Electron Microprobe Analysis of 9th-12th Century Islamic Glass from Córdoba, Spain

Duckworth, Chloë N.; Llave, Ricardo Córdoba de la; Faber, Edward; Edwards, Denis J.; Henderson, Julian

doi:10.1111/arcm.12079

Cited by 54 publications

(27 citation statements)

References 29 publications

(59 reference statements)

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“…( B ) Elements associated with the silica (Al, Fe) and lead component (Ag, Ba, Bi) reflect different raw materials. Data sources: smoothers, ( 29 ); Iberian soda ash lead glasses, ( 14 , 27 , 33 ); central European potash lead glasses, ( 31 , 34 – 37 ); Islamic lead silica glasses, ( 38 ); ceramic glazes from Cordoba, ( 39 ).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The supply of glass to the central and western Mediterranean regions relied on imports from the east, and from the late antique period onward increasingly on the recycling of Roman glass ( 11 , 12 ). Relatively little is known about medieval and early Islamic glassmaking in the Iberian Peninsula ( 13 – 17 ). The earliest archaeological evidence of the primary production of new plant ash glasses in Iberia dates to the turn of the first millennium CE ( 13 ).…”

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confidence: 99%

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Ex novo development of lead glassmaking in early Umayyad Spain

Schibille

Ares

García

et al. 2020

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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This study investigates glass finds from the Iberian Peninsula as a proxy for identifying the mechanisms underlying technological transformations and innovation in the wake of the Arab conquest in the seventh and eighth centuries CE. High-resolution laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry data combined with lead isotope analyses of a precisely dated (mid-eighth century to 818 CE) glass assemblage from the Rabad of Šaqunda in Cordoba, capital of Umayyad Spain, enabled us to trace the origins of an Iberian glassmaking industry and to unambiguously link it to the exploitation of local raw materials. The analytical data reveal increased recycling, some isolated imports of Islamic plant ash glasses from Mesopotamia, and, most notably, the development of a new type of glassmaking technology that resorted to the use of lead slag from silver and lead mining and processing in the region around Cordoba. The production of this type of lead glass from Šaqunda was short-lived and was subsequently refined by introducing additional fluxing agents. The technological innovation of Islamic glassmaking in Spain evidently drew inspiration from adjacent high-temperature technologies. The revival of glass and the development of a local glassmaking tradition was indirectly related to the wider processes of Islamization, such as the introduction of glazed ceramics that are compositionally related to the lead glasses from Šaqunda.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Ex novo development of lead glassmaking in early Umayyad Spain

Schibille

Ares

García

et al. 2020

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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“…8 th -century treatise Kitāb al-Durra al-Maknūna by the polymath Jābir ibn Ḥayyān describe the addition of manganese when producing a variety of glass colours (al-Hassan 2009a: 140, see discussion in note 91;al-Hassan 2009b: 191-234). The chemical analysis of glass artefacts has also repeatedly demonstrated the high manganese content of Islamic glasses in comparison to many earlier glasses: Islamic glasses generally contain 0.5-1.5 wt% MnO (Brill 2001: 29) and specific examples from around the Muslim world include an average of 1 wt% MnO in glasses excavated at the site of 10 th -13 th -century Banias in Israel (Freestone et al 2000), 0.55 wt% MnO in glasses excavated at 9 th -10 th century Nīshāpur (Brill 1995), 0.86 wt% MnO in glasses excavated at the 8 th -12 th -century site of Kush in the Emirate of Ras al-Khaimah (Swan unpublished data), 1.2 wt% MnO in glasses recovered from the 11 th -century Serçe Limanı shipwreck off the southern coast of Turkey (Brill 2009), and 1.3 wt% MnO in 9 th -12 th century glasses excavated in Cordoba in Spain (Duckworth et al 2015). Although only three of the 101 analysed Sīrāf glasses have a high alumina content, the presence of high-alumina soda glasses at Sīrāf is significant because they have been tied largely to South Asia, Southeast Asia, and Africa (Dussubieux et al 2010) rather than to the Middle East or Iran.…”

Section: Bangles Kohl Stick and Outlier Vessel Fragmentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Compositional observations for Islamic Glass from Sīrāf, Iran, in the Corning Museum of Glass collection

