Early islamic pottery

It has been generally accepted that the beginnings of tin-based opacification of ceramic glazes is associated with the white glazed wares excavated in Iraq and western Iran and dated to the ninth century AD (so-called 'Samarra-type' pottery). This paper focuses on an earlier stage in the technological development of tin-opacified glazes, that is, the yellow and white glazed wares produced from the eighth century AD in Egypt and the Levant. In addition, the compositional data was extended for the subsequent spread of tin-opacified glazes into Mesopotamia in the ninth century and Northern Iran and Central Asia in the tenth century. Using SEM-EDS and SR-Micro-XRD, the chemical composition and microstructure of eighty-five samples of opaque yellow and white glazed wares from Egypt (Fustat), the Levant (Madaba, Aqaba, Al-Mina and Raqqa), Mesopotamia (Samarra, Kish, Basra and Susa), Northern Iran (Takht-i Suleiman), and Central Asia (Nishapur, Merv and Samarqand) were investigated. These data confirmed that the yellow and white glazes were opacified by lead-tin-oxide (PbSnO 3) and tin oxide (SnO 2) particles respectively. Replication experiments were then conducted to imitate typical compositions of the analysed opaque yellow and opaque white glazes. Overall, the results posited the beginning of tin-based opacification of glazes in the eighth century in Egypt and the Levant, and provided explanations as to how the production of opaque yellow and white glazes in the Levant and Mesopotamia might have been technologically linked.

The town of Castronovo di Sicilia (PA) and its environs are the subject of current archaeological investigations funded by the European Research Council and carried out with the collaboration of the Soprintendenza and the Comune of Castronovo. These investigations form part of a larger ERC project entitled 'Sicily in Transition' (sictransit), which is studying the nature of regime change over the island as whole. Four sites are being examined by survey and excavation: at Monte Kassar a Byzantine fortress of the 8/9 th century, habitations have been found beside the extant defensive wall, and the headquarters building (the 'casermetta'), was fully excavated and shown to have had two phases of construction, the earliest featuring a substantial tower. At the Colle San Vitale, the upstanding medieval ruins have been suject to a new survey. The present old town of Castronovo has also been surveyed and an underground water supply and irrigation system has been identified and mapped beneath it. Lastly, at Casale San Pietro situated on the plain below the town and beside the River Platani, an extensive Byzantine occupation of the 6-7th century has been partially located by geophysical survey, surface collection and trial excavation. STRATEGIE E FINALITÀ DELLE INDAGINI. SINTESI DEI RISULTATI. Nell'ambito del più ampio progetto SICTRANSIT 11 , le ricerche sul campo (finalizzate ad acquisire dati di prima mano) si sono svolte nel territorio del Comune di Castronovo di Sicilia e sono iniziate nel mese di settembre del 2016. La prima campagna è durata quattro settimane 12. Nel 2014 e nel 2015 due analoghe stagioni di ricerca sono servite alla valutazione del potenziale archeologico dell'area. Per il 2016 le ricerche hanno previsto attività di scavo con saggi relativamente estesi sul Monte Kassar e a Casale San Pietro, nonché ricognizioni degli edifici e degli impianti idraulici dell'attuale centro storico di Castronovo. Nel 2017 riprenderanno anche le indagini diagnostiche (magnetometria) e le ricognizioni di superficie. La finalità principale delle indagini sul campo di SICTRANSIT è in generale quella di comprendere, alla scala dell'intero territorio che fa attualmente capo a Castronovo, le dinamiche complessive di trasformazione dei modi insediativi, dell'uso del territorio e delle sue risorse, delle reti di scambio e della cultura materiale tra il VI ed il XIII secolo, in coincidenza con importanti cambiamenti di regime (Bizantini, Musulmani, Normanni e Svevi). A questo fine abbiamo cominciato con voler scavare o comunque studiare quelli che sembrerebbero

Depuis 2011, le Projet germano-danois du quartier nord-ouest de Gerasa mène des recherches archéologiques sur la zone la plus élevée de l’ancienne ville enceinte. En 2014, les fouilles ont débuté sur la « terrasse orientale », qui s’étend sur environ 3 000 m2 et surplombe l’Artémision d’époque romaine. Cette zone était recouverte par d’importants déblais qui enfermaient les vestiges d’un habitat domestique du début de l’époque islamique, détruit par le tremblement de terre de 749 et jamais réoccupé depuis. Une maison privée a été en partie fouillée (secteur K). Elle ne recouvre aucune phase ni romaine ni byzantine et a été abandonnée à la suite du tremblement de terre avec l’ensemble de son mobilier. L’absence de phases chronologiques antérieures, le mobilier ainsi que la destruction soudaine de cette habitation en font un exemple important qui permet d’entreprendre une étude des permanences et des changements de la culture matérielle de l’Antiquité tardive au début de l’époque islamique. L’habitat et les découvertes de ce secteur sont présentés ici pour la première fois et contextualisés dans l’arc chronologique des VIIe-VIIIe siècles. [Trad. de la Rédaction]

