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One of the colourless Roman glass sherds from Jerash, Jordan, analysed in this study. Purple splashes are iridescence due to weathering. Photo: Danish-German Jerash Northwest Quarter Project. Simplified graphic showing long-shore transport of sands from the mouth of the Nile up along the Levantine coast (today Israel). Glass factories at Jalame and Apollonia used the sands in glass production during Roman and Byzantine times. Along the way North, some of the zircon minerals contained in the sands drop out leading to the different hafnium isotopic compositions of Egyptian and Levantine glass. Also shown is the location of Jerash, Jordan.

2020.07.09 | Department of Geoscience, Publication, Research

New method solves old mystery: Hafnium isotopes clinch origin of high-quality Roman glass

Glass is an immensely interesting archaeological material: While its fragility and beauty is fascinating in itself, geochemical studies of invisible tracers can reveal more than what meets the eye. In a new international collaboration study from the Danish National Research Foundation’s Centre for Urban Network Evolutions (UrbNet), the Aarhus…

"Subtidal sediment with intense burrowing activity by worms. Photo: Filip Meysman."

2020.07.09 | Department of Geoscience, Publication, Research

Burrowing animals control communities of microorganisms in Earth’s biggest carbon sink

Sediments underlying the world’s oceans and shelf seas cover >70% of the Earth’s surface area. These sediments are the biggest reservoir of organic carbon in the biosphere, hosting over one thousand times more organic carbon than the atmosphere, soils, and seawater combined. Most of this organic carbon was originally produced by organisms, such as…

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Revised 25.09.2020