Hellenistic Glass - Forearm Crutch Manufacturer - Medical Aluminium Crutches Manufacturer

Hellenistic Glass

Hellenistic Glass

The Hellenistic period chronologically covers the conquests of Alexander the Great (356-323 BC), the fall of the Persian Empire, in particular, the Achaemenid Empire (550-330 BC) and, finally, the beginning of the expansion of the Roman Empire (second half of the 1st c. BC - 476 AD aprox.) in the Mediterranean and the surrounding regions in Europe, western Asia and northern Africa as well.

Glass production was stimulated by the intention of imitating precious and semi-precious stones, as well as rock crystal (from the introduction of translucent or transparent glass onwards) (Goldstein 1979). Glass vessels were made after the forms and types of metal and ceramic contemporary vessels (Grose 1989). However, apart from stylistic cohesion, glass industry at all times has to be treated on its own right in terms of the material itself, technological processes and the end-products.

Hellenistic glass industry was a craft based on previous technological tradition of the Classical period and even the Late Bronze Age (Harden 1969; Grose 1981; Grose 1989). However, despite the deep rooted bonds with the past, a distinct break was made by Hellenistic craftsmen and new manufacturing techniques and types of vessels and other objects were introduced these three centuries preceding the invention of glassblowing. Perhaps the most important feature of the glass industry of this period was the transition from a limited production of luxury objects consumed by the elite strata of the society to the mass production of affordable glass vessels used by the broader public to satisfy everyday needs (Goldstein 1979; Grose 1984).

Glass Vessels

The core-formed glass vessels in the Mediterranean, from 525 to 50 BC, were the most numerous and widespread (Tatton-Brown and Andrews 2004). Nonetheless, the core-forming manufacturing technique is the best represented in the archaeological record and, most probably, the earliest technique employed (Goldstein 1979). The production of the core-formed type (see also Glassmaking Techniques) in the second half of the 1st mil. BC is divided in three groups, namely Mediterranean Group I (525-450 BC), II (325-200 BC) and III (150-50 BC), and only the first group belongs to the Classical period. The distinction made is based on a combination of changes in vessel types produced and in decoration patterns, as well as on the limited number of archaeological finds from the intermediate periods (Harden 1981).

Core-formed vessels were generally small in size, close vessels, always opaque in aspect, and designed to contain mainly perfumes, scented oils and cosmetics (Tatton-Brown and Andrews 2004). Most common shapes among core-formed vessels were alabastra, amphoriskoi, aryballoi and lentoid aryballoi, oinochoai (jugs), and for the first time in the Hellenistic period hudriskai (three-handled flasks) and unguentaria (unguent bottles) (Fossing 1940).

During the second half of the 3rd c. BC a new type of glass vessels, that of mosaic glass, emerged in the Hellenistic world. They are also called illefiori (=thousand flowers) because of the decorative impression of the technique. The group of mosaic glass consists mostly of fused and slumped broad plates and shallow dishes with upright or out-splayed rims or hemispherical bowls. Sub-groups of mosaic glass production are etwork or acework hemispherical bowls and vessels with meandering or spiral decorative patterns that imitate onyx. Often these bowls had a rim formed of a single etwork cane of spirally twisted threads which gives a triped effect (Tatton-Brown and Andrews 2004). It is best represented in burial contexts from several large tombs in Canosa di Puglia (ancient Canusium) in Italy (Grose 1989). They are open vessels since they are made with a mould but still opaque, like the widely produced core-formed vessels.

The origins of the mosaic glassworking technique are traced back in the 15th c. BC in the Mesopotamian glassmaking centres, such as Tell-al-Rimah, Aqar Qf and Marlik. Although the mosaic technique at the time was practiced in a desultory way, it is the predecessor of the elaborated mosaic vessels of high quality of the Alexandrian workshops, after the foundation of the city of Alexandria in Egypt in 332 BC by Alexander the Great, which is said to be the main production centre of these vessels (Harden 1969; Goldstein 1979).

By the early 2nd c. BC, monochrome drinking vessels, mainly hemispherical and sub-conical bowls were introduced. They were made in considerable quantities in the Syro-Palestinean coast and were widely traded and exported to several trading centres throughout the Mediterranean. Earlier examples were made of clear greenish, brownish or almost colourless glass, while later on they often had green, amber, blue or wine-purple colour. Usually, they were decorated with linear-cut concentric circles at the bottom or right under the rim either on the inside or the outside (Tatton-Brown and Andrews 2004). They were made in an open mould, which is in fact a relatively cheap technique that requires less effort put and it was this that allowed their large-scale production.

