The IRM is always a good opportunity to take a first glimpse at a couple of "first-time-ever-presentations".

Since the IRM itself is not too big, these premieres will be only presented separately on this website. During the IRM itself, these pieces will be displayed at the individual stands.

New at derglasperlenmacher:

We are honoured and proud to have a book premiere presentation at the IRM2012!

A new book by www.derglasperlenmacher.de: Wo kommt DER mit seinen Perlen her? - Eine Analyse der Glasperlen, der Lage und ihrer Verwendung in den Männerbestattungen Skandinaviens zur Wikingerzeit "Viking men didn't wear more than three glass beads, better none." Torben Barthelmie is discussing this myth in his newest book. On 80 partially coloured pages Torben, der Glasperlenmacher (the maker of glass beads) analysed grave inventories from all over Scandinavia and he came to surprising results. Glass beads were more common for Viking men than thought previously. Especially newer examinations show that often due to the existance of beads, male buried individuals were interpreted as female. This observation throws a completely new light on the male Viking clothing traditions. Apart from the total number and kind of beads, the use of them and the reconstruction of some outstanding finds and their meaning is illustrated in the book. This book simply is a must for all Viking reenactors. The book is self published and will be presented for the first time at the IRM2012 .

New at www.roemische-schmiede.de:

The Roemische Schmiede (Roman blacksmith) workshop is completely in work right now to prepare new things for the IRM2012. Very few things are finished, but we can present at least some new items here:

There are some new woodworking tools like the two chisels made according to finds from the Saalburg Roman castle (above). Also the handforged reproduction of the Roman money purse found in Frankfurt Heddernheim (below) will be on display at the IRM2012 for the first time.

pictures: www.roemische-schmiede.de

New at romanglassmakers.de:

A couple of sparkling new things come from England:

Some marvellous mosaic bowls and a single one mosaic ribbed bowl are new at romanglassmakers.de and will be displayed at the IRM2012 for the first time.

A few years ago the ROMAN GLASSMAKERS Mark Taylor & David Hill have researched the making of Roman mosaic and ribbed bowls (see www.romanglassmakers.co.uk/ribbed.htm for details). Those projects are finished by now, so we were able to get hold of some of the experimental pieces of the very last row of experiments: These are some marvellous mosaic bowls of different colours and shapes as well as the very last mosaic ribbed bowl (above).

Apart from those more than perfect pieces, there is one quite early shallow mosaic bowl which attracted our attention (left).

Another slightly older novelty are two shallow ground and polished monochrome bowls (above). Altough they are of older date, they were deeply buried in some boxed and seem to have never seen the light of day - something which will change at the IRM2012!

And there are other novelties as well:

romanglassmakers.de will display and offer some glass vessel made at the projects with reconstructed Roman glass furnaces, reconstructed and run by Mark Taylor & David Hill!

These vessels werde made during the 2005 and 2006 Roman glass furnace projects nearby the studio of the ROMAN GLASSMAKERS Mark Taylor & David Hill at Quarley, Andover (England). The projects are published in the Journal of Glass Studies, so we were able to get some of those very rare pieces!

These exclusive pieces do consist of a glass composition based on the analysis of Roman finds and mixed by Mark Taylor himself. Also the making of these vessels at a wood fired furnace made of daub is the same as the making of the Roman originals. So according to the current researches and techniques these vessels are the closest to the Roman originals one could get.

For details of the Roman furnace projects see: www.romanglassmakers.co.uk/furnace1.htm

... to be continued ...

(Details my be subject to change.)