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July 2003-July 2010InteractiveDig Sagalassos
[image]
Veerle Lauwers with some of her glass objects

Photos courtesy Sagalassos Archaeological Research Project. Click on images to enlarge.
by Marc Waelkens

Glass Studies: July 31-August 4, 2005

In the 2004 campaign, a systematic and comprehensive analysis of the excavated vessel and window glass was initiated in the framework of a new doctoral research (Veerle Lauwers, KU Leuven). The work will elucidate the different typological versus chronological contexts in order to compile an internal chronological seriation of the glass, independent of other chronological criteria such as pottery and coins. In addition, the geochemical program was continued, one goal of which is to fill gaps left in the chronological sampling sequence and correlate the geochemical data concerning local production of glass with their archaeological counterparts.

Hopefully by the end of this year's campaign, we will have established the typological sequences of the glass assemblages of the shops arranged in the northern portico along the Upper Agora, the Bouleuterion, and the late Hellenistic Fountain House and Library. The attribution to an early Byzantine date seems to be justified for the shops and the Bouleuterion glass (with a slightly later date for the portico), while the Fountain House finds need to be placed in the fourth till the sixth century A.D. Another focal point will be the glass found in the different street test trenches and the glass picked up by the city and suburban survey teams. The complete set of materials in these contexts will be identified, weighed, fully described, drawn, and photographed in order to prepare a catalogue on the Sagalassos glass finds. This will offer a framework for discussion on the similarities and differences emerging from chronologically linked assemblages coming from different contexts. To further study the raw materials used for glass production, samples of glass chunks and production waste (partly found by the city survey team and excavated in the colonnaded street) were selected for chemical and isotopic analysis. The origin or raw glass at Sagalassos needs to be pinpointed, although import of HIMT glass, possibly from Egypt, and local recycling and decoloring of glass has already been proven.

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