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Mycenaean Pottery in the Middle East: Notes on Finds since 1951

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 October 2013

Extract

In his basic and indispensable study Mycenaean Pottery from the Levant, published in 1951, Stubbings pointed out that it is only by cross-contacts with the civilizations of the Middle East that any absolute dating for the Aegean Bronze Age can be reached. It is, therefore, rather startling to find that since the diffusion of the Furumark concept and his monumental typology, Mycenaean pottery is itself often used as the cultural cross-contact to date levels at sites in the Middle East where the local pottery has, as yet, a less accessible typology, and where Egyptian dated finds or seals from Syria and Mesopotamia, however abundant, often have to be mistrusted for dating, as they provide too wide a margin in time.

The present attempt to locate and assess some of the recent Mycenaean contacts is unevenly representative, since much of the material from new excavations was not available for study, and I had to leave the Middle East before I had finished my notes. These were made at intervals between June 1962 and April 1966, when I visited most of the Late Bronze Age sites in the Antioch district of Turkey, in Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan and saw the Mycenaean pottery in the museums. I did not see recent finds from Egypt or Israel.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Council, British School at Athens 1967

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References

Acknowledgements:

I should like to thank many people for help, advice, and hospitality, particularly Émir Maurice Chéhab, Directeur Général des Antiquités du Liban, and Madame Chéhab; M. Roger Saida of the Direction Générale des Antiquités du Liban; Dr. Awni Dajani, Director of Antiquities of Jordan, and his staff; Dr. Yusef Saad, Curator of the Palestine Archaeological Museum in 1966, and his staff; Professor D. Baramki; Mrs. C. M. Bennett; Dr. H. G. Bucholz; Mrs. Miles Copeland; M. and Mme Maurice Dunand; Dr. and Mrs. H. J. Franken; Mr. G. L. Harding; Dr. J. B. Hennessy and members of the British School of Archaeology in Jerusalem; Dr. R. A. Higgins; Mr. F. J. Kent, Librarian of the American University of Beirut; Dr. K. Kenyon; Professor J. B. Pritchard; Dr. C. Schaeffer; M. Henri Seyrig, Director of the Institut Français d'Archéologie at Beirut; Miss O. Tufnell; Mr. P. Wescombe; Mr. G. H. R. Wright; and Henry Hankey who drew the map and text figures (except Fig. 5).

Permission given by the following to reproduce the under-mentioned illustrations is gratefully acknowledged: by Dr. J. H. Franken, for Figs. 5 and 6; by the Curator of Amman Museum, for Plate 33a; by the Curator of the Palestine Archaeological Museum, for Plates 28–30, 36d, 37a; by the Curator of Beirut Museum for Plates 26, 27; by the Keeper of the Department of Antiquities of the Ashmolean Museum for Plate 37 b, c.

Abbreviations additional to those in standard use:

Publications

AAS = Les Annales Archéologiques de Syrie.

A and S = Antiquity and Survival, vol. ii (1957).

ADAJ = Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan.

AHL = Kenyon, K. M., Archaeology in the Holy Land, 1960, 2nd ed. 1966.Google Scholar

Attica = Stubbings, F. H., ‘The Mycenaean Pottery of Attica’, BSA xlii (1947) 1Google Scholar.

BASOR = Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, Jerusalem.

BMC = British Museum Catalogue of Vases vol. i, part 11.

C = Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum, Cyprus.

CBMW = Catling, H. W., Cypriote Bronzework in the Mycenaean World, 1964.Google Scholar

CT = Wace, A. J. B., ‘Chamber Tombs at Mycenae’, Archaeologia lxxxii (1932).Google Scholar References are to tomb nos.

Essai = de la Ferté, E. Coche, Essai de classification de la céramique mycénienne d'Enkomi, 1951.Google Scholar

FM = Furumark Motive Number; MP 236.

FS = Furumark Shape Number; MP 583.

IANE = Smith, W. Stevenson, Interconnections in the Ancient Near East, 1965.Google Scholar

IEJ = Israel Exploration Journal.

Khalkis = Hankey, V., ‘Late Helladic Tombs at Khalkis’, BSA xlvii (1952) 49Google Scholar; references are to Catalogue nos.

