Beginning in 2000 with 2ICAANE in Copenhagen, papers dealing with the rapidly expanding field of Islamic archaeology have now become an established part of the ICAANE series. Firmly integrated into the meetings with the second Rome congress in 2008 (with sincere thanks to the International Scientific Committee), 7ICAANE will take the process one step further by incorporating papers on Islamic archaeology into the five main congress themes. Nevertheless, papers that do not fit into the themes will be collected together into a general session on Islamic archaeology, which we hope will demonstrate the strengths and considerable diversity of Islamic archaeology today.

Geographically, the Islamic sessions will cover the same areas as does the main conference: from the Eastern Mediterranean to Iran and from Anatolia to Arabia; it will also include Egypt. Historically, papers may investigate periods as late as the Ottoman era.

We look forward to another fruitful and enjoyable event in the ICAANE series, and are grateful for the continuing support of the organisers for our participation.

Islamic Session Abstracts

A New Type of Cemeteries from the Mamluk Period from Central Israel Dr Amir Gorzalczany (Israel Antiquities Authority)

A rare feature was discovered in a series of cemeteries from the Mamluk Period excavated in Israel. Some of the tombs, otherwise rather similar to regular Islamic graves, are sealed by whole ceramic vessels intentionally located on the tomb. The vessels were placed on their bases, rims or bodies. They belong to three reiterative forms, all of which dated to the Mamluk period: bag –shaped storage jars, scoop vessels and beehives. To date, seven cemeteries of this kind were discovered, but not all of them were published or even identified as such by the excavators. These cemeteries are located at Ge'alya (close to Yavne), Kafr 'Ana (modern Or Yehuda), Azor, el-Haddariya (modern Haddar Yossef), Ramla (two cases) and perhaps Sarafand el-Khareb (modern Nes Ziyyona). All of the cemeteries are located in a well-defined area, namely between the basins of Nahal Yarqon in the north and Nahal Soreq in the south. Interestingly, in other cemeteries of the Mamluk period excavated in the same area, such as in Bet Dagan, these features are conspicuously absent. An important anthropological observation was made for the cemetery at Kafr 'Ana. The remains of residents of foreign provenance were unearthed in two excavations at that site, carried out by Tel Aviv University and the Israel Antiquities Authority. The osteological remains were characterized by cranial vaults that exhibit a particular morphology, a feature identified as representative of Turcoman tribes, which are known to have been present in the southern Levant mainly as an aftermath of the Mongol invasions. To this day, no exact parallels for this burial style are known in the Levant. The evident typological similarity between the cemeteries, the constricted ceramic vessels choices, coupled with a well defined and narrow geographical distribution in which at least one foreign ethnical entity was recognized pose the intriguing questions, on which this paper is focused.

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Nile - Red Sea connections in Medieval Egypt Dr John. P Cooper

The favoured routes connecting the Egyptian Nile with the Red Sea changed radically during the early centuries of Islam. From the Arab conquest to the Fatimid period, the Red Sea port of al-Qulzum (modern Suez) was the chief state-sponsored port of the Red Sea, connected to al-Fustat (modern Cairo) on the Nile and to al-Farama (ancient Pelusium) on the Mediterranean by a three-day land journey in each case. By the twelfth century AD the situation was entirely transformed. Al-Qulzum was formally abandoned, and new connections through the Eastern Desert to "Aydhab, some 900km down the coast in what is today the modern Hailab Triangle between Egypt and Sudan. That change effectively diverted maritime traffic from the northern Red Sea to the Nile Valley, entailing a substantially longer desert journey of around three weeks in the process. Later still, in the Mamluk period, "Aydhab was abandoned in favour of al-Quseir, this time 450km back up the coast, and requiring a shorter, six-day land connection. To what extent can these changes be explained by the practical and logistical demands of navigation, and to what extent where they driven by geopolitical considerations? This paper seeks to understand and compare the navigational dimensions of these three routes. In doing so it finds that the optimal route, in terms of logistics, was not always the route adopted. Rather, the maritime landscape of Nile-Red Sea connections cannot be understood without reference to the geopolitical context in which it took place. It concludes that the maritime cultural landscape of medieval Egypt was as much a configuration and manifestation of political power as it was a consequence of the technological constraints and capacities of medieval seafaring.

