Blown Glass Jugs and Juglets

The free blowing of glass was invented by Syrian craftsmen in the first century BCE, somewhere along the Syro-Palestinian coast. The glass workshop in Jerusalem, which was active during the early Roman period, has yielded the earliest known archaeological evidence for the technique of free blowing. The Phoenicians—who established the first glass workshops in present-day Cyprus, Lebanon, Israel, and Palestine—innovated a number of glassblowing techniques and technologies, including clay blowpipes and mold-blown glass. The technique of free blowing vessels not only revolutionized mass production of glass but also allowed for an endless range of possible shapes and forms. In time, free-blown glass dominated the glass market, pushing out earlier, more time-consuming techniques.