"Origination of glass in ancient Egypt" Abstract

17 July 2011

Glass is a solid transparent material that has been used for centuries in making windows, and drinking vessels. The term glass is usually defined, in a much wider sense, as every solid that possesses a non-crystalline structure and that exhibits a glass transition when heated towards the liquid state.
 The history of glass making can be traced back to 3500 BCE in Mesopotamia, in Northern coast of Syria, and the Old Kingdom of Egypt, and it was developed in the late Roman Empire. Because of Egypt's favorable environment  for preservation, the majority of well-studied early glass is found there. The earliest known glass objects, of the mid third millennium BCE, were beads, perhaps initially created accidentally during the production of faïence. By the 15th century BCE, extensive glass production took place in Western Asia, Crete, Egypt and Greek. Glass remained a luxury product, and in the 9th century BCE, colorless glass was discovered.
During the Hellenistic period  in the 9th century BCE, glass was used to make larger pieces. And during this period Egyptian glass became very famous, and was imported by Rome as a luxury product.