Roman Glass
Read this article about the history and evolution of Roman glass production. The manufacture of glassware was known throughout the ancient world, but Roman artisans produced glass on an unprecedented scale. During the first century BCE, the invention of glassblowing allowed artisans to quickly create glass products in a wide range of shapes, bringing cheap glass to mass markets.
Production
Recycling
Cameo glass plaque with the infant Bacchusand asatyr, early 1st century AD.
The Roman writers Statius and Martial both indicate that recycling broken glass was an important part of the glass industry, and this seems to be supported by the fact that only rarely are glass fragments of any size recovered from domestic sites of this period. In the western empire there is evidence that recycling of broken glass was frequent and extensive, and that quantities of broken glassware were concentrated at local sites prior to melting back into raw glass. Compositionally, repeated recycling is visible via elevated levels of those metals used as colourants.
Melting does not appear to have taken place in crucibles; rather, cooking pots appear to have been used for small scale operations. For larger work, large tanks or tank-like ceramic containers were utilised. In the largest cases, large furnaces were built to surround these tanks.