La produzione del vetro a Comacchio tra VII e VIII secolo: studio petro-archeometrico

This work is based on the archaeological excavations executed at Comacchio in Piazza XX Settembre, allowing to reconstruct the history of a glass production plant. Metallic and vitreous slags, together with a large amount of fragments of soapstone crucibles, confirms the presence of a workshop in the excavated area. The workshop is then defunctionalized, destroyed and covered by a layer of silt in which a large number of burials were found. This furnace’s production seems to have been in work between the 7th and the early 8th century; the site of Comacchio is therefore a possibility of an archaeometric study of the glass produced during that period. The aim of thid work is to present a geo-archeometric analysis of vitreous findings related to the early medieval phases, in particular the data on the glass production structure and the composition of the glass finds (indicators and fragments of artefacts). Investigations have shown that all investigated glass finds belong to the Na-Ca glass group, made with a mineral fondant, the natron. This claim is supported by the low MgO and K2O values of glass.

The production of glass in Comacchio between the 7th and 8th centuries: an archaeometric study