New Data on Different Patterns of Obsidian Procurement in Georgia (Southern Caucasus) during the Chalcolithic, Bronze and Iron Age Periods

The analysis of 107 obsidian samples collected in the course of the archaeological investigations carried out from 2009 to 2019 by the Georgian-Italian expeditions in Eastern Georgia in the provinces of Shida Kartli (Natsargora, Aradetis Orgora and Okherakhevi) and Kakheti (Tsiteli Gorebi 5) allowed us to confirm the existence of two contrasting obsidian procurement patterns in the region. Virtually all the samples (56 out of 57) from the province of Shida Kartli, west of the present capital Tbilisi, regardless of their site of origin and of their date, which varies from the late 4th to the early 1st millennium BC, originate from a single general source (i.e., the outcrops of the Chikiani volcano near lake Paravani in southern Georgia). On the other hand, the samples from the early 5th millennium site of Tsiteli Gorebi 5 in the province of Kakheti, close to the present border of Azerbaijan, originate from seven different volcanoes located in Armenia (Gegham, Syunik, Gutansar and Tsaghkunyats), in southern Georgia (Chikiani), and in eastern Turkey (Sarıkamış region and Yağlıca Dağ). They thus outline for Kakheti a more complex multisource procurement pattern, already familiar from other sites of the same region, as well as of the neighbouring area beyond the Georgian/Azerbaijani and Georgian/Armenian borders, which deserves being further investigated in the future

New Data on the Archaeological Obsidians of the Banat and Transylvania

Società per la Preistoria e Protostoria della Regione Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Quaderno 12 - ISSN

Natron glass production and supply in the late antique and early medieval Near East: The effect of the Byzantine-Islamic transition

Palestine and Egypt supplied the Mediterranean and Europe with virtually all of its glass for most of the first millennium CE. While the Muslim conquest in the 7th century saw major political and economic adjustment, immediate changes to material culture appear to have been minimal. This paper examines the impact of the Byzantine-Islamic transition on the natron glass industry of Palestine from the 7th to 12th century. A series of 133 well-contextualised glass vessels from selected excavations in modern day Israel have been analysed for major, minor and trace elements using LA-ICP-MS. These glasses are assigned to previously established primary production groups, allowing the elucidation of the chronology of key changes in glass production in the region. Results indicate a relatively abrupt compositional change in the late 7th - early 8th centuries, covering the reforming reigns of al-Malik and al-Walid, which marks the end of “Byzantine” glass production and the establishment of the furnaces at Bet Eli'ezer. At about this time there was an influx of glass of an Egyptian composition. Production of Bet Eli'ezer type glass appears to have been limited to a short time span, less than 50 years, after which natron glass production in Palestine ceased. Plant ash glass is first encountered in the late 8th-early 9th century, probably as a result of reduced local natron glass production creating the conditions in which plant ash glass technology was adopted. Egypt continued to produce natron glass for up to a century after its demise in Palestine. It is reasoned that the change and then collapse in natron glass production in Palestine may well have been as a consequence of a reduction in the quantities of available natron. This affected Palestine first, and Egypt up to 100 years later, which suggests that the factors causing the reduction in natron supply originated at the source and were long term and gradual, not short term events

New Data on the Archaeological Obsidians of the Banat and Transylvania

Società per la Preistoria e Protostoria della Regione Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Quaderno 12 - ISSN

Shanidar Cave and the Baradostian, a Zagros Aurignacian industry

Whilst there has been significant interest in the origins and spread of the Aurignacian industry, usually linked with the physical dispersal of anatomically modern humans into Europe, comparatively little attention has been paid to possible origins or movements further east. Recent work at Shanidar Cave, a site better known for the Neanderthal evidence discovered by Ralph Solecki in his 1951–1960 excavations, has recovered new information on the “Baradostian” Upper Palaeolithic in Iraq. This paper reviews the regional evidence for the Baradostian as an example of the Zagros Aurignacian and discusses its place in debates about Neanderthal/Modern Human relations.The financial support of the Leverhulme Trust (Research Grant RPG-2013-105), the Rust Family Foundation, and Natural Environment Research Council's Oxford Radiocarbon Dating Facility (grant NF/2016/2/14) is also gratefully acknowledged

