Abstract
Roman colored opaque vessel glasses and mosaic tesserae were examined using energy dispersive X-ray analysis, wavelength dispersive X-ray analysis, and scanning electron microscopy in order to identify the origins of the antimony-based glass opacifying agents used in the Roman period. Bindheimite and stibnite were considered as mineralogical sources of antimony, and antimonial litharge was investigated as a metallurgical source of antimony. The refining of antimonial silver ores was discussed as a source for antimonial litharge in the Roman period. The morphologies of the antimonate crystallites, their distributions, and the observed correlations of lead to antimony in the glasses indicated that roasted stibnite was the antimony source for the white and blue opaque glasses and antimonial litharge was the antimony source for the yellow and green opaque glasses. Opaque yellow Roman glasses were found to contain a mixture of clastic, subhedral, and euhedral lead pyroantimonate (Pb2Sb2O7) particles. The euhedral crystallites are a rhombohedral modification of Pb2Sb2O7 that is formed above 900 °C.
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Acknowledgement
The authors are grateful to John Hunt of the Cornell University Materials Science Center for his assistance with the SEM-WDS analyses and the scanning electron micrographs. Jennifer Mass thanks the Andrew W. Mellon foundation for financial support during the course of this project. The mosaic tesserae excavated from Antioch were obtained through the generosity of Larry Becker at the Worcester Art Museum. The tesserae from Pompeii were obtained with the assistance of Professore Pietro Giovanni Guzzo and Dottore Antonio ds'Ambrosio of the Soprintendenza Archeologica di Pompei and Sara E. Bon and Rick Jones of the Anglo-American Pompeii Project. The authors are also grateful for the mosaic vessel ware fragments that were made available for study by William Gagen, Patricia Gilkison, and Carlos Picón of the Greek and Roman department of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Finally, the authors wish to thank James H. Frantz, Pete Dandridge, Lisa Pilosi, and Ellen Howe of the Sherman Fairchild Center for Objects Conservation for contributing helpful discussions and suggestions to this work.
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Mass, J.L., Stone, R.E. & Wypyski, M.T. An Investigation of the Antimony-Containing Minerals used by the Romans to Prepare Opaque Colored Glasses. MRS Online Proceedings Library 462, 193–204 (1996). https://doi.org/10.1557/PROC-462-193
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1557/PROC-462-193