The Fatimid metalwork hoard from Tiberias. Tiberias : excavations in the house of the bronzes. Final report, volume II.

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THE FATIMID METALWORK HOARD FROM TIBERIAS: TIBERIAS: EXCAVATIONS IN THE HOUSE OF THE BRONZES: FINAL REPORT, VOLUME II Author(s): Elias Khamis Source: Qedem, Vol. 55, THE FATIMID METALWORK HOARD FROM TIBERIAS: TIBERIAS: EXCAVATIONS IN THE HOUSE OF THE BRONZES: FINAL REPORT, VOLUME II (2013), pp. IX, 1-430 Published by: Institute of Archaeology, Hebrew University of Jerusalem Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/43588687 JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

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Elias Khamis

THE FATIMID METALWORK HOARD FROM TIBERIAS TIBERIAS: EXCAVATIONS IN THE HOUSE OF THE BRONZES

FINAL REPORT, VOLUME II

Excavation Directors: Yizhar Hirschfeld and Oren Gutfeld

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In memory of my mother, Julia Haddad-Khamis

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CONTENTS

Acknowledgments I

II

Introduction

The

Objects

Lampstands Candlesticks

Perforated Oil

lamps

lamps

"Lamp-fillers" Incense-burner

Ewers

and

jugs

Bottles

Bowls

Dishes

Small

bowls

and

dishes

Cups Cylindrical

vessels

Beaker

Trays Round

boxes

Dippers Cooking

pot

and

frying

pan

Buckets

Mortars

and

pestles

Legs Arched

Casket

handles

fittings

Coppersmith's Balance Hollow

Large Sword

tools

pans shaft

hoops quillons

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Statuettes

Jewelry Lids

Decorative

handles

Miscellanea

Rings Bells

Rods,

strips,

Iron

III IV

V

hooks

and

objects

Summary Bibliography

Catalogue

VI

plates

Plates

Index

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

among The genesis of this volume was the suggestion of the the faculty members and students of the late Prof. Yizhar Hirschfeld and Dr. Oren Gutfeld of Department of Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies

of the Hebrew University. This interest was the the Institute of Archaeology, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, that I should study the metalwork germ of the present study. Dr. Rachel Milstein

hoard discovered in Tiberias and prepare supervised it for the work with endless patience, publication as part of the final report. When supplying I took unstinted encouragement, assistance

on the project, they spared no effort in and supplying support. I welcome this opportunity to thank

me with all necessary assistance, including her, funds as well as the other faculty members of the Department for the cleaning, photography and drawing of theof Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies,

objects. In addition, they provided meparticularly with an Prof. Reuven Amitai, Prof. Myriam

Rosenoffice and use of a computer, and staff to aid me Ay in alon, Prof. Amikam Elad, and Prof. Sharon for the help and encouragement preparing the report. The catalogue wasMoshe prepared with the assistance of Ms. Roni Amir, who the thatwas they gave me throughout.

Additional field supervisor of the area in which the hoard was interest in the hoard was displayed

when Prof. discovered. Words cannot express my gratitude to James Allen of the University of them.

Oxford, was invited by the head of the Institute

of Archaeology to visit the exhibition. As a result During my work on the hoard, I suggested that

of his visit and our conversations on the hoard, part of it should be displayed in the exhibition hall of the Institute of Archaeology of the he invited Hebrew me to complete my research in Oxford

andreceived agreed to serve as an advisor. I am immensely University of Jerusalem. My proposal was to him for his advice and support, and for with much enthusiasm by Prof. Gideonindebted Foerster,

then head of the Institute, and Ms. Gilathe Hurwitz, opportunity to spend time in Oxford during the writing of this study. I welcome this opportunity curator of its collections, and preparation of the to thank the members of the Institute of Oriental exhibition began immediately. Thanks to Ms. Studies of the University of Oxford, especially Hurwitz's great expertise and her capable staff, Dr. Luke Treadwell, Dr. Mahmoud Hawari and the exhibition was swiftly mounted. During its

Prof. Jeremy Jones, for their assistance and preparation the hoard received further treatment, valuable for comments. I am particularly grateful to primarily through the allocation of funds Dr. Marlia Mango, the Institute of Archaeology of additional cleaning and photography. Special thanks are due to Prof. Yoram Tsafrir for his unconditional the University of Oxford, for her comments and

drawing support, to Dr. Viviana Moskovich forfor her helpmy attention to some of the literature

in the field of Byzantine metalwork. I am also during preparing the catalogue for publication and to all the staff members of the Institute of

indebted to the staff of the library of the Institute

of Oriental Studies, the Sackler Library and the Archaeology, and in particular to Sue Gorodetsky, who edited the volume.

