass (Price, Cottam 1998, 56, fig.13:a).
This shape is particularly known in colourless glass and can be linked to a wide variety of colourless cast vessels,
which often have a faceted decoration.
3.2.2.12
Form IA.12: Shallow bowl with high base-ring
This shallow bowl or small saucer has a high foot within the flat or slightly concave wide base and the straight
everted body has a rounded-rim edge (Figure 33.12). These bowls are less than 20 mm in height and have a rim
diameter between 100-120 mm. The only piece recorded in black appearing glass comes from Ribnica (HR)
[cat.no.3173] (unpublished) and is made in a greenish brown glass. The vessel with high diagonal base-ring has
an estimated rim diameter of 120 mm, a height of 15 mm, and a wall thickness varying between 2,5 mm and 3,0
50
mm. A similar but polychrome piece has been reported from Piercebridge (UK) (Price, Cottam 1998, 55, fig.12:c;
pl.1:4) which is made of very dark purple glass decorated with opaque white roundels.
3.2.2.13
Form IA.13: Deep conical bowl with base-ring
Comparable to the Form IA.12 but with high conical body, occasionally decorated with an abraded concentric line
below the rim or an applied glass trail (Figure 33.13). The base-ring can start from the junction of the body and
the base or begin within a wide base. The rim diameter ranges between 150 and 200 mm and the height between
40 and 60 mm. Similar vessels have been produced in decolorized glass, like for instance the one from
Segontium (UK) (Price, Cottam 1998, 55, fig.12:b) and resemble the early terra sigillata cups Form Haltern 10A
(Von Schnurbein 1982, II, pl.63, nos.1528-1530). The fragment from Augst/Kaiseraugst (CH) [cat.no.3585] is
made of a deep green glass and has an estimated rim diameter of 180 mm. The London piece [cat.no.4146] is too
fragmentary to determine its rim diameter but with a height of 35-40 mm without footstand and an abraded
concentric line just below the rim the piece with horizontal base and straight everted body can be classified as a
deep conical bowl with base-ring. The London piece is thick-walled with a wall thickness ranging between 2,6-3,3
mm whereas the Augst piece is very thin-walled with 0,9 mm.
3.2.2.14
Form IA.14: Ribbed bowl
[Isings 3; AR 2; Trier 3]
The ribbed bowl or so-called pillar-moulded bowl is a thick-walled shallow hemispherical bowl without foot very
distinctive with parallel protruding ribbings tapering towards the base (Figure 33.14). We have attached the ribbed
bowls with the vessels made with the cast technique for practical reasons even though we are aware of the very
convincing hypothesis that the Romans probably have produced this vessel shape rather by pinching and sagging
a discoid plaque of hot glass. The pieces in black glass show no difference from the ubiquitous vessel shape
produced in other glass hues. Most of the ribbed bowls are made in the ‗naturally coloured‘ transparent pale blue
and pale blue-green glass but strongly coloured ribbed bowls, polychrome and monochrome, are also commonly
present on early Roman sites. The major publications have not described black-appearing examples thus far, but
the occurrence of two monochrome pieces at Liberchies (BE) [cat.nos.417; 425] and one monochrome piece at
Augst (CH) [cat.no.3474] demonstrate that this is probably due to the perception of colours. The ones from
Liberchies are made of deep greenish brown glass, and the Augst piece is from deep blue glass.
3.2.3
Free-blown vessels
Free-blown vessels made of black appearing glass have been produced in the successive Periods I and II. Within
Period I 19 shapes have been cataloguedcups/bowls (4 types); goblets/beakers (2 types) unguentaria (2 types);
nd
rd
jugs (4 types); lids (1 type). The majority of the black glass vessels from Period II (mid 2 –mid 3 century AD) are
more or less limited to tableware. The entire gamut of vessels in black glass remains more or less exclusively for
55
drinking use: beakers, cups, bowls, jugs and jars, though, toilet waree.g., unguentaria and aryballoiand
storage vesselse.g., square bottles and the so-called inkwellshave been recorded as well. Still, nearly. Thus
far, 20 free-blown forms in a monochrome black glass have been distinguished. In great contrast to that stands
the total absence of the cast vessels and the near non-appearance of mould-blown vessel shapes.
Besides the plain vessels, some shapesForms IIB.4, IIB.5, IIB.12 and IIB.14comprise examples with a
decorative pattern created either by applying a glass trail horizontally on the shoulder and/or on the lower part of
the body, or by working out the trails into a festoon pattern (―Federmusterzier‖ in German). The trails of the former
style remain unmarvered, whereas for the latter, the trails are always marvered into the core glass and combed
upward, vertically or obliquely. The horizontally applied trails on the shoulder and/or at the lower part of the body
can be in the same black colour as the body or in a contrasting white or blue opaque glass. Festoon patterns are
always made from opaque white glass trails.
The applied glass trail decoration creates a sharp contrastive effect with the black glass of the body. These
opulently decorated vessels stand in great contrast with the very sober shapes such as the carchesium (Form
IIB.1) or the globular cup (Forms IIB.4 and 5). The appearance of the decorated black glass vessels might be
55
The here discussed solid-bodied ‗unguentaria‘ are rod-formed and made from black-appearing brown glass [see Chapter 2 and this chapter
3.2.5. rod-formed vessels]. They seem however closer to the so-called linen-smoothers or ―Glättsteine mit Stangengriff‖ (Rütti 1991, I, 164-166)
than to most solid bodied toilet wareidiosyncratic for the southeast Mediterranean (Harden 1936, 272; 275-277; Cosyns et al. 2006a, 35, tab.1,
fig.4), which is nearly always free-blown. Furthermore the dark aspect of the latter group is due to the thickness of deep blue-green to green glass
used to produce solid-bodied vessel.
51
seen as part of a trend towards more elaborately worked glass vessels, or as an attempt to catch the attention of
consumers not very much attracted to the elementary forms of sober tableware. Hence, it is not surprising to find
these decorated vessels in richly furnished tombs [see Chapter 4]. Many examples with trailed decoration date
nd
rd
back to the late 2 –mid 3 century AD and are typical for the north-western European continent. The applied
glass trail on these vessels consists of a concentric line on the shoulder and on the lower side of the body. No
56
opaque red trails have been reported for this period and in this region. The red colour is typical for rod-formed
th
th
vessels of the Levant in Period IV from the late 4 to 6 century AD.
Period I
1.
2.
8.
9.
16.
3.
4.
10.
11.
17.
5.
6.
12.
18.
7.
13.
14.
15.
19.
Figure 34: First century AD free-blown vessel shapes in strongly coloured glass appearing black (Forms IB)
3.2.3.1
Form IB.1: Hemispherical cup
[Isings 12; AR 34; Trier 30; Cosyns, Fontaine 2009, Form 7]
Well known in blue-green and various deeply coloured glasses, this type of hemispherical cup is generally known
as a ‗Hofheim‘ cup, from the Roman military camp in the German Rhine region where it was recorded for the first
time. This drinking vessel has a flattened or slightly concave base without a foot (Figure 34.1). The upper part of
the body can be cylindrical or tapering towards the rim. The rim is cut and ground, and the body is decorated with
abraded concentric lines. The intact Pompeian piece from House I, of Lesbianus [cat.no.2769] is 61 mm high and
has a diameter of 76 mm. Its rim is cut and ground obliquely inward. Just below the rim, the outer side is adorned
with one shallow abraded concentric circle, whereas on the lower body, three were applied, one fine line on either
side of a wide line (Beretta et al. 2006, 229, no.2.3). The almost complete cup from Polhov Gradec (SL) is 85 mm
high (Ložar 1938, 93, fig.16; Lazar 2003, 35; Steps into the past 2006, 109, no. 3, fig.83). The piece from Augst
(CH) is made of deep purple glass (Rütti 1991, 53, pl. 48, no. 1104), whereas the one from Olbia (FR) is blown in
a deep brown glass (Fontaine 2006, no. 130). The Pompeian cup is said to be of a deep blue glass. Enamelling
57
has hitherto not been recorded on ‗Hofheim‘ cups in black glass (Rütti 1988, 46-52).
56
Red opaque glass trails are only known on jewellery in the North-western provinces of the Roman Empire.
Enamelling is known from the amphoriskos in black appearing green glass from Kertch (UKR) and now in the collections of the Hermitage
Museum, St. Petersburg (Kunina 1997).
57
52
3.2.3.2
Form IB.2: Small globular jug or flask
[Isings 14; Cosyns, Fontaine 2009, Form 8]
This small jug or flask has a globular body with a concave base without a foot, and one vertical handle from
shoulder to halfway down a narrow cylindrical neck (Figure 34.2). The rim is diagonally folded outward, up, and
back inward. The pieces from Locarno (CH) (Simonett 1941, 149, fig.128, no. 18; Isings 1957, 31), and
Montebelluna (IT) [cat.no.2761] (Casagrande, Ceselin 2003, no. 147) are plain. However, the body can be ribbed
or decorated with applied glass trails in a contrasting colour, like, for instance, the intact piece of the former
Constable-Maxwell collection, which has 14 spiral trails in unmarvered opaque white glass from the base to the
shoulder (Smith 1957, no. 57). The Montebelluna jug is 80 mm high and has a maximum diameter of 66 mm.
3.2.3.3
Form IB.3: Large globular unguentaria
[Isings 16; AR 141; Cosyns, Fontaine 2009, Form 9]
Unguentaria with globular bodies, flat bases, and constrictions at the lower end of their necks are mainly known in
blue-green glass but also have been recorded in deeply coloured glass (Figure 34.3). Only two of them are
recorded as appearing black: one piece came from a mid 1st century AD context in Este (IT) [cat.no.2743]
st
(Zampieri 1998, 34, no. 6), and the other was found in a 1 century AD level of ‗Hanghaus I‘ in Ephesus (TR)
[cat.no.3896] (Czurda-Ruth 2007, 90, no. 247). Both pieces are made from deep purple glass.
3.2.3.4
Form IB.4: Small globular or pear-shaped unguentaria
[Isings 26a; AR 132; Trier 70b; Cosyns, Fontaine 2009, Form 10]
This vessel is an unguentarium, featuring a globular or pear-shaped body and a short, cylindrical neck (Figure
34.4). The only known black piece so far comes from a mid 1st century AD context in Este (IT) and is now in the
Museo Atestino [cat.no.2744] (Isings 1957, 40).
3.2.3.5
Form IB.5: Cantharus on stemmed foot
[Isings 36a-b/38; AR 91/96; Cosyns, Fontaine 2009, Form 11]
This drinking vessel, with or without small applied handles, has a knobbed stem (Isings 36a), like the piece from
Pompeii (IT) (Cibi e Sapori a Pompei, 58, no. 45) [cat.no.2770], or a short-stemmed foot (Isings Form 38), like the
piece in deep purple glass from el-Ashmunein (EG) and now in the Louvre Museum (Arveiller-Dulong, Nenna
2005, no., 765) [cat.no.856] (Figure 34.5).
3.2.3.6
Form IB.6: Modiolus
[Isings 37; AR 90; Cosyns-Fontaine 2009, Form 12]
This high cup with a straight body tapering towards the foot has a characteristic small, round handle (Figure 34.6).
One single piece, coming from Avenches (CH), is known in olive-green glass appearing black and said to come
from a 40-70 AD context (Amrein 2001, 74, pl. 9, no. 160) [cat.no.3600], but due its fragmented state it is not
excluded that the piece formed part of a cylindrical cup with concave neck and applied ribbing just below the
everted rounded rim [see Form IIB.17].
3.2.3.7
Form IB.7: Skyphos
[Isings 39; Trier 29a; Cosyns, Fontaine 2009, Form 6b]
These cylindrical cups on base-ring with two vertical handles modelled by pincers are similar to those made by
casting (Figure 34.7). At present, only handle fragmentsall in black/green glassare known, coming from
58
northwestern sites such as one from Waldorf (DE) (unpublished) [cat.no.2107] and two Liberchies (BE)
(Liberchies VI) [cat.nos.407; 413].
3.2.3.8
Form IB.8: Jug with ovoid body and decorative handle
[Isings 54; Cosyns, Fontaine 2009, Form 13]
This is a jug with an ovoid body, long cylindrical neck, and a vertical handle with stamped decoration at the base
in a contrasting colour (Figure 34.8). Two examples in black-appearing glass have been recorded so far. One jug
in deep purple glass was retrieved from the Period I cemetery at St-Paul-Trois-Châteaux (FR) (Foy, Nenna 2001,
58
Personal communication with Anna-Barbara Follmann-Schultz
53
126, no. 161-13) [cat.no.A4483], and another in deep blue glass comes from Pompeii (IT) (Beretta et al. 2006,
217, no. 1.47) [cat.no.2772].
3.2.3.9
Form IB.9: Beaked jug with vertical handle
[Isings 56b; Cosyns, Fontaine 2009, Form 14]
This vessel is a jug with a beaked rim, ovoid body tapering towards the concave base without foot and vertical
handle with thumb rest (Figure 34.9). Examples of this type of jug include one in deep blue glass in the Louvre
museum and reportedly coming from Italy (Arveiller, Nenna 2005, 47, no. 51), and another in deep purple glass
from Pompeii (IT) (Maiuri 1971, 131, no. 119b).
3.2.3.10
Form IB.10: Bulbous jar with vertical handles
[Cosyns, Fontaine 2009, Form 15]
This vessel is an urn with a folded rim and, when with handles, short vertical handles in a contrasting colour
(Figure 34.10). Two examples in black-appearing glass have been recorded, one from Murviel-les-Montpellier
(FR) in purple glass (Foy, Nenna 2001, 128, no. 162-4) [cat.no.A4480], and another from Nîmes (FR) (Foy,
Nenna 2001, 206, no 374) [cat.no.A4479].
3.2.3.11
Form IB.11: Bulbous jar with horizontal handles
[Isings 64; Cosyns, Fontaine 2009, Form 16]
This jar has a spherical body, a short neck, and an outward-folded rim with a groove on the inside to hold a lid
(Figure 34.11). Characteristic are the horizontal handles. The handle on the Dürres-Durrachium fragment is made
from opaque white glass and is decorated at the base with a medallion appliqué of 27 mm in diameter
representing a female theatre mask (Tartari 2004, 33; 68, tab.XIX-V69:3).
3.2.3.12
Form IB.12: Hemispherical bowl with tubular rim and base-ring
[Isings 69b; MJ 85; Cosyns, Fontaine 2009, Form 17]
This vessel is a bowl with hemispherical body decorated with a tubular rim and tubular foot ring (Figure 34.12).
One black piece comes from tomb 34 of the cemetery at Canal Bianco (IT), which is ascribed to the first half of
st
the 1 century AD (Bonomi 1996, 164, no. 372; Diani 1998, 34).
3.2.3.13
Form IB.13: Shallow hemispherical cup with vertical folded rim
This vessel is a shallow hemispherical cup with a pronounced, outward-folded, vertical rim and a concave base
without a foot (Figure 34.13). Only two examples have been attributed to this shape so far. One piece is the small
cup from tomb 1 of the cemetery at Montebelluna (IT), decorated on the shoulder with 7 spirally wound trails in
59
opaque white glass (Casagrande, Ceselin 2003, 134, no. 169) [cat.no.2759]. The other piece comes from tomb
147 of the Canal Bianco cemetery at Adria (IT) (Bonomi 1996, 127, no. 290) [cat.no.2586]. This cup is more
stretched out into a conical shape, and it is accordingly higher and more slender, but it seems to have been
produced in the same way and with the same amount of hot glass. The rim is a bit more everted, and its
decoration consists of unmarvered thick grit in opaque white glass on the lower body. Both pieces are made of
purple glass. Examples in other glass hues demonstrate that the characteristic shape of the rim is a fingerprint of
one particular glassblower and thus the product of one single glass workshop. The unmarvered decoration of grit
in a contrasting colour should also be considered a feature of this glassblower/glass workshop (Harden et al.
1987, no. 43).
3.2.3.14
Form IB.14: Jug with high vertical handle
[Isings 13]
This form type incorporates several variants of jugs with a high vertical handle only recorded thus far in northern
Italy, but which may be considered as the forerunners of the globular- bodied (Isings Form 52) and triangularnd
bodied (Isings Form 55) jugs [see Form IB.20] known from Flavian times to the mid 2 century AD, and mainly
60
produced in ‗naturally coloured‘ glass. The jugs can have a somewhat cylindrical tapering downwards
59
This piece awkwardly has been linked to Isings Form 68, which is a toilet vessel with a horizontal folded rim and neck produced in blue-green
and pale blue glass.
60
Compared to their successors, the early types apparently are not optic blown.
54
[cat.no.2758] or a biconical body with pronounced carination [cat.no.2762] (Casagrande, Ceselin 2003, nos. 140;
142) (Figure 34.14). All are made of very dark purple glass and described as such, but are not considered black61
appearing. Both examples come from the cemetery at Montebelluna (IT) and have a concave base or an open
base-ring, a tall narrow cylindrical neck, and a small, diagonal, outward-folded rim. This type of jug is about 140150 mm high, and the maximum diameter ranges around 80-90 mm for the cylindrical variant and around 115-150
mm for the carinated variant.
3.2.3.15
Form IB.15: Domed lid with knob
[Isings 66a; Cosyns, Fontaine 2009, Form 18]
This shape is a domed lid with a knob handle in the centre (Figure 34.15). Although it is not a vessel per se, a lid
is considered together with the vessel with which it forms one set – e.g., the cast jar on a stemmed foot at the
Archaeological Museum of Turin [cat.no.2824], the jar with globular body (Form IB.11) from Nîmes (FR) (Foy,
62
Nenna 2001, 206, no. 373) [cat.no.A4478], and the cantharus from Vaison-la-Romaine (FR) (Foy, Nenna 2001,
173, no. 270) [cat.no.A4481]. Lids are mainly produced in blue-green glass, but the pieces from Nîmes and
Vaison-la-Romaine are made of very deep purple glass appearing black. The knob is known in various shapes.
Clasina Isings described four different types (Isings 1957, 85-86). The lid at the Turin museum is a knobbed lid
(variant c) with abraded decoration, while the two French lids are domed lids with a knob on top (variant a). The
height of a lid varies between 55 and 75 mm, and the diameter varies according to the dimensions of the vessel
for which it is produced. The lid from Nîmes is 75 mm high and 136 mm in diameter.
3.2.3.16
Form IB.16: Shallow dish/bowl with rounded rim
[Isings 42-47]
This shallow dish/bowl is a blown variant of the cast Isings Form 5 which is characterized by a horizontally
outward folded rounded rim (Figure 34.16). The only piece in black appearing glass catalogued so far is a
fragment in deep blue glass at the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology, London which apparently comes from
Abydos (EG) [cat.no.794]. Its diameter is 165 mm and the preserved height is c.30 mm showing only the curve of
the convex body. It appears to be a rather shallow bowl that must approach 40-50 mm. Considering the absence
of the base it is impossible to determine whether the vessel was with or without foot; and if with foot, whether its
base consisted of a tubular base-ring or a solid one. Closest comparative shapes are the shallow bowl (Isings
Form 42) and the dish on base-ring (Isings Form 47).
3.2.3.17
Form IB.17: Large bulbous jar with wide horizontally folded rim
[Isings 67a; Trier 147]
This vessel shape is mainly known in ‗naturally coloured‘ glass from burials using the glass vessel as cremation
urn. The known examples are made in either very dark blue or in deep purple glass, like those from Rochefleur
(FR) [cat.no.4144] and Santelpido (IT) [cat.no.4144] (Figure 34.17). The black appearing vessels are generally
decorated with large opaque white spots, which are marvered and clearly enlarged through blowing like for
instance the pieces from Arles (FR) [cat.no.4484] and Apt (FR) [cat.no.A4485]. We believe that the conical piece
with unmarvered white opaque glass specks on a black appearing unfinished bulbous jar from the cemetery of
Canal Bianco at Adria (Figure 12) is an uncompleted vessel that probably was meant to be finished as the other
large jars with globular body, wide horizontally outward folded rim and a marvered body with large white elliptical
spots.
3.2.3.18
Form IB.18: Unguentarium with tall neck
[Isings 8/28b]
63
The only recorded piece was found at Drapers's site, London (UK) [cat.no.4144] (unpublished ) and is made of
deep purple glass. It has a conical body and a tall cylindrical neck bulging downwards with a constriction at the
shoulder (Figure 34.18). The maximum preserved height of the piece is 140 mm. Another smaller intact vessel
originates from Limassol (CY) [cat.no.777], has a height of 123 mm and a spiralling trail decoration in opaque
white glass.
61
Apparently Italian researchers agree to consider only glass as black when its true hue cannot be discerned with the naked eye, while the black
appearance is swept away from the moment a glimpse of the glass hue can be recognized.
62
Because the lid has a larger diameter than the cantharus and is made of a strongly coloured purple glass that appears black, it is said not to be
from one and the same set (Foy, Nenna 2001, 173, no. 270).
63
Personal communication from John Shepherd - 2008.
55
3.2.3.19
Form IB.19: High and slender beaker with folded base-ring
[Isings 34; AR37/70]
This tall cylindrical vessel shape has a convex body tapering towards the foot and a folded tubular base-ring with
pushed-in base (Figure 34.19). The rim is everted and knocked-off. Sometimes the body may be decorated with
concentric circles. The few pieces so far recorded come from Swiss sites such as Augst [cat.nos.3536; 3554] and
Courroux. Confusion however remains to dating the shape to Period I, II or III because a base fragment was
found in the glass workshop of Äussere Reben at Kaiseraugst (CH) [cat.no.3762], which was active between
c.125-225 AD (Fischer 2009). We therefore believe that the fragment was erroneously incorporated into the late
rd th
3 -4 century AD vessel shape of high conical beakers on folded base-ring (Isings Form 109; AR70; Trier 59)
(Rütti 1991, no.1459). This permits us to assume a possible production in Period I or in Period II. The
determination of the chemical composition of the vessel fragments would enable us to easily ascribe the pieces to
either the early period (low iron content) or the younger period of the glass workshop (Cosyns et al. 2006a; Van
der Linden et al. 2009) [see Chapter 8].
Period II
Figure 35: Typology of free-blown shapes (drawings nos. 1-14 from Cosyns, Hanut 2005, fig.2; nos. 15-20 drawn by author;
no.19 from Isings 1957)
3.2.3.20
Form IIB.1: Wide-mouthed beaker with carinated body and base-ring or carchesium
[Isings 36b; Trier 31; Morin-Jean 6; Cosyns, Hanut 2005 Form 1]
This carchesium shape features a wide everted mouth of more or less the same size as the carination at the
lower part of the slightly concave cylindrical body (Figure 35.1). Some carchesia, such as those from Amay
(Lehance, Willems 1987, 52, fig.4, no. 9), Wancennes (Mignot 1984, 224-227, fig.37, no. 1), and Esch IV (van den
56
Hurk 1975, 82, fig.19) have a slender cylindrical shape with a height-rim diameter of 99-65 mm [cat.no.2882].
Others, like the three from grave 176 in Cutry (Liéger 1997, 148, fig.28, nos. 3-5), are more compact and have a
body that is rather concave. The height of these vessels averages 90-100 mm. Different is the intact piece from
Boulogne (FR) which is 100 mm high and has a rim diameter of 109 mm (Canut 1991, 66, pl. 18) [cat.no.1028].
The decoration on some beakers consists of applied glass threads, in the same colour as the vessel, around the
top of the body and just below the carinated body, like the example from Esch IV. A fragment from Colchester can
be determined as such a type of vessel (Cool, Price 1995, 93, no. 615). This very thin-walled vessel type (0,6-1,5
mm) has a fire-rounded rim edge or a short inward folded rim. The base-ring is never tubular, but solid. Usually
pinched out [see Chapter 2], it is sometimes made from an applied trail. Also typical is the concave base with
central pushed in cone and a pontil mark, which is either small massive circular with a diameter of about 8-15 mm
or large thin annular with a diameter ranging between 20-25 mm (Figure 9) correspondingly related to the use
of a massive punty and a blowing pipe [see Chapter 2].
3.2.3.21
Form IIB.2: Spouted jug with carinated body and base-ring
[Isings 88-variant; Trier 129b; Cosyns, Hanut 2005 Form 2]
Only one example of this type is known and comes from a grave in Schaarbeek (Hanut 1999, 8-9, fig.6). This 105
mm high vessel is a hybrid shape composed of elements from Forms IIB.1 and IIB.3. The general profile is that of
a carinated beaker with pulled-out spout and ribbon handle attached to the rim edge with a thumb rest (Figure
35.2), and therefore mistakenly classified by Clasina Isings as a Form 88b with globular body (Isings 1957, 105).
A glass thread in the same colour as the body is applied around the top of the body and just below the carinated
body. The closest parallel is the spouted jug (Trier 129b) from tomb 154 of the St. Matthias cemetery at Trier (DE).
This somewhat smaller example78 mm heightis made of black-and-red glass with an applied base-ring and
rim, a vertical handle, and a spiralling trail around the neck in opaque white glass (Goethert-Polaschek 1977, 221th
222, no.1334, pl.72) [cat.no.A4618]. Although the jug from Trier is dated in the 4 century AD in relation to the
general date of the form Trier 129a, the tomb has not revealed other burial gifts to confirm this late date. Seeing
that the jug is more comparable to the Schaarbeek jug than to the St. Matthias cemetery yielded burial from the
st
1 century AD (Goethert-Polaschek 1977, 267-327) we assume more acceptable to consider the vessel a Period
II product.
3.2.3.22
Form IIB.3: One-handled spouted jug with globular body
[Isings 88b; Trier 116c; Cosyns, Hanut 2005 Form 3]
This type is very rare in black glass and is usually produced in blue-green, greenish or colourless glass. The
globular body has no foot but a concave base with central kick (Figure 35.3). The vertical handle stands from
shoulder to rim opposite to the spout and is finished with a slender thumbrest. Examples with a handle in an angle
with the spout are only known in naturally coloured or decolourized glass. The example of grave 176 of the
cemetery at Cutry (FR) was found in association with another small jug of the same type but in dark green glass
(Liéger 1997, 148, fig.28, no. 2) and three black glass carchesia, Form IIB.1 (see above).
3.2.3.23
Form IIB.4: Small bulbous cup with short concave neck, wide-mouthed rim and base-ring
[Isings 94; AR 104.1; Trier 37; AV V90; Cosyns, Hanut 2005 Form 4]
This shape (Figure 35.4) and the next are very similar but encompass characteristic variations concerning
dimensions and ratios. These bulbous cups are mainly blown in blue-green glass, but are known in black glass
especially in the Rhine region as far south as present-day SwitzerlandAugst (Rütti 1991, nos. 1997; 1999-2003)
and Avenches (Martin Pruvot 1999, 199, nos. 1258; 1259; 1261 and 230, no. 1490, pl. 149). An intact Belgian
example comes from Thier-Laurent, Bois-et-Borsu, not far from Clavier-Vervoz [cat.no.199] showing a finishing
touch by abrasion of the rim and applied trails on shoulder and foot (Figure 36 bottom). The glass hue and
particularly the sharply angled rim, shoulder ridge and pronounced high base-ring obtained by abrasion, stands in
sharp contrast with the much lesser elaborate free-blown counterpart from the villa of Lauw (BE) (Figure 36 top).
The Bois-et-Borsu cup is therefore a unique piece as it has to be considered a marked example of glass vessel
intending to evoke metal ware, whether it be silver or bronze, but equally because the vessel demonstrates that
the more clumsy made black glass cups are to be considered as well as an imitation of metal ware.
57
Figure 36: (top) Base fragment of a small bulbous cup (Form II.B.4) from the Roman villa at Lauw, Belgium; (bottom) Mouldblown globular beaker from Bois-et-Borsu (photograph by author, by courtesy of PGRM Tongeren (top) by courtesy of KMKG
(bottom))
This type of vessel shape is known decorated in various ways:
o
o
o
o
3.2.3.24
with a marvered festoon pattern in opaque white glass like for instance the example from a stone
box grave at Heerlen (NL) (Brouwer 1991, 47, no. 16) (Figures 2b-c; 3b) [cat.no.2898];
with applied glass trails on shoulder and lower part of the body like the pieces from Lauw (BE)
(unpublished) [cat.no.334] (Figure 36 top) and Liège (BE) (Halbertsma 2006, 31, no. 20) [cat.no.429]
but mainly from Swiss sites such as Avenches, Augst and Kaiseraugst (CH) (Rütti 1991, 102, nos.
2006-2012) [cat.nos.3757; 3525]; from Altbachtal, Trier (DE) comes the lower part of a monochrome
cup in a very dark, almost opaque, amber yellow glass appearing black (Goethert-Polaschek 1977,
45, no. 135, fig.16);
with indented decoration likewise the fragment from the villa of Mettet (BE) [cat.no.449] showing
elongated indents and an applied trail on one end (normally at shoulder or lower body);
with engraved decoration like for instance the piece from Luxemburgerstrasse at Cologne (DE)
[cat.no.1840] showing a decoration pattern of vine and ivy leaves; chevrons and 'lotus'-motif and
curls in 8 registers.
Form IIB.5: Small bulbous beakers with vertical neck
[Isings 94; AR 104; Trier 38; Cosyns, Hanut 2005 Form 5]
These vessels have a short or high vertical neck, thickened rim and base-ring with small diameter compared to
the larger preceding form type (Figure 35.5). They are known in monochrome black glass and likewise the
previous shape also decorated in various ways, in particular with a marvered festoon pattern, applied glass trails,
and indentations.
The first variant have opaque white marvered festoon-patterned decoration like for instance the beaker from
64
Rheinbach-Flerzheim (DE) [cat.no.1999] , a rim fragment and a base fragment from Avenches (CH) (Martin
64
Personal communication from Anna-Barbara Follmann-Schulz – 2005.
58
Pruvot 1999, 230, no. 1490, pl. 149) and various pieces from ash pits 2/3 of the barrow at Siesbach (DE) (Abegg
1989, 209, nos. 312, 319-26).
A second variant on this type of bulbous cup is decorated with an applied glass coil on the shoulder and on the
lower part of the body just above the foot like for instance the Ernesto Wolf beaker (Stern 2001, 193 no. 84).
Presumed from Cologne, the vessel is 73 mm high and has a single thread in opaque white glass applied on the
shoulder and just above the base-ring (Figure 37). A similar bulbous beaker in pale bluish glass retrieved from
nd
tomb 24 in Amay, Belgium is attributed to the last quarter of the 2 century AD (Willems, Amand 1960, 761; 766,
fig.4: D15). Its dimensions are 70 mm (height), 85 mm (maximum diameter of the body), and 56 mm (diameter
rim).
Figure 37: Small bulbous cup in Württembergisches Landesmuseum Stuttgart,
formerly in the Ernesto Wolf Collection (illustration from Stern 2001, 193, no. 84)
Figure 38: (left) Faulquemont, France (photograph by Hubert Cabart);
(right) MET 17.194.166, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (photograph by Chris Lightfoot, courtesy by Metropolitan
Museum of Art, New York)
The third variant (Isings Form 94/Trier 36) is a bulbous cup with an indented decorated body (Figure 38). Mainly
with a vertical rim, short or high, some examples have an outsplayed rim. These indented small cups can have a
coiled decoration similar to variant 2 on the shoulder and on the lower part of the body, just above the foot. The
example in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York [cat.no.4436] has four deep circular indents and a
horizontally applied glass thread in blue glass on the shoulder and on the lower part of the body just above the
foot (Figure 38 right). Recently, a bulbous cup with indented body has been found in Faulquemont (FR) (Cabart,
2005, 20, fig.4) (Figure 38 left). This variant is also known in other colours of glass such as a colourless example
from Arlon (BE) (Bertrang 1954, 96) and a blue-green piece from Trier (DE) (Goethert-Polaschek 1977, 44, pl. 35,
no. 134). The latter cup has a bulbous body decorated with six indents, and a rounded vertical rim. Because it is
very plausible that all these identity vessels are the fingerprint of one single glass blower, or at least attributable to
one specific glass workshop, we may assume that black glass vessels formed only a part of the entire production
of one glass workshop.
These drinking vessels are clearly inspired on cups in metalescent ware. Besides a chromatic relation, also a
morphological one can observe between small bulbous cups in black glass and those in metalescent ware from
2
the Mosel area around Trier (DE), such as the vessel shape Niederbieber 33a-c/Gose 209 (Oelmann 1976 , 4059
42). The black glass cup show the same variants noticeable in Niederbieber 33, where variant A of is plain and
undecorated, variant B is plain but with applied trails and variant c has indents as well as applied trails. The long
indented decoration and applied glass trail on the fragment from the villa of Mettet [cat.no.449] corresponds with
the beakers type Gose 206 but are in fact not more than a taller variant of Gose 209. Several other shapes in
black glass can be linked with the metalescent ware like for instance type Gose 199 (Form IIB.5); Niederbieber
31a (Form IIB.4-5).
3.2.3.25
Form IIB.6: Bulbous cup with a very thick flattened base
[Isings 96-variant; AR 40; Cosyns, Hanut 2005 Form 6]
In prior work we erroneously recognized this shape as an Isings Form 94-variant (Cosyns, Hanut 2005, 115, form
6), but the hemispherical body with a very thick flattened base without a foot, slightly outsplayed rim with a ground
edge, and wheel-cut grooves or ridges on the body is rather to be connected with the colourless and palecoloured hemispherical bowls (Isings Form 96b1), and consequently with Beat Rütti‘s AR60.1B, in particular nos.
nd
th
1317-1352 (Rütti 1991, II, 68-69, pls.58-62) (Figure 35.6). This shape is dated from the mid 2 –to the 4 century
AD and thus fits the general Period II date of the black glass vessels. An intact example of such a bulbous cup
was discovered in barrow III in Esch-Kollenberg (NL) which is dated at about 170-180 AD (Van den Hurk 1973,
224-225, no. III, 36, fig.67) [cat.no.2881]. It is 76 mm high, and its greatest diameter is 97 mm. Another, although
incomplete, piece is known from Augst (CH) (Rütti 1991, II, no. 1186) [cat.no.3540]. Furthermore, we are
convinced that another fragment from Augst/Kaiseraugst (CH) should be incorporated into this type instead of
type AR 37 (Rütti 1991, II, no. 1133, Taf. 49) [cat.no.3536]. We suggest that the small rim fragment should be
drawn with a stronger inclination. Recently, a new example was found during excavations at Faulquemont (FR)
nd
rd
and coming from a late 2 –early 3 century AD context (Cabart, 2005, 20, fig.4) [cat.no.1073].
3.2.3.26
Form IIB.7 Wide-mouthed bowls with a scalloped edge and base-ring
[Isings 42d; Cosyns, Hanut 2005 Form 7]
The indented body up to the rim of such shallow open vessels generate a scalloped edge (Figure 35.7). Thus far
only the piece from barrow III at Esch-Kollenberg (NL) (Van den Hurk 1973, 225, no. III, 37, fig.69) is known in
black glass. This extremely rare shape (Isings 1957, 59) is also known in colourless glass, e.g., one from barrow
65
III in Champion (BE), near Namur (Del Marmol 1851, 57), and a recently excavated piece in Jabbeke (BE). The
fragmentation degree of the latter piece was very high, but partial restoration provided enough evidence for its
attribution as a wide-mouthed bowl with a scalloped edge, and with a spiralling coil just below the rim. The vessel
nd
rd
comes from a late 2 –early 3 century AD cremation tomb, which formed part of a rural cemetery of about 40
graves. Finally, a third example has been reported by Jorge Alarçao (1967, 5) in his account on the glass vessels
from Jerumenha (PT).
3.2.3.27
Form IIB.8: Hemispherical shallow bowl with a thickened rim and base-ring
[Gellep 717; Cosyns, Hanut Form 8]
This shallow open vessel form (Figure 35.8) is unique and only known in black glass from grave 3815, KrefeldGellep (Pirling 1997, 36, no. 3815,2). Recently, Renate Pirling (2006, 299) confirmed that the Krefeld-Gellep piece
rd
remains a unique copy thus far in glass but that it resembles a pottery vessel shape which is typical for the 3
century AD.
3.2.3.28
Form IIB.9: Shallow saucepan (trulla) with flat handle
[Isings 75a; Cosyns, Hanut 2005 Form 9]
Trullae or saucepans with flat handle have a cylindrical body with thickened, vertical rim, and usually show a thin
base-ring (Figure 35.9). The only example registered in black glass comes from sarcophagus II in Stein (Isings
1971, 25, no. 78). Most examples of this type are greenish or colourless, and similar glass vessels are known with
a snake-thread decoration.
65
Personal communication from Yann Hollevoet – 2009. The artefact has erroneously been published as an Isings 32 beaker (Hollevoet,
Hillewaert 2009, 94).
60
3.2.3.29
Form IIB.10: Bulbous flask with a high narrow neck, funnel-mouth, and concave base
[Isings 92; Cosyns, Hanut 2005 Form 10]
Bulbous flasks have a high narrow neck with wide everted mouth and short inward-folded rim, and concave base
(Figure 35.10). They have been made with as well as without handles, and with as well as without constriction at
the base of the neck. The example from sarcophagus II in Stein is the only one without handles thus far recorded
in black glass (Isings 1971, 11-12, no. 19). This type of jug with two vertical handles is equally unique, and is only
known from an intact piece at the Musée National d‘Art et Histoire, Luxemburg [cat.no.2866] (unpublished)
(Figure 39). Similar to the previous shape is the funnel-shaped rim with an inward- folded edge, the narrow
cylindrical neck without constriction at its base, and the two simple vertical handles applied on the shoulder in a
simple blob and attached to the neck below the rim. However, no thumb-rest or loop has been modelled, and the
handles have an O-shaped section. Above all, the body is globular, with only a slightly concave, flattened base.
A certain parallel can be seen in the jug from Arsimont (BE) in ‗naturally‘ coloured glass (Mariën 1983, 112)
although the piece has only one handle that is attached at about the middle of the neck. This vessel is dated in
nd
the third quarter of the 2 century AD, and measures 200 mm with a maximum diameter of 131 mm.
Figure 39: a two-handled jug from unknown provenance (LU)
(photograph by Jeannine Geyssant by courtesy of MNAH, Luxemburg)
3.2.3.30
Form IIB.11: Ovoid one-handled jug with base-ring
[Isings 120-variant; Cosyns, Hanut 2005 Form 11]
This ovoid one-handled jug has a concave neck and funnel-shaped mouth with rounded rim and base-ring (Figure
35.11). The jug from barrow VI at Esch (NL) (van den Hurk 1977, 120, no. VI, 25) is the only one known in black
glass [cat.no.2879]. It has a spiral coil of similar glass wound up many times around the top of the neck. The
piece measures 123 mm (h.), and has a maximum diameter of body of 77 mm.
A rim fragment with a vertical handle comes from Straten, Bevingen (BE) (Wesemael, et al. 2004) [cat.no.519].
The upper part of the neck is decorated with an applied coil. The decoration and the handle are made from the
same dark olive-green glass as the core.
3.2.3.31
Form IIB.12: Ovoid one-handled jug with a rounded or spouted mouth
[Isings 54; Cosyns, Hanut 2005 Form 12]
These one-handled jugs have a rounded or spouted mouth and a base-ring (Figure 35.12). The handle bears a
vertical scalloped thumb-rest at the top and, in some cases, has an applied medallion on the body just below the
start of the handle. Such medallions have a rather limited range of depictions:
-
a theatre mask like the piece in the Benaki Museum (Clairmont 1977, 12) and two in the Bible Land
Museum (Bianchi (ed.) 2002, 303, GR-39-40);
a lion‘s head like the piece in the Corning Museum of Glass [cat.no.4445] or the one in the British
Museum (Cooney 1976, 2, no. 8);
a human head (perhaps the Medusa or Bacchus) like the one on the jug from Weilerwist-Hausweiler
(Follmann-Schulz 1992, 21-22, no. 10) [cat.no.2108].
61
The black glass jugs recorded so far are all decorated with marvered opaque white trails in upright festoons,
vertically as at Nijmegen (Isings 1964, 176, fig.4, no. 4), or the cemetery of the Luxemburgerstrasse, Cologne
(Isings 1964, 176, fig.5), and oblique like the Weilerwist-Hausweiler piece.
3.2.3.32
Form IIB.13: Ovoid beaker with plain or indented body
[Morin-Jean 113; AR 102-variant; Cosyns, Hanut 2005 Form 13]
This type of ovoid beaker incorporates a number of variants (Figure 35.13): 1) plain or indented body, 2)
outsplayed or slightly tapering cylindrical rim ending with a (fire-)rounded edge, and 3) base-ring or a concave
base without foot. Characteristic of this type of drinking vessel is the absence of a shoulder and neck. The oval
body of the beaker carries on through to the fire-rounded rim. We have to extend this type given the fact that
diverse variants have come to light besides the baseless beaker with indents from Eschweiler-Hastenrath (DE)
(Cosyns and Hanut 2005). The best parallel is Form 113 of Morin-Jean (1913), whereas Isings (1957) and
Goethert-Polaschek (1977) do not provide good parallels for this type of ovoid beaker. However, if further
comparisons should be made, the shape can be related in some way to the AR102 pieces (Rütti 1991, Taf. 88,
nos. 1962-1973) with nos. 1962-1969 having a more inward rim, and nos. 1970-1973 with an outsplayed rim
featuring an S-shaped profile. The latter variant shows continuity in production, since the vessel shape resembles
the much later-dated Goethert-Polaschek Form 62a and Isings Form 131.
Table 23: List of ovoid beakers, Form IIB.13
cat.no.
site
body
not
catalogued
not
catalogued
not
catalogued
1876
not
catalogued
not
catalogued
2975
not
catalogued
not
catalogued
not
catalogued
foot
colour
h.
(mm)
reference
Fécamp (FR)
indented
base-ring
blue-green
78
Lisieux (FR)
plain
base-ring
87
Neuville-lesDieppe (FR)
EschweilerHastenrath (DE)
Maaseik (BE)
plain
base-ring
indented
concave
plain
base-ring
dark bottle
green66
almost
colourless
black/olive
green
blue-green
Lyons-la-Forêt
(FR)
Nijmegen (NL)
applied trails
base-ring
colourless
109
Sennequier 1985, 63-64,
no.38
Sennequier 1985, 63,
no.36.
Sennequier 1985, 63,
no.37.
Follmann-Schulz 1992, 8788, no. 47
Janssens 1977, 29, no.12,
pl.XII
Vanpeene 2007, 27, fig.1:8
plain
base-ring
128
Isings 1964, 176, no. 4
Brognon (FR)
applied trails
base-ring
black/bottle
green
colourless
132
Vitrum 1990, 163, no.183
Cologne (DE)
applied trails
base-ring
colourless
155
Doppelfeld 1966, no. 125
Maaseik (BE)
applied trails
base-ring
blue-green
183
Janssens 1977, 29, no.12,
pl.XII
90
90
95
An overview on this vessel shape shows that the shape was also produced in naturally coloured and decolourized
glass (Table 23). The intact example with an inward rim from a burial in Nijmegen (NL) which is stored at the
Rijksmuseum voor Oudheden, Leiden [cat.no.2975] shows a close link to the metalescent ware Niederbieber 30a
(Oelmann 1976²) and Trier Form 3 – Group 43 (Symonds 1992, 54-55, fig.35: 639-656). The Nijmegen variant is
also known in naturally coloured glass such as the ones from the cemeteries of Maaseik (BE) and Monceau-surSambre (BE), as well as in colourless glass such as the beakers with a snake-thread decoration from, for instance,
the villa of Brognon (FR), Lyons-la-Forêt (FR), and Cologne (DE). Only one example with an S-profile in black
glass has been recorded thus far: the Eschweiler-Hastenrath (DE) beaker with an indented body and concave
base is full of air bubbles. Two other more or less similar beakers come from Neuville-les-Dieppe (FR) and
Fécamp (FR) and are made from almost colourless and blue-green glass. These two pieces have an applied
glass trail in the same colour as the body just under the belly and under the rim. Geneviève Sennequier (1985,
63-64) mentions other examples mainly from Normandye.g., Lillebonne and Pîtres. There are similarities with
Form IIB.5. The three pieces in the collections of the Musées Départementaux de Seine-Maritime, Rouen have a
base-ring pinched from the paraison. The base-ring of the Nijmegen beaker appears to be secondarily applied
and well-shaped by pinching obliquely with an instrument (Figure 10a).
66
We have not been able to verify whether this ‗verre vert bouteille très foncé‘ should not be considered as black-appearing glass.
62
3.2.3.33
Form IIB.14: Amphoriskos or wide mouthed two-handled jug
[Isings 15; Cosyns, Hanut 2005 Form 14]
Such amphoriskoi or two-handled jugs with an elongated ovoid body and base-ring, wide neck, and out-turned
tubular rim (Figure 35.14) are normally made in blue-green glass or in strongly coloured glass, particularly dark
ultramarine blue and opaque turquoise. These vessels are generally dated pre-Flavian (Isings 1957, 32-34; Price,
Cottam 1998, 147-148); however, a unique example in black glass with opaque white marvered festoons was
rd
found in a 3 century grave at Elsdorf-Esch (DE) (Gaitzsch 1999, 77-79; Cosyns, Hanut 2005, 116) [cat.no.1869]
[see Chapters 4 and 7].
3.2.3.34
Form IIB.15: Jug/carafe with one or two vertical handles
The jug has a less elongated ovoid body compared to the previous form and a much narrower cylindrical neck
without constriction at the base (Figure 35.15). Only one single example of this type of two-handled jug or
amphoriskos has been recorded so far in black glass and is unknown in other glass colours to us. This unique
piece comes from the villa of Bassenge (BE), and though excavated in 1888, it remained unnoticed in the large
collections at Grand Curtius, Liège due to its fragmentary preservation [cat.no.193] (unpublished). Even though
the fragmentary preservation (41 fragments) the archaeological completeness of the piece made possible a
reconstruction drawing of the entire vessel. The concave base does not show a pontil mark. The general form
reminds also the bulbous flask Form IIB.10 but the Bassenge jug has a lower part that is differently shaped – the
more elongated body tapers to an open base-ring. The rim is funnel-shaped with an inward-folded edge. The
vertical handles are wide, flat, and plain, applied on the shoulder in a simple blob and attached to the neck under
the rim ending in a folded thumb-rest. The shape and manufacturing technique of the rim and the handle(s)
remind these of the grape-shaped amphoriskoi [see this chapter 3.2.4. Mould-blown vessels]
The fragments resulted in two large parts that could not be assembled, though the drawing shows that from a
logical connection between the spherical-shaped shoulder and body, the original height should be estimated at
c.160 mm. The maximum diameter of the body is 78 mm and that of the foot is 41,5 mm. The neck is about 50
mm high and has a diameter of 15 mm. The funnel-shaped rim has a maximum diameter of 45 mm. The plain
handles are 2 mm thick and 14 mm wide. The only good parallel we could trace is the jug found during the A27
excavations at Fishbourne (Price, Cottam 1996, 167; 180, fig.6.29, no.84). Although no glass hue is mentioned
we presume it is not black appearing, otherwise the authors would have referred to it. The given dimensions
correspond very closely although the piece is higher (estimated height of 180 mm), the body more slender (60
mm diameter) and the neck wider (20 mm diameter). In some way there is resemblance with the reconstructed
shape 75 from Avenches (CH) (Martin-Pruvot 1999, 225, no. 1424, pl. 146). This two-handled jug in decolourized
glass comes from a c. 160-180 AD cremation tomb at the cemetery ‗En Chaplix‘. This equally unique piece from
Avenches, however, has a constriction at the base of the neck, and much longer and double ribbed handles –
67
suggesting a rather conical body.
3.2.3.35
Form IIB.16: Shallow cup with horizontally folded rim
[Isings 42-variant; AR 109.2; AV V100]
These shallow cups are a variant of the Isings Form 42a cups showing a different rim but otherwise with similar
characteristics such as the outward bended horizontal rim, the convex body, the wide base-ring and the concave
base with pinched in centre (Figure 35.16). Mainly produced in colourless and ‗naturally coloured‘ glass, some in
black glass occur in the Swiss area such as Avenches (CH) (Martin Pruvot 1999, 201, nos 1274-1275, 194, no.
1217) [cat.nos.3602; 3621-23] and Colchester (UK) (Cool, Price, 1995, 99-100, no. 694) [cat.no.4026]. The basering of the Avenches examples is massive and pinched out with a jack, while the examples from
Augst/Kaiseraugst show a folded tubular base-ring.
3.2.3.36
Form IIB.17: Cylindrical cup with fire-rounded rim and trailed decoration
[Isings 85; AR 98.2; AV V84]
Mainly in colourless glass this very common type of cylindrical cup is a variant on the ubiquitous undecorated
cylindrical cups with double base-ring (Isings Form 85b) (Figure 35.17). The decorated type in black glass has
been only attested in Augst/Kaiseraugst (CH) and Avenches (CH). Characteristic is the applied trail below the firerounded vertical or slightly everted rim and just above the strong curve at the lower part of the body. The trails are
67
This is probably the reason why Chantal Martin-Pruvot compared the piece with the tall necked jug with conical body, Isings Form 55 (MartinPruvot 1999, 225226).
63
of the same glass hue as the body. The base is flat or slightly concave and has an applied base-ring. Some show
a trailed ring at the centre around a pontil mark.
3.2.3.37
Form IIB.18: ‗Inkwell‘-pyxis
[Isings 77; AR 177; Trier 161]
Characteristic to these ‗Inkwell‘-pyxides is the slightly convex cylindrical body (sometimes tapering to the top), the
68
horizontally folded foot and shoulder, and the inward-sloping rim with rounded edge (Figure 35.18). The known
69
examples in various museum collections are all of unknown provenance. A black piece from the former Ernesto
Wolf collection is now in the Landesmuseum Württemberg, Stuttgart (Honroth et al. 2007, 108, fig.138 no.175),
and a second piece was acquired by the Corning Museum of Glass (Whitehouse, 1997, 199, no. 348) – formerly
in the Ray Winfield Smith collection (Smith 1957, 55, no. 64). Similar vessels are known in other glass hues.
Various examples in blue glass with a white marvered wispy decoration have been reported in the RömischGermanischen Museum in Cologne (La Baume 1973, D13, pl.18:1), the Newark Museum (Auth 1976, 119, no.
146), and from the former Constable-Maxwell collection (Constable-Maxwell 1979, 43, nos. 44-45). The piece
from the Toledo Museum, Ohio is similar to the ones above but green instead of blue. At the National Museum of
Scotland and at the Newark Museum are examples in a translucent bluish glass (Lightfoot 2007, 115, no. 271;
Auth 1976, 119, no. 145). Most of them have a lid, and even though most of them are probably from different
makers, the shape of the vessel supposes a lid to cover the pyxis. The shape is flat-domed or more or less
conical ending in a bulbous point. The height of the so-called inkwell pyxides with horizontally outward-folded foot
and shoulder averages between 53 and 70 mm and the diameter between 35 and 71 mm, with nearly similar size
for rim and foot.
Other so-called ‗inkwell‘ shapes produced in Roman times, as described by Clasina Isings (1957, Form 77), can
have a cylindrical or polygonal body without the folded base and shoulder or concave top, and be equipped with
(mainly three) dolphin-shaped handles. It is very likely that the small handle fragments in black/green glass from
Augst are handles of such a shape as that of an inkwell-pyxis and not of an aryballos.
3.2.3.38
Form IIB.19: Animal-shaped vessel
[Isings 95]
Only two pieces have been recorded in black glass: A dolphin-shaped vessel from a rich cremation burial in
Lillebonne (Arveiller-Dulong et al. 2003, 153, fig.21) [cat.no.1214] and a boar-shaped vessel from Cologne (Isings
1957, 112) [cat.no.1849] (Figure 35.19). The Isings Form 95 is however not restricted to only animal-shaped
vessels but comprises any ―queer bottle in a fancy shape‖ (Isings 1957, 112) distinguishing shapes representing a
fish (form 95a), a pig (form 95b) and a gladiator‘s helmet (form 95c) (see also Glass of the Caesars 1989, 134136, nos.63-65). Other shapes can be perfectly added to this form type such as the unique sandal-shaped vessel
found in 1971 in Cologne (DE) (Glass of the Caesars 1989, 137-138, no.66). These artefacts have been freeblown and shaped by pinching corporal elements and further completed by applying glass trails for rendering
details.
3.2.3.39
Form IIB.20: Aryballos with globular body
[Isings 61; AR 151; Trier 135; AV V 125-129]
This small bulbous flask is characterized by a short cylindrical neck with wide horizontal outward folded rim; two
proportionally large vertical dolphin-shaped handles; a concave base with a clear pontil mark (Figure 35.20).
Likewise the peculiar examples of the mould-blown square bottles in black glass from Augst/Kaiseraugst (CH)
[see further in this chapter], is the aryballos very rarely attested in black glass. We have three possible fragments
from Augst/Kaiseraugst (CH) of which the elaborate handle fragment is coming from the glass workshop ‗Äussere
Reben‘ in Kaiseraugst [cat.no.3778] [see Chapter 6] and a bottom fragment with a maximum diameter below 50
mm [cat.no.3753]. This piece has a very large but thin pontil mark of about 20 mm [cat.no.3553]. The majority of
this bulbous bath flask has been made in ‗naturally coloured‘ blue-green to pale blue glass but decolourized glass
has been applied regularly. Hitherto few remarks can be made as we have no material at hand to tell whether the
black aryballoi were always plain or also was decorated with applied glass trails or show wheel-cut decoration, but
aryballoi with annular shaped body are discussed in Period III and the grape-shaped aryballos from Cologne is
discussed further below in this chapter [see 3.2.4. mould-blown vessels IIC.3].
68
Also polygonal inkwells are attested (see Simon-Hiernard 2000, 383-384).
Only the base fragment with horizontally outward-folded base-ring, which is presumably part of such an inkwell pyxis was excavated in Heerlen
(NL) [cat.no.2901].
69
64
Period III
1.
2.
3.
Figure 40: Typology of Period III free-blown shapes (drawings taken from Pirling, Siepen 2006 (1-2); Dilly, Mahéo 1997 (3))
3.2.3.40
Form IIIB.1: Convex cup with out-turned fire-rounded rim
[Isings 96b2b; AR 61; Gellep 189]
This small cup has no foot, a slightly pushed-in base, a rounded body with pulled-out knobs, and a rim with a
rounded edge slightly turned outward (Figure 40.1). The piece from Tongeren (BE), now in the Grand Curtius,
Liège, is made of a deep green glass and has 9 protruding knobs at the lower part of the body (Vanderhoeven
1958, 59, no.60) [cat.no.563]. Particular are the horizontally pinched protrusions whereas these are generally
vertically pinched. Generally in colourless glass this shape is also known in naturally coloured glass. Also less
common is the spiralling coil just under the rim, winded seven times around.
A similar cup with a height of 63 mm and a rim diameter of 115 mm in yellowish-green glass with 11 knobs comes
th
from the late 4 century tomb 2 of the villa HA382 at Hambacher Forst (DE) (Gaitzsch et al. 2003, 195, fig.72).
The Tongeren beaker has somewhat smaller dimensions: 47 mm height; 72 mm rim diameter. The shape is also
known in a larger size with higher vertical walls, type Gellep 515 (Pirling, Siepen 2006, 245). The Pieces from
nd
Augst/Kaiseraugst (CH) are apparently much earlier dated between the second half of the 2 century AD and the
rd
third quarter of the 3 century AD (Rütti 1991, II, 70-71, pl.63). We nonetheless assume this variant of the Isings
Form 96 of later date than the Form IIB.6 with thick base and decorated with abraded contentric lines, not
excluding that such vessels in black glass were produced at the end of Period II.
3.2.3.41
Form IIIB.2: Unguent bottle with flattened circular body
[Isings 101-variant – Trier 80 – Gellep 526]
Unguentaria with a flattened circular body (Figure 40.2) are not a frequently recorded shape, although they are
known from all over the Roman Empiree.g., Egypt, Syria, Cyprus, and the Lower Rhine region like KrefeldGellep (DE), Cologne (DE), Trier (DE), and Strasburg (FR) (Pirling 2006, 272). This vessel shape is essentially
known in decolorized, or a pale-coloured glass, even though several examples are produced in a deeply coloured
glass like, for instance, the deep blue one from Strasburg (FR) (Arveiller-Dulong, Arveiller 1985, 138, no. 303), or
the deep purple and deep blue ones from tombs 227 and 327 from the Jakobstrasse in Cologne (DE) (Friedhoff
1991, 283, Taf. 95:3/12; 329, Taf. 115:2).
They appear in two sizes: small ones with a height averaging between 50-60 mm, and medium-sized ones with a
height of around 90 mm. The only one known in black glass comes from tomb 5530 of the Krefeld-Gellep
cemetery and is, with a height of 92 mm, medium-sized (Pirling 2003, 69, no. 5530:4, Taf. 6:3a-b; 133:2). Very
exceptionally there is one large example of 129 mm known from Mainz (DE) in pale green glass (GoethertPolaschek 1977, 137, no. 766). Unguentaria with flattened circular bodies very rarely have handles like the one in
pale bluish-green glass from Trier-Biewererstrasse, with two complex multiple dolphin-shaped handles in
ultramarine blue glass (Goethert-Polaschek 1977, 137, no. 770). The constriction at the lower end of the
cylindrical neck and the slightly concave, pushed-in base makes the similarity with the very widespread
contemporaneous unguentaria with bulbous bodies (Trier 79, Isings Form 101) striking. More salient are the
comparable dimensions and the existence of equally small-, medium- and large-sized shapes.
3.2.3.42
Form IIIB.3: Aryballos with annular body
[Trier 139; Morin-Jean 36]
Most are in very pale coloured or decolourized glass but an intact piece from Amiens (FR) is made in black
appearing brown glass (Dilly, Mahéo 1997, 120, pl.14, no.257) [cat.no.1006] (Figure 40.3). These vessels are
rather small. The Amiens aryballos measures 74 mm high and the body has a maximum diameter of 67 mm and
the rim diameter is 30 mm, what makes is slightly larger than the piece in decolourized glass from Trier with a
height of 68 mm and a rim diameter of 29 mm (Goethert-Polaschek 1977, 232, no.1389). This vessel shape has a
65
flattened base but examples show four small applied foot knobs, e.g. Trier (Goethert-Polaschek 1977, 232, no.
1389).
3.2.4
Mould-blown vessels
The number of vessel shapes generated from the mould-blown technique is rather insignificant. Those recorded
so far remain restricted to a few examples of specific shapes, with the grape-shaped amphoriskos and aryballos,
and the square bottle being the most frequent shapes. This is in part due to the technical difficulty of blowing
vessels in moulds with an iron-rich glass matrix, which shortens the time of workability significantly [see Chapters
2 and 8]. The only mould-blown vessel shape in black glass of Period I noticed thus far is cylindrical cup without
nd
rd
foot stand [see Form IC.1]. In the later 2 to mid 3 century AD, mould-blown vessels essentially occur in the
rd
th
north-western provinces. No example is hitherto identified dating in the later 3 or 4 century AD. Only in the
th
th
early Byzantine period(5 7 centuries AD) were vessels blown again in a black-appearing glass. SyroPalestinian workshops produced at that time mould-blown polygonal flasks and jars in dark to very dark purple
and brown glasses, with some having a pretty black appearance (Stern 1995, 256-257, no. 173; Newby 2008, 136,
no. 34; 142, no. 37; 208-210, nos. 65-66).
1.
6.
2.
7.
3.
4.
5.
8.
Figure 41: Typology of mould-blown vessels (1-5 = Forms IC; 6-7 = Forms IIC; 8 = Form IVC) (all drawings by author;
photograph (3) taken from Whitehouse 2001, 65, no.536)
Period I
3.2.4.1
Form IC.1: Cylindrical cup with everted rim
[AR 38; Trier 39; AV V 47]
Various features are characteristic to the cup: 1) the outward-bended rim with cut and ground edge, 2) the wheelcut concentric lines on the body, and 3) a somewhat profiled, thickened base without foot (Figure 41.1). This
shape is to our opinion incorrectly described as a free-blown shape because this vessel shape can only be
obtained by rotating the blowing pipe during the mould-blown process. The fact that the vessel shows no seam
does not exclude the use of a mould. The vessels of this type are perfectly cylindrical with a perfectly constant
everted rim and a steady horizontally cut edge. The vessel has a particular curve that only can be obtained from a
mould.
Mainly attested in decolourized or ‗naturally coloured‘ glass, some examples in black glass are known like for
instance the intact piece from the Tongeren area (BE) [cat.no.562] (Vanderhoeven 1962, 23, no.15; Cosyns et al.
2006a, 31-34, fig.1 [top]; fig.2) and a base fragment in a black/brown-green glass comes from the cemetery ―En
Chaplix‖ at Avenches (CH) [cat.no.3617] (Bonnet-Borel 1997, 29, no. AV V 47; Martin-Pruvot 1999, 188, no.1181).
The Tongeren cup has two parallel wheel-cut lines on the lower part just above the curving and another pair of
lines on the upper part just below the rim. Though being cylindrical its shape has cubic dimensions with a height
66
of 74 mm, the diameter of the body is 72,5 mm and that of the rim 75 mm. The Avenches-fragment has a body
diameter of 65 mm.
This type of drinking vessel is rather made in a colourless or pale-coloured glass. Significant is that none of the 30
pieces attached to this type from Augst/Kaiseraugst are made in black glass (Rütti 1991, 55-56, nos. 1148-1177),
nor are the examples reported by Jennifer Price and Sally Cotham on the Romano-British vessels (1998, 94-95).
The date range is situated in the second century AD up to the late Antonine period.
3.2.4.2
Form IC.2: Truncated conical cup
[Isings 29/31 variant]
This particular form type is hitherto only represented by a unique but fragmented piece (max. pres. h.:49 mm)
from excavations within London (UK) [cat.no.4142] (unpublished), with no parallel to our knowledge in any other
glass hue. Besides its resemblance to the cups of Isings Form 29, there is also close parallel with the mouldblown truncated conical beakers (Isings Form 31). The fragmented pieces make it impossible to reconstruct the
entire vessel shape, but from what remains can be assumed the shape of a conical cup with a horizontal ribbed
cylindrical body (max.d.: 50 mm) tapering towards the foot and with a wide truncated annular ring (d.: 45 mm)
(Figure 41.2). Due to the restrictions of the casting technique and the characteristic features of the vessel we
believe this rather thin-walled vessel shape is mould-blown. Furthermore the sharp relief of the concentric ribbings
and the dotted disc at the centre of the foot the vessel was most likely blown in a metal mould using a rotating
movement and possibly abraded to resemble metal ware.
3.2.4.3
Form IC.3: Sports cups
Athlete and circus cups are usually made of transparent pale ‗naturally coloured‘ or decolorized glass. Not only is
no more than one single fragment known in black appearing glass, the piece is also unique as David Whitehouse
(2001, 65, no.536) comments on the piece: ―The fragment differs from most first century sports cups in shape,
color, and depth of relief. ... The wall is unusually thick. Despite the anomalous character of the fragment and its
pristine condition, I see no reason to doubt its antiquity.‖ The fragment appears that of a hemispherical cup with
the representation of an athlete and a palm leaf separated by a vertical border in one register [cat.no.4455]
70
(Figure 41.3).
3.2.4.4
Form IC.4: Hexagonal bottles with high relief
Hexagonal bottles have been thoroughly studied by Marianne Stern (1995, 74-86; 113-148). She distinguished
three classes based on the mould seams on the bottom of the vessel. Furthermore she identified the use of clay
st
moulds and metal moulds (Stern 1995, 75). All classes are dated in the 1 century AD. Characteristic are the
short cylindrical neck, small horizontal rim folded out – up – inward, shoulder and belly of the body also contain
mould-blown design, correspondingly festoons and triangular leaves or narrow gadroons (less frequent) (Figure
41.4)
The only catalogued piece in a black appearing glass is one from the Toledo Museum of Art, which is made of a
dark brown glass (Stern 1995, 133-135, no.40) [cat.no.A4614] (Figure 42 - left). The piece was blown in a threepart mould construction type MCTIV (Stern 1995, 133). Based on the representation of a pomegranate, grapes
and a cedar cone, the high relief is determined as Fruit Type Series B1 (Stern 1995, 78-81; 133-134). Marianne
Stern also mentions that the festooned floral motif on the shoulder is more elaborate than of Series A and that the
belly has gadroons instead of the more popular triangular leaves. The piece has an average size with its 85 mm
height and a base diameter of 23 mm.
3.2.4.5
Form IC.5: Double-headed bottle without handles
A tall cylindrical neck, a horizontal rim folded outward – up – inward and a body composed of two human faces
back to back are the main features of this form (Figure 41.5). The black appearing piece from Toledo Museum of
Art is apparently made of a deep reddish purple (Stern 1995, 223, no.142) [cat.no.A4613] (Figure 42 - right). The
body consists of two Medusa heads from two different moulds clearly revealing the seam of two mould
70
A fragmented circus cup from Augst/Kaiseraugst (CH)is made of very dark brown transparent glass (unpublished).
67
71
segments. The flat base is circular and has a base mark showing a central disk within a square with concave
sides. The piece is 105 mm high and the diameter of the base 37 mm.
Figure 42: (left) The hexagonal bottle (Form IB.4) and (right) the double head-shaped bottle (Form IB.5)
from the Toledo Museum of Art (photographs taken from Stern 1995, colour plates 7; 23).
Period II
3.2.4.6
Form IIC.1: Grape-shaped amphoriskos
[Morin-Jean 131; Isings 91a; Trier 138]
72
This shape is mainly known from examples in transparent pale blue-green to pale blue glass (Simon-Hiernard
2000, 363-370); however, some have been blown in deeply coloured glasses, like the piece from the rich tumulus
at Vorsen/Frésin (BE) (Schuermans 1864, 256-261) or the fragments from Trier (DE) (Goethert-Polaschek 1977,
231-232, nos.1386-1387).
The amphoriskoi of Period I (Isings Form 78e) have smaller dimensions and lack handles, but thus far none have
been recorded in a black-appearing glass. For Period II, the grape-shaped amphoriskoi appear in various sizes
and workmanship (Figures 43-44). The variant with a beaded stem (Isings Form 91b) is unknown in blackappearing glass. Two groups can be distinguished: the large-sized type of about 170-180 mm high, and the
smaller-sized type ranging between 100-110 mm in height. The distinction related to the size and shape of the
grapes and the pattern it provides can possibly be linked to different glass workshops using different moulds. The
grapes of the Nijmegen (NL) amphoriskos look thick and spherical and are placed in an irregular, rather
naturalistic pattern (Figures 41.6 and 43). The amphoriskoi of Bologna (IT) (Figure 44) and Wederath (DE) are
much smaller and not very protruding, showing a fairly rigid symmetrical and stylized pattern. This variety in
grapes is most probably due to the use of different materials to produce the moulds, i.e., the use of clay results in
naturalistic grapes and the use of bronze results in stylized grapes. Nevertheless, the various stylistic elaborations
and idiosyncratic technological features must be regarded as specific for particular glass workshops in different
regions and/or during successive generations of glass blowers. Various smaller and larger moulds can be
recognized to produce the grape-shaped amphoriskoi with naturalistic or stylized grapes, but a thorough synthesis
on this issue has not been completed (Simon-Hiernard 2000, 363-370; Arveiller forthcoming). However small
grape-shaped amphoriskoi with naturalistic grapes do exist, but all of them recorded so far were made from clear,
transparent glass. On the other hand, no large grape-shaped amphoriskos with stylized grapes has been
recorded.
71
Marianne Stern remarks that though the facial features are similar, one face is smaller than the other.
The grape-shaped vessel from Myres‘ excavations on Cyprus and now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (Karageorghis 2000, 287,
no. 470), is more a small jar and thus a totally different shape with a similar decoration pattern produced with a similar technique. The jar is squat
only 48 mm highand has no handles. The ovoid body has small pastille-shaped grapes reminiscent of those on the ovoid bottles with a
stylized grape pattern as discussed by Marianne Stern (1995, 191-195, nos. 120-128), although these have a double-sized body compared to the
Cypriot piece in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Instead of finishing the piece by swaying the blowing pipe to obtain a long cylindrical neck, the
rim has been outsplayed and folded inward.
72
68
Since the amphoriskoi from Wederath (DE) are very fragmentary, no true comparison can be done with the
Nijmegen piece. However, the dissimilarity in shape of the grapes displays an important formal distinguishing
feature for the amphoriskoi from both sites. The Nijmegen amphoriskos has very naturalistic, thick, bulging grapes
that are close to each other and show no specific pattern, whereas the piece from Wederath (DE) has small,
round, slightly protruding knobs in a diagonal pattern with lots of space between each grape. Noticeable is the
piece from Bologna (IT) (Figure 44) (Meconcelli-Notarianni 1979, no. 213) with a similar pattern.
Figure 43: The grape-shaped amphoriskos from Nijmegen-Hees (Photograph by the author, courtesy of the Museum
Het Valkhof, Nijmegen)
Figure 44: The grape-shaped amphoriskos from Bologna, Italy(illustration taken
from Meconcelli Notarianni 1979, no. 213)
In the collections of the former Museum Wallraff-Richartz in Cologne (DE) was a grape-shaped amphoriskos with
an applied yellow opaque glass trail on the rim, reported to have been excavated during the laying of the drains
and sewers in Cologne (‗städtischen Kanalisierungsarbeiten‘, s.n. 1908, 389). It is not clear what type of mould
was used.
69
3.2.4.7
Form IIC.2: Prismatic bottles
[Isings 50]
Prismatic bottles are usally square bottles but also include rectangular and octagonal (Figure 41.7). This
ubiquitous vessel shape can be considered as a fossil guide in Roman archaeology, as are the ribbed bowls.
Peculiar are those square bottles which are not mould-blown in pale blue glass or the naturally coloured bluegreen glass. Until recently, no example of this type in a black-appearing deeply coloured glass was listed. Within
the material from Augst/Kaiseraugst (CH) not incorporated in Beat Rütti‘s work (1991) were found six fragments of
this type in a very deeply blue-green glass appearing black [cat.nos.3462;3493-94;3521;3532;3551;3777] (Figure
45). From the remains cannot be said whether the bottles had a square body, a rectangular or octagonal one and
whether the body was large or small. No mould fragments from the ‗Äussere Reben‘-workshop have been found
or the base fragment of a prismatic bottle in black glass to determine the base-mark(s).
Figure 45: Two fragments of mould-blown prismatic bottles from the ‗Aussere Reben‘ workshop at Kaiseraugst (CH)
[cat.no.3777 (left); cat.no.3462 (right)] (photographs by the author, by courtesy of the Römermuseum, Augst)
Period IV
3.2.4.8
Form IVC.1: Double-headed jug
Although the apparent popularity of using deeply coloured glass for head-shaped vessels (Stern 1995, 201-246)
we recorded only one single piece in black appearing glass that can be ascribed to Period IV (Figure 41.8).
Probably many more have been overlooked. The Corning piece (Whitehouse 2001, 161, no.1174) [cat.no.4457]
not only shows characteristic features attested on other non-black appearing examples: a) the straight funnelshaped mouth with knocked-off rim; b) the vertical handle tooled at two places to form a semicircular shape with
pinched-out thumb pieces, wrapped around the neck to form a ring; c) the so-called knobby hair dress, similar to
the small stylized grapes attested on a group of grape-shaped amphoriskoi (Figure 44). The dimensions of the
Corning piece also correspond to the small size of this vessel shape in other glass hues. But with a height of 95
mm the piece is relatively tall. The rim diameter of 36 mm ranges within the general size of 34-38 mm.
In accordance with Marianne Stern‘s observations on identical material in the collections of the Toledo Museum of
Art we are tempted to assume that the faces of this specific vessel shape represent childlike faces, one serious
and one smiling (Stern 1995, 241-242, nos.161-163).
3.2.5
Rod-formed vessels
The various vessel shapes that have been produced using the rod-formed technique are very idiosyncratic except
for the squat, large, triangular, solid-body vessels with tall necks (see Form IID.1). The others represent only a
reduced number of shapes that is to be situated within a relatively short date range (Period IV) [see Chapter 4],
confined to a well-demarcated regional production and distribution (Levant and Egypt) [see Chapter 6]. The two
major shapes discernable within those in black glass are the tall but slender tubular vessels (Form IVD:1) and the
wide-mouthed squat jars (Forms IVD.2-4).
Within the limits of this present study on black glass, it was not possible to set up an elaborate typology because
similar material in other glass hues was not taken into consideration, nor able to execute an exhaustive research.
We have tried, however, to give a first clear overview on this issue by categorizing each rod-formed vessel shape
occurring in black glass on the basis of distinctive features (Table 24):
70
Table 24: Overview of features used to categorize the rod-formed vessels
the diversity of decoration
plain
with applied glass thread decoration
with ribbed body
o
twisted
o
straight/vertical ribbings with stamped/pressed-in decoration
the bottom
with (small) pad foot
without foot
the body
hemispherical
with conical body
with biconical body
the handles
with handles
o
vertical
o
horizontal
without handles
Table 25: Types of decoration of the rod-formed vessel shapes known in black glass
type
plain
Form IID.1: Large conical solid body vessel with tall
neck IID.2: Large conical solid body vessel with short
Form
neck IVD.1: Tall and slender tubular vessel
Form
Form IVD.2: Squat miniature jar
Form IVD.3: Truncated conical jar
Form IVD.4: Biconical jar
3.2.5.1
x
-
ribbed
applied glass trails
x
x
x
-
x
x
x
x
x
stamped
x
-
Form IID.1: Tall candlestick unguentaria with a triangular solid body
[Isings 82b2/Harden Class XIII, A]
Figure 46: Rod-formed unguentaria with triangular shaped solid body and tall neck from Elkab (EG)
(drawing by F. Roloux, by courtesy of the MRAH-KMKG, Brussels; photograph by author, by courtesy of the MRAH-KMKG,
Brussels)
Based on the observations of the four pieces from Elkab (EG) [cat.nos.868-871] (Figure 46) we clearly establish a
form of rod-formed unguentaria. This vessel type is generally acknowledged to be manufactured by blowing as
can be observed on comparative material (Harden, 1936, 260, nos. 815-82; Auth 1976, 115, Arveiller, Nenna
2005, 251).
The rotated solid glass mass and the non-inflated volume limited to the neck, which is drawn out to a tall cylinder
73
resulting into glass with large elongated air bubbles are striking. The blown solid-based unguentaria are made in
strongly blue-green to green glass of mediocre quality (Arveiller, Nenna 2005, 251), whereas these rod-formed
ones are apparently made in a dark greenish-brown glass. Related to the thin-walled blown candlestick
73
The dark coloured glass and the thick glass mass full of air bubbles makes one think of poorly heated glass remains used to produce these
plump vessels.
71
unguentaria (Isings Form 82b2) in pale ‗naturally coloured‘ glass this vessel shape is integrated in the Period II
chrono-typology and not in Period IV, the phase featuring rod-formed vessels [see Chapter 4]. However, where
the latter type is ubiquitous for the entire Roman Empire, the blown solid-based pieces remain distinctive to Egypt
and the southern Levant (Cosyns et al. 2006, tab.1) [see Chapter 6].
The four pieces from Elkab (EG) (Figure 46) are made from black-appearing deep greenish-brown glass and are
74
thus far the only pieces recorded to have been rod-formed. Because the Louvre Museum possesses a piece in
dark green glass with a very similar in shape is to our estimation erroneously described as blown (Arveiller,
Nenna 2005, 263, no.792) we assume that a reassessment of the material is required. None of the three base
fragments fit the rim fragment but according to the measurements of the preserved height we can estimate the
total height at about 100 mm. With a maximum diameter of the body varying between 54 mm and 56 mm the
diameter of the three bases range between 50 and 60 mm equalling the dimensions of large solid-based
unguentaria. Two unguentaria have a faint constriction at the base of the neck and one is without a constriction.
Those with constriction seem to have been turned in a mould to obtain a neat conical shape whereas the one
without a constriction has a more concave shaped body and therefore shaped in a free movement. If not flat, the
basal surface is concave and repeatedly shows a large pontil scar in the centre. The presence of a pontil mark on
the base is logical as the pulling of the neckdemonstrated by the large vertically elongated air bubbles in the
glass matrix of the neckand the shaping and folding of the rim necessitated the use of a pontil rod.
The external diameter of the neck varies between 17-20 mm and the wall thickness ranges between 3,5-4,5 mm.
With an opening of 14 mm and the inner diameter of c. 10 mm restricted to the length of the neck ending at the
start of the body these vessels have a very limited usable volume compared to the size of the vessel and the
mass of glass used.
3.2.5.2
Form IID.2: Squad candlestick unguentaria with a triangular solid body
[Isings 82b2variant/Harden Class XIII,C ]
Figure 47: squad candlestick unguentarium with solid body
(photograph by courtesy of the Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven)
Only one piece of this variant has been inventoried as black appearing glass. The piece at Yale University Art
Gallery (unpublished) [cat.no.A4696] is unique and refined in its kind as it is well executed with a marvered
upward festooned decoration of glass trails alternating in opaque red and white glass (Figure 47). Straight at neck
and rim this festooned pattern is somewhat twisted at the body due to a rotational movement during the
manufacturing process. With a height and a base diameter of 70 mm the piece is a fairly large squad
unguentarium.
74
Only two out of four unguentaria from Elkab are published in Capart, Fouilles d‘Elkab (3, 1954, 112, nos. 6768): the rim fragment (E 7776d) is
erroneously published as E7776a.
72
3.2.5.3
1
Form IVD.1: Tall, slender balsamaria
3.
2.
Figure 48: Rod-formed alabastra with twisted body without foot (left) or with foot (right)
(drawings by author, by courtesy of Grand Curtius, Liège)
75
The type is purely known as rod-formed vessels even if similarities in blown vessels can be found for the tubular
vessels [see Chapter 8]. A range of variants is noticed according to the decoration pattern along with the
presence or absence of specific elements such as feet or handles (Figure 48). The dimensions of the ribbed
vessels, straight or twisted, range between 90 and 140 mm in height and the body has a maximum diameter
ranges between 20-25 mm while the rim diameter can vary between 15 and 25 mm. Numerous museum
collections have examples in black glass but also in ultramarine blue glass (Hentrich, von Saldern 1974, 256, no.
750; Auth 1976, 147, no.189; 225, no.490; Whitehouse 2003, 47-48; Israeli 2003, 294, no. 391-392). Other glass
hues such as opaque turquoise (Stern 2001, 186, no.78) and greenish glass (Smith, 157-159, no. 321) were
much lesser utilized to make rod-formed balsamaria.
We were not able to record balsamaria other than the four variants as illustrated in Figure 48: with a rounded
base and without foot (variant 1); those with a pad-shaped foot applied around the rounded bottom (variants 2-4)
can be distinghuished on the basis of its decoration technique: variant 2 has a body with twisted ribbings; variant
3 has straight vertical or poorly twisted ribbings wrapped with a spiralling trail in opaque glass hue (generally
white or blue, but yellow and red arer not excluded); variant 4 has no ribbings but only applied glass trail
decoration. We differentiate two subcategories for variant 2 based on some external features connected to the
manufacturing technique and thus possibly related to technical knowledge of two different
glassworkers/workshops. Subtype A has a high vertical rim and large handles whereas subtype B has a short
rounded rim and squat vertical handles.
An example of variant 3 balsamaria is the vessel B2403 in the Grand Curtius, Liège with three wide, poorly
twisted, vertical ribbings decorated with an opaque turquoise glass trail spiralling 12 times anticlockwise from the
shoulder down to just above the disk base, which apparently was added before the trailed decoration was applied
(Figure 48:3). The piece has a thick rounded rim with constriction and two vertical handles from rim to shoulder.
They were added after the decoration was applied. The vessel is 95,5 mm high and has a maximum diameter of
21,7 mm at the body (unpublished) [cat.no.4446].
An example of variant 4 is the balsamarium in the Israel Museum, Jerusalem (Brosh 2003, 381, no. 516)
[cat.no.A4615]. The vessel is decorated by marvering- applied glass trails on a plain shape in zigzags or spiralling
on various parts of the body. The example has five spirally wound trails in opaque red glass alternating four times
with a single zigzag trail in opaque blue glass. Strangely, this vessel of 120 mm in height and with a diameter of
14 mm is described as being blown and dated in the early Islamic period. In every respect, the piece is similar to
the other rod-formed balsamaria: its pad-shaped base, its tall and slender body, its vertical handles from shoulder
to rim which protrude slightly above it, and the high, uneven rounded rim and should therefore be considered
75
It was, however, quite surprising to find a tall and slender rod-formed balsamarium from the Dobkin collection in the Israel Museum, Jerusalem
described as a blown elongated bottle dated 7th8th century AD (Brosh 2003, 381, no. 516) [cat.no.A4615].
73
another vessel type of late Roman production. The absence of well-dated finds maintains however such
conflicting date ranges [see Chapter 5].
3.2.5.4
Form IVD.2: Wide-mouthed hemispherical squat jar
The most common shape of squat jars is the wide-mouthed jar with hemispherical body comprising various
subtypes. Instead of creating an inconvenient number of incoherent types we categorized the wide-mouthed
squat jars within three main subclasses based on the decorative style and formal aspects (Figure 49): Variant 1
features an incised decoration showing a vertical or twisted ribbed body; Variant 2 features a glass trail decoration
applied in zigzag just below the shoulder in a contrasting opaque glass hue (white, yellow, red, blue); Variant 3
features a stamped decoration making the globular body got flattened sides by means of three large circular
stamps. We differentiated the subcategories on the basis of the absence of both handles and foot (a); the
76
presence of handles (b); the presence of both handles and foot (c). Such subdivision is only useful to enable a
quantification of the different variations that were produced in view of a study of the production and distribution of
such idiosyncratic commodities. The minor variations present in the wide variety of squat hemispherical jars
speaks in favour of one or a very few workshops responsible for the production during a relatively short period
(one or two generations). Seeing that nearly all recorded material is from unknown provenance makes a more
thorough assessment ineffective. Only an in depth appraisal on this commodity type including those in all other
glass hues as well as an evaluation of the contemporaneous free-blown toilet ware plus good archaeological finds
can enhance our knowledge on the consumption of these vessels and help discerning the idiosyncrasies related
to glass workshops.
Almost all examples, independent of the subtypes of the squat vessel shape, are about 40–50 mm in height and
have a more or less equal diameter (Table 26).
In analogy to the tall and slender balsamaria, this generally black glass vessel shape is also known in different
glass hues, e.g., turquoise, ultramarine blue, dark green, and a wide variety of decoration techniques. It is striking
that plain jars have not been recorded so far and that the various types of decoration never occur combined
(Table 25). The vessels are thus decorated with ribbings, or with applied glass trails, or with a stamped pattern
(Table 26). The vessel type can occur with or without a foot, but especially the hemispherical squat jar has no foot.
When present it always consists of a pad-shaped disc that due to its small size and irregular shape demonstrates
to miss its raison d'être. The handles were added separately when the vessel was completed, and are always
applied from the shoulder to the rim and in most cases the handles rise above the rim and show tooling with a
pincer.
Table 26: List of rod-formed squat jars (Form IVD.2)
type
ribbed
4443
4449
IVD.2:1b
IVD.2:1b
vertically
diagonally
-
-
38
47
max.
Ø
body
36
44
4453
IVD.2:1b
diagonally
-
-
46
4460
IVD.2:1b
diagonally
-
-
4468
IVD.2:1b
vertically
-
4470
IVD.2:1b
diagonally
4465
IVD.2:2a
-
4441
IVD.2:2b
4459
4448
4451
4442
cat.no.
76
applied
trails
Ø
rim
Ø
base
30
31
-
Israeli 2003, 294, no.393
unpublished
45
31
-
Whitehouse 2001, 47, no. 959
50
55
30
-
-
47
37
27
-
greenish
white
-
40
40
33
-
Hentrich, von Saldern 1974, 188,
no.278
Hayes 1975, 121-122, no.479,
pl.31
Auth 1976, 147, no.190
-
39
?
30
-
Stern, 2001, no.81
-
white
-
46
36
25
-
Arveiller-Dulong, Nenna 2005,
no.1156
IVD.2:2b
-
white
-
39
46-52
?
-
Whitehouse 2001, 51, no.969
IVD.2:2c
IVD.2:3b
IVD.2:3c
-
white
-
indefinite
lion
47
46
62
43
46
42
36
35
27
13
18
unpublished
unpublished
Israeli 2003, no.394
stamped
h.
references
A logical fourth alternative should comprise vessels with a foot but without handles.
74
Figure 49: The various subtypes of squat jars with their various decorations (drawings by author, by courtesy of Grand Curtius,
Liège; photographs taken from Arveiller, Nenna 2005, no. 1156 and Israeli 2003, no.394)
o
With ribbed body
So far only the baseless hemispherical aryballos-type with handles (Form IVD.2:1b) (Figure 49) and the more
slender amphoriskos-type with pad base (Form IVD.3:1) (Figure 51) show examples with ribbed decoration
appearing in two variants (Table 26). Some have straight vertical ribbings on the body such as the piece now at
the Bible Lands Museum in Jerusalem (Schlick-Nolte 2002, 105, no. V-69) demonstrating that the hot gob
became tough when clearly pinched in with a jack. However, the main ribbed design is slightly twisted clockwise
with a S-twined pattern. The intact piece now in the Corning Museum of Glass (Whitehouse 2001, 47, no. 959)
[cat.no.4453] has 10 ribbings twisted clockwise from base to shoulder.
o
With applied glass thread decoration
Generally, the unmarvered trailed decoration is limited to the shoulder, even if the applied decoration can be as
low as halfway down the body or down to the carination for those with a biconical body. The glass trails are only in
opaque hues, mainly in white and red or both colours combined. On a few occasions, the rod-formed jars have a
trailed decoration in yellow or turquoise glass. The trails always show a zigzag pattern. They can be short or wide,
covering a large surface, and they can be sharp or undulating. The applied colours used and the geometric
patterns obtained are likewise those on the contemporaneous black glass beads and pendants, although
spiralling trailed decorations are fully absent here.
The old collections of RGM Cologne encompass a Form IVD.2:2c piece is 48 mm high and has a thick, discshaped foot; two vertical handles (one missing); and an oval body, which is decorated on the shoulder with an
applied red opaque glass thread in zigzag (La Baume 1973, B14, pl. 6:3) [cat.no.2105].
Both variants within subtype 3 have an applied glass trail decoration. A piece with a foot and decorated on the
shoulder with a short zigzag in opaque white glass is kept in the Grand Curtius, Liège (Figure 49c middle). A
piece without a foot in the Corning Museum of Glass collections has a similar unmarvered decoration on the
shoulder. Two other fragments of biconical jars coming from Egypt and now at the Flinders Petrie Museum of
75
Egyptian Archaeology, London are decorated with several parallel concentric zigzags alternating in yellow and
turquoise glass [cat.nos.930; 993].
o
With pressed decoration
Squat jars with stamped decoration are rather uncommon, although they perfectly fit within the category of the
squat jars with a vertical or obliquely ribbed globular body. A piece with a stamped imprint from the former Eliahu
Dobkin collection is now in the Israel Museum, Jerusalem (Israeli, 2003, 295, no. 394) [cat.no.4442] (Figure 49c
right). The jar has a pad base; an irregular, globular body; vertical handles from shoulder to rim which partly
protrude above it; and a thick, rounded rim with constriction below it. Three circular impressions make the vessel
triangular- shaped. This triangular shape is emphasized by applying a vertical handle in each of the three corners.
Even though the provenance of the piece at the Grand Curtius, Liège [cat.no.4451] remains unknown, due to its
77
idiosyncratic technique and shape, its resemblance to the Israel Museum piece, and its acquisition source , the
Curtius piece most likely originates from somewhere in the Syro-Palestine Levant (Lebanon, Israel, Jordan, Syria).
The Curtius jar has no foot, and the design of the stamp is poorly rendered and thus less legible. However, it
probably represents an animal looking to the left (towards the rim) (Figure 50). Hence, it is not unthinkable that
the Curtius piece has also a stamped lion similar to the ones on the Dobkin piece in the Israel Museum.
Nevertheless, a different stamp must have been used, seeing the difference in stamp-diameter; those on the
Dobkin piece are c. 16 mm, whereas those on the Curtius piece are c. 14 mm. A bad imprint from the same stamp
on the Curtius piece is therefore excluded. The variations in lions stamped on the medallion pendants imply that
assorted stamps from one or diverse die cutters were in circulation [see within this chapter 3.3.4.5 the discoid
pressed pendants]. The Dobkin piece (with foot) is 64 mm high and has a maximum width of 42 mm, whereas the
Curtius piece (without foot) is 39 mm high with a maximum width of 41,5 mm. The foot of the Dobkin piece is 8
mm high and has a diameter of 21 mm.
78
Figure 50: Squat globular jar with pressed decoration (Form IVD.2:3)
(photograph and drawings by author, by courtesy of Grand Curtius, Liège)
3.2.5.5
Form IVD.3: Truncated conical jar
The jars with a truncated conical body tapering downwards are less common and are only known with a pad base
and handles (Figure 51 top). This shape is decorated with large twisted ribbing (variant 1) or with applied short
zigzag trail just below the shoulder (variant 2). No conical jars with stamped decoration have been recorded so far.
The rather small vertical handles can protrude in a similar way as the balsamaria with twisted decoration.
77
Armand Baar bought the piece in Lebanon in the 1920s before it entered the Grand Curtius. Seeing that it is quite probable that the rod-formed
vessel got discovered wherever it entered the antique market a Levantine provenance is highly acceptable.
78
Comparable material in Zahn 1929. Sammlung Baurat Schiller nos. 334-335, pl.16; JGS 7, 1965, 28, fig.3.
76
Figure 51: (top) Truncated conical (Form IVD.3); (bottom) biconical jar (Form IVD.4)
Table 27: List of rod-formed conical and biconical jars (Forms IVD.3-4)
applied
cat.no.
type
ribbed
stamped
h.
trails
3878
IVD.3
white
68
4450
4463
IVD.3
IVD.3
-
930
IVD.4
-
4452
4471
4472
4462
IVD.4
IVD.4
IVD.4
IVD.4
-
3.2.5.6
white
turquoise +
white
turquoise;
yellow
white
white
white
red + white
max. Ø
body
53
Ø
rim
26
Ø
base
12
references
Riemenschneider 1989,
173-174, pl.2:7
unpublished
Stern, 2001, no.80
-
62
51
42
31
35
31
20
-
50
50
38
30
unpublished
-
68
57
50
45
35
33
33
36
30
25
22
30
20
14
18
17
unpublished
Auth 1976, 226, no.492
Auth 1976, 226, no.493
Stern, 2001, no.79
Form IVD.4: Biconical jar
Also the jars with a biconical body are less common and are only known with a pad base (Figure 51 bottom). The
biconical-shaped jars differ in size from the other shapes, being higher, 50–60 mm, and having a more slender
diameter of about 35 mm (Table 27). The decorative style is restricted to applied decoration (mainly bichrome) by
means of glass trails in zigzag, single or crosswise by using two different glass hues (white+blue; yellow+blue;
white+red). No plain biconical jar or examples with stamped decoration have been reported to this point.
Only the jars with biconical and conical body tapering downwards have handles applied in the reverse way, from
rim to shoulder. Overall, these rod-formed vessels have two vertical handles, but examples with three handles or
no handles also occur. The vertical handles have been applied in two opposed manners: from the rim towards the
shoulder, and from shoulder to rim like those on the ribbed-bodied squat jars and tall slender balsamaria.
Examples of this type are the biconical jar of the Grand Curtius (Figure 51 bottom) and the more squat version
from the former Ernesto Wolf collection and now in the Landesmuseum Württemberg, Stuttgart (DE). They are
decorated on the shoulder with applied glass trails in red-on-white crossing zigzag remaining unmarvered (Stern
2001, 187, no. 79).
3.2.6
Summary
In total, we could record 650 pieces of vessels, matching with 57 vessel shapes: 85 ex. are corresponding with 15
cast shapes, 423 ex. with 36 free-blown shapes, 24 ex. with 3 mould-blown shapes and 48 ex. with 5 rod-formed
77
79
shapes. Although 207 pieces remained undefined, the amount of diagnostic material assigned to a typological
shape is sufficient to draw different conclusions. Ultimately, the list might end up with any known shape or even
include singular shapes that only exist in black glass. The relevance of making such a separate typology is for
practical reasons to enable quantifications and comparisons between the different vessel shapes in black
appearing glass, used techniques and different periods (Tables 28-29). Table 29 clearly demonstrates the
dominating presence of two types of free-blown vessels of Period II. The majority of shapes however are known
80
from only one or a few more finds. Most intact vessels are the thick-walled rod-formed vessels from Period IV
(Forms IVD) and the carinated beakers from Period II (Form IIB.1).
Table 28: chronological overview of the different techniques of black glass vessel production
Period I
Period II
Period III
Period IV
cast
free-blown
mould-blown
rod-formed
The glass vessels appearing black are known in a large set of shapes, but basically black glass is used to
produce tableware, even though storage and toilet ware also have been recorded. In comparison with the forms
nd
st
produced during Period II (mid 2 mid 3rd century AD), a larger variety of shapes is observable for the 1
century AD vessels. Besides the drinking and pouring vessels, crockeryplates, dishes, and bowlswas also
produced in a deeply coloured glass appearing black in the latter period.
Whether cast or blown, the glass vessel shapes appearing black are similar to those in deeply coloured glass.
The repertoire of cast vessels consists of shallow hemispherical bowls, type Isings 1 (Form IA.1), which is a form
that can be traced back to the late Hellenistic linear-cut bowls, usually manufactured in deep blue, purple or
amber brown glass (Grose, 1991). Forms IA.2-4 correspond to the other deeply coloured monochrome glass
vessels similar to the Samian ware, such as the bilobated cups and dishes, type Dragendorff 27 (Form IA.2); the
hemispherical cup with base-ring, type Dragendorff 40 (Form IA.3); and the small cylindrical cup with a pushed-in
base, type Dragendorff 22-23 (Form IA.4). The production of the cups with double handles (Form IA.5) and the
skyphoi (Form IA.6a-b) are produced both by the cast as well as the blown technique. These two shapes are also
known from abundantly decorated examples with figurative and geometrical scenes and incrustations in gold,
silver, bronze and cornelian.
The other cast shapes are equally known in deeply coloured glass, such as the less common tablets (Form IA.7)
and plates (Form IA.8), or the omnipresent ribbed bowl (Form IA.9), which was also known in clear-coloured and
deeply coloured polychrome glass. Unlike these latter shapes, the small dish with overhanging rim (Form IA.10)
has been largely produced in colourless glass.
The 1st century AD blown vessels are commonly simple items scarcely or without any decoration, such as the
cups with a cut rim and abraded concentric lines, Form IB.1 (Isings Form 12); the unguentaria, Forms IB.2-4
(Isings Forms 14; 16; 26); the canthari, Form IB.5 (Isings Forms 36/40); the modioli, Form IB.6 (Isings Form 37);
the jugs, Form IB.9 (Isings Form 56b); the urns with arcuated handles, Form IB.11 (Isings Form 64); or the cups
with a broad collared rim, Form IB.12 (Isings Form 69). The aesthetic potential from other forms got exploited by
using white opaque glass in various ways, contrasting sharply with the black. It is the case for the jugs from
Pompeii and Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux with white opaque handles that end in medallions with pressed figures,
Form IB.18 (Isings Form 54) or the urns from Murviel-les Montpellier and Nîmes with vertical handles in white
opaque glass, Form IB.20. This play of black and white colours is also attested on Period II material but then
through the application of glass trails in various patterns (see further).
The morphological shapes and ornamental details of these objects cannot be attributed to the use of black glass,
but to the intent to imitate metalware, as did all monochrome vessels during Period I. Perhaps black glass
compared to other dark-coloured glass best satisfied the well-known Roman preference for metalware, since the
polishing of black glass renders a more convincingly metalescent aspect than any other glass hue. Various cast
79
Of 72 pieces the production technique could not be determined.
A simple deduction gives a ratio 11 pieces per shape, but a closer look shows that some shapes are only represented by one single piece while
other shapes are abundantly present (Form IIB.1 = 139 pieces).
80
78
shapes, like Forms IA.2-4, are on the other hand usually seen as imitations of Samian ware, but since they
appear to precede the clay models (Stern 1994, 328, no.99), these glass vessels must have copied models in
silver and bronze which were also the models for the Samian ware.
In a previous publication (Cosyns, Hanut 2005, 113) we stated that all vessel shapes dating from Period II are
tableware and exclusively used for drinking: beakers, cups, bowls, jugs and jars. We identified at that time 14
different free-blown vessel forms in a monochrome black glass. To this group, however, needs to be added seven
other shapes which are of different use than tableware. In great contrast to that stands the total absence of the
cast vessels and the near non-appearance of mould-blown vessel shapes. It‘s possible that new shapes might
occur as a result of new field work, but mostly those news finds will fit in this classification.
A large number of the cast shapes can be related to the contemporaneous ceramic repertoire, more specifically
terra sigillata. Further research on the analogy between black glass vessel shapes of Period II and metallescent
ware could provide promising results.
The Period IV-vessel production in black glass metal appears to have been restricted to the rod-formed technique
and limited to the Levant [see Chapter 6]. For the late Roman/early Byzantine period – Period IV – we have no
knowledge of free-blown vessels having been produced in black glass, but black appearing mould blown vessels
th th
in deeply coloured purple or brown glass characteristic to the 6 -7 century AD probably were already in
circulation in the late Roman period.
In a first attempt we focussed on the Western distribution (Cosyns, Hanut 2005; Cosyns et al. 2006a; Cosyns,
Fontaine 2009). The deeply coloured vessels appearing black from the Eastern provinces still await systematic
investigation.
Missing a detailed corpus incorporating a chronological and distribution study [respectively Chapters 4 and 6], we
can, nevertheless, make some tentative deductions from the examples registered (Table 29):
Black-appearing vessels were distributed within the entire Roman Empire;
1)
2)
3)
black-appearing vessels were made in all available techniques and styles;
particular vessel shapes in black-appearing glass were produced in specific periods of the entire imperial
period;
black-appearing vessel shapes mainly remained unique pieces and were only on rare occasions massproduced.
Period
II
Period I
Table 29: Frequency list of the different shapes in black glass recorded per period and per technique (n = quantity)
cast [A]
free-blown [B]
mould-blown [C]
rod-formed [D]
shape
shape
shape
shape
n
n
n
n
Form IA.1
8
Form IB.1
5
Form IC.1
2
Form IA.2
10
Form IB.2
3
Form IC.2
1
Form IA.3
7
Form IB.3
5
Form IC.3
1
Form IA.4
11
Form IB.4
3
Form IC.4
1
Form IA.5
1
Form IB.5
6
Form IC.5
1
Form IA.6
1
Form IB.6
1
Form IA.7
18
Form IB.7
3
Form IA.8
10
Form IB.8
3
Form IA.9
2
Form IB.9
2
Form IA.10
2
Form IB.10
3
Form IA.11
1
Form IB.11
4
Form IA.12
1
Form IB.12
1
Form IA.13
1
Form IB.13
2
Form IA.14
6
Form IB.14
2
Form IB.15
2
Form IB.16
1
Form IB.17
3
Form IB.18
1
Form IB.19
2
139
Form IIB.1
Form IIC.1
10
Form IID.1
4
Form IIB.2
1
Form IIC.2
8
Form IID.2
1
Form IIB.3
2
62
Form IIB.4
Form IIB.5
11
79
Period III
Form IIB.6
Form IIB.7
Form IIB.8
Form IIB.9
Form IIB.10
Form IIB.11
Form IIB.12
Form IIB.13
Form IIB.14
Form IIB.15
Form IIB.16
Form IIB.17
Form IIB.18
Form IIB.19
Form IIB.20
Form IIIB.1
Form IIIB.2
Form IIIB.3
3
1
2
1
2
6
1
3
2
1
5
11
2
2
4
1
1
2
Period IV
Form IVC.1
1
Form IVD.1
Form IVD.2
Form IVD.3
Form IVD.4
5
28
3
6
3.3 Jewellery
The Roman jewellery made of black glass involves primarily bracelets, finger rings and beads, but also
incorporates pendants, gems and hair pins.
We primarily based the classification of the different jewellery types on some major works like that of the vessels.
Concerning the bracelets we however elaborated a typology to answer two dominant questions is this study:
1) whether the artefacts in the entire empire are to be regarded either as a homogeneous group of analogous
material or as a more heterogeneous group of homologous material [see Chapter 6];
2) whether the black glass jewellery was only customary for the later imperial period or a typical Roman
commodity in use during almost the entire imperial period, as Emilie Riha‘s research presents on the
Augst/Kaiseraugst material (1990, 66, tab.82) [see Chapter 4].
The classification of the finger rings is arranged according to the principles used for the typology of the bracelets.
3.3.1
3.3.1.1
Arm rings
Preceding research
The study of Roman bracelets is a relatively new and barely examined artefact type within the material studies
81
resulting in limited and regular flawed identifications. The first to touch on the subject discussed the very
idiosyncratic bangles of the British Isles (Kilbride-Jones 1938; Stevenson 1956; 1976) a class which is nearly
totally absent on the Continent (van Lith 1977; Isings 2009) or dealt with it in the margin of late Iron Age glass
81
It is striking that even glass specialist have difficulties to distinguish Period II-III black glass bangle fragments from handles of Period I vessels
(Foy 2010a, 324, nos.570-571).
80
bangles (Haevernick 1960).
limited finds:
82
More elaborate studies on the classification of Roman glass bangles, focussed on
From a present day country – Belgium (De Witte 1977), Israel (Spaer 1988);
From a specific region – the Upper Rhine region (Wagner 2006);
From a particular site – Augst/Kaiseraugst (CH) (Riha 1990).
These publications excel in drawing up each time a typology based on the peculiarities of the available material
demonstrating the local and regional occurrence of the studied material. But only the integration of the material
from all areas into one discussion makes possible to recognize regional idiosyncrasies. Only recently some
publications attempted to emphasize the importance of enlarging the study area of this particular commodity type
to the entire Roman Empire, considering the omnipresence of black glass bracelets recorded in all countries that
formed part of the Roman Empire (Cosyns 2003b; Cosyns 2004, 15; Cosyns et al. 2006a).
The Roman glass bracelets are, in general, distinct from the late Iron Age in terms of 1) the colour(s) of glass
used; 2) the applied technique [see Chapter 2]; and 3) the shapes and patterned design. During the late Iron Age,
83
the applied glass hues were translucent blue, purple, brown, blue-green, green and colourless glass.
Conversely relatively few Roman glass bangles were made of clear translucent coloured glass in Roman times,
84
showing a preponderance of strongly coloured glass appearing opaque black. The glass that makes the object
appear black is made from a poorly translucent glass. When using a strong light source in transmission, the
observed colours of these so-called black glasses are mainly bottle-green or olive-green, but blue-green also is
present. In very rare cases, the bangle was made of an amber brown glass. The use of deeply purple-coloured
glass for the production of bracelets is only noticed within the eastern Mediterranean and it was popular only from
th
th
the early Byzantine period onwards (5 6 century AD). Although these bracelets are nearly always monochrome,
some uncommon types are bichrome or even polychrome when decorated with applied glass trails or speckled
with spots of opaque glass. The introduction of the rod-made technique in Roman times resulted in specific
shapes distinct from those fashioned in the late Iron Age [see Chapter 2]. Characteristic to the la Tène bangles is
the total absence of open shapes and the frequent use of applied glass zigzag trails in opaque white or yellow
glass. In Roman times open shapes regularly occur and are a typical result of the rod-made technique. Applied
glass trails on Roman glass bangles are in contrast rather unusual but when applied nearly always red, blue and
white opaque glass is used. Yellow opaque glass, regularly used to decorate the la Tène bangles, seems to have
been (re-)introduced at the end of the late Roman period [see Chapter 4].
The research on the Romano-British glass bangles is in a sense the initial study on the Roman glass bracelets
(Kilbride-Jones 1938; Stevenson 1956; 1976; Price 1988). They are not related to the late la Tène production and
very different from the continental Roman productions. Clearly dissimilar to the continental and Mediterranean
material these glass bangles are characterized by a very regional production and consumption. The RomanBritish glass bangles are markedly polychrome; featuring various gaudy colour combinations on a core in bluegreen or white glass and in a lesser extent in black glass; whereas the Roman glass bangles on the continent and
in the Mediterranean remain sober in monochrome black glass.
Three main categories have been recognized in the Romano-British glass bangles by distinction of three features:
1) section, 2) used colour and 3) decoration pattern, where the latter two features have been used to create subtypes separately and in combination (Kilbride-Jones 1938, 366-367). Further research however made clear that
this classification is not able to integrate a number of pieces (Price 1988) imposing a reassessment of the material
85
in general and the current classification system in particular.
o
Type 1: Dated IB AD
Type 1 bracelets are characterised by a wide D-shaped section; obliquely applied glass trails or cables eventually
in combination with dots. They appear mainly in a translucent, yellowish-green glass but purplish glass has been
82
Thea Haevernick discussed only eleven pieces of Roman glass bangles all together without distinction as variant A of the late La Tène type 17,
Armringe mit eingestochener Verzierung (‗bracelets with incised decoration‘) (Haevernick 1960, 65-66; 209-210, Taf. 14).
83
The very late La Tène material of type Haevernick 3 is regularly of such poor translucent glass they are black appearing. This is mainly the case
for the bangles in purple glass and in a lesser degree for the blue and brown glass.
84
Bangles in coloured and decolorized glass are essentially noticed in the eastern Mediterranean such as Israel (Spaer 1988) and Lebanon
(Chéhab 1985-1986).
85
Based on the chemical analysis results of some material from London (UK) we assume the study of Romano-British bangles most important
within the issue of local glass production and consumption during the Roman imperial period [see Chapter 8].
81
reported too. The decoration is mostly a combination of opaque yellow and blue glass, but white and green do
also occur.
o
Type 2: Dated IB – IIB/IIIA AD
Type 2 bracelets are characterised by a medium-sized triangular shaped section; mainly in translucent blue and
blue-green glass; lengthwise applied twisted bichrome glass cables (mainly combining blue and white opaque
glass) the high amount of variations can be grouped into two subtypes: 1) with several twisted glass cables
applied parallel lengthwise and marvered; 2: with a single twisted glass cable at the centre of the top surface,
applied lengthwise and not marvered; sometimes also oval or spiral blobs are applied aside or on top of the
cables or bands.
o
Type 3: Dated I - IV AD
This group of bracelets consists of ten sub-types on the basis of the glass hue (A-J) each comprising a number of
subcategories based on variations in section and decorative pattern (Kilbride-Jones 1938, 376-389);
characterised by a medium sized angular D-shaped section that can show multiple variations;
[glass hue] mainly in opaque glassyellow (subtypes B; E) or white (subtype A; C-D)and few in translucent
glass - decolourized (subtypes F-G), yellowish-green (subtypes H) and blue (subtypes I-J);
[decoration] plain (subtypes A-B) or decorated with scrolls or pothooks marvered glass trail in contrasting colours
(subtypes C-I).
Various patterns of applied glass threads in various colours on top of a mainly triangular section in monochrome
translucent blue, blue-green, opaque white, yellow or black glass are identifiable. The wide variety of colour
combinations and application patterns in decorating the bangles created a large amount of sub-types which are
totally absent on the Continent. Consequently, the formulated typology on Romano-British glass bangles is totally
unworkable in the determination of the glass bangles from the rest of the Roman Empire. However, we briefly
discuss the Romano-British bangles that have been made in black-appearing glass all through the different
chapters to compare the idiosyncrasy of this commodity vis-à-vis the continental bangles, showing not only an
isolated regional distribution but also an unrelated chronology. However, a separate research on this particular
topic is needed to verify whether these discriminated peculiarities can be linked to one or more workshops.
In 1977, Hubert De Witte catalogued the pre-Roman and Roman bracelets from Belgium for his master‘s thesis
at the University of Ghent (De Witte 1977), primarily to compare the obtained results on pre-Roman bangles with
the then-recently published results from the Netherlands (Peddemors 1975). However, he also incorporated a
detailed, highly structured and workable typology on Roman glass bangles by dividing the studied material into
major categories in accordance with the sectionin relation to the used technologyand by sub-dividing each
type into variants on the basis of the various decoration patterns. All limitations in his typology are due to the
restricted area he studied and to the fact that over the last 30 years, much more material has come to light.
Unfortunately, his work never got published and remained more or less unused, creating the necessity for others
update and fine-tune this workable typology.
Hubert De Witte divided all Roman glass bangles firstly into two key divisionsi.e., open (a) and closed (b)
bracelets (Figure 52). The open bracelets are elliptical, with a space between both rod ends, while the closed
bracelets are circular, with a seam that connects both rod ends or seamless when gathered, swirled and cone
rolled. He further identified four major categories (A-D) based on the section of the bracelete.g., O-shaped, Dshaped, and the used technologythe typical Roman technique of using glass rods or the Iron Age technique
of gathering some glass with a metal rod [see Chapter 2]. The subdivisions of each category are based on the
applied decoration.
For the rod-made bracelets with an O-shaped section, i.e., type A, De Witte identified four sub-categories, which
are equally present in both open and closed bracelets: type aA1/bA1 bracelets are plain; type Aa2/Ab2 bracelets
have wide twists and type aA3/bA3 small twists; and type aA4/bA4 have alternating plain zones and twisted
decoration. The rod-made bracelets in Belgium with a D-shaped section appear to be open when plain (aB1) and
closed when decorated with pressed-in decoration by means of an indented spatula (type bB1). The rod-formed
bracelets with lengthwise ribbings are only known as open specimens: type C1 has five ribbings and type C2 has
more than five ribbings. The seamless bracelets with small D-shaped sections are only known as closed bracelets.
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Figure 52: Typology of Roman glass bracelets set up by Hubert De Witte (taken from De Witte 1977, 21)
In the late 1980s, Maud Spaer worked out a typology on the pre-Islamic glass bracelets from Palestine (Spaer
rd
th
1988). For that material she has discussed dates from the 3 to the 7 century AD, which coincide with the late
Roman and early Byzantine period. The typology developed by Spaer is done the opposite way compared to the
one by De Witte. Her major categories are based on decoration, whereas further subdivisions were executed
according to the section, which is related to the technology. Interestingly the Roman bangles from Palestine Maud
Spaer discusses are all closed, demonstrating that the open bangles are atypical for the south-eastern Levant.
Type A includes the monochrome undecorated bracelets:
Type A1 pieces have an O-shaped section and have a seam.
Type A2 pieces have a D-shaped section (with a rounded [a] or flattened [b] outer surface).
Type B includes tooled or moulded and monochrome bracelets and is Spaer‘s major group, consisting of six
categories on the basis of the decoration:
Type B1 pieces can be seamed as well as seamless and have facetted ornamentation.
Type B2 pieces can be seamless and seamed and their decoration consists of vertical ribbings. Spaer
subdivides this type into four subcategories on the base of different parameters, i.e., B2a is seamed; B2b
is seamless; B2c has three lengthwise ribbings; B2d has a ‗bulging inside section‘.
Type B3 pieces are mainly seamless and have diagonal ribbings.
Type B4 pieces are mainly seamed and their typical features are the lengthwise ribbings, three to six,
and without (a) or with (b) bezel.
Type B5 pieces have a D-shaped section, are decorated with round or other protuberances, and are
mainly seamless. Different subcategories were identified: bracelets with one to three rows of round or
ovoid protuberances pressed or tooled (a); one row of large protuberances, stamped singly (b); and Cshaped protuberances with uncertain technique.
Type B6 pieces are seamless and are characterised by stamped symbolic motifs; they can be Jewish
(a); Christian (b); pagan (c); or uncertain (d).
83
Type C bracelets are seamed, have a circular section and are spirally twisted:
Type C1 pieces are monochrome and can be densely (a) or loosely (b) twisted.
Type C2 pieces are multicoloured with the application of glass threads in contrasting colour(s).
Type D bracelets are multicoloured in all kinds of variants beside those with twisted decoration, i.e., Type C2.
This type is more seen as an Islamic type; however, some few variants with a D-shaped section do occur in the
late Roman-early Byzantine period too:
Type D1 is decorated with slightly protruding coloured specks.
In 1990, Emilie Riha published her study of the Roman jewellery from Augst and Kaiseraugst. In one chapter,
she discusses the bracelets (Riha 1990, 52-66) with only the last three pages of it describing the different types of
glass bracelets recorded from the excavations in Augst and Kaiseraugst (Riha 1990, 64-66). She discerned five
types of bracelets. However, based on intermittent criteria (colour, section, and decoration), the classification
remains somewhat indefinite as well as limited due to making a classification on material from only one site.
The types established by Emilie Riha are as follows:
Type 3.30 bracelets have a wide D-shaped section and coincide more or less with type C by Hubert De Witte by
incorporating all bracelets with lengthwise ribbings. However, some bracelets of De Witte‘s type B are also
included (Riha 1990, no. 625).
Type 3.31 integrates a large part of De Witte‘s type A and concerns all kinds of bracelets with an O-shaped
section. Riha has subdivided this type into five sub-categories:
3.31.1: with twisted decoration but in a (non-black) translucent glass
3.31.2: with twisted decoration in black glass
3.31.3: with a twisted decoration but in combination with a different coloured glass (this type is not taken
separately by De Witte, but in our extended typology it corresponds with A6)
3.31.4: with wide twisted decoration (they match with De Witte‘s type A2)
3.31.5: having alternating twisted decoration and plain zones (these bracelets correspond with De Witte‘s
type A4)
Type 3.32 are open bracelets decorated with applied ribbings giving a roughly star-shaped section (these
bracelets fit with De Witte‘s type A2)
Type 3.33 are plain open bracelets with an O-shaped section with a diameter wider than 8 mm (these bracelets
correspond with De Witte‘s type A1)
Type 3.34 are closed bracelets with a D-shaped or O-shaped section with a diameter smaller than 5 mm (the Dshaped bracelets correspond with De Witte‘s type D and the O-shaped bracelets with type A1)
Reassessing the pre-Roman and Roman glass bracelets from Belgium, we became conscious that there was a
necessity for an update of the typology conceived by De Witte, as time and extensive excavations involved the
predictable additions and adaptations. The preliminary results (Cosyns 2003a; Cosyns 2004) required an
improved discussion and reassessment within this chapter [see below in this chapter].
Recently, Heiko Wagner published the results of his PhD research on La Tène beads and bracelets from the
upper Rhine region, incorporating also the Roman material from Luxemburg, the northeast of France, and the
Rhine region in Germany (Wagner 2006, 155-171; 311-321). Besides using Riha‘s typology (Types 30; 32; 31.2;
31; 31.3; 34), he distinguished many more types (in italics and between brackets a concordance with our typology
established here appears below as Wagner‘s subdivisions are not taken into consideration in Table 30):
(1) Römische Armringe mit D-förmigem Querschnitt, schräg gekerbt (= Type B3)
(2) Römische Armringe mit D-förmigem Querschnitt, mit einem kammartigen Werkzeug schräg eingekerbt (=
Type B3)
(3) Römische Armringe mit D-förmigem Querschnitt, mit einem kammartigen Werkzeug oder Rädchen quer
gekerbt (= Type B2)
84
(4) Römische Armringe mit ovalen (augenförmigen) Eindrücken, mit einem hohlen, röhrenartigen Werkzeug
eingestochen (= Type B5)
(5) Zweirippige römische Armringe ohne Querkerbung (= Type C4)
(6) Mehrrippige römische Armringe ohne Querkerbung (= Type C)
(7) Zweirippige Armringe (= Type C4)
(8) Dreirippige Armringe mit quer gekerbter Mittelrippe (= Type C3)
(9) Armringe mit drei gleich hohen Rippen, alle Rippen mit einem mehrzinkigen Gerät quer gekerbt (= Type C3)
(10) Armringe mit fünf glatten Rippen (= Type C1)
(11) Dreirippige römische Armringe mit Querkerbung (= Type C3)
(12) Mehrrippige römische Armringe mit Querkerbung (= Type C)
(13) Mehrrippige römische Armringe mit Zinkengerät quer gekerbt (mindestens drei Längsrippen) (= Type C)
(14) Fünfrippige Armringe mit quer gekerbter Mittelrippe (= Type C1)
(15) Fünfrippige Armringe, Mittelrippe mit einem mehrzinkigen Werkzeug quer gekerbt (= Type C1)
(16) Mehrrippige Armringe (ca. 6 Rippen) (= Type C2)
(17) Armring mit unbekannter Rippenanzahl (zwei Rippen erhalten, Ansätze von zwei weiteren Rippen) (= Type
C)
(18) Armring mit vierkantigen Querschnitt (= uncategorized – Type U1)
(19) Römische Armringe mit dreieckigem Querschnitt (= uncategorized – Type U2)
(20) Tordierte römische Glasarmringe (ohne Unterscheidung in Varianten) (= Type A2-6)
(21) Offene, rundstabige Armringe (= Type A)
(22) Geschlossene, rundstabige Armringe (= Type A)
(23) Armringe mit ehemals rundem oder ovalen Querschnitt (offen oder geschlossen?) (= Type A)
(24) Römische Armringe mit rundem oder ovalem Querschnitt (unverziert), offen (= Type A1)
(25) Römische Armringe mit rundem Querschnitt offen oder geschlossen (= Type A)
(26) Römische Armringe mit rundem Querschnitt geschlossen (= Type A)
This list of Roman glass bracelet types proposed by Heiko Wagner shows that different criteria in subdividing the
bracelets have been mixed up, similar to Emilie Riha‘s work. According to us Heiko Wagner therefore has
developed a high number of irrelevant types. A number of types are featuring very vague characteristics creating
irrelevant categories comprising only one, two or at the utmost three pieces that can be reduced to for instance
different variants of one single general category (see, for example, nos. 21-26 in the list above). That's why his
subdivisions are too far-fetched in differentiations and consequently not useful. The difficulty in using such a
sorting is the absence of particular technological or decorative features, to come to a methodological classification
with archaeological relevance. This makes it more problematic to verify the significance of each specific type with
regard to chronology, distribution and use.
3.3.1.2
Proposed typology
We are aware that the abovementioned criticism in the introduction amplifies the restrictions in mapping out a
typology rather than its use, indicating the limitations of any proposed typology, not in the least ours. Nevertheless,
a typology can be useful when it is workable vis-à-vis the parameters important to archaeological research, e.g.,
chronology, technology, or distribution. Therefore, we decided not to make use of the subdivisions by Maud Spaer
(1988), Emilie Riha (1990) or Heiko Wagner (2006) as their typologies are not suitable for chronological purposes
or remain too general by using too disparate categories. A concordance list of all previously established
typologies with our own will make easier conversion to the various classification systems (Figure 53; Table 30).
Not to start from scratch, we have developed a typology that is based on the typology conceived by Hubert De
Witte in 1977 (Figure 52). Hence, our typology too is in the first place based on technology. Accordingly, the
section of the bracelet is essential. Four major classes could be discriminated, of which the first three were
manufactured with an analogous technology, by using glass rods. The bracelets of the fourth class are shaped by
gathering hot glass from the batch [see Chapter 2]. The fifth remains uncategorized as it is not clear from the few
examples recorded so far what the specific technological characteristics are to produce these bangles with
quadrangular and triangular section. Each of the five major categories discerned have been subdivided on the
basis of the various decoration patterns. Nevertheless, we also tried to simplify De Witte‘s classification model.
For example, the open/closed feature of bracelets, which seemed essential to him, is not considered imperative
because there is no chronological difference between the open and closed types [see Chapter 4]. Nonetheless,
we continued to take this visual peculiarity into consideration as it appears to be a regional feature and thus it has
to be linked to local production with regional distribution range [see Chapter 6]. We therefore took notice in the
data base whether the piece could be determined as being part of an open (a) or a closed (b) arm ring. On the
85
other hand, we added many other types essentially by including the Mediterranean material but also from all kinds
of newly registered material since the late 1970s found in north-western Europe.
variable section
according to the number
of lengthwise ribbings
Type
Type
Type
A
B
C
A1
B1
C1
D1
A2
B2
C2
D2
A3
B3
C3
D3
A4
B4
C4
D4
A5
B5
A6
Type
D
D5
D6
D7
D8
Figure 53: Typology of the black glass bracelets (drawings by the author)
Table 30: Concordance list of the proposed typologies on Roman glass bracelets.
[* our taxonomy is a final elaboration of our previously proposed classification system (Cosyns 2003; 2004) which is based
on the typology proposed by Hubert De Witte (1977)]
Cosyns
Features
De Witte
Spaer
Riha
2009*
1977
1988
1990
O-shaped section
Type A
open and/or closed
seam
A1
plain
Aa1/Ab1
A1
3.33; 3.34
A2
wide twists
Aa2/Ab2
C1b
3.31.1/2/4; 3.32
A3
fine twists
Aa3/Ab3
C1a
3.31.1/2
A4
alternating
plain-twisted Aa4/Ab4
not incorporated
3.31.5
decoration
A5
alternating fine-wide twists
not incorporated
not incorporated
not incorporated
A6
twisted decoration with applied not incorporated
C2
3.31.3
glass thread(s)
D-shaped section (wide)
Type B
open and/or closed
seam
B1
plain
Ba1
A2
3.30
B2
notched with indented spatula
Bb1
not incorporated
3.30
B3
vertically or obliquely ribbed
not incorporated
B2
not incorporated
B4
impressed circular or oval not incorporated
B5
not incorporated
protuberances
B5
impressed complex
not incorporated
not incorporated
not incorporated
86
Type C
C1
C2
C3
C4
Type D
D1
D2
D3
D4
D5
D6
D7
D8
Uncategorized
types
U1
U2
D-shaped section (very wide and flattened)
open
5 lengthwise ribbings
Ca1
6 or more lengthwise ribbings
Ca2
3 lengthwise ribbings
not incorporated
4 lengthwise ribbings
not incorporated
D-shaped section (narrow)
closed
seamless
plain
D
vertically or obliquely ribbed
not incorporated
impressed theatre mask
not incorporated
polygonal shape
not incorporated
stamped buttons
not incorporated
‗crumbed‘ decoration (with not incorporated
specks)
in-line dotted decoration
not incorporated
impressed complex
not incorporated
angular-shaped section
?
?
quadrangular-shaped section
not incorporated
triangular shaped section
not incorporated
not incorporated
not incorporated
B2c
not incorporated
3.30
3.30
3.30
3.30
A2
B2
not incorporated
B1;B6a-d
B5a; B5b
D1
3.34
not incorporated
not incorporated
not incorporated
not incorporated
not incorporated
not incorporated
not incorporated
not incorporated
not incorporated
not incorporated
not incorporated
not incorporated
not incorporated
Type A
The main feature of the type A bracelets is the O-shaped section made from a rod. The closed bracelets have a
constant section-diameter and are circular shaped, whereas the open ones have a section-diameter narrowing
towards the ends and are elliptical shaped. The rod ends of the open bracelet can be simply (fire-)rounded and
straigth as if these ends were cut by means of jacks, but others are spatula-shaped by using pincers – in rare
occasions showing an elaborate variation, such as the piece from Nijmegen (NL) with a vertical crest on top of the
spatula-shaped end (unpublished) [cat.no.2968] (Figure 54).
This type comprises an extended range of variations (Figure 53):
o
Type A1: undecorated bangles
This ubiquitous type has been recorded from Belgium to Israel. All of them are made in black-appearing glass.
Closed bangles have been found everywhere, whereas the open bangles appear to be rather regionally confined
to the north-western provinces [see Chapter 6].
o
Type A2: wide twisted bangles
The rods used to manufacture this type of bangle contained several round ribbings all around at regular distances,
resulting in twisted ribbings by turning around the rod when hot. Depending on the direction, the twists are Stwined or Z-twined. All known examples are made in black-appearing glass.
o
Type A3: fine twisted bangles
Similar to Type A2, the used rods contained several round ribbings all around at regular distances, but they
probably were smaller and applied closer to each other. Depending on the direction, the twists are S-twined or Ztwined. All known examples are made in black-appearing glass;
87
Figure 54: Open bracelet of type A4 from Nijmegen showing with an unusual crested spatula-shaped end (drawing by the author,
by courtesy of the Gemeentelijke Archeologische Dienst, Nijmegen)
o
Type A4: bangles with alternately plain and twisted zones
Bracelets of this type have mainly 4 to 6 fine twists. A piece from Oudenburg (BE) [cat.no.473] and one from Trier
(DE) [cat.no.2039] by contrast have 2 wide twists alternating with a plain zone. Open, elliptical as well as closed,
circular variants occur, but the majority appears to be open, elliptical. The fragment from Matagne-la-Grande (BE)
has a very flat and round spatula-shaped end (Cattelain, Paridaens 2009, 111, fig.50:3) [cat.no.434], whereas the
end of Nijmegen piece [cat.no.2968] is elaborate (Figure 54).
o
Type A5: bangles with alternating fine and wide twisted decoration
This type of bangle combines in one single piece the wide twists of Type A2 and the fine twists of Type A3. With
an alternation of every 3 to 6 twists only very small pieces can be confound with Type A2 or A3 fragments.
o
Type A6: twisted bangles with applied glass trails
This type of bracelet is similar to Type A2 (with wide twists) or to Type A3 (with fine twists) but includes a
decoration of applied twisted trails of opaque glass in a contrasting pattern of every such-and-such twists (mainly
86
every two or four twists). Normally, opaque white or a pale yellow is used, but red and blue also occur. On rare
occasions, combinations of white, yellow, red and blue have been applied. Patterns can be seen from some
waste material found at les Houis demonstrating trail patterns in blue/red/white; blue/white/red (Cosyns 2009),
and a piece from the sanctuary of Bastendorf (LU) (Wagner 2006, 311, no. R3) [cat.no.2856] showing a
combination of 1 red/3 yellow/1 turquoise lines.
The mass of small fragments of this bracelet type that has been retrieved at Les Houis nearby Sainte Menehould
(FR) as well as production waste with a reddish-brown surface indicate that Type A6 bracelets have been
produced in the workshop(s) of Les Houis. On rare occasions, bracelets have decorations combining different
colours: white, blue and red. Due to the rather limited material known, no further models can be classified so far.
Remarkably, the bichrome and polychrome decoration with applied glass threads in opaque white, yellow, red and
blue glass is limited to those bangles with an O-shaped section. It is notable that these polychrome-decorated
black glass bangles have been very rarely observed on excavations. Is this observation indicative of its
unpopularity or very brief prevailing fashion, or is it an indicator of the very partial knowledge of the late Roman
87
material culture we have at this time from archaeological evidence?
Finally we have to acknowledge that a number of bangles catalogued as Type A2 bangles are somewhat deviant
featuring three to seven protruding and unwinded lengthwise ribbings showing an O-shaped section with three or
more protrusions close to each other or a starlike section with protrusions all around the O-shaped section. A
closer look reveals that they appear to be malformed or discarded unfinished Type A2-6 pieces and for that
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The pale yellow hue can be coincidental because of alterations occurring under specific furnace conditions, in particular when the glassworker
did not maintain full control over the temperature of the glass melt. Opaque white and yellow glass show the same chemical composition, making it
difficult to determine whether the obtained colour is intentional or coincidental (Gérardin et al. 2010, 8). This aspect is in the opposite way attested
on the late La Tène glass bracelets featuring a zigzag in yellow opaque glass that sometimes turns out very pale yellow or even opaque white.
87
Large amounts of similar material from so-called Islamic Egypt in various museum collections, e.g. Petrie Museum for Egyptian Archaeology and
British Museum in London, might indicate that this material is perhaps erroneously considered post-Roman.
88
88
reason they should be considered as production waste. We assume that the pieces reveal the production
technique of all sorts of ‗Type A‘-bangles with twisted ribbings used by Roman glassworkers in the north-western
provinces, possibly from one glass workshop. Those with three ribbings close to each other were to form the Type
A4 bangles with alternating plain and twisted zones. Those with some space between large ribbings were to
create Type A2 bangles with wide twistse.g. the piece from Oudenburg (BE) [cat.no.478]. Type A3 bangles
were made of rods with ribbings close to each other and those with alternating close ribbings and space in
between generated Type A5 bangles. Strangely some pieces appear to be perfectly well finished products and
were found in a clear consumers‘ context far from any production area such as the piece from Binnenmaas (NL)
(Holland 30-6, 1998, 356, fig.4) [cat.no.A4490]. It is thus not excluded that we have to deal with a separate type
that seems to have been produced in Augst/Kaiseraugst (CH) or in any case that was rather popular within the
area.
Because the variations within type A demonstrate an analogous tooling we may assume that bracelets of Types
A1-A6 could have been made in one single workshop. The challenge here has been to verify whether specific
types were produced in specific workshops and whether different glass workshops producing similar black glass
bracelets can be distinguished [see Chapter 6].
Type B
This type of bracelet is characterized by a wide D-shaped section with a width ranging above 10 mm but rarely
exceeding 20 mm. No example until now is preserved completely, but based on the widening towards the middle
and the rather elliptical shape we can conclude that these bracelets are mostly, if not all, open ones. Less
common are the closed ones with circular shape. Characteristic to this variation in shape is the occurrence of a
seam connecting the two ends of the glass rod [see Chapter 2].
o
o
Type B1: undecorated bangles
Type B2: wide transversally lobed decoration by notching with indented spatula
The vertical lines of dashes pressed with comb-like tool with pointed teeth create squarish lobes decreasing
towards the end when the bracelet is open. Based on the number of dashes generating the indented lines
different comb-like tools have been applied with 6 to more than 10 teeth. Sometimes the used tool is too small to
cover the entire width of the bangle leaving two, partly superposed short indented lines. Sometimes the tool is
clearly wider than the artefact.
o
Type B3: diagonally incised lobes or protruding ribbings
Type B3 bangles have similar notchings with indented spatula as Type B2 bangles but obliquely applied so that
the formed ribbings are also at an angle.
o
Type B4: decorated bracelets with impressed circular or oval protuberances
Type B4 pieces are decorated with round, oval or C-shaped protuberances stamped, pressed or tooled in three or
four rows.
o
Type B5: bangles decorated with complex pressed patterns
Only few have been recorded so far. One is coming from a burial of the early Anglo-Saxon cemetery at Orpington
(UK) (Tester 1968, 125-150) [cat.no.4170] and another is coming from Chessel Down (UK) (White 1988, 108,
no.3, fig.54.2) [cat.no.3976]. The Orpington piece is unique showing continuous single band with complex design
which consists of a four-petalled ‗flower‘ pressed between two parallel pairs of lines of six or seven dashes
pressed with comb-like implements with pointed teeth.
Type C
This type of bracelet has a wide and flat D-shaped section and characteristic are the lengthwise ribbings. This
type is only known as open bracelet with an elliptical shape and tapering towards the ends.
88
It is not excluded that some pieces are misshapen and discarded rods to form Type C bangles such as the pieces from Éprave (BE)
[cat.no.270]; Liberchies (BE) [cat.no.369] and Cologne-Müngersdorf (DE) [cat.no.1837].
89
o
Type C1 has five lengthwise ribbings and exists in different subcategories:
(a) undecorated;
(b) decorated with transverse indents on the central ribbing;
(c) decorated with transverse indents on two or more ribbings.
o
Type C2 has six lengthwise ribbings or more and exists in different subcategorie:
(a) undecorated;
(b) decorated with transverse indents over the entire width except the outer ribbings;
(c) decorated with transverse indents over the entire width.
o
Type C3 has three lengthwise ribbings and exists in different subcategories:
(a) undecorated;
(b) decorated with transverse indents on the central ribbing;
(c) decorated with wide pinched in transverse ribbings on all ribbings.
o
Type C4 has four lengthwise ribbings
Only recognized a few times in a fragmentary state we do not know whether this bangle type exists in different
subcategories
Type D
This type of bracelet has a small D-shaped section with a width ranging below 10 mm and averaging around 7-8
mm. Its width and height are slightly irregular, and the different edges show an oblique shape, resulting in a
different interior diameter on both sides. The more pointed side has a smaller inner diameter compared to the
other side, which is rounded. This is the result of rolling down the bracelet over a cone to reach the desired
diameter. Another difference with the plain type B bracelets is the technique used to make these bracelets. While
the type B1 bangles are open or seamed when closed, the type D arm rings are definitely closed and seamless
[see Chapter 2].
o
o
Type D1: undecorated bracelets
Type D2: bangles with incised ribbings
These bracelets can be decorated with vertical (a), diagonal (b), or crescent shaped (c) incisions;
o
Type D3: pressed or stamped figurative decoration.
This type of bracelets is decorated with one or more impressed, grotesque faces, theatre masks or Negroid faces,
but it is not excluded that sooner or later black glass bangles will be excavated with other representations such as
the depiction of the Medusa head. Because identical types of impressed decoration are present on the double
perforated pressed beads [see in this chapter 3.3.3. Beads];
o
Type D4 has a stamped decoration mainly resulting in a polygonal shape.
(a)
plain facets, normally straight but sometimes concave;
(b)
decorated with an abstract motif such as the waffled pattern on a bracelet from Kaiseraugst (CH)
[cat.no.3677];
(c)
decorated with a figurative motif. A popular ornamentation described by Maud Spaer when discussing
the Palestine material is the stamped symbolic motif (Spaer type B6): Jewish (1); Christian (2); pagan (3);
uncertain (4).
o
Type D5: bracelets with stamped buttons
Bracelets with a stamped decoration have one or multiple rows of buttons which could be close to each other or
more distant from each other. The buttons are in most cases round but oval shaped buttons sometimes occur. In
general the buttons form a simple relief popping up smoothly from the bangle surface, but the bangles with single
button line regularly show the buttons are pushed in the surface left in a circular sink mark.
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o
Type D6: bracelets with ‗crumbed‘ decoration
Bracelets with ‗crumbed‘ decoration show a polychrome mottled upper surface with marvered or unmarvered
droplets of opaque glass in white, yellow, red and blue;
o
Type D7: bracelets with applied dotted decoration
Such bangles are decorated at the top with unmarvered dots in opaque coloured glass placed on a line.
Two examples come from the late Roman layers at the amphitheatre of Metz (FR), one with white dots at an
89
interval of 23 mm [cat.no.1270] and one with blue dots.
o
Type D8: bracelets with a pressed/tooled decoration showing a complex design
Uncategorized
This type of bracelet is technologically speaking linked with types B and C bangles as they are also made by
using glass rods leaving a seam when the artefact was made a closed bangleexcluding a pre-Roman
production. The characteristic feature is that only undecorated ones have been produced; besides the angular
section that is either quadrangular (variant 1) or triangular (variant 2), or the B-shaped section (variant 3).
o
o
o
Type U1 are characterized by a quadrangular section coinciding with Heiko Wagner‘s type 18
(Armring mit vierkantigen Querschnitt) (Wagner 2006)
Type U2 bangles feature a triangular section, coinciding Thea Haevernick‘s type 2 (Haevernick
1960) and Heiko Wagner‘s type 19 (Römische Armringe mit dreieckigem Querschnitt) (Wagner
2006)
Type U3 comprises the bracelets with two lengthwise ribbings and therefore comparable to the late
La Tène shape described by Thea Haevernick as type 7d (Haevernick 1960).
Because not many examples have been retrieved so far and the close link with the late La Tène bangles it is not
excluded that these bracelets are the earliest glass bangle types of the Roman imperial period. At least these
seem to be artefacts responsive towards the traditional wishes of the local consumer of Celtic origin to fulfil an
established custom that survived within the newly created Gallo-Roman society.
3.3.1.3
Summary
90
About 1 on 10 pieces of the 1453 black glass arm rings recorded could not be assigned to a specific type due to
their fragmentary preservation or because the publication contained insufficient information to define the type (135
ex.). Of the defined 1318 ex. about 1/3 (426 ex.) are from type A and nearly half of the totality (613 ex.) are from
type D. Type B and C bangles, respectively 127 ex. and 106 ex. contribute to a somewhat equal share of nearly
10 % (Figure 55).
From Table 31 and the pie charts in Figure 55 can be deduced that Type D1 bangles are predominant and that
other types are rarely attested in black glass.
Table 31: List with amounts of Roman glass bracelets per type and colour (n = quantity)
Type
%
Type
%
Type
n
n
n
%
A1
A2
A2/3
A3
A4
A5
A6
134
89
33
86
32
25
27
31,5
20,9
7,7
20,2
7,5
5,9
6,3
B1
B2
B3
B4
B5
indefinite
64
40
5
5
10
3
50,4
31,5
3,9
3,9
7,9
2,4
C1
C2
C3
C4
indefinite
37
28
38
2
1
34,9
26,4
35,8
1,9
0,9
subtotal
426
100
subtotal
127
100
subtotal
106
99,9
Type
D1
D2
D3
D4
D5
D6
D7
D8
subtotal
n
%
427
119
9
16
20
12
7
3
613
69,7
19,4
1,5
2,6
3,3
2,0
1,1
0,5
100,1
89
With only one dot the fragment was too small to identify the interval between dots.
Only 34 non-black appearing ‗continental‘ bracelets in opaque and translucent glass have been recorded. In order to obtain a more correct
picture of the non-black appearing glass bracelets produced in the Roman Empire a more thorough investigation is necessary to verify possible
regional differentiation or even peculiarities, such as the mainly polychrome Romano-British glass bangles using various clear translucent and
opaque colours.
90
91
The Roman glass bangles show a wide range of diameter sizes, but when reducing it into size categories two
distinct sizes occur: 1) the small bangles with a diameter below 60 mm and 2) the large bangles with a diameter
above 60 mm up to 95 mm.
indefinite
other
3%
9%
A
30%
D
42%
C
7%
C
8%
B
9%
B5
8%
Type A
A6
6%
A5
6%
A4
8%
B2
32%
A2
21%
B
10%
Type B
indefinite
2%
B4
B3 4%
4%
A1
31%
A3
20%
A
34%
D
48%
B1
50%
A2/3
8%
C4
2%
indefinite
1%
C1
35%
C3
36%
C2
26%
D3
1%
D6 D7
D5 2% 1% D8
D4 3%
1%
3%
D2
19%
D1
70%
Type C
Type D
Figure 55: Pie-charts demonstrating a distribution between the different types and between the different variants per type
92
3.3.2
Finger rings
3.3.2.1
Preceding researchThe first studies on Roman finger rings are sometimes not more than systematic
compilations of the then-known material from a specific region, museum collection or specific material (Henkel
1913; Hagen 1937; Guiraud 1989; Popović 1992). However, none of these publications focussed on glass finger
rings. It is evident that this is due to their less frequent occurrence. Hence, the first classifications of finger rings
can barely be called useful typological taxonomies for those in glass, seeing that attention has been paid on the
whole to the finger rings in metal – precious (gold and silver) and non-precious (bronze and iron).
Firstly, in 1913 Friederich Henkel classified 60 finger rings in glass from the Rhine region into five large classes,
and recognized three different sub-categories within class 2 (Henkel 1913, 154-158) (Table 32):
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
Schlichte Reife;
Mit einer die Platte andeutenden Schwellung;
a. Mit glatter Außenseite; (= plain)
b. Mit schräg oder quer gestellten Rillen;
c. Mit Buckeln an der Außenseite;
Der Reif ist zur Bildung einer Platte abgeflacht;
Die Platte ist als Scheibe an dem einen Ende eines Stäbchens gebildet und das Gegenende unter der
Platte angeschmolzen;
Die Platte ist von einer besonders gebildeten Auflage überhöht.
Table 32: List of different classes of glass finger rings per colour with % in black glass (based on the catalogue of Henkel 1913,
154-158)
black
blue
blue-green
green
brown
white
TOTAL
%
Class 1
2
2
2
2
2
10
20
Class 2
20
2
1
2
1
26
77
Class 2a
12
2
2
16
75
Class 2b
3
1
1
5
60
Class 2c
5
5
100
Class 3
4
1
5
80
Class 4
3
1
1
1
6
1
13
23
Class 5
1
1
3
1
6
0
TOTAL
29
7
4
6
12
2
60
48
Henkel‘s class 1 includes all seamless plain rings with a regular O-shaped or D-shaped section. Class 2 is more
complex, embracing various sub-categories. With a similar section as those of class 1, the contrast is their
irregular shape with a bulge featuring a seam. Variant a is ordinarily plain, variant b has oblique or lateral incisions,
and variant c is characterised by one or more rows of protuberances. The third class comprises two variants of
plain rings with a bezel: flattened (a) or pressed in (b). Class 4 consists of a thick circular to elliptical bezel applied
on an open or roughly closed ring made from a narrow rod. Henkel‘s last class is somewhat the trash bin and
encloses all kind of variants not fitting in his classification system. One variant is similar to class 3a but has a gem
in a contrasting (opaque) colour set in the flattened bezel (Henkel 1913, 157-158, nos. 1751-1754). Another ring
(no. 1755), from a very thick rod in colourless to brownish glass with an opaque yellow spiralling trail all around, is
of a type that is repeatedly registered in the Mediterranean, e.g., Cyprus and Italy. This variant never occurred in
91
black glass. From the 60 pieces recorded by Friederich Henkel in 1913, 29 ex. or 48% are made in black92
appearing glass.
2
When attempting to use existing typologies on Roman finger rings (Henig 1978 , Guiraud 1989; Popović 1992) to
build up one useful to classify those produced in (black) glass, we faced some difficulties. The finger ring types
from Hélène Guiraud‘s typology does not incorporate all the known types we have recognized in (black) glass
(Figure 56): Guiraud 1989 types 1; 2; 3; 4; 8; 9 (Table 33). Besides the various types in black glass not
incorporated in Guiraud‘s typology, some specific types correspond to various black glass types and
subtypese.g. Guiraud type 4f = all type C black glass finger rings.
91
The sixtieth glass ring in Henkel‘s catalogue should be excluded since it is a golden ring in which an eye-shaped gem is set. The piece has been
counted as the white piece in class 5 of table 31 but does not interfere with the percentage calculation of the black glass examples.
92
The other 33 pieces incorporate 3 ex. in dark blue, 1 ex. in blue and 3 ex. in pale blue glass; 3 ex. in blue-green and 2 ex. in yellowish green
glass; 1 ex. in green, 5 ex. in pale green and 2 ex. in greyish green glass; 4 ex. in brown, 2 ex. in pale brown, 3 ex. in yellowish brown and 1 ex. in
so-called purple-brown; 2 ex. in so-called white glass. All these various colour specifications can be grouped into larger hue categories: blue (7
ex.), blue-green (6 ex.), green (7 ex.), brown (11 ex.), colourless (2 ex.)
93
a
TYPE 9
b
Figure 56: Typology proposed by Helène Guiraud based on the material from France (taken from Guiraud 1989, figs. 9, 11; 21;
26; 32; 37; 41; 45; 47)
Table 33: Concordance table of the established typologies
black glass typology
Guiraud 1989
type A1:1
type 8
type A2:1
type 2g
type A2:3
type 2b
type A2:4
type 2b
type A3:1
type 4d
type A3:2
type 3c
type A4:1
type 2f;3e
type B2:1
type 2i
type B6
type 9
type C1:1
type 4f
type C2:1
type 4f
type C3:1
type 4f
94
3.3.2.2
Proposed typology
The taxonomy is a provisional classification that will need adjustments when including the glass finger rings in
other hues than black. The challenge is to make a classification system that fits all Roman finger rings in glass,
but the key test is to verify whether a taxonomy of the black glass finger rings can generate valuable information
on the chronology and distribution of its production and consumption. The proposed typology is based on 204
finger rings in black glass mainly assembled from publications. Besides an exhaustive research on the finger rings
in black glass, the classification system needs verification from the finger rings in all other glass hues. This work
in progress thus cannot be considered exhaustive. The classification criteria are identical to those presented in
the preceding part on the bracelets. Based on the technical aspects, we first have taken into account the section
and secondly the type of decoration. We discerned three main form types: 1) type A = with a thin circular or semicircular section; 2) type B = with a broad semi-circular or flattened D-shaped section; 3) type C = with an elliptical
to round section. The finger rings from type C demonstrate a distinct difference from the first two types, which are
fairly similar variations in forms, only differing in size. Both groups appear to be characteristic for a specific period,
i.e. types A and B for Period III and type C for Period IV [see Chapter 4].
Figure 57: Proposed typology of Roman black glass finger rings (drawings by the author)
We catalogued 203 finger rings in black glass. 26 ex. could not be assigned to a specific type due to its
fragmentary preservation or for lack of information from publications. Of the 176 ex. remaining about 2/3 belong to
type A. Type B and C finger rings are much less frequent. When looking per type it is clear that type A1 is
predominant and that some types are nearly or totally absent in black glass (Figure 58, Table 34).
95
Table 34: List of finger rings in black glass (n = quantity)
type
n
%
type
n
%
type
n
%
A1
A2
A3
A4
A5
indefinite
66
20
14
2
3
0
37,5
11,4
8,0
1,1
1,7
0
13
0
5
11
4
4
0
7,4
0,0
2,8
6,3
2,3
2,3
0
C1
C2
C3
indefinite
6
12
3
13
3,4
6,8
1,7
7,4
subtotal
105
59,7
B1
B2
B3
B4
B5
B6
indefinite
subtotal
37
21,1
subtotal
34
19,3
TOTAL
176
black glass finger rings
66
20
14
A1
A2
A3
13
2
3
A4
A5
11
5
0
B1
B2
B3
B4
4
4
6
B5
B6
C1
10
3
C2
C3
black glass finger rings
C3
C2 2%
7%
C1
4%
B6
B5 2%
2%
B4
B3 6%
3%
B2
0%
C
7%
A1
38%
A3 A2
B1
8% 11%
7% A5
A4
2% 1%
Figure 58: Column-chart and pie-chart correspondingly showing the ratios in terms of quantity (top) and percentage (bottom) of
the different types of black glass finger rings
3.3.2.2.1
Type A: Closed circular ring with narrow D-shaped or O-shaped section
Table 35: List of type A finger rings in black glass
A1
A2
n
%
n
%
n
variant 1
variant 2
variant 3
variant 4
variant 5
variant 6
variant 7
TOTAL
40
8
2
5
1
2
1
59
67,8
13,6
3,4
8,5
1,7
3,4
1,7
100
14
2
2
1
19
73,7
10,5
10,5
5,3
100
7
6
1
14
A3
%
50
42,9
7,1
100
n
1
1
2
A4
%
50
50
100
n
2
2
A5
%
0
100
100
96
type A finger rings
2%
2%
A1
15%
A2
A3
20%
61%
A4
A5
Figure 59: Pie-chart displaying the ratios of the various type A finger rings
Type A1: plain annular
This type of finger ring encompasses various subtypes but characteristic to all is the perfect circular shape and
the most widespread shape (Figure 59; Table 35). The different variants recognized for this type of ring comprise:
(A1:1) undecorated;
(A1:2) lateral/transverse incised pattern;
(A1:3) oblique incised pattern;
(A1:4) applied glass trail in zigzag or wavy;
(A1:5) mottled decoration with applied specks in various colours;
(A1:6) with an applied glass gemstone
(A1:7) with a relief decoration
type A:1 finger rings
2% 3%
2%
A1:1
3%
8%
A1:2
A1:3
A1:4
14%
68%
A1:5
A1:6
A1:7
Figure 60: Pie-chart displaying the ratios of the various subtypes of the simple annular finger ring
The majority of the 59 type A1 entries in black glass are plain (variant 1) (Figure 60; Table 35). We have to
acknowledge that it is uncertain whether some pieces are part of a fully plain finger ring due to their degree of
fragmentation. It is therefore possible that they could be fragments of finger rings with a discoid bezel (type C1).
Most finger rings of this type in black glass show a D-shaped section and a seam which is sometimes only
recognizable from a bulge due to the merging of the overlapping rod ends.
o
Type A1:2: annular with lateral/transverse incised pattern
The number of incisions is not fixed as it is – just like for the quality of the surface finishing – mainly affected by
the ability and concentration of the glassworker, not forgetting that the glass composition and the furnace
conditions are also important in relation to the workability of the glass. Nevertheless, groups can be discerned
showing the deliberate idea to produce finger rings with very many, some or just a few incisions as well as
pinching the incisions only superficially or very deeply.
97
o
Type A1:3: annular with oblique incised pattern
This finger ring variant includes two pieces from Augst/Kaiseraugst (CH) having a great number of deep obliquely
incisions close to each other in a more or less twisted design (Riha 1990, nos. 285 and 2997) [cat.nos.3648;
3404]. A fragment in the Archaeological Museum at Nivelles and reportedly from Liberchies (BE) has the
variability in incisions which is most probably due to the disparity in malleability when incising the hot glass. We
then can assume incisions from hot to cold condition: a so-called twisted effect; deeply incised; superficially
incised. The inner diameter is rather small, between 15-18 mm. The height ranges at 4-5 mm and the width is
slightly larger.
o
Type A1:4: with applied zigzag
This subtype of finger ring is characterised by an applied zigzag on the top surface of the ring except for the bezel.
An example with a single zigzag in opaque red glass comes from Trier (DE) (Loeschke 1925, fig.2:5; Wagner
2006, no. R88) [cat.no.2049]. Other examples have been excavated at the late Roman site of the archbishop‘s
palace at Sens (FR) (Arveiller-Dulong 1994) [cat.no.1648].
o
Type A1:5: with applied specks in various colours
Only one such finger ring with mottled decoration has been catalogued so far but the type must have been more
widespread considering the regular occurrence of similarly decorated arm rings and the so-called ‗crumb‘ beads
and pendants. The piece at the National Museum of Damascus (SY) [cat.no.3862] is of unknown provenance
(Zouhdi 1974, 94-96, a).
o
Type A1:6: with applied gemstone
This variant of type A1 finger rings features a small pad-like glass gemstone. It is not excluded that the exemples
with an elliptical scar on the apex of the ring are due to the broken off gem.
o
Type A1:7: with a relief decoration
Only one piece is hitherto catalogued with a relief decoration all around the ring on the crest of the top surface.
The piece of unknown provenance, now at the Musée Rolin in Autun (Vitrum 1990, 105-106, no.76), has a
beaded decoration on the crest, 17 droplets in total, and a tapering diameter. Probably this is the result of the rodformed production technique.
Type A2: with flattened surface as bezel
Three variants within this type of finger rings can be recognized (Figure 57):
(A2:1) with plain bezel and plain ring;
(A2:2) with plain bezel and incised ring;
(A2:3) with a mounted small monochrome gemstone in stone or in glass;
(A2:4) with a mounted bichrome glass gemstone by superposing two glass layers in contrasting colours.
The finger rings from Medizinische Klinik, Bonn (DE) all have a plain bezel. The finger ring from tomb 162 of the
southwestern cemetery of Tongeren (BE) has a simple, small stone set in (Vanvinckenroye 1984, II, pl. 91, no.
162:4) [cat.no.551]. Very few finger rings of variant b were produced in black glass. The majority of this subtype is
made from a translucent or transparent deep brown, yellowish brown or colourless glass with a gemstone in
opaque turquoise, white or yellow glass, but mainly combining two contrasting colours (Ravagnan 1994, nos. 510). Variant (b) is a well-known type in metal with a gemstone in glass or a semi-precious stone set in centrally on
the flattened bezel (Riha 1990, Typ 1 Variante 5).
Type A3: with multiple roundels on ring bezel
These finger rings mainly have three roundels of the same diameter (A3:1) or one larger central roundel (A3:2),
but a variant with four applied roundels on the flattened ring bezel (A3:3) as for instance the piece from Mont
Berny at Saint-Étienne-Roilaye (FR) (unpublished) [cat.no.1629]. An intact piece of variant (A3:1) has been
retrieved from the Insula 42-treasure in Augst (CH) (Riha 1990, 118; 192, no. 2996, Taf. 79). The finger ring has
an inner diameter of 16,5 mm and a rather irregular O-shaped section showing a clear seam at the inner side [see
Chapter 2]. The three roundels are here of similar size, lying close beside each other. The roundels of the Augst
98
piece are pinched out from the ring, but they equally can be manufactured separately and affixed on the ring. The
latter type is typical for type B3 finger rings with a wide flattened D-shaped section.
Type A4: with three circular roundels on ring bezel
Such finger rings have two sloping sides creating a pointed bezel whereon a glass gem can be applied. One
variant has a plain ring and the other has an incised decoration on the sloping parts (Figure 57).
Type A5: with B-shaped section
These finger rings with a narrow double D section have been recognized in three different variants (Figure 57):
(A5:1) plain; (A5:2) with an applied gemstone; (A5:3) with a flattened bezel. The last variant is very similar to the
rd
th
multiple finger rings in jet and gold which are characteristic for the 3 and early 4 century AD.
3.3.2.2.2
Type B: closed circular ring with wider and flat D-shaped section
Six subcategories have been discerned of the 37 finger rings with wide, flattened D-shaped section catalogued,
with the types B1 and B4 as the most common shapes (Figure 61; Table 36).
Table 36: List of type B finger rings in black glass
B1
B2
n
%
n
%
n
variant 1
variant 2
variant 3
variant 4
variant 5
variant 6
TOTAL
2
5
4
2
0
0
13
15,4
38,5
30,8
15,4
0
0
100,1
0
0
0
3
2
5
0
B3
%
n
60
40
100
B4
%
11
11
100
100
n
2
1
1
4
B5
%
50
25
25
100
n
4
4
B6
%
100
100
type B finger rings
12%
B1
6%
37%
B2
B3
B4
B5
33%
12%
0%
B6
Figure 61: Pie-chart displaying the ratios of the various type B finger rings
Type B1: plain annular
o
Type B1:1: undecorated
This category of finger rings differs only from type A1 by its much wider section. However, the height is similar to
that of type A1 examples, making the plain section look like a flattened D with rounded edges. An example is
known from Sézanne (FR) (Cabart et al. 1994) [cat.no.1673].
o
Type B1:2: with vertical/lateral incised pattern
The relatively small inner diameter ranging around 16-18 mm is due to its specific use as finger ring. Seeing that
adult men have a ring finger with a diameter 20 mm these narrow finger rings were most likely worn by girls and
women with small hands. The proportion between the width and the height appears correlated to roughly 2:1. The
finger rings with vertical incised pattern are rather small and very flat compared to those with oblique and
99
crosswise incised pattern. The so-called piece from Mainz (DE) (Henkel 1913, no.1723) and one of the finger
rings from Dalheim (Henkel 1913, no.1724) have respectively width of 4,5-5,5 mm and 4,5-7 mm, and a height of
2,5-3 mm and 2,5-3,5 mm.
The number of incisions is not fixed, as it is mainly affected by the ability of the glassworker and his concentration,
not forgetting that the glass composition and the furnace conditions are also important in relation to the workability
of the glass as well as the size of the artefact. Nevertheless, groups can be discerned showing the intent to
produce finger rings with very many incisions, some or just a few as well as pinching the incisions only
superficially or very deeply. The so-called Mainz piece has a great number of superficial lateral incisions, whereas
the Dalheim pieces have a deeply incised decoration, with two lateral and eight oblique incisions, respectively.
o
Type B1:3: with oblique incised pattern
The piece from Niederbronn-les-Bains (FR) is also pinched obliquely, but in a way it appears twisted (Wagner
2006, no.R31). The variability in incisions is most probably due to the disparity in temperature of the hot glass
when applying the incisions. We may then assume incisions applied in hot to cold condition: 1) a so-called twisted
effect, 2) the deeply incised, and 3) the superficially incised.
The pieces from Dalheim (LU) (Henkel 1913, no.1726) with 5 mm (w.) and 3,5-3,7 mm (h.); Rheingönheim (DE)
(Wagner 2006, no.R34) with 4,5-6,5 mm (w.) and 3,2-3,9 mm (h.); Niederbronn-les-Bains (FR) with 7-7,8 (w.) and
3,7-4,3 (h.) are larger than the vertically incised finger rings, though the opening diameter is similar ranging
between 16 and 18 mm.
An additional variance of this type of finger ring is the occurrence of an applied glass gem in a contrasting colour,
for the most part depicting the Medusa. An intact piece in the Israel Museum, Jerusalem has a gem in opaque
white glass with the winged head of the Gorgoneion (Spaer 2001, 210, no. 489). The widening of the finger ring
under the gem is caused by pressing the gem when affixing it on the ring. A similar but very fragmented piece
comes from Augst (CH) (Riha 1990, no. 65) but is also known in onyx (Riha 1990, no. 64).
o
Type B1:4: with incised lozenge pattern
These finger rings have a crosswise incised pattern resulting in a lozenge pattern. This variant is very rare and
only reported from Mainz (DE) (Wagner 2006, no.R21) [cat.no.1944] and Cirencester (UK) (Charlesworth 1982,
no.312, fig.69) [cat.no.4005]. With a width of 6,5-7,8 mm and a height of 3,8-4,3 mm the Mainz piece
demonstrates that the wider the finger rings, the higher. This premise also applies to the abovementioned types
B1:2 and B1:3. Apparantly the glass worker deliberately took a specific glass mass from the batch according to
the type of finger ring he was producing.
o
Type B1:5: with applied zigzag
No piece of this type in black glass has been recorded so far.
o
Type B1:6: with applied specks in various colours
We have not catalogued black glass finger rings with wide, flattened D-shaped section and decorated with
colourful specks because this type of decoration is generally considered as early medieval (early Byzantine/early
Islamic/Merovingian/…). Nonetheless we estimate it as fitting the proposed classification as besides the type A1:5
finger rings we have noticed a similar design on bracelets as well as on annular and globular beads and poppyth
th
head pendants from the Period IV onwards (end 4 early 5 century AD) and thus to be regarded as late Roman
commodities [see Chapter 4].
Type B2: with flattened bezel
This type of finger ring is similar to type A2:1 except for the much broader section. An intact piece is in the
archaeological museum of Zara in Croatia and comes from one of the cemeteries in the Zara area – Zara, Nona
or Asseria (Fadic 1998, no. 232). The finger ring has an inner diameter of 22-26 mm. The oval bezel is concave,
as if it were made to be filled up with something, as can be seen on the even more massive glass finger rings
100
from Hellenistic times (Stern 2001, 368, no. 202). A similar piece in the Museo Vetraria, Murano but coming from
93
the same Zara area is made of an opaque dark red glass (Ravagnan 1994, no. 2).
Type B3: with three circular roundels on ring bezel
These finger rings have three elliptical or circular roundels of the same diameter (a) or a larger central roundel (b).
Two major differences discriminate type B3 finger rings from those of type A3: 1) a flattened D-shaped section
instead of an O-shaped one and 2) the roundels are not small and pinched out from the glass mass of the ring but
large and manufactured separately and affixed later on the ring. Two examples have been retrieved from the socalled Zara necropoli in Croatia and are now in the Museo Vetraria, Murano (Ravagnan 1994, nos. 17-18)
[cat.nos.769-770]. The three roundels on both pieces are equally sized, but contrary to those of type A3, the discs
are laying apart from each other. The space between the three roundels is most probably due to a technical
aspect. The inner diameters of the Zara rings are 23 mm and 25 mm respectively.
Type B4: with impressed protuberances
This type of finger ring corresponds with Henkel‘s class 2c (Henkel 1913, 155-156). Characteristic to this type of
finger ring are the more or less parallel lengthwise rows of round bulges all over the surface. Variations occur in
the number of rows: mainly, there are three rows due to the dimensions of this type of artefact, but two like a
piece from Augst (CH) (Riha 1990, no.287) and four rows also occur regularly. Contrasting to most finger rings
with only a slightly uneven width and height, the Wiesbaden piece (Henkel 1913, 156, no. 1730) [cat.no.2101] has
a clear narrower part of 7 mm compared to the 11 mm wide other half. The result is that the narrow part only has
two rows, while the wider part bears four rows. Normally bottle green to brownish olive green glass is used to
produce black appearing finger rings but the piece from Matagne-la-Grande (BE) is said to be of a dark blue glass
and that from Mazières-en-Mauges (FR) (Simon 2000, 157-158, no. 89:2) [cat.no. 1265] made in dark purple
glass. Most type B4 finger rings match the general opening diameter of 16-18 mm but some are larger with an
opening ranging between 18-20 mm and 20-22 mm like two examples from Saint-Dié-des-Vosges (FR) (Wagner
2006, no.R70-71) [cat.nos.1377-1393].
The finger rings with parallel rows of round bulges are one of the popular categories in black glass with 11 ex.
recorded. At present, only three variations have been recorded. The resemblance with bronze finger rings with
protuberances is striking. The absence in other metals and in jet as well as in other glass hues speaks in favour of
an imitation of bronze rings in black glass.
This finger ring type must have been produced in one or more glass workshops or jeweller‘s shops somewhere in
the north-western provinces because all recorded material is retrieved from sites within Gallia Belgica, Germania
Inferior and Germania Superior with a concentration in Germania Superior [see Chapter 6].
Type B5: with complex impressed design
Within this group, we divide the finger rings according to the stamp/mould used to create a specific decoration
pattern. The three recorded variants show much resemblance in design, but they remain unique models.
o
Type B5:1: radiant sun
The sole intact piece known until now came from the subaquatic site of Trou de Han at Han-sur-Lesse (BE)
[cat.no.304] (Figure 62 left and middle). Its inner diameter is 16,5 mm, its height 3,0-3,5 mm and width 6,9 mm.
The finger ring has a quite complex design, including three lengthwise ribbings cut into four metopes by four pairs
of lateral ribbings. Three of these metopes show the same dimensions, and in the central one there is an image of
a radiant sun with 9 rays. A similar design is attested on a fragmented piece in black appearing dark blue glass
that was retrieved during the excavations at Ermin Street in Wanborough (Monk 2001, 171, fig. 67, no.144)
[cat.no.A4619] (Figure 62 right).
93
We were not able to check whether the glass was produced from a deep red glass or of a black glass with an opaque brownish-red oxidation
layer as we discussed for some bracelet fragments from the glass workshop Les Houis nearby Sainte-Menehould.
101
Figure 62: (left + middle) Finger ring from Trou de Han (drawing by the author, courtesy of Musée du Monde Souterrain, Hansur-Lesse); (right) finger ring fragment from Wanborough (drawing taken from Monk 2001, fig. 67)
o
Type B5:2: floral motif
The unique example within this subcategory, housed in the Großherzogliche Kabinetts-Museum, Darmstadt (DE),
is of unknown provenance [cat.no.2083]. The ring has an inner diameter of 17-18 mm (as most other finger rings),
a height of 3,5 mm and a width of 8 mm. Similar to the Trou de Han piece are the three lengthwise ribbings and
the lateral ribbings creating metopes in which a figurative motif is stamped. But instead of four pairs of lateral
ribbings there are two groups of four loose ribbings. Whereas the Trou de Han piece shows an underside with just
the lengthwise ribbings covering roughly half of the surface, this is only about one-third of the surface on the
Darmstadt piece. The three sections have comparative dimensions dividing the front side of the ring in three equal
metopes. What is depicted appears unclear, but Henkel suggests a floral motif (Henkel 1913, 156, no. 1732).
Despite the differences with the ‗radiant sun‘-pieces from Trou de Han and Wanborough we assume that all three
finger rings were made by the same jeweller-glassworker. The very distinct related features of both pieces
compared to the very dissimilar other types of finger rings in glass are to us a convincing argument.
o
Type B5:3: non-figurative design
The piece from the Shepton Mallet 1990 excavations at Fosse Lane (UK) show a complex geometric motif with
two combined lozenges contours with a lozenge-shaped cut-out in the centre. Between the lozenges are on either
side two V-shaped motifs with a central triangular cut-out (Price, Cottam 2001, 204, no.26) [cat.no.4053].
Type B6: closed, polygonal rings
Characteristic to this shape is the polygonal shape of the outer surface while the inner surface preserves a
circular shape. This polygonal shape of glass finger ringse.g., hexagonal, octagonalis achieved by flattening
out the external surface, thus causing a number of angles. No particular tool is needed to achieve this result, but
intentionally manufactured stamps are not excluded, considering the waffled decoration on, for instance, the
polygonal black glass bangle (Type D4) from Kaiseraugst (CH) [cat.no.3677] and the finger rings of subtype B6.
No octagonal finger ring in black glass has yet been recorded, but seeing they exist in gold, silver and bronze as
well as in jet, we may assume they have been produced in (black) glass too. The angles can be sharp or rounded,
whereas the straight sides can be flat, hollowed or faceted. The pieces from Sinsin (BE) (Warmenbol 1984, 8,
fig.6) [cat.no.516] (Figure 63) and Augst (CH) (Riha 1990, no. 286) [cat.no.3326] are plain and have six sides with
rounded edges and thicker angles. This is due to the use of a tool to flatten the sides into a polygonal shape.
Polygonal finger rings in (black) glass are a very infrequent shape and none holds a kind of decoration that
corresponds with the much more widespread equivalent in bronze and silver. Our type B6 corresponds to Guiraud
type 9 and is said to be very uncommon in Gaulabout 3% of all finger rings (Guiraud 1989, 196-197). In
Popović‘s list of Balkan material, the type is totally absent (Popović 1992, 13).
Figure 63: Plain hexagonal finger ring in dark green glass appearing black from Trou del Leuve at Sinsin (BE) (drawing taken
from Warmenbol 1984, 8, fig.6)
102
3.3.2.2.3
Type C: with a discoid bezel
This class of finger rings provides some difficulties in categorizing the entire group with a discoid bezel. Firstly,
three categories on the basis of two technical aspects can be discriminated (Figure 64). The first technique
consists of pinching one rod end into a discoid bezel and attaching it to the other end (1). The second technique
consists of affixing a separately produced discoid bezel onto a closed (2) or an open ring (3). In theory, both
categories can be subdivided in at least three times three subcategories according to the specificities of the bezel:
1) plain bezels; 2) those with stamped decoration and 3) those with incised decoration, and these of the ring: 1)
plain; 2) with applied zigzag; 3) with twisted decoration (Figure 57).
In reality, we recorded only some combinations created in black glass. Nevertheless, we have to take all
parameters into account as other types not occurring in black glass may well have been produced in other glass
hues. Within the catalogue we used the technological aspect creating three categories of type C-finger rings and
on the basis of the decoration of the ring each can be divided into three subcategories. The bezel is not
considered here.
finger rings with
discoid bezel
(type C)
discoid bezel
pinched from one
end
plain ring
applied trails in
zigzag or wavy
pattern
twisted ring
plain discoid bezel
plain discoid bezel
plain discoid bezel
stamped discoid
bezel
stamped discoid
bezel
stamped discoid
bezel
incised discoid
bezel
incised discoid
bezel
incised discoid
bezel
discoid bezel
affixed on closed
ring
discoid bezel
affixed on open
ring
…
…
Figure 64: Theoretical classification of Type C finger rings
Table 37: List of type C finger rings in black glass decorated with protuberances (dimensions in mm)
C1
C2
C3
n
%
n
%
n
%
variant 1
6
100
9
66,7
3
100
variant 2
0
0
0
0
0
0
variant 3
0
0
3
33,3
0
0
TOTAL
6
100
12
100
3
100
103
type C finger rings
11%
33%
C1
C2
56%
C3
Figure 65: Pie-chart displaying the ratios of the various type C finger rings
Type C1: plain ring
The largest category within the type C finger rings are those with a plain ring, whether the bezel is pinched out
from one end or produced separately and applied afterwards on an open or closed ring (Figure 65; Table 37).
Besides black glass, this type of finger ring is particularly produced in a translucent or transparent yellow to
orange glass. The resemblance to the medallion pendants and pressed beads is strong. This type of finger ring is
also known from examples in metal and described by Emilie Riha as ‗Typ 8 – Variante 2‘ (Riha 1990, 35, nos.
134-135). The rings can have an inner diameter from 17 to 20 mm. The rod is about 3-4 mm wide and high and
the diameter of the bezel ranges from 10-12 mm.
o
Variant 1: with undecorated gem
Few finger rings with discoid bezels show no decoration. Because the gem has been pressed, a flat tool must
have been used and not a stamp.
o
Variant 2: with stamped gem
Some finger rings roundels on the ring bezel are decorated with an impressed decoration – a symbol, a text or a
figurative element. A finger ring with chrismon-monogram in a very dark blue glass comes from Matagne-laGrande, Belgium (Sas, Thoen 2002). Figurative elements can be diverse, but portraits are mainly represented.
Single as well as double portraits occur, like, for instance, the finger ring from Saint-Dié-des-Vosges (FR)
(Wagner 2006, no. R72) [cat.no.1378]. Only one example in black glass holding an inscription has been recorded.
The inscription on the finger ring from Petronell – Carnuntum (AT) [cat.no.143] reads "UTERE FELIX" (translated:
wear this in prosperity).
o
Variant 3: with incised gem
The difference from both previous types is that here the gem has an incised decoration. This is a rather unusual
ornamental style and is, so far, only known in black glass from a piece from Zara (HR) and now in the Museo
Vetraria in Murano (Ravagnan 1994, no. 11) [cat.no.768].
Type C2: with applied zigzag
An intact piece comes from the amphitheatre in Metz (FR), showing an applied wavy trail decoration in opaque
white glass on the ring up to the discoid bezel [cat.no.1273] (pers. comm. Hubert Cabart). The bezel is formed by
pinching one end (variant a) and has an impressed decoration. The depiction is unrecognizable, but the
occurrence of two analogous, amorphous embossments side by side most likely refers to the popular double
portrait. This motive was very fashionable on all kinds of glass jewellery during the late Roman period [see 3.3.3
beads].
