Lip of a well

This ceramic lip was discovered half-buried in one of the patios in the Saint Martha Convent in Córdoba. It was then included in the permanent collection of the Museo Arqueológico de Córdoba. It is in good condition.

Such lips of wells have been found in the patios of Andalusian houses and in certain public and religious edifices. Their use was not limited to domains belonging to Islamic Spain but spread throughout Christian Spain. Ceramic lips continued to function up until quite recently and like those in stone, still in use, they facilitated the extraction of water from wells. Many of them have visible traces of where the rope rubbed on their edges.

This octagonal shaped lip widens at its base, giving it greater stability. The mouth and the base are shaped by thick moulds in semi-circular sections. The engraved and stamped ornamentation on the outer surface is entirely covered with a clear green glaze that is also apparent in places on the inside walls. The ornamentation takes up a horizontal distribution in several registers of superimposed bands of varying thickness. Just under the rim is a row of tarred ‘nails’, recalling the arts of metalwork. Other earthenware examples existed as early as the late Bronze period in Ras Shamra (Syria)[1] and the Abbasid period[2].  Below this there is a thin frieze of multiple-lobed arcs topped by a row of merlons—an allusion to architecture. The next register is geometric in design, comprised of an alternation of a large circle enclosing stars and small circles with four circles of different sizes decorated with floral motifs and stars. Fabulous animals and supple stems slip in and out of the circles. In the lower portion, a wide frieze unfolds in large multiple-lobed arcs (two on each panel). And finally, a thin turban encloses two rows of diamond-shaped lacework taking up the middle section.

According to the authors, the date of this lip varies from the 12^th to 15^th century[3]. The actual conditions of its discovery, which goes back to the 19^th century, in the patio of this convent founded in the 15^th century are unknown. There are very few clues, therefore, for determining the exact date for this piece. Both its shape and the decorative technique employed would suggest it fits somewhere between the 12th and 13th centuries; it is possible, however, that these characteristics carried over into later productions.

Le Museo Arqueológico de Córdoba has a number of stone curbs and ceramic lips of wells in its collection. Their ornamentation varies from those that are stamped and glazed (or without glaze) and those with partial cuerda seca… One of them is also glazed with tarred nails like this one[4]. Furthermore, a large number of the stamped, glazed lips, many of which have been attributed to the Almohad epoch, were discovered in Ceuta (Spain)[5] and in the Moroccan cities of Salé and Taza[6].

[2] See, for example, the fragment (inv. 7377) in the Benaki Museum of Athens, published in: Philon, H., Early Islamic Ceramics, London: Islamic Art Publication/ Sotheby’s, 1980, p. 10.

[3] On this subject, see, in particular: Ibn Khaldun. The Mediterranean in the 14^th century. Rise and Fall of Empires, 2006, p. 232.

[4] Córdoba, Museo Arqueológico y Etnológico, inv. CE013163.

[5] Lip of a well, Tetouan, Archaeological Museum, inv. 84.01.693.

[6] Delpy, A., 1955.