Qatar

The composition and analysis of the typology of the Zekrit ceramics (their shapes and how they were made) show substantial occupation in the encampment area as a place for processing foods (preparation and cooking) and an area where this food was consumed. Some of the food prepared and cooked seems to have been for the population in the fortress, but this area is not just a kitchen annexed to the fortress; it is a specific place for producing, consuming and storing food. Sampling in this area has been thorough. Life was organised in non-built structures and may have been temporary and/or seasonal.

The crafts area of the madbassa might only have operated for several months a year and the population would have diversified its economy by keeping livestock (goats and dromedaries) or some activity linked more to its geographical location on the coast. The harvesting of pearl oysters is confirmed by a large deposit of shells found close to the madbassa and the location of this protected complex at the base of a cove is suitable for strategic retreats and sudden incursions in the Gulf (fishing, coastal trade and perhaps piracy even?).

This catalogue raisonné of Zekrit ceramics aims to fill in the gaps for both the type of ceramic (common) and for the period concerned, considered to be late (end-18th - 19th centuries). This corpus also applies to the archaeological excavations conducted over several years by the Qataran teams on their national territory; excavations which targeted the sites of fortresses and towns from the Modern Period. For some fifteen years now, teams take turns working on the site of Zubara, a fortified town founded in the middle of the 18th century. A study and analysis of the ceramics of these two contemporary sites will mark an important stage in learning about material culture in Qatar because of the shortage of any publications in this area. The ceramic corpus of Zekrit has thus been put together with a view to working in cooperation with our Qataran colleagues and this has been made possible via workshops based on the applied methodology of handling ceramics.