This paper explores the production characteristics and provenance of Islamic glazed pottery in the Adiabene region of northeastern Mesopotamia. Samples cover the entire time span under study, i.e., from the Early to the Late Islamic periods. Analytical techniques such as ceramic petrography, powder X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, and X-ray microanalysis were employed to determine compositional (mineralogical and chemical) and technological characteristics. Based on the comparison of ceramic fabrics with up-to-date knowledge of regional geology, local plain pottery, and the published petrography of Mesopotamian ceramics, several provenance groups of glazed pottery (and one group of unglazed pottery) in the sample collection, originating from the Zabs catchment, the middle course of the Tigris (Samarra?) and the middle and lower course of the Tigris (Baghdad and/or Basra?) were defined. Dynamic oscillations in the ratio of regionally produced and imported pottery enable a detailed study of the socioeconomic differences between the Early and Middle Islamic periods.

"In this work we show the most important high medieval pottery context from the Tolmo of Minateda (Hellín, Albacete) based on their composition and stratified sequence. We establish three chronological horizons based on the continuous stratified sequence between the VII and IX century: the first horizon,
that we consider visigothic period, with a dated between the second half of the VII century, and maybe, the first quarter of the VIII century; the second horizon, which is dated between the middle and the end of the VIII century being of earlier emiral period chronology, even though the morphology of this
kind of productions is closer to the visigothic period ones; and the third horizon that dated on the IX century, in the same line of the emiral period pottery repertories which are documented in the Tudmir zone and some places of the east of Andalucia."

Abstract: The ceramic basins presented in this article come from an unpublished assemblage of finds, excavated in the early 1980s by a PCMA team, from an Islamic-period layer on the island of Bijan in western Iraq . The author defines a set of characteristics by which to identify these open-form vessels and discusses their shape and function in the context of
parallels from other sites dated to the Abbasid period.

The oil press of the temenos in Dharih, whose remains and operation are described in a previous paper (Syria 89, 2012), was excavated in 1996. The collected pottery dates its occupation period to the Byzantine and Umayyad times (6th-7th c. AD) and its abandonment and destruction probably at the very end of the Umayyad period or in the early Abbassid period (8th c. AD). It was built in the main temenos of the earlier sanctuary and the artefacts coming from the lower stratigraphic units date, for a large amount, to the Nabataean and Roman phases.

L’huilerie du temenos de Dharih, dont les vestiges et le fonctionnement sont décrits dans un précédent article (Syria 89, 2012), a fait l’objet d’une fouille archéologique en 1996. Le matériel récolté dans les différentes unités stratigraphiques permet de cerner l’époque de son occupation (byzantine et omeyyade, VIe- VIIe s.) et celle de son abandon et de sa destruction, probablement à la toute fin de l’époque omeyyade ou au début de l’époque abbasside (VIIIe s.). Elle a été édifiée à l’intérieur de l’ancien sanctuaire et la céramique découverte dans les unités stratigraphiques antérieures à sa construction présente une grande quantité d’éléments d’époques nabatéenne et romaine.

The survey conducted in the area of historical al-Hira between 2015-2017 decisively expanded our knowledge of the localisation and extension of the historical settlement, its spatial order and building typology. The large-scale documentation of settlement activities indicates two patterns. While the central survey-area is characterised by loose agglomerations of large complexes with open spaces in between, the western part shows a dense urban network with streets and residential structures. This situation can be linked to the evaluation of surface finds. In the central survey-area, finds of the 6 th-8 th c. dominate, while those from the 9 th c. prevail in the west. It is suggested that the large complexes correspond to the qusur of al-Hira mentioned by Arabic sources and the urban network belongs to an early Islamic building phase. This means that, contrary to the prevailing interpretation of al-Hira being abandoned after the foundation of al-Kufa, it saw a period of urban growth under the early Abbasids.

The Levantine Ceramics Project (www.levantineceramics.org) organized a  workshop devoted to Levantine ceramic wares of the Islamic,  Frankish, and Ottoman periods, Thursday, June 20th, 2019 at the Albright Institute, in Jerusalem. Our goal is to build up the LCP’s data set of
pottery of these later eras via descriptions and scientific analyses, and to add examples of specificvessels along with drawings and photographs.