library of the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford for

Since its discovery, the metalwork hoard ofthe assistance that they have supplied over the the Fatimid period has attracted much interestyears. IX

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I was enabled to write this study by a generous

grant from the Rothenstreich Award from the

invested immense efforts over a long period to

produce the accurate and aesthetically pleasing

Israeli Council for Higher Education for three years

drawings. I am grateful to Mr. Gabi Laron for the

(2001-2004). At the very beginning of my research

attractive and professional photographs of most of

(2001), I received a grant from the Smith Fund

the items. Before drawing and photography, the

of the Department of Art History of the Hebrew

metal work had first to be cleaned. This work was

University, for which I am grateful to Prof. Ziva

carried out primarily by Ms. Miriam Lavi, head

Amishai-Maisels, who was director of the fund.

of the conservation laboratory of the Institute of

This grant enabled me to visit European museums,

Archaeology of the Hebrew University, with the

particularly in Spain, where I was able to examine

assistance of Ms. Ravit Lin; a few items were

the bronze hoard from Denia on Spain's east coast,

cleaned by Ms. Orna Cohen, while others were

a hoard that is similar in content and style to the

cleaned in the laboratories of the Israel Museum in

hoard from Tiberias. The hoard is in the Alicante

Jerusalem. My thanks are due to all of them.

Museum under the directorship of Dr. Rafael Azuar,

Finally, I would like to thank Mr. Jeryes Matar,

and I am grateful to him for his warm hospitality, the master coppersmith of the prestigious Iskandar

for displaying the various items of the hoard toMatar & Sons workshop in Nazareth, his staff and me, and for his ideas and suggestions. In addition,the members of his family for their hospitality and I received a special grant from the Samir Shammatheir valuable notes and comments on the traditional Fund of the University of Oxford, for which I am production and decoration techniques of the various

grateful to Dr. Luke Treadwell.

types of copper vessels.

I received technical assistance from a number

of people, whose excellent work is manifested in

Elias Khamis

the illustrations of this volume. First and foremost

University of Oxford

I am indebted to Ms. Tania Gorenstein, who

Spring 2013

X

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PART ONE

INTRODUCTION

This volume deals with a metalwork hoard of the

the south of the courtyard, with a third next to them.

Fatimid period comprising about a thousand items, The doorways of the rooms faced onto the courtyard. which was unearthed in excavations carried out in Within the courtyard, in front of the doorways, were ancient Tiberias in the autumn of 1 998 . The hoard was remains of built pillars, attesting to the existence of discovered in a structure defined by the excavators as a portico or a covered space supporting the balcony a metal workshop, enabling us to ascertain the date of of an upper story. Access to this upper story was the hoard and the circumstances of its deposition.1 The apparently provided by a staircase adjacent to the structure's southern wall. excavations, conducted on behalf of the Institute of

Archaeology of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem To the east of the alley the excavations revealed under the direction of the late Prof. Yizhar Hirschfeld remains of two residential structures, separated by a

and Dr. Oren Gutfeld, took place in the sewage common wall: the southern structure, in which the treatment plant at the foot of Mount Berenice, about metalwork hoard was discovered, and an additional

200 m northwest of the ancient bathhouse (Fig. 1). structure to its north. In the center of the northern The field supervisor of the area in which the hoard structure was an irregular-shaped courtyard paved

was discovered was Roni Amir. The full report with pebbles and plaster. South of the courtyard of the excavations, together with the other finds, were three rooms, with another on the northwest. The

was published as Volume I (Qedem 48) by Yizhar

southern structure, which apparently served as a metal

Hirschfeld and Oren Gutfeld;2 a metallurgical analysis

workshop, was triangular (Fig. 4), with the wall that

of selected items from the hoard by Matthew J. Ponting defined the structure on the north meeting the facade

appears there on pp. 35-61 .

at a sharp angle. The structure had an irregular-shaped

The area excavated was quite limited, measuring courtyard. On its west were two rooms, one leading about 500 square meters (Fig. 2). It was crossed by into the other, and on the south a room containing an alley ca. 20 m long. The alley, 3-5 m wide, was a tabun and a ledge was partially exposed in the bordered by the walls of residential structures that

contained various installations (Fig. 3). The walls of the structures, preserved to a height of up to 2 m,

excavation. Toward the end of the Fatimid period the structures

were destroyed and completely abandoned. The

were 60 cm thick on average and were built of basalt massive stone collapse that covered the structures is an stones, field stones, and fragments of building stones

indication that they were destroyed in an earthquake,

from earlier periods in secondary use. The floors were an assumption supported by the cracks noted in several made of beaten earth, paving stones, pebbles or plaster. of the walls. After this event the area lay desolate and

