From Analysis to Archaeology: Decoding Ancient Egyptian Glass

Speaker: Dr Victoria Kemp; Postdoctoral Research Assistant at the Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford
Series: Pitt-Rivers Archaeological Science Seminar Series

Glass emerged as one of the most innovative and prestigious materials of Late Bronze Age Egypt. Some 3,500 years later, even the smallest fragment can still tell an extraordinary story. This talk explores how archaeological science translates the chemical composition of ancient glass into evidence for understanding technology, chronology, provenance, craft organisation and long-distance exchange. Beginning with the introduction of glass as a new material in 18th-Dynasty Egypt, this discussion places glass within a wider network of interconnected crafts, exploring its relationships with ceramics, metallurgy, faience, lapidary working and jewellery production. Using analytical techniques such as Laser Ablation Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS), the chemical fingerprints of raw materials and colourants can be identified and used to investigate where, when and how glass was made. Case studies from Gurob, Serabit el-Khadim and Amarna demonstrate how these analytical approaches can distinguish Egyptian from Mesopotamian glass, refine the dating of legacy objects and fragments, reconstruct changing cobalt supply networks, and reveal developments in colouring technology. Ultimately, chemical analysis is only one part of the story: when combined with archaeological context, a fragment of glass can reveal the movement of materials, objects, technologies and knowledge across the ancient world.