The Museo Orientale of the Università deglistudi di Napoli “L’Orientale” is dedicated toUmberto Scerrato who founded the

‘Seminario di Archeologia Orientale’ at the end ofthe 1960s and started collecting Islamic materials forthe foundation of a University Educational Museum.

The museum collection today includes – in additionto a large Islamic section enriched during the lastyears thanks to donations – archeological evidencesfrom Eastern Sudan, Eritrea and Ethiopia, objectsfrom Ancient Near East, Northwestern India, Chinaand Japan. Scale models represent examples ofSaudi Arabian architectures, a Chinese burial siteand a Japanese capital city.

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Since ancient times, the Nile and the RedSea made of Northeastern Africa abridge between Subsaharan Africa and

the Mediterranean. The study of theseconnections is a traditional research interest of“L’Orientale”.Northeastern Africa is also characterized byenvironmental variety because of the monsoonaffecting its southern parts, the mountains of theEastern Desert and the Ethio-Eritrean Highland.

For this reason, both agricultural and pastoral areasidentify the region. At last, hierarchical societies

emerged in the region in the 5th millennium BC.This fascinating region is here represented by findingsfrom Sudan, Eritrea and Ethiopia. The findings from Eastern Sudan were collected in thesurveys between the Gash river and the Atbara and in theexcavations of the Expedition of “L’Orientale” at MahalTeglinos (K 1). These are the earliest archeological

Northeastern Africa

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evidences in the Museum: ceramicsherds of the 6th millennium BC, withan elaborated decoration suggestingan already complex productiontechnique. Some of these materialsallowed us to reconstruct anexchange network involving EasternSudan, Nile valley, Red Sea, Arabia andEgypt in the 2nd millennium BC.Some lithic tools and stone ox-heads,perhaps ex-voto, dated to the early 1st

millennium BC, from Sembel Cushet(Eritrea), are a donation of the heir ofProf. Lanfranco Ricci. Four silvercoins of Endubis, king of Aksum(early 3rd century AD), donation of Mr.Giuseppe Tringali, represent one of theoldest types of coins in Sub-SaharanAfrica: the king was represented with a localiconography but, as Aksumites had intense contacts withthe Mediterranean, legends were in Greek and the weightstandard related to the Roman one.

Andrea Manzo

Ancient Near East

Ancient Near East extends from present-day Turkey to present-day Iran. In thisregion, the first complex social

organizations appeared in the 5th millennium BC asan outcome of the ‘Neolithic Revolution’ and,later, the first cities arose. The seals appeared inthis context: they were used as property marks,and to guarantee the integrity of containers andstorerooms. From the mid-4th millennium BC,cylinder-shaped seals appeared at Uruk and Susa:

they were suitable to impress larger surfaces thanthe earlier stamp seals. With the adoption and diffusion ofthe written texts, the seals were also used to confirm thevalidity of documents. The iconographic repertoire of seals illustrated themesfrom all aspects of the material and spiritual life ofhuman beings. The scenes refer to different sectors, such as: economy, political power, war, religion andmythology.Therefore, the seals reflected the world view of theancient Near East complex societies and theirevolution over the centuries. At the sametime, the precious materials used to makeseals – lapis, carnelian, rock crystal,quartzes and precious metals – bearwitness of the capacity of thesesocieties to acquire luxury goodsand the extension of their long-distance trade.Appreciated especially for theiraesthetic value, seals becamesought-after collector’s items,and stimulated the rise of anOrientalizing or, more precisely,

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Assyrian taste. This taste manifested itselfprincipally in sophisticated jewelry that not onlyreproduced themes of figurative Assyrian art injewels and precious decorative objects, but usedoriginal seals as elements in necklaces, braceletsand earrings fashioned for high-society ladies.An example is the parure worn by Lady EnidLayard in 1873 gala dinner hosted by Queen Victoria,shown in a celebrated portrait presently kept, asthe jewels themselves, at the British Museum inLondon. Lady Layard parure, made by thefamous London jewelers Phillips Brothers &Sons, specialized in ‘archaeological-style’jewelry, consisted in a collier, a bracelet and apair of earrings.

