GLASS IN THE MEDITERRANEAN AND THE NEAR EAST
Archaeology and Archaeometry from the Late Bronze Age to the early Medieval period
This five-day course provides an introduction to archaeological glass, its typology, technology, composition and chronological development. It will be of interest to students, early career researchers and others who wish to engage with current research on ancient glass. It comprises daily lectures (20 hours), glass handling sessions, workshops/demonstrations on chemical analysis and scanning electron microscopy of glass, as well as a museum visit (10 hours).
The course co-coordinators and instructors are Dr. Yael Gorin-Rosen (Israel Antiquities Authority, Jerusalem) & Prof. Ian Freestone and with contribution by Dr. Carlotta Gardner (Fitch Laboratory, British School at Athens).
Course Fee: The course fee includes tuition, teaching materials, coffee/tea and snacks, and a farewell meal, plus BSA membership for a month with 24-hour access to the superb library and entry to archaeological sites and public museums in Greece. It also covers self-catering, shared accommodation in double rooms (including breakfast) for six nights at the BSA Hostel. The fee is 580€. Please check the BSA’s website for further information (https://www.bsa.ac.uk/member-services/accommodation/). Travel to and from Athens and health insurance are the sole responsibility of the course participant.
The course is limited to 12 places. The successful candidates will be informed by late March 2023. Post-graduate students are recommended to apply to their universities for financial support.
When applications for the course are open, it will be advertised on this website, in addition to other venues, with details of how to apply. For further information, contact either of the two course coordinators, Prof. Ian Freestone (i.freestone@ucl.ac.uk) or Dr. Yael Gorin-Rosen (yael.gorin.rosen@gmail.com).
Biographies
The course tutors have collaborated on glass projects for two decades. Their early papers on the archaeology and archaeometry of Levantine glass production are widely cited and articulated a production model which has now become widely accepted.
Yael Gorin-Rosen is a leading specialist in ancient glass. She established the Glass Department of the Israel Antiquities Authority in 1991 and has headed it since then. From 1996 to 2002, she taught ancient glass at the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Jerusalem, where in 2017-2019 she is an invited lecturer. She taught at the University of Haifa during 2017. Yael Gorin-Rosen has participated in and supervised several excavations, including the biggest ancient glass production site ever excavated in the world: the raw glass industry at Bet Eli‘ezer, Hadera (1992) and more recently the raw glass furnaces at Jalame (2015−2016). She has published more than 150 reports on glass vessels from excavations in Israel, dating from the Hellenistic period to the Middle Ages.
Ian Freestone joined the Institute of Archaeology London as Professor of Archaeological Materials and Technology in 2011. From 1979 he worked in the British Museum as a research scientist, then moved to Cardiff University in 2004, where he was first Professorial Research Fellow then Head of Archaeology. He has published extensively on early glass and ceramics and is a recipient of the Archaeological Institute of America’s Pomerance Medal for scientific contributions to archaeology. He is a member of the editorial boards of Archaeometry, the Journal of Archaeological Science and Journal of Glass Studies.
