"Jaune de Raqqada" et autres couleurs de céramiques glaçurées Aghlabides de Tunisie (IXe-Xe siècles)

Abstract

We are wondering about the origin of the "yellow colour" of glazed ceramics from Raqqada (Tunisia ; IXth - Xth centuries). The archaeologists gave several hypotheses : presence of antimony, iron or a mixture of lead antimonate and tin. Raqqada is an aghlabide capital based in 876 AD and abandoned in the middle of the XIth century. It is situated 9 km southwest of Kairouan (Tunisia). The archaeological excavations of the site unearthed yellow ceramics, with brown and green decorations. The study of 15 shards by optical absorption spectrometry on the bodies and on the glaze and body together shows that they have similar optical absorption spectra. Moreover, it reveals that the origin of the «yellow colour» of this ceramics is the presence of iron not only in the lead glaze but also in the body. The latter contributes weakly to the yellow colour because of the transparency of the glaze. The analysis by energy-dispersive X-ray confirms the presence of iron in the glaze (2,26 ± 0,73 % Fe2O3) and also in the body (5,27 ± 0,69 % Fe2OA We notice the absence of antimony and tin in detectable contents by the implemented method. Finally, the study by optical absorption spectrometry and energy-dispersive X-ray spectrometry allows to precise the nature of the colouring agents responsible for the green and brown decorations : respectively, as expected, copper Cu2+ and manganese Mn3+.

Cerámicas emirales y califales de Murcia, calle Pascual (siglos IX-XI)

“…Finalmente hay que apuntar que las decoraciones de las fases anteriores sobre formas cerradas pequeñas o medianas, de finas líneas horizontales o filetes, son ya esporádicas y solo se han conservado unos pocos 23. La propia Córdoba ha deparado el hallazgo de un pozo ciego de cronología emiral final con piezas decoradas en verde y manganeso, aunque de características particulares que lo diferencian de la producción "clásica" posterior (SALINAS, 2013) A partir del estudio de la estratigrafía del arrabal de Cercadilla se considera que el verde y manganeso hace su aparición en los contextos de finales del siglo IX y comienzos del X, quizás en los primeros años del último siglo (FUERTES, 2010, p. 196) Es el caso de Marroquíes Bajos en Jaén, en donde se ha documentado verde manganeso en contextos emirales, aunque la difusión masiva se diera en el califato (PÉREZ ALVARADO et al, 2003: 77) También en la alcazaba de Madīnat Ilbīra, que se abandonaría en el primer cuarto del siglo X, han aparecido piezas con esa decoración (CARVAJAL, 2008: 247-248, 286-288) Además hay que recordar que los aglabíes de Raqqāda (Kairouan, Túnez) en el último cuarto del siglo IX producían verde y manganeso (DAOULATLI, 1995;BEN AMARA et al, 2001). De esta procedencia serían dos ejemplares hallados en Tudmīr: un ataifor del teatro romano de Cartagena que aparece en la amortización de los niveles emirales; y una pieza procedente de un nivel de la primera mitad del siglo X de la calle Fuensanta de Murcia, con fondo melado y motivos en verde y manganeso (BERNABÉ y LÓPEZ, 1993: fig.…”

WHERE DID THE LUSTRE TILES OF THE SIDI OQBA MOSQUE (ad 836–63) IN KAIROUAN COME FROM?*

“…The Mesopotamian origin of the metallic lustre process, the striking resemblance between the Kairouan and Mesopotamian forms of decoration, the good agreement between the analytical data for these two series of ceramics (Kairouan and Mesopotamia), and the important difference as compared to the Raqqada and Sabra Mansouriya ceramics (Ben Amara et al . in press) imply that all the lustre tiles at the Sidi Oqba Mosque in Kairouan came from Mesopotamia, most probably from a major production centre such as Baghdad, Samarra or Basra.…”

Tracing the tin-opacified yellow glazed ceramics in the western Islamic world: the findings at Madīnat al-Zahrā’

“…Further, the glaze technology employed matches that which was first introduced in Egypt and Syria in the 7 th /8 th centuries AD, which spread eastwards into Iraq and Iran by the 9 th century AD, and then continued in use into 10 th century AD and beyond in Iran and Central Asia. In contrast, in north Africa, in addition to the transparent yellow glazes produced in Tunisia (Ben Amara et al 2001 and2005), yellow glazes opacified with lead antimonate were being produced in Egypt in 9 th -11 th centuries AD (Tite et al 2015;Waksman et al 2017), and in Tunisia in 9 th -10th centuries AD.…”