Defining new technological traditions of Late Islamic Arabia: a view on Bahlā Ware from al-Ain (UAE) and the lead-barium glaze production

© 2019, The Author(s). In this paper, the monochrome glazed Bahlā Ware from al-Ain dated between the seventeenth and twentieth centuries (Late Islamic Arabian Period) has been analysed aiming to reconstruct the production technology of the ceramic fabrics and glazes. The results of the petrographic and chemical analyses suggest a unique technological tradition embedded in the culture of Late Islamic Arabia. This tradition incorporates the production of a lead-barium glaze coated over a single type of ceramic fabric that spans for nearly three centuries. Since this is the first evidence for the production of a lead-barium glaze in the Islamic World, the origins of this technology remain uncertain, but the results of the ceramic petrography identify the Omani Peninsula as the most likely source for the ceramic fabric. During the economic peak of al-Ain in the eighteenth century, this tradition shows signs of technological diversity visible in the appearance of new fabrics and glazes. Considering the wide distribution of Bahlā Ware in the Western Indian Ocean, understanding of the production technology and provenance of al-Ain’s ceramics has important implications for archaeological interpretation

Technology and organisation of early Cycladic metallurgy : copper on Seriphos and Keros, Greece

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Archaeology of consumption in Ottoman urban centres: the case study of Iznik ware from the Belgrade Fortress in the 16th and 17th centuries

This article advocates a holistic approach to consumption studies in the urban centres of the Middle Danube region during the Ottoman period (16th-17th centuries) using the example of Iznik ware from the Belgrade Fortress. Combined results of archaeological and scientific research provide insight into regional consumption patterns, which is important for the understanding of cultural variability across the Ottoman Empire. This work emphasizes the importance of contextualized studies of archaeological ceramics in the development of post-medieval archaeology

New information on early Islamic ceramic production and distribution in the Gulf: Siraf, Bushehr and Fulayj

Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies Volume 52 2023: Papers from the fifty-fifth meeting of the Seminar for Arabian Studies held at Humboldt Universität, Berlin, 5–7 August 2022.In this paper a new petrographic study of ceramics from the early Islamic period in the Gulf is presented. The paper considers samples coming from Siraf (Iran), excavated by David Whitehouse (and conserved in the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, UK), samples from the Iranian coast of Bushehr (recovered by Andrew Williamson and conserved in the collection that bears his name in Durham, UK) and some samples from Fulayj, Oman (excavated by a team co-directed by Seth Priestman, Nasser Al-Jahwari, Eve MacDonald and Derek Kennet). The technique of analysis is petrography, that offers compositional (mineralogy and petrology) and textural information (distribution and arrangement of inclusions). This technique can be used to interpret the technological procedures involved in the manufacturing of the ceramics and to characterise products from particular areas, thus helping to clarify trends of distribution of wares across time. The samples of these collections have been classified according to Priestman’s Indian Ocean Pottery Classification (IOPC, Priestman ii.2021), providing an important link between macroscopic and microscopic analyses. The results are also compared with samples previously analysed from Murwab and the Old Doha excavations, providing an overview of the production technology and exchange of ceramics in the early Islamic Gulf over the longue durée.This research has been supported by the Albert Reckitt Fund through a British Academy Small Grant.Peer reviewe

Petrographic analysis of ceramics from Murwab, an early Islamic site in Qatar.

Murwab is one of the most important early Islamic archaeological villages in the Arabian Peninsula and the Persian Gulf, and one of the best-known. Excavated since the 1950s, the site has yielded a complete pottery assemblage which allows the site to be dated from the late eighth to the late ninth century AD. This paper presents an analysis of the ceramics of Murwab. The analysis is undertaken on a selection of 134 pottery sherds of common ware/‘kitchen’ ware without glaze and encompasses a petrographic study and elemental analysis using wavelength dispersive X-ray fluorescence spectrometry (WDXRF). The results of the petrographic analysis and some preliminary thoughts on the chemical analysis are discussed in the text. Twelve ceramic fabrics have been detected in the assemblage studied. The composition of the fabrics allows some preliminary suggestions about provenance to be drawn: none of the fabrics was locally made in Qatar and most of them seem to come from Mesopotamia, eastern Arabia, and southern Iran. The technology of the ceramics reveals an approach to the manufacture of common wares that is characteristic of the Upper and Central Gulf (corresponding roughly to the Gulf coast west of the Musandam Peninsula, including Khuzestan and Bushehr in Iran). It is not known when this technological approach started, but it does not seem to be documented in the Bronze Age. </p