Indigeneity and innovation of early Islamic glaze technology: the case of the Coptic Glazed Ware
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ORIGINAL PAPER
Indigeneity and innovation of early Islamic glaze technology: the case of the Coptic Glazed Ware Carmen Ting 1
&
Itamar Taxel 2
Received: 10 September 2019 / Accepted: 23 December 2019 / Published online: 13 January 2020 # Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract 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. Keywords Glaze technology . Mediaeval ceramics . Early Islamic period . Egypt . Levant . Technological change
Introduction The emergence of Islamic glazes in the eighth century had sparked a chain of revolutions in ceramic technology, production and consumption habits and artistic representations. As such, Islamic glazes are the focus of many art-historical and technological studies (e.g. Mason 2004; Watson 2004, 2017). Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-019-01007-y) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. * Carmen Ting [email protected] Itamar Taxel [email protected] 1
McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3ER, UK
2
Archaeological Research Department, Israel Antiquities Authority, P.O.B. 586, 91004 Jerusalem, Israel
Particular emphasis has been placed on the opaque glazed wares because tin-opacified glaze technology was advocated as a genuine Islamic invention originating from Iraq around the ninth century, driven by the desire to imi
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