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The paper presented focuses on a small percentage of ceramics, polychrome glazed ware, from the Middle Ages coming from the excavations at the monastery of St. Francis of Assisi, in Cosenza (Calabria, Italy). It concerned unpublished data on a medieval context, almost unknown that enrich the regional panorama on circulation and production of these artifacts. The quantified materials come from modern stratigraphy, so it is not possible any reflection on every kind of chronological evolution of the typology. However, the autopsy study of the mixtures, the description of shapes and decorations enhances the current knowledge on the subject and in any event allows the first important reflections of a medieval city like Cosenza, that seems to project more toward markets Puglia and Campania, with also the presence of Islamic imported ceramics.
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Medieval ceramics from Paterna and Manises were highly prized and very widely traded in the Mediterranean and Atlantic Europe during the Middle Ages. Although a decline in their presence can be observed in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries due to the boom in Italian majolica, they continued to be distributed, despite the fact that they now represented old-fashioned styles and tastes. The eighteenth century saw the beginnings of a certain commercial recovery, thanks to tiles from the factories in the city of Valencia. The Royal Factory at Alcora (Castellón), in the north of the Valencian region, played an important part in this revival of taste, and its products came to be widely distributed throughout the Spanish-speaking world. This study presents a general overview of the commercial distribution of Valencian ceramics between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries based on archaeological and historical evidence.
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The Adriatic Sea has been for centuries a crossroads where different from each communities to ethnic, cultural and religious orientation have found an opportunity to meet, creating a dense set of relationships and cultural connections.The study of the evolution of dietary practices and convivial habits is an interesting observatory to deepen the knowledge on the interactions between these communities over the time. In this perspective the role of ceramics, as material well directly related to the consumption of food, acquires great significance beyond the mere value of commercial traffic indicator.Specifically the function of maiolica, pottery mainly linked to the tables, lends itself to shed light on the dietary practices and convivial table habits, where the socio-cultural identities are subject to numerous forms of contamination. The study of the diffusion of Italian maiolica on the east Adriatic coast is therefore a way to enhance our understanding of cultural influences between East and West in the early centuries of the Modern Age.This paper analyzes the phenomenon of the spread of Italian maiolica and in particular of that produced in Castelli (Teramo, Abruzzo) in the Eastern Adriatic in the Early Modern Age (c. 1550—1700). The recent interest of scholars on the circulation of post-medieval ceramics in the Eastern Mediterranean has highlighted new archaeological contexts that also returned maiolica from Castelli. The analysis of the state of knowledge firstly allows us to outline the contours of the phenomenon and then draw future research developments.
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The study of medieval and post-medieval pottery in Greece and the Eastern Mediterranean has attracted significant interest in recent years. The purpose of this paper is to outline the main trends in the medieval countryside based on the evidence of archaeological regional surveys in central and southern Greece. These projects have established that glazed pottery circulated widely in the 12th and 13th centuries CE. The availability of substantial bodies of ceramic material from rural areas allows us to address questions of production and consumption patterns over time. It is well documented that in southern Greece the quantity of glazed wares increased dramatically after the late 11th century. This increase most likely indicates changes in the organization as well as the technology of glazed pottery production.This paper also includes a case study from the region of Nemea, in southern Greece. The Nemea Valley Archaeological Project (NVAP), an intensive regional survey undertaken in the 1980s, has established that glazed pottery is widely distributed in the Nemea valley and the surrounding area. NVAP also identified a medieval pottery workshop, which, most likely, produced glazed pottery. In addition, the excavations of the Sanctuary of Zeus at Nemea, have recovered large amounts of well-preserved medieval pottery, including diagnostic glazed wares.
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The Kalabaklı Valley is an approximately 12-km-long valley which extends towards the Hellespont in the south-east — north-west direction between 440-meter-high Bayraktepe in its north-east and 407-meter-high Beşiktepe in its south. Located in the south of the point at which the Kalabaklı Tributary reached the strait, Dardanos was an episcopal center in the Byzantine period. Probably, the settlement of the episcopacy of Dardanos also spread to Kepez in the north of the point at which the river reached the strait. Kepez has an important port, and numerous Byzantine glazed pottery items were detected during our surveys in this area. Vessels which were very analogous to the pottery in this area in terms of their paste, shape, and decoration characteristics were documented during the surveys we carried on in the Yağcılar Village in the upper section of the Kalabaklı Valley. Yağcılar, which we first detected during our surveys, has very rich surface materials, and the quality of the finds indicates that a production center probably existed.
