Levantine Early Islamic Alkaline Glazed Earthenwares comprise a wide-ranging family of very similar vessels made in various production locales from Beirut to Damascus to the northern Levant and Euphrates Valley. Manufacture began in the era of Fatimid rule in the southern Levant and continued into the Crusader period. Current evidence suggests that production ceased by the mid- or late 12th century in Beirut, and possibly a little later, towards the end of the 12th c. in Damascus, where it was replaced by more variously decorated Alkaline Glazed Fritwares (Stern 2018:284). Alkaline glazed earthenware vessels continue to be found in the Euphrates Valley until the 14th century (McPhillips 2012:453; Stern 2018:284).
The main characteristics are a light-colored/buff calcareous fabric, an alkaline based glaze, and simple, generally monochromatic, decoration. Only a few distinctive forms were produced: cups and hemispheric or shallow bowls with a wedge-shaped ring base or a simple ring base. The cups have vertical fluted body and a simple, vertical or slightly everted rim. The bowls have a simple, everted or ledge rim. The discovery of some body sherds glazed only on the exterior suggests that the repertoire also included jugs or juglets, although no whole vessels are yet known (Stern 2021).
Elemental analyses of Levantine Alkaline Glazed Earthenware vessels found in the 1990s excavations of the BEY 002 kiln/workshop site in Beirut enabled chemical reference groups for that city’s production to be established. Comparative analysis of vessels found in various sites in northern Israel showed that their compositions matched that of Beirut. In addition, petrographic analysis showed that vessel lithology suggests the Lower Cretaceous formations of the Beirut surroundings. Thus Beirut products were shipped south to Acre and from there to villages in that city’s agricultural hinterland.
Levantine Alkaline Glazed Earthenwares were also produced in Damascus, at workshops in a portion of the city's Potter's Quarter that lay outside the Bāb Kīsān gate on its southeastern side (McPhillips 2012:452-53 and citations therein). Many vessels were found in the excavations of the Citadel of Damascus, in sealed construction deposits closed by 1214 CE, during the Ayyubid dynasty (McPhillips 2001:142; McPhillips 2012:451-52). Additionally, small quantities were found in 9th to 11th century residential contexts that predate Citadel construction.
The Damascus vessels also have a light-colored calcareous fabric, the same range of alkaline glaze colors of light blue to turquoise to green, and appear in the same few forms as the Beirut vessels. Some examples are adorned simply with monochromatic style of decoration, but more often they feature underglaze painting of simple geometric motifs in manganese.
Levantine Alkaline Glazed Earthenware vessels appear at cites on the central and southern Levantine coast (Beirut, Acre, Caesarea), in inland towns (Yoqne‘am and Lajjun), and in villages in the agricultural hinterland of Acre (Horbat ‘Uza, Dar el-Gharbiya, Mi'ilya, and el-Kabri). Without chemical analysis, it is not always possible to determine the precise source. For example, underglaze painted vessels from the early Crusader settlement of Mi’ilya, feature vegetal and geometric motifs in manganese (Stern 2012:69, 73, Fig. 4). The Mi’ilya examples stand out in that they are painted over white slip, a feature that also makes an appearance in Damascus (McPhillips 2001: Plate 3.20), yet use a transparent alkaline glaze, as opposed to the almost invariably color glazed Damascene tableware (McPhillips 2012:453).
Further north, Levantine Alkaline Glazed ware vessels appear in Antioch and in Gritille on the Euphrates. While Beirut could have been the source for the wares found at Antioch, Redford and Blackman suggested that those found in Gritille and other sites in the Euphrates region were locally produced (Stern 2018:292, and citations therein).
Distribution of specifically Damascus-produced vessels is not yet as well known as those made in Beirut (McPhillips 2012:458, 459) although as an 11th-century traveler mentions Syrian vessels, decorated in blue and black or blue and white, that were used to transport preserved fruit, spices, and medicine; thus it could well be the case that Damascus table vessels also traveled far (Milwright 1999:511).
The 12th century was a time of rapid changes in ceramic styles throughout the southern Levant. In the mid-12th c., a new style of lead glazed pottery appeared (McPhillips 2012:454, 457). By the end of the century, production of Alkaline Glazed Earthenwares were replaced by Alkaline Glazed Fritwares (McPhillips 2012:456; Stern 2018:293). At Damascus, Alkaline Glazed Fritware vessels are distinguished by a greater variety of underglaze painted imagery and colors, overglaze colors, and incised decoration. Alkaline Glazed Fritware was used for a wider range of vessels as well, including utilitarian forms (Avissar and Stern 2005:25-29; McPhillips 2012:455-57).
Levantine Alkaline Glazed Earthenwares were produced during a short period of intense political, social, and cultural interaction and transition. The appearance of multiple workshops in distant regions reflects inspiration and/or diffusion of style, taste, and ideas. Production in Damascus makes sense as the city was the seat of the Seljuk and then Ayyubid royal courts, which were able to attract and sustain the development of an elite ceramic production (McPhillips 2012:447, 458); but the appearance of this ware even in small rural villages shows that it was popular and accessible far beyond that refined environment. Alkaline Glazed Earthenwares were originally born out of a wider tradition of Islamic glazed pottery, and continued to be used by the region’s new Frankish population in the Early Crusader period. As a product with roots in 9th c. Abbasid Opaque White Glazed Wares, whose manufacture in Iraq were inspired by imported Chinese porcelain (Stern 2018:293), Early Islamic Alkaline Glazed Earthenwares represent a bridge linking the far east with the Levant, and the early Islamic world with early medieval Europe.
For other, related ware productions, see Egyptian Early Islamic Alkaline Glazed Ware and Ramla Common Glazed Buff Ware.
