Videos of Ancient Manufacturing Techniques

This video demonstrates how scholars believe coins were made in the Roman empire. The ancient Greeks very likely used the same techniques in mints that were located throughout their cities.

While this video demonstrates how black-figure vases were made, the exhibition features an example of red-figure pottery, which reverses the older black-figure technique. Instead of painting the figures with slip, the backgrounds are painted with slip and the figures are left in reserve. After firing, the unpainted figures emerge in the reddish-orange color that gives red-figure technique its name.

Ancient Greek and Roman artists who created mold-made terracotta vessels and figurines were called, "coroplasts." The process seen in this video is the same as the one used to make several objects in this exhibition. The quality of the model and the decoration painted onto the surface after firing are much finer for the vase in this video.

The earliest method used to make glass vessels is the core-forming technique, recreated by a modern glassmaker here. The exhibition features a core-formed bottle and modern glassmaking tools similar to those used in antiquity.

In the first centuries BCE and CE, glass blowing became widespread across the Mediterranean, thanks to the introduction of iron blow pipes and tools. The Roman glass industry became much bigger, and blown glass vessels became extremely popular as tableware and as containers for oils, medicines, and perfumes.

The medieval Islamic molar flask in this exhibition was made with several techniques, include mold-blowing, which is recreated here. In addition to this hot-working technique, the molar flask was also cold-worked. After the glass vial was cooled, it was drilled and wheel-cut to produce its final form.

The videos about core-formed and free blown glass above show glassmakers using modern equipment to recreate ancient techniques. Modern equipment allows for consistent results and minimizes mistakes, something that ancient glassmakers could not achieve. This film, The Glassmakers of Herat, documents a glass workshop in Afghanistan that was discovered in 1968. This workshop and its artisans use equipment and techniques that are much closer to what Greek and Roman glassmakers would have used. As you can see, the glassmakers of Herat did very arduous work.