Published Catalogue Text: In Harmony: The Norma Jean Calderwood Collection of Islamic Art , written 2013
1, 2
Rectangular jar with lid
Northwest Iran, 9th–7th century BCE
Faience with turquoise (copper), yellow (lead antimonate), purplish black (manganese), and colorless alkali glazes
12.4 × 9.6 × 9.3 cm (4 7⁄8 × 3 ¾ × 3 11⁄16 in.)
2002.50.96
Cylindrical jar with lid
Northwest Iran, 9th–7th century BCE
Faience with turquoise (copper), yellow (lead antimonate), and colorless alkali glazes
9.7 × 8 cm (3 13⁄16 × 3 1⁄8 in.)
2002.50.97
In ancient as in later Iran, colorful glazes embellished ceramic vessels and wall decoration. The glaze colors (including turquoise, yellow, white, and black) as well as the animal and plant motifs depicted on these objects largely followed Mesopotamian models. From the destruction level at Hasanlu, in northwest Iran, dated to circa 800 BCE, come glazed tiles and vessels, among these a beaker painted with an unusually loose, abstract pattern consisting of triangles and dots.[1] The two jars discussed here bear patterns similar to those of the Hasanlu beaker and several other vessels reportedly from the site or surroundings of Ziwiye, an Iron Age citadel southeast of Hasanlu.[2]
The 1947 find at Ziwiye of a rich assemblage of artifacts, the so-called Ziwiye Treasure, led to further clandestine excavations and established the site as an antiquities-market label, which also attracted forgeries.[3] Although documented excavations in the area appear not to have provided exact parallels for the lidded “Ziwiye-type” containers, they have revealed glazed vessels and tiles.[4] Decorated with floral patterns as well as ibexes, sphinxes, and other mythological creatures, these finds attest that Mannea, as the region was called in the ninth to seventh centuries BCE, produced, or at least had access to, skillfully made glazed artifacts. The two Calderwood jars were perhaps intended for cosmetics. The rectangular example (cat. 1) has two pierced lug handles and four stumpy feet; the appearance and ill fit of its slightly domed lid suggest that it may not belong to the jar. Turquoise glaze lines frame the edges and divide the top of the lid into four triangles, which are filled with dots in the same color. The four sides of the vessel are decorated in a turquoise zigzag pattern. The standing triangle at the center of each side is white with black dots; the hanging triangle extending over each corner is yellow with turquoise dots. Rim and handles are covered in turquoise glaze, which also extends partway down on the interior. The jar is composed of numerous fragments, with some fills and inpainting.
The cylindrical jar (cat. 2) has pierced lug handles and a dome-shaped lid that is pierced at the center. The vessel bears a battlement pattern outlined in turquoise and filled with yellow glaze. Spikes project above and below, and dots punctuate both the pattern itself and the spaces between the spikes. The lid features a cross-shaped motif outlined in turquoise and filled with yellow in two of the quadrants. There are turquoise dots in each of the segments. Much of the glaze is worn off and partly restored in modern paint. Thermoluminesence analysis has confirmed the authenticity of the two Calderwood jars.[5] They are made not of clay but of faience, a quartz-based material. Scientific examination has shown that the glaze is a soda-lime glass derived from plant ash, as is common for this period. The glazes are colored by lead antimonate with various quantities of iron oxide for the yellow (Naples yellow), by copper for the turquoise, and by manganese for the purplish black.[6] The same colorants were used for glazed bricks from Achaemenid Persian Susa.[7]
Susanne Ebbinghaus
[1] Dyson 1968, 90,101, fig. xxxix; Dyson 1989, 9, fig. 10b; Fukai 1981, 8-9, figs. 9-10.
[2] Fukai 1981, 8–21, compare especially pls. 15, 20, 25–27, 33–37, 44.
[3] Godard 1950; Muscarella 1977; Muscarella 2000, 76–81.
[4] See V. Curtis and St. J. Simpson 1998, 193–94, fig. 8: 4–6; Hassanzadeh 2006; Rezvani and Rustaei 2007, 146–47, 150, pls. 12–13, and pl. 26, figs. 12–13; Hassanzadeh and Mollasalehi 2011. Somewhat smaller, once-lidded containers were found at Hasanlu: see Dyson 1968, ill. on 90; Metropolitan Museum of Art (63.109.16 and 65.163.68).
[5] Thermoluminescence analysis carried out by Oxford Authentication Ltd. in 2011 indicated that one jar (2000.50.96) was last fired between 1800 and 2800 years ago and the other (2000.50.97) between 1600 and 2800 years ago. Samples were taken from the bases of the jars, so the authenticity of the lids is not assured.
[6] The colorless alkali glaze appears “milky” due to bubbles. X-ray florescence (XRF), scanning electron microscopy with energy dispersive microanalysis (SEM-EDS), and Raman spectroscopy were carried out by Katherine Eremin at the Straus Center for Conservation and Technical Studies, Harvard Art Museums.
[7] Compare Fukai 1981, 20–21; Moorey 1994, 180– 86; Razmjou et al. 2004; Tite and Shortland 2008, 93–103, 187–98, with further references.
