Proceedings of the 9th International Congress on the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East, Volume 2: Egypt and Ancient Near East – Perceptions of Alterity (Edited by Susanne Bickel), Ancient Near Eastern Traditions vs. Hellenization/Romanization (Edited by Bruno Jacobs), Reconstructing Ancient Eco-Systems (Edited by Jean-Marie Le Tensorer), Islamic Session (Edited by Denis Genequand) 344710614X, 9783447106146

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9 IC A A N E Proceedings of the 9th International Congress on the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East Volume 2 Egypt and Ancient Near East – Perceptions of Alterity Ancient Near Eastern Traditions vs. Hellenization/Romanization Reconstructing Ancient Eco-Systems Islamic Session

Harrassowitz Verlag

Proceedings of the 9th International Congress on the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East Volume 2

© 2016, Otto Harrassowitz GmbH & Co. KG, Wiesbaden ISBN Print: 978-3-447-10614-6 — ISBN E-Book: 978-3-447-19478-5

Proceedings of the 9th International Congress on the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East 9–13 June 2014, Basel Edited by Rolf A. Stucky, Oskar Kaelin and Hans-Peter Mathys

2016

Harrassowitz Verlag · Wiesbaden

© 2016, Otto Harrassowitz GmbH & Co. KG, Wiesbaden ISBN Print: 978-3-447-10614-6 — ISBN E-Book: 978-3-447-19478-5

Proceedings of the 9th International Congress on the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East Volume 2 Egypt and Ancient Near East – Perceptions of Alterity Edited by Susanne Bickel Ancient Near Eastern Traditions vs. Hellenization/Romanization Edited by Bruno Jacobs Reconstructing Ancient Eco-Systems Edited by Jean-Marie Le Tensorer Islamic Session Edited by Denis Genequand

2016

Harrassowitz Verlag · Wiesbaden

© 2016, Otto Harrassowitz GmbH & Co. KG, Wiesbaden ISBN Print: 978-3-447-10614-6 — ISBN E-Book: 978-3-447-19478-5

Cover illustration: © Gino Caspari, Columbia University.

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© 2016, Otto Harrassowitz GmbH & Co. KG, Wiesbaden ISBN Print: 978-3-447-10614-6 — ISBN E-Book: 978-3-447-19478-5

Proceedings, 9 th ICAANE, Basel 2014, Vol. 2

Contents Egypt and Ancient Near East – Perceptions of Alterity

9

Raphaël Angevin Lithic Industries and Interregional Trade between Egypt and the Levant during the 4th Millennium BC: a Review of the Evidence

11

Johannes Becker The Large-Scale Landscape Paintings of Tell el-Dabca/Egypt

23

Johannes Jungfleisch When Aegean Wall Paintings Meet Egyptian Architecture: Simulations of Architecture from ‹Palace G› at Tell el-Dabca/Egypt

37

Manuela Lehmann Ethnicity and Archaeological Reality: Material Culture at Tell el-Dabca during the Late Period

51

Angela Massafra The Egyptian Presence in Southern Palestine at the Dawn of the Late Bronze Age as Reflected by Pottery Imports

63

Maya Müller Late Antique Tunics with Decorations Reflecting the Egyptian Perception of Middle Eastern Exotic Peoples

75

Giulia Tucci Egyptian Royal Statues and Stelae from Late Bronze Public Buildings in the Southern Levant

87

Ancient Near Eastern Traditions vs. Hellenization/Romanization

103

Bruno Jacobs Introduction: Ancient Near Eastern Traditions vs. Hellenization/Romanization

105

Gaëlle Coqueugniot Ancient Near-Eastern Traditions and Greco-Roman Culture in the Agora of Europos-Doura (Syria)

119

Pam J. Crabtree – Douglas V. Campana Animal Bone Remains from the Site of Kınık Höyük, Southern Cappadocia, Turkey: Animal Husbandry and Hunting Practices during the Iron Age, Hellenistic, and Medieval periods

133

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Contents

Carrie Elaine Duncan Remembered for Giving: Jewish Benefaction in the Roman World

141

Dina Frangié-Joly Hellenistic Beirut: A City at the Centre of the Mediterranean Strategies

151

May Haider Importation of Attic Pottery to the Levantine Coast during the Persian Period: Case Study – the College Site Sidon

163

Corinna Hoff Achaemenid and Greek Influence on Lycia during the 6th to 4th Centuries BC

173

Amélie Le Bihan Religious Practices between Local Traditions and Greco-Roman Influences: Music in Religious Ceremonies of the Roman Near East

183

Giulio Maresca Echoes of Regional Traditions plus Western Typological Influences: Some Notes about the Post-Achaemenid Pottery Assemblage from the Italian Excavations at Qal‛a-ye Sam (Iran, Sistan)

195

Alessandro Poggio Which Language for the Dynastic Message? The Role of the Hellenic Culture in 4th-Century Lycia

209

Çilem Uygun The Examples of Roman Pottery from Üçtepe in South-East Anatolia

221

Turgay Yaşar Yedidağ Hellenistic Moldmade Bowls from Phrygia Epiktetos: New Evidence from Dorylaion

235

Reconstructing Ancient Eco-Systems

245

Jean-Marie Le Tensorer Reconstructing Ancient Eco-Systems

247

Cristina Bonfanti – Filiberto Chiabrando – Carlo Lippolis – Vito Messina Mega-Sites’ Impact on Central Mesopotamia. Archaeological and Multi-Temporal Cartographic Study of the Al-Mada’in Area

251

Frank Braemer – Bernard Geyer – Gourguen Davtian From Site Catchment Analysis to Regional Settlement Pattern Analysis: Making a Regional Map of Environmental Resources’ Potential. The Case of Arid Syria

265

Anne Devillers New Approaches in Palaeofauna Reconstruction

277

Ianir Milevski – Bernardo Gandulla – Pablo Jaruf Eco-Systems or «Socio-Systems»? The Case of the Chalcolithic of the Southern Levant

291

© 2016, Otto Harrassowitz GmbH & Co. KG, Wiesbaden ISBN Print: 978-3-447-10614-6 — ISBN E-Book: 978-3-447-19478-5

Contents

7

Tina L. Greenfield – Melissa S. Rosenzweig Assyrian Provincial Life: A Comparison of Botanical and Faunal Remains from Tušhan (Ziyaret Tepe), Southeastern Turkey

305

Leigh A. Stork The Relationship between Pins and Textiles in the Carchemish Region during the Early 3rd Millennium BC

323

Islamic Session

333

Ignacio Arce Qasr Kharana Revisited

335

Naama Brosh Mamluk Glass Workshops in Jerusalem – Marvered Glass

357

Anja R. Dreiser Islamic Ceramics from Central and Eastern Oman

369

Matthew Harrison The Houses of Fusṭāṭ: Beyond Importation and Influence

383

Ayala Lester Byzantine Influence in the Consolidation of Fatimid Jewelry

397

Martina Müller-Wiener Material Evidence for the Transformation of Late-Umayyad Economies: the Case of Pottery with Applied and «Honeycomb» Decoration from Resafa (North Syria)

413

Seyed Abazar Shobairi New Evidence of Late Sasanid and Early Islamic Period in the Marvdasht Plain

425

Beatrice St. Laurent – Isam Awwad Archaeology & Preservation of Early Islamic Jerusalem: Revealing the 7th Century Mosque on the Haram Al-Sharif

441

Apolline Vernet Dwelling Transformation and Evolution of Customs after the Islamic Conquest in Near Eastern Cities

455

Donald Whitcomb The Mosques of Mafjar: A Sequence and some Implications for Understanding Qasr Hisham

469

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© 2016, Otto Harrassowitz GmbH & Co. KG, Wiesbaden ISBN Print: 978-3-447-10614-6 — ISBN E-Book: 978-3-447-19478-5

Section

Egypt and Ancient Near East – Perceptions of Alterity

Organised and edited by

Susanne Bickel University of Basel

© 2016, Otto Harrassowitz GmbH & Co. KG, Wiesbaden ISBN Print: 978-3-447-10614-6 — ISBN E-Book: 978-3-447-19478-5

© 2016, Otto Harrassowitz GmbH & Co. KG, Wiesbaden ISBN Print: 978-3-447-10614-6 — ISBN E-Book: 978-3-447-19478-5

Proceedings, 9 th ICAANE, Basel 2014, 11–22

Raphaël Angevin

Lithic Industries and Interregional Trade between Egypt and the Levant during the 4th Millennium BC: a Review of the Evidence It is regularly assumed that flint tools were exchanged between Egypt and the Levant during the 4th millennium BC, forming the basis of an interregional trade network. However, the existence of this trade network raises important questions about the reality of these exchanges and the nature of the socioeconomic links that they infer. Chipped-stone industries are problematic as chrono-cultural markers because of their low change over time and their frequently ubiquitous nature. The synchronic emergence of similar lithic products cross-regionally makes it difficult to precise the direction of exchange flows and the organization of larger trade networks. In this context, typological analogies can be misleading and lead us to over-interpret some convergence phenomena. To highlight this problem, we will revisit the evidence, through the analysis of the two lithic artefact categories which are best documented in the archaeological record: «tabular scrapers» and «Canaanean blades».

1. Lithic Production and Social Interactions during the 4th Millennium BC: The State of Research in Egypt and the Levant The question of interregional trade is at the heart of any discussion about social transformations in Egypt and the Levant during the Chalcolithic as well as the Early Bronze Age. In this respect, the diffusion of objects or technical ideas provides a key source of evidence for understanding the nature of the transformations at work. Taking the strong link between social organization and patterns of economic development as axiomatic, it appears that the way a society manages the flow of trade with its neighbours is primarily determined by its social structures, which opens up interesting perspectives for research.

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Fig. 1. Geographic location of major mentioned sites (map R. Angevin 2014).

In this context, similarities between lithic industries have regularly been argued as evidence for the existence of contact between Egypt and the Levant during the 4th millennium BC. Since the 1980’s, the discovery of lithic assemblages common to Palestine at multiple sites in the Delta and the Nile Valley has led to important research and conclusions about the nature of trade networks between these two regions. However, the majority of these observations have been based on simple typological analogies. As such, technological and lithological analyses might shed light on hitherto unassessed socioeconomic implications of the lithic record in these regions (fig. 1). These regional relations also raise the question of the nature and chronology of the proposed links: from this point of view, the long term rhythms of exchange and the modalities of contact are a source of obvious difficulties, especially as this diffusion seems to be one-way

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and Egyptian lithic types seem to be limited to the Predynastic cultural area. These findings are significant because they speak to the conditions of the development of these interactions, based within the framework of a «down-the-line trade» model or as a result of significantly structured import flows. To highlight this problem, we will revisit the evidence, through the analysis of the two artefact categories which are best documented in the archaeological record: «tabular scrapers» and «Canaanean blades».

2. Tabular Scrapers: a Problematic Type Fossil In the Egyptian cultural area, literature devoted to «tabular scrapers» is abundant, but does not reflect recent discoveries, and as such is based on a relatively small body of evidence (fig. 2). This echoes the tendency to assume significant trade flows between the southern Levant and Egypt during the Late Chalcolithic and the EBA, within a diffusionist perspective. Such a «global» approach is, in part, a product of the state of current documentation: in specialist literature, the definition of «tabular scrapers» is so deliberately vague. This facilitates broad comparisons and assumed long distance connections between Chalcolithic and Bronze Age sites. Reexamination of the full range of variation in the artefactual record of «tabular scrapers» may fail to support such traditional assumption. Nevertheless, there is a consensus among archaeologists that «tabular» designation describes any retouched tool on large cortical blanks. This typological description – large retouched flakes with a cortical surface – led to the identification of Egyptian-like assemblages within the Chalcolithic and the Early Bronze Age (EBA) record of Southern Levant during the early 1980’s. This led to the hypothesis of long distance diffusion from a hypothetical production center in the area of the Negev and Northern Sinai (Rosen 1983a). During the Late Chalcolithic and the EBA, these types of cortical flakes are present in large quantities in the Southern Sinai, the desert margins of Jordan (Jawa, Azraq oasis, Dhuweila), the Gulf of Aqaba (Hujayrat al-Ghuzlan, Maqass) and, in an urban context, from all the southern Levant (from Tell es-Sakan in the south to Hazor in the north) to Northern Mesopotamia (Arslantepe, Norsuntepe, Tell Brak, Chagar-Bazar, Mari, etc.: Rosen 1997; Thomalsky 2012, Angevin i. p.). In addition, some «mass» production areas have been clearly identified, in the Sinai, around Serabit el-Khadim and Ein Huderah, the Central Negev (Har Qeren 15), the al-Jafr basin, the Wadi ar-Ruwayshid and the Wadi Hasa in the Jordan desert (Bar-Yosef et al. 1977; Rosen, ibid.; Quintero et al. 2002). Reduction strategies at these sites result in debitage consisting of very large cortical flakes. Such a reduction method could partly be seen to echo an original flaking mode by percussion «on anvil» that may be related to the tradition of large cortical knives common to the Tuwailian from the Negev (Thomalsky ibid.).

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Fig. 2. «Tabular scrapers» from Lower Egypt. 1–3: Maadi. 4: Tell el-Farkha (Phase 3), 5: Buto VI. 6: Abu Rawash, «Cemetery M». After: Rizkana/Seeher 1988, Schmidt 1992, Stepien 2012. Picture: R. Angevin 2012, © Institute of Egyptology, Strasbourg University (France).

In this context, the chronology of «tabular scrapers» in the Southern Levant and the Jordan desert appears to form a long history covering at least the end of the 5th, all the 4th and the first half of the 3rd millennia BC. Therefore, it is extremely difficult to clarify the stratigraphic relationship between these assemblages and those from Northern Levant and Mesopotamia, where the tabular phenomenon appears centered around the end of the 4th and the beginning of the 3rd millennium BC, and Egypt where this type appears sporadically during the Pre- and Early Dynastic periods.

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In this area, the first occurrences of tabular scrapers are mentioned in the assemblages of Maadi (Rizkana/Seeher 1988). The discovery of several «tabular scrapers», in association with Palestinian ceramics and objects in copper and cedar wood, in four semi-subterranean houses with Levantine affinity sparked many interpretations regarding the presence of Ghassulian groups in the Nile Delta. The interpretation of technological convergences with the Late Chalcolithic and the Early Bronze Age Ia (EBAIa) in the Near-East, has been substantially strengthened by the discovery of later examples in the Nile Delta, in Buto (IV– VI), Tell el-Farkha, of further South in Abu Rawash («Cemetery M»), Wadi Digla, Saqqara, Abydos, Naqada and the Hierakonpolis HK29A Locality (Petrie and Quibell 1896; Amélineau 1899–1904; Petrie 1900–1901; Joubé 1938; Emery 1949–1958; Holmes 1989; Rizkana and Seeher 1990; Schmidt 1992; Stepien 2012; Thomalsky 2012; Angevin i. p.). If we restrict our attention to the Nile Valley, without considering the desert margins of Naqadian Egypt, it appears that the spread of this «tabular» industry presents obvious problems of chronological resolution. Recorded occurrences range from the mid-4th millennium BC to the first centuries of the 3rd millennium BC which could indicate, at least, a persistence of limited trade flows despite important social changes in both regions. Moreover, they have been discovered in radically different contexts: in Maadi and Buto, these objects belong to indisputably domestic assemblages, but they are found more frequently in ritual or funerary domains (Wadi Digla, Umm el-Qaab, Abu Rawash, Saqqara), which poses questions about their status and provenance both spatially and temporally. However, from a lithological point of view, the origin of these objects is still largely unknown. Further, there has been a lack of attention to the general ubiquity of «tabular scrapers» as well as to whether similarities in raw material properties may play a role in the distribution of this type. This ignorance has partly been responsible, as we have seen, for the supposed link between Egypt and the Southern Levant. However, recent technological studies have clarified the chaîne opératoire of tabular scrapers: the vast majority are part of a production of large bifacial knives and correspond to the primary phase of reduction, cortex removal. This reduction process is ably demonstrated in assemblages recovered from the 2003 excavations at the Buto Labyrinthgebäude corresponding to the 1st and 2nd Dynasties as well as assemblages from the Royal necropolis of Abydos (Capitan 1904; Angevin 2015; Kindermann/Riemer forthcoming). In this context, «tabular scrapers», like triangular scrapers and «fan scrapers» appear as by-products of bifacial reduction strategies. This mode of production is distinct from the bipolar percussion «on anvil» of the Middle-East, where large cortical flakes were the intended products of reduction (e.g. lithic production in the al-Jafr basin in Jordan or the flint workshop complexes of the Sinai and the Negev). However, this latter technique is also found in the Egyptian sphere, in very different contexts from the Nile Valley: lithic industries of the Western Desert oases contain, starting from the 4th millennium BC at least,

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debitage comprising large cortical flakes (Djara, Abu Gerara, Balat, El Karafish: Wendorf, Schild 2001; Kindermann 2010; Riemer 2011; Jeuthe 2012). This technical solution seems to fit within traditions of mobile agro-pastoralist populations living within semi-arid margins (Kindermann, forthcoming). In this context and in view of the material we just described, it appears that only the objects from Maadi, three to five centuries before other findings, may strictly indicate interactions between Egypt and the Levant.

3. «Canaanean Blades» and Blade Traditions in the Nile Valley To a lesser extent, the «Canaanean blades» have also been argued to indicate trade networks between the Levant and Egypt during the 4th millennium BC. In this instance, the definition of «Canaanean blades» has also been deliberately vague. This has led a disparate group of artefacts to be typed as «Canaanean» when in reality they have very few common characteristics. This generic name originally denoted all elongated supports with regular edge, a wide trapezoidal section and a slightly arched profile (Neuville 1930). With this definition, their presence has been reported repeatedly in the industries of the Chalcolithic and the Early Bronze Age, from the Nile Valley and the Delta to the Sumerian World and the Persian Gulf. As such, potential chronological and geographical significance of this phenomenon has been little investigated (Rosen 1983b, 1997). Since the end of the 1980’s, technological analyses of archaeological assemblages and accompanying experimental approaches indicated that larger blades, produced for the manufacture of agricultural tools (sickles, tribulum), were most likely obtained by unipolar reduction through indirect percussion or, more rarely, by pressure with a lever using a metal tipped compressor (Pelegrin 1988; Chabot/Eid 2003). Subsequent studies have clarified the distribution of these industries in the Middle-East and highlight the diversity of artefacts that have been grouped under the «Canaanean» nomenclature, especially in Southern Levant (Thomalsky 2012; Angevin i. p.). In this area, canaanean artefacts were first identified at the site of et-Taouamin in Palestine in the early 1930’s (Neuville, ibid.). As such, they have long been regarded as privileged chrono-cultural markers of the EBA, a period traditionally associated to the appearance of a number of technical innovations, including the production of long blades by pressure with a lever. By observing the available data however, a number of problems arise: one of them is technological, mainly because the assemblages of the Palestinian EBA have only occasionally been analyzed to discriminate debitage methods. The second problem is chronological in nature. Unlike the state of intensive research in Northern Mesopotamia over the past 20 years, most of the chipped-stone industries previously published for the Levant remain poorly calibrated from a chronological point of view. This raises the problem of the

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evolution of the «Canaanean phenomenon» in the southern Levant and its possible extension into the Egyptian world. The current state of knowledge of the Near-Eastern record suggest that the production of large blades is confined chronologically to the end of the 4th millennium BC and all the 3rd millennium BC (Final EBA IB–EBA IV) and geographically to the Northern Levant (Byblos, Saida Dakerman), the Golan Heights and the Upper Galilee (Tell Te’o III), the Lower Galilee (Qiryat Ata I, Megiddo-Strata XVIII to XVI and Stages VII–IV, Tel Bet Yerah, Bet Shean XIII–XI), the Samaria (Tell el-Farah North EBAI–II), the Jordan Valley1 and the Dead Sea (Tell Iktanu EB–MB, Tell Abu al-Kharaz II–III, Tell Umm-Hammad III, Pella-Last Phases, Bas edh-Dhra st. II–III), the Judean Hills and the Shephelah (Lod IV, Arad IV–II, Lachish). However, large blades are almost absent from the Negev2 and the Mediterranean coast (Taur Ikhbeineh V–II, Tell En’Besor IV–III, Tell Erani D-C-V). In these areas, gracile blades occur starting with the EBA IB, and have been interpreted as «egyptianized» types (Naqada IIIC; Rosen 1983b, 1997; Chabot/Eid 2003; Hermon 2008; Thomalsky 2012; Angevin i. p.). In the meantime, long blades seem completely absent from the Sinai desert. Furthermore, the total distribution of large blades in the Southern Levant and, more largely, in the entire Near-East is poorly understood. In the second half of the 4th millennium BC (EBA IA/B), a major trend in lithic systems [En Shadud, Megiddo, Yiftah’el II, Tell el-Farah North, Tell es-Sultan IIIa (Jericho Phases Q, P–M, L), Tel Yarmuth, Horvat’Illin Tahtit IV–III] is expressed in the production of regular blade blanks, without it being possible to specify the technical modalities of their debitage (direct percussion with a soft hammer, indirect percussion, indeed pressure, etc.). At Gilat, irregular but high-dimensional «proto-canaanean» blades may have been documented in the Chalcolithic levels, however the evidence is considered unconvincing (Rowan 2006). Only a few later workshops document the use of indirect percussion for the debitage of long blades during the first half of the 3rd millennium BC (Har Haruvim, Tell Halif).3 In these contexts designation of regular blades as «Canaanean» is problematic and creates a false image of «globalisation.»

1 2

3

In Jawa, in the Jordanian central plateau, rare imported artefacts are mentioned for the Late Chalcolithic/EBA sequence (Betts 1991). In the Negev desert, regular blades appear also extremely marginal, rare copies being reported in the Uvda Valley and the Beersheva area (Horvat Beter, Abu Matar, Safadi) during the Chalcolithic (Hermon 2008). For the 3rd millennium BC, a significant production pole was however recognized in Southern Palestine, in Tell Halif (EBA III: Futato 1996). A contemporary flint-knapping workshop (EBA II/ III), also later than all the hypothetic late 4th millennium BC attestations, was discovered at HarHaruvim and delivered several thousands of artefacts (Meyerhof 1960).

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Fig. 3. «Canaanean» and «razor» blades from the Delta and the Nile Valley. 1: Maadi. 2–3: Buto V. 4: Umm el-Qaab (tomb of Djer, 1st Dynasty). After: Rizkana/Seeher 1988, Schmidt 1992, Hikade 2003.

This brief overview allows us to advance a number of observations: if the knapping of regular blades is attested from the middle of the 4th millennium BC, mainly in Northern Palestine, then the production of very large blade blanks appears to be essentially documented from the EBA II to the end of the 3rd millennium BC (EBA IV). These traditions seem closely related to the technical systems of the Northern coast of the Levant which began in the first half of the 4th millennium BC and seem to spread southward during the EBA IB. A number of spatial «blind spots», the South coastal Plain and the Sinai Peninsula, problematize the supposed homogeneous distribution of these artefactual types. Moreover, the few purported examples of «Canaanean» blades from the Negev appear questionable even if a debitage method based on the reduction of thin blades is well documented. Likewise, the integration of Egyptian blade production to the «Canaanean sphere» is quite problematic (fig. 3). With the notable exception of a few finds of very regular blades with widths exceeding 22 mm discovered at Maadi, the majority of regular large blades (socalled razor blades) are associated with Early Dynastic funerary sites (royal necropolis of Umm el-Qaab, «Cemetery M» in Abu Rawash, Helwan and Saqqara: Amélineau 1899– 1904; Petrie 1900–1901; Capitan 1904; Joubé 1938; Emery 1949–1958; Hikade 1999, 2003, 2005; Angevin i. p.). These «razor blades» are occasionally recovered from craft or domestic sites dating to Naqada IIIB–D (Tell el-Iswid, Buto: Schmidt 1992; Thomalsky 2012; Briois/ Midant-Reynes, 2014). The time-gap between the first occurrence of «canaanean blades» (at the middle of the 4th millennium BC) and the development of high-value blade blanks at the turn of the 4th and the 3rd millennia BC is important. The reduction process of the latter artefacts was probably monitored by direct percussion using a soft hammer. However, in the absence of butts and characteristic markers of the proximal elements, which bear the stigmata of the blade detachment, the assumed reduction method is conjectural. In any case, the earliest Chalcolithic

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evidence – limited to Maadi – appears more precocious (and strictly not contemporaneous) with the activity of the EBA II/III workshops of the Levant. These workshops themselves first appear to sporadically produce highly uniform blades, which then become part of a more industrialized system between 2700 and 2200 BC. On the other hand, the razor blades seem representative of an Egyptian tradition and are not directly linked with the Levantine blades: they show a slight technical and chronological shift with the canaanean productions which are fully involved when they fade a few centuries before the definitive decline of the long blade technology during the MBA I.

4. The Modalities of Contact: an Update Following this overview, several conclusions can be stated. First, it is difficult to use the evidence from lithic industries to justify regular exchanges between the Southern Levant and Egypt during the Chalcolithic and the Early Bronze Age IA/B, beyond very sporadic diffusions or contacts. The exception to this is Maadi, which likely reflects a temporary settlement of peoples from Southern Levant in the Delta during the middle of the 4th millennium BC (Guyot 2008). Synchronously, the Naqada IID/IIIA ripple-flake knife found in a tomb in Azor (Ben-Tor 1975) illustrates the existence of exceptional products being traded between Egypt and the Levant from 3400 to 3200 BC. A little later, the presence of some bifacial knives during the Egyptian occupation phase of the site of Tell es-Sakan, in the Gaza Strip, reflects a temporary presence of Early dynastic groups in Southern Palestine and cultural transfers that accompany this occupation (EBA IB, Egyptian Dynasties «0» and 1: Miroschedji et al. 2001). Overall, nonetheless, lithic traditions of the Nile Valley and the Southern Levant present significantly divergent traditions: in Egypt, industries are essentially bifacial or laminar and are obtained by direct percussion with a soft hammer, while innovations relating to indirect percussion techniques or, a fortiori, pressure flaking with a lever are totally absent in Predynastic contexts. Only the production of large cortical flakes in the oases of the Western and Eastern deserts seems to reflect a measure of technical continuity with the Negev, Sinai and Jordan desert, but this is not reflective of trade networks however. Rather, these reduction methods were products of highly mobile agro-pastoralist communities whose needs and cultural models appear substantially different from populations of the Nile Valley.

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Acknowledgments I would like to thank the editors of this volume of the ICAANE 9 proceedings for their help in the preparation of this article. I am also particularly grateful to David Clinnick for help in translating a draft of this paper and for correcting the final version.

Bibliography Angevin, R., 2015. The Hidden Workshop. The lithic grave goods of King Khasekhemwy, Antiquity. –

in progress. Artisanat de la pierre et productions spécialisées à l’âge du Bronze au Proche et au Moyen-Orient. Trajectoires sociales et culturelles des industries lithiques du IVe au IIe millénaire. PhD Thesis, university of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne.

Amélineau, E., 1899–1904. Les Nouvelles Fouilles d’Abydos. Compte rendu in extenso des fouilles, description des monuments et objets découverts. Paris, Ernest Leroux, 4 vol. Bar-Yosef, O./Goren, A./Smith, P., 1977. The Nawamis near ‘Ein Huderah (Eastern Sinai). Israel Exploration Journal 27, 65–88. Ben-Tor, A., 1975. Two burial caves of the Proto-Urban period at Azor, 1971. Qedem 1. Jerusalem, Hebrew University. Betts, A. V. G., 1991. The Chipped-Stone Assemblage. A. V. G. Betts (ed.), Excavations at Jawa 1972–1986: Stratigraphy, Pottery, and Other Finds. Edinburgh, 140–153. Briois, F./Midant-Reynes, B., 2014. L’industrie lithique. B. Midant-Reynes/N. Buchez (eds.), Tell el-Iswid (2006–2010). FIFAO, Cairo. Capitan, L., 1904. Étude des silex recueillis par M. Amélineau dans les tombeaux archaïques d’Abydos. Revue de l’École d’Anthropologie de Paris 14, 89–119. Chabot, J./Eid, P., 2003. Le phénomène des lames cananéennes: état de la question en Mésopotamie du Nord et au Levant Sud. P. C. Anderson et al. (eds.), Le traitement des récoltes: un regard sur la diversité du Néolithique au présent, proceedings of the XXIIIth International symposium of History and Archaeology. Antibes (2002). CNRS ed., 401–416. Emery, W., 1949–1958. Great Tombs of the First Dynasty, Excavations at Saqqara, Cairo and London, Service des Antiquités d’Égypte and EES. Futato, E. M., 1996. Early Bronze III Canaanean Blade/Scraper Cores from Tell Halif, Israel. J. D. Seger (ed.), Retrieving the Past. Essays on Archaeological Research and Methodology in Honour Gus W. van Beek. Winona Lake, 61–74. Guyot, F., 2008. The Origins of the “Naqada Expansion” and the interregional exchange mechanisms between Lower Nubia, Upper and Lower Egypt, the South Levant and North Syria during the first half of the 4th Millenium B.C. B. Midant-Reynes/Y. Tristant (eds.), Egypt at its Origins 2, Proceedings of the International Conference Origin of the State. Predynastic and Early Dynastic Egypt, Toulouse (France),

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5th–8th September 2005. Orientalia Lovanienisa Analecta, 172, 708–740. Hermon, S., 2008. Economic Aspects of Chalcolithic Societies in Southern Levant: a Lithic Perspective. British Archaeological Reports Internat. Ser. 1744, Oxford. Hikade, T., 1999. An Early Dynastic Flint Workshop at Helwan, Egypt. Bulletin of the Australian Centre for Egyptology 10, 47–57. –

2003. Litisches Inventar aus dem Grab des Königs Djer. G. Dreyer et al., Umm el-Qaab.

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2005. Chipped-stone artefacts from Operation 1 and 2. C. Köhler (ed.), Helwan I. Excavations in

Nachuntersuchungen in der frühzeitlichen Königsnekropole, 13–15, Vorbericht. MDAIK 59, 103–107. the Early Dynastic Cemetery Season 1997/98. Heidelberg, 63–75. Holmes, D., 1989. The predynastic lithic industries of Upper Egypt: A comparative study of the lithic traditions of Badari, Nagada and Hierakonpolis. British Archaeological Reports Internat. Ser. 469, 2 vols. Oxford. Jeuthe, C., 2012. Ein Werkstattkomplex im Palast der 1. Zwischenzeit in Ayn Asil. Balat X. FIFAO 71, Cairo. Joubé, G., 1938. Catalogue de l’outillage lithique provenant des tombes d’Abou Roach. Kêmi 7, 71–113. Kindermann, K., 2010. Djara. Zur mittelholozänen Besiedlungsgeschichte zwischen Niltal und Oasen (Abu-Muharik-Plateau, Ägypten), 2 vols. Africa Praehistorica 23, Köln. –

Forthcoming. Considerations about significant stone artifacts – scrapers in Predynastic and Dynastic Egypt. B. Midant-Reynes/Y. Tristant, proceedings of the Origins 5 Congress, Cairo.

Kindermann, K./Riemer, H., Forthcoming. Early Dynastic lithic technology and production sequences from Tell el-Fara‘in/Buto. B. Midant-Reynes/Y. Tristant, Proceedings of the Origins 5 Congress, Cairo. Meyerhof, E., 1960. Flint Cores at Har ha-Haruvim. Mittekufat Haeven 1, 23–26. Miroschedji, P. (de)/Sadeq, M./Faltings, D./Boulez, V./Naggiar-Moliner, L./Sykes, N./Tengberg, M., 2001. Les fouilles de Tell es-Sakan (Gaza) : nouvelles données sur les contacts égypto-cananéens aux IVe et IIIe millénaires, Paléorient 27/2, 75–104. Neuville, R., 1930. Notes de Préhistoire palestinienne. I- La grotte d’El-Touamin, Journal of the Palestine Oriental School X, 193–199. Pelegrin, J., 1988. Débitage expérimental par pression: du plus petit au plus grand. J. Tixier (ed.), Technologie préhistorique. Notes et monographies du CRA 25. Paris, CNRS ed., 37–53. Petrie, W. M. F., 1901–1902. The Royal Tombs of the Earliest Dynasties, 2 vol. London, Egypt Exploration Society. Petrie, W. M. F./Quibell, J. E., 1896. Naqada and Ballas. London, Egypt Exploration Society. Quintero, L. A./Wilke, P. J./Rollefson, G. O., 2002. From flint mine to fan scraper: the Late Prehistoric Jafr industrial complex. BASOR 327, 17–48. Riemer, H., 2011. El Karafish. A Sheikh Muftah desert Camp site between the Oasis and the Nile. Africa Praehistorica 25, Köln. Rizkana, I./Seeher, J., 1988. Maadi II. The Lithic Industries of the Prehistoric Settlement. AVDAIK 65, Mainz. –

1990. Maadi IV. Tthe predynastic cemeteries of Maadi and Wadi Digla, AVDAIK 81, Mainz.

Rosen, S. A., 1983a. Tabular scraper trade. A model of material cultural dispersion. BASOR 249, 79–86.

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1983b. The Canaanean Blade and the Early Bronze Age. Israel Exploration Journal 33, 15–29.

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1997. Lithics after the Stone Age. A Handbook of Stone Tools from the Levant, London.

Rowan, Y. M., 2006. The Chipped Stone Assemblage at Gilat. T. E. Levy (ed.), Archaeology, Anthropology and Cult. The Sanctuary at Gilat, Israel. London-Oakville, 507–574. Schmidt, K., 1992. The Chalcolithic and Early Dynastic Lithic Industries of Tell el-Fara’in/Buto and el-Tell el-Iswid (south). E. D. M. Van Den Brink (ed.), The Nile Delta in Transition. 4th–3rd millenium BC. Proceedings of the Congress of Cairo (1990), Tel Aviv, 31–40. Stepien, U., 2012. Tabular scrapers from eastern Kom at Tell el-Farkha, Studies in Ancient Art and Civilization, Krakow, 75–84. Thomalsky, J., 2012. Lithische Industrien im Vorderasiatischen und Ägyptischen Raum. Untersuchungen zur Organisation lithischer Produktion vom späten 6. bis zum ausgehenden 4. Jahrtausend v. Chr. PhD. Thesis, Tübingen University. Wendorf, F./Schild, R., 2001. Holocene settlement of the Egyptian Sahara. Vol. 1: The Archaeology of Nabta Playa, New York.

Raphaël Angevin, Conservateur du patrimoine, Ministère de la culture et de la communication. UMR 7041 ArScAn, équipe VEPMO (Du village à l’État au Proche et Moyen-Orient). SRA, DRAC Centre, 6 rue de la manufacture, 45 000 ORLÉANS, [email protected]

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Proceedings, 9 th ICAANE, Basel 2014, 23–35

Johannes Becker

The Large-Scale Landscape Paintings of Tell el-Dabca/Egypt A larger part of wall painting fragments found in the 18th Dynasty palatial precinct of Tell el-Dabca/Egypt shows large-scale landscape paintings. This paper preliminary introduces this unpublished material, discusses limits and possibilities for the reconstruction of the fragmented paintings and identifies links to Aegean iconography.

Introduction The site of Tell el-Dabca is situated in the Eastern Nile Delta at the easternmost branch of the Nile. It has been identified as Avaris, the capital of the Hyksos during the Second Intermediate Period. The Austrian Archaeological Institute at Cairo is working in Tell el-Dabca for almost 50 years and already uncovered larger parts of the city. In 1989, the Austrian team under the direction of Manfred Bietak started excavations at the modern village cEzbet Helmi near Tell el-Dabca. With interruptions, fieldwork continued until 2007 and brought to light a palatial precinct dated to the early Tuthmoside period, more precisely to the reign of Hatshepsut/Thutmose III and Amenhotep II (fig. 1). This complex was surrounded by a large enclosure wall and consisted of two parallel oriented palatial buildings – the larger called ‹Palace G› and the smaller ‹Palace F› – a third palatial building called ‹Palace J› and two adjacent buildings in the south and northwest area of the precinct. ‹Palace G› as well as ‹Palace F› were built on high platforms and were accessible by ramps on their northeastern side. Only their substructures survived. Therefore, the original layout of both palaces may only be reconstructed tentatively by comparing the preserved casemate walls of these substructures with other palatial buildings in Egypt (see Bietak et al. 2007: 20–43 with further reading; Bietak 2010).

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Fig. 1. Plan of the Tuthmoside palace precinct from Tell el-Dabca (after Bietak 2010: fig. 2.2).

Within this complex, the excavators made an unexpected discovery. In total, around twenty thousand fragments of painted wall plaster were found in areas H/I and H/III and to a lesser extent in Areas H/IV, H/V and H/VI.1 The fragments were not found in situ but scattered in dumps in front of the ramp of ‹Palace F› (fig. 2) and within a side entrance to 1

The study of these wall paintings is the major aim of the ‹Tell el-Dabca Wall Painting Project› hosted by the Austrian Academy of Sciences and the Ruhr-University Bochum in cooperation with the Austrian Archaeological Institute. This study is conducted in the frame of the project ‹Aegean Design in Oriental Palaces – Knowledge and Materiality in the Eastern Mediterranean during the Second Millennium B.C.› sponsored by the German Research Foundation (DFG). In addition, the Institute for Aegean Prehistory (INSTAP) is funding the conservation of the wall paintings. For a preliminary report on the project, see Bietak et al. 2012/2013. I would like to thank Manfred Bietak, who kindly offered me the possibility to study the large-scale landscape paintings from Tell el-Dabca, and all involved Institutions for their support and funding.

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The Large-Scale Landscape Paintings of Tell el-Dabca/Egypt

Fig. 2. Plan of area H/I of Tell el-Dabca showing find position of wall plaster fragments (after Bietak et al. 2007: fig. 24 with alterations by the author).

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the precinct next to the lower end of the ramp leading up to ‹Palace G›. They must have flaked off due to the shrinking of the mud brick walls on alluvial ground and were thereupon dumped next to the building which they originally adorned.2 Two peculiarities characterise these paintings. On the one hand, they were executed in a mixed fresco-secco technique on lime plaster. This stands in clear contrast to the secco technique which was usually used for Egyptian wall paintings on mud and gypsum plaster, but on the contrary shows strong links to contemporary Aegean wall paintings.3 On the other hand, these wall paintings exhibit distinct iconographic features which link them to Aegean iconography. The conservation and inventory of all fragments found during the excavations is still in progress. The published groups, however, already give an insight in the topics which decorated the walls of the palatial precinct. Among other groups, animal hunt scenes in small-scale as well as large-scale human figures have so far been studied and published. Especially the bull-leaping scenes connect the Tell el-Dabca wall paintings with Minoan iconography. Moreover, the stucco relief paintings are a well-known group of Aegean and especially Knossian wall decoration.4 In addition to these paintings, a significant group of fragments shows large-scale floral motifs and landscape elements. Since the conservation of the material found in the vicinity of ‹Palace G› still proceeds, this paper focuses on the fragments assigned to ‹Palace F› and presents a preliminary introduction to this unpublished material.5 For this purpose, it discusses individual fragments to give an overview of the elements of the paintings and emphasises similarities with Aegean iconography. In addition, it presents the general approach to the reconstruction of these wall paintings.

2

3 4

5

Bietak et al. 2007: 38f. This accounts at least for the fragments found in areas H/I and H/IV. Johannes Jungfleisch considers the possibility that some of the fragments found in area H/III could have fallen from the walls of the entrance area. See Jungfleisch (this volume). Cf. Bietak et al. 2007: 42. See Brysbaert 2002; Brysbaert 2007. For the animal hunt scenes, see Marinatos 2010; Morgan 2010. For the large-scale male figures, see Aslanidou 2005. For the bull-leaping scenes, see Bietak et al. 2007. For the stucco relief paintings – studied by Constance von Rüden – see Bietak et al. 2012/2013: 142–144. The large-scale landscape paintings from area H/I and H/III are integrated in the author’s PhD-project at the University of Heidelberg. For a first preliminary publication, see: Bietak et al. 2012/2013: 134–136.

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General Approach to the Reconstruction The material is highly fragmented and only a limited proportion of the original wall surface is preserved. Therefore, it will not be possible to reconstruct the paintings to their full extent. Nevertheless, comparisons offer valuable information for tentative partial reconstructions. In this respect, the small-scale paintings from Tell el-Dabca/cEzbet Helmi are of special interest.6 Given that a good part of the motifs depicted in large scale has close parallels in the small-scale paintings, these friezes usually give important hints. Due to their small scale, the layout of single motifs can be easily understood even on modest fragments and thus give valuable information for reconstructing the large-size landscape paintings. In addition, the numerous examples of Aegean landscape representations often provide parallels to the Tell el-Dabca paintings.7 To avoid circularity, however, a detailed study of the fragments is conducted first. In doing so, better preserved pieces form the main fragments of iconographical groups to which smaller fragments can be assigned. Only in a second step, the just mentioned comparisons are drawn in order to understand the depiction.

The Large-Scale Landscape Paintings The craftspersons used different motifs to depict the vegetation. These floral motifs occur either in front of a red or light ochre background. Most common are lancet-shaped leaves with a slightly curved leafstalk on an either red or black central stem. The leaves are executed in different colours ranging from blue and greenish-blue to ochre and yellowish-white. On the already published fragment F00001 and the related fragment F00248, for instance, blue leaves are alternately arranged along at least two black stems (fig. 3). In a similar way, yellowish white leaves characterise the plant on fragment F00246 (see Bietak et al. 2012/2013: fig. 3). In both cases, the stems of the plant spread out in different directions, whereby the leaves occasionally overlap one another. In this respect, they differ from the plant depicted on the badly worn fragment F00719 (fig. 4). In this case, only a single red stem with greenish leaves arranged along both sides is shown in front of a light ochre background. Consequently, the different motifs not only vary in the colour of their leaves but also in their respective density of growth.

6 7

Lyvia Morgan currently prepares the small-scale hunt friezes of Tell el-Dabca for final publication. For preliminary publications of the friezes, see Morgan 2010; Marinatos 2010. Generally to landscape paintings in the Aegean, see Chapin 2004; Schmitz-Pillmann 2006.

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Fig. 3. Unaltered image (left) and preliminary reconstruction (right) of fragments F00001+F00248 from Tell el-Dabca.

Fig. 4. Unaltered image (left) and preliminary reconstruction (right) of fragment F00719 from Tell el-Dabca.

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The Large-Scale Landscape Paintings of Tell el-Dabca/Egypt

Fig. 5. Unaltered images of fragments F00427 (left above) and F00440 (left below) and preliminary reconstruction (right) of fragments F00427 + F00440 from Tell el-Dabca.

Fig. 6. Unaltered image (left) and preliminary reconstruction (right) of fragment F00510 from Tell el-Dabca.

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Clear parallels are present on Aegean wall paintings, on which plants with such lancetshaped leaves regardless of their colour are identified as myrtle. On a wall painting from the so called ‹Villa of Ayia Triada› on Crete,8 for instance, plants with such leaves are shown in the background of a figural scene and coincide in the form of their vertically arranged central stems with the depiction on fragment F00719. Another example forms a fragment from ‹House Beta› in Akrotiri/Thera,9 which in its dense growth is comparable to fragment F00246 from Tell el-Dabca. Apart from fragments on which the depiction can easily be identified, rather enigmatic pieces such as fragment F00440 belong to the large-scale floral motifs (fig. 5). In particular, technical and iconographical observations connect fragment F00440 to a group of fragments which show long and narrow blue leaves spreading out in different directions on light-ochre ground, as for example fragment F00427 (fig. 5). The irregular blue area in the centre of fragment F00440, however, is at first sight not easy to understand. Since the depiction could neither be explained from the fragment itself nor from other related pieces, iconographical comparisons had to be drawn in order to recognise the motif. As a first step, the small-scale paintings of Tell el-Dabca were consulted. In this case, the reeds shown in the lion hunt frieze came closest and gave a first clue for the identification of the represented plant species (see Marinatos 2010: fig. 1. 23). Nevertheless, only the comparison of fragment F00440 with Aegean wall paintings offered the possibility to identify the motif with greater accuracy. In doing so, the closest parallel forms an example from Akrotiri/Thera. A painting from Xesté 3 displays reed plants with long leaves which spread out in different directions and occasionally cross one another.10 Without explicitly showing a central stem, these leaves are arranged one above the other in a V-shaped manner. And this detail fits quite well with fragment F00440 from Tell el-Dabca, which could now be identified as the central part of a reed stem and a tentative reconstruction could be proposed (fig. 5). Fragment F00510 (fig. 6) shows another motif with a clear parallel on Aegean wall paintings. Along the lower right edge of the fragment, three greenish oval leaves with serrated edges are discernible. Although their lower parts are not preserved, the serrate leaves can be compared to a fragmented wall painting from Ayia Irini on Kea on which trefoil clusters of serrate leaves have been identified as the representation of bramble.11 In this case, the leaves are attached to a curving red stalk with short triangular thorns. Such a stem is most probably preserved on fragment F03501 from Tell el-Dabca. The fragment is badly worn, but in See Militello 1998: 73–75, 99–132, 250–282, pl. 4. D (Room 14, ‹Villa of Ayia Triada›, Crete – LM IA–LM IB). 9 See Doumas 1992: 19 (Room Beta 6, ‹House Beta›, Akrotiri/Thera – LM IA). 10 See Vlachopoulos 2008: pl. 5 (Room 3b (upper floor), ‹Xesté 3›, Akrotiri/Thera – LM IA). 11 See Abramovitz 1980: 71–74. pl. 8a (Room M I and M II, ‹Northeast Bastion›, Ayia Irini/Kea – LM IA–LM IB).

8

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the centre a curved black line could be identified along which thorn-like triangular elements are arranged. Based on the information gained from this fragment and the comparison from Ayia Irini, a preliminary reconstruction of the plant on fragment F00510 could be proposed tentatively (fig. 6). Other floral motifs – such as a plant with a red stem and five-fingered leaves (see Bietak 1996: pl. VIIB) – could only be identified on solitary fragments. Altogether, these motifs point to a larger diversity of plants represented on the large-scale landscape paintings. As already stated, the material is highly fragmented and, therefore, a full reconstruction of the compositions will not be possible. Nevertheless, the existing material offers some conclusions on how the wall painting as a whole might have looked like. In some instances, not only the front but also the rear of the fragment gives valuable information. In cases in which the original rear is preserved, mud brick impressions frequently give hints to the original orientation of a fragment. Such imprints are for example recognisable on the rear of fragment F00001 and give a clear indication of how the fragment has to be arranged. Furthermore, the find context provides conclusions about the general association of the fragments related to the landscape paintings (fig. 2). The distribution pattern still has to be fully analysed and evaluated. Nevertheless, a general tendency is already apparent. The major part of fragments of the large-scale landscape paintings originates from square k/25, whereas other related pieces derive from the northeast of square k/26 and the northeast of m/25. A comparison with the find spots of fragments belonging to the bull-leaping scenes attests a comparable distribution. In this case, the majority of fragments were found in the northeast of square k/26, whereas only single outliers originate from other parts of area H/I (see Bietak et al. 2007: fig. 24). In analogy to the clustering of these securely related fragments, it also seems plausible to expect an affiliation of the fragments of the large-scale landscape paintings.12 Moreover, most of these fragments show distinct technical similarities – such as the composition of plaster layers and surface treatment. This applies equally to fragments that show plants on red as well as on light ochre ground. Accordingly, both the find context as well as technical observations lead to the conclusion that the major part of fragments with large-scale floral motifs belong to the same composition. Consequently, the background colour of the composition shifts at least once from red to light ochre. Fragments showing parts of a large-scale griffin, which could also be associated to this composition, give further information to the colouring of the background. On the already published fragment F00032 (fig. 7), for instance, the upper ending of the wings with a row 12 These clusters of related fragments might give hints to the depositional praxis of the fragments. An

analysis of these processes will be possible after all pieces found in area H/I have been inventoried.

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Fig. 7. Unaltered image (left) and preliminary reconstruction (right) of fragment F00032 from Tell el-Dabca.

Fig. 8. Unaltered (left) and digital enhanced image (right) of fragment F00505 from Tell el-Dabca.

