CIGA

Research Group on Islamic Pottery from the Gharb Al-Ândalus(CIGA)

Working under the acronym CIGA is a group of researchers dedicated to the study of Islamic pottery from the Gharb al-Ândalus. The group was formed following the concern of some of its members towards the lack of vitality in the field of Islamic pottery studies.

 
General goals

1. To create of a systematic corpus on Islamic pottery from the Gharb al-Ândalus.
2. To define pottery groups in a morphological, technical and ornamental perspective.
3. To create a diachronic chart of these pottery groups.
4. To estimate pottery productions from these groups.
5. To define pottery productions from paste analysis.

Research methodology - Corpus - Database

To achieve these goals the definition of a common methodology was an obligatory first step, establishing criteria for the analysis of ceramic materials and a uniform graphical language and terminology.

 
Corpus of Islamic pottery from the Gharb al-Ândalus. In this corpus we intend to collect the most important specimens of Islamic pottery from the West of the Iberian Peninsula based on morphological, technical or ornamental traits, and also based on contextual information.

The selection of the objects is established by a set of criteria:

a. The object must represent a coherent type group.
b. The object’s degree of integrity.
c. The rarity of the object.
d. Priority will be given to artefacts from reliable stratigraphic contexts, rather than casual findings, or those obtained at fill layers.
e. To avoid, if possible, artefacts of dubious or unknown chronology.

CIGA Group researchers

• Helena Catarino (University of Coimbra, Faculty of Letters / CEAUCP-CAM)
• Susana Gómez Martínez (CEAUCP-CAM / Science 2008 FCT researcher)
• Isabel Cristina F. Fernandes (The Palmela Municipal Museum)
• Maria José Gonçalves (Silves Local Authority)
• Jacinta Bugalhão (Cascais Local Authority)
• Sandra Cavaco (Tavira Local Authority)
• Jaquelina Covaneiro (Tavira Local Authority)
• Isabel Inácio
• Gonçalo Lopes
• Constança Santos
• Mathieu Grangé (University of Paris 1 doctorate. Bolseiro da FCT / CEAUCP)
• Ana Gomes

Download an excerpt from the Systematisation project for Islamic pottery from the Gharb al-Ândalus in PDF format