Cage Cups of Rome: The Subtractive Glass Masters

A deep dive into the 4th‑century Roman diatretum—cage cups carved from a single solid glass block rather than assembled. We explore the precision annealing, minute grinding, and delicate lattice that let the cup float within its cage, plus the Lycurgus cup’s color‑changing dichroic glass made with gold and silver nanoparticles. Along the way we glimpse ancient materials science and what these feats say about the roots of modern engineering.

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