Tracing Medieval Glass Economies

The late 1st millennium CE marks a major transformation in the Mediterranean glass economy with distinctive glassmaking technologies emerging in Christian Europe (recycling natron glass) and the Islamic Mediterranean (plant ash glass) however the interaction between these technologies remains disputed. 

Southern Italy, where Christian and Islamic regimes coexisted and intersected, sits at the crossroads of these technologies, offering the ideal locale to explore when, how and why glassmaking technologies evolved.

This project aims to understand medieval southern Italy’s glass economies (8th-13th century), using new evidence from eastern Sicily, Campania, and Lazio. By employing high-resolution chemical analyses (LA-ICP-MS), this project will identify markers of local production and trace the sources and technological practices behind glassmaking in
these regions. 

Through the integration of typological, chemical, and spatial data, glass consumption patterns, demand, and manufacturing practices across various political regimes will be examined.

The results will provide the first comprehensive framework for understanding the interface between different glassmaking worlds in medieval Italy, offering new perspectives on trade and technology transfer between Byzantine, Lombard and Islamic regions, as well as their connections with broader Mediterranean and European economies.

Related outputs

• F. Colangeli, V. Sacco (2023) Le forme del vetro: tecnologie a confronto. Produzioni vitree e invetriate in Sicilia, Italia peninsulare, Ifrīqiya e al-Andalus tra IX e XI secolo, «Mélange de l’École Française de Rome – Moyen Age135/2», https://journals.openedition.org/mefrm/12343?lang=it
• Colangeli F., Sacco V. (2023), La produzione di vetro e ceramica con rivestimento vetroso nel Mediterraneo centro occidentale tra IX e XI secolo: status quaestionis e prospettive future, in F. Colangeli, V. Sacco (eds.) Le forme del vetro: tecnologie a confronto. Produzioni vitree e invetriate in Sicilia, Italia peninsulare, Ifrīqiya e al- Andalus tra IX e XI secolo, «MEFRM 135/2», Roma, pp. 237-244.
• Colangeli F., Schibille N. (2023), Glass from Islamic Sicily: typology and composition from an urban and a rural site, in F. Colangeli, V. Sacco (eds.) Le forme del vetro: tecnologie a confronto. Produzioni vitree e invetriate in Sicilia, Italia peninsulare, Ifrīqiya e al-Andalus tra IX e XI secolo. «MEFRM, 135/2», Roma, pp. 321-331.
• Colangeli F., Schibille N., (2024), Transition effects in glass production and trade: analytical investigations, in M. Carver, A. Molinari, P. Orecchioni (eds.) Castronovo di Sicilia Archaeological Investigations and research 2014-2021, All’Insegna del Giglio, Sesto Fiorentino.
• Schibille N., Colangeli F. (2021), Transformations of the Mediterranean glass supply in medieval Mazara del Vallo (Sicily), in A. Molinari, A. Meo (a cura di), Mazara/Mazar: nel ventre della città medievale (secoli VII-XIV). Edizione degli scavi (1997) in Via tenente Gaspare Romano, All’Insegna del Giglio, Sesto Fiorentino, pp. 491-505.

Funding

• This research is funded by a British Academy International Fellowship to Francesca Colangeli (2026-28).