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of spirals typical for Aegean-style griffins is preserved.13 The backdrop of the wing consists of lancet-shaped leaves on a light ochre ground. Other fragments show parts of the griffin in front of a red ground. Since the relative positions of the griffin-fragments to each other are understandable to a certain extent, these hint to where the background of the painting was coloured in red or in light ochre and, as a further consequence, to where the different floral motifs might be placed within the composition. In addition, fragment F00505 sheds further light on this painting (fig. 8). A yet not fully identified part of the white body of the griffin is preserved in the middle part of the fragment.14 In the lowermost part, an undulating band runs horizontally over the fragment and marks the shift between the light ochre and red background. Such shifts of colour along wavy lines in the background of a scene are typical for landscape paintings in Minoan Crete15 and present another clear connection between the landscape paintings from Tell elDabca and the Aegean. Fragment F00505 is also highly interesting from a technical perspective. Tool marks, which most probably result from the burnishing of the surface, for example, reveal the last steps within the painting process. In addition, the overlay of colours elucidates the craftsperson’s approach in executing a wall filling composition. Rather than colouring the whole background first and adding afterwards the figural elements of the composition, the artisan worked in sections from the top of the wall down. At first, the light ochre background in the uppermost part was painted, on top of which a blue leaf was added. In a second step, the craftsperson painted the white body of the griffin and elaborated it with details. Only after this, the light ochre background below the griffin was coloured to be followed by a white area on top of which the red background in the lowermost part was painted.16 Possibly this approach might have been chosen because in this way dripping colour could easily be concealed by another layer of paint.17 Along with the examination of iconographical aspects, 13 See Bietak/Palyvou 2000. For a first hypothetical reconstruction, see Bietak et al. 2007: fig. 36. For

14

15

16

17

an example of an Aegean-style griffin, see Doumas 1992: fig. 128 (Room 3a (upper floor), ‹Xesté 3›, Akrotiri/Thera – LM IA). Even though there is no direct parallel, the blue lines along the lower part of the body possibly form a parallel to red X-shaped marks along the belly of one of the griffins on the so-called ‹Griffins Fresco› from the Palace of Knossos. See Shank 2007: pl. 19.8 (Throne Room, ‹Palace of Knossos›, Crete – LM II–LM IIIA). Such undulating landscape elements are, for instance, preserved on a recently published painting from Kommos, see Shaw and Shaw 2012: col.pl. 1B (Room X1, ‹House X›, Kommos/Crete – LM IA). In general to undulating landscape elements in the Aegean, see Shaw and Chapin 2012: 63–65. Mable Lang (Lang 1969: 21–24. esp. 23) describes a similar approach in connection with the changing zones of colour in the background of wall paintings from Pylos. Unfortunately, it does not become clear on which evidences her considerations rely. Such a case is observable on fragment F08847 from Tell el-Dabca. Where the blue background colour flacked of, larger red blobs are visible which most probably resulted from dripping colour.

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the study of such technical details constitutes another central aim of the Tell el-Dabca wall painting project.

Summary Although it will not be possible to reconstruct the painting to its full extent, at least its main elements and its topic are discernible. The depicted vegetation consists of a larger variety of floral motifs, which all find close parallels in Aegean iconography. Information gained from the existing material as well as from comparisons offer the possibility to reconstruct the depicted plants up to a certain point. Furthermore, the overall composition of the painting with shifts of colour along undulating lines coincides with Aegean landscape representations. An Aegean-style griffin complemented the painting. In conclusion, most probably a wall filling composition of a large-scale griffin in a landscape setting, which calls to mind Aegean wall paintings, was presented on a wall of Palace F.

Bibliography Abramovitz, K., 1980. Frescoes from Ayia Irini/Keos: Parts II-IV. Hesperia 49, 57–85. Aslanidou, K., 2005. The Minoan Wall Paintings from Tell el-Dabca/cEzbet Helmi: The Life-Size Male Figures. R. Laffineur/E. Greco (eds.), Emporia: Aegeans in the Central and Eastern Mediterranean: Proceedings of the 10th International Aegean Conference, Athens, 14.–18. April 2004. Aegaeum 25. Leuven, 463–469. Bietak, M., 1996. Avaris: The Capital of the Hyksos: Recent Excavations at Tell el-Dabca. London. –

2010. Minoan Presence in the Pharaonic Naval Base of Peru-Nefer. O. Krzyszkowska (ed.), Cretan Offerings: Studies in Honour of Peter Warren. BSA Studies 18. London, 11–24.

Bietak, M./Marinatos, N./Palyvou, C., 2007. Taureador Scenes in Tell el-Dabca (Avaris) and Knossos. UZK 27. Vienna. Bietak, M./Palyvou, C., 2000. A Large Griffin from a Royal Citadel of the Early 18th Dynasty at Tell el-Dabca. A. Karetsou et al. (eds.), Pepragmena H’ Diethnous Kritologikou Synedriou A1, Heraklion, 9.–14. September 1996. Heraklion, 99–108. Bietak, M./von Rüden, C./Becker, J./Jungfleisch, J./Morgan, L./Peintner, E., 2012/2013. Preliminary Report on the Tell el-Dabca Wall Painting Project: Seasons 2011/2012. E&L 22/23, 131–147. Brysbaert, A., 2002. Common Craftsmanship in the Aegean and East Mediterranean Bronze Age: Preliminary Technological Evidence with Emphasis on the Painted Plaster from Tell el-Dabca/ Egypt. E&L 12, 95–107.

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2007. A Technological Approach to the Painted Plaster of Tell el-Dabca/Egypt: Microscopy and Scientific Analysis. M. Bietak et al., Taureador Scenes in Tell el-Dabca (Avaris) and Knossos. UZK 27. Vienna, 151–162.

Chapin, A. P., 2004. Power, Privilege, and Landscape in Minoan Art. A. P. Chapin (ed.), Charis: Essays in Honor of Sara A. Immerwahr. Hesperia Supplement 33. Princeton, 47–64. Doumas, C., 1992. The Wall-Paintings of Thera. Athens. Lang, M. L., 1969. The Palace of Nestor at Pylos in Western Messenia II: The Frescoes. Princeton. Marinatos, N., 2010. Lions from Tell el-Dabca. E&L 20, 325–355. Militello, P., 1998. Haghia Triada I: Gli affreschi. Monografie della Scuola Archeologica di Atene e delle Missioni Italiane in Oriente 9. Padua. Morgan, L., 2010. A Pride of Leopards: A Unique Aspect of the Hunt Frieze from Tell el-Dabca. E&L 20, 263–301. Schmitz-Pillmann, P., 2006. Landschaftselemente in der minoisch-mykenischen Wandmalerei. Winckelmann-Institut der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin 6. Berlin. Shank, E. B., 2007. Throne Room Griffins from Pylos and Knossos. P. P. Betancourt et al. (eds.), Krinoi kai Limenes: Studies in Honor of Joseph and Maria Shaw. Prehistory Monographs 22. Philadelphia, 159–165. Shaw, M. C./Chapin, A. P., 2012. The Frescoes. M. C. Shaw/J. W. Shaw (eds.), House X at Kommos: A Minoan Mansion Near the Sea: Part 1: Architecture, Stratigraphy and Selected Finds. Prehistory Monographs 35. Philadelphia, 53–73. Shaw, M. C./Shaw, J. W. (eds.), 2012. House X at Kommos: A Minoan Mansion Near the Sea: Part 1: Architecture, Stratigraphy and Selected Finds. Prehistory Monographs 35. Philadelphia. Vlachopoulos, A., 2008. The Wall Paintings from the Xeste 3 Building at Akrotiri: Towards an Interpretation of the Iconographic Programme. N. Brodie (ed.), Horizon: A Colloquium on the Prehistory of the Cyclades, 25.–28. March 2004. Cambridge, 451–465.

Johannes Becker, M.A., Institut für Archäologische Wissenschaften, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Am Bergbaumuseum 31, D – 44791 Bochum, [email protected].

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Proceedings, 9 th ICAANE, Basel 2014, Vol. 2, 37–50

Johannes Jungfleisch

When Aegean Wall Paintings Meet Egyptian Architecture: Simulations of Architecture from ‹Palace G› at Tell el-Dabca/Egypt The discovery of Aegean wall paintings in two 18th dynasty palace buildings in Tell elDabca/ Egypt stand in marked contrast to local rules of decorum. By examining the ‹architectural simulations› from ‹Palace G› this paper will focus on possible perceptions of the Aegean murals within their new Egyptian setting.

1. Introduction According to ancient Egypt’s ‹ideologies of power›, the only possible relation between the land of the Nile and other political entities was complete submission as well as absolute recognition of the pharaoh’s supremacy.1 The rigid, self-centered ideology arose from the need to control the inner Egyptian audience (Liverani 1990: 47). Echoing ancient Egypt’s self-conceptions as independent and unrivalled in the world, the ideologically distorted selfview in relation to foreign cultures finds its expression almost everywhere in the preserved official record, whether pictorial or epigraphic. Especially the imagery of captured or massacred foreigners well-known in ancient Egyptian iconography conveys negative attitudes, hostility and brutality towards people from abroad (O’Connor 2003: 156–159). The impact of this omnipresent ideology manifests itself not only in Egyptian art and texts, but also in present-day research: ancient Egypt often appears in modern perceptions as a traditional, conservative uniformity «(…) devoid of dynamics and innovation, while the particular case of innovation from abroad was believed to be mostly late, marginal, or not decisive for its cultural profile» (Schneider 2003: 155). 1

M. Liverani summed up the quintessence of this centralized ideology in the following words: «The best foreigner is a dead one, next comes a submitted one» (Liverani 1990: 144).

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Fig. 1. Plan of the Thutmoside palace precinct at Tell el-Dabca (Bietak 2010: 14 fig. 2.2).

The unexpected discovery of thousands of wall painting fragments in an early Thutmoside palace precinct at Tell el-Dabca, ancient Avaris, challenges modern visions of a static «isolationist Egypt» (Schneider 2003: 157). Although found in the context of two Egyptian palace buildings, the murals show close technical, stylistic and iconographical links to the Bronze Age Aegean tradition of ‹fresco-secco›-paintings (Bietak et al. 2007; Brysbaert 2007: 151–162). As rigid rules of decorum governed material choice and visual shape of official buildings, the unique combination of Egyptian palatial architecture and Aegean wall painting decoration forms a paradox, contrasting with ancient Egyptian ideology as well as modern perceptions of the past.2 2

At this point, it is important to note that highly symbolic interior decorations of ancient Egyptian palaces functioned as media to visualize the pharaoh’s universal rule through images of subdued foreigners.

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This holds especially true for a specific group of wall paintings recovered from several plaster depositions in the immediate surroundings of ‹Palace G›. The so-called architectural simulations imitate different materials and techniques to give the impression of real architecture. The colorful, large-scale reproductions of veined stone slabs and wooden elements typical for Aegean elite buildings must have given the actual mudbrick architecture of the Egyptian palace a distinctly other appearance, changing its materiality to a great extent.

2. Find Context of the Wall Paintings from ‹Palace G› The palatial precinct of the 18th dynasty at cEzbet Helmi/Tell el-Dabca consisted of three palaces of different sizes, grouped around an artificial lake in the middle of the site (fig. 1). The buildings were erected on high mudbrick platforms. Ramps along the northeastern (‹Palace F›, ‹Palace G›) or southwestern (‹Palace J›) side gave access to the interiors. The largest of these structures, ‹Palace G›, was situated in the southern part of the complex (Bietak et al. 2007: 20–26). Although the actual structure did not survive, it was possible to suggest a tentative reconstruction of the room arrangement based on the preserved foundation walls and the evidence of other Egyptian palace buildings. The architectural comparison with the ‹Northern Palace› of Deir el-Ballas revealed some similarities in the general layout. Except for the magazines situated along the eastern side, the spatial arrangement of the building seems to follow Egyptian models. Similarly, the construction technique of casemate walls and the mudbrick architecture in general are well-known from ancient Egyptian architecture (Bietak 2005a: 145–151, 160–168; Bietak et al. 2007: 22–25). The numerous painted and unpainted lime plaster fragments were found similar to the find context of ‹Palace F› within several depositions in front of ‹Palace G› (Bietak et al. 2007: 26–39). According to the spatial distribution, it is possible to differentiate between four larger plaster dumps (fig. 2). Two of these accumulations, one along the ramp leading up to ‹Palace G› and the other along the inner side of the ‹enclosure wall H›, were mainly made up of unpainted fragments and limestone debris. Furthermore, patches of unpainted lime plaster were found in situ, still adhering to the façade of both the ramp and the inner side of ‹enclosure wall H› (Bietak 2005a: 148). These finds show that the building was originally covered with white plaster. Excavations revealed a deposition with different types of plaster in the area of the former ramp landing: besides the above-mentioned unpainted fragments the dump consisted of lime based ceiling plaster, showing impressions of mats and reeds on its reverse, and painted mud plaster fragments. The latter murals were executed in the local ‹al secco›-technique on earthen plaster and show typical Egyptian motifs like papyrus plants and uraeus snakes.

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Fig. 2. Plan with find situation of the wall plaster accumulations in area H/III – ‹Palace G› (Bietak et al. 2007: 30 fig. 27).

Aegean influence on these paintings might exist in the applied color conventions, using blue for the papyrus and red for the background (Bietak/Forstner-Müller 2003: 44–47). In contrast, the Aegean ‹fresco-secco›-paintings originate almost entirely from the remaining two depositions on both sides of the entrance to the palace district. Although the fragments assigned to the architectural simulations derive from both dumps, the following discussion focuses on the accumulation beyond ‹enclosure wall H› and its wall paintings (area H/III-r-s/19).

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Fig. 3. Preliminary spatial distribution of fragments, belonging to the architectural simulations.

The dump runs more or less parallel to the enclosure wall (fig. 3). The painted fragments concentrate in the area around the northern column base, whereas unpainted fragments mostly derive from the area to the north-west. The wall paintings were discovered with obverses and reverses facing upwards in equal proportions. In addition to the lime plaster fragments, the accumulation also contained mudbrick and limestone debris. Plaster

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fragments covered the mudbrick base at the foot of ‹enclosure wall H›. Following the sloping terrain, the levels of the deposition decreased towards the east. A massive layer of fallen and decayed mudbricks covered the lime plaster deposition and most probably resulted from the collapse or leveling of ‹enclosure wall H›, demonstrating that the deposition event must have happened prior to that. More importantly, some patches of plaster with faint traces of blue color were found in situ on the northwestern wall of the doorway in the former entrance portico (Bietak 2005b: 89; Bietak et al. 2007: 36 fig. 32 (No. 5), 38, 42). From this evidence, the central question arises of whether the Aegean murals might have decorated either the gate or an upper room of the entrance portico to the palace district and thus were presented in a public context.3

3. Architectural Simulations from ‹Palace G› 3.1 Simulations of Red-Veined Stone One group of architectural simulations was retrieved in particular from the area around the northern column base in area H/III-r-s/19 (fig. 3). The characteristic design of these fragments consists of diagonal wavy or scalloped lines in light red on white ground (fig. 4). A comparison of motifs with murals from Bronze Age Crete reveals close resemblance to decorative schemes of wall painting fragments found at Palaikastro and Knossos: the multicolored wavy streaks on light ground used in imitation of veined stone match perfectly with the above-described design from ‹Palace G›.4 Aegean simulations of variegated stone veneer trace back to ‹Minoan› architecture and its typical material appearance, which served at an early moment as source of inspiration for Aegean ‹fresco-secco›-paintings.5 Similar to their architectural prototypes, large-scale reproductions of colorful veined stone slabs covered in Aegean wall paintings the lower part of walls and framed the main picture field. The simulated architectural elements were carefully embedded into the actual architecture, providing fluent transitions between virtual an real materiality as well as the imagery of the following pictorial panels.6

3

4 5 6

Interestingly, the monumental gateway of the ‹North Riverside Palace› at Tell el-Amarna, ancient Akhetaten, was decorated with wall paintings. The murals included fragments with wood-grain design, which might have come from an imitation wooden dado (Weatherhead 2007: 215–268). See Evans 1921: 356 fig. 255 (‹Palace of Knossos›, Crete, MM IIIA); Westlake 2012: 296. pl. I f (Palaikastro, Crete, MM IIIA–MM IIIB). See Evans 1921: 250–252 fig. 188 (‹Palace of Knossos›, Crete, MM IIB). See, e.g., Doumas 1992: 50–51 fig. 14–17. 56 fig. 24. 86–91. fig. 49–56. (‹West House›, Akrotiri, Thera, LM IA).

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When Aegean Wall Paintings meet Egyptian Architecture

Fig. 4. Unaltered image of fragments from H/III-r/19 (red stone imitation).

Fig. 5. Reconstruction of fragments from H/III-r/19 (red stone imitation).

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Due to the fragmentary nature, the large-scale manner of representation and the timeconsuming conservation process, the reconstruction of the composition from ‹Palace G› proves difficult. Recent advances in conservation allowed the reassembling of a larger mural segment (figs. 4–5). The matching fragments derive solely from a limited area directly west of the northern column base (fig. 3). Apparently, the light red lines are arranged in groups of three similarly sized wavy bands, running diagonally from the upper left to the lower right side. The openings of the curves face upwards.7 The area painted with this pattern measured at least 33.4 cm in height and 53.9 cm in width. A red band (height: 1.3–1.4 cm) and an adjacent monochrome blue area form the upper limit of this section, whereas alternating dark red and orange rectangles form the only preserved vertical frame. A horizontal area in orange follows below the described design. The exact orientation of the composition is not secure, but horizontal and vertical string impressions in combination with imprints of mudbricks on the reverse give some indications for a horizontal attachment on the wall. Some newly conserved fragments suggest that a group of fragments showing curvy bands in light blue similar to the mentioned pattern might have continued the composition to the right of the vertical frame. The specific combination of motifs from ‹Palace G› finds no direct parallel within the corpus of Aegean wall paintings.8 Nevertheless, the characteristic design of red wavy lines and the size of the segment indicate that the imitation belongs to a full-scale representation of a veined stone slab embedded in some kind of frame. An important iconographical group of Aegean art provides additional information concerning the overall composition: the architectural representations, often rendered in miniature, offer vague ideas of how buildings in Bronze Age Crete and therefore their simulations might have looked. A comparison with the miniature façade of the ‹Pillar Shrine Fresco› from Knossos reveals some conceptual similarities. Here, the architectural design consists of a brownish frame and black rectangular panels with white spots. Following A. Evans’ interpretation the panels most probably represent stone revetments in the front of a building. The surrounding horizontal and vertical areas colored in brown and red, however, might have depicted some kind of wooden elements in wall construction (Evans 1921: 445–447 fig. 321; Evans 1935: 895). Therefore, it is conceivable that the reconstructed segment from ‹Palace G› originally belonged to the simulation of a larger architectural feature or even a building façade as known from Aegean miniatures. 7

8

Simulations of stone in Egyptian art show similar patterns for the marbling effect: wavy lines in yellow or red on white ground represent the stone veining of calcite-alabaster. The scalloped lines run in horizontal, vertical and diagonal direction with openings pointing to the top (Gander 2012: 266). The limitations in reconstruction due to the full-scale representation and the fragmentary nature of the evidence hold true for finds from the Aegean. Additionally, the architectural simulations received so far only little attention in Aegean Prehistory.

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When Aegean Wall Paintings meet Egyptian Architecture

Fig. 6. Unaltered image (above) and reconstruction (below) of fragments F07251+F07446 (‹beam-end›-frieze).

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3.2 ‹Beam-End›-Frieze Another important group of fragments from the former portico of ‹Palace G› shows a decorative scheme whose architectural source of inspiration is, despite a certain level of abstraction, highly likely. The design consists of rows of alternating black and red solid circles on a white ground (fig. 6). The discs run in a horizontal as well as vertical direction and vary in diameter between 13.5 and 14.0 cm. A streaky orange area above and a blue area below frame the design. According to some recently conserved fragments, the orange area also forms a vertical border of the composition and converges with the horizontal orange area. Similar depictions are also known from representations of architecture in Aegean Bronze Age art. In these instances, the blue and red discs are usually interpreted as depictions of wooden beam-ends (Morgan 1988: 75–77). In this context, it is worth mentioning that several Aegean sites yielded construction plaster fragments that preserve the negative imprints of ceiling beams. In addition, triangular pieces from Phaistos feature a smooth outside edge, proving that the actual beam-ends were exposed and thus visible along an open side of a building. Especially the latter evidence points to an architectural inspiration for the circle design.9 Besides the prevalent miniature representations of beam-ends, there are a few large-scale examples, for instance from Pylos10 and several Mycenaean tombs11 on Mainland Greece. Some fragments from Tell el-Dabca feature a straight edge which forms the upper border of the orange area (fig. 6). This edge indicates that the fragments abutted an actual architectural element like a horizontal beam in wall construction. The ‹beam-end›-frieze from Pylos provides similar evidence: the area with the discs directly bordered on an architectural element, whereas a wooden beam was imitated below the ‹beam-end›-frieze (Lang 1969: 153). Another group of fragments with imprints of reeds, wooden beams and possibly mudbricks seems to be related to the above-mentioned design. Obviously, these pieces belong to the ceiling, as comparisons with construction plaster from Malqata in Egypt12 and Akrotiri on Thera13 illustrate. On some of these fragments a change in color is preserved along the lower edge (fig. 7): an orange layer typical for the upper area of the ‹beam-end›-frieze covers the characteristic light red color of pieces from the ceiling. Based on this evidence it seems very probable that the ‹beam-end›-frieze with its disc design decorated the upper part of the wall directly below the ceiling.

9 10 11 12 13

See, e.g., Shaw 2010: 107. 289 fig. 192A–C. See Lang 1969: 145, 153–154 (no. 14F45), 207–208 (‹Palace of Nestor›, Pylos, Greece, LH IIIB). See, e.g., Demakopoulou 1990: 113, 115–116, fig. 3. 4 (Tholos I, Kokla, Greece, LH II–LH IIIA1). See Kemp 2000: 93–94 fig. 3.8 b (‹Palace of Amenhotep III›, Malqata, Egypt). See Palyvou 2005: 128 fig. 182 (‹Xeste 3›, Akrotiri, Thera, LM IA).

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Fig. 7. Different views of ceiling plaster fragment F09135 with impressions of reeds and wood.

3.3 Putting the Pieces Together Fragments belonging to the red stone imitation and pieces of the ‹beam-end›-frieze were found close together in area H/III-r-s/19. Although the fragments of the ‹beam-end›-frieze originate from find spots closer to the enclosure wall, whereas pieces with the red stone imitation concentrate in the area of the northern column base, some of the find clusters include fragments of both groups. Therefore, the question arises if both architectural simulations could have belonged to the same composition. In Aegean architecture imitated stone dados were frequently used in analogy to their architectural prototypes at the bottom of the wall. Therefore, a similar position seems plausible for the imitation of stone veneer from ‹Palace G›. As already mentioned, the ‹beam-end›-frieze was most likely arranged in the upper part of the wall. Accordingly, it could be the case that the red stone imitations and the ‹beamend›-frieze originally framed the main picture field of the mural. But before a definitive statement regarding the overall composition can be made, further conservation and research is needed.

4. Strangely Familiar? Thoughts on the Reception of the Murals The unique combination of Egyptian mudbrick architecture and Aegean architectural simulations challenges modern interpretations, especially if we consider that the wall paintings could have decorated the entrance area of the palace district, thus making them visible to

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a large audience. In the last 25 years, this puzzling evidence provoked various explanatory models, which often try to ‹read› the Aegean wall paintings from the textual perspective of the Amarna letters and the ‹international› diplomacy of the Late Bronze Age Near East. The interpretations of the murals range from ‹exotica›, as means to express an exclusive knowledge of distant lands (Feldman 2008: 286) or a transcultural, cosmopolitan attitude (Panagiotopoulos 2012: 43), to a reflection of a specific historical event – be it a political marriage or an official meeting (Bietak et al. 2007: 86). Instead of arguing in favor of or against one of these extensively discussed interpretations of why the Aegean wall paintings appeared within an Egyptian palace at Tell el-Dabca, it is worthwhile changing the emphasis to how the local audience could have perceived the wall paintings in their new setting. ‹Looking› and ‹seeing› are part of cultural practices and thus highly dependent on the specific cultural, social and historical context of the spectator. Despite its undeniable physiological and hence ‹natural› basis, vision is «also learned, socially controlled, and organized, and therefore domesticated» (Nelson 2000: 9). As a consequence, new visual experiences are organized and categorized in relation to internalized sensory preconceptions and expectations. In this sense ‹seeing› is an indirect, selective process. Thus, the local reception of the architectural simulations from ‹Palace G› might have been guided by ancient tacit, non-discursive rules of ‹seeing›, which unfortunately remain hidden for the modern beholder. Ancient perceptual categorization can be inferred from the visual appearance and the materiality of objects and things by which human beings experienced their world. The careful analysis of material culture assemblages could shed some light on ancient habits of seeing (Feldman 2008: 286). A specific group of Egyptian objects might be helpful to gain insight into possible perceptions of simulated materiality. During the New Kingdom period, starting with the early 18th dynasty, so-called dummy vessels made their appearance in different elite tombs. Made of wood or clay, the vessels were painted with distinct motifs that imitated the material appearance of grained wood or veined stones (Gander 2012). Especially the motif of red and yellow wavy lines on white ground inspired by the surface of actual calcite-alabaster resembles to a great extent the discussed red stone imitations from ‹Palace G› at Tell el-Dabca. Besides, Egyptian artistic conventions for the depiction of wood are similar to those known from Aegean art. Architectural elements made of wood were emphasized or imitated in interior decoration of tombs and houses with different colors ranging from yellow through red to orange hues.14 The cultural concept of imitation was familiar in ancient Egypt. Since Predynastic times organic, inorganic and artificial materials were frequently imitated in other matter. 14 See, e.g., Kemp 2000: 94 fig. 3.8 b.

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With this in mind, the architectural simulations from ‹Palace G› appear in a different light. The close resemblance between Aegean and Egyptian artistic conventions for the representation of wood and stone could have affected the perception of this group of Aegean wall paintings within the Egyptian context. On the assumption that the individual act of ‹seeing› follows pre-established tracks, the Egyptian audience possibly encountered the Aegean architectural simulations from ‹Palace G› with their own categorizations of and expectations towards known locally imitated materials. The restricted use of real stone in mortuary and temple architecture made this building material a highly prized status symbol. Valuations and meanings ascribed to veined stone might have affected the perception of the ancient beholder. In this sense the perception processes could have partly diminished the otherness of the architectural simulations with the result that the paintings appeared instead of exotic strangely familiar.

Acknowledgment I would like to express my thanks to Manfred Bietak for providing me the opportunity to study the architectural simulations from ‹Palace G› at Tell el-Dabca. Furthermore, I would like to thank the German Research Foundation and the Institute for Aegean Prehistory whose financial support enabled the conservation and processing of the material. The study of the architectural simulations is embedded in the DFG-project ‹Aegean Designs in Near Eastern Palaces – Knowledge and Materiality in the Eastern Mediterranean during the Second Millennium BC› at the Ruhr-Universität Bochum as well as in a PhD-project at the FU Berlin.

Bibliography Bietak, M., 2005a. Neue Paläste aus der 18. Dynastie. P. Jánosi (ed.), Structure and Significance. Thoughts on Ancient Egyptian Architecture. UZK 25. Vienna, 131–168. –

2005b. The Setting of the Minoan Wall Paintings at Avaris. L. Morgan (ed.), Aegean Wall Painting:

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A Tribute to Mark Cameron. British School at Athens Studies 13. London, 83–90. Offerings: Studies in Honour of Peter Warren. London, 11–24. Bietak, M./Forstner-Müller, I., 2003. Ausgrabungen im Palastbezirk von Avaris. Vorbericht Tell el-Dabca/ Ezbet Helmi Frühjahr 2003. Egypt and the Levant 13, 39–50.

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Bietak, M./Marinatos, N./Palyvou, C., 2007. Tauredor Scenes in Tell el-Dabca (Avaris) and Knossos. UZK 27. Vienna. Brysbaert, A., 2007. A Technological Approach to the Painted Plaster of Tell el-Dabca, Egypt: Microscopy and Scientific Analysis. Bietak et al. 2007, 151–162.

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Demakopoulou, K., 1990. The Burial Ritual in the Tholos Tomb at Kokla, Argolis. R. Hägg/G. C. Nordquist (eds.), Celebrations of Death and Divinity in the Bronze Age Argolid. Proceedings of the 6th International Symposium at the Swedish Institute at Athens, 11.–13. June 1988. Stockholm, 113–123. Doumas, C., 1992. The Wall Paintings of Thera. Athens. Evans, A., 1921. The Palace of Minos at Knossos, vol. I. London. –

1935. The Palace of Minos at Knossos, vol. IV. London.

Feldman, M., 2008. Knowing the Foreign: Power, Exotica, and Frescoes in the Middle Bronze Age Levant. R. D. Biggs et al. (eds.), Proceedings of the 51st Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale Held at the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, July 18–22, 2005. Chicago, 281–286. Gander, M., 2012. Imitation of Materials in Ancient Egypt. K.A. Kóthay (ed.), Art and Society: Ancient and Modern Contexts of Egyptian Art. Proceedings of the International Conference held at the Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest, 13–15 May 2010. Budapest, 265–271. Kemp, B., 2000. Soil (Including Mud-Brick Architecture). P. T. Nicholson/I. Shaw (eds.), Ancient Egyptian Materials and Technology. Cambridge, 78–103. Lang, M.L., 1969. The Palace of Nestor at Pylos in Western Messenia II: The Frescoes. Princeton. Liverani, M., 1990. Prestige and Interest. International Relations in the Near East ca. 1600–1100 BC. Padova. Morgan, L., 1988. The Miniature Wall Paintings of Thera. A Study in Aegean Culture and Iconography. Cambridge. Nelson, R.S., 2000. Introduction: Descartes’s Cow and Other Domestications of the Visual. R. S. Nelson (ed.), Visuality Before and Beyond the Renaissance. Seeing as Others Saw. Cambridge, 1–20. O’Connor, D., 2003. Egypt’s Views of ‘Others’. J. Tait (ed.), ‘Never Had the Like Occurred’: Egypt’s View of its Past. London, 155–185. Palyvou, C., 2005. Akrotiri Thera. An Architecture of Affluence 3500 Years Old. Philadelphia. Panagiotopoulos, D., 2012. The Stirring Sea. Conceptualising Transculturality in the Late Bronze Age Eastern Mediterranean. K. Duistermaat/I. Regulski (eds.), Intercultural Contacts in the Ancient Mediterranean. Leuven, 31–51. Schneider, T., 2003. Foreign Egypt: Egyptology and the Concept of Cultural Appropriation. Egypt and the Levant 13, 155–161. Shaw, J.W., 2010. Minoan Architecture: Materials and Techniques. Studi di Archeologia Cretese 7. Padova. Weatherhead, F., 2007. Amarna Palace Paintings. London. Westlake, P., 2012. Plaster Finds from Block M. C. Knappett/T. Cunningham (eds.), Palaikastro Block M. The Proto- and Neopalatial Town. London, 295–315.

Johannes Jungfleisch, Institut für Archäologische Wissenschaften, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Am Bergbaumuseum 31, D-44791 Bochum, [email protected].

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Proceedings, 9 th ICAANE, Basel 2014, Vol. 2, 51–61

Manuela Lehmann

Ethnicity and Archaeological Reality: Material Culture at Tell el-Dabca during the Late Period Introduction Tell el-Dabca, located in the eastern Nile Delta on the Pelusiac branch of the Nile, has been the subject of intense research for many decades. This research has focussed on the Middle Kingdom and particularly the Second Intermediate Period occupation when Tell el-Dabca was called Avaris and was the capital city of the Delta region, and the New Kingdom, when the Thutmoside palaces were built and it formed the southern part of the capital Pi-Ramesse in the late New Kingdom. However this article is focused on a much later use of the city, during the Late Period. Geomorphological studies have shown that the Pelusiac branch of the Nile silted up at the end of the New Kingdom. The waters of the Nile probably shifted mainly into the Tanitic branch further upstream close to Bubastis (Bietak 1975, 32) and finally the capital moved to Tanis. These major environmental changes resulted in the abandonment of the settlement at Tell el-Dabca, and much of it was probably dismantled to reuse the stones as building material. 400 years after this abandonment, in the middle of the 26th Dynasty, approximately around 600 B.C., Tell el-Dabca was resettled. That the Pelusiac Nile Branch again carried water at that time can be seen also by the resettlement of cities along this Nile branch, for example Tell el-Yahudiya, Nebesheh, Defenneh and Tell Hebua (See Petrie 1906: pls. XVIII, XIX; Petrie 1888 and Abd-el Maksoud 1998b: 35). By the Late Period the Nile branch was probably running slightly further west than in earlier times.1

1

Stanley et al. 1993. See also Hervez Tronchère who wrote his doctoral thesis entitled «Approche paléoenvironnementale de deux sites archéologiques dans le delta du Nil: Avaris et la branch Pélusiaque Taposiris, et le lac Mariout» at the, Université Lyon 2 in 2010. An article about the evolution of the Nile branches around Avaris is in preparation.

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Settlement Architecture in the Late Period The character of the settlement architecture of the Late Period is clearly different from that of earlier periods in Egypt. In general the walls of many of the dwelling houses were built to be much thicker than in earlier times. A new type of building evolves, the so-called «tower houses», which use mud bricks on a vastly increased scale.2 A massive foundation made of casemates was used for many buildings from this time onwards.3 The solid foundations of these buildings suggest they had several upper storeys which gives rise to the name tower houses. The transitional period between the end of the Third Intermediate Period and the beginning of the Late Period marks the point of their invention (Spencer 1993, compare Level 3 and 1b, Pl. 1 and 3). In the Late Period this house type is widespread in Egypt in the Delta but can also be found in the Nile Valley as far south as Aswan. The construction of such houses goes on into Hellenistic and Roman times and continues at least until late antiquity (Arnold 2003: 170–191). As the tells of the antique settlements have been largely destroyed by sebbakhin who took the earth as fertilizer, often only the foundations of the tower houses are now preserved. Other sources such as house models4, papyri5 and depictions in wall paintings from Roman times6 add a lot of information to our understanding of these houses and give a detailed expression of their characteristics. Many of these characteristics coincide with the results from excavations in Egypt. Furthermore, very interesting parallels are known from modern Yemen, where tower houses built of mud bricks are still in use nowadays. In particular, the historic centre of Shibam contains about 500 tower houses that are in many points very similar to the ancient Egyptian examples within a city enclosure wall of about 250x350 m.7

2

3 4 5 6 7

For comparison, ruins of such houses can be seen in a photograph taken by Naville in 1880 in Bubastis, see Naville 1891, Pl. II. This picture gives a good idea of the quantities of mud bricks used in settlement buildings from this time onwards. Examples are known from many places, for example from Buto, Hartung et al. 2003: Fig. 5. The most famous examples being in the Cairo Museum, British Museum, and in the Louvre; for an overview see Busch-Sperveslage 1999. This is especially the case for the Ptolemaic and Roman periods. See for example Pap. Oxyrhynchus XXXIV 2719, Lembke et al. 2004: 29. The most famous being the Nile mosaic of Palestrina, see Meyboom 1995, but many other are known for example in Pompei and Herculaneum, see Versluys 2000. For a detailed comparison between the modern tower houses in Yemen and Late Period and Ptolemaic tower houses in the Delta of Egypt see Lehmann 2013.

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Tell el-Dabca in the Late and Ptolemaic Periods In the 26th Dynasty, the settlement of Tell el-Dabca was spread over several islands surrounded by the Pelusiac branch of the Nile. Today, the best preserved part of the antique settlement is located on what was the main island and consists of the tell close to the modern village ed-Dabca. The settlement layers of the Late Period on the surrounding islands were removed for fertilizer. Nowadays only the north-eastern part of the main gezira is preserved on a higher level. The rest of the tell lies in the modern fields and therefore all upper layers which contained the Late Period remains are gone. In addition to the excavations, an extensive magnetometry survey was undertaken from 1999 onwards (Bietak et al. 2001, Forstner-Müller et al. 2004, Forstner-Müller et al. 2006, Forstner-Müller et al. 2007, Forstner-Müller et al. 2010, Forstner-Müller et al. 2013) and enables us to recognize building structures of the Late Period in unexcavated areas. The Late Period remains in Tell el-Dabca consist mainly of dwelling houses. Many but not all were tower houses. In area F/I, which lies between the excavation house and the modern canal to the west, a part of a cemetery of the Late Period was excavated. Even though the architecture of the Late Period is no longer existent in the lower preserved parts, the settlement can still be traced by mapping storage pits of this period. Most of these storage pits were found in area F/II, which lies slightly southwest of area F/I. These pits were situated outside houses and contained large storage vessels of the Late Period made from a coarse Nile clay (Ic-2). Even though the architecture is not preserved, the presence of the storage vessels demonstrate a settlement in this area. Altogether the remains of 50 buildings of the Late and Ptolemaic Periods have been partly excavated. Most of them are found on the main gezira in area A/II. From the magnetometry survey 43 further buildings can be detected from so far unexcavated parts of the settlement on the main tell. Taking into account the 31 pits excavated so far as indications of the original presence of houses, altogether about 124 houses are attested for the settlement of the Late and Ptolemaic Periods at Tell el-Dabca. Naturally these buildings concentrate in some few clusters on the gezira due to the excavation areas. Between these excavated parts and those examined by magnetometry, still larger districts of the gezira are unknown, so many more buildings can be expected here. The question arises, who lived in these houses? What social status did the inhabitants have, and in what professions did they work? What was their ethnicity? Egypt received a permanent influx of people from other cultures during the Late Period and was partly under foreign rule in the Third Intermediate and Late Periods.

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In addition Egypt is part of a far-reaching trading network in the Mediterranean region and beyond. Greek and demotic texts refer to 150 different ethnicities that can be found in Egypt (Riggs et al. 2012: 7). The mixed population of the capital Memphis is also mentioned by Strabo.8 Apart from Libyans and Nubians who did not leave many traces in the material culture assemblage seen in Egypt, there were contacts with Saudi-Arabia due to the incense trade. In the Mediterranean, Phoenicia, Cyprus, the many Greek islands, and West Anatolia with the Karians/Ionians play an important part, many of them as mercenaries in the Egyptian army. In the Levant and Near Eastern region the Jewish/Aramaean population, Assyrians, Babylonians and Persians have to be mentioned. Egypt was in constant contact and conducted trade with all these regions, some of them more visible in the archaeological record and more important than others (a good overview is provided by Vittmann 2003). To interpret in detail the traces left by all these different cultures in Egypt remains very difficult. Moreover, the sources that can give us hints about other ethnicities in Egypt often do not survive in the archaeological record and particularly in the humid soil of the Egyptian Delta. This is especially true for texts written on papyri, parchment or wooden writing boards, the objects where evidence of other languages or writing systems such as for example bilingual lists or personal names of foreign origin can be expected. Tombstones and stelae are rarely preserved in the Delta as all such material was reused in later times due to the lack of stone in this region. Therefore representations with non-Egyptian clothing, hair or beard style such as we find preserved in other places in Egypt (Vittmann 2003, Budka 2012) are not present in Tell el-Dabca. The same is true for food residues, and special body decoration or clothing which do not survive in the humid conditions in the Delta. What are left are the simple objects from daily life which are found in the material culture. But what do they reveal about the ethnicities of the inhabitants at Tell el-Dabca? Here we have to start with the most common objects found at an excavation: pottery sherds. Most of them are made of local Nile clay. One particular type of pottery of the Late Period in Egypt is a small jug about 15cm in height. These jugs do not only appear in Egypt in local Nile clay but also in marl clay and in imported red, pink and whitish clay types. The shape itself is well known in the Levant where it can be further separated into a northern and a southern style, the former showing a double groove at the rim while the latter has a simple rim (Amiran 1963: 259–265). Some of these vessels in the Levant are inscribed with personal names, suggesting that these were personal objects. Wine is also often mentioned on them which led to their name, Judeaen decanters (fig. 1).9 Holladay suggested that these 8 9

«(…) its population is a mixed one.» Strabo, Geographica, XVII.I.32. For example the inscription «Belonging to Yahzeyahu, wine of kḥl» can be found, Holladay 2004: 417.

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2684L

3379B

K8000.15

K10108.1

0 cm

0109

K12054.6

10 cm

K12144.2

Fig. 1. Fragments of Judeaen Decanters from Tell el-Dabca.

jugs were used in a ritual that involves wine, such as, for example, the Sabbath meal (Holladay 2004: 427). Some of these vessels were found in a shrine in Tell el-Maskhuta together with a Phoenician storage jar and a clay figurine that was interpreted by the excavator as a Phoenician seated pregnant goddess. Therefore the excavator concluded that this was a Phoenician shrine used by locally-settled members of the eastern Mediterranean Phoenician diaspora (Holladay 2004: 421). At Tell el-Dabca seven uninscribed fragments of such jugs have been found up to now. Four of them show a simple rim and therefore belong to the southern style. While one fragment consists of a local Nile clay, the six other fragments are made of a white Egyptian marl clay which shows that the vessels were produced in Egypt. Since the marl clay originates in Upper Egypt, most likely from the area around Thebes, either the vessels were produced there and then transported to the Delta and Tell el-Dabca, or the marl clay itself was transported as a raw material. Nevertheless a substantial number of fragments of Phoenician torpedo amphorae, the typical, widely used containers in the Mediterranean for trade goods such as wine, oil, grain and the like, were found in Tell el-Dabca and demonstrate regular contacts between these two regions. However a few other traces may hint at spheres not related purely to trade. In the abovementioned cemetery in area F/I10, one child burial contained several pieces of jewellery including iron neck- and arm bracelets as well as a necklace made of beads and amulets. The latter was found at the right shoulder and included a typical Egyptian Bes-amulet made of 10 These tombs are currently being prepared for publication by Karin Kopetzky whom I would like to

thank for giving me an insight into her unpublished work.

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3219 0 cm

5 cm

Fig. 2. Necklace with phoenician face bead and Bes amulet.

faience but also two typical Phoenician beads made of glass, including a face bead and an eye bead (fig. 2; see also Herrmann 1994: 806; Spaer 2001: 155). The earliest beads of this type start in the 7th century BC and soon become widespread in the Mediterranean and beyond. Parallels are known from many places, for example from Tell el-Yahudiya, Goshen and Abydos (Petrie 1906: pls. XIX B, XXXVIII Nr. 43–48; Effland 2006: 143, Taf. 31a). Another tomb – this time for an infant – contained a small bronze bell together with other beads showing that the bell was worn as a necklace (fig. 3). Bronze bells are known from the 8th century in regions such as Assyria and in the Caucasus where they were used both as decorations for horses and also as grave goods in human burials. In Egypt bronze bells appear only in the Late Period, and parallels are known for example from Saft el-Henna (Petrie 1906: Pl. XXXVIII), or Illahun and Gurob (Petrie 1914: 28, Pl. XV, XLIV, XLVI, Nr. 124a–d) where they are found on metal bracelets. In Tell elYahudiya (Petrie 1906: 18, Pl. XIX A) such bells were found together with Phoenician beads and Egyptian Wedjat eyes of the Late Period and also with arm bracelets of the type found

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5581 0 cm

5 cm

Fig. 3. Bronze Bell from Tell el-Dabca.

in Tell el-Dabca. One of the bells from Illahun shows the face of Bes so that an apotropaic function is likely, as Petrie already suggested.11 Parallels for example from Tell Šēḫ Ḥamad suggest also an apotropaic function. Here 57 bells were found in tombs, most of them in child burials (Oettel 2000; Wehry 2003). In later times bronze bells become widespread and are still used nowadays in some Islamic burials for apotropaic reasons (Oettel 2000: 115). Another pottery group that is often discussed in connection with ethnicity are the socalled Cypriot mortars (Villing 2006: 37, 39; Blakely et al. 1989: 50; Zukerman et al. 2011: 97–98). The distribution of these vessels in the Mediterranean has been mapped by Salles (1991: Fig. 3). Two different types are found, vessels with a flat base and those with a ringbase. These mortars are made of a coarse ware and often small stones or volcanic temper was added to the clay and applied at the inner surface to improve the grinding effect. Their first appearance can be dated to around 700 B.C., and the widest distribution is found between 500 and 300 B.C. (Salles 1991: 219). Clay analysis showed that these mortars were probably originally produced in Cyprus, and soon became widespread in the whole eastern Mediterranean region and Egypt and were then imitated locally as well as imported (Spataro et al. 2009: 96). The Cypriot mortars are often associated with basket-handled storage-jars and Phoenician torpedo amphorae. Therefore it has been concluded that the mortars reached the Nile Delta as part of the cargoes of Cypro-Phoenician ships (Villing 2006: 37, 39).

11 «Worn by children against the evil eye (…)» Petrie 1914: 28.

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Lehmann IMPORT CLAY NILE CLAY

K10119.8 K1987.1

K10119.8

K10116.3 0 cm

10 cm

K12077.6

Fig. 4. Cypriot Mortars of Nile Clay (left) and Imported Clay (right) from Tell el-Dab‘a.

Similar mortars have been found at Naukratis where some of them bear Greek inscriptions showing that the vessels were dedicated in the temple of Apollo (Blakely et al. 1989, 50; Villing 2006). Parallels are known from other Greek and Etruscan sanctuaries, but inscriptions are rare. In Egypt such mortars made from imported clay were found in many places in the Delta, for example Tell Defenneh (Villing 2006: 44, Anm. 87), Herakleion (Grataloup 2006: 335, Abb. 406), Mendes (Allen 1982: P. XIV, Nr. 1+3.), Tell el-Herr (Defernez 1997a: Nr. 33–34, 64–65, Fig. 5), Tell el-Maskhuta (Holladay 1982: 109, Pl. 16) and others.12 Six fragments of such mortars are known from Tell el-Dabca (five of those are shown in fig. 4). Unfortunately all of them originate from filling layers without a proper context. Four are made from imported clays while two are made from the coarse local Nile clay (Ic-2). Since these vessels are related to the everyday domestic activity of grinding food such as grain, they are simple household vessels and do not count as luxury items. It seems that their very good quality made them popular over a wide area (Zukerman et al. 2011: 98). In the Levant the mortars are found together with imported cooking pots, implying that different cooking traditions of immigrants or mercenaries took place there (Zukerman et al. 2011: 97–98). Foreign cooking pots are unfortunately not attested in Tell el-Dabca, therefore it remains unknown by whom these vessels were used: by local or (originally) foreign inhabitants or traders.

12 A little statue from Corinth shows a monkey using such a mortar with a grinding implement. Spataro

et al. 2009: Fig. 1.

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The mortars are not the only imported vessels from Cyprus. Basket-handled storage jars and Black-On-Red or Bichrome-Ware was imported from Cyprus to Egypt. In general 50% of the imported pottery material of the Late Period from Tell el-Dabca originates from Greece while 32% come from the Levant/Phoenicia and 19% from Cyprus. Unfortunately very few objects apart from pottery can be found from these regions at Tell el-Dabca. While Phoenicians and Cypriots are traceable at least in small quantities in the finds from Tell el-Dabca, the Greeks whose pottery represents 50% of the imported wares do not otherwise appear in the archaeological record, i.e. no small finds point to the presence of a Greek community at Tell el-Dabca. It is known from the texts and other sources that many Greeks lived in Egypt13, but in Tell el-Dabca only imported amphorae and some pieces of fine ware are found, but otherwise there are almost no traces in the material culture. The same seems to be true for other cities of Egypt (see Vittmann 2003: 203–208). It seems, however, that Greeks have been highly acculturated which may explain the lack of material evidence relating to Greek culture. The material presented above relating to objects found in Late Period Tell el-Dabca still presents many questions. However, it is hoped that it will spark a discussion about Egyptian and foreign ethnicity in this settlement. As has become clear, it is very difficult to separate the evidence from the material culture into that derived from foreign ethnicities living in Egypt and that from trade. Although large parts of the picture remain unknown, some insight can be gained into the foreign ethnicities living in the town of Tell el-Dabca in the Late and Ptolemaic Periods or known from trade contacts.

