Sphero-conical Vessels Research Articles

Mavīzāb and Fuqqāʿ: An Ilkhanid-Period Dispute as Evidence in the Sphero-Conical Vessels Debate

Abstract The monolithic designation of “sphero-conical vessels,” chosen to circumvent the long-standing modern debate around the function of these objects, does not satisfy the multiplicity of terms and uses that they had in the past. A munāẓara (disputation) by Zangi al-Bukhari titled “Dispute between the mavīzāb and the fuqqāʿ of the Iranians” (presented here in full translation) provides new insight into one such use, while also expanding our understanding of everyday life in late thirteenth–early fourteenth-century Baghdad. Drawing from this Persian work and from Arabic medieval cookery books, this essay connects the physical qualities of drinks and associated etiquettes of consumption to the materiality of surviving objects. Still raisin drinks were ladled from large metal bowls into smaller ones. Earthenware sphero-conical vessels, perhaps a group among those resembling pinecones, were used individually, to gulp down the foam of effervescent drinks.

Сфероконические сосуды золотоордынского времени из раскопок Солхата и ближайшей округи

Archaeological researches of the Crimean ulus of the Golden Horde discovered multitude of finds in the cultural layers from the late-thirteenth to the early fifteenth century, and particularly sphero-conical vessels. So far there existed no special studies addressing the sphero-conical vessels from Solkhat and its immediate vicinity. This article investigates the range of ware in question originating from 1978–2021archaeological researches. The materials in question reside in the State Hermitage Museum, Museum of Literature and Art of Staryi Krym, and the Crimean Tatar Museum of Cultural and Historical Heritage. At the moment, there is no information on the manufacture of this ware in the capital of the Crimean yurt of the Dzhuchi Ulus. The finds of sphero-conical vessels appeared at almost all the studied monuments in the fortified settlement of Solkhat. The most widespread are red-clay and grey-clay vessels decorated with “chain-mail” or “honeycomb” patterns. At this stage of the study, one can assume that the finds of sphero-conical vessels were related to the industries developed in the settlement. Moreover, the 2001 to 2008 archaeological research of the industrial settlement of Bokatash II did not uncover any fragment of sphero-conical vessel. The most part of sphero-conical vessels originate from excavation trench 46 located in the vicinity of the mediaeval bath in Georgievskaia ravine and researched in 2017. It could be indirect evidence that the vessels in question were transport containers for expensive and rapidly volatile liquids. An attempt has been made to systematize, analyse, and interpret this category of finds. The study addresses 50 finds total dated from the late thirteenth to the first half of the fifteenth centuries. The article includes the catalogue with detailed description of the ceramic finds and illustrations.

Археометрические исследования сфероконических сосудов из раскопа CС Болгарского городища: местное производство и алхимическое назначение?

The paper addresses the study of the chemical composition of paste used in 26 fragments of sphero-conical vessels from the CC dig of the Bolgar settlement. Complex analytical studies, including optical and electron microscopy, mass spectrometry and emission spectral analysis, were carried out to identify the possible functional purpose of the vessels, as well as to identify potential raw material sources. Areas in the vicinity of the Bolgar settlement were identified, where the composition of the clay is similar to the composition of the ceramic paste. The peculiarity of “mercury — arsenic” ratio in the ceramic clay allowed to make an assumption about their original alchemical nature.

Islamic ancient Termez: An active and long-established ceramic manufacturing centre along the silk road

This paper presents the most recent comprehensive archaeological investigation at ancient Termez, a large site located in southern Uzbekistan along the Amu Darya river. The Joint Uzbek-Spanish team has worked there since 2006. After a first phase of investigation up to 2012, the campaigns restarted in 2018. The paper concentrates on the pottery manufacturing centres related to the Islamic period, located outside the rabad (suburbs) to the north-west and in the shahristan (lower town). Besides accurately investigating the structures and the stratigraphy of each context, ceramic vessels have been collected during surveys and excavations and a selection of them is presented in this paper to give a broad overview of the wares produced and circulating at Termez. First of all, the finding of several pottery workshops unquestionably proves that the city was a very active manufacturing centre for a long period of time. Moreover, the study demonstrates that a large variety of glazed and unglazed items were locally produced, such as fine tableware, storage and kitchen vessels, but also sphero-conical vessels. Their forms and decorations largely conform to the Central Asian Islamic ceramic horizon. The ceramics collected have been dated between the 8th/9th and the 16th/17th century CE.

