A new Open Access article in Antiquity demonstrates how UrbNet’s methodologies enhance our understanding of trade, connectivity, and the dynamics of continuity and change from the early Roman to the Early Islamic period.

Regular finds of glassware at Roman sites provide a useful dataset not just for constructing glass typologies but also for the comparative analysis of base-glass compositions. In this study, the authors explore the form and chemical composition of 79 glass fragments from Khirbet al-Khalde, a strategically important site in southern Jordan that was integrated into a major Roman roadway, the Via Nova Traiana, in the early second century AD. Their findings challenge current models, identifying abundant pre-fourth-century Egyptian glassware in an area believed to be predominantly supplied by Syro-Palestine and providing evidence for continued activity at the site into the eighth century.

Boschetti, C., N. Schibille, C. A. Harvey, E. E. Intagliata, and R. Raja (2025). “Broken Glass on the Via Nova Traiana: Roman, Late Antique and Early Islamic Activity at Khirbet al-Khalde (South Jordan).” Antiquity, 2025, 1–18. https://doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2025.10248.