Excavations at Tiberias 1973-74 (IAA Reports) 9654061643, 9789654065597, 9789654061643

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IAA Reports, No. 21

EXCAVATIONS AT TIBERIAS, 1973–1974 THE EARLY ISLAMIC PERIODS

DAVID STACEY

With contributions by Ariel Berman and Ayala Lester

ISRAEL ANTIQUITIES AUTHORITY JERUSALEM 2004

IAA Reports Publications of the Israel Antiquities Authority Editor-in-Chief Zvi Gal Series and Volume Editor Ann Roshwalb Hurowitz

Front Cover: Garden Courtyard Complex (photographer: R. Brodie) Back Cover: Local polychrome splash-ware bowl, ‘corkscrew’ within half-palmette sgrafitto (see Fig. 5.25:13) (photographer: C. Amit)

Typesetting and Layout: Margalit Hayosh, Ann Abuhav Graphics: Tania Kornfeld Printing: Keterpress Enterprises, Jerusalem Copyright © 2004, The Israel Antiquities Authority, Jerusalem POB 586, Jerusalem, 91004 ISBN 965-406-164-3 eISBN 9789654065597

Dedicated to my father, H.C. ‘Cliff’ Stacey (1902–1994), without whose support the early research for this study could not have been undertaken; sadly he did not live to see its completion

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CONTENTS

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ABBREVIATIONS FOREWORD

Gideon Foerster

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PREFACE

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

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BACKGROUND CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

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CHAPTER 2: HISTORY OF EXCAVATIONS

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CHAPTER 3: STATE OF CERAMIC RESEARCH

THE TIBERIAS EXCAVATIONS, 1973–1974 CHAPTER 4: THE STRATIGRAPHY

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CHAPTER 5: THE POTTERY

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CHAPTER 6: THE OIL LAMPS CHAPTER 7: THE GLASS

Ayala Lester

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CHAPTER 8: THE COINS

Ariel Berman

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CHAPTER 9: CONCLUSIONS

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REFERENCES

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APPENDIX 1: CONCORDANCE

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APPENDIX 2: UMAYYAD DECORATIVE ELEMENTS

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ABBREVIATIONS AASOR

Annual of the American Schools of Oriental Research

ADAJ

Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan

Annali

Annali dell’Istituto Orientale di Napoli

AO

Ars Orientalis

ARCE

American Research Center in Egypt

‘Atiqot (ES)

English Series

‘Atiqot (HS)

Hebrew Series

BA

Biblical Archaeologist

BAR

Biblical Archaeology Review

BAR Int. S.

British Archaeological Reports International Series

BASOR

Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research

BCH

Bulletin de Correspondance Hellénique

BSOAS

Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies

BSSA

Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America

CHI

The Cambridge History of Islam. Cambridge 1970

DAFI

Cahiers de la Délégation Archéologique Française en Iran

EAEHL EI1

Encyclopedia of Archaeological Excavations in the Holy Land. Jerusalem 1975–1978

EI2

Encyclopaedia of Islam. 2nd ed. 5 vols. Leiden 1954; London 1965–

ESI

Excavations and Surveys in Israel

HA

Hadashot Arkheologiyot

IEJ

Israel Exploration Journal

INJ

Israel Numismatic Journal

JAOS

Journal of the American Oriental Society

JARCE

Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt

JEA

Journal of Egyptian Archaeology

JGS

Journal of Glass Studies

JRA

Journal of Roman Archaeology

JNES

Journal of Near Eastern Studies

LA

Liber Annuus

NEAEHL

New Encyclopedia of Archaeological Excavations in the Holy Land. Jerusalem 1993

PEFQSt

Palestine Exploration Fund Quarterly Statement

PEQ

Palestine Exploration Quarterly

QDAP

Quarterly of the Department of Antiquities of Palestine

RB

Revue Biblique

TOCS

Transactions of the Oriental Ceramic Society

Encyclopaedia of Islam. 1st ed. 4 vols. Leiden 1913–1938

FOREWORD GIDEON FOERSTER

The results of the 1973–1974 excavations in the Islamic levels unearthed at Tiberias (map. ref. 2004–2022/ 2409–2447) are put forward in the report that follows. These excavations were initiated and supported by the Israel Department of Antiquities (now the Israel Antiquities Authority), the Ministry of Housing and the Tiberias Municipality, in collaboration with the Institute of Archaeology of the Hebrew University and the Israel Exploration Society, in anticipation of hotel development on the southern part of the site of ancient Tiberias. Several extensive areas bordering the northern section of Hammat Tiberias were chosen with the intention of establishing the nature and character of the hitherto virtually unknown remains. Two seasons of excavations took place: the first, between 1st July and 4th October 1973 (the eve of the Yom Kippur War; License No. G-22/1973), and the second, between 21st July and 1st September 1974 (License No. G-37/1974). All in all, approximately five months of digging were carried out on behalf of the Israel Department of Antiquities, the Institute of Archaeology of the Hebrew University, and the Israel Exploration Society. Directing the excavations was the above signed, and assisting him was a large and dedicated team consisting of Roni Arav, Jacob Baumgarten, Aviva Bardugo, Hal Bishop, Shoshana Furman, Mina Kletter, Zvi Maoz, Hagit Mashat, Ann Nobel, Gotfrid Reeg, David Stacey and Don Stewart (area supervisors); Hanan Cohen and Roger

Hazelwood (assistant supervisors); Nella Roginski (surveyor); Ehud Netzer (part-time architect); Ellen Lefrak and Mina Kletter (registrars); Hanna Salomon (draftswoman); Ruth Alon and Marilyn Leonard (restorers); Roy Brodie and Ada Svidovsky (field photographers); and Micha Ashkenazi, assisted by Judy Holiday (administrator and coordinator of volunteers). Last but not least, special mention must be made of the 50 paid labourers and volunteers without whose participation this project would not have been possible. David Stacey’s study focuses upon the Islamic remains uncovered during our excavations. At the time of their discovery, these finds were considered a significant contribution to our knowledge of Islamic archaeology. This holds true to this day, some 30 years later, when we have at our disposal the unpublished results of the large-scale excavations carried out in recent years at Caesarea and Bet She’an, where rich Early Islamic levels were also uncovered. This volume consists of Stacey’s detailed analysis of the stratigraphy and his thorough treatment of the pottery of the Early Islamic levels at Tiberias. Two further studies of Early Islamic material accompany this report: the glass finds by Ayala Lester and the numismatic finds by Ariel Berman. Research results on the metal and stone objects are not included here. The Byzantine- and Roman-period finds from the 1973–1974 seasons also await further research.

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CHAPTER 3: STATE OF CERAMIC RESEARCH

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PREFACE

BACKGROUND OF THIS STUDY In 1973–1974 I had a minor field assistant role in the excavations carried out by the Israel Department of Antiquities (now the Israel Antiquities Authority) in Tiberias (al-Tabarīya), under the direction of Gideon Foerster (a proposed four-month season in 1973 abruptly interrupted by the outbreak of the Yom Kippur War, and a six-week season in the summer of 1974). In the late 1980s, stimulated by publication of work being carried out in Late Byzantine–Umayyad levels at Jordanian sites, in particular those of A. Walmsley at Pella and of D. Whitcomb at Aqaba, I was curious to see whether pottery of that period was present in the corpus from Tiberias, which remained unpublished. Prof. Foerster allowed me to look at the pottery. I found that Umayyad levels occurred only in two of the areas excavated, and a small study was published (Stacey 1988–1989). At this stage, Foerster invited me to produce a stratigraphic report of his excavations for the Israel Department of Antiquities. At my disposal were the original locus cards and field diaries, architects’ plans at 1:50 and the surviving photographs, most 75 × 105 mm, but some only on contact sheets. Due to the outbreak of the Yom Kippur War, some of the immediately pre-war records were incomplete and some photographic negatives were lost. In the 1973 season some preliminary phasing plans were sketched but no summary was written. Regrettably, no precise section drawings had been made. The stratigraphic report (Chapter 4, below) is based on that lodged with the Israel Antiquities Authority, although for some areas, particularly Area B, it has been considerably revised. No discussion of its contents ever took place, so the conclusions presented are my own. It is to be hoped that this work may encourage others to tackle some of the many excavations that remain unpublished. Working on a ‘dead’ excavation lacks glamour and can be a lonely occupation. There is no

one with whom to discuss the numerous difficulties that one stumbles upon and frequently one longs to be able to clean a section, or open up a small probe, to check a stratigraphical problem. However, as this is not possible, it gives no excuse for prevarication. The advantage, in these days of ever increasing excavation costs, is that the material is already out of the ground. The Foerster excavations were preliminarily published (Foerster 1975; 1977; 1978; 1993). Having studied the stratigraphy, and with a cursory knowledge of the pottery, I was led to question Foerster’s statement that “the area south of the walls enjoyed an era of prosperity in the three centuries between the eighth and the eleventh centuries A.D.” (Foerster 1993:1470). It was clear that pottery forms that appeared in the two immediately post-Umayyad strata in Area C, the area of the city gate, were not found in stratified layers south of the walls, with the possible exception of Area A. Thus eighth-, ninth-, and possibly even early tenth-century occupation did not occur widely south of the walls. Upon attempting to assign absolute dates to some of this pottery by finding reliably dated parallels, it became obvious that our knowledge of the chronology of Early Islamic Palestinian pottery was in a parlous state. Pringle has summarised some of the problems thus, “Many of the published groups of medieval finds are derived from sites that were uncovered almost absent-mindedly by the excavators whose only reason for digging them was to reach the layers of earlier occupation stratified beneath them..... The dating of the pottery is often made on the basis of parallels with insecurely dated pieces from other sites, with the result that the dating of a number of sites comes to be based on quite circular arguments” (Pringle 1981:46). It should be noted that, in Tiberias, the Early Islamic levels were not Foerster’s main interest. His aims were 1) tenter de déterminer les limites des anciennes villes de Tibériade et de Hammath-Tibériade et les périodes pendant lesquelles elles furent habitées; 2) déterminer le plan et le caractère de ces deux villes juives...

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(Foerster 1975:106). To further these aims a number of probes were dug to determine whether Roman– Byzantine levels occurred, and the rich Early Islamic levels were not always excavated in their entirety. Despite this it was clear that Tiberias had yielded an important corpus of Early Islamic pottery from reasonably well-stratified layers, disturbed neither by well digging nor by cistern building, nor carved into by massive Crusader foundations. Moreover, because Tiberias had been a provincial capital throughout the Early Islamic period, the corpus included representative pottery from throughout that period, though not necessarily in all the areas excavated. It seemed probable that these sherds could help to clarify the ceramic history of Palestine for the sadly neglected period of 450 years, from 650 to 1100 CE.

The chronological study of the pottery that resulted was included in my doctoral dissertation, The Archaeology of Early Islamic Tiberias (Stacey 1995). This monograph, based on the dissertation, is structured to provide the background to the Early Islamic occupation at Tiberias, with a short review of the setting of the town, its history according to historians and travellers, and short reviews of previous archaeological work in the city and the state of ceramic research. This mis-en-scène is then followed by the final report on the 1973–1974 excavations of the Israel Department of Antiquities at Tiberias, which includes a contribution by Ayala Lester on the glass and by Ariel Berman on the coins. The manuscript has been updated, as far as possible, to December 2002.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS As noted above, this report builds upon the files in the archives of the Israel Antiquities Authority. It utilizes the plans and field photographs as supplied therein, and as acknowledged by Gideon Foerster (above). Supplemental field photographs were taken by the author in November 1989. The pottery was drawn by Adrian Boas, Michael Miles and Hanna Salomon. To bring this monograph to fruition, Tania Kornfeld prepared the plans for publication; Tania Goldstein drew, and Mariana Salzberger photographed, the glass finds; Tsila Sagiv photographed the Umayyad decorative elements; and Clara Amit provided the color photographs. Noga Zeevi prepared the ceramic and glass figures. I thank them all.

I would also like to thank those people who offered advice: Donald Whitcomb, Robert Mason, Jodi Magness, Miriam Avissar and Ayala Lester. Ghazi Bisheh deserves special thanks for supplying me with a copy of Alan Walmsley’s doctoral thesis. A special word of appreciation is due to my wife, Orna, who not only supported me throughout the gestation of this work but also found time to translate Hebrew texts into English. I am also grateful to Ann Hurowitz, my editor, who stayed calm and kept me on course despite my occasional impatience.

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

THE PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY Tiberias is located mid-way along the western shore of the Sea of Galilee (Yam Kinneret, Bahr Tabarīya) (c. 206 m below sea level). The ancient city stretched for about 1500 m along a narrow plain, some 600 m wide in the north but narrowing to less than 200 m in the south, between the sea and the steep, basaltic scarp of the Jordan Rift Valley, which rises, in places vertically, to a peak known in Arabic as Qasr Bint al-Malik (‘Palace of the daughter of the king’) and in Hebrew as Har (‘Mount’) Berenice, whose summit is almost at sea level. The climate is mild with an average annual temperature of 22.9°C. During the winter months, November to March, the warming effect of the Sea of Galilee counterbalances the north wind that can blow down from the snow-covered Mt. Hermon, giving Tiberias an almost semi-tropical climate, with night temperatures no lower than about 9°C and day temperatures around 20°C. It is during these months that most of the average 460 mm of rain falls. The mean summer temperature is about 30°C, but temperatures in the low to mid 40°s, with high humidity, are reached. Al-Maqdisī, writing c. 985 CE, said of the people of Tiberias, “that for two months they dance, and for two more they gorge; that for two months they beat about, and for two months they go naked; that for two months they play the reed, and for two months they wallow. The explanation of this is that they dance from the number of fleas, then gorge off the Nabak fruit; they beat about with fly-laps to chase away the wasps from the meat and the fruits, then they go naked from the heat; they suck the sugar-canes, and then they have to wallow through the muddy streets...” (Le Strange 1890:335). Although this passage may reflect the prejudice of the hill-dwelling Jerusalemite al-Maqdisī, fleas were still plaguing nineteenth-century visitors to Tiberias, where “the King of the Fleas holds his Court” (Clarke 1812:478; Monro 1835:308–310).

At Hammat Tiberias, about a mile south of Tiberias, are hot mineral springs that are still believed to have curative properties, particularly for skin diseases. In the Early Islamic period lepers flocked to these baths searching for a cure for their afflictions. Some 15 km south of Tiberias are the freshwater springs of Nahal Yavne’el. An aqueduct was built, probably in the Roman period, to divert some of this spring water to Tiberias. Although traces of the aqueduct are still visible, it has not been investigated archaeologically, and it is not known for how long it remained in use. It was, apparently, no longer functioning in the tenth century when al-Maqdisī noted that “the people drink the water of the lake” (Le Strange 1890:335).

THE HISTORICAL BACKGROUND Tiberias was founded c. 20 CE by Herod Antipas, one of the sons of Herod the Great,1 and named for the Roman emperor Tiberius (Josephus, War II:168; Ant. XVIII:36). Within the city were a synagogue (Josephus, Life:277), a stadium (War II:618; III:539; Life:331) and a palace whose idolatrous statuary caused it to be destroyed during the Jewish revolt against Rome (Life:65–67), at which time Josephus caused the town’s fortification to be strengthened (Life: 155–157). The city, which was built on classical lines, was intended to be a Jewish city, although the supposed presence of Jewish tombs on its site caused rabbinical consternation. Antipas was reduced to exercising bribery and compulsion to encourage people to live in his sometimes insalubrious foundation. Despite this inauspicious beginning, by the third century Tiberias had become the seat of the Jewish Patriarch and, later, of the Sanhedrin, and remained the capital of Palestinian Jewry until the Arab conquest. The Mishna was edited there in about 200 CE, and the so-called ‘Jerusalem’ Talmud in the early fourth century CE. Thirteen synagogues and a number of

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baté midrash (‘houses of study’), one of them situated in a glass-makers’ quarter outside the city walls, are mentioned in Tiberias in these sources. Potters, too, occupied an important place in the economy (Kindler 1961:22–23). Although the governing classes were Jewish until the Arab conquest, other sects established a presence in the town. In the second century a Hadrianium existed in the city and in the fourth century Joseph, a converted Jew, armed with special powers by Constantine, turned its ruins into a church (Epiphanius Adv. Haer., 30, 12 [Migne, Patr. Gr. XLI 426]). According to Procopius (Buildings V.ix.21), the city walls of Tiberias were erected by Justinian (527– 565 CE). These would be the walls built to the Roman monumental arch and partially exposed in Foerster’s excavation. At the end of the last century they could still be traced on the ground over most of their course (Schumacher 1887:87–88). These Byzantine city walls enclosed a large, apparently virgin, area in the south. As only a small area inside the walls was excavated, and that at the extreme southern end of the town, no clear picture emerged as to how the city developed in the Byzantine period. The city walls were not seriously attacked until the tenth century because during the Arab conquest the city was taken (apparently twice) by peace covenant (sulh; Hitti 1916:178–179). The Muslims claimed any evacuated property and also space for a mosque. According to al-Tabarī the army leaders and their cavalrymen moved into the town and later reinforcements were stationed in nearby villages (Donner 1981:247). Jewish tradition holds that Caliph ‘Umar I allowed 70 families from Tiberias to settle in Jerusalem, where, according to Muslim tradition, they were to clear and tidy up the ruins of the Temple Mount (Gil 1992: Sections 84–85). Tiberias (or al-Tabarīya as it was now called) became the capital of Jund al-Urdunn (‘Province of Jordan’), replacing Scythopolis (Bet She’an), which had been the provincial capital of the Byzantine Palaestina Secunda. Although there are no commercial records from Tiberias in the Umayyad period, the establishment of the caliphate in Damascus must have stimulated trade, particularly in agricultural products, but also in manufactured articles.2 The custom of Mu’āwiya and succeeding caliphs to winter near the Sea of Galilee could only have benefited Tiberias commercially (Gil 1992: Section 92). The building of a central market place, attributed by its excavator,

Rabani (1953), to this period, and the erection of Umayyad shops right up to the southern city gate, as revealed in Foerster’s excavation, are indicative of an expansion in trade (Avissar 1973:49; Hirschfeld 1992:20). (For numismatic evidence of trade between Tiberias, Jerash and Damascus in the Umayyad period see Walmsley 1987:147–150.) When Hisham died in February 743 “he left a caliphate prosperous and secure”( Kennedy 1986: 12). A disastrous series of weak and feuding caliphs (alWalīd II, Yazīd III, Ibrāhīm and Marwān II) followed, and the Arab tribes, ever eager for prestige, plunder and pay-offs, were soon exploiting the situation. Inevitably Tiberias, as a provincial capital, was embroiled in the resulting unrest. In 744 CE the tribes refused to go to the tax collector’s office in Tiberias to pay their taxes to Yazīd, whom they did not support, and an army of 5,000 men was called in under the command of Sulaymān ibn Hishām, the cousin of Yazīd. The troops were stationed in villages around the Sea of Galilee and a small force was sent towards Tiberias. The show of strength was sufficient to deter the tribesmen and they dispersed back to their homes. Sulaymān, with his army, then set up camp south of the Sea of Galilee and called upon the tribes of al-Urdunn to come and pledge their loyalty to Yazīd. He and his men then sailed to Tiberias where, according to al-Tabarī, he led the people in the Friday prayer, and made the oath of allegiance to Yazīd (Kennedy 1986:112–113; Hillenbrand 1989:192; Gil 1992: Section 98). This is the first hint that a mosque had been built in Tiberias. No mention was made of one by St. Willibald who, in about 724 CE, visited Tiberias and found “a large number of churches and Jewish synagogues there” (Wilkinson 1977:128). Later, in about 808 CE, the Commemoratorium listed five churches, a nunnery, a bishop and 30 other clergy for the Christian community of Tabariya (Wilkinson 1977:138). In 745 Palestine again erupted and this time Tiberias was physically involved in warfare. The tribes of Jund Filastīn, led by the Judhām, attacked Tiberias, at this time loyal to the new caliph, Marwān II. They were defeated, and the sons of the rebel leader were caught and executed (Gil 1992: Section 99). The countryside was devastated by the warfare, and plague and famine resulted. This was followed by the catastrophic earthquake of 749 CE. The Umayyads were finally overthrown in 750 CE. The new Abbasid caliphate moved the court to

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

Baghdad and with the resulting diminution of the Damascus market, the early decades of the Abbasid caliphate must have been lean years for Tiberias. Indeed the commercial climate did not improve until 877 CE when Ibn Tūlūn, a quasi-independent Abbasid governor of Egypt, established control over Palestine and Syria. The comparative calm that resulted stimulated trade links between Tiberias and Egypt. The harbour fortifications of Acre, neglected since the days of the Umayyads, were, according to al-Maqdisī, rebuilt (c. 880 CE) on the instruction of Ibn Tūlūn, under the direction of al-Maqdisī’s grandfather (Gil 1992: Section 362). Jewish scholarship continued to flourish in Tiberias throughout the Early Islamic period and the system of vocalisation of Hebrew, still in use today, was formulated there at the end of the eighth century. Teachers from Tiberias, who were the masters of the correct pronunciation of Hebrew, were in demand throughout the Diaspora (Assaf and Meyer 1944:14). A number of Muslim scholars are also known to have resided in Tiberias at this time (Gil 1992: Sections 436– 438). According to Ibn al-Faqīh, writing c. 900 CE, the Muslim population of Tiberias was Shi‘ite (Gil 1992: Section 465). Muslim travellers to Tiberias showed interest in the hot springs and their properties. Both Ya‘qubī (c. 891 CE) and Istakhrī (c. 951 CE) refer to them, the latter mentioning that the hot water is utilised in the mosque ablution tanks. Al-Maqdisī (c. 985 CE) also describes the “boiling springs, which supply most of the hot baths” (elsewhere numbered as eight) “of (the) town. A conduit goes to each from the springs, and the steam of the water heats the whole building, whereby they have no need of artificial firing.” Earlier he writes that the “market place extends from one city gate to the other, and its graveyard is on the hill-slope. The mosque is large and fine, and stands in the market place. Its floor is laid with pebbles with columns made of stone drums joined together” (from the translations in Le Strange 1890:334–335 and Harrison 1992:53). According to Gil’s translation of al-Maqdisī, the market place “covered the area between two streets” (not city gates) (Gil 1992:177 n. 50). That this was so can be seen in a plan of the market place excavated by Rabani in the 1950s (Hirschfeld 1992:20).3 Foerster’s excavation did show, however, that in times of prosperity shops lined the cardo right up to the southern gate (and even beyond) and this was

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probably true in the opposite direction, all the way to the northern gate. Thus there was a large central market, with rows of smaller retail outlets and small manufacturing workshops running from it. These were probably divided into Jewish, Muslim and Christian sections to serve the three main communities. A document from 1023 CE states that one Mesafer ben Yeshayahu bought from Bashran ben Galeb for the benefit of an orphan “all the shop” (apparently one building divided into a number of arcades) “in the city of Tiberias in the western row of the Jewish market for fifteen gold dinars” (Assaf and Meyer 1944:54; and see Gil 1992: Section 285). By the end of the ninth century Tulunid power was waning. The Qarmatīs, members of an extremist Shi‘ite movement, were establishing themselves in northern Syria and raiding into Palestine. A governor of Tiberias, sympathetic with the Qarmatīs and, perhaps under their protection, amassed a large personal fortune before being caught and executed by the governor of Damascus. A Tulunid army pushed back the Qarmatīs but was itself routed by an army sent by the Abbasid caliph, al-Muktafī. In the spring of 906 CE the Qarmatīs again raided Palestine, this time sacking the Hawrān area and penetrating west to Tiberias, which was a major army base. Because of the defiance of its inhabitants, they broke into the city, slaughtering and pillaging, before they were forced to retreat to the Euphrates (Salibi 1977:53; Rosenthal 1985:157–159; Kennedy 1986: 288; Gil 1992: Sections 462–468). At this time a former commander of the Tulunid army seized power in Egypt and recognised the Abbasid caliph, al-Muktafī. For the next thirty years (906–935 CE) Palestine was under Abbasid rule. From the lack of any evidence to the contrary it may, with caution, be assumed that these were a comparatively peaceful three decades for the people of Palestine (Gil 1992: Sections 469–472). Elsewhere, the Qarmatīs based in Bahrain caused problems for the authorities in Baghdad, and the Fatimids attempted to conquer Egypt from the west (Kennedy 1986:289, 313). In 935 CE Ibn Tughj, known as the Ikhshīd, was appointed governor of Egypt and soon established himself as an independent ruler. Although he was forced to cede al-Urdunn, of which Tiberias was the provincial capital, to Ibn Ra‘iq, commander of the Abbasid army and governor of Raqqa, in 939, it returned to Ikhshīdid jurisdiction after Ibn Ra‘iq’s

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death in 942 (EI1 ‘Muhammed b. Tughdj’). During these two years the mint at Tiberias produced coins with the names of the Abbasid caliph, al-Muttaqī (Gil 1992:319–320 n. 91). At this time, the Hamdānids, a family of the Banū Taghlib, began to make their presence felt in Palestine. They had gradually established power bases in Mosul and in Aleppo. Their leader in Aleppo, Sayf al-Dawla, had ambitions to expand into Palestine. The Ikhshīd, basing his army in Tiberias, marched northwards and routed the Hamdānids in a battle near Qinnasrin in 945 CE, although this did not remove them from the political scene (Salibi 1977:59–61; Gil 1992: Section 477). In May 964, the Qarmatīs once again raided Tiberias and continued southwards to raid Ramla (Kennedy 1986:291; Bianquis 1989:40; Gil 1992: Section 481). These raids indicate that Ikhshīdid control was weakening; indeed they were forced to pay an annual tax to the Qarmatīs after further raids on Ramla in 968– 969. Between raids, however, life went on as usual and “it was obvious that close links existed between Egypt and Palestine”. ‘Estates of the Ikhshīdids’ in Palestine appear in the sources and one, named Munyat Hishām, near Tiberias, belonged to al-Mādharā‘ī, who was responsible for the taxes in Egypt on behalf of alMuqtadir. The Ikhshīdids minted a variety of dinars in Palestine “and their improved quality are witness to economic development and flourishing commerce” (Gil 1992: Sections 233, 488). Tiberias during the tenth century was a thriving centre of Muslim scholarship and a number of intellectuals and spiritual leaders who lived there are known by name. It was probably early in this century, however, that the Palestinian Yeshiva moved from Tiberias to Jerusalem (Gil 1992: Sections 491–501, 738). There is no information concerning the Christian community in Tiberias at this time. Al-Maqdisī observed the population of Baniyas as increasing due to the arrival of refugees from Tarsus, after it had been taken by the Byzantines in 965 CE. Some of these may have filtered down the trade route to Tiberias (Gil 1992:328). Other new inhabitants may have come from the agricultural hinterland of Tiberias where the activities of the Tayy Bedouin may have made living in isolated areas unsafe and caused people to seek the security of the city. In 970 CE the Fatimid army came from the south and besieged Tiberias. An official of the former Ikhshīdid

rulers, Fatik, was captured and executed by the Berber soldiers, fierce, but often wild and cruel fighters, who formed a large part of the Fatimid army. Once again Tiberias was looted (Bianquis 1989:41–43; Gil 1992: Section 545). The Fatimids were not able to establish firm control over Syria (Salibi 1977:77–79), and the Qarmatīs, in alliance with the Banū ‘Uqayl, drove them back to Egypt, but had themselves to retreat to Damascus, where they regrouped their forces for yet another attack against Egypt in 974. After some of their Arab allies had been bought-off this Qarmatī offensive collapsed and the Fatimids re-took Palestine and Syria (Gil 1992: Sections 548–550). Although there is no specific reference to the fate of Tiberias there can be little doubt that it suffered minor pillage, if not worse, as the two armies swept back and forth. In 975 CE an alliance of the Qarmatīs and Alptakīn, commander of a group of disaffected Turkish soldiery who had recently arrived in Syria from Baghdad, attacked the Fatimid forces in the coastal cities of Sidon and Acre. Turning inland they attacked Tiberias, which fell after great bloodshed, before successfully attacking Damascus. Tiberias was given to one of the leaders of the Banū ‘Uqayl, who had opportunely joined forces with Alptakīn, but it was re-taken by units of the Fatimid army who had regrouped after their defeat in Damascus. At much the same time a Byzantine army under John Tzimisces marched south, reaching Tiberias according to some Byzantine sources. Arabic sources, however, do not confirm this and, in fact, Tiberias was once more taken by the ‘Uqaylids. It would appear that Tzimisces claimed the victories of Alptakīn as his own as though Alptakīn were a close ally. Alptakīn would probably not have agreed with this interpretation of their relationship and, indeed, had to raise money from the inhabitants of Damascus to persuade the Byzantine emperor to go to Beirut rather than attack Damascus (Salibi 1977:81–83; Kennedy 1986:323–325; Bianquis 1989:96–97; Gil 1992: Section 550). At the end of 975 CE the Fatimid caliph al-Mu‘izz died and was succeeded by his son al-‘Azīz who was determined to prevent the expansion and consolidation of Alptakīn’s domain in Syria. He sent a large force to besiege Damascus. He attacked Tiberias on his way north, where he appointed as governor, Bishāra, a Turk who had once been in the service of the Hamdānid rulers of Aleppo. The numerical superiority of the alliance

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

between Alptakīn, the Qarmatīs and the ‘Uqaylids overwhelmed the Fatimid general, and his army was chased to Ramla and, eventually, to Ascalon, where it was besieged for over 15 months. In April 978 Alptakīn agreed to allow the Fatimid troops to return to Egypt in return for being granted the control of all of Palestine from Ascalon northwards. He condescendingly agreed to recognise al-‘Aziz as caliph in the area under his control (Kennedy 1986:324; Bianquis 1989:105–107; Gil 1992: Sections 552–553). Only two months after this humiliating defeat, al-‘Azīz led a massive army into Palestine (June 978). Alptakīn withdrew to Damascus and stationed his army in Tiberias. By now his army was 12,000 strong and it set off southwards to Ramla near to which it was comprehensively beaten by the forces of al-‘Azīz on 15th August 978. Alptakīn was captured and taken to Egypt where he was later poisoned. Al-‘Azīz bought off the Qarmatīs with an annuity, and they disappear as protagonists in the power struggle over Palestine (Salibi 1977:82–83; Kennedy 1986:324; Bianquis 1989:116–117; Gil 1992: Section 535). For the next decade the Fatimids slowly gained greater control over the coastal cities of Palestine and some inland areas such as Damascus and Tiberias. The late tenth and early eleventh centuries were times of repeated famines in Egypt (in c. 950 and 1005 CE [Kennedy 1986:318, 335], and in 1054/5 and 1065–1072 [CHI 188; Goitein 1973:45]) and the agricultural products of Tiberias would have fetched a premium. This trade may have encouraged merchants to move to Tiberias, particularly after the Fatimids had established some control over Damascus from c. 980 CE. That the incomers were not impoverished refugees can be seen from the quality of the buildings, some of which could only have been built by wealthy people. Throughout ancient times, from as early as the Early Bronze Age, Palestine flourished when a powerful and wealthy Egypt created a market for the traditional, mainly agricultural, products of the region, such as wine, olive oil and dried fruit, which could be easily transported by sea. Although the Fatimid’s political and military control was frequently tenuous and the Bedouin were a disruptive force, it is apparent from the excavations that Tiberias flourished in this period. Ramla was in the hands of al-Jarrāh, the leader of the Banū Tayy, whose activities reduced it to a ghost town. The tribal people were a constant threat to stability, always ready to ally themselves with any anti-Fatimid

5

strongman. In 981/2 Bishāra was once more appointed as governor of Tiberias, a post he had held briefly in 976 before being driven out by Alptakīn. However, he allied himself with the Jarrāhids against the rearguard of the Fatimids who were besieging Damascus. A Fatimid army was sent from Egypt; it quickly routed the Bedouin. In 988 CE Tiberias was terrorised by al-Jarrāh and his tribesmen as they retreated to Damascus in front of a Fatimid army led by a freed slave called Munīr. Bishāra, who had clearly been forgiven his recent disloyalty, had to flee the city (Bianquis 1989:151–152; Gil 1992: Section 562). The increasing influence gained by the Turks within the Fatimid army during the last years of al-‘Azīz, most notably by the general Manjūtakīn in Damascus, had aroused discontent among the Kutāma Berbers who regarded them as a threat to their own long established positions in the Fatimid state. After the death of al-‘Azīz, the Kutāma made their allegiance to his son al-Hākim dependent on a greater control of the government. Manjūtakīn, who had provoked Byzantine intervention by an attack on Aleppo, now prepared to attack the Berbers. The two armies met in battle in Ascalon, which ended in April 997 with a victory for the Kutāma, who then marched through Palestine on their way to take over Damascus, attacking Tiberias, with its Turkish governor, Bishāra, en route. Bishāra was briefly transferred to Damascus by al-Hākim but was back in Tiberias in 1000 CE (Kennedy 1986:330; Gil 1992: Sections 563–564). The Byzantines once more launched a campaign into northern Syria that was settled, eventually, when they and the Fatimids negotiated a ten-year truce (Salibi 1977:96–98; Kennedy 1986:328; Gil 1992: Sections 565–556). The eccentric Fatimid caliph, al-Hākim, was occupied with internal problems at the beginning of his reign. This allowed the Tayy Bedouin, who had been called upon by al-Hākim to help in combating an invasion of Egypt from the west, to reach the zenith of their power. According to Yahyā b. Sa’īd, a Christian Arab historian who fled to Antioch from the Fatimid court to escape al-Hākim’s anti-Christian fervour, the Bedouin at this time became masters of the country from Pelusion to Tiberias and even besieged, albeit unsuccessfully, the coastal citadels. The Jarrāhids, in 1012 CE, invited the amir of Mecca, Abu ’l-Futūh, to be caliph in Filastīn and for two years, according to b. Sa’id, they even

6

DAVID STACEY

minted coins in his name. The Fatimid government initially bought off the Jarrahīds but they were later defeated by a Kutāma army and forced to relinquish Ramla. Al-Hākim then secured control over Syria and al-Urdunn. A Turk, al-Dizbarī, who had held various governorships previously, was made governor of Palestine in 1023 CE. He established good relations with the chiefs of the Damascus and Tiberias regions, which led both to a period of prosperity for Tiberias, and, ultimately, to the creation of the Druse religion (Salibi 1977:99–101; Kennedy 1986:334–336; Gil 1992: Section 577). The Jarrāhids were not, however, totally vanquished and, in 1024 CE, after the assassination of al-Hākim in 1021 CE, they attacked Ramla and Aqaba/Eilat. AlDizbarī attempted to regain control. During the unrest Tiberias was taken by Hasan b. Jarrāh, who sacked the town and decimated the population. The governor, Majd al-Dawla Fitāh, fled to Acre. The Banū Tayy joined with the Banū Kalb from the Damascus area and the Banū ‘Uqayl from Aleppo in an anti-Fatimid alliance with the aim of taking full control of Syria. For a while they had some success. Eventually, in 1028 CE, a Fatimid army, under the command of al-Dizbarī, left Egypt to combat the alliance. The Banū Kalb deserted the Bedouin forces and joined the Fatimid army before the two armies met at al-Uqhuwāna, an unidentified location on the Jordan River near Tiberias. In the battle on 12th May 1029 the Bedouin leader, Sālih b. Mirdās of the Banū Kalb, was killed together with his son, and the alliance disintegrated, the Banū Kalb withdrawing to their home base in Aleppo which they continued to rule, and the Tayy being chased by the Fatimid army into the mountains of the Hijaz. Al-Dizbarī became governor of Damascus and Syria and exercised firm control until his death in 1041 CE. Until the arrival of the Seljuks in 1071 CE there was a period of comparative peace and Tiberias benefited from the stability. In its traditional role as regional market it was able to gather agricultural surplus from the surrounding area and transport it to the ports of Acre, Tyre and Haifa (which developed into a significant port in the eleventh century) to participate in the flourishing sea-borne trade that ran between Egypt, the Palestinian coast, and the Byzantine and European markets (Goitein 1973:37, 45; Kennedy 1986: 339–343; Walmsley 1987:166, 176; Gil 1992: Sections 587–592).

Tiberias appears to have been a wealthy city when it was visited by the Persian, Nāsir-i Khusraw, who arrived there early in 1047 CE on his way to Mecca. His description is of a city that seems to have grown in prosperity and size since the visit of al-Maqdisī sixty years previously. Now “there are numberless buildings erected in the very water, for the bed of the lake in this part is rock; and they have built pleasure houses that are supported on columns of marble, rising out of the water.” As well as the main mosque in the midst of the town he describes another on the western side of the city surrounded by jasmine bushes. He continues, “the tomb of Abu Hurairah (the Prophet’s companion) lies outside the city, towards the south; but no one can go and visit it, for the people who live here are of the Shi‘ah sect, and as soon as anyone comes to make the visitation, the boys begin a tumult, and raise a disturbance about him that ends in stone-throwing, wherefrom some injury results” (Le Strange 1890: 336–337). In 1071 CE the Sunni Seljuks invaded Syria. Their arrival was welcomed by a Berber faction, which had seized control in Cairo and incited the Kalb and the Tayy Arabs to rise against the Fatimid army of Badr al-Jamālī who was immobilised in Acre. In an attempt to extricate himself Badr called upon a Turkoman freebooter called Atsiz b. Uwaq to attack the Arab tribesmen. Atsiz, seeing the Fatimids weakened by internal rivalries, took the opportunity to invade Palestine (Salibi 1977:123–126). In 1071 he conquered Tiberias and set up base there. For four or five months he besieged Damascus before defeating it in 1076. Meanwhile he had taken Acre and appointed one Shuklī as governor. Gil, summarising Sibt ibn al-Jawazī, relates what transpired, “Shuklī quarrelled with Atsiz because of the large amount of spoils he amassed in Acre; in Ramadan AH 467, April–May AD 1075, Atsiz overcame Shuklī and chased him out of Acre; eventually he was caught and executed in Tiberias as he was about to reach an agreement with the Fatimids. Atsiz then presided over the slaughter of the population of Tiberias and the city was pillaged” (Gil 1992: Section 603 n. 61). In 1077 CE Atsiz concentrated his forces for an attack on Egypt but was defeated by a Fatimid army under the leadership of Badr al-Jamālī, who had extricated himself from Acre and consolidated his position as military ruler of Fatimid Egypt. Atsiz retreated to Syria

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

where he called upon the Seljuks to help him. Tutūsh, the son of Alp Arslan, the Seljuk sultan, arrived with forces to relieve Damascus and Atsiz surrendered to him. Tutūsh, however, summarily executed Atsiz (Salibi 1977:132–133; Gil 1992: Sections 605–606). The Fatimids could only hold on to the coastal cities where the Seljuks’ lack of naval power put them at a disadvantage. The flow of correspondence from Tiberias and other inland cities of Palestine to Fustat, which was providentially preserved in the Cairo Geniza, dries up in this period. Only letters from Ascalon and Caesarea continued to arrive. This no doubt reflects the difficulty of communication between the inland Seljuk-held areas and the ports, but it is also probable that members of all three major communities in Tiberias, the Jews, the Christians and the Shi‘ite Muslims, left the town, if they were at all able, for more secure places. Although there is little knowledge of life under Seljuk rule it is possible that heavy taxes were imposed on the entire population including the Muslims. It was certainly a period of anarchy, slaughter and vandalism, during which the Jewish population, in particular, suffered badly. Some Jews are known to have moved from Tiberias to Acre in 1077, close to the time that the Palestine Yeshiva left Jerusalem for Tyre. Many of the Shi‘ite Muslims may have felt more secure in the Fatimid dominated coastal regions, given the strong Sunni convictions of the Seljuks (Goitein 1971:201; Gil 1981:69; 1992: Sections 285–297, for some earlier letters, pp. 608–611; Prawer 1988:9). The Christian community of Palestine had been considerably reduced (by emigration to Byzantium) during the anti-Christian programmes of al-Hākim some 60 years previously, and there is little evidence for a substantial Christian presence continuing in Tiberias although the church on the plateau overlooking the city survived into the Crusader period. In 1099 the depleted population of Tiberias fled upon hearing that the Crusaders were coming. The walls of the city, which had been sacked and pillaged more than a dozen times in the previous century and a half, may have been in a poor state of preservation. In any case their great length would have made it difficult for a small number to defend. Thus, Tiberias capitulated to the Crusader forces of Tancred without resistance. The Crusaders built a new walled city only a fifth, or even less, the size of the Early Islamic town, straddling the northern wall of the earlier town. Exactly when this was erected is not known. Ibn al-Furāt implies it was

7

constructed before 1108 CE (Lyons and Lyons 1971: Section 55), but Razi prefers a date between 1120 and 1141 CE (Razi and Braun 1992:221). We can thus be fairly certain that most of the Early Islamic city was abandoned during the first decades of the twelfth century as its population sought security inside the new walls. This ‘new’ establishment deserves a history and excavations of its own (Prawer 1988:57; Razi and Braun 1992:220–221).

DOCUMENTED EARTHQUAKES Being in the Jordan Rift Valley Tiberias is in an earthquake zone; indeed, a minor tremor was felt during the 1973 season. D. Amiran (1950:226–227) lists a number of reported earthquakes that may have affected Tiberias during the Early Islamic period: in 746–749, 853+, 856+, 1002, 1033/4 and 1068. Destruction layers caused by massive earthquakes should be detectable in the archaeological record and, if such layers can be related to earthquakes known from historical sources, can be a useful dating tool. Such reported earthquakes must therefore be studied to ascertain the reliability of the reports and the likelihood of destruction layers being detectable. 746–749 CE. This earthquake is known from Greek, Arabic, Syriac and Hebrew sources and its effects have been discovered in a number of excavations, particularly at Pella and Bet She’an, where the skeletons of people and animals trapped beneath fallen buildings have been uncovered (McNicoll, Smith and Hennessy 1982:123–141; Foerster and Tsafrir 1988: 28). It has been variously dated between 746 and 749 CE, but following the discovery of a gold dinar, dated between 13th August 748 and 19th August 749 beneath earthquake debris in Bet She’an, the earthquake can reasonably be dated to 18th January 749 (Tsafrir and Foerster 1992, but see Ambraseys, Melvile and Adams 1994:24). Shmuel Bar (family name uncertain), who was apparently in Tiberias at the time of the tremor, wrote a poem about it that has survived (Assaf and Meyer 1944:10). According to Michael the Syrian, who was the Jacobite Patriarch in Antioch between 1166 and 1199 CE and was thus writing considerably after the event, Tiberias, including 30 synagogues and a number of bathhouses, was ruined by this earthquake (Chabot 1901:509–510).

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853+ CE. Said, by as-Suyūtī, an Egyptian polymath, who wrote a work on earthquakes c. 1500 CE, to have specifically affected Tiberias (Nejjar 1973–1974:12). A later source, compiled c. 1670, gives slightly more detail than as-Suyūtī, saying that lives were lost when part of the mountain, “80 cubits by 50 cubits”, fell onto the town (Poirier and Taher 1980:2195, Source 10). The original source for this information is not given and I have been unable to trace any more nearly contemporary source. Thus this earthquake must be regarded as doubtful. 856+ CE. A number of earthquakes are recorded over a wide area between 856 and 860 but only one source claims that al-Sham (Syria and Palestine) was affected. Unless conclusive evidence to the contrary is discovered it must be doubted that these earthquakes would show up in the archaeological record in Palestine (Gil 1992: Section 416). 1002 CE. Referred to by as-Suyūtī (Nejjar 1973–1974: 17). Although in the source used by Amiran, it is said to have caused loss of life in the Jordan Valley, Ambraseys (1962) places it further north, in Syria, particularly along the Greek frontier. If Tiberias was indeed affected, the damage was probably slight. 1033/34 CE.The earthquake of 5th and 6th December 1033 is described in a letter from Ramla preserved in the Cairo Geniza in which widespread destruction and loss of life throughout Palestine are mentioned (Gil 1992: Section 595). This is in striking contrast to an inscription, claimed to have been seen by the Persian traveller Nāsir-i Khusraw in 1047, over one of the porches in the mosque in Ramla, stating that “On the 15th of Muharram, of the year 425 (i.e. 10th December 1033), there came an earthquake of great violence, which threw down a large number of buildings, but that no single person sustained an injury” (Le Strange 1893:21). The contemporary account must be regarded

as more reliable. J. Mann (1922:192–198) believes that a series of letters written from Tiberias, found in the Cairo Geniza and referring to the suffering of the ‘tormented ones’ (i.e. lepers) seeking the healing powers of the Hot Springs in Tiberias, dates to this time. A building that had been placed at their disposal had been destroyed, further aggravating their suffering, and Mann hypothesises that it had been demolished by the earthquake of 1033 CE. Gil, however, believes that the letter in which this demolition is mentioned predates the earthquake and puts the blame for its destruction on the Bedouin wars of 1028–1029 (Gil 1992: Section 296). 1068 CE. Two earthquakes are mentioned in this year in a contemporary Arabic source emanating from Baghdad (Makdisi 1956:239, 248). The first, whose epicentre was in the Hijaz, occurred on 18th March 1068, destroying Aqaba/Elat. The second was on the 29th of May and was centred on Ramla where great destruction was caused (Gil 1992: Section 602). It is doubtful if the effects were as widespread as they had been in 1033, as no mention is made of this tremor in the letters preserved in the Cairo Geniza. As 1068 had been calculated by certain Jewish visionaries as the year for the End of Days, it being a thousand years after the traditional date for the destruction of the Temple, a serious earthquake would certainly have been noted as a sign that the ‘End was Nigh’. The year, however, passed uneventfully (Prawer 1988:10, but see p. 15, where Prawer apparently dates an earthquake in Ramla to 1067 CE). Later, non-contemporary, Arabic writers conflate the two earthquakes and thus the areas that they claim were affected are unreliable (Poirier and Taher 1980; Ambraseys, Melville and Adams 1994:30–31). Northedge (1992:160–161) tentatively cites this earthquake as being responsible for the destruction of his Stratum III in Amman but admits he has no hard evidence.

NOTES 1

For discussion on the probable date, see Avi-Yonah 1950, and, with more recent references, Kokkinos 1998:233–235. 2 Pottery and glass probably continued to be made in Tiberias as it had in Byzantine times; the manufacture of clothing and reed mats, noted by later writers, may already have begun.

3

The cardo, the main north–south street, probably ran to the east of the bathhouse and market place following a contour line (not to the west, as shown on the plan in Hirschfeld 1992:50). The artificial platform revealed in Area D would then have towered imposingly above the cardo to its east.

CHAPTER 2

HISTORY OF EXCAVATIONS

Sporadic archaeological exploration has been carried out in Tiberias since the 1920s. Most has been salvage work and has been concentrated either in the south at Hammat Tiberias, or in the north, within the area of the modern city (Plan 2.1). Very little beyond cursory summaries has ever been published and only the more important excavations will be mentioned. A sizable area of the centre of Tiberias was excavated by B. Rabani in the early 1950s (Rabani 1953). He uncovered part of a first-century street with a row of shops along its eastern side (the western side remained unexcavated), a fourth-century bathhouse and a market place built in the sixth or seventh century. This area remained in use until the city shifted north in the Crusader period but, as the excavator died (of a wasp sting) before any publications had been prepared, we have no details of the Islamic occupation levels (Hirschfeld 1992:16–23; 1997:40–41). A number of graves belonging to the Crusader/Mamluk period were reportedly found in the upper levels (Y. Stepansky, pers. comm.). In 1964 A. Druks excavated a fifth–sixth-century basilica east of the market place near the modern road. A second-century building was converted into a church in the sixth century and was destroyed by the earthquake of 749 CE. In and over the ruins there was then “continuous occupation in the Abbasid and Fatimid periods” (Hirschfeld 1992:15–16; 1997: 38–40). Y. Hirschfeld has recently excavated buildings, which he dates from the second to the eleventh century, north-west of the bathhouse (Hirschfeld 1990; 1991b; 1992:30–33). No pottery has yet been published and his misconception that Tiberias was abandoned after the earthquake of 1033 CE (Hirschfeld 1990:109; 1991b:48) could have led to misdating. However, more recently, a hoard of bronze vessels was found which included a number of Byzantine coins dated 976– 1078 CE (Hirschfeld and Gutfeld 1999; Hirschfeld et al. 2000). The hoard was probably hidden due to

deteriorating conditions after the arrival of Atsiz b. Uwaq in 1075 CE. Hirschfeld uncovered a church on the summit of Mt. Berenice. It is dated to the second half of the eighth century and was constructed of architectural fragments

Plan 2.1. Location of excavations (adapted from Hirschfeld 1992).

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DAVID STACEY

recovered from the ruins of an earlier Byzantine church destroyed by the 749 CE earthquake. It apparently survived al-Hākim’s anti-Christian purge unscathed and remained in use into the Crusader period. Late in the twelfth or early in the thirteenth century it was converted to residential use, before being destroyed by an earthquake in the latter century (Hirschfeld 1991a; 1992:41–44; 1993a; 1994). The Byzantine city wall climbed the slopes of Mt. Berenice to enclose the original church. Hirschfeld has also exposed part of “a monumental structure, probably a theatre” 150 m to the north-west of Foerster’s Area D (Hirschfeld 1991a:96; 1992: 23–24). A 50 m stretch of what may have been the northern wall of the Byzantine city was revealed by a bulldozer during development work in the modern town (Harif 1984:107–108; Hirschfeld 1993b:1470). Part of the wall can now be seen in the basement of the Jordan River Hotel. It lies between the two parallel east–west roads shown on the British Mandate map reproduced by Harrison (Harrison 1992:56). Some 50 m south of this wall A. Berman excavated remnants of a synagogue, which he dated to the Umayyad period, though it may have been founded in the Byzantine period and survived into the early Abbasid period or even later. An adjoining residential area was occupied, apparently, only from the midseventh century until the end of the tenth century (Berman 1981, 1988; Hirschfeld 1992:35–36, 1993b).

In an adjacent site, however, A. Onn uncovered remains from the Roman period through the Ottoman period. The richest finds came from the Fatimidperiod occupation, which Onn, possibly influenced by Hirschfeld, believes came to an end in 1033. “Two building phases could be distinguished—both had been destroyed by earthquakes, the later one occurring in 1033 CE” (Onn 1991). However, the two Fatimid coin hoards which Onn claims were associated with the earlier of the two phases have now been published (Wasserstein 1998a, b) and the latest coin is dated to 1063 CE, giving a terminus post quem for the destruction of the earliest phase. If this phase was indeed destroyed by earthquake, we might, here, have evidence that the earthquake that caused destruction in Ramla in 1068 CE also affected Tiberias. However, it may be that the hoards were buried upon the arrival of Atsiz b. Uwaq in 1071 CE, and that the destruction was caused, not by an earthquake, but by his rampage through the city in 1075 CE. The Crusader town straddled the northern Byzantine city wall. Its southern part was constructed over part of the Byzantine–Islamic city. Its northern part was built over part of an extensive Jewish cemetery, which stretched over the slopes north of the town (Schumacher 1887:85–86; Slouschz 1921), and was used from Roman times until at least 1066 CE. Further excavations in Hammat Tiberias are discussed in Chapter 3.

CHAPTER 3

STATE OF CERAMIC RESEARCH

INTRODUCTION For many archaeologists who have worked in Palestine over the last century, the Early Islamic period lacked ‘glamour’and was usually encountered archaeologically as a hindrance between the surface and their own, more ancient, often ‘biblical’, objectives. Therefore, Early Islamic pottery from stratified excavations has rarely been published; even more rarely has it been published well. It is to these reports, with all their faults, that one must turn when looking for dated parallels for pottery from a corpus such as that from Tiberias. Some parallels can be found (many are noted in Chapter 5), but the assigned dates are often confusing, or contradictory. This state of knowledge necessitates an analysis of the more important reports in an attempt to extract reliable data from amidst the confusion. The sites discussed below are arranged chronologically by publication date. The data will then be utilized below, in Chapters 5 and 6, in the analysis of the pottery and its chronological attributions.

R EVIEW OF SITE R EPORTS Two ceramic reports, that of Samarra in Iraq (Sarre 1925) and that of Khirbat al-Mafjar near Jericho (Baramki 1944), have been used as reference points since their publication, often with confusing results. Samarra The early publication of the Samarra corpus has led some to believe that all innovations in Early Islamic pottery and, indeed, the pottery itself, must come from Mesopotamia. Thus, in one of the most recent publications which includes reports on Early Islamic ceramics found in Israel, V. Tzaferis writes, in his introduction to the pottery reports, “Glazed pottery of Eastern origin is in evidence with the Conquest, as is shown at Capernaum, where it appears already in the

Umayyad period” (Tzaferis 1989:30, my italics). This, despite the contradictory statement by E. Berman, author of the report on the glazed pottery, that “only two sherds found during the excavations can be classified as imported wares from major centres of the Near East” (Berman 1989:124). (The claim that any glazed pottery appears at Capernaum in the Umayyad period is doubtful.) From the Palestinian perspective too great a reliance on Samarran parallels for dating purposes can be misleading. There is, in any case, uncertainty surrounding the dating of the Samarra horizon pottery. F. Sarre believed that it belonged solely to the period 836–883 CE, when the city served as the seat for the Abbasid caliphs. G. Miles has shown that the Samarra mint was active until at least 953 (Miles 1954), and it has since been shown that “the history of Samarra continued well beyond the date at which al-Mu‘tamid returned to Baghdad” (Whitehouse 1979:46 and see Northedge 1985; Northedge and Falkner 1987; Northedge and Kennet 1994). The uncertainty in the dating is due, in part, to disagreement as to which, if any, Chinese wares influenced which product of the Islamic potters. R.M. Adams, who saw a Sasanian derivation for the Islamic wares, proposes a ‘high chronology’ (Adams 1970) with lustre ware and lead-glazed ‘splash’ ware appearing already in the seventh or eighth centuries. J. Hansman insists on a ‘low chronology’, with the introduction of Samarra horizon pottery no earlier than the last half of the ninth century (Fehervari 1970 and see Whitehouse 1979). M. Tampoe, having looked closely at Whitehouse’s unpublished pottery from Siraf, and having compared it with that excavated at Susa by M. Kervran (Kervran 1977), has advocated a ‘middle chronology’ proposing an early ninth-century date for its introduction (Tampoe 1989). More recently, the wheel has turned full circle, for R. Mason “would suggest the bulk of activity between 800 and 850, with effective cessation by about 900. Given that this material is from Sarre’s excavations, it would appear to

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vindicate his assertion that, whatever the true length of occupation at Samarra, his excavations were in levels deposited during the caliphal occupation (836–892)” (Mason 1994:36). Northedge (1996:235) has reached a similar conclusion. As most Samarra pottery has only a general similarity to that from an inland Palestinian site such as Tiberias, the finer nuances of its dating would be of crucial importance only if considerable quantities of Mesopotamian ceramics reached Tiberias. Foerster’s excavations indicate that this was not so (although excavations located more centrally in the Early Islamic city, where ninth-century occupation would have been denser, might discover more). It is doubtful whether a provincial capital such as Tiberias would have generated enough demand to warrant transporting Mesopotamian pottery direct by the expensive and hazardous overland route from Aqaba, and many of the few examples probably arrived in Tiberias via Egypt. Whilst there can be no doubt that Mesopotamia, with its unbroken tradition of glazed pottery, was an early exporter of luxury ware, this was soon imitated by Egyptian potters (Scanlon 1984; 1991). Indeed Rodziewicz (1983:73) has made a convincing claim for Egypt being an innovative centre for a glazed pottery ware derived from Egyptian Red Slip ware and, in particular, its white slip and white-painted mutations. Thus it is possible that some of the Samarra horizon ceramics to reach Tiberias were Egyptian imitations. These, in turn, would soon have served as models for local potters, who produced the bulk of locally used pottery. The Egyptian influence on Palestinian pottery was, no doubt, stronger than that of Mesopotamia; indeed a written record exists of pottery being sent from Tinnis, the port for Fustat, to Ramla (Goitein 1967:111). Little of the Early Islamic pottery found in scientific excavations in Egypt has, however, been published, and the corpus from Fustat, the Tulunid capital, does not, in the main, come from securely dated, wellstratified sequences (see e.g. Scanlon 1974b). Khirbat al-Mafjar The pioneering publication of the pottery from Khirbat al-Mafjar (Baramki 1944) was the earliest presentation of a comprehensive selection of Early Islamic pottery from an excavation in Palestine. Like the Samarra material it has often been assumed that

it was deposited during a brief period of time, in this case a few decades either side of the earthquake of 749 CE. The palace was unfinished at the time of the earthquake which caused some damage, although it is possible that some rooms “survived the earthquake and thus remained in occupation at a time when most of the rest of the palace lay derelict. It will be seen that the presence, in these rooms particularly, of pottery types intermediate in date between the earliest datable wares found and those of known medieval manufacture tends to confirm this conclusion” (Baramki 1944: 65). Despite this caveat on the part of the excavator the Mafjar material, apart from the obviously twelfthcentury pieces (e.g. Baramki 1944: Figs. 11:7–9, 14:1), has often been assumed to be restricted to the eighth century, an error already noted by Sauer (1973a:16). Whitcomb (1988b), in a re-examination of the Mafjar publications, has presented a sequence of ceramic types assigned to four periods—750–800, 800–850, 900–1000 and 1200–1400 CE. Although this, as he is the first to admit, cannot be taken as definitive, it is a useful working hypothesis which greatly increases the value of the Mafjar material for future reference. Abu Ghosh A corpus of ceramics was published from Abu Ghosh (de Vaux and Stève 1950). It came from the cistern of a ninth-century caravanserai which, it was claimed, had been converted into a latrine by the Crusaders when they transformed the caravanserai into a church, probably soon after the village and all its lands were granted to the Order of the Hospitallers in 1142 CE. To convert the cistern the original waterproof plaster floor was destroyed and a layer of sherds about 1 m deep was poured over it to filter the sewage. The excavators dated these sherds to the tenth–eleventh centuries because they assumed that they had been in the silt cleared out of the cistern by the Crusaders, before they could break up the floor, and then reused as filtering material. Because they believed that the caravanserai would have been used less, or perhaps abandoned, after the Crusader conquest of 1099, they dated the sherds primarily to the tenth–eleventh centuries with the possibility that some might have survived from the end of the ninth century. However the glazed ware, the ‘Fine Byzantine Ware’, the cooking pots and the ‘metallic’ ceramique blanche forms all point to a ninth-century date, as does the

CHAPTER 3: STATE OF CERAMIC RESEARCH

complete absence of any sgraffito-glazed vessels (for a ninth-century dating see Avi-Yonah 1993:6–7). As there would be more demand for a latrine in a caravanserai than in a church it is probable that the ‘cistern’ was a latrine from the outset, or that its conversion into one occurred soon after the caravanserai was built. It should be noted that the fabric of all the glazed ware is described as white, cream or chamois (de Vaux and Stève 1950:120), whereas that of the majority of glazed vessels from Tiberias is ‘pink’ (see below, Chapter 5). Neutron activation analysis studies have shown that light-fired wares (it is not clear if this includes glazed wares) were manufactured in Ramla (Frierman 1975:12); this would be a logical source for pottery reaching Abu Ghosh. Khirbat al-Karak Delougaz, who was responsible for publishing the plain ware from Khirbat al-Karak (Delougaz and Haines 1960), did so typologically and made little attempt to separate Byzantine from Early Islamic sherds, and no attempt to differentiate between the Umayyad and Abbasid periods. The corpus thus has limited value except for regional distribution studies. This is also true of the glazed wares where Day’s dating, based on her belief that the earliest Islamic ‘splash’ wares were inspired by T’ang pottery of the early eighth century, a claim now discredited (Watson 1970:41 and see Sauer 1973a:16, n. 17), can be misleading. It is now known that Chinese wares continued to be produced and exported into the ninth and tenth centuries, sometimes, apparently, imitating Islamic products for the export market (Rawson, Tite and Hughes 1987–1988). Ramla A short excavation was conducted at Ramla in 1965 by Rosen-Ayalon and Eitan. The discovery of wasters and pottery moulds indicated that the excavations were in the vicinity of a potter’s workshop. The potentially valuable corpus of ceramics has, unfortunately, never been published. A few vessels are illustrated in a catalogue of an exhibition held at the Israel Museum (Rosen-Ayalon and Eitan 1969) where they are assigned to the eighth century, apparently because the earliest were found on virgin soil and Arabic sources (al-Baladhuri and al-Ya‘qubi) tell us that Ramla was founded on a virgin site in the first decades of the

13

eighth century. Ramla, however, was not built in a day and, as it expanded beyond its original foundation, more virgin sites were built upon. It is clear that the pottery published by Rosen-Ayalon and Eitan belongs to the ninth and tenth centuries.1 Many excavations have been conducted since 1965, particularly during the 1990s, but their pottery has not yet been published. Their full publication will be an important contribution to our knowledge of the types of ceramics being produced in Jund Filastīn in that period.2 Hammat Tiberias In the 1960s, M. Dothan excavated near the hot springs in Hammat Tiberias (see Plan 2.1). Above a Hellenistic public building were found a number of superimposed synagogues, the earliest dating from the fourth century (Dothan 1983). The latest synagogue building, Stratum Ib, was damaged in the earthquake of 749 CE (Dothan 2000:37), but was partially restored. Dothan offers no opinion as to the termination of Stratum Ia beyond the statement that, by c. 1012 CE, “the Hammath Tiberias synagogue complex was probably already in ruins with squatters occupying the site” (Dothan 2000:7). The Islamic plain ware, however, was dated too early and the glazed ware too late (Stacey 2002; Magness 2003). It is possible that the synagogue was finally destroyed by the Qarmatīs when they plundered Tiberias in 906 (or during their later incursion in 964 CE; Gil 1992: Sections 468, 481). Following the re-establishment of Abbasid rule the Jews of Hammat Tiberias may have reasserted their strength (Gil 1992:316, n. 82) by building a new synagogue some 500 m further to the north (see below) and incorporating many architectural elements rescued from the dilapidated ruins of that which had been plundered. Three excavations, widely separated in time, took place some 500 m to the north of the hot springs in Hammat Tiberias in adjacent areas. In 1921, N. Slouschz excavated a synagogue. This was rediscovered in 1969 by E. Oren, who also excavated a neighbouring building (Oren 1971). In 1983 A. Onn uncovered more buildings adjacent to Oren’s. They all now lie beneath the grounds of the Gané Hammat Hotel (currently a Holiday Inn; see Plan 2.1). All this fieldwork awaits final publication. Slouschz (1921) dated the synagogue to the Early Roman period, though Vincent (1922), mainly on stylistic grounds, attributed it to the

14

DAVID STACEY

fourth–fifth centuries, a date that Oren (1971:277) accepts. However, such an early date is extremely unlikely; Slouschz himself excavated part of a nearby cemetery which he dated to the third–fourth centuries and A. Onn has excavated several graves, in one of which was a large bronze stamp belonging to a sixthcentury governor of Bet She’an (Alexander Onn, pers. comm.). The establishment of a synagogue before the existence of the cemetery had been forgotten would have contravened Jewish laws of impurity. Oren’s dating of the establishment of the nearby building ‘Complex A’ into the Umayyad period (Oren 1971:274) is too early. His pottery indicates that it was founded no earlier than the tenth century, suffered in the 1033 earthquake, but was repaired and remained in use until the end of the eleventh century. Umayyad material was scarce; Ayyubid/Mamluk sherds were not uncommon. ‘Geometric’ or ‘pseudoprehistoric’ jugs were present together with Mamluk glazed ware, some of the latter appearing in Oren’s article (1971:275; Nos. 1–5, if the sherds are numbered in rows starting in the top left corner). The bulk of the sherds belonged to the tenth–eleventh centuries. The lustre ware all appears to be of Egyptian origin, i.e. post-975 CE (Mason 1994:91). Northedge has noted that Oren’s pottery is similar to that of the Amman Stratum III destruction assigned by him to the eleventh century (Northedge 1992: Ch. 11, n. 60). There were many sherds of unglazed ‘pink’ ware (but not a single ‘waster’) and it was probably these, which were also common in Foerster’s excavation (where they had clearly been produced as the finished article and not as candidates for glazing), that led Oren to believe that there was a workshop for glazing pottery, despite the unlikelihood that a kiln, producing noxious smoke, would be located in what was either a room, or an enclosed courtyard, in the midst of dwelling houses, close to a synagogue.3 There is no stratigraphic evidence to support an earlier date for the synagogue situated across a narrow lane from ‘Complex A’. This synagogue was probably built incorporating material salvaged from the synagogue excavated by Dothan further to the south. Tel Yoqne‘am The main area of Early Islamic occupation excavated at Yoqne‘am is dated from c. 880 to c. 1030 CE (Ben-Tor, Avissar and Portugali 1996:19). Some of the pottery

types (e.g. Fig. XIII.69. Type 6:1, 2 and Lamp Type 1) certainly flourished earlier than 880 CE and that date would appear to be at the extreme limit of their date range. On the other hand the gradual abandonment of the site, posited on ‘the evidence of the pottery’, in c. 1030 CE ‘for some unknown reason’ (Ben-Tor, Avissar and Portugali 1996:19–20) does not seem justified. This was a period of comparative stability and prosperity when any agricultural surpluses from the area surrounding Yoqne‘am would have had a ready market in Egypt. Avissar (1996a:171–172) concludes that “only a few houses were still occupied at the beginning of the 11th century” because not all produced sherds of bowls of Types 25–30. As these bowls were from the luxury end of the pottery corpus and there is no evidence to suggest that they were made in Yoqne‘am it is dangerous to base a theory of abandonment on their absence from some rooms. Moreover many of the tenth-century pottery forms (e.g. Avissar 1996a: Fig. XIII, 7 Type 7:2, 6) continue until the end of the eleventh century, whilst some forms, in particular the cooking pot Type 7, which she claims was not made before the end of the twelfth century (Avissar 1996a:135), originated in the eleventh if not the late tenth century (see below, Fig. 5.32:16, 17 and Arnon, Lester and Polak 1999: Fig. 1d). An abandonment of the unfortified settlement soon after the arrival in the area of the marauding Seljuks in 1070 CE seems more plausible. As Avissar dates the beginning of Crusader occupation only at the end of the twelfth or early in the thirteenth century (Avissar 1996a:172), there would have been a full century of abandonment; plenty of time for the sterile accumulation to build up over the Early Islamic ruins (Ben-Tor, Avissar and Portugali 1996: Photo IV.10), particularly if the upper parts of the walls had been built of mud-brick (cf. upper storeys in Pella—McNicoll and Walmsley 1982:339). The walls were, in part, retaining walls (Ben-Tor, Avissar and Portugali 1996: Section IV.3), so stone footings would have been used to combat damp. Kursi The pottery assemblage from Kursi (Tzaferis 1983) was “presented typologically and not according to stratigraphical context” (Tzaferis 1983:31). Tzaferis admits that, in the church, “pottery remains were not preserved in clear chronological sequence” and it would seem that most of the pottery from the church could not

CHAPTER 3: STATE OF CERAMIC RESEARCH

be assigned to either Period II or Period III because, even in the atrium area, where “there was enough evidence to distinguish pottery of Periods II and III” it is not so distinguished in the figures (Tzaferis 1983: 31). Thus for stratigraphically differentiable pottery one has to rely on Area A, although it is strange that in Room A, west of W113, there were Period III loci but none, apparently, of Period II, and in Rooms A and D, east of W113, there were Period II loci but none of Period III (Tzaferis 1983:30, Pl. 7). Tzaferis does not present the criteria upon which he bases the dating of the change from Period II to Period III as early eighth century (Tzaferis 1983:4, 17). Although he notes that “there is no numismatic evidence...later than of the mid-eighth century” (Tzaferis 1983:35), this is not surprising as few postUmayyad coins were minted locally until the second decade of the ninth century. The site was probably abandoned before Tiberias briefly struck coins, from 815 to 833 CE (Qedar 1980; EI2 ‘Fals’). In a more recent publication Tzaferis has stated that “the destruction of the site in the first half of the eighth century A.D.” was caused by the 747 earthquake (Tzaferis 1989:219, n. 22), which one must assume refers to the destruction at the end of Period II, as no signs of destruction are recorded for the end of Period III. This revised dating agrees better with the published pottery: that from Period II being a good assemblage of Umayyad material, and that of Period III, which for the first time has pale cream and cut-ware, assignable to the period 750–800 CE. Caesarea The Islamic/Crusader pottery, excavated by the Hebrew University at Caesarea (Levine and Netzer 1986), is also presented typologically. None of the pottery illustrated definitely predates the ninth century (with the probable exceptions of Fig. 5:10 and Pl. II: 2a, which could be residual), yet much of it is called ‘Umayyad’ or ‘Um/EI, 8th–early 10th centuries’. As it is admitted that “most of the finds are dated...after 750” (Levine and Netzer 1986:66) the use of the term Umayyad is confusing. The discussion of the pottery never takes into account its stratigraphic location, which causes errors, two examples of which are briefly examined here. 1. N. Brosh (1986:68) states categorically that zoomorphic vessels “disappear entirely after the end of

15

the Umayyad period” even though four of the parallels quoted from Kh. al-Mafjar would, from their find spots, be dated by Baramki to either post-earthquake (Baramki 1944: Fig. 16:12, 4) or possibly as late as the medieval period (Baramki 1944: Fig. 16:10, 11). Of the zoomorphic vessels from Caesarea, one (Brosh 1986: Fig. 2:3) came from L93, claimed as an undisturbed locus (Brosh 1986:66). The only other sherd published from this locus is of an oil lamp (Brosh 1986: Fig. 5:3) dated by her to the twelfth–fifteenth centuries though actually belonging to the tenth–eleventh centuries (see below). If the zoomorphic vessel is not residual then it, too, must be dated to the tenth–eleventh centuries. Two of the other zoomorphic vessels (Brosh 1986: Fig. 2:1, 2) also came from apparently undisturbed loci (L126 and L157). Other sherds from L126 were Brosh 1986: Pl. II: 1c, d and 3b, c; Pls. V:1a and VII:6a, which were found together with a Ramla fals dated 833 CE (Levine and Netzer 1986:145, Coin 138). This limited assemblage might be datable to the first half of the ninth century. Other sherds from L157 were Brosh 1986: Figs. 1:7; 5:9, 11; Pl. III:6, 8, 11. A tenth-century date for all of these, including the zoomorphic head, is reasonable. 2. Brosh dates so-called ‘Crusader Oil Lamps’ to the twelfth–fifteenth centuries because she incorrectly identified them as Kubiak Type J (Brosh 1986:71, n. 71). In fact they were either Type B or C (the spouted variety—Brosh 1986: Fig. 6:2–4) or Type E (Brosh 1986: Figs. 5:13–15, 6:1), all three types being dated by Kubiak to the tenth–eleventh centuries. All the examples from Caesarea were found in Strata 2a–c, which, ceramically, must be dated to the late tenth– eleventh centuries. Table 3.1, extracted from the stratigraphic description, allows the pottery from Caesarea to be grouped stratigraphically and to be given more reliable datings. The strata can be approximately dated as follows: Stratum 1—Crusader period; Stratum 2a—1033–1100; Stratum 2b—980–1033; Stratum 2c—930–980; Stratum 3—880–930 CE. Whilst the section in the report on the pottery of the eighth–thirteenth centuries must be used with caution, that on the pottery from the Late Byzantine building by D. Adan-Bayewitz (1986) is a valuable study of pottery from the early decades of the Muslim era found in Caesarea.

16

DAVID STACEY

Table 3.1. Stratigraphic Grouping of the Caesarea Pottery (Based on Brosh 1986) Locus

Square

Stratum

Locus

Square

16

E6

Disturbed

21

E5

28 33

Stratum

Locus

Square

Stratum

110

?

?

407

D2

1/2a

1

124

E8

2a/b

409

D2

1/2a

D–E8

2a

125

?

?

410

D2

2b

E4

2a

126

E4

3/2c

411

E2

1/2a

39

?

?

146

E4

3

412

E2

2b?

44

E6

2

150

E8

2

414

C2

2b/c

47

?

?

152

E5

2b

418

?

?

55

D8

2b

157

E4

3

419

D2

1/2a

59

E8

2b

159

E8

2c

435

?

?

60

?

?

162

E8

2b/c

456

A2/3

2/3

62

D8

2c

187

E5

2b

460

A2/3

2/3

67

E5

2b

193

E5

3

503

D2

1/2a

68

E5

2b/c

197

E8

2b/c

507

D2

2c

69

E4

2b

198

E8

3?

508

E2

2c/3

70

?

?

243

E6

2b

514

D2

2a

74

E6

2a/b

318

?

?

515

D2

2b

83

E5

2b

353

?

?

519

D2

2c

84

E6

2b

356

D/E3??

?

520

D2

2c

93

E8

2c

402

D2

1/2a

523

C2

1/2c

98

D8

2c

405

E2

1/2a

524

D2

2c

101

D–E8

2a/b

406

E2

1

575

D2

2c/3

104

?

?

