Although archaeologists frequently recover fragmentary and complete glass vessels from Romano-British sites there has, hitherto, been no single accessible compendium of information available for reference. The only existing synthesis, Isings' Roman Glass from Dated Finds, was published in 1957 and has proved inadequate for the study of glass from Roman Britain. As a response to this situation the Romano-British Glass Project was initiated in 1983 and ran until 1994, during which time over 100 groups of glass from a variety of types of site were examined. The information collected has been prepared for publication, but, inevitably, many of the reports have yet to appear. In those cases where the results have been published the information is of a site-specific nature and lacks a broader context. Such reports are generally unsuitable as a general guide to the types of glass used during the Romano-British period and this has led to a neglect of glass as a component of Romano-British material culture.
Aims
The publication of The Handbook of Romano-British Glass Vessels is intended to remedy this situation by providing a structured framework for the identification and description of glass fragments and vessel types. It will include:
- Information on the form, chronology and distribution of individual vessel types
- Descriptions of the principal diagnostic features of individual types together with illustrations of complete examples
- The definition of standard terms and a common language for the description of vessel glass
The Handbook is intended to make specialist information available to a much wider audience and will enable non-specialists to participate in the assessment, cataloguing and reporting of glass assemblages from British sites. It is intended that the wide availability of the Handbook, together with its establishment as a common point of reference for description, will help in streamlining the processing of Romano-British glass finds. The publication is aimed at a wide range of archaeological practitioners with interests in Romano-British material culture, including field archaeologists, post-excavation teams, curators, teachers and students.
Methodology
The production of the Handbook followed logically from the collection and processing of data by the staff of the Romano-British Glass Project (Dr. J. Price, Ms. S. Cottam and Ms. Y. Beadnell). The project database was used as the basic source of information with selected examples drawn and fully described. The collation of information and the production of the text and illustrations took place between the 31st of October 1994 and the 31st of July 1995.
Contents
Part 1 - Roman Glass: archaeology and technology - includes general information on vessel identification, glass supply, deposition of glass, a discussion of the methods of manufacture, the terminology, the characteristics of different parts of the vessel such as rims, handles and bases, the techniques of decoration and a glossary of terms.
Part 2 - Guide to Vessel Forms - The body of the volume consists of a series of enteries describing nearly 100 specific vessel types and their variants supported by illustrations.
The types described are:
- Cups, bowls and plates.
- Jars
- Jugs
- Flasks and unguent bottles
- Bottles
Each category is divided on a chronological basis and each type is described in a standard format arranged under the following sub-headings:
- Description of the vessel form, including features which are readily identifiable from small fragments.
- Colour and decoration.
- Geographical distribution and date range in Britain.
- Examples from Roman-Britain.
The last section consists of a table of dated forms together with brief outlines of selected assemblages from British sites. The volume concludes with a comprehensive bibliography and index.
Publication.
The Handbook of Romano-British Glass Vessels will be published in March 1997. For further information,
contact :
Council for British Archaeology,
111 Walmgate,
York,
YO1 2UA.
Phone: 01904 671417
fax : 01904 671384.
email : 100271.456@compuserve.com
