Les premiers verres au plomb

Abstract

Ce chapitre retrace l’histoire de l’emploi du plomb en tant que matière première de l’industrie verrière. Il débute en Égypte et en Mésopotamie au milieu du IIe millénaire avant notre ère, passe par l’Asie de l’Est et l’Asie du Sud au cours des premiers siècles avant et après notre ère pour revenir en Europe entre les IXe et XVIIIe siècles.

Known Glass Compositions in Iron Age Europe—Current Synthesis and Emerging Questions

“…15 wt. %) and Al 2 O 3 and CaO contents lower than those of Roman black glass [79]. A compositional match for black LMG glasses outside of Europe can be found in Early Iron Age (11th-10th century BCE) black beads from Pella (Jordan), which, on average, contain 17 wt.…”

“…Investigations of radiogenic isotopes ( 87 Sr/ 86 Sr and 143 Nd/ 144 Nd) of 11th c. BCE raw and waste glass from the Italian site of Frattesina, coupled with investigations into the composition of north Italian sand and the local plant ash, confirmed local Bronze Age production of LMHK glass in the Po valley, but also suggested the existence of other primary production sites in Europe [46]. The onset of a new millennium and the start of the Iron Age saw the beginnings of large-scale production of glass fluxed with a mineral source of sodium-natron-which will remain the main type of glass produced in the Mediterranean until the 9th century CE [20,35,37,38,78,79]. When glass artefacts are considered, the LBA/IA transition is seen both in the intensity of glass production and use, and in the changes in glass chemical composition.…”

“…The transition from the Bronze Age plant ash-based glassmaking tradition to natronfluxed glass is by no means clear-cut, as evidenced by the centuries-long parallel production and circulation of glass fluxed with natron and plant ashes throughout Europe during the early first millennium BCE, most notably in France and Italy [20,35,37,38,75,78,79,83]. In fact, studies of European glass beads and other artefacts in the last decade alone have shown that several different types of glass were in use throughout Europe during the 1st millennium BCE [33,[37][38][39]84].…”

“…LMG has been detected in European contexts since the 8th century BCE [78,79]. Only a few samples are known from ninth century BCE contexts in Slovenia [31] and the second half of the eighth century BCE in Poland [33,39], while the majority of examples come from Italy [37,38,83,86] and France and Switzerland [79]. A considerable number of 9th-7th century BCE LMGs do not fit neatly into the natron soda-lime group (Figure 1a).…”

“…As stated previously, the initial period of Early Iron Age is characterised by parallel production of natron-fluxed glass (LMG) from the Eastern Mediterranean, as well as several unique glassmaking types (Figure 1). Chemical analyses of glass from the 9th-7th centuries BCE were extensively conducted on material from France [35,78,79] and Italy [37,38,83,86], and, to a lesser degree, Poland [33,39], Slovenia [31], and Slovakia [38]. Glass types found during this period can be characterised as LMG, LMHK, HMG, HMLK, and Al-Co blue glass.…”