Abraded and engraved Late Roman glasses with human representations

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Glass vessels bearing abraded or engraved decoration represent quite a significant part of Late Antiquity material culture (in this case: late 3rd to 5th cent.). Among them there is an exquisite allotment with human representations of mundane, mythological or Christian nature, manufactured chiefly in Italy and in the Rhineland. Even today, researchers speculate about their possible roles in everyday life as well as liturgical and sepulchral contexts. Only some 150 pieces are at hand - some of them being completely preserved, others as fragments - scattered over European and American museums and collections. Never were they compiled to be studied as a category of its own due to the enormous technical difficulties encountered when attempting to document and to reproduce those engravings in the highly delicate glasses. These obstacles have finally become superable - due to modern optical (e.g. digital microscopy) and material scientific technologies (e.g. portable X-ray fluorescence analysis). Thus, our archaeological and cultural research is going to employ present-day analytical equipment in order to extract as much raw information from the objects as is currently feasible. The entire inventory of Late Roman engraved glass with human representations will be addressed in order to arrive at substantiated conclusions regarding workshop groups, artistic practice (style, iconography), inscriptions, meaning and functions of the glasses.