More recently a number of large excavations have been conducted in Caesarea and the Combined Caesarea Expeditions have opened excavations (Area LL) close to, and incorporating, those of Levine and Netzer. Although they have detected Umayyad re-use of Byzantine storage buildings, they confirm that the earliest domestic occupation of this area is in the ninth century (see the reports of the 1998, 1999 and 2000 summer seasons at http://digcaesarea.org). A large area of Herod’s inner harbour, a little to the south of Levine and Netzer’s excavation, has also now been excavated. This had silted up during the Byzantine period; widespread building within the silted up harbour only began in Tulunid times. Occupation continued through the tenth century with a floruit in the Fatimid period early in the eleventh century. As yet little of the Early Islamic pottery from any of these renewed excavations has been published, but it will be a valuable corpus of stratified material (Boas 1992; Arnon 1999a, b; Arnon, Lester and Polak 1999; Niamir 1999).

Capernaum A recent major publication of Early Islamic pottery found in Israel is that from Capernaum (Tzaferis 1989). In it Tzaferis makes emphatic claims about the earliest appearance of two key Early Islamic pottery types. In the preface, he states that, “(t)he Capernaum excavations have provided significant proof that the pottery known as ‘Khirbet Al-Mafjar Ware’ first appeared at the time of the Arab Conquest, in the mid-7th century A.D.” (Tzaferis 1989:xix). In a brief preface to the pottery section of the book he again emphasises that “Khirbet Al-Mafjar Ware” .... “definitely appears with the Muslim Conquest...” Further he states that “Glazed pottery of Eastern origin is in evidence with the conquest, as is shown at Capernaum, where it appears already in the Umayyad period” (Tzaferis 1989:30). As both of these claims contradict the evidence from Pella (McNicoll, Smith and Hennessy 1982:151–152; Walmsley 1991:142, 1993) and from Tiberias, a careful examination of the

CHAPTER 3: STATE OF CERAMIC RESEARCH

evidence presented must be made to see whether these claims can be substantiated. The Dating Methodology Employed at Capernaum According to M. Peleg, “The five main floor levels found enable five occupational phases to be distinguished, allowing for controlled, sealed loci from which most of the pottery exemplars were chosen. Dated coins and oil lamps accompanying these established phases also aided dating. Pottery discovered a few centimetres above and below a floor surface has been considered as belonging to a single stratum, along with the pottery within the surface; in other words, the material from immediately above, below, and through a floor surface is considered as a single deposit” (Peleg 1989:31; my italics). However, pottery from beneath well-made, easily maintainable, flagstone floors, whose life-time might be expected to be measured in centuries rather than decades, cannot be regarded as the same deposit as sherds found some centimetres (as much as 50 cm in some instances) above the floors after they have gone out of use. Regarding secure dating from the coins: two hoards were discovered, one, of gold Umayyad dinars, beneath the floor of Area A, Building A, Room 1 (Wilson 1989b:147) and the other of silver Umayyad dirhams “found in a corner of a room adjacent to that which yielded the gold hoard” (Wilson 1989a:142). Although the silver coins are described as a hoard we do not learn whether they were found buried beneath, or scattered upon, the floor. Effectively, these hoards only give a terminus post quem for Stratum IV of Building A in Area A. The majority of the other coins found during the excavation cover the spectrum ‘early Roman to Arab–Byzantine’ and were found throughout all strata (Wilson 1989a:140–141). Nine of the remaining 12 coins are unstratified. Wilson’s (1989a) Fig. 73:23 is a Pre-Reform Umayyad coin assigned to Stratum III and therefore presumably residual; Fig. 73:25, a PostReform coin, is from Building A, Room 1; and Fig. 73:28, also Post-Reform, is from Building A, Room 5. They confirm the dating, to no earlier than the Umayyad period, of Stratum IV of Building A in Area A, but this is the only stratum or building that can be dated by coins. Regarding oil lamps: the claim that Early Islamic oil lamps can be used for precise dating purposes is negated by Peleg’s own examples (her Variant D is given

17

parallels ranging from the sixth to the tenth centuries (Peleg 1989:105). As Building A and its contemporary structures in Area A have a stratum reasonably dated numismatically, it is best to concentrate on this area when re-examining the stratigraphy. The Stratigraphic Report The Stratigraphy of Area A. Five strata are attested by the excavator, but the separation of the initial construction phase into two strata (V and IV) leads to incongruities which will be discussed below. This separation into two strata, precisely dated by Tzaferis to 630–650 CE (Tzaferis 1989:10) and 650–747 CE, may have been postulated to bolster his historical perspective. ‘If our assumptions concerning the course of events at Capernaum during the first half of the 7th century A.D. are correct, then the Byzantine authorities certainly made efforts to settle primarily Christians at this site” (Tzaferis 1989:217). For these buildings to reflect such an influx they would, of necessity, have had to have been built in the Byzantine period, as is claimed by Tzaferis. Whilst two small artefacts, impressed with Christian symbols, were found during the excavations, they are both probably residual and reveal only that Christians lived somewhere in Capernaum during the Byzantine period. As the building activity described in this volume should probably be assigned to the Umayyad period (see below) the occupants are as likely to have been in-coming Muslims (perhaps some of the soldiers said by al-Tabarī to have been stationed in villages near Tiberias) as they are to have been Christians. Building A: In its original construction, Building A consisted of a large (8 × 8 m) hall, with an arch to support the ceiling (“a pilaster was built as an integral part of W 131”, Tzaferis 1989:11), entered from the south-east. Rooms radiated off to the north and possibly to both the west and south. Tzaferis claims that the large hall, Room 1 (Tzaferis 1989: Plan X), originally existed in Stratum V without the stone floor, which he attributes to Stratum IV. If this were true there would have been a step down of about 0.60 m from either of the doors to the Stratum V floor, which is unlikely. (It is clear from Tzaferis 1989: Figs. 17 and 27 that the threshold stones are in their original positions and that no steps existed.) For the same reason the stone floors of the two northern rooms

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DAVID STACEY

would appear to be part of the original construction. Oddly, Tzaferis only mentions the need for steps after the flagstones, assigned by him to Stratum IV, were inserted (Tzaferis 1989:17). The supposed Stratum V floors, beneath the flagstones, would have been, in fact, merely the working surfaces created when the building was constructed and the flagstones were laid. The stratigraphic problems for the interpretation of the northern rooms, R5 and R6, are dealt with elsewhere (Stacey 1995:141–143). Building B: Only a small area of this building was exposed; it had clearly been used for domestic purposes. Tzaferis (1989:20) says that “The structures of Stratum IV were probably all destroyed by an earthquake”. The clearest evidence for earthquake damage is in this building where a number of restorable pottery vessels were found smashed on a floor, assigned by Tzaferis, however, to Stratum V (Tzaferis 1989: Figs. 20–22). Building C: This building can only be understood if Strata V and IV are re-combined. In Tzaferis’ Stratum V the staircase abutting W206 rises 1.5 m and leads into a stone wall, which is unlikely. It is clear that Building C served as a stairwell for the adjacent Building D, with which it shared a common wall, W132. What are referred to as walls (W214, W160 and W161) are the continuation of the staircase ascending around the internal faces of the walls. It could have risen at least 6 m, first to an upper floor and then onto the roof.4 The foot of the stairwell was used for domestic purposes and tabuns were built in the corner of the walls. After the earthquake of 749 CE, Building C would have lost its function as it is likely that only a single storey building was salvaged from the ruins of Building D (Tzaferis 1989: Figs. 31, 32). Building C would have become a convenient source of building stones, although by force of habit, the inhabitants continued, for a while, using its ruined walls to support tabuns. Summary. The separation of the initial building phase into two strata, particularly in Buildings A and C, causes unnecessary incongruities and is unjustified. Although a foundation in the Byzantine period can not be entirely ruled out, it is more probable that the building described took place during the century of Umayyad rule.

The Pottery The pottery is presented typologically, and its provenance is only indicated by unidentified locus numbers. Peleg (1989), in the section on domestic pottery, does give some indication as to where the loci in Area A are located. Because of the forced separation of the original construction into two strata, some of the pottery assigned to Stratum V (usually that from beneath stone floors) represents residual material from a pre-building phase, whilst some (usually that on original dirt floors, as in Buildings B and D) belongs to the occupation at the time of the earthquake. Very little Umayyad pottery was found on the Stratum IV flagstone floors, probably because they were conscientiously swept clean. It is unlikely that many vessels would have been kept in the large hall, which was of impressive proportions for a provincial village, and probably served as a reception room. As no mention is made of a gradual build-up of dirt floors over the flagstones one must suppose that they were still exposed at the time of the earthquake. Pottery from 0.50+ m above these Stratum IV floors was attributed to Stratum IV although it came from a layer up to 0.70 m thick.5 This layer must have been made up variously of earthquake debris; an accumulation during a period (from the Stratum III pottery published this would appear to be about a century) of either abandonment, or seasonal squatting within the damaged buildings; followed by a re-construction phase during which stones were dug from the debris, walls inserted into it and material brought in to level off the floor surfaces. It is this multifarious level, which includes ‘Mafjar’ or ‘buff wares’ and glazed sherds, that Tzaferis assigns to the Umayyad period, whereas it should be reassigned to the hundred years or so following the earthquake. The statement that “at Capernaum (Khirbet Al-Mafjar Ware) definitely appears with the Muslim Conquest (in Level IV, the Umayyad level)” (Tzaferis 1989:30) is, therefore, not substantiated. Capernaum Area A. There are only two small corpora of vessels which can be assigned to the time of the earthquake of 749 CE: that from Loci 1066 and 1069 in Building B (Table 3.2) and that in Building A, Room 4. Building B: (All these sherds are designated ‘Stratum V’, i.e. early seventh century, although all but one has

CHAPTER 3: STATE OF CERAMIC RESEARCH

good eighth-century parallels.) All figure citations are to Peleg 1989. It is remarkable that none of the clear eighth-century Umayyad parallels from Pella (McNicoll, Smith and Hennessy 1982), cited in Table 3.2, are noted by Peleg for the pottery from Building B, although parallels from that volume are cited elsewhere. Could it be that they did not support a 630–650 CE, so-called ‘Stratum V’, date? Three of these vessels (Figs. 48:3, 55:5 and 57:1) are given parallels from Kursi Period II which Peleg persists in dating to the seventh century (Peleg 1989:73), despite Tzaferis’ apparent correction to the mid-eighth century (Tzaferis 1989:219, n. 22 and see discussion on Kursi above). This discrete assemblage of pottery, all that is published from Building B, can be firmly dated, stratigraphically, numismatically and by ceramic parallels, to the time of the earthquake at the end of the Umayyad period. A careful review of the material shows that no Mafjar ware or glazed sherds were found in it. Building A: It is clear that Room 4 came to an abrupt end. An iron pick-axe and a complete grinding stone (Tzaferis 1989: Fig. 72:2, 30) were found on the dirt floor, and it was in this room that the six silver dirhams (all from the first half of the eighth century, the latest

19

from 740 CE) were discovered (Wilson 1989a: Fig. 74 and cf. Figs. 72:2, 12, 30 and 57:2, 3). Whether they were buried with forethought or hastily abandoned we are not told. With them were a restorable Umayyad jug and part of another (Peleg 1989: Fig. 57:2, 3), assigned, by analogy to examples from the misdated Kursi Period II, to the seventh century. The numismatic evidence can be used to date these two vessels into the middle of the eighth century, and then, by analogy, to redate the Kursi ceramics. No Mafjar or glazed ware is recorded from this floor. The only other sherds from sealed loci that can be confidently assigned stratigraphically to the Umayyad occupation, and which probably include residual late Byzantine material, came from the following three locations: (1) Building C, between the flagstones and the first floor with tabuns, assigned to Stratum V (Peleg 1989: Figs. 43:7, 20; 44:1; 48:1; 55:9); (2) Building D, from a build-up of dirt floors assigned to Stratum V (Peleg 1989: Figs. 42:8, 20; 55:8; 57:5; 60:16, 38); and, possibly (3) Street I, also assigned to Stratum V (Peleg 1989: Figs. 42:25, 27, 33, 40, 50; 43:8; 44:2, 3, 5, 6; 47:9; 52:11; 54:1; 57:4). It is not certain whether this level was well sealed. Again no Mafjar or glazed ware appears in these corpora.

Table 3.2. Capernaum Area A, Building B Pottery Corpora Assigned to Stratum V (Based on Peleg 1989) Fig. in Peleg 1989

Locus

Description

43:11

1069 ‘inside oven’

A small fragment, seventh century? residual?

48:3

1066

Cf. Harding 1951: Fig 2:53.

51:1

1066

Cf. McNicoll, Smith and Hennessy 1982: Pl. 139:12, a good parallel though undecorated. The decorative style is Umayyad (Gawlikowski 1986:133 Pl. XII; Stacey 1988–1989: Fig. 1:7).

52:35

1066

55:3

1069 ‘inside oven’

“regarded as an Arab form” (Peleg 1989:71).

Parallels Not Noted by Peleg

Cf. McNicoll, Smith and Hennessy 1982: Pl. 140, 2 c. 720 CE; Pl. 143:2, 746/7 CE and Walmsley 1991: Figs. 3:11, 4:5, 5:1–3, 9:2, all Abbasid. Cf. McNicoll, Smith and Hennessy 1982: Pls. 142:1 and 144:3, both 746/7 CE.

55:5

1066

Cf. McNicoll, Smith and Hennessy 1982: Pl. 143:3, 746/7 CE.

57:1

1066

McNicoll, Smith and Hennessy 1982: Pl. 145:2, 746/7 CE.

60:1, 11

1066

“Such forms appear throughout all strata” (Peleg 1989:73) but they certainly exist in the Umayyad period.

Cf. McNicoll, Smith and Hennessy 1982: Pls. 146:3, 148:4, 6; Stacey 1988–1989: Fig. 4:1, 2.

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DAVID STACEY

There is, in fact, no “significant proof that...‘Khirbet Al-Mafjar Ware’ first appeared at the time of the Arab Conquest, in the mid-7th century A.D.” (Tzaferis 1989: xix). The vague and unsubstantiated statement that “sherds with yellow and green monochrome lead glaze were found among the debris surrounding the hoard” (Tzaferis 1989:124) is not proof that “glazed pottery of Eastern origin is in evidence with the Conquest”. We are not told from where precisely these sherds came and, in any case, there is no discussion as to the likely time at which the gold hoard was buried. The stratigraphic table (Tzaferis 1989: xxi) for Area A and, probably, Area C should be corrected as follows6 (Table 3.3; although certain corpora of sherds must be reassigned as discussed above): Table 3.3. Capernaum—Revised Stratigraphic Table (Dates CE) Buildings

Pottery

None

7th c.– 750

Stratum IV

7th c.–749

750–850

Stratum III

850–950

850–950

Stratum II

950–1033

950–1070

Stratum V

Hammat Gader Some Early Islamic pottery has been published from the baths at Hammat Gader (Ben-Arieh 1997; Boas 1997; Uzzielli 1997) but only the Umayyad period is represented in any quantity and the pottery is generally not from well-stratified locations. It is not such an important corpus as that from, for example, Pella, but does contribute towards a study of the regional distribution of pottery in the Umayyad period. The post-Umayyad periods lack “architectural remains and stratified deposits” so “it is often impossible to be precise about the date of many of the later vessel forms” (Boas 1997:382). Bet She’an Large-scale excavations were carried out in Bet She’an during the 1990s. Very little pottery has yet been published. Some oil lamps have appeared in print (Hadad 1997, 1999, 2002:78–109; Hadad and Khamis 1998), divided into ‘Umayyad’ and ‘Abbasid–Fatimid’. It is to be hoped that future publications will attempt a

more precise dating of the pottery from the latter, 350 year long period (see also Hadad 2000). Sites East of the Jordan Apart from the publication of some Umayyad pottery from Mt. Nebo (Schneider 1950) and the Amman citadel (Harding 1951) little Early Islamic pottery was published from east of the Jordan before the 1970s, which saw the publication of material from Heshbon (Sauer 1973b), Pella (Smith 1973) and Tell Abu Gourdan (Franken and Kalsbeek 1975). Whitcomb has recently reviewed their work in a reassessment of the Abbasid period in Jordan (Whitcomb 1992b), an essential introduction to the subject. The publications from the University of Sydney’s excavations at Pella (McNicoll, Smith and Hennessy 1982; Walmsley 1986, 1988, 1991, 1993, 1995) have presented reliably stratified assemblages of Late Byzantine and late Umayyad pottery, together with a limited quantity of early Abbasid material. Nothing later than c. 850–900 CE has yet been published, but such a clearly defined corpus is invaluable. Following Harding’s publication, two more useful corpora of Islamic ceramics have been published from Amman. A limited sequence of pottery assemblages from the Umayyad through to the Ayyubid periods was presented by Northedge (1984: Figs. 71–79). These assemblages suffer only from the paucity of forms presented, and even some of these were dropped in the subsequent publication (Northedge 1992). Northedge was probably mistaken when, tentatively, he opted for the earthquake of 1068 CE to account for the destruction of his Stratum III. There is no evidence that either of the two quakes recorded for that year affected Amman. An acceptance of a tenth–eleventh-century dating for the Abu Ghosh material, despite it being “not on good evidence”, and a subsequent misdating of some of the pottery unearthed by the Spanish excavations in Amman, led him to postulate a pottery phase which “ought to be fitted” into the late tenth and early eleventh centuries (Northedge 1992: Ch. 11 n. 62). To allow for this unnecessary insertion he dates his own material too late. As no late eleventh-century forms such as sgraffito ‘tadpoles’ (e.g. below, Fig. 5.25:13) or Type 3D lamps appear in the admittedly limited destruction corpus, the earthquake of 1033 CE, for which there is far more contemporary evidence for

21

CHAPTER 3: STATE OF CERAMIC RESEARCH

widespread destruction, seems a better option that that of 1068 CE. The pottery from the Spanish excavations mentioned above was published, with admirable alacrity, within six or seven years of their completion (OlavarriGoicoechea 1985). It was presented, however, with little regard for its stratigraphic location. Painted sherds were all assigned to the Umayyad period (Olavarri-Goicoechea 1985: Figs. 15, 16) no matter in what level they were found. The discussion on the ceramics (Olavarri-Goicoechea 1985:36–39) relies largely on uncertainly dated parallels, particularly those from Mafjar, rather than from their comparative stratigraphic location. Most of the published pottery came from two loci (E-1 and E-2) which were, apparently, abandoned after the 749 earthquake. Its stratigraphic location can be re-established by the simple, but not infallible, method of assuming that Level 1 represents the most recent pottery and Level 12 the earliest. Table 3.4 attempts to date the published pottery more precisely. The excavation at Aqaba, 1986–1995, has published pottery assemblages with admirable regularity (Whitcomb 1987; 1988a; 1989a–c; 1991). The Aqaba and Tiberias

corpora show, not surprisingly, pronounced regional differences, particularly in the Umayyad and early Abbasid periods. The northern Palestinian Umayyad pottery repertoire is absent at Aqaba (Whitcomb 1989a:171; Walmsley 1992:381–382), whilst much of the early Abbasid, so-called ‘Mahesh’ ware’, does not appear in the north (Whitcomb 1989c: particularly Figs. 2, 3 and 5). ‘Hijazi’-glazed ware with spiral and cross-hatched designs (Whitcomb 1989a:181 Fig. 6: a, b, l, p, q) did not reach Tiberias, nor did the FarEastern wares shipped to Aqaba (Whitcomb 1988a: Fig. 8: i–o). Some wares, probably originating in Tiberias, did however arrive at Aqaba in the tenth– eleventh centuries. Whilst one would anticipate some movement of ceramics, in either direction, between Tiberias and Tyre, on the coast, or Damascus, further inland, there is a shortage of published material from these areas. Ceramics from further north, either published (Lane 1937; Waagé 1948; Tonghini 1995; Tonghini and Henderson 1998) or unpublished (Christina Tonghini, Raqqa excavations, pers. comm.), whilst generally similar to that from Tiberias, clearly came from different sources.

Table 3.4. Re-Dating of the Amman Pottery (Based on Olavarri-Goicoechea 1985) Locus

Fig. 16

E-1/2

Fig. 17

Fig. 22

15

Fig. 23

Fig. 24

22

Revised Date 11th c.

E-1/3

14

E-1/8

16

9th–10th c.

3

9th–10th c.

E-1/9

3, 6

E-1/10

1

E-1/11

5, 10, 12, 13, 14

E-1/12

7–9, 11

6 1, 3, 4, 10, 16, 17

4

E-2/5

5

E-2/6 E2/7

8 4, 18

4, 14, 18

7

11th c.

7, 9–12, 15, 19

3, 7, 9, 10

12

11th c.

8

6, 13

2

2 7–9, 11

12

10th–11th c. 10th c.

5

E-2/9

9th c.

1, 2, 19

9th c. 5

E-2/10

2

E-2/11 E-2/12

8th–9th c.

5

E-2/8

10th c.

8th c.

E-2/3 E-2/4

6

14 8, 9, 11

4, 8

9th c.

1, 3

8th–9th c.

15 2, 6

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NOTES 1

Magness 1994: n. 3, 204–205. Walmsley’s recent suggestion that all the pottery has an early Fatimid date (Walmsley 1995: 668) places it too late. 2 I would like to thank Katia Cytryn-Silverman who gave me a draft of her report on pottery excavated by teams from the Hebrew University, Jerusalem during the 1990s. 3 The whereabouts of the ‘decorated pot full of pigments’ was not known at the time that I looked at the material. 4 There is an error on both Plans IX and X (Tzaferis 1989). The elevation of a stone on W214 at the top of the extant

stairs is given as 196.40/1. This must have been 197.40 as there is not a 1.40 m difference between it and the top surviving step (see Tzaferis 1989: Figs. 16, 23, 30). 5 Peleg 1989: Fig. 47:2 was found between 0.53 and 0.77 m above the Stratum IV floor. 6 Since this re-evaluation of the Capernaum pottery was written Magness has published a similar redating of Strata V and IV (Magness 1997).

CHAPTER 4

THE STRATIGRAPHY

INTRODUCTION The site presents the following general stratigraphic sequence: Stratum I

Late Fatimid

Stratum II

Early Fatimid

1033–1100 CE 980–1033 CE

Stratum III

Tulunid/Late Abbasid

880–980 CE

Stratum IV

Early Abbasid

750–880 CE

Stratum V

Umayyad

700–750 CE

Stratum VI

Byzantine

Stratum VII

Roman

Seven areas were opened, as much as 300 m apart (Plan 4.1). Not all strata were found in every area, and each area had its own series of locus numbers. The location of the most important loci can be found on the relevant plans. Tiberias lies below sea level and thus all elevations are negative. At the time of excavation, to avoid confusion, an arbitrary zero point was chosen so that recorded elevations would be on a positive scale. Unfortunately no record of the zero point chosen has survived, although it was most probably -210 m.1 All elevations given here are on a positive scale and, though metric, are not written with an ‘m’ as they are not an absolute figure.

AREA C

Plan 4.1. Map of the excavation areas.

An area c. 15 × 34 m was excavated to the north of the monumental Roman arch that was incorporated as a gate in the Byzantine city wall (Plans 4.1, 4.2). One of the towers of this gate had been partially exposed by Sukenik in the 1930s (Sukenik 1936), although it had since been reburied and its exact location was unknown.

a few conduits in Area D1). The earliest construction in this area was a monumental, free-standing arch and the cardo leading from it towards the city to the north (Plans 4.2, 4.3; Fig. 4.1). The arch, built of well-dressed basalt, spanned a passage 4 m wide and was supported on either side by rectangular towers (3.2 × 3.6 m; W563 and W561 in the west; W536 and W548 in the east). Round towers (diameter 5.40 m; W554 and W543) projected from the corners furthest from the passageway and the city. The load-bearing walls (W561 and W536) of the rectangular towers,

THE ROMAN PERIOD (STRATUM VII) (Plan 4.3) Only in Area C were remains found datable to the Early Roman period (with the possible exception of

24

DAVID STACEY

Fig. 4.1. Area C. General view, looking north. Modern Tiberias at top.

Plan 4.2. Areas C and C1. Final plan.

CHAPTER 4: THE STRATIGRAPHY

25

Plan 4.3. Area C. Strata VII–IV.

flanking the entrance, were 1.2 m wide with additional buttresses, 0.5 m wide and 0.3 m deep, at either end (Fig. 4.2). The poorly preserved northern walls were also 1.2 m wide but they had a semi-circular niche (radius 0.75 m) in their northern faces. The other walls were 0.7 m wide. The rectangular towers were entered through doors in the walls furthest from the entrance passage, where the round towers acted as a jamb for one side of the door (Fig. 4.3). Doors 0.9 m wide and only about 1.3 m high (Fig. 4.4) connected the interior of the rectangular towers with the round towers, over a high threshold (in the eastern towers the floor of the rectangular tower was at 12.41; that of the round tower was at 12.17, whilst the threshold between them was at 12.84). The external, floor-level course of the towers was carved with a cyma-recta profile (Fig. 4.3). Flanking the entrance passage from the south was a pair of attached columns, resting on pedestals, set in the angles where the round and the rectangular towers interlocked. The pedestals were decorated with rhombi in relief (Fig. 4.5). The whole arch complex was supported on a ‘concrete’ foundation of small stones bound in mortar. Whereas in Jerash the triumphal arch stood c. 460 m south of the city gate (Kraeling 1938:73, but see a

recently uncovered arch with striking similarities to that in Tiberias—Meynersen 2001), in Tiberias such a distance was impossible, due to the limited level area available for the construction of the city, and also to the presence of Hammat Tiberias not far to the south. Although the location of the Roman walls of Tiberias is not known, it is unlikely that they were more than 200 m north of the arch, as Roman walls and channels were found in Area D1 and a pre-Byzantine wall was noted in Area D. The street that ran northward from the arch was paved with rectangular basalt slabs. Through the entrance passage and for a further 2.5 m to the north these were aligned with the rectangular towers. For the next 6 m northwards (to the limits of the excavation) the slabs were laid at an oblique angle. A few slabs were lifted to enable pottery to be recovered from beneath them. The latest sherds belonged to the early first century CE, indicating that the arch and road were built at the time of the original founding of the city. The western side of the street was bounded by kerb-stones, some of which were preserved (Fig. 4.6). A projection of the preserved line shows that the kerb would have begun at the base of the profile at the north-western corner of the rectangular tower.

26

DAVID STACEY

Fig. 4.2. Area C. Roman street, looking north.

Fig. 4.3. Area C. Entrance into western tower, junction of W563 and round tower, looking south-east.

Fig. 4.4. Area C. Entrance into western round tower, C70, from rectangular tower, C61, looking south.

CHAPTER 4: THE STRATIGRAPHY

27

Fig. 4.5. Area C. Gate with Stratum III/II blocking (W553, W540), looking north.

A drain of pottery pipes ran beneath the street slabs parallel to the kerb and about 1 m to its east and was revealed where some of the slabs had been removed in

Fig. 4.6. Area C. C88. Drain beneath Roman street, kerb at right, looking south.

antiquity (see Fig. 4.6), possibly in an attempt to service the drain, whose very gentle gradient (it dropped only 5 mm over 3 m) must have led to problems with silting. It would appear that at least part of the area immediately west of the kerb-stones, which was slightly higher than the street, was also originally paved although no slabs were found in situ. The subfloor drain of clay pipes, which started in the angle of the two western towers, probably connected to another pipe that dipped under the street paving slabs (Fig. 4.7). An Umayyad coin, Coin No. 108 (from Locus C100; see Chapter 8, below), was found in the area of the latter pipe, probably indicating a late attempt at maintenance. The elevation of the base of the pipe closest to the towers was 12.47. Thus the floor level would have been at c. 12.60–12.70, 0.20–0.30 m higher than the nearby street slabs. The pipe might have been protected by a floor of stone slabs, less massive than those of the street, which would have paved the access into the towers. How far such a surface would have extended to the north is not clear and any stones would probably have been incorporated into the Byzantine city wall at the time of its construction.

28

DAVID STACEY

Fig. 4.7. Area C. Drain under Roman street, north-western corner of western tower, C61, looking east.

The situation to the east of the street is even less clear. No kerb-stones were preserved. If any area east of the street had been paved the topography would have demanded that the surface would have been the same or, more likely, slightly lower than the street. (It should be noted that in C58, 5 m east of the street, Roman pottery was only encountered at a depth of c. 11.10, and a faint surface was noted at 10.90, i.e. 1.5 m lower than the street.) In C46 and C47, immediately east of the street, a surface of small stones and pebbles, possibly covered in crushed lime (or decayed plaster?) was found at 12.12. Although Byzantine pottery as well as a late Roman coin, Coin No. 10, was recovered from this surface, it was flush with the base of W548, the eastern wall of the rectangular tower, implying that the original Roman floor had been removed in the Byzantine era.

been heavily looted and it was only the concrete core that had survived to form the foundation for a narrower (1.5 m) Abbasid wall. Its full width is preserved in W567, abutting the eastern tower in C57 (below the Abbasid wall W501; Plans 4.3, 4.4), and in the short stretch of W515, south of C24 (see Plan 4.7), where it was, perhaps, preserved as a tower within the Abbasid wall system. There was no evidence to suggest that a gate was incorporated into the entrance-way (see Plans 4.2, 4.3). Byzantine debris accumulated inside both the round towers (western tower, C70, and eastern tower, C43) and the rectangular towers (western tower, C61, and eastern tower, C39; Plan 4.3) of the gate to about 12.70, although there were no signs of occupation. The street remained in use much as it had in the Roman period and the area immediately inside the city wall was sparsely, if at all, occupied. What structures existed appear to have been terrace walls providing relatively level areas for agricultural and industrial purposes. At the western extremity of the excavated area, W663 met the city wall at about 90°. A staircase (W675) was built against this wall rising up from the south at least four steps to a higher, unexcavated, terrace to the west (Figs. 4.8, 4.9). Between the city-

THE BYZANTINE PERIOD (STRATUM VI) (Plan 4.3) The city wall built by Justinian (527–565 CE; Procopius, Buildings V.ix.21) incorporated the monumental Roman arch as the southern gate of the city. This wall was about 2.7 m wide and was built up to the round towers of the Roman arch. It was better preserved west of the gate (W565); to the east it had

Fig. 4.8. Area C. Byzantine stairs, W675, against W663 (lower left); metre stick on floor of C214, Str. I wall, W672, at higher level. Looking north-east.

CHAPTER 4: THE STRATIGRAPHY

29

Fig. 4.9. Area C. Byzantine stairs, W675, against W663 (right); Str. I wall, W672, at top. Looking south.

Fig. 4.10. Area C. C88. Byzantine drain over missing slabs, looking east.

wall and the foot of the staircase was a hard plaster floor at 13.53 (C216), which had been re-plastered at 13.61 (C214); further north beyond the staircase were traces of a flagstone floor at 13.30 (C221; see Plan 4.3). The pottery recovered from these floors belonged to the sixth century. It is possible that W674, found beneath the garden in the Garden Courtyard complex was, in origin, a Byzantine terrace wall, but the probe was too small to produce conclusive evidence.

c. 0.60 × 0.85 m, were scarcely preserved above their floors and were probably originally free-standing on a floor level at about 11.90. The easternmost, at least 0.6 × 0.6 m, was sunk about 0.6 m below that level. North of W569 was a plastered surface at 11.55, which, in the photographs, looks like the floor of another basin (the area of excavation was only 0.6 m wide). It is possible that W569 constituted the remains of an aqueduct which had collected water either from the paved surface of the street, which, at c. 12.36, was higher than these installations, or from the roof of the tower (cf. the drain pipe discovered near the western towers). It then fed into the basins for an unknown purpose. A later drain, belonging to Stratum II and/or III, ran exactly over the line of W569. (Roman pottery was only encountered below the basins at an elevation of c. 11.10, and there was a faint floor level at 10.90.)

C88 and C89. The westernmost paving slabs of the street were removed, perhaps during the Byzantine period, probably during an unsuccessful attempt to clean the surviving Roman drain, still extant in C88 (see Fig. 4.6) but removed in C89 (below C87). A stone-lined drain, running east–west through C98/C88, may have been Byzantine (Fig. 4.10). C58. Close to the city wall, W567, where it met the eastern tower, was a row of three partially preserved plaster-lined basins, one of which continued into the eastern baulk. These were attached to the southern side of W569 (see Plans 4.2, 4.3). They were not well understood and it is possible that they were Roman in origin, though they are more in keeping with the character of the area in the Byzantine period, and the pottery associated with them was Byzantine. The two eastern basins, one about 0.6 × 0.6 m and the other

C47. A white floor, possibly decayed plaster, was noted at 12.12. It may have been a floor of the Byzantine period. It is more likely, however, that it was the bedding for flagstones dating from the Roman period but looted by the Byzantines. Its elevation corresponds to the base of the foundations of the rectangular tower (W548) so it is reasonable to assume that the Roman floor was somewhat higher (at about 12.25–12.30, in contrast to the street level of c. 12.40). Excavations stopped in C47 at 11.87 (approximately the highest preserved elevation of W569 in C58), so

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the relationship of W569 to the street or to the gatetower is not known. C46. A floor of pebbles and small stones at 12.13 that may have existed in the Byzantine period, although it could have had similar origins as that conjectured for the floor in C47 (see above). Beneath the floor the pottery was predominantly Roman. C49 (see Plan 4.3) contained the remains of W551, the construction of which necessitated the removal of some of the paving slabs of the Roman street. This wall might have been associated with an earlier manifestation of W530 on a line 0.10 m to the north, but this is far from clear. This was one of the earliest post-Roman walls in this area and it was partially removed during Stratum III building activity. It is most likely that it was built in Stratum IV; however, as no floors were noted that related to it, the possibility exists that it belonged to either Stratum VI or V. An even earlier wall, W000, west of W551, is shown tentatively in Plan 4.3. It is noticeable that the paving slabs had been removed in this area but not south of the line of W530. It is possible that a cistern collecting water from the street, perhaps to feed the tanks against W569, was sunk here between W000 and the line of W530. This may have silted up fairly rapidly (or been deliberately filled in), which would account for the mixed pottery in C48 (see below).

onto the western, and possibly the eastern, side of the Roman street, a common phenomenon in this period in, for example, Bet She’an (Tsafrir and Foerster 1994:113–114). Later building activity which, to a large extent, utilised the remnants of earlier walls, makes a reconstruction of the Umayyad buildings difficult. Shops C83 (c. 2.50 × 3.50 m; Plan 4.3) was bound to the north and south by the earliest manifestations of W577 and W571 (Fig. 4.12), the lower two or three courses of which, east of W584 (Plans 4.2, 4.3), were on a slightly different alignment to their upper courses, and seemed to be the remnants of earlier walls. (No discussion of these two phases within the walls appears in the excavation records, but it is reasonable to assign the earlier phase to the Umayyad period and the later to the Stratum III reconstruction.) Its eastern wall (W578) was on the line of the later buttresses visible in Fig. 4.12, and would have had a door, the exact location of which was not preserved. The western wall (W584) followed the line of the street kerb-stones. It is not known if there was a door in this wall. A plaster floor was laid down 0.10 m above the paving slabs (see Coin Nos. 61, 117, 118) and over a fill that covered the east–west drain where the slabs had been removed

THE UMAYYAD PERIOD (STRATUM V) (Plan 4.3) In this period the flagstones of the Roman street remained in use, for a Kufic inscription, possibly reading Bismillah, was hammered into one of the basalt slabs (Plans 4.2, 4.3; Fig. 4.11). A number of buildings, probably single storey shops, encroached

Fig. 4.11. Area C. Kufic inscription on Roman paving slab, looking north-west (see Plan 4.2).

Fig. 4.12. Area C. C83. Note early phases of W577 (left) and W571 (right), looking east.

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(see above). The fill contained both Byzantine and Umayyad pottery and Post-Reform coins (Coin Nos. 50, 54, 133, 136, 146, 171). A ninth-century coin (Coin No. 308) was also recovered from this fill, which one conjectures was deposited at the time of the Stratum III rebuilding of the walls. C86 + C87 (c. 2.5 × 3–3.5 m) was bound in the north by the earlier manifestation of W571, and in the south by W591 (Plans 4.2, 4.3). In the east was W592, with a doorway from the street (threshold partially visible beneath the later W570 in Fig. 4.13). To the north of the door, built on the street to the east of W592, was a rectangular installation (C84E) of partially dressed stones (0.75 × 0.8 × 0.5 m) and of uncertain use. From it were recovered three late Umayyad coins (Coins Nos. 83, 84, 106). The western wall probably followed the street kerb (see C83 above), and, theoretically, could have had a door in it. Those paving slabs surviving from the Roman street were incorporated into a plaster floor at 12.30, upon which was found a number of late Umayyad coins (Coin Nos. 75, 141–143), restorable Umayyad vessels (Figs. 5.32: 1, 2; 5.34:1, 2; 5.39:1–3) and some worked bone or ivory furniture inlays (see Appendix 2), evidence for

Fig. 4.13. Area C. C86. Umayyad threshold beneath W570, looking north.

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the earthquake of 749 CE. A Stratum IV beaten-earth floor (C84) was laid down at 12.53 and on it was a large cooking pot (see Fig. 5.32:4) partially beneath the later wall, W570 (see Plan 4.4). A number of coins came from between the two floors (Coins Nos. 63, 64, 101, 114, 135). Thus the earthquake of 749 CE did not totally destroy this building. It survived into the early Abbasid period but deteriorated, and may have been abandoned during the economic recession that followed the removal of the caliphate from Damascus to Baghdad. A mid-ninth-century coin (Coin No. 220), together with three Umayyad coins (Coin Nos. 111, 137, 144), was discovered in the make-up of the Stratum III floor. Corridor C62/82 + C85 (0.80–1.30 × 2.20 m), bound on the north by W591 and on the south by the western tower of the monumental arch (Coin Nos. 66, 145). At its eastern end a stone threshold was laid directly on the street paving slabs at 12.30 on the line of W592, and the slabs to the west of it were plastered as in C86 + C87. Sandy soil had apparently washed into this room and a new floor (of Stratum IV) constructed of hard packed, gravelly soil at 12.60 (C62 and C82, Coin Nos. 206, 247, 269 all mid-ninth century; see Plan 4.3), was laid at the level of the top of the new threshold. Some rough basalt slabs were laid flush with the threshold to its east (above the Roman slabs, some of which were missing here). A shallow plastered depression to support a jar was set into this floor near the north-eastern corner of the rectangular tower. C95/60 (c. 3 × 4.50 m; see Plans 4.3, 4.4), bound on the north by W564, on the west by W654, and in the south by the round tower W554 and the Byzantine city wall, W565 (Coin Nos. 93, 151, 154, 160, 161 176, 177). It is not possible to detect, from the photographs, whether there were earlier stages in W564 and W654. Wall 654 abutted the face of the Byzantine city wall and, indeed, its foundations went a few centimetres deeper than those of the city wall. There was a suspicion of a floor at 12.60 (C95, cf. C85 #12.30), which was replaced by a hard-packed gravelly floor at c. 12.75 (C205, cf. C62 # 12.60; Plan 4.3) reflecting the difference in elevations either side of the kerb). In a small probe west of W654 some restorable Umayyad pottery (including Fig. 5.35) was found on the earliest surface associated with the wall (C222

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#12.65; Fig. 4.14), indicating that W654 (and, of necessity, W564) were of Umayyad date, but it seems unlikely that Umayyad buildings existed west of W654. (The recovery of a mid-ninth-century coin, Coin No. 218, from C225, apparently below C222, may indicate that W654 was only inserted in the Abbasid period.) C97 + C99/72 (c. 3.40 × 7.50 m). A large irregular room, with a floor at 12.58/63, may have existed west of Shops C83 and C86 + C87, just before the

earthquake. Possibly there were connecting doors between them, but uncertainty about the construction date of W571 leaves this an open question. The western part of W571 was built later than W655 (see Plan 4.5), and did not exist at the time of the first extant floor level, of plaster, at 12.65 (C99/72; Fig. 4.15) which, from the pottery and coins on it, can be dated to the very end of Stratum V or the beginning of Stratum IV (coins from C101, the make-up of the floor in C99—Coin Nos. 30, 65, 94, 150; coins from the floor in C99—Coin Nos. 24, 51, 90–92). The floor is based on a c. 0.30 m fill, which contained Byzantine, Umayyad and early Abbasid sherds, over virgin soil. The recovery of two mid-ninth-century coins (Coin Nos. 253, 277) from this sub-floor fill may indicate that at least one of the walls was not inserted until the Abbasid period. It is possible that the unexplained (and unrecorded on the architectural plan) wall east of the door in W655 (Fig. 4.16) was the remnant of an Umayyad structure which was replaced by W655 and W577 in Stratum IV.

Fig. 4.14. Area C. C222. Umayyad pottery at base of W654; Byzantine city wall, W565, at right. Looking east.

The Western Towers of the Monumental Arch, C61 and C70. Although the pottery evidence is not conclusive, it is likely that the floor of basalt slabs at 12.74, in at least the southern part of the rectangular tower C61, together with the pebble floor at 12.79 in the round tower C70, flush with the internal ‘step’ in its wall, belonged to Stratum V.

Fig. 4.15. Area C. C67. Metre stick on Str. III floor at 12.86 running beneath westward extension of Str. II W571. The Str. IV floor, C99/72, at 12.65 was below this floor. Looking north.

Fig. 4.16. Area C. C99. Umayyad(?) structure in front of door in W655 (blocked in Str. II). Looking south-west.

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Eastern Side of the Street There was pre-Stratum III building activity, but intense later activity and the partial nature of the excavations here make it difficult to identify, or to date, them. It would appear that some structures were erected over the line of the Roman kerb (assuming symmetry with the western kerb), with their western walls about 1 m west of the kerb. Walls that probably originated in either Stratum V or IV are (and see Plan 4.3): Wall 551 (certainly earlier than Stratum III), and an early version of W530 (only east of W551?); Wall 547 and W549, which probably had a doorway in it, and, possibly, W544 and W545 (W544 is based at c. 11.80, much deeper than most of the Stratum III walls, which usually had very shallow foundations). These would have created three rooms, although no definite Umayyad floors were noted. Room C48 + C37 + C46 (if W530 did not yet exist; c. 3.50 × 3.75 m; see Plans 4.3, 4.4) entered from the street via a door between W551 and W547. In C48 no floors were noted beneath the Stratum III plaster floor of C32 at 12.72, and the material culture is mixed Umayyad and Abbasid. Moreover, a silver dirham (Coin No. 181) of al-Mahd¤ (774–785 CE) was found at 12.26. (For the possibility that a Byzantine cistern or bin had been dug in this area see discussion of Byzantine remains above.) C37 was not excavated below the highest preserved part of W533. In C46 no intermediate floors were noted between the earliest Stratum III floor at 12.74 and a Byzantine surface at 12.13. The pottery from between 12.23 and 12.44, however, was predominantly Umayyad (and was found together with a late Umayyad coin, coin No. 179). Room C47 (c. 2.75 × 2.75 m). A grey floor with pebbles and traces of plaster at 12.30 produced some Umayyad sherds. Room C58 (the Byzantine city wall W567 would probably still have been extant so the irregular room would have been between it and W544). A layer of ash was noted at 12.37 in the doorway in W544, although no corresponding floor within the room was noted and Abbasid pottery apparently came from below this level. C49 + C40 + C34 would have formed an open space in front of Rooms C46–48. In C49 a beaten-earth floor

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was noted at 12.53, which was apparently cut by a foundation trench for W534 and was possibly related to W551. No corresponding floors were recorded in C40 or C34 and it should be noted that some ninthcentury coins (Coin Nos. 200, 235, 258, 259, 288, 322–331) were discovered beneath the earliest (Stratum III) floors, all the way down to the Roman flagstones. C51 was not dug beneath the Stratum III floor at 12.84. The Eastern Towers of the Monumental Arch The eastern towers had no floor levels that could be attributed to this phase. Additional Flagstones South of the Tower The rather haphazard flagstones immediately south of the Roman pavement (see Fig. 4.2; Plan 4.3) may have been added in either the Byzantine or the Umayyad periods. The surfaces (C42) gradually built up over them in the late Umayyad and early Abbasid periods.

THE EARLY ABBASID PERIOD (STRATUM IV) (Plan 4.3) This phase is hard to detect but the Umayyad shops on the west of the street remained in use after the 749 CE earthquake, perhaps with the addition of a western extension. Its manifestations are discussed in the Stratum V section above. Several ninth-century coins, none dated later than the mid century, were found, together with earlier coins, associated with secondary floors that post-dated the earthquake destruction but predated the Stratum III rebuilding (Coin Nos. 24, 38, 47, 51, 72, 74, 85, 90–92, 139, 140–142, 147, 157, 189, 206, 209, 219, 229, 231, 247–250, 253, 254, 269, 270, 277, 279, 282, 297, 299, 335, 341). From the number found it would appear that small copper coins were commonly in circulation, which helps to date the period of occupation to the late eighth–early ninth centuries, for, “during the first half of the ninth century there was a sudden cessation of copper minting throughout the Islamic world. This scarcity of copper coinage lasted for several centuries.” (EI2 ‘Fals’). Copper fulūs were minted in Tiberias from 815 to 833 CE. Few, if any, coins were minted locally after that until the arrival of the Tulunids, who issued gold and silver coins after 890 CE (Qedar 1980:64).

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The pre-Stratum III building activity on the east of the street, also discussed above, may have originated in this period (see Plans 4.2, 4.3). The Western Round Tower C70 was damaged, probably by the earthquake of 749 CE. The southern half collapsed completely (see Fig. 4.1), and the inner face of the wall peeled off east of the connecting door between the two towers. When the surviving wall in the north was repaired the door was blocked from the southern side, with only the line of the western jamb still visible. (The northern side of the blocked door probably served as a cupboard.) A wall(s) (W581) was built inside the remains of the tower. Other walls (W582 and W585) were erected south and west of the tower in either Stratum IV or III but their interrelationship, if any, is not known (see Plan 4.4). Their function was, perhaps, to reinforce the city walls and to divert run-off water away from the gate. The frequent mention in the locus cards of water-borne, sandy or gravelly deposits in the buildings west of the street in this period indicates that flooding was a problem. It is noticeable that this area of the excavations was silted up by flooding within a decade. No trace was recorded of a wall running tangentially to the tower, which is visible in a photograph taken in the 1940s after a flashflood (Avissar 1973:211). Some repairs to the highest remaining course of the tower wall in the north, using soft chalky limestone, probably belong to this phase. The eastern towers appear to have been utilised in this period with a tabun being built on a floor (C39 #12.71) in the square tower and a white floor being laid in the round tower (C43 #12.73). There was a connecting step (C45 #12.82) between the two towers.

THE TULUNID STRUCTURES (STRATUM III) (Plan 4.4) In this period the shops on the west of the street were rebuilt on lines generally influenced by the earlier Umayyad structures. On the east of the street new shops and workshops were constructed, replacing the post-Roman structures which belonged to either Stratum V or IV. The renaissance of this sub-urban area, at the extreme southern extremity of the town, which if not actually abandoned must have been neglected and run down, was probably stimulated by the annexation of Palestine by the Tulunids in 878 CE and the harbour restoration works of Ibn Tūlūn in c. 880,

which would have stimulated trade with Egypt. The numismatic evidence supports this. Eighth- and midninth-century coins were sealed in by the Stratum III floors (Coin Nos. 39, 73, 82, 86, 110, 111,125, 127, 128, 134, 137, 144, 179, 181, 200, 202, 213, 220, 226, 227, 235, 241, 243, 245, 255, 258, 259, 288, 322–331) plus also the many coins recovered from the build-up of street surfaces (C81) between the Roman flagstones and the Stratum IV street (C53), none of which post dated the mid-ninth century. A silver dirham (Coin No. 209) dated to 857 CE, found on the Stratum IV street (C53), was the latest precisely dated pre-Stratum III coin. It provides a terminus post quem date of c. 860 for Stratum III. A terminus ante quem date of c. 900 is provided by a coin (Coin No. 210) dated between 892 and 902, found on the Stratum III floor in C60 (see below). Many coins were found randomly scattered on the Stratum III floor of C34 + C40 (Coin Nos. 28, 152, 194–196, 214–217, 260, 262, 276, 308–321, 338, 340, 343). More coins (Coin Nos. 184, 185, 203, 286, 287, 289) were discovered on the associated floor in the eastern round tower which was made accessible to this area, via the square tower, by a door broken through the semi-circular niche. As there was evidence for metal working it is possible that the coins had, by this time, lost all value except as scrap metal. The city wall was looted of its facing stones along much of its exposed inner length, and its concrete core was utilised as the foundation for a narrower wall. The walls of the buildings, which probably served as shops, were built of roughly dressed or unworked basalt. There was no evidence for an upper storey. The walls were laid with little or no foundation trench, the builders preferring to back-fill the rooms to a depth of as much as 0.40–0.50 m, thereby creating level, beaten-earth floors as well as consolidating the walls. The walls were almost certainly plastered, but traces of plaster were rarely found. The Tulunid walls survived, with some rebuilding, into the Fatimid period, but during this time the floors, which unless otherwise stated were of beaten earth, underwent two major reconstructions with their elevations being raised by 0.25–0.50 m each time. West of the Street C221. The Byzantine terrace wall, W663, and its attached staircase, W675 (Plans 4.3–4.5), continued to function in Strata III and II.

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Plan 4.4. Area C. Stratum III.

Wall 674, which, as mentioned above, may have originated as a Byzantine terrace wall, would still have survived here but the limited soundings prevent any clear understanding of its function. The Shops on the West of the Street The shops from the Umayyad period were rebuilt largely on the earlier lines, but they encroached a further 1.50 m onto the street, which was thus reduced to the same width as the gap between the rectangular towers. Wall 577 was rebuilt on a very slightly different alignment more to the northwest, and extended a further 1.50 m to the east over the street. Wall 571 was rebuilt slightly to the south of its previous line, but still did not extend west of W584. Room C94 #12.76 + C96/67 #12.86 (3.5 × 7.5 m). A large room, bound in the north by W577, in the west by W655, in the south by W564, and in the east by W584, W573 and W583 with an entrance from C73 through W573 (and, possibly, from C77–79, although there was no certain doorway in W584), and with an exit to the west through W655. The floor was of beaten earth, although some traces of plaster found in C96 may indicate that originally it had been plastered. Room C73 #12.75 + C66 #12.88 (2.40–2.80 × 3.60 m). An irregularly-shaped room bound in the north by

W571 and by the alcove formed by W578–W580; in the south by W570, which replaced the Umayyad W591; in the west by W573 with a door into C96; and in the east by a wide entrance onto the street (the Umayyad W592 was demolished). The floor was at 12.75, but was raised to 12.88 probably to correspond with the floor in C96/67 west of W573. A number of glass phials found in this room may indicate that it was a pharmacy. Room C75, C77–79 #12.76 (2.70 × 3.30 m with an open-fronted ‘porch’ 1.50 × 2.70 m). Bound to the north by W577, in the west by W584, and in the south by W571. In the east there was a ‘porch’ (C76), open to the street, which led to a wide doorway in W578 giving access to the shop (see Figs. 4.10, 4.12). The main part of the room had a reddish beaten-earth floor with two very narrow and poorly preserved partition walls whose function is obscure. The ‘porch’, which further encroached over the Roman street, was partially paved with basalt slabs laid parallel to W579 (see Figs. 4.10, 4.12), which sealed in a number of mid-eighth-century coins (Coin Nos. 98, 119, 155) and Coin No. 341, a mid-ninth-century coin. A tabun was built between the northern edge of this pavement and W577 which, in this phase, probably only extended as far as the western of the two columns visible at its eastern end.

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Fig. 4.17. Area C. Gate; ranging rod stands in door socket of Str. III gate, metre stick on threshold of Str. III/II gate. Looking south.

Room C62 (2.00 × 2.20 m) bound by W570, W583 and the rectangular tower, with an entry-way into C205. It had a plaster floor at 12.96 that covered the remains of the Umayyad W591. Room C205/60 (c. 3 × 4.50 m) bound by the city wall (W565), W654, W564, and the western tower of the monumental arch, occupied the same space as C205/95 in the Umayyad period. The floor was raised to 12.95, but there was no sign of plaster as in C62 (a worn dirham of al-Mu‘tadid, 892–902 CE, Coin No. 210, came from this floor). From this room there was access to the western tower. Rectangular Tower C61 Internal measurements, 0.80 × 1.70 m. It is possible that the floor was raised to c. 12.95 to correspond with the level in C205, but no such floor was recorded. Round Tower C70 This tower was in ruins at this time. The Street For the first time a wooden gate was introduced into the entrance. Large ashlars were built into the alcoves

between the two pilasters on the walls flanking the entrance, and a door socket cut into the ashlars nearest the entrance (Figs. 4.17, 4.18). A number of iron hinges and/or gate-bands were found close to the eastern door socket (Fig. 4.19). The gateway was later further reduced in width by blocking part of the entrance by the construction of W553 and W540 (see Figs. 4.5, 4.17). This produced a more easily defensible gate only 1.50 m wide, with a worked stone threshold. The street level for the new, narrower gate was much the same as that of the previous gate and it would appear that, in times of danger, both gates could have been closed for added security. An iron-band from the narrower gate was discovered in the reduced entrance (Fig. 4.20), but whether this was as a result of a tenth-century raid or of a final destruction (or abandonment) at the end of the eleventh century cannot be deduced. The introduction of gates and the subsequent narrowing of the entrance may have been influenced by the raids of the Qarmat¤s in 906 and/or 964 CE. East of the Street As noted above there was one wall (W551; see Plans 4.2, 4.3) which definitely predated Stratum III. A number of the walls east of the street may have

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originated in either Strata V or IV, despite the lack of clear Umayyad or early Abbasid surfaces. All but W551 of these tentative pre-Stratum III walls either remained in use or were built (rebuilt on the same lines?) for the first time.

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Room C32 (1.60 × 4.30 m). Bound in the north by W534, in the south by W530 which, perhaps, replaced an earlier wall at its eastern end, and ended in the west with a column-drum. Wall 551 was replaced by W533 1.50 m further to the east. The shop had a plaster floor at 12.72. A tabun was built against W534 in the northwest of the room and near it was found a hand-made, flat-bottomed tray or crater (see Fig. 5.16:1). C37 was not dug below 13.85, and Stratum III was not reached.

Fig. 4.18. Area C. Stratum II floor and western post-hole of Str. III gate.

Fig. 4.19. Area C. Iron band of Str. III gate near eastern door socket.

Fig. 4.20. Area C. Iron band of Str. III/II gate.

Room C34 + C40 (2.50 × 3.50 m). This was a large, open-fronted area between W530 in the north, W531 of the rectangular tower in the south, and W547 in the east, in which there was a door. A worked stone threshold was introduced into this door. There was a plaster floor at 12.72. Over one hundred coins were found on or below this surface (on the floor—Coin Nos. 28, 152, 194–196, 214–217, 343, 260, 262, 340, 276, 318–321, 338), together with many iron objects. The niche in W531 was breached to create a new entrance, with a worked threshold, leading into the rectangular tower. The Eastern Towers of the Monumental Arch: C39, C43 The original entrance in W548 was blocked and a new one created by breaching the niche in W531 (Fig. 4.21). A rough stone-and-plaster floor at 12.90 (C39) was flush with the worked threshold in the ‘niche entrance’, and with the threshold leading into the round tower. In that tower there was a plaster floor (C43) at 12.85, associated with which were many ‘hand grenades’ (see Fig. 5.52) and an iron axe-head (Fig. 4.22).

Fig. 4.21. Area C. Doorway broken through niche of eastern rectangular tower, C39, looking south.

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boundary; in the north it was bound by W559/558, and in the east by W562. There was a floor at 12.57. Out of the remnants of the Byzantine city wall, W567, north of and lower than W501, was quarried a bell-shaped pit whose sides were raised higher than the remains of the Byzantine wall by the addition of a ring of stones which brought it up to the floor level at 12.57. This pit was, perhaps, a cistern fed by water from the roof of the tower, although no traces of plaster were found on its walls. Alternatively, it could have been a latrine or a silo. Room C51 was not dug below the Stratum II floor.

THE EARLY FATIMID PERIOD (STRATUM II) (Plan 4.5) Fig. 4.22. Area C. Eastern round tower, C43. Vessels at 12.90. Looking north.

Room C46 (1.80 × c. 3.60 m). Its eastern wall, a continuation of W545, was not exposed. It was bound in the north by W530, in the west by W547 (in which there was a door from C40), and in the south by W549 (in which there was a door leading into C47), and had a floor at 12.74. Room C47 (c. 2.80 × 2.50 m). An irregular room, it was bound in the north by W549 (in which there was a door from C46), by W547 and W548 (the eastern wall of the rectangular tower, in which the original door was blocked) in the west, the round tower (W543) in the south, and W557 (in which there was a door into C58) in the east. It had a floor at 12.75. Benches of stone were built along W548, and against the round tower W543. Room C58 (1.20–2.70 × 4.15–4.90 m? the eastern wall, possibly a continuation of W562, was beyond the excavated area). There were doors in all three of the exposed walls, W544 in the north, W545/557 in the west, and W558/559 in the south. There was a poorly preserved floor at 12.68. Room C57. In this phase a new city wall, W501, only 1.50 m wide, was built on the partially looted remains of the Byzantine wall, W567, which had been 2.70 m wide. This room utilised W501 as its southern wall and a large part of it was above the remains of W567. The round tower, W543, provided the western

There was an expansion of the city at the beginning of Stratum II. It can be attributed to improved trade with Egypt after the Fatimids established reasonable control over Palestine following the defeat of Alptakīn in 978 CE. It may have taken a decade or two before the increased trade created a building boom, but a date of c. 980 CE is reasonable for the start of Stratum II. Corridor C221 remained little changed from the previous phase and continued to give access to the staircase against the Byzantine terrace, W663. The floor level (C221) was built up to c. 13.65, flush with the threshold in the door in W667 leading into the Garden Courtyard complex, which was constructed in this period. There were signs of fire on this floor, perhaps the result of the 1033 CE earthquake. The Garden Courtyard Complex This fine house was built in this phase (Plan 4.5; Figs. 4.23, 4.24). It had an entry from C221 to its west through W667, but the main entrance was through a door in W670 from the unexcavated area to the north, where there may either have been a street running perpendicular to the cardo, or more rooms. A step down from the threshold was a paved platform (1.25 × 1.35 m #13.70) from which a flight of stairs, 0.65–0.70 m wide, constructed against W655, led to the upper storey above the two southern rooms (C218 and C208). Two steps, 0.55–0.60 m wide, built against the western side of the above staircase, led down into the garden courtyard (Fig. 4.25).

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Plan 4.5. Area C. Stratum II.

Fig. 4.23. Area C. Garden Courtyard Complex, looking north-east.

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Fig. 4.24. Area C. Garden Courtyard Complex, looking south.

C215 (0.80 × 3.40 m). A long narrow room to the west of the platform, and 0.40 m lower, well paved, except when compared with the courtyard with which it was connected by a 0.20 m step up (from the courtyard). It had a niche (0.80 m wide × 0.30 m deep) in its northern wall, below which ran a water channel which brought water from the north and continued beneath W669 to irrigate the garden. The function of this narrow room is unclear.

Fig. 4.25. Area C. Garden Courtyard Complex, detail of stairs, looking north-east.

Courtyard C217 (4.00 × 4.15 m) had superbly dressed basalt paving slabs (#13.40) surrounding a garden situated north of centre. The garden (C220) measured 2.00 × 2.25 m, and was surrounded by a raised course of ashlars 0.25 m wide and 8–10 cm higher than the courtyard pavement. The sides of the garden, below ground-level, were plastered to a depth of about 0.25 m, but there was no sign whatsoever that there had ever been a plastered bottom forming a pool. Along the eastern side of the courtyard, against W655, was a staircase leading to the upper floor. Four stairs

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remained in situ built on a solid podium. A supporting pillar existed between this initial podium and the termination of the staircase at W662. Each step was about 0.30 m deep and about 0.20 m high. Over its length of 4.5 m there would have been space for 14 or 15 steps. Assuming that there were no platforms within the flight this would mean that the upper floor was 3 m above the ground-floor. In the niche between the supporting pillar of the staircase and W662 was a sunken, plaster-lined bin, C223 (0.80 × 0.80 × 0.92 m deep), in which were found a pestle and two mortars made from bronze, and a lamp (see Fig. 6.16:2). As already mentioned, a door in W667 led off the courtyard into the area to the west. In the north-western corner of the courtyard a drain pipe in the angle of W667 and W669 presumably led water from a roof over C215 to the garden (Fig. 4.26). Room C218 (1.90 × 4.50 m) was entered from the southern end of the courtyard through a 3.20 m wide entrance (between W668 and W662) across the full width of which was a threshold, 0.40 m wide and about 5 cm proud of the courtyard paving, consisting of four well-dressed basalt ashlars. This entrance was arched (many voussoirs were found amongst the heavy debris that covered the courtyard although, architecturally, it is unlikely that the room was vaulted). To the west was W653, to the east W655 and to the south W657. The room had a pebble floor at 13.43 (cf. the pebble floor of the courtyard of the main mosque which was clearly so unusual to al-Maqdisī, that he gave it special mention [Le Strange 1890:335]). A large stone mortar stood on the western side of the floor. At the eastern end of the room there was a raised (0.30–0.40 m) earthen platform, 1.30 m wide, retained behind four rough ashlars which, from the crudity of its construction, appears to be a later addition. Wall 662 was built into the original door in W655. Room C208 (2.90 × 4.05 m) was entered through a 1.70 m wide door in W657 from Room C218. The pebble floor of that room continued through the door and into C208. The room was bound to the west by W653, to the east by W654, and to the south by the city wall that here retained the full 2.70 m width of the Byzantine wall. At the western end of the room was a raised (0.40–0.50 m) earthen platform, 0.65 m wide, crudely retained behind some dressed stones,

41

Fig. 4.26. Area C. Str. I blocking of door in W667 (note drainpipe), looking west.

which included a cornice, which may have served as a step. A niche, 0.70–0.80 m wide, was cut into the city wall, which served as the southern wall of this room, starting about 0.70 m above the floor. This niche was later blocked (see Fig. 4.24, to the right of the ranging rod). There were traces of plaster on some of the walls of this room. No later floors were noted in the Garden Courtyard Complex, perhaps indicating that the complex was destroyed by the earthquake of 1033 CE and abandoned. This, however, seems unlikely. Any destruction rubble would probably have been cleared down to the fine floor surfaces of the building. The open space to the west of the building was filled to a depth of about 1.20 m and the door in W667 was blocked (see Fig. 4.26); this fill could well have been cleared from the courtyard building. The debris that was found within the building could as well have resulted from destruction by the Seljuks or the Crusaders, or from natural decay after abandonment. A hint that the building survived the earthquake is given by the oil lamp (see Fig. 6.16:2) which was discovered in the plaster-lined bin beneath the stairs, together with the pestle and mortars. Four other examples of this lamp, made from the same mould, were found, all in post-earthquake contexts. The Shops on the West of the Street Room C69/207 (c. 3.25 × 6.75 m) bound in the north by W577, in the west by W655, and in the south by

42

DAVID STACEY

C205 (same dimensions and boundaries as in Stratum III). The floor was raised to 13.35. The niche in the northern wall of the rectangular tower was breached to create a new entrance into the surviving tower. A stone threshold was built at the western end of C62, between C62 and C205. (It was thought to be a wall, W568, but this seems most unlikely; at the abrupt end of the 1973 season it was partially hidden in a baulk the collapse of which, before the 1974 season, prevented clarifying the relationship of ‘W568’ to W583, W570, etc.)

Fig. 4.27. Area C. Metre stick on kerb of Str. II street, east of C66. Looking north. On right, a late Str. I ‘path’ following course of street.

W571, which was extended westward to meet W655. In the east the ‘porch’ (previously C76) was extended another 0.80 m eastwards over the street to the eastern column at the eastern end of W577 and to the small column east of W580; the dirt street between those columns was roughly lined with kerb-stones which retained the shop floor (Fig. 4.27). Wall 584 went out of use. There was a beaten-earth floor at c. 12.90 (C69) from which came a glass coin weight of alH¥kim (996–1021; Chapter 7: Weight No. 4). The floor was renovated and relaid at c. 13.00 (C207). Patches of ash were visible on this floor on which was found a large quantity of glass, a silver ring and some iron objects. No floors were recorded east of W584 above 12.70, but the floors at 12.90–13.00 must have continued from C207. A stone-lined sunken bin (perhaps partially free-standing? 1.2 × 1.2 × 0.40 m deep) was built against W579 (W586/7/8), which used the Stratum III paved floor as its base. Room C93/67 (3.30 × 3.80 m) bound in the north by W571, in the west by W655 (with its door blocked), in the south by W564, and in the east by W573, with a door into C66. It had a floor at 13.10. Room C66 (same dimensions and boundary walls as C73 + C66 in Stratum III). The floor at 13.05 was of ‘orange grey’ beaten earth. However, there were traces of plaster over the cancelled bin in the alcove in the northern wall, so it is possible that all the floor was originally plastered. A small plastered basin was sunk into this floor close to W571.

Rectangular Tower C59 The original entrance into the tower in W563 was crudely blocked (see Fig. 4.3) and a new door formed by breaking through the niche in W566. There was a pebble floor (C59) at 13.33. The doorway that had originally led into the round towers was now blocked from the south, and probably functioned as a cupboard (see Fig. 4.4). Round Tower C71 Wall 581 from Stratum IV/III may have continued to function although, ultimately, it went out of use, and a floor surface at 13.25 (C56) incorporated the remains of that wall. The Gate Entrance The street level near the gate was raised to c. 13.20, but it was lower further north. The overall width of the street was reduced, perhaps already in Stratum III, to about 2 m and it was flanked with crude kerb-stones. The Shops on the East of the Street Room C32 (same dimensions and boundaries as in Stratum III). The floor at 13.10 yielded much smashed pottery. Room C40 (1.10 × 3.30 m). Wall 538 was built from the southern door jamb in W547, dividing a wide space into two narrow rooms (C40 and C34). The northern wall was W530, the western end was open onto the street, and most of the eastern W547 was taken up with a door into C46. The floor was at 13.06, and was covered with a layer of ash. This ‘room’ served as a corridor providing access to rooms further east. Room C34 (1.10 × 3.50 m). Bound in the north by the new wall, W538, in the east by W547, and in the south

CHAPTER 4: THE STRATIGRAPHY

by W531 of the rectangular tower, through the niche of which there was access into the tower. The western end was open to the street. The floor, at 13.04, was thickly covered with ash. A small installation, built of six stones across the eastern end of the room, may have been a furnace for iron-working. Much iron is reported to have been found in the room, particularly in a small hole in the western end of W538 and in the installation, but it is not known whether this was scrap, slag or finished objects. Eastern Towers C39 and C43. In the rectangular tower, C39, there was a beaten-earth floor at 13.04, and in the round tower, C43, there was probably a similar floor at the same elevation. Room C35 (2.40–3.75 × 4.50 m). The Stratum III benches in C47 along W548 were partially demolished and covered over, creating a large irregular room with a floor at 13.05. A stone-lined drain, with cap-stones (not shown on the plans) was laid below this floor; although it would be more logical to assume that this drain was laid when the buildings were first erected in Stratum III, the surviving archaeological records seem to indicate that it was introduced later. The drain was well preserved in the south and in C58, where it continued to the east. It was largely looted in the north and in C40, where it presumably started, draining water from the street. Room C58 (same dimensions and boundaries as in Stratum III). The stone-lined and capped drain continued from Room C35, beneath a floor, at 12.76. The door in the northern wall, W544, was blocked, and that in the southern wall, W559, was made narrower by the addition of a column drum in its eastern side. Room C57 (same dimensions and boundaries as in Stratum III). The entrance in W559 was narrowed as mentioned above. The floor was raised to 13.03, and the semi-circular pit covered over. Room C51 (dimensions unknown as room only partially excavated). Bound to the south by W544 and to the west by W545. The cobbled floor at 12.84 suffered from a fairly recent (twentieth-century?) disturbance at its eastern end.

43

THE LATE FATIMID PERIOD (STRATUM I) (Plan 4.6) West of the Garden Courtyard Complex In this period, for the first time, there is evidence for building activity (W660, W661, W665) on the terrace above, and to the west of, W663. The area to the east of W663 had its floor level raised by over a metre (possibly with debris from the Garden Courtyard Complex; see discussion in Stratum II), until it was at the elevation of the top of W663, c. 14.80. Wall 671 was built in the north to enclose the area and W664 divided the area into northern and southern rooms (Plan 4.6). The Northern Room C213 (3–3.50 × 5.80 m) bound to the west by W665, built partially over W663, and to the east by W667, was entered from the north through a door with a carved threshold at 14.83 in W671 (Fig. 4.28, threshold at bottom; Fig. 4.29, threshold at top). Beneath the threshold ran a channel, but no continuation of it was found in the room. However, the floor, at 14.60, which must have been laid over a deliberate fill (of earthquake debris?), had settled considerably, so any channel that existed may either have been removed or destroyed beyond recognition. In any case, the function of the channel was obscure. A bench, W666, was built against W667, with a gap in front of the blocked doorway. There was a door to the west in W665 and to the south in W664. The Southern Room C212 (4.10 × 4.60 m) was entered through a 1 m wide door in W664. There was a door to the west between W660 and W661 and a floor at 14.76. A bench, W658, was built against the eastern wall, W653, and in the south a number of obscure, poorly preserved, installations (e.g. C201), possibly connected with metal working, were constructed against the southern wall, W650, which itself was erected on the remains of the Byzantine city wall. A column to support the roof, to the northeast of centre, stood on stone foundations dug into the fill. Later, a very narrow wall (W672) was laid between this column and W653, over the northern end of bench W658, partially dividing the room (see Fig. 4.29). There appeared to be a very poorly preserved surface at c. 15.00 (C202 and/or C211) in both these northern rooms.

44

DAVID STACEY

Plan 4.6. Area C. Stratum I.

Fig. 4.28. Area C. C213. Stratum I building west of the Garden Courtyard Complex, looking south.

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45

of installations, either benches or bins, at c. 13.80 (C206). It was noted that the stones from the final destruction/decay had accumulated above a level at c. 14.10. This level corresponds with the elevation of the line of ashlars that were the final street surface (see Fig. 4.27, stones at right), for which no contiguous floors were noted. Room C62. No Stratum I floor noted. Western Towers C61 and C71 No Stratum I floors were noted. The Shops to the East of the Street The three ‘shops’ remained in use from Stratum II although the floors were raised. Fig. 4.29. Area C. C212 (foreground) and C213. As in Fig. 4.28, looking north.

The Garden Courtyard Complex Not surprisingly, this finely built complex showed no signs of later floor levels. The possibility exists that it was damaged during the 1033 CE earthquake (see discussion in Stratum II). The door in W667 was, however, blocked when the area to its west underwent considerable alteration, indicating this fine building continued to be used after the earthquake. The Shops to the West of the Street Room C207 (same dimensions and boundaries as in Stratum II). There was a poorly preserved floor at c. 13.25 in the west, but no corresponding floor was noted east of the line of the Stratum V wall, W584. A later floor may have existed at 13.60. Room C90, C91, C92 + C64. Wall 573 was demolished in this phase, forming a large irregular room combining the area occupied by C93/67 and C66 in Stratum II. At its eastern end, the porch opening onto the street was enclosed by the construction of W575, with a door at its northern end. The C64 floor at 13.25 (above C66 in the east) yielded a Fatimid coin (Coin No. 362) of al-Mustansir (1036–1094 CE). Traces of red-painted plaster survived in the floor of the niche formed by W578–W580. The floor in the west (C90–92) was probably at 13.40, where there was a thick ash layer, but there was at least one higher surface with a number

Room C32. Floor at 13.60. Room C40. Floor at 13.73. Room C34. Floor at 13.73. Rectangular Tower C39 A possible floor at 13.40 on which was later built W537, which would have blocked access to the round tower and turned the ‘niche’ door into a deep alcove. Round Tower C43 A possible beaten-earth floor at 13.46, which would have gone out of use when W537 was built in the rectangular tower. Room C35 (same dimensions and boundaries as in Stratum II). The floor was at 13.62. The threshold between C46 and C35 was raised with basalt stones that included a fragment of cornice. Room C52 (same dimensions and boundaries as C58 in Stratum II). The door in the southern wall, W559, was blocked, effectively putting Room C57 out of use (see Plan 4.5). The floor level was at 13.02 and part of the final destruction/decay had fallen onto it. Room C51. The cobblestone pavement of Stratum II, at 12.84, was replaced by another at 13.07, which was covered in ash.

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AREA C1 Area C1 was a 10 × 10 m square opened to the north of a visible fragment of the Byzantine city wall before the round towers of the Roman arch had been found some 25 m further west (see Plans 4.1, 4.2). The earliest constructions, of terrace walls and a silo, were of the Byzantine period. A plastered surface was laid in Stratum IV, to be replaced by dwellings in Stratum III that remained in occupation until the end of Stratum 1.

THE BYZANTINE PERIOD (STRATUM VI) (Plan 4.7) C21 + C25. Two approximately parallel terrace walls running north–south, W526 and W527, were joined by an east–west wall, W528. A plaster-lined pit, perhaps a silo, was dug into the south-eastern corner where W527 met W528 (Plan 4.7; Fig. 4.30). There may have been a floor of small flagstones (at c. 10.85 in the south, sloping down to c. 10.60 in the north), most of which

Plan 4.7. Area C1. Strata VI, III.

