Looking for—and Finding?—Workshop Makers’ Marks on Late Roman Diatreta

This note presents an exciting new identification concerning late Roman carved workshop makers’ marks on glass diatreta—a discovery that was hidden in plain sight. This is a preliminary result of a forthcoming comprehensive study of the abstracted, openwork symbols that sometimes accompany an inscription. On glass objects, if mentioned at all in past scholarship, they have been misleadingly referred to only as “stop-marks” designed to ornamentally frame an adjacent inscription. By instead approaching these symbols as imagistic script, a visualized form of the presentation of writing, their communicative purposes can be better recognized along with their producers. Through this approach, two remarkably similar glass openwork vessels—each with an identical symbol—and a possible third vessel with a nearly identical symbol and a related design have been identified. Together they represent compelling evidence of makers’ marks and workshop production.