Common ware production at Thamusida : dating and characterisation of Roman and Islamic pottery
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ORIGINAL PAPER
Common ware production at Thamusida: dating and characterisation of Roman and Islamic pottery E. Gliozzo & D. D’Aco & I. Memmi Turbanti & A. Galli & M. Martini & E. Sibilia
Received: 27 November 2008 / Accepted: 26 February 2009 / Published online: 11 March 2009 # Springer-Verlag 2009
Abstract Twenty-one samples of likely Roman, likely Islamic and unknown common ware from the archaeological site of Thamusida (Rabat, Morocco) were analysed in order to anchor selected types of pottery to a limited time span and, possibly, to a production area and technology. Analytical techniques were thermoluminescence, optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy and X-ray fluorescence. The results arising from this research are definitely useful for the study of the site of Thamusida as well as for all researchers involved in archaeological and archaeometrical research in Morocco. Chronologies proposed on a typological base have been denied twice: a likely Islamic cup dates back to the second century A.D.; vice versa, a stewpot, framed into the Roman period, resulted to be an eighth century A.D. production. Moreover, the identification of an eighteenth century ceramic producE. Gliozzo (*) : I. Memmi Turbanti Department of Earth Sciences, University of Siena, via Laterina 8, 53100 Siena, Italy e-mail: [email protected] D. D’Aco Department of Archaeology and History of Arts, University of Siena, via Roma 52, 53100 Siena, Italy A. Galli CNR-INFM and Department of Materials Sciences, University of Milano Bicocca, via R. Cozzi 53, 20125 Milan, Italy M. Martini : E. Sibilia Department of Materials Sciences, University of Milano Bicocca, via R. Cozzi 53, 20125 Milan, Italy
tion is of outstanding importance, as it characterises a completely unknown production. Regarding the production area, four samples of both Roman and Islamic periods have been recognised as local productions of Thamusida. Keywords Roman tableware . Islamic tableware . Ceramic . Thamusida (Morocco)
Archaeological background and issues In the frame of a comprehensive study of archaeological findings from Thamusida (Rabat, Morocco), common ware of both Roman and Islamic periods deserves a special attention. The archaeological investigations brought to light both pottery and production plants, offering a privileged situation for studying ceramic production and imports (Camporeale 2008; Cerri 2008). On the other hand, the study of common ware has been often neglected, yet favouring well-known and informative ceramic categories such as Roman terra sigillata or Islamic glazed pottery. Archaeological studies on excavations performed in Morocco examined common ware from defined stratigraphical context only occasionally. Very few typological studies stand for comparison, making hard to indicate a precise chronological framework for this ceramic production or even to distinguish Roman common ware from Islamic one. References are currently available for findings from the necropolis of Sala (Rabat, Morocco), for the archaeological sites Thamusida (Rabat, Morocc
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