Nearly 2,000 years ago, an artist named Ennion produced some of the finest mold-blown glass vessels in the entire Roman world. Today, a rare example of his work is displayed at the Chrysler Museum of Art. While ancient glass objects can be enjoyed by a modern audience and celebrated for their artistic merit alone, these artifacts are also fascinating clues to help us better understand life in the past. The Chrysler continues the Curator in Your Computer series as we invite you to step into the shoes of an archaeologist and explore how researchers discover and analyze the physical remains of the ancient and medieval worlds. We will consider three archaeological projects as case studies, taking a closer look at the glass fragments excavated from a Roman fort, a Jewish synagogue, and a medieval shipwreck.

About the Speaker

Carolyn Swan Needell, PhD, the Chrysler Museum’s Carolyn and Richard Barry Curator of Glass, holds a doctorate in Archaeology and the Ancient World from Brown University and specializes in the study of ancient and medieval glass excavated from archaeological sites across the Mediterranean and Near East. Needell’s scholarship examines the art and technology of ancient glass, and her research has been published in the Journal of Glass Studies as well as journals specializing in archaeological science. Since joining the Chrysler Museum in 2018, Needell has curated several exhibitions of contemporary glass, including Agony & Ecstasy: Contemporary Stained Glass by Judith Schaechter and Dan Dailey: Character Sketch. She is currently organizing the exhibition Clear As Crystal: Colorless Glass from the Chrysler Museum, which will examine the wide array of techniques that capitalize on the aesthetic and intellectual opportunities offered by clear, colorless glass.

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