Glass ingots, raw glass chunks, glass wastes and vessels from fifth century AD Palatine Hill (Rome, Italy)

Abstract

The research focused on a collection of 20 glass fragments, including raw glass chunks and ingots, wastes and vessels found at the Palatine Hill in Rome and dated to the first half of the fifth century AD. The analyses performed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM)-energy-dispersive spectrometry (EDS), electron microprobe (EMPA), inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS), laser ablation-ICP-MS (LA-ICP-MS) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) showed that all samples are constituted by natron-based soda–lime–silica glass. De/colouring agents were lead stannates (yellow brownish), copper and lead antimonates (green), different Fe2+/Fe3+ ratios (green, light green and yellow-green), Fe2+ (prevailing over Fe3+; aqua blue), cobalt (blue), metallic copper (reddish) and manganese (colourless). As for provenance, two samples were of Levantine provenance, nine samples were likely of Egyptian origin (HIMT glass) and, similarly, seven samples (or maybe nine, adding ingots nos. 1–2) were likely of North African provenance (HIMT/RNCBGY 1 glass).