Considering the effects of the Byzantine–Islamic transition: Umayyad glass tesserae and vessels from the qasr of Khirbet al-Mafjar (Jericho, Palestine)

Abstract

The paper reports and discusses data obtained by archaeological and archaeometric studies of glass vessels and tesserae from the qasr of Khirbet al-Mafjar (near Jericho, Palestine). Archaeological contextualisation of the site and chrono-typological study of glass vessels were associated to EPMA and LA-ICP-MS analyses, performed to characterise the composition of the glassy matrix (major and minor components as well as trace elements). Analyses allowed achieving meaningful and intriguing results, which gain insights into the production and consumption of glass vessels and tesserae in the near East during the Umayyad period (7-8th centuries). Within the analysed samples, both an Egyptian and a Levantine manufacture have been identified: such data provide evidence of a double supply of glass from Egypt and the Syro-Palestinian coast in the Umayyad period occurring not only in the glassware manufacture, but also in the production of base glass intended to be used in the manufacture of mosaic tesserae. Thus, the achieved results represent the first material evidence of a nonunivocal gathering of glass tesserae from Byzantium and the Byzantines in the manufacture of early Islamic mosaics.

Production and provenance of architectural glass from the Umayyad period

“…These findings are in contrast to the results of the tesserae from Khirbat al-Mafjar (736-746 CE), where no relationship between colour and primary glass type was discovered, and where the same colouring and opacifying technologies were used with different base glass categories [13,14]. Despite the limited sample size of that study (16 tesserae), the authors speculated that secondary workshops may have specialised in the manufacture of tesserae of certain colours but worked with primary glass from both Egyptian and Levantine sources [14].…”

“…While this conclusion is predicated on the assumption that the glass was produced and acquired contemporaneously to construction rather than stored for some decades, if the construction had taken place during al-Walīd II's reign (743-744 CE), we would expect to find some later material in the assemblage. This, for example, is the case at Khirbat al-Mafjar (dated to 736-746 AD), where the assemblage similarly comprises both Egyptian and Levantine glass but also includes the later types Egypt 1b, Egypt 1c and Egypt 2 (among the vessels) in addition to Egypt 1a, Levantine I (Apollonia) and Levantine II (Bet Eli'ezer) [13]. The attribution of the site to al-Walīd I (705-715 CE) makes Khirbat al-Minya one of the earliest known Umayyad residence buildings to date [28].…”

“…This is the first time that such a substantial and exceptionally well-dated assemblage of architectural glass from an early Umayyad context has been studied in detail, using high resolution laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS). While the main features of the late antique glass industry are by now well understood, the organisation of the production and supply of strongly coloured glass mosaic tesserae are still largely unknown, mostly due to the limited number of samples from secured archaeological contexts that have been investigated [13,14]. Our large-scale approach, which confirms the import of either finished (tesserae) or semi-finished (cakes) products from both Egypt and the Levant, yields unique insights into supply patterns and secondary working practices.…”

Tin-based opacifiers in archaeological glass and ceramic glazes: a review and new perspectives

“…Examples of such glasses were found in opus sectile panels in Greece (Brill and Whitehouse 1988;Brill 1999, sections VH, VI, VJ), at Shikmona in Israel (fifth c., Freestone et al 1990), at Kilise Tepe (fifth to sixth c., Neri et al 2017), Hagios Polyeuktos (sixth c., Schibille and McKenzie 2014), and Sagalasses in Turkey (sixth c., Schibille et al 2012), at Petra in Jordan (fifth to seventh c., Marii 2013), and in Cyprus (fifth to seventh c., Bonnerot et al 2016). During the early Islamic period, the use of lead-tin-oxide glass continued as attested in a set of glass tesserae found at Khirbet al-Mafjar in Jericho, Palestine (eighth c., Fiorentino et al 2017Fiorentino et al , 2018, and Qusayr' Amra, Jordan (eighth c., Verità et al 2017), as well as eastwards in Samarra (ninth c., Schibille et al 2018b;M. Wypyski 2015, pers.…”

The chemical composition and manufacturing technology of glass beads excavated from the Hetian Bizili site, Xinjiang

“…However, in the later Islamic period (ninth to tenth centuries), the tin oxide was more commonly used in Iraq and Iran [29][30]. The latest research tested lead stannate in a glass bead from Sardis (the eighth to the seventh century B.C.…”