| Abstract: |
<p>Among the rich finds from an early second millennium B.C. tomb at Dinkha Tepe in northwestern Iran was a collection of more than 140 beads, made of glass, frit, and semiprecious stones, which were probably worn as necklaces by the deceased. Fifty-eight of the beads were of glass and frit, and constitute one of the earliest, sizable groups of these man-made silicate materials ever found. The evident care that was taken in selecting and processing the raw materials and in working and firing the finished artifacts, as shown by consistent chemical and microstructural groupings, attests to a high level of expertise during an early stage in the history of glassmaking. The technological traditions displayed in the Dinkha group are comparable to those practiced later in the second millennium, during the floruit of silicate manufacture, but are less sophisticated in terms of their manufacture and range of colorants. Quite possibly, a number of small-scale, independent glass and frit workshops were in operation earlier in the second millennium in Azerbaijan or in the vicinity of other sites in northern Syria and Anatolia where similar silicate bead groups have been found. More analyses of glass and frit artifacts and raw material deposits are required before the full implications of the Dinkha Tepe corpus for the origins and development of glassmaking in the ancient Near East can be determined.</p>
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