Sasanian glass
[4] The Sasanian Empire spanned a vast area from the Fertile Crescent to the Central Asian steppe, but with periods of expansion and contraction, reaching Damascus, Jerusalem, Egypt, Yemen or Pakistan.
[14][2] Although they began from plain and mould-blown vessels close to the Parthian taste,[15] they soon generated their own genuine style especially recognizable in the ’typical hemispherical bowls with round or hexagonal deep incised facets’,[16] and widely expanded it throughout all the Sasanian territory and even beyond their borders.
Recent studies have demonstrated that there are clear differences between the composition of Roman, Sasanian and Syro-Palestinian - contemporary to the latest- productions.
[21][22] Sasanian glass is a silica-soda-lime composition with high levels of K and Mg: this means the use of plant ash as a source of soda.
Recently, compositional analysis indicates that purer silica sources exhibiting lower variation were used in later periods, potentially suggesting standardisation of practice associated with a centralised glass-making industry.
The most frequent technique among the Sasanians was to blow the object giving it a basic shape and then finishing it with the help of paddles, pincers and shears.
These methods produced slightly asymmetrical objects but have the advantage of permitting a huge versatility in shapes and obtaining articles practically finished since shapes (and patterns) are given with any of the techniques and by means of non-complicated solutions, pinching, cutting, polishing, and applying, the final object is obtained.
[29][2][7] These techniques agreed with the Sasanian taste for plainly decorated vessels; thus they do not use the cameo or the scratching solutions that were extremely popular during Islamic times.
Instead they prefer to work the glass cold, polishing and panel-and-face-cutting, creating ‘a contrast of highlights and shadows, while at the same time providing a better grip’.
[30] ‘Best known Sasanian glasses are those decorated with overall patterns of ground, cut and polished hollow facets’,[31] but this appears around the 5th century AD.
Before it, the ‘commonest type, spread in all the proto and middle Sasanian levels’ is a bowl or tumbler with ‘straight or slightly rounded walls’.
[32] The repertory of forms and functions is, nonetheless, markedly wider: lamps, jars, flasks, tumblers, decanting siphons, dishes, bottles, scrolls or pen cases, jugs, beakers, cups, goblets, sprinklers, balsamaria, chalices, spoons, etc., in all kind of sizes and shapes; round, square, cylindrical, tubular, tronco-conic, etc.
But again according to their taste, thus trails or pads tend to be delicate,[33] thin and small, (though during the early Sasanian era are usually thick) setting off the reflective and sparkling surfaces obtained by polishing or cutting, or adding spiral or vertical ribs.
Glass also reflects this situation: for example during the contraction of the production during the Byzantine period (400-616 AD) ‘luxury wares were little in demand, with the exception of chip-cut vessels of the Sasanian type’.
In fact excavated settlements with Sasanian glass are rather scarce: Seleucia, Tell Baruda, Ctesiphon, Veh Ardashir, Choche, Nippur, Samarra and a few more.
[7] A high number of the pieces have been found in funerary contexts, Tell Mahuz, Ghalekuti, Hassani Mahale, Abu Skhair, etc.
A small paradox is that, although the Iranian Plateau is the core of the territory controlled by Sasanians, the archaeological record of glass production is rather meagre there, with the best examples of workshops concentrated on the borders of the empire, namely Northern Iraq.
