https://journal.equinoxpub.com/JIA/gateway/plugin/WebFeedGatewayPlugin/atomJournal of Islamic Archaeology2024-02-16T09:58:53+00:00Bethany Walkerbwalker@uni-bonn.deOpen Journal Systems<p>The Journal of Islamic Archaeology is the only journal today devoted to the field of Islamic archaeology on a global scale. The term refers to the archaeological study of Islamic societies, polities, and communities, wherever they are found. It may be considered a type of “historical” archaeology, in which the study of historically (textually) known societies can be studied through a combination of “texts and tell”. <a href="https://journal.equinoxpub.com/JIA/about">Read more</a>.</p>https://journal.equinoxpub.com/JIA/article/view/28346'The Continuity of Pre-Islamic Motifs in Javanese Mosque Ornamentation, Indonesia' Hee Sook Lee-Niinioja (2022)2024-03-07T12:22:37+00:00Robert J. Stark
<p><em>The Continuity of Pre-Islamic Motifs in Javanese Mosque Ornamentation, Indonesia</em><br />Hee Sook Lee-Niinioja.<br />Archaeopress, 2022. xii, 280 pp., 81 figs., 22 tables. £52.00/£16.00.<br />Pb ISBN-13: 9781803270487. e-book ISBN-13: 9781803270494.</p>
2024-03-07T00:00:00+00:00Copyright (c) 2024 Equinox Publishing Ltd.https://journal.equinoxpub.com/JIA/article/view/28345'Imagining Antiquity in Islamic Societies' Stephennie Mulder (ed) (2022)2024-03-07T12:22:38+00:00Peter J. Brown
<p><em>Imagining Antiquity in Islamic Societies</em><br />Edited by Stephennie Mulder.<br />Intellect 2022. Critical Studies in Architecture of the Middle East series. 294pp., 118 b/w ill., index. Hb £90.<br />ISBN-13: 9781789385489.</p>
2024-03-07T00:00:00+00:00Copyright (c) 2024 Equinox Publishing Ltd.https://journal.equinoxpub.com/JIA/article/view/20436Transforming Religious and Monarchial Power2023-07-27T08:58:11+00:00Jake Hubbert
<p>The political landscape of the emergent medieval Georgian nation among the predominant Islamic emirates is a relatively new field for western scholars. The Medieval Georgian polity, led by King Davit IV (Aghmshenebeli), rose to power in the late 11th and early 12th centuries CE. As the crowning jewel of a new architectural scheme, King Davit IV constructed the Gelati Monastery as a symbol of political, social, and religious power in medieval Georgia. King Davit IV’s son, King Demet’re I, finished the monastery in the 12th century and added to its construction with one fundamental piece, the iron gates of Ganja. The gates, taken by King Demetrius I from the Islamic city of Ganja in 1139 CE as a spoil of war, were placed next to the grave of King Davit IV Aghmshenebeli. My paper investigates the symbolic importance of the gates from Ganja in its original context for the local Ganjans and what it later meant to the Georgians. I also address the types of peoples involved with the transformation of the gate’s power as it moved locations. These gates have an Arabic inscription on them that indicates the original purpose of the gates for the Islamic ruler of Ganja. A translation of the Arabic script on the gates is also given in my paper. Finally, I demonstrate how the meanings of the gates of Ganja changed as King Demet’re I moved them from Ganja to their final destination within the Gelati complex and how those meanings related to the political landscape that the Medieval Georgian Kingdom sought to create.</p>
2023-07-27T00:00:00+00:00Copyright (c) 2023 Equinox Publishing Ltd.https://journal.equinoxpub.com/JIA/article/view/21405A Rescue Excavation at the Islamic Site of Umm Zweitineh in Central Jordan, 20122023-07-27T08:58:10+00:00Hashem KhriesTaher Al-Gonmeen
<p>This paper draws on the preliminary results of the rescue excavation conducted by the Department of Antiquities at Umm Zweitineh in central Jordan in 2012. The goal of the excavation was to take urgent action regarding protecting the site as far as possible. Due to budget constraints, the excavation work lasted for only twenty days. The aim of the article is that of providing a clear regional picture of the Islamic settlement through the seventh/eighth and fourteenth centuries AD through retrieving information from the architectural remains and material culture. The architectural relics and material culture were unearthed under a dense layer of wreckage and accumulated debris because of previous construction work at the site. The accumulation deposits yielded a ceramic assembly of daily life vessels dating primarily to the Umayyad and Mamluk periods. Earlier pottery sherds belonging to the Roman and Byzantine periods have been also uncovered. Ceramic sherds from the Iron Age II sporadically appeared on topsoil. Besides the ceramic, other metal artifacts, including bronze vessels from different periods, have been unearthed. The Umayyad and Early Mamluk settlements were distinguishable because of the distinct corpus typical of both periods. Possible evidence of a religion building belonging to the Umayyad-period Christianity have been unearthed in Area B.</p>