W510

Fig. 4.30 Area C1. C25. Byzantine silo beneath Str. II building; C20 (see Plan 4.8), looking west. W507 in foreground.

CHAPTER 4: THE STRATIGRAPHY

was looted in the late eighth–early ninth centuries (it only survived in the north-western corner of C21). The ground level to the east of W527 was lower than that to its west. The remains of three steps rose from a plaster floor at 10.30 (to their north) along the eastern face of W527 to a pebble floor at 10.68 (Fig. 4.31; Stratum II W507 was built over them) with which the remains of a plastered channel and basin in C15 were associated. Wall 526 was also a retaining wall with a higher level to the west. In C19 a small area of a plaster floor at 11.24, dateable to the Byzantine period, was exposed. This ran to the concrete foundations of the city wall and may only have been a working surface from the time of its construction.

47

Fig. 4.31 Area C1. Byzantine stairs east of Str. II W507, looking west.

THE EARLY ABBASID PERIOD (STRATUM IV) The Western Building A surface at c. 11.80 existed below the Stratum III building. It was recorded in C19 and C23, where it was described as of reddish-brown beaten earth, and in C22 (Coin Nos. 86, 110, 125, all late Umayyad), where it was noted as being of good plaster; it seems likely that originally all the surface had been covered in plaster (Fig. 4.32, surface on which the metre stick rests). It stretched for at least 8 m northwards from the city wall and probably was related to W526, although this was never checked. No east–west walls were found relating to it although they could have existed beneath C6, which was not excavated beneath the Fatimid floor. Some of the foundations of the later walls cut into this surface, others stopped just above it. Although it is no longer easy to separate the pottery that came from this surface from later pottery associated with the building above, it would appear that the surface went out of use in the late eighth or early in the ninth century. The function of this surface(s) is hard to ascertain. No indications were given that the plaster was waterproof and it does not seem to have had the substantial foundations necessary for a permanent water installation. The large number of complete vessels, particularly oil lamps, discovered on this surface does, however, hint that it was the floor of a basin, which became a convenient garbage dump after it went out of use. Such a large, shallow, basin(s) could have been the treading basin(s) of a wine-press.2 C25. The plastered pit between W527 and W528 went out of use in the late eighth–early ninth centuries, and

Fig. 4.32. Area C1. C22. Umayyad/early Abbasid surface below Str. III building, metre stick in front of W516, looking south.

some pottery from that period was recovered in it, together with Coin No. 62, dated 737–745 CE. The area to the north of the pit was disturbed at this time. Coin Nos. 202, 261 and 339, the latest dated c. 850 CE, came from the disturbed area.

LATE ABBASID AND FATIMID PERIODS (STRATA III–I) (Plans 4.7, 4.8) Parts of two buildings, separated by a common wall, W510, were uncovered in this area. Their construction was influenced by the Byzantine terracing that underlay them. Thus the floors to the west of W510 are up to 1 m higher than the contemporary floors to the east. The building standard is generally higher

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If the eastern building was a later addition, then W503 and W517 (see Plan 4.8) would have abutted, or have had only shallow bonding, with W510. There is no discussion on this in the records and the photographs are not conclusive (although in Fig. 4.37 below, W517 does appear to have been built into W520 after the latter wall already existed). Foerster, moreover, does note the existence of unbonded walls within his excavations (Foerster 1993:1470). The Western Building Room C22 (? × 3.40 m, only the southern part of this room was in the area of excavation; Plan 4.7). Bound to the west by W502, to the east by W520 and to the south by W516/519. The Stratum III floor was at 12.45 (Plan 4.7; Fig. 4.33), the elevation of the threshold in W516/519. A stone-lined bin that went down at least to 11.15 was in the south-western corner of this floor. The Stratum II floor (C13) was at 12.73 (Plan 4.8; Fig. 4.34) and had a number of restorable vessels on it. No Stratum I floor was recorded but one can be assumed at 13.10 (Plan 4.8).

Plan 4.8. Area C1. Strata II, I.

than that employed in the shops in Area C. Some wall plastering survived. The foundations of the walls west of W510 reached close to the eighth-century plastered surface(s) (see above), sometimes cutting two or three centimetres into it, sometimes stopping four or five centimetres above. The initial beaten-earth floor levels (12.40–12.45) were about 0.50 m higher than the Stratum IV plastered surface (which, at the time of the excavation, was mistakenly regarded as the earliest floor of the building). A study of the ceramics recovered from the two buildings either side of W510 hints that the western building was built earlier and should probably be associated with the Stratum III structures further west in Area C. This hint is reinforced by the signs of destruction that can be attributed to the earthquake of 1033 CE. In the western building, a substantial ash layer was found on the second-phase floors, whereas in the eastern building a large quantity of smashed pottery, copper objects and glass lay on the first-phase plaster floor of C20, and a quantity of pottery on the first-phase floor of C21.

Room C6 + C23 (3.20 × 4.40 m; Plan 4.7). Bound to the west by W502, to the north by W516/519, to the east by W510 and to the south by W524/525. Although Room C6 was not excavated below the Stratum II floor, it was clear that W509/522 did not exist in Stratum III and that originally C6 + C23 was one room with a floor at 12.40. There was a 1.25 m wide door in W516/519, an 0.80 m wide door in W524/525, and a 0.65 m wide

Fig. 4.33. Area C1. C22. Stratum III floor; W516 and W519, Str. II stairs in C6 at top, looking south.

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49

Fig. 4.34. Area C1. Stratum II floors C13 (left of W516/519), C6 (right), looking east.

door in W502. Immediately in front of the latter door was a stone-lined pit, 1.20 m in diameter, which went down to 10.72. Because of its location in front of the door the pit must originally have been covered with basalt ‘monoliths’ similar to those found in Areas B and B1, and it probably functioned as a soak-away (fed by the drain in C58?). This large ‘room’ was, perhaps, initially an open courtyard. Room C6 in Stratum II (3.20 × 1.80 m; Plan 4.8). Bound to the west by W502, to the north by W516/519, to the east by W510 and to the south by W509/522, which was built in this phase. The floor was raised to 12.81. In Stratum I the doorway in W509/522 was blocked and there was probably a floor at c.13.10 from which elevation a 0.60 m wide flight of at least three steps (see Figs. 4.33, 4.34) was built going up to the east alongside W519, partially blocking the door in that wall, and then turning to the south along W510 where they could have reached an elevation of 1.50–1.75 m above the floor, possibly leading to a second floor or roof above C23. The presence of a staircase indicates that this reduced area remained an open courtyard. There was probably a Stratum I floor at c. 13.40 at which elevation there was a tabun in the north-western

corner. In this phase a doorway was breached in the western wall, W502. Room C19 in Stratum III (1.7–2.6 × 3.25 m; Plan 4.7). Bound to the west by W502, to the north by W524/525, to the east by W510 and to the south by W501. By this phase most of the internal facing stones of the Byzantine city wall had been looted. Three or four of the lowest courses survived in places (see C24); the Stratum III floor in this room was apparently laid up to them. The northern face of the Byzantine city wall could not have been well preserved, however, because W502 was built up to and over its concrete core. The lowest three courses of W510 abutted three surviving courses of facing stones of the Byzantine city wall; above them W510 also ran over the core. Wall 502 and W510 were bonded with W501, the Abbasid city wall, founded on the concrete core of the Byzantine wall. A Stratum III floor at c. 12.45 was not noted but must have existed together with the threshold at that height in W524/525. The floor itself would have been narrow (0.70–1.40 × 3.25 m), but there was a 1.20 m wide platform at the southern end of the room, formed from the core of the city wall and about 0.30 m higher than the Stratum III floor.

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Room C19 + C23 = C7 in Stratum II (3.25 × 4.30– 5.40 m; Plan 4.8). Bound to the west by W502, to the north by W509/522, to the east by W510 and to the south by W501. In this phase some of the surviving sub-floor facing stones of the Byzantine city wall were looted and the floor was raised to c. 12.80, the elevation of the Stratum III platform in C19 (see above). Wall 524/525 was apparently demolished, thereby combining C19 and C23 into a large room, C7. (It is, however, possible that W524/525 had been looted in antiquity to below the Stratum II floor level and that the resulting robber’s trench had not been noted by the excavators. Several courses of stones can clearly be seen to have been looted from W510 in the area immediately adjacent to the city wall and to W525 [see Fig. 4.30: top left].) The stone-lined pit in C23 went out of use and the door in W502 to its west was blocked. A ‘bench’ (W504) was built in front of W510 in either this or the following phase. It may have been a step leading to a door broached in W510. Unfortunately, W510 had been looted to below the level of ‘W504’ so no trace of any such tentative door remained (see Fig. 4.35, upper left. The uppermost three stones in the top left are the ‘bench’. Below them is W510 which had clearly been looted, probably at a time when stones were removed from the city wall). In Stratum I the door in W509/522 was also blocked so that the only possible entrance to this room would have been from the south, either through W510 from Room C9 (no floor levels were noted in Room C9 higher than 11.70), or through W501 from south of the city wall, although there was no trace of such a door. No floor levels were noted for Stratum I though they were probably in the region of 13.10–13.40. The Eastern Building Room C20 (in Stratum II), C5/8 (in Stratum I) (3.10 × 3.90–4.50 m; Plan 4.8). Bound to the west by W510, to the north by W517, to the east by W506/507 and to the south by W503. The first floor, attributable to Stratum II, was at 11.34. It was plastered and was well preserved throughout the room (Fig. 4.35). A large quantity of pottery (see Fig. 5.58), glass and copper objects was found on this floor. It would have been logical for the first post-earthquake floor (Stratum I) to have been flush with the threshold, at about 11.49. However, no such floor was noted. Two later floors were recorded, at 11.78 and at 12.03 (C5/8). An uncertain floor was observed at 12.80; it

Fig. 4.35. Area C1. C20. Stratum II floor, looking west.

would be the third (or possibly fourth) post-earthquake floor. Courtyard C12/21 (Plan 4.8). In Stratum II this courtyard(?) was bound to the west by W520, and to the south by W517 (W513 and W508 were clearly later additions [Plan 4.8; Figs. 4.36, 4.37].) It had a dirt floor at 11.44. There was a niche 1.50 m wide and 0.25 m deep in W520 starting about 0.50 m above the floor and 0.65 m from W517. In Stratum Ic it remained part of a courtyard and its floor was raised to 11.80. A tabun was built in the south-western corner, which probably meant that the niche in W520 was filled in. A circular grinding stone found on this floor indicates that this had become a food preparation area (Fig. 4.36). In Stratum Ib it became a kitchen area (2.90 × 2+ m, only the southern part being in the area of excavation), bound to the west by W520, to the east by W513, and to the south by W517. In this phase W513 and W508 were erected abutting the north-eastern corner of Room C20. A simple latrine was built together with W513 (Fig. 4.37), with a stone-lined channel to carry effluent into a stone-lined cess-pit in Room C14. The latrine went out of use when the floor was raised to 12.08, and the Stratum 1c tabun was replaced by one in front of the blocked niche (Fig. 4.36). In Stratum Ia there was a floor (C12) at 12.43, with a re-build of the Stratum Ib tabun. A number of complete vessels were found on this floor.

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51

were disturbed by the drain and bell-shaped cess-pit (diameter at top c. 0.70 m) associated with Stratum Ib in Room C21. The collapse of this system would have disturbed any later floors, of which none were noted. Room C11 (3.80 × ? m, only the western part of this room was within the excavated area). Bound to the west by W506 and W507, to the north by W508 and to the south by W512. The Stratum II plastered floor was at 11.24, with a Stratum Ic floor at 11.41. An installation, mostly hidden in the south-eastern baulk, may have been built to this floor, if it were a freestanding structure. Alternatively, it could have been a stone-lined pit sunk from a later floor. There was a Stratum Ib floor at 11.83. No higher floors were noted (in C10, the surface locus that was above C11, C15 and C18 [not in plan]), but as the ground surface was at c. 12.80, any floor at c. 12.03 or higher would have been in the disturbed surface layer. Fig. 4.36. Area C1. C12/21. Three superimposed tabuns, earliest in angle of W517 and W520, later two in front of blocked niche in W520, looking west.

Fig. 4.37. Area C1. C12. Stratum I floor, looking south. Lavatory built together with W513. W520 at right.

Courtyard(?) C14 (Plan 4.8). Bound to the west by W513 and to the south by W508, which were only built in Stratum Ib. Only its south-western part lay within the excavated area. The Stratum II floor was at 11.17, with a Stratum I floor at 11.37, but both surfaces

Room C9 (1.50 × 3.10 m; Plan 4.8). Bound to the west by W510, to the north by W503, to the east by W506 and to the south by the Byzantine city wall, W515. The stone and concrete foundations of the Byzantine city wall sloped down to the north from the base of the wall (below the face of the wall the area was designated C24). Wall 503 was built part way down the slope, so that the Stratum II floor of beaten earth at 11.70 was 0.35 m higher than the contemporary floor (at 11.34) in C20 to the north. There was an indistinct Stratum I surface at 11.90, on which a number of vessels, including oil lamps (two lamps from the same mould as Figs. 6.16:1, 2; 6.20:1), were found. No later floors were noted. Room C15 (2.40 m × ?, only the western part of this room was within the excavation area; Plan 4.8). Bound to the west by W506, to the north by W512, and to the south by W518. The accumulation was extremely stony, and the only surface noted, at 11.25, was of beaten earth, but this may have been the bedding of a Stratum II plaster surface, such as that found in C11 at 11.24. Room C18 (Plan 4.8). Very little of this room was excavated. A floor was found at 11.70 (Stratum II?) and excavation stopped.

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AREA B Area B was situated about 75 m south of the Tower Gate in Area C, on the eastern side of a road which ran from the gate towards Hammat Tiberias (Plans 4.1, 4.9, 4.10). West of the street the ground rose steeply to a narrow plateau, some 10 m higher than Area B, upon which the remains of walls could be seen. To the east the ground sloped gently down to the Sea of Galilee. The area excavated was 19 × 19.50 m with a 4 × 9 m extension (B30) across the ancient street in the northwest (see Plans 4.9 and 4.10). This street led to the city gate and a wall along its western side retained the higher ground to the west mentioned above. The street may have been 8 or 10 m wide in Stratum II but was encroached on in Stratum I by W509, which reduced the width of the street to 6 m. When buildings were first erected in this area the ground was strewn with basalt boulders, which might have been dislodged from the scarp of the Jordan Rift Valley by the earthquake of 749 CE (or 854?). These were built over rather than removed. Because of the gradual fall in elevation to the east, the buildings east of W503 were at a lower level than those to the west, with W503 serving in part as a terrace wall. A number of independent building units (or parts of units) could be discerned belonging to two main building phases, separated, in places, by partial destruction caused, it was thought, by the earthquake of 1033 CE, with a minor sub-phase in each. The earliest two sub-phases would thus belong to Stratum II, and the later two to Stratum I. The ceramic evidence, however, points to a foundation in c. 950 (late Stratum III) with some of the destruction, particularly that in B11, being, perhaps, attributable to raids by the Qaramatis (964 or 975) or the Fatimid army (970–975) (see discussion in Chapter 5). The largest building unit, that in the north-east, will be described first. The North-Eastern Building, a Khan? (Strata III/II and I) (Plans 4.9, 4.10) This building was bound in the south either by W536 or by W544 (see below), and in the west by W503. Its eastern boundary was beyond the area of excavation. In the north, W505, which was in the northern baulk, may have been the northern boundary, though it is very likely that at least one row of rooms lay to its north.

There was a doorway at the eastern end of W505, but as this was later blocked it could not have been the main entrance to the building. Another blocked doorway in W505 may have existed behind the staircase (see Fig. 4.38), introduced to replace that in B39 (see below). The main entrance may have been from the unexcavated area to the east but was more probably from the street to the west (see discussions below). If rooms did exist to the north of W505, the original building would have consisted of large rooms radiating off a central courtyard. Some of these rooms had wide entrances which would probably have been arched (into B37, an entrance hall; into B45 and through it into B47, a storage area; possibly through W505, later blocked by the introduced staircase). Other similar wide, arched entrances could have opened onto the unexcavated area of the courtyard to the east. There was little occupation debris in the first phase of occupation, and it may be that these large spaces served as storage areas in a khan, with accommodation on the upper storey. The paucity of ceramics makes it hard to date the initial foundation but does indicate that there was occupation during Stratum II. Perhaps at the beginning of Stratum I, necessitated by damage caused by the earthquake of 1033 CE, there was a partial repair to W503; and part of W530, to the north of B53, was replaced by a wall (W543) on a line slightly further north (see Fig. 4.48). Although the ‘repair’ to W503 was not discussed in the excavation records, it can be detected on the plan (Plan 4.10) and was still visible in the field on 29th November, 1989. No photographs specifically recorded it, but it can be seen in Figs. 4.46 and 4.47. (Compare the original wall with orderly courses, which included dressed blocks [see Fig. 4.46], with the rough repair of irregular, undressed field boulders. This ‘repair’ was not strong and had itself bulged to the east [see Fig. 4.47].) It is noticeable that the ‘repair’ is opposite the original wide entrance into B37 through W513. It is probable that originally there had been a similar wide entrance through W503 at the foot of stairs leading down from the level of the north–south street to the west, and that the ‘repair’ was, in fact, the blocking of that proposed entrance. B36–B37 would, in Stratum III/II, have been an entrance hall. Only renewed excavations could clarify this. The character of the building changed completely in Stratum I with the large courtyard being encroached upon and rooms being divided and formed into

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domestic units. The presence of three tabuns in the excavated area indicates the change to a domestic occupation. Wall 501 and W506 were built together with the rebuild or blocking in W503, and thus the shops B13, B15 and B17 (see below) did not exist before Stratum I. Stratum III/II (Plan 4.9) The Courtyard B49/50, was large, measuring from 6.70 to 7.00 m, north–south, and over 6.50 m east–west. Its northern boundary was W505, its western boundary W513 and its southern boundary W530. Its eastern boundary was beyond the area of excavation. There were doors in the eastern end of W505 (1.10 m wide), in W513 into Room B35 (0.80 m wide) and into Room B37 (apparently 2.80 m wide and probably arched), in W530 (see Fig. 4.39) into B45 (2.30 m wide and probably arched), and, probably, into B53. The floor, at about 11.25, was of pebbles, which were probably the bedding for a plaster surface (Fig. 4.38). After the destruction of the staircase in B39 at the end of Stratum III (see below) a new staircase and Room B52, against one wall of which it was, in part, built, encroached onto the northern side of the courtyard. The floor was replaced with a beaten-earth floor at 11.55.

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Room B35 (2.00 × 3.50 m). Bound by W505, W513, W518 and W503, with a 0.80 m wide entrance from the courtyard in W513. It was not excavated below the Stratum I floor at 11.54. At its western end there was a bench retained behind a row of stones (see Plan 4.9), 1 m deep and about 0.70 m high in front of W503. As this bench covered a large boulder over which the angle of W503 and W518 was built it must have been an original feature. Room B36 + B37 (3.30 × 6.60 m). Bound by W518, W513, W536 and W503, with a 2.90 m wide entrance from the courtyard in W513 and a 0.70 m wide door in W513 into Room B45. The possibility that there was originally an entrance in W503 is discussed above when looking at the general changes made in the north-eastern building in Stratum I. If so, in Stratum III/II, this room would have been a large entrance hall. In Stratum II the wide doorway in W513 was reduced in width to 1.20 m. The room was not excavated below the Stratum I floor. Room B45 (2.30 × 3.30 m). Bound by W530, W541, W536 and W513, with a 2.30 m wide entrance from the courtyard in W530, a connecting door in W513 into Room B36 + B37 and, probably, a wide entrance in W536 into Room B47. The Stratum III/II floor was

Fig. 4.38. Area B. Courtyard B49. Stratum I tabun and Stratum II staircase, looking north.

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Plan 4.9. Area B. Stratum III/II.

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Plan 4.10. Area B. Stratum I. Late Fatimid.

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Room B48: Only the western part was dug and no floors were recorded although the Stratum II floor must have been at c. 11.00. No entrance(s) was noted but at least half the room remained buried in the eastern baulk.

Fig. 4.39. Area B. B45. Stratum II reducing width of doorway in W530, and raising of threshold, looking north. Note millstone on floor.

at about 11.20, covering a large boulder in the southwestern corner. On this floor were found a number of groundstone tools, including a small basalt mill wheel (Fig. 4.39). In Stratum II the floor level was raised to 11.50 and the threshold in W530 was raised and the arched doorway made somewhat narrower to c. 1.60 m (Fig. 4.39, metre stick on raised threshold, note column drums used to reduce width of doorway). Room B53 (? × 2.30 m). Bound by W530, W541 and W536. Its original eastern boundary is uncertain. Wall 542, which was in the eastern baulk, was bonded with the Stratum I wall, W543, which replaced W530 in the north. It is not clear whether it had an earlier phase. Wall 541, as found, also related to W543 but presumably had an earlier phase relating to W530. The entrance was from the courtyard, but the exact location of the Stratum III/II door, if one existed here, was obscured by the later wall. The Stratum III/II floor was at 11.21. A later floor (Stratum II), covered in ash, was at 11.37. At the end of Stratum II W530 may have collapsed because it was replaced by W543 (see Fig. 4.48). Rooms B48, B47 and B39. It is not certain whether all this row of rooms south of W536 was an integral part of the north-eastern building or part of a separate complex arranged around a courtyard, B28/44. However, a staircase in B39 gave access to the upper floors of the north-eastern building, at least in Stratum III, so these rooms were certainly contemporaneous with that building and most probably an integral part of it.

Room B47 (4.10 × 5.00 m): Bound by W536, W532, W544 and W508. Several boulders were strewn on the ground in the area where this room was built. Three crude, wall-like constructions, amongst which three circular pits were dug (Plan 4.9; Fig. 4.40), probably represent grave markers and offering pits(?)3 from the Umayyad/early Abbasid period. The lamp illustrated in Fig. 6.7:3, which showed no sign of use and bore the inscription ‘In the name of Allah blessings from Allah’, came from one of the pits, together with three Umayyad coins (Coin Nos. 123, 124, 126) and one identified as mid-ninth century (Coin No. 307). No floors at all were recorded in this room(!). However, the Stratum III/II floor was probably at about 11.00, just above the foundation ledges of the walls (Fig. 4.40) and covering the boulders. As no doors were recorded giving access to the Stratum II room, it is difficult to reconstruct it architecturally. From the photographs, however, it would appear that the northern wall, W536, which lacks a foundation course, was a later addition, so it is probable that originally there was a wide, arched entrance (c. 2.30–2.70 m) in this wall providing access from Room B45. A dirham of al-Hākim (Coin No. 359) was found at an elevation of 11.12, c. 0.12 m above the earliest (reconstructed) floor, which helps to confirm a late tenth–early eleventh-century date for the construction of the buildings in Area B.

Fig. 4.40. Area B. B47. Pre-building pits and grave(s)? Looking east.

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Rooms B11, B29 and B39 These three rooms eventually formed one unit although it is theoretically possible that Room B39 may briefly have existed independently before the addition of B11 and B29. Rooms B11 and B29 were not excavated below the floor levels, 12.75 and 12.40 respectively, so it is not known if earlier levels existed here, although this is unlikely because of the presence of boulders close below, and even protruding above, those floors. This row of three rooms, together perhaps with a fourth in the largely unexcavated area to the west, formed a gatehouse which controlled access to the upper storey of the khan, and also overlooked the (reconstructed) entranceway from the street into B37. Courtyard(?) B39 (3.50 × 5.20 m). Bound by W536, W508, W544 and W503. Wall 503 was built over two large boulders, one below B39, the other mainly below B29 (Figs. 4.41, 4.42). Other boulders were buried by a fill. The fill in B39 was, however, deeper than if it had only been necessitated by the presence of boulders. Wall 503 served in part as a terrace wall, the ground level to the west of it being higher than that to the east. Thus in B39 the fill raised the floor level closer to that of B29 to the west of W503. The floor was at 11.54, some 0.35 m above the top of the largest boulder. With this floor was built a staircase against W508 rising to the north and turning to the west to go up W536, where it was supported by a buttress in the north-western corner and, possibly, a wooden pillar based on a flat stone mid-way between the staircase and the buttress (Fig. 4.41). Only one stair remained in situ on the staircase. There would have been space for about

Fig. 4.41. Area B. B39. Staircase against W508 at right, buttress to support next flight of stairs in angle of W536 and W503 at top left, looking north.

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15 stairs, so that the second storey, or roof, would have been c. 2.40 m above B36 from where access could be gained to upper floor rooms above B47, etc. via a balcony above B45 and B53. As the threshold between B29 and B39 was at 11.82, there must have been at least one step down between it and the 11.54 floor. It is somewhat odd that there was a drop of 0.30 m in order to reach a staircase going up to the second storey, but that seems to be the case. The anomalous step down into this room was soon eliminated when the floor level was raised to the height of the threshold (11.82), although this still necessitated a step down from the main part of the floor in B29 at 12.40. This step, in turn, was also eliminated when a pebble floor (possibly plastered) was laid covering both Rooms B29 and B39 at 12.40 (see Figs. 4.42, 4.43, pebble floor of B39 at top). All of these changes must have taken place early in the life of the building before the destruction of B39,

Fig. 4.42. Area B. B29 west (right) of W503 and B39 to the east, looking south.

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B29 and B11. A new, internal staircase giving access to the second storey or roof of the courtyard building was constructed against W505 (see below and Fig. 4.38) to replace the stairs in B39. As an integral part of the construction of this unit, a room, B52, was created in the north-eastern corner of the (excavated area of the) courtyard. Room B29 (3.20 × c. 4 m). Bound by W514, W503, W517 and W526. The northern wall, W514, may have had an earlier phase built of dressed stones (see the course of dressed stones along the southern face of W514, Plan 4.9). Such large dressed stones in a wide foundation course would be unique throughout all the areas of elevation, where the walls generally have shallow foundations of small stones. Further excavation might find that the dressed stones were part of a retaining wall, to the north of which was a broad staircase leading to B37. A large boulder protruded above the pebble floor in the north-western corner, and W514 and W526 were partially built over it (Plan 4.9). This boulder may also have been utilised as the basis for a bench or low platform. At the south-eastern edge of this boulder was a sunken oval basin (0.40 × 0.55 m), with a flat rectangular stone at its base (12.15), and sides lined

with overlapping sherds (Plan 4.9). The pebble floor near this basin was at 12.56, indicating that the floor had a slope down to the east, for it was at 12.40 near W503. A narrow section below the uppermost floor revealed what appeared to be an earlier floor flush with the threshold in W503 at 11.82 (see Fig. 4.42), although a large boulder which lay partly under W503 in the north would have protruded above this floor along with the boulder in the northwest. A 0.90 m wide door at the southern end of W526 allowed access from Room B11. Room B11 (2.60 × 4.20 m). Bound by W514, W526, W529 and W510. Access from outside the building to the west was through a 1.10 m wide door in W510. A door at the southern end of W526 connected with Room B29. The floor of pebbles at 12.75 did not run all the way up to the northern and southern walls (Fig. 4.43, metre stick rests on floor), and it is possible that benches (of mud-brick?) had been built against these walls. The remains of a bench were found in the southwestern corner, built along W511. This room probably served as a guard-room, controlling access to the living quarters above the khan. The ceramic evidence points to its having been destroyed at the very end of Stratum III.

Fig. 4.43. Area B. B11. Floor not running to northern wall, W514, or to southern wall, W529, may indicate benches? Looking east.

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Room B52 (2–2.20 × 2.70 m), bound by W505, W538, W537 and W531, was created for the first time in Stratum II, encroaching into the Stratum III/II courtyard. It had a threshold in W537 at 11.33 and, presumably, a beaten-earth floor at about this height (see Fig. 4.49, metre stick rests on Stratum III/II courtyard floor).

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top centre). An intermediate floor of plastered pebbles was recorded at 11.60 (Fig. 4.45), beneath which the remains of a cap-stone covered drain ran to the eastern

Rooms B26 and B27 (Strata III/II and I?) Only the northern parts of these rooms were excavated. Rooms B26 and B27 were connected by a 0.85 m wide door at the northern end of W526. No floor was noted in B26, but in B27 a pebble floor was found at 12.45, which probably belonged to Stratum III/II. There may have been a connecting door through W503 over a threshold (at 12.18?) into Courtyard B28/44, but the remains here were very close to the modern surface and this, together with the partial nature of the excavations, makes a reconstruction difficult. Moreover there would have been a 0.50 m difference in elevation of the floors either side of W503 with no sign of built steps leading down into B28/44. It seems that the two rooms, B26 and B27, were built together with B11 and B29. Whether they were destroyed by raiders or by the 1033 CE earthquake is not known. Courtyard B28/44 did, however, continue to function in Stratum I. Courtyard B28/44 (Strata III/II and I) This area, whose southern and eastern boundaries were not reached by the excavation (a wall was visible, 29th November, 1989, at the eastern end of the southern baulk, at an acute angle to the grid line), was clearly unroofed and served as a catchment area for the winter rains. A number of changes occurred in this area, particularly to the drainage system, but they were not specifically recorded at the time of excavation, and this, together with the small area excavated, makes it hard to reconstruct the sequence. In Stratum III/II there appears to have been a floor at c. 11.30, an elevation which would have covered a large boulder in the west, and an oval soak-away pit, built over a large boulder, roofed with basalt slabs (Fig. 4.44), whose maximum elevation was 11.31. The soak-away probably drained water collected on the roofs of B27 and B39 (if the latter was roofed) and channelled down a drain-pipe in the angle of W503 and W544, for this was the course of a later, plastered, channel associated with a Stratum I floor at about 12.20 (Plan 4.10; see Fig. 4.44

Fig. 4.44. Area B. B44. Stratum III/II installation that continued into Str. I, looking west.

Fig. 4.45. Area B. B44. Stratum I floor. Looking west.

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baulk (to the left of the ‘cistern’ in Fig. 4.44; Plan 4.9). Its point of origin was not preserved, but this channel may, for a while, have started in the north-western corner and by-passed the soak-away to take water to a cistern somewhere beyond the excavated area. In its turn, it was replaced by the still extant plastered channel which connected to the soak-away, starting in the north-western corner (see above) at an elevation of 12.00. (As the elevation of the channel at its entry point, 5 m to the east, was only 10.80, this seems an unnecessarily steep gradient and indicates that this channel was a replacement for an earlier, underlying one of Stratum III/II.) Probably in Stratum I three irregularly sited columns were erected (see Plan 4.10; Figs. 4.44, 4.45), although it is difficult to discern any purpose for them. It is possible that their insertion destroyed the western end of the by-pass channel. Stratum I (Plan 4.10) Courtyard B49/50. The large courtyard of Stratum III/ II, with wide entrances leading into spacious rooms, was now reduced to a number of small domestic units. A tabun, 0.7 m in diameter, was constructed in the angle of the staircase (see Fig. 4.38). Wall 530, north of Room B53, was replaced by W543, with a door in it, encroaching slightly into the courtyard. Another tabun was built in the courtyard-angle between the western end of this wall and W530. In Stratum Ia W539 and W540 were built in the south-western corner of the courtyard, creating a lean-to structure, B50, with a floor at c. 11.80. B49 remained a courtyard, albeit on a much reduced scale, giving access to two small ground-floor rooms, B35 and B52, and an unknown number of rooms on an upper storey. B50 also probably remained a courtyard serving Rooms B45, B36 and B37. It is probable that in Stratum I there was no longer access from Room B45 into Room B47, which, at this stage, may only have had access from Courtyard B44. Room B35 (2.00 × 3.50 m). Bound by W505, W513, W518 and W503, with a 0.80 m wide entrance from the courtyard in W513. It was not excavated below the Stratum Ib floor at 11.54. At its western end (B34) the Stratum II bench was further extended and retained behind a row of stones about 0.70 m high, a metre in

front of W503. This bench covered a large boulder over which the angle of W503 and W518 was built. The floor and the threshold were raised in Stratum Ia to about 11.84 and the bench was extended by a further 0.60 m. A fraction of a silver dirham of al-Hākim (Coin No. 360) was found on this floor. Room B36–B37 (3.30 × 6.60 m). Bound by W518, W513, W536 and W503, with a 1.20 m wide entrance from B50 in W513 and a 0.70 m wide door in W513 into Room B45. The possibility that there was originally an entrance in W503 is discussed above when looking at the general changes made in the north-eastern building in Stratum I. In Stratum I part of the large room was cut off by the erection of W522, which created two independent rooms, B36 (which formed a unit with B45) and B37. Room B37 (3.30 × c. 3.70 m): Bound by W518, W513, W522 and W503. The partial collapse and/or entrance blocking of W503 occurred in the western wall of B37. The northern face of W522 was bonded into the repair/blocked entrance of W503 (Fig. 4.46), which strengthens the likelihood that it was built overlapping the southern jamb of a previously existing doorway.

Fig. 4.46. Area B. B36. Stratum I floor; W503 at back, looking west.

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Fig. 4.47. Area B. B37. Stratum I floor with first stage of W522; W503 at right, looking south.

The eastern end of W522 abutted the Stratum II partial blocking of the door in W513 (Fig. 4.47). The floor, at 11.55–11.60, was of pebbles, possibly the basis for a plastered surface. The room was entered from the courtyard, B50, via the narrowed door in W513. This threshold, together with the floor surface, was later raised in Stratum Ia to 11.90. Room B36 (2.30 × 3.30 m). Bound by W522, W513, W536 and W503. The Stratum Ib floor, at 11.60, was of pebbles, possibly the bedding for a plastered surface (see Fig. 4.46). The floor was raised to about 12.00 in Stratum Ia. There were two small, stone-lined pits dug into this floor in the angle of W513 with W536, and with W522. This room was entered through a door in W513 from Room B45. Room B45 (2.30 × 3.30 m). Bound by W530, W541, W536 and W513, with a 1.60 m wide entrance from the courtyard in W530 and a connecting door in W513 into Room B36. In Stratum I the tentative wide entrance in W536 into Room B47 was probably blocked. The floor was raised slightly to 11.60. Although no later floor was recorded one must have existed at between 11.80 and 12.00. The threshold in W530 was again raised and the doorway again reduced, this time to about 1.20 m (see Fig. 4.39, two roughly dressed stones are the final threshold). As mentioned above Room B47 may no longer have been accessible from this room in Stratum I.

Room B53 (2.40 × 2.30 m). Bound by W543, W542, W536 and W541. Wall 542, which was in the eastern baulk, was bonded with the Stratum I wall, W543, which replaced W530 in the north. At the end of Stratum II W530 collapsed. The wall that replaced it, W543, was off-set slightly to the north, with an entrance from the courtyard. The Stratum Ib floor was at 11.56, and a tabun was built inside the room in the north-western corner (Fig. 4.48). The threshold in the door in W543 was later raised to c. 11.90, for which we can reconstruct a floor (not recorded) at a similar level. The tabun in the north-western corner was rebuilt, and must have related to this floor. Within the Stratum Ia tabun was found a complete cooking pot (see Fig. 5.32:17).

Fig. 4.48. Area B. B53. Tabun built over line of W530 running beneath, and off-set from, W543 (at right), looking north-west.

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Room B52 (2–2.20 × 2.70 m), bound by W505, W538, W537 and W531. In Stratum Ia the threshold in the door in W537 was raised to 11.80, and a floor has to be assumed at about this elevation. The Stratum III/II door in W505 was blocked, either in Stratum II with the initial building of Room B52, or else in Stratum I when the floor was elevated to 11.80 (Fig. 4.49, metre stick rests on Stratum III/II courtyard floor [c. 11.25], three ashlars across doorway are Stratum Ia threshold. The Stratum II floor [c. 11.40] was below the earth layer under these ashlars). Room B48. Only the western part was dug and no floors were recorded. Room B47 (4.10 × 5.00 m). Bound by W536, W532, W544 and W508. The Stratum Ib floor (Plan 4.10) could have been at c. 11.60, possibly with access still via a door in W536 from B45, or, perhaps more likely, through W544 to the floor at the same elevation in Courtyard B28/44 (W544 was only preserved to this height so no certain door was visible). A Stratum Ia floor might have existed at c. 12.15. Shops in the North-West—B13, B15 and B17 (Stratum I) Wall 501 and W506 were built at the time that W503 was repaired, i.e. in Stratum I (see Rooms B36 and B37 above). Before the construction of these shops, the ground was liberally strewn with boulders, which

may have deterred building here at an earlier date. Although the western extremities of these shops were not completely exposed, there appear to have been two basic units, each 4.00 × 10.60 m, the northern of which was subdivided by W506. The southern wall, W514, of B13 may have been a re-build of an earlier wall (see Rooms B11 and B29 below). Room B17 (1.70–2.00 × 7.00 m with a 3 m deep ‘foyer’ shared with B15). Bound to the north by W502, which incorporated a large boulder (top elevation 13.48, i.e. proud of the floor), W503, W506 and W509. Walls 502 and 506 were bedded at c. 12.90, below which level were many large rocks. The original floor level was at about 13.25, although this was later raised by 0.10–0.15 m, and a bench 1.60 m wide and 0.20 m high, retained behind a single course of stones, was added to the eastern end against W503. A narrow area (B3) between W502 and the excavation limits to the north contained many sherds of ceramics and glass. No clear floor was reached in this small space. Room B15 (1.50–1.70 × 7.00 m with a 3 m deep ‘foyer’ shared with B17). Bound to the north and south by W506 and W501, both bedded at c. 12.85, below which level were many large rocks. The original floor level was at about 13.25. It had a rectangular, slightly sunken (0.10 m) stone-lined basin (B22) across the eastern end of the room, which was later replaced by

Fig. 4.49. Area B. B52. Doorway in W537, built in Str. II, threshold raised in Str. Ia. Looking north.

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a raised platform 2.70 m deep and some 0.20 m high against W503. Shop B5, B13 and B40 (4 × ? m). Bound to the north by W501, to the east by W503 and to the south by W514 (no western wall was excavated although it was probably on the same line as W509). In contrast to the areas to both north (B15 and B17) and south (B11 and B29) no large rocks/boulders were encountered at around 12.75 and in B5 excavations penetrated to 12.21 without encountering any, which suggests that any boulders in this area had been cleared in the past. Unfortunately, although pottery was still being recovered, excavations ceased at this point without investigating whether there was an earlier wall below W514 or the reason for the greater width of W503 in the south of B5. Continued excavation might have answered the question as to whether or not there was a connecting stairway running down from the street alongside the northern face of W514 and turning along the western side of W503 to an entrance into B37. The Stratum I floor level was at about 13.25. The shop was divided into three units by opposing buttresses. Later the floor was raised to at least 13.45, from which elevation a circular (diameter 0.65 m), stone-and-plaster-lined basin was sunk in the central of the three units.

AREA B1 A 9 × 9 m square was opened c. 50 m south-east of Area B (see Plans 4.1, 4.11). It was the most southerly of all areas investigated.4 Very limited excavations were carried out over a three-week period, and only the last phase of occupation, belonging to Stratum I, was revealed, with a few hints of an earlier phase(s) that may have borne little relationship to the later one. Because the earlier phase(s) is so unclear, only the last phase will be described; evidence for earlier structures will be mentioned only. The area had suffered from stone robbing, particularly in the north-east where W501 was completely removed, and in the north-west where W512 was partially looted. The structure was of a domestic nature, and most likely consisted of rooms opening off a central courtyard (Plan 4.11). Large Room/Courtyard Locus 5 (5+ × 7 m). Bound in the west by W512, in the south by W503 and in the

Plan 4.11. Area B1. Stratum I, late Fatimid. Final plan.

east by W501, with one known entrance through W503 from the south. It had a pebble floor at 9.25, which was disturbed in the north-west of the courtyard. In the south-western corner, in the angle of W503 and W512, was an L-shaped buttress, probably the base of a staircase ascending to an upper storey. A buttress ending in a column immediately west of the door in W503 would have supported the upper flight of the staircase. If we assume each stair was about 0.30 m deep and 0.20 m high, there could have been three stairs to the south (four if, as seems likely by comparison with adjacent rooms, the original floor was at c. 9.06) and then seven rising to the east, giving an upper storey 2 m above the ground floor. Installation Locus 15. West of W512 and perpendicular to it, was a row of at least three stones (only 1 m of this row was within the excavation area). One of the three stones was probably the base for a wooden post. It was in secondary use for it bore a Kufic inscription (‘Have mercy on this sinner….’) and was evidently originally a gravestone (Fig. 4.50). Not enough of this installation was uncovered to attempt a confident interpretation, though it might have supported a roof for an openfronted area.

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which were never clarified, which clearly belonged to an earlier building phase. Wall 501 was built above the eastern side of this cistern, which extended below and beyond the other three walls of this room.

Fig. 4.50. Area B1. Gravestone in secondary use.

Courtyard Locus 6 (c. 4 × 5+ m). Bound in the north by W503, in the east by W505, and in the south by W504 (the western end was not reached). There were entrances into the large room, L5, to the north; into a small room, L4 in the east; and into both L7 and L8 in the south. A floor (L6) of pebbles (not preserved in the west), was at 9.25, and an earlier one of beaten earth at 9.12 (L10). Tabuns were found in the northeastern corner in the angle of W503 and W505, and in the north-west between a buttress and a low platform built against W503. The first-mentioned tabun had two phases, one associated with each floor; the latter was based at 8.68, so clearly had to be related to a floor at c. 8.70, not otherwise recorded. A stone-lined channel ran across the courtyard from west to east, but it was put out of use by the 9.25 floor and had no continuation beyond the entrance into L4. Room Locus 4 (1.20 × 3.50 m). Bound by W503, W501, W504 and W505. This was a small room at the eastern end of the courtyard, L6. There were floors at 9.22 and 9.04. It had a 1.80 m wide entrance from the courtyard, but this was later narrowed to only 0.40 m between two column drums. There was another entrance from the east, but this only functioned with the 9.04 floor, and was later blocked. In the south-eastern corner, in the angle of W501 and W504, there was a small ‘tank’ (1.20 × 1.70 m internally) built of stones, sunk into the 9.22 floor and partially constructed above it. It had a floor of flat flagstones at 9.04. This tank was connected into a cistern/soak-away in L2 (see below) through a rectangular channel built through W501, but this channel was in existence prior to the tank for its original base was 0.40 m lower than the floor of the tank, and had been partially blocked. It is probable that the channel running across the courtyard (L6) originally connected to this channel through the wall and debouched into the cistern/soak-away in L2. Beneath this tank and the rest of this room there had existed a large, plaster-lined cistern, the dimensions of

Locus 2 (min. dimensions 3 × 6 m). Bound on the south by W502 and on the west by W501. There was an entrance through W501 into L4, associated with a floor at 9.04, but this was blocked (or the threshold raised?) for a floor at 9.22. A circular soak-away (c. 0.70 m in diameter; its floor was not reached) was in the angle of W501 and W502, covered with long narrow basalt slabs of which some, presumably, had been looted. This had been fed through the channel in W501 (see L4 above). A floor at 8.40 belonged to an earlier phase associated with an earlier wall line visible beneath W501 and W510 (the latter wall may indicate the northern extent of the early cistern in L4). Locus 7. Bound in the north by W504, and in the east by W506. Floors were noted at 8.73 and 8.55, both of which must have belonged to an early phase.

AREA A Excavations were carried out in two 10 × 10 m squares, 10 m apart, on an east–west grid (Plans 4.1, 4.12–4.14). In A (East), an area 8.5 × 9.5 m was actually dug, whilst in A (West) an area only 4.5 × 9.0 m was investigated. The southern wall, W500, of the building belonging to the upper strata of the latter was uncovered in the adjacent square to the south, but no floors relating to this wall were reached, and the relationship between it and the walls to the north was not clarified. The asymmetrical nature of the buildings in this area makes it impossible to relate the two building complexes across the unexcavated 11 m gap. The photographic coverage was not extensive, and, whilst mention is made of earlier walls beneath and on almost the same lines as the upper, later walls, it is not possible from the surviving records to confidently separate the earlier and later building phases. The early walls in Area A often only survived to a height of 0.50 m. They were associated with only one floor level and perhaps date to the ninth century (late Stratum IV). The buildings seem to have been abandoned for some reason at the end of the ninth century. In A (West) there were signs of serious destruction accompanied in places by fire, but this must have been localised as there were no

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traces of fire in A (East). It might have been caused by Qarmatī’s raids in 906 CE, and the continued threat of more incursions may have led the inhabitants of this area to move inside the city walls. The remains of the earlier walls were commonly used as foundations during the rebuilding, which should probably be dated to Stratum I. It was possible to make some visual observations in the field on the 15th and 29th November, 1989 which were used to supplement the sparse excavation records.

AREA A (WEST) Pre-Abbasid

Fig. 4.52. Area A (West). A7. W512 on left, W502 on right. Note door, top right. Looking east (photographed 29/11/89).

Virgin soil, upon which were found Roman sherds, was reached at 1.50 in a section beneath A33. An accumulation (A35), 3.50 m deep, was deposited above virgin soil during the Roman and Byzantine periods (see Coin Nos. 19, 22). Parts of three graves, with poorly preserved, articulated skeletons, were uncovered between 3.20 and 3.95 in a matrix containing Byzantine pottery. The skeletons were oriented east–west, lying on their right sides, with their head in the west facing south, characteristic of Muslim burial practice (Fig. 4.51). No grave goods were found associated with the skeletons. Wall 512 was bonded with an early manifestation of W502. Both walls had ‘foundations’ over 2 m deep

(Fig. 4.52). As the pottery associated with these ‘foundations’ was dated to the Byzantine period and two fourth-century coins (Coin Nos. 19, 22) were recovered, it would appear that these foundations were either terraces, or even building remains,5 from that period. Any Byzantine surface(s) associated with these walls may have been destroyed by the Muslim graves noted above.

Fig. 4.51. Area A (West). A7. Muslim burial (skull in baulk below W505). Looking south-west.

Fig. 4.53. Area A (West). A17. Metre stick rests on destruction layer associated with early W502; later W502 offset to south. Looking north-east.

Early Phase (Stratum IV) (Plan 4.12) There was an early phase of W502 off-set 0.10–0.15 m to the north of the line of the later, Stratum II wall (Fig. 4.53). Some stones south of it were tentatively

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Plan 4.12. Area A. Strata IV–III. Abbasid

Fig. 4.55. Area A (West). ‘Installation’ seen to be destruction layer. Early stage of W504 revealed (photographed 29/11/89).

Fig. 4.54. Area A (West). A18/32, part of destruction layer misinterpreted as an installation, in angle of early W502 and W504 (see Fig. 4.55).Looking west.

described as walls or installations but in 1989 these could be seen to be part of a destruction layer. When the supposed installation in the north-west of A24 (Plan 4.12; Fig. 4.54) was dismantled, it was found

that the stones were only part of a destruction that had smashed a number of jars (see Fig. 5.34:4, 5) on an ashy floor, at c. 5.25. To the west of the ‘installation’ a previously un-noted early phase of W504, off-set 0.10–0.15 m to the west of the line of the Stratum II wall, was revealed. It was preserved one or two courses higher than early W502 with which it was bonded (Fig. 4.55). The storage jar from the destruction layer (see Fig. 5.34:4) is not a good diagnostic as it has an early ninth-century parallel from Pella (Walmsley 1995: Fig. 7:9) but an early eleventh-century parallel

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from Caesarea (Arnon, Lester and Polak 1999: Fig. 1b). However a late ninth- or early tenth-century date for the destruction seems reasonable. Early walls were noted in A20, but they were not fully investigated. It is probable that floors of the earliest Islamic phase were only reached in A24 and A33. A33. Only the south-eastern part of this room was excavated. It was bound to the east by W512, to the south by early W502 and to the west by a northerly continuation of W504 (although excavations did not extend west of the later W505). No clear entrances exist for the early phase; the room could have been entered from the unexcavated area to the north. The Stratum IV floor was at 5.16 and it was covered with a fine, grey, ashy soil, with many sherds and predominantly ninthcentury coins (Coin Nos. 21, 81, 257, 264, 303, 304). A24. Bound to the north and west by early W502 and early W504. In the south it was probably bounded by early W500. In the east it was either bound by a southern continuation of W512, or by an early phase of W506 (see Plan 4.14). The entrance was probably from the east. The Stratum IV floor (A24) was at c. 5.25 and was covered with rocky debris. In A6, A8 and A10 (see Plans 4.13, 4.14) excavations stopped on top of the destruction of the early phase. Later Phase (Strata II and I) (Plans 4.13, 4.14) Room A7 (2.20 m. × ? m) bound to the east by W512, to the south by W502 and to the west by W505. The northern boundary wall was beyond the excavated area. There was an entrance from the south through a 1.10 m wide door in W502. The floor (A7, Stratum II?) was at 5.89 (no later floor was recorded). Below this floor was a surface (A16) at 5.31 which was the top of the earlier destruction level and the working surface for the construction of the new walls, many of which followed a similar line to the earlier walls. Room A9 (4.10 × 2.80–3.20 m) bound to the north by W502, to the east by W506, to the south by W500 and to the west by W504. There was a door through W502 into A7, and, perhaps, in the northern end of W506. The floor (Stratum II?) was at 5.90. At 5.45 (A17) was the top of the earlier destruction level which was the working surface for the new walls (see Fig. 4.53).

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Room A20 (3.30 × ? m) bound to the east by W505, to the south by W502 and to the west by W503. There was probably a door at the eastern end of W502, hard against W505 giving access to Room A8. The floor (A20, Stratum II?) was at 5.81 and incorporated the tops of the two earlier walls shown in Plan 4.12. A later floor (A10; see Plan 4.14) noted at 6.20 should, perhaps, be assigned to Stratum I. Floors at the same elevation noted in A6 to the west, and A8 to the south should be similarly assigned.

AREA A (EAST) Pre-Abbasid Roman sherds were found on virgin soil (c. 1.05), which was reached in a probe (A47) beneath A40 (see Plan 4.12). An accumulation 2.10 m deep was deposited above virgin soil during the Late Roman and Byzantine periods. A poorly-preserved child’s skeleton was found at 2.40 and many fragments of bone were present in the matrix, as were four Umayyad (PostReform) and one ninth-century coin (Coin Nos. 52, 55, 71, 115, 334). Earliest Phase (Stratum IV) The earliest building phase in this area is extremely difficult to ascertain. It was not reached throughout the area, and very little reference was made to it in the written records. Evidence gleaned from a close study of the photographic records (not all reproduced in this study) and from some observations in the field in 1989 indicates a number of early walls (see Plan 4.12), but they make little logic architecturally. The clearest evidence for a building phase predating the main construction was photographed (Fig. 4.56) but was ignored in preliminary phasing plans. To the right of the metre stick can be seen the well-built western end of W507, which was bonded with W510. The eastern part of W507, together with W508, was, technically, built later, probably after a lapse of several years (Figs. 4.57–4.59). To the south of the early phase of W507 was what was described as a ‘stone installation below floor or possibly a grave’ (Fig. 4.60). No bones are reported as having been found in it and the orientation is wrong for a Muslim burial, although there were Muslim graves a few metres to the west. There is no discussion as to

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Plan 4.13. Area A. Stratum II–I. Fatimid.

Plan 4.14. Area A. Stratum I. Fatimid.

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whether this ‘installation’ predated W507 or was built together with its foundations. It is no longer visible in the field. To the south of the installation was another early wall, W509, which had much deeper foundations than W508 which was built to it later (Figs. 4.60, 4.61; see Plan 4.13). It is possible that the remains of a channel found beneath the open area A40, and assumed by the excavators to relate to it, was, in fact, connected to the installation. The highest surviving part of the channel was a row of four limestone slabs with a shallow channel carved into them (Figs. 4.59, 4.62). They were close to and at a similar elevation to the north-eastern corner of the installation. A direct connection may once have existed and been destroyed when W508 (see Plan 4.13) was built. The excavators believed, probably correctly, that the channel had been an integral part of a courtyard floor, at c. 3.90, of basalt flagstones (A40) that had since been looted (Figs. 4.57, 4.63, 4.64). Beneath the two square flagstones visible in Fig. 4.63

Fig. 4.56. Area A (East). W507. Earlier wall to right. Looking south.

Fig. 4.57. Area A (East). General view, looking south-west. W507 in foreground.

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Fig. 4.58. Area A (East). General view, looking south.

Fig. 4.59. Area A (East). General view, looking north.

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Fig. 4.60. Area A (East). A12. Installation/ grave(?). Looking south.

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Fig. 4.61. Area A (East). Wall 508 (top); W509 (deep foundation at left), looking south-west (photographed 29/11/89).

Fig. 4.62. Area A (East). General view, looking north-west.

was a roughly circular pit (A48), about 1 m in diameter, which penetrated to the virgin soil and contained two distinct fills: the upper 1.10 m was entirely of beach pebbles; the lower 0.85 m was of fine ashy soil with a few beach pebbles and contained partially restorable late Umayyad/early Abbasid pottery (see Figs. 5.11:3,

5.40:1, 2). This was a soak-away at the end of a drain coming from the south below A43. The drain was later blocked when W513 was built. The elevation of the courtyard floor (c. 3.90) compares well with that of the mosaic floor to the north in A44 (4.00), and there is no doubt that the

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Fig. 4.63. Area A (East). A40/A34/A19. Metre stick against W514 (note two stages). Looking north-east.

eastern end of W511 had an early phase to which the mosaic floor was built (see Fig. 4.58: left foreground). Only one or two courses of this wall survived above the mosaic floor and the rebuilt wall was off-set slightly to the south with the door relocated slightly to the west. The water channels that ran between W507 and W511 may have originated in Stratum IV, although they were certainly reused in Stratum II/I (n.b. the side channel running beneath W511 in Fig. 4.69 which may indicate that a door existed here in Stratum IV). Floors noted at about 3.70–3.90 (A29 + A38), between W507 and W511, may only have been technical floors during the period of construction. One would expect a floor at c. 4.00, which would have covered the highest cap-stone (c. 3.90) and coincided with that in A44. As no such floor was recorded, it is possible that it was of flagstones, or even mosaics (cf. A44), which were later looted during the modifications in Strata II/I. On technical grounds W518, in the eastern end of the southern baulk, should be assigned to the early phase,

Fig. 4.64. Area A (East). General view, looking east.

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as its building style is closer to early W507 than to later walls (Fig. 4.65). The floor of small regular flagstones (c. 4.00), laid to W518, of which only three survivors were uncovered (Fig. 4.65: lower stones), belonged to Stratum IV. Wall 514 also had an early phase which can be seen behind the metre stick in Fig. 4.63 (Early Islamic walls in Tiberias do not generally have foundations over 0.60 m deep, cf. foundations of W507 to the left of the picture). Locus A22 was entered through W518. Built into the angle of W514 and W520 was a wide (1 m against W514 and 1.40 m against W520) platform or structure, which might be the remains of a staircase (Fig. 4.62). Set in the floor in the angle of the structure was a small, plastered, circular cistern/silo (A45), 1 m in diameter, and about 0.85 m deep (Fig. 4.66).

Fig. 4.65. Area A (East). Door in W518. Stratum IV flagstones at right, metre stick on replacement flagstones. Looking south.

Fig. 4.66. Area A (East). A45. Cistern/silo in A22. Looking north.

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Although most of the pottery from Area A (East) was of the tenth–eleventh centuries, the earliest phase, although difficult to reconstruct, was probably built in Stratum IV. The lamp (see Fig. 6.5:2), found in the bottom of ‘Silo’ A45, is of eighth–ninth-century form, as is the pottery from the soak-away, A48; the latest coin associated with the early phase is dated to the midninth century (Coin No. 305). Later Building Phases (Strata II/I, up to Three Phases) (Plans 4.13, 4.14) There appears to have been a period of abandonment after Stratum IV. How long it lasted is not certain. Some of the Stratum IV walls (the western part of W507 together with W510, W509, W520, and W518) were integrated into the new building, but in other places the early walls survived only as foundations for the new walls, of inferior construction, which often followed slightly different lines (W511, W514). The excavation exposed parts of two(?) buildings on either side of a common wall W507/520 (Plan 4.13). There were two later sub-phases. The partial nature of the excavations and the sparseness of the recording make the stratigraphic reconstruction and the dating of the re-occupation difficult. There was no major accumulation following the abandonment (cf. the 3.50 m deep deposit during the c. 600 years of the Roman and Byzantine periods). If we posit an abandonment in c. 906 CE as the result of Qaramatī’s raids, the prevalence of ten- and eleventh-century pottery indicates a re-occupation of the area at the end of the tenth century after the Fatimids had gained some control. There were no clear indications of damage caused by the 1033 CE earthquake so it may be that the re-building post-dated it. However earthquakes rarely affect all areas equally so the assignment of the later occupation to Strata II and I is reasonable. The Southern Building Room A19/34 (3.00 × c. 3.75 m). Bound on the north by W507, on the east by W514, on the west by W508 and on the south by W513 (up to W515), which was built over, and blocked, the channel from the earlier occupation.6 There was a wide entrance between W515 and W509. The first floor associated with the Stratum II occupation in A19 was a beaten-earth floor (A34;

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Plan 4.13) at 4.32, just above the foundation course on W507 (see Fig. 4.62, centre left ). The wide entrance was narrowed in a secondary phase (Stratum IIa) to a doorway 0.70 m wide (see Fig. 4.57, doorway behind metre stick), and the floor surface was elevated to about 4.50. The threshold in this door was later (Stratum I) raised (see Fig. 4.57), as was the floor throughout the room, to 4.82 (A19; Plan 4.14). Room A15/25/39 (2.30 × ? m). Bound to the east by W515 and to the west by a southerly continuation of W508, just visible in Fig. 4.59 and more clearly in Fig. 4.67. To the north was the wide entrance into A19/34 that was later narrowed. The earliest floor was of fieldstones (A39 at c. 4.50; see Fig. 4.59). These rough flagstones settled in the middle of the

room and were covered with a layer of earth (A25 at 4.61). The Stratum I floor (A15) at 4.80 related to the raised threshold in W513. At the same time W508 was replaced by either a flimsy wall or a row of wooden(?) posts forming a colonnade (see Fig. 4.59). Loci A21/26 and A22. Originally part of an alley that ran from the south between W515 and W518 and turned to the east between W513 and W518. The earliest floor (A26, Stratum II) in the west was of plaster at 4.50. A later floor (A21, Stratum IIa) was noted at 4.97 (cf. the flagstone floor in A22 at 4.95; Plans 4.13, 4.14). Wall 516 was later inserted (Stratum I; Plan 4.14), blocking the alley. It was built up to the remains of the earlier W518 (Fig. 4.68) and W514; the missing flagstones of A22 were probably removed at the time W516 was built (see Figs. 4.62, 4.65, 4.66).7 A buttress was built on the flagstone floor at the southern end of the staircase/installation abutting W514 (Figs. 4.64, 4.66). Locus A14 lay to the west of Room A15 (see Plan 4.14; Fig. 4.59). It had a flagstone floor (A14) at 4.75, which belonged to Stratum I. No earlier floors were reached. Locus A12. Bounded in the north by W507, in the east by W508, and in the south by W509 (the western boundary was not reached). The entrance was probably in the unexcavated area to the west. The only floor noted of the Stratum II/I building was one of decayed plaster at 4.40 (see Plan 4.13).

Fig. 4.67. Area A (East). Continuation of W508 south of W509, after pillar bases (cf. Fig. 4.59) were removed, looking north (photographed 29/11/89).

Fig. 4.68. Area A (East). Wall 516, looking west; W518 on left (photographed 29/11/89).

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The Northern Building A11, A23 and A36. As noted above, W510 was bonded with the early western part of W507. Wall 511, which was a re-build of an earlier wall, abutted W510 (see Plans 4.13, 4.14). The Stratum IV wall, W511, was rebuilt on a slightly different alignment in Stratum II (see Fig. 4.58). The Stratum IV mosaic (A44) in Room A36 was covered to a depth of 0.65 m and replaced by an earth floor (A36) at 4.65 (Plan 4.13). The water channels in A11, however, were re-used although the floor was raised. The drain pipe at the western end, which survived to a height of 4.46, was added to give access to the channel from the raised floor, and a lavatory(?) was also added, built against the re-constructed W511 and having access to the earlier drain (Plan 4.13; Fig. 4.69). The presence of the drains and lavatory hint that a bathhouse had existed north of W511 in both Strata IV and II. The Stratum II floor was at c. 4.60 (see A30 further east). Wall 517 was added in Stratum I (Plan 4.14). It had a door against W507, giving access into A11. A buttress, possibly a door jamb (W521) was added perpendicular to W520. Later (Stratum I) the drains went out of use, their cap-stones were looted, and beaten-earth floors were recorded at 4.86 (A11) and 4.95 (A23).

Fig. 4.69. Area A (East). Channel beneath A29, metre stick rests against W517. Later ‘lavatory’ on right. Looking west.

AREA D8 A 10 × 10 m square was opened some 200 m north of the Byzantine city gate (see Plan 4.1). An irregular extension, c. 8 × 10 m, was later dug at the south-west of the original square (Fig. 4.70).

THE BYZANTINE PERIOD A substantial building was erected in this area in the sixth century CE. It was built on an artificial platform, with an east–west orientation, over a steep scarp that sloped down from north-west to south-east. This necessitated the construction of massive retaining walls, W502 in the north and W505 in the east (Plan 4.15). Similar walls must have been built further south beyond the area of excavation and further to the east beyond W505, because contemporary floor levels existed east of W505 at the same elevation as those above the deep fills west of that wall. A cistern is still visible immediately to the south-east of the excavated area; it is likely that more of the artificial platform was created above cisterns or vaults. The modern ground level to the north and west was about 16.50, the floor foundations within the main structure were at 14.80, yet virgin soil in the east, at the base of W505, was at 9.75. Thus, up to 5 m of fill was required to level the area of the building. This fill included pottery from the third to sixth centuries, indicating a construction date in the sixth century. The building was only partially excavated. The remains of an earlier, probably Roman, wall, W515, ran beneath the building on a similar orientation, but did not relate to it. Room D8. Bound to the north by W502, to the east by W505 and to the west by W506. The original southern wall was, probably, a wall discernible (29th November, 1989) about 0.90 m south of the baulk, at the eastern limits of the excavation, which continued eastwards as the northern wall of the cistern mentioned above. This room would have measured c. 4.25 × 5.25 m. There was an entrance from the east through W505. The ‘floor’, at about 14.80, was of crushed lime, which appeared to be the basis for a flagstone floor which had been later looted. The floor was laid down above a back-fill up to 5 m deep. The base of the deepest wall, W505, was at least 1.70 m wide (wider if the unexcavated eastern face was also stepped), but it decreased in five irregular

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Fig. 4.70. Area D. General view, looking east.

Fig. 4.71. Area D. Metre stick rests on W506 partially built over by later column foundation, W502 at top. Looking north-west.

Fig. 4.72. Area D. D7 and D8. Girl stands on Byzantine level. Note the four Umayyad/Abbasid column foundations. Looking east.

steps, until it reached its supra-floor width of 0.70 m. Wall 502 had one stepped increase in width, and there was a small buttress in the angle between the two walls. The buried faces of the retaining walls W505 and W502 were plastered with white plaster. The foundations of W506 were laid at the level of the crushed lime, which, as mentioned above, was probably the bedding for a flagstone floor that would

have covered the wide foundation course of the wall (Fig. 4.71). The wall was looted at the time of the Early Islamic reconstruction, and although no doorway in it was apparent at the time of excavation (Fig. 4.72), the existence of one cannot be ruled out. Room D7. Bound in the north by W502, in the east by W506 and in the south, probably, by the same wall as

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Plan 4.15. Area D. Roman and Byzantine.

that conjectured for Room D8. In the west there was probably a wall with a 1.50 m wide doorway (the conjectured southern jamb remained hidden in the baulk), creating a room about 3 × 5 m. The floor, which was similar to that in D8, was above a 2 m deep fill. Loci D14 and D15 were part of a room 4 m wide and over 7 m long (the western wall was not reached), between W502 and W512, and the western wall of Room D7. At the western end, in D15, the floor was on a fill only about 0.50 m above virgin soil. Two pairs of buttresses would have supported vaults (at least one voussoir was found in the debris in D15). In D14 a channel, 0.20 m wide and 0.25 m deep, ran across the floor diagonally, from the north-eastern corner to the south-west. Its destination was obscured under later walls. It might have left through a doorway in that part of W512 hidden by a small baulk, although the main entrance from the south appears to have been

between the buttress on W512 in D14, and the supposed western wall of Room D7, also hidden in the baulk. A threshold of at least four flat rectangular flagstones was noted (a fifth could be seen in 1989, although two were by then missing—see Fig. 4.73). The surface of these stones was at 15.00, which would have been an ideal elevation for a flagstone floor covering the drain. The drain, clearly intended to take run-off water from a frequently washed floor, probably of stone, may indicate that this long arched room served as a semisubterranean stable. A fallen column in D17 + D18, which otherwise revealed no clear Byzantine features, may have stood on the western side of the entrance in W512. D2 and D5. This area lay outside and to the north of the building discussed above. The Byzantine floor would have covered the plastered ‘bench’ (not, in fact a bench, but a widening of the foundations of the

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retaining wall W502, cf. Figs. 4.70 and 4.75 for similar widening of the western side of W505), and would have been at least 0.50 m higher than the floors south of W502. If remnants of a narrow channel, parallel to W502 and 2 m to its north, date to the Byzantine period, then the surface here would have been a full 1 m higher than those floors. Later construction, followed by even later looting, makes it impossible to be certain of the stratigraphic progression in these loci. Discussion. A considerable effort went into the construction of this building, more of which could be revealed by excavations to the west, south and east. The artificial platform continued further to the east and must have towered at least 5 m over the rest of the city, between it and the sea. It is, indeed, likely that it towered above the cardo itself, which probably followed a route close to the contour line from the gate towards the market place (see Plan 4.1). The excavated rooms produced few artefacts, but they had been systematically looted of building stones. Although spacious, they probably only served as semisubterranean storerooms and stables, beneath a more ornate upper storey. Only a part of the northern wing was excavated. There was probably an eastern wing to the south of D7 and D8. The lack of any Byzantine walls in the limited probe south of W512 (D17 and D18) suggests that this may have been a courtyard, with a western wing in the unexcavated area to the west. Such a large building, constructed on an artificial platform, probably had a public function. The discovery of a theatre(?) only 150 m to the north of this building (Hirschfeld 1992:23–24, 52) increases this likelihood.

Fig. 4.73. Area D. D1. Threshold of Byzantine door in W512, later blocked by foundations of W514 and eastern extension of W512 (photographed 29/11/89).

LATE UMAYYAD/EARLY ABBASID PERIOD (STRATA V/IV) (Plan 4.16) By this period the building was probably in poor repair, perhaps as the result of the 749 CE earthquake. All useful building stones, including the flagstones, were stripped for re-use. The main Byzantine walls (W502 and W512) were reinforced, and the door in the latter blocked (Figs. 4.73, 4.74). A new wall was built, continuing the line of W512 to the east. In D8 this wall was built at the same time that a plastered channel was constructed, breaking through the foundations of W505 (Fig. 4.75). This channel sloped down from west to east and was about 0.25 m wide. It was originally 0.40 m deep, but after 0.15 m of silt had accumulated

Fig. 4.74. Area D. D14, metre stick in front of Byzantine door in W512, later blocked by Islamic foundations. Looking south.

in the channel, the silt was sealed with a 5 cm thickness of plaster. It was covered with cap-stones (removed in the photograph, Fig. 4.75). The Byzantine rooms, themselves constructed on top of a considerable fill, were then filled to a depth of over 1 m. Cylindrical

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Plan 4.16. Area D. Umayyad/Abbasid.

Fig. 4.75. Area D. Islamic channel, built with eastern extension of W512 (on right), breaking through foundations of W505, looking east.

‘concrete’ supports were built into the fill for columns which replaced the earlier arches. The Early Islamic floor level, which must have been at about 16.00– 16.20, was either just below the modern surface (in the west), or already eroded away (in the south-east); later activity further obscured the reconstruction. The latest pottery in the fill belonged to the end of the Umayyad period or early in that of the Abbasid (Stacey 1988–1989). The fill (D3 was the upper layer of the fill above D7 and D8) contained a fifth/sixth-century coin (Coin No. 33), but the overwhelming majority were from the Umayyad period with none later than the mid-eighth century (Coin Nos. 41, 45, 57–60, 68, 80, 105, 112, 113, 165–167, 180). It is therefore probable that the re-construction was carried out soon after the earthquake of 749 CE. The concrete pillar-supports9 in the east can be seen in Fig. 4.72. The short wall in the right foreground

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Fig. 4.76. Area D. D14. Byzantine buttress on W502. Early Islamic column drum misplaced to west, at top right. Later W510 at left. Looking north.

(W508) would also have served as a support, together with surviving parts of the looted W506 (see also Fig. 4.71). Further west, the long buttress to the north-west of D7 was used as a support, together with a concrete conglomeration on its western side. The one surviving drum had slipped to the west (Fig. 4.76). In the same picture another support is visible, built up to the buttress on W502. The two drums which can be seen built into the northern end of a later addition, W510, are not in their original position. Although the construction at the northern end of W511 may also have been a column support, the later construction of W510 would have blocked off the western end of the building. The Early Islamic Building was a long hall, c. 4 m wide and c. 15.5 m long (if W511 was the western limit), oriented east–west, with two rows of four (or five?) columns fairly regularly spaced. As no columns actually survived, we cannot be certain of their exact locations or diameter. It is possible, however, to reconstruct two rows of four columns, with their centres 1 m from W502 and W512. The first pair in the east was 2.5 m from W505. Each pair of columns would have been c. 2.5 m apart (east–west). A possible fifth pair would have broken this rhythm slightly by being c. 3.5 m further west. The creation of this long, colonnaded hall, out of the shell of what must have been an important Byzantine public building, required considerable effort, not least

the pouring of a 1 m deep back-fill. It stood on an imposing platform, perhaps high above the cardo, and probably continued to have a public function. Its orientation is correct for a mosque. It is worth recalling the description of the Jasmine Mosque, situated on the western side of Tiberias, given by Nāşir-i Khusraw: “It is a fine building, and in the middle part rises a great platform (dukkān), where they have their Mihrābs (or prayer-niches). All round those they have set jasmineshrubs, from which the mosque derives its name. In the colonnade, on the eastern side, is the tomb of Yusha’ ibn Nun (Joshua, the son of Nun); and underneath the great platform aforesaid are shown the tombs of the seventy prophets—peace be upon them!—whom the children of Israel slew” (Le Strange 1890:337). Although further excavation might indeed reveal some tombs, it is probable that the tradition of their presence was based upon the hollow cisterns etc., which existed beneath much of the platform. The cisterns, of which one is known and others conjectured, could have supplied water for ritual ablutions. We have already seen that a water channel was built together with this building, and others existed north of W502, although it is hard to date the latter. Because the Early Islamic floor level was either very close to the modern surface or, in the main, already eroded away, it is impossible to know how long this building, possibly a mosque, survived. Wall 510 reduced the length of the colonnaded hall

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at some indeterminate time after its construction, but no foundations of later buildings were found, so it is possible that this building did survive until Nāşir-i Khusraw’s visit in 1047. In D17 and D18, W513 and W514 were built together with the blocking of the door in W512. Any associated floors were close below the modern surface, and were either eroded or disturbed.10

AREA D111 This area was c. 200 m north of, i.e. inside, the Byzantine city wall. An area 9 × 19 m was excavated (Plans 4.17, 4.18).

THE ROMAN/BYZANTINE PERIOD Remains from this period were found about 2 m below the earliest Islamic floors. They were reached in the south-east and north-west of the area (inter alia D80, D85 [not in plans]). Precise dating is impossible because preservation was poor and no floors survived. A number of sub-floor drains or channels were found together with the foundations of three or four walls. Wall 570 in the south-east, which existed in the Early Islamic period, had foundations that were based far deeper than those of other Early Islamic walls. One of the channels ran just beneath its lowest point so the possibility exists that the lower courses originated in pre-Islamic times. In the south-east a channel ran from south to north. The floor of the channel, which was stone lined and plastered, 0.40 m wide and 0.30 m deep, was at 3.85. It was covered with large cap-stones whose upper elevations were at about 4.45. Virgin soil was apparently reached at 3.70. In the north-west were two parallel east–west walls (W571 and W572, not shown on Plan 4.17), 4 m apart, with a north–south wall, W573, connecting them. Along the southern face of W572 ran a narrow (0.20 m wide and 0.20 m deep) channel covered with capstones. Wall 572 only survived to the height of these cap-stones, c. 5.05 (its base was at c. 3.25). From the northern face of W572 two narrow channels, covered with cap-stones, ran to the north to enter a west–east channel. The latter, 0.45 m wide and 0.45 m deep, on which no cap-stones survived, lay 2.75 m north of the wall (Fig. 4.77). To the north-west of this channel the remains of two earlier channels replaced by it were

Fig. 4.77. Area D1. Roman channels in north. Ranging rod below W553(?). Looking west.

uncovered, one of plastered stones, the other of clay pipes. At 2.75 Early Bronze Age pottery was retrieved and virgin soil had not been reached.

