Mamluk pottery

"In September 2005 the IAA Reports series introduced a new book, POTTERY OF THE CRUSADER, AYYUBID, AND MAMLUK PERIODS IN ISRAEL. This book, designed as an easy-to-use catalogue, is a first attempt to collect and distinguish pottery of these periods.In the modern state of Israel a considerable number of sites with strata from the Crusader, Ayyubid, and Mamluk periods have been excavated throughout the last years. These sites yielded a wealth of ceramic mate­rial that is thus far not well known. POTTERY OF THE CRUSADER, AYYUBID, AND MAMLUK PERIODS IN ISRAEL was written in order to fill this lacuna. It presents an up-to-date survey of pottery from the twelfth to the fifteenth centuries excavated in Israel through 2004. It is organized as a wide-ranging typology that includes the necessary scientific apparatus, 53 pottery figures illustrating the various types, and 34 color plates that vividly demonstrate the colors of the clay, glazes and decorations.
The catalogue is divided into three part: Part I presents the glazed table wares, comprised largely of glazed bowls, and less of closed glazed vessels. There is a wide range of locally produced wares, as well as wares imported from Egypt, Syria, Byzantium, Italy, Spain, and North Africa, and China. Part II deals with simple, mostly unglazed, domestic and industrial wares, as well as glazed cooking wares. Part III discusses the common oil lamps. The initial aim of the book is to assist the field archae­ologist in pottery sorting, as well as to help the interested ceramic specialists, students and readers in identifying and dating the various types.
The book is dedicated to the memory of Amir Drori (1937-2005), who was the founder and first director of the Israel Antiquities Authority (1989-2000)."

At Khirbat Din‘ila, pottery from the Crusader, Mamluk and perhaps, early Ottoman periods was uncovered. The majority of the assemblage dates to the Mamluk period (fourteenth–fifteenth centuries CE). This is the first Mamluk pottery assemblage in the southwestern Levant in general and Galilee in particular to be comprehensively studied, utilizing quantitative analysis and petrographic analyses. Unglazed wares are very common, comprising vessels used mainly for storing, transferring, preparing and serving food, and include handmade, wheel-made and mold-made wares. A large range of wheel-made glazed types were also found, consisting of cooking wares, table wares and oil lamps. A few imported glazed wares include Soft Paste wares from Syria and some glazed wares from Italy.

Jaffa was a port of call for merchant ships from across the Mediterranean
throughout most of its long history. This port also witnessed armies, explorers
and pilgrims passing through on their way to Jerusalem and the Holy Land. These activities are well attested in the historical record, as well as
by numerous archaeological excavations. However, during the mid-Mamluk and Early
Ottoman periods (mid-14th to 17th centuries CE) maritime movement at the
Jaffa port diminished considerably and the city appears to have been gradually
abandoned. Consequently, only few written sources refer to Jaffa and hardly
any archaeological finds dating from this period have been unearthed. This paper will examine ceramic evidence from the vicinity of Jaffa, in
particular from Ramla, and will show that this evidence indicates the activity of
Venetian and perhaps other European merchants in Jaffa during the mid-14th
to 17th centuries and illuminates relationships and networks unattested in the
written record.

In 2011 and 2012, three seasons of excavations were conducted by the Israel Antiquities Authority at the Austrian Hospice in the Old City of Jerusalem, under the direction of S.
Kisilevitz (License Nos. A-6100 and A-6433). During the first season, work focused around a large arch and vaulted room. Underneath the arch was a deep fill layer (Phase I), which yielded imported ceramics dating from the 13th to the late-16th/early-17th centuries CE. To the west of the arch, a plaster floor and another surface were uncovered (Phases IIa-b), and these contained pottery from the Late Mamluk/Early Ottoman periods (15th-16th c.). The second and third seasons of excavation provided evidence for two earlier occupational phases with associated floors and architecture, located both inside and outside the arch. The first (Phase IIIb), included a ceramic assemblage dating from the Mamluk period (14th-15th c.), and the second one (Phase IIIc) yielded pottery of the Crusader/Ayyubid period (mid-12th to mid-13th c.). The pottery presented here includes locally-produced and imported bowls, basins, cooking wares, chamber pots, amphorae, jars, jugs, juglets, sphero-conical vessels and lamps. Taken together, the results of the Austrian Hospice excavations have provided important insights into the material culture and socio-economic history of Jerusalem during the Mamluk and Early Ottoman periods. The large variety and vast amounts of imported pottery dating
from the 15th and 16th centuries is previously either unknown or unpublished from excavations in the Old City of Jerusalem and its surrounding hinterland. It attests to thriving trade in ceramics during that period, as demonstrated by the presence of ceramic finewares from Egypt, Syria, Iran, China, Turkey, Italy and the Byzantine Aegean. In addition, Phases 2 and 3 supply valuable stratified information regarding the typo-chronology of locally-produced Jerusalem vessel forms of the 13th to 16th centuries, including many previously unknown or unpublished types, which can now be dated externally by the presence of the imported pottery with which they were found.

