Reflections on the beginnings of ancient Russian glassmaking

Abstract

The origin of non-alkaline lead-silica (PbO•SiO2) and lead-potassium-silica(PbO•K2O•SiO2) glass-forming technologies, which many Russian researchers believe to be typical ofancient Russian glassmaking and attesting to independent glassmaking in early 11th c. Rus’, is discussedin this paper, limited to a few selected aspects of the issue. Research has proposed two sources of thesetechnologies adopted in Rus’: Byzantium (Shchapova, Noonan) and, in the case of the first one, theFar East (Brill). The number of discoveries of glasses of these two chemical types, both artifacts andproduction waste, from Europe as well as from the Far East in particular, has grown in the past fewdozen years. New studies presenting the results of chemical composition analyses of glasses of thesetypes have also increased exponentially. The growing body of data substantiates a return to the subjectof the origins of ancient Rus’ glassmaking. The research should be based on a comparative analysisof the results of laboratory tests of remains from workshops of type A (with full production cyclesattested) as well as ready products found in ancient Rus’ and in other regions, especially in the Far East.