Type C3: with twisted ring
Finger rings of this type are characterised by a separately prepared bezel applied on a twisted ring. The fine or
wide twists can be S-twined as well as Z-twined. The black glass piece from Augst (CH) is built up from an S-
104
94
twined ring in fine twists (Riha 1990, no. 283). The bezel is lost, excluding the determining of the variant, but
most probably the missing part of the finger ring was a separate discoid bezel. Another example from Augst in a
colourless glass with fine opaque yellow glass trail twisted clockwise and with thicker section has lost its bezel too,
but is clearly an open ring that must have held an affixed bezel (Riha 1990, no. 284, Taf. 14).
3.3.3
Beads
The study of glass beads remained until recently limited to either the large group of beads comprising a wide
range of materials or to the entire group of glass material and consequently never received proper support. The
few prior outlines executed on Roman glass beads resulted however in the necessity to create valuable and
95
effective typologies (Haevernick 1983; Guido 1978; Spaer 2001; Mandruzatto 2008). But most important for
future research on the Roman glass beads is to apply the established typologies to improve our knowledge on the
glass bead production and consumption in order to better understand the use and function of this commodity type
within the Roman material culture (Swift 2000). To come to new readings of the heap of bead production and
consumption in the Roman imperial period it is sometimes essential to adjust parameters instead of continuously
demanding to develop the elaboration of the established parameters.
Most commonly in use is the classification established by Margaret Guido (1978, 91-102), even though it has a
whole range of shapes missing that appear frequently on the continent, as she took into account only the beads
from the British Isles. Nevertheless, the glass beads designated in Guido‘s typology gives a clear impression of
the Roman bead production characteristic for the first three centuries AD.
Figure 66: Classification of the Roman glass beads from the British Isles (after Margaret Guido 1978, fig.37); Encircled with full
red line the types known in black glass; encircled with dotted red line the types in black glass recorded on the continent
From the 22 types she distinguished (Figure 66) only three types appear in black glass in Britain: the small
segmented beads (types 1-2); cylindrical beads (type 5); small biconical beads (types 12-13). Four other types
are also known in black glass on the continent: the elongated cylindrical beads (type 4); the barrel-shaped beads
(type 16); the discoid shaped flattened beads (type 17a) and the so-called ‗melon‘ beads (types 21-22). It is
apparent that a regional Romano-British production can only be recognized when considering the continental
distribution and consumption patterns. An accurate and consequent approach of the beads can therefore result in
94
Although this piece is appearing black in Emilie Riha‘s publication, the colour of the glass is described as ‗grau-gelblich‘ (yellowish grey),
probably swayed by the iridescence.
95
Essential within the glass bead research are the studies on contemporaneous material from outside the Roman Empire (TempelmannMaczyńska 1985) and on early Medieval glass beads, such as the Anglo-Saxon beads (Guido 1999; Bruggmann 2004).
105
a better insight of the bead production and help to recognize glass workshops on a local, regional, inter-regional
and eventual empire-wide level.
Margaret Guido more or less limited her description of the Roman glass beads to the monochrome beads (Guido
1978). As a result Guido‘s typology represents for the most part those produced in a monochrome translucent
emerald green, ultramarine blue or colourless glass, the latter alternatively gold-sandwiched. Beads produced in
black glass remain rather marginal for Britannia, resulting in Guido‘s study in a limited number of black glass
shapes taken into consideration. Moreover, by excluding the bichrome and polychrome beads, characteristic for
th
th
the (the second half of) the 4 century and 5 century AD [see Chapter 4], a large part of the Roman glass bead
production got disconnected from the entire discussion. Remarkably these colourful beads do get integrated in
her other comprehensive publication dealing with early medieval Anglo-Saxon glass beads (Guido 1999, 170-190).
The annular, globular and barrel-shaped beads of this period appear in different sizes and are usually decorated
with a single or double zigzag in a white, yellow, red or turquoise blue opaque glass trail. Similar beads have been
th
th
retrieved in various late Roman contexts of the late 4 –early 5 century AD all over the Roman Empire such as
Trier (DE) (Cosyns 2009), Augst/Kaiseraugst (CH) (Riha 1990, 77-93), Horbat Qastra (IL) (unpublished). The fact
that these late Roman beads frequently appear in Anglo-Saxon, Merovingian, and Longobard tombs in the west
and in so-called early Byzantine tombs in the Levant adds to the difficult chronology. Hence, we cannot simply
th
assign cultural significance to the political and military shifts occurring at the beginning of the 5 century AD [see
Chapter 4]. Furthermore, the presence of polychrome black beads is noticed in late Roman contexts within the
entire Mediterranean and specifically in the eastern Mediterranean, an area where Barbarian people such as
Anglo-Saxons or Merovingians were unquestionably fully absent. Therefore, we believe we have to exclude these
late Roman/early Byzantine glass beads as imports from the so-called barbaric areas. What‘s more, the negligible
quantity of (polychrome) black glass beads within so-called Barbaricum beyond the Rhine and Danube
(Tempelmann-Maczyńska 1985) seems rather to point to an inverse import coming from the Mediterranean area
[see Chapter 6].
th
th
As a result Guido‘s overview on the Romano-British glass beads misses those in black glass dated 4 and 5
century AD. Obviously this is because they are nearly exclusively known from Continental sites. The most
idiosyncratic ones are the so-called spacer beads with their characteristic double perforation. They were
manufactured in various monochrome glass coloursi.e., brownish yellow, ultramarine blue and deep green
appearing black. Most characteristic spacer beads are the ribbed ones in black-appearing glass (the so-called
Trilobitenperlen), but also portrait-beads, theatre mask–beads as well as various other types have been produced
in black glass. The exclusion of the double perforated spacer beads in Guido‘s work is most likely due to the
striking absence of this type of glass bead in Britannia. All recorded spacer-beads so far are solely known in jet
(Allason-Jones 1999) what reflects the success of the locally extracted jet and shale. Besides these monochrome
black glass beads, there is a multitude of bi- or polychrome decorated black glass beads with one contrasting
colour, or with two different glass colours combined. Rarely, three different colours have been applied. In most
cases, the glass trails have been applied in an opaque white glass, but also a large number have been decorated
with yellow opaque glass trails and/or dots. To a lesser extent, opaque turquoise blue and vivid red to brownish
red glass has been used.
Some of the Roman black glass beads have been incorporated in the typology on contemporaneous so-called
‗Barbaric‘ beads from Central Europe by Magdalena Tempelmann-Maczyńska (1985). Various beads were made
in black glass. From the 387 types recognized by her (TM), about 65 are made from black glass, of which 19 can
be regarded as being of Roman production:
[monochrome, plain] TM11 (small cylindrical); TM27 (micro cylindrical); TM40 (small annular); TM69 (small
biconical);
[monochrome, incised] TM103d, 167 and 168 (melon);
[polychrome] TM198e (globular ‗crumb‘); TM276 (large annular with cross-cutting wavy trails); TM293b-c
(large cylindrical with parallel wavy trails); TM300; TM301 (large annular); TM302 and 303 (large squat
cylindrical); TM330-331 (elongated barrel-shaped); TM332 (juglet pendant); TM348 (large elongated
cylindrical); TM380c (large annular).
Considering the massive category and the huge variety of shapes, glass hues, decorative design and techniques
applied it is hard not to contribute to the already existing confusion and come to useful quantifications. In order to
keep an overview of the black glass beads produced during the Roman imperial period we set up a chart of the
different types of glass beads known in black glass (Figure 67). We created two main classes on the basis of the
applied technique: (a) the rod-formed beads made by wrapping hot glass around a metallic mandrel; (b) the
folded and pressed spacer-beads with the very characteristic features of a double perforation and one flattened
106
side. A second level defines the various shapes. A third level considers the variety of decorative styles applied.
Finally we take into account that each class was produced in different sizes: <15 mm (small); 15-25 mm
(medium); >25 mm (large). The small beads encompass also the micro-beads with a diameter <8 mm.
Beads
Spacer-beads
Rod-formed
Annular beads
undecorated
Eight-shaped
beads
'Trilobitenperlen‘
with wavy
pattern
plain
with zigzag
pattern
vertically ribbed
with crossing
zigzag pattern
with dots in
between two
interwoven glass
trails
with mottled
pattern
horizontally
ribbed
Theatre mask
beads
Lion head beads
Globular beads
Cylindrical
beads
'Melon' beads
large
Frog beads
Helmeted head
beads
Medusa head
beads
small
Barrel-shaped
beads
Biconical beads
Portrait beads
See detailed
subdivision figure 71
Discoid beads
Figure 67: Chart based on the different types of black glass beads (by author)
107
3.3.3.1
Rod-formed beads
Only few types of the wide-ranging variety of rod-formed beads have been produced in black glass. We defined
six different classes of rod-formed beads in black glass (Guido 1999, 170, type 2). Like everyone else, we
separated the so-called melon-beads but in fact they are a decorative subcategory derived from tooling annular or
globular beads with an incised decoration occurring already from the early Iron Age. This separate approach has
grown historically under influence of the ubiquitous blue to turquoise quartzceramic ‗melon‘ beads. The cylindrical,
conical and biconical beads appeared newly in Roman times.
The predominant differentiation of annular, globular and barrel-shaped bead categories is the ratio lengthdiameter:
1.
2.
3.
length-diameter ratio ≤1:2
length-diameter ratio c. 1:1
length-diameter ratio 1,5:1 to 2:1
annular beads:
globular beads:
barrel-shaped beads:
Concerning the cylindrical, biconical and discoid beads, the most important aspect is the shape:
4. cylindrical beads: a straight perforated side and a constant diameter from one end to the other; short
cylindrical = when the length-diameter ratio is equal to globular beads and long cylindrical = when equal
to barrel-shaped beads.
5. biconical beads
6. discoid beads : flattened round or elliptical we cannot speak of the diameter but talk of the thickness or
height of a bead instead
The diameter of the perforations remains in general relatively small, with a ratio versus the maximum external
diameter of 1:5 but going up to 1:2 for a number of annular beads.
We catalogued 799 beads of which 502 are rod-formed and 297 are folded and pressed spacer-beads. Besides
the main annular, globular and barrel-shaped beads, as the most classical bead shapes, the cylindrical and in a
lower extend also the biconical beads are the most frequent rod-formed black glass beads (Figure 68; Table 38).
The discoid-shaped beads occur rarely in black glass and can be considered on the same level as the types
incorporated within the miscellaneous group. The ‗melon‘ beads can be divided into 15 ex. annular and 19 ex.
globular (15 ex. could not be assigned to a specific shape being short of information).
Table 38: Overview of the rod-formed beads in black glass
rod-formed beads
n
%
annular beads
globular beads
barrel-shaped beads
biconical beads
cylindrical beads
‗melon‘ beads
discoid-shaped beads
miscellaneous
undefined
TOTAL
discoidshaped beads
1%
112
68
39
22
68
49
5
11
128
502
22,3
13,5
7,8
4,4
13,5
9,8
1,0
2,2
25,5
100,0
rod-formed beads
miscellaneous
3%
‗melon‘
beads
13%
cylindrical
beads
18%
annular beads
30%
globular beads
18%
biconical
beads
6%
barrel-shaped
beads
11%
Figure 68: Pie-chart showing the ratios of the different bead classes in black glass
108
Annular beads
Because all black glass annular beads are made with the rod-formed production technique the size and the
decoration were looked at first to classify the 127 entries. The annular beads can be subdivided in four major
classes: 1) plain; 2) ribbed or so-called ‗melon‘ beads [see below]; 3) applied glass trail; 4) applied specks or socalled ‗crumb‘ beads. These can occur in different sizes i.e. micro (2 ex or 1,6%); small (54 ex or 42,5%);
96
medium (32 ex or 25,2%); large (12 or 9,5%).
Table 39 demonstrates most annular beads in black glass are plain but when decorated annular beads mainly
have applied glass threads in a wavy or zigzag pattern, sometimes with a dot in between two interwoven glass
trails.
97
We distinguish six
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
f.
varieties in decoration:
undecorated (Guido 1999, type 2i)
with wavy pattern (Guido 1999, type 2v)
with zigzag pattern (Guido 1999, type 2vi)
with crossing zigzag pattern (Guido 1999, type 2viii-ix)
with dots in between two interwoven glass trails (so-called ‗eye bead‘) (Guido 1999, type 2viii)
with mottled pattern (so-called ‗crumb bead‘) (Guido 1999, type 2x)
Table 39: Overview of annular beads in black glass (n = quantity)
variant a
variant b
variant c
variant d
variant e
variant f
‘melon beads’
TOTAL
n
%
micro
small
medium
large
indefinite
10
7,9
6
2
2
-
12
9,5
3
4
5
15
11,8
13
1
1
-
127
100
2
54
32
12
27
54
42,5
2
17
13
3
19
7
5,5
3
4
-
27
21,3
12
7
5
3
2
1,6
1
1
-
Globular beads
The globular beads in black glass occur in various decorative categories similar to the annular beads:
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
f.
undecorated (Guido 1999, type 2i)
with wavy pattern
with zigzag pattern (Guido 1999, type 2xv)
with crossing zigzag pattern (Guido 1999, type 2viii-ix)
with dots in between two interwoven glass trails (so-called ‗eye bead‘) (Guido 1999, type 2viii-ix)
with mottled pattern (so-called ‗crumb bead‘) (Guido 1999, type 2xi)
Margaret Guido (1999, 170) kept the undecorated annular and globular beads together within type 2i. At first sight
there is no reason why these should not be identified as two separate shapes.
Table 40 demonstrates that the 87 globular beads recorded are for the most part undecorated as the annular
counterparts. A quite considerable part of the globular beads is composed of the so-called melon beads [see
below]. Most globular beads are small sized but no useful conclusions can be proposed from such general
classifications. Nevertheless there is a potential to discern chronological idiosyncrasies as is the case for the
‗melon beads‘.
Besides the abovementioned six variants we catalogued two segmented globular beads, both from Nor‘Nour (UK)
(Dudley 1967, nos. 95a-b) [cat.nos.4166-4167] and one faceted globular bead from Conimbriga (PT) (Alarcao
1976, 210; 213, no.298, pl. XLVI) [cat.no.3090].
It needs verification whether the glass hue of the applied glass trails relates directly to a specific pattern such as
short, regular zigzags and large zigzags applied either in a smooth movement or a coarse motion and all possible
combinations of the above. Colour combinations and pattern variations possibly comprise regional styles and
chronological evolutions but in the same way the creation of existing differentiations were subjected to sociocultural practice and belief.
96
97
The size of 27 annular beads (or 21,3 %) remained unknown when cataloguing them.
We excluded here the incised decoration technique as we discussed the annular ‗melon‘ beads with a separate class.
109
Table 40: Overview of globular beads in black glass (n = quantity)
variant a
variant b
variant c
variant d
n
%
micro
small
medium
large
indefinite
39
44,8
1
22
5
3
8
2
2,3
1
1
-
14
16,1
7
1
2
4
0
0
-
variant e
variant f
‘melon beads’
TOTAL
1
0,9
1
-
8
9,2
4
3
1
20
23,0
6
6
8
-
87
100
1
41
15
14
13
Cylindrical beads
Although different from the annular and globular beads the cylindrical (black) glass beads also occur in various
decorative categories:
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
f.
undecorated
festooned spiralling pattern (Konrad 1997 form 14a)
with zigzag pattern
with crossing zigzag pattern
with dots in between two interwoven glass trails (so-called ‗eye bead‘)
spiralling pattern
We inventoried 66 cylindrical beads (Table 41). The cylindrical beads are present in Margaret Guido‘s overview of
forms (1978, 96, types 4-5) which categorizes the material according to their size: the long cylindrical beads (type
4) and short cylindrical beads (type 5) (Figure 66:4-5). Most are undecorated (variant a), but a number of
elongated cylindrical beads are decorated with applied spiralling trail in opaque white, yellow, blue or red glass –
mainly festooned (variant b) – or zigzag in the centre flanked at the ends with a short spiral (variant c) and
consequently resembling barrel-shaped beads [see below]. Others show a crossed zigzag pattern with eyes
within the lozenges (variant e). There are no cylindrical beads inventoried with mottled specks or so-called ‗crumb‘
pattern.
Table 41: Overview of cylindrical beads in black glass (n = quantity)
variant a
variant b
variant c
variant d
variant e
variant f
TOTAL
n
%
micro
small
medium
large
indefinite
4
6,1
0
0
0
4
0
7
10,6
0
1
0
1
5
66
100
0
14
5
25
18
37
56,1
0
10
4
10
13
13
19,7
0
0
0
13
0
4
6,1
0
3
0
1
0
1
1,5
0
0
1
0
0
‗Melon‘ beads
This is the most common and oldest name for ribbed beads with longitudinal grooves and lobes, and supposedly
derived from their resemblance to a creased melon. But this type of bead (Guido 1978 type 21-22; Guido 1999
type 2iii; Riha Type 11.1.2) should better be incorporated under the annular or globular beads with incised/tooled
decoration (Figure 66:21-22). Gustavus Eisen prefers to call these beads ‗lotus‘-shaped as it ―harmonizes better
with the amuletic nature of the beads‖ while names as ―segmental beads‖; ―ribbed beads‖; ―pulley beads‖;
―nasturtium seed beads‖ all refer to the form of the beads, ―without any consideration of their nature‖ (Eisen 1930,
20) [see Chapter 7].
98
Generally known in a pale blue to turquoise quartz-ceramic material , similar beads in glass regularly occur too
on Roman sites, and this in two sizes: large (with a diameter above 25 mm) and small (with a diameter below 20
mm).
Fifty entries deal about the so-called ‗melon beads‘. Already a good number have been discussed when
considering the annular (15 ex.) and globular beads (20 ex.) (Tables 39-40). The shape of another 15 ex. remains
98
Mostly these type of beads are described as being made from frit, glass paste or faience, but we choose to use the English translation of the
German ‗Kwartskeramik‘ (Busz, Gercke (eds) 1999).
110
uncertain, one of which is in fact a ‗crumb‘ bead mottled with colourful glass specks. The small annular ones all
remain plain monochrome black beads, whereas those with an applied spiralling decoration with trails in white,
yellow or red opaque glass are medium or large globular ones (Table 42).
Both categories should be considered separately, not only for their differences in external properties, but
particularly because the large bichrome beads feature early Roman beads of a probably late La Tène derivation
during the Julio-Claudian period and thus characteristic for Period I. Conversely, the small-sized plain melon
beads form part of the late Roman glass jewellery from only Period II onwards up to Period IV [see Chapter 4].
Variant a = plain annular
Variant b = annular with spiralling decoration
Variant c = plain globular
Variant d = globular with spiralling decoration
Table 42: Overview of melon beads in black glass (n = quantity)
variant a variant b
variant c
variant d
indefinite
TOTAL
n
%
micro
small
medium
large
indefinite
50
100
0
26
9
12
3
15
30
13
1
1
-
0
0
-
6
12
5
1
-
14
28
1
5
8
-
15
30
7
2
3
3
Barrel-shaped beads
Characteristic to the barrel-shaped beads is the convex body tapering towards the ends with a length-diameter
ratio of 2:1. Margeret Guido discerned two categories of barrel-shaped beads in Roman times: the short and the
elongated: (Figure 66:16) (Guido 1978 type 16). The short barrel-shaped beads have a length that more or less
equals the diameter of the bead. These squat beads can occur in very large dimensions, like the one in a
brownish-red glass in the British Museum, London and presumably with Egyptian provenance, with a length of 51
mm and a maximum diameter of 31 mm (Cooney 1976, 33, no. 320). The length-diameter of elongated barrelshaped beads hrates to 5:1. Both classes have identical decorations with applied glass trails in a contrasting
colour, generally opaque white, but opaque yellow, opaque red and opaque turquoise are also utilized. Based on
the decorative pattern we recognized six variants (Table 43):
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
f.
undecorated
with zigzag pattern
with crossing zigzag pattern
with dots in between two interwoven glass trails (so-called ‗eye bead‘)
spiralling pattern
with mottled pattern (so-called ‗crumb bead‘)
The design of the decorated beads is characterised by spiralling coils at each end and a zigzag motive in the
centre. The central design demonstrates two variants. Variant 1 consists of only one wide zigzag in the centre,
and variant 2 is composed of a wide cross-cutting double zigzag. These classes match with types 330 and 331 of
group XXII proposed by Magdalena Tempelmann-Maczyńska (1985).
One third of the barrel-shaped beads is plain (variant a) and more than half is large sized (Table 43). All other
decorative patterns are only represented by a small number of pieces.
Table 43: Overview of barrel-shaped beads in black glass (n = quantity)
variant a
variant b
variant c
variant d
variant e
n
%
micro
small
medium
large
indefinite
15
34,9
0
2
4
7
2
3
7,0
0
0
0
3
0
5
11,6
0
0
1
4
0
5
11,6
0
2
1
1
1
2
4,6
0
0
0
2
0
variant f
indefinite
TOTAL
3
7,0
0
0
1
1
1
10
23,3
0
0
0
6
3
43
100
0
4
7
24
7
111
Biconical beads
In general, biconical beads are small or very small (micro beads) below 2,5-3 mm diameter and length and mainly
undecorated (Guido 1978, types 12-13) (Figure 66), but rare examples of decorated biconical beads with blurred
trail decoration have been reported as the one now at the Corning Museum of Glass (Whitehouse 2001, 59,
no.987) [cat.no.4464]. Very popular in ultramarine blue translucent glass, the biconical beads in opaqueappearing black glass only occur occasionally.
Discoid beads
Discoid beads are monochrome flat-pressed circular beads (Guido 1978 type 17a variant) with a small perforation
not in the centre of the disc but all through the flat side (Figure 66:17 left). Many were retrieved from the late
Roman cemetery site of Castra, Israel (unpublished) [cat.nos.2391; 2396], but most pieces were unfortunately in
such a bad conservation condition that it is unknown whether all of them were made from black glass or whether
this is due to a thick blackish weathering crust.
A necklace conserved in the archaeological museum of Ancona (IT) consists of a set of 20 perfectly well99
preserved discoid beads in a deeply brown glass appearing black on a golden chain (Figure 69) [cat.no.A4606].
Two pieces come from Augst/Kaiseraugst (CH) and are catalogued as ‗Linsenförmige Perle‘ (Riha 1990, nos.
1348-1349) [cat.nos.3344; 3653]. No. 1348 is described as being in ultramarine blue glass but is in reality made in
a black-appearing olive-green glass. The discoid beads are all small sized with a diameter that ranges between
12-13 mm and their thickness between 3-5 mm. One bead from Arles [cat.no.1014] is more elongated giving it a
more ellipsoidal shape (Foy 2010a, 494, no.1049).
Figure 69: Roman necklace combining a golden chain with black glass discoid beads
(photograph by author, by courtesy of the Archaeological Museum of Ancona)
Miscellaneous
On rare occasions we recorded isolated shapes proving that the Roman glassworker/jeweller was very creative in
producing all sorts of beads using all sorts of coloured glass and varying in shape, size, applied technique. We
limit ourselves in summing up the various shapes in Table 44.
Table 44: Overview of the miscellaneous shapes of beads rarely occurring in black glass (n = quantity)
cat.no.
shape
monochrome
bichrome
polychrome
size
n
small
643
conical
2
x
4380
medium
1250;1253
plano-convex
2
x
large
1057;
1914;1920
1048;3145
2382
Period
II-IV
IV
quadrangular
3
x
-
-
large
II-IV
diamond-faceted polyhedron
triangular-shaped annular
2
1
x
x
-
-
small
small
II-III
III-IV
99
Unfortunately, there was no opportunity to study this material during our visit at the museum, and we are not aware of any publication discussing
or describing this item in more detail.
112
3.3.3.2
Spacer-beads beads
Various types of pressed beads have been recorded (Figure 70). Characteristic but not necessarily present, are
two lateral suspension holes, hence the name double perforated pressed beads. Only the discoid beads have one
single, very narrow perforation.
1
2
3
4
illustration of lion‘s head
bead not available
5
6
7
8
Figure 70: overview of Roman cast and pressed beads produced in black glass (3: drawings by author;1: taken from Van den
Hurk 1980, fig.6:m; 2; 5-8: taken from Spaer 2001, 76)
Eight-shaped beads
This type of bead has a flat top and bottom surface with a bevelled edge, resulting in a trapezoidal section with a
double perforation, one in either circle, similar to the more ubiquitous Trilobitenperlen discussed below (Figure
70:1).
To my knowledge only one site, Esch-Hoogkeiteren in the Netherlands, has yielded such type of beads (Van den
Hurk 1980, 374-378, no. VII:5:m, fig.6) [cat.no.2878]. Within grave VII were found 14 of these eight-shaped beads
in black glass, forming part of a 240 mm necklace in combination with at least 69 other beads in different
100
shapes small globular (47 ex.); long biconical (9 ex.); saddle-roof (7 ex.); small segmented (3 ex.); small
biconical (1 ex.). The latter is in gold and the remaining in various coloured glassestranslucent green (11 ex.),
blue (2 ex.), yellow (1 ex.); opaque white (12 ex.), blue (16 ex.), terracotta (12 ex.), turquoise (2 ex.), dark brown
(7 ex.) and 3 beads in so-called opaque silver-coloured glass.
‗Trilobitenperlen‘
Despite an initial solid synthesis by Thea Haevernick (1983) demonstrating that this type of ribbed bead with
double perforation is widespread, the known information remains somehow rarely exploited.
100
Van den Hurk (1980, 374375) mentions 81 complete beads and 2 damaged ones, bringing the total to 83 pieces. Counting the numbers of the
various shapes and assorted glass colours, it appears that the two damaged beads were not taken into account.
113
The 339 recorded ‗Trilobitenperlen‘ of the 190 entries include two main variants on the base of decoration: the
beads with ribbings parallel to the double perforation can be ‗plain‘ or transversally incised, creating a lattice or
checker pattern (Figure 70:2). The name was given because of its resemblance to trilobite fossils but some
scholars unfortunately denominate all double perforated beads as Trilobitenperlen (Haevernick 1983, 265-276),
including those decorated with a theatre mask, a portrait or a Medusa head. Others describe such beads as
ribbed and checker-ribbed spacers (Spaer 2001, 76, nos. 56-57). The so-called Trilobitenperlen correspond with
Riha 11.27 (Riha 1990) and Mandruzatto type XIII.A (Mandruzatto 2008). The ribbings parallel to the perforations
are very regularly rendered by means of a stamp, whereas the transverse lines are incised and consequently
result in an irregular, checkered pattern. This can be very clearly noticed on the plain Trilobitenperle and the four
beads with transverse incisions at the Bible Lands Museum, Jerusalem (Bernheimer 2002, 301, no. GR-36a-e).
The shape may be square or rectangular, but always shows rounded corners (Figure 70:2). The ‗Trilobitenperlen‘
are medium to large sized with a width ranging between 20 and 30 mm and a length ranging between 10 and 20
mm. The perforations of 2-3 mm are applied in the middle close to each other at the longest side, but sometimes
‗Trilobitenperlen‘ have perforations at the shortest side. A seam visible along the perforated sides displays the
folding of the hot gob of glass on a marver and obtained a ribbed design by pressing a tool or mould.
Generally the spacer-beads are single finds but sometimes these beads were found in a set. The combined
length of the set of beads and the contextual information from burial archaeology demonstrates that sets of 6 to
12 beads were used as bracelets and the unique set of 31 ‗Trilobitenperlen‘ were used as necklace [see Chapter
7]. Also the 10 beads from the Vemania castellum treasure at Isny (DE) were part of a necklace in combination
with golden beads and a large set of short cylindrical jet beads (Garbsch 1971, 137, fig.30) [cat.no.1892].
‗Theatre mask‘ beads
Theater mask beads feature a double perforation like the previously discussed Trilobitenperlen. The pressed-in
decoration representing a theatre mask has already been reported on black glass bracelets of type D3. Two main
style variants are noticeable: 1) the tragic or severe-looking theatre masks and 2) the comical-looking theatre
masks (Figure 70:3). The irregularly-shaped example from the Bible Lands Museum (Bernheimer 2002, 300-301,
no. GR-34) is decorated with a circular stamp showing a grotesque theatre mask that refers to the head of
Medusa. The similar-looking piece in the British Museum is stamped in oblique with a circular stamp of c. 20 mm
diameter; due to the narrowness of the bead, the stamped image is not complete (Cooney 1976, 163, no. 1879)
and eight others are known to have been part of the former G. Sangiorgi collection and sold at Christie‘s New
York in 1999. The nine beads with identical theatre masks in severe style from a bracelet of the late Roman
cemetery at Pécs – Sopianae (HU) are pressed with a rectangular stamp (Fülep 1984, 90).
‗Lion‘s head‘ beads
Some double perforated beads have one side decorated with a pressed lion‘s head (Figure 70:4). These beads
are flat and discoid. Martin-von-Wagner-Museum, Würzburg (Haevernick 1983, 275) and Museum Warshau
(Filarska 1962, 66, pl. II,7; Haevernick 1983, 276) show the use of different matrices to have a lion‘s head
impressed.
‗Frog‘ beads
The representation on one of the pressed discoid beads in the Israel Museum, Jerusalem [cat.no.2524] depicts a
frog together with an inscription in Greek (‗ZOHN‘) with two letters at either side (Figure 70:5). The provenance of
the bead of the former Dobkin collection is unknown. The piece is 17 mm wide, 14 mm long and 6 mm high. The
diameter of the perforations is 2 mm (Spaer 2001, 76, no. 58). Only very occasionally in black glass, this
representation seems to occur much more regularly in transparent yellowish glass and on discoid pendants. The
late Roman cemetery of Keszthely-Dobogó (HU) produced a similar bead in transparent yellowish glass from
tomb 110 (Ságí 1981, 74, fig.56:2) and a pendant showing the same representation and inscription in yellow glass
around the neck of a child in tomb 56 (Ságí 1981, fig.13b; Gesztelyi 2001, 240, fig.5;7).
‗Helmeted head‘ beads
Only one discoid bead with the stamped representation of a helmeted head has been recorded so far and it is of
unknown provenance (Figure 70:6). The piece is now in the Israel Museum, Jerusalem and is 16 mm wide, 12
mm long and 6 mm high. The diameter of the perforations is 2 mm (Spaer 2001, 76, no. 59).
114
‗Medusa head‘ beads
This type of discoid double perforated pressed bead is adorned with a frontal face of the snake-headed
Gorgoneion (Figure 70:7). Various seals can be recognized from the differences on some examples now in the
British Museum, London and in Israel Museum and Bible Lands Museum, Jerusalem. The head is pressed at right
angles to the double perforation. This type of bead has been recorded from various places in the eastern
Mediterranean.
‗Portrait‘ beads
Different types have been identified: single and double portraits, man and women, looking to the left or to the right
or in rare occasions en face (Figures 70:8; 71). The portraits are, for the most part, so small that characteristic
details are absent. Therefore, it is mostly impossible to recognize the representation of specific persons.
Portrait beads
Double portrait
(male + female)
Single portrait
Male
Female
Looking to the left
Looking to the left
Looking to the right
Looking to the right
Male left
looking right
towards female
Triple portrait
Male right
looking left
towards female
Figure 71: Organization chart of portrait beads
o
Single male portrait
The representation of the male portrait is always in profile and can be represented looking to the left or to the right.
Bearded and beardless portraits do occur.
o
Single female portrait
The representation of a female portrait can be en face or in profile, and when in profile, she can be represented
looking to the left or to the right.
A number of the single portrait beads represent a human figure with undetermined sex. Although we tend to
categorize these beads for practical reasons as single portraits with undetermined sex it is obvious that this type
is no particular type as such but rather the remainder of indefinite single portraits.
o
Double portrait
There is a large variety discernable. The portraits differ with regard to the position of the female in relation to the
male; the features of each portrait (male having a round beard, a pointed beard or beardless, and female having a
specific hair dress); and the presence or absence of an inscription.
115
The beads are mainly rectangular with two rounded sides, but one piece in the Israel Museum, Jerusalem
[cat.no.2518] is nicely circular (d.:14-15 mm). The piece shows the male on the left, looking right to the female.
o
Triple portrait
On few occasions a triple portrait can occur. So far it consists of male representations two (younger) man
(generally beardless) at the right looking left to an older person mainly with beard. This sort of representations
also occurs on lead seals such as those from northern British sites – e.g. Southshields (UK) representing
Septimius Severus and his two sons Caracalla and Geta (Allason-Jones, Miket 1984, 327) [see Chapter 7].
Miscellaneous
Various other designs encountered on spacer-beads only occur in a negligible amount at present and therefore
incorporated within an assorted category. For instance the bead with the representation of an imperial bust with a
winged Victoria in front from Aquileia (IT) (Mandruzzato 2008, 162, B6)
3.3.4
Pendants
A good number of pendants have been manufactured in the same way as beads. Pendants can even be regarded
as beads with a suspension loop instead of the centrally perforated body which matches those pendant types with
some bead typese.g., pressed discoid (spacer) beads and pendants, yet some have been specifically
produced as pendants. The presented list of types known in black appearing glass gives a good sequence of all
Roman pendant types circulating throughout the entire empire but cannot be considered comprehensive (Figure
72). A more general overview including all other glass hues is necessary considering some pendant types are
solely produced in black glass and sometimes black is completely excluded. The majority of the recorded types
are of late Roman date, more particularly from Period IV [see Chapter 4].
PENDANTS
bulbous body and
gooseneck
suspension loop
'poppy-head‘ shaped
barrel-shaped
jug-shaped
vase-shaped
discoid-shaped
Figure 72: Schematic view of the various Roman pendant types distinguished in black glass (drawings by author or taken from
Spaer 2001)
116
The initial classifications remained very generale.g. per material, glass pendants were classified within one
single category, type B1 (Eisen, Kouchakji 1927) and can hardly be considered typologies useful for
archaeology. Within the brief period of the study of glass pendants the research of this commodity evolved
drastically. Dan Barag provided a detailed classification of the discoid pendants distinguishing three different
chronological types on the basis of the suspension loop‘s shape and subdividing each type into six categories on
the basis of the pressed decoration (Barag 2001, 173-175).
In particular the Israeli material from the Israel Museum collections and the Borowski collection, both in Jerusalem
has received great interest (Spaer 2001; Barag 2001; 2002). The discoid pendants with pressed decoration,
labelled stamped pendants, have been discussed by Dan Barag (Barag 2001, 173-176; 179-185, nos. 355-407),
whereas Maud Spaer has looked at all others including the vessel-shaped pendantsjar pendants (Spaer 2001,
171; 177, nos. 332-338), jug-shaped pendants (Spaer 2001, 171-173; 178, nos. 339-354), the simple looped
pendants (Spaer 2001, 176, nos. 408-422) as well as a miscellaneous set (Spaer 2001, 186-190, nos. 423-436).
The late Roman vase-shaped and other glass pendants from the Egyptian antiquities collection in the British
Museum, on the other hand, have been catalogued in a jumble with the amulets together with Pharaohnic
material (Cooney 1976, 23, no. 241; 25, no. 263; 26, no. 269).
3.3.4.1
Pendants with bulbous body and gooseneck suspension loop
This type of pendant is made in one single movement from a very small droplet of glass with one extremity
stretched out and turned into a loop with the end flattened on the bulbous droplet, giving the bead a gooseneck
loop, with the other extremity broken off (Figure 72). This pendant type has very rarely been attested to date.
Besides the piece in black glass from Tienen (unpublished), we have only recorded one other in a deep blue
glass (Pantone 541) coming from Liberchies (BE) (Vilvorder 1997, 148, fig.101:27); one from Augst (CH) in
‗naturally coloured‘ glass (Riha 1990, 161, no. 1343, Taf. 39:1343); and one in unspecified glass hue from the
cemetery "dell'Università Cattolica" close to S.Ambrogio basilica at Milan (IT) (Palumbo 1999, 29, fig.4:1).
101
Despite the small size of these pendants
(Table 45) there is a very striking resemblance to the so-called
‗poppy-head‘-shaped pendants of the late Roman-early Byzantine period [see below 3.2.4.2. ‗Poppy-head‘102
shaped pendant]. Probably therefore Emilie Riha catalogues the Augst piece as ‗Achterförmige Perlen‘ and
describes it together with the simple poppy-head shaped pendants as ‗Doppelperlen mit Aufhängöse über einem
kugeligen Teil‘ (Riha 1990, 91, 11.26). It is unclear what the relevance is to consider both pendant shapes in one
and same group, but comparing the piece with the simple poppy-head shaped pendants she created confusion.
Accordingly, following Riha‘s explanations, Antonella Palumbo describes the bead from Milan (IT) as ―vago a
forma di ‗otto‘‖ (Palumbo 1999, 29).
Table 45: Dimensions (in mm) of pendants with bulbous body and gooseneck suspension loop
max. diameter
max. height
cat.no.
site
colour
(bulbous body)
(suspension loop included)
537
not catalogued
not catalogued
not catalogued
3.3.4.2
Tienen (BE)
Liberchies (BE)
Augst (CH)
Milan (IT)
black
blue
blue-green
unknown
7
6
9
5,5
12
10
12
9,5
‗Poppy-head‘ pendants
These pendants are generally described as jar pendants (Spaer 2001, 177, nos. 332-336; 338; Whitehouse 2003,
50, no. 967), but since they have no rim or handles, we prefer to distinguish them from vase-shaped pendants
103
which are completed with one or two handles and an explicit rim (Spaer 2001, 177, no. 337). Others prefer to
speak about basket-shaped pendants ‗en forme de panier‘ (vitrum 1990, 128, no.129:2). We favour the
nomenclature of ‗poppy-head‘-shaped seeing the resemblance with the seed pod of a poppy hanging downwards.
Occurring in various decorative ways, they all are clearly built up similarly with an annular suspension loop
attached to a globular body and a discoid pad base added at the bottom. The body could remain (a) plain (Spaer
2001, 177, no. 332-334); (b) decorated with tooled vertical ribbings (Spaer 2001, 177, no. 338), comparable to the
so-called ‗melon‘ beads); (c) decorated with applied wavy or zigzag line (Spaer 2001, 170, fig.76 right; 177, no.
101
We are aware of the fact that the database confronts the dimensions of only four pieces, which makes the present deduction necessitates
further corroboration.
102
The term ‗eight-shaped bead‘ is taken over from Keller 1971, 92.
103
It appears odd and over-reaching to interpret a rather undefined shape as a specific vessel shape.
117
335); or (d) speckled with spots in one or various opaque glass hues (Spaer 2001, 177, no. 336), comparable to
the so-called ‗crumb‘ beads (Figure 73). Sometimes the body is flattened and appears manufactured with very
swift movements giving it a rather clumsy appearance. A number show a handle that is not applied separately but
made in one movement from the glass gob of the body. These similar-looking pieces imply one specific handling
method, making them most probably attributable to one workshop or to several contemporaneous workshops.
a.
b.
c.
d.
Figure 73: Diversity of the poppy-head-shaped pendants: a. plain; b. ribbed; c. wavy/zigzag line; d. mottled (drawing by author)
3.3.4.3
Barrel-shaped pendants
The barrel-shaped pendants are similar to the barrel-shaped beads with generally one large central suspension
loop, e.g. the piece from the inhumation burial at Colchester (UK) (Crummy, 1983, 35, fig.37, no.1504)
[cat.no.4023], but occansionally three loopse.g. the piece from Aquileia (IT) (Mandruzatto 2008, no.158) (Figure
74). The body is in general solid but some have a central perforated body like the one from the necklace found
within the inhumation tomb 544 of the cemetery at Bregenz (AT) (Konrad 1997, 76; 220, pl.32:C) [cat.no.20]. The
body shows a great variety in shapesstraight cylindrical; barrel-shaped; biconicaland sizefrom short to very
elongatedbut all are very characteristically decorated with applied glass trails in one or two contrasting opaque
hues (white; yellow; red; blue). The design can be solely a spirally twined trail at both ends leaving a plain space
in between or showing a simple or double crosswise zigzag pattern. Less common are the one sided zigzag from
one end to the other like the Aquileia piece (Figure 74).
Figure 74: Diversity of the barrel-shaped pendants: top: single looped – left: elongated (Trier); middle+right: short (Cyprus;
Colchester); bottom: multiple looped - Aquileia (top: drawings by author; Colchester taken from Crummy 1983, no.1504;
photograph taken from Mandruzatto 2008)
3.3.4.4
Jug-shaped pendants
The jug-shaped pendants are hollow due to the rod-formed technique by wrapping hot glass around the mandrel
[see Chapter 2]. Despite the great diversity of jug-shaped pendants, these were all catalogued by Horace Beck
(1927, 33) as class B15. They can be very plain or elaborately worked out variants, such as the example from
tomb 1127 of the large cemetery of Pritzier (DE) with a tall cylindrical neck built-up from winding a coil eight times,
an oval-shaped body decorated with a zigzag in opaque white glass, a small discoid foot and one long vertical
handle from rim to shoulder (Tempelmann-Maczyńska 1985, 57; Taf. 9:332) [cat.no.A4600] (Figure 75). The body
can be tall or more truncated and have a globular, cylindrical or biconical body. All have a pad base and one
vertical handle from shoulder to rim. Sometimes the glass trail is further wound around the rim or applied
separately in a contrasting colour to accentuate the rim. Interestingly, the open-worked jug-shaped pendants have
not been recorded in black glass and are nearly only produced in blue glass like the aryballos-shaped one in the
British Museum (Cooney 1976, 26, no. 269). Some remain plain or have a mottled decoration, but the majority of
the jug-shaped pendants have a trailed decoration by applying and marvering opaque blue (turquoise), white,
yellow or red glass in a zigzag or wavy pattern or spiralling around the body. None have been attested so far with
a ribbed body.
118
Figure 75: Diversity of the jug-shaped pendants (all drawings by autho, except left taken from Tempelmann-Maczyńska 1985;
other)
3.3.4.5
Vase pendants
Only one of the seven jar pendants discussed by Maud Spaer, is, according to us, a vase pendant (Spaer 2001,
177, no. 337) (Figure 72). It has a ribbed globular body, an everted rim, two small vertical handles from shoulder
to rim, a discoid pad base and an annular suspension loop. A very similar-looking piece in the Israel Museum,
Jerusalem is the ‗amphora‘ bead (Spaer 2001, 75, no. 50), showing no discoid foot or annular suspension loop.
The central perforation and the absence of the foot and suspension loop proofs the piece must have been
deliberately produced as a bead. Its resemblance in shape and manufacturing technique means that the vase
beads and pendants were probably made in the same workshop. Its resemblance to the cantharus-headed jet
pins tempts us to determine the shape of the vase as that of a cantharus [see Chapter 7].
3.3.4.6
Pressed discoid pendants
Discoid pendants with pressed-in decoration are very similar to the discoid beads with impressed decoration [see
3.3.3.2] (Figure 72) and must be seen as contemporaneous productions from the same workshop, leaving open
the discussion whether only one or more workshops produced similar material. Different from the beads is the
presence of a vertical suspension loop instead of a single or double perforation through the middle. Given our
restriction to black-appearing glass artefacts, we only discuss a very limited number of the discoid pressed
pendants and beads (Table 46). A full treatise would allow us to identify the various stamps employed with the
intention of recognizing regional distributions and chronological different periods. Of course, such an investigation
should evaluate whether the specific stamps could not have been reproduced frequently from one patrix,
subsequently becoming prevalent in different contemporaneous workshops.
Table 46: Ratio of various coloured pressed discoid pendants in large collections (YG = yellowish green;
YB = yellowish brown; P = purple; G = green; B-G = blue-green; B = blue)
black
YG
YB
P
G
B-G
B
collection
total
n
%
n
%
n
%
n
%
n
%
n
%
n
%
reference
Corning
Museum (USA)
38
2
5,3
8
21
17
44,7
1
2,6
1
2,6
5
13,2
4
10,6
Whitehouse
2003, 13-26.
Borowski
Collection (IL)
40
2
5
4
10
26
65
-
-
2
5
2
5
3
7,5
Barag 2002,
307-321.
Israel Museum
(IL)
56
2
3,6
3
5,3
33
59
2
3,6
1
1,8
6
11
8
14,3
Spaer 2001,
179-185.
Dan Barag distinguished three different types of discoid pendants on the basis of the suspension loop‘s shape
and the axis of the stamp featuring three overlapping consecutive periods (Barag 2001, 173-175):
o
Type A (second half 4thearly 5th century AD)
The discoid pendants of this type are the result of careful workmanship. They have a suspension loop which is
flattened at the front. The design is always impressed with great care in a vertical axis with the suspension loop.
o
Type B (late 4th5th century AD)
Compared to the type A pendants, type B pendants are of more inferior workmanship. They have a suspension
loop which is more protruding, being rather rounded, convex and annular. The design is impressed less carefully,
mainly stamped along a vertical axis, while some are stamped within a horizontal axis.
119
o
Type C (second half 5 first half 6 century AD)
th
th
This type of discoid pendant is of mediocre workmanship, having an irregular shape and size. Its suspension loop
is large and annular. The design is impressed nonchalantly along no particular axis.
Category 1: Classical mythology and pantheon
The classical Olympian gods are lacking. The generally occurring representations depict Victory or Nikè, Hercules,
Sol Invictus, Romulus and Remus or the Gorgo Medusa. Typical for type A, they sometimes crop up on type B
and C pendants.
One piece of type B in black glass depicting a helmeted figure wearing a paludamentum, probably representing
Minerva/Athena, is now in the collections of the Bible Lands Museum, Jerusalem (Barag 2002, 3104, no. LA-18)
[cat.no.2555]. The bust is represented in profile facing the left and in front of her the cornucopia. The diameter of
the impression is 13 mm, and the pendant is 19 mm wide and 23 mm high. Because the suspension loop is in a
vertical axis at the bottom of the representation, the stamped figure is hanging upside-down when worn.
Category 2: Biblical themes
All illustrations are of Old Testament passages (Adam and Eve, the Sacrifice of Isaac, Daniel in the Lions‘ Den,
and the Good Shepherd) and occur on all three types. One piece of type C in black glass depicting Daniel in the
Lions‘ Den is now in the collections of the Bible Lands Museum, Jerusalem (Barag 2002, 310-311, no. LA-5)
[cat.no.2549]. Daniel as an orans flanked by two lions and rendered in a stylistic style within a circle is stamped in
‗a 10 o‘clock axis‘. The two seated lions are oriented away from Daniel, but their heads are turned towards him.
The diameter of the impression is 14 mm, and the pendant is 15 mm wide and 18 mm high.
Category 3: Jewish symbols
Typical is the menorah (the seven-armed candlestick) on a tripod, the shofar (the ram‘s horn), the lulav (palm
branch) and the etrog (the citron). Jewish symbols occur on all three types.
One piece of type C in black glass with reddish-brown streaks depicting a menorah is in the collections of the
Israel Museum, Jerusalem (Spaer 2001, 181, no. 373) [cat.no.A4593]. The diameter of the impression is 11 mm,
and the pendant is 21 mm wide and 27 mm high.
Category 4: Christian symbols
The Christian symbols feature the Chi-rho, sometimes combined with an alpha-omega, the cross and stylite saints
such as Saint Symeon. Dan Barag curiously adds the double portrait pendants to the Christian symbols by
considering these confronting busts of opposite sexes representing married couples as a well-known image in the
th
tradition of 4 century AD early Christian art (Barag 2001, 174). Christian symbols occur on all three types. One
104
piece of type C in black glass depicting a square cross within a circle stamped in ‗a 10 o‘clock axis‘ is in the
collections of the Israel Museum, Jerusalem (Spaer 2001, 181, no. 375) [cat.no.A4594]. The diameter of the
impression is 20 mm, and the pendant is 21 mm wide and 25 mm high.
Category 5: Faunal motifs
The lion is the largest group within the category of faunal motifs specifically but also of all categories in general.
Walking to the left or to the right with a frontal face or in profile, the lion regularly is represented with a star/sun
and a crescent moon. On few occasions, the lion is shown with one paw on a bull‘s head. Other regularly depicted
animals are the frog, bull, goat, and hen. Sometimes the representation is executed stylistically. Faunal motifs
occur on all three types. One piece of type C in black glass depicting a lion walking to the left with the head in
profile is in the collections of the Israel Museum, Jerusalem (Spaer 2001, 183, no. 393) [cat.no.A4595]. The
diameter of the impression is 15 mm, and the pendant is 17 mm wide and 25 mm high.
104
The colour is described as an opaque matrix with greyish surface.
120
Category 6: Miscellaneous motifs
Dan Barag puts all other motifs not suitable for the above-mentioned five categories within category 6. It
incorporates floral motifs, the seven-rayed star, and a pair of sandals. Probably these can become separate
categories in the future.
We propose to take the portrait pendants as a separate category just as for the finger rings, beads and the gems.
3.3.5
Gems
Like numismatic studies, for centuries the study of gemstones has been a specialized theme within Roman
material culture studies. The study of gemstones not only discusses the material and shape or size, but also the
rendering (technique, style), the represented theme (iconography; iconology) and the carrier wherein the gems
were set. Considering the high amount of loose stones from unknown provenance an attempt to provide a full
105
overview on the gemstones made of black glass seems quite pointless within this diachronic research. Despite
the awareness that the gemstones in black glass represent a major issue by itself, we wanted to present general
but useful information on a particular segment within the consumption of black glass during the Roman imperial
106
period.
Because a number of gem types have been made in black glass we wish however to discuss very briefly the
different recorded types. Only few different gemstone types have been discerned that were made of black glass
or in combination with glass in a contrasting colour: Plain conical gems, discoid pressed decorated gems; blueon-black discoid gems with bevelled edge imitating nicolo (elliptical and round); black and white-banded discoid
gems, imitating onyx (elliptical and round)
Gemstones in glass are for the most part loose finds, anymore set-in in the object it adorned. But when still
inserted various gem types made of black have been recorded depending on the artefact type. Because particular
types are related to specific uses, we made here already a distinction between gems in brooches, gems in finger
rings and gems in helmets while the function and use of the gems will only be discussed in a later chapter [see
Chapter 7]. All gems have been produced by casting; are round or elliptical; have a flat or convex top and basal
surface; are made in monochrome or bichrome glass.
The brooches are adorned with the inset of a disc-shaped gem (conical or plano-convex), whereas the most
frequent shape of gem for the finger ring is elliptical with two flat or curved sides. No square, rectangular or
polygonal gems in (black) glass are known to our knowledge. Elongated oval gems in glass are not only fairly rare,
they are only known for the early Roman imperial period in the form of the well-known three-coloured banded
gems in opaque white-emerald green-ultramarine blue glass and never in black glass.
1.
2.
3.
4.
Figure 76: Overview of black glass gemstones: 1) plain conical; 2) plano-convex; 3) small elliptical; 4) large round
3.3.5.1
Plain conical gems
A particular use of black glass is the setting in the centre of disc-shaped and oval gilded bronze brooches. The
glass gem in the centre of these round or elliptical discoid fibulae is a small plain cone in a very deeply coloured
105
We started to inventory as much as possible black glass gemstones in the data-base, but seeing the enormous amount of this artefact category
remained underdeveloped within our research so that on the whole we had to remain very brief. See introduction for references on the issue
pointing to the large amount of works published so far but this would have let us too far from the main research objectives.
106
The gems appear to have received more exclusive value in contrast to other jewellery categories made of black glass, such as arm rings, finger
rings and beads. It would be very useful to focus in a further research project on the glass gemstones from the different areas within a specific
region such as the north-western provinces. The gemmatologists rather focus on the precious and semi-precious stones or on the rendering and
the interpretation of the figurative scene. Interesting about the glass gemstones is the technological aspect of impressed decoration when casting
the pieces. Seriation is possible and distribution patterns of gems with a particular image from the same mould can determine the extent of
popularity of a workshop/jeweller.
121
glass appearing black with a diameter averaging around 20-25 mm and a height of 10-15 mm (Figure 76:1). The
gems are mainly disregarded from any discussion because the attention is fully drawn at the brooches (Böhme
1972, Type 45; Riha 1979, type 3.17; Bayley, Butcher 2004, T270-271). Most common are the plain conical
gemstones in monochrome black appearing green glass set in a circular discoid brooches (T270) with 41 ex. in
comparison with 18 ex. set in elliptical discoid brooches (T271) (Bayley, Butcher 2004, type T270-271) (Table
130). Probably many more have been excavated so far as the conical glass gemstone is sometimes defined as
being of stone (Vrielynck, 2007, 54). This very specific use of the conical gemstones makes it indeed possible to
ascribe loose finds to discoid brooches like the one from the military fort at Richborough (UK) (Bayley, Butcher
2004, 134, no.388). Numerous examples of this specific brooch are known from Britannia, though examples of
these Punzverzierte ovale Scheibenfibel mit Glaseinlage were also attested on the Continent along the Rhine
region up to Augst/Kaiseraugst (CH) (Riha 1979) and beyond the Roman Empire into Barbaricum [see Chapter 6].
3.3.5.2
Plano-convex gems
In contrast to the generally simplified and abstracted design of plain conical gems centrally set in discoid fibulae
type T270/271, stands a very elaborate piece from the Roman cemetery of Wancennes (BE) (Bequet 1883, 368369; Mignot 1984, 223-224, fig.36-18; Cosyns in press) and now in the Musée Archéologique of Namur
[cat.no.617]. The gem in question is a plano-convex circular gem with a diameter of 18 mm decorated with a cast
or pressed image of a human face (Figure 76:2). It adorns the centre of the discoid gilded bronze brooch, which
measures 37 mm in diameter. The gemstone, in a very dark bottle green glass with a black appearance, most
likely represents the head of Medusa obtained by mould pressing. The outer side of the bronze plate is decorated
in repoussé-technique with a row of eyes flanked by a row of pearls and an inscription ‗PERSEUS
CONCIDERA[T] ° CAPUD GORG[ON]IS‘ (trans.: ‗Perseus knocked off the head of the Gorgon‘) [see Chapter 7].
A similar small plano-convex gem with a similar mould-pressed human face comes from cremation tomb 80 from
the cemetery of Wanzoul (BE) (Destexhe 1989, 76-77, pl. 37:2) [cat.no.624]. This piece –with a diameter of 12
mm and a maximum thickness of 5 mm– is somewhat smaller than the Wancennes piece, but the representation
of the face of Medusa with thick cheeks within a beaded circle is similar. Although no brooch has been reported
as a burial gift, it is very probable that this gem was also set in a discoid gilded bronze brooch. No clear date has
been provided for the Wancennes piece, but the Wanzoul burial context has been dated between the end of the
nd
rd
2 and first half of the 3 century AD. A much larger piece with a diameter of 27 mm, now at the Bible Lands
Museum, Jeursalem (Bernheimer 2002, 283, no.GR-3), clearly demonstrates a human face on the roundel in blue
glass depicting a Medusa-head, with wings in the hair dress and a lolling tongue. Seeing the resemblance with
nd
the abovementioned pieces we believe that the piece – which is considered a Hellenistic fabric of the 2 century
BC– is dated much too early. Similar pieces are recorded in the museums of Munich and London (Brandt et al.
1972, nos. 3522-23; Walters, 1926, no.3541). A pale greenish blue bead in the Israel Museum, Jerusalem is
decorated with a comparable face which is described as a grotesque face or possibly Bes (Spaer 2001, 74,
no.44).
Four small discoid bronze plates from a late Roman tomb 212 at Pécs (HU), ancient Sopianae, represent the
head of Medusa in front within a beaded circle in repoussé (Fülep 1977, 40, pl. 32:3), not only demonstrating the
omnipresence of this type of imagery but also of its occurrence on ornamental elements of male dress.
A second type of plano-convex shaped gems is illustrated by the small piece in deep purple glass from the villa of
Valkenburg (NL) and now in the Limburgmuseum at Venlo [cat.no.2991]. The gem appears similar to the small
plano-convex counters with round edge. Another small plano-convex gem in black glass with engraved decoration
is the one still set in the golden finger ring (Guiraud type 2c) from the excavations on the Hunerberg at Nijmegen
(NL) (Van Enckevort 2008) [cat.no.A4617].
3.3.5.3
Small elliptical gems
The elliptical gemstones with convex or flat surfaces are made in a wide range of material as well as in various
glass hues (Figure 76:3). In the introduction we refered to the wide assortment of publications available on
intaglios, including wide-ranging reference lists. We consequently limited the account of this functional type by
providing only the most important observations. Working out this vast category of gemmata properly would be an
entire research project in itself.
2
We use the typology built by Erika Zwierlein-Diel and John Boardman as presented by Martin Henig (1978 , 35,
fig.1) taking into account all sorts of gemstones, including those in glass (Figure 77). Two major groups have
been discerned within the gem shapes type C: gems with convex top surface; 2) type F: gems with flat top surface.
Each type is subdivided on the basis of the section variations into seven and eight subtypes respectively, taking
122
into consideration that every C subtype can demonstrate three variants in the convexity of the top surface – ―a‖ for
weakly convex, ―b‖ for moderately convex, and ―c‖ for strongly convex.
Curved
Flat
Figure 77: Overview of gem shapes (illustration taken from Henig 1978², fig.1; after E. Zwierlein-Diel & J. Boardman)
The black glass gems are only known of with a flat surface (type F). The nearly total absence of black glass gems
with a convex surface cannot fully be explained from a technological point of view. Since glass gems are made by
pressing glass in a mould [see Chapter 2] convex surfaces can be obtained as easily as flat ones. Given that the
gemstones in glass used on finger rings are to be considered as imitations of semiprecious stones, it is important
to know that nicolo, onyx and other layered stones are for the most part cut in type F2, F4 and F4a and in F3
when the stones were thick enough (Sas 1993, 114). While F2 and F3 have a fully bevelled edge, F4 and F4a
show a carination halfway through the section, becoming straight or conversely bevelled. Typological studies on
the different semiprecious stones popular during the Roman imperial period show that the convex gems in
semiprecious stones are idiosyncratic for the Republic period and the very early imperial period (Sas 1993, 114).
The layered nicolo gems are solely cut in the types F2, F3, F4 and F4a, respectively flat conical, high conical,
biconical and conical with straight sides for the bottom layer (Sas 1993, 116, fig.6). This information, however,
needs to be taken with some reservation as a large part of the pseudo-nicolo intaglios in glass could not be
examined fully due to the fact that they are still mounted in a ring (Table 47). The flat topside in all cases means
that the glass intaglios are all of type F.
Table 47: Number of gemstones from Belgium related to finger rings (taken from Sas 1993, 126)
intaglio
intaglio in setting
intaglio in ring
ring
99 ex.
4 ex.
102 ex.
16 ex.
44,8%
1,8%
46,2%
7,2%
total
221 ex.
100%
The catalogue of Belgian material set up in 1993 by Kathy Sas includes 89 intaglios in glass, of which 56 pieces
(62,9%) are imitations of nicolo while only 20 pieces are made from nicolo (Sas 1993, 129, fig.22).
Nicolo imitations
Bichrome blue-on-black glass gems are two-layered glass gems combining a support in black glass covered with
a layer in bluish glass. This gem type with a double layered glass is known in literature as ‗nicolo paste‘ and
‗pseudo-nicolo‘ and was mass-produced imitating nicolo-onyx, a popular semiprecious stone in Roman times.
We have observed that some authors speak about a layer of light blue glass topping a layer in dark blue glass
and not of one in black-appearing glass although the opacity of the used deeply coloured glass makes it
impossible to discern the true hue. Because we were unable to verify these pieces, it is uncertain whether we
should speak of two dissimilar technological varieties or whether it is only due to the discrepancy in colour
perception as explained in Chapter 1. There seems at least to be a consensus about considering these intaglios
as an imitation of nicolo stones.
123
All blue-on-black glass gemstones have a flat surface (Henig type F) and bevelled edge. The bevelled edge is
either short (Henig variants 2 and 4) or wide (Henig variant 3). When the gem with short bevelled edge is still setin the original ring it is impossible to determine whether we have to deal with variant 2 or 4. For this reason the
combined description F2/4 occurs in the database. Although particular attention is drawn to the section of these
gemstones by Martin Henig (1978²), the differences in shape have to be taken into account too. Emilie Riha
explains that the bichrome glass gemstones imitating nicolo have been divided into two large groups by Gertrud
Platz-Horster (Riha 1990, 22-23). The first group has, in fact, a third glass layer in between the blue and the black
layer. The blue glass of the first group has a relatively thick layer in vivid deep blue glass, whereas the second
group only consists of a thin and dull greyish blue top surface. Furthermore, it is suggested that the second group
comprises only the thin gemstones, while the first group is represented by the thicker ones. A thorough
assessment of this material from a technological point of view, including the assessment of the chemical
composition probably would provide interesting new information for a better reading of this commodity within the
Roman material culture.
White-banded onyx imitations
The white-on-black glass gemstones in glass are commonly of relatively large dimensions compared to the
semiprecious stones. Examples of black glass gems with a white band through the centre of the top surface are
rarely recorded. An intact gem, now in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge (UK), measures 18,5 x 9,5 mm and is
adorned with an engraved scene representing the shepherd Faustulus who finds Romulus and Remus suckling a
wolf (Glass at Fitzwilliam 1978, 31, no. 49b). Another black glass gemstone imitating white-banded onyx is
located in the Limburgmuseum, Venlo (NL), apparently from a villa rustica at Valkenburg [cat.no.2991]. The loose
flat gem with bevelled edge (Henig type F2) measures 12,5 x 9,3 mm and is 2,7-3,1 mm thick. A bead-edged
pastoral scene is represented with a bearded man standing towards the left and carrying a lamb on his left arm,
while a dog in front of the shepherd is jumping towards the lamb. The scene is pushed in and is of very high
quality.
Black onyx imitations
A number of small sized gems are made of monochrome black glass and have an elliptical shape with curved
surfaces (Henig type C1). In combination with the engraved design, the applied decorative style and the depicted
themes these glass gems appear similar to the early imperial gemstones in semiprecious black onyx. These
monochrome black glass gems can be considered pseudo-onyx stones; one of the many imitations of the more
expensive semiprecious gems produced on a large scale Pliny the Elder complained about.
3.3.5.4
Large round and polygonal gems
Alongside the small and elliptical shaped pseudo-nicolo gems, a small group are large and circular in shape
(Figure 76:4), clearly demonstrating an affinity with a polygonal shape, like the octagonal gemstones on the
Berkasovo-helmet (Mackensen 2009, 289-294, Taf.25) [cat.no.3108]. The decorated helmet from Berkasovo (SB)
in gilded silversheet contains eight large intaglios in blue-on-black glass. The dimensions of the Berkasovo gems
have not been provided, probably because they are still set on top of the helmet next to the crest of the helmet
(Figure 132). The other large round gems have a thickness of 3,5-5 mm and a bevelled edge similar to the
abovementioned small elliptical gems type F2 but measure 20-25 mm in diameter, with 15-16 mm for the blue top
layer.
3.3.6
Hairpins
Roman hairpins from archaeological contexts are above all manufactured in bone or bronze, but silver and even
golden hairpins were also relatively commonly used. In particular, in contexts of the late Roman period hairpins
were more recurrent when prevailing hairstyles led to their frequent use (Crummy 1983, 19-30; Riha 1990, 95114; Stutzinger 1995; Allason-Jones 1999; Rodet-Belarbi, Van Ossel 2003, 337-340). Hairpins in lead, iron,
jet/shale and glass do occur as well, but appear to cover only a fraction of this functional type, as can be observed
107
for Augst/Kaiseraugst (CH) (Riha 1990, 96, tab.122). The reduced number of hairpins in glass makes it less
108
suitable to develop a separate typology; this is also the case for jet/shale hairpins. Various typologies are
107
108
Emilie Riha mentions a share of 0,6% of all hairpins from Augst and Kaiseraugst that are made in iron, lead, jet or glass.
Ninna Crummy distinguished only two types of hairpins in jet: 1) with spherical head; 2) with faceted head (Crummy 1983, 2728, fig. 24).
124
available covering the hairpins in general (Harden 1979, 315-316) or focused on specific materials such as bone
and bronze (Crummy 1983; Riha 1990).
Besides the glass pins produced in opaque black glass, pins in translucent to transparent brown, bluish-green and
pale green glass also occur. Some of the pins in black glass show streaks in very vivid red.
Most glass hairpins have a short shaft of 50 to 80 mm in length and a large head of 8 to 10 mm in diameter. The
shaft of black glass pins has a maximum diameter of 4 to 5 mm, thinner than the similar hairpins in
jet/shale/cannel coal. The very standardized measurements mean that no classification can be built up from it.
Compared to the pins in jet/shale/cannel coal, the (black) glass pins fall within the thick short type. The shaft is
plain and cylindrical, tapering slowly towards a pointed end and a constriction just below the head.
The most characteristic feature is the shape of the pinhead. The head can be (a) spherical, (b) conical, (c) discoid
(flattened sphere) or (d) elliptical (narrowed sphere) (Figure 78).
a
b
c
d
Figure 78: Glass hairpins with a) spherical head; b) conical head; c) discoid head; d) elliptical head
On rare occasions only the head is made from (black) glass and attached to an iron pin, as attested in Oudenburg
(BE) [cat.no.471], Trou de Han (BE) [cat.no.309;311;313], and Augst/Kaiseraugst (CH) (Riha 1990, 184,
nos.2784-2787) [cat.no.A4592]. Les Houis (FR) [cat.no.1473-1475;1477-1485]. That the Romans produced iron
hairpins with a glass head has been attested earlier at the late Roman cemetery of Lankhills at Winchester (UK)
109
(Harden 1979, 249). Similar are those in bronze and silver mainly decorated with an emerald green polygonal
bead. An intact bronze pin with plano-convex head in black glass comes from the villa at Shakenoak near Wilcote
(UK) (Harden 1971, 106, no. 152, fig.45:69) [cat.no.4201] (Figure 79). The total length of the piece is 79 mm. The
glass head is 5 mm high and 9 mm in diameter. Pushing the bronze wire into the hot glass flattened the glass
blob on the underside and slightly enlarged the diameter.
Hitherto only one intact example in black glass has been recorded. The piece comes from the glass workshop of
Les Houis nearby Sainte Menehould (FR) and measures 67,5 mm in length with a maximum diameter of 4,5 mm
for the shaft and 8,8 mm for the head (Cosyns 2009) [cat.no.1474].
Figure 79: Bronze hairpin with black glass head from Shakenoak (UK)
(taken from Harden 1971, fig.45:69 – scale 1:1)
109
The large plano-convex and small globular pieces holding the remains of two metallic pins from Roman sites as, for instance,
Augst/Kaiseraugst (CH) and Trou de Han (BE) are intrusive modern material. These pieces are not Roman hairpins but 18th–19th century buttons.
The two pins are the remains of a loop to attach the button on a piece of clothing.
125
3.4 Architectural decoration
The glass architectural decoration material can be separated in various categories, i.e. tesserae, twisted rods,
bichrome plaques and inlays or intarsia (Grose 1989, 356-358; Pasqualucci 1999, 213). No classification on the
architectural decoration material seems compulsory since each category is not very assorted. Only the tesserae
show a variety of shapes. Classifying these tesserae shapes however seems useless because all variants have
been made in whenever period, whatever colour, whatever material, and wherever place. The rods, on the other
hand, have been produced only in glass, during a confined period and in one way: twisted. These are known in
monochrome and bichrome glass. The bichrome plaques form a somewhat strange category because they can
be considered as unfinished products to produce twisted rods as well as they have been used as inlays [see
Chapter 7].
3.4.1
Tesserae
Working out a taxonomy on glass tesserae implicitly leads to a first classification on the basis of their colours
(Fiori 2001, 303-5), but as we are here only dealing with black-appearing glass, we can skip this categorization.
Regarding the black glass tesserae, we recognized differences in size and shape which are equally apparent in
other colours (Figure 80).
Figure 80: Selection of black glass tesserae shapes from the site at Les Houis, nearby Sainte Menehould (FR)
in Musée des Antiquités Nationales (M.A.N.), Saint-Germain-en-Laye
(photograph by the author, courtesy of M.A.N.)
Three groups can be distinguished when concerning the size:
1)
2)
3)
small-sized tesserae – below 5 mm side;
medium-sized tesserae – between 5–10 mm side;
large-sized tesserae – above 10 mm side.
Within the three above-mentioned sizes, some specific shapes turn up repeatedly:
1)
2)
3)
4)
cubic shaped – squares on six sides;
pyramidal shaped – triangles on two sides, and rectangles on three sides;
rectangular shaped – squares on two sides and rectangles on four sides;
trapezoidal shaped – trapezoids at two sides, squares and/or rectangles on four sides.
In relation to the black glass tesserae, we always bear in mind that they can be made from various coloured
glasse.g., green, brown, purple, blue-green (Figures 81; 82), and consequently from different recipes. The initial
idea was logically that each recipe was characteristic for a chronological phase and/or regional demarcation
pointing to a specific workshop or a group of workshops. But how can we interpret the presence of various kinds
of black glass colours in one single workshop, as in Les Houis near Sainte Menehould (FR)? Is it that the
workshop enjoyed a long-lasting and successful tesserae production in a wide range of colours, persisting
through subsequent evolutions within Roman glass technology? Or did the glass workshop at Les Houis not
include the colouring of glass, making the workshop depend on the available or attainable supply from various
126
specialized glass centres involved with the production of coloured glass cakes? In that case, we then have to
interpret the several glass cakes retrieved from Les Houis as imported raw material and Les Houis as only a local
workshop within an extensive chaîne opératoire to provide mosaicists with material.
Figure 81: Set of tesserae from the site at Les Houis, nearby Sainte Menehould (FR) in Grand Curtius Museum, Liège (BE)
since the late 19th century (photograph by author, courtesy of Grand Curtius Liège)
Figure 82: Set of 455 black tesserae (Inv.no. 83401-B) from the site at Les Houis, nearby Sainte Menehould (France) in Musée
des Antiquités Nationales (M.A.N.), Saint-Germain-en-Laye (France) (photograph by the author, courtesy of M.A.N.)
3.4.2
Twisted rods
The number of recorded rods that are made of black appearing glass remained rather small compared to the
occurrence of glass rods in other hues. A more detailed study probably would increase the number, but we can
question whether this accumulation would contribute to the understanding of this commodity, its variations, its
127
110
evolution, its technique as well as its use and function? An excellent set of material, R1609, in the collections of
the Royal Museums of Art and History of Brussels (De Meester de Ravestein 1884², 463) includes 111 pieces of
which 81 are twisted rods in various colours (Table 48; Figure 83). But other large glass collection contains similar
materiale.g. Toledo Museum and Corning Museum (USA) (Grose 1989, 349; 358; 370); the Gorga collection in
Rome (IT) (Pasqualucci 1999); Landesmuseum Württemberg, Stuttgart (Honroth et al. 2007, 136-138). The rods
are plainly twisted (S- and Z-twined) or decorated with a twining opaque white or yellow glass trail every few
twists. These spiral trails can be very wide easily > 5 mm and sometimes even wider than the space between two
twists. The opaque yellow glass trails are solely applied on rods in decolourized rods. All others have opaque
white spiralling glass trails. Mainly in a translucent deeply coloured glass, some appear black to the naked eye,
even with the help of a strong light source. Only thin sections via sampling were able to reveal the true colour.
Table 48: List of various glass colours of twisted rods from R1609 at the KMKG-MRAH, Brussels
colour
quantity
%
so-called black
purple
brown
blue (from pale to deep coloured)
blue-green
white opaque
colourless + yellow
TOTAL
10
10
2
35
4
3
17
81
12,3
12,3
2,5
43,2
4,9
3,7
21,0
99,9
The material is always fragmented with a preserved length ranging between 20-90 mm, but generally lesser than
60 mm and as far as we know at most reaching 110 mm like a fragment in Toledo Museum (USA) (Grose 1989,
370, no.670a). One can wonder whether these rods were initially much longere.g. the length of the side of the
polychrome mosaic panel. It is likely that bits and pieces were embedded in the plaster, but a more close study
should provide the answer to this issue. The diameter of these twisted rods range between 5-10 mm with a
preponderance between 7-8 mm.
The twisted rods were in particular used during the early Julio-Claudian period [see Chapter 4] to border the
polychrome wall and vault mosaic panels in nymphaea and balnea together with rows of particular seashell types
[see Chapter 5] (Sear 1977; Grose 1989, 358, fig.170).
As far as we know only twisted rods were used to frame the central polychrome mosaic panel. It is unclear
whether the Romans also used the plain rods for bordering their mosaic panels and whether they are also
encountered in the archaeological findings as such.
Figure 83: An overview of the R1609 material from the KMKG-MRAH, Brussels (photograph by the author, courtesy by KMKGMRAH)
110
We expect in museum collections a far larger amount of pieces that are mainly from former private collections built up in the late 19th and early
20th century. Information on provenance and context is missing in nearly all cases because the material got acquired primarily from the antique
market.
128
Addendum: The so-called stirring rods
Considering the technology and shape, we thought it best to insert here the discussion of the so-called stirring
rods as they resemble the twisted rods used in the wall and vault mosaics discussed above. Even though this
type of material is normally discussed with the vessels (Isings Form 79), we have to acknowledge that these rods
are not recipients but rather utensils and received already multiple functions [see Chapter 7]. Within the scope of
this discussion, it is evident that the function of small twisted fragments cannot easily be ascertained. It is for
instance not clear whether the 30 mm small fragment at the Musées de Poitiers (FR) (Simon-Hiernard 2000, 377,
no. 350) [cat.no.1737] is a fragment of a so-called stirring rod or if it has been used as architectural decoration
material to border a wall mosaic. David F. Grose (1989, 358) differentiates both applications on the basis of the
intensity of the twists which are tighter on the architectural rods and that these lack the different ends
characteristic to the twisted rod utensils.
Essentially produced in transparent pale bluish and pale yellowish green glass, only a small number of them are
produced in a very dark glass. Seeing the very few strongly coloured and black-appearing examples we could
record (13 ex.), it is totally beside the point to discuss here any classification. Once more we have to admit that
only when all rods in whatsoever colour are taken into account a clear-cut overview of variations in the decoration
of the shaft and the ends can be obtained. It is however possible to generate a framework wherein this commodity
type can be subdivided on the basis of technology and decoration (Figure 84): 1) simply drawn and remaining
plain or 2) drawn and twisted; dividable on the basis of the range of finishing at both ends.
RODS
plain
decorated
(twisted)
S-twined
(clockwise)
Z-twined
(anti-clockwise)
S-/Z-twined
(partly clockwise; partly
anti-clockwise)
top end
loop
figurative decoration (vase; bird; face)
bottom end
discoid
pointed
...
Figure 84: Chart of the rod varieties based on technology
129
Figure 85: Stirring rod from tomb 272 at Amathous (CY) (drawing by the author, by courtesy of the District Museum of Limassol)
The Amathous rod (Figure 85) [cat.no.776] one of the few black-appearing piecesis the complete but broken
rod from tomb 272 from the cemetery of Amathous (CY) (Tytgat 1992, 85, no. 692, pl. XIX). It is a simply twisted
rod like two other examples coming from Cyprus and now at the Fitzwilliam Museum (Glass at Fitzwilliam 1978,
50, no. 96). But while the two Fitzwilliam rods are S-twined, the Amathous rod is Z-twined. Another example is
now in the collections of the Glass Museum at Murano (IT) (Ravagnan 1994, 119, no.222). The Murano rod, on
the other hand, is partly S-twined and partly Z-twined, as is the rod of the former Ernesto Wolf collection and now
in the Landesmuseum Württemberg, Stuttgart (Stern, Schlick-Nolte 1994, 396-397, no. 228). Frequently, these
rods are decorated with an applied glass trail twisting around every few twists (as, for instance, in the two
Fitzwilliam pieces), although both the Amathous and the Murano rod have no applied decoration. Concerning the
shape, it is clear that the Amathous piece with one looped end and a flattened extremity is the most common type
of the stirring rods (Isings Form 79). Nevertheless, a wide variety is apparent. Some are discoid flattened on
either extremity (Calvi 1968, no.124, pl.2:4; Hentrich, von Saldern 1974, 214, no. 620; Auth 1976, 229, no. 522) or
have a loop combined with a vase (Spaer 2001, 264, no.631) or with a bird (Constable-Maxwell 1979, 116-117,
nos. 199; 202). The Murano rod, on the other hand, has two pointed extremities and the Aquileia rod has one
pointed end and a spatula-shaped bended end.
The lengths of these rods demonstrate range widely, between 110 and 260 mm, with the average around 190 mm.
The Amathous rod is a small example, with a length of 112 mm and a shaft diameter of 5,5 mm (Table 49). The
discoid end has a diameter of 10 mm and the ring is 25 mm in diameter.
Table 49: List of so-called stirring rods (dimensions in mm)
cat.no.
site
hue
776
Amathous (CY)
so-called black
not catalogued
Cyprus
blue
not catalogued
Cyprus
blue
771
Zara (HR)
purple
2725
Aquileia (IT)
so-called black
3104
3.4.3
Torre de Ares (PT)
blue
length
112
193
162
210
169
reference
Tytgat 1992, 85, no.692, pl.XIX
Glass at Fitzwilliam 1978, 50, no.96
Glass at Fitzwilliam 1978, 50, no.96
Ravagnan 1994, 119, no.222
Calvi 1968, no.122, pl.2:3
http://www.matriznet.imcip.pt/ipm/MWBINT/MWBINT00.asp
Bichrome plaques
Likewise the twisted rods large museum collections host bichrome plaques combining various translucent glass
hues with opaque white glass. The large set of architectural decoration material in KMKG-MRAH R1609 collected
by Emile de Meester de Ravestein during his diplomatic mission at the Vatican in de 1850‘s. Similar material is
available in most large museum collections. Likewise the twisted rods the bichrome plaques are generally in a
blue glass combining opaque white. None has been made in colourless glass or is combining other than opaque
white. The other glass colours are dark green, dark brown and black. The bichrome plaques are sometimes
grooved lengthwise and show quadrangular patterning of the opaque white ribbons, generally in the middle, but
sometimes in the corners (Figure 86).The bichrome plaques are much larger conserved with a length ranging
between 20-135 mm, and likewise the twisted rods most are below 60 mm. The rectangular plaques have a width
that ranges between 9-20 mm and a height that ranges between 2,4-5,2 mm. A more detailed study of these
artefact types would provide in a certain patterning and a categories to better evaluate these objects.
130
Figure 86: An overview of the R1609 rectangular bichrome plaques from the KMKG-MRAH, Brussels
(photograph by the author, courtesy by KMKG-MRAH, Brussels)
3.4.4
Inlays or intarsia
We cannot say much on this material as none have been studied in detail. A very promising position holds the
111
material from the villa of Lucius Verus that is since recently under study. Another study has been reported on
opus sectile material from Ostia (IT) (Verità et al. 2008). Most interesting concerning the inlays in black glass is
the material from Porta Marina where mosaics in opus sectile have been excavated using black (2 ex.), white and
yellow monochrome pieces. Important to this study is that the analytical results demonstrate that different
techniques of coloration have been used pointing to different provenance of the glasses and accordingly
produced in various glassmaking centres.
3.5 Counters
Counters have been made in various materialsbone, ivory, stone, ceramics, amberand sometimes even
112
combining different materials.
Most emblematic for the glass counters is the discoid shape with a plano113
convex section and rounded edge. Most glass counters average between 15 and 22 mm in diameter, but the
114
size can range from below 10 mm to over 40 mm in diameter. The height of the counters is quite standard no
matter what the size is, ranging essentially between 6 and 8 mm but counters with a height less than 5 mm or up
to 10 mm do occur (Harden 1936, 292-294; Price 1995, 129). Besides the typical round, counters a fairly number
have an elongated to ovoid shape, while quadrangular and irregular shaped counters are rather rare. The flat
bottom surface can be smooth or rough. Polychrome glass counters do occur, although they are mainly made in a
monochrome glass hue, undecorated or decorated with dots in one or more contrasting colours. Despite the
various publications discussing glass counters as regular finds when discussing the small finds of an excavation
report, no systematic research has been carried out so far to investigate in detail the possible significance of the
variations in size, shape, colour, and production technique for a chronological and geographical consumption
patterning.
Regularly has been referred to ‗type 9‘ in Véronique Arveiller-Dulong‘s work on the Roman glass in the collections
of the Musée Archéologique of Strasburg (FR) (Arveiller-Dulong, Arveiller 1985, 57-58) to nominate typologically
the counters (Simon-Hiernard 2000, 387-388). But this is based on a misapprehension since the publication of
this rich glass collection consists of a subdivision into chapters per functional type due to the limited space at her
111
First results were presented at the 18th congress of the AIHV in Thessaloniki 2009 mentioning a quantity of inlay plaques in monochrome black
glass: L. Saguì, P. Santopadre, M. Verità, Glass technology, colours, forms and shaping in the 2nd century opus sectile glass materials from the
villa of Lucius Verus in Rome.
112
Six counters from tomb 100 of the late Roman cemetery of the castellum at Oudenburg combine glass with bone. Two glass layersa
transparent blue-green glass layer on top of a white opaque oneare superimposed upon a base of bone (Mertens, Van Impe 1971, 72, nos. 2-9,
pl. XI, 2-9).
113
Counters different from the classic plano-convex shapefor instance, the conically shaped onesoccur rarely and are largely limited to
materials other than glass. Furthermore, the flat-topped conical counter in black glass topped with whitish glass, that has been reported from the
late Roman castellum at Liberchies (BE) (Mertens, Brulet 1974, 86, no. 10, fig. 35:10), could well be a gem normally set in a discoid brooch [see
3.3.5. Gems]. A similar piececombining blue and whitecomes from tomb 781 of the late Roman cemetery of Krefeld-Gellep (D) (Pirling 1966,
97, no.5, pl.67:37).
114
The counter from the villa of Valkenburg (NL) shows extreme dimensions, with a diameter of 41,5 mm and a height of 10,6 mm [cat.no.2992].
131
disposal. Where one chapter deals with all window panes, another chapter considers all glass counters, whatever
their size, shape, production technique or colour. This approach, by neglecting chronological and/or geographical
differences, does not provide a useful classification for archaeologists. Despite the detailed specifications on the
Strasburg material, it is meaningless to refer to it as a typology but was also not meant to be one. Ironically
enough, author herself mentions the lack of a classic typology for this type of glass artefact (Arveiller-Dulong,
Arveiller 1985, 57).
At the same time, a paper on the glass from the Roman fort of Vindolanda (UK) was published by Jennifer Price
(Price 1985, 206-214). She discussed the glass counters by dividing them into two categories: the small planoconvex pieces with a diameter between 10 and 20 mm and the large ones with a diameter between 27 and 32
mm. Difficulty only starts when counters are recorded from other sites which are too large to be attached to the
small counters and not large enough to be classified under the large counters. We therefore thought useful to
introduce the term medium-sized counters in our catalogue for those with a diameter between 20 and 27 mm.
Furthermore, we found it more appropriate to use only the term counter, no matter what size the piece has, so as
not to confuse them with these plano-convex pieces [see Chapter 7].
The range of factors makes it challenging to create a taxonomy on glass counters (Figure 87), especially when
115
trying to create a chrono-typology and in search of possible regional variations.
Size:
Small
Medium
large
Colour:
Monochrome
Bichrome
Polychrome
Decoration:
Undecorated
Dotted
Stripes
Production
technique:
Fused
Poured/cast
Planoconvex
shape
Shape:
Round
Oval
Quadrangular
Irregular
Figure 87: Schematic view on the various features used to classify Roman glass counters
115
Such an endeavour necessitates, in fact, a more in-depth study including all glass counters. Due to the topic of the research, we limited
ourselves to look at the monochrome black counters and excluded from this evaluation all other monochrome as well as the polychrome counters.
Consequently, colour is here not used as a classification element. The late Roman counters in opaque white, turquoise and black glass with a
dotted decoration on the top surface have not been catalogued as polychrome counters, but as monochrome counters with a contrasting
monochrome or bichrome decoration.
132
We therefore subdivided the plano-convex counters in monochrome black glass depending on:
116
size
:
small= d.: below 20 mm;
medium = d.: 20 - 27 mm;
large = d.: above 27 mm.
shape:
round = when perpendicular measurements show a discrepancy of < 3 mm
oval = when perpendicular measurements show a discrepancy of ≥ 3 mm
quadrangular = square with rounded corners
irregular = when the circumference is asymmetrical
production technique
117
[see Chapter 2]:
fusing of glass sherds as described by Pliny the Elder = flat and smooth basal surface
by pouring a drop of glass on a marver = irregularly pitted and rough basal surface.
118
;
decoration:
undecorated
decorated
-
monochrome dotted (opaque white, opaque red or translucent blue)
bichrome dotted (opaque red and translucent blue)
heart-shaped
The monochrome counters can be small, medium and large in size, and circular, oval, quadrangular and irregular
in shape with normally a rounded edge, although pieces with a sharp or grounded edge can occur. Looking at the
dimensions of all recorded black glass counters, a correlation is observable between the diameter and the height
(Figure 88). The larger the diameter is, the greater the height.
ROMAN BLACK GLASS COUNTERS
11
10
9
8
HEIGHT
7
6
5
4
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
DIAMETER
Figure 88: Plot of the dimensions of Roman black glass counters (in mm)
116
In the database we named the counters with a diameter below 12 mm as very small and those with a diameter above 35 mm as very large.
This feature could not be verified systematically in the database because we based our information on mostly publications. From the 710
pieces inventoried [see below] we determined 60 counters with a rough basal surface (cast) and 23 with a flat, smooth surface (fused),
correspondingly 72,3% and 27,7%. Because the 83 pieces that could be determined only represent 11,7% of the total amount of the catalogued
black glass counters no significant conclusions can be proposed from this feature.
118
We sampled some black glass counters for chemical analysis [see Chapter 8], but an extensive sampling is recommended to verify to what
extend the fused counters have been made from one piece or from a mix of glass scrap (e.g. the counters from Nijmegen (NL) and Oudenburg
(BE) (see Chapter 1; Figure 3a-b) [cat.nos.4466 and 465], and whether the Roman glassworker made use of production waste or only recycled old
glass.
117
133
ROMAN BLACK GLASS COUNTERS
11
10
9
8
HEIGHT
plain counters
7
decorated counters
6
5
4
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
DIAMETER
Figure 89: Plot opposing the dimensions of the plain against the decorated counters in black glass (in mm)
When isolating the decorated counters in the plot, a slight but clear difference can be noticed between the plain
counters and the decorated ones (Figure 89). The fact that the decorated counters are shorter yet larger in
diameter is almost certainly due to the production process these counters underwent. They most likely had similar
dimensions as the plain ones initially, since they were produced in the same way. But the coloured glass drops,
applied as decoration, had to be marvered into the core glass, making the hot glass more flat and accordingly
also larger.
The inventory of the black glass counters provided clear data making it possible to formulate conclusions
regarding their shape and size. Unfortunately, there has been no opportunity to verify the production technique
systematically, so we cannot make any definite conclusions. We observed, however, that most large counters
have a flat and smooth basal surface, implying a fusing technique, but this has been noticed on small and
medium counters as well.
The majority of all black glass counters is round, while only a few are oval, quadrangular or irregular (Table 50).
From the 710 pieces within 574 entries 103 entries or 141 pieces could not be inventoried correctly within the
present research. From the 569 pieces that could be catalogued in 420 entries 518 ex. or 91 % is round (29 ex.
119
large sized; 119 ex. medium sized; 327 ex. small sized; 11 ex. very small sized ); 39 ex. or 6.7 % is oval (6 ex.
medium sized; 33 ex. small sized); 3 ex. or 0,5 % is quadrangular; 9 ex. or 1,6 % is irregular.
When looking to the size we observe that 2/3 of all recorded black glass counters is small sized and 1/4 is
medium sized. Large and very small counters represent only a minor segment (Table 50). Finally, checking the
decoration, we observed that from the 710 black glass counters 635 ex. or 89,4 % is undecorated and that 75 ex.
or 10,6 % is decorated with dots in one or two contrasting colours, i.e. opaque white, red, and turquoise or deep
blue (Table 51). While the majority of the undecorated black glass counters are small sized and in a lesser degree
medium sized, the opposite ratio can be observed for the decorated black glass counters (Table 51).
Different clusters appear when plotting the dimensions of the black glass counters (Figure 89). We discuss in the
next chapters the possible connections with chronological periods and regional areas [see Chapters 4 and 6].
119
It was not verifiable how many of the 23 counters from the Corbridge Hoard (UK) and the 9 counters from tomb 6352 of the cemetery at
Krefeld-Gellep (D) are small and medium sized.
134
Table 50: List of black glass counters per size and shape (* see note 81)
size
round
oval
quadrangular
irregular
large
medium
small
very small
TOTAL
29
119*
327*
11
486* (518)
0
6
33
0
39
0
0
3
0
3
1
1
7
0
9
total
%
30
126*
370*
11
537* (569)
5,6
23,5
68,9
2,0
100
Table 51: List of monochrome black glass counters plain vs dotted decoration (* see note 81)
size
undecorated
decorated
total
%
large
medium
small
very small
indefinite
TOTAL
%
30
74*
350*
11
138
603
88,9
0
52
20
0
3
75
11,1
30
126*
370*
11
141
678
100
4,4
18,6
54,5
1,6
20,8
99,9
Aware of considering only the counters in black glass we observed that the dotted counters are nearly always
medium-sized with a diameter that never exceeds 23 mm but some examples are small-sized as for instance
some pieces from Amiens [cat.nos.1001-1002] (Table 52).
120
121
Counters with dotted decoration are only known in black
and white
glass. The observed decoration
demonstrates a common pattern with a central dot encircled by four equally sized dots applied crosswise.
Irregularities in design, however, do occur, even within one set:
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)
7)
8)
only a central dot (Lankhills: 1 black 50f);
with 2 dots on either side of the central one (Lankhills: 1 black 50g);
with only 3 dots surrounding the central one (Nijmegen: 1 black, 2 white; Amiens: 1 white; Lankhills
50h);
with 5 dots surrounding the central one (Lankhills: 1 white 50c);
with 6 dots surrounding the central one (Lankhills: 1 black 50l);
with 8 small dots around a large central dot (Amiens: 1 white);
with a second red dot (Nijmegen: 1 black);
with unbalanced pattern (Nijmegen: 1 black).
The abovementioned list demonstrates that one set of counters is sometimes very heterogeneous, as in the set of
26 glass counters from tomb 51 of the late Roman cemetery of Lankhills, Winchester (UK) (Clarke 1979, 251-254,
fig.69:50). The decoration consists of dots in one or two different colours, generally in opaque red and translucent
blue glass, but a pattern with opaque white dots is known too.
Usually the central dot in opaque red glass is surrounded by dots in translucent or opaque blue glass, but
sometimes the opposite is attested (Lankhills) or all the dots are in opaque red glass (Amiens). Interestingly, all
―white‖ counters from Amiens (FR) and some black ones are decorated with only red dots, whereas only one
counter of the 14 preserved white ones from Nijmegen has only red dots. It appears that dotted counters have so
far nearly never been recorded with solely opaque blue glass decoration; a single example is known from tomb 51
in Lankhills (UK). Another striking feature is that the red glass is the same everywhere, whereas two different blue
hues were used depending on the colour of the core (Figure 90). Black counters have opaque ultramarine blue
dots, while the white ones have translucent turquoise blue dots. Both types can occur within the same set. Only
rarely are ultramarine dots attested on white counterse.g., one of the 15 pieces from tomb 49 at the Hunerberg
cemetery of Nijmegen (NL) (van Enckevort 2008). The opaque red spots on the counters from the Roman fortress
at Usk (UK) have to be considered as unintentionally, but rather due to circumstances during the production
process as Jennifer Price already assumed (Price 1995, 129).
120
Also the Lullingstone counters are included, even though reported to be of brown glass. It is thus not excluded that these counters are not at all
black in opposition to all other dark-coloured dotted counters.
121
Besides the counters in bright white glass, we consider the turquoise-tinged counters also as opaque glass.
135
Table 52: The dimensions of two sets of decorated gaming counters
Amiens (FR) – rue Just Haüy, tomb 4
Nijmegen (NL) – tomb 39
black
―white‖
black
―white‖
d.
h.
d.
h.
d.
h.
d.
21
6
19-20
5
20,8-21,7
6,4
21,8
20-21
6
19-21
5
21,8-22,3
6,4
21,5
20
5,5
19
5
17,8-19,1
6,6
20,8-22,6
19
5
21
6
20,7
6,2
20
6
18-21
6
21,5-22
6,2
20,5-21,3
20
5
21
7
21,5-22,3
6,1
20,3
20
5
19,5-21
6
17,5-17,8
5,8
18,9-20
18
6
21
6
17,6-18
5,8
23
20
5,5
18-19
6,5
21,5-22,8
5,9
19
6
19
6
20,6-21,1
6,5
22
19
5
17-19
5,5
21,1-21,7
6,2
21,7
20
5
20-21
6
21-21,2
6,1
21
17-20
6
20-22
6
21,3-21,7
6,5
19
15
6
21
5
20,8-22,7
6,1
17,1
16
6
21,2-21,8
6,0
17-18
6
12
6
h.
6,3
6
6,7
6, 9
5,4
5,8
6,2
6,1
6,4
7
6,2
6
5,9
6,5
Figure 90: Variety of blue glass used to apply a dotted decoration on counters
136
Chapter 4 CHRONOLOGY
4.1 Introduction
The black glass material has been categorised in the previous chapter within a roughly outlined chronological
subdivision of the Roman imperial period to facilitate the analysis of the wide variety of material covering a period
of five centuries (Table 53, left column). This rough phasing into four wide-ranging periods of 100-150 years is
based on the prevailing general chronologies from similar material in other glass hues. The purpose of this
chapter is to refine the previously defined phases into a more elaborate timetable (Table 53, right); this will be
accomplished by comparing the artefact types (sometimes wrongly or, in most cases, very generally dated) with
the different artefact types from dated contexts. Additionally, we will verify in this chapter whether the obtained
information on black glass artefacts from dated contexts can add value to the chronology of Roman glass in
general.
The primary and initially most useful result from thorough material studies is the supply of good dating material for
archaeological research. However, a good dating of specific commodity types is based on the evaluation of dated
finds from archaeological contexts. Hence, this chapter only verifies the availability of well-defined strata and
contexts as tools to refine the dating of the various types of glass artefacts and establishes typo-chronologies of
specific material categories to help better determine the successive layers of an archaeological site with the aim
of understanding its development.
Table 53: detailed timetable of the Roman imperial period
EARLY EMPIRE
10 BC–70 AD
10 BC–35 AD
35–70 AD
Flavian–early Antonine period
70–150 AD
70–100 AD
100–150 AD
late Antonine–Severan period
150–230 AD
150-190 AD
190-230 AD
‗Crisis‘ or intermediate period
230–280 AD
230-250 AD
250-280/5 AD
Julio–Claudian period
PERIOD I
(I–IIA AD)
PERIOD II
(IIB–IIId AD)
PERIOD III
(IIId–IVA AD)
PERIOD IV
(IVB–V AD)
Tetrarch–Constantinian period
‗Decline‘ period
LATE EMPIRE
280/5–350/60 AD
280/5–310 AD
310–350/60 AD
350/60-480 AD
350/60–410 AD
410–480 AD
AugustanTiberian period
ClaudianNeronian period
Flavian period
early Antonine period
late Antonine period
Severan period
‗anarchy‘ period
‗regional power‘ period
Tetrarchs
Constantinian Renaissance
‗challenging‘ period
‗collapse‘ period
To keep this chapter comprehensible, each functional type is first discussed separately in chronological order.
The availability of the necessary dated contexts is verified to obtain a more precise dating of every class of black
glass artefacts. Conversely, a chronological overview of black glass production and consumptionconsidering all
artefact types throughout the Roman imperial periodis given in the interim conclusion of this chapter. Prior to
summarising the data, we have to realise the rather limited availability of well-dated contexts.
4.2 Production
4.2.1
Primary production
We have to remain brief on this topic because there is, hitherto, no archaeological evidence available indicating
production of black glass in primary glass workshops during the Roman imperial period. This is not at all
137
122
surprising, given the nearly total absence of primary glass workshops dating within the first five centuries AD.
The total absence of deeply coloured glass at all known primary glass workshops makes us believe that in ancient
times these production sites only produced ‗naturally coloured‘ and/or decolourised raw glass. This view
corroborates the, thus far, first and sole clear-cut archaeological evidence of primary glass production in Roman
imperial times, that of Beni Salama at Wadi el-Natrun (EG), where ‗naturally coloured‘ as well as decolourised raw
123
glass was produced. Based on the pottery, the activity period of this large workshop has been dated in the
st
nd
1 2 centuries AD (Nenna 2008a, 127; Nenna 2008b) [see Chapter 6]. Most likely, specialised intermediate
workshops and/or secondary workshops were responsible for the production of black glass [see Chapters 6 and
8]. This assumption corroborates the present-day knowledge on shiploads retrieved from shipwrecks all over the
Mediterranean containing blocks of raw glass to supply the secondary workshops, which never yielded pieces of
124
black glass. For that reason, we are not able to establish the origin of the two rough blocks of black glass found
st
at the 1 century AD secondary workshop at ‗La Montée de la Butte‘ in Lyon (FR). It is not excluded that both
pieces came from a distant primary workshop in the south-eastern Mediterranean. Hereafter and in Chapter 8 we
will discuss these two blocks in more detail.
4.2.2
4.2.2.1
Secondary production
Period I
To this point, no known Period I glass workshop has yielded direct evidence for the production of black glass
artefacts. Only indirect evidence of some black glass production is provided by two secondary glass workshops:
125
126
‗Derrière la Tour‘ at Avenches (CH) and ‗La Montée de la Butte‘ at Lyon (FR) , dated in the mid 1st century
AD (40-70 AD) and the mid 1stearly 2nd century AD (40-90/110 AD), respectively. The Avenches workshop
yielded a large amount of production waste showing the production of various free-blown vessel shapes in deeply
coloured glass sometimes with black appearance (mainly purple) (Amrein 2001), but no vessels in blackappearing glass as such have been reported to our knowledge. Also, the Lyon workshop delivered no more than
indirect evidence. The use of black glass is only supported through the two chunks of black glass without any
127
relationship to particular form types in black glass (Robin 2008). This lack of evidence makes it impossible to
determine what has been produced in black glass, even if looking at what the Lyon workshop has produced in
other glass huese.g. stirring rods, unguentariaengenders an idea of what might have been produced in black
glass. It is clear that both workshops produced glass artefacts in various glass hues and appear to have
128
specialised in the production of vessels.
4.2.2.2
Period II
Two secondary glass workshops were excavated in 1974-1978 in Regio 17B/C at ‗Äussere Reben‘ Kaiseraugst
(CH) (Rütti 1991, 151) that have been recently the subject of an in-depth study (Fischer 2009) [see Chapter 6].
Only the workshop of Regio 17B, south-west of the road junction, gives clear information on the setting up of a
workshop where black glass was used to produce vessel shapes (Fischer 2009). The urban workshop consists of
one large square room wherein the structures of 14 successive furnaces have been identified (Fischer 2009, 4770). Based on the pottery as well as some other archaeological small finds, the workshop must have been in use
nd
rd
during the 2 early 3 century AD, broadly dated, covering an activity period from 80/90 to c. 250 AD but with
nd
rd
some reservation considered active from the second quarter of the 2 to the early 3 century ADi.e. c. 125210/220 AD (Fischer 2009, 27). Interesting here is that the Regio 17C workshop at the other side of the road is
considered to have been active from c. 220 to 260/270 AD and did not yield any black glass. This absence of
black glass in the Regio 17C workshop corroborates the late Antonine and Severan date of the Period II black
122
Most evidence has come from the early Byzantineearly Islamic period in the Levant (late 4th9th century AD) (Gorin-Rosen 2000; Jennings et
al. 2001)
123
The site, still under excavation, is part of a larger ongoing research project directed by Marie-Dominique Nenna to determine the primary glass
production in the western Nile Delta during the Roman imperial period (Nenna 2007, 127-130)
124
Other deeply coloured chunks of raw glass have been retrieved, such as lumps of dark blue glass from the shipwreck Sanguinaires A (FR)
dating from the early Hellenistic period (Alfonsi, Gandolfo 1997; Foy, Nenna 2001, 24, fig.3) and the block of deep bluish glass from the 1st2nd
century AD site at ‗Place Jules-Verne‘ in Marseille (FR) (Foy, Nenna 2001, 25, fig.6) which show that in Hellenistic and early imperial times,
deeply-coloured chunks of raw glass were commodities of long-distance trade; likewise, the ‗naturally coloured‘ and decolourised glass.
125
The Avenches workshop was excavated in 19891990 and the structures as well as the material received a meticulous assessment by Heidi
Amrein (2001).
126
The Lyon workshop was excavated in 2000-2001 (Motte, Martin 2003) and was recently re-evaluated by Laudine Robin (2008).
127
We thank Laudine Robin for drawing our attention to these blocks, but also by supplying us a sample of both blocks for chemical analysis,
which generated striking results [see Chapter 8].
128
The chemical analysis opens a more interesting prospect to the discussion on the type of glass workshop and what was produced seeing that
both greyish-brown blocks give a composition that resembles that of obsidian [see Chapter 8].
138
glass vessels (Cosyns, Hanut 2005) [see this chapter, 4.3.2. Vessels Period II]. Did the glass workshop of Regio
17B shift to the other side of the road for a new start?
The black glass material from the Regio 17B workshop mainly consists of production waste, formless bits and
pieces of batch and small chunks of raw glass. A part of the assemblage produced in the Regio 17B workshop
129
can be determined on the basis of artefact deposits from the last (two) generation(s) of active glassworkers.
130
The workshop produced at least aryballoi (Form IIB.20) [cat.no.3778] ; cylindrical cups with base-ring and
131
applied glass trail below the rim (Form IIB.17) [cat.nos.3755-3763] ; and an indeterminate form type with narrow
132
folded foot and concave kick on the bottom (Form IIB.21). In subsequent chapters, we will verify on the basis of
distribution patterning [Chapter 6] and chemical analysis [Chapter 8] what other black glass artefacts have been
produced in Augusta Raurica and what might be attributed to the Regio 17B workshop.
4.2.2.3
Period III
Various workshops active in this period that manufactured black glass artefacts have been located within the
Argonne region in the north of France: Les Houis nearby Sainte Menehould; Lavoye-La Clairière; Froidosth
th
Berthancourt [see Chapter 6]. These workshops are generally dated in the 4 5 century AD with a production
th
heyday assumed in the 4 century AD and are thus also active in Period IV. This dating is mainly based on the
rd
pottery determination by George Chenet (1925). The period of activity has since then been extended to the 3
century AD (Chew 1989, 57; Foy, Sennequier 1991, 57; Gazenbeek, Van der Leeuw 2003, 291). Unfortunately,
the sites are not well-excavated, nor has the archaeological material been intensively studied or published. An
adjustment is, however, to be considered on the basis of the collected black glass artefacts that have been
produced in these Argonne workshops. More or less similar material, the production of these secondary glass
rd
workshops in the Argonne must have started somewhere in the 3 century AD and most likely already
somewhere in the first half of the century, seeing the Period II-vessel material such as that of Form IIB.1 [see this
chapter, 4.3. Vessels and 4.4.1. Bracelets; and Chapter 6]. The vessel fragments can be considered waste
material, but they were also collected to be used as cullet (Chew 1989, 57). In any case, the recycling of broken
glass implies the accumulation of contemporaneously prevailing artefacts. Typically done with this sort of material
it is anymore successful when material ran out of production and turned into a rather marginal consumption item
or heirloom. Only intensive field work combined with an exhaustive study of all the archaeological artefacts within
the different museums as well as the archive material collected by Dr. Meunier and his son-in-law George Chenet
and the work from some other contemporaneous workers (Colson 1903; Barthélemy 1904; Mauget 1903; 1904;
1907; Strohm 1920) will entail the opportunity to acquire a more comprehensive image of the Argonne workshops.
It appears that the three Argonne workshops at least produced jewellery and tesserae in black glass. Concerning
the jewellery, we have already observed that there is a preponderance of bracelets and that finger rings and
hairpins have also been produced, whereas beads and pendants are completely absent (Cosyns 2009). The
rd
th
bracelet types are mainly 3 early 4 century AD types A, B and C (A1-6; B1-2; 4 and C1;3), whereas only 2
th
th
pieces of the later 4 early 5 century AD type D (D1) have been catalogued. The finger ring types demonstrate
rd
th
th
th
a similar pattern with only the 3 early 4 century AD types A and B, whereas the later 4 early 5 century AD
type C is not reported in the Argonne workshops. Neither are the typical Period IV beads and pendants as present
in the workshop of Palais Kesselstatt at Trier (DE) (Cosyns 2009).
The black glass material from the Argonne workshops demonstrates that the study of this idiosyncratic material
provides more detailed dating evidence to define the active period of the Argonne workshops more accurately
than the dated archaeological contexts and should offer a clearer view on the date of the artefacts manufactured
in these workshops.
4.2.2.4
Period IV
The glass workshop from Palais Kesselstatt in Trier (DE) is dated in the last third of the 4th century AD (GoethertPolaschek 1984, 165-166, no. 64). Various types of jewellery have been produced, but in contrast to the Argonne
workshops we recorded a preponderance of finger rings (type C) and the presence of beads and pendants,
129
This hypothetical assertion proposes that the black glass production in Augusta Raurica can be dated between 190/200 and 210/220 AD (one
generation) or between 170/180 and 210/220 AD (two generations).
130
Two other fragments of black glass aryballoi were excavated elsewhere in Augst/Kaiseraugst [cat.nos.3553; 3753].
131
Six other fragments of these cylindrical cups come from various areas in Augst/Kaiseraugst [cat.nos.3490-91; 3495; 3504; 3743; 3773] and
three are reported from Avenches [cat.nos.3594; 3600; 3603].
132
Because the workshop was a vessel-producing centre, we may assume that the presence of the single elongated cylindrical bead [cat.no.3642]
was coincidentally lost by the wearer and does not constitute evidence for bead making. It is generally accepted that the different glass
productionsraw glass, vessels, window panes and jewellerywere executed in different workshops because each production necessitated
different installations, equipment and skills.
139
whereas the bracelets are attested by only the Period IV type D1 (Cosyns 2009). The beads (in particular, annular,
globular and cylindrical beads) and the pendants (in particular, vessel-shaped and cylindrical) show decorations
with applied trails in contrasting opaque colours such as white, yellow, red and turquoise blue in zigzag patterns,
th
th
characteristic from the later 4 century AD but lasting to about the mid-6 century AD. The Trier workshop and
the abundance of polychrome black glass beads and pendants demonstrate that their production was done in
Roman glass workshops, by Roman glass workers and for Roman customers, and not in Barbaricum or by the
Migration People [see Chapter 6].
4.2.3
Recycling
No direct archaeological evidence of recycling black glass have been recorded so far; consequently, dated
contexts are excluded from consideration here. On the other hand, Pliny the Elder describes the production of the
so-called oculi or calculi (Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia, XXXVI, 199) [see Chapter 2], and from chemical
analyses there is good evidence indicating the recycling of glass in the production of black glass artefacts.
4.3 Vessels
The chronology of the vessels is described according to the typological subdivisions in four consecutive periods
(I-IV) and per technologye.g. cast (A), free-blown (B), mould-blown (C), and rod-formed (D). Because of the
wide variety of vessel shapes, we thought it useful to convert this initial classification into a more functional
arrangementi.e. tableware, toilet ware and storage ware (Tables 54-55). The next step was to verify the
accumulated material from dated contexts with the general dates of identical material in other glass hues given in
133
the prevalent publications (Table 56).
Table 54: Number of shapes per functional types per period
Period I Period II Period III Period IV
tableware
24
16
2
1
toilet ware
4
4
2
2
storage ware
4
2
total
40
25
4
3
total
41
9
6
56
Table 55: Number of shapes per functional type per period and per technique (A= cast; B= free-blown; C= mould-blown; D= rodformed)
Period I
Period II
Period III
Period IV
total
technique
A
B
C
D
A
B
C
D
A
B
C
D
A
B
C
D
tableware
11
10
3
15
2
2
1
38
toilet ware
1
2
1
1
2
1
2
2
8
storage ware
1
3
1
1
6
total
13
15
4
17
5
1
4
1
2
52
Table 56: List of entries per applied technique per period
Period I
Period II
cast
80 (97)
free-blown
49 (61)
274 (275)
mould-blown
5
16
rod-formed
4
indefinite
14
7
total
148 (177)
302 (303)
Period III
4
4
Period IV
1
43
44
indefinite
7
104 (106)
3
1
42 (43)
157 (160)
total
87 (104)
424 (439)
31
48
63 (64)
651 (684)
These tables show a predominant presence of black glass vessels in Periods I and II and a near- absence of
shapes overall in the two succeeding periods. Black glass toilet ware and storage ware do not show the great
diversity in shapes as is available in tableware. This is possibly due to the fact that toilet ware and storage ware
were made as containers for specific consumables, whereas the tableware demonstrates the individuality of the
133
We based the chronological mainframe of the here-discussed form types in black glass on what has been presented in Isings 1957; GoethertPolaschek 1977; Rütti 1991; Cool, Price 1995; Bonnet-Borel 1997; Price, Cottam 1998; Martin Pruvot 1999; Arveiller-Dulong, Nenna 2005.
140
consumer. The number of shapes per function in Table 54 clearly shows that black glass tableware can be
considered commonly produced consumption goods in Periods I and II. Conversely, Table 56 demonstrates that
the true consumption of black glass vessels is to be considered much shorter during both defined periods of 150
years. It seems more likely that the success of black glass vessels was a result of a trend that lasted for a period
of somewhat less than 50 years, roughly equivalent to two generations of glassworkers/consumers. It would be
not at all surprising if rod-formed toilet ware of Period IV from well-dated finds would generate a the also lasted for
about 50 years.
Table 56 displays that about one-third of all recorded vessels have remained indefinite. This has two reasons: the
high degree of fragmentation or the lack of clear information available/obtained on the fragment.
IV
III
PERIOD II
PERIOD I
Table 57: Chronological overview of all vessel types produced in black-appearing glass [see Chapter 3]
PERIOD I
PERIOD II
PERIOD III
PERIOD IV
SHAPE
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
400
450
FORM IA.1
FORM IA.2
FORM IA.3
FORM IA.4
FORM IA.5
FORM IA.6
FORM IA.7
FORM IA.8
FORM IA.9
FORM IA.10
FORM IA.11
FORM IA.12
FORM IA.13
FORM IA.14
FORM IB.1
FORM IB.2
FORM IB.3
FORM IB.4
FORM IB.5
FORM IB.6
FORM IB.7
FORM IB.8
FORM IB.9
FORM IB.10
FORM IB.11
FORM IB.12
FORM IB.13
FORM IC.1
FORM IC.2
FORM IC.3
FORM IC.4
FORM IIB.1
FORM IIB.2
FORM IIB.3
FORM IIB.4
FORM IIB.5
FORM IIB.6
FORM IIB.7
FORM IIB.8
FORM IIB.9
FORM IIB.10
FORM IIB.11
FORM IIB.12
FORM IIB.13
FORM IIB.14
FORM IIB.15
FORM IIB.16
FORM IIB.17
FORM IIB.18
FORM IIB.19
FORM IIC.1
FORM IIC.2
FORM IID.1
FORM IID.2
FORM IIIB.1
FORM IIIB.2
FORM IVD.1
FORM IVD.2
From a technological point of view, we may conclude that the vessels cast in black-appearing glass are
characteristic of Period I. Those produced by the mould-blown technique were produced in Period I and II but
remained uncommon, while it was a very popular technique to manufacture vessel shapes in ‗naturally coloured‘
141
and decolourised glass. Rod-formed vessels have been produced from Period II, but they are idiosyncratic to
134
Period IV and can easily be distinguished from the Period II rod-formed unguentaria. The free-blown vessels
are long-lasting but appear mainly in Periods I and II (Tables 56-57).
4.3.1
Period I
Based on prior investigations (Grose 1989; 1991; Stern, Schlick-Nolte 1994; Cool, Price 1995), it has been
demonstrated reliable to estimate the chronology of Roman glass vessels to a certain degree by looking at its
colour. ‗Naturally coloured‘ blue-green glass is clearly attributable to the first three centuries AD, gradually making
rd
room during the later 3 century AD for the greenish and yellowish-greenish ‗naturally coloured‘ glasses, so
th
th
characteristic for the 4 and early 5 century AD.
Finds from dated contexts can be very helpful to refine more the date of specific vessel shapes. Even though it is
not specifically due to the presence of black glass vessels, the dated contexts refine the dating of, for instance,
the rectangular tray, Form IA.8. Not merely of Julio-Claudian date (Stern, Schlick-Nolte 1994, 326, no.98), good
st
examples clearly indicate this particular shape to the middle of the 1 century AD. From Fréjus (FR) are
st
fragments dated in the first half of the 1 century AD (Price 1985, 68, note 23; Price, Cottam 2009); a deposit at
st
Pasaje Cobos (ES) dated mid-1 century AD (Price 2004); and deposit VII at Cosa (IT) dated 50-55 AD (Grose
st
1991, 10, Cosa no.6). Cast vessels in black glass seem thus characteristic of the first half of the 1 century AD.
But dated contexts can be misleading; the wide-rimmed bowl/plate with a base-ring, Form IA.10A (Figure 33.10)
piece from Avenches (CH) came from a dated context ranging between 150-300 AD, but these bowls are in
st
rd
general dated from the last quarter of the 1 century AD up to the second quarter of the 3 century AD (Bonnet
Borel 1997, 23). The Egyptian piece in the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology, considered a variant but
close to AR 24.1 by Beat Rütti (1991) and AV V32 (Bonnet Borel 1997), has received roughly the same date
range, correspondingly 70/100-250 AD and 150-250 AD. We, however, assume this vessel shape to be a Flavian
or Antonine production, which we will prove by means of the results from chemical analysis [see Chapter 8]. A
chemical analysis is also necessary to categorise the cylindrical cup with everted rim, Form IC.1 (Figure 41.1), as
a Period I-shape, seeing the very wide-ranging chronology going from Neronian times up to the third quarter of
rd
the 3 century AD (1991, I, 44; II, 55-56, nos.1148-1177; Bonnet Borel 1997, 29). Although the context of the cup
in the Provinciaal Gallo-Romeins Museum Tongeren remains unknown, this supposedly local discovery from in or
st
around Tongeren (BE) was dated on a stylistic basis by Michel Vanderhoeven in the 1 century AD
(Vanderhoeven 1962, 23, no.15). The Avenches cup in black glass came from a cremation tomb dated in the third
nd
quarter of the 2 century, c. 160-180 AD (Bonnet Borel 1997, 29, no. 47; Martin Pruvot 1999, 188, no. 1181). A
nd
production around the middle of the 2 century AD is therefore not excluded, but it leaves open for speculation a
correct date.
Many archaeological sites in the Gulf of Naples are repeatedly used as dated contexts because the Vesuvius
eruption in 79 AD made the area a gigantic closed context. Also, several black glass vessel shapes have come
from, for instance, Pompeii and Boscoreale, which predate 79 AD, such as a baseless, shallow, handled cup,
Isings Form 25, with the inside decorated with inlay in gold leaf, silver, bronze and cornelian found in Pompeii
(Isings 1957, 39-40; Isings 1964, 27). Unfortunately, such contexts only give an idea how early certain shapes
were already in use, as it is quite possible that the shape was still produced (long) after 79 AD. On the other hand,
the absence of certain shapes does not prove that the shape was only produced after 79 AD.
The hemispherical cup with cut rim and abraded concentric lines, Form IB.1, is definitely the morphological blown
equivalent of the shallower cast Form I.1a. Both shapes appear more or less in contemporaneous dated contexts
st
within the period in which deeply coloured monochrome vessels were produced, i.e. roughly the mid-1 century
AD including the second and third quarters or 30/40-70 AD. Nonetheless, we are persuaded that we have to
consider the Hofheim cup as a later production evolved from the cast hemispherical cups. The much faster
blowing technique had been introduced for the production of these shallow cups as a reaction to the growing
consumer market. This necessitated a swifter and less complex technique to achieve similar vessel shapes.
Furthermore, the very elaborate cast technique must have been technological knowledge monopolised by few
glass workshops (in the eastern Mediterranean?), whereas all over the empire new glass workshops arose. In the
secondary workshops at Lyon (Motte, Martin 2003; Robin 2008) and Avenches (Amrein 2001), the cast technique
134
The determination of the period of this vessel type is not based on well-dated archaeological contexts but only on the result of some logical
reasoning in relative dating. In the same region, this technique appeared already in Period II for the production of toilet ware, but there is no
indication for continuity.
142
seems not to have been applied at all. It is an economical pattern that when (glass) manufactories multiply, the
(glass) production expands exponentially, and the consumption market subsequently will be flooded with (glass)
products. As a result of the law of supply and demand, the prices drop, and for that reason more and more people
can afford these products (in glass). It is thus not surprising that the cast technique and the more valued
decolourised or specifically coloured glass was maintained much longer for tableware than for toilet ware and
containers which were produced in the ordinary ‗naturally coloured‘ glass by means of the very fast and flexible
free-blowing technique. Another economical aspect that was a response to the increasing demand was the
improvement of the production capacity from the same amount of glass by free-blowing very thin-walled vessels
compared to the thick-walled cast vessels.
Taking into consideration that the mould-blown technique only came into use from the Claudian period (Ib AD)
onwards (Stern 1995) means that the mould-blowing technique was a relatively late innovation in the Roman
glass industry. The introduction of this technique happened at the time the production of cast vessels in
monochrome strongly-coloured glasses was successful and very fashionable. Because this trend lasted to about
the late Neronian period (Ic AD), we may assume that the production of mould-blown vessels in monochrome
strongly-coloured glasses only persisted for about one generation. Unfortunately, the available material in blackappearing glass cannot confirm this assumption due to the absence of well-dated contexts. On the whole, only
very few mould-blown examples in black glass are known so far and contrast with the relatively large quantity of
free-blown black glass vessels. The very poor occurrence of mould-blown vessels in black glass cannot be
attributed to the fact that this technique was barely adopted in Period I because loads of mould-blown vessels in
‗naturally coloured‘ and decolourised glass were produced at that time.
Another element of evidence to early date the free-blown and mould-blown vessels in monochrome black (and
most likely other deeply-coloured) glass in Period I is the absence of the pontil mark. The introduction of the pontil
st
rod is assumed in Flavian times (Id AD) (Stern 1999; Israeli 2005). Hence, it is not surprising that 1 century AD
vessels blown in black glass do not have a pontil mark. The conclusion is that the blown vessels in black glass in
st
the 1 century AD were not in production when the glassblowers got acquainted with this technique. If this
occurred, two options can be suggested: the pontil rod got introduced earlier, or black glass vessels were also
produced in Flavian times.
st
The pieces at hand from dated contexts demonstrate a clear distribution during the mid 1 century AD, between
st
40-70/80 AD. It appears that around the middle of the 1 century AD, the black glass vessels were cast for the
most part, while free-blown vessel shapes only occur sporadically (Cosyns, Fontaine 2009), and that the cast
vessels in black glass got slowly outcompeted by the free-blown vessels. For instance, Magdalensberg (AT), with
a terminus ante quem at c. 45 AD, yielded cast vessels in black glass but none were made with the blown
technique. Conversely, even the earliest forms of cast vessels such as Form IA.1 make it impossible to propose
an early date for the production end, given the rather late terminus ante quem of the finds from, for instance,
Pompeii (IT) with the eruption of 79 AD. Furthermore, there seems to be a sort of continuity in the production of
cast vessels in black glass, given the Flavian-Antonine shapes such as the small shallow dishes with overhanging
rim (Forms IA.11) and everted rim (Forms IA.12) (Rütti 1991, 42; Price, Cottam 1998; Martin Pruvot 1999). Also
the mould-blown cylindrical cup with cut rim and abraded concentric lines (Form IC.1) can be considered a Period
st
nd
I form type of the late 1 to mid-2 century AD. It is unclear whether the base fragment from tomb 114 at
Courroux (CH) is to be placed in this same time span or whether it is a Period II vessel since it cannot be linked to
a definite shape. On the one hand, the burial contained an As from Domitian minted after 81 AD (Martin-Kilcher
st
nd
1976, 197, pl.50:D2), and the cemetery of Courroux is generally dated 1 –early 2 century AD. Similar base
fragments in black glass have been recorded in Augst, one of which was found in the Regio 17B workshop
135
‗Äuserre Reben‘, dated c. 125–210/220 AD (Fischer 2009, 27). Besides this marginal continuation in the use of
black glass for the production of vessels during the Flavian and early Antonine period, it is apparent that the
production of the black glass vessels corroborates the chronological evolution of vessels in other monochrome
st
deeply-coloured glass with its peak in the mid-1 century AD.
4.3.2
Period II
nd
rd
During the 2 and the 3 century AD, the casting technique went out of use and the vessel production in black
glass mainly concentrated on the free-blown technique, although a whole range of vessels were mould-blown.
135
Chemical analysis is advised to verify whether this form type (pro forma described as Form IIB.21) contains a high iron oxide concentration
characteristic for the post-150 AD period or a low iron oxide concentration characteristic for the pre-150 AD period (Van der Linden et al. 2009).
143
This technique was apparently uncommonly used to blow black glass objects. The grape-shaped amphoriskos,
Form IIC.1, from Nijmegen (Isings, van Lith 1992, 17, fig.19) is similar to the blue-green ones from Germania
inferior, in the Dutch Rhine region, down to Aquitania in southwest France and the purple one from the tumulus of
nd
rd
Vorsen (BE), and it can be dated in the second half of the 2 or the first half of the 3 century AD on the basis of
simple stylistic correspondence (Simon-Hiernard 2000).
In Northern Gaul within the provinces Gallia Belgica and Germania Inferior, free-blown black glass vessels do not
nd
appear in closed contexts earlier than the mid-2 century AD. The earliest dated contexts containing black glass
nd
vessels in the north-western provinces appear during the third quarter of the 2 century AD.
Approximately 90% of all free-blown black glass vessels date between 180-230 AD, while no context gives a date
before 150 AD or after 270/280 AD (Cosyns, Hanut 2005, fig.3). However, the use of black glass remained
th
th
popular for the production of jewellery and lasted until the end of the late Roman Empire (end 4 early 5 century
AD).
The use of black glass for making free-blown vessels coincides with the expansion of the production of glass
nd
tableware from the last quarter of the 2 century AD. Nevertheless, vessels in this ‗colour‘ remain very scarce; for
example, Augst only inventoried 0,1% of 5118 glass vessels in black glass (Rütti 1991, 109).
nd
Free-blown black glass vessels do not appear in closed contexts earlier than the mid-2 century AD in the northwestern provinces (Cosyns, Hanut 2005, 116). The earliest dated contexts only appear in the third quarter of the
nd
2 century AD.
Besides the carinated beaker or carchesium (Form 1/Isings Form 36b) from the chronological homogeneous
horizon dated between 170/180 and 230/240 AD, we have the cylindrical beakers with outsplayed rim (AR
nd
38/Trier 39) which are supposed to date from the second half of the 2 century AD, although none of the known
examples came from a well-dated context. The carinated beakers (Form 1/Isings Form 36b) are
contemporaneous with the snake-thread-decorated glass vessels which are supposed to have come from the
Cologne workshops. Both are almost equally widespread in Germania inferior, but also other black glass vessel
shapes were found in association with snake-thread glass tableware, such as in Esch IV, the Netherlands (van
den Hurk 1975, 79-80, nos. IV:11; IV:12) or in the grave of Elsdorf-Esch, Germany (Gaitzsch 1999, 79). The three
jars (Form IIB.4/Isings Form 94) registered among the burnt material from pits 2/3 of the Siesbach barrow,
Germany, belong to a context which was dated by dendrochronology in the years 173-174 AD (Abegg 1989, 227).
The study of the necropolis ‗En Chaplix‘ of Avenches (CH) gives some well-dated structures containing Form IIB.4
(Martin-Pruvot 1999, nos. 1254-1262).
By the Flavian period, vessels in black glass or in any other deeply coloured glass were not a popular commodity
nd
anymore, and as a consequence they were taken out of production in the glass workshops. By the mid of the 2
century AD, there was within the north-western provinces, including Gallia Belgica, Germania inferior and
Germania superior, a revival of the consumption of black-appearing glass vessels. Some contexts, however,
throw doubt upon the absence of black glass vessels from the Flavian period to the Antonine period. Together
with the undefined vessel shape in black glass from tomb 114 of the Courroux cemetery in Switzerland was found
an As minted under the reign of Domitian (Martin-Kilcher 1976, 180, no. 5, pl. 31B:5). Given the difficulty of
nd
rd
situating the base fragment within the late 2 early 3 century AD typology in combination with this Flavian coin,
st
nd
some might be tempted to date the burial within the late 1 early 2 century AD. Some recent numismatic
rd
studies, however, demonstrated that Domitian coins also appear in small coin deposits dated in the early 3
century AD, as in Treignes (BE), Altbachtal (DE) and various sites in the civitas Remorum (FR) (Doyen 1980).
Hence, it is not excluded or even more realistic that this free-blown base fragment in deep green, black-appearing
nd
rd
glass is to be dated in the second half of the 2 century or even early 3 century AD. In the case of the Courroux
piece, a chemical analysis can give a decisive answer about the true dating of the vessel since a low iron content
st
nd
rd
would place it in the 1 century AD and a high iron content would indicate the late 2 early 3 century AD [see
Chapter 9].
The carinated beaker, Form IIB.1, is generally dated half a century to a century earlier than the carchesia in black
st
nd
glass. Carinated beakers, all in colourless glass, are dated at the end of the 1 to 2 century ADe.g. in the Yale
University Art Gallery (Matheson 1980, 41-42, nos.112-113); and in the former collection of Erwin Oppenländer
(Hentrich, von Saldern 1974, 204, no.573a). Without provenance, they do not come from dated contexts and
might thus have been dated too early. Presumably relying on this supposition, Fremersdorf dated the black glass
st
carchesia from Cologne (DE) in the 1 century AD (Fremersdorf 1959); likewise, Morin-Jean for those known from
Boulogne-sur-Mer and Abbeville (Morin-Jean 1913).
144
Relying on these eminent but also superseded reference works and typologies can result in the inaccurate dating
136
of newly published material. It has been recently demonstrated that these carinated beakers are very well
nd
rd
dated in the late 2 to the early 3 century AD from mainly Belgian, Dutch and German contexts (Cosyns, Hanut
2005, tab.1).
One of the small bulbous cups with short concave neck, Form IIB.4, was found in an inhumation tomb in
Avenches (CH) and dated after 180-200 AD (Martin Pruvot 1999, 199, no. 1261). From the other fragments, no
clear context is known.
The bulbous cup with outsplayed rim and flat base, Form IIB.6, has very rare parallels in other colours. This fairly
rd
uncommon shape is generally dated from FlavianTrajan times up to the middle of the 3 century AD (Rütti 1991).
The early start is mainly due to an example from Augst which is dated on the basis of ceramics between 70-150
AD (Rütti 1991, 57, no. 1186). In contrast, the bulbous cup from barrow III in Esch is dated between 160-170/80
(Cosyns, Hanut 2005, 117, tab.1) and the recently retrieved piece from Faulquemont, France (Cabart, 2005, 20,
fig.4) endorses this later date.
The jug with ovoid body, Form IIB.11, from barrow VI at Esch (NL) is dated (van den Hurk 1977, 120, no. VI, 25)
[cat.no.2879]. The rim fragment with vertical handle from a cellar dump at Straten (BE) [cat.no.519] was found
together with a sestertius depicting Faustina the Younger (161-175 AD), wife of Marcus Aurelius, which might be
used as a terminus post quem to date the context after 161 AD. Based on the ceramic finds, a slightly later date
nd
rd
should be proposed somewhere around the end of the 2 century or the early 3 century AD (Wesemael,
Hensen, Doucet, 2004). Both fragments have thus to be seen as early examples of ovoid jugs with one handle,
rd
since most known dated contexts of this vessel shape in other coloured glass are situated between the 3 century
th
AD and the early 5 century AD (Isings 1957, 149-152).
Although the indented beaker, Form IIB.13, from Eschweiler-Hastenrath (DE) is dated 3 4 century AD
(Follmann-Schulz 1992, 87-88, no. 47), we have to notice that the beaker entered the Rheinishes Landesmuseum
st
th
Bonn after a purchase in 1890 and that the burial gifts have to be dated between the 1 and the 4 century AD.
So probably we have here a mix of material from different contexts. Since this shape clearly imitates pottery
rd
shapes from the 3 century AD, and the vessels in black glass in the north-western provinces went out of
rd
circulation in the third quarter of the 3 century AD (Cosyns, Hanut 2005), we may assume that the Eschweilerrd
Hastenrath beaker is an early 3 century AD vessel.
rd
th
The black glass beaker with oval-shaped body and without neck from Nijmegen (NL) presently at the RMO,
Leiden [cat.no.2975] is similar to the dark olive-green counterpart from the cremation tomb 287 of the southrd
western cemetery at Tongeren (BE), which is generally dated 3 century AD by the author (Vanvinckenroye 1984,
144, pl.125:2). This form type is also reported by Beat Rütti for Augst/Kaiseraugst (CH), who linked it with
cylindrical cups on base-ring type AR98 (Form IIB.17). The contexts from Augst/Kaiseraugst all fall within the
range of 150 and 270/5 AD (Rütti 1991, I, 50).
The shape of the rod-formed toilet bottles with solid body, Forms IID.1-2 show typological correspondence with
the thin-walled, free-blown candlestick unguentaria with a short triangular body (Isings Form 82a2/b2) in ‗naturally
coloured‘ glass and the solid body unguentaria (Harden Class XIII) in deep green glass. Hence, both techniques
must have been used contemporaneously. This very close resemblance even allows dating the form type in the
rd
early 3 century AD, as is shown from stratigraphical analysis of different Roman forts in the Egyptian southeastern desert between Koptos in the Nile Valley and Myos Hormos and Berenikè on the Red Sea coast (Brun
2003). The well-dated military forts in the eastern desert of Egypt between Coptos and Quseir al-Qadim show the
blown toilet bottles with solid-based body only occur in the stratified layers of Period II (Brun 2003, 383-387). The
Elkab examples [cat.no.868-871] are rather similar to those from the fortress of Khashm al-Minayh–Didymoi (EG)
rd
which are dated in the first half of the 3 century AD (Brun 2003, 385, fig.9:7) so that we may assume the rodformed counterparts from Elkab have been produced in the Severan period. The type was preceded by more
nd
squad types of unguentaria with solid base in the second half of the 2 century AD, as shown by the examples
nd
from the fort of Al-Zarqâ–Maximianon (EG) and demonstrating an increasing use from the last third of the 2
century AD (Brun 2003, 383-385, fig.8:9-10). Analogous material from other Egyptian sites at the Red Seae.g.
nd
Quseir al-Qadim (Meyer 1992, 30); Berenike (Nicholson 2000, 206)is dated in the 2 century AD. The material
136
For instance, the publication of Abel Liéger on the Gallo-Roman cemetery of Cutry (Meurthe-et-Moselle) in the northeast of France reads about
the three carinated beakers in black glass from tomb 176: ―le très riche ensemble de la T.176 … datable de la fin fin du Ier siècle‖ (Liéger 1997,
66). Although he does not give any reference on the ground dating these pieces so early, he possibly looked at Morin Jean and other classic
references for a non-glass specialist.
145
nd
from the fort at Umm Balad–Kainé Latomia (EG), which is dated around the mid of the 2 century AD, however
lacks such unguentaria but contains taller unguentaria with a high and more slender conical body (Isings Form
82b1) (Brun 2003, 383, fig.6:8). Based on the presented information the unprovenanced Yale piece
nd
[cat.no.A4696] (Figure 47) can be dated in the second half of the 2 century AD.
4.3.3
Period III
rd
By the mid-3 century AD, the black glass carchesium went out of production, but examples regularly occur in
rd
contexts of the third quarter of the 3 century AD such as the late Roman hill-top watchtower at Nismes (BE) with
a short occupation around 255-265 AD (Doyen 1980) [cat.no.459] or the fragments from a cellar at the vicus of
Vieux-Virton (BE) with a fill dating 250-260 AD [cat.no.614]. Also other vessel forms remained in circulation up to
rd
the second half of the 3 century AD, such as the 280 AD-dated sarcophagus II in Stein (NL) yielding a shallow
saucepan Form IIB.9 (Isings 1971, 25, no.78) [cat.no.2987] and the bulbous flask (Form IIB.10) (Isings 1971, 1112, no.19) [cat.no.2986] or the 230-270 AD-dated grave of Elsdorf-Esch (DE) comprising the amphoriskos (Form
IIB.14) [cat.no.1869] (Gaitzsch 1999, 79). As these objects seem to be unique pieces, one might think these
objects were heirlooms at that time. Striking is the gradual disappearance in burial contexts of blown vessels in
rd
black glass from the mid 3 century AD onwards. For instance, none have been recorded in the late cemeteries
of Tongeren (Vanvinckenroye 1984), Oudenburg (Mertens, Van Impe 1971), Cologne-Jakobstrasse (Friedhoff
1991).
The unguentarium with flattened body, Form IIIB.2, from Tomb 5530 at the Krefeld-Gellep cemetery is dated midth
4 century AD (Pirling, Siepen 2006, 272) [cat.no.1929]. The two other examples from the same site but made in
rd
th
a pale yellowish green glass are from tombs dated in the transition from the 3 to the 4 century AD and the first
th
half of the 4 century AD, correspondingly tomb Kr9 and tomb 3198 (Pirling, Siepen 2006, 272). The five pieces
th
from Trier (DE) came from one single burial of the St. Matthias cemetery, tomb 112, which is dated in the 4
century AD (Goethert-Polaschek 1977, 137). The deep blue one from Strasburg (FR) is dated in the second half
rd
of the 3 century AD (Arveiller-Dulong, Arveiller 1985, 138, no.303). This vessel shape from the Jakobstrasse
rd
tombs in Cologne (DE) is known in decolourised glass from tomb 28, which is dated in the first half of the 3
th
century AD and in deeply coloured glass from tombs 227 and 327, which are both dated mid 4 century AD
nd
(Friedhoff 1991, 283, Taf.95:3/12; 329, Taf.115:2). The piece from Cologne dated by Fritz Fremersdorf in the 2
century AD (Fremersdorf 1958) is most probably dated too early. Taking into consideration the above-discussed
rd
th
dated contexts, we can infer a mid 3 –mid 4 century AD production date of the unguentaria with flattened
circular body. Bearing in mind that the use of black glass in the vessel production faded away by the middle of the
rd
3 century AD implies that the black glass piece from Krefeld-Gellep can be regarded as an early production.
4.3.4
Period IV
The only Period IV vessels in black glass recorded up till now are rod-formed. No precise chronology of the tall
and slender balsamarium, Form IVD.1, and the squat jar or amphoriskos, Form IVD.2, is hitherto available, as no
publication provides well-dated contexts on the rod-formed vessels. Hence, it is not surprising that, depending on
th
th
137
the author, the proposed date range swings between the 4 and 9 century AD. Such a long-lasting use would
be an exceptional case, meaning that the production and consumption of the coarsely shaped rod-formed vessels
did not change from the late Roman period well into the Islamic period. Furthermore, all rod-formed vessels can
be considered as one homogeneous group, as all types and subtypes are all made in a similar fashion and in a
very limited number of shapes by using one single technique [see Chapters 2 and 3: 3.2.5]. However, a more
th
th
clear-cut date range into the 4 –5 centuries AD has been proposed by Birgit Schlick-Nolte (2002, 104) and
confirmed by Yael Israeli, who has demonstrated connections between the stamped lions on the body of squat jar
th
no.394 (Israeli, 2003, 295, no.394) and those on the stamped discoid pendants dated in the 4 century AD (Barag
2001, 173-176; Barag, 2002). A more accurate date will, however, only be possible when newly excavated
parallels come to light from dated contexts.
137
Confusion can occur as deviating dates have been given erroneously when referring to general publications with outdated dates. For instance,
Ulrike Riemenschneider (1989, 176, pl.2:7, no.7) gave a 5th4th century BC date to a rod-formed jar (Form IVD2 variant 5) in the old collections of
the Altenessen museum based on Pol Fossing (1940) and Peter La Baume (1973).
146
4.4 Jewellery
4.4.1
Arm rings
The available studies dealing with the dating of the different types of arm rings fall short. Thea Haevernick (1960)
did not provide any chronological overview at all. The first constructive basis was offered by Hubert De Witte
(1977, 46-51), and well-dated material from Belgium made it possible to date sharply the Type D1 bangles within
th
th
a date range of about 50 years, from the mid 4 to early 5 century AD. The three other types, Types A-C, are
th
dated with not many hard data showing a much longer date range between 125 AD and the early 4 century AD.
Taking into account that his study was restricted to solely Belgian material makes a re-evaluation necessary in
order to verify whether the Belgian chronology corroborates identical material of dated contexts from elsewhere in
the Roman Empire. A beneficial addition was supplied by Maud Spaer (1988) with the Palestinian material, but
rd
th
she gives mainly general dates between the 3 and 5 century AD. Another important contribution helping to
outline the chronology of the black glass bracelets is Emilie Riha‘s work on the material from the Swiss sites
Augst and Kaiseraugst (1990, 66, tab. 82). The data from several contexts show, albeit contradictorily, longth
lasting date ranges from Flavian times to the end of the 4 century AD, corresponding to the entire Roman
st
presence at many sites in the north-western provinces. This sometimes results in a very early dating in the late 1
nd
and 2 century AD, which clearly conflicts with the dated finds from other sites. The work by Heiko Wagner (2006,
157-160) discussed the Roman glass bracelets from the upper Rhine region but did not contribute to the
chronology debate. Neither did my initial work on the Roman black glass bracelets (Cosyns 2004), because it only
intended to draw attention to the importance of reassessing the material on a vaster area covering the entire
Roman Empire without adding new information to the issue.
The here-proposed chrono-typology of the Roman black glass bracelets confronts the available dating from the
aforementioned studies with material collected from additional dated finds. It is of no use to sum up all inventoried
material because many of the inventoried artefacts come from unknown provenance, undated contexts, not welldatable contexts, or not yet studied or published contexts, or they remained undefined due to the unavailability of
adequate information to determine the artefact or due to the fragmentation of the object. Hence, we take into
account only those examples giving the possibility to bear out and when possible even sharpen the hithertoassumed date ranges.
138
The bracelets are discussed per category and subtype
(Table 30; Figure 53) [see Chapter 3] to keep an
overview on the eventual typo-chronological differences within the production or use of the Roman glass bracelets.
In the assessment of the chronology of the black glass arm rings, we considered the open and closed bracelets
139
jointly because the open variant is a regional commodity
contemporaneous with the closed bracelets [see
Chapters 4 and 6] that have been produced in one single glass workshop such as Les Houis nearby Sainte
Menehould (FR) [see Chapter 6].
4.4.1.1
Type A: Arm rings with O-shaped section [open or closed with a seam]
From the 425 inventoried Type A bangles, the majority have come from unspecified contexts or from undated
contexts. Although 155 entries have received a date, only a few have come from well-dated archaeological finds
(Table 58).
The black glass jewellery from the workshops in the Argonne region like Lavoye (FR) and Sainte Menehould (FR)
rd
th
are not recorded in Table 58. Their date situated in the wide date range between 3 and 5 century AD is solely
based on related ceramic finds.
o
Type A1: plain
rd
Two fragments from Braives (BE) were retrieved together with pottery dated in the second half of the 3 century
AD [cat.nos.217-218]. A piece from Liberchies (BE) came from the destruction layer of a building with an
nd
rd
rd
occupation date in the 2 3 century AD [cat.no.399]. A 3 century AD burial in Xanten (DE) yielded an intact
open bracelet with spatula-shaped ends [cat.no.2172].
138
139
For a detailed overview of the different types, we refer to where the full typology of bracelets is discussed in detail.
The open variant has been solely attested in the north-western provinces [see Chapter 6].
147
Table 58: List of type A bangles from dated finds
cat.no.
type
site
3468
A1
Augst (CH)
217
A1
Braives (BE)
218
A1
Braives (BE)
399
A1
Liberchies (BE)
2172
A1
Xanten (DE)
1260
A1
Maule (FR)
4120
A1
London (UK)
4293
A1
Wanborough (UK)
2194
A1
Intercisa (HU)
2204
A1
Intercisa (HU)
2844;2846
A1
Amman (JO)
1352;1360
A2
Reims (FR)
1794
A2
Bad Wimpfen (DE)
2855
A2
Bastendorf (LU)
2324;2329;2332
A2
Gezer (IL)
2319
A2/3
El Bassa (IL)
404
A3
Liberchies (BE)
367
A3
Liberchies (BE)
398
A3
Liberchies (BE)
357;358
A3
Liberchies (BE)
500
A3
Roly (BE)
163
A4
Aiseau-Presles (BE)
434
A4
Matagne-la-Grande (BE)
606
A4
Vervoz –Clavier (BE)
554
A4
Tongeren (BE)
3365
A4
Augst (CH)
3379
A4
Augst (CH)
3423
A4
Augst (CH)
3650
A4
Kaiseraugst (CH)
1238
A5
Maule (FR)
590
A5
Vechmaal (BE)
625
A5
Waudrez (BE)
604
A6
Vervoz –Clavier (BE)
2436
A6
Jerusalem (IL)
2856
A6
Bastendorf (LU)
3643
A6
Kaiseraugst (CH)
date
IIIb-IIId AD
IIIB-IVA AD
IIIB AD
II-III AD
III AD
IV AD
III AD
IV-V AD
IVa AD
IVa AD
III AD
III AD
IIIA AD
II-III AD
IV-VI AD
IVd AD
II AD
IId-IIIa AD
IIIA AD
IId-IIIa AD
IIB AD
IIIB-IVa AD
IVa AD
IIIB-Va AD
III AD
Id-II AD
Id AD
IId-IIIA AD
IIId-IVA AD
IV AD
IIIc AD (c.275)
IIIc AD
IIIB-Va AD
III AD
II-III AD
III-IVA AD
reference
Riha 1990, no.675
Vilvorder 1993, Braives 5, 243
De Witte 1977, II:58, no.30
De Witte 1977, II:58, no.103
s.n. 1950, 155-157, fig.12
Arveiler 2006, 156, no.6
Barber, Bowsher 2000, 148
Monk 2001, 171, fig.67, no.143
Vágó, Bóna 1976, 62, no.1050, Taf.15, 1050:2
Vágó, Bóna 1976, 103, no.1239, Taf.24, 1239:8
Harding, 1950, 81-94, nos.359; 375
personal communication Hubert Cabart
Hoffmann 2002, 427, no. W387
Wagner 2006, 311, no.R2
Macalister, 1912, pls.94:11-12; pl.104:19
Iliffe 1934, 81-91, pl.24:1
Graff 1962; De Witte 1977, II:58, no.94
De Witte 1977, II:58, no.109
De Witte 1977, II:58, no.110
De Witte 1977, II:58, no.111-111bis
De Witte 1977, II:58, no.140
Lefrancq 1988, 27, no.PG31:3, fig.3:6
Cattelain, Paridaens 2009, 111, no.3, fig.50:3
Witvrouw, Witvrouw 1976, 178, fig.40:17
Mertens, Vanvinckenroye 1975, 51
Riha 1990, no.661
Riha 1990, no.666
Riha 1990, no.665
Riha 1990, no.664
Arveiler 2006, 159, no.38.2
unpublished
Hanut, Capers 2003, 86-90
Witvrouw, Witvrouw 1976, 178, fig.40:16
Rahmani, 1967, 89, fig.18,2, pl.24B
Wagner 2006, 311, no. R3
unpublished
rd
From the above-mentioned dated contexts, we can propose a 3 century AD date for the type A1 bracelets.
o
Type A2: decorated with large twists
The Palestine material is dated somewhat later in the 4 6 century AD. This is a relative chronology based on
the finds from long-lasting, large family burials in use over generations, regularly attested in the eastern
Mediterranean.
th
th
st
We wish to mention that the very early dates from Augst (CH) in the second half of the 1 century AD (Riha 1990,
st
nd
no.670) and late 1 2 century AD (Riha 1990, nos.668; 672) are definitely deviant from all other dates. Most
likely a reassessment of the context material might offer a different look on the date, yet we have to remark that
the shape is rather nonstandard and interpreted as waste material of misshapen arm rings with wide twists. It is
reasonable to think that this deviation in shape is related to an early production. However, chemical analysis on
the piece defines a clear high iron oxide ratio, whereas Period I black glass features low iron content [see Chapter
8]. It is therefore more correct to think that this early date is linked to the excavation methods adopted, not
noticing that the early level was at a certain point cut by a much later waste pit filled with production waste from a
workshop in Augst.
o
Type A3: decorated with fine twists
The layer wherein a fragment of open bracelet from Bon Villers at Liberchies [cat.no.404] was found is said to
nd
have contained pottery of the 2 century AD, but the context circumstances remain vague and therefore are not
148
very reliable (Graff 1962). Another piece from Liberchiesa closed type this timecomes from the fill of a cellar
nd
rd
including pottery of the late 2 –early 3 century AD (Claes, Millau 1962) [cat.no.367]. A second piece of closed
bracelet from Liberchies was retrieved from the levelling stratum of a building that has been dated in the first half
rd
of the 3 century AD (Claes 1978) [cat.no.398].Two non-joining fragments [cat.nos.357-358], most likely from one
single bracelet, were found in the fill of a cellar. In the same stratum, a coin minted under Pertinax (193 AD) and
nd
rd
pottery of the late 2 –early 3 century AD (De Witte 1977, I:48, II:46-47, nos.111-111bis) were retrieved. The
piece of closed bracelet from the south corner of the inner courtyard of the villa 'la Crayellerie' at Roly [cat.no.500]
nd
has been dated in the second half of the 2 century AD on the basis of the excavated pottery and a sesterce
140
struck under Antoninus Pius (138-161 AD).
o
Type A4: with alternating plain zones and twisted decoration
Few examples come from dated contexts, but we have to be careful to adopt, for instance, the much too early
dated contexts of Augst pointing to a date as early as the Flavian period. Either the subsequent levels have not
been carefully discerned and/or excavated, or the material is intrusive. The Kaiseraugst fragment dated in the last
rd
th
quarter of the 3 to the mid 4 century AD corroborate better the generally proposed time-span. The Augst
nd
rd
fragment [cat.no.3424] from a context dated between the end of the 2 and the mid 3 century AD can be
considered an early production. The piece from the southern portico adjacent to building D at Clavier-Vervoz is
rd
th
dated between the mid 3 to the early 5 century AD.
o
Type A5:
The villa ‗Zouwveld‘ at Vechmaal, dated 2 3 century AD, was destroyed by fire under the Frankish incursions.
The piece from the destruction layer of the bath complex is dated around 275 AD (unpublished). The Waudrez
piece was found in a well that was re-used as a ritual pit showing an assemblage dated in the third quarter of the
rd
3 century AD (Hanut, Capers 2003, 86-90).
nd
o
rd
Type A6: with twisted decoration and applied
Little material of Type A6 comes from dated contexts, but none gives a very precise date range. The piece from
rd
th
the southern portico adjacent to building D at Clavier-Vervoz is dated between the mid-3 to the early 5 century
nd
rd
AD. The piece from the Bastendorf sanctuary is dated 2 3 century AD and is therefore the earliest dated
context, but we have to bear in mind that the piece comes from a disturbed layer. The pieces from Jason‘s Tomb
rd
at Jerusalem are dated in the 3 century AD. The fragment from Kaiseraugst comes from an unknown context in
rd
th
Regio 18 and is dated 3 mid 4 century AD.
4.4.1.2
Type B: Arm rings with a wide D-shaped section, plain or with ribbings across [open or closed with a
seam]
Table 59: List of type B bracelets from dated contexts
cat.no.
type
site
date
reference
Nahal Rakafot (IL)
Jebel Yofeh, Amman (JO)
Ramat-Rachel, Jerusalem (IL)
Karm al Shaikh (Rockefeller Museum site),
Jerusalem (IL)
III AD
III AD
III-IV AD
Spaer 1988, 54
Harding 1950, 81-94
Spaer 1988, 54
III-IV AD
Spaer 1988, 54
B1
Mount of Olives, Jerusalem (IL)
III-IV AD
Spaer 1988, 54
B1
B2
B2var
B2
Dourbes (BE)
Augst (CH)
Augst (CH)
Lamyatt Beacon (UK)
IIIB-Va AD
IId-IIIA AD
IIIB AD
IV AD
236
B2
Dourbes (BE)
IIIB-Va AD
297
B2
Hamois, Emptinne (BE)
IId-IIIA AD
1351; 1353
B2
Reims (FR)
III AD
1017
1029
B3
B4
Arles (FR)
Carhaix (FR)
III-IVA AD
III-IVa AD
1033
B5
Chartres (FR)
IIIc AD
De Witte 1977, part II, 21, no.34, pl.IX:2
Riha 1990, no.625
Riha 1990, no.629
Leech 1986, 293, fig.24, no.14
De Witte 1977, part II, 21, no.35,
pl.IX:3A-B
Van Ossel, Defgnée 2001, 163,
fig.142:5
Personal communication by Hubert
Cabart
Foy 2010a, 492, no.1041
Labaune, Le Cloirec 2008, 28, fig.8
unpublished (personal communication
by Stéphane Willerval 2008-4)
2479-80
2838-43; 2845; 2847
2481
2443-44; 2451; 2459;
2463; 2466; 2468
2438; 2449; 2452-53;
2456; 2462; 2464
244
3390
3405
A4596
B1
B1
B1
B1
140
The bracelet fragment was found below tuff blocks in the south corner of the large courtyard which are connected with the second building
phase (De Witte 1977, I:48; II:58, no.140).
149
From the 128 catalogued Type B bangles, only 36 come from dated contexts (Table 59).
o
Type B1: arm rings with wide D-shaped section, plain
The contextual attribution of the Dourbes material remains perhaps unknown, but on the basis of coins and terra
sigillata with roller stamp decoration, the occupation of the hill fort 'La Roche à Lomme' began during the second
rd
th
half of the 3 century AD and lasted until the early 5 century AD (Brulet 1974; 2008, 575-576).
o
Type B2: arm rings with wide D-shaped section, indented decoration
nd
th
The material corroborates the date range of the other bangle types falling within the late 2 to 4 century AD with
the piece from the villa of Champion at Hamois (BE) and a piece from Augst (CH) coming from the earliest dated
context, coinciding with Period II. The piece from Lamyatt Beacon (UK) came from the youngest context, situated
th
within the 4 century AD. The Palestine material has received a more general date range between both extremes
(Spaer 1988, 55).
o
Type B3: arm rings with wide D-shaped section, incised decoration
Only the piece from the excavations of the circus at Arles (FR) is dated. The level wherein it was retrieved, layer
rd
th
124, is dated 3 first half 4 century AD (Foy 2010a, 492, no.1041).
o
Type B4: arm rings with wide D-shaped section, impressed decoration (protuberances)
Only the piece from the excavations of the circus at Arles (FR) is dated. The level wherein it was retrieved, layer
rd
th
124, is dated 3 first half of the 4 century AD (Foy 2010a, 492, no.1041).
o
Type B5: arm rings with wide D-shaped section, impressed decoration (complex design)
The sole piece from a dated context is the bangle fragment from Chartres (FR) which was found in a waste pit
with material dating before 260-280 AD but sealed somewhere in 280/285 AD, with a layer dated on the basis of
141
the coins.
4.4.1.3
Type C: Arm rings with a wide D-shaped section, with lengthwise ribbings [open]
From the 106 entries, about half came from undated contexts, and of the 52 dated finds, most came from the
rd
Argonne workshops Lavoye (FR) and Sainte Menehould (FR), giving a general date range between the 3 and
th
the 5 century AD. Only 12 pieces remain useful, showing a coherent date range within Periods II and III for the
making of the idiosyncratic Type C bangles [see Chapter 6], so that the production and consumption of this
variant was less long-lasting compared to Type A and B bangles (Table 60).
Table 60: List of type C-bracelets from dated contexts
cat.no.
type
site
date
1053
C1
Dehlingen (FR)
IIIc AD
3341
C1
Augst (CH)
III AD
3672
C1
Kaiseraugst (CH)
IIB-IIIA AD
394
C2
Liberchies (BE)
II-III AD
498
C2
Roly (BE)
IIB-IIIA AD
524
C2
Taviers (BE)
IId-IIIA AD
566
C2
Tourinnes-St-Lambert (BE)
IIc AD
1874
C2
Epfach (DE)
IVB AD
3428
C2
Augst (CH)
IId-III AD
298
C3
Hamois, Emptinne (BE)
IIIB-IVA AD
1359
C3
Reims (FR)
III AD
3357
C3
Augst (CH)
IB-III AD
o
reference
Wagner 2006, 311, no.R4
Riha 1990, no.628
unpublished
De Witte 1977, II:50-51, no.122
De Witte 1977, part II, 57-58, no.141, pl.XXVIII:5A-B
Claes 1954, 244, fig.4a; De Witte 1977, II:61-62, no.150
De Waele, Hanut 2009
Werner 1969, 180, pl.38:31; 50:8
unpublished
Van Ossel, Defgnée 2001, 163, fig.142:4
personal communication by Hubert Cabart
Riha 1990, no.631
Type C1: with 5 lengthwise ribbings
The only dated find with clear-cut date comes from the villa rustica of Gurtelbach at Dehlingen (FR). Dating the
rd
material in the third quarter of the 3 century AD, Heiko Wagner (2006, 311, no.R4) does not state precisely the
141
Personal communication by Stéphane Willerval, 2008-4.
150
context information. The pieces from Augst/Kaiseraugst (CH) match with the more general date range, going from
nd
rd
the second half of the 2 through the 3 century AD.
o
Type C2: with 6 or more lengthwise ribbings
nd
rd
A piece from Liberchies (BE) was found in the fill of a cellar which contained 2 and 3 century AD material (De
Witte 1977, 50-51) [cat.no.394]. The piece from the villa 'la Crayellerie' at Roly (BE) [cat.no.498] was retrieved
nd
rd
from a waste pit beside the villa. The fill can be dated last quarter 2 first half 3 century AD on the basis of the
presence of mortaria fragments in terra sigillata of type Dragendorff 45 with a small spout in the shape of a lion
nd
rd
head. The context wherein the fragment from Taviers [cat.no.524] was found is dated late 2 first half 3 century
AD based on the pottery, despite the presence of some earlier coins: one struck under Hadrian (117-138 AD) and
one under Marcus Aurelius (161-180 AD) (Claes 1954, 244; De Witte 1977, II, 62).
The piece from the fill of ‗Raum A‘ in the warehouse (Magazingebäude) of the hill fort Lorenzberg at Epfach (DE)
th
is dated in the second half of the 4 century AD. The late date is because of the presence of a coin struck by
Constantius II between 346 and 350 AD (Werner 1969, 180). The bangle fragment is most likely to be interpreted
as residual from the area where earth was taken on the site to fill up the room.
o
Type C3: with 3 lengthwise ribbings
It is not possible to find out whether the very long date ranges of the Augst material are due to the residual
nd
rd
occurrence of early material within late 2 3 century AD levels or due to intrusive material within the second half
st
nd
of the 1 first half of the 2 century AD because a later pit was cut through the level without notice of the
rd
archaeologist. The other two dated finds are from ‗Rue Desteuque‘ at Reims (FR)3 century ADand from the
refill layer of room 8 in the residential building of the villa of Champion at Hamois-Emptinne (BE)second half
rd
th
3 first half 4 century AD.
4.4.1.4
Type D: Arm rings with a narrow D-shaped section, plain or decorated [open or closed with a seam]
A large number of the 614 ex. of Type D arm rings originates from a context which is only very generally dated or
not dated, contributing to a confused view on the chronological delimitation of their manufacturing. We only
present a selection of the accumulated datable material in Table 61 and refer to the catalogue for a full overview.
Despite the fact that most of the materials from dated contexts are Type D1 bracelets, all Type D bangle variants
show a homogeneous chronological delimitation in Period III and Period IV (Table 61). Unlike the three preceding
bangle types (A-C) which are characteristic for Period III we believe that type D bangles are typical products of
Period IV.
o
Type D1: plain
The late Roman hill-fort at DourbesLa Roche à Lomme, where 17 fragments of this type were retrieved
[cat.nos.235;236-43;245-53], is dated on the basis of coins and Samian ware decorated with roller stamp in the
th
th
th
early 4 to the end of the 4 /early 5 century AD (Brulet 1974; 2008, 575-576). The late Roman hill-fort
NismesLa Roche Trouée, not far from Dourbes, yielded one piece [cat.no.456] and its context is dated mid
th
th
4 early 5 century AD on the basis of a set of four coins, two of which were struck between 388-402 AD (De
th
Witte 1977, II:52-53). Hubert De Witte, however, maintains a general 4 century date (De Witte 1977, I:50).
Similar dated contexts are known from the other side of the river Meuse, at Éprave, with two fragments of this
th
142
type of bracelet [cat.nos.263;268] dated in the 4 century AD on the basis of coins and sigillata decorated with
roller stamp (Mertens, Rémy 1973, 38-39, fig.24:19-20). Not far from Éprave, four intact bracelets were found in
the late Roman cemetery within the Roman bathhouse of Furfooz-Hauterecenne [cat.nos.278-81]. Two were
th
found in tomb 2, which is dated at the end of the 4 century AD (Nenquin 1953, 88) and the other two came from
th
tomb 22, which is roughly dated 4 century AD (Nenquin 1953, 98), whereas Dasnoy dates the tomb in the last
th
third of the 4 century AD (Dasnoy 1969-70). The fragments from Namur-Grognon [cat.nos.451-53] come from a
th
fill of a cellar, which is roughly dated 4 century AD by Hubert De Witte (1977, I:49). A date range of the context
somewhere in the last quarter of that century can be proposed seeing the presence of a coin struck under
Magnus Maximus (383-388 AD). This later date most likely should corroborate the sigillata when a more detailed
study of the different roller stamp decoration patterns will be carried out.
142
The coins were struck under Constantius II (337-350 AD), Constantine I (335-341 AD), Constantine II, Constans (346-350 AD), Magnetius (350353 AD) and Arcadius (383-402 AD).
151
The two complete Type D1-bangles made in yellowish green glass and in very dark purple, nearly blackappearing glass [cat.nos.517-18] from tomb C of the Spontin cemetery were found together with coins of which
the youngest was minted during the reign of Arcadius (383-408 AD). Based on this terminus ante quem, André
th
th
Dasnoy dated the tomb between 383 AD and the very end of the 4 or the first decennium of the 5 century AD
th
(Dasnoy 1966, 202). All pieces of type D1 found in Belgium within a dated context fall into the 4 century and the
th
very beginning of the 5 century AD, but the dated contexts of Spontin and Furfooz can markedly refine the
th
delineation to the mid 4 century AD or even towards the last quarter of the century. In Belgium, no clearly dated
th
contexts of the 5 century AD are available that contained type D1 bracelets. It is important to mention that a lot
of recent publications rely on the dating of the burials in the balneum at Furfooz-Hauterecenne (BE) by Nenquin
(1953).
Table 61: List of type D bracelets from dated contexts
cat.no.
type
site
14
D1
Bregenz (AT)
235; 241-43; 245-53
D1
Dourbes (BE)
237-39
D1
Dourbes (BE)
date
IVB AD
IIIB-Va AD
IIIB-IV AD
reference
Konrad 1997, 71-72; 235, pl.51:D1
De Witte 1977, nos. 40-51
De Witte 1977, nos. 36-38
240
D1
Dourbes (BE)
IIIB-IVA AD
Brulet 1974, 35, no. C2; De Witte 1977, no. 39
263;268
D1
Éprave (BE)
IVb-IVc AD
278-81
451-53
456
D1
D1
D1
Furfooz (BE)
Namur (BE)
Nismes (BE)
IVd-Va AD
IVd AD
IVB-Va AD
479;482-83
D1
Oudenburg (BE)
IV AD
517-18
2015-16
1982-86
3667
757-61
1234-35
1643;1645;164953;1655;165758;1660;1662;1664-65
1755
A4607
2312
2313
2315
2321
2320
2421
2477-78
A4623
A4624
673
2756
2850
2837
D1
D1
D1
D1
D1
D1
Spontin (BE)
Tawern (DE)
Niederzier (DE)
Kaiseraugst (CH)
Štrbinci (HR)
Maule (FR)
IVd-Va AD
IVB AD
IVB-Va AD
IVB-Va AD
IVb-IVc AD
IV AD
Mertens, Remy 1973, 20-22; 38-39, figs. 24:1920; De Witte 1977, II, 27, nos.54-55, pls.XLI:6-7
Nenquin 1953, 74-88De Witte 1977, nos. 63-66
De Witte 1977, nos. 125-127
De Witte 1977, no. 128
Mertens, Van Impe 1971, 126-128, nos.7-8,
pls.XXXII:5-6; 208-209, no.3, pl.LX:4
Dasnoy 1969-1970, 176-178, fig.4
Trierer Zeitschrift 15, 1940, 77, fig.40
Gaitzsch et al. 2003, 194-196
unpublished
Jelinčić 2007, 217
Arveiler-Dulong 2006, 156, no.6; 11
D1
Sens (FR)
IVd - Va AD
Arveiller-Dulong et al. 1994, 184-186, nos.60-66
D1
D1
D1
D1
D1
D1
D2
D1
D1
D1
D1
D2
D2
D2
D2
Vireux-Molhain
(FR)
Canterbury
(UK)
Ain Yabrud (IL)
Al Tarshiha (IL)
Askalon (IL)
El Bassa (IL)
El Bassa (IL)
Horshat Tal (IL)
Mezad Tamar (IL)
Tarshiha (IL)
Tell Malkhata (IL)
Virovitica (HR)
Milan (IT)
Tyr (LB)
Amman (JO)
IVB AD
Va AD
IV-V AD
IV-V AD
IV-V AD
IVd AD
IVd AD
V-VII AD
III-VI AD
IV-V AD
IV-V AD
IIIA AD
IVb-IVB AD
IVa-c AD
III AD
2326-28;2330-31;2335
D2
Gezer (IL)
IV-VI AD
3207
3678
3788
2454
3677
3657
2445
2455
2461
D2
D2
D3
D4
D4
D5
D6
D6
D6
Talavera la Nueva
(ES)
Kaiseraugst
(CH)
IIId-IV AD
IV(B) AD
IV-Va AD
III-IV AD
IIId-IVA AD
IVB-Va AD
III AD
III-IV AD
III-IV AD
Lémant 1985, 56, fig.60:17
Bennett 1980, 406-410
Husseini 1938, 54-55, pl.6,1
Iliffe 1934, 9-16
Iliffe 1933, 182-183, pl.48,4
Iliffe 1934, 81-91, pl.24:1-2
Iliffe 1934, 81-91, pl.24:2
Spaer 1988, 54
Erdmann 1977, 111, nos.932-933
Spaer 1988, 54
Spaer 1988, 54
Jelinčić 2007, 216-218, pl.1-3
Palumbo 1999, 29-30, fig.3
Chéhab 1985, II, 26
Harding, 1950, 81-94, no.345
Macalister 1912, pls.94:8;102:12-13;109:20;
119:25
Torrecilla Aznar 2004, 333, fig.4:14
Riha 1990, no.627
Fünfschilling, Hedinger 2008, no.3384
Spaer 1988, 54
unpublished
unpublished
Rahmani 1967, 89, fig.18,3, pl.24B
Spaer, 1988, 54
Bagatti, Milik 1958, 160, fig.37:32
152
Pfyn (CH)
Ketef Hinnom,
Jerusalem (IL)
Kaiseraugst
(CH)
Kaiseraugst (CH)
Jerusalem (IL)
Jerusalem (IL)
Jerusalem (IL)
Early dated material comes from, for instance, building 5 of the Aldenhovener Platte settlement at Aldenhoven
rd
th
(DE) [cat.no.1761] with a dated context in the 3 century AD. A child‘s tomb dated in the second half of the 4
century AD was found near Tawern (DE) and contained two bracelets [cat.no.2015]. Other examples are known
from Niederzier (DE) in the small cemetery in connection with the villa Hambach 382 (Gaitzsch et al. 2003). From
tomb 1 were retrieved four bracelets [cat.nos.1983-86] and from tomb 5 one single bracelet [cat.no.1982]. Both
th
th
tombs are dated from the second half of the 4 century to the very beginning of the 5 century AD (Gaitzsch et al.
2003, 194-196).
th
George Chenet mentions the discovery of a small bracelet in a context dated in the second half of the 4 century
AD on the basis of the present pottery without referring to its provenance (Chenet 1941, 21, pl.1:25).
o
Type D2: with incised decoration, vertically or diagonally
The bulk of the 119 Type D2 bangles came from dated finds. The 43 dated entries show a homogeneous date
rd
th
range from the 3 to the 6 century AD (Table 61).
The earliest pieces came from Kiskorija South at Virovitica (HR) (Jelinčić 2007, 216-218) and the burial of Jebel
rd
rd
Yofeh at Amman (JO) (Harding, 1950, 81-94), dated in the first half of the 3 century AD and the 3 century AD,
rd
th
respectively. A piece dated last quarter 3 4 century AD came from the villa 'El Saucedo' at Talavera la Nueva
rd
th
(ES) (Torrecilla Aznar 2004, 333, no.14). Others, mainly from Jerusalem (IL) are dated 3 4 century AD
(Baramki, 1932, 3-9; Bagatti, Milik 1958, 160), as is the material from Croatia (Jelinčić 2007, 216-218), although
this might be because the author used Maud Spaer‘s chronology.
o
Type D3: with stamped decoration representing grotesque theatre masks
None of the material comes from dated contexts, but considering the resemblance within the Type D assemblage
rd
th
we may assume that it is of late Roman date, at least 3 5 centuries AD. Taking into account the general
chronology of the black glass bangles, and in particular that of Type D bangles, we believe that the piece from the
st
site ‗Mariana‘ at Lucciana on Corsica (FR) [cat.no.1221] was erroneously dated 1 century AD (Foy, Nenna 2001,
95, no.120).
o
Type D4: tooled decoration with facetted surface
th
th
The material receives a date range from the 4 to 5 century AD, but Maud Spaer (2001, 200-201) attributed this
th
th
bangle type to the end of the 4 5 century AD. On the basis of a general date of the material from three
excavation sites within Jerusalem (IL), some vaster lapses of time are provided: the YMCA excavations are dated
th
th
4 6 century AD, whereas the material from the Ketef Hinnom excavations and the Temple wall excavations are
rd
th
dated 3 4 century AD (Spaer 1988, 55).
o
Type D5: applied decoration with simple line of dots on the crest
None of the material has come from dated finds to our knowledge, but, for instance, Maud Spaer (1988, 56-57)
rd
th
dated the Palestine material in the 3 4 century AD. But seeing the general chronology of the Type D bangles
and the fact that similar material was retrieved in Aquileia (IT)first destroyed by the Visigoths in 401 AD and
then again in 408 AD, making many inhabitants flee to the lagoon; the final destruction was inflicted by Attila in
th
th
451 ADthe production of this bangle type is rather to be situated almost certainly in the 4 mid-5 century AD.
o
Type D6: applied decoration with varicoloured specks (so-called ‗crumb‘ bangles)
The only dated finds come from Jerusalem (IL), showing a d ate range from the 3
rd
material from Jason‘s tomb is dated 3 century AD (Rahmani, 1967).
o
rd
to 4
th
century AD. The
Type D7: applied decoration with simple line of dots on the crest
The Braga material related to the Fujacal workshop is dated in the 4 5 century AD (da Cruz 2009)
[cat.nos.3040;3064]. Also, the two pieces from the amphitheatre at Metz (FR) are dated in the second half of the
th
th
143
4 to the 5 century AD on the basis of the archaeological material.
th
143
th
Personal communication by Hubert Cabart.
153
o
Type D8: pressed decoration with complex decoration pattern
No dated context information is available on the Type D8 bangles from Aquileia (IT) [see comment on Type D5
above].
4.4.1.5
The Romano-British bangles
We have not included the Romano-British bangles in the assessment because we are convinced that their
chronology needs to be treated separately due to their atypical character within the Roman imperial material
culture. The Romano-British bangles are very idiosyncratic commodities; they do not fit the general typology
based on continental material, nor do they correspond with the continental chronology. The Romano-British
144
contexts concerned are for the most part dated in the first two centuries AD ; however, similar material seems to
rd
th
come from 3 and 4 century AD contexts (Kilbride-Jones 1938; Stevenson 1956; Price 2002) [see Chapter 3].
4.4.1.6
Summary
The evaluation of such a wide variety of types and subtypes from dated contexts necessitates a schematic
overview to provide a clear idea of the chrono-typology of black glass bangles (Table 62). Instead of incorporating
all dated material, implying the presence of imperfectly dated materialresulting in a useless all-embracing
Period I-IV date rangewe only propose here an expurgated version of the most likely date range of each
subtype, which is in the first place based on the well-dated material but stands in relation to the date ranges of the
black appearing vessel glass, and the main trend developments of black appearing jewellery in glass and jet from
late Antonine-Severan period.