THE EARLY ISLAMIC PERIOD Parts of at least two, possibly as many as four, buildings, either side of a common wall, W553, were uncovered. There were two main occupation phases, Phase I (the pottery from which belongs, primarily, to Stratum II although an initial construction date in Stratum III is possible; Plan 4.17) and Phase II (Stratum I; Plan 4.18), which had two sub-phases. In Phase I there was a courtyard (D82) taken-up with industrial installations (C-I–C-X). This phase shows signs of having ended with an earthquake, most likely that of 1033 CE. Two rooms in the south-west (D59 and D63; see Fig. 4.80) were filled with building rubble, probably earthquake debris, which had never been cleared. Two walls, W580 and the northern end of W551, collapsed and were replaced with W554 and W559, built on lines immediately adjacent to their predecessors. The industrial installations in the courtyard went out of use and a reduced area of the courtyard became the centre of a dwelling(?) (D53/74). The Stratum II rooms, where walls had not collapsed, remained in use with little alteration, apart from the raising of the floor levels.

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Stratum II (Plan 4.17) The Industrial Courtyard and Its Rooms D82 + D58 (7.60 × c. 3.75 in south, and over 4 m in the north) was bound on the west by W553, on the north by W566 and on the south by W580. The supervisor of this area could not sort out the ‘confusion’ (his word) of walls in the east, and a lack of information makes the task more difficult now. A theoretical reconstruction follows. In the south W580 separated the courtyard from Corridor D73 with an entrance 1–1.20 m wide. North of the eastern jamb of this entrance was a 1.40 m wide door in W555 (the Stratum I wall, W554, was built into this doorway). Wall 555 probably had a return to the east with a column drum incorporated into the corner (the base can be seen in Fig. 4.78; this re-use of column-drums at the end of walls was noticed in Area C). Between this return and W566 the courtyard extended east of the area of excavation. The poorly preserved floor, at 6.40, was plastered.

The Installations. The plastered tanks of various dimensions appear to have been in groups of two or three inter-connected tanks. Whether they all existed from the beginning or some were added later is not possible to deduce. Six tanks, in two groups of three (C-I, C-VI and C-VIII, and C-II, C-VII and C-IV), appear to be fundamental (Plan 4.17; Fig. 4.78). C-I (0.90 m × 0.70 m, base at 6.72) and C-II (1.40 m × 0.50 m, base at 6.79) were about 1.20 m deep. These two tanks were built above C-VI and C-VII respectively, which were sunk below floor level and vaulted. The vaults, extending about 1 m below C-I and C-II, were 0.50 m (C-VI) or 0.60 m (C-VII) wide. Access to the lower tanks was gained from floor level, via entrances that extended about 0.40 m beyond the line of the tanks above. These were wider than the vaulted chambers by about 0.20 m. Although no direct connection between the upper and lower tanks was recorded, it seems extremely unlikely that this complex arrangement, in which a ladder was necessary to reach the upper tanks (Fig. 4.78), would have been decided

Fig. 4.78. Area D1. Wine-presses(?) in Stratum II courtyard, looking west.

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upon, unless there had been a direct connection between the tanks which would have allowed liquid to filter down from the upper tanks into those below. As the lower, vaulted tanks had a smaller capacity than those above (C-VI held about ½ cu m, C-I about ¾ cu m) the clarified liquid, having deposited any sediment into the vaulted tank, would have filtered over into the tanks (C- VIII—0.70 × 0.90. × 0.85 m; and C-IV—0.90 × 1.10 × 0.85 m) to the east. Again, no channels connecting the tops of these tanks were recorded (they may have been destroyed during the Stratum I modifications). A pair of tanks immediately to the north of the last group may have been added later. It consisted of C-III (1.10 × 1.50 m, base at 6.11, probably no more than 1.20–1.50 m deep) and C-V (1.75 × 0.80 × 0.62 m, base at 5.78), which were joined by a narrow channel at the floor level of C-III (i.e. about half way down C-V). Because the capacity of C-III (c. 2 cu m) was greater than that of C-V (c. 0.85 cu m), it is probable that there was a connection from C-V to C-IX, a large vaulted tank to its north-east which was poorly recorded and its dimensions not known. The Stratum I walls, W558 and W565, were built into this latter tank and much of it north of W558 was partially destroyed. Its base was at 5.60 and had a circular depression at its south-western end for gathering the last drops of liquid when it was being emptied. Another vaulted tank, C-X (1.30–1.75 × 1.10 × 0.85 m, base at 5.62) was to the north of C-IX, to which it was connected by a pipe. The area north of C-III along the eastern face of W553 was not excavated below the floor at 6.46 so it is possible that another tank(s) sunk into the floor could have existed here connected with C-X and, thence, to C-IX. Although direct connections between many of the pools were not recorded the arrangement seems most suitable for the extraction, by treading (in C-I, C-II and C-III), of juice from soft fruit, probably grapes, and its gradual purification by sedimentation. It is feasible that the expressed liquid from all the systems was, after sedimentation, ultimately directed into the vaulted tanks C-IX and C-X for primary fermentation. If this area was indeed utilised for making wine it could indicate that this part of Tiberias was occupied by either Jews or Christians. Foerster’s suggestion that these tanks were used for dyeing (Foerster 1993:1472) is extremely unlikely. The inconveniently elevated

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Plan 4.17. Area D1. Phasing diagram, Stratum II, Phase I. Early Fatimid.

situation of C-I and C-II would make no sense for dyeing, nor would a connection between tanks. Corridor D73. This corridor, about 1.30 m wide, was bounded by W553 in the west, W556 in the south and W580 in the north. The eastern boundary was beyond

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the excavated area. There were doors in W580 (giving access to the courtyard) and in W556 (leading into Room D68/70). There was an earth floor at c. 6.85 covering the irregular cap-stones of a channel which ran beneath the door in W556 from Room D68/70 (Fig. 4.79). A side channel coming in from the industrial courtyard may have joined the main channel. Room D68/70 (3.20 × 4.30 m; Plan 4.17). Bound to the west by W553, to the north by W556 (with a door into D73), in the east by W561 (with a door leading to the east) and W570, in the south. Two pits, of unknown use, were sunk into the accumulation below the first Early Islamic floor although it is not clear whether they were connected with that floor or, more likely, predated it. As with most of the Abbasid/Fatimid structures in Tiberias the walls were built with shallow foundation trenches and a back-fill poured to create a higher floor level. Thus a ‘floor’ noted at 6.71 was only a constructional surface. The Stratum II floor was of plaster at 7.00 (D68/70). A contemporary channel (D77) ran beneath it; it drained the floor of D59 to the west of the western wall W553 and ran below the threshold of the door in the northern wall W556 (Fig. 4.79). This channel was about 0.40 m deep, plastered and covered with cap-stones of which only one survived, indicating that the channel went out of use

at the end of Stratum II. It continued eastward through Corridor D73. Rooms to the North of the Industrial Courtyard Room D61 (2.30 × 3.60 m). Bound to the west by W553 (with a door giving access to Room D78), to the north by W568 (with perhaps a door), to the east by W565 and to the south by W566. The room was entered from D78 in the west, although the door in W553 was said to have been later blocked. However, there are no photographs in the surviving records, nor are elevations given for the original threshold or for the later ‘blocking’, which may only have been a raising of the threshold. A floor, believed to be that of Stratum II, was assumed at 6.55 because this was the elevation (top or bottom is not clear) of a narrow ‘wall’ (possibly a platform?) at the eastern end of the room. Later floors were either not noticed or had been eroded away (there was a steep slope down to the east in the north-east of the excavated area as though W565 had collapsed at some time and the accumulations to its west had slumped). Room D64 (4 m × ?, the northern wall was not reached). Bound to the west by W553, to the east by W565 and to the south by W568. No floors at all survived here, probably as a result of the slumping mentioned above. It was from this area that a coin (Coin No. 363) dated

Fig. 4.79. Area D1. Channel in D70, W556 at top, looking north.

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1233 CE was found, a clear sign that there had been a disturbance of some sort here. Room D78 (c. 2.40 × 5.50 m). Bound to the west by W551, to the north by W564, to the east by W553 (with a door into Room D61) and to the south by W560. A lack of records makes it hard to reconstruct this room. In Stratum II its western wall was W551, which was replaced in Stratum I by W559 immediately to its west. The northern wall, W564, abutted the latter wall but the notes do not state whether an earlier phase existed built up to W551. The only recorded door was in the eastern wall, W553, leading into Room D61, but the elevation of the threshold was not recorded. A floor was conjectured at 6.80 but no mention was made as to whether this related to W551 or W559. Two Rooms South-West of the Industrial Complex D59 (1.50 × 2.20m) was entered from a door in W574, apparently at the end of a corridor bound by W553 and W575, which was mainly in the southern baulk. As with D63 (an irregularly-shaped room of unknown dimensions, with a floor at 6.36), the walls and floors, at 6.44, were covered with plaster, which had been well preserved because a massive collapse had filled the rooms with stony debris from the floor to the surviving height of the walls. This collapse was almost certainly caused by the 1033 CE earthquake (Fig. 4.80). Rooms West of the Industrial Courtyard Room D72 (2.50 × 3.35 m) Bound to the west by W551 with a doorway, to the north by W552 with a doorway

Fig. 4.80. Area D1. D59 and D63, looking south-east.

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into Room D67, to the east by W553 and to the south by W562. The remains of two installations were found associated with the Stratum II floor at 6.50 (D72), but they were not fully investigated. There was a plastered basin of uncertain dimensions in the north-western corner, and, in the south-east, a ‘circular structure’, probably a reservoir or silo. D67 (2.25 × 5.20 m). Bound to the west by W551 with a doorway, to the north by W560, to the east by W553 and to the south by W552 with a door into Room D72. A floor and accumulation upon it existed between 7.10 and 7.25; they probably belonged to Stratum II. Stratum I (Plan 4.18) The Courtyard D74/53 (3.80 × 3.70–4.30 m). Bound to the west by W553, to the north by W558 (with a door leading into D58), to the east by W555 and W565, and to the south by W554 (with a door into corridor D54). Whereas in Stratum II the large industrial courtyard had connections to rooms that extended into the unexcavated area to the east, in Stratum I these connections were blocked off and the reduced courtyard formed a smaller, domestic unit with a room, probably two storied, to the north and south. The installations went out of use in Stratum I. Wall 554, which replaced W580 on a line immediately to its north, was erected partially over Tank C-I and blocked the door in W555; the eastern part of W558 and the southern part of W565 were built into Tank C-IX. Tank C-IV was converted into a stone-covered soak-away (D79; Fig. 4.81), and the floor, of beaten earth, was raised to 6.80 (D74). A staircase was constructed up the northern side of the new wall, W554, and turned along W553 over C-II (Fig. 4.81), either to reach a second floor above a new room, D58, built at the northern end of the Stratum II courtyard, or, less likely, to gain access to Room D52, west of W553. In Stratum Ia the floor south of W558 was raised to 7.22 (D53) above an accumulation which showed signs of fire, and a tabun was built in the angle of W554 and W555. Room D58 (2.75 × 4.30 m). Bound to the west by W553, to the north by W566, to the east by W565 and entered by a door in W558 to the south. No Stratum I floors were recorded although they must have existed.

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to the west and partially blocking the doorway, either to a second storey (or roof) above Room D57, or, less likely, above D55. Stratum Ia: A crude drain dispersed water from the north-western corner, in the angle of W553 and W554, where a drainpipe from the roof of Room D55 must have debouched. The floor was raised to 7.44 (D54) with a step down into the courtyard (D53 floor at 7.22). Room D57 (same boundaries and dimensions as D68/ 70 in Stratum II). In Stratum Ib the door in W561 was blocked and the floor raised to 7.25 (D65). The threshold in the door in W556 was raised to 7.30. The Stratum Ia floor was of beaten earth at 7.57 (D57) with, perhaps, a tabun or bronze-working furnace in the south-east. A hoard of gold coins and earrings (Lester 1991) was found in this room when the southern baulk (D76) collapsed, revealing W570. Although the hoard had apparently been below the level of the Stratum I floor, it was not possible to identify from what elevation it had been buried. The latest of the 16 coins (Coin No. 361) was dated to 1024 in the time of al-Zāhir (1021–1036 CE). Rooms to the North Room D78 + D60. Similar dimensions and boundaries to Room D78 in Stratum II except that W551 was replaced by W559 immediately west of the earlier wall line. The room thus became 3 m wide. The only definite floor was one of decayed plaster at 7.60 which was of Stratum I (probably Ib or even Ia). Rooms D61 and D64, No floors of Stratum I were recorded.

Plan 4.18. Area D1. Phasing diagram, Stratum I, Phase II. Late Fatimid.

Corridor D54. Two phases are evident in this corridor. Stratum Ib: The northern wall, W580 was replaced by W554 immediately to its north and the corridor was increased in width to 1.80 m. The elevation, 6.90, of the threshold in the door of W554, indicates that the floor level remained much the same as that of Stratum II, although the underlying drain had now gone out of use. A crude, steep staircase was built up W556 rising

Rooms to the West Room D66/55 (2.50 × 3.35 m) with the same boundaries and dimensions of D72 in Stratum II. In Stratum Ib the door in W552 was blocked and the floor and the threshold in W551 were raised to 6.82 (D66). The Stratum Ia floor was at 7.35 (D55). D52/62 (2.25 × 5.20 m) with the same dimensions and boundaries as D67 in Stratum II. The door in W552 was blocked. A Stratum I floor at c. 7.35 probably existed, into which a stone-and-plaster-lined silo or cistern (D71), 0.70 m in diameter and 1.50 m deep, was sunk in front of the blocked door in W552.

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Fig. 4.81. Area D1. Courtyard in Stratum I after presses went out of use.

NOTES 1

I thank Beni Arrubas for his help in re-establishing this figure. 2 For wine from Bet She’an see Rowe 1930:5; Gil 1992: Section 337. 3 Although grave goods are not usually associated with Muslim graves, these pits may represent the continuation of a pre-Muslim tradition in the early days of Islam. 4 As of November 1989 it lies within the expanded area of the grounds of the Gané Hammat Hotel, currently a Holiday Inn. 5 Although it is tempting to reconstruct a water cistern here there was no sign that a plastered floor ever existed. 6 That W513 abuts a buttress at the southern end of the early phase of W514 and blocks the channel can be seen in Photo No. 174884 (IAA archives), not reproduced here.

7

More clearly visible in Photo No. 174885 (IAA archives), not reproduced here 8 Referred to as D-2 in Foerster 1993:1472. 9 Such deep column supports in an artificial fill are reported for a mosque in Aqaba (Whitcomb 1994b). 10 Features in D6 and north of W502 appear in Plan 4.16. They were close below the surface in a restricted area, and no attempt is made here to interpret them or assign them to any stratum. They are retained on the plan for the sake of completeness. 11 Referred to as D-1 in Foerster 1993:1472.

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CHAPTER 5

THE POTTERY

The pottery illustrated came primarily from Area C, where there was continuous occupation from the Umayyad period until 1100 CE.1 No attempt was made to analyze the pottery statistically. The percentage of sherds saved at the time of excavation is not known; since then some have disappeared or become separated from their fellows. The vast bulk of the pottery found in Tiberias was produced locally and little was imported from any great distance. However, decorative techniques employed on imported wares, particularly those from Egypt, were quickly copied and were influential in the development of locally produced pottery. Tiberias had a tradition of pottery manufacture in the Byzantine period (JT, Erubin 5) and other nearby sites are known to have produced ceramics in the same period (for Kh. Aiyadiya, close to Bet She’an, see Ben-Tor 1966; for Tel Magda see EAEHL III:229). Recently a large pottery workshop dating to the Umayyad period was excavated at Bet She’an (Mazor 1990:29; Bar-Nathan and Mazor 1993:36–37), and a kiln, dateable to the tenth–eleventh centuries, was noted during road construction 250 m south of Hammat Tiberias (Stern 1995). Differences between the pottery repertoires of the north and south of Jordan during the Umayyad and early Abbasid periods have been noted for more than a decade, in particular, by Walmsley, who excavated at Pella in the north, and Whitcomb, who worked at Aqaba in the south (inter alia Walmsley 1992:381–382; Whitcomb 1989a:171, 1989c, 1995:493–494). More recently published pottery from sites in central and southern Jordan such as Gharandal (Walmsley and Grey 2001) and, more particularly, Yajuz (Khalil and Kareem 2002) underline these differences. Various excavations in Israel, some published, others in the process of publication, indicate that during the Abbasid and Fatimid periods there were variations between the pottery types found in Jund Filastīn, particularly along the Mediterranean coastal plain, and those found in Jund al-Urdunn, centred on its regional

capital, Tiberias. During the course of this study the regional distribution of some types, in particular three bowl types—one unglazed (Fig. 5.5) and two glazed (Figs. 5.23:1; 5.25)—and an oil-lamp type (Form 3D: see Chapter 6) will be examined to see what variations can already be discerned. Thus researchers working on Early Islamic ceramics in Palestine should be cautious when looking for parallels at sites distant from their own. Once the ceramics from the large excavations at Bet She’an, Caesarea and Ramla are finally published more regional variations will probably be revealed. In the tenth–eleventh centuries, vessels, which by their prevalence in Tiberias were obviously of local manufacture, were ‘exported’ south and east to Amman, Khirbat al-Mafjar and as far south as Aqaba. Where relevant, reference is made to the provisional index of Abbasid wares developed by Walmsley at Pella (Walmsley 1991:152; 1993:213–215).2

CATALOGUE UNGLAZED BOWLS Egyptian Red Slip (Fig. 5.1) There are no precise parallels for this vessel, which is probably of Egyptian ‘C’ Ware (Hayes 1972:399–401). It was the sole example of Egyptian Red Slip ware from Area C and was not from a well-dated context. It probably belongs to the eighth–early ninth centuries. Examples of Egyptian Red Slip ‘A’ Ware from an Umayyad fill in Area D have already been published (Stacey 1988–1989).3

Fig. 5.1. Egyptian Red Slip: Locus C21, Basket/Sherd No. 1442/18, Elevation 10.14, Strata V/IV.

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Fine Byzantine Ware (Ware VII) (Fig. 5.2) This ware was first identified as ‘Fine Byzantine Ware’ by Gichon (1974) though those illustrated here would be better called ‘Fine Islamic Ware’ (Magness 2000: 815 n. 10). One ‘cup’ (Fig. 5.2:1) has an unusual etched design, consisting of four rows of alternate zigzags and ‘egg-and-dart’ below the rim, and a fish within a circle on the main body of the cup (cf. Walmsley 1991: Fig. 3:7). Another example (not illustrated) has a red-painted rim with rows of horizontal lines in black paint below the rim. Both these sherds came from an extension behind the Umayyad shops on the western side of the street that was probably built in the late eighth century and abandoned in the early ninth century. The other examples (Fig. 5.2:2–8) were recovered from an accumulation above a Byzantine terrace sealed in by a late tenth-century building in Area C1. One sherd (Fig. 5.2:8) originated within the fill of a silo on the terrace. It is probable that they all date to the late Umayyad or early Abbasid period. Two sherds (Fig. 5.2:2, 3) probably came from the same vessel. On the upper part of the internal wall were parallel thin, black horizontal lines: the external rim was decorated with short vertical incisions below which were three horizontal black lines. The body of the cup was painted

1

with chevrons and other geometric shapes in white paint. Other examples were decorated with patterns applied directly to the cups in white (Fig. 5.2:7) or red paint (Fig. 5.2:4, 5); in still others the cup was covered in white paint and a pattern applied in black (Fig. 5.2:6) or red and black paint (Fig. 5.2:8). The decoration on the latter sherd, in particular, has strong similarities to that on vessels found in Egypt (Bailey 1998: Pl. 19 C709). Indeed, as already noted, there appears to be a strong underlying Egyptian influence on the development of Palestinian pottery in the eighth and ninth centuries (Watson 1995; Magness 2000:816). Rouletted Bowl (Fig. 5.3) A number of these vessels have been found in Umayyad Bet She’an and are thought to have originated in Jordan. Only one example was found in Tiberias; it came from an immediately post-749 CE earthquake context. The clay is a dirty off-white and it is more thickly potted than the Fine Byzantine Bowls that it may imitate. Fig. 5.3. Rouletted bowl: Locus C84, Basket 2230, Elevation 12.51, Stratum IV.

2 3

4

6

7

5

8

Fig. 5.2. Fine Byzantine ware. No.

Locus

Basket/ Sherd No.

1

C99

2447/1

2

C25

1336/2

3

C25

1350/1

4

C25

1353

Elevation

Stratum

No.

Locus

Basket/ Sherd No.

Elevation

Stratum

12.72

IV

5

C25

1324/15

11.30

IV

10.84

IV

6

C25

1392/2

11.14

IV

10.79

IV

7

C25

1356/2

10.59

IV

10.59

IV

8

C25

1376/3

9.72

V/IV

91

CHAPTER 5: THE POTTERY

1 2

4 3

5

6

7

Fig. 5.4. ‘Jerash’ bowls. No.

Locus

Basket/ Sherd No.

Elevation

Stratum

1

C83

2236

12.30

V

2

C99

2447/4

12.72

IV

3

C99

2433/1

12.85

IV

4

C97

2408/7

12.58

IV

5

C98

2421/6

12.44

IV

6

C19

1199/2

12.00

IV

7

C19

1199/1

12.00

IV

Handmade ‘Jerash’ Bowls (Ware III) (Fig. 5.4) These grey handmade bowls were a product of Jerash in the Umayyad period (Gawlikowski 1986: 118; Schaefer and Falkner 1986:425–427; Khalil and Kareem 2002:122) but survived into the ninth century

at Pella (Walmsley 1995: Ware 14). In Tiberias a few (Fig. 5.4:1) could be dated to the Umayyad period but most were from late eighth-century contexts (Fig. 5.4:2–5), whilst a few continued into the ninth century (Fig. 5.4:6, 7). The latter appear to have been finished on a wheel.

92

DAVID STACEY

3

2

1

4 5

6

8 7

9

11

10

13

12

14 15

Fig. 5.5. Cream-ware bowls.

Cream-Ware Bowls (Ware VI) (Fig. 5.5) The unglazed bowls, some with incised decoration below the rim, all of thin pale cream ware (otherwise ‘buff ware’ or, traditionally, ‘Mafjar ware’) were common in Tiberias from soon after the earthquake of 749 CE. Walmsley’s statement that “their continued absence from the Umayyad destruction levels” (Walmsley 1986:194) holds true for the more limited exposure of these levels in Tiberias. They continue until c. 850–900, when they were largely replaced by glazed bowls. The incised bowls are high-sided hemispherical bowls with a flat base and out-turned rim. Below the rim there are often incised zigzags or other geometric patterns, sometimes with applied clay pellets (Fig. 5.5: 1, 2, 6–8). They were common at Tiberias, as well as at Hammat Tiberias (Johnson 2000b: Fig. 10:12). They have been found at other sites on the shores of the Sea of Galilee: at Capernaum (Peleg 1989: Figs. 62:34–41;

68), Kursi (Tzaferis 1983: Fig. 4:22) and Khirbat alKarak (Delougaz and Haines 1960: Pls. 40, 41). Going south they are known at Hammat Gader (Ben-Arieh 1997: Pl. VIII:19, 20; Boas 1997: Pl. I 26), Bet She’an (Rachel Bar-Nathan and Miriam Avissar, pers. comm.) and Pella (inter alia McNicoll, Smith and Hennessy 1982: Pl. 14:3–5; Walmsley 1991: Fig. 4: 9, 1995: Fig. 5:7). Some plain bowls were of similar form to the incised bowls (Fig. 5.5:3, 4) but others had in-turned rims (Fig. 5.5:5, 11), carinations (Fig. 5.5:9) or handles (Fig. 5.5:10). All came from late eighth- or ninthcentury CE contexts. A small bowl or cup (Fig. 5.5:15) was unique in that it had decoration consisting of rows of black-painted dots. It came from a poorly dated context but probably belongs to the same period. Further south are found related bowls, belonging to what Whitcomb has dubbed ‘Mahesh Ware’, but they are quite distinct and Whitcomb believes them to be of Mesopotamian inspiration (for Amman—Northedge

CHAPTER 5: THE POTTERY

Fig. 5.5 No.

Locus

Basket/ Sherd No.

Elevation

Stratum

1

C205

2393

12.72

IV

2

C47

1882/1

12.12

IV

3

C97

2408/5

12.58

IV

4

C97

2408/8

12.58

IV

5

C79

2199/2

12.52

IV

6

C34

1500/2

12.84

III

7

C43

1824

12.90

III

8

C81

2562/4

12.70

IV/III

9

C75

2153/18

12.70

III

10

C75

2153/31

12.70

III

11

C75

2153/36

12.70

III

12

C67

2050/10

13.02

II

13

C93

2388/3

13.15

II

14

C205

2270/1

13.74

I

15

C25

1334/2

10.84

IV

1992: Pl. 160:3; for Yajuz, where the bowls are more usually pink than cream—Khalil and Kareem 2002: 117 Figs. 8:13, 18; 9: 2, 18; for ‘Aqaba—Whitcomb 1989c: Fig. 4o). This type does not appear at Khirbat al-Mafjar (Baramki 1944: the bowls in Fig. 10:11–13 do not seem to be this form) or Jerusalem (Magness 1993). Examples are not known from north or east of the Sea of Galilee, a region from which very little early Abbasid pottery has been published. To the west they have been discovered at Sepphoris (Katia Cytryn-Silverman, pers. comm.). A few sherds have been published from as far west as Yoqne‘am (Avissar 1996a: Fig. XIII.69 Type 6), where “only four rim pieces were counted” and one of them (No. 3) seems unrelated except in ware. No example of these bowls has been published from Caesarea: they were not found by the Hebrew University excavations (Brosh 1986) nor do they appear in Niamir’s (1999) corpus of Islamic ceramics from more recent excavations. Indeed, Arnon (1999b: 225) emphasises that “all the samples” (of early ‘fine buff ware’) “were closed forms….” The incised bowls are also absent from Ramla (Cytryn-Silverman, pers. comm. and forthcoming)4 and Abu Ghosh (de Vaux and Stève 1950). Their absence from these sites is unlikely to have been caused by sudden, albeit brief, breaks in

93

occupation at the sites, but to the fact that the bowls had a limited distribution from a northern workshop almost certainly situated in Tiberias. A number of the plain bowls have, not surprisingly, parallels from Hammat Tiberias (cf. Fig. 5.5:4 with Johnson 2000b: Fig. 10:4; Fig. 5.5:5 with Johnson 2000b: Fig. 10:6; Fig. 5.5:12 with Johnson 2000b: Fig. 10:9). Undecorated cream-ware bowls, greatly reduced both in variety of forms and in number, do continue (Fig. 5.5:12–14) into the tenth and the eleventh centuries. Cut-Ware Bowls (Kerbschnitt; Ware X) (Fig. 5.6) These handmade bowls do not appear until after the Umayyad period in Pella (McNicoll, Smith and Hennessy 1982:152: Walmsley 1991:142), Yajuz (Khalil and Kareem 2002:117–118 Fig. 20) or Bet She’an (Avissar, pers. comm.). In Pella they first occurred “not before the mid-ninth century” (Walmsley 1995: Ware 19), although this is later than their appearance in Kursi (Tzaferis 1983: Fig. 5:1) where they came from the post-Umayyad occupation, which probably did not continue much past 800 CE. These vessels may have been a product of Jerash in the Abbasid period (Gawlikowski 1986:117). It is hard to date their first appearance in Tiberias because the few examples found came from poorly stratified loci. Whilst a few small unillustrated sherds probably date to the late eighth–early ninth centuries, the best example (Fig. 5.6) was recovered from a late Stratum III (880–980 CE) floor, where it may have been residual.

Fig. 5.6. Cut-ware bowl: Locus C66, Basket/Sherd No. 2124, Elevation 12.88, Stratum III.

94

DAVID STACEY

1

2

3

4

Fig. 5.7. Fig. 5.7. Chlorite vessels. No.

Locus

Basket/ Sherd No.

Elevation

Stratum

1

C22

1251/6

12.25

IV

2

C25

1329

11.14

IV

3

C23

1278

11.73

IV

4

B47

1563/1

11.19

II

Chlorite Vessels (Fig. 5.7) These vessels, carved from a soft stone, and thus not ceramic, are included here for convenience. They were a product of the northwest Hijaz in the eighth–tenth centuries (Zarins et al. 1980:27–28: Kisnawi, de Jesus and Rihani 1983:79) and arrived in Aqaba between 750 and 1100, with the greatest influx being between 800 and 1000 CE (Hallet 1990:62–64). Most were cylindrical, flat-based vessels with vertical sides simply tooled, but more elaborate vessels with legs (Fig. 5.7:1) or spouts (Fig. 5.7:2) or low relief carving (Fig. 5.7:3) were also produced. Whilst none of these examples came from well-dated contexts they probably belong to the late eighth or ninth century. A chlorite vessel (Fig. 5.7:4), its exterior liberally covered in soot, so probably used as a cooking pot, was found in Area B in a Stratum II context in association with a dirham of al-Hākim. This is an unusually late

appearance of a chlorite vessel in Tiberias, although its vertical tooling is indicative of a late date (Whitcomb 1987:264; 1994a:26e). Black Lustrous Ware (Ware Xa) (Fig. 5.8) A handmade, heavily burnished ‘black lustrous’ ware with incised geometric decoration in-filled with chalk seems to imitate chlorite vessels, although glass vessels with incised decoration very similar to that on black lustrous vessels have been published from Bet She’an (Hadad 2000). The question arises: which medium, if any, was imitating which, and, which appeared first? In Tiberias, one example (Fig. 5.8:1) was recovered from a Stratum III context and was probably residual. The three earliest sealed examples (Fig. 5.8:2–4) came from the plaster surfaces which went out of use in the late eighth–early ninth centuries below the later buildings in Area C1 (west). Thus their introduction

95

CHAPTER 5: THE POTTERY

1

5

2

3

4

Fig. 5.8. Black lustrous ware. No.

Locus

Basket/ Sherd No.

Elevation

Stratum

1

C94

2386

12.76

III

2

C23

1317/6

10.72

IV

3

C23

1292/4

11.07

IV

4

C19

1346

11.81

IV

5

C21

1402

11.40

IV

in the period 750–850 CE seems likely. One sherd (C93/2341, not illustrated, found in a Stratum II context but probably residual) had both incised decoration and the deeply incised triangles usually found on ‘cut ware’, a ware also associated with this period. Another example (Fig. 5.8:5) had internal, redpainted chevrons, similar to those often found on cutware bowls. It came from a disturbed locus together with pottery from the ninth–tenth centuries. An eighth–ninth-century time range has been proposed at Nabratein (Magness 1994:204), Caesarea (Niamir 1999:45, and see Brosh 1986: Pl. 1:7, 8) and Yoqne‘am (Avissar 1996a:122–123). Hadad (2000: Fig. 1:1, 2) published two incised glass sherds said to come from Umayyad contexts, although no associated ceramic assemblages were illustrated. Some black lustrous sherds from Bet She’an were illustrated but no attempt was made to date them more precisely than ‘Abbasid–Fatimid’ (Hadad 2000: Fig. 5:21–25).

These vessels have only been published from Tiberias (Oren 1971), Bet She’an, Nabratein, Yoqne‘am and Caesarea,5 and their great similarity suggests they came from not only the same workshop but even the same hand (cf. Fig. 5.8:4 with Hammat Tiberias—Oren 1971:276, upper left; Fig. 5.8:2 with Bet She’an—Hadad 2000: Fig. 6:25). This would hint that they were produced for a limited period, perhaps no more than between c. 800–850 CE, either in Tiberias or Caesarea. Pink-Ware Bowls (Fig. 5.9) These local bowls are in pink clay (Munsell 5YR 7/3–8/4).6 Their external surfaces show signs of knifeparing, which often gives them a burnished appearance. The earliest example (Fig. 5.9:1) was discovered on the small flagstones in front of the southern gate (see Fig. 4.2), which, if not originally Roman, were added no

96

DAVID STACEY

1

2 3

4

6

5

7

Fig. 5.9. Pink-ware bowls. No.

Locus

Basket/ Sherd No.

Elevation

Stratum

1

C42

1537

12.71

IV

2

C59

1849/10

13.38

II

3

C32

1555/2

13.08

II

4

C43

1754/2

13.04

II

5

C64

2061

13.23

I

6

C40

1478/4

13.45

I

7

C32

1532

13.10

II

later than the Umayyad period and were covered by the time the wooden gates (see Figs. 4.5, 4.17) were added in Stratum III. It thus dates to the late eighth or early ninth century. It bore similarities to ‘Fine Byzantine Ware’ (Magness 1993:200, ‘FBW Bowls Form 2b’; Avissar 1996a: Fig. XIII.67 Type 4:1) but was the same form and fabric as locally made ‘Coptic Glazed Ware’ (see Fig. 5.18 below) and was perhaps an unglazed example. At Yajuz pink-ware bowls, a few glazed, were found in the Abbasid period, but no mention is made of them being knife pared (Khalil and Kareem 2002:117). All the other examples were retrieved from either Stratum II (Fig. 5.9:2–4) or Stratum I (Fig. 5.9:5, 6) and were of forms commonly found with glaze. The deep bowl of Stratum II (Fig. 5.9:7) was of a redder clay, and no glazed versions were recovered. Its knife-pared external surface suggests that it should be included with these bowls.

BASINS Chaff-Tempered Basins (Fig. 5.10) A chaff-tempered coarse ware was used for large, sloping-sided basins. The bases were often handmade, and the sides finished on a wheel. Vessels were generally of very pale brown (10YR 8/4) but are frequently ‘painted’ with a reddish brown (5YR 5/4) wash or slip which can cover all or part, usually the exterior, of the vessel. The chaff-tempered basins found in Stratum IV contexts in Tiberias (Fig. 5.10:1, 2) may be residual from the Umayyad period. They did not appear elsewhere in Tiberias and, in Pella, they were mostly confined to the Byzantine period (Watson 1992:238; Walmsley 1995: Ware 4) and were certainly going out of favour by the time of the 749 earthquake (McNicoll, Smith and Hennessy 1982: Fig. 138).

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CHAPTER 5: THE POTTERY

2

1

3

Fig. 5.10. Chaff-tempered basins: (1) Locus C99, Basket/Sherd No. 2433/5, Elevation 12.85, Stratum IV; (2) Locus C99, Basket/Sherd No. 2432/9, Elevation 12.85, Stratum IV; (3) Locus C207, Basket/Sherd No. 2322/4, Elevation 13.24, Stratum 1.

A vessel of lightly fired clay with a fine chaff temper (Fig. 5.10:3) was recovered in Stratum I and probably belongs to the body of crude handmade vessels that appear at that time (Fig. 5.16). Craters (Fig. 5.11) Two craters (Fig. 5.11:1, 2) came from the Umayyad shops in Area C, the third (Fig. 5.11:3) from a soakaway in Area A.

These vessels have a limited distribution around the Sea of Galilee, at Capernaum (Peleg 1989: Fig. 48:1–3), Kursi (Tzaferis 1983: Fig. 5:10–12), Hammat Gader (Ben-Arieh 1997: Pls. VI:1, IX:5, 6) and Khirbat al-Karak (Delougaz and Haines 1960: Pl. 33:8), where they appear in the Umayyad period. They are noticeably absent from Pella and their distribution pattern suggests that these craters were made in either Bet She’an or Tiberias.

1

2

3

Fig. 5.11. Craters: (1) Locus C84E, Basket/Sherd No. 2286/1, Elevation 12.30, Stratum V/IV; (2) Locus C84E, Basket/Sherd No. 2286/2, Elevation 12.30, Stratum V/IV; (3) Locus A48, Elevation? Stratum V/IV.

98

DAVID STACEY

Basins with Red-Painted Decoration (Fig. 5.12)

Pink-Ware Basins (Fig. 5.13)

These basins were of ‘pink’ ware decorated with painted red lines sloping down from the rim. The rim of Fig. 5.12:2 was also painted in red. Only two sherds were found, both in Abbasid contexts. The ware is similar to that of smaller bowls painted with more ordered designs in red, which are widespread in the Umayyad and early Abbasid periods (see Avissar 1996a: Type 9, p. 121 for many parallels) and may represent a degenerate form dateable to the later ninth century. The closest parallels are from Jerash (Gawlikowski 1986: Pl. 12; Schaefer and Falkner 1986: Fig. 11:11) and Yajuz (Khalil and Kareem 2002: Fig. 9:15).

Wheel-made basins are in pink (7.5YR 7/4) or very pale brown (10YR 8/4) ware. The early group 1

2

Fig. 5.12. Red-painted basins: (1) Locus C97, Basket/Sherd No. 2408/2, Elevation 12.58, Stratum IV; (2) Locus C94, Basket/Sherd No. 2360/2, Elevation 12.86, Stratum III.

1 2

4 3

5

6

7

Fig. 5.13. Pink-ware basins. No.

Locus

Basket/ Sherd No.

Elevation

Stratum

1

C99

2433/2

12.85

IV

2

C99

2433/3

12.85

IV

3

C99

2432/4

12.85

IV

4

C60

1935/5

12.70

IV

5

C20

1181/2

11.78

I

6

C13

1056/6

13.33

I

7

C32

1459/1

13.96

I

CHAPTER 5: THE POTTERY

(Fig. 5.13:1–4) is from Stratum IV (750–880 CE) and one (Fig. 5.13:4) has its internal surface covered in a red slip and can be compared with vessels from Yoqne‘am (Avissar 1996a: Fig. XIII.76 Type 13). Parallels have not been found for the other three examples from this group. Two basins (Fig. 5.13:5, 6) belong to the eleventh century and may be seen as forerunners of a Crusader type at Yoqne‘am (Avissar 1996a: Fig. XIII.83 Type 30), whilst another eleventh-century basin (Fig. 5.13: 7) is a predecessor of Avissar’s Crusader Type 32. Cream-Ware Basins (Ware VI) (Fig. 5.14) These basins, wheel-made, most having flaring sides and flattened rims, and some with combed or incised decoration, occur in Stratum IV (Fig. 5.14:1, 2, 10, 11), Stratum III (Fig. 5.14:3, 4), Stratum II (Figs. 5.14:5; 5.58:4, 5) and Stratum I (Fig. 5.14:6–9, 12, 13). In Aqaba Whitcomb sees similar, though not identical, vessels as a type fossil of the early Abbasid period (Whitcomb 1989b: Figs. 2, 3). They are published from Kh. al-Mafjar (Baramki 1944: Fig. 10:1–3, 6, 8–10) where they should be dated late Umayyad or early Abbasid (see Chapter 3, above). They are not published from inter alia Capernaum, Pella, Yoqne‘am or Caesarea and they seem to succeed the ‘dark grey to buff ware’ of Jerash (Schaefer and Falkner 1986: Pl. 10:1–6) and Pella (McNicoll, Smith and Hennessy 1982: Pls. 139:2–4; 145:6). Related, but not identical, basins in a ‘light creamy ware’ occur at Ramla (CytrynSilverman, forthcoming) dated to the early Abbasid period. Two examples (see Fig. 5.58:4, 5) came from the most secure 1033 CE earthquake destruction layer, that in Locus C20. Sugar Mould The basin (Fig. 5.14:12), which had a 5 mm hole pierced through its base before firing, was probably a sugar mould, though it is less robust (and probably earlier) than most published examples (Von Wartburg 1983: Figs. 12–14; Whitcomb 1992a: Pls. 29:j–m, 31: a–e; Grey 1994: Fig. 8:7). It is the only complete vessel of its kind although fragments of two larger examples (B1102/12 and B1142/16, not illustrated) were found

99

with it. Bases of cream-ware basins with a single central hole were quite common in Strata II and I in Area C. The holes were usually made before firing but some were drilled later; there was one example with a pre-fired hole and a second, drilled hole about 2 cm away. The fragmentary bases were similar to those of ordinary domestic basins (e.g. Fig. 5.14:8, 9), but no other complete rim-to-base profile was uncovered. Al-Maqdisī, c. 985, noted renowned sugar plantations near Kabul, situated between Tiberias and Acre (Le Strange 1890:467). It is generally believed that sugar cane was only introduced to Palestine and Syria during the tenth century (Whitcomb 1992a:117; Watson 1983: 28 n. 19 with references to other contemporary sources therein). Evidence of industrial sugar production has been found south of Tiberias as far as the Jordan Valley. A sugar-mill of unknown date appears on a British Survey map south of Hammat Tiberias but has since been destroyed; other mills do survive (Vinogradov 1988:156–158). Evidence for industrial sugar production in Mamluk Tiberias has recently been noted (Hirschfeld 1997:40). All the moulds excavated in 1973–1974 came from domestic contexts. No specific jar for the collection of molasses (Von Wartburg 1983:309) could be detected, but perhaps in a domestic environment any suitable jar was pressed into use. There was a noticeable increase in the number of large basins or vats in Strata II and I, which may be due to their use in the domestic production of sugar. It is a moot point whether this evidence of sugar production in domestic contexts, using improvised adaptations of standard vessels, predated the introduction of industrial sugar production in the region, or operated opportunistically alongside it. The moulds may represent a cottage industry producing lower quality sugar utilising the residue from previous filtrations from a nearby factory (Hassan and Hill 1986:220–222) Cream-ware basins from tenth–eleventh-century contexts are not published from elsewhere (although a number from Hammat Tiberias almost certainly date to that time: cf. Fig. 5.58:4 with Johnson 2000b: Fig. 11:28; Fig. 5.58:5 with ibid: Fig.10:26); a possible example from Aqaba (Whitcomb 1988a: Fig. 6l) differs in that it has chaff temper.

100

DAVID STACEY

1 6

2 7

3

8

4

5 9

10

11

12

13

Fig. 5.14. Cream-ware basins.

101

CHAPTER 5: THE POTTERY

Fig. 5.14 No.

Fig. 5.15

Locus

Basket/ Sherd No.

Elevation

Stratum

1

C60

1933/11

12.78

IV

2

C53

2016/2

12.62

3

C57

1924/1

11.84

4

C66

2120/10

5

C67

6

C39

7

Locus

Basket/ Sherd No.

Elevation

Stratum

1

C43

1541

13.00

III

IV

2

C43

1861

12.90

III

III

3

B52

1631

10.97

IV or III

12.88

III

4

C66

2044/65

12.97

II

2050/1

13.02

II

5

C66

2071/55

13.00

II

1489/4

13.36

I

6

C13

1085

12.96

II/I

C64

2042/23

13.19

I

7

C13

1054/12

13.33

I

8

C92

2321

13.43

I

8

C35

1460/2

13.61

I

9

C92

2321/1

13.43

I

9

C217

2450/7

13.50

I

10

C24

1294/6

11.00

IV/III

10

C217

2450/5

13.50

I

11

C21

1442/3

10.14

IV

11

C9

1061/1

11.84

I

12

B3

1043

13.56

I (N of

12

B3

1102/2

13.36

I

W502)

13

B26/7

1419/4

12.83

I

13

C20

1160/2

11.79

I

14

B45

1493/2

11.82

I

Large Basins (Fig. 5.15) These basins are generally in red (10R 5/6) or brown (10YR 8/3) clay and frequently have combing, finger indentation or cut-band decoration. They can be distinguished stratigraphically. Stratum III (Fig. 5.15:1–3). Three basins have flaring sides with an out-turned flattened rim. A small basin with at least one handle (Fig. 5.15:1) was of very pale brown (10YR 8/3) clay but was otherwise identical to a vessel in cream ware (Fig. 5.14:3). It came from the same locus as a basin with a handmade chaff-tempered base and wheel-made sides in a drab olive grey (Fig. 5.15:2) that may be residual as it is unique in this phase (though it is similar to some early Abbasid vessels from Aqaba [Whitcomb 1989c: Fig. 3]). Both were discovered on a plaster floor in the eastern round tower from which was recovered a number of almost whole vessels, including several ‘hand-grenades’ (see Fig. 5.52), together with an iron axe head and ninthcentury coins (Coin Nos. 184, 185, 203, 286, 287, 289). A sherd (Fig. 5.15:3), with an early Abbasid parallel at el-Muwaqqar (Najjar 1989: Fig. 5:11) but very similar in form to a cream-ware basin (see Fig. 5.58:4) that came from a 1033 CE destruction layer in Tiberias, was recovered beneath the Stratum II building in Area B. Stratum II (Fig. 5.15:4–6). Most of these basins have in-turned, rounded rims, parallels for which have been

No.

published from Amman (Northedge 1984: Fig. 77:4 ‘eleventh century’), Capernaum (Peleg 1989: Figs. 43:4, 5; 47:7 ‘Fatimid’) and Yoqne‘am (Avissar 1996a: Types 28 and 29 ‘Abbasid/Fatimid’). Stratum I (Fig. 5.15:7–14). These basins are similar in form to those from Stratum II, although two (Fig. 5.15: 9, 10) have white (2.5Y 8/2) surfaces that may be a slip or the result of a special firing technique (cf. Whitcomb 1988a: Fig. 6f, g, i, l, n). (Additional Munsell readings: Fig. 5.15:11, ‘pinkish grey’ 7.5YR 6/2 and Fig. 5.15: 12, ‘very pale brown’ 10YR 7/3.) Handmade Troughs, Crucibles, Basins, Etc. (Fig. 5.16) A grey, cylindrical, flat-bottomed crater about 30 cm in diameter and 12 cm deep (Fig. 5.16:1), which was a handmade pottery imitation of chlorite vessels, was discovered next to a tabun in C32. Its internal (but not external) surfaces showed pronounced signs of burning. It may have been used as a fire-tray in which to cover hot coals in ashes for future use. Fragments of rough handmade rectangular troughs, apparently 30–40 × 25–30 × 15 cm deep, were found occasionally throughout the excavations. Figure 5.16:2, which came from a ninth-century context, represents the earliest. They were always of a yellow/white clay (2.5Y 8/3) with many largish basalt grits giving them a rough surface. They had T-shaped rims with the outward arm finger-indented and the top often incised

102

DAVID STACEY

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

Fig. 5.15. Large basins.

CHAPTER 5: THE POTTERY

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

Fig. 5.15. (cont.).

103

104

DAVID STACEY

2

1

3

4

5

7 6

Fig. 5.16. Handmade vessels. No.

Locus

Basket/ Sherd No.

Elevation

Stratum

No.

Locus

Basket/ Sherd No.

1

C81

2183

12.78

IV/III

5

C20

1163/4

11.79

I

C13

1054/13

13.33

I

C57

1907/19

11.57

IV/III

2

C83

2210/5

12.60

IV

6

3

C40

1478/2

13.45

I

7

4

C13

1127

12.73

II

(e.g. with the four squiggly lines on the illustrated example). Some later (tenth–eleventh century) examples are covered with a pale blue or greenish-blue glaze, although the underlying grits give a rough finish. They clearly had a domestic use (perhaps for kneading dough and leaving it to rise?). Most handmade vessels were bowls, usually with a black or grey core and light brown to red surfaces. One (Fig. 5.16:4), in pale brown (10YR 8/3), had both chaff and large grit—both black and white—temper. Two had handles and an applied band with finger indentations (Fig. 5.16:3, 5).

Elevation

Stratum

A grey vessel (Fig. 5.16:6) was a crucible and still contained bronze slag (cf. Whitcomb 1988a: Fig. 5i). A fragment of a crudely made lamp of uncertain overall shape (Fig. 5.16:7) was found in a ninthcentury context.

GLAZED BOWLS Coptic Ware (Ware IXb) (Fig. 5.17) A matt-glazed ware makes its first appearance in Stratum IV. It is related to Coptic ware (see in particular

105

CHAPTER 5: THE POTTERY

1

2

Fig. 5.17. Coptic ware: (1) Locus C205, Basket/Sherd No. 2378, Elevation 12.82, Stratum IV; (2) Locus C99, Basket/Sherd No. 2432/16, Elevation 12.85, Stratum IV.

Whitcomb 1989a), a rather unfortunate ethno-religious terminology called into question by the pseudo(?)Kufic inscription (Colour Pl. 1:1). Mason prefers the neutral, technological term ‘semi-glazed’ ware (Mason 1994:104–108, 1997:225; Mason and Keall 1990: 171–172) because Egyptian examples “have discrete bands of glaze and unglazed parts, even on the interior, effectively using the glaze as a decorative element rather than an overall treatment” (Robert Mason, pers. comm.). This description does not apply precisely to any examples from Tiberias, none of which have unglazed bands (cf. Caesarea—Holum and Hohlfelder 1988: Fig. 157). Although inspired by ‘Coptic Ware’ imported from Egypt, the majority of the matt-glazed bowls found in Tiberias were probably made locally. Thus it is better to designate them as ‘matt-glazed ware’, rather than using the anachoristic term ‘Coptic Ware’. Two pieces, which probably did originate in Egypt (Fig. 5.17:1, 2), employed a white ‘paint’, which was unglazed, within the decoration. It appears to be an underlying white slip. The more ornate bowl (Fig. 5.17:1; Colour Pl. 1:2), which was decorated with half-palmettes (birds?) between the points of a sixpointed star, is clearly from an established workshop and has stylistic parallels from Fustat (Scanlon 1974a: Pls. 37, 38). It is unusual in having the whole of the exterior glazed. These two pieces were perhaps the only examples imported from Egypt, but their influence on the local pottery industry was long lasting. Both were found 0.1–0.2 m above Stratum IV floors and should therefore be dated to around 775–800 CE.

Early Matt-Glazed Bowls (suggested date 775–800 CE; Fig. 5.18; Colour Pl. 1:3) These three bowls had a thin yellow glaze (2.5Y 8/7 to 5Y 8/4) internally with no obvious white slip and were probably early experiments in glazing from a local kiln. One example (Fig. 5.18:1, body, ‘light reddish brown’ 5YR 6/4; glaze, ‘pale yellow’ 5Y 8/4) had ribbing, which is unique for matt bowls, most of which show signs of exterior knife paring. It is probably the earliest example of locally made matt-glazed ware from Tiberias, as it was found in the bottom of the ‘bin’ (C84E) outside Locus C84, which may have begun to fill in even before the shops closed down c. 800(?) CE.

1

2

3

Fig. 5.18. Early matt-glazed bowls: (1) Locus C84E, Basket 2273, Elevation 12.30; (2) Locus C60, Basket/Sherd No. 1933/33, Elevation 12.78; (3) Locus C45, Basket/Sherd No. 1710/32, Elevation 12.87. All Stratum IV.

106

DAVID STACEY

COLOUR PLATES (Pp. 107, 114 and 115)

Colour Pl. 1 1. Pseudo(?)-Kufic inscription; ‘Coptic Ware’ style; later matt-glazed ware (scale 1:1). 2. Imported ‘Coptic’ ware (= Fig. 5.17:1). 3. Local early matt-glazed ware (= Fig. 5.18:3). 4. Local later matt-glazed ware (= Fig. 5.19:10). 5. Alkali-glazed ware (= Fig. 5.20:2). 6. Alkali-glazed ware (= Fig. 5.21:3). 7. Lead-glazed ware. Probably imported (= Fig. 5.23:1). Colour Pl. 2 8. Mesopotamian ruby red lustre ware (= Fig. 5.24:1). 9. Mesopotamian monochrome lustre ware (= Fig. 5.24:2). 10. Egyptian monochrome lustre ware (= Fig. 5.24:3). 11. Egyptian monochrome lustre ware (=Fig. 5.24:4). 12. Egyptian monochrome lustre ware (= Fig. 5.24:5). 13. Egyptian monochrome lustre ware (= Fig. 5.24:6). 14. Imported wares in C20 destruction layer: (a, b) Egyptian lustre ware; (c) blue-painted opaque white ware; (d) imitation porcelain; (e) imitation celadon (= Fig. 5.59:1–5). Colour Pl. 3 15. Monochrome cyma-recta bowl with pronounced knife paring (= Fig. 5.25:4). 16. Cyma-recta bowl with ‘corkscrew’ sgrafitto (= Fig. 5.25:6). 17. Cyma-recta bowl with ‘corkscrew’ sgrafitto (= Fig. 5.25:7). 18. Cyma-recta bowl with trefoil pattern (= Fig. 5.25:10). 19. Out-turned bowl with free flowing ‘corkscrew’ sgrafitto (= Fig. 5.25:11). 20. ‘Corkscrew’ within half-palmette (‘tadpole’) sgrafitto, cable pattern on rim (= Fig. 5.25:12). 21. ‘Corkscrew’ within half-palmette sgrafitto, cable pattern on rim (= Fig. 5.25:15). 22. Cyma-recta bowl with handle (= Fig. 5.26:2). 23. Splashed opaque glazed ware. Egyptian import? (= Fig. 5.28:2). 24. Sgrafitto ware. A Syrian import? (= Fig. 5.28:4). 25. Local imitation of Fayyumi ware (= Fig. 5.29:2).

(Photographer: C. Amit; Nos. 2–25 not to scale)

CHAPTER 5: THE POTTERY

Color Plate 1. Early Islamic pottery.

107

108

DAVID STACEY

The carination and flat base are typical of the eighthcentury ‘Coptic’ ware known from Alexandria, Fustat and Aqaba. The cylindrical bowl form (Fig. 5.18:2, 3; see Colour Pl. 1:3) was only found in Stratum IV (a polychrome vessel from Ramla [Rosen-Ayalon and Eitan 1969] may be of this ware, as was an example from Capernaum [Berman 1989: Fig. 71:30]). One sherd (Fig. 5.18:2) lay close to the Stratum IV floor in C205 so must have been contemporary with the Egyptian import (Fig. 5.17:1) from the same location and demonstrates the rapidity with which local potters imitated imported techniques. Later Matt-Glazed Wares (suggested date 800–950 CE; Fig. 5.19) Bowls of this type were present in three forms. All of the internal surface was coated with a dull, matt glaze in yellow and/or green, sometimes with lines or designs in dark brown or black; the external surface often had dribbles of glaze running over the rim, and, rarely, amorphous splashes. They were probably made locally. Jars or deep bowls (Fig. 5.19:19) occur rarely. Type 1. Carinated bowls with flat bases (Fig. 5.19: 1–8; cf. Whitcomb 1989a: Figs. 3; 5a–l). (The bodies of Fig. 5.19:5, 6 are pink, 5YR 7/4 and 5YR 8/4 respectively.) Type 2. Bowls with out-turned rim (Fig. 5.19:9–13, see Colour Pl. 4; cf. Whitcomb 1989a: Fig. 4a–d). Type 3. Bowls with in-turned rim (Fig. 5.19:14–18; cf. Whitcomb 1989a: Fig. 4i). Decorative techniques fell into five groups that were applied to any of the three form types: Group A. Monochrome. Only one example was found (Fig. 5.19:4) and it, unusually, had both its internal and external surfaces covered in a dark green glaze. Group B. Green and yellow streaks with, occasionally, black blobs. The streaks were usually in green, sometimes both a dark and a light green, on a yellow background (Fig. 5.19:9, 11, 12, 15, 17 [which also has black blobs]). More rarely yellow streaks were applied to a green background (Fig. 5.19:16).

Group C. Green and/or yellow with black lines (Fig. 5.19:1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 13, 18). Generally, but not always, the black lines delineated different coloured glazes. One example (Fig. 5.19:7) had black lines on a monochrome yellow (cf. Whitcomb 1989a: Fig. 5h–p). Group D. Green on yellow with rows of small black dots (Fig. 5.19:5, 14). The glaze on these was so matt that sometimes it was hard to tell if the bowls had been glazed at all. These were rare. Similar decorative technique appears on bowls from Aqaba.7 Group E. Garlands. A variation on Group C where black lines form garlands below either carinated or outturned rims. The black lines delineate green glaze on a yellow background (Fig. 5.19:8, 10 and see Colour Pl. 1:4). Whitcomb points to a Hijazi origin for garlanded vessels in Aqaba (Whitcomb 1989a:181), but those in Tiberias are more probably locally made imitations. A sherd of a probably Type 1 bowl had pseudo(?)Kufic calligraphic decoration (see Colour Pl. 1:1) and came from a tenth-century context though it was a single sherd and thus probably residual. Epigraphy is rare on ‘Coptic Glazed’ ware and that on this sherd is unlike the few other examples (Kubiak and Scanlon 1989: Fig. 10:9; Philon 1980: Fig. 90), although it Fig. 5.19 No.

Locus

Basket/ Sherd No.

Elevation

Stratum

1

C21

1404

11.14

IV

2

C23

1284/3

11.85

IV

3

C19

1195/33

12.00

IV

4

C53

2016

12.62

IV

5

C73

2134/9

12.74

III

6

C67

2053/33

13.02

II*

7

C51

1724/8

12.84

III

8

C21

1401/2

11.40

IV/III

9

C23

1284/1

11.85

IV

10

C19

1195/1

12.00

IV

11

C53

1843/5

13.00

IV/III

12

C60

1933/10

12.78

IV

13

C60

1890/2

13.38

II

14

C23

1284/2

11.85

IV

15

C19

1195/4

12.00

IV

16

C19

1195/9

12.00

IV

17

C51

1724/20

12.84

III

18

C51

1724/19

12.84

III

19

C69

2126/19

12.93

III/II

* Exact provenance in doubt

109

CHAPTER 5: THE POTTERY

2

1

4

3

5

8

11

7

6

9

10

12

Fig. 5.19. Later matt-glazed wares.

13

110

DAVID STACEY

15 14

16

17

19

18

Fig. 5.19. (cont.).

bears some resemblance to that found on a sherd of a different ware from Caesarea (Niamir 1999: Fig. 8:1). The decoration may be an imitation, by an untutored hand, of inscriptions found on ninth-century wares calling upon the reader to ‘eat and enjoy’ (RosenAyalon 1987).8 The earliest of these matt-glazed bowls was the monochrome vessel (Fig. 5.19:4), which was found a little above a Stratum IV floor and could thus date to the late eighth century. Matt-glazed bowls were common in ninth-century contexts where, for example, bowls (Fig. 5.19:1, 2, 9, 14) were discovered together with sherds of ruby lustre and moulded relief glaze that should be dated to that century. They were probably made locally from early in the ninth century until the mid-tenth century, for they remained common in Stratum III and were still present in Stratum II, although by that time they were probably residual. Matt-glazed ware was not recovered in the important assemblage on the plaster floor in C20, dated to the earthquake of 1033 CE (see below and Fig. 5.58). This is broadly in agreement with Whitcomb’s dating of the Aqaba material, which is more likely to be of Egyptian or Hijazi origin, to the “beginning of the ninth century” (Whitcomb 1989a:182), with Pella where this ware does not appear “before the mid-ninth century” (Walmsley 1995: Ware 17), and with Yoqne‘am (Avissar 1996a:77 Types 1 and 3).

Alkali-Glazed Wares (Figs. 5.20–5.22) Alkali-glazed ware was found in small quantities from the ninth to the eleventh centuries. It was utilized for bowls (Figs. 5.20:1–8, 12, 5.21; Colour Pl. 1:5, 6), small jars (Fig. 5.20:9–11) and a vase (Fig. 5.20:13) and could be roughly divided, technically, into four main groups: Group 1 (Fig. 5.20:1, 2). Bowls with a body of creamy buff ware (2.5Y 8/2–4) and a glaze, applied directly Fig. 5.20 No.

Locus

Basket/ Sherd No.

Elevation

Stratum

1

C83

2210/1

12.55

IV

2

C78

2201

12.55

IV

3

C21

1399/1

11.40

IV/III

4

C62

1886

13.03

III

5

C94

2360/4

12.86

III

6

C73

2134/5

12.74

III

7

C69

2126/40

12.93

III/II

8

C93

2341/11

13.28

II

9

C66

2071/41

12.92

III

10

C207

2338/4

12.96

III/II

11

C93

2388/10

13.15

II

12

C206

2311

13.55

I

13

C6

1133

12.81

II

111

CHAPTER 5: THE POTTERY

onto the bowl without a slip. The glaze was thick and often so badly fired/preserved that it had a blackened appearance, although the original intention may have been to produce a clear glaze (Fig. 5.20:1, 2; both appeared black, with No. 2 having white and turquoise stripes, Colour Pl. 1:5). They were probably locally made imitations of wares imported from Egypt (Bailey 1998: Pl. 74 R1 Fayyumi Wares) and were found a little above Stratum IV floors. They are thus contemporary with the early attempts at manufacturing matt-glazed wares (late eighth–early ninth centuries), indeed in one case (Fig. 5.20:1) the bowl, though of creamy buff ware, is similar in form to some early matt-glazed bowls (Fig. 5.18:2, 3).

in contexts from the ninth to the eleventh centuries. Both bowls (Fig. 5.20:3 [blue dribbles over rim both internally and externally under a clear glaze], Fig. 5.20:4 [blue glaze, internally and externally], Fig. 5.20:5 [white slip internally and externally, clear glaze internally], Fig. 5.20:6 [faded blue glaze internally and externally], Fig. 5.20.7 [blue glaze internally, and externally from rim to carination], Fig. 5.20:8 [blue glaze internally and externally], Fig. 5.20:12 [blue glaze internally]) and small jars (Fig. 5.20:9–11; cf. Avissar 1996a: Fig. XIII.144 Type 18:1, 2) were recovered. A pipe or ‘flower vase’ with a thick, badly flaked, green glaze, applied internally and externally, was unique (Fig. 5.20:13).

Group 2 (Fig. 5.20:3–13). Also had creamy buff bodies but they were covered in a white slip before an alkaline blue and/or clear glaze was applied. The glaze was often badly preserved so it was not clear whether the only partial covering of the surfaces with colour was deliberate or the result of decay. These were found

Group 3 (Fig. 5.21). A rare alkali-glazed bowl type with bodies of pink (7.5YR 7/4) or light brown (10YR 7/4) ware, covered with a white slip. A simple decoration in green and/or blue appears to have been painted beneath a clear glaze, which sometimes was so thin it was hard to detect (Fig. 5.21:1 [clear glaze with,

1

3

2

6 5

4

7

9

8

12 10

11

Fig. 5.20. Alkali-glazed wares: (1–8, 12) bowls; (9–11) small jars; (13) vase.

13

112

DAVID STACEY

1

2

3

4

6

5

Fig. 5.21.Alkali-glazed wares. No.

Locus

Basket/ Sherd No.

Elevation

Stratum

1

C45

1710

12.82

IV

2

C94

2386

12.76

III

3

C43

1541/2

13.00

III

4

C13

1106/1

12.79

II

5

C13

1106/3

12.79

II

6

C39

1470/4

13.42

I

internally, splashes of egg-shell blue, late Stratum IV], Fig. 5.21:2 [green and blue stripes under clear glaze, Stratum III], Fig. 5.21:3, Colour Pl. 1:6 [black chevrons below rim, internally, interspersed with blue dribbles, Stratum III]): two examples came from a 1033 CE destruction layer (Fig. 5.21:4, 5, both with blue stripes under a glaze that had vitrified to black; cf. Avissar 1996a: Fig. XIII.II Type 11:3). An example from Stratum I also had vitrified black glaze (Fig. 5.21:6). These bowls appear to be prototypes of Group 4, Under-Glaze Painted Ware. Group 4 (Fig. 5.22). Under-Glaze Painted Ware with blue and/or black painted decoration on a white slip under a clear glaze. The body is pinkish or buff (2.5Y 8/4). This ware, found in tenth–eleventh-century

contexts, was not common and may have been a forerunner of the more decorated ware, dated to the second half of the eleventh century to mid-twelfth century at Caesarea (Arnon 1999a: Fig. 9g, h) and to the thirteenth century by Pringle and dubbed ‘Syrian underglazed painted ware’ (Pringle 1985: Figs. 14:81–83; 15:86–94). If this ware were indeed made in coastal Syria it would have been easily transported by sea to Caesarea and Acre, whence only a few vessels might be expected to arrive at inland Tiberias. However, goods may have been carried by land between Tyre and Tiberias via Kedesh, an important Islamic administrative centre, much as they had in the Hellenistic period (Berlin 1997:84). The presence of three Tyrenian coins, two (Coin Nos. 1, 10) from the Late Roman period and one dated to 815 CE (Coin No.

113

CHAPTER 5: THE POTTERY

1

2

Fig. 5.22. Alkali-glazed wares: (1) Locus C94, Basket 2360, Elevation 12.82, Stratum III; (2) Locus C45, Basket/Sherd No. 1710/34, Elevation 12.87, Stratum IV.

203), reveal that trade continued beyond Hellenistic times (for the tenth-century mail route between Banias and Tyre see Shaked 2002). Early Lead-Glazed Ware (Fig. 5.23) A small number of sherds from various types of bowls which, from their rareness, indicate that they were not locally made, were found in ninth-century contexts. A rim sherd (Fig. 5.23:1; Colour Pl. 1:7, body, very pale brown 10YR 7/3) reminiscent of ninth-century Samarra material may have been an import from Iraq (or an Egyptian imitation?); it may be compared with a vessel from Yoqne‘am (Avissar 1996a: Fig. XIII.4). It was found in the doorway (C45) between the two eastern towers together with ninth-century coins (Coin Nos. 242, 267) and a sherd of early matt-glazed ware (see Fig. 5.18:3). The rim of a bowl with moulded relief covered in green glaze (Fig. 5.23:2) was unique and has a date range of 800 to 900 CE (Mason 1994:37), though it could have been manufactured in Egypt (Scanlon 1984).9 It lay on the plaster floor that predated the Stratum III building in Area C1 together with late

Umayyad coins and a small sherd of ruby lustre (Fig. 5.24:1), which might be dated around 800–850 CE (Mason, pers. comm.). The out-turned rim of a bowl with amber dabs on green and white internally and green glaze externally (Fig. 5.23:3) was discovered in a pit from which also came a lustre ware sherd (Fig. 5.24:2) dated 850–900 CE. It was an example of ‘splash-decoration’, uncommon in Tiberias, and was probably not made locally (cf. Yoqne‘am—Avissar 1996a: Fig. XIII.6 Type 6:4, 5; Aqaba—Whitcomb 1991: Fig. 5c, d). An early splash-glazed ware, common on sites in Jund Filastīn, such as Abu Ghosh (de Vaux and Stève 1950: P1. A:1–5), Ramla (Cytryn-Silverman, forthcoming: Fig. 9:12), Caesarea (Arnon 1999b: Fig. 4h), Aqaba (Whitcomb 1991: Fig. 2a–h) and the border site of Yoqne‘am (Avissar 1996a: Fig. XIILI.2 Type 2), was scarcely represented in Tiberias. Thus a degree of regionalism seems to be discernible. Lustre Ware (Ware IXd) (Fig. 5.24; Colour Pl. 2:8–14) A small fragment of ‘ruby red’ lustre (Fig. 5.24:1; Colour Pl. 2:8) was found in a Stratum IV context and should be dated to c. 800–850 CE (Mason, pers. comm.; Northedge 1996: Table 1 ‘Jawsaq, Harem’). It may have been imported from Basra where its production had ceased by 900 CE (Mason 1994:32–33). A Mesopotamian monochrome sherd (Fig. 5.24:2; Colour Pl. 2:9; body, very pale brown 10YR 7.5/3) was discovered in the bottom of the stonelined pit, dug, in part, into the remains of the Byzantine city wall. The pit had gone out of use by Stratum II. The sherd probably belongs to Mason’s Group Four, dated 850–900 CE (Mason 1994:36). (Although Mason’s dating is sometimes only a working hypothesis [Mason

1 2

3

Fig. 5.23. Early lead-glazed wares: (1) Locus C45, Basket/Sherd No. 1710/26, Elevation 12.82, Stratum IV; (2) Locus C23, Basket/ Sherd No. 1284/21, Elevation 11.85, Stratum IV; (3) Locus C57, Basket/Sherd No. 1804/1, Elevation 12.06, Stratum III.

114

DAVID STACEY

Color Plate 3. Early Islamic pottery (see captions, p. 106).

CHAPTER 5: THE POTTERY

Color Plate 3. Early Islamic pottery (see captions, p. 106).

115

116

DAVID STACEY

1

2

3

4

5

6

Fig. 5.24. Lustre ware. No.

Locus

Basket/ Sherd No.

Elevation

Stratum

1

C23

1284

11.83

IV

2

C57

2005/11

11.44

IV/III

3

C205

2339

13.36

II

4

C93

2363

13.15

II

5

C32

1459/13

13.96

I

6

C19

1195/13

12.00

II

and Keall 1991:57; Mason 1995:2–5], it seems broadly correct.) Lustre ware of Egyptian origin, with monochrome browns replacing the earlier Mesopotamian monochrome olive-green, was more frequent in Strata II and I, though the quantity was still small. Nearly all examples (Fig. 5.24:3–6; see Colour Pl. 2:10–13) belong to Mason’s Group 1, dated 975–1025 (Mason 1994:85–91; 1997:213–224). Of the two lustre sherds found in the 1033 CE destruction layer in C20, one

(Fig. 5.59:2; Color Pl. 2:14b) has a palmette motif typical of Mason’s Group 1 (Mason 1997:213), whilst the second (Fig. 59:1; Color Pl. 2:14a) has the undecorated exterior which is more typical of Group 2, tentatively dated 1025–1075 CE (Mason 1997:216, 232). The presence of these two sherds, one of Group 1 and one of Group 2, in the destruction layer most securely attributable to the 1033 earthquake, helps to confirm Mason’s dating to c. 1025 CE of the transition between Groups 1 and 2.

CHAPTER 5: THE POTTERY

Local Polychrome Splash-Ware Bowls (Ware IXa) (Fig. 5.25; see Colour Pl. 3:15–21). The ware of these bowls was identical to that of the matt-glazed bowls that began production slightly earlier, and both shared the same technique of knife paring (see in particular Fig. 5.25:4, Colour Pl. 3:15; Avissar 1996a:75). The bowl fragments recovered from the kiln site south of Tiberias (Stern 1995) were of this ware so there is no doubt that they were locally made. The commonest bowls had ring bases with outturned rims; shallower bowls with in-turned rims were less common. The prevalent decoration of early polychrome ware, probably locally made from the mid-ninth century onwards, would be better described as ‘streaky’, for the glazes were applied with little control and ran into each other in amorphous streaks of amber, green and dark brown or black glaze applied over a white slip. The outer surface was also covered in a white slip that was usually, though not always, glazed. The external decoration could be haphazard but was generally divided into different coloured segments. The most complete example came from Area D and though it came from an early eleventh-century context and could well be of Fatimid date, it is similar to late ninth–tenth-century bowls (Fig. 5.25:1). Bowls in monochrome green (Fig. 5.25:2) or brown were also found. A few examples of sgraffito ware made their appearance towards the end of Stratum IV. The surviving sherds were too small to be able to recreate the original bowl form and none were drawn. Most were monochrome, often with a clear glaze over a white slip, with the sgraffito decoration restricted to shallow meandering lines. During the tenth century there was an increased standardisation in the glazed wares indicating widespread local manufacture, although only one kiln site is known so far. It lies south of Tiberias and examples of out-flaring bowls have been recovered there (Stern 1995: Fig. 1:1). Starting in Stratum III, increasing in popularity during Stratum II, and continuing into Stratum I, were bowls with a cyma-recta curve (Fig. 5.25:3–7, 10), clearly a standard form from local kilns. These bowls could be unglazed (see Fig. 5.9:3, 5) or glazed in either monochrome (Fig. 5.25:3, 4) or polychrome streaks (Figs. 5.25:5; 5.58:7). In the eleventh century the amorphous streaks are increasingly replaced by

117

a more ordered ‘trefoil’ design (Fig. 5.25:10; Colour Pl. 18). Some of the glazed examples had sgraffito decoration (Fig. 5.25:6, 7; Colour Pl. 3:16, 17) that almost invariably consisted of variations on a fairly standardised ‘corkscrew’ pattern. The internal surface was divided into diametrically opposed delineated segments in different colours (green, yellow or white) with, alternately, incised ‘corkscrews’, and unincised panels which often had a central radial row of dark brown, purple or black blobs on a white ground. Variations on this pattern also appeared on out-turned bowls (Fig. 5.25:8, 9, 11; Colour Pl. 3:19; cf. Aqaba— Whitcomb 1991: Fig. 5: m, n and Yoqne‘am—Avissar 1996a: Fig. XII. 7 Type 7:2, 6). Although this type of bowl has never been published from Caesarea, one example appears to have found its way onto the ship that was wrecked at Serçe Limani (Bass and Van Doorninck 1978: Fig. 11—although the photograph is not clear and no mention is made of sgrafitto decoration, this vessel is reminiscent of those from Tiberias). In an important corpus of Stratum II pottery found on the floor of Locus C20 (see Figs. 5.58, 5.59), destroyed by the 1033 earthquake, there were eighteen cymarecta bowls as against four with out-turned rims. Two of each had ‘corkscrew’ sgraffito. Eight of the cymarecta bowls had a streaky ‘trefoil’ decoration. Both in-turned and out-turned bowls also appeared unglazed (see above, Fig. 5.9:2, 4, 6). The cyma-recta bowl, plain or incised, glazed or unglazed, monochrome or polychrome, is a type fossil of the tenth–eleventh-century material in Tiberias.10 In the later eleventh century the ‘corkscrew’ incised cyma-recta forms continued, but, on some out-flaring bowls, the corkscrews appeared in more free-flowing designs based on curved lines (Fig. 5.25:11; Colour Pl. 3:19; cf. Yoqne‘am— Avissar 1996a: Fig. XIII.7 Type 7:2). Two new design motifs, which were perhaps inspired by imports from Syria, appeared in the later eleventh century. The familiar ‘corkscrew’ appears within a simplified half-palmette or ‘tadpole’ (Fig. 5.25:12–14; see Colour Pl. 3:20 and back cover). The half-palmette was common at al-Mina where it was more elegantly decorated (Lane 1937:36, Pl. XVII:1; Waagé 1948: Fig. 64). A “border of rudimentary cable-pattern” (Lane 1937:36) appears on some rims (Fig. 5.25:12, 15; Colour Pl. 3:20, 21). The earliest appearance of the latter is on a Stratum II sgraffito sherd (Fig. 5.25:16) that may have been imported.

