Abstract
Earlier research has shown that several common late antique glass types circulate in Cyprus between the fifth and the seventh century AD, specifically Levantine 1, HLIMT, HIMTa, HIMTb and Egypt 1, HIT, Roman and a plant ash glass. By investigating the glass material from Yeroskipou-Agioi Pente, Maroni-Petrera, and Kalavasos-Kopetra, we aimed to refine the chemical groups present within three late antique Cypriot sites and define the relations between trace elements obtained from LA-ICP-MS. Our data demonstrate compositional patterns that can be exploited to provenance late antique glass by investigating the REE-bearing mineral fractions, the amount of zircon and the carbonaceous fraction of the sand. In addition, Nb and Ti display a strong linear relation which depends on the glass type. Finally, the paper discusses the occurrence of glass recycling on the island and how this activity influenced the concentration levels of specific trace elements. Our study thus sets out an analytical framework to identify recycling events tailored on each compositional type.
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Acknowledgements
The authors are thankful to the Department of Antiquities for providing access to the material. In particular, we wish to express our gratitude to Prof. Demetrios Michealides, Prof. Marcus Rautman and Prof. Sturt Manning for having granted us permission to study the material they excavated. We would like to thank also Bernard Gratuze for helping with the LA-ICP-MS measurements. This project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement No. 647315 to NS) and from the FWO Research Foundation Flanders (FWOTM744 postdoctoral grant to PC). The funding organizations had no influence in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
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Ceglia, A., Cosyns, P., Schibille, N. et al. Unravelling provenance and recycling of late antique glass from Cyprus with trace elements. Archaeol Anthropol Sci 11, 279–291 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-017-0542-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-017-0542-1