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immigration of Greeks into Egypt which had its peak in the 3rd century B.C. Riggs et al. 2012: 7.

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Bietak, M./Dorner, J./Jánosi, P., 2001. Ausgrabungen in dem Palastbezirk von Avaris. Vorbericht Tell el-Dab’a/’Ezbet Helmi 1993–2000, mit einem Beitrag von A. von den Driesch. Ä&L XI, 27–119. Blakely, J.A./Bennet, W.J., 1989. Levantine Mortaria of the Persian Period. J.A. Blakely/W.J. Bennet (Hgg.), Analysis and Publication of Ceramics. The Computer DataBase in Archaeology. BAR International Series 551, 45–65. Budka, J., 2012. Individuen, indigene Gruppe oder integrierter Teil der ägyptischen Gesellschaft? Zur soziologischen Aussagekraft materieller Hinterlassenschaften von Kuschiten im spätzeitlichen Ägypten. G. Neunert et al. (Hgg.), Sozialisationen: Individuum – Gruppe – Gesellschaft, Beiträge des ersten Münchener Arbeitskreises Junge Aegyptologie (MAJA 1), 3. bis 5.12.2010. GOF IV, 51, 45–60. Busch-Sperveslage, A., 1999. Hausmodelle im ptolemäisch-römischen Ägypten. M. Kozok (Hg.), Architektur, Struktur, Symbol: Streifzüge durch die Architekturgeschichte von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart, Festschrift für Cord Meckseper zum 65. Geburtstag, 11–26. Defernez 1997: Defernez, C., Heboua I – Période perse. CCÉ 5, 35–38. Effland, U., 2006. Funde aus dem Mittleren Reich bis zur Mamlukenzeit aus Umm el-Qaab. MDAIK 62, 131–150. Forstner-Müller, I./Müller, W./Schweitzer, C./Weissl, M., 2004. Preliminary Report on the Geophysical Survey at ’Ezbet Rushdi/Tell el-Dab’a in Spring 2004. Ä&L XIV, 101–109. Forstner-Müller, I./Müller, W., 2006. Neueste Ergebnisse des Magnetometersurveys während der Frühjahrskampagne 2006 in Tell el-Dab’a/Qantir. Ä&L XVI, 79–81. Forstner-Müller, I./Herbich, T./Müller, W./Schweitzer, C./Weissl, M., 2007. Geophysical Survey 2007 at Tell el-Dab’a. Ä&L XVII, 97–106. Forstner-Müller, I./Herbich, T./Schweitzer, C./Weissl, M., 2010. Preliminary Report on the Geophysical Survey at Tell el-Dab‘a/Qantir in Spring 2009 and 2010. Jahreshefte des Österreichischen Archäologischen Institutes in Wien, Band 79, 67–85. Forstner-Müller, I./T. Herbich, 2013. Small harbours in the Nile Delta, the case of Tell el-Dab’a. ET XXVI, 257–272. Grataloup, C., 2006. Das Alltagsleben in der Kanopischen Region: Die Keramik. F. Goddio/M. Clauss, Ägyptens versunkene Schätze, 332–349. Hartung, U./Ballet, P./Béguin, F./Bourriau, J./French, P./Herbich, T./Kopp, P./Lecuyot, G./Schmitt, A., 2003. Tell el-Fara’in – Buto 8. Vorbericht. MDAIK 59, 199–267. Herrmann, C., 1994. Ägyptische Amulette aus Palästina, Israel. OBO 138. Holladay, J. S. Jnr., 1982. Cities of the Delta III: Tell el-Maskhuta. ARCE Reports 6. –

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–

1914. Amulets.

Riggs, C./Baines, J., 2012. Ethnicity. W. Wendrich et al. (Hgg.), UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology, (http://escholarship.org/uc/item/32r9x0jr), 1–16. Salles, J.F., 1991. Du blé, de l’huile et du vin… (notes sur les échanges commerciaux en Méditerranée orientale vers le milieu du 1er millénaire av. J.-C.). H. Sancisi-Weerdenburg/A. Kuhrt (Hgg.), Asia Minor and Egypt: Old Cultures in a New Empire, Proceedings of the Groeningen 1988 Achaemenid Workshop. Achaemenid History VI, 207–236. Spaer, M., 2001. Ancient glass in the Israel Museum: Beads and Other Small Objects. Spataro, M./Villing, A., 2009. Scientific investigation of pottery grinding bowls from the Archaic and Classical Eastern Mediterranean. BMTRB 3, 89–100. Spencer, A.J., 1993. Excavations at el-Ashmunein III. The Town, British Museum Expedition to Middle Egypt. Stanley, D.J./Warne, A.G., 1993. Nile Delta: Recent Geological Evolution and Human Impact. Science 30, 628–624. Versluys, M. J., 2000. Aegyptiaca Romana. Nilotic Scenes and the Roman Views of Egypt. Villing, A., 2006. Drab Bowls’ for Apollo: The Mortaria of Naukratis and Exchange in the Archaic Eastern Mediterranean. A. Villing/U. Schlotzhauer (Hgg.), Naukratis: Greek Diversity in Egypt. Studies on East Greek Pottery and Exchange in the Eastern Mediterranean, 31–46. Vittmann, G., 2003. Ägypten und die Fremden im ersten vorchristlichen Jahrtausend. Kulturgeschichte der Antiken Welt 97. Wehry, B., 2003. Zwischen Orient und Okzident. Das arsakidenzeitliche Gräberfeld von Tall Šēḫ Ḥamad/ Magdala. Mit Beiträgen von K. Schmitt, H. Hornig, J. Luedtke Kennedy. Berichte der Ausgrabung Tall Šēḫ Ḥamad / Dūr-Katlimmu 13-2. Zukerman, A./Ben-Shlomo, D., 2011. Mortaria as a foreign element in the material culture of the southern Levant during the 8th-7th centuries BCE. Palestine Exploration Quarterly 143, 87–105.

The copyright of the pictures is owned by the Austrian Archaeological Institute (ÖAI). The drawings of the pottery were done by Ashraf Senoussi, David Aston and Manuela Lehmann. The digitization of the pottery was done by Manuela Lehmann.

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Proceedings, 9 th ICAANE, Basel 2014, Vol. 2, 63–74

Angela Massafra

The Egyptian Presence in Southern Palestine at the Dawn of the Late Bronze Age as Reflected by Pottery Imports Among several classes of Egyptian/Egyptianizing artifacts attested in the Levant during the Late Bronze age, pottery is the best indicator of cultural affiliation. A contextual analysis of pottery sets at Tell el-‘Ajjul could help appreciating the Egyptian presence and how the Egyptian culture reshaped itself in a foreign context.

1. Introduction: Southern Palestine in the Early Late Bronze Age. An Unsolved Problem The aim of this paper is to encourage discussion about the extent of Egyptian involvement in the Southern Levant during the early 18th Dynasty. The topic is part of my PhD research, conducted at University of Glasgow, which focuses on the southern part of Palestine during the transitional period from the Middle to the Late Bronze Ages (hereafter MBA and LBA). The aftermath of the so-called Hyksos dynasty in the Egyptian Delta and the fall of Avaris is a crucial but yet puzzling phase for the history of both Egypt and Palestine. After the conquest of the former Hyksos capital, the sources tell us how the Egyptian armies of pharaoh Ahmose set a siege at the town of Sharuhen, in Southern Canaan, lasting three years, at the end of which the town collapsed. The texts regarding the following events are a bit more confused or totally lacking. What we do know, anyway, is that in the levels corresponding to the very end of the MBA or to the first years of the LBA, several sites in Southern Levant show layers of destruction followed, sometimes, by layers of abandonment (fig. 1). While it seems clear how this evidence is connected to a more or less stable Egyptian presence in the Southern Levant after Thutmose III, there is still no consensus about the nature and extent of Egyptian involvement in the period extending from the fall of Avaris to the reign of Thutmose III. Minimalists such as Redford argued for a very limited Egyptian

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Fig. 1. Map of the archaeological sites destroyed at the end of the MBA in Southern Levant.

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political participation (Redford 2003: 193–94), while other scholars such as Morris proposed that an Egyptian imperial domination had already been established at the very beginning of the 18th dynasty (Morris 2005: 36–38). My main research question is focused on establishing the social identity of the inhabitants of Southern Levant at the dawn of the Late Bronze Age. As the production of identity is associated in particular with the consumption of food and drink, a study of pottery sets can provide significant insights into this process. Changes in the pottery repertoire may be associated with an alteration in dietary habits or consumption practices, which could be linked to new populations or to practices of hybridization. In order to identify the social meaning of artefacts, it is necessary to observe them in their socio-economic and cultural framework, as well as in their archaeological context. Every artefact bears a meaning which is entangled in its social environment (Appadurai 1986: 6). In the case of travelling objects, such as imports, for instance, one can assume new values depending on the adoptive society. An approach of contextual archaeology, then, is essential in order to begin to understand the social meaning and the significance of imported commodities. This requires both a quantitative and qualitative approach: pottery imports will not only be considered according to styles and typologies, but in relation to their material context and to the contemporary social organisation and political climate.

2. Egyptian and Egyptian-Style Pottery in Tell El-‘Ajjul: A Contextual Analysis The amount of Egyptian and Egyptian style (or Egyptianizing) pottery in the Late Bronze Age Southern Levant, especially if we consider the strong political links between the two regions in the period of interest here, is surprisingly low. From a general analysis it can be noted a very scarce presence of Egyptian and Egyptian style wares before Thutmose III. Evidence of locally produced Egyptianizing pottery is found only from the LB IB, in key sites such as Beth Shean. Rare imports are concentrated mainly in the costal sites, where the most attested shape is that of transport containers. As convincingly argued by Martin in his investigation of Late Bronze Age Egyptian pottery in the southern Levant, this pattern seems to suggest an absence of permanent military or political authority over Canaan before Thutmose III (Martin 2011: 273). But can we state that the situation was the same all over the country? I here suggest that a contextual approach on a clearly defined area of the southern Levant, in particular the Gaza area and its main site of Tell el-‘Ajjul, holds the potential to shed further light on this question. The site is probably to be identified with the above mentioned Sharuhen, stronghold of the Hyksos hinterland in Canaan (Kempinski 1974). The presence of such a connection between

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the Hyksos reign in Egypt and the Gaza area has already been stated by several scholars: considered by Oren the «demographic and economic hinterland of the Hyksos reign» (Oren 1997: 256), it has been shown by McGovern to support its own ceramic industry during the 2nd millennium (McGovern 2000: 27–28, pls. 19–24). I would argue that the identification of Sharuhen with Tell el-‘Ajjul is correct, as it appears to be for the importance of the town at the interface between Egypt and the Levant in this period of transition. Therefore, the site is central to the examination of the Egyptian relationship with Canaan in the early Late Bronze Age. Moreover, the excavations by Petrie in the past century have stressed the importance of the site within its region, yielding a considerable amount of pottery, among the other finds, associated with three different settlement layers and five subsequent palatial structures (Petrie 1931; 1932; 1933; 1934; Petrie et al. 1952). The Egyptian corpus of pottery from Tell el-‘Ajjul comprises a considerable number of Egyptian and Egyptian style vessels. The excavation reports unfortunately do not list all the pottery retrieved at the site, but a calculation of the specimens kept at the UCL collection, the published items from the Rockefeller Museum and all the other published specimens, yielded an amount of almost 200 vessels, forming approximately 10% of the total amount of the imported pottery from the site. The published pottery consists for the major part of complete vessels, so we are probably missing all the data regarding smaller sherds. Their dates range from the latest part of the MBA, corresponding to the level D/2 of Tell el-Dabᶜa, to the LB IIA, the Amarna period in Egypt. The corpus comprises a larger amount of closed vessels, with a minor percentage of open shapes (fig. 2). It is not always possible to distinguish between imports and objects made locally in Egyptian style without scientific analysis, but for the specimens known, the marl clay shapes were usually imported from Egypt, while Nile clay shapes were locally produced, imitating Egyptian Nile clays (Kopetzky 2011: 203). The major amount of Egyptian and Egyptianized pottery belongs to the palatial area, with almost 100 specimens here found. 40 were retrieved in funerary contexts, while 50 come from the City. The context of 14 specimens has not been recorded or didn’t find any match in the published plans. Regarding the Palatial area, a premise needs to be done. Any previous interpretation Tell el-‘Ajjul has been complicated by the excavation method and the state of publications. The stratigraphy of this area in particular underwent several discussions in the academic environment. The debate is around Petrie’s report of White Slip I sherds in Palace I, that are usually not associated with MBA contexts, while all the other pottery from the layer is typical of the end of period. The interpretation commonly used dates the sherds, and the Palace with it, to the final years of the MBA, justifying their presence with the particular position of Tell el-‘Ajjul, which would have allowed an early appearance of such finds (Epstein 1966: 176-177; Kempinski 1974: 148–149; Stewart 1974: 62–63; Bergoffen 2001:

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Fig. 2. Graphic showing the amount of different Egyptian and Egyptian-style vessels attested in Tell el-‘Ajjul.

145–146). Nevertheless, another theory, based on a valid examination of pottery remains, dates all the palatial structures to the LBA (Kenyon 1971: 553–554; Gittlen 1977: 415). The latter is supported by the present paper and can be summarized by the following table: Period (Palestine)

Palaces

Chronology

LB IA

Palace I

1540–1450 B.C.

LB IB

Palace II

1450–1400 B.C.

LB IIA

Palace III

1400–1300 B.C.

LB IIB

Palace IV–V

1300–1200 B.C.

Egyptian and Egyptian-style pottery was retrieved throughout all stages of the 5 Palatial buildings (fig. 3). The lowest amounts belong to Palace I and II, increasing roughly to double this figure in Palaces IV–V, of the LB II. 1/3 of the total amount was composed by open shapes, while the remaining part is exclusively composed by jars, with one only exception of a jug from Palace IV–V (Petrie 1932: pl. XXXV 68K2). While the percentages of open and

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Fig. 3. Graphic showing the amount of Egyptian and Egyptian-style vessels distributed in the different Palatial layers.

closed vessels are more or less the same throughout the periods, the proportion of Egyptianstyle pottery versus Egyptian manufactured pottery increases in the LB IIB (Palaces IV–V), when Egyptianizing pottery touches 78% of the total amount. From the City it is attested a small amount of Egyptian/Egyptian style pottery, with 50 items from the whole settlement. Among these, about 20 are of Egyptian manufacture. Their distribution does not highlight any particular pattern: the specimens were more or less equally distributed among Cities III–II. Not all of them have been traced, because of the state of publication of the remains from the City, which so far doesn’t allow us any contextual reconstruction. Turning to the funerary contexts, the majority of Egyptian or Egyptianizing pottery was found in the Eastern cemetery, while minor amounts are attested from the Lower cemetery, the XVIII dynasty cemetery and some intramural burials, found inside the City levels, while only one example was found in an isolated cave burial. Among the total amount of 40 specimens, 29 are closed vessels, the majority being again composed of jars. Of all the tombs equipped with Egyptian or Egyptianizing pottery, most contained only one specimen each, but 5 tombs were furnished with two or three imported or locally produced Egyptian-style vessel (T. 267, T. 272, Petrie 1931: pl. LV; T. 1164, Petrie 1932: pl. LII; T. 360, T. 419, Petrie 1933: pl. XLVIII). In these cases, the shapes associated were

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Fig 4. Pottery from Tomb 281 (Petrie 1931, pls. XIV; XXXVII, XXXVIII, XL, XLIX; photos courtesy of the UCL Museum of Archaeology, http://archcat.museums.ucl.ac.uk/).

mostly 2 small ovoid or drop shaped slender jars, whose function is connected to the pouring of drinks, in one occasion accompanied by a stand. The majority of burials belong to the LB I period (21), with only 11 tombs belonging to the LB II and 6 dating to the MB III. 1/3 of the jars were Egyptian imports, while all other specimens were of Egyptianizing production. Tombs with Egyptian pottery were not concentrated in a specific part of the cemeteries, but were quite widely distributed and surrounded by other kinds of burials. Though all those containing Egyptian pottery are generally well furnished, a few were particularly ostentatious. For the LB IA, T. 281, in the Eastern cemetery, contained a Flowerpot of Egyptianizing manufacture, but also a Cypriot Monochrome, a Red Lustrous Wheel made juglet, a local carinated bowl, and a scarab of Amenhotep I (fig. 4). These finds, besides confirming a date within the LB IA, show the wealth or rank of the interred. This prosperity is also witnessed in the LB II, for example by Tomb 1166, where an Egyptian imported storage jar was found (Petrie 1932: pl. XXXV:75N6). This is a burial cave, an unicum from Tell el-‘Ajjul, isolated from the rest of the cemetery and cut into the slopes of the Middle Bronze Age rampart. Altogether 14 people were buried here, in two different chambers (Petrie 1932: pl. LIII). The funerary kit comprised a few local pottery vessels, including 7 bowls, 3 dippers, an oil lamp and a storage jar. The other imports, beside the Egyptian jar, were 11 Cypriot BR jugs, a Pilgrim Flask, 3 Mycenaean IIIB stirrup jars. Other objects were some Egyptian-style gypsum tazzas, 21 scarabs, including one of Ramesses II,

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Fig 5. Pottery and objects from Tomb 1166 (Petrie 1932, pls. III, XVIII, XXIII, XXVII, XXIV, XXXV, XXXVI).

Fig. 6. Pottery and objects from Tomb 419, ‹Governor’s Tomb› (Petrie 1933, pls. VIII, IX, XI).

several Egyptian amulets, 3 gold jewellery pieces and small bone objects (fig. 5). The dated scarabs, the local pottery and the imports date the cave to the second half of the 13th century. Even more noticeable for the same period is T. 419, known as the «Governor’s tomb», located in the Lower cemetery. It is a cist tomb with a dromos, used in three different phases during the whole LB II (Petrie 1933: pl. XII). In the two LB IIA layers there were several Egyptian and Egyptian-style finds: a group of lead fishing-net weights of a typical 18th dynasty type, a bronze wine set including a bowl, a strainer, and a serving ladle in the lower level, and an ivory duck shaped bowl and a hemispherical bowl in the middle level (fig. 6).

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Fig. 7. Graphic showing the different percentages of table ware vs storage ware in the different contexts of Tell el-‘Ajjul.

Conclusions: Elite and Pottery Consumption at Tell El-‘Ajjul From the evidence presented, it looks quite clear how Tell el-‘Ajjul stands out from other sites in Southern Levant. The latter yield significant numbers of Egyptian and, mostly, Egyptian style pottery only from the LB IB onwards, while at Tell el-‘Ajjul both types are widely attested already from the final MB III. Moreover, the most common shape in Levantine sites is a mass and locally produced bowl, while jars are rare. Quite an opposite pattern is attested at Tell el-‘Ajjul, where handleless jars are the most attested shape. The contexts associated with these finds show a considerable degree of prosperity and prestige. Egyptian and Egyptian-style wares were mainly found in the Palatial buildings or in tombs characterized by a peculiar architecture, e.g. built tombs or cave tombs, or by the presence of other luxury and exotic finds, like Cypriot pottery, scarabs, amulets or jewellery. This consideration seems therefore to link the presence of Egyptian and Egyptianizing pottery to a portion of the population distinguished by rank and access to exotic goods, differentiated from the inhabitants of the Cities, also using Egyptian and Egyptianizing pottery, albeit in rather small quantities. As, for example, Tomb 281 shows, the LB IA already yielded evidence of a rich elite with Egyptian pottery (but also Cypriot wares) buried with them. The same picture is attested by Palace I, dated to the first part of the LBA, containing a high amount of Egyptian pottery.

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Who were the members of this elite? And what patterns of consumption could be highlighted for those people? Looking at the shapes of Egyptian and Egyptian style pottery from the site, the corpus counts higher amounts of tableware and storage ware, and, to a lesser extent, preparation and cooking ware. Minor percentages of specialized vessels and transport wares are also attested. Tableware was mostly found in palatial contexts and in tombs, with a considerable amount also in the City levels. On the other hand, very little storage ware was retrieved in the cemeteries, with the major amount concentrated in the Palaces (fig. 7). The amount of Egyptian tableware could look too low to be connected to an actual consumption by an Egyptian elite residing at the Palace of Tell el-‘Ajjul. Two issues have to be considered though: first, Egyptian pottery in Egypt was not particularly appreciated to be a fashionable or desired ware. Egyptian elite used other methods to express their rank, unlike Palestinian rulers. The second consideration is connected to the socio-political scenario of that time: the Late Bronze Age sees the affirmation of Cyprus as one of the main suppliers not only of metal but also of pottery. A great amount of Cypriot imports is found in many sites of the Mediterranean area in the second part of the 2nd millennium B.C. It is possible, therefore, that also the elite stationing at Tell el-‘Ajjul looked to Cypriot pottery for their domestic needs. Cypriot pottery is found in high numbers at the site, forming almost the 90% of all the imports, and it was mostly concentrated within the Palace compound. The inhabitants of the Palace, therefore, together with smaller amounts of Egyptian style pottery, used as tableware the most desired product of the coeval market. This pattern has sometimes been linked to the aspirations of local Canaanite governors to emulate the Egyptian upper classes (Higginbotham 2000: 132–133). However, the above examined chronology of these finds makes quite clear that Egyptian pottery was already in use from the early LBA. As it is attested by the sources and the archaeological record, though, Tell el-‘Ajjul suffered a major destruction in the last part of the MBA. How is it possible, then, that a devastated town could be so quickly reorganized with a strong local elite capable of affording such an amount of imported goods? Could be hypothesised, on this basis, that an Egyptian elite, maybe composed by officials or governors, settled the newly conquered Sharuhen, inhabiting the Palace already from the LB IA and carrying with them Egyptian artefacts and craftsmanship? The presence of troops stationed at the site is attested for the LB IIA by a jar with the Hatshepsut – Thutmose III cartouche found in Palace III (Petrie 1932: pl. VIII.117). For this period it has already been argued how the Egyptian empire sent supplies to its army based at the site (Morris 2005: 39). The high amount of Egyptian imported ware in the LB IA levels, though, could prove their presence already for the first phase of the New Kingdom. Among the 170 items, indeed, 69 were composed of storage ware and 1/3 of them belong to the first part of the Late Bronze Age I.

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In conclusion, the evidence of Egyptian and Egyptian style pottery at Tell el-‘Ajjul shows its considerable quantity since the very beginning of the Late Bronze Age, shortly after the destruction of the site. The Palatial context is the one with major amounts of these wares, together with rich tombs. Finally, the handleless jar is the most common shape, on the contrary of the patterns highlighted in the rest of the Southern Levant, where bowls are mostly found. Tell el-‘Ajjul shows already in the Late Bronze IA a consumption pattern of Egyptian and Egyptianizing wares which differs from the previous period at the site and, at the same time, contrasts the patterns of the coeval sites of Southern Levant. This pattern could suggest an Egyptian presence at Tell el-‘Ajjul already from the LB IA, with a flow of supplies from the Egyptian imperial government to the troops stationed at the town and a parallel production and consumption of locally produced wares imitating Egyptian shapes, probably made by Egyptian artisans and used by the Egyptian elite based at the ancient Sharuhen. Hence, from a glance at the early LBA elite in Southern Canaan, we are not looking at how the Palestinian governors perceived the Egyptian alterity, but, on the other hand, we can probably observe how the Egyptian elite adapted their consumption practices in the foreign environment of the Southern Palestinian milieu.

Bibliography Albright, W.F., 1938. The Chronology of a South Palestinian City, Tell el-‘Ajjul. American Journal of Semitic Languages and Literatures 55, 337–359. Appadurai, A., 1986. Introduction. Commodities and the politics of value. A. Appadurai (ed.), The social life of things. Commodities in cultural perspective. Cambridge, 3–63. Bergoffen, C., 1989. A Comparative Study of the Regional Distribution of Cypriote Pottery in Canaan and Egypt in the Late Bronze Age. Unpublished Phd Dissertation. New York. –

2001. The Proto White Slip and White Slip I Pottery from Tell El-Ajjul. Karagheorghis 2001, 145–155.

Epstein, C. M., 1966. Palestinian Bichrome ware. Documenta et Monumenta Orientis Antiqui XII. Leiden. Gittlen, B., 1977. Studies in the Late Cypriote Pottery Found in Palestine. Unpublished dissertation. Higginbotham, C. R., 2000. Egyptianization and Elite Emulation in Ramesside Palestine: Governance and Accommodation on the Imperial Periphery. Leiden. Karagheorghis, V., (ed.), 2001. The White Slip Ware of Late Bronze Age Cyprus. Proceedings of an International Conference Organized by the Anastasios of G. Leventis Foundation, Nicosia, in Honour of Malcom Wiener. Nicosia, 29th–30th October 1998. Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften 20. Vienna Kempinski, A., 1974. Tell el-’Ajjûl – Beth-Aglayim or Sharuḥen? Israel Exploration Journal 24, 145–152. Kenyon, K. M., 1971. Palestine in the Time of the Eighteenth Dynasty: Vol. II. Cambridge.

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Kopetzky, K., 2011. The Southern Coastal Plain: Tell El-’Ajjul. M. A. S. Martin (ed.), Egyptian-Type Pottery in the Late Bronze Age Southern Levant. Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenshaften 69. Vienna, 201–209. McGovern, P. E., 2000. The Foreign Relations of the”Hyksos”: A Neutron Activation Study of Middle Bronze Age Pottery from the Eastern Mediterranean. British Archaeological Reports 888. Oxford. Maguire, L. C., 2009. Tell El-Dabʻa XXI: The Cypriot Pottery and Its Circulation in the Levant. Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenshaften 51. Vienna. Martin, M. A. S., 2011. Egyptian-Type Pottery in the Late Bronze Age Southern Levant. Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenshaften 69. Vienna. Morris, E. F., 2005. The Architecture of Imperialism: Military Bases and the Evolution of Foreign Policy in Egypt’s New Kingdom. Leiden. Oren, E. D., 1997. The ‘Kingdom of Sharuhen’ and the Hyksos Kingdom. E. D. Oren (ed.), The Hyksos: New historical and archaeological perspectives. Philadelphia, 253–283. –

2001. Early White Slip Pottery in Canaan: Spatial and Chronological Perspectives. Karagheorghis 2001, 127–144.

Petrie, W. M. F., 1931. Ancient Gaza I. Tell el Ajjul. Publications of British School of Archaeology in Egypt, and Egyptian Research Account 53. London. –

1932. Ancient Gaza II. Tell el Ajjul. Publications of British School of Archaeology in Egypt, and Egyptian Research Account 54. London.

–

1933. Ancient Gaza III. Tell el Ajjul. Publications of British School of Archaeology in Egypt, and Egyptian Research Account 55. London.

–

1934. Ancient Gaza IV. Tell el Ajjul. Publications of British School of Archaeology in Egypt, and Egyptian Research Account 56. London.

Petrie, W. M. F. et al., 1952. City of Shepherd Kings and Ancient Gaza V. Publications of British School of Archaeology in Egypt, and Egyptian Research Account 64. London. Redford, D. B., 2003. The Wars in Syria and Palestine of Thutmose III. Leiden. Stewart, J. R., 1974. Tell ElʻAjjūl: The Middle Bronze Age Remains. Studies in Mediterranean archaeology 38. Göteborg.

Angela Massafra, University of Glasgow.

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Proceedings, 9 th ICAANE, Basel 2014, Vol. 2, 75–85

Maya Müller

Late Antique Tunics with Decorations Reflecting the Egyptian Perception of Middle Eastern Exotic Peoples This paper examins Egyptian textile images depicting the defeat of two uncivilized Middle Eastern peoples: the Amazons and the Indians. The introduction of contemporaneous iconographic elements into these Graeco-Roman mythological motifs can be understood as a transformation of their original message alluding to more recent or actual political conditions. A small number of tapestry woven pictures from richly decorated tunics is extant representing a conspicuous idea: the ‹taming› of two ‹wild› Middle Eastern peoples, the Amazons and the Indians. A singular key piece showing the defeat of the Amazons and the Indians in juxtaposition, a tunic or rather the fragments of its pictorial decoration, belongs to the textile collection of the Museum of Cultures, Basel. The fragmentary garment, created in the 5th or 6th century CE, was found in a Late Antique necropolis of Middle Egypt, possibly Antinooupolis. The state of preservation is sad. On the grounds of comparison with well preserved pieces from the same period, the original clothing article can be reconstructed as a short tunic made for a man with a rich figurative decoration appearing on the front and back part in exactly the same arrangement. Two large collar bands run along the opening for the head, passing on either side into the vertical clavi without interrupting the picture at the joins. Both collar bands are lost to a great extent; what we have are a right and a left upper part of a clavus with a small part of the adjoining collar band (III 11791, III 11792); the upper end of a left clavus (III 11904); two detached fragments of a clavus (III 11901, III 11903); and two fragments of the rectangular tabulae sitting, originally on the shoulders (III 11790, III 11902).1 The subject represented on the collar bands and the adjoining top parts of the clavi is an amazonomachia, while on the lower fields of the clavi there are successive pairs of either a 1

Museum der Kulturen Basel, provenance unknown, linen and wool, unicoloured blueish-black design, bequest of C.L. Burckhardt-Reinhart, Alexandria, 1967.

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Fig. 1. Museum of Cultures, Basel inv. III 11791 Fragment of collar band and clavus. Photo Peter Horner.

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maenad or a satyr dancing with an Indian captive whose hands are bound behind the back. This motif presupposes the narrative of Dionysos’ defeat of the Indians. Both the Amazon and the Indian theme are current, in the Later Roman Empire, on relief sarcophagi, ivory pyxids and other luxury objects; it is, however, a speciality of the Egyptians to make a link between the two strange peoples. In the following, we have to consider four points. • First, the iconography of the Basel tunic fragments will be dealt with, explaining the scenes with the help of some better preserved parallels. Mythological and contemporary realistic features can be distinguished on the representations. • Second, we shall briefly examine some literary texts from Late Antique Egypt linking the mythological subjects of the defeated Amazons and the captured Indians, thus corresponding to the mythological features of the textile pictures. • Third, the question of experiences and contacts of Egyptians with real strange peoples is raised. Real Indian people were well known through the trade with the Middle and Far East, the seaways of the Indian Ocean ending at the Red Sea ports of Egypt. The reality behind Amazon images are, in Late Antiquity, combats of Roman legions against ruling, even fighting, women in the ‹barbarian› provinces to the North and in Meroitic Nubia. • Fourth, the context of the Basel tunic must be established: Where was the piece created, for whom was it made, and what did the owner mean to say by going around in his town with two strange middle eastern peoples on his shirt? (1) – We begin with the reconstruction of the Basel Amazon tunic. If we define the main fragment (III 11791) (fig. 1) as constituting the right upper angle of the front side, then the second long fragment (III 11792) (fig. 2) must have been its continuation on the left backside. The small separate fragment with the Roman soldier (III 11904) (fig. 3) must have formed the upper left corner of the frontal collar decoration. In the upper part of the main fragment, a soldier fighting with a sword and the backside of a horse can be seen, and below it a partly destroyed Amazon on horseback wearing a knee-length tunic, boots and a Phrygian cap helmet, despairingly raising her right hand; the figures are surrounded by a vine scroll imparting a Dionysian touch to the scene. A tunic in the Victoria & Albert Museum (10291901; Gayet 1902: 25–46, pl. VIII–XI) is the only other example of a highly dramatic fight between Amazons and Roman soldiers extending on the collar band and the clavi. In this case, both sides are preserved with the exception of one of the short three-scene clavi. The piece was excavated by Albert Gayet at Antinooupolis at the very end of the 19th century. It is a near parallel to what must have been the Basel tunic, in subject and style, lacking, however the Indians. On both tunics, the figures move with extremely sweeping and dynamic gestures, the proportions of the human body being arbitrarily chosen to achieve the utmost expressivity of the limbs. It is a highly original style, possibly of a specific workshop.

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Fig. 2. Museum of Cultures, Basel inv. III 11792 Fragment of clavus and left end of collar band. Fig. 3. Museum of Cultures, Basel inv. III 11904 Left corner of clavus/collar band. Photos Peter Horner.

However, the general scheme of Egyptian amazonomachia pictures corresponds to those of other parts of the Roman Empire (LIMC I, 1, 1981: 586–653, ‹Amazones›). Late antique depictions of Amazons sometimes show them wearing a Phrygian cap which must be a metal helmet, a tunic with girdle, boots, and fighting on horseback with a double axe. This type of helmet was worn, in Late Antique reality, by a number of peoples of the Near East, such as a group of Nubian soldiers on the Arch of Septimius Severus in Rome (Simpson 1987: 100).2 Double-headed battle-axes of various types are sporadically attested in the whole of the Ancient World. However, the type with crescent-shaped heads as used by many Amazons from the Hellenistic to the Late Antique Period seemingly never occurs 2

According to Nonnos of Panopolis, the Amazons wear helmets (Dionysiaca XXVI 331).

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Fig. 4. Museum of Cultures, Basel inv. III 11901 Fragment of clavus with dancing Indian captive. Fig. 5. Museum of Cultures, Basel inv. III 11903 Fragment of clavus with dancing maenad and Indian captive. Photos Peter Horner.

archaeologically save in the Minoan Culture. Thus, this weapon may represent a historistic reminiscence alongside the otherwise modern attire. In Roman Imperial times, Amazons were thought to have lived, not only in the Black Sea region, but also in parts of Anatolia, the Levant and North Africa, as reported by Diodorus of Sicily (1st century BCE) in his ‹Greek World History› (III 52–55). The Amazons’ enemies, fighting with a short sword, wear the helmet, cuirass and boots of the contemporary Roman legionaries. The second theme of the Basel Amazon tunic, the Indian captives dancing with the followers of Dionysos, fills the lower part of the clavi. The proportions of the clavi as we know them from well-preserved parallels allow them to arrange three pairs of dancers on each clavus. In addition to the pairs on the large fragments, we have two separate fragments, III 11901 (fig. 4), and III 11903 (fig. 5), possibly forming the lower half of the right main fragment. Indians can be recognized by their typical attire, wearing, on their torso, a diagonal hanging for the weapon, and a specific kind of pants, i.e. the Indian dhoti as worn in everyday reality, from Antiquity to this day. To mention but one parallel from India: the statue

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Fig. 6. Museum of Cultures, Basel inv. III 11902 Fragment of shoulder tabula with Roman soldier defeating an Amazon. Photo Peter Horner. Fig. 7. Museum of Cultures, Basel inv. III 11790 Fragment of shoulder tabula with a hero fighting a lion or bear. Photo Peter Horner.

of a Lokanatha at the Rietberg Museum Zurich (van Lohuizen-de Leuw 1994: 54–62) (9th century) is wearing it, as is the small figure at his right side. It is a kind of wide pants made of slightly oblique panels causing diagonal folds on the legs, the whole thing held by a girdle with two or three long ribbons hanging down between the legs. The fabric can be decorated with a geometrical pattern. On the fragment III 11792, the Indian of the lower pair wears a wide and long dhoti with a stripe pattern, in contrast to the short leather skirt of the satyr by his side. Above them, the dancing maenad who turns her eyes upward to the sky as she lifts up a wine bowl makes it clear that she went into ecstasy. We are informed about the Indian campaign of Dionysos by a precious literary source, the epic ‹Dionysiaca›, written by the Egyptian Nonnos of Panopolis/Akhmim in the mid-5th century CE. Nonnos relates that, after having defeated the Indian army and killed their king, Dionysos turned the water of a nearby lake into wine, and instantly, all surviving Indians became drunk; they began to dance ecstatically with their weapons, imitating the satyrs (15, 52–75). On a number of textiles dealing in some detail with the Indian campaign, the victorious god can appear on his chariot drawn by leopards, in the attitude of a triumphant

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emperor, as for example on a well preserved collar decoration in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (90.5.873) (LIMC III, 2, 1986: Dionysos in peripheria orientali 133). To the god’s right, the motif of an Indian captive and a maenad both dancing in ecstatic frenzy can be seen, the maenad brandishing a weapon. This motif perfectly expresses the inherent aggressive tension as well as the integration of the stranger into the Dionysiac cultic community. Moreover, two fragmentary shoulder tabulae belonging to the Basel tunic are extant, one continuing the theme of defeating the Amazons (III 11902) (fig. 6), the other containing an allegorical figure of a hero fighting a lion or bear (III 11790) (fig. 7). The motif of victorious Dionysos on his chariot was current not only in Egypt, but also in various parts of the Western and Eastern Empires (LIMC III, 1, 1986, 514–531). In contrast to this, the motif of the maenads and satyrs dancing with defeated Indians is an Egyptian invention current on textiles only, and the Basel Amazon tunic is the only example known to me linking the motif of the Dionysiac dancers with the war against the Amazons, thus pointing to a personal choice of its original owner. (2) – The second point to be discussed are the Egyptian literary sources on Amazon and Indian wars. There are three extensive narratives, which must be mentioned briefly. The most interesting, for our context, is the story of the Egyptian prince Petekhons and Serpot, queen of the land of women which seems to be somewhere in Syria or Mesopotamia. It is written down in late Egyptian Demotic on papyri of about 200 CE (Hoffmann/Quack 2007: 107–117). Unfortunately, the text is very fragmentary. We understand that prince Petekhons is leading his army against the ‹land of the women› in order to conquer it. Queen Serpot comes out to meet him in single combat. They fight all day long with equal power, finishing by falling in love with each other and becoming allies. After a lacuna in the papyrus, the Indians come into play, invading the land of the women, though they are finally defeated by Petekhons and Serpot. – The motif of the single combat of the protagonists is clearly reminiscent of the Greek tradition of Achilles and Penthesilea, queen of the Amazons, who was killed by the hero. (The motif can be seen on a number of tunic decorations of the 5th century CE, for example a shoulder piece in the Basel collection, III 17064). However, the story of Petekhons relates a very Egyptian way of pragmatically solving the problem of defeating two aggressive foreign peoples, the one with the aid of the other, and getting them to pay tribute. The dénouement of Serpot and Petekhons is corroborated by the above-mentioned Diodorus of Sicily, writing, in his ‹Greek World History›, about the Amazon queen Myrina who was a great conqueror. After invading Egypt she met king Hor, son of Isis, and she concluded a treaty of friendship with him (III 55, 4). The second literary work pertaining to Amazons and Indians is the Alexander Romance. I refer to the Greek version of Pseudo-Callisthenes, possibly written in Late Antique Alexandria, describing the life of Alexander the Great (van Thiel 1974). At the beginning, the

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author demonstrates his Egyptian perspective by declaring Alexander the Great to be the son of the last Egyptian Pharaoh, Nectanebo. To the eyes of Alexander, whose greatest deed was the conquest of India, the Indians are black, inhuman barbarians who must be defeated in order to be included in his worldwide system of vassals paying tribute to him. This is also true for the Amazons whom he meets on his way back from India. There is no need of fighting, in their case, since they agree a deal obligating them to send him 500 riders to join his cavalry for a year (3, 25, 4 – 26, 7). Alexander has also an encounter with the black reigning queen Candace who is somehow related to the Amazons, but is not called thus herself. She beats Alexander, not with a weapon, but with her superior brains (3, 18, 1 – 23, 7). The third literary work, the epic ‹Dionysiaca›, created by Nonnos of Panopolis in the early th 5 century, is an extensive biography of Dionysos. The demigod’s most meritorious deed is his campaign to India, bringing the light of culture to the Indians whose souls are as dark as their skin, even if he does it through the intoxicating effect of wine. The poet only touches upon the triumphant entry of the god into the Amazons’ place when coming back from India riding on the back of an elephant (XXVI 329–332). There is no question of fighting these women. The only exception is a single men-murdering Amazon named Nikaia whom Dionysos tames by raping her after having made her drunk (XV 169–422, XVI). Nonnos is well aware that the wine is an ambiguous weapon, although it is the only means by which men can be liberated of self-destructive warfare and the lack of joy (VII 1–105). (3) – Our third point concerns actual or historical reality which may be hidden behind myth and legend about Amazons and Indians. On the textile pictures of the late 4th, 5th or 6th centuries, features of actual reality appear, as mentioned above. In the Amazon scenes, the Greek fighters appear in the outfit of Roman legionaries, while the Amazons wear soldier boots and (possibly) a metal helmet current among Near Eastern peoples. The Indians are clad in what may be called their national costume, the dhoti. In Late Antiquity, India and Indians were a well known reality because of the continuous commercial exchange with the Mediterranean world. The sea-route from the Red Sea to the western coast of India was relatively fast and safe, since in the Roman Imperial Period the Monsoon navigation had been dramatically improved. Upper Egypt has, moreover, a direct link with India, for the trading routes connecting the Nile Valley with the Red Sea harbours start there; according to recent excavations, the port of Berenike was active in the Indian trade in the 4th to 6th centuries. Representations of fighting Amazons must have been inspired by real experiences with women fighting or commanding troops, and we presume that, in Late Antiquity, these experiences must have been very different from those of archaic or classical Greece. Roman historiography (Tacitus, Plutarch, Dio Cassius), deeply disapproving of women interfering with military matters, sometimes speak of feminin rulers leading troops, or of fighting women, although this mostly happens among foreign, barbarian peoples in the subjugated provinces of the Roman Empire. As concerns Roman women, some cases are discussed of

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senatorial women, even of empresses, who followed their husband on missions in the provinces, commanding troops there, or, in a singular case, actively taking part in a massacre (Langford 2013: 24–47). Sources are very rare concerning lower-class women who must have lived in the military camps (Langford 2013: 24), and without doubt been involved, sometimes, in fighting. An Egyptian source of the 7th century, the chronicle of John Bishop of Nikiu (LVI, 10–16) relates that, in Early Roman cavalry, a number of armed female riders could be included when on campaign, in order to prevent the soldiers from raping women wherever they stopped. In Late Antique Upper Egypt, educated men including the merchants were concerned with a problematic group of black barbarians, the Blemmyes, a nomadic people from Nubia who used to invade and plunder the Oases and the cities in the Nile Valley, threatening to seriously interrupt the sea trade from India and the flow of crops from Egypt to Rome, and thus they were fought by the Roman Prefects and Dukes of Egypt, from the 1st to the 6th centuries. Interestingly, Nonnos of Panopolis, in his ‹Dionysiaca› (XVII 385–397) declares the black Blemmyes are the descendants of the black Indian General Blemys and his troops: Blemys, originally an ally of the King of India, surrendered to Dionysos and was sent to Aethiopia and Meroe, by the god, in order to settle there. Another episode from the history of the Blemmyes is told by Procopios of Caesarea, relating that Diocletian constructed, on the island of Philae, a fortress containing ‹altars for the Romans and these barbarians in common›, served by priests of both nations, hoping to further their friendship. The Egyptian poet Nonnos may have remembered this unconventional episode when writing about the defeated Indians dancing with the followers of Dionysos, as mentioned above. In Late Antiquity, Lower Nubia was not only the homeland of the aggressive nominal Indians, the Blemmyes, but also of a series of Amazon-like Queens, the Candaces, who either reigned independently, or at the side of their husbands, in the Kingdom of Meroe. Strabo recounts famous conflicts, on the military and diplomatic field, between the reigning Candace and the governors or prefects of Egypt at the time of Augustus (Snowden 1970: 131–134). Moreover, there are monumental representations of Candaces smiting their enemies, on the pylon façades of their temples or tombs, on Meroitic territory, from the 1st to the 3rd centuries – the most impressive example remaining Amanitore’s temple at Naga. (4) – The fourth point of the present discussion is the question of the social context of the picture tunics, and the actuality and message of their images. In fact, there are very few cases of documented tombs with richly decorated tunics, (none containing mythological scenes), the tomb fields all having been excavated or rather looted more than one hundred years ago, which means that there is virtually no archaeological information available. The Middle Egyptian Nile Valley from the Delta to the Thebaid is large and fertile. Economic texts speak of olive trees, palms, vineyards, cereals and commerce as the main sources of

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prosperity, alongside the sea-trade with India, Arabia, and the East African coast through the Red Sea. Tunics with elaborate figure compositions can be identified as belonging to upper class inhabitants of flourishing Middle Egyptian cities of the late 4th, 5th and 6th centuries CE, such as Antinooupolis, when Egypt was a province of the Eastern Roman/Byzantine empire. In Egypt, there are no pictorial or written sources on clothing articles with picture decorations. Alternatively, we can recognize virtually the same type on the 4th century mosaics of the imperial villa at Piazza Armerina on Sicily. Picture tunics must have been worn on occasions requiring a demonstration of social standard. They were exceedingly prized and laid down in a burial only when completely worn out. In all, there is a relatively small number of picture tunics extant with only dark blue figural scenes on the decorative fields. All of them are characterized by an extraordinary theme, or at least by a surprising variant or combination of themes, and an individual design which can only be due to the personal interest of the man who ordered the piece at the weaving workshop. One of the most striking examples is the so-called Tykhai tunic of the Basel collection (III 2210 and III 2320) (Müller 2009: 175– 179), showing the personifications of three Middle Egyptian Provinces with mural crowns – clearly an allusion to political conditions of the time. In Egypt, Classical mythology or allegory always belonged to the sphere of Weltanschauung and ethics, not of religion. Mythological images were helpful as models of an ethical conduct of life, made attractive by the entertaining aspect of the pictures. This is what we can learn from the poems of Dioscorus of Aphrodito, a cultivated lawyer of the 6th century writing Greek panegyrics (Mac Coull 1988). Dioscorus is, moreover, an important source for social and economic conditions of his time, for he was closely acquainted with Byzantine high officials administering the Middle Egyptian provinces. In his poems, he describes two major problems threatening to ruin the urban upper class: the corruption of the Byzantine administration and the raids of the wild nomads from the South, the above-mentioned Blemmyes. This brings us back to the Basel tunic fragments with the fighting Amazons and the dancing Indian captives. In the Late Antique Egyptian mythological literature cited above, a link can be found between the two wild Middle Eastern peoples. In the ‹Alexander Romance›, the black reigning queen Candace’s sons are, the elder, the son-in-law of the Indian King, the younger initiated into the Amazons’ mystery-cult, while in Nonnos’ ‹Dionysiaca›, the Indian ancestor of the Blemmyes settles at Meroe, the city of the Candaces. Owners of picture tunics are well acquainted with the archaic idea of the uncivilized peoples of the Indians and Amazons at the eastern borders of the world. Additionally, they know the well-civilized contemporaneous Indian trading partners who do not fit into this picture any more. That is why the role of the uncivilized wild people is transferred to the black Blemmyes on the southern and eastern borders of the Nile Valley. Moreover, the impressive monuments and inscriptions of the black Candaces of Meroe, mythical as well as

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real ‹Amazon› queens, are well known. Their image is, however, ambiguous, for as civilized as they may be, they still transgress the limits deemed natural for women. Thus, mythical time and actual time begin to blend. Tunics representing mythical events may include, by double connotation, allusions to contemporaneous conditions of life.

Bibliography Gayet, A., 1902. Annales du Musée Guimet 30 (2), Paris. Hoffmann, F./Quack, J., 2007. Anthologie der demotischen Literatur, Berlin. Langford, J., 2013. Maternal Megalomania. Julia Domna and the Imperial Politics of Motherhood, Baltimore. LIMC. H.-C. Ackermann/J.-R. Gisler (eds.), Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae. Zurich/ Munich. Mac Coull, L., 1988. Dioscorus of Aphrodito, Berkeley. Müller, M., 2009. The Egyptian textiles of the Museum of Cultures, Basel, and the ‘Tykhai Tunic’ fragments. A. De Moor/C. Fluck (eds), Clothing the house. Furnishing textiles of the 1st millennium AD from Egypt, Proceedings of the 5th conference of the research group ‘Textiles from the Nile Valley’ Antwerp 6–7 October 2007, Tielt, Belgium. Simpson, W.K., 1987. A Table of Offerings, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Snowden, F.M., 1970. Blacks in Antiquity, Cambridge (Mass.). Van Lohuizen-de Leeuw, J., 1994. Indische Skulpturen der Sammlung Eduard von der Heydt, Museum Rietberg. Zürich. Van Thiel, H., 1974. Leben und Taten Alexanders von Makedonien. Der griechische Alexanderroman nach der Handschrift L, Darmstadt.

Maya Müller, Independent researcher, Basel.

