February, 4th 2016 | Venice, Italy

Oral defence of Valentina Laviola's PhD thesis:

Metalli islamici dai territori iranici orientali (IX-XIII sec.). La documentazione della Missione Archeologica Italiana in Afghanistan

[Islamic Metalwork from Eastern Iranian territories (9th-13th c.). The documentation of the Italian Archaeological Mission in Afghanistan]

Ca’ Foscari University

Object of the thesis are Islamic metalwork from nowadays Afghanistan dating from 9th to 13th century, namely the highest development period of Iranian metalwork. The Italian Archaeological Mission in Afghanistan have documented, between 1957 and 2014, about 580 artefacts and fragments, most of whom are still unpublished and unfortunately already disappeared.

These artefacts, coming from archaeological or fortuitous excavations, museums and antiquarians, appear for the first time in a Corpus, distributed in seventeen classes on the base of their function. To extraordinary finds – two refined inkwells unearthed in the Ghaznavid palace in 1958, and a set of sixteen buckets recently retrieved at the foot of Ghazni ancient citadel – have been dedicated special focuses. The whole study gives a significant overview on the metalwork production from medieval Eastern Iranian area.