Rakow Grant for Glass Research
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Dr. Julian Henderson, a postdoctoral research fellow at the Oxford University Research Laboratory for Archaeology and the History of Art, was awarded funds from the Rakow Grant for Glass Research to study and chemically analyze glass fragments from two important Bronze Age and early Iron Age sites in Europe: Frattesina in Italy and Chotin in Czechoslovakia.
Dr. Henderson explained the importance of this study in his Rakow Grant application:
Frattesina is the earliest recorded probable glassmaking site in Europe. The chemical composition of the Frattesina glass holds the clues to the origins of the European glass industry and the extent to which [that] industry was affected by developments in the Near East and Egypt.
The glass from the %%sealed%% burial contexts at Chotin dates to the Hallstatt B.C. period. It includes necklaces of glass and frit beads ... Its analysis will fill a gap in the compositional data for prehistoric central Europe. It will be possible to evaluate whether the glass was manufactured locally or imported, and [to] provide an invaluable data base for the period and area.
Fragments from these sites are in Oxford, Corning, and the Veneto (Italy). The grant permitted Dr. Henderson to travel to Italy and to Corning to study the fragments, to consult with scientists already working with these samples, and to use the Rakow Library. The results of his analyses were compared with data from other prehistoric European and Near Eastern sites.
