INGOT-EL: what can Iron Age beads from Etruria and Latium tell about glass production and circulation?

this poster is a presentation of the project that is entitled INvestigation of Glass Origin and Technology in the Etruscan Lands. Its primary objective is shading light onto the circulation of glass as a material in the lands under the Etruscan influence, nowadays Central Italy along the Tyrrhenian coast. The methodology is constructed in a way that allows for broad documentation (stage 1) and chemical screening of wast array of glass objects (mostly glass beads) with non-invasive methods, such as portable FORS and XRF (stage 2). When these steps are done, selected samples undergo in-depth laboratory analyses with SEM-EDS, μ-Raman, μ-XRD and LA-ICP-MS. Complementing techniques provide more robust ground for conclusions. This work would not be possible without a coordinated effort of several Italian research centers. In this way we are able to gather compositional information on the level of micro- and nano-structure of the material as well as on the level of trace elements that are one of the few proxies for the provenance determination. The main body of this work is 288 glass objects originating from 14 archaeological localities and representing collections of thousands of pieces from 2 museums in Rome (the National Etruscan Museum of Villa Giulia and the Museo delle Civiltà). They belong to one of the most interesting periods of glass making history - 10th-5th centuries BCE. We discuss questions of glass technology including but not limited to the selection of raw materials, furnace conditions, color manipulation, forming techniques and, subsequently, raw glass provenance.