Roman glass objects have been recovered across the Roman Empire in domestic, industrial and funerary contexts. Glass was used primarily for the production of vessels, although mosaic tiles and window glass were also produced. Roman glass production developed from Hellenistic technical traditions, initially concentrating on the production of intensely coloured cast glass vessels.
Cage cup from Cologne, dated to the mid-4th century. Collection Staatliche Antikensammlung, Munich
This pyxis is exemplary of luxury Roman glassware, c. late 1st century BC. Walters Art Museum, Baltimore
Roman glass from the 2nd century
Enamelled glass depicting a gladiator, found at Begram, Afghanistan, which was once part of the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom, but was ruled by the Kushan Empire during the contemporaneous Roman Principate period, to which the glass belongs, 52–125 AD (although there is some scholarly debate about the precise dating).
Glass is a non-crystalline solid that is often transparent, brittle and chemically inert. It has widespread practical, technological, and decorative use in, for example, window panes, tableware, and optics.
A glass building facade
A piece of volcanic obsidian glass
Moldavite, a natural glass formed by meteorite impact, from Besednice, Bohemia
Tube fulgurites