Medieval And Early Modern Pottery 405
that within this workforce were potters responsible for the production of ma-
jolica in Sassari.
3 Mediterranean Imports between the Tenth and Seventeenth
Centuries
The earliest imported medieval ceramics found in Sardinia at Porto Torres
(first documented in the ninth century) consists of Forum Ware produced in
Campania and Latium (Fig. 15.13a ).41 These were the first glazed items manu-
factured—objects of ample maritime commerce—for a precocious, though
timid commercial presence in the Tyrrhenian.42 Forum Ware existed in the
northern and western parts of the island until the early eleventh century, when
it evolved into the Sparse Glaze type, which is so-called because of the rarefac-
tion of its glaze, applied in spots (Fig. 15.13b).43
Products from other areas of the Mediterranean have so far been absent
in the stratigraphy of the eleventh century, but are well documented in ar-
chitectural contexts. Many Romanesque churches, in fact, preserve traces of
polychrome, certifying that bacini had once been inserted into their walls.44
Lead-glazed Islamic pottery painted in green and brown, as well as Sicilian and
Tunisian ceramics are preserved in the church of San Gavino at Porto Torres
(SS), for example, while bowls similar to those at Porto Torres and made in
eastern Sicily can be found in the facade of San Nicolò di Trullas in Semestene
(SS).45 The circulation of Sicilian glazed ware continued in the twelfth century
(Pl. 15.4). A bowl with incised decoration has been documented within the tiny
41 Marco Milanese, Laura Biccone, Paola Mameli, and Daniela Rovina, “Forum ware da re-
centi ritrovamenti nella Sardegna Nord-occidentale,” in La ceramica invetriata nel medio-
evo e in età moderna (Albisola, 2005), pp. 201–217.
42 The importance of the Tyrrhenian Sea for the re-appropriation of the Mediterranean by
the West, particularly Italian cities, was analyzed by Robert Fossier, Il risveglio dell’Europa
(950–1250) (Turin, 1985).
43 Biccone, “Relazioni economiche.” The Sparse Glazed items come from the excavation of
the Largo Monache Cappuccine in Sassari.
44 Michelle Hobart and Maria Francesca Porcella, “Bacini ceramici in Sardegna,” in I ba-
cini murati medievali. Problemi e stato della ricerca (Albisola, 1993), pp. 139–160; Michelle
Hobart, “Merchants, Monks, and Medieval Sardinian Architecture,” in Studies in the
Archaeology of the Medieval Mediterranean, ed. James J. Schryver (Leiden, 2010), pp. 93–114.
45 The area of the provenance has been confirmed by archeometric analysis; Graziella Berti,
Dalle ceramiche islamiche islamiche alle “maioliche arcaiche.” Secc. XI–XV (Florence,
1993), pp. 125–126. Commercial relations with Islamic Sicily, probably mediated by mer-
chants from Amalfi, are also confirmed by the presence of amphorae from Palermo with