Using human breath to modify glass, by blowing through a pipe into super-heated material, is called glassblowing. Glassblowing was developed along the Mediterranean coast of Syria and Palestine and then brought to Roman Italy during the 1st century BC. Pliny reported that glassblowing was a technique invented by the artisans of Sidon, in what is now coastal Lebanon.
By the first century AD, commercial workshops were producing blown glass vessels and window panes at Sentinum (in what is now Italy), Aix-en-Provence (France) and Bet She'an (Israel). Many Sidon glassworkers set up workshops in Roman cities such as Aquileia and Campania.
Sources and Further Information
Verità M, Renier A, and Zecchin S. 2002. Chemical analyses of ancient glass findings excavated in the Venetian lagoon. Journal of Cultural Heritage 3:261-271.
