"Tell Minis" type lustre-ware bowl with human-headed winged lion

Metallic lustre-painting and glazes made opaque with tin are two of the great inventions of the potters of the Islamic world, technologies which later spread to Europe. Both first appeared on pottery in Iraq in the 8th century AD/CE, but their origins were in glass-making in Syria, and the glazing technology of ancient Mesopotamia. Such syntheses of knowledge leading to new ideas was very typical of this period of Islamic civilisation. This particular object represents the re-introduction of these technologies into Syria around 1075 AD. We don’t know exactly where this bowl was made, but it belongs to a group associated with the town of Tell Minis in western Syria where a large cache of vessels found in a cave. Production was short-lived (c. 1100 to 1125), probably because of the arrival of the Crusaders. Potters moved to safer regions.