Glass Beaker from Fizine

FIZ1 106

During the archaeological excavations at Fizine carried out in 2018 by the Underwater Archaeological Consortium under the direction of the Institute for Underwater Archaeology, some medieval and modern objects were found amongst the numerous roman finds in the upper segment of the stratigraphic unit 1002 at a depth between 60 and 80 cm. Among them were also two fragments of a glass beaker from the 14th century.

The beaker is unadorned, of simple conical shape with extremely thin walls. The rim is flatly cut, the bottom slightly concave. It appears that it was made by blowing hot glass into a mould. It probably originates from the 14th century.
The bottom of the beaker is well preserved. There are, however, 50% of its walls and 40% of the rim missing. The surface is slightly opaque due to its marine burial site; however, the object is in good condition. Air bubbles created during the blowing process can clearly be seen. We decided to reconstruct the missing parts because there was enough information about its shape. The procedure was carried out by conservator-restorer Ajda Purger.

Like all other marine underwater finds, the beaker had to be desalinated first in order to prevent its further degradation. This was performed in 2019 with several water baths whilst measuring the levels of extracted salts. We proceeded with mechanical treatment in 2021 by carefully cleaning the surface using distilled water. The dry fragments were then bonded using conservation grade resin.

The most challenging part of the procedure was the infilling of missing parts. We used the transparent moulding technique developed by conservator-restorer Gorazd Lemajič. We began by making a silicone mould of the original and then cast its form (the positive) in plaster. This was eventually used to produce a transparent PVC mould. The inner silicone mould and the outer PVC mould were then temporarily attached to the original and the missing part was cast in conservation grade epoxy resin.

The infill is transparent and has been left uncoloured in order to make it distinguishable from the lightly coloured original glass.

The beaker can now be admired at the temporary exhibition "The Secrets of Fizine" until the 1st of October 2022.

Bibliography:

Draksler Matej, Perko Matic, Štajdohar Jasna, Arheološke raziskave za rekonstrukcijo in novogradnjo objekta “Celovita ureditev pomola UL FPP in GEPŠ Piran v Portorožu, Prvo strokovno poročilo o raziskavi 18-0331

Lemajič Gorazd, Dopolnjevanje votlega stekla z uporabo transparentnega kalupa, Argo : Časopis Slovenskih Muzejev = Journal of the Slovene Museums,48(2), Ljubljana 2005, 119–126.

Ajda Purger, Snježana Karinja