The trade and exchange of ceramics across the medieval middle east during the crusader period : a study of acre and jaffa

Abstract

In 1096, the Crusaders set out to for the Levant region in the Middle East in hopes of taking the Holy Land from the Muslim population that resided there. Once the Crusaders settled in the eastern Mediterranean, trade and exchange between the Levant region, southern Europe, and the north-eastern Mediterranean drastically increased. Some of the main imports into the Crusader states were ceramic vessels produced in Italy, Byzantium, Cyprus, Syria, and Egypt. In order to determine the provenance of the ceramics entering into the Crusader states, two port cities were studied using chemical, petrographic, and typological analyses. The cities, Acre and Jaffa, were both compared for similarities and differences in types of ceramics available for the local population of Crusaders during this period.