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Early mediaeval Iraqi Lustre-painted and associated wares: typology in a multidisciplinary study

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 August 2014

Robert B. Mason
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Extract

The study of ceramics in the mediaeval Middle East has traditionally been divided into two separate fields, those of archaeology and art history. Archaeologists have generally focused on the finds from their own sites, seeking only precise comparanda for publication. High-quality glazed ceramics such as lustre-wares were made in a restricted number of centres and distributed over a very large area, and thus may be a small percentage of the total ceramic assemblage. No archaeologist constrained to analysis of material from their own site has ever had the opportunity to examine the fine wares as a complete corpus. Broad all-encompassing approaches to the fine wares have only been attempted by art historians utilizing traditional connoisseurship techniques and focusing on the whole vessels which have appeared on the art market since the nineteenth century.

This paper represents the reporting of a component of a larger study that is the first attempt at providing a chronology for Middle Eastern élite glazed wares dating from about 700 to 1340 (all dates are in the “common era” or AD) based on the methodologies of archaeological ceramic study. This forms part of a comprehensive multidisciplinary study, including the application of the scanning electron microscope (SEM) with X-ray spectroscopy and petrographic analysis.

Type
Research Article
Information
IRAQ , Volume 59 , 1997 , pp. 15 - 61
Copyright
Copyright © The British Institute for the Study of Iraq 1997 

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Footnotes

*

West Asian Department, Royal Ontario Museum, 100 Queen's Park, Toronto, Ontario M2S 2C6, Canada.

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