Scott Redford

Excavations at Medieval Kinet, Turkey

Excavations in medieval levels at Kinet, Turkey, are uncovering remains of a Crusader era Mediterranean port town that dates from the late 12th to the early 14th century. The settlements livelihood derived from industry (iron and glazed ceramic production), agriculture, and animal husbandry as well as regional and international trade. Finds at the site indicate maritime trade around the Mediterranean as far as Italy, as well as overland trade with Syria. Medieval Kinet thrived despite being burned three times. It lay near the southern border of the Kingdom of Armenian Cilicia, astride the major trade, communication, and invasion route between Cilicia and Syria. The medieval site was orthogonally planned, possibly by the Knights Templar.

THE SELJUQS OF RUM AND THE ANTIQUE

There are walls reared up, their construction as variegated as that of the brazen heavens. In between flows a river bridged by tall arches which (by the Maker of Heaven!) you would not think to be composite, but rather to have grown up naturally as a single block of stone. If a sculptor like Pheidias were to see them, he would admire their exact evenness and lack of inclination. Between the build-

Neutron Activation Analysis of Medieval Ceramics from Kinet, Turkey, especially Port Symeon Ware

Excavation in medieval levels at the site ofKinet in southern Turkey has yielded evidence for the production of Port Saint Symeon ware, a widely, if not the most widely, distributed glazed ceramic ware in the Mediterranean in the I3 t h century. This article uses instrumental neutron activation analysis of excavated ceramics from Kinet, I930s excavations at another medieval port in the region, Port Saint Symeon/al-Mina, and selected museum pieces, to examine this phenomenon. It also examines other widely traded ceramics from the period: ones thought to originate in the Aegean. The authors attempt to gauge the cultural weight of maritime exchange of ceramics in the medieval Mediterranean, arguing that they were an essential part of the creation of a common taste in diverse societies in the central and eastern Mediterranean basin.

Luster and Fritware Production and Distribution in Medieval Syria

AbstractThe production of glazed fritware (artificial paste bodied) ceramics in medieval Syria is examined in the light of neutron activation analysis of an excavated sample from the site of Gritille. Reevaluation casts doubt on two main commonplaces of Islamic ceramic history: 1) the decorative technique of lustering, used on some of these fritwares, was highly restricted; and 2) the production of such luxury ceramics in the medieval Islamic world in general was centralized. We propose that regional ceramic production corresponded to the decentralized system of government then current in Syria and other geographic and demographic factors there.

Portable Palaces: On the Circulation of Objects and Ideas about Architecture in Medieval Anatolia and Mesopotamia

Abstract This essay examines two categories of portable objects: ceramics and ephemeral architecture (such as tents, palanquins, litters) for clues to the transmission of ideas about palatial architecture and the creation of a shared taste for a certain kind of palatial form and decoration between Christian and Muslim states whose artistic production is usually considered separately. The time period investigated is the twelfth to fourteenth centuries, and the geographical area investigated spans Constantinople, Anatolia and northern Mesopotamia. Without denying the importance of traveling craftsmen as vectors for artistic exchange, this essay argues that portable objects and portable or ephemeral architecture helped create the taste and demand for a supranational palatial architecture.

Sinop in the Summer of 1215: The Beginning of Anatolian Seljuk Architecture

A detailed analysis of the Seljuk inscriptions from the citadel of the Black Sea port of Sinop serves as the basis for a discussion of Anatolian Seljuk history, epigraphy, citadel architecture, and military and administrative organization and patronage. Because all of these inscriptions date to a 6 month period in the year 1215, they offer a circumscribed but profound introduction to these issues at one time and in one place.