Evidence for Glass Manufacture in Ancient Thessaly

Abstract

One of the most difficult problems connected with the study of ancient glass is that of the places of manufacture.' Owing to the peripatetic tendencies of glassmakers and the rapid transmission of shapes, patterns and styles, it is often hard to pin down any particular vessel to a definite source. The number of ancient glass factories known is extremely small, and it is not likely to increase except by chance discovery. It is therefore essential to find other means of establishing the origin of specific glass vessels. One practical method is to trace to its source a distinctive shape which does not appear to have been exported, as were so many (viz., the square jug, which has been found everywhere from Britain to the Near East), but which was confined to one area, and from which one can thus deduce that it was made near where it has been found. This method was used in conjecturing the existence of a glassmaking center on the south shore of western Crete;2 similarly, the manufacture of glass on the island of Cyprus has been deduced from a study of the vessels found there.3 Another center seems to have existed in Thessaly at Nea Anchialos, a village some nine miles southwest of the city of Volo. This hypothesis is advanced on the basis of a shape of glass vessel-the unguentarium with flaring base-which does not exist elsewhere, so far as can be determined, either in Greece or outside it. This unique vessel is found both in the collections at Volo and in the small museum at Nea Anchialos. The Volo Museum possesses over thirty glass vessels of various shapes. Although the records are incomplete, it is considered likely that most of these pieces came from the cemetery of ancient Demetrias, a short distance southwest of Volo. In the museum