A ninth- to tenth-century pottery workshop at al-Yamāmah, Central Arabia
Keywords:
Najd, early Islamic period, Islamic archaeology, pottery workshop, pottery productionAbstract
No area of craft tradition has so far been documented in the Najd. In this respect, the fieldwork conducted by the Saudi-French archaeological mission in the oasis of al-Kharj (Central Arabia, 2011–2017) filled a gap with the discovery and excavation of a pottery workshop at al-Yamāmah — ancient Jaw al-Khaḍārim, capital city of the historical region of al-Yamāmah. To the south-west of the Islamic city, a sounding revealed several pottery kilns in a courtyard connected to a building and several dumps from the ninth–tenth century AD. The content of the dumps made it possible to distinguish between local and regional productions. The stratigraphic sequence, architectural analysis, material study, chemical analysis, and AMS radiocarbon dating all contribute to clarify the pottery production in the Najd during the Abbasid period. Our aim is to present the spatial organization of the pottery workshop and to characterize its production.
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