Table 62 generates some general views on the black glass bracelets: 1) absence in Period I; 2) appearing from
Period II onwards; 3) continuity all through the Roman imperial period and beyond; 4) simultaneous occurrence of
Types A, B and C in Periods II and III; 5) idiosyncrasy of Type D bangles in Period 4. Compared to the other
th
bracelet categories, the Type D-bracelets prove to be a well-delineated class emerging in the 4 century AD and
particularly popular in the Rhine and Danube provinces, even though the late Roman type of glass bracelets show
an empire-wide occurrence [see Chapter 6].
Table 62: Chronological overview of the black glass arm rings
PERIOD I
PERIOD II
SHAPE
0
50
100
150
PERIOD III
200
250
PERIOD IV
300
350
400
450
TYPE A1
TYPE A2
TYPE A3
TYPE A4
TYPE A5
TYPE A6
TYPE B1
TYPE B2
TYPE B3
TYPE B4
TYPE B5
TYPE C1
TYPE C2
TYPE C3
TYPE D1
TYPE D2
TYPE D3
TYPE D4
TYPE D5
TYPE D6
TYPE D7
TYPE D8
144
The first Continental piece of Romano-British glass bangle is known from a ‗period 2/3‘ context in the Roman fort at Valkenburg Z.H. (NL) that
coincides with a date range of c. 4769 AD (van Lith 1977). Another comes from the very recently published material on the glass from the early
medieval town Dorestad (NL) (Isings 2009).
154
Yet we have to admit that the available information on the dated finds is rather unsatisfactory. Some material
appears to be systematically dated too early, such as the material from Augst/Kaiseraugst (CH). Additionally, the
material from the late Roman glass workshops in the Argonne region, Sainte Menehould–Les Houis and Lavoye,
only have an assumed date, as comprehensive and accurate excavations have not been executed. The earliest
nd
dated Roman black glass bangles have come from mixed 2 century contexts, but in Augst/Kaiseraugst the
st
oldest pieces are said to have come from contexts dating to the late 1 century AD (Riha 1990, 66, tab.82) and
are consequently the earliest testimonies. However, the proposed context dates of the Augst/Kaiseraugst material
are inconsistent with all other known contexts containing Roman black glass bangles. Furthermore, it is already
th
th
clear that a number of contexts are intermingled due to not very careful excavations in the 19 and early 20
century in particular (Fünfschilling 2005). Other sites with conflicting dated contexts appear also to be the result of
mixed fills comprising material from different periods.
Additionally, there is always the risk that archaeologists sometimes take over too naively or too dogmatically a
formulated typo-chronology when facing forms and categories of small finds with which they are unfamiliar. The
here-presented typologies are set up to enable quantifications and cluster groups geographically and
chronologically. Also, it is important to take notice of site-bounded restrictions or of possible inaccuracies
incorporated in the archaeological publication. A striking example is the type A4 bracelet fragment from the Limes
st
nd
castellum Miltenberg-Altstadt [cat.no.1949], which is dated mid 1 –mid 2 century AD (Beckmann 2004, 96).
Based on the typo-chronology from Augst and Kaiseraugst (Riha 1990, 64, tab.82), the bracelet fragment has
been used to date the occupation layer wherein the artefact was found to the early occupation period at the Limes
castellum Miltenburg-Altstadt. In contrast, the author tried to identify the beginnings of the fort occupation based
on the glass artefacts.
4.4.2
Finger rings
From the 204 recorded finger rings, only 66 entries are dated finds, of which 55 could be defined typologically
(Tables 63-64).
Table 63: Overview of the ratios per finger ring shape and subtype
variant 1
variant 2
variant 3
variant 4
type A
55
22
14
2
type B
11
3
11
type C
6
8
1
-
4.4.2.1
variant 5
2
1
-
variant 6
4
-
total
95
30
15
%
67,4
22,0
10,6
Type A: Finger rings with narrow O-shaped or D-shaped section, plain or decorated
o
Type A1
Not all 31 dated pieces of type A1 are dated finds from a well-defined context. An amount of the material is dated
on the basis of the general occupation date of the site, such as the material from the glass workshop(s) of Les
rd
th
Houis nearby Sainte Menehould (FR), which yielded material from 3 5 century AD, or by comparing the items
with dated parallel objects in other materials. All in all, the available material displayed in Table 64 demonstrates a
rd
th
quite homogenous date range running from the 3 century AD to the early 5 century AD. The earliest material
came from the jewellery (work)shop close to the northern gate of the legionary camp at Bonn (Platz-Horster 1984,
11-16; 38-48, pls. 4-7, nos. 11-31), whereas the latest material is that from ‗la cour de l‘archevêché‘ at Sens
(Arveiller-Dulong et al. 1994, 186) and that from the Period IV glass workshop of Palais Kesselstatt at Trier (DE)
[cat.no.2049]. The dated contexts from Augst (CH), wherein black glass material was found, sometimes present
st
rd
incoherent date ranges from the late 1 to the end of the 3 century AD (Riha 1990, 137, no.292)
[cat.nos.3414;3427]an observation that is noticed previously for other commodities. The site, however, also
yielded very precisely dated contexts such as the treasure from insula 42 in regio 1 of the colonia Augusta
Raurica, which is dated between 250 and 280 AD. Though the youngest coins were struck under Decius in 249251 AD, it has been proposed that the treasure got concealed after 260 AD and most likely during the crisis
period featuring the incursions of Germanic people in 270-275 AD (Toma ević-Buck1980; Riha 1990, 118).
o
Type A2
Only 10 dated entries have been compiled, but compared to type A1 these provide a much more defined date
rd
th
range, falling in the 3 4 centuries (Table 64). Only one entry from a not-yet studied context at Augst (CH)
155
provides a conflicting preliminary date range between 90 and 130 AD (unpublished). A plain example came from
rd
the ‗Insula 42‘ treasure of Augst (CH) and thus is dated from the third quarter of the 3 century AD.
Table 64: List of finger rings from dated finds
cat.no.
type
site
type A
date
1659;1667
1796-97;1804;
1809-10;1814;
3414;3427
1823-24;1830
3404
A1:1
A1:1
A1:1
Sens (FR)
Bonn (DE)
Augst (CH)
IVd-Va AD
III AD
Id-III AD
A1:3
Augst (CH)
IIIB AD
1150
A1:4
Laneuvelotte (FR)
IV AD
1648
A1:4
Sens (FR)
IVd-Va AD
2049
A1:4
Trier (DE)
IV AD
1811;1813;1817
A2:1
Bonn (DE)
III AD
3376
A2:1
Augst (CH)
IIIB AD
3398
3410
3646
1464;1476
551
1079
3401
3917
type B
A2:1
A2:1
A2:1
A2:2
A2:3
A3:2
A3:2
A3:2
Augst (CH)
Augst (CH)
Kaiseraugst (CH)
Sainte-Menehould (FR)
Tongeren (BE)
Forêt d'Argonne (FR)
Augst (CH)
Birdoswald (UK)
Id-IIb AD
IIIB-IVA AD
IV AD
III-IV AD
IIIA AD
III-IV AD
IId-IIIb AD
IVB AD
Loeschke 1925, 338, fig.2, no.10; Wagner 2006,
320, R88
Platz-Horster 1984, 11-16; 38-48
Toma ević-Buck1980, fig.3; Riha 1990, 192,
no.2996
unpublished
Riha 1990, 137, no.290
unpublished
unpublished
Vanvinckenroye 1984, 138, no.272:4, pl.119
unpublished
unpublished
Wilmott et al. 1997, 283, fig.194, no.85
23
3648
169
type C
B1:3
B1:2
B4:1
Bregenz (AT)
Kaiseraugst (CH)
Aiseau-Presles (BE)
IVA AD
IVB AD
III-IVa AD
Konrad 1997, 88; 210, fig.12:15, pl.17:D3
Riha 1990, 137, no.285
Lefrancq 1988, 27, no.PG33, fig.3:8
437
1647
1654,1661
2040
C1:1
C2:3
C2:1
C3:1
Matagne-la-Grande
Sens (FR)
Sens (FR)
Trier (DE)
IVa AD
IVd-Va AD
IVd-Va AD
IV AD
Rober 1983
Arveiller-Dulong et al. 1994, RAE 45, 186, no.75,
fig.8
:75
Arveiller-Dulong
et al. 1994, RAE 45, 186, no.75,
fig.8
:751913, 157,no.1747
Henkel
o
reference
Arveiller-Dulong et al. 1994, 186, nos.71-72,
figs.8:71-72
Platz-Horster 1984, 11-16; 38-48
Riha 1990, 137, no.292
Toma ević-Buck1980, fig.3; Riha 1990, 192,
no.2996
Cabart, Bull. AFAV 2008, 77, fig,1:1383.8
Arveiller-Dulong et al. 1994, RAE 45, 186, no.75,
fig.8:75
Type A3
Only three items have been catalogued, all three giving a different but coherent date range (Table 64). The
earliest context comes from Augst (CH) and dates back to the Severan period (unpublished). The youngest
context is that of Building 197 at Birdoswald (UK). The piece was found in the floor layer dated in Phase e of
th
Period 5 that corresponds to the backfill of the sub-floor after the south horreum changed use by the end of the 4
th
or at the start of the 5 century AD (Wilmot 1997, 202; 283). It is thus likely that the fragment should be dated
earlier, as it is clearly a residual deposit.
o
Type A4
None of the two pieces come from dated finds. The proposed date of the piece from Autun (FR) or its vicinity is
based on its resemblance to Helène Guiraud‘s type 2f finger rings in gold, silver, bronze and iron, which are dated
nd
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2 3 century AD (Vitrum 1990, 104, no.73; Guiraud 1989, 181).
o
Type A5
None of the two pieces come from dated finds. The proposed date of 3 4 century AD for the piece from Arles
(FR) is presumably based on style features relative to dated objects in other materials (Foy 2010a, 496, no.1055).
rd
4.4.2.2
th
Type B: Finger rings with wide D-shaped section, plain or decorated
It is of no use to discuss here separately all six recognised variants in analogy of type A because we have
catalogued only three pieces from dated finds (Table 64). The one from the cave ‗Trou des Nutons‘ at Aiseaurd
th
Presles (BE) is dated 3 early 4 century AD (Mariën 1970; Lefrancq 1988). Another dated find is a type B1
156
finger ring with diagonal ribbings dated between 300/10 and 330/40 AD on the basis of the burial gifts from tomb
401-402, a double inhumation burial of children, from the late Roman cemetery at Bregenz (AT) (Konrad 1997,
88; 210). The third piece came from the lower city of the colonia Augusta Raurica at Kaiseraugst (CH) and has
th
been dated in the second half of the 4 century AD on the basis of the retrieved coins (Riha 1990, 137, no.285).
Maud Spaer perhaps situates these finger rings in the late Romanearly Byzantine period, proposing a date from
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th
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the 4 to the 6 century AD. The few datable finds point to a concurrence with the type A finger rings in the 3 4
century AD.
4.4.2.3
Type C: Finger rings with narrow O-shaped or D-shaped section, plain or decorated with applied or
tooled bezel
The most characteristic dated context is Palais Kesselstatt in Trier, a Period IV glass workshop with numerous
type C finger rings with different technologies. All dated finds of this type point towards a production period in the
th
th
4 and 5 century AD (Table 64).
We can conclude that black glass finger rings are idiosyncratic to the late Roman imperial period. No finger rings
in black glass have been recorded from Period I or Period II contexts. The emergence of finger rings made of
black glass is to be placed in Period III and disappears again during Period IV. It is very likely that type A and B
nd
finger rings were already produced in Period II from the very end of the 2 century AD and remained in
th
th
th
production up to about the mid-4 century AD, whereas the type C finger rings are common for the 4 and 5
century AD. This advance in time is mainly presumed on the basis of the occurrence of similar shapes in other
materials such as jet, which point to a production under Severan rule. We therefore assume that we catalogued
the very fragmented material of type A from Sens (FR) wrongly and that they should be determined as fragments
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of the later type C finger rings in jet, which were popular during Severan rule and all through the 3 –4 century
AD. Even though the fragmentation of the pieces cannot provide a definite answer, the homogeneity of the
assemblage supports this assumption.
4.4.3
Beads
No reference book treating Roman glass beads currently exists, despite their very frequent occurrence, especially
in Roman tombs. The few studies carried out can be regarded merely as major stepping stones in setting up a
typo-chronology on glass beads of the entire empire. Unfortunately, their elaboration has remained
chronologically and geographically very confined. Whether research has been done on material from a museum
collection (Spaer 2001), a specific site (Riha 1990), a specific region (Wagner 2006) or a more vast area (Guido
1978; Tempelmann-Maczyńska 1985) the Roman (black) glass beads represented only a (small) part within these
studies. This also concerns the overview given by Ellen Swift, who studied the late Roman dress accessories of a
more vast region, i.e. Great Britain, the Rhine region and the Danube region, so that the types of glass beads and
the covered time-span remained limited (Swift 2000). To come to a suitable chronology on the black glass beads,
we verified as much as possible these publications with the dated finds compiled in our database. It is clear that
on the more northern European Continent as well as in Britain local glassworkers continued to produce glass
beads, faithful to their Celtic traditions, throughout the early Roman imperial period since it took several
generations to have the Romanised material culture adopted. Only in the later Roman period glass did beads
regain importance and become a very popular material in the jewellery production in generale.g. bracelets,
gems, pendants, finger rings and beads. The start date for the production of these ornamental glass items
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remains undetermined. It is generally accepted that the glass beads were manufactured in the 4 and the early 5
century AD, but this date range seems to be conservative, not taking its use into account from the outset until its
disuse.
The only beads in black glass from Period I contexts are the large ‗melon‘ beads with opaque white spiralling trails.
st
Most pieces come from mid 1 century AD contexts. A piece from Tienen (BE) came from a TiberianClaudian
context dated 30-50 AD (unpublished) [cat.no.536]. Beat Rütti dates the piece from Oberwinterthur (CH)
somewhat later within the Claudian-Neronian period (Rütti 1988, 96, no.1935). The various pieces from Augst
(CH) are mainly from non dated contexts or from contexts with a large date range. However, two melon
beadsone of which with a dark blue glass matrixoriginating from well dated contexts, respectively 30-70 AD
and 0-50 AD corroborate with the ones from Tienen and Oberwinterthur (Riha 1990, 157, nos. 1146; 1149)
[cat.no.3352]. The recent study of the late Augustan military camps of Oberaden, Haltern and Anreppen in the
Upper Rhine-region demonstrates however that the wearing of these large globular ‗melon‘ beads with white
spiralling trail can be dated much earlier (Tremmel 2006, 235-285). One piece was found in the large Anreppencamp at the Upper Lippe, a tributary of the Rhine, is dated very sharply within the late Augustan period as it was
157
build within the winter of 4/5 AD and abondonned following Varrus‘ defeat in 9 AD. Also the piece from the Haltern
fort is of early date, as it is considered to be build in 12 BC and abandoned by 16 AD (Rudnick 2006, 29). Bettina
Tremmel (2006, 235-237) considers the Haltern material as late Augustan likewise the very well dated Anreppen
camp on the basis of the correspondence of material and excludes early contexts seeing the Oberaden camp,
which is dated 11-8/7 BC, only yielded a markedly small amount of glass.
nd
Pressed beads are present from the later 2 century AD onwards, such as the example from grave VII of EschHoogkeiteren (NL): a necklace containing 14 double-perforated, eight-shaped beads in black glass (Van den Hurk
1980, 374-378, no.VII:5:m, fig.6) [cat.no.2878]. Nevertheless, double-perforated pressed beads in black glass are
th
th
idiosyncratic for the later Roman period, particularly for the 4 and 5 century AD.
A large number of beads made of black glass dating from the late Roman period, i.e. 4 5 century AD, provoke
some confusion because these are on the one hand also attested in early medieval contexts in the Weste.g.
Anglo-Saxons, Merovingians, Longobards and Alamanni. Conversely, these are also attested in the Eastern
Mediterranean, such as Cyprus, Israel and Egypt, regions not influenced by the Migration People.
th
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These beads are generally attributed to the Migration People (Guido 1999). A perfect example for this confusion
is the large annular bead type with applied trails in white or yellow opaque glass. In Chapter 4, we have discussed
the context of a number of rod-formed bead types in black glass accumulated in Western Europe which are
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th
assigned to late Roman contexts dating from the mid-4 to the early 5 century AD as well as to contexts from the
th
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Migration People dating to the 5 and up to the mid-6 century AD. These black glass beads with applied trails
and/or small dots in opaque glass are equally present in the so-called early Byzantine period in the Levant and
rd
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Egypt, roughly dated from the end of the 3 to the early 7 century AD. In Chapter 6 on production, distribution
and trade, the issue of the consumption pattern of this type of material is examined more in detail to argue for a
production and consumption of glass jewellerybracelets, beads and pendantsall over the Roman Empire from
th
th
the mid-4 to the mid-6 century AD.
th
From the mid-4 century AD onwards, the black glass beads with applied trails and/or small dots in opaque glass
start to appear and continue to be produced, typically in annular, globular or barrel shapes. Within the margin of
these facts, it is important to mention the association that can be made with the appearance of a new type of
145
glass, i.e. HIMT-glass , which is supposed to have been produced in Egypt [see Chapter 8].
A typical shape is the elongated barrel-shaped bead with applied glass trails rendering spirals at the ends and a
single or cross-cutting double zigzag in the middle. Although it is clear that this type of bead is typical from the late
th
Roman period onwards as far back as the 4 century AD, it is equally known from early Byzantine contexts in the
eastern Mediterranean and in the newly created realms by the Migration Peoplee.g. Anglo-Saxon, Merovingian
and Alamanni. This means that sometimes an erroneous discourse of archaeological contexts can result in
deviant conclusions when establishing a chronology of artefacts. The example found in 2001 in Comacchio (IT) is
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th
dated late 6 –early 7 century AD on the basis of the very delimited dating of the eastern cemetery of the S.
Maria in Pado Vetere church and other examples from elsewhere (Corti 2007, 75-76). The point is not that we
question the dating of the cemetery but that these elongated barrel-shaped beads are said to be characteristic for
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th
the later 6 and early 7 century. Besides the possibility of re-use of ancient beads and other objects as burial
gifts in the tombs of Migration People, we have to be aware that the beads show a kind of continuity of late
th
th
Roman taste and trends all through the 5 century and even up to the mid-6 century AD. Within Chapter 7 on
use and function, we will explore this issue with the aim of seeing whether this material can provide evidence for
sustained Roman traditions in north-western Europe under the rule of the Migration People.
Some well-dated contexts are known for the ‗Trilobitenperlen‘. The castellum Vemania at Isny (DE) revealed a
treasure containing a necklace made of ten ‗Trilobitenperlen‘ in black glass in combination with over 50 cylindrical
beads in jet, and which is dated around 305 AD (Garbsch, Kos 1988, 34) [cat.no.1892].
4.4.4
Pendants
rd
th
From the available information the black glass pendants can be dated in the 3 to the 5 century AD illustrating
continuity from Period II to IV but most idiosyncratic for Period IV (Table 65).
145
HIMT-glass stands for a type of glass with a high iron manganese and titanium content considered characteristic for Egypt, and stands in
contrast to the until-then predominant Levantine glass.
158
Table 65: List of sites with black glass pendants from dated finds
cat.no.
site
type
date
reference
2475
4024
20
2390
2600
3177
3205
4023
21
1226
Makher (IL)
Colchester (UK)
Bregenz (AT)
Horbat Qastra (IL)
Aquileia (IT)
Alcalá de Henares (ES)
Talavera la Nueva (ES)
Colchester (UK)
Bregenz (AT)
Marseille (FR)
‗poppy-head‘-shaped
‗poppy-head‘-shaped
barrel-shaped
barrel-shaped
barrel-shaped
barrel-shaped
barrel-shaped
barrel-shaped
jug-shaped
jug-shaped
IV AD
IVb-IVd AD
IVA AD
III-V AD
IV AD
IV AD
IIId-IV AD
IVb-IVd AD
IVc AD
Vd
Spaer 2001, 170, fig.76 right
Crummy 1983, 35, fig.37, no.1501
Konrad 1997, 76; 220, pl.32:C
unpublished
Mandruzzato 2008, 79, no.152
Complutum 1998, 256, no.202
Torrecilla Aznar 2004, 333, fig.4:5
Crummy 1983, 35, fig.37, no.1504
Konrad 1997, 76; 230, no1:c, pls.48:E1; 91:4
Foy 2010b, 307, fig3:4
1666
Sens (FR)
jug-shaped
IVd-Va AD
Arveiller-Dulong et al. 1994, 189, no.97,
fig.9:97
2056
2972
A4633
A4658
A4635
2333
2429
2474
Trier (DE)
Nijmegen (NL)
Sagvar (HU)
Ptuj (SL)
Askalon (IL)
Gezer (IL)
Jalame (IL)
Makher (IL)
jug-shaped
jug-shaped
jug-shaped
jug-shaped
jug-shaped
jug-shaped
jug-shaped
jug-shaped
IVd-Va AD
IV AD
IVB-Va AD
IVB-Va AD
IVb-Va AD
IV-VI AD
IV AD
IV AD
Loeschke 1925, 338, fig.1:2
unpublished
Stern 1977, 112
Stern 1977, 112
Stern 1977, 112
Macalister 1912, 377-378, pl.119, no.9
Weinberg 1988, 230, no.22
Spaer 2001, 170, fig.76 left
4.4.4.1
Pendant with bulbous body and gooseneck suspension loop
Only three examples of this type of pendant have been recorded so far, and only the one from Tienen [cat.no.537]
is made of black glass. Its context remained until now unstudied, and thus no clear dating of the object is possible.
On the other hand, the Tienen-Grijpenveld site has a significant decline after the third quarter of the 3rd century
AD and does not enclose contexts later than the beginning of the following century. The pendant in blue-green
rd
th
glass from Augst (CH) is dated in the second half of the 3 first half of the 4 century AD (Riha 1990, 91; 161,
no.1343). The one from a burial at cemetery "dell'Università Cattolica" close to S.Ambrogio basilica in Milan (IT) is
th
to be dated from the second third of the 4 century AD seeing the occurrence of 4 follis struck under Constantinus
th
th
giving a terminus post quem of 337 AD, and an oil lamp of 4 –5 century type (Palumbo 1999, 29). The one from
Liberchies (BE) in pale greyish blue glass comes from the destruction layer covering the latrines and adjacent
nd
rd
buildings north of the bath complex in sector G is dated late 2 –3 century AD (Brulet 1997, 30). Seeing the very
striking resemblance to the so-called poppy-head-shaped pendants of the late Romanearly Byzantine period, we
are tempted to consider the pendant with bulbous body and gooseneck suspension loop as the forerunner of the
so-called poppy-head-shaped pendants [see Chapter 3]. In connection with the available context information, we
rd
th
may assume that the bulbous pendant with gooseneck suspension loop was produced in the 3 early 4 century
AD.
4.4.4.2
‗Poppy-head‘-shaped pendants
Only two out of twenty recorded ‗poppy-head‘-shaped pendants come from dated finds (Table 65). The burial gift
th
from Locus A-2023 of the cemetery at Makher (IL) is dated in the 4 century AD (Spaer 2001, 170) and the one
from tomb 1 of the cemetery at Butt Road, Colchester (UK) is dated between 325 and 400 AD (Crummy 1983, 35).
rd
th
Others have been given a more informal date range either between the late 3 and 4 century AD (Spaer 2001
th
th
177) or between the late 4 and 6 century AD (Spaer 2001, 185).
4.4.4.3
Barrel-shaped pendants
From the 19 recorded barrel-shaped pendants we noticed 6 entries from dated finds (Table 65). A homogenous
rd
th
date range between the late 3 to the end of the 4 century AD is to be proposed. The wider date range for the
Horbat Qastra piece is due to the fact that the material is not yet studied in detail.
4.4.4.4
Jug-shaped pendants
Only few pieces of the 50 entries are known to have come from dated contexts but the dated finds show a very
th
th
homogeneous date range from the 4 to 6 century AD with a concentration for Period IV (Table 65).
159
A more in depth study of the rod-formed pendants entails the prospect to detect a more precise date range for the
different types and subtypes comparable to the results from Dan Barag‘s study on the pressed discoid pendants
briefly presented here below.
4.4.4.5
Pressed discoid pendants
Dan Barag not only worked out a typology on the discoid pendants with pressed decoration, but he also gave date
ranges for the three types discriminated on the basis of the suspension loop‘s shape which more or less
subdivided each type into six categories on the basis of the pressed decoration (Barag 2001, 173-175). The three
types seem to switch in time with Type A as the earliest style falling within the first third of Period IV (Table 66).
The Type B discoid pendants more or less coincides the second third of Period IV, whereas Type C is
th
characteristic for the last third of Period IV and beyond up to the mid 6 century AD:
Table 66: Chronological bar chart of the types of discoid pressed pendants (based on Barag 2001)
300 AD
350 AD
400 AD
450 AD
500 AD
Type A
Type B
Type C
550 AD
600 AD
Table 67 shows the various figurative decoration categories per variant of pressed discoid pendant established by
th
th
Barag (2001). The decorative repertoire of Type A pendants, dated from the second half of the 4 early 5
century AD, is mainly that of classical mythology and the pantheon (category 1) and that of faunal motifs
th
th
(category 5). Somewhat later but partly contemporaneous are the pendants of Type B dated late 4 mid-5
century AD). This type of pressed pendants is rare, but most are decorated with faunal motifs (only a few have
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been reported of Type C from the second half of the 5 first half of the 6 century AD). It is very possible seeing
the quite overlapping occurrence of the three shapes and six styles that each shape is not very much a product of
its time but rather a (technological) feature of a specific workshop and thus discriminates three different glass
workshops where similar types of jewellery were produced during Period IV with workshop A being the most
successful and workshop B the least thriving.
Table 67: Overview of the decorative categories per type of pressed discoid pendant (Barag 2001)
type A
type B
IVB-Va AD
IVd-VA AD
type C
VB-VIA AD
total
Barag‘s Category 1: Classical mythology and pantheon
Barag‘s Category 2: Biblical themes
Barag‘s Category 3: Jewish symbols
Barag‘s Category 4: Christian symbols
Barag‘s Category 5: Faunal motifs
Barag‘s Category 6: Miscellaneous motifs
portraits
TOTAL
2
1
7
11
2
21
21
7
5
9
30
5
5
82
4.4.5
20
4
3
2
19
3
5
54
1
1
1
5
7
Gems
None of the recorded pieces came from a well-dated context except for the one from the Iron Age hill fort of Hod
Hill (UK) [cat.no.4069] that was used by the Roman armies during the invasion of Britannia under Claudian rule.
The Romans built a camp in 43 AD within the captured hill fort and remained active to about 50 AD. The second
st
quarter of the 1 century AD date of the circular gem in black glass with the representation of a rudder with tiller,
corn-ear and cornucopia attached (Henig 1978², 236, no.405) only confirms the generally accepted date for the
monochrome black glass gems. The gems in monochrome black glass known as imitations of semi-precious
stones in, for instance, hematite or onyx are generally dated in the Julio-Claudian Period and therefore ascribed
to Period I. Characteristic for these Period I gemstones are the circular shape and the convex top surface,
contrasting with the gemstones from following periods which are of elliptical shape and flat surfaces. The early
dated golden finger ring with black glass intaglio in the Rheinishes Landesmuseum Bonn is decorated with a
grape in front of a hare in a very realistic style, which is regarded, like the finger ring, as being in use during the
late Republican period–Augustan reign (Platz-Horster 1984, 87, Taf.22, no.78).
The dating of gemstones can be done on the basis of various external aspects such as shape and engraved style.
‗Gemmatologists‘ have confirmed the interesting results a stylistic approach offers for the development of a typo160
chronology (Table 68). However, using stylistic criteria to date the glass gemstones is not very secure because
this type of jewellery remained in use for a long period, while early genuine stones seemed to have been utilised
as patrix to make a matrix for the production of one or a whole set of gemstones as attested from the material of
the jeweller‘s shop of Medizinische Klinik close to the military camp of Bonn (DE) (Platz-Horster 1984) [see
Chapter 3]. For instance the four pseudo-nicolo gemstones loose or still set in its original finger ring from the late
nd
rd
Roman sanctuary at Liberchies (BE) [cat.nos.A4601-4] are stillistically dated (2 -)3 century AD (Sas 2008, 118rd
119, nos.1;3-5) but the sanctuary was built either at the very end of the 3 century AD (c.285-290 AD) or within
th
the first decades of the 4 century AD (310-320 AD) (Brulet 2008, 34-35).
Table 68: General typo-chronology of the engraving styles applied on intaglios proposed by Kathy Sas (Sas 1993, 119-122)
chronology
typology
1st–first half 2nd century AD
classical modelled style
1st–2nd century AD
classical linear style
2nd century AD
classical simplified style
2nd–first half 3rd century AD
plain rigid style
3rd century AD
incoherent style
o
Conical gems in monochrome black glass
rd
Oval and circular bronze brooches (types T270 and T271) with conical gems in black glass are generally dated 3
century AD (Riha 1979; Jones 1996, 181-182). An elliptical example with a conical gem in dark blue glass is
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th
known from Fishbourne (UK) and comes from a late 3 or early 4 century AD context (Cunliffe 1971, 106, fig.40,
no. 43). Those from the Roman fort at Caernarfon (UK) (Casey et al. 1993, 166, no. 13) and Wanborough (UK)
th
.
are dated 4 century AD (Butcher 2001, 64-65, fig.26, nos. 137-138). The round disc-brooch enclosing a conical
gem described to be of ‗dark green‘ glass was found in inhumation tomb 162 of the south-western cemetery of
th
Tongeren which is dated in the third quarter of the 4 century AD based on the other burial gifts (Vanvinckenroye
1984, 96-97, pl. 91:162). It included an As by Magnentius minted in Trier in 350 AD, three vessels in pottery, and
a hemispherical cup in pale green glass type Isings Form 96 (Vanvinckenroye 1984, 97; 211).
rd
Oval and circular bronze brooches with inlaid glass gems can thus be dated between mid-3 century AD and the
th
th
5 century AD, being most popular in the 4 century (Allason-Jones, Miket 1984, 115).
o
Blue-on-black glass paste gems imitating nicolo
Nicolo was used from the very early imperial period onwards. Emilie Riha explains that the two stylistic groups
discerned by Gertrud Platz-Horster are related to two distinct periods. The first groupi.e. the thick gems with a
vivid deep blue glass on the top surfaceis proposed to be an early imperial production, and she can supply six
st
examples, of which five come from a dated context assigned to the 1 century AD (Riha 1990, 22, nos.11;19; 50;
51; 55). The second group she calls a late imperial productioni.e. the thin gems with a dull greyish-blue top
nd
rd
surfaceeven though the dating falls within the second half of the 2 to mid 3 centuries AD (Riha 1990, 23;
nos.3; 20; 33; 37; 38; 40; 48).
The golden finger ring with oval gemstone in blue-on-black layered glass paste from the Roman treasure of
nd
Regensburg-Kumpfmühl (DE) [cat.no.1998] is dated in the late third quarter of the 2 century AD with a closing
date of 166 AD (Overbeck 2000, 64-65). While the nicolo gemstones became popular from the beginning of the
nd
2 century AD onwards (Sas 1993, 110), we cannot find earlier imitations in glass of this semiprecious stone than
the second half of that same century. It is also not quite clear when this glass imitation went out of use. Recently,
a late production centre of glass paste gemstones imitating nicolo has been indicated in Braga (PT), which has
th
been dated in the 4 century AD (da Cruz 2009, 99). A P3/F4-gemstone with a Concordia-motif has been
th
th
reported from the late 4 early 5 century AD tomb 6010 of the cemetery ‗La Hache‘ at Cutry (FR) (Boulanger et
al. 2009, 27).
When taking into account archaeological evidence, we see that well-dated contexts give sometimes divergent
th
dates. A perfect example is tomb 83 of the cemetery at Abbeville, which is dated late 4 century AD
[cat.no.A4576]. The inhumation tomb of an adult woman yielded a golden finger ring of type Guiraud 4a (Guiraud
th
nd
rd
1988, 188, fig.27), datable in the 4 century AD, while the inserted pseudo-nicolo glass gemstone is dated 2 3
century AD (Guiraud 1998, 134-135, no.14).
The Roman large, round, discoid, pseudo-nicolo gems are mostly reported as medieval artefacts, either 8 10
th
th
century AD (Gandert 1956) or 11 13 century AD (Schulze-Dörrlamm 1990). In the medieval period these soth
th
161
called ‗Alsengemmen‘ altered to a totally different use and meaning by having Christian motifs. We observed that
they were re-used as adornment in Christian reliquaries and as Christian jewellery (Gandert 1956; SchulzeDörrlamm 1990). It is, however, clear from a good number of loose finds within unmistakable (late) Roman
contexts in Conimbriga (PT), Augst (CH), Kaiseraugst (CH) and Sens (FR) [see Chapter 5] as well as the
th
unmistakable Roman helmet from Berkasovo (SB), which is dated in the last third of the 4th - start 5 century AD
based on characteristics of the helmet type Deurne/Berkasovo 1 and the regularly connected 'Zwiebelknopffibel'
(Mackensen 2009, 288-294), that the so-called Alsengemmen are to be regarded as re-used late Roman artefacts
th th
of the 4 -5 century AD.
4.4.6
Hairpins
We have to acknowledge that only very few black glass hairpins have come from dated contexts. From the 43
entries, we have mainly generally dated contexts on the basis of the overall material from the Argonne area23
rd
th
ex. from the 3 4 century AD workshop(s) of Les Houis nearby Sainte Menehould and 9 ex. from an unknown
146
context at Forêt d‘Argonne. The only piece from a well-dated context is the intact composite one from the villa
of Shakenoak Farm nearby Wilcote (UK) [cat.no.4201], which came from an unsealed deposit south of Building B
of later-3rd century AD date (Harden 1971, Shakenoak II, 106, no.152, fig.45:69). Another hairpin with iron pinshaft (now lost) was found during the 1963-1968 excavations of the cemetery 'Pousse Motte', tomb 664, at Maule
rd
th
(FR). The inhumation tomb is perhaps not dated but all burials are to be situated in the 3 8 century AD
(Arveiller-Dulong 2006, 159, no.41).
The hairpin with globular head from the legionary fortress at Oudenburg is from an undated context but fits
rd
th
perfectly the assumed date of this type of commodity in the 3 4 century AD because the fortress was built
th
around 200 AD and remained in use until the beginning of the 5 century AD. Also the two hairpins from
th
Liberchies are to be dated in the 4 century AD (unpublished) [cat.nos.372-373].
th
The black glass hairpin with faceted head from Braga (PT) is linked to the 4 century AD workshop of Fujacal,
although the piece has been lost and no further information is provided (da Cruz 2009, 99; 102, fig.4, no. 5.1)
[cat.no.3003]. Another hairpin with polyhedric head [cat.no.1027] came from one of the three sarcophagi of the
‗cimetière des Capucins‘ at Beauvais (FR) excavated in 1860-1861. The drawing of the pin is closer to one in jet
than in black glass, but due to the vagueness of the notes in the ‗manuscrit Mathon‘ a re-assessment by Richard
nd
rd
Schuler could only determine the bulk of the material to be from the 2 3 century AD without being able to
attribute the material to one of the three inhumation burials (Schuler 1995, 62, fig.19:3).
When comparing the black glass hairpins with those in other glass hues (Crummy 1983, 28; Allason-Jones, Miket
1984, 275) and with the closely related jet hairpins (Allason-Jones 1999), it appears that no (black) glass hairpins
st
nd
have been recorded from 1 2 century AD contexts. Furthermore, when taking into consideration all the
rd
th
available information, we can hitherto only generally date the black glass hairpins in the 3 4 century AD, with
most likely Period III as the production heyday of it.
4.5 Architectural Decoration
We already mentioned earlier that the study of glass architectural decoration material should be studied jointly
with the material in all glass hues. Seeing the complexity of such study, it was not within reach of this project to
manage it. We therefore limited the section to a discussion that is related to accessible past work. For the ease of
the survey, we discuss the black glass architectural decoration material per category, i.e. tesserae, twisted rods,
bichrome and trichrome plaques, and inlays or intarsia. Consequently, the different categories can be referred to
one and the same context. Apart from the archaeological data, the written sources can also provide information
on the date of using glass as architectural decoration elements.
146
The Shakenoak pin is not fully of glass but made of an iron pin that is decorated with a globular pinhead in black-appearing glass [see Chapter
3].
162
4.5.1
Tesserae
The largest part of mosaics including black glass tesserae that have been recorded are based on the study by
Frank Sear and demonstrate a use of black glass tesserae all through the Roman imperial period (Sear 1977)
(Table 69). To come to a good dating system of the glass tesserae, the material from dated contexts should be
assessed in order to verify whether shape, size and hue can already give clues. However, apart from external
properties, the chemical composition of the applied glass is needed to help establish the dating of the loose finds
from stratigraphic contexts to facilitate the determining of the date of archaeological levels.
Table 69: List of sites with black glass tesserae
cat.no.
site
2815
Sperlonga (IT), ‗Villa of Tiberius‘
2778
Rome (IT), ‗Villa dei Centroni‘
2779
Rome (IT), ‗Domus Aurea‘
2818
Tivoli (IT), ‗Villa of Brutus‘
2732
Baia (IT), ‗Baths of Mercury‘
3893
Tunis (TN), ‗Odeon Hill House‘
2764
Ostia (IT), Isola Sacra (Tomb 88)
2816
Tivoli (IT), ‗Villa of Hadrian‘
2817
Tivoli (IT), ‗Villa of Hadrian‘
3631
Baden-Stadthofquelle (CH)
2853
Leptis Magna (LY), ‗Baths of Hadrian‘
2780
Rome (IT), Stadium of Domitian
2777
Rome (IT), Via S. Basillo
2019
Trier (DE)
2020
Trier (DE), ‗S.Barbara Baths‘
1411Sainte Menehould-Les Huois (FR)
12
1625
Saint-Emilion (FR), ‗villa du Palat‘
context
grotto
natatio
nymphaeum
nymphaeum
fountain
arcosolium
nymphaeum
serapeum
nymphaeum
frigidarium
exedra
fountain
workshop
octagonal basin
date
I AD
IA AD
Ic AD
Id AD
II AD
II AD
IIA AD
IIA AD
IIA AD
IIB AD
IIB AD
IId-IIIa AD
IIIB AD
IIIa-c AD
IIId-IV AD
III-IV AD
IVd-V AD
reference
Sear 1977, 64-66, no.24
Sear 1977, 67-68, no.28
Sear 1977, 90-92, no.61
Sear 1977, 96-97, no.74
Sear 1977, 114-115, no.109
Sear 1977, 163, no.222
Sear 1977, 101-103, no.86
Sear 1977, 110, no.99
Sear 1977, 111-112, no.104
Sear 1977, 176, no.269
Sear 1977, 148-149, no.177
Sear 1977, 125, no.132
Sear 1977, 128, no.136
Sear 1977, 173, no.260
Sear 1977, 172, no.256
unpublished
Monturet, et al. 1980, 76
Glass was used for architectural decoration as early as the late Bronze Age cultures in Egypt and the
Levant/Mesopotamia. In the Roman world, already from the late Republic-early imperial period glass was well
incorporated into wall and vault mosaics (Sear 1977), but only a limited number of black glass tesserae come
from Period I contexts. Although there are plenty of examples from Augustan times showing the use of glass
tesserae in a variety of colours, its use becomes much more popular from Neronian times when the use of twisted
glass rods and tesserae in Egyptian blue disappears (Sear 1977) (Table 70).
Table 70: Timetable of various architectural decoration materials in Period I (according to Sear 1977)
material type
100 BC
70 BC
30 BC
0
35 AD
50 AD
Egyptian blue
Twisted glass rods
Glass tesserae
79 AD
Black glass tesserae were at that time used in combination with shells and tesserae in Egyptian blue, white stone
and red glass as attested from the grotto of the villa of Tiberius at Sperlonga (IT) (Sear 1977, 64). Although the
construction is dated late AugustanTiberian, consecutive building phases up to the NeronianFlavian period are
believed when the use of glass tesserae increased (Sear 1977, 65). Seventy mosaic fragments from the ‗Villa dei
Centroni‘ at the via Anagnina in Rome contain black glass tesserae besides mosaic stones in green, yellow, blue
and red glass as well as twisted glass rods (Sear 1977, 67). The villa is considered contemporaneous with the
147
earliest phase of the theatre of Marcellus on the basis of the yellow bricks that were utilised. Frank Sear,
st
however, considers it more opportune to date it to the first half of the 1 century AD because of the use of the
glass mosaics (Sear 1977, 68). The vault of the nymphaeum in Nero‘s ‗Domus Aurea‘ at Rome is decorated with
four circular mosaic panels and in the centre an octagonal mosaic panel. The badly preserved octagon represents
two men, Odysseus and the Cyclop Polyphemus, which are on the whole composed of black and green glass
tesserae (Sear 1977, 90, no.61, pls.35; 36:1). The works started in 64 AD, but the ‗Domus Aurea‘ was not finished
after Nero‘s death in 68 AD. His direct successors lived in it and finished the house, but already Vespasian lived
only sporadically in it. Trajan made it inaccessible by using it as foundations for a bath complex he built on top of
147
Build in 23 BC by Augustus in commemoration of Marcellus.
163
st
it. Accordingly, Frank Sear dates the mosaic in the third quarter of the 1 century AD, between 64 and the early
70s AD (Sear 1977, 92, no.61).
The black glass tesserae from the mosaics of the Flavian barrel-vaults at the so-called ‗Villa of Brutus‘ in Tivoli are
said to be ―particularly large and shapeless‖ and ―none too evenly cut‖ (Sear 1977, 97, no.74), contrasting with the
tesserae from Neronian contexts, which are well-cut and of very small size (probably to produce very delicately
detailed figurative panels).
Glass tesserae have been found in large numbers on various sites built or rebuilt under Hadrian‘s rule. Yet only
few included tesserae in black glass, such as the nymphaeum and the Serapeum at Hadrian‘s villa in Tivoli (Sear
1977, 96-97; 110, nos.74;99); the so-called ‗baths of Mercury‘ at Baia (Sear 1977, 114-115, no.109) and the
arcosolium mosaic from tomb 88 of the Isola Sacra cemetery at the Gate to Rome in Ostia, although the latter
nd
could equally date somewhat later in the first half of the 2 century AD (Sear 1977, 101-103, no.86).
The black glass tesserae from Period II contexts so far recorded include, for instance, the upper storey of the
exedra at the Stadium of Domitian on the Palatine in Rome. The exedra is considered an addition from Severan
nd
rd
times and thus dating at the end of the 2 first third of the 3 century AD (Sear 1977, 125, no.132). The fountain
rd
in the house under the Via San Basilio in Rome is dated in the second half of the 3 century AD.
th
The black glass tesserae from the 5 century AD building plan of the villa du Palat at Saint-Émilion (FR) and from
th
a fill in room IV (context 1035) of the early Christian basilica from Sidi Jididi (TN), which is dated in the 7 century
AD on the basis of ceramics (Foy 2004, 328-329, fig.194), demonstrate that black glass continued to be in use for
architectural decoration material.
4.5.2
Twisted rods
Most twisted rods available in large museum collections (Brussels; Stuttgart; Corning; Toledo) were acquired in
th
the 19 century in Italy. Luckily, a good number are still in situ such as in Pompeii (IT). According to Frank Sear‘s
thorough study on wall and vault mosaics, twisted glass rods were solely incorporated in Roman architecture as
st
decorative elements during the first half of the 1 century AD (Sear 1977) (Table 71). Earlier finds of twisted rods
are, however, known but consist only of loose finds. This means that these finds could have been produced for
other purposes than for architectural decoration, such as utensilse.g. stirring rods, needles and pinsor
handles of vessels [see Chapter 3].
The recent find of twisted rods from a dump of a workshop in Jerusalem (IL) is dated in the first half or the middle
st
148
of the 1 century BC (Israeli 2005, 54) and predates Frank Sear‘s assertion for at least 50 years. Not wanting to
put in question the integrity of the scientific work, a later date for the Jerusalem context can still be proposed
because the date of the fill in the bath complex can be considered a terminus ante quem, whereas the sealing by
a road built under Herod‘s reign between 37 and 4 BC (Israeli 2005, 54) gives an ultimate terminus post quem at
4 BC. From this approach, the Jerusalem context would then corroborate the general introduction of glass in
149
Roman architecture under Augustus. A glass workshop that produced twisted glass rods is ‗La Manutention
st
no.2‘ at Lyon and dates from the middle of the 1 century AD (Foy, Nenna 2001, 77, no.71). The youngest
st
contexts containing fragments of twisted rods are the late 1 century AD deposit of the ‗Centrum‘ in the rue du
150
Maréchal-de-Lattre-de-Tassigny at Amiens (FR) (Bayard, Massy 1983, 325; Dilly, Mahéo 1997, 17) and those
st
nd
from the glass workshop ‗La Monté de la Butte‘ at Lyon dated mid-1 early 2 century AD (Motte, Martin 2003).
The widespread production of twisted rods exclusively focussed on the consumption of utensils from the Flavian
period, which possibly influenced the change from opaque coloured glass to transparent glass.
Although the colours of the numerous fragments of twisted glass rods used as architectural element in the
Aquileia bath complex are not described, it is worth mentioning it because the complex was initially dated to the
st
nd
end of the 1 beginning of the 2 century AD. Conversely, Frank Sear considers the bath complex much earlier
and based on stylistic groundsin particular due to the presence of twisted glass rods, shells and tesserae in sost
called Egyptian bluehe dates the mosaics in the early 1 century AD (Sear 1977, 100, no.82).
148
149
150
It is impossible to determine whether the twisted rods were production waste of architectural decoration elements.
On the other hand, the introduction of twisted rods in Sear‘s chronology probably needs to start several decennia earlier.
Taking into account the other glass material, the deposit can, in all probability, be considered a later dump.
164
Most black glass rods from datable contexts came from sites within the Gulf of Naples, which were submerged by
volcanic ash after the Vesuvius eruption of 79 AD. Most material came from fountains (nymphaea) [see Chapter
5], with Pompeii as provider of most examples: the nymphaeum of ‗Casa del Torello‘ (House V-I-7) is dated in the
st
second half of the 1 century AD on the basis of the use of brick construction (Sear 1977, 61, no.16). Frank Sear,
however, points to the archaising technique used, as at that time it was common to cut glass tesserae. He
therefore suggests that the concerned mosaic is an older one that has been cut out and reinstalleda practice
151
that has been recognised in the nymphaeum of Hadrian‘s villa in Tivolli (Sear 1977, 50-52, no.8) and that of
Nero‘s ‗domus aurea‘ in Rome (Sear 1977, 90-92, no.61).
Based on the masonry the columbarium of the freedman Pomponius Hylas is dated late Tiberian (Sear 1977, 66).
The fountain niche in the nymphaeum of a villa on Cape Posillipo near Naples containing twisted rods made of
st
black glass with an opaque yellow trail is dated at the middle of the 1 century AD (Sear 1977, 77, no.39, pl.23:3).
Table 71: List of sites with black glass twisted rods
cat.no.
site
A4584
Pompeii (IT), ‗Casa del Torello‘
A4586
Rome (IT), columbarium of Pomponius Hylas
A4587
Rome (IT), ‗Villa dei Centroni‘
A4588
Cape Posillipo, near Naples (IT), villa
A4585
Aquileia (IT), baths
A4583
Amiens (FR)
4.5.3
context
nymphaeum
columbarium
natatio
nymphaeum
tepidarium (?)
dump
date
Ic AD
Ib AD
IA AD
mid I AD
IA/Id-IIa AD
Id AD
reference
Sear 1977, 61, no.16
Sear 1977, 65-66, no.25
Sear 1977, 67-68, no.28
Sear 1977, 77, no.39
Sear 1977, 100, no.82
Dilly, Mahéo 1997, 17
Bichrome plaques
There is no possibility of evaluating the date of the bichrome plaques in black glass because the only material we
th
have at hand is from old museum collections acquired in Italy in the 19 century and without any knowledge of
their provenance such as the material in the Corning Museum (Grose 1989) and the Toledo Museum (Goldstein
1979). According to the combined occurrence with twisted rods, we assume that the bichrome plaques are
contemporaneous with the twisted rods and thus to be situated in Period I.
4.5.4
Inlays or intarsia
Intarsia are mainly considered late Roman, dated in the 3 4 century AD (Oliver 2001), but the occurrence of
(black) glass intarsia in the villa of Lucius Verus at Rome (IT) [cat.no.2802] has recently indicated that this was
nd
152
already in use in the 2 century AD.
The black glass loose elements of opus sectile from Aquileia (IT)
[cat.no.2588] are of unknown provenance (Mandruzzato 2008, 155, fig.5).
rd
4.5.5
th
Written sources
The available archaeological data, as discussed here above, provide no more than a relative chronology which is
based upon general stylistic aspects and on the presence or absence of specific architectural decoration material,
such as pumice, various types of shells, tesserae in so-called Egyptian blue or twisted glass rods. Strict
specifications of the formal aspects or used technology of each artefact category have not been set up
systematically, so an evaluation of the external properties of this kind of commodity resulting in chronological
subdivisions could not be done here.
We are consequently restricted to no more than an impression about when the use of glass elements as
architectural decoration in general got introduced, became popular and went out of fashion. Written sources can
contribute to a better dating of the architectural decoration material in glass, such as a comment on mosaics by
Pliny the Elder dealing with its introduction:
Mosaics came into use as early as Sulla‘s regime. At all events, there exists even to-day one made of very small cubes which
he installed in the temple of Fortune at Palestrina. After that, ordinary tessellated floors were driven from the ground level and
151
It consists of the remains of a late Republican villa dated 4030 BC (Sear 1977, 5052), that got incorporated into the later structures of the
early 2nd century AD.
152
This was done by Marco Verita during the 18th conference of the AIHV in Thessaloniki 2009: Sagui L., Santopadre P., Verita M. Glass
technology, colours, forms and shaping in the 2nd century opus sectile glass materials from the villa of Lucius Verus in Rome.
165
found a new home in vaulted ceilings, being now made of glass. Here to we have a recent invention. At any rate, Agrippa, in the
baths that he built at Rome, painted the terra-cotta work of the hot rooms in encaustic and decorated the rest with whitewash,
although he would certainly have built vaults of glass if such a device had already been invented or else had been extended
from the walls of a stage, such as Scaurus which we have described, to vaulted ceilings.
(Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia XXXVI, LXIV.189 [transl. Eichholz, D.E., 1962, Pliny X, 149])
Seeing that Sulla was dictator from 82 to 79 BC, we may assume from Pliny‘s passage that mosaics got
st
introduced in Italy, i.e. in Roman architecture, by the end of the first quarter of the 1 century BC. Though Pliny
states that glass mosaics were still absent in the buildings erected by Agrippa, we may deduce from Pliny‘s report
that between 27 and 12 BCthe period of Agrippa‘s active building policyit was unusual to decorate public
buildings with wall and vault mosaics by using glass tesserae. This assertion proposes the incorporation of glass
as a new elemental material in the architectural decoration under Augustus‘ rule. The oldest archaeological
examples, discussed by Frank Sear, where architectural decorations in which glass was used also date back to
the reign of Augustus: the nymphaeum at the ‗Via degli Annibaldi‘ in Rome is dated 30-20 BC (Sear 1977, 54-56,
no.13); and the nymphaeum at the ‗Casa dell‘Ancora nera‘ (House VI.X.7) in Pompeii (Sear 1977, 56-58, no.14);
the ‗Grotta di Paris‘ at San Vittorino, near Tivoli (Sear 1977, 58-60, no.15); the cryptoporticus at ‗Via XX
st
153
Settembre‘ in Rome (Sear 1977, 62-63, no.19) are all three dated at the end of the 1 century BC. Significant is
154
that glass tesserae were absent in late Republican nymphaea like the fountain at Hadrian‘s villa in Tivoli (IT) ,
which is dated 40-30 BC and only got covered with tesserae in yellow, green and blue glass in a second stage,
supposedly under Tiberius‘ reign (Sear 1977, 51).
The available archaeological cases challenge Pliny‘s statement, seeing that the introduction of glass for the
architectural decoration in private buildings corresponds with the building activities of Agrippa. At this moment it is
unclear what reason should be given to this difference. If the glass elements in private buildings got implemented
earlier, than the ensuing question is why it took longer for public buildings. A different paragraph by Pliny the
Elder explains the possible reason why it took several generations before glass tesserae became a widespread
architectural decoration material:
I shall not allow these two birds of a feather, two Gaiuses or two Neros as you please, to enjoy unchallenged even renown such
as this; and so I shall show that even their madness was outdone by the resources of a private individual, Marcus Scaurus.,
whose aedileship may perhaps have done more than anything to undermine morality, …
As aedile he constructed the greatest of all works ever made by man, a work that surpassed not merely those erected for a
limited period but those to last for ever. This was his theatre, which had a stage arranged in three storeys with 360 columns; and
this, if you please, in a community that had not tolerated the presence of six columns of Hymettus marble without reviling a
leading citizen. The lowest storey of the stage was of marble, and the middle one of glass (an extravagance unparalleled even
in later times), while the top storey was made of gilded planks.
(Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia XXXVI, XXIV.113-114 [transl. Eichholz, D.E., 1962, Pliny X, 89])
It appears from this paragraph that in the late Republic, glass was considered excessively luxurious and that the
155
156
use of glass in the theatre of Scaurus built in 58 BC was symbolising the spoil of sobriety, one of the Roman
st
virtues. Probably because of the depreciation of glass and its common availability by the end of the 1 century BC,
it was regarded as an extravagance. Agrippa, as representative of the emperor Augustus, was bound to the
imperial propaganda honouring Roman virtues and traditions. For that reason, it is very likely that the public
buildings resulting from Agrippa‘s building policy had to remain sober and simple.
4.6 Counters
Plano-convex counters appear from Augustan times in polychrome as well as monochrome glass and should be
considered characteristic of the Roman imperial period. The Roman imperial plano-convex counters in various
opaque colours including yellow, white, blue and green contrast with the more conical-shaped counters in a clear
translucent or transparent glass which are characteristic for the Hellenistic period in the Mediterranean. Black
glass counters seem however rarely occurring in this early stage of the Roman imperial period. Evidence for this
st
st
assumption are burials from the later 1 century BC and the early 1 century AD containing glass counters lack
153
For ‗Casa dell‘Ancora nera‘ it is stated that despite the use of glass discs and broken pieces of glass vessels, glass tesserae were totally
absent (Sear 1977, 58). The use of broken glass in wall veneer is also attested in ‗Casa del Granduca‘ (House VII.IV.56) in Pompeii (Sear 1977,
67, no.27).
154
Frank Sear mentions only the presence of tesserae in Egyptian blue that have been erroneously considered as weathered blue glass tesserae
(Sear 1977, 49).
155
David Grose considers correctly that the so-called glass columns are most likely to be interpreted as decorative elements in glass affixed on
wood (Grose 1989, 357).
156
Marcus Aemilius Scaurus was in 58 BC aedile and organized the Aedilician Games after having defeated Arteas III, king of the Nabateans.
166
st
counters in black-appearing glass, as can be demonstrated by the late 1 century BC grave at Weldwyn Garden
City (UK) (Harden 1967, 14-16; Price 1995, 129; Cool, Philo 1998, 190). The total absence of black glass
st
counters is also observed at the pseudo sanctuary of Cybele at Lyon (FR) which is dated between the mid 1
st
century BC and the first decennies of the 1 century AD (Desbat 2003, 402-403). Other well-dated British
examples provide evidence for an evolution in the glass counters production and consumption. By the Claudian
invasion, this variety of colours disappeared and made place for sets of so-called black-and-white counters such
st
as the ‗The Warrior‘s burial‘ BF64 at Colchester-Stanway (UK) [cat.no.A4582] from about the mid-1 century AD.
This rich tomb yielded an entire gaming set including eleven black/blue counters, nine in opaque white glass and
a gaming board from maple wood with brass handles and other fittings (Crummy, P. et al. 2007, 186-188; 217,
fig.89). The earliest set with black and white glass counters we recorded so far is that from tomb 34 of the Canal
st
Bianco cemetery at Adria (IT), which is dated in the second quarter of the 1 century AD (Bonomi 1996, XXI:15)
[cat.no.A4621]. The wide variety of coloured glassesmonochrome and polychromemost likely evolved within
the TiberianClaudian period into sets of dark coloured and white counters, and likewise the huge numbers of
black glass counters from the Tiberian period. To date, it remains unclear how to interpret this change from vivid
coloured counters to black-and-white counters because Britain was at that time not yet incorporated into the
Roman Empire. The presence on the continent of counters in similar vivid colours from, for instance, Nijmegen
(NL) (unpublished) makes clear that it has to be interpreted as a chronological fact and not a regional
157
difference.
At first sight it looks as if the external properties of the black glass countersthe different shapes (oval, round,
quadrangular and irregular) and the different dimensions (small, medium, large) do occur jointly in one and the
same context, as the Wanborough counters illustrate (Monk 2001, 172). This would then suggest that in all three
periods a mix of small and large counters is present. Accordingly, no datable system is deducible from the
external properties, making this approach seem useless for chronological purposes. For instance, Caerleon
st
yielded 48 counters, of which half came from dated contexts. Five are dated in the last quarter of the 1 century
nd
AD, 13 from the early 2 century AD and six from c. 160-230 AD (Brewer 1986, 156). Where the Continental
nd
rd
st
nd
contexts concerned mainly date from the 2 and 3 century AD, those in Britannia are to be dated 1 and 2
st
century AD. The 1 century military camps on the Rhine, e.g. Neuss-Novaesium (DE) (van Lith 1994, 311-314,
nos.766-795) and Asberg-Asciburgium (DE), for instance, yielded only small-sized counters with a diameter below
or equal to 20 mm (Table 72). Considering the limited number of inventoried counters as well as the huge number
of material in other glass hues excluded, it is impossible to establish here a chronology on counters. The results
from the available dated material we verified, however, demonstrate that a classification on the basis of the
characteristic features such as size (small/medium/large) (Table 73); applied technique (cast/fused) (Table 74);
decoration (Table 75); and glass hue (Table 76) can be significant to set up a workable typo-chronology on
counters. First of all, we have to make two observations in respect to the 574 entries concerning the counters: 1)
the bulk of dated counters is from Period I contexts, while a large group remain of indefinite date (Figure 91); 2)
the majority of the counters is small-sized and the amount of large counters is little, but the size and shape of a
good number of counters could not be catalogued (Table 72).
3% 3%
Period I (0-150 AD)
38%
56%
Period I (0-150 AD)
7%
Period II (150-250 AD)
Period II (150-250 AD)
Period III (250-350 AD)
Period III (250-350 AD)
Period IV (350-500 AD)
indefinite
1%
Period IV (350-500 AD)
87%
3%
2%
Figure 91: Ratios of black glass counters per period from dated contexts
157
It thus cannot be the result of a difference in taste by the British local nobility before the conquest, who might have neglected the black-andwhite counters as an imported product in favour of those in vivid colours.
167
Table 72: Quantification of the counters per size for each period
size
diameter (in mm)
quantity
%
small
medium
large
indefinite
TOTAL
< 20
20-25
> 25
-
354
94
25
103
576
61,5
16,3
4,3
17,9
100
Because the set of glass counters from inhumation tomb 6352 at Krefeld-Gellep (DE) (Pirling, Siepen 2006, 599600, no.6352:12, pl.105-106) [cat.no.1904] and that from the Corbridge Hoard (Allason-Jones, Bishop 1988, 82,
fig.99:276) [cat.no.4033] include small- as well as medium-sized counters in black glass, correspondingly 9 and
23 ex., they were split up and thus incorporated in the small and medium numbers. The Krefeld-Gellep tomb is
th
dated to the first half of the 4 century AD by means of the burial gifts, whereas the Corbridge Hoard is dated to
nd
the second quarter of the 2 century AD, 122-138 AD on the basis of the militaria present in the wooden cist.
Table 73 displays the amount of counters for each period per size category. Not negligible is that more than half
of the inventoried small counters, 190 items or 55,4%, have no context information available or are from not
precisely dated/undatable contexts. The bulk of the dated small counters came from Period I contexts with 71,4%
and when taking into account a more general dating encompassing Periods I and II, 93,2% of all dated smallsized black glass counters were produced in the early Roman period. Even if half of the medium-sized black glass
counters have no further context information, two thirds of the dated medium-sized black glass counters are
datable in the second half of the Roman imperial period. Large counters have come from a too-small number of
dated contexts, but are rarely recorded in late Roman contexts.
Table 73: Quantification of the counters per size for each period
period
small
medium
Period I (0-150 AD)
Period II (150-250 AD)
Period III (250-350 AD)
Period IV (350-500 AD)
indefinite
TOTAL
105
9
5
3
190
312
23
2
15
352
7
1
1
1
48
58
large
2
4
0
1
16
23
4
29
1
92
1
0
1
25
Table 74 demonstrates the amount of counters for each period according to the adopted technique, cast or fused.
The adopted manufacturing technique could be determined for only 86 records or not more than 15% of all
inventoried black glass counters; with 61 items cast (70,9%) 51 small; 9 medium; 1 largeand 25 fused
(29,1%)23 small; 1 medium; 1 large. The number of determined pieces is hitherto too small to make any
conclusion and both techniques are limited to Period I or remain indefinite.
Table 74: Quantification of the counters per used technique for each period
period
cast
fused
Period I (0-150 AD)
Period II (150-250 AD)
Period III (250-350 AD)
Period IV (350-500 AD)
indefinite
TOTAL
30
0
0
1
22
53
3
1
4
61
7
0
0
0
13
20
3
0
1
25
In Table 75, the monochrome and polychrome counters are subdivided in relation to the subsequent periods.
Fifty-one entries or 8,9% are bichrome or polychrome decorated, showing one or more coloured dots in opaque
white, red or blue or combining two colours [see Chapter 3]. All dated bi-/polychrome counters are of late Roman
period except for one early piece from Olbia (FR) (Fontaine 2006, 346, no.410). The counter in deep purple glass
with a white central dot [cat.no.1317] came from stratigraphic layer 5 within the south of insula VI, which is dated
50-80 AD.
168
Table 75: Quantification of the monochrome and polychrome counters per period
period
monochrome
polychrome
Period I (0-150 AD)
Period II (150-250 AD)
Period III (250-350 AD)
Period IV (350-500 AD)
indefinite
TOTAL
189
15
3
3
270
480
1
0
4
3
8
16
28
4
19
531
0
27
0
43
Table 76 shows that a more extensive colour analysis of the black glass counters has to be done in order to be
able to verify the occurrence in each period of the different glass hues that can be applied to manufacture blackappearing glass. We bear in mind that additionally chemical analysis is required because each optical hue might
comprise various tinges which are due to a different chemical composition [see Chapter 8].
Table 76: Quantification of the counters per glass hue for each period
period
indefinite
green
blue-green
Period I (0-150 AD)
176
4
2
22
1
1
Period II (150-250 AD)
13
0
0
Period III (250-350 AD)
7
0
0
30
Period IV (350-500 AD)
6
0
0
indefinite
248
14
4
TOTAL
502
19
7
st
purple
2
3
1
1
0
17
24
blue
1
1
0
0
3
5
brown
4
1
0
0
1
0
8
14
other
1
0
0
0
2
3
nd
Nearly all 1 -2 century AD counters fall within a cluster situated above the red line ratioThe large counters from
nd
rd
dated contexts within Belgium were found in tumuli of the mid-2 early 3 century AD. We assume that this
category of counters, made by the fusion technique, is probably characteristic of Period II, but this could not be
clearly demonstrated and necessitates a more exhaustive re-assessment to verify whether the proposed
assumption can be validated.
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The idiosyncratic 4 century AD bichrome or polychrome counters decorated with one or more dots in opaque
white, blue and/or red glass are seemingly medium-sized (Figure 92). Because these counters were finished by
marvering the colourful applied dots we believe that the monochrome counters with the same diameter-heigth
ratio were possibly also produced in Period III-IV.
ROMAN BLACK GLASS COUNTERS
11
10
9
8
I-IIA AD
HEIGHT
IIB-IIIA AD
plain counters
7
decorated counters
6
IV AD
5
4
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
DIAMETER
Figure 92: Plot of the black glass counters according to the dimensions
169
In view of the larger diameter vis-à-vis the height of the fused large counters of Period II, it needs verification
whether the flattened counters below the red line are all corresponding to one single production technique, i.e.
fusion, or whether the diameter-heigth ratio of the decorated counters only coincidences as a result of the
marvering. On the other hand the counters above the red line should be checked if each and every one
corroborates the poored/cast technique. If so the production technique is indicative for the dating of the
manufacturing of the plano-convex counters.
Despite the fact that a re-evaluation of all glass counters from dated contexts regardless of the glass hue is
necessary to reach a more refined chronology of the glass counters, we value the above-mentioned evaluation as
indicative to the potential of assessing a plain commodity such as counters.
4.7 Conclusion
We here sum up briefly the acquired information of the chronological analysis and present the periodicity of the
black glass production and consumption during the entire Roman imperial period according to the previously
defined four periods. It is, however, essential to realize that the production of black-appearing glass is as old as
the invention of glass production itself and thus not a Roman invention achieved on the eve of the imperial period.
Conversely, we can state that the Roman black glass commodities are idiosyncratic with a consumption that is
affected by cyclic movements of consumption behaviour in fashion and applied manufacturing technique appears,
showing in Period I the continuity of the casting technique during the AugustanTiberian period and the general
158
application of the glassblowing technique under Claudian rule.
A chronological overview of Roman black glass material can therefore be used as index fossil for field work and
material studies.
One of the aims within this chapter was thus to define the chronology on the use of various deeply coloured
glasses appearing black. A clear-cut pattern was perhaps not within reach of this research due to the wide variety
of glass hues that have been used all through the Roman imperial period to produce artefacts in black glass.
Anyhow, a rough estimation was possible, demonstrating that during Period I black glass artefacts have been
produced in all possible huesi.e. blue, purple, green and brown glass. The black glass in use in Periods II and
III is seemingly restricted to green and blue-green glass in various tinges. During Period IV, yellowish-brown or
so-called olive-green glass becomes prevalent, but by the end of this period brown and purple glasses reemerged in the Levant to become customary in subsequent centuries in the east Mediterranean. In view of these
observations, we had optical analyses undertaken on a set of samples. Nevertheless, we studied to the best of
our ability the various hues of black glass artefacts in view of local or regional production centres and a
(inter)regional trade and distribution [see Chapter 6]. Such approach can provide additional information on the
consumption of black glass commodities because the production of idiosyncratic commodity types in a specific
hue can be linked to a local or regional production, so that it is possible to characterise the assemblages of each
workshop. It is, however, incontestable that more information on the assemblages of glass workshops producing
black glass artefacts are needed to assign more explicitly the glass hues to a certain period (and a certain area).
But the complexity in classifying the use of the various black glass hues is also related to the regionalism of
production as well as to the type of material manufactured [see Chapter 6].
4.7.1
Period I
From the late Hellenistic/late Republic period, black-appearing deep blue and deep purple glass was already
accepted in the production of the cast negroid-head pendants, and the core-formed and cast bichrome and
159
polychrome vessels. The popular bichrome and polychrome cast vessels under Augustan rule seem to have
faded away during Tiberius‘ reign and got replaced by a consumption (and thus also a production) of
monochrome strongly-coloured glass. There is no hard evidence available to prove to what extent the polychrome
and monochrome deeply-coloured vessels occurred contemporaneously. There are, however, almost no contexts
of Augustan-Tiberian date that have yielded monochrome black glass vessels. Magdalensberg (AT) represents
one of the few exceptions, unless all pieces have to be dated to its occupation end in 40-45 AD under early
Claudian reign. Albeit the same vessel shapes remained en vogue. Subsequently, the growing implementation of
158
Strikingly, there is about a century between the assumed invention of glassblowing and the integration of the technique in the secondary
workshops in the production of glass vessels.
159
This material has not been studied within the scope of our research.
170
the free-blown technique at secondary glass workshops all over the empire during the Claudian period resulted in
new vessel shapes related to the new technique, even if a good number of shapes were derived from cast shapes
[see Chapter 10]. The monochrome deeply-coloured vessels come into vogue during the Tiberian and Claudian
period and occur fairly frequent in contexts up to the reign of Nero, when decolourised glass became the new
fashion besides pale blue glass. Despite the fact that the monochrome deeply-coloured vessels went out of use
by the end of Nero‘s reign, production probably stopped only gradually in Flavian times. Sites in the Gulf of
Naples, like Pompeii, show that this material was in use up till the late 70s AD. On the other hand, there are only
few Flavian contexts recognised as containing black glass vessels and nearly none of post-Flavian times. The rich
tumulus from Riemst (BE) containing a shallow hemispherical cup (Form IA.1) is dated in Hadrian‘s reign around
130 AD (de Schaetzen 1950; Vanderhoeven 1976), but its fragmentary state and very bad conservation condition
with a thick weathering crust on either side as well as on the fractured surfaces indicates the shallow bowl must
have been used for a long period of time and almost certainly has to be regarded as an heirloom. It can therefore
nd
be assumed that no vessels in monochrome deeply-coloured glass were produced in the 2 century AD but
nd
sporadically can be retrieved from contexts dating in the first half of the 2 century AD.
The monochrome black glass vessels, like all other monochrome strongly-coloured glass vessels, were
160
idiosyncratic for the period c.30-c.70 AD with cast vessels for the Tiberianearly Claudian period and freest
blown vessels during the late ClaudianNeronian period. The black glass vessels from 1 century AD-dated
st
contexts corroborate perfectly this mid 1 century AD colour feature in the Roman glass production (Cosyns,
Fontaine 2009). For this reason, we divided Period I into two sub-periods: a) the Julio-Claudian period (or preFlavian period) from the start of our era to c.70 AD, comprising the black glass production and consumption; and
b) the Flavian–early Antonine period from c.70 to c.150 AD, when black glass appears to have been neglected in
the secondary workshops.
The black glass jewellery in Period I was restricted to only large melon beads with a twisted coil in opaque white
glass. Limited to the northern frontier zone, this type of bead resembled many late Iron Age beads and can be
considered an example of the continuity of Celtic traditional glass bead making. This type of bead was
contemporaneous with the vessel production within a date range of c.30-c.70 AD. Late Hellenistic/late Republic
black glass pendants have not been recorded in Period I contexts.
During nearly the entire JulioClaudian period, the architectural decoration material was limited to twisted rods
bordering polychrome wall and vault mosaics. Only from the Neronian times, when mosaicists started to leave
aside the artistic style polychrome wall panels with tesserae in a variety of vivid glass colours bordered with shells
and twisted glass rods, did the black glass tesserae make their appearance.
The black glass counters seem to have emerged only by the Claudian period and were characterised by 1) a
small diameter (below 20 mm) or medium-sized with a diameter above 20 mm but mainly below 23 mm; 2) a
poorly translucent glass so densely coloured that it appears opaque; and 3) a plain monochrome surface.
Summarising, we can say that during Period I the use of black glass remained limited to the manufacturing of cast
and free-blown vessels, ‗melon‘ beads, architectural decoration material and small counters, with a distinct
change of the material culture under the rule of the emperor Nero. This (r)evolution with regard to technique, style
and fashion was probably due to the re-organisation (and re-location?) of the glass production [see Chapter 10].
4.7.2
Period II
We have given Period II a time span of 100 years from 150-250 AD, roughly corroborating the revival of blackappearing glass vessels which were produced by a new technique(Cosyns et al. 2006a; Van der Linden et al.
2009) [see Chapter 8]. Different from the empire-wide distribution of cast vessels in Period I, this production was
characterised by a regional distribution limited to the north-western provinces [see Chapter 6]. The vessels were
161
free-blown, mould-blown and in rare occasions rod-formed. Cast black glass vessels are missing in Period II.
160
Nevertheless, cast vessels also occur sporadically in late 1st and early 2nd century-dated contexts [see Chapter 5].
We catalogued from the early 3rd century AD a few distinctive plain unguentarium shapes commonly known as candlestick-unguentaria in a
very deep brownish or greenish glass appearing black by means of the rod-formed technique which is typical for Period IV. Generally produced in
a pale bluish or blue-green glass and by using the free-blown technique, this type of toilet ware has a characteristic tall cylindrical neck and low
conical body. Typical is the solid body base with only a slight part of the tall neck useful as a receptacle [see Part IA; 9. Use and meaning].
161
171
Where the Period I vessels mainly imitated shapes in metal and stone, the vessel shapes of Period II were rather
inspired by metal, although there is also pottery showing equivalent shapes.
Similar to the previous period, this period does not show continuity in production. From the dated finds, it can be
deduced that during the first quarter of this period, black glass vessels either were not produced or were produced
on a very small scale, because the earliest vessels are dated around 170/180 AD. It is only from the late reign of
Marcus Aurelius onwards that black-appearing glass vessels became relatively fashionable again, and this all
through the Severan period and continuing all through the subsequent intermediate period, which coincided with
the so-called ‗crisis‘ period between 230 and 250/280 AD. We decided to take the entire Late Antonine period
(150-190 AD) as one block because the black glass jewellery only started booming from the Severan period (190230 AD) and likewise the success of black-coloured jewellery made from jet became idiosyncratic for the entire
late Roman period. The intermediate period and the start of Period III are partly overlapping because there is a
lack of good dated finds from this period. Furthermore, there is not much difference between the assemblages of
the later Period II and Period III.
During this period the plano-convex counters are medium and large sized and made of monochrome black glass.
Summarising, it is clear that besides the vessels, this period was characterised by a definite use of black glass for
making architectural decoration material (tesserae and intarsia); beads and gems and counters. It is presumably
the time when the bangle and finger ring production started.
4.7.3
Period III
We labelled this period as the Tetrarch–Constantinian period (250/80-350/60 AD), although the denomination
does not include the first quarter of this period and the last decennia. It is characterised as the continuing crisis
period of the intermediate period within Period II.
During this period, a wide variety of bracelets and finger rings were produced. The architectural decoration
material in black glass during this period was limited to tesserae and discoid glass cakes that are assumed to
have been the raw material from which tesserae were knocked off [see Chapter 7].
The architectural decoration material was limited to black glass tesserae to accentuate the figurative
representations. Whether it be floral, faunal or human figures, its use is limited to small lines, and thus only small
quantities were needed.
Medium-sized polychrome counters were idiosyncratic to the Constantinian phase, although it is not excluded that
th
the production of such counters lasted until the early 5 century AD.
4.7.4
Period IV
The material of Period IV (350/60-500 AD) contrasts drastically from that of the previous period in technique and
style, as will be demonstrated with the chemical approach also in applied raw glass [see Chapter 6].
In view of these features, we assume that the rod-formed vessels confined to the Levant and Egypt were made
during Period IV, showing again a regional distribution, but now, with regard to technique. But compared with the
Period II counterparts, these were very crudely made and did not resemble (a) blown vessel shape(s). It is highly
possible that these rod-formed vessels were made in a workshop of jewellery artisans and not in a workshop
where vessels were free- and mould-blown because they look as if they were made by non-specialists.
For the western part of the Roman Empire, Period IV can be divided into two phases. The first phase lasted until
the Roman armies abandoned the Roman frontier fortification systems in Britannia and the Rhine-region between
406 and 410 AD. The second phase, called the ‗decline‘, lasted until 480 AD.
Although the Roman political role and particularly its military presence disappeared in large parts of north-western
th
Europe in the first decade of the 5 century AD, we have to be aware that the Roman(ised) population did not
adopt directly the dress code of the newcomerse.g. the wearing of glass jewellery. Generations must have
passed before a full transformation took place. While this is a very acceptable theory, we are aware that it is a
difficult matter to provide good evidence and for that reason it remains purely hypothetical. Most common during
the early Byzantine period and in the Eastern Mediterranean, crumbed beads and bracelets cropped up in the
West under the Migration Peoplese.g. in Merovingian and Anglo-Saxon burials. An intact example in the
172
collections of the Israel Museum is without provenance, but dated mid-Islamic as it is compared with a similar one
th
th
from a 13 -15 century context.
th
Rod-formed black bead types came into circulation around the mid 4 century AD and continued to be used up to
th
the mid-6 century AD. Hitherto, it has been unclear whether we may speak of 1) the continuity of production of
such beads during the start of the early Medieval period in the Western part, 2) whether we have to consider this
as the effect of import from the prevailing (eastern) Roman Empire, 3) or whether it is only the result of a very
intense ‗re-use‘ of old beads [see Chapter 7]. Within the stage of research, it is more appropriate to speak of a
continuity in the use of the Roman material culture in the West for more than one century. For instance, the
annular, globular or barrel-shaped beads and the pendants in black glass with applied glass trails or small dots.
Within Chapters 5 and 6 on chronology and on trade and distribution, respectively, the issues on the dating and
on the consumption pattern will be examined more in detail to argue for a production and consumption of glass
th
th
jewellerybracelets, beads and pendantsall over the Roman Empire from the mid-4 to the mid-6 century AD.
173
174
Chapter 5 CONTEXT ANALYSIS
There is a marked contrast between the wide range of vessels and objects, which survive complete in burials or, more
frequently, are found in fragments on settlements, and the ephemeral and episodic nature of the evidence for the production
processes by which they were formed.
(Price 2002, 81)
5.1 Introduction
A context analysis on archaeological artefacts can be carried out on various levels, but depending on the tackled
issues, specific contextual information is compulsory. We therefore assumed it would be helpful to explain the
limitations, methodology and aim of this chapter.
Various constraints hampered an in-depth context analysis within the scope of this project: 1) the great disparity
of artefact types from a vast area and a long-lasting era; 2) the rather limited availability of detailed context
162
information from museum material and old excavations ; and 3) the difficulty in acquiring information on the
context circumstances of well excavated but unpublished material.
By linking the specific functional types and explicit typological shapes to well-defined context types, explicit
information on the consumer groups of the various black glass artefact types can be made available. We
therefore verified whether the contextual evaluation can point to consumption patterning within a social dimension
by connecting specific functional assemblages to social group, distinguished by social role, gender, age, income
status, etc.
Hence, the challenge of this chapter was in the first place to find out to what extent a general context analysis can
help refine an assessment of the consumption pattern of black glass commodities throughout the Roman Empire
and provide an insight on the social significance of the various artefact types in black glass throughout the Roman
imperial period. Is it, for instance, possible to characterize commodity types as purely civilian or military? Is
typically military material present at civil settlements and vice versa, and what can be the explanation? Can
context analysis help in connecting particular commodity types to gender, age, social class, or religious
persuasion? Were some commodity types intended for purely domestic use, or were they used in rituals or as
burial gifts?
The potential regional use of specific artefact types is examined in the following chapter, which discusses
production and distribution [see Chapter 6], while the use and function of the various material groups in black
glass is discussed subsequently [see Chapter 7]. The context analysis, here presented, contributes to our
understanding of general social aspects of the consumption patterning of the black glass artefacts, while the
subsequent chapters respectively focus on the socio-economic and the socio-cultural meaning of these consumer
goods within Roman society.
The applied context types used to carry out the context analysis are those defined in the fields ‗site‘, ‗site
character‘, and ‗context‘ of the Access database [see Part IV – DVD]. We differentiated the character of the sites
163
to discriminate the material from civil and military settlements. This enabled us to verify whether the use of
specific artefact types is ubiquitous or restricted to purely military or civil complexes. The important difference
between the types is that the civil settlements can be regarded as self-regulating, autonomously developing,
socio-economical habitats involving a local population that reacts instinctively to economical growth as well as to
crises and disasters. Military settlements, on the other hand, are well-organized but temporarily and artificially
constructed habitats involving a mainly male adult population of non-native origin. Politically regulated military
camps were created on purpose to counter military threats and crises, whereas the civil settlements grow
organically, essentially depending on economical rules.
Figure 93 visualizes schematically the framework of this chapter: The objects given the predicate ‗civil settlement‘
come from non-military settlements, including rural settlements (villae), small towns, and large towns);
162
The rod-formed tall balsamaria and squat jars, characteristic to Period IV, mainly come from the antique market circuit, leaving blank their
provenance. For that reason, no context analysis could be undertaken on this category of material.
163
Alternative contexts have been considered such as caves and rivers since these cannot be labelled as civil or military.
175
The artefacts from a ‗military settlement‘ have been recovered from various types of military contexts
(including burgi, castella, and castra);
A limited number of inventoried pieces have been retrieved from caves or dredged from rivers. Because
of the particularity of these contexts, we decided to consider them separate from the civil and military
settlements.
When looking at the various context circumstances, we distinguish two main classes: the domestic context
164
covering all that comes from the dwelling (including workshops ) and the public context (including ritual deposits
and burial gifts). Subsequently, the various functional categories from civil and military contexts have each been
subdivided into four context types:
The material labelled as ‗domestic‘ can come from any household context, such as a ‗dwelling‘e.g. villa,
barracks, ‗ditch‘, ‗waste pit‘, or ‗well‘, but also the material assigned to a ‗glass workshop‘ is
categorized as domestic;
The ‗public‘ context involves all public spaces and buildings such as bath complexes, fountains, libraries,
and horrea, but also streets and fora;
The artefacts recorded with ‗burial‘ come from a funerary context, including inhumation and cremation
burials;
The pieces inventoried as ‗ritual‘ come from a religious context, including sanctuaries, temples, and ritual
deposits.
CONTEXT
ANALYSIS
Civil
Military
contexts
contexts
Domestic/artisanal
Domestic/artisanal
* PER PERIOD
* PER PERIOD
Public
Public
* PER PERIOD
* PER PERIOD
Burial
Burial
* PER PERIOD
* PER PERIOD
Ritual
Ritual
* PER PERIOD
* PER PERIOD
Figure 93: Scheme of the subdivisions of this chapter
To gain a clearer insight into the consumption patterning of the various artefact types in black glass and its
consumers, we needed to further subdivide the wide range of commodity categories.
Seeing the continuously developing society in the Roman Empire and the inherently coupled changing material
culture, we maintained the subdivision of four phases established earlier. This would allow us to verify the
existence of an evolution in consumer behaviour:
164
We assume that the glass workshops have to be considered within the domestic environment, as is, for instance, well demonstrated by the
glass workshop of Kaiseraugst (CH) (Fischer 2009).
176
Period I :
Period II:
Period III:
Period IV:
st
nd
1 –mid-2 century AD
nd
rd
mid-2 –mid-3 century AD
rd
th
mid-3 –mid-4 century AD
th
th
mid-4 –5 century AD
An initial verification of the entire database, without distinguishing the various commodity categories, shows that
1161 ex. of the 4475 inventoried pieces, or approximately 25,9%, are of unknown provenance, meaning that for
165
three quarters of the inventoried artefacts, there is useful provenance information available (Table 77). This is
mainly owing to material from museum collections worldwide which either come from the antiquarian circuit or
th
th
from the 19 century and early 20 century excavations. We believe, however, that valuable information can be
gained from the finding circumstances of a good number of these unprovenanced artefacts. Because such a timeconsuming task could not be executed within the reach of this project, the here-proposed numbers are only
reference values which need re-evaluation.
Table 77: Overview of number of sites and number of items per context (* omitting the artefacts from unknown provenance and
the additionally recorded material – see introduction)
sites
%
%*
entries
%
%(*)
ratio quantity/site
civil settlements
356
53,1
84,6
2773
62,0
83,7
7,8
military settlements
53
7,9
12,6
497
11,1
15,0
9,4
caves
6
0,9
1,4
29
0,6
0,9
4,8
rivers
6
0,9
1,4
15
0,3
0,5
2,5
unknown
250
37,3
1161
25,9
TOTAL
671/421*
100,1
100,0
4475/3314*
99,9
100,1
6,7 (AV); 6,1 (MD)
The two simple column charts at the top of Figure 94 displays plainly that most of the material has come from civil
settlements but also that the context of a huge amount of entries remains undefined. The two general pie charts
at the centre of Figure 94, including all catalogued artefacts in relation to the number of sites (left) and the number
of entries (right), misrepresent the results caused by the impact of the entries with unknown context. We therefore
made a second set of pie charts excluding the artefacts from unknown provenance. The obtained picture of the
range of intensity per context makes clear that a Roman black glass artefacts are only a minor occurrence in
military contexts (12,6% of the sites; 15% of the entries); however, the amount of artefacts is higher, with a ratio of
9,4 items per site compared to the average of 6,7–, whereas the number of artefacts from caves and rivers is
negligible (Table 77). Further in this chapter, we discuss more in detail the ratios of the various commodities
within each specific context group. The first impression from the pie charts, however, is that most black glass
artefacts come from civil settlements and that this observation becomes even stronger when excluding the
material from unknown contexts (Figure 94 bottom right).
165
For 153 records, the country origin was not known; for 509 pieces, the find place was not known; for 1563 pieces, more detailed specifications
about their contextual provenance was lacking or was unavailable during the research. This does not mean that all remaining records held detailed
contextual data.
177
356
400
350
300
250
200
150
100
50
0
250
53
civil
settlements
military
settlements
6
caves
6
rivers
unknown
sites
2773
3000
2500
2000
1161
1500
497
1000
15
29
500
0
civil
settlements
military
settlements
caves
rivers
unknown
entries
sites
sites
1%
1%
civil settlements
civil settlements
military settlements
37%
53%
military settlements
13%
caves
caves
rivers
rivers
unknown
85%
8%
1%
1%
entries
entries
1%
0%
1%
26%
11%
62%
civil settlements
military settlements
caves
rivers
unknown
0%
15%
civil settlements
military settlements
caves
84%
rivers
Figure 94: Ratios of sites and entries in relation to the settlement character (incorporating or excluding the items from unknown
provenance)
178
5.2 Civil contexts
To better understand the general consumption patterns of black glass artefacts within all non-military settlements,
the material from civil contexts has been tackled in two different ways: firstly, by distinguishing four main
contextual circumstancesdomestic (+ artisanal), public, ritual, burial; secondly, by subdividing all material into
rural settlementsvillae and small towns, i.e. viciand urban settlementslarge towns such as municipia and
coloniae.
The purpose of considering the different context circumstances of the various commodities in relation to both
subdivisions is to end up with ratios to be able to verify and refine the presented general charts in Figure 94.
When classifying the black glass artefacts from civil settlements according to the proposed four major context
circumstances, we have to bear in mind that 1432 entries, or about half of the recorded material, possess no
detailed provenance information (Table 78). When leaving these out of consideration, it is clear that only little
material has come from public and ritual contexts and that most material has come from contexts with a domestic
or a burial character (Figure 95).
166
Table 78: Overview of black glass artefacts per context (* incorporates the items related to secondary glass workshop s
settlement context
sites
%
entries
%
ratio
domestic*
68
19,1
576
20,8
8,1
public
17
4,8
83
3,0
4,8
ritual
27
7,6
63
2,3
2,3
burial
166
46,6
619
22,3
3,7
unknown
141
39,6
1432
51,7
10,4
TOTAL
356
100,0
2773
100,0
7,8
)
It is perhaps not surprising that the largest amount of black glass artefacts has come from burials. One of the
reasons is that the Roman tradition dictated the offering of burial gifts for the deceased in the afterlife and that the
consecrated character of the area kept most cemeteries unharmed. Another reason is that the intensive
th
excavations of Roman cemeteries since the 19 century account for this high number of sites that delivered black
glass artefacts. The high number of black glass artefacts from domestic contexts provides a surprisingly elevated
ratio. The explanation is the addition of the material from glass workshops (386 entries for only 10 sites). When
excluding this from the count, the dwellings without artisanal activities deliver only 166 entries from 58 sites,
resulting in a ratio of 2,9 items per sitesomething very similar to the ritual context and quite close to the public
and burial contexts (Table 78).
At first sight, we noticed the occurrence of multiple examples of black glass artefacts in various types of civil
funerary contexts. Although it was not possible to verify within the present research whether these objects were
gifts from burials at a villa, vicus, municipium or colonia, such an approach would provide interesting information
about patterns of distribution and consumption in general and about socio-cultural aspects in particular. Finetuning of the available data is also necessary seeing that the here-presented evaluation disregards the various
functional types as well as a chronological sorting, something we aimed for below.
166
The 197 items of production waste and chunks of raw glass that are mainly related to workshops are left out of consideration here because this
material cannot be integrated in the quantifications of particular commodities. The material comes from clear workshops (Avenches (CH); Lyon
(FR); Les Houis near Sainte Menehould (FR); Trier (DE); Braga (PT); Kaiseraugst (CH)); assumed ones (Lavoye (FR); Augst (CH)); or the
provenance has an unclear character (Luni (IT); Nijmegen (NL); Celje (SL)).
179
sites
sites
domestic
16%
unknown
34%
public
4%
domestic
24%
ritual
6%
public
6%
burial
60%
ritual
10%
burial
40%
entries
entries
domestic
21%
unknown
52%
public
3%
domestic
43%
burial
46%
ritual
2%
burial
22%
ritual
5%
public
6%
Figure 95: Pie-charts showing the ratio of black glass artefacts from the various Roman civil contexts
When refining the subdivision of the material from the database per commodity class in relation to the provenance
context, it is possible to look at the numbers in two different ways: per commodity class or per context category
(Table 79). To present a better visualization of the accumulated data, we inserted double chartsi.e. including
and excluding the material from unknown provenanceto see the impact of the amount that is excluded and to
give a more accurate ratio of the distribution pattern for each commodity (Figures 96; 97).
Table 79: Overview of the various commodity classes per context type
commodity classes
Vessels
Jewellery
Architectural decoration
Counters
Production
TOTAL
180
domestic
n
%
115
22,5
251
14,5
9
33,3
16
5,4
185
93,9
576
20,8
public
n
%
12
2,3
45
2,6
15
55,6
9
3,0
2
1,0
83
3,0
civil settlements
ritual
burial
n
%
n
%
7
1,4
97
18,9
50
2,9
462
26,6
0
0,0
1
3,7
6
2,0
57
19,1
0
0,0
0
0,0
63
2,3
617
22,3
unknown
n
%
281
54,9
929
53,5
2
7,4
210
70,5
10
5,1
1432
51,7
total
512
1737
27
298
197
2771
1000
900
800
700
vessels
600
jewellery
500
architectural decoration
400
counters
300
production
200
100
0
domestic
public
ritual
burial
unknown
Figure 96: Column chart showing the quantity of the various commodities per context category
The column chart in Figure 96 displays clearly that most black glass artefacts have come from burial and
domestic contexts, when excluding all material from unknown provenance, whereas the amount of material from
public and ritual contexts is rather marginal. This is also well reflected in the pie charts of Figure 97, but, for
instance, the conspicuously large amount of architectural decoration material coming from public buildings makes
it necessary to consider the proposed numbers and ratios with some prudence. We therefore discuss hereafter
the material per context category.
Nevertheless, some brief supplementary conclusions can be deduced from the pie charts. A majority of the
vessels have come from domestic and burial contexts. Jewellery and counters, on the contrary, have come from
burial contexts and to a lesser degree from domestic environments. Nearly all production material has come from
domestic contexts. Yet the presence of production material does not implicitly point to the presence of a workshop
at the finding spot. The structure wherein such material has been found could have been a post-destruction layer,
a back-filling that functioned as the foundation for a new building, or it could have been purely residual.
In total, 298 recorded black glass counters have come from civil settlements, of which 210 items or nearly three
quarters of the total have no further provenance information. Of those with more context details, 16 ex. come from
domestic areas, 9 ex. from public buildings and places, 6 ex. from ritual deposits and 57 ex. from funerary
contexts (Figure 97). This means that, leaving out of consideration those from unknown contexts, two thirds of the
black glass counters from civil settlements have come from burials.
When analysing more closely the 1737 recorded pieces of black glass jewellery that have come from civil
settlement contexts, we see that 251 ex. or 14,5% comes from a domestic milieu, 45 ex. or 2,6% from public
contexts, 50 ex. or 2,9% from ritual deposits, 462 ex. or 26,6% from burials, and 929 ex. or 53,5% from unknown
find circumstances (Table 80).
Table 80: Overview of ratios of the different types of jewellery per period from civil settlement contexts
(n = quantity)
civil settlements
jewellery
domestic
public
ritual
burial
unknown
%
%
%
%
%
n
n
n
n
n
bracelets
126
15,0
30
3,6
35
4,2
151
18,0
499
59,3
finger rings
45
31,5
8
5,6
4
2,8
18
12,6
68
47,6
beads
18
3,2
2
0,4
4
0,7
260
46,4
276
49,3
pendants
4
6,5
1
1,6
1
1,6
19
30,6
37
59,7
gems
34
33,3
4
3,9
6
5,9
12
11,8
46
45,1
hairpins
24
82,8
0
0,0
0
0,0
2
6,9
3
10,3
TOTAL
251
14,5
45
2,6
50
2,9
462
26,6
929
53,5
total
841
143
560
62
102
29
1737
181
vessels
vessels
domestic
23%
burial
42%
public
2%
unknown
55%
burial
19%
ritual
1%
ritual
3%
jewellery
public
5%
jewellery
domestic
14% public
3%
ritual
3%
unknown
53%
domestic
31%
burial
57%
burial
27%
architectural decoration
ritual
0%
burial
4%
unknown
7%
domestic
33%
counters
domestic
5%
burial
4%
ritual
0%
domestic
36%
public
60%
public
3%
counters
domestic
18%
ritual
2%
burial
19%
burial
65%
unknown
71%
production
1%
public
ritual 6%
6%
architectural decoration
public
56%
burial
public 0%
domestic
50%
unknown
5%
public
1%
ritual
0%
public
10%
ritual
7%
production
burial
0%
ritual
0%
domestic
94%
domestic
99%
Figure 97: Ratios of the different context categories per commodity type (top: including the material of unknown provenance;
bottom: excluding the material of unknown provenance)
182
domestic
public
hairpins
0%
pendants
2%
beads
4%
hairpins
10%
pendants
2%
gems
13%
beads
7%
bracelets
50%
gems
9%
finger
rings
18%
bracelets
67%
finger
rings
18%
ritual
pendants
4%
hairpins
0%
pendants
2%
beads
8%
finger
rings
8%
gems
3%
burial
hairpins
0%
gems
12%
bracelets
33%
bracelets
70%
beads
56%
finger
rings
4%
Figure 98: Ratios of the different jewellery commodities per context category
From the pie charts in Figure 98, it is noticeable that the proportion of the different jewellery commodities
fluctuates depending on the context from which the artefact was retrieved. The bracelets constitute the bulk in
public and ritual contexts, while the bracelets only represent one third of all jewellery material from burials.
The finger rings correspond to about one fifth of both domestic and public contexts, whereas their presence in
ritual and burial contexts is minor.
The beads are clearly typical burial gifts, as evidenced by the high percentage of beads found in burial sites
compared to their low occurrence in domestic, public and ritual contexts.
Pendants are not representative because the amount that has been recorded is too little. From the 62 pendants
coming from civil settlements, 19 ex. were used as burial gifts, 4 ex. came from domestic contexts, 1 ex. came
from public buildings and places, and 1 ex. came from a ritual deposit; most, however, have no detailed
provenance information (37 ex.).
The gems show a constant share, accounting for about 10% of all jewellery material no matter what the context
category, except for the burial context where their presence has only rarely been recorded. However, we assume
that it is necessary not only to consider the context character of the gemstones in general, but also to differentiate
the gemstones set in finger rings, brooches and helmets [see Chapter 3]. The reason is that the different
commodities can be gender-related. The black glass hairpins have not been recorded as having been retrieved
from public, ritual or burial contexts.
Seeing the value of the pie charts to better understand the link between a type of artefact and its use, we verified
the arm rings from a typological viewpoint (Table 81; Figures 99; 100).
183
Table 81: Various types of arm rings in relation to the contexts of provenance
civil settlements
bracelets
domestic
public
ritual
burial
unknown
Type A
44
10
13
38
189
Type B
12
2
2
13
51
Type C
33
3
1
3
30
Type D
27
12
15
77
207
TOTAL (59 not considered)
116
27
31
131
477
black glass arm rings from civil settlements
unknown
burial
ritual
public
domestic
0
100
200
Type A
300
Type B
400
Type C
500
600
Type D
Figure 99: Stacked-bars showing the quantities of the four arm ring categories per context category
Although type B bracelets are not recorded as frequently as type A bracelets, they represent similar ratios with
predominant occurrence in domestic and burial contexts. Type C bracelets can be considered characteristic for
domestic use, whereas the type D bangles have been recorded most frequently in burials.
Type A
burial
36%
Type B
domestic
42%
ritual
12%
burial
45%
public
10%
ritual
7%
184
domestic
41%
public
7%
Type D
Type C
ritual
3%
public
7%
burial
8%
domestic
21%
domestic
82%
burial
59%
public
9%
ritual
11%
Figure 100: Comparison of the multiple values of the various bracelet types per context
5.2.1
Domestic context
From the 550 recorded artefacts from the domestic context, 364 items have come from glass workshops. The 393
commodity items from domestic contexts displayed in Table 78 and Figure 95 exclude 159 entries of production
material or 28,8% of all domestic finds. The vessels represent one fifth of the total with 115 items, whereas the
various types of jewellery almost represent one half of the total with 251 items. The architectural decoration and
counters represent only a small portion of the totalrespectively, 9 ex. and 16 ex. (Figure 101).
domestic context
vessels
21%
production
29%
counters
3%
jewellery
45%
architectural
decoration
2%
Figure 101: Functional types of black glass artefacts from domestic civil contexts
5.2.1.1
Vessels
The 115 pieces of black glass vessels consist of 16 ex. from Period I, or 13,9%, and 68 ex. from Period II, or
167
59,1%, while none are known from Period III or from Period IV (Figure 102).
The Period I vessels from domestic contexts are represented by 10 cast and 5 free-blown shapes which are all
tableware. For some the shape remains indefinite, but concerning the cast pieces, the bulk consists either of
plates and tables to dish-up food or of cups to drink. The function of the free-blown vessel shapes is less well
pronounced due to the high number of indeterminate fragments, but these appear to be of cups. Besides the
drinking vessels it includes also flasks to pour drinks or as a toilet bottle. Table 82 demonstrates that most black
glass vessels of Period I have been retrieved from urban settlement contexts in the south of France like Fréjus,
Marseille, as well as in the west of France like Barzan, but only those from Olbia were from clear domestic
167
31 entries are indefinite because the fragmentation of the items make 27,0% indeterminable.
185
provenance. Also at the Swiss municipium of Avenches and the colonia of Augst/Kaiseraugst vessels in black
glass were consumed. Thus far, black glass vessels have been found only rarely at rural settlements such as for
st
instance the 1 century AD Roman villae of Anthée, Boscoreale, and Porto Potenza Picena. The plate (Form IA.7)
from Tongeren (BE) was found in a villa urbana within the municipium.
vessels
Period IV
0%
Period III
0%
undefine
d
27%
Period I
14%
vessels
Period III
0%
Period IV
0%
Period I
19%
Period II
59%
Period II
81%
Figure 102: Black glass vessels from domestic civil contexts per period
The Period II vessels from domestic contexts are not only more numerous, but the shapes are almost entirely
restricted to the carinated beaker, Form IIB.1, and the cup with bulbous body, Forms IIB.4-5. Furthermore, its
particular presence in rural dwellings stands in contrast to the Period I vessels which have been found mainly in
urban centres. It is clear that for both periods, multiple examples of black glass vessels are available from diverse
types of civil settlements, including villae, vici, municipia, and coloniae.
Table 82 demonstrates that most Period II vessels come from rural settlements, whether it be rural farmsvillae
or villa-like settlementsor dwellings within rural settlements such as vici or diverticuli. Noticeable is also the
amount of indeterminate vessel fragments catalogued from within these domestic civil settlements due to its
fragmentarity. Nonetheless they most likely are also to be determined as either from the carinated beaker or the
bulbous cup. This assertion disapproves a previous statement that the Period II vessels all came from burials
(Cosyns, Hanut 2005). In particular, the carchesium beaker, Form IIB.1, appears regularly at Roman villae in
Belgium and the Netherlands such as Mortsel (BE) [cat.no.450]; Relegem (BE) [cat.no.496]; Treignes (BE)
[cat.nos.582-89]. Besides the rural domestic context of villae, the carchesium has also been reported in rural
small towns or vicie.g. a cellar in Braives (BE) [cat.no.223]; the well H5 of the tannery at Liberchies (BE)
168
[cat.no.418]; Tienen (BE) [cat.nos.541-42; 544; 546-47] a well in Velzeke [cat.nos.594-99] and a cellar in VieuxVirton (BE) [cat.no.614]. Further, some examples of black glass vessels have been excavated at larger towns
such as the municipia and the colonia, such as Colchester (UK), with at least a rim fragment of a carchesium
[cat.no.4027]; Augst-Kaiseraugst (CH) [cat.nos.3754] with the bulbous cup (Form IIB.4-5) that was more popular
in the Alpine region. Examples of the two types of bulbous cups (Form IIB.4-5) came from the villae of Anthée
(BE); Matagne-la-Petite (BE); Lauw (BE); Mettet (BE); Roly (BE) A rim fragment of a one-handled jug with funnel
mouth (Form IIB.11) came from a cellar in Straten (BE). The rod-formed candlestick unguentaria with a triangular
solid body, Form IID.1, found in Elkab (EG) during the 1938 excavation campaign of the Royal Museums of Art
and History (MRAH-KMKG), Brussels come from the Greek-Roman village within the large mud-brick walls in
Elkab, where they were all found together in a dwelling in the southeastern corner inside the city wall close to the
169
SE-gate according to the information from the notebooks on the 14 February 1938.
Most pieces from the excavations of Tienen-Grijpenveld, if not all, are regarded as coming from ritual deposits with the exception of those
from the flattened tumulus (personal communication by Marleen Martens - 2006).
169
Although the material entered the museum since 1952 the material form the excavations have not been the issue of any context analysis.
168
186
Table 82: Vessels from domestic contexts
Period I
cat.no.
provenance
site
context
shape
typology
179
565
1330
2107
2733
2765
2767
2769
2775
3173
3210
3896
Anthée (BE)
Tongeren (BE)
Olbia (FR)
Waldorf (DE)
Boscoreale (IT)
Pompeii (IT)
Pompeii (IT)
Pompeii (IT)
Porto Potenza Picena (IT)
Ribnica (SL)
Tarragona (ES)
Ephesus (TR)
rural
urban
urban
rural
rural
urban
urban
urban
urban
rural
urban
urban
villa d‘Anthée
villa at Hondstraat
insula VI
villa
villa
domus ‗ara massima‘
domus
domus ‗lesbiani‘
villa ‘casa valentini‘
mansio?
-, rubbish pit
domus (atrium well)
plate
plate
cup
skyphos
table
bowl
cup
cup
cup
small dish
plate
flask
Form IA.8
Form IA.8
Form IB.1
Form IB.7
Form IA.7
Form IA.1
Form IA.1
Form IA.1
Form IA.1
Form IA.12
Form IA.8
Form IB.3
174
178
Amay (BE)
Anthée (BE)
rural, vicus
rural
beaker
cup
Form IIB.1
Form IIB.5
224
Brecht (BE)
rural
beaker
Form IIB.1
258
334
430
468-47
449
450
508
519
582-89
594-99
868-71
Elewijt (BE)
Lauw (BE)
Liège (BE)
Matagne-la-Petite (BE)
Mettet (BE)
Mortsel (BE)
Roly (BE)
Straten (BE)
Treignes (BE)
Velzeke (BE)
Elkab (EG)
rural, vicus
rural
rural
rural
rural
rural
rural
rural
rural
rural, vicus
urban
domus
villa
‗Potstal‘-farm – ‗deep
litter house'
domus
villa
villa
villa
villa
villa
villa
villa
villa
domus
domus
beaker
cup
beaker
beaker
beaker
beaker
cup
jug
beaker
beaker
unguentarium
Form IIB.1
Form IIB.4
Form IIB.1
Form IIB.1
Form IIB.1
Form IIB.1
Form IIB.5
Form IIB.11
Form IIB.1
Form IIB.1
Form IID.1
1367-69
Roussy-le-Village (FR)
rural,
diverticulum
domus
cup; beaker
Forms
IIB.1;4-5
1613-20;
1622-24
Sainte Menehould (FR)
rural
glass workshop
beaker;
amphoriskos
Forms IIB.1;
IIC.1
1946
Mainz-Finthen (DE)
rural
villa
cup
2902-7
Hoogeloon (NL)
rural
villa
cup; beaker
3490;3504
Augst (CH)
domus
cup
3743;3754;
3762-63;
3773;3778
Kaiseraugst (CH)
urban,
colonia
urban,
colonia
Form IIB.5
Forms
IIB.1;4
Form IIB.17
domus
glass workshop
cup; aryballos;
beaker
Forms IIB.45;17;20;21
3776
Kaiseraugst (CH)
glass workshop - Regio
17C
inkwell
Form IIB.18
Period II
5.2.1.2
urban
Jewellery
Considering the 251 pieces of black glass jewellery from domestic contexts as a whole (Table 79) is too general
and need at least to be split up according to the functional specificityarm ring, finger ring, ... (Table 80;
Figure 98). We here verified whether additional information can be obtained from a further breakdown of the
specific jewellery commodity type per typological class.
5.2.1.2.1
Arm rings
Despite the great proportionate similarity between the bangle types A and B in general (Figure 55) and the ratio
established from the 126 entries from domestic contexts (Figure 103), there is a noticeable difference between
the general shares of the Types C and Drespectively 8% vs 29% and 48 vs 23%. These proportions show that
a distinctive number of Type C bangles have a domestic use whereas the bulk of Type D bangles are retrieved
from a different context category [see below].
187
arm rings in domestic context
Type D
23%
Type C
29%
Type A
38%
Type B
10%
Figure 103: Pie-chart showing the ratios of the different bangle types from domestic contexts
Table 83: Arm rings from domestic contexts
cat.no.
provenance
176-77
Anthée (BE)
183
Arlon (BE)
194
Basse-Wavre (BE)
212
Braives (BE)
256
Elewijt (BE)
272
Fernelmont (BE)
297-99
Hamois (BE)
331;333
Lauw (BE)
357;367;384
Liberchies (BE)
432
Maillen (BE)
462
Nivelles (BE)
498-507
Roly (BE)
577-81
Treignes (BE)
590
Vechmaal (BE)
592
Velzeke (BE)
616;619
Wancennes (BE)
816-17;842;849-50
Dush Kysis (EG)
1019
Arles (FR)
1029
Carhaix (FR)
1053
Dehlingen (FR)
1413-17;1419-41;1449-50;
Sainte Menehould (FR)
1455-57;1463;1469;1472;
1486-1504;1506-13;1550
site
villa
dwelling
villa
dwelling
dwelling
villa
villa
villa
dwelling
villa
villa
villa
villa
villa
dwelling
villa
dwellings
villa
workshop
context
rural
urban
rural
rural
rural
rural
rural
rural
rural
rural
rural
rural
rural
rural
rural
rural
rural
urban
urban
rural
rural
shape
A1 (2 ex.)
A1
C2
A1
A3
indefinite
B2 (2 ex.); C3
A1; C3
A3(2 ex.); B2
indefinite
A2
A1; A3; B1; B2; C2; D1 (5 ex.)
A2; A3; D1 (2 ex.)
A5
C2
A2; C3
D1 (3 ex.); indefinite (2 ex.)
A5
B4
C1
A1 (7 ex.); A2; A3 (3 ex.); A4 (2
ex.); A5 (5 ex.); A6 (3 ex.); B2 (3
ex.); C1 (13 ex.); C2 (4 ex.); C3 (9
ex.); D1 (9 ex.);indefinite (4 ex.);
waste
D1
D1
A2/3 (2 ex.); B1; B5 (2 ex.); D2 (2
ex.)
1761
2051
2423-28;2430
Aldenhoven (DE)
Trier (DE)
Jalame (IL)
dwelling
workshop
workshop
rural
urban
rural
2750;2752-53
2997-98
3076
3014;3029;3031-54;3056-58;306068;3070-75
Luni (IT)
Voerendaal (NL)
Braga (PT)
Braga (PT)
dwelling
villa
dwelling
workshop
urban
rural
urban
urban
B1; D1; D2
A1
A6; D7
D1 (23 ex.); D2 (19 ex.); D7
3181
3437
3656
3781-83
Cádiz (ES)
Augst (CH)
Kaiseraugst (CH)
Liestal-Munzach (CH)
dwelling
dwelling
dwelling
villa
urban
urban
urban
rural
A1
A3
D1
A2 (2 ex.); A5
Of the 129 arm rings that have been recorded from domestic contexts, a number of entries are related to glass
workshops: 64 ex. to that of Les Houis near Sainte Menehould (FR), 7 ex. to that of Jalame (IL), 1 ex. to that of
‗Äussere Reben‘ at Kaiseraugst (CH), and 1 ex. to that of ‗Palais Kesselstatt‘ at Trier (DE). Depending of the
188
region most other material has come from rural settlementsvillaein the north-western provinces or from the
dwellings of urban centres in the Mediterranean area (Table 83).
Table 84: Arm rings from the black glass manufacturing workshops versus domestic consumers‘ contexts
typology
Sainte Menehould Les
TrierJalame
Bragadomestic
Houis
Kesselstatt
Fujacal
contexts
Type A
21
0
2
0
23
A1
7
8
A2
1
2
5
A3
3
6
A4
2
A5
5
3
A6
3
1
Type B
3
0
3
0
7
B1
1
2
B2
3
4
B3
B4
1
B5
2
Type C
26
0
0
0
7
C1
13
1
C2
4
3
C3
9
3
Type D
9
1
2
44
16
D1
9
1
23
15
D2
2
19
1
D3
D4
D5
D6
D7
1
1
D8
undefined/waste
5
4
TOTAL
64
1
7
44
57
total
46
15
8
9
2
8
4
13
3
7
1
2
33
14
7
12
72
48
22
2
9
173
Considering that the bangles of Types A-C are to be related to Period III and Type D bangles to Period IV, Table
84 demonstrates that the workshop of Les Houis manufactured any type of bracelet material during Periods III
and IV. Nevertheless we may say that the workshop mainly produced Types A and C seeing that all variants of
both classes are present within the waste material. Concerning the Type B bangles we only inventoried the open
B2 variant with 3 examples.
5.2.1.2.2
Finger rings
Of the 45 finger rings retrieved from domestic civil contexts, only 5 have come from consumers‘ dwellings: one
from a cave fill in a house at the vicus of Braives (BE), one from the villa of Lauw (BE), one from the villa ‗Fosse
Levrette‘ at Nivelles (BE), and two from the villa at Great Witcombe (UK). All others have come from glass
workshops: 14 ex. from Les Houis near Sainte Menehould (FR), 15 ex. from Medizinische Klinik at Bonn (DE),
and 11 ex. from Palais Kesselstatt at Trier (DE).
5.2.1.2.3
Beads
Only 18 beads have come from domestic contexts, and of those, 12 have come from workshops in urban centres:
Arles (FR) (1 ex.), Trier-Palais Kesselstatt (DE) (10 ex.), and Kaiseraugst (CH) (1 ex.) (Table 85). The black glass
beads from domestic contexts are characteristic of the late Roman Periods III-IV, but considering the datable
rd
th
contexts, everything seems to date from the 3 –4 centuries AD [see Chapter 4].
189
Table 85: Beads from domestic contexts
cat.no.
provenance
site
context
shape
632-33
835
1014
1373
Dracevica (BS)
Dush Kysis (EG)
Arles (FR)
Saint-Denis (FR)
rural
rural
urban, colonia
rural
domus
domus ‗Sigma House‘
workshop
villa ‗Cod‘Esprou‘
spacer-bead
barrel-shaped
flat ellipsoidal-shaped
annular ‗melon bead‘
2025;2029;2033;2035;
2038;2044;2054;2057;2059;2065
Trier (DE)
urban, colonia
workshop - ‗Palais
Kesselstatt‘
annular,‘ globular,‘
cylindrical,‘ barrel-shaped
3642
4166-67
Kaiseraugst (CH)
Nor‘Nour (UK)
urban, colonia
rural
workshop
-
cylindrical
globular-segmented
5.2.1.2.4
Pendants
No explicit deduction can be done from the context analysis of pendants from domestic provenance because only
4 pendants have been recorded that were retrieved from a domestic civil settlement. Two came from a workshop,
an amphora-shaped pendant from Trier-Palais Kesselstatt (DE) [cat.no.2056] and a jug-shaped pendant from
Jalame (IL) [cat.no.2429]. A barrel-shaped pendant was found in the domus ‗casa de Hyppolitus‘ at Alcalá de
Henares (ES) [cat.no.3177], and one of indefinite shape was reported from Building 3 at the town of Dush Kysis in
the Kharga-oasis (EG) [cat.no.852].
5.2.1.2.5
Gems
In total, 34 gems have been recorded from domestic contexts, of which 5 were still set in a finger ring and 1 in a
brooch. The other 28 are loose finds and on the basis of the shapeelliptical with flat surfaces and bevelled edge
(Henig type F2 or F4) these are to be considered as gems from finger rings that got lost after being broken off
when the finger ring fell on the ground. Most likely, this was the result of getting into fissures of a timber floor,
seeing that the rooms within the rural dwellings, villae or domus, were not paved with concrete or mosaics but a
wooden floor covering an earthen level (Table 86). Most are blue-on-black gems (28 ex.) imitating the nicolo
gemstones, also called nicolo paste gems, and the remaining 6 are monochrome black. Only the gem from
Nor‘Nour on the Isles of Scilly (UK) was set in a brooch. The gem is a characteristic plain conical stone in
monochrome black glass, and the brooch is an oval gold-plated bronze brooch decorated with miniature
'accolade' stamps [see conclusion in this chapter].
Defining the material of the finger rings in view of the contextual analysis does not provide any additional
information due to the variety of setting materials: 3 gems were set in a bronze ring, 1 in a silver ring, and 1 in an
iron one.
Of the 20 ex., most of the material came from the jewellery workshop excavated at Medizinische Klinik, Bonn (DE)
in the canabae close to the north gate of the legionary camp, castra bonnensia [see Chapters 3; 6 and 7].
Table 86: Gemstones from domestic contexts
cat.no.
provenance
172
221
257
454
593
1799-1803;1805-8;1812;181516;1819;1821;1826-29;1831
2991-92
3964
4052
4061
4165
4202-4
190
site
context
shape
Amay (BE)
Braives (BE)
Elewijt (BE)
Neerharen-Rekem (BE)
Velzeke (BE)
rural, vicus
rural, vicus
rural, vicus
rural
rural, vicus
loose
finger ring
finger ring
finger ring
loose
Bonn (DE)
urban, canabae
Valkenburg (NL)
Carlisle (UK)
Fordingbridge (UK)
Gorhambury (UK)
Nor‘Nour (UK)
Wilcote-Shakenoak Farm (UK)
urban
urban
rural
rural
rural
rural
domus
domus
villa
villa
domus
jewellery
workshop
villa
domus
villa
villa
domus
villa
loose
loose
loose
finger ring
finger ring
brooch
loose
5.2.1.2.6
Hairpins
Very few black glass hairpins have been recorded (43 ex.) and even fewer contain context information (26 ex.
170
from civil settlements). Most black glass hairpins have come from domestic contexts ; however, the bulk has
come from artisanal contexts. Twenty-three records came from the workshop of Les Houis nearby Sainte
Menehould (FR), and possibly the pieces from Fujacal at Braga (PT) and Bon-Villers at Liberchies (BE) have to
be linked with a workshop as well. Only the one from the villa of Shakenoak Farm nearby Wilcote (UK) is purely
domestic. The Shakenoak piece is a complete hairpin in bronze wire topped with a globular head in black glass
rd
[cat.no.4201] and was excavated in an unsealed deposit south of Building B, which is dated in the later 3 century
AD (Harden 1971, 106, no.152, fig.45:69).
5.2.1.3
Architectural decoration
Due to the poor availability of published material and the complexity of investigating the topic individually, a
diagnostic contextual analysis for this functional type was unattainable. Furthermore, too few contexts with
architectural decoration material in black glass could be recorded within the limited time of the present research
project.
In total, only 8 entries of architectural decoration material are known to have come from domestic civil settlement
contexts, of which 7 entries are from Period I and 1 from Period II (Table 87). The inventoried material came from
several Roman villae in Italy and one in France. Black glass tesserae were generally used to decorate wall
mosaics within fountains and bath structures of the villa complexes of wealthy citizens and emperors. Also, the
laborious application makes these artefacts self-evident markers for public buildings, luxurious domestic spaces,
or dumps at building yards from such sites or from glass workshops.
Almost solely tesserae have been recorded. It is odd to miss the contemporaneous Period I twisted rods used to
border wall and vault mosaics which were used, in particular, in middle class dwellings, but this is probably due to
very superficial heuristics. The use of intarsia in the villa of Lucius Verus in Rome is a technique to make mosaics
in opus sectile and demonstrates its use from Period II.
Table 87: Overview of architectural decoration material in domestic contexts
cat.no.
place
site
1625
Saint-Émilion (Gironde) (FR)
villa du Palat
2778
Rome (IT)
‗villa dei Centroni‘, natatio
2779
Rome (IT)
‗domus aurea‘, nympheum
2802
Rome (IT)
'villa of Lucius Verus'
2815
Sperlonga (IT)
‗villa of Tiberius‘, grotto
2816
Tivoli (IT)
‗villa of Hadrian‘, nympheum
2817
Tivoli (IT)
‗villa of Hadrian‘, serapeum
2818
Tivoli (IT)
‗villa of Brutus‘, nympheum
5.2.1.4
material
tesserae
tesserae
tesserae
intarsiae
tesserae
tesserae
tesserae
tesserae
period
I
I
I
II
I
I
I
I
Counters
The 16 counters in black glass that have been recorded from domestic contexts do not provide any valuable
information within the context analysis.
170
No black glass hairpin has hitherto been recorded in a public or ritual context, while only two examples are known to have come from a burial
context.
191
5.2.2
Funerary context
A total of 627 artefacts have been recorded from funerary contexts, of which 97 items are vessels, 469 items are
jewellery, 1 item is an architectural decoration and 58 items are counters, while no production material has been
171
retrieved from burials or any other funerary context (Figure 104).
burial context
architectural
decoration
0,2%
production
0%
counters
9,3%
vessels
15,5%
jewellery
74,8%
Figure 104: Functional types of black glass artefacts from Roman burials
5.2.2.1
Vessels
The 97 pieces of black glass vessels from known civil funerary contexts consist of 15 pieces of undefined
tableware due to their very fragmentary state of preservation. Twenty-one pieces are from Period I burials and 61
ex. or 62,9 % from Period II, while none are from Period III and Period IV burials (Figure 105).
vessels
Period IV
0%
Period III
0%
undefine
d
15%
Period II
63%
vessels
Period IV
0%
Period III
0%
Period I
22%
Period I
26%
Period II
74%
Figure 105: Pie charts of the vessels from funerary contexts (left: considering all entries, right: omitting the entries of undefined
date)
Table 88 clearly demonstrates that the majority of the Period I burials containing vessels in black-appearing glass
has come from Mediterranean tombs. There is no uniformity of shapes, as the 23 vessels represent 16 different
shapes, and little information is known about the deceased because cremation makes that gender and age has
not been determined (Table 90). Too few information is at hand from the burial contexts and due to the cremation
practice no information is hitherto available concerning the gender or age of the deceased. It is also not clear if
the deceased was rich, but the number of burial gifts and the richness of the ensemble makes it clear that the
family of the deceased must have endured social stress (van Lith, Randsborg 1985) and, presumably because of
their status within the community, must have felt obliged to give the departed relative a sumptuous burial rite with
171
The remaining two pieces are indefinite shapes: one from Augsburg (DE) [cat.no.1772] and one from Kaiseraugst (CH) [cat.no.3720].
192
a lot of gifts to impress the populace. It can be tableware such as bowls, plates, cups and jugs, but equally the
material is storage ware, for instance re-used as an urn, or even toilet ware, i.e. unguentaria. Out of 21 black
glass vessels, 7 are cast, 13 are free-blown and 1 is mould-blown. Only a few vessel shapes reappear several
172
times: 1) the shallow hemispherical bowl, Form IA.1, 1 ex. in the tumulus of Riemst (BE) ; 1ex. in the ‗Tumba de
Bahìa Blanca at Cádiz (ES); and 1 ex. in the cemetery ‗En Chaplix‘ at Avenches (CH); 2) the unguentarium with
bulbous body, Form IB.3, 1 ex. from tomb 1 at the ―Ex fabbrica Siberia‖ cemetery of Montebelluna (IT); 2 ex. from
the Tomba di Salizzole at Verona (IT).
173
Table 88: Tombs with black glass vessels from Period I
cat.no.
site
1;4570
2585
2586
2758-60
2761
2762
2805
2830-31
497
A4480
A4483
Dürres (AL), tomb V69
Adria-Canal Bianco (IT), tomb 34
Adria-Canal Bianco (IT), tomb 147
Montebelluna (IT), tomb 1
Montebelluna (IT), tomb 3
Montebelluna (IT), tomb 4
S. Elena di Melma (IT), tomba di Silea
Verona (IT), tomba di Salizzole
Riemst (BE), tumulus
Murviel-lès-Montpellier (FR), tomb 1
Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux (FR), tomb 7
burial type
burial gifts
glass objects
black glass
vessels
cremation
cremation
cremation
cremation
cremation
cremation
cremation
cremation
cremation
cremation
cremation
5
13
6
28
25
12+
5
10+
50
10
14 (38)
4
6
6
13
17
8+
3
10
12
8
7 (21)
2
1
1
3
1
1
1
2
1
1
1
A wide range of complete pieces comes from the Period II cremation tombs. A preliminary list has not only
demonstrated that most of the Period II vessels in black glass from funerary contexts are dated between 170/180
and 230 AD, but also that they are found in rich cremation tombs containing an amount of luxurious grave goods
(Cosyns, Hanut 2005, 117, tab.1). An updated list comprising 55 pieces from 36 different contexts does not
modify either assertion (Table 89).
Table 89: Tombs with black glass vessels from Period II
cat.no.
site
typology
n
173
209
210
321
539;543;545;548
1028
1049-51
1847
2882
2979
515
A4618
1052
2898
2012-14
1075
1073
2881
2880
1930
2987
2986
Amay (BE)
Bossut-Gottechain (BE)
Braffe (BE)
Jambes (BE)
Tienen (BE)
Boulogne-sur-Mer (FR)
Cutry (FR)
Cologne (DE)
Esch (NL)
Nijmegen (NL)
Schaarbeek (BE)
Trier (DE)
Cutry (FR)
Heerlen (NL)
Siesbach (DE)
Faulquemont (FR)
Faulquemont (FR)
Esch (NL)
Esch (NL)
Krefeld-Gellep (DE)
Stein (NL)
Stein (NL)
1
1
1
1
1
1
3
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
3
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
Form IIB.1 – carchesium
Form IIB.1 – carchesium
Form IIB.1 – carchesium
Form IIB.1 – carchesium
Form IIB.1 – carchesium
Form IIB.1 – carchesium
Form IIB.1 – carchesium
Form IIB.1 – carchesium
Form IIB.1 – carchesium
Form IIB.1 – carchesium
Form IIB.2
Form IIB.2
Form IIB.3
Form IIB.4
Form IIB.4
Form IIB.5
Form IIB.6
Form IIB.6
Form IIB.7
Form IIB.8
Form IIB.9
Form IIB.10
chronology
IIIa - IIIc AD (200-260/70)
V-VIA AD
IId - IIIa AD (170 - 230)
IId AD (170-200)
IId AD (170/80-200)
III AD
IId - IIIA AD (180 – 250)174
IIB – IIIA AD
IId AD (170-200)
IId - IIIA AD (180 - 250)
IId - IIIA AD (180-230)
IV AD
IId - IIIA AD (180 - 250)
IIc AD (160-180)
IIc AD (173-174)
IIB AD
IIB AD
IIc AD (160-170/80)
IIc AD (160-170/80)
III AD
IIIBAD
IIIBAD
172
About the shallow bowl from the tumulus of Riemst (BE) (de Schaetzen 1950), we must bear in mind that the context is dated around the end of
the first quarter of the 2nd century AD. Seeing the fragmentary condition and the severe weathering crust covering nearly the entire surface
compared to the other well-preserved glass vessels from this rich burial, it is most likely that the much older dated vessel typei.e. Claudian to
early Flavianshould be regarded as an heirloom [see Chapter 4: Chronology].
173
In total 23 items have been reported from burial context, but the full context information is not always available. Hence excluded from the table
are the pieces from Bahnasa (EG) [cat.no.812]; Magdalensberg (AT) [cat.no.117]; Avenches (CH) [cat.nos.3614;3593;3597;3617]; Pohlov Gradec
(SL) [cat.no.3152]; Zara (HR) [cat.no.772]; Cádiz (ES) [cat.no.3182].
174
The context of tomb 176 is erroneously dated at the end of the 1st century AD and must have been unwanted switched with that of the 1st
century AD tomb 440 containing a Hofheim cup (Isings Form 12) which got dated at the end of the 2nd–early 3rd century AD (Liéger 1997, 66)
193
2879
3154
1869
3622-23
3600
1214
1962
2984
Esch (NL)
Ptuj (SL)
Elsdorf-Esch (DE)
Avenches (CH)
Avenches (CH)
Lillebonne (FR)
Morbach-Wederath (DE)
Nijmegen (NL)
1
1
1
2
1
1
1
1
Form IIB.11
Form IIB.11
Form IIB.14
Form IIB.16
Form IIB.16
Form IIB.19
Form IIC.1
Form IIC.1
IId AD (170-200)
II AD
IIIb-IIIc AD (230-270)
IId AD (c.180-200)
mid I AD (40-70)
IIB – IIIA AD
IIB AD
IIB AD
The burial context and the undamaged vessels (Table 89) are evidence to assume that the black glass vessels
were placed into the tomb at the end of the burial rite as secondary burial gifts. Most likely all intact pieces without
provenance information originate from burial contexts. Rarely vessel fragments deformed by the heat of the pyre
have been excavated. The only recorded examples are the 48 fragments of at least three small bulbous jars
(Form IIB.4) from the Siesbach barrow (Abegg 1989, 209, Taf.16, nos.312; 319-326) and a carchesium (Form
IIB.1) said to be from a tomb at Auvelais (BE) (unpublished) [cat.no.192]. These few examples demonstrate the
fact that black glass vessels were used occasionally as a primary burial gift placed on the pyre along or on top of
the deceased.
Decorated vessels with applied glass trails have come from rich tombs, as can be observed from various
examples:
1) the amphoriskos from Elsdorf-Esch (Gaitzsch 1999, 79) and the jug from Weilerwist-Hausweiler
(Follmann-Schulz 1992, 21-22, no.10);
2) with straight upright festoon pattern, e.g. Avenches (Martin Pruvot 1999, 230, pl.149, n°1490), Heerlen
(Brouwer 1991, 47, no.16) and Nijmegen (Isings 1964, 176, fig.4);
3) with diagonal upright festoon pattern, e.g. Siesbach (Abegg 1989, 209, fig.17), Cologne (Isings 1964,
176, fig.5). Another type of decoration is the indented body, e.g. Faulquemont (Cabart 2005, 20-21,
Cosyns et al. 2006a, 37, fig.6), Mettet in the Musée Archéologique, Namur [cat.no.449] (Mahieu 1919,
163; Isings 1957, 47; Isings 1964, 179, no.18).
Various burials from civil settlements in Belgium, the Netherlands, France and Germany yielded intact carchesium
beakers (Form IIB.1) in villae, at rural settlements as well as at urban centrese.g. Amay (BE) [cat.no.173],
Jambes (BE) [cat.no.321], Lavacherie (BE) [cat.no.335], Tienen (BE) [cat.nos.539; 543; 545; 548], Wancennes
(BE) [cat.nos.621-622], Abbeville (FR) [cat.no.998], Boulogne-sur-Mer (FR) [cat.no.1028], Cutry (FR)
[cat.nos.1049-1051], Cologne (DE) [cat.no.1847], Esch (NL) [cat.no.2882], Nijmegen (NL) [cat.no.2979]. Bulbous
cups (Form II.4-5) came from the barrow at Siesbach (DE) [cat.nos.2012-2014], the cemetery ‗En Chaplix‘ at
Avenches (CH) [cat.nos.3615; 3625-27] and Faulquemont (FR) [cat.no.1075]. A rim fragment of a one-handled
jug with funnel mouth (Form IIB.11) came from a cellar in Straten (BE) [cat.no.519].
Striking is the total absence, hitherto, of these diverse decorated black glass vessels in Romano-British sites.
An intact grape-shaped amphoriskos has been excavated in the cemetery of Nijmegen-Hees, the Netherlands
(Figures 41.6; 43) (Isings, van Lith 1992, 17, fig.19). Another (fragmentary) one came from the cremation tomb
AG14 of the Roman cemetery at Wederath-Belginum (DE). Interesting to note is that the same tomb yielded the
remains of a second very similar vessel in ‗very deep olive green glass‘ (Kaiser 2006, 39, pl.729).
At present, all unguentaria with a flattened circular body, Form IIIB.2 (Figure 40.2) in the Rhine region from known
contexts have come from burials and, in particular, from inhumation tombs. It also appears to be a typical gift for
women and girls when gender and age can be recognized (Table 90). We may therefore assume that the one in
black glass was a burial gift for an adult woman, even if the skeletal remains do not allow a determination.
194
Table 90: Tombs with Form IIIB.2 vessels (―-― = undefined)
cat.no.
site
hue
burial type
gender
age
reference
1929
Krefeld-Gellep (DE) –
tomb 5530
so-called black
inhumation
-
-
Pirling 2003, 69, no.5530:4,
pls.6:3a-b; 133:2
not
catalogued
Krefeld-Gellep (DE) –
tomb Kr9
pale yellowish-green
inhumation
female
-
Pirling 2003, no.Kr9:3, pl.3:3
not
catalogued
Krefeld-Gellep (DE) –
tomb 3198
pale yellowish-green
inhumation
-
-
Pirling 1989, no.3198:15, pl.42:9
not
catalogued
Cologne (DE) –
Jakobstrasse tomb 28
decolourized
inhumation
-
-
Friedhoff 1991, 219, no.28:2, pl.63
not
catalogued
Cologne (DE) –
Jakobstrasse tomb 227
dark purple
inhumation
female
adult
Friedhoff 1991, 282-284, no.227:3,
pl.95
not
catalogued
Cologne (DE) –
Jakobstrasse tomb 254
decolourized
inhumation
female
child
Friedhoff 1991, 329, no.254:1,
pl.102
not
catalogued
Cologne (DE) –
Jakobstrasse tomb 327
dark blue
inhumation
female?
-
Friedhoff 1991, 329, no.327:2,
pl.115
not
catalogued
Strasburg (FR) -
dark blue
inhumation
-
-
Arveiller-Dulong, Arveiller 1985,
138, no.303
not
catalogued
Trier (DE) –
Pallien tomb 17
decolourized
inhumation
female
child
Goethert-Polaschek 1977, 137,
no.765
not
catalogued
Trier (DE) –
St. Matthias tomb 112
decolourized (2 ex.)
green
inhumation
-
-
Goethert-Polaschek 1977, 137,
nos.767-69
not
catalogued
Trier (DE) –
Biewerer Strasse
sarcophagus 1
decolourized
inhumation
-
-
Goethert-Polaschek 1977, 137,
no.770
None of the catalogued rod-formed balsamaria and unguentaria from Period IV has come from a burial context. It
is, however, necessary to execute an exhaustive heuristics and research on location in Syria, Israel and Jordan,
as it is evident that there is already such material retrieved from burials.
5.2.2.2
Jewellery
In total, 469 pieces of jewellery in black glass are known to have come from civil funerary contexts. Strikingly only
a few are from Periods I and II with respectively 5 ex. or 1,1 % and 6 ex. or 1,3 % of all black glass jewellery.
Despite the bulk remains of indefinite date, Table 91 clearly demonstrates that the mainstream of the black glass
jewellery can be reduced to Periods III and IV with in that order 24 ex. or 5,1 % from Period III and 74 ex. or
15,8 % from Period IV (Figure 106).
Table 91: Overview of ratios of the different types of black glass jewellery per period from civil/funerary contexts (n = quantity)
Period I
Period II
Period III
Period IV
indefinite
total
%
%
%
%
%
n
%
n
n
n
n
n
arm rings
0
0
0
0
1
0,7
32
21,2
118
78,1
151
32,2
finger rings
0
0
2
11,1
3
16,7
1
5,6
12
66,7
18
3,8
beads
5
1,9
2
0,8
12
4,5
29
10,9
217
81,9
265
56,5
pendants
0
0
0
0
4
19,0
8
38,1
9
42,9
21
4,5
gems
0
0
2
16,7
4
33,3
4
33,3
2
16,7
12
2,6
hairpins
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
2
100
2
0,4
TOTAL
5
1,10 6
1,3
24
5,1
74
15,8
360
76,8
469
100
195
hairpins
gems
Period I
Period II
pendants
Period III
beads
Period IV
indefinite
finger rings
arm rings
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
hairpins
gems
Period I
Period II
pendants
Period III
beads
Period IV
indefinite
finger rings
arm rings
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
Figure 106: Stacked bar charts showing the ratios per period of the different types of black glass jewellery from civil/funerary
contexts in amount and in proportion
5.2.2.2.1
Arm rings
Table 92 demonstrates clearly the presence of one or maximum two bracelets worn by a girl or adult woman [see
Chapter 7]. The young adult woman from inhumation tomb 194 of the late Roman cemetery of Oudenburg (BE)
wore a black glass bangle on her left wrist and a bronze one on her right arm (Mertens, Van Impe 1971, 208-209,
pl.LX:194:4). A similar ‗dress code‘ can be observed at the inhumation tombs 19a, 1050 and 1239 of the
‗Südostfriedhof‘ cemetery at Intercisa (HU). Bracelets in other materials were also worn on the left wrist, but black
glass, jet and bone bangles have never been attested on the right wrist. Apparently, only bronze bangles are
recorded on the right wrist. The curiosity of the Orpington case is the peculiarity of the bangle with pressed
decoration reminiscent of bronze bracelets (Type B5). It was found in grave 2 of an early Anglo-Saxon cemetery
within a late Roman site (Tester 1968, 125-150). It contained the remains of an inhumated woman aged 30.
Although the tomb was partly destroyed by grave 3, one fragment of the bangle is thought to have been found in
situ beneath the right humerus, suggesting that it was worn just above the elbow. The other fragments were found
scattered in the lower grave filling. The occurrence of Roman (fragmented) glass bangles within Anglo-Saxon and
Merovingian tombs is attested from early research (Haevernick 1968; De Witte 1977) as well as from recent
196
excavations, such as the material from the cemeteries of Gottechain-Bossut (BE) [cat.nos.202-5;207]
176
(unpublished) and Broechem (BE)175, likewise various other commodity types.
Table 92: Black glass bangles from inhumation burials (n = quantity; C = civil settlement; M = military settlement)
cat.no.
site
context
type
location
orientation
gender
n
type
of arm ring
of tomb
3388
3687
A4607
4120
4170
280-81
278-79
482-83
479
517-18
2210
2194
2204
1058
1059
1004
1005
Augst (CH)
tomb 1a
Augst (CH)
tomb 33
Canterbury (UK)
family burial
London (UK)
tomb B168
Orpington (UK)
tomb 40
Furfooz (BE)
tomb 22
Furfooz (BE)
tomb 2
Oudenburg (BE)
tomb 100
Oudenburg (BE)
tomb 194
Spontin (BE)
tomb C
Dunapentele (HU)
tomb 19a
Dunapentele (HU)
tomb 1050
Dunapentele (HU)
tomb 1239
Epiais-Rhus (FR)
tomb S95
Epiais-Rhus (FR)
tomb S159
Amiens (FR)
faubourg Beauvais
Amiens (FR)
rue de Corbie
age
C
D1
1
-
-
female
adult
C
A1
1
-
-
female
adult
C
D1
1
left wrist
N-S
girl
child
C
A1
1
left wrist
E-W
female?
adult
C
B5
1
left wrist
SE-NW
female
adult
M
D1
2
left wrist
N-S
girl
child
M
D1
2
left wrist
N-S
girl
child
M
D1
2
-
E-W
-
-
M
B2
1
left wrist
N-S
female
25-30
C
D1
2
wrist
E-W
female
adult
C
A1
1
left wrist
E-W
female
adult
C
A1
1
left wrist
E-W
female
adult
C
A1
1
left wrist
E-W
girl?
child
C
A1
1
outside coffin
NW-SE
-
-
C
D1
1
chest
N-S
female
adult
C
D1
1
-
-
-
-
C
D1
2
-
-
girl?
child
In some cases, the black glass bracelet was not worn by the deceased at the moment of interment, but it was put
in a wooden box or eventually in a bag. The boxes are mainly located beside the left shoulder or at the feet and
contain intact jewellery. Some burials demonstrate that these boxes were placed beside the left shoulder or at the
feet. It appears that all burials yielding boxes containing complete bangles contain a female body and are from
clear Roman contexts of Periods III-IV, whereas the tombs containing purses at the height of the waist, always
holding fragmentary pieces, are only found in male tombs and erroneously considered from Merovingian burials
th
th
and dated in the late 5 and 6 century AD as some burials from Frénouville (FR) and Kaiseraugst (CH) have to
th
th
be dated late 4 – first half 5 century AD.
Table 93: Roman cemeteries containing black glass bracelets
site
number of tombs
tombs with
black glass bangles
Oudenburg (BE)
Tongeren (BE)
London (UK)
Epiais-Rhus (FR)
Frénouville (FR)
Kaiseraugst (CH)
Krefeld-Gellep (DE)
>200
>250
>650
500
>650
>1300
>6500
2
0
2
2
2
1
5
< 1%
0%
0,3%
0,2%
0,3%
< 0,1%
< 0,1%
date range of cemetery
reference
III-Va AD
Id-IV AD
Ib-Va AD
II-IV AD
IIIB-V AD
IIIB-V AD
IIIB-V AD
Mertens, Van Impe 1976
Vanvinckenroye 1994
Barber, Bowsher 2000
Vanpeene 1998
Pilet 1980
Martin 1976
Pirling, Siepen 2006
175
Personal communication by Rica Annaert.
Also a base fragment of a Period II carchesium in black glass (Form IIB.1) was found in tomb 297 of the late 5 th–mid 7th century AD cemetery at
Gottechain-Bossut [cat.no.209] together with a Period IV Type D1 arm ring [cat.no.205].
176
197
The brief and partial inventory on black glass bangles from civil cemeteries displayed in Table 93 demonstrates
that black glass bracelets were only used on very rare occasions as burial gifts at larger settlements and thus to
rd
be considered a fairly uncommon consumer good. When taking into account the burials from the 3 century AD
onwards –when the glass bangles got into use– we see no substantial change in ratios. For instance the Eastern
Cemetery at London (UK) yielded 457 burials from the late Roman period corresponding with 66 % of all burials,
resulting in a ratio of 0,43 % for the burials containing a black glass bangle (Barber, Bowsher 2000, 12).
Furthermore, Bruno Barber and David Bowsher listed the number of burials with goods on the one
handcremation 26 and inhumation 129 resulting in a ratio of 1,29 %and on the other hand the number of
female inhumation burials with goods28 burials equals a ratio of 7,14 %. However, it is important to point to a
huge number of Roman cemeteries with a total absence of (black) glass bangles, as well as with an occurrence of
bangles in jet or shalesuch as the cemetery of Jakobsstrasse at Cologne (DE) (Friedhoff 1991) and the
cemeteries at Trier (DE) (Goethert-Polaschek 1977). Ultimately we want to remark that Chapter 7 discusses the
possibility of wearing (black) glass bangles in connection with the Christian population.
5.2.2.2.2
Finger rings
We catalogued 18 finger rings that were deposited as burial gifts in a tomb. All were late Roman inhumation
tombs. The type B2b finger ring from tomb 401/02 of the cemetery at Bregenz (AT) came from a double child
burial [cat.no.23].
5.2.2.2.3
Beads
From the 266 recorded beads and spacer-beads found in burial contexts at civil settlements, a good number
bears no detailed information on the finding circumstances as for instance all material (81 entries) from the late
Roman cemetery at Horbat Qastra nearby Haifa (IL) which remains until now unstudied and unpublished. We only
incorporated in Table 94 the burials providing some specific information such as burial type; gender; age; use;
chronology. The ratio of rod-formed beads and double-perforated spacer-beads is with 213 ex. vs. 53 ex. a ratio
of approximately 4/1.
The black glass beads were mainly incorporated within necklaces built up from a variety of bead types and are
combined with huge numbers of beads, with an average of 40-50 beads, but easily surpassing 100 beads to
provide necklaces with a length of 400-600 mm. Several burials contained a set of four to nine identical or similar
beadsi.e. double perforated spacer-beads with one flat sideto form a bracelet. The nine identical theatre
mask beads with a severe face came from a double child‘s tomb of the late Roman cemetery at Pécs–Sopianae
(HU) and formed a bracelet (Fülep 1984). Table 94 also demonstrates that only on rare occasions black glass
beads were yielded from male burials. The black glass beads seems likewise their counterparts in other glass
hues to be a plain jewel for girls and women. Most burials yielded one single black glass bead but sets of several
pieces of the same type or a combination of various types do occur.
The black glass beads were much more frequent in burials of the late Roman/early medieval cemeteries, such as
those of Bregenz (AT) (Konrad 1997), Frénouville (FR) (Pilet 1980), Maule (FR) (Arveiller-Dulong 2006), and
th
Horbat Qastra (IL) (unpublished). We have to take into account that a number of these tombs are dated in the 5
th
and 6 century ADi.e. the Merovingian period/early Byzantine period (Table 94). Only one single tomb out of
500 excavated at the cemetery of Epiais-Rhus (FR) yielded black glass beads: a necklace of 42 glass beads
included 17 long quadrangular ones in black glass [cat.no.1057]. All burial gifts in the inhumation tomb S441 were
placed at the feet of the deceased, and it is most probable that the objects were put in a wooden box.
No information is available about the context of the various ‗crumb‘ bead types. This lack of information is similar
for most other bead types –annular shaped (13 out of 54); barrel-shaped (2 out of 20); ‗melon‘ beads (7 out of
20)– but the accessible find circumstances show that black glass beads were popular trincket to women and girls.
198
Table 94: Black glass beads used as burial gifts
cat.no.
provenance
type of bead
function
burial type
gender
age
date
reference
1925
Krefeld-Gellep (DE)
globular ‗eye-bead‘
necklace
-
IVB AD
Pirling 1979; Swift 2000, 293
Kaiseraugst (CH)
annular ‗eye-bead‘
bracelet
inhumation
inhumation
-
3659
female
no dated context
Martin 1976, 71, Taf.53G; Riha 1990, Taf.68, no.2839
3660
Kaiseraugst (CH)
annular ‗eye-bead‘
necklace
inhumation
female
child
child
no dated context
Martin 1976, 60, Taf.43B; Riha 1990, no.2808
3661
Kaiseraugst (CH)
annular ‗eye-bead‘
-
inhumation
female
child
no dated context
Martin 1976, 57, Taf.40E; Riha 1990, no.2800
3662
Kaiseraugst (CH)
annular ‗eye-bead‘
-
inhumation
-
-
no dated context
Martin 1976, 55, Taf.38O; Riha 1990, no.2806
4087
Lankhills (UK)
barrel-shaped ‗eye-bead‘
necklace
inhumation
female
-
IVc AD (350-370)
Clarke 1979, 300, figs.62:G323; 86:436f
3658
Kaiseraugst (CH)
barrel-shaped
bracelet
inhumation
-
child
no dated context
Martin 1976, 96, Taf.72A; Riha 1990, 188, no.2888
2745
Lovere (IT)
barrel-shaped - plain
1895
Kempten (DE)
globular ‗melon‘ bead
-
inhumation
inhumation
-
child
mid I AD
Mackensen 1978, 268, Grab 220, pl.90:8
1896
Kempten (DE)
globular ‗melon‘ bead
-
inhumation
child
mid I AD
Mackensen 1978, 268, Grab 238, no.4, pl.100:6
1897
Kempten (DE)
globular ‗melon‘ bead
-
inhumation
female
adult
mid I AD
Mackensen 1978, 268, Grab 55, pl.15:7
1898
Kempten (DE)
globular ‗melon‘ bead
-
inhumation
female
adult
mid I AD
Mackensen 1978, 268, Grab 55, pl.15:8
1919
Krefeld-Gellep (DE)
annular ‗melon‘ bead
-
inhumation
IVB AD
Pirling 1966, 16, no.9:4h, pl.8:18h.
4113
London (UK)
annular ‗melon‘ bead
necklace
inhumation
male
adult
IId-III AD
Barber, Bowsher 2000, 155, no. 5a, fig.96,
1057
Epiais-Rhus (FR)
square tubular plain
necklace
inhumation
-
-
IId-IIIA AD
Vanpeene 1993, 58; 90.
1914
Krefeld-Gellep (DE)
square tubular plain
-
inhumation
-
-
IVB-VII AD
Pirling 1966, 57, no.434:1, pl.35:11a-e
1920
Krefeld-Gellep (DE)
square tubular plain
-
VB-VIa AD
Pirling 1966, 97, no.781:3, pl.67:36
Frénouville (FR)
annular plain
inhumation
inhumation
-
1111
necklace
-
-
1130
Frénouville (FR)
annular plain
necklace
inhumation
-
-
2741
Cesena - San Egidio (IT)
annular plain
bracelet
inhumation
2746-47
Lovere (IT)
annular plain
-
inhumation
-
-
17
Bregenz (AT)
annular with zigzag
necklace
-
-
18
Bregenz (AT)
annular with zigzag
inhumation
inhumation
1112
Frénouville (FR)
annular with zigzag
necklace
inhumation
-
-
3192
Mérida (ES)
annular with zigzag
1137
Homblières (FR)
cylindrical plain
necklace
inhumation
female
adult
-
Pilloy1886,194-195; Roosens1962,18;Besson1994,17-28
2287
Somogyszil (HU)
cylindrical plain
-
inhumation
female
child
-
Burger 1979, 25, Taf.4:2
Augst (CH)
cylindrical ‗eye-bead‘
bracelet
inhumation
female?
child
2219
Dunapentele (HU)
globular plain
-
inhumation
-
-
2736
4022
Cesena - San Egidio (IT)
globular plain
-
inhumation
-
-
Colchester (UK)
globular plain
-
inhumation
-
-
IVb-IVd AD (325-400 AD)
Crummy, 1983, 35, fig.37, no.1505
2878
Esch (NL)
necklace
cremation
female?
adult?
IId AD
Van den Hurk 1980, 374-378, fig.6
158
Pöttsching-Zillingthal (AT)
8-shaped spacer bead
‗Trilobitenperle‘ spacer bead
-
inhumation
female
adult
-
Caspart 1935, 13, Taf.IV:6; Haevernick 1983, 272
1888
Göggingen (DE)
‗Trilobitenperle‘ spacer bead
-
inhumation
female
adult
-
Keller 1971, 87, 232 (10)
1889
Göggingen (DE)
‗Trilobitenperle‘ spacer bead
-
inhumation
female
adult
-
Keller 1971, 87, 232 (10), fig.27:5, pl.9:15-18
1890
Göggingen (DE)
‗Trilobitenperle‘ spacer bead
-
inhumation
female?
child
-
Keller 1971, 87, 232 (10)
2202
Dunapentele (HU)
‗Trilobitenperle‘ spacer bead
-
inhumation
-
-
-
Vágó, Bóna 1976, 113-114, no.1326, Taf.27, 1326:3
Fortunati Zuccala 2002, 121, fig.31:3
Pilet 1980, BAR 83, II, 53-54; III, pl.25
Pilet 1980, Pilet 1980, BAR 83, II, 62; III, pl.29
IIIB AD
Fadini, Montevecchi 2001, 52, fig.6
IVB – V AD
Fortunati Zuccala 2002, 121, fig.31:3
Konrad 1997, 76; 224
Konrad 1997, 76; 230, no1:d
Pilet 1980, BAR 83, II, 76; III, pl.34
inhumation
Almagro Basch, Marcos Pous 1958, 87
Martin 1976, 96, Taf.72A; Riha 1990, no.2888
IIIB AD
Fadini, Montevecchi 2001, 52, fig.6
Vágó, Bóna 1976, 93, no.1179, Taf.21, 1179:1 (top)
199
Keszthely (HU)
‗Trilobitenperle‘ spacer bead
-
inhumation
-
child
-
Haevernick 1983, 271, fig.1:7
Bátaszék-Kövesd (HU)
‗Trilobitenperle‘ spacer bead
bracelet
inhumation
female
child
IVA AD
Gesztelyi 1998, 131, fig.2.
2740
Cesena - San Egidio (IT)
‗Trilobitenperle‘ spacer bead
bracelet
inhumation
female
adult
-
Fadini, Montevecchi 2001, 52, fig.6
2806
Salorno (IT), tomb 98
‗Trilobitenperle‘ spacer bead
-
inhumation
-
-
IVA AD
Roberti 1952, 8, no.7; Noll 1963, 228; Haevernick 1983, 273
2807
Salorno (IT), tomb 95
‗Trilobitenperle‘ spacer bead
-
inhumation
-
-
IVA AD
Noll 1963; Haevernick 1983, 273
3891
La Skhira (TN)
‗Trilobitenperle‘ spacer bead
-
inhumation
-
-
IV AD
Fendri 1961; Haevernick 1983, 275
2755
Matarello (IT)
‗theater mask‘ spacer bead
-
inhumation
female
adult
IVB AD
Cambi 1885, 47, pl.IV:10; Haevernick 1983, 273
2265
Pécs – Sopianae (HU)
‗theater mask‘ spacer bead
bracelet
inhumation
-
child
III-IV AD
Fülep 1984, 90; Gesztelyi 1991, 108, fig.1
2739
Cesena - San Egidio (IT)
‗theater mask‘ spacer bead
bracelet
inhumation
female
child
IIIB AD
Fadini, Montevecchi 2001, 51, fig.3; Mandruzzato 2008, 162
1054
Dieulouard-Scarponne (FR)
double portrait spacer bead
-
inhumation
-
adult
IV AD
Jacobs, von Schwerzenbach 1910; Swift 2000, 293
33
Leithprodersdorf (AT)
single portrait spacer bead
-
inhumation
female
adult
-
Mitscha-Märheim 1957, 42; Haevernick 1983, 272
2252
Keszthely (HU)
single female portrait spacer bead
-
inhumation
-
child
-
Sági 1960,1, fig.4; Haevernick 1983, 271; Gesztelyi 1991,108
2253
200
5.2.2.2.4
Pendants
Twenty pendants from burial contexts have been recorded so far. These are mainly jug-shaped (8 ex.) or barrelshaped (5 ex.), but poppy-head-shaped pendants as well as discoid stamped pendants also occur. The burials
rd
th
yielding a black glass pendant seem to be inhumations dating from the late 3 –early 5 century AD. The material
does not offer good information on the gender and age of the deceased. It is however clear from Table 80 that the
pendants were unmistakable personal ornaments the bearer kept wearing when buried (burial context = 79%) or
got lost somewhere at home (domestic context = c.17%). The archaeological record cannot verify whether this
commodity type had some specific meaning or function to the bearer or the community of the holder, but some
assumptions have been proposed pointing to be emblemata of the Christian community (Stern 1977, 112-115)
[see Chapter 7].
5.2.2.2.5
Gems
The finger rings with glass gemstones from burials can be assessed from the perspective of gender studies.
Unfortunately, this sort of approach could not be worked out. It should be verified whether the use of particular
metals is related to gender or social status, as, for instance, is shown by the two finger rings with glass
gemstones in pseudo nicolo from the Homblières cemetery nearby Abbeville (FR) and now in the M.A.N. in SaintGermain-en-Laye (Guiraud 1998, 134-136): a silver ring [cat.no.A4575] from a male inhumation tomb (no.59), and
a golden ring [cat.no.A4576] from a female inhumation tomb (no.83). The same cemetery yielded also a bronze
ring [cat.no.A4574] with nicolo paste gemstone, but it is unclear from what burial it is retrieved. A careful study of
the number of burial gifts given along with the deceased, the quality of manufacturing and the expensiveness of
the applied materials and techniques can supply indications of the social status of the deceased by means of
calculating the social stress the relatives experienced from the the general public (van Lith, Randsborg 1985).
5.2.2.2.6
Hairpins
Only two examples are known to have come from a burial context, while pins in other glass hues do occur more
regularly as burial gifts, e.g. Colchester (UK) (Crummy 1983, 28, fig.25, nos.462-464), Dunapentele (HU) (Vágó,
Bóna 1976). A short, thick polyhedric head of a hairpin was retrieved from the cemetery des Capucins at Beavais
(FR) [cat.no.1027] during excavations in 1860-61 (Schuler 1995 RAP 3, 62, fig.19:3). The second piece is a
globular head of a hairpin that was found in inhumation tomb 664 of the late Roman/early Medieval cemetery
'Pousse Motte', at Maule (FR) [cat.no.1248] (Arveiller-Dulong 2006, 159, no. 41). All glass, jet, and bone hairpins
from burials display a correlation with women and hairdressing and can therefore be considered a good indicator
for gender studies; within this research, they indicate the presence of women in army camps.
5.2.2.3
Architectural decoration
Despite the statement by Frank Sear (1977) that, particularly during the Julio-Claudian period, the Romans used
glass rods to border polychrome mosaic panels on walls and vaults of nymphaea and tombs in Italy, we could not
attest much architectural decoration material in black glass from funerary contexts. The only funerary context
yielding black glass architectural decoration material is the arcosolium of tomb 88 at Isola Sacra, Ostia (IT).
However, clear evidence of such use is known from various sites within the Gulf of Naplese.g. Pompeii,
Herculaneumbut also from Rome. In addition to tesserae, twisted rods in black glass were used to embellish
burial architecture, such as in a niche of the columbarium of the libertus Pomponius Hylas, where they are used to
frame the inscription and to frame the entire mosaic panel together with a frieze of shells (Sear 1977, 65-66,
no.25). Frank Sear did not specify the hue of the deeply coloured twisted glass rods, but from the colour picture
(Sear 1977, pl.A) we presume that they are black-appearing. The rods framing the entire figurative panel are
monochrome, whereas the rods used to frame the inscription are bichrome (‗black‘-white).
5.2.2.4
Counters
In total, we recorded 30 burial contexts containing 208 black glass counters (Table 95). A number of these
counters formed sets in mainly black and white glass, but also single counters in black as well as opaque white
glass appear to have been given as burial gifts [see Chapter 7]. Several finds demonstrate that not only the
gaming pieces were given to the deceased but also entire gaming sets, like for instance the 13 counters in
monochrome black glass of tomb B435 in the eastern cemetery of London that were found together with 11
opaque white counters and 4 bone dice in a wooden box (Barber, Bowsher 2000, 193, fig.97). The occurrence of
st
board gaming sets is attested all through the Roman imperial period as emonstrated by the mid 1 century AD
th
‗Warrior‘s burial BF64‘ at Stanway near Colchester (UK) and the 4 century AD set from Lullingstone (UK).
201
Table 95: Black glass counters used as burial gifts
cat.no.
provenance
type of counter
decoration
quantity
Berlingen (BE) – tumulus
Burdinne (BE) – tomb 1
Clavier-Vervoz (BE)
Cortil-Noiremont (BE) –
tumulus
indefinite
large – round
medium – round
277
Franchimont (BE)
small – round
317
large – round
small/large – round
medium – round
4094
Herstal (BE) – tumulus
Remicourt (BE)
tumulus of Hodeige
Vorsen (BE) – tumulus
Tienen, Grimde (BE) –
tumulus 1
Amiens (FR)
rue du Faubourg, tomb 4
Frénouville (FR)
tomb 315
Poitiers (FR)
Des Dunes tomb 59
Poitiers (FR)
Des Dunes tomb 94
Strasbourg (FR)
Porte Blanche
Krefeld-Gellep (DE)
tomb 533
Krefeld-Gellep (DE)
tomb 1215
Krefeld-Gellep (DE)
tomb 6352
Esch (NL)
Kollenberg tumulus, grave II
Nijmegen (NL)
Hunerberg – tomb 49
Merida (ES)
tomb 57
Augst (CH)
Chichester (UK)
Cirencester (UK)
Stanway - Colchester (UK) 'The Warrior's burial' BF64
London (UK) - tomb B435
plain
plain
plain
marbled
decoration
dotted
decoration
plain
4152
Lullingstone (UK)
medium - round
4171
Ospringe (UK)
Winchester (UK)
Lankhills tomb 51
Winchester (UK)
Lankhills tomb 336
Winchester (UK)
Grange Road
indefinite
A4486
225-6
600
228
318-9
615
A4612
1001-2
1110
1341-42
1343-44
1677
1905
1903
1904
2877
2937-41; 2943-44; 2951;
2955-61
3185
3271
3987
3990;3992-94;3997-99
A4582
4079-85
4086
4304
burial type
gender
age
date
reference
18
2
12
cremation
cremation
-
-
II AD
-
Roosens, Lux 1973
unpublished
unpublished
6
cremation
-
-
IIB AD (163-200)
1
inhumation
-
-
-
12 (of 27)
cremation
-
-
IIB AD
plain
2
cremation
-
-
-
unpublished
plain
12
cremation
-
-
-
unpublished
indefinite
plain
5 (of 8)
cremation
-
-
IIB AD
De Loë 1895, 129
medium - round
dotted
decoration
17 (of 31)
inhumation
-
-
IV AD
Dilly, Mahéo 1997, 30
medium - round
plain
1
inhumation
female
adult
IV AD
Pilet 1980, II, 167; III, pl.74:315-3
small/medium - round
plain
2
cremation
-
-
II AD
small - round
plain
2
inhumation
-
child
II-III AD
indefinite
dotted
decoration
1
inhumation
-
-
IV AD
medium - round
plain
1(of 3)
cremation
-
-
IVA AD
Pirling 1966, 70, no.533:22
small - round
dotted
decoration
10 (of 26)
inhumation
-
-
IVA AD
Pirling 1966, 141-142, no.1215:21
IVA AD
large – round
Lefrancq 1989, B.13 (9-8), no.30
unpublished
Amand, Mariën 1976, no.33
Simon-Hiernard 2000, 388, nos.364365
Simon-Hiernard 2000, 387-388,
nos.360-361
Arveiller-Dulong, Arveiller 1985, 57
small/medium - round
plain
9 (of 31)
cremation
-
adult
(20-60)
small - round
plain
8
cremation
-
-
IIb-IIc AD
medium - round
dotted
decoration
15 (of 30)
inhumation
-
-
IV AD
small - round
plain
1
inhumation
-
child
-
unpublished
large - round
small - round
small/medium (1) - round
plain
plain
plain
1
1
6
-
-
-
-
small - round
plain
11 (of 20)
cremation
male
adult
mid I AD (43-50)
small - round
plain
dotted
decoration
plain
dotted
decoration
dotted
decoration
13 (of 24)
inhumation
-
-
Ib - Id AD (40-80)
unpublished
unpublished
Charlesworth 1982
Crummy, P. et al. 2007, 186-188;
217, fig.89
Barber, Bowsher 2000, 193, fig.97
15 (of 30)
inhumation
male
adult
IV AD
Meates 1987, 123–5, 139–42 no. 391
Whiting et al. 1931, pl.LVI
plain
medium - round
medium - round
indefinite
4 (of 24)
cremation
-
-
IId AD
15 (of 24)
inhumation
male
adult
IV AD (310-370/90)
1
inhumation
female
juvenile
IVc AD (350-370)
4 (of 18)
inhumation
female?
-
Id AD (85-95)
Pirling, Siepen 2006, 599-600,
no.6352:12, pl.105-106
Van den Hurk 1973, 217, no.II,34,
fig.44
Van Enckevort 2008
Clarke 1979, 251-252
Clarke 1979, 251
Biddle 1976, 244-245
202
The obtained information is very limited because anthropological research is seldomly done or doable due to the
limited or bad preservation of the bones. Hence, the evaluation of (black) glass counters in burial context does not
contribute much to a better understanding of the gender or age. Table 95 demonstrates that the deceased who
received (black) glass counters as burial gift could be male as well as female, adult as well as juvenile or even a
child.
It seems that board gaming sets were burial gifts in rich burials of the upper class and most likely are to be
regarded a status symbol.
th
The occurrence of polychrome counters in only inhumation tombs of the 4 century AD makes it idiosyncratic to
the late Roman period, whereas the monochrome counters are attested in inhumation tombs as well as in
st
cremation tombs all through the Roman imperial period from the mid 1 century AD but mainly concentrate in the
nd
rd
2 –3 century AD.
5.2.3
Ritual context
In connection with the discussion on the use and function of commodities in black-appearing glass [see Chapter
7], we assumed it was important to verify the occurrence of good cases from ritual contexts to help provide
material evidence for possible ritual uses, but with 63 entries from the 4475 artefacts only a minor number of
black glass artefacts have come from a ritual context (Figure 95; Table 78). Jewellery in black glass perhaps
constitutes more than three quarters of all ritual deposits (79,4%), but the very rare occasions on which black
glass jewellery has been retrieved from ritual contexts (50 entries) contrasts with the occurrence in burial contexts
from civil and military settlements (Figures 96-97; 108). Although jewellery can hardly be associated to ritual
deposits, some jewellery types such as for instance bangles have been reported several times. The black glass
vessels and counters are even less frequently occurring in ritual contexts, respectively with 7 vessels (11,1%),
and 6 counters (9,5%), whereas architectural decoration has not been recorded from ritual deposits at all (Figure
107).
ritual
production
0%
architectural
decoration
0%
counters
10%
vessels
11%
jewellery
79%
Figure 107: Pie-chart showing the functional types of black glass artefacts from Roman ritual contexts
5.2.3.1
Vessels
We can say that black-appearing glass vessels were not an issue in ritual deposits. Hitherto, no more than 7
pieces of black glass vessels have been recorded to have come from civil ritual contexts. Everything seems to
point to an undisputed custom, but infrequent practice during Period II within the north-western provincesmore
precisely in Germania Inferior and Germania Superior.
A fragment of a carinated beaker, Form IIB.1, comes from the diverticulum at Baudecet (BE) [cat.no.195]. Four
vessels excavated at the Maasplein in Nijmegen (NL) one is a cup with bulbous body, Form IIB.5 [cat.no.2976];
two are fragments of a carinated beaker [cat.no.2977-78]; one entry remains indefinite [cat.no.2980] are said to
have been retrieved from the sanctuary but seeing that this material comes from a cesspit, it is very unlikely that
the black glass vessels have received a ritual character. Another indefinite vessel shape comes from Temple 1 in
Regio 3C of Augusta Raurica in Augst (CH) [cat.no.3497]. The last piece, a cup with bulbous body, comes from
the temple ‗Le Cigonier‘ at Avenches (CH) [cat.no.3613].
203
5.2.3.2
Jewellery
Table 96 shows that the 50 black glass pieces of jewellery from civil ritual contexts are mainly arm rings with 2/3
of the entries considered, while the occurrence of finger rings, beads, gems, and one pendant remains rather
marginal within ritual deposits. To our knowledge, no hairpin has been retrieved so far. Seeing the rare
occurrence of black glass material in ritual contexts and the general dating of the assemblages in centuries it was
rd
th
impossible to overview the repartition per period. We see however that the main body falls in the 3 4 centuries
AD, in particular in Period III and the start of Period IV, whereas there is a total absence in Period I and nearly
none in Period II. Most material seems to have been lost during the visit of the sanctuary by the pious visitor
Table 96: Overview of the different types of black glass jewellery from civil/ritual contexts
type
bracelets
finger rings
beads
pendants
gems
hairpins
TOTAL
A1-6 (16 ex.); B2 (1 ex.);B5 (1 ex.); C2 (1 ex.); D1 (15 ex.); D7; U2; indefinite
A1:3; A2:1; C1:1; indefinite
small annular plain; indefinite
indefinite
flat elliptical nicolo imitations (Henig F2/4); loose or inserted in finger ring and
-
Total
quantity
%
37 (39)
68,5
11,1
6
7,4
4
1,8
1
11,1
6
54 (56)
99,9
The 37 arm rings in black glass that have been ascribed to ritual deposits (Tables 96-97) remain quite
177
insignificant compared to the arm rings from other context circumstances (Figure 103). A re-evaluation of the
database necessitates questioning whether these artefacts were part of a ritual deposit or just coincidentally
lost/broken within a religious public building. Furthermore, the late Roman bangle of Type D1 from the Temple of
Hibis at Ain-et-Turba (EG) is probably from a domestic context, seeing that from the late Roman period the Coptic
community swallowed the ancient architecture by building mud brick houses in and around the sanctuaries
dedicated to a deity of the pharaonic pantheon. It is unclear how to interpret the two bangles from the early
Christian basilica complex of Bir Ftouha (TN), but very likely it is not more than the remains of an accident by a
female churchgoer. The same should be considered for the 3 arm ring fragments from sector K of the ‗grande
tempio‘ in the city centre of Luni (IT). On the other hand, the fragments from Matagne-la-Grande, Tourinnes-SaintLambert, Vervoz-Clavier, Alise-Sainte-Reine, Arras, Estrées-Saint-Denis and Bastendorf came from Gallo-Roman
sanctuaries, either from pit deposits, favissae, or within the sanctuary architecture. An intact open bracelet with
wide twisted decoration, Type A2, was found in a well at the Cybele sanctuary of Arras (FR) (Trésors
archéologiques 1997, no.128). Also an open bracelet with alternating twisted decoration and plain zones, Type A5,
came from a well that was re-used as a ritual pit on the vicus-site at Waudrez/ Vodgoriacum (BE) (Hanut, Capers
2003, 5-104). A similar A5-bangle was found with two other bracelets at the late Roman sanctuary of ClavierVervoz (Witvrouw, Witvrouw 1976, 178, fig.40:16-17; 197, fig.40:18). The open A5-bangle was excavated in the
southern portico of Building D together with a closed bracelet with fine twists decorated with a twisted double trail
in opaque white glass, Type A6. The third bracelet, of undefined type, was found in Temple A. Finally, a large
piece of an open bracelet of Type C2 with 6 lengthwise ribs crossed with transverse pinches and a spatula178
shaped ending is presumed to have been found within the favissa at Tourinnes-Saint-Lambert (BE) .
Different is the open, plain bracelet with O-shaped section, of Type A1, that came from a shallow pit in the rural
settlement of Veldwezelt (BE). The incomplete bracelet was found with an incomplete dish in smoked ware
covered with a wrapped-up iron chain with large links and a bronze barrel-shaped lamp or incense burner
(unpublished). A related situation has been uncovered in Nijmegen (unpublished) where a nearly complete bangle
of Type A4 was found in a pit amid the cemetery, which also contained the skeleton of a dog.
The deity to whom the offering might have been dedicated is unknown and is most likely unrelated, because the
bangle from ‗La Croix Saint-Charles‘ at Alise-Sainte-Reine (FR) is dedicated to Apollo Moritasgus and the Arrasbangle is dedicated to Cybele. From excavations at the temple of Athena Itonia nearby Philia in Thessaly (GR)
were retrieved two intact arm rings type A1 with a quadrangular section at the seam (Kilian-Dirlmeier 2002, 130131, nos.1958-1959, fig.117). The bangle from ‗Le Bois de Noël‘ at Matagne-la-Grande comes from a
Constantine sanctuary; nevertheless, it is unclear to whom it may be dedicated (Cattelain, Paridaens 2009).
177
The material from the subaquatic deposits in the cave Trou de Han at Han-sur-Lesse (BE) are also to be considered ritual deposits but are
discussed under 5.4.1).
178
Personal communication by Frédéric Hannut.
204
Despite the fact that the temple of Apollo at Alise-Sainte-Reine (FR) had a spring with medicinal effect there is no
direct relation to connect the black glass bangle with medical superstition.
Concerning the beads, we can be brief as only the small annular bead from the Constantinian sanctuary of ‗Le
Bois de Noël‘ at Matagne-la-Grande (BE) is known [cat.no.436] (Cattelain, Paridaens 2009, 111, no.2, fig.50:2).
Another bead from the same site might perhaps be a mistake by the author.
