Pottery of the Medieval and Ottoman Period in Cyprus and the Levant (including clay and glaze analyses)

The pottery used in Cyprus between the 11th and the 18th centuries represents a large and variegated ceramic material – comprising both locally manufactured wares and vessels imported from production centres in the East and in the West. This holds true also for the pottery of that period excavated at Palaipaphos/Kouklia, on which the project focusses. Provenance, chronology and function of the vessels found in Cyprus form the main research aims. Further subjects – specific regional developments, conditions, ways and intensity of commercial exchanges with production centres abroad, or the impact of imported ceramics on local manufacture – will be investigated also. Interdisciplinary archaeometric research projects including clay and glaze analyses as indispensable tools for questions of provenance and technical know-how are being carried out in cooperation with the CNRS, Laboratoire de Céramologie, Maison de l‘ Orient Méditerranéen, Lyon (Dr. S.Y. Waksman) and with the Institute of Inorganic Chemistry of the University of Zürich (Prof. Dr. H. Berke).