Artifacts Associated with the Chemical Arts in the Early Islamic Period in Ramla, Israel

Abstract

Archaeological excavations in Ramla, Jund Filastin capital during the early Islamic period, discovered in a zone of artisans and workshops, a unique complex of built and dug installations. It included barely known and understood components of a proto-chemical toolkit. The finds included an abundance of small, decorated bottles previously identified as perfume containers. Additional small finds of a proto-chemistry toolkit included e.g., bronze pipettes, delicate bronze pestles and weights. The complex is to be associated with the existence of a facility differing from an alchemist studio-laboratory. It involved the commercial, non-artisan, pre-industrial production of perfumes and aromatic oils associated with body care chemistry. The close proximity to a Hammam (bathhouse) is notable. Suitable comparisons were found throughout the Mediterranean Basin, from Spain, where comparable tool kits in close proximity to Hammams were discovered, to Russia, where similar technology and typology were documented. The article discusses the importance of the dictates of the Qur’an and Mohammedan traditions regarding purification of the body and their catalytic influence on social and early technological changes in a pre-industrial society.