Piecing together the story of ancient glass after the Beirut explosion

In 2020, a chemic detonation successful Beirut caused 218 deaths and wide destruction. It besides shattered 1 of the world’s richest collections of past glassware, offering experts the accidental to analyse the artefacts successful ways that would different person been impossible

Humans 29 September 2022

By James Dacey

Early to mid Roman-period solid bowl; bell-shaped flask from Islamic Golden Age; precocious Roman-period tiny cup;high-necked jug with turquoise tint from aboriginal Roman period

The Archaeological Museum, American University of Beirut

PICTURE a 2000-year-old solid jug – turquoise tint, elegant spout. It astir apt decanted vino astatine lavish Roman banquets, surviving earthquakes and warfare earlier uncovering itself lasting among likewise beautiful, delicate pieces successful the American University of Beirut (AUB) Archaeological Museum successful Lebanon. Then, successful an instant, it shatters.

At slightest 218 radical died and thousands much were injured erstwhile a elephantine heap of ammonium nitrate exploded astatine the larboard of Beirut connected 4 August 2020. The blast was 1 of the largest non-nuclear, human-made explosions recorded, and the consequent daze question wreaked devastation for kilometres around.

The incidental was besides a taste calamity. The wider portion astir Lebanon is touted arsenic the crucible of solid production, a worldly that has helped signifier civilisation. As 1 of the oldest museums successful the area, the AUB housed a peculiarly affluent postulation of past solid artefacts. The blast smashed 72 jars, bowls, cups and different vessels dating backmost to the past Romans (1st period BC to 5th period AD), the Byzantine Empire (4th to 15th period AD) and the Islamic Golden Age (8th to 13th period AD).

A heap of ammonium nitrate exploded successful Beirut, Lebanon, connected 4 August 2020. The blast killed 218 people and injured thousands

ANWAR AMRO/AFP via Getty Images

Rather than effort to hole everything, however, AUB Archaeological Museum curator Nadine Panayot saw an accidental successful the debris. Much …