Colorless Glasses in Antiquity Most glass objects of the second and first millennia B.C. were strongly colored, as are the precious stones they were meant to imitate. Those that were not intentionally colored usually had a pronounced greenish tint, owing to the presence of iron impurities

Introduction In recent years it has become apparent that laboratory examinations of ancient glass might provide archaeologists and historians with valuable information about both ancient glass and the history of technology. At present several scientists working in this field are developing those

A great deal of attention has been directed toward understanding how Roman vasa diatreta were made. 1 Many of those who have handled the objects are convinced that they were made by deep cutting and undercutting heavy-walled blanks. Others have proposed explanations which require that the posts

Between 1984 and 1994 the Institute of Nautical Archaeology (INA) excavated the remains of a Late Bronze Age shipwreck in the Mediterranean Sea. The ship's cargo consisted primarily of raw materials, including glass. Learn about archaeology underwater. Courtesy of Institute of Nautical

(No, It Doesn't Flow—read on for details) Early one spring morning in 1946, Clarence Hoke was holding forth in his chemistry class at West Side High School in Newark, New Jersey. "Glass is actually a liquid." the North Carolina native told us in his soft Southern tones. "You can

Introduction Chemical analyses and laboratory studies of glasses from the ancient and medieval worlds have provided a great deal of useful information for archaeologists, curators, and historians, 1 but until now, few such studies have been carried out on glasses from more recent periods. One

The abbey of Saint-Jean-des-Vignes has dominated the urban landscape of the northern French city of Soissons since the 11th century. 1 Formally established in 1076, the abbey was built, rebuilt, sacked, and restored from its founding to the present day. In its Gothic phase, the church measured more

In 1973, Prof. Jean Leclant described the glass excavated at Sedeinga, a meroitic site in Sudan. 1 Among the objects are two extremely important footed flutes bearing elaborate "painted, and gilded polychrome decorations. Professor Leclant dated the tombs in which the glasses were uncovered to

During the past few years, there has been a vigorous renewal of interest in the study of ancient Chinese glass. This has been prompted largely by recent archaeological finds and by the availability of new scientific laboratory techniques for studying glass objects. Research in the past decade by

In a previous publication 1 we have discussed glasses showing incipient crizzling, that is, glasses in the earliest stages of crizzling. This condition threatens many pieces of European, East Asiatic, and American glasses manufactured between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries. Examples exist