Table 97: Black glass bangles from ritual context
cat.no.
site
type
368
Liberchies (BE)
D1
completeness
context
sanctuary
sanctuary
favissa
ritual deposit (indigenous dwelling)
sanctuary – southern portico
sanctuary – southern portico
434
566
591
604
606
Matagne-la-Grande (BE)
Tourinnes-Saint-Lambert (BE)
Veldwezelt (BE)
Clavier-Vervoz (BE)
Clavier-Vervoz (BE)
A4
C2
U2
A5
A6
fragmentary
fragmentary
fragmentary
fragmentary
fragmentary
fragmentary
608
Clavier-Vervoz (BE)
undefined
fragmentary
sanctuary – buiding adjacent to the southern
portico
625
795
1000
1024
1060-71
1669
1988
1993
1994
1995
2748-49
2751
2855
2856
2857
2968
3887
3889
A4580-81
Waudrez (BE)
Ain-et-Turba (EG)
Alise-Sainte-Reine (FR)
Arras (FR)
Estrées-Saint-Denis (FR)
Septeuil (FR)
Ober-Olm (DE)
Pommern a/d Mosel (DE)
Pommern a/d Mosel (DE)
Pommern a/d Mosel (DE)
Luni (IT)
Luni (IT)
Bastendorf (LU)
Bastendorf (LU)
Bastendorf (LU)
Nijmegen (NL)
Carthage (TN)
Carthage (TN)
Philia (GR)
A5
D1
A2
A2
D1
undefined
A1
A1
A2
A6
D1
D7
A2
A6
A3
A4
B2
B5
A1
fragmentary
fragmentary
fragmentary
complete
fragmentary
fragmentary
fragmentary
fragmentary
fragmentary
fragmentary
fragmentary
fragmentary
fragmentary
fragmentary
fragmentary
nearly complete
fragmentary
fragmentary
complete
ritual deposit in pit
temple of Hibis
temple of Apollo Moritasgus
temple of Cybele
sanctuary - fanum
Mithraeum
unknown
sanctuary
sanctuary
sanctuary
temple (Grande tempio)
temple (Grande tempio)
sanctuary
sanctuary
sanctuary
ritual deposit (cemetery)
Christian basilica
Christian basilica
temple of Athena Itonia
5.2.3.3
Architectural decoration
So far, we have not recorded architectural decoration material from (civil) ritual contexts.
5.2.3.4
Counters
From the total of 6 black glass counters that are known to have come from civil ritual contexts (Table 98) and the
very limited information, we can conclude that counters are rather coincidentally occurring in religious precincts
and consequently were never used in rituals during the Roman imperial period. In other words, counters have
never had a ritual character in Roman society.
Table 98: Black glass counters from ritual contexts
cat.no.
site
type
999
Alba-la-Romaine (FR)
small-round
1219-20
Loubers (FR)
indefinite
4241
Uley (UK)
small-oval
4242
Uley (UK)
small-oval
4243
Uley (UK)
small-oval
decoration
undecorated
undecorated
undecorated
undecorated
dotted decoration
context
Northern court
undefined
Structure IX
Structure XIV
Structure XIV
period
Period II
no dated context
Period (III-)IV
Period IV
Period IV
A small plano-convex counter in monochrome black glass was found in the northern courtyard of the ―Bagnols‖
sanctuary at Alba-la-Romaine (FR). The piece came from a feature related to modification works carried out in the
nd
second half of the 2 century AD (Period II) at the northern court: an open area behind the large peristylium
flanking the eastwest orientated temple (Roussel-Ode 2008, 59, fig.3:10). The piece cannot be connected to a
ritual deposit, and consequently it most likely is to be considered as a coincidental loss rather than part of a ritual
action. The marked absence of glass counters in ritual contexts makes it obvious that the Romans excluded
205
gaming pieces from any ritual act and gave such material a rather trivial meaning. Furthermore, counters were
omnipresent commodities in Roman times and used anywhere for gaming, even up to the threshold of a
179
temple.
Two black glass counters were reported from the fanum ‗Camp-Ferrus‘ at Loubers (FR), but without detailed
description of the pieces or any further information on the find circumstances (Bessou 1978, Gallia 36, 212).
From the West Hill Temple Site at Uley (UK), three black glass counters were retrieved, one of which was in
opaque blue glass with 4 dots (Woodward, Leach 1993, 177, fig.135:15-17). The contexts in which the pieces
th
th
th
were found are dated 4 -early 5 century AD in general and refined to the second half of the 4 century AD.
5.3 Military contexts
The 498 (531) black glass artefacts from military contexts display a preponderance of jewellery and gaming
180
pieces, a small presence of black glass vessels , and a clear absence of architectural decoration material and
181
any indications of manufacturing black glass (Table 99; Figure 108). The absence of architectural decoration
material in black glass is in line with the total absence of monumental ornamentation at army camps in general
and corroborates the purely functional character of military settlements. The absence of black glass production
material at military complexes almost certainly excludes production activities of glass counters and glass jewellery
by soldiers. The production of the latter must be considered in a civil workshop at the canabae legionis that grew
around an army camp, as is demonstrated by the ‗Medizinklinik‘ workshop close by the camp of Bonn (DE) [see
5.2, ‗Civil contexts‘]. It is, however, not excluded that black glass objects have been manufactured within army
camps, seeing the presence of a glass workshop in the castra Bonnensia in Bonn (DE) (Follmann-Schulz 1991).
Table 99: Black glass artefacts from military contexts (additional entries between brackets)
military context
quantity
%
vessels
jewellery
architectural decoration
counters
production
total
29 (+2)
240 (+1)
0
227 (+31)
1
497 (531)
5,8 (5,8)
48,3 (45,4)
0,0
45,7 (48,6)
0,2
100,0
military context
production
0%
182
military context
production
0%
vessels
6%
vessels
6%
counters
46%
counters
49%
jewellery
45%
jewellery
48%
architectural
decoration
0%
architectural
decoration
0%
Figure 108: Black glass from military contexts (right: with additional entries)
The black glass jewellery is dual as it comprises jewellery that can be related solely to men, the gemstones set in
finger rings, whereas other jewellery is specifically used by women and girls, e.g. arm rings, hairpins, and
179
It probably was no more than a lost piece from someone gaming in the courtyard, seeing that plenty of carved board games are known from
peristylia, agorae, and temples such as Philippi (GR) or Sagalassos (TR).
180
See 5.3.5., ‗Vessels‘, for a more detailed view.
181
The piece of raw glass from Rumst-Molenveld (BE) is taken out of consideration here as it might be intrusive, seeing that its chemical
composition does not correspond to the main Roman composition [see Chapter 8, sample PC1f].
182
The additional recorded material does not change the initial ratios much (see also Figure 98).
206
bracelets or necklaces with spacer beads. The presence of typically female jewellery, such as black glass arm
rings and beaded necklaces, points to the presence of women and girls in and/or around the military settlements
[see subsequent sections in this chapter and Chapter 7]. The findings presented here are perhaps not adding
much new to the current archaeological debate concerning the presence of women and children in and around
Roman army camps, but act as independently acquired additional evidence corroborating previous work (Van
Driel-Murray 1994; 1997; Allison 2006; 2008). Within the scope of our research, it was impossible to go beyond
interpreting the black glass artefact distribution and trying to understand the social structure within Roman army
camps in general and the role of women and the family unit of soldiers in particular, because such understandings
cannot be deduced from archaeological evidence alone and need interaction with epigraphic sources.
The high proportion of black glass counters within army camps corroborates the omnipresence of gaming pieces
in various other glass hues as well as in other materials. Board games, on the other hand, definitely played an
important role in helping soldiers fight boredom between drill exercises and other camp activities. In view of the
abovementioned gender presence in the military community, it is possible that these board games were also used
by children.
The cataloguing of the black glass artefacts from military contexts has been done in a similar way as for those
from civil settlements, i.e. per commodity category within defined contexts of the military unity (domestic, public,
ritual, burial, and production) in order to evaluate more in detail who used such commodities and where they were
used. The accessibility to detailed context information remained, however, rather limited for most artefacts,
making a contextual analysis of the available information not significant. No further context details were at hand
183
for 457 out of 497 items, or 92% (Table 100). Only 15 records came from burial contexts, 3 pieces were found
in a ritual context, 10 pieces came from a public context, and 8 pieces came from a domestic context. This
meagre result made us decide to consider the material from another point of viewi.e. by considering the
material per camp type, as this approach demonstrates the potential to incorporate the artefacts of ‗unknown‘
provenance. The provenance of black glass material from army camps, including those sites with undefined
contextual data, illustrates that a substantial part came from late Roman hill forts in Belgium and northern France,
th
th
which were particularly in use during the later 4 and early 5 century AD.
Table 100: Overview of the contextual data of black glass
undefined context
cat.no.
site
camp type
commodity
35-121
Magdalensberg (AT)
castellum
235-254
263;266-68
343;345;351
371
455-58
459
465
521-25
637-38
820;822;826-27;829-31;
838
828
818
853-55
1134
1222
1749-51;1753-58
1752
1773-93
1931-32
1933-34
1941;1943;1947
Dourbes (BE)
Eprave (BE)
Liberchies (BE)
hill fort
hill fort
castellum
Nismes (BE)
2 hill forts
counter
bead
vessel
arm ring
arm ring
counter
bead
arm ring
vessel
Oudenburg (BE)
Taviers (BE)
Krivina (BUL)
Dush Kysis (EG)
castellum
burgus
castellum
castellum
1949
1981
Grandes-Armoises (FR)
Lugasson (FR)
Vireux (FR)
hill fort
hill fort
hill fort
Bad Homburg-Saalburg (DE)
Kreimbach-Kaulbach (DE)
castellum
hill fort
Mainz (DE)
castellum
Miltenberg-Altstadt (DE)
Neuwied-Niederbieber (DE)
castellum
castellum
quantity
arm ring
spacer-bead
arm ring
71
1
14
20
4
3
1
4
1
18
5
2
8
bead
pendant
vessel
arm ring
finger ring
arm ring
finger ring
gem
finger ring
arm ring
arm ring
counter
vessel
arm ring
gem
1
1
3
1
1
9
1
21
2
2
1
1
1
1
1
period
I
IV
IV
III-IV
IV
III
II-IV
IV
III-IV
IV
IV
IV
IV
II-III
III-IV
I-III
III-IV
II-III
183
A consequent and more detailed study on this issue will enable the defining of more context details of a good number of
records.
207
2110
2477-78
2908-10;2913-17;2919;
2921-27;2929-36;2942;
2945-50;2953-54
2989
2993-2996
Wiesbaden (DE)
Mezad Tamar
Nijmegen (NL)
castellum
castrum
castrum
gem
arm ring
counter
1
2
33
I
IV
I
Utrecht (NL)
Vechten (NL)
castellum
castellum
Fiães - Vila da Feira (PT)
Hru ica (SL)
Kaiseraugst (CH)
castrum
castellum
castrum
arm ring
1
3
1
1
30
15
I-III
I-III
3101
3121-50
3647;3666-68;3672;
3675-78;3680;3685-86
3646
3638;3640
3652-53;3673-74;3682-83
3784-86;3788-91;3793-97
3792
3919
3924
3977-83
4034-4039
4040-43
4069
4070
4180
4185-88
4182;4184
4220-21
4222;4224-26;4229
4223;4228
4227;4230
counter
counter
gem
arm ring
finger ring
counter
bead
arm ring
bead
gem
gem
gem
counter
gem
gem
gem
counter
gem
bead
counter
gem
bead
pendant
1
2
7
12
1
1
1
7
6
4
1
1
1
4
2
2
4
2
1
Pfyn (CH)
hill fort
Birrens (UK)
Burnswark (UK)
Chesterholm (UK)
Corbridge (UK)
castrum
castrum
castellum
castrum
Hod Hill (UK)
Housesteads (UK)
Richborough (UK)
hill fort
castrum
castrum
South Shields (UK)
castrum
IV
IV
IV
IV
II-III
II-III
II-III
I-III
I
II-III
I-IV
I-IV
funerary context
cat.no.
site
camp type
commodity
quantity
117
278-281
479;482;483;488;490
1867
1868
3787
4023
4289
Magdalensberg (AT)
Furfooz (BE)
Oudenburg (BE)
Eining (DE)
castellum
hill fort
castellum
castellum
vessel
arm ring
arm ring
arm ring
spacer-bead
bead
counter
counter
1
4
5
1
1
1
1
1
cat.no.
site
commodity
quantity
1892
1998
4033
Isny-Bettmauer (DE)
Regensburg (CH)
Corbridge (UK)
spacer-bead
gem
counter
1
1
1
cat.no.
site
camp type
commodity
quantity
819;821;824
1873-74
1872
1870-71
3917
3918
Dush Kysis (EG)
Epfach (DE)
castellum
hill fort
Birdoswald (UK)
castrum
arm ring
arm ring
spacer-bead
counter
finger ring
gem
3
2
1
2
1
1
quantity
Pfyn (CH)
Corbridge (UK)
Usk (UK)
castellum
castrum
castellum
ritual context
camp type
castellum
castellum
castrum
public context
period
I
IV
II-IV
IV
IV
I-II
I-II
period
III
II
I-II
period
III-IV
IV
I-II
domestic context
cat.no.
site
camp type
commodity
217
480
814;825;834;839
836
4181
4183
Braives (BE)
Oudenburg (BE)
Dush Kysis (EG)
burgus
castellum
castellum
Richborough (UK)
castrum
arm ring
gem
arm ring
bead
counter
bead
208
1
1
3
2
1
1
period
III
II-III
III-IV
I-II
5.3.1
Funerary context
The material does not show regularity in commodity type, in period, or type of army camp, besides the very poor
representation of black glass material from burials at military settlements: 15 artefacts from 12 contexts from 6
sites.
About the vessel fragment of form IA.2 from Magdalensberg (AT), nothing more is known than that it is from tomb
184
3 which is dated 10-40 AD. Since it is a fragment, it could have been intrusive and not a burial gift, unless it had
been a primary burial gift and was what remained or got picked up from the pyre.
The arm rings have been retrieved from burials of girls or young women, likewise in civil settlements, and are all
late types, D1 and D2. Those from tomb 2 at the ‗Unterfeld‘ cemetery of Eining (DE) and tomb 194 of the late
Roman cemetery of Oudenburg (BE) were singular pieces, whereas those from tombs 2 and 22 at Furfooz (BE)
and tomb 100 at Oudenburg were worn in pairs. The Type D1-bangles from Furfooz were found in inhumation
burials, within a bath complex that probably got out of use or was converted into a church. Both deceased were
girls wearing glass arm rings at the left wrist; likewise, the girl of Eining and the young woman of tomb 194 at
Oudenburg. The use and possible meaning is discussed in Chapter 7. The bones from tomb 100 at Oudenburg
were badly preserved, but the two black glass bangles were found together with a bronze arm ring at the area of
the hip joint. This position suggests that the hands were placed together on the abdomen. It is, however,
impossible to identify on which wrist the glass bangles were worn, even if the position at the right side of the coffin
corresponds with the conventional notion. The arm rings all come from inhumation burials which show no
uniformity in orientation: either eastwest (Oudenburg T100; ...) or southnorth (Oudenburg 194;...).
The bead from Pfyn (CH) is considered to be a pendant of a necklace, as can be seen from burials at civil
settlements. This bead as well as the spacer-bead from Eining is from an uncertain funerary context.
Both counters from the burials at Corbridge (UK) and Usk (UK) are possible examples of pars pro toto and are
also attested at civil settlements as well as with counters in other glass hues [see Chapter 7].
The arm rings and other black glass jewels found in burials connected to a military settlement can be related to
female relatives of the military staff, without being able to affirm whether they are restricted to the officers‘ family
or also to the wives/girls/sisters of soldiers. A more specific study of all small finds from army camps in relation to
gender studies is essential but also necessitates a comparative assessment with imagery (portraits) and written
sources, in particular the epigraphic sources.
5.3.2
Ritual context
The three known ritual deposits that contained black glass artefacts are the treasures of Vemania fortress nearby
Isny (DE) (Garbsch 1971, 137, fig.30), the fortress of Regensburg-Kumpfmühl (DE) (Boos et al. 2000, 23, no.5,
Taf.5,1; 6,4), and the hoard of Corbridge (UK) (Allason-Jones, Bishop 1988). The Corbridge hoard is a wooden
box filled with military equipment and utensils containing a set of 54 glass counters, of which 23 are in black glass
and 31 in white glass. Seeing the use of 12 or 24 counters (6 or 12 in a contrasting colour per player), it is clear
that the amount of glass counters is more than a set and should be considered a collective bag wherein all
counters of a person or group of persons are put together.
The late Roman fortress nearby Isny, dated 260-380 AD, lies on the Roman road Bregenz-Kempten at the
Donau-limes in the provincia Raetia. The Vemania treasure, which was found at the northern barracks of the
castellum, contained a necklace with 10 so-called ‗Trilobitenperlen‘ combined with cylindrical beads in jet and gold.
The stratigraphy within which the treasure was found is dated at the culmination of phases 3 and 4 and
th
consequently dated around 305 AD (Garbsch, Kos 1988). The early 4 -century treasure was most probably the
property of an officer, and consequently the black glass spacer-bead necklace must have belonged to the officer‘s
wife, a very plausible assumption seeing that the officer‘s family was allowed within the camp limits (Campbell
2010, 50). On the basis of the ban on marriage for soldiers stated by ancient writers, the widespread model on the
organization of army camps has always been that spouses and children of common soldiers were not allowed
within the army camp (Phang 2001), and that they must have settled at the limits of the garrison to form the core
of a canabae legionis. In particular, the reforms by the emperor Septimius Severus in AD 198 who legitimised the
184
Personal communication by Barbara Czurda-Ruth (2005).
209
marriage of soldiers (Barnes 2008) feed the idea that at least during the 1 2 centuries AD, army camps did not
host the women and children of the soldiers. Although the presence of women and children within the military
community has been repeatedly confirmed by archaeological evidence (Allason-Jones 1995; Allison 2006; 2008;
Van Driel-Murray 1994; 1997), its approval only slowly overcame the biased assumptions by archaeologists and
historians due to scepticism on the issue (James 2006). Conversely, epigraphic evidence from Roman military
diplomas put forward that specifically auxiliary soldiers took along their wives and children when the unit travelled
or remained in a castellum (Roxan 1991; Saller, Shaw 1984; Phang 2001). It is, however, not excluded that the
black glass jewellery could have been worn by other women roaming around at army camps, such as
freedwomen, concubines, prostitutes, and kitchen maids, focariae.
st
5.3.3
nd
Public contexts
The material at hand does not provide any significant information to postulate a hypothesis. The 12 artefacts from
4 military sites yielded black glass objects from public contexts and consist of 4 counters, 5 arm rings, 1 spacerbead, 1 finger ring and 1 gemstone. The public building of Magdalensberg (AT) is to be dated in Period I; all other
material from public contexts that came from Dush Kysis (EG), Epfach (DE) and Birdoswald (UK) is from Period
IV.
The 2 counters from Magdalensberg were found in cistern NG/20. The 3 arm rings from Dush Kysis came from
different areas: 1 Type D1 from the south-western corner of the fortress [cat.no.819]; 1 Type B2 variant from the
North Gate [cat.no.821]; and 1 Type D1 from the second courtyard of the Temple [cat.no.824]185. The 5 pieces
from the hill fort Lorenzberg at Epfach were 2 counters, 1 spacer-bead and 2 arm rings and mainly came from the
horreum (Magazingebäude, Raum A-B) and the so-called Lorenzkapelle (Raum A). Also the finger ring and
pseudo-nicolo gemstone from Birdoswald came from a horreum (Building 197) (Wilmott et al. 1997, 283, fig.194,
no.85; Henig 1997, 285, fig.195, no.89). The horreum was built during the Severan period under Severus,
th
Caracalla and Elegabalus (c. 198-215 AD) but underwent a change of use around the mid-4 century AD and
th
received a sub-floor. The finger ring was found in the floor layer of Phase E of Period 5 (second half of the 4
century AD), and the gemstone was recorded in the backfill on top of the sub-floor. This dump is also considered
Phase E of Period 5 (Wilmott et al. 1997).
We have to consider these fragmented commodities as the remains of lost objects (in the case of the counters) or
of broken objects that have fallen on the ground (arm rings) and small bits and pieces that slipped through the
fissures of the wooden floor of, for instance, the horrea or in the sand and vegetation of open courts. On further
consideration of the presence of women in the military community, it is very likely that women worked in the
horrea or at least were allowed to enter the storerooms.
5.3.4
Domestic contexts
Only nine pieces from four military sites yielded black glass artefacts from domestic contexts.
The material from the desert fortress of Dush Kysis in the Kharga oasis (EG) possibly gives an idea of the
women‘s rooms within the fortress or even the family rooms, considering that also girls wore black glass bangles:
3 arm rings – from room I (Type D1); corridor 16 (indefinite); room 2A (Type D1)
2 beads – room V (small globular-shaped); room 14 (indefinite)
Further, there is an arm ring of Type A1 from the small castellum/burgus, ‗Les Sarrasins‘ at Braives (BE)
(Vilvorder 1993, 243); a nicolo imitation gemstone in a layered blue-on-black glass decorated with an eagle from a
waste pit in the south-western corner of the castellum at Oudenburg (unpublished); a small round counter from
waste pit 20 and a small annular bead from a ditch/waste pit from Richborough (UK) (Bushe-Fox 1928, 31, pl.XIV,
fig.2; Bushe-Fox 1949, 149, no.236).
5.3.4.1
Vessels
Due to the limited context information available, we can remain very brief about the context analysis of the
vessels, seeing that the total of not more than 29 (31) pieces of the 651 (681) black glass vessels are known to
185
Personal commuinication by Marie-Dominique Nenna.
210
have come from military settlement contexts. The majority of this small quantity makes it of no use to discuss
much more in detail this issue, especially because the recorded material is limited to a few sites from Period I
(Table 101).
It is interesting that the Period I vessels are all limited to cast, shallow, hemispherical and cylindrical cups and
dishes of the forms IA.2 and IA.4 except for the tripod table, form IA.7, which came from the Claudian-Neronian
auxiliary fort of Caersws (UK) (Cool, Price 1995, 26; Cosyns, Fontaine 2009, tab. 1, forme 19). The cups and
dishes all were retrieved in the Alpine and upper Rhine regionsi.e. Magdalensberg (AT), Mainz (DE), and
Windisch/Vindonissa (CH). These sites were Celtic settlements where early legionary camps were established
under Augustan rule and obtained a privileged economical status. This occurrence of the black-appearing glass
vessels is connected to the presence of other monochrome deeply coloured glass vessels (Berger 1960; CzurdaRuth 1979; 1998; 2001; 2003) but is unlikely to be dated that early. Because it is generally considered that
polychrome deeply coloured glass was prevalent in AugustanTiberian times, more importance has to be given to
the early material on British sites such as the Caersws‘ tripod, dating from the very early moments of the Roman
invasion under the emperor Claudius.
Table 101: Overview of ratios of black glass vessels per period from military settlement contexts
Period I
Period II
Period III
cat.no.
site
quantity
%
quantity
%
quantity
%
A4499
Caersws (UK)
1
5,3
0
0
107-121;A4489
Magdalensberg (AT)
16
84,2
0
0
1947
Mainz (DE)
1
5,3
0
0
3806
Windisch (CH)
1
5,3
0
0
492-94
Oudenburg (BE)
0
3
37,5
0
510-14
Rumst (BE)
0
5
62,5
0
459
Nismes (BE)
0
0
1
100
853-855
Dush Kysis (EG)
0
0
0
TOTAL
19
61,3
8
25,8
1
3,2
Period IV
quantity
%
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
3
100
3
9,7
The vessels of Period II have been retrieved from Belgian sites and are all of carinated beakers, form IIB.1,
except for two indefinite fragments from the castellum at Oudenburg (BE). The fragment from the Period III-IV hill
fort of Roche Sainte Anne at Nismes is an example of a late use of such carinated beakers because the
nd
production and distribution of this vessel type was more or less limited to the last quarter of the 2 to the first
rd
quarter of the 3 century AD [see Chapter 4]. The vessel, therefore, must have come from an early context of the
rd
initial phase of the fortified settlement, from the third quarter of the 3 century AD, when the north-western
provinces were devastated by Frankish incursions. The material from Oudenburg came from the south-eastern
corner of the castellum, but mainly from the thick black layer that covers the entire site. The Oudenburg material
possibly connected with the last phase of the preceding vicus, i.e. IId AD, and likewise the pieces from the
castellum Rumst-Molenveld (Sevenants, Cosyns et al. 2006).
The Period IV vessels from military contexts have been so far recorded from Dush Kysis (EG) in the Kharga oasis,
rd
th
where late Roman military installations were built during the 3 4 centuries AD and lasted until the beginning of
th
the 5 century (Reddé et al. 2004). The vessels are all three rod-formed squat jars, Form IVD.2, decorated with
applied trails in opaque blue or yellow glass. The rod-formed vessels such as these jars are characteristic for the
region [see Chapter 6] and are to be considered the late variant of the solid body unguentaria which is attested to
have been a frequent commodity on military settlements (Brun 2003).
5.3.4.2
Jewellery
Table 102: Overview of ratios of the different types of jewellery per c amp type
castrum
castellum
burgus
quantity
%
quantity
%
quantity
%
Bracelets
Finger rings
Beads
Pendants
Gems
Hairpins
TOTAL
18
1
13
2
16
0
50
12,2
16,7
44,8
66,7
30,2
0
20,8
69
1
12
1
37
1
121
46,6
16,7
41,4
33,3
69,8
100
50,4
5
0
0
0
0
0
5
3,4
0
0
0
0
0
2,1
hill fort
quantity
%
TOTAL
quantity
%
56
4
4
0
0
0
64
148
6
29
3
53
1
240
37,8
66,7
13,8
0
0
0
26,7
100
100,1
100
100
100
100
100
211
In total, 239 (240) pieces of jewellery in black glass are known to have come from military settlement contexts, of
which 149 ex. or 61,8% are arm rings, 6 ex. or 2,5% finger rings, 29 ex. or 12,0% beads, 3 ex. or 1,2% pendants,
53 ex. or 22,0% gems and 1 ex. or 0,4% hairpins (Table 102).
5.3.4.2.1
Arm rings
Table 103: Bracelets from military sites
cat.no.
site
camp type
shape
n
period
A2
A1
A3
B1
B2
D1
D1
U1
D1
B2
C1
D1
A1
A2
A4
B1
C3
D1
D2
A3
A4
C2
B2
C3
D1
D2
indefinite
D1
A1
A2
D1
indefinite
C3
D5
D1
A2
A4
D1
D2
A2
D1
D2
D5
undefined
A1
A2
A4
A6
C1
D1
D2
D4
A2
D1
D2
D3
1
1
1
1
1
17
2
1
4
2
1
1
2
2
2
1
4
11
1
2
1
2
1
1
6
2
4
1
1
2
6
1
1
1
2
1
1
2
1
1
9
1
1
15
1
2
1
1
2
6
1
1
1
8
2
1
II-III
III
III-IV
161
217
235-54
Mautern (AT)
Braives (BE)
Dourbes (BE)
castellum
castellum
hill fort
263;268
266
278-81
455-58
Eprave (BE)
hill fort
Furfooz (BE)
Nismes (BE)
hill fort
hill fort
467-70;472-79;481-91
Oudenburg (BE)
castellum
521-22
523
524-25
814;819-22;824;826-27;
829-31;834;838-39
Taviers (BE)
burgus
Dush Kysis (EG)
castellum
1134
1749-51;1753
Grandes Armoises (FR)
Vireux-Molhain (FR)
indefinite
hill fort
1868
1873-74
Eining (DE)
Epfach (DE)
castellum
hill fort
1933-34
1943
1949
2477-78
3101
3121-29;3131-44;3146-49
Kreimbach-Kaulbach (DE)
Mainz (DE)
Miltenberg-Altstadt (DE)
Mezad Tamar (IL)
Fiães - Vila da Feira (PT)
Hru ica (SL)
hill fort
castellum
castellum
castrum
castrum
castellum
3647;3650-51;3654;366668;3672;3675-78;3680;368586
Kaiseraugst (CH)
castrum
3784-86;3788-91;3793-97
Pfyn (CH)
hill fort
III-IV
IV
III-IV
II-IV
III-IV
III-IV
III-IV
III-IV
III-IV
III-IV
III-IV
III-IV
III-IV
III-IV
III-IV
III-IV
III-IV
III-IV
The 149 recorded black glass bangles come from 21 military settlements concentrated in the north-western
provinces. But the occurrence in Central Europe, the Iberian Peninsula and the south-eastern Mediterranean
shows that the ubiquitous black glass bangle is a frequent commodity in army communities all over the Roman
Empire. The black glass artefacts mainly crop up at late Roman fortresses, with 69 items from 6 castella
212
(AV=11,5) and 56 items from 8 hill forts (AV=7). There are only 5 items from 1 burgus (AV=5) and 18 items from 3
186
castra (AV=6) (Table 103).
The averages only display a general and somewhat distorted representation
because a number of sites yielded only few glass bangles due to the minor excavations so far while other sites
that have been extensively excavated provided larger numbers of black glass bangles. Twenty pieces are too
small to be determined or could not be defined due to the lack of reliable information; 24 pieces are of Type A (5
ex. A1; 10 ex. A2; 3 ex. A3; 5 ex. A4; 1 ex. A6); 6 pieces are of Type B (2 ex. B1; 4 ex. B2); 11 pieces are of Type
C (3 ex. C1; 2 ex. C2; 6 ex. C3); and 87 pieces are of Type D (75 ex. D1; 8 ex. D2; 1ex. D3; 1ex. D4; 2 ex. D5).
The Type A bangles all come from the north-western army camps of Gallia Belgica (Oudenburg [B]), Germania
Inferior (Braives [B], Taviers (BE), Vireux (FR), Germania Superior (Mainz [D]), Kaiseraugst (CH), MiltenbergAltstadt (DE), Pfyn (CH), Noricum (Mautern (AT), and Hru ica (SL).
There is not much precise contextual information at hand on these bangles, and they have been retrieved at
every camp type (castrum, castellum, small castellum, and burgus).
The Type B bangles all came from Belgian sites (Dourbes, Nismes, and Oudenburg) except for a Type B2 variant
from the Kharga oasis castellum at Dush Kysis (EG). This bangle type has only been retrieved from hill forts and
castella.
The Type C bangles also came from various camp types in the north-western provinces except for one C3-variant
from the Kharga oasis castellum at Dush Kysis (EG).
The Type D bangles were concentrated in army camps of the north-western provinces; nonetheless, a more
widespread occurrence appears up to the provinciae Lusitania (FiãesVila da Feira [PT]) and Arabia (Mezad
Tamar [IL]).
5.3.4.2.2
Finger rings
Only 6 finger rings have come from military settlements. One came from the fortress of Birdoswald (UK) at
Hadrian‘s wall and another of Type A4 came from the southern gate in Regio 20Z of the intensively excavated
castrum at Kaiseraugst (CH). The four other come from hill forts in France and Germany: Lugasson (indefinite),
Vireux-Molhain, and Kreimbach-Kaulbach (1 ex. A1; 1 ex. B6). All point to a use in Period III.
5.3.4.2.3
Beads
The 29 black glass beads from military settlements were retrieved from 13 camp sites (4 castra; 6 castella; 3 hill
forts). The main types, aside from the folded spacer-beads with double suspension holes (6 ex.), are annular,
globular, and cylindrical beads, respectively 7 ex., 4 ex., and 4 ex., but lentil-shaped and polyhedron beads also
occur in the military community. The annular, globular, and cylindrical beads display a distribution within the army
camps of the north-western provinces, regardless of the 4 beads from the Kharga oasis castellum at Dush Kysis
(EG), while the spacer beads were retrieved in Central European camps in the provinciae Raetia, Noricum and
Moesia.
Monochrome black-appearing beads as well as bichrome and polychrome beads have been recorded. The
applied decoration is dotted to create the so-called ‗crumb‘ beads (South Shields (UK)), spiralling (sometimes
festooned) or in zigzag (sometimes in double interwoven lines with applied eyes within the created lozenges).
Typically, opaque white and opaque blue glass is applied to decorate the beads, but yellow sometimes also has
been used.
It is unclear whether these beads can be referred to women only or also to the soldiers and their children, seeing
the meagre information that can be taken from the archaeological contexts. The 15 small annular beads from
Magdalensberg (AT) formed part of a necklace with 221 beads in various other glass hues that came from the
st
transition level 2a of the cistern N/G and are dated in the first half of the 1 century AD (Czurda-Ruth 1998,
no.2009-2230, pl.3).
186
The one from Grand Armoises (FR) is not taken into consideration because the character of the site is unknown to us.
213
5.3.4.2.4
Pendants
Only 3 of the recorded pendants came from military settlements. Two small globular shaped pendants came from
the castrum at South Shields (UK) [cat.nos.4227; 4230], and a jug-shaped pendant with applied glass trails came
from the castellum at Dush Kysis in the Kharga oasis (EG)[cat.no.818].
5.3.4.2.5
Gems
The 52 (53) black glass gemstones recorded in military settlements have come from 16 (17) sites which are
187
situated in the north-western provinces, with a concentration in Britain and the Rhine-region. One piece came
from the castellum at Oudenburg (BE), one from the castellum at Liberchies (BE), and one from the castellum at
Vechten (NL). All other material has been retrieved in Britain and Germany (Table 104). Most are pseudo-nicolo
gemstones in a blue-on-black layered glass (45 ex.), but some are monochrome black (8 ex.). Most are loose
finds (35 ex.), but some are still set in a finger ring (15 ex.) and 3 are still set in a discoid brooch (T270-271) [see
Chapters 3 and 7]. The 21 pieces from the Saalburg Limes castellum at Bad Homburg (DE) demonstrate that the
many army camps showing only one or a very few gemstones give a distorted idea of the gems‘ occurrence and
that the number of pieces depends on the intensity of the excavation activities on the site.
Table 104: Gemstones from military sites
cat.no.
site
camp type
hue
shape
n
period
black+blue
black
black+blue
black+blue
black+blue
black
black
black+blue
black+blue
black+blue
black+blue
black
black+blue
black
black+blue
black
black+blue
black+blue
black
black+blue
black
Henig F4
discoid brooch (T270)
Henig F2/4
Henig F2/4
Henig F2/4
Henig F2/4
plano-convex
Henig F2/4
Henig F2/4
Henig F2/4
Henig F2/4
Böhme 45
1
1
21
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
6
1
4
1
1
3
1
4
1
III
II-III
II-III
II-III
II
I
I
II-III
IV
II-III
II-III
II-III
345
480
1773-93
1981
1998
2110
A4617
2996
3918
3919
3924
A4542
Liberchies (BE)
Oudenburg (BE)
Bad Homburg (DE)
Neuwied-Niederbieber (DE)
Regensburg (DE)
Wiesbaden (DE)
Nijmegen (NL)
Vechten (NL)
Birdoswald (UK)
Birrens (UK)
Burnswark (UK)
Caernarfon (UK)
castellum
castellum
castellum
castellum
castellum
castellum
castrum
castellum
castellum
castrum
castrum
castellum
3977-83
Chesterholm (UK)
castellum
4040-43
4069
4070
4186-88
4185
4224-4226;4229
4222
Corbridge (UK)
Hod Hill (UK)
Housesteads (UK)
castrum
castellum
castrum
Richborough (UK)
castrum
South Shields (UK)
castrum
5.3.4.2.6
Henig F2/4
Henig F2/4
Henig F5
Henig F2/4
Henig F2/4
Böhme 45
Henig F2/4
Böhme 45
II-III
I-II
I
II-III
II-III
IV
II-III
IV
Hairpins
Hitherto one globular head of a hairpin in black glass has been recorded from a military context. It is a piece from
the late Roman camp at Oudenburg (BE) between Ostend and Bruges which was occupied in interrupted phases
between c. 200 and c. 410 AD as a castellum of the Litus Saxonicum (Vanhoute 2009; Vanhoute et al. 2009).
Unfortunately, the precise context of this unpublished piece remains unclear to date. Also, two hairpins in pale
blue and pale green glass were retrieved from the Roman fort at South Shields (UK) at the east end of Hadrian‘s
wall (Allason-Jones, Miket 1984, 275, nos.4.1-4.2).
5.3.4.3
Architectural decoration
No architectural decoration material in black glass has been recorded in military settlements so far.
5.3.4.4
Counters
The 227 (253) recorded black glass counters that have been retrieved from military settlements are to be
considered as a set of examples, as many more should pop up when a more meticulous heuristics is undertaken.
Table 105 lists the contexts of 152 ex. or 66,7% from Period I camps, 6 ex. or 2,6% from Period II camps, 2 ex. or
187
This can be explained by the detailed information on this particular material from the general publications by Martin Henig for British material
and Antje Krug and Gertrud Paltz-Horster for the German material.
214
1,3% from Period III camps and only 1 ex. or 0,4% from Period IV camps. The remaining 66 pieces or 28,9%
came from less well-defined chronological contexts.
Table 105: Counters from military sites
cat.no.
site
camp type
shape
n
period
small-round
small-oval
indefinite
small-round
small-round
large-round
indefinite
small-round
small-round
indefinite
small-round
small-oval
small-round
small-oval
small-round
medium-round
small-oval
small-irregular
indefinite
small-round
small-round
small-round
medium-round
small-round
small-oval
small-irregular
large-round
small-round
small-round
indefinite
small-round
medium-round
small-round
small-round
small-oval
medium-oval
small-quadrangular
medium-round
small-round
1
1
94
2
1
1
1
1
2
1
2
1
10
1
26
2
2
2
1
1
3
1
1
24
4
1
3
6
2
6
1
1
2
41
2
1
1
1
4
I
35-105
A4511-35
Magdalensberg (AT)
castellum
343;351
465-66
Liberchies (BE)
Oudenburg (BE)
castellum
castellum
1025
1795
1870-71
1941
1954-56
Aulnay (FR)
Bonn (DE)
Epfach (DE)
Mainz (DE)
Moers-Asberg (DE)
castellum
castellum, fabrica
hill fort
castellum
castellum
1970-80
Neuss (DE)
castellum
2908-10;2913-17;2919;
2921-27;2929-36;2942;
2945-50;2953-54
Nijmegen (NL)
castellum
2989
2993-95
3638;3640
Utrecht (NL)
Vechten (NL)
Kaiseraugst (CH)
castellum
castellum
castrum
3925-56
Caerleon (UK)
castellum
A4536-41
4032-39
Caernarfon (UK)
Corbridge (UK)
castellum
castrum
4180-81
Richborough (UK)
castrum
4220-4221
4246-90
South Shields (UK)
Usk (UK)
castrum
castellum
4299
4316-19
Water Newton (UK)
York (UK)
castellum
castellum
III-IV
II-IV
I
I-IV
IV
I-IV
I
I
I
I-III
I-III
III-IV
I-III
III-IV
II-IV
III-IV
I-IV
I-IV
III-IV
I-IV
We acknowledge that the catalogued material displayed in Table 105 is only a fraction of all black glass counters
from military sites, seeing that most entries have come from the north-western provinces. Despite this
discrepancy, the occurrence of small round counters at castella (16) in the Rhine region and Britain outnumber
that at castra (4) and hill forts (1). Two thirds of the material has come from Period I contexts, but few lead to a
more detailed understanding of the contexts. There is, for instance, no further contextual information available
regarding most material from Magdalensberg (AT) except for the two from the fill of cistern NG/20 [cat.nos.52-53]
(Czurda-Ruth 1998, VI/10-13). The 32 black glass counters from the fortress of Caerleon (UK) came from the
bath complexes (Brewer 1986, 155). Also both pieces from the hill fort of Lorenzberg at Epfach (DE) and the 33
counters from Kops Plateau at Nijmegen (NL) came from a public context, correspondingly a storehouse (Werner
st
1969, 180, pl.38:34; 50:9) and a horreum from a fill of the mid-1 century AD (van Lith 2009, 33-34). From the
1965-1976 excavations at the fortress of Usk (UK), 87 small glass counters were retrieved, of which 45 were
black, and the remaining were of opaque glass: 38 white, 2 blue-green, 1 green and 1 ultramarine blue (Price
188
1995, 129). All of them except three came from public and domestic features connected with the fortress , e.g.
drains, ditches, waste pits and latrines, with a striking concentration (57 ex. = 65,5%) at both sides of the via
principalis, ‗particularly in the compound and structures in Area 2 and in Compound 3 to the north of the officer‘s
house in Area 5‘ (Price 1995, 129).
188
It is unclear whether the counters are deposits from the occupation, abandonment or destruction.
215
5.4 Other
Our data-base also incorporates black glass artefacts from caves and rivers. Because neither can be included
within the settlement categories with a civil or military character, we found it appropriate to discuss the black glass
artefacts from caves and rivers separately.
5.4.1
Caves
Hitherto, only a few black glass artefacts have been reported from cave digs, but we assume more Roman
occupancy in caves than only the few attested in the Belgian Ardennes and in the French Alps (Table 106).
Because it is self-evident that this peculiar Roman context category is limited to karst regions, it would be
interesting to check all caves within these regions for Roman (black glass) artefacts to improve our understanding
189
on the use and function of caves throughout the Roman period. It is interesting that the black glass material
catalogued from the known six sitesfive Belgian and one Frenchshow great homogeneity. The black glass
material that has been recorded so far is limited to jewellery and more particularly to bracelets, finger rings and
190
hairpins.
Table 106: Roman black glass artefacts from caves (n = quantity)
cat.no.
artefact
typology
site
type
169
304
516
302;305-6;314-15
164-68
163
433
finger ring
finger ring
finger ring
bracelet
bracelet
bracelet
bracelet
type B6 var.1
type B6 var.2
type B7
Type A2
Type A3
Type A4
Type A4
308
310
269
301;303;307;312
270
309;311;313
1140-41
bracelet
bracelet
bracelet
bracelet
Type A5
Type B2
Type C1
Type C2
hairpin
bracelet
globular head
Type D1
TOTAL
arm ring
finger ring
hairpin
Trou des Nutons – Aiseau-Presles (BE)
Trou de Han – Han-sur-Lesse (BE)
Trou del Leuve – Sinsin (BE)
Trou de Han – Han-sur-Lesse (BE)
Trou des Nutons – Aiseau-Presles (BE)
Trou des Nutons – Aiseau-Presles (BE) ;
La Roche aux Corneilles – Marches-lesDames (BE)
Trou de Han – Han-sur-Lesse (BE)
Trou de Han – Han-sur-Lesse (BE)
Trou de l'Ambre – Eprave (BE);
Trou de Han – Han-sur-Lesse (BE);
Trou de l'Ambre – Eprave (BE)
Trou de Han – Han-sur-Lesse (BE)
La Grotte du Seuil-des-Chèvres – La Balme,
Savoie (FR)
period
n
II-III
II-III
II-III
II-III
II-III
II-III
II-III
1
1
1
5
5
1
1
II-III
II-III
II-III
II-III
1
1
1
5
II-III
IV
3
2
22
3
3
To determine the context wherein we have to consider the presence of Roman black glass artefacts in caves, it is
necessary to understand why there has been Roman presence in caves as such. Because no burials of Roman
imperial times have yet been reported in caves, we have to ascribe caves to be ideal locations to hide from
rd
th
threats in periods of political and military instability and insecurity throughout the 3 5 centuries AD (Warmenbol
1984). All material from other caves show a coherent Period III assemblage apart from ‗La Grotte du Seuil-desChèvres‘ at La Baume (FR), which comprised two Period IV bracelets of Type D1 (Nicod, Sordoillet, Chaix 1998,
49, 71-73, fig.28:1) [see Chapter 4]. Hence, we are tempted to assume cave settlements as clandestine safe
harbours with a temporary character during two specific periods on the basis of the chrono-typologies of the
retrieved material [see Chapter 3]:
189
th
th
The Type D1-braceletsdated at the end of the 4 and especially at the start of the 5 century ADare
therefore to be seen in connection with the massive movements of the Migration People between
350/360 and 410 AD.
Because this subject matter is only a side-issue within the framework of this project, this topic could not be verified properly. Furthermore, it is
more relevant to establish first regional idiosyncrasies by studying all Roman archaeological artefacts from caves of a particular region and
confront it with the peculiar Roman artefacts from caves in other regions.
190
We have omitted the vessel fragment [cat.no.316] from Trou de Han (BE) because the sampling demonstrated the piece to be of obsidian
because of the near-absence of soda and the very high concentration of alumina [see Chapter 8 – sample PC8f].
216
All other material from the other caves can be connected with the insecurity caused by foreign invaders
rd
in the third quarter of the 3 century AD but can equally be related to the political instability in the second
rd
191
half of the 3 century AD when civil war opposed different factions.
The cave of Trou de Han at Han-sur-Lesse (BE) forms an exception. The site has been given a ritual character
considering the context situation, the disposition of the deposits and the huge amounts of small finds in various
materials (Warmenbol 1996; 1999). Trou de Han takes a special position within the religious contexts because
from the late Bronze Age/early Iron Age onwards, a wide variety of materialmainly weapons and jewellerywas
thrown at the river curve before the river disappears under the rocks. This sub-aquatic ritual site is not
coincidentally situated just at the curve of the river Lesse. After disappearing at one side the river resurfaces at
the other side of the hill rock. This place must have received in ancient times a religious connotation that most
likely stood in connection with a belief in an afterlife (Warmenbol 1996; 1999). It is not so difficult agreeing to a
correlation with the ancient beliefs that the river entered the underworld where daylight got replaced by total
obscurity to reappear as reborn at the other side. Part of the gigantic ritual deposit in the river accumulated over
centuries consists of Roman artefacts, of which 15 were in black glass. Besides 11 bracelet fragments and 1
intact finger ring, 3 globular pin-heads in black glass of hairpins turned up. No black glass vessel has been
retrieved to date apart from the indefinite vessel fragment that is made of obsidian [see Chapter 8].
To sum up, we assume that the few black glass artefacts reported from caves demonstrate a specific type of
context in use during a particular period of time. Much more of this material is most likely at hand but it is still
ignored, as caves are in the main studied by prehistorians who have no adequate references at hand to date
correctly the artefacts in black glass. It is therefore not surprising that the material from ‗La Grotte du Seuil-desChèvres‘ at La Balme (FR) erroneously is linked to the La Tène-period, while it should be linked with a late
Roman presence as attested by the pottery and the coins (Nicod, Sordoillet, Chaix 1998, 71-73). Nonetheless, the
rd
th
deposit of black glass jewellery, which perhaps coincides with the turbulent period of the mid-3 to early-5
century AD, has foremost a ritual character.
5.4.2
Rivers
The number of catalogued black glass artefacts that were brought up from river contexts is too small to construe a
general view from it. Furthermore, the information on the provenance of the catalogued pieces15 objects from 6
sitesis sometimes dubious. Table 107 shows the majority came from one specific area, the river Durme (BE)
near Temse and Hamme, where huge amounts of archaeological material were brought up during dredging works
th
192
rd
th
at the start of the 20 century (unpublished). The majority, if not all material, is to be considered 3 4 century
AD, but no clear date can be given from the context information.
The only understandable river context is that from Trou de Han at Han-sur-Lesse (BE) [see section 5.4.1.]. In
contrast with the clear ritual character of the deposits in Trou de Han, all other river sites delivering black glass
artefacts are unclear contexts or even from doubtful provenance. Compared to the given specifications of Trou de
Han, it is reasonable to believe that the concentration of material from the dredged area in the river Durme is the
display of ritual deposits. The black glass artefacts that have been reported in the collection of Van BogaertWauters, Hamme (BE)8 bangles, 3 finger rings and 2 beadsgenerates some questions about the authenticity
of its provenance. These 13 black glass artefacts have different provenances: 2 came from Tielrode (BE), 5 came
from Hamme (BE) and the remaining part is without provenance, but all are reported to have come from dredging
the Durme. In particular, the bangles are rather anomalous. Because several pieces are unusual types for the
north-western provinces and very common to the (eastern) Mediterranean region, the black glass bracelets could
equally have been (partly) bought on the antique market.
Other river finds are a massive silver finger ring with nicolo paste gemstone that was found in the river Witham at
Bardney (Lincolnshire, UK); and a golden finger ring with a set-in nicolo paste gemstone that was reportedly
191
In this period, the north-western provinces generated a dissident Gallic Empire (260274 AD) to uncertainty and insecurity for the collaborators
of the subsequent oppressed factions. The Gallic Empire resulted from the incapability of Rome to answer the Frankish intrusions in 260 AD and
new attacks in 275276 AD emerged after the fall of the Gallic Empire.
192
The objects collected by Alphonse Van Bogaert (18821967) are said to come from the river Durme, not far from Tielrode (BE) where dredging
works have been undertaken. He accumulated 5400 objects and deposited them in 1953 at his private museum in Hamme (BE), the Museum
Bogaert-Wauters. Because the black glass material is not only atypical for the Roman north-western provinces, and idiosyncratic to the Levant and
Egypt [see Chapter 6], we have to assume that Alphonse Van Bogaert was also active on the antique market. We unfortunately were unable to
investigate the history of the collected black glass artefacts in the Museum Bogaert-Wauters, but it seems important and necessary to re-evaluate
the Van Bogaert collection to distinguish the artefacts from local provenance and those purchased from the antiquarian circuit.
217
dredged up from the river near Mainz and now is in the Landesmuseum at Mainz (DE). Both discoveries yielded
no precise details about their provenance or context conditions (Henig 1978², 194, no.62; Krug 1978, 491, no.11,
Taf.51:11), but it is very reasonable to believe that both precious jewels were thrown into the river together with
other material as an offering when appealing to the gods for help or to fulfil a promised oath after having received
what has been implored of the gods. We discuss subsequently the issue concerning the use and function of
193
cheap glass gemstones imitating semi-precious stones set in gold or silver finger rings [see Chapter 7].
Table 107: Roman black glass artefacts from rivers
cat.no.
artefact type
typology
3912
gemstone
Henig type F2/4
2089
gemstone
Henig type F2/4
2045
arm ring
Type A1
292-296
finger ring
arm ring
spacer-bead
arm ring
finger ring
arm ring
finger ring
arm ring
spacer-bead
gemstone
type A5 var.2; B6 var.1
Type A2; D1
‗Trilobitenperle‘
Type B3
indefinite
Type B1; B3; D1 (2x)
526
626-631
TOTAL
site
Period
quantity
River
Witham
at
Bardney
(Lincolnshire - UK)
River Rhine near Mainz (DE)
(no exact provenance)
Channel at Trier (DE)
(no exact provenance)
River Durme at Hamme (BE)
II-III
1
II-III
1
II-III
1
II-III
II-IV
III
II-III
II-IV
2
2
1
1
1
5
3
9
1
2
River Durme at Temse (BE)
River Durme (BE)
(no exact provenance)
The black glass jewellery from caves and rivers demonstrate that such material category found acceptance in the
traditional ritual practices to be deposited as offerings in the late Roman period. We think that this is due to the
absence of black glass jewellery during the early Roman Empire and not because of a new belief with newly
introduced ritual practices. Also excluded, to our opinion, is that black glass jewellery was only considered
rd
suitable as ritual offering material from the 3 century AD onwards.
5.5 Conclusion
The rather introductory character of this contextual analysis on black glass artefacts and the provisional
disposition of some conclusions put forward marks this as research in the introductory stage. That the
investigation incorporates material from a vast area and for a long-lasting period did not make the analysis easier.
We faced various heuristic problems, not in the least because much material is still unpublished and unstudied.
Hence, it is reasonable to believe that plenty of material might have been overlooked and might appear sooner or
later. Bearing in mind the incompleteness of the database, we are fully aware that it was beyond our reach to
realize an overall unbiased picture of the contexts wherein the black glass artefact types were consumed
194
throughout the consecutive four periods. Different factors influenced the presented numbers and percentages
and consequently these numbers should be considered as guidelines. However, we are convinced that these
results, how preliminary they may be, already offer a number of interesting new conclusions on particular issues
and provide good evidence to corroborate some assumptions or contest others.
The analysis of the available data per context and further per functional type provided interesting results that
explained to a certain degree the use of black glass artefact types by taking into consideration the chronological
order.
Compared to the civil contexts, the frequency of black glass vessels in military milieus is much lower. The black
glass vessels of Periods I and II are present in domestic as well as in funerary contexts but absent in ritual
contexts. The black glass vessels of funerary contexts have mostly come from very rich tombs that include a large
amount of luxurious grave goods. Seeing that most Period IV vessels known today, i.e. the rod-formed balsamaria
and unguentaria, are those without provenance in very many museum collections, it is impossible to say
something definite about these vessels. All pieces from known provenance are from burial contexts (see below),
193
It is interesting to see that similar gemstones set in gold finger rings have come from ritual depositse.g. the Regensburg-Kumpfmühl treasure.
This was partly due to a quantity of material that remained inaccessible or was simply unknown to the author. Secondly, this is caused by the
limited information the author could extract from published material or, if unpublished, from card indices in museums and archaeological depots.
194
218
but it would be odd to exclude them from settlements because both vessel shapes are described as toilet ware, a
typical daily life commodity [see Chapter 7].
The omnipresence of the black glass bracelets is evident from its frequent occurrence in whatsoever context:
production, domestic, burial, ritual or dump on civil and military settlements. But black glass bracelets were in
Roman society not just ordinary pieces of adornment. A careful contextual analysis of the available material from
burial contexts provided evidence demonstrating the black glass bracelets were only worn by women and juvenile
girls on their left wrists.
No clear provenance has been registered for a large part of the beads presented here since they were mainly
th
th
retrieved in the 19 or early 20 century before entering the major museum collections, where they never
received proper interest. Hence, the data of the pieces with a known provenance remain very limited. For the
majority of the pieces, only the country or the site of origin is known, while a precise location or the information on
their context has never been recorded.
The bulk of the round or elliptical discoid brooches with a plain conical gemstone in black glass set in the centre
(Hull Types 270-271) are characteristic at military settlements [see this chapter]. However, they have been
regularly reported at temple sites seeing that Grace Simpson and Beatrice Blance report 15 pieces from 11
temple sites in Britain only such as Nornour, Uley, and Cold Kitchen Hill (Simpson, Blance 1998, 277). The
placing of brooches in votive deposit finds cannot be considered the result of casual loss but are the effect of
ritual evidence like most other brooch types, indicating a pre-Roman origin of the practice that continued
throughout Roman times (Simpson, Blance 1998, 278).
In brief words we assume that the presence of discoid brooches can help recognize the presence of military men
of a certain rank (officers) within the civil settlements after having fulfilled their function.
Counters in glass, polychrome and monochrome, are omnipresent at Roman sites, whether they are burial
contexts, settlement contexts or military contexts. They appear to be fully absent in ritual contexts. Though for the
most part discarded pieces are found singly, these counters can occur in sets in tombs and on odd occasions
within a wooden box together with a wooden gaming board [see Chapter 7].
Everything considered we wish to stress that future research could possibly enhance a similar comparative study
on the black glass artefacts from civil versus military contexts and from rural versus urban contexts of civil
settlements to allow for a better understanding of the consumption patterns of black glass commodities.
219
220
Chapter 6 PRODUCTION, DISTRIBUTION AND TRADE
6.1 Introduction
With the study on distribution and trade of black glass artefacts in the Roman Empire, we sought to find out the
nature and extent of its consumption during the entire Roman imperial period. The challenge of this chapter is to
incorporate the obtained data of this minor group in the Roman material culture within the current view on trade
and distribution of Roman glass in general. The obtained data on production and distribution will be discussed in
detail in Chapter 10 by considering the different Roman glass workshops generating black glass artefacts,
suggesting a macroeconomic influence on regional consumption patterns demonstrating the impact of regulations
causing a far-reaching regionalisation in organising the glass production during the Roman imperial period.
To determine how to understand black glass artefacts in the context of the production, distribution, and trade of
Roman glass we discuss firstly the production of black glass with a reflection on the prevailing concept(s) on the
organisation of the Roman glass production. Secondly, we examine the distribution level of black glass artefacts
in order to offer useful indications on trade. Considering that our research supplied insufficient evidence
concerning the trade of black glass to discuss the issue separately, we decided to integrate the obtained
hypothetical schemes and ideas deduced from the study within the section on distribution. The distribution
patterning of particular artefact types would help identify local and regional idiosyncrasies indicating a
consumption pattern on a local, regional or interregional level, and ultimately to discriminate particular
assemblages related to specific glass workshops.
One of the goals is to verify whether black glass artefacts are commodities of (1) local, (2) regional or (3) long195
distance trade.
1.
2.
3.
A local trade of artefacts involves a production by a wide range of local production centres meant for a
local distribution that does not reach further than a regional level. In this situation, the set up of a
typology characterises the assemblage of one or more local workshops within a specific region.
A regional trade implies the existence of several workshops spread all over the empire for a more
regional or interregional distribution. Concerning the regional trade, we should check whether regional
differences can be observed and if they evolve differently over time.
Long-distance trade implies an empire-wide distribution of the goods produced in one single workshop or
eventually in several glass workshops within a specific centre or limited region. In this case, we probably
can deduce not much more than a chronological significance for the various types of material.
The glass production as well as the consumer‘s behaviour changed significantly during the five centuries of the
Roman imperial period. To minimise the exclusion of any additional evidence concerning the impact of black glass
production on the various levels of consumption in Roman society, we verify whether the changes in levels of
trade and distribution of goods are also regionally bounded. We therefore viewed the material diachronically,
using tables and distribution maps of the different functional types per period. For practical reasons, we kept the
chronological subdivision of four consecutive periods, as formulated previously. Through this approach, key
regions became visible depending on the period or the functional type taken into consideration. Black glass
artefacts have been recorded from nearly all present-day countries that were part of the former Roman Empire.
In a first part will be discussed the production of black glass vis-à-vis the prevailing models on glass production in
general. Subsequently we examine the distribution per functional type and per period. Due to reasons of feasibility
and readability of this chapter, we focus on production, the vessels and the arm rings. However, the other
commodity categories are integrated in the discussion as well. Finally a suggestion of trade pattern per period will
be put forward on the basis of the obtained observations from parts one and two.
195
Aware of a wide variety of publications specialized on this issue, we chose a more general definition of the different levels of consumption.
221
6.2 Production
As explained in Chapter 2, the current knowledge of the glass production during the Roman imperial period
involves a production process in successive stages. In a first stage, raw materialssand and sodawere melted
196
into raw glass, and in a second stage, chunks of this raw glass got re-melted to produce objects from it.
Processed in different furnaces, and most likely also in different workshops, the former stage was executed at socalled primary workshops, whereas the latter stage is characteristic of the so-called secondary workshops. For
the entire Roman imperial period, the main production area of raw glass, and accordingly the primary workshops,
is considered to be situated on the southern Levantine coast and in Egypt, where also are situated the favourite
sources of raw materials (Foy, Nenna 2001; Foy, Nenna 2003; Shortland 2004; Nenna 2008a). From there, large
masses of chunks of raw glass were transported empire-wide over sea to supply the secondary workshops, as
the numerous shipwrecks reveal (Foy, Nenna 2001; Nenna 2008a; Fontaine, Foy 2007). We may therefore
assume that the produced glass artefacts must have a very homogeneous composition within the entire empire
that remained relatively uniform and unmodified during the entire Roman imperial period (Aerts et al. 2003; Foy et
al. 2003; Picon, Vichy 2003; Silvestri et al. 2006). Yet about twelve variants of silica-soda-lime glass have been
recognized hitherto. While all twelve are found in the Levant, only four are present in the west (Picon, Vichy
197
2003). Based on Pliny the Elder (Naturalis Historia, XXXVI, 194) describing the production of raw glass in Italy,
st
Spain and Gaul from local raw materials during the 1 century AD, we may assume that these western
Mediterranean primary glass workshops produced raw glasses with a different composition from that of the
Levantine glass that might be absent in the eastern Mediterranean and thus not yet recognised. Despite the
198
analysis of sands from Italy (Turner 1956a-c; Silvestri et al. 2006) and Spain , clear evidence on primary glass
production in these regions is still lacking. Concerning the discussion on the black glass production, we verified to
which of four proposed models (see below) the available archaeological data is to be linked. To bear out the
reliability of the conclusions put forward here, we have rechecked these in Chapter 8 with the results obtained
from the chemical analysis.
The mass of glass artefacts from excavations contrasts sharply with the limited concrete information known so far
regarding the organisation of glass production and the precise location of glass workshops (Baxter et al. 1995).
Considering this explicitly for Roman colourless glass, it is most markedly for the here-discussed stronglycoloured glass appearing black. The last decennium is, however, characterised by a continuous growth of
knowledge on the Roman glass production from an archaeological point of view as well as from an archaeometric
approach. The majority of the excavated workshops cannot be assigned to a specific production; moreover they
provide an incomplete view of the there produced assemblages. The focus of the international research, however,
concerns at this moment the primary production and the trade of raw glass, not meaning that the secondary
workshops are remaining untouched. Some publications compile papers on the organisation of both the primary
and secondary glass production on hand for the western part of the empire (Foy, Sennequier 1991) and the
eastern part (Nenna 2000). Heidi Amrein dealt with a Claudian-Neronian glass workshop (‗Derrière la Tour‘) in
Avenches (CH), providing an exhaustive overview of all known glass workshops at that time (Amrein 2001). Her
overview also updates the survey on the Roman glass production by Mara Sternini (1995, 137–200). Another
overview has been compiled in the exhibition catalogue ‗Tout feu tout sable‘ describing the Roman glass
workshops in France and their productions (Foy, Nenna 2001, 34–60). An extended and improved discussion
concerning the primary glass production and its distribution has been worked out recently by Marie-Dominique
(2008a). Gladys D. Weinberg published an extensive work on the late Roman secondary workshop of Jalame (IL)
(Weinberg (ed.) 1988), whereas a number of contemporaneous workshops have been excavated during open
mining coal extraction in the Hambacher Forst in the Rhine region between Jülich-Düren-Cologne (DE) (Seibel
2000; Gaitzsch et al. 2003). Despite all these publications, no information has been made available on the making
of black glass or about the production of black glass artefacts. We therefore verified the various components
necessary to define a site as a glass workshop (Table 108).
196
For further reading on primary and secondary glass production in Roman imperial times, see Sternini 1995; Nenna ed. 2000; Amrein 2001; Foy,
Nenna (eds.) 2001; Foy, Nenna (eds.) 2003; Nenna 2008.
197
This finding forms the start of our query in Chapter 8 to set up a consequent strategy in choosing samples of a variety of commodity types from
different periods and different areas.
198
This is an issue within the ongoing ERC-StG research project, ‗Archaeometry and Archaeology of Ancient Glass: Production as a Source for
Ancient Technology and Trade of Raw Materials‘ (ARCHGLASS) under direction of Patrick Degryse of the Centre for Archaeological Sciences at
KULeuven.
222
Table 108: List of glass workshop sites with possible black glass production
glass
site
period
date range
furnace
lumps
Avenches (CH)
I
Ib-Ic AD
X
X
‗Derrière la Tour‘
Lyon (FR)
I
Ib-IIa AD
X
X
‗La Montée de la Butte‘
Kaiseraugst (CH)
II
IId – IIIA AD
X
X
Äussere Reben
Lavoye (FR)
Sainte Menehould (FR)
‗Les Houis‘
Augst/ Kaiseraugst (CH)
Liberchies (BE)
Ore ac (HR)
Braga (PT)
Horbat Qastra (IL)
Trier (DE)
‗Palais Kesselstatt‘
crucibles
waste
-
X
-
-
X
X
products
vessels
utensils
vesels
utensils
vessels
II+III
III – IVA AD
-
X
-
X
II+III
III – IVA AD
-
X
-
X
III
III
III
III+IV
III+IV
III – IVA AD
III – IVA AD
III – IVA AD
IV AD
IV – V AD
-
X
-
X
-
X
X
X
X
-
jewellery
vessels?
jewellery
vessels?
jewellery
jewellery
jewellery
jewellery
jewellery
IV
IVb AD
-
-
X
-
jewellery
The secondary glass workshop of Aüserrere Reben at Kaiseraugst (CH) is most interesting for the here-presented
research. Two buildings at the junction of Regio 17B and Regio 17C yielded on either side a glass workshop
respectively active during Period II and Period III (Rütti 1991, 150–153). Black-appearing glass
materialfragmented vessels as well as production wasteare in particular coming from the building of Regio
nd
17B dating mid-2 century to about 220 AD (Fischer 2009). Although the workshop at Kaiseraugst-Aüserrere
Reben only produced vessels, it is clear from indirect material that somewhere in Augusta Raurica a workshop
produced black glass jewellery (in particular, arm rings) in Period II and/or III. For most sites, only indirect material
is available, and therefore the potential workshops cannot be determined due to the lack of clear evidence. Either
there is a multitude of fragmented material and production waste or there is none to connect a production of black
glass with the available structures such as furnaces. Both Period I workshops at Avenches (‗Derrière la Tour‘) and
Lyon (‗La Montée de la Butte‘) contained furnace structures, but there is no evidence indicating what vessel types
were fashioned in black glass nor in what quantity, although black-appearing artefacts have been produced in
both workshops. In a recent contribution, we compared the late Roman jewellery in black glass from the
secondary workshops of ‗Les Houis‘ near Sainte Menehould (FR) with that from ‗Palais Kesselstatt‘ in Trier (DE),
correspondingly of Period II/III and Period IV, to describe the differentiation of rural and urban workshops (Cosyns
2009). Another contribution in the same publication deals with the late Roman glass workshop of Braga (PT),
where black glass jewellery was produced (da Cruz 2009). The most indirect assignment to a glass workshop is
that from Horbat Qastra (IL) based on the huge amount of similar material from the late Roman–early Byzantine
cemetery of Period IV (Gorin-Rosen, Katsnelson 2008, 74) [see below and Chapters 8 and 10].
In Table 108 is assembled the evidence arguing for the presence of a secondary workshop responsible for the
manufacturing of black glass artefacts, whereas Table 109 lists the sort of production per workshop. Mainly from
urban settlements, Trier (DE), Braga (PT), Augst (CH), Avenches (CH), and Lyon (FR), some workshops have a
rural character. The workshops from ‗Les Houis‘ near Sainte Menehould (FR) and those at Lavoye (FR), both in
the Argonne forest, appear to be rural workshops that were engaged in large-scale production of black glass
(jewellery) objects. Other rural workshops considered to have produced black glass artefacts are located in
Liberchies (BE) and Ore ac (HR). All four examples of rural workshops are located on a main road-axis
connecting them easily to major urban settlements.
223
Table 109: List of black glass products from sites with glass workshops
finger
site
production
vessels bracelets
rings
Avenches (CH)
X
Lyon (FR)
X
Kaiseraugst-Äussere
Reben (CH) [Augst/
X
X
[X]
Kaiseraugst]
LavoyeBerthancourt/Champ
X
X
X
Damloup (FR)
Sainte Menehould-Les
X
X
X
X
Houis (FR)
Liberchies (BE)
?
X
X
Ore ac (HR)
?
X
Braga (PT)
X
X
X
Horbat Qastra (IL)
?
Trier (DE)
X
X
X
6.2.1
beads
pendants
gems
hairpins
counters
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
[?]
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
X
-
X
X
-
-
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
-
Organisation of the production of coloured glass
Here above and in Chapter 2 is explained the organisation of the production process of glass in various levels (i.e.,
primary and secondary workshops). But while a consensus exists on the production of raw glass in primary
workshops and finished goods in the secondary workshops, it is less well-defined where the colouring of the glass
must have taken place during the Roman imperial period. The colouring of raw glass is commonly considered as
a production process carried out in the primary workshops where the raw glass got produced or in specialised
intermediate workshops from which coloured glass chunks or cakes were exported. This practice is already
attested for the late Bronze Age considering the conical cakes in blue glass from Tell-el-Amarna (EG) on the Ulu
Burun shipwreck (TR) (Nicholson 1995; Nicholson et al. 1997; Jackson, Nicholson 2010) and the specialised
workshops from Qantir (EG), where the production of strongly coloured glass cakes by colouring imported raw
glass took place (Rehren 1997). In the Hellenistic period, a comparable organisation in supplying secondary
rd
workshops still prevailed, as can be demonstrated from the deep ultramarine blue glass chunks on the 3 century
BC shipwrecks Sanguinaires A (FR) (Alfonsi, Gandolfo 1997) and Lequin 2 (Pomey, Long 1992), or for the late La
st
Tène period with the black-appearing dark purple glass cakes on the 1 century BC sites of Odijk (NL) (Schuuring
2007, 126–128, fig.10.3), Basel-Gasfabrik (CH) (Berger 1974, 63; Berger, Furger-Gunti 1980, 63), Manching (DE)
(Krämer 1960, 197, pl. XXIVb; Gebhard 1989b, 148, pl. 37, 484), Hengistbury road (UK) (Henderson 1987a, 160–
163; 1987b, 180–186) that all must have a Mediterranean provenance seeing the similarity in composition with
the early Roman counters in deep purple glass (Cagno et al. forthcoming). Whether the colouring got executed in
specialised intermediate workshops or in the primary workshops themselves remains unanswered, but it is certain
that the glass that arrived in the secondary workshops was coloured. This model is still widespread in the Roman
imperial period, as demonstrated by recent archaeological research on the location of the primary workshops and
on the trade routes for providing the secondary workshops (Sternini 1995, 127–135; Foy, Nenna 2001, 100–112;
Nenna 2007, 125–131). This production and distribution model, however, seems to experience important changes
during the early Roman imperial period (i.e., Period I) in relation to the strongly coloured glass. Various
shipwrecks from the Roman imperial period provide hard evidence for the long-distance distribution of large
chunks of raw glass on a large scale to supply secondary workshops all over the empire from decolourised and
‗naturally coloured‘ glass (Foy et al. 2000; Nenna 2008a, 130–131). None of the retrieved chunks or finished
products was coloured black, but solely ‗naturally‘ coloured or decolourised. This fact pleads for 1) a regional
colouring process in a centre specialised in the production of semi-finished products such as glass cakes,
implying an intermediate production stage to supply the local market of cakes of coloured glass; or for 2) a local
colouring process within the production needs of each concerned secondary workshop. The colouring process of
black-appearing glass in the north-western provinces from Period II has recently been demonstrated (Van der
Linden et al. 2009), but in Chapter 8 we present a well-argued case in favour of the above-mentioned hypothesis
2.
Various possible models can be proposed to explain the organisation of the glass production from the raw
materials to the finished products. Some consistent schemes have recently been set up concerning the possible
224
supply of raw glass from the primary workshops to the secondary workshops (Freestone et al. 2002, 258-259,
199
figs.1–2; Rehren 1997; Komp 2009, 205–208, fig.98; Freestone et al. 2009, fig.3) :
o
Scheme 1 (Figure 109): The production of raw glass from raw materials, the colouring as well as the remelting of raw glass chunks to manufacture artefacts is done in one production centre or in various glass
workshops in close proximity. This scheme emphasises a glass production through one or very few large
self-supplying production centres to generate finished products for an empire-wide distribution.
PRODUCTION CENTRE
RAW GLASS – COLOURING –ARTEFACTS
MARKET
Figure 109: scheme 1
o
Scheme 2 (Figure 110): This scheme underlines a glass production by one or few primary workshops
specialised in manufacturing coloured glass and supplying secondary workshops all over the Roman
Empire with raw glass ‗naturally coloured‘; decolourised; as well as deeply coloured, including blackappearing glass.
PRIMARY PRODUCTION
RAW GLASS - COLOURING
SECONDARY WORKSHOP
ARTEFACTS
MARKET
Figure 110: scheme 2
o
Scheme 3 (Figure 111): This model defines the activity of intermediate specialised workshops
responsible for manufacturing coloured glass, including black glass from incoming raw glass to supply
the secondary workshops. The two proposed variants are given because it is very likely that these
specialised intermediate workshops were focussed on the making of one specific glass hue to produce
black-appearing glass, depending on the level of technical know-how at hand. Consequently, each
colour becomes idiosyncratic for various secondary workshops in one region, and each colour provides
evidence of a trade route and distribution pattern with one origin. Perhaps because it seems easier to
transport colouring agents to the existing glass workshops than to implant a glass workshop where
colouring oxides are extracted, the idea of intermediate centres specialised in colouring glass near a
local exploitation of a colouring agent seems plausible. Not wanting to exclude this model, it is important
to stress that such a chaîne opératoire is difficult to trace.
199
The model in Ian Freestone et al. (2009) will be discussed in Chapter 8, seeing that it verifies how to understand the possible batch variations
and the implications in the composition of the glass matrix.
225
PRIMARY PRODUCTION
RAW GLASS
INTERMEDIATE CENTRE
COLOURING
(GREEN; PURPLE; BROWN;
BLUE)
SECONDARY
WORKSHOP
SECONDARY
WORKSHOP
SECONDARY
WORKSHOP
SECONDARY
WORKSHOP
ARTEFACTS
ARTEFACTS
ARTEFACTS
ARTEFACTS
PRIMARY
PRODUCTION
RAW GLASS
INTERMEDIATE
CENTRE
INTERMEDIATE
CENTRE
INTERMEDIATE
CENTRE
INTERMEDIATE
CENTRE
COLOURING
COLOURING
COLOURING
COLOURING
SECONDARY
WORKSHOP
ARTEFACTS
GREEN
SECONDARY
WORKSHOP
SECONDARY
WORKSHOP
ARTEFACTS
ARTEFACTS
PURPLE
SECONDARY
WORKSHOP
SECONDARY
WORKSHOP
ARTEFACTS
ARTEFACTS
BROWN
SECONDARY
WORKSHOP
SECONDARY
WORKSHOP
ARTEFACTS
ARTEFACTS
BLUE
SECONDARY
WORKSHOP
ARTEFACTS
Figure 111: scheme 3 (top: variant a – bottom: variant b)
o
Scheme 4 (Figure 112): The colouring is done at the secondary workshop, resulting in a workshopspecific black glass. When using a proper recipe every secondary workshop is featuring an idiosyncratic
black glass but when most secondary workshops within a regione.g. a civitas or a
provinciaprocessed black glass according to a strict recipe and were supplied with the same raw glass
and coloring agents no distinction will be noticeable concerning the chemical composition.
PRIMARY PRODUCTION
RAW GLASS
SECONDARY WORKSHOP
SECONDARY WORKSHOP
SECONDARY WORKSHOP
SECONDARY WORKSHOP
COLOURING
COLOURING
COLOURING
COLOURING
+
ARTEFACTS
+
ARTEFACTS
+
ARTEFACTS
+
ARTEFACTS
Figure 112: scheme 4
226
Apart from the first model, the proposed models assume the supply of raw glass at the secondary workshops for
the local production of glass artefacts. Model 1 and 2 involve a limited number of people acquainted with the glass
technology and/or investing in the glass production. Both models imply a rather restricted production capacity and
thus a limited availability of goods in glass. Model 1, with self-supplying and all-controlling production centres, fits
well in the view of regional production of raw glass and consumer goods, as can be deduced from Pliny the
200
Elder‘s descriptions on the production of raw glass in Italy, Spain and Gaul to supply the local market. Hitherto,
valuable evidence is lacking with the exception of the primary production in Syro-Palestine and Egypt. Model 2
entails the presence of secondary workshops nearby the primary workshops and in the large centres. Model 3
implies a much more sophisticated and levelled organisation of the glass production process, but still with the
technological capacities monopolised by a restricted number of centres. Model 3 may be regarded as a much
more developed version of model 2 and thus more befitting a classical organisation of glass production. Both
models 2 and 3 are workable for the Hellenistic and early imperial period (i.e., Period I), as shown from the above201
mentioned example on the late La Tène glass cakes.
But as far as we know, there is no clear evidence
available revealing how the colouring process was organised. Finally model 4 implies an organisation that
experienced an enormous change to remain economically cost-effective, where the primary workshops had to
focus on the production on ‗naturally coloured‘ and decolourised glass. The secondary workshops themselves
produced the colours required for the local and regional market. Model 4 is applicable to the north-western
secondary workshops of Period II concerning the production of black-appearing glass (Van der Linden et al. 2009).
However, it goes without saying that the Roman glass production in general was much too complex to fit within
one single model, and thus more than one model must have been prevailing at the same time. The Roman
market was not solely supplied from the local secondary workshops. The distribution patterns of particular
functional types and shapes, discussed further in this chapter, demonstrate the existence of production centres
with a regional or even inter-regional character of the trade radius. For instance, the Period II shipwreck from
Embiez (FR) with a shipload containing piled-up, finished products in glass, such as vessels and window panes,
besides the mass of raw glass chunks (Foy et al. 2005; Fontaine, Foy 2007) demonstrates that simple
commodities in glass got distributed and traded overseas over long distances. None of the shipwrecks with glass
as shiploads contained black-appearing chunks or consumer goods.
The challenge is now to distinguish the peculiarities of the workshops producing black glass artefacts with the
available archaeological data. This information and that in relation to the eventual intermediate workshops
responsible for colouring the glass (black) remains, as expected, rather very limited at this point. Within the
archaeometric approach, we verified the results from chemical and optical analysis on a large number of artefacts
to provide additional information on the production and distribution of black glass and to exclude any biased
statements. An answer is formulated on the questions whether secondary workshops have been supplied from
one or various intermediate or primary workshop(s) or conversely that each secondary workshop produced its
own black glass [see Chapter 8 and 9].
The proposed theoretical models do not take into account contaminations due to the addition of cullet to the batch,
because there is hitherto no archaeological evidence proving the recycling of black glass cullet. From ancient
writers, only the well-known quote by Pliny the Elder (NH XXXVI, 194) referring to the re-melting of glass to
produce black glass is familiar to us. Also, the archaeological evidence is rare. Believed to be indirectly connected
with recycling of black glass are the huge amounts of glass tesserae at the late Roman secondary glass
workshop of Les Houis near Sainte Menehould (FR). These tesserae are considered a sort of fine chopped
readymade raw material that can be added to the batch as colorant, or to be used as an easily measurable
system to add specific amounts of coloured glass to the crucible in order to manufacture a certain amount of
artefacts (Foy 2007, 43). In Chapter 8, on chemical analyses, and Chapter 10, on the historical approach, the
issue is discussed furthermore in detail.
6.2.2
Analysis of secondary workshops
A number of sites have provided direct or indirect evidence for the presence of secondary glass workshops that
produced black glass artefacts during the Roman imperial period. Only a few of these secondary workshops have
revealed clear evidence of the black glass assemblage they produced (Table 110).
200
Model 1 is, for instance, valid if not characteristic of the late Bronze Age and the medieval period.
The study of the Qantir cakes in the Egyptian Nile delta has demonstrated that model 3 was already valid from the late Bronze Age (Rehren
1997).
201
227
Table 110: List of secondary glass workshops processing black glass (between [ ] and in italic are uncertain production sites)
production centres
period
evidence
Lyon (FR)
[Avenches (CH)]
I: Early Roman period (Ib–Id/IIa AD)
I: Early Roman period (Ib–Ic AD)
Kaiseraugst (CH)
II: Mid Roman period (IId–IIIA AD)
Sainte Menehould Les Houis
(FR)
(II)-III: Mid - Late Roman period (III–IV AD)
Lavoye (FR)
(II)-III: Mid - Late Roman period (III–IV AD)
[Liberchies (BE)]
[Orešac (HR)]
Braga (PT)
(II)-III: Mid - Late Roman period (III–IVA AD)
III: Mid - Late Roman period (III–IVA AD)
III-IV: Late Roman period (III–IV AD)
Aquileia (IT)
III-IV: Late Roman period (III–IV AD)
Trier (DE)
IV: Late Roman period (IVB AD)
[Horbat Qastra (IL)]
IV: Late Roman period (IV–V AD)
6
Period 1
Period 3
Period 2
Period 4
1. Lyon (F); 2. Avenches (CH); 3.
Kaiseraugst (CH); 4. Liberchies (B); 5.
Orešac (HR); 6. Lavoye (F); 7. Ste
Menehould (F); 8. Braga (PT); 9. Aquileia
(IT); 10. Trier (D); 11. Horbat Qastra (IL)
4
7
chunks
production waste;
chunks
furnace;
production waste;
misshapen artefacts;
raw glass
production waste;
chunks;
misshapen artefacts
production waste;
misshapen artefacts;
raw glass
misshapen artefacts
misshapen artefacts
production waste;
chunks;
crucible
misshapen artefacts
production waste;
chunks
crucibles;
misshapen artefacts
misshapen artefacts
10
3
2
1
8
9
5
11
Figure 113: Distribution map of the known or presumed glass workshops that produced black glass artefacts
228
Figure 113 demonstrates that the present knowledge on secondary glass workshops producing black glass
artefacts is very incomplete, with only a few workshops per period. Most of these are situated in the north-western
provinces, with Braga (PT) and Ore ac (HR) in its periphery. Only Horbat Qastra (IL) lay in the Mediterranean.
This does not imply that black glass was essentially produced in north-west Europe, but only demonstrates the
actual lack of information on this issue for the Mediterranean region. Especially the (near) absence of a black
glass-producing workshop in the Levant and the Balkan is striking and stands in contrast with the high frequency
of late Roman jewellery [see Chapter 6.3.2. Jewellery]. A more thorough heuristic study of black glass material
from these areas would probably impose a modification of this observation. The interpretation of the results
described in Table 111 and the column charts in Figure 114 is twofold: 1) the high number of black glass artefacts
from the sites with a (presumed) glass workshop show that black glass consumables can be a frequent find
category depending on the intensity of archaeological activities and the excavated areas/levels; 2) the
consumption centres with black glass production display 1286 pieces from only 11 sites, which is equal to 28,7%
of the 4475 recorded artefacts from 651 sites. The production centres thus show an average of 117 per site,
202
whereas the other 640 sites represent an average of only 5 pieces.
Table 111: Overview of various concentrations of black glass commodities from sites with a clear or supposedly secondary
glass workshop where black glass has been manufactured
architectural
sites
vessels
jewellery
counters
utensils
decoration
production
TOTAL
Aquileia (IT)
Augst (CH)
Braga (PT)
Kaiseraugst (CH)
Lavoye (FR)
Liberchies (BE)
Ore ac (HR)
Sainte Menehould (FR)
Trier (DE)
Horbat Qastra (IL)
TOTAL
4
128
0
39
30
22
0
15
0
0
238
129
129
74
46
15
56
38
105
47
82
721
7
94
2
5
0
16
0
0
1
0
125
1
1
0
0
0
0
0
4
0
0
6
1
0
0
0
0
0
0
1
2
0
4
0
10
9
53
13
0
0
100
7
0
192
142
362
85
143
58
94
38
225
57
82
1286
600
500
400
production
300
200
architectural decoration
utensils
counters
100
0
jewellery
vessels
202
When taking into account the number of sites with 10 to 25 piecese.g., Xanten, Nijmegen, Avenches, Jerusalem, or Sens, the main
average is rather 2 pieces per site.
229
100%
90%
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
production
architectural decoration
utensils
counters
jewellery
vessels
Figure 114: Column charts demonstrating the concentrations of various black glass commodities from ites with a clear or
supposedly secondary glass workshop where black glass has been manufactured
PERIOD I
No clear evidence is available that reveals how the production of black glass artefacts was organised or that
identifies the location of any particular workshops in Period I. The two chunks of raw glass in black-appearing
dark green glass are perhaps the sole evidence from the secondary glass workshop of ‗La Montée de la Butte‘ at
Lyon (FR) [cat.nos.1224–1225]; nevertheless, these make clear that the workshop also made use of blackappearing raw glass besides the ‗naturally coloured‘ and decolourised glass. Because no artefacts in black glass
have been retrieved, it is impossible to determine what the Lyon workshop produced in black glass. It is, however,
possible to form an idea of what the Lyon workshop might have produced in black glass by looking at the
assemblage in other glass hues that the workshop manufactured. Furthermore, another contemporaneous Lyon
workshop, ‗La Manutention no. 2‘, produced quite similar material (Foy, Nenna 2001, 76–79, nos. 61–71). Thus,
even if there is no relationship with what has been produced, we may assume in all probability that the Lyon
workshop ‗La Montée de la Butte‘ produced vessels and twisted rods in black glass.
The Claudian-Neronian workshop from Avenches (CH) delivered a huge amount of strongly coloured glass
production waste (Amrein 2001), but none of the retrieved material is really black-appearing unless we consider
some of the pieces in very deep purple glass as ‗black‘a not too exaggerated idea seeing the various blackappearing artefacts (e.g., vessels, rods and counters) that have been produced in such deep purple glass. The
st
bulk of the 1 century AD black-appearing artefacts is produced in a deep brown to deep green glass and in a
purple glass. A glass workshop producing free-blown vessels in deep purple black-appearing glass was almost
certainly located in north-east Italy. This hypothesis is based on the amount of particular vessel shapes having
idiosyncratic features in other hues as well. Some examples from the Canal Bianco necropolis at Adria (IT)
include the cup with a large vertically outward-folded rim [cat.no.2585] or malformed pieces at the limit of being a
bad production [cat.no.2586] that would not have been imported from far distances. The examples all come from
burial gifts from the Aquileia area (Adria, Aquileia, Este and Montebelluna). Few are those in a cobalt rich deep
blue glass, despite, for instance, the amount of eye-catching cameo glass vessels.
Presuming that the Avenches and Lyon workshops also produced black glass, some features can be put forward
that seem characteristic of Period I workshops in general, seeing the correspondence with the above-mentioned
workshop in the Aquileia area:
Both workshops are situated in the centre of a large town;
The production shows specialised craftsmanship but also demonstrates very diverse production;
The organisation of the deeply coloured glass in Period I workshops is considered comparable to
schemes 2–3.
Furthermore, we have to stress that both more or less contemporaneous sites are located in the north-western
part of the Roman Empire. The very low number of production centres identified and the limited information on
230
available objects does not allow us to establish a marked difference in the production and distribution of the
artefact types produced.
PERIOD II
nd
During the 1970s, two glass workshops were excavated in Kaiseraugst that processed black glass in the 2 to
rd
early 3 century AD (Rütti 1991, 150–153; Fischer, 2009). Interesting to notice is the presence of four different
types of crucibles (Fischer 2009, 91-106), providing an early date for the use of crucibles which are generally
rd
regarded as introduced during the 3 century AD. At the same time, there were found numerous fragments of
quartz-rich clay covered with gullies of deep blue-green glass appearing black (Figure 115). These have to be
regarded as part of the interior of the furnace construction and can thus have been parts of a batch basin, the
st
nd
technique assumed to be used during the 1 and 2 century AD. Probably these fragments are the remains from
the opening where the glassblower spilled molten glass when gathering a hot gob of glass. Because a
glassblower is never clumsy the thickness of the glass suggests that the furnace was active for a long time.
Figure 115: Fragments from the Regio 17B glass workshop of Kaiseraugst (CH)
(picture by author, by courtesy of Römermuseum, Augst)
Seven different glass hues, with a predominance of the green hues, have been identified in the crucibles (Table
112).
Table 112: List of attested glass hues from the workshop at Regio 17C (left) and Regio 17B (right)
(taken from Fischer 2009, 95, fig.108)
hue
excavation 1974
excavation 1978
yellow
green-white
pale green
green
dark green
dark green/black
white
2
9
10
2
3
-
3
5
13
64
45
5
1?
We distinguished translucent deeply coloured blue-green glass full of round pinprick air bubbles from the blackappearing glass flows on the basin fragments from the workshop ‗Äuserre Reben‘ in Kaiseraugst. This is also the
glass we find in many objects, vessels and jewellery that have been excavated all over the town Augusta Raurica
(Augst/Kaiseraugst). Various shapes of free-blown as well as some very few examples of mould-blown vessels
were retrieved from the workshop in Building 1 of Regio 17B. Previously, it has been stated that glass workshops
producing vessels would not generate jewellery and vice versa (Stern 1999). Although the glass workshops at the
facing corner buildings of Regio 17B and 17C provided no signs indicating a combined production of vessels and
bracelets, we noticed that the very same blue-green glass was utilised for the bracelets found in Augusta Raurica
[see Chapter 8].
The organisation of the workshop of Äussere Reben at Kaiseraugst matches up with scheme 4, seeing the
various indications that reconstruct, to a certain extent, the production process of black glass. For instance, it is
231
striking that a bottom piece of a black glass batch included an unmelted tessera-shaped cubic inclusion of 7x5,
5x5, 5 mm in a transparent pale blue-green glass [cat.no.3703] (Figure 116 top). Does this piece suggest that the
glass workers in the Kaiseraugst workshop added glass tesserae systematically to the batch to work on a
continuous basis? Another piece of production waste from the same workshop appears to be a thick curving
gutter/trail and contains four transparent, pale bluish-green glass tesserae in a row [cat.no.3695] (Figure 116
bottom).
Figure 116: top) batch fragment from Äussere Reben workshop at Kaiseraugst (CH) with unmelted tessera in ‗naturally coloured‘
glass; bottom) production waste from the same workshop showing four unmelted cubic-shaped inclusions in transparent pale
blue-green glass (pictures by author, by courtesy of Römermuseum Augusta Raurica)
But when looking to the theoretical visualisation of the possible mixtures that can occur when glass artefacts got
recycled as cullet, one can easily observe the complexity of recognising glass workshops. This intricacy of glass
mixtures is already discussed on the basis of chemical analysis on colourless glass (Freestone et al. 2009, 133–
134, fig.3) and will be treated in a following chapter [see Chapter 8].
The Argonne workshops at Les Houis near Sainte Menehould (FR) and at Lavoye (FR) are mainly known for the
production of black glass jewellery and tesserae, but the small set of tiny vessel fragments that has been retrieved
from both sites possibly also indicates the production of glass vessels (Cosyns 2009b, 93). These included 36
vessel fragments in black glass from which a good number could be attributed to the carinated beakers or
carchesia and the mould-blown, grape-shaped amphoriskoicharacteristic vessel shapes for the late Antonine
203
and Severan period. Nonetheless some presume that the high fragmentation degree needs to be interpreted as
evidence for recycling glass, i.e. cullet (Chew 1989). This assumption is based on the hypothesis proposed by
Marianne Stern (1999) stating that in Roman times the glassblowing technique was a very specialized procedure
that needed skilled craftsmen defining the organization of a glass workshop. Accordingly it is generally assumed
203
The interpretation of this material and its implications for the dating of the site have been discussed earlier [see Chapter 4].
232
that a glass workshop either manufactured artefacts through glassblowing thus solely producing containers or
using any other technique but glassblowing and concentrating on jewellery production. Glassworkers active in
vessel production would thus never produce beads, bangles or any other type of jewellery. The Argonne
workshops yielded no furnace structures but the presence of one or probably several glass workshops can be
assumed from the retrieved crucibles, fragments of blowing pipes and other utensils related to the manufacturing
of vessels alongside the production of jewellery.
The supposedly workshop(s) in Liberchies (BE) responsible for the manufacturing of black glass artefacts can be
deduced from the high number of material retrieved during excavations; and bad productions of carchesia and a
so-called conical counter that is to our opinion a misshapen pseudo-nicolo gem [cat.no.345]. Both commodity
rd
types supports a dating in the first half of the 3 century AD.
PERIOD III
The lack of evidence indicating the continuity of the production of black glass vessels during Period III, and
elsewhere in the Roman Empire than the north-western provinces, is striking [see Chapter 3]. The available
information on late Roman glass workshops manufacturing black glass artefacts demonstrates that the production
rd
th
204
of jewellery was characteristic of the mid 3 to 5 century AD (Periods III and IV).
Since the workshops of Les Houis and Lavoye provided glass material in a wide variety of colours, it is clear that
the glass workshop(s) not only diversified in shapes but also in hues. Thus, it is realistic to assume that secondary
workshops in general when producing black glass artefacts never limited their production to this one single glass
hue. Conversely, it may well be that a range of known secondary workshops, where no evidence of black glass
has been found, also produced black glass artefacts.
No clear evidence of other contemporaneous glass workshops producing black glass artefacts is available. The
th
glass workshop attested in Braga (Bracara Augusta)dated roughly 4 century ADfalls within this and the
rd
th
following period since earlier activities in the late 3 century AD or later activities in the early 5 century AD
cannot be excluded [see Chapter 4]. Based on what has been retrieved from the Fujacal area, the workshop
solely produced jewelleryi.e., bracelets, finger rings, beads, pendants, gems and hairpins (da Cruz 2009, 100rd
th
102, fig.3). The presumed (black) glass workshop in Ore ac (HR) seems to have been active in the 3 –4 century
AD according to the type of yielded material.
PERIOD IV
The glass workshop Trier-Palais Kesselstatt was found during salvage excavations in 1922 (Loeschke 1925), but
th
no structures were registered or reported. The fill of the zone is dated at the end of the 4 century AD on the
basis of the pottery, the glass and the coins, including coins struck under Valentinian (364-375 AD) and
th
Theodosius I (379-395 AD). The glass workshop is believed to have started somewhere in the first third of the 4
century AD (Goethert 2007, 395). It is clear that the high barrel-shaped crucibles are different from the mainly
open types in Period II and III from Kaiseraugst and Les Houis. The seven black beadsannular, globular and
barrel-shapedwere all decorated with applied glass trails in opaque white and/or blue. The site produced one
black vessel-shaped pendant with applied glass trails in opaque white, one plain arm ring (type D1) in black glass
and four black finger rings out of 11 of type C 1 and 2 with a portrait pressed in (Loeschke 1925, 337-340;
th
Goethert-Polaschek 1984; Cosyns 2009) (Table 113). All material was rather typical of the second half of the 4
century AD onwards. We may conclude that the retrieved objects represent discarded workshop material that got
th
dumped at the end of the 4 century AD.
Table 113: List of glass finds from the late 4th century glass workshop at Trier, Palais Kesselstatt
functional type
black
blue
yellowish green
amber yellow
arm ring
finger ring
bead
pendant
crucible
1
4
7
1
3
1
1
-
2
1
-
3
1
-
colourless
1
-
Horbat Qastra lacks any remains of furnaces or glass working waste, but is supposed to have had a glass
workshop based on the statement by Yael Gorin-Rosen that a site showing a large amount of similar-looking
204
Continuity of black glass jewellery production is observable in the East up to the mid 7th century AD, whereas in the West only beads remain in
circulation, mainly until the mid 6th century AD but also continuing up to the mid 7th century AD [see Chapter 4].
233
material is sufficient to determine the presence of a glass workshop within Horbat Qastra or in its vicinity (GorinRosen, Katsnelson 2008, 74). The workshop, producing black glass beads and pendants, must have been active
205
during Period IV. The material is related to that from Trier-Kesselstatt, with annular, globular and barrel-shaped
beads with applied trails in opaque white and blue glass as well as vessel-shaped and poppy-head pendants.
Some material such as the discoid pressed beads and the small melon beadsannular and globularwere more
characteristic of Period III, whereas the so-called ‗crumb‘ beads were typical from Period IV onwards and were
popular all through the early Byzantine period. The black glass jewellery from the cemetery of Horbat Qastra thus
th
th
gives a date range from the early 4 up to the 6 century AD.
Before discussing the issue of distribution, we first want to point to the sometimes limited availability of direct
evidence for locating glass workshops responsible for the manufacturing of black glass artefacts. But when are
we allowed to determine the existence of a glass workshop? The prevailing opinion is the presence of direct
evidence such as furnaces, tools and production waste, but seldom are all found together (Table 109). We
previously listed a number of sites yielding direct and/or indirect evidence of workshops where black glass was
made and/or used to manufacture artefacts (Table 110). Unfortunately, the sites are characterised by a lack of
concrete archaeological evidence useful in the interpretation, and when available the information is not always
easy to read. An ultimate solution in discerning a potential local workshop without direct evidences has been
articulated by Yael Gorin-Rosen:
… a site may be identified as a production center if large quantities of similar vessel types are evident alongside production
debris, although the original location of the workshop is unknown, …
… large quantities of vessels of the same limited number of types sharing similar decorations, fabric and workmanship, are
sufficient to determine the presence of a glass production center, despite the lack of furnace residue or glassworking waste.
Occasionally, it is even possible to identify the fingerprints of a specific craftsman in particular features, such as the fashioning
and application of handles or trails onto the vessels.
(Gorin-Rosen, Katsnelson 2008, 74)
We have tested this statement‘s validity by using the black glass material from Augusta Raurica,
Augst/Kaiseraugst (CH). Gorin-Rosen‘s assertion has been re-evaluated again in Chapter 8 by means of the
chemical composition of samples taken from one particular type of vessels (Form IIB.4) as well as some bracelets,
all of them found at various places in the colonia.
6.3 Distribution and trade
Next to the overview of glass workshops processing black glass, it is important to verify the distribution of the
different commodity categories in black-appearing glass to obtain a better view on the trade patterns. For reasons
of feasibility and to increase the readability of this chapter, we describe the distribution of the black glass artefacts
per function, focussing on vessels and arm rings, without excluding the other commodity categories from the
reviewing discussion. Aiming to find out where particular forms have been produced, we not only take into
account the typological shape, but also consider the adopted glass hue. The importance of the latter is because
variations in glass hue for the same form type can point to an idiosyncratic production of a particular workshop.
6.3.1
Vessels
Based on the results from previous chapters, it is clear that the production of vessels in black-appearing glass had
a discontinuous success throughout the Roman imperial period [see Chapter 3 and 4]. The here-assembled
material shows that the black glass vessels from the successive periods were consumer goods within distinct
regions. Monochrome strongly coloured glass of Period I was fashionable from the reign of Tiberius to that of
st
Nero, but it disappeared fully by the end of the 1 century AD in favour of decolourized glass (Cosyns, Fontaine
2009). The catalogued cast and free-blown vessels from Period I show an empire-wide distribution with a
concentration in the western part of the Roman Empire. During Period II, a fashion for black-appearing glass
vessels re-emerged in the north-western provinces (Cosyns, Hanut 2005). This regional production of free-blown
rd
and mould-blown black glass vessels ceased around the middle of the 3 century AD. A circulation of black glass
th
vessels reappeared in the 4 century AD, and the vessels stayed in use all through period IV. This renewed
205
Because the contexts have not been studied yet and the material is still under study, it might well be that a part falls under Period III.
234
production, which consisted entirely of rod-formed, solid-bodied toilet ware, shows once again a regional
production/consumption, this time in the south-eastern Mediterraneanthe Levant and Egypt.
PERIOD I
We were able to list only 161 pieces of Period I vessels, but we recognize that the list is a work in progress and
206
that many more examples will emerge. From 42 sites were retrieved 83 pieces of cast vessels and 42 pieces of
free-blown vessels from 24 sites. Interesting is that either cast vessels or free-blown vessels have been retrieved
from a settlement. Only few sites yielded both cast and free-blown vessels: Liberchies, Augst, Kaiseraugst,
Avenches, Arles, Olbia, Adria, Pompeii and Heerlen. Few pieces with no detailed provenance are excluded from
the presented computation. All were found in Italy: one cast piece, a shallow hemispherical cup of Form IA.3 of
the former Bocchi collection and now in the National Archaeological Museum at Adria [cat.no.2825]; and two freeblown jugs, respectively Form IB.8 and 9, in dark purple glass in the Musée du Louvre, Paris [cat.nos.2826; 2828].
st
Remaining a rare artefact from the 1 century AD, the black glass vessels have been found in the greater centres
all over the Roman Empire, but with a greater frequency in the west. This distribution corresponds to the Roman
glassware in general within the 1st century AD in the west and that of monochrome strongly coloured glassware
in particular (Isings 1957; Cool, Price 1995; Price, Cottam 1998; Foy, Nenna 2003; Hanut 2003; Price 2006).
Various areas of concentration have been noticed in this western part of the Roman Empire (Cosyns, Fontaine
2009): 1) the Gulf of Naples; 2) the north of Italy; 3) Gallia Narbonensis, and in particular the Rhone/Saone valley
up to Switzerland and 4) the greater limes-zone in the north-western provinces, e.g. Austria, Germany, Belgium,
the Netherlands and Great Britain. It is obvious that the areas where concentrations of black glass material have
been observed are influenced by various aspects not related to the true distribution and trade of goods, but to the
availability of published material and the accessibility of unpublished material. The concentration of Period I
vessels in black-appearing glass was also affected by historical circumstances, such as the eruption of Mt.
Vesuvius in 79 AD that put the entire society in the Gulf of Naples under seal. This outnumbered presence in
Pompeii (IT) is of course due to its intensive excavations, as is the case for sites like Magdalensberg (AT), Fréjus
(FR), Olbia (FR) or Augst/Kaiseraugst (CH).
1.Durres (AL)
2.Magdalensberg (AT)
3.Anthée (BE)
4.Han-sur-Lesse (BE)
5.Liberchies (BE)
6.Riemst (BE)
7.Tongeren (BE)
8.Zara (HR)
9.Augst (CH)
Form IB.10
Forms IA.2;4
Form IA.8
Form IA.2
Form IA.14
Form IB.7
Form IA.1
Form IA.8
Form IC.1
Form IA.8
Forms IA.8;13;14
Forms IB.1;19
10.Avenches (CH)
11.Kaiseraugst (CH)
12.Locarno (CH)
13.Windisch (CH)
14.Moers-Asberg (DE)
15.Mainz (DE)
16.Waldorf (DE)
17.Cádiz (ES)
18.Taragona (ES)
19.Arles (FR)
20.Barzan (FR)
21.Cruzy (FR)
22.Forêt d'Argonne (FR)
23.Fréjus (FR)
Forms IA.1;10
Forms IB.5
Form IC.1
Form IA.3/4;14
Form IB.19
Form IB.2
Form IA.4
indefinite Form IA
Form IA.2
Form IB.7
Form IA.1
Form IA.8
indefinite Form IA
Form IB.17
indefinite Form IA
Form IA.7
Form IA.7/8
Form IA.
1
1
16
1
1
2
1
1
2
2
2
1
1
1
1
1
2
3
1
6
2
1
1
1
1
1
2
6
2
2
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
2
2
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
mouldblown
freeblown
cast
blue
7
technology
brown
9
purple
hue
green
1
107-121;A4489
179
316
417;425
407;413
497
565
562
772
3469;3471;3570;
3474;3506
3481;3487;3536;3545;
3548;3554
3597;3611
3614
3617
3751;3758
3767;3776
A4497
3806
1957
1947
2107
3182
3120
1022-23
A4484
1026
A4494
1092
A4495
form
black
Table 114: List of sites with black glass vessels of Period I
cat.no.
site
1
1
1
1
1
206
It is noteworthy to pinpoint the absence of Period I vessels in a lot of countries that were part of the Roman Empire. The recorded material from
50 sites is spread over 14 countries of the 32 present-day countries that correspond with the vastness of the Roman Empire.
235
A4476
1138
1154
1227
A4480
A4477-79
1321-22; 1333;1335
1340
1365
A4491
A4498
A4483
24.Gof de Fos (FR)
25.Jublains (FR)
26.Lattes (FR)
27.Marseille (FR)
28.Murviel-lès-Montpellier (FR)
29.Nîmes (FR)
30.Olbia (FR)
A4481-82
2584-87
31.Orange (FR)
32.Reims (FR)
33.Richebourg (FR)
34.Saintes (FR)
35.
Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux
(FR)
36.Vaison-la-Romaine (FR)
37.Adria (IT)
2726
2829
2733
2734
2743-44
2758-62
2765-74
38.Aquileia (IT)
39.Bologna (IT)
40.Boscoreale (IT)
41.Calvatone (IT)
42.Este (IT)
43.Montebelluna (IT)
44.Pompeii (IT)
2275
2789
2805
2813
2830-31
2894;2896-97
2982-83
3105
3152
3173
A4499
A4500
A4501-7
4051
4145-47
794
810;812
856
874
3896
TOTAL
45.Porto Potenza Picena (IT)
46.Rome (IT)
47.S. Elena di Melma (IT)
48.Santelpido (IT)
49.Verona (IT)
50.Heerlen (NL)
51.Nijmegen (NL)
52.Torre de Ares (PT)
53.Polhov Gradec (SL)
54.Ribnica (SL)
55.Caersws (UK)
56.Carlisle (UK)
57.Colchester (UK)
58.Fishbourne (UK)
59.London (UK)
60.Abydos (EG)
61.Bahnasa (EG)
62.El-Ashmunein (EG)
63.Ghurob (EG)
64.Ephesus (TR)
Form IA.4
indefinite Form IA
Form IA.8
Form IA.2
Form IB.10
Forms IB.10;11
Form IA.2
Form IB.1
Form IA.7
Form IA.7/8
Form IA.3
Form IA.2
Form IB.8
Form IB.5;16
Forms IA.3;8
Forms IB.12;13
Form IB.10-11
Form IB.5
Form IA.7
Form IA.3
Forms IB.3;4
Forms IB.13;14;15
Forms IA.1;4;5;6
Forms IB.1;5;8;9
Form IA.1
Form IB.11
Form IA.9
Form IB.11
Form IB.10
Form IA.4
Form IB.1
Form IA.8
Form IA.3
Form IB.1
Form IA.12
Form IA.7
Form IA.7
Form IA.7
Form IA.7
Form IA.11
Form IB.16
Form IA.10
Form IB.5
Form IB.4
Form IB.3
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
2
1
1
2
1
3
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
2
1
1
2
2
2
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
4
1
4
1
2
4
1
6
3
1
1
1
1
2
4
1
1
1
1
2
2
2
1
2
1
1
1
2
1
1
1
1
1
7
1
3
1
1
1
2
1
2
5
1
1
1
1
1
1
2
1
45
29
1
36
14
8
87
1
1
1
45
2
The material listed in Table 114 illustrates an empire-wide distribution of the black glass vessels in Period I,
although most recorded material is distributed in the west of the Roman Empire with only few sites in Egypt and
Turkey for the east. Only one cast vessel came from the eastern Mediterranean area: the large bowl with
horizontal rim from Bahnasa (EG). Another cast cup with shallow cylindrical body (Form IA.4) now in the Haaretz
museum, Tel Aviv, reportedly came from Israel (unpublished) [cat.no.A4496]. Besides the free-blown unguentaria
with globular body (Form IB.4) from Ephesus (TR) [cat.no.3896], and Ghurob (EG) [cat.no.874], others remained
unprovenanced although reportedly coming from the eastern Mediterranean such as the one in the Kestner
Museum in Hannover [cat.no.A4509]. Other free-blown vessels of eastern origin include the globular juglet with a
vertical handle in opaque blue glass (Form IB.2) supposedly from Syria (Slitine 2005, 71) [cat.no.A4508] and the
large cantharus (Form IB.5) from El-Ashmunein (EG) that is now in the Louvre [cat.no.856]. This rare occurrence
in the eastern part of the Roman Empire is most probably a reflection of the narrowness of the material at hand.
However, a more intensive investigation of the black glass vessels from Period I in the eastern provinces could
not be carried out during this research project. On the other hand, the rareness of these vessels is also due to the
lack of extensive excavations of early Roman sites in the eastern Mediterranean. In this area, the early Roman
levels mostly remain sealed by structures from later periods. Valuable and major architectural finds generally stop
excavations at the early Byzantine or late Roman levels to preserve the uncovered structures.
Nevertheless, it may be advanced that the much more limited occurrence of black glass vessels in the eastern
Mediterranean corroborates the prevailing view proposing a western production of non-blown vessels during the
early imperial period in Italy, most likely in Rome as well as other urban centres (Grose 1991; Price 2004, 15).
Because the majority of the black-appearing vessels made of purple glass were found in Italy, it is assumed that
in particular the free-blown vessels were produced in an Italian workshop and more precisely in the north of Italy,
with Aquileia as the most frequently cited location (Beretta et al. 2006, 207). The concentration of black glass
236
vessels for the Veneto region is, however, influenced by the very intensive and long-lasting excavations in that
region.
Despite the fact that we could not accumulate as much material from the eastern part as from the western part of
the Roman Empire, the available examples provide enough evidence to demonstrate that the black glass vessels
are omnipresent and appear to be part of the then-popular deeply coloured monochrome glass vessels from late
Tiberian period up to the Neronian period, even if the low frequency is ranking this commodity as a very
occasional article of trade. Nevertheless, it is necessary to verify more carefully the differences and similarities
between the eastern and western empire in the distribution and consumption of strongly coloured vessels.
PERIOD II
173-74
178
185-90
192
193
195
199
209
210
222
224
255
258
259
291
320
321
324-28
Amay (BE)
Anthée (BE)
Arlon (BE)
Auvelais (BE)
Bassenge (BE)
Baudecet (BE)
Bois-et-Borsu (BE)
Bossut-Gottechain (BE)
Braffe (BE)
Braives (BE)
Brecht (BE)
Eben-Emael (BE)
Elewijt (BE)
Ellignies-Ste-Anne (BE)
Grobbendonk (BE)
Izier (BE)
Jambes (BE)
Kontich (BE)
329-30
334
335
408-12;414-16;
418-24;426-28
429-30
438-47
449
450
459
492-94
Kruishoutem (BE)
Lauw (BE)
Lavacherie (BE)
Liberchies (BE)
496
508
510-14
515
519
539;541-48
540
563-64
582-89
594-99
610
614
621-23
998
1028
1049-52
1073-75
Relegem (BE)
Roly (BE)
Rumst (BE)
Schaarbeek (BE)
Straten
Tienen (BE)
1183-88;1189-94;1196;11981203;1205-1207;1209-12
1214
1295-96
1367-69
1613-19;1623
1620;1622;1624
A4488
Lavoye (FR)
Liège (BE)
Matagne-la-Petite (BE)
Mettet (BE)
Mortsel (BE)
Nismes (BE)
Oudenburg (BE)
Tongeren (BE)
Treignes (BE)
Velzeke (BE)
Vervoz-Clavier (BE)
Virton-St. Mard (BE)
Wancennes (BE)
Abbeville(FR)
Boulogne-sur-Mer (FR)
Cutry (FR)
Faulquemont (FR)
Lillebonne (FR)
Morains (FR)
Roussy-le-Village (FR)
Sainte-Menehould (FR)
Altbachtal-Trier (DE)
Form IIB.1
Form IIB.4
Forms IIB.1;4
Form IIB.1
Form IIB.15
Form IIB.1
Forms IIB.4
Form IIB.1
Form IIB.1
Form IIB.1
Form IIB.1
Forms IIB.4
Form IIB.1
Form IIB.1
Form IIB.1
Form IIB.1
Form IIB.1
Form IIB.13 +indefinite
forms IIB
Form IIB.1
Form IIB.4
Form IIB.1
Form IIB.1
Forms IIB.1;4
Forms IIB.1;4;5
Form IIB.4
Form IIB.1
Form IIB.1
Form IIB.1
+indefinite forms IIB
Form IIB.1
Form IIB.5
Form IIB.1
Form IIB.2
Form IIB.11
Form IIB.1
Form IIC.2
Form IIB.1
Form IIB.1
Form IIB.1
indefinite form IIB
Form IIB.1
Form IIB.1
Form IIB.1
Form IIB.1
Forms IIB.1;3
Forms IIB.5;6
+indefinite form IIB
Forms IIB.1;20
+indefinite forms IIB
Form IIB.19
Form IIB.1
Forms IIB.1;4;5
Form IIB.1
Form IIC.1
Form IIB.4
2
1
1
2
1
1
15
2
1
1
18
1
10
2
10
1
1
1
3
5
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
3
1
1
1
1
3
1
1
1
1
5
1
1
9
5
1
1
9
1
1
1
1
1
1
7
5
1
8
6
1
1
2
1
1
4
3
1
2
1
1
4
1
2
20
1
2
3
8
3
1
1
1
3
25
1
2
3
8
3
1
237
rod-formed
mould-blown
free-blown
1
1
1
5
2
1
6
1
1
1
1
1
1
2
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
5
1
1
1
1
1
blue
brown
technology
purple
hue
blue-green
form
black
Table 115: List of sites with black glass vessels of Period II
cat.no.
site
green
1840;1842-43;50;1857
1845;1848;1858
Cologne (DE)
1869
1876
1929-30
1946
1962
1999
2012-14
A4618
2108
2178
2788
2879-82
2883
2895;2898
2902-7
2975-79;2981
2984
2986-87
3154
3463;3465;3472-73;3475;
3477;3488;3490-91;3495;
3498;3504;3512;3516-17;
3519-20;3523;3525-30;
3535;3537;3539-40;3542;
3544;3546;3550;3553;3556;
3559-60;3563;3565-66;
3576;3581-82
3462;3493-94;3521;3532;
3551
3594;3598;3600;36023;3607;3609;361213;3615;3618;3621-23;3625-28
3634-36
3743;3746;3748;3750;375357;3760;3762-63;3772-74;
3778-79
3777
4026-27
868-71
788
2851-52
2866
Total
Elsdorf-Esch (DE)
Eshweiler-Hastenrath (DE)
Krefeld-Gellep (DE)
Mainz (DE)
Morbach-Wederath (DE)
Rheinbach-Flerzheim (DE)
Siesbach (DE)
Trier (DE)
Weilerwist-Hausweiler (DE)
Zûlpich (DE)
Rome (IT)
Esch (NL)
Heel (NL)
Heerlen (NL)
Hoogeloon (NL)
Nijmegen (NL)
Stein (NL)
Ptuj (SL)
Augst (CH)
Forms IIB.1;4;11;19;21
Form IIC.1
Form IIB.14
Form IIB.13
Form IIB.8
Form IIB.5
Form IIC.1
Form IIB.5
Form IIB.4
Form IIB.2
Form IIB.8
Form IIB.21
Form IIC.1
Forms IIB.1;6;7;11
Form IIB.1
Forms IIB.1;4
Forms IIB.1;4
Forms IIB.1;4;11;13
Form IIC.1
Forms IIB.4;
Forms IIB.11
Forms IIB.1;3;4;5;6;
12;14;17;20
3
4
3
3
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
3
1
1
1
3
1
1
1
1
1
2
1
1
3
1
2
6
4
4
1
2
6
6
2
1
28
11
2
1
42
1
4
1
1
1
Avenches (CH)
Forms IIB.1;4;5;16;
17
1
8
Courroux (CH)
Kaiseraugst (CH)
indefinite Form(s) IIB
Forms IIB.1;4;5;17;
20;21
3
1
8
Form IIC.2
Forms IIB.1;16
Form IID.1
Form IIC.1
Forms IIB.11;18
Form IIB.10
8
1
Form IIC.2
Colchester (UK)
Elkab (EG)
Cyprus
Lebanon
Luxemburg
1
3
6
9
18
3
17
8
1
2
1
2
4
4
1
1
52
200
1
25
1
1
7
19
0
2
1
281
18
The black glass vessels of Period II show a very distinct distribution pattern with a clear regional character that
contrasts with the supraregional occurrence during Period I. All vessel shapes corroborate the model of
productiondistributionconsumption of black glass vessels within the provinces Gallia Belgica, Germania Inferior
and Germania Superior, with a few exceptions found in neighbouring provinces such as the one-handled jug (form
IIB.11) from Grave 4 of the cemetery at Ptuj (SL) (Tu ek 1993, 411-412, pl. 6.1; Lazar 2003, 130-131, fig.39)
falling in the Roman province Pannonia Superior and the dolphin-shaped vessel from Lillebonne (FR) in
Normandy [cat.no.1214] within a transitional area between the Roman provinces Gallia Lugdunensis and Gallia
Belgica, just north of the River Seine. A good number of the pieces show the material to be rare if not unique, with
the exception of two well-spread vessel shapes: the carinated beaker with out-turned fire-rounded rims, Form
IIB.1, and the bulbous jar, Forms IIB.4-5.
For the very thin-walled vessel shape Form IB.1 two things can be said:
207
This vessel type is the most frequent type of all black glass vessel shapes exclusively distributed in
Gallia Belgica and Germania Inferior. The 139 records catalogued up to now originate from 46 sites
dispersed over Belgium (86 ex.), France (30 ex.), the Netherlands (10 ex.), Germany (3 ex.), Switzerland
(8 ex.) and England (1 ex.), ranking the carinated beaker as a rather common commodity. The
Colchester fragment of the carinated beaker forms no inconsistency because the material culture in
southeast Britannia matches the distinctive eastwest axial distribution with Germania inferior and (the
northern part of) Gallia Belgica, a region now known as the north of France, Belgium, the south of the
207
Netherlands and the northern Rhine region in Germany (Table 115). Small quantities of black glass
Very useful and conducive to a better understanding of the distribution pattern of black glass vessels are observations on glass on the whole as
well as on other materials, such as pottery.
238
4
material produced in Gallia Belgica and Germania Inferior reached the Romano-British market and, more
specifically, south-east Britain. This delimited concentration area in south-east Britain coincides with the
rd
th
distribution of the mould-blown cylindrical glass bottles of the late 3 and 4 century AD (Isings 1957,
Form 128; Price 1978, 76-77; 1985, 213) plus a number of pottery imports in late Roman Britain (Millett
1990, 157-180). On the other hand, the south-western part of Britain, where black glass artefacts are
nearly absent, seems a significant consumers‘ market for imports from Gallia Aquitania via Normandy
and Brittany (Millett 1990), where black glass pieces are similarly more or less absent. One might think
of the impact of customs barriers, which are suggested to have existed between the different provinces,
and their impact on trade and distribution. These can help to set a value on its position in the
nd
th
interprovincial trade patterns with the north-western provinces on the continent in the late 2 to 4
century AD. The research data for Britain of the material described above illustrate good similarities with
the distribution of black glass material. Odder is the material‘s near absence in the Rhine-region while
occurrences have been noted in Switzerland. The black glass carchesium can therefore be considered
idiosyncratic for Gallia Belgica and Germania Inferior, even though some pieces have been found in
Germania Superior as well;
This vessel type is in some way ubiquitous outside Gallia Belgica and Germania Inferior but in
decolourized and ‗naturally coloured‘ glass, whereas in the area of the two north-western provinces,
Gallia Belgica and Germania Inferior, the shape is nearly exclusively produced in black glass. Only a few
examples are known in other hues, such as the carchesium in colourless glass from Couvin (BE) (Musée
Archéologique, Namur) or the piece of unknown provenance in an almost colourless greenish glass
(Römisch-Germanischen Museum, Cologne, Inv. no. 63, 60 – La Baume 1973, D8, pl.16:4). Striking is
that the same shape is well represented in neighbouring provinces such as Gallia Lugdunensis, but the
carinated beakers from those provinces are of blue-green and green glass, while those in black glass are
completely lacking, e.g. Mazières-en-Mauges with 25 ex. (Simon 2000, 149; 152-153, fig.87:2-12). The
Mediterranean carchesia are not to be compared with those from the northwestern provinces, as they
show technological differences. Produced in a pale coloured or decolourized glass, these carinated
beakers have a cut rim with ground edge, and the foot is folded and not applied. The Cypriot carchesium
at the National Museum of Scotland (Lightfoot 2007, 77, no. 162), and numerous other similar beakers in
large museum collections, show that the Romans were familiar with this specific shape.
The total absence of black glass bulbous cups (Forms IIB.4-5) in Britannia is not surprising, as its distribution
demonstrates a northsouth axis along the Rhine region, excluding Gallia Belgica from the distribution of this form
type, with the exception of some rare occurrences on settlements in the most eastern part of this province within
the civitas Trevirorum, such as Trier (DE); Arlon (BE); Faulquemont (FR); Roussy-le-Village (FR). The bulbous
cups are characteristic of Germania Superior and Germania Inferior, with a distribution as far west as Anthée
(BE); Matagne-la-Petite (BE); Kontich (BE); Hoogeloon (NL), and with Nijmegen (NL) and Avenches (CH) as the
most northern and most southern extremities of its distribution range. Seeing that 46 of the 73 entries or 2/3 come
from either Augst/Kaiseraugst (CH), with 36 ex., and Avenches (CH), with 10 ex., we may assume with an
acceptable certainty that both vessel types were produced in the area, and most likely in Augst/Kaiserugst and
probably in the workshop ‗Äussere Reben‘ [see Chapters 8 and 9].
A third vessel typethe shallow plate or bowl with fire-rounded rim (Form IIB.17)is thus far only known from the
nd
mid-2 century AD in Avenches, Colchester and the vicus of Castleford (Cool, Price 1998, 156, fig.53, no. 62)
st
nd
and the late 1 to early 2 century AD in Deansgate (Cool, Price 1995, 100). Hitherto, the known examples are
unfortunately too restricted for us to be able to outline any distribution pattern, but might be of a wider range than
the two other vessel shapes.
It appears that black glass vessels were consumer goods characteristic of the provinces of Gallia Belgica,
Germania Inferior, Germania Superior, but black glass artefacts always remained a minor side-product on the
Roman (glass) market in general and a relatively occasional and singular glass product in particular.
PERIOD III
The recorded material of Period III is insufficient to play a role in the discussion on distribution patterns. Hitherto,
the material is represented by a few examples of a limited number of vessel shapes [see Chapter 3], all of which
was recorded in the north-western provinces: Tongeren (BE) [cat.no.563] (Form IIIB.1), Krefeld-Gellep (DE)
[cat.no.1929] (Form IIIB.2) and Amiens (FR) [cat.no.1006] (Form IIIB.3). Considering the amount of globular
unguentaria with flattened body and aryballoi with annular body in deeply coloured glass, we assume that the
black appearance of these few pieces was not deliberately obtained. These shapes are mainly known in ‗naturally‘
coloured and decolourized glass and show a similar distribution within the north-western provinces, with a
239
concentration in the northern Rhine region (Welker 1974, 138, no. 30; Goethert-Polaschek 1977, form 139;
Friedhoff 1991, 154, pl. 84:7; Foy, Nenna 2001, no. 205).
PERIOD IV
The nearly total absence of provenance information for the recorded 48 pieces of rod-formed vessels makes a
distribution map of the Period IV vessels irrelevant. However, the few pieces with provenance information
corroborate the assumption that the rod-formed, solid-bodied squat jars and elongated slender unguentaria are
idiosyncratic to the Levant and Egypt (Table 116) (Stern 2001, 186-189)] and corresponds to the distribution of
the blown and rod-formed, solid-bodied unguentaria in deeply green and blue-green glass in the preceding
periods (Harden 1936).
Table 116: List of sites with black glass vessels of Period IV
cat.no.
Provenance
Type
853-55
868-71
930
3807
3808
3821
Dush Kysis (EG)
Elkab (EG)
Shurafa (EG)
Aleppo (SY)
Hama (SY)
Homs (SY)
Form IVD.2
Form IID.1
Form IVD.2 variant 4
Form IVD.2
Indefinite form
Form IVD.2
Quantity
3
4
1
1
1
1
The black glass vessels in Period IV have only been produced by using the rod-formed technique. Two remarks
can be put forward: 1) the great uniformity makes it quite reasonable to assume that the rod-formed, tall, slender
balsamaria and wide, shallow jars are to be regarded as a product of one single workshop or a very few number
of workshops within a limited region where the same fashion as well as technological know-how and traditions
were available during a well-defined period of time; 2) these rod-formed vessels were most likely produced in the
same glass workshop(s) where the assortment of beads, pendants and other trinkets were made of black glass
and decorated with applied trails in opaque yellow, red or turquoise glass. The statement by Maud Spaer
contradicts Marianne Stern‘s assumption that glass vessels and glass jewellery were produced by different
workshops (Stern 1999).
These vessels, decorated like the beads and pendants of the period, were not manufactured by the common contemporary
vessel-manufacturing techniques and are likely to have been produced in beadmaking workshops.
… These unique vessels were in all likelihood made in the workshops specializing in beads and other varieties of glass
ornaments, in ways closely related to beadforming technologies.
(Maud Spaer 2001, 31-32, fig.5)
Most likely the rod-formed vessels have to be seen as an exception to the rule. But there is as far as we know no
evidence concerning the causes why a bead-making workshop has produced vessels, but probably the
production of rod-formed vessels by bead-making workshops was caused by coincidental circumstances. Black
glass was commonly used by glass workshops producing jewellery, given the high frequency of bracelets, beads
and pendants in black glass during Period IV. Conversely, black glass was fully absent at glass workshops where
glass vessels were manufactured. We can think of two possible explanations: 1) the rod-formed vessels were
produced by glassworkers unacquainted with the technique of blowing glass, or 2) regulations interdicted the
bead makers to blow glass vessels. Both situations refer indirectly and directly to possible socio-economic
implications, but we leave open the debate about what regulations may have governed glass workshops in the
late Roman period. A striking observation is that a limited assortment of toilet ware was solely produced by the
rod-formed technique [see Chapter 3]. Such non-blown vessels very well fit to the assemblage of a shop
specialized in the production of jewellery for female customers. Jewellery shops have been rarely excavated so
rd
far. The 3 century AD shop of Medizinische Klinik in Bonn (DE) close to the gate of the legionary fort castra
Bonnensis is an important exception in view of the fabrication of pseudo-nicolo gems [see Chapter 5 and in this
chapter, section 6.3.2.5 on gems]. The recently excavated and so far unpublished shop at Kalat Seman (SY) is
th
the only Levantine jewellery shop with black glass jewellery, but it seems to date to the mid-7 century AD and
208
thus it would be categorized as post-Period IV.
A suitable deduction concerning the distribution network of the workshop(s) manufacturing rod-formed toilet ware
is that it (they) supplied a range of shops in towns within a vast area. But is it correct to suppose that a jeweller‘s
shop was provided by one single glass workshop? It is equally possible that the shopkeeper was a glassworker
208
Personal communication by Danièle Foy (2009).
240
himself or a member of a family of glassworkers and that the distribution only gives an idea of the travelling area
of attended fairs. This assumption can confirm whether only one single or some workshops produced such rodformed vessels but could not be verified in more detail within the scope of this study.
In brief, we may conclude that the black glass vessels in Period I demonstrate an empire-wide distribution,
whereas those from Period II and IV show a much more limited pattern confined to a region of a few provinces.
The Period II vessels show a wide variety of shapes and techniques producing luxurious tableware, whereas the
Period IV vessels are restricted to very crudely made, rod-formed toilet ware in only two particular shapes, even
though a wide range of variants is noticeable.
6.3.2
Jewellery
With 2975 pieces out of a total of 4475, the black glass jewellery forms the majority (66,5%) of the recorded
material. This commodity category has been registered in every country corresponding to the former territory of
the Roman Empire. On the other hand, the total absence of black glass arm rings, finger rings and hair pins
outside the Roman Empire makes these artefact types purely Roman commodities. The other jewellery types,
such as beads, pendants and gems, should be considered purely Roman as well, although they occasionally
occur beyond the Roman Empire.
It is obvious that this high frequency makes black glass jewellery an ideal commodity category to provide
additional information for a better understanding of an empire-wide or interregional long-distance trade as to the
impact factor of socio-cultural and economical dynamics. The evaluation of the provenance of the black glass
jewellery verifies whether 1) these objects can help trace back idiosyncratic assemblages from one or a few
centres from a specific region (socio-cultural impetus) or whether 2) these objects demonstrate through the
uniformity of standardized material a sort of ‗globalized‘ design in most glass workshops all over the Roman
Empire, each producing the same material for their own regional or local market (economical impetus).
Recognizing a sort of regional differences in taste preferences vis-à-vis the sameness in the Roman material
209
culture, as is also the case for other materials , would help in detecting regional and chronological differences in
production and in consumer behaviour.
6.3.2.1
Arm rings
210
At present, 1453 black glass bangles have been registered within the entire Roman Empire. However, the
current database remains an incomplete list, seeing that unpublished material in archaeological depots and
museums was catalogued only in some regions, while for most regions we were limited to what has been
published and made accessible to the author. Documentation of material in some countries that are situated
within the territory of the former Roman Empire is missing, due to the absence of publications and the difficulty in
211
making contacts with the responsible persons. The provenance of the inventoried material, described in Table
117, shows that the glass bracelets in general and those in black glass particularly were a common commodity all
over the Roman Empire. When reducing the present-day countries to large areas comprising interrelated Roman
provinces, the compiled data show a marked discrepancy between Area I (the north-western provinces) and the
rest of the former Roman Empire. As we discussed previously, the main reason is that a number of production
centres within Area I provided the bulk of the artefacts [see section 6.2. on production]. But to evaluate the
distribution of (black) glass bracelets within the entire Roman Empire, it is necessary to assess this commodity
type on different levels of the consumption marketthat is, on the regional level (per province) and on the interregional level (per several neighbouring provinces) to facilitate the discerning of patterns per type.
209
For instance, the so-called Coptic textiles show that in the late Roman period (i.e., from the 3rd century AD) there existed all over the Empire a
cultural mainstream.
210
With the exception of one piece that is said to be from Horodnica in Ukraine (Haevernick 1960, Taf.14a) and three pieces from the Czech
Republic (oppidum Hradi tě/Stradonice and Libceves), no provenance information is available for 34 ex. relative to the country and for 202 ex. at
the level of the place of provenance.
211
No material has been recorded from Morocco, Libya, Rumania, Macedonia, Albania, Montenegro or Bosnia-Hercegovina.
241
Table 117: Overview of the number of black glass bangles per country and by Roman area
Area
I.
North-western Europe
II.
III.
Italian Peninsula + islands
Central Europe
IV.
Eastern Europe
V.
Aegean
VI.
Levant
VII.
VIII.
IX.
Egypt
Northern Africa
Iberian Peninsula
Country
Quantity
Belgium
France
Germany
Grand-Duchy of Luxemburg
Netherlands
Switzerland
United Kingdom
Italy
Austria
Croatia
Slovenia
Bulgaria
Hungary
Serbia
Cyprus
Greece
Turkey
Israel
Jordan
Lebanon
Syria
Egypt
Algeria
Tunisia
Portugal
Spain
246
352
75
10
19
125
22
42
4
77
36
13
35
2
7
1
3
113
12
2
54
84
3
3
54
21
A more selective assortment of the black glass bangles is nonetheless necessary to demonstrate a particular
production of black glass bangle types idiosyncratic to a specific province or a vaster area comprising several
provinces such as Area Iencompassing specific interregional idiosyncrasies not attested outside the provinces
of this areabut also comprising specific regional peculiarities only attested within one of provinces of the area
such as those discernable between Britannia.
The glass bangles from the British Isles are a clear outsider compared to the rest of the Roman Empire showing a
very idiosyncratic regional production in various ways. It has been assumed previously that the Romano-British
glass bangles are locally manufactured but using Roman raw glass they are considered Roman commodities
rather than being of indigenous British origin (Jones 1996, 122-123). The Romano-British glass bangles however
demonstrates peculiar shapes and decoration patterns using glass colours and designs which are atypical to the
continental productions [see Chapter 3]. Additionally the Romano-British material shows to be representative to
the Early Roman times and consequently not contemporaneous with the purely (late) Roman continental bangle
production. The Romano-British glass bangles are therefore to be considered a local production that most likely
evolved from the late Iron Age tradition throughout the early imperial period [see Chapter 4]. The idiosyncratic
Romano-British production of black glass is also attested through the chemical composition of the applied glass
identifying a completely different raw glass when compared to the standard available Roman glass in general and
to the continental black glass in particular [see Chapter 8]. The results thus provide good evidence for a local
212
production of black glass to manufacture the idiosyncratic Romano-British bangles.
Howard E. Kilbride-Jones, who established a first typo-chronology on the Romano-British glass bangles (KilbrideJones 1938), believed in a so-called local Scottish production seeing the high concentration in south Scotland
between Hadrian‘s wall and the Antonine‘s wall with Traprain Law (UK) as a possible production centre based on
the high concentration of this material (Kilbride-Jones 1938, 394). Later work revised this theory (Stevenson 1956;
1976) by emphasizing that this type of artefact occurs on a rather considerable number of Roman military sites in
northern Britain, a finding that only got confirmed by Jennifer Price (Price 1985, 214; 1988) who‘s most recent
inquiries on the matter has shown that these bangles are common down to Wales and South England (Price 2004,
233). These characteristic colourful glass bangles may therefore be considered as true Romano-British pieces.
212
This was made possible by sampling six pieces from London preserved at the LAARC [cat.nos.4118-4119; 4122; 4126-4127; 4130] [see
Chapter 8].
242
Because the Romano-British glass bangles show a distribution that is confined to the British Isles with a nearly
213
complete nonappearance on the continent they are an indicator for a regional production within the periphery of
the Empire (Tables 116-119). In contrast continental black glass bangles are scanty in Britain and essentially
limited to the south-east of England. The large late Roman cemetery at Winchester-Lankhills (UK) is illustrative,
with its total absence of bracelets in black glass while there were uncovered a vast amount of bracelets within a
wide variety of materialsi.e. bronze, iron, jet, shale, ivory, bone (Clarke 1979, 301-314). The poor occurrence in
Britain of black glass jewellery is entirely owing to the popularity of the similarly appearing local jet and shale
(Allason-Jones 1996).
By querying the accumulated database we can generate an overview of the distribution of the four main types (A;
B; C; D) in general and look at the distribution of the various subtypes as well to that of the characteristic elliptical
open bangles. First we verify the distribution of the main types per country and according to the outlined areas.
But for practical reasons we reduced the geographical subdivision into four major areas when looking at the
subtypes roughly coinciding the late Roman Western and Eastern Empire subdivided into a northern and southern
sectioni.e. 1) the north-west European provinces including Belgium; Netherlands; Luxemburg; France (except
Corsica); Germany (Rhine-region); Switzerland; UK; 2) the north-east European provinces including northern
Italy; Austria; Hungary; Slovenia; Croatia; Serbia; Bulgaria; Rumania; Germany (Danube region); 3) the west
Mediterranean provinces including Spain; Portugal; Italy (excluding the north) ; Morroco; Algeria; Tunesia;
Corsica; 4) the east Mediterranean provinces including Egypt; Libya; Israel; Jordan; Lebanon; Cyprus; Syria;
Turkey; Greece.
Table 118: Overview of the Type A black glass bangles per country and per area
Area
Country
Quantity
Open
Area I
Belgium
France
Germany
Grand-Duchy of Luxemburg
Netherlands
Switzerland
United Kingdom
117
124
30
4
11
83
3
372
2
1
1
1
5
3
3
1
1
1
3
24
2
26
7
2
9
1
2
3
421
22
18
8
1
9
2
60
0
0
1
1
0
0
0
61
subtotal
Area II
Area III
subtotal
Area IV
subtotal
Area V
subtotal
Area VI
subtotal
Area VII
Area VIII
subtotal
Area IX
subtotal
TOTAL
Italy
Austria
Croatia
Slovenia
Bulgaria
Hungary
Serbia
Cyprus
Greece
Turkey
Israel
Jordan
Lebanon
Syria
Egypt
Algeria
Tunisia
Portugal
Spain
213
Very few pieces have been reported on the Continent, such as the fragment from Valkenburg Z.H. (NL) (van Lith 1977, 131, figs. 1-2) and the
one from Dorestad (Isings 2009).
243
From Table 118, it is clear that the 424 pieces of Type A on hand are mainly from Area I (north-western
provinces) with 88,4% and only in a minor range attested in Area V (Levant). All other areas show an insignificant
occurrence. Additionally, two pieces have no provenance, and two pieces came from outside the Roman Empire.
The incidence of a Roman black glass bangle at the oppidum Hradi tě, Stradonice (CZ) is probably due to the
military presence at the hill fort that most likely functioned as a (temporary) outpost in late Roman times to create
a buffer zone immediately beyond the limes frontier. The second piece is reported to have come from Horodnica
(UKR) (Haevernick 1960, pl. 14a).
When making the query more specific to verify the distribution of the open bangles, only 63 of the 424 Type A
bracelets remain, and all were found in Area I. Three open pieces are from outside Area I. One is now in the
Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota (USA) and comes from the di Cesnola collectionthe reason why presumed to
be from Cyprus [cat.no.780], and the two others are the above-mentioned pieces from outside the Roman Empire:
the oppidum Hradi tě, Stradonice (CZ) [cat.no.791] (Karasová, Schönfelder 2004, 222, fig.2:86 top left) and
Horodnica (UKR) [cat.no.3903].
Table 119 demonstrates that the plain and twisted arm rings (Types A1-3) are the most frequent subtypes within
the entire Roman Empire, encompassing 82,3% of all Type A bangles with known provenance. Significant is that
most were recorded in the north-western European provinces (71,9%). All three other variants Types A4-6, with
alternating plain and twisted decoration, fine-wide twisted decoration, and applied twisted glass trail(s) in
contrasting opaque colour(s), respectively, are less common and essentially occurred in the north-western
European provinces, with the exception of few examples in the Mediterranean: 1 ex. from Tipasa (AL) [cat.no.4]; 1
ex. from Corinth (GR) [cat.no.2179]; 2 ex. from Jerusalem (IL) [cat.nos.2436; 2448] and 1 ex. from Tell Keisan (IL)
[cat.no.2495]. The pie-charts in Figure 117 emphasize the predominant presence of all Type A variants in the
north-western provinces. Some are even exclusively attested in this area, whereas the plain (A1) and twisted with
applied trail (A6) are also retrieved from eastern Mediterranean sites.
Table 119: Detailed list of Type A bangle subtypes per vast geographical section
North-western European provinces
Belgium; Netherlands; Luxemburg; France; Germany (Rhine region); Switzerland; UK
A1
A2
A3
A2/3
A4
A5
A6
A
112
79
84
25
30
18
21
369
26,86
18,94
20,14
6,00
7,19
4,32
5,04
88,49
North-eastern European provinces
Austria; Hungary; Slovenia; Croatia; Serbia; Bulgaria; Romania; Germany (Danube region)
A1
A2
A3
A2/3
A4
A5
A6
A
3
3
0
0
0
0
0
6
0,72
0,72
0,00
0,00
0,00
0,00
0,00
1,44
Western Mediterranean provinces
Spain; Portugal; Italy; Morocco; Algeria; Tunisia
A1
A2
A3
A2/3
A4
A5
A6
A
2
1
0
2
0
0
1
6
0,48
0,24
0,00
0,48
0,00
0,00
0,24
1,44
A6
A
Eastern Mediterranean provinces
Egypt; Libya; Israel; Jordan; Lebanon; Cyprus; Syria; Turkey; Greece
A1
A2
A3
A2/3
A4
A5
14
2
1
15
0
0
4
36
3,36
0,48
0,24
3,60
0,00
0,00
0,96
8,63
244
A1
4%
2%
2%
1%
2%
A2
northwest European provinces
northwest European provinces
11%
northeast European provinces
northeast European provinces
west Mediterranean provinces
west Mediterranean provinces
east Mediterranean provinces
east Mediterranean provinces
85%
93%
A3
0%
A4
1%
0%
0%
0%
0%
northwest European provinces
northwest European provinces
northeast European provinces
northeast European provinces
west Mediterranean provinces
west Mediterranean provinces
east Mediterranean provinces
east Mediterranean provinces
99%
100%
A6
A5
0%
0%
0%
northwest European provinces
northeast European provinces
100%
4%
northwest European provinces
15%
northeast European provinces
0%
west Mediterranean provinces
west Mediterranean provinces
east Mediterranean provinces
east Mediterranean provinces
81%
Figure 117: Pie-charts visualizing the distribution range of black glass bracelets of Type A
Both tables are evidence of an intensive production of bangles with an O-shaped section within the north-western
provinces and more particularly in the three provinces of Gallia Belgica, Germania Inferior and Germania Superior
in accordance with the region of the black glass vessel production and consumption. A swift plot on a
departmental map of France illustrates clearly that most material circulated in Gallia Belgica and Germania
Superior, while a much lesser intensity is visible for Gallia Lugdunensis and a near absence for Gallia Aquitania
and Gallia Narbonnensis (Figure 118). When looking to the area of Gallia Belgica and the two Germaniae, it can
be noticed that some areas show concentrations of the material while others show a rather trivial occurrence. It is
worth checking whether these areas are corresponding to particular civitates.
245
Figure 118: Distribution map of departments in France with black glass bracelets of type A
Table 120: Overview of the Type B black glass bangles per country and per area
Area
Country
Quantity
Open
Area I
Belgium
France
Germany
Grand Duchy of Luxemburg
Netherlands
Switzerland
United Kingdom
19
30
2
3
2
4
60
7
6
13
1
1
0
25
9
34
8
3
11
2
3
5
124
3
10
1
14
0
0
0
0
0
0
14
subtotal
Area II
Area III
subtotal
Area IV
subtotal
Area V
subtotal
Area VI
subtotal
Area VII
Area VIII
subtotal
Area IX
subtotal
TOTAL
246
Italy
Austria
Croatia
Slovenia
Bulgaria
Hungary
Serbia
Cyprus
Greece
Turkey
Israel
Jordan
Lebanon
Syria
Egypt
Algeria
Tunisia
Portugal
Spain
Table 121: Detailed list of Type B bangle subtypes per vast geographical section
North-western European provinces
Belgium; Netherlands; Luxemburg; France; Germany (Rhine region); Switzerland; UK
B1
B2
B3
B4
B5
B
22
31
11
1
2
67
17,46
24,60
8,73
0,79
1,59
53,17
North-eastern European provinces
Austria; Hungary; Slovenia; Croatia; Serbia; Bulgaria; Romania; Germany (Danube region)
B1
B2
B3
B4
B5
B
5
1
0
0
0
6
3,97
0,79
0,00
0,00
0,00
4,76
Western Mediterranean provinces
Spain; Portugal; Italy; Morocco; Algeria; Tunisia
B1
B2
B3
B4
B5
B
4
3
0
3
3
13
3,17
2,38
0,00
2,38
2,38
10,32
Eastern Mediterranean provinces
Egypt; Libya; Israel; Jordan; Lebanon; Cyprus; Syria; Turkey; Greece
B1
B2
B3
B4
B5
B
31
5
1
1
2
40
24,60
3,97
0,79
0,79
1,59
31,74
With 127 ex. are the Type B arm rings, which occurred less frequently than Type A. Three of the Type B arm rings
are from unknown provenance but might be old finds from Nijmegen (NL). From Tables 120 and 121 it is clear
that Type B bangles have been recorded from all over the Roman Empire. However, the pie-charts in Figure 119
accentuate the absence of some subtypes in certain areas and showing a preponderance of solely the subtypes
B2 and B3 in the north-western provinces. B4 and B5 are predominant in the western Mediterranean are whereas
subtype B1 is most popular in the eastern Mediterranean.
B1
B2
northwest European provinces
36%
50%
west Mediterranean provinces
northwest European provinces
13%
northeast European provinces
2%
northeast European provinces
8%
west Mediterranean provinces
east Mediterranean provinces
east Mediterranean provinces
6%
8%
77%
247
B3
B4
0%
0%
0%
northwest European provinces
8%
northwest European provinces
northeast European provinces
20%
northeast European provinces
20%
west Mediterranean provinces
west Mediterranean provinces
east Mediterranean provinces
east Mediterranean provinces
92%
60%
B5
northwest European provinces
29%
28%
northeast European provinces
west Mediterranean provinces
0%
east Mediterranean provinces
43%
Figure 119: Pie-charts visualizing the distribution range of black glass bracelets of Type B
The Type C arm rings are, despite some exceptionsi.e. two fragments from Egyptian provenance
[cat.nos.820;823] and a piece from Cyprus [cat.no.A4673]all originating from the north-western provinces
(Table 122). Figure 120 demonstrates that all three eastern Mediterranean pieces are of Type C3. But how do we
have to interpret their presence in Cyprus and in the Egyptian western desert oasis? We believe that a possible
production somewhere in the eastern Mediterranean is to be excluded because the open bangles are undeniably
idiosyncratic to the north-western provinces (Tables 117; 119; 121) and because this variant was only very rarely
attested in the eastern Mediterranean (Table 123). Atypical for the region, they rather have to be regarded as
imports from somewhere in the north-western provinces. We believe that these bangles were no direct imports
through trade but arrived indirectly as personal possessions of women [see Chapter 7] coming from the northwestern provinces following their husband abroad or marrying a trader from Cyprus and Egypt they met in
northern Gaul. Although epigraphy proves the presence of European citizens in the eastern Mediterranean there
is unfortunately no evidence to prove the Gaulish ethnicity of the owners of these bangles as it is equally possible
that the women were originally coming from Egypt and Cyprus returning to their native country with objects they
acquired in Gaul.
C4
east Mediterranean provinces
C3
west Mediterranean provinces
northeast European provinces
C2
northwest European provinces
C1
0
10
20
30
40
50
Figure 120: Bar-charts visualizing the distribution range of black glass bracelets of Type C
248
Table 122: Overview of the Type C black glass bangles per country and per area
Area
Country
Quantity
Open
Area I
Belgium
France
Germany
Grand Duchy of Luxemburg
Netherlands
Switzerland
United Kingdom
31
55
5
4
1
8
104
0
0
1
1
0
2
2
0
107
31
55?
5
4
1
8
104?
0
0
1
1
0
2?
2?
0
107?
subtotal
Area II
Area III
subtotal
Area IV
subtotal
Area V
subtotal
Area VI
subtotal
Area VII
Area VIII
subtotal
Area IX
Italy
Austria
Croatia
Slovenia
Bulgaria
Hungary
Serbia
Cyprus
Greece
Turkey
Israel
Jordan
Lebanon
Syria
Egypt
Algeria
Tunisia
Portugal
Spain
subtotal
TOTAL
Table 123: Detailed list of Type C bangle subtypes per vast geographical section
North-western European provinces
Belgium; Netherlands; Luxemburg; France; Germany (Rhine region); Switzerland; UK
C1
C2
C3
C4
C
37
28
36
2
103
34,91
26,41
33,96
1,89
97,17
North-eastern European provinces
Austria; Hungary; Slovenia; Croatia; Serbia; Bulgaria; Romania; Germany (Danube region)
C1
C2
C3
C4
C
0
0
0
0
0
0,00
0,00
0,00
0,00
0,00
Western Mediterranean provinces
Spain; Portugal; Italy; Morocco; Algeria; Tunisia
C1
C2
C3
C4
C
0
0
0
0
0
0,00
0,00
0,00
0,00
0,00
Eastern Mediterranean provinces
Egypt; Libya; Israel; Jordan; Lebanon; Cyprus; Syria; Turkey; Greece
C1
C2
C3
C4
C
0
0
3
0
3
0,00
0,00
2,83
0,00
2,83
249
Table 124: Overview of the Type D black glass bangles per country and per area
Area
Country
Quantity
Open
Area I
Belgium
France
Germany
Grand Duchy of Luxemburg
Netherlands
Switzerland
United Kingdom
68
115
31
1
4
28
247
34
1
68
20
123
12
23
2
37
6
6
58
1
1
60
57
57
51
9
60
590
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
subtotal
Area II
Area III
subtotal
Area IV
subtotal
Area V
subtotal
Area VI
subtotal
Area VII
Area VIII
subtotal
Area IX
Italy
Austria
Croatia
Slovenia
Bulgaria
Hungary
Serbia
Cyprus
Greece
Turkey
Israel
Jordan
Lebanon
Syria
Egypt
Algeria
Tunisia
Portugal
Spain
subtotal
TOTAL
Table 125: Detailed list of Type D bangle subtypes per vast geographical section
North-western European provinces
Belgium; Netherlands; Luxemburg; France (except Corsica); Germany (Rhine region); Switzerland; UK
D1
D2
D3
D4
D5
D6
D7
D8
D
221
4
2
1
3
0
1
0
231
54,17
0,98
0,49
0,25
0,74
0,00
0,25
0,00
56,62
D8
D
North-eastern European provinces
Austria; Hungary; Slovenia; Croatia; Serbia; Bulgaria; Romania; Germany (Danube region)
D1
D2
D3
D4
D5
D6
D7
104
13
7
0
8
1
0
0
133
25,49
3,19
1,72
0,00
1,96
0,25
0,00
0,00
32,60
D7
D8
D
Western Mediterranean provinces
Spain; Portugal; Italy; Morocco; Algeria; Tunisia; Corsica
D1
D2
D3
D4
D5
D6
39
33
1
0
3
3
5
3
79
9,56
8,09
0,25
0,00
0,74
0,74
1,23
0,74
19,36
D7
D8
D
Eastern Mediterranean provinces
Egypt; Libya; Israel; Jordan; Lebanon; Cyprus; Syria; Turkey; Greece
D1
D2
D3
D4
D5
D6
44
49
0
15
6
5
0
0
119
10,78
12,01
0,00
3,68
1,47
1,23
0,00
0,00
29,17
250
Table 124 demonstrates that Type D arm rings are omnipresent, in large quantities. 214 Considering the absence of
bangles with an open elliptical shape, only closed circular bangles were produced from Period IV. The pie-charts
in Figure 121 visualize clearly the regional difference of the variants listed in Table 125 showing some variants
idiosyncratic to a large geographical zone or totally absent in one of the areas. The Type D4 bangles most likely
were solely manufactured in the eastern Mediterranean and on occasion imported in the north-western provinces
such as the piece with honey comb impressed decoration from Kaiseraugst (CH) [cat.no.3677], while the Type D7
and 8 variants seem characteristic to the western Mediterranean.
D1
D2
4%
northwest European provinces
northwest European provinces
11%
northeast European provinces
10%
west Mediterranean provinces
east Mediterranean provinces
east Mediterranean provinces
33%
D4
D3
0%
6%
0%
10%
west Mediterranean provinces
50%
54%
25%
northeast European provinces
13%
20%
0%
northwest European provinces
northwest European provinces
northeast European provinces
northeast European provinces
west Mediterranean provinces
west Mediterranean provinces
east Mediterranean provinces
east Mediterranean provinces
70%
94%
D5
D6
northwest European provinces
15%
30%
0% 11%
northeast European provinces
west Mediterranean provinces
west Mediterranean provinces
east Mediterranean provinces
east Mediterranean provinces
D7
0%
17%
33%
56%
40%
15%
83%
northwest European provinces
northeast European provinces
0%
0%
D8
0%
0%
northwest European provinces
northwest European provinces
northeast European provinces
northeast European provinces
west Mediterranean provinces
west Mediterranean provinces
east Mediterranean provinces
east Mediterranean provinces
100%
Figure 121: Pie-charts visualizing the distribution range of black glass bracelets of Type D
214
A more thorough investigation would sweep away the actual absence of information on some countries.
251
6.3.2.2
Finger rings
A look at the distribution of finger rings in black glass demonstrates that from the 204 pieces recorded thus far, a
large part came from only a few sites: Augst/Kaiseraugst (17 ex.), Braga (9 ex.), Bonn (15 ex.), Sainte Menehould
(13 ex.) and Trier (16 ex.) (Table 126). Those are not by coincidence the sites where workshops were located,
whether secondary glass workshops or jewellery shops like the one excavated at Bonn-Medizinische Klinik.
Fourteen pieces have no detailed provenance information, of which 11 ex. come from the north-western provinces
(France, 5 ex.; Germany, 5 ex.; Belgium, 1 ex.) and 3 pieces from the south-eastern Mediterranean (Syria, 2 ex.;
Egypt, 1 ex.). The pieces from Menen (BE) [cat.no.448] and the Durme area (BE) [cat.no.626], could not be
defined and were consequently omitted from the list in Table 126.
The catalogued black glass finger rings show a distribution that is comparable to that of the bracelets, with 54 of
the 65 sites concentrated in Area I. The black glass finger rings are consequently an additional example to
illustrate the (inter)regional distribution of consumer goods in Roman imperial times, implying the existence of
various workshops producing this trinket.
Table 126: List of sites with black glass finger rings
cat.no.
provenance
23
143
169
184
213-14
260
295-96
304
332
370;380;386-88
437
463
516
551
2859-60
1762
1796-98;1804;1809-11;
1813-14;1817;1820;
1822-24;1830
1875
1931-32
1944
1992
2000
2001
2017
2022-23;2027;2030;2032;
2034;2036;204041;2043;
2047;2049-50;2052-53;
2055
2162
2083;2086;2093;2099;2101
3320;3326;3329-30;
3354;3372;3376;3392;
3396;3398;3401-2;
3404;3410;3414;3427
3588-89
3646;3648
1008
1010;1015
1036
1037-40
1079
1149-50
1222
252
quantity
Bregenz (AT)
Petronell (AT)
Aiseau-Presles (BE)
Arlon (BE)
Braives (BE)
Eprave (BE)
Hamme (BE)
Han-sur-Lesse (BE)
Lauw (BE)
Liberchies (BE)
Matagne-la-Grande (BE)
Nivelles (BE)
Sinsin (BE)
Tongeren (BE)
Dalheim (LU)
Albachtal-Trier (DE)
Bonn (DE)
1
1
1
1
2
1
2
1
1
5
1
1
1
1
2
1
15
Type
A
1
2
1
1
5
1
1
2
15
Type
B
1
1
1
1
1
-
Type
C
1
1
-
undefined
Hastenrath-Eschweiler (DE)
Kreimbach (DE)
Mainz (DE)
Pommern am Mosel (DE)
Rheingönheim (DE)
Rheinzabern (DE)
Tholey (DE)
Trier (DE)
1
2
1
1
1
1
1
16
1
1
1
4
1
1
1
1
1
-
12
-
Xanten (DE)
Germany
Augst (CH)
1
5
16
14
3
2
2
-
1
-
Avenches (CH)
Kaiseraugst (CH)
Arcis-sur-Aube (FR)
Arles (FR)
Chevincourt (FR)
Cierges (FR)
Forêt d‘Argonne (FR)
Laneuvelotte (FR)
Lugasson (FR)
2
2
1
2
1
4
1
2
1
1
1
1
1
-
1
1
1
-
1
4
-
2
1
1
1
1
-
1265
1268
1271;1273
1303;1308-9
1354
1377-78;1393
1627;1629;1635;1637
1451-52;1458-62;
1464-68;1476;1505
1647-48;1654;1659;
1661;1667
1673
1748
1752
1707-10
3917
4005
4048
4053
4138
4155-56
4174
4237-38
4297
4064-65
2598;2602;2605;2610;
2634;2644-46;2715
3015;3017;3023;
3025-28;3069
3089;3098-99
768-70;773
2209
3809-19
3820
3862;3877
3900
898
980
6.3.2.3
Mazières-en-Mauges (FR)
Mesnil de Poses (FR)
Metz (FR)
Niederbronn-les-Bains (FR)
Reims (FR)
Saint-Dié-des-Vosges (FR)
Saint-Etienne-Roilaye (FR)
Sainte-Menehould (FR)
1
1
2
3
1
3
4
14
2
1
4
13
1
2
1
1
1
-
1
1
1
-
Sens (FR)
6
3
-
3
-
Sézanne (FR)
Vertault (FR)
Vireux-Molhain (FR)
France
Birdoswald (UK)
Cirencester (UK)
Exeter (UK)
Fosse Lane (UK)
London (UK)
Malton (UK)
Poundbury (UK)
Thisleton (UK)
Wanborough (UK)
Witcombe (UK)
Aquileia (IT)
1
1
1
4
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
2
2
2
9
3
1
1
3
1
1
1
1
1
2
4
1
2
1
1
1
2
2
-
Braga (PT)
8
7
-
1
-
3
4
1
11
1
2
1
1
1
197
3
1
8
1
105
2
35
1
1
1
1
34
1
2
1
1
1
23
Conimbriga (PT)
Zara (HR)
Dunapentele (HU)
Hauran (SY)
Homs (SY)
Syria
Sardis (TR)
Karanis (EG)
Egypt
TOTAL
Beads
The diversity of bead types and the huge number of rod-formed and pressed beads makes it a complex category
to assess. Because the purpose of this chapter is to demonstrate local, regional and supraregional distribution,
we only will focus on the spacer beads, which fall within the category of pressed beads.
Not a negligible issue concerns the distribution of beads beyond the borders of the Roman Empire, as for
instance in northern Europe beyond the Rhine- and Danube-limes, since black glass beads are involved. This socalled Barbaricum roughly corresponds to Germany, Poland and the southern part of the Scandinavian countries.
A certain focus by some Scandinavian and German scholars on the glass beads (Eggers 1940; TempelmannMaczyńska 1985; Erdich, Voss 1997) and on glass vessels (Eggers 1951; Lund Hansen 1987) created a vivid
debate on how to comprehend and value these artefacts within the chaine opératoire. It is self-evident that the
glass vessels such as the well-known ‗painted‘ cylindrical cups with double base-ring (Isings Form 85b) are to be
accepted as Roman products. But what about the beads? Were they all produced within the Roman Empire, or
was there also a ‗German‘ production? No clear view on the production of glass beads has been possible hitherto
because bead-making workshops have rarely been attested within the Roman Empirefor example, Trier (DE)
(Loeschke 1925; Schulze 1978; Goethert-Polaschek 1984), Tibiscum (RO) (Benea 1983)and nearly fail when
looking beyond its border (Erdich, Voss 1997, 86). Furthermore, the various bead types recorded in northern
Central Europe cannot be linked to one of the recognized bead-making workshops. In addition, we have to bear in
mind that north-central European bead types are equally present in the Roman Empire unless we have to see
these beads as Roman which circulated into the adjacent area just beyond the limes. Some scholars propose/are
convinced of local production of beads in northern Central Europe (Guido 1978; 1999). We probably have to see
253
the presence of such material as the effect of trade from the Roman Empire on Barbaricum, just as it is
acknowledged for the glass vessels, sigillata ware, coins and bronze material. The complication concerning the
th
th
black glass beads is that comparisons have been made with 5 to 7 century AD burial contexts in the Roman
frontier zone bordering Barbaricum, i.e. from Great Britain over the Rhine and Danube regions to the Black Sea. It
is true that, for instance, black annular beads with zigzags in opaque white, red, yellow or blue glass trails present
rd
th
in 3 to 5 century AD dated cremation tombs in Barbaricum are equally attested in, for instance, Anglo-Saxon,
th
th
Merovingian and Aleman tombs of the 5 to 7 century AD. It is tempting to presume a German tradition and
consequently a production by the ‗Völkerverwanderung‘ people (Guido 1999). But this is a too simplistic analysis
and to some extent a biased assumption by some scholars. What do we do with similar beads in, for instance,
Cyprus, Israel or even Egypt? Do we have to see them as examples of long-distance trade from Barbaricum?
What other material from northern Central Europe entered the Roman Empire that far to confirm long-distance
trade? Furthermore, how do we interpret the much wider variety of bead types in the Roman Empire [see Chapter
3] and especially in the late Roman-early Byzantine Eastern Mediterranean compared to the very limited number
of types in Barbaricum, where only annular and short, cylindrical black glass beads have been recorded? When
looking to the frequency of these black glass beads with opaque coloured trails, the types found in north Germany
(Lower Saxony and Slesvig-Holstein) and following Magdalena Tempelmann-Maczyńska‘s typology: 2 ex. T263;
17 ex. T293; 3 ex. T300; 1 ex. T301; 3 ex. T302; 1 ex. T303 (Erdich, Voss 1997, 93).
The publications on glass beads by Magdalena Tempelmann-Maczyńska and Margaret Guido focus on a specific
regionthe first specifically on the material from outside the Roman Empire in Barbaric Europe and the latter on
the British glass beads. It is therefore important to take notice of the regional character of the information on the
productiondistributionconsumption on Roman glass beads. The result is that some shapes are present or
absent in Guido‘s list, and others are incorporated within a list of non-Roman beads. Their publications
unfortunately can be the root for biased assumptions. We think, for instance, of the so-called ‗Trilobitenperlen‘
215
discussed for the first time in detail by Thea Haevernick (1983).
It is clear that a massive task waits to be developed, starting with a general synthesis on the Roman glass beads
from the entire empire. This is, however, a project for an entire team or even a group of teams inventorying the
material from delimited regions. Only then will data be obtained that make it possible to understand the variety of
regional idiosyncrasies and almost certainly also the chronological variability.
Despite the incorporation of rod-formed, barrel-shaped beads in a typology on Barbaric Central Europe
(Tempelmann-Maczyńska 1985, 185) and ascribed as imports by the Migration People (Guido 1999), it is
important to stress that they appear rather singularly outside the Roman Empire. Conversely, these late Roman
productions [see Chapter 4] are omnipresent within the Roman Empire.
Table 127 demonstrates that all rod-formed beads in black appearing glass are characteristic to the European
continent whether it be cylindrical beads or both variants of so-called ‗melon‘ beads.
Table 127: List of sites with rod-formed beads in black appearing glass (n = quantity)
cat.no.
provenance
decoration
n
size
annular ‗crumb‘ bead
annular ‗crumb‘ bead
annular ‗crumb‘ bead
annular ‗eye-bead‘
large
‗melon‘ bead - plain
‗melon‘ bead - plain
small
small
‗melon‘ bead - plain
‗melon‘ bead - plain
‗melon‘ bead - plain
‗melon‘ bead - plain
‗melon‘ bead - plain
‗melon‘ bead - plain
‗melon‘ bead - plain
‗melon‘ bead - plain
small
small
small
small
small
small
small
small
2376;2410
2492-93
2503
2
7-13;15-19;22;24-25
26-30
31
106
122
135;140;154
1011
3325;3331; 3333;3360;
3363;3374; 3416
A4509
229
1232
3186;3191
649
4166-67
1373
215
Horbat Qastra (IL)
Tell Abu Shusha (IL)
unknown provenance (IL)
Tipasa (DZ)
Bregenz (AT)
Eisenstadt (AT)
Hallstatt a.d. Lahn (AT)
Magdalensberg (AT)
Müllendorf (AT)
Petronell (AT)
Arles (FR)
Augst (CH)
2
2
1
1
15
5
1
1
1
3
Cutry (FR)
De Panne (BE)
Dunapentele (HU)
Maule (FR)
Mérida (ES)
Nicopolis (BG)
Nor‘Nour (UK)
Saint-Denis (FR)
1
1
7
1
2
1
2
1
All known double-perforated beads such as the so-called ‗Trilobitenperlen‘ in Britain are in jet.
254
534
3174
1113
A4597
3352;3338;3342
3336
3424
198
A4598
1895-98
A4599
536
208
796
809
836-37
932;936-39; 943; 945-50;
952-53; 956; 958; 974; 976;
978
1239;1255
1742;1744
1764-65
1835
1989
2035;2038;
2059;2065
2189;2289;
2291;2298-99;2301;2304
2198;2220;
2223-26;2228;
2230;2237
2248
2251
2294
2309
2311
2341-42;2350;2357;
2365;2385-86;2393-95
2623
2962
3002;3005-6;3009;
3012-13;3016;3018-21;
3024;3030
3663;3673-74;3679
Tienen (BE)
Trebnje (SL)
Frénouville (FR)
Anreppen (DE)
Augst (CH)
Augst (CH)
Augst (CH)
Blicquy (BE)
Haltern (DE)
Kempten (DE)
Oberwinterthur (CH)
Tienen (BE)
Bossut-Gottechain (BE)
Akhmim (EG)
Bahnasa (EG)
Dush Kysis (EG)
unknown provenance (EG)
1
1
1
1
3
1
1
1
1
4
1
1
1
1
1
2
19
‗melon‘ bead - plain
‗melon‘ bead - plain
‗melon‘ bead - spiralling trail (yellow)
‗melon‘ bead - spiralling trail (white)
‗melon‘ bead - spiralling trail (white)
‗melon‘ bead - spiralling trail (red-brown)
‗melon‘ bead - spiralling trail (yellow)
‗melon‘ bead - spiralling trail (white)
‗melon‘ bead - spiralling trail (white)
‗melon‘ bead - spiralling trail (white)
‗melon‘ bead - spiralling trail (white)
‗melon‘ bead - spiralling trail (white)
unspecified type
unspecified type
unspecified type
unspecified type
unspecified type
small
small
small
large
large
large
large
large
large
large
large
large
-
Maule (FR)
Vermand (FR)
Altbachtal (DE
Burgheim (DE)
Pähl (DE)
Trier (DE)
2
2
2
1
1
4
unspecified type
unspecified type
unspecified type
unspecified type
unspecified type
unspecified type
-
unknown provenance (HU)
7
unspecified type
-
Dunapentele (HU)
9
unspecified type
-
Gyór (HU)
Kapsovár (HU)
Szóny (HU)
Vasasszonyfa (HU)
Veszprém (HU)
Horbat Qastra (IL)
1
1
1
1
1
10
unspecified type
unspecified type
unspecified type
unspecified type
unspecified type
unspecified type
-
Aquileia (IT)
Nijmegen (NL)
Braga (PT)
1
1
13
unspecified type
unspecified type
unspecified type
-
Kaiseraugst (CH)
Bónaduz (CH)
Tamins (CH)
Krefeld-Gellep (DE)
Mainz (DE)
Saint-Martain-de-Fontenay (FR)
Lisieux (FR)
Villa d‘Ancy (FR)
Villers-Erquery (FR)
Dunapentele (HU)
Lankhills (UK)
Lydney (UK)
Augst (CH)
Burgheim (DE)
Dunapentele (HU)
Sagvar (HU)
Trier (DE)
Virton (BE)
4
1
1
1
1
4
1
1
1
3
1
1
1
1
3
3
1
1
unspecified type
Guido 4
Guido 4
Guido 4
Guido 4
Guido 4
Guido 4
Guido 4
Guido 4
Guido 4
Guido 4
Guido 4
crossing zigzag + eyes
spiralling trailed cylindrical bead
spiralling trailed cylindrical bead
spiralling trailed cylindrical bead
spiralling trailed cylindrical bead
spiralling trailed cylindrical bead
-
Pressed beads
Pressed beads are present all over the Roman Empire, whether or not in the so-called opaque black glass. For
instance, the ‗Trilobitenperlen‘ have been recorded from Spain, France, Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, Austria,
Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania, Ukraine, Greece, Turkey, Cyprus, Egypt and Tunisia (Table
128). The ‗Trilobitenperlen‘ were ubiquitous in the entire Roman Empire. The wide variety of types in and large
sets of double-perforated, pressed beads known from Raetia, Noricum, Pannoniae, Dalmatia as well as the SyroPalestinian area make these types idiosyncratic to the eastern Alpinewestern Balkan area as well as the Levant.
The spacer beads are therefore an example of regionally bounded productions for a more ‗globalized‘ (read
empire-wide) consumption pattern. An interesting exception is Britannia, where such beads also do occur, but in
jet and not in black glass (Allason-Jones, Jones 2001). As we could see from the bracelets [see Chapter 6.3.2.1.],
the British Isles produce in jet all kinds of comparable beads with double lateral perforation. Most probably these
examples were made from Whitby jet in the neighbouring area of York, but we have to bear in mind that various
sources of jet were known in Roman times as well as that other material looks similar to jet, such as cannel coal,
255
shale or durain. In contrast to the flat and irregularly shaped beads in glass, those in jet are very regularly cut and
polished and are almost semi-spherical. The ‗Trilobitenperlen‘ in jet that most resemble the ones in black glass
are those found in and around Cologne (Hagen 1937).
Ubiquitous, double-perforated pressed beads were not present in every settlement and generally occured
individually or in small quantities, as can be seen from the examples from burial gifts [see Chapter 5].
indefinite
discoid shaped
8-shaped
lion’s head
theatre mask
Medusa head
provenance
portrait
cat.no.
‘Trilobitenperlen’
Table 128: List of sites with double-perforated pressed beads in black appearing glass
north-western provinces
292
529
2061
1054
1339
1705
2878
3222
3366
3644;3665
3780
3800-2
Hamme (BE)
Tielrode (BE)
Trier (DE)
Dieulouard-Scarponne (FR)
Orange (FR)
unknown provenance (FR)
Esch (NL)
Aarau (CH)
Augst (CH)
Kaiseraugst (CH)
Kloten (CH)
unknown provenance (CH)
1
1
1
1
1
1
1 (14)
1
1
2
1
3
3
north-eastern provinces
1766
1867
1872
1888-90
1891
1892
1963
1967-68
1990
1991
1996
6
26-30
31
32
33-34
122
123-34;136-39;141;14445;147-53;155-57
158-59
160
162
632-33
634
635
636
637-38
652
658-59
660
256
Altenerding-Klettham (DE)
Eining (DE)
Epfach (DE)
Göggingen (DE)
Hassleben am Lichwege (DE)
Isny-Bettmauer (DE)
Munich (DE)
Murnau (DE)
Pähl-Aidenried (DE)
Pliening (DE)
Regensburg (DE)
Baden (AT)
Eisenstadt (AT)
Hallstatt (AT)
Krungl bei Aussee (AT)
Leithprodersdorf (AT)
Müllendorf (AT)
1
1
1
3
1
1 (10)
1
2
1
1
2
1
4
1
1
2
1
Petronell (AT)
26
3
Pöttsching-Zillingthal (AT)
Stinkenbrunn (AT)
Wattens (AT)
Dracevica (BS)
Proboj (BS)
Rudine (BS)
Stolac (BS)
Krvina (BG)
Nicopolis (BG)
Odessos (BG)
Plovdiv (BG)
1
1
1
1
2
1
1
1
1
1
1
2
1
661
664
717-18;720-32
738-41;744-46;748;75052;754
774-775
789
2180
2181
2190
2191-92
2193
2195-97;2201-2;220-7;
2212-18;2221-22;2227;
2229;2231-36;2238-42
2243
2244-47
2249
2250
2252-56
2258
2280-81
2265
2282-83
2293;2295-97
2308
2310
2188;2290;2300;2302;23056
3115
3120
3150
3153
3168;3172
3175
3106
3107
3901-2
3904
3905
3906
Sofia (BG)
Betegenica (HR)
Sisak (HR)
1
1
11
4
Split (HR)
7
5
unknown provenance (HR)
Csúny (CZ)
Werria (GR)
Alattyán (HU)
Bezenye (HU)
Cikó (HU)
Csákvár (HU)
2
1
1
1
1
2
1
Dunapentele (HU)
21
Felsodobsza (HU)
Fenék (HU)
Gyór (HU)
Halimba (HU)
Keszthely (HU)
Mosonszentjános (HU)
Pilismarót-Basaharc (HU)
Pécs (HU)
Sitke (HU)
Szóny (HU)
Várpatola (HU)
Vasasszonyfa (HU)
1
4
unknown provenance (HU)
2
Celje (SL)
Drnovo (SL)
Hru ica (SL)
Ptuj (SL)
Ribnica (SL)
unknown provenance (SL)
Istros (RO)
Cetatea Bisericuta (RO)
Chersones (UA)
Kerch (UA)
Kuban (UA)
unknown provenance (UA)
1
1
1
1
2
1
1
1
1
1
1
9
1
1
2
1
2
2
1
1
1
3
1
1
1
1
3
1
1
western Mediterranean provinces
2596-97;2603-4;26069;2611-17;2619-20;2622;
2630-33;2635-40;264243;2660;2666;2677-78;
2680-85;2695;2703;27056;2708-14;
2730
2716;2718-19;2722
2735
2739-40
2742
2755
2763
2776
2783
2806-7
2814
2819-23
3088
3180
3183
3184
Aquileia (IT)
Ascoli Piceno (IT)
Castel Trosino (IT)
Cesena – San Egidio (IT)
Chiusi (IT)
Mattarello (IT)
Naunia/Nonsberg (IT)
Porto Torres (IT)
Rome (IT)
Salorno (IT)
Siracuse
unknown provenance (IT)
Conimbriga (PT)
Belo (ES)
Elche (ES)
Italicà (ES)
24
1
24
1
19
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
2
1
2
1
1
1
1
1
2
3
257
3190;3193
3200
3212
3213
3890
3891
3894
Mérida (ES)
Moreruela de Tábara (ES)
Torredonjimeno (ES)
unknown provenance (ES)
Carthage (TN)
La Skhira (TN)
Tunis (TN)
2
1
1
1
1
1
1
eastern Mediterranean provinces
785
797
994-95
2501;2517-18;252324;2527-28;2537
3895
6.3.2.4
unknown provenance (CY)
Akhmim (EG)
unknown provenance (EG)
1
1
1
1
unknown provenance (IL)
3
1
Ephesus (TR)
1
1
1
2
5
Pendants
A correct overall picture on the distribution of this type of commodity cannot be offered because of the exclusion
of the pieces in other glass hues (mainly deep blue and yellowish amber) and the restricted information
216
concerning the provenance of the 199 inventoried pendants in black appearing glass.
