Isotopic composition of Sasanian glass found at Veh Ardašīr

Archaeological diggings carried out by an Italian archaeological team excavated a large number of glass fragments from Veh Ardašīr, the rich commercial center of the Sasanian kings. The shards, according to the stratigraphic date, cover the entire time span of the Sasanian domination in the area (i.e. late 3rd to 7th century a.D.) and were previously subjected to elemental analysis via induced coupled plasma mass spectrometry. These analyses revealed the presence of two main glass compositions, both HMG, which differentiate mainly because of different magnesium and phosphorus contents. One of these groups, moreover, could be further subdivided into two clusters on the base of trace elements levels and correlations among them. The picture that emerged from elemental analyses has been discussed in [1] and [2]. Besides the information that can be gained by determining the elemental composition of archaeological glass, the isotopic composition may give additional information on the source of the raw materials. A selected set of the previously analyzed shards was therefore subjected to the determination of isotopic composition of strontium and neodymium, with the aim of obtaining further information on the evolution of glass technology during the Sasanian period. This further scientific investigation on the shards exploits the large scientific work done in the last years in the field of “isotope archaeology” applied on glass [3] and contributes to extend the existing data sets with samples with a known archaeological link. In particular the isotopic approach is used here to attempt disclosing the provenance of the different plant ashes used as a flux and to go deeper in to the question of the different raw materials employed as network formers. The preliminary results obtained from the isotopic approach are presented.