Name of Object:

Drinking vessel

Location:

Larache, Morocco

Holding Museum:

Museum of Archaeology

Date of Object:

Hegira 7th / AD 13th century

Museum Inventory Number:

4R79-49

Material(s) / Technique(s):

Wheel-thrown ceramic, painted and excised.

Dimensions:

Height 18 cm, base diameter 5.6 cm, max. diameter 14.5 cm, opening diameter 11 cm

Period / Dynasty:

Almohad

Provenance:

Lixus, Morocco.

Description:

This vessel, in the form of a small jar, is made of fine well-fired clay covered with engobe (slip). It would have been used as a drinking vessel. Its slightly ovoid belly is marked at the base by a lip protruding above a narrow and shallow foot, which gives it some stability. Its vertical neck ending in a large opening is flanked by two small round handles attached to the top of the belly. Traces from its manufacture appear in the form of horizontal rings marking the belly. The neck, handles and base of the belly are covered with brown manganese paint. A frieze of small excised circles, delimited by two lines, decorates the neck. The belly is painted with medallions filled with stylised plant motifs and separated by double horizontal and diagonal lines. They are framed by large rectilinear motifs imitating epigraphic decoration.
Its original shape and its decoration (painting and excision) make this recipient characteristic of earthenware common in the Almohad period.

View Short Description

This small jar-shaped recipient would have been used as a drinking vessel. Made of fine, well-fired clay covered with engobe (slip) and decorated with paint and excisions, it is characteristic of ceramics common in the Almohad period for its original shape and decoration.

How date and origin were established:

Found in the ruins of a medieval bourgeois house at the archaeological site of Lixus. The date has been confirmed by stylistic study and comparison with other reliably dated objects found in Murcia and Huelva in Spain from the first third of the 7th / 13th century.

How Object was obtained:

Excavated.

How provenance was established:

Excavated from the site at Lixus.

Selected bibliography:

Ataallah, M., “La céramique musulmane à paroi incisée ou peinte de Lixus”, Bulletin d'archéologie marocaine VII, 1967, pp.627–39.
Bazzana, A., “La céramique médiévale'” in Maroc, les trésors du royaume, exhibition catalogue, Paris, 1999.
Navarro Palazón, J., La céramique hispano-arabe à décor esgrafié, trans. Bazzana, Madrid, 1986.
Ponsich, M., Lixus, le quartier des Temples, Études et travaux d'archéologie marocaine series, Vol. IX, Rabat, 1981, p.127.

Citation of this web page:

Naima El Khatib-Boujibar "Drinking vessel" in Discover Islamic Art, Museum With No Frontiers, 2024. https://islamicart.museumwnf.org/database_item.php?id=object;ISL;ma;Mus01_E;11;en

Prepared by: Naima El Khatib-BoujibarNaima El Khatib-Boujibar

Archéologue et historienne de l'art, titulaire d'une licence en lettres (française), N. Elkhatib-Boujibar a également étudié l'archéologie et l'histoire de l'art à l'Institut d'art et d'archéologie de Paris, l'art islamique et la muséologie à l'École du Louvre (Paris), et suivi des cours à l'Institut d'ethnographie de l'Université de Neuchâtel (Suisse). Elle a occupé plusieurs postes de responsabilité, parmi lesquels directrice des Musées et de l'Archéologie, inspectrice générale des Musées et de l'Archéologie, déléguée régionale du ministère de la Culture.
Elle a dirigé un chantier de fouille durant 20 ans et enseigné à l'Institut national marocain des sciences de l'archéologie et du patrimoine (INSAP). Elle a organisé différentes expositions sur le patrimoine marocain, au Maroc comme à l'étranger, et animé des cycles de conférence, dont celui sur l'art islamique à la “Villa des Arts” à Casablanca.
N. El Khatib-Boujibar a publié différents articles sur le patrimoine archéologique, artistique et architectural marocain, mais aussi sur d'autres sites islamiques et sur les arts mobiliers. Elle a également participé à la rédaction du catalogue Musée Sans Frontières Le Maroc andalou, à la rencontre d'un art de vivre.

Copyedited by: Margot Cortez
Translation by: Laurence Nunny
Translation copyedited by: Monica Allen

MWNF Working Number: MO 13

RELATED CONTENT

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 Artistic Introduction

 Timeline for this item

Islamic Dynasties / Period

Almohads


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