1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 BYZANTINE GLASS FINDS IN THE ROMAN THEATER AT I ˙ ZNI ˙ K (NICAEA) ÜZLIFAT ÖZGÜMÜS ¸/I ˙ STANBUL With 2 tables in the text and 5 figures on table XXVII I ˙ znik (ancient Nicaea) on the southern coast of the Sea of Marmara has been a major settlement since ancient times. The Roman Theater Excavations have been going on there since 1980 (fig. 1). The site has yielded a large amount of ceramic and glass fragments belonging to various periods. The Roman theater dates from the 2nd century A. D. and was planned to hold 15,000 spectators, although it was never finished. After the mid-7th century when Arab raids threatened Asia Minor including the neighborhood of I ˙ znik, building material from the theater was reused for the construction of the city-walls and thereafter the theater was left in ruins. During the excavations large quantities of human remains that probably belong to dead Byzantine soldiers were unearthed. They are buried in groups of six to eight individuals. The reason for these mass burials is uncertain and may be attributed to any one of a number of different causes – from war fatalities, to sufferers of epidemic fever, to massacre victims. In the theater much ceramic material of the Greek, Roman, Byzantine, Seljuk, and Ottoman periods was also found, together with a lot of glass fragments. The glass was widely distributed across the site but mostly dates to the early Byzantine period. The material includes lamps, goblets, bowls, bottles, bracelets, window glass, and wasters. In general their shapes and colors have many similarities to those found in Sardis, Anemurium, Amorium, and Myra. 1 Most are examples of utilitarian glass. It is probable that the raw materials necessary for making glass could be acquired from the mineral sources in the surrounding area. Silica is obtainable from Balıkesir, Bursa, and Kocaeli, soda that facilitates melting of the batch from Eskis ¸ehir, calceous materials that provides the glass) hardness and manganese that is used as decolorizing agent from Balikesir and Kocaeli, another decolorizing element nickel from Balıkesir and Bursa, antimony and arsenic that are used as refining agents from Balıkesir and Bursa, and sulphur I would like to express my special thanks to Dr. Bedri Yalman, Director of the Ex- cavations, who allowed me to study the Byzantine glass finds from the I ˙ znik theater. 1 A. von Saldern, Ancient and Byzantine Glass from Sardis. London 1980; E. M. Stern, Ancient and Medieval Glass from the Necropolis Church at Anemurium. Annales du 9me Congres International d)etude historique du Verre. Liege 1985, 35–64; R. M. Harrison/N. Christie, Excavations at Amorium : 1992 Interim Report. Anatolian Studies 43 (l993) 143 – 147, 162; Y. Olcay , Cam Buluntular, in Y. Ötüken, 1995 Yılı Demre Aziz Nikolas Kilisesi Kazısı. XVIII. Kazı SonuÅları Toplantısı. Ankara 1997, 477. DOI 10.1515/BYZS.2008.021