2023-07-27T00:00:00+00:00Copyright (c) 2023 Equinox Publishing Ltd.https://journal.equinoxpub.com/JIA/article/view/22546Dating of Stratified Settlement Remains in Faid Pilgrim Station, Northwest of Saudi Arabia2023-07-27T08:58:05+00:00Ahmed NassrAhmed ElhassanMohammed al-HajjAli Tueaiman
<p>Faid was a major pilgrim Islamic oasis located 120 km southeast of the Ha’il Province, northwest of Saudi Arabia. It was founded on the major Hajj Road between Baghdad/Kufa and Medina and was developed by Zubaydah bint Ja'far, granddaughter to the Caliph Abu Ja'far al-Mansur (the founder of Baghdad) and wife to the fifth Abbasid Caliph, Harun Ar-Rašid 775–785 CE. Therefore, during the reign of Harun Ar-Rašid Caliph, the major pilgrim road was renamed from Darb Heerah to Darb Zubaydah. The archaeological site in Faid was referenced and described by several travellers and scholars and excavated by the Heritage Commission, Ministry of Culture, Saudi Arabia 1998–2012. From 2014–2022, the University of Ha’il conducted nine fieldwork seasons at the site. The authors directed the last four seasons, which revealed numerous new discoveries from stratified excavations. This study aims to reconstruct the occupation chronology at the site based on stratigraphic contexts and supported by radiocarbon dating, artefact studies, and written resources. Three occupation horizons were identified at the site; the early Abbasid period was the dominant occupation. The resulting radiocarbon calibrated ages were consistent with the preliminary archaeological studies carried out by the authors. The results presented in this paper represent an attempt to reconstruct the chronology of the study site.</p>
2023-07-27T00:00:00+00:00Copyright (c) 2023 Equinox Publishing Ltd.https://journal.equinoxpub.com/JIA/article/view/24718The Tombstone of Sultan Oways Jalayeri and its Inscription2023-07-27T08:58:03+00:00Amin Moradi
<p>The village of Shad-abad, located at the foot of Sahand Mountain in the south of Tabriz, East Azerbaijan Province, Iran, is known for the impressive Medieval cemetery in which the tomb of Sultan Oways ibn Hasan ibn Hosayn ibn Aqbuqa ibn Ilka ibn Jalayer (1338–1374 CE), the second ruler of the Jalayirid dynasty (1335–1432 CE), is located. This tombstone is of particular importance as no other gravestones of Jalayirid Sultans or their predecessors have otherwise been documented. This research limits itself to studying Sultan Oways' tombstone by focusing on its content and layout in contribution to further future research. Observations suggest that the scheme of the rectangular headstone in Sultan Oways’ tombstone is derived from funerary art associated with stone works in neighboring Caucasia that are replicated in local cemeteries in eastern Anatolia and Northwest Iran, in combination with an oblong horizontal footstone.</p>
2023-07-27T00:00:00+00:00Copyright (c) 2023 Equinox Publishing Ltd.https://journal.equinoxpub.com/JIA/article/view/24820The Pilgrim Town of Philoxenite and Settlement Continuation in the Early Islamic Hinterland of Alexandria, Egypt2023-07-27T08:58:02+00:00Mariusz Gwiazda
<p>The history of settlements in the Mareotis region or the immediate hinterland of Alexandria in the first century following the Arab conquest of Egypt has not been sufficiently studied. Earlier findings stated that the region had suffered a settlement crisis prior to the second half of the 7th century AD, with an unstable hydrological situation as the contributing factor. Those findings contradicted the results of the archaeological excavations at Philoxenite, a town located in the western part of the Mareotis region. The Byzantine buildings and public spaces studied at that site had been in use until the first half of the 8th century. Upon analysis, the associated sequences of layers and structures imply that their uses were subject to modification. Putting these findings into the context of a regional perspective leads to the conclusion that the settlement history of Alexandria’s western hinterland was more complex than previously thought. Not only does this concern the difficulties in accessing water, but also the decrease in Christian pilgrimage traffic as important factors responsible for the changes.</p>
2023-07-27T00:00:00+00:00Copyright (c) 2023 Equinox Publishing Ltd.https://journal.equinoxpub.com/JIA/article/view/26693The Maturation of a Discipline2023-07-27T08:58:01+00:00Bethany J. Walker
<p>In celebration of the ten-year anniversary of the journal, this brief editorial note reviews the ways the field of Islamic archaeology has developed in the last decade, and the ways in which the journal has generated growth, facilitated innovation and collaboration, and given visibility to the field.</p>
