Did the Phrygians Make Glass?

Janet D. Jones (Bucknell University)

The ancient Phrygians were innovative builders, producers of furniture and mosaics, and metallurgists. Several categories of glass finds from Gordion suggest that ancient Phrygia in central Anatolia may also have been an innovative site of glass production from as early as the late 8^th century BCE into the Hellenistic period. These objects, vessels, or groups of vessels are either unparalleled or unusually concentrated at Gordion. The first group comprises approximately 20 colorless beads and counters from the late 9^th century BCE destruction level at Gordion and from 8^th and 7^th century levels of the site.  The second group consists of two high-quality molded colorless petal bowls from the first half of the 8^th century BCE, one with the distinctive Phrygian petal motif known from numerous mid-8^th century BCE bronze bowls of Phrygian manufacture. Taken together, these two groups suggest that the Phrygians may have been making objects and vessels in colorless glass as early as the late 9^th century and have applied their considerable expertise in bronze casting to the casting of glass objects and vessels during the Anatolian Iron Age. A concentration of fragments (17) of molded colorless vessels in the Achaemenid style from the second half of the 4^th century into the 3^rd century BCE suggests that the production of molded colorless vessels was revived in this region under Persian influence. Concentrations of specific categories of core-formed vessels at Gordion suggest that Phrygia may also have been located near a center of core-formed vessel production during the late Classical and Hellenistic periods.