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Excavations at Tiberias: remains of a district capital. Dr Katia Cytryn-Silverman

Tiberias/Tabariya, capital of Jund al-Urdunn, is located at the western side of the Sea of Galilee, "cramped," as Muqaddasi wrote in the tenth century, "between the mountains and the lake." It has been excavated since the 1930s, though most of the works were undertaken as salvage excavations. These digs allowed for limited glimpses into Tiberias' past, right back to the beginning of the first century CE, when it was first founded by Herod Antipas. Excavations throughout the years revealed rich Islamic layers, but interest - academic and popular - mainly focused on the Roman-Byzantine periods. This focus seems also to be the reason for a long-standing interpretation of the remains of a large three-aisled building, c. 78 x 26 m, as a Byzantine marketplace. Recently, study and excavations have proved that this building is in fact a monumental mosque, apparently the Masjid al-Jamic of Tiberias. It is located between the cardo and a pre-Islamic basilical building, and was erected over the foundations of a Roman structure, perhaps an unfinished temple dedicated to Hadrian. The mosque seems to follow the architectural prototype set by the Great Mosque of Damascus, while remains in situ, as well as finds collected during the various archaeological expeditions, also point to a similar decorative scheme. Most of Tiberias was abandoned in the eleventh century, though now it becomes clear that the strong earthquake of 1068 which struck the city was not the main reason for its decay. Apparently it was a combination of a weakened administration and a wave of military attacks - by the Bedouin, the Seljuks, and finally by the Crusaders - that sentenced Tiberias to ruin. By reinterpreting the function of this monumental building it is now possible to start studying the patterns of Islamization of this classical town into an Islamic district capital.

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Resettling the Steppe: the Balikh Valley in the Early Islamic period Dr Lidewijde de Jong

In the Early Islamic centuries the Balikh Valley in Syria witnessed a period of growth. Under political sponsorship the city of Raqqa/al-Rafikah developed into an important provincial center and, at times, a secondary capital. This rise of Raqqa stimulated settlement growth and possibly agricultural intensification in its hinterland, the Balikh Valley. Furthermore, the valley now formed a main route of communication with the enemy border in the North and became a place of military importance. Compared to previous centuries, when the valley had been located on the marginal edge of the Late Roman and Byzantine world, in the Early Islamic period the Balikh Valley moved to the military, political, and economic center. This paper presents the preliminary results of new research on the Balikh Valley. In the past decades, excavations at sites such as Kharab Sayyar, Medinat al-Far, and Tell Sheikh Hasan have added to the picture already formed by the Balikh Valley Survey and excavations at Resafa, Raqqa, and other sites. In this paper, I synthesize these results, focusing on the material evidence from the early Islamic centuries (Umayyad - Ayyubid) and the comparison with the pre-Islamic material remains. Through the discussion of settlement patterns, building activity, urban planning, farming and water management practices, and regional trade, I situate the Balikh valley and its inhabitants in the new social, economic, and political context of the Early Islamic world.

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Great Syria's Fortifications from the 11th to the 14th centuries AD: Results of an Epigraphic Study. Dr Francesca Dotti

The results of the archaeological investigations carried out on the fortifications of the Great Syria (Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Palestine and Jordan) contributed to highlight the settlement and building history of the sites. The fortifications present important settling and building sequences, generally characterised by construction and re-construction phases operated by both Crusader and Muslim hands. In Islamic period, the different undertakings are often attested by a rich epigraphic documentation preserved in situ, giving important information that allows the reconstruction of patronages, chronology and nature of building works. Epigraphic investigations have brought to assemble a rich corpus of inscriptions (147) preserved at a number of urban and sub-urban fortifications. The documents are entirely ascribable to the 11th-14th centuries (particularly Ayyubid and Mamluk dynasties). The texts, principally construction and re-construction texts (93, 18), are only partially published (monumental inscriptions), and they have not hitherto been subject of any epigraphic study (analysis of texts, formulas and protocols). This paper aims to present the preliminary results of our research in order to highlight the whole published and unpublished epigraphic documents at our disposal, and contribute to the reconstruction of the settlement and building history of the sites.

