Viva Sacco

In the last years there has been a renewed interest in Medieval Sicily. With this contribution, we would like to introduce the preliminary data of the survey undertaken in the Valle of Jato, situated in Palermo's hinterland. The time frame here taken into considerations extends from the 6 th to the 13 th centuries A.D. In this paper we would like to contribute to the reconstruction of the medieval history of this archaeological landscape, through the study of written sources, mainly the giarīda of Monreale, and of its material culture. The comparison of the pottery recovered in the valley with that of Palermo, object of a recent chrono-typological revision, has been very important for this study. Thanks to this we are able to recognise that some settlements already existed during the Islamic period, probably dating from around the 10 th century A.D., in spite of the fact that our first written sources are dated from the end of the 11 th century. Moreover, analysis of the ceramic...

The project, carried out in collaboration between the Department of Architecture of Palermo and the Archaeological Museum Antonino Salinas of Palermo, proposes a system of integration and reconstruction of ceramic artefacts, using modeling, 3D printing and rendering processes for an integrated museum exhibition system, which the viewers can observe the fragment nearing the re-reconstructed fragment that reconstructs the original morphology and an interactive digital model in which the viewers can also observe the metric aspect and, where present, the decorative apparatus.

Although wine was unquestionably one of the most important commodities traded in the Mediterranean during the Roman Empire, less is known about wine commerce after its fall and whether the trade continued in regions under Islamic control. To investigate, here we undertook systematic analysis of grapevine products in archaeological ceramics, encompassing the chemical analysis of 109 transport amphorae from the fifth to the eleventh centuries, as well as numerous control samples. By quantifying tartaric acid in relation to malic acid, we were able to distinguish grapevines from other fruit-based products with a high degree of confidence. Using these quantitative criteria, we show beyond doubt that wine continued to be traded through Sicily during the Islamic period. Wine was supplied locally within Sicily but also exported from Palermo to ports under Christian control. Such direct evidence supports the notion that Sicilian merchants continued to capitalize on profitable Mediterranean ...

Palermo in the 10th and the first half of the 11th century was one of the big Mediterranean cities, fully integrated in the dār al-islām and in the area of Fatimid prosperity. This article deals with the role of Palermo in the central Mediterranean, crossing the information coming from the written sources and from the recent archaeological finds. The written sources show that, with the Fatimids, Palermo’s harbour became a built harbour, characterized by imposing defences and fortified structures, which not only had a functional character but were also a representation of power. Furthermore, the written sources reflect the commercial centrality of Palermo, while the study of ceramics allows us to elaborate more and more detailed panoramas. This study attempts to give a picture of the productions identified for the Kalbid age (mid 10th-mid 11th century) and to use them as indicators of the Mediterranean traffics that intersected Palermo’s harbour. The data related both to importations and to the distribution of Palermo amphorae is beginning to trace out a broader and broader picture of the network of traffics, with routes that already connected Palermo with Ifrīqiya, the Tyrrhenian and the Adriatic in the first half of the 10th century. The study of glazed ceramics reinforces the amphorae-based evidence and establishes the circulation of Palermitan productions in the Tyrrhenian area. It also begins to document, though still weakly, the complexity of the networks which, after the transfer of the Fatimid capital to Cairo, came to characterize the areas gravitating in the caliphate’s orbit, as well as the integration of the Palermitan market in a vast commercial area and its penetration by fashions coming from the new centre of power.

The objective of this project is to build a low-­-cost system for surveying, modeling, prototyping and interactive visualizing aimed at the enhancement of islamic pottery finds of X-XI centuries. The system will allow various applications: the creation of systems for displaying artifacts from the museum alongside the exhibition, the virtual view of restorations from fragments, including AR and VR, the physical reconstruction of the original form using 3D printer to show the pieces in their entirety, as well as the construction of interactive virtual archives to be made available to scholars and visitors.

Cette these traite de differents themes lies a la production et a la circulation des objets ceramiques a Palerme entre le IXe et la premiere moitie du XIIe siecle. En particulier le travail prend en consideration le mobilier inedit decouvert lors des fouilles menees pres de l’eglise Santa Maria degli Angeli, plus connue sous le nom de Gancia, et pres du palais Bonagia. Les deux sites archeologiques sont situes rue Alloro dans le quartier de la “Kalsa”, une zone ou les specialistes concordent pour localiser la Ḫāliṣa, ville princiere fondee par les Fatimides en 937. L’objectif premier de cette etude est d’offrir un tableau plus systematique et plus large des productions circulant a Palerme entre le IXe et la premiere moitie du XIIe siecle, en affrontant les problemes methodologiques lies a leur etude ceramologique et en proposant de nouvelleschrono-typologies de reference. L’interpretation de ces donnees a permis d’utiliser la ceramique comme source historique, capable d’offrir nouve...

