Abstract
As outlined in the previous chapter, glass as an independent material is not thought to predate 3000 BCE, with its earliest development located in Mesopotamia and Syria. Routine glass production is then thought to have started in Mesopotamia around 1550 BCE. It is generally assumed that glass-working was then introduced into Egypt during the reign of Tuthmosis III (1479–1425 BCE) through a combination of glass objects and ingots being imported as tribute. Mesopotamian glassmakers were also thought to have been imported into Egypt so that local production of glass in western Thebes was established by the time of Amenophis III (ca. 1388–ca. 1350 BCE). However, it is less well established whether Egypt initially relied on imported raw materials (in the form of ingots and cullet) that were then worked in Egypt, or whether glass was actually being produced onsite. Nevertheless, evidence supports onsite glass production in Egypt by 1350 BCE and points to Egypt as a primary glass producer during this early period of glass production.
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Rasmussen, S.C. (2012). Development and Growth of Glass Through the Roman Period. In: How Glass Changed the World. SpringerBriefs in Molecular Science(), vol 3. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-28183-9_3
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