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Dr Véronique Francois Céramiques d'Vépoque ottomane au Bilâ al-Châm : le matVériel des citadelles de Dams et d'Alep

Les fouilles archéologiques relatives à l‘Empire ottoman, empire qui s‘étendit des Balkans à l‘Afrique du Nord du XIVe au XXe, sont encore rares et il n‘existe pas, à proprement parler, d‘archéologie ottomane en tant que discipline constituée. Quatre causes principales expliquent ce retard : 1) la période ottomane a été négligée dans ces pays car les processus de construction nationale se sont faits au nom d‘un rejet de ce passé ottoman ; 2) depuis le milieu du XIXe s., les fouilles ouvertes dans les Balkans, en Grèce, en Anatolie, en Syrie-Palestine, en Mésopotamie et en Egypte sont essentiellement destinées à documenter des civilisations préhistoriques et antiques, négligeant les vestiges d‘occupation postérieurs ; 3) les niveaux ottomans, les plus récents dans la succession des strates, plus sensibles aux perturbations contemporaines, ont été moins bien préservés ; 4) le bâti (monumental et domestique) ayant bien résisté au temps, la nécessité des fouilles ne s‘est pas imposée. Dans ce contexte, les connaissances sur la vaisselle, fabriquée et commercialisée dans l‘Empire ottoman, sont partielles et lacunaires. Les typologies de référence permettant de distinguer, par périodes chronologiques et par centres de fabrication, les céramiques qui répondaient aux nécessités domestiques, que ce soit la vaisselle culinaire, de service et de table ou les pots et les jarres de stockage, restent à élaborer. Au Bilâd al-Châm, rarement prise en compte sur les chantiers archéologiques, la céramique d‘époque ottomane est encore méconnue. Cependant les travaux récents, publiés ou en cours, que j‘ai menés offrent un cadre typologique nouveau pour ce matériel. Je présenterai donc la vaisselle de terre (productions locales et importations) en usage dans deux grands sites urbains syriens - les citadelles de Damas et d‘Alep - entre le XVIe et le début du XXe siècle.

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Prof Dr Claus-Peter Haase Small bath and toilet rooms in the early Islamic architecture of Madinat al-Far

Apart from the large cistern, three small baths and three toilet rooms had been uncovered in the main excavation areas at the site. Two of them belong to small houses of a later occupation subperiod in the square compound set into or on top of earlier constructions, one is a combination of a small hammam type bath with a toilet in the same area, and two 'wetrooms' were found in the Northern part of the double mansion opposite the square compound. A typical toilet with slit in a bench and small basin at its feet was found close to it. The water supply could not as yet be followed extensively, but there are indications that it came from small canals and a well respectively. Interesting are the beautiful materials used in the double mansion for these rooms - the 'wetrooms' have floors with polished white slabs of soft limestone and white chalk mortar which is water resistant, and the toilet showed the greyish waterproof mortar of very fine quality spread from the floor and up the walls so as to allow extensive water cleaning of the whole room. These rooms were integrated into the square shape of the mansions, whereas the baths in the square compound appear to be additional or on a different level than the main structures. The small hammam there belongs to the central building of the city. They all tell us about the changed attitude towards sanitary habits in the Islamic period and about the importance of baths also in private houses.

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Dr Basema Hamarneh City - village economic interaction in late antique and early Islamic Arabia and Palaestina. Archaeological evidence.

This paper approaches the aspects of city - village interaction the territory of modern Jordan especially in the area of former Provincia Arabia and Palaestina Tertia during the VII-IX centuries on the bases of new archaeological data. The analysis will compare terms of land legislation connected to private enterprise, administrative and fiscal reorganization of the two provinces in order to identify the economic profile of the area in late antiquity and early Islam. The unquestionable prosperity of the country side associated to demographic growth since the early Byzantine period, as revealed by excavations, surveys and regional studies rises several questions on the aspects of economic interaction between urban and rural realities prior and after the Arab conquest of the region. The coexistence of newly established Omayyad agricultural settlements with Byzantine villages in the second half of the VII century marks a drastic transformation in the economic assessment of the countryside that had reversed its affects also on urban life. The impact of these changes featured a remodelling of the topographical shape of the village habitat in terms of space reorganization (physical expansion), emplacement of industrial implants, especially olive oil and wine production (economic expansion) marking the establishment of new centres and market areas. Cultural expansion can be marked by the employment and diffusion of new manufacture (as painted/glazed pottery vessels), metalwork, ivory, sculpture, mosaics etc. (cultural expansion) decreeing the establishment of a new class of euergetes (Omayyad elite) besides that of the already existent Byzantine Ecclesiastical and civil euergetism in Urban and Rural contexts.