2023-07-27T00:00:00+00:00Copyright (c) 2023 Equinox Publishing Ltd.https://journal.equinoxpub.com/JIA/article/view/25256The “Halep Arki” (Aleppo Channel), a Mamluk Era Water System for Aleppo2024-03-07T12:22:40+00:00Timur DemirMakbule Ekici BulutScott Redford
<p>Due to its low rainfall and limited potential for water retention, northern Syria has always had access to and control of water as one of the main features of states in the region aiming to maintain their rule. This article introduces new information about the Mamluk period water adduction system of the northern Syrian city of Aleppo, which brought water to the Quwayq River, the city’s most important source of water. A newly documented part of the system, known in the Gaziantep region of Türkiye as the “Halep Arki” (the Aleppo channel), is discussed along with Mamluk-era inscriptions associated with it. During archaeological survey conducted between 2016 and 2018 in the Oguzeli region of Türkiye’s Gaziantep province, an open-air channel connected to a qanat-like tunnel with vertical shafts was documented, in addition to two inscriptions carved into the bedrock where the open-air channel met the tunnel. These inscriptions, which have been damaged over the centuries, were documented using RTI (Reflectance Transformation Imaging) technology, which allowed portions of one of them to be read. The survey showed that this Mamluk era water system was also used and expanded in the Ottoman period beginning with the conquest of the region in the 16th century. Spoil heaps show that the system was cleaned, likely during the Ottoman era. The closing of gaps in the bedrock that came about due to earthquakes or other reasons with stone walling may also have taken place in the Ottoman period. Also, in the Ottoman period, water from other springs was added to the system and various regulations on the use of water introduced. In this article, based on topographic and hydrological study of the region, we offer suggestions of the sources of the spring water that were joined to this system.</p>
2024-03-07T00:00:00+00:00Copyright (c) 2024 Equinox Publishing Ltd.https://journal.equinoxpub.com/JIA/article/view/25863Guest Editor’s Preface2023-03-31T11:58:59+00:00Timothy Insoll2023-03-31T00:00:00+00:00Copyright (c) 2023 Equinox Publishing Ltd.https://journal.equinoxpub.com/JIA/article/view/25864“Becoming Muslim”2023-03-31T11:58:58+00:00Timothy Insoll
<p>Archaeology is in a unique position to offer a material culture based perspective on Islamization and conversion to Islam, particularly in regions where historical sources might be limited or absent. This is explored with reference to two archaeological areas, Gao in Mali, and Harlaa in Ethiopia to assess if similar material markers can recur archaeologically through evaluating mosques, Muslim burials and Arabic epigraphy, settlement structure and domestic architecture, animal and plant remains, ceramics, and miscellaneous artifacts potentially suggestive of Islamization in both regions, primarily for the period between the 11th–13th centuries CE. It is concluded that the evidence from Gao and Harlaa attests the variety of interpretations of Islam that exist, but, correspondingly, through the recurrence of key markers such as mosques, Muslim burials, and Arabic epigraphy, also affirms material similarity, yet without having to make course to a unitary and erroneous concept of “African Islam.”</p>
2023-03-31T00:00:00+00:00Copyright (c) 2023 Equinox Publishing Ltd.https://journal.equinoxpub.com/JIA/article/view/25865The Archaeology of Islamization in Northern Madagascar2023-03-31T11:58:57+00:00Nathan J Anderson
<p>Islamic towns dotted the northern coasts of Madagascar in the immediate precolonial period. The heritage of these settlements was not unlike their coastal East African contemporaries. Elaborating upon what is known from regional oral traditions and Islamic histories, archaeology has increasingly served as a conduit for understanding, facilitating the investigation of Muslim chronologies and lifeways in Madagascar. Tangible cultural heritage has corroborated Malagasy tradition, attesting to a human landscape sculpted by centuries of colonization, disparate and interconnected micro-migrations, and seasonal visitations. These finds are echoed in the genetics of the present-day Malagasy, where a legacy of Austronesian, African, and Indian Ocean inputs and population fluidity is found (Heiske et al. 2021; Radimilahy and Crossland 2015, 504–505). The compositional peculiarities of Muslim communities along the northern flanks of Madagascar recommend that Islamic beliefs reached