The making of molded or cast glass vessels or objects was first achieved between about 1650 and 1500 BC, probably in Mesopotamia. Glass may have been brought into Egypt after Tuthmosis III campaigned in the Levant. Glass workshops dated to the Late Bronze Age include sites such as Amarna and Malkata (14th century BC); Qantir/Piramesses (13th century); and possibly Lisht (13th-12th century).
Documentary evidence for controlled production of glass includes offertory lists on Egyptian temples such as Karnak and a mention in the Amarna letters. Glass-making processes were detailed in Mesopotamian cuneiform texts discovered in Nineveh, as part of the Library of King Assurbanipal [668-627 BC].
A primary glass work shop was discovered recently at Piramesses, Egypt; other workshops of the period have been discovered at Amarna. Also of interest is the deposit of molded ingots of glass discovered in the Bronze Age shipwreck called Uluburun.
Sources and Further Information
Duckworth CN. 2012. Imitation, Artificiality and Creation: the Colour and Perception of the Earliest Glass in New Kingdom Egypt. Cambridge Archaeological Journal 22(03):309-327.
Rehren T, and Pusch EB. 2005. Late Bronze Age Glass Production at Qantir-Piramesses, Egypt. Science 308:1756-1758.
Shortland A, Rogers N, and Eremin K. 2007. Trace element discriminants between Egyptian and Mesopotamian Late Bronze Age glasses. Journal of Archaeological Science 34:781-789.
Shortland AJ. 2007. Who were the glassmakers? Status, theory and method in mid-second millennium glass production. Oxford Journal of Archaeology 26(3):261-274.
