Gaps or Transitions? North Syrian/South Anatolian Ceramics in the Early, Middle, and Late Islamic Periods
- UNCG Author/Contributor (non-UNCG co-authors, if there are any, appear on document)
- A. Asa Eger, Full Professor (Creator)
- Institution
- The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG )
- Web Site: http://library.uncg.edu/
Abstract: As Islamic archaeology has matured, it has outgrown several large debates. Scholars now largely agree that no huge decline occurred either after the Islamic conquests in the 7th century1 or when the ‘Abbasids came to power in 7502 , nor was there an observable decline in the early 7th century during the Persian conquests. It is also thought the Umayyad dynasty did little to replace the existing societal, religious, and economic life in the Near East and beyond. Yet the ceramic evidence of the Umayyad period might tell a different story, for the ceramics of the Levant from the mid-7th to mid-8th centuries are elusive and difficult to discern or accurately date3 . The 11th century is also lightly represented ceramically, as is the 15th. Both of these latter periods can be tied to political upheavals: the weakening of ‘Abbasid power and rise of many provincial autonomies, and the arrival of the Saljuqs in the 11th century4 , and the weakening of Mamluk power and rise of the beyliks, together with the arrival of the Ottomans in the 15th. Here we bring together all three of these perceived gaps as part of a seemingly uniform pattern that reflects similar politically transitional and decentralized periods. Yet in viewing them side by side, we will see that these three periods are not the same, and that more nuance can complicate this historical pattern. Although historical events can be reflected in the archaeological record, it can be difficult, as the study of al-Mina has indicated, to link changes in pottery type to such events until some centuries after they occurred5.
Gaps or Transitions? North Syrian/South Anatolian Ceramics in the Early, Middle, and Late Islamic Periods
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Created on 1/26/2023
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Additional Information
- Publication
- HEROM: Journal on Hellenistic and Roman Material Culture 9 (2020)
- Language: English
- Date: 2020
- Keywords
- archaeology, Islamic archaeology, ceramics