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Proceedings, 9 th ICAANE, Basel 2014, Vol. 2, 87–102

Giulia Tucci

Egyptian Royal Statues and Stelae from Late Bronze Public Buildings in the Southern Levant The aim of this paper is to redefine the inventory of Pharaonic statues along with private and royal stelae in some Southern Levantine case studies, in order to shed a new light on the character of the presence and exploitation achieved by the New Kingdom during the Late Bronze Age.

1. Royal Names and Egyptian Propaganda in Southern Levant Egyptian and Egyptian-style luxury items are commonly found in Late Bronze Age sites of the Southern Levant. Beyond the commercial and diplomatic activities that brought these items far from their original set, it is possible to examine the aims of Egypt to spread its culture and ideology in the conquered territories. A similar purpose can be individuated behind the erection of royal stelae and statues in visible locations. A variety of other types of Egyptian items bearing royal names were found scattered throughout the Levant.1 Thutmosis III, Amenhotep III and IV, Ramesses I, Seti I, Ramesses II, Merneptah, Ramesses III and IV, are attested in the Levantine area (fig. 1).2 A different function for private stelae found in cultic or funerary contexts can be hypothesized: the willing of the Egyptian administrative personnel living abroad of affirming their origins and reviving their traditions, thus creating a stronger cultural link with the Levantine area.

1 2

For major discoveries in Syria, Lebanon and Jordan see tab. 1. Also queens were attested in Southern Levant. The name of Hatshepsut appeared in Tell el-‘Ajjul (Petrie 1932: pl.VIII no.117), while queen Tawsert’s was attested in Sidon, on a faience bowl dedicated in a sanctuary (Doumet-Serhal 2011: 78); a parallel for this bowl comes from the Late Bronze Age sanctuary of Deir ‘Alla, Jordan (Franken 1961: 365).

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Fig. 1. General map showing sites mentioned in the text.

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2. Historical Framework The Southern Levant had a special bond with the Pharaonic reign since the Protodynastic and Old Kingdom Periods, connecting Egypt to northern or inland countries of the ancient Near East such as Syria and Mesopotamia. Both political and trade connections are attested. During the Middle Kingdom Pharaohs intermittently turned their attention to the Levantine cities, as it appears in the Execration Texts (Posener 1940). Nonetheless, these interactions produced diplomatic exchanges of luxury items between the members of royal courts.3 At the beginning of the New Kingdom, Pharaohs started a series of military campaigns to conquer Levantine territories permanently (Liverani 1988; Redford 1992), but the duration of the Egyptian dominion over Levant is still under discussion.4 During the Late Bronze Age the control of the territory was achieved through the creation of functional areas: limited areas under a direct Egyptian control, usually territories of economic and productive interests as coastal plains and harbors; small local reigns linked to Pharaohs by an oath of allegiance and through a taxation/tribute collected once a year by the Egyptian army; border areas, where Pharaohs operated just in case of rebellions. Actually, economic advantages reaped by Egypt from a permanent occupation in the Southern Levant were limited. It was rather the geographic position of the region to guarantee a control over the main trading routes, as the Horus Way and the Via Maris, along with the coastal plain and the Kings’s Highway.

3

4

Egyptian items inscribed with Middle Kingdom royal names have been found throughout the Levant. Noteworthy, the objects coming from the Royal Cemetery of Byblos bear the name of Amenemhet III and Amenemhet IV. For a full discussion of Tomb I–IV see Montet 1928: 155–204; the name of Amenemhet III is attested on sphinxs from Ugarit and Hazor, while Amenemhet IV is attested on another example found in Beyrouth (Dunand 1928: 300). The time during which these items reached Levant is still to be detected. Though the sites of Timna’ and Serabit el-Kadim are not analyzed here, they do have an important influence connected to this statement. In fact, the last royal name attested in Timna’ was that of Ramesses VI (Rothemberg 1972), and in Serabit el-Khadim that of Ramesses V (Giveon 1977; but see also Weinstein 1981: 23). For an analysis based on scarabs see Brandl 2004: 57–71.

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Fig. 2. Egyptian Statue found in Area A, locus 274 unstratified (A/6201/1, Yadin et al. 1961: pl. CCCXXIII, 4–5).

3. Case Studies 3.1. Hazor: a Difficult Challenge The finds from the acropolis, examined along with textual sources, provide interesting information about the long-lasting relationship between the city and Egypt. During the Late Bronze Age a sort of independence was maintained by the city, as outlined by the el-Amarna correspondence.5 Hazor’s ruler referred to himself as the «king of Hazor», although the city was namely under the Egyptian influence, being included into the List of Thutmosis III in the temple of Amon Ra at Karnak and Amenhotep II (Simons 1937; Aharoni 1979: 166). Within the monumental public building in Area A, whose function is still under discussion (Zuckerman 2010 contra Bonfil/Zarzecki-Peleg 2007), two Egyptian statues were found in the so-called «Throne hall» (fig. 2). 5

The dossier can be read in EA 148, 227, 228, 364 (Liverani 1998).

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One of them, preserved just in part of the pillar placed behind the head, certainly belonged to a Pharaoh. The other one is preserved on the bust, exhibiting the same signs of intentional mutilations appearing in two other statues recovered in the «Solomonic fill» of the Iron Age citadel gate, with a fragment of a possible third example. This rich assemblage is dated by comparisons to the Middle Kingdom. North to this area, an Egyptian sphinx bearing the cartouche of Amenemhet III was found re-employed in an Iron Age wall (Ben-Tor 2006). The statues likely reached the city before the building of their final destination6, and were considered as prestigious icons kept on exhibit in this ceremonial building, though not having the function to symbolize a Pharaoh’s direct emanation. Using such an ornamentation the local governor showed the capability to relate with a powerful counterpart and the role of the city in the political scenario. When this palatine ideology came to an end, the statues were ritually defunctionalized and hidden.

3.2. Tel Chinneret/Tell el-‘Oreime: a City on the Western Shore of the Galilean Sea The site was a small city settled from the Early Bronze Age to Iron Age II. Even though the Late Bronze Age strata yielded few fragmentary architectural remains and scattered sherds of Cypriot and Mycenaean pottery, a fragment of a basalt stela dated to the New Kingdom was found reused as a door socket in a later context (fig. 3) (Albright/Rowe 1928: 281). The inscription on it mentions an episode referring to Mitanni, in terms used only after the eighth year of the reign of Thutmosis III. The purpose of the erection of this stela, if in the original context, thus may be related to the conquests of this Pharaoh, the city itself being mentioned in the List of cities conquered and in the Papyrus of Hermitage 1116A (Lichtheim 1980).

3.3. Megiddo: a Prominent Egyptian Headquarter in the Jezreel Valley The city is mentioned in the Annals of Thutmosis III, and the victory of the Pharaoh also in the Jebel Barkal stela (Redford 2003: 206).7 6

7

These statues probably reached the site during the Middle Bronze Age or Hyksos period, such as the fragment of the Menkaure sphinx discovered during recent excavations, reused in the entrance of the Late Bronze Age palace within the 13th century destruction layer. Another Egyptian Middle Bronze Age artifact is represented by a private funerary stela discovered in the rubble filling of the Israelite city in Area B. This stela, crafted in Nubian sandstone, bears an offering formula common during the Middle Kingdom, but less during the New Kingdom. The god Ptah-Sokar-Osiris receives prayers and is asked to pray and protect the deceased. The retrieval of this stela might indicate the existence of an Egyptian tomb in the area of Hazor during the Middle Bronze Age, but, as in the case of the Menkaure sphinx, it could have been brought later to the city (Goldwasser 1989: 344–345). The city is also mentioned in one of the Tannach letters, in the description of the Second Asiatic campaing of Amenhotep II and in a letter in the el-Amarna archives. The city appears then in the list of Seti I as well as in the Papyrus Hermitage 1116A.

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Fig. 3. Fragment of basalt stele from Tel Chinnereth, 27 x 18 cm (Albright/Rowe 1928: 36 fig. 1).

Fig. 4. Rectangular bronze pedestal from Megiddo. Rockfeller Museum, Jerusalem (Photo by the author).

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Fig. 5. Statue of Ramesses VI depicted in the tomb chapel of an Egyptian deputy in Lower Nubia after Lepsius, Denkmaeler aus Aegypten und Aethiopien III, 230 (Breasted 1948: 136 fig. 373).

In Area CC, locus 1832, a small rectangular bronze pedestal was found (fig. 4). This pedestal shows two holes to fix the feet of a small statue of Ramesses VI (Loud 1948: 156).8 An attempt to contextualise this item was made by comparison with the depiction of a similar statuette in a Nubian tomb (fig. 5). The statuette represented in the tomb is clearly housed in a temple, thus a suitable context for this items could be the sanctuary of Megiddo in Area BB (Breasted 1948: 135).

8

Although Loud wrote that the statue was «deliberately buried and therefore intrusive», Gonen assumed that this was part of an hidden treasure (Gonen 1987: 96).

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3.4. Beth Shean: an Egyptian Garrison Beth Shean always benefited from its strategic position at the conjunction of the road along the Jordan Valley and the one passing through the Jezreel Valley. Thus the city was resettled as an Egyptian garrison during the last phase of the Late Bronze Age and the beginning of Iron Age, although different textual sources attested a durable Egyptian control.9 Beth Shean is the most extensively excavated Egyptian garrison of the New Kingdom found in the Levant, yielding the largest collection of Egyptian monuments and inscriptions ever found in the Asiatic provinces of Egypt. Although Beth Shean was a stronghold also during the 18th Dynasty, the city was established as an Egyptian outpost in the beginning of the 19th Dynasty, with an increase of evidence dated to this and the subsequent dynasties. The transition between Levels IX and VIII pointed out a remarkable change in the townplan (Mazar 2011: 156). This new town is contemporary to the reign of Seti I, who erected two monumental stelae. They were found within the Northern Temple, reused in the building reconstructions. The stela dated to the first year of reign of the Pharaoh was found reused in Lower Level V, locus 1016; the other royal stela was found in two fragments, one discovered in Lower Level V, locus 1010, and the other found reused in a Byzantine context (Level II). In Lower Level V, locus 1016, there was even the royal stele of Ramesses II, likely ascribed to Level VII (Rowe 1930; James/McGovern 1993; Mullins 2012). The most prominent monument in Lower Level V, though ascribed to Level VI, outside the Northern Temple, is the statue of Ramesses III: the statue is a reuse of a former Middle Kingdom statue on which local artisans reproduced the features of the new king (fig. 6) (Higginbotham 2000: 233). The original provenience of the royal stelae found reused in the Temple, could be either the temple itself, or rather, the area of the Egyptian residence erected in the site: the same consideration could be proposed for the above mentioned royal statue of Ramesses III. Beth Shean being an Egyptian garrison needed administrative personnel, and their presence can be detected in different private stelae found in the Southern Temple, the so-called Mekal Temple. The name of this sanctuary was given by the excavators for the discovery of the main fragment of the Mekal Stele, dated to the 19th Dynasty.

9

The city appears in Egyptian sources since the Middle Kingdom, being mentioned in the Execration Texts. During the New Kingdom, it was mentioned in the List of cities of Thutmosis III, in the topographical list of Seti I at Qurnah and in the one of Ramesses II, as well as in the Papyrus Anastasi I. It appears just once in the el-Amarna correspondence (EA 289).

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Fig. 6. Seated statue of Ramesses III from Beth Shean (after Schroer 2011: Kat. 644; photo by the author).

The monument bears the depiction of Ramesses-User-Kepesh, possibly an Egyptian governor of the city during the 19th Dynasty, represented in front of the God Mekal, a syncretism of an Egyptian and a local deity (Thompson 1970). This kind of stela featuring a dignitary or high official in front of a deity is quite common in the Levant and the best parallel is constituted by the «Stele of Mamy», discovered in the area of the temple of Baal and Dagan at Ugarit/Ras Shamra and dated to the same period (Yon 1991: 321 fig.8).

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From the main sanctuaries of Beth Shean came other examples of this kind of private stelae originated in Levels VII–VI, but reused in Level V; they are all dedicated to a goddess, Ashtoret or Antit, depicting a worshipper bearing Egyptian name and attributes (Rowe 1930; Mullins 2012). This evidence shows that the city of Beth Shean hosted an Egyptian population, also attested by the large amount of Egyptian and Egyptian-style pottery and daily-life items retrieved in the residential quarter. Numerous burial caves contemporary to the city of Levels VII and VI, have been excavated in the Northern cemeteries of the site. These caves were probably dug during the Middle Bronze Age and were reused when the anthropoid coffins were placed in them. The limestone fragment of a funerary stela found reused in lower Level V, locus 1522, and dated to the New Kingdom, might come from this area (Ward 1966: 170).

3.5. Ashdod and Tel Mor The original context of a fragment of a royal feminine statue came to light 2.5 km far from Ashdod and is still matter of discussion. The statue represents a royal feminine figure wearing a long sleeve dress and some jewels (fig. 7). Just part of the hand, arm and bust are preserved. In her hand she grasps an enrolled cloth with the formula «Ramesses beloved of Amon», and on her wrist she holds a wide bracelet inscribed with the royal title «Ramesses, powerful of victories», usually associated with Ramesses II, although the first signs of the formula are not readable. If we assume that the statue represents a feminine figure, certainly royal, the first word could be interpreted as «wife» (Schulman 1993: 113). The original contexts proposed for the statue were alternatively the city of Ashdod itself or the harbor of the city, Tel Mor, even more important than the city of Ashdod for the presence of a Residence or Citadel. The discovery of architectural fragments inscribed with the names of Egyptian officers from the residence of Stratum XIII (Late Bronze Age II) at Ashdod, supports a strong Egyptian presence at the site during the Ramesside period and assuming that the figure represented one of Ramesses II’s wifes, this would let us infer some interesting conclusions on the political status of Ashdod at the end of Late Bronze Age (Dothan 1993; Schulman 1993: 111). If this was a royal statue, the suitable context for the abovementioned is Strata XIII–XIIIb, perhaps the city sanctuary, not yet excavated. On the other hand, the Residence discovered at Tel Mor in Strata VIII–VII (Late Bronze II), could be classified as an Egyptian-style administrative building in which the excavators found quantities of Egyptian-style pottery, witnessing a strong presence of Egyptian people

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Fig. 7. Fragments of «Ramesside Queen» statue (Schulman 1993: pl. 53).

in this strategic site.10 This building could represent another plausible original context for the statue.

3.6. Deir el-Balah: an Egyptian Outpost along the Via Maris The city of strata IX to IV was organized around the main structures of the Egyptian Residence, which became the Commander’s House of stratum VII, contemporary to Ramesses II. Different Egyptian and Egyptian-style objects were found in the cemetery and in the settlement itself, attesting the presence an Egyptian population, maybe employed as administrative personnel.11 Five Egyptian funerary stelae, dated to the Ramesside period and retrieved from the cemetery, point to this situation (Dothan 2008: 155). These items show a classical rectangular form, but with a triangular or rounded edge that substituted the usual markers over the burials, since no superstructures were found in the cemetery (fig. 8). They varied in height 10 Tel Mor was excavated between 1959 and 1960 by Moshe Dothan and the results have been recently

published by Barako 2007. For the preliminary publications see Dothan 1959, 1960 and 1973.

11 The absence of royal Egyptian items could be related to the proximity of the site of Gaza, capital

of Canaan province, that might have held both representative and ceremonial functions (Pritchard 1969: 260–261; Weinstein 1981: 19).

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Fig. 8. Funerary stela from Deir el-Balah (H. 67,5; W. 30; T. 7 cm). Israel Museum, Jerusalem (Photo by the author). Fig. 9. Amphibolite statue of Ramesses III from Byblos (Dunand 1958: CLVII:13658).

from 38 to 63 cm and were all more or less 25 cm wide and 7 cm thick; all had incised hieroglyphics and depictions of the adoration of Osiris (Ventura 1987). The find circumstances do not allow to associate any of them to a specific coffin.

4. Conclusions In the Southern Levant Egyptian royal monuments related to the 19th and 20th Dynasties are much more present than those of the 18th Dynasty: this clearly testifies to different patterns of administration. From the 19th Dynasty, Egyptian rule is expressed by means of a more direct/physical control on the territory displayed by the erection of various residencies as seats of governors. The main discovery contexts of royal finds were on one hand the areas of Egyptian residencies where governors lived, being more likely a direct emanation of the central power; on the other hand the city-temples, where Pharaohs dedicated their own royal images to local deities, in order to include religious cult in their propagandistic system.

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Description Syria

Lebanon

Tell Nebi Mend (Kadesh)

Upper part of a stela of Seti I (Brandl 2000: 120–121)

Al Kiswah

Lower part of a stela dated to Ramesses II (Kitchen 1999)

Byblos

Two large fragments of a stela dated to Year 4 of Ramesses II (Montet 1928: 48–49, pl. 34) Fragmentary amphibolite statue attributed to Ramesses III (Dunand 1950: CLVII:13658) (fig. 9)

Nahr el-Kelb

Three rock-stelae dated to Ramesses II (Weissbach 1922: 17–22)

Tyr

Two fragments of a stela erected by Seti I (Chehab 1969: 32; Loffet 2004: 28) Fragments of two stelae dated to Ramesses II (Chehab 1969: 33; Loffet 1999)

Jordan*

Sheik Sa’id

Complete stela, almost illegible, attributed to Ramesses II (Giveon 1965)

Tell esh-Shihab

Upper part of a stela dated to Seti I (Smith 1901: 347–349)

At-Turra

Lower part of a stela dated to Ramesses II (Wimmer 2002)

* Noteworthy, from the east bank of Jordan came two other stelae. The best preserved is the Balua’s Stela, a basalt stela with a peculiar representation of figures wearing Egyptian-style dresses. The date and the origin of this retrievement is yet under discussion (Ward/Martin 1964: pl.3). Another stela in Egyptian-style is the one found in the site of Shihan (Bienkowky 1992: pl. 34).

Table 1. Major discoveries in Syria, Lebanon and Syria.

Private monuments, usually stelae placed in cultic areas, probably belonged to the Egyptian staff involved in administrative activities: the presence of Egyptian people in these Asiatic territories is the proof that Levantine outposts were in some way perceived and ruled as part of Egypt itself. The study of the Egyptian finds along with textual sources outline the manifold extent through which Southern Levantine sites were organized in a system of hierarchy. The general picture highlights cities characterized by an administrative function revealed by a Residence, as in Beth Shean, where the Egyptian microcosm is repeated with its propaganda mechanism; and on the other hand cities maintaining a semi-autonomous status, as we have seen in Hazor and Byblos, influenced but basically referring to another cultural ascendance.

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Bibliography Aharoni, Y., 1979. The Land of the Bible: a historical Geography. Philadelphia/Westminster. Albright, W. F./Rowe, A., 1928. A royal stele of the New Empire from Galilee. Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 14, 281–287. Barako, T. J., 2007. Tel Mor: the Moshe Dothan Excavations, 1959–1960. IAA Reports 32. Jerusalem. Ben-Tor, A., 2006. The sad Fate of the Statues and the mutilated Statues of Hazor. S. Gitin et al. (eds.), Confronting the past. Archeological and Historical Essays in Ancient Israel in honor of William G. Dever. Winona Lake, 3–16. Bienkowski, P. (ed.), 1992. Early Edom and Moab: The beginning of the Iron Age in Southern Jordan. Sheffield. Bonfil, R./Zarzecki-Peleg, A., 2007. The Palace in the Upper City of Hazor as an Expression of a Syrian Architectural Paradigm. Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 348, 25–47. Brandl, B., 2000. The Monuments of Seti I. Leiden-Boston. –

2004. Scarabs and Plaques bearing Royal Names of the Early 20th Egyptian Dynasty excavated in Canaan – from Sethnakht to Ramesses IV. M. Bietak/E. Czerny (eds.), Scarabs of the Second Millennium B.C. from Egypt, Nubia, Crete and the Levant. Contributions to the Chronology of the Eastern Mediterranean VIII. Wien, 57–71.

Breasted, J., 1948. Bronze Base Statue of Ramesses VI discovered at Megiddo. G. Loud (ed.), Megiddo II. Chicago, 135–138. Chéhab, M., 1969. Noms de personalités égyptiennes découvertes au Liban. Bulletin du Musée de Beyrouth 22, 1–47. Dothan, M., 1959. Tel Mor (Tell Kheidar). Israel Exploration Journal 9, 271–272. –

1960. Tel Mor (Tell Kheidar). Israel Exploration Journal 10, 123–125.

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1973. The foundation of Tel Mor and Tel Ashdod. Israel Exploration Journal 23, 1–17.

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1993. Ashdod V Excavations in Area G, the Fourth–Sixth Seasons of Excavations 1968–1970. ‘Atiqot 23. Jerusalem.

Dothan, T., 2008. Deir el-Balah. Uncovering an Egyptian Outpost in Canaan from the time of the Exodus. Jerusalem. Doumet-Serhal, C., 2011. Sidon, une ville célèbre de la côte levantine. Archéothéma 15, 74–79. Dunand, M. R., 1928. Les Égyptiens à Beyrouth. Syria 9, 300–302. –

1950. Fouilles de Byblos, 1933–1939, Tome II Atlas. Paris.

Franken, H. J., 1961. The Excavations at DeirʼAlla in Jordan: 2nd season. Vetus Testamentum 11, 361–372. Goldwasser, O., 1989. Egyptian finds. Y. Yadin et al. (eds.), Hazor III–IV An account of the Third and Fourth Seasons of Exacations 1957–1958. Jerusalem, 339–345.

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Giveon, R., 1965. Two Egyptian Documents Concerning Bashan from the time of Ramses II. Rivista degli Studi Orientali 40, 197–202. –

1977. Egyptian Finger Rings and Seals from South Gaza. Tel Aviv 4, 66–70.

Gonen, R., 1987. Megiddo in the Late Bronze Age – Another reassessment. Levant 19, 83–100. Higginbotham, C., 2000. Egyptianization and Elite Emulation in Ramesside period. Leiden/Boston. James, F./McGovern, P. E., 1993. The Late Bronze Age Egyptian Garrison of Beth Shean. A study of Levels VII and VI. Philadelphia. Kamlah, J. (ed.), 2010. Temple Building and Temple Cult: Architecture and Cultic Paraphernalia of Temples in the Levant (2nd–1st Millennia BCE). Wiesbaden. Kitchen, K. A., 1999. Notes on a Stela of Ramesses II from near Damascus. Göttinger Miszellen 173, 133–138. Lichtheim, M., 1980. Ancient Egyptian Literature, Vol. I. Los Angeles. Liverani, M., 1988. Antico Oriente: storia, società, economia. Roma. –

1999. Le lettere di el-Amarna. Brescia.

Loffet, H. C., 1999. La stèle de Ramsès II en provenance de Tyr. National Museum News (Beirut), Spring 1999, 2–5. –

2004. La stèle de Ramsès II en provenance de Tyr. C. Doumet-Serhal (ed.), Decade. A decade of history and archaeology in Lebanon. Beirut, 28–37.

Loud, G., 1948. Megiddo II. Chicago. Mazar, A., 2011. The Egyptian Garrison town at Beth Shean. S. Bar et al. (eds.), Egypt, Canaan and Israel. History, Imperialism, Ideology and Literature. Proceedings of a Conference at the University of Haifa, 3–7 May 2009. Leiden, 155–189. Montet, P., 1928. Byblos et l’Egypte. Paris. Mullins, R. A., 2012. The Late Bronze and Iron Age Temples at Beth Shean. Kamlah 2010: 127–157. Petrie, W. F. M., 1932. Ancient Gaza II – Tell el Ajjul. London. Posener, G., 1940. Princes et Pays d’Asie et de Nubie, Textes hiératiques sur des figurines d’envôutement du Moyen Empire. Bruxelles. Pritchard, J. B., 1969. Ancient Near Eastern Texts related to the Old Testament (3rd edition). Princeton. Redford, D. B., 1992. Egypt, Canaan and Israel in ancient times. Princeton. –

2003. The wars in Syria and Palestine of Thutmosis III. Leiden.

Rothemberg, B., 1972. Timna: Valley of the Biblical Copper Mines. London. Rowe, A., 1930. The History and Topography of Beth Shean I. Philadelphia. Schroer, S., 2011. Die Ikonographie Palästinas/Israels und der Alte Orient. Eine Religionsgeschichte in Bildern, III. Die Spätbronzezeit. Fribourg. Schulman, A. R., 1993. A Ramesside Queen from Ashdod. M. Dothan et al. (eds.), Ashdod V Excavations in Area G, the Fourth–Sixth Seasons of Excavations 1968–1970. ‘Atiqot 23. Jerusalem, 111–114. Simons, J. J., 1937. Egyptian Topographical Lists Relating to Western Asia. Leiden.

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Smith, G. A., 1901. Notes of a Journey through Hauran, with Inscriptions found by the way. Palestine Exploration Fund, Quarterly Statement 1901, 340–361. Thompson, H. O., 1970. Mekal, the God of Beth Shean. Leiden. Ventura, R., 1987. Four Egyptian Funerary Stelae from Deir el-Balah. Israel Exploration Journal 37, 105–115. Ward, W. A., 1966. The Egyptian Inscriptions of Level VI. F. W. James (ed.), The Iron Age at Beth Shean. A study of Levels VI–IV. Philadelphia, 161–179. Ward, W. A./Martin, F. M., 1964. The Balu’a Stele: A new transcription with Paleographical and Historical Notes. Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan 8–9, 5–29. Weinstein, J. M., 1981. The Egyptian Empire in Palestine: a Reassessment. Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 241, 1–28. Weissbach, F. H., 1922. Die Denkmäler und Inschriften an der Mündung des Nahr el-Kelb. Wissenschaftliche Veröffentlichungen des deutsch-türkischen DenkmalschutzKommandos 6. Berlin-Leipzig. Wimmer, S. J., 2002. A new stela of Ramesses II in Jordan in the context of Egyptian Royal Stelae in the Levant. Paper presented at the 3rd International Congress of Archaeology of Ancient Near East, Paris. http://epub.ub.uni-muenchen.de/14236/1/wimmer_14236.pdf. Yon, M., 1991. Stèles de pierre. M. Yon (ed.), Arts et industries de la pierre. Ras Shamra–Ougarit VI. Paris, 273–328. Zuckerman, S., 2010. The Temples of Canaanite Hazor. Kamlah 2010: 99–125.

Giulia Tucci, «Sapienza» University of Rome.

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Section

Ancient Near Eastern Traditions vs. Hellenization/Romanization

Organised and edited by

Bruno Jacobs University of Basel

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Proceedings, 9 th ICAANE, Basel 2014, Vol. 2, 105–117

Bruno Jacobs

Introduction: Ancient Near Eastern Traditions vs. Hellenization/Romanization The subject of Panel 3 was the interplay of ancient Near Eastern traditions and processes of Hellenization and Romanization, yet within the framework of the political entities that developed in the Near East between the 6th cent. BC and the 7th cent. AD.1 The focus could therefore be on those great empires themselves that, during this timespan, ruled wider parts of this area, i.e. the empires of the Persian Achaemenids and Sasanians, the Macedonian Seleucids and the Parthian Arsacids. But also those states could take center stage that ruled considerably smaller territories, like the Ptolemaic Empire, the Greco-Bactrian kingdom, the Maurya-Empire, the Pontic kingdom, Armenia, the Nabataean Empire and many others. Especially the larger empires furthered and safeguarded long-distance traffic, trade and communication within their borders and thus supported wide-ranging processes of exchange. They promoted the flow of goods and the transfer of knowledge in the widest sense, but they also created competitive conditions, that is to say, that they gave rise to a desire to quote, to imitate, and, if possible, to emulate or to set oneself apart. The cultural contacts, which materialized in the course of those processes of exchange, could involve architecture and sculpture, formats of devices, craft skills, court ceremony and the selfrepresentation of elites, nutritional habits and table manners, as well as virtually any other aspect of everyday culture. In a recent article Christoph Ulf made the attempt to classify cultural contacts in terms of their nature. He differentiated with respect to the circumstances of contact between Open and Closed Contact Zones and highlighted the use of instruments of power or their renouncement as determining general set-up of cultural contacts (Ulf 2009).

1

The author is very grateful to Wouter F. M. Henkelman for his assistance with the English version of this chapter.

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The Achaemenid, Seleucid, Arsacid and Sasanian empires integrated entirely different territories in their administrative frameworks, but characteristically did so, ideologically as well as culturally, without applying hardly any pressure on their subjects (Osterhammel 1989: 69–85; Gehler/Rollinger 2014: pass., esp. 7). Theoretical considerations of this kind more recently led to the insight that for the dissemination and intensity of cultural influence of any kind the attitudes and roles of the recipients are far more influential than hitherto assumed. Michael Sommer has aptly argued that it was the elites of subdued regions who were the foremost group to strive for assimilation or approximation, aiming at switching from the party of the loosers to that of the victors. And he continues: «Thus the initiative of assimilation emanates from ‹below›, almost never from ‹above›, because empires exert, at least in cultural matters, an astonishing degree of ›structural tolerance‹», here using a dictum of Jürgen Osterhammel (Sommer 2005: 146). In this light also the processes named Hellenization and Romanization and their interrelations with local traditions are to be observed. So if one were to state the essential focus of this panel, it would be cultural receptivity. The testimonies, which could be adduced in this context, are legion. It is, however, architecture and large-scale representational art which mostly serve as exempla for analysing acculturation processes of this kind. This path will be followed in the remainder of this introduction. In the time span from the 6th pre-Christian to the 7th post-Christian century, the extent of the area in which Greek art exerted fascination within the Ancient Near East varied considerably. From Cyrus the Great’s conquest of the Lydian empire and the western coast of Asia Minor soon after the middle of the 6th century onwards the Achaemenids had the artistic traditions and possibilities of the area, but also the technical means for their physical realization in Persia at their disposal. The way the Persians handled this new potential has, however, often been completely misjudged, notably in the field of architecture and large-scale representational art. As a consequence, Achaemenid art has been portrayed as a kind of provincial Greek art. An example of this tendency is Heinz Luschey’s analysis of the Bisotun monument, created around 520 BC under Darius I (fig. 1–2). He conceded on the one hand that the relief incorporated Elamite, Babylonian, Egyptian, Syrian and Lydian elements, but at the same time he judged the Greek influence to have been that high that he even considered the name of Theodorus of Samos as that of the spritus rector of the representation (Luschey 1968: 86, 88). Already in the 1970s the picture markedly changed, and the understanding of Achaemenid court art became established as a complex, eclectic process of adaptation. Margaret Cool Root drafted a stemma which aimed to show all those numerous factors which contributed to the final appearance of the monument (Root 1979: 222–226 Fig. 19). Even though one would now introduce some minor changes to it, the stemma (p. 108) as such remains convincing.

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Fig. 1. Bisotun relief: Darius (photo Jacobs DSC_0267). Fig. 2. Delphi, Museum: Athena from the West frieze of Siphnian Treasury (de la Coste-Messelière 1957: Pl. 70).

Just to be clear: The eclecticism which affected the development of Achaemenid court architecture took advantage of many sources, among which Greek achievements were only a part, albeit an important one – one may think of chiseling and stone shifting techniques, individual architectural forms and stilistic elements, to mention just a few (cf. in this context Nylander 1970; Boardman 2000). Once it was created and had, under Darius, reached maturity, Achaemenid court art itself could function as a prototype for architectural and decorative programs in the provinces. In this respect, however, its impact has been similarly overrated as formerly its dependency from Greek influence and the idea of «structural tolerance» neglected. Doubtlessly there are recourses on Achaemenid architecture – I only mention the residences which have been

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Stemma. Factors which contributed to the final appearance of the Bisotun monument (Root 1979: fig. 19).

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Fig. 3. Persepolis, Apadana, eastern stairway: Delegation 9 (Walser 1966: Taf. 16).

Fig. 4. London, British Museum, B 896: Gift bearers from the top frieze of the Nereid Monument from Xanthos (Hanfmann 1975: Fig. 66).

detected in past decades in the Caucasus region, for example at Gumbati and Karačamirli2 – as well as on iconography and topics of the court art, of which here audience and gift bearer scenes may be quoted (fig. 3–4; Jacobs 1987: 45–48 Pl. 6–8). But in general, it was not active impact of the center that seems to have been the decisive factor for adoption, but the choice of the local principal (Jacobs 2014a). This becomes obvious when looking at the fact that the residences of the Achaemenid empire are the easternmost places at which large-scale pictorial art came into being at all during this epoch. Otherwise it developed only in areas which already had a centuries – if not millennia – old tradition of this kind (fig. 5). Thus, the existence of a local tradition of pictorial art was crucial for its existence in the Persian period, be it in Babylonia, Elam or 2

On the archaeology of the Caucasus region in general see Knauss 2005; esp. on Karačamirli see recently Knauß et al.2013.

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Fig. 5. Provinces of the Achaemenid Empire which generated large-scale representational art (configuration by B. Jacobs, based on a map in Nagel 1982: Beil. VI).

Egypt. Obviously the same holds true for the provinces bordering the Mediterranean and the Black Sea, in which Greek influence was very intense, not at least due to the fact that many Greeks were living there. Wide areas of the empire, however, remained void of large-scale pictorial art (Jacobs 2014b: 93f. fig. 16). How the communicative possibilities offered by Greek art were utilized in the individual provinces on the western periphery of the Achaemenid empire always depended on the intentions of the respective initiator and on the social environment in which he wanted to make himself understood. As a result decorative programs of completely Greek character occur besides others which show a marked local coloring. The treatment of Greek elements of style, iconography and subject matter, their adaptation here and their modification and reinterpretation there are in need of further intensive investigation. Due to the shift of power caused by the campaign of Alexander the Great, towards the end of the 4th cent. BC the connection between local traditions and Greek influence changed massively. Even up to the Indus region and beyond, population groups now emerged that took pictorial art as a means of communication and self-representations for granted; one may think of the substantial Greek groups in Bactria, Arachosia or at Taxila in the Panğāb

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Fig. 6. Aşğabat, Museum: Head from Square Hall at Nisa (photo Jacobs DSC_0179).

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Fig. 7. Tang-i Sarvak III: Rock relief showing a rider in combat (von Gall 2000: 335 Abb. 15).

(on Taxila: Tarn 1951: 137, 179). It was no longer the existence or absence of local traditions that was crucial for the production of large-scale pictorial art, but the desire of the local elites for self-representation. They picked up the possibilities, provided by Greek art, according to their needs and at completely diverging points in time. Sometimes they adopted the Greek formal language unchanged as, for example, at the Parthian residence of Nisa soon after the middle of the 2nd cent. BC (fig. 6; Invernizzi 1994; Invernizzi 2011: 194–198); sometimes Greek elements were received and adapted to form new local traditions of style. For this last aspect one may think of the comparably short-living floruit of large-scale sculpture in Commagene during the 2nd third of the 1st cent. BC (Jacobs 2014b: 96, 99f., 101). The respective local stylistic readings of sculpture from Palmyra and Mathurā makes them easily discernable even for non-specialists. The similarity of works of art apparently coincides with political conditions and borders. This is altogether true for those works, which are frequently subsumed under the misleading term of «Parthian art». During Arsacid times sculpture is initiated and shaped within various political entities. Thus, for example, in the desert cities of Dura, Hatra and Palmyra

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Fig. 8 Fīrūzābād I: Rock relief showing the later king Šāpūr I in a mounted fight (photo Jacobs).

comparable, but nevertheless clearly distinguishable corpora of sculpture came into being (Hauser 2014; Jacobs 2014: 95–103). The border of the Parthian empire, of which, by the way, Palmyra never was a part, is of importance only in view to the fact that it limited Roman influence. This influence clearly asserts itself at Palmyra and, after the Roman conquest, at Dura, i.a. by the foundation of a Mithraeum. At Hatra, however, it can hardly be felt. A good example for cultural receptivity as a decisive factor is provided in the east, far beyond the limits of the territory hitherto considered. For a long time it was believed that the genesis of stone architecture in Mauryan India, normally associated with the reign of Aśoka, was initiated by craftsmen, who, after the conquest of the Persian empire, had lost their workplaces in the great residences, especially Persepolis, and found new employment at the court of Aśoka. So the creation of this monumental architecture was ascribed to the impact of Achaemenid Persia. But already chronologically the assumed dependence is impossible, since the downfall of the Persian empire at about 330 BC and the evolvement of stone architecture under Aśoka around 250 BC are separated by at least 80 years. In addition the sources show us that people at the Ganges were at the time actually quite well-informed about the realms further to the west. They knew about the Hellenistic monarchies and knew their rulers by name, and they were well aware of what those regions could offer them. Thus Bindusâra, the father of Aśoka, asked Seleukos I to send him grape juice, dried figs and a

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Fig. 9. Naqsh-e Rostam: Achaemenid and Sasanian rock reliefs (Gignoux 1993: 33 Fig. 9).

sophist, as is reported by Athenaeus (Athen. XIV 652f). By analogy, they would have been able to hark back to Greek and several other sources of inspiration for raising the aforementioned representative monuments (see Jacobs i. p. for a synoptic overview). In the 220s AD another important political upheaval took place in the Ancient Near East: The Arsacids were displaced by the Persian Sasanians. In contrast to the Arsacids, the Sasanians again created a court art of their own. This showed certain parallels to Achaemenid court art: territorial limitation, restraint to a few picture themes, preference of reliefs over sculpture in the round, etc. Certainly all this was not caused by an orientation of the Sasanians toward their Achaemenid predecessors, the more as, with certainty, no mediating role can be ascribed to the Arsacids. Rather it were local traditions which had stayed alive in the home country of the dynasty that to a certain extent informed Sasanian art. One may point to the reliefs of Tang-e Sarvak (von Gall 2000), which anticipate important parts of the Sasanian thematic repertory

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(fig. 7–8). Yet, however similarities between Achaemenid and Sasanian court art may be explained, a marked difference becomes obvious if one observes the reliefs which were left by both dynasties at Naqsh-e Rostam (fig. 9). Even if one has to keep in mind that the actual ground level is some meters above the ancient one, it catches the eye that the Achaemenid rock reliefs are placed in a height far removed from the observer, making the reliefs only vaguely discernible and the inscriptions certainly unreadable. The Sasanian reliefs, by contrast, present themselves to the visitor from short distance, are well visible, and even the inscriptions added to them may have been readible from that distance. The difference is probably caused by the completely diverging communicative role of the picture works, mediated in Hellenistic times and playing an important role for the neighbouring Roman empire. Whereas, the focus of Achaemenid reliefs had been on their performative character and the communication primarily aimed at the dynastic successors and, ideally, the gods (Jacobs 2010: 109–111), the Sasanian reliefs turned to a broader audience. As before, they were preferably located near water places and courses, but they were not only intended to impress in a general way, but decidedly addressed passers-by halting to quench their thirst. The panel is designed to shed light on more aspects of the interplay of Ancient Near Eastern traditions with Hellenistic and Roman influences in the Sasanian and all other epochs briefly touched in this introduction.

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Bibliography Boardman, J., 2000. Persia and the West – An Archaeological Investigation of the Genesis of Achaemenid Art. London. De la Coste-Messelière, P., 1957. Delphes. Paris. Gehler, M./Rollinger, R., 2014. Imperien und Reiche in der Weltgeschichte – Epochenübergreifende und globalhistorische Vergleiche. M. Gehler/R. Rollinger (eds.), Imperien und Reiche in der Weltgeschichte – Epochenübergreifende und globalhistorische Vergleiche – I. Imperien des Altertums, Mittelalterliche und frühneuzeitliche Imperien. Wiesbaden, 1–32. Gignoux, Ph., 1993. Socio-kulturele inleiding. Hofkunst van de Sassanieden – Het Perzische rijk tussen Rome en China [224–642], 12 februari tot 25 april 1993, Brussel, 31–44 Hanfmann, G. M. A., From Croesus to Constantine – The Cities of Western Asia Minor and their Arts in Greek and Roman Times. Ann Arbor. Hauser, St. R., 2014. ›Parthian Art‹ or ›Arts in the Arsacid Empire‹: Hatra and Palmyra as nodal points for cultural interaction. B. Jacobs (ed.), »Parthische Kunst« – Kunst im Partherreich. Akten des Internationalen Kolloquiums in Basel, 9. Oktober 2010. Duisburg, 127–178. Invernizzi, A., 1994. Die hellenistischen Grundlagen der frühparthischen Kunst, Archaeologische Mitteilungen aus Iran 27, 191–203. –

2011. Parthian Art – Arsacid Art. Topoi – Orient–Occident 17, 189–207.

Jacobs, B., 1987. Griechische und persische Elemente in der Grabkunst Lykiens zur Zeit der Achämenidenherrschaft. Studies in Mediterranean Archaeology 78. Jonsered. –

2010. Herrschaftsideologie und Herrschaftsdarstellung bei den Achämeniden. G. B. Lanfranchi/ R. Rollinger (eds.), Concepts of Kingship in Antiquity. Proceedings of the European Science Foundation Exploratory Workshop Held in Padova, November 28th – December 1st, 2007, History of the Ancient Near East/Monographs XI. Padova, 107–113.

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2014a. Bildkunst als Zeugnis für Orientierung und Konsens innerhalb des Eliten des westlichen Achämenidenreichs. R. Rollinger/K. Schnegg (eds.), Kulturkontakte in antiken Welten: Vom Denkmodell zum Fallbeispiel. Proceedings des internationalen Kolloquiums aus Anlass des 60. Geburtstages von Christoph Ulf, Innsbruck, 26. bis 30. Januar 2009. Colloquia Antiqua 10, 343– 368.

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2014b. Repräsentative Bildkunst im Partherreich. B. Jacobs (ed.), »Parthische Kunst« – Kunst im Partherreich. Akten des Internationalen Kolloquiums in Basel, 9. Oktober 2010. Duisburg, 77–126.

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i. p. Megasthenes’ Beschreibung von Palibothra und die Anfänge der Steinarchitektur unter der Maurya-Dynastie. J. Wiesehöfer (ed.), Megasthenes – Akten des 5. Internationalen Kolloquiums zum Thema „Vorderasien im Spannungsfeld klassischer und altorientalischer Überlieferungen“, Kiel, Classica et Orientalia 11. Wiesbaden (i. p.).

Knauss, F. S., 2005. Caucasus. P. Briant/R. Boucharlat (eds.), L’archéologie de l’empire achéménide: nouvelles recherches – Actes du colloque organisé au Collège de France, 21–22 novembre 2003. Persika 6. Paris, 197–220. Knauß, F. S./Gagošidse, I./Babaev, I., 2013. Karačamirli: Ein persisches Paradies. ARTA 2013.004. Luschey, H., 1968. Studien zu dem Darius-Relief in Bisutun. Archaeologische Mitteilungen aus Iran – Neue Folge 1, 63–94. Nagel, W., 1982. Ninus und Semiramis in Sage und Geschichte – Iranische Staaten und Reiternomaden vor Darius. Berliner Beiträge zur Vor- und Frühgeschichte, Neue Folge 2. Berlin. Nylander, C., 1970. Ionians in Pasargadae: Studies in Old Persian Architecture. Uppsala Studies in Ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern Civilizations 1. Uppsala. Osterhammel, J., 1989. China und die Weltgesellschaft. München. Root, M. C., 1979. The King and Kingship in Achaemenid Art – Essays on the Creation of an Iconography of Empire. Acta Iranica 19. Leiden. Sommer, M., 2005. Die Phönizier – Handelsherren zwischen Orient und Okzident. Kröners Taschenausgabe Band 454. Stuttgart. Tarn, W. W., 1952. The Greeks in Bactria & India. 2Cambridge. Ulf, Chr., 2009. Rethinking Cultural Contacts, Ancient West and East 8, 81–132. von Gall, H., 2000. Das parthische Felsheiligtum von Tang-i Sarwak. Archäologische Mitteilungen aus Iran und Turan 32, 319–359. Walser, G., 1966. Die Völkerschaften auf den Reliefs von Persepolis – Historische Studien über den sogenannten Tributzug an der Apadanatreppe. Teheraner Forschungen 2. Berlin.

Bruno Jacobs, University of Basel.

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Proceedings, 9 th ICAANE, Basel 2014, Vol. 2, 119–132

Gaëlle Coqueugniot

Ancient Near-Eastern Traditions and Greco-Roman Culture in the Agora of Europos-Doura (Syria) Europos-Doura was a small regional centre in the Middle-Euphrates between the 2nd century B.C.E. and 256 C.E. This paper focuses on the site’s agora, with its registration office, bathhouse, and shops. New fieldwork has focussed on the architecture, plan, and evolution in the organization and use of the square. The site of Europos-Doura lies on a plateau overlooking the right bank of the Euphrates River.1 While the city remained a regional centre of modest importance, very different from the metropolises of Palmyra, Seleucia on the Tigris or Hatra, its well-preserved remains have shed exceptional light on the daily life of the Seleucid, Parthian and Roman East.

1. A Multicultural Settlement in the Greco-Roman East 1.1. History of Europos-Doura In the last years of the 4th century B.C.E., the Seleucids established a military settlement at this strategic stronghold, on the road between the two newly founded capitals of the kingdom, Antioch on the Orontes and Seleucia in the Tigris (Leriche/Coqueugniot 2011). There is little left of this first settlement, limited to the citadel and the interior wadi. The expansion of the settlement in the plateau, following a systematic orthogonal plan typical from the Hellenistic foundations, only occurred in a second phase of development, when the

1

The site has been called Dura-Europos in most publications until a few years ago, when the FrancoSyrian Expedition at the site established the present name of Europos-Doura, thought to better reflect the chronology of its official name: Europos in Parapotamia under the Seleucid and Parthian eras, Dura from the early 3rd century C.E.

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Fig. 1. Map of Europos-Doura (© Mission franco-Syrienne d’Europos-Doura).

military foundation developed into a full size community in the middle of the 2nd century B.C.E. (fig. 1). The new settlement, protected by massive walls of ashlar gypsum blocks, was still in construction when the region was conquered by the Parthians around 113 B.C.E. (Gaslain 2012). It is only under the rule of the Arsacid kings, in the 1st century B.C.E. and the 1st century C.E., that the plateau was progressively built up following the urban scheme established before the town’s conquest. The new agglomeration was populated with new indigenous residents along the descendants of the original Macedonian settlers, creating a

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Fig. 2. Market Street from the East, during its excavation in the 1930s (courtesy Yale University Art Gallery).

multicultural environment and an original culture at the crossroad of Greco-Macedonian and Mesopotamian traditions. During this period, Europos seems to have assumed control over a large territory on both banks of the Euphrates. The central power relied mostly on local notables that exerted the administration hereditarily and collected taxes for the King (Arnaud 1986). In 165, the city was conquered by the armies of Lucius Verus and remained under Roman rule until its siege by Shapur I and the following abandonment of the city around 256.

1.2. Discovery and Exploration of the Site The ancient site was then forgotten until its rediscovery by British soldiers in 1920 and its large-scale exploration by the French Academy of Letters under the supervision of Franz Cumont between 1921 and 1923, and by a joint expedition from Yale University and the French Academy of Letters under the supervision of Michail Rostovtzeff from 1929 to 1937 (Hopkins 1979). Working four to six months a year with an average of 400 workers and heavy infrastructure such as Descauville railways to evacuate the dirt to nearby ravines (fig. 2), the latter uncovered more than a fourth of the city’s surface and thousands of artefacts. The joint expedition of the French Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique and the Directorate of Antiquities and Museums of Syria (1986–2011), under the direction of P. Leriche and Y. Alabdullah, has mainly proceeded to a new thorough study and restoration of the previously excavated buildings and the opening of strategically located new trenches (Leriche 2012).

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1.3. A Cosmopolitan Material Culture Its location at the crossroad of civilisations, its continuous occupation from the middle of the 2nd century B.C.E. to the middle of the 3rd century C.E., and its modest size make Europos-Doura a perfect case-study for the formation and development of the multicultural, Hellenistic culture in the ancient Near East. The main difficulty we are confronted with when studying the weight of the different influences on the art and material culture of Europos is that the bulk of data at our disposition comes from the extensive excavations of the 1930s. Consequently, the available evidence is somewhat biased, as only complete or «interesting» artefacts were collected and catalogued. 2 Moreover, these artefacts are mostly coming from the upper occupation levels, the sudden abandonment of the city in the middle of the 3rd century leaving an almost complete assemblage of furniture and equipment. As in many sites, it is also to this last phase that most of the architectural remains belonged; the Parthian and Hellenistic constructions and circulation levels were destroyed or buried under the later phases, except in a few areas where the excavators decided to take methodically apart the last floorings and to dig down to the virgin soil. Despite these limitations, Europos’ remains have revealed a multicultural material culture, associating artefacts of various origins and influences.

