Archaeometric study of antique window and vessel glass objects excavated in basilica of Elbasan, Albania

Abstract

An early Christian basilica dated between the end of Vth and beginning of VIth century AD was discovered in Elbasan in 2007, a city in central Albania. The remains of the walls are still decorated with wall paintings and a big, rather well preserved mosaic decorates the floor of the basilica. Many glass window fragments and vessel glasses have been discovered from the ruins of basilica, some completely restored. In this paper are presented the data for the glass composition using Scanning Electron Microscopy in environmental mood connected with Energy Dispersive Spectrometer and Micro X-ray Fluorescence. Optical Microscopy is used for the optical microscopy examination of the samples. Based on the date from quantitative examinations we found that all the samples are silica-soda-lime glass, composed predominantly of the oxides of silicon, sodium and calcium. Most of the glass of the ancient and early medieval world, from Western Europe through to central Asia, is of this fundamental type. Concentrations of the oxides of potassium (K2O, potash) and magnesium (MgO, magnesia) each below 1.5%, indicate that the glass samples taken in this study belong to the group low-magnesia, low-potash glasses, which is characteristic of the Roman world and were the dominant glass type from the middle of the first millennium BC until IXth AD.