Early Glassmaking

Timeline

1. c. -1500–-1300Near East and Egypt · Near EastAround 1600–1500 BCE, solid glass objects appeared simultaneously in Egypt and the Near East. Craftsmen wound molten glass rods around clay cores using the core-forming method, reheating and fusing repeatedly to make small vials and beads imitating gemstone colors, mainly for royal and aristocratic use.
2. c. -1400–-1100Amarna · EgyptDuring Egypt's Eighteenth Dynasty, remains of glass workshops and glass ingots were found at Amarna, Lisht, and Qantir (Pi-Ramesses). Workshops stood close to palaces and temples, producing cosmetic bottles, amulets, and colored glass ware, showing glassmaking to be a court-controlled luxury industry.
3. c. -1200–-900Aegean · AegeanLate Bronze Age glass beads and ingots circulated through trade networks to Mycenaean Greece and elsewhere. Trace-element analysis can distinguish Egyptian from Near Eastern glass, providing scientific evidence for studying ancient long-distance trade and workshop distribution.
4. c. -900–-500Levant · LevantIn the first millennium BCE, core-formed glassmaking continued in the Levant and the Phoenician world, producing mainly beads and small vessels. Though blown glass had not yet appeared, accumulating knowledge of material recipes and coloring techniques laid the technical groundwork for the revival of the Alexandrian glass industry in the Ptolemaic period.