A Pompeii mosaic wasn't made of stoneSourced
A sample from Pompeii went to a scientist.
It turned out to be glass, not stone.
Eighteenth-century naturalist Johann Jacob Ferber supplied mosaic samples from Pompeii to researcher Torbern Bergman. Their analysis showed the pieces were made from glass paste rather than stone.
A small sample changed
how the material was understood.
Summary / translation: Unbubly · CC BY-SA 4.0
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Johann Jacob Ferber · Wikimedia contributors
Adapted, summarized and translated from the source. Adapted text is also available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Reviewed: 2026-10-01