Not much is known about this transition and the experimental materials which would inevitably have been connected to such technological change. In large parts of the Mediterranean recipes for the earliest man-made glass changed from melting mixtures of crushed quartz pebbles and halophytic plant ashes in the Late Bronze Age to the use of quartz sands and mineral soda during the Early Iron Age. This confirms the archaeological record of trade in other materials/objects, while a small group of glasses from Gitana in Thesprotia were made in Egypt. The analytical results for the majority of glass samples from the three sites in Thesprotia show with high probability a Levantine origin and therefore also possibly for the artefacts themselves. The results are compared with other published compositional data for Hellenistic glass. This is the first study to examine Hellenistic glass from within a region of northern Greece. The chemical compositions of the samples show significant differences in raw materials used and provide evidence for provenance for the artefacts. In the present study, 56 samples of glass, excavated from these three sites in Thesprotia, are investigated using analytical techniques (SEM-EDX and LA-ICP-MS). Built at geographically crucial locations that ensured the control of the valleys or the riverside crossings and sea routes, they evolved gradually into political, economic and administrative centres for the surrounding areas.
Elea, Gitana and Dymokastro were founded within a few years from one another, during the fourth century BC. During the second half of fourth century BC, socioeconomic changes occurred in the region and small villages were joined to form the first organised settlements.
Thesprotia was gradually developed into an important node of communication and transport of goods to the West and the mountainous hinterland of Epirus. The particular geomorphological terrain, with the mountainous and fragmented landscape, has been determinant in the formation of economic and social institutions throughout antiquity. Thesprotia, one of the most remote regions in Greece, was inhabited from as early as the Palaeolithic period.
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