Moils galore
Another long gap between postings, due to being entirely swamped with work. At the beginning of February I took time off to do some lecturing on Roman glass to students from the University of London – a chance to talk about the history of glass working and to show pictures of some very fine vessels. They also had a chance to handle some of the more mundane fragments.
Since then John and I have settled down in earnest to the problem of recording the moils (those little cylinders of glass left on the blowing iron when a vessel was removed). Considering that every one of these little cylinders of glass represents a blown vessel, it is important to work out how many complete moils there may have been. The differences in size and shape might also indicate different techniques, perhaps the idiosyncrasies of individual glass blowers. For example, some moils are very long and slender, while others, cut off very close to the blowing iron, are extremely short. Now this might be because they are from different types of vessel, but it might also be the way in which particular craftsman worked.
On our best examples it is possible to see a mark left by the edge of the blowing iron, which gives us its diameter and we have decided to divide the moils into groups based on the probable diameter of the iron. We have then subdivided these groups according to particular features of the moil – length, thickness, shape (cylindrical or tapering) and so on. All these basic measurements are being recorded on a database, together with the weight of the fragment. We are also recording how much of a complete moil each fragment represents, using an adaptation of a method originally devised for pottery studies (a complete moil is 100%).
All these measurements take some time, but we have to ensure that we are recording as much as possible, as we will not get another chance! Of course many of the fragments, although identifiable as moils, are so incomplete that we cannot take any measurements, but I reckon, that we still have several thousand moils to classify and record individually. I have probably done about 750 so far ……
If anyone (is there anyone out there?) has any burning questions about the project – or anything else about Roman glass, do post a comment, and I shall do my best to answer it – in between moils of course!
February 15th, 2008 at 3:17 pm
Hello!
Can you tell me…
How does glass survive in the ground for so long without breaking?
How did they make the glass back then?
What sort of things did the romans use glass containers for? Wine?
Did the Romans use lots of glass?
Thanks!
March 3rd, 2008 at 11:13 am
There’s also a comment on Flickr from someone asking how old the glass is: http://www.flickr.com/photos/museumoflondon/1889728313/
March 4th, 2008 at 9:28 am
The glass was made around AD 150, so it is nearly 1900 years old.
May 30th, 2008 at 1:40 pm
I’m glad I found your site. Did the Romans use glass goblets to drink from? Would really appreciate an answer to this as I don’t seem to be able to find out. Look forward to hearing from you.
May 30th, 2008 at 1:56 pm
Hi Teresa,
Yes the Romans had some very fine drinking glasses. In the middle of the first century, when the Romans came to Britain, glass was often very brightly coloured but during the next 50 years colourless glass became fashionable. These cups and beakers were often highly decorated, with wheel-cut and facet-cut decoration. Glass was mass-produced over the next 300 years and the repertoire always included drinking cups, although they were probably always more expensive than pottery.