Table 129 gives an idea
about the distribution of the catalogued black glass pendants showing a concentration in the south-eastern
Mediterranean (55,7%) with a relative distribution in the rest of the Mediterranean (26,4%), and remaining rather
rare at the European continent (respectively 12,1% for the north-western provinces and 5,8% for the northeastern provinces). The listed sites corroborate the report on jug-shaped pendants in various glass hues by
Marianne Stern (1977, 112-115) who demonstrated a frequent occurrence in the south-eastern Mediterranean
compared to the rather scattered finds on the European continent. Presumed to have been amulets for the early
Christian community (Loeschke 1925, 359-360; Eisen 1927, 520-521; Stern 1977, 112-113) led to the hypothesis
on the origin of this type of consumer‘s good suggesting that these characteristic pendants were, likewise a good
number of beads and bangles, pilgrim‘s souvenirs from the Holy Land (Foy 2010, 306-310) [see Chapter7].
Striking however is the fairly high occurrence with 21 records (15,8%) in large centres in the West like Aquileia
(IT) of the late Roman barrel-shaped pendants with two or three suspension loops. These pendants with applied
spiralling glass trails in an opaque contrasting colour nevertheless show a distribution all over the Roman Empire,
as confirmed with examples from Horvath Qastra (IL) [cat.no.2390] and elsewhere in Israel (Spaer 2001, 102-103,
fig.47; 113, nos. 173-174), Braga (PT) (da Cruz 2009, 99, fig. 3:421-422), and Colchester (UK) (Crummy 1983, 35,
fig.37:1504). This concentration can be explained by the presumed presence of at least one workshop in Aquileia
that processed black glass in the late Roman period and possibly produced such pendants [see this Chapter 6.2
Production]. Also the concentration of jug-shaped pendants in Rome can be considered the result of a local
workshop (Stern 1977, 110-113). Because most other are limited to the south-east Mediterranean it is not
excluded that the (black) glass pendants were early Christian pilgrim‘s souvenirs from the Holy Land. But based
on the idea of a similar consumption at possible places of pilgrimage in Western Europe it is equally possible to
deduce from the distribution pattern that black glass pendants were produced in western workshops like various
other jewellery objects to supply the early Christian communities in western centres such as Rome, Aquileia and
Trier with fashionable symbolic trinket. From this point of view it is clear that a thorough study on the (black) glass
pendants is compulsory to verify whether there are indications to detect regional differencessuch as technical
and morphological or decorative featuresor whether we are dealing with an individual or bulk import from the
south-eastern Mediterranean. Most interesting is the distribution of these black glass artefacts as possible
evidence for the presence of early Christian communities of Jewish, Syrian, Greek or Egyptian origin at centres or
areas in the western part of the Roman Empire. If the various types and subtypes can be connected to particular
pilgrimage places a detailed study of their distribution would reveal the importance of holy places by showing the
intensity of pilgrimage and power of attraction of a sanctified place.
216
From 25 records no provenance information is available and from another 50 records only the country of provenance is known.
258
Table 129: List of various types of black glass pendants per region
North-western European provinces
Belgium; Netherlands; Luxemburg; France (except Corsica); Germany (Rhine region); Switzerland; UK
poppy-head
other
globular barrel-shaped
jug-shaped discoid-shaped
shaped
TOTAL
3
1
2
13
0
2
21
1,7%
0,6%
1,1%
7,5%
0%
1,1%
12,1%
North-eastern European provinces
Austria; Hungary; Slovenia; Croatia; Serbia; Bulgaria; Romania; Germany (Danube region)
poppy-head
globular barrel-shaped
jug-shaped discoid-shaped
other
shaped
TOTAL
0
1
0
9
0
0
10
0%
0,6%
0%
5,2%
0%
0%
5,8%
other
TOTAL
Western Mediterranean provinces
Spain; Portugal; Italy; Morocco; Algeria; Tunisia; Corsica
poppy-head
globular barrel-shaped
jug-shaped
shaped
discoid-shaped
4
15
5
17
2
3
46
2,3%
8,6%
2,9%
9,8%
1,1%
1,7%
26,4%
other
TOTAL
Eastern Mediterranean provinces
Egypt; Libya; Israel; Jordan; Lebanon; Cyprus; Syria; Turkey; Greece
poppy-head
globular barrel-shaped
jug-shaped discoid-shaped
shaped
0
2
10
58
7
20
97
0%
1,1%
5,8%
33,3%
4,0%
11,6%
55,7%
6.3.2.5
Gems
We are well aware of the very limited amount of black glass gems we have inventoried (336 ex.), in particular
because the very ubiquitous nicolo paste gems have not been catalogued systematically. The discussion on its
distribution is therefore to be taken as an opening appraisal indicating the necessity of a more enhanced
assessment on this specific segment of the entire glass gemstones‘ production and consumption.
6.3.2.5.1
Monochrome gems
o
Plain conical gems
A first functional type is the conical gem set in the centre of discoid brooches [see Chapter 7]. The plain conical
glass settings in the centre of round and oval gilded bronze disc-shaped brooches, respectively Hull Type 270
and Hull Type 271 [see Chapter 3], are generally considered of RomanoBritish manufacture (Mackreth 1992, 60).
This assumption is strengthened by their total absence in Scotland and the disproportionate concentrations in
Britain vis-à-vis the continent (Simpson, Blance 1998, 277; Bayley, Butcher 2004, 178-179). Regardless of the
multiple finds of this specific brooch from Britannia, we believe that this type is equally present on the continent,
notwithstanding its relatively rareness (Table 130). The low occurrence on the continent is partly due to the fact
that large numbers of these brooches have lost the central setting and when preserved it is regularly considered
black stone (Vrielynck, 2007, 54, fig.6). Seeing the examples in present-day Belgium, Germany and Switzerland,
these brooches are unmistakably present in the Rhine region and thus at least common in the provinces
Germania Inferior and Germania Superior. Punzverzierte ovale Scheibenfibel mit Glaseinlage (Hull Type 271)
were also attested beyond the Roman Empire into Barbaricum (Riha 1979, type 3.17; Böhme 1972, Type 45), and
217
despite the lack of evidences such fibulae were possibly used in the Danube region too. Is it possible that the
rd
discoid brooches are part of the military dress code and therefore to be considered as militaria of at least the 3
century AD in the north-western or northern frontier zone?
217
We have not been able to verify whether this type occurs all the way down the Danube limes.
259
Table 130: List of plain conical-shaped gems in monochrome black appearing glass set in disc brooches
(n.c. = not catalogued; Hull Type T270 = round; Hull type T 271 = elliptical)
cat.no.
provenance
brooch type
reference
206
Bossu-Gottechain (BE)
T270
Vrielynck, 2007, 54, fig.6
A4698
Tongeren (BE)
T270
Vanvinckenroye 1984, 96-97, pl.91
3586
Avenches (CH)
T270
Guisan 1975, 26, no.3.15, pl.11:15
3684
Kaiseraugst (CH)
T271
Riha 1979, 88, no.309, Taf.13
A4699
Hofheim (DE)
T270
Ritterling 1913, 253-254, pl.X
A4700
Miltenberg (DE)
T270
ORL 38, pl.IV, no.14
A4701
Regensburg (DE)
T270
Lamprecht 1904, pl.IV, no.7
A4702
Regensburg (DE)
T271
Lamprecht 1904, LVIII, pl.VIII, no.7
A4703
Saalburg (DE)
T270
Böhme 1972, pl.29, no.1134
A4704
Zugmantel (DE)
T271
ORL 8, pl.X, no.26
A4705
New Grange (IRE)
T271
Carson, O‘Kelly 1977, 52, pl.VIIa, no.E.56.976
A4706
New Grange (IRE)
T270
Carson, O‘Kelly 1977, 53, pl.VIIa, no.E.56.1711
2996
Vechten (NL)
loose gem
unpublished
A4707
Benwell (UK)
T271
Bayley, Butcher 2004, 178-179
A4708
Bramble Hill (UK)
T271
Yorkshire Arch. Journal XXXIX, 1958, 54
A4709
Brough (UK)
T271
Bayley, Butcher 2004, 178-179
A4542
Caernarfon (UK)
T271
Casey et al. 1993, 166, no.13
A4710
Caister-on-Sea (UK)
T270
Darling, Gurney 1993, fig.42, no.13
A4711
Canterbury (UK)
T270
Journal Brit. Arch. Ass. XVI, 1860, 274; 324, fig. 4, pl.XXIII
A4712
Chesters (UK)
T270
Budge 1903, 381, no.1105
A4713
Chesters (UK)
T271
Budge 1903, 381, no.1102
A4714
Chesters (UK)
T271
Budge 1903, 381, no.1112
A4715
Cirencester (UK)
T270
Bayley, Butcher 2004, 178-179
A4716
Corbridge (UK)
T270
Bayley, Butcher 2004, 178-179
A4717
Corbridge (UK)
T270
Bayley, Butcher 2004, 178-179
A4718
Dover (UK)
T270
Philip 1981, fig.32, no.72
A4719
Emscote (UK)
T270
Ant. Journal V, 1925, 269, pl.XXIX, no.2
A4720
Faversham (UK)
T270
Guide Ant. RB.BM 1922, 61, fig.76
A4721
Gatcombe (UK)
T271
Branigan 1977, fig.26, no.505
A4722
Icklingham (UK)
T270
Bayley, Butcher 2004, 178-179
A4723
Ham Hill (UK)
T270
St George Gray 1910, fig.4
A4724
Harpham (UK)
T270
Yorkshire Arch. Journal XXXIX, 1958, 54
A4725
Henley Wood (UK)
T270
Watts, Leach 1996, 82, fig.88, no.21
A4726
Hinksey (UK)
T270
Bayley, Butcher 2004, 178-179
A4727
Hockwold (UK)
T270
Gurney 1986, fig.40, no.8
A4728
Housesteads (UK)
T270
Bayley, Butcher 2004, 178-179
A4729
Housesteads (UK)
T271
Arch. Aeliana XI, 1934, pl.XXIX, no.4
A4730
Kettering (UK)
T270
Proc. Soc. Antiq. London XXII, 1907-9, 50
A4731
Kirkby Thore (UK)
T271
Royal Arch. Inst. York Meeting 1848, 15
A4732
London (UK)
T270
Bayley, Butcher 2004, 178-179
A4733
London (UK)
T271
Guide Ant. RB.BM 1922, 61, fig.76
A4734
Lowbury Hill (UK)
T271
Atkinson 1916, fig.13, pl.9, no.35
A4735
Lowbury Hill (UK)
T271
Atkinson 1916, fig.13, pl.9, no.36
4165
Nor‘Nour (UK)
T271
Arch. Journal CXXIV, 1967, fig.24, no.237
A4736
Richborough (UK)
loose gem
Bayley, Butcher 2004, 134, no.388
4185
Richborough (UK)
T270
Bushe-Fox 1949, Richborough IV, 121, no.63; Bayley, Butcher 2004, 135,
no.390
A4737
Silchester (UK)
T270
unpublished
A4738
Silchester (UK)
T271
Boon 1974², fig.19, no.1
4233
Stonea Grange (UK)
T270
Jackson, Potter 1996, 320, no.79, fig.99
A4739
Stony Stratford (UK)
T270
unpublished
A4740
South Shields (UK)
T270
Allason-Jones, Miket 1984, 116, no.138
n.c.
South Shields (UK)
T270
Allason-Jones, Miket 1984, 116, no.139
n.c.
South Shields (UK)
T270
Allason-Jones, Miket 1984, 116, no.140
n.c.
South Shields (UK)
T271
Allason-Jones, Miket 1984, 115, no.136
4222
South Shields (UK)
T271
Allason-Jones, Miket 1984, 116, no.137
A4741
South Wiltshire (UK)
T270
unpublished
A4742
Swaffham (UK)
T270
Victoria County Hist. Norfolk I, 321
A4743
Uley (UK)
T270
Woodward, Leach 1993, fig.125, no.5
260
A4744
Uley (UK)
T270
Woodward, Leach 1993, fig.125, no.6
A4745
Uley (UK)
T270
Woodward, Leach 1993, fig.125, no.7
A4746
Upper Hopton (UK)
T270
Brown 1986, 39, fig.25, no.184
A4747
Vindolanda (UK)
T270
Henig 1975, pl.IV
4296
Wanborough (UK)
T270
Butcher 2001, 64, fig.26, no.137
4298
Wanborough (UK)
T270
Butcher 2001, 64-65, fig.26, no.138
A4748
Water Newton (UK)
T270
unpublished
A4749
Wroxeter (UK)
T270
BusheFox 1912/3, 23, fig.9, no.1
To have this assumption corroborated, we checked some publications on brooches in adjacent regions. The
extensive study by Jacques Philippe (2000) on the brooches from the Seine-et-Marne region which corresponds
to the civitates of the Parisii, Meldi and Senones in the provincia Gallia Lugdunensis (prima during the three first
th
centuries and quatuor in the 4 century AD) and neighbouring Gallia Belgica at the south show a striking absence
of such discoid brooches in this area. This nonappearance might be an indicator that discoid brooches with plain
conical gemstones (in black glass) are limited to the frontier zone in the broad sense, including the provinces
Britannia, Gallia Belgica, Germania inferior and Germania superior.
What emerges as well from Jacques Philippe‘s catalogue is that the representation of a thick-cheeked human
head in a beaded circle at the centre of brooches from Seine-et-Marne region is comparable to the one from the
discoid brooch of Wancennes (BE) [cat.no.617]. Whereas the Wancennes piece is made of a black-appearing
green glass, the medallions of the Seine-et-Marne brooches are made in gilded bronze sheet by using the
repoussé-technique (Philippe 2000, fig.33:171; fig.36:X1b,c,f,i; fig.63:433).
6.3.2.5.2
Bichrome gems
o
Nicolo paste gems
A second group of gems made with black glass are the ubiquitous bi-chrome glass gemstone imitating the
218
semiprecious nicolo gemstones and generally called ‗nicolo paste‘.
rd
It became in particular successful during the 3 century AD, as can be deduced from the long catalogue lists
incorporating this type of jewellery. The booming of this glass substitute for nicolo is said to be due to thwarted
rd
trade caused by the arising conflict with the Sassanid Dynasty by the mid 3 century AD. These Persian rulers
destabilized the socio-economical situation in the eastern Roman provinces consistently and as a result the longnd
distance trade with India, Afghanistan and China shrank. Its popularity from the 2 century AD onwards is in
correlation with the culminating conflict in the east regarded as responsible for the success of the imitations in
glass. Furthermore, it is clear that by using moulds to press the figure into the glass, highly skilled engravers were
not needed to embellish a glass gem, and time did not need to be allotted for the engraving work.
The here-discussed gems in very deeply coloured glasses appearing black were produced in the West and more
particularly in the north-western provinces Britannia, Gallia Belgica and Germania Inferior and Superior. Their
nd
rd
th
production is to be dated from the later 2 century AD up to the very end of the 3 -early 4 century AD. More indepth research will provide more precise information concerning the workshops where gems have been produced
and regarding the chronology of production.
As stated in the introduction, interesting information is provided by a detailed study of the moulded glass
gemstones to identify the distribution range of one single set of serial produced gemstones. Martin Henig (1978²)
discussed the frequent depiction of the so-called ‗Bonus Eventus‘ figure on nicolo paste gemstones in Britannia
but also the repeatedly occurrence in various places in the United Kingdom of gemstones with the representation
of a specific ‗Bonus Eventus‘-type from the same mould (Henig 1997, 285): Birdoswald (Henig 1997, 285, no.89,
fig.195) [cat.no.3918], Lowbury Hill (Henig 1978², no.192) [cat.no.4149], Poundbury (Henig 1978², no.App.42)
[cat.no.4175]. Very similar but apparently from a different mould is Carlisle (Henig 1997, 285) [cat.no.3964], and
St. Albans (Henig 1978², no.App.4) [cat.no.A4609]. Martin Henig proposes that although identical, they ultimately
have been made from the same prototype but from various worn moulds (Henig 1997, 285). When several
examples of one single type are found in the same place, it becomes even more intriguing and interesting. A good
example is the set of 21 gemstones found at ‗Medizinische Klinik‘ near the gateway of the military camp of Bonn
218
Nicolo is a layered chalcedony quartz of the agate/onyx family characterised by a blackish basal layer and an ultramarine blue top layer
extracted in the Near East up to India and Afghanistan.
261
together with a large number of finger rings in glass, jet and bronze (Platz-Horster 1984, 11-16; 38-48, pls 4-7,
nos.11-31) [cat.nos.1799-1803;1805-8;1812;1815-16;1819;1821;1825-29;1831]. This context has been
interpreted as a jewellery (work)shop and contained all kinds of finished and semi-finished products, showing the
intermediate stage ready to be employed for completing a jewel. Three gemstones have the same imprint with a
tree in the centre, a shepherd at the left and several goats all around. Gertrud Platz-Horster (1984, 14; 44-45)
mentions eight identical equivalents come from Cologne (DE) [cat.no.A4753], Xanten (DE) (still set in a massive
silver finger ring) [cat.no.2169], Vechten (NL) [cat.no.A4752] and Cruseilles (FR) [cat.no.A4751]. A similar
example but in yellow glass is reported to have been found in Aquileia (IT) (Sena Chiesa 1966, 204, pl.24:463).
Two other gemstones from Medizinische Klinik, Bonn (Platz-Horster 1984, 14; 38-39; nos.11-12) [cat.nos.18151816], showing a sitting Jupiter, are similar to one from Cologne [cat.no.A4754] except for the fact that the right
arm leaning on the back of a chair is not visible on the former intaglios. Opposite to the explanation Martin Henig
gave on the Birdoswald Bonus Eventus piece and its copies, the pieces with various quality of impression from
Medizinische Klinik, Bonn makes clear that all identical pieces must have been made in the same workshop and
consequently from the same mould. It could be that the mould was impressed in the glass with different force or
the glass of the different gems did not have the same viscosity. This issue is worked out further in Chapter 7.
Only few large round nicolo paste gems have been recorded, but this is partly due to the failing of an exhaustive
heuristic research on nicolo paste gems in general and partly because much material is not recognized
219
correctly. These large round nicolo paste gems are mainly loose finds from Roman civil settlements, such as
France (Sens), Switzerland (Augst; Kaiseraugst), and Portugal (Conimbriga), or still set in a Roman artefact, like
the eight pieces in the military helmet from Berkasovo (SB) (Figure 132).
6.3.2.6
Hairpins
Hairpins in glass are not frequently attested, but their occurrence is more widespread than is generally assumed.
Pins in a translucent yellowish-brown, bluish-green or pale green glass are known from England (Crummy 1983;
Allason-Jones, Miket 1984, 275) to the Danube region (Topál 2003). Those in black glass more or less remained
ignored until now (Cosyns 2009).
Despite the low rate of distribution of the hairpins in black glass, we can conclude from the recorded pieces that at
least one glass workshop responsible for the production of these pins was located in the north-western provinces.
The glass workshop of Les Houis near Sainte Menehould (FR), bordering the Argonne forest, yielded thus far 23
pieces [cat.nos.1418;1442-48;1453;1470-71;1473-75;1477-85] 14 pin-heads and 9 shaft fragments in black
220
glass. But another 9 piecessaid to have been retrieved from the Argonne Forestare possibly from Les
Houis as well [cat.nos.1076-78;1082-87]. Other hairpin fragments are the polyhedric head from a late Roman
burial at the cemetery of Beavais (FR) (Schuler 1995, 62, fig.19:3) [cat.no.1027], and a globular pinhead from
tomb 644 of the cemetery ‗Pousse Motte‘ at Maule (FR) (Arveiller-Dulong 2006, 159, n°41) [cat.no.1248]. Two
shaft fragments are known from the vicus Geminacum, the settlement in Liberchies (BE) on the road BoulogneBavay-Tongeren-Cologne [cat.nos.372-373]. Three globular pin-heads came from the ‗cave-sanctuary‘ Trou de
Han in Han-sur-Lesse (BE) [cat.nos.309;311;313] and one came from the military camp in Oudenburg (BE)
[cat.no.471]. Seeing that Liberchies, Trou de Han and Oudenburg are not that distant from Sainte Menehould, it is
most likely that they were produced in the glass workshop of Les Houis although it is not excluded that other glass
workshops produced similar hairpins in black glass such as the supposed workshop at Liberchies. Although
located fairly apart, the pieces from Augst (CH) [cat.no.A4592] and Wanborough (UK) [cat.no.A4620] perhaps
corroborate one single workshop responsible for producing glass hairpins. Furthermore the twisted hairpin
tapering towards one end, now at the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology [cat.no.988] is of a totally different
category in shape, decoration and technique. Besides, the piece retrieved from Braga (PT) [cat.no.3003] is the
only piece from outside the north-western provinces. Despite the lack of explicit evidence we believe that more
workshops manufactured hairpins entirely in (black) glass or by combining a glass head with a metallic pin.
Besides the hairpins entirely made in glass, there are several examples known of a pin in iron or bronze with a
black glass head. An intact piece comes from the villa of Shakenoak (UK) [cat.no.4201]. Because such pieces
have been catalogued from the Sainte Menehould material, it is once again very likely that the workshop of Les
Houis was responsible for the production of this variant of hairpin.
219
In Chapter 4 we give details on the re-use of large amounts of Roman nicolo paste gems in medieval times, the so-called ‗Alsengemmen‘.
Possibly many more have been retrieved from the site, but we only considered the pieces at the M.A.N. in Saint-Germain-en-Laye and only
looked at the black glass artefacts excluding all hair pins produced in another glass hue.
220
262
Notwithstanding the few pins recorded in black glass, we assume that glass hairpins must have been a much
more ubiquitous commodity in Roman daily life. This is to a large extent due to the difficulty to recognize the
commodity type with only the pinhead remaining.
6.3.3
Architectural decoration
Where the glass cake production has taken place still remains an open question. Were these glass cakes
produced by a few larger ‗intermediate‘ workshops retaining the specialized knowledge to colour raw glass as
described in schemes 2 and 3? Were such discs traded over long distances, or was their production much more
widespread and manufactured by most local secondary workshops? Les Houis produced not only a mass of glass
tesserae in various colours, but also some fragments of glass cakes. Although more than 450 tesserae in black
glass are within the collections of the M.A.N., Saint-Germain-en-Laye, none of the glass cakes is made of black
glass.
Fragments of eight glass cakes being about 10-15 mm thick have been reported at Augusta Raurica (CH)
(Schmid 1993, 172-173). Besides one ultramarine blue piece and four greyish blue fragments, three of them were
nd
rd
made of a dark green glass with red trails. When from dated contexts, they are dated from the late 2 to early 3
century AD. Debora Schmid also reports 43 similar glass cake fragments from the villa of Leudersdorf (CH) as
well as some from Trier (DE) which are related to the making of tesserae (Schmid 1993, 173). The opaque and
barely translucent dark green glass cakes from Augst/Kaiseraugst (CH) could very well have been locally
produced since a glass workshop was found there in Regio 17C in the lower town of Augusta Raurica. The
nd
workshop processed black glass during the later 2 century AD and the entire Severan period to produce blackappearing glass vessels (Fischer 2009). In Chapter 8, it is described that the vessels and the glass lumps show a
homogeneous and very distinct chemical composition. Because the bracelets also demonstrate the same distinct
composition, we may assume that the deeply coloured glass for the vessels and the bracelets were made in one
and the same glass workshop [see Chapter 8]. By checking the composition of the three dark green glass cake
fragments, we could compare them and verify whether they were made from the same (colouring) recipe. But if
the Augusta Raurica-workshop produced the glass cakes, do we then have to regard it as a larger, more
specialized workshop, or is it an example of a local category?
When taking into account the weight of a tessera (c.1,5 grams) and the estimated weight of a glass cake is above
2 kilogram (Marii, Rehren 2009, 296), a glass cake can provide more than 1000 tesserae, even considering the
loss by generating waste of flakes. When taking into account the size of a tessera c.4-5 mm side for the smallsized tesserae or 8-10 mm for the medium-sized tesserae, one average glass cake produces enough tesserae to
cover about 0,3-0,5 m². The small-sized pieces are used for various details, whereas the medium-sized pieces
are used to fill in the main parts.
6.3.4
Counters
The counters in black glass appear, like all other glass counters, to be a ubiquitous commodity throughout the
th
whole Roman Empire from the Augustan period to the 5 century AD. However, they are assumed more
numerous in the western provinces and especially in modern-day France, Germany and Britain (Catalogue
Roanne 1987, 103). Focusing on solely the black glass counters of this area, a difference between the continent
and Britannia is noticeable, even though an exhaustive study on the subject is necessary to provide a more
accurate picture. A first survey revealed that the medium- and large-sized counters were mainly consumed on the
continent, whereas the small pieces are idiosyncratic to the British material. The medium-sized counters
(diameter between 20 and 27 mm) seem absent on the British Isles, and the occurrence of large pieces is
negligible in contrast to the small ones (Cosyns forthcoming).
In Chapter 4, it is demonstrated that the survey on datable black glass counters did not add much new information
to refine the discussion on the chronological differentiation based on size variations. Conversely, a geographical
differentiation seems more likely. Small counters occur on a wide variety of sites in Britain throughout the Roman
st
nd
period, and those in opaque white and black glass appear especially on military sites of the 1 and 2 century AD
(Price 1985, 214). The counters recorded from the fortress of Usk (UK) are a good example (Price 1995, 129).
The 87 pieces are all small-sized, with a diameter ranging from 12,5 to 20,1 mm. Conversely, small counters are
also present on the continent but only sporadically, such as examples from Tienen (BE) (Cosyns et al. 2006b, 33,
fig.1b), Penteville (BE) (Plumier 1986, 82-83, fig.56-31) and Franchimont (BE) (unpublished). The large discoid
counters common on the continent are then again unusual in Britannia. This survey demonstrated the
263
corroboration with the overall archaeological record indicating a regional difference between the continent and
Great Britain.
With regard to the distribution of monochrome glass counters, we focussed on the provenance but did not ignore
the material from the consecutive periods (Table 131). From the 96 catalogued pieces from Magdalensberg, we
221
were able to find out the shape of only two counters. We did not verify whether the distribution of the different
sizessmall, medium, large and shaperound, oval, irregular includes regional and or chronological
differences because we only collected information on black glass counters. Only a general but detailed synthesis
including all glass counters in any colourmonochrome, bichrome and polychromecan demonstrate the
intrinsic value of this fairly neglected commodity type.
Table 131: List of monochrome black glass counters (n = quantity)
cat.no.
site
n
northwestern provinces
175
A4486
211
225;226
228
282
290
317
318-19
336-351; 2109
461
465-66
530-31
576
600
615
999
1025
1110
1219-20
1229
1313-16
1341-44
1370-71
1639
1642
1679-81
1795
1851-56
1859-65
1870-71
1893-94
1904-5
1935-37
1941
1950-56
1970-80
2002-2010
2021
2112-27
2877
2884-90
2908-61;4466
2989
2990
2993-95
3223-3316
3637-41
3925-56
3965
3987
3989-99
4007-10
4032-39
221
Anthée (BE)
Berlingen (BE)
Braives (BE)
Burdinne (BE)
Cortil-Noirmont (BE)
Gembloux-Penteville (BE)
Grobbendonk (BE)
Herstal (BE)
Hodeige (BE)
Liberchies (BE)
Nivelles (BE)
Oudenburg (BE)
Tienen (BE)
Treignes (BE)
Vervoz (BE)
Vorsen (BE)
Alba-la-Romaine (FR)
Aulnay (FR)
Frénouville (FR)
Loubers (FR)
Mathay (FR)
Olbia (FR)
Poitiers (FR)
Ruscino (FR)
Saint-Pathus (FR)
Sanxay (FR)
unprovenanced (FR)
Bonn (DE)
unprovenanced (DE)
Duisburg-Rheinhausen (DE)
Epfach (DE)
Kempten (DE)
Krefeld-Gellep (DE)
Ladenburg (DE)
Mainz (DE)
Moers-Asberg (DE)
Neuss (DE)
Rottweill (DE)
Trier (DE)
Xanten (DE)
Esch (NL)
Heerlen (NL)
Nijmegen (NL)
Utrecht (NL)
Valkenburg (NL)
Vechten (NL)
Augst (CH)
Kaiseraugst (CH)
Caerleon (UK)
Carmarthen (UK)
Chichester (UK)
Cirencester (UK)
Colchester (UK)
Corbridge (UK)
1
18
1
2
1
1
1
1
2
14
1
2
2
1
1
1
1
1
1
2
1
4
4
2
1
1
3
1
6
7
2
2
2
3
1
7
11
9
1
16
1x8
7
39
1
1
3
94
5
32
1
1
10
4
8
These two could be studied more in detail during the ROCT 2005 workshop in Leuven (my gratitude goes to Eleni Kaudelka-Schindler and
Barbara Czurda-Ruth). All other material published by Barbara Czurda-Ruth in consecutive contributions on the glass from Magdalensberg
received only marginal interest because she focused on vessels and only mentioned the glass hue and the quantity of counters (Czurda-Ruth
1979, nos.2167-2228; Czurda-Ruth 1998, nos.2286-2292). This is the same for more recent material we forgot to insert in the initial database and
is included in the addendum catalogue (Czurda-Ruth 2004, 287, nos. 378-402).
264
4059-60
4062;4079-86
4092-4112
4171
4180-81
4196-200
4207
4220-21
4234
4239
4241-43
4246-90
4292
4316-20
4244
Gorhambury (UK)
Winchester (UK)
London (UK)
Ospringe (UK)
Richborough (UK)
Wilcote (UK)
Silchester (UK)
South Shields (UK)
Templeborough (UK)
Tisinghurst (UK)
Uley (UK)
Usk (UK)
Wanborough (UK)
York (UK)
unprovenanced (UK)
2
2
21
1
2
5
1
2
1
1
3
45
1
5
1
northeastern provinces
35-105
3111-12
3151
3155-64
Magdalensberg (AT)
Celje (SL)
Izola (SL)
Ribnica (SL)
96
2
1
10
west Mediterranean provinces
3185
2589-95
3000-1
3087
Mérida (ES)
Aquileia (IT)
Braga (PT)
Conimbriga (PT)
1
4
2
1
east Meditteraneanprovinces
876-90
Karanis (EG)
15
Glass counters showing a dotted decoration on the top surface with spots in opaque red, opaque white, opaque
th
ultramarine blue, translucent turquoise blue or combinations of these are idiosyncratic to the 4 century AD and
thus overlapping parts of Period III and Period IV [see Chapter 4]. Up to now, we were able to record black glass
counters with dotted decoration from 17 sites within Belgium, Netherlands, France, Germany, England and the
north of Italy (Table 132). Sets of 10 to 15 black glass dotted counters have been retrieved from burials in Amiens,
Krefeld-Gellep, Nijmegen, Winchester-Lankhills and Lullingstone. All other places yielded only 1 or 2 pieces.
Table 132: List of bichrome and polychrome dotted black glass counters
cat.no.
site
quantity
shape
277
343; 345; 351
1001;1002
1317
1677
1903
2590-92
2937-41;
2943-44; 2951;
2955-61
3995
4152
4180
4220
4243
4199
4299
4079;4081-86
4308
4244
hue of dotted decoration
Franchimont (BE)
Liberchies (BE)
Amiens (FR)
Olbia (FR)
Strasbourg (FR)
Krefeld-Gellep (DE)
Aquileia (IT)
Nijmegen (NL)
1
3
15
1
1
10
3
15
small - round
small - round
medium - round
?
?
small - round
small - round
medium - round
white
white; blue/red
red; blue/red
white
red
blue-green/red
blue; white; blue/red
blue/red
Cirencester (UK)
Lullingstone (UK)
Richborough (UK)
South Shields (UK)
Uley (UK)
Wilcote-Shakenoak (UK)
Water Newton (UK)
Winchester-Lankhills (UK)
Woodcutts (UK)
unprovenanced (UK)
1
15
1
1
1
1
1
1; 14
1
1
medium - round
medium - round
medium - round
small - round
small - oval
medium - oval
medium - round
medium - round
?
small - round
white/red
white/blue
?
blue/red
blue
blue/red
white/red
blue; blue/red
?
white/red
265
Figure 122: Distribution map of late Roman dotted counters
A distribution map of these typical late Roman glass counters demonstrates a distribution mainly in the northwestern provinces, i.e. Britannia, Gallia Belgica and Germania Inferior (Figure 122). This restricted area of
consumption is evidence for the production of dotted counters within these provinces. A more thorough
investigation of the material is necessary to point out whether all material can be reduced to one single workshop
or reflects the production of various workshops. Insofar that the here-presented inventory is representative, it is
reasonable to assume one single workshop responsible for the production of the decorated glass counters and
that this workshop was located somewhere in south-east Britannia, in the lower Rhine region or somewhere in the
north of Gallia Belgica. No such counters have been retrieved at the two most suitable workshops, Les Houis near
Sainte Menehould and Trier Palais Kesselstatt. Only Liberchies, where a workshop is assumed to have produced
black glass artefacts, yielded such counters, but no indications can argue for such production somewhere at the
vicus Geminiacum or at the castellum of Liberchies. The pieces of Olbia and Aquileia most likely are the products
of another workshop that was situated in the Mediterranean.
Considering the basic production technique of plano-convex glass counters [see Chapter 2], it is in a sense
contradictory to produce misshapen counters. This causes problems in defining a workshop where glass counters
were fabricated, not in the least because the less well-manufactured irregular counters also got into circulation.
Consequently, it is self-evident that no or nearly no such material was discarded as waste at a glass workshop
producing glass counters, which diminishes considerably the availability of evidence to prove the making of
counters.
6.4 Conclusion
One of the aims within this chapter was to define the distribution pattern of various deeply coloured glasses
appearing black. The evaluation of the glass workshops where black glass was processed and the distribution
patterns of the different functional types in black glass enabled us to get an idea on how its production was
organized and to what level the different black glass artefact types were consumed. The study of the black glass
artefacts, although being a minor commodity within the Roman glass production and consumption, has provided
evidence to speak of a production of artefacts with regional character and a distribution on an interregional level
(Table 133). Conversely, no archaeological evidence was found to locate workshops where glass was made black,
whereas the number of secondary workshops where black glass was processed also remains very little. Within
the archaeometric approach various recipes used to produce black glass in the Roman Empire during the imperial
period are discussed [see Chapter 8] as well as their physical properties [see Chapter 9] indicative of the
generally accepted model that the secondary workshops were supplied by large primary workshops in the south266
eastern Mediterranean (Nenna 2008a), either with black coloured raw glass or with ‗naturally coloured‘ and
decolorized raw glass that got coloured by an intermediate workshop or a secondary workshop.
Table 133: Overview of the distribution of black glass vessels during the consecutive periods
period
distribution
Period I (1st–mid 2nd century AD)
Period II (mid 2nd – mid 3rd century AD)
Period III (mid 3rd–mid 4th century AD)
Period IV (mid 4th–5th century AD)
entire empire
north-western provinces
(largely restricted to the provinces Gallia Belgica,
Germania inferior and Germania superior)
south-eastern provinces
(mainly Levant and Egypt)
PERIOD I
During Period I the general distribution of black glass vessels covers the entire Roman Empire, though seeing the
examples at hand only in marginal quantities and foremost in the west. It is not clear whether these black and
other strongly coloured glass vessels were the result of a production in one or a few workshops in the south-east
Mediterranean where also the primary workshops were located and traded all through the Roman empire. The
glass workshops of, for instance, Lyon-La Manutention and Avenches-Derrière la Tour do not provide clear
evidence of black glass vessels, but the incidence of a vessel production in strongly coloured glass makes such
assemblages very probable in both workshops. It remains thus far unclear whether every assemblage was
idiosyncratic or unvaryingly imitating each other. Probably a difference is to be made between the cast and the
blown vessels. The concentration in the north of Italy of free-blown vessels in deep purple glass appearing black
and the evidence of blown vessels in strongly coloured glass in the workshop of Avenches-Derrière la Tour might
indicate that blown vessels in strongly coloured glass were locally produced in the west, whereas cast vessels
were imported from the east.
The widespread distribution and consumption of standardized vessel shapes in black glass, like in any other
strongly coloured glass, monochrome and polychrome, must however be considered as a sort of veneer of
st
Romanisation featuring the material culture during the earlier 1 century AD up to the Neronian times. The
extremely standardized-appearing material culture in the entire Roman Empire starts to change from the Flavian
period onwards, influenced by a changing supply and demand due to the harmonisation of the material culture in
the entire empire. The success of the romanitas policy under Julio-Claudian rule made long-distance supply fail
and unprofitable. Perhaps delocalisation of production centres all over the empire was necessary and more
profitable, creating opportunities for glass production and distribution on interregional, regional and finally local
levels. While an interregional level of glass production in very large centres was clearly introduced in the first half
of Period I, a regional level got established in the second half of Period I, what resulted in regional idiosyncrasies.
PERIOD II
It is thus not surprising that the glass assemblages in circulation during Period II seem to have a regional
character. Limited to Gallia Belgica, Germania Inferior and Germania Superior, some examples do occur in the
neighbouring areas, such as the southeast of Britannia, Gallia Lugdunensis and even further in Pannonia,
probably by means of the Rhine and Danube. It has been attested that the glass workshop ‗Äussere Reben‘ in
Kaiseraugst (CH) (Germania Superior) produced black glass vessels in Period II. But seeing that mainly globular
cups (Form IIB.4-5) are retrieved in Augst/Kaiseraugst and the black glass carchesium (Form IIB.1) is barely
present in the entire province Germania Superior while very popular in Gallia Belgica and Germania Inferior, other
workshops are likely to have produced contemporaneously black glass vessels in Gallia Belgica and/or Germania
Inferior. The workshop at Les Houis near Sainte Menehould (Gallia Belgica) is almost certainly another producer
of black glass vessels.
nd
rd
The consumption of black glass vessels during the late 2 and early 3 century AD is widespread within the
borders of Gallia Belgica, Germania Inferior and Germania Superior, with some minor occurrence in the
neighbouring areas (e.g., the southeast of Britannia and Gallia Lugdunensis) or even further away (e.g.,
Pannonia). The limited area of distribution of black glass vessels within the boundaries of the north-western
provinces stands in sharp contrast with the nearly total absence outside these provinces. This regional consumer
behaviour stands in great contrast with the general distribution and consumption of black glass vessels in Period I
all over the entire Roman Empire, though in marginal quantities. This consumption pattern can be brought in
relation to a regional and interregional echelon of Romanisation, or in other words to a regionalism or interregionalism within the Roman society involving cultural, social, economical and political aspects. Other recent
research such as that of Wim De Clercq (2009) on house patterns and pottery consumption within the northern
part of the civitas menapiorum in Gallia Belgica provides evidence for a local level of romanitas or ‗Roman-ness‘.
267
We are convinced of a Roman Empire built up in various levels. No one doubts the fact that the Empire does not
emanate a homogeneous (material) culture but is built up out of a melting pot of numerous cultures, entities and
ethnicities. The assimilation degree of genuine ‗Roman-ness‘ and the speed of its absorption is determined by
local, regional and inter-regional elements within the societies ruled by Rome. Consequently, we see a civitas as
the local level, a provincia, comprising several civitates, with the regional level and neighbouring provinciae as the
inter-regional level. Features on the local level (i.e., micro level) were built up from below and were affected by
tribal traditions involving religion, habits, social organization in families and within small communities. Features on
the inter-regional level (i.e., macro level) conversely were imposed from above and came from Rome. These
enforced political ramifications caused repercussions on the social and economic organisation of the local people
within one or several neighbouring provinces. The regional level (i.e., meso level) was influenced by the
interaction between the local socio-cultural traditions and the centrally steered politico-economic Roman
administration. If we can see artefactual differences on the micro level within one region (i.e., province), this
suggests a difference in the degree of Romanisation within one region. For instance, the civitas menapiorum in
present-day western Belgium, south-west Netherlands, and north-west France, largely the area west from the
River Scheldt, forms together with the civitates nerviorum, morini and remagii the province Gallia Belgica.
Although in the same region with similar people and normally with a similar tax regime, there is a strong difference
of Romanisation visible between, for instance, the Menapii and the Remii.
The black glass counters are markedly present on Roman sites, and it has become plainly clear that jewellery like
bracelets, finger rings and even beads were also main products on the Roman market. But whereas the former is
rd
rather featured in the early imperial period up to the early 3 century AD, the latter was more typical for the late
rd
th
Roman period in the later 3 to 5 century AD. Identical bracelets have been attested in, for instance, Belgium,
Cyprus, Egypt, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Switzerland, Turkey.
PERIOD III
Within this period, the distribution of black glass vessels disappears. Most material in this glass hue is jewellery,
rd
even if architectural decoration material and counters remain in production as well. During the 3 century AD,
there was a markedly standardized execution of the various commodity categories in black glass. The black glass
material is therefore a striking example to demonstrate the globalising Roman material culture in the late Roman
period.
PERIOD IV
th
th
The present knowledge on workshops producing black glass artefacts during the second half of the 4 and 5
century AD remains rather limited. Up to now, only the sites of Trier-Palais Kesselstatt (DE), Braga-Fujacal (PT)
and Les Houis near Sainte Menehould (FR) have demonstrated the presence of secondary glass workshops to
have produced jewellery in black glass during this last Roman period. It is obvious that more workshops in the
western half of the Roman Empire must have been responsible for the production of artefacts in black glass, and
that many more are still to be recognized in the eastern half, such as Ore ac (SL) and Horvat Qastra (IL).
The existence of secondary glass workshops producing black glass artefacts in the eastern Mediterranean is
apparent from the distribution of the black glass vessels. No glass workshop has been excavated yet where such
material has been produced, but it is very probable that a workshop has been active in or near Haraun (SY).
The production of black glass vessels in Period IV is limited to rod-formed shapes and shows a consumption
pattern on a regional level within the boundaries of the Roman provinces Aegyptus, Arabia, Iudea and Syria. The
regional character of its distribution is evidence to locate at least one workshop in Egypt and/or the Levant
producing such type of vessels, although it is more probable that many more workshops produced these
idiosyncratic glass vessels. Considering the adopted rod-formed technique, which is specific for the production of
all kinds of jewellery, we believe that the jewellery-producing workshops were also responsible for making the rodformed vessels [see Chapter 7]. Possibly the production of rod-formed vessels in black glass was trend-related to
a regional consumer market, but it can equally be that the mass production/mass consumption of glass artefacts
th
within the south-eastern Mediterranean, where primary glass production originated, was at the end of the 4
th
century AD and in particular during the 5 century AD, when there was a market demanding for such type of
commodity. Future research is compulsory to verify whether the specific shapes and the different glass hues used
for the trailed decoration are related to a regional or a chronological production.
The distribution of jewellery in general is less well definable due to its widespread occurrence. When examining
the distribution maps of the different jewellery commodities separately, a regional differentiation can be
noticede.g., arm rings. We demonstrated previously that the arm rings characteristic for Period IV are of Type D
[see Chapter 4]. Where in the north-western provinces almost solely plain narrow D-shaped bangles (Type D1)
circulated, a larger variety of bangle types occur in the Mediterranean until Switzerland, southern France and
268
northern Italy. The Type D-bangles are even more frequent in the north-eastern European (Balkan) provinces and
in particular in the (eastern) Mediterranean. Seeing the different techniques used (gob-gathered and cone-rolled
in the north-western provinces and rod-made in the east Mediterranean provinces), it is clear that the pieces from
the north-western provinces were locally produced and not imported as finished products from the eastern
Mediterranean.
The workshop of Trier-Palais Kesselstatt known so far, that produced beads and pendants but possibly also
bangles or other jewellery, makes a comparative evaluation impossible.
269
270
Chapter 7 USE AND FUNCTION
In 1867 Karl Marx was surprised to learn that five hundred different kinds of hammers were produced in Birmingham, England,
each one adapted to a specific function in industry or the crafts. A hammer is thus not merely a hammer. Depending on who will
use it and for what purpose, the shape can differ.
... why are there so many different kinds of things?
(Basalla 1988, 2)
Colour operates in every culture as a symbol, a metaphor, and as part of an aesthetic system
(Jones, McGregor 2002, cover page)
7.1 Introduction
Within this chapter on use and function, we attempt to improve our understanding of how black glass artefacts
were used in Roman times by checking the correlation between the diversity of artefact types and their possible
purposes. However, defining the connotation (meaning) an artefact received in the past is much more complex
compared to identifying its denotation (function). Hence, the use and function of the various commodity types in
black glass can only be given to a certain degree, if already a purpose can be ascribed to the artefacts from the
available archaeological data. We are aware that this query is bringing us far beyond the basic discussions in
archaeological glass studies, i.e., describing the finds, linking them with the excavated contexts, and dating the
artefacts. Material culture studies, however, should not remain restricted to solely such general outcome but
should try to include an assessment of the use and function (and if possible even the meaning) of the concerned
artefacts to help better reconstruct and understand the regionalism of the consumption pattern within the
‗globalized‘ Roman material culture as demonstrated in the previous chapters. In other words, it is important to
identify the regional and local cultural identities within the ‗globalized‘ multicultural Roman society which are
influenced by individual traditions and drives. Nonetheless, we have to be aware that the consumer is an
individual that got unwittingly influenced by cultural and societal issues, which are of great importance in the study
of consumer behaviour (Miller 1991).
The here-presented assessment wants to surpass the limited use of colour to help classify the wide variety of
artefacts by including information from Chapter 5 with the aim to gain greater insight of the lifestyle and material
culture during the Roman imperial period. Besides the discussed causes and the summarized socio-cultural and
socio-economical motives which can influence the fabrication of consumer goods in black-appearing glass, the
reason to make a specific shape in a specific material in a particular hue are indicative for an approach based on
skeuomorphism. Due to practical reasons, this approach remained minor. Nonetheless, this approach provides
new facts to help better understand certain issues of the Roman material culture.
When tackling the issue of the use and function the Romans attributed to artefacts made in black-appearing glass,
the question that immediately arises is what drove the Romans to produce glass artefacts in such a hue. In
Chapter 1, we described that the coloration purpose in Antiquity is much more complex than presently accredited
and goes beyond solely aesthetic motivations. This logical assumption corroborates the artefactual data
discussed in previous chapters, showing an interest for commodities in black-appearing, deeply coloured glass
st
that are very much products of their times. Regarding the 1 century AD, for instance, it is clear that the blackappearing vessels are to be understood within the fashion alteration from polychrome to monochrome deeply
coloured glass vessels. On the other hand, it is interesting to take into account that most black glass jewellery is
currently appreciated as being very stylish and tasteful. But do we have to exclude beforehand all aesthetic
motivation by the Romans and go for a purely functional meaning?
With regard to the vessels, it is obvious that the opacity caused by the black appearance of the glass increases
222
the significant advantage of preserving sensitive products from decay caused by UV-radiation from sunlight. As
described in Chapter 1, colours in general can also bear meaningful and sometimes powerful connotations,
particularly in the worlds of religion, tradition and superstition.
The real challenge thus is attempting to unravel the thought behind the consumers‘ behaviour and motivation in
the acquisition of black glass artefacts or specific goods in general. What influenced the Romans to acquire black-
222
Recent biotechnological research in beer production has demonstrated that a cheaper but less UV-resistant glass for the
production of beer bottles would give the opportunity to sunlight to produce toxic bacteria and make the beer unfit for drinking.
271
appearing glass vessels or jewellery? Is it related to gender, age, and ethnicity? Or could it have had a symbolic
meaning (e.g., a religious symbol or a social status symbol)? This consumer research on black glass artefacts
provides additional information concerning the use and function of black glass material. Of course it cannot be the
purpose to verify what it meant to own black glass artefacts because then one could easily lapse into mistakes in
the sense of Aristotelan physiognomica (‗you are how you look like‘). However, it is a widely observable fact that
there always are (have been) ostentatiously materialistic people within every society level having the underlying
idea of ‗you are what you have‘ transformed into ‗you are what you wear‘, leaving aside whether they do (did) it
deliberately or unconsciously. For types of jewellery, it does not necessarily have to do with merely beautification.
Jewellery can be given a religious connotation or a symbolic meaning believed to hold superstitious power.
For practical reasons, this chapter does not discuss all categories of artefact types in black glass. We discarded
material such as the mould-blown vessels because these categories do not add any value to the here-described
discussion.
7.2 Reflections on the use and meaning of colours in Roman society
We discussed in Chapter 1 that Beat Rütti discerned 76 colour variations to describe the Roman glass vessels
from Augst/Kaiseraugst (CH) and that he grouped them into seven colour sets: blue, blue-green, green, yellow (+
223
orange), brown, purple (+ pink). and white (Rütti 1991, 110). But did it all matter to the Romans? By contrast, in
Antiquity great importance was attached to the simplex color to designate the basic colours used by the
224
tetrachromists, ancient painters working only with white, black, yellow and red (Brécoulaki 2006). When taking
into consideration Roman pottery, black and red are the two dominant colours, but pale yellowish to whitish
pottery is also popular. Besides pottery, many objects in the non-ceramic material such as glass and metal
demonstrate a similar set of colour variations easily to classify into these four major colour groups: silver-white
and black, gold-yellow, bronze-black and green, and brass-yellow and red.
st
Within this perspective, it is easy to reduce the true hue of each of the burial gifts from the 1 century AD tomb at
Antran in the south of France (Pautreau (ed.) 1999) and of those from the contemporaneous tomb 1 at
Montebelluna in the north of Italy (Casagrande, Ceselin 2003, pl. X) into the four major colour tonalities so
imperative in Roman times (Figure 123). These examples support the assumption that in Antiquity, more meaning
was given to the brightness of the hue and to its saturation or its intensity and much lesser interest to the hue or
chroma. Within the modern colour perception, we can conclude that the Romans rather differentiated colours as
vivid colours, pale colours (white) and dull colours (black). It is not excluded that each of the four groups received
connotations associating a colour with a deity, one of the four elements,..., and not solely to self-evident
functional- or material-related reasons. This means, for instance, that the success of monochrome deeply
st
coloured glass vessels during the middle of the 1 century AD and its decline during the Flavian period in favour
of colourless glass was not merely a change in fashion but was most likely the result of socio-cultural evolution
instigated by the policy of the emperor. Within that view, it is believable that under Flavian rule the political
condemnation of everything what was directly and indirectly linked to the rule of Nero influenced the success of
colourless glass and the decline of the vessels in deeply coloured glass.
223
The only relevance in applying such detailed subdivisions at present is because the hue of the glass is related to the chemical composition [see
Chapter 8].
224
Pliny the Elder mentions lime from Melos (white), ocres from Attica (yellow), earth from Sinope (red) and atramentum (black) (Naturalis Historia
XXXV, 50).
272
Figure 123: The burial gifts from 1st century AD tombs at Antran (FR) (left) and Montebelluna (IT) (right) (pictures taken from
Pautreau (ed.) 1999, fig.28 (left); Casagrande, Ceselin 2003, pl. X (right))
7.3
The vessels
The small quantities of vessels produced in black-appearing glass in the first place demonstrate a rather marginal
production. But in relation to the large set of forms and shapes in black and other hues, its production responded
to a consumer market in need of a wide variety of goods. Conversely, these productions fit the contemporary
fashionable glass assemblages. Seeing the number of shapes produced by means of the free-blowing technique,
of which only one piece is known in (black) glass, we may wonder if these objects are not representing the
225
specialized design of (a) glass artist(s) creating individual artefacts. This rather individual production contrasts
sharply with the common bulk productions and establishes idiosyncrasies of a region and period.
In Chapters 3 and 4 we demonstrated that the black glass vessels were produced within all four periods
established. When tackling the issue of use and function of the vessel shapes, it is necessary to explain what we
understand as tableware, toilet ware and storage ware. We identify tableware with all vessel shapes used for
226
drinking (cups, beakers, bowls), pouring/serving drinks (flasks, jugs, bottles ) and eating or serving food (plates,
bowls, dishes). The toilet ware is nearly restricted to the unguentaria or balsamaria but includes also aryballoi.
The storage ware includes all sorts of jars but also the mould-blown square bottles and the so-called ink-wells are
here considered as vessels used for storage.
Further discussion is considered in general per technique and additionally some specific shapes have been
examined in detail to verify to what degree we can attribute the functionality and/or meaning of an artefact from
archaeological data. The mould-blown vessels are omitted from discussion, as the black glass alternative of the
square bottles and grape-shaped amphoriskoi does not provide any additional information on the use and function
of these vessel shapes.
A general labelling of functionse.g., tableware, toilet ware, storage wareis given on the basis of shape
following the conventional model in glass studies. But concerning, for instance, the tableware, there is not always
a distinct differentiation possible. It is very obvious to consider jugs, flasks and bottles as pouring vessels to serve
drinks, but it is less clear what should be attributed to some cups, bowls and jars (e.g., drinking vessels, eating
vessels or vessels for serving food).
The here-used functional attributions are based on the prevailing interpretations, but we are aware of the multifunctionality one single shape can imply or the possible erroneous connotations assumed. It was, however, not
the purpose here to list the functions given to a number of specific vessel shapes or groups of vessels that have
received through history a functional name in Latin or Greek such as the small bilobated cup (Form IA.2) which is
generally described as acetabulum. Some remained very simple (e.g., olla), but the name is mainly based on the
225
226
This hypothesis is lent better support from the number of individual creations of the snake-thread-decorated vessels.
Bottles can also be regarded as storage vessels because their impermeability allows them to stock liquids easily.
273
correspondence between the external properties of a vessel and the descriptions in literary sources, such as
carchesium, modiolus, or skyphos (Isings 1957, 50; 55), or its resemblance to similar shapes in other materials
and of which the functionality was already attributed, such as amphoriskos or aryballos. Some designations
include, however, a certain functionality (e.g., acetabulum or unguentarium).
7.3.1
Cast vessels
Nearly all cast vessels in black-appearing glass are tableware. When referring to the 13 acknowledged shapes, it
becomes clear that the casting technique was adopted to manufacture open vessel shapes such as cups, bowls
and dishes (Table 134). The cups can be considered as drinking vessels, whereas the bowls can be attributed a
multiple use for eating and/or drinking. The remaining shapes (e.g., dishes, plates and tables) concern solely food
consumption purposes.
Table 134: List of cast shapes per function (numbers coincide with Form IA shapes discussed in Chapter 3)
cups
beakers or goblets
bowls
jars
flasks
jugs
bottles
dishes
plates
tripod tables
DRINKING
POURING DRINKS
EATING
SERVING FOOD
2; 6
1A; 3; 9
-
9*
-
1A-B; 10; 13
4A-B; 11; 12
-
1A-B; 5;10; 13
4A-B; 11; 12
7
8
An exception is the boat-shaped vessel (Form 9), which in all probability has been used as storage ware. It has
been reported that a Pompeian piece contained jewellery at the time of its discovery, which makes the vessel a
‗decorative container on women‘s dressing-tables‘ (Glass of the Caesars no. 24). This idea corroborates the
presence of a boat-shaped vessel in female tombs such as the black example from the ‗tomba di Silea‘ at S.
Elena di Melma (IT) [cat.no.2805] or the deep blue one from the rich tomb at Sankt Aldegund (DE).
7.3.2
Free-blown vessels
The free-blown vessels produced in black glass are essentially tableware. For the benefit of readability, we
choose to focus on one distinct vessel shape of Period II in order to demonstrate the potential outcome of a more
in-depth discussion on use and function.
We choose to consider the carinated beaker or carchesium (Form IIB.1) because this vessel shape enjoyed a
certain success in relation to the entire glass assemblage of the north-western provinces. The relatively popularity
of carinated beakers in black glass in only the provinces of Gallia Belgica and Germania Inferior during Period II
as described in the previous chapter most likely was a vessel shape in relation to a particular consumer‘s
behaviour. Still it remains unclear whether it was designed purely for the consumption of a specific drink, or
whether it was used on special if not ritual occasions within a regional socio-cultural tradition. To our knowledge,
there is no evidence available to explain the use of Form IIB.1 beakers, but the continuity of this characteristic
shape, from Period I (ceramics) over Period II (glass) up to Period III (silver), implies a continuity of a particular
drinking custom. Hence, we assume that the carchesium was designed for a specific use that was characteristic
in the provinces Gallia Belgica and Germania Inferior [see Chapter 6]. The creation of a vessel with pronounced
carination at the lower part of the body just above the bottom is not coincidental or simply inspired by aesthetical
design but rather applied on purpose. This means that the carinated beakers were designed to retain something
not meant to be swallowed when drinking, such as a residue that is inevitably connected to the preparation of a
type of drink, whether it be celebratory, ceremonial or medicinal. The retention of a residue is most likely the
function that should be attributed to the similarly carinated small jug from Schaarbeek (BE) [cat.no.515].
Cups with bulbous bodies (Forms IIB.4-6) provide the consumer the possibility to empty the cup completely until
the last drop. These cups, however, might have been used for the same drinking custom as the carinated beakers
when the drink was first prepared in a carinated jug; likewise, the Schaarbeek jug, seeing that the cup within the
tomb is a metallescent cup with bulbous body of the type Niederbieber 31 (Hanut 1999, 8, fig.3:2). Interesting in
274
this issue is the intact burial content of tomb 176 at Cutry (FR) (A. Liéger 1997, 148 pl. 28) yielding three
carchesia in black glass [cat.no.1049-1051] together with two small jugs with globular body (Form IIB.3), one of
which is also in black glass [cat.no.1052] (Figure 124). Seeing that the entire content can easily flow out of
hemispherical vessels, the Form IIB.4-6 vessels are designed to hold a liquid that is to be drunk in its totality. The
liquid needed therefore to be filtered or decanted, a function that can be assigned to the carinated jug from the
Schaarbeek tomb. Conversely, the carchesia were most likely conceived to receive an unfiltered drink. It is not
excluded that the same drink was consumed in the carchesium and the bulbous cup. If so, the drink was either
prepared in a carinated jug for the bulbous cup or prepared in a bulbous jug for the carinated beaker or in the
carinated beaker itself.
Figure 124: Overview of burial gifts of tomb 176 from the cemetery at Cutry (illustration taken from Liéger 1997, pl. 28)
Only a thorough study of globular and carinated vesselsserving/pouring versus drinkingand their possibly
combined occurrence can provide additional information on this issue. Yet, some pieces may contain indications
giving an idea about its use, like for instance the base fragment of a carchesium from Liberchies-Bon Villers,
Belgium [cat.no.428] or the base fragment from Matagne-la-Petite (BE) [cat.no.438]. The scratches limited to a
particular area of the inner bottom of the carinated vessel cannot be caused from the impact of its stay in the soil,
in particular seeing that the carinated part of the bottom show no scratches at all. The explanation must therefore
be that the beaker was employed to prepare something by using a sharp and hard utensil to stir and beat
something, thus causing the scratches (Figure 125). Conversely, we noticed plenty of these carinated beakers
where these specific marks are missing. It is, of course, evident that these carinated beakers could have had a
versatile use depending on the purpose given by its consumer. However, scratches can be avoided when stirring
and beating ingredients with similar utensils in a softer material. Secondly, the scratches may be caused during
the manufacturing process by a poorly skilled person, an apprentice for instance, when shaping the vessel from
the inside with a jack.
275
Figure 125: (left) Base fragment from Liberchies-Bon Villers (BE); (right) from Matagne-la-Petite (BE) showing marks of use
(photographs by author, by courtesy of the Musée Archéologique, Nivelles and VIOE)
Additional information on the use and function of carinated vessels can be obtained from the carinated jug with
high narrow neck and high vertical handle (Form IB.14). These so-called lagynoi have counterparts in pottery and
metal ware. The lagynos is a vessel shape that was designed as metal ware and was copied in pottery and glass
(Isings 1957, 17); accordingly, the lagynoi in both materials imitate this specific shape in metal ware (Lierke 1999,
61-63, figs. 150-151). The lagynoi in glass imitate very closely the examples in more traditional materials, showing
features without any sense or use but in metal ware. The imitation of a production process atypical to a material
and only executed to improve the inclination of the consumer to purchase a vessel in another (novel) material for
traditional purposes and occasions is an example of skeuomorphism, demonstrating traditionalism in shaping,
and the continuity of a specific shape into different materials for a specific use characterizes cultural conservatism.
That is the reason why some features with a genuine link to the metal ware are reduced to a corsage on copies in
pottery and glass in order to increase the recognisability with the original vessels. From this viewpoint, the origin
of the carchesium (Form IIB.1) is to be considered in metal ware with counterparts in pottery and glass. The black
shiny aspect of the black glass and black burnished ware probably stands in relation to silverware in angular
folded silver sheet.
The original production of the lagynosincluding a local variant in black glazed waregoes back to the early
Hellenistic period but are very common throughout the entire Hellenistic period (Rotroff 1997, 127; 226-229),
st
whereas those produced in monochrome deeply coloured glass are dated around the middle of the 1 century AD.
In Flavian-early Antonine times, the production of glass lagynoi knew a last revival by means of the free-blown
globular and conical bottles with tall necks and single vertical handles, corresponding to Isings Forms 52 and 55.
We believe that the reason to deliberately copy such very particular ‗antique‘ shapes in pottery and metal in glass
workshops during the Julio-Claudian era is related to the function of this specific vessel shape: lagynoi are
considered as a typical vessel at symposia to decant wine:
In ancient sources the word appears from the 4th century onward to designate a wine jug distinguished by its long, thin neck and
single handle and by the gurgling sound it made when the wine was poured. It was used at symposia, where the drinker often
brought it along as his contribution to the feast.
(Susan Rotroff 1997, 226)
It is thus imaginable that the Form IB.14 jugs were produced in free-blown strongly coloured glass during
Claudian-Neronian times to supply vessels for symposia. This type of social activity was primarily to celebrate the
introduction of young men into aristocratic societyi.e., a sort of social initiation.
To come back to the carchesia, we are inclined to assume from the aforementioned information on lagynoi that
carinated beakers were used to drink a wine still containing residues and that the carinated jug of Schaarbeek
functioned as a decanter so that globular cups were usable to drink the same wine. But why it had to be black in
Gallia Belgica, Germania Inferior and Germania Superior remains unsolved. Seeing the frequent appearance in
funeral contexts, it is plausible that there is a connection to a ritual/religious meaning. When taking into
consideration a deity connected with wine and death/resurrection, there is a diversity of possibilities: a chtonic
deity; the Egyptian god Osiris; Dionysus; Dis Pater; Liber; etcetera.
276
7.3.3
Rod-formed vessels
This category of vessels has been systematically catalogued as toilet ware. In the first place the Period II
candlestick unguentaria with a triangular solid body (Form IIID.1) which correspond in shape with the thin-walled
candlestick unguentaria (Isings Form 82) and also look similar to the blown toilet bottles with a solid base [see
Chapter 3]. Jean-Pierre Brun (2003, 385) rejects Carol Meyers‘ idea (1992, 30) that these solid bodied vessels
with very small capacity were perfume containers to mislead the purchaser. He demonstrated through finds from
Roman desert fortresses in the Egyptian desert that the latter type was used to hold kohl (Brun 2003, 383-385,
figs.6:8; 7). The pieces from Elkab (EG), which form hitherto the sole basis to incorporate this shape into our
classification, are somehow unlike their blown counterparts. The shape of the four pieces from Elkab allows us to
identify them as vessels with a hollow tubular neck and a horizontally folded rim, but they can hardly be used as
containers. The very small capacity of the content is disproportionate to the mass of glass used. They therefore
were possibly not used to hold kohl, and likewise the blown toilet bottles with a solid base.
On the other hand, the Elkab pieces are very similar to some stemmed pieces from Augst (Rütti 1991, 165-166,
figs. 105-106), even though that these stems are solid. Unfortunately, there is no clear assertion of the correct
interpretation for the function of these objects either. One hypothesis says they should be seen as slick stones or
linen smoothers (Steiger et al. 1977, 330), although others tend to speak about ingots used in glass production
(Toma ević-Buck 1980, 249-251). We have no knowledge of any chemical analysis executed on the Augst pieces,
but those done on at least the medieval plano-convex ‗linen smoothers‘ provided evidence to refute the idea that
they have been used as cakes of raw glass to be processed in the batch. Not only a too-high concentration of
impurities has been demonstrated, but also several attested elements in the linen smoothers are not present in
manufactured glass artefacts (Gratuze et al. 2003b, 106; Foy 2004, 32). A plausible alternative remaining is that
the Augst and Elkab pieces might be considered as Roman forerunners of the medieval plano-convex linen
smoothers with rounded edge, with the distinctive difference that the Roman pieces have a stem. However, some
finds provide evidence to grant an apotropaic meaning to these glass cakes, as they were built into the façades of
houses or in the foundations of walls or thresholds (Foy 2004, 32; Munier 2009, 68).
A second group are the Period IV vessels, including two main groups of rod-formed vessels, the slender tubular
vessels (Form IVD.1) and the squat jars (Form IVD.2). Although some of these crudely shaped weighty objects
have been described as pendants (Whitehouse 2001, no.969) we have to consider them as toilet or medicinal
vessels to hold an unguent or make-up. Birgit Schlick-Nolte mentions that both vessel shapes probably formed a
set (Schlick-Nolte, 2002, 105, no.V-69). She noticed that many museum collections acquired both vessel shapes
together and that they match from various viewpoints. Both shapes are crudely made in a similar technique with
comparable decoration. Although this is far from a decisive factor, she proposed different cosmetics content for
227
each vessel shape, i.e. the tall and slender tubular vessels to hold the black eye-paint, kohl , while the broadmouthed squat jars an unguent (Schlick-Nolte 2002, 104-105). Besides the generally assumed use of squat jars
as ointment containers, these vessels are presumed also to have contained medicinal preparations (Israeli 2003,
234). An alternative explanation could be that the tubular vessel held one or more applicators for the eye makeup,
while the squat jar was used to contain the kohl. An indication to consider these black glass thick-walled vessels
as kohl-tubes is the resemblance in shape and decoration with a number of the sometimes very kitschy
manufactured free-blown kohl-tubes, in particular the modelling of the handles and the way of decorating the body
(Figure 126). These for their part are determined as kohl-tubes on the basis of burial finds in Palestine containing
traces of kohl or thin applicators in bronze, bone or glass with one end spatula-shaped and the other rounded
(Israeli 2003, 227). Furthermore, the connection with the blown double and quadruple kohl tubes with complex
handles reminding basketry (Israeli 2003, 230-233, nos.287-294) demonstrates these vessel types form a very
idiosyncratic commodity category for specific uses during a relatively short period of time and within a confined
region. Despite the explicit regional character of the consumption of rod-formed vessels in black glass within the
Levant and Egypt [see Chapter 6], it is important to notice a much more widespread tradition in the Near-East and
in North Africa to paint the eyelashes and eyebrows with kohl. Alternative receptacles in other materialse.g.
clay; metal; woodmust have been more fashionable in other regions.
227
Kohl was in Antiquity always made from galena, a lead sulphate (PbS), to use (1) for cosmetic purposes as eyeliner to accentuate the
eyebrows and eyelashes, 2) for medical purposes with ophthalmological curative effect, and 3) for divine attributions (Janot, Vezie 1999).
277
Figure 126: (middle) rod-formed kohl-tube; (others) free-blown kohl-tubes (pictures taken from Israeli 2003, 228-229, nos. 283286 except middle Schlick-Nolte 2002, 104, no.V68)
The difference in manufacturing technique and utilized glass‗naturally coloured‘ and decolorized glass for freeblown vessels and opaque dark blue and black appearing glass for rod-formed vesselssuggests that two
different types of workshops were responsible for the manufacturing of these kohl tubes and jars, one specialized
in blowing glass vessels and one where glass-blowing was not executede.g. a workshop specialized in the
production of (black) glass jewellery. The ubiquitous occurrence in the Levant and Egypt of both rod-formed and
free-blown kohl tubes assumes a widespread manufacturing of kohl tubes and small unguent jars, not so much
because they were fashionable consumables but rather because the use of kohl and unguents must have been
very fashionable and an affordable cosmetic/medicinal product. A more detailed holistic research on this specific
commodity type will improve our view on regional consumption patterns in the late Roman period.
7.4 Jewellery
More than in the study of Roman jewellery, the assessment of the use and function of jewellery receives a vivid
debate in prehistoric studies where it has been approached as ‗a polysemantic component‘ (Vanhaeren 2005)
embracing a multitude of symbolic values (Table 135). Hence, personal ornaments are not solely to be regarded
as decorative objects but equally seen as proxies for symbolic awareness and emblematic thinking (McBrearty,
Brooks 2000). Sally McBrearty and Alison Brooks describe symbolic behaviour as ‗the ability to represent objects,
people and abstract concepts with arbitrary symbols, vocal or visual, and to reify such symbols in cultural practice‘
(McBrearty, Brooks 2000, 457); and consequently to objectify these symbols into artefacts. Although the different
functions defined by Marian Vanhaeren (2005, 527-533) are with reference to small-scale, hunter-gatherer
societies, most of the proposed connotations are universal:
Table 135: List of proposed functional connotations and practical use of jewellery (based on Vanhaeren 2005)
Function (= cause)
Use (= motivation)
Aesthetical expression and self assertion
Courtship
Ethnic marker
Social marker
Individual marker
Ritual objects
Offerings
Amulets and talismans
Prophylactics
Exchange media
Inalienable possessions
Communication systems
Counting devices
278
to beautify the human body
to attract members of the opposite sex
as an indicator of ethnic identity
reflecting the affiliation of an individual to one or more social groups
to characterise individuals that have acquired or inherited a unique social
status, e.g. a shaman or a king
to identify the ceremony leaders and attendants or involving the ‗rites de
passage‘ such as birth, initiation, and marriage
to attract the goodwill of the worshipped entity or to acknowledge it for a
received favour
to protect the wearer from particular misfortunes, e.g., illness, death,
miscarriage, loss of beloved
as a healing item embracing peculiar curative properties
as gift within a gifts exchange network to reinforce social ties
as a link to the family ancestors or to the group identity
to store and transmit information carrying mnemotechnical devices where
colours and motifs conceal a general indication of the content
for instance to recite the correct number of prayers required
We briefly verified the connectivity of the proposed symbolic signalling with the various artefact types within the
jewellery in black glass (Table 136). We perhaps consider this category of adornments, at present, as rather
unappealing or even tasteless; it is, however, self-evident that the wide variety of personal ornaments made in
black glass during the Roman imperial period are to be considered primarily as aesthetical expressions to adorn
the body, the hair and the clothing. We assume that in late Roman society, when sobrietas was a nourished virtue,
the black glass jewellery was part of a tendency towards a sobriety in fashion that considered the wearing of
these clumsy but plain and pure ornaments as acceptable. On the other hand, we have to bear in mind that these
types of jewellery most likely also received a visual meaning according to an encoded concept. Hence, we cannot
exclude courtship as we remain unable to provide evidence. The use of black glass jewellery is not excluded from
being used as an ethnic marker but this also cannot be verified. Otherwise, the wearing of specific bangles, finger
rings, etc. must be regarded as only a minor ethnic marker within a local or regional dress code. On the basis of
the wearing of glass bangles by a limited number of girls and young women, it is not excluded to categorize at
228
least the arm rings as a possible individual marker. Yet, from various contexts we could see that bracelets
equally have been used as ritual objects by girls and young women who wore black glass bracelets at the left
wrist or cherished as amulets and talismans by men in Period IV who kept fragments of glass artefacts in their
purses [see Chapter 5]. This implies that black glass jewellery does not have to be ruled out as having a
prophylactic function, despite the absence of hard evidence. The presence of bracelets and finger rings with or
without gemstones has been attested in ritual deposits such as the one at the cave Trou de Han (BE) and the socalled treasure of Regensburg-Kumpfmühl (DE). It is not excluded that the other jewellery types were used in
offerings. There is no evidence or indication to demonstrate the remaining values, but they do not have to be
ruled out. Future detailed research including all glass jewellery will increase our understanding on this issue.
This short overview on the allotment of values makes clear that most black glass jewellery could be used for
multiple reasons, except for the hairpins which seem to have been solely used for aesthetic reasons.
Table 136: List of different values per functional type in black glass (*= positive; -= negative; ?= uncertain)
value
bracelets
finger rings
beads
pendants
hairpin
Aesthetics
Courtship
Ethnic marker
Social marker
Individual marker
Ritual object
Offering
Amulet/talisman
Prophylactics
Exchange medium
Inalienable possession
Communication system
Counting device
7.4.1
***
?
?
?
***
***
***
***
?
?
?
?
?
***
?
?
?
?
***
***
?
?
?
?
?
?
***
?
?
?
?
***
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
***
?
?
?
?
***
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
***
?
?
?
?
***
?
?
?
?
-
gems
***
?
***
***
?
***
?
?
?
?
?
-
Arm rings
The idea to attribute a particular meaning to the black glass bangles originated with a paragraph in Jan Kock and
Torben Sode‘s archaeo-ethnographical campaign in the heart of northern India, describing the use and meaning
of glass bangles in present-day India (Kock, Sode 1995, 14).
Glass armrings now form an essential part of the traditional dress of most Indian women, and a great deal of symbolism and
superstition is attached to their use. Bangles are for women only, and if a man decided to walk around wearing one it would be
taken as a sure sign of helplessness and loss of manly strength. Green armrings are restricted to young women who are to
marry or are very newly married. When a married man dies, the widow, as a symbol of the dead, must break her bangles and no
longer wear any.
If a woman is unlucky enough to break one of her armrings it means bad luck, or is a warning that something bad will happen.
For this reason people will even avoid stating directly that an armring has been broken. Many girls prefer to hide the event by
saying that the number of armrings has increased.
Bangles are primarily used for adornment, however. The selection of colours and patterns is practically infinite and as many are
often worn together they are something that can be both seen and heard.
(Kock, Sode 1995, 14)
228
This is purely based on the hypothesis that the black glass bangles are imitations of jet bangles and the link with the belief in Roman times that
jet could prove the girl‘s/woman‘s virginity (Pliny the Elder, NH XXXVI, 142).
279
Chapters 4 and 5 on chronology and context analysis, respectively, have demonstrated that black glass bracelets
are a commodity that does not occur in the early Roman imperial period. The complete absence of glass bangles
in Roman Italy and the Mediterranean during the Hellenistic and early imperial period proves that the Romans
initially had no interest in producing or using glass bangles. Conversely, this type of glass jewellery is
229
characteristic to the Celtic La Tène (LT) culture on the continent and many fragments of LT glass bracelets
st
nd
have been excavated in 1 and early 2 century AD contexts, in particular at early Roman rural settlements in the
north-western provinces of the Empire. The presence of Celtic Iron Age glass bangles in early Roman contexts
amplifies the difficulty of determining the period when the LT bangles were produced (Gebhard 1989b, 102;
st
Roymans et al. 1993). The hitherto total absence of archaeological evidences of a 1 century AD glass workshop
producing Celtic bangles makes that any proposed rational reasoning remain hypothetical. It is, however, not the
question whether this La Tène material was still produced after the Roman conquest which is important here, but
verifying whether information can be deduced from the contextual findings of such material. It is significant that all
recovered pieces are only small fragments of glass bangles rarely longer than 20 mm. This is to us an indication
that the late Iron Age glass bracelets were not produced in the early Roman period. There is, however, continuity
in usage that can be granted different interpretations: 1) the bits and pieces kept the significance the bangles
originally were given and are as such to be regarded as a ‗pars pro toto‘; or 2) the fragments received a new
connotation.
It is noteworthy that the material, besides its fragmentary condition, is sometimes preserved in a much worn state,
an example being the colourless piece with yellow opaque glass from the early Claudian quadrangular enclosure
in Tienen (BE) (Cosyns et al. 2006b). Hence, such bangle fragments point to the survival of a Celtic
tradition/belief/ritual of the indigenous ‗Romanised‘ peoples in temperate Europe. Similar fragmentary bangle
230
pieces have been noted previously in regard to the early Romano-British glass bangles. A study by Thea
Haevernick proposes to see these bits and pieces as amulets with apotropaic meaning (Haevernick 1968). This
would make the small Tienen fragments part of a ritual deposit and would mean that the single-event deposition in
the ditch was preceded by a ritual offering (Cosyns et al. 2006b).
nd
The occurrence of fragmented LT-glass bangles in early Roman contexts disappears in the 2 century AD, and
th
th
this practice re-emerges in the late 4 or 5 century AD in the West when the production of glass bangles stops
again. Where late Roman tombs only show re-used pieces of Roman black glass bangles, the early Merovingian
tombs rather contain fragments of LT glass bracelets (Haevernick 1968; De Witte 1977). The pieces are mainly
kept in a purse at the waist together with a wide range of objects, which appear mainly in a broken state.
Examples have been attested at mixed late Roman-early medieval cemeteries such as for instance the Type A1
th th
fragment in a late 4 -5 century AD tomb at Maule (FR) (Arveiller 2006, 160, no.59) [cat.no.1260].
Most field archaeologists are in search of well-dated artefact types to date the excavated layers and features, and
are less interested in considering the possible causes that influenced the changing material culture. The evolution
in material culture is unmistakably affected not only by trends but also by the introduction of new technologies and
rd
by economical situations. The gradual fading of the Romano-British glass bangle from the 3 century AD
coincides with the booming of the jet consumption on the British Isles for the production of bangles and other
jewellery (Allason-Jones 1999) as well as with the black glass production on the Continent. Without having proof
of correct validity for the here-proposed causes of these changes, we see a clear discrepancy between the very
idiosyncratic Romano-British glass bangles and the Romano-British jet bangles on the one hand and great
uniformity between the latter and the monochrome black glass bangles from the continent. It is easy to speak of a
shifting trend during the Severan period involving a gradual change from traditional indigenous glass bangles by
new Roman(ised) bangles in jet. But being aware of the intricacy in valuing the various factors involved and the
gradualness of the alteration, any explanation will seem too simple and above all incomplete. However, the
success of the black jewellery (in jet and glass) could only be possible when it was known to the Roman
population beforehand. Although hazardous, it is important to try to understand what social/economical/cultural
changes might have generated this radical shift of materials and styles within jewellery in the Severan period.
The majority of the Roman glass bracelets come from settlement contexts and is residual material [see Chapter 5],
and consequently the material is unsuitable to verify its use. Only a marginal part of all Roman glass bracelets
from known contexts is suitable to study its use and function. The most useful information appears to be available
from burial archaeology. Its intrinsic value is of importance to come to a certain degree of understanding but at
229
The peculiar types of Romano-British glass bangles, produced during the first centuries AD and almost solely limited to the British Isles, are a
local product and reminiscent of a non-Roman production.
230
A large part of the retrieved Romano-British material is small and seems to have been ground or cut as for the purpose of applying it in
something or mounting it to join several fragments together (Kilbride-Jones 1938, 370371).
280
least to a consideration of the use and meaning of black glass bracelets in the Roman period. Chapter 5 listed
those black glass bracelets from burial contexts with a number of acknowledged parameters.
It is unfortunately no longer clear how to interpret this trend since a recent comparative study on the use of
bracelets from transalpine cemeteries (Bolla 2005, 62; Bolla 2011) shows that about 75% of all bracelets are worn
at the left under arm and only about 25% is worn at the right under arm. However, it is important to stress that on
the right side always one single bracelet is recorded, while on the left arm it can vary from one to six.
Unfortunately it is unclear if attention is given to the difference in materials of the bracelets. The publications on
Roman cemeteries in the North-western provincesVermand (Eck 1891); Krefeld-Gellep (Pirling 1966; 1974;
1979; 1989; 1997; Pirling, Siepen 2000; 2003; 2006); Trier (Goethert-Polaschek 1977); Tongeren
(Vanvinckenroye 1984); Oudenburg (Mertens, Van Impe 1971); London (Barber, Bowsher 2000)illustrate that
(black) glass bracelets are only worn at the left side like the bangles in jet and bone, whereas the bracelets in
silver, gold and bronze can be worn on either side. Presumably, this must have had a reason. Despite the
comprehensive overview recently provided by Henning Wirth (2010) on the perception and attitude of the Romans
towards the left-hand and left-handedness, a lack of ancient written sources results only in assumptions on the
possible different use and meaning of wearing bracelets in the various materials. From ancient writers we learn,
however, that the Romans gave a magical connotation to the left hand seeing that various ritual actions had to be
executed with for instance the left thumb and left ring finger, also called digitus medicinalis (Wirth 2010) [see this
chapter 7.4.2. Finger rings].
Table 137: List of tombs with (black) glass bracelets (n = quantity)
cat.no.
site
context
sex
age
side
n
type
2016
Tawern (DE)
female
-
-
1
A1
3687
Kaiseraugst (CH)
female
adult
-
1
A1
4120
London (UK)
inhumation
inhumation
tomb 33
inhumation
tomb B168
inhumation
tomb 194
inhumation
tomb
inhumation
tomb 721
inhumation
tomb 2
inhumation
tomb 1749
inhumation
tomb rue de Corbie
inhumation
tomb 108
inhumation
tomb 2
inhumation
tomb 22
inhumation
tomb 100
inhumation
tomb C
inhumation
tomb 1 (HA382)
inhumation
tomb 2 (HA382)
inhumation
tomb 165 (HA132)
inhumation
family burial
female
juvenile 13-18yrs
left
1
A1
female
adult
25-30yrs
adult
c. 30yrs
left
1
B2
unclear
1
B5
inhumation
undefined
479
Oudenburg (BE)
4170
Orpington (UK)
14
Bregenz (AT)
1868
Eining (DE)
1910
Krefeld-Gellep (DE)
1003;
1005
1741;
1745-46
Amiens (FR)
Vermand (FR)
278-79
Furfooz (BE)
280-81
Furfooz (BE)
482-83
Oudenburg (BE)
517-518
Spontin (BE)
1983-86
Niederzier (DE)
1982
Niederzier (DE)
1987
Niederzier (DE)
A4607
Canterbury (UK)
2756
Milan (IT)
female
female
adult
-
1
D1
female
child
left
1
?
female
child
left
1
D1
female
child
left
1
D1
female
adult
left
3
?
female
juvenile
left
2
D1
female
juvenile
left
2
D1
undefined
unknown
unclear
2
D1
female
adult
-
2
D1
female
adult
left
4
D1
female
adult
left
1
D1
female
adult
left
1
D1
left
1
D1
left
1
D2
female
child
c. 11yrs
child
c. ½-1½yrs
The examples presented in Table 137 bear out that above all girls and female juveniles wore black glass
bracelets, e.g. tombs from Tawern (s.n. 1950, 76-77, fig.40), Krefeld-Gellep (Pirling 1974, tomb 1749, n°1),
Amiens (Dilly, Mahéo 1997, 123, X.) and Furfooz (Nenquin 1953, 74). The Amiens tomb, found in 1820, contained
a lead coffin enclosing the inhumation of a child wearing two octagonal jet bracelets and two plain black glass
bracelets with a D-shaped section (Type D1; Riha type 3.34; Spaer type A.2) [cat.no.1004]erroneously
described as jet bracelets. Because the lead coffin is decorated with a chrismon monogram (Mahéo, Dilly 1997,
281
120) it is most likely the deceased was a Christian. Also the two burials of female juveniles at Furfooz (BE) can be
considered of early Christians because the burial place was formerly a bath-house of the late Roman fortification
th
settlement at Furfooz that possibly was reused as a funerary chapel or church from about the middle of the 4
century AD (Nenquin 1953, 74, nos. F6-9, pls. X,7-8; 88; 98). Despite the absence of evidence to support this
assumption it is tempting to connect these plain Type D1 bangles in black appearing glass with early Christian
practice and belief.
The interest of Beer Cart Lane within the Roman city centre of Canterbury (UK) is its contextual particularity
(Bennett 1980, 406-410). A large pit containing a multiple burial was excavated in 1980, just below the Angloth
Saxon layers of the 5 century AD and very probably dating from the very end of the Roman period. This is a
remarkable grave, seeing that the interment is in the first place situated in the middle of the town and not in a
cemetery outside the settlement, as normally done in Roman society, and secondly because the grave comprised
a whole family of two adults and two children as well as one or two dogs, instead of individual burials. As regards
the burial gifts of each skeleton, the total absence of objects in relation to the adult male is striking, especially in
contrast to the other three individuals. The adult female had eight bronze bracelets on the left wrist and another
th
th
th
one on the right wrist, which are dated 4 century AD, four bronze keys, a small knife and razor (mid-4 to mid-5
century AD), three amber beads and ten dark brown or black glass beads. One juvenile is a girl of about 11 years
old and has a black glass bangle (type D1; Riha type 3.34; Spaer type A.2), three bronze bracelets and fragments
of a fourth one, as well as an ivory bracelet, a small bronze key and 15 small glass beadsmostly blue and green,
th
th
characteristic of the 4 5 century AD. The second juvenile, of uncertain gender, was about eight years old and
only wore two bronze bracelets. The assessment of the burial contexts demonstrated that only girls and (young)
women wore these ornaments and only at the left wrist, which corroborates with the two distinct size categories:
1) the small bangles with a diameter below 60 mm (= for girls) and 2) the large bangles with a diameter above 60
mm up to 95 mm (= for women). This observation is evidence to assume that this type of jewellery is to be
associated with the female gender.
However, occasionally male burials have been recorded that have included a black glass bracelet fragment, such
as tomb 753 in Kaiseraugst (CH) (Martin 1976, 65-66, Taf. 48A:18) [cat.no.A4608]. Being in a fragmentary
231
condition (length of 18 mm), it was kept in a purse together with several finger rings in silver and bronze and a
set of coins covering three centuries ranging from Trajan up to Valens or Gratian. The bangle fragment could not
be worn at the wrist but must have received a new symbolic meaning that caused the object to be cherished.
Hence, there is reason to believe the fragmented object had certain significance for the person who carried it with
him, making it an artefact of itself. The custom to carry (in a purse) a small fragment of a glass bracelet (mainly
below 20 mm but never exceeding 25 mm) appears especially in late Roman and early Merovingian tombs, but
principally it consists of small pieces of La Tène bangles in ultramarine blue glass. The specific circumstances in
which these pieces were found have caused them to be interpreted as amulets having an apotropaic connotation
(Haevernick 1968). It is tempting to follow the same course by attributing a similar meaning to the Roman black
glass fragment in the Kaiseraugst purse. The inhumation tomb 575 of the Drouly cemetery at Frénouville (FR)
yielded a leather purse containing a large fragment of a twisted bracelet type A6, with applied trails in opaque
white glass [cat.no.1118], two glass vessel fragmentsone rim fragment in pale blue glass and one body
rd
fragment in yellowish-green glassand two late 3 century AD coins, one of which is a pierced antoninianus
th
th
rd
th
(Pilet 1980, II, 285; III, pl.150:5). The 5 and 6 centuries AD dated tomb makes the 3 and early 4 century
glass bangle fragment, like various other items in the purse, part of an assortment of antique trinkets. Another
such example is available from tomb 598 of the same cemetery at Frénouville (FR). A fragment of a late Roman
bracelet type D1 [cat.no.1121] was found at the belt height on the left side together with a hook, two nails and an
iron pin (Pilet 1980, II, 298; III, pl. 155 top). Besides the incompleteness of the bangle (only one-third of its
circumference), its position together with other small items suggests that the bangle fragment must have been
th
th
kept in a purse. But how do we have to interpret the presence of late 4 and early 5 century fragments in purses
th
th
of people from the late 5 and 6 centuries AD? It is evident that, once broken glass bangles lose their initial
function. However, the initial function of a piece can remain as such, but when it loses its utility it becomes waste
and becomes unwanted. Given that people cared for these small bits and pieces, these fragments were given a
new meaning. It is significant that the Merovingians integrated into their material culture a great number of
recycled artefacts from the late Bronze Age onwards that were fragmented for the large part (Haevernick 1968).
The Merovingians not only re-used the Roman glass bangle fragments but also fragmented La Tène glass
th
th
bracelets. Also, other Roman black glass artefact types do occur in late 5 and 6 century AD tombse.g., the
231
The bags must be considered as purses as they are always found at the waist where a belt is located and because the content consists of a
wide variety of small fragmented items.
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Period II carchesium base fragment from tomb 297 of the Merovingian cemetery in Grez-Doiceau (BE)
[cat.no.209]. Dating from the Severan period, there is a discrepancy of three centuries, which would be
comparable to walking around nowadays with a purse full of small artefact fragments from Napoleonic times. It is
characteristic but most likely that these bits and pieces have been invested with an apotropaic meaning or, as
Jacqueline Lemière suggests, a talismanic connotation (Lemière 1980, 339). It is of course impossible to retrieve
what meaning the owner gave to the objects, but they must have been of emotional and/or spiritual value,
indicating a form of superstition. It is typical of all times and cultures to attribute certain powers or meanings to
specific colours and materials, but it could as well have been the only tangible bond remaining with his deceased
beloved wife or daughter.
Another issue is whether the black glass bangles were solely used as bracelets. The problem is that the burial
context gives only a partial insight of the use of this type of jewellery in Roman times. It goes without saying that
th
the Romans could have given other uses to these glass bangles. For instance, the late 4 century AD tomb 404
of the Drouly cemetery at Frénouville (FR), near Caen, yielded two small bangles and a hairpin in a transparent
glass (Pilet 1980, (I) 96; (II) 206, (III) pl. 107, fig.2). One bangle is made in a clear yellow glass, and the other, as
well as the hairpin, in a clear green glass. With a diameter of 47 mm and 49 mm, correspondingly, they clearly
reside in the small-sized bangle category. Christian Pilet describes them as being used as ‗parure de coiffure‘
(hairdressing accessories) together with the hairpin. He shows in a reconstruction drawing of the hair style the
combined use of the two small bangles to have the hair ‗en queue de cheval‘ (ponytail) passed through both rings
by folding the hair double and fastening it by piercing the ponytail with the hairpin above the rings (Figure 127).
Even if the artefacts were not found at the head, this hypothesis sounds very plausible. Not willing to exclude this
possibility for the Roman glass bangles, it is conspicuous that such use has not been recorded so far for those in
black glass. In connection with the bangles, we have few hairpins in black glass and none of them come from a
context that could give more information on their (combined) use (with bangles).
Figure 127: Hair-style reconstruction proposed by Pilet 1980, (I) 95, fig.2; pl.107:404.
Some information, however, can be compiled from the connection with jet bracelets. Not only is there a striking
resemblance with the bracelets in black glass (Allason-Jones 1996), but they also appear to have had a similar
use. Based on the burial gifts, the bracelets in both materials are characteristic for girls and young women,
supporting the assumption of a religious or magical significance (Allason-Jones 2005, 184). Lindsay AllasonJones also mentions some passages by ancient writers, for instance Galen, De simpl.med.facult. IX, 203 who
describes the use of jet for medicinal use by burning and swallowing (Allason-Jones 1996, 15). Referring to the
curing effect of jet, she stresses that for jet no apotropaic meaning as such is known from ancient written sources:
Gagates is a stone, so called from Gages, the name of a town and river in Lycia. It is asserted, too, that at Leucolla
the sea throws it up, and that it is found over a space twelve stadia in extent. It is black, smooth, light, and porous, differs but
little from wood in appearance, is of a brittle texture, and emits a disagreeable odour when rubbed. Marks made upon pottery
with this stone cannot be effaced. When burnt, it gives out a sulphureous smell; and it is a singular fact, that the application of
water ignites it, while that of oil quenches it. The fumes of it, burnt, keep serpents at a distance, and dispel hysterical affections:
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they detect a tendency also to epilepsy, and act as a test of virginity. A decoction of this stone in wine is curative of tooth-ache;
and, in combination with wax, it is good for scrofula. The magicians, it is said, make use of gagates in the practice of what they
call axinomancy; and they assure us that it will be sure not to burn, if the thing is about to happen as the party desires.
(Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia XXXVI, 142 [transl. by Bostock et al. 1855 - online @Perseus, Plin. Nat.36,
Probably this medicinal quality, combined with its electrostatic property, provides an explanation why jet was
regarded as an appropriate material to make amulets. Seeing that items in jet got copied in other black-appearing,
non-electrostatic organic materials as well as black glass, may we then assume these materials were also
considered to have the same talismanic connotations? Written sources remain silent on the magical and
apotropaic function of objects in jet or any other black material. Only archaeological sources provide evidence of
apotropaic representations on jet and black glass artefacts such as the head of Medusa. But this emblematic
representation par excellence can occur in any kind of material, e.g. metal, stone, pottery or in paintings and
mosaics. Considering all these material types as apotropaic would thus be very inconsistent. Hence, not the
substance jet or any other black material retains a magical meaning, but only the representation itself. That some
particular finds relate the use of jet with Eastern mystery religionssuch as the burial at Bainesse (UK) said to be
of a gallus, a believer of the goddess Cybele, or the jet dagger from the Walbrook Mithraeum in London (AllasonJones 2005, 184-185)only demonstrates the status of the material. However, it is interesting to connect this with
the twisted bracelet in black glass that got retrieved from the well at the Cybele sanctuary of Arras (FR)
[cat.no.1024] (Jacques 1997, no. 128). Black glass finger rings and bracelets can be decorated with Jewish,
Biblical, Christian, Mithraic or Classical pagan symbols, so that there is no specific connotation to be given to it.
This means that the black glass bangles worn by the girls and women demonstrate the religious belief and/or
ideological conviction of the wearer.
7.4.2
Finger rings
Unlike the contrast in the particular use of the gender related black glass arm rings, the context analysis did not
contribute to the enhancement of our knowledge on the use and function of black glass finger rings. On the whole,
the use of black glass finger rings has to be considered in a larger framework, incorporating a general discussion
on the use and function of all finger ringsincluding those in jet, iron, bronze, silver and gold, as there is no
possibility to distinguish the material of the finger rings represented in figurative art or descriptions brought up by
ancient writers. Furthermore a search for written sources discussing finger rings and their representation in
paintings, e.g. in the so-called Faiyum-portraits, or in sculpture, e.g. the funerary portraits and reliefs, would lead
us too far from the scope of our research.
Despite the limited discussion on the use and function of black glass finger rings, we would like to refer to
Henning Wirth‘s dissertation on the left hand and left-handedness (Wirth 2010). Henning Wirth mentions that the
generally known ring finger or fourth finger next to the little finger of the left hand was called digitus medicinalis.
th
th
Macrobius, a Roman grammarian and Neo-Platonist of African origin who lived at the end of the 4 –early 5
century AD, wrote in his Saturnalia on the use of finger rings and why wearing these especially at the fourth finger
of the left hand. He presented two different beliefs. At first explains the belief of the Egyptian of a hallowed finger:
Comme Disaire eut achevé de parler, Aviénus ramassa sur la table son anneau, qui venait de tomber du petit doigt de sa main
droite; et les assistants lui ayant demandé pourquoi il le mettait à une autre main et à un autre doigt qu'à celui qui est consacré
à le porter, il leur montra sa main gauche enflée par suite d'une blessure.
… dis-moi pourquoi l'on s'est généralement accordé à porter les anneaux principalement à la main gauche, et au doigt qui est à
côté du plus petit, et qu'on appelle médicinal ?
…un nerf parti du coeur se prolonge jusqu'au doigt de la main gauche qui est à côté du plus petit, et qu'il s'y termine en
s'enlacant dans les autres nerfs du même doigt. Voilà pourquoi les anciens voulurent que ce doigt fût entouré d'un anneau,
comme d'une couronne.
Ce que tu dis de l'opinion des Égyptiens, Disaire, est si vrai, qu'ayant vu dans leurs temples leurs prêtres, qu'ils appellent
prophètes, parcourir les simulacres de leurs dieux pour oindre ce seul doigt d'essences odoriférantes, et leur en ayant demandé
le motif, j'appris de leur premier pontife que c'était à cause du nerf dont tu viens de parler, et de plus, à cause du nombre qui est
signifié par ce doigt; car étant plié, il désigne le nombre six, nombre entièrement plein, parfait et divin. Le pontife me démontra
par plusieurs arguments les causes qui constituent la perfection de ce nombre. Je les passe sous silence, comme étant peu
appropriés à notre conversation actuelle
…voilà ce que j'ai appris dans cette Égypte, dépositaire de toutes les connaissances sacrées, sur le motif qui a fait affecte
l'anneau à un doigt plutôt qu'à un autre.
(Macrobius, Saturnalia 7,13 [http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/L/Roman/Texts/Macrobius/Saturnalia/7*.html])
The second belief was that of Etruscan tradition viewing socio-cultural based functional reasons granting only free
men the permission to wear a finger ring on the left hand:
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… je me souviens d'avoir lu sur ce même sujet dans Atéius Capito, l'un des hommes les plusinstruits du droit pontifical. Capito,
après avoir établi que la religion défend de sculpter les statues des dieux avec des anneaux aux doigts, passe à l'explication du
motif pour lequel on porte l'anneau à ce doigt et à cette main. "Les anciens, dit-il, portaient l'anneau autour de leur doigt,comme
sceau et non comme ornement; c'est pourquoi il n'était permis d'en porter qu'un seul; et encore ce droit n'appartenait qu'aux
hommes libres, à qui seuls pouvait être accordée cette confiance qu'on attache à un sceau. Ainsi, les esclaves ne jouissaient
point du droit de porter l'anneau. Soit qu'il fût de fer, soit qu'il fût d'or, l'anneau était orné de ciselures, et chacun le portait à son
gré, à quelque main ou à quelque doigt que ce fût. Dans la suite, ajoute-t-il, un siècle de luxe amena l'usage d'inciser les
sceaux sur des pierres précieuses. Cet usage devint bientôt universel; en sorte qu'il s'établit une émulation de vanité, pour
élever de plus en plus le prix des pierres destinées à être ciselées. De là, il arriva que la main droite, qui agit beaucoup, fut
affranchie de l'usage de porter des anneaux, usage qui fut transporté à la main gauche, laquelle reste plus oisive; et ceci pour
éviter que la fréquence de l'usage et du mouvement de la main droite n'exposât les pierres précieuses à être brisées.
… on choisit parmi les doigts de la main gauche celui qui est à côté du petit, parce qu'il fut trouvé plus apte que les autres à
recevoir la garde précieuse de l'anneau. En effet, le pouce … ne reste pas oisif, même à la main gauche. Il est toujours en
activité de service, …. Le doigt qui est placé à côté du pouce fut trouvé trop nu, puisqu'il n'est point défendu par la juxtaposition
d'un autre doigt; car le pouce est placé tellement au-dessous, que c'est tout au plus s'il dépasse sa racine. Le doigt du milieu …
et le plus petit furent négligés, comme peu convenables, l'un, à cause de sa longueur, l'autre, à cause de sa courte taille, et l'on
choisit celui qui est enclavé entre ces deux, et qui fait peu de service, comme étant, à cause de cela, le plus convenablement
disposé pour la garde de l'anneau".
(Macrobius, Saturnalia 7,13 [http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/L/Roman/Texts/Macrobius/Saturnalia/7*.html])
Macrobius leaves the reader free to decide which of these two opinions to accept:
Telle est la version du droit pontifical; que chacun suive à son grél'opinion des Étrusques, ou celle des Égyptiens.
(Macrobius, Saturnalia 7,13 [http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/L/Roman/Texts/Macrobius/Saturnalia/7*.html])
It is clear that already in Roman times ritual meaning faded into incomprehensive rooted traditions ending up in a
world of superstition and symbolism that had to give way for objectivity and functionality.
7.4.3
Beads
From contextual finds as well as from images such as the so-called Faiyum portraits, it is clear that glass beads
were mainly used as body ornaments in necklaces, earrings and bracelets, but glass beads were also used as
dress ornamentation sewn into clothes. It is self-evident that black glass beads should be regarded as ornament,
but we have seen earlier that many other functions can give a reason to wear beads (Tables 135-136). We
verified whether the Romans gave particular meaning to beads of specific shape, colour, decoration, as well as
for the combination and amount of beads put on. Aware of the fact that tastes changes, it is questioned whether
the use and function of black glass beads changed through Antiquity.
Concerning the use of black glass beads, we distinguished two major groups on the basis of the perforation in the
middle of the object: single perforation versus double perforation [see Chapter 3]. The perforation was meant to
put a string or wire through to create a beaded chain. The use of strings in perishable organic material such as
from cut leather or from twisted hair or flax can be assumed from the many sets of loose beads that clearly
formed a bracelet or necklace. The applied metal wires to hold the beads together show the use of gold wire,
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silver wire, bronze wire, and even iron wire. Examples of beads made of black glass strung on metal wire are at
present rather scarce, such as the tear-drop shaped beads from Wancennes (BE) integrated in earrings of bronze
wire (Mignot 1984, 224) [cat.no.618] or the discoid pressed beads of the necklace in gold wire in the
Archaeological Museum of Ancona (IT) (unpublished) [cat.no.A4606].
To detect any possible purposeful distinction between single and double perforated beads, we compared the
characteristics of each group. One of the most striking features of single perforated beads is that these are made
in such a way that they can turn around the string or wire. Furthermore, the shape and decoration of single
perforated beads are made in such a way that it does not matter if the bead moves all the time. In contrast, the
so-called spacer beads have a decorated frontal side and an undecorated rear side, necessitating the creation of
beads with double perforation to avoid the bead turning upside-down. The double perforation avoided having all
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the time the single-sided decoration back-to-front and kept the top surface perceptible.
It is clear that the
Roman glassworker had a functional motive in mind to make these beads have double perforation that was
dictated by the technological aspect of the production of the so-called ‗spacer beads‘. These were made by
folding and pressing a decorative design, while the single perforated beads were all rod-formed [see Chapter 2].
Hence we can conclude that according to the way of wearing beads, the Romans adapted technical features of
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233
This is almost solely attested on beads in blue and green glass.
An additional help for this is the flat reverse side and the rather broad size of the spacer beads.
285
bead shapes. Because the various black glass spacer-bead types resemble those in jet, it is possible that the
rd
th
Roman glassworkers of the 3 4 century AD on the continent imitated the shape of the popular but rare jet
spacer beads.
Concerning the function of the most idiosyncratic category of late Roman glass beads, the double perforated
pressed spacer bead has received multiple names. First, scholars named the type after their appearance, like
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Rudolf Noll who used ‗Rippenglasperlen‘ (Noll 1963, 68) and Thea Haevernick who named the largest category
‗Trilobitenperlen‘ because of its resemblance with the trilobite fossils (Haevernick 1983). Other scholars gave a
name in association with its presumed function: Tamás Gesztelyi spoke of ‗Glaskameen‘ and ‗Glasbullen‘
(Gesztelyi 1991; Gesztelyi 1998, 129), while Maud Spaer and Bernard Gratuze correspondingly spoke of ‗spacers‘
(Spaer 2001, 76) and ‗écarteurs‘ (Gratuze 2001b). Such hypothetical function is based on the logical reasoning
that the two perforations were used to keep two chains parallel to create a necklace or bracelet with a double row.
This explanation only makes sense when the necklace and bracelet combine small single perforated beads with
one or two double-perforated beads. Seeing that necklaces and bracelets could equally consist of spacer beads
alone, it is very likely that (an)other reason(s) was(were) responsible for producing beads with two
perforationsrespectively the ‗Trilobitenperlen‘ necklace from the fortress of Vemania near Isny (DE) (Garbsch
1971, 137, fig.30) [cat.no.1892] and the theatre-mask beaded bracelet from tomb 12 of the San Egidio cemetery
at Cesena (IT) (Fadini, Montevecchi 2001, 51, fig.3; Mandruzzato 2008, 162) [cat.no.2739].
It is interesting to see that within the multitude of possible names, people choose a metaphoric description, an
interpretative functional one or one based on plain visual features. These beads occur in a wide variety, but the
more amorphous ribbed pieces are most common. A second large group are the portrait beads. Further, there is
the representation of the Medusa, theatre mask, lion‘s head, and plenty of other images linked with pagan, Jewish,
Christian and Mithraic symbolism [see Chapter 3]. All in all it has been accepted from their first observations that
these artefacts were jewellery and particularly beads to be used in necklaces and bracelets (Hampel 1905, 68;
Noll 1963, 68; Haevernick 1983). A deviant proposal was presented by Tamás Gesztelyi, who questioned the
validity of this communis opinio (Gesztelyi 1991; Borbély-Kiss et al. 1994, 836; Gesztelyi 1998, 129). His
argumentsthe poor execution, the double perforation and the mainly individual occurrencewere put forward
against the idea these beads were originally produced as jewellery. He proposed to see these beads as glass
sealings analogous to those in lead. Where the lead sealings are regarded as common, he suggested the double
perforated pressed glass beads were employed to seal containers of precious medicine to guarantee the
genuineness and unadulterated nature of the product. Gesztelyi deduced the link between these beads and
medicine on the basis of the impressed representations decorating the top surface.
Gesztelyi‘s remark on the so-called poor execution of these beads says more about his personal taste than his
objective appreciation. He probably is more fond of the very regularly cut and smoothly polished equivalents in jet
(Figure 128). But to what extent did the Roman consumer of black glass jewellery care about the biased remarks
th
of a late 20 century scholar on 1500-year-old trends? The shape and the quality of double-perforated pressed
beads are not only the result of the degree of workmanship but are very much influenced by the nature of glass
metal and the production method, i.e. folding and pressing. But it is perhaps interesting not to limit the
classification of the spacer beads to plain and very elaborate types but also include the fact that some pieces are
well-finished while others appear more clumsily executed.
Figure 128: (left) ‗Trilobitenperle‘ in black glass from Augst; (right) ‗Trilobitenperle‘ in jet from Augst (both drawings taken from
Riha 1990, Taf. 39:1345; 1347)
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Thea Haevernick only named the double perforated beads ‗Trilobitenperlen‘ which were decorated with transverse ribbings parallel with the
perforations (discriminating plain and crosswise decorated transverse ribbings). All other beads were named theatre mask beads, lion head beads,
portrait beads, etc., which are confusingly called ‗Trilobitenperlen‘ as well.
286
The second and third remark, respectively on the double perforation and the individual occurrence, seem even
more odd to us. He stated that because other beads found together with the so-called ‗Trilobitenperlen‘ in burial
contexts only have one hole, the ‗Trilobitenperlen‘ initially must have had another use and purpose (Gesztelyi
1998, 129). But there is no reason why double-perforated beads could not have been combined with singleperforated beads. The necklace from Isny (DE) is a perfect example. Furthermore, necklaces and bracelets with
one single pendant or bead are appropriate at all times, while a necklace with large ‗Trilobitenperlen‘ all around
the neck would be very unpractical. Most probably, therefore, the Isny-necklace has a good number of small
cylindrical beads on either sides of the ‗Trilobitenperlen‘.
Gesztelyi proposed that the double-perforated pressed beads were used for sealing (‗Glasbulle‘ as he calls them),
like clay, lead or wax seals. It is out of the question that the ‗Trilobitenperlen‘ would substitute for those in clay,
lead or wax. The technological features of glass are much too elaborate and not a very practical alternative. In
addition, the hot glass only becomes workable from a temperature of at least 600°C, which means that all organic
material would catch fire. However, he plainly states that the double-perforated beads were made in advance and
a string or wire got put through to seal the object. However, the hundreds of such beads reported from all over the
Roman Empire show no remains of a metal wire, nor one together with a vessel. We wish to stress that
Gesztelyi‘s proposal lacks the real function of a seal and that is to seal up something.
The presence of the entire gamut of ‗Trilobitenperlen‘ in burial contexts of women and children only or in treasures
together with other female ornaments are arguments urging this type of bead is a characteristic ornament for
women and girls [see Chapter 6]. On the other hand, it appears to have been improper for the honourable men
(and boys) in Roman society to wear jewellery, with the exception of some explicit items, such as a wedding ring
or a bulla. Questioning the interpretation of a find in Pécs, Sopianae (HU) (Fülep 1984, 90, fig.35; 99:10/8, pl.LII7),
Gesztelyi only acknowledged he was mistaken after a similar find from a tomb at Bátaszék-Kövesd (HU) was
reported:
Aufgrund dieser Umstände ist die Verwendung auch der Glaskameen mit figuralen Darstellungen als Glieder eines Armbandes
oder einer Halskette offensichtlich.
(Gesztelyi 1998, 131)
Gesztelyi still pleads for a correlation with a medicinal meaning (Gesztelyi 1998, 131). He nevertheless recants
his prior statement that the word VΓIE on two double-perforated glass beads is to be linked to the goddess
Hygieia. He now is more convinced that the inscription should be regarded as a motto wishing for good health and
that the bead must thus have been considered by the wearer as a magic amulet. Other inscriptions are also seen
as amulets, such as those bearing ZOHN, like the double-perforated discoid bead in the Israel Museum,
Jerusalem (IL) (Spaer 2001, 76, no. 58). The Greek word stands for ‗good fortune‘ and has the same connotation
as VIVAS in Latin. The word ZOHN is split in two at either side of a frog which is depicted in view from above. A
similar bead, albeit in a yellowish orange glass, comes from the cemetery of Keszthely-Dobogó (Gesztelyi 1998,
133, fig.4).
Gesztelyi sees the beads and pendants in yellowish orange glass as imitations of cornelian and gold. A bracelet
made of ‗Trilobitenperlen‘ in black glass and enveloped in gold foil from the cemetery of Dunapentele (HU) (Alföldi
1957, 442) [cat.no.2221] or the ebony wooden bracelet with gold leaf decoration preserved on two areas from a
tomb in the cemetery of Tyre (LB) (Chéhab 1986, 153-155, pl.XVa:g3) illustrates most certainly the wish/need to
make the object seem as if it is made from gold. Striking is the resemblance of the piece from Tyre with the gold
bracelets found in the treasure of Eauze in south-west France (Schaad 1992, 36-39, pl.2). It is possible that the
Eauze example was a comparable piece made in thicker gold sheet enveloping a wooden core that has not been
preserved.
A part of the double-perforated pressed beads in black glass are adorned with a portrait, whether it is single or
double, whether only a woman or a man is represented [see Chapter 3]. This decorative element is not limited to
double-perforated pressed beads in black glass. It is also attested on a type of finger rings as well as on pendants.
Furthermore, this kind of jewellery is equally present in a yellowish orange glass. The use of small, impressed
portraits is known for lead seals as well as for silver and gold jewellery. This material makes clear that portraits on
the pendants and beads in glass are not to be regarded solely as impersonal images of men and women or as
emblematic representations of husband and wife a propos the double portraits. The portraits seem to be
interpreted as the depiction of the emperor and eventually in combination with the empress or together with his
brother/son(s). These objects can therefore be correlated with the imperial military authorities.
The lunula-shaped golden pendant from the treasure of Regensburg-Kumpfmühl, Germany (Boos et al. 2000, 2426, figs. 10-11, pl. 5:2) is decorated with a double portrait: at the left side a woman looking to the right and at the
287
right side a bearded man looking to the woman. The treasure comprises 638 coins25 aurei, 610 denarii, 2
asses and 1 quadransgiving a closing date of c. 166 AD (Boos et al. 2000, 64-65).
The lead seals from the Roman fort of South Shields, England mainly consist of three male heads, one of which is
bearded, and have been taken to represent Septimius Severus together with his two sons Geta and Caracalla.
The main arguments for this reading are that (1) the South Shields‘ lead seals with triple portraits come from early
rd
3 century AD dated contexts, suggesting a correlation with the military activities of the Severi at Hadrian‘s wall
and the Scottish campaigns in 209-211 AD (Allason-Jones, Miket 1984, 326-330, nos. 8.7-21); (2) the bearded
figure, regarded as Septimius Severus, is the central figure and is the only one to wear a wreath. The assumption
matches the historical events: Caracalla received the title of Caesar in 195 AD and Geta in 198 AD when
Caracalla became co-emperor and he was given the title Augustus. Geta obtained the title of Augustus only in
209 AD. The seals representing Septimius Severus and his two sons hence have to be dated between 198 and
211 AD. Opposite to Richmond, who proposed that the arrival of provisions in bulk must have arrived not later
than 209 AD (Richmond 1936, 99), there are elements that prove the supplies must have arrived between 209
and 211 AD since some seals show the imperial trio with the letters AVG inscribed above or over their heads
(Allason-Jones, Miket 1984, 327, nos. 8.9; 8.17).
7.4.4
Pendants
Like the beads, pendants almost certainly received an aesthetic appreciation by the Romans, but a symbolic
meaning given by the wearer of a specific pendant is not excluded, given the disk-pendants with pressed images
of Classic, Christian and Jewish symbols or specific emblematic animals referring to mythological or biblical
stories and/or figures. The pendants with talismanic connotations are to be interpreted as amulets or apotropaic
emblemata, bringing good fortune to the wearer or to ward off the evil-eye. Within the scope of this project it was,
however, impossible to go beyond the rather one-dimensional significance and to examine the possible relations
between the configured images and the written sources. The fact that similar pendants received Christian, Jewish
and Pagan symbols may point to the triviality of religion to the glassworker who made whatever the customers
desired according to their religious faith. The open-mindedness in manufacturing religious trinket for people with
another conviction allows us to assume that the late Roman society was tolerant vis-à-vis the people‘s religious
conviction even though it is hard to provide evidence. It at least stands in contrast with the polemical publications
of contemporaneous pagan and Christian writers.
Furthermore the uniformity of the glass jewellery demonstrates a homogeneous and standardized material culture
during the late Roman period that is not influenced by the conviction of the customer. Danièle Foy (2010, 310)
mentions work by Sophie Kauffmann (2007) to propose that certain pendants possibly were considered Christian
symbols by the Church whereas others might have been banned as heretic material. Due to the lack of good
evidence it is impossible to prove that these little knick-knacks were either customary to the entire Christian
community or whether they received particular emblematic meaning from a particular faction within the early
Christian church segregation such as the Arian or Monophysite. It should be checked from the written sources
th th
resulting from the various synods of the 4 -5 century AD whether these little knick-knacks were forbidden,
tolerated by the Catholic Church.
In Chapter 3 we described the range of pendant shapes made of black glass. Besides the discoid medallion, other
pendant forms correspond to the shape of a vessel, an animal (e.g., a dolphin), a human head or bust, or a plant
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(e.g., a poppy-head ). For practical reasons, we only discuss the well-known vessel-pendants shaped as a jug
or jar, a barrel or a vase. In particular, we checked whether the crudely shaped vessel-pendants match particular
vessel-shapes and whether less distinct pendant types also could be linked to vessel shapes. The form of the jugshaped and jar-shaped pendants explains that these pendant types with ovoid or a globular body and vertical
236
handle represent real glass vessels shaped in a coarse style, corresponding with Isings Forms 120-124 (Figure
129). Marianne Stern considered these jug-shaped pendants as Christian amulets (Stern 1977, 112-113) but
rejects Gustav Eisen‘s theory that they are to be connected to the two jugs Joseph of Arimathea had with him in
his sarcophagus which contained the blood and the sweat of Jesus Christ (Eisen 1927, 520-521). These jugshaped pendants could equally have received a talismanic character to Jewish or Pagan people as is already
established by the armrings with stamped decoration showing pagan, Christian or Jewish motifs. It is possible that
235
In Chapter 3, we explained that unlike others (e.g., Spaer 2001) we do not consider the bulbous pendant with discoid base as a vessel-shaped
pendant but assume it represents a poppy-head.
236
Something we have left out of consideration is to what vessels in other materials the pendants refer.
288
it is not an import into the West from pilgrims who went to the Holy Land (Foy 2010). Still today some are
confident that these vessel-shaped pendants have to be regarded as Joseph of Arimathea jug amulets (see online catalogue of Yale University, New Haven) [cat.no.A4697].
Figure 129: Comparison of jug-shaped pendants and their real counterparts in vessel glass (drawings taken from Spaer 2001
and Harden et al. 1989)
The vase-shaped glass pendants most likely have to be interpreted as a cantharus considering the resemblance
with the cantharus-headed pins in jet and bone (Allason-Jones 1996, 39-40). Lindsay Allason-Jones (1996, 16)
remarks that the cantharus is a drinking vessel related to the god Dionysus/Bacchus but also characteristic to the
Christian Eucharist. Wearing a trinket ornated with a cantharus, thus makes it impossible to determine whether
there is any relation to Bacchic cult or Christianity.
A wide variety of pendants are vessel-shaped, but some are less clearly related to an existing vessel shape, such
237
as the barrel-shaped pendants which appear to match the elongated barrel-shaped beads. We thus want to
demonstrate that these more amorphous and geometric-shaped pendants are in fact stylized representations of
particular vessel types. Furthermore we discuss that these vessel-shaped pendants are the counterpart of real
vessels in bronze, (glazed) pottery and glass related to ritual act.
Both barrel-shaped beads and pendants show identical form, proportions and decorative designs with applied
trails spiralling at both ends, and eventually with zigzags at the centre. The barrel-shaped pendants, both large
and small, differ from the beads by the presence of one or more suspension loops. The presence of one or more
suspension loops is also attested on real barrel-shaped vessels. There is a sort of resemblance with for instance
the barrel-shaped bottles (Morin-Jean Type 132; Isings Forms 89;128), but more striking is the similarity with
some blown-glass vessels, such as the barrel-shaped beakers from the Rhine region (Fremersdorf 1959, 67-68,
pls. 94-95) having one vertical looped handle at the centre of the body with trailed decoration on either end of the
vessel (Figure 130-left) and the so-called perfume-containers, small horizontal barrel-shaped bottles with four
small foot knobs and a short neck with dolphin-shaped handles (Morin-Jean type 135) (Figure 130-middle) (MorinJean 1913, 177, fig.233). Various pieces from the Netherlands are reported like a small colourless piece with
opaque yellow glass trails from a tomb at Stein (NL) (Isings 1971, 16, no.38, fig.3:38), or that from Brunssum
(Pirling 1993, 213, fig.2:6) and Maastricht (van Lith 1987, 54-55, figs. 9-10). It is significant that nearly all are
confined in the wider Rhine region from Krefeld-Gellep (DE) as far upstream as Kaiseraugst (CH) (Fünfschilling
238
2000). An incomplete piece in olive green-tinged colourless glass with twelve spiralling opaque yellow glass
trails at either ends has been found in tomb 3920 of the late Roman-early Frankish cemetery at Krefeld-Gellep
237
Maud Spaer takes these trailed decorated beads and pendants together and describes the pendants as trailed bead-pendants (Spaer 2001,
113, nos. 173174).
238
The only known exception thus far is the Vatican piece mentioned by Fritz Fremersdorf (1975, 73, no. 708, pl. 30:708) which is assumed to
have come from a catacomb tomb seeing that the piece contains remains of mortar from being walled up in a loculus, similar to the gold-glass
vessels from the Roman catacombs.
289
(Pirling 1997, pl. 37:4a-b; Pirling, Siepen 2006, 294, Gellep 714, pl. 46:714). The top of the central part, which
must have contained the handles and mouth, is missing, but the basal part shows four massive knobs bulging out
which serve as feet for the vessel. Pirling‘s reconstruction is presumably based on the intact piece from Bonn
(DE) in colourless glass with opaque pale blue glass trails spiralling at either ends and decorating the rim
(Follmann-Schulz 1988, 127-128, no. 495, pl. 55). The vessel has a short cylindrical neck tapering towards the
horizontally folded rim and two vertical dolphin-shaped handles. Plenty of other analogous pieces come from
Cologne (DE) (Fremersdorf 1959, 67-69, pls. 91; 96-99; Doppelfeld 1966). Seeing that most examples have been
found in Cologne and made in the same way as the colourless snake-thread vessels, it is tempting to consider
nd
rd
these vessels as having been produced in Cologne at the end of the 2 and first half of the 3 century AD. Those
th
rd
th
in greenish glass are dated 4 century AD as is discussed by Sylvia Fünfschilling (2000, 246). This 3 –4 century
AD date fits perfectly the production of the trail-decorated, elongated barrel-shaped beads and pendants in black
glass.
Figure 130: Comparison of barrel-shaped pendants (left: Trier - DE) and their counterparts as real vessels in glass (Cologne DE) and bronze (Veldwezelt - BE) (drawing left by author; drawing glass vessel taken from Harden et al. 1989, no.54; picture
right taken by VIOE, by courtesy of VIOE, Tongeren)
Parallel pieces in other materials are known as well: for example, the bronze unguentarium from Vertault (FR)
with a foot and two suspension loops fitting a handle (Feugère 1994, 157, no. 46, fig.17). The piece is 73 mm long
and has a maximum diameter of 28 mm. Or the bronze barrel-shaped vessel on central stemmed foot from a
ritual deposit at Veldwezelt (BE) which is determined as a lamp or incense burner (unpublished) (Figure 130 right). Other comparisons can be made to the horizontal barrel-shaped flasks in glazed ceramics with a twohandled neck in the middle of the body but without feet (Pirling, Siepen 2007, 294, Gellep 714; 285, Gellep 214).
Tomb 249 of the late Roman cemetery at the Jakobsstrasse in Cologne (DE) yielded a barrel-shaped ‗beaker‘ in
terra nigra, type Gellep 96, measuring 57-58 mm in height and 35 mm in diameter (Friedhoff 1991, 298, pl.
101:1/13). The remains of white paint on the concentric ribbings at either end give a contrasting effect to the
vessel referring to a wide range of barrel-shaped beads and pendants. But perhaps we should speak of a beaker,
239
particularly seeing the very small dimensions which approximating those of Turkish tea cups. Furthermore, the
recipient contained a follis minted between 313 and 317 AD representing Constantine I.
Interesting to add is the resemblance of Renate Pirling‘s Gellep 214 barrel-shaped glass jug with one small
handle with spiralling applied glass trails at either end (Pirling, Siepen 2006, 285-286). A comparable vessel, but
without handle, was found in Maximsstrasse, Trier (DE) (Goethert-Polaschek 1977, 149-150, Form 92a, no. 900).
7.4.5
Gems
It is well-known that gems were considered precious and that they were very much appreciated for the
embellishment of various types of jewellery. It is thus not surprising that the gems in monochrome or bichrome
black glass, like any other, appear to have had multiple purposes during the Roman imperial period. Previously
we established various types of glass gemstones of which a good number are still set in the original piece of
jewellery [see Chapter 3]. The Roman gemstone, fully and partly manufactured in black glass, received a wide
range of uses. Perhaps for the most part set into the bezel of finger rings, some glass gems have been set in
brooches or even helmets. In this section we verify 1) the relationship of specific types of black glass gemstones
with particular commodity categories and 2) the differences between the material of the piece of jewellery wherein
the gemstone is set. To assess the use and function of gems, the observation is twofold, as the gemstones have
239
Ulrich Friedhoff in his note 12 of page 109 refers incorrectly to Trier Form 46 which is a globular beaker with applied spiralling glass threads
and tapering towards the rim.
290
to be considered in terms of the function of the commodities wherein they are set. We therefore looked to the
gems and the ‗carrier‘ one by one, taking into account shape, colour (combinations) and decoration.
240
241
A range of variations have been observed from the 340 recorded gemstones : 1) the glass intaglios can be
manufactured in monochrome black glass (40 ex. or 11,8%) or in combination with another glass hue such as the
blue-on-black nicolo imitations (300 ex. or 88,2%); 2) the gems are mainly elliptical but can be circular; 3) the
decoration can be engraved or pressed. A specific use per type of gem emerged when taking into account those
gemstones still in their original situation. This observation allowed us to ascribe the masses of gemstones found
loosely to an explicit commodity such as brooches, finger rings or necklaces. In a second stage, we verified what
meaning can be ascribed to the various types of gems.
A closer look at the gemstones demonstrates that in most cases pseudo-nicolo intaglios embellish the bezel of a
finger ring (102 records out of 300 = 34%) while only few have been used to adorn helmets (5 records or 1,7%).
All other 193 records are loose gemstones. It is significant that there is a marked difference in shape between the
pseudo-nicolo gems for finger rings and those set in helmets. The finger ring gemstones are all small, elliptical in
shape, and have a flat surface (Henig type F) and bevelled edge, either narrow with a steep angle (Henig variant
2) or wide with a gentle angle (Henig variant 4), whereas the helmet gems are large and circular with bevelled
edges [see Chapter 3]. But the most striking difference is that the helmet gems remained plain while the finger
242
ring gems were never left undecorated.
The brooch gems are solely occurring on circular and elliptical discoid brooches (Riha Typ 3.17; Böhme Typ 45;
Bayley T270-271) [see Chapter 3]. This is a specific type of brooch that is connected with military dress, seeing
the frequent and sole occurrence in military contexts [see Chapter 5]. The gems set in those brooches are mainly
cast in monochrome black glass, but on rare occasions they are bichrome blue-on-black layered. The
monochrome black glass gems are either plain conical or flat plano-convex with a moulded or pressed decoration
243
showing the head of Medusa. The black glass gem set in the gilded bronze brooch of Oudenburg [cat.no.480]
represents an eagle pointed to the left with the head looking to the right and with a wreath in its beak. A close
parallel can be seen in the golden gem in the golden finger ring of the Schützenstrasse in Trier (DE) (Krug 1995,
55, no. 17, Taf. 39A; 46:17; 57:17). Krug also mentions some other gems with a comparable motif.
The bichrome gems are shaped as are the pseudo-nicolo gems with flat top and basal surface and bevelled edge
244
and decorated with impressed figurative motifs.
The discoid brooches are always cast in bronze and completed by gilding, giving the object a certain status.
Nonetheless, these gilded bronze brooches with glass settings are seemingly direct imitations of those in gold
with a precious gemstone. Not interested in putting much emphasis on the contrast with their cheaper substitutes
in glass, we assume (without much evidence) that the different renderings of discoid brooches are related to
military rankings. It is, however, clear that a sort of uniformity is noticeable within the recorded assortment. Those
with a simple plain conical glass stone are smaller and less sophisticatedly rendered compared to those with the
moulded Medusa head inserted, such as the very elaborate piece from the Roman cemetery of Wancennes (BE)
[cat.no.617] (Figure 131).
This piece stands in great contrast with the rather basic and abstracted design of the cast discoid brooches with
conical gems. The outer side of the gilded bronze plate is decorated in repoussé-technique with a row of eyes
flanked with a row of pearls and an inscription ―PERSEUS CONCIDERA[T] ° CAPUD GORG[ON]IS‖ (trans.:
‗Perseus knocked off the head of the Gorgon‘). It is known that the Romans considered the head of Medusa to
have apotropaic connotations (Henig 1984, 185; Pailler 1992, 79; 82) as fending off evil from the individual, a
function adopted later in Christian iconography in the person of Saint George slaying evil personified as a
dragon/monster. It is thus very tempting to see these plain conical glass settings as an abstract version of these
Medusa gems and assign them equally an apotropaic meaning.
240
As mentioned earlier the catalogued material is very partial as it remained essentially limited to Germany (Krug; Platz-Horster) and the United
Kingdom (Henig). A more detailed study of this specific commodity type comprising the material from a much vaster area is necessary to verify the
findings of this investigation.
241
The word intaglio is here used as a synonym for gemstone, although it is for the glass gems somewhat contradictory because the word –
derived from the Italian word ‗tagliare‘ meaning ‗to cut‘ – refers to the cutting, carving or engraving into a flat surface to create an image. The glass
gemstones on the other hand are nearly all decorated by using a mould with an image in relief [see Chapters 2 and 3].
242
Within the Merovingian period the pseudo-nicolo intaglios are regularly re-used in brooches as is illustrated by material from Trier.
243
It is not excluded that the so-called plano-convex counters were occasionally used as gemstones in the discoid brooches.
244
Because these bichrome gems remain rare we omitted them from the present discussion.
291
Figure 131: The very elaborate discoid brooch with inscription from the Roman cemetery of Wancennes (BE) (picture taken by
author, courtesy by Musée Archéologique, Namur)
As far as we know, the plain conical and ‗Medusa‘-head gemstones were only used on brooches of the same
typei.e., the circular and elliptical discoid brooch, which is related to the military dress. Based on these
observations, the loose finds can be assigned to such militaria. This not only implies that the loose ‗Medusa‘-head
gemstone from Wanzoul (BE) [cat.no.624] was originally set in a gilded discoid brooch, but more important is that
it most likely was of a retired military officer who got buried at a civilian cemetery. The alleged officer Wancennes
(BE) who was buried at the cemetery ‗de Chaurnai‘ probably can be considered the owner of the villa 'la
Couturelle' at Wancennes.
When looking at the finger rings, we observe that the gems for finger rings are mainly blue-on-black glass paste
gems, imitating the semiprecious nicolo stones (102 records out of 111 = 91,9%, but also monochrome black
245
gems imitating black onyx (9 pieces = 8,1%) do occur.
From Table 138 it is clear that monochrome black glass or pseudo-nicolo gemstones adorned finger rings made
in various materials. From the 111 gemstones still set in finger rings, we recorded 20 iron finger rings (4
monochrome black and 16 pseudo-nicolo gems); 75 bronze rings, of which 4 are silvered [cat.nos.3980; 4066;
4076; 4224] and 7 are gilded [cat.nos.3960; 3967; 3975; 4072; 4074-4075; 4213]; 8 silver rings (all pseudo-nicolo
gems); and 7 golden finger rings (all pseudo-nicolo gems).
Table 138: List of glass gemstones set in finger rings (n = quantity)
Cat.no.
Site
n
1998
2089
3963
4068
4168
4235
4240
1881
3912
3913
3986
4021
4061
4226
4307
3960
3967
3975
4072
4074
4075
Regensburg (DE)
unknown (DE)
Carlisle (UK)
Havering atte Bower (UK)
Odiham (UK)
Terling (UK)
Tuddenham (UK)
Frankfurt am Main (DE)
Bardney (UK)
Bartlow (UK)
Chew Valley Lake Site (UK)
Colchester (UK)
Gorhambury (UK)
South Shields (UK)
Wittering (UK)
Caerleon (UK)
Carrawburgh (UK)
Chessalls, Kingscote (UK)
Housesteads (UK)
Ipswich (UK)
Kenchester (UK)
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
245
246
Material
finger ring
gold
silver
gilded bronze
Colour
Type of gemstone
bichrome
bichrome
bichrome
bichrome
bichrome
bichrome
bichrome
bichrome
bichrome
bichrome
bichrome
bichrome
bichrome
bichrome
bichrome
bichrome
bichrome
bichrome
bichrome
bichrome
bichrome
Henig type F2/4
Henig type F2/4
Henig type F4
Henig type F2/4
Henig type F2
Henig type F2/4
Henig type F2
Henig type F2/4
Henig type F2/4
Henig type F2/4
Henig type F2/4
Henig type F2/4
Henig type F2/4
Henig type F2/4
Henig type F2/4
Henig type F2/4
Henig type F2
?
Henig type F2
Henig type F4
Henig type F2
All recorded white-on-black glass paste gems as an imitation of white-banded onyx are loose finds.
It was impossible within the view of our research to take into account the typology of the finger rings as well, but we are aware that this would
provide even more interesting information.
246
292
4213
3980
4066
4076
4224
221
454
567
1833-34
1878-80;1883;1885
1887
1945
1981
2067
2077;2079;208182;2085;2087-88;2100
2110
3907-8
3909
3915
3916
3961
3966
4002
4013;4016;4018-20
Silchester (UK)
Chesterholm (UK)
Harlow (UK)
Kettering (UK)
South Shields (UK)
Braives (BE)
Neerharen-Rekem (BE)
Tourinnes-St-Lambert (BE)
Burgheim (DE)
Frankfurt am Main (DE)
Germersheim (DE)
Mainz (DE)
Neuwied-Niederbieber (DE)
Trier (DE)
unknown (DE)
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
2
5
1
1
1
1
8
Wiesbaden (DE)
Alchester (UK)
Ashel Barn, Kingscote (UK)
Beauchamps, Wickford(UK)
Bedward Row (UK)
Camerton (UK)
Carrawburgh (UK)
Cirencester (UK)
Colchester (UK)
1
2
1
1
1
1
1
1
5
4031
4043
4044
4052
4055;4058
4067
4071
4073
4089
4132
4160
4161
4175
4177
4179
4186;4188
4192-93
4211;4213
Combe Hay (UK)
Corbridge (UK)
Cow Roast Site (UK)
Fordingbridge (UK)
Godmanchester (UK)
Hassocks (UK)
Housesteads (UK)
Icklingham (UK)
Lockleys, Welwyn (UK)
London (UK)
Nettleton (UK)
Newgate (UK)
Poundbury (UK)
Reculver (UK)
Ribchester (UK)
Richborough (UK)
Saint-Albans (UK)
Silchester (UK)
4225;4229
4231-32
4302
4309-10
257
1773;1778;1789-90
1877;1884
1902
2090;2103
3911
4011-12
4077
4124;4131
South Shields (UK)
Springhead (UK)
Whitton, Ipswich (UK)
Woodeaton (UK)
Elewijt (BE)
Bad Homburg (DE)
Frankfurt am Main (DE)
Kobern-Gondorf (DE)
unknown (DE)
Auchendavie (UK)
Colchester (UK)
Kirkby Thore (UK)
London (UK)
4169
4189
4210
4315
Old Kilpatrick (UK)
Rodmarton (UK)
Silchester (UK)
Wroxeter (UK)
1
1
1
1
2
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
2
2
1
1
2
2
1
2
1
4
2
1
2
1
2
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
silvered
bronze
bronze
iron
monochrome
bichrome
bichrome
bichrome
bichrome
bichrome
bichrome
bichrome
bichrome
bichrome
?
Henig type F2
Henig type F2
Henig type F2
Henig type F4
Henig type F2/4
Henig type F2/4
Henig type F2/4
Henig type F2/4
Henig type F2/4
bichrome
bichrome
bichrome
bichrome
Henig type F2/4
Henig type F2/4
Henig type F2/4
Henig type F2/4
bichrome
bichrome
bichrome
bichrome
bichrome
bichrome
bichrome
bichrome
bichrome
Henig type F2/4
Henig type F2
Henig type F2
Henig type F2/4
Henig type F
Henig type F2/4
Henig type F2
Henig type F2
Henig type F2 (2)
Henig type F4 (2)
Henig type F2/4 (1)
?
Henig type F2
?
Henig type F2
Henig type F4 + F2/4
Henig type F2
Henig type F2
?
Henig type F2
Henig type F2
Henig type F2
Henig type F4
Henig type F2
Henig type F2
Henig type F4
Henig type F2
Henig type F2
Henig type F2
?
Henig type F2
Henig type F2
Henig type F2
Henig type F2/4
Henig type F2/4
Henig type F2/4
Henig type F2/4
Henig type F2/4
Henig type F2/4
Henig type F2/4
Henig type F2/4
Henig type F2/4
Henig type F2/4
Henig type F2/4
Henig type F2/4
Henig type F2/4
Henig type F2/4
Henig type F2/4
monochrome
bichrome
bichrome
bichrome
bichrome
bichrome
bichrome
bichrome
bichrome
bichrome
bichrome
bichrome
bichrome
bichrome
bichrome
bichrome
bichrome
bichrome
monochrome
bichrome
bichrome
bichrome
bichrome
bichrome
bichrome
monochrome
bichrome
bichrome
bichrome
bichrome
monochrome
bichrome
monochrome
bichrome
bichrome
bichrome
bichrome
It is noticeable from Table 138 that besides the expected finger rings in bronzeplain, silvered and gildedand
iron, glass gemstones in imitation of semiprecious stones are also used to embellish finger rings in luxurious
materials such as gold and silver. Apparently, the Roman craftsmen used any material to manufacture finger rings
in combination with glass gemstones. Conversely, semiprecious stones are equally occurring on cheap iron finger
rings like the one from Caersws (UK) holding a brown chalcedony or agate intaglio (Zienkiewicz 1989, 73, no. 37,
fig.37:37). These observations seem at first to corroborate the statement by Kathy Sas (1993, 110):
People in Antiquity attached very little importance to the difference in quality and value between semiprecious stones, organic
materials and glass pastes in manufacturing gems and other jewellery. The appraisal of the gem depended on the quality of the
engraving, although specific preferences existed for materials and their colours in certain periods.
(Kathy Sas 1993, 110)
293
However, when taking into account a passage from Pliny the Elder (NH XXXVII, 197-200) on real and fake
semiprecious stones, we are more inclined to think that the Romans did mind the careful imitations of
semiprecious stones and thus rather saw them as a fraud or forge.
..., we will make it our business to point out the methods of detecting these false stones, seeing that it is only proper to put
luxury even on its guard against fraud.
...The modes of testing stones are numerous: first, by their weight, the genuine stone being the heavier of the two; next, by their
comparative coolness, the genuine stone being cooler than the other to the mouth; and, next to that, by their substance; there
being blisters perceptible in the body of the fictitious stone, as well as a certain roughness on the surface; filaments, too, an
unequal brilliancy, and a brightness that falls short before it reaches the eye. The best mode of testing is to strike off a fragment
with an iron saw; but this is a thing not allowed by the dealers, who equally refuse to let their gems be tested by the file. Dust of
Obsian stone will not leave a mark upon the surface of a genuine stone: but where the gem is artificial, every mark that is made
will leave a white scratch upon it.
(Pliny the Elder Naturalis Historia XXXVII, 197-200) [translation by Bostock et al. 1855 - online @Perseus, Plin. Nat. 37.76])
The consumer thus either was not able to recognize genuine from false, or was well aware of the replicas but was
not willing to pay the excessive prices for authentic stones. The gold finger ring with nicolo-imitating gemstone
from the Regensburg-Kumpfmühl treasure in blue-on-black glass illustrates that a clear answer is beyond reach:
1) as it could well be considered a fraud committed by a Roman goldsmith and that has not been noticed by the
compiler of the treasure seeing the three other golden finger rings have a genuine nicolo gemstone set in; 2)
because it is equally possible that the fraud was ordered by the customer purely guided by snobbishness and
greediness. Consequently, it is very plausible that another reason played a role of importance to set pseudonicolo glass gemstones into golden and silver finger rings than only forgeries of which the consumer was not
aware. Since we are unaware of any study on the composition of the golden and silver finger rings, an analysis of
the chemical composition of the finger rings would be useful to distinguish a difference in quality of the precious
metal between those with nicolo gems and those with pseudo-nicolo gems.
Dave Zienkiewicz describes that the rendering of the Caersws-gemstone is rather rudimentary and considers it a
cheap gem for trinket jewellery any auxiliary soldier could afford (Zienkiewicz 1989, 73-74). This hypothesis is
challenged by similar renderings on gemstones set in golden finger rings such as the one from the RegensburgKumpfmühl treasure (DE) showing an incised stylized bird-like figure which is assumed to represent a peacock
(Boos 2000, 23, no. 5, pl. 6:4) [cat.no.1998]. The style of the rendering is in all probability influenced by sequential
fashions as explained by Kathy Sas (1993) [see Chapter 4, Table 68] rather than a calculation of costs. It is clear
that the idea of inexpensive semiprecious gemstones being inserted in cheap materials such as iron finger rings
or ‗economically cut with a minimum of wheel-cut lines‘ is a biased assumption based on modern ideas and
perhaps personal appreciations, and it does not recognize the use and meaning the Romans gave to materials,
colours and symbols. It is, however, generally known that during the early Roman imperial period only people of
senatorial rank and the equites were authorized to wear a finger ring in gold (Pliny, NH XXXIII,29). It is only
rd
around the transition to the 3 century AD that golden finger rings in the army become more widespread, not
excluding that the retrieved golden finger rings were property of one or more members of the equestrian or the
senatorial order active in the Roman army (Boos 2000). Thus it might well be that the auxiliary soldiers were only
allowed to wear an iron finger ring but without restrictions in the sort of gemstone. It is also generally known that
in early Roman times, precious and semiprecious stones had great value, making these expensive stones easier
to keep safe compares to a bag full of coins.
‗Helmet‘ gems made of black glass are the bichrome pseudo-nicolo gems with a characteristic shape. These large,
round pseudo-nicolo gems are nearly all loose finds from Roman civil settlementsi.e., France (Sens),
Switzerland (Augst; Kaiseraugst), and Portugal (Conimbriga). The gilded silver sheet military helmet from
Berkasovo (SB) [cat.no.3108] is therefore imperative for the interpretation of these loose finds. The Berkasovo
helmet is decorated with a large number of stones, of which eight pieces are large circular pseudo-nicolo gems
(Mackensen 2009, pl. 25) (Figure 132). We are, however, aware that it is somewhat premature to assume from
the Berkasovo helmet that all large round pseudo-nicolo gems were exclusively produced to be used to adorn
armor, although we believe it is most likely that these gemstones were attached to the ornamental garments of
official dress, if not solely military dress. Furthermore the Berkasovo helmet demonstrates that we have to
consider the so-called medieval ‗Alsengemmen‘ as re-used Roman artefacts [see Chapter 4]. Whether it be from
Roman military dress or not, it is clear that the use and function of the large, round pseudo-nicolo gems received
a totally different use and meaning through time.
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Figure 132: large pseudo-nicolo gemstones set in a gilded silver sheet military helmet from Berkasovo (SB) (picture taken from
Mackensen 2009, pl. 25).
7.4.6
Hairpins
Asserting from the beginning that the pins in glass are hairpins might seem presumptive. Nevertheless, none of
the recorded black glass hairpins can provide any direct evidence on their use. The large amount from Les Houis
near Sainte Menehould (FR) have been found in a workshop context and the few others known so far, from
Liberchies (BE), Trou de Han (BE) and Oudenburg (BE), come from a settlement, a ritual deposit and a military
camp, respectively. Besides the assumed use in headdress, it has been described on several occasions that this
type of artefact is related to cosmetics (Harden 1936, 285; Allason-Jones, Miket 1984, 275).
… kohl-sticks, i.e. tapering rods for putting on eye-paint and other toilet uses… The kohl-stick of glass is much rarer than its
parallels in other materials, e.g., bone or bronze.
(Harden 1936, 285-286)
… their shortness and the bulge of the stem would make them inefficient at keeping long hair in position, and impractical in
fastening clothing. It is possible that they were used as ‗droppers‘ for unguent bottles as the spherical heads rest comfortably in
the necks of Isings Forms 27 and 82, and would efficiently hinder evaporation of perfume or medicine.
(Allason-Jones, Miket 1984, 275)
More information about their use in headdresses had to come from elsewhere. On the one hand, additional
information is provided by the glass pins in other hues which have been found in burial contexts, such as the four
pins in pale green glass originating from the inhumation tomb G537 at Butt Road, Colchester (UK) (Crummy 1983,
28, nos. 461-464). All four were found together close to the woman‘s head. Most likely, all four were used
together to keep the hair in a certain style, and it is very likely that the pin with annular head was used jointly with
one of the three pins with globular head. The pin with annular head, with an opening of c. 6 mm, left enough
space for another pin to pass through, given that the maximum diameter of the shaft is c. 5 mm. That a headdress
might have been sophisticated is not only lavishly explained by Janet Stephens (2008) but also demonstrated by
the seven pins in blue and green glass beneath the head from the inhumation tomb of a woman at Dorchester
(Roach Smith 1848-1880, III, 34, pl. XI.3). More burial contexts yielded similar-appearing pins in other materials,
e.g. jet (Allason-Jones 1996) and bone (Crummy 1979). Confirming the use of such short pins in headdress, it
turns out to be that these pins may be identified as hairpins even if it is never excluded that they had one or more
additional applications.
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7.5 Architectural decoration
7.5.1
Tesserae
The small cubic blocks chopped from discoid glass cakes or raw glass chunks are undeniably used as inlay
stones for mosaics, but some scholars assume a supplementary meaning for the tesserae as being used as raw
material in the bead production (Lundström 1976, 5; Foy 2007), something we also described by means of
material from the workshop ‗Äussere Reben‘ at Kaiseraugst (CH) in Chapter 6.
When looking at the mosaics, there seems to have been a preference to use glass tesserae in walls and vaults. In
Chapter 5, we described the use of glass tesserae in Julio-Claudian times to adorn nymphaea and fountains but
also bath complexes and burial architecture such as arcosolia. In late Roman times, glass tesserae were very
much adopted to embellish the walls and vaults of basilicas.
Floor mosaics, mainly polychrome ones, sometimes incorporate glass tesserae in various colours, even though
rd
the black tesserae used in floor mosaics appear to have been made of stone and not of glass. The 3 century AD
floor mosaic of Mariamin near Hama (SY), representing young female musicians on a podium, is mainly made of
stone tesserae but contains also glass tesserae to accentuate details in the dress of the musicians as well as in
the border (Zaqzuq, Duchesne-Guillemin 1970, 94). Interesting here is the variation in the number of tesserae per
dm² depending on the zones where the count was done, i.e. closely linked with the design of the image. For the
body of the ‗Spring‘ epitome, 491 tesserae per square decimetre were counted, while 455/ dm² were used for the
face of one of the figures in the border, and only 323 pieces per dm² for the main surface of the central panel,
representing a podium built from wooden planks. Depending on the rendering of the depiction, smaller or larger
tesserae were used. The dimensions of the mosaic stones range between 4-5 mm in length and 3-5 mm in width,
which coincides with those in black glass from the glass workshop at Les Houis near Sainte Menehould (FR)
[cat.nos.1411-12]. If we go back to for instance the floor mosaic of Mariamin measuring 5,37m x 4,25m, the
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surface of c. 22,82 m² or 2282,25 dm² must count c. 1 million tesserae. Others calculated an average of 15 to
20 kg of tesserae to cover 1m² (Brun et al. 1991, 48-49), meaning that the Mariamin floor mosaic necessitated
between 342 and 456 kg of tesserae. These huge numbers put in perspective the relatively high number of 455
black glass tesserae retrieved from Les Houis and now in M.A.N., Saint-Germain-en-Laye (FR), which is merely
sufficient to cover about 1 dm². Conversely, the inevitability of such enormous amounts of tesserae by mosaicists
when paving floors, walls and vaults illustrates a very time-consuming groundwork to chip the glass chunks into
millions of mosaic stones. We therefore assume that the accumulation of tesserae from the workshop at Les
Houis could equally have been prefabricated material so that mosaicists could pick up ready-made bits and
pieces in all shapes and sizes and in a wide variety of colours. This hypothesis does not exclude the
aforementioned assumption by Agneta Lundström and Danièle Foy the likely use of tesserae as raw material in
the bead making.
Another striking element of the polychrome floor mosaic of Mariamin is the very limited but apparently deliberate
occasions on which glass tesserae were implemented to accentuate elements, yet none of the glass tesserae in
the discussed mosaic are made of black glass (Table 139).
Table 139: Areas where glass tesserae have been used on the mosaic of Mariamin nearby Hama (SY)
representation
hue
reference
Belt around the body of a bull
Band around middle of a putto
Small sharp knife in right hand of a putto
Shoulder strap around a hunting putto with bow
emerald green
pale blue
green
emerald green
Zaqzuq, Duchesne-Guillemin 1970, 99, fig.9
Zaqzuq, Duchesne-Guillemin 1970, 100, fig.8
Zaqzuq, Duchesne-Guillemin 1970, 100
Zaqzuq, Duchesne-Guillemin 1970, 100, fig.6
The intarsia are also used as mosaic inlays by means of the opus sectile technique and will not be discussed
separately. The only difference with the tesserae is the production technique and the resulting characteristics in
use. Where the tesserae are very small and roughly shaped to compose pointillistic images, the intarsia were cast
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To estimate the total amount of used tesserae, we have counted half of the surface with the smallest mosaic stones and the other half with the
largest examples what resulted in 560.231 small pieces (1141 dm² x 491 pieces/dm²) and 368.543 large pieces (1141 dm² x 323 pieces/dm²) or a
total of 928.774 tesserae for the entire surface. Taking into account the minuscule size of 1-2 mm for the glass tesserae from the Nero‘s Domus
Aurea in Rome (Sear 1977) the total amount of chips and flakes to cover the same surface increases exponentially.
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or cut into a specific ‗jigsaw‘ shape forming a comparatively large part of the image. The very brief review here is
because little is to be said at present on the basis of only black glass intarsia.
7.5.2
Rods
The use and function of black glass rods, twisted or plain, can only be considered in view of the entirety of glass
rods, regardless from the hue and not just by limiting it to the accumulation of rods in black glass only. The brief
overview of prior investigations discussing the use of glass rods includes different readings of this type of
commodity. Two main groups of rods can be distinguished: 1) those for architectural decoration; and 2) those
used as utensils.
Various features can help differentiate the architectural twisted glass rods from the twisted rods used as utensils
when incomplete. The rods used as borders of polychrome mosaic panels can easily be distinguished from the
so-called stirring rods, as the ‗architectural‘ rods 1) are not produced in clear transparent glasses but in a
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translucent glass; 2) are much more worn ; and 3) usually have remains of concrete all over the surface (if not
fully removed at the conservation and restoration lab of the museum). Besides, in architecture only twisted rods in
monochrome or bichrome glass seem to have been used, whereas the glass rods used as utensils can be plain
as well. The latter group has characteristic ends, commonly with a looped end or a bird at one side and a pointed
or discoid end at the other side. Fulfilling all these features, the bits and pieces from the KMKG-MRAH, Brussels
are clearly remains of an architectural decorative wall or vault panel.
The twisted rods were inserted at regular intervals in the mosaic panel parallel to a row of shells (Sear 1977). But
multiple twisted rods placed side by side also occur to form a wide frame for a polychrome figurative mosaic panel
or a black-and-white inscription (Goldstein 1979, 263-264, no. 791; Grose 1989, 358, fig.170). That twisted glass
rods were used to border the polychrome wall mosaic panels is clearly described by Frank Sear in his ‗Roman
Wall and Vault Mosaics‘ (1977). The report on a wall mosaic from the ‗Villa on Posilipo‘ near Naples (IT) has been
considered the first to ascribe the twisted glass rods as ―forming part of the decoration of a mural mosaic‖
(Gunther, Manley 1912, 104). However, Emile de Meester de Ravestein already mentioned about these twisted
rods that they were used to ―… cacher les jointures des plaques de verre dont on ornait les murs des
appartements‖ (de Meester de Ravestein 1884², 463).
Most twisted rods, as far as attested, have been inserted in wall mosaics of the fountain niches of Nymphaea in
private houses. Other places of incidence are bath complexes such as the bath complex of Aquileia (Sear 1977)
and the natatio of the ‗Villa dei Centroni‘ in Rome [cat.no.2278] (Figure 133a-b). Twisted rods have also been
employed to decorate funerary architecture, as is seen in the columbarium of Pomponius Hylas (Sear 1977) [see
Chapter 5].
This type of architectural decoration element was particularly popular within a relatively short time span during the
st
st
very beginnings of the Roman imperial period, i.e. from the late 1 century BC to the mid 1 century AD, whereas
nd
the stirring rods are considered also to have circulated during the Flavian period and the first half of the 2
century AD [see Chapter 4].
Numerous functions have been attributed to the utensils. Clasina Isings (1957, Form 79) described such objects
rather vaguely as stirring rods, whereas Sidney Goldstein (1979, 263-264, no.791) and David Grose (1989, 358)
speak about ―cosmetic applicators‖ aside from ―stirrers or stirring rods‖. Dominique Simon-Hiernard (2000, 373378) explains more in detail the use and speaks about the need to spread out, mash and blend cosmetic products.
Marianne Stern (2001, 365, no. 228) demonstrated that other functions are attributable to these twisted rods: 1) to
point at a text when reading a papyrus (Knauer 1993, 25) and 2) to spin yarn (Barber 1991). On very rare
occasions, twisted rods were used to make handles, such as the cup at the Newark Museum (Auth 1976, 97, no.
105) or the two beautiful kantharoi of the former Constable-Maxwell collection (Constable-Maxwell 1979, 50, nos.
66-67). The latter can be difficult to distinguish from fragmented arm rings of Type A2-3.
The bichrome plaques are not discussed separately here as little information on their use and function is available,
and this material category did not receive the full focus in this study.
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This degradation of the glass surface is probably due to the impact of the humidity conditions and the mortar wherein the rods are set.
297
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
f.
g.
Figure 133: Examples of wall and vault mosaics with twisted glass rods inserted: a.-b.: natatio, villa dei Centroni, Rome; c.-d.:
bathcomplex, Aquileia; e.-g.: nymphaeum, Casa del Torello, Pompeii
(illustrations taken from Sear 1977, pl. 15:2-3 [a-b]; pl. 44:3 [c]; pl. 43:4 [d]; pl. 9:1;3 [e-f]; fig.13 [g])
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7.6 Counters
It is clear that in use throughout five centuries and all over the entire Roman Empire, glass counters unmistakably
must have had multiple purposes. The study of this rather ubiquitous commodity is however quite recent and the
discussion on its use still remains underdeveloped. Gustavus Eisen remarks in his paper on button beads (Eisen
1916, 299) that they never have been the object of serious study, albeit their frequent occurrence in publications.
Gustavus Eisen, himself saw the plano-convex glass counters as button-beads, which were used in pairs
cemented together back to back and strung as necklaces (Eisen 1916, 299). This idea got countered by Donald
Harden (1936, 292), who claimed that the mentioned example is a forgery made from genuine material meant for
the antique market. According to Kate Elderkin (1928) the counters are to be described as clothing-fasteners like
the pierced examples, and she explained the pieces lacking a hole to have been mounted in a holder. Donald
Harden (1936, 292) is not negative for the proposal but questions why there are so few pierced compared to the
high quantities of solid plano-convex counters. Donald Harden (1936, 291-292) on his turn suggested that the
irregular and oval shaped counters were employed in metal holders as gemstones in jewellery.
On the basis of information by ancient writers and some remarkable archaeological finds, the plano-convex glass
artefacts are generally described as gaming pieces used in various Roman board games, such as ludus
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duodecim scriptorum and ludus latrunculorum (Austin 1934; 1935). Gaming sets including 24 to 30 counters
and a board such as those found in late Roman tombs of Lullingstone (UK), Krefeld-Gellep (DE), Amiens (FR),
and Nijmegen (NL) are plain examples. Furthermore, written sources support this idea; Pliny the Elder (NH XXXVI,
st
199) explains that (in the 1 century AD) the making of calculi in all kinds of colours was done by the recycling of
broken glass and names these pieces oculi for gaming boards [see Chapter 2]. The gaming sets mainly
encompass counters in two contrasting colours, which means that the games involved only two players. On rare
occasions, sets show four contrasting colours, two dark coloured (black and blue) and two bright coloured (white
and yellow, blue or green). One can wonder whether this was to enable games with four players or whether all
dark and bright stones were used as a set for only two players.
An alternative utility put forward was that these counters could have been used in administration (Price 1995, 129).
For instance, it has been proposed to call the small pieces with a diameter below 20 mm as counters and the
large ones, with a diameter ranging between 27 mm and 32 mm, as gaming pieces (Price 1985, 214). In the same
line is the explanation describing the use of glass counters for arithmetic intent as counting pieces, calculi, with a
transportable counting board, abacus or quinarius, which principally included 24 counters (Schärlig 2003, 518519). The high number of glass counters concentrated in one place in the Pompeian house with the Indian statue,
Insula 8.5 (Fontaine 2009), could in all probability be connected with such sets of abaci used during arithmetic
lessons, rather than collected glass waste for recycling purposes. This plausible but hard-to-prove interpretation
of the remains then assumes the room possibly functioned as an improvised schoolroom just before the calamity
by the fatal eruption of Mount Vesuvius. But domestic classes with a private teacher and personal teaching
material were not unusual in ancient times (Casson 1998, 17).
Other functions can be expected too, such as an inlay in jewelleryfor instance, a gem set in a finger ring, brooch
or braceletexplaining the single discoveries such as a small black glass counter from the auxilliary fort of
Segontium at Caernarfon (UK) [cat.no.A4536] (Casey et al. 1993, 210, no. 514). The potential decorative function
of these plano-convex counters is, as expected, not limited to jewellery. For instance, a late Roman mirror frame
in plaster at the Musée du Verre, Charleroi (BE) (Musée du Verre 1999, 51, no.11) [cat.no.A4611], shows five
black glass counters in the corners, one large at the top and four small at the sides (Figure 134). An example of
implement as architectural decoration can be seen in the stucco ceilings of the Domus Transitoria in Rome, where
large numbers of counters have been inserted within the design of the frescoes (Bacchelli, Pasqualucci,
Mastrodonato 2000, 86).
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The former game included 24 gaming stones, 12 per player as the name of the game says, whereas for the latter one is supposed to have
consisted of 30 gaming pieces, 15 per contrasting colours, of which black and white formed the most characteristic set.
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Figure 134: plaster mirror from Egypt decorated with plano-convex counters in black glass (picture taken from Musée du Verre
1999, 51, no.11, courtesy by Musée du Verre, Marcinelle)
This brief enumeration of multiple functionality of the plano-convex glass counter makes the alleged difference
between the smaller ‗counter‘ and the larger ‗gaming piece‘ introduced by Jennifer Price (1985, 206-214) [see
Chapter 3] is of no use. Moreover, what name would then be given to the medium-sized pieces?
Notwithstanding the multifunctional applications of glass counters, they in the first place must have been used as
gaming stones, as can be deduced from a set of eye-catching burial gifts dating from the earliest times to the end
250
st
of the Roman imperial period.
The early 1 century AD ‗Warrior‘s burial‘ BF64 at Stanway (UK) not only
contained a maplewood board but also 20 gaming pieces, 11 blue and 9 white (Crummy et al. 2007, 186-187,
fig.89). From the ‗Doctor‘s burial‘ CF47, also in Stanway, comes another gaming board in the similar wood with 26
gaming pieces, 13 blue and 13 white, which appeared to have been placed in position on the board as if in
st
readiness to start a game (Crummy et al. 2007, 216-218, fig.89). A mid-1 century AD set of twenty counters in
different colours, dimensions and materials (10 glass; 10 bone) comes from a tomb at Moers-Schafheim (DE),
th
near the military fortress of Asciburgium (DE) (Kraus 2005, 389). From a 4 century AD tomb at Lullingstone (UK)
was retrieved a set of small counters (15 white and 15 so-called brown) all found on top of a lead coffin together
with the remains of a wooden game board (Liversidge 1973, 350, fig.133l). Tomb B435 at the East Cemetery of
London yielded a set of 24 glass counters (11 white and 13 black) jointly with four bone dice all within a wooden
box (Barber, Bowsher 2000, 135, fig.97; 193-195). Other sets have been found in Amiens (Dilly, Maheo 1997),
Krefeld-Gellep (Pirling 1966, 125-126, pls. B; 101:3) and recently in Nijmegen (van Enckevort 2008). The practice
of placing a gaming set in a tomb is to give the deceased the equipment for the afterlife. Such sets remain rare as
a burial gift, whereas single plano-convex counters have been retrieved more regularly. Individual counters seem
to occur exclusively in inhumation tombs, which make that custom characteristic for the late Roman period. Not
denying the earlier discussed possibility of a jewellery inset, this individual occurrence could equally be
understood as a pars pro toto, functioning as a symbolic burial gift. The reasons why will remain silent since
personal motive cannot be revealed without written sources. Occasionally, some texts survive and supply
potential explanations and motivations.
Large quantities of single finds have been retrieved during the intensive excavations of Roman forts on British soil,
such as Corbridge (Bishop, Dore 1988, 204), Caerleon (Allen 1986, 155-156), or Usk (Price 1995), showing that
board games were very popular with soldiers to kill time and that pieces got regularly lost.
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A gaming board with calculi in yellow, white, blue and green glass is known from the late 1st century BC dated elite burial at Welwyn Garden
City (UK) (Harden 1967, 14-16; Price 1995, 129; Cool, Philo 1998, 190, tabs. 34-35). The presence of an early Roman board game outside the
empire demonstrates that such boards and joined glass counters must have been already fashionable during the Roman Republic.
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7.7 Conclusion
A general but superficial consideration of the use and function of the Roman black glass artefacts would have
ended up in the simple conclusion that these artefacts are not more than a part of their functional categorye.g.,
a vessel is used as a container, a bracelet is used as a jewel and a counter is used for gaming. However, we
have to bear in mind that a part of these commodities were not solely made in black glass just to supply the
consumers market with objects in an additional hue. Particular reasons or specific purposes could have been part
of the cause in giving a functional object an additional meaning. In particular, within a society like the Roman
Empire featuring a material culture with a huge diversity of forms and a wide variety of materials, the utilized
material and their related colour can be influential in giving the reached shape a particular function or significance.
For instance, if the Romans used only one type of beaker and dish, these would be the sole objects to drink and
eat from. But when a wide range of shapes are contemporaneously available, the diversity can be required for
various functional or traditional purposes different shapes in particular hues depending on: 1) the drinks or dishes;
2) the circumstances (private or public) and types of events (social, religious, political); 3) the social class, gender
or age. We, however, think that besides socio-cultural motives also socio-economic elements may have played a
significant role. Socio-economical motives can make or break the popularity of a certain commodity in a specific
material. The question is whether prevailing shapes are imitated in a type of material that becomes fashionable,
such as glass at the start of the Roman imperial period, or whether this newly introduced material only slowly won
importance on the consumer market, catching attention of the consumer by producing the usual stuff but in fancycoloured polychrome and monochrome glass.
Different reasons can influence the rendering of an artefact. Firstly, the shape of an artefact is subject to changing
fashions. The popularity of the utilized materials and shapes is susceptible to these trends. Through materializing
the succession of trends, we can come to a detectable chronology [see Chapter 3]. Secondly, the shape of an
artefact is dependent on the technological know-how of the glassworkers and the local/regional prevailing style.
These geographical differences can infer distribution patterns [see Chapter 6]. Thirdly, the use of specific
artefacts manufactured in a particular material, in a particular shape and with a particular design, can be inflicted
from socio-cultural criteria. Where the inductive method of reasoning can provide a wide range of information on
the first two, only little information is obtained about the latter through this method and imposes a deductive
method of reasoning.
By means of the bracelets, we pointed out that these Roman black glass artefacts were more than only supplying
the consumer with a greater choice in the vast assortment of jewellery. Conversely, this category of Roman
jewellery might nowadays be regarded as unrefined or even unappealing objects, making us wonder what must
have been the reason of success, seeing the popularity of black glass jewellery in the late Roman period. A part
of the answer has been given from a socio-cultural perspective. Merely made for aesthetical reasons, the black
glass jewellery must have served as amulets or tokens. Besides socio-cultural motives, other reasons played a
role.
Seeing that wearing black glass bangles were clearly not for adornment purely, they had a certain meaning
received in Roman times and eventually were used for specific purpose(s), as they were worn by only girls and
young women. A finger ring is usually regarded as a type of jewellery that in Roman society has been worn by
adults of both sexes, and due to the lack of clear evidence, the black glass finger rings do not contradict this
assumption, as do the arm rings. On the other hand, it is generally accepted that the discoid and oval brooches
have to be interpreted as types of dress accessories with military connotations and thus solely worn by male
adults, without regard to the presence of an inlayed black glass gem.
The use of black glass bangles cannot be related to a particular religion because they can contain Christian,
Jewish, Pagan or Mithraic motifs, even if religion or superstition is never far away. Hence, it is also excluded that
the black coloured bracelets symbolized sobriety, a highly valued virtue under for instance the sophists and the
Christians. Conversely, the left-carrying side of all noticed black glass bangles from burial contexts is to be linked
with an apotropaic meaning, likewise those in jet. A confirmation to this idea has been discussed previously by
Lindsay Allason-Jones (1996) à propos the use and meaning of jet with references to ancient writers such as
Pliny the Elder, Galen and Solinus, who wrote on the medicinal and apotropaic power of this fossilised wood.
Such meaning and functional use can also be given to most late Roman pendants and for a number of beads as
well. Even if this belief is situated within a twilight zone of superstition and symbolism, it would be wrong to
neglect the significance of these religious trinkets because they act as metaphors of the late Antique cultural
entity and picture well the customary traditions and beliefs, being evidence for a certain conservatism and
traditionalism in late Roman times, something we find once more in the orthodoxy of shapes and colours.
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Because it would be too far-reaching to investigate the black glass consumption more thoroughly, we thought it
apt to continue the discussion on the Roman consumer behaviour vis-à-vis the consumption of black glass
artefacts in Chapter 10. This essay on different levels is meant, insofar possible, to result in a more penetrating
inquiry confronting the opposite approaches of micro-, meso- and macroeconomic level in consumer behaviour
studie
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PART II
THE ARCHAEOMETRIC APPROACH
303
304
Chapter 8 CHEMICAL ANALYSIS
8.1 Introduction
The archaeological approach in the preceding chapters has provided clear evidence of production of black glass
artefacts all through the Roman imperial period and all over the Roman Empire. The production of black glass
thus cannot have been considered an error. Otherwise, such material would then have been discarded instantly,
excluding a systematic production and consumption of specific artefacts in black glass. Moreover, we can assume
from, for instance, material of very rich burials and treasures that black glass artefacts were not considered
misfits, but rather appreciated and cherished for their black appearance. Hence, it is clear that black glass was
not produced unintentionally nor obtained by mistake. It is, however, not excluded that during the production of
deeply coloured glass, some batches accidentally could have become so intensely coloured that they acquired a
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black appearance.
Jennifer Price and Sally Cottam state in their book on Romano-British glass vessels that the black appearance of
glass is due to the intensity of the coloration of the glass metal, whether in yellow/brown, yellow/green, green,
blue or purple glass (Price, Cottam 1998, 15). Their assertion was based on previous observations on the Roman
vessel glass from Colchester, wherein ‗black‘ glass objects were systematically described as appearing black
while the true colour of the strongly coloured glass matrix was observed (Cool, Price 1995). Such nuance is also
attested in the publications on glass vessels from Avenches (Bonnet-Borel 1997; Martin Pruvot 1999) and Augst
(Rütti 1991). Concerning the colorants used in antiquity to obtain a black glass, Justine Bayley attributes it to the
addition of iron, but stresses the relativity inherent in expressing the observations made with the naked eye:
A glass containing large amounts of iron, with or without manganese, appears opaque black. In fact, the glass is neither opaque
nor black. If a thin enough piece is examined, it is usually seen to be transparent dark olive, the apparent opacity being due to
the depth of colour rather than the presence of opacifying agents.
(Bayley 1999, 90)
The awareness of using various glass colourse.g., green, brown, purple, bluein Roman times to produce
glass artefacts with a black appearance is definite for the archaeometric approach. The Roman glassworkers
deliberately coloured glass with various specific strong colorizing oxides to obtain a glass matrix with a very deep
hue. Hence, the Roman production of black-appearing objects was accomplished by using different chemical
recipes. From an archaeological point of view, the question arises whether chronological and/or geographical
idiosyncrasies are identifiable in the different compositions produced all through the five centuries of the imperial
period and all over the empire. The results from chemical analyses supply additional information to answer one of
the main concerns that preoccupies a material specialist in the study of archaeological artefacts: achieving a
better understanding of Roman (economical) society through an optimized typo-chronology and a more nuanced
understanding of the distribution patterns. We therefore assumed a diachronic study of a well-defined
assemblage, such as the Roman black glass material having the potential to supply additional information about
the organization of Roman glass production and consumption in general.
Classical subdivisions have been obtained by looking at external properties of the artefactse.g., size, colour,
shape, and decoration and production techniqueand, when possible, they are completed with information from
the context from which the artefact has been extricated. The subsequent step was to verify whether functional
types, chronological periods and/or geographical delimitations are idiosyncratic for a specific chemical
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composition in (black) glass production and consumption.
The chemical approach to the analysed black glass pieces is not exclusively confined to the understanding of the
production, the distribution and the use of Roman black glass. The assessment also verified to what extent the
data of this present study can be compared to Roman glass production and consumption during the imperial
period. Accordingly, the obtained results have been evaluated by means of the current knowledge on Roman
glass in general and the available results from prior analysis of black glass in particular.
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The 12th century monk Theophilus described, for instance, the possibility of obtaining from the same batch, and consequently with the same
chemical composition, a glass hue ranging from pale pink to nearly black or purple-brown (see Forbes 1966; Jackson, Smedley 2008).
252
Some significant results have been obtained for the ‗naturally‘ coloured and decolourized glass (Brill 1988; Nenna et al. 1997; Foy et al. 2000;
Freestone et al. 2002; Freestone et al. 2009; Bingham, Jackson 2008; Foster, Jackson 2009; 2010).