Lachish II = Tufnell, O., Inge, C. H., Harding, G. L., Lachish II, 1940.Google Scholar

Lachish IV = Tufnell, O., Lachish IV, 1958.Google Scholar

LMS = Desborough, V. R. d'A., The Last Mycenaeans and their Successors, 1964.Google Scholar

MP = Furumark, A., The Mycenaean Pottery, 1941.Google Scholar

MPI = Taylour, W., Mycenaean Pottery in Italy, 1958.Google Scholar

MPL = Stubbings, F. H., Mycenaean Pottery from the Levant, 1951.Google Scholar

Mycenae = French, E., ‘Late Helladic IIIA 1 Pottery from Mycenae’, BSA, lix (1964) 241.Google Scholar

ND = Karageorghis, V., Nouveaux documents pour l'étude du Bronze Récent à Chypre, 1965.Google Scholar

PEFA = Palestine Exploration Fund Annual.

RB = Revue Biblique.

SC = Schaeffer, C. F. A., Stratigraphie comparée et chronologie de l'Asie occidentale, 1948.Google Scholar

TAH = Hamilton, R. W., ‘Excavations at Tell Abu Hawam’, QDAP iv (1934) 1.Google Scholar References are to Catalogue nos.

VT = Vetus Testamentum.

ZDPV = Zeitschrift des deutschen Palästina-Vereins.

Archaeological abbreviations:

BR = Base-Ring.

D. = Diameter in metres.

H. = Height in metres.

LB = Late Bronze.

NMA = National Museum, Athens.

PAM = Palestine Archaeological Museum, Jerusalem.

PWP = Late Cypriote Proto-white-painted.

T. = Thickness in metres.

W. = Width in metres.

WS = White Slip.

1 MPL 2, further emphasized in CAH 2, fasc. 4, 72. For chronology see Albright, W. F., The Archaeology of Palestine, 84, 112Google Scholar; AHL, chs. 8–9; MPI 3.

2 See AAS 8–9, 131; PEQ 1963, 13; Wright, G. E., Shechem 252, n. 11.Google Scholar So far there is no Furumark for Late Bronze pottery in Palestine.

3 There are at least two sites called Abu Shusheh in Palestine. The Abu Shusheh mentioned in MPL 64 is near Megiddo.

4 See Alalakh 5, 101, n. 1, 110, 121, n. 1, 130, 163, 168, n. 1, 195, n. 1, 199; 316 describes Myc. fragments, one ‘certainly’ from a flask, FS 189, found in level VI, fortress area; 317 mentions ‘a fragment from a chariot vase of the common Cyprus type’ among well-stratified sherds of the fortress area, level V B.

5 Mylonas, , Mycenae 164.Google Scholar

6 See JHS lxxxv (1965) 140. Vermeule's view is that the conventional scene filled some long-lasting demand. It is equally possible that unconventional designs celebrated some special occasion or event. See AJA lxv (1961) 53 and pl. 29, figs. 1, 3 for cloaked armless figures from Kourion.

7 AJA lxvii (1963) 140, 153Google Scholar.

8 See also: Mycenae 250 (clay), IANE 65 (silver), Attica 55 (clay); Kition: ILN 14. 9. 63, IANE 163 (faience); Maroni: C i, pl. 33, 1 (clay); Shamra, Ras: Ugaritica ii. 218Google Scholar, Archaeology xvii (1964) 282 (silver), MPL 61, 75 (clay); Gurob, : MPL 94Google Scholar, Berytus xiv (1961) 47, pl. 19; Ephesus, : AJA lxviii (1964), pl. 50Google Scholar, fig. 12 (clay). Rhodes Museum no. 5786 is a fragmentary L.M. I conical rhyton with zonal decoration.

9 I am grateful to L. Copeland for this information.

10 Syria xli (1964) 240.

11 A. J. B. Wace, Mycenae, fig. 79; Mylonas, op. cit. in n. 5 and figs. 45, 47 (spiral); Wace, op. cit. figs. 57 a, 78 a (rosettes); AJA lxvii (1963), pl. 38, fig. 7; lxviii (1964) 275 (meander and swastika in Anatolia).

