The Chemical Composition of Glass as a Method of Attribution of the Markul Settlement Glass Finds

The article addresses the archaeometric study of Roman and Early Medieval glass finds discovered during the archaeological research conducted by the IA RAS expedition, led by one of the authors, at the ancient fortified settlement of Markula (Abkhazia) between 2015 and 2022. The analysis was performed on beads, fragments of vessels, and, supposedly, windowpanes. The X-ray spectral microanalysis in conjunction with scanning electron microscopy was conducted at the Kurnakov Institute of General and Inorganic Chemistry. At the same time, the mass spectrometry with inductively coupled plasma with laser ablation sampling was performed using the scientific equipment of the Collective Use Center "Research Chemical Analytical Center" of NRC "Kurchatov Institute". The methodology proposed by Y. L. Shchapova and T. Stawiarska, with additions by one of the authors, along with the foreign classification of Roman and early Byzantine natron glasses, was used to interpret the analytical results. The use of two fundamentally different approaches allowed us to obtain similar results, with these methods complementing and clarifying each other. While the foreign classification enabled the dating of the finds melted on natron (though excluding the glasses melted on plant ash), the methodology of Shchapova-Stawiarska offered a more comprehensive perspective on the results, thereby establishing glass melting traditions as one of the components of the glassmaking school concept