espanolEl objetivo de esta contribucion es proporcionar una clasificacion completa de los motivos zoomorfos y antropomorfos que decoran la ceramica vidriada palermitana. El ambito cronologico es de finales del siglo IX a finales del siglo XI, cuando Palermo estaba bajo el poder politico islamico y era la capital de Sicilia. En este periodo, la ciudad comenzo a producir articulos de mesa vidriados, ricamente decorados. El repertorio de motivos decorativos remite a temas generalizados en los productos ceramicos del mundo islamico, aunque proponga reinterpretaciones locales EnglishThe aim of this contribution is to provide a comprehensive classification on the zoomorphic and anthropomorphic motifs which decorate Palermitan glazed pottery. The chronological focus is the end of the 9th – 11th century, when Palermo was under the Islamic political power and the capital of Sicily. In this period the city began producing table glazed wares richly decorated. The repertoire of the decorative m...

Sicily, during the 9th-12th century AD, thrived politically, economically, and culturally under Islamic political rule and the capital of Palermo stood as a cultural and political centre in the Mediterranean Islamic world. However, to what extent the lifeways of the people that experienced these regimes were impacted during this time is not well understood, particularly those from lesser studied rural contexts. This paper presents the first organic residue analysis of 134 cooking pots and other domestic containers dating to the 9th -12th century in order to gain new insights into the culinary practices during this significant period. Ceramics from three sites in the urban capital of Palermo and from the rural town of Casale San Pietro were analysed and compared. The multi-faceted organic residue analysis identified a range of commodities including animal products, vegetables, beeswax, pine and fruit products in the ceramics, with a complex mixing of resources observed in many cases,...

The objective of this project is to build a low-cost system for surveying, modeling, prototyping and interactive visualizing aimed at the enhancement of islamic pottery finds of X – XI centuries. The system will allow various applications: the creation of systems for displaying artifacts from the museum alongside the exhibition, the virtual view of restorations from fragments, including AR and VR, the physical reconstruction of the original form using 3D printer to show the pieces in their entirety, as well as the construction of interactive virtual archives to be made available to scholars and visitors.

The project, carried out in collaboration between the Department of Architecture of Palermo and the Archaeological Museum Antonino Salinas of Palermo, proposes a system of integration and reconstruction of ceramic artefacts, using modeling, 3D printing and rendering processes for an integrated museum exhibition system. In this way the viewers can observe the fragment nearing the re-reconstructed fragment in its original morphology and an interactive digital model in which can also observe the metric aspect and, where present, the decorative apparatus.

This paper aims to show a general panorama of the Palermitan ceramic products circulating from the end of the ninth to the eleventh century. During this period Palermo was the capital of Islamic Sicily and covered an important role in the Mediterranean from a political, economic and cultural point of view. This has also impacted on pottery production. A new morphologic, technologic and decorative panorama is present during this phase, to face the new needs of a crescent population. Palermo developed a proper pottery language which is the result in part of the previous traditions and in part of the new contributions from the Islamic lands. The volume of Palermitan ceramic production increased considerably, not only to meet the metropolitan demand but also for the growing extra-urban (insular and extra-insular) requests.

Negli ultimi anni lo studio della Sicilia islamica, per lungo tempo affidato esclusivamente all’analisi delle fonti scritte, ha beneficiato di numerosi nuovi risultati archeologici che hanno permesso di accedere a nuovi tipi di informazioni utili a gettare luce su alcuni aspetti della storia sociale ed economica dell’isola. Allo stesso tempo si è reso necessario distinguere la cultura materiale tipica dell’età islamica da quella della successiva epoca normanna, a lungo considerate un tutt’uno. Questo nuovo approccio allo studio della Sicilia islamica ha fatto emergere in maniera più evidente il ruolo chiave che Palermo ebbe nelle dinamiche politiche, economiche e sociali del Mediterraneo centrale.
Il presente lavoro si inserisce in questa nuova fase degli studi concentrandosi sulla capitale siciliana, osservata attraverso il filtro delle sue produzioni fittili destinate sia al mercato locale sia al più ampio mercato mediterraneo, oltre che delle importazioni ceramiche. Per la prima volta vengono messi a sistema oltre 40.000 frammenti provenienti da contesti archeologici di diversi siti palermitani ed extra-urbani al fine di proporre un utile strumento di lavoro per lo studio dei depositi stratigrafici. Inoltre, questo lavoro classificatorio permette anche e soprattutto di mostrare il contributo che la fonte archeologica, ed in particolare la ceramica, può offrire nella ricostruzione della storia economica di un periodo e di un’area geografica a lungo considerati avvolti nell’oscurità.