[Steppes] roman standards

[uilliacc]

I didn't mean to send this as an attachment--- here it is--

In looking at the glass and knowing that others were chalcedony, my 
first guess would be that the globes were ground, not blown.  Grinding a 
solid chunk of glass into a sphere is not a difficult task and could be 
accomplished in the same way a stone sphere is ground.

Egyptian glass goes back along way, at least to 1250 BC
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/06/0616_050616_egyptglass.html

although there are earlier examples of glass use and the ancients 
treasured glass as much as jewels--
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/5196362.stm
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/12/061221-egypt-glass.html

uillecc


alkudsi at aol.com wrote:
A good glass blower can do marvelous things...and glass blowing is a 
pretty old craft! First origin guesses are about 50 BC by the 
Phoenicians. Romans had a very active glass blowing industry during the 
Empire.

Although, truth be told, they were probably blown into a mold for 
consistency in size. And Romans DID tend to use more molds than free 
blown glass.
The island of Murano, in Venice, was the site of all glass blowers in 
Venice from 1291, where they were forcably relocated to reduce danger to 
others.

I love finding out absolutely useless facts!

HL Saqra