Site of Bronze Age Primary Glass-Making Factory Found in Egypt

Scientists reported yesterday the discovery of the first primary glass workshop dating to about 1500 BC in Egypt.

While only about 10% of the workshop area has so far been excavated, the discovery is important because it marks the first time that a large-scale factory for generating glass raw materials from this period has been found. The site was located at Qantir, which is the ancient city of Piramesses, built by Rameses II as the capital of northern Egypt.

Evidence indicates a two-stage process was used at the workshop. First, raw materials such as lime, clay and crushed quartz, were heated inside vessels.  Then the glass was colored, and heated inside cylindrical crucibles at higher temperatures. The result was an ingot-like glass bar which was transported to smaller artistic workshops where it was worked into smaller objects. 

Early Egyptian glass is extremely rare on the market and highly sought after.  Two small Egyptian glass penannular earrings about 1-inch in diameter and dating to the same period at this workshop, sold in 1999 for more than 5x their high estimate. Read More.