the great island via the Comorian Archipelago in the early 2nd millennium CE, arriving via maritime routes and as components of larger southward dispersion phenomena, which included ideological dissemination, socio-religious affiliation, and the physical movement of people over multiple generations. The diffusion of Islamic ideologies to Madagascar was not realized according to a uniform Islamization pathway, nor was the development of member communities constrained within a single moment in time, as told in Antalaotra and Zafiraminia foundational biographies. Recent archaeological investigations at the Islamic town of Kingany in Madagascar’s northwest help clarify the trajectories of said ideological transmission and elaborate on underlying Islamizing mechanisms pertinent to the Mozambique Channel in this period.</p>
2023-03-31T00:00:00+00:00Copyright (c) 2023 Equinox Publishing Ltd.https://journal.equinoxpub.com/JIA/article/view/25866Conquest to Conversion2023-03-31T11:58:56+00:00Corisande Fenwick
<p>North Africa (west of Egypt) is a compelling locale to explore how and when a Muslim minority became the Muslim majority. Previous scholarly approaches to medieval religious change rely almost exclusively on much later written sources, and as a result, little is understood about the religious landscape in which believers operated in. This article examines critically the material evidence for mosque construction and church abandonment and proposes certain tipping points in the process by which Islam become the dominant religion. While mosque construction reveals more about state and elite religious investment than the believers who may have used them, other forms of evidence, including funerary evidence, dietary practices and inscribed material culture, occasionally give us an intimate glimpse into the practices of simple believers. The evidence shows that the chronology of religious change differs between those regions under Byzantine rule (eastern Algeria, Tunisia, coastal Libya), and those ruled by Berber chiefdoms in late antiquity. Much of the latter converted in the 8th century, whereas the late 9th century marks the mass conversion of town dwellers from the Byzantine core and a first period of crisis for Christianity. This early conversion was an important factor in the collapse of the caliphate in North Africa and the emergence of successor states that used Islam as the main idiom through which to establish and legitimize their right to rule.</p>
2023-03-31T00:00:00+00:00Copyright (c) 2023 Equinox Publishing Ltd.https://journal.equinoxpub.com/JIA/article/view/25867“Bamanaya is so difficult to leave behind”2023-03-31T11:58:55+00:00Kevin C MacDonald
<p>Islamization in Mande West Africa gradually accompanied the expansion of mercantile groups and was surprisingly accommodating via syncretic processes with local spiritual traditions. Elites of the Empire of Mali were amongst the first to embrace Islam and mediate between it and indigenous earth religions. Yet this process was patchy across different cultural sectors and from the seventeenth century onwards there were upswellings of Bamanaya, earth religions, in open conflict with waves of Islamic jihadism (e.g. the Umarian movement). Thus, historic polities could retain both mosques and non-Islamic shrines, and maraboutic practices incorporated forms of local magic. This article considers results from “Project Segou”: historical and archaeological fieldwork undertaken between 2005 and 2013 in the Segou region of Mali, stretching approximately from Sinsanni in the east to Nyamina in the west. As a heartland of the Empire of Mali (c. AD 1235–1500) and the core of Bamana Segou (c. AD 1700–1861), its oral and archaeological sources inform our deep time appreciation of ideological and spiritual change at the margins of the Middle Niger from the thirteenth through nineteenth centuries AD.</p>
2023-03-31T00:00:00+00:00Copyright (c) 2023 Equinox Publishing Ltd.https://journal.equinoxpub.com/JIA/article/view/25919Seeking Transparency: Rock Crystals across the Medieval Mediterranean, edited by Cynthia Hahn and Avinoam Shalem2023-03-31T11:58:54+00:00Hagit Nol
<p>Seeking Transparency: Rock Crystals across the Medieval Mediterranean, edited by Cynthia Hahn and Avinoam Shalem. Mann Verlag 2020. 334pp., 36 pl., index. Hardback €49. ISBN-13: 9783786128434.</p>
2023-03-31T00:00:00+00:00Copyright (c) 2023 Equinox Publishing Ltd.https://journal.equinoxpub.com/JIA/article/view/25920The Umayyad Mosque of Damascus. Art, Faith and Empire in Early Islam, by Alain George2023-03-31T11:58:53+00:00Hagit Nol
<p>The Umayyad Mosque of Damascus. Art, Faith and Empire in Early Islam, by Alain George. Gingko 2021. Gingko Library Art Series. 260pp., 165 ill. Hardback 60£. ISBN0-13: 9781909942455.</p>
