A publication of the Archaeological Institute of America The
peoples of the Roman Empire used more glass than any other
ancient civilization. Thanks to the discovery of glassblowing in
the Syro-Palestinian region during the first century B.C., glass
vessels became commonplace throughout the empire by the first
century A.D. and from time to time were exported to places as
far afield as Scandinavia and the Far East. An exhibition at the
University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and
Anthropology in Philadelphia presents more than 200 glass
vessels from the museum's collection that were made between the
first century B.C. and the seventh century A.D. Unlike most
presentations of ancient glass, which focus on the finest or
rarest objects and treat them as works of art, this exhibition
is as much about people as it is about things. "We should never
lose sight of the fact that each of these objects was once
handled by someone like you or me," says Stuart Fleming, the
show's curator. Titled Roman Glass: Reflec