Advances in Polychrome Ceramics in the Islamic World of the 12 th Century AD (original) (raw)
Related papers
Indigeneity and innovation of early Islamic glaze technology: the case of the Coptic Glazed Ware
Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences, 2020
This study investigates how the technology of Coptic Glazed Ware (CGW)-which is one of the earliest examples of Islamic glazed pottery-was developed, allowing for an insight into the mechanisms that contributed to the making of early Islamic material culture. The range of technologies of 20 CGW samples recovered from different sites in Israel was reconstructed, based on the characterisations by thin-section petrography, optical microscopy, and scanning electron microscopy energy-dispersive spectrometry. Our results show that the samples were originated from Aswan, Egypt. The procurement of kaolinitic clay from local deposits to form the ceramic body and slip, as well as the preference of painting as the principal mode of decoration, represents a continuation of the local fine ware tradition (Egyptian red and white slip ware and Coptic painted ware). The use of lead glaze was more akin to the Byzantine glaze technology. The CGW technology is further distinguished by the use of a diverse range of colourants and how the coloured glazes were prepared. Although individual elements of the CGW technology display influences from preceding and contemporaneous pottery technologies, it was not until the production of CGW that all these elements were combined together for the first time, highlighting the innovative character of the CGW technology. We argue that such innovation was born out of a strong local fine ware tradition that was embedded in the landscape of highly specialized craft production, while stimulating by a desire to establish new identities and new material representations by the Arab-Muslim newcomers.
Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences 12, 2020
This study investigates how the technology of Coptic Glazed Ware (CGW)-which is one of the earliest examples of Islamic glazed pottery-was developed, allowing for an insight into the mechanisms that contributed to the making of early Islamic material culture. The range of technologies of 20 CGW samples recovered from different sites in Israel was reconstructed, based on the characterisations by thin-section petrography, optical microscopy, and scanning electron microscopy energy-dispersive spectrometry. Our results show that the samples were originated from Aswan, Egypt. The procurement of kaolinitic clay from local deposits to form the ceramic body and slip, as well as the preference of painting as the principal mode of decoration, represents a continuation of the local fine ware tradition (Egyptian red and white slip ware and Coptic painted ware). The use of lead glaze was more akin to the Byzantine glaze technology. The CGW technology is further distinguished by the use of a diverse range of colourants and how the coloured glazes were prepared. Although individual elements of the CGW technology display influences from preceding and contemporaneous pottery technologies, it was not until the production of CGW that all these elements were combined together for the first time, highlighting the innovative character of the CGW technology. We argue that such innovation was born out of a strong local fine ware tradition that was embedded in the landscape of highly specialized craft production, while stimulating by a desire to establish new identities and new material representations by the Arab-Muslim newcomers.
Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry, 2009
The paper presents an analytical method developed for the nondestructive study of nineteenth-century Persian polychrome underglaze painted tiles. As an example, 9 tiles from French and German museum collections were investigated. Before this work was undertaken little was known about the materials used in pottery at that time, although the broad range of colors and shades, together with their brilliant glazes, made these objects stand out when compared with Iranian ceramics of the preceding periods and suggested the use of new pigments, colorants, and glaze compositions. These materials are thought to be related to provenance and as such appropriate criteria for art-historical attribution. The analytical method is based on the combination of different nondestructive spectroscopic techniques using microfocused beams such as protoninduced X-ray emission/proton-induced γ-ray emission, X-ray fluorescence, 3D X-ray absorption near edge structure, and confocal Raman spectroscopy and also visible spectroscopy. It was established to address the specific difficulties these objects and the technique of underglaze painting raise. The exact definition of the colors observed on the tiles using the Natural Color System® © helped to attribute them to different colorants. It was possible to establish the presence of Cr-and U-based colorants as new materials in nineteenth-century Persian tilemaking. The difference in glaze composition (Pb, Sn, Na, and K contents) as well as the use of B and Sn were identified as a potential marker for different workshops.
