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The glass origin and evolution. Glass has been the subject of numerous documents written by many authors from ancient times. The written work of the Roman historian Gaius Plinius Secundus, called Pliny the Elder (23 – 79 AD), in his book, “Natural History”, is an example. He describes that around 5000 BC, Syrian merchants, probably on their route to Egypt, made an overnight stop by the River Belus in Phoenicia, propped a cooking pot on some blocks of natron they were carrying as cargo, and made a fire over which to cook a meal. Overnight the sand and the soda were fused by the heat to produce a very brilliant and vitreous product, similar to an artificial rock. This was, in synthesis, the origin or glass. Strabo (58 BC – 25 AC), furthermore, on his book “Geography”, describes with great wonder, a glass sarcophagus. He assures that the appropriate sand for the production of glass was extracted from a place located between Tolemaida and Tyro. Herodotus (484 – 410 BC), a Greek writer from the 5th century BC, wrote the first historical work in the conventional sense of the term history. He is therefore known as the father of history. He wrote about the way the Ethiopians embalmed the deceased and laid them in glass sarcophagus. Eliano, Greek writer from the 3rd century, describes the way that Xerxes, Darius’ son, discovered the body of a Syrian leader in a glass coffin. Solomon, in his “Book of Proverbs” damns those who looked at wine through a crystal glass. Likewise, glass is mentioned in the Old Testament in Job’s Story: “The gold and the crystal cannot equal it and the exchange of it shall not be for jewels or fine gold. No mention shall be made of coral, or of pearls for the price of wisdom is above rubies.” All these occurrences happened way before the time when glass started to be produced. Many of them come to us as verbal stories transmitted from one generation to the next before they were written. Later, all these versions were written by the conquerors, fact that grants, to a certain extent, a doubt to its veracity. Equally questionable is the XIX century historic research about the ancient world, because in the approach about the origins of the occidental culture, a certain degree of romanticism rather than scientific bases prevails. When an investigation related to ancient civilizations begins, problems arouse because the sources of historic information differ extremely on the quality of the information and facts they provide. However, today we rely on better information, sustained on the result of the information obtained by the use of radiocarbon, dendrochronology, archeaomagnetism, databases, documented investigation and field research done by archaeologists. “Natural History” by Pliny the Elder, written on the first century AC is the most outstanding among the historic descriptions before mentioned. Therein we find an excellent description of the geographical site where glass was discovered and its accidental occurrence. Nevertheless, the details described by Pliny are not very much reliable, because in order to obtain the fusing point of natron resulting in the formation of glass, it would have been necessary to achieve a temperature of 1300° or 1500°C (2370° F.), whereas a campfire can reach no more than 600° C (1100° F.). Physical concerns arouse doubts, but there are certainly many facts and indisputable information about the Phoenicians. On one hand, they were the tradesmen for excellency of their era, who, in lack of natural resources on their land, found trade as their only way to survive. They even requested permission from the Egyptians to freely buy and sell on their coastlines, and later, carried the products of the Egyptian Kingdom to all other seaports of the Mediterranean. They traded a large quantity of different products, natron among them. The Phoenicians did not only exchange merchandise on their trips, they also spread science, knowledge and culture throughout the world till then known. This product was extremely valued since it was used to clean their teeth and body. Furthermore, when it was dissolved in water it worked as an agent to dissolve grease, thus, it was used as soap for dishes. The Egyptians constantly used it in the mummification process. The Phoenicians commercialized, besides natron, objects of faience and glass, products probably produced in Egypt. Craftsmen form the Kingdom were well known throughout the Mediterranean, because they elaborated almost perfect imitations of precious and semi precious gems using those materials |