A small amount of pottery dating to the late Ottoman period was found in the flour mills excavated in the Ridwan Gardens in ‘Akko. The date of the pottery is in accordance with the
dating of the mills, i.e., the end of the eighteenth century until the 1920s.  In addition, two sherds dating to the Crusader and Mamluk periods were identified, representing previous activities at the site.

An excavation conducted in 2009 at Khirbat Yamma (Yaḥam), in the northeastern Sharon plain, yielded a small but important pottery assemblage (see Massarwa 2017).  Aside from a few sherds dated to the late Ottoman period and associated with Stratum I at the site, the pottery uncovered in the excavation dates from the Mamluk and the early Ottoman periods (fourteenth–sixteenth centuries CE); it seems to represent a rural village. The limited area excavated, the relatively poor state of preservation of the living surfaces and the small number of sealed loci determined the methodology employed for the study of the pottery. Accordingly, the assemblage is presented typologically, and its dating is based on parallels from well-dated sites. Nevertheless, the assemblage provides new insights into the pottery, including imported vessels, used by the inhabitants of rural sites in the Sharon plain during the Mamluk and early Ottoman periods.

This chapter of the book on Area I of Tell el Burak deals with the Mamluk-Ottoman remains (dating from the 13th to the 18th cent. C.E.). They have provided a modest contribution to our understanding of rural settlements from the Mamluk- Ottoman Periods. As their poor state of preservation has allowed for tentative dating only, the Tell el-Burak remains have contributed limited new information on the vernacular architecture (Houses I and II) and material culture (pottery, lamps and clay pipes) of the  period. The chapter also includes a short report on a Child Burial found in this excavation area.

Sixteen small sherds of imported pottery vessels dating to the late Mamluk and Ottoman periods (c. fifteenth–eighteenth centuries) were recovered from the residential quarter of Hâret al-Wata in Mamluk Safed,. These sherds belong to ceramic types that are rarely found in Israel, comprising types originating mainly in Italy, as well as Spain and Turkey. Only few such imports are known from the archaeological record. It seems that the presence of imported wares at Safed is related to the fact that it was the capital and main administrative center of Galilee during the Mamluk and Ottoman periods. This supports the economic importance of Safed as attested in the historical sources.

The archaeological approach to the study of medieval pottery from northern Israel and its division into four distinct pottery assemblages enables us to gain a better understanding of chronology, typology, production and distribution of ceramics in medieval Levant. The sets presented here date from the late Fatimid, the Crusader and the Mamluk periods (late 11th to 15th centuries). In the first stage they were defined on the basis of solid data from well-stratified archaeological excavations. In the second stage they were studied as a group and as individual pottery types. These ceramic assemblages sometimes show continuity in pottery types and at other times they indicate a change.

The excavation of the plastered cistern (L105) at Kibbutz Ma‘abarot, within the boundaries of the site of Khirbat Madd ed-Deir, yielded a small assemblage of ceramic fragments. The pottery was retrieved from two contexts. The first is the cistern’s plaster, into which Byzantine pottery sherds were embedded. The second context is the accumulation within the cistern. The pottery types that were found in this accumulation can be dated roughly to the thirteenth–sixteenth centuries CE. They include handmade wares, unglazed wheel-made wares and imported glazed tablewares.

Archaeological and geophysical prospection of the site of Khirbat al-Sar/Sara in Jordan, carried out by a team from the Polish Centre of the Mediterranean Archaeology (PCMA), University of Warsaw, has resulted in a comprehensive plan mapping all visible architectural remains. A Roman-period sacred compound appears to be a central feature of this site. Pottery collected from the surface has given a time range for the settlement from the late Iron Age through the Mamluk period. The electrical resistivity method using probe arrays that allowed ground penetration to a maximum depth of approximately 1.50 m revealed meaningful information on the spatial organization of the site. Numerous high-resistance anomalies were interpreted as a reflection of building remains.

The social and economic reconstruction of Jordan, resolutely pursued by the Ayyubid and especially Bahri Mamluk elites following the Crusader interregnum, included an active program of mosque and shrine building among other activities, especially at sites of particular religious significance such as Mu’tah, Mazar, al-Kahf, ‘Amatah (Abu ‘Ubaydah), and Jabal Harun. Fahl, surely remembered for the decisive Battle of Fihl that drove a wedge between Jerusalem and Damascus in 635, may have been a beneficiary of this policy, bringing advantages in addition to its administrative role in the Mamluk province of Dimashq. The archaeological evidence points to the existence of a settlement of some note during Mamluk times, and a community honored by the erection of a mosque equipped with a minbar. As the ceramics also indicate, the presence of glazed wares in some numbers, including Relief Molded Glazed Ware from Jerusalem and stonepaste wares from Damascus or further north, suggest Fahl was something more than an isolated agricultural settlement in early Mamluk times, with contacts that extended outside the immediate area. Likewise, the coins show Fahl's involvement in a broader monetary economy, and together the finds could be taken to suggest that Fahl˝ was one of the more important sites in the Jordan Valley during early Mamluk times. It may have functioned as a focal point for the local community and served as a way station on east-west routes from the valley into the Jordanian mountains, especially the ‘Ajlun road.

