That moment I found out 90% of Roman glass is actually green, not clear

I was reading through this old museum report last week from a dig site in London, and it completely threw me. For years I thought the Roman glass I saw in exhibits was just discolored from age, like your grandma's old Tupperware. Turns out, most of it was naturally colored green or blue-green because of iron impurities in the sand they used. The clear glass we think of as standard? That required much purer silica and special additives they only used for luxury pieces. I never realized how much modern glassmaking has colored my expectations. I mean, I've handled probably 50 shards at local archaeology club meetings and never once questioned why they all looked the same shade. Has anyone else stumbled onto a fact like this that made you rethink everything you saw in a museum?

3 comments

3 Comments

nina_campbell24d ago

You see this kind of thing all the time once you start looking. Everyone assumes the way things look now is the way they always were, whether it's glass or food or even furniture. My grandmother had a green glass bowl she swore was from the 1800s, and I just figured it was old and stained. Turns out she was probably right about it being old, just not for the reason I thought. It's a good reminder that our modern standards for what's "pure" or "normal" are pretty recent inventions.

the_nathan24d ago

Nina, you say it's a "good reminder" but honestly I think you're reading too much into it. People back then knew their glass was green because of impurities, they just didn't care. They weren't trying to be some kind of pure standard, they used what they had. Same with food and furniture. Yeah, things change, but it's not like everyone was obsessed with authenticity like we are now. Your grandmother's bowl was just a bowl, not a lesson in modern hypocrisy.

ericj4524d ago

Wait, do you really think the average Roman didn't notice their cup was green? They probably just didn't have the money or access to the expensive clear stuff, not that they were blissfully unaware or okay with it.