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| June 24, 2012 | Roman jewellery discovered in ancient Japan tomb | |
Tokyo:Glass jewellery believed to have been made by Roman
craftsmen has been found in an ancient tomb near Kyoto . Researchers said that
it is a sign the empire’s influence may have reached the edge of Asia . Tests
have revealed that three glass beads discovered in the fifth-century Utsukushi
burial mound in Nagaoka, Kyoto Prefecture, were probably made sometime between
the first and fourth centuries AD, according to the Nara National Research Institute
for Cultural Properties. The government-backed institute has recently finished
analyzing components of the 5mm glass beads, which have tiny fragments of gilt
attached. It found that the light yellow beads were made with natron, a chemical
used to melt glass by craftsmen in the Roman Empire, which succeeded the Roman
Republic in 27 BC and ultimately ended with the fall of Constantinople — present-day
Istanbul — in 1453, Japan Times Online reported. The beads, which have a hole
through the middle, were made with a multilayering technique, a relatively sophisticated
method in which craftsmen piled up layers of glass, often sandwiching gold leaf
in between. “They are some of the oldest multilayered glass products found in
Japan, and very rare accessories that are believed to have been made in the Roman
Empire and sent to Japan,” Tomomi Tamura, a researcher at the institute said.
Tamura said that the finding may shed some light on how far east the Roman empire
’s influence reached. “It will also lead to further studies on how they could
have got all the way to Japan ,” she added.
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