| Re: Chairs and drinking glasses
Oh April, to some of us history buffs everything matters -- if only to prove that the writer knows at least as much about the period as we do, and can therefore be trusted when it comes to the more important things. Plus we take a perverse pleasure in that kind of nitpicking, and you wouldn't want to rob us of that enjoyment, would you?
(Just for curiosity, did those fold-up seats you saw on the special about Roman soldiers have backs? If it doesn't have a back, it's not a chair. And I'm betting anything with a back would be used only by officers in command of large armies, not by common soldiers.)
I have just consulted a book that I have on the history of glassmaking. Glass drinking vessels (among other things) were made as early as the late Bronze age, and the glass making industry was quite active by the middle of the third millenium B.C. using the core or cast mosaic technique.
There are some pictures of bottles, flasks, jars, etc. made about 1500-1300 B.C. and they look quite sturdy, but then, those that lasted long enough to get photographed intact would just about have to be.
By the middle of the fourth century B.C. (says this reference book) glass was being made in several centers around the Mediterranean, but it was still an item associated with a certain amount of affluence.
Therefore, we can assume, not at all likely to turn up in a common tavern. |