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Dr Mahmoud Hawari Pilot Archaeological Survey of Khirbat al-Mafjar region, Jericho, Jordan Valley.

The Khirbat al-Mafjar palace, commonly known as 'Hisham's Palace', in the Jordan Valley, north of Jericho, remains unidentified in the historical sources, but it has been attributed by the excavators to the Umayyad period (8th century). It is typical of the so called 'desert castles or palaces' in the Levant, which have been the subject of scholarly publications more than any comparable structures from any periods of Islamic history. There has been no consensus among scholars on their patrons among the Umayyad dynasty, nor on their role and function, and hypotheses are ranging from residential compounds, to agricultural estates, palaces, castles or stations on trade and pilgrimage routes. Significant advances have been made during the last two decades in our understanding of the role of these structures in the Levant and the material culture associated with them, particularly the ceramics. Technical methods of archaeological survey and excavations have improved remarkably and which will be employed. It is imperative that the results of the archaeological excavations at Khirbat al-Mafjar be examined, and the site to be re-interpreted within its regional landscape context. The ongoing landscape-based survey will record surviving archaeological features related to the palace, especially the complex water system various which includes two aqueducts which brought water from two springs at the foot hills to the west, two bridges and three water mills. It will lead to a better understanding and interpretation of Khirbat al-Mafjar site within the context of its historic environment as a complete entity. Targeted excavations will be carried out in order to provide clear answers to numerous historical and archaeological issues, which will contribute to the interpretation and presentation of the site.

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Dr Richard Jones Sugar production in Islamic Jordan: a new look.

Sugar cane was probably the most important of the many crops that the Islamic world introduced to the West before the tenth century AD. Whereas our understanding of the cultivation of sugar cane in the Levant is very limited, at least some of the processes involved in the manufacture of sugar products are known from either the excavation of a few sugar-making installations in Palestine and Jordan of the 11th-15th centuries, or, more commonly, the surface finds at many locations of sugar pots and molasses jars. In an effort to gain a more holistic view of the sugar industry at this time, we investigated the structures and finds arising from excavation of part of the 11th - 13th century sugar refinery at the Tawahin es-Sukkar, adjacent to Khirbat Shaykh 'Isa, the probable site of Byzantine-Early Islamic Zughar/Zoara, at the southern end of the Dead Sea in Jordan. This was followed by laboratory-based investigation of materials constituting waste from the refinery, including ash, plant/charcoal remains, calcareous sediments and construction waste.1 In this paper we integrate the results of that investigation with the excavation record, as well as typological study of the sugar vessels. This allows us to shed light on all stages of the industry, from the water supply to the mill and the sugar plantations, the refining sequence, in particular the clarification step, to the despatch and export of the sugar products.

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Ms Mandy Mottram Settlers, Hermits, Nomads and Monks: Evolving Landscapes at the Dawn of the Islamic Era

