One of the colourless pieces of Roman glass from Jerash (Jordan) which was analysed as part of the study.
One of the colourless pieces of Roman glass from Jerash (Jordan) which was analysed as part of the study. The Danish-German Jerash Northwest Quarter Project For a long time, it was not possible to establish the precise origin of high-grade transparent glass from imperial Rome (3rd century CE) - glass which was used for example for vessels and as window glass. Historical sources strongly suggested that the glass originated in Egypt - on the basis of the term "Alexandrian" found in these sources - but this could not so far be confirmed. By contrast, there was much to indicate that the centre of glass production in late antiquity was Palestine, where a large number of furnaces have been excavated. The mystery surrounding the clear Roman glass has, however, now been solved: "Alexandrian" does indeed refer to production near the Nile in Egypt. This is the result of a study using a new geochemical isotope analysis. Münster University archaeologist Prof. Achim Lichtenberger was involved in the research, whose findings have now been published with open access in the journal "Scientific Reports".
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