Browsing by Author "Eremin, Katherine"

Now showing 1 - 2 of 2
  • Thumbnail Image
    ItemOpen Access
    The analysis of late Bronze Age glass from Nuzi and the question of the origin of glass-making
    (Wiley, 2017-10-25) Shortland, Andrew J.; Kirk, Susanna; Eremin, Katherine; Degryse, Patrick; Walton, M.
    This paper re‐analyses a considerable corpus of glass from the Late Bronze Age site of Nuzi, found near Kirkuk in Iraq. SEM–WDS and Sr and Nd isotopic analysis were applied, in addition to cataloguing the glass. The work showed that the glass technology at Nuzi was subtly different from contemporary Egyptian sites, using different ways of opacifying and working glass. At least two, perhaps three, Near Eastern production sites are postulated. The range of glass colours and the skill of their application at Nuzi was perhaps not on a par with the Egyptian sites. This led to a reconsideration and review of the accepted wisdom that the Near East is the source of the innovation that is glass‐making. This opinion is based on limited textual and iconographic sources and is dominated by an erroneous early date for a very developed Nuzi glass industry along with a few finds of glass vessels in early contexts. Some of this evidence has now been at least questioned, suggesting that glass‐making in Egypt, at least as early as the middle of the 15th century bc, and probably earlier, is no later than that in the Near East. It is argued that it is far from clear that the Near East was the source of the innovation and that a more cautious approach would better fit the evidence.
  • Thumbnail Image
    ItemOpen Access
    A unique recipe for glass beads at Iron Age Sardis
    (Elsevier, 2019-06-28) van Ham-Meert, Alicia; Dillis, Sarah; Blomme, Annelore; Cahill, Nicholas; Claeys, Philippe; Elsen, Jan; Eremin, Katherine; Gerdes, Axel; Steuwe, Christian; Roeffaers, Maarten; Shortland, Andrew J.; Degryse, Patrick
    In large parts of the Mediterranean recipes for the earliest man-made glass changed from melting mixtures of crushed quartz pebbles and halophytic plant ashes in the Late Bronze Age to the use of quartz sands and mineral soda during the Early Iron Age. Not much is known about this transition and the experimental materials which would inevitably have been connected to such technological change. In this paper we present a unique snapshot of developments in glass technology in Anatolia during the Middle Iron Age, when glass is still a relatively rare commodity. The present work focusses on black glass beads decorated with yellow trails from eighth to seventh century BCE Sardis, glass beads that are very rare for this period, and on this site. A full elemental analysis of the beads was made, and Sr, Pb and B isotope ratios were determined. This study reveals the use of a combination of a previously unknown source of silica and of mineral soda, giving rise to elevated (granite-like) Sr isotope signatures, as well as high alumina and B concentrations. The yellow trails of glass on the beads consist of lead-tin yellow type II, lead stannate, showing the earliest occurrence of this type of opacifier/colourant so far, predating any other findings by at least four centuries. The production of these glass beads may be local to Sardis and experimental in nature. It is therefore suggested that Sardis may have played its role in the technological development of the glass craft during the Iron Age.