Finds

Fragment of Islamic jar (XIII century)

Whilst studying the clay building materials recovered during the excavations of 1992-1993 and 1995 in the keep of the castle of Monreale, a fragment of an Islamic jar covered with mortar, a sign of its re-use in the masonry, was recovered.

The piece is engraved with a pseudo-epigraphic decoration in horizontal bands on its outer surface (fig. 1).

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Fig. 1 - Fragment of Islamic jar from the castle of Monreale (photo by R.A.S.).

The big terracotta "Islamic jars" with stamped decorations, used both for trading and for food storage, spread mainly during the Late Middle Ages (fig. 2).

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Fig. 2 - Islamic jar recovered from the wreck of Capo Galera, Alghero, SS (from http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/82/Giara_ islamica_da_alghero%2C_cala_galera%2C_XIII_sec._01.JPG).

These containers came from North Africa and Spain and they were widespread between the eleventh and thirteenth centuries not only in Muslim Sicily, but also along the southern coasts of France and of Tyrrhenian Italy (Liguria, Tuscany, Lazio).

These containers reached the Italian coast by commercial carriers which linked the Islamised Maghreb with Andalusia.

The jars found in Sardinia, Sicily and southern France, have the outer surface decorated with printed decorations, Kufic inscriptions, palmettos and poly-lobed arches and are mostly uncoated (fig. 3). The decoration is always in horizontal bands obtained by repeating the same pressed pattern.

The individual bands have different patterns from one another and are delimited by grooves, drawn after the decoration, which highlight their sequence.

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Fig. 3 - Decorative motifs of the "Islamic jars" (from VALLAURI 1999 fig. 5, p. 229).
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Fig. 4 - Detail of the decoration of the “Islamic jar" recovered from the wreck of Capo Galera, Alghero, SS

In Sardinia, a specimen of a large jar comes from the wreck of Capo Galera (Alghero, SS), a boat which sank with its entire load of material from Islamic countries, identified as the more western Maghreb or southern Spain.

It is preserved at the Museum "G. A. Sanna" in Sassari.



Bibliografia

  • B. FATIGHENTI, I contenitori da trasporto a Pisa come indicatori delle rotte commerciali mediterranee tra X e XIV secolo, in Atti del XLV Convegno Internazionale della Ceramica (Savona, 25-26 maggio 2012), Firenze 2013, pp. 35-42.
  • F. PINNA, Le testimonianze archeologiche relative ai rapporti tra gli Arabi e la Sardegna nel medioevo, in RiMe Rivista dell'Istituto di Storia dell'Europa Mediterranea, 4, giugno 2010, pp. 11-37.
  • L. ERMINI PANI, F. R. STASOLLA, Le strade del vino e dell’olio: commercio, trasporto e conservazione, in Olio e vino nell’alto medioevo. Atti della LIII Settimana del Centro Italiano di Studi sull’Alto Medioevo (Spoleto, 2006), Spoleto 2007, pp. 539-593.
  • F. R. STASOLLA, I contenitori da trasporto nel periodo medievale e islamico, in Il mondo dell’Archeologia, Istituto dell’Enciclopedia Italiana Treccani, II, Roma, 2002, pp. 652-655.
  • M.G.N. ARRU, I materiali fittili da costruzione del castello di Monreale (Sardara-Cagliari), in I laterizi in età medievale. Dalla produzione al cantiere. Atti del Convegno Nazionale di studi (Roma, 4-5 giugno 1998), Roma 2001, pp. 115-124.
  • D. ROVINA, La Sezione Medievale del Museo “G.A. Sanna” di Sassari, Piedimonte Matese 2000.
  • L. VALLAURI, A propos des jarres islamiques dans le midi de la France, in Archéologie du midi Médiéval, 17, 1999, pp. 226-230.
  • G. PURPURA, Rinvenimenti sottomarini nella Sicilia occidentale, in Archeologia subacquea 3, Supplemento al n. 37-38 del Bollettino d'Arte del Ministero per i Beni Culturali e Ambientali, 1986, pp. 139-160.
  • G. BERTI, L. TONGIORGI, Frammenti di giare con decorazioni impresse a stampo trovati a Pisa, «Faenza» LVIII, pp. 3-10.

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