Etruscans Now
Ceramics, Technology and Workshop Production
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Andy Towle - University of Nottingham and
Julian Henderson - University of Nottingham
Archaeometric evidence for the existence of an Etruscan glass industry?
As part of a broader study of ancient glass from Italian contexts from c 1200 - c 200 BC, 18 samples of "Etruscan" glass were chemically characterised using electronmicroprobe analysis. The samples were all taken from objects held in British collections (Lincoln County Museum, National Museums and Galleries on Merseyside, Bristol City Museum and Cambridge University Museum of Archaeology). Despite the poor provenance of a number of the artefacts, the forms include core-formed vessels and brooch decoration previously attributed to Etruscan manufacture, alongside less diagnostic beads. This is the first attempt to chemically characterise the glass used in the manufacture of the distinctive Etruscan stachelflaschen, and here samples from two examples are considered with other Etruscan glasses.
Previous argument for the possible existence of an Etruscan glass industry have been strengthened by the demonstration of an earlier glass industry in Northern Italy, using a distinct glassmaking technology (mixed alkali glass) defined by the analysis of material from the Final Bronze Age sites of Frattesina, Mariconda and Montagnana. Given the sophisticated pyrotechnology of the Etruscan metal and ceramic industries, it seems possible that glassmaking lay within the technical capacity of the Etruscans. This study was an attempt to characterise Etruscan material and relate it to the earlier glassmaking technology and contemporary production in the Mediterranean.
The chemical analysis demonstrated that the stachelflaschen were made using a low-magnesia soda-lime-silica glass, similar to contemporary material from the Eastern Mediterranean and unrelated to the earlier mixed alkali glasses. However, the Etruscan assemblage was not homogenous, and the highly variable glass chemistry of the group suggests that glass manufacture was localized (and technically less well controlled than during the Final Bronze Age). A number of the samples, from undiagnostic annular beads of translucent glass, were of an exceptional high potash glass type, distinct from the mixed alkali or any other defined tradition (including the Medieval potash glass). Whilst it remains difficult to speak of an Etruscan glass industry in the absence of direct evidence (i.e. partially fused raw materials, furnaces, crucibles and ingots), it is possible to discuss the nature of the glass consumed in Etruscan contexts: non-centralised production, highly variable raw materials and technology distinct from earlier and later traditions. The potash glass beads are an intriguing hint of the possibility of a distinct Etruscan glass-making tradition, which could be substantiated with the further analysis of well-provenanced (freshly excavated?) material.