ESTIMATION OF FIRING TEMPERATURE OF ISLAMIC CERAMIC USING XRD AND FTIR

Abstract

Firing minerals plays an important role in the estimation of firing temperature and thermal transformation in ceramic components. In this study, a comparison between XRD and FTIR was used in order to identify the firing minerals of ceramic from Al-Fūsṭāṭ, Cairo (641-1168 AD). Two types of minerals described in this study, meta-stable minerals (e.g. Gehlenite and Wollastonite), and stable minerals (e.g. Diopside). The thermal minerals are an indicator of the firing temperature of archaeological ceramic. All selected objects were fired above 850-900 °C. The results indicate that the ceramic from Mamlūk period has high quality of production. Firing at high temperature produce hard ceramic that requires special conservation materials when it applied.

Keywords

• ceramics
• firing minerals
• temperature
• mamlūk
• xrd
• ftir
• diopside
• secondary calcite