Final Report Summary - ARANPOT (Archeological Research on Andalucian Pottery (8th-11th Centuries))
Project context and objectives
The aim was to train the fellow in the use of analytical techniques for pottery analysis, specifically petrographical, chemical and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analysis, including the coherent combination of these science-based methods with archaeologically and socially relevant approaches. The objective of the research was a group of well contextualised ceramics coming from the area of the Vega de Granada in south-eastern Spain. The fellow had conducted typological research on these ceramics during his doctoral studies and had established a sequence of development of the pottery that linked it with social events that were known as a result of other historical and archaeological sources. In the light of the previous state of the art (to which the fellow was a contributor), six research objectives (RO) were established:
RO1 - identification of compositional and technological features of ceramic fabrics by means of thin section petrography and chemical analysis, with contributions from SEM microstructural analysis, replication of pottery and testing of physical properties of the samples;
RO2 - grouping of thin sections by means of the same scientific techniques (especially petrography and chemical analysis) in search of provenance;
RO3 - study of the technological evolution of the glazes applied to the pottery in terms of techniques and composition;
RO4 - study of the provenance of the raw materials applied in glazing techniques, mainly addressing the question of the local or external manufacture of those glazes;
RO5 - construction of a model of society's development in the early Andalusian Vega de Granada based on the results of the pottery study;
RO6 - comparison of the resulting model of RO5 with other European and Mediterranean models of social development.
Work performed
The first year was dedicated to the acquisition of skills in mineralogy and the thin section petrographic analysis of ceramics, and the elaboration and study of the thin section samples. The fellow was trained in the production and preparation of thin sections, although these samples were produced commercially to allow the Intra-European Fellowships to best use his time. The petrographic analysis took the remainder of the first year because the requisite number of samples was high. This activity addressed mainly RO1 and RO2 and started the development of RO5 and RO6.
During the second year, the neutron activation analysis (NAA) study proceeded after a slight delay caused by reactor problems, which made it necessary to fund the irradiation and counting of samples in the United States of America. This was successfully achieved and the resulting chemical data enabled an excellent understanding of compositional variability, especially in the fine ware ceramics. Combined with SEM microstructural analysis and petrography, this produced a firm analytical basis for the aims of the project. During this period, the fellow attended special courses in SEM microscopy, chemical sample preparation for NAA and a course on analysing chemical data in Demokritos (Athens) and Barcelona. This activity addressed directly RO3 and RO4, but it was also relevant to RO1, RO2, RO5 and RO6.
The frequent participation of the fellow in scientific meetings and his intensive production of papers in both English and Spanish have allowed him to start very innovative and interesting reflections that will open new paths in the field of Andalusian archaeology and, more generally, in Islamic and medieval archaeology.
Main results
The fellow has successfully applied the scientific data provided by petrography to the archaeological issues regarding the Islamicisation of the early medieval Vega de Granada. The most complete analysis, currently under publication in the 'Oxford Journal of Archaeology', is on the cooking pots, in which the different morphologies, technologies of modelling and the recipes used to create the clay paste have a clear pattern in the territory that changes over time. The different patterns suggest a distinction between two different forms of Islamicisation; that is, the effect of two rather different social conceptions of Islam taking place in the same area. The earlier Islamicisation took place in a rural society where the new religion had to adapt to a social environment in which group identities and small polities were paramount; whereas the later Islamicisation was based on the power of the Cordobese state and its representation in a set of urban institutions that left a lasting mark on the social landscape. Regarding different aspects of this research, the fellow has dedicated another paper (accepted for publication) and two book chapters, one in English and another in Spanish (the latter has already been accepted for publication), and also presentations at the European Meeting on Ancient Ceramics (Vienna, AT, 2011), the Ceramic Petrology Research Group annual meeting of 2012 (Sheffield, UK), Global Pottery: Archaeometry and Historical Archaeology (Barcelona, ES, 2012) and the International Symposium of Archaeometry (Leuven, BE, 2012).
The fellow has suggested that the tribal past of the Arab society and the disarticulation of the Mediterranean Roman state suggest that we consider each of these forms of Islamicisation as socially grounded sets of structures, rather than phases of a single process. Two papers, one in English and a book chapter in Spanish (both accepted for publication), address this. Regarding this, the fellow has also presented papers at the Theoretical Archaeology Group's annual meetings of 2011 (Bristol, UK) and 2012 (Birmingham, UK).
