Hellenistic glass bowls in Tarquinia and its "ager"

Abstract

The identification of an unpublished Syrian-Palestinian monochrome glass bowl, datable between the second half of the II and the I century B.C., among the finds from the necropolis of Norchia excavated in 1981 by the CNR (Elena Di Paolo Colonna - Giovanni Colonna) provides the starting point for a systematic study of the glass bowls of the Hellenistic period widespread in Tarquinia and its "Ager". These are bowls of a not particularly high quality level, mass- produced and widespread throughout the Mediterranean basin and beyond, with maximum concentration in the sites of the Syrian-Palestinian coast. Bowls of this type have been found in Dura Europos in Syria, Egypt, Turkey, Greece, North Africa, Italy (Etruria, Magna Graecia and Sicily) Spain, France (Normandy). In our opinion, this is a topic of great interest, which sheds light on the phenomenon of the Romanization of Tarquinia and its Ager since the presence of these glass bowls in central and northern Italy (they were also found in Liguria) was interpreted as the result of Roman military and commercial initiatives in the Syrian-Palestinian area during the wars that took place in the late  Republican period.