Appendix 2: The Glass Vessels from Jaffa’s Gate Excavations (A-5815/2010)

Abstract

Approximately 160 glass fragments were recovered during this salvage excavation, about 50 of them small non-diagnostic ones and 14 glass industrial waste. Seventeen representative fragments were selected for presentation, according to the chronological order (description in the tables at the end of text). The assemblage consists of a wide range of vessel types which can be mainly attributed to two periods: the earliest dating from the Late Roman-Byzantine period (Fig. 1: 2-8) and the largest quantity belonging to the Islamic period (Fig. 2: 1-9). One vessel fragment is dated from the Early Roman period (Fig. 1: 1). It is important to specify that six vessels (Fig. 1: 3-8) were found in the fill Locus 214, just under the pavement of the Byzantine period Decumanus (Stratum II), in association with twenty-two coins; about one third of them can be identified and the latest dated to 518-527 CE, during the reign of emperor Justinianus (Sion and Puni 2011). Fourteen fragments (Fig. 3: 1-14) of finds related to glass production activities also complete the knowledge about glass industry in the Old City of Jerusalem.