Jar with cuerda seca decoration

This small jar stands on a ring-shaped base and presents a spherical belly; its neck is missing and only fragments of its handles remain. On its belly unfolds a geometric decoration in partial cuerda seca; the brown-outlined motifs were filled in with a white tin glaze that is now greatly altered. A wide band, interrupted by the handles, is surmounted by two fine lines, only the upper one of which is coloured. The band is adorned with a central register outlined with white edging and sprinkled with elongated white motifs. The unglazed spaces are dotted with a pattern of brown specks.

Cuerda seca is a technique of ceramic decoration whereby enamels are outlined with a mixture of manganese oxide and a greasy substance. While the pottery is being fired this material burns, leaving only a black line. Depending on whether the unglazed surface remains visible or not, we speak of partial or total cuerda seca. This technique, already used in Susa (Iran) in the first centuries of Islam, was known as early as the Umayyad era but was rarely used in the East. It developed in Spain and Portugal from the second half of the tenth century onward. The technique is considered to have begun circulating in the Maghreb in the late eleventh or early twelfth century.

The piece from Sétif was found in the levels of occupation of an urban type house. This piece was described as having brown decoration and white engobe; however, the powdery appearance of the white portions would seem to indicate that they are coated not with engobe but with glaze, especially since tin glazes frequently lighten when they are altered.  

This piece was initially ascribed to the tenth century; the chronology has been refined, however, in the light of the examination of parallel items. The elongated motifs in the central band of this piece have parallels with partial cuerda seca ceramics from al-Andalus and Morocco in levels ascribed to the twelfth century.

A comparable piece was discovered in Qasr al-Saghir[1] (Morocco). This motif in partial cuerda seca is also fairly common on small jars from Almería, Mértola[2] and Málaga[3] ascribed to the twelfth century. Other comparisons are possible with pieces discovered in Alicante[4] and with productions from Murcia, where comparable jar fragments are ascribed to the twelfth to thirteenth century. It should be noted that up to now few ceramics with cuerda seca decoration have been discovered in central Maghreb; several examples of total cuerda seca were unearthed in Qal‘at Bani Hammad and Béjaïa (Bougie), and others in Sétif and Tiddis. All these pieces are ascribed to the twelfth century.

From 1067 the Hammadids settled in Béjaïa, which became a powerful port city. It maintained good political and commercial relations with the western shore of al-Andalus, where this type of piece was produced, and with the ports of the North African coast. This coastal area developed gradually and in the Almohad era was the scene of intense commercial shipping activity.

[1] Mekinasi, A. “Estudio preliminar de la cerámica arcaica musulmana de Marruecos”, in Tamuda VI, 1958,
Tetuán, lám. II.

[2] These are unique pieces.

[3] Puertas Tricas, R., La cerámica islámica de cuerda seca en la Alcazaba de Málaga, Ayuntamiento de Málaga, 1989, p. 93 n° 194 (Museo de Málaga, inv. C-77).

[4] ROSSER LIMIÑA (P), “La ciudad de Alicante y la arqueología del poblamiento en época medieval islámica”. LQNT 2, 1994, inv. CS7898.