Glass from Manthai, Sri Lanka: insights into the supply of glass for the Silk Roads

Manthai served as a port emporium on the Maritime Silk Roads and an intermediary between the Near and Far Eastern realms for over 1000 years. The 1980–1984 excavations conducted by the late Professor John Carswell yielded material goods supporting the importance of Manthai within this extensive trade network. These included glass, some thought to have been produced locally and some believed to be imported from the Islamic world. To better understand the role of Manthai in provisioning glasses for the Silk Roads, 21 8th -13th century AD samples were analysed by LA-ICP-MS for major, minor and trace elements. Results have provided evidence for varied compositions within the Manthai glass samples. There is a m-Na-Al 1 subgroup, to which a sample of raw crucible glass, other raw glass samples and a bangle fragment belong. Samples made using plant ash glass exhibit greater compositional variability, including two subgroups linked to the site of Samarra, some broadly ‘Mesopotamian’ glasses and two samples likely produced in Central Asia. The results have demonstrated that finished objects were imported from the Islamic World and that glass, possibly produced in the region around Manthai, was used in secondary glass working to supply the Maritime Silk Road. This adds to the evidence for the multi-faceted activities conducted at Manthai including the production and/or shipment of glasses through Manthai, for the Maritime Silk Roads. We have contributed to the overall evidence for glasses travelling along the maritime and terrestrial Eurasian Silk Roads and helped to define interactions across them.