Islamic Ceramics and Rural Economy in the Trapani Mountains during the 11th century

Abstract

Located in the Trapani Mountains of North-West Sicily, the hilltop site of Pizzo Monaco hasformed the focus of systematic excavation and an innovative, integrated study of the totalceramic assemblage, as part of the MEMOLA FP7 project. The date, provenance and productiontechnology of the varied types of pottery are investigated by macroscopic, morphological anddecorative analysis, in combination with petrography and scanning electron microscopy in orderto assess social, technological and economic ties of this rural site and its environs with the earlyIslamic capital of Sicily at Palermo, the wider island and North Africa. Local production of cookingvessels is compared with glazed and plain storage pottery, serving and consumption vesselsfrom Palermo, in a region where the new relationship between coastal centre and nearby mountaineconomies was being forged. Correlation of the properties of the pottery assemblage withthe unusual architecture suggests the storage of a repeated ceramic set, perhaps on a householdbasis, in a site which may be a fortified storage facility, rather than sustaining more permanentoccupation. The typological study provides new information on the range of ceramics circulatingin Sicily during the mid-11th century CE, revealing the full spectrum of ceramics consumedat this time. This approach contrasts with work that privileges a view of simple transmissionof glazing technologies across the Islamic Mediterranean. Indeed a comparison of productionsequences in the crafting of similar glazed bowls at Palermo demonstrates the co-existence ofdifferent communities of practice and cautions against over-simplified reconstructions of thetransmission of glazing technologies in the early medieval Mediterranean. The range of potteryavailable from a variety of sources highlights the consumption choices made by these communitiesin the medieval period.