118

DAVID STACEY

2

1

3

4

5 6

8

7 9

10

11

Fig. 5.25. Local polychrome splash-ware bowls. No.

Locus

Basket/ Sherd No.

Elevation

Stratum

No.

Locus

Basket/ Sherd No.

Elevation

Stratum

1

D53

1698

-

II

9

C13

1124/5

12.73

II

2

B21

1115/9

12.40

I

10

C5/8

1141/1

12.03

I

3

C21

1339/2

11.44

III/II

11

C13

1106

12.79

II

4

B2

1016/1

(Surface)

-

12

C92

2316/3

13.60

I

5

C5/8

1139/9

12.03

I

13

C15

1063/2

11.89

I

6

C91

2315

13.60

I

14

C6

1135/11

12.81

II

7

B53

1637

11.53

II

15

B25

1159/1

12.37

-

8

C32

1459/9

13.96

I

16

C19

1195/10

12.00

II

119

CHAPTER 5: THE POTTERY

12

13

14

15 16

Fig. 5.25. (cont.).

1

2

Fig. 5.26. Cyma-recta bowls with handle: (1) Locus C64, Basket 2029, Elevation 13.30, Stratum I; (2) Locus C21, Basket 1305, Elevation 11.78, Stratum I.

Cyma-Recta Bowls with Handle (Fig. 5.26; Colour Pl. 3:22) Cyma-recta bowls with at least one turbaned handle (no complete vessel was found), glazed green

externally and yellow, or yellow and green, internally, were found in Strata II and I (Figs. 5.26:1, 2, 5.58:6; Colour Pl. 3:22). It is possible that a bowl, a sherd of which had a ridge below the rim (Fig. 5.25:5), also had a handle.

120

DAVID STACEY

1

3

2

5

4

Fig. 5.27. Bowls with out-turned rims. No.

Locus

Basket/ Sherd No.

Elevation

Stratum

No.

Locus

Basket/ Sherd No.

Elevation

Stratum

1

C32

1459/5

13.96

I

4

C13

1954/2

13.33

I

2

C211

2333/1

14.64

I

5

C16

1090

12.55

III/II?

3

B46

1554/31

11.54

I (above B49)

Bowls with Out-Turned Rim (Fig. 5.27) Bowls with out-turned rims, both monochrome (Fig. 5.27:1 glaze, dark yellowish brown 10YR 4/6), streaky (see Fig. 5.25:1) and ‘splash’ (Fig. 5.27:2, 3), continued to be present in Stratum I.11 An unusual, vertical-sided bowl in monochrome amber glaze with an impressed circular design on the internal base (Fig. 5.27:4) also came from Stratum I. A restorable flaring-sided bowl (Fig. 5.27:5) with a monochrome brown glaze, which was found unstratified outside the city wall, was, to judge from the quality of the glaze, dateable to the tenth or eleventh century. Imported(?) Glazed Ware (Fig. 5.28: see Colour Pl. 3:23, 24) A bowl with a finger-impressed rim with amber, green and black glaze over a white slip (Fig. 5.28:1) may have been intended to imitate porcelain (Arnon 1999b:226, Fig.6j—950–1050 CE), but the glaze does not imitate celadon and is typical of local polychrome splashed ware and so could possibly be of local manufacture. It was found 0.15 m below the Stratum II floor in C20, so may have been part of a late tenth-century floor fill. A similarly impressed rim sherd from Capernaum (Berman 1989: Fig. 71:40) in a light green, ‘celadon’ glaze, is dated to the tenth century. A bowl with a broad, horizontal rim (Fig. 5.28:2; Colour Pl. 3:23) was also uncovered in the fill beneath a Stratum II floor in Area C1. It is an unusual sherd for Tiberias and was probably an import. The profile is

similar to that of some lead-glazed vessels made in Iraq in the ninth–tenth centuries (Mason 1994: Fig. 3.11; Morgan and Leatherby 1987: Fig. 26:13 for example from Iran, dated 950–1050). Chinese examples, possibly imitating Islamic originals, are known (Rawson, Tite and Hughes 1987–1988:54–57). The decoration with opaque enamel-paints would date it, in Iraq, to after 975 CE. Similar ‘splashed-opaque’ ware was produced in Egypt (Mason 1994:92), whence this sherd was more likely to have been imported, probably by Iraqi potters who transferred to Fustat in about 975 CE (Mason and Tite 1994:83–84). As this profile did not become common in Egypt it may be “right at the beginning of production, reflecting Iraqi forms rather than the new forms which would develop in Egypt…” (Mason, pers. comm.). If this bowl was indeed an import, its shape was soon being imitated by local potters, for sherds with a similar profile, but with the more familiar lead-glaze colorants of the local pottery, came from the 1033 destruction layer in Locus C20 (see Fig. 5.58:8) and from eleventhcentury contexts in Area B (see Fig. 5.25:15, B37/1376, not illustrated). Variations on the profile are common in late twelfth–early thirteenth-century bowls made in Syria and Cyprus (Boas 1994: Figs. 3, 5). Three out-turned bowls with sgraffito decoration (Fig. 5.28:3–5), which were unusual in the Tiberias corpus and could, therefore, be imported, were recovered in Stratum II. A small sherd (Fig. 5.28:3) would appear to have the ‘freely scratched decoration’ that typifies Whitehouse Style I (850–950 CE; Whitehouse 1979:58), but it has parallels from north Syria (Waagé 1948: Fig. 70, poorly dated; Tonghini

121

CHAPTER 5: THE POTTERY

1

2

4 3

5

Fig. 5.28. Imported(?) glazed ware. No.

Locus

Basket/ Sherd No.

Elevation

Stratum

No.

Locus

Basket/ Sherd No.

Elevation

Stratum

1

C25

1324/16

11.20

IV

4

C93

2388/6

13.15

II

2

C24

1294/1

11.00

III/II

5

C207

2338/2

12.86

III/II

3

C32

1534/41

13.21

II

and Henderson 1998: Fig. 7a, b—‘eleventh century’). The more ordered, vegetal, incised decoration (Fig. 5.28:4; Colour Pl. 3:24) is of Whitehouse Style II (950–1050 CE; Whitehouse 1979), but may have originated in Syria (Lane 1937: Pl. XVII; Waagé 1948: Fig. 71; Tonghini and Henderson 1998: Fig. 14). It was discovered together with the lustre vase (see Fig. 5.24:4) dated to 975–1025 CE. A bowl with hatched sgraffito in Kufic-inspired decoration (Fig. 5.28:5) almost certainly came from Egypt, where this ware was produced between c. 975 and 1075 CE (Mason 1994:93). Fayyumi Ware (Fig. 5.29; Colour Pl. 3:25) A very few fragments of Fayyumi-style ware were found in Stratum II. Only one bowl (Fig. 5.29:1 is likely to be an import from Egypt. A flat-based,

1

2

Fig. 5.29 Fayyumi ware: (1) Locus C6, Basket 1135, Elevation 12.81, Stratum II; (2) Locus C52, Basket/Sherd No. 1762/18, Elevation 12.82, Stratum II.

cream-ware fragment (Fig. 5.29:2, Colour Pl. 3:25) was probably a local imitation. This ware is generally dated to the tenth century (Whitcomb 1991:53; Arnon 1999b:226).

122

DAVID STACEY

White-Slipped Red Ware (Fig. 5.30) Bowls made in a brick red fabric covered with a white slip inside and out, and with the interior surface glazed. Elsewhere these bowls can have sgraffito or champlevé decoration (at Caesarea—Pringle 1985:183–186; Arnon 1999b: 227 Fig. 9e, f; Niamir 1999: Fig. 8: 6; at Yoqne‘am—Avissar 1996a:87–90 Types 25–30; at Serçi Limani—Jenkins 1992). Few examples were found in Tiberias, none with sgraffito or champlevé decoration. A polychrome bowl (Fig. 5.30:1) came from the make-up of a Stratum II floor, and a monochrome blue-glazed vessel (Fig. 5.30:2) from a late Stratum I

context. In Serçi Limani they are confidently dated to around 1025 CE, and at Caesarea they are found in the eleventh century (Arnon 1999b:227). Jenkins (1992:61–62) suggests either an Egyptian or a ‘Syrian’ provenance for this ware. Two factors indicate a source on the Levantine coast: its common appearance in Caesarea; and the variety of examples found in Yoqne‘am, and to a lesser extent in Tiberias, with less technically accomplished decoration than those ‘export quality’ bowls recovered from the Serçi Limani shipwreck. Whilst Niamir (1999:61) suggests that these were ‘a degenerate type’ and therefore later, it is far more likely that bowls of differing quality were being produced contemporaneously for different markets in kilns somewhere near the coast.

1

Lead-Glazed Jars (Fig. 5.31)

2

Fig. 5.30. White-slipped red ware: (1) Locus C66, Basket/Sherd No. 2048/12, Elevation 12.97, Stratum II; (2) Locus C10; Basket 1039; Elevation 12.29, Stratum I.

A small number of lead-glazed jars in monochrome green (Fig. 5.31:1–3) or brown (Fig. 5.31:4) were discovered in tenth–eleventh-century contexts. Some had blind handles (Fig. 5.31:6) of the sort found on lustre jars (see Fig. 5.24:4; Philon 1980: Pl. XII; Figs. 344, 346, 347, 364, 365). Only one ‘splash’ ware jar (Fig. 5.31:5) was recovered, with a row of black blobs similar to that on a contemporary bowl (see Fig. 5.27:2).

2

3

1

4

5

6

Fig. 5.31. Lead-glazed jars. No.

Locus

Basket/ Sherd No.

Elevation

Stratum

1

C19

1195/26

12.00

II

2

C19

1195/24

12.00

II

3

C19

1195/22

12.00

II

4

C206

2311

13.55

I

5

C206

2253

14.14

I

6

C206

2300/4

13.71

I

123

CHAPTER 5: THE POTTERY

COOKING VESSELS Cooking Pots (Fig. 5.32) Type 1 (Fig. 5.32:1–5). Cooking pots with a carinated side, vertical or flared neck and a large loop handle drawn from the rim to just above the carination. They are in a dark reddish brown (5YR 3/3) fabric often fired to grey. A variation had a folded rim and a handle on the shoulder starting below the fold of the rim (Fig. 5.32:5) They were only found in Umayyad and early Abbasid contexts and seem to be a northern form, as they are known at Pella (McNicoll, Smith and Hennessy 1982:

Pl. 145:1, 5; Walmsley 1991: Fig. 4:6.), Capernaum (Peleg 1989: Fig. 52:1–10), Amman (Harding 1951: Fig. 3:46; Northedge 1992: 133:1), Jerash (Schaefer and Falkner 1986: Fig.13:6), Hammat Gader (BenArieh 1997: Pl. XI: 5, 6) and Kursi (Tzaferis 1983: Fig. 6:7) but not at Yoqne‘am (perhaps not occupied before 850 CE?), Caesarea or Ramla. They have some resemblance to pots discovered in Jerusalem (Magness 1993: Form 4C) but are distinct from them. Type 2 (Fig. 5.32:6–8). Open, hemispherical ‘casseroles’, with horizontal loop handles. They continue a Late

3

1

2

5

6

4

7

8

Fig. 5.32. Cooking vessels.

124

DAVID STACEY

9

10

13

11

12

15

14

17

16

Fig. 5.32. Cooking vessels (cont.). No.

Locus

Basket/ Sherd No.

Elevation

Stratum

1

C87

2256

12.20

V

2

C87

2256

12.20

V

3

C19

1193

12.00

IV

4

C84

2230

12.51

IV

5

C25

1376/8

9.72

IV

6

C19

1193/2

12.00

IV

7

C19

1193/8

12.00

IV

8

C45

1710

12.82

IV

9

C76

2157/15

12.75

III

10

C75

2153/12

12.70

III

11

D82

1839/2

12.00

II

12

C19

1193/11

-

II

13

B3

1102/1

13.36

I (N of W502)

14

C53

2916/6

12.62

IV

15

C213

2437/8

14.70

I

16

C19

1193/9

12.00

II

17

B53

1638

11.80

I

125

CHAPTER 5: THE POTTERY

Roman/Byzantine form (Magness 1993:211–214) and were discovered in Stratum IV. Type 3 (Fig. 5.32:9–13). Neck-less pots with an outward folding rim and a slight shoulder carination. They first appear in Stratum III and some of the earliest examples have the internal base glazed (Fig. 5.32:11, 12, red glaze 2.5YR 4/6, both from Stratum II). This glazing becomes standard in later pots. Some variations have ledge handles (Fig. 5.32:11) and/or strap handles (Fig. 5.32:12). Type 4. ‘Frying Pans’ (Fig. 5.32:14, 15). Shallow pans with the internal base glazed a dark brown, and, frequently, thumb-impressed ledge handles. The earliest example (Fig. 5.32:14) came from the makeup of the Stratum III street and must date to the late ninth century, a somewhat earlier date than they are said to appear (late tenth century) in Caesarea (Arnon 1999b:226). The other example (Fig. 5.32:15) is from Stratum I. Type 5 (Fig. 5.32:16, 17). Neck-less pots in red (10R 4/6 or 2.5YR 4/6) with simple out-turned rim and without the shoulder carination as on Type 3. They have two vertical strap handles and horizontal thumb-impressed ledge handles. The internal base is glazed (‘reddish black’ 10R 2.5/1) and there is usually a narrow external band of glazing below the rim. Figure 5.32:16 came from a robber’s trench in Locus C19 from

which, in Stratum II, stones were removed from the inner face of the city wall. The other pot (Fig. 5.32: 17) originated within a Stratum I tabun in Locus B53. This type of cooking pot has been found in eleventhcentury contexts in Amman (Northedge 1992: Figs. 137:5; 141:2; 151:3) and Caesarea (Arnon 1999b:226, Fig. 8i, k; Arnon, Lester and Polak 1999: Fig.1d) but not in Yoqne‘am, where they are said not to appear before the end of the twelfth century (Avissar 1996a:135). There is no doubt that this type continues, with little change, into the Crusader period. (A cooking pot from the Serçe Limani wreck, c. 1025 CE [Van Doorninck 1997: Photograph] appears to be a slightly earlier form, perhaps Yoqne‘am Type 6 [Avissar 1996a:135]. Thus Type 5 evolved early in the eleventh century and became the dominant type in the second half.) Cooking Pot and Jar Lids (Fig. 5.33) Lids with button handles and often with a steam hole (Fig. 5.33:1, 2) were clearly for use with ‘casseroles’ of the eighth and ninth centuries. A vessel (Fig. 5.33: 3) may either have been a lid or a very shallow ‘casserole’. Because its base was decorated with wavy incised lines and bore no traces of soot it seems more likely that it was used as a lid. A lid in ‘pink’ ware with an external brick-coloured self slip (Fig. 5.33:4), probably used on a jar, came from a late eighth–ninth-century context. It is descended from a Byzantine/Umayyad form (Magness 1993:247).

1

2

4

3

Fig. 5.33. Lids. No.

Locus

Basket/ Sherd No.

Elevation

Stratum

1

C57

1796/1

12.31

III

2

C19

1193/5

12.00

IV

3

C19

1200

12.00

IV

4

C23

1274/7

11.73

IV

126

DAVID STACEY

2

1

3

4

5

Fig. 5.34. Storage jars.

In Pella a very similar lid, though in cream ware, was dated 750–850 CE (Walmsley 1991: Fig. 3:9). They were also found at Kh. al-Karak (Delougaz and Haines 1960: Pl. 56:5, 6, 14).

STORAGE JARS Jar types are distinguished by form and/or ware. Type 1 (Fig. 5.34:1, 2). A Byzantine form that continues into the Umayyad period. Jars have a tall neck with a plain rim, a slight carination just below the handles and a grey surface decorated with white intertwined lines painted with a multiple brush. These vessels were found in the 749 CE earthquake destruction layer in the Umayyad shops (cf. Pella—Walmsley 1995: Fig. 7:8).

Type 2 (Fig. 5.34:3). A jar of light yellow brown (10YR 6/4) fabric, it has a tall neck with a rounded rim and faint carination below the handle. Decoration is of white lines painted with a multiple brush. This vessel came from below a Stratum III floor so could be dated to the mid-ninth century. It was similarly dated at Pella (Walmsley 1991: Fig. 8:3). Type 3 (Fig. 5.34:4, 5).These jars are of a reddishbrown fabric and have a slightly darker external surface; others (see Fig. 5.58:1) are fired to a dark reddish grey. The rim is tall and flattened sometimes with an inward bevel. They are decorated with multibrush white lines but the lines are more angular and less intertwined than on the Umayyad jars. This type

CHAPTER 5: THE POTTERY

127

Fig. 5.34 No.

Locus

Basket/ Sherd No.

Elevation

Stratum

1

C87

2280

12.20

V

2

C86

2243

12.35

V

3

C84

2209/1

12.73

IV/III

4*

A24

-

-

III

5*

A24

-

-

III

→

* Surface collection, 1989

apparently makes its first appearance in the early ninth century at Pella (Walmsley 1995: Fig. 7:9) and was common at Yoqne‘am in the ninth to the eleventh centuries (Avissar 1996a:147–149). Two examples (Fig. 5.34:4, 5) from Tiberias came from a destruction layer in Area A. They had the more sloping shoulders noted on ninth–tenth-century jars by both Walmsley (1995:664) and Avissar (1996:148) and probably date to the early tenth century. Two others (see Fig. 5.58:1, 2) from the 1033 CE earthquake destruction layer in Locus C20 retained the more globular bag shape of Byzantine/Umayyad jars. Both varieties were found together in a contemporaneous group in Caesarea (Arnon, Lester and Polak 1999: Fig. 1a, b).12 Type 4 (Fig. 5.35). A jar of orange/brown fabric with a tall neck and thickened rim, with handles from below the rim to the shoulder. The sloping shoulder was incised with band combing and a twisted motif. It was found in C222, a small probe below the Fatimid garden courtyard building in the angle of W654 and the city wall, on a surface (see Fig. 4.14) upon which was found a Type 1 amphora (not illustrated). It is an example of Peacock and Williams (1986), Class 44, dated by them to the early fifth to mid-seventh centuries. In Caesarea this form is dated to 630–660 CE (Adan-Bayewitz 1986:121) but many examples were recovered from the Yassi Ada ship-wreck dated c. 625 CE (Bass and Van Doorninck 1982: Type 2b). The Kufic inscription, baraka (‘blessings’), incised before firing, must date this example to after the Arab conquest and also indicates that it was manufactured within the area invaded.13 The vessel had lost its base in antiquity and had been adapted for a secondary use. The jagged, broken base of the jar was made level by breaking off unwanted material after perforations were drilled. A ‘window’, about 10 cm square, was cut below the shoulder, also by drilling perforations in

Fig. 5.35. Storage jar: Locus C222, Basket 2572, Elevation 12.66, Stratum V.

the side of the vessel. The vessel could then have been used as a lantern. The effort put into giving the broken jar a secondary use was probably due to a reverence felt for the inscription. Type 5. Large Handmade Storage Jars. Jars without a neck (Fig. 5.36). This form, in red (2.5YR 5/6–5YR 3/3) or brown (10YR 7/3) clay, would have been classified as a holemouth vessel but for the fact that the rim was flattened. Below the flattened rim there was often a band of finger-impressed (see Figs. 5.36:3; 5.58:3; 5.61:8) or cut decoration (Fig. 5.36:4). Band-combing decoration was also often applied (Fig. 5.36:7). This type of storage jar started in the Umayyad period (Pella— McNicoll, Smith and Hennessy 1982: Pl. 146:1) and continued through the Abbasid period (Fig. 5.36:1; el-Muwaqqar—Najjar 1989: Fig. 6:27) with a pronounced rim. In the tenth–eleventh centuries the rim became less pronounced (Amman—Northedge 1992: Figs. 137:8; 151:6). The remaining examples

128

DAVID STACEY

1

2

3

4

6 5

7

Fig. 5.36. Storage jars.

129

CHAPTER 5: THE POTTERY

Fig. 5.36 No.

Locus

Basket/ Sherd No.

Elevation

Stratum

1

C73

2134/1

12.74

III

2

C207

2338/25

12.96

III/II

3

C34

1466/3

13.33

II

4

C21

1394/3

11.48

III/II

5

C9

1061/14

11.84

I

6

C20

1181/5

11.78

I

7

B53

1666/1

11.47

II

(Fig. 5.36:2–7) came from Strata II or I. These jars have also been found in Ramla (Cytryn-Silverman, pers. comm.). Type 6. Cylindrical Storage Jars (Fig. 5.37). A cylindrical jar with a short neck and folded rim and two pairs of handles. Figure 5.37:1 was in the Tiberias ‘pink’ (5YR 7/6) fabric. A sherd (Fig. 5.37:2) without a rim and with an impressed string decoration below the missing rim, in ‘pink ware’ (7.5YR 8/4) and with twin handles, had red-painted (2.5YR 6/4–6/6) lines below the handles. Both came from Stratum II floors. Type 7. Pale Cream-Ware Jar (Fig. 5.38). A jar without a neck and with sloping sides and a rounded rim. It came from a Stratum IV–III context. Similar jars are known

Fig. 5.38. Jar: Locus C42, Basket/Sherd No. 1537/3, Elevation 12.72, Stratum IV.

from Hammat Tiberias (Johnson 2000b: Fig. 12:65, 66) and Yoqne‘am (Avissar 1996a:147, Type 2).

SMALL CONTAINERS Jars and Juglets with White Decoration (Ware I) (Fig. 5.39) The fabric ranges from light red to grey and the decoration consists of fine wavy parallel lines in white paint. It is an Umayyad ware, being found in the 749 CE destruction layer in the Umayyad shops (Fig. 5.39:1–3) and it continues into the early Abbasid period (Fig. 5.39:4).

2

1

Fig. 5.37. Storage jars: (1) Locus C32, Elevation 13.10(?), Stratum II; (2) Locus C35, Basket 1560, Elevation 13.05, Stratum II.

130

DAVID STACEY

3

2

4

1

Fig. 5.39. White-decorated jars and juglets. No.

Locus

Basket/ Sherd No.

Elevation

Stratum

1

C86

2243

12.35

V

2

C87

2256

12.20

V

3

C87

2256

12.20

V

4

C72

-

-

IV

Purple/Brown on Buff Ware (Fig. 5.40) A common ware in Umayyad and early Abbasid contexts at inter alia Amman (Harding 1951: Fig. 3:39, 47, 65; Northedge 1992: Fig.131:1, 2), Pella (McNicoll, Smith and Hennessy 1982: Pls. 147:2, 3; 148:1; Walmsley 1995: Fig. 6), Kursi (Tzaferis 1983: Fig. 8:6, 7) and in Area D at Tiberias (Stacey 1988–1989: 1–9), it does not seem to have reached Yoqne‘am or Caesarea in any quantity. Two of the vessels (Fig. 5.40:1, 2) came from a soak-away in Area A (East) from which was also recovered a crater (Fig. 5.11:3). The other was from an Umayyad/early Abbasid context in Area C1. Jars and Jugs in Pale Cream Ware Drinking Jugs (Fig. 5.41) These jugs have a flat disc base and a spherical or piriform lower body which is often carinated to some degree. The necks are wide and slightly flaring. A single handle runs from the shoulder to the neck, either part way up or at the rim. There is often an incised abstract

or pseudo-calligraphic decoration on the side opposite the handle. This type of vessel has a long life and a wide distribution, from Egypt (Scanlon 1974b: Figs. 6, 9; Pl. XV:8) to Mesopotamia (Sarre 1925:5–31). They were first found at Tiberias in Stratum IV (Fig. 5.41:1–3) and Stratum III (Fig. 5.41:4), i.e. the late eighth and ninth centuries, as they were at Caesarea (Arnon 1999b: Fig. 3b–d), Capernaum (Peleg 1989: Fig. 62:10), Abu Ghosh (de Vaux and Stève 1950: Pl. C14:21–24) and Ramla (Rosen-Ayalon and Eitan 1969; Cytryn-Silverman and Avissar, pers. comm.) but remained popular until at least the middle of the eleventh century (Arnon, Lester and Polack 1999: Fig. 2a; Northedge 1992: Fig. 137:2). They are not reported from Pella, which perhaps was abandoned before they became popular in c. 850–875(?). It is probable that Ramla, where many wasters, moulds and kiln bars have been found, was one source of production in that time. Tiberias may have been another. A badly misshapen cream-ware jug base and a basin waster were uncovered in excavations at Hammat Tiberias (Johnson 2000b:54) and were probably products of kilns that moved inside the city

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CHAPTER 5: THE POTTERY

1

2

3

Fig. 5.40. Small containers: (1) Locus A48, Stratum V/IV; (2) Locus A48, Stratum V/IV; (3) Locus C25, Basket/Sherd No. 1353/11, Elevation 10.59, Stratum V/IV.

1

2

3 4

7

5 6

9 8

Fig. 5.41. Cream-ware drinking jugs (see also Fig. 5.60:1–8).

132

DAVID STACEY

Fig. 5.41 No.

Locus

Basket/ Sherd No.

Elevation

Stratum

1

C97

2408/6

12.58

IV

2

C98

2435/1

12.30

IV

3

C19

1196/11

12.00

IV

4

C43

1822

12.90

III

5

C21

1394/2

11.40

III

6

C56

1916/1

13.60

I

7

C10

1050/1

12.07

I

8

D58

-

-

I

9

D53

1691/1

-

I

wall at the end of the eleventh century. Vessels with incised and plastic decoration (Fig. 5.41:2, 3) similar to that found on cream-ware bowls (see Fig. 5.5:2, 6, 8), which, from their distribution pattern, appear to have been made in or near Tiberias, have been recovered from Hammat Tiberias (Johnson 2000b: Fig. 11:32, 33, post 750 CE) and Capernaum (Peleg 1989: Fig. 62: 1–8, 850–950 CE). Some early vessels are angular and imitative of metal originals. Most are known from sites in Jund Filastīn, such as Ramla (Rosen-Ayalon and Eitan 1969) and Abu Ghosh (de Vaux and Stève 1950: Pl. C:19, 21–24), and also from Kh. al-Mafjar (Baramki 1944: Fig.14:7). In Strata II and I more rounded varieties were common (Figs. 5.41:5–9; 5.60:1–8), and some were probably manufactured in Tiberias. (One jug [Fig. 5.60:7] had warped slightly and cracked during firing and would not have held liquid; it must have come from a local kiln.) There were two variations amongst the tenth– eleventh-century jugs. In one the necks are wide and cylindrical with a slight bulge. The handle, usually with a decorative knob at its peak, joins the shoulder of the spherical body to half way up the neck (Figs. 5.41:5, 7, 8; 5.60:1–5). The only precise parallel is from Oren’s excavations at Hammat Tiberias (Oren 1971:276). Sherds that may have come from a similar vessel were found at Yoqne‘am (Avissar 1996a:158 Type 5:1) and Caesarea (Brosh 1986: Pl. II:1a, b), all in tenth–eleventh-century contexts. A number of jugs, possibly originating in Caesarea, were retrieved from the Serçe Limani shipwreck (Van Doorninck 1997). The other variation, a piriform juglet (see Fig. 5.60: 7, 8) with a handle rising from the lip down to the mid-

part of the body, is a more common form and appears in ninth–tenth-century assemblages (Grabar 1978: A-1/13; Olavarri-Goicoechea 1985: Fig. 22:3; Peleg 1989: Fig. 62:12; Arnon 1999b: Fig. 7f). One vessel (see Fig. 5.60:6) is a hybrid of the two previous forms and was also discovered at Amman in an eleventhcentury context (Northedge 1984: Fig. 77:5). Filters (Fig. 5.42 and see Fig. 5.41:5) A number of drinking jugs had filters, but all those found in Tiberias bore a clumsy and haphazard perforation with no attempt at the formal designs of many Fustat examples (Scanlon 1968; 1970; 1986). However some comparisons can be made with examples in the Fustat Final Report Catalogue of Filters: cf. Fig. 5.42:3 with Scanlon 1986: Fig. 15 ‘before 950’, Fig. 5.41:5 with ibid. Fig. 110 ‘eleventh century’, Fig. 5.42:2 with ibid: Figs. 33–41 ‘eleventh century’. Apposite for Fig. 5.42:4 is the statement “whereas before the button nodule was a rarity, it becomes almost the norm in the Ayyubid– Mamluk centuries” (ibid: 42). This filter, dated to the eleventh century, is unusual because it is in light red brown clay (2.5YR 6/4), not the usual cream ware.

2

1

3 4

Fig. 5.42. Cream-ware filters (see also Figs. 5.41:5). No.

Locus

Basket/ Sherd No.

Elevation

Stratum

1

C60

1890/15

13.38

II

2

C12

1120/1

12.59

I

3

C32

1518

13.18

II

4

C91

2315/1

13.65

I

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CHAPTER 5: THE POTTERY

1

2 3

4

5

6

7

8

Fig. 5.43. Miscellaneous cream-ware jugs. No.

Locus

Basket/ Sherd No.

Elevation

Stratum

No.

Locus

Basket/ Sherd No.

Elevation

Stratum

1

C62

1980/5

12.80

IV

5

C52

1762/32

12.82

II

2

C43

1860

12.90

III

6

C66

2071/48

13.00

II

3

C43

1754/4

13.04

II

7

B2

1071/9

12.78

I (surface locus)

4

C211

2320/1

14.92

I

8

B3

1164/11

13.44

I (N of W502)

Miscellaneous Jugs (Fig. 5.43) A number of rims probably came from jugs although the body shape is not known. From Strata IV and III came ribbed necks with an out-turned rim (Fig. 5.43:1, 2; No. 2 had red-painted stripes and an ancient mend hole; Avissar 1996a: Fig. XIII.129 Type 3:7, 8). In Strata II and I were found tall vertical necks with decorative vestigial handles (Fig. 5.43:3, 4) and outflaring rims with a curious, crenellated gutter below the rim (Fig. 5.43:5–8). The vertical guttering was pierced, usually with triangles and small circles, and the unpierced clay was itself sometimes incised with lines or dots. Because of the perforations the ledge often became detached from the vessel, as it had with Fig. 5.43:6. Fragments of the perforated gutters were

sometimes recovered. The existence of the gutter just below the rim would seem to preclude the use of these jugs for drinking. Their body shape is not known. Miscellaneous Jars and Small Containers (Figs. 5.44, 5.45) Four sub-types are present at Tiberias: Type 1 (Fig. 5.44:1, 2). Globular jars, resembling in shape Roman cooking pots, with incised decoration below the neck. Handles that ran from the shoulder to the rim often had an attached pellet of clay at the highest point; one vessel had an applied ‘rhino’s horn’ of clay on the shoulder (Fig. 5.44:2; cf. Johnson 2000b: Fig. 11:35). These vessels were probably ninth century in date.

134

DAVID STACEY

1

3 2 4

5 7 6

Fig. 5.44. Miscellaneous cream-ware jars and small containers. No.

Locus

Basket/ Sherd No.

Elevation

Stratum

1

C94

2360/1

12.82

III

2

C23

1292

11.07

IV

3

C32

1543

13.09

II

4

C206

2300

13.71

I

5

C69

2138/14

12.88

III/II

6

C32

1519

13.18

II

7

C25

1376/2

9.72

IV

Type 2 (Fig. 5.44:3–5). Globular jars with no neck and an out-turned rim, with handles from the rim to the body. The exterior of a jar from Stratum I (Fig. 5.44: 4) was covered with a light reddish brown (5YR 6/4) slip or paint, which indicates that pale cream ware was going out of fashion in the late eleventh century. Some have a pronounced carination and resemble an Early Islamic cooking pot (Fig. 5.44:5; cf. Yoqne‘am— Avissar 1996a: Type 2) in form. They were discovered at Tiberias primarily in Strata II and I. Type 3 (Fig. 5.44:6, 7). Small globular pots with narrow necks and two handles. A complete example was recovered in Stratum II (Fig. 5.44:6), but an earlier vessel with incised decoration (Fig. 5.44:7) probably dates to the late eighth–ninth centuries. It came from a context where rubbish gradually built up during that period, which was also a time when incised circles were a common decorative feature (Hadad 2000: Fig. 5:28–30; and see Avissar 1996a:159–160). Similar decoration has been found in Hammat Tiberias (Johnson 2000b: Fig. 11:41) and Ramla (CytrynSilverman, forthcoming: Fig. 4:15), both from

late eighth–ninth-century contexts (and see below, Fig. 6.10:1). Type 4 (Fig. 5.45). Thickly potted jars with ribbing, an out-turned rim, no handles and sometimes with circular perforations in the body. They were associated with the plaster surface in Area C1, which went out of use and became a rubbish dump during the late eighth–ninth centuries (Fig. 5.45:1–5). Two examples uncovered in Stratum II were probably residual (Fig. 5.45:6, 7). There are two types: a wide-mouthed jar (Fig. 5.45:1, 2, 4, 6) which sometimes had holes perforated by a finger or stick (Fig. 5.45:2, 4); and a narrow-mouthed type (Fig. 5.49:3, 5, 7) where holes were not found, at least in the preserved upper parts of the vessels (no complete vessels are known). A large fragment of a wide-mouthed type, without holes, was discovered in Hammat Tiberias (Johnson 2000b: Fig. 12:69) in a pit which supposedly went out of use after the earthquake of 749 CE. Vessels in Red Ware, with larger perforations, were produced in the Umayyad kilns at Bet She’an (Bar-Nathan, pers. comm.). The

135

CHAPTER 5: THE POTTERY

1 3 2

4

6 5

8 7

Fig. 5.45. Miscellaneous cream-ware jars and small containers. No.

Locus

Basket/ Sherd No.

Elevation

Stratum

1

C25

1348/1

10.79

IV

2

C23

1276/1

11.73

IV

3

C19

1198/13

12.00

IV/III

4

C19

1198/13

12.00

IV/III

5

C19

1198/1

12.00

IV/III

6

C93

2362/1

13.15

II

7

C66

2071/50

13.00

II

8

C19

1198/7

12.00

IV/III

earlier Bet She’an vessels are known to be globular, although their function (and that of the Type 4 jars with holes, which probably served a similar function) is obscure as they do not appear to be ideal as either strainers or lanterns. A ribbed holemouth vessel with a slight out-turned rim (Fig. 5.45:8) is a related vessel.

Type 1. A flask with a spherical body and a tall neck pinched-in where it joined the shoulder. A pair of loop handles was attached to the shoulders (Figs. 5.46:1; 5.60:10, 11). This type has been found in Hammat Tiberias (Oren 1971:276 dated, dubiously, ‘ninth century’; Johnson 2000b: Figs. 11:45 , 12:51 probably post-tenth century).

Flasks (Fig. 5.46) Pilgrim flasks, with a flattened side, were made in the late Umayyad kilns at Bet She’an (Bar-Nathan, pers. comm.) and were common in the eighth–ninth centuries (Kh. al-Mafjar—Baramki 1944: Fig. 5:10; Kh. al-Karak—Delougaz and Haines 1960: Pl. 39:1–8; Amman—Northedge 1992: Fig. 132:3, 4). Flasks from tenth–eleventh-century deposits in Tiberias did not have flattened sides.

Type 2. Flasks with a single handle, either on the shoulder (Fig. 5.46:3) or joining the shoulder to part way up the neck (Arnon, Lester and Polak 1999: Fig. 2b). One example (Fig. 5.46:4) had a comical head serving as a filter. Some necks of both types were incised with pseudocalligraphic decoration (Fig. 5.46:2, 3; cf. CytrynSilverman, forthcoming: Fig. 24:3).

136

DAVID STACEY

1

4

2

3

Fig. 5.46. Cream-ware flasks. No.

Locus

Basket/ Sherd No.

Elevation

Stratum

1

C60

1852/1

13.61

I

2

C10

1050/2

13.33

I

3

B49

-

-

II

4

D79

1769

-

I(?)

Miscellaneous Vessels (Fig. 5.47) A small jar (Fig. 5.47:1) from Stratum III. An identical sherd came from Hammat Tiberias where it was found in association with a ‘corkscrew’ sgraffito glazed bowl (incorrectly identified as Port St. Symeon Ware), which should be dated to the tenth–eleventh centuries (Johnson 2000b: Fig. 10:19). A medium-sized jar (Fig. 5.47:2) from the tenth century. A similar profile from a vessel fired light reddish brown came from eleventh-century Amman (Northedge 1992: Fig. 151:5).

1

2

3

Fig. 5.47. Miscellaneous cream-ware vessels: (1) Locus C75, Basket/Sherd No. 2153/7, Elevation 12.70, Stratum III; (2) Locus C207, Basket/Sherd No. 2338/16, Elevation 12.96, Stratum III/II; (3) Locus C206, Basket 2311, Elevation 13.55, Stratum I.

A flagon (Fig. 5.47:3) from Stratum I, without parallels. Barbotine Ware (Fig. 5.48) The bodies of these jars are decorated with applied ridges in arcades, incised lines and clusters of small, centred circles. The wide necks, sometimes differentiated from the body with rope impressions, are often incised and/or have blobs of attached clay. There are usually four handles decorated with applied ‘ropes’ and ‘trefoils’. Most barbotine ware, and all of that illustrated, came from the pre-building levels in Area C1; none was from well-stratified contexts, but the type should be dated mainly to the middle of the ninth century.14 The most complete examples are published from Kh. al-Mafjar (Baramki 1944: Fig. 5:15, 16. Pl. XIX:3, 4). They were not found at Kursi, which was probably abandoned early in the ninth century, at el-Muwaqqar (730–840 CE—Najjar 1989:311), nor at Pella which, contra Walmsley (1995:660), was probably abandoned before the end of the ninth century, possibly as early as 850 CE. (Little glazed and no sgraffito ware has been discovered at Pella, so an occupation into the tenth century seems unlikely.) They are dated at Caesarea to Stratum VII (750–875 CE; Arnon 1999b: Fig. 3o, p), though it is unlikely that they appeared at the beginning of this stratum. At Nevé Ur, a site in the Bet She’an valley occupied through the

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CHAPTER 5: THE POTTERY

3 1

2

4

5

6

Fig. 5.48. Barbotine ware (see also, possibly, Fig. 5.43:3–8). No.

Locus

Basket/ Sherd No.

Elevation

Stratum

1

C19

1196/2

12.00

IV

2

C19

1196/1

12.00

IV

3

C19

1196/21

12.00

IV

4

C25

1353/17

10.59

IV

5

C25

1353/8

10.59

IV

6

C21

1394

11.48

III/II

eighth century but abandoned early in the ninth, it is noticeable that whilst some incised vessels were found, none had the applied ridges of the fully developed barbotine style (Shalem 2002: Fig. 14:8–10). Moulded or Stamped Cream Ware (Fig. 5.49) Stamped handles (Fig. 5.49:1–3) were more prevalent than moulded jars (Fig. 5.49:4, 5) and were often

applied to otherwise plain jugs. Whilst the manufacture of moulded ware may have overlapped that of barbotine ware it continued later, perhaps until 950 CE, as some examples were still uncovered in Stratum II. It is noticeable that at Kh. al-Karak (Delougaz and Haines 1960: Pl. 42:5–7) while barbotine decoration was found, moulded wares were not.

Fig. 5.49. Moulded or stamped cream ware. 1

2

3

5 4

No.

Locus

Basket/ Sherd No.

Elevation

Stratum

1

C32

1518

13.18

II

2

C32

1518

13.18

II

3

C35

1594/29

13.00

II

4

C25

1348/15

10.79

IV/III

5

C67

2075/28

13.04

II

138

DAVID STACEY

Painted Cream Ware (Fig. 5.50) Two small fragments of cream-ware jars with painted decoration were found. One has crowded decoration executed in an olive green paint with a fine brush (Fig. 5.50:1). The pattern includes small centred circles similar to that incised on many barbotine vessels (Fig. 5.48:3) in association with which it was found. It thus may date to the late ninth century. The centred circles are, however, not a dominant part of the overall pattern and, as late tenth–early eleventh-century pottery was also discovered in the area, it is probably better to date this sherd into the later period. Another painted sherd (Fig. 5.50:2) was retrieved in a late eleventh-century context. The paint was black with the pattern left ‘in reserve’, imitative of champlevé decoration. Such painted vessels were not recovered at Fustat (George Scanlon, pers. comm.), although jugs with much simpler decoration in white paint are known from Caesarea (Arnon, Lester and Polak 1999: Fig. 2a, b). The decorative style bears some resemblance to eleventh-century wares produced in Corinth (Morgan 1942:86–90, Pls. XXV, XXVI ‘imitation lustre ware’ and pp. 95–103, Pls. XXIX–XXXII ‘slip painted ware’; cf. Fig. 5.50:2 with ibid: Pl. XXXIp). Other comparable decorative styles can be seen on a sherd from Yoqne‘am (Avissar 1996a: Fig. XIII.49. Type 65:2) and also on some Fatimid lustre ware (Philon 1980: Figs. 136, 576). The Tiberias sherd, however, is not glazed. Both painted sherds, for which no parallels have been found, may have come from locally produced ‘luxury’ ware during the late tenth–eleventh centuries when the fashion for cream ware was on the decline.

1

2

Fig. 5.50. Painted cream ware: (1) Locus C19, Basket/Sherd No. 1196/6, Elevation 12.00, Stratum II; (2) Locus C206, Basket 2300, Elevation 13.71, Stratum I.

Miniature Vessels (Fig. 5.51) Miniature cream-ware jugs (Fig. 5.51:1, 2) came from ninth-century deposits: a small pot (Fig. 5.51:3) was pre-Stratum II; a small ointment pot(?) (Fig. 5.51:4) was found in Stratum II; and a lamp filler(?) (Fig. 5. 51:5) was from Stratum I.

2

1

5

4

3

Fig. 5.51. Miniature cream-ware vessels. No.

Locus

Basket/ Sherd No.

Elevation

Stratum

1

C23

1283

11.85

IV

2

C21

1394

11.48

III/II

3

B53

1610

10.70

IV/III

4

D73

1727/2

6.90

II

5

C20

1165

11.79

I

Small Containers in Red Ware ‘Grenades’ (Fig. 5.52) Ten complete ‘grenades’ came from a plaster floor in the eastern round tower together with an iron axe head and early ninth-century coins (Coin Nos. 184, 185, 203, 283–287, 289) These ‘hand-grenades’ were definitely not Byzantine nor was there any evidence that they were ‘incendiary bombs’ belonging to either defenders or attackers (contra Foerster 1993:1471). They can add nothing to the debate as to the use to which these vessels were put, which ranges from fire-bombs, to containers for mercury, to beer gourds, to hash pipes (see, inter alia Ettinghausen 1965; Ghouchani and Adle 1992; Keall 1993). ‘Grenades’ were discovered occasionally in all strata. Similar vessels have been found at inter alia Kursi (Tzaferis 1983: Fig. 8:26), Kh. al-Karak (Delougaz and Haines 1960: Pl. 56:2), Amman (Harding 1951: Fig. 2:29), Hammat Gader (Ben-Arieh 1997: Pl. XV:14–19) and Kh. al-Mafjar (Baramki 1944: Fig. 5:1).

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CHAPTER 5: THE POTTERY

1

2

3

8

7

4

5

6

10

9

Fig. 5.52. ‘Grenades’ (red ware). No.

Locus

Basket/ Sherd No.

Elevation

Stratum

1

C43

1863

12.90

III

2

C43

1864

12.90

III

3

C43

1865

12.90

4

C43

1867

12.90

5

C43

1868

12.90

Locus

Basket/ Sherd No.

Elevation

Stratum

6

C43

1870

12.90

III

7

C43

1871

12.90

III

III

8

C43

1872

12.90

III

III

9

C43

1873

12.90

III

III

10

C43

1898/1

12.90

III

Flat-Based Jars (Fig. 5.53) Jars in light red or pink fabric (Fig. 5.53:1 [2.5YR 6/6], 2 [5YR/7/4]) with a flat base, slightly bulging sides and an out-turned rim, with at least one handle at the shoulder, were occasionally found in Stratum IV.

No.

retrieved from the fill in the silo (Locus C25). It should be dated to the Umayyad or early Abbasid period. Two cups with wide very angular ribbing in light reddish brown (5YR 6/4) came from late eleventhcentury contexts. One had an out-turned rim with a small pouring lip (Fig. 5.54:2); the other a rolled-over flanged rim with finger indents on the lower edge of the flange (Fig. 5.54:3). Ribbed Bowl (Fig. 5.54:4). A bowl with wide angular ribbing and an out-turned rim was poorly levigated, with large inclusions. It was found in Stratum I.

1

2

Fig. 5.53. Flat-based jars (red ware): (1) Locus C23, Basket/ Sherd No. 1275/1, Elevation 11.73; (2) Locus D76, Basket 1773. Both Stratum IV.

Vessels in ‘Cooking-Pot’ Ware (Fig. 5.54) Ribbed Cups (Fig. 5.54:1–3). An ‘S’-shaped cup with a simple out-turned rim and wide angular ribbing in a coarse ‘cooking-pot’ fabric (Fig. 5.54:1, 7.5R 6/4) was

Jar (Fig. 5.54:5). A jar in dark grey fabric fired to red externally (2.5YR–2.5YR 5/8). It was recovered from a Stratum I floor (cf. Amman—Northedge 1992: Fig. 151:5). Jug (Fig. 5.54:6). A jug in cooking-pot fabric (5YR 6/ 4) with a ribbed neck and flattened rim in which there was a small pouring lip opposite the handle that ran from the rim to low on the shoulder. It was discovered on a Stratum II floor.

140

DAVID STACEY

3 2 1

5 4 6

Fig. 5.54. Vessels (cooking-pot ware). No.

Locus

Basket/ Sherd No.

Elevation

Stratum

1

C25

1392/14

9.72

V/IV

2

C64

2062

13.23

I

3

C207

2254/2

13.95

I

4

C64

2061/2

13.21

I

5

C64

2062

13.23

I

6

C13

1125/1

12.73

II

2 1

3

4

Fig. 5.55. Jugs and jars (‘pink’ ware). No.

Locus

Basket/ Sherd No.

Elevation

Stratum

1

B9

1080

12.85

I (surface locus)

2

C205

2247/4

14.05

I

3

C64

2062

13.23

I

4

C205

2311

13.55

I

CHAPTER 5: THE POTTERY

Small Jugs and Jars in Pink Ware (Fig. 5.55) Jugs and Jars with Light Ribbing (Fig. 5.55:1 and see Fig. 5.61:1, 2, 12). These vessels had light ribbing near the shoulder and signs of knife paring between the ribbing and the base. They are dated to the tenth– eleventh centuries. Similar vessels were found in the Serçi Limani shipwreck (Van Doorninck 1997). Smooth Jars (without Ribbing) (Fig. 5.55:2–4). One example (Fig. 5.55:2) had faint white painted stripes, vertically on the rim and horizontally on the shoulder. It came from late in Stratum I (cf. Amman—Northedge 1992: Fig 150:1 ‘Fatimid’; Pella—Walmsley 1991: Fig. 8:1 ‘late ninth century’). Other examples also from Stratum I may have been unglazed versions of vessels that were more generally glazed (Fig. 5.55:3, 4 and see Fig. 5.31:5).

MISCELLANEOUS Zoomorphic Figures (Fig. 5.56) Zoomorphic figurines were found from Stratum III (Fig. 5.56:1) to Stratum I (Fig. 5.56:2), although their absence from earlier strata is probably entirely fortuitous. Although they have been regarded as solely Umayyad (they “disappear entirely after the end of the Umayyad

1

2

Fig. 5.56. Zoomorphic figures: (1) Locus C57, Basket/Sherd No. 2005/10, Elevation 11.44; Stratum IV/III; (2) Locus C209, Basket/Sherd No. 2397/9, Elevation 13.67, Stratum I.

141

period” [Brosh 1986:68]), or mainly Umayyad “but possibly continue to appear in later Early Islamic contexts” (Avissar 1996a:171), too many were discovered in Tiberias in later contexts for them all to have been residual, despite the obvious appeal of the broken containers as toys for succeeding generations of young children. A complete glazed vessel from a secure Fatimid context has been published from Caesarea (Arnon, Lester and Polak 1999: Fig. 2k). Pot Stand (Fig. 5.57) The sole example is from Stratum I, Locus C6.

Fig. 5.57. Pot stand: Locus C6, Basket/Sherd No. 1087/1, Elevation 13.10, Stratum I.

POTTERY FROM DESTRUCTION LAYERS STRATUM II POTTERY FROM THE EARTHQUAKE DESTRUCTION LAYER IN LOCUS C20 (Figs. 5.58, 5.59, and see Fig. 6.17:3) An important corpus of Stratum II pottery was found on the floor at 11.34 of Locus C20 destroyed by the earthquake of 1033 CE. A glass coin weight and a glass vessel stamp were discovered in this locus, the coin weight (in a box marked C20/1259) from the floor at 11.34, the undated vessel stamp (in a box marked C20/1185; see Chapter 7: Stamp No. 10) from a higher floor at 11.78. The coin weight is of al-Mustansir and can be dated to AH 428/1036/7 CE (see Chapter 7: Glass Weight No. 6). As a weight of al-Mustansir could not be associated with debris which most logically should be dated to the 1033 CE earthquake, I believe that the two weights somehow became transposed in their boxes during the several years and their several changes of locations, between being excavated and the time that they were studied. Most of the pottery illustrated in Figs. 5.58 and 5.59 has been discussed under the relevant pottery types. Some unusual sherds, however, were found here (see

142

DAVID STACEY

1

2

3

4

5

8 7

6

Fig. 5.58. Pottery from the earthquake destruction layer, C20 (see also Fig. 6.17:3). No.

Locus

Basket/Sherd No.

Elevation

Stratum

1

C20

1257

11.34

II

2

C20

1295

11.34

II

3

C20

1255/4

11.34

II

4

C20

1299

11.34

II

5

C20

1257/4

11.34

II

6

C20

1297/14

11.34

II

7

C20

1297/2

11.34

II

8

C20

1297/11

11.34

II

143

CHAPTER 5: THE POTTERY

3 1 2

5

4

Fig. 5.59. Pottery from the earthquake destruction layer, C20. No.

Locus

Basket/ Sherd No.

Elevation

Stratum

1

C20

1297/45

11.34

II

2

C20

1297/41

11.34

II

3

C20

1297

11.34

II

4

C20

1297/28

11.34

II

5

C20

1297/43

11.34

II

Color Pl. 2:14): several fragments of Egyptian lustre ware (Fig. 5.59:1, 2), belonging to both Mason’s Group 1, dated 975–1025 CE and Group 2, dated 1025– 1075 (Mason 1994:85–91); one of blue-painted opaque white ware, probably an Egyptian imitation of Basra ware (Fig. 5.59:3; Mason and Keall 1991:52; Scanlon 1991:256); one of imitation porcelain (Fig. 5.59:4); and one of Egyptian imitation celadon (Fig. 5.59:5).

THE POTTERY FROM B11 AND B39 (Figs. 5.60, 5.61) A number of complete or restorable vessels were discovered in B11. The dating of the vessels is problematic and deserves some attention. From the surviving records it is not possible to locate the precise find spots of each vessel. They were retrieved, however, from what was assumed to have been a destruction layer. The photographic record is sparse but a section across the floor of B11 (see Fig. 4.43, metre stick rests on the floor) shows the stony debris amongst which the vessels were recovered from close below the modern surface down to the floor. The homogeneity of the vessels found both in the debris (Figs. 5.60:1, 2, 5, 6, 11; 5.61:1) and beneath it (Figs. 5.60:3, 4, 7–10; 5.61:2) precludes the possibility that the stony debris was the fill of a later pit. As they were not all uncovered on the floor beneath the debris, some may have been in a wall niche that collapsed.

Room B11, however, was a unit together with B29 and does not seem to have existed independently of B39 which, in turn seems to be an integral part of the courtyard (B50) building. When B39 was built its entrance was from B29, which had a floor surface at about 12.50. The latter corresponded with the floor at 12.75 in B11 on, and above which, the complete vessels were found. The earliest floor of B39, from which a staircase rose against W508, was some 0.9 m lower than that, necessitating a step down from B29. Unfortunately practically no precisely diagnostic pottery was discovered in the fill beneath (Fig. 5.61: 5–7, 9) or on (Figs. 5.61:8, 10–13) the earliest B39 floor.15 The complete oil lamp (Fig. 6.18:1), which came to light 0.10–0.15 m below the earliest floor does, however, have the double ridged, elongated almond base and meandering decoration characteristic of tenth–eleventh-century lamps, as did another lamp (B39/1364, not illustrated) from on the earliest floor. A study of the pottery from the courtyard building reveals that ceramics from Strata II and I (980–1100 CE) occur in occupational deposits. Cyma-recta bowls and ‘corkscrew’ sgraffito, which were type fossils of tenth– eleventh-century Tiberias, were found on, and in the fill below, the earliest floors, which must therefore be assigned to Stratum II, or, possibly, late Stratum III. The sparse numismatic evidence confirms an occupation during the eleventh century but does not help date the initial construction. A silver dirham (Coin

144

DAVID STACEY

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

Fig. 5.60. Pottery from Room B11. No.

Locus

Basket/ Sherd No.

Elevation

No.

Locus

Basket/ Sherd No.

Elevation

1

B11

1072

13.13

7

B11

1160

12.81

2

B11

1076

13.13

8

B11

1145

12.75

3

B11

1132

12.78

9

B11

1106/49

-

4

B11

1133

12.78

10

B11

1122

12.76

5

B11

1089

13.00

11

B11

1073

13.13

6

B11

1089

13.00

145

CHAPTER 5: THE POTTERY

3

2

1

4

5

6

7 8

10 9

11

12

13

Fig. 5.61. Pottery from Rooms B11 and B39.

146

DAVID STACEY

Fig. 5.61 No.

Locus

Basket/ Sherd No.

Elevation

1

B11

1038

13.22

2

B11

1138

12.93

3

B11

1176/1

13.13

4

B11

1119/2

12.87

5

B39

1369/3

11.39

6

B39

1427/2

10.83

7

B39

1369/5

11.39

8

B39

1351/9

11.57

9

B39

1397/3

11.10

10

B39

1693/5

11.57 11.57

11

B39

1351/4

12

B39

1360

11.57

13

B39

1351/13

11.57

No. 359) of al-Hākim (996–1021 CE) was discovered in Room B47 12 cm above the earliest presumed floor. A quarter dirham (Coin No. 360), also of al-Hākim, was found on a final (Stratum I) floor. A glass coin weight (weight No. 5; B33/1289) of al-Zāhir (1020–1036 CE) also came from a Stratum I floor in what became B50. In the stratigraphic report (see Chapter 4) the apparent partial destruction which separated the two strata was originally assigned to the earthquake of 1033 CE. The ceramic evidence, however, seems to preclude a date as late as 1033 for the pottery from B11. Some of the pottery, particularly some of the oil lamps, has distinct echoes of the ninth century. Three oil lamps (see Figs. 6.8:4; 6.9:3, 5) are of a type common to the ninth and tenth centuries. Two other fragments of a lamp, or lamps, identical to Fig. 6.9:5, and three fragments similar to Fig. 6.9:3, were also found in B11. A lamp (see Fig. 6.13:1), which was from the same mould as a lamp from a Stratum III–II context (see Fig. 6.13:2; cf. Peleg 1989: Fig. 70:17), is probably of the tenth century, whilst another lamp (Fig. 6.18:4) was identical to two others both recovered from Stratum I contexts (Fig. 6.18:2, 3), and is thus an eleventh-century form (as is Lamp B11/1118/2, not illustrated). The flask (Fig. 5.60:11) could be compared with one dated to the ninth–tenth centuries at al-Mina (Lane 1937: Fig. 3K) and has similar knobbed handles to those found on vessels from such ninth-century sites as

Abu Ghosh (de Vaux and Stève 1950: Pls. C:4, 23; D:11–13, 16, 21), Kh. al-Karak (Delougaz and Haines 1960: Pl. 58:3, 7) and Pella (Walmsley 1991: Fig. 7:2), but also assigned to the late tenth century in Caesarea (Arnon 1999b: Fig. 7h) and to the Fatimid period in Aqaba (Whitcomb 1988a: Fig. 4d). A flask (Fig. 5.60: 10), besides having knobbed handles, also has a horn decoration found occasionally in the ninth or early tenth century (cf. Fig. 5.44:2 and Kh. al-Mafjar— Baramki 1944: Fig. 5:15, 16). There is a similarity between the decorative motif on drinking jug Fig. 5.60:6 and that on a fragmentary sherd from Abu Ghosh (de Vaux and Stève 1950: Pl. C:14), which should be dated to the late eighth–ninth centuries (see above, Chapter 3). The jug has a parallel from Caesarea dated 750–875 CE (Arnon 1999b: Fig. 3b), but also one from Amman in an eleventhcentury context (Northedge 1992: Fig. 137:2). These drinking jugs are not, however, of much use for precise dating as they have been found in the earliest (late eighth century?) levels at Ramla (Cytryn-Silverman and Avissar, pers. comm.) but remained popular until at least the middle of the eleventh century (Northedge 1992: Fig. 137:2; Arnon, Lester and Polak 1999: Fig. 2a) with only slight variation (see discussion under Fig. 5.41). The cooking pot (Fig. 5.61:4) is of a tenth–eleventhcentury type. The only parallels for the two ‘pink’ ware juglets (Fig. 5.61:1, 2), apart from that found on the earliest floor in B39 (Fig. 5.61:12), come from the Serçe Limani shipwreck, dated c. 1025 CE, which also produced buff-ware drinking jugs similar to those in Fig. 5.60 (Van Doorninck 1997). There is no parallel for what may be either the neck of a flask, or, more likely, a funnel (Fig. 5.61:3). If all the pottery from B11 was contemporary (and it is hard to see how it could have been deposited at different times) then a date in the mid–late tenth century, towards the end of the life of some forms and at the beginning of others, would seem preferable even though there are still some anachronisms. Thus it is possible that the buildings in Area B were erected in the later half of Stratum III and that B11, opening onto the street, was looted and destroyed soon afterwards, perhaps during raids by the Qaramat¤s (c. 964 or 975), or by the Fatimids (c. 970–975). The apparent collapse of e.g. W530 in B53 could still be attributable to the earthquake of 1033.

CHAPTER 5: THE POTTERY

147

NOTES 1 Most of the illustrated pottery is from well-stratified loci which are referred to in Chapter 4 and/or in the plans. A few sherds, with special characteristics, came from the following poorly stratified or surface loci: B2, B9, B21, B25 and B46. Only a handful of complete vessels were drawn at the time of the excavations. 2 It is noted that Walmsley has since changed his numbering system to include earlier wares (Walmsley 1995). 3 Attention should be drawn to the fact that some sherds of Coptic painted ware were present in the Area D corpus, now well dated, numismatically, to no earlier than the mideighth century. It is hoped that these sherds will be published separately in the future. 4 My thanks to Katia Cytryn-Silverman for providing me with a draft of this report. 5 Similar vessels have apparently been found at Ramla and Habonim, north of Dor (Miriam Avissar, pers. comm.), but comparison must await their publication. 6 Colours are given, where available, according to Munsell (1988). 7 I thank Donald Whitcomb for showing them to me at the Oriental Institute in Chicago. 8 I thank Donald Whitcomb for drawing my attention to this possibility. 9 Some recent, still unpublished, evidence from Rusafa indicates that relief-decorated glazed pottery may have appeared in the Umayyad period (Grube 1994:10 and n. 17). 10 The incised ‘corkscrew’ was found at Hammat Tiberias (Johnson 2000b: Fig. 17:116), Kh. al-Mafjar (Baramki 1944: Pl. XVI:13), Capernaum (Berman 1989: Fig. 71:25), Amman (Northedge 1984: Fig. 76:8; Olavarri-Goicoechea 1985: Fig. 52:12), Yoqne‘am (Avissar 1996a: Fig. XIII.7: 2, 6) and Aqaba (Whitcomb 1991: Fig. 5: m, n); and the cyma-recta bowl at Capernaum (Berman 1989: Fig. 71: 16–19 none incised), Amman (Northedge 1984: Fig. 76:6, 7, ‘the rim form is unusual’ but was common there in the late eleventh century), Aqaba (Whitcomb 1991: Fig. 6b) and, not surprisingly, Hammat Tiberias (Oren 1971:275; Johnson 2000b: Fig. 17:112), but not at Yoqne‘am or Kh. al-Mafjar. Bet She’an had both (M. Avissar, pers. comm.), whilst Abu Ghosh had neither and clearly predated them. The material from Pella is also too early to include these forms. To the north of Tiberias they have been found near Hazor (Stern and Stacey 2000: Fig. 3:7) and in the Hula Valley (Shaked 1998: Fig. 9:1, 2).

As with the incised cream-ware bowls the ‘pink’ ware bowls did not reach Caesarea (Arnon 1999b; Arnon, Lester and Polak 1999 and pers. comm.) or Ramla, although Sshaped bowls with a far less pronounced curve than the cyma-recta bowls do appear there (Cytryn-Silverman, forthcoming Fig. 8:17). Apparently there are several Sshaped bowls, mostly unglazed, amongst the unpublished material from the Rosen-Ayalon and Eitan excavations in Ramla (Rosen-Ayalon and Eitan 1969), together with a very few examples of what may be cyma-recta bowls imported from Tiberias (Ayala Lester, pers. comm.). 11 Whitcomb dates these to the tenth century in Aqaba (Whitcomb 1991:53 Fig. 4). However he attributes ‘corkscrew’ sgraffito (Whitcomb 1991: Fig. 5m, n), which was probably of Tiberian origin, to the ninth century. Although they may possibly have started production towards the end of that century they were abundant only in the tenth– eleventh centuries. 12 The statement that ‘it is the first time that white-painted storage jars were found in a definite homogenous Fatimid deposit’ overlooks the fact that the latter two jars were illustrated in Stacey 1995. 13 Cf. the overtly Christian graffiti found at Yassi Ada, although most of those were inscribed after firing (Van Doorninck 1989). 14 The author now believes that assigning them to the tenth century (Stacey 1995:179) is too late. 15 The basin (Fig. 5.61:6) is perhaps Umayyad (Avissar 1996a: Fig. XIII.79 Type 26:1) and was discovered on virgin soil. The basin (Fig. 5.61:5) from the sub-floor fill is similar to one found in Stratum II (Fig. 5.15:5) and to a type that, at Yoqne‘am, is dated to the Crusader period (Avissar 1996a: Fig. XIII.83 Type 30:2), whilst the basin (Fig. 5.61:9), also sub-floor, is Avissar’s Type 27 dated to the Abbasid and Fatimid periods. The large storage jars (Fig. 5.61:7, 8) are of a type that had a long life starting in the Umayyad period and continuing to the end of the eleventh century. The small fragments (Fig. 5.61:10) of ninth-century FBW Form 2A (Magness 1993:198) and of moulded ware (Fig. 5.61:13), c. 850–950, are probably residual. The lid (Fig. 5.61:11) has some resemblance to eighth–ninth century lids (Magness 1993:248; Avissar 1996a: Fig. XIII.109 Type 22), but a lid’s form is determined by its function. In Capernaum a similar lid (Peleg 1989: Fig. 61:9) is assigned to Stratum III which should be dated 850–950 CE.

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DAVID STACEY

CHAPTER 6

THE OIL LAMPS

Complete lamps were found in all areas.1 Most were ovoid with an upper and lower body moulded in a reddish-brown clay, with a channel running from the filler hole to the nozzle. This is the typical lamp of the Early Islamic period in Palestine. The ovoid lamps can be divided into three main forms: Form 1, with a conical handle and a rounded ring foot often stamped with a ‘potter’s mark’; Form 2, with a tongue handle, an almond-shaped base and a ‘key-hole trough’; and Form 3, also with a tongue handle, an almond-shaped base often surrounded by two or even three ridges and a triangular trough. A wheel-made form (Form 4) appears in the Fatimid period, the tenth–eleventh centuries. Form 1 (suggested date 700–900 CE) Ovoid lamps with a conical handle and a rounded ring foot. This form can be divided into four broad subgroups (A–D) based on decorative patterns.

1

2

Lamp Form 1A (Figs. 6.1, 6.2; suggested date 700–800 CE). A lamp with lines radiating around the filler hole, often with a stylised tree in the channel. A lamp (Fig. 6.1:1), with a small button handle and parallel lines radiating from the filler hole, was discovered in C48 alongside W551, which was covered by the Stratum III floor in C32. It was found together with a coin (Coin No. 82) dated to 734–745 CE. An Abbasid coin (Coin No. 181) dated to 776–785 CE was located 7 cm higher than the lamp, but still some 0.45 m below the Stratum III floor. The lamp thus comes from a late Umayyad or early Abbasid context. Magness dates this type to the seventh–early eighth centuries (Magness 1993: Form 4B 255). Walmsley regards it as late Umayyad, although his example has a more pronounced conical handle (Walmsley 1988: Fig. 9:6). A lamp that could be from the same mould was found at Hammat Gader (Uzzielli 1997: Pl. VII:6) but is not dated more precisely than Early Islamic, although it is probably Umayyad.

3

Fig. 6.1. Form 1A: (1) Locus C48, Basket 1669, Elevation 12.19, Stratum V/IV; (2) Locus C72, Basket 2131? Elevation 12.63? Stratum IV; (3) Locus C98, Basket/Sherd No. 2421/21, Elevation 12.44, Stratum IV.

150

DAVID STACEY

1

2

Fig. 6.2. Form 1A: (1) Locus C81, Basket 2175, Elevation ? Stratum IV; (2) Locus C21, Basket/Sherd No. 1428/1, Elevation 10.19, Stratum IV.

A lamp (Fig. 6.1:2) of similar type to that above, but with the radiating lines separated from the filler hole by a row of dots, came from an early Abbasid floor. It is a common type in the late Umayyad period (Baramki 1944: Pl. XVII:7; Rosenthal and Sivan 1978: No. 538 with many parallels; Magness 1993: ‘Form 4C’ 257; Arnon 1999a:20). A lamp (Fig. 6.1:3) with a herringbone pattern surrounding the filler hole was found in the fill of a Stratum IV floor. At Pella (Walmsley 1991: Fig. 7:5) and Capernaum (Peleg 1989: Fig. 70:12) it is to be dated to the mid–late eighth century (see Chapter 3). A similar lamp, of unknown provenance, was found in Hammat Tiberias (Johnson 2000a: Fig. 19:14). Two examples of a lamp (Fig. 6.2:1, 2) with two rows of lines separated by a row of circles and with a stylised tree in the channel, both from identical upper and lower moulds, were recovered from early Stratum IV contexts. A number of similar lamps are known from Hammat Tiberias (Johnson 2000a: Fig. 18:4), indicating that this lamp was made locally. Form 1B (Figs. 6.3, 6.4; suggested date 725–875 CE). A lamp with an arcade of three or more adjoining semi-circles or arcs, usually in high relief, on either side of the filling hole. All of these lamps came from

late eighth–early ninth-century contexts apart from two (Fig. 6.4:1, 2), which lay on a Stratum III floor. Many variants of Form 1B, often with the word Allah in or near the channel, were manufactured in kilns at Bet She’an, which were destroyed by the earthquake of 749 CE (Bar-Nathan, pers. comm.; see Hadad 1997: Fig. 43; Hadad and Khamis 1998: Figs. 3–9). An example, discovered in Jordan (Amr 1986: Fig. 9), almost certainly came from the same kilns, as may two inscribed examples (Philon 1980: Fig. 50; Amr 1986: Fig. 10). The Form 1B lamp was popular in Jund al-Urdunn but did not spread far beyond its borders. It is not present in the Jerusalem corpus (Magness 1993), nor is it published from Kh. al-Mafjar. An unusually ornate example, which may have come from a different source, has been published from a c. 800 CE context from Fustat (Kubiak 1970: Fig. 1; Scanlon 1974b: Pl. XVI 8 and, most clearly, Scanlon 1984: Fig. 9, Pl. 11). At Pella it was the most popular variety of lamp up to the end of the ninth century (Walmsley 1991:8; Figs. 7:4, 8:4; 1993: Fig. 26:3, 4, 6). At Capernaum it was found in Periods II and III (Peleg 1989: Fig. 70:7, 10), which must be redated to c. 850–1050 CE (see above, Chapter 3). At Hammat Gader it is included amongst the Early Islamic (Umayyad?) lamps (Uzzielli

151

CHAPTER 6: THE OIL LAMPS

2

1

4

3

Fig. 6.3. Form 1B. No.

Locus

Basket/ Sherd No.

Elevation

Stratum

1

C98

2421/7

12.44

IV

2

C98

2421

12.44

IV

3

C19

1346

11.81

IV

4

C21

1428/2

12.86 (cf. Fig. 6.4:1)

IV

152

DAVID STACEY

2

1

4

3

Fig. 6.4. Form 1B. No.

Locus

Basket/ Sherd No.

Elevation

Stratum

1

C67

2116/1

12.86 (cf. Fig. 6.3:4)

IV/III

2

C67

2116/2

12.86

IV/III

3

C21

1401

11.40

IV

4

C23

1291/2

In pit

IV

153

CHAPTER 6: THE OIL LAMPS

1997: Fig. 13; Pl. IX:1). An example from Yoqne‘am (Avissar 1996b: Fig. XV.16 No. 16, presumably dated no earlier than the late ninth century) seems to be from the same upper mould as the lamps in Figs. 6.3:4 and 6.4:1 from Tiberias. Form 1C (Figs. 6.5–6.7:1, 2; suggested date 750–900 CE). Lamps with a decoration of adjoining triangles, or inverted ‘V’s, on either side of the filling hole. Most examples came from late eighth–ninth-century contexts. Two lamps (Fig. 6.7:1, 2), representing a sub-group with the decorative motif being divided into two bands, came from beneath or on a Stratum II floor. Variations on the ‘adjoining triangles’ decoration on tongue-handled lamps remained popular until the end of the eleventh century (see Form 3B below). However, both the conical handle and the bases of these two lamps place them in the ninth century, so they are likely to have been residual. Form 1C lamps have been found at Hammat Tiberias (Johnson 2000a: Lamps 10, 20, 21), Kursi (Tzaferis 1983: Fig. 8:28 early Abbasid, see Chapter 3), Capernaum (Peleg 1989: Fig. 70:8, 9 early Abbasid, see Chapter 3), and Hammat Gader (Uzzielli 1997: Fig. 13; Pls. VIII:2, IX:3).

1

Form 1D (Fig. 6.7:3; suggested date 700–750 CE) with an inscription around the filling hole was discovered beneath the floor of B47, in the fill of one of the three small pits that were dug into virgin soil (see Coin Nos. 123, 124, 126, 307). The lamp is complete (apart from the conical handle that was damaged during firing by a bursting air-bubble) and shows no sign of burning around the wick. The inscription reads ‘In the name of Allah, blessing from Allah’ (Khairy and Amr 1986: 153). Although an example from the same upper mould is in the Benaki museum (Philon 1980: Fig. 50), this lamp was almost certainly a product of the kilns at Bet She’an because an identical lamp has been found in excavations there, though not in the area of the kilns (Hadad and Khamis 1998: Fig. 11). Its similarity to a lamp made by ‘Hassan’ (Amr 1986: Fig. 10) suggests that it may have been manufactured by the same craftsman. Form 2 (suggested date 800–1000 CE) Ovoid lamps with tongue handles. The channel nozzle is narrow with the ridge surrounding both the channel and the filler hole being in the shape of a key hole.

2

Fig. 6.5. Form 1C: (1) Locus C23, Basket 1277, Elevation 11.73, Stratum IV; (2) Locus A45, Basket 1278, Stratum IV.

154

DAVID STACEY

2

1

Fig. 6.6. Form 1C: (1) Locus C19, Basket/Sherd No. 1246/1, Elevation 11.77, Stratum IV; (2) Locus C19, Basket 1220, Elevation 12.01, Stratum IV.

2

1

3

Fig. 6.7. Form 1C: (1) Locus C67, Basket 2057, Elevation 13.02, Stratum II; (2) Locus C93, Basket 2389, Elevation 13.15, Stratum II. Form 1D: (3) Locus B47, Basket 1653, Elevation 10.40, Stratum V/IV.

