General Information

Early Medieval Turquoise Wares first appear in northern Syria and southern Anatolia during the late 10th to early 11th centuries. The main evidence is from Antioch, Hisn al-Tīnāt, Nahr Quwayq, and Tarsūs. Turquoise was introduced as a decorative color in the 9th century, on white opaque glazed wares, but was later developed as an individual ware type. Turquoise wares were first made on buff to orange fabrics and coated with abraded turquoise glazes. These represent an experimental phase before the later blue gaze (turquoise) fritwares of the 12th–14th centuries. Some examples combine turquoise glazes with existing sgraffito or color-splash techniques, showing continuity with earlier Abbasid decorative traditions. Their distribution across both urban and rural sites indicates active regional production and trade. The emergence of these turquoise wares bridges the supposed “11th-century ceramic gap,” demonstrating that ceramic production in northern Syria did not decline but actually evolved through technological and stylistic innovation.*

* This description was written by Jieyu Liu, as part of a project for a course at Boston University in Fall 2025: AR 590, Life Is A Bowl, taught by Professor Andrea M. Berlin.