Raw materials for medieval to post-medieval Tuscan glassmaking: new insight from LA-ICP-MS analyses

The glass of Nogara (Verona): a “window” on production technology of mid-Medieval times in Northern Italy

“…4) suggest that these glasses were produced with Levantine ash as flux, and pure silica sand or quartziferous pebbles as a source of silica. The trace signature of this group, very different from that of the Nogara natron samples (Table 4), is also consistent with quartz pebbles as a source of silica and Levantine ash as flux, according to Cagno et al (2010). The Nogara plant ash samples show chemical similarities with coeval glass samples from Venice, defined in Venetian documents as "common" glass (Verità and Zecchin, 2009), and samples from Grado and Vicenza (Silvestri et al, 2005).…”

The palaeo-Christian glass mosaic of St. Prosdocimus (Padova, Italy): archaeometric characterisation of ‘gold’ tesserae

“…1) suggest that they were produced using Levantine ash as flux, and pure silica sand or quartziferous pebbles as a source of silica. The trace signature of this group, different from that of the Paduan natron samples (e.g., Zr 26.0 AE 2.9 ppm, Ba 133 AE 4 ppm, Nd 3.72 AE 0.09 ppm, Hf 0.65 AE 0.12 ppm e see Table 4), is also consistent with quartz pebbles as a source of silica and Levantine ash as flux according to Cagno et al (2010). The Paduan plant ash samples show chemical similarities not only with "Group B1" of Silvestri et al (2005a), which comprises Medieval glass from Grado and Vicenza (Table 4) and with "Islamic" glass, found in Israel and Syria and dated to the 9the10th centuries AD (Freestone et al, 2000;Henderson, 2002), but also with soda plant ash glass samples from Venice dated from the period between the 9th and the 13th centuries AD (Verità and Zecchin, 2009) (Fig.…”

Characterisation of archaeological ceramics from the Khwebe Hills of northern Botswana

“…Zhu et al, 2004) and principal component analysis (e.g. Cagno et al, 2010). In contrast, we present the results of whole rock mineralogical and elemental analyses, treating the data as a geological material.…”