History of glass-making from ancient times to the late 1st - early 2nd millennium: discoveries, methods and research results. Part 2. The final of the Late Bronze Age - late 1st / early 2nd millennium

The paper provides an overview of major global studies conducted in the 1990s-2010s relating to ancient glass-making with focus on new methods of research that made it possible to raise and address new tasks on glass provenance which expanded our knowledge on this area substantially. It covers the period from the final stage of the Late Bronze Age / Early Iron Age to the turn of the second millennium and is a followup on the earlier overview of glass-making in the Ancient World. Glass the provenance of which was linked to Europe was identified for the earlier part of the studied period. With the spread of the new ‘recipe' based on natron, most glass was melted in the Eastern Mediterranean - in the Syro-Palestinian region and Egypt. Core-formed vessels of the Mediterranean groups I-III were made using Syro-Palestinian or Egyptian raw glass, depending on the period. The studies confirm also a Syro-Palestinian and Egyptian provenance of the ‘Celtic' glass. Some innovative research focusing on the studies of strontium and neodymium isotopes in the glass dating to the Late Bronze Age, the Roman period and Islamic East were performed. The study of a representative dataset of glass compositions from the Levant provided an insight that helped change our understanding on why Near Eastern glass-makers started using halophytic plant ash instead of natron during the Islamic period.