Mark Making on Ceramic Transport Jars: Clues to Persianate Actors and Networks in the Indian Ocean World (eighth through tenth centuries AD)

Date

2025-02-06

Advisors

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

Bloomsbury

Type

Book chapter

Peer reviewed

Yes

Abstract

‘Iranians abroad’ left an indelible mark on many of the cultures of the Indian Ocean rim, besides playing an important role in the development of the medieval economy. Yet the mobile worlds of Persianate mercantile and seafaring communities have left very different material and textual traces from those we are accustomed to look for among land-based polities. This chapter presents a heterogeneous body of material from across the Indian Ocean world that sits at the intersection of text and material culture, a corpus of markings found on commercial ceramic containers as well as smaller ceramic items such as jars and basins. Considered alongside the vessel types that carry them, their find spots, whether made during or after manufacture, and alive always to their placement and directionality, this chapter demonstrates that this eclectic collection of markings offers an unexpected new resource for the study of Persianate presences and trade networks in the Indian Ocean world.

Description

Keywords

Indian Ocean, ceramics, torpedo jars, transport jars, Siraf, Chao Tan, Belitung, Phanom Surin, maritime archaeology, epigraphy, inscriptions

Citation

Lambourn, E. (2025) Mark Making on Ceramic Transport Jars: Clues to Persianate Actors and Networks in the Indian Ocean World (eighth through tenth centuries AD). In: ACS Peacock ed. Iran and Persianate Culture in the Indian Ocean World, pp. 49-93. IB Tauris and BIPS Studies in the History and Culture of the Persianate World. London: IB Tauris and Bloomsbury Publishing.

Rights

Research Institute

Institute of Humanities and Political Studies