They didn't have that capability back then.
They had to do everything in and out of the furnace.
And they probably had somebody hitting bellows.
You know, it was a real team effort.
[SOUND] Forty or
fifty years BC is when they figured out how to make clay pipes that they could
actually gather glass on the end and then inflate.
So that was huge development.
And then with the spread of the Roman Empire, in Roman times,
the Romans were not allowed to work in the trades.
They were special, so they farmed out all the glass blowing to Palestine, Lebanon,
Israel, Cypress, like that.
All the glass blowing was done in Mesopotamia or in Palestine.
And around 50 years AD is when they figured out how to blow into bowls.
Then they were able to pick up the pace,
then glass became like a utilitarian object in most people's homes.
[MUSIC]
So the first century BCE was a time of dynamic
developments in art and politics in Rome.
It ended with Octavian, now Augustus, firmly in control.