Staircases were discovered in two locations, indicating the ruins were covered by dark-colored silt mixed that the residential structures, in part at least, had a with field stones. No remains of the Crusader or later second floor. periods were discovered. To the west of the alley the excavations uncovered

In the structure defined as a workshop, the

part of a large residential structure, built around a excavations uncovered three pottery pithoi in which stone-paved courtyard. There were two rooms to the hoard was deposited. Two pithoi were sunk under 1

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PART ONE

Fig. 1 . General location map of the excavation area.

the floor and the third was placed behind a wall in the coins from the hoard is 976-1078 CE. Consequently, westernmost room. In addition to metal vessels and the deposition of the hoard does not predate 1078

other objects, the pithoi contained about eighty coins, (the latest coin from the hoard is dated to the reign of most of the type known as "anonymous /ó///.v". These Emperor Michael VII, 1071-1078), and it appears to

are Byzantine coins minted in Constantinople. The have been deposited at the end of the eleventh century, obverse bears the image of Christ with nimbus, cross on the eve of the Crusader invasion. A detailed study

and the Greek inscription EMMANOUHA around

of the coins from the hoard is published by Gabriela

his head, while the reverse usually bears one of two Bijovsky in Volume I, pp. 65-102. The three pithoi in which the hoard was deposited Greek inscriptions, IC XC NIKA "Jesus Christ, the Victor" or IC XC BASILEU BASILE "Jesus Christ, were found in situ. Two of them were sunk under

the King of Kings". The chronological range of the the floor with great care (Figs. 4, 6) after the digging 2

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INTRODUCTION

Fig. 2. The excavation area, looking west. The building in which the metalwork hoard was discovered is on

of large pits to receive them, while the thirdcm leaned thick on average, created by working with bronze

against one of the corners of a small triangular Weroom may thus conclude that the structure remained i

in the west (Fig. 5). The first pithos (Hoard B) at was use, least for a short time, as a metal workshop afte uncovered in the courtyard at a depth of 20 cm thebelow deposition of the hoard.

the floor level (Figs. 7-8). This is a relatively Hoard large A was the largest of the three pithoi

vessel, with a maximal diameter of 75 cm and a height measuring 85 cm in diameter and 1 10 cm high. Unlik

of 90 cm. Its mouth had been deliberately broken to B and C, which were deposited under floor Hoards it larger was found on the floor of the westernmost room enable the insertion of bronze vessels that were than the mouth's original diameter. The metalbehind objects a low partition wall creating a small triangular were tightly packed into the pithos. The second space pithos specially designed to accommodate it. Since the entrance (Hoard C) is smaller, 50 cm in diameter and 75 cmof the room is narrower than the diameter of high. It was found under the floor of the frontthe room at the vessel must have been installed before pithos,

a depth of 60 cm (Fig. 7). Its mouth was undamaged, the building of the wall, or perhaps inserted from above

apparently because it contained small bronze through items, the ceiling. This indicates that the space, and tens of kilograms of metal scrap, and about 50 the bronze pithos that it contained, were constructed with

coins. Here too the items of the hoard were packed to serve as a kind of safe. The workshop's foresight tightly into the pottery vessel. After being filled, ownerthe had access, albeit inconvenient, to the pithos, opening of each of these pithoi was covered bysince a stone the partition wall was only 90 cm high.

slab, over which the floor's surface was restored. AsThe stated above, the three pithoi containing the hoard was thus deposited in an orderly and unhurried bronze hoard were deposited in three locations in fashion, with the intention of keeping it safe until some dated to the Fatimid period. The largest a building

vessel (Hoard A) contained numerous vessels, some point in the future. On the floor level of the front room and the courtyard we found bronze tools usedof by them the very large. The second pithos (Hoard B), owner of the house, together with a greenishsomewhat layer, 5 smaller, contained vessels and other items 3

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PART ONE

Fig. 3. Plan of the excavated remains.

Fig. 4. General view of the workshop, looking north. 4

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INTRODUCTION

Fig. 5. The triangular room of the workshop in which Hoard A was found.

Fig. 6. The central room of the workshop in which Hoard C was found. 5

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PART ONE

sheets, and more than 200 kg of bronze scrap (Fig. (Figs. 7-8). The smallest pithos (Hoard C) contained 14). ' Some of the vessels are decorated with schematic small items and large quantities of metal scrap (Fig. '