Insights into the secondary glass production in Roman Aquileia: A preliminary study

A set of 29 glass shards, selected from numerous ones recovered in 2017 in Aquileia (NE Italy), was studied to provide evidence of local glass production for that specific area in antiquity. These shards can be dated between the 1st and the 4th century AD. The chemical composition of glass samples was obtained using laser ablation-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) that enables to quantify the concentration of major, minor, and trace elements needed to investigate provenance and compositional groups and sometimes to suggest a chronological frame of the samples. To ensure that the samples are homogeneous enough to perform accurate quantification, some of them were also analysed by instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA). Most of the chunks, working wastes, and artefact shards considered in this work exhibited similarities among them in terms of composition, which likely indicates that glass working activities were practised at the site of recovery. The analyses demonstrated the presence of both recycled glass and primary glass. Interestingly, the compositional data of raw primary glass point to both Syro-Palestinian and Egyptian regions as sourcing areas, confirming the role of the Roman city of Aquileia as a network node for the trade of goods. In addition, some particularly coloured glass fragments showed a composition typical of glass produced starting from the 1st or 2nd century AD, requiring specific types of furnaces and procedures for its manufacture, and suggesting the possibility of local highly-specialised production. The preliminary results of this work strengthen the hypothesis that Aquileia was a thriving centre, either for working primary glass or for glass recycling and production of objects with particular colours.