Pottery and Communal Identity
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Pottery and communal identity Archaeometrical Study of Islamic Ceramic Assemblages in Northern Jordan Inaugural-Dissertation Zur Erlangung der Doktorwürde der Philosophischen Fakultät Der Rheinischen Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität zu Bonn vorgelegt von Hussein Mahmoud Hussein Al-Sababha aus Irbid, Jordan Bonn 2018 Erster Gutachter: Prof. Dr. Bethany J. Walker Zweiter Gutachter: Prof. Dr. Michael Raith Tag der mündlichen Prüfung: 31st of July 2018 i “To my beloved wife” ii Acknowledgment My deep thanks are due to the DFG - Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft. This work would not have seen the light without their financial support for my living, accommodation and archaeometry analysis during the period of my stay in Germany. The other member who had the second half of this role is the University of Bonn represented by The Islamic Archaeology Unit and Bonn International Graduate School - Oriental and Asian Studies (BIGS-OAS), who provided a research library contains the best collection needed and a cozy working place. I hope to express my great thanks and deep admiration to my main supervisor, Prof. Dr. Bethany Walker for her direction, support, encouragement, and patience. Any value in this work is largely due to her wise and close supervision. Thank you for the excellent provided atmosphere of research, and for the establishment of our unit (Islamic Archaeology). I am also grateful to Prof. Dr. Michal Raith for his support and supervision throughout my practical work, which he provided to me at his home. Thank you for offering help when needed and for the effort that you spent on reading this thesis. I have learned a lot from you about petrography, and I am really pleased with you. I value our General Department of Antiquities for permitting the three survey seasons, which provided the studied assemblage. I am deeply indebted to Dr. Bernhard Lucke (FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg) for supporting and encouraging me before and during my study. I am thankful for the whole members of the survey project team for all the efforts they made during the three survey seasons, without you guys this work would not have existed. Deep thanks are to Dr. Harald Euler (Steinmann-Institut für Geologie, Mineralogie und Paläontologie der Universität Bonn) for granting a permission to analyze all my samples by XRD, and for all the help he provided me. Best thanks to Mr. Nils Jung for preparing the thin section of the whole assemblage of study, and thanks for all the members of Steinmann-Institut für Geologie, Universität Bonn. I deeply acknowledge the help of Prof. Dr. Abdulla Al-Shorman (Yarmouk University) for reading and revising the language of this thesis and Dr. Maher Tarboush for helping in readying the pottery sherds. Special thanks are also due to Dr. Mustafa Al-Naddaf, and Mr. Mosa Ali (Yarmouk University) for helping and supporting. Thanks to Mr. Yosef Al-Zoubi, and Mr. Hussien Debajeh for helping in photography (Yarmouk University). I would like to thank all the members of the Faculty of Archaeology and Anthropology, Yarmouk University for their support. Sincere thanks to my colleagues and friends for their encouragement and faithful efforts during this work, and I deeply value the help of my colleagues Zakariya Na'imat for providing the study area Map and for Nur Özdilmac for translating the Abstract to the German language. Thanks to my wife's Annaleen support and my children Mateen, Saif Al-Dien, Mobeen, and Majd Al-Dien, who were very enduring encouraging, which gave me the endurance to stay away from them during my study? My appreciation iii and special thanks go to my father, mother, sisters, and brothers, and the whole family members for their patience, support, and encouragement. In the end, I am in need of thanking everyone who contributed and helped in finishing this work. Hussein Al-Sababha August 2018, Bonn iv Table of Contents List of figures ....................................................................................................................................... viii Abstract ................................................................................................................................................... x Kurzfassung .......................................................................................................................................... xii 1. Chapter one: Background..................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Introduction: .................................................................................................................................. 1 1.2 Aim and justification of the study: ................................................................................................. 4 1.3 Previous studies of scientific pottery analysis in Jordan: ................................................................. 6 2. Chapter two: Northern Jordan Geography, Geology, and Archaeology: ................................................ 8 2.1 Introduction: .................................................................................................................................. 8 2.2 Geography: .................................................................................................................................... 8 2.2.1 Abila (Qweilibeh): ................................................................................................................ 10 2.2.2 Gadara (Umm Qais): ............................................................................................................. 10 2.2.3 Umm el-Jimal: ...................................................................................................................... 11 2.3 Geology of northern Jordan: ......................................................................................................... 11 2.3.1 Introduction: ......................................................................................................................... 11 2.3.2 Abila and Gadara geology: .................................................................................................... 14 2.3.3 Umm el-Jimal Geology: ........................................................................................................ 22 2.4 Archaeology of Abila (Qweilibeh): .............................................................................................. 24 2.5 Archaeology of Gadara (Umm Qais): ........................................................................................... 29 2.6 Archaeology of Umm el-Jimal: .................................................................................................... 37 2.7 Northern Jordan Previous surveys: ............................................................................................... 43 3. Chapter Three: Materials and Methods. .............................................................................................. 48 3.1 Introduction: ................................................................................................................................ 48 3.2 Survey Methodology:................................................................................................................... 49 3.3 Petrography: ................................................................................................................................ 51 3.3.1 Thin Section: ......................................................................................................................... 53 3.3.2 Polarized Light Microscope: .................................................................................................. 54 3.4 X-ray Diffraction (XRD):............................................................................................................. 55 3.5 Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) & Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy (EDS): ............. 56 4. Chapter Four: Islamic Pottery in Northern Jordan. ............................................................................. 58 4.1 Introduction: ................................................................................................................................ 58 4.2 Early Islamic pottery (Typological and Technological description):.............................................. 60 v 4.2.1 Umayyad Pottery wares and forms (661-750 AD.): ................................................................... 61 4.2.2 Abbasid Pottery wares and forms (750-969 AD.): ..................................................................... 66 4.3 Middle Islamic I pottery (Typological and Technological description):......................................... 70 4.4 Middle Islamic II pottery (Typological and Technological description): ....................................... 73 4.5 Late Islamic pottery (Typological and Technological description): ............................................... 77 Chapter Five: Results and Discussion .................................................................................................... 82 5.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................................. 82 5.2 Petrographic characterization of Early Islamic pottery from Northern Jordan (Gadara, Abila, Umm el-Jimal) ............................................................................................................................................ 85 5.2.1 Introductory remarks ............................................................................................................