SCIENCE & TECH: Hidden Signatures Reveal Ancient Rome's Master Glassmakers

A simple turn of the wrist at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in February 2023 has unveiled a centuries-old mystery about ancient Roman craftsmen. Washington State University art history professor Hallie Meredith, who is also an accomplished glassblower, discovered abstract symbols carved into Roman glass cage cups that scholars had dismissed as mere decoration for more than two and a half centuries. Her maker’s eye saw what countless academics had overlooked – these were the signatures of ancient workshops, the brand logos of Late Antiquity.

“Because I am trained as a maker, I kept wanting to flip things over,” Meredith explained in the recent announcement by WSU. “When that happens, patterns appear that everyone else has literally photographed out of the frame.”

The breakthrough came while she examined a private collection of Roman glass cage cups, luxury vessels carved from single blocks of glass between 300 and 500 AD. These delicate masterpieces, known as diatretas, feature two concentric layers connected by fragile glass bridges, a feat of engineering that seems impossibly delicate even by modern standards.