User:IslamicArt22/Abbasid Samarra

Samarra, a city in Iraq, is distinguished for its enormous palaces which features architectural ornament. UNESCO has regarded Samarra as the only existing Islamic capital that retains its original plan, architecture, and carvings. Ernst Herzfeld, a German archeologist of the 20th century, conducted a large-scale excavation at the Main Caliphal Palace of Samarra in 1911-13. Herzfeld obtained boards of carved stucco, marble, ceramic decorative elements, and more. In Herzefeld’s publications, he identified three styles of carved ornament. Those styles being: First Style (which he also referred to as the Beveled Style), the Second Style, and the Third Style. While his classification of styles were generally accepted by his successors, research in this field now contests the source and timeline of these proclaimed styles.

The first pattern that Ernst Herzfeld obvserves, appears on fragments out of marble that were extracted from the Audience Hall Complex. This pattern is made up of horseshoe shapes which repeat in rows. The next two patterns Herzfeld observed on marble wall and consisted of trefoil motifs and petal-shaped symbols. The last motif Herzfeld observed was made of a five-lobed leaf pattern which were representative of palmettes.