Further analysis in other categories of pottery is providing alternative views on this process. Papers are in preparation for the combination of petrographic and chemical results on water containers, large storage jars and glazed pots, but some have already been presented in a poster at the Tenth International Congress on Medieval Ceramics of the Mediterranean (Silves, PT, 2012) and a paper has been accepted for publication in a British online journal.
Finally, the fellow considered it worthwhile to take this kind of archaeological analysis to different parts of the Mediterranean and compare the social change that Islamicisation implies. He has advanced a small project funded by the Palestinian Exploration Fund to compare assemblages of pottery from the Vega de Granada with others retrieved from different sites in Palestine; a paper on this was published in 2012.
Socioeconomic impact of the results
The results of this project are very relevant academically. It can potentially change the whole field of Andalusian and Islamic archaeology by the introduction of new theoretical and methodological perspectives that allow Islam to be considered from the point of view of its material cycle of production, distribution and consumption - here exemplified by the pottery, but it can be extended to all kinds of materials. This will allow us to place the field of Islamic archaeology on the same level of understanding as early medieval European civilization. In academia, this means that both fields will be able to benefit mutually, as researchers will be able to work productively across the lines of a cultural division that was not so acutely perceived in the early medieval period. In more anthropological and social terms, the work of both fields will allow questions to be addressed in parallel on the common origins and mutual influences of Europe and Islam.
The conception of Europe and Islam as connected historical entities is a powerful idea that citizens and policy-makers can use. In connection with the ideas upheld in the Barcelona Declaration of 1995 on the importance of heritage to connect peoples and in the Framework Convention on the Value of Heritage for Society (Faro, PT, 2005), the conception of an Islamic past for Europe (manifested as a common heritage) is significantly relevant for European policies designed to include a growing number of Muslim citizens as part of a pan-European identity. These ideas will also allow Europe to have a stronger presence as a balancing power in the Mediterranean region, because it will allow the EU to have a closer cultural relation with the Islamic countries without the need to uphold its traditional values. After all, the perception of heritage as a common value is the safest protection against radicalism of any type. Europe with an Islamic past is not a lesser, but a greater Europe.
The aim was to train the fellow in the use of analytical techniques for pottery analysis, specifically petrographical, chemical and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analysis, including the coherent combination of these science-based methods with archaeologically and socially relevant approaches. The objective of the research was a group of well contextualised ceramics coming from the area of the Vega de Granada in south-eastern Spain. The fellow had conducted typological research on these ceramics during his doctoral studies and had established a sequence of development of the pottery that linked it with social events that were known as a result of other historical and archaeological sources. In the light of the previous state of the art (to which the fellow was a contributor), six research objectives (RO) were established:
RO1 - identification of compositional and technological features of ceramic fabrics by means of thin section petrography and chemical analysis, with contributions from SEM microstructural analysis, replication of pottery and testing of physical properties of the samples;
RO2 - grouping of thin sections by means of the same scientific techniques (especially petrography and chemical analysis) in search of provenance;
RO3 - study of the technological evolution of the glazes applied to the pottery in terms of techniques and composition;
RO4 - study of the provenance of the raw materials applied in glazing techniques, mainly addressing the question of the local or external manufacture of those glazes;
RO5 - construction of a model of society's development in the early Andalusian Vega de Granada based on the results of the pottery study;
RO6 - comparison of the resulting model of RO5 with other European and Mediterranean models of social development.
Work performed
The first year was dedicated to the acquisition of skills in mineralogy and the thin section petrographic analysis of ceramics, and the elaboration and study of the thin section samples. The fellow was trained in the production and preparation of thin sections, although these samples were produced commercially to allow the Intra-European Fellowships to best use his time. The petrographic analysis took the remainder of the first year because the requisite number of samples was high. This activity addressed mainly RO1 and RO2 and started the development of RO5 and RO6.
During the second year, the neutron activation analysis (NAA) study proceeded after a slight delay caused by reactor problems, which made it necessary to fund the irradiation and counting of samples in the United States of America. This was successfully achieved and the resulting chemical data enabled an excellent understanding of compositional variability, especially in the fine ware ceramics. Combined with SEM microstructural analysis and petrography, this produced a firm analytical basis for the aims of the project. During this period, the fellow attended special courses in SEM microscopy, chemical sample preparation for NAA and a course on analysing chemical data in Demokritos (Athens) and Barcelona. This activity addressed directly RO3 and RO4, but it was also relevant to RO1, RO2, RO5 and RO6.
