Caught Between Two Worlds: Decoding Levantine Alkaline Glazed Ware of the Fatimid to Crusader Periods (Eleventh–Twelfth Centuries) By Edna J. Stern

https://www.academia.edu/48732658/Caught_Between_Two_Worlds_Decoding_Levantine_Alkaline_Glazed_Ware_of_the_Fatimid_to_Crusader_Periods_Eleventh_Twelfth_Centuries_ The Levantine Alkaline Glazed Ware often remains unidentified in the southern Levant. Vessels of this ware have a limited distribution and were produced for only a short time. The name indicates the production and consumption area and the type of glaze used. It appeared at a dramatic transitional moment in this region: its manufacture began during the Fatimid rule in the southern Levant (modern-day northern Israel and southern Lebanon) and continued during the first decades of the Crusader period. Levantine Alkaline Glazed Ware may serve as an excellent case study for the examination of influence and cultural interactions between the Franks and the Fatimids, as well as other religious and ethnic minorities coexisting and interacting in this region, as this ware was clearly manufactured and used by these different eastern Mediterranean societies in a transition period. Produced over a relatively short time span, roughly from the mid-eleventh to the mid-/late twelfth centuries, the Levantine Alkaline Glazed Ware was apparently not widely circulated. This ware is rather unknown in the eastern Mediterranean arena, or even in the Levant, despite its local origin. The reasons that it often remains unidentified are its simple, monochromatic decoration lacking a painted design and its resemblance to glazed bowls from the Early Islamic period. Typological and archaeometric studies of pottery from various excavations in Beirut and in Acre (‘Akko) and villages in its rural hinterland presented the opportunity to define the Levantine Alkaline Glazed Ware. ...