Softstone: Approaches to the Study of Chlorite and Calcite Vessels in the Middle East and Central Asia from Prehistory to the Present

Stone containers have been made and used in the Middle East for over eleven millennia where they pre-dated the invention of pottery and were widely traded. The appearance or properties of the stone helped govern how stone vessels were valued or used and many classes were strictly utilitarian, being used for storage, cooking or lighting. Others were decorated and at times they were considered valuable exotica, particularly in regions far removed from their source areas. The subject of stone vessels is attracting growing attention but this is the first attempt to bring together different approaches to the study of softstone vessels, particularly but not exclusively those carved from varieties of chlorite, and covering all periods from prehistory to the present.

Table of Contents

Foreword – by Carl S. Phillips and St John Simpson

Introduction – by Carl Phillips and St John Simpson

Middle Holocene Omani jewels: thoughts on the production of softstone earrings – by Donatella Usai

Wood-worked and metal-shocked: softstone vessels in the Bronze and early Iron Age eastern Mediterranean – by Andrew Bevan

Alabaster vessels: manufacture, function and distribution (4th to 2nd millennia BC) – by Michèle Casanova

Three examples of 3rd millennium BC softstone vessel imports found in Syria – by Hélène David

Un exemple de production et de diffusion du style ‘Interculturel’ : les representations architecturales en Mesopotamie, Iran et dans le Golfe Persique au IIIe millenaire av. J.-C. – by Adrien Berthelot

A painted chlorite ‘hut model’ vessel in the British Museum – by St John Simpson

Remarks on the iconography of the ‘Intercultural Style’ – by Sylvia Winkelmann

The question of workshops and chronology in the Wadi Suq period – by Christian Velde

The steatite cooking bowl of the 1st millennium BC and early 1st millennium AD in South Arabia: archaeological views and cultural dynamics – by W.D. Glanzman

The distribution and provenance of ancient South Arabian steatite-tempered pottery: a thin-section analysis – by Alexandra Porter

Ancient South Arabian softstone vessels in the British Museum – by Carl S. Phillips and St John Simpson

‘Of cooking pots let him choose those made of stone’: the manufacture, circulation and function of chlorite cooking pots and other objects in the Middle East and Central Asia during the Sasanian and medieval periods – by St John Simpson

Softstone at Siraf – by Sarah Jennings

Imported medieval stone vessels and other items from Merv and Nysa – by L.A. Kuraeva

A collection of stone utensils from the Merv oasis, southern Turkmenistan – by Z.I. Usmanova and V. Tikhomirov

Notes on the production of stone cooking pots in Mashhad, Iran – by M.G. Konieczny

Yemeni stone vessels: a different perspective. The use and interpretation of stone vessels by the Jews of Yemen – by Ester Muchawsky-Schnapper

The contemporary softstone industry in Jabal Rāziḥ, north-west Yemen – by Shelagh Weir

Cumulative bibliography

Carl S. Phillips Works In The Université Paris Ouest, Specialises In Arabian Archaeology And Has Excavated Extensively In Oman, Yemen And The United Arab Emirates.