Item Details

A First Ceramic Chronology for the Late Islamic Arabian Gulf

Issue: Vol 2 No. 1 (2015)

Journal: Journal of Islamic Archaeology

Subject Areas:

DOI: 10.1558/jia.v2i1.27011

Abstract:

Islamic archaeology in the Arabian Gulf has grown tremendously in recent years. However, a ceramic chronology for the Late Islamic Arabian Gulf has not yet been put forward. The present paper constitutes a first attempt at a refined periodization based on the occupational sequence of al-Ain, UAE. The study is based on the typological quantification of sherds from stratified excavations undertaken by the Tourism and Culture Authority of Abu Dhabi. It is broadly based on the methodology developed by Derek Kennet in his much-cited "Sasanian and Islamic Pottery from Ras al-Khaimah" (2004). The 13,649-sherd assemblage has been divided into six periods of thirty to seventy years spanning the later seventeenth to mid-twentieth centuries. The al-Ain assemblage is compared to published ceramics from contemporary sites in the Gulf region and further compared to relevant historical sources to draw out the wider implications of the findings. The present study constitutes an interim report and full publication of ceramics from al-Ain will appear in a pottery handbook currently in preparation.

Author: Timothy Power

View Original Web Page

References :

Altawallbeh, D. E. and A. A. al-Hajj.


n.d. “al-Tanqībāt al-Atharīya fī Bayt Ibn Surūr al-Ẓāhirī fī Madīnat al-ʿAyn, Wāḥat al-Muʿtariḍ.” Paper presented at The Conference on Emirates Archaeology. 30–31 March 2011, Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage.


Bathurst, R. D.


1967. “The Yaʿrubi Dynasty of Oman.” Unpublished Ph.D thesis, University of Oxford.


Brooks, A., O. S. al-Kaabi, T. C. Power and P. D. Sheehan.


2016. “New Objects, Old Trade: 19th- and 20th-Century European Ceramics and Glass in al-Ain, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.” The International Journal of Historical Archaeology (in preparation).


Carter, R. A.


2008. Archaeological Rescue Work in the Wadi Madab, March 2008. Oxford Brookes Archaeology and Heritage (OBAH). https://www.academia.edu/487061/Archaeological_Work_in_the_Wadi_Madab_Fujairah_UAE


2011. Ceramics of the Qatar National Museum. A Report and Catalogue. With a contribution by T. Sundblad. Oxford Brookes Archaeology and Heritage (OBAH). https://www.academia.edu/700174/Ceramics_of_the_Qatar_National_Museum


———. , M. Morley and C. Morse.


2011. Bu Maher Fort, Muharraq. With contributions by T. Grey and T. Murphy. Oxford Brookes Archaeology and Heritage (OBAH). https://www.academia.edu/942118/Bu_Maher_Fort_Muharraq._Report_on_Excavations_in_2010_for_the_Ministry_of_Culture_and_Information_Bahrain


———. and J. Naranjo-Santana.


2010. ‘Amara Excavations 2009. With a contribution by Mike Morley. Oxford Brookes Archaeology and Heritage (OBAH). https://www.academia.edu/628937/Amara_Excavations_2009


2011. Muharraq Excavations 2010. Oxford Brookes Archaeology and Heritage (OBAH). https://www.academia.edu/628941/Muharraq_Excavations_2010


Chen, J.


1999. 德化民窑青花 Dehua Minyao Qinghua (Common Blue and white of Dehua Kilns). Wenwu Press.


Copeland, R.


1990. Spode’s Willow Pattern and Other Designs After the Chinese. London: Studio Vista.


Costa, P.M. and T.S. Wilkinson, eds.


1987. “The Hinterland of Sohar: Archaeological Surveys and Excavations Within the Region of an Omani Seafaring City.” Journal of Oman Studies 9.


Coysh, A.W. and R. K. Henrywood.


1982 The Dictionary of Blue and White Printed Pottery 1780–1880. Woodbridge: Antique Collectors’ Club.


Cox, P.


1925. “Some Excursions in Oman.” The Geographical Journal 66(3): 193–221. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/1782975


Dyck, G.


1995. The Oasis: Al Ain Memoirs of ‘Doctora Latifa’. London and Abu Dhabi: Motivate Publishing.


Feng, X.


2009. 中国陶瓷 Zhongguo Taoci (Chinese Ceramics). Shanghai: Shanghai Guji Chubanshe.


