The Islamic Ancient Termez Through the Lens of Ceramics: A New Archaeological and Archaeometric Study

Islamic glazed wares from ancient Termez (southern Uzbekistan). Raw materials and techniques

“…Indeed, as mentioned above, the shahristan was a densely inhabited area, where the citizens of Termez lived at least since the 9 th -10 th century; pottery could have circulated in the area since the early Islamic period. The pottery workshop 5 was created later, and it has been dated from the 13 th century onwards (Martínez Ferreras et al, 2019a). Therefore, to date the provenance of at least some of the vessels analysed from this shahristan area cannot be directly attributed to the pottery workshop 5.…”

“…In 1220 the Mongols of Genghis Khan took and largely destroyed ancient Termez (Leriche and Pidaev, 2008). Nonetheless, the city was able to recover afterwards, as testified by several archaeological finds, both structures and materials, dated from the 13 th until the 17 th /18 th century (Martínez Ferreras et al, 2019a).…”

“…According to the pottery study and the C 14 tests on organic material, these centres were active in the early Islamic period (i.e. 9 th -10 th century) (Martínez Ferreras et al, 2019a). In the northern part of the rabad, a workshop (no.…”

“…It has at least three kilns and one wasters pit. Recent 14 C analysis carried out on several charcoal samples found within one of the kilns provided two different absolute dates between the early 14 th and mid-15 th centuries AD: 1306-1363 cal AD (50.1%); 1385-1429 cal AD (45.3%); it manufactured unglazed moulded relief decorated jugs and flasks but also underglaze painted wares and probably monochrome turquoise vessels, suggesting that this workshop already operated during the 13 th century AD (Martínez Ferreras et al, 2019a;Fusaro et al, in press).…”

“…Recent archaeological and archaeometric investigations conducted by the IPAEB team have defined the morphological and stylistic features of the most common Islamic wares produced at Termez, also in comparison with other ceramic productions from important coeval Iranian and Central Asian sites. The preliminary geo-chemical, mineralogical, and petrographic characterisation of the ceramic pastes has also contributed to detect differences among local products, distinguish local and imported items, and determine the main technological processes related to their manufacture (Martínez Ferreras et al, 2019a;Fusaro et al, in press). This study demonstrates that ancient Termez produced a wide range of unglazed and glazed wares, also including high-quality artefacts, which equalled the ceramics produced in other important Central Asian centres.…”