Study of mosaic glasses from the Alpha Basilica (sixth century) of Nikopolis in Epirus, Greece

Abstract

After collecting the essential historical, archaeological, and artistic information relative to the ancient town of Nikopolis in Epirus and its Alpha (or Doumetios) Basilica, built in the sixth century A.D., glass tesserae belonging to degraded and lost parts of the mosaic floors of the basilica were analysed, determining their chemical composition and the possible presence of crystalline phases. As in all glasses produced in the Mediterranean area in that epoch, they are soda-lime silicate glasses, in part with lead, obtained using natron as a flux. The typology of the glass corresponds to that of Roman glasses, of the first centuries A.D., and is the same as that employed for the basilicas of Ravenna in the fifth and sixth centuries; in particular, a comparison was made with the glass tesserae of the St Vitale Basilica. The technological base for producing coloured glasses is also practically the same as that of the mosaic glasses of Ravenna. In particular, antimony was used as an opacifying element and a fusion was carried out under reducing conditions to obtain red glass with microparticles of metallic copper. Thus, it can be supposed there was a common source of production of the mosaic glasses used in Nikopolis and Ravenna in the sixth century and that this source was in the Near Orient.

Keywords

• Nicopoli di Epiro, vetro antico, vetro musivo, basilica bizantina, Ravenna