Composition of trace residues from the contents of 11th-12th century sphero-conical vessels from Jerusalem.

The residues from the internal surface of four archaeological ceramic sherds, excavated from the Armenian Gardens, Jerusalem were analysed to characterise the contents of the original vessel. The sherds derive from four small, thick-walled, sphero-conical vessels recovered from a destruction layer, dating between the 11th and 12th century, Jerusalem. The residue has been analysed using light microscopy, biochemical characterisation, gas chromatography mass spectroscopy, inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy and cold vapour atomic fluorescence spectrometry. This analysis established the presence of various compounds including fatty acids and notable levels of mercury, sulphur, aluminium, potassium, magnesium, nitrates and phosphorous. The contents and probable functions of the four vessels were characterised from the residues on these sherds as different from each other, reflecting their different decoration, manufacture and ceramic typologies. One of these vessels contains residue that indicate the vessel held oils. The residue of the second vessel is consistent with either scented materials or medicinal contents, while a third probably contained medicinal material. The unique fourth sherd is from a stoneware sphero-conical vessel with very thick walls, no decoration and the residue supports the possibility it was used for the storage of chemicals or may have held the chemical ingredients for an explosive device, consistent with a medieval grenade. This residue analysis of Mamluk sphero-conical vessels provides insight into luxury items, medicines, technology and trade in medieval Jerusalem.

Islamic Pottery from Ancient Termez (Uzbekistan): New Archaeological and Archaeometric Data

The study deals with the Islamic pottery from Termez (southern Uzbekistan), with a special focus on the wares dated to the 9th-12th centuries. The city was a major urban settlement, along one of the routes of the Silk Road. Ceramics, both glazed and unglazed, were produced in several workshops located in the lower city (shahristan) and its suburbs (rabad). Glazed and unglazed wares, including cooking pots, two pottery moulds and two sphero-conical vessels from two excavated areas at Termez are examined by X-ray Fluorescence, X-ray Diffraction, and petrographic thin section analysis. Clayey sediments from different areas of the site are incorporated as a local reference for comparison. The aim is to examine the provenance of the vessels and to determine the production techniques. The results reveal that all the vessels were produced by using calcareous clays and most of them exhibit similar geochemical composition; nevertheless, several chemical groups and petrographic fabrics were identified. XRD points that firing temperatures were generally between 800 and 1000-1100°C, being the latter prevalent. The results of this study are remarkable since archaeometric researches on Central Asian pottery are still few.

Moessbauer Study of Sphero-Conical Vessels from Bolgar

Samples of sphero-conical vessels found in mass quantities in the ancient settlement Bolgar were analyzed by Moessbauer spectroscopy. Wares with relatively low annealing temperatures <500°C and having a ratio Fepar/Fe2+ ≤ 1.11 in transmission spectra were differentiated from those with high ones. The detected value of $$ {\mathrm{Fe}}_{\mathrm{par}}^{3+} $$ /Fe2+ was considerably less than the value of 2.69 that was characteristic of raw materials for pottery production in the vicinity of the selected settlement. This indicated that other non-local sources of raw materials existed in the medieval handicraft center.

Sphero-conical Vessels from the Ayyubid Wall in Cairo

During the archaeological excavations along the medieval walls of Cairo, undertaken by the Aga Khan Cultural Services and the French Institute of Oriental Archaeology in Cairo, a large amount of pottery has been discovered that can be dated from the Fatimid Period until the modern times. Within the Ayyubid and Mamluk layers a number of sphero-conical vessels have been identified. Made from a hard dense clay, these vessels are cooked to a high temperature and are coated with a purplish slip that sometimes appears shiny. The stratigraphy of the site has unfortunately not provided any clue concerning the function of these artefacts; however, very useful information with regard to dating can be understood. These containers can be divided into two different chronological groupings: Firstly, the Ayyubid era, which can be divided in two sub-groups; and secondly, the Mamluk era, represented by vessels exhibiting incised “scales” as decoration and in rare cases, a glazed surface. A number of similar containers from the Fatimid era can be added to the chronological-typology in order to show a kind of “prototype” to these spheroconical vessels. These vessels seem to be made of the same type of clay and are coated with the same slip.

