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St Basil’s late Byzantine church in Arta (NW Greece) is unique among other surviving churches of the same era as a result of two glazed relief ceramic icons and arrays of square glazed tiles that decorate its external wall. The latter decorative items were carefully examined by means of analytical techniques in order to reveal the materials and techniques used for their manufacture and thus interpret their connection to the contemporary Byzantine and Italian ceramics. Analytical results indicate that lead plus quartz suspensions were employed for the fabrication of the majority of the glazes in the spirit of recipes for Italian Archaic majolica pottery, and thus they are differentiated from the common contemporary Byzantine products. Nonetheless, the raw materials used in the Arta area ceramics deviate substantially from those used in the Italian products and, possibly, a local (NW Greece) production is reflected. The unexpected rather rich variety of raw materials and/or techniques that underlies the visual uniformity of the glazed material in consideration might reflect selection of the best products generated upon experimentation with various contemporary technical alternatives. Finally, the decorative arrangement of the glazed items that we see today might reflect a way to circumventing original objections to the ceramic icon innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A large assemblage of Byzantine glazed pottery from ancient Corinth, Greece was analysed by a multi-technique analytical approach in order to determine the production technology. The samples cover a long time period (10th–14th c. CE) and a wide range of the most representative wares and classes. SEM/EDS, a standard non-invasive microscopy and analytical technique, was applied in combination with Raman spectroscopy and assisted with advanced, high precision techniques (PGAA, milli-PIXE) in order to examine the ceramic body, the glaze and the clay-glaze interface of the samples. Parameters of the manufacturing process, such as the selection of clay sources, the glaze recipe, the glaze application technique and the glaze firing temperature, were examined using a combination of statistical tools and methodologies. This work comprises the first large scale physicochemical analysis of Byzantine glazed ceramics from Greece, providing information on the composition and technology of all of the major typological categories of Medieval Greek glazed ceramics. Furthermore, it highlights the significant socioeconomic changes that occurred at the -beginning of the 13th c. CE in the Byzantine Empire and their consequences in the manufacturing and distribution system of glazed ceramics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A broad selection of Roman lead-glazed pottery dating from the first centuryad through the fifth centuryad was studied to establish locations of workshops and to address their technology of production. The ceramic bodies were analysed by ICP–AES. In addition, lead isotope analysis was undertaken on a selection of glazes. These findings suggested that there were several regions responsible for the production of lead-glazed ceramics in the western Roman world, including central Gaul, Italy and, probably, Serbia and Romania. Using the body compositions as a starting point, the glazing techniques employed by each of the potential workshops were examined using electron probe microanalysis. It was determined that there were two primary methods of glazing. The first method used lead oxide by itself applied to non-calcareous clay bodies, and the second method used a lead oxide-plus-quartz mixture applied to calcareous clay bodies. Based on these data for clay composition and glazing method, transfer of technology from the Hellenistic east to the western Roman world was proposed. Likewise, the inheritance of lead-glazing technology into late antiquity was established by making comparisons to lead-glazed ceramics dating to the seventh to ninth centuries from Italy, the Byzantine world and Tang Dynasty China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Twenty-five samples of Byzantine glazed pottery from two archaeological sites between Limassol and Paphos region (Cyprus), dated between the 12th and 15th centuryad were studied using micro X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction analysis. It was found that all the glazes contain lead, following the main manufacturing process of medieval pottery in the Mediterranean territory, while some of them contain tin, possibly for better opacity. Furthermore, it is shown that copper, iron and cobalt with nickel are responsible for the decoration colours. Finally, the application of principal component analysis revealed significant differentiation for some of the samples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]