Simonetta Graziani

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Scale models show the most relevantbuildings investigated by the ItalianArchaeological Mission in Yemen,

directed from 1980 to 2010 by Alessandro deMaigret.

All these buildings can be dated between 7th and 2nd

century BC and were built by the cultures of the‘caravan cities’ of ancient Yemen.In the 1st millennium BC, Caravan Kingdoms emergedand flourished in this remote and only apparently isolatedregion, named Arabia Eudaimon or Arabia Felix by theGreek-Roman authors. These kingdoms, Saba, Awsan,Main, Qataban, Hadramawt and Himyar, were involvedin the production and trade of herbs and spices with theNear East and the Mediterranean.The models, realized by Romolo Loreto, represent threedomestic buildings. House A at Yala, House B/B andB/E at Tamna’, and the sacred area of Barâqish,ancient Yathill, with the temples of Nakrah and Athtaras well as the city walls. The largest model shows the

Yemen

sacred area at Baraqish: one of the mostrelevant urban built area of ancient Yemen,brought to light with an extensiveexcavation.To this group of monuments investigated bythe Mission, the temple of Dhat Na’man,brought to light by a Russian Mission directedby A.V. Sedov near Raybun, in Hadramawt, andthe ‘Great Temple’ at Yeha, in northern Ethiopia,investigated by a French Mission in collaboration with A.de Maigret, were added.For the realization of the models we followed anexperimental approach and an attempt of reproducing thebuilding following the most likely building techniquesused by South-Arabians.

Romolo Loreto

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Northwestern India

The votive model in unbacked clay of astūpa, a sacred building, from Zabul,Islamic Ghazni, can be ascribed to the

8th century AD, the last period of artpatronage by the pro-Buddhist political

elite and of the Buddhist communitiesof Northwestern India. In the

following century, patronage would belimited to the Hindukush region, where it

used to run the westernmost trade route.In the East, in present-day Swat and in

Gandhara, under the influence of the Pāladynasty, based in Buddhist Bengal, what was

left of the monastic community and the siddhas, the wiseadepts, started the last transformations represented by theVajrayāna.

In the 9th century AD, the Brahmanicalpower was established over the wholeNorthwestern India, SoutheasternAfghanistan and Northern Pakistan. Fromthis milieu are the schist fragment of stelewith the representation of Gadādevī,female personification of the heavy maceof god Viṣṇu, as well as a second fragmentof schist stele, with representation ofViṣṇu sitting in a temple, and the fragmentof a schist frame, with representation of astanding male figure with mace in a niche.At that time, in Northwestern India, the Brahmanical gods were under theprotection of the Ṣāhī dynasty, which wasfinally cancelled by the establishment topower of the Islamic Ghaznavid dynastyat the end of the 1st millennium AD.

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Giovanni Verardi

The seven marble funerary steles in the Museumcome from the mausoleums of the burial sites ofFustat, the ancient Cairo, and are dated to the 9th

century AD. The Egyptian steles constitute the largestand best known corpus in the funerary production of theIslamic territories, although most of the specimens havebeen removed from their original position. The epitaphsoccupy only one of the two faces of the steles; they areenclosed within frames and are distributed on horizontallines. All the epitaphs begin with the basmala (bismi-llahal-raman al-raim), the introductory formula stating thateverything is made possible ‘in the name of Allah, theCompassionate, the Merciful’, and end with the date ofdeath or with a short invocation to God. With few

Islamic Funerary steles

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Roberta Giunta

exceptions the steles feature atleast one Koranic verse, or otherexpressions inspired by theKoran. The verses insist on God’sabsolute uniqueness, theimportance of the prophetic missionand the resurrection of the dead.The steles in the Museum are dedicated to male figureswho died in their adult age, the only exception beingspecimen MO181, which was carved for a woman, themother of a high rank commander, whose irreproachableconduct is pointed out: ‘she died pure, uncontaminated bydishonor or guilt, innocent. The quill did not record faultnor error for her’. Along with short pleas for mercy,contentment and divine forgiveness there can be prayersand formulas, many of which of a particularly widespreaduse, such as the expression of trust in rewards andpunishments after death, as well as fear for the darknesssurrounding the tomb. Together with the name, the date isthe only other important detail concerning the dead, aboutwhich, in fact, additional biographical information – suchas the date of birth, the circumstances that caused thedeath or the age when the latter occurred – is almostnever provided.The date of death generally comprises the name of theday, the month, and the year that, as usual, is written inletters.