2023-03-31T00:00:00+00:00Copyright (c) 2023 Equinox Publishing Ltd.https://journal.equinoxpub.com/JIA/article/view/25921Imported Table Wares in the Palestinian Countryside in the 19th and Early 20th Centuries and Their Integration into (and Influence on?) Local Dining Habits2024-03-07T12:22:38+00:00Itamar Taxel
<p>Archaeological fieldwork in Israel has testified to the presence of a variety of imported glazed table wares of the 19th and first half of the 20th century—notably from the northeast Mediterranean, Europe and the Far East—in numerous locations, including in rural sites of various ranks. The influx of import of these ceramics to the southern Levant and their widespread use reflect the intensifying commercial activity in the eastern Mediterranean and the gradual processes of globalization and quasi-Westernization or modernization among certain local populations. This article examines the extent of use of imported table wares among 19th to early 20th-century Palestinian Arab rural societies, the modes of use of these vessels in food consumption contexts, and consequently the power of foreign (culinary) objects to modify local (dining) traditions. These aspects are investigated by using archaeological materials, historical photographs and some written testimonies. This review shows, on the one hand, that imported table wares were integrated into local kitchens and functioned alongside locally-produced vessels. On the other hand, although many of these imports—specifically the European ones—were originally designated for individual eating, it is shown here that their influence on local, well-rooted traditions of communal dining was minor, especially among the great majority of the countryside population.</p>
2024-03-07T00:00:00+00:00Copyright (c) 2024 Equinox Publishing Ltd.https://journal.equinoxpub.com/JIA/article/view/24216Excavations at the Umayyad and Early Abbasid Reservoir-Enclosure of ‘Ayn Sawda (Azraq Oasis, Jordan)2024-03-07T12:22:42+00:00Lorraine Abu AzizehJulie BonnéricBarbara CouturaudAurélien Stavy
<p>In the centre of the Azraq oasis in the Eastern Desert of Jordan, there is a long wall previously interpreted as a huge water reservoir that was fed by the ‘Ayn Sawda spring. The site, seen as belonging to the category of the Umayyad “desert castles,” is best known through the many basalt blocks with mortise and tenon joints that were found there, several being carved with figurative representations in bas and high relief. These form an exceptional archaeological collection with no known iconographic parallel. Given the uncertainty of both the function and dating of the structure, between 2013 and 2016, the Azraq ‘Ayn Sawda Reservoir Project (Ifpo) made a topographical plan of the site and an inventory of the carved blocks, and carried out excavations, an architectural study and an assessment of the state of preservation. The results suggest an enclosure delimiting an agricultural area to the west and a water reservoir to the east. It was built in the Umayyad period, somewhere between 664 and 690 AD, and probably reconfigured in early Abbasid times, somewhere between 768 and 900 AD. Excavation also revealed unusual and various building techniques designed for very specific environments. This monument exploited all the possibilities of this rich oasis to enhance the landscape.</p>
2024-03-07T00:00:00+00:00Copyright (c) 2024 Equinox Publishing Ltd.https://journal.equinoxpub.com/JIA/article/view/24777Identifying Cultural Habits and Economical Preferences in the Islamic Period, Mount Zion, Jerusalem2024-03-07T12:22:41+00:00Linoy NamdarJennifer ZimniOmri LernauDieter ViewegerYuval GadotLidar Sapir-Hen
<p>Archaeological and historical sources describe differently the course of events that occurred during the Islamic conquest of Jerusalem. Was the transition from the Byzantine to the Islamic period a short and dramatic event or a long and steady process? This study aims to examine the Islamic cultural influences over Jerusalem during the Byzantine/Umayyad period and later post-earthquake of the 8th century CE. Thus, we carried out a study of Mount Zion’s (seasons 2018 and 2019) faunal assemblages, analyzing the species discovered at the site, their demography and distribution between the different architectural contexts. The focus was on evaluating the cultural identity and economic preferences of the local population.</p> <p>The remains we found indicate that the economy was based mainly on caprines, pigs and fish. As the site was located inside the Jerusalem walls, the locals gained their meat supply from the local markets and might have been involved in agriculture outside the walls. Although the site experienced architectural alterations between the two periods, the Christian population remained, and their faunal economy did not change from the Byzantine period till after the earthquake.</p>
