The circulation of ceramic material: medieval trade items of the Aruch fortress

This poster is about the analysis of the ceramic material that came from the excavation and research activity conducted by ISMEO – Associazione Internazionale di Studi sul Mediterraneo e l’Oriente, in collaboration with IAE NAS RA - Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography of the National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia as part of the "Archaeological Mission to Aruch and the Silk Road Fortress". The aim is to open through pottery an overview of the commercial dynamics that involved, during the late medieval times, the Fort of Aruch (Aragatson region), a strategic castrensian site located along the main communication route between East and West: the Silk Road. The ceramic here is studied on different levels: it is studied as “life product” that suggest the function of the fortress’ rooms, and that illustrate the local cultural traditions, but also as a “trade item” which testifies to the fact that the site of Aruch was reached by Iranian, Iraqi, and Georgian imports. The study of this context has also offered an opportunity to reflect on methodology: opinions about future developments in the method of studying the archaeological record must always clash with the reality to which they refer. Lack of systematic studies of medieval ceramic materials in Armenia, which local scholars have only recently been filling, makes it clear that in this case a more traditional typological approach to the study of ceramic record was necessary, but at the same time demonstrates how the right, even if traditional, methodological choice adapted to the scientific context in which it is embedded can bring 'new' results.