Assryian Text On Glass Manufacture

Studies of the many authentically dated specimens of ancient glass in museums and private collections have enabled investigators interested in the origin and progress of glass manufacture to reach some tentative conclusions on the succession of glass forming processes. There is, however, a dearth of information on the chemical compositions of ancient glassware or the raw materials used by early glassworkers. A careful translation of certain 7th century b.c. Assyrian cuneiform tablets dealing with glass sompunds and metling technique is reviewed and used as a basis of an estimate of the chemical knowledge of the Assyrian glassowrkers.