12 Ugaritica ii, 7.

13 Compare the gold bowls from Euboea in the Benaki Museum, Athens, Segal, B., Katalog der Goldschmiedearbeiten, 11.Google Scholar

14 Evidence for external contacts at Late Bronze Byblos may be seen in the following objects: scarabs or cartouches of the Pharaohs Thothmes III (Byblos ii, nos. 7127, 7640, 7812, 8732, 11791, 12573, 17126), Amenophis II (nos. 8127, 8251), Amenophis III (nos. 9264, 9393, 9896, 13411, 19150); Ramesses II (Byblos i, nos. 1354, 1360); Ramesses III (three scarabs published by Montet); Egyptian stone jars (Byblos ii, nos. 8692, 9361); stone vases similar in type to vases from Mycenae, , BSA I (1955), pl. 24Google Scholar, Byblos ii, 7403, 7410, 8737, 9420, 12265, 12592; an ivory fragment found in the shaft of the tomb of Ahiram similar to ivories from Megiddo. Apart from this evidence the cedar trade probably continued there as it had done from pre-dynastic times (Lucas, A., Ancient Egyptian Materials and Industries 319, 432Google Scholar) until about 1000 B.C. at least, the period of the journey of Wenamon to Byblos. Byblos is mentioned in the Amarna letters (CAH 2, fase. 51. 5) and described by an Egyptian, Hori, who visited it some time in the XIXth Dynasty, (Pap. Anastasi i, 10247).Google Scholar

15 Byblos 8892 is listed as Mycenaean. I could not trace the sherd, and in the drawing it looks Geometric rather than Mycenaean.

16 This shape is fairly common in Attica (Attica 40; AJA lxx (1966), pl. 16, fig. 7 from Perati). It also seems to have been found in Italy (MPI 98, 103).

17 Sherds found by L. Copeland and P. Wescombe in 1965.

18 The finds are mentioned by kind permission of Émir Maurice Chéhab, Directeur Général des Antiquités du Liban.

19 Bull. Mus. Beyrouth xviii (1965) 116. I am grateful to M. R. Saida for showing me these sherds.

20 Bull. Mus. Beyrouth i (1937) 35; ii (1938) 28; iii (1939) 53; iv (1940) 37; SC 72. Late Bronze and Early Iron Age tombs were recently reported at Nabatiyeh, a little further south-east (Bull. Mus. Beyrouth xviii (1965) 118).

21 FM 19: 28 or 31: TAH 306, 1; Khalkis 460 Γ Attica, fig. 4, 8; FM 18: 73: CVA Copenhagen ii, pl. 60, 8 (Rhodes); Khalkis 530 A; CT 530, 9.

22 See Tell ed Duweir (51).

23 ND 214.

24 Mycenae 248, pl. 71 d.

25 See C i, pl. 29; Khalkis 430; CT 529, 19; MPI 104; Lachish iv, pl. 83, 948.

26 Bull. Mus. Beyrouth xviii (1965) 113; CAH 2 fasc. 51, 6, 32.

27 A and S.

28 Khalkis 54, TAH 309 a–d are tentatively listed as Grey Minyan, or an imitation of it. I compared them with Minyan sherds from Euboea and came to the conclusion that they are not Minyan ware. The core is grey to brown, with black, white, and sandy-brown grits, the inside is not burnished, the outside is horizontally burnished. Three sherds (PAM 37. 389) are much finer and paler, with horizontal burnishing inside and out, white grits, and mica flecks. They are not as fine as the Euboean sherds but could possibly be Minyan. The sherds were also compared with Phrygian sherds lent by the Institute of Archaeology at Ankara. The fabrics were quite distinct. The Yellow Minyan (TAH 309e) has a pink to grey core with mica.

29 ND 196.

30 See BSA lviii (1963) 33, fig. 4, pl. 10a, from Knossos with a very similar pattern.

31 See BSA lv (1960) 115, fig. 5 and C i, pl. 38, 4 from Pyla, Cyprus. For birds in a papyrus tree, compare a sarcophagus from Anogeia, Crete (Robertson, M., Greek Painting 32Google Scholar, Heraklion Mus. 1612). The casual circles on TAH 307 j look very similar to BSA, loc. cit. no. 19, pl. 28c, also from Pyla.

32 AJA lx (1956), 101 pl. 49, fig. 24, 6.

33 ND 197.

34 AJA lxviii (1964), pl. 29, fig. 5; LMS 210, and particularly pottery from Ain Shems and Askalon in the Palestine Archaeological Museum.

