Ancient Alexandria Glass Making. In this process a shaped core was made perhaps of mud to which sections of coloured glass canes were attached. Alexandria may have been a center of glass-making in the Hellenistic period but very few of its luxury products have been found.
Now by studying trace quantities of the element hafnium within the glass researchers have shown. Ancient glass in the Museum is essentially and specifically Romanglass. The core and canes were placed into an outer mold to keep the shape while the glass fused in an oven.
Although Syria-Palestine remains the cradle of modern glass-making and Alexandria continued to produce fine luxury ware Naples Rome and northern Italy southeastern France Cologne and other cities along the Rhine could also claim an efficient industry established mainly by Jewish glassmakers emigrated from Palestine in the 1st century.
That is to say it is glass produced within the Greater Mediterranean sphere from the first century BC. In Alexandria about 100 bc the millefiori thousand flowers process for making open beakers and shallow dishes was developed. The history of glass making Stone-age man has used naturally occurring glass obsidian the black volcanic glass and tektites to craft weapons and decorative objects. How Glass Was Made.
