Archaeology, Politics and Islamicate Cultural Heritage in Europe - David J. Govantes-Edwards

Archaeology, Politics and Islamicate Cultural Heritage in Europe - David J. Govantes-Edwards

5. Accentuating the Ordinary: Pottery and Everyday Life in Islamic Sicily

Archaeology, Politics and Islamicate Cultural Heritage in Europe - David J. Govantes-Edwards

Veronica Testolini [+-]
University of Sheffield
Veronica Testolini is a honorary research fellow at the University of Sheffield (United Kingdom), and has participated in different archaeological projects in Italy (Santa Crisitina in Caio, Castello Miranduolo and Brixen), Albania (Butrint), Austria (Feldkirch) and Spain (Guadix, MSc Dissertation). Her current research focuses on ceramic technological changes in Sicily between the Byzantine and the Islamic period. She is applying the chaîne opératoire approach to reconstruct technological choices made by the people living this period of cultural transition in Medieval Sicily. The main analytical technique employed is ceramic petrography, and she also uses SEM-EDS analysis to clarify those aspects that ceramic petrography cannot cover.
Peter Day [+-]
University of Sheffield
Peter Day is a professor at the University of Sheffield (United Kingdom), and specialises in ceramic production and other crafts in archaeological settings, both from a technological and an ethnographical perspective. He has carried out research projects, encompassing a broad range of periods and archaeological horizons, throughout the Mediterranean, but most of his research activity has been related with ceramic production in the Aegean. He is also strongly committed to promoting interdisciplinary studies, and takes active part in several interdisciplinary collaboration networks.

Description

Islamic ceramics are often studied as objects of aesthetic value, with texts and elite material culture privileging views of acculturation and political subjugation. Here we redress the balance, allowing everyday pottery to shine, through an appreciation of its technology, exchange and consumption. This offers insight into the lives of the ordinary inhabitants of Sicily, during the transition from Byzantine to Islamic rule. Such an approach has increased relevance with recent concerns over migration in the Mediterranean. By investigating cultural links, by prioritising human lives over an artefact’s value or otherness, we suggest an ethical approach to cultural contact and change.

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Citation

Testolini, Veronica; Day, Peter. 5. Accentuating the Ordinary: Pottery and Everyday Life in Islamic Sicily. Archaeology, Politics and Islamicate Cultural Heritage in Europe. Equinox eBooks Publishing, United Kingdom. p. 53-66 Apr 2022. ISBN 9781781797884. https://www.equinoxpub.com/home/view-chapter/?id=36074. Date accessed: 18 Apr 2024 doi: 10.1558/equinox.36074. Apr 2022

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