35 ND 258. See Vermeule, E., Greece in the Bronze Age 209Google Scholar, on a Wild Style in mainland Mycenaean painting.

36 Compare Megiddo ii, pl. 78, 20 and pl. 143, 6 with Kerameikos i, pl. 38, middle row; LMS, pl. 8, from Kephallenia, also has a stylistic relation to the Philistine pottery at Megiddo. The origins of Philistine pottery have recently been discussed by Desborough, (LMS 209).Google Scholar Three points may be added to his discussion, (i) Although the main shapes of Philistine pottery, the globular stirrup-jar, the deep bowl or krater, and the two-handled pyxis have Myc. IIIC parallels, the stirrup-jar and the pyxis were already being copied in Palestine in the Myc. IIIB period, and were not novelties, (ii) Although parallels for the patterns can be traced in Myc. IIIC and Late Cypriote PWP pottery, many of them also seem to go back to an earlier native Late Bronze tradition, and are also not novelties. These are birds looking back, birds opposed, panelled patterns, cross-hatching, opposed semicircles in a zigzag (see Lachish ii, Pls. 58a, 60–62). Some of these elements persisted through Late Bronze II at Megiddo, (Megiddo, Tombs, pl. 134).Google Scholar (iii) The fabric is not always as crude as is sometimes stated, is native in technique, and has Late Bronze I precedents. There is a strong line of Palestinian tradition in Philistine pottery, but as Kenyon pointed out (AHL 225) archaeology has not yet given us a clear picture of the Philistines. See also Biblical Archaeologist xxix (1966), no. 3, 70.

37 M. Ventris and J. Chadwick, Documents in Mycenaean Greek, fig. 11, no. 11 from Enkomi, or no. 6 from Ugarit. See also Ugaritica iii. 233.

38 BSA lii (1957) 216, pl. 43 b; AJA lx (1956), pl. 49, fig. 24, 3 from Pylos.

39 This pottery is mentioned by kind permission of Dr. Awni Dajani.

40 I am very grateful to Professor Pritchard for permission to mention this material, and for showing me unpublished finds from Tell es Saidiyeh.

41 Op. cit. in n. 7.

42 Antiquity xl (1966) 25, pl. 3c; Pendlebury, J. D. S., The Archaeology of Crete 243Google Scholar, fig. 43, 15, 16.

43 Tausert's dates are listed with a question-mark in CAH 2, fasc. 52, Table of Rulers, but it is certain that she reigned after Seti II, who died c. 1210 B.C. and before Ramesses III, whose reign began c. 1198 B.C. See also Furumark, , The Chronology of Mycenaean Pottery 1941, 114Google Scholar; PAE 2, fasc. 4, 75, where Stubbings gives reasons for dating the transition from IIIB to IIIC about 1180 B.C. Albright's mention of Philistine pottery in the earthquake level at Deir Alla (CAH 2, fasc. 51, 27) does not fit in with the excavators' account, which is as follows: an earthquake and fire followed by two attempts (both frustrated by further fires) to rebuild or salvage or loot the site, then a clear gap in occupation before the Philistine type pottery appears. Thus the sanctuary and the Mycenaean pottery associated with it are separated by burning and a gap in occupation from the Philistine remains. I am very grateful to Dr. Franken for kind permission to publish the Mycenaean pottery from Deir Alia, and for information about its stratigraphy.

44 MPI 93; MPL 36.

45 MPI 64, 75, 95, 169.

46 I am very grateful to Dr. Awni Dajani, Director of Antiquities of Jordan and to his staff for much help and hospitality while I was working at Amman Museum on the material found in 1955. These finds will be published with the excavation report.

47 Thebes, : AE 1910, 824, pl. 8, iGoogle Scholar; Deiras: Marinatos, S., Crete and Mycenae, pl. 228.Google Scholar See also Asine, fig. 273; MPL 659 (addenda to FM 14, 15). Thebes, , Egypt, : PM iv, 275Google Scholar; MPL 57. Evans classed this jar as LM IB, and Stubbings called it Myc. II. Furumark does not include it in his list of FS 21 or FM 67.