Within the production of these drinking vessels, from the mid-2nd c. BC onwards, translucent or transparent glass tableware (plates, dishes, bowls, drinking vessels, such as skyphoi, footed bowls or handled cups) was introduced; glass tableware production once established enjoyed several glassworking centres and contributed in the dramatic increase of the Hellenistic glass industry (Grose 1981; Grose 1984; Tatton-Brown and Andrews 2004). This was the first time that glass vessels were widely consumed by the broader public as a widespread commodity, something that continued ever since and was achieved in a higher degree with the invention of the even more economical glassblowing technique.

During the 1st c. BC, new types of monochrome glass vessels were introduced and ribbed bowls started to be produced. They were mould-press bowls with ribs on the outside and their production centres were concentrated in the Levantine region and the Syro-Palestinean coast, like the monochrome hemispherical/conical bowls.

However, the production of luxury glass vessels did not cease and glass vessels imitating precious metal vessels (gold- and silver-ware) were produced with new glassworking techniques to satisfy the needs of the elite social strata market. Gold-sandwich glass vessels and gold-band alabastra were innovations of the late Hellenistic period addressed to a more limited range of wealthy customers. The manufacturing techniques were the same, namely the mould-press and core-form mosaic techniques respectively (Harden 1969; Grose 1989). However, they were developed further more in order to achieve a quite elaborate decorative aspect.

Other Glass Objects

Hellenistic glass industry included also a range of other objects, mainly for decorative purposes. The broadest groups of glass objects were these of glass beads and inlays, like in all periods since the introduction of glassmaking in the ancient world. The mass production of glass beads of many varieties is well represented in the context of a Hellenistic glass workshop in Rhodes, where 10,000 beads of 40 different shapes and colours have been found (Weinberg 1983; Triantafyllidis 2002). Rings, pendants, gemstones, amulets, small sculptures were also made with the mould-casting technique (Grose 1989).

Inlays were produced to decorate wooden articles, furniture, chests, sarcophagi and jewellery in combination with other, often precious materials, such as gold leaf or ivory (Ignatiadou 2002). For example, glass inlays decorated the ionic capitals of north porch of the Erechtheion in the Athenian Acropolis (Stern 1999). Inlays were deeply rooted in the Egyptian glassmaking industry and their production, with the mosaic technique after the Pharaonic tradition, continued to flourish during the Hellenistic period with old or new repertories inspired from the Greek world (Nenna 2002). Game counters and gaming pieces were made also as one way to recycle scrap glass left over from the manufacture of other articles (Ignatiadou 2002).

Like in many other occasions, these objects are well represented and archaeologically found along with various types of glass vessels in rich burial contexts, e.g. this of Amphipolis (Romiopoulou 2002).

Glassmaking and Primary Production Centres

Glassmaking and glassworking were considered two totally separate crafts and took place in different regions (Grose 1981). Each craft was characterized by its own technological tradition, know-how and equipment. Glassmakers and glassworkers did not need to have an understanding of glass vessel manufacture and primary production respectively, in order to carry out their tasks (Stern 1999).

Glassmaking had to take place as close as possible to the sources of the raw materials used, namely sand and mineral natron when it comes to the Hellenistic period (Shortland et al. 2006). Raw glass was traded throughout the Mediterranean in the form of ingots (Stern 1999) and it was then worked and shaped into vessels, inlays, jewellery, etc., in numerous sites of the Hellenistic world.

Hellenistic glass is the typical soda-lime-silica glass, to which lime was not intentionally added, but it was provided through the agent of sand (Turner 1956a). Although, it cannot be argued with certainty where the Hellenistic primary production of raw glass was geographically located from the archaeological record, we can hypothesize that a large part of glass production took place in the Syro-Palestinian coast or the broader Levantine region and Egypt . In favor of this argument are comments of classical writers of the period or a little later, like Strabo (63 BC) who mentioned river Belus on the Syrian coast to have been used for glassmaking or even by writers other such as Pliny the Elder (23-79 AD) or Tacitus (ca. 56-ca. 117 AD) (Turner 1956b). However, archaeological evidence firmly indicate that primary production of glass, as well as glassworking took place on the island of Rhodes in the Aegean, during the Hellenistic period and, particularly, after the foundation of the city of Rhodes in 408 BC, and even earlier through the Classical period (Weinberg 1983; Triantafyllidis 1998; Rehren 2005).

