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The roots of provenance: glass, plants and isotopes in the Islamic Middle East

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

J. Henderson ,
J. Evans  and
Y. Barkoudah
J. Henderson
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology, University of Nottingham, University Park, Nottingham, NG7 2RD, UK
J. Evans
Affiliation:
NIGL, BGS, Keyworth, NG12 5GG, UK
Y. Barkoudah
Affiliation:
The Arab-European University, Damascus, Syria
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Abstract

Glass – one of the most prestigious materials of the early Islamic empire – was traded not only as vessels and bangles but as raw glass blocks. One of its raw materials, plant-ash, was also traded. This means that tracking the production of this precious commodity is especially challenging. The authors show that while chemical composition can relate to vessel type, it is a combination of chemical compositions with strontium and neodymium isotope ratios that is most likely to lead to (a geological) provenance for its manufacture. The materials used by the glassmakers were local sand and plant ashes. Reported here is the first application of the method to the glass made at the primary glass making centre of al-Raqqa, Syria in an environmental context.

Keywords

SyriaIslamicglassplantsisotopeschemical analysistrade
Type
Method
Information
Antiquity , Volume 83 , Issue 320 , June 2009 , pp. 414 - 429
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd 2009

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