Journal of Archaeological Science, 2014
Seventeenth century polychrome overglaze haft rang tiles found in various regions of Iran (Isfahan, Qazvin, Mashhad, and Mazandaran) were investigated with ultravioletevisible spectroscopy (UVeVis), portable X-ray fluorescence (pXRF), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), and micro-Raman spectroscopy. Two types of glazes were identified, namely low lead-alkali and high lead glazes, in which cobalt, copper, iron, and manganese were used as colourants. Tin oxide and lead-tin yellow were recognised as white and yellow opacifiers respectively. The black line, which was used for delineating the tiles' design, was mainly composed of manganese, iron, and aluminium oxides. The high maturing temperature of this line prevented the low-temperature coloured glazes run together during the firing. Finally, technological differences between haft rang and cuerda seca techniques are highlighted and minai overglazes are briefly compared with haft rang overglazes.
2017
This paper presents an analysis of glazes of vessels unearthed in archaeological excavation in the Vega of Granada (south-east Spain) and that can be dated between the 9 th and the 12 th centuries AD. The material analysed includes the first glazed ceramics produced in AlAndalus after the Islamic occupation of the Peninsula. From a very early period (mid to late9 th century) there is a coexistence of lead-alkaline monochrome (green and honey) glazed vessels, and of polychrome decorated (green, white and brown) tin-glazed, wares early examples of the so called green and manganese wares. From the 10th century onwards honey lead-alkaline glazed vessels often with manganese-painted decorations are found. The chemical composition of the ceramic pastes, glazes and decorations as well as of the microcrystallites present in the glazes is obtained from polished cross sections of the glazes by SEM-EDS, OM and EPM. Information about the materials and methods of production is discussed and comp...
Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, 2020
The production of polychrome decorated ceramics began in Ifriqiya in the 9 th century under Aghlabid rule, with continuity during the 10 th century under the Fatimids. These comprised finely painted brown and green designs with a characteristic yellow background (a transparent lead glaze containing iron oxide). This production was substituted in the 11 th century by a polychrome production over a white tin opaque glaze. The hypothesis stating that tin glazes were introduced in Tunisia after the Fatimids took over Egypt has been recently proposed. However, polychrome ceramics with a white opaque background have been found in 10 th century archaeological sites which might indicate otherwise. A ceramic assemblage found at the site of Bir Ftouha dating from the Fatimid-Zirid period which contains polychrome with both transparent yellow and white opaque backgrounds has been analysed. The white opaque glazes do not contain tin but were opacified by the addition of large quartz particles. This study supports the theory that tin glazes reached Tunisia after the Fatimid occupation of Egypt and is the first step to answering many open questions regarding the spread of tin glaze in the Mediterranean, the role of the Fatimids and the connections of Ifriqiya with Islamic Spain and Sicily.
Revisiting the beginnings of tin-opacified Islamic glazes
The generally accepted theory is that the demand for Islamic glazed pottery started in Abbasid Iraq in the 9th century AD with the production of a range of glazed wares in response to the import of Chinese stonewares and porcelains. However, Oliver Watson has recently proposed that the demand for Islamic glazed pottery first occurred in Egypt and Syria in the 8th century AD resulting in the production of opaque yellow decorated wares. Using a combination of SEM analysis of polished cross-sections, and surface analysis using hand-held XRF or PIXE, Coptic Glazed Ware from Egypt, Yellow Glazed Ware from Syria, and comparable wares from Samarra, Kish and Susa have been analysed. The analyses show that the opaque yellow decoration was the result of lead stannate particles in a high lead glaze, which it is suggested was produced using a lead-silica-tin mixture. The use of lead stannate in the production of yellow opaque glazes is explained in terms of technological transfer from contemporary Islamic glass- makers who continued the Byzantine tradition of glassmaking. It is further argued that the introduction of opaque yellow glazed pottery into Mesopotamia could have provided the social context for the sudden emergence of tin-opacified white glazed pottery in Abbasid Iraq in the 9th century AD. However, in view of the very different glaze compositions employed for the yellow and white opaque glazes, it seems probable that the white tin-opacified glazes used for Abbasid cobalt blue and lustre decorated wares represent a separate but parallel technological tradition with its origins in the production of Islamic opaque white glass.
2015
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