155

CHAPTER 6: THE OIL LAMPS

The base is almond shaped but relatively small. None of these lamps has ever been found in well-stratified Umayyad levels at, inter alia, Tiberias, Pella, or Bet She’an (Hadad 1999:213), nor were they manufactured in the Umayyad kilns at Bet She’an. In Tiberias they

were first found in late eighth- or early ninth-century deposits. Form 2A (Figs. 6.8, 6.9; suggested date 800–950+ CE). Lamps with a decoration based on vine tendrils. The

1

2

4

3

Fig. 6.8. Form 2A. No.

Locus

Basket/ Sherd No.

Elevation

Stratum

1

C81

2549

5 cm above street slabs

IV

2

C83

2235

12.46

IV

3

C19

1246/2

11.77

IV

4

B29/11

1404

12.78

III

156

DAVID STACEY

2 1

3

5

4

6

Fig. 6.9. Form 2A. No.

Locus

Basket/ Sherd No.

Elevation

Stratum

1

C205

2467?

-

III

2

C19

1246/3

11.77

IV

3

B11

1068

12.89

III

4

C11

1447

10.81

III

5

B11

1107

12.84

III

6

B54

1667

11.00

III

CHAPTER 6: THE OIL LAMPS

early examples (Fig. 6.8) often have a potter’s mark on the base similar to Form 1 lamps. The meanderings of the tendrils is eventually stylised into circles containing bunches of grapes, or a ‘sun-burst’ or ‘spoked-wheel’ motif (Fig. 6.9:1–3). The bases remain almond shaped, surrounded by one, or occasionally two, ridges, but lack the ‘potters mark’ of the earlier examples. On later lamps various animals can be included in the decoration (Fig. 6.9:4, 5). The earliest Form 2 lamps from Tiberias were found where the slabs of the Roman street, which had remained uncovered in the Umayyad period, had silted up (C81) to a depth of 5 cm, perhaps by the early ninth century (Fig. 6.8:1 and see Coin Nos. 198, 232, 244, 266, 280, 281, 293–295, 342 from the same context; and Fig. 6.8:2 in situ with Coin No. 341). Lamps with tendrils are dated to the ninth century at Jerash (Scholl 1986: Fig. 1:11) and a lamp with circles is dated to the early Abbasid period at Amman (Northedge 1992: Fig. 149:1; Vine and Hartelius 2001: Type 34, eighth–ninth centuries). In Fustat, the vine motif is associated with the late eighth–early ninth centuries (Scanlon 1984: Figs. 11, 12). Five Form 2A lamps (Fig. 6.9:1–5) were in a greenish, pale cream ware. Some, particularly the more ‘ornate’ lamps with zoomorphic decoration in low relief (Fig.

6.9:4, 5), were of a higher artistic standard than most of the lamps found in Tiberias and may have been imported from elsewhere. Cream ware was particularly prevalent during the ninth–mid-tenth centuries, a date that is suitable for all these cream-ware lamps. One (Fig. 6.9:4) was sealed beneath a Stratum II floor and should be dated to the tenth century. Half of a lamp from the same mould was found in Area B (B3/1164, not illustrated) in a small area (see Plan 4.10) that produced many sherds including those from sugar pots (see Fig. 5.38:5), which can be dated no earlier than the middle of the tenth century. Five small sherds from lamps with Kufic inscriptions (Fig. 6.9:6, others not illustrated, although two were from the same mould as Hadad and Khamis 1998: Fig. 12) were also all in pale cream ware. The ‘foliated Kufic’ script indicates a date no earlier than the ninth century. Form 2B (Figs. 6.10, 6:11; suggested date 800–900 CE). Lamps with geometric decoration. One lamp in cream ware (Fig. 6.10:1) has arcades reminiscent of those on Form 1B lamps. It also has circles with central dots often found on chlorite and cream-ware vessels of the eighth–ninth centuries. It came from a surface deposit and is unstratified. It appears to be from the same mould as a lamp found in Bet She’an (Hadad 1999: Fig. 6:4), dated, vaguely, to the Abbasid–Fatimid periods. A very similar lamp is assigned to the early Abbasid period (Hadad 1997: Fig. 47). A lamp (Fig. 6.10:2), with three rows of semi-circles each with a central dot in the same style as the dotted circles on the previous lamp, was not from a wellstratified context but should be dated to the ninth century, as should a lamp (Fig. 6.10:3) which came from the fill beneath a Stratum III floor.

1

2

157

3

Fig. 6.10. Form 2B: (1) Locus B2, Basket 1055, Elevation 12.74, unstratified; (2) Locus C25, Basket 1364, Elevation 10.64, Stratum IV; (3) Locus C22, Basket/Sherd No. 1251/2, Elevation 12.25, Stratum IV/III.

158

DAVID STACEY

2

1

Fig. 6.11. Form 2B: (1) Locus B21, Basket 1127, Elevation 12.64, unstratified; (2) Locus A15, Basket 1149, unstratified.

Two miniature pentagonal lamps decorated with lozenges with a central dot (Fig. 6.11) came from unstratified locations. They are half-sized versions of a lamp found frequently in Caesarea (Arnon 1999a: 20 late eighth/ninth centuries), and believed by the excavators to have been manufactured there in the ninth century (Lenzen 1983:366 Pl. 29; Holum and Hohlfelder 1988:210; Bull et al. 1993: Fig. 4; Vine and Hartelius 2001:Type 32). A mould has, however, been found in Bet She’an (Hadad 1999: Fig. 8: 23), which may therefore be the, or another, place of manufacture. Hadad made no attempt to date the mould more precisely than between “the end of the eighth century…..until the eleventh century” (Hadad 1999:212–213). A full-sized lamp of this type was found in Tiberias by Berman, apparently of the ninth century, although its context and date are unclear (cf. Berman 1988:52 and Schwartz 1988:105). A full-sized ovoid lamp with a similar design to the miniature lamps is published from Fustat dated to the eighth–ninth centuries (Scanlon 1984:66 Fig. 2; Pl. 4), whilst additional full-sized ovoid lamps, which even have a similar design in the trough, were found both

at Caesarea (Lenzen 1983: Pls. 27, 28) and Yoqne‘am (Avissar 1996b: Fig. XV.19 No. 19). They should be dated to the ninth century, as should the miniature lamps from Tiberias. Form 2C (Fig. 6.12; suggested date 900–1000 CE). Monochrome glazed lamps with minimal relief decoration. They were rare and no complete example was discovered. A large fragment with blue glaze (Fig. 6.12:1) came from the fill of a Stratum III floor and should be dated to the end of the ninth century or early in the tenth century. Another large fragment with yellow glaze (Fig. 6.12:2) was from an unstratified surface location. Form 3 (suggested date 900–1100 CE) A continuation of Form 2 ovoid lamps with tongue handles, but the nozzle channel tends to widen until the ridge surrounding it is tangential to the filler hole. The ridge is less ‘key hole’ and more ‘kite’ shaped. The decorative motifs on the discs are simple, usually consisting of scrolls, arabesques and meanders. The base becomes flatter and the almond shape more

CHAPTER 6: THE OIL LAMPS

159

pronounced. It does not have ‘potter’s marks’ but is often surrounded by two or even three ridges. The transition between the two forms is gradual and it is sometimes difficult to assign intermediate lamps.

1

2

Fig. 6.12. Form 2C: (1) Locus C22, Basket/Sherd No. 1251/4, Elevation 12.25, Stratum IV/III; (2) Locus B2, Basket 1042, Elevation 12.74, unstratified.

1

Form 3A (Fig. 6.13; suggested date 900–1000+ CE). Lamps with a herringbone pattern surrounding the filler hole. The decoration harks back to eighthcentury lamps (see Fig. 6.1:1, 3). Two examples were found with the upper body apparently coming from the same mould. The marked difference in the size of the almond-shaped bases, however, reveals that they are transitional between Forms 2 and 3. Neither came from well-dated locations but their intermediary form suggests a tenth-century date. At Capernaum this lamp (Peleg 1989: Fig. 70:17) is dated to Stratum II or I, which, according to my redating (see Chapter 3), belongs to the Fatimid period. Form 3B (Figs. 6.14, 6.15; suggested date 900–1100 CE). Lamps with decoration of triangles reminiscent of Form 1C (see Figs. 6.5, 6.6). The earliest examples (Fig. 6.14:1, 2) came from the fill of a Stratum III floor,

2

Fig. 6.13. Form 3A: (1) Locus B11, Basket/Sherd No. 1118/1, Elevation 12.87, Stratum III; (2) Locus A20, Basket 1138, Stratum III/II.

160

DAVID STACEY

1

2

3

4

No.

Locus

Basket/ Sherd No.

Elevation

Stratum

1

C22

1251/1

12.25

IV/III

2

C22

1251/3

12.25

IV/III

3

C10

1040

12.69

I

4

C9

1070

12.28

I

Fig. 6.14. Form 3B.

1

2

Fig. 6.15. Form 3B: (1) Locus C207, Basket 2297, Elevation 13.81, Stratum I; (2) Locus A7, Basket 1068, Stratum I.

161

CHAPTER 6: THE OIL LAMPS

2

1

Fig. 6.16. Form 3C: (1) Locus B21, Basket 1115, Stratum I; (2) Locus C223, Basket 2565, ‘in bin’, Stratum I.

the rest from Stratum I. A similar lamp was found near Megiddo (Schumacher 1908: Abb. 278c). Form 3C (Fig. 6.16; suggested date 1000–1100 CE). Lamps with a simple scroll decoration. In the channel was a Kufic inscription which utilised the wick-hole as the teh marbuta of Allah. Four complete examples (Fig. 6.16:1, 2; C5/1083 and C9/1103 [not illustrated] and half of another [C9/1112, not illustrated]), were found, all in Stratum I. A lamp from a similar, though worn, mould was discovered in Hammat Tiberias (Johnson 2000a: Fig. 20:24), which indicates that this lamp came from a local atelier. Form 3D (Figs. 6.17–6.20; suggested date 950–1100 CE). Lamps with discs decorated generally in simple scrolls or arabesques, and with large almond-shaped bases usually surrounded by two ridges. The earliest (Fig. 6.17:2) was from above a Stratum III floor. Three examples (Fig. 6.17:1, 3, 5) came from the 1033 CE earthquake destruction layer. Three (Fig. 6.18:2–4),

which were discovered in Areas A, B and C, were all from the same upper mould. Most other examples were found in Stratum I (Figs. 6.17:4, 6.19; 6.20:1, 3). This quintessentially late tenth–eleventh-century lamp type appears to be a very local product as there are no stratigraphically dated parallels, although some lamps from Hammat Tiberias (Oren 1971; Johnson 2000a: Fig. 21:26, 28) are, not surprisingly, very similar. Some lamps from the Schloessinger collection (Rosenthal and Sivan 1978: Figs. 559, 564, 627) approach the triangular trough and one has similar meandering decorations. So too does a lamp from the Benaki museum (Philon 1980: Fig. 65). Five inscribed lamps from Bet She’an should probably be dated to this period (Hadad and Khamis 1998: Figs. 14, 16–19), as could some others generally lumped together as ‘late eighth to eleventh century’ (Hadad 1999: Figs. 6:6; 7:11, 12, 14, 15; Vine and Hartelius 2001: Type 34c, ninth–eleventh centuries). A miniature lamp from Aqaba is also of this type (Whitcomb 1994a:26e).

162

DAVID STACEY

1

2

4

3

5

Fig. 6.17. Form 3D. No.

Locus

Basket/ Sherd No.

Elevation

Stratum

1

C32

1535

13.21

II

2

C19

1151

12.51

III/II

3

C20

1234

11.38

II

4

C21

1171

12.30

I

5

B53

1626

11.25

II

163

CHAPTER 6: THE OIL LAMPS

2 1

3

4

Fig. 6.18. Form 3D. No.

Locus

Basket/ Sherd No.

Elevation

Stratum

1

B39

1371

11.39

III/II

2

C21

1177

12.08

I

3

A10

1058

-

I

4

B11

1394

12.78

III/II

164

DAVID STACEY

1

2

4 3

5

Fig. 6.19. Form 3D. No.

Locus

Basket/ Sherd No.

Elevation

Stratum

1

C206

2258

14.12

I

2

C211

2317

14.92

I

3

B31

1305

12.04

I

4

A10

1123

-

I

5

A5

1051

-

I

165

CHAPTER 6: THE OIL LAMPS

2 1

3

Fig. 6.20. Form 3D: (1) Locus C9, Basket 1113, Elevation 11.90, Stratum I; (2) Locus C13, Basket 1107, Elevation 12.79, Stratum II; (3) Locus A18, Basket 1124, Stratum I.

Form 4 (Fig. 6.21; suggested date 950–1100 CE) Wheel-made lamps usually in a reddish clay similar to that used for cooking pots. They are sometimes glazed. Wheel-made lamps were rare in Tiberias and were clearly imports, appearing first during the tenth century. In Fustat, in the eleventh century, wheel-made lamps (Kubiak 1970: Types B–E) had largely replaced mould-made ones. Although some were imported to coastal ports such as Caesarea (Brosh 1986: Figs. 5: 13–15, 6:1–4) and reached inland to Yoqne‘am (Avissar 1996b:196–198), few arrived at Tiberias where the manufacture of mould-made lamps continued. Two small fragments (Fig. 6.21:1, 2) from Stratum III appear to be handles of ‘Kubiak Type B’ lamps dated at Fustat to the tenth–eleventh centuries (Kubiak 1970: 6–8). However, the Japanese excavators of Fustat give this type (their Group 2, Type 1) a wider date range, from the ninth–eleventh centuries (Kawatoko 1987: 28–29). Both Tiberias examples were of blue glaze on a white sandy clay body, rare in Fustat. ‘Kubiak Type E’ lamps, also dated to the tenth– eleventh centuries in Fustat, were only found in Stratum I (Fig. 6.21:3—a multi-spouted variant? [see Vine and Hartelius 2001: Type 35B with only two wick

1

2

4

3

5

Fig. 6.21. Form 4. No.

Locus

Basket/ Sherd No.

Elevation

Stratum

1

C75

2153/5

12.70

III

2

C66

2044/3

12.97

III

3

C205

2270/5

13.74

I

4

C92

2327

13.43

I

5

C9

1101

12.80

I

166

DAVID STACEY

holes]; 6.21:4—green glazed; 6.21:5—unglazed). This type is rare in Fustat and its common appearance in Caesarea (Vine and Hartelius 2001: Type 35A; Holum and Hohlfelder 1988: Fig. 162; Brosh 1986: Figs. 5: 13–15; 6:1 the latter all from Fatimid not Crusader contexts [see Chapter 3]) point to a possible north

Syrian provenance. They have, however, also been found in Aqaba, where they are dated to the eleventh century (Whitcomb 1994a:26h). A few fragments of wheel-made lamps, dated to the tenth–eleventh centuries, have been found in Bet She’an (Hadad 1999: Figs. 3:9–11; 4:12, 13).

NOTES 1

All of the complete lamps from Areas A, B, C and C1 are illustrated. Most of the loci in which they were found can be located in Chapter 4 and/or the plans. The following were surface or poorly stratified loci: A5; B2, B21, B31,

B54. Lamps from Area D1 await publication. Many of the complete oil lamps from the first season were photographed at that time.

CHAPTER 7

THE GLASS1 AYALA LESTER

INTRODUCTION About 10,000 glass fragments were found in the Tiberias excavation. The stratigraphy presented above (see Chapter 4) provides a chronological basis for the dating of the areas from both within and outside the city. The structure of each of the excavation areas is a major factor in the broad diversity displayed among the finds. Area A is primarily domestic; Areas B and C, near the southern city gate, have both commercial and residential facilities, and Area D contains housing and workshops. David Stacey, in Chapter 4, outlined seven periods of occupation in Tiberias, from the Roman to the Fatimid periods (during the eleventh century CE); five of these fall within the Early Islamic period.2 It was possible to analyze 1,927 fragments of the glass finds according to typology or manufacturing technique. The scope of the material permitted me to pose several questions regarding their characteristics and manufacturing methods, in regard to the quantitative extent of the material. The statistical analysis took into consideration possible counting errors caused by several fragments belonging to the same vessel, fragments thrown away during sorting, or Early Roman or Byzantine fragments that penetrated the upper strata. Notwithstanding such errors, the picture obtained reflects the character of the excavated material. The following results were obtained: 79.29% of the assemblage are free blown; 3.63% are decorated with threads, and applications such as jug handles; 3.68% are cut glass; 2.69% are mould blown; 0.77% are decorated by pinching and impressing; 0.15% are decorated by marvering; 0.15% are decorated with lustre; 3.52% are cast into moulds, e.g. tesserae, beads and bracelets; 4.63% are glass chunks and slag; 1.40% are varia (mostly fragments from earlier periods); and 0.05% represents a single fragment of a carved rockcrystal vessel.

As seen above, the majority of the material is free blown and only a few dozen pieces were manufactured and decorated using other techniques. Most of the fragments are household items, such as lamps, bowls, jars, bottles, goblets, beakers, beads, bracelets, etc. The discussion deals with several types of freeblown glass and decorated glass such as mould-blown vessels, pinched and stamped glass, vessels with lustre painting, and marvered glass. Within the decorative glass vessels, the discussion focuses on the production techniques as the typology of the vessels has already been discussed within the sections dealing with freeblown glass. C.J. Lamm laid the basis for research in Islamic glass in two publications (Lamm 1928; 1929–1930). In his discussions, he emphasized the cultural background of the vessels and production techniques rather than the typological theme and thus created the methodological approach toward the research of the subject. This glass report is based mainly upon Stacey’s stratigraphic division which allows us to trace the typological development of a type or a group of vessels: its consolidation, distribution at its peak and sometimes its decline or disappearance with the emergence of another type or vessel. For the present report, 200 fragments were selected, coming from stratified and usually clearly dated assemblages, which were classified first by typological groups, followed by techniques.3 Single unique fragments were added as well, e.g. a lustre-decorated bowl rim (No. 181) and a gaming piece fragment (No. 184). The fragments of juglet No. 123 appear under the discussion of the juglet and again as No. 183, under the section dealing with marvered decoration. Handle No. 128 was identified as another fragment of marvered glass only at the summation of this paper and thus did not receive sequential numbering. The plates are arranged typologically, accompanied by a table detailing the provenance of each vessel with relevant parallels.

168

AYALA LESTER

Only dated vessels from archaeological assemblages were used as comparative material. Museum and private collections were employed only when no other parallels were available. Exceptions are the Metropolitan Museum in New York, where much of the material is from the excavations at Nishapur (Jenkins 1986; Kröger 1995) and the al-Sabah collection from Kuwait, distinguished by its quantity and the broad range of the types and techniques it displays (Carboni 2001). The nature of the glass varies from period to period. The Umayyad and early Abbasid periods are characterized by clear quality bluish-green glass with pinprick bubbles. Strata I–II (Fatimid period) and, to some extent Stratum III (late Abbasid), are characterized by thicker, more brittle glass, with numerous bubbles of varying size. The glass from the upper strata is usually found covered with thick, black and silvery weathering, possibly produced by the chemical conditions created by the combination of the makeup of the glass and the soil, which, in this area, is saturated with minerals because of the proximity to the hot springs. The chapter does not include the group of cut glass vessels which were dealt with separately (Lester 1998).

THE VESSELS BOWLS (Fig. 7.1) The bowls are divided into shallow and deep bowls with related sub-groups. The earliest bowls discussed are dated to the eighth–ninth centuries, a few decades beyond the end of the Umayyad period; no bowls from the Umayyad period were found in well-stratified areas. The sequential distribution of the bowls reflects the change in the glass fabric from thin transparent bluish-green and olive green glass, to thick translucent colourless glass with a yellow and greenish tinge. Shallow Bowls Bowl No. 1, shallow with a slightly thickened round rim and convex walls, made of light bluish-green glass, dated to the late eighth–early ninth centuries, is the simplest version of the shallow bowl. A rim fragment

of such a bowl was found at Khirbet Tabaliya (Giv‘at Hamatos) and dated to the Late Byzantine period. Gorin-Rosen mentions that this type of bowl continued within the Early Islamic period (Gorin-Rosen 2000b: 84, Pl. 2:8). Bowl 2, with a thicker and turned-in rim, exists from the late eighth–early ninth centuries, through the early Fatimid period (No. 4). This subtype is slightly deeper and is known also with lustre decoration, such as rim fragment No. 181. Bowls 3 and 5 are of the same type. Bowl 6, with slanting walls and a slightly splayed rim, belongs to Stratum III. The rim and the glass fabric are the same as that of Bowls 7–15, with convex walls and short everted rims. This type of bowl appears in Tiberias towards the end of the tenth century. These bowls were probably consolidated under the influence of the clay bowls, dated to the Abbasid– Tulunid periods and later to the Fatimid period (Figs 5.5:3; 5.9:2, 3; 5.19:11, 12; 5.20:2, 3; 5.23:3; 5.24:3) and were widespread in Strata II and I. This bowl type usually has a small diameter and appears in various tinges of green and yellow. An exception is Bowl 11, made of light purple glass with a diameter of 16.4 cm. Such a bowl was found at Ramla, with a diameter of 14.4 cm (IAA No. 99-2817). This type of shallow bowl has been recovered from other sites excavated in Israel such as Yoqne‘am, Bet She’an and Ramla. Bowls with short splayed rims were discovered at Fustat, Manda, Gedi and Dvin. Samarra is the most easterly city from which these bowls are known. No bowls with short everted rims were uncovered at Nishapur. Bowl 16 is deeper and more convex than the other bowls with a S-shaped rim. Bowl 17, with an outfolded hollow rim, is similar to Bowl 18, but lacks a thread embedded within the rim. Bowls 18 and 19, with coloured threads of various colours embedded into the rim, are a sub-type of the shallow bowl with a splayed rim. Bowl 20, with a flattened rim and a dark green thread on the underside of the rim, is similar in shape to a cooking pot from the Tulunid/late Abbasid period (Fig. 5.32:9). It is an intermediate type between the shallow and the deep bowls. Shallow bowls, with outfolded rims, are distinguished by their hollow rims (Nos. 21–25). Bowls 21 and 22 are dated to the late Umayyad and early Abbasid periods. The former is made of pale green glass and the latter of thick dark blue glass with a solid rim. The shape of Bowl 24 preserves a Late Roman–Byzantine tradition,

169

CHAPTER 7: THE GLASS

3

2 1

5

4

6

9 8 7

11 10

14

13

12

15

17

16

18

19

21

22

20

23 24

Fig. 7.1. Bowls.

170

AYALA LESTER

25

27 26

28

29 30

31 32

Fig. 7.1. (cont.). No.

Locus

Basket No.

Elevation

Stratum

Description

Parallels

1

B47

1660/1

9.90

Late eighth– early ninth c.

Shallow bowl with slightly thickened, rounded rim. Light bluish-green glass.

Negro Ponzi 1970–1971: Fig. 53:97; Finster and Schmidt 1976: Pl. 57: g, middle of seventh–second half of eighth c.; Janpoladian 1974: Pl IV:6, ninth–eleventh c.; Kröger 1995:43, Fig. 6, tenth c.; Hadad 1998b: Pl. 30:507, middle of eighth–eleventh c.; Gorin-Rosen 2000b: Pl. 2:8, Late Byzantine.

2

B47

1660/2

9.90

Late eighth– early ninth c.

Bowl with slightly thickened, turned-in Negro Ponzi 1970–1971: Pl. 50:53, rim. Light bluish-green glass. eighth c.; Whitcomb 1978: Pl. 78:29, Early Islamic; Wilson and Sa‘d 1984:147, No. 562, Umayyad; Bamber 1988: Pl. 52:16, Abbasid; Al-As‘ad and Stępniowski 1989: Fig. 8:5, Umayyad; Hadad 1998b: Pl. 1:3, Pl. 3:52, Umayyad, Pl. 21:364, 365, end of Umayyad period, Pl. 31:515 middle of eighth–eleventh c.

3

C22

1269/1

11.80

Late eighth– early ninth c.

Bowl with round hollow rim. Light bluish-green glass.

Meyer 1989: Fig. 2, incurved rim, Umayyad; Hadad 1998b: Pl 31:516, second half of eighth–eleventh c.

4

C20

1258/4

11.38

II

Bowl with slightly convex walls and rim thickened and turned in. Light green glass; pin-prick bubbles.

Harden 1955a: Fig. 36:10, ninth–twelfth c.; Whitcomb 1978: Pl. 78:28, Early Islamic; Kervran 1984: Fig. 9:14 (Level I), 800– 900 CE; Morrison 1984: Fig. 130: c (Period I), mid-ninth–early eleventh c.; Hadad 1998b: Pl. 1:3, Pl. 3:52, Umayyad period, Pl. 21: 364, 365, end of Umayyad period, Pl. 31:515, middle of eighth–eleventh c.

5

C22

1252/5

12.25

III

Bowl with convex walls and hollow, outfolded rim. Pale green glass.

Kirkman 1954: Fig. 37:t, ninth–tenth c.; Janpoladian 1974: Pl. VI:6–8, ninth– thirteenth c.; Shindo 1992:589, Nos. 15, 16; Gorin-Rosen 1997a: Pl. 3:2, third–fourth c.; Stern 1997: Pl. 2:10, third–fourth c.; Hadad 1998b: Pl. 31:516, eighth–eleventh c.

171

CHAPTER 7: THE GLASS

Fig. 7.1. (cont.) No.

Locus Basket No. Elevation

Stratum

Description

Parallels

6

B39

1351

11.57

III

Bowl with slanting walls and slightly splayed rim. Colourless glass.

Kirkman 1954: Fig. 37:u, ninth–tenth c.; Kervran 1984: Fig. 9:10 (Level I), 800–900 CE; Meyer 1989: Fig. 2, thickened rim, Umayyad and post-Umayyyad; Hadad 1998b: Pl. 29:481a, second half of eighth– eleventh c.

7

B39

1332

11.65

III

Bowl with straight walls and short everted rim. Colourless glass; blowing spirals.

Adams 1970: Fig. 15:E-6 between 650–800 CE; Janpoladian 1974: Pl. V:2, ninth–thirteenth c.; Morrison 1984: Fig. 125: a (Period Id), mid-ninth–early eleventh c.; Kröger 1995:43 Fig. 4, ninth– tenth c.; Hadad 1998ba: Pl. 31:521, second half of eighth–eleventh c.

8

C20

1258/5

11.34

II

Bowl with convex walls and short everted rim. Light green glass.

Lamm 1928: Pl. 1:13–14, Pl. 3:15, ninth c.; Kirkman 1954: Fig. 37:s, ninth–tenth c.; Riis 1957: Fig. 23; Adams 1970: Fig. 15:E-3–6, 800–950 CE; Morrison 1984: Figs. 125:a, 128:b (Period I), mid-ninth–early eleventh c.; Jenkins 1986: No.4, eighth–ninth c.; Lester 1996: Fig. XVII.2:2–5, ninth–eleventh c., Early Islamic; Hadad 1998b: Pl. 31:520–522, second half of eighth–eleventh c.; Scanlon and Pinder-Wilson 2001: Pl. 4a, c, eighth–ninth c.

9

B39

1351

11.57

III

Bowl with convex walls and short everted rim. Light green glass.

10

D66

1639/1

6.99

I

Bowl with convex walls and short everted rim. Colourless glass.

11

C5/8

1152/4

12.03

I

Bowl with slanting walls and short everted rim. Light purple glass; blowing spirals.

12

B3

1176/16

13.44

I

Bowl with convex walls and short everted rim. Colourless glass; blowing spirals.

13

B3

1176/14

13.44

I

Small bowl with a short everted rim. Colourless glass.

14

B3

1176/31

13.44

I

Small bowl with a short everted rim. Light green glass.

15

B3

1176/17

13.44

I

Small bowl with a short everted rim. Colourless glass.

16

B3

1176/18

13.44

I

Deep bowl with a short everted rim. Colourless glass.

17

B3

1176/15

13.44

I

Bowl with convex walls and round outfolded rim. Colourless thick glass.

Kröger 1995: Nos. 8, 9, tenth c.

18

C20

1235/7

11.38

II

Bowl with convex walls and round outfolded rim. Dark green glass thread embedded into the rim with a thin red glass thread. runs along the middle of the center of the rim. Colourless glass.

Jenkins 1986:9, 1024–1025 CE; Bass 1978: 770 (for the decorated rim).

19

D74

1714/2

6.80

I

Bowl with a slightly stepped shoulder and thickened rim. Dark green and thin red threads are imbedded in the rim. Colourless glass with yellow tinge.

As above.

20

C20

1235

11.38

II

Bowl with round shoulder and flattened rim with dark green thread placed on the underside. Colourless glass.

Shindo 1992:589, No. 4.

Shindo 1992:589, No. 6; 1998: Fig. 6:6, Fatimid tenth–twelfth c.

172

AYALA LESTER

Fig. 7.1. (cont.) No.

Locus Basket No. Elevation

Stratum

Description

Parallels

21

C22

1269/2

11.80

Late eighth– early ninth c.

Bowl with hollow outfolded rim. Palegreen glass.

Hadad 1998ba: Pl. 20:351, Umayyad.

22

C22

1252

12.25

IV

Bowl with round walls and solid outfolded rim. Dark blue thick glass.

Hadad 1998b: Pl. 2:25, 27, Umayyad, Pl. 30: 492–493, middle of eighth–eleventh c.

23

C20

1258/2

11.34

II

Bowl with convex walls and flat, hollow, outfolded rim. Pale yellow thick glass.

Kervran 1984: Fig. 9:18 (Levels 0–I), 800– 900 CE and later.

24

C43

1826

12.90

III

Bowl with widening outfolded rim. Pale-green glass.

Brisch 1963: Pl. XLIIb, eighth c.; Barag 1970: Pl. 30:7-1, second half of second– third c.; Aviam and Gorin-Rosen 1997: Pls. 2:3, 6:1, third–beginning of fourth c.; Gorin-Rosen 1997a: Pl. 3:1, third–first half of fourth c.; 1997c: Pl. 1:4, third–first half of fourth c.; Stern 1997: Pl. 2:10, fourth c.; Stern and Gorin-Rosen 1997: Pl. 6:4, middle of third–beginning of fourth c.

25

C43

1836/16

12.72

III

Plate or bowl with a wide outfolded rim. Light olive-green glass.

Barag 1970: Pl. 30:1–4, Late Roman– Byzantine; Al-As‘ad and Stępniowski 1989: Fig. 8:10, Umayyad; Meyer 1989: Fig. 2, looped out rims, Umayyad and postUmayyad; Gorin-Rosen 1997a: Pl. 3:2, third–fourth c.; Stern 1997: Pl. 2:10, third– fourth c.; Hadad 1998b: Pl. 20:350, 353, 354, end of Umayyad period, Pl. 28:475, middle of eighth–eleventh c.; Foy 2000: Fig. 22:12, 13, Umayyad.

26

C22

1281/3

11.79

Late eighth– early ninth c.

Plate or bowl with wide outfolded hollow rim. Pale green glass.

Barag 1970: Pl. 30:1–4, Late Roman– Byzantine; Al-As‘ad and Stępniowski 1989: Fig. 8:14, Umayyad; Kröger 1995:46, No. 13, tenth c.; Hadad 1998b: Pl. 29:489, second half of eighth–eleventh c.; Foy 2000: Fig. 22: 12, 13, Umayyad.

27

C96

2411

13.02

III

Deep bowl with slightly convex walls and round rim. Light bluish-green glass. Blowing spirals.

Barag 1970: Pl. 32:23, third–middle of fourth c.; Finster and Schmidt 1976: Pl. 56: c, middle of seventh–second half of eighth c.; Kervran 1984: Fig. 9:1 (Levels 0–I), 750–800 CE; Whitcomb 1988: Fig. 23:I; Al-As‘ad and Stępniowski 1989: Fig. 8:11, Umayyad; O’Hea 1993: Fig. 25:1, Abbasid; Hadad 1998b: Pl. 1:23, Umayyad, Pls. 27:458, 30:505, second half of eighth–eleventh c.; Gorin-Rosen 2000b: Pl. 2:9, Late Byzantine– early Umayyad.

28

C22

1269/2

11.80

Late eighth– early ninth c.

29

B3

1176/13

13.44

I

Bowl with thickened slightly stepped rim. Colourless glass.

Grabar 1970: Fig. 58d, about ninth c. and later; Lester 1996: Fig. XVII.3:2, Early Islamic; Kröger 1995: No. 37, ninth c.; Hadad 1998b: Pl. 27:455–57, second half of eighth–eleventh c.

30

B3

1176/22

13.44

I

Bowl with thickened slightly stepped rim. Colourless glass.

Lane 1937: Fig. 10:P, ninth–tenth c.; Chittick 1974: Fig. 153:a (Period Ib), 1000 to late twelfth c.; Lester 1996: Fig. XVII.3:2, Early Islamic; Hadad 1998b: Pl. 27:457, second half of eighth–eleventh c.

Bowl with slightly convex walls. Rim Al-As‘ad and Stępniowski 1989: Fig. 8:4, decorated with two heavy coils and five Umayyad. thin turquoise threads.

173

CHAPTER 7: THE GLASS

Fig. 7.1. (cont.) No.

Locus Basket No. Elevation

Description

Parallels

31

C64

2065

13.23

Stratum I

Bowl with round rim decorated with dark green thread. Colourless glass.

Chittick 1974: Fig. 153:f, 1000 to late twelfth c.

32

B28

1274/2

11.44

I

Bowl with round thickened rim decorated with two dark purple threads embedded below the rim. Colourless glass.

typical of bowls from the Western Galilee found at Kabri (Stern and Gorin-Rosen 1997), Hurfeish (Aviam and Gorin-Rosen 1997) and Kfar Yasif (Gorin-Rosen 1997a). It was unearthed together with a group of sphero-conical vessels dated to the late Abbasid period (Fig. 5.52:9). Such bowls were also found at Bet She’an, dated between the eighth and the eleventh centuries (Hadad 1998b: Pl. 29:487–491). Bowl 23, with a diameter of 21.5 cm from Stratum II, represents the later version of the bowls with outfolded rims. However, it is made of thick pale yellow glass, contrary to the earlier bowls made of thin transparent bluish-green glass. Rim fragments Nos. 25 and 26 belong to a group of plates or shallow bowls. This type is known between the third and fourth centuries and the sixth and seventh centuries (Barag 1970: Pl. 30:1–4; Gorin-Rosen 1997a: Pl. 3:2; Stern 1997: Pl. 2:10). In Tiberias, they appear during the Umayyad and Abbasid periods and continue to exist until the eleventh century (Hadad 1998b: Pl. 28:475). Deep Bowls Deep bowl No. 27—from Stratum III, made of light bluish-green glass with slightly convex walls and a round rim, with blowing spirals—represents the simplest version of a deep bowl from the Early Islamic period. Bowl 28, from the late eighth and early ninth centuries, decorated alternately with threaded coils, reflects its decorated version. It continues within Strata II–I, with a slightly inturned and thickened rim, sometimes decorated with wound threads. The glass fabric changes to thick translucent colourless glass with a yellow and greenish tinge. Bowl 31, with dark green thread under the rim, was found on a floor together with a coin (No. 362) dated to the eleventh century. Bowl 32, from Stratum I, is decorated with two threads made of dark purple glass.

Summary The bowls represent the grafting of Islamic influence onto a local Byzantine form, with the eventual appearance of new types. The new glass fabric (Freestone and Gorin-Rosen 1999), typical of Islamic glass beginning in the ninth century, is prominent among the shallow bowls having short everted rims, and the group of deep bowls from Strata II–I.

GOBLETS (Fig. 7.2) The group of goblets continues a Byzantine tradition in the shape of the vessel and the fabric of the glass. Typologically, the goblets have a flat or slightly concave base, with a solid stem and, occasionally, a hollow rim. Five round goblets, with slightly concave bases, appear to be wine glasses even though they could also have been bases for lamps. Bases 36 and 37, both with traces of a bowl, are defined as wine glasses because of their small diameter and round walls. Base 35 is engraved and twisted with a slightly beaded stem. Bases 33–35 and another goblet base (C43/1826, not illustrated) originated in Strata V–III. The bases are spirally tooled, a method that represents the continuation of a regional tradition beginning in the Late Byzantine period. Goblet No. 36 originated in Stratum III, dating from the end of the ninth to the late tenth centuries CE. A similar goblet, with a shorter stem, was found at al-Mina. Goblet 37 is dated to the tenth–eleventh centuries. The fundamental shape of the goblet does not change from the Umayyad to the Fatimid periods. According to contemporary depictions on lustreware ceramic bowls and wall paintings (see discussion below), the beaker with tapering walls and a straight rim appears alongside the goblet in the Fatimid period

174

AYALA LESTER

33

36

35

34

37

Fig. 7.2. Goblets. No.

Locus

Basket No.

Elevation

Stratum

Description

Parallels

33

D15

1175/2

15.10

V

Concave asymmetrical base of goblet with pontil mark and traces of solid stem. Light bluish-green glass.

Wilson and Sa‘d 1984: No. 559, Umayyad; Meyer 1987: Fig. 11:y, Umayyad; 1989: Fig. 1: stemmed goblet, with flat foot, Umayyad; Cohen 1997: Pl.III:1, end of Byzantine period; Hadad 1998b: Pl. 16:286, Umayyad.

34

C82

2205

12.70

IV

Small concave base of goblet decorated with spiral tooling and traces of stem. Light bluish-green glass.

Finster and Schmidt 1976: Pl. 59:g, Early Islamic; Foy 2000: Fig. 26:2, Umayyad.

35

C84

2209

12.73

III

Thick base of goblet, with spiral tooling around the short beaded stem. Bluishgreen glass.

Kervran 1984: Fig. 10:4 (Levels 0–1), 800–900 CE and later; Foy 2000: Fig. 26:1, Umayyad.

36

C51

1724

12.84

III

Concave base of goblet with short solid stem and traces of bowl. Light bluishgreen glass.

Lane 1937: Fig. 10:R, ninth–tenth c.; Davidson 1952: 713, eleventh c.; Kervran 1984: Fig. 10:5 (Levels I–II), 750–900 CE.

37

B9

1080

12.79

II/I

Flat base of goblet with short solid stem ending in a bowl. Light bluish-green glass.

Davidson 1952: Fig. 713, eleventh c.; Kervran 1984: Fig. 10:6 (surface); Shindo 1992: Pl. 10:3; Hadad 1998b: Pl. 51:868, mid-eighth–eleventh c.; Lester 1997: Pl. 1:5.

(Marçais and Poinssot 1952: Pl. LXI:I; Jenkins 1986: No. 28; Kröger 1995: Nos. 217, 218). This beaker apparently replaced the goblet and resulted in the latter’s near disappearance.

BEAKERS (Fig. 7.3) The four fragments of beakers represent four different types that have one trait in common—the definition of the beaker. They are deep, open vessels in which height is greater than diameter (Barag 1970:142). The rim of Beaker 38 has parallels at Hanita and Jalamé, where they are dated to the first half of the fourth century CE. Our fragment came from an Umayyad floor and reflects typological continuity from the Late Roman and Byzantine periods to the Umayyad period.

The base of Beaker 39 originated in a deposit or fill dating to the time of the erection of the building in Area C1. Clay lamps, dating to the eighth–ninth centuries, were unearthed nearby (Fig. 6.14:1, 2). An Umayyad parallel to the beaker is known from Palmyra. The base of Beaker 40 was discovered on the Romanperiod pavement. The paving slabs remained exposed throughout the Byzantine and Umayyad periods. Only after the earthquake of 749 CE were they covered with soil. As soil had accumulated by the time this fragment was deposited, it can be associated with Strata IV–III (Stacey, pers. comm.). Beaker 41 has a concave base, slanting walls and a round rim. It belongs to a group that initially appeared in the ninth century CE. Its most common type is plain and undecorated. It is seldom recognized among finds, lacking identifiable typological characteristics.

175

CHAPTER 7: THE GLASS

38 39

41

40

Fig. 7.3. Beakers. No.

Locus Basket No. Elevation

Stratum

Description

Parallels

38

C95

2405

12.59

V

Rim of a beaker with slightly flaring rim and a single trail of the same colour applied below the rim. Light green glass.

Barag 1970: Pl. 32:9, 10, third c. and first half of fourth c.; Weinberg and Goldstein 1988: Nos. 197, 199, first part of the fourth c.

39

C22

1266

12.02

Late eighth– early ninth c.

Hollow ring-shaped base of a beaker from which extends a convex wall. Bluish-green glass.

Al-As‘ad and Stępniowski 1989: Fig. 8:6, Umayyad.

40

C81

2499

12.70

IV–III

Hollow ring-shaped base of a beaker from which extends a convex wall. Threads trailing near the base. Colourless glass, heavily pitted.

41

D66

1639/1

6.99

I

Base of a beaker slightly concave with slanting walls. Thick colourless glass.

One fragment decorated with a pair of lines made by shallow cutting was found in D76/1742 and is dated to the end of the ninth century CE. A base and wall fragment from B47/1555 belongs to Strata II and I, from the end of the tenth to the eleventh centuries CE. This beaker is also decorated with a shallow incised line around the base. A base fragment bearing a miniature incised herringbone pattern (C20/1258-1) was uncovered on a Stratum I floor. Other beakers decorated with shallow cut geometrical patterns and a beaker bearing depictions of animals were retrieved from the Serçe Limani shipwreck (Bass 1984: Figs. 3a, 5a) and from Kairouan (Marçais and Poinssot 1952: Pl. LXI: I, J), Nishapur (Kröger 1995: Nos. 217, 218) and Dvin (Janpoladian 1974: Pls. III, XII, XIII). Evidence of the use of conical beakers in the Fatimid period is known, as mentioned above, on lustredecorated ceramic bowls. One such bowl, dated to the end of the eleventh–early twelfth centuries CE, depicts a woman pouring wine into a beaker (Ettinghausen 1956:269–270, Fig. 11). A figure pouring wine into or holding a glass appears on several additional lustredecorated bowls, dating between the end of the tenth and the beginning of the eleventh centuries (Philon 1980: Pl. XX; Institut du Monde Arabe 1998: Pl. 35). Similar examples exist on paintings on the ceiling of

Riis 1957: Fig. 138, pre-twelfth c.; Kubiak and Scanlon 1973: Fig. 20b, eighth–ninth c.; Janpoladian 1974: Pl. 12:5, 8, ninth– thirteenth c.

the Capella Palatina in Palermo, dated to 1143, where a ruler is depicted with a goblet (Ettinghausen 1977:45), and a prince at a banquet holds a goblet (Ettinghausen and Grabar 1987: Fig. 204). From these and other examples (Lester 1998:94–101, Pls. 17–22) it seems that during the Fatimid period the conical beaker replaced the stemmed goblet. This may explain the paucity of goblets at this time. It seems that this beaker anticipated the appearance of the enamel-decorated conical beaker with a splayed rim that emerged in the Ayyubid and Mamluk periods (Carboni 2001: No. 86a; Institut du Monde Arabe 2001: Nos. 199–201).

JARS (Fig. 7.4) Eight jar fragments and one miniature jar were found in Strata V–I. The jars can be divided into three types: jars with globular bodies, jars with elongated bodies, and miniature jars. Globular jars with splayed rims have been known since the third–fourth centuries (Barag 1970: Pl. 34: 16; Stern 1997: Pl. 8:30). Among the globular jars (Nos. 42, 44–47) are a jar with an outward folded rim (No. 44) and a jar whose flaring rim is decorated with a turquoise coil (No. 47). This jar, together with Bowls 18, 20 and a beaker from Serçe Limani (Bass 1978:

176

AYALA LESTER

42 44 43

45 46

47

48

50

49

Fig. 7.4. Jars. No.

Locus Basket No. Elevation

42

D73

1724

6.80

43

C43

1836

12.72

44

C34

1468/2

45

D58

1836

46

A9

47

Stratum

Description

Parallels

V

Jar with short neck, flaring rim and globular body. Colourless glass.

Hadad 1998b: Pl. 48:818, middle of eighth– eleventh c.

III

Jar with rim folded inwards. Bluishgreen glass with black impurities.

Hadad 1998b: Pl. 38:627, middle of eighth– eleventh c.

II

Jar with solid rim folded outward. Colourless glass.

Lamm 1928: Pl. III:139, ninth c.; Scanlon 1974b: Pl. XV:4, ninth c.; Bamber 1988: Fig. 52:9, Abbasid; Shindo 1992: Pl. 6-16: 18; Hadad 1998b: Pl. 48:811, middle of eighth–eleventh c.

6.52

II

Jar with short neck and flaring rim. Colourless glass.

Davidson 1952: Fig. 18:803, eleventh c.(?); Scanlon 1982: Fig. 10, eleventh c.; Morrison 1984: Fig. 138:h (Period I), mid-ninth–early eleventh c.; Shindo 1992: Pl. 6-16:11; Hadad 1998b: Pl. 48:816, middle of eighth– eleventh c.

1089

6.42

I

Jar with short neck and flaring rim. Colourless glass.

Lamm 1931: Pl. LXXV:2, ninth c.; Harden 1955a: Fig. 36:11, ninth–twelfth c.; Riis 1957: Fig. 24; Morrison 1984: Fig. 134: e (Period I), mid-ninth–early eleventh c.; Shindo 1992: Pl. 6-16:10; Hadad 1998b: Pl. 48:819, middle of eighth–eleventh c.

C64

2067/2

13.23

I

Jar with short neck and flaring rim. Decorated with a turquoise coil combined within the rim. Colourless glass with yellow tinge.

Hadad 1998b: Pl. 48:819, middle of eighth– eleventh c.

48

B3

1176/3

11.44

I

Jar with cut unpolished rim. Thick colourless glass with greenish tinge.

49

B3

1176/10

11.44

I

Jar with rim folded in. Colourless glass. Kröger 1995: No. 60, ninth–tenth c.

50

C64

2034

13.23

I

Miniature jar with convex walls, everted infolded rim. Small deformation on one side. Colourless glass with silvery iridescence.

Barag 1983: Fig. 9:7, early seventh c.; Lester 1996: Fig. XVII.6:12, Early Islamic; Hadad 1998b: Pl. 15:268, Umayyad.

CHAPTER 7: THE GLASS

770), compose a group whose rim is decorated with an embedded coil. These vessels continue a distinct Byzantine mode of glass decoration, which became part of the Fatimid decorative approach within the minor arts, an approach that provides particular attention to fine details. Jars 43, 48 and 49 have elongated bodies with inward folded rims or cut, unpolished rims. It is not clear whether these are jars or bottles, but the short neck and rounded body tip the scale in favor of them being jars. Jar 43 is the only jarlet of bluish-green glass in Strata IV–I; the others are made of thick colourless and yellowish glass. It reflects the transitions in glass fabric during the Early Islamic period, which can be identified in Stratum III (end of the ninth–end of the tenth centuries). The miniature jar (No. 50), with a convex body ending in an everted, infolded rim, contained an orange-red powder, which has not yet been analyzed. Despite the deformation on one side, beneath the rim, it is identical to a jar from Bet She’an dated to the Umayyad period (Hadad 1998b: Pl. 15:268). Our jar was uncovered on a floor that was laid after the earthquake of 1033 CE, together with a coin (Coin No. 362) dated 1036–1094 CE. Another type of miniature jar was discovered at Kursi (Barag 1983:38, Fig. 9:7) and at Yoqne‘am (Lester 1996: Fig. XVII.6:2), where it is tentatively dated to the Late Byzantine or Early Islamic period. These jars are slightly different from jarlet No. 43 in their more globular body and narrower rim but it would appear that they all belong to a group of miniature jars that existed continuously for several hundred years from the Umayyad to the Fatimid periods.

BOTTLES AND STORAGE VESSELS (Figs. 7.5–7.8) In this section, 50 bottle fragments are discussed, dating from the Umayyad to the Fatimid periods. This large number allows their chronological development to be traced. The bottles are of various types, sizes and volumes: from bottles intended for serving at the table to small cosmetic bottles, and storage vessels of considerable volume. Bottles with a Long Neck and Flaring Rim This group of bottles (Nos. 51–55) has a cylindrical neck and a globular body with a rim slightly folded inward. The shape follows Late Byzantine bottles

177

(Meyer 1987: Pl. 8:A–C). Gorin-Rosen (2001:29) discusses the consolidation of this type during the Late Roman/Early Byzantine period and its existence until the Umayyad period. Additional bottles, dated to the Umayyad period, are known from Beirut (Foy 2000: Fig. 17). Bottle 52 is of the same type, but decorated with coils and threads. Bottles with threaded decoration were not discovered at Tiberias in stratified areas, even though this type of decoration is prominent among Umayyad glass vessels. Bottles 53 and 54 originated in Stratum IV, dated from 750 to 880 CE. A comparable bottle and two other rims were found at Midgal, dated to the Late Byzantine and Umayyad period (Gorin-Rosen 2001:29, Pl. 1:5–7). A bottle with a straight neck and flaring rim (No. 55) is similar to Bottles 53 and 54, but made of a different fabric: thicker, more brittle glass, in contrast to the clear and thin glass that distinguishes vessels from Strata V and IV. Bottles with Long Necks and Flaring Rims Decorated with Coils. Bottles 56–58 are of the same type as Nos. 51–55, but decorated with coils. Bottle 56 has an infolded rim and a straight coil encircling the neck at midpoint. Meyer and Gorin-Rosen point out that this style of decoration appears during the Byzantine period and continues into the Umayyad, such as on rims of bottles from Jerash (Meyer 1987: Fig. 11:L, M) and a bottle fragment from Migdal (Gorin-Rosen 2001: Pl. 1:8). Bottles 57 and 58 are of the same type, decorated with a thick coil attached to the rim. Such bottles are known from the Late Roman/Early Byzantine period, e.g. a bottle from Samaria, dated between the second half of the third century–middle of the fourth century (Barag 1970:192–193, Pl. 42:17–1), and from the glass factory of Jalamé dated to the second part of the fourth century (Weinberg and Goldstein 1988: Fig. 428:217–219, 220). Furthermore, rim fragments were found in a burial cave at Bet She’an, dated to the Late Roman/Early Byzantine period (Gorin-Rosen 2000a: Pl. 1:10–11). Bottles with a Tapering Neck and Splayed Rim Rim fragments Nos. 59–62 belong to bottles with tapering necks and flat splayed or slanting rims which are round or thickened at the edge. Carboni (2001: No. 35) distinguishes between cylindrical bottles of Iranian origin and the Syro-Egyptian type. The Syro-Egyptian

178

AYALA LESTER

51 52

53

54 55

56

57 58

60

59

61

64 63 62

66 65

Fig. 7.5. Bottles.

bottle has a round or concave body. The height of the bottle is equally divided between its tapering neck and its body, which provides the impression of a squat bottle. The Iranian type, with its cylindrical body and pronounced square shoulders provides a more massive and solid impression. Only rim traces and necks remain within the material from Tiberias. There is a marked similarity between the glass vessels from Strata II and I and the glass finds from Serçe Limani (Bass and Van Doorninck 1978: Figs. 13a–b, 14). In these sites, they have globular or concave bodies. Chronologically, the Iranian type anticipated the Syro-Egyptian type and probably served as its prototype.

Rim fragment No. 59, with a flat splayed rim folded upon itself, is from the early Abbasid period and may be the earliest example within this group. Its shape is not clear, leading to a degree of uncertainty in regard to its positioning within the group. Fragment 60 belongs to Stratum I. Fragment 61 originated in debris from Stratum I (Stacey, pers. comm.), though it may date as early as the tenth century. Fragment 62 belongs either to a late phase in Stratum III or to Stratum II. Comparable bottles were found in Nishapur dated to the ninth–tenth centuries (Kröger 1995: Nos. 108–110). Other bottles from China (Jiayao 1991: Nos. 12, 16), Sabra Mansuriyya

179

CHAPTER 7: THE GLASS


Fig. 7.5 No.

Locus Basket No. Elevation

Stratum

Description

Parallels

51

C95

2405

12.59

V

Bottle with long neck and flaring rim, folded inward. Thin light green glass.

Delougaz and Haines 1960: Pl. 59:8–11, Late Byzantine; Kehrberg 1986: Fig. 9:44, Umayyad; Meyer 1987: Fig. 9:o–s, Late Byzantine– Umayyad; Meyer 1989: Fig. 1, Umayyad; Peleg 1994: Fig. 15:6, 7, Late Byzantine–Early Islamic; Hadad 1998b: Pl. 6:103–106, Umayyad, Pl. 22:389–391, 738–749 CE; Foy 2000: Fig. 17, Umayyad; Gorin-Rosen 2001: Pl. 1:5–7, Late Byzantine–Umayyad.

52

D15

1175

15.10

V

Bottle with long neck and flaring rim, folded inward. Decorated with coils and threads of the same colour. Light olive-green glass.

Lamm 1935: Pl. 9:I, sixth–eighth c.; Meyer 1987: Pl. 11:L, Late Byzantine–Umayyad; Kröger 1995: No. 89, ninth–tenth c., No. 90, tenth c.; Hadad 1998b: Pl. 10:169, 170, 172, Umayyad; Foy 2000: Fig. 17:15, 16, Umayyad.

53

C84

2209

12.73

IV

Bottle with long neck and flaring rim, folded inward. Light bluish-green glass.

Delougaz and Haines 1960: Pl. 59:8, Late Byzantine; Peleg 1994: Fig. 15:6–7, Late Byzantine–Early Islamic; Hadad 1998b: Pl. 22: 394–396, last decades of the Umayyad period; Gorin-Rosen 2001: Pl. 1:5–7, Late Byzantine– Umayyad.

54

C45

1542

13.00

IV

Bottle with long neck and flaring rim, folded inward. Pale green glass.

Hadad 1998b: Pl.5:79, Umayyad., Pl. 40:660, mid-eighth–eleventh c.

55

C60

1894

13.38

II

Bottle with long neck and flaring rim. Thick, pale green glass.

Hadad 1998b: Pl. 42:700, mid-eighth– eleventh c.

56

C43

1836

12.72

IV

Bottle with long neck and flaring rim, Hadad 1998b: Pl. 10:167–168, 170, Umayyad. folded inward. A coil encircles the neck at its midpoint. Bluish-green glass.

57

C67

2119

12.86

IV

Rim fragment of a bottle with a coil of the same colour, encircling the rim. Bluish-green glass.

Barag 1970: Pl. 42:17-1, mid-third–first half of fourth c.; Meyer 1987: Fig. 11: L, M, Late Byzantine–Umayyad; Weinberg and Goldstein 1988: Fig. 4-28:217, 219, 220, second half of fourth c.; Hadad 1998b: Pl. 14:247, 250, Umayyad; Gorin-Rosen 2000a: Pl.1:10,11, Late Roman–Early Byzantine.

58

C96

2411

13.02

III

Neck fragment of a bottle with a long neck, decorated with a coil encircling the rim. Bluish-green glass.

Barag 1970: Pl. 42:17-1, mid-third–first half of fourth c.; Finster and Schmidt 1976: Fig. 58: q, Sassanid and Early Islamic; Meyer 1987: Fig. 11:L, M, Late Byzantine–Umayyad; Weinberg and Goldstein 1988: Fig. 4-28:217, 219, 220, second half of fourth c.; Hadad 1998b: Pl. 14:247–249, Umayyad; Gorin-Rosen 2000a: Pl. 1:10, 11. Late Roman–Early Byzantine; Carboni 2001: Cat. 3.28, twelfth c.

59

C45

1542

13.00

IV

Neck fragment of a bottle with splayed rim folded upon itself and traces of convex(?) walls. Colourless glass.

Hadad 1998b: Pl. 40:662, mid-eighth–eleventh c.(?).

60

C64

2033

13.31

I

Rim fragment of a bottle with short splayed rounded rim. Colourless glass with purple tinge.

Lamm 1928: Pl. IV: 184, Pl. IX:276, ninth c.; Lane 1937: Fig. 10:J, ninth–tenth c.; Davidson 1952: Fig. 14:749, ninth c.(?); Marçais and Poinssot 1952: Pls. LV, LVI:B, LVII:E, F, Fatimid; Scanlon 1967: Pl. VI:d, ninth–tenth c.; Bass and Van Doorninck 1978: Fig. 14, 1024– 1025 CE; Bass 1984: Fig. 5:h, 1024–1025 CE; Shindo 1992: Pl. 6-11:1, 6; Hadad 1998b: Pl. 45: 757, mid-eighth–eleventh c.

180

AYALA LESTER

Fig. 7.5. (cont.) No.

Locus

Basket No

Elevation

Stratum

Description

Parallels

61

B25

1154/2

12.17

I

Rim fragment of a bottle with a wide splayed, fire-polished rim. Colourless glass with greenish tinge.

Lane 1937: Fig. 10:J, ninth–tenth c.; Marçais and Poinssot 1952: Pls. LV, LVI:B, LVII:E, F, Fatimid; Scanlon 1967: Pl. VI:d, ninth–tenth c.; Bass 1984: Fig. 5h, 1024–1025 CE; Morrison 1984: Fig. 133:b (Period I), mid-ninth–early eleventh c.; 1987: Fig. 2:2, eleventh c.; Jiayao 1991: Fig. 12, 1019 CE, Fig. 16, 1058 CE; Kröger 1995: Nos. 108–110, ninth–tenth c.; Carboni 2001: No. 35, tenth–eleventh c.; Carboni and Whitehouse 2001: No. 17, tenth– eleventh c., No. 75, eleventh c. No. 95, ninth– tenth c., No. 100, tenth–early eleventh c.

62

B49

1583

11.20

III/II

Long tapering neck with splayed, slightly thickened rim. Colourless glass.

Morrison 1984: Fig. 133:b, d (Period I), mid-ninth–early eleventh c.; Kröger 1995: No. 109, ninth–tenth c.

63

C207

2346

12.96

II

Bottle with straight wide neck and short everted rim. Thick colourless glass.

Hadad 1998b: Pl. 40:674, mid-eighth– eleventh c.

64

C19

1151/1

12.73

II

Wide neck fragment of a bottle with an everted rim. Thick colourless glass.

Hadad 1998b: Pl. 40:673, mid-eighth– eleventh c.

65

C207

2346

12.96

II

Wide neck fragment of a bottle with Hadad 1998b: Pl. 40:667, mid-eighth– short everted rim. Colourless glass with eleventh c. yellowish tinge.

66

C64

2065

13.23

I

Wide neck fragment of a bottle with short everted rim. Thick colourless glass with greenish tinge.

(Marçais and Poinssot 1952: Pls. LV–LVII) and the Serçe Limani wreck (Van Doorninck 1988:5) were dated to the eleventh century. A chronological range between the ninth and eleventh centuries is suggested, with the lion’s share from the eleventh century, in the Mediterranean area. Vessels with a Straight Wide Neck, Short Everted Rim and Globular or Cylindrical Body Vessels 63–66 are made of colourless glass with a greenish or yellowish tinge. These are large vessels as seen by the diameter of the rim and the thick glass. Such intact large containers were found at Caesarea (Lester, Arnon and Polak 1999: Fig. 5:a) and fragments from other sites such as Ramla and Yoqne‘am, dated to the Early Islamic period. In Tiberias they are widespread in Strata II–I. Rim fragments Nos. 63–65 were found in Stratum II. Fragment 66, particularly large, with a rim diameter of c.14 cm, was uncovered in C64, together with other glass, pottery fragments (Figs. 5.9:5; 5.54:2,4; 55:3), and Coin No. 362, dated 1036–1094 CE.

Hadad 1998b: Pl. 40:667, 673, 674, mid-eighth– eleventh c.

Bottle with a Funnel-Shaped Rim A bottle fragment, with a long neck, traces of round shoulders and a funnel-shaped rim, No. 67, is made of thick, light green glass with many black impurities. It is carelessly blown and its funnel-shaped rim is rather distorted. Bottles with funnel-shaped rims are known from Bet She’an, dated to the Umayyad period (Hadad 1998b: Pl. 8:128–130). Comparable bottles were found at Fustat (Shindo 1992: Pl. 6-15:31, 33). Bottles with a Splayed Neck and Pointed Bulge Fragments with splayed rims and pointed bulges at their bases belong to bottles with tapering necks and pear-shaped or globular bodies. Such bottles in freeblown glass are known from Corinth (Davidson 1952: Fig. 17:773–774) and Fustat (Shindo 1992: Pl. 6-15:30) and exist in other techniques, such as a mould-blown bottle from the Benaki Museum (Clairmont 1977: Pl. XI:198) . This type of bottle, with splayed neck and a bulge at its base, is known within Islamic glass in the Syro-

181

CHAPTER 7: THE GLASS

68

69

72 71 67

70

Fig. 7.6. Bottles. No.

Locus Basket No. Elevation

Stratum

Description

Parallels

67

C32

1571

12.96

II

Bottle with traces of round shoulder, long neck and funnel-shaped rim. Thick pale green glass with black impurities.

Shindo 1992: Pl. 6-15:31–33; Hadad 1998b: Pl. 8:128–130, Umayyad.

68

D70

1663

6.97

II

Neck fragment of a bell-shaped bottle with a pointed bulge. Colourless glass.

Davidson 1952: Fig. 17:773, 774, eleventh– twelfth c.; Pringle 1986: Fig. 53:17 (Phase 3), late twelfth–around 1265 CE; Shindo 1992: Pl. 6-15:30; Hadad 1998b: Pl. 6:112, Umayyad, Pl. 43:723, 724, eighth–eleventh c.; Pl. 57:962, 963, twelfth–fourteenth c.

69

D78

1758

7.25

I

Neck fragment of a bell-shaped bottle with a pointed bulge. Colourless glass.

Davidson 1952: Fig. 17:773, 774, eleventh– twelfth c.; Hadad 1998b: Pl. 6:112, Umayyad; Pl. 43:723, 724, eighth–eleventh c.; Pl. 57:962, 963, twelfth–fourteenth c.

70

C51

1680

13.11

I

Neck fragment of a bell-shaped bottle Davidson 1952: Fig. 17:773, 774, eleventh– with a rounded bulge. Colourless glass. twelfth c.; Riis 1957:41, Fig. 81; Shindo 1992: Pl. 6–15:3; Hadad 1998b: Pl. 6:112, Umayyad; Pl. 43:723-724, eighth–eleventh c., Pl. 57: 962–963, twelfth–fourteenth c.

71

C32

1551

13.09

II

Neck fragment of a bottle with ridge folded upon itself at the base of the neck. Colourless glass.

Chittick 1974: Fig. 155:n (Period IV), sixth– seventh c.

72

C25

1391/3

9.43

V

Bottle with traces of round shoulder and short flaring neck. Light brown glass.

Sellin and Watzinger 1913: Pl. 45:III,2; Barag 1970:50–52, Umayyad; Lamm 1929–1930: Pl. 3:41, eighth–eleventh c.; Brisch 1963: Fig. 40, Umayyad; Hardy-Guilbert 1984: Fig. 32:7 (Level II), 750–800 CE; Shindo 1992: Pl. 6-14: 34; Lester 1996: Fig. XVII.4:1, Early Islamic; Hadad 1998b: Pl. 4:62–64, Umayyad, Pl. 21: 369–370, 738–749 CE; Lehrer Jacobson 1999: Fig. 13.1:4, eighth–ninth c.

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AYALA LESTER

Egyptian area, since the Umayyad period. Such are the flasks, with cylindrical bodies, carried on an animal’s back (Carboni 2001: Nos. 4a–b), dated to the seventh– eighth centuries, a flask from the Umayyad period with a cylindrical body decorated with applied trails and a flaring neck (Carboni 2001: No.1.8b), and bottles from Bet She’an (Hadad 1998b: Pl. 43:723–724). In the early Fatimid period, the bulge can also take the form of a wavy shape that embraces the whole bottle, such as a pear-shaped body with two bulges at the base of the neck, dated to the eleventh–twelfth centuries (PinderWilson and Scanlon 1973: No. 15), and a perfume flask with a squat body with bulges near the base and neck, dated to the early twelfth century (Pinder-Wilson and Scanlon 1973: No. 3). The bell-shaped bottle with bulging neck is widespread. It appears in the eastern part of the Islamic world and is known in ceramics, metal and glass (Lester 2001:161, Fig. 2:20–21). In Tiberias, this bottle first appeared towards the end of the tenth century and became widespread during the eleventh century. Bottles 68 and 69 belong to Strata II and I respectively; No. 69 is a large bottle with a carefully produced pointed bulge. Bottle 70 came from Stratum I. This type continued into the twelfth century as evidenced by two bottles from Corinth (Davidson 1952: Nos. 773, 774) and a bottle from Bet She’an dated between the twelfth and fourteenth centuries (Hadad 1998b: Pl. 57:962–963). This bottle prevailed during the Ayyubid and Mamluk periods. Rim and neck fragment No. 71, from Stratum II, is similar to other fragments of the group in its outline, but the ridge is formed by folding the glass upon itself. The closest parallel is a bottle with a ridge near the rim from Bet She’an dated to the Mamluk period (Hadad 1998b:154, Pl. 57:964). Bottle with a Short Flaring Neck Bottle 72 with traces of a round shoulder and a short flaring neck was located, together with Bottle 75, in a pit dating to the Byzantine period. This pit ceased to be used during the eighth–ninth centuries. This type of bottle consolidated during the Umayyad period and continued to exist in the Abbasid period. Its latest appearance is at Nishapur in a mould-blown version dated to the ninth–tenth centuries CE (Kröger 1995: No. 129).

Bottles with a Globular Body, Straight Neck, and Thickened Rim Folded upon Itself Neck and rim fragments of Bottles 73–85 constitute a group identified by a globular body, thickened rim, mushroom shaped in section, folded upon itself and flattened on the marver. These bottles, prominent in the Umayyad period, developed from later Roman and Byzantine prototypes and continued into the Fatimid period. This type of bottle, represented by No. 73, with a thickened rim, is known from the Syrian region during the first–second centuries CE, e.g. a jug dated to 135 CE (Barag 1970: Pl. 35:7); bottles from the Israel Museum collection dated to the first century (Israeli 2001: Nos. 109, 291, 294, 300, 308); a rectangular bottle dated to the second–fourth centuries (Israeli 2001: No. 386); and a cylindrical bottle dated to the third–fourth centuries (Israeli 2001: No. 385). The small constriction at the neck of this bottle continues a tradition that began in the third century CE (Barag 1970:189–191, Pl. 41:1–6), carries on to the end of the Byzantine period (Barag 1970: 190, Pl. 41:7) and extends into the Umayyad period (Hadad 1998b: Pls. 5:89, 6:97, 9:144, 145, 147, 10:176–181). Rim and neck fragments Nos. 73 and 74 were found together with Umayyad potsherds (for pottery from adjacent loci see Stacey 1988–1989), which affirms that neck fragment No. 74, with thickened rim and short slanting neck, is also Umayyad. Globular bottle No. 75 is made of thick, clear olivegreen glass and has a short neck and a thickened mushroom-shaped rim folded upon itself. Scanlon and Pinder-Wilson discuss the type of bottle associated with No. 75 and suggest that it originated in the SyroEgyptian area and existed until the first decades of the ninth century (Scanlon and Pinder-Wilson 2001: 33). This bottle has a widespread sub-type of smaller dimensions, a straight neck with a rim folded inward and flattened. Examples are Nos. 76 and 77 from Stratum V, Nos. 78–84 from Stratum IV, and No. 85 from Stratum III. The prototype and sub-type were found at Nishapur, and Kröger (1995:71–72, Nos. 89, 90) is of the opinion that the type originated within the Sassanian glass repertoire. From the examples cited above, we can assume that bottles with mushroom-shaped rims were common in the Syrian region even though we still lack the

183

CHAPTER 7: THE GLASS

74

73

76

75

78 80

77

79

85 83

84

82

81

Fig. 7.7. Bottles. No.

Locus Basket No. Elevation

Stratum

Description

Parallels

73

D15

1175

15.10

V

Neck of a bottle made of thick glass. Rim folded upon itself and flattened on the marver. Slight constriction at the base of the neck. Bluish-green glass.

74

D15

1175

15.10

V

Shoulder of a globular bottle with a short slanting neck and thickened rim folded upon itself, and flattened on the marver. Colourless glass with yellowish tinge. Heavy black weathering.

Baur 1938: Fig. 28:93 and Pl. CXLI:a, fourth– fifth c. and redated by Barag (1970:123–126) to the Umayyad period.

75

C25

1408

9.40

V

Globular bottle with short neck and thickened mushroom-shaped rim folded upon itself, and flattened on the marver. Thick olive-green glass.

Sellin and Watzinger 1913: Pl. 45:III,1; Barag 1970:50–52, Umayyad; Lamm 1929–1930: Pl. 1:1, 2, fifth–eighth c.; 1931: Pl. LXXVII:2, ninth c.; Baur 1938: Fig. 28:4, about 500 CE; Bagatti 1963–1964: Fig. 4:6; Brisch 1965: Figs. 41, 43, Umayyad; Scanlon 1966: Pl. XXXVII: 29, eighth c.; Fukai 1977: No. 34: fourth– seventh c.; Barag 1983: Fig. 9:5, 6, seventh c.; Kervran 1984: Fig. 7:17 (Level I), 800–900 CE; Hadad 1998b: Pl. 7:118–120, Umayyad.

184

AYALA LESTER

Fig. 7.7. (cont.) No.

Locus Basket No. Elevation

Stratum

Description

Parallels

76

C86

2244

12.35

V

Bottle with tall neck, ending in a rim Lamm 1935: Pl. 9:I, sixth–eighth c.; Kröger folded inwards and and flattened on the 1995: No. 89, ninth–tenth c., No. 90, tenth c.; marver. Light olive-green glass. Cohen 1997: Pl. IX:3, Umayyad; Hadad 1998b: Pl. 22:397, 738–749 CE.

77

C95

2444

12.40

V

Bottle with flaring neck and a ringLamm 1935: Pl. 9:I, sixth–eighth c.; Finster and shaped rim, folded inward and flattened Schmidt 1976: Fig. 58:g, Sassanid and Early on the marver. Bluish-green glass. Islamic; Meyer 1987: Fig. 12:N, Umayyad; Barag 1983: Fig. 9:6, eighth c.; Kröger 1995: No. 89, ninth–tenth c., No. 90, tenth c.; Cohen 1997: Pl. IX: 6, Umayyad; Shindo 1992: Pl. 614:8–10; Hadad 1998b: Pl. 7:115 Umayyad.

78

C22

1252/3

12.25

IV

Straight neck with mushroom shaped rim flattened on the marver. Bluishgreen glass.

Lamm 1935: Pl. 9:I, sixth–eighth c.; Finster and Schmidt 1976: Fig. 58:b, Sassanid and Early Islamic; Barag 1983: Fig. 9:1, eighth c.; Al-As’ad and Stępniowski 1989: Fig. 8: 2, Umayyad; Shindo 1992: Pl. 6-14:23, 24; Kröger 1995: No. 89, ninth–tenth c., No. 90, tenth c.; Hadad 1998b: Pl. 41:694–696, mideighth–eleventh c.

79

C84

2286

Street level

IV

Bottle with straight neck and an asymmetrical rim folded inward and flattened on the marver. Light bluishgreen glass.

Lamm 1935: Pl. 9:I, sixth–eighth c.; Shindo 1992: Pl. 6-14:11; Kröger 1995: No. 89, ninth– tenth c., No. 90, tenth c.; Hadad 1998b: Pl.7: 114–120, Umayyad.

80

C22

1313

11.91

IV

Bottle with traces of bulbous body, straight neck and asymmetrical mushroom-shaped rim flattened on the marver. Light green glass.

Sellin and Watzinger 1913: Pl. 45:III,7; Barag 1970:50–52, Umayyad; Lamm 1935: Pl. 9:I, sixth–eighth c.; Negro Ponzi 1970–1971: Fig. 49:32, eighth c.; Finster and Schmidt 1976: Fig. 58:a, Sassanid and Early Islamic; Barag 1983: Fig. 9:1, eighth c.; Kervran 1984: Fig. 7:17–18 (Levels I, 0–I), 800–900 CE and later; Shindo 1992: Pl. 6-14:20–22; Kröger 1995: No. 89, ninth–tenth c., No. 90, tenth c.; Hadad 1998b: Pl. 41:694–696, mid-eighth–eleventh c.

81

C22

1252/7

12.25

IV

Flaring neck with ring-shaped rim folded inward. Bluish-green glass.

Fitzgerald 1931: Pl. XXXIX:10; Lane 1937: Fig. 10:G, ninth–tenth c.; Shindo 1992: Pl. 6-14:11; Hadad 1998b: Pl. 6:96, Umayyad.

82

C99

2432

12.85

IV

Bottle with flaring neck and slightly Hadad 1998b: Pl .7:114, Umayyad. Pl. 22:400, distorted ring-shaped rim. Bluish-green 738–749 CE. glass.

83

C22

1313/2

11.91

IV

Bottle with flaring neck and rim folded inward. Pale green glass.

Hadad 1998b: Pl. 22:400, 738–749 CE.

84

C43

1836/8

12.72

IV

Small bottle with short neck and asymmetrical ring-shaped rim.

Hardy-Guilbert 1984: Fig. 32:3 (Levels I–II), 750–900 CE; Kervran 1984: Fig. 7:17, 18 (Levels I, 0–I), 800–900 CE and later; Lehrer Jacobson 1999: Fig. 13.1:1, Early Islamic, eighth–ninth c.; Hadad 1998b: Pl. 41:693, mideighth–eleventh c.

