Fragmentary thick and large opaque turquoise monochrome square tile, with cut straight edges. Fine fabric, identical to the one identified for the glazed vessels of the Ghazni pottery corpus (Fabric no. 25). The glaze has many crackles and is partially covered by a matt alteration layer. The front surface is partially covered by an earthy deposit. The rear surface is rough and cracked. Traces of very thick bedding mortar are preserved in the rear surface and on one fracture. The tile probably cracked before being glazed, possibly during the drying process (?), as suggested by the fracture filled with glaze. The tile shows at the fracture covered by the mortar a (post-firing) clean cut, perpendicular to the surfaces and with smoothed fractures; the cut was made intentionally; the cut was not made through the tile completely, so that the rest (the upper part) was broken manually in a far less precise way. Two hypotheses are suggested: the tile was cut to be reused after its breakage or the tile was cut for a proper fit before setting it into the architectural surface.

Current location: Rome, Sapienza University

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Digital photos: A. Fusaro, 2011
Drawings: A. Fusaro, 2020