Hellenistic Glass - Spatial Distribution

Spatial Distribution

Glassworking took place in several centres of the Hellenistic world. Raw glass was brought to glassworkers in the form of ingots, except from the Rhodian workshop which included both glassmaking and glassworking, and in turn they produced glass vessels, inlays, jewellery, etc., which were then widely traded. Although most probably core-formed vessels were traded for their content, mosaic or monochrome and transparent tableware were traded per se. Major glassworking centres were located at the Syro-Palestinean coast, e.g. monochrome hemispherical bowls, and in Alexandria, since its foundation in 332 BC, e.g. mosaic glass vessels and inlays (Nenna 2002). The reputation of the Alexandrian workshop is well understood from luxury glass vessels decorated with Egyptian-style buildings or characteristic scenes found as far as Italy and Afghanistan or, even, produced there (Auth 2001). Glass vessels, both core-formed and mould-press, were also made in Ionia, Cyprus, Sidon, the Levant, Tel Anafa in Upper Galilee, Rome and Roman Italy, Crete, Macedonia (Grose 1981; Grose 1984; Barag 1985; Ignatiadou 2002; Jennings 2002).

Particularly interesting is the core-formed vessels’ trade and spatial distribution, since this was the group produced throughout the Hellenistic period from its very beginning to the invention of glassblowing (c. 50 BC). Core-formed bottles, along with other types of glass vessels, are found throughout the Mediterranean in the Aegean (e.g. Delos, Crete, Athens), throughout Greece, Asia Minor and western Asia (e.g. Ephesus, Sardis, Dura-Europos, Babylon, Nimrud, Nineveh, the Levant, Phoenicia), Magna Greacia (e.g. Rhegium, Morgantina) and Italy, Mesopotamia, the Balkans, Russia, the transalpine lands, Spain (Emporion) and the Balearics, northern Africa (Carthage) and Cerne on the Atlantic coast of Africa (Harden 1956; Harden 1969; Harden 1981; Grose 1984; Barag 1985; Jennings 2002).