48 Petrie, W. M. F., Tell el Amarna, pl. 30, 136Google Scholar: FS 189 was recently found at Ephesus, , AJA lxviii (1964), pl. 50, fig. 13Google Scholar; in ? Italy, MPI 88, 93. See BSA lv (1960) 113, n. 53 for FS 189 in Mainland Greece and pl. 26c for an L.M. IIIA 1 example from Cyprus.

49 Whole or restorable chariot kraters have been found at Tell Atchana (2), Ras Shamra (5), and Amman (41). Sherds of chariot kraters have been recorded at ?Tell Sukas (8), Tell Kazel (10), Byblos (13), Hazor (23), Tell Abu Ha warn (25), Gezer (42), Ashdod (46), Ain Shems (47), Tell ed Duweir (51), Tell el Ajjul (54), from settlements rather than tombs. There may also be more at the coastal sites.

50 Hennessy, J. B., Stephania, pl. 27, 25Google Scholar; C i, pl. 39; Khalkis 480B; CT 525, 7; MPI 84.

51 Antiquity xl (1966) 25, pl. 3a (the comparison stops at the pattern, the fabric looks different); MPL 55 from Gezer; C i, pl. 16, 3 from Enkomi; Mycenae 250, pl. 69 d, 5.

52 Mycenae 254, pl. 70 c, 8. E. French's study of the Late Helladic IIIA 2 pottery from Mycenae, (BSA lx (1965) 159)Google Scholar reached me too late to be used in the present article.

53 C i, pl. 15, 6, 9; Attica pl. 12, i, 18; Khalkis 444A; MPI 88.

54 C i, pl. 21, i; CT 525, 4; Khalkis 460Z.

55 I am grateful to Dr. Awni Dajani for permission to publish this pot.

56 I am grateful to Peter Parr for showing me the sherd from his excavations at Petra. C. M. Bennett reported that the sherds from Quraya are in the Philby collection at Riad.

57 Wace, op. cit., in n. 11, fig. 70 a; CT 517, 16, 17 and pl. 2; G. W. Blegen, Korakou, figs. 52, 3; 53, 10; pl. 4, 7. The ivy leaf was popular at Thebes and Chalkis.

58 CBMW 36; CAH 2, fasc. 43, 56.

59 CBMW 38; CAH, loc. cit.; ND 203.

60 The lack of kylikes probably reflects a difference in drinking habits between the Middle East and Greece. The local potters made plenty of jugs and bowls, and the Cypriote ware had already made a corner in the import trade. In any case, kylikes have a habit of not turning up where they are expected. They are very rare in the tombs at Chalkis, but common at Mycenaean sites in Euboea.

61 CBMW 42; see above, n. 49. Catling, H. W. and Millet, A., ‘A Study in the Composition Patterns of Mycenaean Pictorial Pottery from Cyprus’, BSA lx (1965) 212Google Scholar, reached me after this article was written. It shows beyond doubt that the Mycenaean pictorial krater was a product of the Peloponnese and was exported from there to the eastern Mediterranean. 223 gives a bibliography of studies of this pottery.

62 Glass: W. M. F. Petrie, Arts and Crafts of Ancient Egypt, fig. 121; A and S 211, figs. 6, 7 from Tell el Amarna; serpentine: Lachish II, pl. 25, 6; calcite: Mycenae, , NMA 3080Google Scholar; Isopata, , Archaeologia lixGoogle Scholar, fig. 125 S 2. Two jugs, and fragments of similar stone jugs, were found at Amman. See Journal of Glass Studies iv (1962) 22 and appendix for a list of sites where glass vessels have been found. I am grateful to Mr. D. Barag for this information.

63 Recent contributions to the study of east-to-west trade are BSA lviii (1963), 90, on Cypriote WS I sherds in Crete; JdI lxxviii (1963) 1, on trade in stone tripod vessels; CBMW passim; AJA lxx (1966), 123, on Byblite daggers in Crete; IANE passim.

64 CBMW ch. ii, ND, ch. v present the two opposed views on the origin of Mycenaean pottery in Cyprus.

65 AHL 209.

66 J. B. Hennessy, op. cit. (in n. 50) 55.

67 Antiquity xxxvi (1962) 287. Merrillees's arguments seem convincing to show that the small BR jugs were used as opium containers, but less acceptable for the larger shapes.

68 MPI 187.