2. The Agora of Europos-Doura: a Multicultural City-Centre 2.1. Exploration and Study of the Agora The agora of the city occupied eight city blocks (G1 to G8, fig. 1), immediately North of Main Street. It was a major, centrally located area in the orthogonal colonial urban plan that developed in the plateau during the 2nd century B.C.E. This central area was, however, not among the first sectors excavated in the 1920s, despite the surface irregularities already recognised at that time. Clearing of the area began in fall 1931 and led to the discovery of the colonnaded «Market Street» (fig. 2), the Roman market, and a public registration office in block G3. Most of the excavation was carried out in 1933 and in 1935–1937 by Frank Brown.3 Overall, the Yale-French Academy Expedition cleared almost two-thirds of the eight-block area, uncovering one public office and dozens of shops and dwellings (fig. 3). A first presentation of the remains was published in the preliminary report of the fifth 2 3

See for example the recontextualization of domestic artefacts in Roman housing (Baird 2014: chapter 1). Frank Brown became field director of the Expedition in 1936–1937. In 1945, he briefly assumed the position of General Director of the Syrian Antiquities, before moving back to the American School at Rome and Yale University.

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Fig. 3. Map of the agora. In grey, the original Hellenistic blocks (after a map courtesy Yale University Art Gallery).

season (Hopkins 1934), and, mostly, in one volume of the preliminary reports of the ninth season (Rostovtzeff/Brown 1944). With one complete volume dedicated to its exploration, the agora has often been considered one of the best published sectors of the site. This publication remains, however, very superficial. Descriptions of the different rooms are very brief, and the architecture is completely separated from the artifacts found in the area. In 2005, I resumed fieldwork in the agora for the Mission franco-syrienne d’EuroposDoura (Coqueugniot 2011). My aim was to clarify and complete Brown’s presentation of the public square, in light of new methods of investigation and recent discoveries in other sites in the Greco-Roman Near East and in the site itself. The agora of Europos is one of the few public squares securely identified and explored in the Hellenized Near East, with the Hellenistic square at Seleucia on the Tigris in Iraq and the Roman squares of Palmyra and

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Apamea in Syria. It is also the only identified public square in the region whose life span encompassed half a millennium, and three successive rules: the Seleucids, the Parthians and the Romans. With this renewed study, I consequently aim at a better understanding of the impact of Greek culture in the Greco-Macedonian colonies founded in the East, and how it was perceived by the cosmopolitan population of these settlements, both when the area was still under Seleucid rule and during the centuries following the integration of Europos into the Parthian empire and, later on, the Roman empire. My study on the agora is based on two complementary sets of data: the actual remains in the field on one hand, the data collected in the 1930s on the other hand. The archive of the 1930s excavations includes several thousands of photographs, plans and drawings, as well as notebooks and letters recording daily finds. On the field, my work was twofold. A first part consisted in the cleaning and architectural study of remains that had first been uncovered in the 1930s. During the fifty-years long abandonment between Yale’s investigations and the new Franco-Syrian expedition, the ruins further deteriorated under the combined action of rain and wind. Through careful cleaning, it was often possible to recover some structures – or, at least, their foundations – that had completely disappeared since they were described or photographed in the 1930s, and to complete the architectural study of the buildings by using new methods of investigations and comparison with other buildings from the same period. A second aspect of our fieldwork was the opening of new trenches in selected areas. The aim was to establish stratigraphic relations between the different walls and the open spaces.

2.2. The Agora in the Hippodamian Urbanism of Hellenistic Europos The agora was located in the centre of the new settlement, established during the 2nd century B.C.E. in the plateau. This settlement is built following a regular grid of 100 rectangular blocks, approximately 35 m. wide by 70 m. long and orientated north-south (fig. 1). It is considered as one of the most perfect examples of the Hellenistic colonial city (Martin 1956: 165–174), following the urban precepts of Hippodamos of Miletus popularised in the late 4th century B.C.E. by Aristotle (Politics 1267b22-30). As such, Europos primarily appears as a Hellenistic city in the East, organised according to Greek principles of urbanism. The existence of an agora and its location in the exact centre of the grid-plan seem to confirm this first impression. This central district is delimited by four streets, all wider than the other streets of the Hellenistic grid: Main Street in the south, Street 4 in the north, Street D in the west and Street H in the east. While the district does indeed occupy the equivalent of eight complete blocks, the constructions do not, however, follow the ordinary arrangement of rectangular blocks oriented North-South. The original plan of the sector, as reconstructed by Brown in the late 1930s, includes two distinct parts (fig. 4). The southern half of the agora was an open square, originally clear of all constructions along Main Street, while its northern half part

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Fig. 4. Reconstruction of the Hellenistic agora. The walls still visible are in black, those reconstructed are in grey (drawing G. Coqueugniot after F.E. Brown).

consisted of an enclosed square, lined up with two blocks in the north, providing a double row of double shops or offices, with a symmetrical single row of shops along the east and west sides, and with a blank wall in the south. This reconstruction is based on the discovery of regularly laid out wall-foundations, consisting of a double course of local gypsum ashlar blocks connected with a gypsum mortar called «djuss» and a mixed core of local limestone rubble, mud and potsherds (fig. 5). This stone base, about one to one and half meters high, was topped by masonry of mud bricks, which has now almost completely disappeared. This technique of construction, which belongs to the Seleucid period, has been recognised in several parts of the site: in the agora,

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Fig. 5. Outer wall of Hellenistic block G3 and Parthian wall enclosing the courtyard G3A1 (drawing G. Coqueugniot).

in the citadel, in the strategos’ palace, in the city-walls and in a couple of other buildings in the plateau. Our study has mainly focused on two areas in the agora that have revealed substantial remains from the earliest phases of construction: a small bathhouse in the south-east corner of block G3 and the city’s record-office in the south-west corner of the same block.

2.3. The Hellenistic Bathhouse Room M2 is located in the south-east corner of block G3. In his presentation of the Hellenistic agora, F.E. Brown discussed this room and its paving of baked bricks identified as the oldest in the site (Rostovtzeff/Brown 1944: 17–19). While many bricks had been displaced, some were still in situ around three basins in plaster and terracotta (fig. 6). Fragments of at least three other terracotta tubs were also found in the rubble around the room. These structures are built directly on top of the virgin soil and can be associated with damaged gypsum blocks belonging to the Hellenistic wall. After the room lost its bathing function, it was progressively expanded to the west. A second wall, preserved only in foundation, presents a technique of construction usually assigned to the beginning of the Parthian era, in the 1st century B.C.E. The last walls, probably belonging to the 2nd or 3rd century C.E., are

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Fig. 6. The bathing structures in room G3M2, from the North (photo G. Coqueugniot 2010).

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Fig. 7. The archive room G3A3 in the chreophylakion (courtesy Yale University Art Gallery).

much better preserved. The level of their thresholds, more than a meter and half above the Hellenistic tubs, attests to important transformations in this sector of the agora.

2.4 The Registry-Office Another interesting building in the agora of Europos is building A in the south-west corner of block G3 (Coqueugniot 2012). The importance of this building is multiple. It is one of the sectors of the agora where the first, Hellenistic phase can still be recognised. Moreover, this building has been identified as the chreophylakeion of the city, the office of the chreophylakes. As such, it is the only civic office uncovered in the public square, as well as one of the best preserved (and one of the rare) archival offices identified in the Greco-Roman world. The building consisted of four rooms (A2–A5) in the south-western corner of the Hellenistic block G3, later preceded by a large courtyard A1. The identification of Europos-Doura’s office rests on the exceptional preservation of a mud-brick pigeonhole construction along the walls of archive room A3, where copies of the contracts were kept (fig. 7). Between the niches were well-cut graffiti, including several of an interlaced χ and ρ, the monogram of the chreophylakes. These municipal magistrates were responsible for recording, registering and keeping land contracts, and were consequently closely linked to the Seleucid fiscal administration. They are widely attested in epigraphic texts from Seleucid Asia Minor, as well as on the clay sealings from Hellenistic Uruk and Seleucia on Tigris. The graffiti were series of numbers recording the dates of the contracts kept in the niches (Rostovtzeff/Brown 1944: 169–176). The filing system in Europos’ chreophylakeion is one of the most impressive

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remains of ancient archives, and it has been used to describe or even reconstruct many other record offices in the Greco-Roman world (Coqueugniot 2013: 99–103). In parallel to the cleaning of already known structures, I also opened several trenches in the courtyard A1 and in the public space outside of block G3. The aim was to supply for the lack of stratigraphic data in the 1930s records. These new trenches have led to the discovery of several new architectural structures south of the chreophylakeion.

2.5 Architectural Evolution of the Agora After the initial construction of the 2nd-century B.C.E. agora, its organization seems to have undergone several important modifications, both within the original blocks and in the open square. It is particularly interesting to look at the evolution of the sector through time and its transformation from a large open square lined up with regularly planned shops and public offices to an overcrowded space where commercial and housing units have overtaken most of the previously public square (fig. 3). The modifications are visible in the layout of the blocks, where we find walls from different periods using different techniques of construction, such as the three successive walls of room G3M2 described above. Moreover, the original blocks lining the two public open squares progressively expanded and encroached upon this public space. In the 3rd century C.E., all that remained from the two large open squares was one small irregular square, barely more than a widening of street F, that was encased between highly irregular blocks separated by narrow alleys. This transformation was the result of the progressive appropriation of the open space for private use. The study of the masonries shows clearly this progressive widening of the blocks, by the successive addition of rooms and spaces. For example, the chreophylakeion’s rooms G3A2-A5 belong to the original Hellenistic block, as confirmed by their massive gypsum walls (fig. 5). They were later complemented by the adjunction of courtyard A1 in the south, delimited by a wall built of plaster rubble using the local red limestone. In its final shape, after the expansion of private constructions into the public space, the agora of Roman Dura has been compared several times with the modern oriental markets, the suqs. We can, however, observe a partial re-appropriation of the public space by the authorities during the 3rd century C.E., when several alleys of the agora have been adorned with colonnades. This process of monumentalization is particularly clear in the so-called «market street» (fig. 2), as well as in street H bordering the agora in the east. It has also been recognized in several sections of Main Street (Downey 1997), and can be assimilated to the Romanization of the city centre, after the model of the great colonnades of regional Roman metropolises, such as Palmyra and Apamea.

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2.6. Functions of the Agora In Hellenistic times, the agora of Europos-Dura seems to have functioned as a large market place. The regularity and size of the units opening onto the square point towards their use as shops or workshops, as do the rare artefacts associated with those early levels, fragments of jars, plaster mould, etc. The early excavators also proposed that stalls and other temporary structures were set up in the open square, in a tempting though yet unproved reconstruction (Rostovtzeff/Brown 1944: fig. 11). This mercantile function remained prominent in the later agora. Most of the cramped constructions in the area served commercial, industrial or domestic functions. Beside the obvious shops opening along the streets and alleys of the agora, several dwellings also had detectable mercantile functions, such as bars or entertainment houses. While the economic life of the city was not confined exclusively to the agora – as shops and workshops have also been identified elsewhere in the site –, the area was, nonetheless, the main commercial centre of the settlement, conveniently located at the crossroad of the most frequented circulation axes, Main Street and street H. Most surprisingly, other possible functions seem to be absent from the agora of EuroposDura. So far, the excavations have revealed a striking lack of religious buildings of any sort and only one administrative building has been securely identified: the chreophylakeion.

3. Conclusion: The Central District of Europos-Doura, a Greco-Roman Agora or an Oriental Bazaar? The overall image drawn by the first excavators of the agora is that of a seemingly anarchical appropriation of the open public square by merchants and inhabitants, following an «Oriental» model we can recognise in modern suqs, with their narrow passageways lined with tiny shops and workshops. Even the title of the 1944 preliminary publication of Europos-Doura’s central district emphasised the presupposed evolution of the district from a Greek «agora» in the Hellenistic period to an Oriental «bazaar» (Rostovtzeff/Brown 1944). It is, however, difficult to continue to follow this post-colonial appreciation of the evolution of the Durene public square, where an original Greek model was progressively downgraded into a so-called «Oriental square». Although the Hellenistic agora of Europos-Doura did not include any public, administrative building other than the chreophylakeion, this corresponds to a type of commercial agoras well-known in the great centres of Asia Minor like Ephesos and Miletos. Closer to Europos-Doura, the agora of Seleucia on the Tigris (Iraq) was also lined up with shops and workshops, as well as a massive archive building (Messina 2006, Coqueugniot forthcoming), and could have been the model used for Europos.

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The agora of Europos was progressively built up and became overcrowded with small shops, workshops and dwellings during the Parthian and Roman periods. While this evolution was sometimes considered as a degradation of the Greek model, it is important to remember that encroachment of public squares and even sometimes of major streets occurred in many cities of the Greco-Roman Mediterranean after the 2nd century C.E., not only in the ancient Near East. This is for example the case in Roman Thasos (Greece), where the Street of the Charites’ Sanctuary was greatly reduced by late Roman houses between the agora and the odeon. Overall, the Oriental influences in Europos’ agora can mostly be found in the local techniques of construction used at all periods, and some of the motives in the city’s art and artifacts, while the initial outline of the square and its continuation until the city’s abandonment seem to answer to Greek principles of urbanism later popularised in the East by the Romans.

Bibliography Arnaud, P., 1986. Doura-Europos, microcosme grec ou rouage de l’administration arsacide? Modes de maîtrise du territoire et intégration des notables locaux dans la pratique administrative des rois arsacides. Syria 63, 135–155. Baird, J. A., 2014. The inner lives of ancient houses. An archaeology of Dura-Europos. Oxford. Coqueugniot, G., 2011. The Oriental Agora: the case of Seleucid Europos-Dura, Syria. A. Giannikouri (ed.), The Agora in the Mediterranean from Homeric to Roman Times. Athens, 295–309. –

2012. Le chreophylakeion et l’agora d’Europos-Doura: bilan des recherches, 2004–2008. Leriche

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2013. Archives et bibliothèques du monde grec. Edifices et organisation. Ve siècle avant notre ère–IIe

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Forthcoming. The Hellenistic Public Square in Europos in Parapotamia and Seleucia on the Tigris

et al. 2012, 93–110. siècle de notre ère. British Archaeological Reports – International Series 2536. Archeopress. Oxford. During Parthian and Roman Times. S. Chandrasekaran et al. (eds.), Continuity and Destruction in Alexander’s East. Oxford. Downey, S., 1997. The transformation of Seleucid Dura-Europos. E. Fentress (ed.). Romanization and the City. Journal of Roman Archaeology suppl. 38. Portsmouth/Rhodes Island, 155–172. Gaslain, J., 2012. Quelques remarques sur la politique impériale des Parthes arsacides et la prise d’EuroposDoura. Leriche 2012, 255–265. Hopkins, C., 1934. The market-place. M.I. Rostovtzeff (ed.), The excavations at Dura-Europos. Preliminary Reports. Fifth Season, 1931–1932. New Haven, 73–97. –

1979. The Discovery of Doura-Europos. New Haven.

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Leriche P., 2012. Europos-Doura. Bilan des travaux de la Mission franco-syrienne (1986–2001). Leriche et al. 2012, 11–45. Leriche, P./Coqueugniot, G., 2011. New research by the French-Syrian Archaeological Expedition to Europos-Dura and New Data on Polytheistic Sanctuaries in Europos-Dura. J.Y. Chi/S. Heath (eds.), Edge of Empires: Pagans, Jews, and Christians at Roman Dura-Europos. Princeton, 15–38. Leriche, P./Coqueugniot, G./Pontbriand, S. de (eds.), 2012. Europos-Doura Varia I. Bibliothèque archéologique et historique 198. Beirut. Martin, R., 1956. L’urbanisme dans la Grèce antique. Paris. Messina, V., 2006. Seleucia al Tigri: l’edificio degli archivi: lo scavo e le fasi architettoniche. Florence. Rostovtzeff, M.I./Brown, F.E. (eds), 1944. The excavations at Dura-Europos. Preliminary Reports: Ninth Season 1935–1936. 1: The Agora and Bazaar. New Haven.

Gaëlle Coqueugniot, Mission franco-syrienne d’Europos-Doura, AOROC-Paris, University of Exeter.

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Proceedings, 9 th ICAANE, Basel 2014, Vol. 2, 133–139

Pam J. Crabtree – Douglas V. Campana

Animal Bone Remains from the Site of Kınık Höyük, Southern Cappadocia, Turkey: Animal Husbandry and Hunting Practices during the Iron Age, Hellenistic, and Medieval periods The excavations at Kınık Höyük in southern Cappadocia, Turkey, are a joint project of the New York University and the University of Pavia. The animal bone remains recovered from Late Iron Age, Hellenistic, and medieval features excavated during 2011–12 allow us to trace changes in animal husbandry, hunting practices, and human diet through time.

Introduction Kınık Höyük is a multi-period (Iron Age, Hellenistic, and Medieval) site located in southern Cappadocia, Turkey. The site lies along a major trade route from northern Anatolia and Europe to Mesopotamia and the Levant. A multi-year project of archaeological and environmental survey was carried out in the region before excavation began at Kınık Höyük in 2011 (d’Alfonso 2010; d’Alfonso/Mora 2012). The excavations are being carried out under the direction of Professor Lorenzo d’Alfonso of New York University. The project is a joint mission of the University of Pavia (Italy) and the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World at New York University (USA). Kınık Höyük was the center of the Tuwana polity that developed in the aftermath of the collapse of the Hittite Empire, and it continued to be occupied during the later Iron Age, Achaemenid, Hellenistic, and medieval eras. One of the main goals of the excavation project is to understand the relationship between environmental changes in the region and changes in animal use and agricultural technologies. In additional to our own research, the project staff includes experts in geology, environmental studies, and archaeobotany.

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We joined the Kınık Höyük project in the summer of 2013 as archaeozoologists. We spent several weeks at the site in the summer of 2013 working on the animal bone material that had been recovered from the 2011 and 2012 excavation seasons which include materials dating to the Late Iron Age, Hellenistic, and Medieval Periods.

Archaeological Background Archaeological excavation began in Areas A and B on the top of the mound in 2011. Area B produced substantial architectural remains dated to the medieval period. Semicircular and rectangular walls were located just below the surface. These walls were assembled from loose stones derived from earlier periods. The stones were used to construct pit houses, animal enclosures, and/or retaining walls for tents. These structures were built on or cut into the earlier Hellenistic structures on the site. This level also yielded 12th- and 13th-century pottery, dating to the time of Seljuk rule in Anatolia, and it also produced a rich and varied faunal assemblage. The Kınık Höyük Hellenistic material, which dates from c. 330 BCE through the early 1st century BCE, lies directly under the medieval material on the top of the mound. Additional material from the Hellenistic Period was discovered in 2013 in Area D at the base of the mound, but the faunal material from this area has not yet been fully studied. The Hellenistic structures on the top of the mound were built of rounded, but unworked stones with some evidence for mud plastering. As noted above, some of these stones were re-used in the construction of the medieval structures. In addition to the Hellenistic and Medieval material, the 2011–12 excavations yielded substantial Late Iron Age features dated to the 7th–6th centuries BCE.

Materials and Methods The initial animal bone identifications were carried out using standard zooarchaeological techniques. Since the research was conducted in the field lab, we did not have access to a comprehensive comparative collection. We did, however, have access to a number of standard identification manuals (e.g., Schmid 1972; Cohen/Sergeantson 1996) and to our collective experience. We photographed any specimens that we could not identify with confidence. For each animal bone or fragment, we recorded the species, body part, side, portion of the bone, and degree of fragmentation. Higher-order categories, such as sheep/ goat and small artiodactyl («sheep-sized»), were used for the animal bones that could not be identified to species. We also recorded taphonomic information, such as evidence for

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Fig. 1. Animal bones identified from medieval features at Kınık Höyük.

burning, butchery, weathering, or carnivore gnawing. Ageing data for the mammal bones were recorded based on both epiphyseal fusion of the long bones (Silver 1969) and dental eruption and wear on the mandibles and mandibular teeth (Payne 1973; Grant 1982). Bone measurements were recorded following the standards published by von den Driesch (1976). The archaeozoological data were recorded using FAUNA, a specialized data base manager for zooarchaeology that was developed by one of us (Campana 2010). This program records the zooarchaeological data in a standardized format that will allow the data to be published in an international repository once the data analysis has been completed.

The Medieval Faunal Assemblage The animal bones identified from the medieval features were recently published in detail (Crabtree and Campana 2014), but they will be described briefly here (fig. 1). The medieval assemblage is dominated by the remains of sheep (Ovis aries), goats (Capra hircus), and cattle (Bos taurus). Smaller numbers of horses (Equus caballus), donkeys (Equus asinus), camels (Camelus dromedarius), and dogs (Canis familiaris) were also recovered. A striking feature of the medieval assemblage is the very small number of pig (Sus scrofa) remains,

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suggesting that we may be looking at an Islamic faunal assemblage. This is significant since both Muslim and Christian populations were present in the region in the medieval period. While this part of Anatolia was politically controlled by the Seljuk Turks in the 12th and 13th century CE, it was also located near a major Christian pilgrimage route. Hunted mammals are limited to two deer bones, along with a small number of hare (Lepus europaeus) and fox (Vulpes vulpes) bones. These data suggest that hunting played a very minor role in medieval subsistence at Kınık Höyük. Species ratios for the main domestic mammals (cattle sheep/goat, and pig) were based on the number of identified specimens per taxon or NISP (Lyman 2008). Sheep and goats make up 78% of the assemblage, while cattle comprise just over 20% of the faunal sample. The numbers of pigs are negligible (0.2%). Sheep are more numerous than goats. About 70% of the identifiable caprine remains are sheep, while only about 30% are goats. The mammal remains were supplemented by small numbers of domestic and wild birds. The most common domestic birds were chickens (Gallus gallus), followed by smaller numbers of geese (Anser anser) and ducks (Anas platyrhynchos). Evidence for fowling is limited to small numbers of crane (Grus grus) and chukar partridge (Alectoris chukar) bones. A very small number of fish bones were also identified from the medieval features, but these have not yet been identified to species

The Hellenistic Period Faunal Assemblage Only 265 animal bones and fragments could be definitively assigned to the Hellenistic Period. Part of the problem is that some of the Hellenistic foundations were re-used in the medieval period. The assemblage is dominated by sheep and goat, with only a few identified cattle and pig bones (fig. 2).The only other domestic mammal bones are two indeterminate equid (horse or donkey) remains. Domestic bird remains include a few bones of chicken, plus a single bone of a duck, and a single goose-sized fragment. The Hellenistic faunal assemblage is small, and the evidence for hunting is limited. The hunted animals are limited to hare and chukar partridge.

The Late Iron Age Animal Bone Assemblage The second-largest faunal sample came from the Late Iron Age (7th–6th centuries BCE) features. The assemblage was dominated by large domestic mammals including sheep, goats, cattle, and pigs, along with a small number of horse bones (fig. 3). 81.1% of the large domestic mammal (cattle, sheep/goat, and pig) remains were bones of sheep and goats. As is the

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Animal Bone Remains from the site of Kinik Höyük, Southern Cappadocia, Turkey

Fig. 2. Animal bones identified from Hellenistic features at Kınık Höyük.

Fig. 3. Animal bones identified from Late Iron Age features at Kınık Höyük.

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case with the medieval material, the sheep to goat mix is about 70% sheep and 30% goats, a ratio of slightly more than 2-to-1. These data when combined with the archaeobotanical evidence point to a mixed agropastoral economy (Miller et al. 2014). The faunal and archaeobotanical evidence, when taken together, indicate a landscape that was dominated by field and garden crops and that supported herds of sheep, cattle, and goats on pastureland, field stubble, and cultivated fodder. The evidence for hunting during the Late Iron Age is limited to a single deer bone and a small number of bones of hare. Few bird remains were recovered from the Late Iron Age features. The evidence for domestic poultry is limited to a single bone of the domestic chicken, and the evidence for wild birds includes a single bone of chukar partridge and a member of the duck family.

General Observations The faunal remains from the Medieval, Hellenistic, and Late Iron Age features point to an agrarian landscape, with little evidence for hunting. In all three periods, the fauna assemblages are dominated by caprines, followed by cattle, and sheep are consistently more numerous than goats. There only a very few remains of deer, and there is very limited evidence for the use of forest and woodland species.

Ongoing Research and Future Plans During the summer of 2014, we continued our work at Kınık Höyük, focusing on an unusual deposit of Achaemenid (6th through 4th century BCE) faunal material that was recovered from Area A on the top of the mound. We also began work on the animal bone remains and worked bone objects from the nearby site of Çiftlik Tepecik that has yielded archaeological remains from the Aceramic Neolithic, Ceramic Neolithic, and Chalcolithic periods. When the data from Kınık Höyük and Çiftlik Tepecik are combined, we will have a nearly complete sequence of animal hunting practices and hunting patterns from the beginnings of farming in the region to the later Middle Ages.

Acknowledgments Our zooarchaeological work at Kınık Höyük during the 2013 season was supported by a New York University Research Challenge Fund (URCF) grant to Pam Crabtree and Lorenzo d’Alfonso. Our 2014 research at Kınık Höyük and Çiftlik Tepecik was supported by an

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ARIT (American Research Institute in Turkey) grant to Pam Crabtree. We are very grateful for the generous support of our project.

Bibliography Campana, D. V., 2010. FAUNA: Database and Analysis Software for Faunal Analysis. Paper presented at the 2010 meeting of the International Council for Archaeozoology. Paris. Cohen A./Serjeantson, D., 1996. A Manual for the Identification of Bird Bones from Archaeological Sites (2nd edition), London. Crabtree, P. J./Campana, D.V., 2014. Animal use at medieval Kınık Höyük, a 12th–13th century site in Southern Cappadocia, Turkey. S.D. Stull (ed.) From West to East: Current Approaches to Medieval Archaeology, Newcastle upon Tyne, 162–169. D’Alfonso, L., 2010. Geo-archaeological Survey in Northern Tyanitis and Ancient History in Southern Cappadocia. L. D’Alfonso (ed.), Geo-archaeological Activities in Southern Cappadocia. Pavia, 27–52. D’Alfonso, L./Mora, C., 2012. Il progetto ‘Kınık Höyük’: Missione archeologica e ricerche storiche in Cappadocia meridionale (Turchia). Athenaeum 100, 529–546. Grant, A., 1982. The use of tooth wear as a guide to the age of domestic ungulates. B. Wilsonet et al. (ed.), Ageing and Sexing Animal Bones from Archaeological Sites, Oxford, 91–108. Lyman, L., 2008. Quantitative Paleozoology. Cambridge. Miller, N. F./Crabtree, P. J./Campana, D. V./Strohsal, P., 2014. Evidence for Environment and Agropastoral Economy. University of Pennsylvania Museum Ethnobotanical Laboratory Report 56, Philadelphia. Payne, S., 1973. Kill-off patterns in sheep and goats: the mandibles from Aşvan Kale. Anatolian Studies 23, 281–303. Schmid, E., 1972. Atlas of Animal Bones. Amsterdam. Silver, I., 1969. The Ageing of Domestic Animals. D. R. Brothwell/E. S. Higgs (ed.) Science in Archaeology (2nd edition), London, 283–302. Von den Driesch, A., 1976. A Guide to the Measurement of Animal Bones from Archaeological Sites, Cambridge, MA.

Pam J. Crabtree & Douglas V. Campana, Department of Anthropology, Center for the Study of Human Origins, New York University.

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© 2016, Otto Harrassowitz GmbH & Co. KG, Wiesbaden ISBN Print: 978-3-447-10614-6 — ISBN E-Book: 978-3-447-19478-5

Proceedings, 9 th ICAANE, Basel 2014, Vol. 2, 141–149

Carrie Elaine Duncan

Remembered for Giving: Jewish Benefaction in the Roman World This paper explores the phenomenon of Jewish dedicatory inscriptions within the broader context of Greco-Roman euergetism and demonstrates their considerable variation. As a Jewish response to the encounter with Greco-Roman euergetism, Jewish dedicatory inscriptions contributed to that system’s richness and diversity. This study explores the phenomenon of Jewish dedicatory inscriptions within the broader context of Greco-Roman and Semitic epigraphic habits, and had its impetus a book review prepared in 2013 for the Review of Biblical Literature.1 In a 2010 monograph, Susan Sorek made the intriguing assertion that Jewish dedications constitute a unique form of benefaction motivated by the specifically Jewish value of piety termed hesed often translated as kindness, mercy, or, when expressed by God, lovingkindness.2 Reviewing Sorek’s book provided the opportunity not only to examine the data in question – Jewish dedicatory inscriptions – but also to think through some of the broader issues that arise when these inscriptions are used as a lens through which to view encounters between Jewish and GrecoRoman sensibilities. The specific question of whether Jews practiced a unique form of benefaction is but one example of a methodological issue endemic to the study of Judaism and other cultural minorities in their Hellenized and Romanized contexts: should we seek to identify and highlight Jewish difference from Greco-Roman culture or to contextualize Judaism within it? Most would still broadly agree with Martin Hengel’s comment that all Judaism was Hellenistic 1

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Duncan 2013. I would like to thank the organizers and participants of the 9 ICAANE as well as the faculty and graduate students of the Religious Studies Department at the University of Missouri for their valuable feedback on an early draft of this paper. Sorek 2010. The range of meanings covered by hesed, according to Brown-Driver-Briggs, include goodness, kindness, mercy, piety, lovingkindness, as well as deeds that can be characterized by any of these adjectives.

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Judaism and therefore, eventually, Romanized Judaism (Hengel 1969). At the same time, of course, most would refine this axiom to acknowledge that Judaism was not a passive object solely acted upon by hegemonic imperial forces but instead participated in active negotiation of identity and practice, with a variety of outcomes (Schwartz 2009). Despite widespread agreement, however, that Judaism was both ineluctably changed by its encounter with Hellenism and Rome while also actively engaged in shaping that encounter, tension remains between studies that, on the one hand, are grounded upon Judaism’s distinctiveness from the Greco-Roman world and those that begin from the position of Judaism as operating within that world, on the other. This observation is not meant to imply the superiority of one position over the other, but rather that, as frameworks, each will steer a project in a different direction, both in choice of data and in their interpretation.3 Without open acknowledgement of one’s investment in difference or integration as a chosen framework, scholars risk talking at cross-purposes, and muddying, rather than clarifying, our understanding of Jewish dedicatory epigraphy in Palestine. The bulk of this paper interrogates the data on two points: first, whether Jewish dedications are demonstrably consistent in their invocation of hesed as a motivational factor, such that the phenomenon should be construed as broadly «Jewish;» second, whether the piety and expectation of divine recompense integral to the idea of hesed has no parallel among non-Jewish benefaction, such that it should be considered unique. To position myself explicitly, I think the answer to both questions is «no» – contextualization is my instinctive framework. So far as inscriptions can testify to motivation, a contestable point in itself, the data indicate to me that Jews made dedications for many different reasons and piety motivated benefaction for a variety of non-Jewish donors. Jewish inscriptions explicitly articulate several reasons for benefaction, including remembrance, vow fulfillment, and family welfare. Moreover, many non-Jewish inscriptions invoke similar sentiments in similar ways. My framework of choice leads me to see similarities as outweighing differences, but I will conclude by pushing myself beyond the confines of my framework. While the variety of formulations among Jewish dedicatory inscriptions .

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Choice of data set is an example of one way in which a foundational premise of Judaism’s uniqueness from Greco-Roman cultural mores can influence, from the outset, the conclusions of a study. Sorek’s study engages Jewish dedicatory inscriptions from Palestine almost exclusively, commenting only occasionally on comparable data from the Diaspora or from non-Jewish sources. Since epigraphic habits are local, a regional approach to epigraphic trends is, in itself, laudable. In the same way, however, that the continued invocation of «common Judaism» is problematic in that it constructs Jewish normativity primarily from rabbinic sources, Sorek’s use of inscriptions from Palestine to construct a Jewish form of benefaction valorizes one region’s articulation of Judaism over that of others. If Jewish inscriptions from Palestine display a uniquely Jewish form of benefaction, what do Jewish dedicatory inscriptions from elsewhere display? A compromised or adulterated version of Jewish benefaction?

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challenges the idea of hesed as a consistent or broadly Jewish motivation for financial donation, I argue that this diversity is itself what makes Jewish dedicatory epigraphy unique. Jewish inscriptions in Palestine appear to borrow freely from both Greco-Roman and Semitic dedicatory formulas, and it is with these creative and varied adaptations that a unique form of Jewish benefaction emerges and constitutes a Jewish epigraphic response to Greco-Romanism. The main piece of evidence connecting Jewish benefaction to hesed is an Aramaic dedicatory inscription from a synagogue mosaic at Beth She’an, which reads, «Remembered for good all the members of the Holy Congregation who endeavored to repair the holy place and in peace shall they have their blessing. Amen. Great peace, hesed, in peace» (Hüttenmeister/ Reeg 1977: 58–67). This inscription is the only one among the corpora of dedicatory inscriptions from Palestine that contains the word hesed, and significantly it does so only in the benediction. Its placement within the inscription suggests that, like the peace invoked before and after, the hesed in question is of the kind shown by God to Israel rather than the hesed reciprocally exchanged between humans.4 While a desire to receive God’s hesed might conceivably motivate a Jewish donor, the Beth She’an inscription puts greater emphasis on peace than hesed in its benediction.5 I would suggest that a better interpretation of hesed in this inscription is to see it as imploring God’s peace and kindness upon the congregation members who contributed to the synagogue’s repair. While piety might well have motivated the generosity of the Beth She’an donors, a single occurrence of the term hesed in one dedicatory inscription seems insufficient evidence on which to base a uniquely Jewish form of benefaction. This same inscription, however, contains another, more common, formulation that might inform Jewish dedicatory motivations: «remember for good». 40 Jewish dedicatory inscriptions from Palestine begin with this formula, while another eight use the variation «remembered for a blessing». Seeing piety and self-promotion as mutually exclusive sentiments, Sorek suggests that these inscriptions served as memorials to the pious deceased rather than as testimonials to the generous living. Given the ubiquity with which memory is invoked in mortuary formulae, both Jewish and non-Jewish, exploring the possibility that synagogue mosaic inscriptions containing this formula are more akin to funerary inscriptions than to dedicatory inscriptions is warranted. An inscription from Beth Guvrin reads «Remembered for good, Kyrios. Rest upon his soul, the son of Auxentios, who built this column in honor of the synagogue. Peace» 4

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Sorek follows Clark (1993) in differentiating between God’s hesed and that exchanged between people. She suggests that it is human hesed that provides the basis or motivational force for a Jewish benefaction system (Sorek 2010: 183). Moreover, it is the other, human, type of hesed that Sorek sees as motivating Jewish benefaction – the kind of hesed that the Beth She’an inscription does not appear to invoke.

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(Corpus Inscriptionum Judaicarum 1195). This wording makes it clear that Kyrios, son of Auxentios, is deceased and that characterization of this inscription as memorial is justified. A more ambiguous example comes from Kefar Kana and reads, «Remembered for good, Jose son of Tanhum son of Boutah and his sons who make this mosaic. May it be a blessing for them. Amen» (CIJ 987). Sorek suggests that, as it is in the singular, the «remembered for good» formula applies exclusively to Jose, who is deceased (Sorek 2010: 92–93 following Avi-Yonah 1933). His (presumably living) sons received a blessing for their sponsorship of the mosaic. Here, it seems, piety and self-promotion exist side-by-side. A third example, from Ma‛on, reads «Remembered for good the whole congregation who have contributed this mosaic, and furthermore Daisin and Thoma and Judah who donated the sum of two denarii» (Hüttenmeister/Reeg 1977: 302–306). In this case, there is no indication that any of the benefactors in this inscription, either the whole congregation or the three individuals identified by name, is deceased. A conclusion more in keeping with the evidence is that the «remembered for good» formula was equally appropriate for use in dedicatory inscriptions in reference to both living and deceased donors. Many Jewish inscriptions state that the donations they commemorate were done «in fulfillment of a vow», reflecting the dedicant’s having followed through on a promised donation in recognition of God’s intervention on their behalf. The Field O synagogue at Caesarea commemorates the donation of one Iulis who, «having made a vow, had x feet [of mosaic pavement] made» (Corpus Inscriptionum Iudaeae/Palestinae 2 1139). Similar inscriptions appear at the Hammath Tiberias and Sepphoris synagogues, as well as in the Diaspora at sites such as Delos and Apamea. Emphasis on the motivation of vow fulfillment might highlight an additional way in which piety was expressed through Jewish giving. Rules governing Jewish vows are articulated in several places in the Torah, with the common features that vows made to God are voluntary, but once made must be kept (e.g. Num. 30:3 and Deut. 23:24; see Hyman 2009: 231–238). In Genesis 28:20, Jacob is even said to set up a stone to witness his vow, although regrettably the story does not recount that he inscribed it. While vow fulfillment is ubiquitous in Greco-Roman votive inscriptions, as discussed momentarily, the long history of vows and vowing in Jewish tradition contextualizes this formula as an option for expressing both piety and gratitude as motivations for benefaction. A fourth formula that indicates a possible motivation for Jewish giving invokes family interests by indicating that a dedication was made for someone’s welfare. Another inscription from the synagogue at Caesarea reads, «A donation of Theodorus, son of Olympus, for the welfare of his daughter Matrona» (CII/P 2 1143). Children and other family members are frequently invoked as part of the vow fulfillment inscriptions from Apamea, such as that of Eupithis, who «made this place, in fulfillment of a vow, for the welfare of herself and her husband, and her children, and all of her household» (Inscriptiones Judicae Orientis III Syr 64). A chancel column from Ashkelon reads, «For the welfare of Menamos, and Matrona

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his wife, and their son Samoulos» (CIJ 965). Alternately, some families are commemorated as collective donors, and, presumably, would all share in whatever benefit accrued to such action. For example, an inscribed column from Capernaum records that «Herod, son of Monimos, and Justus his son, erected this column together with their children» (CIJ 983). Family interests clearly played a part in Jewish motivations for financial donation and, perhaps more significantly, in the way that such gifts were commemorated. As this brief survey of epigraphic formulae indicates, «Jewish» inscriptions share no uniform or characteristic element beyond the religio-ethnic background of their dedicators. While entreaties of remembrance occur frequently among these inscriptions, vows of fulfillment and appeals for familial welfare are also common. These three formulae appear independently as well as together in various combinations, and while a case could be made for each as an invocation of piety, motivations are multivalent. Moreover, defining a uniquely Jewish system of benefaction by isolating and valorizing some expressions over others stigmatizes as less-than-(uniquely?)-Jewish any Jewish inscriptions that fall outside that definition. Jewish dedications are not demonstrably consistent in their invocation of piety, much less hesed specifically, as an exclusive motivational factor for giving, such that the phenomenon should be construed as broadly «Jewish». In fact, many Jewish inscriptions have parallels in the Greco-Roman corpora, and the similarities call into question not only the uniqueness of Jewish epigraphic formulae, but also piety as a singularly Jewish motivational factor. The arrogation of piety as a motivation for Jewish benefaction exclusively ignores the role of piety in the multifaceted system of reciprocity and exchange endemic to Greco-Roman society. Sorek characterizes Greco-Roman benefaction variously as a system where «individuality was of paramount importance;» «actions rather than motivation or attitude were all that really mattered;» and «the rational behind the donation was to increase the power and prestige of the donor» (Sorek 2010: 151, 152, and 154, respectively). While these statements are likely true in many cases and to some degree, examination of the evidence demonstrates that Greco-Roman benefactors were as polyvalent in their motivations for giving as their Jewish counterparts. Their inscriptions invoke vow fulfillment, the welfare of families and communities, and the desire for remembrance as inspiring financial benefaction.6 Romans routinely made donations in fulfillment of vows to deities, such as that of the Vertuleius family, which reads in part, «Marcus and Publius Vertuleius, sons of Gaius: The vow their father once vowed when in despair about his afflictions, desperate and in fear, has now 6

Anathemata (votive) inscriptions, such as those from the sanctuary of Zeus Larasios in Asia Minor, express devotion to deities for a variety of favors (Budin 2003). Similarly, proskynema inscriptions from Greco-Roman Egypt memorialize the adoration of deities by pilgrims and other visitors to shrines and temples (Bülow-Jacobsen 1997). These examples demonstrate that piety motivated benefaction among a broad range of Greco-Roman donors.

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been discharged through the offering of a tenth at the holy feast; his sons gladly dedicate the gift to Hercules, greatly deserving» (Corpus inscriptionum latinarum I2 1531). At Caesarea, an altar block is inscribed «Victor, in fulfillment of a vow, dedicated and built this to Zeus Dolichenus» (CII/P 2 1134). Similar statements of vow fulfillment are ubiquitous throughout the Greco-Roman Mediterranean. The contractual nature of vows indicates that for each vow fulfillment inscription, divine aid was rendered. The requisitely inscribed thanks must be considered in some part motivated by piety. As the Vertuleius inscription just mentioned indicates, in the Greco-Roman world, benefaction was often a family affair. In her study of civic inscriptions in Hellenistic and early Roman Anatolia, Riet van Bremen (1996) demonstrates that public acknowledgement of patronage served to promote family interests, to which those of the individual were bound and subordinated. Further, Greco-Roman donors made gifts for the welfare of others, as seen on an inscribed bronze plaque from Nemi: «Publilia Turpilia, wife of Gnaeus, on behalf of her son Gnaeus, bestowed this statue on Diana» (CIL I2 42). The collective and/or pious anonymity of «all the members of the Holy Congregation» in the Beth She’an synagogue inscription finds a parallel in two inscribed columns from Picenum, which are dedicated to Juno and Mater Matuta by «the matrons» of the city (CIL I2 378; CIL I2 379). Individuality was not always, as it turns out, paramount to Greco-Roman benefactors: family and community were also important. The invocation of remembrance in Greco-Roman inscriptions is a little more complicated than either vow fulfillment or family welfare, both of which have clear parallels with Jewish benefaction inscriptions. It is interesting that Sorek interprets the «remembered for good» formula, whether rightly or wrongly, as indicative of memorialization, for it is in funerary epigraphy that Greco-Roman inscriptions invoke the idea of remembrance. When Cicero orates in favor of setting up a statue for deceased ambassador Servius Sulpicius, he famously comments, «…the life of the dead is placed in the memory of the living» (The Ninth Philippic, Yonge 1903). Thus, a funerary inscription from Rome reads, «Gaius Hostius Pamphilius, a doctor of medicine, freedman of Gaius, bought this memorial for himself and for Nelpia Hymnis, freedwoman of Marcus; and for all their freedmen and freedwomen and their posterity. This forevermore is our home, this is our farm, this our gardens, this our memorial» (CIL I2 1319). The obvious difference between Jewish and Greco-Roman requests for remembrance is to whom the request is made: Jewish inscriptions call for God’s remembrance, while Greco-Roman inscriptions direct their petitions to family, friends, and passers-by. Is this another case of piety versus (posthumous) self-promotion? Perhaps the intent behind these inscriptions is more similar than it first appears, in two rather different ways. First, both, in their own ways, are pleas for immortality, whether rewarded in eternity through God’s

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remembrance or immortalized on earth in the memory of the living.7 Second, by making their pleas to God through the public medium of synagogue inscriptions, Jewish individuals being remembered for good by God are unavoidably also remembered for good by their families and communities, just like their Greco-Roman counterparts. As noted above, the suggestion that «remembered for good» inscriptions are memorials to deceased benefactors originated, at least in part, to address a perceived incongruity between the imputed piety of Jewish donors and apparent self-promotion of Greco-Roman commemorators. Whether in regard to the living or the dead, however, the a priori assumption that piety and self-promotion are mutually exclusive is unjustified. Promotion is precisely the point of mosaic inscriptions, particular those placed prominently on a synagogue floor. If the public acknowledgement of financial patronage were truly a problem among pious Jewish donors, we would most likely never know: such individuals would not appear in inscriptions at all. As far as the extant examples are concerned, it is disingenuous to imagine that epigraphic commemoration was not intended, at least in part, for promotional purposes. At the same time, however, we have no basis on which to impugn the piety of publically commemorated donors. If Sorek is correct that at least some «remembered for good» formulas indicate deceased donors, perhaps the inherent promotion benefitted the family of the deceased or the benefitting institution, but it is the same either way. Deconstructing the artificial piety/ self-promotion dichotomy further complicates the situation, however, by making apparent the conflation of two originally separate motivation-action pairs: the motivation to donate and the motivation to commemorate that donation (or, to be commemorated) in an inscription. Giving money to fund the decoration of a synagogue is not, however, the same action as commemorating that donation. Such conflation occurs because fruits of the latter action (inscriptions) serve as our evidence for the occurrence of the former action (benefaction). Are all the members of the holy congregation of Beth She’an remembered for good because they endeavored to repair the holy place, or because they are commemorated within the holy place? Inscriptions are problematic data in this regard. They testify to past events of interest to historians, and are therefore easily treated as only as sources rather than also as discrete events in themselves. Recognition that patronage and commemoration of patronage are separate actions might offer a better position from which to see Jewish benefaction as motivated in large part by piety and the inscription of such benefaction as promotional. The examples discussed thus far sought to persuade that Jews were apparently motivated to be financial benefactors for a variety of reasons, including but not limited to piety. Moreover, Greco-Roman donors were also inspired to donate money for many motives, including 7

For explicit reference to eternal reward, see e.g. Chorazin synagogue, «Remembered for good Judan b. Ishmael who made this stoa and its steps. For his work may he have a share with the righteous» CIJ 981.

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but not limited to self-promotion and certainly including piety. It should also be clear just how much power frameworks have in shaping our interpretations of data. Sorek’s study was framed to identify Jewish difference, and found it. My much smaller investigation sought to find similarity, and succeeded. If I push back against my preferred framework, however, and take a broader look, I find I can argue for a unique form of Jewish benefaction in Palestine: uniquely flexible and all-encompassing, that is. As noted earlier, Greco-Roman and Jewish inscriptions diverge most significantly when remembrance is invoked. While I can make an argument for how these notions of remembrance are more similar than they first appear, on this point Sorek is more persuasive: the Greco-Roman corpus has no direct parallel for the «remembered for good» formula in Jewish dedicatory inscriptions. The situation changes, however, if we turn from looking west to Rome and look east instead, remembering that however significant the cultural exchange with Greco-Romanism, Judaism continued to have strong ties to the other Semitic cultures of Syria and the east. As it happens, the «remembered for good» formula appears in numerous Semitic inscriptions that express a similar sentiment. Gudme’s recent analysis incorporated Aramaic votive inscriptions from Mt. Gerezim, Nabatea, Parthia, Palmyra, and Anatolia that use a variety of remembrance formulas, which, like the Jewish examples, reflect a donor’s desire for remembrance before a patron deity (Gudme 2013). An example from a sanctuary to Allat at Jebel Ramm in Jordan reads, «May Allat remember ‹Aydu the mason son of Absalam for good» (Savignac 1933: no. 7). An altar from Palmyra is inscribed, «Remembered be Gadda son of Mashku the equestrian, before Bel and Arsu, peace and good…» (Palmyrene Aramaic Texts 1562). These examples indicate that the «remembered for good» formula, while not uniquely Jewish, could be uniquely Semitic. These examples of Semitic remembrance inscriptions might appear to negate entirely the idea of a unique Jewish system of benefaction in Palestine: the triumph of similarity over difference. Ironically, however, finding these Semitic remembrance inscriptions convinced me of Jewish inscriptions’ distinctiveness. Jewish inscriptions in Palestine are situated at the precise cultural location their geographic position suggests: at the borderline of interaction and exchange between Semitic and Greco-Roman practices. Consequently, Jewish inscriptions in Palestine are uniquely positioned to capitalize on a broad range of epigraphic traditions. The variety of extant inscriptions signals the breadth of options available to and engaged by Jewish benefactors, both in terms of why they gave and how they are remembered.

