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No.48 - July 2001 | Contex HOME

ROMAN GLASS
lecture report by Robin Hidson

Nowadays glass is used to make such commonplace items as lenses for spectacles, wine bottles and the windows of our buildings, so much so that it is sometimes difficult to imagine a time when glass was a rare luxury item. We were reminded of this in our opening lecture of the new year, when John Shepherd, of the Museum of London, gave a highly interesting tour through the history of Roman glass in London.

Glass first appears around 3000BC, though it was not until 1500 BC that vessels began to be manufactured. It in these early times glass is a luxury item. However the new glassblowing technique, once perfected, soon changes this. Interestingly glassblowing is one of the few genuine Roman inventions, which occurred mid 1^st Century BC in the provinces, in contrast to their taking and developing of imported ideas from other civilisations. Pliny mentions the development of glassblowing, but unfortunately the name of the inventor is lost to history.

Glassblowing and the glassblowers moved to their main market Rome, within 20-30 years of inventing the technique. Our lecturer, with John and Jenny Price, as well as other experts abroad, have established that all major Roman cities were blowing glass by about 50AD. Glassblowing meant that hundreds of vessels could be produced in a day, a wider range of shapes could be used and that ultra-thin vessels could be made. eg. For cosmetics.

More complex glassblowing techniques were developed, for example, the technique of swinging the glass on its blowing pipe and using gravity to stretch out the vessel producing a characteristic long neck.

Some glass vessels traveled far and provide evidence of trading links with distant parts of the Roman territories, eg. Fine vessels used for expensive perfumes originating in Syria. An interesting feature, shared with glass bottles made today, is that some makers left their mark on vessels, perhaps to make it easier for customers to return their vessels for reuse.

An unusual glass vessel was found in the famous Spitalfields Roman lady’s lead coffin. At 18-20cm long, it is unique and has no known parallel. The shape is extraordinary - it is a long, drawn-out tube with collars and threads of glass in zigzags. This decoration is particularly remarkable, because Romans did not decorate vessels in this way. Although collars would appear to date the vessel to the very late 3^rd Century AD onwards, the zigzags would suggest a date of late 4^th Century and a Germanic origin; zigzags being found in vessels from late cemeteries in Cologne.

As far as London is concerned, the local glass industry in London appears to have been concerned with glass-working, rather than glass-making. Glass-making is the production of glass from raw materials and seems, on existing evidence, not to have occurred in Britain. In London however there is extensive evidence of glass-working, where 18 sites have so far been discovered.

Much of the existing evidence indicates that glass in Roman London was used, collected and recycled rather than freshly manufactured. This would explain why glass is rarely found in the archaeological record. Buildings and structures associated with glass-working are also difficult to find because they are largely constructed out of natural materials such as timber for the buildings and clay for the furnaces. The structure of the furnaces was also such that when the glass melted, it sealed itself into the tank, the result being that not much glass is found in these furnaces in the archaeological record.

Three sites were of especial interest. Firstly Regis House, which was excavated in 1994-1995. Fragments of glass-working and glass-blowing debris were found together with a furnace dating to circa 70AD, the earliest furnace known in the UK. Secondly at Coleman Street, furnace fragments were found with glass embedded in them, together with pincers, thought to have been used for glass-working.

The third important site was found in Guildhall 5 years ago near the Roman amphitheatre. This find was unusual because a dump of 50 kg of Roman bottle and window glass fragments was found. This was unexpected because of the high value of glass - clearly these were intended for re-cycling. It is likely there is much to be learnt from these 100,000 fragments, so if anyone has any free time and enjoys jigsaw puzzles, there is plenty of work to be done.