Glass is one of the oldest man-made materials, with roots reaching back more than five thousand years to the Near East. Its development spanned centuries, from small decorative objects to clear windows.
Application
The earliest worked glass finds come from Mesopotamia and Egypt, roughly between 3500 and 1500 BC. At first, glass was used mainly for beads, amulets and small utilitarian items. The material was precious and shaped by hand, for example by coating a core with molten glass.
A turning point came in the first century BC with the invention of the glassblowing pipe, probably in the Syrian-Roman region. With this hollow pipe, a lump of molten glass could be inflated into thin, hollow forms. This made glass faster, cheaper and possible to produce in larger quantities. Under the Roman Empire, the glassblowing technique spread across large parts of Europe and the Mediterranean, and bottles, cups and even simple window panes were made.
In the Middle Ages, glass gained a prominent place in architecture. Churches and cathedrals were fitted with large leaded glass windows, in which coloured and stained glass pieces were joined with lead strips to form narrative scenes. These windows combined a religious and decorative function with letting in light.
Related terms
- glass
- building glass
- leaded glass
- stained glass
- lime
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