Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean (15.2003(2004))

MAREA

EGYPT

THE GLASS FINDS FROM THE BASILICA
IN MAREA, 2003

Renata Kucharczyk

The fragmentary glass vessels from the
basilica represented types widely used in
the Byzantine period. Most of the standard
forms characteristic of this period, in-
cluding lamps, wineglasses and toilet bot-
tles, were represented in the assemblage.
All the glass sherds belonged to free-blown
vessels except for one mould-blown
fragment. Some were finished with the use
of a pontil. The majority of the glass was
pale blue-green. Like most of the vessels
GLASS
Lamps were destined to become one of the
most important products of the Byzantine
glass industry. In our case, the shards
belonged to a type used in bronze
polycandela for which there is other evidence
in the form of chains for their suspension.
The assemblage from the Marea site has
produced fourteen stems and some rims so
far. While no complete examples have been
recorded, a hypothetical reconstruction of
the form is possible.
This type of lamp usually features
a small cup with thin, straight or slightly
curved walls, rounded rim and smooth,
solid stem (one example had a dark-blue
thread along the rim). In Crowfoot's and
Harden's typology, it corresponds to type

made of this kind of fabric, also the shards
from our assemblage, have black and flaky
weathering and some iridescence. To judge
by the evidence from previous seasons, the
glass should be considered as being of local
production.^
Although the fragments recovered this
season do not provide any new chrono-
logical data, they are undoubtedly useful for
further studies of distribution of these types
of vessels.
LAMPS
B.l,1 2) which, however, does not include the
particular stem shape recorded from Marea.
This stem is of bulbous shape with a small
hole or short vertical groove on one side, the
other side always being flat {Fig. 1:1-4).
The lamps from the Basilica, which
display some variation of typological detail,
seem to have been fairly common in the
Alexandrian region. Fragments were re-
corded last year at the Byzantine bath
excavated at Marea and it is the author’s
experience that they are amply represented
in the assemblage from the Kom el-Dikka
site. Elsewhere the shape of the stem is not
common. There are numerous references to
solid-stem lamps but few actual parallels for
this exceptional shape. A stem similar to

1) R. Kucharczyk, “Marea 2001: windowpanes and other glass finds”, PAM XIII, Reports 2001 (2002), 65-71.
2) G.M. Crowfoot and D.B. Harden, “Early Byzantine and later glass lamps”, JEA 17 (1931), pi. XXIX.

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