Sphero-conical Vessels from Baalbek

Recent archaeological excavations in the area of Bustan Nassif, south of the citadel of Baalbek, by the DAI-Berlin, BTU-Cottbus and DGA-Lebanon, have brought to light an important urban sector occupied during the Middle Islamic period with public buildings (mosque, hamm?m, kh?n) and private houses, crossed by a main arterial road connecting one of the city gates to the city centre. A significant quantity of ceramics has been unearthed in this sector, documenting the history of common ware and fine ware productions on the site from the 12th through the early 15th centuries. Among these are numerous sphero-conical vessels from the north-eastern area, which bears witness to an important military destruction. In addition to the assemblage from Bustan Nassif, the site of Baalbek has produced numerous sphero-conical vessels from unstratified and secondary contexts. This material is particularly rich and varied, in terms of fabric, form, and surface treatment, also including some glazed items. An important sub-group of these vessels is incised with inscriptions or symbols, executed after firing, providing new perspectives on object use. The rich variety of the Baalbek assemblage recovered from good stratigraphic contexts provides new clues for understanding the function(s) of sphero-conical vessels.

Note on a Use of Sphero-conical Vessels in Mamluk Era Damascus

This paper returns to a theory positing that some sphero-conical vessels discovered at medieval sites in the Islamic world were used to hold beverages. Using historical sources about Damascus dating from the 14th and 15th centuries, the author argues that some of these objects should be considered as bottles designed to hold fuqq'a (a sparkling beverage) and provides new evidence about the period in which they were used and produced in Syria.

A Late Military Use of the Sphero-conical in the 19th Century Sudan

This paper focuses on a particular type of mace that was used by the Sudanese dervishes during the Mahdist rebellion from 1881 to 1899. These maces were a reuse of Mamluk sphero-conical vessels. They were associated with the standards (alams) of the Mahdist regiments. The association suggests these maces had some talismanic value to the dervishes. The author will examine their origin and propose a new interpretation of the sphero-conical vessels as objects linked to the Indian Ocean’s Spice and Perfume trade.

Medieval Islamic Fire Grenades

Some fragments of broken sphero-conical vessels were found in one of the southern Towers of the Citadel of Damascus. Though not unusual in themselves, these fragments are of particular interest because they formed part of a cache of Islamic military equipment dating from the 13th and 14th centuries. Such an association might lend weight to the theory that such vessels had a military function; for example being used as incendiary or even semi-explosive grenades. This article considers such a possibility and compares the fragments with others found across a large part of the medieval Islamic world, and indeed beyond. The article also offers a survey of historical, archaeological and iconographic evidence for the use of incendiary grenades within medieval Islamic military tradition and technology.

A Note on “Grenades” as Fire-starter Flasks

The paper provides a short note on the function of sphero-conical vessels as either fire-blowers (aeolipiles) or as fire-starter flasks. The evolution of the form is briefly recounted from examples in Egyptian excavations, with additional examples from Quseir al-Qadim and Khirbet al-Mafjar. These latter examples strongly indicate domestic use and suggest a primary function in enhancement of fire.

Chemical Insights into the Function of Four Sphero-Conical Vessels from Medieval Dvin, Armenia

Sphero-conical vessels are commonly found in small quantities at medieval sites throughout the Near East. These relatively small vessels have a distinctive torpedo shape, sturdy walls, and a narrow, nipple-shaped opening. Several functions have been proposed for them, including incendiary devices, plumb bobs, aeolipiles in pottery kilns, the main part of a water pipe, and containers for precious liquids such as mercury, scented oils, ink, wine, or beer. We analyzed the organic residues preserved in the walls of four sphero-conical vessels excavated in twelfth–thirteenth century layers at Dvin, Armenia, using gas chromatography combined with mass spectrometry (GC-MS). These vessels all contained trace levels of fat and oils, findings that we interpret as the remains of scented oils. This interpretation adds support to the proposed primary function of these vessels as containers for perfumes but does not exclude the possibility that different vessels may have been used or reused for one or more of the other suggested purposes.

