Cam Balkon

Glass has often been regarded as a luxury commodity and the earliest use of glass reflects this attitude. Such items as amphoriskoi and alabastra were made from glass as containers for expensive oils, perfumes and unguents. Beads, at first made in blue and black glass and later in a variety of colours and decorated with stripes and spots and later zigzags and chevrons, were first made in Egypt during the 5th Dynasty (c. 2465–c. 2325 BC); they were threaded into necklaces and bracelets (see Beadwork). Other early uses of glass included gaming-pieces, amulets, pendants and such small sculptures as sacred bulls and rams and shabtis.
During the New Kingdom (c. 1540–c. 1075 BC) glass inlays were made for jewellery and furniture and for setting in gold or other precious metals (see Egypt, ancient, §XVI, 8). In China, glass was first used in the Western Zhou period (c. 1050–771 BC), to make mosaic beads, eyebeads (bi) and decorative hairpins (see China, §XIII, 10). Glass beads were also made during the iron age in Europe, as were gaming-pieces, bracelets and inlays for jewellery (see Prehistoric Europe, §VI, 7 and Celtic art). The Romans used glass for a variety of purposes and many examples are extant. Glass was used extensively to make tesserae for mosaics (see Mosaic). Glass was also the principal source for the tesserae needed for mosaics and opus sectile panels used in Early Christian and Byzantine art to decorate walls and ceilings (see Early Christian and Byzantine art, §VII, 4).