305
A description and discussion on the entire evolution of chemical analysis on Roman glass is not within the realm
253
of possibility here because that would lead us as far back as Klaproth (1801). In fact, we can go back to Pliny
the Elder, who also wrote on the composition of Roman glass, describing the complexity of producing glass and
implying that it involved more than only mixing and heating sand and soda.
Soon since man‘s skill is ingenious, he was not content to mix just soda, but magnetite, since it is believed to attract to itself the
melted glass just as it does to iron. In the same way, shining stones came to be added to the melt in many places, then shells
and pit sand.
(Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia XXXVI, 192 [transl. Eichholz, D.E., 1962, Pliny X, 150])
The continuously growing number of chemical analysis methods and constantly improving applied techniques
support the research on archaeological glass, resulting in more detailed data sets to answer more complex
questions. However, they also make this part of archaeological glass research more intricate. Particularly during
the past 15 years, amazing progress has been made through improved measuring techniques refining the
analysis results. The applied measuring systems are SEM-EDX to characterize the major elements, and LA-ICPMS to characterize the minor and trace elements [see this chapter section 8.2. Methodology].
Important aspects in the study of Roman black glass include the network former (silica), the network modifier
(soda) and the colouring agent. Although other silica sources do exist, sand is the main constituent in Roman
times. Consisting, for the largest part, of silica (Si), sand also incorporates other elements like a number of
metallic impuritiese.g., iron (Fe), titanium (Ti) and alumina (Al) (Henderson 1985; Brill 1988; Freestone 2006).
Also lime (Ca), acting as a stabilizing agent making the glass resistant to water, seems to be present in the sand
(Newton, Davison 1989). The use of different sands resulted in the production of raw glass with different ratios
among the various oxides. The high melting temperature made it necessary to add a flux to the batch. Therefore,
various alkalis were suitable. During the Roman imperial period, trona (Na 2CO3.NaHCO3.2H2O) and natron
(Na2CO3.10H2O) were used as a flux to lower considerably the melting temperature of silica. These naturally
occurring salt evaporites were the primary sources of soda for glass production during the entire Roman imperial
period. They were extracted from the dry lake beds in the western Nile delta between Alexandria and the Wadi El
254
Natrun (Nenna 2000; Shortland et al. 2006; Nenna 2008a; Foster, Jackson 2009). Hence, it is not surprising
that primary glass workshops have been recently pinpointed at Wadi Natrun, Taposiris Magna and Marea (Nenna
2005, 24).
An interesting passage in Pliny‘s Naturalis Historia explains that soda is not too different from salt, being a
multipurpose mineral collected for manufacturing soap, for medicine, for mummification, for dyeing and for
cooking (Ignatiadou et al. 2005, 64-65), and that the Egyptian soda was considered of lower quality possibly
because it was produced by artificial methods from Nile water and rain (Pliny the Elder, Nat. Hist. XXXI, 106-110).
That the lower quality soda was good for dyeing and in particular for glass production makes it likely that the
Romans only used Egyptian soda in the production of glass because of its low cost and not because of its quality.
The use of mineral soda in Roman times gives a very characteristic composition with a high average of 15%-20%
of soda (NaO2), a low concentration of magnesium oxide (MgO) below 1,5% and generally even below 1%, and a
low potash (K2O) concentration below 1,5%. When vegetable soda is added to the batch, the composition of the
glass shows a much higher MgO and K2O contentboth above 1,5%. Also, the more elevated ratios of
manganese (MnO), phosphor (P2O5) and chlorine (Cl) are to be correlated with the addition of a vegetable alkali
flux. Manganese could also be added deliberately to the batch to decolourize the glass (c.1%) or to colour it pink
(c.1,5%), purple (c.2%), dark purple (c.2,5%) or black-appearing (above 2,5%) (Brill 1999). Also, antimony
(Sb2O5) was used during the Roman imperial period to make colourless glass. Besides manganese oxide (MnO),
the Romans generally used iron oxide (FeO and Fe 2O3) as a colouring agent to produce black glass, but cobalt
(CoO) was also used. All these elements make possible a comparative study through SEM-EDX analysis to
characterize and categorize groups on the basis of major elements, substantial for the archaeological research.
The use of LA-ICP-MS refines these queries by making available a large number of minor and trace elements
related to the used sand, flux or colouring agent.
253
The major publications from the 20th century that give an overview on chemical analysis of archaeological glass are Neumann 1925; 1927;
1928; Turner 1956ab; 1962; Sayre, Smith 1961; 1967; Bezborodov 1975; Biek, Bayley 1979; Bimson, Freestone (eds.) 1987; Henderson 1985;
1989; Hartmann et al. 1997; Brill 1999.
254
Various locations are known to have produced salt evaporites useful for glass production (Ignatiadou et al. 2005, 6467).
306
Table 140: List of sites with prior analysed black glass artefacts (* = LA-ICP-MS; ** = SEM-EDX; *** = AAS)
late Bronze Age –
Bronze Age
late Iron Age
Roman
early Iron Age
Lac du Bourget (FR)*
Bouche-Rolland (FR)
Neufchâteau-le Sart (BE)*
Aquileia (IT)*
Mons, Saint Georges (FR)*
Pokravska (RU)**
S. Vito Tagliamento (IT)*
Mez-Notariou (FR)*
Aveyron (FR)*
Quintigny, Champ-de-Mont (FR)*
Liberchies (BE)***
Roche Noire, Montagnieu (FR)*
Taviers (BE)***
Tumulus de Courtesoult (FR)*
Tongeren (BE)***
Hasanlu (IN)*
Vervoz (BE)***
Pella (JO)
Chotin (UKR)
Prior research on the chemical composition of black glass has not been restricted to only Roman material (Table
140). All analysed pre-Roman black glass samples are limited to beads made from green glass. Bronze Age
beads from various sites in France, Central Europe (Chotin) and Iran (Hasanlu) were analysed by means of LAICP-MS (Gratuze 2000; 2001c; 2002; 2004). The beads from Pella, Jordan, dated 1050-900/850 BC, have
th
recently been studied by using SEM-EDX (Reade et al. 2009); likewise, the Sarmatian glass beads from the 4 to
nd
2 century BC dated kurgans from Pokrovka, Russia (Hall, Yablonsky 1997). The late Iron Age beads from the
rd
early 3 century BC dated chariot grave of Neufchâteau-le Sart (Gratuze, Cosyns 2007) have been analysed with
LA-ICP-MS at the CNRS centre Babelon-IRAMAT, Orléans.
rd
th
A number of 3 to early 5 century AD Roman bracelets and counters from Italy and southern France have been
analysed at the same centre (Gratuze 2001a; 2001b; Moretti, Gratuze 2002). Another set of Roman black glass
samples has been analysed much earlier by using atomic absorption spectrometry (AAS) (De Witte 1977, I, 6373). These artefacts are bracelets of green-black glass from various Belgian sites: Liberchies, Taviers, Tongeren
and Vervoz.
Due to the absence of comparative studies at that time, the conclusion remained restricted to the remark that all
five late Roman bracelets from Belgian sites were produced using a mineral soda-rich glass with high iron content
(De Witte 1977, I, 65-66). The iron was deliberately added in high concentrations as a colouring agent. However,
the currently available analysis results on Bronze Age and Iron Age material demonstrate similar high iron content
(Table 141). Various French sites show an iron content ranging between 14% and 17% that was used during the
late Bronze Age and early Iron Age to obtain black-appearing glass beads. The Central European black glass
th
beads from Chotin have a similar high iron content, while the 9 century BC dated beads from Hasanlu have only
a slightly lower iron content of 11,2%. The only exception comes from the four black glass beads from tomb 89 at
Pella (JO), showing a much lower iron content.
307
Table 141: Chemical composition of black appearing
era
site/sample
Na2O
MgO
Al2O3
SiO2
P2O5
Cl
K2O
CaO
TiO2
MnO
Fe2O3
CoO
CuO
NiO
ZnO
PbO
SrO
ZrO2
Bronze
Age
Lac du Bourget (FR)* - bead
13,2
0,5
1,5
61,1
1,1
-
1,3
3,9
0,1
0,03
15,2
0,002
0,03
0,002
0,03
-
-
-
Mez Notariou (FR) - bead
13,9
1,38
2,4
68,5
1,8
0,6
1,33
1,9
0,2
0,07
7,1
0,001
0,18
-
-
0,188
-
-
Enveitg, Brangoli (FR)◘ - bead
16,7
3,83
2,08
58
0,48
0,9
1,89
7,65
0,096
0,61
7,36
0,002
0,024
-
-
0,32
-
-
Courtesoult (FR)* - bead
15
0,33
0,67
61,3
0,24
1
0,27
6,5
0,09
0,18
14,1
0,001
0,14
0,003
0,002
-
-
-
Mons (FR)* - bead
11,8
0,33
1,5
66,1
0,18
0,5
0,67
4
0,17
0,67
14,3
0,006
0,6
0,005
0,009
-
-
-
Quintigny (FR)* - bead
12,7
0,3
1,4
63
0,24
0,5
0,81
3,2
0,06
0,09
17,1
0,002
0,064
0,004
0,009
-
-
-
Chotin (UKR)* - bead
7,7
0,4
1,6
67,4
0,73
-
0,9
5,5
0,1
0,5
15
-
0,001
0,01
0,009
-
-
-
Hasanlu (IN)* - bead
17
0,9
0,8
64
-
-
0,8
1,6
0
0,01
11,2
-
0,005
-
0,004
-
-
-
Pella (JO) ** - Temple - bead
17,04
1,48
1,62
66,2
0,17
-
1,34
2,26
0,18
0
9,72
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
Pella (JO) ** - Tomb 89 - bead
17,45
4,39
1,34
66,1
0,13
-
3,3
6,83
0,01
0
0,43
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
Bouche-Rolland (FR)◊ - bead
14,6
0,93
3,09
59,2
0,17
0,4
0,7
7,23
0
1,8
8,43
0,002
0,034
0,003
-
0,58
-
8E - bead
14,1
0,69
2,75
63,6
0,09
0,9
0,87
7,1
0,054
0,11
9,56
0,007
0,014
0,002
0,003
0,003
0,047
0,005
8G - bead
late Bronze
Age
–
early Iron
Age
late Iron
Age
late Roman
308
Neufchâteau-le Sart
(BE)***
14,3
0,61
2,99
62,6
0,15
0,8
0,7
6,8
0,056
0,11
10,8
0,002
0,025
0,002
0,002
0,002
0,047
0,006
Pokrovka (RU) **** - bead
11,44
0,34
1,56
53,3
-
-
0,41
2,83
0,542
0,03
11,68
0,001
0,261
0,005
0,017
17,25
0,017
0,018
Aveyron (FR)*** - bead
15,7
0,78
2,77
63,2
0,15
1
0,85
8,33
0,13
0,94
6,05
0,04
-
-
-
-
-
-
Aquileia (IT)*** - counter
15,2
0,47
2,56
63,2
0,14
1,2
0,72
7,52
0,07
0,51
7,87
0,26
-
-
-
-
-
-
San Vito (IT)*** 1 - bracelet 20
13,8
0,56
3,04
62,4
0,22
1
0,42
8,99
0,09
1,06
8,26
0,01
-
-
-
-
-
-
San Vito (IT)*** 2 - bracelet 21
15,3
0,55
2,88
60,8
0,19
0,9
0,49
9,31
0,08
0,96
8,3
0,03
-
-
-
-
-
-
San Vito (IT)*** 3 - bracelet 22
16,1
0,9
2,56
62,7
0,15
1
0,51
7,24
0,11
0,7
7,71
0,03
-
-
-
-
-
-
San Vito (IT)*** 4 - bracelet 23
15,3
0,57
2,65
64
0,2
1
0,52
7,35
0,08
0,76
7,28
0,06
-
-
-
-
-
-
San Vito (IT)*** 5 - bracelet 40
14,8
0,7
2,68
63,4
0,19
0,8
0,64
7,28
0,09
0,92
8,07
0,11
-
-
-
-
-
-
Liberchies (BE)***** 1 - bracelet
14,67
0,55
2,35
65,6
-
-
0,66
6,08
0,11
0,4
6,14
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
Liberchies (BE)***** 2 - bracelet
13,97
0,73
3,46
67,9
-
-
1,6
6,47
0,16
0,35
2,37
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
Taviers (BE)***** 1 - bracelet
14,84
0,47
2,37
63,6
-
-
0,71
6,42
0,09
0,51
6,17
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
Taviers (BE)***** 2 - bracelet
15,04
0,52
2,38
65,9
-
-
0,98
7,06
0,11
0,46
5,18
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
Tongeren (BE)***** - bracelet
17,08
0,86
2,3
63,8
-
-
0,67
6,11
0,27
1,43
5,6
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
Vervoz (BE)***** - bracelet
15,18
0,54
2,14
63,4
-
-
0,78
6,34
0,08
0,39
6,66
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
These beads are characterized by high magnesium and high potash content (HMHK) and are different from the
contemporaneous temple area context, dated 1050-900/850 BC (Reade et al. 2009, 47-48, tab.1), demonstrating
a much lower magnesium and potash content (LMLK). The former group is in fact comparable to the Bronze Age
Nuzi glass (Reade et al. 2009, 48, tab.2).
Hence, we may conclude that the knowledge about colouring the glass melt black by means of iron ore, ferrous
salts or iron slags is not a Roman invention. Conversely the identification of a piece as Roman on the basis of its
255
high iron concentration is clearly too simplistic.
The Sarmatian black glass bead was made of leaded soda-silica-lime glass but has been regarded as a Chinese
production from the Han period on the basis of its chemical composition, in particular because of its low barium
256
content (Hall, Yablonsky 1997, 1243, tabs 1-2). The very high concentrations of titanium and lead oxide and a
lower silica, magnesium and aluminium content distinguish the chemical composition of the Sarmatian black glass
bead from other late Iron Age beads but relate it to very late Roman material (Table 141).
A re-assessment of the pieces analysed by Hubert De Witte in 1977 is at present possible thanks to the current
knowledge on ancient (black) glass. The Tongeren sample (no. 5), a bracelet of type D1, was made from a
deviating raw glass demonstrating a much higher titanium and manganese content, corresponding to Ian
Freestone‘s late Roman HIMT glass (Freestone 1994; Freestone et al. 2002) and Maurice Picon‘s ‗Groupe I‘
(Picon, Vichy 2003; Foy et al. 2003, 45-55; 80-83, Ann.1), even if the initial iron content, at impurity level, cannot
be read by the addition of a high concentration of iron oxide. It can, however, be assumed, since the iron content
in HIMT glass normally ranges between 1,3% and 2,3%. HIMT glass is supposed to have been introduced
th
somewhere at the start of the 4 century AD, but only became successful and used empire-wide by the middle of
that same century. We will demonstrate that it is no coincidence that none of the four other Belgian samples were
produced with HIMT glass [see below in this chapter]. Interestingly, Hubert De Witte already stressed that the
type D bracelets have been manufactured by means of a distinct technology vis-à-vis the other types [see
th
Chapter 3]. The bracelet types A, B and C were produced up to the first half of the 4 century AD, whereas the
th
type D bracelets only came into use after the mid 4 century AD [see Chapter 4].
When comparing these considerations to the analysis results from the contemporaneous material from southern
France and northern Italy, one immediately notices that there is no HIMT used here due to the low titanium
content. The high manganese content of 4 out of the 7 samples is correlated to the decolourizing of the glass
used to produce black glass, whereas the 3 other bracelets must have been made from ‗naturally coloured‘
bluish-green glass.
When opposing the silica and soda content (Figure 135), the composition of all black glass samples appears to be
a homogeneous silica-soda glass, except for the Sarmatian bead from Pokrovka (RU) and the Central European
one from Chotin. The silica content ranges between 60%-70% and the soda content averages between 12%18%. The two East European beads differ somewhat from this homogeneous group: the Chotin bead has a
significant lower soda content of 7,7%, while the Sarmatian bead differs on the basis of a lower silica content of
53,3%. It is striking to see that the Bronze Age beads have a similar SiNa ratio as do the Roman samples.
255
But it does not devalue the picture presented recently on the technical evolution the Roman glassworkers underwent during the two first
centuries of our era (Van der Linden et al. 2009).
256
Mark Hall and Leonid Yablonsky propose a low barium content because they could not detect the barium level when determining the sample by
EPMA.
309
Si vs Na
20
HIMT
18
16
14
12
Sarmatian bead
late Roman
10
Na2O
8
late Iron Age
late Bronze Age-early Iron Age
Bronze Age
6
4
2
0
0
10
20
30
40
50
SiO2
60
70
80
Figure 135: Biplot opposing silica to soda oxide content (wt %)
Ca vs Si
80
70
60
Sarmatian bead
50
late Roman
late Iron Age
40
SiO2
late Bronze Age-early Iron Age
Bronze Age
30
20
10
0
0
2
4
6
8
10
CaO
Figure 136: Biplot opposing lime to silica oxide content (wt %)
The biplot opposing the lime and silica content demonstrates two distinct groups, a low lime group and a high lime
group (Figure 136). The Roman material appears very homogeneously within the high lime group with a content
ranging between 6-9,5%. Seeing that the two late La Tène beads and fall within this same group we can assume
th
that this composition is bonded with the classic silica-soda-lime glass from about the 8 century BC (Gratuze et
al. 2003a). That the two late Iron Age beads from Neufchâteau-le Sart (BE) are also similar to the Roman glass is
th
th
not so surprising, since silica-soda-lime glass was common from about the 9 8 century BC onwards.
It is possible to determine whether vegetable soda or mineral soda was used as flux by plotting the potash
content against the magnesium content (Figure 137), because the use of plant ash as alternative flux show both
oxides are proportionally correlated. Consequently, the glass of the Pella bead, with its high potash and high
magnesium content, is unmistakeably made with plant ash as the fluxing agent. Mineral soda glass normally
shows a potash and magnesium content below 1% and never much above, so we have to consider it to be
contamination from the mineral soda.
310
K vs Mg
4,5
VEGETABLE SODA GLASS
4
3,5
3
PELLA
2,5
late Roman
late Iron Age
MgO
late Bronze Age-early Iron Age
2
Bronze Age
1,5
MINERAL SODA GLASS
HIMT
1
Liberchies 2
0,5
0
0
0,5
1
1,5
2
2,5
3
3,5
K2O
Figure 137: Biplot opposing potash to magnesium oxide content (wt %)
When plotting the silica content against the alumina content, it is clear that the Bronze Age and early Iron Age
black glass artefacts have a much lower alumina content (< 2%) compared to the late Iron Age and Roman pieces
(> 2%) (Figure 138). The alumina content is correlated to the sand; hence, we may conclude that 1) the alumina
content is not related to the concentration of silica oxides in the glass matrix, but to the applied sand sources; 2)
during the Bronze Age and early Iron Age, different sands (with low alumina content) were used than those used
from the late Iron Age on. Even though the Sarmatian bead is different from the other late Iron Age beads and
matches the Bronze Ageearly Iron Age ratio, we may conclude that there is a chronological dimension to the
general change of origin of sand extraction to produce (black) glass; 3) the alumina content of the Liberchies 2
piece is with 3,5% much higher than the 2,0-3,0% generally attested on Roman glass; 4) two late Bronze
Age/early Iron Age beadsi.e. from Mez Notariou (FR) and Enveitg (FR) coincide the late Roman cluster. It
can be assumed that these two coincidentally matches due to an equivalent (or the same) sand source, unless
both beads have been mistakenly determined and are in reality late Roman pieces. The plot in Figure 138
demonstrates that the Roman cluster consist of two separate smaller clusters, i.e. with an alumina content of 22,5% and 2,5-3%. In contrast with the Bronze Age and early Iron Age material which have a similar alumina
content as the HIMT sample, the late Iron Age material (excluding the Sarmatian bead) falls within the sub-cluster
with more elevated alumina content. The Liberchies 2 piece shows a more discrepant composition.
311
Si vs Al
c.1,5%
<1%
80
2-2,5%
2,5-3%
3,5%
HIMT
70
Liberchies 2
late Roman
60
late Iron Age
50
late Bronze Age-early Iron Age
Sarmatian bead
40
SiO2
30
Bronze Age
LATE IRON AGE &
ROMAN
BRONZE AGE &
EARLY IRON AGE
20
10
0
0
0,5
1
1,5
2
Al2O3
2,5
3
3,5
4
Figure 138: Biplot opposing alumina to silica oxide content (wt %)
Besides a chronological difference, also a regional difference can be identified within the Bronze Ageearly Iron
Age black glass beads when opposing the alumina and the magnesium content (Figure 139). The samples from
the Near East have a magnesium content of about 1% and above, whereas those from the European Continent
have a Mg concentration below 0,5%. Probably the glassworkers in the Near East added vegetable soda to the
batch. Actually, this conclusion is already attestable in Figure 137 but less apparent. The difference in alumina
content makes it possible to discriminate the late Iron Age and Roman samples from the Bronze Age–early Iron
Age black glass.
Mg vs Al
5
4,5
4
3,5
late Roman
late Iron Age
late Bronze Age-early Iron Age
Bronze Age
3
2,5
MgO
2
NEAR EAST
1,5
1
0,5
0
Liberchies 2
EUROPEAN
CONTINENT
0
0,5
1
1,5
2
2,5
3
3,5
4
Al2O3
Figure 139: Biplot opposing alumina to magnesium oxide content (wt %)
This bipolarity is also demonstrated in Figure 140 when plotting the alumina content against the iron oxide
concentration. The Bronze Ageearly Iron Age beads have a much higher Fe concentration than did the late Iron
AgeRoman artefacts, correspondingly 10%-18% and 5%-11%. Noticeable is that the iron content of the Roman
312
material does not exceed the 8% by much. The late Iron Age beads are fully responsible for the higher iron
content in this group. One sample in each group shows a deviant ratio: the beads from tomb 89 in Pella (JO) have
almost no iron content, whereas that of the Roman bangle from Liberchies (no. 2) does not go much beyond 2%.
This explains its dark green hue not appearing black. Furthermore alumina clusters, most likely due to different
sand sources as it has nothing to do with the concentration of silica in the glass matrix (Figure 138)
Fe vs Al
18
c.1,5%
16
BRONZE AGE &
EARLY IRON AGE
14
12
LATE IRON AGE &
ROMAN
Sarmatian bead
<1%
late Roman
late Iron Age
late Bronze Age-early Iron Age
Bronze Age
10
Fe2O3
8
6
2,5-3%
2-2,5%
4
3,5%
2
0
0
0,5
1
1,5
2
2,5
3
3,5
4
Al2O3
Figure 140: Biplot opposing alumina to iron oxide content (wt %)
The most important plots clustering the various colouring agents in achieving black glass are those that oppose
iron oxide with the titanium content on the one hand to the manganese content on the other hand. In the first
place, we can check whether the iron oxide was introduced as a contaminant in the sand like the titanium oxide,
or whether it was added deliberately. When plotting the iron oxide against the titanium oxide content, there is a
marked cluster for the Roman material around 0,1% Ti-oxide, clearly differing from the late Iron Age beads
(Figure 141). Only the Pella tomb beads and perhaps the Liberchies bangle have been made with impure or not
purified sand. All others have deliberately added iron oxide to the batch, making it impossible to verify whether
impure sand was used too. When opposing iron oxide to the manganese concentration (Figure 142), it is even
more clear that the Roman samples are different from all pre-Roman examples, having a much higher Mn content
equal or above 0,4% and a lower iron oxide content below 8%.
By plotting the Mn content against the Ti content in Figure 143, one Roman bangle catches the eye. The type D1
th
th
bangle from Tongeren, characteristic for the second half of the 4 5 century AD, has a higher titanium and
manganese content featuring the HIMT composition (Freestone 1994) or Maurice Picon‘s ‗Groupe 3‘ (série 3.1)
th
th
dated late 4 -early 5 century AD (Foy et al. 2003, 61-62, tab.12).
313
Fe vs Ti
18
16
14
Sarmatian bead
12
late Roman
10
Fe2O3
8
late Iron Age
late Bronze Age-early Iron Age
Bronze Age
6
Tongeren HIMT
4
Liberchies 2
2
0
0
0,1
0,2
0,3
TiO2
0,4
0,5
0,6
Figure 141: Biplot opposing titanium to iron oxide content (wt %)
Fe vs Mn
18
16
14
BRONZE AGE LATE IRON AGE
12
10
Fe2O3
8
late Roman
late Iron Age
late Bronze Age-early Iron Age
Bronze Age
LATE ROMAN
6
Tongeren HIMT
4
Liberchies 2
2
'naturally coloured'
0
0
0,2
0,4
mix of both
0,6
0,8
decolourized
1
MnO
Figure 142: Biplot opposing manganese to iron oxide content (wt %)
314
1,2
1,4
1,6
Mn vs Ti
1,6
Tongeren HIMT
1,4
1,2
MnO
1
late Roman
0,8
late Iron Age
0,6
late Bronze Age-early Iron Age
Bronze Age
0,4
Liberchies 2
0,2
Sarmatian bead
0
0
0,1
0,2
0,3
0,4
0,5
0,6
TiO2
Figure 143: Biplot opposing titanium to manganese oxide content (wt %)
K vs Na
20
NEAR EASTERN LBA-EIA
VEGETABLE SODA GLASS
18
Tongeren HIMT
16
Liberchies 2
14
12
late Roman
10
Na2O
late Iron Age
EUROPEAN CONTINENTAL
LBA-EIA
8
late Bronze Age-early Iron Age
Bronze Age
6
MINERAL SODA GLASS
4
2
0
0
0,5
1
1,5
2
2,5
3
3,5
K2O
Figure 144: Biplot opposing potash to soda oxide content (wt %)
From the acquired knowledge on the chemical composition of black glass artefacts from the different periods, it
257
was possible to establish the differences between Roman and pre-Roman black glass. These plots give a
general view confined by the limited number of samples and reduced variety, giving rise to various questions
concerning a possible production variation within the Roman imperial period itself or a continuation of the various
raw glass recipes within the vast research area that the Roman Empire encompassed.
257
It was also our intention to integrate some data from post-Roman times, but the PIXE-PIGE analysis data on Merovingian black glass beads
from the vast cemetery of Bossut-Gottechain/Grez—Doiceau, Belgium were provisionally not accessible.
315
A. Concerning the technological issue:
Are different sands recognized in Roman black glass production?
Does the used flux show a great homogeneity or were different fluxes used?
Did Romans use ‗naturally coloured‘ raw glass to make black glass or was decolourised glass also used?
o
o
Is a chronological and/or geographical pattern observable in the use of naturally coloured‘ and/or
decolourized raw glass?
Did the Romans use manganese or antimony to decolourize the raw glass ?
Did the Romans colour glass by using one particular recipe to obtain a black appearance?
o
o
o
Was the applied colorant a product of its time?
Which furnace condition was applied?
What temperatures were necessary or used?
B. Concerning the archaeological issue:
Can the different sands, fluxes, decolourizers, and colorants recognized be linked with
o
o
o
specific functional types
particular form types within one functional type
specific periods, regions or even workshops
Was black glass produced locally in secondary workshops, or did the Romans import the at-hand raw glass
coloured black in primary workshops or specialized intermediate workshops?
To what extent can the chemical composition provide a clearer understanding of the typo-chronological
idiosyncrasies?
Are chronological and regional differences observable in the production of black glass during the Roman
imperial period?
C. Concerning the historical issue:
When various specific recipes were in use during the Roman imperial period:
o
o
o
Can this diversity in black glass production have its origins in a chronological development?
Can a contemporary diversity of recipes be easily reduced to regional variability due to specific
distribution and trade restrictions or regulations?
Can this diversity be attributed to the function of the finished product? In other words, is there a
difference in chemical composition between the glass used for the production of vessels, jewellery,
tesserae and/or counters?
Was black glass mass-produced in one single, or several, centres and then further distributed all over the
Empire, or was it produced locally? The latter fits in with the traditional system of supply and demand for welldefined regional markets causing regional and local idiosyncrasies, whereas the former rather claims the
existence of a proto-industrialized organisation of glass workshops, implying a much greater sameness of
forms and types. But is one single model appropriate for the entire Roman imperial period or did various
models emerge through the consecutive centuries?
To what extent is it possible to identify secondary glass workshops that produced artefacts in (black) glass on
the basis of the different recipes used? For instance, can workshops be identified on the basis of specific
elements pointing to a different source of raw glass or to a different colouring technique? In other words, is it
likely to reduce each recipe to one single secondary glass workshop that produced artefacts in black glass in
a well-defined period? Is it equally possible that black glass (artefacts) from one and the same recipe were
produced in various Roman glass workshops within a specific region or even at random?
258
To achieve this goal, it was advisable to sample black glass artefacts from a long period. This diachronic
sampling already had provided us with information on the technology used to colour the glass black that
apparently developed through the successive centuries (Cosyns et al. 2006a; Van der Linden et al. 2009). To
enable further exploration, we tried to assemble a comprehensive set of sampled black glass artefacts including:
258
We have compared in this introduction the prior analysis results of Roman black glass with, as much as possible, pre- and post-Roman black
glass reflecting the present-day research on this topic.
316
diverse functions, e.g., vessels, jewellery, counters, architectural decoration material and production
material
all five centuries of the Roman imperial period
different areas within the Roman Empire
various glass hues, e.g., green, purple, brown, blue, blue-green
This unavoidably necessitated a large number of samples. We were able to integrate in this study the analysis
259
results of Roman black glass artefacts for a total amount of 366 samples , nearly all embedded in an acrylic
260
resin [see Appendix 1]. Although we tried to make a cross-section of all commodity categories, all areas, all
colours and all periods we realize we mostly sampled vessels and bracelets in green glass from north-western
Europe (Table 142).
Table 142: Overview of samples per assorted topics [see Appendix 1] (n= number of samples)
function
region or country
colour
period
n
n
n
(see map)
vessels
bracelets
finger rings
beads
hairpins
pendants
gems
counters
rods
tesserae
raw glass
crucible glass
obsidian
indefinite
TOTAL
184
149
7
19
2
1
11
11
1
40
3
5
5
438
UK
Benelux
France
Germany
Alps (Switzerland – Austria)
Italy
Balkan
Aegean
Levant
Egypt
Maghreb
Iberia
unprovenanced
20
229
33
10
70
8
25
16
7
8
2
10
438
green
purple
brown
blue
blue-green
black
268
54
19
17
23
46
other
11
438
n
Period I
Period II
Period III
Period IV
Period I/II
Period II/III
Period III/IV
Period I/III
Period I/IV
modern
indefinite
47
137
15
33
32
27
58
5
6
7
29
pre-Roman
post-Roman
35
7
438
The significant contribution of Prof. Dr. Koen Janssens and his team at the Micro and Trace Analysis Centre
(MiTAC) of the University of Antwerp made it possible to conduct the chemical analysis on a huge number of
black glass samples by means of using the scanning electron microscope with energy dispersive X-ray
spectroscopy (SEM-EDX) and by means of laser ablation with inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry
(LA-ICP-MS). The cooperation with MiTAC not only added greatly to the acquisition of an outline on how to define
in detail the artefacts to sample, but it also gave the opportunity to learn SEM-EDX analysis as it is done in the
laboratory at Wilrijk. I was apprenticed to prepare samples in a resin and to measure the samples. The detection,
de-convolution and subsequent quantification of the spectra were done by the MiTAC team. However, Dr. Olivier
Schalm, dra Veerle Van der Linden and drs Simone Cagno successively received my help with measuring the
samples. By taking samples myself of all artefacts to be analysed at the museums and archaeological depots in
Belgium and abroad, and by preparing most resins, we tried to minimize the nuisance to Prof. Dr. Koen Janssens‘
team. All useful information has been acquired with their helpfulness, their accuracy and above all their
commitment to contribute to a better insight into the black glass matter in particular, and into Roman glass in
general.
A concerted action between MiTAC of the University of Antwerp (UA) with the Department of Chemistry at the
University of Technology of Warsaw has been the opportunity to have a first selection of resins analysed via LAICP-MS by Ewa Bulska‘s team in collaboration with Anna Nowak and Barbara Wagner. Subsequent selections of
resins for LA-ICP-MS analysis were executed in the lab of Prof. Dr. Vanhaecke at the Department of Chemistry of
the University of Ghent, Belgium (UGent).
Prior to these analyses, we already had the occasion to use LA-ICP-MS to compare the SEM-EDXmeasurements of some resins by Bernard Gratuze at the CNRS centre Babelon IRAMAT in Orléans in the
261
prospect of the ULB-CReA publication edited by Prof. Dr. Eugène Warmenbol on the glass material of the
subaquatic site Trou de Han at Han-sur-Lesse (BE).
259
An additional 66 samples have been incorporated in the study (57 non black; 4 obsidian; 5 modern).
Three samples from Tienen (BE) [see Appendix 1, PC4eg] could not be sampled and were analysed by SEM-XRF and the semi-quantitative
results have been converted to % weight.
261
Université Libre de Bruxelles – Centre de Recherche Archéologique (CReA).
260
317
8.2 Methodology
8.2.1
SEM-EDX
The analysis, executed at the MiTAC of the University of Antwerp, has been done by SEM-EDX under the
supervision of Prof. Dr Koen Janssens. Thanks to coaching by his assistants, Dr Olivier Schalm, Dra Veerle Van
der Linden and Drs Simone Cagno, I was able to help in a substantial way through selecting and sampling all
black glass artefacts, through the preparation of the majority of the resins and through helping when
measurements were taken.
The samples had to be prepared to enable the measuring. Therefore, the selected small glass fragments (mainly
averaging between 1 and 2 mm per side but never exceeding 5 mm) were embedded into an acrylic resin. The
resin blocks were mechanically ground with silicon carbide paper and polished with diamond paste up to 0,25 μm
to obtain a smooth surface of unaltered glass. This surface treatment is required because SEM-EDX is a
superficial measurement system bombarding a sample with X-rays in a predetermined angle to be received by the
SEM to allow an efficient detection of the elemental spectra.
The preparation of the resins contained different stages:
sticking a selection of samples on double-sided tape that was applied on the lid of a plastic matrix
photographing and drawing a first sketch of the samples (seen from the inner/back side) related with an
identification list of the samples (Figure 145)
obtaining a cold-curing resin for metallographic testing by mixing the Technovit 4004 (Kulzer) powder with the
Technovit 4004 (Kulzer) liquid (Figure 146)
pouring the resin into the matrix to encase the samples
polishing of the resin to get a clean, smooth and scratchless surface to enable the analysis measurements
(Figure 147)
o use of polishing paper (320; 500; 800; 1200; 2400) with running water
o use of polishing platform with diamond powder (3 µm; 1 µm; .25 µm) and a lubricant
photographing and drawing of a definitive sketch (= mirror image of first drawing) that can be scanned to
result in a digital drawing [see Appendix 1];
a
b
Figure 145: a) preparing the samples in a plastic matrix before filling the plastic matrix with resin; b) making of a sketch of the
samples
318
Figure 146: The material used to make a resin for encasing the samples
Figure 147: (left) The final stage of grinding and polishing the resin surface by using diamond paste of 0,25 µm.; (right) Resin
with clean, smooth and scratchless surface ready for analysis measurements
Figure 148: Vacuum carbon evaporation device (BALZERS UNION) used to apply a thin carbon coating
319
After the polishing process, a thin carbon coating was applied on the top surface of the resin by using a vacuum
carbon evaporation device to give the resin a conductive surface to disperse the electronic charge from the
electron beam (Figure 148). A JEOL 6300 scanning electron microscope equipped with an energy dispersive Xray detector was used. The acquisition time was 100 seconds, the accelerating voltage 20kV, the electron beam
current 2nA, and the magnification 500x.
An electron beam generated from a heated tungsten filament is accelerated through a vacuum column and
bombards the sample. As a result of the excitation as well as de-excitation of the sample‘s electrons,
characteristic X-rays are emitted, whose energy is related to specific elements. After being received by an
Energy-Dispersive X-ray detector positioned at an angle of 30°, the recorded X-ray intensities result in a plot of
the sample‘s chemical spectrum. Subsequently, the measured spectra are de-convoluted by a computer
262
programme (least squares fitting) and quantified using a standard-less ZAF-programme (Schalm, Janssens
2003). The quantification of the elements is tested on the efficiency of the measurements vis-à-vis the used
standards. The analysis results used in the tables are the calculated average from four to five measurements
taken on different zones of the sample.
8.2.2
LA-ICP-MS
The analysis technique by LA-ICP-MS has been used in addition to SEM-EDX to enable the insertion of
concentration data of minor and trace elements far below 0,1%. The latter gives a fast and easy outline on all
oxides with a concentration above 0,1%, whereas LA-ICP-MS provides very sharp results on the minor and trace
elements.
Another interest in the application of this technique resides in the fact that it can be considered as a nondestructive analysis since the laser only burns microscopic ablation craters with diameters smaller than 100 µm,
and thus they are barely visible with the naked eye. Laser ablation was executed on a selection of the black glass
samples in three different laboratories:
1.
2.
3.
In two consecutive sessions 16 resins were measured by Olivier Schalm and Simone Cagno at the
Department of Chemistry of the University of Warsaw, Poland with the support of Anna Nowak, Barbara
Wagner, and Ewa Bulska. Five resins (PC1-3; PC6; PC7) were analysed in March 2007, and in
December 2007 another eleven resins (PC10-16; PC18; PC21-23) were subjected to LA-ICP-MS
263
testing.
During a visit at the Centre Ernest BabelonCNRS, Institut de Recherche sur les Archéomatériaux
(IRAMAT), Orléans for the analysis of the intact late Bronze Age glass beads from Trou de Han (BE)
rd
(Figure 149) and the beads from the early 3 century BC chariot tomb excavated at Neufchâteau-le-Sart
(BE) (Table 141), we seized the opportunity to check a set of Roman black glass samples (resins PC3;
PC6; PC7). This verification by Bernard Gratuze (UMR 5060) was only meant to reveal the deviation
between his measurement results and those obtained using SEM-EDX at MiTAC, University of Antwerp
and through LA-ICP-MS at the University of Warsaw [see Appendix 1].
A selection of the most recently acquired samples has been analysed by Simone Cagno at the
Department of Chemistry of the University of Ghent (UGent) with the support of Isolde De Coninck
(resins PC 24-28) and Andrei Izmer (resins PC 35; 36; 40; 41) under the supervision of Prof. Dr Frank
Vanhaecke.
With a laser, it is possible to take microscopic samples from a specific zone on the surface of the embedded
samples. Using inductive coupling, the evaporated mass is taken along with a carrying axle towards the plasma
beam. The plasma beam is able to dissociate, atomise and ionise the injected mass. By means of supersonic
propulsions the ions thus formed are then launched from the plasma through an intermediate vacuum.
Afterwards, a system of electrostatic lenses extracts and focalises the positively charged ions, diverting them to a
quadrupole mass filter. This filter makes it possible to select the ions of which the ratio mass/charge (m/Z) was
preselected. A detector then records the ions transmitted through the mass filter. Each isotope of each element
corresponds to a unique value corresponding with a specific ratio mass/charge (m/Z). This provides an easy
identification of the elements present in the sample. Furthermore, the amount of detected ions directly depends
262
263
The ZAF programme takes into account the atomic number (Z), absorption (A), and fluorescence (F).
The first results on the chemical composition obtained from these resins resulted in a publication (Vander Linden et al. 2009).
320
on the concentration from the source of each element within the glass sample, thus making it possible to calculate
the percentage of each element.
In Warsaw, an inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer ELAN 9000 (Perkin Elmer, SCIEX, Canada)
+
+
equipped with the laser ablation system LSX-200 (CETAC, USA) was used. The LSX-200 combined a stable,
environmentally sealed 266 nm UV laser (Nd-YAG, solid state, Q-switched) with a high sampling efficiency,
variable 1–20 Hz pulse repetition rate and maximum energy up to 6 mJ/pulse. The ablation was done horizontally
on two different areas of the sample, making a scratch of 100 µm wide each.
In Orléans, an inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer VG Plasma Quad II type PQXS, in combination
with a UV-Microprobe laser ablation system, was used. The ablation was executed by vertically pointing on 3 to 4
different areas of the sample, provoking perforations of 80 µm in diameter each. To ensure non-interference of
impurities and defects, the first seconds of the produced gas was not taken into account for quantification.
In Ghent, an inductively coupled plasma (ICP) mass spectrometer (Thermo PlasmaLab type XSeries 2) was used
to quantify the different isotopes present in the sample. The glass sample embedded in the resin was ablated by a
Geolas 200M laser-Lambda Physik Compex and the evaporated glass mass, carried by the argon gas, was
conveyed to the ICP mass spectrometer. The ablation was done horizontally on two different areas of the sample,
making perforations of 60 µm diameter each with a length of 600 µm. A pre-cleaning was completed each time
under a 1 Hz pulse repetition with a maximum energy up to 1,6 mJ/pulse at a rate of 50 µm/s on a surface of 120
µm width to ensure a clean surface for the quantitative analysis. Afterwards, the ablation was done under a 10 Hz
pulse repetition rate with a maximum energy up to 0,4 mJ/pulse at a rate of 10 µm/s,.
To analyse with LA-ICP-MS, the resins with embedded glass samples were placed inside a quartz cell filled with
Argon (Ar) that acts as a flux (Figure 149).
Figure 149: LA-ICP-MS installation at CNRS-IRAMAT, Orléans, France (photographs by author, courtesy of Bernard Gratuze)
In Orléans, two detection methods were used. The first was analogue and provided the measurement of the major
elements. The second method was impulsivemeaning that the computer counted the pulses for every oxide
indicated beforehand, supplying a quantification of the minor and trace elements. Several measurements were
executed depending on the number of elements to be checked. The first was done to accumulate the data on the
major elements of the glass matrix (elements with a concentration above 1% weight such as silica, soda, lime,
alumina, and potash). The others were needed to collect the data on the selected minor and trace elements
chosen in correlation to the queries appropriate to the investigation pursued. Per compilation of data
accumulation, three ablations were carried out. A conversion programme was set up in Visual Basic within Excel,
giving the opportunity to process the acquired data set. The applied computation system was based on the
principle of an internal standard. The calibration of the machine was obtained by using NIST glass standard SRM
610 and Corning Museum of Glass (CMG) standards B, C and D. In Warsaw and in Ghent, the selection of both
methods was done automatically.
321
Furthermore, the nature of the studied matrices (lime glass, potash glass, lead glass, glass with antimony or with
tin and lead) of the archaeological glass was analysed a priori by neutron activation by fast cyclotron. The
correctness of the method was regularly checked by measuring the international glass standards (or by using
previously analysed archaeological glass). The limits of detection ranged between 0,1%-0,01% for the major
elements and between 20-500 ppb (parts per billion) for the minor and trace elements. The precision of the results
is of an order of magnitude of 5%-15%, depending on the elements and their measured percentages.
To obtain the LA-ICP-MS data, the resin blocks were inserted separately in the laser ablation sample cell on the
XYZ translation stage. The exact positioning of the sample was obtained by means of a CCD camera as a
+
viewing system under PC control. The LSX-200 was centrally controlled by the Cetac Windows software which
allows a selective ablation of the chosen areas of the investigated samples. Each measurement cycle consisted
of pre-cleaning the sample surface with a laser beam (no signal was registered during this step) followed by the
laser ablation accompanied by registering of signals. Before ablation, a blank was always registered within the
11
23
26
27
first 18 s of argon flow only. Signal intensities were recorded for the following isotopes:
B, Na, Mg, Al,
28
31
32
39
42
43
49
55
57
65
75
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
121
133
137
Si, P, S, K, Ca, Ca, Ti, Mn, Fe, Cu, As, Rb, Sr, Sr, Sr, Y, Zr, Zr, Sb, Cs, Ba,
151
178
206
207
208
264 43
Eu,
Hf,
Pb,
Pb, and
Pb.
Ca was used as an internal standard. Before quantification, the blank
signal was subtracted for each element individually.
During the LA-ICP-MS measurements in Warsaw, the CMG standard B was employed as an external standard,
and its composition was validated with the use of CMG standard D and NIST SRMs 2709, 2710 and 2711. More
details are provided in (Wagner, Bulska 2004; Šmit et al. 2005; Wagner et al. 2007). In Orléans, the NIST
standard 610 and CMG standards B, C and D were used, while those utilized in Ghent were limited to NIST 610
and 612.
The contents of chromium (Cr), nickel (Ni), and zinc (Zn) were in almost all cases below the limit of quantification
for the VG Plasma Quad II type PQXS at the CNRS lab of Bernard Gratuze in Orléans, while this was not the
case for the very recent and more efficient Thermo PlasmaLab type XSeries 2 installation at the Department of
Chemistry in Ghent. Brome (BE) and arsenic (As) were the only elements for which semi-quantitative values
could be given, because in the CMG standard B used here, these elements are present only in an insignificant
degree above the limit of quantification. On the other hand, it is a problem quantifying arsenic (As) because its
mass is 75 and interference can occur with the chlorine (Cl) that is measured together with the argon plasma gas.
8.3 Studied material
Within the available time of the project, we were able to sample 368 black glass artefacts of the 4475 (4754)
inventoried black glass items embedded in 49 resins, but various non-black glass artefacts, or non-Roman
265
material, were integrated in these 49 resins [see Appendix 1]. This not inconsiderable amount of sampled
artefacts (roughly 1 in 12) included vessels, bracelets, finger rings, beads, hairpins, pendants, gaming counters,
tesserae and raw glass. These sampled objects come from different areas in the north-western Roman provinces
Gallia Belgica, Germania Inferior and Germania Superior, although a not negligible quantity of the sampled
material covers the Mediterranean area (Italy, Croatia, Slovenia, Cyprus, Israel, Egypt, Tunisia) (Table 143). This
extensive set of samples provides important additional information to the prior obtained results on French, Italian
(Moretti, Gratuze 2002), and some late Roman material from Braga (PT) (pers. comm., Bernard Gratuze).
The sampled material applicable in the research presented here covers the entire Roman imperial period over five
st
nd
rd
centuries. The samples, however, are to a large extent material of the 1 century AD and the late 2 3 century
AD (Table 144).
When paying attention to the different glass colours appearing blacke.g., purple, blue, brown, greenone can
see that the majority of the sampled artefacts are made of green glass (Table 145).
264
With LA-ICP-MS, it is not possible to quantify separately the various isotopes of a particular element. For various practical reasons, specific
isotope analysis has not been carried out within the research project on Roman black glass.
265
The set of 49 resins contain in total 439 samples but the 71 omitted samples are either non-Roman or of non-black glass. This is the result of a
gradually accumulated list of samples over the past years incorporating occasional opportunities cropping up on the sideline. Although these
samples have no direct interest to the black glass research, they appeared to be important as comparative material. Thirty-eight samples are from
La Tène bracelets, 3 samples are from decolourized or ‗naturally coloured‘ glass, 5 samples are from obsidian, 4 samples are modern, and 4
samples are indistinct vitreous material. The compositions of these samples have not been incorporated in Appendix 1 but are available on
demand. Besides, some samples have been polished away or seemed to have been so affected that a good and relevant measurement was not
possible.
322
Table 143: List of sampled Roman black glass material according to provenance (between square brackets, from previous
research by others (Morreti, Gratuze 2002))
country
sites
Belgium
Netherlands
Germany
France
England
Switzerland
Austria
Slovenia
Croatia
Italy
Portugal
Cyprus
Tunisia
Egypt
Israel
Amay; Anthée; Auvelais; Bassenge; Dilsen; Dourbes; Elewijt; Florennes; Grobbendonk; Izier; Kontich; Kruishoutem; Lauw;
Liberchies; Liège; Marche-les-Dames; Matagne-la-Petite; Menen; Nismes; Nivelles; Oudenburg; Pry; Roch-Ste-Anne;
Roly; Rumst; Tienen; Tongeren; Treignes; Velzeke
Heerlen; Hoogeloon; Nijmegen;
Trier
Faulquemont; Grandes Armoises; Marseille; Olbia; Reims; Ste Menehould; [Gap]
London; Colchester
Augst; Avenches
Magdalensberg
Celje; Ribnica; Trebnje
Oresac
Rome; [Aquileia]; [San Taglimento]
Braga
Carthage; Sidi Djididi
Elkab; Ghurob
Horbat Qastra
Table 144: List of sampled Roman black glass material according to type and date range per generalized period
prepostI
II
I/II
II/III
IV
III/IV
I/IV
indefinite
Roman
Roman
vessels
TOTAL
35
109
26
-
-
-
-
-
1
13
184
arm rings
-
-
6
41
33
32
-
33
-
3
148
finger rings
-
-
-
2
-
4
-
-
-
-
6
beads
-
-
-
2
-
17
-
-
-
-
19
pendants
-
-
-
-
1
2
-
-
-
-
3
hairpins
-
-
-
2
-
-
-
-
-
-
2
counters
-
-
-
-
-
-
11
-
-
-
11
rods and tesserae
10
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
1
-
11
raw glass + crucibles
2
16
-
-
3
3
-
-
8
6
38
other
-
3
-
-
-
-
-
-
5
8
16
47
128
32
47
37
58
11
33
15
30
438
TOTAL
Table 145: List of sampled Roman black glass material according to type and colour of the glass matrix
black
green
purple
brown
blue
blue-green
other
TOTAL
vessels
7
142
11
12
8
2
2
184
arm rings
8
91
34
1
3
8
3
148
finger rings
1
5
-
-
-
-
-
6
beads
14
4
-
-
1
-
-
19
pendants
2
1
-
-
-
-
-
3
hairpins
-
2
-
-
-
-
-
2
counters
-
5
5
1
-
-
-
11
-
1
2
3
3
2
-
11
raw glass + crucibles
10
12
1
2
1
10
2
38
other
4
5
1
-
1
1
4
16
TOTAL
46
268
54
19
17
23
11
438
rods and tesserae
First, the material has been subdivided by means of a chronological component (e.g., period I and period II) and a
geographical component (e.g., zone a and b) (Van der Linden et al. 2009) (Table 146).
323
Table 146: Chronological subdivision of the sampled material as proposed in Van der Linden et al. 2009
Period I
Period II
(ante 150 AD)
(post 150 AD)
East Mediterranean
(Egypt; Israel; Cyprus)
Ia
Ib
Northwest Europe
(UK; Benelux; France; Germany; Switzerland; Austria)
IIa
IIb
st
266
267
Group Ia: No samples could be taken from 1 century AD black glass artefacts from the East Mediterranean.
Group IIa: This section incorporates 113 early Roman samples from Northwest Europe. Five sampled cast
st
vessels come from the early 1 century AD site in Magdalensberg (AT) (Resin PC1g-k).
Group Ib: Concerning the samples of the later period in the Mediterranean, we have four rod-formed unguentaria
with a solid body from Elkab, Egypt (PC2a-b; d-e). Further are sixteen samples, mainly beads, from the late
Roman fort at Horbat Qastra, Israel. Also a pendant and two bracelet fragments from the same site could be
sampled (PC24a-h; PC25a-h). Of the two samples from Cyprus, a pendant and a chunk of raw glass (PC28a-b),
only the pendant could be dated on a typological basis.
Group IIb: All samples from Matagne-la-Petite, Tienen, and Rumst, Belgium have been taken from carinated
beakers Isings Form 36b, with the exception of one piece of production waste. The beakers are all dated between
nd
rd
the last quarter of the 2 century and the second quarter of the 3 century AD (Cosyns, Hanut 2005). Further, in
the set of resins, two Faulquemont samples were incorporated from two different beakers (Isings Form 94variants), one with indented body and base-ring and the other without foot.
The non-Roman material consists of two categories:
1)
Resins PC3i-n, PC5k, PC9-10, PC29a-b, PC38a-b, PC39e, and PC42f are late La Tène glass bangles
st
st
dating from 1 century BC1 century AD, mainly in deep purple glass appearing black
2)
Modern material, for instance sample PC1f from Rumst (BE), which shows a composition equalling the
th
268
th
th
black glass bottles of the 17 century in northern France ; the late 18 –early 19 century bottle from Wenduine
th
th
(PC5l); and the late 19 –early 20 century medallion and vessel fragment from Han-sur-Lesse (PC8d and f).
These samples were deliberately inserted to see how they contrast with the Roman black glass to understand
better the Roman black glass idiosyncrasies.
The entire set included some non-black-appearing Roman material, for instance, the three colourless bracelets
from the Belgian sites of Tongeren (PC3i-j) and Emblem (PC3m) and two colourless body fragments of the
beakers with Greek inscriptions from the Kielenstraat in Tongeren (BE) (Cosyns et al. 2005, 182-183). Most
interesting is the material from the recently published glass workshop from Kaiseraugst (CH) that also produced
black glass artefacts (PC46-47) (Fischer 2009) [see this chapter below].
Several obsidian fragments are integrated within the set of black glass samples, sometimes intentionally. One
piece comes from the sub-aquatic site at Han-sur-Lesse (BE) (PC8e). Another sample is taken from a chunk from
Monte-Arci, Sardinia (PC44h) and used for the Velzeke experiment in the scope of the obsidian vessel fragment
R1610 in RMAH, Brussels (Cagno et al. 2010). Several pieces come from east Turkey (PC29g; PC37g-h).
Other non-black glass is the material from Vremde (BE) (PC3a-d). Finally, the samples polished away or fully
altered are PC24b-c, a late Roman bead, and a pendant from Horbat Qastra (IL), respectively.
266
We verified whether samples from other areas – e.g., Central Europe (Austria; Slovenia; Croatia) and the West Mediterranean (Portugal; Italy;
S-France; Tunisia) – can result in a further elaboration of geographical subdivision – respectively as Group IIIab and Group IVab.
267
A demand for sampling Egyptian material including 1st century AD vessels in the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology, London was
accepted in January 2009 and was executed on 24t February 2009. Unfortunately, not all granted pieces have been sampled in particular the
bracelets as well as some particular vessels.
268
Personal communication from Bernard Gratuze.
324
8.4 Results
8.4.1
SEM-EDX
Roman glass production is characterised by a soda-lime-silica glass with ratios in the order of 16:10:70. This
production relied on the melting of two primary ingredients: sand and mineral soda. Apart from the silica content,
the sand also contained a considerable concentration of lime (8%-10%), which could immediately be used as
stabilizing agent, and some impurities such as iron and alumina. The latter appeared in a concentration of about
3% (Brill 1988). Other trace elements present in ancient glass are Fe 2O3, TiO2, BaO, SrO and B2O3 (Brill 1988).
Figure 150: Ternary plot opposing Al2O3-Fe2O3-MnO (weight %) (taken from Vander Linden et al. 2009, fig.4)
269
The material studied shows a very homogeneous silica-soda-lime group with a concentration of 54%-72% for
silica (SiO2), 12%-21% for soda (Na2O) and 3,5%-11% for calcium (CaO) (Figure 150). This homogeneous
composition is characteristic throughout Antiquity, roughly from the 8th century BC to the 8th century AD (Gratuze
2004).
Analysis of Roman glass demonstrates that soda was the main flux in glass production. During this period, the
primary source of soda was natron and trona, naturally occurring salts found in dry lake beds (Shortland et al.
2006), with its main exploitation in the larger area around Wadi El Natrun, located in Egypt (Brill 1988; Nenna
2003). Figure 151 demonstrates that during the Roman imperial period the bulk of the black glass artefacts were
made by using mineral soda with the typical low magnesiumlow potash contentboth below 1,5%. A number of
samples, however, show clear increased levels of magnesium and potash above 1,5%. Varying directly, the
magnesiumpotash content is clearly correlated. We can thus conclude that besides the general use of
natron/trona, Roman glassworkers also produced black glass by using plant ash alkali. The addition of vegetable
soda via a soda-rich plant ash to the batch is only applied in production of the low iron black glass artefacts.
Besides the increased levels of magnesium (MgO) and potash (K 2O), the use of plant ash alkali results in higher
concentrations of phosphor (P2O5) and strontium (SrO).
269
A number of samples are deviant from these dividing lines. Because they appear interesting for the entire research on Roman black glass, they
cannot be neglected, yet they will only be discussed in the margin.
325
Resins PC1-48
7,0
6,0
5,0
4,0
vegetable soda
K2O
3,0
Resins PC1-48
2,0
1,0
0,0
0,0
1,0
2,0
3,0
4,0
5,0
6,0
7,0
MgO
mineral soda
Figure 151: Type of flux: magnesia opposing potassium (weight %)
Some preliminary results have been presented during the previous years (Cosyns et al. 2006a; Van der Linden et
al. 2009). The first results were obtained from a set of 39 samples [see Appendix 1, resins PC1-3] covering
vessels, counters, jewellery and production waste from Periods I and II (Cosyns et al. 2006a, 39-40, tab.2). Two
distinct clusters are discernable when plotting the ratios of titanium oxide (TiO2) and alumina (Al2O5) (Figure 152)
and that between iron oxide (Fe2O3) and alumina (Figure 153).
0,45
0,40
0,35
Period I
+Egypt Period II
0,30
Rumst
Magdalensberg
Elkab
Tienen
Faulquemont
Dilsen
0,25
TiO2
0,20
0,15
0,10
Europe Period II
0,05
0,00
0,00
0,50
1,00
1,50
2,00
2,50
3,00
Al2O3
Figure 152: Type of sand: Al2O3 versus TiO2 (weight %) for the resins PC1-3
326
3,50
4,00
Opposing the alumina and titanium contenttwo oxides which are present in sandwe can detect two clusters
nd
rd
corroborating the use of two different sands. The late 2 and 3 century AD material from Rumst, Tienen, and
Dilsen (Belgium) and Faulquemont (France) [Cluster 1] are characterised with a low Ti content, below 0,1 (5)%,
st
and low Al content, ranging between 1,25% and 2%, while the 1 century AD material from Magdalensberg
rd
(Austria) and the early 3 century AD pieces from Elkab (Egypt) [Cluster 2] have a higher Ti and Al content:
above 0,15%, up to 0,40%, and between 2% and 3,5%, respectively. We may conclude here that the artefacts in
Cluster 1 are produced with a raw glass from pure sand, whereas the sand of Cluster 2 shows higher ratios of
impurities.
In Figure 153, Cluster 1 features a high iron content above 6% up to 12%, whereas Cluster 2 is characterised by
a low iron content between 1% and 2%. The correlation of the iron and alumina content in Cluster 2 makes it clear
that the presence of iron oxide is at the impurity level. The iron content of Cluster 1 artefacts exceeds by far the
impurity level and is consequently deliberately added. In opposition to Cluster 2, we see this time an anticorrelated ratio pointing to the addition of quite pure iron as a colouring agent. Deviant for Cluster 2 is the Form
IIB.6 piece from Faulquemont (FR) [see Appendix 1 Resin PC3e], which demonstrates a low iron content.
14,00
12,00
Europe Period II
10,00
Rumst
Magdalensberg
Elkab
Tienen
Faulquemont
Dilsen
8,00
Fe2O3
6,00
4,00
Period I
+Egypt Period II
2,00
0,00
0,00
0,50
1,00
1,50
2,00
2,50
3,00
3,50
4,00
Al2O3
Figure 153: Biplot visualizing alumina versus iron content (weight %) for the resins PC1-3
Figure 153 shows that the concentration of manganese increases in proportion to the iron content. This correlated
ratio, clearly visible for Cluster 2, is blurred by the addition of iron oxide as a colorant. Both clusters have a very
low manganese concentration, indicating that the presence of manganese oxide, below 0,4%, is at the impurity
level from the added flux. One of the Dilsen bracelets [see Appendix 1 Resin PC3h] has a manganese content of
nearly 1% that points to a deliberate addition as a decolourizer. One of the Faulquemont pieces seems either a
rd
Period I artefact instead of Period II or a Period II import from Egypt seeing its similarity to the early 3 century AD
Elkab pieces.
327
14,00
Europe Period II
12,00
10,00
Rumst
Magdalensberg
Elkab
Tienen
Faulquemont
Dilsen
8,00
Fe2O3
6,00
4,00
Period I
+Egypt Period II
2,00
0,00
0,00
0,20
0,40
0,60
0,80
1,00
MnO
Figure 154: Biplot visualizing manganese versus iron content (weight %) for the resins PC1-3
The abovementioned Figures 153-154 demonstrate that there was a group of the Roman imperial period blackappearing glass with a high iron content [Cluster 1] and a group with a low iron content [Cluster 2] (Cosyns et al.
2006a, 39-40). Making regional (a = eastern Mediterranean and b = northwestern provinces) and chronological (I
= Period I and II = Period II) subdivisions (Van der Linden et al. 2009), Cluster 1 is only present in the
northwestern provinces during Period II (IIb), whereas Cluster 2 is illustrated by samples from northwestern
artefacts of Period I (Ib) and East Mediterranean artefacts of Period II (IIa). No artefacts of group Ia were sampled
at that time.
When plotting most material, the two clusters become more vague, but still persist. The number of dots on the 0
line for titanium is due to the fact that SEM-EDX cannot give accurate calculations of concentrations below 0,1%
weight. The plot shows we have to enlarge the range of both clusters. Cluster 1 has a titanium level up to 0,25%
and an alumina content ranging from 1,25%-2,5%, yet there is a distinct concentration within the cluster between
0,1%-0,2% of TiO2 and between 1,5%-2,0% of Al2O3 (red circle in Figure 155). Cluster 2 differs from Cluster 1
with a titanium level between 0,2% and 0,65% and an alumina content between 1,8% and 4%. The deviant group
with an alumina level above 4% is most likely to be connected with obsidian and will be discussed later in this
chapter, in the section concerning the archaeological relevance [part 9.5.]. The distinct high Al – high Ti content of
Cluster 2 is to be related to Period I (IIa) and the East Mediterranean group (Ib), while both northwestern groups
(IIa-IIb) are characterised by a low Al low Ti content. Noticeable is a certain portion of Group IIb that overlaps
with the East Mediterranean group with an alumina-titanium ratio between 1,5%-0,25% and 2,5%-0,15%.
328
0,70
0,60
0,50
0,40
TiO2
0,30
0,20
0,10
0,00
0,00
1,00
2,00
3,00
4,00
5,00
6,00
7,00
8,00
9,00
Al2O3
Figure 155: Biplot visualizing alumina versus titanium content (weight %) for the resins PC1-48
Figure 156: Al2O3 versus Fe2O3 (weight %) for the resins PC1-48
In Figure 156, opposing Al2O3 with Fe2O3, the two clusters detected previously corroborate with the use of two
different techniques in colouring the glass black by adding a high portion of iron oxide, or through a low
concentration of iron. Seeing that both oxides of the artefacts in Cluster 2 are directly proportional, they can be
considered as impurities in the sand. Because of the addition of iron to the batch for colouring the artefacts in
Cluster 1, this proportional occurrence is not more clearly visible. The material of Period II is confined by an
alumina content below 2%. This variation in the glass is also noticeable in Figure 157, where we clearly can
329
demonstrate it to be linked with the chronological evolution in the glass production. The high iron samples with
increased alumina and titanium levels correspond with the characteristic late Roman HIMT glass. This distinct
th
group with high iron, high manganese and high titanium content appeared during the 4 century AD and seems to
have been a dominant player on the market during Period IV. The Period II material is characterized with a low
titanium content below 0,2%. The reason for this low concentration is probably due to the use of pure iron for
colouring the glass. The higher titanium ratio of the Period IV HIMT glass is due to impurities in the sand and not
by the addition of iron, seeing that both elements are not correlated. On the other hand, this correlation is clearly
visible in the low iron cluster.
In Figure 158 the two main colouring agents, iron and manganese, are opposed. The samples with high iron and
high manganese content all have a green hue. The samples with an opposite ratio, with low iron and high
manganese content, are purple. The low iron–low manganese group encompass brown, blue, and green glasses.
The high iron group is characterised with a low manganese content below 0,6% (left rectangle), but a number of
samples show a more elevated manganese content with two subcategories. One has a high manganese
concentration above 1% and up to 1,8%. The other with a MnO level ranging between 0,6% and 1% is to us a mix
of low and high manganese raw glass, and pleads for recycled glass.
18,0
Resins PC1-48
LEVANTINE
16,0
14,0
12,0
10,0
Fe2O3
8,0
Resins PC1-48
HIMT
6,0
4,0
2,0
0,0
0,0
0,5
1,0
TiO2
Figure 157: TiO2 versus Fe2O3 (weight %) for the resins PC1-48
330
1,5
2,0
Resins PC1-48
7,0
6,0
GREEN
5,0
4,0
Fe2O3
3,0
BROWN
2,0
PURPLE
1,0
0,0
0,0
0,5
1,0
1,5
2,0
2,5
3,0
3,5
4,0
4,5
5,0
MnO
Figure 158: MnO versus Fe2O3 (weight %) for the resins PC1-48
Figure 159 shows that the green samples with low iron content have an elevated magnesium content up to 6%,
compared to those in blue and purple glass with an overlap from 1,5% and 2%. Black-appearing blue glass
artefacts have a low magnesium content well below 1% and with 1% to 3% more elevated iron content compared
with the black-appearing, purple-coloured glass. Two clusters appear for the brown-coloured black artefacts:
either the ratio iron-magnesium is below 0,5% or both oxides range around 2% each. This refers to two
productions of black glass using the same colouring technique, but by two melting methods with or without the
addition of (sodic) plant ashes on top of the soda. The dots within the low iron range remaining dark blue are
black samples of which the true hue could not be determined.
331
Figure 159: MgO versus Fe2O3 (weight %) for the resins PC1-48
Summary
The entire set of 438 samples supplied an increase of information for a better understanding of Roman black
glass technology. A great part of the samples show the typically low K 2O and MgO values (below 1.5%) of the
Levantine glass made with evaporites (e.g., natron). Some samples show moderately increased, to very distinct,
higher amounts between 1,5% and 4%, indicating that plant ash alkali were used as a fluxing agent rather than
mineral soda (Jackson et al. 2008).
Black-appearing glass was made from dark green, brown, purple and blue glass with iron and manganese as the
main colorants. Two groups can be recognized on the basis of their high contents: Fe 2O3 > 3,5% and MnO >2%.
Consequently, an iron ore or a manganese ore was added to the batch in order to obtain correspondingly a dark
green and dark purple colour. The remaining group (green and brown samples) gets its hue from the raw
materials themselves and possibly by furnace conditions [see Chapter 9]. A few dark blue samples get the colour
from cobalt and/or copper.
The low iron green and some brown glass were made from impure sand with the addition of natron/trona and
plant ash as flux. This (colouring) technique is characteristic for Period I. The high iron green glass was made
from pure sand with natron as the flux, and iron ore as the colouring agent. All samples from the northwestern
provinces of Period II form a homogeneous group, characterised by high iron content and low
titaniummanganesemagnesium content. We thus may assume that this group of black glass artefacts was
produced from a ‗naturally coloured‘ raw glass, made from very clean sand. We will check the LA-ICP-MS results
to see whether the Period II black glass might be also decolourised by the addition of antimony (Sb 2O5).
Some of the high iron green glass shows a more elevated contamination of impurities, e.g., alumina, manganese
and titanium. This is due to the use of HIMT glass. This subgroup of black glass can thus chronologically be
defined in Period IV.
The technique adopted to make dark-coloured green glass that appeared black was practiced in Period I using
impure sand with high iron contamination, but the sand also contained other oxides besides iron. From Period II, a
colouring technique was introduced in the northwestern provinces to make black glass by adding pure iron ore to
the batch. The hypothesis that emerges is that black glass was produced locally in one or more (secondary) glass
workshops in the northwestern provinces from imported ‗naturally coloured‘ or decolourized raw glass. From the
332
low impurity level of various metal oxides (alumina, titanium, manganese), we may assume that clean sand and
pure mineral soda has been used [see this chapter section 8.5.].
8.4.2
LA-ICP-MS
Although LA-ICP-MS measurements can also generate data on the major elements, the technique is elaborate
and expensive. We therefore limited the evaluation of this technique to a well-defined selection of samples in
order to verify their minor and trace elements.
Among the minor and trace elements are characteristic impurities in the sand, or in the flux. These cannot,
however, be measured with SEM-EDX. Contrasting them between themselves or with specific major elements
can provide additional information for a better understanding of Roman glass production.
Figure 160: Plot opposing chromium with vanadium oxide (weight %)
Figure 160 demonstrates a homogeneous cluster of low chromiumlow vanadium oxide ratio (15-25 ppm vs 1030 ppm) of the Period II glass that should be understood as glass from clean sand. This contrasts with the rather
heterogeneous cluster of high chromium–high vanadium oxide ratio (35-80 ppm vs 25-75 ppm). An interesting
detail is that the late Iron Age bangles show a low chromium–high vanadium oxide ratio (40-60 ppm vs 10-20
ppm).
In Figure 161 the opposed strontiumtitanium oxide ratio helps to verify the used sand and to refine the search.
The result is striking, showing in general two clusters independently varying directly: one with a ratio of 6,42 and
the other with a ratio of 1,93. This corroborates Figure 160 on the use of two different sands: correspondingly high
titanium sand and low titanium sand. Various samples point to an Egyptian origin of the high titanium glass,
whereas the low titanium glass seems to be of Levantine origin. This corresponds integrally with the two clusters
in the previous plot (Figure 160). On the other hand, we see three specific clusters in the low titanium group on
the basis of their different strontium content (Table 147).
333
Table 147: Different glass types on the basis of the strontium-titanium ratios
SrO
TiO2
Cluster 1
Cluster 2
Cluster 3
c.0,05%
c.0,07%
0,1-0,15%
<0,1%
0,1-0,2%
c.0,2%
1,0000
0,9000
0,8000
resins PC11-23
0,7000
CASTRA
OUDENBURG
AUGST
TiO2
0,6000
AVENCHES
LONDON BRACELETS
0,5000
ELKAB
MAGDALENSBERG
0,4000
OLBIA
MATAGNE
0,3000
TIENEN
RUMST
0,2000
ORESAC
STE MENEHOULD
0,1000
0,0000
0,0000
0,0500
0,1000
SrO
Figure 161: Plot opposing strontium with titanium oxide (weight %)
Figure 162: Plot opposing zirconium with titanium oxide (weight %)
334
0,1500
0,2000
However, when plotting titanium against zirconium, another impurity element linked with sand, only Clusters 1 and
2 are still observable, while Cluster 3 has been integrated in the large heterogeneous high titanium group (Figure
162). We consequently have to consider the high strontium content of Cluster 3 as a contamination from added
plant ash and not as solely a sand impurity. Cluster 3 features the Avenches (CH) samples, which have a high
magnesium and potash content (Figure 151) [see Appendix 1, resins PC22-23; 35]. This strontium addition from
the plant ash alkali is much more clearly visible in Figure 167, where some material from Olbia (FR) [see
Appendix 1, resin PC11] corroborates the Avenches material. Particularly Figure 163 shows that the influence of
the flux impurities can be countered by verifying the zirconium content.
Figure 163: Plot opposing chromium with vanadium oxide (weight %)
From the different plots between titaniumstrontium and zirconium, it has been demonstrated that the black glass
vessels of Period II were produced from more than one type of raw glass. It is interesting to link this with the
location of the different raw glass types to discuss the regionalism of the glass distribution and trade [see Chapter
10; case study 1].
From the SEM-EDX analyses, we were able to verify the use of manganese, but antimony is another element that
was frequently used as a decolourizer (Braun 1983). We checked which decolourizer had been used (Figure
164). The Period I material from Magdalensberg (AT) has only some presence of manganese that has to be
considered as an impurity in the sand. It is clear that the pieces were made from ‗naturally coloured‘ glass. Period
II material is characterised by the presence of antimony on the whole ranging between 0,2% and 0,5%. Antimony
decolourized raw glass was applied in Period II to produce black glass artefacts.
335
0,9000
Elkab
0,8000
Magdalensberg
0,7000
Faulquemont
Period II/III
Rumst
0,6000
Sb2O5
Tienen
0,5000
Augst
Trou de Han
0,4000
Dilsen
0,3000
La Tène
0,2000
Trier-Kesselstatt
Castra
0,1000
0,0000
0,00
HIMT+decolourized
Oudenburg
La Tène (purple)
Olbia
0,50
1,00
1,50
2,00
2,50
3,00
3,50
4,00
MnO
Figure 164: Plot opposing manganese with antimony oxide (weight %)
8.5 Archaeological Relevance
8.5.1
Augst vs Avenches
One of the key questions we wanted to see answered through archaeometry was whether the distribution of the
nd
rd
late 2 and early 3 century AD black glass vessels originated from one or more glass workshops, almost
exclusively found in the provinces Germania Inferior, Germania Superior and Gallia Belgica [see Chapter 6]. We
therefore examined samples from vessel fragments coming from Belgium, France, the Netherlands and
Switzerland: Oudenburg (BE), Kruishoutem (BE), Velzeke (BE), Grobbendonk (BE), Tienen (BE), Rumst (BE),
Matagne-la-Petite (BE), Tongeren (BE), Nijmegen (NL), Hoogeloon (NL), Augst (CH), Avenches (CH).
From LA-ICP-MS results it has been demonstrated that the Period II material is very homogeneous and made
from one single area, showing two or three subtypes.
When considering solely the two Swiss sites, Augst and Avenches distinct clusters are detectable. While the
Augst samples make one homogeneous group with a very distinct chemical composition, we see that the
Avenches samples are split up into different clusters (Figures 165-167).
336
Na vs K
3,00
2,50
Avenches
Rumst - Belgium
Faulquemont - France
Tienen - Belgium
Augst - Switzerland
Hoogeloon - Netherlands
Auvelais-Belgium
Matagne-la-Petite - Belgium
Avenches-Switzerland
Nijmegen -Netherlands
Oudenburg-Belgium
Grobbendonk-Belgium
Kruishoutem-Belgium
Velzeke-Belgium
K
2,00
1,50
1,00
Augst
0,50
0,00
0,00
5,00
10,00
15,00
20,00
25,00
Na
Figure 165: Plot opposing soda with potash oxide (weight %)
Al vs Ti
5,00
4,50
4,00
Rumst - Belgium
Faulquemont - France
Tienen - Belgium
Augst - Switzerland
Hoogeloon - Netherlands
Auvelais-Belgium
Matagne-la-Petite - Belgium
Avenches-Switzerland
Nijmegen -Netherlands
Oudenburg-Belgium
Grobbendonk-Belgium
Kruishoutem-Belgium
Velzeke-Belgium
3,50
Al
3,00
2,50
Augst
2,00
1,50
Avenches
1,00
0,50
0,00
0,00
0,10
0,20
0,30
0,40
0,50
0,60
0,70
Ti
Figure 166: Plot opposing alumina with titanium oxide (weight %)
337
Mn vs Fe
18,00
16,00
green
14,00
Rumst - Belgium
Faulquemont - France
Tienen - Belgium
Augst - Switzerland
Hoogeloon - Netherlands
Auvelais-Belgium
Matagne-la-Petite - Belgium
Avenches-Switzerland
Nijmegen -Netherlands
Oudenburg-Belgium
Grobbendonk-Belgium
Kruishoutem-Belgium
Velzeke-Belgium
12,00
Fe
10,00
HIMT
8,00
olive green
6,00
Augst
4,00
brown
2,00
Avenches
purple
0,00
0,00
0,50
1,00
1,50
2,00
2,50
Mn
Figure 167: Plot opposing manganese with iron oxide (weight %)
The uniformity of the Augst-group may have been caused by taking samples from vessel fragments of a similar
shape, i.e. globular beakers (Forms IIB.4/5). Since all pieces are from different objects excavated at different
locations and at a certain point in time, the chemical homogeneity of the sampled material rather tends to suggest
a single batch or a precise production technique in which one specific recipe was used successively and
repeatedly applied in one single glass workshop.
When selecting the carinated beakers (Form IIB.1) the most characteristic black glass vessel shape in the
North-western provinces of the Roman Empire during Period IItwo distinct clusters appear in the plots when
comparing different oxides significant for the sand and the colorants used. It is most probable that there were two
contemporaneous glass workshops producing their own black glass by using two different recipes. The other
option, encompassing two consecutive periods of activity within one single workshop, can be ruled out by the
archaeological study, which shows that one cluster is specific for the sites in Germania Inferior and that the other
cluster is material from sites in Gallia Belgica. It seems very unlikely that, by coincidence, the sampled material
from Germania Inferior and Gallia Belgica, presented here, was made during successive generations of glass
workers from the same glass workshop. We therefore believe that there must have been at least two
contemporary glass workshops in the North-western provinces where black glass (vessels) were produced. One
of these has to be located in the province of Gallia Belgica, while the other must have been active in the province
of Germania Inferior. Because the black glass artefacts from the sites in Gallia Belgica are unanimously related
and dissimilar to the material from sites in Germania Inferior we have a strong argument to state that both glass
workshops brought the same vessel shapes into production for a regional market. This can have important
consequences in the interpretation of the glass production and glass distribution in general during Period II [see
Chapter 10].
8.5.2
Deviant material
Concerning the production of black glass we had on several occasions the possibility of sampling lumps of (raw)
glass from various sitese.g. Rumst (BE), Vremde (BE), Treignes (BE), Sainte-Menehould (FR), Lyon (FR),
Nijmegen (NL) and Cyprus as well as glass from crucibles from Trier (Table 148). However, the compositions at
first offered little valuable information on the production or consumption. The heterogeneous composition displays
a wide variety of non-standard compositions for Roman glass, with the exception of the material from the
crucibles of Palais Kesselstatt, Trier (DE), showing a normal soda and lime content. The Trier crucibles
demonstrate a composition equal to the produced black glass artefacts from the Period IV, namely HIMT glass.
The very anomalous composition of the other samples show an uncharacteristic composition of soda, which is
338
nearly absent; and potash remains low for most samples. Striking is the high alumina and magnesium content.
This finding has recently been discussed by Bernard Gratuze (2009, fig.1) who sees this as characteristic of
‗famille 1‘ of Picon‘s ‗groupe 3‘. However, his group of blue glass contains alumina between 4% and 8% while the
Al-content of some black glass samples are much higher, even up to 15%. Also striking is the extremely high lime
content, averaging between 20-25%, which constitutes together with the silica about 70-80% of the melt. Most of
these rough chunks of Al-Ca glass show a combined high content of iron and manganese whereas the two
Nijmegen pieces from resin PC23 and the Cypriot sample have just a high iron content. The two samples from
Sainte Menehould demonstrate low concentrations for both oxides. Conspicuous is the high Mn and high Fe
content in the opaque turquoise lump of glass from Treignes. Would it be that manganese decolourized glass was
th
used in the production of black glass in the later 4 century. It could perfectly be that HIMT glass was used in
Trier. The Mg-content of sample PC13a exceeds by far the proposed 1.5% limit of HIMT glass (Mirti et al. 1993;
Freestone 1994; Foy et al. 2003) and can only be explained by the addition of plant ashes since the sample also
exceeds the proposed 1.5% limit of potash.
Table 148: Major elements of the Roman glass lumps and crucible glass obtained from SEM-EDX
(n.d. = not detected; italic = not appearing black).
sample
provenance
Na2O MgO Al2O3
SiO2
P2O5 SO3
Cl
K2O
CaO
TiO2
MnO
6,71
21,45
0,21
0,41
2,15
n.d.
0,1
n.d.
1,22
21,46
0,74
2,45
10,96
<0,1
n.d.
n.d.
1,17
23,66
0,76
2,58
9,92
<0,1
n.d.
n.d.
1,20
24,44
0,83
2,68
8,01
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
1,25
21,81
0,82
2,52
8,85
n.d.
0,4
2,50
8,37
0,61
1,54
6,85
62,49
0,2
n.d.
n.d.
0,6
0,97
5,80
0,45
1,60
7,30
2,04
61,19
n.d.
6,90
0,19
1,63
7,25
10,71
57,68
n.d.
0,9
n.d.
0,63
2,98
0,3
n.d.
4,06
23,09
0,40
0,35
0,64
<0,1
1,42
15,22
41,76
n.d.
n.d.
1,51
38,58
0,17
0,44
0,30
Nijmegen(NL)
0,8
3,06
8,63
36,77
2,9
0,6
n.d.
n.d.
1,10
27,52
7,86
0,28
10,98
PC23j
Nijmegen(NL)
1,0
3,06
8,97
36,98
3,6
n.d.
n.d.
1,15
27,20
5,82
0,37
11,81
PC28b
Cyprus
0,8
7,91
14,75
45,32
0,2
<0,1
<0,1
3,28
15,76
1,04
0,16
10,66
PC42i
Treignes (BE)
0,1
1,31
6,15
57,63
0,1
0,1
<0,1
2,48
20,54
0,43
1,52
9,39
PC31d
Nijmegen(NL)
0,5
1,7
6,2
54,4
0,2
0,3
0,0
1,0
21,0
1,8
2,5
10,4
PC31g
Nijmegen(NL)
0,2
1,9
7,3
56,8
0,1
0,1
0,0
1,4
16,6
1,0
1,5
13,0
PC48i
Treignes (BE)
PC50a
Lyon (FR)
0,3
4,8
2,1
0,3
9,0
11,6
55,0
74,3
<0.1
n.d.
0,1
n.d.
<0.1
0,2
2,3
4,7
21,5
0,8
0,6
0,3
1,5
n.d.
7,5
3,1
PC50b
Lyon (FR)
4,8
0,3
11,6
74,4
n.d.
n.d.
0,2
4,6
0,7
0,3
n.d.
3,0
n.d.
52,90
1,8
<0,1
8,54
51,53
8,95
52,34
1,77
9,03
53,62
15,8
2,46
2,96
58,34
Trier (DE)
17,2
1,01
2,59
PC13c
Trier (DE)
18,0
1,05
PC14h
Ste Menehould(FR)
0,1
PC14j
Ste Menehould(FR)
PC23i
PC1f
Rumst (BE)
1,6
3,8
2,95
58,86
PC3a
Vremde (BE)
0,1
1,6
8,55
PC3b
Vremde (BE)
0,1
1,7
PC3c
Vremde (BE)
<0,1
1,51
PC3d
Vremde (BE)
0,4
PC13a
Trier (DE)
PC13b
Fe2O3
Inaccurate measurements have to be excluded, since the given values are averages from five measurements on
different places and calibrated with various standards. The first samples, Rumst and Vremde, were so atypical we
thought them to be the result of intrusive modern production from non-ferric industry. On the other hand most
other samples, mainly consisting of chunks of raw glasse.g. Sainte Menehould (FR), Nijmegen (NL) (PC23),
Treignes (BE) (PC42), Cyprusdemonstrate the same anomalies. This was thought to be due to the type of
material, but now two vessel fragments from Nijmegen (resin PC31) and a counter from Treignes (resin PC48)
have increased the confusion. Especially these last three examples indicate such results must be taken seriously
being part of the Roman glass production. But this premise poses a dilemma since we then take for granted that a
glass workshop must have been active somewhere on the sites under consideration here or in the near vicinity. In
view of production material we wonder whether this nearly zero soda material was not an in between production
to be added as colorant and opacifying agent in the glass batch instead of seeing it as production waste.
A different composition is observable for the early Byzantine material from Tunisia. A tessera in black glass from
th th
the early Byzantine church of Sidi Jididi was the start of some unexpected glass consumption in the 5 -6 century
270
AD. Only after analysis of the seven sampled lumps of black glass from the contemporaneous church of Bir
271
Messaoudi in Carthage (TN) we understood its importance.
A significant detail is that the lumps from Bir
Messaoudi were found in an adjacent room from the church together with a wide range of material pointing to a
272
mosaic workshop (unpublished). The tessera and the lumps have a similar composition deviating from the
270
We wish to thank Danièle Foy (CNRS, Aix-en-Provence) to have given at our disposal the sample.
We wish to thank Prof. dr Roald Docter (UGent, Ghent) for the kind permission to study and sample the material for integration in the black
glass research. The analysis on one sample (PC28c) failed in providing its chemical composition.
272
Personal communication Roald Docter (UGent). We are grateful to Roals Docter for putting the material at our disposal.
271
339
norm. All six samples from Bir Messaoudi and the Sidi Jididi-tessera show a very homogeneous composition of
mixed-alkali glass with high alumina and iron content while lime is lacking (Table 149). In contrast with the
preceding group we see an almost complete absence of magnesium as well as a very low concentration of
titanium and manganese. When comparing the Tunisian glass cakes and tesserae with those from Petra, Jordan
(Marii, Rehren 2009, fig.2) we notice a marked difference in the phosphor and lime-content. The Petra material
has high concentrations of calcium, between 5% and 15%, and of phosphor, between 0.10% and 1%. Since no
further information on the composition of this material was available we were unable to verify them with the glass
lumps in Table 148.
Table 149: Major elements of early Byzantine mosaic material (n.d. = not detected)
sample
provenance
PC11n
PC28d
PC28e
PC28f
PC28g
PC28h
PC28i
Sidi Jididi (TN)
Carthage (TN)
Carthage (TN)
Carthage (TN)
Carthage (TN)
Carthage (TN)
Carthage (TN)
PC50a
PC50b
Lyon (FR)
Lyon (FR)
Na2O
MgO
Al2O3
SiO2
P2O5
SO3
Cl
K2O
CaO
TiO2
MnO
Fe2O3
7,5
7,9
7,9
8,0
8,0
5,3
8,1
4.8
4.8
0,0
0,1
0,1
0,1
0,1
0,1
0,0
0.3
0.3
6,4
6,2
5,9
6,2
6,0
10,1
6,3
11.6
11.6
71,7
71,4
71,6
71,4
71,3
75,2
71,3
74.3
74.4
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
0,3
0,4
0,5
0,5
0,5
0,3
0,4
0.2
0.2
4,4
4,3
4,4
4,4
4,4
4,9
4,4
4.7
4.6
0,3
0,3
0,3
0,3
0,3
0,8
0,3
0.8
0.7
0,2
0,3
0,3
0,3
0,3
0,2
0,3
0.3
0.3
0,3
0,3
0,3
0,3
0,3
0,1
0,3
n.d.
n.d.
8,8
8,6
8,7
8,6
8,8
2,9
8,6
3.1
3.0
0,1
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
th
We know that integrating mid 6 century AD glass in the present research is colouring beyond the lines, but
necessity knows no law. Combining the chemical composition of this specific Tunisian material with its context
makes us understand that in the early Byzantine period lumps of black glass were used to make tesserae for
rd th
mosaics in large public buildings such as churches and that the composition is clearly different from the 3 -4
century glass lumps analysed here. We assume that early Byzantine mosaic workers recycled large lumps of
glass to produce tesserae. From this point of view we may presume the possibility of tesserae production in large
glass workshops like the one at Sainte Menehould where tesserae in various opaque colours were produced,
including those with a black appearance. Unfortunately we were not able to sample the Sainte Menehould
material at the M.A.N. in Saint-Germain-en-Laye (FR). On various occasions scholars have pinpointed on the use
of tesserae in glass workshops for bead making in particular for the early medieval period (Lundström 1976, 5).
8.6 Conclusion
Although the analysis of black glass may concern a limited segment within the Roman glass production, the
results contribute to a better understanding of Roman glass workshops of different periods and from different
areas. The obtained results on major elements (SEM-EDX) as well as on minor and trace elements (LA-ICP-MS)
provide knowledge about recipes using specific sands, fluxes and colorants, and consequently have the potential
to yield clusters linked to chronological and geographical differences in the production technology. Information on
the chemical composition can thus help in tracing the specific production technologies developed through history
and in identifying possible production centres and trade routes. The data on the chemical composition of 438
samples of Roman black glass acquired via various measuring methods have shown it is relevant to examine
extensively the chemical composition of a thin section of archaeological glass material. It has given new clues
about specific distribution patterns and accordingly can help clarify trade routes. It allows us to understand better
the production techniques used by the Roman glassworker and the levels within this production process.
In the introduction, we proposed various queries to verify the Roman black glass. From the obtained results, a
number of questions concerning the technological issue could be answered.
For instance, we were able to define the use of different sands to produce black glass in the Roman imperial
period. Two major groups were recognized which appear to be related to the two main centres of glass
production. First, there is an ‗Egyptian‘ raw glass with high concentrations of alumina, manganese and iron as
major impurities and high concentrations of titanium, vanadium and chromium. The heterogeneity of its
composition can be explained from the long period of five centuries. Second, there is a ‗Levantine‘ raw glass with
a very homogeneous composition made from pure sand with a low concentration of impurities (Table 150).
Table 150: Values of magnesium, potash and strontium in %wt
Al2O3
TiO2
Egyptian
Levantine
340
1,5-4,5
1,3-4,0
>0,2
0-0,2
ZrO2
Cr2O3
V2O5
0,006-0,032
0,004-0,022
0,0035-0,0080
0,0015-0,0025
0,0025-0,0075
0,0010-0,0030
Different fluxes were used to melt the raw glass during the production process of black glass. Mineral soda,
natron or trona, was the main source to lower the temperature of the batch, but vegetable soda was used as well,
though on a lesser scale. The plant ash alkali used resulted in a high concentration of magnesium, potash and
strontium, clearly distinguishable from the mineral soda glass. It appears that the vegetable soda glass can be
correlated to the ‗Egyptian‘ group, based on its absence in the glass of the ‗Levantine‘ group (Table 151).
Table 151: Values of used flux soda, magnesium, potash and strontium in %wt
Na20
MgO
Egyptian
Levantine
15,0-20,0
13,0-17,0
0-3,5
< 1,5 (mainly 0,4-0,8)
K20
SrO
1,0-2,5
0,5-1,5
0,01-0,07
0,04-0,1
The Romans used ‗naturally coloured‘ as well as decolourized raw glass to make black glass. Depending on the
period and the origin, various categories can be discerned. The ‗Levantine‘ group is characterized by antimony
presence, whereas antimony is totally absent in the ‗Egyptian‘ group. Depending on the period, this group
demonstrates a low manganese or high manganese content, respectively Period I and Period IV (Table 152).
Table 152: Values of used decolourizers manganese and antimony in %wt
Sb2O5
MnO
Egyptian
Levantine
< 0,1
0,1-0,6
0,3-2,2
0-0,8
The Romans not only used different types of raw glass in the production process of black glass. They also
coloured the glass by using particular colouring agents. Besides iron (green and brown) and manganese (purple)
they in a lesser degree used cobalt and/or copper (blue) to colour the glass matrix so that it appeared black. At
this stage of the investigation of black glass samples we can only draw out rough lines for the chronology of the
various colours. Where brown-, blue- and purple-coloured black glass are mainly limited to Period I, the green
glass can be linked to Periods I-IV. Refining this huge group recognizes a low iron group for Period I and II, and a
high iron group for Periods II-IV where Period IV black glass is characterised by an elevated manganese and
titanium content.
The applied furnace conditions could not be verified through the chemical analysis, nor were the necessary or
273
used temperatures to melt the black glass calculated.
Concerning the archaeological issue, the use of different sands, fluxes, decolourisers, and colourants cannot be
linked with specific functional types and consequently not to particular form types within one functional type. The
only obtainable subdivision per functional type or form type is relative to the raw glass used when it is confined to
a specific and limited period. The perfect example is the Period IV bracelet of type D1 which is made from the late
Roman HIMT glass. It is also true that the obtained results can provide information on the quality of the glass
used to produce specific finished products. For instance, the Period II vessels in the north-western provinces are
made from very pure decolourised raw glass; in other words, a high quality glass required high standards to
guarantee finished products of excellent quality for the consumer.
The apparently random occurrence of the different glasses and the long continuity of their use make it difficult, if
not impossible, to discern specific workshops, production periods or consumption areas. Consequently the results
corroborate model 4 in the organization of Roman glass production [see Chapter 6] that points to a locally
organised production of black glass artefacts within secondary workshops from imported raw glass, whether or
not already coloured black and distributed regionally. This would limit the interpretation possibilities of the
obtained data only to the rough determination of the date and distribution patterns of general groups of artefacts
within a specific period. A more detailed examination of the obtained results indicates that the chemical
composition can provide a clearer understanding of the typo-chronological idiosyncrasies and the organization of
the (black) glass production. In Chapter 10, we verify the validity of the abovementioned hypothesis and present a
more multi-levelled model implying an ‗and-and‘ situation instead of an ‗or-or‘ situation.
The obtained data demonstrated that the various specific recipes give information on chronological development
in the black glass production related to the economic organization of glass production in particular and the Roman
economy in general [see Chapter 10]. Question was whether each recipe could be reduced to one single
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The calculation of the theoretical melting temperatures is obtainable through the plotting of the reduced base compositions of glass in an
adapted silica-soda-lime ternary plot (Rehren 2000; 2001).
341
secondary glass workshop that produced artefacts in black glass in a well-defined period, because it is equally
possible that black glass (artefacts) from one and the same recipe were produced in various Roman glass
workshops within a specific region or even at random. To improve our understanding of the chemical composition
of archaeological glass, it is sometimes necessary to check and verify the analysis results from different angles.
We demonstrated that the samples from Augst (CH) and Avenches (CH) are characterised by a high
homogeneity. Ensuing from this is the possibility of identifying secondary glass workshops in both towns that have
contemporaneously produced artefacts in (black) glass on the basis of the different recipes [see in this chapter
8.4].
We were not able to link the contemporary diversity of recipes to a regional variability, due to an apparently free
distribution and trade without restrictions or regulations. This interference is even more amplified due to the
possibilities of recycling broken glass and the mixing of various groups.
From the chemical data, we can demonstrate that the raw glass used for the production of black glass was massproduced in several centres in Egypt and the Levant. Consequently, two different models of black glass supply
are possible in the West: 1) solely imported as finished products, and 2) produced locally from imported raw
glass.
Generally speaking, it is not unlikely that during Period I black glass vessels were not only imported but also
produced locally in Western Europe. In Chapter 6 we discussed a chunk of black raw glass which was retrieved
from the glass workshop of La Montée de la Butte at Lyon (FR). We, however, lack all proof for black glass vessel
production at that particular workshop. However, since the workshop specialized in the production of vessels, it is
very likely that the Lyon workshop also produced vessels in black glass. From archaeological data, we know that
chunks of raw glass were exported empire-wide by ship and then further distributed all over the Empire (Nenna
2008a) [see Chapter 6].
The local production of black glass vessels in Period II is demonstrated by the glass workshop of Kaiseraugst
(CH) on the one hand, and by the homogeneous composition of the Kaiseraugst/Augst samples. The high iron
colouring technique, newly introduced in Period II (Van der Linden et al. 2009), is clearly attested from the
Kaiseraugst/Augst samples, excluding the import of chunks of black glass. Moreover, the homogeneity of the
Kaiseraugst/Augst samples provides evidence of local colouring from imported ‗Levantine‘ antimony decolourized
raw glass. But how should we understand this emergence? Was this simply a logical consequence of the constant
development of the glass-working knowledge? Was it because of economic stress? Or was it culturally
determined and just a trend? The ―new‖ colouring technique introduced in Period II to produce black glass was at
least established to supply the regional workshops in the area where black glass was consumed. Furthermore,
the appearance of an idiosyncratic assemblage of black glass vessels let us hypothesize that there could have
been an intermediate glass workshop in Western Europe, where large quantities of imported ‗naturally coloured‘
and decolourized raw glass was coloured in a variety of vivid colours, including black.
The former model fits in the traditional system of supply and demand for well-defined regional markets, thus
causing regional and local idiosyncrasies, whereas the latter claims the existence of a proto-industrialized
organisation of glass workshops, thus implying a much greater sameness of forms and types and a compositional
homogeneity. However, the question is whether one single model is appropriate to explain the glass production
throughout the entire Roman imperial period, or not various models emerged all through the consecutive
centuries. In Chapter 9, we discuss how to interpret this innovation and assess how to value the low iron and the
high iron vessels in black glass.
Everything considered we described on the basis of a large set of samples that specific elements point to a
different source of raw glass or to a different colouring technique to produce black glass during the Roman
imperial period. This research demonstrates that a diachronic selection of very characteristic glass samples from
a wide area offers added value to the glass research when the sample selection involves the entire range of black
glass colours, chronological and geographical subdivisions, functional types, and the large site contexts.
342
8.7 Addendum
This section is added to discuss the use of non-destructive analysis methods that have been applied on a
selection of museum objects in the KMKG-MRAH, Brussels and Grand Curtius, Liège which were impossible to
samplerespectively the portable XRF (see 8.7.1.) and µ-XRF (see 8.7.2.). On the other hand we describe less
commonly used measuring methods within the archaeometry of glass, i.e. PIXE-PIGE (see 8.7.3.) and Raman
spectroscopy (see 8.7.4.). We verified whether these alternative techniques could provide similar results or
possibly additional information. Some have the advantage of portability, so that they can be carried out on
location in museums (p-XRF; µ-XRF), whereas others need specialized labs (PIXE-PIGE; Raman) and involving
time-consuming and sometimes complicated permission procedures.
Some of these analyses and verifications could only be carried out during the last year and months of the present
research programme. Consequently, we integrated them as appendices in this research; however, considering
their potential contribution to the glass research, these non-destructive methods deserve more attention. The
obtained results have a promising effect, even though we were unable to work out the use of these measuring
methods extensively within this manuscript.
Non-destructive methods can supply data on the chemical composition to objects of interest to the research
questions when sampling is impossible. In order to answer particular questions in relation to various aspects of
the production process on Roman black glass Prof. Koen Janssens of the Centre for Micro and Trace Analysis
(MiTAC) at the University of Antwerp (UA) was willing to provide a small portable XRF and a larger, more efficient,
µ-XRF supplying corresponding qualitative and semi-quantitative information on location and to allow one of his
experienced assistants, Simone Cagno, to take measurements. Finally, Prof. Herman Terryn enabled us to
perform Raman spectroscopy on a large set of samples at the ESEMC of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB)
within the Horizontal Orchestrated Action (HOA) project 15.
We are also grateful to Prof. Dr. Koen Janssens who granted us the possibility to have a set of samples tested in
the synchrotron at the Hamburger Synchrotronstrahlungslabor HASYLAB at Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron
DESY, a Research Centre of the Helmholtz Association in Hamburg. In 2009 Simone Cagno analysed three thin
sections of the resins PC2, PC6, PC32 containing purposely selected black glass samples, in order to verify
whether crystalline structures were present in the glass opacifying the matrix, and thus responsible for the
obtainment of a black appearance. The immediate cause leading to the verification of this aspect was the result of
the concentrations of Pb-oxide together with S-oxide within the glass matrix.
8.7.1
p-XRF and µ-XRF
From a museological point of view, it was impossible to sample the so-called obsidian vessel fragment R1610 and
a set of black glass objects from the Royal Museums of Art and History, Brussels (Cagno et al. 2010). This
excluded the SEM-EDX and LA-ICP-MS techniques and thus the possibility of acquiring quantitative results on
those pieces.
A first session was done with the p-XRF technique and the following session was executed by using a micro X-ray
fluorescence (µ-XRF) installation.
Both instruments give qualitative information on the main part of the chemical elements that are present in the
glass since the light elements are not detectable. The p-XRF and the µ-XRF are sensitive analysis methods;
however, due to open-air measurements, the air attenuates the X-rays at low energy so that the first 12 elements
of the periodical table are not gaugeable. This means that important elements within the glass such as soda (Na),
magnesium (Mg) and alumina (Al) are missing. The required installation to obtain a full and consequently a
quantitative measurement can be obtained by integrating a vacuum box into which the artefact is placed. This
very recently developed technique (Tantrakarn et al. 2009) was not at our disposal within the current black glass
research project.
8.7.2
Portable X-Ray Fluorescence (p-XRF)
X-ray fluorescence (XRF) is a very welcome measuring technique in obtaining fast information on the composition
of museum objects that cannot be sampled. In concreto, this technique implies the excitation of the material by
bombarding the artefact with X-rays and subsequently detecting the radiation emitted by the object. Because this
343
reliable and non-destructive measuring technique can be used safely with a compact and portable instrument,
easily movable to any museum, this method is extremely appropriate for heritage-related applications.
An X-ray beam, exciting the atoms of the sample placed on the XRF pistol, causes the expulsion of electrons from
the inner orbitals. This gap hence creates instability, resulting in electrons from outer orbitals gravitating towards
this empty position. During this process, the characteristic X-ray radiation is detected. Consequently, a qualitative
measuring of the composition is possible, since the emittance of X-ray radiation varies depending on the chemical
element.
The portable energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence machine (p-XRF) employed is the TRACeR III-V. This
portable, wide range elemental analyzer is equipped with a rhodium X-ray tube and a high resolution Peltier
274
cooled Silicon PIN (SiPIN) diode detector. The operating conditions of the X-ray tube are 15 kV, 15 mA, while
100 seconds has been adopted as measuring time. The p-XRF is connected to a laptop run by p-XRF 32 software
(Figure 168).
Figure 168: The installation of the p-XRF
Interesting preliminary results could easily obtain by comparing the X-ray spectrum of the R1610 piece with, on
the one hand, the spectra of two pieces in unmistakably raw obsidian and, on the other hand, those of two clearly
black glass samples, one modern and one Roman.
When looking to the general plot, we see no very clear differences between the five analysed pieces, except for
the peaks in three specific zones (Figure 169). The first zone, which has peaks between 1.4-1.9 KeV
corresponding to the K-lines of alumina (Al) and silica (Si), stand in correlation to the sand. The second zone,
which lies between 3.3-4.1 KeV and matches the K-lines of potash (K) and calcium (Ca), refers to the
flux/stabilizer within the glass melt. Finally, the Fe- and K-lines between 6.3-7.1 KeV refer to the colorant. The red
line of the R1610 piece floats between the high black glass curves and the low obsidian curves.
It is worthwhile to look at these zones in more detail by selecting them separately and by blowing up the specific
peaks.
When looking at the AlSi peaks (Figures 169 left; 170), we see that the vessel fragment R1610 demonstrates an
X-ray spectrum that clearly aligns with that of the obsidian pieces. The black glass pieces do not contain
aluminium and show a lower intensity of the Si-peak compared to the obsidian artefacts.
Within the KCa zone (Figures 169 middle; 171), we can observe that the X-ray spectrum of vessel fragment
R1610 aligns rather well with that of obsidian piece 2, whereas obsidian piece 1 has a slightly more diverging
spectrum with a lower potash and a higher calcium content. Nevertheless, the difference is not as strong as with
the two black glass artefacts which show a much lower intensity for the potassium peak (K) and a much more
intense peak for calcium (Ca).
274
Personal communication by Veerle Van der Linden 2008.
344
Concerning the iron X-ray spectra (Figures 169 right; 172) the converging curves of the two black glass pieces
(very high peak) and the two obsidian pieces (very low peak) show an intermediate situation for R1610 (red line).
To summarize, the use of a portable-XRF can easily verify whether a black glass artefact is made of volcanic
glass or from sand. But when the artefact is determined as obsidian it does not confirm whether it was made from
a raw block of obsidian by drilling or by remelting and casting.
Al-Si
K-Ca
Fe
Figure 169: Energy spectrum of R1610 compared with the spectra of black glass and obsidian pieces
Figure 170: Detailed view of the X-ray spectra of the aluminium (Al) and silicium (Si) peaks (taken from Cagno, Cosyns 2009a,
unpublished internal report)
345
Figure 171: Detailed view on the X-ray spectra of the potash (K) and calcium (Ca) peaks (taken from Cagno, Cosyns 2009a,
unpublished internal report)
Figure 172: Detailed view of the X-ray spectra of the iron (Fe) peaks (taken from Cagno, Cosyns 2009a, unpublished internal
report)
8.7.3
Micro X-Ray Fluorescence (µ-XRF)
A different transportable XRF system used is the more efficient micro energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence
machine (µ-XRF). This movable, wide-range elemental analyzer is equipped with a rhodium X-ray tube and a high
275
resolution Peltier cooled silicon PIN (SiPIN) diode detector. The operating conditions of the X-ray tube were 35
kV, 0,15 mA, while 300 seconds has been adopted as measuring time. The µ-XRF was connected to a laptop
likewise the procedure when using a p-XRF.
The measurement done by µ-XRF provided additional information concerning the vessel fragment R1610 (no. 6),
but we took the opportunity to have several other items of the Royal Museums of Art and History analysed that
were impossible to sample for SEM-EDX or LA-ICP-MS. As shown in Tables 153--154, the 11 objects concerned
were four counters, two arm rings, two drinking vessels, two pseudo-nicolo gems, both set in their original ring
and the obsidian vessel R1610.
275
Personal communication by Veerle Van der Linden 2008.
346
Table 153: List of additional artefacts analysed with µ-XRF
cat.no.
sample no.
site
type of object
317
317
228
228
194
2790
552
335
199
not catalogued
221
counter1
counter2
counter1
counter2
arm ring
obsidian vessel
arm ring
drinking vessel (carchesium)
drinking vessel (bulbous cup)
pseudo-nicolo gem in silver ring
pseudo-nicolo gem in bronze ring
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
Herstal (BE)
Herstal (BE)
Cortil-Noirmont (BE)
Cortil-Noirmont (BE)
Basse-Wavre (BE)
Rome? (IT)
Tongeren-Koninkshem (BE)
Lavacherie (BE)
Bois-et-Borsu (BE)
Liberchies (BE)
Braives (BE)
Concerning the counters, two pieces come from the 12 black glass counters of a set of 27 found in the rich tomb
of Herstal (BE) (Amand, Mariën 1976, no.33). Counter no. 1 shows high iron content and traces of lead and
copper. The presence of the latter two oxides are features of recycled glass that entered the glassmaking
process. The counter is therefore most presumably made from recycled glass. The high iron content, together
with the general glass composition (e.g., low potassium content) is proof that the counter was made with
technology that came into use from the second half of the 2nd century AD onwards only (Cosyns et al. 2006a;
Van der Linden et al. 2009). The other counter (no. 2), even though its iron oxide appears lower, can still be
regarded as a piece issued from the same technology. We therefore presume quite securely that the two
nd
analysed counters must have been produced within the second half of the 2 century AD and are consequently
from the Herstal tomb. This date fits perfectly with some well-dated glass pieces from the tomb, such as the
nd
rd
footed beaker with snake-thread decoration which is typical for the later 2 to early 3 century AD.
Concerning the set of counters from the rich tomb of Cortil-Noirmont, two different colouring techniques can be
observed in the two analysed counters. The composition of counter no. 4 is similar to the aforementioned no. 2,
whereas counter no. 3 is characterised by a black glass with a dark purple hue, obtained by the addition of the
manganese (Mn) ore to an originally ‗naturally coloured‘ or aqua-coloured glass. The visibly purple-on-white eyedecoration shows a slightly different composition, with less iron and manganese and more antimony; a further
investigation seems to be needed to explain the nature of this decoration.
Table 154: Qualitative data (net intensities) of samples analysed by µ-XRF (data taken from Cagno, Cosyns 2009b, unpublished
internal report)
ID
1F
1B
2F
2B
3F
3F
3F
3B
4F
4B
5F
5B
6
7
color
black
black
black
black
black
purple
white
black
black
black
black
black
black
black
Si
3479
3196
3525
2902
3354
3152
2856
2956
4758
4549
1546
3066
4816
3812
Cl
1677
1546
2122
1590
1655
1008
853
1701
2030
1946
226
867
716
1498
K
8494
5808
15007
12306
11396
9285
9159
10177
8349
7618
1881
8012
40943
7996
Ca
65151
56023
84178
71232
78085
59576
55650
78775
67065
65125
34011
70174
10543
78719
Qualitative data (net intensities)
Ti
Mn
Fe
1931
7199
203059
1751
6527
195113
2673
12056
55711
2183
10368
48169
2245
98872
41904
569
22523
22393
562
6661
15710
2188
91929
39764
2864
5591
39273
2651
5400
38275
978
6673
106137
1970
16103
245371
4381
4921
118603
1621
19309
55315
Cu
2956
261
743
626
1007
1137
968
1102
744
821
437
1107
340
20495
Rb
368
-
Sr
482
4668
1390
1172
1318
1049
669
1209
889
948
288
521
96
846
Zr
8
15
197
143
183
121
118
156
203
153
35
108
497
73
Sb
1081
701
335
5305
5512
387
810
2085
Pb
15145
10542
389
357
453
406
918
901
172
370
10299
From Table 155 it is clear that the µ-XRF measurements on the vessel fragment R1610 with incised floral motifs
(no. 6) corroborates those resulting from the portable XRF (see above). The vessel fragment can definitely be
distinguished from Roman black glass and is thus to be interpreted as made from obsidian (Figures 173-174).
The difference with other obsidian pieces and the strong opacity of the vessel fragment makes it likely that the
matrix must have been manipulated by adding colouring and/or opacifying agents to the batch. Thus, instead of
being carved from one single block of obsidian, it is more likely that the vessel was made from crushed obsidian
and iron. The possibility of an addition of natron (sodium source) to lower the melting temperature can also be
considered; however, it was not possible to detect sodium with the µ-XRF instrument. Quantitative analysis only
can give an explicit answer on this issue.
347
Table 155: Semi-quantitative data (elemental ratios) of the samples measured by µ-XRF (data taken from Cagno, Cosyns
2009b, unpublished internal report)
sample no.
site
K/Ca
Mn/Fe
hue
glass type
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
Herstal (BE)
Herstal (BE)
Cortil-Noirmont (BE)
Cortil-Noirmont (BE)
Basse-Wavre (BE)
Rome? (IT)
Tongeren-Koninkshem (BE)
Lavacherie (BE)
Bois-et-Borsu (BE)
Liberchies (BE)
Braives (BE)
0.04
0.23
green
soda glass
0.32
0.23
green
soda glass
2.48
0.26
purple
soda glass
0.22
0.15
green
soda glass
0.07
0.20
green
soda glass
6.93
0.04
black
obsidian
0.18
0.37
green
soda glass
No results were obtained from these artefacts. The intact
vessels cause problems to enable a correct measuring
and the metal of the finger rings caused interference as it
is too close to the measuring spot of the gem.
The bracelet from Basse-Wavre (no. 5) is an open type with wide, flat D-shaped section and decorated with
rd
th
lengthwise ribbings (type C2). Typologically dated 3 century AD up to the middle of the 4 century AD (Cosyns
2004), it corresponds to the high iron content characteristic for the material of the post-150 AD Roman period
(Van der Linden et al. 2009). On the other hand, we observed a higher manganese content (Mn) in this piece
compared to the other pieces analysed (Figure 174). This offers a more precise identification, since higher
th
th
manganese content is typical for late Roman HIMT glass, produced from the 4 century AD onwards to the 6
century AD and most likely in one or more Egyptian glassmaking sites (Freestone et al. 2002). Hence, we may
assume with a certain degree of confidence that the bracelet from Basse-Wavre should be dated in the first half of
th
rd
the 4 century AD rather than in the 3 century AD. On the other hand, the results point to the existence of longdistance trade because at least the raw glass material was imported from Egypt or in any case the south-eastern
Mediterranean. To this distinctive raw glass was visibly added a high quantity of iron as colorant.
Alternatively, we had the opportunity to investigate this hypothesis by means of an experiment (Cagno et al.
2010). We received from Alain Riols about 1.5 kilograms of black obsidian from the Monte Arci on Sardinia, Italy
st
(Riols 2008). We added industrially produced sodium carbonate (Na 2CO3) and Roman iron from a 1 century AD
context of the villa at Treignes (BE), kindly made available by Prof. Eugène Warmenbol of ULB-CReA. Only
preliminary results of this work in progress can be given thus far. This first experiment was conducted at the
Provincial Archaeological Museum (PAM) at Velzeke during the last week of May 2009 with the kind permission of
Marc Rogge and under the supervision of Mark Taylor and David Hill and their team of enthusiastic and skilful
nd
volunteers. The furnace used is a life-size reconstruction of the 2 century furnace from Cesson-Sévigny built by
the skilled hands of François van den Dries, Robert van Zijll de Jong and Peter Van der Plaetse (PAM).
To prepare the obsidian for an easy melting, all but two obsidian blocks were crushed and ground at the
Department of Geology of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) in collaboration with Drs. Rémy Mas and with kind
permission of Prof. Dr Philippe Claeys. To facilitate the crushing and grinding of the raw material, we first sawed
the blocks into small pieces by using a diamond blade sawing machine with water conduction. Afterwards, the
small blocks were put into a mechanical crusher. The resulting small flakes were then put into an agate grinder to
obtain obsidian powder. The final outcome was sieved, resulting in a total mass of 1.373 kilograms dividable into
276 grams with a granular size below 50 µm, 675 grams with a size ranging between 50 µm and 2 mm and 323
grams above 2 mm size. Because the latter size was thought to be too large to melt easily and quickly, this
amount was not used in the PAM experiment. The total amount to serve the purpose was 938 grams of obsidian
powder. To have two different compositions tested, the amount was divided between two crucibles with a similar
mixture apart from the iron content. The ratio of obsidian to sodium carbonate was set at c. 469 g/140 g, which
corresponds to about 70%-30%. Considering that a part of the 609 g would evaporate during heating, a loss of
about 30% of the total glass melt was estimated, in order to calculate the amount of colouring to be added to the
batch. To colour the obsidian melt black, we added one crucible of 5% of powdered iron from an unworked iron
lens of a Flavian iron production activity on the villa estate at Treignes. Two complete Roman iron nails from the
same site were put in the other crucible. After three hours of heating, the two batches started to melt but were still
very sticky, like solidifying caramel. The glass melt was of a deep blue-green and full of air bubbles. Two days
later, the glass metal could still be inflated but remained a clear, translucent, very dark greenish colour without
having a black appearance. Some conclusions can be drawn from the experiment. We saw that it is possible to
melt and inflate a simple mixture of obsidian with sodium carbonate, meaning that the addition of arsenic and
borax as done by Alain Riols and Allain Guillot is not necessary. Further, we became aware of the necessity of an
increased quantity of iron as well as of the addition of an opacifying agent.
348
The bracelet from Tongeren-Koninkshem (no. 7) is of the same type as no. 5, except for its lower iron content.
The traces of lead and copper indicate that recycled glass (possibly mosaic tesserae) was used during the
glassmaking process.
Some general conclusions can be advanced based on the analysis results by means of µ-XRF discussed above ,
even though the set of analysed material remained limited:
all analysed objects are of a high iron deep green glass appearing black, except for one piece in deep
purple glass (no. 3) and the sherd in obsidian (no. 6) (Figure 173);
all analysed deeply green-coloured artefacts can be classified in the post-150 AD high iron group;
the two bracelets, one from Basse-Wavre (no. 5) and one from Tongeren-Koninkshem (no. 7) are made
th
276
of HIMT glass and accordingly are to be dated in the first half of the 4 century AD (Figure 174);
one counter from Herstal (no. 1) and one bangle (no. 7) are made from recycled glass (Figure 175).
3.00
2.50
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
Black/purple
Mn/Fe
2.00
1.50
1.00
0.50
Black/green
Obsidian
0.00
0.00
1.00
2.00
3.00
4.00
5.00
6.00
7.00
8.00
K/Ca
Figure 173: Manganeseiron ratios (Mn/Fe) versus potashcalcium ratios (K/Ca) in the analysed samples (taken from Cagno,
Cosyns 2009b, unpublished internal report)
276
Based on the typo-chronology, these bracelets went out of circulation around the mid 4th century AD (350360 AD).
349
1.4
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
Purple glass
1.2
1
Mn*
0.8
0.6
Obsidian
0.4
HIMT glass
0.2
Aqua / Levantine glass
0
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
Fe*
Figure 174: Manganese intensities (Mn) versus iron intensities (Fe) in the analysed samples (normalised values) (taken from
Cagno, Cosyns 2009b, unpublished internal report)
0.25
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
0.2
Traces of Cu-Pb = recycling
Pb*
0.15
0.1
0.05
0
0
0.05
0.1
0.15
0.2
0.25
Cu*
Figure 175: Lead intensities (Pb) versus copper intensities (Cu) in the analysed samples (normalised values) (taken from
Cagno, Cosyns 2009b, unpublished internal report)
350
0.3
8.7.4
Raman spectroscopy
It was never a goal as such to verify black glass samples with Raman spectroscopy, but it turned out to be an
277
opportunity that emerged from HOA15-project NOCEM that started in 2007at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel
(VUB). This technique has been barely used on archaeological glass because it generally has been estimated not
adequate for glass analysis in comparison to other methods providing quantitative measurements such as SEMEDX and LA-ICP-MS [see Chapter 8]. Nevertheless work on glass and glazes by means of portable micro-Raman
spectrometers demonstrated recently the possibilities for archaeological research on-site and without the
necessity of destroying the artefacts by taking samples (Colomban 2008; Prinsloo, Colomban 2008; Simsek et al.
2010). It was therefore worth checking whether the Raman spectra from the Roman black glass samples offered
good readings seeing the interest of the HOA15 project to verify the various measurement systems available in a
portable version in order to estimate its value for the creation of a fast measuring portable instrument to detect the
chemical composition of the glass artefact or at least aspects of its composition. Current research by means of
the standard chemical analysis techniques SEM-EDX and LA-ICP-MS demonstrated a clear compositional
distinction between the Roman black glass fragments from Period I, with a low iron content (Fe2O3 = <3%), and
Period II, with a clearly higher iron concentration (Fe 2O3 = >6%) (Van der Linden et al. 2009). Since the Roman
black glass was coloured with high amounts of iron in various concentrations, the first task that emerged was to
check if Raman spectra correlated with the iron oxide concentrations in the Roman black glass artefacts. Thus,
the experiments are rather to be considered as an investigation in view of the HOA15-project to test the validity of
Raman spectroscopy for measuring glasses with low iron content, as in decolourised or ‗naturally‘ coloured glass,
and for verifying other metal oxides in the glass, as, for instance, copper or cobalt.
Methodology
A DILOR XY spectrometer of the type HORIBA (Jobin Yvon Inc.) was used to measure the Raman spectra of 49
Roman black glass artefacts. The spectrometer was equipped with an Olympus BH2 microscope (50x
magnification, 8 mm focal length), a single monochromator, a notch filter, and a liquid nitrogen-cooled charge-1
coupled device detector CCD3000 with a resolution of ~2 cm . The excitation source providing a radiation of 514
nm was a mixed-gas laser of the type Coherent Innova 70C Argon/Krypton with an output power of 50mW. All
samples were measured at room temperature (Tr) twice with acquisition times lasting 60 and 300 seconds.
Caution regarding the possible influence of weathering was here not applicable since all black glass samples
used were previously embedded in an acrylic resin, ground and diamond polished for SEM-EDX and LA-ICP-MS
analysis. The measured Raman spectra were normalized by treating with a 5-segment linear baseline subtraction
and a minor smoothing using the LabSpec (Dilor) software (Baert et al. 2011).
All measurements were performed by Kitty Baert at the Department of Electrochemical and Surface Engineering,
Materials and Chemistry (ESEMC) of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) and were integrated in a paper on the
use of Raman spectroscopy as non-destructive method for glass analysis (Baert et al. 2011). The SiO4 tetrahedral
is generally used as vibration unit to describe the Raman spectra (Robinet et al. 2006; Colomban et al. 2006;
Colomban 2008; Mulevanov et al. 2009). When the SiO4 tetrahedral is bonded to 4 oxygen atoms, the pure silica
-1
-1
(Si) is fully polymerised (Q4= ~1150-1250 cm ), whereas the isolated tetrahedron (Q0= ~800-850 cm ) has no
covalent bond. In between lie the SiO4 tetrahedral structural units bonded to 1, 2 and 3 oxygen atoms,
-1
-1
-1
correspondingly Q1= ~900-950 cm ; Q2= 950-1000 cm ; Q3= 1050-1100 cm (Figure 176). The degree of
-1
polymerisation of the glass can be calculated from the ratio of the bending modes (~500 cm ) and the stretching
-1
modes (~1000 cm ), using the polymerisation index which is defined as Ip = A500/A1000 (Robinet et al. 2006;
Colomban et al. 2006; Colomban 2008). The Raman spectra thus supply information about the covalently bonded
structural units (Qn) of the glass samples, where n indicates the number of bridging oxygens. (Qn= stretching
components, and Qn‘= bending components) (Baert et al. 2011).
277
NOCEM stands for ‗Non-destructive Optical Analysis of Cultural Heritage Materials‘.
351
Q3
Intensity (a.u.)
1200
Q2
Q1
Q4
Qn'
600
Q0
0
400
600
800
1000
1200
Wavenumber (cm-1)
Figure 176: Example of a Raman spectrum of a sodium-silicate glass
(taken from Baert et al. 2011, fig. 1)
We did not verify the polymerisation index (Ip) of the different types of black glass, despite the fact that recent
research demonstrated the calculation of the polymerisation index (Ip) from the area ratio of Si-O bending (A500)
and stretching (A1000) envelops indirectly indicate the processing temperatureIp of 0,3 = ≤ 600°C; Ip of 1 =
278
1000 °C; Ip of 7 = 1400 °C (Colomban et al. 2006; Prinsloo, Colomban 2008).
Inherently linked with the
processing temperatures the Raman index of polymerisation (Ip) can be used to verify the flux ratiothe higher
the index the lower the flux contentand perhaps also the type of flux added to the glass metal batch or to some
additional elements such as PbO.
Results
The correlations between these different spectral components supply information on the chemical composition of
the analysed glass samples.
All 49 investigated black glass artefacts are in reality deeply coloured, which only becomes visible when a strong
light source is used. Previous research has demonstrated that the Roman black glass artefacts can be divided
into three sub-groups based on their ironmanganese concentration (Van der Linden et al. 2009). A first group
(Group A) represents the artefacts in deep green glass with high iron and low manganese content, respectively 613% and <1%. The second group (Group B) comprises the artefacts in deep purple glass with low iron and high
manganese content, respectively 0.5%-3% and 2%-3%. The third group (Group C) consists of the artefacts in
279
deep brown glass with a low to moderate iron and manganese content, respectively 1%-3% and <1%
[see
Appendix 3].
The obtained Raman spectra show that the iron/manganese ratio in glass artefacts can be evaluated. Clear
Raman spectra can be observed from glass with an elevated concentration of iron (Figure 177), but the presence
of a high manganese concentration causes a strong fluorescence, resulting in a scattered spectrum by measuring
a high background signal. From both groups with moderate manganese concentration, useful Raman spectra can
be measured (Figure 178). However, to analyse the spectra, a background correction was performed on the
signals from the samples of Group A and Group C in order to neutralise the presence of the minimal background
signal. This appeared useless for the high manganese artefacts in deep purple glass (Group B), as unreliable
results ensued from it.
278
279
The polymerisation index of black glass beads from India is calculated at 1,7 and that of obsidian at 3,5 (Colomban et al. 2006).
Although Mn and Fe can have different oxidation states, they have been fixed at 2+ in this study.
352
In a preliminary test, the Raman spectra of four black glass samples from Rumst (BE) were recorded [see
Appendix 3]. The (not normalised) spectra of these four samples with rather equal chemical composition are
apparently quite similar (Baert internal report 18.03.2008) (Figure 177).
Figure 177: The not normalised Raman spectra from 4 black glass samples with high iron content
intensity (a.u.)
8000
GroupA
GroupB
GroupC
6000
4000
2000
0
200
400
600
800
1000
1200
1400
wavenumber (cm-1)
Figure 178: Raman spectra of Grobbendonk (Group A = high Fe–low Mn); Olbia_3 (Group B = low Fe–high Mn); Avenches_4
(Group C = low Fe–low Mn) (taken from Baert et al. 2011, fig.4) [a.u. = arbitrary units]
-1
It is striking that in addition to the classic broad stretching band around ~1000 cm and weak bending band at
-1
~500 cm , the Raman spectra of all black glass samples within Group A and Group C show a pronounced peak
-1
at 415 cm . Based on the fact that ferric-sulphide chromophore is resonance-enhanced (Prinsloo, Colomban
3+ 22008) Kitty Baert considers the peak to be linked with the presence of ferric-sulphide Fe -S -chromophore in the
black glass artefacts (Baert et al. 2009). The fact that the sulphur was not detected with SEM-EDX is evidence for
353
280
a very low content and consequently makes the Raman spectra very sensitive for sulphur.
Instead of sulphur,
-1
iron can be responsible for this pronounced peak at 415 cm . The different peaks related to iron can possibly be
2+
3+
reduced to the presence of Fe and Fe oxides, respectively as FeO and Fe2O3. At least the broad stretching
-1
band at ~1000 cm visible in the Raman spectra is due to the iron concentration in the black glass (Olivier et al.
2005).
A next step was normalising the recorded Raman spectra of the selected black-appearing glass samples to come
to a semi-quantitative evaluation (Figure 179). The Raman spectra were standardised starting from the intensity
at Q3. The broad stretching bands all fall within the Q2 and Q3 order of the SiO4-tetrahedral stretching signal,
-1
respectively around 980 and 1080 cm and showing two distinct peaks. The higher the iron content of the
samples, the more the stretching band moves to Q2, meaning a decrease of the glass polymerisation. There is
thus a clear link between the iron content in glass and the Q2/Q3-ratio. On the other hand, the SiO bending
-1
bands at ~500 cm where the polymerisation index becomes very low (Ip = <0,10) show up as very weak
-1
compared to the stretching signal. These peaks at 415 cm are considered resonance-enhanced in the bluegreen part of the spectrum and related to the presence of Fe-S chromophore and (Prinsloo, Colomban 2008).
Fe2O3
11%
1.0
10%
intensity (norm.)
8%
0.8
6%
2%
0.6
0.4
0.2
0.0
400
600
800
1000
1200
wavenumber (cm-1)
Figure 179: Raman spectra of Roman black glass artefacts (Appendix 3) with a various concentrations of iron oxide (taken from
Baert et al. 2011, fig. 5) [norm. = normalised]
In brief the investigation with Raman spectroscopy on 49 Roman black glass artefacts has demonstrated that this
non-destructive technique is a useful alternative for the study of archaeological glass artefacts.
The amount of iron oxides added as colouring agents in the glass melt to produce black- appearing glass is
visible in the Raman spectrum because iron oxide systematically influences the silicate glass structure. Early
Roman black glass features a low iron content and the later Roman black glass, after 150 AD, a high iron content;
the obtained Raman spectra are thus valuable for dating the artefact, even though the dating remains merely
approximate. The fact that the iron content is clearly observable on the Raman spectra means that this nondestructive technique can be helpful in discriminating the provenance of ‗naturally‘ coloured and decolourised
glass (such as the late Roman-early Byzantine HIMT glass) from that of other originse.g., Levantine I, II and
Egyptian I, II (Freestone et al. 2002; Picon, Vichy 2003; Foy et al. 2003).
280
It is unknown to the author in what degree sulphur evaporated from the batch by bonding with oxygen.
354
Raman spectroscopy can therefore provide fundamental information about materials and techniques that were
applied in a certain period or region. Applicable for dating glass artefacts, this knowledge should be checked by
analysing more objects of one specific chronological group in order to test the limits of Raman spectroscopy on
archaeological and historical glass. A geographical dimension can be added to the future analysis by checking
similar artefacts from various regions.
355
356
Chapter 9 OPTICAL ANALYSIS
9.1 Introduction
281
The initial impetus for executing optical analysis on black-appearing glass is the lack of a consensus on when
282
to classify strongly-coloured glass as black-appearing.
This has consequences in the quantification of the
studied material and thus for its interpretation. The very specific and highly debatable issue of designating and
describing the hue of archaeological glass artefacts thus necessitated an objective optical verification what can be
realized by means of absorption spectroscopy. This characterization technique is especially appropriate because
the blackness of glass artefacts depends on particular properties of the material, e.g., the colouring and
opacifying agents and the thickness of the object (Bamford 1977; Bayley 1999, 90; 92). Optical analysis can act
as an unprejudiced measuring method eliminating the biased colour vision of the human observer who is
influenced by his visual sensitivity to light signals but also by the luminosity of the different light sources and the
interaction of objects with light (Hunter, Harold 1987). To obtain high-quality results standardized conditions by
means of artificial daylight illuminants are adopted for the visual evaluation of colours.
On the other hand, the previous chapter has demonstrated the benefit of measuring the chemical composition of
black glass artefacts for dating, tracing the type of applied production technique and identifying certain distribution
patterns. Hence, the aim of this chapter is to verify whether additional information on the production and
consumption of Roman black-appearing glass artefacts is obtainable by using physical methods to confirm or to
refine the conclusions from chemical analysis described in the previous chapter. In addition, we have verified to
what extent UV-Vis-NIR spectroscopy provides answers to some specific archaeological questions.
An additional outcome of the UV-Vis-NIR spectroscopy research is that it is a simple technique which does not
require an excessive handling of the artefact, is non-destructive, and is not expensive (Meulebroeck et al. 2011).
Therefore this technique holds considerable advantages in the study of archaeological glass artefacts compared
to the expensive equipment necessary for the standard chemical analysis. The techniques we used to determine
the chemical composition of Roman black glass artefacts were SEM-EDX and LA-ICP-MS [see Chapter 8]. These
283
techniques however include several clear disadvantages , making that these chemical analysis methods are
always executed on a limited number of well-selected artefacts.
the inevitability of complex techniques and expensive instrumentation, meaning that measurements can only
be performed ex-situ in a major institute requiring the skills of trained people
the strict export restrictions of archaeological artefacts
the limited selection of samples offered because of destructive sampling methods
the time-consuming analysis per sample
Optical analysis by means of absorption spectroscopy, specifically UV-Vis-NIR spectroscopy, has already been
284
applied to archaeological glass research in the past. In section 9.2 (Absorption Spectroscopy on Roman Glass
Artefacts, current publications on the absorption spectroscopy of archaeological glass correlating the spectral
data of Roman glass colours with the chemical composition are discussed. The use of optical spectroscopy on
st
nd
archaeological glass artefacts has already been applied in studies on 1 and 2 century Roman glass from
Coppergate, York (Bingham, Jackson 2008), on Roman glass from Colchester (Green, Hart 1987), on Late
Roman Palestine glass from Galilee (Schreurs, Brill 1984) and Jalame (Brill 1988), on Parthian and Sasanian
th
dated glass artefacts coming from excavation sites of modern Iraq (Mirti et al. 2008), on 7 century glass
th
th
fragments of the Crypta Balbi in Rome (Mirti, Lepora 2000), on 15 and 16 century German forest glass (Sellner
et al. 1979), and on post-Medieval glass from Surrey (Green, Hart 1987). Despite the many advantages, little
interest has been shown in exploiting UV-Vis-NIR spectroscopy fully within the archaeometric approach.
281
This study was a pilot project of an ongoing research project at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel – the HOA15-project NOCEM. Its goal was to test
the possibility of using UV-VIS-NIR spectroscopy (spectroscopic analysis within the range of UltraViolet – VISible – Near InfraRed wavelengths) to
characterize archaeological and historical glass artefacts and verify whether similar information can be generated from chemical analysis.
Consequently, this chapter is the result of a close collaboration with Dr. Wendy Meulebroeck from the Department of Applied Physics (TONA).
282
In Chapter 1 [Defining ‗Black‘ and the Perception of Colour] we explained that black is more than a limited perception of the naked eye for
recognizing colours. Additionally, each culture describes and nominates colours differently, and attributes specific meanings and connotations to
particular hues.
283
Even though there is also the existence of cheaper, portable and more user-friendly instrumentation such as for instance the portable Raman
(Colomban 2008; Colomban, Tournié 2009; Ricciardi 2009, 129-149) and portable XRF providing quantitative measurements when used under
vacuum (Nakai et al. 2005; Nakai et al. 2009; Tantrakarn et al. 2009).
284
In recent years, simple portable optical spectrum analysers became commercially available, opening perspectives towards in-situ
measurements.
357
In section 9.3 (Methodology), we discuss the different ways of using absorption spectroscopy (through light in
transmission with or without the use of an integrated sphere, and through light in reflection). Both physical and
285
chemical properties affecting the transmission of light were calculated with the Lambert-Beer formula.
We attempt to determine whether optical analysis on Roman black glass artefacts can answer the following
archaeological questions and thus supply more information for a better interpretation of archaeological glass:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Is a distinction between the black and non-black appearance as opposed to the strongly-coloured
glass measurable?
Does the colorimetry of glass correspond to its chemical composition?
Is it possible to calculate the variety of shades per specific colour type resulting in a black-appearing
glass matrix?
Can specific glass colours be matched to specific periods or typological groups?
Can UV-Vis-NIR spectroscopy provide answers to technological aspects of black glass production?
In section 9.4 (Analysis Results), these questions are examined. The first two questions concern a purely optical
286
analysis and have not been the subject of prior research. An objective measuring system distinguishing black
glass from strongly-coloured glass validates the attribution of material as black, seeing the arbitrary
perceptiveness of the human eye. We applied UV-Vis-NIR spectroscopy to establish without bias the different
hues and colour intensities of black-appearing glass (question 1).
Through UV-Vis-NIR spectroscopy, the spectrum of an analysed glass artefact is illustrated with characteristic
absorption bands and transmission peaks. The respective absorption bands hold very valuable indications about
possible spectral regions of interest.
Prior research has been done on the identification of specific absorption bands related to the applied colouring
agents (Schreurs, Brill 1984; Green, Hart 1987; Brill 1988; Mirti, Lepora 2000; Bingham, Jackson 2008). Various
glass compositions were established on the basis of different oxides to obtain black glass. This resulted in the
characterization of the absorption bands responsible for colouring the glass batch black. Based on previous
research, which established the calculation of the colour coordinates of the samples and drew conclusions on
applied colouring agents and production facilities (Brill 1988; Mirti, Lepora 2000; Mirti et al. 2008), UV-Vis-NIR
spectroscopy is used in the study of strongly-coloured Roman glass that has a black appearance in order to
establish the correlation between the transmission spectra of the artefact, and the added colouring agent(s) in the
glass batch that give this black appearance (question 2).
The identification of the various metal oxides used for making the glass matrix appear black will be compared with
the available information on the colouring capacities of the chemical elements (Brill 1988) (question 3).
Can optical analysis provide answers to archaeological questions on the geographically and chronologically
related technological differences of the black glass production (questions 4 and 5)?
The UV-Vis-NIR spectroscopy results on black glass artefacts were compared to previously obtained knowledge
on the reduction-oxidation furnace conditions of glass production in general (Schreurs, Brill 1984; Green, Hart
1987; Brill 1988; Bingham, Jackson 2008). Can the obtained optical spectra reveal information about the applied
production methods for black-appearing glass, e.g., furnace conditions (question 5)?
In section 9.5 (Use of Photonics), we make a first attempt to fully apply the analysis results of section 9.4 to the
archaeological questions asked concerning black glass.
9.2 Absorption spectroscopy on Roman glass artefacts
To keep a logical structure, we thought it helpful to describe briefly and in rough outline the discussion on the
chemical composition of Roman glass.
The basic glass hue during the Roman imperial period is the so-called ‗naturally coloured‘ glass. The hue of this
large group encompasses a wide variety of tinges including pale blue, pale bluish-green (also called ‗aqua‘), pale
285
The Lambert-Beer formula is I = I0.e.(-a.c.x), resulting from the Lambert law on thickness and the Beer law on concentration (Ingle, Crouch
1988).
286
The three other issues can only be discussed in relation to the results from the chemical analysis.
358
olive-green, and yellowish-green due to impurities in the sand (Brill 1988, 269). The most typical ‗naturally‘
coloured glass has a bluish-green effect due to the natural presence of FeO/Fe 2O3, commonly ranging between
0,3-1,5% (Schreurs, Brill 1984). Hence, to obtain a decolourized or pale-coloured (nearly colourless) glass the
Romans neutralized the blue-green colouring effect of the iron oxide impurities by adding antimony (Sb) and/or
manganese (Mn) to the batch. The Roman glassworker also deliberately added iron, manganese, copper and
cobalt to obtain a wide range of colours, but furnace conditions (oxidising or reducing) must have played a
significant role as well. Because the Roman strongly-coloured glass artefacts appearing black were variously
manufactured from intentionally coloured glass, it is most relevant to focus on these transition metal oxides added
to the batch to colour the glass matrix. Different methods were used to obtain a black-appearing glass:
by adding large concentrations of the standard colouring agents (e.g., iron, manganese) (Newton, Davison
1989)
by adding non-soluble particles to the batch (the opacity is maximum when the size of the particles is in the
order of magnitude of the visible wavelengths) (Scholze 1991)
by adding opacifying agents to the batch (these special types of elements are characterised by their very high
absorption for visible wavelengths. The most important opacifying agent used in Roman times was antimony
by means of calcium antimonate and lead antimonate) (Mirti, Lepora 2000; Lahlil et al. 2009; 2010)
by using different furnace conditions (Schreurs, Brill 1984; Green, Hart 1987; Brill 1988; Bingham, Jackson
2008)
It is common knowledge that the basic principle of producing glass consists of the melting of three main
constituents: a network former and two types of network modifiers [see Chapter 8]. In ancient glass, sand
generally produced the network former, silica (SiO2). The three-dimensional tetrahedral network has a silicon
atom at the centre and an oxygen atom at each corner, two of which are shared by an oxygen atom of the
adjacent tetrahedral. This strongly bonded structure is responsible for the strength and durability of glass products,
but it also means that the melting temperature of the pure network former (c.1410°C, based on the table of
Mendeleyev) is too high to have been reached in ancient furnaces. A network modifier (a so-called flux) was
added in order to loosen the strong network bonding and to make the network more open. Very suitable for this
operation are the alkali elements such as soda (Na) and potash (K), due to the presence of free electrons. The
287
melting temperature of silica can be lowered 200°C to 900°C by fluxing the batch depending on the ratio added.
The disadvantage of this process is that the glass is made less durable and will lose its resistance to water,
resulting in a very porous material. To avoid this, the Romans used stabilizing agents, e.g., calcium and
288
magnesium, probably by adding lime (calcium oxide) or magnesia (magnesium oxide) to the melt. Pliny the
Elder (Nat. Hist. XXXVI, 192) not only mentioned the addition of soda to the batch, but also magnetite, glittering
stones, shells and even sand from quarries. It is thus very likely that the shells or calcium-rich and/or magnesia289
rich sands were used, consolidating to some extent the strength of the network.
Depending on the quality of the sand that was used, various oxides got into the batch as impurities. The most
common trace elements present in ancient glass are, for instance, Al 2O3, Fe2O3, TiO2, BaO, SrO and B2O3 (Brill
1988, 262-263). Alumina generally appeared in a concentration of between 2-3%, while iron impurity levels in the
sand fluctuate between 0,3-1,5% (Schreurs, Brill 1984). Besides the natural presence of iron (as FeO) in the sand
as an impurity, much higher iron concentrations can also be caused by the addition of the ferrous oxide Fe 2O3
haematite, a red iron oxide or by means of the ferrous ferric oxide Fe3O4 (= Fe2O3*FeO) magnetite, a black iron
oxide (Heck, Hoffmann 2000).
In Roman times, ‗naturally coloured‘ glass, as well as decolorized glass, was used in the production of black glass
[see Chapter 8]. To obtain a wide range of colours, the Romans glassworkers added small portions of oxides of
transition materials such as cobalt (Co), copper (Cu), iron (Fe), nickel (Ni) or manganese (Mn) (Schreurs, Brill
1984; Brill 1988). However, the colouring agents used in Roman times to obtain a black-appearing glass was
mainly iron oxide (from brown to green), or otherwise manganese (purple) sometimes in combination with cobalt
and or copper (violet). Characterizing the absorption band of lead oxide is important in distinguishing the Roman
287
Pliny the Elder mentions the proportions of sand and natron at 3:1 in weight (Nat. Hist. XXXVI 194). Seeing that natron is much lighter than
sand results in a rough proportion of 1:1 in volume. This means that the melting temperature of the glass matrix could be lowered to about 1150°C
producing an already good workable viscose glass at about 1000°C. Robert Brill (Brill 1988, 268) mentions that the glass from the late Roman
secondary workshop at Jalame (IL) has a calculated ratio of Belus River sand and Wadi al-Natrun natron equivalent to 4,92:2 (~ 5:2 ratio) or when
calcium is also taken into account for this silica-soda-lime glass a 5:2:1 ratio. This ratio results in a glass matrix that melts at a temperature much
below 1150°C so that in (late) Roman times workshops could economize on fuel.
288
A number of 1st century AD black glass samples with low iron content show an increased magnesia content. Related to a higher potash and
phosphor content, this points to use of a vegetable soda rather than a mineral one.
289
See Wedepohl, Baumann 2000; Freestone et al. 2003 and Freestone 2005; 2006.
359
material from that of the very late Roman and early medieval glass emerging in Period IV. Equally important for
this period is the introduction of HIMT glass, a LMG glass with a high level of sand impurities such as titanium (Ti)
and Manganese (Mn). The elevated Ti-content generally exceeds 0,3% and that of Mn usually goes above 1,0% ,
whereas the Roman glass of the prior periods using much purer sand has a titanium content under 0,25% but for
a large part ranging below 0,1%, and a manganese content less than 0,5% [see Appendix 3], even though a
range between 0,02-0,15% is considered the impurity level of pure Levantine sand (Brill 1988, 259).
Particular types of transition metals were added to the batch in various small concentrations of about 1%,
depending on the glass colour defined in advance that had to be produced (Newton, Davison 1989). Since any
impurity influences the colouration properties of the raw material, it is clear that absorption spectroscopy can help
determine the composition of the glass.
Glass was decolorized in Roman times by using manganese and/or antimonite oxide (Braun 1983, 146-147;
Vichy et al. 2007; Lauwers 2008; Foster, Jackson 2010). The most common hue of Roman glass is the ‗naturally
coloured‘i.e., blue-green, pale bluish-green (described by Brill as ‗aqua‘), and pale bluewhereas the
intentionally coloured glasses range between deep blue, green, red-purple, yellow-green, olive-green and yellowbrown (Schreurs, Brill 1984; Green, Hart 1987). The yellow-green colour of the glass, for example, is due to the
appearance of iron oxide (FeO), the most important colouring impurity in sand.
The colour of an artefact depends, however, not only on its chemical composition but also on the applied
technology. The variation in colour is the result of the addition of small fractionsnot more than a few percentof
transition metal ions in particular oxidation states. Most of the colouring elements applied in Roman timesiron
(Fe), manganese (Mn), copper (Cu) and cobalt (Co)could thus result in a broad range of colours not only by
using colouring oxides separately or by combining various colouring elements to the batch, but also by playing on
the furnace atmosphere (oxidizing or reducing conditions).
Iron can imply a continuous range of colours, starting from pale bluish-green going towards blue-green, green,
yellow-green and olive-green (Schreurs, Brill 1984; Newton, Davison 1989; Scholze 1991). These colours are a
2+
3+
result of the relative proportions of ferrous iron (Fe ) and ferric iron (Fe ) ions. In general, it is stated that the
2+
3+
saturation of the colour depends on the total iron concentration, whereas the hue is fixed by the ratio Fe /Fe
2+
3+
(Mirti et al. 2008). This Fe /Fe ratio is affected by the furnace conditions during the melting and production
process, i.e., the oxidizing or reducing conditions. The result is that two glasses with the same iron content could
2+
have a different colour due to the difference in Fe concentration, which indicates a production under different
oxidation states (Brill 1988, 9).
2+
3+
The conversion from Fe into Fe could be obtained in different ways. A first possibility is to work under oxidizing
conditions. This could be reached by the addition of extra oxidizing agents (see below) or by changing the furnace
conditions with short, bright flames. This is possible if an air flow is sent through the melt for a certain time period,
transforming ferrous iron into ferric iron (Newton, Davison 1989; Meulebroeck et al. 2010). The reverse reaction
can also take place if the glassmaker works under more reducing (smoky) conditions (Newton, Davison 1989).
Production facilities which were able to control this reaction could make the glass more blue or more green. The
2+
reduced form of iron (Fe ) will impose a blue colour, whereas under more oxidizing conditions iron will oxidize to
3+
3+
2+
Fe and will result in a green hue caused by the yellow colour of Fe together with the blue colour of Fe . The
colour intensity after reduction is stronger than after oxidation (Scholze 1991). An often applied technique to make
colourless glass is therefore to work under oxidizing conditions (Scholze 1991).
Various references cite the possible absorption bands of the two types of iron ions (Schreurs, Brill 1984; Green,
2+
Hart 1987; Brill 1988; Scholze 1991). The most pronounced is the absorption band of Fe between 900-1200 nm
with a shoulder around 450 nm (Brill 1988). This tail in the visible part of the electromagnetic spectrum is
apparently responsible for the pale blue hue. The weaker the absorption band around 1100 nm, the more oxidized
the furnace conditions (Meulebroeck et al. 2010).
The presence of other elements in the batch could influence the final colour considerably. One important element
is sulphate, which can be present as a contaminant through the added soda. Natron, mainly used by the Roman
glassworkers as flux, is an evaporite that occurs in combination with sodium sulphate (Schreurs, Brill 1984).
Under reducing furnace conditions and in the presence of sulphate ions, the following reactions take place
(Schreurs, Brill 1984; Van der Linden et al. 2009):
360
Fe
SO4
(2-)
+ 8H
(+)
(3+)
(-)
(2+)
+ e Fe
(-)
(2-)
+ 8e S
(1)
+ 4H2O (2)
2+
A large fraction of the iron is reduced to Fe , while sulphate ions can be reduced to sulphide ions. The sulphide
3+
(3+)
(2-)
can combine with the remaining Fe to form the ferro-sulphide Fe -S . This chromophore modifies the blue
2+
colour of the glass to green, olive-green or amber-brown, depending on its relative concentration to that of Fe
with the olive-green and the amber colours obtained under the maximum reduction state (Schreurs, Brill 1984).
This is the result of the characteristic intense absorption band around 405 nm of the ferro-sulphide (giving by itself
2+
a red tint) in combination with the absorption bands of Fe , although other sources speak about 420 nm (Schibille
3+
et al. 2007). Other possible absorption bands due to iron are all due to the presence of Fe , such as a series of
weak, sharp bands mainly in the region 375-450 nmi.e., 380 nm, 415 nm, and 440 nm (Schibille et al. 2007)
and a very strong band at 258 nm. These bands give a very pale lemon yellow colour but are normally both
2+
present together with the bands of Fe , in which case they impart a greenish-blue tint, or together with the
absorption band of the ferro-sulphide when their effect is negligible (Green, Hart 1987).
Another important colouring element in Roman times is manganese. Ancient glass contains, in most cases, small
2+
concentrations of manganese as a constituent of the alkali flux. This is under the form of the colourless ion Mn .
When the concentration exceeds 0,4%, it should be considered as intentionally added (Brill 1988). Known
absorption peaks are those from MnF6 at 461 nm, and Mn(H2O6) at 476 nm (Green, Hart 1987). Under more
3+
oxidizing conditions, the red colouring ion Mn with an absorption maximum between 470 and 520 nm (Green,
Hart 1987; Baxter 1995; Schibille et al. 2007) is formed via the reaction:
Mn
3+
+e
(-)
Mn
2+
(3)
In almost all ancient glasses, both iron and manganese were simultaneously present: iron as an impurity in the
sand and manganese as a contaminant in the flux. The combined effects of reactions (1) and (3) show that there
is an equilibrium between the two states of oxidation of the iron and the manganese (Newton, Davison 1989):
Fe
2+
+ Mn
3+
(yellow+purple)
2+
Fe
3+
+ Mn
2+
(4)
(blue+colourless)
2+
3+
2+
Because the Fe and the Mn ions are the more stable states, the equilibrium tends to move to Fe + Mn (4
2+
right). When the conditions during melting of the glass are fully reducing, the equilibrium has been forced to Fe
3+
2+
+ Mn (4 left), and the iron contributes to a bright blue colour due to the Fe ions while the manganese is in the
colourless form, resulting in (pale) blue glass. When the conditions are fully oxidizing, the equilibrium has been
moved to the right, and the iron contributes a brownish yellow colour and the manganese a purple colour,
resulting in a brownish violet glass (Newton, Davison 1989). Indications about the relation between the ratio of the
manganese and the iron content, and the resulting colour hue and its implications within the archaeological
discourse are thus far poorly discussed.
2+
3+
From reaction (4) it is clear that Fe and Mn could not be present in the same glass matrix. As a consequence,
3+
the absorption bands of Mn between 470 and 520 nm do not appear together with the absorption band around
2+
1100 nm of Fe (Green, Hart 1987). When the conditions of reaction (4) are intermediate, a variety of colours is
obtainable such as green, yellow and pink (Newton, Davison 1989). Also a colourless glass is obtainable through
the manipulation of furnace conditions. This physical process of decolourizing occurs when the purple from the
st
manganese just balances the yellow from the iron (Scholze 1991). From the 1 century AD onwards, the Roman
glassworkers performed chemical decolourizing as an alternative method (Newton, Davison 1989) by adding the
oxidizing agent pyrolusite (MnO2) (Schreurs, Brill 1984; Green, Hart 1987; Newton, Davison 1989; Scholze 1991):
Mn
4+
+ 2Fe
2+
Mn
2+
+ 2Fe
3+
(5)
2+
In this reaction, the decolourizing takes place in three different ways: transformation of the strong colouring Fe
3+
2+
into the less colouring Fe , eliminating the blue colour, and the formation of the colourless Mn and the oxidation
2of the S of the ferro-sulphide chromophore to SO2, eliminating the brown-yellow colour (Green, Hart 1987).
It is clear that depending on the furnace conditions, manganese (Mn) could give different colours, with violet,
green and colourless as the three most important ones (Brill 1988). All the described reactions required a precise
control. With respect to reaction (4), if too much manganese was added, it would act as a decolourizer for the
glass, which would otherwise be greenish in colour (Newton, Davison 1989). In reaction (5), on the other hand, a
3+
too-high concentration of MnO2 could result in oxidation to the red colouring ion Mn via reaction (3) (Schreurs,
Brill 1984; Green, Hart 1987), or retention of the brown colour of the ferro-sulphide (Green, Hart 1987).
361
It is significant that the addition of manganese is linked with the presence of small portions of iron, copper,
vanadium, nickel and barium (Brill 1988). Further investigation should lead to the recognition of the peaks in the
absorption spectra connected with vanadium, nickel and barium.
Within the previous chapter discussing chemical analysis, we provided enough evidence of the deliberate addition
of iron and manganese oxide to obtain black-appearing glass. Two other colouring agentscopper and
cobaltare much less frequently used by the Romans to produce black-appearing glass, or are only used in
combination with iron and manganese oxide. Although the deep blue coloured glass artefacts integrated within
our study are very few, we also discuss the properties of the glass artefacts coloured through copper and cobalt,
as they can turn out black as well.
Copper results in a light blue colour, and cobalt in a deep blue, violet, or indigo hue (Green, Hart 1987; Brill 1988;
Newton, Davison 1989; Scholze 1991; Shortland et al. 2006). Both metal oxides are thus responsible for a typical
colour. However, copper can also produce a similar ultramarine blue glass, as with cobalt under certain furnace
conditions, if the concentration in the glass matrix is high enough. The concentration of copper generally ranges
between 2-5%, while higher percentages would give a black colour (Newton, Davison 1989). The absorption band
2+
around 835 nm is connected with Cu (Mirti 1995).
Different ores of copper and cobalt could be used to bring this element into the batch, mainly under the form of
oxides and carbonates (Newton, Davison 1989). These ores contain other elements such as alumina, manganese,
nickel, zinc and magnesium (Shortland et al. 2006). In many samples, tin and lead are found together with
copperwith a Cu:Sn:Pb ratio of 90:3:7pointing to the addition of bronze fillings (Brill 1988; Newton, Davison
1989; Shortland et al. 2006). The latter elements are characteristic of a group of late Roman glass within Period
IV, such as the late material from Trier-Kesselstatt (DE) [see Chapter 8].
2+
Under oxidizing conditions, CuO (Cu ) colours the glass blue or green, depending on the other constituents of
the batch. In combination with PbO, the copper metal oxide results in a green colour, while the glass would turn
.
.
turquoise blue when combined with natron (Na2CO3.10H2O) or trona (Na2CO3 NaHCO3 2H2O) (Newton, Davison
1989). Under reducing conditions, CuO results in a red colour (Newton, Davison 1989; Heck, Hoffmann 2000):
2FeO + 2CuO Cu2O + Fe2O3 (6)
Cobalt is a much stronger colouring element than copper is. Only a very small concentration is needed within ppm
2+
range, with a concentration up to 50 ppm that is spectroscopically measurable. Cobalt, present as Co seeing as
3+
Co is unstable (Green, Hart 1987), has three successive absorption bands around 600 nm (Scholze 1991) and
several less strong absorption bands in the near-infrared region. Depending on the added form of cobalt and the
presence of other elements, these bands could shift considerably (Green, Hart 1987). In Roman samples, the first
absorption band is located at 535 nm, whereas in medieval glass samples from Wealden, this band is shifted
towards 520 nm (Green, Hart 1987).
+
+
2+
This difference is the result of a difference in Na , K and Ca concentrations (Green, Hart 1987). The other
absorption bands for Roman glass containing cobalt are situated at 595 nm and 650 nm (Mirti 1995).
In many cases, these elements were not used as the only colouring element. A mix of copper, cobalt, and
manganese was usual to obtain blue glass (Newton, Davison 1989), whereas blue and green colours can be
2+
2+
3+ 2produced in a combination of Co with Fe or Fe /S (Green, Hart 1987).
Table 156 summarizes the results found in literature. This first evaluation gives an indication of the possible
colorants used, the relation with the furnace conditions, and the colour resulting from it. We also mention the
wavelength at which the transmission is maximal (Tmax). This value depends on the obtained colour.
362
Table 156: Table summarizing the possible colorants used on the analysed Roman black glass artefacts, and the relationship
between the applied furnace conditions and the resulting colour (taken from Brill 1988, 272-273, Tables 9-10)
colorant
content
furnace
colour
Tmax
comments
conditions
(nm)
Fe2+ (FeO)
Fe3+ (Fe2O3)
2+
high concentration
reducing
aqua (bluish)
490
low concentration
high concentration
reducing
oxidising
aqua (greenish)
520
480
moderate
concentration
oxidising
3+
Fe + Fe
(Fe3+ predominates)
reducing
oxidising
slightly
reducing
ferro-sulphide
complex
Mn3+
480
+
510
green
(blue+green+yellow)
555
olive
(green+yellow+red)
amber (yellow+red)
585
S: 0,2 – 1,4%
Fe: 0,3%
around 3%
strongly
reducing
strongly
reducing
oxidising
purple
(violet + red)
400
2 - 13%
oxidising
(deep) blue and green
ferro-sulphide
complex + Fe2+
Cu2+
Co2+
0,10%
a pale blue-green colour is
the common natural
colour of raw glass
deep blue
670
700
shift
the natural aqua colour
can be intensified with the
addition of copper. By
adding lead, the green
colour produced by
copper could be darkened
intense colouring
9.3 Methodology
Two methods are applicable to measure colours
290
:
Light measurement in transmission
Light measurement in reflection
The transmission spectra were measured with a high-performance optical spectrum analyser SA320/Instrument
Systems by using white light, i.e., a beam equalling a spectral resolution of 1,5 nm and emitting a white light
incorporating all hues in the visible spectrum between 380 and 780 nm. The operating source of light is a
stabilized halogen source with a constant emission pattern after a 30-minute warm-up. The white light sent in
transmission through the glass samples has been focused through a microscope objective which focuses the
beam to a spot size of approximately 1,5 mm diameter at a distance of about 2 mm from the artefact. An optical
fibre bundle positioned very close (1 mm distance) to the other side of the artefact collects the transmitted light
within an angle of 43° and guides it to the entrance slit of the high performance optical spectrum analyser,
SA320/Instrument Systems. The optical fibre bundle is put in connection with a computer calculating and plotting
291
the spectrum of the transmitted light between 300 and 1600 nm. The source and the receiving fibre were
placed in one line with the sample in between (Figure 180).
290
We only carried out light measurement in transmission, although we tested the light measurement in reflection on a small set of samples. Due
to the particular properties of black glass, the reflection of light in a straight on-line set-up produced no information because no absorption could be
measured, as the white light source became mirrored, reflecting all light back. More complex constructions possibly would give a solution, but no
alternative was tested within the reach of this study.
291
Quantification up to the level of a nanometre (nm) of the caught light in transmission is done by using a calculation programme written in 1997
in IS-SPECWIN-Ascii for Microsoft Windows 95, and makes conversion into a graph with a precision of up to 0,12 nm possible.
363
T
transparency
white light
blue light
sample
optical fibre
bundle
wavelength
Figure 180: schematic set-up of the optical installation for UV-Vis-NIR spectroscopy
To admit the possibility of a comparative study of the measured values, it was essential that the distance between
the source of light and the artefact on the one hand, and that between the artefact and the receiving optical fibre
on the other hand, remained invariably similar. Therefore, it was repeatedly necessary to move both the sending
and the receiving part of the set-up, as the various artefacts measured had different external shapes.
The colour of an object not only depends on the pigments inside the object, but also under which lighting
conditions it is perceived, and at what angle it is viewed. The light source under which we wanted to represent the
colour had to be defined in terms of the angle at which the artefact has been irradiated (Figure 181).
eye
white light
white light
reflection
light source
sample
transmission
light source
Figure 181: schematic view of all possible influences on the colour of an artefact before reaching the naked eye.
The fragments of carinated beakers (Form IIB.1) from the villa of Matagne-la-Petite (BE) and the military camp at
Rumst (BE) can be held up as examples, showing unanimously in Figure 182 their black appearance when put on
a white paper and using only reflective light. When these fragments are put on a milky white glass with an 18
watts neon light in transmission, some fragments exhibit the true hue of the glass (a: in red dotted ellipses; b1; c1),
demonstrating a (bottle) green colour. Conversely, when the white neon light is replaced by a halogen lamp of
500 watts, the same fragments turned greenish to orange brown, frequently called olive-green (b2; c2).
364
Matagne
Rumst
a
b2
b1
c2
c1
Figure 182: (a) A selection of black-appearing glass vessels with only reflective light; (b) the Rumst piece with neon (whitish)
light (18 Watt) in transmission (b1) versus a strong halogen (yellowish) light (500 Watt) in transmission (b2); (c) a Matagne
piece with neon (whitish) light (18 Watt) in transmission (c1) versus a strong halogen (yellowish) light (500 Watt) in
transmission (c2) (photographs by the author, courtesy of VIOE)
To be able to refer to the colour information mentioned in Table 156, a white light source with a constant intensity
in the visible region was chosen. In most cases, a standardized source proposed by the Commission International
de l‘Eclairage (CIE) is used, such as the ‗Illuminant A‘ source, which simulates natural daylight. If a comparison of
the colour coordinates is done between this light source and a theoretical light source, the colour will appear
warmer for the ‗Illuminant A‘ source. This is because for this source the red colours dominate. Accordingly, we
decided to represent the colour under the illumination of a (theoretical) light source with a constant intensity in the
spectral region of our interest. Starting from the measured transmission spectra, we calculated the x and y colour
coordinates which are represented on the CIE1931 horseshoe graph (Figure 186, left). This colour system has
been chosen because it represents all colours that the human eye can physically perceive. The point of interest
was to come to a classification based on the applied colorants.
The artefact was placed between the light source and the receiving optical fibre to enable the measurement of the
spectral emittance E (W/m².nm) with the spectrum analyser. The transmission spectrum of each artefact TA(λi)
has been calculated into the defined spectral region by dividing the spectral emittance of the used light source,
ES(λi), with the spectral emittance of an artefact, EA(λi), for wavelengths λi between 300 and 1600 nm:
TA (i )
ES (i )
.100%
E A (i )
Initially, the main interest of this research was limited to the analysis of the spectral shape of the black-appearing
glass artefacts; accordingly, the use of an integrating sphere was at that time trivial. This, however, resulted in the
loss of a fraction of the transmitted light not being received by the optical fibre, consequently making absolute
quantifications impossible (Figure 183, top). But when trying to determine the darkness/blackness of the glass
artefact and the viscosity of the glass matrix, it has been necessary to measure the absolute spectra, implicating
the use of an integrating sphere (Figure 183, bottom).
365
transmitted light
white light
optical fibre bundle
It
sample
integrating sphere
white light
optical fibre bundle
It
T
coloured
glass sample
Figure 183: Schematic views of the spectrum measurement using light in transmission without (top) or with (bottom) the use of
an integrating sphere
When measuring the absolute spectra, the calculation of the full transmission (T) of a glass artefact is necessary.
This implies the use of an integrated sphere catching all the light (IT), because without the optical fibre bundle will
not collect all the transmitted light conveyed from the artefact (Figure 184). A calculation starts from the known
value of the transmitting light source (It). Taking into account the interface reflections (R), the true transmitting
light (Io) demonstrates a refraction angle affected by the pad length (approximately equivalent to the thickness) of
the glass artefact (x), as well as by the concentration (c) and the absorption coefficient (a). The higher the optical
density (OD), the lower the luminosity of an object or in other words the lower the transparency and brightness of
the glass matrix and accordingly the darker the glass hue. From a certain point the optical density (OD) makes the
glass appears black to the naked eye at a certain point of absorption (Weyl 1959; Bamford 1977).
log10T = c.x.a.log10e – 2.log10.(1-R)
log10T = OD
x
R
It
I0
T
a, c
I
integrating sphere
Figure 184: Schematic view of the measuring of transmission (T) of glass artefacts
Different aspects were investigated after calculation of the analysed transmission spectra:
366
establishing the objectively measured limit between strongly coloured and black appearing glass
testing the degree of correlation between the colorimetry of the glass artefact and its chemical composition by
comparing the spectral shapes to the various subgroups defined from the chemical composition, particularly
on the basis of the iron content vis-à-vis the manganese content (Figure 194)
identifying the characteristic absorption bands related to the colorants used in the glass matrix
drawing some conclusions about the applied production process, for it has been indicated that furnace
conditions used during the production process can influence the colour of the glass mass
The colour of the glass artefacts can be calculated on the basis of various parameters:
x
X
X Y Z
y
X TA ( )S ( ) x( )d
Y
X Y Z
z
Z
with z 1 x y
X Y Z
Y TA ( )S ( ) y( )d
the calculated transmission spectrum TA(λ)
the spectrum of the source S(λ)
the colour matching functions x , y and
z
Z TA ( )S ( ) z( )d
(Figure 186, top right)
The used values of the colour matching functions x , y and
z
for calculations were also taken from Wendy
Meulebroeck‘s doctoral thesis (Meulebroeck 2004, 63). The calculations on the black glass artefacts were done
within the spectral region of visible wavelengths between 380-780 nm (Figure 185, Table 157).
Figure 185: Solar spectrum within the visible (VIS) [between 380-780 nm], from ultraviolet (UV) [below 380 nm] to nearly infrared
(NIR) [above 780 nm], including the Fraunhofer lines featuring the absorption lines matching the wavelength of specific chemical
elements (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fraunhofer_lines)
Table 157: overview of wavelength intervals for the different colours within the visible light spectrum
The colours of the visible light spectrum
Colour
ultraviolet
Near ultraviolet
Violet
Blue
Green
Yellow
Orange
Red
Near Infrared
Infrared
Wavelength interval
< 300 nm
300-400 nm
400-450 nm
450-490 nm
490-560 nm
560-590 nm
590-630 nm
630-700 nm
700-1000 nm
> 1000 nm
To make plotting possible on the CIE1931 horseshoe graph, the colour coordinates were calculated for every
transmission spectrum (Figure 186, top left) (DeCustatis 1997). This has been done by means of the two
chromatic values ‗x‘ and ‗y‘. The system, however, is based on three primary colour stimuli ‗X‘, ‗Y‘, and ‗Z‘, which
correspond approximately to the colours red ( x ), green ( y ), and blue( z ), respectively. These stimuli were
historically chosen so that each visual colour could be represented as a mixture of these stimuli. For every
wavelength, the so-called colour matching functions
x , y and z (Figure 186, below) reflect how much of every
stimulus ‗X‘, ‗Y‘, and ‗Z‘, one has to mix so that the resulting substance has the same colour as monochromatic
light at the considered wavelength (λ) (Meulebroeck 2004, 61-63).
367
Tristimulus values
4
2
1.6
_
z
_
y
1.2
_
x
0.8
0.4
0
380
480
580
680
780
Wavelength (nm)
Figure 186: (top left) CIE1931 horseshoe curve; (top right) Colour matching functions showing normalized typical human cone
cell responses (Z, Y and X) to monochromatic spectral stimuli (taken from Fortner, Meyer 1997); (bottom) the spectra of the
three primary colour stimuli (taken from DeCustatis 1998)
The entire assignment has also been done in the reverse order to ascertain the calculated results. First, the
chemical composition of the artefact and the applied production process were prefigured from the measured
spectra. Afterwards, the calculated results were verified with the data acquired from the chemical analysis
explained in Chapter 8. By linking the results on the optical characterization of the black-appearing glass with the
data from the chemical composition via the two minor-destructive analysis methods, i.e. SEM-EDX and LA-ICPMS, useful information for archaeological research was obtained. The measuring of the transmission spectrum of
each artefact generates three general remarks with respect to this set-up.
The variety of questions and interests imposed the employment of various methods to analyse the spectral shape
of the black glass artefacts. For certain purposes, such as the determining of the blackness, it was necessary to
measure absolute spectra, and, as a consequence, the use of an integrating sphere was required. Principally, the
integrating sphere has not been used because a useful quantification is already obtainable when special care is
given to the applied measurement geometry, i.e. the light source, the angle, and the distance between the glass
artefact and the light source, and the detector.
In particular, the properties of glass do specify the blackness of a glass artefact, although we have to take notice
of various external circumstances influencing visual perception. We have to consider (1) the spectral properties of
the lightinge.g. daylight vs. artificial light, halogen light vs. fluorescent light; (2) the measuring rangee.g. direct
light vs. diffuse light, reflection (R) vs. transmission (T); and (3) the powers of perception on the part of the
observer. We therefore have applied standardised methods, using a standardised light source excluding all
interference of external sources of light. The calculated colour is related to the chosen measuring range as well as
the chosen light source. Hence, the calculation of the numerical values in the various colour spaces of the
measured glass artefact is done by multiplying the three tristimulus values (Table 158):
368
the spectral power distribution of the used light sourcei.e. Illuminant A;
the spectral reflectance of the measured artefact
the colour matching functions.
Table 158: The calculated tristimulus values in the three colour spaces
sample
hue
L*
Velzeke Ab
black appearing greyish green
0,084
Rumst b
deep dull greenish yellow
32,69
Grobbendonk
very pale greyish green
92,14
a*
-0,0074
-6,18
-1,54
b*
0,018
28,84
12,07
a
b
c
d
Figure 187: The spherical colour spaces with vertically the lightness of the colour (L*) and horizontally the hue in two axes, green-red
(a*) and yellow-blue (b*) (a-c: provided by Wendy Meulebroeck; d: taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Munsell_Color_System)
Within the spherical colour diagram, we have to consider three axes: 1) the vertical Z-axis L* that stands for
lightness between white and black representing the value of a colour; 2) the horizontal X-axis a* that stands for
the colour transition from green to red; and 3) the horizontal Y-axis b* that stands for the colour transition from
blue to yellow. Figure 187 demonstrates the horizontal X- and Y-axes give the saturation of the chroma or hue
from grey in the centre over dull to vivid hues at the outer peel. The lower the L*-value on the vertical Z-axis, the
darker the glass hue, with very dark glass from L*10 to black at around 0. The higher the L*-value, the paler the
292
293
glass is, with very pale glass from L*90 to colourless at around 100. Both horizontal axes a* and b* show
vivid colours when the value is high, between +/- 60 to +/- 40; dull, up to +/- 20; and greyish to grey, below +/-20
292
293
For glass, we speak of it as almost colourless if it is transparent and lightly tinged white when opaque.
In this case, we speak of it as colourless glass when it is transparent and white when opaque.
369
(Figure 187a-c). We can conclude that the value L* can be used as a potential parameter to quantify the
blackness of glass artefacts.
9.4 UV-Vis-NIR Spectroscopy results on Roman artefacts in stronglycoloured glass appearing black
This section highlights the UV-Vis-NIR spectroscopy results on a selection of Roman black glass objects within
the framework of the five questions formulated in section 9.1 [see Appendix 3]. We therefore selected black
artefacts in various glass colours whose chemical composition was analysed [see Appendix 1]. A number of
294
samples remained indeterminate because the true colour appeared beyond measure. The largest part of these
so-called opaque black glass samples is due to the presence of an opacifying agent, such as antimony, that
causes a high absorption in the visible part of the electromagnetic spectrum. However, some artefacts appeared
too thick to allow transmission of light. Not visible for the naked eye, these black-appearing pieces disclose their
true colour rather by accident through a thin fractured surface. Making the transmission of the used halogen white
light source not properly measurable, these samples have also been excluded from this research. Hence, all
samples investigated by way of UV-Vis-NIR spectroscopy are characterised by the transmittance of the visible
light that could be received accurately and accordingly to reveal the colour of the transparent and translucent
glass matrix.
We were able to transfer to the TONA lab at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel a total of 96 samples for UV-Vis-NIR
spectroscopy [see Appendix 3], very kindly donated by various institutions from different countries. The
accumulated set of samples comprises for the most part Belgian sites (Amay, Bassenge, Bonsin, Florennes,
Grobbendonk, Izier, Kontich, Kruishoutem, Maffe, Matagne-la-Petite, Nismes, Oudenburg, Rumst, Tienen,
Tongeren, Treignes, Trou de Han, Velzeke). A number of the analysed material, however, comes from various
other places of the West European Continenti.e., France (Olbia), Italy (Rome), the Netherlands (Nijmegen,
Utrecht), Portugal (Braga) and Switzerland (Avenches).