The sphero-conical vessels from the Lower Danube in the light of new discoveries from Isaccea, Tulcea county, Romania

The sphero-conical vessels from the Lower Danube in the light of new discoveries from Isaccea, Tulcea county, Romania

Сфероконические сосуды раскопа CLXV Болгарского городища

Сфероконические сосуды раскопа CLXV Болгарского городища

Kubad Abad kazısında bulunan bir grup kürevî konik kap

Kubad Abad is a palace complex on a small peninsula at the southwest bank of Beysehir Lake in Beysehir District of Konya. This palace complex, which was built by I. Alaeddin Keykubad, is being enlightened with the excavations going for over thirty years. Important findings varying in a lot of types had been surfaced with the Kubad Abad excavations, which is one of the long-running Medieval excavations in Turkey. Among these are ceramics which are important for their period. In this work, 11 pieces of sphero-conical vessels found at the south of the reservoir and the furnace part of the Great Palace’s Turkish bath, among the rocks, during the 2012 excavations will be held. Some hypotheses will be improved about these vessels being found altogether at the same place near the Turkish bath, and they will be introduced to the scientific circle for the first time. Different ideas have been put forward by the researchers about the functions of these types of ceramics, which are called sphero-conical vessels in the art historian literature because of their form. It had been detected that these sphero-conical vessels, which are denoted as mercury cup, beer/malt cup, hand grenade, naphtha cup, perfume cup, tobacco or hashish cup, oil lamp ball, fire bellow, have spread to a large area in the Turkish and Islamic geography and they vary in form. These ceramics, could be found glazed or unglazed, are generally unglazed. They show common features in material with their dense texture, thick and hard clay mould. With this aspect they could be seen as suitable for carrying liquid, valuable powder or mineral in long journeys easily, without breaking, thus it could be said that these vessels have many functions.

Василий Алексеевич Городцов и археология Нижнего Поволжья (к 150-летию со дня рождения исследователя)

The article deals with the activity of V.A. Gorodtsov, an outstanding Russian archaeologist, in terms of the history of archaeology of the Lower Volga Region. His papers are of fundamental importance for investigating the Bronze Age monuments and artifacts of the Gorodets culture. He used to cooperate with the amateur archaeologists from Saratov and was the first one to recognize availability of the monuments of the Bronze Age pit, timber and Khvalynskaya cultures in the region. Gorodtsov gave special attention to the Sosnovo-Mazinskij hoard. He took interest in the Golden Horde sphero-conical vessels. The researcher has contributed to generation and development of the archaeological school at the Saratov State University, headed by his disciple – professor P.S. Rykov.

The Uses of Sphero-Conical Vessels in the Muslim East

Previous articleNext article No AccessThe Uses of Sphero-Conical Vessels in the Muslim EastRichard EttinghausenRichard Ettinghausen Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Journal of Near Eastern Studies Volume 24, Number 3Jul., 1965Erich F. Schmidt Memorial Issue. Part One Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/371816 Views: 11Total views on this site Citations: 4Citations are reported from Crossref Copyright 1965 The University of ChicagoPDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article:Carney D. Matheson, Cory R. Vickruck, Chris J. McEvoy, Kim K. Vernon, Robert Mason, John P. Hart Composition of trace residues from the contents of 11th–12th century sphero-conical vessels from Jerusalem, PLOS ONE 17, no.44 (Apr 2022): e0267350.https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0267350Turgay POLAT Milet İşi Seramiklerde Form Tipolojisi Üzerine Bir Deneme, Sanat Tarihi Dergisi 25, no.22 (Dec 2016): 213–247.https://doi.org/10.29135/std.282171Johannes Thomann Early Persian Medical Works on Antisyphilitic Mercury Medicines, Asiatische Studien - Études Asiatiques 69, no.44 (Dec 2015): 971–996.https://doi.org/10.1515/asia-2015-1047Peter Pentz A medieval workshop for producing ‘Greek fire’ grenades, Antiquity 62, no.234234 (Jan 2015): 89–93.https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003598X00073531