Definitive history reproduces 713 vessels and objects. Nearly 1,000 illustrations, 130 color.

This book is an interdisciplinary exploration of archaeological glass in which technological, historical, geological, chemical, and cultural aspects of the study of ancient glass are combined. The book examines why and how this unique material was invented some 4,500 years ago and considers the ritual, social, economic, and political contexts of its development. The book also provides an in-depth consideration of glass as a material, the raw materials used to make it, and its wide range of chemical compositions in both the East and the West from its invention to the seventeenth century AD. Julian Henderson focuses on three contrasting archaeological and scientific case studies: Late Bronze Age glass, late Hellenistic-early Roman glass, and Islamic glass in the Middle East. He considers in detail the provenances of ancient glass using scientific techniques and discusses a range of vessels and their uses in ancient societies.

Worldwide research on ancient glass began in the early 20th century. A consensus has been reached in the community of Archaeology that the first manmade or synthetic glasses, based on archaeological findings, originated in the Middle East during the 5000-3000's BC. By contrast, the manufacturing technology of pottery and ceramics were well developed in ancient China. The earliest pottery and ceramics dates back to the Shang Dynasty - the Zhou Dynasty (1700 BC-770 BC), while the earliest ancient glass artifacts unearthed in China dates back to the Western Han Dynasty. Utilizing the state-of-the art analytical and spectroscopic methods, the recent findings demonstrate that China had already developed its own glassmaking technology at latest since 200 BC. There are two schools of viewpoint on the origin of ancient Chinese glass. The more common one believes that ancient Chinese glass originated from the import of glassmaking technology from the West as a result of Sino-West trade exchanges in the Western Han Dynasty (206 BC-25 AD). The other scientifically demonstrates that homemade ancient Chinese glass with unique domestic formula containing both PbO and BaO were made as early as in the Pre-Qin Period or even the Warring States Period (770 BC-221 BC), known as Yousha or Faience.This English version of the previously published Chinese book entitled Development History of Ancient Chinese Glass Technology is for universities and research institutes where various research and educational activities of ancient glass and history are conducted. With 18 chapters, the scope of this book covers very detailed information on scientifically based findings of ancient Chinese glass development and imports and influence of foreign glass products as well as influence of the foreign glass manufacturing processes through the trade exchanges along the Silk Road(s).

"Precious Egyptian glass of the Pharaonic period, luxury wares of Hellenistic times, and brilliant mosaic glass inlays from the Ptolemaic period and the early years of the Roman Empire - products of almost all the significant glass centers of the ancient world - are here presented for the first time. This splendid array was gathered in a few decennia by Ernesto Wolf who, recognizing the importance of preserving as much as possible of the archaeological context of ancient glass, acquired groups of finds in their entirety, among them an important hoard of Hellenistic luxury glass. The product of a discerning collector with a keen eye for beauty, these 155 vessels and objects range from the beginnings of glassworking in the sixteenth century B.C. to the first century A.D. when the novel technique of glassblowing spread through the Roman Empire." "Of particular value is a systematic analysis - the first to date - of the history of ancient glass technology. Presented in easy-to-understand language and accompanied by numerous comparative photographs and drawings, step-by-step descriptions of studio experiments reconstruct the techniques of the ancient artisans. The descriptive catalogue of this comprehensive collection is illustrated with full-color photographs by Peter Frankenstein and Hendrik Zwietasch who have captured the magic of ancient glass, enabling the reader to behold many small objects as through a magnifying glass. E. Marianne Stern and Birgit Schlick-Nolte meticulously researched and documented Ernesto Wolf's collection to create an essential handbook of early ancient glass."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Picture, if you can, a world without glass. There would be no microscopes or telescopes, no sciences of microbiology or astronomy. People with poor vision would grope in the shadows, and planes, cars, and even electricity probably wouldn't exist. Artists would draw without the benefit of three-dimensional perspective, and ships would still be steered by what stars navigators could see through the naked eye. In Glass: A World History, Alan Macfarlane and Gerry Martin tell the fascinating story of how glass has revolutionized the way we see ourselves and the world around us. Starting ten thousand years ago with its invention in the Near East, Macfarlane and Martin trace the history of glass and its uses from the ancient civilizations of India, China, and Rome through western Europe during the Renaissance, Enlightenment, and Industrial Revolution, and finally up to the present day. The authors argue that glass played a key role not just in transforming humanity's relationship with the natural world, but also in the divergent courses of Eastern and Western civilizations. While all the societies that used glass first focused on its beauty in jewelry and other ornaments, and some later made it into bottles and other containers, only western Europeans further developed the use of glass for precise optics, mirrors, and windows. These technological innovations in glass, in turn, provided the foundations for European domination of the world in the several centuries following the Scientific Revolution. Clear, compelling, and quite provocative, Glass is an amazing biography of an equally amazing subject, a subject that has been central to every aspect of human history, from art and science to technology and medicine.

"The aim of the book is to report the recent research development of ancient glass and glazing technology and the historical–cultural exchange of the East and West along the Silk Road. The contents of this book are dedicated to promote the exchanges between researchers in both social and scientific fields. The scope of this book includes the new archaeological findings of ancient glass and faience in the world, the relationship of glassmaking with glazing technology, the development and application of modern techniques used for the characterization of ancient glass and glaze, compound colorants/opacifiers among ancient glass, the early exchanges of culture and techniques used between China and elsewhere along the Silk Road, and so on."--Provided by publisher.

This book provides a comprehensive research on Ancient Indian glass. The contributors include experienced archaeologists of South Asian glass and archaeological chemists with expertise in the chemical analysis of glass, besides, established ethnohistorians and ethnoarchaeologists. It is comprised of five sections, and each section discusses different aspects of glass study: the origin of glass and its evolution, its scientific study and its care, ancient glass in literature and glass ethnography, glass in South Asia and the diffusion of glass in different parts of the world. The topic covered by the different chapters ranges from the development of faience, to the techniques developed for the manufacture of glass beads, glass bangles or glass mirrors at different times in south Asia, a major glass producing region and the regional distribution of key artefacts both within India and outside the region, in Africa, Europe or Southeast Asia. Some chapters also include extended examples of the archaeometry of ancient glasses. It makes an important contribution to archaeological, anthropological and analytical aspects of glass in South Asia. As such, it represents an invaluable resource for students through academic and industry researchers working in archaeological sciences, ancient knowledge system, pyrotechnology, historical archaeology, social archaeology and student of anthropology and history with an interest in glass and the archaeology of South Asia.