Archaeometric Study of Glazed Brick, Architectural Decoration from the 1st Millennium BCE, North-western Iran

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Glazed bricks enlivened the architecture in Ancient Near Eastern palaces, temples and other important structures during the 2nd and 1st millennia BCE. Neo-Assyrians and other peoples in northern Mesopotamia and those in neighbouring areas such as Egypt decorated their architecture with glazed bricks. However, the best known, most splendid and most studied glazed brick decoration are those of the Neo-Babylonian and Achaemenid Periods, respectively at Babylon and Persepolis. After an initial recovery of excavated bricks in the 19th century from Babylon, Susa and other sites, years later in the 1960s a new kind of Assyrian-looking glazed brick turned up in the art market from clandestine excavations, originating particularly in the West Azerbaijan Province. Some appear to have originated from the 1st millennium kingdom of Mannea (Akkadian Mannai) and its neighbours, in the political, military and cultural sphere of influence of ancient Assyria and/or Urartu. Recent official excavations at Qalaichi, Rabat, Ziwiyeh and Hasanlu have yielded glazed materials, the basis of our study. Iconographic comparisons with Elamite and Assyrian artefacts suggest affinities, but only Neo-Assyrian glazed decoration are linked genetically. Complementary to the study of the art history of these NW Iranian glazed bricks, samples became available through official channels for petrological study in Germany.The time is right to study how the glaze technology matches that of the Neo-Assyrians, complementary to the manifest iconographic resemblances between the two. Archaeometric study is to show similarities and differences between the products of the different sites, a component of a larger art historical study of the NW Iranian Iron Age glazed brick decoration. We propose local production sites dependent on Neo-Assyrian technology and independent of Elamite influence. Imports must be identified.