Recent surveys within the Euphrates hinterland near Menbij in northern Syria are revealing a richly layered archaeological landscape in which the most numerous, yet least well documented remains belong to the Late Antique and Early Islamic eras (4th-10th centuries AD). It is already possible to gain a broad sense of the main demographic trends. Although at all stages an essentially agrarian landscape, this developed from a pattern of dispersed, relatively prosperous villa estates and farmsteads, to a more densely settled patchwork of farmsteads, villages and small towns. Initially, it was also a largely Christian landscape, as attested by the existence of two major monastic settlements, one of which began as an eremitic retreat. The onset of Islamic rule seems to have had little immediate impact on either these or on broader settlement patterns, although historical records attest to the arrival of political refugees from towns and villages further south. By the 8th century, however, the monasteries were no more and there was a dramatic increase in new settlements, possibly boosted by an influx of Arab settlers, but almost certainly facilitated by the considerable investments in agricultural infrastructure made by members of first the Umayyad, and then the Abbasid ruling families. Interwoven with these developments, there is also evidence for nomadic groups, who were clearly present by the Early Islamic period. Communities were therefore involved in a complex set of interacting economies reflecting a changing mix of localised sedentary cultivation, pastoral production and cash-cropping, with its links to a wider framework of economic exchange. This paper will examine in greater detail the evidence for settlement and landscape development in this section of the Euphrates valley during the transition to Islamic rule as well as the ways in which this contrasts with patterns observed for the same period in adjacent regions.

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Resafa-Sergiupolis/ Rusafat Hisham, Syria. Pilgrimage city and caliph residence – intra and extra muros - Recent research since 2006 and first results of resurveying the surroundings of Resafa – Rusafat Hisham, Syria.
Dr Martina Müller-Wiener (Universität Bonn, Germany) Prof. Dr. Ing. Dorothée Sack and Mr Martin Gussone (Technische Universität Berlin)

The northern Syrian city Resafa was one of the most important places of Christian pilgrimage in the Eastern Mediterranean region during the 5th and 6th centuries, the southern surroundings are known to be the site of the residence of caliph Hisham b. Abd al-Malik (rgn. 724-743) , which covers an area of approx. 3 km2. The settlement was abandoned ensuing the Mongolian invasion in the middle of the 13th century. Both the Late Antique city and Umayyad residence have been subject of separate examinations since the 1950s. Since 2006 a new project "Resafa-Sergiupolis/ Rusafat Hisham, Syria. Pilgrimage city and caliph residence – intra and extra muros" has been initiated, to be presented here in short. Central to the project, directed by Dorothée Sack (DAI/TU Berlin), is its global view of Resafa as an interconnected settlement area of the city and its surroundings. Goal of the project, which comprises five subprojects (SP), are the compilation of an "Archaeological map" for the whole site (SP 1), the realisation of archaeological excavations, the recording of traces of building structures at the surface, geophysical prospections and the evaluation of ceramics and small finds in the environs of the city (SP 2). Further subprojects are the examination of the city wall (SP 3), the maintenance and consolidation of the ruins (SP 4) and the touristic development of the archaeological site (SP 5).

Another topic of this paper is the resurvey of the archaeological structures in the surroundings of Resafa, which have been first classified by M. Mackensen (1977) und D. Sack (since 1983). A first analysis of the ongoing resurvey shows a significantly more differentiated picture of the development of the settlement and the usage phases than was previously assumed. Important insights into the possible functional allocation of the findsites represent a further result of the surveys. The related analysis of the pottery finds from the resurvey and the ongoing excavations of the Umayyad findsites (FS 220, 142, 143) offers the possibility to identify specific form types and create form type catalogues for several types of pottery, which are not yet available in this form for northern Syria.

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Prof Alastair Northedge The contents of the first Muslim houses: assemblages from the Amman Citadel

It is a notorious problem that in Early Islam Muslims were not the majority, and it is difficult to detect whether an excavated house was occupied by Muslims, Christians, Jews, Zoroastrians, or others. Here an argument is offered to identify an early Muslim assemblage, as early as any known. Once identified, is it possible to say that Muslims lived differently from others? A brief functional analysis of the material will be made, in order to make a tentative portrayal of life-style.

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Dr Oya Pancaroglu Luxury Ceramic Consumption in Abbasid Tarsus

