[Ugnet] Ancient Egyptian Glass Factory Found

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	Image: SCIENCE

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

June 20, 2005
Ancient Egyptian Glass Factory Found
Glass was a high-status item in the Late Bronze Age that was used extensively in prestigious artifacts. Much evidence has been uncovered to suggest that early glass making arose in Mesopotamia. But the recent excavation of a site in Egypt suggests that people in the region were adept glassmakers as well, a find that shines new light on how the commodity developed and was traded. Thilo Rehren of University College London and Edgar B. Pusch of Pelizaeus-Museum in Hildesheim, Germany, discovered a large number of artifacts--including ceramic crucibles (see image) containing remnants of glass inside them--at a site called Qantir-Piramesses on Egypt's Nile Delta. Dating to about 1250 B.C., the artifacts indicate that workers in the large, factorylike environment first heated raw materials in recycled beer jars before crushing and washing the resulting product. In the second step of the process, the glass was colored and heated inside the specialized crucibles to form round pieces known as ingots that could later be reworked into decorative objects. Most of the glass produced at Qantir was red and produced using a relatively technical process involving copper, the scientists report in the current issue of the journal Science. The discovery, notes Caroline M. Jackson of the University of Sheffield in an accompanying commentary, "reinforces and reappraises the role of glass both within Egyptian society and as an elite material that was exported from Egypt to the Mediterranean world." --Sarah Graham June 21, 2005 Bacteria Pull Off Photosynthesis sans Sunlight In the textbook description of photosynthesis, sunlight fuels the production of sugars that are in turn converted into fuel for the photosynthetic organism. But a recent discovery from the deep blue sea may force a revision of that account. Scientists have found a photosynthetic bacterium that doesn't live off the light of the sun. Instead, it uses the dim light given off by hydrothermal vents some 2,400 meters below the ocean's surface. J. Thomas Beatty of the University of British Columbia and his colleagues first encountered the bacterium, GSB1, in samples collected from a vent field called 9 North, which is located off the coast of Mexico. The bacteria thrive in the scalding water shooting from the vent, which reaches temperatures near 300 degrees Celsius. DNA analysis identified the organism as a member of the green sulfur bacteria family that relies solely on photosynthesis to survive. "This is startling in the sense that you do not expect to find photosynthesis in a region of the world that is so completely dark," remarks study co-author Robert Blankenship of Arizona State University. The bacteria have a sophisticated antenna system that allows them to collect the low light emanating from hydrothermal vents, the researchers explain in a report published online this week by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. This light energy is then transferred to the organism's reaction center, where photosynthesis takes place. "This shows that photosynthesis is something that is not limited only to the very surface of our planet," Blankenship says. "It lets you consider other places where you might find photosynthesis on Earth as well as on other planets." --Sarah Graham

	Image: COURTESY OF THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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