Come and dine with me... Early Roman luxury glass tableware from Berenike — new evidence from the harbor area and the trash dumps

The harbor of Berenike on the Red Sea coast of Egypt was a major transit point in the long-distance trade of luxury commodities between the Roman Empire and the Indian Ocean Basin. The heyday of the commerce and the prosperity of the port lasted from the 1st to the mid-2nd century AD. A huge quantity of commodities passed through the port, imported not only for the purpose of exchange, but also for self-consumption. Glassware was among them. The high proportion of wares of high quality and exceptional esthetic value is quite extraordinary, even by modern standards. These wares highlight the position of Berenike in the trade, but they also showcase the city’s wealth and the great demand for luxury glass that existed there in the first centuries of the Roman Empire

Dishwasher Corrosion of Glasses

Dishwasher resistance of glass articles is one of the most important quality criteria for glass tableware manufacturer. Dishwasher corrosion of glass and the resulting formation of unacceptable appearance limits the lifetime of glass tableware in private households and even more in professional catering business where constant replacement of glass tableware is a considerable cost factor. Usually glasses undergo through some reactions in an atmospheric corrosion process, which is known as “weathering” or “warehouse effect”. This phenomenon is found to trigger the formation of defects during dishwashing and, visible defects such as cloudiness and iridescence are formed on the glass surface after certain dishwasher cycles depending upon the degree of the atmospheric corrosion that has already been formed on the surface prior to washing. Consequently atmospheric corrosion resistance is an important parameter for dishwasher resistance. The present paper comprehensively investigates the glass corrosion behavior during dishwashing and the effect of glass composition on improved dishwasher resistance by rendering the glass less prone to atmospheric corrosion even under severe conditions.