ANALYSIS OF FIRST MILLENNIUM bc GLASS VESSELS AND BEADS FROM THE PICHVNARI NECROPOLIS, GEORGIA*

The Pichvnari necropolis on the Black Sea coast of Georgia lies in an area known in the late first millennium as ‘Colchis’, on part of the trade route leading to the Orient. The burials of the necropolis date to the late fifth century BC and frequently contain grave goods, including extremely well-preserved polychrome glass beads and core-formed vessels. This paper presents a study of these vessels both stylistically and archaeologically and using SEM–WDS and LA–ICPMS. It reveals that the vessels have compositional differences that may point to multiple manufacturing sites. One of the vessels appears stylistically unique and may exhibit one of the earliest uses of manganese as a decolorizer. Major and minor element data for the vessels suggest that they may belong to the same ‘Levantine’ group as many Roman glass objects, suggesting that a source of sand on the coast of the Levant could have been used in their production. The beads clearly show glass with both natron- and plant ash-based flux with distinct rare earth compositions, showing multiple sites of production, some of which were probably either in the Middle East or the Indian subcontinent