22) General Principles of Food Packaging:

Pliny the Elder recorded that Phoenician sailors came ashore and, not finding any local materials suitable for supporting their cooking pots above the sandy shore, used lumps of trona (natural soda or sodium carbonate) that formed part of their ship’s cargo. As the trona was heated in the fire it combined with the sand to give a material that flowed. This story may not be entirely accurate but points to the fact that glass as a man-made material has a long history and some of the oldest dated Middle Eastern pieces are over 4000 years old; a deep blue charm is estimated to date from 7000 BC. Egyptians and Romans fashioned a wide range of intricate and colored glass objects. A highly developed industry existed in Syria in 1500 BC. In medieval times the centre of the glass blowing expertise was Venice (1200-1600 AD).