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Glazed pottery finds from Aigai (Aiolis) excavations during 2004—2014 seasons are important finds from Byzantine settlements of Aigai ancient city. While doing studies to uncover Bouleuterion, Agora region and the road system of the ancient city, cisterns (nos. I—II) located in the acropolis of the city and near the agora, the church and the cistern in the northwest of the church have been discovered. Most of them are fragmentary. They are not contextual finds. Still, they are worthwhile in that they present a relative chronology. Late Roman/Early Byzantine period is represented with few finds for now. This period is followed by Middle Byzantine period which have again few finds. Probably these red fabric groups might have come from distant regions. Some of the finds known as Middle Byzantine groups are distinguished because of their similarity to Khalkis production in terms of their form and ornament. We need further information to evaluate white fabric finds. Other distinctive groups in terms of their quality and quantity are from Late Byzantine period of Western Anatolia. These are very similar to the finds from Pergamon, Sardis, Nif (Olympus-Başpınar Church) and The Agora of Smyrna located nearby Aigai. Aigai was on the list of bishopric till the early 13th century. Finds uncovered in Aigai are the first archeological data regarding Aigai ancient city during Byzantine period. Glazed ceramics must be dated to the mid-12th century — early 14th century.
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This study consists of initial observations made upon Byzantine, Seljuk, Begliks and Ottoman pottery finds from the Aphrodisias excavations since 2013. Chronology of the pottery finds uncovered in the North Avenue, South Agora, Hadrianic Baths, Theatre and Temple of Aphrodite will be presented briefly. To resolve the contexts in which the potteries belong to, the emphasis is on the history of the city and political events that could have potentially caused considerable changes to the economy. By establishing analogies and considering the chronology of the city, an attempt is made herein to put the pottery finds into their possible contexts.Through the end of the 9th century in Aphrodisias, a sudden rise in the quantity of Byzantine potteries is observed. The city was in commercially connected to Constantinople and centers such as the Adriatic Coasts or Corinth. Pieces of Fine Sgrafitto Ware, Green and Brown Painted Ware and Slip Painted Ware produced from the middle of the 12th century and the beginning of the 13th century have been found in many areas of the city. Very few pottery finds belonging to the Seljuk period have been uncovered. In Aphrodisias, glazed pottery production probably started during the Byzantine or Begliks period.There was a period of growth in Aphrodisias from the first quarter of 15th century to the mid 16th century. In excavated areas, a large number of pottery finds have been found. With the change of commercial routes in the 17th century, the city was increasingly reduced into a rural settlement and has subsisted to the present day.
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The cross disciplinary comparison of sources enables us to ask questions about objects and practices by analysing and describing the functions, often lost, of certain types of pottery. This article is dedicated to pottery used by Islamic physicians — pots and pans, different types of jars. The texts, general medical manuals and dictionary written in Iraq, Syria, Arabia and Iran between the 8th and 15th centuries are an extremely valuable source of information on medicinal substances, recipes for compound remedies and utensils. A number of illustrations in Islamic manuscript depicting physician activities reflect contemporaneous medical practises. They could sometimes help us to understand the use of objects found in excavations. The archaeological material of my corpus comes from a range of sites in Syria, Lebanon and Iraq. By comparing the data, I present various pottery used in curative medicine in the Islamic world.
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Glazed pottery from the Belgrade Fortress, already evaluated contextually and typologically, allow us to address some important issues of pottery production and craft specialisation in the Ottoman period (16th—17th centuries). In order to determine the degree of pottery standardisation, this article will analyse the main production parameters, such as shape, size/volume and production technology. The production organisation and craft skills in all aspects of pottery making are examined as well.
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Archaeological excavations conducted by German and French teams in the citadels of Damascus and Aleppo in the early 2000s, occasional discoveries in the Middle East, Istanbul and Cyprus as well as the publication of ancient excavations highlighted a specific group of painted tableware made in a siliceous fabric. This Ottoman pottery has obvious stylistic similarities with the famous pieces manufactured in the Iznik workshops in the 16th and 17th centuries. This article is dedicated to the so-called Syrian Polychrome Ware probably manufactured in Damascus on a date that is difficult to specify. We will show how this Syrian Ottoman production was similar to the Iznik wares and how it differed. We will try to define the date of manufacture — probably in the late 16th and 17th centuries — and identify the potters. Were they itinerant craftsmen who knew how to make Iznik pottery and, changing their place of residence, were making similar bowls from different raw materials? Were they potters from Damascus, the descendants of the Mamluk craftsmen? In that case, did they have at their disposal the original? The status of these objects is also raised. They were not slavish imitations but Iznik derivatives — the copy was partial, incomplete and of uneven quality. The objective of the potters was not to copy to mislead the consumers but rather to take inspiration from the models to please. The study of archaeological finds and pottery preserved in European museums allows dealing with these issues.