85

C96

2411

13.02

III

Bottle with short neck and ringshaped rim, folded inward and slightly flattened. Bluish-green glass.

Hardy-Guilbert 1984: Fig. 32:3 (Levels I–II),750–900 CE; Kervran 1984: Fig. 7:17, 18 (Levels 0–I), 800–900 CE and later; Shindo 1992: Pl. 6-14:8, 10, 14; Cohen 1997: Pl. IX: 4, 5, Umayyad; Hadad 1998b: Pl. 41:693, mideighth–eleventh c.; Lehrer Jacobson 1999: Fig. 13.1:2, Early Islamic, eighth–ninth c.

CHAPTER 7: THE GLASS

chronological link between the fourth and the sixth centuries, where the Sassanian glass tradition may play a role. The type of bottle found at Gilan, dated from the fourth to the seventh centuries (Fukai 1977: Pl. 34), may be the missing link to the Byzantine period. Within the framework of the migration of types among regions and cultures, this type of thickened rim was brought from the Syrian region and integrated within the Sassanian glass repertoire. We can trace the migration of this type of bottle back from Sassanian glass to the consolidated Umayyad types. From the Syrian region, it found its way to the eastern Islamic lands. Comparable bottles from Nishapur and Susa are not dated earlier than the ninth–tenth centuries (Kröger 1995: Nos. 89, 90; Kervran 1984: Fig. 7:17, 18). Bottle 75 is dated to the Umayyad period. Its smaller version appears in Strata V–III. Bottles 78, 80–83 were uncovered on a plaster surface that ceased to be used during the late eighth–early ninth centuries (Stacey, pers. comm.). Bottle 82, with a flattened and deformed ring-shaped rim, and No. 84, with a short neck and an asymmetrical rim, also originated in Stratum IV. Globular bottle No. 85, together with two identically shaped bottles (C96/2122, not illustrated), belongs to Stratum III, and the type still existed in Stratum I (D53/ 1588, not illustrated). This sub-type prevailed in Tiberias during the late Abbasid and early Fatimid periods. This conclusion is based upon numerous similar necks and body fragments from other excavations in the city. In summary, the Umayyad prototype of the bottle ceased to appear during the first decades of the ninth century. Its smaller sub-type continued to exist until the Fatimid period. The latest evidence of its existence is found in two neck fragments dated to the twelfth– fourteenth centuries from Bet She’an (Hadad 1998b: Pl. 56:949, 950).

185

Bottle 86, from C34, Stratum II, was discovered in a layer of ashes with other vessels (Fig. 5.36:3). Bottle 87 originated in Area B3, in Stratum I. Bottle 88 belongs to Stratum I, and No. 89 to C20, where it was found with an eleventh-century coin weight and Stratum I pottery (Figs. 5.13:5, 5.14:13, 5.16:5, 5.36:6, 5.51:5). Bottles Decorated with a Wavy Coil (Nos. 90–92). All three bottles represent the same sub-type decorated with a wavy coil. Meyer discusses the wavy coil from the Late Byzantine and Umayyad periods and suggests its existence until the Mamluk period, based upon examples from Hama (Meyer 1987:206–207, Figs. 8:V, 11:C–E). The use of the wavy coil appears less frequently during the Fatimid period, when other decorative techniques were in use. Bottle 90 originated in Stratum IV and shoulder fragments Nos. 91 and 92, in Stratum I. Storage Vessels with a Flattened Rim The storage vessel represented by Nos. 93 and 94, with a long tapering neck and a large globular body, constitutes a new type of bottle made from the new glass fabric. The rim, which was folded inwards and flattened on the marver, represents a phenomenon of the borrowing of a single typological Umayyad characteristic when this type consolidated during the Abbasid period. Both vessels are made of the same quality and thickness of glass, with a similar distortion in the fashioning of the rim. They may have been made in the same workshop. Bottles 63–66, together with Nos. 93 and 94, are part of a group of large bottles that served as storage vessels. They have tapering necks, cut unpolished rims and globular bodies. Such bottles were found at Manda, Mafia and Nishapur, where they are dated from the mid-ninth to the eleventh centuries CE.

Bottles with a Straight Neck, Everted Rim and Globular Body

Globular Bottles and Flasks with a Flattened Rim

Bottles 86–89 with globular body, a long neck and short splayed or everted rim, are all of similar size. The bottles are made of colourless glass with a yellowish tinge. The shape seems to imitate the Umayyad small version of globular bottles with rims folded upon themselves. However, they are made from glass of the new composition, which creates a coarser impression. This widespread type was made for daily use with little attention given to quality.

The neck and rim fragment of Bottle 95—having grooved rings of varying widths made by a sharp reamer during the blowing process—has a rim flattened on the marver. Traces of a shoulder suggest a globular body. It was found in Stratum IV and represents a continuation of the flattened rim from the Umayyad period. This type of bottle was prominent during the late Umayyad and the Abbasid periods. It ceased to appear after the Fatimid period.

186

AYALA LESTER

86

88

87

90

89

91

92 95 93 94

97 96

99

98

Fig.7.8. Bottles. No.

Locus Basket No. Elevation

86

C34

1483

13.04

87

B3

1176/1

88

C64

89

Stratum

Description

Parallels

II

Small bottle with globular body, long neck and short splayed asymmetrical rim folded inward. Colourless glass.

Shindo 1992: Pl. 6-12:11.

11.44

I

Neck fragment of a bottle with slightly everted rim folded inward and traces of a round shoulder. Thin colourless glass with yellowish tinge.

2065

13.23

I

Long neck with asymmetrical ringshaped everted rim, folded inward. Colourless glass with yellowish tinge.

C20

1164/1

11.79

I

Long tapering neck with an Shindo 1992: Pl. 6-12:9. asymmetrical slightly everted rim, folded inward. A small distortion below rim and traces of globular body at the base of the neck. Colourless glass with yellowish tinge.

90

C22

1269

11.80

IV

91

D66

1637/2

7.10

I

Shindo 1992: Pl. 6-12:11; Kröger 1995: Fig. 88, ninth–tenth c.

Straight neck with traces of globular shoulder and splayed rim, decorated with a wavy coil. Pale bluish-green glass.

Kubiak and Scanlon 1980: Fig. 9f, eighth– ninth c.; Hardy-Guilbert 1984: Fig. 31:7, 8 (Levels I–II), 750–900 CE; Meyer 1987: Fig. 11:C, D, Late Byzantine–Umayyad, Fig. 13:k, Umayyad; Hadad 1998b: Pl. 8:139, Pl. 10:181– 186, Pl. 11:187–189, Pl. 23:407–409, Umayyad, Pl. 39:645, mid-eighth–eleventh c.; Carboni 2001: Cat. 3.28, twelfth c.

Neck and shoulder fragment decorated with a wavy coil. Light bluish-green glass. Coil of the same colour.

Salam-Liebich 1970: Pl. 4, ninth–tenth c.; Hadad 1998b: Pl. 43:734, mid-eighth– eleventh c.

187

CHAPTER 7: THE GLASS

Fig. 7.8. (cont.) No.

Locus Basket No. Elevation

Stratum

Description

92

D66

1637/1

7.10

I

Neck and shoulder fragment decorated with a wavy coil. Light bluish-green glass. Coil made of dark purple glass.

93

C66

2122

12.88

III

Bottle with long neck and rim folded inward and flattened on the marver. Thick bluish-green glass, covered with enamel-like weathering.

Lamm 1928: Pl. II:112, ninth c.; Morrison 1984: Fig. 134:c (Period I), mid-ninth–early eleventh c.; 1987: Fig. 2:4, ninth/tenth– thirteenth c.; Kröger 1995: Nos. 91, 92, ninth–tenth c.; Hadad 1998b: Pl. 42:699, mid-eighth–eleventh c.

94

B39

1362

11.57

III/II

Neck of bottle with traces of squat body. Long tapering neck with rim folded inward and flattened on the marver, with one protruding edge. Thick bluish-green glass covered with enamel-like weathering.

Lamm 1928: Pl. II:112, ninth c.; Morrison 1987: Fig. 2:4, ninth/tenth–thirteenth c.; Kröger 1995: Nos. 91, 92, ninth–tenth c.; Hadad 1998b: Pl. 42:699, mid-eighth–eleventh c.

95

C46

1771

12.48

IV

Bottle made of thick glass with traces of globular shoulder. The neck was formed, using a reamer, into six rings of different thickness. Bluish-green glass.

Fitzgerald 1931: Pl. 39:7; Lamm 1931: Pl. LXXIX:7, ninth c.; Harden 1955a: Fig. 42, ninth–twelfth c.; Negro Ponzi 1970–1971: Fig. 50:42, eighth c.; Finster and Schmidt 1976: Fig. 58:l, Sassanid and Early Islamic; Kubiak and Scanlon 1980: Fig. 9:g, eighth–ninth c.; Morrison 1984: Fig. 134:j (Periods I–II), midninth–end of eleventh c.; Shindo 1992: Pl. 6.14: 28; Hadad 1998b: Pl. 8: 131, Umayyad; Pl. 42: 703, 704, 711–713, mid-eighth–eleventh c.

96

C5/8

1152

12.03

I

Thick flattened rim folded upon itself. Mushroom shaped in section. Thick polished purple glass.

Lledó 1997: Fig. 3b, 1024–1025 CE.

97

B43

1450

12.19

I

Mushroom-shaped rim folded upon itself. Bluish-green glass.

Hadad 1998b: Pl. 40:657, mid-eighth–eleventh c.

98

B3

1176/1

11.44

I

Long cylindrical neck of a tube-shaped bottle with traces of shoulder. Rim cut and unpolished. Dark blue glass.

Lamm 1928:27, No. 105, ninth c.; Morrison 1984: Fig. 139:a, b (Period I), mid-ninth–early eleventh c.; Kröger 1995: Nos. 93–95, ninth– tenth c.; Shindo 1992: Pl. 6-13:1–15.

99

B36

1350

11.62

I

Cylindrical neck of a tube-shaped bottle with cut unpolished rim. Thin light blue glass.

Lamm 1928: No. 105:27, ninth c.; Lane 1937: Fig. 10:C, ninth–tenth c.; Kervran 1984: Fig. 7: 19 (Levels I–II), 750–900 CE; Shindo 1992: Pl. 6-13:1–15.

The latest use of the thick, flattened rim, mushroom shaped in section, is found in the Fatimid period. Rim and neck fragment No. 96 belongs to a flask made of fire-polished, dark purple glass. Only the rim was preserved and can be compared to a flask from Serçe Limani (Lledó 1997: Fig. 3b). The bottle stands out in the quality of fabric and production; it may be another example of vessels common to Tiberias and Serçe Limani emanating from a single source. Rim fragment No. 97, made of pale green glass, is similar to Flask 96, although on a smaller scale.

Parallels

Bottles with a Straight Neck, Cylindrical Body and Convex Base Bottles 98 and 99 are identified by a straight, cut, unworked neck—probably broken by a sharp reamer— and made of thin dark or light blue glass. The round base was intentional, as the glass gaffer could have formed the base with an inner kick as is the case with all standing vessels. Their function is not clear. They may have served as receptacles of a distillation apparatus or as test tubes. In this case their shape served to prevent

188

AYALA LESTER

the settling of sediments. These bottles were recovered in considerable quantities in Fustat and Manda; a few bottles were discovered at Susa, al-Mina and Nishapur. In Israel, this type of bottle is known from many sites dated to the Early Islamic period. Many fragments were uncovered in excavations conducted in various areas at Ramla. The bottles differ in size, with straight or asymmetrical necks, made of different shades of blue glass, indicating that they were blown in commercial quantities with the quality of production not a major concern. The overlapping periods from the various sites indicate a chronological range from the mid-eighth to the eleventh centuries. In Tiberias these bottles appear in Stratum I from the eleventh century. Summary The majority of the material originated in Strata II–I. The quantity of bottles found in Strata V–III is more limited but sufficient to study several of the typical types of bottles. Eight bottles belong to

Stratum V. Prominent among them is the bottle with a globular body, straight neck and mushroom-shaped rim. Stratum IV is typified by a continuity of types. Stratum III, even though limited in quantity, reflects a transitional period and is expressed by the appearance of a new glass composition which brings with it new types of bottles that prevail in Strata II–I. Most of the material from Strata II–I is composed of types which appear for the first time in Tiberias.

FLASKS AND PHIALS (Fig. 7.9) This section discusses square and cylindrical flasks together with tubular and lentil-shaped phials. Flasks were used for cosmetic purposes, to contain products such as kohl and perfumes. The term ‘phial’ refers to a small glass bottle, utilized especially for liquid medicine. Square and Cylindrical Flasks The square and cylindrical flasks have funnel-shaped necks and round rims; thick bases distinguish the

100

107

116

101

108

103

102

109

117

110

111

118

104

105

113

112

119

Fig. 7.9. Flasks and phials.

106

115

114

120

189

CHAPTER 7: THE GLASS


Fig. 7.9 No.

Locus

Basket No.

Elevation

Stratum

Description

Parallels

100

C22

1269

11.80

IV

Base of a rectangular flask. Colourless Dean 1927: Fig. 47, thirteenth c.; Lamm glass with yellowish tinge. 1928: Pls. II:78, III:79, ninth c.; Lane 1937: Fig. 10:H, ninth–tenth c.; Grabar 1970: Fig. 58:c, Umayyad–Abbasid periods; Adams 1970: Fig. 15:H-1, 800–950 CE (Level V); Negro Ponzi 1970–1971: Fig. 50:40; Bass 1978:788, 1024–1025 CE; Hardy-Guilbert 1984: Fig. 32:15 (Level I), 800–900 CE; Kervran 1984: Fig. 8:15, around 1000 CE (surface); Morrison 1984: Fig. 138:b, c (Period I), mid-ninth–early eleventh c.; 1987: Fig. 3:2, ninth–thirteenth c.; Pinder-Wilson and Scanlon 1987: No. 5, eighth–ninth c.; Bamber 1988: Fig. 53:10, Abbasid; Walmsley 1990: Fig. 13:8, Abbasid; Shindo 1992: Fig. 6-15:7, 8, 10; Lester 1996: Fig. XVII.6: 1–4, 7, Early Islamic; Hadad 1998b: Pl. 4: 60–61, about 749 CE, Pl. 21:368, 738–749 CE; Lester 1997: Pl. 1:10, eighth–tenth c.; Carboni 2001: No. 3:6a, ninth–tenth c.

101

C43

1826

12.90

III

Base of a rectangular flask. Thick Dean 1927: Fig. 47, thirteenth c.; Lamm colourless glass with black weathering. 1928: Pls. II:78, III:79, ninth c.; Lane 1937: Fig. 10:H, ninth–tenth c.; de Vaux and Stève 1950: Fig. 35:9, ninth–tenth c.; Grabar 1970: Fig. 58:c, Umayyad–Abbasid; Adams 1970: Fig. 15:H-1, 800–950 CE (Level V); Negro Ponzi 1970–1971: Fig. 50:40; Bass 1978: 788, 1024–1025 CE; Hardy-Guilbert 1984: Fig. 32:15 (Level I), 800–900 CE; Kervran 1984: Fig. 8:15, around 1000 CE (surface); Morrison 1984: Fig. 138:b (Period I), mid-ninth–early eleventh c.; 1987: Fig. 3: 2, ninth–thirteenth c.; Pinder-Wilson and Scanlon 1987: No. 5, eighth–ninth c.; Bamber 1988: Fig. 53:10, Abbasid; Walmsley 1990: Fig. 13:8, Abbasid; Shindo 1992: Fig. 6-15:7, 8, 10; Lester 1996: Fig. XVII.6:1–4, 7, Early Islamic; Hadad 1998b: Pl. 21:368, 738–749 CE, Pl. 39:633–635, 637–641, mid-eighth–eleventh c.; Lester 1997: Pl. 1:10.

102

C13

1086

12.96

II

Base of a rectangular flask. Thin walls, colour undecipherable because of white heavy weathering.

Dean 1927: Fig. 47, thirteenth c.; Lamm 1928: Pl. III:82, ninth c.; de Vaux and Stève 1950: Fig. 35:9, 9, tenth c.; Bass 1978:788, 1024–1025 CE; Bamber 1988: Fig. 53:10, Abbasid; Walmsley 1990: Fig. 13:8, Abbasid; Carboni 2001: No. 3.7b, ninth–tenth c.

103

C20

1235/2

11.38

II

Round thick base of a small cylindrical flask with traces of walls. Light green glass.

Bass 1988: left side of cover, 1024–1025 CE; Lester 1996: Fig. XVII.6:5, Early Islamic, Fig. XVII.15:3, Crusader, Fig. XVII.17:3, Mamluk.

104

C20

1235/1

11.38

II

Round thick base of a cylindrical flask. Light green glass.

Bass 1988: left side of cover, 1024–1025 CE; Lester 1996: Fig. XVII.6:5, Early Islamic, Fig. XVII.15:3, Crusader, Fig. XVII.17:3, Mamluk; Carboni 2001: No. 3.4a, ninth– tenth c.

105

C20

1186/2

11.78

I

Round thick base of a cylindrical flask. Light green glass.

Harden 1955a: Fig. 37:14, ninth–twelfth c.; Lester 1996: Fig. XVII.6:5–7, Early Islamic, Fig. XVII.7:3, Mamluk.

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AYALA LESTER

Fig. 7.9. (cont.) No.

Locus

Basket No.

Elevation

Stratum

Description

106

C64

2033

13.31

I

107

C25

1327

11.14

108

C23

1316

10.72

IV

Tube-shaped phial with thick elliptical base, narrow neck and everted, infolded rim. Light blue glass. Intact.

109

C66

2046/1

12.97

III

Miniature tube-shaped phial with slightly everted, infolded rim. Small fracture of pontil mark near the base.

110

C66

2046/4

12.97

III

Miniature tube-shaped phial with slightly everted, infolded rim. Colourless glass with yellowish tinge. Small fracture of pontil mark at the base.

111

C66

2046/3

12.97

III

Long tube-shaped phial with thick base and slightly everted, infolded rim. Colourless glass with yellow tinge. Intact.

112

C66

2046/2

12.97

III

Long tube-shaped phial with thick base and everted, infolded rim. Colourless glass with yellowish tinge.

113

C9

1192

11.62

II

Tube-shaped phial with everted, infolded rim. White weathering. Part of neck and rim broken.

114

C93

2343

-

II

Miniature tube-shaped phial with everted, infolded rim. Colourless glass with yellowish tinge. Intact.

115

C222

2515

13.30

II

Tube-shaped phial with everted, infolded rim. Colourless glass.

116

C49

2195

12.80

III

Flattened lentil-shaped lower part of phial. Thin colourless glass with greenish tinge.

117

C66

2046/7

12.97

III

Flattened lentil-shaped lower part of miniature phial. Thin colourless glass with greenish tinge.

118

C64

2033

13.31

I

Miniature phial with flattened lentilshaped body, pinched on one side near the base during blowing. Everted, rim folded upon itself. Colourless glass with greenish tinge.

119

C20

1185/2

11.78

I

Phial with lentil-shaped body and everted rim folded upon itself. Colourless glass with greenish tinge. Pontil scar at the lower part of the base.

120

C12

1147

12.44

I

Phial with lentil shaped body, with everted, rim folded upon itself. Colourless glass with yellowish tinge. Intact.

Parallels

Body fragment and flaring neck of a Hadad 1998b: Pl. 39:633–635, 637–640, cylindrical flask. Colourless glass with mid-eighth–eleventh c. greenish tinge.

750–790 CE, Tube-shaped phial with thick elliptical pre-building base and everted, infolded rim. phase. Colourless glass with light greenish tinge. Intact.

Lamm 1929–1930: Pl. 3:16, eighth– eleventh c.; Riis 1957: Fig. 48; Kubiak and Scanlon 1973: Pl. IV:c, ninth c.; Scanlon 1965: Pl. XV:41, Fatimid; Shindo 1992: Pl. 6-19:1, 2; Lester 1996: Fig. XVII.6:9, Early Islamic; Hadad 1998b: Pl. 9:631–632, mideighth–eleventh c.

Lamm 1929–1930: Pl. 3:1–2, eighth– eleventh c.; Lester 1996: Fig. XVII.6:10, Early Islamic.

191

CHAPTER 7: THE GLASS

cylindrical flask. Both forms are free blown and probably served as the prototype for the further or simultaneous development of mould-blown, incised and facet-cut flasks (Lane 1937: Fig. 12: H; Scanlon and Pinder-Wilson 2001: Figs. 34a–e, 42 u, v, y). The earliest flasks were found at Bet She’an, one from the covered market area, dated 738–749 CE, and one from the debris of 749 CE (Hadad 1998b: Pls. 4:60–61, 21: 368). However, the flasks from Bet She’an are larger with thicker walls, in comparison to the Abbasid flasks discussed herein. Chronologically subsequent to the flask from Bet She’an is Flask 100, recovered in an area that ceased to be used in the late eighth–early ninth centuries. A few square flasks were found at Fustat (Scanlon and Pinder-Wilson 2001: Fig. 17:a–g), dated to the eighth– ninth centuries. One flask there (No. 17f) contained an ivory kohl stick; this suggests that they were used as kohl containers. Flask 101 was discovered in Stratum III; No. 102 in Stratum II, as were cylindrical flasks Nos. 103 and 104, which originated in C20. Flask 105 also came from C20, but from a level dating after the 1033 CE earthquake. Fragment 106, from Statum I, was found together with Coin No. 362. In Tiberias, the cylindrical flask first appears towards the end of the tenth century. According to the distribution of the cylindrical cut and faceted type vessels during the ninth–tenth centuries (Scanlon and Pinder-Wislon 2001: Nos. 42j–k, t–v), they co-existed with the square version. Both the square and cylindrical perfume flasks are common mostly in the tenth–eleventh centuries CE and continue to appear together up to the thirteenth. The most recent flasks, from Montfort, are dated to the thirteenth century CE (Dean 1927: Fig. 47). In Yoqne‘am, one square flask is from the Crusader period and a cylindrical one is attributed to the Mamluk period (Lester 1996: Fig. XVII.15:3, XVII.17:3).

Fustat (Riis 1957: Fig. 48; Shindo 1992: Pl. 6–19:1, 2) and from various sites in Israel such as Kh. Minya (IAA Reg. No. 91-3587), Tiberias (IAA Reg. No. 782814/1, Permit No. A-783/1978), Ramla (Permit No. A-3377/2001). In the current excavation, nine complete tubular phials were found, as well as one fragment (C66/2046-5, not illustrated). All came from Area C, five of them in a shop, C66, near the city gate (Nos. 109–112, 117). The long and narrow phial with a round bottom defines a minimal volume; the wider the body, the greater this volume. Hadad (1998b:38) suggests that these flasks were used as measuring instruments or had some other medical use. Scanlon and Pinder-Wilson (2001: Figs. 16a–c, 29h) hypothesize that they were intended for storage of medications or precious scents. To try and determine their use, their volume was measured and the results are shown in Table 7.1.

Table 7.1. Volume of Phials Type

No.

Locus/ Basket No.

Tube-shaped phials

107

C25/1327

0.5

108

C23/1316

0.3

109

C66/2046-1

0.25

110

C66/2046-4

0.2

111

C66/2046-3

0.5

112

C66/2046-2

0.7

113

C9/1192

-

114

C93/2343

0.2

115

C222/2515

0.5

116

C49/2195

-

117

C66/2046-7

-

118

C64/2033

0.3

Phials

119

C20/1185-2

0.45

Tube-Shaped Phials. The group of tube-shaped phials is characterized by a long, narrow body with a thick, round base and an everted, infolded rim. Tubular flasks appear in the Late Roman and Byzantine periods, the latest example being a flask from Kh. alKarak, dated to the seventh century CE (Barag 1970: 173–175, Pl. 38:1–2). Single flasks of this type from the Early Islamic period are known from Hama and

120

C12/1147

0.5

Lenticular phials

Volume (cc)

The results show that the tubular phials contain less than 1 cc of liquid. Flasks 109, 110 and 114 hold 0.2–0.25 cc, while the larger ones hold 0.5–0.7 cc. If the phials, while full, are turned upside-down, their contents do not spill—unless the phial is shaken—and

192

AYALA LESTER

then only in single drops. More viscous substances, such as various oils, would drip even more slowly. This might allow us to conclude that these tubular phials may have contained extracts or medications that were dispensed in single drops or by a measured quantity. To use the contents, the tube needed to be shaken over a larger vessel, where the drops were diluted in water or another liquid. Phial 107 from C25/1327 originated in the prebuilding phase dating to 750–950 CE. Phial 108 came from Stratum IV, Nos. 109–112 from Stratum III, and Nos. 113–115 from Stratum II. Lenticular Phials. Vessels 116–120 are phials with an everted rim folded upon itself and a lenticular body. Phial 120 is made of slightly thicker glass and has the most typical lenticular shape. This group is a hybrid between the tubular flasks and the miniature ampullae that were known in the Roman and Early Byzantine periods (Barag 1970:165–167, Pl. 37:5). The similarity to the tubular flasks is evident in the upper part of the neck and rim, and the body was flattened on the marver. Only the body remained in Phials 116 and 117; No. 117 was very tiny. The volume of Phials 118–120 was measured as well and stands at 0.3–0.5 cc (see Table 7.1). Phial No. 118 was pinched near the base during blowing and its volume is 0.3 cc. Phials 116 and 117 are from Stratum III, and Nos. 118–120, from Stratum I. Summary A flask, with an applied stamp from Fustat, is dated to the eighth–ninth centuries CE. Three other flasks from Fustat are dated to the tenth–eleventh centuries (Scanlon and Pinder-Wilson 2001: Figs. 29h,16a–c). Three phials were excavated at Bet She’an. One, dated to the Umayyad period, is much larger and thicker and seems more like a test tube. Two others are dated between the middle of the eighth–eleventh centuries (Hadad 1998b: Pl. 8:132, Pl. 39: 631, 632). Since comparable lentil-shaped phials were not found, dating must rely on Tiberias’ findings between the ninth and the eleventh centuries. In general, the differences in capacity within each type are no greater than a few tenths of a cubic centimeter. This is hardly relevant for the extract or medicine it contained. It seems that each type of phial may have had a unique content. The fact that comparable flasks were

uncovered only in the Syro-Egyptian area suggests that they are regional in nature. The deposit of five tubular and one lenticular phial suggests that the shop (near the southern gate), of which Locus C66 formed a part, served as a pharmacy.

JUGS AND JUGLETS (Fig. 7.10) This section presents fragments of jugs and juglets. Juglet 123, decorated with marvered threads, is discussed only typologically, as marvered decoration is discussed below. Handle 126 is the largest and most typical of the juglet handles found. Other smaller handles of the same type (Nos. 127, 129) are presented, as well as handles where the shape of the vessel to which they were attached is uncertain (Nos. 124, 125, 128). Handle 121 was recovered from a plastered cistern that went out of use in the eighth–ninth centuries CE. Such thick handles, decorated with projections, are known from Bet She’an, dated there to the Umayyad period and to the mid-eighth through the eleventh centuries CE (Hadad 1998b: Pls. 24:425, 50:864–866). It probably belongs to a ring-shaped handle of a cup imitating a bronze cup dated to the eighth–ninth centuries (Melikian-Chirvani 1974: Fig. 1). The neck of Juglet 122 is made of thick, colourless glass and is decorated with applied red-purple threads. The threads were wound rather sloppily around the neck, so that near the rim there are pairs of threads and below they appear intermittently. On the rim, there are traces of a handle. This fragment originated in Stratum II. A pear-shaped bottle with a similar neck, decorated with applied blue thread, was found at Fustat, dated to the eleventh century (Scanlon 1967:79, Pl. IX:a). Two lamps from Fustat, decorated with red threads, are dated between 750 and 800 CE (Scanlon 1968:192). Base and body fragments No. 123 form part of a globular juglet(?) with a straight rim, similar to clay and glass juglets from the Early Islamic period (see No. 126 below). The actual shape of the vessel remains conjectural at best, as the fragments do not allow reconstruction. Fragments of Handles 124, 125 and 128 belong to jugs of uncertain shape. A small handle, No. 128, is made of brown glass coated with white enamel-like weathering and decorated with blue marvered glass (see below). Handles 124 and 125 were uncovered in

193

CHAPTER 7: THE GLASS

C69 at the same elevation as a glass weight (No. 4) bearing the name of al-Hākim bi-amr Allāh, dated to 996–1021 CE. Handle 126 is made of thick glass, with a thumb rest at the upper part, traces of the join with the rim, and below traces of the join with the vessel’s convex body. The thumb rest was made by folding the glass thread and flattening it during manufacture. The straight handle with thumb rest belongs to a group of Islamic jugs and juglets dated from the mid-eighth to the twelfth centuries CE that are characterized by a cylindrical or globular body, ring-shaped or flat base and everted neck (Lester 1998:47–49). The handle with the glass thumb rest is known from the Early Roman period and later in the fourth and fifth centuries (Katsnelson 1999: Fig. 3, 6, 7; Israeli 2001:

Nos. 146, 151, 267). The thumb rest of these periods is usually smaller and slants in the same direction as the neck. During the Early Islamic period, it becomes vertical, bolder and carefully folded, e.g. No. 127. The thumb rest is one of the prominent characteristics of the jugs and juglets made of clay and glass. In spite of the above, Handle 127, from Stratum I, has a slightly slanted thumb rest. Such handles sometimes appear on juglets such as one in the Hermitage Museum (Loukonine and Ivanov 1996: No. 111) and a miniature flask from the national museum in Damascus (Institut du Monde Arab 2001: No. 202). Handle 129 originated in Stratum I. It belongs to a miniature juglet, and in spite of its tiny size, it retains a vertical, carefully folded thumb rest.

122

121

123

125 124

128 127

126 129 130

Fig. 7.10. Jugs and juglets.

194

AYALA LESTER


Fig. 7.10 No.

Locus

Basket No.

Elevation

Stratum

Description

121

C25

1379/1

9.72

122

C51

1724

12.84

II

Flaring neck with round rim decorated with opaque red-purple threads. Traces of handle adjacent to the rim. Thick colourless glass with yellowish tinge.

123

C93

2341

13.28

II

Base and rim of a juglet. Splayed Meyer 1987: Fig. 13:P, Umayyad(?). hollow ring-shaped base folded upon itself with traces of round body, straight neck with round rim, shallowly engraved line near rim. Light brown glass decorated with white and blue marvered glass.

124

C69

2127/1

12.93

II

Part of handle slightly concave, with traces of body attached to the edge. Bluish-green glass.

Hadad 1998b: Pl. 49:840a, 840b, mid-eighth– eleventh c.

125

C69

2127/3

12.93

II

Part of handle with traces of body, widening towards its lower(?) part. Bluish-green glass.

Hadad 1998b: Pl. 49:837–840b, mid-eighth– eleventh c.

126

C64

2065/3

13.23

I

Thick handle with upright thumb rest Lamm 1928:21, Fig. 16, Pl. II:58, 60, 124, and traces of neck and body. Colourless 125, 190, ninth c.; 1935: Pl. 13:A, ninth c.; glass with greenish tinge. Lane 1937: Fig. 10:Y, ninth–tenth c.; Harden 1955a: Fig. 37:31, ninth–twelfth c.; Bass 1978:778–779, 1024–1025 CE; 1984: Fig. 3: e, f; Jiayao 1991: Fig. 11, 1019 CE; Hadad 1998b: Pl. 49:827, 828, mid-eighth–eleventh c.

127

B36

1350/2

11.62

I

Fragment of a handle with thumbrest folded upon itself. Light purple glass.

128

D66

1639/3

6.99

I

Handle of an unidentified vessel. Hadad 1998a: Pl. 49:839, mid-eighth– Brown glass covered with an enameleleventh c. like white weathering. Decorated with opaque white or blue marvered threads.

129

D66

1639/6

6.99

I

Miniature handle with upright thumbrest folded upon itself and flattened. Light turquoise glass.

Hadad 1998a: Pl. 49: 825, 926, mid-eighth– eleventh c.

130

B3

1176/2

11.44

I

Pear-shaped bottle with beak-shaped spout. Thick colourless glass.

Scanlon 1970: Pl. VII:b, tenth c.; PinderWilson and Scanlon 1973: No. 19, Figs. 30–32, ninth c.; Janpoladian 1974: Pl. XVIII, ninth–thirteenth c.; Bass 1984: Fig. 3:f, 1024–1025 CE; Shindo 1992: Pl. 6-16:2; Lester 1996: Fig. XVII: 4, 5, Fatimid, late tenth–twelfth c.; Hadad 1998b: Pl. 48:820, middle of eighth–eleventh c.; Carboni 2001: No. 6, eighth c.

Eighth–ninth c. Ring-shaped handle with two archshaped projections. Thick green glass.

Parallels Lamm 1928: Pl. II:52, ninth c.; Hadad 1998b: Pls. 24:425, 738–749 CE, 50:864–866, mideighth–eleventh c. Scanlon 1967:79 and Pl. IX:a, tenth c.; Pinder-Wilson and Scanlon 1973: Figs. 22–23, eleventh c.

Riis 1957: Fig. 52; Bass 1988:10, 1024– 1025 CE; Lester 1996: Fig. XVII.8:1, 2, Early Islamic; Loukonine and Ivanov 1996: No. 111, eleventh–twelfth c.; Hadad 1998b: Pl. 49:826, 827, 829, 831, 833, 834, mideighth–eleventh c.

CHAPTER 7: THE GLASS

Fragment 130 with a beak-shaped spout belongs to a pear-shaped jug with a straight handle that is missing; it spans the length of the jug, ending in a thumb rest. This type of jug appeared in the Islamic world through Iran, inspired by Sassanian silver bottles which influenced the formation of Early Islamic juglets. Ceramic jugs and juglets endured until the twelfth–thirteenth centuries (Grube 1976: Nos. 137, 138). Among the earliest pear-shaped glass juglets is a free-blown bottle found at Susa, dated to the late seventh–early eighth centuries (Rosen-Ayalon 1974: 25, Fig. 17, Pl. VI:e). A highly decorated bottle, carved in relief, was found at Fustat, dated to the eighth–ninth centuries (Pinder-Wilson and Scanlon 1973: No. 19). The Buckley ewer, famous for its carved relief decoration, is dated to the tenth–eleventh centuries. It was acquired in Persia, which is considered to be its place of origin (Buckley 1935; Contadini 1998: 21–25). In Tiberias, the pear-shaped juglets originated in Stratum I. They exist in a variety of versions, free blown such as Bottle No. 130, optic blown (No. 167), shallow cut bottles (D74/1714) and bottles decorated in the bevelled style (C93/2403; the latter two are not illustrated). The pear-shaped juglet type is one of the most typical and widespread shapes in the repertoire of Fatimid glass vessels.

LAMPS (Figs. 7.11, 7.12) The variety of lamps found at Tiberias indicates a continuity of types from the Roman–Byzantine periods. Such are the bowl-shaped lamp with three handles, the beaker-shaped lamp, lamps with a solid stemmed foot, the bowl-shaped lamp with a central tube (which also developed from the Byzantine type) and bowl-shaped lamps with an inner fold. The ‘mosque’ lamp type emerged between the mid-eighth and the ninth centuries with an increasing use in the tenth–eleventh centuries. Three-Handled, Bowl-Shaped Lamps This type of lamp, identified by Hadad as Type 1 (Hadad 1998a:64–68, Fig.1), has slanting walls with a rim folded outward and down, and three short handles triangular in section. Fragment 131 was found

195

in Stratum IV. Lamp fragment No. 132 is dated to the eighth–ninth centuries. No. 133 also belongs to Stratum IV. Beaker-Shaped Lamp Lamp 134 is made of thick, brown glass with an infolded, hollow, flaring rim, with a pushed-in base. It belongs to the group of beaker lamps that are defined by Crowfoot and Harden (1931: Type A) to have first appeared at Jerash in the sixth–seventh centuries CE and which then became common in the Middle East in various versions. As for its shape, Crowfoot and Harden (1931:198, 201, Pl. XXVIII:5) remark that the walls are everted with a slightly concave and unstable base, as reflected in lamp No. 134. No parallels were found for this vessel at sites in the region or neighboring areas, as it does not have distinct characteristics of a lamp unless recovered with a complete profile. The vessel is nearly intact with the exception of a missing piece of the rim. The lamp lay on a clear Umayyad floor (C83, see Fig. 5.4:1) together with Umayyad coins (Coin Nos. 61, 117, 118). Lamps with Solid Stemmed Foot These lamps have a small upper bowl and a beaded or hollow stem that can be either slanting, vertical or round. Stemmed lamps with beaded feet exist between the Umayyad and the early Fatimid periods. Other versions of the stemmed lamp have a ball-shaped termination encircled by a ring band (No. 139), or a hollow narrowing stem with a ball-shaped termination and a sharp knock off (No. 141). Lamp 139 has a Byzantine parallel from Giv‘at Yasaf, Tell a-Ras (Gorin-Rosen 1999a: Fig. 1:3) and a mid-eighth–eleventh-century parallel from Bet She’an (Hadad 1998a: Fig. 2:34). Lamp 141 is similar to lamps from Fustat dated to the ninth–tenth centuries (Scanlon and Pinder-Wilson 2001:25a–b). Lamps 135 and 138 are from Stratum V. Lamp 136 is from Strata V/IV and Lamps 137 and 139 belong to Stratum IV. Lamps140 and 141 are from Strata III and I, respectively. Bowl-Shaped Lamp with Central Tube This type of lamp, with three handles, is known from the Byzantine period (Crowfoot and Harden 1931:

196

AYALA LESTER

133

131

134

132

137

140 136

135

138

141

139

142 143

147

145

144

146

148

149

151

150

152

Fig. 7.11. Lamps.

197

CHAPTER 7: THE GLASS


Fig. 7.11 No.

Locus Basket No. Elevation

Stratum

131

C62

1999

12.60

132

C22

1313

11.91

133

C82

2205

12.70

IV

Rim fragment of a bowl-shaped lamp folded outward with traces of a handle. Light bluish-green glass.

Hadad 1998a: Fig. 1:1, Byzantine, Fig. 1:2, Umayyad; Fig. 1:8, 9, Abbasid–Fatimid; Foy 2000: Figs. 9:1–6, 10:2–10, Umayyad.

134

C83

2252

12.30

V

Beaker-shaped lamp with hollow flaring rim, folded inward, and pushed-in base. Thick brown glass, part of rim missing.

Crowfoot and Harden 1931: Pl. 38:5, Umayyad.

135

C46

1759

12.44

V

Five-beaded solid stem of a lamp. Bluish-green glass.

Hadad 1998a: Fig. 2:18–20, Umayyad. Foy 2000: Figs. 5:6, 10, 6:12, 14, 15–17, 7:16, 17, 19, Umayyad.

136

C47

1742

12.30

V/IV

Lamp with a partly hollow stem and beaded termination. Green glass.

Hadad 1998a: Fig. 2:23, 27, Umayyad; Foy 2000: Figs. 4:5, 7, 6:10, 11, Umayyad.

137

C43

1836

12.72

IV

Lower beaded part of a solid stemmed lamp. Bluish-green glass.

Hadad 1998a: Fig. 2:33–37, mid-eighth– eleventh c.

138

C25

1391/3

9.43

V

Lower beaded part of a solid stemmed lamp. Ligth bluish-green glass.

Hadad 1998b: Fig. 2:29, Late Umayyad, Fig. 2:33–36, mid-eighth–eleventh c.; Katsnelson 1999: Fig. 5:8, fifth–early seventh c.; Foy 2000: Fig. 7:18–20, Umayyad.

139

C84

2209

12.73

IV

Lower part of a stemmed lamp with a Hadad 1998a: Fig.2:34, mid-eighth– ball-shaped termination encircled by a eleventh c.; Gorin-Rosen 1999a: Fig. 1:3, ring-shaped band. Bluish-green glass. Byzantine.

140

B53

1668

11.10

III

Beaded part of a solid stemmed lamp. Hadad 1998a: Fig. 2:33–37, mid-eighth– Bluish-green glass. eleventh c.

141

C5/8

1119

12.15

I

142

C22

1269

11.80

143

C23

1293/3

11.07

IV

Description

Parallels

Handle of a bowl-shaped lamp, with traces of rim. Light bluish-green glass.

Hadad 1998a: Fig. 1:3, 5, 7, Umayyad; Katsnelson 1999: Fig. 5:1–3, fifth–early seventh c.; Gorin-Rosen 1999b: Fig. 2:27, fourth–seventh c.; Foy 2000: Figs. 9:1–6, 10:2–10, Umayyad; Gorin-Rosen 2000b: Fig. 3: 31, 32, Byzantine–Umayyad.

Eighth–ninth c. Handle and rim fragment of a bowlshaped lamp. Light bluish-green glass.

Hollow narrowing stem with a ballshaped termination and a sharp knock off. Colourless glass with yellowish tinge.

Eighth–ninth c. Bowl-shaped lamp with a central tube. Colourless glass with greenish tinge.

IV

Part of base and central tube of a bowl-shaped lamp. Colourless glass with greenish tinge.

Hadad 1998a: Fig 2:5, 8, 11, mid-eighth– eleventh c.; Gorin-Rosen 1999b: Fig. 2:27, fourth–seventh c.; Katsnelson 1999: Fig. 5: 1–3, fifth–early seventh c.; Foy 2000: Figs. 9:16, 10:2–10, Umayyad; Gorin-Rosen 2000b: Fig. 3:32, Byzantine–Umayyad.

Hadad 1998a: Fig. 7:70–71, mideighth–eleventh c.; Foy 1999: Fig. 4:2, eleventh–twelfth c.; 2000: Fig. 28:14–16, tenth–twelfth c.(?); Gorin-Rosen 2000a: Fig. 3:33, Byzantine–Umayyad; Carboni 2001: Cat. 46a–c, twelfth c.; Scanlon and PinderWilson 2001: Fig. 25:a, b, ninth–tenth c. Hadad 1998b: Fig. 7:70, mid-eighth– eleventh c.; Foy 1999: Fig. 4:10, eleventh– twelfth c., Fig. 4:28, Abbasid–Fatimid; Katsnelson 1999: Fig. 5:4, fifth–early seventh c.; Foy 2000: Fig. 28:14–16, tenth– twelfth c.(?); Gorin-Rosen 2000b: Fig. 3:33, Byzantine–Umayyad. Hadad 1998a: Fig. 7:70, 71, mideighth–eleventh c.; Foy 1999: Fig. 4:17, Abbasid–Fatimid; Katsnelson 1999: Fig. 5: 4, fifth–early seventh c.; Foy 2000: Fig. 28: 14–16, tenth–twelfth c.(?); Gorin-Rosen 2000b: Fig. 3:33, Byzantine–Umayyad.

198

AYALA LESTER

Fig. 7.11. (cont.) No.

Locus Basket No. Elevation

144

C23

1293/2

11.07

145

C40

1636

146

D73

147

Stratum

Description

Parallels

IV

Part of base and central tube of a bowl-shaped lamp. Colourless glass with greenish tinge.

Hadad 1998a: Fig. 7:70, 71, mid-eighth– eleventh c.; Foy 1999: Fig. 4:16, eleventh c., Fig. 4:17, eleventh–twelfth c.; Katsnelson 1999: Fig. 5:4, fifth–early seventh c.; Foy 2000: Fig. 28:14–16, tenth–twelfth c.(?); Gorin-Rosen 2000b: Fig. 3:33, Byzantine– Umayyad.

12.27

III

Part of base and central tube of a Hadad 1998a: Fig. 7:70, 71, mid-eighth– bowl-shaped lamp. Light green glass. eleventh c.; Foy 1999: Fig. 4:16, eleventh c., Fig. 4:17, 28, Abbasid–Fatimid; Katsnelson 1999: Fig. 5:4, fifth–early seventh c.; Foy 2000: Fig. 28:14–16, tenth–twelfth c.(?); Gorin-Rosen 2000b: Fig. 3:33, Byzantine– Umayyad.

1745/2

6.99

II

Fragment of a bowl-shaped lamp with straight central tube and remnant of the base curving upward. Bluegreen glass.

C20

1164/5

11.79

I

Pushed-in base of a bowl-shaped Hadad 1998a: Fig. 7:70–71, midlamp with traces of cylindrical tube. eighth–eleventh c.; Foy 1999: Fig. 4:5, 9, Colourless glass with yellowish tinge. eleventh–twelfth c.; Katsnelson 1999: Fig. 5:4, fifth–early seventh c.; Foy 2000: Fig. 28:14–16, tenth–twelfth c.(?); Gorin-Rosen 2000b: Fig. 3:33, Byzantine–Umayyad.

148

B3

1176/12

13.44

I

Cylindrical tube of a bowl-shaped Hadad 1998a: Fig. 7:70, 71, mid-eighth– lamp with part of pushed-in base. eleventh c.; Foy 1999: Fig. 4:5,9, 10, 14, 17, Colourless glass with yellowish tinge. eleventh and twelfth c., part from surface area.

149

D53

1680

7.70

I

Central tube of a bowl-shaped lamp Hadad 1998a: Fig. 7:70–71, mid-eighth– with traces of a base. Colourless glass eleventh c.; Foy 1999: Figs. 4:16–18, 27, with yellowish tinge. 28, 8:2, eleventh–twelfth c.; Foy 2000: Fig. 28:14–16, tenth–twelfth c.(?); Gorin-Rosen 2000b: Fig. 3:33, Byzantine–Umayyad.

150

C32

1551

13.09

II

Fragment of an inner horizontal fold with traces of the outer wall. The inner fold is made of thick glass. Colourless glass with greenish tinge.

Barag 1970:186, Pl.40:18, Late Byzantine– Umayyad(?); Davidson 1952: Fig. 17:781, Late Byzantine or later; Janpoladian 1974: Pl. 15:12, ninth–thirteenth c.; Kröger 1995: Nos. 154, 155, tenth c.; Gorin-Rosen 1997b: Fig. 2:9, thirteenth c.; 2000b: Fig. 1:5, medieval; Carboni 2001: Cat. 46a–c, twelfth c.

151

C20

1235/17

11.38

II

Fragment of a small inner horizontal fold with traces of the wall. The fold is made of thin glass. Colourless glass with olive-green tinge.

As No. 150.

152

B46

-

I(?)

Fragment of a globular lamp with an inner fold. Colourless glass.

Gorin-Rosen 2000b: Fig. 1:5, medieval.

Hadad 1998a: Fig. 7:70, mid-eighth– eleventh c.; Foy 1999: Fig. 4:7, eleventh– twelfth c.; Katsnelson 1999: Fig. 5:4, fifth– early seventh c.; Foy 2000: Fig. 28:14–16, tenth–twelfth c.(?); Gorin-Rosen 2000b: Fig. 3:33, Byzantine–Umayyad.

CHAPTER 7: THE GLASS

Pl. 28:7, 9; Barag 1970:185, Pl. 40:13–16,). A bowlshaped lamp from Khirbet Tabaliya was recently published by Gorin-Rosen (2000b:91, Fig. 3:33), dated to the Late Byzantine period and the beginning of the Umayyad period. No complete lamp was recovered from the Umayyad and Early Islamic periods. The lamp has the shape of a small bowl with shallow convex walls and a central tube that could vary in height and diameter; it lacked handles. A sub-type of the lamp, with a straight handle attached to the vertical wall, is exemplified by two lamps from Nishapur, dated to the ninth–tenth centuries (Kröger 1995: Nos. 232, 233), and by a handle from Fustat (Foy 1999: Fig. 4a). Another sub-type, a bowl with three central tubes, was found at Samarra, dated to the ninth century (Lamm 1928: Pl. I:154). The bowl-shaped lamp with central tube appeared at Bet She’an during the Abbasid and Fatimid periods and was in use until the Ayyubid– Mamluk periods in the twelfth–fourteenth centuries (Hadad 1998a: Fig.7:72–73). Lamp fragment No. 142 lay on a surface that ceased to be used at the end of the eighth century–beginning of the ninth century. Lamps 143 and 144 belong to the early Abbasid phase. Lamp fragment No. 145 is from Stratum III, No. 146 from Stratum II, and Fragments 147–149 were found in Stratum I. This lamp prevails at Tiberias during the tenth–eleventh centuries, with no typological change from its earliest dating. Such lamps are known from the Fustat cemetery, dated to the eleventh and twelfth centuries, with two lamps dated to the eighth century (Foy 1999: Fig. 4:13, 27). The lamp from Khirbet Tabaliya, with the early lamps from Fustat, may possibly mark the early emergence of the bowl-shaped lamp and, a few decades later, it already was a prevalent type. Lamps with an Inner Fold Lamp fragment No. 150 is made of colourless glass with a greenish tinge. It has an inner collar-shaped fold and a diameter of 14 cm. Fragment 151, of colourless glass with an olive green tinge, has a diameter of 4 cm. Fragment 152 is a globular lamp with an inner fold and traces of a wall. Its diameter is about 14 cm. It came from a poorly stratified, but probably Stratum I, context in B46. It was hypothesised that a bowl from the Late Byzantine and Early Islamic periods is a lamp, based upon the inner fold that supported a metal fitting

199

through which a wick was threaded (Barag 1970:186, Pl. 40:18). Gorin-Rosen (1997b:80, Fig. 2:9) points out the existence of these lamps from the Late Byzantine period through the Islamic period. A lamp with an inner fold between the neck and the shoulder, dated to the Fatimid period, was found at Caesarea (Lester, Arnon and Polak 1999: Fig. 5:g). Three bottles from the al-Sabah Collection have a fold in mid-section with darker coloured glass which was caused by the folding of the glass. Carboni (2001:182, Nos. 436a–c) accepts Smith’s (1957) opinion that this is an aesthetic device. In the case of the Tiberias fragments, it seems that the functional aspects of the folding are pertinent, and thus I suggest the fragments from Tiberias are lamps belonging to Strata II and I. Lamps of the Mosque-Lamp Type This type of lamp has a globular body and splayed neck, with handles with pendant-shaped extensions attached to the shoulder. Crowfoot and Harden were of the general opinion that the handled bowl from Jerash served as the prototype of the enamelled mosque lamp (Crowfoot and Harden 1931:199–200, Pl. XXX: 40, 41, 50). Barag (1970: 183, 184, Pl. 40:19, 10) and Gorin-Rosen (2000b:9, Pl. 3:25, 26) discuss the bowlshaped lamp with three holes for chains and the bowlshaped lamp with three small handles for suspension. They date these lamps from the Early Byzantine period until the beginning of the Umayyad period. Gorin-Rosen also mentions a type of lamp with strap handles for suspension from Khirbet Tabaliya (GorinRosen 2000b: Pl. 3: 27, 28) and a goblet from Nir Gallim (Gorin-Rosen 2002:121–122, Fig. 1:2). Such handles, probably part of lamps, were also found at the excavations in Bet She’an (Hadad 1998b: Pl. 16:277, 278; Gorin-Rosen, pers. comm). Crowfoot and Harden also note a bronze lamp type from the Byzantine period that continued into the Umayyad and Early Islamic periods, e.g. the lamp from the Hama treasure (Crowfoot and Harden 1931:204–205; Ward 1993: No. 28). It seems that this type of lamp was also influenced by the globular pale buff ceramic juglet with a flat or a disc-shaped base, a splayed neck and a handle with a thumb rest. It appeared in the eastern part of the Islamic world toward the end of the Umayyad period and was later brought to the Syro-Egyptian region (Kervran 1977:152; Avissar 1996:157), becoming widespread from the mid-eighth to the twelfth centuries in

200

AYALA LESTER

153

155

154

158

159

157

156

Fig. 7.12. Lamps and wick-holders. No.

Locus Basket No. Elevation

Stratum Description

153

D76

1726/2

6.70

III/II

Thick pendant-shaped handle with traces of body. Colourless glass.

Hadad 1998a: Fig. 6:67, mid-eighth–eleventh c.; Foy 1999: Fig. 5:3, eleventh–twelfth c.

154

B9

1087/6

12.79

II

Large pendant-shaped handle with traces of a round body. Colourless glass.

Hadad 1998a: Fig. 6:67, 68, mid-eighth– eleventh c.

155

A9

1057

6.65

I

Large pendant-shaped handle of a lamp with traces of round body. Colourless glass.

Hadad 1998a: Fig. 6:67, mid-eighth–eleventh c.

156

B37

1249/1

11.94

I

Pendant-shaped handle of a lamp, Lester 1996: Fig. XVII:11:2, Early Islamic; Foy slightly deformed with traces of body. 1999: Fig. 5: 2, 3, 4, 6, Fatimid; Carboni and Colourless glass. Whitehouse 2001: No. 7, tenth–twelfth c.

157

A9

1089

6.42

I

Pendant-shaped handle of a lamp terminating in an upper loop. Dark green handle with traces of body made of colourless glass.

158

C52

1752

12.85

II

Bronze wick-holder with a loopshaped end. Broken.

159

C202

2186

15.43

I(?)

Bronze wick-holder with a loopshaped end.

various decorative versions. These two sources do not contradict one another, as the metal lamp was known from the Byzantine period and the ceramic jugs and juglets encouraged its consolidation. Handles of lamps with pendant-shaped extensions were found at Samarra, dated to the first decades of the ninth century (Lamm 1928: Pl. IV:131–132). The type became well established during the Early Islamic period. Other examples of the type were discovered at Nishapur, dated to the tenth–eleventh centuries (Kröger 1995: No. 235), an intact lamp from Caesarea

Parallels

Lester 1996: Fig. XVII:11:2, Early Islamic; Hadad 1998a: Fig. 6:69, mid-eighth–eleventh c.; Foy 1999: Fig. 5: 3, 4, 6, Fatimid. Carboni and Whitehouse 2001: No.7, tenth–twelfth c.

dated to the Fatimid period (Lester, Arnon and Polak 1999: Fig. 5:b), and a neck fragment from the Serçe Limani wreck, dated 1024/1025 CE. Handle 153 came from below Stratum II, where a hoard of jewellery and dinars was discovered when the southern baulk of Area D collapsed. The exact place of burial is not clear. Its earliest coin is dated to AH 273/886 CE and the latest is from al-Z¥hir’s governorship (AH 411–427/1021–1036 CE). Fragment 154 was found in Stratum II and Nos. 155–157 belong to Stratum I, dated to the eleventh century. The handles differ in size and

CHAPTER 7: THE GLASS

thickness. Fragments 154 and 155 are pendant-shaped handles from large lamps. Fragment 156 terminates in a loop and is made of dark green glass with a body fragment of colourless glass of quality workmanship. Evidence of the existence of these lamps recently came to light during an excavation presently taking place in Tiberias near the bathhouse (Hirschfeld, License No. G-10/2004). This area was unearthed by Rabani during the 1955–1958 excavations. Amongst the glass sherds were two handles. One has a tailshaped extension reminiscent of the handles from the Umayyad period at Bet She’an (Hadad 1998b: Pl. 16: 278) and Kh. Tabaliya (Gorin-Rosen 2000b: Pl. 3: 27, 28). The other—a pendant-shaped handle—is larger and heavier and is dated from the mid-eighth to the eleventh centuries (Hadad 1998b: Pl. 51:889). This confirms the dating of handle No. 153 in our excavation. The term ‘mosque’ lamp developed later during the Ayyubid and Mamluk periods when these lamps served for lighting public buildings such as mosques and madrasas. The large spaces created the need to enlarge the size of the lamp resulting in the now recognizable globular body and large splayed neck. The term was thus ‘loaned’ to the earlier version of the lamp. Finally, two wick-holders made of bronze wire were found. One side was rolled into a loop, through which the wick was threaded. Wick-holder No. 158 originated in Stratum II, and No. 159, probably in Stratum I. It should be noted that only those citations not appearing in Hadad (1998a) are cited herein.

VESSELS WITH MOULDED DECORATION (Fig. 7.13) This discussion covers 11 fragments out of 52 counted within the bulk of the surveyed glass material. The mould-blown vessels from Tiberias can be divided into three groups: vessels decorated by dipping the paraison into a beaker-shaped mould (Nos. 160–166, 168); vessels produced by the optic-blowing technique (No. 167); and vessels made in full-size moulds (Nos. 169, 170). Vessels Decorated by Dipping the Paraison into a Beaker-Shaped Mould Such vessels were made by blowing the paraison (glass gob) into a mould, decorated with an inner pattern.

201

After removal from the mould, the vessel was blown again and tooled to the desired shape (von Folsach and Whitehouse 1993:149–153; Lledó 1997; Carboni 2001:197–199; Carboni and Whitehouse 2001:81–83). Thus, one mould could be used for a variety of vessels. The consequent blowing might impair the clarity of the mould pattern because of the stretching of the glass, e.g. in Fragments 160 and 161 where the pattern is not clear. Base 163 is decorated with a honeycomb pattern and a central star. The pattern widens toward the rounded walls, which are thinner as a result of the blowing. On Bottle 164 however, the outline of the pattern is very sharp on the base, stretching slightly at the walls, indicating that the vessel was hardly blown after being withdrawn from the mould. Bases 162 and 163 are identical to bases from Serçe Limani except for minor variations. Lledó, presenting the mouldblown vessels from the shipwreck, identified several groups of vessels blown into the same moulds (Lledó 1997). Fragment 162, which is decorated on its base with a double star around the pontil mark, surrounded by a honeycomb pattern, is identical to Lledó’s mould No. 2 (Lledo 1997: Fig. 2a). The styling of the star on Fragment 162 is slightly different, however, indicating that although it was produced from a different mould, both vessels were made by the same hand or at least in the same workshop. Base 163 is almost identical to the pattern of mould No. 1 from Serçe Limani (Lledo 1997: Figs. 1b–c, e), but the circles surrounding the star around the pontil mark are smaller. This vessel, too, must have been manufactured in the same workshop. Vessel 165 has a barely discernible honeycomb pattern. This is due to reuse of the mould or reblowing and stretching of the glass. The same is true for bowl fragment C5/8-1141-2 with an S-shaped rim (not illustrated). Bottle 166 is fluted and belongs to a cylindrical bottle with a flaring neck rim, e.g. Flasks 100, 101 and 106. Optic-Blown Vessels Jug 167 is pear shaped with a fluted surface and was made by optic blowing. It was first blown into a polygonal mould, and subsequently into a smooth mould (Harden 1955a:61). It is difficult to decide whether the jug was imported or locally produced because the glass material is similar both to other vessels from the site and to glass fragments from Serçe Limani. The pear-shaped jug is similar in shape to

202

AYALA LESTER

160

161

162

163

165 164

166

167

168

169

Fig. 7.13. Moulded decoration.

170

203

CHAPTER 7: THE GLASS


Fig. 7.13 No.

Locus Basket No. Elevation

Stratum

Description

Parallels

160

C43

1836

12.72

IV

Fragment of a vessel with an unclear pattern. Bluish-green glass.

161

C11

1263

11.24

II

Fragment of a vessel with unclear pattern. Thick colourless glass.

162

C9

1062/1

11.84

II

Base of a vessel with a honeycomb pattern encompassing a double outline of a star that encircles the pontil mark. Thick colourless glass with greenish tinge.

Kubiak and Scanlon 1973: Pl. IV:a, ninth–tenth c.; Morrison 1984: Fig. 136:b (Period I), midninth–early eleventh c.; Bamber 1988: Fig. 53:1, Abbasid; Lledó 1997: Figs. 2a–b, 3a–b, 4a–b, 4d–f, 1024–1025 CE.

163

C21

1323

11.74

I

Base of a vessel with honeycomb pattern encompassing an outline of a star that encircles the pontil mark. Thick colourless glass with greenish tinge.

Negro Ponzi 1970–1971: Fig. 56:153, 156, 158, 162, eighth c.; Whitcomb 1983: Fig. 3:m, Ayyubid and Mamluk; Lledó 1997: Figs. 1:b–e, 1024–1025 CE.

164

D65

1621

7.67

I

Base and lower part of a cylindrical bottle decorated with honeycomb pattern. A circle encompasses the pontil mark. Colourless glass with greenish tinge.

Negro Ponzi 1970–1971: Fig. 56:153, 156, 158, eighth c.; Whitcomb 1983: Fig. 3:m, Ayyubid and Mamluk; Bass 1984: pattern similar to Fig. 5:e, 1024–1025 CE; Negro Ponzi 1987: Fig. D:222, Early Islamic; Bass 1988: pattern similar to the bowl on p.12, 1024–1025 CE; Kröger 1995: Nos. 123, 129, ninth– tenth c., No. 125, ninth–eleventh c.; Hadad 1998b: Pl. 32:533a, b, 534, 540, mid-eighth–eleventh c.

165

C20

1186

11.78

I

Fragment of a convex vessel with a Lamm 1928:43, Nos. 160, 162, ninth c.; Crowfoot ‘stretched’ honeycomb pattern. Light and Fitzgerald 1929: Pl. XXI:22, upper level; Lamm purple glass. 1931: Pl. LXXVI:7, ninth c.; Davidson 1952: Nos. 704, 739, eleventh–mid-twelfth c.; Riis 1957: Figs. 134, 135; Scanlon 1966: Fig. 7a, ninth c.; Negro Ponzi 1970–1971: Fig. 57:149, eighth c.; Janpoladian 1974: Pls. X:7–9, XIII:10, XV:6, ninth–thirteenth c.; Scanlon 1974: Fig. 5a, ninth c.; Finster and Schmidt 1976: Pls. 62:c, 63:a, Early Islamic; Morrison 1984: Fig. 136:e (Period II), mid-eleventh–late thirteenth c.; Bamber 1988: Fig. 53:12, Abbasid; Shindo 1992: Pl. 6-3:20; Kröger 1995: Nos. 118, 127, ninth–tenth c., No. 125, ninth–eleventh c.; Lester 1996: Fig. XVII.9:1, ninth–twelfth c.; Hadad 1998b: Pl. 32:532, mid-eighth–eleventh c.

166

C20

1235/3

11.38

II

Fragment of a fluted cylindrical flask. Thick colourless glass with stains of bluish-green.

Davidson 1952: No.760, eleventh–mid-twelfth c.; Harden 1955a: Fig. 37:28, ninth–twelfth c.; Negro Ponzi 1987: Fig. D631, Early Islamic.

167

C207

2335

I

Pear-shaped jug with beak-shaped spout. Fine fluted body caused by optic blowing. Colourless glass with greenish tinge. Repaired.The handle and about half of the jug are missing.

Kröger 1984: No. 70, eighth–tenth c.; Scanlon and Pinder-Wilson 2001: Nos. 40f, 43f (for the type of bottle); Carboni and Whitehouse 2001: Nos. 13, 14, ninth c. (for the type of bottle).

168

C9

1062/2

11.84

II

Base of a vessel decorated with a dense whorl pattern encircling the pontil mark. Thick colourless glass with greenish tinge.

169

C81

2484

12.70

III

Fragment of body and shoulder of a bell-shaped bottle with traces of arches and part of a tear-shaped pattern between the arches. Thick bluish-green glass with a layer of white enameled weathering.

170

C66

2046

12.97

III

Base and wall fragment of a hexaLane 1937: Fig. 10:c, ninth–tenth c. gonal bottle. Thick bluish-green glass.

Pinder-Wilson and Scanlon 1973: Figs. 16, 17, ninth–tenth c.

204

AYALA LESTER

free-blown jug No. 130, and shallow cut jug D74/1714 (Lester 1998: Pl. 12:1.1–1.3). A similar fluted pearshaped jug is in the Berlin Museum of Islamic Art, but it is simply mould blown (Kröger 1984: No. 70). Fragment 168 is decorated with a dense whorl pattern and has no parallel in the Serçe Limani material or elsewhere. The fabric of the glass, however, and the character of the workmanship and decoration suggest that it was also made at the same workshop as vessels Nos. 162 and 163. Full-Sized Moulded Vessels Full-sized moulded vessels are glass vessels that were inflated to final size before removal from the mould (Carboni and Whitehouse 2001:81). Such are bellshaped, hexagonal or octagonal bottles imitating the carved bottles of the same shape. Fragment 169 is part of a wall of a bell-shaped bottle with an arch pattern that imitates the carved bell-shaped bottles; see, e.g. a fragment from C20/1186 from this excavation (Lester 1998: Pl. 10:1, 2, 6) and from Fustat (Pinder-Wilson and Scanlon 1973: No. 11). Fragment 170 belongs to a hexagonal bottle with traces of two of the walls. It imitates octagonal bottles with carved decorations, such as bottle A13/1303-1 from this excavation (Lester 1998: Pl. 2:2–4). Fragment 160 originated in Stratum IV, Nos. 169 and 170 in Stratum III, Nos. 161, 162 and 166 in Stratum II, and Nos. 164, 165, 167 in Stratum I.

Vessels 162, 163, 166 and 168 are contemporary with the finds from Serçe Limani. Fragment 163, from Stratum I, dated 1033–1100, may be later than the Serçe Limani material by a few decades, suggesting a workshop or area continuing the manufacture of the same vessels. Mould blowing in Islamic glass is attested from the Umayyad period at Jerash and Bet She’an (Meyer 1987: Fig. 12:Q, Fig. 13:Q–V; Hadad 1998b:30, 33, 39, 65; Pls. 2:32–34, 3:57, 8:134–137, 20:355). A few vessels in Tiberias date from the early Abbasid period but the majority are from the late tenth–eleventh centuries. The linear fluted and honeycomb patterns are the most common patterns in mould-blown glass from Tiberias. It is obvious that the vessels from Serçe Limani and Tiberias originated from the same workshop or in an area where several workshops produced identical vessels.

VESSELS WITH PINCHED AND TONGED DECORATION (Fig. 7.14) This group includes eight fragments that were decorated using two techniques applied to the outer surface while the vessel is still hot: pinching and tonged decoration. Pinching on the wall of a vessel creates rows of horizontal lugs. The width of the lugs is determined by the size of the forceps. Impressing is done using tongs, as a design in relief is engraved on the inner face of the endings.

174 172 171

173

176

175

177 178

Fig. 7.14. Pinched and tonged decoration.

205

CHAPTER 7: THE GLASS


Fig. 7.14 No.

Locus Basket No. Elevation

171

A48

1330

2.32

172

C95

2444

173

D74

174

Stratum

Description

Parallels

V

Lower part of bowl with two parallel lines of pinched lugs. Light bluishgreen glass.

Barag 1970:197, Pl. 43:33-1, Late Byzantine–Early Arabic; O`Hea 1993: Fig. 25:3, late eighth–early ninth c.; Hadad 1998b: Pl. 3:55, 56, Umayyad; Cohen 1997: Pl. IX:12, Umayyad; Bauer 1938: Fig. 18: 244, fifth–sixth c.

12.40

V

Long straight neck with flaring rim Hadad 1998b: Pl.10:169–171, Umayyad (for with traces of vertically pinched lug or the shape of the neck). distortion in the blowing process. Light bluish-green glass.

1714/1

6.80

I

Wall fragment of a vessel with traces of two rows with pinched lug-shaped decoration. Light bluish-green glass.

Hadad 1998b: Pl. 3:54–56, Pl. 8:133 Umayyad.

A44

1285

4.11

IV/III

Base, wall and rim of a shallow bowl with tonged decoration of concentric oval protrusions. Colourless glass with greenish tinge.

Fitzgerald 1931: Pl. XXXIX:31; Lamm 1931: Pl. LXXIX:11, 12, ninth c.; Lane 1937: Fig. 11:B, C, D, G, ninth–tenth c.; Harden 1962: Pl. XX:28, 30, ninth–tenth c.; Negro Ponzi 1970–1971: Figs. 48:163, 56: 159, 163, eighth c.; Scanlon 1974a: Fig. 4: b, c, ninth c.; Kubiak and Scanlon 1979: Fig. 21, ninth c.; Kervran 1984: Fig. 8:23, 25 (Levels 0–I, I), 810–1000 CE; Whitcomb 1988:23, Fig. e, Abbasid–Fatimid; Jiayao 1991: Fig. 9, ninth c.; Shindo 1992: Pl. 6-3: 6, 7; Kröger 1995: Nos. 138, 139, ninth– tenth c.; Lester 1996: Fig. XVII.9:6, Early Islamic; 1997: Pl. 1:11, 12, Early Islamic; Hadad 1998b: Pl. 36:585–587, Pl. 37:600– 602, 606a, mid-eighth–eleventh c.; Scanlon and Pinder-Wilson 2001: Fig. 38:d, 900 CE.

175

C22

1252

12.51

III

Base, wall and rim of a shallow bowl decorated with two parallel rows of tonged ovals. Colourless glass.

Fitzgerald 1931: Pl. XXXIX:31; Lamm 1931: Pl. LXXIX:11, 12, ninth c.; Lane 1937: Fig. 11:B, C, D, G, ninth–tenth c.; Harden 1962: Pl. XX:28, 30, ninth–tenth c.; Negro Ponzi 1970–1971: Figs. 48:163, 56: 159, 163, eighth c.; Scanlon 1974a: Fig. 4: b, c, ninth c.; Kubiak and Scanlon 1979: Fig. 21, ninth c.; Kervran 1984: Fig. 8:23 (Levels 0–1), 900–1000 CE; Shindo 1992: Pl. 6-3: 5–7; Kröger 1995: No. 139, ninth–tenth c.; Lester 1996: Fig. XVII. 9:6, Early Islamic; 1997: Pl. 1:11, 12, Early Islamic; Hadad 1998b: Pl. 37:606a, mid-eighth–eleventh c., Pl. 36:586, 587, 590, 598, Pl. 37:600–602, 606a, b, mid-eighth–eleventh c.; Scanlon and Pinder-Wilson 2001: Fig. 38:d, 900 CE.

176

C46

1701

12.51

IV

Traces of base and wall of a bowl decorated with a tonged lozenge. Colourless glass with yellowish tinge.

Lamm 1928: Fig. 32, ninth c.; 1931: Pl. LXXIX:11, 12, ninth c.; Fitzgerald 1931: Pl. XXXIX:31, 35; Riis 1957: Fig. 131–133; Harden 1962: Pl. XX:22–23, ninth–tenth c.; O’Hea 1993: Fig. 25:12, 14, Abbasid; Jiayao 1991: Fig. 9, ninth c.; Hadad 1998b: Pl. 36:585, 589–590, 595–598, mid-eighth– eleventh c.; Scanlon and Pinder-Wilson 2001: Fig. 38:d, 900 CE.

206

AYALA LESTER

Fig. 7.14. (cont.) No.

Locus Basket No. Elevation

177

B39

1351

11.57

178

B28

1274/1

11.44

Stratum

Description

Parallels

III

Fragment of a bowl decorated with tonged decoration of an oval enclosed within a lozenge. Dark blue glass.

Fitzgerald 1931: Pl. XXXIX:31, 35; Lamm 1931: Pl. LXXIX:11, 12, ninth c.; Lane 1937: Fig. 12:E, ninth–tenth c.; Harden 1962: Pl. XX:28, 30, ninth–tenth c.; Scanlon 1974a: Fig. 4:b, c, ninth c.; Kubiak and Scanlon 1979: Fig. 21, ninth c.; Kervran 1984: Fig. 8:23, 25, 810–1000 CE; Jiayao 1991: Fig. 9, ninth c.; O’Hea 1993: Fig. 25: 11, 15, 18, 19, Abbasid; Lester 1997: Pl. 1: 11,12, Early Islamic; Hadad 1998b: Pl. 36: 585–587, 589, 590, 598, Pl. 37:599–602, mid-eighth–eleventh c.

II

Rim of a bowl with zigzag tonged decoration consisting of minute indentations. Light bluish-green glass.

Fitzgerald 1931: Pl. XXXIX:31; Harden 1962: Pl. XX:22, 23, 27, 29, ninth–tenth c.; Negro Ponzi 1970–1971: Fig. 56:159, eighth c.; Scanlon 1974a: Fig.4:a, d, ninth c.; Kervran 1984: Fig. 8:22, 24 (Levels I, 0–I), 800–1000 CE; Pinder-Wilson and Scanlon 1987: Fig. 11, ninth–tenth c.; Whitcomb 1988:23, Figs. e, f, Abbasid–Fatimid; Walmsley 1990: Fig. 13:7, Pl. VII, Abbasid; Shindo 1992: Pl. 6-3:22; O’Hea 1993: Fig. 25:11, 15, 19 Abbasid; Peleg 1994: Fig. 15: 4, Early Islamic; Kröger 1995: Nos. 136, 138, ninth–tenth c.; Hadad 1998b: Pl. 35: 580, Pl. 36:581–591, Pl. 37:610, 611, Pl. 38: 612, mid-eighth–eleventh c.

