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Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - GLAZE (The use of glazing traditions to examine the dynamics of interaction between cultures in contact: A case study of Cypriot glazed wares from the 11th to 17th centuries AD)

Teaser

Summary

Glazed ceramics are an integral component of material culture connecting the Mediterranean since the medieval times, with their production technology being considered as the hallmark of craftsmanship. A few studies have brought to light that glaze technology was susceptible to, and thus reflective of, the occurrence of cultural interactions, citing the spread of tin-opacified glaze through the Arab conquest as an example. However, these observations were built on the characterisations of technology of glazed ceramics of the highest quality, while overlooking the technology of glazed ceramics intended for local circulation and consumption, even though these are the ones that made up the vast majority of our archaeological record. Against this background, GLAZE sought to test the suitability of using glaze technology to highlight the transfer or exchange of technical knowledge, which served as a proxy to examine the dynamics of cultural interactions.

We selected the case of the Cypriot glazed wares production during the 11th to 17th centuries CE to test this hypothesis. Very little is known about the local glaze technology in Cyprus, even though production took place continuously from the late medieval through to the modern times. Throughout this period, Cyprus was a melting pot of people from different ethnic and cultural backgrounds, arising from constant shift of power and frequent competitions among the Byzantines, Latin powers and Ottomans. With this in mind, one may ask whether or not frequent episodes of cultural contacts stimulated changes in local technologies? If so, what were the processes that drove the technological change?

GLAZE has two key research questions, which embody the following objectives:
1. What were the range of glaze technologies characteristic of different local productions in Cyprus during the 12th to 16th centuries CE?
- Formulate a systematic and comparative framework to study glaze production
- Characterise the recipes for ceramic body, slip/ paint, and glaze
- Identify the method and order glaze application
- Determine the sources of raw materials

2. To what extent did the interaction among different cultural and political entities stimulate technology transfer in glaze technology?
- Establish the potential connections among different local technologies and between them and broader medieval and post-medieval glaze traditions
- Delineate the mechanisms responsible for the exchange or transfer of technical knowledge
- Infer to the socio-historical contexts under which such exchange occurred

Work performed

Over 100 samples were sampled from seven sites across different regions in Cyprus. An additional 30 samples from sites in Jordan and Israel were included for comparative purpose as the developments of these regions were intimately linked to the situation in Cyprus. All samples were analysed using petrography and scanning electron microscopy energy dispersive spectrometry. Statistical analyses such as principal component analysis and simple biplots were applied to establish the relationship between different aspects of glaze production. Historical documents were also referred to understand the socio-political developments of medieval and post-medieval Cyprus and the broader Mediterranean arena. The results show that local glaze technologies in Cyprus did not remain constant through time, and were also highly susceptible to changes in the socio-political contexts under which the production was carried out. Although similar types of raw materials were used to make the samples recovered from Jordan, which were contemporaneous to the Cypriot materials, there was little overlap in the technical practices between the productions in the two areas. The samples from Israel are dated to an earlier period, around the late 8th to 9th centuries CE. The analyses of these samples show that technological change grew out of a strong tradition of pottery specialisation and possible interactions with other specialised crafts. All these studies emphasised the importance of internal factors as the mechanisms behind the development of local glaze technologies.

The results of GLAZE were presented our research at various international conferences such as the International Symposium on Archaeometry and Society for American Archaeology annual conference. As for the latter, GLAZE sponsored a session that focused on the discussion of the movement of technical knowledge from a cross-craft perspective. We initiated close collaboration with other MSCA-funded projects, specifically IGATO and SmARTS, to organise a session entitled â€˜Glaze Technology in the Medieval and Post-medieval Mediterraneanâ€™ at the 24th European Association of Archaeologists annual meeting. The papers presented at the session are now in the process of being compiled into the special issue of the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, which is expected to be available by the end of 2019. Prior to that, we also accepted the kind invitation to speak about the development of glaze technologies in the eastern Mediterranean at the â€˜Glaze Technology in Western Mediterranean: Christian and Muslim Traditionsâ€™ workshop, which was organised by IGATO in collaboration with other national agencies. Our research was being discussed and published in peer-reviewed journals such as Archaeometry and Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports and Zeitschrift fÃ¼r OrientarchÃ¤ologie. GLAZE also reached out to the general public through the use of various social media, and participation in European Researchersâ€™ Night and other activities organised by the Cyprus Research Promotion Foundation.

GLAZE talk at the Archaeological Research Unit (ARU), 2018:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2S8bA76SirE

GLAZE talk at the ARU, 2019:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MuzMZifdL3U

Final results

GLAZE is the first project dedicated to the systematic study of local glaze technologies in Cyprus during the 11th to 17th centuries CE. Little attention has been paid to the technological aspects of Cypriot glazed wares as the majority of previous studies were carried out within the art-historical framework. A few technological studies were available, but they focused mostly on only one or two aspects of glaze technology, such as glaze or ceramic body, without considering the whole sequence of production. Departing from the existing analytical framework, we had devised an innovative approach derived from the chaÃ®ne opÃ©ratoire approach, in which equal attention was given to all steps involved in glaze production, from the selection of raw materials to preparation methods, order and method of glaze application and assembling sequence. Although the chaÃ®ne opÃ©ratoire approach has been readily used in the reconstruction of production of different artefact types and their associated social dimension, it has yet to be applied in the study of glaze production. Thus, the results of GLAZE are highly applicable to research along similar lines, given the ubiquity of glazed ceramics in the medieval and post-medieval world; which together are expected to unlock a whole host of information to explore the complexity of cultural interactions, especially the ones that are rarely documented in written sources. This will also provide new insights into the mechanisms that turned glazed ceramics as a common household item, a phenomenon that would have impacted on our production and consumption habits until today.