Excavations of a medieval glass workshop from Akhsiket, Uzbekistan in the Fergana valley have yielded technical ceramic in the form of furnace remains with attached glass. In a few cases, there seems to be partially molten material attached to the ceramic furnace wall, forming a porous, white material instead of the usual black (very dark green), green, aqua or purple coloured glass seen in the other technical remains. The initial interpretation of this material is that they are partially molten raw materials, or frit, with residual quartz grains and interstitial glass formed. This frit, whether or not it was an intentionally made intermediate product, or an accidental incomplete melt, would supply evidence for primary glass production from raw materials.

Chemical analysis with SEM-EDS of the bricks that the furnace was constructed from, as well as the organic tempered furnace lining are compared to the proposed frit. If we can confirm the material as frit, this would implicate Akhsiket as the first site in medieval Central Asia with an archaeometrically confirmed primary glassmaking workshop, and constitute precedence for further studies of other site with proposed glass production remains. This ongoing work is then broadened up to encompass furnace glass, working waste and vessels from the site, in order to get a more complete picture of the local glass market and its chemistry.