Floor, W.


2006. The Persian Gulf: A Political and Economic History of Five Port Cities, 1500–1730. Washington, DC: Mage Publishers.


2007. The Persian Gulf: The Rise of the Gulf Arabs. The Politics of Trade on the Persian Littoral, 1747–1792. Washington, DC: Mage Publishers.


Grey, A.


2011. “Late Trade Wares on Arabian Shores: 18th- to 20th-Century Imported Fineware Ceramics from Excavated Sites on the Southern Persian (Arabian) Gulf Coast.” Post-Medieval Archaeology 45(2): 350–373.


Guérin, A. and F. A. al-Na‘imi.


2008. “Nineteenth Century Settlement Patterns at Zekrit, Qatar: Pottery, Tribes and Territory.” Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies 38: 173–185.


Heard-Bey, F.


1996. From Trucial States to United Arab Emirates: A Society in Transition. Dubai, Abu Dhabi and London: Motivate Publishing.


Hori, A.


2008. “Indian Ocean Trade and the Arabian Gulf in the 14th–17th Centuries: A Study of Imported Ceramics from China and Southeast Asia Excavated at Julfar.” Unpublished M. Phil. thesis, University of Oxford.


Hughes, T. R., ed.


1856. “Historical and Other Information, Connected with the Province of Oman, Muskat, Bahrein, and Other Places in the Persian Gulf.” Bombay Selections 24.


Ibn Razīq, Ḥumayd b. Muḥammad, al-Fatḥ al-Mubīn fī Sīrat al-Sādāh Āl Bū Saʿīdīn.


1871. History of the Imams and Seyyids of Oman, edited and translated by G.P. Badger. London. (1986 repr.).


al-Izkawī, Sirhān b. Saʿīd, Kashf al-Ghumma.


1874. Annals of Oman. Translated by E.C. Ross, introduced by P. Ward. Cambridge: Oleander Press. (1984 repr.).


Kelly, J. B.


1964. Eastern Arabian Frontiers. London: Faber and Faber.


Kennet, D.


2004. Sasanian and Islamic Pottery from Ras al-Khaimah. Classification,Chronology and Analysis of Trade in the Western Indian Ocean. Oxford: Oxford University Press.


Leigh, B.


2014. “Late Islamic Julfar Ware: A Typology and Assessment of the Julfar Ware Assemblage from the Bayt Bin ʿĀtī Excavation, al-Ain, UAE.” Unpublished M.A. thesis, UCL Qatar, 2014.


Leigh, B. and T. C. Power.


2014. “A Local Ware, Everywhere: A Typology and Assessment of the Late Islamic Julfar Ware Assemblage from the Bayt Bin ʿĀtī Excavations, al-ʿAin.” Paper presented at The Forty-Eighth Seminar for Arabian Studies, British Museum, London.


Li, B.


2012. “‘Batavia’ Style Chinese Export Porcelain: Origins, Recent Finds, and Historic Significance.” In The Cà Mau Shipwreck Porcelain (1723–1735), 2 Vols, edited by S. A. Buslig, N. D. Chién and B. Li, 23–30. Budapest: Magyar Indokína Társaság Kft.


Lockhart, L.


1935. “Nādir Shāh’s Campaigns in ‘Oman, 1737–1744.” Bulletin of the School of Oriental Studies 8(1): 157–171. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0041977X00081155


Lorimer, J. G.


1915. Gazetteer of the Persian Gulf, Oman and Central Asia. Calcutta.


Maitra, J. and A. al-Hajji.


2001. Qasr Al Hosn: The History of the Rulers of Abu Dhabi: 1793–1966. Abu Dhabi: Centre for Documentation and Research.


Medley, M.


1976. The Chinese Potter: A Practical History of Chinese Ceramics. Oxford: Phaidon.


Mershen, B.


2001. “Observations on the Archaeology and Ethnohistory of Rural Estates of the 17th through early 20th Centuries in Oman.” Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies 31: 145–160.


2002 “‘Let the water run back’: Archaeological and ethnohistorical observations from Wādī Fanjah / Wādī al-Khod, Oman: the Case of a Failed 18th/19th Century Agro-Economic Enterprise.” Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies 32: 99–116.


Milwright, M.


