Abstract
In the 1st century BC, glass production comes to the new technological level culminating with the introduction of glass blowing. Glassblowing allowed glass workers to produce vessels with considerably thinner walls, decreasing the amount of glass needed for each vessel. A new method made the process much quicker than other techniques, and vessels required less finishing, time, raw material and equipment. As a result of these factors, the cost of production was reduced, and glass became available for a wider part of society in a growing variety of forms in the Roman Period. This paper is devoted to the glass vessels with marks on the bottoms from the Northern and Northwest Black Sea region. These vessels were found in Bosporan cities (Pantikapaion, Tanais, Gorgippia), Chersonesus, Olbia, Tiras, etc. They include square and cylindrical jugs, bottles and a balsamarium. The marks on the bottoms of square jugs and bottles generally consist of various types of concentric circles and circles in relief. Three jugs have a recessed fl oral motif on the bottom. Few bottles have a Latin and Greek symbols or inscriptions that we assume to be abbreviations for personal names, places and some offi cial titles. These mars clearly identify the owner of the glass workshop. Some bottles of this kind were produced in the Eastern Mediterranean, as there were Greek (rather than Latin) letters in the marking on their bottom. Other vessels, whether they were square or cylindrical shaped, were most likely a prerogative of the glassworking industry in the Western Empire.
Keywords
Northern Black Sea Region, Northwest Black Sea Region, ancient glass, vessels, marks
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