The excavation exposed five primary phases of occupation, dating from the Roman to the Ottoman periods. In Phase 5, accumulations containing Roman- to Fatimid-period pottery were found. In Phase 4, a building was erected, a small part of which was excavated; twelfth-century pottery was found, as well as some residual sherds dating to the Umayyad, Abbasid and Fatimid periods. Phase 3 continued the use of the Phase 4 building, with the addition of walls and the raising of floors; finds on the floor included pottery vessels, glass vessels and a stone mortar, all dating to the thirteenth century. Phase 2 continued the occupation of the Phases 4 and 3 building with some modifications; the pottery from this phase dates to the fourteenth century. Phase 1 is represented by one late Ottoman-period wall. The finds from this excavation yielded much information regarding the material culture and architecture of a domestic quarter in Tiberias during the Crusader, Ayyubid and Mamluk periods.

Archaeological and geophysical prospection of the site of Khirbat al-Sar/Sara in Jordan, carried out by a team from the Polish Centre of the Mediterranean Archaeology (PCMA), University of Warsaw, has resulted in a comprehensive plan mapping all visible architectural remains. A Roman-period sacred compound appears to be a central feature of this site. Pottery collected from the surface has given a time range for the settlement from the late Iron Age through the Mamluk period. The electrical resistivity method using probe arrays that allowed ground penetration to a maximum depth of approximately 1.50 m revealed meaningful information on the spatial organization of the site. Numerous high-resistance anomalies were interpreted as a reflection of building remains.

Mount Sinai: A History of Travellers and Pilgrims examines the history of Hagia Koryphē (in Greek) or Jabal Mūsā (in Arabic), a mountain peak above the Monastery of St Catherine at South Sinai in Egypt, known for centuries as the place where Moses received the Ten Commandments from God, as described in Exodus. The book explores the ways in which the landscape of the summit was experienced and transformed using textual criticism, historical analysis, art history, and, for the first time, archaeological interpretation. Beginning in the third century, when the identification with the biblical ‘Mount Sinai’ was established, the narrative extends through to the early twentieth century. Covering the natural environment, the Bedouin and early Christians, the importance of Mount Sinai in Muslim tradition, the cult of St Catherine, pilgrimage, as well as the scholarly, artistic and tourist phenomenon of the nineteenth century, Mount Sinai: A History of Travellers and Pilgrims is a comprehensive and complete history of this remarkable place.

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‘Lucid and original; a veritable feast of interesting stories about Mount Sinai’s extraordinary past.’ - Peter Frankopan, author of The Silk Roads

‘As a traveller and pilgrim to Sinai on numerous occasions and now a Trustee of the St Catherine's Foundation, I greatly enjoyed George Manginis's Mount Sinai and learnt much from it…The book is a learned and delightful companion to God-trodden Sinai.’ - Richard Chartres, Bishop of London

‘This book is an absolute mine of riches, reflection, and information… would strongly encourage anyone to pay a visit to this remarkable place of history, holiness and tradition. I recommend this book highly.’ - Vincent Nichols, Cardinal of Westminster

‘This book gives an invaluable insight into the evolution over two millennia of Mount Sinai as a sacred site and a place of spiritual quest.’ - H.R.H. Prince El Hassan bin Talal of Jordan

‘George Manginis has trawled archives and published accounts to create the biography of the mountain, telling the story of the devout, the scholars and the tourists who have helped shape its history. His book is likely to stand as the last word on one of the world's most enduring places, unless an angel appears to tell the divine side of the story.’ - Anthony Sattin, author of Young Lawrence

Material remains can illuminate relationships and networks poorly attested in the written record, even in well documented periods like the Mamluk and Early Ottoman era. In this workshop, that brings together historians and archaeologists, we will have presentations of evidence from the written sources and from archaeological excavations as regards to the presence of Venetian and other Latin merchants and pilgrims from the 14th through 16th centuries in the Holy Land.
We would like to collaborate the data from the historical sources with the archaeological evidence that includes mainly ceramic, numismatic and glass finds. As these finds constitute the trails the foreigners left, they are concrete material cultural reflections of their activity and interaction with the local populations.
The outcomes of the workshop are attempts to broaden our understanding of the actions and effects of foreign powers in a Mamluk province as well as to provide another facet to the developing field of Mamluk Archaeology as it will use a fresh approach, looking at what happened in the land through the “other,” namely Venetian and other Latin merchants and pilgrims.