Glass ingots, raw glass chunks, glass wastes and vessels from fifth century AD Palatine Hill (Rome, Italy)
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ORIGINAL PAPER
Glass ingots, raw glass chunks, glass wastes and vessels from fifth century AD Palatine Hill (Rome, Italy) Elisabetta Gliozzo 1 & Barbara Lepri 2 & Lucia Saguì 3 & Isabella Memmi 1
Received: 4 May 2015 / Accepted: 17 September 2015 # Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2015
Abstract The research focused on a collection of 20 glass fragments, including raw glass chunks and ingots, wastes and vessels found at the Palatine Hill in Rome and dated to the first half of the fifth century AD. The analyses performed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM)-energy-dispersive spectrometry (EDS), electron microprobe (EMPA), inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS), laser ablation-ICP-MS (LA-ICP-MS) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) showed that all samples are constituted by natronbased soda–lime–silica glass. De/colouring agents were lead stannates (yellow brownish), copper and lead antimonates (green), different Fe 2+/Fe 3+ ratios (green, light green and yellow-green), Fe2+ (prevailing over Fe3+; aqua blue), cobalt (blue), metallic copper (reddish) and manganese (colourless). As for provenance, two samples were of Levantine provenance, nine samples were likely of Egyptian origin (HIMT glass) and, similarly, seven samples (or maybe nine, adding ingots nos. 1–2) were likely of North African provenance (HIMT/RNCBGY 1 glass).
Keywords Glass . Late Antique . Palatine hill . Production indicator . EMPA . ICP-MS . LA-ICP-MS
* Elisabetta Gliozzo [email protected] 1
Department of Earth, Environment and Physical Sciences, University of Siena, Siena, Italy
2
Archäologisches Institut, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany
3
Department of Antiquity Sciences, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy
The archaeological background The object of this research is a glass collection found in two basement rooms of the Domus Aurea complex (Fig. 1), in the north-east Palatine slope in Rome (Italy). The Domus Aurea project was planned by the Emperor Nero just after the fire of 64 AD and led to a radical change of much of the city of Rome. The glass fragments were found in the Late Antique stratifications, corresponding to the abandonment of this portion of the complex. Brick masonry was used for the construction of these rectangular basement rooms, arranged next to one another. The opus spicatum was used instead for paving, judging at least from the preserved portions. The barrel or cross vaults sustained a terrace overlooking the small artificial lake of Nero’s residence, which was replaced by the Flavian amphitheater (better known as the Colosseum) at the end of the first century AD. The rooms were used for a long time, although sometimes modified. One of them was also used to hide the signs attributed to Emperor Maxentius (Panella 2011). During the second half of the fifth century AD, they were definitely abandoned and filled with thick layers of earth and rubble, very rich in pottery and glass. In a later period, the vaults collapsed covering this filling (Panella et al. 2014, in particular p. 190 ff.). The story of
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