Ceramics in transition: ceramics from the first Islamic period in the western Mediterranean – the example of al-Andalus

Abstract

This paper updates the present knowledge of ceramic productions in the Western Mediterranean in the early Middle Ages through the example of al-Andalus. The study of pottery production is a key element for recognizing the process of Islamization, the formation of al-Andalus, and the important social and economic changes that took placed in the Mediterranean between the seventh and ninth centuries. From a historical point of view, the early Middle Ages is a transcendental moment of change: patterns and socioeconomic models of the ancient world began to fade, and the evolution towards the development of feudal societies and, in parallel, the emergence of Islamic culture started. In the Iberian Peninsula, the arrival of the Arab-Berber army in AD 711 and its rapid conquest over a few years generated a process of social change know today as Islamization, which encompasses two centuries (eighth and ninth), and culminates in the tenth century with the standardization of a culture that is recognized from that moment on as Islamic culture. In this paper, the central elements of ceramic production in early al-Andalus are analysed, including the coexistence of diverse manufacturing techniques, the gradual disappearance of standardized productions, regionalization of production centres, and the incorporation of new forms and techniques such as glaze.