New evidence of the production of raw glass at late Byzantine Apollonia-Arsuf, Israel

This article presents the discovery of a primary glass furnace at Apollonia-Arsuf, Israel, an addition to the two glass furnaces discovered in the 1950 excavations at the site. The new furnace consists of a melting chamber (tank) and two firing chambers, in an east-west axis. The raw glass produced at the site was blue, greenish blue, yellowish green, and yellowish brown glass of fair quality. Chemical analysis showed that it is soda-lime-silica glass typical of late Roman/Byzantine and early Islamic raw glass. According to the excavations, the furnace is probably of late Byzantine date, but a later dating in the early Islamic period is also plausible. The new evidence from Apolionia-Arsuf strengthens the assumption that this was a major center for primary and probably secondary glass production. The importance of Apollonia-Arsuf as a pre-Islamic urban center, as documented in Byzantine sources, could hint at the role of the church in the production and circulation of raw glass produced at the site.