iconography. Scholars have reached no clear consensus beyond the fact that the glasses must have been made at a distinct cultural crossroads that allowed Christian and Islamic elements to converge. Eugen von Czihak was the first to make the connection to Fatimid rock crystal hardstone carvings, suggesting the Hedwig glasses were made by Islamic glass- makers in Cairo and were brought to Europe during the Crusades. Czihak observed that the mould-blown glass technique used to make the collection of beakers would have been unknown to Europe at the time of production, thus making European origin unlikely. The theory that it was made in the Middle East was continued by academics like Robert Schmidt and Carl Johan Lamm, however the proposal that the series came out directly of a Middle Eastern glass workshop was later contested because no fragments or sherds of the beakers have ever been excavated in the Middle East despite detailed archeological surveys of many glass workshops. The most recent proposal was made by Rosemarie Lierke in his book Die Hedwigsbecher (2005). Lierke argues that the vessels are of Sicilian origin, citing that the Christian city of Palermo housed many Islamic craftsmen who would have been trained to work with mould-blown glass. Lierke proposes that the Christian patrons and Islamic craftsmen of Sicily could have produced the imagery that mixes Islamic and Christian motifs, such as the Tree of Life. Furthermore, almost half of the glasses bear the Sicilian emblems of either lions, griffins or eagles, animals that were widely popular locally. While there has been no full consensus reached, it appears as though most scholars seem to lean towards the Middle East or the regions of the Mediterranean as being the plausible origins of Hedwig Glass. In 2009, an archeological study was performed by the University of Gottingen, which compared samples of Hedwig glass, with soda ash glass from the Levant, and soda ash glass samples from Egypt, Persia, and Syria. The study found that the Hedwig samples were especially low in magnesium oxide, similar to the glass samples from the Levant. Meanwhile, the samples from Egypt, Persia, and Syria contained distinctly higher MgO concentrations, indicating that the origins of the Hedwig glass are likely the Levant. This study into the chemical composition of the glasses, has further assisted in discrediting the theories that attribute their origin to be Central Europe. Notes References Erdmann, Kurt, 1949, "An