Name of Object:

Cooking pot

Location:

Mértola, Beja, Portugal

Holding Museum:

Mértola Museum

About Mértola Museum, Mértola.

Date of Object:

Early Hegira 7th century / early AD 13th century

Museum Inventory Number:

CR/CC/0113

Material(s) / Technique(s):

Common ceramic made from reddish paste, modelled on a potter’s wheel and fired in an oxidising atmosphere.

Dimensions:

Height 21.5 cm, width 35 cm, diameter (of rim) 23.5 cm, diameter (of base) 19 cm

Period / Dynasty:

Almohad

Provenance:

Mértola.

Description:

Pot with vertical straight rim with flattened lip and external flange, circular mouth and cylindrical neck. The body is shaped like a truncated cone with sharp carination close to the base. It has two strap handles with a central ridge and convex base. There are horizontal incisions around the rim, neck and body and fire marks indicate that it was used in cooking. The object has been restored.

Kitchen implement with an extremely simple form and very little decoration. This type of pot was found in an Almohad oven excavated in Mértola and appears almost exclusively in this region, which helps to identify it as a local product.

How date and origin were established:

It was dated to the Almohad period on the basis of stratigraphy, since it was found in the abandoned levels of one of the houses of the citadel vacated after the Christian conquest of Mértola in AH 635–6 / AD 1238.

How Object was obtained:

Found in the archaeological excavations carried out by the Campo Arqueológico de Mértola in the citadel of the Castle of Mértola.

How provenance was established:

This type of pot has been found in an Almohad kiln excavated in Mértola and is almost exclusive to this region. This indicates that it was produced locally.

Selected bibliography:

Gómez Martínez, S., “Catálogo da Cerâmica”, in Museu de Mértola. Arte Islâmica, ed. S. Macias, Mértola, 2001, pp.107–67.
Torres, C. and Macias, S. (eds.), O Portugal Islâmico, Lisbon, 1998, p.155.

Citation of this web page:

Susana Gómez Martínez "Cooking pot" in Discover Islamic Art, Museum With No Frontiers, 2024. https://islamicart.museumwnf.org/database_item.php?id=object;ISL;pt;Mus01;2;en

Prepared by: Susana Gómez MartínezSusana Gómez Martínez

Susana Gómez Martínez é historiadora e arqueóloga especializada no período medieval. Estudou Geografia e História na Universidade Complutense de Madrid onde se doutorou em Historia com uma tese intitulada “Cerámica islámica de Mértola. Producción y comercio” (no prelo). É investigadora do Campo Arqueológico de Mértola desde 1993. Autora de várias publicações, de entre as quais se destacam “Cerâmica em Corda Seca de Mértola” (Mértola, Campo Arqueológico de Mértola, 2002); Cerámica Islámica de Medinaceli, in "Boletín de Arqueología Medieval", n.º 9, pp. 123-182, Madrid, Asociación Española de Arqueología Medieval, 1996). É membro do comité científico do Itinerário/exposição “Terras da Moura Encantada” (Lisboa, PICT e Museu sem Fronteiras, 1999) e do Comité Científico da Association International pour l'étude de la Céramique Médiévale en Méditerranée (AIECM2).
Translation by: Gilla Evans
Translation copyedited by: Monica Allen

MWNF Working Number: PT 04