Roman glass vessels at Şimleu Silvaniei – Cetate
Autor: Horea Pop
These pieces were discovered on the site which lies at Şimleu Silvaniei point called Cetate.
The catalogue of the discoveries:
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Bowl-cup margin with vertical stripes. The decoration is made out of stiff large and narrow stripes limited in their superior part by an undecorated belt. Yellow colored. Mold blown. Dating in the second half of 1st century AD. Siro-Palestinian production.
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Bowl-cup fragment with oblique “ribs”. Purple colored with white inlays. Mold blown. Dating in the 1st century AD. Northern Italic product (Aquilea). The fragment found during a field research in the fortification sector of the site can be dated to the second half of 1st century AD.
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Unidentified shape pot fragment. Purple colored, with stiff white horizontal lines. It seems to be an albastron fragment. It is blown with few, small air bubbles. Dating can be made to the end of 1st century BC – middle of 1st century AD. The fragment found during a field research in the fortification sector of the site can be dated to the second half of 1st century AD.
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Not decorated glass edge. Blue colored with few air bubbles. Blown glass. The fragment was discovered on the T2 terrace, in the last phase of the metallurgical workshop.
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Melt fragment of a glass pot, purple to blue colored, found on terrace T2 in the second layer of the burned workshop.
The idea of glass production here can not be sustained as in the case of the capital of Roman Dacia, because of the few arguments.
The perfect analogies for pieces 1, 2 and 4, even if they are distant, makes us accept the idea that these products come in these places by commercial exchanges during 1st century AD, probably through the roman became Pannonia, where from the majority of roman imports are coming for the north-western part of free Dacia.
Although few (5 fragments) the glass pot fragments discovered at Şimleu Silvaniei-Cetate, they can be placed among the western part roman imports, proving with other Roman Period pieces (pottery, tools, weapons, coins, and vestimentary decorations) the orientation of north/western part commerce exchanges towards Central Europe, than western, celtic and roman worlds.