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Bibliography Avi-Yonah, M., 1933. Mosaic Pavements in Palestine. Quarterly of the Department of Antiquities of Palestine 2, 136–181. Budin, S., 2003. Pallakai, Prostitutes, and Prophetesses. Classical Philology 98, 148–159. Bülow-Jacobsen, A., 1997. Proskynemata in the letters and evidence for Tyche/Isis, etc. in the Eastern Desert. J. Bingen (ed.), Mons Claudianus. Ostraca Graeca et Latina (vol. 2). Cairo, 65–68. Cicero, M. T., 1903. The Ninth Oration of M.T. Cicero against Marcus Antonius. C. D. Yonge (ed.), Orations, the fourteen orations against Marcus Antonius (Philippics). London. Clark, G., 1993. The Word Hesed in the Hebrew Bible. Journal for the Study of the Old Testament Supplement 157. Sheffield. Duncan, C., 2013. Review of S. Sorek, Remembered for Good: A Jewish Benefaction System in Ancient Palestine, Review of Biblical Literature [http://www.bookreviews.org]. Gudme, A., 2013. Before the God in this Place for Good Remembrance: a comparative analysis of the Aramaic votive inscriptions from Mount Gerezim. Berlin. Hengel, M., 1969. Judentum und Hellenismus. Studien zu ihrer Begegnung unter besonderer Berücksichtigung Palästinas bis zur Mitte des 2. Jh. v. Chr. Tübingen. Hüttenmeister, F.G./Reeg, G., 1977. Die antiken Synagogen (2 vols.). Wiesbaden. Hyman, R., 2009. Four Act of Vowing in the Bible. Jewish Bible Quarterly 37.4, 231–238. Savignac, M. R., 1933. Le Sanctuaire d’Allat à Iram (1). Revue Biblique 42, 405-422. Schwartz, S., 2009. Were the Jews a Mediterranean Society? Solidarity and Reciprocity in Ancient Judaism. Princeton. Sorek, S., 2010. Remembered for Good: A Jewish Benefaction System in Ancient Palestine. Sheffield. van Bremen, R., 1996. The Limits of Participation: Women and Civic Life in the Greek East in the Hellenistic and Roman Periods. Amsterdam.

Carrie Elaine Duncan, University of Missouri, Columbia.

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Proceedings, 9 th ICAANE, Basel 2014, Vol. 2, 151–161

Dina Frangié-Joly

Hellenistic Beirut: A City at the Centre of the Mediterranean Strategies This paper stems from my thesis, a multi-disciplinary study on Beirut, which also approached Southern Phoenicia, having regard to the importance of coastal cities in the economy, especially Beirut, a city that kept growing during the Hellenistic period due to the activity of its harbour and its involvement in the main network exchanges. Beirut remains little known during the Hellenistic period, while the city played a major role in the Mediterranean dynamisms. During the Persian period, it was probably still a dependency of neighbouring Sidon1; but starting with the beginning of the Hellenistic period, Berytos undergoes an extensive development, illustrated by the growth of its urbanism, the development of its economic infrastructure and administration, and the richness of its production. Moreover, the Berytians played an important role in the Hellenistic networks, and were established in Delos, which became the hub of International transactions and trade.

Beirut and its Territory: Urbanism and Administration Part of my research concerned the study of a storage site, Bey-144, located in the harbour area (fig. 2), and the role it played in the urban development of Beirut investigated in its lower and upper parts. The excavation of Bey-144 yielded two buildings: one of them was intended for storage, predominantly in its southern part, where silos and several pot-stands were found in situ. The site shows three phases, ranging from the end of the Persian period

1

The material culture of Beirut is similar to what we find in Southern Levant. During the 5th–4th centuries BC, the monetary finds of Beirut include mainly Sidonian coins. If we also admit the identification of Biru with Beirut, mentioned as belonging to Sidon in Asarhaddon’s prism, Beirut could therefore have been a Sidonian dependency at least up to the Iron Age.

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Fig. 1. Map of coastal Levant (Conception: D. Frangié; Design: C. Kohlmayer).

till the beginning of the Roman period, and seems to be part of the buildings that develop during the urban expansion of Beirut, especially in the harbour area. During the Hellenistic period, Bey-144 had a large storage activity, and in the same area, other sites have discovered remains of workshops, warehouses and various finds that reflect the development of the production and the craft industry. Right above Bey-144, we find a new building, near Hellenistic temple and baths, thought to be that of the «port authority» during the Hellenistic-Roman periods (fig. 2), and could thus be related to a new organization of the economy and the harbour administration. The port of Beirut is located at the foot of the upper city; during the 4th century BC, it is mentioned for the first time in the sources, in the PseudoSkylax periplus (§104), along with other coastal cities like Arados, Tripolis, Byblos, Sidon,

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Fig. 2. Schematic plan of Bey-144’s location in the harbour area (by H. H. Curvers).

Tyre, and ‘Akko. The Hellenistic agora is likely located beneath the Western forum, and we know that the agoranom’s institution existed in Beirut, mainly from weights dating between 179/8 and 85/4 BC and identified as pertaining to Beirut. At the same time, and within the reforms of Antiochos IV, nineteen cities, among them Beirut, were allowed to mint a municipal bronze coinage that was probably intended to cover the local needs, and facilitate the exchange and the collaboration between the different cities, beside a strengthening control over their activities. On these mints, Beirut was the only city that granted itself the title and the privilege of being the Metropolis of all Canaan, which referred most likely to its central intermediary role in the regional and international economies (forthcoming). Actually, few years before the reign of Antiochos IV, Beirut became a Seleucid foundation, and the dynastic name of Laodicea of Phoenicia remained related to the city till the beginning of the 1st century BC. This policy of foundations started under Antiochos III, after his conquest of Phoenicia and Coele-Syria, and fits in a larger economic expansion, which was accelerated under Antiochos IV. It aimed to respond to the growing demand of oriental goods and for the Seleucids to control this lucrative trade and increase their benefits of it. It allowed a genuine appropriation of the economy, and the development of the production and the commerce.

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Productions and Networks The study of the Bey-144 pottery shows that Beirut was mainly specialized in the production of cooking and common ware during the Hellenistic period; a production of amphorae in the Beirut fabric starts at the end of the Hellenistic/beginning of the Roman period. Common vessels and amphorae originating from Tyre, Sidon, Jiyeh and the surrounding areas also reached the city. Berytos had probably also its own control on some products, as some stamped amphorae handles that seem to bear the name of the city were found in the Beirut excavations; they were however, probably mainly intended for exportation (Curvers 1998). Actually, during the Hellenistic period, Beirut was supplied with amphorae manufactured in Southern Phoenicia, probably Sidon, that are sometimes stamped.2 They are so far mainly found in Beirut; a large amount of these amphorae come from the warehouse of Bey-144 in the harbour area, next to the «port authority» building, a fact that could imply that Berytos was an intermediary in the distribution of these products (forthcoming). These new amphorae productions show a radical shift with the previous periods where Tyre seemed to have a monopoly on the Phoenician amphorae production and distribution, despite the diversity of the manufacturing centres (Bettles 2003). It should be added that this Tyrian stranglehold on part of the regional economy has undoubtedly been able to develop with the very active support of the Persian authority, which had every interest to establish a centralized control, administrative, fiscal, as well as commercial, on products that circulated in these containers, in order to derive benefits in terms of taxes and tributes. After the conquest of Alexander the Great, the survival of the traditional Phoenician amphorae takes various aspects, but shows a decline comparing to the previous periods. The other shapes of amphorae that appear in the Levant (see examples figs. 3–4), as seen in Sidon, Berytos, Tyre and ‘Akko, imply that during the Hellenistic period we seem to come back to a more Hellenic system of the city-state with the existence of a central power, that is however less omnipotent than it was during the Persian period, and which therefore allows the emergence of other controlled productions; these could be partly linked to a reorganization of the production, due to the arrival of Greek settlers in the region.

2

Ala’eddine 2003; Frangié/Wicenciak 2012; Jiyeh also produced a similar type of amphora, but no stamped examples were found, and we lack of quantitative information regarding these amphorae productions reaching Beirut; the two cities maintained however close economic links, Jiyeh supplying Berytos with various common vessels, and the emergence of the industrial area of Jiyeh in the 2nd century BC occurs concomitantly with the development of Beirut and its active involvement in the Hellenistic networks on a regional and international scale.

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Fig. 3. Hellenisitc Phoenician amphora from Tell Keisan (Briend/Humbert 1980). Fig. 4. Hellenistic Phoenician amphora from Bey-144 (Photo H. H. Curvers).

The imported pottery of Beirut come, to a large extent, from the Aegean, Spain, Italy and Asia Minor, but also includes North-African amphorae, a fact that reflects the Berytian’s activities in the Mediterranean networks. Among these imports, we find Graeco-Italic amphorae, Campana ware, as well as Rhodian amphorae and vessels in numerous quantities, a phenomenon that could be partly explained by the fiscal advantages granted by Seleucos III to the Rhodians who were trading in his Kingdom, a privilege according to which they were άτελεῖς, and that was preserved after the Apamea peace.

Beirut and the Berytians in the Mediterranean Strategies It is during the Hellenistic period that the Berytians reappear in the sources, mainly starting the 2nd century BC. The epigraphic evidence show that they were widespread in Athens, Delphi, Cos, Rhodes, Tinos, and Caria, but they were mostly concentrated in Delos, which became a free port around 167 BC, at a time where the Romans were expanding and starting to control the Mediterranean economy.

The Berytians in Delos They were organized in a koinon of ἔμποροι, ναύκληροι and ἐγδοχεῖς, within which the synodos is the assembly concerned by regular meetings, which includes Berytians, Greeks and a Roman banker, Marcus Minatius. The Berytians established close-knit economic relations with the Romans who were controlling many aspects of the political and economic matters of the island. They built tight relations, sealed through a decree dated to around

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Fig. 5. Restitution proposal of the establishment of the Poseidoniastes of Berytos (Picard 1921).

153/2 BC, with the Roman banker Marcus Minatius, who helped them to achieve their establishment, which was one of the most imposing edifices on the island (fig. 5). In the second half of the 2nd century BC, they also introduced the Dea Roma in one of the chapels of their building, which was an act of capital political significance, and were also linked with the Roman magistrate Gnaeus Octavius who was a benefactor to them, around 90 BC. The Berytians formed actually the most important oriental association in Delos, and were the most numerous among the Phoenicians, who were predominant among the Orientals. The Berytians took part in the organizational activities of the island, being the only Orientals, together with the Tyrians (?), next to the Athenians and the Romans, who participated to the mixed assemblies that were constituted after the dissolution of the cleruchy around 130 BC (Frangié 2009; forthcoming). Berytians and Tyrians were also active in Puteoli, which was one of the main harbours in Southern Italy during the Hellenistic period, and therefore a natural outcome for products coming from the Mediterranean and Delos. Around 125 BC, Puteoli was qualified by Lucilius as the minor Delos (Satires III.9), and the gentes of many magistrates and individuals link Delos with Puteoli, and in a larger way with Campana and the Latium (Müller/Hasenohr 2002). Among them, many were involved in the Mediterranean trade.

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The Trade The Phoenicians were connected to several actors and intermediaries of the economic networks. They were concerned with the production and trade of textiles/purple industry, grain, wine, oil, perfumes/various ingredients to produce them, spices, ivories, various kinds of metals, etc. They played an important role in the transport of merchandises through their timber resources that allowed them to develop skills in shipbuilding and navigation. During the Hellenistic period, we know that there was a growing demand for many of these goods, in Egypt, the East and the West. Moreover, after the conquest of Coele-Syria and Phoenicia, starting the reign of Antiochos V, the Seleucids aimed to preserve the Ptolemaic monetary standard in this area which could point to a strengthening of the trade links with Egypt, next to the Attic one used in the West and the rest of the Empire. Nevertheless, today there is a lack of archaeological studies to further deepen all these data, in order to better understand the organization of the production and the industry, as well as the administration of the economy and the trade system, that involved Phoenicia and the Phoenicians during the Hellenistic period.

The Slave Market The Phoenicians were involved in this traffic, in which Berytos might have played the role of a key intermediary. Actually, the slave market became a major economic stake during the Hellenistic period, due to the increasing needs of slaves and the profits that such trade generated. Strabo reports that 10000 slaves used to arrive to Delos everyday, when it was the focal point of the Eastern and Western trade, and when the Berytians were the most active merchants on the island. Moreover, at the same time, starting 143/2 BC, the Ptolemies settled a naval base in Paphos, and Cyprus was used as a centre for the slave trade, at a time where links between the Ptolemaic strategoi of Cyprus, the Romans and the Italikoi were attested in Delos (Mavrojannis 2002). The connexions between Cyprus and Beirut were also very important during this period, as studies on maritime routes show that Cyprus was a natural crossing point for maritime networks coming from or going to Beirut. Actually, Strabo points to a distance of 1500 stadia between Kition and Berytos. These distances are based on the average length and time of navigation, all along the maritime networks; usually, the fixed estimation points are the maritime capes and seamarks, and rarely the ports, whereas the port of Berytos is the only one mentioned by the geographer among the Phoenician ports (Arnaud 2001). Strabo also informs us that Berytos was destroyed by Diodotos Tryphon, the usurper of the Seleucid throne, around 143/2 BC, at the same time of the settlement of Cyprus as a centre for the slave trade by the Ptolemies. We still lack of archaeological data about the exact nature of this destruction, but the slave market might be a plausible explanation for the act of Tryphon who was himself largely engaged in the slave trade by instituting a base on the Cilician coast; he therefore would have «punished» Berytos, the city being

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involved in this traffic that was partly reorganized through Cyprus and Delos, and thence escaping from his control, at a time where the Seleucid Empire was starting to decline (Frangié 2009; forthcoming). Actually, after Antiochos IV’s death, the history of the Seleucid Empire is marked by its weakness and the rise of local autonomies, as well as a constant interference of other powers in its economic and political matters; at that time, the Romans, after transforming Delos in a free port, were actively reorganizing the economy of the Mediterranean, where the Ptolemies and the Levantine cities were important allies. Starting the reign of Antiochos IV and his ambitious reform projects, the former running economic organization underwent changes, for a bigger control and benefit for the Seleucids, a fact that did not manage any of the powers, nor the cities. A study of the municipal coins suggested that Antiochos IV’s reforms lead to a severe taxation system, which could hence explain the rebellion of the Phoenician cities reported by Porphyry of Tyre, and severely punished by Antiochos IV; this revolt is dated around 167 BC arguing the mint interruption of the Phoenician coins (Barag 2002). In fact, the expansionist attempts of Antiochos IV did disturb the balance of his relation with the Romans, and would have also sounded like a growing interference in the activities of the Phoenician cities, which supplied Egypt, the East and the West, in many goods, and therefore involved regional and international powers in its economy. This could partly explain the reasons of the constant interference of the Romans and the Ptolemies in the Seleucid Empire and mainly through areas directly concerned with the international trade, within which some coastal cities, among them Beirut, seem to be particularly involved. In 153/2 BC, under Alexander Balas who was appointed by Attale II, approved by the Roman senate, and related to the Ptolemies, the Berytians were able to achieve the construction of their establishment in Delos and seal their agreements with Marcus Minatius. After the reign of Balas, Demetrios II who became the new husband of Ptolemy VI’s daughter Cleopatra Thea (the former being Balas), became the new ally of the Ptolemies, and it is probably for that reason that his reign was usurped by Tryphon who also «razed» Berytos. It is also at that time that the Romans asserted their hegemony in the Mediterranean, by destroying two rival economic centres: Carthago and Corinthus. In 128 BC, the Ptolemaic army helped Alexander Zabinas to gain control of the Seleucid Empire where he consolidated his kingship, except in Damascus and Phoenicia. However, around 125 BC, he was able to conquer Damascus, and only two Phoenician cities are known to have minted municipal coins that are related to his reign, as shown so far by the coins: Beirut and Ascalon (Sawaya 2004), knowing that both cities were involved in the Roman trade system. Furthermore, Berytos, for the first time, minted a coinage without any references to its dynastical name. Little is known of the role of Ascalon in the Mediterranean trade, though Philostratos of Ascalon was a banker in Delos, who established close knit-relations with the Romans, and received the Neapolitan

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citizenship. It is also during this period that Tyre took advantage of the anarchy prevailing in the Seleucid kingdom, and gained its autonomy. Around 123 BC, Alexander Zabinas was no longer supported by the Ptolemies; they found him a new successor in Antiochos Grypos whose kingship favoured many cities of the Seleucid Empire. In 110/109 BC he was honoured in Delos by the people of Laodicea of Phoenicia that was given the privilege of becoming hiera and asylos; under his kingship, in 97/6 BC, Berytos minted municipal and civic coins where it mentions its original name next to its dynastic one. Berytos and Sidon seem to be the only Phoenician cities that minted municipal coins under Grypos, and the latter city ended up by acquiring its autonomy. In 87/6 BC, Berytos minted civic coins with only its original name, before its official autonomy that occurs around 80 BC. This paper stresses about the importance of the Levantine coast in the organization of the Hellenistic economy that linked it with main centres in the East and the West. Many cities were involved in this trade, and Beirut was not the only one getting advantages of the weakness of the Seleucid Empire. The people from Berytos, however, through their organization in Delos and the relations they established with the Romans, seem to have been important intermediaries in the Hellenistic networks through their city that appears to be an influential actor in the Hellenistic strategies. This might thus explain the sudden development of Berytos during the Hellenistic period. These events are continuous with the Roman period, and explain the status of Berytus, which became the first Roman colony of the Province of Syria. At that time, the sources inform us that Berytus’s territory was extended to the Beqa’a that was shared between Berytus and Herod the Great. The relations among the different actors and intermediaries of the Hellenistic world forged the political and economic context of the Roman period in this area, with essential actors that were already integrated in the Roman trade system during the Hellenistic period.

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Bibliography Ala’eddine, A., 2003. Hellenistic stamped amphorae from Beirut (site code Bey-004). Archaeology and History in Lebanon 17. London, 109–119. Andreau, J./Descat, R., 2006. Esclaves en Grèce et à Rome. Paris. Arnaud, P., 2001. Beirut commerce and trade: Late Hellenistic to Byzantine Times, Beirut: History and Archaeology. ARAM 13. Oxford, 171–191. Aubert, C., 2002. Les céramiques hellénistiques de Beyrouth. Caractéristiques des productions locales. F. Blondé et al. (eds.), Céramiques hellénistiques et romaines. Productions et diffusion en Méditerranée orientale (Chypre, Égypte et côte syro-palestinienne). Travaux de la Maison de l’Orient 35. Lyon, 73–84. Barag, D., 2002. The mint of Antiochos IV in Jerusalem. Numismatic evidence on the prelude to the Maccabean revolt, Israel Numismatic Society 14. Tel Aviv, 59–77. Bettles, E., 2003. Phoenician amphora production and distribution in Southern Levant, a multi-disciplinary investigation into carinated-shoulder amphorae of the persian period (539–332 BC). BAR Series 1183. Oxford. Bickermann, E. J., 1938. Institutions des Séleucides. Paris. Boksmati, N., 2009. Space and Identity in Hellenistic Beirut. S. Owen/L. Preston (eds.), Inside the city in the Greek world. Studies of Urbanism from the Bronze Age to the Hellenistic Period. Great Britain, 131–140. Briend, J./Humbert, J.-B. (eds.), 1980. Tell Keisan, une cité phénicienne en Galilée. Fribourg Butcher, K., 2003. Small Change in Ancient Beirut. Coins from Bey 006 and 045. Archaeology of Beirut Souks 1. Berytus XLV–XLVI. Beirut. Capdetrey, L./Hasenohr, Cl. (eds.), 2012. Agoranomes et édiles. Institutions des marchés antiques. Scripta Antiqua 44. Bordeaux. Chankowski, V./Karvonis, P. (eds.), 2012. Tout vendre, tout acheter. Structures et équipements des marchés antiques. Bordeaux. Curvers, H., 1998. Artisanat et hellénisation. Liban l’autre rive, Institut du Monde Arabe. Paris. D’Arms, J. H./Kopff, E. C. (eds.), 1980. The Seaborne Commerce of Ancient Rome. Memoirs of the American Academy in Rome 36. Rome. Eiring, J./Lund, J. (eds.), 2004. Transport amphorae and trade in the Eastern Mediterranean. Monographs of the Danish Institute at Athens 5. Athens. Étienne, R., 2010. Délos hellénistique: culture des migrants. P. Rouillard (dir.), Portraits des migrants, portraits de colons II. Colloques de la Maison d’Archéologie et d’Ethnologie, René-Ginouvès 6. Paris, 123–135.

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Finkielsztejn, G., 2007. Poids et plombs inscrits du Levant: une réforme d’Antiochos IV? M. Sartre (ed.), Productions et échanges en Syrie grecque et romaine. Topoi supp. 8. Lyon, 35–60. Frangié, D., 2009. Beyrouth hellénistique: du port de l’époque perse à la colonie augustéenne. Thèse de Doctorat. Université de Paris 1. –

2014. Economy and cultural transfers: evidence of Hellenization and Early Romanization in Beirut. B. Fischer-Genz et al. (eds.), Roman Pottery in the Near-East, Local productions and regional trade. Roman and Late Antique Mediterranean Pottery 3. Oxford, 89–102.

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forthcoming. Beyrouth hellénistique: du port de l’époque perse à la colonie augustéenne. Bulletin

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forthcoming. Perfume, aromatics and purple dye: the Phoenicians trade and production in Greco-

d’Archéologie et d’Architecture Libanaise Hors-Série 12. Beirut. Roman periods. Journal of Eastern and Mediterranean Archaeology and Heritage Studies 4.1. Frangié, D./Wicenciak, U., 2012. Beyrouth et Jiyeh au sein des productions céramiques. D. Frangié/ S. Garreau-Forrest (Conseillères scientifiques), Liban, un passé recomposé, Baalbeck, Byblos, Tyr, Chîm, Beyrouth, Jiyeh. Dossiers d’Archéologie 350. Dijon, 38–43. Kawkabani, I., 2008. Les anses timbrées en grec de Jal el-Bahr, Tyr, Archaeology and History in Lebanon 28. London, 2–65. Le Rider, G./De Callataÿ, F., 2006. Les Séleucides et les Ptolémées: l’héritage monétaire et financier d’Alexandre le Grand. Monaco. Mavrojannis, Th., 2002. Italiens et orientaux à Délos: considérations sur l’«absence» des Negotiatores romains en Méditerranée orientale. Ch. Müller/Ch. Hasenohr (eds.), Les Italiens dans le monde grec, IIe s. av. J.-C.-Ier s. ap. J.-C. Bulletin de Correspondance Hellénique suppl. 4. Athens, 163–179. Müller, Ch./Hasenohr, Cl. (eds.), 2002. Les Italiens dans le monde grec, IIe s. av. J.-C.-Ier s. ap. J.-C. Bulletin de Correspondance Hellénique suppl. 4. Athens. Musti, D., 1980. Il commercio degli schavi e del grano: il caso di Puteoli. Sui rapporti tra l’economia italiana della tarda repubblica e le economie hellenistiche. J. H. D’Arms et al. (eds.), The seaborne commerce of Ancient Rome, Memoirs of the American Academy in Rome 36, Rome, 197–216. Picard, Ch., 1921. L’établissement des Poséidoniastes de Bérytos, Exploration Archéologique de Délos 6. Athens. Reger, G., 2013. Networks in the Hellenistic economy. S. Ager/R. Faber (eds.), Belonging and isolation in the Hellenistic world. Toronto, 143–154. Roussel, P., 1987. Délos, colonie athénienne. Paris. Sartre, M., 2001. D’Alexandre à Zénobie. Histoire du Levant antique, IVe s. av.–IIIe s. ap. J.-C. Paris. Sawaya, Z., 2004. Le monnayage municipal séleucide de Bérytos, Numismatic Chronicles 164. London, 109–146. –

2008. Les monnaies civiques non datées de Bérytos. Reflet d’un passage discret de l’hégémonie séleucide à l’autonomie, (102/1-82/1 av. J.-C.). Numismatic Chronicles 168, London, 61–109.

Trümper, M., 2002. Das Sanktuarium des “Établissement des Poseidoniastes de Bérytos” in Delos. Zur Baugeschichte eines griechischen Vereinsheiligtums. Bulletin de Correspondance Hellénique 126. Athens, 265–330.

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© 2016, Otto Harrassowitz GmbH & Co. KG, Wiesbaden ISBN Print: 978-3-447-10614-6 — ISBN E-Book: 978-3-447-19478-5

Proceedings, 9 th ICAANE, Basel 2014, Vol. 2, 163–171

May Haider

Importation of Attic Pottery to the Levantine Coast during the Persian Period: Case Study – the College Site Sidon During the Persian Period (ca 539–332 BC), Attic pottery was imported throughout the Levantine coast in great quantities from the late 5th century until the middle 4th century BC. Attic pottery is mostly found in domestic contexts with local pottery, yet in some cases it was found in contexts with a ritual aspect, probably related to cultic feasting and mourning rituals. The Lebanese Department of Antiquities/British Museum excavations at the College Site at Sidon, southern Lebanon, collected more than 3500 sherds of Greek pottery during its 16 seasons of excavations (1998–20121). Coming from what seems to be a habitation site, rather than from tombs, the pieces are extremely fragmentary and hard to identify and date, mainly the figured ones. Nevertheless, identifying and cataloguing the material was done to help us have a clearer idea about its significance in Sidon, the area and its role in the relations between the Phoenician coast and the Greek world during the Persian period (the Achaemenid Empire, ca. 539–330 BC). The excavations at College Site are still ongoing, so no clear conclusions about the nature of the contexts can be drawn right now, yet the archaeological context was also taken into consideration while studying the material in order to understand better the «indigenous» use of these imported vases and the conception of the Greek vase by the local population. During the 1st millennium, Attic pottery was being imported in mass quantities all over the Levantine coast mainly from the late 5th century until the middle 4th century BC. The typology is varied, yet all wares are covered with a fine black glaze and several types of decoration like painted (Red and Black Figures), plain, fired, stamped, incised and in the 4th century roulette decoration. 1

The College Site excavations are still ongoing and the seasons 2013–2014 also yielded large numbers of Attic pottery that are currently studied by the author.

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A look at what we know about the Phoenician religious believes is necessary in order to understand the nature of this phenomena; we know that no site excavated in the Levant has yielded any epigraphical or architectural record that suggests any proper Greek cult.2 In fact the locals seem to have maintained rather national unified religious and ritual aspects with of course some regional variations. Phoenicians seem to have always had the habit of borrowing cultural and religious elements from other Near Eastern civilizations and also from the rest of their Mediterranean neighbors, then to reinterpret them in their own cultural boundaries. This is why a reinterpretation of the choice of themes of Black and Red Figured Attic vases, from a Phoenician point of view, can be of great use in understanding the choices and motives behind the adaptation of the Greek pot in the local society. The choice of iconography could never have been arbitrary, but rather the pottery could be given another interpretation than its classical one and the figures could come to represent local deities or rituals (Chirpanlieva 2010: 222). The traditional interpretation of Pre-Hellenistic cultural exportation or even the «Greek colonies theory» are no longer acceptable while trying to explain the phenomena of mass importation of Attic Pottery. The theory of economic and commercial prosperity (and even relative political stability) in the Levantine Coast seems more plausible nowadays. Drinking vessels (bowls, skyphoi, cups…) are the main type of Attic imports in the Levant related to domestic use, and a good example of the elaboration of dining habits that were taking place in parallel to economic prosperity. Yet part of these vessels seems to have been imported for specific reasons, mainly as part of a cultic feasting and mourning ritual. We know that even in Greece, figured wares were devoted to use in communal drinking activities and separated from typical household activities. We have very little information considering the «Phoenician» religion, yet the few religious dedications and texts allow us to draw a couple of conclusions. Each city was governed by a divine couple of supreme male and female deities (Markoe 2000: 116–118). Even if the name of the chief male deity changed in each city, it remains associated with the concept of death and rebirth. We know that the Tyrians had a public celebration of Melqart’s awakening. And in Byblos annual celebrations were held to commemorate the god Adonis death and rebirth. In Sidon we think that the god Eshmun, being the god of healing, he couldn’t be more connected to the notion of life and death, was worshiped as a dying and rising divinity. We already know how important the site of Bostan esh-sheikhin was in the Persian period. Located three kilometres south-east of the city of Sidon, near the banks of the Awali river and where the Temple of Eshmun (god of healing identified with Asclepios) was discovered. The Eshmun temple, with its rich and varied architectonic elements, also represents 2

Exception of Tell Sukas yet further studies needs to be done as the site was never properly excavated and published.

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Fig 1. Banquet scene from the Nimrud palace reliefs, 865–860 BC (British Museum) and a body sherd from a cup with red figure decoration depicting a hand holding up a skyphos. 5th cent. BC. College Site.

an example of the combination of foreign elements in a cultic context; we find Assyrian/ Persian and Greek elements mixed in a unique artistic «Phoenician» style. Death and resurrection were important divine themes being metaphors of the agricultural cycle. Honoring the gods seemed to be a must, in many cases related to funerary rites, through the dining ritual symposium know as the marzeah. The symposium was considered as a «symbolic image, which reflects the festive atmosphere, music, richness and opulence of the Afterlife». The marzeah is an old tradition in the east, and even mentioned in the Ugaritic texts (marzihu) that defines it as a wine banquet held by a group of persons to honor a certain deity (fig. 1; McLaughlin 1991 for the Ugaritic texts). We don’t have enough information about the marzeah, except for some general aspects like the «beit» marzeah, which is supposed to be a «house» where the participants in the ritual assembled around a leader to perform the ritual, which included heavy consuming of wine. Merzeah is thought to be related to funeral rituals in the East on the example of the funerary symposium in Etruria, Campania and the Iberian world. Another aspect of the Phoenician religious identity in the Persian Period is the so-called «Persian Pits» vaguely identified as favissae or with the more generic term bothros in some publications (fig. 2). The favissae are pits or simply excavated trenches containing objects with some kind of worshipping form mainly used and sometimes intentionally broken statuettes (Stern 1982: 158). Archeologist, when facing a favissae, tend to fantasize about some nearby now-lost temple or sanctuary yet several of the main Phoenician sanctuaries on the Levantine coast have not yielded any sign of favissea what so ever (Martin 2007: 183). Persian Period sites has yielded giant quantity of pits, yet their function is still so poorly understood and could have had a number of different utilities. Like for example in the site of

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Fig. 2. Some of the figured and plane glazed wares, mostly drinking vessels like cups and Type A skyphoi from the so called «Persian pit». 5th cent. BC. College Site.

Akre in Palestine where Area F is considered a bothros (favissa) by the excavators, dated to the early 5th century. It is a perfect example of how ritual deposit can be found independently of any cultic complex. The excavators assumed the presence of a Greek community within the Phoenician city only based on the imported vessels that were found in this pit. The concentration of cookwares and fine pottery can only indicate the importance of these contexts in understanding the changes that were taking place in dining habits of the locals, and it is not a sufficient material to determine the ethnicity of the people in question. A large number of the Attic pottery found at College site came from contexts associated with a large «monumental building». Both Attic and local pottery assemblages yielded a large number of burned pots in a very fragmentary state. This indicates an exposure to fire after use, even though none of these vessels should normally be in contact with fire (the categories with most fire marks being cups, Juglets/Jars, amphorae and unguentaria). So either the contexts have been victim of or the pottery was intentionally exposed to fire in the context of a ritual act.

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Fig. 3. Bes Statuette, 5th cent. BC. College Site. Fig. 4. Attic lekythos with black figured scene of Hermes and a supplicant. College Site. Early 5th cent. BC.

The important presence of both Attic and local fine tableware and the large number, in the local pottery repertoire, of both uguentaria and amphorae (wine containers according to the analyses) can prompt us to conclude that we are maybe facing a sacred pit of a banquet and/ or a ritualistic deposit for the banquet or ritualistic ceremony that included consumption of wine, libation, etc. (Abi Khalil Vasquez 2013). In more than one context the Attic Pottery was found associated with local cultic material culture including animal bones, glass sherds, shells along with large quantities of grotesque figurines of the Egyptian god Bes (fig. 3). The god Bes statues are quite common in Persian Period favissae, mainly dating to the 4th century BC. Although an imitation of Egyptian prototype, it has a Phoenician origin with an apotropaic role associated with healing, fertility, etc., rituals. Excavations in Down Town Beirut yielded a monumental building (loci U16) identified as a sanctuary (probably dedicated to the goddess Astarte) and including, a roofless central room with an in situ betyl, a so called «bothros» and a «feasting room» (Elayi/Elayi 2000: 264). A large number of grotesque masks (Bes?) were found along with Red Figured Attic pottery related to Dionysian and Eleusinian mysteries themes in the bothros. Eleusian

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mysteries ceremonies are an agrarian cult celebrating the myth of Demeter and Persephone with a cycle that includes death and immortality. It is thought to include consumption of some psychedelic agent (Kykeon a drink made from barely and water) that induced visions of the afterlife. A Phoenician plate was also found in college site, sealed in one of the «monumental building’s» earliest floors, although it predates the assemblage studied in this paper, it is quite interesting as it bears a unique incised inscription of 10 Phoenician letters. The inscription is an exceptional piece of Phoenician writing and, can be dated to the first half of the eighth century BC. The first word of the inscription, known as the singular absolute MZBH, usually means «altar.» Here MZBH T could be a plural in the construct i.e. «Altars of…» In this case, it is not incised on an altar but on a plate, itself the support for sacrificial offerings presented by the person whose name immediately follows MZBH T designated to mean «servant» (= BD) of a deity.3 So from one side we have what seems to be a banquet or libation ceremony carried out by the high society of Sidon during a ritual that included heavy consumption of wine. Nevertheless, while drinking cups such as skyphos, cup, Kantharos, mixing containers such as the Kraters and decanting bottles such as the oinochoe consist the three fundamental pots in the «Greek» symposium wine set, attic decanting vessels are very rare, if not absent at all in the assemblages of almost every Levantine site indicating that any kind of ritual (in the form of feast) that was happening it was not a «symposium» in its Greek sense and is completely different (De Vries 1977: 545). On the other hand, the local pottery found in the same sealed contexts as Attic sherds had Jug/kantharos/Jugglets as dominat type followed by Amphorae. The absence of the oinochoe shows us that locals choose from the Greek vessels only what fitted their indigenous practices (Martin 2007: 146). Locals were importing the Attic pottery to integrate them in their own domestic and cultic habits. The choice of the typology and iconography of imported Attic pottery was imposed by the local taste and need and not by any «pre-Hellenistic» Greek trend. Attic pottery was adopted to serve the local cult in both a physical aspect by including them in the crockery used during the ceremony, and in a symbolic aspect by the reinterpretation of the decoration on the vessels according to a local cultic and social scale. This explains why from the vast repertoire of iconographical images that the Attic workshops offered only a few themes were imported to the Levant (Chirpanlieva 2010: 186). Very specific mythological and cultic scenes were not popular in the Levant; instead vases with general procession scenes reflecting an atmosphere of beatitude and joy were mostly imported. Only few selected deities were popular in the Levant such as Dionysius (Eros), Heracles and Hermes, etc. 3

The inscription will be subject to further in-depth study.

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Fig 5. A Krater and a cup sherd with Dyonisian themes. College Site. 5th century BC.

These gods can be easily identified with any of the local gods such as Melqart or Adonis or Eshmoun or Baal, associated with a death and resurrection cycle celebrated through some kind of festive ritual. Scenes depicting Heracles and Hermes are a frequent import. Heracles being the symbol of the heroic young god was associated with Melqart since the 6th century in Cyprus (Yon 1986, p. 137). Hermes being the conductor of souls into the afterlife fitted perfectly in the mourning ritual (fig. 4). In college site, as well as in several other sites on the Levantine coast, we notice that the largest number Figured pottery mainly Kraters depicts Dionysius or Dionysian themes (fig. 5). Dionysius being the god associated with agriculture cycle and vegetation, fertility, death and rebirth rituals seems to be easily associated with the local dying/resurrecting deity. Like for example a Red Figured bell Krater with a naked winged god (Eros?) holding two thymiaterions while dancing or walking in a procession scene coming from college Site (fig. 6). Thymiaterion is associated ichnographically with Adonis and the Adonia festivities, which are an agrarian cycle celebrating the death and resurrection of the young heroic god (Haider 2011–2012). The procession/festive scene can be associated easily with Adonis or even Melqart (or even Eshmun) being both a life-death-rebirth gods. Adonis being only known to us through Greek texts could be simply the Byblian god Baal; Adon being lord in Semitic and Baal being lord in Phoenician. Importation of Attic Pottery is one of the aspects that characterized the Persian Period (Iron III). Almost all of the sites in the Near East dating to the Persian Period, not only on the coast but also sites in the hinterland, yielded Greek pottery. Sidon is one of the sites in

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Fig 6. Attic bell krater with procession scene, College Site. First half 4th cent. BC.

the Levant that yielded one of the largest repertoire of Greek vessels fitting perfectly in the chronology of importation of Greek crockery to the area. There is no doubt that Attic pottery in the Persian period seems to be found almost in every site excavated in the Levant, yet it is not appropriate anymore to follow the classical archeology line of associating these objects as a symbol of Greek practice. Phoenician had the habit of borrowing from their neighbors to enrich their own material culture, and mainly for Egypt in that case, yet there no real example of direct borrowing from Greece and when we have an example, it was usually reinterpreted following the local practices and figurative styles. However we still have to interpret these objects, Greek, Egyptian, etc., in their new context. This particular material culture most probably was introduces to enhance extended some aspect of local customs. It helped in rendering the «Phoenician» dining practices more rich and sophisticated while creating a channel for mutual cultural interactions between

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the locals and the Greeks had. And in some cases, the importation of Greek pottery, mostly Attic pottery from the Persian Period, seems to be associated, at least partially, with some kind of local festivity related mainly to a local god with a death and rebirth cycle of which our knowledge is unfortunately very scarce.

Bibliography Abi Khalil Vazquez, F., 2013. Estudio de la cerámica común de la Edad del Hierro: propuesta de funcionalidad y cronología de dos contextos sellados en el College-Site de Sidón, Granada. Chirpanlieva, I., 2010. Interpretatio Phoenicia. Réinterprétation phénicienne des images représentées sur les vases attiques importés a Kition. Rivista di Studi Fenici 3, 217–235. De Veries, K., 1977. Attic Pottery in the Achaemenid Empire. American Journal of Archaeology 81, 544–48. Elayi, J./Shefton, B./Sayegh, H., 2000. Un quartier du port phénicien de Beyrouth au Fer III/Perse. Archéologie et Histoire. Transeuphratène Supplément 7. Gabalda, Paris. Haider, M., 2011–2012. Fragment of an Attic Vase with a Procession Scene from the College Site. Archeology and History of Lebanon 34–35, 389–398. Markoe, G., 2000. Phoenicians. The British Museum, London. Martin, R. S., 2007. “Hellenization” and Southern Phoenicia. Reconsidering the Impact of Greece before Alexander. Unpublished PhD thesis, University of California, Berkeley. McLaughlin, J., 1991. The Marzeah at Ugarit: A Textual and Contextual Study. Ugarit-Forschungen 23, 265–281. Stern, E., 1982. Material Culture and the Land of the Bible in the Persian Period, 538–332 B.C. Warminster. Yon, M., 1986. Cultes phéniciens à Chypre. L’interprétation chypriote. Studia Phoenicia 4, 127–152.

May Haider, Sapienza, University of Rome.

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Proceedings, 9 th ICAANE, Basel 2014, Vol. 2, 173–182

Corinna Hoff

Achaemenid and Greek Influence on Lycia during the 6th to 4th Centuries BC The development of Lycian sculpture is interrupted during the greater part of the second half of the 5th century BC. An investigation of the political and economic situation of the Lycians during that time reveals that the interruption of sculpture production is probably mainly due to economic reasons.

1. Introduction The Lycians are an ethnos that spoke its own language and wrote in its own script (see Kalinka 1901). They inhabited the Teke peninsula in south-western Asia Minor (fig. 1) and during the second half of the 6th century BC became integrated into the Persian Empire (Hdt. 1. 176).1 The stylistic appearance given by Lycian sculpture from the 6th to 4th centuries BC, most of which is sepulchral, resembles to some extent those of Greek sculpture. This implies that at least some sculptors active in Lycia were familiar with Greek sculptures or even were Greeks (Eichler 1950; Bruns-Özgan 1987: 32–33), which in turn suggests that the development of Lycian sculpture from time to time got impulses from Greek craftsmen. The specific stylistic development of Lycian sculpture is at least for some periods confirmed by inscriptions dating Lycian sculptures absolutely, e.g. the inscriptions of the so-called Inscribed Pillar and the Payava tomb both of Xanthus (Kalinka 1901, no. 40 and no. 44). Therefore, stylistic features are, inter alia, reliable criteria for the chronology of Lycian sculptures. The, thus, established chronological development of Lycian sculpture in general is interrupted twice, for the first time during the second quarter of the 6th century BC (Mendel 1912: 283; Pryce 1928: 118), and for the third time during most of the second half of the 5th century BC 1

Names of ancient authors are abbreviated according to the Oxford Classical Dictionary 2012.

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Fig. 1. Topographical map of Asia Minor (changed after: commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Atlaas_of_ Turkey#mediaviewer/File:Turkey_topo.jpg). In white circle: Lycia.

(Borchhardt 1976: 20; Zahle 1979: 320; Bruns-Özgan 1987: 34–35). The first gap coincides roughly with the conquest of Xanthus by the Persians in the third quarter of the 6th century BC (Pryce 1928: 118). An effect of this conquest on Lycian sculpture production has only been debated in so far as some authors (Akurgal 1941; Marksteiner 2002: 233, 278–285; Rudolph 2003) questioned the chronology of the earliest Lycian sculptures proposed by older as well as some recent scholars (Benndorf 1889: 23; Perrot/Chipiez 1890: 395–396; Poulsen 1912: 151; Mendel 1912: 280–283; Pryce 1928: 118, 122; Işık 1991: 78–79; Işık 2001), stating that the production of Lycian sculpture began only after the Persian conquest. The second gap coincides at least partially with the Lycian membership in the Delian League (see below). The reason for the lack of sculptures during this period has been much debated (Borchhardt 2000: 75). Zahle (Mørkholm/Zahle 1972: 110) believed the Lycians to have been probably «more Persian oriented than Greek historical tradition allows us to believe» during the period of Lycian membership in the League. Childs (1981: 60–61) believed the Lycians not to have been able to produce sculptures for some not clearly defined economic reasons. Jacobs (1993: 63) explained the ‹gap› with the Lycian membership in the League in general, thus, implying that the Lycians renounced from decorating their tombs with figural sculptures for not specified political reasons. Ridgway (1997: 78) suggested the gap to be due to a lack of sculptors. Borchhardt (1980: 7–8) and Bruns-Özgan (1987: 34–35) assume that, when the Lycians became integrated in the Delian League, Athens would probably have installed a democracy in Lycia, whereas ‹the oligarchs› who had according to both authors reigned in Lycia before, were expelled and probably also deprived of their property.

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Borchhardt also believes it to be likely that Athens imposed its own sumptuary law on the Lycians (for this law see Stupperich 1977: 71–86). In fact, there is no direct evidence for any of the suggested explanations. Nevertheless, the political solutions are contradicted by the evidence of the Lycian sculptures: According to Diodorus (Diod. Sic. 11. 60. 4) the Lycians became members of the Delian League already during the earlier 460ies BC (ATL III p. 209–210; Metzger 1963: 81–82; Borchhardt 1980, 7; Bruns-Özgan 1987, 34; Tietz 2003: 44). If the Lycians indeed renounced from producing figural sculptures for political reasons related to the Delian League, no sculptures at all should have been preserved from the period of their membership in the League. But, there are, indeed, some sculptures from the acropolis of Xanthus which have been plausibly dated around 470–460 BC (e.g. Langlotz 1927: 105; Akurgal 1961: 137–138; Bruns-Özgan 1987: 26–29; Rudolph 2003: 63–65). There are two possible solutions for this dilemma: Either the sculptures in question were not regarded as politically relevant or else the consequence is that the lack of sculptures from the greater part of the second half of the 5th century BC was not related to the Delian League, but due to other reasons. As sculptures are supposed to be produced by stonemasons, who certainly had to be paid for their work, the production of sculptures depended at least partly from the economic situation of the commissioners. Therefore, in order to find an explanation for the decline of sculpture production in Lycia during the greater part of the second half of the 5th century BC not only the political, but also the economic situation of the Lycians during this period will be investigated.

2. Political and Economic Situation In the Athenian quota lists, where 1/60 of the tribute paid by the members of the Delian League which was given to the sanctuary of Athena on the Athenian acropolis was registered by the Hellenotamiai, records of Lycian payments are only preserved concerning the years 452/451 and 446/445 BC (ATL II list 3 col. 1 l. 29–30; list 9 col. 3 l. 33–34). A further entry concerning the year 451/450 BC is not preserved, but fully restored in analogy to the other two entries (ATL II list 4 col. 5 l. 32–33). Only from the entry of the year 446/5 BC the amount of tribute paid by the Lycians can be deduced. It corresponds to a tribute of 1 talent of silver for the Telmessians and 10 talents of silver for the ‹Lycians and the synteleis› – i.e. the Lycians and those who paid together with them. This record is unusual in so far, as usually members of different poleis are referred to as such even if they are paying together (ATL I, 446–449; ATL II list 1 col. V l. 6–8; col. V l. 21; list 5 col. 2 l. 13–17; list 7 col. 3 l. 28–30). The Lycians being grouped with other by no means specified members of probably different ethnicity is even more unusual. It appears only for the Bottiaians and the Sermyleians in the lists of the same year (ATL II list 9 col. 2 l. 19; list 10 col. 2 l. 25).

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Fig. 2. Distribution of Lycian settlements probably existing before the 4th cent. BC.

The omission of any nearer specification of the Lycians and the synteleis, and the fact that members of tribute paying groups consisting of up to three poleis are usually still specified by names suggests that they were members of a considerable number of communities which comprised in all probability at least those Lycian settlements already existing during the 5th century BC except Telmessus (fig. 2). Each of these paid, consequently, only a small portion of the total amount of tribute. This suggests that the ‹Lycians› and their ‹synteleis› were economically rather insignificant. With the Treaty of Callias made in 449 BC, according to which the Persians were not allowed to pass further west into the Mediterranean Sea than Phaselis which is situated on the eastern coast of the Teke peninsula, or to come nearer the coast of Asia Minor than about a three day´s journey (Isoc. or. 4. 118; 7. 80; 12. 59; Dem. 19. 273; Lycurg. 73; Diod. Sic. 12. 4. 5; Plut. Cim. 13. 4; Ael. or. 13. 153; FGrH 104 F 1, 13. 2; Suda s.v. Κάλλιας. Κίμων. See also Meiggs 1975: 129–151 and 487–495; Cawkwell 2005: 281–289; Hornblower 2011: 34–35) the Lycians became isolated from the Persian Empire. In 430/29 BC they are said to have defeated the Athenian strategos Melesander, who had invaded Lycia for collecting money (Thuc. 2. 69). The Lycian resistance to Melesander implies that the Lycians were either hardly able or not willing to pay the demanded sum. A short time before 412 BC the

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Persians were again present in the coastal regions of Asia Minor and a treaty was made between the Persian satrap Tissaphernes and the ‹Peloponnesians› (Thuc. 8. 5. 5). Since most Lycian settlements are located in some distance, i.e. several kilometres, from the coast on high ground, sea trade as predominant source of income can be excluded (fig. 2). It seems rather likely that the Lycians were mainly living on their own agricultural products. According to the Thoudippos decree (IG I3 71 l. 21–22) from 425/424 BC as well as to Antiphon (Antiph. on trib.) and to Plutarchus (Plut. Arist. 24. 1) the quality of the land and the agricultural income of the Delian Leagues members respectively formed one basis for their taxation. The amount and quality of arable land depends mainly on the geological substrate, climate and relief. The Teke peninsula forms part of the western Taurus Mountains which belong to the Alpine orogenic belt. Being a relatively young geological structure, it is still characterized by a high-mountain relief. The area of the Teke peninsula inhabited by the Lycians is dominated by meso- and cenozoic limestones and marls. Only the region north and east of ancient Telmessus – modern Fethiye – is dominated by cretaceous ophiolitic series consisting of various sedimentary and magmatic rocks, the latter of which contain peridotite, gabbro and serpentinite (Şenel 1997). The Mediterranean climate developed already during the late Tertiary and is characterized by mild rainy winters and hot dry summers (Deacon 1983; Suc 1984; Hes. Op. 414–415, 448–451, 663–678; Theophr. Caus. Pl. 2. 1. 2 and 3. 8. 3; Xen. Oec. 16. 15. 2). The most typical soils developing under Mediterranean climate conditions are the socalled Mediterranean red soils. They evolve on every kind of geologic substrate, but differ as to their mineral and element content which in turn influences soil pH and field capacity. The soils of the area inhabited by the Lycians can be divided into two main groups: soils on silicate rocks predominant in the northwestern part of the Teke peninsula, and on the other hand, soils on carbonate rocks predominant in the rest of the area inhabited by the Lycians. At the steep slopes of the high mountains in the central part of the peninsula weathered rock material is easily eroded. As the eroded material accumulates in depressions of mostly karstic origin or in the coastal flats, more intensive soil formation takes place there (Akyürek/Doğan 1990). The same will have been true for the 1st millennium BC, because the part of the Taurides forming the Teke peninsula rose finally above sea level during the later Middle or the early Upper Miocene, i.e. between c. 12 and 5.3 million yrs BP as can be concluded from the fact that the autochthonous parts of the Teke peninsula do not contain any marine, but terrestrial sediments from after the Middle Miocene (Şenel 1997; Collins/ Robertson 1998). From this it can be deduced with certainty that, firstly, continuous soil formation started in the later Miocene at the latest, and secondly, during the Holocene the relief of the Teke peninsula was about as steep as it is today.