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Whereas historical, political and cultural studies reach the postmedieval period in Lebanon, interests for archaeological artifacts remains neglected.The archaeological excavations undertaken in 1996 and 1997 in Beirut, sites Bey 070, Bey 071 and Bey 111, led to the discovery of tableware ceramics (in the surface layers) dated to the 16th —19th centuries.In this paper, we examine tableware ceramics of various origins: Didymoteicho and Çanakkale (Thrace), Kütahya and Iznik (Analolia), Pisa and Montelupo (Tuscany), Albisola in Liguria, Varages in Provence, European porcelain, as well as local and/or regional ceramics.
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In the article we publish the collection of 11 complete and two partially restored dishes and one lid, found during the excavations in the old Bulgarian monastery at the village of Ravna, Provadia region. They were found in fragments in the yard and in a room near the representative building, which could be considered as the residence of the abbot and of the visitors of the monastery. All of dishes are import from Byzantium, dating around the middle of the 10th c. The stratigraphic data allow us to determine the upper limit of their use to be before the burning of the monastery, which most probably happened during the events in Bulgaria during 969—971. Judging by the technique of manufacturing and the decorations, the dishes belong to the so-called Glazed White Ware. They are covered with dark-green or grass-green and light-yellow or yellow-brownish glazing. There is also inscribed or impressed decoration under the glazing.The goal of this publication is to focus the attention of the specialist on Byzantine pottery in the collection, to determine more precisely its dating and a possible place of manufacturing.
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This paper completes the information regarding the glazed pottery from 10th—11th century from the western region of the Black Sea, from Dobrudja. Majority of the new discoveries belongs to the group with monochrome glaze (green-olive), rarely polychrome (green-olive with yellow; greenish-yellow on a chestnut background). The material, mostly fragmentary, comes from jugs, pots and cups of different sizes. Among other finds, a glazed clay egg was discovered at Hârşova. Glazed pottery from the two analyzed settlements represents local productions and imports, several fragments were studied by using archaeometric analysis, some data regarding the glaze are presented at the end of the article.
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This study presents glazed pottery from the medieval settlement near Polski Gradec village, occupied during the 11th—12th century. There are three main groups of glazed vessels: plain wares, painted wares and sgraffito wares. They are compared with the glazed pottery from various centres from the Byzantine cultural circle. According to the colour of the clay, the plain wares are divided into two groups — white wares and red wares. The white clay pottery is presented by two classes — “undecorated wares” and Persian lusterware with light blue glaze. The red clay pottery consists of the classes “Brown glazed ware”,“Spatter Painted Ware” and Sgraffito Ware. There are three sgraffito groups — Fine Sgraffito — which has three styles: “Fine style”, “Spiral style”, “Developed style” — “Champlevée”, and the so-called “Bulgarian sgraffito”. Plates of the known class of the “Painted sgraffito” were not found in the settlement. The Painted Wares belong to the “Green and brown painted wares” class and the vessels are divided into three groups.The analysis of the glazed pottery from the territory of the Byzantine cultural circle let us identify the production centres of particular groups of vessels. This raises the question about the trade routes and the circulation of the glazed pottery. It also helps us understand the trade ties in and out of the Byzantine Empire.
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The paper makes an overview of the imported Byzantine sgraffito pottery distributed in the towns along the Bulgarian Black Sea coast from the end of the 11th — 12th century until the end of the 14th century. These are the following types: “Fine sgraffito ware”, “Painted fine sgraffito”, “Incised sgraffito” “Champlevé ware” and “Elaborate incised ware”. Forms of vessels, specific decoration and designs are described. Their chronology is based on analogies with similar finds from Byzantine territories.
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This study if focused on pieces of the so called stone-paste (Qashan) ceramics, found during archaeological excavations on the two citadels in the capital of the Second Bulgarian kingdom. Most of the findings are shards that come from the Southern part of Trapezitsa. There is also a restored bowl found at area 14 at Tsarvets. Their context is dated to the 13th—14th century. Not numerous artifacts of this kind, among the ceramic assemblage in this context, as stone-paste ware, Celadon ware and Western majolica ware, show that import of decorated luxory ceramic wares to the Bulgarian capital was limited.The examples of stone-paste wares presented here were made at important production centres of the Golden Horde ion the Lower Volga region and at the workshops of Mamluk Egypt. These evidences of distant trade connections are exotic exceptions among the art ware ceramic assemblage of medieval Tarnovo.
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The author has collected all available (at the time of writing) finds of glazed pottery and elements of architectural decor, as well as information about them, from the territory of understudied archaeological sites in the Northern Caucasus. Generally, these are Golden Horde artefacts, which can complement our knowledge about the diversity of glazed pottery in the region, which is compared here with the analogies from the Golden Horde Volga region. Besides, the author refers to the finds supporting diversified connections between the Northern Caucasus and the environs of Derbent and North-Eastern Azerbaijan: the author maintains that these were the sources of ceramics within 1222—1230.
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