All About Glass

All About Glass

This is your resource for exploring various topics in glass: delve deeper with this collection of articles, multimedia, and virtual books all about glass. Content is frequently added to the area, so check back for new items. If you have a topic you'd like to see covered, send us your suggestion. If you have a specific question, Ask a Glass Question at our Rakow Research Library.

The Mystery Slab of Beth She'arim
Article

Beth She'arim was a cemetery located in Galilee. It was one of the most sacred places in the ancient Jewish world. Just adjacent to its catacombs is a natural cave that had long ago been made into a large cistern for storing water. It apparently fell into disuse at the end of the 4th century

An Inlaid Glass Plate in Athens: Laboratory Examination
Article

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

Mythological Beakers: A Re-examination
Article

In 1972, Gladys Davidson Weinberg published a study of 24 vessels and fragments of a type of first-century A.D. mold-blown glass known as a mythological beaker. 1 While subsequent publications have included individual beakers and fragments, they have not been surveyed again as a group, 2 and they

The Seasons Vase
Article

The "Vase des Saisons" is the name given by Jean de Foville to a cameo glass bottle in the Cabinet des Medailles et Antiques of the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris. (Figs. A, B, C "Alabastron en verre camée" (Camée.623)). The object may be described as follows: H. (as restored) 16

The Thomas Panel
Article

The Thomas Panel (Fig. 1 [86.1.1]) is an example of late Roman opus sectile wall decoration made of glass. The object, which is said to have been found in the Faiyum, 100 kilometers southwest of Cairo, was acquired by The Corning Museum of Glass in 1986. Part one of this paper (by D.W.) describes

Medieval Glassmaking in the Levant
Article

In 1973, a sponge diver reported the discovery of an underwater shipwreck at Serçe Limani on the south coast of Turkey, opposite Rhodes. The wreck was investigated by Professor George Bass, of the Institute of Nautical Archaeology, between 1977 and 1979. His investigation revealed that part of the

The Origins of Glassmaking
Article

Little is known about the first attempts to make glass. However, it is generally believed that glassmaking was discovered 4,000 years ago, or more, in Mesopotamia. The Roman historian Pliny attributed the origin of glassmaking to Phoenician sailors. He recounted how they landed on a beach near