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The diffusion of light by translucent media in antiquity: à propos two alabaster window-pane fragments from ed-Dur (United Arab Emirates)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

D. T. Potts*
Affiliation:
School of Archaeology, University of Sydney, Sydney NSW 2006, Australia

Abstract

From a University of Copenhagen excavation in the United Arab Emirates come two fragments of sheet alabaster, from a large private house dated to the 1st century AD. They prompt consideration of alabaster's use for windows and of provision for natural lighting in the ancient buildings of the broad region, using ethnohistoric observations, medieval literary sources and ancient epigraphic evidence.

Type
Notes
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd. 1996

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