CONTEXTUALISING ROMAN-RELATED GLASS ARTEFACTS IN CHINA. AN INTEGRATED APPROACH TO SINO-ROMAN RELATIONS
CONTEXTUALISING ROMAN-RELATED GLASS ARTEFACTS IN CHINA. AN INTEGRATED APPROACH TO SINO-ROMAN RELATIONS

Summary/Abstract: Relations between the Roman and the early Chinese Empires have been considerably popular fields of research, however, principally from a trade-oriented point of view. Contextualising Roman-related glass finds unearthed in the People’s Republic of China provides a more complex nexus. Transparent glass vessels carry multiple testimonia of cultural impacts and interactions, leading towards a stereotyped and utopian perception of the Imperium Romanum. This paper focuses on the complexity of such inter-imperial connections through contextualising the most significant Roman-interpreted glass finds in China. Furthermore, by a detailed and critical examination of Roman-related transparent glass vessels, it also aims to highlight problems of earlier identifications and interpretations. In addition, a precise recollection of the existing data not only allows to catalogue these various glass objects, but also helps to insert these glass artefacts into the Roman glass typology system.

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