The glass from the arrabal of Arrixaca (Murcia, 12th-13th centuries)

Abstract

This article presents an assemblage of 36 glass samples excavated in the urban site of San Esteban, part of the arrabal of Arrixaca (Murcia) (in al-Andalus, an arrabal was a relatively dense urbanised area outside the city walls) in contexts securely dated to the 12th and early 13th century, spanning the rule of Ibn Mardanīš, and the early period of Almohad domination in the city. The samples were analysed by electron microprobe (EMPA) for major and minor elements and laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) for trace elements. The results are examined within the context of glass production, circulation, and consumption in al-Andalus and the Islamicate Mediterranean more broadly. The results show that some of the glasses found in San Esteban-Arrixaca may have been imported from other Islamicate regions (Egypt and Mesopotamia), but that the vast majority can be related to previously recognised compositional Iberian glass groups. At the same time, the identification of several fragments of production waste and raw glass suggest that some glass-working facility may have existed in the vicinity of San Esteban-Arrixaca. The compositional evidence also indicates that recycling (including of imported glass objects) may have been a fairly common practice in Andalusi glassmaking, but it is suggested that some of the usual chemical markers of recycling may, in the case of al-Andalus and perhaps also elsewhere in the medieval Mediterranean, be the result of the cross-breeding of glass- and glaze-making activities.