Glass Windows and Vessels from Bir el Knissia, an Early Byzantine Church in Carthage

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Twenty Years of Archaeological Science at the Field Museum’s Elemental Analysis Facility" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Excavations at the site Bir el Knissia in Carthage from 1990 to 1992 recovered large glass assemblages from the site of an early Byzantine cemetery basilica, constructed by the mid-sixth century CE and destroyed by fire in the mid-seventh century. These artifacts include vessels (especially lamps, beakers, and goblets) and substantial quantities of glass windowpanes. Visual examination of glass coloration reveals significant differences among vessels, equally distributed between colorless, light green, and bluish-green glass, and the windowpanes, made overwhelming of bubbly bluish-green glass. Elemental analysis of approximately 100 glass vessels and windowpane fragments has been carried out to elucidate the reasons for the variation between the vessels and the window panes. We present preliminary results of analysis from Bir el Knissia and consider the implications for glass trade, glass workshop organization, and glass recycling in early Byzantine Carthage.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Twenty Years of Archaeological Science at the Field Museum’s Elemental Analysis Facility   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 38054.0