EARLY OPACIFIERS IN THE GLAZE INDUSTRY OF FIRST MILLENNIUM BC PERSIA: PERSEPOLIS AND TEPE RABAT

摘要

This study characterizes the opacifiers and colouring agents used in the glazed bricks of Persepolis (mid-first millennium BC) and the Mannean site of Tepe Rabat in north-western Iran (eighth to seventh centuries BC). Various analytical studies show that lead antimonate and brizziite (NaSbO3) were used as the yellow and white opacifiers in the glazes of Persepolis and Tepe Rabat. Brizziite is shown to be incorporated in the white, green and turquoise glazes, and is also associated with lead antimonate and CaSb2O6 in some yellow and white opacifiers. The simultaneous formation of these opacifiers in one glaze might have been accidental. A possible connection between the Achaemenid glaze industry and the Mannean glaze production at Tepe Rabat is discussed.