CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2025
| Author | Fegyvari-Komori, Tunde |
|---|---|
| Title | A Network of Consumption: Asian Decorative Ceramics and their Distribution in Hungary and the Balkans during the Ottoman Period |
| Summary | The goal of this dissertation is to analyze the distribution of Chinese porcelain, Persian stonepaste, and Iznik and Kütahya faience sherds unearthed at archaeological sites across present-day Hungary, Serbia, Bulgaria, and Romania, connected to the Ottoman occupation of these territories. Besides the identification and dating of the sherds, the results of the analysis include the consumption patterns and social value of these objects within the Ottoman Empire, as well as the trading routes through which they travelled within the empire. The analysis focused primarily on the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and on Hungary since the archaeological material unearthed in Hungary provides the main body of the analyzed sherds. In this respect, the analysis resulted in a well-articulated pattern of consumption. Based on the archaeological record, Iznik ware was an exquisite and rare "luxury", that was highly appreciated by its users during the sixteenth century. Chinese porcelain and Persian stonepaste were relatively rare in this period and mostly reached the centers of administration, such as Buda or Eger. These objects could have been diplomatic gifts of personal items brought to their place of eventual disposal by their users, but the trade of Iznik ware was also documented in the written sources; thus, their appearance in the markets is not impossible. By the seventeenth century, the consumption patterns changed, as reflected in the archaeological record. The number of Iznik ware declined and was replaced by a large number of mass-produced coffee cups, either Chinese porcelain or Persian stonepaste and Kütahya ware, the latter two imitating or copying the Chinese models. This change is connected to the spread of coffee culture across the Ottoman Empire and to the change of global trading patterns during the seventeenth century. Regarding the distribution of the seventeenth century, the trading routes within the empire are reflected in the archaeological record as well: a most probable way of distribution was either through Sofia and Belgrade along the Danube to Buda and other centers within Hungary from Istanbul or through the ports of the Black Sea in Wallachia and Moldavia, and then through Transylvania into Hungary. Regarding Persian stonepaste and Chinese porcelain, these items most likely reached the Ottoman Empire through the trading routes that crossed Central Asia and Asia Minor. Chinese porcelain, based on the archaeological parallels of the porcelain vessels found on shipwreck cargoes in Southeast Asia and written sources, seems to have traveled through Indonesia, the Strait of Malacca, the Maldives, and arrived in Bandar Abbas in the Persian Gulf, from where it continued on the overland routes. Regarding the bulky character of the seventeenth-century material, it can be argued that although these vessels were probably quite expensive, they cannot be considered "luxury," as they were quite commonly spread across territories occupied and inhabited by the Ottoman military and administrative elite. |
| Supervisor | Szende, Katalin; Laszlovszky, József |
| Department | Medieval Studies PhD |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2025/komori_tunde.pdf |
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