Colourless glass from the Palatine and Esquiline hills in Rome (Italy). New data on antimony- and manganese-decoloured glass in the Roman period

A collection of 21 glass samples (18 colourless and 3 light aqua blue) found in recent excavations performed at the Palatine and Esquiline hills in Rome has been investigated by means of SEM-EDS, EMPA and LA-ICP-MS. The glass was recovered in the “Baths of Helagabalus” and the Horti Lamiani. The collection included cups and bowls widely attested in Rome and Ostia from the late second to the first half of the third century AD. The analyses assigned this collection to the RC/LAC-MnSb groups (Roman and Late Antique colourless glass with both antimony and manganese) which seemed closely related to the Levantine area.