New Looks at Old Pots: Results of Recent Multidisciplinary Studies of Glazed Ceramics From the Islamic World

the Islamic world from the eighth to the eighteenth centuries. In certain cases, the sophistication of execution was equal to any other art of the period, while the technological requirements have traditionally been recognized as extremely innovative. But despite its importance, serious study of the ceramics of the Islamic world have in the past been hampered by a number of serious problems. Although hypotheses existed regarding the impact of courtly patronage on these wares, in many cases no reliable correlation of the production of the ceramics to the place and period of these courts could be established. Clearly, a reliable way of assigning these materials to places of manufacture was necessary, as was a more reliable chronological ordering of the wares. Theoretically, certain classes of wares should be capable of as finely resolved a chronology as, for example, ancient Greek painted wares, where attribution of a piece to a single decade may be possible, enabling considerable correlation with the contemporary culture.' Chronologies have even been constructed for Neolithic pottery which attribute styles to a particular generation, enabling the sort of refinement that makes it possible to interpret ceramics in a socially and culturally meaningful manner. Further, although the technological sophistication of the ceramics has been recognized, few analytical studies had been made to investigate this technology. In my recent research these problems were approached using three chief methodologies, focusing on wares made in the Islamic world between about 700