Glass Workshop and Glass Finds from Komarov: Imported Goods, Raw Materials or Local Production?

Technological evidence for glass working and chemical composition of glass from the Komarov settlement of the Chernyakhov culture (Middle Dniester, Western Ukraine) have been examined in order to revise possible production of a glass workshop, the only one discovered beyond the territory of the Roman Empire. It made possible to identify new kinds of local production, unknown by now. Some free-blown vessels among them are not typical for the local material culture. Possibly, their production was intended for newcomers form the Roman provinces living at the settlement. The moil types found here imply different traditions of manufacturing blown vessels - using a pontil and without it. The most possible type of vessels, made in the latter technique, seem to be conical beakers. One of the finds might be a discarded fragment of a thick-walled (mold-pressed?) vessel, possibly of the Kowalk type. Different percentages of raw glass and moils of different hues of glass suggest that not only blown vessels were made of olive-tinted glass. The composition of the glass indicates a wide application of cullet in the manufacturing process. Comparison of the composition of raw glass and vessels of different categories suggests that a significant part of the workshop's products remains disregarded. At the same time, a high proportion of vessel fragments from the settlement might represent more likely glass cullet, rather than local production.