Glassworking Centres and Spatial Distribution

As it is already argued, glassworking took place in several centres of the Hellenistic world. Raw glass was brought to glassworkers in the form of ingots, except from the Rhodian workshop which included both glassmaking and glassworking, and in turn they produced glass vessels, inlays, jewellery, etc., which were then widely traded. Although most probably core-formed vessels were traded for their content, mosaic or monochrome and transparent tableware were traded per se. Major glassworking centres were located at the Syro-Palestinean coast, e.g. monochrome hemispherical bowls, and in Alexandria, since its foundation in 332 BC, e.g. mosaic glass vessels and inlays (Nenna 2002). The reputation of the Alexandrian workshop is well understood from luxury glass vessels decorated with Egyptian-style buildings or characteristic scenes found as far as Italy and Afghanistan or, even, produced there (Auth 2001). Glass vessels, both core-formed and mould-press, were also made in Ionia, Cyprus, Sidon, the Levant, Tel Anafa in Upper Galilee, Rome and Roman Italy, Crete, Macedonia (Grose 1981; Grose 1984; Barag 1985; Ignatiadou 2002; Jennings 2002).

Particularly interesting is the core-formed vessels trade and spatial distribution, since this was the group produced throughout the Hellenistic period from its very beginning to the invention of glassblowing (ca. 50 BC). Core-formed bottles, along with other types of glass vessels, are found throughout the Mediterranean in the Aegean (e.g. Delos, Crete, Athens), throughout Greece, Asia Minor and western Asia (e.g. Ephesus, Sardis, Dura-Europos, Babylon, Nimrud, Nineveh, the Levant, Phoenicia), Magna Greacia (e.g. Rhegium, Morgantina) and Italy, Mesopotamia, the Balkans, Russia, the transalpine lands, Spain (Emporion) and the Balearics, northern Africa (Carthage) and Cerne on the Atlantic coast of Africa (Harden 1956; Harden 1969; Harden 1981; Grose 1984; Barag 1985; Jennings 2002).

Glassworking Techniques

e must never consider any technology in antiquity to have been a single process without variations Goldstein 1979

Glass production of vessels or other glass objects was mainly of two distinct technological traditions, these of core-formed glass and mould-press or cast glass (Grose 1981). A lot of work has been done trying to understand how these techniques were actually employed (Harden 1956; Harden 1969; Goldstein 1979; Grose 1981; Harden 1981; Frank 1982; Grose 1984; Tatton-Brown and Andrews 2004; Gudenrath 2004)

Core-formed glass: is the best represented and probably the earliest manufacturing technique applied. First, a core with the bottle shape was shaped around a metallic rod most probably by a combination of clay, sand, mud and/or animal dung. Then, molten glass was either trailed onto the core with the aid of a second tool or directly from dipping it into a container of molten glass. The surface was smoothed by continual re-heating and rolling on a flat slab. Finally, vessels were removed from the metallic rod, they slowly cooled down in a side chamber of the glass melting furnace and, then, the core material was scraped out of the interior. Common body colours were translucent dark or cobalt blue, opaque white, brown, red or olive-green and of the decoration opaque yellow, orange, white or turquoise trails in zigzag or feather patterns. This technique limited considerably the size of the vessels, which were mainly close vessels with thick walls.

Mould-press or cast glass: it was first practiced by the Hellenistic glassworkers from the 3rd c. BC onwards. Although different decorative results were achieved by variations in colours, the technique was virtually the same for mosaic, monochrome hemispherical bowls, transparent tableware and gold-sandwich vessels, both luxurious fine ware and more affordable types. Mould-press or cast vessels were mainly open bowls, shallow dishes and jars, but some closed vessels were produced as well. They were made from a single mould on which a piece of glass was slumped.

Mosaic glass: vessels, namely bowls and plates, as well as inlays were produced with the mosaic technique. A multicoloured effect is achieved as a result of a variety of diverse cane configurations and colour combinations fused together and then slumped on an open mould.

etwork: a type of mosaic glass made of canes of spirally twisted glass threads of different colours laid side by side.

Gold-sandwich glass: also found for the first time during the Hellenistic period. It technique consists of a andwich of two decolorized glass layers which enclose a sheet of gold leaf between them. The vessels were formed of two castings and they were carefully ground and polished.

Cold-cutting: grinding and polishing by the application of stone-cutting techniques and by using harder materials, such us quartz. It was used as a supplementary technique to other processes as finishing and decoration.

References

Ashton, S.A., 2008. Ptolemaic and Roman Memphis as a Production Centre. In: Martinon-Torres, M. and Rehren, Th. (eds), Archaeology, History and Science; integrating approaches to ancient materials. Walnut Creek: Left Coast Press, CA, 101-115.

Auth, S.H., 2001. Luxury Glasses with Alexandrian Motifs. Journal of Glass Studies 43, 39-44.

Barag, D., 1985. Catalogue of Western Asiatic Glass in the British Museum, vol. I. London: British Museum Press.

Cummings, K., 2002. A History of Glassworking. London: A&C Black.

Fossing, P., 1940. Glass Vessels before Glass-Blowing. Copenhagen: Ejnar Munksgaard.

Frank, S., 1982. Glass and Archaeology. London: Academic Press.

Goldstein, S.M., 1979. Pre-Roman and Early Roman Glass in the Corning Museum of Glass, New York.

Grose, D.F., 1981. Hellenistic Glass Industry Reconsidered. Annales du 8e Congres de l Association International pour l Histoire du Verre, 61-72.

Grose, D.F., 1984. The Origins and Early History of Glass. In: Klein, D. and Lloyd, W. (eds), The History of Glass. London: Orbis Publications, 9-37.

Grose, D.F., 1989. Early Ancient Glass; the Toledo Museum of Art. New York: Hudson Hills Press.

Gudenrath, W., 2004. Techniques of Glassmaking and Decoration. In: Tait, H. (ed), Five Thousands Years of Glass (revised edition). London: British Museum Press, 213-241.

Harden, D.B., 1956. Glass and Glazes. In: Singer, C., Holmyard, E.J., Hall, A.R. and Williams, T.I. (eds), A History of Technology, vol. II; the Mediterranean Civilizations and the Middle Ages. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 311-346.

Harden, D.B., 1969. Ancient Glass, I: Pre-Roman. Archaeological Journal 125, 46-76.

Harden, D.B., 1981. Catalogue of Greek and Roman Glass in the British Museum, vol. I. London: British Museum Press.

Ignatiadou, D., 2002. Macedonian Glass-working in the 4th c. BC. In: Kordas, G. (ed), 1st International Conference: Hyalos, Vitrum, Glass; History, Technology and Conservation of Glass and Vitreous Materials in the Hellenic World. Athens, 63-70.

Jennings, S., 2002. Late Hellenistic and Early Roman Glass from the Souks Excavations in Beirut, Lebanon. In: Kordas, G. (ed), 1st International Conference: Hyalos, Vitrum, Glass; History, Technology and Conservation of Glass and Vitreous Materials in the Hellenic World. Athens, 127-132.

Nenna, M.D., 2002. New Research on Mosaic Glass: Preliminary Results. In: Kordas, G. (ed), 1st International Conference: Hyalos, Vitrum, Glass; History, Technology and Conservation of Glass and Vitreous Materials in the Hellenic World. Athens, 153-158.

Rehren, Th., Spencer, L. and Triantafyllidis, P., 2005. The Primary Production of Glass at Hellenistic Rhodes. In: Cool, H. (ed), Annales du 16e Congres de l Association International pour l Histoire du Verre, Nottingham, 39-43.

Romiopoulou, K., 2002. Glass Finds from Graves at Amphipolis. In: Kordas, G. (ed), 1st International Conference: Hyalos, Vitrum, Glass; History, Technology and Conservation of Glass and Vitreous Materials in the Hellenic World. Athens, 71-77.

Shortland, A., Schachner, L., Freestone, I. and Tite, M., 2006. Natron as a flux in the early vitreous materials industry: sources, beginnings and reasons for decline. Journal of Archaeological Science 33, 521-530.

Stern, E.M., 1999. Ancient Glass in Athenian Temple Treasures. Journal of Glass Studies 41, 19-50.

Tatton-Brown, V. and Andrews, C., 2004. Before the Invention of Glassblowing. In: Tait, H. (ed), Five Thousands Years of Glass (revised edition). London: British Museum Press, 21-61.

Turner, W.E.S., 1956a. Studies in Ancient Glasses and Glassmaking Processes; part III, the Chronology of the Glassmaking Constituents. Journal of the Society of Glass Technology 40, 38-5

by: gaga

POST COMMENT

Significance of Rehab Centers in the Life of Drug Addicts Choosing Medical Malpractices Attorneys In Monroe County, Ny Brabham Bt19 - Medical Aluminium Crutches Manufacturer - Axillary Crutches All Medical Treatment A Variety Of Drug Testing Methods Filing a Medical Malpractice Claim in Oklahoma City Medical Record Review For Independent Physicians In The Us Detailed Info - Conventional Medical Treatment For Indigestion Use medical powerpoint templates to make medical presentations attractive Medical License Verification To Minimize Medical Negligence And Medical Malpractice Crack Cocaine In Urine: The Facts about Urine Drug Tests The Things To Examine For In A Uk Drug Rehab And Substance Abuse Treatment Center How To Proceed In A Medical Negligence Case