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The soils produced by weathering of carbonate rocks under Mediterranean climate conditions are initially Rendzina and with continuous soil formation taking place Terra Fusca or Terra Rossa in the sense of Kubiëna (1948: 80–118) respectively. Since limestone consists mainly of water-soluble carbonate minerals with minor portions of other components, mainly clay and organic matter, soils produced by weathering of carbonate rocks consist mainly of the scantily soluble rock material, namely silicates, among which clay minerals predominate (Atalay 1997: 250; Yaalon 1997). Due to continuous erosion in sloping areas these soils usually still contain a certain amount of carbonates. The quantity and quality of crop yield depends strongly on plant available water and nutrients, the most important of which are K, Ca, Mg, N, P, S and to a minor extent also Cu, Zn, Mn, Se, Mo. Among these P, S, Fe, Mn and Zn prevail in calcareous soils, if present at all, in forms not easily available to plants. P and S are in the presence of Ca at pH between 7 and 8 easily precipitated as highly insoluble Ca-phosphate and Gypsum respectively (Stevenson 1986: 250, 252, 294). Dissolved S is liable to leaching and volatilization (Stevenson 1986: 290). Similarly, the solubility and consequently also the plant availability of Fe, Mn and Zn is reduced in soils with high pH and in calcareous soils in particular (Stevenson 1986: 326–327, 334–337; Marschner 2012: 191, 200, 204, 222). P and S play a major limiting role in phytomass production, because P is a prominent component of nucleic acids forming parts of DNA and RNA (Marschner 2012: 158), whereas Sulphur is an integral component of proteins, vitamins and hormones (Stevenson 1986: 285; Marschner 2012: 153). Fe is an important constituent of various proteins and enzymes (Marschner 2012: 192–195). Mn is also a constituent of a minor number of enzymes and acts as cofactor for about 35 enzymes (Marschner 2012: 200–202). Zn is present in enzymes of all six enzyme classes and acts also as cofactor (Marschner 2012: 213–216). The most obvious P deficiency symptoms are reduction of shoot growth rates and reduction of leaf size and number (Marschner 2012: 164–165). Sulphur deficiency symptoms include retardation of growth and maturity (Stevenson 1986: 292; Marschner 2012: 156–157). Fe deficiency inhibits chloroplast development and provokes morphological and physiological changes of roots, whereas Mn deficiency results in serious decline of dry matter production, chlorophyll content and net photosynthesis (Marschner 2012: 198–200; 204). Zn deficiency symptoms include reduced shoot growth, decrease of leaf size often combined with chlorosis (Cakmak et al. 1997; Marschner 2012: 222). N also plays an essential role in plant nutrition being an integral constituent of nucleic acids, proteins, chlorophyll, co-enzyms, phytohormones and secondary metabolites (Marschner 2012: 4f.). Its plant availability depends on the activity of soil organisms which in turn depends on soil moisture and temperature. During the dry summer period the amount of plant available N is, therefore, low (see e.g. Güleryuz et al. 2010). The same is true to a lesser extent for the winter period due to the low temperature regime.

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The quality of soils implies that crop yields under rainfed conditions on the Teke peninsula were rather low. This is confirmed by the Vita of Nicolaus Sionita (VNS), according to which Nicolaus had prayed for two persons who are said to have never harvested more than they had sown which is surely exaggerated (VNS 59-60; Blum 1997: 119) probably in order to demonstrate the power of Nicolaus. After Nicolaus had prayed for them, they are said to have sown 25 large modii on probably about 2.5 ha (Blum 1997: 119) and harvested 125 large modii corresponding to 2125 l, i.e. five times as much as they had sown (VNS 60). This indicates that seed-yield ratios were usually smaller, i.e. ranging between 1:2 and 1:4, but probably rather 1:2 or 1:3, for otherwise the effect of Nicolaus prayer would not have appeared to be extraordinary (see also Lefort 2002: 260 note 197). A seed yield ratio of 1:2 would have resulted in 425 l of grain to be consumed and a ratio of 1:3 would even result in 850 l respectively. As 1 l of modern wheat grains weighs c. 620–870 g 425 l would roughly correspond to c. 264–370 kg grain and 850 l to 518–740 kg grain resulting in 132 kg to 185 kg per person and year for a ratio of 1:2 and 259 kg to 370 kg for a ratio of 1:3 or even less, if the household consisted of more than two persons. Since modern wheat varieties usually produce larger and protein richer grains, their weight should exceed that of the grains of ancient varieties. But even under recent conditions modern wheat and barley yields of the region are relatively low ranging from 0.3 t ha-1 to 2.1 t ha-1 and from 0.5 t ha-1 to 0.8 t ha-1 respectively (Tarım ve Orman Bakanliğı Müdürlüğü: Antalya Ili Kaş Ilçesi Orman Köyleri Hakkında Il etc. 1981 after Höhfeld 2006: 197). Food mentioned for Lycia by ancient authors (Arist. Hist. an. 5. 16. 548b; Ath. 14. 657e; Plin. HN 9. 149; 180; 14. 74; 31. 131. Ael. NA 16. 30) include goats, fish, olive and fig trees in general, and wine for the surroundings of Telmessus in particular, whereas cereals are only mentioned by a decree of Telmessus of the year 240 BC (Kalinka 1920, no. 1). As all this suggests that on the basis of the natural resources of the Teke peninsula alone only subsistence economy was possible and no other natural resources of some significance existed which could have been exchanged (see e.g. Antalya ili maden haritası; Muğla ili maden haritası; McNeill 2002: 25), where did the Lycians get the money for their sculptures from?

3. Conclusions At the Inscribed Pillar of Xanthus, which is one of the first sculpture decorated monuments after the ‹second gap›, the capture of Amorges on Iasos by Tissaphernes and his Peloponnesian allies of the year 412 BC is mentioned (Kalinka 1901, no. 44a l. 51–55; see Thuc. 8. 5. 5), thus implying that the owner of the Pillar was involved in the events reported. Since the monument was in all probability erected in honour of a Lycian dynast, the events in question were surely suited to emphasize his honour suggesting that he was on the winner’s, i.e.

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the Persian side (Bryce 1983: 36). According to Thucydides (Thuc. 8. 28. 4) Tissaphernes paid one Daric for each of the captives that were made. The same may be in all probability true for the Lycians, for whom the Persian payment may have been an important source of income which enabled them again to commission sculptures. Since Herodotus (Hdt. VII 98) reports Lycians fighting on the Persian side before Salamis it appears likely that Persian payments were an important source of income during the period before the second ‹gap› as well.

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1961. Die Kunst Anatoliens von Homer bis Alexander. Berlin.

Akyürek, I./Doğan, K., 1990. Soil management map of Turkey 1:1500000. Ankara. Antalya ili maden haritası. without year. http://www.mta.gov.tr/v2.0/turkiye_maden/il_maden/pdf_2010/ antalya.pdf. Atalay, I., 1997. Red Mediterranean Soils in Some Karstic Regions of Taurus Mountains, Turkey, Catena 28, 247–260. ATL, 1939–1953. Meritt, B. D./Wade-Gery, H. T./McGregor, M. F. (ed.): The Athenian Tribute Lists (Cambridge, Mass.), 4 Vol. Benndorf, O., 1889. Das Heroon von Gjölbaschi-Trysa. Wien. Blum, H., 1997. Die Vita Nicolai Sionitae. Griechischer Text. Bonn. Borchhardt, J., 1976. Die Bauskulptur des Heroons von Limyra. Das Grabmal des lykischen Königs Perikle. Berlin. –

1980. Zur Deutung lykischer Audienzszenen. H. Metzger, (ed.), Actes du Colloque sur la Lycie antique. Istanbul 13.–14. Okt. 1977. Paris, 7–12.

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2000. Dynasten und Beamte in Lykien während der persischen und attischen Herrschaft. R. Dittmann et al. (eds.), Variatio Delectat. Iran und der Westen. Gedenkschrift für Peter Calmeyer. Münster. 73–140.

Bruns-Özgan, Chr., 1987. Lykische Grabreliefs des 5. und 4. Jahrhunderts v. Chr. IstMitt. Beih. 33 (Tübingen). Bryce, T. R., 1983. Political Unity in Lycia During the “Dynastic Period”. JNES 42, 171–42. Cakmak, I./Ekiz, H./Yilmaz, A./Torun, B./Köleli, N./Gültekin, I./Alkan, A./Eker, S., 1997. Differential Response of Rye, Triticale, Bread and Durum Wheats to Zinc Deficiency in Calcareous Soils. Plant and Soil 188, 1–10. Cawkwell, G., 2005. The Greek Wars. The Failure of Persia. Oxford. Childs, W. A. P., 1981. Lycian Relations with Persians and Greeks in the Fifth and Fourth Centuries Re-examined. Anatolian Studies 31, 55–80.

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Collins, A. S./Robertson, A. H. F., 1998. Processes of late Cretaceaous to late Miocene episodic thrust-sheet translation in the Lycian Taurides, SW Turkey. Journal of the Geological Society 155, 759–772. Deacon, H. J., 1983. The comparative evolution of Mediterranean-type ecosystems: a southern perspective. F.J. Kruger et al. (eds.): Mediterranean-type ecosystems. The role of nutrients (Heidelberg), 3–40. Eichler, F., 1950. Das Heroon von Trysa. Wien. Güleryüz, G./Gucel, S./Ozturk, M., 2010. Nitrogen mineralization in a high altitude ecosystem in the Mediterranean phytogeographical region of Turkey. Journal of Environmental Biology 31, 503–514. Höhfeld, V., 2006. Überlegungen zur potentiellen Tragfähigkeit des Agrarraumes im zentralen Yavu-Bergland (Lykien-Türkei). F. Kolb (ed.), Lykische Studien 7. Die Chora von Kyaneai. Untersuchungen zur politischen Geographie, Siedlungs- und Agrarstruktur des Yavu-Berglandes in Zentrallykien. Bonn, 187–202. Hornblower, S., 2011. The Greek World 479–323 BC. 4th rev. ed., London. Işık, F., 1991. Zur Entstehung der tönernen Verkleidungsplatten in Anatolien. Anatolian Studies 41, 63–86. –

2001. Zur Entstehung der Pfeilergräber in Lykien. C. Özgünel (ed.), Günışığında Anadolu. Essays in honour of Cevdet Bayburtluoğu. Istanbul, 123–131.

Jacobs, B., 1993. Die Stellung Lykiens innerhalb der achämenidisch-persischen Reichsverwaltung. J. Borchhardt/G. Dobesch (eds.): Akten des II. Internationalen Lykien-Symposions Wien, 6.–12. Mai 1990 I. Wien, 63–69. Kalinka, E (ed.), 1901. Tituli Asiae Minoris I. Tituli Lyciae Lingua Lycia Conscripti. Wien. –

1920. Tituli Asiae Minoris II 1. Tituli Lyciae Linguis Graeca et Latina Conscripti. Pars Lyciae Occidentalis cum Xantho Oppido. Wien.

Kubiëna, W. L., 1948. Entwicklungslehre des Bodens. Wien. Langlotz, E., 1927. Frühgriechische Bildhauerschulen. Nürnberg. Lefort, J., 2002. The rural economy, seventh–twelfth centuries. A. Laiou (ed.): The economic history of Byzantium from the seventh to the fifteenth century I. Washington D.C., 231–310. Marksteiner, Th., 2002. Trysa – Eine zentrallykische Niederlassung im Wandel der Zeit. Wien. Marschner, P., 2012. Marschner´s Nutrients of Higher Plants. Amsterdam. McNeill, J. R., 2002. The Mountains of the Mediterranean World. An Environmental History. Cambridge. Meiggs, R., 1975. The Athenian Empire. Oxford. Mendel, G., 1912. Catalogue des sculptures grecques, romaines et byzantines I. Constantinople. Metzger, H., 1963. Fouilles de Xanthos II. L´aropole lycienne. Paris. Mørkholm, O./Zahle, J., 1972. The Coinage of Kuprilli. Numismatic and Archaeological Study. Acta Archaeologica 43, 57–113 Muğla ili maden haritası, without year. http://www.mta.gov.tr/v2.0/turkiye_maden/il_maden/pdf_2010/ mugla.pdf. Oxford Classical Dictionary, 2012. S. Hornblower et al. (eds.): Oxford Classical Dictionary. Oxford. Perrot, G./Chipiez, C., 1890. Histoire de l´art dans l´antiquité V. Perse – Phrygie – Lydie et Carie – Lycie. Paris.

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Poulsen, F., 1912. Der Orient und die frühgriechische Kunst. Berlin. Pryce, F. N., 1928. Catalogue of Sculpture in the Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities of the British Museum I 1. Prehellenic and Early Greek. London. Ridgway, B.S., 1997. Fourth century styles in Greek sculpture. London, Madison. Rudolph, Chr., 2003. Das ‘Harpyien-Monument’ von Xanthos. Seine Bedeutung innerhalb der spätarchaischen Plastik. Oxford. Şenel, M., 1997. 1:250000 Scale Geological Maps of Turkey. Fethiye. Ankara. Stevenson, F. J., 1986. Cycles of soil. Carbon, nitrogen, phosphorous, sulphur, micronutrients. New York. Stupperich, R., 1977. Staatsbegräbnis und Privatgrabmal im klassischen Athen. Münster. Suc, J. P., 1984. Origin and evolution of the Mediterranean vegetation and climate. Nature 307, 429–432. Tietz, W., 2003. Der Golf von Fethiye. Politische, ethnische und kulturelle Strukturen einer Grenzregion vom Beginn der nachweisbaren Besiedlung bis in die römische Kaiserzeit. Bonn. Yaalon, D. H., 1997. Soils in the Mediterranean regions: what makes them different? Catena 28, 157–169. Zahle, J., 1979. Lykische Felsgräber mit Reliefs aus dem 4. Jh. v. Chr. Jahrbuch des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts 94, 245–346.

Corinna Hoff, Institute of Classical Archaeology, University of Heidelberg, Marstallhof 4, D-69117 Heidelberg.

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Proceedings, 9 th ICAANE, Basel 2014, Vol. 2, 183–194

Amélie Le Bihan

Religious Practices between Local Traditions and Greco-Roman Influences: Music in Religious Ceremonies of the Roman Near East Music accompanied all the events of the religious life in the Roman Near East. The objective of this study is double: to gather and confront the literary, epigraphic and iconographic sources on the music of the Roman Near East and to try and determine the role of music in the rites of the area and the instruments used. Alongside its profane use, music was an essential element of the liturgy. Its functions within the religious ceremonies were multiple. Music accompanied all the events of the religious life in the Ancient Near East, in Greece, in Rome as well as in the Roman Near East. During religious ceremonies, amateur or professional musicians played various instruments. They often appear in worship and banquet depictions next to the priests, the servants of the cult, the sovereigns or the other figures. Sanctuaries therefore employed male or female musicians to play during the religious ceremonies. We may ask ourselves about the place of music is in the cults of the Roman Near East. Unfortunately, not much is known, as past studies have displayed very little interest in that topic. We shall thus gather the available data on the subject: literary, epigraphic and iconographic sources, to try and determine the role of music in the rites of the area and the instruments used.

1. Ancient Texts Literary sources seem to confirm the huge popularity of music and dancing in cults of oriental origins. Music resounded inside and outside the enclosure of sanctuaries. Musicians played during animal sacrifices, processions, banquets and they accompanied the recitation of hymns as well. Ancient texts mention a variety of musical instruments used in the rites of

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the Roman Near East, especially wind instruments (flute, pipe) and percussions (castanets, tambourine, cymbal).

1.1. Hymns and Songs Accompanied by Music Ancient authors highlight the role of hymns and songs in the rites. In Egypt, they accompanied the rites. During the procession of the statue of Amon, in Siwa, young girls and women sing hymns in honor of the god: Συνακολουθεῖ δὲ πλῆθος παρθένων καὶ γυναικῶν παιᾶνας ᾀδουσῶν κατὰ πᾶσαν τὴν ὁδὸν καὶ πατρίῳ καθυμνουσῶν ᾠδῇ τὸν θεὸν (Diodorus of Sicily, XVII, 50, 6). In the temple of Kore in Alexandria, hymns are accompanied by flutes: ὅλην γὰρ τὴν νύκτα ἀγρυπνήσαντες ἐν ᾄσμασί τισι καὶ αὐλοῖς τῷ εἰδώλῳ (Epiphanius of Salamis, Panarion, IV, 22, 9). In The Metamorphoses, during the solemn procession of the Syrian Goddess, young people sing hymns (chorus) to the sound of pipes and flutes ( fistulae tibiaeque) (Apuleius, XI, 9). According to Lucian, in the sanctuary of the Syrian goddess at Hierapolis, musicians play the flute (ἐπαυλέουσι) and tambourine (τύμπανα παταγέουσιν) and sing inspired verses (ἔνθεα) and sacred songs (ἱρὰ ἄσματα) (Lucian, De Dea Syria, §50). In another passage, the priest, while saying prayers, strikes a brass instrument (ποίημα χάλκεον) that produces a very noisy sound (Lucian, De Dea Syria, §29). It is certainly a percussion instrument, perhaps cymbals or castanets rattlers. That shrill sound (τρηχὺ) was probably produced by the material of the object, made from brass. These accounts prove that songs and hymns were part of the rites honouring the gods. There were usually associated with music in sacrifices and various ritual acts made by the priests but also during the processions

1.2. Music and Dances in Religious Processions Herodian’s description of the procession of the black stone of Emesa in the city of Rome provides a lot of information about the use of music in religious processions. The march of the participants, the black stone and the Emperor moved forward to the sound of flutes, syrinx, tambourines, cymbals and other instruments. The Emperor appeared to the sound of flutes and tambourines (ἀυλοι̃ς καὶ τυμπάνοις) (Herodian, V, 5, 4). The author also insists on the dances performed by Elagabalus around the altar punctuated by various instruments: ὑπό τε ἀυλοι̃ς καὶ σύριγξι παντοδαπω̃ν τε ὀργάνων ἤχω (Herodian, V, 3, 8). In another excerpt, the Emperor danced around the altars, surrounded by women running alongside him and playing cymbals and tambourines: γύναιά τε ἐπιχώρια ἐχόρευε σὺν αὐτῷ περιθέοντα τοῖς βωμοι̃ς, κύμβαλα ἤ τύμπανα μετὰ χεῖρας φέροντα (Herodian, V, 5, 8).

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This image of the emperor dancing around an altar refers to an oriental tradition, it is a performance in contradiction to the Roman behaviour (Naerebout 2009: 150–157). These passages highlight the importance of music and dance in religious processions of the Roman Near East.

1.3. Music During Banquets Religious banquets occupied an important place as part of the rites of the Roman Near East. Strabo’s account confirms that musicians played during the meal: συσσίτια δὲ ποιοῦται κατὰ τρισκαίδεκαι ἀνθρώπους, μουσοργοὶ δὲ δύο τῷ συμποσίῳ ἑκάστω (Strabo, XVI, 4, 26). The word used by the Greek geographer allude to the musicians who played during the meetings and the banquets of thiasoi is μουσοργοὶ1. The presence of musicians at meetings of greek thiasoi is well-attested (Sokolowski 1969: 132, note 65). Epigraphy seems to confirm the existence of musicians in the Nabataean area.

1.4. A Noisy and Shrill Music According to ancient authors, the sound palette of the cults of oriental origins is different from that of traditional Greco-Roman cults: it is louder and more aggressive (ThesCRA II: 410). Christian authors seek to denigrate the nonsense of these rites. Firmicus Maternus (Firmicus Maternus, IV, 2) says that music was particularly present in the SyrianPhoenician cults (Brulé, Vendries 2001: 7). According to Nonnus, a Phoenician introduced the music festivals in honour of Dionysus, inventing tambourine, bells and cymbals of brass for this event (Nonnus, IX, 111–113). Apuleius, in his description of the procession of the Syrian goddess on the back of a donkey, insists on the music, the noise and the shouting that follow the procession: ab ingressu primo statim absonis ululatibus constrepentes fanatice provolant (Apuleius, VIII, 27). He mentions cymbals and castanets players (cymbalis and crotalis) (Apuleius, VIII, 24, 2); flute choir players (choraula) (Apuleius, VIII, 26, 5); fluteplayers (tibiae) (Apuleius, VIII, 27, IX, 9); pipes players ( fistulae) (Apuleius, IX, 9). However, it is necessary to be cautious about these accounts which constitute critics of paganism and oriental rites. Undoubtedly music, songs and dances took part in the religious ceremonies but we cannot determine if these acts were really «noisy, aggressive and exotic» by comparison with the traditional Greco-Roman rites. However, the use of instruments as cymbals and castanets as well as the tambourines may give this impression of «noise». Indeed they emit very different sounds from wind and stringed instruments mainly used in the Greco-Roman rites.

1

This word is also employed by Flavius Josephus: XV, 23, 5.

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2. Inscriptions The presence of musicians in Nabataea is confirmed by local inscriptions. Three Nabataean dedications from Petra mention a zmr’, «musician»2. These characters have a male name. In Wadi Ramm, an inscription also mentions a zmr’ (Milik 1972: 56). In Babylonia, we know a zmr’, accompanying the psalmody (Milik 1972: 55). According to J.-T. Milik, the zmrt’ belong to a higher category of musicians (Milik 1972: 56). Several inscriptions from Hatra confirm that musicians and singers were attached to the sanctuaries of the city. One tells of an singing attendant: rbqynt’ (Aggoula 1991: n° 202, III); another mentions female singers of Barmārēn: zmrt’ dbrmryn (Aggoula 1991: n° 202, XX); a third one mentions a male singer: zmr’ (Aggoula 1991: n° 219). That they were slaves seems to be confirmed by the following inscription: a law concerning the slaves of the temple (Aggoula 1991: n° 342).3 Thus, the singers (wqynt’) and the musicians (zmrt’) of the gods Maran, Martan and Barmārēn are not free and risk death if they leave the service of the gods. All these people, priests or members of a sanctuary or thiasoi it were of slavish status, as evidenced by them having one name only (Healey 2009: n° 78). An inscription kept in the Eretz Israel Museum (inv. MHA 162) tells of a flute player, called Ares: Ἄρης αὐλητὴς. He could be a musician playing in religious ceremonies and worship belonging in the personnel of a shrine to Ares (Cotton et al. 2010: 39–40, n° 1). These few inscriptions confirm that musicians and singers were incorporated into the personnel of the sanctuaries as well as in the thiasoi. According to the texts and the inscriptions, musicians and dancers took part in the religious ceremonies, especially processions and banquets.

2

3

CIS II 454: [ ?]šmw/jṭm’n/(?) nbṭw (?) zmrt’: «jṭm’n (?) [son of ?] nbṭw, the musician»; CIS II 457: dkjr ‘bdl’lhj zmr’, «In memory of ‘bdl’lhj, the musician»; CIS II 458: dkjr nṣr’lhj br/zmr’: «In memory of nṣr’lhj, son of the musician» (Lacerenza 1999: 610–611). hkyn psqw nrgl dḥ/špṭ’ wsnṭrwq mlk’/wr’yt rbyt’ w’sntq/qšyš’ dy kwl zmrt’/wqynt’ dy mrn wmrtn/ [w]brmyrn dy tšbw[q] mqmh/wt’zy[l.m]n dk’ bmwt’/dy ’lh’ [tmwt w]dy lnpq/zmrt[’…] lh gb’/bmwt’ dy ’[l]h’lmwt hw/[g]br’ š[ṭ]r [m]n snṭrwq/mlk’ d‘b[…b]r ‘mh/[…]m[…] wd[…] lšndrh/lbyt[…] ‘bydw dkyr: «Thus have dedided Nergal, chief of the guards, and King Sanaṭrūq and Ra’īt the administrator and Astanaq the elder, that any female musician or singer of Māran and Mārtan and Barmārēn who leaves her place and departs from office will die by the death of the gods and he who enables the (said) female musician to go out … for a hiding-place, by the death of the gods that man will die. Decree from King Sanaṭrūq, who … his people, when … he will sent it (or him) to the temple of… May ‘Ubaydu be remembered» (Aggoula 1991: n° 342).

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Fig. 1. Stela, Suweida Museum inv. 281 [170 (Sartre-Fauriat 2001: 284). Fig. 2. Graffito, Aphald’s sanctuary at Dura-Europos, New-Haven, Yale University Art Gallery inv. y-525 (Couronné 2011: Pl. 251).

3. Iconography Iconography provides a few images of musicians playing or holding musical instruments in their hands. Unfortunately, most of those images are isolated, cut off figures missing the context, circumstances in which they’re playing. The musicians are represented either alone, by two or by three. The musical instruments used are varied: flute, zither, lyre, tambourine, cymbals.

3.1. Reliefs and Graffiti On the frieze of the small temple of Baalbek, is depicted a religious procession involving servants of worship and sacrificial animals: two servants leading a bull, two offering carriers, a servant leading a ram, an assistant holding a box and finally a flute player. The processional cortege moves forward up to the sacrificial altar to the sound of the flute

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(Aliquot 2009: 87–90; Hajjar 1977: 109–111; Picard 1939: 319–343). This scene depicts therefore several members of the sacred staff, the musician among them. The lower frieze of the podium of Echmoun alludes to dance and music in religious scenes with ten figures in movement. At the centre, stand two musicians, one playing the flute, the other the zither. They are surrounded by two groups of women (priestesses or Muses?), five on the right, three left. They seem to dance around the musicians (Doumet-Serhal et al. 1997: 23 ; Stucky/Mathys 2000: 123–148). A musician is depicted on a large round stone from Shahba in Southern Syria (fig. 1). The woman is sitting on a chair. She is wearing a long tunic and a cloak. She is holding an object resting on her left leg. This object takes the shape of a kind of narrow, yet upward-flared board, with a round part at mid-height. This is most probably a musical instrument: a lyre. Indeed, the woman seems to make the gesture of pulling ropes with her right hand (Dentzer/ Dentzer-Feydy 1991: 137; Sartre-Fauriat 2001: 283–284; Suweida Museum inv. 281 [170]). Several graffiti found in room 1 of the Aphald’s sanctuary at Dura-Europos represent female dancers and musicians (Rostovtzeff 1934: 127–128, Couronné 2011: 259). The first one engraved on the north side of the niche shows two women dressed in long double robes, one playing the double flute and the second holding a box against her, perhaps cymbals or tambourine (fig. 2; New-Haven, Yale University Art Gallery inv. y-525). The second graffiti on the north side of the niche shows three women, dressed in long double robes, among which one also hold a musical instrument: a double flute (fig. 3; New-Haven, Yale University Art Gallery inv. y-524). The role of these women in the Aphlad’s sanctuary is uncertain. These graffiti raise the issue of interpretation: only the women playing double flute are definitely musicians, the status of the other women is not established (musicians, dancers?). Were these women members of the sacerdotal staff of Aphlad’s sanctuary (Milik 1972: 40)?

3.2. Terracotta A series of terracotta figurines found in Syria and Nabataea show female musicians playing various instruments. They are pictured alone, in pairs or by group of three. They may be sitting or standing. These female musicians carry different instruments. The drum/tambourine is the instrument the most often represented. As in a terracotta representing a woman standing, playing with both hands a drum, of which we can perceive the strap that hangs on the shoulder of the musician, allowing her to carry the instrument (Cumont 1917: 275–276; Louvre, inv. AO 6920). Drums and tambourines might origin from the Near East. Whether in these regions or in Egypt, tambourines are mainly used by women in all contexts. Many female terracotta figurines of the Old Babylonian period illustrate this aspect (Bel et al. 2012: 148).

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Fig. 3. Graffito, Aphalad’s sanctuary at Dura-Europos, New-Haven, Yale University Art Gallery inv. y-524 (Couronné 2011: Pl. 251). Fig. 4. Terracotta, Damascus National Museum, inv. 3248/7003 (Amiet 1983: n° 238).

The double-flute also appears regularly. It is an instrument made of two pipes of equal length, each being provided with a hip that the musician pinched between her lips. This instrument is always held in both hands by the player. This instrument is easily recognizable on the terracotta representing two standing musicians: the first one plays the small drum, the second the double flute (Amiet 1983: n° 283) (fig. 4; Damascus National Museum, inv. 3248/7003). In a few examples, the musicians play a stringed instrument (lyre or harp). On one of these terracottas, a woman is sitting, wearing a tunic. Her right hand rings the rope, the left hand holds a plectrum it in the shape of a hammer. The instrument is a lyre harp with an oblique crossbar and five double ropes of unequal length (Charles-Gaffiot et al. 2001: 234, n° 97; Abu-l-Faraj al-Usn et al. 1976: 97) (fig. 5; Damascus National Museum, inv. 5314/2650). In these representations are several associations of different instruments: drum or harp or lyre alone; association of double flute and drum ; association of two drums; association of double flute, harp and drum. Among this series of figurines, three show female musicians sitting on a camel. Such as the one with two musicians, sitting in a palanquin on a top of a camel. One plays the double flute, the other’s hand is placed on a cylindrical object, perhaps a tambourine (Amiet 1983: n° 284; Cumont 1917: 273–275) (fig. 6; Louvre, inv. AO 6619). These terracotta are similar

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Fig. 5. Terracotta. Damascus National Museum, inv. 5314/2650 (Charles-Gaffiot et al. 2001: 234, n° 97). Fig. 6. Terracotta. Louvre, inv. AO 6619 (Caubet 1990: 18).

with the images of processions with camel known in the Near East. These musicians could be sitting on a camel to accompany the divine image carried on another camel. The terracotta representing a group of three musicians is particularly interesting (fig. 7; Amman Archaeological Museum, inv. J5768). It represents a man flanked by two women sitting on a bench. On the left, the woman holds a lyre and vibrates the strings with her right hand. The man plays the double flute that he holds with both hands. The female musician on the right, holds in her hand a little instrument, most probably a tambourine. This group probably illustrates a sacred concert. These three musicians play various types of instruments: string, wind or percussion (Lacerenza 1999: 613–614; Bienkowski 1991: 55; Amiet 1983: n° 235 ; Homes-Fredericq 1980: n° 196).

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Fig. 7. Terracotta, Amman Archaeological Museum, inv. J5768 (Nehmé, Villeneuve 1999: 88).

It should be noted that these terracotta almost exclusively represent female musicians. We also saw that the graffiti of Dura-Europos represented women playing the flutes. It does raise the question of sacral music being played mostly by women in the Roman Near East. More female musicians than male musicians are mentioned in the archives of Mari. In this palace, in the year 6 of Zimri-Lin (1769 BC.) there were more than 200 female musicians, already trained or apprentices and more than 90 female musicians, designated as «great musicians.» These women played an important role in the cult (Ziegler 2006: 33–34).

3.3. Tesserae The tesserae it are tokens that give access to various meetings in the city of Palmyra: banquets, festive panegyrics, municipal or private meetings. Their faces are decorated with various scenes. The most illustrated themes are related to the banquet and the religious sphere.

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Three tesserae depict a double-flute and a syrinx (Ingholt et al. 1955: n° 230, 562, 581). These two wind instruments were probably used to entertain guests during banquets. A female dancer with torches was identified (?) in another representation (Ingholt et al. 1955: n° 1004). She could be a dancer participating in sacred banquets. Another tessera features two flute players flanking a priest (Ingholt et al. 1955: n° 127). These different representations of tesserae depict wind instruments: flute or double syrinx. They should allude to the music that accompanied the religious ceremonies and banquets worship. These few sources concerning music confirm that it occupied an important place in religious ceremonies. The accounts highlight its role in processions and in religious banquets but musicians probably played during sacrifices as well (incense offerings, libation and animal sacrifice). The instruments used were varied: wind and stringed instruments or percussions. Wind instruments (double flute, syrinx, flute) often accompany the rites as in the Greco-Roman Mediterranean world. On the contrary, stringed instruments are rather rare: only a few mentions and a few representations of those are known. In general, percussions (tambourine, cymbals, castanets) are frequently used in the Roman Near East but they are unusual in the cults of Greek and Roman world. The musicians playing the tambourine seem typical of the area. Thus, the music played during the religious ceremonies of the Roman Near East is very different of that played in Rome or in Greece.

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Bibliography Ancient Literary Sources Apuleius, The Metamorphoses. Translated by J.A. Hanson. Harvard University Press, Cambridge. 1989. Diodorus of Sicily, Library of History. Translated by C. Bradford Welles. Harvard University Press, Cambridge. 1963. Epiphanius of Salamis, Panarion. Translated by F. Williams. Leyde, E.J. Brill. 1987. Firmicus Maternus, The Error of the Pagan Religions. Translated by R. Turcan. Paris, Les Belles Lettres. 1982. Flavius Josephus, Jewish Antiquities. Translated by R. Marcus. Harvard University Press, Cambridge. 1998. Herodian, History of the Roman Empire. Translated by E.C. Echols. Los Angeles, University of California Press. 1961. Lucian, De Dea Syria. Lightfoot, J.L., On the Syrian goddess. Oxford, Oxford University Press. 2003. Nonnus, Dionysiaca. Translated by W.H.D. Rouse. Harvard University Press, Cambridge. 1962–1963. Strabo, The Geography. Translated by H.C. Jones. Harvard University Press, Cambridge. 1961.

Secondary Literature Abu-l-Faraj al-Usn, M., et al., 1976. Catalogue du Musée national de Damas. Damas. Aliquot, J., 2009. La vie religieuse au Liban sous l’Empire romain. Beyrouth. Amiet, P., 1983. Aux pays de Baal et d’Astarté ; 10000 ans d’art en Syrie, Musée du Petit Palais, 26 octobre 1983–8 janvier 1984. Paris. Bel, N., et al., 2012. L’Orient romain et byzantin au Louvre. Paris. Bienkowski, P., 1991. Treasures from an Ancient World. The Art of Jordan. Wolfeboro Falls. Brulé, P./Vendries, C., 2001. Chanter les dieux. Musique et religion dans l’Antiquité grecque et romaine. Rennes. Caubet, A., 1990. Aux sources du monde arabe: l’Arabie avant l’Islam. Paris. Charles-Gaffiot, J., et al., 2001. Moi, Zénobie reine de Palmyre. Milan. Cotton, H.M., et al., 2010. Corpus Inscriptionum Iudae/Palaestinae. Vol. 1: Jerusalem. Part. 1 n° 1–704. Berlin/Boston. Couronné, M., 2011. Les sanctuaires polythéistes d’Europos-Doura : recueil de données et pistes de réflexion. Thèse de doctorat, Université Paris IV. Cumont, F., 1917. La double Fortune des Sémites et les processions à dos de chameau. F. Cumont, Études syriennes. Paris, 273–276. Dentzer, J.-M./Dentzer-Feydy, J., 1991. Le djebel el arab. Histoire et patrimoine du Musée de Suweida. Paris. Doumet-Serhal, C., et al., 1997. Pierres et croyances. 100 objets sculptés des Antiquités du Liban. Beyrouth. Hajjar, Y., 1977. La triade d’Héliopolis-Baalbek, son culte et sa diffusion à travers les textes littéraires et les documents iconographiques et épigraphiques. Leyde.

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Healey, J., 2009. Aramaic Inscriptions & Documents of the Roman Period. Textbook of Syrian Semitic Inscriptions IV. Oxford. Homes-Fredericq, D., 1980. Inoubliable Pétra. Le royaume nabatéen aux confins du desert. Bruxelles. Ingholt, H., et al., 1955. Recueil des tessères de Palmyre. Paris. Lacerenza, G., 1999. Musici Nabatei. J. Duchesne-Guillemin, Monumentum Marcelle DuchesneGuillemin. Leuven, 605–622. Naerebout, F. G., 2009. Das Reich Tanzt. Dance in the Roman Empire and its Discontent. O. Hekster et al., Ritual Dynamics and Religious Change in the Roman Empire. Proceedings of the Eighth Workshop of the International Network Impact of Empire (Heidelberg, July 5–7, 2007). Leyde/ Boston, 143–158. Nehmé, V./Villeneuve, F., 1999. Pétra, métropole de l’Arabie antique. Paris. Picard, C., 1939. Les frises historiées autour de la cella et devant l’adyton, dans le temple de Bacchus à Baalbek. Mélanges syriens offerts à M. René Dussaud. Paris. Rostovtzeff, M., 1934. The Excavations at Dura-Europos: Preliminary Report of the Fifth Season of Work, October 1931–March 1932. New Haven. Sartre-Fauriat, A., 2001. Des tombeaux et des morts: monuments funéraires, société et culture en Syrie du Sud du Ier s. av. J.-C. au VIIe s. apr. J.-C. Beyrouth. Sokolowski, F., 1969. Lois sacrées des cités grecques. Paris. Stucky, R./Mathys, H.-P., 2000. Le sanctuaire sidonien d’Echmoun. Aperçu historique du site, des fouilles et des découvertes faites à Bostan ech-Cheikh. Baal 4, 123–148. Ziegler, N., 2006. Les musiciens de la cour de Mari. Dossiers d’archéologie et sciences des origines 310, 32–38.

Dr Amélie Le Bihan, Associate Researcher UMR 7041, ArScAn, APOHR (France).

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Proceedings, 9 th ICAANE, Basel 2014, Vol. 2, 195–207

Giulio Maresca

Echoes of Regional Traditions plus Western Typological Influences: Some Notes about the Post-Achaemenid Pottery Assemblage from the Italian Excavations at Qal‛a-ye Sam (Iran, Sistan) In 1964 some trenches were excavated at Qal‛a-ye Sam (Iran, Sistan) by an Italian team of IsMEO. The reappraisal of the unpublished ceramic assemblage reveals a pottery production which, despite Hellenistic morphological influences, still holds strong ties with the ceramic tradition attested in the region during the Achaemenid period.1 In the autumn of 1959, IsMEO (Istituto per il Medio ed Estremo Oriente) started its archaeological activities (1959–1978) in the eastern Iranian region of Sistan with a survey carried out by its Co-founder and President, Prof. Giuseppe Tucci2. After two preliminary campaigns in 1960 and 19613, from 1962 the attention of the IsMEO focused on the site of Dahāne-ye Gholāmān, in the vicinity of the village called Qal‘a-ye Now, at about 30 kilometres southeast from the city of Zabul. At Dahāne-ye Gholāmān, the late Prof. Umberto Scerrato4 1

2 3 4

The present reappraisal of the ceramic assemblage from the Italian excavations at Qal‘a-ye Sam is centred on the preliminary results of an ongoing research carried out in the frame of a wider scientific project based at the Università degli Studi di Napoli «L’Orientale» (UNO) under the direction by Prof. Bruno Genito (Chair of Iranian Archaeology and Art History). This project, Archaeo.Pro. Di.Mu.S (Archaeological Project Digital and Multimedia Sistan), aims at implementing a WebGIS to store and manage the chartaceous photographic dataset and (together with it) the huge amount of related archaeological information produced by the Italian archaeological activities of the 60’s and the 70’s at the sites of Dahāne-ye Gholāmān, Qal‘a-ye Tepe and Qal‘a-ye Sam (Genito/Maresca et al. 2013; Genito i. p.; Maresca i. p.). For this reason, this paper has to be considered strictly connected with the contribution by Genito et al. 2016. Briefly hinted at by IsMEO (Anonymous 1959). Reported in the IsMEO Journal (Anonymous 1961a: 82; 1961b). This paper is dedicated to the memory of the late Prof. Umberto Scerrato, Director of the Italian IsMEO Archaeological Mission at the historical sites of Dahāne-ye Gholāmān, Qal‘a-ye Sam and

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Fig. 1. General plan of Qal‘a-ye Sam drawn by Mr. Tullio Tamagnini in 1964 (IsMEO/IsIAO drawings archive; inventory no. 1330). Not to scale.

directed several seasons (1962–1965 and 1975–1977) of excavations and restoration activities5, revealing a noticeable complex of buildings of a possible Achaemenid period. Beside the main archaeological activities at Dahāne-ye Gholāmān, the scientific interest of the IsMEO team headed by Scerrato in Iranian Sistan was attracted by two other smaller sites. In 1961 and 1962 soundings were carried out at the citadel of Qal‘a-ye Tepe (about 15 kilometres north-east of Zabul), while in 1964 some trial trenches were excavated at the fortified site of Qal‘a-ye Sam (located at about 20 kilometres west of Dahāne-ye Gholāmān). The activities at Qal‘a-ye Tepe and Qal‘a-ye Sam had the aim to investigate the development

5

Qal‘a-ye Tepe in Iranian Sistan, in the year of the 10th anniversary of his demise (2004–2014). For this reason, all the pictures and the drawings shown (Figs. 1–6) are part of the IsMEO/IsIAO archive enriched also thanks to his scientific efforts. The results of those activities were published until the IsMEO Mission was active on the field (Scerrato 1962; 1966a; 1966b; 1970; 1972; 1979; Mariani 1977; 1979). Nevertheless, the attention of the IsMEO (later IsIAO, Istituto Italiano per l’Africa e l’Oriente) and (from 2003 onwards) of the Chair of Iranian Archaeology and Art History at UNO towards those archaeological excavations never ceased during the following decades, as testified by the publication of several contributions regarding various issues related to those scientific activities, as recently summarised (Genito 2012: 365–366; Genito/Maresca et al. 2013: 183–184; Genito i. p.).

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Fig. 2. Detail of a segment of the mudbrick wall at Qal‘a-ye Sam as seen from the exterior (IsMEO/IsIAO photographic archive; inventory no. 4328/3).

both of the settlement patterns and the ceramic sequence during post-Achaemenid phases of the historical period in that area.6

6

The results of those soundings, unfortunately, were never published in detail; they were just hinted at in the publication regarding building QN3 at Dahāne-ye Gholāmān (Scerrato 1966a: 466–467), in the communication written by Scerrato for the Dante Alighieri Society in Florence (Scerrato 1970: 136–139) and in the brief communication on the IsMEO archaeological activities in Sistan read during the Fifth International Congress on Iranian Art and Archaeology held in April 1968 at Tehran (Scerrato 1972: 202–203). In recent years, nevertheless, the writer carried out a preliminary synthesis of the results from the excavation trenches at Qal‘a-ye Sam (Maresca 2008: 68–70) as well as a preliminary reappraisal of the pottery brought to light during those activities (Maresca 2008: 135–139). Also the data from the soundings at Qal‘a-ye Tepe and the related pottery fragments were object of some preliminary studies (Maresca 2008: 70–72, 123–130; Olimpo 2009).

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Fig. 3. The monumental entrance at Qal‘a-ye Sam as seen from the exterior (IsMEO/IsIAO photographic archive; inventory no. 3067/2).

Located at about 27 kilometres south-west of Zabul, towards the western limit of the present-day Hilmand delta, in the vicinity of Sekuhe, the citadel of Qal‘a-ye Sam7, whose ancient name remains unknown, was founded on the top of a slightly elevated alluvial deposit. The perimeter of the wall surrounding the citadel (figs. 1–2) has a sub-quadrangular shape, with a blunted north-eastern edge, following both the natural conformation of the terrain and the course of an ancient canal, which was still partially in use at the time of the excavations by the IsMEO team. A monumental entrance defended by two towers (fig. 3) gave access into the citadel by means of a street having a ENE-WSW orientation. After a brief survey in 1960, the IsMEO Archaeological Mission carried out some trenches in 1964, together with the drawing of a preliminary plan (fig. 1) including the structures visible inside the perimeter of the citadel. According to the extant information8, the excava7 8

The site had been already reported by other scholars (Tate 1910–12: I, 238; Fairservis 1961: 39, site no. 6). If we exclude the already mentioned brief reports by Scerrato (see note no. 6) and some information given by the excavator of Kuh-e Khwaje (Gullini 1966: 303–304, figs. 231–235), no further details

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Fig. 4. Structural remains excavated at Qal‘a-ye Sam in 1964 (IsMEO/IsIAO photographic archive; inventory no. 4334/6).

tions discovered structural remains (fig. 4) pertaining to at least two different chronological phases (each of them divided in several sub-phases). A third and more ancient phase, indeed, was detected and partially investigated only in one of the trenches and, on the basis of the ceramic evidence, was dated to the late-Seleucid/early-Parthian period. Unfortunately, further excavations were not carried out in the following years to confirm such a chronological attribution9.

9

about the excavations at Qal‘a-ye Sam were published. New data are expected from the ongoing reappraisal of the documental archive at our disposal in Italy (since the year 2003 progressively transferred from IsIAO in Rome to CISA – Centro Interdipartimentale di Servizi di Archeologia – at UNO, in order to be entirely digitalised), made up mostly by photographic material and excavation drawings (Maresca i. p.). In 1973 Scerrato carried out a brief survey, probably in order to plan new soundings (Anonymous 1973: 418), but the excavations were never resumed.

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The corpus of ceramics coming from the excavations at Qal‘a-ye Sam has never been published in a complete way.10 The assemblage representing the main object of this paper is made up by about two hundred ceramic fragments transferred to Italy in the late 60’s of the last century, on the basis of an agreement between IsMEO and the former Imperial Service for the Antiquities of Iran. While some objects were stored at MNAOr (Museo Nazionale d’Arte Orientale) – presently MNAO (Museo Nazionale d’Arte Orientale «Giuseppe Tucci») – in Rome, the great bulk of the fragments were stored at the Centro Scavi of the IsMEO (later IsIAO, Istituto Italiano per l’Africa e l’Oriente), in Rome. Since 2011, nevertheless, the fragments previously at the Centro Scavi are stored at the CISA (Centro Intedipartimentale di Servizi per l’Archeologia) at UNO (Università degli Studi di Napoli «L’Orientale»), in Naples. Despite the limited number of ceramic fragments in the assemblage from Qal’a-ye Sam at our disposal in Italy, it has been possible to distinguish several different ceramic fabrics on a macroscopic level11, even if the most frequently attested are the ones labelled as Fabric QS112 and Fabric QS213.

