Glass from the Cemetery of Frontovoe 3 in the South-Western Crimea: The Chronology, Distribution Dynamics, and Production Centres (According to the Chemical Composition)

Abstract

The chemical composition of vessel glass from the cemetery of Frontovoe 3 has been studied with SEM-EDS technique. This cemetery, located on the outskirts of Sevastopol (south-western Crimea) and dated from the late first to the early fifth century AD, was completely investigated during the excavation campaign of 2018. The dataset containing 144 samples of colourless, naturally coloured, and purple glass allows for a conclusion that all the glass found at Frontovoe 3 comes from the Egyptian and Levantine glassmaking centres, and the Egyptian glass predominates at all stages of the cemetery. Nevertheless, the chronology of the groups of glass, singled out according to the chemical composition, sometimes differs from their time of distribution in the European provinces of the Roman Empire and the Mediterranean area. In this study the groups have been dated according to the archaeological context (i. e. considering the chronology of the burials with the glass vessels). In the early part of the cemetery four groups have been singled out: Roman blue-green (group 1, late first and second (mostly its first half) centuries); Roman colourless (group 2, second to the mid-third centuries); glass decoloured with antimony (group 3, second and third centuries); “mixed” Sb-Mn glass (group 4, second and third centuries). The colourless glass close to the Levantine I group by composition (group 5, from the mid-third (or slightly earlier) to the mid-fourth century) concentrated in the “transition” zone of the cemetery. The changes in the raw glass supply to the south-western Crimea took place in the fourth, similarly to what happened in the European provinces of the Roman Empire. In the late area of Frontovoe 3, there are glass finds showing the composition close to the series Foy-3.2, Foy 2.1, and HIMT group (groups 6-8), with very few pieces of the HIMT glass. These groups become widespread in the fourth century (possibly, excluding its early period) and existed to the abandonment of the site. The group 9, likely of the “mixed” composition due to the extensive glass recycling, dates from the same period. The selection of forms made of glass of group 4 and their serial occurrence in the burials of Frontovoe 3 implies the extensive use of recycled Mn-Sb glass in the local production (in Chersonese?) from the period synchronous to the early stage of the cemetery. Later on, raw glass of the Levantine (group 5) and Egyptian (groups 6, 7) origin was possibly supplied to Chersonese for the local glass working. In the latest period of the cemetery, the proportion of recycled glass was possibly high, although it is less evident due to the limitations of the SEM-EDS technique.