The Evaporitic Deposits of Lake Fazda (Wadi Natrun, Egypt) and Their Use in Roman Glass Production
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 8354348 |
|---|---|
| Authors | A J Shortland, Anja Shortland (0000-0003-2460-9358, Cranfield University, corresponding author), P Degryse (0000-0003-3604-6505, KU Leuven), Marc Walton (0000-0002-4436-3546, J. Paul Getty Museum), Melanie Geer (Durham University), Veerle Lauwers (KU Leuven), L SALOU (Université de Rennes) |
| Year | 2011 |
| Volume | 53 |
| Issue | 5 |
| Pages | 916-929 |
| Publication date | 2011-10-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Archaeometry (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0003-813X • E-ISSN: 1475-4754 |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1111/j.1475-4754.2010.00573.x |
| OpenAlex | W1870224916 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 13 |
| References cited | 16 |
In September 2006, a new field survey of Lake Fazda in Wadi Natrun (Egypt) was undertaken to characterize the extant evaporitic deposits and reconstruct how this natural system was exploited in Egyptian and Roman times, especially in connection with glass production. It was found that the minerals currently precipitating in the lake are not immediately useful for the production of glass due to their high sulphate content. However, the large Roman glass‐making factory of Beni Salama lies on the shore of the lake and was almost certainly exploiting its deposits for glass‐making. Two solutions for this apparent contradiction are offered. First, the possibility that the lake has altered over time due to natural and human changes was investigated. The second solution is that some form of processing of the sulphate‐rich deposits was carried out in antiquity to convert sulphate mineral phases to carbonates useful in glass production. Hints that this might be the case can be found in descriptions by Pliny, in his Natural history , and experimental work on using a ‘Leblanc’ type process to convert burkeite rich deposits into a usable glass‐making flux were carried out, showing that this is a real possibility
Anhydrite · Archaeology · Extant taxon · Geochemistry · Geography · Glass production · Gypsum · Metallurgy · Mineralogy · Natural (archaeology) · Shore · Wadi · Ancient Egypt and Archaeology · Ancient Mediterranean Archaeology and History · Archaeology and Historical Studies · Geology · Materials Science · Oceanography · Paleontology
Źródła Pisane I Archeologiczne a Postrzega Nie Orga Niza Cji Produk Cji SZK Ła Rzymskiego W Literaturze Polskiej
Characterisation of Byzantine and early Islamic primary tank furnace glass
Western Mediterranean sand deposits as a raw material for Roman glass production
Boron isotopic composition as a provenance indicator for the flux raw material in Roman natron glass
Racialized Commodities
Mid-to Late Holocene paleoclimatic changes and paleoenvironmental shifts inferred from pollen and diatom assemblages at Lake Hamra, Wadi El Natrun (Western Nile Delta, North Western Desert, Egypt)
Tesserae Recycling in the Production of Medieval Blue Window Glass
Trace Element Analysis in Provenancing R oman Glass‐Making
Glassmaking using natron from el-Barnugi (Egypt); Pliny and the Roman glass industry
Provenance and technology of fourth-second century BC glass from three sites in ancient Thesprotia, Greece
On the making, mixing and trading of glass from the Roman military fort at Oudenburg (Belgium)
Petrochemical attributes of glazed architectural elements from Middle-Elamite to Achaemenid excavation sites in Iran
Herodian Innovation
Ancient Egyptian materials and industries
Precision KRbSr isotopic analysis
Chemical analyses of organic residues in archaeological pottery from Arbon Bleiche 3, Switzerland – evidence for dairying in the late Neolithic
Natron as a flux in the early vitreous materials industry
Potassium–Calcium Glass
Evaporites of the Wadi Natrun
| Unique citing works | 13 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,93 |
| Citation span | 2012 - 2024 (13) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 12 |