Current Research on Islamic Glass Bangles of the Arabian Peninsula

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Current Research on Ancient Glass around the Indian Ocean" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The study of Islamic glass bangles has been undertaken on a localized or regional level by a number of authors. However, with advances in archaeochemistry the analysis of the primary production glass is offering new insights and contextualization to their typological and coloration differences. The presence of Islamic glass bangles across the Middle East and beyond has been documented from at least the tenth–twentieth centuries. Their height of dissemination appears to have been around the fourteenth century; however, there is some differentiation over their popularity between regions and periods. Those that are best understood are from the Eastern Mediterranean regions of the Levant and Egypt, although other studies have considered those from Anatolia, South Asia, and (from typological point of view) southern Yemen. Having undertaken an analytical and typological review of some collections from the Persian Gulf, this study now focuses on reassessing those along the Western Indian Ocean trade route, from the Omani coast to the Horn of Africa. It considers the unique chemical signature of bangles from Yemen, held at the British Museum, how this and distinct typologies connect with other collections analyzed, and the potential role the Arabian Peninsula played in their production and dissemination.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)   •
• Current Research on Ancient Glass around the Indian Ocean

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 36514.0