Hellenistic Glass - Other Glass Objects

Other Glass Objects

Hellenistic glass industry included also a range of other objects, mainly for decorative purposes. The broadest groups of glass objects were these of glass beads and inlays, like in all periods since the introduction of glassmaking in the ancient world. The mass production of glass beads of many varieties is well represented in the context of a Hellenistic glass workshop in Rhodes, where 10,000 beads of 40 different shapes and colours have been found (Weinberg 1983; Triantafyllidis 2002). Rings, pendants, gemstones, amulets, small sculptures were also made with the mould-casting technique (Grose 1989).

Inlays were produced to decorate wooden articles, furniture, chests, sarcophagi and jewellery in combination with other, often precious materials, such as gold leaf or ivory (Ignatiadou 2002). For example, glass inlays decorated the ionic capitals of north porch of the Erechtheion in the Athenian Acropolis (Stern 1999). Inlays were deeply rooted in the Egyptian glassmaking industry and their production, with the mosaic technique after the Pharaonic tradition, continued to flourish during the Hellenistic period with old or new repertories inspired from the Greek world (Nenna 2002). Game counters and gaming pieces were made also as one way to recycle scrap glass left over from the manufacture of other articles (Ignatiadou 2002).

Like in many other occasions, these objects are well represented and archaeologically found along with various types of glass vessels in rich burial contexts, e.g. this of Amphipolis (Romiopoulou 2002).