Analysis of Early Iron Age / Classical period glass beads from Brili necropolis (Georgia)

• We show the important variability of raw glass recipes in the Near East in the first half of the first millennium BC. • We highlight the cultural influences and trading networks of the Brili community during Pre-classical and Classical periods. • We point out a more complex situation than the one described at the Pichvnari necropolis ( Shortland and Schroeder 2009 ). • Our results show the high diversity of compositions encountered (raw materials and additives) for high Li and B glasses. • We identify a new group of soda plant ash glass characterized by higher K and P contents and lower Mg contents. We present the analytical results obtained, using LA-ICP-MS, on a set of 77 glass beads, of various colours, dating to the Pre-classical and Classical period (8th to 4th c. BC) and originating from Brili necropolis (Georgia). This necropolis, located in the North-West of Georgia, in the historical Colchis region, was used continuously between the 15th c. BC and the 4th c. AD and was excavated periodically between 1939 and 1961. Through the comparison with published analytical data of coeval, earlier and later glass samples, the aim of this study is to investigate the provenance of this Brili assemblage in order to highlight the cultural influences and trading network of the Brili community during the Pre-classical and Classical period. The analysed glass beads are classified in three main groups and several sub-groups. The two main groups consist of Egyptian and Syro-Palestinian natron soda lime glasses (34 beads) on the one hand and high lithium, boron and magnesium mineral soda-lime glasses (34 beads) on the other. We also find a group of high magnesium, potassium and phosphorus plant ash soda-lime glass (9 beads) which up to now, was scarcely identified among Early Iron Age glass studies. Among this small group, one of the beads, characterized by lower phosphorus content, belongs probably to the well-established Mesopotamian soda-lime plant ash glass group.