Swan

Lankton

Gratuze

et al. 2017

Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports

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The medieval port city of Sīrāf (ca. 800-1050 CE) on the north coast of the Persian/Arabian Gulf linked the core lands of the 'Abbāsid caliphate with India, China, Africa, and beyond. 101 glass fragments recovered from the 1966-1973 excavations at Sīrāf and now at the Corning Museum of Glass were analysed using LA-ICPMS in order to explore the glassmaking raw materials and technology of the objects found within the city, as well as to address issues of the production and trade of glass during the Islamic period. The results indicate that the main groups of glass at Sīrāf likely date to the 9 th -early 11 th centuries and can be subdivided by the trace elements zirconium and chromium. Chemical matches with some likely Indian glass, and with glass finds from South and Southeast Asia, underline the pivotal role of the Gulf in the eastward movement of Islamic glass via the Indian Ocean trade network, as well as the influx of Indian glass into the Islamic world. Glass bangles and a small number of vessel fragments likely date to the late 11 th century or later, and their chemical compositions indicate different production origins.

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“…The second explanation suggested above, that lead could have been deliberately added to soda-lime-silica glasses as a separate ingredient, has been put forth here as a result of previous research on tenth-and eleventh-century glasses from Córdoba, Spain (Duckworth et al 2014), and similar practices noted for glasses of entirely different 'base' compositions in thirteenth-century northern Europe (Mecking 2013). The reasons for adding lead might have included 'bulking out' the volume of glass, increasing its brilliance and reflectivity, and as discussed above, lowering its melting and working temperatures.…”

Section: Discussion Of the Lead Content Of The Glasses Analysedmentioning

confidence: 90%

“…Lead-silica glasses, usually with over 60-70% PbO by weight form an established, albeit rather rare category of glass in the Islamic and medieval European worlds. Although lead has been employed in relatively low levels as a colorant/opacifier from the earliest production of glass, lead-soda-silica glasses, with PbO contents ranging anywhere between c. 20% and 60% (and intermediate lead glasses with c. 5-20% PbO), are rarely encountered, and to the best of the authors' knowledge, only recent analytical work on material from the Iberian Peninsula and parts of North Africa has started to throw up evidence of these glasses appearing in anything but sporadic and isolated instances (see the discussion in Duckworth et al 2014). Lead-potash-silica glasses are encountered in Medieval Europe, and are thought to be the result of adding lead to raw or recycled potash glasses made with tree ash (Mecking 2013).…”

Section: Discussion Of the Lead Content Of The Glasses Analysedmentioning

confidence: 99%

Non-destructive μXRF analysis of glass and metal objects from sites in the Libyan pre-desert and Fazzan

2015

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This paper reports on the non-destructive analysis of 42 samples of copper alloy and glass from sites in Libya, using semi-quantitative μXRF, carried out as part of the work of the Trans-Sahara Project funded by the European Research Council. These are among the first chemical analyses to be performed on metals and glasses of any period found in Libya, and the results – though preliminary – raise some interesting possibilities. In particular, we discuss some possible indications with regard to the practice of recycling glasses, as evidenced through heterogeneous, malformed glass beads with variable quantities of lead. A glass mirror from Ghirza was also found to be backed in lead, and was probably the result of a glass-making technique still practised in recent times in India. The metal analysis has revealed evidence of a pre-Islamic trade in brass in the northern Sahara, as well as showing the presence of objects made from the mixing of different types of scrap metal, a process probably taking place at the Garamantian metalworking site of Saniat Jibril among other locations. The importance of further analysis of available Libyan and other North African metal artefacts and glasses for the contextualisation and extension of these findings is emphasised.

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Electron Microprobe Analysis of 9th-12th Century Islamic Glass from Córdoba, Spain

Cited by 54 publications

References 29 publications

Ex novo development of lead glassmaking in early Umayyad Spain

Ex novo development of lead glassmaking in early Umayyad Spain

Compositional observations for Islamic Glass from Sīrāf, Iran, in the Corning Museum of Glass collection

Non-destructive μXRF analysis of glass and metal objects from sites in the Libyan pre-desert and Fazzan

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