Natural glass has existed since the beginning of time, formed when certain types of rocks melt as a result of volcanic eruptions, lightning strikes, or the impact of meteorites, and subsequently cool and solidify. Early man is believed to have used cutting tools made of obsidian (a natural glass) to make various
primitive tools and weapons. According to the Roman historian Pliny the Elder (23–79 CE), Phoenician merchants were thought to have discovered glass on the Levantine Coast.

Little is known about man’s first efforts to make glass, although it is widely believed that glassmaking was discovered in Mesopotamia. By the third millennium BCE, the basic raw materials of glass were being used to produce glazes on ceramic pots and vessels, and by 2,500 BCE, solid glass beads and amulets were being made. The oldest fragments of hollow glass vessels, however, appeared in the 16th and 15th centuries BCE in Egypt and Mesopotamia. At the beginning of the 18th Dynasty (c. 1539–1292 BCE), Egyptian glassmakers are thought to have developed a method for producing hollow glass vessels by making a core mold of compacted clay and dung and winding molten glass around it. While still soft, the glass-covered mold could be rolled on a slab of stone in order to smooth and decorate it. Next, the glassmaker would trail glass threads of brilliant color over its surface, and when the vessel was finished, he would remove the core with a pointed instrument. At roughly the same time, an independent glass industry developed in Mesopotamia, where core-formed vessels similar to those made in Egypt were being produced. There is little evidence of further evolution until the 9th century BCE, when glassmaking revived in Egypt and the Near East. Over the next millennium, glass production centered in Alexandria in Egypt and near Sidon on the Levantine Coast, from where it is thought to have eventually spread to Italy. During this period of experimentation and innovation, glassmakers perfected and/or explored a number of different techniques, including core forming, rod forming, and mold casting. Clay tablets unearthed from the extensive library of the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal (685–627 BCE) include the first written instructions on how to make glass and how to construct a glass furnace.

A major breakthrough in glassmaking occurred with the invention of the blowpipe. Attributed to Syrian glass makers in the 1st century BCE, the blowpipe allowed the glassmaker to inflate molten glass with his breath and create a host of new shapes and forms. By order of the Emperor Augustus (63 BCE–14 CE), who wanted
to concentrate the production of various crafts on the Italian mainland, glassmakers from Syria and Egypt were imported as slaves, and by the 1st century CE, the glassmaker’s craft had been transformed into an industry. It was about this time that glassmakers began blowing glass inside molds, greatly increasing the variety of shapes possible for hollow cast items. The Romans did much to spread glassmaking technology. With their conquests, elaborate network of roads, trade relations, and strong political and economic infrastructure, the Romans created the conditions for the flourishing of glassmaking across Western Europe and the Mediterranean. During the reign of Augustus, for example, glass vessels began to appear throughout Italy, Gaul, Germany, and Spain. Roman glass has even been found as far afield as China, shipped along the silk routes. The popularity of Roman glass rested not only on its usefulness and reasonable price but also on
its transparency and the beauty of its forms and colors. During the 1st through the 3rd centuries CE, the major centers of glass production centered in Egypt, Syria, Palestine, and in the Rhine Valley in Germany. A host of different shapes emerged, including cosmetic and perfume containers, drinking and eating vessels, flasks, and other shapes and forms meant to imitate ceramics and metal. By the 5th century CE, however, the use of glass declined and many previously known techniques disappeared. It was not until the 7th century CE that glassmaking reemerged as a prominent art form in Europe and the Middle East, where it has continued to be a viable and functional art form to this day.

John Olbrantz is the Maribeth Collins Director of the Hallie Ford Museum of Art at Willamette University in Salem, Oregon.