Potters' workshops and their productions in the Arabian Peninsula between 10th -15th AD.
Résumé
Potters' workshops of the Islamic periods in the Arabian Peninsula are a topic of study that has rarely been explored by archaeologists until now. Several recent excavations, however, allow for new comparative research on the entire production chain of ceramics. The aim of this research is to understand the spatial organization of the workshop in relation to each stage of ceramic production (clay preparation, shaping, drying, decoration, firing and waste management) and its integration into its environment, as well as the evolution of techniques and their diffusion over time between different regions. Workshops have thus been excavated at the oasis site of al-Yamāmah (9th-10th AD) in Saudi Arabia and in the harbour of Qalhāt (13th-15th AD) in Oman. In parallel, ethnoarchaeological studies carried out on potters' workshops in the peninsula, notably in Bahla in Oman shed additional light on the organization of the excavated workshops.