Investigating the construction methods of an opus vermiculatum mosaic panel

From the third century BC to the second century AD small detailed central panels (emblemata) made using the opus vermiculatum technique were used as focal points in larger mosaic pavements. They were custom made in stone or terracotta trays to facilitate their transport and placement. Although mosaic panels in opus vermiculatum have been discovered throughout the Hellenistic and Roman Mediterranean, the location of the workshops specialising in the production of the finely worked panels is still unclear. Their association with named artists, for example Dioskourides of Samos, and the locations of finds (such as the fragments of the floor by Hephaistion at Pergamon) point to workshops in the eastern Mediterranean. A large unidentified fragment of an emblema, still in its terracotta tray, from the collections of the Department of Greece and Rome in the British Museum was the subject of analytical examination. These investigations of the tesserae (glass cubes), traces of pigments and mortar aimed to determine the raw materials and manufacturing processes for the mosaic and to characterise the nature of the application of paint to the mortar. Egyptian blue pigment and traces of hematite and carbon suggest that a fully coloured drawing was executed on the fresh mortar to guide the positioning of the tesserae. In addition, samples from the terracotta tray were taken in an attempt to identify its provenance. This contribution describes how the results of these investigations have been used to provide a deeper understanding of opus vermiculatum construction methods

Mycenaean beads from Kazanaki, Volos: a further node in the LBA glass network

Finished glass objects are found in large quantities scattered throughout Egypt, Mesopotamia, the Levant, and the Aegean during the late second millennium BC. We propose that glass was primary produced in a few centres, then transferred and exchanged to the more widely available secondary glass making workshops throughout the Eastern Mediterranean. Glass was used and consumed in the Mycenaean world, however there have not been many studies discussing its provenance. The present paper examines glass beads found in a tholos tomb at Kasanaki, which is located in the inlet of the Pagasetic Gulf where actually functioned the big palatial center of Iolkos, with whom the tomb is certainly connected. We attempt to investigate the production, exchange and consumption of glass in Late Bronze Age (LBA) Mycenaean Greece. The samples were analysed using Electron Probe Microanalysis and Scanning Electron Microscopy to determine their chemical composition and identify their raw materials. The present study characterises the glass from Eastern Thessaly -in fact from a site located in the biggest port of Central Greece from where all the commercial exchanges of Thessaly with the Aegean World were taking place - and positions it within a broader compositional group. Performing multivariate analysis of the major elements and comparing our samples with LBA glass from the literature, it is examined whether the glass was made locally or internationally exchanged. The paper adds to our current knowledge of glass manufacturing in the LBA mainland Greece

Shades of blue – cobalt-copper coloured blue glass from New Kingdom Egypt and the Mycenaean world: a matter of production or colourant source?

Cobalt blue glass has long now been recognised as characterised by a distinct compositional signature within the typical compositional range of Late Bronze Age glass. More recently, a copper-rich variation of cobalt blue glass has been seen throughout Egypt and the Mycenaean world. This paper discusses and defines this glass type based on trace elemental data, examines whether this lighter-shaded cobalt blue glass is a natural or an anthropogenic variant of cobalt blue glass, and identifies its likely production in Egypt. It investigates the role of this type of glass, particularly with regard to the distribution pattern and the significance of its prevalence in the Mycenaean mainland and the Aegean

La Deiras

Philippa-Touchais Anna, Papadimitriou Nikolas, Touchais Gilles, Bassiakos Yannis, Géorgakopoulou Mirto, Smirniou Melina, Thriantaphyllou Sevi. La Deiras. In: Bulletin de correspondance hellénique. Volume 136-137, livraison 2, 2012. pp. 817-824