Italian Glazed Ware from the Genoese and Ottoman Periods Discovered in the Consulate and Fortress of Сembalo

Abstract

The article addresses a few finds of glazed ceramic ware from the thirteenth to sixteenth centuries, manufacture in Italy and excavated in the Consulate of Cembalo and the castle of Cembalo. These archaeological artefacts comprises fragments of jugs, bowls, ceramic dishes of the Archaic Majolica Ware (Maioliche Arcaiche I), Proto –Majolica Ware (Proto –Maiolica I, II, Ramina, Manganese, Rosso (RMR)), Renaissance Majolica Ware (Maiolica Rinascimentali), and vessels with the “ingobiatta e graffita a stecca” designs. These vessels feature different decorations: from simple geometric patterns and floral motifs to complex scenes popular in the Apennine peninsula. There is outstanding a small bowl from the early sixteenth century showing the joining of right hands called the “dexteraum iunctio” gesture. The vessel was probably a gift donated in betrothal or marriage. Another unique phenomenon of the material culture of the castle of Cembalo comprises the fragments of side of a dish belonging to the polychrome Beautiful Majolica Ware (“stile bello”) in the style called “primo istoriato” (“first story –telling”) showing military symbols of the Republican period, which became popular in the Renaissance. The spread of Italian ceramic ware in the region under analysis was directly related to the activities of Italian merchants. However, the artefacts presented in this article most likely were not the subject of commercial transactions. Quite plausibly, they came in the merchants’ baggage, a reminder of “faraway homeland” or simply a gift.