2024-03-07T00:00:00+00:00Copyright (c) 2024 Equinox Publishing Ltd.https://journal.equinoxpub.com/JIA/article/view/351Comments on Muslim, Jewish and Christian Burial Practices in Medieval Toledo (Spain)2022-12-15T09:43:37+00:00Arturo Ruiz-Taboada
<p>Burial of the dead is a very material reflection on one’s own existence. Religious considerations aside, the funerary world has more to do with social, kin, and religious contexts than with the deceased himself/herself. Because of this, burial practices are quite diverse across space and time. Historical texts are essential sources of knowledge about the medieval funerary context; however, only archaeology provides details regarding burial practice and belief. This article analyses Muslim, Christian and Jewish burial rituals and introduces a new field study based on the main results of different excavations, some of them published during the last decade, with the ultimate goal of understanding the funerary world of medieval Toledo. The expulsion of Jews and Muslims at the end of the 15th century by the Catholic Monarchs and their policy of eradicating the memory of their presence in Spain makes difficult our efforts to recover these cultures and their material remains. Until the 12th century, Christians, Jews and Muslims were buried outside the city walls; however, after the taking of Toledo by Alphonse 6th, Christians started using the parish churches and other religious buildings inside the city as burial grounds.</p>
2015-08-06T00:00:00+00:00Copyright (c) 2015 Equinox Publishing Ltd.https://journal.equinoxpub.com/JIA/article/view/23644Refuse Usage and Architectural Reuse in the Field2022-12-15T09:40:28+00:00Itamar TaxelJoel Roskin
<p>Based on the mostly unpublished finds of a 1970s excavation and the initial results of a 2020 survey and excavation of the remains of an Early Islamic Plot-and-Berm (P&B) agroecosystem south of ancient Caesarea/Qaysariyya, this study discusses the agricultural incorporation of refuse in a pristine aeolian sand environment. The P&B agroecosystem, characterized by anthro-terrain/earthworks of sunken agricultural plots delimited by sand berms, comprises an innovative initiative to cultivate dunefields on a high groundwater table. The key element for the sustainability of this unique agrotechnology was refuse. The refuse, extracted from nearby town dumps, included ash, carbonate, trace elements and artifacts. It was probably sorted into small artifacts and grey loam. It was then brought to the fields, not only combined to stabilize the erodible and initially unvegetated berm surface until today, but also partly altered the physical and chemical properties of the sand and increased its fertility, mainly in the plots, to form sandy loam anthrosols. The pristine aeolian sand substrate enabled a clear and quantitative stratigraphic and pedological differentiation of the refuse additions. The transportation of human waste to the fields and its incorporation into the natural sediment to form an anthrosol formed part of the "waste stream" of Caesarea's Early Islamic population. Such human-modified soil environments by means of manuring, gained a specific signature and would have been considered "soil places" which became part of the local onomasticon of placenames and probably created "cultural soilscapes." The clear aeolian sandy substrate makes the P&B agroecosystems an excellent case study on soil enrichment by refuse, and enlightens us about the relative amounts and methodologies of refuse extraction, sorting, transportation, and incorporation.</p>
2022-09-12T00:00:00+00:00Copyright (c) 2022 Equinox Publishing Ltd.https://journal.equinoxpub.com/JIA/article/view/23647The Islamic Lives of Iberian Megaliths2022-12-15T09:30:23+00:00Katina T Lillios
<p>Modernist archaeology involves the dating and ordering of events, construction phases, objects, people, or processes in well-bounded and discrete sequences. The notion that objects or monuments date to one time or one cultural phase, however, is problematic, particularly in the case of large stone monuments, such as megaliths, whose construction and use are generally dated to the Neolithic, between 6000 and 2500 BCE. This paper examines the methodological challenges of such work and surveys what the archaeological record reveals about the nature of Andalusi engagements with megaliths.</p>
2022-09-12T00:00:00+00:00Copyright (c) 2022 Equinox Publishing Ltd.https://journal.equinoxpub.com/JIA/article/view/23648Khirbat Faris: Rural Settlement, Continuity and Change in Southern Jordan: The Nabataean to Modern Periods (1st century BC–20th century AD), by Alison McQuitty, Holly Parton and Andrew Petersen. and Ancient Landscapes of Zoara I: Surveys and Excavations at the Ghor as-Safi in Jordan, 1997–2018, by Konstantinos D. Politis.2022-12-15T09:30:01+00:00Ian W N Jones
