Glass working on the margins of Roman London: Excavations at 35 Basinghall Street, City of London 2005

Abstract

• New insights into the workings of Londinium’s glass industry and its craftsmen in the later 2nd century AD come from the analysis of over 70kg of broken vessel glass and production waste from a pit in a marginal area in the north-west of the Roman city, in the upper Walbrook valley. Two probably associated mid 2nd-century buildings were found but not the workshop itself. The glass used originated in the eastern Mediterranean, some arriving as raw glass but supplemented by locally-collected cullet. The waste material found provided evidence for the whole process from the preparation of raw materials to blowing and finishing of vessels.