Liber Annuus

This concise study deals with the oil lamps and the pieces of oil lamps, found during the excavations carried out by the archaeologists of the SBF in and around Umm al-Rasas – Kastron Mefa‘a and in the area surrounding Mount Nebo in Jordan. Specifically it deals with the finds from the Umayyad and the Abbasid contexts. In general, the common typology during these periods is relatively identifiable, despite the fact that its origin is more or less directly related to the Byzantine models, especially the well-known “candlestick” oil lamps, very widespread during the 5th and 6th centuries, used throughout the following centuries, during the entire 7th century and up to the first decades of the 8th century. The contexts are all quite well identifiable from a chronological and stratigraphical point of view. The attempt to trace an evolutionary journey of the oil lamps of the Arabic period beginning with the specimens from the excavations at Umm al-Rasas and the surrounding area, has allowed for the evaluation of the various formal and decorative typologies, showing that beginning with the common “candlestick” oil lamp of Byzantine origin, later different types developed that were clearly characteristic of the Umayyad period, in particular the “rays and dots” type, followed by the Abbasid models: first of all the “vine spirals” that in their variants IIa and IIc of the classification of Arndt, is well documented in the last phase of Umm al-Rasas. More in-depth study and the publication of other excavations will undoubtedly allow for greater clearness of this chronological-typological course, described here as a general outline.

The Cathedral Church of Hamah/Epifania was found in 1983 and partially excavated in the following years by the late Mr. Abd Razzaq Zaqzuq, at the time Inspector of the Antiquities of Hamah and untimely dead in a car accident. The general plan and the study are based on the photographic documentation given by the late archaeologist to the writer for publication. The excavation of the eastern sector of the three nave basilica is not yet completed. The ecclesiastical complex, discovered on the south of the new Cathedral of the Greek Orthodox Community, is composed by the church with the narthex, the southern stoa/porch, dated to the year 415 A.D., with an adjoining room, and the baptisterion on the west side (dated to 412 A.D.), all paved with mosaics. The mosaic floor decorated with crosses and interlaced compositions is an important historical link between the Syrian mosaics of the end of the IVth century and the mosaic floor of the church of the Holy Martyrs at Tayibat al-Imam dated to the year 442 A.D. excavated by the same archaeologist (cf. Piccirillo, LA 49, 1999).

This article gives a brief illustration about the commercial activity that characterized the history of commercial traffic in the late medieval age towards Levant and the Byzantine Empire, but also in the Magreb area, i.e. the Arabic zones of Northern Africa. This article undertakes to give a short and concise research report in order to indicate the pottery typologies widespread during the Crusader and Mameluk periods (between the XII and the XIV centuries), by means of commercial exchanges between the North and the Near East. The importance of oriental pottery in the city of Venice and the exportation of its own pottery is taken as an example with a special emphasis given to one of its surrounding areas, the Holy Land.