<p>Khirbat Faris: Rural Settlement, Continuity and Change in Southern Jordan: The Nabataean to Modern Periods (1st century BC–20th century AD), by Alison McQuitty, Holly Parton and Andrew Petersen. Archaeopress Archaeology, 2020. 428pp., with 60 tables and 271 figures. Pb. £50.00, ISBN-13: 9781789693898; ePDF £16.00. ISBN-13: 9781789693904.</p> <p>Ancient Landscapes of Zoara I: Surveys and Excavations at the Ghor as-Safi in Jordan, 1997–2018, by Konstantinos D. Politis. Routledge, 2021. 304 pp., with 399 B/W figures. Hb. $160.00, ISBN-13: 9780367622800; ePDF $48.95, ISBN-13: 9781003108696.</p>
2022-09-12T00:00:00+00:00Copyright (c) 2022 Equinox Publishing Ltd.https://journal.equinoxpub.com/JIA/article/view/23642Something Ends, Something Begins2022-10-02T23:55:25+00:00José C Carvajal López2022-09-12T00:00:00+00:00Copyright (c) 2022 Equinox Publishing Ltd.https://journal.equinoxpub.com/JIA/article/view/23643Quantitative Analysis of Ceramics and the Formation of the Archaeological Record in Madinat Ilbirah (Granada, Spain)2022-10-02T23:56:07+00:00Miguel Jiménez Puertas
<p>This paper offers a study of a particular assemblage of ceramics retrieved in a pit in the Islamic town of Madinat Ilbirah (Granada, Spain) to analyse the processes of formation of the archaeological record. This can in turn provide interesting information on the patterns of use and discard of ceramics, and so contribute to a general picture of quotidian social practices in an Islamic town. The theoretical apparatus of the paper combines insights extracted from the works of M. B. Schiffer, well known for his contribution to the study of site formation processes, and methodological ideas by C. Orton, specialist on quantitative analysis of ceramics. These ideas have been circulated and debated by archaeologists for decades, but they have been scarcely applied to the debate on Islamic ceramics in al-Andalus. In this study they are adapted to the particular conditions of the pit assemblage in Ilbirah. The results of this analysis show that the deposit of ceramics found in the pit contains elements of two well-defined periods of early Islamic al-Andalus (late Emiral, 850–925, and Caliphal, 925–1025), and that there are at least three moments of accumulation. The earliest and latest moment of accumulation were built over a relatively long number of years, but the intermediate moment seems to correspond to a process of discarding of the elements of a single domestic unit over a period of about five to ten years. The main aim of this paper is to draw attention to the possibilities and the need of advanced quantitative research in pottery studies. It is hoped that this study will inspire similar works in other Islamic sites, so that significant comparisons can be built.</p>
2022-09-12T00:00:00+00:00Copyright (c) 2022 Equinox Publishing Ltd.https://journal.equinoxpub.com/JIA/article/view/23645The “Cup of Pharaoh” from Samarra and the Reuse of Ancient spolia as Water Features in the medieval Islamic World2022-10-02T23:57:32+00:00Peter J Brown
<p>This paper opens with a consideration of the biography of a large basin discovered during excavations at the Abbasid capital of Samarra. The large, circular, basin from Samarra closely matches historical descriptions of a fountain located in the city’s Congregational Mosque which became known as “kasat firun,” or the “Cup of Pharaoh” and, since its discovery, this excavated basin and the historical account of the fountain have often been conflated as one and the same. The excavated basin is carved from a non-local—and probably Egyptian—stone which may have generated its mysterious association with the Pharaonic past. A consideration of the possible sources from which such a large stone basin might have been obtained during the Islamic period, however, opens up a wider discussion related to the reuse of pre-Islamic artefacts as water features. This paper explores possible scenarios through which the basin from Samarra might have been acquired by the Abbasid caliphs alongside the logistics associated with its transport to Samarra. In addition, the likely motivations for the installation of this enigmatic stone basin are evaluated—including pragmatic reuse of an impressive piece of stonework, a symbolic statement of contemporary pre-eminence over the rulers of the past or perhaps even beliefs in the quasi-magical powers of ancient objects. Alongside this, the existence of several comparable, near-contemporary, basins, demonstrate that the reuse of objects from the past as contemporary water features in important locations, was a wider practice seen in both the Islamic world and beyond. As an object that seems to have led multiple lives, the complex biography of the basin from Samarra illuminates the ways in which material remains of the past were understood and repurposed during the Abbasid Caliphate.</p>