The majority of the measurements are taken from vessels (68 ex.), but a certain number are jewellerye.g. 16
bracelets, 1 finger ring, and 1 hairpin. The remaining samples include counters (4 ex.), architectural decoration
295
material (4 ex.), and linen smoothers (2 ex.).
The majority of the analysed material is from Period II (48 ex.), and the remaining number of samples are from
Period I (22 ex.), and III (22 ex.). None of the selected material seemed to belong to Period IV except for the
counter from Braga (PT) due to its HIMT composition. The counters (2 ex.) are, however, in general not well
dated, as they appear in all four periods, and remain no issue for intensive assessment. The linen smoothers (2
296
ex.) are most probable post-Roman and one piece of raw glass from Rumst (BE) remained indeterminate.
The analysed artefacts are almost entirely made from various green glasses (76 ex.), except in only a few cases
where the glass matrix is purple (3 ex.), brown (1 ex.), blue-green (1 ex.) or blue (4 ex.). A remaining 11 pieces
the true hue of the black appearing smaples remained indeterminate for the naked eye.
The obtained results from UV-Vis-NIR spectroscopy are discussed in connection with the previously formulated
questions.
o
Is a distinction between the black and non-black appearance as opposed to the strongly-coloured
glass measurable?
The initial experiment was executed without using an integrated sphere in the set-up, and resulted in measuring
the transmission spectra characteristic to the glass hue of an artefact (Figure 188), and verifying whether a scale
of blackness could be determined.
294
The non-black appearing pieces integrated in the discussion here below on the analysis results have been omitted from the appendix.
Although the linen smoothers were excavated at the late Roman military camp of Oudenburg (BE), we are fully aware that this type of artefact
is characteristic for the medieval period. From this point of view, we wished to verify what differences or similarities can be detected, particularly
because no chemical analysis has yet been carried out.
296
See Introduction, on the delimitation of the studied material.
295
370
Spectroscopic measurements Roman glass: session 2
Rumst1
Rumst2
Rumst4
Rumst 5
Floren1
Floren2
Floren3
Floren4
120
UV
IR
Transmission (%)
100
80
60
40
20
0
350
400
450
500
550
600
650
700
750
800
Wavelength (nm)
Figure 188: transmission spectra of Roman strongly-coloured glass appearing black from Rumst and Florennes between 350
297
and 800 nm
Through the calculation of the x and y coordinates, the measured transmission spectra can be plotted on the
CIE1931 horseshoe graph (Table 159; Figure 189). It shows that the blue pieces are in fact to be described as
purplish blue, while the green samples are mainly plotted at the fringe of yellow green and greenish yellow
(Rumst1; 2; 5), but can be yellowish green (Floren4), or even yellow (Rumst4; Floren3). The visual perception
thus corresponds only roughly to the objectively measured colour coordinates, demonstrating the observation
limits of the naked eye and the individual‘s biased perception in describing colours. On the other hand, it does not
give any precise information about the degree of blackness.
Table 159: x and y-coordinates for plot on CIE1931 horse-shoe graph (* hue perceived by the naked-eye)
appendix no.
provenance
sample
hue*
x
y
64
Rumst (BE)
Rumst1
green
0,41
0,49
65
Rumst (BE)
Rumst2
green
0,45
0,53
67
Rumst (BE)
Rumst4
green
0,50
0,49
68
Rumst (BE)
Rumst5
green
0,42
0,49
16
Florennes (BE)
Floren1
blue
0,15
0,04
17
Florennes (BE)
Floren2
blue
0,15
0,06
18
Florennes (BE)
Floren3
green
0,49
0,50
19
Florennes (BE)
Floren4
green
0,34
0,56
297
This material will be discussed within this chapter in section 9.5, verifying the discrepancy that can occur within one single object, and whether
it is possible to recognize batches.
371
Figure 189: Plot of the Rumst and Florennes samples on the CIE1931 horseshoe graph
To achieve further improvement in establishing a way to determine the blackness of glass artefacts, the absolute
spectra of the transmitted light were calculated in a new set by using an integrated sphere. We therefore analysed
two pieces of deep green glass appearing blackfrom Velzeke (BE) [cat.no.595] and Rumst (BE) [cat.no.510]
and compared it with three non-black pieces from Grobbendonk (BE), respectively in purple (72.GRO.520),
blue (70.GRO.349), and pale green (no inv.no.). Figure 190 demonstrates a clear difference between the
transmission spectra of the two black fragments and that of the three coloured glass fragments from
Grobbendonk. The latter have marked transmission peaks within the visible spectrum compared to the blackappearing fragments. The Velzeke piece has a very high absorption degree within the visible wavelength between
400 nm and 700 nm, whereas the Rumst piece shows a faint transmission peak within the yellow range so that it
is easily perceived as olive green glass when held to a light source. Conspicuous is the similarity of both spectra
below 400 nm in the ultraviolet spectrum as well as from about 800 nm in the infrared spectrum. These results
lead to the Rumst piece being regarded as (poorly) translucent glass, whereas the Velzeke fragment is
considered to be (nearly) opaque black.
372
Velzeke Ab
Rumst b
72.GRO.520
70.GRO.349
light green
100
Transmission (%)
10
1
300
500
700
900
1100
1300
1500
0,1
0,01
0,001
Wavelength (nm)
Figure 190: The different transmissions of light according to the particular hue of glass
By converting the measured spectra to their optical density (OD), we see that the transparent pieces from
Grobbendonk result in an OD far below 1, whereas the two black pieces have an OD far above 1 (Figure 191).
Remarkable is that the nearly opaque black piece from Velzeke has an OD of 4, between 380 and 700 nm within
the visible spectrum. The translucent Rumst piece fluctuates between 1 and 3 within the visible spectrum. When
calculating the integrated optical density (OD) between 300 nm and 1600 nm, the transparent coloured pieces are
even below 0,5, while the two black pieces are 2,5 (Rumst) and c.3,5 (Velzeke) (Figure 192).
Velzeke Ab
Rumst b
72.GRO.520
70.GRO.349
light green
4,5
4
3,5
3
O.D.
black glass
2,5
2
1,5
1
3 coloured, non-black
appearing glass samples
0,5
0
350
450
550
650
750
850
950
1050
Wavelength (nm)
Figure 191: The transmissions of light converted into optical density (OD)
373
4,00
3,50
increasing blackness
Integrated O.D. (300-1600 nm)
3,00
2,50
2,00
1,50
1,00
0,50
0,00
Sample
Velzeke Ab
Rumst b
black appearing glass
72.GRO.520
70.GRO.349
light green
non-black appearing coloured glass
Figure 192: integrated optical density of black-appearing glass versus non-black appearing coloured glass
To confirm these results, we measured a supplementary set of strongly-coloured black- appearing glass,
comprising sometimes more than one measurement per artefact (Table 160). At first glance, a distinct difference
is to be seen between the Period I material from Olbia (FR) and the Period II material from the various Belgian
sites (Grobbendonk, Kruishoutem, Matagne-la-Petite, Rumst, Velzeke) the first 20 measurements. The Period I
material shows an integrated optical density between 300 nm and 1600 nm below 2,5, whereas that of the Period
II material is above 2,5 (Figure 193). One piece from Olbia (C014a) has a density even below 1. Possibly this is
due to the very low iron content of translucent deep blue glass.
298
Table 160: List of integrated optical density for 31 measured black appearing glass samples from 21 objects
appendix
integrated OD
integrated OD
provenance
sample
period
colour
no.
300-1600 nm
400-700 nm
29
Kruishoutem (BE)
II
green-yellow
2,93
2,35
19
Grobbendonk (BE)
II
green-yellow
3,10
2,72
89
Velzeke (BE)
Aa
II
green-yellow
3,21
3,32
89
Velzeke (BE)
Ab
II
green-yellow
3,40
4,07
90
Velzeke (BE)
B
II
green-yellow
3,33
3,85
91
Velzeke (BE)
Da
II
green-yellow
3,39
3,85
91
Velzeke (BE)
Db
II
green-yellow
3,13
3,32
91
Velzeke (BE)
Dc
II
green-yellow
2,68
2,66
92
Velzeke (BE)
F
II
green-yellow
3,02
2,93
93
Velzeke (BE)
G
II
green-yellow
2,45
1,42
31
Matagne-la-Petite (BE)
A
II
green-yellow
3,14
3,19
32
Matagne-la-Petite (BE)
B
II
green-yellow
2,93
2,69
33
Matagne-la-Petite (BE)
C
II
green-yellow
3,07
3,22
34
Matagne-la-Petite (BE)
D
II
green-yellow
3,18
3,24
35
Matagne-la-Petite (BE)
E
II
green-yellow
3,18
3,41
36
Matagne-la-Petite (BE)
G
II
green-yellow
3,12
3,29
62
Rumst (BE)
A=1
II
green-yellow
2,61
1,54
63
Rumst (BE)
B=2
II
green-yellow
2,49
1,50
65
Rumst (BE)
C=4
II
green-yellow
2,88
2,59
298
Some pieces have been measured several times to see whether homogeneity can be observed and to what extent a margin must be taken in
consideration. In 10.4.4 the possibilities of using OD measurement for archaeological queries are discussed.
374
66
44
41
41
41
41
41
41
41
43
45
45
Rumst (BE)
Olbia (FR)
Olbia (FR)
Olbia (FR)
Olbia (FR)
Olbia (FR)
Olbia (FR)
Olbia (FR)
Olbia (FR)
Olbia (FR)
Olbia (FR)
Olbia (FR)
D=5
037-20
037-30a
037-30b
037-30c
037-30d
037-30e
037-30f
037-30g
061-3
C014a
C014b
II
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
green-yellow
pink-purple
yellow-orange
yellow-orange
yellow-orange
yellow-orange
yellow-orange
yellow-orange
yellow-orange
pink-purple
blue
blue
3,20
1,36
2,98
2,35
2,48
1,77
1,81
1,53
1,99
2,08
0,63
2,43
3,49
3,71
3,44
2,87
3,09
2,70
2,71
2,32
2,61
1,89
1,77
3,83
4,00
3,50
Integrated O.D. (300-1600 nm)
3,00
2,50
2,00
1,50
1,00
C014 b
061_3
C014 a
037_30 f
037_30 g
037_30 e
037_30 c
037_30 d
037_30 b
037_20
037_30 a
Rumst c
Rumst d
Rumst a
Rumst b
MatagneE
MatagneG
MatagneC
MatagneD
MatagneB
Velzeke G
MatagneA
Velzeke F
Velzeke Dc
Velzeke Db
Velzeke B
Velzeke Da
Velzeke Ab
Velzeke Aa
Kruishoutem
Grobbendonk
0,50
Sample
Figure 193: Overview of the integrated optical density of the 22 black-appearing artefacts within the UV-VIS-IR (300-1600 nm)
In conclusion, from both tests we can say that the degree of lightness of the glass hue can be determined from
the measured OD level. The OD is calculable on only those objects revealing their true hue when light in
299
transmission is used. Two limits have importance: all material with an OD of 2,5 or more have a green(ish) hue
and contain a high level of iron. Those with an OD between 1,5 and 2,5 have a much lower iron content and
appear more orange-brown. The only piece far below the 1,5 limit, Olbia C014a, is made of blue glass. The link
between the OD level and the glass hue demonstrates why the human eye more easily accepts black-appearing
green glass as black, while black-appearing blue glass was only defined as dark blue.
Hence, the measurement of light transmission by using an integrated sphere, and the conversion of the
normalized spectral curve to obtain the integrated OD, does not make the limit between strongly-coloured glass
and black calculable. It only explains why human perception is deficient through less easily ascribing Period I
material as black-appearing, compared to the Period II material with a higher OD; defines the opacitytranslucency-transparency of the glass artefacts; and shows why the high iron green glass became the material
used most successfully in Roman times to produce black-appearing artefacts.
299
UV-VIS-NIR spectroscopy of black glass artefacts with an opacity making the transmission of light impossible could not be done, so their OD
remains unknown.
375
o
Does the colorimetry of glass correspond to its chemical composition?
Is the chemical composition responsible for the colour of a glass artefact, or to put it differently, is it possible to
determine the chemical composition of glass from the colour measurement? In a preceding section (10.2), we
assembled a useful outline of the various identified chemical elements on the measured transmission spectra of
Roman glass artefacts. The characteristic absorption bands can estimate what metal oxides were used for
colouring the glass.
Table 161: Overview of the examined artefacts, their colour coordinates and concentration in iron oxide, manganese oxide,
copper oxide and cobalt oxide
appendix
sample/site
hue
calculated
concentration of
no.
colour
metal oxides
(CIE 1931)
SEM-EDX
LA-ICP-MS
x
y
Fe2O3
MnO
CuO
CoO
2
Avenches 1
green-yellow
0,40
0,52
9,17
0,29
0,0053
0,0060
3
Avenches 2
green-yellow
0,48
0,50
8,99
0,18
0,0082
0,0055
4
Avenches 3
green-yellow
0,48
0,50
9,04
0,19
0,0084
0,0057
5
Avenches 4
yellow-orange
0,60
0,39
1,65
0,48
0,0039
0,0007
6
Avenches 5
yellow-orange
0,60
0,37
1,53
0,36
0,0074
0,0005
7
Avenches 6
yellow-orange
0,49
0,47
1,65
0,41
0,0047
0,0007
8
Avenches 7
yellow-orange
0,54
0,46
1,69
0,38
0,0048
0,0007
9
Avenches 8
yellow-orange
0,55
0,44
2,32
0,41
0,0669
0,0007
10
Avenches 9
yellow-orange
0,55
0,44
2,23
0,37
0,0048
0,0006
11
Avenches 10
yellow-orange
0,52
0,46
2,13
0,40
0,0100
0,0006
15
Braga
green-yellow
0,58
0,29
10,77
0,96
[0,18]
19
Grobbendonk
green-yellow
0,51
0,48
11,09
0,45
28
Kruishoutem 1
green-yellow
0,31
0,34
10,78
0,25
29
Kruishoutem 2
green-yellow
0,49
0,49
11,13
0,23
31
Matagne-la-Petite 1
green-yellow
0,51
0,48
9,77
0,22
0,0200
0,0103
32
Matagne-la-Petite 2
green-yellow
0,51
0,48
8,88
0,22
0,0120
0,0056
33
Matagne-la-Petite 3
green-yellow
0,52
0,47
10,38
0,22
0,0069
0,0076
34
Matagne-la-Petite 4
green-yellow
0,52
0,47
8,86
0,22
0,0113
0,0053
35
Matagne-la-Petite 5
green-yellow
0,53
0,47
9,06
0,21
0,0119
0,0054
36
Matagne-la-Petite 6
green-yellow
0,46
0,48
12,71
0,22
0,0040
0,0068
37
Matagne-la-Petite 7
green-yellow
0,46
0,49
10,46
0,25
0,0094
0,0074
38
Matagne-la-Petite 8
green-yellow
0,45
0,47
11,92
0,28
0,0102
0,0079
40
Nismes
green-yellow
0,44
0,47
8,83
0,22
41
Olbia 1
yellow-orange
0,59
0,41
1,45
0,63
0,026
0,0035
42
Olbia 2
yellow-orange
0,56
0,44
1,60
0,37
0,036
0,0035
43
Olbia 3
pink-purple
0,44
0,18
0,59
2,60
0,068
0,0048
44
Olbia 4
pink-purple
0,48
0,26
0,46
2,14
0,0067
0,0065
0,22
45
Olbia 5
blue
0,15
0,11
2,35
2,14
0,15
[0,28]
48
Oudenburg 1
green-yellow
0,43
0,49
10,52
0,45
0,0104
0,0032
49
Oudenburg 2
green-yellow
0,45
0,51
9,29
0,49
0,0096
0,0039
50
Oudenburg 3
green-yellow
0,42
0,50
10,54
0,50
0,0103
0,0035
58
Rome1
blue-green
0,28
0,43
1,1
0,2
0,0471
0,0519
59
Rome2
blue-green
0,22
0,35
1,4
0,3
0,0901
0,0596
60
Rome3
brown
0,64
0,36
0,4
0,4
0,0046
0,0004
61
Rome4
purple
0,58
0,26
0,5
2,0
0,0020
0,0015
67
Tienen 1
green-yellow
0,51
0,48
7,66
0,43
0,0060
0,0037
68
Tienen 2
green-yellow
0,51
0,46
8,77
0,21
0,0061
0,0041
69
Tienen 3
green-yellow
0,42
0,48
8,28
0,16
0,0056
0,0058
70
Tienen 4
green-yellow
0,41
0,46
7,72
0,14
0,0075
0,0030
71
Tienen 5
green-yellow
0,45
0,52
8,48
0,17
0,0060
0,0038
72
Tienen 6
green-yellow
0,44
0,50
8,63
0,15
0,0039
0,0090
73
Tienen 7
green-yellow
0,45
0,48
11,44
0,16
0,0063
0,0038
74
Tienen 8
green-yellow
0,47
0,49
12,09
0,08
0,0056
0,0066
89
Velzeke 1
green-yellow
0,46
0,52
12,23
0,24
90
Velzeke 2
green-yellow
0,46
0,52
12,31
0,26
91
Velzeke 3
green-yellow
0,51
0,49
11,41
0,30
92
Velzeke 4
green-yellow
0,52
0,47
12,40
0,72
93
Velzeke 5
green-yellow
0,40
0,46
8,31
0,59
-
376
From Chapter 8, it is clear that iron oxide and manganese oxide are the two main substances responsible for the
black appearance of glass artefacts. We have distinguished four different groups of black glass artefacts by using
the standard chemical analysis techniques SEM-EDX and LA-ICP-MS on the basis of the colouring, and opposing
the iron-manganese concentration chart (Figure 194; Table 162).
3
purple
2,5
blue
2
HIMT
MnO
1,5
Braga
1
c.350 AD
orange-yellow
0,5
brown
?
blue-green
0
0
2
c.150 AD
4
6
8
10
12
14
Fe2O3
green-yellow
yellow-orange
pink-purple
blue
blue-green
brown
Figure 194: Iron content versus manganese content (%wt) of the first set of 48 artefacts, showing the clear compositional
difference between artefacts produced at different periods in time.
Table 162: list of the four groups of black glass based on the colouring by means of iron and manganese content
class
iron oxide
%
manganese oxide
%
glass type
UV-Vis-NIR hue
Period
I
II
III
IV
high
low
moderate
high
>3
0,5-3
1-3
>3
low
high
low
high
<0,6
2-3
<0,6
>0,6
HILM
LIHM
MILM
HIHM=HIMT
green-yellow
blue to pink-purple
yellow-orange
yellowish green
II-III
I
I
IV
All artefacts within Class I are characterised by a high iron content above 3% and a low manganese oxide
concentration below 0,6% (HILM) that made the glass turn greenish-yellow. The samples measured show a very
high iron content between 8-12% and a manganese content below 0,3%, even though a cluster is observable
having a manganese content ranging around 0,5% and 0,7%. This cluster is possibly the result of using
manganese decolourized raw glass or colourless cullet added to the batch.
The artefacts of Class II combine a low to moderate iron content below 3% with a high manganese oxide
concentration of 2-3% (LIHM) resulting in pink-purple coloured glass. Those with cobalt and copper oxide have an
ultramarine blue hue.
The samples within Class III have a low manganese content similar to that of Class I, but the iron content is much
lower, below 3%, comparable to Class II. The samples of this Class show a yellow-orange colour (LILM).
The only sample measured within Class IV is the piece from Braga (PT) and features a high iron content, above
3%, and a high manganese content (HIHM). This entirely corroborates the late Roman black glass material made
th
from the well-known HIMT-glass that came into circulation within the 4 century AD (Mirti et al. 1993; Freestone
1994; Foy et al. 2003; Freestone et al. 2005). It is not excluded that the higher manganese content of artefacts
300
within the Class I cluster is caused by a mix of Class IV material with recycled Class I cullet.
300
Seeing the low titanium content of the concerned pieces from Velzeke, Grobbendonk, Tienen and Oudenburg, as well as their early dating in
Period II, we assume that these black glass objects were produced with decolorized raw glass.
377
nd
The full range of samples from Class I are characteristic for Periods II and III, i.e., from the second half of the 2
th
century up to the early 4 century AD. Classes II and III are to be dated in Period I, and more specifically within
st
th
the 1 century AD. Class IV is characteristic for Period IV from about the mid 4 century AD, but possibly this type
rd
th
of raw glass slowly got introduced from the late 3 or early 4 century AD.
The detection of a sequential production of black-appearing glass artefacts obtained from UV-Vis-NIR
spectroscopy corroborates the conclusions which were drawn in earlier research (Van der Linden et al. 2009).
Testing strongly-coloured glass means that we focussed on the various colorants added to the batch to obtain
black-appearing glass. To verify its value for archaeological research, it is necessary to test UV-Vis-NIR
spectroscopy on large sets of ‗naturally coloured‘ and decolourized glass artefacts.
Linked with the chemical analysis, more fine tuning reduces the black glass groups into four large classes, taking
notice of some important sub-categories. The measured samples have thus been classified according to four
major classes corroborating the observed chemical groups of Roman black glass artefacts.
Class I
Class II
Class III
Class IV
high iron/low manganese group
low iron/high manganese group
low iron/low manganese group
high iron/high manganese group
HILM
LIHM
LILM
HIHM (=HIMT)
Class I
Three subgroups of green coloured glasses can be recognized within Class I, featuring a cluster with high iron
and low manganese content. The samples here enclosed have an iron content between 8% and 13%, but lower
percentages down to 4% or even 3% have been analysed [see Chapter 9]. The chemical composition of the first
subgroup (a) is characterised by a very low amount of manganese (below 0,4%) corresponding to the impurity
level typical for ‗naturally‘ coloured glass. The second subgroup (b) of green glasses has a slightly more elevated
manganese content (0,4-0,6%) but is also present here as an impurity. The third subgroup has a manganese
content above 0,6% and up to 1%, which means that the glass is much paler and borders the zone of Class IV
that encloses the artefacts made from HIMT glass and having a manganese content above 1%. We assume,
therefore, that it is more appropriate to bunch these different high iron levels into one single group, Class I, but
still keep them in separate sub-categories and denominate them as Class Ia; Ib; Ic.
Class II
The chemical composition of this group is characterised by a high manganese concentration between 2% and 3%,
and thus intentionally added. The iron oxide content below 0,4% corresponds to the impurity level in the sand, but
it can go up to around 2%, and be regarded as a second subgroup. The elemental composition means that the
Class II material is characterised by a purple hue; however, Olbia 5 has a deep blue hue. This is most probably
due to high copper and cobalt content, excluding any influence from the concentration of iron oxide or manganese
oxide. The three samples within subgroup IIa ( Rome 4; Olbia 1 and 2), and likewise the one sample within
st
subgroup IIb (Olbia 5), are all dated in the 1 century AD.
Even though we suggest one major group, Class II, featuring a low iron/high manganese content, we have to bear
in mind that each specific hue might represent a sub-category. It is unclear at this stage whether this class is
st
featuring particular colours within a specific period, namely the 1 century AD, or all through time.
Class III
The artefacts within this class have a low iron and low manganese content and are all to be dated in Period I,
st
specifically in the 1 century AD. Two sub-categories can be distinguished. Subgroup IIIa has an iron level above
the impurity level, though barely elevated with a concentration below 3%. The manganese concentration, on the
other hand, is negligible. This subgroup encloses eleven samples from various sites: Olbia 3 and 4, Rome 1 and 2,
and Avenches 4-10. Subgroup IIIb is characterised by the iron and the manganese concentration far below 0,4%,
and therefore they are to be considered as impurities. Hitherto only one single pieceRome 3has been
recognized from all selected samples.
Class IV
Within the high iron black glass material occurs with a high manganese content that is above 1%, featuring also a
more elevated titanium content above 0,3%-0,4%, in contrast with the < 0,2% normally seen. This type of glass,
378
which was observed only about 15 years ago, is nominated HIMT (Mirti et al. 1993; Freestone 1994); it would
then form our Class IV. Only the Braga sample [see Appendix 3] falls within this class. It is, however, worthwhile
to focus on this material since HIMT glass is typical for the late Roman II/Byzantine I period and in use for the
th
production of black glass artefacts from about the mid 4 century AD onwards, such as the sampled material from
Trier (DE), Castra (IL), and partly from Oudenburg (BE) [see Chapter 8].
o
Is it possible to calculate the variety of shades per specific colour type resulting in a black-appearing
glass matrix?
Spectral Group 1
120
Tmax = 495 nm
Transmission (%)
100
Velzeke(sample
5
Velzeke
E)
80
60
40
1100 nm; Fe2+
380 nm & 420 nm &
440 nm; Fe3+
Kruishoutem
Kruishoutem 1
(KK/PROSP78KB)
20
UV absorption; Fe3+
0
350
450
550
650
750
850
950
1050
1150
1250
Wavelength (nm)
Figure 195: Transmission spectra of Spectral Group 1
In Figure 195 the spectra of the 2 artefacts belonging to this group are shownVelzeke 5; Kruishoutem 1. The
peak transmission of both artefacts is situated around 495 nm. The low transmission of ultraviolet absorption
ranging between 350 and 380 nm, and the series of weak absorption bands in the region between 375 and 450
3+
nm (at 380, 420 and 440 nm), features the presence of Fe ions (Meulebroeck et al. 2011). The spectral shape is
considered to be characteristic for strongly reduced glasses. This assumption is based on the presence of a
broad intense absorption band at 1100 nm and a shoulder around 450 nm, which are apparently generated by
2+
Fe ions (Meulebroeck et al. 2011). Table 158 consolidates the discovery about the reducing furnace conditions.
2+
3+
It is clear that the main colouring agent is iron (with a higher concentration of Fe than Fe following Table 158).
No absorption bands of other elements are present. For this spectral group, we expect a blue-green ‗aqua‘ colour.
Hence, it is not surprising that the samples of this group correspond with the samples of Class I defined earlier,
based on the chemical analysis.
It has been previously stated that iron could be present as an impurity in the sand (as FeO) or could be added as
an extra, e.g., as magnetite (Fe2O3.FeO). Various references cite potential absorption bands of both types of iron
2+
3+
2+
ions (Fe = ferrous iron and Fe = ferric iron). The most pronounced absorption band is the one of Fe between
900-1200 nm with a shoulder around 450 nm. Other possible absorption bands attributable to iron are a series of
feeble pointed bands mainly in the region 375-450 nm (380 nm, 415 nm and 440 nm), and a very strong band at
3+
3+
2258 nm because of the presence of Fe . In the presence of sulphate ions, the ferro-sulphide Fe - S
chromophore could be formed with an intense absorption band around 405 nm (Meulebroeck et al. 2011).
379
Spectral Group 2
120
Tmax between 564 & 588 nm
Transmission (%)
100
80
Matagne
(sample E)
60
Velzeke (sample G)
40
Avenches
(88/6501-9)
20
0
350
400
450
500
550
600
650
700
750
Wavelength (nm)
Figure 196: Transmission spectra of Spectral Group 2 samples from Avenches, Matagne-la-Petite and
Velzeke
120
Oudenburg
100
Transmission (%)
Braga
80
60
40
Tienen
20
0
350
450
550
650
750
850
Wavelength (nm)
Figure 197: Transmission spectra of Spectral Group 2 of samples from Braga, Oudenburg and Tienen
This spectral group, with 30 samples from Period II or III, is by far the largest sampled group, containing artefacts
from Avenches 1-3, Braga 1, Grobbendonk, Kruishoutem 2, Matagne-la-Petite 1-8, Nismes, Oudenburg 1-3;
Tienen 1-8 and Velzeke 1-2; 4; 6-7 [see Appendix 3].
The calculated colour coordinates in Figure 194 demonstrated one matching spectral shape for each set of
samples from Oudenburg and Tienen. For matters of clearance, we have decided to put only one spectrum per
site in the graph. Both graphs show that the spectral shape of this group is featuring the presence of iron.
All samples are characterised by a low transmission in the ultraviolet and the blue spectral region (between 350
and approximately 450 nm), and a high transmission of green and red wavelengths (between 560 and 590 nm).
This results in a brownish-green or olive-green glass hue.
380
With the colour coordinates corroborating the iron and manganese concentrations of the samples (Table 158),
this means that this spectral group corresponds with Class I in the iron-manganese chart. Important here is that a
comparison of these results with the data obtained from chemical analysis shows that these calculated colour
coordinates and spectral shapes correspond with a high iron concentration situated between 8% and 13% and a
low manganese concentration below 1%, but for the most part averaging between 0,3% and 0,6%. Further
evaluations and comparisons are needed to verify these thus- far relative estimations.
The calculated colour coordinates could give us a first indication about the iron and manganese concentration.
Analysis of the spectral shape could give us information about the applied fabrication process.
In the next part we will use this information to briefly highlight how this tool can be applied in answering different
types of archaeological questions.
Even though we analysed a large amount of samples, we only show in Figure 197 the spectra of three artefacts.
3+
All others with respect to the spectral shape and the absorption bands of Fe have disappeared. This is an
2+
indication that a large fraction of the iron is reduced to Fe (see chemical reaction [2]). The formed sulphide is
3+
combined with the remaining Fe ions to form the ferro-sulphide (see chemical reaction [3]). The transmission
maxima are positioned between 564 nm and 588 nm (Figure 196). Following Table 158, this indeed proves that
2+
Fe ions are present together with the ferro-sulphide chromophore. The high absorption around 405 nm is a
result of the presence of ferro-sulphide. In other words, a large absorption in the ultraviolet and blue part of the
electromagnetic spectrum indicates the presence of iron. Moreover, we observe for all the samples a transmission
2+
maximum in the green part of the spectrum (between 564 nm and 588 nm). This proves that Fe ions are present
together with the ferro-sulphide chromophore (Brill 1988).
Based on the presence of the absorption of iron (and only iron), we can conclude that the main colouring agent is
iron. It is not a surprise that this group corresponds with the earlier-defined group II.
Spectral Group 3
120
100
Olbia (CO14)
Transmission (%)
Olbia (037-20)
80
60
Tmax: 395 nm
Rome (R1609 - no.77)
40
450-550nm; Mn3+
20
0
350
450
550
650
750
850
950
1050
1150
1250
Wavelength (nm)
Figure 198: Transmission spectra of Spectral Group 3
The spectral shape of this group of artefacts with colour coordinates falling in the pink and red-purple region of the
CIE1931 horseshoe curve indicates the presence of manganese. The three artefacts represented in Figure
198Olbia1, Olbia5, Rome4are characterised by a transmission maximum (Tmax) around 395 nm and a very
strong absorption band between 450 and 550 nm, although a poor transmission percentage goes on to 650 nm.
There is again a very high transmission within the infrared spectrum, with a faint peak at c.950 nm and a stronger
3+
one at c.1250 nm. The strong absorption band of 450-550 nm corresponds with the presence of Mn ions and
indicates that the glass batch was heated under oxidising conditions (Table 158) (Meulebroeck et al. 2009).
Roman glass contains, in most cases, small concentrations of manganese by nature as an impurity added
2+
through the alkali flux, but from a Mn -concentration exceeding 0,4%, it is accepted to be intentionally added
2+
2+
(Brill 1988). This is initially under the form of the decolourizing ion Mn , but under more oxidising conditions Mn
381
3+
is transformed into the red colouring ion Mn with an absorption maximum between 470 and 520 nm (Weyl 1959;
Bamford 1977; Green, Hart 1987; Baxter 1995), and a strong transmission in the infrared spectrum. A marked
contrast with the previous group(s) is what concerns the spectra, the near-absence or poor presence of iron.
Hence, this third spectral group corresponds with the earlier defined chemical low iron/high manganese group
(Class III). The data obtained via chemical analysis, showing a high manganese content for these purple coloured
glass samples, only strengthens this theory.
Spectral Group 4
120
100
Transmission (%)
4b
Olbia (061-3)
Rome
(R1609 - no.59)
80
Rome
(R1609 - no.56)
60
40
absorption between
580 & 660 nm
4a
20
0
350
400
450
500
550
600
650
700
750
800
Wavelength (nm)
Figure 199: Transmission spectra of Spectral Group 4
Spectral Group 4 embodies blue coloured glass showing three transmission peaks in the visible part of the
electromagnetic spectrumrespectively 470-500 nm, 560-570 nm, 710-720 nmand a strong absorption band
between 580 and 660 nm. We define two subgroups (Figure 199):
Subgroup 4a contains two samples (Rome R1609 – nos. 56;59 = Rome 1-2) with a high absorption in the
ultraviolet spectrum and the region between 400 and 450 nm. This is explained by the presence of both iron
3+
2+
oxides, but with a predominance of Fe with regard to Fe (Brill 1988) and implies the use of switching furnace
conditions, reducing, and oxidising. Both artefacts fall in the low manganese and low iron group, but the iron
content is slightly above the impurity level, meaning that iron possibly got into a batch by the purposeful addition
2+
of a colorant, but perhaps not consciously added. Depending on the Fe concentration, the colour of these glass
artefacts should range between bluish green (aqua) and greenish.
Subgroup 4b (Olbia 061-3 = Olbia 3) has a similar spectrum but with a higher transmission in the blue region of
the spectrum and a peak at about 420 nm. This indicates the presence of a second colouring agent. Looking to
the chemical composition of the Olbia sample, manganese might be a candidate. This will shift the colour towards
a more blue hue. Group 4b corresponds with chemical Group IV, whereas the samples of group 4a match with
those of chemical Group V. From the iron-manganese chart (Figure 194), it is apparent that the Group 4b sample
contains a high manganese, and a moderate iron concentration. The deep blue colour hue of the sample (colour
coordinates x and y are respectively equal to 0.15 and 0.11), however, is obviously due to the presence of
additional metal oxides in the batch. We discussed in a previous section that copper oxide and cobalt oxide are
two colouring agents utilized by the Romans to produce a characteristic blue glass, from pale blue to a very deep
blue, violet, or indigo hue (Green, Hart 1987; Brill 1988; Newton, Davison 1989; Scholze 1991; Shortland et al.
2006). Yet it is known that in many cases copper and cobalt were not used singularly as colouring agents. A mix
of copper, cobalt, and manganese was usually utilized to obtain blue glass, even though an intentional addition of
iron within this mix seems to occur too. The results of the chemical analysis indicate that the blue colour of the
Olbia3 fragment was obtained via a mixture of iron, manganese, copper, and cobalt. The presence of these
colouring elements is reflected in its spectrum, with a clear absorption band around 420 nm indicating the
3+
presence of the Fe iron oxide. The transmission maxima at 463 nm and 718 nm of the Olbia3 artefact are most
3+
probably to be linked to the presence of the manganese oxide Mn that causes a transmission maximum around
400 nm, and sometimes also at 700 nm (see above). However, the most distinct absorption bands are those of
382
cobalt. Previously, we explained that the transmission spectra are depending on the added form of cobalt and the
presence of other elements, causing three successive absorption bands around 600 nm that can shift
+
+
2+
considerably. This difference is the result of a variation in ratios of Na , K , and Ca . The Olbia3 sample has
absorption bands at 535 nm, 594 nm, and 645 nm, which is distinctive for Roman cobalt glass. This deviation in
spectral position is explained by the additional presence of copper oxide, but this premise could not be confirmed
within the investigation presented here, and needs additional research.
Spectral group 1
Spectral group 2
Spectral group 3
Spectral group 4
yellow-green greenish-yellow yellow
yellowish-orange orange reddish-orange
0.6
CIE1931
yellowgreen greenishyellow
yellow
y (CIE1931)
0.5
0.4
0.3
yellowishorange
pink
orange
0.2
red-purple
blue
0.1
reddishorange
0.0
0.0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
0.7
x (CIE1931)
Figure 200: Calculated colour coordinates of the first four spectral groups
In Figure 200 we represent the calculated colour coordinates on the CIE1931 horseshoe curve.
Spectral Group 5
120
Tmax = 715 nm
100
Transmission (%)
Rome (R1609 - no. 69)
80
60
40
1100 nm; Fe2+
20
0
350
450
550
650
750
850
950
1050 1150 1250 1350 1450 1550
Wavelength (nm)
Figure 201: Transmission spectra of Spectral Group 5
Only one artefact (Rome R1609 – no. 69 = Rome 3) of the samples examined here falls within Spectral Group 5.
Its spectral shape is quite similar to that of Spectral Group 2, with a strong absorption all the way in the ultraviolet
and the blue between 350 nm and 540 nm. The transmission peak at 405 nmpresent in the spectral shape of
3+
Spectral Group 2, and due to the presence of Fe indicative of the addition of ferro-sulphide chromophoreis
2+
totally absent here. There is an absorption band at 1100 nm (indicating the presence of Fe ). The difference with
Spectral Group 2 is the position of the transmission maximum (at 715 nm), which is shifted to a longer wavelength.
The colour will therefore swing towards a more red(dish) glass. From these observations we can infer that the
samples of Spectral Group 5 have been produced under more reducing conditions than those of Spectral Group 2.
From the chemical analysis, we know that both the iron and manganese concentrations are present as impurities.
In the remaining two spectral groups, we were not able to identify characteristic absorption bands apart from the
ferro-sulphide absorption between 400 and 450 nm. Both groups have a different shape in the rest of the spectral
383
region, indicating different furnace conditions during the production process. Depending on this, the glass will be
browner or redder coloured.
Spectral Group 6
120
Transmission (%)
100
80
60
Avenches
(89/7851-9)
Avenches
(89/7179-03)
Avenches
(89/7851-13)
Olbia
(294.2)
40
20
0
350
450
550
650
750
850
950
1050 1150 1250 1350 1450 1550
Wavelength (nm)
Figure 202: Transmission spectra of Spectral Group 6
This spectral group consists of seven pieces from Avenches (Avenches 89/7179-03; 89/7851-9; 89/7851-13 =
Avenches 8-10) and one from Olbia (Olbia 294.2 = Olbia 2). It features a high transmission of the green and red
wavelengths rendered by two transmission maxima present in the visible part of the spectrum at about 600 nm
and about 700 nm (Figure 199). All these artefacts have a high absorption between 400 and 450 nm, indicating
3+
the presence of Fe in the form of the ferro-sulphide chromophore complex, corroborating the data from chemical
analysis. The calculated colour coordinates are situated in the yellowish-orange, orange, and reddish-orange
region.
type I
type II
0.49
y (CIE1931)
0.47
0.45
0.43
0.41
0.39
0.37
0.35
0.40
0.45
0.50
0.55
0.60
0.65
x (CIE1931)
Figure 203: plot of the calculated colour coordinates of the two types of artefacts belonging to Spectral Group 6
A striking detail is that all early artefacts from Avenches fall within the yellowish-orange Class III, whereas the
contemporaneous material from Olbia integrated here shows a heterogeneity of differently coloured glasses
appearing black. A plausible explanation is that the Avenches pieces come from one single production centre,
while the Olbia material might have been imported from various production centres, one of which can be assumed
in Avenches. Further down it will be explained that absorption spectroscopy can provide additional information to
interpret the chemical cluster more precisely [see Spectral Group 4; Table 158].
384
Spectral Group 7
120
Transmission (%)
100
Avenches
(89/07170-46)
Avenches
(88/06918-02)
Avenches
(89/07170-43)
7a
80
Olbia
(037-30)
60
40
Avenches
(88/06975-05)
7b
20
0
350
450
550
650
750
850
950
1050 1150 1250 1350 1450 1550
Wavelength (nm)
Figure 204: Transmission spectra of Spectral Group 7
This spectral group clusters artefacts with an increasing transmission in the visible part of the spectrum, and all
through the infrared spectrum. A first transmission maximum is situated between 585 and 610 nm. We distinguish
two subgroups: group 7a (Avenches 89/07170-43; 89/07170-46 = Avenches 4-5), and group 7b (Avenches
88/06918-02; 88/06975-05 = Avenches 6-7; Olbia 037-30 = Olbia 1), where the increase in transmission is
respectively prolonged and stopped around 800 nm.
In Figure 205, we resume the transmission spectra of the first four spectral shapes we defined above. Each group
corresponds with a distinctive transmission spectrum and is defined in the iron-manganese graph (Figure 194).
Spectral Group 1 represents the high iron/low manganese artefacts with colour coordinates situated in the yellowgreen, greenish-yellow, yellow and yellowish-orange regions. Spectral Groups 2 and 3 correspond with low
iron/high manganese artefacts. The colour coordinates of Spectral Group 2 belong to the red-purple and pink
region, while those of Spectral Group 3 fall in the blue area. Spectral Group 4 embodies low iron/low manganese
artefacts with colour coordinates situated in the yellowish-orange, orange, and reddish-orange region.
Spectroscopic analysis, however, enabled division of this spectral group into two subgroups related to the furnace
conditions during the production process, i.e., the reducing and oxidising techniques.
Consequently the same conclusions can be drawn from the spectroscopic measurement results as from chemical
analysis on the chronological specificity in black-appearing glass production. In addition, the measured spectral
shapes with their characteristic absorption bands and corresponding colour coordinates provide evidence on the
used furnace conditions, something that cannot be obtained from chemical analysis.
Table 163: concordance list of the different chemical classes and spectral groups
class
spectral group
Period
glass type
I
1; 2
II + III
HILM
II
I
LIHM
III
5; 6; 7
I
LILM
IV
IV
HIHM = HIMT
385
Transmission (%)
Transmission (%)
Spectral group 2
120
100
80
60
40
20
0
350
550
750
950
120
Spectral group 3
100
80
60
40
20
1150
0
350
550
Wavelength (nm)
750
950
1150
Wavelength (nm)
3
2.5
Spectral group 4
1.5
1
0.5
Spectral group 1
120
100
Transmission (%)
Transmission (%)
MnO (wt%)
2
type I
80
60
40
type II
20
0
350
550
750
950
1150
120
100
80
60
40
20
0
350
Wavelength (nm)
0
0
2
4
550
750
950
1150
Wavelength (nm)
6
8
10
12
14
Fe2O3 (wt%)
Figure 205: Similar spectral shapes corresponding with different chemical compositions. The separate groups which are defined
in the iron-manganese chart all correspond with a typical transmission spectrum
o
Can specific glass colours be matched to specific periods or typological groups?
From Figures 192-193 and Table 160, discussed in the introduction of this chapter section, it is clear that the
measuring of the integrated OD is not providing useful data concerning the dating of the glass, even though the
OD for the Period II material is quite systematically higher compared to the Period I artefacts.
Velzeke fragments Aa and Ab, as well as Da and Db, are showing close resemblance whereas Velzeke (no. 91
Dc) displays a deviation of about 0,5 compared to the two other samples, Velzeke (no. 91, Da and Db). On the
other hand, we see that the seven Olbia samples (no. 41) show even more discrepancies. The first three have an
elevated integrated optical density of about 2,5 or 3 (037-30a-c), whereas the other four balance between 1,5 and
2.
386
0.6
group2
group7a
0.5
group4a
group7b
y (CIE1931)
0.4
group6
0.3
group5
group1
group3
0.2
0.1
group4b
0
0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
0.7
x (CIE1931)
G2
G4a
G7a
G1
G7b
G6 G5
G3
G4b
Figure 206: Plot of the various spectral groups on the CIE1931 horseshoe graph
In the first stage six separate groups were defined, featuring a specific iron and manganese content based on the
specific glass hues perceived by the naked eye. Through UV-Vis-NIR spectroscopy, the transmission spectra of
96 black glass artefacts have been verified [see Appendix 3]. On the basis of the spectral shape, seven separate
groups were defined (Figure 206). Each group consists of artefacts with a similar, specific spectral shape.
Therefore we verified whether there is a possibility to obtain the same clustering via optical spectroscopy as from
chemical analysis. Starting from the measured optical transmission spectra in the region between 300 and 1600
nm, we investigated different aspects:
the spectral shape and the link of specific spectral shapes towards the different defined subgroups
the characteristic absorption bands in the measured spectra in order to estimate what colorants were used.
Relying on the chemical analysis, only the two main colouring substances of the selected artefacts, i.e., iron
and manganese, were taken into consideration. The absorption bands of these two components are
described in literature (Brill 1988, 272-273) (Table 156).
the tracing of the production conditions used to make the batch of glass appear black by calculating the
colour coordinates and the spectral shapes. Certain furnace conditions applied during the production process
result in certain colours due to a characteristic transmission.
387
These findings can be useful to archaeologists in drawing conclusions about chronological divisions in the
production process of (black) glass during the Roman imperial period, or in existing knowledge of trade routes.
Figure 206 demonstrates clearly that the range of colours in which Roman black glass samples could
appearblue, green, brown and purpleis dependent on the addition of specific metal oxides. A first test was to
check whether the results from absorption spectroscopy through the spectra within UV-Vis-NIR range corroborate
the chemical categorization of the black glass. In view of a comprehensive approach on the matter, we have
selected samples from these four different glass hues. These samples not only had to represent a broad
chronological and geographical areaspread over four centuries and coming from sites in the northern and
southern part of the western European Continent (Table 161) but also their chemical composition had to be
known. Therefore, we selected some material we had analysed earlier in collaboration with Prof. Koen Janssens
at MiTAC (UA) [see Chapter 8; Appendix 1]. Some of these samples have been the subject of recent research
showing a clear compositional distinction between fragments dated before and after 150 AD (Van der Linden et al.
2009).
Table 164: Overview of the examined samples
region
Period
number of samples
North-western European Continent
Grobbendonk (BE);
Kruishoutem (BE);
Matagne-la-Petite (BE);
Nismes (BE);
Velzeke (BE)
Oudenburg (BE);
Tienen (BE)
II
II
II
III/IV
II
II/IV
II
1
2
8
1
6
3
8
29
South-western European Continent
Avenches 4-10 (CH) ;
Avenches 1-3 (CH) ;
Olbia (FR) ;
Rome (IT)
Braga (PT)
I
II
I
I
IV
7
3
5
4
1
20
49
Figure 206 and Table 161 give an overview of the first set of 49 samples investigated. One set of 29 samples
301
comes from 7 Belgian sites
and is more or less entirely from identical contemporaneous materiali.e.,
tableware Forms IIB.1 and IIB.4except for the sites of Nismes (a bracelet) and Oudenburg (three vessel
fragments and a bracelet, but dated not earlier than 200 AD).
A second part comes from various places in the wider southern European Continent. This set is more
st
th
heterogeneous in timefrom the early 1 to the 4 century ADand in functionarchitectural decoration,
counter, tableware and jewellery [see Appendix 3].
301
Grobbendonk, Matagne-la-Petite, Nismes and Tienen are situated in the civitas tungrorum within the province Germania inferior, whereas
Kruishoutem, Oudenburg and Velzeke are situated in the civitates menapiorum and nerviorum within the province Gallia Belgica.
388
Figure 207: Overview of the examined artefacts from a wide geographical provenance and produced over a long-lasting period
o
Can UV-Vis-NIR spectroscopy provide answers to technological aspects of black glass production?
We have verified here how to identify the different furnace conditions in the production process of Roman black
glass and the possibilities for the archaeological research on Roman glass. Important for this concern is to detect
2+
3+
the presence of Fe and Fe . In traditional chemical analysis, it is customary to quote the entire amount of iron
302
oxide solely as Fe2O3, but not all the iron is in this state (Newton, Davison 1989). Seeing that UV-Vis-NIR
spectroscopy can detect both iron oxides, it is worth checking the furnace conditions used in the production of
black glass. Important information about the applied production process is provided through the colour of the
artefact and the spectral shape in the visible part of the measured spectrum.
The analysis of the spectral position of the transmission maxima not only shows the presence of iron [see part
10.2.]. It can also reveal information about the corresponding iron ion contents which are related to the used
furnace conditions.
2+
3+
Under oxidizing conditions, Fe can be transformed into Fe (Davison, Newton 2003). A high concentration of
3+
Fe results in a transmission peak around 480 nm. The reverse reaction takes place under reducing conditions.
2+
2+
A high concentration of Fe gives rise to a transmission maximum around 490 nm. For lower Fe levels, this
2+
3+
3+
maximum is shifted towards 520 nm. If Fe and Fe ions are present together, Fe predominates when the
transmission maximum is situated around 510 nm (Brill 1988) (Table 156). Under reducing furnace conditions and
2+
in the presence of sulphate ions, a large fraction of the iron is reduced to Fe , while sulphate ions can be
3+
3+ 2reduced to sulphide ions. The sulphide can combine with the remaining Fe to form the ferro-sulphide Fe -S
2+
(Hruschka, 1987). The presence of this chromophore together with Fe ions results in transmission maxima
(Tmax) between 555 nm (slightly reducing) and 585 nm (strongly reducing). Under even more reducing conditions,
the ferro-sulphide complex remains and the maximum is positioned around 670 nm (Brill 1988). The higher the
wavelength of the spectral position of the transmission maximum, the stronger the reduction conditions within the
furnace, resulting in a colour shift from green over olive to amber (Table 158). The presence of the ferro-sulphide
2+
chromophore thus modifies the blue colour of Fe in the glass to green, olive-green or amber-brown, depending
2+
on its ratio in proportion to that of Fe (Schreurs, Brill 1984; Brill 1988). The glass turns olive-green to amber
under maximum reduction conditions. Hence, the production conditions are partly translated into the hue of the
2+
3+
glass artefact. Depending on the relative concentrations of Fe and Fe , an aqua bluish or greenish tint is
obtained. In Figure 208, the transmission maximum of the 30 artefacts belonging to Spectral Group 1 are
correlated to the calculated x (CIE1931) colour coordinates. The higher the spectral position of the transmission
maximum, the more reduced the furnace conditions and the more amber-like the artefact would appear. So,
optical analysis provides by means of absorption spectroscopy an easy method to identify the furnace conditions
302
This is mainly because the determination of a chemical composition in oxide form is not adequate enough. This is also the case for manganese,
which is solely represented as MnO.
389
in which each artefact has been produced. This result gives the archaeologists an extra tool in tracing regional
differences and chronological evolutions concerning the production process of black-appearing glass.
3
x (CIE1931)
0.55
2
0.50
1
0.45
0.40
e
mor
green
0.35
560
565
570
575
tions
ondi
c
g
cin
redu
olive
580
amber
585
590
Transmission maximum (nm)
590
green --> olive
585
580
575
2
3
more reducing conditions
1
570
565
560
e
ek nch
e
e
(s s (
am 63
Ve Ve ple /24
1
lz
l
ek zek G - 1)
e
e
VD
(s
(s
Av am am C)
en ple ple
c
Av he B - A)
en s (8 no
.
ch
8
es /65 7)
(8 72
8
N
is /6 9)
Ve
M me 501
lz
a
ek ta s ( -9)
g
A2
e
(s ne
am (s 824
Kr
ui
pl am )
sh
e
pl
e
D
ou
- M I)
te
m
3K
7
(K 2.
G 1
M K90 RO )
at
ag sa .78
M ne mpl
at
e
(
ag sam A
)
pl
M ne
e
at
(
ag sam G)
n
M
Ve at e (s ple
lz agn am A)
ek
e e (s ple
(s
a am J)
M mp pl
at
e
ag le F C
)
M ne
-V
at
ag (sa 73
)
M ne mpl
at
e
ag (sa
B
ne mp )
(s le D
am
)
pl
e
E)
555
Ve
lz
Av
Position transmission maximum (nm)
Figure 208: Transmission maxima (Tmax) of Spectral Group 1 as a function of the x colour coordinate. The higher both values,
the more reduced the furnace conditions
Figure 209: Position of the transmission maxima in the samples of Group 2
Although all artefacts appear similarly coloured, two subtypes can be discerned by looking to the entire spectrum
of Spectral Group 6 (Figures 202-203). Subgroup 1 has a much higher transmission peak between 600 and 750
nm, as can be seen from the spectral shape of the samples Avenches 8, Avenches 9, Avenches 10, and Olbia 2.
These artefacts have a high transmission for yellow and red wavelengths (Figure 202). The presence of a
transmission maximum in the region between 610 and 670 nm indicates that the production process of these
artefacts is similar to the one applied to the artefacts of the first described spectral group. Here also, the ferrosulphide complex is formed. The difference lies in the furnace conditions. The artefacts belonging to spectral
group 6a are formed under even stronger reducing furnace conditions, resulting in brown tinges.
390
reducing vs oxydising technique
1,0
0,9
0,8
YELLOW-ORANGE
0,7
strong reducing technique
0,6
Rome 1
MnO 0,5
Rome 2
BROWN
Rome 3
0,4
oxydising technique
Avenches
0,3
Olbia
BLUE-GREEN + BLUE
0,2
0,1
0,0
0,0
1,0
2,0
3,0
Fe2O3
Figure 210: Measured transmission spectra of the artefacts belonging to Spectral Group 6 [= Class III]; left: subtype I; right:
subtype II.
The artefacts of subgroup b are most probably produced via an alternative production process under totally
different furnace conditions (oxidising instead of reducing). From the iron-manganese chart, we know that for all
artefacts both metals are present in moderate concentrations. Depending on the furnace conditions, the following
reactions can take place:
Fe
2+
+ Mn
3+
(reducing furnace condition)
Fe
3+
+ Mn
2+
(4)
(oxidizing furnace condition)
3+
3+
From this reaction it can be seen that under fully oxidising conditions the ions Fe and Mn are formed. The iron
contributes a brownish yellow colour and the manganese a purple colour, resulting in a brownish violet glass
(Newton, Davison 1989).
It is clear that artefacts with a so-called brown colour could be obtained via two totally different production
processes. In Table 165, we give an overview of such artefacts together with the corresponding furnace
conditions and colour coordinates. Figure 210 demonstrates that the number of obtainable colour hues under
strong reducing furnace conditions is smaller than those obtained under oxidising furnace conditions. The colour
coordinates indicate that the oxidising technique can lead to a wider range of hues than via the reducing
technique. The colour of the artefacts of subgroup 6 and 7 is restricted to the yellowish-orange region, while the
second production technique can result in hues ranging from yellowish-orange to reddish-orange hues (Figure
210). This is possibly due to the difficulty of regulating the furnace conditions resulting in the corresponding
reaction, but further research on a larger group of artefacts is needed to verify this hypothesis.
Table 165: Furnace conditions and colour coordinates of the brown coloured artefacts
spectral sample
furnace condition
colour
group
x
y
CLASS 1
6
6
6
6b
7a
7a
7b
7b
7
Avenches8
Avenches9
Avenches10
Olbia2
Avenches4
Avenches5
Avenches6
Avenches7
Olbia1
strong reducing
strong reducing
strong reducing
strong reducing
oxidizing
oxidizing
oxidizing
oxidizing
oxidizing
0,55
0,55
0,52
0,56
0,60
0,60
0,49
0,54
0,59
0,44
0,44
0,46
0,44
0,39
0,37
0,47
0,46
0,41
391
The results presented here demonstrate that UV-Vis-NIR spectroscopy is an objective method to distinguish dark
coloured glass from black-appearing glass. The calculation of the optical density clarifies why glass in a green
hue is more easily considered as black (appearing) in comparison with glass in a blue, a brown or a purple hue
[see in this Chapter section 9.4.1].
It has been demonstrated that useful information can be obtained about the chemical composition of the glass
artefact by using UV-Vis-NIR spectroscopy, even if this remains limited to the iron and manganese oxides when
considering the strongly-coloured samples [see in this Chapter section 9.4.2]. In addition, UV-Vis-NIR
spectroscopy offers information on the applied production process and more particularly on the used furnace
conditions during the glass processing to obtain black-appearing glass [see in this Chapter section 9.4.5].
9.5 Use of photonics and its efficiency in relation to archaeological questions
The obtained measurement results from UV-Vis-NIR spectroscopy provided information on the coloration and
production process of Roman strongly-coloured glass, but to what extent can UV-Vis-NIR spectroscopy contribute
to the research on archaeological glass in general?
In a first case study, we will demonstrate how the use of UV-Vis-NIR spectroscopy can help the archaeologist in
understanding the various excavated features containing glass artefacts. In a second case study, we will
demonstrate how the use of UV-Vis-NIR spectroscopy can help improve the analysis process. The inexpensive
method UV-Vis-NIR spectroscopy can facilitate a more convenient and purposive sample selection by means of a
preliminary inquiry, selecting the most interesting pieces out of a large group of artefacts suitable for chemical
analysis.
o
Case study 1: contribution to archaeological analysis
The idea of a potential contribution to the archaeological analysis of UV-Vis-NIR spectroscopy arose when a set
of measurements at various places on one single piece demonstrated to give identical measurements with a
minimal deviation.
As an example, we tested the intact mould-blown cylindrical vessel from Tongeren (BE) [cat.no.562] (Figure 211,
303
left).
In Figure 211 (right) the averaged transmission spectrum obtained from measurements taken at ten
different places at the surface of the object is shown. Analysis of the spectral shape and calculation of the colour
coordinates (x=0.58 and y=0.41) classifies this object in Spectral Group 7a. Therefore, the expected chemical
composition is that of Class III with a low manganese and low iron oxide concentration, below 1% and below 3%,
respectively. This result causes confusion seeing that cylindrical vessels without base-rings, such as the one from
Tongeren, are dated 150-170/80 AD (Cosyns et al. 2006a). So do we have to consider the beaker as a Class III
product of Period I and consequently adapt the date range of this vessel type? Or do we have to make a
connection with the low iron/low manganese content of the rod-formed solid base unguentaria from Elkab
rd
304
[cat.no.868-871] which are dated in the first quarter of the 3 century AD? This would mean that the Tongeren
beaker was either a finished product imported from the South-eastern Mediterranean or made in a European
glass workshop using imported black appearing raw glass. A third option, although to us not very convincing
303
Seeing as the vessel is intact, UV-VIS-NIR spectroscopy can be valuable for estimating the iron and manganese concentrations and providing
immediate information on the applied production process without the necessity of sampling.
304
It is very plausible that the technological knowledge to produce high iron black glass was not yet introduced in the north-western provinces
around the mid 2nd century AD, but only after 170/80 AD. On the other hand, it is equally possible that this type of beaker has been produced in a
Mediterranean workshop, or that when locally produced, the low manganese/low iron raw glass was imported into the north-western provinces.
This is not an isolated case, as the Form IIB.6 vessel from Faulquemont (FR) (Cabart [cat.no.1073] shows a low manganese/low iron content as
well. On the base of an intact piece from grave III of Esch (NL), which is dated 160-180 AD (van den Hurk 1973, 224-225, no.III.36) [cat.no.2881],
this shape is dated to Period II. Conversely, an example of this vessel shape has been retrieved in Augst coming from a context dated between 70
to 150 AD (Rütti 1991, II, no.1186) [cat.no.3540]. It could thus very well be that the bulbous beaker from the rich barrow of Esch is to be regarded
as an heirloom, and consequently the Tongeren cup and Faulquemont piece should then be dated in Period I.
392
120
Transmission (%)
100
80
60
40
20
0
350
450
550
650
750
850
950
1050 1150 1250 1350 1450 1550
Wavelength (nm)
Figure 211: Roman glass vessel from Tongeren/Belgium (photograph by the author, by courtesy of PGRM, Tongeren) (left).
Transmission spectrum of the object (right)
When excavating various fragments of low frequency idiosyncratic shapes such as the black glass vessels in
different layers or in different features, the spectral shape and the calculation of the colour coordinates make
possible the characterization of the artefacts belonging to one single object or produced from the same batch. But
are we able to extend these differences to distinct glass workshops? In Figure 212 we show the calculated colour
st
coordinates of 26 fragments from nine contexts in Avenches (CH), which are roughly dated from the 1 to the
rd
early 3 century AD (Periods I+II). Depending on the circumstances of discovery, we may assume nine different
artefacts, but may we simply say that the nine contexts stand for nine objects in black glass? Based on the
colorimetry, only four separate colour groups were determined, putting forward the use of four different recipes as
an argument (Table 166).
63/2411 (1)
89/07170-46 (1)
88/6501-9 (3)
89/07179/3 (8)
88/06918-02 (3)
89/7851-09 (2)
88/06975-05 (1)
89/7851-13 (4)
89/07170-45 (3)
0.6
1.
2.
3.
0.5
y (CIE1931)
0.5
0.4
0.48
0.46
0.3
4.
0.44
0.2
0.42
0.1
0.4
0.49
0.5
0.51
0.52
0.53
0.54
0.55
0.56
0
0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
0.7
x (CIE1931)
Figure 212: Colour coordinates of different samples excavated at Avenches (top)
Table 166: List of the four different colour groups from Avenches
hue
n
inventory no.
yellow-green
amber
brown
1 ex.
3 ex.
19 ex.
pink
3 ex.
63/2411
88/6501-9
88/06918-02; 89/7851-13; 89/07170-45; 89/07170-46; 89/07179/3; 89/785109; 89/7851-13
88/06918-02; 88/06975-05;
393
The four groups are definitely made by using different production processes and are therefore at least made from
four different batches. It is not excluded that one single glass workshop was responsible for all four assemblages.
Can the use of UV-Vis-NIR spectroscopy provide a better fine-tuning of the analysis results and determine a more
correct number of objects than from archaeological contexts or external features? Or can the colour coordinates
and spectral shapes help by bringing together fragments from different contexts or by separating fragments within
one context? The yellowish-green fragment (63/2411) forms a first object while the three amber fragments from
305
context 88/6501-9 show such similarity that we may consider them as being from one single object. The same
can be said for the three fragments falling within a fourth zone [4], but interesting here is that the piece from
context 88/06975-05 corresponds with two out of three fragments from context 88/06918-02. The third piece falls
within the third colour group, including the bulk of the black glass material from Avenches (Figure 212).
Consequently, we can assume that the three corresponding pieces from both contexts come from the same piece
or a similar piece from the same batch, besides the fact that both contexts are related. Hence, the artefacts within
colour groups 3 and 4 are to be regarded as contemporaneous.
Figure 213 clearly illustrates that a more detailed analysis of the samples of the third colour group can be made
by plotting the spectral shape of each piece‘s different production processes. Two distinct groups can clearly be
identified: a set falls within Spectral Group 6 and a second group falls within Spectral Group 7a. Both fall within
the Chemical Class III with a low iron and low manganese content.
120
Group 6: 89/07179/3 (8), 89/7851-09 (2), 89/7851-13 (4)
100
Transmission (%)
Group 7a: 88/06918-02 (1), 89/07170-45 (3), 89/07170-46 (1)
80
60
40
20
0
350
450
550
650
750
850
950
1050 1150 1250 1350 1450 1550
Wavelength (nm)
Figure 213: Spectra of the samples belonging to Spectral Group 6 and 7a [Class III]
The identical spectral shape of the two fragments from contexts 88/06918-02 and 89/07170-46 in Spectral Group
306
7a are to be considered from one single artefact , making both contexts match. Consequently, all other artefact
groups need to be considered together. The three fragments from context 89/07170-45 are somewhat different
compared to the first two, although also belonging to Spectral Group 7a. Their spectral shapes clearly show to be
equal, and are therefore to be considered as being from one single object. Looking back to the calculated colour
coordinates, we see a difference of 0,02 on the x-coordinate and 0,04 on the y-coordinate between these three
samples (Figure 214). Striking is the matching spectral shape of the Tongeren cup with those of the first two
fragments within Spectral Group 7a of Avenches. Hence, the Tongeren cup and the two Avenches fragments
most likely come from one single glass workshop. It is quite speculative to attempt to locate the glass workshop in
Avenches, even though some arguments may plead for this very tempting idea [see Chapter 9].
305
If external features would have been recognised, the three fragments should then be considered to be from different objects produced with
glass from the same batch.
306
Seeing the rarity of the black glass vessel fragments, we may assume that both fragments from the same batch are consequently from one
single object. This reasoning cannot be done for the more ubiquitous ‗naturally coloured‘ and decolourized vessels, and similar results only
correspond to the level of the batch.
394
The spectral shapes of the twelve fragments from contexts 89/07179/3 (8 ex.) and 89/7851-13 (4 ex.) within
Spectral Group 6 are identical and can therefore also be considered to be from one single object or from more
artefacts from one single batch. This implies that other artefact groups can be evaluated as one. Both fragments
from context 89/7851-09 fit, but differ from both previous contexts within Spectral Group 6. We assume that these
two fragments come from an object made from a different batch but manufactured in the same workshop using
the same recipe.
From Figure 214, we may conclude that the 19 fragments from 6 different contexts refer to an MNI of 4 artefacts
from 2 batches.
We can conclude that UV-Vis-NIR spectroscopy can link material from a particular site to a specific production
process, and subsequently these artefacts which were produced under similar production conditions can be
connected to one and the same workshop, even if the workshop is not yet located. Conversely, UV-Vis-NIR
spectroscopy on archaeological glass artefacts definitely can help in the set-up of the Harris-matrix of an
excavation by identifying the fragments belonging to one single artefact.
The results from the Avenches material can be confirmed with the measurements made on the ten samples
excavated at Tienen-Grijpenveld (BE) (Figure 214-215). From an archaeological point of view, we may speak of
an MNI of 2 when taking into consideration only the rim and base fragments. However, on the basis of the
contexts, this might raise the MNI to a minimum of 3 and maximum of 5 (Figure 216). On the basis of the chemical
composition, these samples have to be categorized within the high iron/low manganese Class I, and based on the
transmission spectra, they belong to Spectral Group 1. In Figure 215, we show the calculated colour coordinates
of these samples. From the measurements repeatedly taken on different areas, we may conclude that the
artefacts were rather uniformly coloured. The maximum colour difference measured at different positions on the
same artefact equalled 0.06. Based on this information, we could identify the artefacts which certainly do not
belong to a same object, as their colour differences are too high, such as the pieces from context TI/02/TR/20 in
relation to those from TI/98/TR/03 (Figure 215). The difference in colour coordinates of the samples belonging to
TI/02/TR/20 and TI/01/TR/79 groups, on the contrary, are within the 0.06 range. Consequently, from an optical
point of view, the fragments from these two contexts could potentially belong to the same object or to two or more
different vessels made from one single glass batch. Seeing that the rim fragment of the tumulus carchesium
(TI/02/TR/20) is intact, the rim fragment from context TI/01/TR/79 is to be considered from the same batch. We
also know that the samples of Spectral Group 2 have a transmission maximum between 564 nm and 588 nm. The
position of this maximum depends on the furnace conditions as described in part 10.4.5. Accordingly, this
maximum is a potential selection parameter for artefacts produced under the same furnace conditions.
TI/98/TR/03/022
TI/02/TR/20/262
TI/98/TR/03/026
TI/01/TR/79/059
TI/02/TR/20/078
TI/01/TR/79/142
TI/02/TR/20/079
TI/02/TR/20/80
0.56
0.54
0.52
y (CIE1931)
Tmax = 570 nm
0.50
Tmax = 580 nm
0.48
Tmax = 578 nm
0.46
Tmax = 588 nm
0.44
0.42
0.40
0.36
0.38
0.40
0.42
0.44
0.46
0.48
0.50
0.52
0.54
0.56
x (CIE1931)
Figure 214: Grouping of the Tienen artefacts based on their colour coordinates and position of the transmission
395
TI/98/TR/03/022
TI/98/TR/03/026
TI/01/TR/79/059
TI/01/TR/79/142
TI/02/TR/20/080
TI/02/TR/20/079
TI/02/TR/20/078
TI/02/TR/20/262
Figure 215: Maximum (left) and on external examination (right)
Based on the different transmission peaks, we identified four clusters for the eight measured samples, subgroups
with a maximum transmission respectively at 570 nm (samples group TI/02/TR/20), 578 nm (samples group
TI/01/TR/79), 580 nm (sample TI/98/TR/03/22), and 588 nm (sample TI/98/TR/03/26). The eight artefacts belong
to a minimum of four different objects made from two different batches.
This approach adds extra information to the conclusions which were drawn after excavation, when the artefacts
were submitted to a first examination based on their external properties. It was concluded that the artefacts of
group TI/02/TR/20 belong to the same object (Figure 214).
Another set comprises ten vessel fragments of Period II from the excavations at Steenakker/Kapelleveld in
Kontich (BE). The set can be subdivided into five subcategories on the basis of their transmission maxima,
correspondingly 574.5 nm; 577.5 nm; 579 nm; 583.5 nm; 585 nm (Figure 216). From the analysis results, it was
established that the deviation on the transmission maximum of one artefact is negligible. Therefore, we can
assign these samples to at least five different glass vessels.
396
KFL-1429 (sample1)
K87-542 (sample5)
K87-542 (sample9)
KFL-1429 (sample2)
K87-542 (sample6)
KFL-6603
KFL-1429 (sample3)
K87-542 (sample7)
sample 4
K87-542 (sample8)
0.52
y (CIE1931)
Tmax = 574.5 nm
0.50
Tmax = 577.5 nm
Tmax = 585 nm
0.48
Tmax = 579 nm
Tmax = 583.5 nm
0.46
0.42
0.44
0.46
0.48
0.50
0.52
0.54
x (CIE1931)
Figure 216: Grouping of the Kontich artefacts based on their colour coordinates and position of the transmission maximum
The use of UV-Vis-NIR spectroscopy makes it possible to recognize the characteristic spectral shapes dependent
on the chemical composition of the sample, and thus makes it possible to determine the fragments made from the
same recipe. Additionally, the calculation of the colour coordinates x and y makes it possible to detect differences
on the level of the batch. We are, however, well aware that we only took into consideration the very low frequency
idiosyncratic Roman black glass vessels of Period II. It is therefore necessary to verify the analysis results and the
conclusions ensuing from it with the more ubiquitous ‗naturally coloured‘ and decolourized material, developing an
approach for a much more reliable number of materials from a specific excavation.
o
Case study 2: contribution to archaeometric analysis
The results of UV-Vis-NIR spectroscopic analysis on strongly-coloured glass artefacts make it possible to detect a
number of colouring elements. The chemical concentrations can thus be estimated without damaging the object.
Perhaps the use of UV-Vis-NIR spectroscopy on glass barely produces a surplus value to chemical analysis
methods thus far, but it can counter the restrictions of these rather complex, expensive, and not easily granted
procedures. The consequence is that investigations on the chemical composition of archaeological glass artefacts
remain limited, even if during the last 15 years chemical analysis has increased in quality and in quantity. The
analysed sets, however, always are limited and have thus to be selected carefully in view of research queries.
This means that the selected amount of samples remains rather undersized vis-à-vis the quantity of excavated
glass artefacts. When a lot of glass artefacts are excavated at the same site, the objects are first grouped on the
basis of their external properties. Most often the different groups contain several samples which are similar in
composition. Hence, an individual selection results too easily in a number of unnecessary samples or
opportunities that go by unnoticed.
Clear groups can be recognized on the basis of the spectral shapes which are due to the specific chemical
compositions of the artefacts. Using UV-Vis-NIR spectroscopy, all (diagnostic) material can be checked quickly,
making an overall but well-defined selection of the available study material possible.
Eight vessel fragments from the villa of Matagne-la-Petite (BE) and another eight from the south-western area of
the vicus Tienen (BE) are considered in this case-study. The external factors of the fragments allow for the
assumption of at least four vessels from Matagne and two from Tienen. When looking to the chemical analysis
results from all sampled black glass vessels of the villa at Matagne-la-Petite (BE) and the south-western area of
the vicus Tienen (BE) [see Chapter 9], the homogeneity of the chemical composition allows the hypothesis of one
single batch. When verifying the composition of the samples by means of chemical analysis, generally only one
artefact would have been taken when combined with the easy and non-destructive absorption spectroscopy. This
optical analysis method on all 16 pieces from both sites has demonstrated that all samples have a similar spectral
shape and so also possess a similar colour. We can conclude that the analysed artefacts from Matagne-la-Petite
and Tienen must have a similar composition.
397
One example is the clustering of artefacts in the MnO ratio versus the Fe 2O3 ratio diagram. The artefacts we
considered were strongly-coloured glass artefacts appearing black from the Roman period. Depending on the
fabrication period and place, these samples contain a different MnO and Fe 2O3 percentage. The ―low iron‖ group
nd
is traditionally produced in the Mediterranean region. At the beginning of the 2 century AD, a characteristic
production technique was developed in the northwestern region of the Roman Empire where uncoloured glass
was imported from the south and locally coloured by adding iron (Cosyns et al. 2006a, 40-41; Van der Linden et al.
2009). We concluded that the same information could be extracted from the x, y colour diagram, which shows that
for this type of research, absorption spectroscopy could be used as a low-cost alternative for the expensive X-raybased techniques. The idea consists of drawing a parallel between the specific regions in the MnO – Fe2O3
diagram and the different regions of the CIE1931 curve.
In Figure 217 we illustrate this on eight samples excavated at Matagne-la-Petite. Three of them are located in the
―yellow‖ region, and five others in the ―yellowish-orange‖ region. For reasons of clarity, only a limited number of
samples are shown here.
0,90
Avenches
Matagne
CIE1931 curve
Olbia
Tienen
Velzeke
Oudenburg
Grobbendonk
Kruishoutem
Nismes
0,80
0,70
0,60
y
0,50
0,40
0,30
0,20
0,10
0,00
0,00
0,10
0,20
0,30
0,40
x
0,50
0,60
0,70
Figure 217: Mapping of a number of samples on the CIE1931 colour diagram
It is clear that glass production in Roman times took place under very precise and controlled conditions. A
determination of the chemical composition in oxide form for this reason provides only limited information relevant
to the applied production process. A traditional chemical analysis of a glass sample, for instance, only quotes the
amount of iron oxide as Fe2O3, while not all the iron within the glass matrix is in this state (Newton, Davison 1989).
The use of UV-Vis-NIR spectroscopy can therefore prove interesting to explore the possibilities and the benefits
of using this technique.
398
0.6
group2
group7a
0.5
group4a
group7b
y (CIE1931)
0.4
group6
0.3
group5
group1
group3
0.2
0.1
group4b
0
0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
0.7
x (CIE1931)
Figure 218: Calculated colour coordinates of the different spectral groups recognized on Roman black glass
G2
G4a
G7a
G1
G7b
G6 G5
G3
G4b
Figure 219: Plot on the CIE1931 horseshoe graph of the calculated colour coordinates of the different spectral groups
recognized on Roman black glass
Seeing the correlation between the chemical composition and optical properties with the archaeologically dated
material, it is possible to put forward that each class and spectral group implies chronological associations
(Figures 218-219).
9.6 Conclusion
The optical spectroscopy of the Roman black-appearing monochrome strongly-coloured glass artefacts
demonstrates that UV-Vis-NIR spectroscopy is a very straightforward, easy, non-destructive and cheap technique
which is complementary to the chemical analysis methods and, to a certain extent, workable as an alternative to
the accepted standard analysis methods (Meulebroeck et al. 2008; Meulebroeck et al. 2011). Analysis of the
399
spectral shape tells if the glass was processed under reducing or under oxidizing furnace conditions. The
identification of characteristic absorption bands gives an idea about the used colouring agents, whereas the
calculated colour coordinates indicate the concentration of the colouring agents. Thus, besides information on the
used colouring agents, a specificity that is generally obtained from chemical analysis, UV-Vis-NIR spectroscopy
shows that the measured transmission spectra also provide information on the applied furnace conditions.
The objective measuring through optical analysis, providing a distinction between dark coloured versus so-called
black glass, clarifies why glass in a green hue is regarded more easily as black (appearing) in comparison with
glass in a blue, a brown, or a purple hue.
The application of UV-Vis-NIR spectroscopy on Roman strongly-coloured glass artefacts appearing black
illustrates well the benefit of photonics to characterize various technological aspects employed in the production
of the glass artefacts. Optical spectroscopy has the potential to act as an alternative method to the ion- and X-raybased chemical analysis techniques or at least as an additional method in order to provide additional information
to approach the archaeological question.
Earlier research has shown that a clear compositional distinction could be observed between fragments dated to
the period before and after 150 AD. Different groups with a well-defined iron and manganese concentration could
be identified. These conclusions were based on traditional chemical analysis results.
Our research proved that these separate groups which are defined in the iron-manganese chart all correspond
with a typical transmission spectrum. This means that the same conclusions concerning chronological differences
in black-appearing glass production can be drawn from the spectroscopic measurement results.
The identification of characteristic absorption bands of the artefact‘s transmission spectrum allowed us to define
the applied colouring agents. The calculated colour coordinates indicate the concentration of the colouring agents.
The high-iron group corresponds with a yellow-green hue. The characteristic absorption bands of iron are visible
in the spectrum. For the high-manganese group, we distinguished two groups based on the spectral information.
A first group is clearly coloured by manganese (pink-purple colour), the second group contains a mixture of iron,
manganese, copper and cobalt as colouring agents. The remaining group with the moderate iron and manganese
concentration results in brown coloured artefacts.
Concerning the absolute concentration of an artefact, we have to remark that although optical spectroscopy is a
semi-quantitative method, not able to give an exact value, it can be used in a first step to classify a large group of
artefacts in separate classes with a similar spectral behaviour. In this way, only a restricted number of samples
need to be analysed through these complex, high-cost, and destructive ion- and X-ray-based techniques. The
recent introduction of the low-cost portable optical spectrum analysers makes this measurement method even
more feasible.
Furthermore, the analysis of the spectral shape of the transmission spectrum reveals information about an
artefact‘s production conditions. This information could not be derived from standard chemical analysis results.
We learned that the green glass was produced under reducing furnace conditions. The transmission spectrum is
characterised by a transmission maximum in the green part of the electromagnetic spectrum. However, the more
reduced the furnace conditions are, the higher the spectral position of the transmission maximum. Furthermore,
the hue of the glass matrix will turn orange. The artefacts coloured with manganese required an oxidizing furnace
environment. This was also the case for some (type II) of the brown coloured samples. The second type of brown
artefacts, on the other hand, was produced under reducing conditions.
The calculated colour coordinates of the different groups were compared and two main conclusions could be
drawn. For all the groups, the calculated colours correspond with the colours we expected. If we link this to the six
groups we defined in the iron-manganese diagram, we conclude that every group has a specific colour:
o
o
o
o
o
o
Group I [= group 1] = very pale aqua blue-green colours
Group II [= group 2] = green, olive and amber colours
Group III [= group 3] = purple colours
Group IV [= group 4b] = blue colours (group 4a: aqua bluish or greenish colours)
Group V [= groups 6; 7] = brown colours
Group VI [= group 5] = brown-red colours
The paler the colour perceived by human eyes, the smaller the concentrations of the colorants. Brown colours
need much lower concentrations than, for example, pale blue glass. All this lets us conclude that starting from the
400
calculated colour coordinates, it is possible to make a first estimation of the iron and manganese concentrations.
Secondly, we learned that starting from the colour or from the chemical analysis data, it is not possible to decide
about the applied production process. As we explained earlier, brown colours, for example, can be obtained via
several different ways, where every single production condition is linked to a specific spectral shape of the
spectrum. Analysis of the spectral shape is therefore necessary if we want to get knowledge of the applied
production method.
This information will be useful to archaeologists in different types of applications including the ones discussed in
part B and in identifying workshops in a certain region or in identifying possible knowledge transfer between
workshops in different regions. The conclusions drawn in this study are valid for this specific type of Roman glass,
but can be generalized for other types of glass with different chronological and geographical backgrounds.
A first general conclusion of our research is related to the colour of the artefacts. Up till now archaeologists have
used colour information during their research, but these colour adjudications have been carried out in a very
subjective manner by just physically looking at the object. We concluded that a quantitative determination of the
colour of the artefact can be beneficial in solving several types of archaeological problems.
A next step should be the calculation of the second derivative spectra (Hruschka 1987) to allow fine-tuning the
results and to identify the characteristic absorption bands for different chemical elements. Another technique that
could not be verified within the present study is the application of the principal component analysis (PCA) to the
spectra (Martens, Naes 1989), which will allow the classification of the artefacts based on a difference in
composition. Our research proved that PCA can act as a tool to identify samples belonging to the same
production batch.
401
402
PART III
THE HISTORICAL APPROACH
403
Chapter 10 HISTORICAL ANALYSIS
In the 1950s it was customary to assert that archaeologists could be properly concerned with the how, when and
where of the past but that the question ‗why‘ generally lay beyond the limits of archaeological inference. However, a
subject relegated to a mere descriptive role will rapidly become sterile, practised by those to whom the catalogue or
corpus is an end in itself rather than a means of further enlightenment.
(Peacock 1982, xi)
Personally it feels hubristic to attempt to discuss the whole. The risk of giving offense, whether by omission or injudicious
comment, is enormous.
(Woolf 2004, 417)
10.1 Introduction
The challenge is to demonstrate that an integrated view of a minor segment within the Roman material culture
can provide pattern(s) to help further develop the understanding of the Roman imperial economy in general and
that of the glass production and consumption in particular. In the preceding chapters, we discussed one by one a
series of different aspects of the production, distribution and consumption of Roman (black) glass built up from the
analysis of the artefacts. Apart from the great value of the prior conclusions obtained from each approach
separately, it is definitely most important to survey the archaeological and archaeometric data jointly in view of a
historical approach. The aim of this chapter is thus not to recapitulate the results from all previous chapters, but
rather to combine the established observations with historical information in order to come to a holistic approach.
Hence, we confront in this chapter the results from the archaeological and archaeometric approaches with the
available information from historical sources and models. Due to the lack of ancient written sources on (black)
glass production and consumption, it is compulsory to compare the acquired archaeological and archaeometric
data with hypothetical models current within Roman historical research.
Conversely, we are well aware of the difficulty of such undertaking and the limitations of the possible outcome,
seeing the high degree of specialized research within the different approaches of Roman archaeology that led to
a discipline that became so highly fragmented that no individual can master it anymore (Woolf 2004, 417). The
specificity of the heuristic survey to acquire knowledge on the classic as well as the current models was
experienced as a first obstacle within this attempt. In the face of the overwhelming multiplicity of specialities within
the Roman historical research discoursepolitical history, military history, social history (with the booming gender
studies, not in the least in view of the military theme), cultural history (including ritual, customs and belief),
economic history, technology historywe decided to focus on economic history. We believe this choice relevant
because the scope of our research is to characterize the production and consumption of idiosyncratic
commodities during specific periods throughout the Roman imperial period. Although the glass production and
consumption is an economic issue, we are well aware of the complexity of interwoven involvement of various
factors on different levelse.g. the impact of the socio-cultural development through the centuries and within the
different areas of the empire; the impact of regional consumers‘ behaviour and traditions on the (d)/(r)evolutions
on the microeconomic level; the technological changes and innovations instigated by mesoeconomic pressure;
and the macroeconomic changes influenced by or resulting from the turbulent political and military events during
the Roman imperial period.
In an attempt to incorporate at best the production and consumption of the Roman (black) glass in the Roman
society, we confront the here-compiled data and the generated rules with the generally proposed models on
Roman economy. Nevertheless, some socio-cultural aspects have already been paid attention to, discussing the
use and function of the commodities in black-appearing glass [see Chapter 7]; some technological aspects have
been observed in view of the manufacturing of the artefacts through the consecutive periods [see Chapters 2 and
3] as well as in view of the production of glass [see Chapters 8 and 9].
Consequently, we confront in this chapter the data from both approaches within an historical perspective by
tackling particular issues to improve our understanding of the Roman glass production, distribution and
consumption within a proposed model. The archaeological and archaeometric data related to the historical
approach illustrate the presented Roman black glass from different angles within the Roman socio-economic
framework. But to what extent can the obtained results on Roman black glass fit the conventional models on
Roman economy or that on Classical Antiquity in general?
404
To demonstrate the value of a holistic approach and its representativeness, we verified the production and
consumption of Roman black glass from different angles by approaching the compiled data on three successive
levels in economics.
The macroeconomic level integrates the impact of external factorslike, for instance, political decisions
concerning the regulation of taxation and tax collection; military actions such as border wars, civil wars,
or army restructuring measuresthat influenced indirectly the glass production by resulting in economic
crisis or prosperity. Hence, from this level we compare the black glass production with the entire Roman
material culture and draw parallels with the prevailing models of the Roman economy.
The mesoeconomic level involves the organization and evolutions the production of (black) glass
underwent and the unavoidable technological innovations necessary for the glass workshops to survive
workshops producing similar objects in other materials and compete with other, less innovative glass
workshops. The mesoeconomic level thus evaluates the Roman economy on a (inter)regional level
because competition and the inherent innovations are a purely regional matter.
The microeconomic level incorporates the data on the local level that influenced or involved the glass
workshop directly or a very specific aspect within the chaîne opératoire of black glass artefacts.
This three-levelled approach is particularly common in economics, where they speak of micro-, meso- and
macroeconomic factors, but it is also well embedded within psychological and sociological research, where all
three echelons involve explicit questions to examine the assertions put forward. Such a multi-levelled querying is
barely used in archaeological research, in particular when considering aspects within the study of the material
culture such as Roman glass. Through this approach, the compiled data can be viewed from different angles, thus
providing a much wider perspective of the material studies such as Roman (black) glass and surpassing the
diagnosis of bits and pieces from one period or from one site or a region. For the benefit of readability, we discuss
the black glass in relation to the proposed query per level in a separate case study. We confront the accumulated
data on Roman black glass consumption (micro-level) with the prevailing general views on the Roman glass
production and consumption (meso-level). Both categories are subsequently considered vis-à-vis the Roman
economy (macro-level) (Figure 220).
Historical approach
Macro-level
Meso-level
Roman economy
Roman (black)
glass production
Micro-level
Roman black
glass
consumption
Figure 220: Schematic visualization of the three-levelled economic approaches
Because no fine breakdown by subject can be formulated for the three interacting and interrelated levels, we
merge in the conclusion the deductions from each level described in the different case-studies. This broader,
multi-levelled perspective assesses Roman black glass consumption by analysing the relationship of the
production and distribution of black glass artefacts to the overall glass production and distribution and to the
Roman economy.
Despite the complexity of the issue, we do no more than only presenting a brief summary on the different recent
reliable models. Besides, we are aware of the difficulty and risk that is involved when attempting to implement the
archaeological data into historical models in particular because of our limited knowledge on the matter as
307
archaeologist.
307
Illustrative is the metaphor by Michel Polfer (2001, 7): ―Vouloir étudier le rôle que l‘artisanat a pu jouer dans la vie économique de l‘Empire
romain revient à effectuer une ballade en terrain mine.‖
405
10.2 Case study I: Macro-level
In this case study we demonstrate the role of political decisions and economic regulations affecting the production,
distribution and consumption of the entire glass assemblage within a well-defined period. Therefore, we use the
(inter)regional consumption pattern of black glass vessels in Period II because it emerges as a perfect indicator
for macroeconomic interference by Rome indirectly influencing the regionalism of the Roman material culture
nd
rd
during the later 2 and early 3 century AD.
In prior chapters, we demonstrated that during the period 150-250 AD the produced vessels were essentially freeblown shapes which for the most part involved tableware used for drinking or serving drinks [see Chapter 3]. The
majority of these shapes are unique or seldom attested in black glass, but the high carinated beakers (Form IIB.1)
and the globular cups and jars (Forms IIB.4/5) were produced in relatively elevated numbers with a distribution
restricted to the north-western provinces Gallia Belgica, Germania Inferior and Germania Superior [see Chapter 6].
Furthermore, the distribution pattern of the carinated beakers demonstrates an eastwest circulation in Gallia
Belgica and Germania Inferior and appears absent in the upper Rhine region, which corresponds with the
province Germania Superior. The globular beaker, on the other hand, shows a southnorth distribution pattern
along the Rhine from Augst (CH) to Nijmegen (NL), while it is absent in the west, corresponding to the province
Gallia Belgica [or at least the western part coinciding with the later Belgica secunda] (Figure 221).
Figure 221: Distribution map of vessel Forms IIB.1 and 4/5;glass workshops where black glass was processed
This well-defined distribution is evidence for the black glass vessel shapes as regional consumer goods produced
somewhere in these provinces. Hence, the vessel shape Form IIB.1 must have been produced in one or more
workshops in Gallia Belgica and/or Germania Inferior, while the workshop(s) responsible for the production of the
vessel shapes Forms IIB.4/5 is/are to be situated in Germania Inferior and/or Germania Superior. From the
information at hand, we locate three (possible) glass workshops where black glass was processed to manufacture
vesselsForm IIB.1: Liberchies (BE)?; Sainte Menehould – Les Houis (FR)?; Forms IIB.4/5: Kaiseraugst (CH)
[see Chapter 6] (Figure 221).
Careful examination of the technological aspects of all Form IIB.1 fragments shows various features that are
evidence for the various technical movements adopted by the glassworker when shaping the vessel and might be
helpful in determining the fingerprint of a glass workshop: 1) rounded rim or an inward-folded rim; 2) a massive
pontil scar (d.:15-20 mm) or a thin annular-shaped mark (d.:25-30 mm); 3) large annular foot or a small annular
foot (jagged in an early or later stage of the blowing process) (d.:20-50 mm); 4) a cylindrical to conical-shaped
body. At first glance, these features seem not systematically present on specific vessels, but this is probably due
to the fact that we were not able to execute a detailed analysis of this approach. Consequently, no definite
406
distribution pattern could be discerned from all these elements. Because we believe that such technological
approach is very helpful in understanding the ability of a glassworker and for recognizing the fingerprint of the
various glassworkers producing the same vessel shapes, we consider it valuable to explore this issue more in
depth.
The chemical composition of the black glass vessels reveals that both vessel shapes fall within the high iron
group characteristic from Period II onwards. Two distinct subclasses can be observed in this group: one with a
titanium content below 0,10 % and another with a titanium content ranging between 0,10-0,17 % (Figure 222).
308
This difference in titanium ratios is, like that of alumina oxide , related to the quality of the sand used. The two
ratio clusters of impurities indicate that two different types of raw glass were processed to produce black glass
vessels. Logical reasoning results in the assumption of two glass workshops, separately importing raw glass from
a different primary glass workshop.
18
16
14
12
10
Fe2O3
Roman black
glass vessels
8
6
4
Lo Fe
2
0
0
0,1
0,2
0,3
0,4
0,5
TiO2
Figure 222: Bi-plot discriminating two subclasses according to the titanium content (wt %)
Figure 223 shows that the two different raw glasses applied are not linked with one of the two vessel shapes;
nonetheless, almost all sampled globular cups and jars (Isings Form 94) fall within the low titanium subclass.
Because this shape is limited to the provinces Germania Inferior and Germania Superior, our next step was to
verify whether both subclasses are correlated to the production area, meaning that the carchesia samples with
low titanium content also originate from one or more glass workshops in the provinces Germania Inferior and
Germania Superior.
308
The alumina content, which is also related to the used sand, shows an alumina content above 3,50 % for the subclass with more elevated
titanium content, while low titanium glass has a low alumina content below 2,50 %.
407
0,70
0,60
0,20-0,25%
0,10-0,16%
0,50
0,40
MnO
Isings 36b
0-0,07%
Isings 94
0,30
0,20
0,10
0,00
0,00
0,05
0,10
0,15
0,20
0,25
0,30
TiO2
Figure 223: Bi-plot of the titanium – manganese ratio (wt %) of the vessel shapes Form IIB.1 aand Forms IIB.4/5
Figure 224 provides evidence for what was assumed from Figure 223. The titanium content encompasses a
regionally bonded differentiation showing that low titanium glass is characteristic for the black glass vessel
production in the provinces Germania Inferior and Germania Superiori.e. Augst (CH); Avenches (CH); Tienen
(BE); Matagne-la-Petite (BE); Rumst (BE)whereas the more elevated titanium content is clearly restricted to
309
sites within the province Gallia Belgicai.e. Velzeke (BE); Liberchies (BE); Kontich (BE).
The two pieces from
Colchester (UK) that were analysed proved to be imports from Gallia Belgica and not from Germania Inferior.
14,00
AUGST
12,00
AVENCHES
10,00
COLCHESTER
TIENEN
8,00
Fe2O3
MATAGNE
6,00
VELZEKE
4,00
RUMST
LIBERCHIES
2,00
0,00
0,00
KONTICH
0,05
0,10
0,15
0,20
0,25
0,30
0,35
0,40
TiO2
Figure 224: Bi-plot of the titanium – manganese ratio (wt %) of the vessel shapes Form IIB.1 aand Forms IIB.4/5
Also interesting to notice is that both titanium subclasses are present within the low iron group as well, alongside
a third subclass with even more elevated titanium content ranging between 0,20-0,25 % (Figure 224dashed
ellipses).
The ensuing stage of the reasoning is to explain that workshops in each area used a different raw glass to
produce black glass vessels independently. The production in both regions of an assortment of shapes in black
309
All three Belgian sites (Tienen, Matagne-la-Petite, and Rumst) were part of the civitas tungrorum, which is usually supposed to
have been part of Germania Inferior, whereas Velzeke, Liberchies, and Kontich were settlements in the civitas nerviorum, which is
generally assumed to have been part of Gallia Belgica.
408
glass and in particular the carinated beakers (Form IIB.1) points to the use of similar consumption goods
exceeding the borders of a province, indicating common drinking traditions in a wider area. The homogeneity of
the material culture in the three north-western provinces contrasts with that of the neighbouring provinces. This
correspondence of material culture in different provinces is apparently the result of culturally determined
consumer behaviour due to traditions, ritual and regional ethnicity, and is in no way considered connected with
the political organization of the Roman Empire (Woolf 2004). The surprise was big when a distribution map of all
material from both titanium subclasses did not visualize the expected random picture but a neat distribution
pattern corresponding with either the province Gallia Belgica or the provinces Germania Inferior and Superior
(Figure 225).
Figure 225: Distribution map of the low titanium subclass (green) and high titanium subclass (red)
The relationship between the archaeological data and the chemical analysis not only showed that the two recipes
used to produce black glass vessels have regional variations, but also that those variations are connected with (at
least two) different workshops, which used their personal recipes to produce similar vessel shapes. Besides this
geographically-bounded production per province, the abovementioned analysis on the regional idiosyncratic
consumption of black glass vessels during Period II identified also a province-bounded distribution. Widening the
focus to the whole range of Roman glass vessels of these three provinces is needed to verify this conclusive
outcome and would provide many new opportunities in the appraisal of regional glass production and the complex
consumption patterns in order to better understand the (d/r)evolutions of the Roman imperial material culture.
The final step should be to describe the cause(s) leading the regional economy to a strictly provincial production,
distribution and consumption market, but without being aware of all current discussions and issues in the field, it
would be too inconsiderate to enter into a penetrating debate. The complexity of such discussions means that we
only can offer modest remarks on the matter. We believe that the observation put forward results from a
consumption tax imposed by Rome on consumer goods when crossing provincial borders. The important work by
Siegfried De Laet (1949) on the portorium, indirect taxation on the circulation of goods, demonstrates that the
Roman Empire built up a complex administration to collect custom charges on trade: 1) quadragesima, a fortieth
part or 2,5% levied on goods entering a large region (but possibly also internally seeing the occurrence of internal
stations); 2) toll paid to be authorized to use the main road, a mountain pass, or cross a watercourse; and 3)
octroi, a duty levied on various goods entering a town or city. The corroboration of the distribution pattern of both
chemical groups with the provincial limits between, for instance, Gallia Belgica and Germania Inferior allows us to
assume that the tax on trade turned out to a significant price increase of the possibly already costly black glass
vessels, so that it was any longer profitable to attend markets beyond the border. But one can wonder whether
409
the keen distribution within provincial borders resulted coincidentally from the formulated tax regulations or
whether Rome wanted to stimulate local production and trade all over the empire. The presence of at least one
glass workshop in either province during Period II where the same vessel shapes were manufactured in black
glass speaks in favour of the hypothesis to promote local consumption. Probably the smuggling of such vessels
across the province border got discouraged above all by the loss of benefit as a result of 1) increasing control for
the remuneration of the taxes on (long-distance) road-transport and 2) the severe retribution for those aiming to
avoid the declaration of trading goods scared off to commit fraud. Siegfried De Laet (1949, 427) speaks of
commissum or the confiscation of fraudulent goods as sentence for fraud.
Despite our limited knowledge on the political economic history of imperial Rome, we believe that the economic
restructuring measures by Rome under Marcus Aurelius and Commodus are to be considered curative
interventions to solve an existing crisis rather than preventive interventions in anticipation of an upcoming crisis.
Most likely, the reorganisation by Marcus Aurelius was intended to maintain the tax revenue from the provinces so
as to preserve the cash flow to finance the rising army expenses in a period with numerous incursions at the
frontier, in particular at the Rhine and Danube Limes; a dramatic population implosion due to the Black Death;
310
increasing inflation; and incessant devaluation. According to Siegfried De Laet (1949, 404), the reorganisation
of tax collection from the private administered socii by conductors into a state-controlled administration under a
procurator got introduced gradually and was only completed under Commodus.
It is clear that we need to verify the degree of influence from centralised decisions by the emperor and the Senate
in Rome by checking the corroboration with the so-called black glass shapes in ‗naturally coloured‘ and
decolourised glass from neighbouring provinces, as well as with the contemporaneous artefacts in ‗naturally
coloured‘ and decolourised glass idiosyncratic to the north-western provinces, like, for instance, the snake-thread
decorated vessels, the grape-shaped amphoriskoi, or the Mercury bottles.
This case study produced an exponential increase of knowledge and understanding in Roman glass research on
production and consumption by demonstrating a strong impact of the political organisation of the empire during
Period II on the Roman economy, culminating in a heterogeneous and complex material culture. This case study
corroborates Greg Woolf‘s idea of a Roman imperial economy consisting of distinct, loosely regional economies
but contradicts the ‗loosely and sluggishly integrated‘ Roman economy alongside the economic politics (Woolf
1992).
10.3 Case Study II: Meso-level
In this case study, we verify whether an approach on the mesoeconomic level of Roman black glass can
contribute to the understanding of the character of the Roman economy. The underlying idea of this case study is
to bear out whether the Roman black glass production and consumption corroborates a pre-industrial Roman
economy or one with a proto-industrial character. We therefore check to what degree the technical innovations
and/or trend changes recognised in black glass assemblages affected the production of Roman glass workshops
in a wider region or, in other words, the Roman glass industry in general. A related issue is assessing the
correlation or variation between the existing manufacturing techniques and the prevailing styles of commodity
shapes in glass within the different regions of the Roman Empire.
No real consensus exists hitherto on how to evaluate the Roman economy, but different models have been
proposed. For about a century, the field was dominated by two major factions (Pleket 1998; Polfer 2001): the
‗primitivists‘ or ‗substantivists‘ with Moses Finley (1965; 1973) as the major representativepropagating
‗immobilism‘ and an autarkic state with a pre-industrialised imposed economic system (Figure 226 left); and
‗modernists‘ or ‗positivists‘ with Michael Rostovtzeff (1957)propagating an industrialised mass production,
capitalism built on exploitation of the plebs. The endless discussions between both factions are no longer an issue
of debate since both models are played out due to the enhancement of ‗factual knowledge and interpretation of
ancient technology and economics‘ (Greene 2000). Firstly, there was a building up of a more moderate
primitivism involving a more dynamic and more complex pre-industrialised economy describing the Roman
political economy as an integrated economic system based on unified local markets (Carandini 1986; 1989)
(Figure 226 middle) or based on an interaction between loosely integrated regional economies and the economic
policy by Rome (Woolf 1992) (Figure 226 right), though the perception of a production and exchange that is
310
According to some sources, the cost of living tripled during the later 2nd century AD under Marcus Aurelius and Commodus (De Laet 1949, 404).
410
based on farming and local consumption with undersized production scale and rudimentary trade activities was
maintained.
Finley 1965; 1973
Carandini 1986; 1989
Woolf 1992
• political economy
• political economy
• political economy
• influencing
• based on
• intermediate
• series of essentially
LOCAL economic
systems
• unified LOCAL markets,
credit and agriculture
produce
• series of REGIONAL
economies loosely
integrated into a single
system
Figure 226: Key models of the Roman economy
A contrasting model to the agricultural character of the primitive pre-industrialised Roman economy proposed by
Moses Finley (1965; 1973) is the model of a proto-industrialised Roman economy put forward by Ken Dark
(2001):
an economic system in which long-standing crafts-working practices are coordinated to
undertake mass production aimed at long-distance trade
a money-based market exchange system
clusters of rural craft-based production for regional or geographically larger markets
products mediated through urban centres to these regional or wider markets
use of traditional technologies
evidence of coordination to produce standardised products
The Roman glass industry matches the criteria to be fulfilled attributing a proto-industrialised character to the
Roman economy. Two specific archaeological contexts demonstrate well the assertion: 1) the furnace tank
st
nd
capacity of c. 25 tons at the 1 2 century AD primary workshop of Beni Salama in the western Nile Delta (EG)
nd
rd
(Nenna 2008, 127-128); 2) the late 2 early 3 century AD shipwreck of Ouest-Embiez I, which held a major
shipload of raw glass estimated at 17 tons (Fontaine, Foy 2007; Andreau 2010, 114).
To generate a conceivable implication of the impact of this gigantic production capacity on the consumer market,
311
we present here some numbers. When taking an average weight of 100 grams per drinking vessel , the
Egyptian primary workshop at Beni Salama processed in one single production activity enough raw glass to make,
roughly speaking, 250.000 vessels, corresponding to the procurement by 250.000 households of one vessel.
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Taking the ‗low count‘ as the generally estimated population within the Roman Empire, meaning c. 60 million
and a rough estimation of 10 persons per household, we come up with c. 6 million households. This approximate
calculation means that the Beni Salama workshop needed to produce 40 times its capacity annually. Seeing the
st
313
very low price of glass artefacts from the early 1 century AD onwards , we can take for granted that the glass
was a commonly consumed commodity during the entire imperial period. This estimation demonstrates that the
Roman society had the market potential during the imperial period to consume easily 60 million vessels at the
same time. This means that 6000 tons of raw glass was necessary to supply the 6 million households every year
with 10 vessels with an average of c. 100 grams. But to enable the manufacturing of one piece per person per
year, the Beni Salama workshop should produce annually 240 times its capacity of 25 tons. Consequently, the
Beni Salama workshop would have to produce 25 tons of raw glass every 1,5 days. This approximation is,
however, not realistic, as the production process of such a magnitude needed in all probability about 30 days or
311
The information is based on the weight of the Roman goblets and cups from the Ernesto Wolf Collection (Stern 2001), ranging between 50160
grams (Nenna 2008, 128).
312
Walter Scheidel makes a distinction between the generally accepted ‗low count‘ and his more elevated ‗high count‘ estimating the population of
the Roman Empire above 100 million (Scheidel 2004; 2006, 9).
313
See Strabo, Geographica XVI, 2.25 [transl. Jones, H.L., 1961, Strabo VII, 271-273].
411
more, and the primary workshops most likely were intermittently manufacturing and not on a continuous basis.
Besides, we have to take into account that the provided numbers concerning one single vessel shape are to be
considered as a strict minimum. This plain estimation thus illustrates a high potential that more primary workshops
with the Beni Salama capacity must have existed contemporaneously in Egypt and the Levant to supply the entire
Roman market of raw glass.
It is plain that the shiploads with finished products and chunks of raw glass are clear evidence of supplying the
314
oversea markets with very standardised products
on the one hand and the supply of the secondary workshops
in the different regions and provinces (as we saw in case study I) to produce local commodities with a regional
distribution. Obviously, the long-distance sea-trade must have been intense to supply the local workshops empirewide with raw glass to manufacture their proper material for the local or regional consumption market. Bearing in
mind that the estimated 17-ton shipload of the Embiez-Ouest I shipwreck is equivalent to the transport of one
large furnace tank or several smaller ones, the abovementioned empire-wide consumption calculation
approximates an annual long-distance sea trade in raw glass easily reaching 250 shiploads. Besides the
inevitable economic law of supply-and-demand, there was another advantage to favour a shipload with large
broken chunks of raw glass rather than shipping brittle finished products for long-distance (sea) trade. We are not
aware of a possible difference in taxation degree between raw materials and finished products, but mindful of
Diocletian‘s Price List (Whitehouse 2004; Barag 2005)displaying differences in price according to the origin of
315
the glass (Egyptian vs Levantine) ; according to the state (raw glass vs finished product); and according to the
type of artefact (vessel vs window pane)an equal tax rate was less favourable for trading finished products as
these were more expensive and took more space. The load with finished products would need storage room for
1.000 large wooden boxes of 100 piled-up fragile vessels, whereas the load of broken chunks could be easily
dumped in the cargo-space as ballast, without any risk to endure damage. Conversely, the shortening of the
distribution range for finished products makes it important to counteract more easily the fluctuations in supply and
demand within a society that is characterised by a slow itinerant distribution system, as in Roman imperial times,
but that also decreases transport costs.
The starting point for the here-stated need of benefit is not to be understood from the modern capitalistic
viewpoint but the necessity to keep the production cost-effective so that there always remains a positive balance
in what went out to pay every component within the production and distribution costs. Different methods are
valuable to increase the cost effectiveness of the (black) glass production without raising the price of glass objects
for consumers:
lowering the production costs
replacing the more expensive, purer ingredients by cheaper and less pure substitutes (by using
ingredients with more impurities but without automatically involving the lowering of the physical
quality of the glass metal)
changing the ratio main components by lowering the ratio of the more expensive ingredients in
favour of the cheaper constituents
using more economic technical production methods like fuel-saving methods
lowering the distribution costs
replacing the expensive provider by a cheaper provider
replacing the distant provenance of basic ingredients (sand, soda, colourants) by using
ingredients from less far-away sources
st
From the early 1 century AD onwards, there is clear evidence for an emerging large-scale Romanised material
culture all over the Roman Empire. This is yet about a century after the invention of glass blowing, somewhere
st
around the mid-1 century BC. The innovation was revolutionary to the glass industry, in particular because it
helped (re-)map the glass industry in relation to competing craft industries such as pottery and metalware.
Glassblowing meant that glass vessels also could become a standard commodity, since this technique enables a
fast, cheap and easy production of recipients in all kind of colours and shapes and not negligible by using less
material than casting or rod-forming. It is not unlikely that taxes and transport costs caused market economic
pressures and problems in supplynot in the least due to the fragility of the productinducing the Romans to
transfer knowledge as well alongside the raw materials towards distant places in the west. Our study on black-
314
We believe that imported finished products can only be traded over long distances when it concerns a very standardised product, as otherwise
the imported commodities would hold little appeal for the consumer market.
315
We are aware of the unsolved issue whether the ―Alexandrian‖ and ―Judean‖ glass are pointing to the provenance of primary production
(Whitehouse 2004) or to types of glass (Barag 2005).
412
appearing glass has clearly demonstrated that the workshops in the north-western provinces accumulated their
nd
knowledge during the second half of the 2 century AD to colour autonomously imported decolorised and
‗naturally‘ coloured glass (Van der Linden et al. 2009) [see Chapter 8].
The technological improvement of the production process to downsize the fuel consumption is not necessarily
limited to the use of better performing fuel. Besides the evidence of using charcoal and coal by the Romans in the
metallurgical craft industry (Webster 1955; Dearne, Branigan 1995), there are no clear indications of use in the
316
glass production to our knowledge, or at least it is not reported. Another technical modification that clearly
reduced fuel consumption could be obtained by introducing crucibles. They replaced the built-in basins, but no
clear consensus is available when this exactly happened and in what time envelope this technological innovation
became common in the glass workshops of the entire Empire. It is generally accepted that the use of crucibles
nd
probably was introduced somewhere at the end of the 2 century AD, but this innovation became definitely
rd
nd
rd
frequent from the 3 century AD onwards. Striking it is to see that the 2 early 3 century AD glass workshop
rd
th
where black glass was melted within basins made from quartz-rich tempered clay (Fischer 2009), but all 3 4
century dated workshops where black glass was meltedlike, for instance Trier, Les Houis/Sainte Menehould
and Bragayielded only crucibles. Additional motives most likely made the use of crucibles more desirable than
the built-in basins, but the issue is beyond the scope of this case study.
Another technique to reduce fuel consumption is by recycling old glass. Adding cullet to the batch is not only
beneficial to the reducing of the melting point of raw glass, it also influences the rapidity with which glass
becomes ready for production. Hence, the alteration of the composition is useful to economise on fuel and a
higher malleability includes the option to produce containers with a thinner wall, thus providing the opportunity to
diminish the glass mass required per object and as a consequence produce more pieces with the same amount of
glass mass. The arguments put forward prove that most glass workshops must have assimilated the
nd
rd
abovementioned practices from the late 2 early 3 century AD to withstand the continuous economic pressure
rd
caused by inflation and devaluation that made them resistant to the long-lasting crisis of the 3 century AD. From
the information assembled on black glass, it appears that the glass workshops were able to maintain production
th
by using the classic Levantine glass up to the mid-4 century AD by continuously improving the technical
production methods and improving the production capacity by diminishing the quantity of glass for the
manufacturing of one piece. Around that time, the sole technological innovation remaining to maintain the
postulated profit in the production of black glass was to convert to a cheaper but less qualitative raw glass made
from less pure ingredients, what resulted in the heyday of HIMT glass. This is however much later compared to
rd
the presumed introduction of the ‗naturally coloured‘ and decolourised HIMT glass during the 3 century AD to
produce vessels and window panes (Mirti et al. 1993). It is possible that there was not equal pressure on the
glass workshops responsible for the production of jewellery in black glass.
To support the widespread assumption that the glass workshops have introduced innovative practices, the black
rd
th
glass makes available evidence for Periods II-IV and in particular for the 3 4 centuries AD. To withstand the
economic crises, the glass workshops first improved the production process and only afterwards transformed the
production process. The initial innovations probably had a purely in-house practical charactere.g. better
performing fuel; more efficient furnace constructions; introduction of cruciblesin order to continue the routine
processing of the imported raw glass. As a result, we consider the economic stress that engendered an extensive
practical knowledge of furnace technology to the Romans in order to create alternatives and innovate to
economise on the production costs. Another primary cost that could be cut down is to reduce the use of the high
quality raw glass with low impurity level, i.e. the Levantine glass. Such change must have been a/the stimulus to
th
introduce and promote the HIMT glass so idiosyncratic to the 4 century AD its emergence most likely took place
rd
in the 3 century AD. We believe, however, that the Roman glass workshops must have either introduced in
substitution of the slowly expanding process of HIMT glass consumption, and probably even beforehand, the use
of cheaper raw glass from the same provider/provenance (i.e. the Levant), or improved their technological knowhow by fabricating independently a more cost-effective mixture. The use of local sand has been reported already
by Pliny the Elder [see Chapter 2], and thus the knowledge of primary glass production was seemingly already
st
introduced from the 1 century AD onwards. Characterising the composition of the raw glass produced in each
primary workshop can help us better understand its distribution, seeing that the primary workshops must have
supplied multiple secondary glassworking sites all over the Roman Empire (Freestone 2006; Van der Linden et al.
2009). The identification of the different sands is therefore giving new impulses in the understanding of the
316
We have not been able to check the scientific literature on the types of fuel used during Roman times to tend the fire in the various types of
furnaces, but a general work would be very suitable and in particular concerning the glass furnaces.
413
different sand sources used in ancient times, although the hitherto-obtained information remains somewhat
unsatisfactory to discriminate clearly the different sand sources since a far too small amount of material has been
analysed so far (Silvestri et al. 2006, Degryse, Schneider 2008; Degryse, Shortland 2009). The benefit of
introducing absorption spectroscopy is that the method provides an easy obtainable outline on the composition of
a vast number of artefacts, firmly contributing to the advance of the research on raw glass materials [see Chapter
9]. Despite the information on the primary glass production in the West, it is generally accepted that during
Roman times the raw glass production was centred on a relatively small number of primary workshops nearby the
raw material sources where it was produced on a large scale (Freestone, Gorin-Rosen 1999; Freestone et al.
2000; Foy et al. 2003; Freestone 2003; Foy et al. 2004; Nenna 2008). But as has been stated before, only a
limited amount of information is known regarding the production, the organisation or the precise location of
Roman glass workshops (Baxter et al. 1995). Primary workshops, for instance, have up to now only been
archaeologically investigated in the western Nile delta (Nenna 2008) and in Israel (Gorin-Rosen 2000), whereas
most are late Roman to early Byzantine/early Islamic. Broken into chunks, the raw glass was distributed to local
as well as to far-distant secondary workshops where glass objects were manufactured by melting and shaping
nd
glass. From the late 2 century AD onwards, these secondary workshops performed also the colouring of the
imported ‗naturally coloured‘ and decolourised raw glass (Van der Linden et al. 2009). Hitherto, no clear evidence
is known concerning the colouring of glass for the early imperial period (Jackson et al. 2009), but most probably it
rd
st
was done in the same way as in the Hellenistic period, seeing that the various shipwrecks from the 3 and 1
317
century BC contain chunks of ‗naturally coloured‘ and coloured raw glass (Foy et al. 2000, 52).
One single primary workshop is thus considered able to supply multiple secondary glassworking sites, supporting
the idea of vast areas with glass assemblages showing a homogeneous composition. In reality, it is more complex
as the imported chunks of raw glass were usually remelted by adding cullet to lower the melting point of the batch
and coloured when necessary when the production of glass objects in a specific colour was desired. On the other
hand, the discussion is still open whether one or a few workshops were specialised in the colouring of raw glass,
functioning as intermediate centres dispatching specifically coloured glass cakes to the secondary workshops, or
whether the secondary workshops themselves were responsible for colouring the imported ‗naturally coloured‘
and decolourised raw glass for proper production of consumer articles (Van der Linden et al. 2009; Cosyns et al.
in preparation). The latter assumption takes for granted that the imported raw glass was solely uncontaminated
nd
decolourised or ‗naturally coloured‘ glass. The use of different recipes to produce black glass in the later 2 and
rd
first half of the 3 century AD within a relatively restrained regioni.e. the north-western provincesis a clear
indication that raw glass production and glass colouring must have been separate executions since the colouring
in the province Gallia Belgica as well as in the provinces Germania inferior and superior was then identical,
whereas the provenance of the imported raw glass was different [see Chapter 8 and case study I in this chapter].
Most probably, the colouring was carried out in larger secondary workshops supplying the bulk of the smaller
secondary workshops. This hypothesis is based on the fact that the composition of the black glass material within
nd
rd
the provinces Germania inferior and Germania superior of the late 2 early 3 century AD show a strong
homogeneity, whereas there must have been ample glass workshops active within that specific period in this vast
territory.
But when the imported raw glass was already coloured black before arriving at the secondary workshops, it is
quite obvious that during the long-lasting Roman imperial period and within the different parts of the enormous
Roman Empire, different modes must have been in use to make the glass appear black as there have been
various recipes utilised. The chemical analyses of the black glass material show a mainstream in using genuine
raw glass for the production of black-appearing glass artefacts but also confirm the introduction of recycling glass
in the Roman Empire and the progressively growing impact of cullet in the Roman glass production. From
technological point of viewe.g. used sand; used flux; used colourants and their concentrationsa good
correspondence is observable with the four recognised periods [see Chapter 4], even though Period II and Period
318
III show great compatibility (see Table 167):
317
The black glass samples of Period I artefacts are characterised by various colourants added, whether it
is manganese oxide to obtain purple glass, cobalt oxide to obtain a deep blue glass or iron oxide to
st
obtain a brownish to greenish brown glass. For that reason the 1 century material is produced in the
Such kind of trade involving the distribution of coloured raw glass from primary workshops towards secondary workshops was already common
as early as the Bronze Age, such as the blue-coloured raw glass in the Uluburun shipwreck (Jackson, Nicholson 2010).
318
The difference between the production of black glass from Period II and Period III is not the used composition but the applied production
technique and consequently the idiosyncratic artefact types [see Chapter 3].
414
then-customary techniques featuring the so-called Hellenistic traditions. No evidence from the black
glass samples can demonstrate the use of or addition of recycled glass.
nd
By the end of the 2 century AD, a new technique got spread to produce black glass (read modified
recipe for colouring without great changes in the use of sand or flux). The black glass samples of Period
II and III artefacts are characterised by almost only greenish glass with high iron concentrations. The
majority of the used glass is of a bluish-green hue, but sometimes elevated concentrations of antimony
oxide have been observed what is due to the use of decolourised glass [see Chapter 8]. Although it
remains undecided whether the decolourised glass was raw glass or cullet added to the batch of
‗naturally‘ coloured raw glass, the use of decolourised glass seems most likely as none of the samples
show a mix of the decolourisers antimony and manganese oxides [see Chapter 8.4.2].
th
In the second half of the 4 century AD, again a change in technology occurred, but this time it concerns
the used glass matrix and consequently not restricted to the production of black glass. The black glass
samples of Period IV artefacts are characterised by the introduction of HIMT glass and in particular from
th
the last decennium of the 4 century AD. But others show to be the result of recycling glass, as is
demonstrated by the presence of lead oxide.
Table 167: Timetable of the various glasses used to produce black glass artefacts
period
time
raw glass
colouring
remarks
Period I
1st–mid 2nd century AD
Levantine
addition of vegetable soda
-
Period II
Period III
Period IV
mid 2nd–mid 3rd century AD
mid 3rd–mid 4th century AD
mid 4th–5th century AD
Levantine
Levantine
HIMT
Low Iron
High manganese
High cobalt
High Iron
High Iron
High Iron
high impurity level of manganese
and titanium
It is clear that the detection of recycled glass in the Roman Empire and above all during the late Roman imperial
period generates new issues of debate regarding how we have to value the growing impact of recycling glass
within the glass production as such and within the Roman economy in general. The recycling of glass in the
Roman Empire has so far constantly been interpreted as a negative economical push-factor. It is therefore difficult
to accept that the glass production in a growing and flourishing economy is partly running on cullet with a growing
proportion of recycled glass in the manufacturing of glass artefacts. Consequently, it is customary to consider the
th
high ratio of recycled glass during the 4 century AD as an evidence of an economy in decline. Pull-factors can
equally have influenced innovations and changes within glass production in the Roman Empire. We are for
instance convinced that the introduction of HIMT glass, a glass of inferior quality compared to the then-prevailing
Levantine glass, is inherently related to the growing proportion of recycled glass in the secondary glass
th
workshops in the 4 century AD.
The most cost-effective arrangement by the secondary glass workshop must have been the adding of cullet, i.e.
broken and refuse glass, to the batch. The recycling of glass caused an increasing independence of the
secondary workshops towards the supply of raw glass from the primary workshops in the south-eastern
Mediterranean. The discussion about the causes and effects of recycling is an important but mainly neglected
issue in the debate of identifying glass production and the distribution patterns of its centres. The recent paper by
Harriet Foster and Caroline Jackson (2010) on 128 decolourised late Roman glass samples from 19 British sites
th
demonstrates that the circulating glass in 4 century AD Britain was decolourised in three different ways: 1) by
manganese (13 ex.); 2) by antimony (69 ex.); and 3) by manganese/antimony (69 ex.). Although this
ascertainment has been notified by various prior assessments (Braun 1983; Vichy et al. 2007; Lauwers 2008)
[see Chapter 8], it was never given any valuable explanation how to understand the presence of the mixed group.
Within the scope of recycling, the study of decolourised glass has shown to be imperative in being aware of
contaminations of the proposed theoretical model in Figure 227 that the three distinctive groups encompass two
separate recipes (1-2) and one mixture of both recipes (1+2). Foster and Jackson explain the presence of the
mixed manganese-antimony group as clear evidence of recycling by amalgamating manganese decolourised
cullet with antimony decolourised cullet (Foster, Jackson 2010). It has not been considered, however, whether the
late Roman secondary glass workshops in Britain (and in the rest of the [north-] western provinces) could
perfectly have been provisioned with both types of raw glass, meaning that a mix was deliberately produced from
raw glass and not from recycling cullet. It is, however, not excluded that cullet from both recipes and from the
mixture was added to the batch as well. The meaning given to recycling is, to our opinion, too much assuming a
Roman ecological solicitude, while it appears more correct to think of the outcome of a pure economic practice. It
is essential to take into account that both types of decolourised glass occurred in concurrency, and secondly that
415
they were produced in different regions: 1) antimony decolourised glass is considered Levantine; 2) manganese
decolourised glass is considered Egyptian.
Primary
workshop
1
Recipe 1
Mixture 1-2
Mixture 1-4
Mixture
1-2-4
Primary
workshop
2
Recipe 2
Mixture
1-2-3
Mixture
1-2-3-4
Mixture
1-3-4
Recipe 4
Primary
workshop
4
Mixture
2-3-4
Mixture 2-3
Mixture 3-4
Recipe 3
Primary
workshop
3
Figure 227: Theoretical visualisation of the possible mixtures that can occur when cullet is added to the batch
th
Recent research by Foster and Jackson established that during the 4 century AD huge numbers of glass objects
from British sites were produced with recycled glass and discusses the causes responsible for the success of
th
recycling in Britannia in the 4 century AD (Harriet, Jackson 2010). We in particular wish to confer to the
proposed causes supposedly at the base of the large proportion of recycled glass used in late Roman Britain
because we are persuaded that the obtained analysis results from the black glass research can help in refining
and perceiving the projected interpretation. We are, however, not convinced by the offered explanation of
th
macroeconomic factors influencing the change because at least the first half of the 4 century AD demonstrates a
political stability and a military revival. We believe that the organisation of glass production in the Roman Empire
is bonded to complex interaction on the meso-level between the glass craft industry and the Roman economy.
th
Not believing in a decline of long-distance trade within the Roman Empire not until the late 4 century AD, the
mixed manganese-antimony group thus should be regarded as an example for an intensive import into Britain
from Egypt and the Levant. Yet some remarks can be put forward concerning the statement that the mixed
manganese-antimony decolourised glass was the result of recycling cullet and in particular that this recycling was
due to the diminishing availability of raw glass in late Roman Britain.
Foster and Jackson attribute the intensity of recycled (decolourised) glass to the extreme downsizing of the longdistance trade with Egypt and the Levant due to the general insecurity on the trade routes and instability in the
entire empire (Harriet, Jackson 2010). The large set of samples taken from a definite group void of vessels and
collected from various Romano-British sites allows the obtained results to be considered representative of late
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Roman glass production. Without doubt, we have to conclude that recycling glass was imperatively present in
th
Roman Britain in the 4 century AD, but the proposed effects seem to be rather shallow. To assume that the
intensive use of recycled glass was the inevitable effect from a defective supply of raw glass caused by the
stagnating long-distance trade due to the political incapacity to guarantee security within the Roman Empire in the
th
4 century AD is perhaps a logical reasoning. However, it is, from our viewpoint, a biased conclusion (and
perhaps even a misleading one) that is based on a one-dimensional view of the Roman economy that does not
take notice of economical rules and forces as well as variables active within a complex economic system like that
of the late Roman Empire. It is not very persuasive to blame the political-military incapability to explain the raise of
th
th
recycling glass in the 4 century AD, especially because the first half of the 4 century AD is considered the
‗Constantinian renaissance period‘ resulting from Constantine‘s reforms of coinage as a reaction to the draconian
319
regulations set in the Price Edict by Diocletian in 301 AD (Corcoran 2000).
The Roman economy flourished
th
more than half a century to fall abruptly into a new crisis only from the last quarter of the 4 century AD. What
might have had an impact on the declining import of raw glass from the south-eastern Mediterranean are the
possible taxes with regard to the definitive division of the Empire in an eastern and a western half from 364 AD
under Valentinian and Valens. This divisionintroduced by Diocletian some 80 years beforehand – must have
influenced differently the evolving of the consumer habits within both parts of the Empire. Roughly speaking we
th
have to separate the first half of 4 century AD (‗renaissance period‘) from the second half of that century
(‗collapse period‘) when considering the economic situation and organization in the west and more particularly the
th
turn is noticeable at the start of the last quarter of the 4 century AD. It is however with the withdrawal of the
th
Roman legions and the conflicts with the Migration People from the early 5 century AD that the economy and
consumption patterns of the western Empire contrast sharply with that of the eastern Empire. Long-distance trade
th
in the west survived in the 5 century but on a much smaller scale than before due to the growing inability to
invest in largeand accordingly cheapshiploads. So we have to agree that the political and military involvement
in the Roman economy in the west was dramatic for trade, but not because of incapacity to guarantee security
within the Roman Empire. We are more convinced that the withdrawal of the Roman legions and the
establishment of the new rulers created an economic vacuum where money was in short supply, considering that
only the emperor was acquainted to strike golden coins, essential to bulk trade. It is within these more complex
situations of long-lasting economical decline that we have to consider the necessity to increase the impact of
recycled glass as raw material in the production of glass vessels.
As already stated the introduction of HIMT glass must be linked to the growing proportion of recycling glass in the
th
secondary glass workshops in the 4 century AD but indirectly. The raison d'être of HIMT glass can be multiple
and remains to this point no more than tentative:
by a big player on the market of raw glass
o wishing to increase its market segment
o wishing to consolidate its market by reacting to the increasing use of cullet
o wishing to consolidate its benefit due to the increasing prices for transport and the continuous
devaluation of the currency
by a small player on the market of raw glass
o wishing to increase its market segment
by a new player on the market of raw glass
o wishing to create a market segment with continuous growth margin
It is important to distinguish the raison d‘être of HIMT glass from its success because the former is due to the
creativity, initiative and originality of individual players on micro-level creating opportunities in a specific market
segment of the Roman economy, whereas the success is the result from the situation and dynamics of the
Roman economy on a meso-level and macro-level which is interrelated to the political and social evolution of a
society.
th
When we see that up to the 4 century AD Levantine glass of very pure quality was the main raw glass distributed
and consumed within the entire Roman Empire and that this market position gradually crumbles in favour of HIMT
glass, the exercise is to value the cause(s) responsible for the shrinking market of Levantine glass and why HIMT
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Study of the Price Edict established that Diocletian‘s attempt to reorganize the Roman economy stranded as it generated an inverse effect on
the economy. Producers stopped the production of specific goods and merchants could circumvent the severe price regulations through barter
what amplified the bartering system spectacularly and inherently contributed to the failing of tax revenues. The application of the Price Edict
therefore only lasted a few years up to 305 AD and caused a new vacuum until Constantine‘s economical reforms (Corcoran 2000).
417
becomes a rising provider of raw glass. Not able to provide an answer on this issue within the present work, we
will confer to some research questions:
had the introduction of HIMT glass imperative effect on the reducing market of Levantine glass?
was the gradually crumbling market segment of Levantine glass an opportunity for a new player like
HIMT glass?
did Levantine glass remain an key market player that had to allow an upcoming giant provider of raw
glass?
When looking at the Price Edict by Diocletian from 301 AD stating Alexandrian glass as higher-priced compared
to the Judean glass (Whitehouse 2004; Barag 2005), it is tempting to believe either that HIMT was not yet a
market player or that the success of HIMT glass only came later. The dominance of Levantine glass all through
the first three centuries AD is thus not solely due to the higher quality of the raw glass, but moreover because of a
more competitive price compared to the Alexandrian glass.
th
On the other hand the quantity and diversity of glass artefacts from the 4 century AD archaeological contexts
displays the increasing success of glass commodities to the prejudice of for instance vessels in bronze and
ceramics.
th
The approach and interpretation of the high degree of recycled glass for the production of vessels in the 4
century AD consequently must have had a variety of imperative economic basic rules of supply and demand at
the basis needs to be taken into account. Generally speaking it can be stressed that an evolution of the logistical
organization of secondary workshops is apparent throughout the Roman imperial period:
Phase 1: glass production on the basis of imported raw glass (Hellenistic period + Period I(A))
Phase 2: glass production on the basis of imported raw glass + recycled glass on low level (Period IB-III)
Phase 3: glass production on the basis of imported raw glass + recycled glass on intensive level (Period
IIIB?-IV or later)
Phase 4: glass production on the basis of recycled glass (Period IV and later)
The production process of glass in Roman times was perhaps based on a continuously improving know-how by
trial and error through mixing the different necessarily raw materials as scientific knowledge was unknown until
th
the 19 century. Well-thought-out techniques improved however the production capacity by diminishing the
quantity of glass for the manufacturing of one piece but the use of cheaper ingredients or even the complete
modification of the recipe was needed in order to maintain the wanted/required profit. In particular as political
and/or economic reasons compelled the glass workshops to modify their supply of raw materials and accordingly
confronted with variable quality.
10.4 Case-study III: Micro level
In this case-study on micro-economy we verify whether (d/r)evolutions in the consumption pattern of particular
black glass assemblages provides evidence on the changes meso- and macro-level of the Roman economy and
to what extent consumers‘ behaviour produced an effect on the successive transformations in the Roman material
culture and the Roman economy. It is true that the (dis)continuity of individual techniques cannot be viewed within
one particular period but on the contrary needs to be examined in view of the preceding and consecutive periods
(Mannoni 2007, lviii-lix). A diachronic analysis is needed in order to understand the causes of innovations and the
abandonment of a specific manufacturing technique. This would enable us to view in what perspective stands the
production of black glass vis-à-vis the glass production in general and the Roman economy.
Because there is to our knowledge little direct evidence available from written sources on the prices and price
evolutions of (black) glass and its evolving consumption we have to remain for the most part hypothetical. Hence,
our assumptions are likewise in both preceding case-studies based on the evidence from the archaeological and
archaeometric approaches in view of the conventional historical models. The framework of this case-study is
supported by two recent papers of importance showing an interest intensification on the issue/ the first paper
deals about the continuity and rupture of craft techniques in relation to the principles of Material Culture (Mannoni
2007), while the other treats on consumption and consumerism in the Roman Empire (Greene 2008).
A general approach of the black glass material let presume of an uninterrupted continuity in production and
consumption of black glass, whereas a more careful look [see Chapters 4; 6] demonstrates a discontinuity in the
production of the different functional types and their various artefact types. The black glass production points to a
418
specificity of assemblages during well-defined and relatively short periods of time and regulary coupled to a
regional distribution. When considering for instance the black glass vessels three distinct periods have been
noticed320 [see Chapter 3]:
Period I: empire wide distribution; from Tiberian to Flavian times (c. 20-70 AD) Tiberius-Claudius = cast
vessels/ Claudius-Nero = blown vessels; duration of about half a century or 2 generations
Period II: limited to the north-western provinces; late Antonine-Severan period (c. 170/80-230 AD); solely
blown vessels; duration of about half a century or 2 generations
Period IV: limited to the Levant and Egypt; during the 4 -5
defining of the length of its production and consumption
th
th
centuries AD; rod-formed vessels; no clear
It is tempting to assume for Period IV a similar duration of the black glass vessel production and consumption as
for Period I and II but at present it is impossible to prove or invalidate the assumption. In view of Kevin Greene‘s
paper (2008) on the necessity to differentiate between consumption - and consumerism it appears that the
production of black glass vessels lasted for about two generations. The decrease in value arising from changes in
style or techniques and thus the process to become outmoded, i.e. the obsolescence of the black glass vessels
was very slow. This observation does not speak in favour of an intense degree of consumerism during the Roman
imperial period. The change in production technique from cast to blown vessels in Period I demonstrates that the
consumers‘ behaviour did not change with the technological transformation in the glass workshops. On the
contrary, the glass workshops kept similar shapes in the production line by imitating their cast predecessors
alongside the introduction of new shapesi.e. closed shaped (micro-level). Thus we see here an example of the
glass workshop adapting the organization of its production through diversification of the assortment to expand its
market share (meso-level). The introduction of such innovations also helped improve the production effectiveness
in order to remain competitive (meso-level), but equally it was probably essential to implement ameliorating costeffective factors to carry on being profitable in a period of macroeconomic restructuring measures (macro-level).
Tiziano Mannoni (2007) recently defined a long list of potential factors to investigate the possible dynamics that
might have caused continuity, changes or rupture in the crafts industry in Roman imperial period (Table 168). We
verified what factors can be linked to the production and consumption of black glass artefacts. The underlying
idea of this case-study was in the first place to demonstrate to what degree the assemblages produced in black
glass follows the prevailing fashion of shapes and functional types produced in any other glass hue. Or does a
production differentiation exist depending on the glass hue? In other words, did the Romans use black glass to
produce idiosyncratic material not available in other glass hues?
Table 168: List of potential factors influencing technological change as proposed by Tiziano Mannoni 2007
scenarios of technical change
factors
continuity
1
product no longer useful
2
product replaced by another product
X
3
new uses for old products modifying functionality
X
4
demand for specific product disappears causing production to cease or evolve
5
new experiments undertaken
X
6
irrational ideas inspire change
X
7
technical ability retained by re-ordering production modifying the production capacity
X
8
organization of production is modified
X
9
adoption of techniques from other manufacturing trades or other cultures
X
10
changes in artistic techniques related to taste
X
11
subtle changes in overall demand
X
12
generalized economic collapse
13
limited availability of raw materials
X
14
limited availability of specialized labour
X
15
limited availability of unspecialized labour
X
16
changes in communication needs
X
discontinuity
X
X
X
X
X
Tiziano Mannoni (2007) distinguishes sixteen different factors that can influence technical change featuring either
continuity or discontinuity know-how and technology (Table 168). Most factors of technical change seem to
implicate the continuity of production but some factors can generate both, continuity and discontinuity. It is
320
Certain shapes are dated in Period III but appear to be considered as a offshoot of Period II assemblages.
419
obviously true that the continuity or discontinuity of a functional type or an artefact category produced in black
glass resulted from a combination of different factors as well as that various factors have had no or little impact on
the black glass assemblages. Furthermore Table 168 is not limited to microeconomic factors seeing that for
instance factor 12 is generated from a macroeconomic level.
We believe that not all factors implying discontinuity had an effect on the black glass production. For instance
factor 1 is not applicable on the black glass artefacts as most shapes or functional types remained in use after the
black glass was anymore fashionable.
The black glass vessels from Period I are only produced from the late Augustan times to the early Neronian
period and correspond to the assemblages produced in monochrome strongly-coloured glass with a change in
production under Claudius when the cast technique got abandoned in favour of the free-blowing technique (factor
2). By the late Augustanearly Tiberian period the strongly-coloured polychrome vessels got out of fashion
gradually and become replaced by strongly-coloured monochrome vessels (factor 11). Hence, the production of
black glass vessels in Period I followed the then current fashion.
Period II features the breakthrough of black glass production with the introduction of high iron black glass (factors
5; 8). The short lifespan of the vessels in comparison with the jewellery and counter production is partly due to the
disappearance of the demand of this specific commodity type (factor 4), but also as a result of the incapacity to
remain profitable caused by macroeconomic factors such as inflation and devaluation (factor 12) resulting from
the political and military instability after the fall of the Severan Dynasty.
Period III features the continuity and stability of the glass workshops processing black glass in analogy to the
rd
th
production organization and artistic techniques established during Period II. The artefacts from the mid 3 –mid 4
century AD demonstrate a conventional production featuring an assortment of minor decorative variations per
commodity type as demonstrated from the diversity of bangle and finger ring types. The immovability of these
microeconomic elements must be regarded as a reflection of an overall stability that must have reigned in the
rd
craft industry even though the political and military crisis that reigned during a large part of the 3 century AD.
On the basis of the changes in styles and techniques the production of black glass artefacts underwent around
th
the mid 4 century AD we are tempted to consider this as evidence of a total conversion of the glass industry
(factors 5;8;9;11) during the first decades of Period IV. The technical side demonstrates a modified use of raw
glass and the intensity of recycling. Changes in taste or fashion (factor 10) are recognizable in the introduction of
glass counters decorated with a dotted design and the various bichrome and polychrome beads but characterize
the continuity of a production. The change in production technique seen in the manufacturing of the bangles and
finger rings must have been the result of adoption of techniques (factor 9) what can be explained by the Migration
th
People who entered by force and settled in the European frontier zone firstly but from the early 5 century AD by
overwhelming the entire Western Roman Empire.
10.5 Conclusion
The deductions within the abovementioned case-studies support the usefulness of a holistic approach on a minor
segment within the wide range of archaeological small finds by providing additional information to a better
understanding of the multi-levelled socio-economic organization in the Roman society.
Mainly caused by macroeconomic changes and reforms the long-distance trade of finished (black) glass vessels,
so illustrative for the late Republican and Julio-Claudian period, got reduced and slowly taken over by regional
productions from the Claudian-Neronian period in the large centres such as Lyon (FR) and Avenches (CH). This
evolution further evolves in a more widespread occurrence of glass workshops from the Flavian period and not
exclusively in major centres. Hence the import was not put to a halt but it got reduced to a fraction of the entire
consumption of glass vessels. The discussed segment of black glass vessels taken as a key indicator to
nd
rd
regionalism of the Roman material culture of the late 2 –early 3 century AD in case-study I provides evidence
for a regionalized glass production and consumption well within the province borders. Furthermore it confirms an
imperial economy with binding state interference. The optimization of the taxing machinery necessary to increase
considerably the tax income was probably imperative to finance the continuously growing army expenses of the
war apparatus at the extremely large limes under the Severi.
The black glass vessels provide clear evidence the Roman material culture show a strong ‗regional‘ homogeneity
within the Roman provinces Gallia Belgica, Germania inferior and Germania superior and that these provinces
have to be regarded as one large ―bonded‖ region. The Roman ‗globalized‘ market was thus not more than a
420
patchwork of regional and local production and consumption. In view of this observation and because glass
workshops produced artefacts in all sorts of glass hues we see the acute necessity to reassess the entire range of
Roman glass vessels from these three provinces to verify whether these corroborate the findings of this research.
Furthermore it will generate an updated general work very suitable for the archaeologist confronted with Roman
glass. Assessing all Roman vessels within this well-delimited but vast region would give the opportunity to detect
much better the similarities and differences within the successive levels, i.e. local, regional, inter-regional, and
long-distance.
Further potential research on the Roman black glass production and consumption should verify what can be
deduced from a multi-levelled approach in view of specific glass commodity categories irrespective of the glass
hue, but in particular in view of those made in various other materials. On a regularly base we have demonstrated
that an approach of the black glass material in relation to skeuomorphism can supply additional information on the
chronology of black glass artefacts, on the use and function, on the distribution. In other words the relation
between the production and consumption of particular vessel types and jewellery types in black glass (micro) with
their equivalents in all other glass hues (meso) and in comparison with similar shapes in other materials (macro)
will enable to evaluate how a multi-levelled approach on specific material can give valuable information on
chronology, trade and use.
421
GENERAL CONCLUSION
The theme of my thesis, ‗The production, distribution and consumption of black glass in the Roman Empire during
st
th
the 1 5 centuries AD. An archaeological, archaeometric and historical approach,‘ involves a holistic approach
within Roman material culture studies. The study of black glass artefacts covering a wide range of functional
types spanning five centuries from a vast region may seem not enough focussed on a specific research issue or
query. But the main objective of this research project on a minor segment of the Roman material culture was to
provide reliable, solid data on diachronic consumption patterns to add a supplementary opinion on the character
of the production and distribution of glass within the entire Roman Empire. Hence, this manuscript provided some
answers on the different operating processes influencing Roman glass production in general and consumption of
Roman black glass within the Roman economy. By describing different issues and aspects of the Roman black
glass from an archaeological, archaeometric and historical approach, the empire-wide character of glass
production (globalization) and the local or (inter)regional character of glass consumption (regionalism) was
evaluated. The study of the consumption of goods to establish geographical and chronological idiosyncrasies in
the consumer‘s behaviour was one issue, while determining the evolution and changes of the consumer‘s
behaviour was another. The different approaches to analysing Roman black glass developed a more complete
picture of its historical context by deriving social, economic and cultural/religious implications from the obtained
data, thus providing a better reading of the use of these commodities within ancient society.
The current study on Roman black glass resulted in a comprehensive overview based on the wide range of
publications at hand and on research on location of unpublished collections from different places in Europe and
the Mediterranean to provide a cross section of the local and regional material within different areas of the former
Roman Empire. We provided the reader with a multilevel format discussing typology, chronology, context and
distribution on the basis of a compiled database. The dataset comprised material from (old) museum collections
as well as from (recent) archaeological field work, resulting in an overview of 4,475 entries from 651 sites.
The consecutive chapters each provided specific value-added information contributing to a visualization of the
consumer‘s behaviour in the Roman imperial economy. This was obtained by supplying data on the various
aspects of this explicit and narrow segment of artefacts within the Roman material culture. The first seven
chapters considered the research material from various archaeological viewpoints, providing information about
the different commodities produced and consumed in the Roman Empire. The archaeometric approach in
chapters 8 and 9 demonstrated that the knowledge on archaeological glass benefits greatly from the
implementation of chemical and optical analyses. The results from both approaches were essential to generating
a better interpretation of the chronological evolution and regional differences of Roman (black) glass production.
Finally, within chapter 10 the obtained insights from the archaeological and archaeometric approaches were
compared to the current models on Roman economy and society.
The challenge of this research was to integrate and sublimate the results from the archaeological, archaeometric
and historical approaches into a holistic view on Roman black glass and confront it with the main glass production
and consumption which continuously evolved during the imperial period and experienced different drives within
the Roman Empire. This multilevel approach and the interdisciplinary character of the research, with an
interaction between the archaeological, the archaeometric and the historical disciplines, provided added value to
archaeological glass research in general by supplying additional information on the interaction of regional and
global consumption of Roman glass. Some results corroborated the prevailing assumptions, but others provided
new information on Roman (glass) consumption in the broad sense. In particular, the archaeometric results
contributed substantially to defining the chronological and/or geographical idiosyncrasies by discerning the different
material sources and techniques applied to produce (black) glass.
The first three chapters are to be considered introductory; they provided a clear outline of the approach we found
necessary to tackle the Roman black glass material. Our approach allowed us to obtain well-defined artefact
groups showing relevant chronological and geographical prospects for the analysis of the consumption patterns of
the material.
The first chapter described from different angles the identification of black and the complexity of its perception in
order to define what we consider black glass. Subsequently, we explained the colour description and perception
in antiquity, showing that in antiquity the involvedness in colour perception was already recognized but that
neither rules nor parameters were established to categorize the colours with basic colour terms. This was
supported by a linguistic and psychological approach to colour perception, making us conscious of the biased
assumption on how to look at Roman glass hues due to the current determination of colours influenced by the
422
scientific colour spectrum and digitization. Further on, we showed the lack of consensus in describing the glass
hues in archaeological material studies, seeing the wide range of systems and circumstances influencing the
observation into too-general classes or in over-subdivided groups. Finally, we described our choice to consider all
dark-coloured glass as black-appearing when it is perceived as black by the naked eye as well as when it appears
black when placed on a white paper and only light in reflection is used. A preliminary colour survey of the blackappearing artefacts showed that those in dark green glass formed the bulk material. The Romans must have been
confronted with the optical issue that green glass was more easily considered black (appearing) in comparison
with glass in a blue, a brown or a purple hue. Besides this optical issue, they gave preference to iron oxide, the
colouring agent with the strongest colouring effect, which was a very cheap and easily affordable pigment.
The second chapter was not merely a glossary on technological terms, but it looked at the applied techniques in
the production of Roman black glass commodities to justify the importance of recognizing and understanding
technological features to build up an effective typo-chronology. The first part discussed the different aspects of
glass production, including raw glass, finished products, and tools, whereas the second part focused on the
techniques of production and decoration per commodity category. This outline demonstrated some novel insights
on the production processes of some particular commodity types: we demonstrated the use of an open mould or
wide metal ring to produce a part of the carinated beakers, the use of prefabricated glass rods to produce arm
rings and the necessity to distinguish the poured/cast counters from the fused ones. Finally, a survey of the
various glass hues applied per commodity was presented in relation to the applied technique, defining the
application of specific techniques and glass hues to manufacture specific commodity categories. The tables and
plots showed that specific techniques were applied to produce specific artefact types and that the adopted
techniques changed depending on the period and/or region.
In the third chapter, we provided typological mainframes on various commodity categories to enable
quantifications for a detailed evaluation of the inventoried material. Some commodity categories, such as vessels
and all sorts of jewellery, were very susceptible to classification systems. The vessels were presented according
to the different production techniques but were considered within the margins of the existing general
classifications. Besides a wide range of quite unique pieces, some shapes were very popular. A new typology of
the arm rings and the finger rings was deemed necessary, as the existing ones are not useful to field
archaeologists in need of datable material. Most other commodity categories remained at the level of a side note,
but the gems and the counters were shown to be a ubiquitous commodity, with very promising research potential
that necessitates a more detailed study.
The next three chapters provided archaeological information on the chronology of the various types of
commodities produced in black glass by querying and computing the database. This resulted in the removing of a
number of biased assumptions concerning the date and provenance of certain (shapes of) artefact categories.
Chapters 4 and 5 gave a more detailed chronology and context analysis, respectively, of the various artefact
categories. The here-presented overview remains, however, limited because the information at hand is rather
unsatisfactory, and a more elaborate research needs a meticulous preliminary study on the contextual chronology.
We described the continuity in the use of black glass and the regular change of success of the different
commodity categories during the consecutive periods. Vessels were mainly produced during the Julio-Claudian
st
dynasty throughout the second third of the 1 century AD (cast and free-blown); again under ‗Severan rule‘ in the
th
th
north-western provinces (free-blown and mould-blown) and in the 4 5 century in North Africa and the Levant
st
(rod-formed). Except for some particular bead and gem types that fall into the 1 century AD, all jewellery in black
nd
rd
glass is characteristic for the late Roman period from the late 2 early 3 century AD. Architectural decoration
material and counters in black glass occur all through the five centuries. Our preliminary results demonstrated the
interesting potential of a more thorough study of the counters.
Through context analysis, the provenanced material indicated that the consumption of black glass not only was
socio-economically driven but also gender-based. From the burial gifts it was seen that rich burials yielded the
black glass vessels and that all jewellery was worn by girls and (young) women. The gemsgenerally inserted in
finger ringsformed an exception as they were equally worn by men or form part of purely male dress, like the
gems inserted on militaria such as the discoid brooches and ornamental helmets. The presence of black glass
jewellery at military sites was perhaps minor but was evidence for the presence of entire families living close to or
together with the soldiers in the late Roman period.
The sixth chapter on production and distribution described the ubiquitous occurrence of most commodity
categories. The knowledge of the glass workshops responsible for the wide range of black glass artefacts remains
423
scanty. Yet, a more detailed look at the distribution demonstrated that the production and consumption of the
empire-wide presence of specific commodity types such as bracelets had a regional character. This regionalism
points to a globalized Roman material culture with regional production centres, producing artefacts according to
the needs of the consumer within the supply-and-demand model, but not in the least due to ruling socio-cultural
traditions and rites.
Chapter 7 can be considered an extension of Chapter 5, as it discussed the use and function of black glass
artefacts on the basis of the contextual results. Not only did we see that the black glass jewellery was genderspecific to girls and ‗young‘ women on the basis of the burial gifts, but we also demonstrated that black glass
vessels were only common burial gifts in rich tombs. Furthermore, the Romans did not estimate glass very highly
but must have had difficulty in discriminating the black glass jewellery from the pieces using black semiprecious
stones.
The next two chapters were the result of an intensive collaboration with Prof. Koen Janssens of the University of
Antwerp (Chapter 8) and with Prof. Hugo Thienpont and dr.ir. Wendy Meulebroeck of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel
(VUB) (Chapter 9). Both approaches were necessary for adding valuable information to the obtained results from
archaeological analysis to verify the issues production, trade and distribution.
Chapter 8 described the results from chemical analysis by using SEM-EDX and LA-ICP-MS to define the
chemical composition of the sampled material. This research demonstrated that a large diachronic selection of
366 very characteristic glass samples from a wide area enhanced our understanding of the colour of the glass
matrix, the chronological and geographical subdivisions, the functional types, and the large site contexts.
The results demonstrated that a chronological subdivision can be made on the basis of the different sands
(Levantine or HIMT), fluxes (mineral soda or vegetable soda), and colorants (iron, manganese, or cobalt/copper)
detected. In particular, the irongreen glasses showed a chronological difference, with low iron during Period I
and high iron from Period II. The chemical analysis also demonstrated the use of decolourized glass to produce
black glass, although ‗naturally coloured‘ glass was most frequent (manganese or antimony). The chemical
analysis also helped in defining the provenance of the glass, either the raw glass (Levantine or Egyptian) or the
locally coloured glass in the secondary workshops (Gallia Belgica or Germania Inferior/Superior). The colouring
technique to obtain black glass in Period II is related to a regional technological specificity of one or more
workshops within the north-western provinces, i.e. Gallia Belgica, Germania Superior and/or Germania Inferior
and fits production scheme 4 as discussed in Chapter 6, while the ‗naturally coloured‘ and decolourized raw glass
from Egypt and the Syro-Palestinian coast is an indicator of long-distance trade supplying the secondary
workshops empire-wide. Such results helped to specify the distribution patterns of specific assemblages within
particular periods and gave new clues to the existing trade routes and the organization of the Roman economy in
imperial times. Additionally, a number of artefacts were determined to be obsidian, showing that this material was
used by glassworkers and in glass workshops. Other artefacts were shown to be the result of purposeful recycling
(as revealed by the presence of lead).
In Chapter 9 on optical spectroscopy, different issues were described. First, we analysed how to eliminate the
subjectivity of the hue description by making it quantifiable through the plotting of the measurements using UVVis-NIR spectroscopy on a CIE1934 horseshoe graph. The use of an integrated sphere while measuring the
transmission of light made it possible to define the optical density (OD) of the glass matrix and quantify the
intensity of strongly coloured glass; thus, it provided an objectively measured limit between strongly coloured and
black-appearing glass. Further research demonstrated that the colorimetry of the glass matrix corresponded to its
chemical composition, and consequently the colours matched specific periods and typological groups. Additionally,
the UV-Vis-NIR spectroscopy provided information regarding the technological aspects of black glass such as
furnace conditions (reducing and oxidising), which helped in interpreting the bi-plots from chemical analysis (e.g.,
the greenish-brown low iron group). We found that optical spectroscopy offers opportunities in archaeometry, as
results can be obtained more quickly and easily. The use of absorption spectroscopy allows in situ analysis of
large quantities of material to acquire a first insight on the assemblage at hand, thus facilitating the selection of
samples for detailed chemical analysis. Optical spectroscopy also provides opportunities for archaeological
research, as the transmission spectra and calculated colour coordinates on the CIE1934 horseshoe graph have
been shown to correlate with the specific chemical composition of the glass matrix and the furnace conditions.
The use of UV-Vis-NIR spectroscopy therefore helps in defining the Harris matrix of an excavation.
The historical approach using insights gained from the archaeological and archaeometric approaches described
in the final chapter has not been fully exploited. Three case studies show however that this holistic approach
424
unfolds information on the micro-, meso-, and macroeconomic levelimpossible to discern from a unilateral
surveyallowing a clearer picture of the interactions within and the organization of the Roman economy. The
macroeconomic analysis demonstrates that we have to make a distinction between the apparently at random
cultural regional consumption pattern and the politico-economic regulated production and distribution within
province boundaries of (black) glass commodities. Nevertheless this observation needs to be confirmed by the
examining the assemblages in other glass hues, but above all by verifying the validity to define all crafts being
subject to the centralized macroeconomic policy in Rome. The mesoeconomic analysis demonstrates the difficulty
to understand the issue on recycled glass and its impact and implications on the Roman glass production.
Besides, the (black) glass production and the crafts in general demonstrate that the Roman economy should be
regarded in imperial times as a proto-industrial economy notwithstanding its primitiveness and limitations. Finally
the microeconomic analysis confirms the involvedness of a variety of criteria influencing the success of a
commodity type and the declining productions.
The present study clearly demonstrated that a holistic approach provides the tools to acquire new insights for a
better understanding of the consumption patterns in ancient society generally and of glass in Roman times more
specifically.
425
426
PART IV
THE CATALOGUE
427
428
THE CATALOGUE
This catalogue does not pretend to be exhaustive or complete. It only intends to give an adequate data list of the
recorded material to enable an as accurate as possible analysis with the aim to enable quantifications and
observations on the production and consumption of Roman black glass artefacts from the entire Roman Empire
st
th
from the 1 century AD until the 5 century AD. However lots of blanks remain in the descriptive fields and in
particular concerning the illustrations. This is partly due to the unevenly availability of data from the published
material recorded, and partly because the accessible information on the unpublished artefacts has not been
321
comprehensive either. Even though the majority of the data-base consists of published material, a significant
number of records in the catalogue concerns unpublished artefacts. We are very much indebted to all museum
conservators and archaeologists to allow us the opportunity to integrate unstudied material from museum
322
collections and from old excavations as well as from recently excavated pieces.
In the attempt to give a full picture of the black glass artefact the recorded data incorporate various material
groups (production material; vessels; jewellery; architectural decoration; counters). The large quantities and high
diversity of black glass material made a deliberate selection of basic data fields unavoidable in order to facilitate
relevant queries on the material to accomplish the proposed research aims. To retain the readability of the
extensive and very diverse data-list we separated the data per material type into five separate files. The sequence
is that established in Part I: The archaeological approach: 1) production material; 2) vessels; 3) jewellery (arm
rings; finger rings; beads; pendants; gems; hairpins); 4) architectural decoration; 5) counters.
The material of a number of publications and online catalogues has been overlooked by the author but is added
subsequently in the present catalogue. Hence a good number of objects have not been included in the pie-charts
323
and figures, though we tried to implement as much as possible material in the related discussions and tables.
The publication by Maurice H. Chéhab (1985-1986) on the material from the necropolis of Tyre (LB) is known to
the author but we could not manage to incorporate the high amount of black glass artefacts (mainly arm rings,
beads and pendants).
321
It is also important to take account of numerous indeterminate items among the unpublished material.
Some of the unpublished material at the time of the research has been recently published, such as the Croatian material from Ore ac (Jelincek
2010) and the Portuguese material from Braga (da Cruz 2009). Other material is still in process like the Egyptian material from Douch Kyssis
(Nenna forthcoming).
323
We are however well aware of many more publications dealing with Roman black glass artefacts.
322
429
Figure 228: Access 2007 catalogue Form
430
The database is available on cd-rom in Access 2007 and set in a traditional form (Figure 228), including the
following fields:
Id: catalogue number; is a unique number that facilitates referring in the text, presented in the extensive file 1 (see
below)
Depot: name or abbreviation of the museum or archaeological depot and its location
Inventory number: reference number of artefact (either that of the museum or that of the excavation)
Picture: the pictures are either by the author or scanned from publications mentioned in the field ‗reference‘; in
few occasions we received pictures from museums or archaeological depots
Drawing: the drawings are either by the author or scanned from publications mentioned in the field ‗reference‘; in
few occasions we received drawings from museums or archaeological depots
Country: refers to the country of provenance
Place: refers to the present-day town where the excavations have taken place (where possible we cite the ancient
name)
Site: refers to the excavation area where the piece was retrieved
Site character: distinguishes ‗civil settlements‘ and ‗military settlements‘
Context: distinguishes ‗domestic‘, ‗public‘, ‗burial‘ and ‗ritual‘ contexts; the material from ‗glass workshops‘ is taken
separately but their material is considered with the material from domestic contexts.
Commodity: distinguishes ‗production‘, ‗jewellery‘, ‗vessel‘, ‗utensil‘, ‗gaming piece‘, ‗architectural decoration‘ and
‗sculpture‘
Function: this field is left blank for the commodities ‗production‘, ‗gaming piece‘ and ‗sculpture‘; for the commodity
‗jewellery‘ we distinguish ‗ornament‘ in general (also used for ‗architectural decoration‘) and ‗body ornament‘,
‗dress ornament‘ and ‗hair ornament‘ specifically; for the commodity ‗vessel‘ are distinguished ‗tableware‘, ‗toilet
ware‘ and ‗storage ware‘
Form type: this field characterizes the type of artefact (the type of production material; the type of vessel; the type
of jewellery ;...)
Typology: this field provides either a drawn up typology or one or more established typologies
Colour: when possible the true hue of the glass is added ‗/‘ (e.g. black/blue) and when the artefact is bi-chrome or
polychrome the applied colours are added ‗+‘ (e.g. black/blue + white/red)
Technique: distinguishes ‗cast‘, ‗free-blown‘ and ‗mould-blown‘ for the vessels and ‗rod-made‘, ‗pressed‘, ‗folded‘
and ‗gathered + cone-rolled‘ for the jewellery; ‗rod-formed‘ is used for vessels, jewellery, utensils and architectural
decoration; the production technique of the counters is left open
Description: this field attempt to give a generalized but individual description of the shape and decoration
Completeness: distinguishes the different options of preservationi.e. ‗complete‘, ‗almost complete‘, ‗1/2‘, ‗1/3‘,
‗1/4‘, ‗1/8‘, ‗fragmentary‘
Dimensions: provides measurements of the diameter (‗d.‘), length (‗l.‘), width (‗w.‘), wall thickness (‗th.‘), height
(‗h.‘) in mm;
Origin: defines details about the find circumstances
Date: distinguishes the four periods definedi.e. I (0-150 AD), II (150-250 AD), III (250-350 AD), IV (350-500
AD); the different periods can be used in combination
Reference: gives bibliographical references where the concerned item is described unless it concerns an
unpublished piece
Remarks: mentions additional information such as the sample numbers for the chemical analyses
431
Museums
Abbreviations of museums occur in the text but mainly are used in the catalogue for practical reasons
CM
CRAN
KMKG-MRAH
M
MAE
MAN
PAM
PGRM
County Museum/City Museum
Centre de Recherche Archéologique Nationale at the Université Catholique de Louvain-laNeuve (UCL), Louvain-la-Neuve (BE)
Royal Museums for Art and History, Brussels (BE)
Museum
Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Cambridge (UK)
Musée des Antiquités Nationales, Saint-Germain-en-Laye (FR)
Provinciaal Archeologisch Museum, Velzeke (BE)
Provinciaal Gallo-Romeins Museum, Tongeren (BE)
Besides a general file we present separate files concerning a particular group of black glass artefacts:
File 1: All inventoried material (comprising the entries in alphabetical order respectively per ‗country‘; per ‗place‘;
per ‗commodity‘)
File 2: Production
File 3: Vessels
cast vessels
mould-blown vessels
free-blown vessels
rod-formed vessels
The material labelled as ‗jewellery‘ within the field ‗commodity‘ is too disparate and too vast to use this wideranging commodity all together within one file. Therefore we present the different ‗form types‘ separately.
File 4: Arm rings
File 5: Finger rings
File 6: Beads
File 7: Pendants
File 8: Gems
File 9: Hairpins
File 10: Architectural decoration
tesserae
rods
plaques
File 11: Counters
432
The cd-rom also includes a number of papers in pdf on Roman black glass published by the author or in coauthorship:
Baert, K., Meulebroeck, W., Wouters, H., Cosyns, P., Nys, K., Thienpont, H. and Terryn, H., 2011. Using Raman spectroscopy
as a tool for the detection of iron in glass. Journal of Raman Spectroscopy, 42: n/a. doi: 10.1002/jrs.2935
Meulebroeck, W., Cosyns, P., Baert, K., Wouters, H., Cagno, S., Janssens, K., Terryn, H., Nys, K., Thienpont H., 2011. Optical
spectroscopy as a rapid and low-cost tool for the first-line analysis of glass artefacts: a step-by-step plan for Roman green
glass. Journal of Archaeological Science, 38, 2387-2398.
Meulebroeck, W., Baert, K., Wouters, H., Cosyns, P., Ceglia, A., Cagno, S., Janssens, K., Nys, K., Terryn, H., Thienpont H.,
2010. ‗The identification of chromophores in ancient glass by the use of UV-Vis-NIR spectroscopy‘ in Berghmans, F., Mignani,
A.G., van Hoof, C.A. (eds.) Optical Sensing and Detection, Proceedings of SPIE 2010 Vol. 7726, 77260D1-12.
Cagno, S., Cosyns, P., Janssens, K., 2010. La production de vaisselle en vitrum obsianum au Ier siècle après J.-C. Un état de
la question à partir de l‘étude du fragment R1610 (MRAH-Bruxelles). Bulletin de l‘Association Française pour l‘Archéologie du
Verre (AFAV) 2010, 9-14.
Van der Linden, V., Cosyns, P., Schalm, O., Cagno, S., Nys, K., Janssens, K., Nowak, A., Wagner, B., Bulska, E., 2009. Deeply
coloured and black glass in the nortern provinces of the Roman Empire: differences and similarities in chemical composition
before and after 150 AD. Archaeometry 51/5, 822-844.
Cosyns, P., 2009. ‗Sainte-Menehould (FR) and Trier (DE): Two Roman workshops of black glass jewellery in the northwest
provinces reconsidered‘ in Annales du 17e Congrès de l‘AIHV (Antwerpen 2006), Brussels, University Press Antwerp (UPA), 8895.
Cosyns, P., Fontaine, S.D., 2009. ‗La vaisselle en verre d‘apparence noire dans les provinces occidentales au Ier siècle ap. J.C.‘ in Annales du 17e Congrès de l‘AIHV (Antwerpen 2006), Brussels, University Press Antwerp (UPA), 80-87.
Cosyns, P., Cagno, S., 2009. Internal report: μ-XRF Analyses of Roman black glass objects and a vitrum obsianum piece
Brussels, KMKG Jubelparkmuseum, 16/03/2009, Brussels/Antwerp, VUB-SKAR & UA-MiTAC.
Cagno, S., Cosyns, P., 2009. Internal report: Compositional Analysis on the Obsidian Vessel Fragment R1610 in the Royal
Museums of Art and History (KMKG-MRAH) by using portable-Xrf, Brussels/Antwerp, VUB-SKAR & UA-MiTAC.
Meulebroeck, W., Cosyns, P., Wouters, H., Baert, K., Nys, K., Terryn, H., Thienpont H., 2008. Optical Characterization and
Analysis of Archaeological Glass Artefacts‘ in Proceedings of MOC 2008
Cosyns, P., Cagno, S., 2008. Internal report: The SEM-EDS and LA-ICP-MS-analyses of late Roman black glass from Trier,
Brussels/Antwerp, VUB-SKAR & UA-MiTAC.
Cagno, S., Cosyns, P., 2008. Internal report: The EPMA and LA-ICP-MS-analyses of late La Tène glass bracelets from Odijk,
Tiel and Meteren (ACVU), Brussels/Antwerp, VUB-SKAR & UA-MiTAC.
Meulebroeck, W., Cosyns, P., 2008. Internal report: Archeometrisch onderzoek d.m.v. Fotonica-analyse op Romeins zwart glas
afkomstig van de opgravingen te Tienen-Grijpenveld (Erfgoedcel, Tienen), Brussels, VUB-TONA/SKAR.
Gratuze, B., Cosyns, P., 2007. La composition chimique des perles en verre de la tombe à char de la nécropole laténienne de
Neufchâteau-Le Sart par LA-ICP-MS. Arduina 63, 1-7.
Cosyns, P., Hurt, V., 2007. Les perles en verre de Neufchâteau Le-Sart. Arduina 62, 1-5.
Cosyns, P., Janssens, K., Vander Linden, V., Schalm, O., 2006. ‗Black glass in the Roman Empire: a work in progress‘ in
Creemers G., Demarsin B., Cosyns, P., (eds), Roman Glass in Germania Inferior. Interregional Comparisons and Recent
Results, International colloquium Tongeren, 13/05/2005, Atuatuca 1, Hasselt, PGRM Tongeren, 30-41.
Cosyns, P., Hanut, F., 2005. Black glass of 2nd to 3rd century date in Northern Gaul : a preliminary survey, in Annales du 16e
congrès de l‘Association Internationale pour l‘Histoire du Verre London 2003, 113-118.
Cosyns, P., 2004. Les bracelets romain en verre ‗noir‘: une étude typologique et contextuelle, in Bulletin de l‘A.F.A.V. 2003-04,
15-18.
Cosyns, P., 2003. Romeinse glazen armbanden in België, Romeinendag 08/02/2003, Leuven, 12-16.
433
434
APPENDICES
APPENDIX 1: LIST OF BLACK GLASS SAMPLES ANALYSED BY SEM-EDX
RESIN PC1
SEM-EDX at MiTAC, UA, Antwerp
a-f
Vlaams Instituut voor het Onroerend Erfgoed (VIOE), Zellik (BE)
g-k
not located, examined by courtesy of Eleni Schindler-Kaudelka (AT)
PC1
cat.no.
place
inventory no.
a
514
Rumst – BE
88 RU 51.40
b
510
Rumst – BE
88 RU 86.88
c
512
Rumst – BE
89 RU 120.2
d
511
Rumst – BE
89 RU 107.204
e
513
Rumst – BE
89 RU 107.205
f
509
Rumst – BE
RU (?) _ (?) 18
g
115
Magdalensberg – AT
M70 6.7
h
117
Magdalensberg – AT
M49 GRAB III 50A
i
114
Magdalensberg – AT
TGF IV 4.591 NR2 RIMFRAG
j
113
Magdalensberg – AT
TAF IV 4.591 NR2 BODYFRAG
k
119
Magdalensberg – AT
GLAS A VARIA 2614 BASEFRAG
period
II
II
II
II
II
modern?
I
I
I
I
I
hue
green
green
green
green
green
green
green
green
green
green
green
function
vessel – form IIB.1
vessel – form IIB.1
vessel – form IIB.1
vessel – form IIB.1
vessel – form IIB.1
production waste / raw glass
vessel – form IA.2
vessel – form IA.2
vessel – form IA.2
vessel – form IA.2
vessel – form IA.4
PC1
Na2O
MgO
Al2O3
SiO2
P2O5
SO3
Cl
K2O
CaO
TiO2
MnO
Fe2O3
CuO
PbO
ZnO
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
h
i
j
k
16,5
18,4
16,5
17,0
16,7
1,6
16,2
19,6
20,1
20,1
20,0
0,4
0,5
0,6
0,5
0,5
3,7
3,3
1,9
1,9
1,9
1,5
1,6
1,3
1,8
1,6
1,7
3,0
2,5
1,9
3,1
3,1
2,7
64,4
63,6
66,4
63,9
65,9
58,9
64,0
66,1
66,0
65,7
65,5
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
1,8
0,5
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
0,1
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
0,1
0,3
0,3
0,2
0,9
1,0
0,7
0,9
0,7
0,1
0,9
0,8
1,0
1,0
1,0
0,6
0,4
0,7
0,6
0,7
6,7
2,2
1,1
1,0
1,0
1,0
5,6
5,3
6,2
5,5
6,2
21,5
7,8
6,9
4,7
4,8
6,4
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
0,2
0,2
0,2
0,4
0,4
0,2
0,2
n.d.
0,3
0,2
0,3
0,4
0,3
0,2
0,1
0,1
0,1
9,7
9,4
6,7
9,9
7,2
2,1
2,0
1,1
1,6
1,6
1,3
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
435
RESIN PC2
SEM-EDX at MiTAC, UA, Antwerp
synchrotron in Hamburg 07.2009
a-b, d-e
Koninklijke Musea voor Kunst en Geschiedenis (KMKG), Brussel (BE)
c
not located, examined by courtesy of Hubert Cabart (FR)
f-n
Erfgoedcel, Tienen (BE)
PC2
cat.no.
place
inventory no.
a
868
Elkab – EG
KMKG E 7776 A
b
869
Elkab – EG
KMKG E 7776 B
c
1075
Faulquemont – FR
FAULQUEMONT ST24
d
870
Elkab – EG
KMKG E 7776 C
e
871
Elkab – EG
KMKG E 7776 D
f
543
Tienen – BE
TI 02 TR/20-78 (tienen 3)
g
548
Tienen – BE
TI 02 TR/20-80 (tienen 5)
h
542
Tienen – BE
TI 01 TR-79/059 (tienen 7)
i
544
Tienen – BE
TI 98 TR/03.26/5 (tienen 2)
j
545
Tienen – BE
TI 02 TR/20-262-3 (tienen 6)
k
541
Tienen – BE
TI 01 TR-79/142 (tienen 8)
l
539
Tienen – BE
TI 02 TR/20-79 (tienen 4)
m
546
Tienen – BE
TI 98 TR-03/22 (tienen 1)
n
547
Tienen – BE
TI 98 TR-02/00.3
period
II
II
II
II
II
II
II
II
II
II
II
II
II
II
hue
brown
brown
green
brown
brown
green
green
green
green
green
green
green
green
green
function
vessel - form
vessel - form
vessel - form
vessel - form
vessel - form
vessel - form
vessel - form
vessel - form
vessel - form
vessel - form
vessel - form
vessel - form
vessel - form
vessel - form
IID.1
IID.1
IIB.5
IID.1
IID.1
IIB.1
IIB.1
IIB.1
IIB.1
IIB.1
IIB.1
IIB.1
IIB.1
IIB.1
PC2
Na2O
MgO
Al2O3
SiO2
P2O5
SO3
Cl
K2O
CaO
TiO2
MnO
Fe2O3
CuO
PbO
ZnO
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
h
i
j
k
l
m
n
15,7
16,7
16,6
14,5
17,0
16,6
15,9
16,9
16,3
17,0
17,4
16,6
15,8
15,7
2,0
2,0
1,8
1,1
1,1
1,1
0,5
0,7
1,0
0,5
1,0
0,4
0,5
2,0
3,7
3,1
3,3
2,2
1,6
1,6
1,7
1,8
1,6
1,4
1,6
1,7
1,6
3,7
65,8
66,0
66,7
72,5
64,5
64,6
63,2
64,2
64,5
62,6
65,1
65,7
64,1
65,8
0,2
0,2
0,1
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
0,2
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
0,1
n.d.
0,9
0,9
0,8
0,9
0,7
0,8
0,7
0,7
0,8
0,8
0,7
0,8
0,7
0,9
2,5
2,4
1,6
1,0
0,9
0,9
0,6
0,7
0,9
0,5
0,9
0,6
0,7
2,5
6,3
6,6
6,7
6,2
5,7
5,9
5,8
6,0
5,9
5,1
5,4
6,0
6,1
6,3
0,4
0,3
0,3
0,2
0,1
0,1
n.d.
n.d.
