NaVloPoMo 05 - day #5 Roman Glass at Ceasarea

this is a video showing the Roman Glass jewellery shop and some of the ruins at Ceasarea, north of Tel Aviv in Israel.

Roman Glass is 2000 year old glass from the Roman Empire period, which has been found in the ruins. the Israeli government has allocated a small proportion of it to local artists & jewellery makers for them to make some unique pieces. (this is what the store owner told me - if it's not true, it's a nice story anyway!) I bought a small necklace to remember Israel by.

here's some photos of the Roman Glass on display in the old city of Jerusalem - at the gallery of Station IV of the Cross along the Via Dolorosa. I bought a couple of the necklaces for my Mum and sister - this time the blue, green, sparkly leaf style.

The Met Museum has some articles on Roman Glass, as does RomanGlass.net, the website of the book : "ROMAN GLASS: REFLECTIONS ON CULTURAL CHANGE" by Stuart Fleming.

an extract from the site / book :

"Along with pottery, glass was the material of the middle class and the poorer sectors of Roman society, including its slaves; it was what they could afford. Conservatively, I would estimate that some 13 billion items of glassware were produced during the seven centuries that Rome held sway over the Mediterranean World, ranging from sturdy storage jars and dinner platters to oil lamps and delicate perfume bottles."

...

"The wealthy would eat off only gold and silver, but glass was popular with everyone else for the entire range of tableware, from serving platters to wine beakers. And because the Romans ate with their fingers, there were always several glass bowls and pitchers around the dining area, so that household slaves could wash everyone's hands between each course."

archaeology.org also has articles about Roman Glass

from the Roman Glass article at http://www.iol.ie/~coolmine/typ/romans/glass.html :

"From about A.D 200 the diferent styles of glass came together and all partsof the Roman Empire began to make glass of the same kind. Glass was used more generally than it was ever again until the 19th century. Thousands of bottles were made to hold oil, wine, and other liquids and they were often square in shape so that could be packed together conveniently without wasting space. In the villas of the rich people the windows had glass. Glass for ordinary use often had a pleasant blue, green or brown tinge, for although the glass-makers could make clear glass it was very expensive."

"The Roman crafts-men decorated their glass by almost every method known today and even some that are no longer used. For instance they produced gold-leaf (gold beaten out to a very thin sheet), sandwiched between layers of protctive glass. They were particularly skilled in cutting glass, and they made vessels from two layers of glass, usualy dark blue and white. The pattern was produced by cutting through the white layer to reveal the dark ground underneath. The most famous of these glasses is the Portland Vase, now in the British Museum in London. The Romans also made cut glass cups with such skill that the decoration stood away from the cup, only joined to it by one or two small struts."