Production and Use Specifics of Carved Decorations in the Architecture of Medieval Khwarezm (XIII-XIV Centuries AD)

Abstract

This work is an attempt to study and describe some varieties of non-glazed ceramic facing bricks (the carved clay) because the goods made of this material, as well as their peculiarities, and the role they played in the socioeconomical history, the aesthetics, and the architecture on Medieval Khwarezm have not been studied until the present day. The carved clay is a fragile, unfired, unglazed architectural millwork. This is why it is quite rarely found unbroken in the excavated building debris. The carved decorations on the clay support were omnipresent in the historical site ornamentation of the XII-XIV centuries AD. However, as we can judge by the surviving building details and by their fragments, in Khwarezm unglazed carved pottery, or pottery cast in the q a l ı p moulds and clay slipware had been in use since the VIII century AD (the Afrighids period, V-IX centuries AD). This is testified by the surviving medieval mausoleums, mosques, houses of the rich townspeople, and by the findings at the sites discovered by archaeological expeditions. The architectural decoration parts usually had an epigraphical or botanical ornament. The carved ornament could include semiabstract botanical motives (any petals, leaves, branches), or geometrical ones, looking like entangled bands, curls, and inscriptions made in N a s k h Arabian calligraphic style. Initially, the ornament was carved in raw clay and then fired in pottery kilns. Closing the interdisciplinary gap in the studying of the cultural heritage of Central Asia – explicitly its architectural and aesthetic aspects – is deemed utterly important. The use of certain technologies in the production of the architectural decorations specifically from the carved clay indirectly allows to reveal and describe the social and economic practices pertaining to the medieval society and state. The results and conclusions have an applied significance for recreating the complete decorations of the historical Khwarezmian architectural sites. Besides, the materials accumulated in this work may be of interest for art experts, orientalists, and architectural historians.