2022-09-12T00:00:00+00:00Copyright (c) 2022 Equinox Publishing Ltd.https://journal.equinoxpub.com/JIA/article/view/23646Spolia and Umayyad Mosques2022-10-02T23:58:25+00:00Carmen González Gutiérrez
<p>The use of Roman and Late-antique spolia in the erection of Umayyad infrastructures is extensively documented, from Bilad al-Sham to al-Andalus. Particularly in the latter, spolia were key in the construction of mosques, of which the Friday Mosque of Córdoba is the most paradigmatic example. The reuse of decorative and architectural materials in these religious spaces has been broadly discussed, and it has been often concluded that there were aesthetic, religious and ideological reasons, as well as strong political needs of legitimation and representation of the Umayyad dynasty. In this context, the case of the mosque of Madinat al-Zahra' is quite striking. Here, while spolia seem to have been absent, the capitals designed for its prayer room stand out for their particular characteristics, often described as resembling Visigothic models and as a product of rush. This paper aims to bring together the information available about the use of spolia in Umayyad mosques and its possible explanations, as well as to bring forward the particularities of the series of capitals designed for the mosque of Madinat al-Zahra', suggesting new ideas for their interpretation.</p>
2022-09-12T00:00:00+00:00Copyright (c) 2022 Equinox Publishing Ltd.https://journal.equinoxpub.com/JIA/article/view/23472Artifacts Associated with the Chemical Arts in the Early Islamic Period in Ramla, Israel2024-03-07T12:22:42+00:00Amir GorzalczanyBaruch Rosen
<p>Archaeological excavations in Ramla, <em>Jund Filastin</em> capital during the early Islamic period, discovered in a zone of artisans and workshops, a unique complex of built and dug installations. It included barely known and understood components of a proto-chemical toolkit. The finds included an abundance of small, decorated bottles previously identified as perfume containers. Additional small finds of a proto-chemistry toolkit included e.g., bronze pipettes, delicate bronze pestles and weights. The complex is to be associated with the existence of a facility differing from an alchemist studio-laboratory. It involved the commercial, non-artisan, pre-industrial production of perfumes and aromatic oils associated with body care chemistry. The close proximity to a <em>Hammam </em>(bathhouse) is notable. Suitable comparisons were found throughout the Mediterranean Basin, from Spain, where comparable tool kits in close proximity to <em>Hammams </em>were discovered, to Russia, where similar technology and typology were documented. The article discusses the importance of the dictates of the Qur’an and Mohammedan traditions regarding purification of the body and their catalytic influence on social and early technological changes in a pre-industrial society.</p>
2024-03-07T00:00:00+00:00Copyright (c) 2024 Equinox Publishing Ltd.https://journal.equinoxpub.com/JIA/article/view/22043Corpus des monnaies almoravides by Daniel Eustache, Abdellatif Jouahri and Ahmed Ettahiri.2022-02-16T00:44:19+00:00Mohamed El Hadri
<p>Corpus des monnaies almoravides by Daniel Eustache, Abdellatif Jouahri and Ahmed Ettahiri. Collection de Bank al-Maghrib et autres collections mondiales, publiques et privées. Bank al-Maghrib, Rabat, 2017. 381 pp. ISBN-13: 9789981873780.</p>
2022-02-16T00:00:00+00:00Copyright (c) 2022 Equinox Publishing Ltd.https://journal.equinoxpub.com/JIA/article/view/18720From Baybars to Qaytbay2022-02-16T00:44:30+00:00Gali Agnon
<p>The purpose of this study is to decipher an unpublished decree inscription from the late 15th century CE/late 9th century AH found in the Great Mosque of Ludd. This article explores the historic events linked to the decree’s inscription, which unveils some of the social and political systems that operated in the time of its creation. Deciphering the content of the decree is complemented by a study of the context of its placement. Furthermore, this article considers some of the recent history of the Ludd Decree inscription, from the time of its removal from the original location to its replacement with another inscription. This paper will also demonstrate that The Great Mosque of Ludd and the Mosque of al-'Umari are in fact two different mosques, as they have been mistakenly considered the same mosque due to the movement of inscriptions.</p>
2022-02-16T00:00:00+00:00Copyright (c) 2022 Equinox Publishing Ltd.