Compositional observations for Islamic Glass from Sīrāf, Iran, in the Corning Museum of Glass collection

The medieval port city of Sīrāf (ca. 800–1050 CE) on the north coast of the Persian/Arabian Gulf linked the core lands of the ‘Abbāsid caliphate with India, China, Africa, and beyond. 101 glass fragments recovered from the 1966–1973 excavations at Sīrāf and now at the Corning Museum of Glass were analysed using LA-ICPMS in order to explore the glassmaking raw materials and technology of the objects found within the city, as well as to address issues of the production and trade of glass during the Islamic period. The results indicate that the main groups of glass at Sīrāf likely date to the 9th–early 11th centuries and can be subdivided by the trace elements zirconium and chromium. Chemical matches with some likely Indian glass, and with glass finds from South and Southeast Asia, underline the pivotal role of the Gulf in the eastward movement of Islamic glass via the Indian Ocean trade network, as well as the influx of Indian glass into the Islamic world. Glass bangles and a small number of vessel fragments likely date to the late 11th century or later, and their chemical compositions indicate different production origins

The use of micro-XRD for the study of glaze color decorations

The compounds responsible for the colours and decorations in glass and glazed ceramics include: colouring agents (transition metal ions), pigments (micro-and nano-precipitates of compounds that either do not dissolve or recrystallize in the glassy matrix) and opacifiers (microcrystalline compounds with high light scattering capability). Their composition, structure and range of stability are highly dependent not only on the composition but also on the procedures followed to obtain them. Chemical composition of the colorants and crystallites may be obtained by means of SEM-EDX and WDX. Synchrotron Radiation micro-X-ray Diffraction has a small beam size adequate (10 to 50 microns footprint size) to obtain the structural information of crystalline compounds and high brilliance, optimal for determining the crystallites even when present in low amounts. In addition, in glass decorations the crystallites often appear forming thin layers (from 10 to 100 micrometers thick) and they show a depth dependent composition and crystal structure. Their nature and distribution across the glass/glazes decorations gives direct information on the technology of production and stability and may be related to the color and appearance. A selection of glass and glaze coloring agents and decorations are studied by means of SR-micro- XRD and SEM-EDX including: manganese brown, antimony yellow, red copper lusters and cobalt blue. The selection includes Medieval (Islamic, and Hispano Moresque) and renaissance tin glazed ceramics from the 10th to the 17th century AD

Composition, production and procurement of glass at San Vincenzo: an early medieval monastic complex in southern Italy

136 glasses from the ninth-century monastery of San Vincenzo and its workshops have been analysed by electron microprobe in order to situate the assemblage within the first millennium CE glass making tradition. The majority of the glass compositions can be paralleled by Roman glass from the first to third centuries, with very few samples consistent with later compositional groups. Colours for trailed decoration on vessels, for vessel bodies and for sheet glass for windows were largely produced by melting the glass tesserae from old Roman mosaics. Some weakly-coloured transparent glass was obtained by re-melting Roman window glass, while some was produced by melting and mixing of tesserae, excluding the strongly coloured cobalt blues. Our data suggest that to feed the needs of the glass workshop, the bulk of the glass was removed as tesserae and windows from a large Roman building. This is consistent with a historical account according to which the granite columns of the monastic church were spolia from a Roman temple in the region. The purported shortage of natron from Egypt does not appear to explain the dependency of San Vincenzo on old Roman glass. Rather, the absence of contemporary primary glass may reflect the downturn in long-distance trade in the later first millennium C.E., and the role of patronage in the “ritual economy” founded upon donations and gift-giving of the time

Gird-i Rostam 2018: Preliminary Report on the First Season of Excavations by the Joint Kurdish-German-American Team

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