Pinching is known in the Syrian region in the Late Byzantine and Umayyad periods. It appears on jars, bowls and bottles (Baur 1938: Fig. 18:244; Barag 1970:197, Pl. 43:33-1; Hadad 1998b: Pl. 3:55, 56). Vessel 171, from Stratum V, was discovered in a pit with Umayyad vessels (Figs 5.11:3; 5.40:1, 2). Bottle 172, also from Stratum V, from an Umayyad floor level, has a vertical pinch on the rim that is either a defect or an incomplete decoration. This group is known from Pella, dated to the eight–early ninth centuries (O’Hea 1993: Fig. 25:2–4). Two lamps and a neck of a vase or a bottle from Fustat, combining festooned threads and pinching, are dated to 750–800 CE (Scanlon 1968:192; Kubiak and Scanlon 1980: Fig. 12). Sherd 173 was found in Stratum I. It may thus reflect the latest phase of pinched decoration, or it could be residual. Only four fragments, parts of shallow bowls, belong to the group of vessels with tonged decoration. The decorative repertoire is based on geometrical patterns, such as concentric ovals, rhomboids, and striped

bands applied at various angles, creating a zigzag pattern (No. 178), or a combination of fine lines and a lozenge (C9/1062, not illustrated). Four fragments originated in Strata IV–III (Nos. 174–177), and No. 178 in Stratum II. Comparable material from the area was found at Pella and al-Mina, dated between the ninth and tenth centuries (Lane 1937: Figs. 11:A–D, F, G, 12: A–F; O’Hea 1993: Fig. 25:11, 12, 14–16, 18, 19), and at Hammat Gader, dated to the Early Islamic period (Lester 1997: Pl. 1:11). In Bet She’an, this group makes up the largest assembly of decorated glass. Many fragments were discovered in the Abbasid quarter built over the rubble of the earthquake of 749 CE (Hadad 1998b:87). This group of tonged vessels from Tiberias is much too small for us to draw any conclusions, but it does emphasize the quantitative difference between Tiberias and Bet She’an, where this is the largest decorative group. This group, mostly from Stratum III, may represent the latest phase of the use of this technique.

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CHAPTER 7: THE GLASS

composed of vertical lines which are undecipherable. The painting and inscription are of a chestnut colour, while the letters and the wild boar(?) are filled with yellow-tinged lustre; the other decorations are in brown. The whole painting is very precisely executed. A thin brush was used for the outlines of the letters and the animal. The uniqueness of the fragment is in the precision of the design and the meticulous brushwork. Similar fragments are known from Fustat (Clairmont 1977: Pl. VIII:102–108, 111, 113, 117, 124; Scanlon and Pinder-Wilson 2001: Fig. 45:a–d). Its location suggests a date in the eighth–ninth centuries and it was most likely imported to Tiberias from Egypt or Syria. Body fragment No. 180, from Stratum IV, is made of thick, light bluish-green glass. It is decorated on the inside with a chestnut lustre circle and traces of another circle. Fragment 181 is a slightly incurved rim of a bowl, decorated on the outside with part of a three-lobed leaf. The bowl is of the same type as Bowl 2. The decoration is similar to a group of lustre-decorated bowls, such as one from Horbat Migdal, dated to the eighth century (Lehrer Jacobson 1993), two bowls

VESSELS WITH LUSTRE DECORATION (Fig. 7.15) Four fragments with lustre decoration were recovered during the excavations, from Stratum IV to Stratum II. Two are body fragments with no clear indication of the type of vessel (Nos. 180, 182). The other two are a bowl rim and a wall fragment of a goblet(?). The fragments are discussed chronologically. Body fragment No. 179 is the largest and most complex of the fragments. It is slightly convex, with the upper part flaring upwards. Neither the shape of the vessel nor its painted decoration is clear. It may be a goblet, in which the fragment represents part of the body below the rim, similar to a goblet found at Fustat (Pinder-Wilson and Scanlon 1973: Nos. 40–42). It could also be a central part of a shallow bowl in which the inscription surrounds the decorated center (Y. Gorin-Rosen pers. comm). The vessel is made of clear bluish-green glass and is painted on the outside. The subject of the painting appears to be vegetal motifs or a Nilotic scene with long beaked birds, various reptiles and a part of the body of a wild boar(?). Above it there is a thin band with traces of a Kufic inscription

182

181 180

179

Fig. 7.15. Lustre decoration. No.

Locus Basket No. Elevation Stratum

Description

179

B47

1087

9.90– 10.40

Eighth–early ninth c.

Wall fragment of a goblet or a shallow bowl(?) with an upper(?) band of an inscription and below part of a Nilotic(?) scene with long beaked birds and the head of a wild boar(?). Glass with bluish-green tinge decorated in lustre chestnut and brown-yellow tinge.

180

C61

1969

12.74

IV

Fragment of a vessel decorated on the inside with a lustre-painted circle of chestnut tinge. Thick light bluish-green glass with traces of another circle.

181

B29

1212

12.10

III(?)

Round, slightly thickened rim of a bowl decorated from the outside by three lobed leaves(?). Light thin bluishgreen glass with lustre of chestnut tinge.

182

D61

1812

6.66

II(?)

Small round fragment of a vessel with a linear decoration from the inside in light brown lustre. Bluish-green glass.

Parallels

Al-‘Ush 1964: Fig. 52 and Nos. 28, 29, ninth c.; Lehrer Jacobson 1993: Figs. 1–3, 10, eighth c.; Seipel 1999: No. 73, eighth– ninth c.

208

AYALA LESTER

from Raqqa, dated to the ninth century (Al-‘Ush 1964: Fig. 52), a bowl in the Victoria and Albert Museum, from the Early Islamic period (Lehrer Jacobson 1993: Fig. 10), and a bowl in the Corning Museum, dated to the eighth–ninth centuries CE (Seipel 1999: No. 73). The fragment from Tiberias is probably dated to the ninth century (Stacey, pers. comm.). All of the abovementioned examples, together with No. 181, compose an integrated group of bowls decorated with luster. Fragment 182 is a tiny, rounded piece, from the base or shoulder of a vessel, with traces of linear decoration in brown inside the vessel. It is too small to delineate the form of the vessel, but it indicates the existence of lustre-decorated glass in Tiberias during the Abbasid and early Fatimid periods.

183

VESSELS WITH MARVERED DECORATION4 (Fig. 7.16) Fragments of two vessels—a juglet (No. 124/183) and a handle of an unidentified vessel (No. 128)—and the base of a gaming piece (No. 184), with marvered decoration, were found at Tiberias. Vessels Juglet 183, represented by three sherds and made of brown glass, has a wide splayed hollow base, folded upon itself with traces of a round wall. A convex body sherd, together with this base and a straight rim fragment, suggests a juglet. A shallow engraved line decorates the rim and all three fragments are embellished with widely spaced blue and white combed threads which could be the result of reblowing after the marvering. This juglet was found in Stratum II. The brown colour of Handle 128 (see Fig. 7.10) is barely discernible because it is covered with a white enamel-like film with traces of blue and white marvering. This handle originated in Stratum I. Vessels with marvered glass have been known in the Islamic glass repertoire since the Umayyad period. Examples from the Umayyad and Early Islamic periods are cited by Allan (1995) and Hadad (2002). Two fragments dated to the Umayyad period come from Susya (License No. 832/1999, Area A, Locus 123/ 10570): a fragment of a bottle made of dark glass and a jar fragment made of dark brown glass. Both are covered with a white enamel-like film and decorated with red and white marvered threads (Katsnelson, pers. comm).

184

Fig. 7.16. Marvered decoration.

Two sherds were uncovered at a recent excavation in Tiberias. One sherd, of an unidentified vessel, is made of brown glass with brownish-red threads, and the second, a body fragment of a jar, is made of dark blue glass with red and white threads (Lester, forthcoming).5 Gaming Piece Fragment 184, a cylindrical base made of dark purple glass, decorated with white opaque threads drawn upwards creating a herringbone pattern, is the base of a pawn chess figure. Identical chess pieces are displayed at the Freer Gallery of Art in Washington (Ettinghausen 1962: Nos. 69, 70) and the L.A. Meyer Memorial Museum of Islamic Art in Jerusalem (Hasson 1979: No. 14). Two gaming pieces, not identified as chess pieces, are in the Israel Museum in Jerusalem (Spaer 2001: Nos. 552–554). The only piece from an excavation was found at Beth She’an, and is made of dark blue glass with turquoise threads. It was discovered with pottery from the Abbasid to the Mamluk periods and is dated by Hadad (2002:154, Fig. 2:7) to the Abbasid period.

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CHAPTER 7: THE GLASS


Fig. 7.16 No.

Locus Basket No.

Level

Stratum Description

Parallels

183

C93

2341

13.28

II

Base and rim of a juglet with splayed hollow base folded upon itself, traces of round body and straight neck with round rim and shallowly engraved line near rim. Light brown glass decorated with white and blue marvered glass.

184

D78

1800

7.14

I

Base of gaming piece. Dark purple Lamm 1929: Pl. 31:7–9, 10–13; Ettinghausen glass with combed decoration in opaque 1962: Nos. 69, 70, probably Egypt, tenth– white glass. twelfth c.; Hasson 1979: No. 14, Syria, eleventh– thirteenth c.; Jenkins 1986: No. 63, Early Islamic or early medieval period; Hadad 1998a: Pl. 53:914b, probably mid-eighth–eleventh c.; Carboni 2001: No. 81, twelfth–thirteenth c.; Spaer 2001: Nos. 552–554, Early to mid-Islamic period.

128*

D66

1939/3

6.00

I

Handle of an unidentified vessel. Brown glass covered with an enamel-like white weathering. Decorated with opaque white and blue marvered threads.

Meyer 1987: Fig. 13:P, Umayyad?; Carboni 2001: Cat 3.58, 3.60, seventh–eighth c.

* See Fig. 7.10

An identical, intact gaming piece dated to the twelfth– thirteenth centuries and a fragmentary bottle with marvered pale blue–turquoise threads, from the alSabah collection, suggest a twelfth–thirteenth-century dating. The chess piece from Tiberias was discovered in Room D78, dated to the first half of the eleventh century. Summary Marvered glass existed during the Umayyad and Early Islamic periods. Hadad (2002) mentions particular types of glass colours, vessels and thread colours. During the ninth–eleventh centuries, various shapes and new colours emerged, as did the use of blue and opaque white threads, even though this technique was quite modest in scope. The scope of marvered glass during these periods provides the impression of the continuation of an ancient tradition involving the sporadic production of various types of vessels and colours. During the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, quantities and distribution substantially increased and marvered glass became one of the most prominent decorative techniques with a systematic typology and production.

SMALL FINDS (Fig. 7. 17) Alembic Fragment 185 is part of a long spout of a cupping glass from a household alembic. This fragment was found

in Stratum I, but it could be residual (Stacey, pers. comm.). Beads A few beads were recovered; four, dated to the Umayyad–Fatimid periods, are presented here. All are made of dark glass with wound coils in white and turquoise. Round squat bead No. 186, from the Umayyad period, is made of dark blue glass with an encircling coil. Bead 187, dated to the eighth–ninth centuries, is of dark blue glass with a wound and combed turquoise coil. The bead is well made. Barrelshaped bead No. 188, from Stratum II, is decorated with a crossing thread in a loop shape with a thin thread at the center. A large bead, No. 189, from Stratum I, is made of dark glass with a wide perforation. Its dimensions indicate that it might be part of a glass loom weight. It has white coils encircling the edges and three ellipses with a central dot in turquoise glass. Rods Five rods of differing diameters are part of the small finds. Such rods are known from Bet She’an and Jerash. Meyer suggests several uses for them, such as mosaic frames, stirring rods and kohl sticks (Meyer 1987:188; Hadad 1998b:53–54). Spaer (2001:262– 265) indicates that the thin rods were used to decorate glass objects. She also mentions rods for medical and

210

AYALA LESTER

185

186

187

189

188

197 196

190

191

192

193

194

198

195

199

201 200

Fig. 7.17. Small finds.

cosmetic use, and stirring rods which are similar to some of the fragments from Tiberias. Item 190, with a diameter of 9 mm, could be a fragment of a stirring rod used with large juglets as shown in the Fatimid drawing from the Israel Museum (Milstein and Brosh 1984:20). Rods 193 and 194 are stirring rods. Rod 193 is quite thick, made of light purple glass and No. 194 is made of twisted glass. Thinner rods (Nos. 191, 192), with pointed tips, could be part of smooth or spirallytwisted kohl sticks, such as in Bet She’an, dated between the mid-eighth and eleventh centuries (Hadad 1998a: Pl. 53:911–914). Kohl sticks contined to exist until the Mamluk period. An example was found at Bet Hashita (Permit No. A-763/1977, unpublished). All the rod fragments belong to Strata III–I.

turquoise, are seemingly evidence of wall mosaics. In Tiberias there is no evidence of buildings with wall mosaics from the Early Islamic period. These tesserae might be remnants of earlier mosaics, which were used by Muslim inhabitants for other purposes, perhaps as gaming pieces. This suggestion is based on the fact that 38 glass tesserae were found in the different excavation areas, without any architectural remains with which they could be associated.

Bracelet

Production Debris

Fragment 195, a spirally twisted bracelet, is made of dark glass with a single white thread added. The fragment was discovered in a late Fatimid level.

Items 199–201 are blue-green and dark brown chipped glass chunks imitating flint tools. They originated in Stratum Ib from the first half of the eleventh century (Stacey, pers. comm.). The thickness of the blades and the clearness of the glass indicate that they were broken from glass slabs which might provide additional proof of glass production in Tiberias.

Tessera Mosaic tessera No. 196, decorated with gold leaf, together with other glass tesserae, in hues of green and

Finger Ring A stepped elliptical-shaped glass inlay, No. 197, with a flat surface, and a pyramid-shaped glass inlay, No. 198, were finger-ring insets.

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CHAPTER 7: THE GLASS


Fig. 7.17 No.

Locus Basket No. Elevation

Stratum

Description

Parallels

185

C202

2197

15.30

I(?)

Horizontal handle of an alembic with a narrowing spout. Light green glass.

Lamm 1931: Pl. XXV: 5, 900 CE; 1935: Pls. 1:D, 2:B, 15:A, sixth–seventh c., Pl.15: B–G, ninth–tenth c.; Lane 1937: Fig. 10:T, ninth–tenth c.; Kubiak and Scanlon 1980: Fig. 9:a, b, eighth–ninth c.; Kervran 1984: Fig. 9:4 (Levels 0–I), 800–1000 CE; Scanlon 1984: Fig. 46, eleventh c.; Shindo 1992: Pl. 6-20:1–3; Kröger 1995: Nos. 239, 243, ninth–eleventh c.; Hadad 1998b: Pl. 18:321, 322, Umayyad, Pl. 52:894–896, mid-eighth– eleventh c.; Carboni and Whitehouse 2001: No. 8, date uncertain.

186

C88

2275

12.21

V

Round squat bead painted in white at its middle. Dark blue glass. Intact.

Hadad 1998ba: Pl. 18:329, Umayyad.

187

B47

1557

-

Barrel-shaped bead with turquoise thread wound and combed around the bead. Dark blue glass. Half of bead missing.

Harden 1955b: Fig. 28:7, Level I, ninth– twelfth c.; Kubiak and Scanlon 1980: Fig. 14, eighth–ninth c.; Pinder-Wilson and Scanlon 1987: No. 22, about 900 CE; Kröger 1995: No. 288, date unknown.

188

C20

1259/2

11.31

II

Barrel-shaped bead with white opaque thread Kröger 1995: No. 291, date unknown; Hadad wound around. Dark blue glass. Intact. 1998b: Pl. 53:910 b, mid-eighth–eleventh c.

189

C20

1183

11.78

I

Part of a large round bead decorated with white marvered glass. Dark glass.

Hadad 1998b: Pl. 53:910 b–c, mid-eighth– eleventh c.

190

C73

2135

12.74

III

Fragment of a thick rod, spirally twisted at equal intervals. Light olive-green glass.

Hadad 1998b: Pl.53:914a, mid-eighth– eleventh c.

191

C207

2335

13.24

II

Fragment of a thin kohl stick or a stirring rod. Colourless glass with greenish tinge.

192

C20

1185

11.78

I

Part of a kohl stick with pointed tip or a stirring rod. Light yellow glass.

193

C20

1172

11.74

I

Part of a thick stirring rod with pointed tip. Light purple glass.

194

C213

2471

14.72

I

Fragment of a thick stirring rod made of twisted glass. Light green glass.

Meyer 1987: Fig. 5:N, Roman–Early Byzantine; Hadad 1998a: Pl. 19:333, Umayyad, Pl. 53:912, 913, mid-eighth– eleventh c.; Spaer 2001: Nos. 635, 637, first–second c.

195

C221

2465

14.46

I

Fragment of bracelet spirally twisted and decorated with a white wound trail in equal intervals. Dark glass with white trails.

Hadad 1998b: Pl. 52:901–902, Pl. 53:903, mid-eighth–eleventh c.; Spaer 2001: Nos. 462–465, fourth c. and later.

196

C51

1695

13.07

I

Mosaic stone with an upper layer of gold leaf. Light yellowish glass.

197

B44

1607/1

-

II

Stepped, elliptical-shaped ring insert with flat surface. Colourless glass.

Hardy-Guilbert 1984: Fig. 32:12 (Level II), 750–800 CE.

198

B44

1607/2

13.07

II

Pyramid-shaped ring insert. Colourless glass with greenish tinge.

Hardy-Guilbert 1984: Fig. 32:11, later than 900 CE, surface find.

199

D78

1800/17

7.14

I

Small broken glass chunk with chipped edges and chisel marks. Dark transparent glass.

200

D78

1800/18

-

I

Improvised glass tool(?) imitating flint knife with chipped edges and chisel marks on the base. Transparent bluish-green glass.

201

D78

1824

6.69

I

Improvised glass tool(?) imitating flint knife with chipped edges and chisel marks on the base. Transparent brown glass.

Eighth– ninth c.

Riis 1957: Fig. 101.

212

AYALA LESTER

Umayyad periods (G. Bijovsky, pers. comm.),7 though the weight came from a Stratum III context.

ADDENDUM: GLASS COIN WEIGHTS, A VESSEL STAMP AND AN IMPRESSION OF A STAMP SEAL6 Nine glass coin weights (three of them illegible), a vessel stamp and a ceramic stamp seal impression were found in Areas A–C, dated from the Umayyad to the Fatimid periods. The Weights (Fig. 7.18:1–7) Glass Weight No. 1, with an inverted N , has a crescentshaped decoration above a dot, in relief, below the character. This weight imitates the Byzantine gold solidus from the sixth century. The difference of about two-tenths of a gram, between the solidus (4.55 gm) and the glass weight (4.28 gm) was the result of the weathered condition of our weight. The retrograde N is characteristic of the Late Byzantine and early

1

2

4

5

Glass Weight No. 2 has an inscription in the center— ‘Honesty to God’. This is a common expression which first appeared during the Umayyad period and continued later (Morton 1985: No. 530). Glass weight No. 2 was uncovered together with Stratum I pottery (Fig. 5.25:5, 10). Four Fatimid Weights (Nos. 3–6) span a consecutive chronological range from the time of al-‘Aziz billah (AH 365–385/975–996 CE),8 al-Hākim (AH 386–411/ 996–1021 CE), al-Zāhir (AH 411–427/1021–1036 CE) and al-Mustansir billah (AH 427–487/1036–1094 CE).9 They possibly show a continuity of occupation from the last quarter of the tenth century to the last quarter of the eleventh century CE.

3

6

10 7 Fig. 7.18. Glass weights and seal.

11

213

CHAPTER 7: THE GLASS

Glass Weight No. 7. Only the lower part is extant with the last two lines containing the words (i)bn ‘abd Allāh. The weight can be dated to the Umayyad or Abbasid period, though it came from a Fatimid context.

before the Seljuk invasion in 1071 CE and the Crusader occupation in 1099 CE. Vessel Stamp and Fragments of a Stamp Seal (Fig. 7.18:10, 11)

Glass Weight No. 8 is round with traces of an inscription. It was found on a Stratum I floor.

Vessel stamp No. 10, made of turquoise glass, is attached to a colourless vessel fragment. Traces of an inscription on the stamp, which ran during the cooling process, read (al-) wafā’. The wa appears on the upper line and the fā’ below. The word is part of the phrase al-wafā’ lillāh, which is a standard phrase appearing on glass stamps and vessel stamps and relates to the Quranic command to keep honest measure in the retail market (Lester 1997:432–436). Vessel stamps bearing this phrase began to appear during the Umayyad period. This vessel stamp was found on a floor level that was laid after the earthquake of 1033 (but see n. 9).

Glass Weight No. 9 has an illegible inscription. The coin weights reflect the glass findings in general. Umayyad material was discovered in some locations. Abbasid material was uncovered in small quantities; most of the material originated in Strata II–I from the Fatimid period. The Fatimid glass weights point to continuous settlement in Tiberias from the second half of the tenth century to the last decades of the eleventh century


Fig. 7.18 No.

Locus

Basket No.

Elevation

Stratum

Diameter (cm)

Weight (gm)

1

C73

2172

12.73

III

2.4

4.28

Numisma, Late Byzantine–early Umayyad

2

C5/8

1034

12.79

I

2.0

2.38

Al-wafā’ lillāh/Fatimid

Miles 1948: Nos. 211, 212 (two weights lacking standards); Launois 1969: No. 25, Umayyad and later.

3

E

Surface

-

-

2.7

-

Al-‘Azīz billāh, AH 365–385/ 975–996 CE

Petrie 1926: Nos. 301–305; Launois 1969: No. 31.

4

C69

2130

12.93

II

2.7

4.00

Al-Imam al-Hākim bi-amr’ llāh, AH 386–411/996–1021 CE

Lane-Poole 1891: Pl. IV: 90–93; Petrie 1926: Pl. XV: 312, 365–368.

5

B33

1289

12.89

II

2.5

2.62

Al-Zāhir li-A‘zaz dīn Allāh, AH 411–427/1021–1036 CE

Lane-Pool 1891: Nos. 166–166e; Petrie 1926: Nos. 456–460; Launois 1969: Nos. 58, 97–99.

6

C20

1259

11.38

II(I?)

2.7

6.00

Al-Imam Ma‘ad abū Tamīm al-Mustansir billāh, 427–487/ 1036–1094 CE

Lane-Pool 1891: Pl. VI: 182, 217–218; Petrie 1926: Pl. XIX: 514–518; Launois 1969: Pl. IV: 157–160.

7

A20

1130

6.00

II

2.0

1.53

(I)bn Abd Allāh(?)

8*

C64

2032

13.31

I

3.5

5.58

Undecipherable

9*

B15

1035

-

I

2.0

2.34

Undecipherable

10

C20

1185

11.78

(II?)I

1.4

-

Vessel stamp made of of deep turquoise glass attached to the wall of a colourless vessel with a garbled inscription, probably al-wafā’ lillāh

11

B34

1246

11.88

I

1.0

-

Clay. Al-Mālik at the center with a surrounding illegible inscription

*= Not illustrated

Identification/Description

Comparisons

Morton 1985: Nos. 502–508, 529, 530; Lester 1997: Nos. 1, 4.

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The upper part of a coin-like impression of a stamp seal (No. 11; B34/1246) is made of clay. The words al-Mālik al-D…are decipherable with a surrounding illegible inscription. It is Ayyubid or Mamluk and dated to the thirteenth century. Notes and Translation of the Coin Weights 1. A thick weight made of bluish glass, with an inverted N, crescent-shaped decoration above and a dot in relief underneath. The weight is scraped on its back and parts of the edges are missing. 2. A round weight with thickened, asymmetrical edges, made of green-blue glass. The area of the inscription is covered with a layer of grayish-black iridescence. The formula:

‫ﻟ ﻓﺎ‬ ‫ﷲ‬ Al- wafā’ (Honesty) / lillāh (to God) 3. A round weight with thickened edges covered with a heavy layer of gray enamel-like iridescence.

‫ﻟﻌﻴ‬ ‫ﺒﺎﷲ‬ Al-‘Azīz / billāh 4. Weight made of light yellow glass. In the center of the obverse there is an inscription of three lines and an additional inscription around the circumference. On the back there are traces of a barely legible inscription, whose formula may be suggested from a back inscription appearing in Petrie’s weight catalog (Petrie 1926: Nos. 352–354). Denomination: Unclear. Condition: Intact. Obv.: The formula, in center:


‫ﻹﻤﺎ
ﻟﺤﺎﻜ‬ ‫ﺒﺄﻤ ﷲ ﻤﻴ ﻟﻤﻤﻨﻴ‬  ‫ ﻟﻲ ﻋﻬ‬ Al-Imam al-Hākim / bi-amr’ llāh Amir al-Mu’minīn (Commander of the faithful) / wali ‘ahduhu (Defender of his faith) / Around:

‫ ﻟﻪ‬#‫ﺒﺎﺴ
ﷲ ﻻ &ﻟﻪ &ﻻ ﷲ ﺤ  ﻻ ﺸﻴ‬

Bism Allāh la ilah illa Allāh wahdahu…la sharik lahu (In the name of God there is no God but God himself… he has no equal) Rev: Around:

... ‫ﻻ &ﻟﻪ &ﻻ ﷲ ﺤ‬ La ilah illa Allāh wahdahu (There is no God but God himself) 5. Colourless weight with a greenish tinge. An inscription of two lines, the second line garbled. The weight is covered with a thick layer of black and silvery weathering. Denomination: Dinar(?) The formula:

‫ﻟ!ﻫ‬ ‫ﻹﻋ ﻴ ﷲ‬ Al-Zāhir / li-Ā‘zaz dīn Allāh 6. Round, colourless weight with a yellowish tinge, thick edges. In center is an inscription of six lines: the last three lines are illegible. Identical weights in Lane-Poole’s catalog (1891: Pl. VI: 182, 217, 218) and Launois’ article (1969: Pl. IV: 157–160) allow us to date this weight also to the year AH 428/1036–1037 CE. Denomination: Dirham(?) The formula:


‫ﻹﻤﺎ‬
‫ﻤﻌ ﺒ ﺘﻤﻴ‬ ‫ﻟﻤﺴﺘﻨﺼ ﺒﺎﷲ‬ ‫ﻤﻴ ﻟﻤﻤﻨﻴ‬ Al-Imam / Ma’ad abū Tamīm / al-Mustansir billāh / Amir al-Mu’minīn (Commander of the faithful) 7. Formula:

‫( ﺒ ﻋﺒ‬1) ‫ﷲ‬ (I)bn Abd / Allāh 8. A thick weight made of green glass with an illegible inscription. It is possibly Fatimid. 9. Oval weight, made of green glass, covered with a thick layer of weathering. It has an illegible inscription.

CHAPTER 7: THE GLASS

10. Vessel stamp made of dark green glass attached to a rim fragment of a vessel made of colourless glass. Traces of an inscription, which ran during the cooling process, and was thus garbled, and possibly reads alwafā’—‘Honesty’. 11. The upper part of a coin-like impression of a stamp seal made of clay. On the obverse, part of an inscription with the first word al-Malik and a surrounding illegible inscription. There are traces of a fingerprint on the back. It is Ayyubid or Mamluk and dated to the thirteenth century. Burnt, half is missing. Diam.1 cm Formula:

... ‫ ﻟ‬#‫ﻟﻤﺎﻟ‬ al-Mālik al-D…

DISCUSSION The formation of Early Islamic glass took place within the Syro-Egyptian region under the influence of the Roman–Byzantine tradition. In the eastern part of the Islamic world it was inspired by the Sassanian heritage. The formation of a vessel is determined by several intersecting factors. The first and most prominent is the vertical chronological axis, which is an ongoing process in which tradition passes down from one generation to the next. The horizontal axis reflects social and economic factors such as modes, fashions, techniques, access to raw materials and the scope of commerce. The vessel is the result of the meeting point of these two axes with the dominant factors changing within dynasties and regions. The consolidation of the Islamic glass repertoire is the result of such contacts, together with an inclination towards a regional character within some of the vessels. The following examples from the above discussions illustrate these concepts. The globular bottle (Nos. 75–85), with a thickened mushroom-shaped rim, which had its origins in the Roman–Byzantine periods, assumed its final shape during the Umayyad period (No. 75). It proliferated widely—in its smaller version—until the eleventh– twelfth centuries in the Syro-Egyptian area and existed in the eastern part of the Islamic world during the ninth–tenth centuries. The bottle with a cylindrical body (Nos. 60, 61) and a tapering neck appeared first in the east during the

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ninth–tenth centuries. It was found in the Middle East during the tenth–eleventh centuries, with a globular or convex form, as well as its cylindrical shape. The bell-shaped bottle, with a bulging neck and splayed rim (Nos. 68–70), originated in the eastern part of the Islamic world and later became widespread within the Fatimid period. The pear-shaped jug was prominent during the Early Islamic period and became prevalent in the Fatimid glass repertoire. The tube-shaped bottle (Nos. 98, 99), with straight neck, was found in various sites throughout the Islamic lands, dated between the mid-eighth and the eleventh centuries, with no evidence of its origin and function. The small flask, with a square or cylindrical body and funnel-shaped rim (Nos. 100–106), probably originated in the eastern part of the Islamic world and was already in use during the Umayyad period. We can assume from the findings from Tiberias that it was common in the Abbasid–Fatimid periods. The tube- and lentil-shaped phials (Nos. 107–120) are of Roman–Byzantine origin and maintained their character during the Early Islamic period. The phial with a lenticular-shaped body still existed in the area during the Mamluk–Ottoman periods (not illustrated; IAA Reg. Nos. 2001–2392, 2393). Small shallow bowls (Nos. 8–15) with straight walls are known from all parts of the Islamic world, but in Syro-Egyptian sites they are characterized by an Sshaped rim. During the Fatimid period, a dark green or turquoise thread was also combined within the rim, a decorative device that continued a distinct Byzantine mode of glass decoration. It became part of the Fatimid decorative approach within glass and can be seen on the rims of jars, beakers, bowls, etc. It reflects an approach that provides particular attention to fine details within the Fatimid minor arts. The goblet (Nos. 33–37) kept its characteristics through the ages and became less prominent in the Fatimid period with the appearance of the beaker with splayed walls. Lamps, such as the stemmed lamp (Nos. 135–141) and the bowl-shaped lamp (Nos. 131–133), are of local origin. The bowl-shaped lamp, with a central tube (Nos. 142–149), was widespread during the late Abbasid–Fatimid periods. The consolidation of the mosque lamp (Nos. 153– 157) took place in the Syro-Egyptian area beginning in

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the Early Byzantine period. Its final formation occurred during the late Abbasid–early Fatimid periods. During the Ayyubid and Mamluk periods, it became one of the most dominant types of lamps. Regional versions of vessels existed alongside glass vessels common in all parts of the Islamic lands, many types of which were found in Tiberias. These vessels are known from other Islamic cities and sites such as Fustat, Nishapur, Susa and al-Mina. This demonstrates the uniformity of Islamic glass. Thus regionality and uniformity co-exist. Almost all the glass from Tiberias is free blown and only about 8% of the vessels are made and/or decorated in other techniques. The largest group is cut glass. It includes vessels with cut facet decoration (Lester 1998: Pl. 2), fragments of vessels decorated in relief cut glass (Lester 1998: Pls. 6, 7-1), vessels with shallow cut and linear decoration (Lester 1998: Pls. 12, 17), and fragments cut in the beveled style (Lester 1998: Pl. 24). The next largest group of decorated glass is the mould-blown vessels that were widespread in Strata II–I, mostly in fluted and honeycomb patterns. Other techniques, such as pinched, stamped, lustre painted and glass with marvered decoration, are very limited in extent. The importance of these smaller groups is mainly to draw attention to the fact of their existence within the finds from Tiberias.

Glass Production at Tiberias Tiberias was known for its glass production from the Byzantine period, especially for the quality and thinness of its vessels (Avissar 1973:38–39). That glass production continued into the Umayyad and Early Islamic periods is confirmed by dozens of glass slabs and chunks of various colours and sizes together with glass waste, retrieved from the excavated areas. Blade-like splinters were broken from larger chunks or slabs that were obviously used for production to meet local needs; however, no remains of glass kilns for the production of the vessels were discovered. The glass from Stratum V is dominated by the Late Byzantine/Umayyad tradition, with Stratum IV being of the early Abbasid period. Stratum III is a transitional period with the appearance of a new glass fabric that brings with it new vessel types. If the change in glass composition seems to be hesitant or indecisive within Stratum III, in Strata II–I nearly all glass vessels are made from the new glass fabric. Most glass vessels were found in Strata II–I, which date to the early Fatimid period, reflecting the scope of production and commerce within the Tiberias markets. Special attention should be given as well to the striking similarity among the types of vessels, techniques and glass composition of the material from Tiberias and that from the shipwreck at Serçe Limani.

NOTES 1

I wish to thank Gideon Foerster of the Institute of Archaeology of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem for putting the material at my disposal and to David Stacey, who guided me throughout the work, clarifying the stratigraphic aspects. Furthermore, I thank Shulamit Hadad for her careful review of this paper. 2 Whitcomb’s (1992:386) concept of a “lag in material culture of at least two generations” between historical/ political events and changes in cultural evidence seems to be supported in the glass assemblage reported here, with the Umayyad period continuing a late Byzantine tradition and the change towards a consolidated Islamic style taking place only towards the beginning of the ninth century. Thus, in this chapter I distinguish between Umayyad and the subsequent Early Islamic period. 3 Most of the glass fragments are from well-stratified loci; a few, however, with special characteristics, came from the following poorly stratified loci: B3, B9, B25 and B33. Area E was excavated and documented for a few days only in September/October 1973, prior to the outbreak of the war.

4

I wish to thank Yael Gorin-Rosen and Natalya Katsnelson for their cooperation and the information that they provided about glass material from IAA excavations. 5 A rim of a bottle from Yoqne‘am, made of brown glass and decorated with brown-red threads, is dated to the Early Islamic period. The rim belongs to a bottle type represented by Nos. 86 and 87, which became consolidated in the tenth century and was widespread in the eleventh century CE. Thus, the fragment from Yoqne‛am can now be dated to the tenth–eleventh centuries (Lester 1996: Fig. XVII.12:2). 6 I wish to thank Ariel Berman for his helpful comments in regard to the glass weights and the stamp seal. 7 I wish to thank Gabriella Bijovsky for her interpretation of glass weight No. 1. 8 Glass weight No. 3 is a surface find from Area E, which was poorly documented and its findings not included in this monograph. Despite its provenance, the artefact is included as it contributes to the chronological continuity presented here. Unfortunately, it was misplaced and its weight was not recorded.

CHAPTER 7: THE GLASS

9

Following consultation with Dr. Stacey, I wish to raise a point about glass weight No. 6 (C20/1259) and vessel stamp No. 10 (C20/1185). Glass weight No. 6 was said to be found at level 11.38 in Stratum II; however it is dated to 1036–1094,

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i.e. Stratum I. Vessel stamp No. 10, said to be found at level 11.78, is dated to the Fatimid period. It is possible that the glass weight and the vessel stamp were interchanged while registering the items.

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Launois A. 1969. Estampilles, poids, étalons monétaires et autre disques musolmans en verre. Bulletin d’études orientales 22:69–124. Lehrer Jacobson G. 1993. Luster Painted Glass from Hurbat Migdal. Israel—People and Land 7–8:83–90 (Hebrew; English abstract, pp. 12*–13*). Lehrer Jacobson G. 1999. Glass Bottles of the Early Islamic Period. In I. Beth-Arieh. Tel Ira. A Stronghold in the Biblical Negev. Tel Aviv. Pp. 442–444. Lester A. 1987. A Fatimid Hoard from Tiberias. In N. Brosh ed. Jewellery and Goldsmithing in the Islamic World. International Symposium. Jerusalem. Pp. 21–29. Lester A. 1996. The Glass from Yoqne‘am: The Early Islamic, Crusader and Mamluk Periods. In A. Ben-Tor, M. Avissar and Y. Portugali Yoqne‘am I: The Late Periods (Qedem Reports 3). Jerusalem. Pp. 202–217. Lester A. 1997. Islamic Glass Finds. In Y. Hirschfeld. The Roman Baths of Hammat Gader, Final Report. Jerusalem. Pp. 432–441. Lester A. 1998. The Cut Glass from the Tiberias Excavations 1973–4. MA thesis. The Hebrew University. Jerusalem (Hebrew). Lester A. 2001. Glass Bottles and Vials from Tiberias. In Annales du 15 e congrès de l’association internationale pour l’histoire du verre. Corning. Pp. 158–164. Lester A. Forthcoming. The Glass from Tiberias—Gallé Kinneret. ‘Atiqot. Lester A., Arnon Y. and Polak R. 1999. The Fatimid Hoard from Caesarea: A Preliminary Report. In M. Barrucand ed. L’Egypte fatimide, son art et son histoire. Paris. Pp. 233–248. Lledó B. 1997. Mold Siblings in the 11th-Century Cullet from Serçe Limani. JGS 39:43–55. Loukonine V. and Ivanov A. 1996. Lost Treasures of Persia. Persian Art in the Hermitage Museum. Washington. Marçais G. and Poinssot L. 1952. Objets kairouanais. IXe au XIIIe siècle: reliures, verreries, cuivres et bronzes, bijoux II (Direction des antiquités et arts, Notes et Documents 11/2) Tunis. McNicoll A.W., Smith R.H. and Hennessy J.B. 1982. Pella in Jordan I: An Interim Report on the Joint University of Sydney and the College of Wooster Excavations at Pella 1979–1981. Canberra. Melikian-Chirvani A.S. 1974. The White Bronzes of Early Islamic Iran. Journal of the Metropolitan Museum of Art 3: 123–151. Meyer C. 1987. Glass from the North Theater Byzantine Church, and Soundings at Jerash, Jordan, 1982–1983. BASOR Supplement 25:175–222. Meyer C. 1989. Byzantine and Umayyad Glass from Jerash: Battleship Curves. ADAJ 33:235–243. Miles G.C. 1948. Early Arabic Glass Weights and Stamps. New York. Milstein R. and Brosh N. 1984. Islamic Paintings in the Islamic Museum. Jerusalem. Morrison H. 1984. The Glass. In N. Chittick ed. Manda, Excavations at an Island Port on the Kenya Coast (The

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British Institue of Eastern Africa Memoir Number 9). Nairobi. Pp. 159–179. Morrison H. 1987. Unpublished Medieval Glass from the Island of Mafia in East Africa. In Annales du 10e congrès de l’association Internationale pour l’histoire du verre. Amsterdam. Pp. 299–304. Morton A.H. 1985. A Catalogue of Early Islamic Glass Stamps in the British Museum. London. Negro Ponzi M. 1970–1971. Islamic Glassware from Seleucia. Mesopotamia 5–6: 67–104. Negro Ponzi M. 1987. Late Sassanian Glassware from Tell Baruda. Mesopotamia 22: 265–275. Northedge A. 1992. Studies on Roman and Islamic Amman. Oxford. O’Hea M. 1993. Glass from Areas XXXIV and XXIX (Hellenistic–‘Abbasid). In A.G. Walmsley, P.G. Macumber, P.C. Edwards, S.J. Bourke and P.M. Watson. The Eleventh and Twelfth Seasons of Excavations at Pella (Tabaqat Fahl) 1989–1990. ADAJ 37:221–227. Peleg M. 1994. Bet She’an: A Paved Street and Adjacent Remains. ‘Atiqot 25:139–155. Petrie F. 1926. Glass Stamps and Weights. London. Philon H. 1980. Early Islamic Ceramics. Ninth to Late Twelfth Centuries (Benaki Museum Athens, Catalogue of Islamic Art 1). Athens–London. Pinder-Wilson R. and Scanlon G.T. 1973. Glass Finds from Fustat: 1964–1971. JGS 15:12–30. Pinder-Wilson R. and Scanlon G.T. 1987. Glass Finds from Fustat: 1972–1980. JGS 29:60–71. Pringle D. 1986. The Red Tower (al-Burj al-Ahmar). London. Riis P.J. 1957. Les verreries. In P.J. Riis and V. Poulsen. Hama, fouilles et recherches 1931–1938 IV,2: les verreries et poteries médiévales. Copenhagen. Pp. 30–116. Rosen-Ayalon M. 1974. La poterie islamique (DAFI 50). Paris. Salam-Liebich H. 1970. Glass. In O. Grabar. City in the Desert. Qasr al-Hayr East. Cambridge, Mass. Pp.138–147. Scanlon G.T. 1965. Fustat Expedition: Preliminary Report, 1964. JARCE 4:7–28. Scanlon G.T. 1966. Fustat Expedition: Preliminary Report, 1965, Part I. JARCE 5:83–112. Scanlon G.T. 1967. Fustat Expedition: Preliminary Report, 1965, Part II. JARCE 6:65–86. Scanlon G.T. 1968. Fustat and the Islamic Arts of Egypt. Archaeology 21:188–195. Scanlon G.T. 1970. Egypt and China: Trade and Imitation. In S. Richards. Papers on Islamic History II: Islam and the Trade of Asia. Oxford. Scanlon G.T. 1974a. Fustat Expedition: Preliminary Report, 1968, Part I. JARCE 11:81–91. Scanlon G.T. 1974b. The Pits of Fustat: Problems of Chronology. JEA 60:60–78. Scanlon G.T. 1976. Fustat Expedition: Preliminary Report, 1968. Part II. JARCE 13:69–89. Scanlon G.T. 1981. Fustat Expedition: Preliminary Report: Back to Fustat-A. 1973. Annales Islamologiques 17: 407–436.

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Scanlon G.T. 1982. Fustat Expedition: Preliminary Report, 1972, Part II. JARCE 5: 119–129. Scanlon G.T. and Pinder-Wilson R. 2001. Fustat Glass of the Early Islamic Period. London. Seipel W. 1999. Schätze der Kalifen. Vienna. Sellin E. and Watzinger C. 1913. Jericho. Die Ergebnisse der Ausgrabungen. Leipzig. Shindo Y. 1992. Glass. In K. Sakurai and M. Kawatoko eds. Egypt Islamic City: Al-Fustat. Excavation Report 1978– 1985. Tokyo. Pp. 572–617 (Japanese). Shindo Y. 1998. The Early Islamic Glass from al-Fustat in Egypt. Annales du 14e congrès de l’association internationale pour l’histoire du verre. Venice. Pp. 233–237. Smith R. 1957. Glass from the Ancient World (The Ray Winfield Smith Collection). Corning. Spaer M. 2001. Ancient Glass in the Israel Museum. Beads and Other Small Objects. Jerusalem. Stacey D.A. 1988–1989. Umayyad and Egyptian RedSlip ‘A’ Ware from Tiberias. Bulletin of the Anglo-Israel Archaeological Society 8:1–33. Stern E.J. 1997. Burial Caves at Kisra. ‘Atiqot 33:103–135 (Hebrew; English summary, p. 17*). Stern E.J. and Gorin-Rosen Y. 1997. Burial Caves near Kabri. ‘Atiqot 33:1–22 (Hebrew; English summary, pp. 7*–8*). Van Doorninck Jr. F.H. 1988. The Cargo: Diverse and Partly Unknown. The Glass Wreck, an Eleventh Century Merchantman. Institute of Nautical Archaeology Newsletter 15:4–9. de Vaux R. and Stevè A.M. 1950. Fouilles à Qaryet el-‘Enab, Abu Gosh, Palestine. Paris.

von Folsach K. and Whitehouse D. 1993. Three Islamic Molds. JGS 35:149–153. Walmsley A.G. 1990. An ‘Abbasid Pit in Area XXIII, Plot A. In P.C. Edwards, S. J. Bourke, K.A. Da Costa, J.C. Tidmarsh, A. G. Walmsley and P.M. Watson. Preliminary Report on the University of Sydney’s Tenth Season of Excavations at Pella (Tabaqat Fahl) in 1988. ADAJ 34: 81–86. Walmsley A.G. 1991. Architecture and Artifacts from ‘Abbasid Fihl: Implications for the Cultural History of Bilad al-Sham. In M.A. Bakhit and R. Schick eds. Proceedings of the 5th International Congress on the History of Bilad al-Sham. Amman. Pp. 1–19. Ward R. 1993. Islamic Metalwork. London. Weinberg G. and Goldstein S. 1988. The Glass Vessels. In G. Davidson Weinberg ed. Excavations at Jalame. Site of a Glass Factory in Late Roman Palestine. Columbia. Pp. 38–102. Whitcomb D. 1978. The Archaeology of al-Hasa Oasis in the Islamic Period. Atlal 2:95–106. Whitcomb D. 1983. Islamic Glass from Al-Qadim, Egypt. JGS 25:101–108. Whitcomb D. 1988. Aqaba. Port of Palestine on the China Sea. Chicago. Whitcomb D. 1992. Reassessing the Archaeology of Jordan of the Abbasid Period. In M. Zaghloul, K. Amr, F. Zayadine and R. Nabeel eds. Studies in the History and Archaeology of Jordan IV. Amman. Pp. 385–390. Wilson J. and Sa‘d M. 1984. The Domestic Material Culture of Nabataean to Umayyad Period Busra. Berytus 32:35–147.

CHAPTER 8

THE COINS ARIEL BERMAN

This report includes 347 identifiable bronze and silver coins, unearthed during the 1973–1974 seasons in Areas A, B, C and D. Additionally, a group of 16 gold coins, part of a hoard containing gold jewellery, has been incorporated.1 Since the excavations were conducted mostly in Early Islamic strata and loci, the finds consist primarily of Islamic coins. The recent and important publication by L. Ilisch, the Sylloge Numorum Arabicorum Tübingen—Palästina (SNAT ), has enabled me to identify and properly ascribe coins of some officials and local governors, which, until now, had been unpublished. Coins with enigmatic inscriptions still await decipherment and interpretation. Hopefully, coins containing more complete data will, in the future, enable further identifications. Most of the second- and third-century Roman coin finds (contemporary with Stratum VII) were in fact discovered in later, chronologically irrelevant contexts (i.e., not in situ). It must be emphasized that coin finds, when considered carefully, can be useful in understanding the history of the site. In certain cases a coin’s total absence may have important implications; alternatively, a type’s varying quantity may distort our conclusions.

THE PRE-ISLAMIC COINS The First Century CE In his 24th regnal year (= 19/20 CE; Meshorer 1997: 75–76), Herod Antipas, the founder of Tiberias, minted the city’s first coins. In his 37th regnal year (33 CE) he again minted coins in Tiberias. A single coin (Area C L88, Cat. No. 2 [henceforth ‘C88, No. 2]’) of this second issue type was found in the excavations. It bears a palm branch and date on the obverse. The coin was uncovered below the Roman street level, where flagstones had been removed in antiquity. Another Herodian family coin, belonging to Agrippa II and

issued at Paneas during the latter’s 25th regnal year (= 85/6 CE; D85, No. 3) was recovered in a later context. These two, together with a Tyre autonomous small coin (B28, No. 1) also retrieved from a later stratum, indirectly hint at an early stage of the city. The Second and Third Centuries CE No coins were identified from the excavations between 85/6 and 119/120 CE, when a locally minted coin appears (C42, No. 4). The ten coins appearing thereafter reflect the connections between Tiberias and its vicinity, i.e. the eastern Decapolis and the western Phoenician coastal cities: a. Two coins minted at Bostra (A34, No. 7 and C35, No. 5) commemorating Faustina I, during Antoninus Pius’ reign, 138–161 CE, and from Commodus’ reign, 177–192 CE. b. A coin (C98, No. 6), also from Commodus, minted at Caesarea-Paneas in 188 CE. c. One coin from Abila (A34, No. 8), minted in 218/ 19 CE during Elagabal’s reign. d. A single coin from ‛Akko-Ptolemais (B36, No. 9), minted during the reign of Severus Alexander, 222–235 CE. e. One coin from Tyre (C46, No. 10), minted during the reign of Gordian III, 238–244 CE. f. Four more coins were attributed to this period (Stratum VII) but not identified properly due to their poor state of preservation (A11, No. 14; B25, No. 12; C53, No. 11 and C81, No. 13). The Fourth and Fifth Centuries CE Seventeen coins represent the fourth and fifth centuries (Cat. Nos. 15–31). This is a small number, when considered against the usually abundant coin finds from that time. Nevertheless, we do not believe this reflects any contemporary decline in Tiberias.

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The Sixth Century CE Except for one follis of Anastasius I minted during 498–518 CE found in Area D in the remains of a large Byzantine public building (D3, No. 33), all the sixthcentury coins came from Area C, from the monumental arch area and above the Roman pavement (Stratum VI). Two of them belong to Anastasius I (C4, No. 34; C21, No. 32). The others date to the reign of Justin II, issued between 570/71 and 577/78 CE in several imperial mints (C43, No. 36; C57, No. 35; C83, No. 38, and one surface find, No. 37). Sixth-century coins were not found in the other excavation areas. The rare silver Sassanian drahm of Khusraw II (C97, No. 39; Sears and Ariel 2000:145, No. 13) corresponds generally to the Sassanian occupation of Syria and Egypt between 614 and 628 CE. Its appearance may also be attributed to the later years of the early Umayyad caliphate when silver Sassanian drahms were still current. Further evidence and confirmation of the extensive circulation of these drahms in the Tiberias vicinity are four additional drahms of Khusraw II— two found at Hammat Gader (Sears and Ariel 2000: 140, No. 7), a single coin at Hippos-Sussita (Sears and Ariel 2000:145, No. 10) and one at Bet She’an (Sears and Ariel 2000:144, No. 7).

THE ISLAMIC PRE-R EFORM COINS The Seventh Century CE Five coins, including Arab-Byzantine types and Umayyad pre- ‛Abd al-Malik reform emissions, represent the transitional period: a. Two anonymous, imitative folles, depicting a standing figure (the mint is uncertain; B34, No. 40 and D14, No. 41). b. An anonymous half follis depicting two Imperial figures seated, from the Scythopolis/Baysān mint (C43, No. 42). c. A single fals, depicting three Imperial standing, figures, issued at the local mint of Tabarīya (C15, No. 44). d. A single fals depicting the caliph’s effigy standing struck at the mint of the district [Jund] Filastin (D73, No. 43). Apparently this latter mint was located in the former district capital, Ludd, a decade before the foundation of the new Muslim city al-Ramla by Sulayman, c. 708 CE.

THE UMAYYAD PERIOD The Eighth Century CE Over 40% of the finds belong to the Umayyad (PostReform) period (Stratum V). They include fulūs and only two dirhams (one is broken and illegible). A considerable number of the coins are anonymous, bearing no date or mint information, restricting us to little more than general identifications. Several coins belong to the reign of Caliph al- Walīd I, 705–715 CE: a dirham issued at Wasit minted in his accessional year AH 86 (= 705 CE; D14, No. 45) and a fals issued at Tabarīya dated AH 91 (= 709 CE; C220, No. 53). Several anonymous fulūs minted at Tabarīya c. 700– 710 CE are attributed to the rule of al-Walīd I as well (A47, No. 52; A4, No. 48; B41, No. 49; C88, No. 50; C99, No. 51; C205, No. 47), and a single fals issued at al-Ramla c. 708–710 CE (A1, No. 77). The dating of these fulūs relies on Ilisch’s discussion (SNAT:7, 30–32) However, a greater portion of the Umayyad coins were minted during the reign of the caliph Hishām, 724–743 CE, such as some coins minted at Tabarīya in c. 734/35 CE (C88, No. 54) and later in c. 737 CE (A47, No. 55 and C26, No. 56). The frequent appearance of the date AH 116 (= 734/ 35 CE) apparently suggests some administrative or historical significance during Hishām’s rule for that specific year, such as possibly the appointment of the finance director, al-Qāsim b. ‛Ubaydallāh, in Egypt (see A47, No. 115 and C87, No. 114; the anonymous fals of Harrān [C81, No. 79] and of Hims [C48, No. 82] and further more mintless anonymous fulūs [C22, No. 110; C81, No. 109; C84, No. 111; D3, No. 112; D14, No. 113]). It should be noted that, in comparison to the gold dinar and the silver dirham, the bronze fals was not minted at regular intervals in regard to date. The find in the excavations of seven anonymous fulūs issued at Baysān and depicting a fish on the reverse (C25, No. 62; C83, No. 61; C87, No. 63 and D7, Nos. 57, 58; D14, No. 60; D15, No. 59; SNAT: 28, Nos. 274–276; Amitai-Preiss, Berman and Qedar 1994–1999:149, No. E4) attests to the connections between the two localities. About twenty-six anonymous fulūs of various types, bearing depictions of birds, animals, plants, fruits, and other objects and symbols (Nos. 83–108), were obviously issued for civic and rural needs. Several

CHAPTER 8: THE COINS

scholars have attempted to ascribe each motif to specific mints (as the fish to Baysān) within the Urdun and Filastin districts (Barag 1988–1989:46; Qedar 1988–1989:36, Series k). Seventeen anonymous fulūs are of Syrian provenance. They contain floral and crescent elements issued at the mints of Dimashq (Nos. 64–76), Hims (Nos. 80–82) and Ba‛labakk (No. 78). A single lead anonymous coin (C49, No. 73), identical to a bronze fals type issued at Dimashq (Nos. 68–72), might be considered as a fals. The use of lead substitution in the fulūs coinage has been observed by Amitai-Preiss (1990–1991:98–99). In addition a considerable portion of fulūs (Nos. 116–180) are aniconic, bearing only the usual pious formula as legend (see Catalogue table, formula Types A and B).

THE EARLY ABBASID PERIOD The Ninth and Tenth Centuries CE After a break in coin finds during the second part of the eighth century, apparently a result of the earthquake devastation of 749 CE, a dirham of the Abbasid caliph, al-Mahdī, 774–785 CE (C48, No. 181) appears, followed by a fals of the caliph, al-Amin, 809–813 CE, minted at Madinat as-Salam (B12, No. 182). Soon after there is an abundant fulūs emission issued by local officials at Tabarīya and neighbouring cities during the first part of the ninth century: a. A corroded fals dated AH 199 (= 814 CE); the rest of the inscription is missing (C25, No. 202). b. Two fulūs dated AH 200 (= 815 CE), one minted at Sūr al-Mamuniya (Tyre) (C43, No. 203) and one at alRamla (D53, No. 204). c. There follow over fifteen fulūs issued by the governor of Tabariya, ‛Abd Allāh b. Tāhir in conjunction with a certain official Mu‛ād dated AH 206 (= 821 CE; A1, No. 192; A5, No. 197; C34, Nos. 194–196; C39, No. 189; C43, Nos. 185–188, Nos. 193, 199 and C81, No. 198; two coins are registered as missing). d. One fals of an unknown governor named Sa‛d b. Ibrāhīm in conjunction with an official name Šuğā‛ issued at Ghazza c. 825–835 CE (C64, No. 205). e. A fals of the caliph, al-Mu‛tasim, 833–842 CE, dated AH 221 (= 835 CE), mint missing (C82, No. 206).

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f. Two fulūs of uncertain officials. Except for the legible date AH 239 (= 844 CE) on No. 207, the rest of the legend is missing (C52) and a fragmented date can be read on No. 208 as AH 23[?] (= 844–853 CE; C33). g. Three further fulūs of uncertain officials named Salih b. ‛Alī in conjunction with Mahmud (C40, No. 200) al-Zāhir (C43, No. 201); and an unknown official or governor named Mūsa, the mint and date are missing (C225, No. 218). h. Four dirhams bearing the names of caliphs—alMutawakkil, 847–861 CE, issued at Misr (Fustāt) in AH 243 (=857 CE; C53, No. 209); a broken coin of al-Mu‛tadid, 892–902 CE, except for part of the name, the rest is missing (C60, No. 210); a worn coin of alMuqtadir, 908–932 CE, probably minted in AH 29[?] (= 908–911 CE), the mint is missing (B43, No. 211); and a fragmented coin totally unidentifiable (B42, No. 212). A considerable number of bronze coins of reduced size (Nos. 219–343) may apparently also be defined as fulūs. In many cases these are cast, carelessly made coins (Miles 1950:33–34). It is barely possible to distinguish details beyond the remains of the usual pious formula legend. Anything beyond a general identification is limited. It seems that the tendency to issue small coins became common toward the end of the eighth century. The small fals became the standard, with a weight frequency of 0.64–2.19 gm, in comparison to the former fals weight, which was approximately 2.30–4.50 gm. These certainly were not half fulūs, since there is no known written testimony regarding fractional fals coins as there is for those of precious metals. The weight of the coin was now of no significance, and every bronze coin, without exception, was regarded as a fals, even if it was extremely small. The change to a smaller sized coin may have been the result of a shortage of metal, thereby forcing the minters to reduce the weight of the coin. In contrast to the gold dinar and the silver dirham, which were supervised by the caliph’s imperial administration, civic and local authorities were in charge of the copper emission. Contractors, who were not interested in maintaining the higher weight of the fals, probably handled this.

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3

ARIEL BERMAN

344

348

100

92

86

345

346

350

349

208

347

351

Fig. 8.1. Coins.

THE FATIMID PERIOD The Eleventh Century CE This period is characterized by its poor coin finds, except for the gold hoard that is considered separately. Only three silver fractions of dirhams were found; the mint and date of the three are missing. Two belong to al-Hākim’s rule, 996–1021 CE (both from B47, No. 359; B35, No. 360), and a single coin to al-Mustansir, 1036–1094 CE (C64, No. 362).

The Gold Hoard The hoard was discovered within a broken clay juglet. It contained 14 gold dinars (Cat. Nos. 344–346, 349– 358, 361), 2 fractions of gold dinars (Cat. Nos. 347– 348), and several objects of jewellery (see Lester 1987; Chapter 7). According to the latest coins, the hoard was deposited in the Fatimid period. In addition, the three preceding dynasties—the Tulunids, the Ikhshīdids and the Qarmatīs—are each represented by a single coin (Cat. Nos. 344, 345, 346, respectively).

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CHAPTER 8: THE COINS

353

352

356

360

355

354

357

358

361

362

Fig. 8.1. (cont.).

The hoard encompasses a period of 138 years, starting with AH 273 (= 886 CE) and ending c. AH 416 (= 1024 CE). Its contents represent a continuous period of four Fatimid rulers—al-Mu‛izz, al-‛Azīz, al-Hākim and al-Zāhir. Examination of the hoard yielded several conclusions in regard to its purpose and nature. 1. The mixture of the coins and jewellery, kept by the owner within a vessel in a hidden location, shows

that the hoard was probably not a savings hoard. Two Fatimid hoards of the same nature were unearthed in the vicinity at Tabarīya; one contains nine gold dinars and the second eighteen silver dirhams, dated some years later during al-Mustansir’s rule. Both are composed of a mixture of coins and jewellery (Wasserstein 1998a: 10–14; 1998b:15–22). 2. The rims of seven coins were clipped (eliminating the date and mint legend around); their weight and

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ARIEL BERMAN

original value were reduced considerably. About 16% of the gold was cut away, which is a reduction of more than 9.20 gm, approximately the equivalence of two dinars. Clipping was even observed on the latest coin, the AH 416 (= 1024 CE) dinar; this date may also determine the time span of the clipping phenomenon. These clipped coins would not have circulated in the market, but could have been used as bullion mixed with jewellery, which would explain indirectly their appearance within the hoard. The cache was not necessarily hidden immediately after the last dated coin. During the eleventh century several dramatic events and circumstances might have forced the owner to abandon his valuable property:

the plundering of Tabarīya and the massacre of its inhabitants during the Bedouin tribes’ campaign against the Fatimids in AH 416 (= 1024 CE), the reconquest of the Fatimids in AH 420 (= 1029 CE) or the disastrous earthquake in AH 425 (= 1033 CE).

THE AYYUBID PERIOD The Thirteen Century CE A single fals dating AH 631 (= 1233 CE) minted in Dimashq by the Ayyubid ruler al-Kāmil I Muhammad was found (D54, No. 363). It probably represents a coin lost at random, some time later.

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CHAPTER 8: THE COINS

THE COIN CATALOGUE each type has been assigned a letter (see ‘Key’, below). Coins bearing an asterisk are illustrated (see Fig. 8.1).

All the coins are bronze unless otherwise stated. The coins are listed chronologically according to types. All dates are CE, unless otherwise indicated. To avoid repetitious listing of certain Islamic formula legends, No.

IAA No.

Locus No.

Basket No.

Wt. (gm)

Diam. (mm)

Obverse

Reverse

Date

Mint

Reference

End 2nd c. BCE

Tyre

BMC Phoen:

Within wreath: TIBE / PIAC

33

Tiberias

AJC II: 242, No. 14

One cornucopia, in field date (Year 25) and inscr. ET KE / BA AG

85

[CaesareaPaneas]

AJC II: 254, No. 29

Tiberias

Rosenberger 1977:65, No. 11

Bostra

Spijkerman 1978:70, No. 11

CaesareaPaneas

Meshorer 1984/85: 50, No. 9b

Bostra

Spijkerman 1978:74, No. 24

Phoenicia Autonomous, Dilepton 1

67080

B28

1307

1.54

15

Veiled head of Tyche r., wearing turreted crown

Palm tree, with bunches of fruit

253, No. 247

The Herodians Herod Antipas (4 BCE–39 CE) 2

67081

C88

2486

7.76

20

HRWDOU TE [TRAROCU] Palm branch, in field date: L [LZ] (Year 37) Agrippa II (56–95)

3*

67082

D85

1899

1.65

13

[DOMET KAI$ GERM] Laureate bust of Domitian r.

Roman Provincial Hadrian (117–138) 4

67083

C42

1963

5.52

23

[AYT TPA AΔPIANW KAIC CEB] Laureate and cuirassed bust of Hadrian, wearing paludamentum, r.

[TIBEP KΛAYΔ] 119/20 Tetra-style temple, with pediment and pellet, within Zeus seated l., half nude, wearing chlamys, r. holding phiale, l. resting on spear or sceptre. In exergue: Date ET AP (Year 101)

Faustina I, Diva Posthumous Issued by Antoninus Pius 5

67084

C35

1328

1.90

13

[ΘΕΑ ΦΑV CTEINA] Draped and veiled bust r.

[TVXH NEAC TPAIANHC BOCTPAC] Tyche, wearing turreted crown, chiton and mantle, facing, head l., r. resting on spear, l. on hip; l. foot on crouching figure

141–161

Commodus (177–192) 6

67085

C98

2452

7.22

22

[AYK M AYP ANTO KOM] Laureate bust r.

7

67086

A34

1203

13.50

28

[Λ AVP KOMODΔOC KAIC AVTOK VIOCEV] Laureate and cuirassed bust r., wearing paludamentum r.

[KAIC CEB IEP KAI ACY 188 TΠPΠAVE] Nude Pan stg. facing; playing the flute; in field r. tree trunk; across field date (Year 191) [BOCTPHNWN ΔOYCAPHC] Draped bust of Dusares r.

-

228

No.

ARIEL BERMAN

IAA No.

Locus No.

Basket No.

Wt. (gm)

Diam. (mm)

Obverse

Reverse

Date

Mint

Reference

218/19

Abila

Spijkerman 1978:54, No. 23

-

‘AkkoPtolemais

Kadman 1961:130, No. 195

Tyre

BMC Phoen.:

Elagabal (218–222) 8

67087

A34

1266

7.29

25

[AVK MAV ANTWNINOC] Bust of Elagabalus laureate, wearing paludamentum and cuirassed r.

Hexa-style temple with central arch and pediment on top of which figure stg., within temple flaming altar; on either side square towers, creneled. In exergue: [CE ABIΛH] (Year 282)

Severus Alexander (222–235) 9

67088

B36

1352

3.85

20

[IMP CM AVR SEV ALEXANDER] Bust r.

[COLO PTOLEM] Emperor stg. r., behind Serapis crowning him; in l. field caduceus

Gordian III (238–244) 10

67089

C46

1812

9.98

27

[IMP GRDIANVS PIVS FEL AVG] Laureate and cuirassed bust, wearing paludamentum r.

[COL TYR METR] Two beatyls (the Ambrosial rocks) on separate bases; between them the olive tree. In exergue: [AMBPOCIE]

281, No. 430

Roman Provincial Uncertain Civic Issue 11

67090

C53

1831

11.15

23

Bust r.

Effaced

1nd–2nd c.

-

-

12

67091

B25

1100

3.40

14

Same

Same

2nd–3nd c.

-

-

13

67092

C81

2571

1.95

11

Same

Same

Same

-

-

14

67093

A11

1081

3.94

19

Same

Same

3nd c.

-

-

314

Roma

RIC 7:299, No. 19

-

Missing

-

330–335

Antioch

LRBC 1: 30, No. 1361

335–337

Constantinople

LRBC 1: 24, No. 1028

Same

Same

The House of Constantine Constantine I, the Great (307–337) 15

67094

D8

1079

3.94

19

IMP C CONSTANTINVS PF AVG Laureate, draped and cuirassed bust r.

SOL INVICTO COMITI Sol stg. facing, holding globe and raising r. in field RF. In exergue: RS

16

67095

C95

2428

2.94

19

Same

Same Constans, Caesar (333–337)

17

67096

C81

2481

2.03

16

FL IVL CONSTANS NOBC Laureate, draped and cuirassed bust r.

GLORIA EXER CITVS Two soldiers stg., each holding spear and leaning on shield; between them, two standards. In exergue: SMANE

Constantius II, Caesar (324–337) 18

67097

B35

1280

1.40

16

FL IVL CONSTANTIVS NOBC Laureate, draped and cuirassed bust r.

GLORIA EXER CITVS Two soldiers stg., each holding spear and leaning on shield; between them, one standard. In exergue: [CO] NSA

19

67098

A35

1299

1.37

15

Same

Same

229

CHAPTER 8: THE COINS

No.

IAA No.

Locus No.

Basket No.

Wt. (gm)

Diam. (mm)

Obverse

Reverse

Date

Mint

Reference

346–350

[Nicomedia]

Cf. LRBC 2:92, No. 2295

Constantius II, Augustus (337–361) 20

67099

A6

1158

3.87

17

Effaced

[FEL TEMP REPARATIO] Virtus spearing fallen horseman

21

67100

A33

1185/1

1.80

18

Bust r.

Same

-

-

-

22

67101

A35

1299

1.71

17

[CONSTANT] IVS PF AVG Bust r.

Same

355–361

[Antioch]

Cf. LRBC 2:100, No. 2635

367–375

Missing

Cf. LRBC 2:47, No. 106

402

Missing

Cf. LRBC 2: 90, No. 2216

4th c.

-

-

Later Roman Empire Valentinian I (364–375) 23

67102

D8

1128

1.23

17

[DN VALENTINI] ANVS PF AVG Laureate bust l.

[GLORIA ROMANORVM] Victory advancing l., holding wreath and palm

Theodosius II (402–450) 24

67103

C99

2488

1.02

13

Bust r.

[GLORIA ROMANORVM] Three emperors stg., facing; centre figure is smaller

Late Roman Uncertain 25

67104

D80

1898

0.97

14

Bust r.

Effaced

26

67105

B15

1156

0.66

15

Same

Same

Same

-

-

27

67106

C21

1443/2

1.47

16

Same

Same

Same

-

-

28

67107

C34

1505/3

0.75

11

Same

Victory stg. l.

End 4th c.

-

-

29

67108

C99

2443

2.42

17

Same

Effaced

Same

-

-

30

67109

C101

2504

0.84

12

Same

Virtus stg. l.

Same

-

-

31

67110

D53

1585

1.03

11

Same

Effaced

Same

-

-

498–518

Constantinople

DOC 1:20, No. 23f.6

Same

Same

Same

Same

Antioch

DOC 1:26, No. 26e.4

Byzantine Anastasius I (491–518), follis 32

67111

C21

1429

9.31

28

33

67112

D3

1022/1

8.15

24

34

67113

C4

1022

1.86

11

[DN ANASTASIVS PP AVG] Bust r. Same

Large M, above cross, between two stars, below officina letter Δ. In exergue: CON Same

Pentanummium Same

Large E, to r. Δ Justin II (565–578), Follis

35

67114

C57

1776

11.12

29

DN IVSTINVS PP AVG Justin and Sophia seated facing on double throne, both nimbate

Large M, above cross, between A/N/N/O and the sixth regnal year numerals; below the officina letter Γ. In exergue: CO

570/71

Constantinople

DOC 1:208, No. 29c.2

36

67115

C43

1761

14.17

30

Same

Same, the tenth regnal year, officina letter Α. In exergue: NIK

574/75

Nicomedia

DOC 1:229, No. 100a

230

No.

ARIEL BERMAN

IAA No.

Locus No.

Basket No.

Wt. (gm)

Diam. (mm)

Obverse

Reverse

Date

Mint

Reference

Large K, above cross, between A/N/N/O and the tenth regnal year. In exergue: KYZ

Same

Cyzicus

DOC 1:239, No. 133.3 (Var.)

577/78

Theoupolis (Antioch)

DOC 1:245, No. (160)

Missing

Effaced

-

Mid 7th c.

-

-

Same

-

-

End 7th c.

ScythopolisBaysān

Amitai-Preiss, Berman and Qedar 1994–1999: 144, No. B1

Half Follis 37

67116

-

-

6.91

24

Same

38

67117

C83

2307

11.51

31

Same

Follis Same as above, the thirteen regnal year, officina letter Γ. In exergue: tHEuPO

Sassanian Khusraw II (591–628), Silver Drachm 39

67118

C97

2458

3.44

32

Bust r.

Within a triple circle, fire altar and attendants (Legend obliterate)

Arab Byzantine: Transition Period Anonymous, Follis 40

67120

B34

1256

2.02

16–23

Imperial figure stg. facing. To l. downwards illegible legend: T / E / X

Large . In exergue: XIO

m

41

67121

D14

1172

2.60

19

Same (Legend effaced)

Same (Legend effaced)

42

67119

C43

1821

4.18

24

$KVQ O Two imperial figures seated facing on double

Half Follis Large K, above X, between A/N/N/O and seventh numerals. Beneath: I

Umayyad Anonymous, (Pre-Reform) Fals 43

44

67122

67123

D73

C15

1700

1194

2.47

2.38

20

17

The caliph stg., facing, wearing long robe and native head-dress, his r. hand placed on his sword; around legend Type B

Large m, to left and right upwards:

693–696

Fistin(?) Filastīn

Walker 1956:25, No. P.7

Three Imperial figures stg. facing, wearing long robes, and cross-surmounted crown. Each holds in his r. a small globe with cross

Large M, above monogram, below officina letter (effaced). To l. anticlockwise debased and illegible legend

End 7th c.

Tabarīya

SNAT: 30, No. 282

AH 96/ 714/15 CE

Wāsit

Walker 1956:192, No. 528

Missing

Missing

-

‫ﻓﺴﻄﲔ ﻓﻠﺴﻄﲔ‬

Anonymous, during Reign of Al-Walīd I (AH 86–96/705–715 CE), Silver Dirham 45

67124

D14

1162

0.99

26

In centre legend Type A2 Marginal legend:

In centre:

 ‫ ﷲ ﺣﺪ ﷲ \ ﻟﺼﻤﺪ  ﻳﻠﺪ‬ \ ‫\  ﻳﻮﻟﺪ  ﻳﻜﻦ‬ ‫ﺑﺴﻢ ﷲ ﺿﺮ ﻫﺬ ﻟﺪ ﻫﻢ‬ ‫ﻟﻪ ﻛﻔﻮ ﺣﺪ‬ ‫ﺑﻮ ﺳﻂ  ﺳﻨﺔ ﺳﺖ ﺗﺴﻌﲔ‬ Marginal legend:

(‫ ﷲ ﺳﻠﻬﺒﺎ )ﺪ‬-‫ﻤﺪ ﺳﻮ‬. ‫ ﻋﻠﻰ ﻟﺪﻳﻦ‬1‫ﻳﻦ ﳊﻖ ﻟﻴﻈﻬﺮ‬6 7‫ ﳌﺸﺮﻛﻮ‬1‫ﻛﻠﻪ ﻟﻮﻛﺮ‬ Silver Dirham (Fragment) 46

C43

1879/3

0.66

-

Same

Same

231

CHAPTER 8: THE COINS

No.

IAA No.

Locus No.

Basket No.

Wt. (gm)

Diam. (mm)

Obverse

Reverse

47

67126

C205

2394

3.85

18–22

Within a triple circle legend Type A1.

Date

Mint

Reference

c. 700–710

Tabarīya

SNAT: 30, Nos. 302–312

SNAT: 30, No. 293

Anonymous, Fals In the field legend Type B1, above bird (hawk?) on pedestal, lying horizontally on its face. Marginal legend:

‫ﺑﺴﻢ ﷲ ﺿﺮ ﻫﺬ ﻟﻔﻠﺲ‬ ‫ﺑﻄ;ﻳﺔ‬ 48

67127

A4

1014

2.46

19

Same

Same (without bird)

Same

Same

49

67128

B41

1452

1.87

18

Same

Same

Same

Same

Same

50

67129

C88

2284

4.74

20

Same

Same

Same

Same

SNAT: 30, No. 300

51

67130

C99

2488

4.00

21

Same

Same

Same

Same

Same

c. 700–710

Tabarīya

SNAT: 32, No. 318

AH 91/ 709 CE

Same

SNAT 32, Nos. 321–323

c. AH 116/ 734/35 CE

Same

SNAT: 32, Nos. 339–344

c. AH 120/ 737 CE

Same

SNAT: 34, Nos. 360–364

Al-Walīd I (AH 86–96/705–715 CE), Fals (According to 20th Qirāt) 52

53

67131

67132

A47

C220

1309

2510

4.59

3.09

19

18

Within circle legend Type A1. Marginal legend:

Within circle legend Type B1, in field r. palm branch, marginal legend: