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April 15, 2011
History comes to life
Ancient Roman glass is used by today’s artists.
MELODY AMSEL-ARIELI
Natural glass, which is produced during volcanic eruptions, lightning strikes or meteor impacts, has been known since ancient times. Although small man-made beads have been found at Mesopotamian archeological sites, legend has it that naturally occurring glass was actually discovered in Phoenicia – and by accident.
Phoenician sea merchants, finding no stones along the beach, propped their cooking cauldrons on lumps of nitrum, a naturally occurring salt, which they borrowed from their cargo. As the nitrum was heated, it melted into the surrounding sand, creating a strange flowing liquid – molten glass. Legend or not, by around 2000 BCE, when Phoenicia and nearby Egypt were centres of glass production, seafarers carried cargos of glass juglets and flasks along their trading routes.
Craftsmen formed these early pieces by winding “snakes” of molten glass around clay cores attached to metal rods or by dipping clay or compacted-sand bottle-shaped forms repeatedly into molten glass to create volume. After rolling them smooth and cooling them, workers laboriously scraped out their clay cores. The results, heavy and opaque, resembled ceramic, stone or metal vessels commonly in use.
In time, glass workers packed molten glass or glass chips into casts or molds and then fused them. After these thick-walled, sharp-edged creations were carefully cooled, workers ground and polished their rough edges, then added details like handles, rims and bases. Some of these pieces, which were used to store expensive cosmetics or perfumes, feature delicate strands of molten glass in contrasting zigzag or coiling patterns. Since these early techniques were lengthy, laborious and required the import of expensive nitrum, ancient glass vessels were both costly and rare.
The art of glass working reached Rome in the first century CE, when Emperor Augustus imported skilled Phoenicians, Judeans and Egyptians as slaves. These craftsmen not only brought traditional techniques and classical shapes, but also introduced a revolutionary idea – glass blowing. Instead of casting heavy glassware, glassworkers, by forcing air into gobs of molten glass through long metal pipes, could fashion smooth, thin-walled, bubble-like creations. Freed from earlier technological constraints and free to explore their creativity, they manipulated heated pieces of blown glass into any number of shapes and styles, including fruit, animals and sandals. Blowing warm glass directly into standardized molds, their next advancement, could quickly and easily produce even fancier vessels.
As glass technology advanced, tastes changed. Early Roman gem-like emerald green and peacock blue pieces eventually gave way to fashionable and transparent pale blue-green and colorless glass, which was prized for its resemblance to natural rock crystal.
Roman glass craftsmen developed innovative decorative techniques. Some adorned glass plates, bowls and vases with lathe-cut patterns or cut light-reflecting facets; some carved or engraved scenes from Greek mythology on their surfaces; and some twisted strips of colored glass with fine contrasting threads, then fused them together, forming intricate lacy patterns. Others rolled multi-hued bundles of warm cast-glass narrow “snakes,” then sliced them crosswise. Next, they fused the resulting kaleidoscope-like disks into striking millefiori (million flowers) bowls, vases or platters. Some artisans, by gently swirling warm, multi-hued glass together, created vessels that mimicked marble cake. Others gilded their glass with gold.
At first, only members of the Roman upper class could afford such fine, luxury items. As glass production increased and prices decreased, however, even the lower classes and slaves replaced their pottery cups and saucers with those of inexpensive glass. Eventually, all Romans poured wine from glass beakers, dined off glass dinnerware and rinsed their hands in glass finger bowls. Women stored dry cosmetics, like fashionable ochre rouge, galena eye shadow and henna hair dye, in squat glass jars. They stored their fragrant oils, perfumes and herb-scented lotions in delicate, stopped-glass vials called unguentaria. These elongated vessels, which featured bellbottoms, thick walls and slender necks, not only guarded against evaporation of their contents, but also dispensed them drop by precious drop.
Although Roman men pampered themselves less so than Roman women, they did enjoy visiting public baths, where they worked up a sweat in the sauna, scraped their bodies clean, then toned up their skin in cool pools. Many also desired massages. Slaves, pouring rich oils from glass flasks that lined the bath house walls, obliged.
By the second century CE, Roman glassmaking, with its uniformity of products, extensive work force and widespread distribution, had become a dynamic industry. Rome’s merchants, instead of using traditional clay amphorae, now packed, shipped and sold their olive oil, grain and other foodstuffs in expendable glass bottles and jars. Master craftsmen established glassworks along Rome’s extensive trade routes. Through the sixth century, the Empire produced an estimated 100 million glass items a year, more than any other previous civilization.
Unlike wood, leather and other organic matter, Roman glass, which is essentially sand (silica and limestone, in this case) fused with nitrum, is impervious to the passage of time. So thousands of pieces, including seals, amulets and goblets, have survived.
Centuries of exposure to mineral matter, wind and weather, however, have tinged many with delicate, desirable blue-green or rainbow patinas.
Archeologists in Britain, Bosnia, Germany, Afghanistan and Spain, all once part of the Roman Empire, are still unearthing Roman glass treasures at excavation sites and in ancient glassworks. Roman glassworks once dotted the long, sandy shoreline of Israel, too. There, workers initially produced very large blocks of glass at very high temperatures. Much of this raw material was then carted inland to Roman military camps, where glass utensils were in wide use, for final processing. On site, craftsmen, after breaking the blocks into manageable chunks, heated them to malleable temperatures, which they shaped into individual pieces of glassware. Many of Israel’s ancient glassworks are strewn with by-products of production, shards of broken glass that were commonly used to fashion tessarae for mosaics. Many also contain heaps of broken household glass vessels that were destined for meltdown recycling.
Modern glassworks have sprung up in their wake. Today, many Israeli artists, fusing ancient resources with modern technology, inlay silver jewelry with authentic shards of Roman glass, bringing history to life.
Melody Amsel-Arieli is a freelance writer living in Israel, with an interest in history, genealogy and collectibles. She is the author of Between Galicia and Hungary: The Jews of Stropkov and the forthcoming Jewish Lives: Britain 1750-1950 (Pen and Sword 2013). Her website is amselbird.tripod.com.
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