Beginning with the Abbasidcaliphate in mid-8th century,pottery represents one of the most

interesting expressions in the figurative artsof Islam, for its aesthetic value and technical

quality. With regard to the former it displays arich and innovative repertoire of the culture it

belongs to, with regard to the latter it has resumed, andimproved some ancient techniques that had beendiscontinued, while also experimenting new ones inwhich it achieved previously unmatched quality levels.

Clay is the basis of pottery: a natural substance whoseplasticity can be transformed by heat into a strong anddurable material.

Unglazed wares represent by far the largest output of theIslamic ceramic industry. The decoration can be painted,engraved, carved, moulded, stamped, applied, or splashed(showcase 1)

Glazed wares. Glaze is a thin layer of glass on thesurface of a ceramic. The Islamic pottery is characterizedby the extraordinary development of glazed production(lead glaze or alkaline glaze), generally brightened up bya rich painted (monochrome or polychrome) decoration.

Opaque white glaze wares. A well distinguishingAbbasid ware (starting from the 9th century) ischaracterized by an opaque-white glaze on a clay body,generally painted in blue, green, brown, or luster. Thepainted luster decoration (polychrome, bi-chrome ormonochrome) often covers the entire surface of theobject (horror vacui aesthetic; showcase 1).

Slip painted ware. This technique can be by far consideredas one of the most interesting innovation – together with

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Islamic Pottery

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Roberta Giunta

luster – of the Islamic potters (10th-11th century). Bymixing the colourants with the very fine clayswhich composed the slip it became possible toprevent the lead from dragging the coloursduring the vitrification, thus obtainingornaments with well-defined contours(showcases 6, 8-10).

Fritware (or stonepaste) is an artificial white,grayish-white or pale pink fabric containing ahigh percentage of silica, often used for fineceramics from 11th century onward (showcase 1).

The Islamic pottery on display in the Museo Scerrato iscomposed of two groups: the first group belongs to“L’Orientale” since the beginning of the 1970s thanks toUmberto Scerrato who, in order to provide a tangibleknowledge of a consistent part of the pottery production,enriched the holdings of the specialized library withninety exemplars. The second group is composed of anequal number of objects kindly donated in 2013 by Pittuifamily that was very close to Umberto Scerrato(showcases 3-5).

Metalwork exhibits the greatest variation oftechnique, style and ornament in Islamic art.

In the early centuries the material used was mainlybronze, a metal alloy composed of a high percentage ofcopper and tin. Brass (copper and zinc alloy) was usedby the late 12th-early 13th century. Only a small numberof objects in gold and silver of the medieval periodsurvive: the precious metals were probably used lessfrequently, perhaps because of a religious prohibition.The objects in bronze/copper were obtained by casting(mould or by using the ‘lost wax’ process) and weregenerally enhanced by a rich decoration.

The most common decoration techniques includeincision and openwork.

A very refined production is characterized by an inlaydecoration, which in Italian is known as ‘agemina’ fromthe Arabic ‘ajam, ‘the Persians’, because of the greatskill of Iranian craftsmen: in the seam of a deep incisionwas poured (or wrought) a different metal, especiallysilver or copper.

Epigraphic bands of different sizes and in differentstyles of writing play a preponderant role in the

decorative repertoire. The texts most frequentlyattested on Iranian metalwork of the 12th-13th

century contain sequences of good wishesfor the owner, almost alwaysanonymous.The Museum owns a group of 40

objects that, albeit small in number, isparticularly representative of the

Islamic metalwork from theIranian regions.

