The tradition of facet-cut bowls from Pannonia: style, distribution and chemical composition

Abstract

The method of facet-cutting was invented in the 1st century A.D. The craftsmen began to create zoned facet-cut decoration to arrange the facets in horizontal zones divided by linear grooves mostly in Isings 96 bowl in the second half of 2nd century and first half of 3rd century A.D. The western part of the Roman Empire is emphasized in production. Above all, we need to highlight the Rhine region (perhaps at Cologne), and Pannonia as production sites from which we now publish chemical compositions of this type for the first time. The existence of workshops at Dura Europos and Tanais is uncertain in the eastern part of the empire. Facet-cut vessels often appear also southern Germany, Bavaria. There are also rich places in Northern Italy as Bresca for example, and also known in France and Great Britain, but not in big quantities. The archaeometric study revealed that the chemical compositions of facet-cut bowls from Brigetio and Intercisa are the same, which indicates that they were made of the same raw glass. The appearance of another high-quality glass ware, the snake-thread beakers, coincided both in time and place in Pannonia with the facet-cut bowls. Therefore, we wondered how similar the composition of the base glass was and whether a further relationship could be assumed between them in terms of production. Interestingly, the chemical compositions of these two types are partly identical (Sb-decolourized facet-cut bowls and snake-thread beakers) and partly different (the two Mn-decolourized snake-thread beakers). The appearance of the Mn-decolourized objects needs further investigation.