Opening a new window onto medieval glass trade and technology

ended

This project will open a new window onto trade and contact in Early Medieval western Europe, applying multidisciplinary research methods to well-dated samples of glass to investigate its production, trade, and recycling from the 7th to the 10th centuries AD. Historical research at one of the leading centres for the study of the Early Medieval period will be paired with cutting-edge scientific analysis, allowing the first detailed mapping of the changing production technologies of glass in this period, the trade routes followed by different glass ‘recipes’, and the social and economic factors influencing practices such as recycling. While the chemical and isotopic analysis of glass is already used as a proxy for questions of trade and contact, the data currently available for this period are sporadic, with many samples coming from poorly-dated archaeological contexts. This is a vital period in the history of glass production, witnessing a major compositional transition from the use of natron to plant ashes in its manufacture, but the timing of this technological change – and its relationship with Early Medieval recycling practice – cannot be understood without better temporal resolution than is currently available. This project seeks to resolve these concerns by focusing upon closely-dated samples of glass from several western European countries (Ireland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Italy, and Spain), and by combining chemical analysis with archaeological and historiographical approaches. In tandem with the Digital Atlas of Roman and Medieval Civilisations (DARMC), Harvard University, this project will be hosted by the glass research group at Newcastle University (led by Duckworth), which has a particular focus on analytical chemistry and the investigation of recycling, and its results will feed into broader understanding of the development of the European economy after the Roman period.