Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-g7gxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-05T14:10:02.015Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

An Investigation of the Antimony-Containing Minerals used by the Romans to Prepare Opaque Colored Glasses

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 February 2011

Jennifer L. Mass ,
Richard E. Stone  and
Mark T. Wypyski
Jennifer L. Mass
Affiliation:
The Sherman Fairchild Center for Objects Conservation, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1000 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10028
Richard E. Stone
Affiliation:
The Sherman Fairchild Center for Objects Conservation, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1000 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10028
Mark T. Wypyski
Affiliation:
The Sherman Fairchild Center for Objects Conservation, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1000 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10028
Get access

Abstract

Roman colored opaque vessel glasses and mosaic tesserae were examined using energy dispersive X-ray analysis, wavelength dispersive X-ray analysis, and scanning electron microscopy in order to identify the origins of the antimony-based glass opacifying agents used in the Roman period. Bindheimite and stibnite were considered as mineralogical sources of antimony, and antimonial litharge was investigated as a metallurgical source of antimony. The refining of antimonial silver ores was discussed as a source for antimonial litharge in the Roman period. The morphologies of the antimonate crystallites, their distributions, and the observed correlations of lead to antimony in the glasses indicated that roasted stibnite was the antimony source for the white and blue opaque glasses and antimonial litharge was the antimony source for the yellow and green opaque glasses. Opaque yellow Roman glasses were found to contain a mixture of clastic, subhedral, and euhedral lead pyroantimonate (Pb2Sb2O7) particles. The euhedral crystallites are a rhombohedral modification of Pb2Sb2O7 that is formed above 900 °C.

Type
Research Article
Information
MRS Online Proceedings Library (OPL) , Volume 462: Symposium DD – Materials Issues in Art and Archaeology V , 1996 , 193
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 1997

