Raqqa: Glazed-Pottery Manufacturers
Date: c. 771-825
Extensive evidence for pottery manufacture has been found in the area of Tal Aswad (“black hill”), located north of al-Raqqa (ancient Kallinikos). The area was given over to industrial use around the time of the foundation of al-Rafiqa, and numerous kilns and associated structures have been located. While the workshops on the site concentrated on the production of unglazed pottery (wheelthrown and relief-moulded), lead-glazed pottery was also made in smaller numbers. This comprises yellow and green-glazed vessels, sometimes with linear or dripped decoration. Turquoise-glazed and tin-glazed wares were recovered in excavations, though it is possible that they were manufactured elsewhere. The workshops of Tal Aswad appear to have stopped operating by c. 825. See also: Potter; Glass worker; Glass blower.
Citation: Miglis, Peter, ed., Die frühislamische Keramik von Tall Aswad, Ar-Raqqa I (Mainz am Rhein: Philipp von Zabern, 1999). See particularly: Oliver Watson, “VIII: Report on the glazed ceramics”, pp. 81-87; Małgorzata Daszkiewicz and Jerzy Raabe, “X: Untersuchungen der glasierten Keramik”, pp. 127-37; Robert Mason and Edward Keall, “XI: Between Baṣra and Sāmarrāʾ”, pp. 139-43.
Date: Eleventh to early twelfth century
Excavations in the area between the old city of al-Raqqa (ancient Kallinikos) and the Abbasid walled settlement of al-Rafiqa revealed substantial mounds containing occupational debris and material associated with high-temperature manufacturing processes. The site, known in archaeological publications as Tal Fukhkhar because of the amount of pottery found there, is in the area described by al-Muqaddasi as al-Raqqa al-Muḥtariqa (“the burning Raqqa”). Evidence of ceramic production was located in the form of wasters and kiln furniture. The excavations recovered pottery of different periods, some as early as the late eighth century, though the majority appears to date from the eleventh or early twelfth century. The most important group were lead-glazed sgraffito wares (including unfinished and overfired examples) of a type that had previously been located as the site of Tal Shahin, to the north of Raqqa. See also: Potter; Glass worker; Glass blower.
Citation: Henderson, Julian, “New light on early Islamic industry: Excavations in Raqqa, Syria”, in: From River Trent to Raqqa: Nottingham University archaeological Fieldwork in Britian, Europe and the Middle East, 1991-1995 (Nottingham, 1996), pp. 59-71; Tonghini, Cristina and Julian Henderson, “An eleventh-century pottery production workshop in al-Raqqa. Preliminary report”, Levant 30 (1998), pp. 113-27.
Date: Late twelfth to early thirteenth centuries
Small-scale excavations were undertaken in 2001 inside the eastern gate (known in written sources as Bab Sibal) of al-Rafiqa. These excavations revealed the remains of a kiln and substantial amounts of glazed and unglazed pottery. Direct evidence for glazed pottery production on the site was provided by the presence of kiln bars and kiln plates, as well as wasters of alkaline-glazed stonepaste wares. The wasters were fused pieces of manganese- and turquoise-glazed bowls, dating to the late twelfth or early thirteenth centuries. These were found in association with other types of decorated stonepaste wares, glazed lamps, and unglazed pottery. See also: Potter; Glass worker; Glass blower.
Citation: Marcus Milwright, “Report of recent excavations near the eastern wall of ancient Rafiqa (Raqqa), Syria”, Levant 37 (2005), pp. 201-202, 210-11, figs. 4.15, 4.16, 9, 15, 16.
Date: Late twelfth to early thirteenth centuries
Wasters recovered from inside the walled city of al-Rafiqa were stored in the Raqqa Archaeological Museum (their current status is unknown). These were gathered prior to 2001 and come from alkaline-glazed stonepaste vessels (colourless and turquoise glazes). Some of have underglaze-painting, and it is also likely that a proportion of the pieces would later have been decorated with lustre pigment and fired again. See also: Potter; Glass worker; Glass blower.
Citation: Marcus Milwright, “Report of recent excavations near the eastern wall of ancient Rafiqa (Raqqa), Syria”, Levant 37 (2005), pp. 210-11, fig. 10; Marilyn Jenkins-Madina, Raqqa revisited: Ceramics of Ayyubid Syria (New Haven and London: Yale University Press and Metropolitan Museum, 2006), catalogue numbers W33, 111-14.
Date: Late twelfth to early thirteenth centuries
Wasters and other spoiled pieces of glazed stonepaste pottery have been gathered through the twentieth century in and around the walled city of al-Rafiqa. These are now principally located in the Karatay Museum in Konya, the Museum of Turkish and Islamic Art in Istanbul, the Victoria & Albert Museum, Aleppo National Museum, Hetjens-Museum in Düsseldorf, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Musée du Louvre, Musée National de Céramique de Sèvres, Freer Gallery of Art, Museum für Islamische Kunst in Berlin, British Museum, Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, the Ethnographic Museum in Ankara, and the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore. These include underglaze-painted wares, and some that appear to have been ready for the addition of lustre-painting. See also: Potter; Glass worker; Glass blower.
Citation: Marilyn Jenkins-Madina, Raqqa revisited: Ceramics of Ayyubid Syria (New Haven and London: Yale University Press and Metropolitan Museum, 2006), pp. 37-113.
Date: Late twelfth to early thirteenth centuries
Excavations in the Congregational Mosque of the walled city of al-Rafiqa (now part of modern Raqqa) recovered wasters of glazed pottery. This was taken as evidence of pottery production in the vicinity of the mosque. Wasters were found from the following stonepaste wares: black under turquoise glaze, black under colourless glaze, monochrome turquoise glaze, monochrome managanese glaze, and colourless glaze without underglaze painting. See also: Potter; Glass worker; Glass blower.
Citation: Porter, Venetia, “VI. Glazed pottery from the Great Mosque at al-Rāfiqa”, in Verena Daiber and Andrea Becker, eds, Raqqa III: Baudenkmäler und Paläste I (Mainz am Rhein: Philipp von Zabern, 2004), pp. 41-45.