Traces of glassware production dating from the 13th and early 14th centuries have been uncovered during archaeological excavations of the medieval town of Rusokastro, the Regional History Museum in Burgas said on Wednesday.
The archaeological research at Rusokastro is carried out by the Regional History Museum in Burgas, with funding from the Council of Ministers and Kameno Municipality. Since 2025, Rusokastro has been included among Bulgaria’s priority archaeological sites for national cultural tourism. In August, excavations along the inner side of the southwestern fortress wall uncovered 17 ceramic vessels which specialists believe had been kept on shelves in a building next to the wall and close to a large household oven.
In the southwestern part of the medieval town, archaeologists found stones with glass residue, production waste, parts of crucibles, and fragments of green and blue glass. The finds were discovered near workshops where bracelets, oil lamps and other glass objects were made.
The Burgas archaeologists said the evidence from Rusokastro shows that the medieval town was a major urban production centre in the 13th and 14th centuries. At this stage, they believe ready-made glass blanks were processed at Rusokastro rather than glass being produced there from quartz sand.
Glass is made from quartz sand, soda and limestone at temperatures of about 1,400–1,600 C, while shaping it requires lower temperatures of around 600–800 C, the museum said.
Glass production has been known since the third to second millennium BC. Evidence of early glass production has been found in Mesopotamia and Egypt. Around the first century BC, Syrian craftsmen began using blowpipes, transforming production techniques. In Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, Byzantium was among the major centres of glassware production, while Venetian glassmaking developed on the island of Murano in the late 13th century.
In present-day Bulgaria, traces of glass production have been found at Preslav, Tarnovo, Beroe and other archaeological sites.
Archaeologists Find Evidence of 13th-Century Glass Production at Rusokastro THE NEWS FROM BULGARIA – NEWS AGENCY 2009-2025 2026-09-23 14:06:58
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