The GEMMAE project: A multidisciplinary study of Roman glass-gems

Aquileia, in northeastern Italy, is one of the most important ancient Roman archaeological sites worldwide. Its museum, among the other cultural heritage materials, holds one of the most important and rich collections of gemstones, counting more than 6000 gems, dated between the 2nd century BC and the 2nd century AD and mainly discovered both in the ancient city and in its cemeteries. In other words, the collection principally counts stones with a known archaeological origin. Unfortunately, this is not true for all the gems. Due to this peculiarity, the chance to study this amazing collection represents a scientific privilege. In the present paper, the characterization project focused on the Roman glass-gems study, and a case study of the expected results will be preliminarily reported.