Islamic al Raqqa (Syria)

Landscape, environment and ancient industry in Islamic al-Raqqa (Syria)

Director: Julian Henderson. Collaborators: Prof. Dr. Stefan Heidemann (University of Jena), Dr. Christina Tonghini (University of Florence), Dr. Marcus Milwright (University of British Columbia), Prof. Dr. Youssef Barkoudah (University of Damascus), Prof. Michael Tite (University of Oxford), Dr Chris Doherty (University of Oxford), Prof. Melanie Leng (British Geological Survey, UK), Dr. Jane Evans (British Geological Survey, UK), Prof. Sarah O'Hara (School of Geography, The University of Nottingham), Keith Challis (Birmingham University).

The medieval landscape of Raqqa revealed by a declassified carona satellite image (1967). Two urban foci are visible- al Rafica to the west and al-Raqqa to the east. To the south lies the relic course of the Euphrates. The extramural industrial complex lies to the north of al-Raqqa.

This project focuses on the place of Islamic industries in the landscape. This has been a unique opportunity to study for the first time links between ancient technologies in the context of a massive (2km long) industrial complex at al-Raqqa. The extramural complex is set in the largest Islamic urban complex west of Baghdad, with two associated contemporary cities and 5 hectares of palace complexes. Here one of the most complete ancient glass workshops ever discovered and several pottery workshops, together with a full range of by-products and products from glass and pottery production have been found.  The project has involved the extensive use of historical research, satellite imagery, geographical information systems, environmental reconstruction, archaeological excavation, scientific analysis of glass, pottery and raw materials and ancient pollution studies. The results have formed the basis, and provided a model, for further research in ancient Islamic industries and for industries in other periods in a wide range of socio-economic contexts.

A late 8th- early 9th century pottery workshop, showing circular and rectangular kilns, Tell Fukhkhar, Raqqa, Syria	Chunks of raw glass attached to tank furnace fragments from Raqqa, Syria.

Funded by: the Arts and Humanities Research Council, the Max von Berchem Foundation (Geneva), the British Academy, the Council for British Research in the Levant and The University of Nottingham.

Publications:

C. Tonghini and J. Henderson 'An eleventh century pottery production Workshop at al-Raqqa. Preliminary report, Levant 30, 1998. 113-127.

Archaeological and Scientific Evidence for the Production of Early Islamic Glass in al-Raqqa, Syria, Levant 31, 1999, 225-240.

Archaeological Investigations of an Islamic Industrial Complex at Raqqa, Syria, Damaszener Mitteilungen 11, 1999, 243-265.

Challis, K., A.R. Gardner, J. Henderson, G. Priestnall and S.L. O'Hara 'Corona Remotely-Sensed Imagery in Dryland Archaeology: The Islamic City of al-Raqqa, Syria' Journal of Field Archaeology, 29, 2004, 139-153.

J. Henderson, S. McCloughlin and D. McPhail 'Radical changes in Islamic glass technology: evidence for conservatism, and experimentation with new glass recipes', Archaeometry 46, 2004, 439-468.

J. Henderson, K. Challis, S. O'Hara,. S. McLoughlin, A.Gardner, and G. Priestnall 'Experiment and innovation: early Islamic industry at al-Raqqa, Syria', Antiquity 79, 2005, 1-15.

Barkoudah, Y. and J. Henderson 'The use of halophytic plants in the manufacture of ancient glass: ethnographic evidence and the scientific analysis of plant ashes', Journal of Glass Studies 48, 2006, 297-321.