A New Paradigm for South Asian Glasses: Mineral Soda Alumina Revisited

Summary

This is an abstract from the "The Elemental Analysis Facility at the Field Museum: Celebrating 20 Years Serving the Archaeological Community " session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The Elemental Analysis Facility at the Field Museum has been at the forefront of global research into distinctive South Asian glasses, technically termed “Mineral Soda Alumina” glasses. In celebration of 20 years of field-defining research, this paper presents the results of a major review of m-Na-Al glasses the author has conducted in collaboration with Laure Dussubieux. This paper presents the new paradigm and classificatory method for defining and understanding compositional groups in m-Na-Al glasses, and it will demo a new software platform designed to make such analysis easier to conduct. It will present new paradigm-changing results from North India, based on results from the site of Indor, excavated by the author, regarding what they reveal about cross-craft currents of glass supply and exchange both within and outside South Asia. Finally, this paper presents a review of in-group variation and reviews its promise for specifying particular exchange networks from South Asia to the Swahili coast, mainland and island Southeast Asia, and towards the Levant and Europe.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)   •
• The Elemental Analysis Facility at the Field Museum: Celebrating 20 Years Serving the Archaeological Community

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 39834.0