The frequent participation of the fellow in scientific meetings and his intensive production of papers in both English and Spanish have allowed him to start very innovative and interesting reflections that will open new paths in the field of Andalusian archaeology and, more generally, in Islamic and medieval archaeology.
Main results
The fellow has successfully applied the scientific data provided by petrography to the archaeological issues regarding the Islamicisation of the early medieval Vega de Granada. The most complete analysis, currently under publication in the 'Oxford Journal of Archaeology', is on the cooking pots, in which the different morphologies, technologies of modelling and the recipes used to create the clay paste have a clear pattern in the territory that changes over time. The different patterns suggest a distinction between two different forms of Islamicisation; that is, the effect of two rather different social conceptions of Islam taking place in the same area. The earlier Islamicisation took place in a rural society where the new religion had to adapt to a social environment in which group identities and small polities were paramount; whereas the later Islamicisation was based on the power of the Cordobese state and its representation in a set of urban institutions that left a lasting mark on the social landscape. Regarding different aspects of this research, the fellow has dedicated another paper (accepted for publication) and two book chapters, one in English and another in Spanish (the latter has already been accepted for publication), and also presentations at the European Meeting on Ancient Ceramics (Vienna, AT, 2011), the Ceramic Petrology Research Group annual meeting of 2012 (Sheffield, UK), Global Pottery: Archaeometry and Historical Archaeology (Barcelona, ES, 2012) and the International Symposium of Archaeometry (Leuven, BE, 2012).
The fellow has suggested that the tribal past of the Arab society and the disarticulation of the Mediterranean Roman state suggest that we consider each of these forms of Islamicisation as socially grounded sets of structures, rather than phases of a single process. Two papers, one in English and a book chapter in Spanish (both accepted for publication), address this. Regarding this, the fellow has also presented papers at the Theoretical Archaeology Group's annual meetings of 2011 (Bristol, UK) and 2012 (Birmingham, UK).
Further analysis in other categories of pottery is providing alternative views on this process. Papers are in preparation for the combination of petrographic and chemical results on water containers, large storage jars and glazed pots, but some have already been presented in a poster at the Tenth International Congress on Medieval Ceramics of the Mediterranean (Silves, PT, 2012) and a paper has been accepted for publication in a British online journal.
Finally, the fellow considered it worthwhile to take this kind of archaeological analysis to different parts of the Mediterranean and compare the social change that Islamicisation implies. He has advanced a small project funded by the Palestinian Exploration Fund to compare assemblages of pottery from the Vega de Granada with others retrieved from different sites in Palestine; a paper on this was published in 2012.
Socioeconomic impact of the results
The results of this project are very relevant academically. It can potentially change the whole field of Andalusian and Islamic archaeology by the introduction of new theoretical and methodological perspectives that allow Islam to be considered from the point of view of its material cycle of production, distribution and consumption - here exemplified by the pottery, but it can be extended to all kinds of materials. This will allow us to place the field of Islamic archaeology on the same level of understanding as early medieval European civilization. In academia, this means that both fields will be able to benefit mutually, as researchers will be able to work productively across the lines of a cultural division that was not so acutely perceived in the early medieval period. In more anthropological and social terms, the work of both fields will allow questions to be addressed in parallel on the common origins and mutual influences of Europe and Islam.
The conception of Europe and Islam as connected historical entities is a powerful idea that citizens and policy-makers can use. In connection with the ideas upheld in the Barcelona Declaration of 1995 on the importance of heritage to connect peoples and in the Framework Convention on the Value of Heritage for Society (Faro, PT, 2005), the conception of an Islamic past for Europe (manifested as a common heritage) is significantly relevant for European policies designed to include a growing number of Muslim citizens as part of a pan-European identity. These ideas will also allow Europe to have a stronger presence as a balancing power in the Mediterranean region, because it will allow the EU to have a closer cultural relation with the Islamic countries without the need to uphold its traditional values. After all, the perception of heritage as a common value is the safest protection against radicalism of any type. Europe with an Islamic past is not a lesser, but a greater Europe.