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

1. Tin-based opacifying agents came into use starting in the first century AD and by the fourth century AD the use of antimony-based opacifying agents had ceased, see Bimson, M. and Werner, A. E., Ann. 4e. Cong, des Journées Int. du Verre, Ravenne-Venise, p. 262–266.Google Scholar
2. Rooksby, H. P., General Electric Corporation Journal 29 (1), 20–26 (1962).Google Scholar
3. Turner, W. E. S. and Rooksby, H. P., Glastechnische Berichte 32K (VIII), 17–29 (1959).Google Scholar
4. Bimson, M. and Freestone, I. C., The Journal of Glass Studies 25, 55–65 (1983).Google Scholar
5. Partington, J. R., Origins and Development of Applied Chemistry. (Longmans, Green, and Co., London, 1935) p. 113.Google Scholar
6. Henderson, J., Oxford Journal of Archaeology 4 (3), 267–291 (1985).Google Scholar
7. Henderson, J., Jewellery Studies 5, 65–76 (1991).Google Scholar
8. Clayton, R. E., Scrivener, R. C, Stanley, C. J., Proceedings of the Ussher Society 7, 258–262 (1990).Google Scholar
9. Edwards, R. P., Transactions of the Institution of Mining and Metallurgy 85B, B83–B90 (1976).Google Scholar
10. Dana, J. D. and Dana, E. S., The System of Mineralogy. (Wiley and Sons, New York, 1951) vol. 2, p. 1018–1019.Google Scholar
11. Natta, G. and Baccaredda, M., Zeitschrift für Kristallographie 85, 271–294 (1933).Google Scholar
12. Dessau, G., Societa Geologica Italiana - Bolletino 70, 1–64 (1951).Google Scholar
13. Gale, N. H., Stos-Gale, Z. A., Annual of the British School of Archaeology 76, 169–224 (1981).Google Scholar
14. Charlesworth, M. P., Trade Routes and Commerce of the Roman Empire. (Georg Alms Press, London, 1924).Google Scholar
15. Palache, C.. Berman, H., and Frondel, C.. Dana's System of Mineralogy. 7th ed., (Wiley and Sons, New York, 1944) vol. 1, 270–274.Google Scholar
16. Dessau, G., Economic Geology 47, 397–413 (1952).Google Scholar
17. Forbes, R. J., Metallurgy in Antiquity. (E. J. Brill and Co., Leiden, 1950) p. 262.Google Scholar
18. Healey, J. F., Mining and Metallurgy in the Greek and Roman World. Aspects of Greek and Roman Life Series, edited by Scullard, H. H., (Thames and Hudson, London, 1978) p. 67.Google Scholar
19. Pliny, , Natural History, translated by Rackham, H., Loeb Classical Library Edition, (Harvard University Press, Cambridge, 1952).Google Scholar
20. Forbes, R. J., Metallurgy in Antiquity. (E. J. Brill and Co., Leiden, 1950) p. 262–263.Google Scholar
21. Tylecote, R. F., A History of Metallurgy. (The Metals Society, London, 1976), p. 38.Google Scholar
22. Healey, J. F., in Science in the Early Roman Empire: Pliny the Elder. His Sources and Influences, edited by French, R. and Greenaway, F., (Croon Helm, London, 1986) p. 153.Google Scholar
23. Oen, I. S., Fernandez, J. C, Mantica, J. I., Economic Geology 70, 1259–1278 (1975).Google Scholar
24. Craddock, P. T., Freestone, I. C., Gale, N. H., Meeks, N. D., Rothenberg, B., Tite, M. S., in British Museum Occasional Paper #48, Furnaces and Smelting Technology in Antiquity. edited by Craddock, P. T. and Hughes, M. J., (British Museum Research Laboratory, London, 1985), p. 199–214.Google Scholar
25. Tylecote, R. F., The Prehistory of Metallurgy in the British Isles. (The Institute of Metals, London, 1986) p. 55.Google Scholar
26. Shepherd, R., Ancient Mining. (Elsevier Applied Science, The Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, London, 1993) p. 269, 187.Google Scholar
27. Fleischer, M., Economic Geology, 50th Anniversary Issue, 970–1025 (1955).Google Scholar
28. Hall, W. E. and Czamanske, G. K., Economie Geology 67, 350–361 (1972).Google Scholar
29. Amcoff, O., Neues Jahrbuch für Mineralogie Abhandlungen 6, 247–261 (1976).Google Scholar
30. Hoda, S. N. and Chang, L. L. Y., American Mineralogist 60, 621–633 (1975).Google Scholar
31. Bailey, K. C., The Elder Pliny's Chapters on Chemical Subjects. (Edward Arnold and Co., London, 1927) p. 211.Google Scholar
32. Gale, N. H., Gentner, W., Wagner, G. A., in Metallurgy in Numismatics, Royal Numismatic Society Special Publication No.13. edited by Metcalf, D. M. and Oddy, W. A., (The Royal Numismatic Society, London, 1980) 1, 3–49.Google Scholar
33. Stephens, M. M., American Mineralogist 16, 532–549 (1931).Google Scholar
34. Galan Huertos, E., Mirete Mayo, S., Introduccion a los Minerales de España (Instituto Tecnologico Geominero de España, Madrid, 1994) p. 185.Google Scholar
35. Garcia, G. G., The Mineralogical Record 27, 275–285 (1996).Google Scholar
36. Lodge, R., Notes on Assaying and Metallurgical Laboratory Experiments. (Wiley and Sons, New York, 1915), p. 43.Google Scholar
37. Agricola, G., De Re Metallica. Translated by Hoover, H. C. and Hoover, L. H., (Dover Publications, New York, 1950), p. 481.Google Scholar
38. Pernicka, E., Bachmann, H-G., Presented at the 22nd Symposium on Archaeometry, Bradford, UK, 1982.Google Scholar
39. Newton, R. and Davison, S., Conservation of Glass. Butterworth's Series in Conservation and Museology, (Butterworths, London, 1989) p. 11 and 57.Google Scholar
40. Parker, A.J., Ancient Shipwrecks of the Mediterranean and the Roman Provinces, BAR International Series 580. (British Archaeological Reports, London, 1992), p. 45, 316.Google Scholar
41. Accession numbers of Metropolitan Museum of Art mosaic vessel glass fragments included in this study: 91.1.1647, 91.1.1637, 91.1.1649, 91.1.1634, 17.190.1475, 91.1.1779, 91.1.1651, 91.1.1694, 91.1.1683, 91.1.1735, 91.1.1777, 91.1.1756, 91.1.1732, 13.231.4, 45.16.3, 91.1.1667, 91.1.1764, 91.1.1776, 91.1.1637, and 91.1.820. Accession numbers for Worcester Art Museum mosaics included in this study: 1936.26, 936.28, 1936.25, and 1936.29. Thirty-four samples of tesserae from the fountain in the nymphaeum of the Casa Della Fontana Piccola in Pompeii (Regio VI, Insula 8, Edificio 23) were included in this study as well.Google Scholar
42. Verita, M., Basso, R., Wypyski, M. T., and Koestier, R. J., Archaeometry 36 (2), 241–251 (1994).Google Scholar
43. Burchard, V. G. and Rudorff, W., Z. Anorg. Allg. Chem. 447, 149–152 (1978).Google Scholar
44. Vandiver, P., Swann, C., Cranmer, D., Materials Issues in Art and Archaeology II, Materials Research Society Symposium Proceedings 85 (Materials Research Society, Pittsburgh, 1991), 609–616.Google Scholar
45. Turner, W. E. S., Journal of the Society of Glass Technology A, 39T–52T (1956).Google Scholar
46. Bowman, S.G.E., Stapleton, C. P., and Freestone, I. C., presented at the International Symposium on Archaeometry, Urbana, Illinois, 1996.Google Scholar