0,1
n.d.
0,1
n.d.
0,1
0,4
0,1
0,2
0,2
0,1
0,2
0,2
0,2
0,2
0,2
0,1
0,1
0,4
0,2
0,1
2,4
1,8
1,9
1,4
8,3
8,5
11,4
8,8
8,6
12,1
7,7
7,7
10,1
2,4
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
436
RESIN PC3
SEM-EDX at MiTAC, UA, Antwerp
a-d, f-h, l-m
private collection Goossens, Borgerhout (BE)
e
not located, examined by courtesy of Hubert Cabart (FR)
i-k
PGRM, Tongeren (BE)
n
Archeologische Dienst Provincie Oost-Vlaanderen, Gent (BE)
PC3
cat.no.
place
inventory no.
period
hue
a
n.c.
Vremde – BE
II a26
modern?
black
b
n.c.
Vremde – BE
III b3
modern?
black
c
n.c.
Vremde – BE
III a
modern?
black
d
n.c.
Vremde – BE
II ?
modern?
black
e
1073
Faulquemont – FR
Faulquemont ST14
II
green
f
233
Dilsen – BE
Dilsen 1
II-III
green
g
234
Dilsen – BE
Dilsen 2
IV
green
h
232
Dilsen – BE
Dilsen 3
IV
green
i
n.c.
Tongeren – BE
Tongeren 20_346
I
colourless
j
n.c.
Tongeren – BE
Tongeren 17_849
I
colourless
k
n.c.
Broechem – BE
Broechem H7d
0
purple
l
n.c.
Eindhoven – NL
Eindhoven H3a
0
purple
m
n.c.
Emblem – BE
Emblem XII 19
0
purple
n
n.c.
Aalter – BE
Aalter Langevoorde
0
colourless
function
production waste ?
production waste ?
production waste ?
production waste ?
vessel – form IIB.6
bracelet – A2
bracelet – D1
bracelet – D1
vessel – mould-blown cup with Greek inscription
vessel – mould-blown cup with Greek inscription
bracelet – late La Tène
bracelet – late La Tène
bracelet – late La Tène
bracelet – late La Tène
PC3
Na2O
MgO
Al2O3
SiO2
P2O5
SO3
Cl
K2O
CaO
TiO2
MnO
Fe2O3
CuO
PbO
ZnO
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
h
i
j
k
l
m
n
0,1
0,1
n.d.
0,4
16,4
16,7
16,6
17,2
14,7
15,1
15,3
16,4
15,8
16,7
1,6
1,7
1,5
1,8
2,9
0,6
0,7
0,6
0,4
0,3
0,7
0,9
1,8
0,3
8,6
8,5
9,0
9,0
1,8
1,6
1,7
1,7
2,5
1,6
1,9
1,6
1,9
1,7
52,9
51,5
52,3
53,6
63,4
64,5
61,5
63,2
72,6
70,8
69,7
65,1
62,5
69,1
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
0,1
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
0,1
n.d.
0,1
n.d.
n.d.
0,1
n.d.
n.d.
0,1
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
1,0
1,0
0,9
1,0
0,8
0,9
0,9
0,9
0,6
0,8
1,2
1,2
1,2
1,2
1,6
0,5
0,5
0,6
1,0
0,7
1,0
1,0
1,9
0,9
21,5
23,7
24,4
21,8
10,7
6,8
6,8
6,4
6,7
7,8
7,8
10,8
10,6
8,7
0,7
0,8
0,8
0,8
0,1
n.d.
0,1
0,1
0,1
0,1
n.d.
0,1
0,1
0,1
2,5
2,6
2,7
2,5
0,4
0,1
0,4
0,9
0,7
2,2
2,4
2,7
4,0
1,2
11,0
9,9
8,0
8,8
1,6
8,2
10,8
8,3
0,5
0,5
0,4
0,4
0,9
0,4
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
437
RESIN PC4
SEM-EDX at MiTAC, UA, Antwerp
a-g
Erfgoedcel, Tienen (BE)
PC4
cat.no.
place
a
531
Tienen – BE
b
n.c.
Tienen – BE
c
540
Tienen – BE
d
n.c.
Tienen – BE
XRF at MiTAC, UA, Antwerp (not sampled)
PC4
cat.no.
place
e
530
Tienen – BE
f
537
Tienen – BE
g
535
Tienen – BE
inventory no.
Ti 98 TR/06/164
Ti 02 TR/079/468
Ti 97 TR/02/018
Ti 98 TR/02/128
period
I-III
I
II
I
hue
purple
green
purple
brown
function
counter – large
vessel – form IA.14
vessel – form IIC.2
vessel – form IA.14
inventory no.
Ti 02TR/79/440
Ti 99 TR 018/262
Ti 00 TR/016/252
period
I-III
II-III
II-III
hue
brown
black
black
function
counter – small
bead – globular with suspension loop
bead – micro annular
PC4
Na2O
MgO
Al2O3
SiO2
P2O5
SO3
Cl
K2O
CaO
TiO2
MnO
Fe2O3
CuO
PbO
ZnO
a
16,1
1,5
1,6
64,6
n.d.
n.d.
0,8
1,5
9,0
0,1
3,4
1,3
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
b
16,2
2,5
1,6
65,3
n.d.
n.d.
0,8
1,7
9,3
0,1
0,4
1,9
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
c
15,2
0,5
1,8
69,8
n.d.
n.d.
0,8
0,8
8,4
n.d.
2,0
0,6
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
d
17,6
0,4
4,4
70,5
n.d.
n.d.
1,1
1,5
4,0
0,1
n.d.
0,4
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
e
14,2
2,6
1,7
62,6
0,2
0,1
0,9
2,9
12,0
0,3
0,5
2,1
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
f
13,2
0,6
1,7
64,1
n.d.
n.d.
0,9
1,0
8,9
0,1
0,4
9,1
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
g
18,2
0,7
1,4
63,5
n.d.
0,5
1,0
0,8
5,7
0,2
6,9
1,1
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
438
RESIN PC5
SEM-EDX at MiTAC, UA, Antwerp
a, d-k
PGRM, Tongeren (BE)
b-c
not located, examined by courtesy of Hubert Cabart (FR)
l
private collection, Leuven (BE)
PC5
cat.no.
place
inventory no.
a
n.c.
Broekom – BE
84.B.320
b
1359
Reims – FR
DES 03/ US 148
c
1360
Reims – FR
DES 03/ 442
d
497
Riemst – BE
2052
e
565
Tongeren – BE
hondstraat
f
553
Tongeren – BE
1562
g
554
Tongeren – BE
69.TON.21b
h
559
Tongeren – BE
79.F.243
i
560
Tongeren – BE
71.G.50
j
590
Vechmaal – BE
2.D4.44
k
n.c.
Vechmaal – BE
2.D4.11
l
n.c.
Wenduine – BE
2005-1
period
0
II-III
II-III
I
I
II-III
II-III
II-III
II-III
II-III
0
modern
hue
purple
green
green
green
purple
green
green
green
green
green
purple
brown
function
bracelet – late La Tène
bracelet - A3
bracelet - A3
vessel - form IA.1
vessel - form IA.11
bracelet - C1
bracelet - A5
bracelet - A1
bracelet - A3
bracelet - A4
bracelet – late La Tène
vessel; cilindrical bottle
PC5
Na2O
MgO
Al2O3
SiO2
P2O5
SO3
Cl
K2O
CaO
TiO2
MnO
Fe2O3
CuO
PbO
ZnO
a
19,8
0,8
2,3
66,9
n.d.
n.d.
0,6
0,6
6,2
n.d.
1,4
0,3
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
b
21,7
0,6
2,0
64,0
n.d.
0,1
0,6
0,6
4,5
0,1
0,1
5,9
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
c
19,9
0,7
2,0
66,9
n.d.
n.d.
0,6
0,6
5,4
n.d.
0,3
3,7
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
d
24,9
3,0
2,2
60,2
0,4
0,2
0,8
1,9
5,1
0,1
0,2
1,0
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
e
20,1
0,8
1,8
67,1
n.d.
n.d.
0,6
0,6
7,0
n.d.
1,8
0,3
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
f
17,1
0,7
2,6
62,3
0,1
n.d.
0,5
0,9
5,5
0,1
0,3
4,1
n.d.
5,8
n.d.
g
19,3
0,6
2,1
62,4
n.d.
0,1
0,5
0,6
5,2
0,1
0,3
8,8
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
h
18,7
0,8
2,4
64,1
n.d.
1,7
0,4
0,6
5,8
0,1
0,5
5,1
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
i
18,8
0,8
2,0
65,0
n.d.
n.d.
0,6
0,6
5,9
n.d.
0,5
5,6
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
j
16,9
0,7
2,7
61,1
0,1
n.d.
0,4
0,7
5,4
0,1
0,4
4,7
n.d.
6,9
n.d.
k
21,8
1,1
1,9
64,3
n.d.
0,1
0,7
1,3
5,4
0,1
2,6
0,7
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
l
3,0
3,6
2,9
64,3
0,7
0,1
0,1
1,9
21,8
0,1
0,1
1,4
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
439
RESIN PC6
SEM-EDX at MiTAC, UA, Antwerp
synchrotron in Hamburg 07.2009
a-k
Augusta Raurica, Augst (CH)
PC6
cat.no.
place
inventory no.
a
3504
Augst – CH
1939-2120
b
3490
Augst – CH
1948-2409
c
3535
Augst – CH
1968-12534
d
3756
Augst – CH
1976-3747
e
3523
Augst – CH
1976-9745ab
f
3757
Augst – CH
1975-8206ab
g
3760
Augst – CH
1973-13799
h
3530
Augst – CH
1981-7046
i
3437
Augst – CH
1937-6527
j
3371
Augst – CH
1938-3093
k
3445
Augst – CH
1937-6525
period
II
II
II
II
II
II
II
II
II-III
II-III
II-III
hue
green
green
green
green
green
green
green
green
green
green
green
function
vessel - form
vessel - form
vessel - form
vessel - form
vessel - form
vessel - form
vessel - form
vessel - form
bracelet - A2
bracelet - A2
bracelet - A1
IIB.5
IIB.5
IIB.5
IIB.5
IIB.5
IIB.5
IIB.5
IIB.5
PC6
Na2O
MgO
Al2O3
SiO2
P2O5
SO3
Cl
K2O
CaO
TiO2
MnO
Fe2O3
CuO
PbO
ZnO
a
20,5
0,8
1,9
65,6
n.d.
n.d.
0,6
0,5
4,3
n.d.
0,2
5,6
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
b
20,8
0,8
2,0
65,9
n.d.
n.d.
0,6
0,5
4,3
n.d.
0,3
4,8
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
c
20,8
0,7
2,0
66,1
n.d.
n.d.
0,6
0,5
4,3
n.d.
0,2
4,8
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
d
20,0
0,9
1,9
65,3
n.d.
n.d.
0,7
0,6
5,1
n.d.
0,2
5,3
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
e
20,0
0,8
1,9
64,7
n.d.
n.d.
0,7
0,6
5,2
n.d.
0,3
5,8
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
f
20,7
0,7
2,0
65,2
n.d.
n.d.
0,7
0,5
4,9
n.d.
0,2
5,0
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
g
21,4
0,6
1,8
63,8
n.d.
0,1
0,7
0,5
4,5
n.d.
0,2
6,4
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
h
21,4
0,5
1,9
64,2
n.d.
n.d.
0,7
0,6
4,8
n.d.
0,2
5,8
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
i
19,1
0,7
1,9
65,0
n.d.
n.d.
0,7
0,6
5,9
n.d.
0,4
5,6
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
j
19,7
0,7
1,9
64,1
n.d.
n.d.
0,6
0,6
5,9
n.d.
0,4
6,1
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
k
19,3
0,5
1,8
65,2
n.d.
n.d.
0,7
0,6
5,9
n.d.
0,4
5,5
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
440
RESIN PC7
SEM-EDX at MiTAC, UA, Antwerp
a-f
Musée du Monde Souterrain, Han-sur-Lesse (BE)
PC7
cat.no.
place
inventory no.
a
314
Trou de Han – BE
A 66-59
b
312
Trou de Han – BE
A 66-60
c
307
Trou de Han – BE
A 66-61
d
310
Trou de Han – BE
A 71-8
e
301
Trou de Han – BE
A 71-9
f
303
Trou de Han – BE
A 71-10
period
II-III
II-III
II-III
II-III
II-III
II-III
PC7
Na2O
MgO
Al2O3
SiO2
P2O5
SO3
Cl
K2O
CaO
a
16,4
0,6
1,9
65,3
n.d.
n.d.
0,7
0,7
b
16,4
0,6
1,9
63,4
n.d.
n.d.
0,7
0,9
c
16,1
0,6
1,8
63,8
n.d.
n.d.
0,6
d
16,7
0,6
1,8
65,4
n.d.
n.d.
e
16,6
0,7
1,8
63,9
n.d.
f
16,5
0,7
1,9
65,9
n.d.
hue
green
green
green
green
green
green
function
bracelet - A2
bracelet - C2
bracelet - C2
bracelet - B2
bracelet - C2
bracelet - C2
TiO2
MnO
Fe2O3
CuO
PbO
ZnO
6,7
0,1
0,5
7,2
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
6,3
n.d.
0,2
9,5
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
0,9
6,4
0,1
0,2
9,3
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
0,7
0,7
6,7
n.d.
0,4
7,0
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
0,7
0,9
6,5
0,1
0,2
8,7
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
0,7
0,7
6,7
0,1
0,5
6,4
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
441
RESIN PC8
SEM-EDX at MiTAC, UA, Antwerp
a-f
Musée du Monde Souterrain, Han-sur-Lesse (BE)
PC8
cat.no.
place
inventory no.
a
305
Trou de Han – BE
A 73-3
b
308
Trou de Han – BE
E 76-79
c
306
Trou de Han – BE
AX-72
d
n.c.
Trou de Han – BE
E 77-6
e
n.c.
Trou de Han – BE
no inv. No.
f
316
Trou de Han – BE
W1
period
II-III
II-III
II-III
modern?
0
i
hue
green
green
green
green
blue
purple
function
bracelet - A2
bracelet - A5
bracelet - A2
cameo/medallion
chunk of obsidian
vessel – form IA.2
PC8
Na2O
MgO
Al2O3
SiO2
P2O5
SO3
Cl
K2O
CaO
TiO2
MnO
Fe2O3
CuO
PbO
ZnO
a
15,3
0,6
2,2
63,1
n.d.
n.d.
0,6
1,0
6,5
0,1
0,3
10,4
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
b
16,1
0,6
1,9
65,4
n.d.
n.d.
0,7
0,8
6,6
0,1
0,4
7,3
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
c
18,3
0,1
1,0
68,3
n.d.
n.d.
0,1
0,7
0,6
0,2
10,4
0,5
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
d
16,1
1,6
3,6
62,8
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
1,7
9,1
0,3
3,8
1,1
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
e
0,2
4,1
19,4
38,0
n.d.
0,3
n.d.
1,6
36,1
0,2
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
f
0,8
2,1
24,1
52,3
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
4,4
6,0
1,0
n.d.
9,3
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
RESIN PC9 & PC10
Both resins are excluded from the appendix because they were not incorporated in the catalogue. Both resins
contained solely late La Tène dark purple glass bracelets from the Dutch sites of Meteren, Odijk and Tiel in the east of
the Netherlands which are date c.120-50 BC.
We are very grateful to the Archeologisch Centrum Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (ACVU) for having kindly given to our
disposal these particular sample set and for having granted permission to integrate the analysis results in the general
output of the chemical analyses on deeply coloured glass.
442
RESIN PC11
SEM-EDX at MiTAC, UA, Antwerp
a-n
CNRS – Var (FR)
PC11
cat.no.
place
a
1321
Olbia – FR
b
1324
Olbia – FR
c
1325
Olbia – FR
d
1315
Olbia – FR
e
1323
Olbia – FR
f
1335
Olbia – FR
g
1326
Olbia – FR
h
1318
Olbia – FR
i
1322
Olbia – FR
j
1331
Olbia – FR
k
1330
Olbia – FR
l
1329
Olbia – FR
m
1227
Marseille – FR
n
3892
Sidi Djididi – TN
inventory no.
061-3 (olbia 5)
281-FNS
C014-2 FNS (olbia 4)
072-5
M6648
037-20 (olbia 3)
C014-1 FNS
HS 13.08.1965
1002-1
294-2 (olbia 2)
037-30 (olbia 1)
056-8
JV 29.92
1035
period
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
IV
I
I
I
I
I
(post?) IV
hue
blue
green
purple
purple
brown
purple
green
green
green
green
green
green
green
green
function
vessel
vessel
vessel
vessel
vessel
vessel
vessel
bracelet - D1
vessel
vessel
vessel
vessel
vessel
arch. decoration - tessera
PC11
Na2O
MgO
Al2O3
SiO2
P2O5
SO3
Cl
K2O
CaO
TiO2
MnO
Fe2O3
CuO
PbO
ZnO
a
18,8
1,0
2,4
64,6
n.d.
0,1
0,6
1,2
6,4
0,1
2,1
2,4
0,3
n.d.
n.d.
b
19,1
2,2
5,3
62,9
n.d.
n.d.
0,8
1,7
5,8
0,3
0,1
1,9
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
c
18,0
0,7
2,1
67,5
n.d.
n.d.
0,8
0,8
7,5
n.d.
2,1
0,5
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
d
18,2
0,7
2,0
66,0
n.d.
n.d.
0,6
0,9
7,8
n.d.
3,3
0,5
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
e
16,9
0,1
0,7
74,2
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
0,5
7,2
n.d.
0,2
0,2
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
f
17,1
0,7
2,3
67,2
n.d.
n.d.
0,7
0,9
7,9
n.d.
2,6
0,6
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
g
16,5
2,9
2,1
63,4
0,5
n.d.
0,5
3,3
8,8
0,2
0,3
1,5
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
h
17,5
1,1
2,2
61,9
n.d.
n.d.
0,7
0,7
6,7
0,3
2,4
6,5
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
i
18,2
2,2
5,3
63,7
n.d.
n.d.
0,5
1,7
6,1
0,3
n.d.
1,9
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
j
19,1
1,8
2,7
65,6
n.d.
n.d.
0,7
1,4
6,5
0,3
0,4
1,6
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
k
18,5
1,8
2,6
65,3
n.d.
n.d.
0,9
1,5
6,9
0,3
0,6
1,4
0,1
n.d.
n.d.
l
18,4
2,8
3,1
62,7
n.d.
n.d.
0,7
2,1
8,5
0,2
0,3
1,5
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
m
20,2
2,3
3,0
61,6
n.d.
n.d.
1,0
1,4
7,2
0,3
0,6
2,5
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n
7,5
n.d.
6,4
71,7
n.d.
n.d.
0,3
4,4
0,3
0,2
0,3
8,8
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
443
RESIN PC12
SEM-EDX at MiTAC, UA, Antwerp
a-g
Koninklijke Musea voor Kunst en Geschiedenis (KMKG), Brussel (BE)
h-m
Vrije Universiteit (VU), Amsterdam (NL)
PC12
cat.no.
place
inventory no.
period
a
2793
Rome – IT
R1609/49
I
b
2794
Rome – IT
R1609/56
I
c
2795
Rome – IT
R1609/57
I
d
2800
Rome – IT
R1609/59
I
e
2796
Rome – IT
R1609/69
I
f
2791
Rome – IT
R1609/77
I
g
2801
Rome – IT
R1609/106
I
h
2905
Hoogeloon – NL
no number
II
i
2907
Hoogeloon – NL
KA 80-1
II
j
2904
Hoogeloon – NL
KA 87
II
k
2903
Hoogeloon – NL
KA 80-2
II
l
2902
Hoogeloon – NL
KA 85-1
II
m
2906
Hoogeloon – NL
KA 85-2
II
hue
blue
blue-green
blue-green
blue
brown
purple
purple
green
green
green
green
green
green
function
arch. decoration - rod
arch. decoration - rod
arch. decoration - rod
arch. decoration - rod
arch. decoration - rod
arch. decoration - rod
arch. decoration - rod
vessel - form IIB.1
vessel - form IIB.4
vessel - form IIB.1
vessel - form IIB.4
vessel - form IIB.1
vessel - form IIB.1
PC12
Na2O
MgO
Al2O3
SiO2
P2O5
SO3
Cl
K2O
CaO
TiO2
MnO
Fe2O3
CuO
PbO
ZnO
a
17,4
0,5
2,5
68,9
n.d.
n.d.
0,6
0,8
7,6
n.d.
0,2
1,3
0,1
n.d.
n.d.
b
18,0
0,6
2,4
68,7
n.d.
n.d.
0,6
0,9
7,4
n.d.
0,2
1,1
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
c
18,4
0,5
2,6
68,3
n.d.
n.d.
0,6
0,9
7,3
n.d.
0,2
1,1
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
d
17,5
0,6
2,2
68,4
n.d.
n.d.
0,9
0,7
8,1
n.d.
0,3
1,4
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
e
15,8
0,5
2,1
70,6
n.d.
n.d.
0,8
1,1
8,3
n.d.
0,4
0,4
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
f
16,8
0,6
2,4
68,8
n.d.
n.d.
0,8
0,9
7,3
n.d.
2,0
0,5
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
g
15,9
1,0
2,2
67,2
n.d.
n.d.
0,7
0,9
7,8
n.d.
3,4
1,0
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
h
17,2
0,6
1,9
64,6
n.d.
n.d.
0,7
0,7
6,1
n.d.
0,2
8,1
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
i
19,1
3,1
1,6
63,4
n.d.
n.d.
0,9
2,0
7,5
0,2
0,4
1,8
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
j
17,5
0,5
1,8
63,4
n.d.
n.d.
0,6
0,7
5,4
n.d.
0,1
9,9
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
k
19,3
3,1
1,6
63,3
n.d.
n.d.
0,9
2,0
7,5
0,2
0,4
1,8
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
l
16,4
0,6
1,9
62,1
n.d.
n.d.
0,6
0,7
6,0
n.d.
0,3
11,3
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
m
16,4
0,5
1,7
61,6
n.d.
n.d.
0,7
0,6
5,6
n.d.
0,2
12,6
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
444
RESIN PC13
SEM-EDX at MiTAC, UA, Antwerp
a-k
Rheinishes Landesmuseum, Trier (DE)
PC13
cat.no.
place
a
2073
Trier-Palais Kesselstatt – DE
b
2073
Trier-Palais Kesselstatt – DE
c
2073
Trier-Palais Kesselstatt – DE
d
2056
Trier-Palais Kesselstatt – DE
e
2051
Trier-Palais Kesselstatt – DE
f
2031
Trier-Saarstrasse – DE
g
2867
Wasserbillig – LU
h
1958
Möhn – DE
i
2048
Trier-Barbarathermen – DE
j
2041
Trier – DE
k
2022
Trier-Fausenburg – DE
PC13
Na2O
MgO
Al2O3
SiO2
inventory no.
EV 22-343 182a-2
EV 22-343 182a-1
EV 22-343 182a-3
EV 22-343
382.561.193
16600
9137
9233
2140
EV 22-343 (38.2558)
8894
period
IV
IV
IV
IV
IV
III-IV
III-IV
III-IV
IV
III-IV
III-IV
hue
green
green
green
green
green
green
green
green
green
green
green
function
production glass from crucible
production glass from crucible
production glass from crucible
pendant - vessel-shaped
bracelet - D1
bracelet - C1var.3
bracelet - C3 var.3
bracelet - A1
bracelet - D1
finger ring finger ring – A1
P2O5
SO3
Cl
K2O
CaO
TiO2
MnO
Fe2O3
CuO
PbO
ZnO
a
15,8
2,5
3,0
58,3
0,2
n.d.
0,4
2,5
8,4
0,6
1,5
6,9
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
b
17,2
1,0
2,6
62,5
n.d.
n.d.
0,6
1,0
5,8
0,5
1,6
7,3
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
c
18,0
1,0
2,0
61,2
n.d.
0,2
0,9
0,6
6,9
0,2
1,6
7,2
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
d
14,7
1,2
2,8
57,9
n.d.
n.d.
0,4
1,5
6,7
0,4
1,4
8,8
0,6
3,5
3,5
e
18,7
1,1
2,1
63,7
n.d.
n.d.
0,8
0,7
6,0
0,4
1,8
4,7
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
f
16,3
0,5
2,1
62,3
n.d.
n.d.
0,6
0,8
6,5
n.d.
0,3
10,5
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
g
16,7
0,6
2,2
67,0
n.d.
n.d.
0,6
0,8
7,2
n.d.
0,5
4,4
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
h
16,6
0,6
2,0
63,9
n.d.
n.d.
0,6
0,7
6,3
n.d.
0,4
8,8
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
i
17,8
0,8
1,9
61,1
n.d.
n.d.
0,8
0,7
6,1
0,2
1,3
7,3
0,2
1,8
1,8
j
17,3
1,0
2,2
60,3
n.d.
n.d.
0,7
0,7
6,1
0,4
1,7
7,8
0,1
1,7
1,7
k
17,0
1,1
2,2
60,6
n.d.
n.d.
0,8
0,8
6,1
0,3
1,6
8,2
0,2
1,1
1,1
445
RESIN PC14
SEM-EDX at MiTAC, UA, Antwerp
a-m
Musée des Antiquités Nationales (M.A.N.), Saint-Germain-en-Laye (FR)
PC14
cat.no.
place
inventory no.
period
a
Ste Menehould – FR
83401 - B1
III-IV
b
Ste Menehould – FR
83401 - B2
III-IV
c
Ste Menehould – FR
83401 - B3
III-IV
d
Ste Menehould – FR
83401 - B4
III-IV
e
Ste Menehould – FR
83401 - B5
III-IV
f
Ste Menehould – FR
83401 - B6
III-IV
g
1604
Ste Menehould – FR
83401 - P1
III-IV
h
1600
Ste Menehould – FR
83401 - P2
III-IV
i
1602
Ste Menehould – FR
83401 - P3
III-IV
j
1595
Ste Menehould – FR
83401 - P4
III-IV
k
1570
Ste Menehould – FR
83401 - P5
III-IV
l
1508
Ste Menehould – FR
83401 - Q88
III-IV
m
1576
Ste Menehould – FR
83401 - Q117
III-IV
hue
green
green
green
blue-green
blue-grey
blue-grey
purple
greyish
green
green
green
brown
red
function
bracelet
bracelet
bracelet
bracelet
bracelet
bracelet
bracelet
raw glass
bracelet
raw glass
bracelet
bracelet
bracelet
PC14
Na2O
MgO
Al2O3
SiO2
P2O5
SO3
Cl
K2O
CaO
TiO2
MnO
Fe2O3
CuO
PbO
ZnO
a
17,8
0,6
2,0
66,7
n.d.
n.d.
0,8
0,7
6,6
n.d.
0,3
4,4
0,3
n.d.
n.d.
b
18,6
0,5
2,1
66,5
n.d.
n.d.
0,8
0,8
6,3
n.d.
0,3
3,9
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
c
18,3
0,6
2,0
66,5
n.d.
n.d.
0,8
0,7
6,5
n.d.
0,3
4,1
0,2
n.d.
n.d.
d
17,9
0,6
2,4
65,8
n.d.
n.d.
0,7
0,8
6,3
n.d.
0,3
3,7
0,3
1,2
1,2
e
16,7
0,5
4,4
65,5
n.d.
n.d.
0,8
0,7
6,5
n.d.
0,3
1,8
0,2
2,6
2,6
f
18,3
0,5
2,3
66,7
n.d.
n.d.
0,8
0,7
6,6
n.d.
0,3
2,2
0,2
1,3
1,3
g
16,3
0,6
2,4
66,8
n.d.
n.d.
0,5
0,7
8,4
n.d.
3,6
0,7
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
h
0,1
3,0
10,7
57,7
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
4,1
23,1
0,4
0,3
0,6
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
i
11,5
1,6
3,6
68,1
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
4,5
6,5
0,3
0,4
2,2
0,2
1,0
1,0
j
n.d.
1,4
15,2
41,8
n.d.
0,6
n.d.
1,5
38,6
0,2
0,4
0,3
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
k
16,4
0,6
1,9
64,5
n.d.
n.d.
0,6
0,8
6,8
n.d.
0,4
8,1
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
l
16,7
0,7
2,3
70,1
n.d.
n.d.
0,7
1,3
6,7
0,1
0,3
1,0
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
m
16,7
0,6
2,0
62,6
n.d.
n.d.
0,6
0,9
6,5
n.d.
0,4
7,5
0,4
2,0
2,0
446
RESIN PC15
SEM-EDX at MiTAC, UA, Antwerp
a-g
London Archaeological Archive Centre (LAARC), London (UK)
PC15
cat.no.
place
inventory no.
period
a
4142
London – UK
23121
I-II
b
4148
London – UK
BBB 05
I-II
c
London – UK
2406a
I-II
d*
4143
London – UK
18.022
I-II
e
4145
London – UK
A22557
I-II
f
4091
London – UK
2685
I
g
4090
London – UK
14499
I
hue
olive green
greyish-green
ultramarine blue
black
olive green
amber brown
blue
function
vessel
vessel
vessel
vessel
vessel
arch. decoration - rod
rod
*polished away and therefore resampled in resin PC17
PC15
Na2O
MgO
Al2O3
SiO2
P2O5
SO3
Cl
K2O
CaO
TiO2
MnO
Fe2O3
CuO
PbO
ZnO
a
18,4
2,8
2,1
63,6
n.d.
n.d.
0,8
2,1
7,6
0,3
0,4
1,7
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
b
15,6
0,6
2,2
64,2
n.d.
n.d.
0,5
1,1
6,7
n.d.
0,4
8,7
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
c
15,9
0,4
1,8
72,3
n.d.
n.d.
0,8
0,6
5,9
n.d.
0,9
1,1
0,3
n.d.
n.d.
d
2,3
1,9
17,0
54,0
2,9
3,9
n.d.
1,8
8,6
1,6
0,6
4,4
1,0
n.d.
n.d.
e
17,5
3,8
1,6
63,7
0,4
n.d.
0,8
2,7
7,7
0,2
0,3
1,3
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
f
18,4
0,4
4,8
69,7
n.d.
n.d.
1,0
1,5
3,7
n.d.
n.d.
0,4
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
g
17,8
0,5
2,5
68,7
n.d.
n.d.
0,6
0,9
7,7
n.d.
0,2
1,1
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
447
RESIN PC16
SEM-EDX at MiTAC, UA, Antwerp
a-f
London Archaeological Archive Centre (LAARC), London (UK)
PC16
cat.no.
place
inventory no.
period
hue
a
4130
London – UK
98.94/6
I-II
brownish green
b
4126
London – UK
98.94/7
I-II
brownish green
c
4122
London – UK
98.94/8
I-II
bottle green
d
4127
London – UK
98.94/26
I-II
olive green
e
4118
London – UK
98.94/30
I-II
brownish green + white/red/blue/yellow
f
4119
London – UK
98.94/34
I-II
brownish green
function
bracelet – Romano-British
bracelet – Romano-British
bracelet – Romano-British
bracelet – Romano-British
bracelet – Romano-British
bracelet – Romano-British
PC16
Na2O
MgO
Al2O3
SiO2
P2O5
SO3
Cl
K2O
CaO
TiO2
MnO
Fe2O3
CuO
PbO
ZnO
a
20,3
5,9
1,3
64,7
n.d.
n.d.
0,8
2,3
3,5
0,2
n.d.
0,9
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
b
20,3
4,5
1,6
65,5
n.d.
n.d.
1,1
2,4
3,3
0,3
n.d.
1,0
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
c
19,1
5,7
1,4
66,0
n.d.
n.d.
1,0
2,2
3,4
0,2
n.d.
0,9
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
d
21,3
2,0
6,6
55,2
n.d.
0,6
1,0
3,3
5,7
1,0
n.d.
3,3
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
e
20,9
5,2
2,3
63,4
n.d.
n.d.
0,8
1,9
3,7
0,3
n.d.
1,4
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
f
20,4
4,4
4,2
60,6
n.d.
n.d.
0,7
3,3
3,9
0,4
n.d.
1,9
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
448
RESIN PC17
SEM-EDX at MiTAC, UA, Antwerp
a
London Archaeological Archive Centre (LAARC), London (UK)
PC17
cat.no.
place
inventory no.
period
a
4148
London – UK
BBB 05
I
hue
greyish-green
function
vessel
PC17
Na2O
MgO
Al2O3
SiO2
P2O5
SO3
Cl
K2O
CaO
TiO2
MnO
Fe2O3
CuO
PbO
ZnO
a
16,4
0,6
2,5
64,4
n.d.
n.d.
0,5
1,0
6,1
n.d.
0,4
7,9
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
449
RESIN PC18
SEM-EDX at MiTAC, UA, Antwerp
a-k
Muze Prokrajinska, Celje (SLO)
PC18
cat.no.
place
a
716
Oresac – HR
b
705
Oresac – HR
c
693
Oresac – HR
d
694
Oresac – HR
e
701
Oresac – HR
f
704
Oresac – HR
g
713
Oresac – HR
h
683
Oresac – HR
i
684
Oresac – HR
j
686
Oresac – HR
k
687
Oresac – HR
inventory no.
no.2
no.3
no.7
no.8
no.12
no.15
no.27
no.31
no.32
no.34
no.35
period
IV
IV
IV
IV
IV
IV
IV
IV
IV
IV
III-IV
hue
green
green
green
green
green
green
black
green
green
green
green
function
bracelet - D1
bracelet - D1
bracelet - D5
bracelet - D2a
bracelet - D1
bracelet - D1
bracelet - D1
bracelet - D5
bracelet - D2a
bracelet - D3
bracelet - A2
PC18
Na2O
MgO
Al2O3
SiO2
P2O5
SO3
Cl
K2O
CaO
TiO2
MnO
Fe2O3
CuO
PbO
ZnO
a
16,8
0,6
2,2
62,7
n.d.
n.d.
0,8
0,6
7,8
n.d.
0,9
7,5
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
b
16,7
0,9
2,2
60,7
n.d.
n.d.
0,7
0,9
7,6
n.d.
0,3
9,9
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
c
17,2
0,8
1,7
59,1
n.d.
n.d.
0,7
0,5
5,9
0,1
0,8
13,1
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
d
15,6
0,7
2,1
60,3
n.d.
n.d.
0,6
0,8
8,6
n.d.
0,9
10,3
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
e
18,1
0,6
1,7
62,1
n.d.
n.d.
0,9
0,5
5,7
n.d.
0,8
9,5
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
f
17,4
0,7
1,8
59,3
n.d.
n.d.
0,8
0,7
5,9
0,1
0,8
12,5
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
g
17,8
0,7
1,8
57,1
n.d.
n.d.
0,8
0,6
6,3
n.d.
0,3
14,6
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
h
17,7
0,7
1,8
60,1
n.d.
n.d.
0,8
0,7
6,0
n.d.
0,8
11,2
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
i
17,8
0,8
1,9
63,6
n.d.
n.d.
0,9
0,6
5,7
0,1
1,2
7,3
0,1
n.d.
n.d.
j
18,3
0,6
1,8
60,9
n.d.
n.d.
0,9
0,6
5,7
0,1
0,9
10,2
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
k
17,4
0,6
2,0
65,7
n.d.
n.d.
0,8
0,6
7,3
n.d.
0,5
5,1
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
450
RESIN PC19
SEM-EDX at MiTAC, UA, Antwerp
a-l
Muze Prokrajinska, Celje (SLO)
PC19
cat.no.
place
a
3113
Celje – SL
b
3115
Celje – SL
c
3116
Celje – SL
d
3174
Trebnje - SL
e
3170
Ribnica - SL
f
3163
Ribnica - SL
g
3173
Ribnica - SL
h
3155
Ribnica - SL
i
3165
Ribnica - SL
j
3172
Ribnica - SL
k
3168
Ribnica - SL
l
3167
Ribnica - SL
inventory no.
R24440/S 296
R24633/PN3166
R24628/PN4003
R10/06
S159/PN1087
S186
S298
S304
S490
S492
S502
S544/PN3220
period
IV
III-IV
III-IV
III-IV
I-III
I
I-III
III-IV
III-IV
III-IV
IV
hue
black/olive green
black/olive green
black/olive green
black/green
black/green
black/olive green
black/olive green
black/purple
black
black/olive green
black/green
black
PC19
Na2O
MgO
Al2O3
SiO2
P2O5
SO3
Cl
K2O
CaO
TiO2
MnO
function
bracelet - D1
bead - Trilobitenperle
raw glass
bead - melon bead
bracelet - Spaer B2b
counter - small
vessel
counter - large
bracelet - B1
bead - Trilobitenperle
bead - Trilobitenperle
bracelet - D1
Fe2O3
CuO
PbO
ZnO
a
16,7
0,7
2,0
64,7
n.d.
n.d.
0,8
0,8
7,2
n.d.
0,4
6,6
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
b
16,2
0,7
2,2
60,5
n.d.
n.d.
0,7
0,7
7,9
n.d.
0,7
10,4
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
c
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
d
15,8
0,5
1,6
59,2
n.d.
n.d.
0,8
0,5
5,8
n.d.
0,2
15,6
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
e
17,7
0,9
2,0
63,9
n.d.
n.d.
0,8
0,7
6,4
0,1
0,6
6,9
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
f
15,1
0,4
1,9
64,2
n.d.
n.d.
0,7
0,8
6,6
n.d.
0,4
9,8
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
g
20,6
2,1
2,9
63,9
n.d.
0,1
0,9
1,5
5,9
0,3
0,2
1,6
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
h
16,3
1,7
2,3
65,1
n.d.
n.d.
0,9
0,8
7,8
0,2
3,9
1,2
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
i
17,1
0,9
1,9
62,3
n.d.
n.d.
0,8
0,6
6,3
0,1
0,5
9,2
0,2
n.d.
n.d.
j
17,4
0,9
2,0
59,9
n.d.
n.d.
0,8
0,6
4,7
0,2
0,8
12,7
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
k
17,3
0,8
1,8
61,6
n.d.
n.d.
0,7
0,7
6,9
0,1
0,7
9,3
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
l
18,1
0,6
1,7
62,6
n.d.
n.d.
0,8
0,6
5,9
0,1
0,9
8,5
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
451
RESIN PC20
SEM-EDX at MiTAC, UA, Antwerp
a-b
Muze Prokrajinska, Celje (SLO)
c
not located, examined by courtesy of Mario Da Cruz (PT)
d-j
Musée Archéologique, Namur (BE)
PC20
cat.no.
place
inventory no.
a
3166
Ribnica – SL
S551/PN3883
b
3157
Ribnica – SL
S740
3001
c
Braga – PT
BRA26
d
e
f
g
h
i
j
177
179
192
433
495
457
458
Anthée – BE
Anthée – BE
Auvelais – BE
Marche-les-Dames – BE
Pry – BE
Nismes – BE
Nismes – BE
period
IV
I-III
AMN A5775/V236
AMN A5775/V238
AMN A4604c
AMN A2569
AMN A1872
AMN A2823
AMN A2824
hue
black/green
black/olive green
III-IV
black/green
III-IV
II
II
III-IV
III-IV
III-IV
III-IV
black/green
black/purple
black/green
black/green
black/green
black/green
black/green
PC20
Na2O
MgO
Al2O3
SiO2
P2O5
SO3
Cl
K2O
CaO
function
bracelet - D2
counter - small
raw glass/
glass cake from crucible
bracelet - A1
vessel - form IIB.4/5
vessel - form IIB.1
bracelet - A4
bracelet - A3
bracelet - C1
bracelet - B2
TiO2
MnO
Fe2O3
CuO
PbO
ZnO
a
18,4
0,9
1,9
62,3
n.d.
n.d.
0,8
0,6
7,3
0,1
0,9
6,7
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
b
15,5
0,5
2,0
64,6
n.d.
n.d.
0,8
0,8
6,6
n.d.
0,4
8,9
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
c
17,9
0,9
1,9
60,4
n.d.
n.d.
0,9
0,5
5,4
0,1
1,0
10,8
0,2
n.d.
n.d.
d
16,2
0,6
1,8
62,4
n.d.
n.d.
0,6
0,7
6,1
n.d.
0,2
11,3
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
e
19,6
1,4
2,5
62,9
n.d.
n.d.
0,9
0,8
8,4
0,2
2,0
1,3
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
f
16,8
0,4
1,6
63,2
n.d.
n.d.
0,8
0,6
5,8
n.d.
0,2
10,5
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
g
16,6
0,5
2,0
65,9
n.d.
n.d.
0,6
0,8
6,6
n.d.
0,4
6,3
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
h
14,9
0,6
2,7
65,3
n.d.
n.d.
0,4
1,3
6,5
0,1
0,3
7,7
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
i
16,4
0,6
1,9
64,4
n.d.
n.d.
0,6
0,8
6,7
n.d.
0,4
8,0
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
j
15,7
0,6
1,9
64,3
n.d.
n.d.
0,6
0,8
6,8
n.d.
0,4
8,8
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
452
RESIN PC21
SEM-EDX at MiTAC, UA, Antwerp
synchrotron in Hamburg 07.2009
a-j
Vlaams Instituut voor het Onroerend Erfgoed (VIOE), Zellik (BE)
PC21
cat.no.
place
inventory no.
a
438
Matagne-la-Petite – BE
79.MP.48.A (Matagne 1)
b
439
Matagne-la-Petite – BE
79.MP.48.B (Matagne 2)
c
440
Matagne-la-Petite – BE
79.MP.48.C (Matagne 3)
d
441
Matagne-la-Petite – BE
79.MP.48.D (Matagne 4)
e
442
Matagne-la-Petite – BE
79.MP.48.E (Matagne 5)
f
446
Matagne-la-Petite – BE
79.MP.48.F
g
443
Matagne-la-Petite – BE
79.MP.48.G (Matagne 6)
h
444
Matagne-la-Petite – BE
79.MP.48.H
i
445
Matagne-la-Petite – BE
79.MP.48.I (Matagne 7)
j
447
Matagne-la-Petite – BE
79.MP.48.J (Matagne 8)
period
II
II
II
II
II
II
II
II
II
II
hue
black/green
black/green
black/green
black/green
black/green
black/green
black/green
black/green
black/green
black/green
function
vessel - form
vessel - form
vessel - form
vessel - form
vessel
vessel
vessel
vessel
vessel - form
vessel - form
IIB.1
IIB.1
IIB.1
IIB.1
IIB.5
IIB.5
PC21
Na2O
MgO
Al2O3
SiO2
P2O5
SO3
Cl
K2O
CaO
TiO2
MnO
Fe2O3
CuO
PbO
ZnO
a
16,6
0,5
1,8
63,6
n.d.
n.d.
0,7
0,7
6,0
n.d.
0,2
9,8
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
b
16,8
0,5
1,7
64,1
n.d.
n.d.
0,7
0,7
6,2
n.d.
0,2
8,9
0,1
n.d.
n.d.
c
16,3
0,5
1,9
63,0
n.d.
n.d.
0,7
0,7
6,2
n.d.
0,2
10,4
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
d
16,7
0,5
1,9
64,0
n.d.
n.d.
0,7
0,7
6,2
n.d.
0,2
8,9
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
e
16,5
0,5
1,8
64,2
n.d.
n.d.
0,7
0,7
6,2
n.d.
0,2
9,1
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
f
16,7
0,5
1,8
64,2
n.d.
n.d.
0,7
0,7
6,1
n.d.
0,2
8,9
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
g
15,8
0,5
1,7
62,1
n.d.
n.d.
0,6
0,7
5,6
n.d.
0,3
12,7
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
h
16,3
0,5
1,8
62,8
n.d.
n.d.
0,7
0,7
6,0
n.d.
0,2
11,0
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
i
16,0
0,5
1,9
63,0
n.d.
n.d.
0,6
0,7
6,4
n.d.
0,3
10,5
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
j
15,9
0,5
1,7
62,2
n.d.
n.d.
0,7
0,7
6,2
n.d.
0,2
11,9
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
453
RESIN PC22
picture not available
SEM-EDX at MiTAC, UA, Antwerp
a-l
Musée Romain, Avenches (CH)
PC22
cat.no.
place
a
3612
Avenches – CH
b
3628
Avenches – CH
c
3627
Avenches – CH
d
3626
Avenches – CH
e
3625
Avenches – CH
f
3594
Avenches – CH
g
3603
Avenches – CH
h
3617
Avenches – CH
i
3624
Avenches – CH
j
3630
Avenches – CH
k
3623
Avenches – CH
l
3599
Avenches – CH
inventory no.
MRA 63/2411 (Avenches 1)
MRA 88/6486-06
MRA 88/6501-9 (Avenches 2)
MRA 88/6572-9 (Avenches 3)
MRA 88/6809-5
MRA 88/6918-02B (Avenches 4)
MRA 88/6975-05 (Avenches 5)
MRA 89/7170-43 (Avenches 6)
MRA 89/7170-45
MRA 89/7170-46 (Avenches 7)
MRA 89/7179-03 (Avenches 8)
MRA 89/7851-9 (Avenches 9)
period
II
II
II
II
II
I-II
I-II
II
I-II
I-II
I-II
II
hue
green
green
green
green
green
green
green
green
green
green
green
green
function
vessel
vessel
vessel
vessel
vessel
vessel
vessel
vessel
vessel
vessel
vessel
vessel
PC22
Na2O
MgO
Al2O3
SiO2
P2O5
SO3
Cl
K2O
CaO
TiO2
MnO
Fe2O3
CuO
PbO
ZnO
a
16,7
0,5
1,9
63,7
n.d.
n.d.
0,8
0,7
6,2
n.d.
0,3
9,2
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
b
16,6
0,5
1,8
64,1
n.d.
n.d.
0,7
0,7
6,2
n.d.
0,2
9,1
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
c
16,6
0,5
1,7
64,2
n.d.
n.d.
0,7
0,7
6,2
n.d.
0,2
9,0
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
d
16,5
0,5
1,7
64,2
n.d.
n.d.
0,8
0,7
6,2
n.d.
0,2
9,0
0,1
n.d.
n.d.
e
19,1
2,5
2,1
63,6
0,2
n.d.
1,0
1,3
6,9
0,2
1,3
1,6
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
f
18,0
2,6
1,6
63,9
0,1
n.d.
0,9
1,9
8,6
0,1
0,5
1,6
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
g
17,2
2,9
1,8
63,0
n.d.
n.d.
0,9
1,6
10,4
0,1
0,4
1,5
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
h
18,6
3,2
1,6
62,2
0,2
n.d.
0,9
2,1
8,9
0,2
0,4
1,7
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
i
18,5
3,4
1,7
62,1
0,2
n.d.
0,9
2,1
8,8
0,2
0,4
1,6
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
j
18,2
3,3
1,6
62,6
0,2
n.d.
0,8
2,1
9,0
0,2
0,4
1,7
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
k
14,3
3,3
1,5
63,4
0,2
n.d.
0,7
2,4
11,2
0,2
0,4
2,3
0,1
n.d.
n.d.
l
15,3
3,3
1,6
63,4
0,1
n.d.
0,8
2,2
10,6
n.d.
0,4
2,2
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
454
RESIN PC23
picture not available
SEM-EDX at MiTAC, UA, Antwerp
a-e
Musée Romain, Avenches (CH)
f
VIOE-buitendienst, Zarren (BE)
g-j
GAD, Nijmegen (NL)
PC23
cat.no.
place
a
3599
Avenches – CH
b
3595
Avenches – CH
c
3597
Avenches – CH
d
3596
Avenches – CH
e
3600
Avenches – CH
f
448
Menen – BE
g
2978
Nijmegen – NL
h
2977
Nijmegen – NL
i
2973
Nijmegen – NL
j
2974
Nijmegen – NL
inventory no.
MRA 89/7851-11
MRA 89/7851-13 (Avenches 10)
MRA 90/8248-348
MRA 90/8248-349
MRA 90/8248-351
MEK-07-473
MP1-3/299
MP1-3/542
BO5-132-10
BO5-126-122
PC23
Na2O
MgO
Al2O3
SiO2
P2O5
SO3
Cl
K2O
CaO
TiO2
MnO
Fe2O3
CuO
PbO
ZnO
a
14,8
3,3
1,5
63,2
0,1
n.d.
0,7
2,4
11,0
0,2
0,4
2,3
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
b
15,1
3,3
1,6
63,7
n.d.
n.d.
0,7
2,4
10,3
0,1
0,4
2,1
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
c
19,2
2,1
2,9
62,6
n.d.
n.d.
1,1
1,2
8,5
0,3
0,3
1,6
0,1
n.d.
n.d.
d
20,1
0,4
2,2
66,0
n.d.
0,1
1,1
1,1
8,5
n.d.
n.d.
0,4
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
e
19,5
1,3
2,6
65,4
n.d.
n.d.
0,9
1,4
6,9
0,3
0,4
1,4
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
f
16,8
0,4
1,7
64,8
n.d.
n.d.
0,8
0,7
6,1
n.d.
0,2
8,3
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
g
16,9
0,8
1,8
64,3
n.d.
n.d.
0,8
0,9
6,7
n.d.
0,3
7,4
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
h
16,7
0,7
2,4
65,2
n.d.
n.d.
0,7
0,9
6,3
0,1
0,3
6,7
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
i
0,8
3,1
8,6
36,8
3,0
n.d.
n.d.
1,1
27,5
7,9
0,3
11,0
0,1
n.d.
n.d.
j
1,0
3,1
9,0
37,0
3,6
n.d.
n.d.
1,2
27,2
5,8
0,4
11,8
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
period
I-II
I-II
I
I-II
I
?
II
II
-
hue
green
green
green
green
green
black/green
black/green
black/green
black/brown
black/brown
function
vessel
vessel
vessel
vessel
vessel
remelted finger ring?
vessel - form IIB.1
vessel - form IIB.1
raw glass/glass cake
raw glass/glass cake
455
RESIN PC24
SEM-EDX at MiTAC, UA, Antwerp
a-h
Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA), Jerusalem (I)
PC24
cat.no.
place
inventory no.
a
2402
Horbat Qastra – IL
A2207/L6127/B6437
b
2403
Horbat Qastra – IL
A2207/L5246/B5721
c
2401
Horbat Qastra – IL
A2207/L6128/B6609
d
2359
Horbat Qastra – IL
A2207/L6129/B6428
e
2406
Horbat Qastra – IL
A2482/L6703/B62780/1; 32I
f
2406
Horbat Qastra – IL
A2482/L6703/B62780/1; 32K
g
2405
Horbat Qastra – IL
A2482/L6703/B62780/1; 32M
h
2405
Horbat Qastra – IL
A2482/L6703/B62780/1; 32N
PC24
Na2O
MgO
Al2O3
SiO2
P2O5
SO3
Cl
period
III/IV
III/IV
III/IV
III/IV
III/IV
III/IV
III/IV
III/IV
K2O
CaO
hue
function
bead
jewellery/bead
jewellery/pendant
bead
bead
bead
bead
bead
black
black
black
black
black
black
black
black
TiO2
MnO
Fe2O3
CuO
PbO
ZnO
a
18,9
1,2
1,3
63,5
n.d.
n.d.
1,0
0,5
5,9
0,2
0,9
6,1
n.d.
0,5
n.d.
b
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
c
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
d
16,5
1,3
1,9
61,9
n.d.
0,2
0,7
0,6
6,3
0,5
1,3
8,7
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
e
16,5
1,4
1,9
61,6
n.d.
0,3
0,8
0,7
6,0
0,5
1,3
9,0
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
f
15,1
0,7
1,8
66,5
n.d.
0,2
0,7
0,8
8,6
0,1
0,7
4,7
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
g
16,6
1,4
1,8
59,5
n.d.
0,4
0,7
0,6
6,2
0,4
1,2
11,2
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
h
13,4
1,8
1,9
71,7
n.d.
0,4
1,0
0,7
5,7
0,2
0,6
2,6
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
456
RESIN PC25
SEM-EDX at MiTAC, UA, Antwerp
a-h
Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA), Jerusalem (I)
PC25
cat.no.
place
inventory no.
a
2412
Horbat Qastra – IL
A2482/L6704/B62731-1; 11/18E
b
2336
Horbat Qastra – IL
A2207/L5257/B5750E
c
2343
Horbat Qastra – IL
A2207/L5257/B5750F
d
2346
Horbat Qastra – IL
A2482/6689/62623/5C
e
Horbat Qastra – IL
A2482/L6723/B62620-12
f
2372
Horbat Qastra – IL
A2482/L6725/B62633/9A
g
2341
Horbat Qastra – IL
A2482/L6725/B62635-3C
h
Horbat Qastra – IL
A2482/L6725/B62635-3D
period
III/IV
III/IV
III/IV
III/IV
III/IV
III/IV
III/IV
III/IV
PC25
Na2O
MgO
Al2O3
SiO2
P2O5
SO3
Cl
K2O
CaO
TiO2
MnO
Fe2O3
CuO
PbO
ZnO
hue
black
black
black/grey
black/blue
black/red
black
black
black/blue
function
bead
bead
bead
bead
bracelet
bead
bead
bracelet
a
20,3
2,1
1,5
64,4
n.d.
0,4
1,2
0,6
5,2
0,2
0,8
3,3
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
b
13,1
1,1
1,7
71,1
0,3
0,4
0,7
0,6
7,6
0,2
2,0
1,2
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
c
17,3
0,9
1,4
61,3
0,1
0,3
0,8
0,6
6,6
0,2
0,9
9,6
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
d
14,3
0,8
1,6
60,5
n.d.
0,5
0,7
0,8
8,1
0,1
0,7
11,1
0,6
n.d.
n.d.
e
18,3
1,0
2,0
67,2
n.d.
0,4
0,8
0,7
7,2
0,2
0,8
1,3
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
f
16,2
0,9
1,8
62,3
n.d.
0,3
0,7
0,6
9,2
0,2
0,9
7,0
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
g
13,8
0,7
1,7
62,8
n.d.
0,2
0,7
1,3
8,3
0,1
0,5
9,8
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
h
16,8
0,7
1,3
70,0
n.d.
0,5
1,1
0,5
6,9
0,2
0,8
1,3
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
457
RESIN PC26
SEM-EDX at MiTAC, UA, Antwerp
a-g
VIOE-buitendienst, Zarren (BE)
PC26
cat.no.
place
a
494
Oudenburg – BE
b
493
Oudenburg – BE
c
492
Oudenburg – BE
d
467
Oudenburg – BE
e
Oudenburg – BE
f
Oudenburg – BE
g
Oudenburg – BE
inventory no.
OU.SPEG.7919
76.OU.43
76.OU.66
OU.SPEG.1786
OU.SPEG.4911
OU.SPEG.22429
OU.SPEG.4000F
period
II
II
II
III
III
III
III
hue
black/yellowish green
black/yellowish green
black/yellowish green
black/olive green
black/olive green
black
black
function
vessel – form IIB.1
vessel – form IIB
vessel – form IIB
bracelet – C3
bracelet
bracelet
bracelet
PC26
Na2O
MgO
Al2O3
SiO2
P2O5
SO3
Cl
K2O
CaO
TiO2
MnO
Fe2O3
CuO
PbO
ZnO
a
16,2
0,7
1,8
64,5
n.d.
0,2
0,6
1,0
6,6
0,2
0,4
7,9
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
b
16,5
0,7
1,7
64,4
n.d.
0,2
0,7
1,0
6,4
0,1
0,3
7,9
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
c
16,6
0,8
1,7
65,2
n.d.
0,2
0,7
1,0
6,5
0,2
0,4
6,9
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
d
15,9
0,7
1,7
61,9
n.d.
0,2
0,6
1,0
6,0
0,1
0,3
11,5
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
e
16,7
0,7
1,8
67,4
n.d.
0,2
0,7
0,7
7,4
0,2
0,4
3,8
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
f
14,5
0,6
1,7
58,2
n.d.
n.d.
0,5
0,6
6,2
0,1
0,4
8,0
n.d.
9,2
n.d.
g
15,7
0,7
1,9
65,3
n.d.
0,3
0,7
0,7
7,1
0,1
0,5
7,1
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
458
RESIN PC27
SEM-EDX at MiTAC, UA, Antwerp
a-i
VIOE-buitendienst, Zarren (BE)
PC27
cat.no.
place
a
474
Oudenburg – BE
b
475
Oudenburg – BE
c
477
Oudenburg – BE
d
478
Oudenburg – BE
e
468
Oudenburg – BE
f
485
Oudenburg – BE
g
470
Oudenburg – BE
h
469
Oudenburg – BE
i
472
Oudenburg – BE
inventory no.
OU.SPEG.2100
OU.SPEG.8905
OU.SPEG.4998G
OU.SPEG.22917
OU.SPEG.4960
OU.SPEG.4000N
OU.SPEG.8902
OU.SPEG.24904
OU.SPEG.4000J
period
III
III
III
III
IV
IV
IV
IV
IV
hue
black/green
black/bottle green
black/blue-green
black/olive green
black
black/green
black
black/green
black
function
bracelet – B1
bracelet – C3
bracelet – A1
bracelet – A2
bracelet – D1
bracelet – D1
bracelet – D1
bracelet – D1
bracelet – D1
PC27
Na2O
MgO
Al2O3
SiO2
P2O5
SO3
Cl
K2O
CaO
TiO2
MnO
Fe2O3
CuO
PbO
ZnO
a
19,0
1,1
1,7
63,0
n.d.
0,2
0,7
0,7
6,3
0,3
1,4
5,5
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
b
17,0
0,8
2,1
65,5
n.d.
0,3
0,6
1,0
5,8
0,1
0,4
6,4
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
c
16,2
0,7
1,7
65,6
n.d.
0,7
0,6
0,6
7,9
0,1
0,6
5,1
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
d
16,7
0,8
1,9
65,2
n.d.
0,2
0,7
0,7
7,1
0,1
0,6
6,1
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
e
19,5
1,0
2,2
65,0
n.d.
0,2
0,6
0,6
5,8
0,5
1,5
3,1
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
f
17,3
0,8
1,7
63,1
n.d.
0,3
0,6
1,0
6,4
0,2
0,5
8,1
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
g
17,4
0,8
1,7
62,5
n.d.
0,2
0,6
1,0
6,4
0,1
0,5
8,8
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
h
19,0
1,1
1,7
61,4
n.d.
0,2
0,7
0,6
6,2
0,3
1,6
7,0
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
i
18,2
1,1
1,9
60,6
n.d.
0,2
0,6
0,6
5,7
0,4
1,5
9,1
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
j
19,0
1,1
1,7
63,0
n.d.
0,2
0,7
0,7
6,3
0,3
1,4
5,5
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
459
RESIN PC28
SEM-EDX at MiTAC, UA, Antwerp
a-b
Department of Antiquities Cyprus, Nicosia (CYP)
c-i
Universiteit Gent (UGent), Gent (BE)
PC28
cat.no.
place
inventory no.
a
unknown – CY
PFM Larnaka RG 427
b
unknown – CY
PFM Larnaka RG 437
c
3886
Carthage – TN
BM00/33010
d
3885
Carthage – TN
BM00/33012
e
3880
Carthage – TN
BM01/33008
f
3881
Carthage – TN
BM01/33011
g
3882
Carthage – TN
BM01/33013
h
3883
Carthage – TN
BM01/33017
i
3884
Carthage – TN
BM01/33009
period
III/IV
post IV
post IV
post IV
post IV
post IV
post IV
post IV
hue
black
black
black
black
black
black
black
black
black
function
pendant
raw glass
chunk raw glass
chunk raw glass
chunk raw glass
chunk raw glass
chunk raw glass
chunk raw glass
chunk raw glass
PC28
Na2O
MgO
Al2O3
SiO2
P2O5
SO3
Cl
K2O
CaO
TiO2
MnO
Fe2O3
CuO
PbO
ZnO
a
20,2
1,0
1,7
63,0
n.d.
0,4
1,2
0,7
6,3
0,2
0,6
4,8
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
b
0,4
9,6
11,9
48,8
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
2,4
17,6
0,8
0,1
8,3
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
c
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
d
7,9
0,1
6,2
71,4
n.d.
n.d.
0,4
4,3
0,3
0,3
0,3
8,6
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
e
7,9
0,1
5,9
71,6
n.d.
0,1
0,5
4,4
0,3
0,3
0,3
8,7
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
f
8,0
0,1
6,2
71,4
n.d.
n.d.
0,5
4,4
0,3
0,3
0,3
8,6
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
g
8,0
0,1
6,0
71,3
n.d.
n.d.
0,5
4,4
0,3
0,3
0,3
8,8
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
h
5,3
0,1
10,1
75,2
n.d.
n.d.
0,3
4,9
0,8
0,2
0,1
2,9
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
i
8,1
n.d.
6,3
71,3
n.d.
n.d.
0,4
4,4
0,3
0,3
0,3
8,6
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
460
RESIN PC29
SEM-EDX at MiTAC, UA, Antwerp
a-f
Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB-SKAR), Brussel (BE)
g
Vlaams Instituut voor het Onroerend Erfgoed (VIOE), Zellik (BE)
PC29
cat.no.
place
inventory no.
period
a
n.c.
Florennes – BE
FLO1
0
b
n.c.
Florennes – BE
FLO2
0
c
273
Florennes – BE
FLO3
III-IV
d
274
Florennes – BE
FLO4
III-IV
e
275
Florennes – BE
FLO5
III-IV
f
n.c.
Turkey (east)
no number
g
291
Grobbendonk – BE
72.GRO.78
II
hue
very dark ultramarine blue
very dark ultramarine blue
black/olive green
black/bottle green
black/blue-green
greyish
black/olive green
function
bracelet – late La Tène
bracelet – late La Tène
bracelet – A1
bracelet – A2
bracelet – C1
obsidian chunk
vessel – form IIB.1
PC29
Na2O
MgO
Al2O3
SiO2
P2O5
SO3
Cl
K2O
CaO
TiO2
MnO
Fe2O3
CuO
PbO
ZnO
a
19,2
0,6
1,7
67,8
n.d.
0,3
1,0
0,7
5,9
0,1
1,3
1,0
0,3
n.d.
n.d.
b
15,9
0,9
1,9
68,7
n.d.
0,1
0,8
0,7
8,5
0,1
0,7
1,2
0,3
n.d.
n.d.
c
17,0
0,6
1,9
66,3
n.d.
0,2
0,7
0,8
6,7
0,1
0,6
5,0
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
d
17,2
0,6
1,8
66,9
n.d.
0,2
0,7
0,7
6,8
0,2
0,6
4,3
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
e
17,3
0,7
1,7
64,7
n.d.
0,3
0,7
0,9
6,3
0,2
0,3
6,7
0,3
n.d.
n.d.
f
4,6
0,2
10,2
78,3
n.d.
0,1
n.d.
5,0
0,4
0,2
0,1
0,9
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
g
17,7
0,5
1,5
64,3
n.d.
0,2
0,9
0,5
5,7
0,1
0,3
8,1
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
461
RESIN PC30
SEM-EDX at MiTAC, UA, Antwerp
a-h
Provinciaal Archeologisch Museum (PAM), Velzeke (B)
PC30
cat.no.
place
inventory no.
a
330
Kruishoutem – BE
KK/PROSP KB 78
b
329
Kruishoutem – BE
KK/90/PROSP JVW
c
596
Velzeke – BE
V73/C790/A1/K4 [F]
d
599
Velzeke – BE
VDC 95/IV/332a2 [G]
e
595
Velzeke – BE
V74-C907/WP3/K14Q/1 [A]
f
594
Velzeke – BE
V74/C907/WP3/K14 [B] (nr.7)
g
598
Velzeke – BE
V74/C907/WP3/K14a [C] (nr.8)
h
597
Velzeke – BE
V74/C907/WP3/K14a [D]
period
II
II
II
II
II
II
II
II
hue
black/yellowish green
black/bottle green
black
black
black
black
black
black
function
vessel - form
vessel - form
vessel - form
vessel - form
vessel - form
vessel - form
vessel - form
vessel - form
IIB.1
IIB.1
IIB.1
IIB.1
IIB.1
IIB.1
IIB.1
IIB.1
PC30
Na2O
MgO
Al2O3
SiO2
P2O5
SO3
Cl
K2O
CaO
TiO2
MnO
Fe2O3
CuO
PbO
ZnO
a
17,2
0,8
1,6
61,9
n.d.
0,2
0,8
0,6
5,7
0,1
0,2
10,8
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
b
18,0
0,7
1,3
64,5
n.d.
0,2
0,7
0,5
5,5
0,1
0,2
8,2
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
c
16,9
0,6
1,4
63,6
n.d.
0,2
0,8
0,6
6,0
0,1
0,5
9,2
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
d
17,0
0,7
1,6
65,8
n.d.
0,2
0,7
0,9
6,5
0,1
0,4
6,1
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
e
18,1
0,7
1,3
63,5
n.d.
0,2
0,8
0,6
5,5
0,1
0,2
9,0
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
f
17,6
0,8
1,4
63,8
n.d.
0,2
0,8
0,6
5,5
0,1
0,2
9,1
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
g
16,2
0,7
1,4
62,1
n.d.
0,2
0,8
0,6
6,0
0,1
0,3
11,5
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
h
17,2
0,7
1,4
64,6
n.d.
0,2
0,7
0,7
5,7
0,1
0,2
8,4
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
462
RESIN PC31
SEM-EDX at MiTAC, UA, Antwerp
a-g
GAD, Nijmegen (NL)
PC31
cat.no.
place
a
Nijmegen – NL
b
Nijmegen – NL
c
Nijmegen – NL
d
Nijmegen – NL
e
Nijmegen – NL
f
Nijmegen – NL
g
Nijmegen – NL
inventory no.
GN1.7.39
GN1.7.054
WW1.15.586
GN1.7.198A
WW1.3.079
GN1.7.198B
MP.6.76
period
I-II
I-II
I-II
I-II
I-II
I-II
II
hue
blue
purple
green
green
green
purple
greyish green
function
vessel
vessel
vessel
vessel
vessel
vessel
raw glass
PC31
Na2O
MgO
Al2O3
SiO2
P2O5
SO3
Cl
K2O
CaO
TiO2
MnO
Fe2O3
CuO
PbO
ZnO
a
18,2
0,7
1,9
66,9
n.d.
0,2
0,9
0,6
8,0
0,1
2,0
0,6
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
b
20,1
2,9
2,3
63,2
0,5
0,4
0,9
1,1
6,2
0,4
0,3
1,8
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
c
0,5
1,7
6,2
54,4
0,2
0,3
n.d.
1,0
21,0
1,8
2,5
10,4
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
d
16,6
1,7
1,9
64,9
0,1
0,2
0,7
0,8
6,4
0,6
4,5
1,5
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
e
16,1
1,3
1,9
62,4
n.d.
0,7
0,7
6,7
0,2
0,2
6,9
3,0
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
f
0,2
1,9
7,3
56,8
0,1
0,1
n.d.
1,4
16,6
1,0
1,5
13,0
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
g
17,5
0,5
2,1
68,5
n.d.
0,1
0,9
0,5
7,0
0,1
0,5
2,0
0,3
n.d.
n.d.
463
RESIN PC32
SEM-EDX at MiTAC, UA, Antwerp
a-d
PGRM, Tongeren (B)
PC32
cat.no.
place
a
334
Lauw – BE
b
331
Lauw – BE
c
332
Lauw – BE
d
333
Lauw – BE
inventory no.
PGRM10538
PGRM10547
PGRM10871
PGRM10872
period
II
II-III
II-III
II-III
hue
olive green
olive green
olive green
olive green
function
vessel – form IIB.4
bracelet – A1
finger ring – A1
bracelet – C3
PC32
Na2O
MgO
Al2O3
SiO2
P2O5
SO3
Cl
K2O
CaO
TiO2
MnO
Fe2O3
CuO
PbO
ZnO
a
17,4
0,6
1,5
62,1
0,1
0,3
0,8
0,5
5,7
0,1
0,1
10,8
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
b
16,4
0,7
2,0
64,7
0,1
0,2
0,6
0,8
7,0
0,2
0,4
6,9
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
c
18,7
3,2
1,6
63,4
0,5
0,3
1,1
1,8
7,1
0,2
0,4
1,7
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
d
12,7
0,6
3,0
58,2
n.d.
0,7
0,4
1,1
7,6
0,2
0,4
6,8
n.d.
7,9
0,4
464
RESIN PC33
SEM-EDX at MiTAC, UA, Antwerp
a-f
Grand Curtius, Liège (B)
PC33
cat.no.
place
a
430
Liège – BE
b
193
Bassenge – BE
c
320
Izier – BE
d
174
Amay – BE
e
174
Amay – BE
f
174
Amay – BE
inventory no.
Curtius L738
Curtius 2001AR1520
Curtius IO1205
Curtius 4A30a
Curtius 4A30b
Curtius 4A30c
PC33
Na2O
MgO
Al2O3
SiO2
period
II
II
II
II
II
II
hue
olive green
olive green
olive green
olive green
olive green
olive green
function
vessel – form
vessel – form
vessel – form
vessel – form
vessel – form
vessel – form
IIB.1
IIB.15
IIB.1
IIB.1
IIB.1
IIB.1
P2O5
SO3
Cl
K2O
CaO
TiO2
MnO
Fe2O3
CuO
PbO
ZnO
a
16,8
0,6
1,8
62,7
0,1
0,3
0,7
0,6
6,2
0,1
0,4
9,7
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
b
17,3
0,6
1,9
64,0
n.d.
0,2
0,8
0,6
5,9
0,2
0,3
8,3
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
c
17,0
0,6
1,9
64,5
0,1
0,3
0,8
0,6
6,1
0,1
0,3
7,8
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
d
17,6
0,5
1,7
63,6
0,1
0,2
0,8
0,6
5,8
0,1
0,3
8,9
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
e
17,5
0,5
1,7
63,7
0,1
0,3
0,8
0,6
5,7
0,1
0,2
8,8
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
f
17,6
0,6
1,7
63,6
n.d.
0,2
0,8
0,6
5,7
0,1
0,3
8,8
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
465
RESIN PC34
SEM-EDX at MiTAC, UA, Antwerp
LA-ICP-MS at UGent, Ghent 04.06.2009
a-l
Musée Communal, Nivelles (B)
PC34
cat.no.
place
a
Liberchies – BE
b
Liberchies – BE
c
Liberchies – BE
d
421
Liberchies – BE
e
339
Liberchies – BE
f
347
Liberchies – BE
g
346
Liberchies – BE
h
350
Liberchies – BE
i
428
Liberchies – BE
j
Liberchies – BE
k
464
Nivelles – BE
l
463
Nivelles – BE
inventory no.
BV12018.165a
BV12018.165b
BV12044.16
BV12062.46
BV12113.30
V29R
V38R
V40R
V56R
V58R
no number B
no number A
period
II
II
II
II
I-IV
I-IV
I-IV
I-IV
II
II-III
II-III
II
hue
olive green
green
green
green
purple
purple
olive green
green
green
green
black
green
function
vessel vessel vessel vessel – form IIB.1
counter – medium
counter – large
counter – medium
counter - small
vessel – form IIB.1
bracelet – A2 (production waste?)
finger ring – A1
vessel – form IIB.1
PC34
Na2O
MgO
Al2O3
SiO2
P2O5
SO3
Cl
K2O
CaO
TiO2
MnO
Fe2O3
CuO
PbO
ZnO
a
16,5
0,2
1,9
61,9
0,1
0,3
0,7
0,7
5,8
0,2
0,3
11,3
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
b
16,5
0,2
1,8
62,0
0,2
0,3
0,7
0,7
5,8
0,2
0,3
11,3
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
c
17,0
0,4
2,0
67,0
0,1
0,3
0,7
0,7
6,7
0,2
0,4
4,6
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
d
17,6
2,4
1,8
64,8
0,5
0,3
0,9
1,7
8,6
0,2
0,3
1,1
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
e
17,5
1,4
2,1
63,8
0,2
0,3
0,9
1,2
8,3
0,2
3,0
1,2
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
f
19,6
0,7
1,7
65,7
0,1
0,4
0,9
0,8
5,6
0,2
3,4
0,8
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
g
17,2
0,2
1,7
62,8
0,1
0,3
0,8
0,7
5,7
0,1
0,3
10,1
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
h
16,6
0,2
1,9
64,4
0,1
0,2
0,7
0,7
6,1
0,2
0,3
8,6
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
i
16,8
0,3
1,7
63,1
0,1
0,3
0,7
0,6
5,9
0,1
0,2
10,1
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
j
17,6
2,4
1,3
65,9
0,6
0,3
0,9
2,5
6,4
0,2
0,3
1,6
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
k
16,6
0,3
1,9
63,1
0,1
0,3
0,7
0,7
5,9
0,1
0,2
10,1
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
l
15,5
0,2
2,1
63,9
0,1
0,2
0,8
0,7
6,6
0,1
0,5
9,2
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
466
RESIN PC35
SEM-EDX at MiTAC, UA, Antwerp
LA-ICP-MS in Ghent 04.06.2009
synchrotron in Hamburg 07.2009
a-f
Musée Romain, Avenches (CH)
PC35
cat.no.
place
inventory no.
a
3625
Avenches – CH
MRA88/06809.05
b
3594
Avenches – CH
MRA88/06918.02A
c
3624
Avenches – CH
MRA89/07170.45A
d
3624
Avenches – CH
MRA89/07170.45B
e
3624
Avenches – CH
MRA89/07170.45C
f
3624
Avenches – CH
MRA89/07170.45D
period
II
?
II
II
II
II
hue
green
green
green
green
green
green
function
vessel - Form IIB.5
vessel - Form IIB.17
vessel – indefinite
vessel – indefinite
vessel – indefinite
vessel – indefinite
PC35
Na2O
MgO
Al2O3
SiO2
P2O5
SO3
Cl
K2O
CaO
TiO2
MnO
Fe2O3
CuO
PbO
ZnO
a
18,6
2,4
1,6
63,2
0,6
0,4
1,0
1,7
8,2
0,2
0,5
1,6
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
b
19,8
1,4
1,5
68,0
0,1
0,4
1,1
0,6
5,8
0,2
0,1
0,9
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
c
18,1
2,5
1,5
61,7
0,7
0,9
1,2
2,3
8,7
0,2
0,5
1,8
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
d
19,1
3,0
1,5
61,3
0,7
0,4
0,9
1,9
8,7
0,2
0,4
1,7
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
e
19,2
2,9
1,5
61,6
0,7
0,4
0,9
2,0
8,6
0,2
0,4
1,7
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
f
19,3
3,1
1,5
61,3
0,7
0,4
0,9
1,9
8,7
0,2
0,4
1,6
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
467
RESIN PC36
SEM-EDX at MiTAC, UA, Antwerp
LA-ICP-MS in Ghent 04.06.2009
a-j
Thermenmuseum, Heerlen (NL)
PC36
cat.no.
place
inventory no.
a
2893
Heerlen – NL
25917
b
2899
Heerlen – NL
26003
c
2901
Heerlen – NL
26004
d
2895
Heerlen – NL
3236
e
Heerlen – NL
?
f
2896
Heerlen – NL
1856
g
2900
Heerlen – NL
26039
h
2897
Heerlen – NL
23771
i
2892
Heerlen – NL
5919
j
Heerlen – NL
1812
period
I-II
I-II
I-II
II
I-II
I
I-II
I
I
I-II
hue
green
olive green
brown
green
purple
olive green
green
black/green
brown
purple
function
vessel
vessel
vessel
vessel - form IIB.1
vessel
vessel - form IA.4
vessel
vessel - form IA.4
rod
vessel
PC36
Na2O
MgO
Al2O3
SiO2
P2O5
SO3
Cl
K2O
CaO
TiO2
MnO
Fe2O3
CuO
PbO
ZnO
a
17,1
0,9
2,3
60,8
0,1
0,3
0,7
0,7
5,8
0,6
1,8
9,0
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
b
19,7
2,4
2,5
61,7
0,8
0,4
0,9
2,3
6,7
0,3
0,5
1,8
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
c
19,1
2,1
1,8
64,3
0,5
0,3
1,2
1,6
7,0
0,3
0,4
1,4
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
d
16,0
0,3
1,8
62,3
0,1
0,3
0,8
0,7
6,1
0,1
0,3
11,3
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
e
16,2
0,5
2,4
63,8
0,1
0,5
0,7
0,8
13,0
0,2
1,2
0,5
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
f
17,0
3,4
2,1
62,4
1,0
0,2
0,7
2,2
8,4
0,3
0,5
1,8
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
g
16,5
0,3
1,7
63,6
0,1
0,2
0,7
0,7
6,1
0,1
0,3
9,6
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
h
18,1
3,1
2,5
63,0
0,5
0,6
1,1
1,6
7,1
0,3
0,3
1,7
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
i
18,4
n.d.
4,8
69,9
0,1
0,2
1,1
1,4
3,6
0,2
0,1
0,4
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
j
17,2
0,4
2,1
67,7
0,1
0,2
0,9
0,7
7,8
0,1
2,3
0,5
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
468
RESIN PC37
SEM-EDX at MiTAC, UA, Antwerp
a-e
AVRA, Kontich (B)
f-h
Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), Brussel (BE)
PC37
cat.no.
place
inventory no.
a
325
Kontich – BE
KFL no number
b
328
Kontich – BE
KFL-6603(209)
c
324
Kontich – BE
K87-542
d
324
Kontich – BE
K87-542
e
327
Kontich – BE
KFL1429
f
n.c.
Ham – BE
NO INV. NO.
g
n.c.
Turkey (east)
NO INV. NO.
h
n.c.
Turkey (east)
NO INV. NO.
period
II
II
II
II
II
-
hue
green
olive green
green
green
green
UM blue
greyish
greyish
function
vessel- form IIB
vessel – form IIB.13
vessel – form IIB.1
vessel – form IIB.1
vessel – form IIB
vessel
obsidian chunk
obsidian chunk
PC37
Na2O
MgO
Al2O3
SiO2
P2O5
SO3
Cl
K2O
CaO
TiO2
MnO
Fe2O3
CuO
PbO
ZnO
a
16,8
0,2
1,7
62,9
0,1
0,2
0,7
0,7
6,2
0,1
0,3
10,0
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
b
16,8
0,3
1,9
64,6
0,1
0,3
0,8
0,7
6,2
0,2
0,4
7,8
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
c
17,1
0,2
2,0
64,9
0,1
0,3
0,8
0,7
5,7
0,2
0,2
8,0
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
d
17,1
0,3
1,9
64,6
0,1
0,3
0,8
0,7
6,1
0,1
0,2
7,8
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
e
17,2
0,3
2,0
64,4
0,1
0,2
0,8
0,7
6,1
0,1
0,3
7,8
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
f
16,6
0,3
2,1
65,0
0,1
0,3
0,8
0,6
6,3
0,2
0,7
7,1
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
g
4,3
n.d.
10,7
78,4
0,1
0,1
0,1
4,8
0,5
0,1
0,1
0,7
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
h
4,3
n.d.
10,7
78,6
n.d.
0,1
0,1
4,7
0,5
0,1
0,1
0,8
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
469
RESIN PC38
SEM-EDX at MiTAC, UA, Antwerp
a-k
Centre de Recherche Archéologique National (CRAN), Louvain-la-Neuve (BE)
PC38
cat.no.
place
inventory no.
period
hue
a
366
Liberchies – BE
BV.88.T55Aa
III-IV
green
b
369
Liberchies – BE
BV.88.T55Ab
III-IV
green
c
413
Liberchies – BE
BV.92.594M
I
green
d
407
Liberchies – BE
BV.91.T692.5
I
olive green
e
368
Liberchies – BE
BV.12224.132
III-IV
green
f
370
Liberchies – BE
BV.12247.101
III-IV
green
g
425
Liberchies – BE
BV.04.T6.R3
I-II
brown
h
372
Liberchies – BE
BV.67.225
III
green
i
380
Liberchies – BE
BV.95.T155.E7
III-IV
green
j
411
Liberchies – BE
BV.96.T105.F4
II
green
k
414
Liberchies – BE
BV.06.T91.A1
II
olive green
function
bracelet
bracelet
vessel
vessel
bracelet
finger ring
vessel
hairpin
finger ring
vessel
vessel
PC38
Na2O
MgO
Al2O3
SiO2
P2O5
SO3
Cl
K2O
CaO
TiO2
MnO
Fe2O3
CuO
PbO
ZnO
a
18,5
0,6
1,1
59,9
n.d.
0,4
1,0
0,4
6,2
0,2
0,1
11,8
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
b
15,1
1,2
2,4
65,6
0,1
0,5
1,5
5,3
2,4
0,3
1,4
4,2
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
c
16,0
1,0
2,1
66,3
0,1
0,2
0,6
1,4
6,7
0,2
0,4
5,1
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
d
16,5
0,8
2,0
66,8
n.d.
0,2
0,7
1,0
6,6
0,2
0,4
4,9
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
e
18,5
1,1
2,3
64,2
n.d.
0,2
0,6
0,9
5,5
0,3
1,3
5,0
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
f
16,7
0,7
1,8
64,2
n.d.
0,2
0,6
0,7
6,3
0,1
0,4
8,3
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
g
19,4
0,7
1,6
68,1
0,1
0,2
1,1
0,7
7,5
0,1
0,1
0,4
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
h
16,9
1,0
1,8
66,7
0,1
0,2
0,7
1,1
7,1
0,1
0,4
4,0
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
i
16,4
0,7
1,5
64,2
0,1
0,2
0,7
0,7
6,6
0,1
0,4
8,5
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
j
16,0
0,8
1,9
64,1
0,1
0,3
0,7
0,7
6,7
0,2
0,6
8,1
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
k
17,4
0,6
1,5
64,5
n.d.
0,2
0,8
0,7
5,9
0,1
0,2
8,1
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
470
RESIN PC39
SEM-EDX at MiTAC, UA, Antwerp
a-f
Musée Communal, Nivelles (BE)
g-i
private collection, Leuven (BE)
PC39
cat.no.
place
inventory no.
a
410
Liberchies – BE
BV.97.T162.B24
b
381
Liberchies – BE
BV.00.T62.R4
c
417
Liberchies – BE
BV.05.T40.A4
d
383
Liberchies – BE
BV.04.T24.R2
e
373
Liberchies – BE
BV.06.T73.B2
f
378
Liberchies – BE
BV.88.T42.A1
g
n.c.
unknown – DE
NO INV. NO.
h
n.c.
Leuven – BE
NO INV. NO.
i
n.c.
Leuven – BE
NO INV. NO.
period
II
0
I
II-III
II-III
-
hue
olive green
purple
brown
green
green
purple
purple
green
brown
function
vessel – form IIB.1
bracelet – late La Tène
vessel – form IA.14
bracelet – A4
hairpin
bracelet – U3
raw glass
vessel
vessel
PC39
Na2O
MgO
Al2O3
SiO2
P2O5
SO3
Cl
K2O
CaO
TiO2
MnO
Fe2O3
CuO
PbO
ZnO
a
18,6
2,7
1,6
62,9
0,7
0,3
0,8
2,0
8,1
0,2
0,4
1,7
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
b
17,6
0,3
2,0
68,3
0,2
0,3
0,8
0,8
7,3
0,1
1,8
0,5
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
c
18,6
0,3
2,1
68,3
0,2
0,2
1,1
0,8
7,7
0,1
0,1
0,4
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
d
16,6
0,5
2,0
67,4
0,1
0,2
0,8
0,8
6,8
0,1
0,4
4,3
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
e
16,1
0,4
2,0
64,6
0,1
0,2
0,7
0,7
6,6
0,2
0,5
7,8
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
f
17,5
0,4
2,0
68,8
0,1
0,4
0,8
0,7
6,5
0,1
2,3
0,4
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
g
5,1
4,4
2,7
61,4
0,2
0,6
n.d.
1,4
16,2
0,7
5,3
1,9
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
h
4,2
0,4
1,6
48,2
1,1
n.d.
0,4
5,3
n.d.
1,4
0,4
3,8
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
i
6,0
2,7
8,1
59,0
0,2
0,3
0,1
3,3
15,4
0,7
1,3
3,0
n.d.
31,5
0,3
471
RESIN PC40
SEM-EDX at MiTAC, UA, Antwerp
LA-ICP-MS in Ghent 04.06.2009
a-g
Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology, London (UK)
PC40
cat.no.
place
inventory no.
a
993
unknown – EG
UC 22180
b
917
Lahun – EG
UC 25402 ccxxxii
c
A4507
unknown – EG
UC 25792A
d
A4577
unknown – EG
UC 25792B
e
A4578
unknown – EG
UC 25792C
f
812
Bahnasa – EG
UC 22628b
g
794
Abydos – EG
UC 43242
period
IV
IV
hue
olive green
olive green
brown
olive green
olive green
pale blue
ultramarine blue
PC40
Na2O
MgO
Al2O3
SiO2
P2O5
SO3
Cl
K2O
CaO
TiO2
MnO
function
vessel – form IVD.4
bracelet – type D1
vessel
vessel
vessel
vessel
vessel
Fe2O3
CuO
PbO
ZnO
a
20,6
0,5
1,8
61,7
0,1
0,3
1,1
0,5
5,7
0,2
1,0
6,5
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
b
17,7
0,5
1,6
55,8
0,1
0,4
0,8
0,6
5,7
0,2
0,4
16,2
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
c
19,3
4,0
1,6
66,1
0,4
0,3
0,6
2,3
3,8
0,3
0,1
1,2
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
d
21,7
5,4
2,4
60,5
0,3
0,5
0,7
2,4
4,1
0,3
0,1
1,5
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
e
20,5
5,4
2,1
62,3
0,3
0,3
0,6
2,1
4,2
0,4
0,1
1,6
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
f
20,7
2,7
1,5
61,6
0,7
0,4
1,0
1,6
7,6
0,2
0,4
1,6
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
g
20,2
0,5
2,2
66,8
0,1
0,5
1,0
0,4
5,3
0,3
0,2
2,5
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
472
RESIN PC41
SEM-EDX at MiTAC, UA, Antwerp
LA-ICP-MS in Ghent 04.06.2009
a-f
Colchester Archaeological Museum, Colchester (UK)
PC41
cat.no.
place
inventory no.
a
4027
Colchester – UK
615
b
4025
Colchester – UK
713
c
4028
Colchester – UK
206
d
4029
Colchester – UK
201
e
4030
Colchester – UK
196
f
4026
Colchester – UK
694
period
II
II?
I
I
I
II
hue
green
green
green
green
green
green
function
vessel – form IIB.1
vessel – form B
vessel – form IA
vessel – form IA
vessel – form IA
vessel – form IIB.16
PC41
Na2O
MgO
Al2O3
SiO2
P2O5
SO3
Cl
K2O
CaO
TiO2
MnO
Fe2O3
CuO
PbO
ZnO
a
16,6
0,3
1,8
62,0
0,1
0,3
0,8
0,7
6,0
0,2
0,2
11,1
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
b
17,3
0,2
1,7
63,1
0,1
0,3
0,7
0,7
6,0
0,2
0,4
9,3
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
c
18,4
2,6
1,4
64,4
0,5
0,3
0,9
1,8
7,7
0,2
0,3
1,5
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
d
18,5
2,5
1,4
64,2
0,6
0,3
0,9
1,8
7,7
0,2
0,3
1,5
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
e
21,5
1,3
2,7
64,4
0,3
0,4
1,2
0,8
4,7
0,7
0,2
1,9
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
f
21,4
2,2
1,6
63,5
0,4
0,4
1,2
1,3
6,3
0,2
0,3
1,2
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
473
RESIN PC42
SEM-EDX at MiTAC, UA, Antwerp
a-i
Musée du Malgré-Tout, Treignes (BE)
PC42
cat.no.
place
inventory no.
a
586
Treignes – BE
TRII.94GC.86
b
587
Treignes – BE
TRII.80.V.545
c
589
Treignes – BE
TRA.N188
d
588
Treignes – BE
TRII.190
e
579
Treignes – BE
TR.78.MG.0312
f
581
Treignes – BE
TR.30648
g
n.c.
Treignes – BE
TRII.97.10CII/21
h
n.c.
Treignes – BE
TRII.99.1B1C.II128
i
n.c.
Treignes – BE
TRII.95.CALD.22
period
II
II
II
II
IV
IV
-
hue
green
green
green
green
blue-green
purple
UM blue
UM blue
turquoise
function
vessel - form IIB.1
vessel - form IIB.1
vessel - form IIB.1
vessel - form IIB.1
bracelet - D1
bracelet - D1
vessel
vessel
raw glass
PC42
Na2O
MgO
Al2O3
SiO2
P2O5
SO3
Cl
K2O
CaO
TiO2
MnO
Fe2O3
CuO
PbO
ZnO
a
16,8
0,8
1,8
63,4
0,1
0,3
0,8
0,6
6,0
0,1
0,3
9,0
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
b
17,2
0,6
1,6
64,0
n.d.
0,2
0,8
0,7
6,0
0,2
0,2
8,2
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
c
16,4
0,7
1,7
63,6
0,1
0,2
0,7
0,7
6,5
0,2
0,4
8,8
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
d
17,6
0,7
1,4
62,1
n.d.
0,3
0,8
0,5
5,6
0,1
0,3
10,2
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
e
17,2
0,9
1,8
65,1
0,1
0,2
0,6
0,9
6,7
0,2
0,5
5,6
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
f
16,4
0,9
1,8
69,5
n.d.
0,3
0,7
0,6
7,0
0,1
2,1
0,5
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
g
17,2
0,7
1,7
68,8
0,1
0,3
0,9
0,6
7,4
0,2
0,6
1,1
0,3
n.d.
n.d.
h
16,2
0,6
1,5
71,3
0,1
0,2
0,8
0,7
6,1
0,1
0,9
1,1
0,4
n.d.
n.d.
i
0,1
1,3
6,2
57,6
0,1
0,1
n.d.
2,5
20,5
0,4
1,5
9,4
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
474
RESIN PC43
SEM-EDX at MiTAC, UA, Antwerp
LA-ICP-MS in Ghent 04.06.2009
a-g
Musée du Malgré-Tout, Treignes (BE)
PC43
cat.no.
place
inventory no.
a
499
Roly – BE
RO1a
b
506
Roly – BE
RO1b
c
504
Roly – BE
RO1c
d
505
Roly – BE
RO1d
e
501
Roly – BE
RO1e
f
503
Roly – BE
RO2
g
507
Roly – BE
RO3
period
IV
IV
IV
IV
IV
II-III
II-III
hue
green
green
green
green
green
green
green
function
bracelet - D1
bracelet - D1
bracelet - D1
bracelet - D1
bracelet - D1
bracelet - B2
bracelet - B1
PC43
Na2O
MgO
Al2O3
SiO2
P2O5
SO3
Cl
K2O
CaO
TiO2
MnO
Fe2O3
CuO
PbO
ZnO
a
19,8
0,7
2,0
63,2
0,1
0,3
0,7
0,7
6,1
0,4
1,6
4,4
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
b
19,1
0,6
1,9
61,2
0,1
0,3
0,7
0,7
6,0
0,4
1,6
7,5
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
c
18,8
0,6
1,8
60,2
0,1
0,3
0,8
0,7
5,8
0,4
1,4
9,2
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
d
17,9
0,8
2,1
59,7
0,1
0,3
0,6
1,0
5,9
0,5
1,6
9,6
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
e
18,9
0,6
2,0
61,3
0,1
0,3
0,7
0,7
6,0
0,4
1,6
7,5
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
f
16,7
0,3
1,8
64,5
0,1
0,3
0,7
0,8
6,8
0,1
0,4
7,4
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
g
16,9
0,2
1,9
65,0
0,1
0,3
0,7
0,7
6,9
0,1
0,5
6,7
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
475
RESIN PC44
SEM-EDX at MiTAC, UA, Antwerp
a-h
Römermuseum-Augusta Raurica, Augst (CH)
j
Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), Brussel (BE)
PC44
cat.no.
place
inventory no.
a
n.c.
Augst – CH
1949_3835
b
3353
Augst – CH
1959_9368
c
3347
Augst – CH
1959_9370
d
3343
Augst – CH
1959_9371
e
3367
Augst – CH
1959_9373
f
3359
Augst – CH
1959_9374
g
3516
Augst – CH
1964_9670
h
3772
Augst – CH
1967_8910
i
n.c.
Monte- Arci, Sardinia – IT
no number
PC44
Na2O
MgO
Al2O3
SiO2
period
II
II
II
II
II
II
II
II
-
hue
green
green
green
green
green
green
green
green
grey (layered)
P2O5
SO3
Cl
K2O
CaO
function
indefinite
bracelet – A2/A3
bracelet – A1
bracelet – A2/A3
bracelet – A2/A3
bracelet – A2/A3
vessel – form IIB.3
vessel – form IIB.1
chunk of obsidian
TiO2
MnO
Fe2O3
CuO
PbO
ZnO
a
19,1
2,7
1,4
64,4
0,3
0,4
1,1
1,4
7,4
0,2
0,3
1,4
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
b
17,6
0,5
1,7
65,4
<0,1
0,3
0,8
1,1
6,1
<0,1
0,2
6,3
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
c
17,1
0,4
1,9
66,9
<0,1
0,3
0,8
0,5
5,7
0,2
0,2
6,0
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
d
17,4
0,5
1,6
65,9
<0,1
0,3
0,9
0,5
6,2
0,2
0,2
6,2
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
e
18,0
0,5
1,6
65,8
<0,1
0,3
0,8
0,5
6,1
0,1
0,2
5,9
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
f
18,3
0,4
1,7
68,3
<0,1
0,3
0,9
0,6
6,3
0,1
0,2
2,8
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
g
18,6
1,4
1,9
66,7
<0,1
0,3
1,0
1,0
6,6
0,2
0,3
1,9
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
h
16,3
0,5
1,8
61,8
<0,1
0,2
0,7
0,6
5,7
0,2
0,2
12,0
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
i
3,6
0,2
11,9
74,9
<0,1
n.d.
<0,1
6,1
0,9
0,4
0,1
1,8
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
476
RESIN PC45
SEM-EDX at MiTAC, UA, Antwerp
a-i
PC45
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
h
i
Römermuseum-Augusta Raurica, Augst
cat.no.
place
inventory no.
3777
Kaiseraugst – CH
1980_36023
3714
Kaiseraugst – CH
1981_3680
n.c.
Augst – CH
1983_33067
Kaiseraugst – CH
1990_001
Kaiseraugst – CH
1991_002
3657
Augst – CH
2008_003_F05756.1
3667
Augst – CH
2008_003_F05756.4
3677
Augst – CH
2008_003_F05917.1
n.c.
Augst – CH
1994_02_D3166_49
period
II
II
hue
green
green
blue-green
green
purple
green
green
green
yellowish grey
II
II
IV
IV
IV
I-IV
function
vessel – form IIC.2
production waste
production waste
production waste
bracelet – Type D5
bracelet – Type D1
bracelet – Type D4
obsidian chunk
PC45
Na2O
MgO
Al2O3
SiO2
P2O5
SO3
Cl
K2O
CaO
TiO2
MnO
Fe2O3
CuO
PbO
ZnO
a
16,8
0,5
1,9
66,2
<0,1
0,3
0,9
0,7
6,4
0,1
0,3
5,9
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
b
16,5
0,5
2,0
63,4
<0,1
0,2
0,8
0,7
6,1
0,1
0,3
9,3
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
c
17,4
0,5
2,1
69,3
<0,1
0,2
0,8
0,7
6,7
0,2
0,5
1,6
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
d
17,2
0,7
1,8
67,3
<0,1
0,2
0,9
1,2
6,3
0,1
0,3
4,0
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
e
15,7
0,5
2,0
69,3
<0,1
0,2
0,9
0,6
7,7
0,1
2,4
0,5
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
f
17,9
0,7
1,8
64,1
<0,1
0,3
1,0
0,5
6,3
0,2
0,8
6,4
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
g
17,6
0,7
1,7
62,7
<0,1
0,3
0,9
0,5
6,3
0,2
0,8
8,3
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
h
17,4
0,9
1,8
60,4
<0,1
0,3
1,0
0,5
5,8
0,2
1,0
10,8
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
i
0,3
0,3
6,8
75,3
2,6
<0,1
<0,1
5,3
4,3
0,7
1,3
3,0
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
477
RESIN PC46
SEM-EDX at MiTAC, UA, Antwerp
a-g
PC46
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
Römermuseum-Augusta Raurica, Augst
cat.no.
place
inventory no.
3725
Kaiseraugst – CH
1978_5433
Kaiseraugst – CH
1978_5660
3739
Kaiseraugst – CH
1978_5661
3732
Kaiseraugst – CH
1978_5668
3730
Kaiseraugst – CH
1978_5670
3729
Kaiseraugst – CH
1978_5671
3705
Kaiseraugst – CH
1978_5672
period
II
II
II
II
II
II
II
hue
blue-green
blue-green
blue-green
blue-green
blue-green
blue-green
yellowish green
function
raw glass - glass
raw glass - glass
raw glass - glass
raw glass - glass
raw glass - glass
raw glass - glass
raw glass - glass
workshop regio 17b
workshop regio 17b
workshop regio 17b
workshop regio 17b
workshop regio 17b
workshop regio 17b
workshop regio 17b
PC46
Na2O
MgO
Al2O3
SiO2
P2O5
SO3
Cl
K2O
CaO
TiO2
MnO
Fe2O3
CuO
PbO
ZnO
a
17,1
0,5
2,1
68,1
<0,1
0,3
0,9
0,8
6,9
0,2
0,5
2,7
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
b
17,2
0,4
1,9
70,3
<0,1
0,2
1,0
0,7
7,0
0,1
0,3
0,8
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
c
17,6
0,5
1,8
67,5
<0,1
0,3
0,9
0,7
6,4
0,1
0,3
4,0
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
d
18,0
0,4
1,7
68,8
<0,1
0,3
0,9
0,6
6,4
0,1
0,3
2,4
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
e
16,6
0,5
1,9
68,2
<0,1
0,2
0,8
1,0
6,5
0,1
0,3
3,7
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
f
17,0
0,5
1,8
66,6
<0,1
0,3
0,9
0,7
6,7
0,1
0,3
5,1
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
g
17,7
0,5
1,8
67,7
<0,1
0,2
0,9
0,8
6,3
0,2
0,3
3,6
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
478
RESIN PC47
SEM-EDX at MiTAC, UA, Antwerp
a-g
PC47
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
Römermuseum-Augusta Raurica, Augst
cat.no.
place
inventory no.
3703
Augst – CH
1978_5728
3723
Augst – CH
1978_5733
3696
Augst – CH
1978_5746
3695
Augst – CH
1978_5748
Augst – CH
1978_5761
3721
Augst – CH
1978_24075
3722
Augst – CH
1978_24079
period
II
II
II
II
II
II
II
hue
yellowish green
blue-green
blue-green
blue-green
grey
green
green
function
raw glass - glass
raw glass - glass
raw glass - glass
raw glass - glass
raw glass - glass
raw glass - glass
raw glass - glass
workshop regio 17b
workshop regio 17b
workshop regio 17b
workshop regio 17b
workshop regio 17b
workshop regio 17b
workshop regio 17b
PC47
Na2O
MgO
Al2O3
SiO2
P2O5
SO3
Cl
K2O
CaO
TiO2
MnO
Fe2O3
CuO
PbO
ZnO
a
17,6
0,6
1,8
67,7
<0,1
0,2
0,9
0,8
6,4
0,1
0,2
3,7
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
b
17,5
0,6
1,8
67,0
<0,1
0,2
0,9
1,0
6,2
0,1
0,3
4,4
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
c
16,6
0,5
1,8
66,6
<0,1
0,2
0,9
0,7
6,5
0,1
0,3
5,6
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
d
17,0
0,5
1,8
67,6
<0,1
0,2
0,9
0,7
6,5
0,1
0,3
4,3
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
e
16,7
0,5
1,9
68,7
<0,1
0,2
0,9
0,9
6,9
0,1
0,3
2,9
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
f
16,4
0,5
1,7
62,1
<0,1
0,2
0,8
0,6
6,0
0,1
0,2
11,3
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
g
17,0
0,5
1,7
66,3
<0,1
0,2
0,9
0,7
6,2
0,1
0,2
6,1
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
479
RESIN PC48
SEM-EDX at MiTAC, UA, Antwerp
a
b
c-e
f-j
PC48
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
h
i
j
not located, examined by courtesy of Mario Da Cruz (PT)
Vlaams Instituut voor het Onroerend Erfgoed (VIOE), Zellik (BE)
not located, examined by courtesy of Jean-Marc Doyen (BE)
Musée du Malgré-Tout, Treignes (BE)
cat.no.
place
inventory no.
3000
Braga – PT
Q18_15_1639
258
Elewijt – BE
NDO 0006.06
459
Roche-Ste-Anne – BE
no number
252
Dourbes – BE
no number
1134
Grandes-Armoises – FR
no number
578
Treignes – BE
TRII 80.VII
577
Treignes – BE
28542
583
Treignes – BE
28935
584
Treignes – BE
TR6
576
Treignes – BE
11103
period
I-IV
II
II
IV
II-III
II-III
II-III
II
II
I-IV
hue
purple
green
green
blue-green
blue-green
olive green
green
olive green
green
green
function
counter – medium
vessel – form IIB.1
vessel – form IIB.1
bracelet – D1
bracelet – A1
bracelet – A2
bracelet – A3
vessel – form IIB.1
vessel – form IIB.1
counter – medium
PC48
Na2O
MgO
Al2O3
SiO2
P2O5
SO3
Cl
K2O
CaO
TiO2
MnO
Fe2O3
CuO
PbO
ZnO
a
19,0
0,9
1,6
66,9
<0,1
0,3
0,9
0,8
6,4
0,2
2,3
0,8
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
b
17,2
0,5
1,7
63,6
<0,1
0,2
0,8
0,6
5,8
0,1
0,2
9,2
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
c
16,5
0,6
1,8
63,7
<0,1
0,2
0,6
0,8
6,4
0,1
0,4
9,0
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
d
18,4
0,9
2,0
62,1
<0,1
0,2
0,7
0,6
5,9
0,4
1,5
7,3
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
e
16,0
0,7
1,8
62,7
<0,1
0,4
0,6
0,6
7,3
0,1
0,5
9,2
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
f
16,7
0,5
1,9
64,9
<0,1
0,2
0,7
0,7
7,1
0,1
0,5
6,6
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
g
17,0
0,6
1,9
64,9
<0,1
0,2
0,7
0,7
6,5
0,2
0,4
7,0
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
h
16,8
0,6
1,9
63,8
<0,1
0,2
0,7
0,7
6,2
0,1
0,3
8,6
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
i
17,1
0,5
1,7
63,9
<0,1
0,2
0,7
0,6
5,8
0,1
0,2
9,0
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
j
0,3
2,1
9,0
55,0
<0,1
0,1
<0,1
2,3
21,5
0,6
1,5
7,5
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
480
RESIN PC49
This resin included the samples from the experiment executed at PAM – Velzeke in May 2009 melting grounded
obsidian with industrial soda and by colouring with iron – one with grounded iron oxide and the other with the addition
of a iron nail. The result of this experiment is described in a paper addressed at the Bulletin of the AFAV and attached
to the CD-ROM included to this volume. Because the samples are from newly made glass batches we did not
catalogued them.
We are very grateful to the people from the PAM – Velzeke for having granted permission to execute the experiment,
but above all we wish to show our gratitude to Mark Taylor and David Hill as well as to François Van den Dries
without whom the experiment would never been brought to a succesful end.
RESIN PC50
no drawing available
no picture available
SEM-EDX at MiTAC of the University ofAntwerp (UA), Antwerp (BE)
LA-ICP-MS at University of Ghent (UG), Ghent (BE)
a-b
PC50
a
b
Lyon (FR)
cat.no.
place
1224
Lyon – FR
1225
Lyon – FR
inventory no.
290
291
period
I
I
hue
so-called black
so-called black
function
raw glass (obsidian)
raw glass (obsidian)
PC49
Na2O
MgO
Al2O3
SiO2
P2O5
SO3
Cl
K2O
CaO
TiO2
MnO
Fe2O3
CuO
PbO
ZnO
a
4,8
0,3
11,6
74,3
n.d.
n.d.
0,2
4,7
0,8
0,3
n.d.
3,1
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
b
4,8
0,3
11,6
74,4
n.d.
n.d.
0,2
4,6
0,7
0,3
n.d.
3,0
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
481
482
APPENDIX 2: LIST OF BLACK GLASS SAMPLES ANALYSED BY LA-ICP-MS
Due to the extensive list of minor and trace elements measured through inductively coupled plasma
mass spectrometry by means of laser ablation we were not able to implement the a readable table in a
paper version. We therefore refer to an excel-file on the attached cd-rom.
The 20 resins analysed by means of LA-ICP-MS are PC1; 2; 3; 6; 7; 11; 12; 13; 14;15;16;18; 21; 22;
23; 24; 25; 26; 27; 28. The set encompasses a large part of Period II material but we selected those
resins to compare with different periods in connection to the distinct black glass types (low iron; high
iron; Levantine – Egyptian; HIMT) and various regions (Belgium; Croatia; France; Germany; Israel;
Italy; Netherlands; Switzerland; Tunisia; UK)
483
APPENDIX 3: LIST OF BLACK GLASS SAMPLES ANALYSED WITH RAMAN SPECTROSCOPY
Overview of 49 black appearing glass artefacts (metal oxides in % weight) (data taken from Baert et al. forthcoming, Table 2)
All measured samples are soda-rich glass (~60-65% SiO2 / ~15-20% Na2O)
concentration of
metal oxides (wt%)
inventory no.
site
period
Fe2O3
MnO
9.2
9.0
9.0
1.7
1.5
1.7
1.7
2.3
2.2
2.1
0.3
0.2
0.2
0.5
0.4
0.4
0.4
0.4
0.4
0.4
x
LA-ICP-MS
sample
SEM-EDX
cat.no.
chemical
analysis
method
3594-95;
3603;
3612;
3615;
3617;
3623;
3626-27;
3630
Avenches_1
Avenches_2
Avenches_3
Avenches_4
Avenches_5
Avenches_6
Avenches_7
Avenches_8
Avenches_9
Avenches_10
63/2411
88/6501-9
88/6572-9
88/06918-02
88/06975-05
89/07170-43
89/07170-46
89/7179-03
89/7851-9
89/7851-13
Avenches (CH)
291
Grobbendonk
72.GRO.78
Grobbendonk (BE)
Post 150 AD
8.1
0.3
x
-
329-330
Kruishoutem_1
Kruishoutem_2
KK/PROS_KB78
KK90/PROSPJVW
Kruishoutem (BE)
Post 150 AD
11.2
8.2
0.3
0.2
x
-
438-447
Matagne_1
Matagne_2
Matagne_3
Matagne_4
Matagne_5
Matagne_6
Matagne_7
Matagne_8
Matagne_9
Matagne_10
79.MP.48.A
79.MP.48.B
79.MP.48.C
79.MP.48.D
79.MP.48.E
79.MP.48.F
79.MP.48.G
79.MP.48.H
79.MP.48.I
79.MP.48.J
Matagne-la-Petite (BE)
Post 150 AD
9.8
8.9
10.4
8.9
9.1
8.9
12.7
11.0
10.5
11.9
0.2
0.2
0.2
0.2
0.2
0.2
0.3
0.2
0.3
0.2
x
x
1227
Marseille
JV_29.92
Marseille (FR)
Pre 150 AD
2.5
0.6
x
x
Post 150 AD
Pre 150 AD
visually
perceived
colour
Raman
spectrum
green-yellow
x
figure 178
yellow-orange
green-yellow
green-yellow
figures 178179
figure 179
green-yellow
green-yellow
484
1315;
1318;
1321-25;
1329-31;
1335
510-514;
547
542-43
594-599
Olbia_1
Olbia_2
Olbia_3
Olbia_4
Olbia_5
Olbia_6
Olbia_7
Olbia_8
Olbia_9
Olbia_10
Olbia_11
Rumst_1
Rumst_2
Rumst_3
Rumst_4
Rumst_5
Tienen_1
Tienen_2
Tienen_3
037-30
294.2
037-20
C014
061-3
281
072-5
M6648
HS 13.08.1965
1002-1
056-8
88RU_51.40
88RU_86.88
88RU_120.2
88RU_107.204
88RU_107.205
TI/98/TR/02/00.3
TI/02/TR/20/078
TI/02/TR/79/059
Velzeke_1
Velzeke_2
Velzeke_3
Velzeke_4
Velzeke_5
Velzeke_6
V74-C907/WP3/K14Q/A
V74/C907/WP3/K14/B
V74/C907/WP3/K14/C
V74/C907/WP3/K14a/D
V73/C790/A1/k4/F
VDC95/IV/332a2/G
Pre 150 AD
Olbia (FR)
Post 150 AD
Pre 150 AD
Rumst (BE)
Post 150 AD
Tienen (BE)
Post 150 AD
Velzeke (BE)
Post 150 AD
1.5
1.6
0.6
0.5
2.4
1.9
0.5
0.2
6.5
1.9
1.5
9.7
9.4
6.7
9.9
7.2
10.1
8.3
11.4
0.6
0.4
2.6
2.1
2.1
0.1
3.4
0.2
2.4
0.1
0.3
0.2
0.0
0.3
0.3
0.3
0.2
0.2
0.2
9.0
9.1
11.2
8.4
9.2
6.1
0.2
0.2
0.3
0.2
0.5
0.4
x
x
yellow-orange
yellow-orange
pink-purple
pink-purple
blue
green
purple
brown
green
green
green
x
x
green-yellow
x
x
green-yellow
x
-
green-yellow
figures 178179
figure 179
figure 179
485
Amay (BE)
Avenches (CH)
Avenches (CH)
Avenches (CH)
Avenches (CH)
Avenches (CH)
Avenches (CH)
Avenches (CH)
Avenches (CH)
Avenches (CH)
Avenches (CH)
Bassenge (BE)
Bonsin (BE)
Bonsin (BE)
Braga (PT)
Florennes (BE)
Florennes (BE)
Florennes (BE)
Florennes (BE)
Florennes (BE)
Grobbendonk (BE)
Izier (BE)
Kontich (BE)
Kontich (BE)
Kontich (BE)
Kontich (BE)
Kontich (BE)
Kontich (BE)
Kontich (BE)
Kruishoutem (BE)
Kruishoutem (BE)
Maffe (BE)
Matagne-la-Petite (BE)
Matagne-la-Petite (BE)
Matagne-la-Petite (BE)
Matagne-la-Petite (BE)
Matagne-la-Petite (BE)
Matagne-la-Petite (BE)
Matagne-la-Petite (BE)
Matagne-la-Petite (BE)
Nijmegen (NL)
Nismes (BE)
Olbia (FR)
Olbia (FR)
Olbia (FR)
1
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
1
1
2
1
1
2
3
4
5
1
1
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
1
2
1
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
1
1
1
2
3
W24
63/2411
88/6501-9
88/6572-9
89/07170-43
89/07170-46
88/06918-02
88/06975-05
89/7179-03
89/7851-9
89/7851-13
SN2001-AR.1520
SN2001-AR.1525A
SN2001-AR.1525B
BRA26
FLO1
FLO2
FLO3
FLO4
FLO5
72.GRO.78
I.O.1205
KFL no number
KFL.6603
K87.542a
K87.542b
KFL.1429
K87.542c
K87.542d
90/KK/PROSP78KB
90/KK/PROSPJVW
I/7613
78.MP.A
78.MP.B
78.MP.C
78.MP.D
78.MP.E
78.MP.G
78.MP.I
78.MP.J
56184X
A2824
037-30
294.2
C061-3
vessel
vessel
vessel
vessel
vessel
vessel
vessel
vessel
vessel
vessel
vessel
vessel
bracelet
bracelet
bracelet
bracelet
bracelet
bracelet
bracelet
bracelet
vessel
vessel
vessel
vessel
vessel
vessel
vessel
vessel
vessel
vessel
vessel
vessel
vessel
vessel
vessel
vessel
vessel
vessel
vessel
vessel
bracelet
bracelet
vessel
vessel
vessel
II
II
II
II
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
II
III
III
II/IV
I
I
III
III
III
II
II
II
II
II
II
II
II
II
II
II
II
II
II
II
II
II
II
II
II
III
III
I
I
I
green
green
green
green
green
green
green
green
green
green
green
green
green
green
olive green
ultramarine blue
ultramarine blue
green
green
green
bottle green
green
green
green
green
green
green
green
green
olive green
olive green
green
green
green
green
green
green
green
green
green
bottle green
bottle green
green
green
blue
green-yellow
green-yellow
green-yellow
yellow-orange
yellow-orange
yellow-orange
yellow-orange
yellow-orange
yellow-orange
yellow-orange
green-yellow
yellow-orange
green-yellow
green-yellow
yellow-orange
yellow-orange
yellow-orange
yellow-orange
yellow-orange
green-yellow
green-yellow
green-yellow
green-yellow
yellow-orange
yellow-orange
blue
2
2
2
7a
7a
7b
7b
6
6
6
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
7b
6
4b
0,40
0,48
0,48
0,60
0,60
0,49
0,54
0,55
0,55
0,52
0,15
0,15
0,49
0,34
0,51
0,49
0,51
0,51
0,52
0,52
0,53
0,46
0,46
0,45
0,44
0,59
0,56
0,15
y
0,52
0,50
0,50
0,39
0,37
0,47
0,46
0,44
0,44
0,46
0,04
0,06
0,50
0,56
0,48
0,49
0,48
0,48
0,47
0,47
0,47
0,48
0,49
0,47
0,47
0,41
0,44
0,11
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
resin
x
chemical
analysis
method
LA-ICP-MS
calculated
colour
values
(CIE 1931)
SEM-EDX
spectral group
measured colour
perceived colour
Period
commodity type
inventory no.
174
3612
3627
3626
3617
3630
3594
3603
3623
3615
3595
193
200
201
3001
not catalogued
not catalogued
273
274
275
291
320
325
328
324
324
327
324
324
330
329
431
438
439
440
441
446
443
445
447
not catalogued
458
1330
1331
1321
sample no.
cat.no.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
site
appendix no.
APPENDIX 4: CONCORDANCE LIST OF THE ROMAN BLACK GLASS FRAGMENTS ANALYSED WITH UV-VIS-NIR SPECTROSCOPY
PC22a
PC22c
PC22d
PC22h
PC22j
PC22f
PC22g
PC22k
PC22l
PC23b
PC33b
PC20c
PC29
PC29
PC29
PC29
PC29
PC29f
PC33c
PC37
PC37
PC37
PC37
PC37
PC37
PC37
PC30a
PC30b
PC21a
PC21b
PC21c
PC21d
PC21e
PC21g
PC21i
PC21j
PC20j
PC11k
PC11j
PC11a
486
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
1335
1325
494
492
493
484
471
not catalogued
not catalogued
not catalogued
465
466
2794
2800
2796
2791
512
510
509
514
513
546
544
543
539
548
545
542
541
562
578
576
577
583
not catalogued
not catalogued
302
315
306
308
304
316
2989
595
594
597
596
599
598
Olbia (FR)
Olbia (FR)
Oudenburg (BE)
Oudenburg (BE)
Oudenburg (BE)
Oudenburg (BE)
Oudenburg (BE)
Oudenburg (BE)
Oudenburg (BE)
Oudenburg (BE)
Oudenburg (BE)
Oudenburg (BE)
Rome (IT)
Rome (IT)
Rome (IT)
Rome (IT)
Rumst (BE)
Rumst (BE)
Rumst (BE)
Rumst (BE)
Rumst (BE)
Tienen (BE)
Tienen (BE)
Tienen (BE)
Tienen (BE)
Tienen (BE)
Tienen (BE)
Tienen (BE)
Tienen (BE)
Tongeren (BE)
Treignes (BE)
Treignes (BE)
Treignes (BE)
Treignes (BE)
Treignes (BE)
Treignes (BE)
Trou de Han (BE)
Trou de Han (BE)
Trou de Han (BE)
Trou de Han (BE)
Trou de Han (BE)
Trou de Han (BE)
Utrecht (NL)
Velzeke (BE)
Velzeke (BE)
Velzeke (BE)
Velzeke (BE)
Velzeke (BE)
Velzeke (BE)
4
5
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
1
2
3
4
1
2
3
4
5
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
1
1
2
3
4
5
6
1
2
3
4
5
6
1
1
2
3
4
5
6
037-20
CO14
OS7919
76OU66
76OU43
60OU10
OS7938
OS4911
OS3022
OS1000A
OS22935
OS1169
R1609 – 56
R1609 – 59
R1609 – 69
R1609 – 77
89RU.120
88RU86.88
89RU…
88RU51.40
89RU107.205
TI/98/TR/03/22
TI/98/TR/03/26-5
TI/02/TR/20-78
TI-02-TR/20-79
TI-02-TR/20-80
TI-02-TR/20-262-3
TI-01-TR-79/059
TI-01-TR-79/142
SC128
TRII.80.VII
11103
28.542
28.935
TR6.1984-85A
TR6.1984-85B
A66-58
A65-7
AX-72
E76-79
A70-1
W1
9892
V74-907/WP3/K14Q/1
V74-C907/WP3/K14/2
V74-C907/WP3/K14/4
V73-C790/A1/K4
VDC95/IV/332a2
V74-C907/WP3/K14/3
vessel
vessel
vessel
vessel
vessel
bracelet
hairpin
bracelet
linen smoother
linen smoother
counter
counter
architectural decoration
architectural decoration
architectural decoration
architectural decoration
vessel
vessel
raw glass
vessel
vessel
vessel
vessel
vessel
vessel
vessel
vessel
vessel
vessel
vessel
bracelet A3
counter
bracelet A2
vessel
vessel
vessel
bracelet
bracelet
bracelet
bracelet
finger ring
vessel
counter
vessel
vessel
vessel
vessel
vessel
vessel
I
I
III
III
III
III
III
III
(post) IV
(post) IV
III
III
I
I
I
I
II
II
?
II
II
II
II
II
II
II
II
II
II
I
III
?
III
II
II
II
III
III
III
III
III
I
?
II
II
II
II
II
II
purple
purple
bottle green
bottle green
bottle green
bottle green
black
bottle green
black
black
black
black
blue-green
blue
brown
purple
green
green
black
green
green
green
green
green
green
green
green
green
green
black
green
black
green
green
green
green
green
green
green
green
black
black
black
olive green
olive green
olive green
olive green
olive green
olive green
pink-purple
pink-purple
green-yellow
green-yellow
green-yellow
green-yellow
green-yellow
indeterminate
green-yellow
green-yellow
yellow-orange
yellow-orange
green-yellow
green-yellow
green-yellow
green-yellow
green-yellow
green-yellow
pink
green-yellow
green-yellow
yellow-orange
yellow-orange
green-yellow
-
3
3
4a
4a
5
3
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
-
0,44
0,48
0,42
0,45
0,43
0,41
0,45
0,50
0,42
0,51
0,51
0,42
0,41
0,45
0,44
0,45
0,47
-
0,18
0,26
0,50
0,51
0,49
0,49
0,53
0,49
0,49
0,48
0,46
0,48
0,46
0,52
0,50
0,48
0,49
-
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
-
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
-
2
2
2
1
2
0,46
0,46
0,51
0,52
0,46
-
0,52
0,52
0,49
0,47
0,52
-
x
x
x
x
x
x
-
PC11f
PC11c
PC11
PC11
PC26a
PC26c
PC26b
PC12b
PC12d
PC12e
PC12f
PC1c
PC1b
PC1f
PC1a
PC1e
PC2m
PC2i
PC2f
PC2l
PC2g
PC2j
PC2h
PC2k
PC48f
PC48c
PC48g
PC48h
PC48i
PC48i
PC8b
PC8c
PC8f
PC30e
PC30f
PC30h
PC30c
PC30d
PC30g
487
488
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LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1: Schematic view how to reach a typo-chronology ......................................................................................................... xv
Figure 2: a) Carchesium of Heel (NL); b+c) Bulbous cup of Heerlen (NL) (photographs by author, by courtesy of
Limburgmuseum, Venlo); d+e) Bulbous jar (picture d) from Foy, Nenna 2001, 85, fig.93; picture e) from Harden et al. 1987, 111,
fig.44) .......................................................................................................................................................................................... 5
Figure 3: a) Counter from Cortil-Noirmont (BE) (left part reconstructed); b) Globular cup from Heerlen (NL) (photographs by
author, a) by courtesy of KMKG-MRAH, Brussels; b) by courtesy of RMO, Leiden) ..................................................................... 6
Figure 4: a) Black glass counter from Nijmegen (NL) with light in reflection (left) and light in transmission (right); b) Black glass
counter from Oudenburg (BE) exposed to white light in transmission (photographs by author, a) by courtesy of GAD, Nijmegen;
b) by courtesy of VIOE, Brussels) ................................................................................................................................................ 6
Figure 5: Pie-chart with different hues of Roman black appearing glass artefacts ........................................................................ 7
Figure 6: Pie-chart with different hues of Roman black appearing glass artefacts (excluding the unidentified group) ................... 8
Figure 7a-c: Pie-chart with the ratios between undecorated vs. decorated black appearing glass artefacts (excluding the
unidentified group) ....................................................................................................................................................................... 9
Figure 8a-d: Pie-charts defining the ratios of glass hues utilized for the core of the artefact (a + b) and for the applied decoration
(c + d) ........................................................................................................................................................................................ 10
Figure 9: a) Irregular circular mark from a massive punty gob; b) Thick ring-shaped mark from a hollow punty gob or ring pontil;
c) Thin irregular annular scar from the moil of the blowing pipe (photographs by author) ........................................................... 17
Figure 10a-d: Various uses of jacks and pincers a) to model a base-ring [left: cat.no.595; right: cat.no.414]; b) to apply glass
trails [Kaiseraugst - cat.no.3721]; c) to model handles [Liberchies – top: cat.no.413 ; bottom: cat.no.407]; d) reconstruction of
how pincers were utilized to apply glass trails on an artefact (drawings and pictures by author, by courtesy of PAM, Velzeke;
Musée Archéologique, Nivelles; Augusta Raurica, Augst; CRAN, Louvain-la-Neuve) ................................................................. 18
Figure 11: Wheel-cut fragment in the Petrie Museum for Egyptian Archaeology, London (photograph by author, by courtesy of
Petrie Museum) ......................................................................................................................................................................... 23
Figure 12: Vessel with rolled-in glass particles in a contrasting colour to be marvered from the Canal Bianco necropolis, Adria
(IT) (photograph taken from Barovier et al. 2003, 231, no.3; cat.no.2586) .................................................................................. 24
Figure 13: Reconstruction of possible production process (drawing by author) .......................................................................... 25
Figure 14: Pitted surface due to a thermal shock on bottom of the Heel carchesium (NL) [cat.no.2883] (photograph by author, by
courtesy of Limburgmuseum, Venlo) .......................................................................................................................................... 25
Figure 15: (left) Thin elongated pointed elliptical scar of a punty on apex of the top surface of an open elliptical bracelet from
Poitiers-Vienne (FR) [cat.no.1345] (drawing by author, by courtesy of MAN, Saint-Germain-en-Laye); (right) Closed, circular
bracelet with clear seam from Kaiseraugst (CH) [cat.no.3687] (drawing taken from Riha 1990, pl.74:2930) ............................... 27
Figure 16: Possible reconstruction of production process (drawing by author) ........................................................................... 29
Figure 17: Basal side of the so-called ‗Trilobitenperle‘ from Tielrode (BE) [cat.no.529] showing concentric chill marks
(photograph by Marc De Meirelaer, by courtesy of Museum Van Bogaert-Wauters, Hamme) .................................................... 29
Figure 18: Tesserae in various shapes and sizes from Les Houis, near Sainte Menehould (FR) (drawings by author, by courtesy
of MAN, Saint-Germain-en-Laye) ............................................................................................................................................... 32
Figure 19: Two counters from the castellum Oudenburg (BE) a) with a flat and smooth lower surface [cat.no.465]; b) with a
slightly irregular, pitted surface [cat.no.466]; c) counter from a re-fused glass sherd from Utrecht (NL) [cat.no.2989]
(photographs by author, a-b) courtesy by VIOE, Brussels; c) courtesy by ACVU, Amsterdam) .................................................. 33
Figure 20: Ratios of the various production techniques for black glass vessels .......................................................................... 35
Figure 21: Ratios of the various production techniques for black glass vessels in relation to the adopted glass hue .................. 36
Figure 22: Ratios of the cast black glass vessels in relation to the adopted glass hue ................................................................ 36
Figure 23: Ratios of the free-blown black glass vessels in relation to the adopted glass hue ...................................................... 37
Figure 24: Ratios of the mould-blown black glass vessels in relation to the adopted glass hue .................................................. 38
Figure 25: Ratios of the rod-formed black glass vessels in relation to the adopted glass hue ..................................................... 38
Figure 26:a-b) Stacked bar charts of the different commodity types per technique (in terms of quantity and percentage); c-d)
Stacked bar charts of the different techniques applied per commodity type (in terms of quantity and percentage) ..................... 40
Figure 27: Pie-charts of the colour ratios of the bracelets; (left) with undefined hue incorporated;(right) with defined hues only . 41
Figure 28: Pie-charts of the colour ratios of the finger rings; (left) with undefined hue incorporated (right) with defined hues only41
Figure 29: Pie-charts of the colour ratios of the beads; (left) with undefined hue incorporated; (right) with defined hues only ..... 42
Figure 30: Pie-charts of the colour ratios of the pendants; (left) with undefined hue incorporated (right) with defined hues only . 42
Figure 31: Pie-charts of the colour ratios of the gems; (left) with undefined hue incorporated; (right) with defined hues only ...... 43
Figure 32: Pie-charts of the colour ratios of the hairpins; (left) with undefined hue incorporated; (right) with defined hues only .. 44
511
Figure 33: Period I cast vessel shapes in strongly coloured glass appearing black (Forms IA) .................................................. 48
Figure 34: First century AD free-blown vessel shapes in strongly coloured glass appearing black (Forms IB) ........................... 52
Figure 35: Typology of free-blown shapes (drawings nos. 1-14 from Cosyns, Hanut 2005, fig.2; nos. 15-20 drawn by author;
no.19 from Isings 1957) ............................................................................................................................................................. 56
Figure 36: (top) Base fragment of a small bulbous cup (Form II.B.4) from the Roman villa at Lauw, Belgium; (bottom) Mouldblown globular beaker from Bois-et-Borsu (photograph by author, by courtesy of PGRM Tongeren (top) by courtesy of KMKG
(bottom)) ................................................................................................................................................................................... 58
Figure 37: Small bulbous cup in Württembergisches Landesmuseum Stuttgart, formerly in the Ernesto Wolf Collection
(illustration from Stern 2001, 193, no. 84) .................................................................................................................................. 59
Figure 38: (left) Faulquemont, France (photograph by Hubert Cabart); (right) MET 17.194.166, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New
York (photograph by Chris Lightfoot, courtesy by Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York) ........................................................ 59
Figure 39: a two-handled jug from unknown provenance (LU) (photograph by Jeannine Geyssant by courtesy of MNAH,
Luxemburg) ............................................................................................................................................................................... 61
Figure 40: Typology of Period III free-blown shapes (drawings taken from Pirling, Siepen 2006 (1-2); Dilly, Mahéo 1997 (3)) ... 65
Figure 41: Typology of mould-blown vessels (1-5 = Forms IC; 6-7 = Forms IIC; 8 = Form IVC) (all drawings by author;
photograph (3) taken from Whitehouse 2001, 65, no.536) ......................................................................................................... 66
Figure 42: (left) The hexagonal bottle (Form IB.4) and (right) the double head-shaped bottle (Form IB.5) from the Toledo
Museum of Art (photographs taken from Stern 1995, colour plates 7; 23). ................................................................................. 68
Figure 43: The grape-shaped amphoriskos from Nijmegen-Hees (Photograph by the author, courtesy of the Museum Het
Valkhof, Nijmegen) .................................................................................................................................................................... 69
Figure 44: The grape-shaped amphoriskos from Bologna, Italy(illustration taken from Meconcelli Notarianni 1979, no. 213) .... 69
Figure 45: Two fragments of mould-blown prismatic bottles from the ‗Aussere Reben‘ workshop at Kaiseraugst (CH)
[cat.no.3777 (left); cat.no.3462 (right)] (photographs by the author, by courtesy of the Römermuseum, Augst) ......................... 70
Figure 46: Rod-formed unguentaria with triangular shaped solid body and tall neck from Elkab (EG) (drawing by F. Roloux, by
courtesy of the MRAH-KMKG, Brussels; photograph by author, by courtesy of the MRAH-KMKG, Brussels) ............................ 71
Figure 47: squad candlestick unguentarium with solid body (photograph by courtesy of the Yale University Art Gallery, New
Haven) ...................................................................................................................................................................................... 72
Figure 48: Rod-formed alabastra with twisted body without foot (left) or with foot (right) (drawings by author, by courtesy of
Grand Curtius, Liège) ................................................................................................................................................................ 73
Figure 49: The various subtypes of squat jars with their various decorations (drawings by author, by courtesy of Grand Curtius,
Liège; photographs taken from Arveiller, Nenna 2005, no. 1156 and Israeli 2003, no.394) ........................................................ 75
Figure 50: Squat globular jar with pressed decoration (Form IVD.2:3) (photograph and drawings by author, by courtesy of Grand
Curtius, Liège) ........................................................................................................................................................................... 76
Figure 51: (top) Truncated conical (Form IVD.3); (bottom) biconical jar (Form IVD.4) ................................................................ 77
Figure 52: Typology of Roman glass bracelets set up by Hubert De Witte (taken from De Witte 1977, 21) ................................ 83
Figure 53: Typology of the black glass bracelets (drawings by the author)................................................................................. 86
Figure 54: Open bracelet of type A4 from Nijmegen showing with an unusual crested spatula-shaped end (drawing by the author,
by courtesy of the Gemeentelijke Archeologische Dienst, Nijmegen) ......................................................................................... 88
Figure 55: Pie-charts demonstrating a distribution between the different types and between the different variants per type ...... 92
Figure 56: Typology proposed by Helène Guiraud based on the material from France (taken from Guiraud 1989, figs. 9, 11; 21;
26; 32; 37; 41; 45; 47) ............................................................................................................................................................... 94
Figure 57: Proposed typology of Roman black glass finger rings (drawings by the author) ........................................................ 95
Figure 58: Column-chart and pie-chart correspondingly showing the ratios in terms of quantity (top) and percentage (bottom) of
the different types of black glass finger rings ............................................................................................................................. 96
Figure 59: Pie-chart displaying the ratios of the various type A finger rings................................................................................ 97
Figure 60: Pie-chart displaying the ratios of the various subtypes of the simple annular finger ring............................................ 97
Figure 61: Pie-chart displaying the ratios of the various type B finger rings................................................................................ 99
Figure 62: (left + middle) Finger ring from Trou de Han (drawing by the author, courtesy of Musée du Monde Souterrain, Hansur-Lesse); (right) finger ring fragment from Wanborough (drawing taken from Monk 2001, fig. 67)......................................... 102
Figure 63: Plain hexagonal finger ring in dark green glass appearing black from Trou del Leuve at Sinsin (BE) (drawing taken
from Warmenbol 1984, 8, fig.6) ............................................................................................................................................... 102
Figure 64: Theoretical classification of Type C finger rings ...................................................................................................... 103
Figure 65: Pie-chart displaying the ratios of the various type C finger rings ............................................................................. 104
Figure 66: Classification of the Roman glass beads from the British Isles (after Margaret Guido 1978, fig.37); Encircled with full
red line the types known in black glass; encircled with dotted red line the types in black glass recorded on the continent ....... 105
512
Figure 67: Chart based on the different types of black glass beads (by author) ........................................................................ 107
Figure 68: Pie-chart showing the ratios of the different bead classes in black glass ................................................................. 108
Figure 69: Roman necklace combining a golden chain with black glass discoid beads (photograph by author, by courtesy of the
Archaeological Museum of Ancona) ......................................................................................................................................... 112
Figure 70: overview of Roman cast and pressed beads produced in black glass (3: drawings by author;1: taken from Van den
Hurk 1980, fig.6:m; 2; 5-8: taken from Spaer 2001, 76) ............................................................................................................ 113
Figure 71: Organization chart of portrait beads ........................................................................................................................ 115
Figure 72: Schematic view of the various Roman pendant types distinguished in black glass (drawings by author or taken from
Spaer 2001) ............................................................................................................................................................................. 116
Figure 73: Diversity of the poppy-head-shaped pendants: a. plain; b. ribbed; c. wavy/zigzag line; d. mottled (drawing by author)118
Figure 74: Diversity of the barrel-shaped pendants: top: single looped – left: elongated (Trier); middle+right: short (Cyprus;
Colchester); bottom: multiple looped - Aquileia (top: drawings by author; Colchester taken from Crummy 1983, no.1504;
photograph taken from Mandruzatto 2008) .............................................................................................................................. 118
Figure 75: Diversity of the jug-shaped pendants (all drawings by autho, except left taken from Tempelmann-Maczyńska 1985;
other) ....................................................................................................................................................................................... 119
Figure 76: Overview of black glass gemstones: 1) plain conical; 2) plano-convex; 3) small elliptical; 4) large round ................. 121
Figure 77: Overview of gem shapes (illustration taken from Henig 1978², fig.1; after E. Zwierlein-Diel & J. Boardman) ............ 123
Figure 78: Glass hairpins with a) spherical head; b) conical head; c) discoid head; d) elliptical head ....................................... 125
Figure 79: Bronze hairpin with black glass head from Shakenoak (UK) (taken from Harden 1971, fig.45:69 – scale 1:1) ......... 125
Figure 80: Selection of black glass tesserae shapes from the site at Les Houis, nearby Sainte Menehould (FR) in Musée des
Antiquités Nationales (M.A.N.), Saint-Germain-en-Laye (photograph by the author, courtesy of M.A.N.) ................................. 126
Figure 81: Set of tesserae from the site at Les Houis, nearby Sainte Menehould (FR) in Grand Curtius Museum, Liège (BE)
since the late 19th century (photograph by author, courtesy of Grand Curtius Liège) ................................................................ 127
Figure 82: Set of 455 black tesserae (Inv.no. 83401-B) from the site at Les Houis, nearby Sainte Menehould (France) in Musée
des Antiquités Nationales (M.A.N.), Saint-Germain-en-Laye (France) (photograph by the author, courtesy of M.A.N.)............. 127
Figure 83: An overview of the R1609 material from the KMKG-MRAH, Brussels (photograph by the author, courtesy by KMKGMRAH) ..................................................................................................................................................................................... 128
Figure 84: Chart of the rod varieties based on technology ........................................................................................................ 129
Figure 85: Stirring rod from tomb 272 at Amathous (CY) (drawing by the author, by courtesy of the District Museum of Limassol)130
Figure 86: An overview of the R1609 rectangular bichrome plaques from the KMKG-MRAH, Brussels (photograph by the author,
courtesy by KMKG-MRAH, Brussels) ....................................................................................................................................... 131
Figure 87: Schematic view on the various features used to classify Roman glass counters...................................................... 132
Figure 88: Plot of the dimensions of Roman black glass counters (in mm) ............................................................................... 133
Figure 89: Plot opposing the dimensions of the plain against the decorated counters in black glass (in mm) ........................... 134
Figure 90: Variety of blue glass used to apply a dotted decoration on counters ........................................................................ 136
Figure 91: Ratios of black glass counters per period from dated contexts ................................................................................ 167
Figure 92: Plot of the black glass counters according to the dimensions .................................................................................. 169
Figure 93: Scheme of the subdivisions of this chapter .............................................................................................................. 176
Figure 94: Ratios of sites and entries in relation to the settlement character (incorporating or excluding the items from unknown
provenance) ............................................................................................................................................................................. 178
Figure 95: Pie-charts showing the ratio of black glass artefacts from the various Roman civil contexts .................................... 180
Figure 96: Column chart showing the quantity of the various commodities per context category .............................................. 181
Figure 97: Ratios of the different context categories per commodity type (top: including the material of unknown provenance;
bottom: excluding the material of unknown provenance) .......................................................................................................... 182
Figure 98: Ratios of the different jewellery commodities per context category .......................................................................... 183
Figure 99: Stacked-bars showing the quantities of the four arm ring categories per context category ...................................... 184
Figure 100: Comparison of the multiple values of the various bracelet types per context ......................................................... 185
Figure 101: Functional types of black glass artefacts from domestic civil contexts ................................................................... 185
Figure 102: Black glass vessels from domestic civil contexts per period .................................................................................. 186
Figure 103: Pie-chart showing the ratios of the different bangle types from domestic contexts ................................................. 188
Figure 104: Functional types of black glass artefacts from Roman burials ................................................................................ 192
513
Figure 105: Pie charts of the vessels from funerary contexts (left: considering all entries, right: omitting the entries of undefined
date) ........................................................................................................................................................................................ 192
Figure 106: Stacked bar charts showing the ratios per period of the different types of black glass jewellery from civil/funerary
contexts in amount and in proportion ....................................................................................................................................... 196
Figure 107: Pie-chart showing the functional types of black glass artefacts from Roman ritual contexts .................................. 203
Figure 108: Black glass from military contexts (right: with additional entries) ........................................................................... 206
Figure 109: scheme 1 .............................................................................................................................................................. 225
Figure 110: scheme 2 .............................................................................................................................................................. 225
Figure 111: scheme 3 (top: variant a – bottom: variant b) ........................................................................................................ 226
Figure 112: scheme 4 .............................................................................................................................................................. 226
Figure 113: Distribution map of the known or presumed glass workshops that produced black glass artefacts ........................ 228
Figure 114: Column charts demonstrating the concentrations of various black glass commodities from ites with a clear or
supposedly secondary glass workshop where black glass has been manufactured ................................................................. 230
Figure 115: Fragments from the Regio 17B glass workshop of Kaiseraugst (CH) (picture by author, by courtesy of
Römermuseum, Augst)............................................................................................................................................................ 231
Figure 116: top) batch fragment from Äussere Reben workshop at Kaiseraugst (CH) with unmelted tessera in ‗naturally coloured‘
glass; bottom) production waste from the same workshop showing four unmelted cubic-shaped inclusions in transparent pale
blue-green glass (pictures by author, by courtesy of Römermuseum Augusta Raurica) ........................................................... 232
Figure 117: Pie-charts visualizing the distribution range of black glass bracelets of Type A ..................................................... 245
Figure 118: Distribution map of departments in France with black glass bracelets of type A .................................................... 246
Figure 119: Pie-charts visualizing the distribution range of black glass bracelets of Type B ..................................................... 248
Figure 120: Bar-charts visualizing the distribution range of black glass bracelets of Type C .................................................... 248
Figure 121: Pie-charts visualizing the distribution range of black glass bracelets of Type D ..................................................... 251
Figure 122: Distribution map of late Roman dotted counters.................................................................................................... 266
Figure 123: The burial gifts from 1st century AD tombs at Antran (FR) (left) and Montebelluna (IT) (right) (pictures taken from
Pautreau (ed.) 1999, fig.28 (left); Casagrande, Ceselin 2003, pl. X (right)) .............................................................................. 273
Figure 124: Overview of burial gifts of tomb 176 from the cemetery at Cutry (illustration taken from Liéger 1997, pl. 28) ......... 275
Figure 125: (left) Base fragment from Liberchies-Bon Villers (BE); (right) from Matagne-la-Petite (BE) showing marks of use
(photographs by author, by courtesy of the Musée Archéologique, Nivelles and VIOE) ........................................................... 276
Figure 126: (middle) rod-formed kohl-tube; (others) free-blown kohl-tubes (pictures taken from Israeli 2003, 228-229, nos. 283286 except middle Schlick-Nolte 2002, 104, no.V68) ............................................................................................................... 278
Figure 127: Hair-style reconstruction proposed by Pilet 1980, (I) 95, fig.2; pl.107:404. ............................................................ 283
Figure 128: (left) ‗Trilobitenperle‘ in black glass from Augst; (right) ‗Trilobitenperle‘ in jet from Augst (both drawings taken from
Riha 1990, Taf. 39:1345; 1347) ............................................................................................................................................... 286
Figure 129: Comparison of jug-shaped pendants and their real counterparts in vessel glass (drawings taken from Spaer 2001
and Harden et al. 1989) ........................................................................................................................................................... 289
Figure 131: The very elaborate discoid brooch with inscription from the Roman cemetery of Wancennes (BE) (picture taken by
author, courtesy by Musée Archéologique, Namur) ................................................................................................................. 292
Figure 132: large pseudo-nicolo gemstones set in a gilded silver sheet military helmet from Berkasovo (SB) (picture taken from
Mackensen 2009, pl. 25). ........................................................................................................................................................ 295
Figure 133: Examples of wall and vault mosaics with twisted glass rods inserted: a.-b.: natatio, villa dei Centroni, Rome; c.-d.:
bathcomplex, Aquileia; e.-g.: nymphaeum, Casa del Torello, Pompeii (illustrations taken from Sear 1977, pl. 15:2-3 [a-b]; pl.
44:3 [c]; pl. 43:4 [d]; pl. 9:1;3 [e-f]; fig.13 [g]) ............................................................................................................................ 298
Figure 134: plaster mirror from Egypt decorated with plano-convex counters in black glass (picture taken from Musée du Verre
1999, 51, no.11, courtesy by Musée du Verre, Marcinelle) ...................................................................................................... 300
Figure 135: Biplot opposing silica to soda oxide content (wt %) ............................................................................................... 310
Figure 136: Biplot opposing lime to silica oxide content (wt %) ................................................................................................ 310
Figure 137: Biplot opposing potash to magnesium oxide content (wt %) .................................................................................. 311
Figure 138: Biplot opposing alumina to silica oxide content (wt %) .......................................................................................... 312
Figure 139: Biplot opposing alumina to magnesium oxide content (wt %) ................................................................................ 312
Figure 140: Biplot opposing alumina to iron oxide content (wt %) ............................................................................................ 313
Figure 141: Biplot opposing titanium to iron oxide content (wt %) ............................................................................................ 314
Figure 142: Biplot opposing manganese to iron oxide content (wt %) ...................................................................................... 314
514
Figure 143: Biplot opposing titanium to manganese oxide content (wt %) ................................................................................ 315
Figure 144: Biplot opposing potash to soda oxide content (wt %) ............................................................................................. 315
Figure 145: a) preparing the samples in a plastic matrix before filling the plastic matrix with resin; b) making of a sketch of the
samples ................................................................................................................................................................................... 318
Figure 146: The material used to make a resin for encasing the samples ................................................................................ 319
Figure 147: (left) The final stage of grinding and polishing the resin surface by using diamond paste of 0,25 µm.; (right) Resin
with clean, smooth and scratchless surface ready for analysis measurements ......................................................................... 319
Figure 148: Vacuum carbon evaporation device (BALZERS UNION) used to apply a thin carbon coating ............................... 319
Figure 149: LA-ICP-MS installation at CNRS-IRAMAT, Orléans, France (photographs by author, courtesy of Bernard Gratuze)321
Figure 150: Ternary plot opposing Al2O3-Fe2O3-MnO (weight %) (taken from Vander Linden et al. 2009, fig.4) ........................ 325
Figure 151: Type of flux: magnesia opposing potassium (weight %) ........................................................................................ 326
Figure 152: Type of sand: Al2O3 versus TiO2 (weight %) for the resins PC1-3 .......................................................................... 326
Figure 153: Biplot visualizing alumina versus iron content (weight %) for the resins PC1-3 ...................................................... 327
Figure 154: Biplot visualizing manganese versus iron content (weight %) for the resins PC1-3 ................................................ 328
Figure 155: Biplot visualizing alumina versus titanium content (weight %) for the resins PC1-48.............................................. 329
Figure 156: Al2O3 versus Fe2O3 (weight %) for the resins PC1-48 ............................................................................................ 329
Figure 157: TiO2 versus Fe2O3 (weight %) for the resins PC1-48 ............................................................................................. 330
Figure 158: MnO versus Fe2O3 (weight %) for the resins PC1-48............................................................................................. 331
Figure 159: MgO versus Fe2O3 (weight %) for the resins PC1-48............................................................................................. 332
Figure 160: Plot opposing chromium with vanadium oxide (weight %)...................................................................................... 333
Figure 161: Plot opposing strontium with titanium oxide (weight %) ......................................................................................... 334
Figure 162: Plot opposing zirconium with titanium oxide (weight %) ......................................................................................... 334
Figure 163: Plot opposing chromium with vanadium oxide (weight %)...................................................................................... 335
Figure 164: Plot opposing manganese with antimony oxide (weight %) .................................................................................... 336
Figure 165: Plot opposing soda with potash oxide (weight %) .................................................................................................. 337
Figure 166: Plot opposing alumina with titanium oxide (weight %)............................................................................................ 337
Figure 167: Plot opposing manganese with iron oxide (weight %) ............................................................................................ 338
Figure 168: The installation of the p-XRF ................................................................................................................................. 344
Figure 169: Energy spectrum of R1610 compared with the spectra of black glass and obsidian pieces ................................... 345
Figure 170: Detailed view of the X-ray spectra of the aluminium (Al) and silicium (Si) peaks (taken from Cagno, Cosyns 2009a,
unpublished internal report) ..................................................................................................................................................... 345
Figure 171: Detailed view on the X-ray spectra of the potash (K) and calcium (Ca) peaks (taken from Cagno, Cosyns 2009a,
unpublished internal report) ..................................................................................................................................................... 346
Figure 172: Detailed view of the X-ray spectra of the iron (Fe) peaks (taken from Cagno, Cosyns 2009a, unpublished internal
report) ...................................................................................................................................................................................... 346
Figure 173: Manganeseiron ratios (Mn/Fe) versus potashcalcium ratios (K/Ca) in the analysed samples (taken from Cagno,
Cosyns 2009b, unpublished internal report) ............................................................................................................................. 349
Figure 174: Manganese intensities (Mn) versus iron intensities (Fe) in the analysed samples (normalised values) (taken from
Cagno, Cosyns 2009b, unpublished internal report) ................................................................................................................. 350
Figure 175: Lead intensities (Pb) versus copper intensities (Cu) in the analysed samples (normalised values) (taken from
Cagno, Cosyns 2009b, unpublished internal report) ................................................................................................................. 350
Figure 176: Example of a Raman spectrum of a sodium-silicate glass (taken from Baert et al. 2011, fig. 1) ............................. 352
Figure 177: The not normalised Raman spectra from 4 black glass samples with high iron content ......................................... 353
Figure 178: Raman spectra of Grobbendonk (Group A = high Fe–low Mn); Olbia_3 (Group B = low Fe–high Mn); Avenches_4
(Group C = low Fe–low Mn) (taken from Baert et al. 2011, fig.4) [a.u. = arbitrary units] ............................................................ 353
Figure 179: Raman spectra of Roman black glass artefacts (Appendix 3) with a various concentrations of iron oxide (taken from
Baert et al. 2011, fig. 5) [norm. = normalised] ........................................................................................................................... 354
Figure 180: schematic set-up of the optical installation for UV-Vis-NIR spectroscopy ............................................................... 364
Figure 181: schematic view of all possible influences on the colour of an artefact before reaching the naked eye.................... 364
Figure 182: (a) A selection of black-appearing glass vessels with only reflective light; (b) the Rumst piece with neon (whitish)
light (18 Watt) in transmission (b1) versus a strong halogen (yellowish) light (500 Watt) in transmission (b2); (c) a Matagne piece
515
with neon (whitish) light (18 Watt) in transmission (c1) versus a strong halogen (yellowish) light (500 Watt) in transmission (c2)
(photographs by the author, courtesy of VIOE) ........................................................................................................................ 365
Figure 183: Schematic views of the spectrum measurement using light in transmission without (top) or with (bottom) the use of
an integrating sphere ............................................................................................................................................................... 366
Figure 184: Schematic view of the measuring of transmission (T) of glass artefacts ................................................................ 366
Figure 185: Solar spectrum within the visible (VIS) [between 380-780 nm], from ultraviolet (UV) [below 380 nm] to nearly infrared
(NIR) [above 780 nm], including the Fraunhofer lines featuring the absorption lines matching the wavelength of specific chemical
elements (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fraunhofer_lines) ................................................................................................... 367
Figure 186: (top left) CIE1931 horseshoe curve; (top right) Colour matching functions showing normalized typical human cone
cell responses (Z, Y and X) to monochromatic spectral stimuli (taken from Fortner, Meyer 1997); (bottom) the spectra of the
three primary colour stimuli (taken from DeCustatis 1998) ....................................................................................................... 368
Figure 187: The spherical colour spaces with vertically the lightness of the colour (L*) and horizontally the hue in two axes,
green-red (a*) and yellow-blue (b*) (a-c: provided by Wendy Meulebroeck; d: taken from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Munsell_Color_System) ................................................................................................................ 369
Figure 188: transmission spectra of Roman strongly-coloured glass appearing black from Rumst and Florennes between 350
and 800 nm ............................................................................................................................................................................. 371
Figure 189: Plot of the Rumst and Florennes samples on the CIE1931 horseshoe graph ........................................................ 372
Figure 190: The different transmissions of light according to the particular hue of glass .......................................................... 373
Figure 191: The transmissions of light converted into optical density (OD) .............................................................................. 373
Figure 192: integrated optical density of black-appearing glass versus non-black appearing coloured glass ........................... 374
Figure 193: Overview of the integrated optical density of the 22 black-appearing artefacts within the UV-VIS-IR (300-1600 nm)375
Figure 194: Iron content versus manganese content (%wt) of the first set of 48 artefacts, showing the clear compositional
difference between artefacts produced at different periods in time. .......................................................................................... 377
Figure 195: Transmission spectra of Spectral Group 1 ............................................................................................................ 379
Figure 196: Transmission spectra of Spectral Group 2 samples from Avenches, Matagne-la-Petite and Velzeke .................... 380
Figure 197: Transmission spectra of Spectral Group 2 of samples from Braga, Oudenburg and Tienen .................................. 380
Figure 198: Transmission spectra of Spectral Group 3 ............................................................................................................ 381
Figure 199: Transmission spectra of Spectral Group 4 ............................................................................................................ 382
Figure 200: Calculated colour coordinates of the first four spectral groups .............................................................................. 383
Figure 201: Transmission spectra of Spectral Group 5 ............................................................................................................ 383
Figure 202: Transmission spectra of Spectral Group 6 ............................................................................................................ 384
Figure 203: plot of the calculated colour coordinates of the two types of artefacts belonging to Spectral Group 6 .................... 384
Figure 204: Transmission spectra of Spectral Group 7 ............................................................................................................ 385
Figure 205: Similar spectral shapes corresponding with different chemical compositions. The separate groups which are defined
in the iron-manganese chart all correspond with a typical transmission spectrum .................................................................... 386
Figure 206: Plot of the various spectral groups on the CIE1931 horseshoe graph ................................................................... 387
Figure 207: Overview of the examined artefacts from a wide geographical provenance and produced over a long-lasting period389
Figure 208: Transmission maxima (Tmax) of Spectral Group 1 as a function of the x colour coordinate. The higher both values,
the more reduced the furnace conditions ................................................................................................................................. 390
Figure 209: Position of the transmission maxima in the samples of Group 2 ............................................................................ 390
Figure 210: Measured transmission spectra of the artefacts belonging to Spectral Group 6 [= Class III]; left: subtype I; right:
subtype II. ............................................................................................................................................................................... 391
Figure 211: Roman glass vessel from Tongeren/Belgium (photograph by the author, by courtesy of PGRM, Tongeren) (left).
Transmission spectrum of the object (right) ............................................................................................................................. 393
Figure 212: Colour coordinates of different samples excavated at Avenches (top) .................................................................. 393
Figure 213: Spectra of the samples belonging to Spectral Group 6 and 7a [Class III] .............................................................. 394
Figure 214: Grouping of the Tienen artefacts based on their colour coordinates and position of the transmission ................... 395
Figure 215: Maximum (left) and on external examination (right)............................................................................................... 396
Figure 216: Grouping of the Kontich artefacts based on their colour coordinates and position of the transmission maximum .. 397
Figure 217: Mapping of a number of samples on the CIE1931 colour diagram ........................................................................ 398
Figure 218: Calculated colour coordinates of the different spectral groups recognized on Roman black glass ......................... 399
Figure 219: Plot on the CIE1931 horseshoe graph of the calculated colour coordinates of the different spectral groups
recognized on Roman black glass ........................................................................................................................................... 399
516
Figure 220: Schematic visualization of the three-levelled economic approaches ...................................................................... 405
Figure 221: Distribution map of vessel Forms IIB.1 and 4/5;glass workshops where black glass was processed ..................... 406
Figure 222: Bi-plot discriminating two subclasses according to the titanium content (wt %) ...................................................... 407
Figure 223: Bi-plot of the titanium – manganese ratio (wt %) of the vessel shapes Form IIB.1 aand Forms IIB.4/5 .................. 408
Figure 224: Bi-plot of the titanium – manganese ratio (wt %) of the vessel shapes Form IIB.1 aand Forms IIB.4/5 .................. 408
Figure 225: Distribution map of the low titanium subclass (green) and high titanium subclass (red) ......................................... 409
Figure 226: Key models of the Roman economy ...................................................................................................................... 411
Figure 227: Theoretical visualisation of the possible mixtures that can occur when cullet is added to the batch ....................... 416
Figure 228: Access 2007 catalogue Form ................................................................................................................................ 430
517
518
LIST OF TABLES
Table 1: Country subdivision codes ............................................................................................................................................xxi
Table 2: Overview of the different colours of Roman black glass .................................................................................................. 7
Table 3: Categorization of decorated artefacts (n = quantity) ....................................................................................................... 8
Table 4: List of colours and colour combinations (n = quantity) .................................................................................................. 10
Table 5: Overview of colour combinations between core and decoration of bichrome artefacts .................................................. 11
Table 6: Overview of colour combinations between core and decoration of polychrome artefacts .............................................. 11
Table 7: The ratio of different techniques utilized in the production of black glass vessels ......................................................... 20
Table 8: Differences between the so-called ‗Trilobitenperlen‘ in jet and black glass ................................................................... 30
Table 9: Overview of various types of black glass production material ....................................................................................... 35
Table 10: Overview of various adopted techniques in black glass vessel production .................................................................. 35
Table 11: Overview of various adopted glass hues in the production of black appearing vessels ............................................... 36
Table 12: Overview of various adopted glass hues in the production of black appearing cast vessels ........................................ 36
Table 13: Overview of various adopted glass hues in the production of black appearing free-blown vessels .............................. 37
Table 14: Overview of various adopted glass hues in the production of black appearing mould-blown vessels .......................... 37
Table 15: Overview of various adopted glass hues in the production of black appearing rod-formed vessels ............................. 38
Table 16: Quantitative overview of the various jewellery types for each technique ..................................................................... 39
Table 17: Quantitative overview of the various glass hues applied for arm rings ........................................................................ 40
Table 18: Quantitative overview of the various glass hues applied for finger rings ...................................................................... 41
Table 19: Quantitative overview of the various glass hues applied for beads ............................................................................. 42
Table 20: Quantitative overview of the various glass hues applied for pendants ........................................................................ 42
Table 21: Quantitative overview of the various glass hues applied for gems .............................................................................. 43
Table 22: Quantitative overview of the various glass hues applied for hairpins ........................................................................... 44
Table 23: List of ovoid beakers, Form IIB.13 .............................................................................................................................. 62
Table 24: Overview of features used to categorize the rod-formed vessels ................................................................................ 71
Table 25: Types of decoration of the rod-formed vessel shapes known in black glass................................................................ 71
Table 26: List of rod-formed squat jars (Form IVD.2) .................................................................................................................. 74
Table 27: List of rod-formed conical and biconical jars (Forms IVD.3-4) ..................................................................................... 77
Table 28: chronological overview of the different techniques of black glass vessel production ................................................... 78
Table 29: Frequency list of the different shapes in black glass recorded per period and per technique (n = quantity) ................. 79
Table 30: Concordance list of the proposed typologies on Roman glass bracelets. [* our taxonomy is a final elaboration of our
previously proposed classification system (Cosyns 2003; 2004) which is based on the typology proposed by Hubert De Witte
(1977)] ....................................................................................................................................................................................... 86
Table 31: List with amounts of Roman glass bracelets per type and colour (n = quantity) .......................................................... 91
Table 32: List of different classes of glass finger rings per colour with % in black glass (based on the catalogue of Henkel 1913,
154-158) .................................................................................................................................................................................... 93
Table 33: Concordance table of the established typologies ........................................................................................................ 94
Table 34: List of finger rings in black glass (n = quantity) ........................................................................................................... 96
Table 35: List of type A finger rings in black glass ...................................................................................................................... 96
Table 36: List of type B finger rings in black glass ...................................................................................................................... 99
Table 37: List of type C finger rings in black glass decorated with protuberances (dimensions in mm) ..................................... 103
Table 38: Overview of the rod-formed beads in black glass ..................................................................................................... 108
Table 39: Overview of annular beads in black glass (n = quantity) ........................................................................................... 109
Table 40: Overview of globular beads in black glass (n = quantity) .......................................................................................... 110
Table 41: Overview of cylindrical beads in black glass (n = quantity)........................................................................................ 110
Table 42: Overview of melon beads in black glass (n = quantity) ............................................................................................. 111
Table 43: Overview of barrel-shaped beads in black glass (n = quantity) ................................................................................. 111
519
Table 44: Overview of the miscellaneous shapes of beads rarely occurring in black glass (n = quantity) ................................. 112
Table 45: Dimensions (in mm) of pendants with bulbous body and gooseneck suspension loop ............................................. 117
Table 46: Ratio of various coloured pressed discoid pendants in large collections (YG = yellowish green; YB = yellowish brown;
P = purple; G = green; B-G = blue-green; B = blue) ................................................................................................................. 119
Table 47: Number of gemstones from Belgium related to finger rings (taken from Sas 1993, 126) .......................................... 123
Table 48: List of various glass colours of twisted rods from R1609 at the KMKG-MRAH, Brussels .......................................... 128
Table 49: List of so-called stirring rods (dimensions in mm) ..................................................................................................... 130
Table 50: List of black glass counters per size and shape (* see note 81) ............................................................................... 135
Table 51: List of monochrome black glass counters plain vs dotted decoration (* see note 81)................................................ 135
Table 52: The dimensions of two sets of decorated gaming counters ...................................................................................... 136
Table 53: detailed timetable of the Roman imperial period....................................................................................................... 137
Table 54: Number of shapes per functional types per period ................................................................................................... 140
Table 55: Number of shapes per functional type per period and per technique (A= cast; B= free-blown; C= mould-blown; D= rodformed).................................................................................................................................................................................... 140
Table 56: List of entries per applied technique per period ........................................................................................................ 140
Table 57: Chronological overview of all vessel types produced in black-appearing glass [see Chapter 3] ................................ 141
Table 58: List of type A bangles from dated finds .................................................................................................................... 148
Table 59: List of type B bracelets from dated contexts ............................................................................................................. 149
Table 60: List of type C-bracelets from dated contexts ............................................................................................................ 150
Table 61: List of type D bracelets from dated contexts............................................................................................................. 152
Table 62: Chronological overview of the black glass arm rings ................................................................................................ 154
Table 63: Overview of the ratios per finger ring shape and subtype ......................................................................................... 155
Table 64: List of finger rings from dated finds .......................................................................................................................... 156
Table 65: List of sites with black glass pendants from dated finds ........................................................................................... 159
Table 66: Chronological bar chart of the types of discoid pressed pendants (based on Barag 2001) ....................................... 160
Table 67: Overview of the decorative categories per type of pressed discoid pendant (Barag 2001) ....................................... 160
Table 68: General typo-chronology of the engraving styles applied on intaglios proposed by Kathy Sas (Sas 1993, 119-122) 161
Table 69: List of sites with black glass tesserae....................................................................................................................... 163
Table 70: Timetable of various architectural decoration materials in Period I (according to Sear 1977) ................................... 163
Table 71: List of sites with black glass twisted rods ................................................................................................................. 165
Table 72: Quantification of the counters per size for each period ............................................................................................. 168
Table 73: Quantification of the counters per size for each period ............................................................................................. 168
Table 74: Quantification of the counters per used technique for each period ........................................................................... 168
Table 75: Quantification of the monochrome and polychrome counters per period .................................................................. 169
Table 76: Quantification of the counters per glass hue for each period .................................................................................... 169
Table 77: Overview of number of sites and number of items per context (* omitting the artefacts from unknown provenance and
the additionally recorded material – see introduction) .............................................................................................................. 177
Table 78: Overview of black glass artefacts per context (* incorporates the items related to secondary glass workshops) ....... 179
Table 79: Overview of the various commodity classes per context type ................................................................................... 180
Table 80: Overview of ratios of the different types of jewellery per period from civil settlement contexts (n = quantity) ........... 181
Table 81: Various types of arm rings in relation to the contexts of provenance ........................................................................ 184
Table 82: Vessels from domestic contexts ............................................................................................................................... 187
Table 83: Arm rings from domestic contexts ............................................................................................................................ 188
Table 84: Arm rings from the black glass manufacturing workshops versus domestic consumers‘ contexts ............................. 189
Table 85: Beads from domestic contexts ................................................................................................................................. 190
Table 86: Gemstones from domestic contexts ......................................................................................................................... 190
Table 87: Overview of architectural decoration material in domestic contexts .......................................................................... 191
Table 88: Tombs with black glass vessels from Period I ......................................................................................................... 193
520
Table 89: Tombs with black glass vessels from Period II ......................................................................................................... 193
Table 90: Tombs with Form IIIB.2 vessels (―-― = undefined) ..................................................................................................... 195
Table 91: Overview of ratios of the different types of black glass jewellery per period from civil/funerary contexts (n = quantity)195
Table 92: Black glass bangles from inhumation burials (n = quantity; C = civil settlement; M = military settlement) .................. 197
Table 93: Roman cemeteries containing black glass bracelets ................................................................................................. 197
Table 94: Black glass beads used as burial gifts ...................................................................................................................... 199
Table 95: Black glass counters used as burial gifts .................................................................................................................. 202
Table 96: Overview of the different types of black glass jewellery from civil/ritual contexts ....................................................... 204
Table 97: Black glass bangles from ritual context ..................................................................................................................... 205
Table 98: Black glass counters from ritual contexts .................................................................................................................. 205
Table 99: Black glass artefacts from military contexts (additional entries between brackets) .................................................... 206
Table 100: Overview of the contextual data of black glass ....................................................................................................... 207
Table 101: Overview of ratios of black glass vessels per period from military settlement contexts ............................................ 211
Table 102: Overview of ratios of the different types of jewellery per c
amp type ................................................................... 211
Table 103: Bracelets from military sites .................................................................................................................................... 212
Table 104: Gemstones from military sites ................................................................................................................................ 214
Table 105: Counters from military sites .................................................................................................................................... 215
Table 106: Roman black glass artefacts from caves (n = quantity) ........................................................................................... 216
Table 107: Roman black glass artefacts from rivers ................................................................................................................. 218
Table 108: List of glass workshop sites with possible black glass production ........................................................................... 223
Table 109: List of black glass products from sites with glass workshops .................................................................................. 224
Table 110: List of secondary glass workshops processing black glass (between [ ] and in italic are uncertain production sites)228
Table 111: Overview of various concentrations of black glass commodities from sites with a clear or supposedly secondary
glass workshop where black glass has been manufactured ..................................................................................................... 229
Table 112: List of attested glass hues from the workshop at Regio 17C (left) and Regio 17B (right) (taken from Fischer 2009, 95,
fig.108)..................................................................................................................................................................................... 231
Table 113: List of glass finds from the late 4th century glass workshop at Trier, Palais Kesselstatt .......................................... 233
Table 114: List of sites with black glass vessels of Period I ...................................................................................................... 235
Table 115: List of sites with black glass vessels of Period II ..................................................................................................... 237
Table 116: List of sites with black glass vessels of Period IV.................................................................................................... 240
Table 117: Overview of the number of black glass bangles per country and by Roman area .................................................... 242
Table 118: Overview of the Type A black glass bangles per country and per area ................................................................... 243
Table 119: Detailed list of Type A bangle subtypes per vast geographical section ................................................................... 244
Table 120: Overview of the Type B black glass bangles per country and per area ................................................................... 246
Table 121: Detailed list of Type B bangle subtypes per vast geographical section ................................................................... 247
Table 122: Overview of the Type C black glass bangles per country and per area ................................................................... 249
Table 123: Detailed list of Type C bangle subtypes per vast geographical section ................................................................... 249
Table 124: Overview of the Type D black glass bangles per country and per area ................................................................... 250
Table 125: Detailed list of Type D bangle subtypes per vast geographical section ................................................................... 250
Table 126: List of sites with black glass finger rings ................................................................................................................. 252
Table 127: List of sites with rod-formed beads in black appearing glass (n = quantity) ............................................................. 254
Table 128: List of sites with double-perforated pressed beads in black appearing glass........................................................... 256
Table 129: List of various types of black glass pendants per region ......................................................................................... 259
Table 130: List of plain conical-shaped gems in monochrome black appearing glass set in disc brooches ............................... 260
Table 131: List of monochrome black glass counters (n = quantity).......................................................................................... 264
Table 132: List of bichrome and polychrome dotted black glass counters ................................................................................ 265
Table 133: Overview of the distribution of black glass vessels during the consecutive periods ................................................. 267
Table 134: List of cast shapes per function (numbers coincide with Form IA shapes discussed in Chapter 3) .......................... 274
521
Table 135: List of proposed functional connotations and practical use of jewellery (based on Vanhaeren 2005) ...................... 278
Table 136: List of different values per functional type in black glass (*= positive; -= negative; ?= uncertain) ............................ 279
Table 137: List of tombs with (black) glass bracelets (n = quantity).......................................................................................... 281
Table 138: List of glass gemstones set in finger rings (n = quantity) ........................................................................................ 292
Table 139: Areas where glass tesserae have been used on the mosaic of Mariamin nearby Hama (SY) ................................. 296
Table 140: List of sites with prior analysed black glass artefacts (* = LA-ICP-MS; ** = SEM-EDX; *** = AAS) ......................... 307
Table 141: Chemical composition of black appearing .............................................................................................................. 308
Table 142: Overview of samples per assorted topics [see Appendix 1] (n= number of samples) .............................................. 317
Table 143: List of sampled Roman black glass material according to provenance (between square brackets, from previous
research by others (Morreti, Gratuze 2002)) ............................................................................................................................ 323
Table 144: List of sampled Roman black glass material according to type and date range per generalized period .................. 323
Table 145: List of sampled Roman black glass material according to type and colour of the glass matrix ................................ 323
Table 146: Chronological subdivision of the sampled material as proposed in Van der Linden et al. 2009 .............................. 324
Table 147: Different glass types on the basis of the strontium-titanium ratios .......................................................................... 334
Table 148: Major elements of the Roman glass lumps and crucible glass obtained from SEM-EDX (n.d. = not detected; italic =
not appearing black). ............................................................................................................................................................... 339
Table 149: Major elements of early Byzantine mosaic material (n.d. = not detected) ............................................................... 340
Table 150: Values of magnesium, potash and strontium in %wt .............................................................................................. 340
Table 151: Values of used flux soda, magnesium, potash and strontium in %wt ...................................................................... 341
Table 152: Values of used decolourizers manganese and antimony in %wt ............................................................................ 341
Table 153: List of additional artefacts analysed with µ-XRF ..................................................................................................... 347
Table 154: Qualitative data (net intensities) of samples analysed by µ-XRF (data taken from Cagno, Cosyns 2009b, unpublished
internal report) ......................................................................................................................................................................... 347
Table 155: Semi-quantitative data (elemental ratios) of the samples measured by µ-XRF (data taken from Cagno, Cosyns
2009b, unpublished internal report) ......................................................................................................................................... 348
Table 156: Table summarizing the possible colorants used on the analysed Roman black glass artefacts, and the relationship
between the applied furnace conditions and the resulting colour (taken from Brill 1988, 272-273, Tables 9-10)....................... 363
Table 157: overview of wavelength intervals for the different colours within the visible light spectrum ..................................... 367
Table 158: The calculated tristimulus values in the three colour spaces .................................................................................. 369
Table 159: x and y-coordinates for plot on CIE1931 horse-shoe graph (* hue perceived by the naked-eye) ............................ 371
Table 160: List of integrated optical density for 31 measured black appearing glass samples from 21 objects......................... 374
Table 161: Overview of the examined artefacts, their colour coordinates and concentration in iron oxide, manganese oxide,
copper oxide and cobalt oxide ................................................................................................................................................. 376
Table 162: list of the four groups of black glass based on the colouring by means of iron and manganese content ................. 377
Table 163: concordance list of the different chemical classes and spectral groups .................................................................. 385
Table 164: Overview of the examined samples........................................................................................................................ 388
Table 165: Furnace conditions and colour coordinates of the brown coloured artefacts ........................................................... 391
Table 166: List of the four different colour groups from Avenches ............................................................................................ 393
Table 167: Timetable of the various glasses used to produce black glass artefacts ................................................................. 415
Table 168: List of potential factors influencing technological change as proposed by Tiziano Mannoni 2007 ........................... 419
522