Early glass

It is not certain in which of the civilizations of the ancientNear East glass was first made. The earliest wholly glass objects fromEgypt are beads dating from some time afterc. 2500bc. A green glass rod found at Eshnunna in Babylonia may go back earlier, possibly to 2600bc. A small piece of blue glass found at Eridu dates from before 2200bc. The manufacture of glass vessels, which may have begun slightly earlier inMesopotamia, was carried to a high point of excellence in Egypt during the 18thdynasty (c. 1490 onwards). These vessels are distinguished by a peculiar technique: the shape required was first formed of clay (probably mixed with dung) fixed to ametal rod. On this core the body of the vessel was built up, usually ofopaque blue glass, on which, in turn, were coiled threads of glass of contrasting colour. The threads were pulled alternately up and down by a comb-like instrument to form feather, zigzag, orarcade patterns (seephotograph). The threads—usually yellow, white, or green in colour, and sometimes sealing-wax red—were rolled in (marvered) flush with the surface of the vessel. Finally, if desired, handles—often of translucent glass and sometimes of patterned “canes”—were added. The vessels were nearly always small, mainly for unguents and the like. Occasionally glass was decorated on the lapidary’swheel. Glass is known to have been made on the palace site ofTell el-Amarna, the residence of Akhenaton (reignedc. 1379–62bc), and the number of fragments found in and near the palace ofAmenhotep III (reignedc. 1417–1379bc) at Thebes suggests that it was made there also. This palace activity seems then to have died down and after the 21st dynasty (1085–945bc) to haveceased altogether.

In Mesopotamia the Nineveh tablets of the reign of Ashurbanipal (668–c. 626bc) and the remains of glass in various forms excavated at Nimrūd (ancientCalah, Assyria) indicate that glassmaking was carried on there during the 8th to the 6th centuriesbc. It is probable that certain vessels of palish-green or deep blue glass, cut from a solid mass as if from stone, are Mesopotamian and date from as early as the 8th centurybc, as a dish from controlled excavations in Phrygia proves. A vase of this type, contrasting completely with the core-wound glass of Egypt, bears the cartouche (panel enclosing the name) of the Assyrian kingSargon II (reigned 721–705bc), and it is probable that glass treated in this way was manufactured over a long period in Mesopotamia.

Glass was made in Greece in Mycenaean times (c. 1400–1200bc) usually in the form of small molded architectural details. A few pieces suggest, however, that perhaps some vessel glass also was made by the Egyptian technique, though not in Egyptian forms. Other Aegean-area glass of this period may have been imported from Egypt.

In general, glass of the earlier half of the 1st millenniumbc is scarce and displays littlehomogeneity. From the 6th centurybc, however, glass begins to appear in great quantities once again, particularly on theGreek-inhabited islands of the Aegean, in Greece itself, in Italy and Sicily, and even farther west. This contrasts with the meagre contemporary finds on Egyptian soil. The laterglasses in the old Egyptian core-wound technique were probably made inSyria or some part of the Greek world. Such vessels were still small but differ in shape from the earlier Egyptian dynastic work. They were usually decorated with light-coloured threads on a dark, usually blue, ground (familiar from the Egyptian 18th dynasty), but a notable variation was displayed in pieces decorated with dark purple threads on a white ground. In theHellenistic period (roughly from the 4th centurybc) the shapes of glassdegenerated. The technique of decoration, however, remained the same; new colour combinations were used, and indeed these combinations continued into the era of blown glass.