Excavations on the mound of Gözlükule in Tarsus in the 1930s and 1940s and more recently since 2007 have yielded significant quantities of glazed ceramics of the Abbasid period (9th-10th century). These finds include, but are not limited to, luster- and cobalt-painted white wares which together epitomize the remarkable innovations in ceramic decoration in Abbasid Iraq. Finds of high-quality imported Iraqi ceramics (as well as high-quality luster-painted glass) in Tarsus testify to the presence of a local community that availed itself of the best of Abbasid material culture. While the means of ceramic importation into Tarsus (by sea or land) cannot as yet be determined, the presence of high-quality wares at this frontier town helps us to qualify the prevailing perception of a predominantly militaristic settlement essentially geared towards ghaza (raiding) activity into Byzantine territory. Indeed, medieval accounts of Abbasid Tarsus do mention the settlement of numerous Muslim scholars in the town but these are usually thought to have provided the ideological and propagandist backbone of a pious militarized society not typically associated with such fragile refinements of material culture as imported luxury ceramics. The significant quantities of inscribed ceramics in Tarsus modify this notion by pointing to a society that was both learned and sophisticated in its particular engagement with luxury imported wares. Furthermore, the numerous instances of drilled repair holes which can be encountered in the fine ceramic record of Abbasid Tarsus allow us to gauge the local appreciation for goods imported from Iraq even after fated incidences of breakage.

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Dr Marie-Odile Rousset Chalcis / Qinnasrin : from the Byzantine city to the jund capital of North Syria.

The archaeological program on Qinnasrin (Syria) is managed since 2003 in collaboration with the Direction of Syrian Antiquities and Museums and the Archeological Museum of Aleppo. The site of Chalcis / Qinnasrin lays under the modern village of al-"Iss, 25 km south-west from Aleppo. The aim is to study one of the first Islamic cities in Northern Syria which was the capital of the jund from VIIth until Xth Century. The site is located on the piedmont of the eastermost part of the Calcareous Massif of Northern Syria. The first campaign in 2008 allowed us to determine the extension of settlement in the different periods and to identify the main elements of the city: rampart and doors, tell / acropolis, residential quarters, necropolis, quarries, artisanal areas.. Above the city, the top of the mountain is a remarkable point of observation between ploughed areas and steppish lands: a fortification was built here between the VIth and IXth Century. During the byzantine period, the city reaches to its maximal extent, with a fortress on the tell, domestic dwellings at the bottom of the tell surrounded by the city wall and suburbs outside for artisanal and commercial purposes. The walls of the byzantine city still survive and an inscription on the lintel of the door attests a restoration by Justnian in 550 AD. During the omeyyad period, occupation of the city reduced to the tell and its immediate vicinity, inside the previous byzantine city wall. The fortification of the top of the mountain could have been built during this period. With the Abassid period, the settlement extended in the northern area outside the city wall and on the mountain which certainly became a refuge during the military campaigns between Byzantines and Muslims. We also know from texts that Qinnasrin was in the first half of the Xth century a a prosperous city in a rich agricultural region.

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Mr Ian Simpson Pearls along a Shoreline: Globalisation, Neoliberalism, and Heritage Interventions in the Persian Gulf

This paper is concerned with the impact of globalisation and capitalism in Bahrain, Qatar, the UAE and Oman as seen through the lens of cultural heritage. Arabic debate poems of the early twentieth century illustrate how British imperial powers policing this commercial maritime highway wreaked social upheaval and cultural transformation, such as under the labour relations of the Anglo-Persian Oil Company. Further developments have swept through the Persian Gulf under neoliberal market capitalism, producing vastly different places along the shores of the Gulf, from abandoned pearling villages to the heterotopias of Dubai. Within this social and economic setting, Gulf states have attached much importance to 'managing' cultural heritage, including the designation and promotion of cultural landscapes', archaeological sites and intangible heritage, plans for abandoned pearling villages, and establishment of new museums. This paper problematizes a debate about heritage in the Persian Gulf and examines how the tourism industry and the state seek to construct and promote certain identities through heritage interventions that are counterpoint with globalisation in the way they engage with the past.

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Dr Ross Thomas People and connections across the Red Sea and Eastern Desert

This paper will outline how the transition from late Antiquity to the medieval period impacted upon the populations of the Nile, Eastern Desert and north-western Red Sea regions. Drawing upon my research in the fourth cataract of the Nile, the Eastern Desert and Red Sea region of Egypt and at Aqaba, Jordan, this paper will highlight the changing connections between populations visible in the archaeological record. The Red Sea and the Eastern Desert were both bridge and barrier to different groups over time and how these landscapes were used and navigated were key to the success of enterprises leading to the formation of the Nubian kingdoms, the growth of Byzantine and Early Islamic Aqaba, the decline in Roman-Byzantine Red Sea ports and the mining of the Eastern Desert.

