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How much is known about glassy materials in Bronze and Iron Age Italy? New data and general overview

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Abstract

Knowledge of glass trading in protohistoric Southern Italy has been limited by a lack of archeometrical data available to date, preventing comparison with the well-known Northern Italian context. The aim of the present work is to help fill the data gap for Southern Bronze-Iron Age vitreous items and enable a general overview of protohistoric Italian glass supply routes. The paper presents physical-chemical data for 61 vitreous items from 11 Southern Italian sites, dated from the beginning of the Bronze Age up to the Archaic period (22nd–6th century BC), ensuring a complete diachronic analysis. SEM-EDS, EMPA, LA-ICPMS, and XRD analyses permitted definition of the raw materials and manufacturing techniques employed, as well as determination of item provenance. The sample set exhibits great variability of glass chemical types, including plant ash glass, mixed alkali, and natron samples. A complex picture emerges, mostly as regards the different natron glass typologies (High-Zr, Low-Zr, Black, etc.) and their rapid technological evolution in the early 1st millennium BC. Taking into account the data reported in this study and those available in literature for both Northern and Southern Italian Bronze-Iron Ages items, this work demonstrates the existence of different trade routes for the first time. This is especially true for the Early/Middle Bronze Age periods, with Northern Italy involved in trade with Central Europe, and South already involved in Mediterranean trade circuits.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are indebted to Dr. Massimo Tonelli (Centro Interdipartimentale Grandi Strumenti-Unimore) and Sara Fiorentino (University of Bologna—Department of Cultural Heritage) for help with the (E)SEM analysis. All institutions (Superindentencies and Museums) that granted the permission to take samples are aknowledged, while Dr. Pierfrancesco Talamo is acknowledged for providing the Pompei-Sant’Abbondio sample. Two anonymous referees are acknowledged for improving the manuscript.

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  1. CNR-ISTEC, via Granarolo 64, 48018, Faenza, RA, Italy

    Sonia Conte

  2. Department of Humanistic Studies, University of Naples Federico II, Corso Umberto I, 40, 80138, Naples, Italy

    Ilaria Matarese & Marco Pacciarelli

  3. Department of Chemical and Geological Sciences, University of Modena, via Campi 103, 41100, Modena, Italy

    Giovanna Vezzalini

  4. Department of Cultural Heritage, University of Salento, Piazza Tancredi 7, 73100, Lecce, Italy

    Teodoro Scarano

  5. Department of Antiquity, Sapienza University of Rome, Piazzale Aldo Moro 5, 00185, Rome, Italy

    Alessandro Vanzetti

  6. Institut de Recherche sur les ArchéMATériaux, CNRS/Université d’Orléans, Orléans, France

    Bernard Gratuze

  7. Department of Earth Sciences, University of Turin, Via Tommaso Valperga Caluso, 35, 10125, Turin, Italy

    Rossella Arletti

Authors
  1. Sonia Conte
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  2. Ilaria Matarese
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  3. Giovanna Vezzalini
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  4. Marco Pacciarelli
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  5. Teodoro Scarano
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  6. Alessandro Vanzetti
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  7. Bernard Gratuze
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  8. Rossella Arletti
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Correspondence to Sonia Conte.

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Conte, S., Matarese, I., Vezzalini, G. et al. How much is known about glassy materials in Bronze and Iron Age Italy? New data and general overview. Archaeol Anthropol Sci 11, 1813–1841 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-018-0634-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-018-0634-6

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