Research Summary

In Portuguese archaeological contexts from the medieval period, the presence of glass finds is recurrent. Only from the 15th century onwards references to glassmakers start to appear documented. This leads to the question of provenance of these glass objects which this project intends to disclose using a transdisciplinary approach. The Project “Medieval glass in motion- Portugal within a European context” aims to investigate archaeological glass assemblages through a systematic methodology, approaching history, archaeological contexts, determining the glass chemical composition, disclosing connections through cultural contacts, as well as the craft specialization involved in the making of the objects. The final goal of the project is to map the medieval glass objects in history, to gather new knowledge about the origin of the glass in the country and about the history of glass production and circulation.