7. Byzantine Ceramics Project

The Oxford Byzantine Ceramics Project (OBCP) began in 1995 under the direction of Pamela Armstrong. It utilises raw scientific data as a source of new information for the humanities, in particular Byzantine history. The aim is to study the production and exchange of pottery in the Eastern Mediterranean from the 3rd to 13th centuries AD, with particular reference to the glazed tablewares and transport amphorae found throughout the Byzantine empire. Numerous shipwrecks bear witness to the extensive commerce in these ceramics and their contents.

A scientific programme of elemental analysis of the pottery fabrics from known production sites, the only sound basis for provenance studies, was set up in 1995 at the Oxford Research Laboratory for Archaeology and the History of Art. Financed initially by the British Academy, and subsequently by Harvard University (through Dumbarton Oaks), and the Hulme Fund of the University of Oxford, it has involved the compilation of a list of pottery production sites on which our sampling programme would be based. Subsequently contact was made with the excavators of the sites selected for this stage of the project and steps were taken to complete the necessary formalities prevailing in each country for the export of the samples.

There has been little use of elemental analysis on Byzantine ceramics although there are many problems of provenance and it is well suited as a research tool. By subjecting a group of ceramics (for statistical reasons a minimum of 20 pieces) from a pottery production site to elemental analysis, a so-called 'chemical fingerprint' can be made of that manufacturing centre. These fingerprints are stored in a statistical database with an eye to follow-up projects, in particular testing unprovenanced wares against the database. The stored information could be used to answer specific questions concerning origins and trade in ceramics at a time when the economic structure of the Byzantine empire altered radically. Tracing trade links through science is a new and fruitful approach.

The database containing the results of the analyses is available to scholars working in the same and related fields (please contact us, details below). Numerous archaeologists from many countries have used our date to date: if the information we have does not help to identify where their pottery originally came from, then it provides a long list of where it did not come from!

The importance of the work to date is reflected in the interest generated, leading to several offers of collaboration (Strasbourg University and the Centre des Recherches Nucléaires de Strasbourg, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem).

Recent work at the Oxford Research Laboratory has demonstrated a further advantage, that of its intercomparability with other analytical techniques. This ensures our data is even more accessible to interested parties. Once obtained the samples are prepared in the Oxford Laboratory, and then sent for analysis to the inductively-coupled plasma emission spectroscopy facility at the Department of Geology, Royal Holloway and Bedford College. Multivariate statistical analysis of the results is carried out at the Oxford Laboratory.

The initial results have been encouraging. Most importantly they show the potential for discriminating between production sites, with all being clearly differentiated. When the first phase of the project ends, the emphasis will shift to assimilating and disseminating results. Primarily this will take the form of a monograph, cataloguing the production centres together with the results of their analysis, and defining relevant historical/archaeological problems.

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