2010. An Introduction to Islamic Archaeology. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. http://dx.doi.org/10.3366/edinburgh/9780748623105.001.0001


Power, T. C., N. al-Jahwari, P. D. Sheehan and K. D. Strutt.


2015. “First Preliminary Report on the Buraimi Oasis Landscape Archaeology Project (BOLAP).” Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies 44. In press.


———. and O. S. al-Kaabi.


2011 “A Preliminary Ceramic Chronology for the Late Islamic Period in the al-‘Ain Oases, UAE.” Paper presented at The Conference on Emirates Archaeology. 30 – 31 March 2011, Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage. https://www.academia.edu/2241881/A_Preliminary_Ceramic_Chronology_for_the_Late_Islamic_Period_in_al-Ain_UAE_


———. and P. D. Sheehan.


2011a. “The Qaṣr al-Muwaijʿī: Diwān of the Āl Nahayyān in the al-ʿAin / Buraimi Oasis.” Liwa (Journal of the National Center for Documentation and Research, Abu Dhabi) 3(5): 26–41.


2011b “The Bayt Bin ʿĀtī in Qaṭṭāra Oasis: A Prehistoric Industrial Site and the Formation of the Oasis Landscape of al-ʿAin, UAE.” Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies 41: 267–282.


2012. “The Origin and Development of the Oasis Landscape of al-‘Ain (UAE).” Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies 42: 1–18.


2016a. Excavations at the Bayt Bin ʿĀtī: From the Iron Age to the Late Islamic Period. Abu Dhabi Tourism and Cuture Authority. (in preparation).


2016b. The Qaṣr al-Muwaijʿī: Diwān of the Āl Nahayyān in the al-ʿAin / Buraimi Oasis. Abu Dhabi Tourism and Cuture Authority. (in preparation).


Priestman, S. 2005.


“Settlement and Ceramics in Southern Iran: An Analysis of the Sasanian and Islamic Periods in the Williamson Collection.” Unpublished M.A. Thesis. University of Durham. http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/2745/1/2745_822.pdf?UkUDh:CyT


al-Sālimī, Nūr al-Dīn.


1928-31. Tuḥfat al-aʿyān bī-sīrat ahl ʿUmān. Ruwi.


Sheehan, P. D.


2012. “‘In the Interests of the General Peace’: The Architectural Development of al-Jahilī Fort and its Part within the Policy of Shaikh Zayid Bin Khalīfa in al-‘Ain.” Liwa (Journal of the National Center for Documentation and Research, Abu Dhabi) 4(7): 37–57.


———., T. C. Power, O. S. al-Kaabi, M. Khalifa, M. al-Dhaheri, B. H. al-Mansoori, L. J. al-Zaabi, M. S. al-Dhaheri, R. B. al-Mansoori.


2015. “Rediscovering a ‘Lost’ Village of al-ʿAyn: Archaeology and Communal Memory in the Oasis.” Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies 44 (in press).


Strutt, K. D., T. C. Power, N. al-Jahwari and P. D. Sheehan.


2014. “Archaeological Survey at Buraymī Oasis, Oman. An Integrated Strategy for Geophysics, Surface Collection and Test Pitting.” The Newsletter of the International Society for Archaeological Prospection 40: 4–8.


Velde, K.


2012. “The Geographical History of Julfar.” In 50 Years of Emirates Archaeology: Proceedings of the Second International Conference on the Archaeology of the United Arab Emirates, edited by D. T. Potts and P. Hellyer, 214–221. Abu Dhabi and Dubai.


Wellsted, J. R.


1837. “Narrative of a Journey into the Interior of Oman in 1835.” Journal of the Royal Geographical Society of London 7: 102–113. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/1797516


Wilkinson, J. C.


1967. “A Sketch of the Historical Geography of the Trucial Oman down to the Beginning of the Sixteenth Century.” The Geographical Journal 130(3): 337–349. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/1794758


Willetts, W. Y. and S. P. Lim.


1981. “Nonya Ware and Kitchen Ch’ing: Ceremonial and Domestic Pottery of the 19th–20th Centuries Commonly Found in Malaysia.” Southeast Asian Ceramic Society, West Malaysia Chapter.


Zhang, Z.


1999. “福建漳州地区明清瓷器略探 Fujian Zhangzhou Diqu Mingqing Ciqu. Luetan (An initial study of the Ming and Qing ceramics in the Zhangzhou area of Fujian Province).” 福建文博 Fujian Wenbo 35: 58–60.