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Glass groups, glass supply and recycling in late Roman Carthage
- Source :
- Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences, Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences, Springer, 2017, 9 (6), pp.1223-1241. ⟨10.1007/s12520-016-0316-1⟩
- Publication Year :
- 2017
- Publisher :
- HAL CCSD, 2017.
-
Abstract
- International audience; Carthage played an important role in maritime exchange networks during the Roman and late antique periods. One hundred ten glass fragments dating to the third to sixth centuries CE from a secondary deposit at the Yasmina Necropolis in Carthage have been analysed by electron microprobe analysis (EPMA) to characterise the supply of glass to the city. Detailed bivariate and multivariate data analysis identified different primary glass groups and revealed evidence of extensive recycling. Roman mixed antimony and manganese glasses with MnO contents in excess of 250 ppm were clearly the product of recycling, while iron, potassium and phosphorus oxides were frequent contaminants. Primary glass sources were discriminated using TiO2 as a proxy for heavy minerals (ilmenite/spinel), Al2O3 for feldspar and SiO2 for quartz in the glassmaking sands. It was thus possible to draw conclusions about the chronological and geographical attributions of the primary glass types. Throughout much of the period covered in this study, glassworkers in Carthage utilised glass from both Egyptian and Levantine sources. Based on their geochemical characteristics, we conclude that Roman antimony and Roman manganese glasses originated from Egypt and the Levant, respectively, and were more or less simultaneously worked at Carthage in the fourth century as attested by their mixed recycling (Roman Sb-Mn). In the later fourth and early fifth centuries, glasses from Egypt (HIMT) and the Levant (two Levantine I groups) continued to be imported to Carthage, although the Egyptian HIMT is less well represented at Yasmina than in many other late antique glass assemblages. In contrast, in the later fifth and sixth centuries, glass seems to have been almost exclusively sourced from Egypt in the form of a manganese-decolourised glass originally described and characterised by Foy and colleagues (2003). Hence, the Yasmina assemblage testifies to significant fluctuations in the supply of glass to Carthage that require further attention.
- Subjects :
- 010506 paleontology
Archeology
HIMT
060102 archaeology
[SHS.ARCHEO]Humanities and Social Sciences/Archaeology and Prehistory
Antique
Primary glass groups
Egyptian glass
06 humanities and the arts
Electron microprobe
Feldspar
01 natural sciences
Archaeology
Anthropology
visual_art
visual_art.visual_art_medium
Carthage
0601 history and archaeology
Recycling
[SHS.HIST]Humanities and Social Sciences/History
Geology
0105 earth and related environmental sciences
Levantine glass
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 18669565
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences, Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences, Springer, 2017, 9 (6), pp.1223-1241. ⟨10.1007/s12520-016-0316-1⟩
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....28805647f16e49611cb277fc2fb43a1d
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-016-0316-1⟩