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Islamic Metalwork

Roberta Giunta

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The oldest section – which is also the bestrepresented – dates back to the era between the 11th

and the 13th century and is coeval to most of thepottery vessels owned by the Museum.The range of metal objects includes: tablewareand/or kitchenware (ewers, spoons, bowls, bottles,tray for spices, basins, food containers: showcases1, 3, 5, 6), lighting devices (lamp-stands, oil-lamps, torch-stands:showcases 1-3), thurification vessels(incense-burners: showcase 2),objects for writing table (inkwells:showcase 6), medical and pharmaceuticalitems (mortars, magic bowls: showcases 2-5), objects forbody care (mirror, bucket and indigo crucible: showcases1-3), seals (showcase 5), pendants (showcase 5), and afountain tap (showcase 1).

Twenty-nine metal objects of the collection have beenkindly donated to the Museum by the Pittui family(showcases 3, 5, 6).

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Porcelain,composed ofkaolin and a

feldspathic rock, isrealized in China since veryancient times. The blue andwhite porcelain is obtained through asingle high-temperature firing with a cobalt bluedecorative motif under a transparent glaze. The cobaltcomes from Iran and its use is documented in China sincethe 8th century. The blue and white porcelain is originallyproduced in the first decades of the 14th century mostlyfor export, because too ‘vulgar’ to reflect the taste of theChinese literati. The exported artefacts primarily camefrom the kilns in Jingdezhen, a small town in the southernprovince of Jiangxi. Direct trades with Europe began onlyduring the 16th century, when they were established bythe Portuguese. Later, other European communities, inparticular the Dutch and the English, founded the EastIndia Companies. The group of Chinese blue and whiteporcelain at the Museum consists of about seventyfragments from Hormuz, Portuguese emporium in thePersian Gulf and ten items of the kraak type,characterized by a peculiar decoration featuring alternatelarger and narrower panels adorned with the usualChinese iconographic repertoire.A gilt-bronze figure of BuddhaAmitāyus incised with theinscription ‘Made during thegengyin year of the Qianlongreign of the Great Qing’,corresponding to 1770. TheBuddha, framed by a flamingmandorla, is seated in

China

padmāsana on a rectangular plinth. The handsin dhyānamudrā are thought to have held thevase attribute, now lost.Amitāyus, in Chinese Wuliang shou orBuddha of Infinite Life, was often invokedto grant longevity: this image, alongwith thousands of others, wasspecially commissioned byQianlong emperor (r. 1735-96) forhis mother’s eightieth birthday.The scale model shows the tombmound of the Crown Prince Yidelocated nearby the Tang capitalChang’an (today Xi’an). It is a hugemausoleum with a north-south axis, reproducing anunderground palace, with a long passage, a descendingtunnel with four ventilation shafts and three storageniches on each side for ceramic burial objects, twomortuary chambers, the rear one with a big stone outercoffin. The mural paintings decoration represent gatetowers, landscapes, honour guards, officials, female courtattendants, courtly women, female dancers, grooms.

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Lucia Caterina

Nara was the capital of Japan from 710 to 794 AD,modeled on the Chinese capital Chang’an. It had arectangular plan oriented to the south, a direction

considered auspicious. Unlike the Chinese capital, Nara hadno walls, but it was protected on three sides by mountains.The Imperial Palace, surrounded by a defensive wall, waslocated at the northern end, where the most importantavenue began.The city plan had the shape of a chess board with paralleland perpendicular streets within a grid of about 4×6 km. Itis believed that, at its height, the population was 60 to 70thousand people. Outside of this rectangle, in the east, therewas the Outer Capital Gekyō, where the temple Tōdai usedto stand. Within the city there were numerous Buddhisttemples and Shinto shrines.

Japan

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Lucia Caterina

Nakabayashi Gochiku (1827-1913)Floating peaks and steep waterfalls (Sanbi Senritsu)

Nakabayashi Gochiku (1827-1913)Rites and music (Yure Sharaku)

Scale modelof Nara

Museum DirectorLucia Caterina

Museum sections CuratorsLucia Caterina Far Eastern

Roberta Giunta IslamSimonetta Graziani Ancient Near EastRomolo Loreto Ancient Near EastAndrea Manzo Northeastern Africa

Scale modelsRomolo Loreto

Technical DirectorUmberto Cinque

Graphics and layoutMariano Cinque

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