Early Islamic Syria : an archaeological assessment / Alan Walmsley.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Walmsley, Alan, 1952-

Series:

Duckworth debates in archaeology

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Islamic antiquities.

Syria--History--634-750.

Syria.

History.

Syria--Antiquities.

Antiquities.

Islamic antiquities--Syria.

Physical Description:

176 pages : illustrations, maps ; 22 cm.

Place of Publication:

London : Duckworth, 2007.

Summary:

After more than a century of neglect, a profound revolution is occurring in the way archaeology addresses and interprets developments in the social history of early Islamic Syria-Palestine. This concise book offers an innovative assessment of social and economic developments in Syria-Palestine shortly before, and in the two centuries after, the Islamic expansion (the later sixth to the early ninth century AD), drawing on a wide range of new evidence from recent archaeological work. Alan Walmsley challenges conventional explanations for social change with the arrival of Islam, arguing for considerable cultural and economic continuity rather than devastation and unrelenting decline. Much new, and increasingly non-elite, architectural evidence and an ever-growing corpus of material culture indicate that Syria-Palestine entered a new age of social richness in the early Islamic period, even if the gains were chronologically and regionally uneven.

Contents:

1 Defining Islamic archaeology in Syria-Palestine 15

2 After Justinian, 565-635 CE 31

The condition of towns in the later sixth century 34

The impact of multiple conquests 45

3 Material culture and society 48

Pottery and early Islamic society 49

Numismatics, government and social change 59

Craft goods, exotica and prestige items 64

Material culture, archaeology and early Islamic transformations 69

4 Sites and settlement processes 71

A formal urban hierarchy 72

Urban Archaeology 76

Existing towns: tradition, additions and renewal 77

New establishments 90

Settlements with intent 104

Rural settlement profiles 107

Site histories and settlement processes 111

5 Life 113

Food 113

Industry 117

Religious life 120

Housing and domestic life 126

Environment, landscape and the human factor 132

6 Prospects: ongoing debates in Islamic archaeology 137

The archaeology of late antique Arab society 139

Qur'anic archaeology 141

'Gap' archaeology in the post-Umayyad period 144

Looking beyond the longue duree: resilience theory 146

A concluding note 148

Brief chronology of early Islamic Arabia and Syria-Palestine 149.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 156-170) and index.

ISBN:

9780715635704

0715635700

OCLC:

150347216