Wyroby ze szkła i fajansu egipskiego

During archaeological research in the cremation cemetery in Żelazna Nowa, 106 glass and four faience artefacts were uncovered. Most of them were found in eleven cremation burials (1, 2, 19A, 33, 34, vicinity of 36, 37, 39, 44, 47, 54) dated between the 1st and 3rd centuries AD. The glass pieces are highly fragmented, melted, or fused with other elements of the pyre, with only one glass bead completely preserved (type 218c acc. to Tempelmann-Mączyńska). The faience objects have survived in better shape: these are two complete beads and two fragments, all representing type 171 (acc. to Tempelmann-Mączyńska). Chemical compositions of 12 glass pieces and one fragment of a faience bead were determined using EPMA analysis. All the analysed artefacts turned out to be sodium glasses, made using both mineral sodium (natron) and sodium from the ash of halophytic plants (one sample). Natron glasses represent three groups distinguished by varying contents of MgO and K2O. The differences in concentrations of these components indicate that sands from different deposits were added in the glass-making process. This corroborates a hypothesis positing multiple centres of glass production during the Roman Period.