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Asst. Prof. Dr. Füsun Tulek Footsteps of the Arab-Byzantine Armies in Osmaniye Province

Pottery finds shed light on Medieval landscape of the East Plain Cilicia. Footsteps of armies of Islam can be followed in the region by examining remaining material culture of them as the region was once part of al-thughur- the Arab-Byzantine frontier. Pottery sherds of Medieval period collected during the Osmaniye Archaeological Survey in years 2005-2009 are subject to present study. Among the pottery sherds collected in the survey sherds of the Islamic period are mostly Abbasid productions and they are grouped in numerous types of ware, while most of the green glazed ware is production of al- Mina/Port Symeon. The presentation aims to introduce a preliminary evaluation of the Medieval pottery sherds of the ongoing survey.

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Ms Rosalind Wade Haddon Zangid/Ayyubid Finewares from the German Excavations on the Aleppo Citadel

Further to Dr Julia Gonnella's study and identification of a new ceramic group for this period, there remains a considerable body of material to be studied and catalogued from subsequent excavation seasons. This study is based on five weeks' of processing a considerable quantity of fragments during April 2009 and is work in progress for the projected next two study seasons. A sufficient proportion of this material was found in stratified contexts, and can be shown to be closely related to comparable finds from other North Syrian sites such as Hama, Balis Meskeneh and al-Rahba. There are striking similarities with the corpus established at Hama and the subsequent article on 'Tell Minis' wares published in 1987 by Porter and Watson on a commercial hoard purchased by the V&A and the David Collection in Copenhagen. It is probably that the Aleppo finds are even more varied and it is evident that colour played an important role in the choice of wares. As with the finds at Hama many of these fragments have been affected by discoloration and degradation in the soil and few pieces match the quality of numerous museum pieces. A subsequent close analysis of the finds studied this season will shed more light on this aspect.

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Dr Donald Whitcomb Formation of the Islamic City: A Second archaeological period of urban transition

This paper will explore archaeological patterns of Islamic urbanism in what might be termed a second phase of the formation of the Islamic city. This approach builds on the outline suggested by Bacharach (1991) and the conceptualization discussed as the "palatine complex" in Wheatley (2001). In striking similarities, urban developments of the 9th through 11th centuries parallel features of the earliest amsar. This second phase has been described for the cities of Baghdad, Raqqa and Samarra; it is most clear in the succession of foundations in Egypt leading up to that of al-Qahira. Recent excavations on cities of southern Bilad al-Sham may be analyzed in light of the "palatine complex" development. The examples of Qaysarea (Caesarea), Ramla, and Tabariya (Tiberias) illustrate this phase in their urban history, in this case from the late Abbasid/Tulunid and Fatimid periods. Recognition of this urban pattern allows a new approach to what Bacharach describes as "the transformation of urban centers into Muslim cities, that is, places where the overwhelming majority of the population is Muslim." This appreciation should allow more detailed understandings of the Middle Islamic city.

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Dr Julian Whitewright Waves, Winds and Sailing Technology in the late antique and early Islamic Near East

Late Antiquity witnessed an unprecedented period of maritime technological change in the Near East. The Mediterranean square-sail was replaced by the lateen rig and the characteristic Mediterranean form of hull construction was also abandoned. In each case, the driving motive for change seems to have been an on-going simplification of technology, coupled with an increased desire to reduce the cost of construction. These trends, observable in the archaeological record, compliment the acknowledged increase in the commercialisation of the Mediterranean economy during this period. Despite the visible nature of this technological change, little work has been done to document their effect on the day to day operation of the sailing ships which underpinned Mediterranean trade and communication. A generally expressed assumption is that the adoption of the lateen sail resulted in an increase in the windward performance of sailing vessels and that changes to hull construction techniques led to the development of faster, smaller sailing ships. This paper addresses these general concepts on the basis of a wide range of maritime archaeological evidence from the Mediterranean, Red Sea and Indian Ocean. A fuller understanding of the performance and use of sailing vessels during this period is developed and the consequences for our understanding of maritime technology and its role in the near eastern economy elucidated.

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