10 However, preliminary information was given in some papers by Scerrato (see note no. 6), in a

general work on the pottery from the Parthian Period in Iran (Haerinck 1983: 214–222, figs. 36–37 and Pl. XIV: 1–6), in a review-article of the latter monograph (Vogelsang 1985: 167–169), in the catalogue of an exhibition held at the Museo Nazionale d’Arte Orientale in Rome (D’Amore 1999) and in a preliminary article by Genito (2010: 104, n. 3, fig. 5). 11 Fabrics have been named after the first letters of the site name (QS), followed by a progressive numeration; the fabrics sharing some common features have been named as belonging to the same «family» (e.g. Fabric QS1, QS1.1 etc.). It is possible, however, that this number will increase or decrease in the light of further archaeometric analyses on the ceramic fragments at our disposal, clarifying if fabrics presently retained as different at a macroscopic level should instead be considered as numerable among the existing ones or vice versa. 12 Fabric QS1 has a light red (2.5 YR 6/8), quite compact clay body and presents a fracture of slightly granular appearance. A series of quite frequent inclusions are distributed with uniformity; the most characteristic of them present a small or medium size, a rounded morphology and a white-yellowish colour; small and round dark-grey inclusions are also present but with lower frequency. Quite small pores (both bladed and circular) are uniformly distributed in the ceramic body. Surfaces are usually covered by a quite thick slip, almost always red (similar to 10 R 4/8). 13 Fabric QS2 has a reddish yellow (5YR 7/6), compact and very well refined clay body; the fracture presents a very neat even if slightly granular appearance. At a macroscopic level there are only traces of extremely small and sporadic inclusions having round shape and white-yellowish or darkgrey colour. The external surfaces are sometimes covered by a thin light slip (similar to 10 YR 8/4). Very often, moreover, surfaces can present a quite thick slip of a lacquer-red (similar to 10 R 4/8) or dark-orange (similar to 5 YR 7/8) colour.

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Fig. 5. Main vessel forms discussed in the text (photographs and drawings from the IsMEO/IsIAO archive). Not to scale.

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Fig. 6. Examples of Dipinta Storica Sistana and of burnished wares (photographs from the IsMEO/IsIAO archive).

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As already pointed out in the case of the Achaemenid pottery production attested at Dahāne-ye Gholāmān14, also in the post-Achaemenid pottery production at Qal’a-ye Sam a substantial morphological uniformity in the ceramic repertoire despite manufacturing differences in the fabrics (and/or in the decoration techniques) of the vessels is a clear indication of a low morpho-typological specialisation of the fabrics detected. From the morpho-typological point of view, the Achaemenid heritage (represented by – but not limited to – the ceramic production at Dahāne-ye Gholāmān), seems to be still quite strong and very well detectable in the ceramic assemblage at the issue (at least at this preliminary stage of the research), principally in the case of the carinated cup with horizontal rim (fig. 5: nos. 204, 234)15 and in the case of the so-called «tulip bowls» (fig. 5: nos. 235, 236)16. At the same time, particularly evident is the innovative morphological contribution of the Hellenistic tradition, notably in table wares such as «fishplates» (fig. 5: nos. 8, 140) or the bowls with incurving rim («echinus bowls»; fig. 5: nos. 106–107)17 and in some medium size «krater-like» vessels (fig. 5 nos. 81, 147). Burnished pottery18 (fig. 6: nos. 135, 137–138, 233), attested in the same fabrics of the common or painted vessels, usually displays on the external surface (in some case the internal or, sometimes, both on the internal and the external) a series of burnished lines, almost always horizontal and parallel, at quite regular intervals of 0,2–0,3 centimetres. Less frequently, burnished lines run vertically on the vessels or, in some cases, they can cross each others in the vicinity of the rim in a zig-zag pattern. But the most characteristic class of ceramics attested at Qal’a-ye Sam is certainly the one which at the time of the excavations was named «Dipinta Storica Sistana»19 (fig. 6: nos. 81, 80–82, 164, 166, 169, 207), in order to be distinguished from the proto-historic painted pottery 14 The degree of morphological and functional specialization of the eleven fabrics distinguished at

Dahāne-ye Gholāmān is indeed very low (Maresca 2010: 430).

15 These vessels are frequently attested in the region at Dahāne-ye Gholāmān (Scerrato 1962: fig.

16

17

18

19

13 nos. 7–15, fig. 15 no. 14; Idem 1966: figs. 52, 53, 58, 59, 61; Genito 1990: 592–593, fig. 1e; Maresca 2010: fig. 2 no. 52, fig. 3 nos. 66, 86, 18, fig. 6 nos. 99, 74, fig. 7 no. 53, fig. 8 no. 56, fig. 9 nos. 102, 102) and also at Nad-i Ali (Dales 1977: 53, 97, Type F2). The so-called «tulip-bowls», a category of vessels variously labelled by scholars, have been since long time recognized as one of the most characteristic vessel forms of the Achaemenid period in Iran (see e.g. Cattenat/Gardin 1977: 235, Type E, fig. 5). These vessel forms are considered as «leitfossils» of the Hellenistic period, even if, particularly in the case of fishplates, Hannestad has stressed that they often continued to be manufactured into the Parthian period (Hannestad 1983: 30). Published examples of this class of pottery from the region come from Kuh-e Khwaje (Gullini 1964: 224–239, figs. 168–175), but this class of pottery seems to be more widely attested in Afghanistan (Haerinck 1983: 220–222). Fragments from the region belonging to this class of pottery were published from Kuh-e Khwaje (Gullini 1964: 229, 231–232, 234–237, 239, figs. 169, 175), where it was erroneously dated to the Achaemenid period (Gullini 1964: 240), and from Nad-i Ali (Dales 1977: pl. 24).

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widely attested in the region. This ceramic class is characterised by a peculiar painted decoration in red, wine-red, ochre, brown and dark brown, sometimes limited to the rim but more often covering also the shoulder or the upper portion of the vessel. Almost always monochromatic, the decoration consists mostly of geometric patterns (multiple superimposed upside-down «V», rectangles divided in four portions by diagonal lines, cross-shaped motifs, single or multiple rows of traits or dots, sometimes set within metope frames) but also, quite rarely, of stylised phytomorphic motifs (sheaves of wheat or hydrophytes). The Dipinta Storica Sistana has to be dated back to the post-Achaemenid period (Parthian, possibly starting from late-Seleucid), by virtue of its stratigraphic connection with several ceramic fragments bearing Greek letters incised and with some ostraka with inscriptions in cursive Greek 20. In addition, fragments of this ceramic class were found at Dahāne-ye Gholāmān in some layers to be related to a very late, post-Achaemenid chronological phase of the site21. In the frame of the Archaeo.Pro.Di.Mu.S. project, having at our disposal both Achaemenid ceramic materials from Dahāne-ye Gholāmān and post-Achaemenid fragments from Qal’a-ye Sam, preliminary mineralogical and petrographic analyses were undertook in collaboration with the DiSTAR (Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, Ambiente e Risorse) at the Università di Napoli «Federico II»22. The aim was to evaluate elements of technical continuity and/or discontinuity in the ceramic production in that area of Sistan between the Achaemenid and post-Achaemenid period. At this initial stage of the research, the intriguing similarity shown at a macroscopic level between two of the most frequently attested pottery fabrics in the assemblage from Qal’a-ye Sam (Fabric QS1 and QS2) and three pottery fabrics attested in the assemblage from Dahāne-ye Gholāmān (Fabric DG1.2, DG3, DG3.823), was one of the first issues to be analysed. Thin section microscopy of the selected samples revealed that Fabric DG1.2 and DG3 are characterised by a strongly birefringent ceramic matrix, indicating a relatively low firing temperature. Moreover, poorly sorted inclusions would suggest that no particular care was paid for the preparation of the ceramic pastes. Higher firing temperature was instead evaluated for the sample of Fabric DG3.8, since the isotropic matrix observed indicates 20 One of them, in particular, in a quite good state of preservation, carrying an inscription consisting of

thirteen lines, today stored at the Museo Nazionale d’Arte Orientale in Rome (D’Amore 1999: 80 and Pl. XI, cat. no. 100), was dated to the middle III century (Pugliese Carratelli 1966: 34 and fig. 6). 21 Probably when the city had already been abandoned by its inhabitants (Scerrato 1962: 188, no. X; Scerrato 1966: 464–465, n. 20; Scerrato 1972: 203). 22 I would like to express my deepest gratitude to Prof. Vincenzo Morra, Dr. Alberto De Bonis and Dr. Vincenza Guarino of the DiSTAR for their precious collaboration and scientific advising. 23 The macroscopic features and the main vessel forms so far attested for DG1.2, DG3 and DG 3.8 have been already discussed by the writer (Maresca 2008: 113, 115, 119–120 and figs. 3a, 3b, 5, 9a, 9b; Maresca 2010: 426–429 and figs. 3, 5, 9).

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that vitrification of the ceramic body was achieved during firing. By contrast, the samples from Qal’a-ye Sam both reveal a relatively high firing temperature, being characterised by an isotropic (Fabric QS2) or weakly birefringent (Fabric QS1) ceramic matrix. Moreover, abundant and well sorted inclusions, mostly represented by coarse, angular quartz grains, were carefully selected and crushed to be used as temper. Both samples from Dahāne-ye Gholāmān (DG1.2, DG3 and DG3.8) and from Qal’a-ye Sam (QS1 and QS2) showed a similar petrographic composition, characterised by inclusions mostly represented by abundant quartz and minor feldspars (alkali feldspar, plagioclase), and lower amounts of sandstone, micas (biotite and muscovite), and amphibole. This means that similar raw materials, widely available in the area, were likely used for a long period, thus representing an element of continuity for the investigated ceramic productions. The main differences observed, instead, are due to the optical activity of the ceramic matrix and to the sorting of the inclusions. This would suggest that some technological features changed over time, testifying a certain discontinuity between the ceramic productions attested at the two sites and, probably, on a more general level, between the ceramic production in the area during the Achaemenid and the post-Achaemenid period.

Bibliography Anonymous, 1959. IsMEO Activities. East and West 10, 234. –

1961a. IsMEO Activities. East and West 12, 82–83.

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1961b. IsMEO Activities. East and West 12, 290.

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1973. IsMEO Activities. East and West 23, 418–420.

Cattenat, A./Gardin, J. C., 1977. Diffusion comparée de quelques genres de poterie caractéristiques de l’époque Achéménide sur le plateau Iranien et en Asie Central. J. Deshayes (ed.), Le plateau Iranien et l’Asie Central des origines à la conquête Islamique. Colloques internationaux du C.N.R.S. 567. Paris, 225–248. Dales, G. F, 1977. New Excavations at Nad-i Ali (Sorkh Dagh), Afghanistan. Centre for South and SouthEast Asian Studies, University of California, Brerkeley. California Research Monographs 16. Berkeley. D’Amore, P., 1999. La ceramica achemenide e partico-sasanide dell’Iran orientale. P. D’Amore (ed.), L’argilla e il Tornio. Tecniche e tipologie vascolari iraniche dal Periodo del Ferro all’età dell’Impero Sasanide. Museo Nazionale d’Arte Orientale. Roma, 77–80. Fairservis, W. A., 1961. Archaeological studies in the Seistan basin of Southwestern Afghanistan and Eastern Iran. Anthropological Papers of the American Museum of Natural History. Vol. 48.1. New York.

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Genito, B., 1990. The Most Frequent Pottery Types at Dahān-e Gholāmān (Sistan) and Their Spatial Variability. M. Taddei/P. Callieri (eds.), South Asian Archaeology 1987: Proceedings of the Ninth International Conference of the Association of South Asian Archaeologists in Western Europe, held in the Fondazione Giorgio Cini, Island of San Giorgio Maggiore, Venice. Vol. 2. Rome, 587–604. –

2010. From the Achaemenids to the Sasanians. Dāhān-e Gholāmān, Qalʼa-ye Sam, Qalʼa-ye Tapa: Archaeology, Settlement and Territory in Sīstān (Iran). P. Callieri/L. Colliva (eds.), South Asian Archaeology 2007. Proceedings of the 19th Meeting of the European Association of South Asian Archaeology in Ravenna, Italy, July 2007, Vol. II, 101-110. BAR International Series 2133. Oxford.

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2012. An Achaemenid Capital of the Imperial Periphery: Zranka/Drangiana/Sistan. A.V. Rossi/G.P. Basello (eds.), Persepolis and its Settlements: Territorial System and Ideology in the Achaemenid State. Dariosh Studies II. Università degli Studi di Napoli “L’Orientale”. Napoli, 365–386.

Genito, B. (ed.), i. p. Digital Archaeology from the Iranian Plateau (1962–1977). Collected papers on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the demise of Umberto Scerrato. Università degli Studi di Napoli “L’Orientale”. Genito, B./Maresca, G. et al., 2013. Preliminary Steps Towards a WebGIS about the Italian Archaeological Activities at Dahāne-ye Gholāmān (Sistan, Iran): ArchaeoPro.Di.Mu.S. Newsletter di Archeologia CISA 4, 183–208. Genito, B. et al., 2016. A WebGIS about the Italian Archaeological Activities in Sistan, Iran (60s–70s of the XXth century): Archaeo.Pro.Di.Mu.S. R. A. Stucky et al., Proceedings of the 9th International Congress on the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East (9. ICAANE), Vol 3. Wiesbaden 2016, 393–404. Gullini, G., 1964. Architettura iranica dagli Achemenidi ai Sasanidi. Il “Palazzo” di Kuh-i Khwagia (Seistan). Torino. Haerinck, E., 1983. La céramique en Iran pendant la période parthe (ca. 250 av. J.C. à ca. 225 après J.C.): typologie, chronologie et distribution. Iranica Antiqua Supplément II. Gent. Hannestad, L., 1983. Iran, Ikaros. The Hellenistic Settlements II. The Hellenistic Pottery from Failaka with a survey of Hellenistic Pottery in the Near East. Aarhus. Mariani, L., 1977. The Operations Carried out by the Italian Restoration Mission in Sistan 1975–1976 (2534–2535). Campaign Conservation of the Mud-brick Structures in the Sacred Building N. 3 at Dahan-e Ghulaman, and the Detachment of the Fresco in the Palace at Kuh-i Khwaga. Roma. –

1979. Conservation Work on Building 3 at Dahan-e Ghulaman, Sistan. M. Taddei (ed.), South Asian Archaeology 1977: Papers from the Fourth International Conference of the Association of South Asian Archaeologists in Western Europe, held in the Istituto Universitario Orientale, Naples. Vol. 2. Napoli, 737–758.

Maresca, G., 2008. Insediamenti e cultura materiale nel Sistan (Iran orientale) di epoca storica, I dati delle missioni archeologiche dell’Is.M.E.O. Dottorato di Ricerca in Archeologia (Rapporti tra Oriente ed Occidente), V Ciclo N.S., Università degli Studi di Napoli “L’Orientale”. Unpublished PhD Dissertation.

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2010. Reconsidering the Pottery from Dahān-i Ghulāmān (Iran, Sistān – 6th century BC): Some Preliminary Production-related Typological Observations. P. Matthiae et al. (eds.), Proceedings of the 6th International Congress on the Archaeology of Ancient Near East, May, 5th–10th 2008, “Sapienza” Università di Roma. Vol. I. Wiesbaden, 423–432.

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i. p. Bytes from Ink/Ink from Bytes: the Complexity of Data from the Italian Archaeological Activities at Dahāne-ye Gholāmān, Qal‘a-ye Sam and Qal‘a-ye Tepe. B. Genito (ed.), Digital Archaeology from the Iranian Plateau (1962–1977). Collected papers on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the demise of Umberto Scerrato. Università degli Studi di Napoli “L’Orientale”.

Olimpo, A., 2009. Qal’a-ye Tepe, Sistan, Iran: Scavo e Materiali degli Anni’60. Università degli Studi di Napoli “L’Orientale”. Unpublished MA Thesis in Archeologia e Storia dell’Arte Iranica. Università degli Studi di Napoli “L’Orientale”, Napoli. Pugliese Carratelli, G., 1966. Greek Inscriptions of the Middle East. East and West 16, 31–36. Scerrato, U., 1962. A Probable Achaemenid Zone in Persian Sistan. East and West 13, 186–197. –

1966a. L’edificio sacro di Dahan-i Ghulaman (Sistan). Atti del Convegno sul Tema: la Persia e il Mondo Greco-romano (Roma, 11–14 aprile 1965). Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, Quaderno 76. Roma, 457–477.

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1966b. Excavations at Dahan-i Ghulaman (Seistan-Iran), First Preliminary Report (1962–1963).

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1970. La Missione Archeologica Italiana nel Sistan Persiano. Il Veltro 14.1-2, 123–140.

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1972. Missions archéologiques italiennes au Sistan. The Memorial Volume of the V International

East and West 16, 9–30.

Congress of Iranian Art and Archaeology. Tehran-Isfahan-Shiraz, 11th–18th April 1968. Vol. I. Tehran, 200–203. –

1979. Evidence of Religious Life at Dahan-e Ghulaman, Sistan. M. Taddei (ed.), South Asian Archaeology 1977: Papers from the Fourth International Conference of the Association of South Asian Archaeologists in Western Europe, held in the Istituto Universitario Orientale, Naples. Vol. 2. Napoli, 709–735.

Tate, G. P., 1910–12. Seistan. A Memoir on the History, Topography, Ruins and People of the Country. Calcutta. Vogelsang, W., 1985. Parthian-Period Pottery from Iran. Archäologische Mitteilungen aus Iran 18, 157-172.

Giulio Maresca, Università degli Studi di Napoli «L’Orientale» (UNO).

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Proceedings, 9 th ICAANE, Basel 2014, Vol. 2, 209–220

Alessandro Poggio

Which Language for the Dynastic Message? The Role of the Hellenic Culture in 4th-Century Lycia The Nereid Monument from Xanthos, a dynastic tomb displaying a complex decoration including reliefs and free-standing sculptures, is a useful case study to assess the role of the Hellenic culture in shaping the Lycian tradition into a new dynastic language in the 4th century BCE. Lycia is a well-defined region located in the south-western part of Anatolia and characterized by high mountains, fertile alluvial plains and uplands. Ancient Lycians were distinguished by a language related to Luwian and by a peculiar artistic production dating back to the timespan between the 6th and 4th centuries BCE.1 The majority of the surviving monuments are recognized as the tombs of local dynasts, thus their analysis may cast light not only on artistic issues but also on the ideology of power that Lycian rulers promoted.2 Although Lycia offers a well-studied context with respect to the interaction of local cultures with Hellenic and Persian elements, more attention should be devoted to identifying different phases of these cultural phenomena distinguished by the political ones. In the 6th century BCE Persians conquered Lycia (Hdt. 1.176.1–3) and the Lycians fought on their side in 480 BCE during the Second Persian War (Hdt. 7.98). In the central decades of the 5th century BCE, instead, Lycia belonged to the Delian League, the Athenian naval alliance, until about 430 BCE (Des Courtils 2007a). Lycia was divided into potentates warring amongst themselves, but Xanthos was prominent at least in central Lycia (Domingo Gygax 2001: 68–77).

1 2

On Lycia, Keen 1998; Marksteiner 2010. On Lycian art, Bruns-Özgan 1987; Jacobs 1987; Draycott 2007; Colas-Rannou 2009; Prost 2012; Poggio 2010, 2011 and 2012. For the dynastic features of these tombs, Keen 1992.

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A sign of competition among dynasts were the funerary monuments that assumed the shape of pillars crowned by a burial chamber. This typology of dynastic tomb − widespread up to the end of the 5th century BCE − became increasingly taller marking the landscape of Lycian settlements. The Harpy Tomb of Xanthos − dating back to the second quarter of the 5th century BCE − was a proper turning point in the development of this kind of monumental burial, for numerous reasons: the proportions, the iconography of the reliefs, and the material used (Draycott 2007; Poggio 2010). The tallest pillar tomb was the Inscribed Pillar, a monolith inscribed on its four sides and decorated on top by reliefs and presumably by a statue of the dynast (Asheri 1983: 85–97, 167–168; Domingo Gygax/Tietz 2005). Its Lycian and Greek inscriptions attest a marked self-consciousness of the ruling power, defining the end of the 5th century BCE as a crucial phase for the development of a more precise dynastic ideology in the region. Indeed, this tendency is confirmed by the inscriptions referred to Arbinas as well, who ruled in Xanthos at the beginning of the 4th century BCE (cf. Prost 2012). Generally, to this dynast it is assigned the Nereid Monument, now displayed in the British Museum at London (Keen 1992: 59).3 This tomb was built at the beginning of the 4th century BCE (c. 390–380). The innovative elements of such building are noteworthy both within the local context and in a wider view:

A. Location The Nereid Monument stood on a terrace located at the southern edge of the settlement, in such a way as to dominate the Valley of Xanthos. In the 5th century BCE, instead, the dynastic tombs were concentrated around the so-called ‹agora› (Keen 1998: 147).4

B. Architecture The Nereid Monument is an ionic temple-like tomb standing on a podium (fig. 1; Coupel/ Demargne 1969). Such choice is a marked departure from the 6th–5th centuries BCE pattern of pillar tomb I mentioned before.

3 4

On the Nereid Monument, see Coupel/Demargne 1969; Childs 1973 (in particular on the dating); Bruns-Özgan 1987: 35–52; Childs/Demargne 1989; Prost 2012 and 2013. On the history of the southern area of Xanthos, Des Courtils 2007b: 160; 2012: 155–157. On the identification of the buildings on the so-called ‹acropolis› as dynastic tombs, see Draycott 2015.

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Fig. 1. The Nereid Monument from Xanthos, eastern facade. London, British Museum. © Trustees of the British Museum.

C. Materials Of the Lycian dynastic monuments, only the Nereid Monument was made extensively in marble, with the lower rows of the podium in local limestone (Prost 2013). Before, marble − if used − was limited to the decorated frieze of the pillar tombs. Moreover, a further

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noteworthy feature is the combination of different white marbles according to their specific properties: analysis seems to confirm the use of Parian marble for the majority of the free-standing sculptures, while Anatolian marble was used for other parts of the monument (Childs/Demargne 1989: 16–17; Walker/Hughes 2010: 447–451; Higgs 2006: 165–166).

D. Decoration The deeds of the owner of the tomb were richly displayed in a heroic celebration through images: battles, hunts, a banquet scene and other court scenes. The figure of the dynast was repeated several times in these ‹chapters› of his pictorial biography.5 All the aforementioned aspects reveal important innovations in comparison with the Lycian funerary tradition. In particular, architecture, materials and decoration allow evaluating the role of the Hellenic culture in Lycia at the beginning of the 4th century. In this paper I will focus on decoration. As a proper temple the tomb was decorated by two pediments, which are characterized by different themes. If the eastern side is markedly static, with a group of standing figures around a central sitting couple, the western pediment depicted a battle scene, probably with the dynast as a triumphant rider. As to the eastern pediment, which is the focus in this paper, in the 19th century it was alternatively interpreted either as a divine assembly with a seated god and goddess or as the dynast and his wife, sorrounded by the court (figs. 2–3).6 The latter hypothesis is now largely shared by scholars. In the pediment the dynast and his wife are shown in the center sitting on two thrones, facing each other, with two smaller figures standing between them. The dynast, on the right, is represented as a bearded man with long hair. He wears a large himation, covering the lower part of his body passing behind his back and onto his left shoulder. In his right hand he holds a sceptre. A dog lies curled up beneath the throne: a dog, probably the same animal, is sculpted also on the banquet frieze beneath the dynast’s couch (Michaelis 1875: 162). To the left his wife is seated with the right arm resting on the back of the throne, while with her left hand she holds the mantle out in a bridal gesture, the so-called anakalypsis.7 The two smaller draped figures are generally interpreted as the son and the daughter of the 5 6

7

On funerary figurative programmes from the Western part of the Achaemenid Empire, lastly Jacobs 2014. London, British Museum, Inv. nos. 1848, 1020.125 and 1976, 0302.1 (Sculpture 924). For the debate, Childs/Demargne 1989: 292–293. For the two main interpretations – divine or dynastic figures – see Fellows 1848: 11 and Michaelis 1875: 157-164. For this gesture in Lycia, Poggio 2007: 73; Tofi 2006: 676–679.

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Which Language for the Dynastic Message? … Hellenic Culture in 4th-Century Lycia

Fig. 2. The Nereid Monument from Xanthos, eastern pediment, central and right sections. London, British Museum. © Trustees of the British Museum.

Fig. 3. The Nereid Monument from Xanthos, left section. London, British Museum. © Trustees of the British Museum.

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couple. That standing close to the dynast has no head, however it is normally interpreted as a boy, while the other small figure close to the dynast’s wife is a female who stands and places both hands on her lap. This central group is flanked to left and right by standing figures of diminishing size (figs. 2–3). These figures, eleven in total, are of a smaller scale than the central group, for a principle of hierarchy combined with the spatial limits defined by the pedimental field. To the right of the observer stand a group of six male figures, draped in himatia. To the left, five figures stand, two males and three females. They may represent members of the entourage: members of the family, dignitaries and servants behind the throne of the wife of the dynast. A dog lies in the angle at the far right. The most quoted model for the pediment of the Nereid Monument is the Parthenon east frieze, in particular the figures of Hera and Zeus. Here, both of them are seated: Hera as goddess of marriage makes the bridal gesture of holding out her veil, while Zeus’ attitude is relaxed, with the left arm resting on the back of the throne and the right hand holding a sceptre on his knee. Moreover, the himation of the god is covering only the lower part of the body, as the dynast in Xanthos, scholars have pointed out (Michaelis 1875: 155 note 272; Demargne 1981: 588; Childs/Demargne 1989: 293). Nevertheless, the overall composition is totally different. Firstly, Zeus and Hera on the Parthenon frieze are flanked. Secondly, on this frieze only Zeus is seated on a throne, while Hera has a simple diphros as the other gods. Thirdly, the divine assembly on the Athenian building is not composed as a closed group, but the meeting is open toward the procession: the gods are relaxed and distant – but present – observers of the human actions.8 The dynastic family at Xanthos, instead, is a distinct and separate unit in a hierarchical representation. This particular structure of the pedimental decoration fits with a local tradition, in other words to a precise expectation of the viewers. Seated figures belonging to a family group were already present on the Harpy Tomb, dating back one century before.9 With regard to the composition of the central part of the pediment, a significant comparison is represented by a Boeotian grave relief from Thebes (Rodenwaldt 1940: 45): it shows two seated people facing each other and standing figures in the middle (Kaltsas 2002: 164–165 no. 325; Athens, National Museum, Inv. no. 1861). A similar arrangement is present on a further stele of unknown provenance in the National Museum of Athens (Clairmont 1993: cat. 4.830; Athens, National Museum, Inv. no. 1023). It is, indeed, the coeval productions of Attic reliefs − funerary stelae and votive reliefs − that offers the most

8 9

For the Parthenon frieze, see Neils 2001, esp. 161–166 on the gods. Demargne stressed the relation with the hittite and syro-hittite arts (Childs/Demargne 1989: 293 note 198). It is a «Lycian motif» according to Rodenwaldt (1940). On the Harpy Tomb, Rudolph 2003; Draycott 2007: 119–127; Poggio 2007: 72 note 29.

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interesting comparisons with our pediment (Bruns-Özgan 1987: 47–49; Nieswandt 2011: 298–301). Probably, it is not by chance that the pedimental figures of Xanthos are not rendered in round, as usual in the decoration of Greek temples in Classical period, but as relief panels (Jenkins 2006: 199).10 Demargne stressed the intimate gesture of the young girl placing her hands on the lap of the seated woman. With regards to this gesture the French scholar proposed a comparison with an Attic stele from the Kerameikos, now at the National Museum of Athens (Childs/ Demargne 1989: 294 note 204). A woman is seated bending towards her child, who is leaning against her knees (Kaltsas 2002: 184 no. 363; Athens, National Museum, Inv. no. 723). A similar situation is detectable on a stele from the Piraeus (Clairmont 1993: cat. no. 2.878; Bergemann 1997: 168 no. 400; Piraeus, Archaeological Museum, Inv. no. 290). The attitude of the dynast is not very distant from that of the man represented on a stele now in New York, dating back to the first half of the 4th century BCE: it belongs to the family-type stelae (Leader 1997: 696–697). The bearded elderly man and his majestic pose offer a good comparison for the dynast in Xanthos, although the quality of the work is different. His body is slightly represented in three-quarter view, the right arm is raised and helds a stick, while the left arm rests on the lap (Clairmont 1993: cat. 3.846; Bergemann 1997: 102– 103, 123, 163 no. 216, 210 no. 1; New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Inv. no. 11.100.2). The throne in Xanthos obviously is a royal attribute for the rank of the dynast, shared with his wife, which in a Greek context belongs to Zeus, the father of the gods. In this connection it is worth recalling also the Attic 4th-century votive reliefs: for instance, we can observe Zeus Meilichios, whose attitude recalls our dynast (Kaltsas 2002: 213 no. 435; 220 no. 457; Athens, National Museum, Inv. nos. 1431 and 1408). Also the members of the royal entourage on our pediment may recall the variation of attitudes on the votive and decree reliefs dating back from the end of the 5th century BCE (Kaltsas 2002: 132 no. 251; 135 no. 259).11 The importance of such models for the artists of the Nereid Monument is demonstrated by the ambassadors raising their hands towards the seated dynast in the small podium frieze, a gesture that on the votive reliefs the worshippers normally make towards the divinity.12 The role of Attic funerary imagerie in 4th-century Lycia is inserted into a broader context. Again in the second quarter of the 4th century BCE we find two Attic Bildfeldstelen in the area of Soloi, in Cilicia.13 There is a number of possible hypothesis to explain the presence of 10 On pedimental decoration, Lapalus 1947, esp. 197–198 on the Nereid Monument. 11 Athens, National Museum, Inv. nos. 1420 and 1419. For the latter, see also Mitropoulou 1977: 174

no. 16; Meyer 1989a: 274 no. A 28; Lawton 1995: 119 no. 74.

12 London, British Museum, Inv. no. 1848, 1020.62 (Sculpture 879). For the attitudes of mortals on

the votive decree reliefs, Van Straten 1981: 82–83; Lawton 1995: 60–62.

13 Adana, Archaeological Museum, Inv. no. 3926; Dagron/Feissel 1987: 59 no. 23bis; Hermary 1987;

Meyer 1989b: 55 note 37, 70–71, 73; Clairmont 1993: cat. no. 2.322b; Scholl 1996: 226 no. 1.

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these artifacts (imported Attic production; work of Attic artists in Cilicia or in Asia Minor; imitation of the Attic production), at any rate it should be stressed that in the same decades of the Nereid Monument sculptures inspired by the Attic production circulated along the southern coast of Anatolia. This analysis can tell us much about the artists working at the Nereid Monument. Following the needs of the patron, they built up a dynastic message combining a repertoire of iconographical schemes in an effective way: for instance, to celebrate the family of the dynast they used patterns from the funerary stelae, which in the same period normally represented family circles. The same mechanism emerges from the banquet scene on the Xanthian monument: the majority of the participants are paired on their klinai as in a proper Greek symposium, a model stressed by the presence of the crater. In order to enhance his prominence the dynast, instead, is depicted with Persian features according to the scheme of the heroic banqueter on Greek votive reliefs. The result is fully dynastic: it is a collective banquet in which the differences of status are evident (Poggio forthcoming). This process of bricolage (cf. Osborne 2012; Draycott 2015: 127) − aimed at communicating a precise message − was undoubtedly successful and full of consequence for the Lycian dynastic imagerie. The case of the representation of dynastic couples on Lycian funerary monuments is meaningful. It is present − always in prominent position − also on the architrave of the Heroon of Trysa and in the ogival sides of the lids on the sarcophagi (Demargne 1981: 589 note 13; Tofi 2006: 673–675; cf. Zahle 1979: 249–258). Similarly, in the 4th century BCE banquet scenes modelled after Greek symposium began to be depicted in Lycia. I believe that not only the Hellenic − notably Attic − influence played an important role within the dynastic iconography, but precisely the Nereid Monument with its original elaboration was important in imposing innovated funerary iconographies and re-creating the visual dynastic programmes in Lycia. Thus, during the first half of the 4th century BCE the artistic language of Attica played an important role in the Eastern Mediterranean, notwithstanding the fact that the political power of Athens was greatly diminished after the Peloponnesian War. This is a further demonstration that the links between political and cultural aspects is complex and multifaceted. Within the framework of the Persian Empire, the dynast of the Nereid Monument was able to show off his power by employing prestigious materials from distant places and consequently also Hellenic artists fashioning them. Such patronage, as that of the other dynasts of the Eastern Mediterranean, was fundamental to the generation of complex cultural processes. Adana, Archaeological Museum, Inv. no. 51-31-71; Gladiss 1973/74; Jones/Russell 1993: 297; Clairmont 1993: cat. no. 3.461a; Scholl 1996: 226–227 no. 2. See also Casabonne 2004: 89–90; Salmeri 2004: 197.

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Acknowledgment I would like to thank the Organizing Committee of the 9th ICAANE, notably Prof. Bruno Jacobs.

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2012. Xanthos: état des questions. M. Seyer (ed.), 40 Jahre Grabung Limyra, Akten. Forschungen in Limyra 6. Wien, 155–162.

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Draycott, C., 2007. Dynastic definitions. Differentiating status claims in the Archaic pillar tomb reliefs of Lycia. A. Çilingiroğlu/A. Sagona (eds.), Anatolian Iron Ages 6. Proceedings. Ancient Near Eastern Studies, Supplementum 20. Leuven/Paris/Dudley, MA., 103–134. –

2015. ‘Heroa’ and the city. Kuprlli’s new architecture and the making of the ‘Lycian acropolis’ of Xanthus in the early Classical period. Anatolian Studies 65, 97–142.

Fellows, C., 1848. Account of the Ionic trophy monument excavated at Xanthus. London. Gladiss, A. v., 1973/74. Ein Denkmal aus Soloi. Istanbuler Mitteilungen 23/24, 175–181. Hermary, A., 1987. Une nouvelle stèle funéraire attique trouvée à Soloi. Dagron/Feissel 1987: 227–229. Higgs, P., 2006. Late Classical Asia Minor: dynasts and their tombs. O. Palagia (ed.), Greek sculpture. Function, materials, and techniques in the Archaic and Classical periods. New York, 163–207. Jacobs, B., 1987. Griechische und persische Elemente in der Grabkunst Lykiens zur Zeit der Achämenidenherrschaft. Studies in Mediterranean Archaeology 78. Jonsered. –

2014. Bildkunst als Zeugnis für Orientierung und Konsens innerhalb der Eliten des westlichen Achämenidenreichs. R. Rollinger/K. Schnegg (eds.), Kulturkontakte in antiken Welten: Vom Denkmodell zum Fallbeispiel, Proceedings. Colloquia Antiqua 10. Leuven/Paris/Walpole, MA.

Jenkins, I., 2006. Greek architecture and its sculpture. Cambridge (Mass.). Jones, C. P./Russell, J., 1993. Two new inscriptions from Nagidos in Cilicia. Phoenix 47, 293–304. Kaltsas, N., 2002. Sculpture in the National Archaeological Museum, Athens. Los Angeles. Keen, A. G., 1992. The dynastic tombs of Xanthos. Who was buried where? Anatolian Studies 42, 53–63. –

1998. Dynastic Lycia: a political history of the Lycians and their relations with foreign powers, c. 545–362 B.C. Mnemosyne: bibliotheca classica Batava, Supplementum 178. Leiden/Boston/ Köln.

Lapalus, É., 1947. Le fronton sculpté en Grèce, des origines à la fin du IVe siècle: étude sur les origines, l’évolution, la technique et les thèmes du décor tympanal. Bibliothèque des écoles franc̜ aises d’Athenes et de Rome 165. Paris. Lawton, C. L., 1995. Attic document reliefs: art and politics in ancient Athens. Oxford/New York Leader, R. E., 1997. In death not divided: Gender, family, and State on Classical Athenian grave stelae. American Journal of Archaeology 101, 683–699. Marksteiner, T., 2010. Lykien: ein archäologischer Führer. Wien. Meyer, M., 1989a. Die griechischen Urkundenreliefs. Mitteilungen des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts, Athenische Abteilung, Beiheft 13. Berlin. –

1989b. Alte Männer auf attischen Grabdenkmälern. Athenische Mitteilungen 104, 49–82.

Michaelis, A., 1875. Il Monumento delle Nereidi, 2. I rilievi, Annali dell’Instituto di corrispondenza archeologica, 68–187. Mitropoulou, E., 1977. Corpus I, Attic votive reliefs of the 6th and 5th centuries B.C. Athens. Neils, J., 2001. The Parthenon frieze. Cambridge. Nieswandt, H.-H., 2011. Ikonographische und ikonologische Untersuchungen zur Herrschaftsrepräsentation xanthischer Dynastengräber. Diss. Münster.

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Osborne, R., 2012. Cultures as languages and languages as cultures. A. Mullen/P. James (eds.), Multilingualism in the Graeco-Roman worlds. Cambridge, 317–334. Poggio, A., 2007. Il fregio della mnesterofonia a Trysa. F. De Angelis (ed.), Lo sguardo archeologico. I normalisti per Paul Zanker. Pisa, 63–76. –

2010. Modelli di diffusione della scultura in marmo tra VI e V sec. a.C.: la Licia. G. Adornato (ed.), Scolpire il marmo. Importazioni, artisti itineranti, scuole artistiche nel Mediterraneo antico. Atti del convegno. Milano, 235–250.

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2011. Incidents in dynastic hunts in Lycia and Phoenicia. K. Duistermaat/I. Regulski (eds.), Intercultural contacts in the ancient Mediterranean. Proceedings. Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta 202. Leuven/Paris/Walpole, MA, 479–493.

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2012. Immagini venatorie e monumenti dinastici: l’Impero Persiano tra centro e periferia. M. Castiglione/A. Poggio (eds.), Arte–Potere. Forme artistiche, istituzioni, paradigmi interpretativi, Proceedings. Milano, 227–241.

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forthcoming. Banqueting in Western Anatolia: Dynastic lifestyle under the Persian rule. L. Şenocak (ed.), Of vines and wines: The production and consumption of wine in Anatolian civilizations through the ages. Proceedings. Leuven.

Prost, F., 2012. Lycian dynast, Greek art: The two small friezes of the Nereid Monument at Xanthos. M. Castiglione/A. Poggio (eds.), Arte–Potere. Forme artistiche, istituzioni, paradigmi interpretativi, Proceedings. Milano, 243–257. –

2013. Retour au Mausolée et au Monument des Néréides. Identités ethniques et frontières culturelles en Lycie et en Carie. P. Brun et al. (eds.), Euploia. La Lycie et la Carie antiques. Dynamiques des territoires, échanges et identités, Actes. Mémoires 34. Bordeaux, 175–186.

Rodenwaldt, G., 1940. Ein lykisches Motiv. Jahrbuch des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts 55, 44–57. Rudolph, C., 2003. Das «Harpyien-Monument» von Xanthos: seine Bedeutung innerhalb der spätarchaischen Plastik. BAR International Series 1108. Oxford. Salmeri, G., 2004. Hellenism on the periphery. The case of Cilicia and an etymology of soloikismos. S. Colvin (ed.), The Greco-Roman East: politics, culture, society. Yale Classical Studies 31. New York, 181–206. Scholl, A., 1996. Die attischen Bildfeldstelen des 4. Jhs. v. Chr. Untersuchungen zu den kleinformatigen Grabreliefs im spätklassischen Athen. Mitteilungen des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts, Athenische Abteilung. Beiheft 17. Berlin. Straten, F. T. van, 1981. Gifts for the gods. H. S. Versnel (ed.), Faith, hope and worship. Aspects of religious mentality in the ancient world. Leiden, 65–151. Tofi, M. G., 2006. La coppia e la famiglia nell’iconografia funeraria della Licia arcaica e classica. Con alcune osservazioni sul ruolo della donna. Annuario della Scuola Archeologica di Atene e delle missioni italiane in Oriente 84 [2008], 673–688.

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Walker, S./Hughes, M., 2010. Parian mable in the dynastic monuments of Lycia and Caria. D. U. Schilardi/D. Katsonopoulou (eds.), Παρία λίθος: λατομεία, μάρμαρο και εργαστήρια γλυπτικής της Πάρου: πρακτικά/Paria Lithos: Parian quarries, marble and workshops of sculpture, Proceedings. Athens, 445–452. Zahle, J., 1979. Lykische Felsgräber mit Reliefs aus dem 4. Jahrhundert v. Chr. Neue und alte Funde. Jahrbuch des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts 94, 245–346.

Alessandro Poggio, Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa.

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Proceedings, 9 th ICAANE, Basel 2014, Vol. 2, 221–233

Çilem Uygun

The Examples of Roman Pottery from Üçtepe in South-East Anatolia Üçtepe mound is located in the Upper Tigris valley, in the southeast of Turkey. The settlement is known as the center of a Neo-Assyrian province, named Tusha or Tushan, based on two stelae found in the area. Additionally, it is understood that Üçtepe and its surroundings were the central region of the state of Mitanni. The stratigraphy documented in Üçtepe excavations has shown that the mound was reused continuously after Neo-Assyrian settlement, from the 1st c. BC to the 4th c. AD. The Roman pottery examined in this study indicates the agricultural importance of Üçtepe in comparison with the other settlements in the region.

Üçtepe, formerly known as Kurkh, Kerkh or Kerh-i Dicle, is one of the largest mounds in the southern part of the Upper Tigris (fig. 1). Archaeologists found two stelae of Neo-Assyrian kings, Ashur-nasir-pal II (883– 859 BC) and Shalmaneser III (858–824 BC) in 1865; the discovery proves that the settlement was the center of a province during Neo-Assyrian period. The stelae are now in the British Museum (Kurkh Monoliths). All finds of the Neo- Assyrian Period have been discovered below the pebble layer just under the construction layer. The stratigraphy documented in the Üçtepe excavations has shown that the mound was used continuously after the Neo-Assyrian settlement, from the 1st c. BC to the 4th c. AD. The stratigraphy of Üçtepe is as follows: 1–4: Roman Imperial, c. AD 2nd–4th; 5–6: Hellenistic, 4th–1st c. BC; 7–8: Neo-Assyrian Empire, 8th–7th c. BC; 9: Middle Assyrian Period, 10th–9th c. BC; 10: Late Bronze Age, mid 2nd millennium BC; 11: Middle Bronze Age (Colonies), first half of the 2nd millennium BC; 12 (A–B?)–13: Early Bronze Age, end of the 3rd millennium BC (fig. 1). Since few potsherds were found on the surface, and though the unsettled level have not been reached, it can be accepted that people have settled in Üçtepe from the Early Chalcolithic period on.

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Fig. 1. Location of Üçtepe and the stratigraphy table.

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The 2nd and 3rd structure layers of the trench VI, dated to 2nd–4th centuries AD, provide rich architectural findings regarding the history of Üçtepe during the Roman period. Three pithoi, used as entombment materials, were unearthed in the 2nd structural layer. Using pithoi for burials is a common tradition with the community of Seleucia on the Tigris; this practice is highly important to indicate the cultural unity of both centers. On the other hand, the ruins of foundation walls, belonging to two rooms and an oven, were unearthed in the second structural layer. It can be inferred that the structural layers from the first to the sixth were used for agricultural works when the grindstone from the second level is considered in conjunction with the storage vessels.

1. Pottery Üçtepe ceramics obtained from the layers of the Roman period were assessed to belong to two main groups: imported and local ware.

1.1. ESA

Bowls (fig. 2) The ESA samples, known to be produced in Northern Syria and Southern Anatolia, constitute the first group of imported ceramics in Üçtepe. Their slips have two different colors based on the ESA typology. Though the group’s typical clay structure with lightcream color (Munsell 7.5 YR 8/4 pink; 5 YR 6/6 reddish yellow) and its slip structure with shiny red (Munsell 2.5 YR 4/8; 10 R 4/8 red) can be clearly seen on cat no. 1, color change can be observed on cat. no. 2 because of misfiring. It could be concluded that the latter bowl was a second-quality product due to the discrete slip color, with an orange-like color instead of red one. When the ceramics are examined typologically, it can be realized that the bowls are more various than the plates. The bowls in Üçtepe are classified as hemispherical, flanged and conical. The first form is the most common in the ESA typology and it has been dated to between the end of 2nd and the beginning of 1st centuries BC in line with the stratigraphy. Tell Anafa (Slane 1997: 310), Greece (Hayes 2008: pl. 27, 4–5), the Western Anatolia (Mitsopoulos-Leon 1991: pl.111, 89; Lindd-Hansen 2003: pl. CXI 3) and the Northern Syria (Waagé 1948: pl. 24–27; Johansen 1971, pl. 45, 16) can be regarded as the distribution areas of this form. Hemispherical bowls with red slip from the early Roman period take the place of echinus bowls with black glaze (Rotroff 1997: 109 cat. no. 324–327), common everywhere during the Hellenistic period. The samples of Üçtepe are dated to the end of the 1st century BC in terms of the details in their lips, the base profiles, as well as their contexts.

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With their upright-flanged rim and conical-body, calathos cups (so called by Hayes) constitute the second bowl group among the ESA ceramics (Hayes 2008: 29). This form, quite common like hemispherical bowls, was found in Samaria (Crowfoot 1957: 338), Antioch (Waagé 1948: pl. V 450, 453, 460), and Hama (Slane 1997: 325–326). Bowls from these centers are dated to from the end of the 2nd century BC to the 1st century AD based on others findings. However, the sample of Üçtepe from the third structural layer of the mound is dated to the 1st century, considering the quality of other examples in the same level. This form has spread out to the inner cities of settlements on the western and the southern coasts of Anatolia via the Mediterranean trade; in Southeastern Anatolia, next to Üçtepe, it has been found in Samsat (Zoroğlu 1986: fig. 10–11, 88–91) and Zeugma (Kenrick 2013: pl. 9 PT138). The third bowl form, characterized by conical body, has been produced under the influence of Western Sigillatas. They are divided into two sub-groups according to the transition profile from body to base. The first sub-group consists of the bowls with sharp contours and angular bodies, reminding metal ware. However, the bowls with round profiles form the second sub-group. The samples of each sub-group, obtained from centers such as Antioch (Waagé 1948: pl. V 445, 446 f.p.u) and Samaria (Kenyon 1957: 290) where the ESA ceramics are common, were associated with Arretina and Gaulish Sigillata typologies. The body profile with sharp-contour is more widespread than the other examples; it is found in Tarsus (Jones 1950: pl. 194, 500), Zeugma (Kenrick 2013: pl. 9, PT136) Tell Anafa (Slane 1997: pl. 23, FW 258) and Berenice (Kenrick 1985: pl.43 B 333). These bowls have been dated to between the end of the 1st century BC and the beginning of the 1st century AD, in line with the findings. Hayes agrees with the suggestion for the dating of this type of bowls and he identified it as the Form 42 (Hayes 1985: 32–33 pl. VI 6–7). When the stratigraphy in Üçtepe excavations is taken into consideration, the dating for both bowls, unearthed from different trenches, is coherent with the context.

Plates (fig. 2) It is very hard to define correctly the form of imported ESA plates in Üçtepe, since they have been found commonly as a fragment of base. According to both well-preserved samples and the local imitations, two different forms exist within Üçtepe’s context: the large and shallow plates. The first group includes the samples with upcurving rim and low ring foot (cat. no. 6–7, 9–10), known from the local samples cat. no. 6–8. The other form is defined by imported base fragments (cat. no 11–12), with tapering wall under the foot. It could be suggested for them the rouletted wall and offset lip according to Hayes’s typology. As understood from complete samples obtained in other cities, these bases belong to plates, one of the most widespread forms of the ESA group.

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Fig. 2. ESA. Bowls, plates, glazed ware.

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The first form, obtained in large numbers in Antioch, was dated to the Late Hellenistic period (Waagé 1948: pl. IV 132k 132u). Called Form 1, samples from Samaria indicated that the form was predominantly used in the 1st century BC–1st century AD On the other hand, Hayes grouped these as a Form 4 because of the differentness of lip profile (Hayes 1985: pl. I 9). Many centers, particularly in the Levant Region like Tell Anafa (Gunneweg-Perlman-Yellin 1983: 96), Hama (Johansen 1971: pl. 26–27, 1.1–36) and Apamea (Vanderhoeven 1989: 28 cat. 1–217) as well as Berenice (Kenrick 1985: pl. 40 B 313–314), Athens (Robinson 1959: pl. 60 F 1–5) and Tarsus (Jones 1950: pl. 136, 257–261) and Zeugma (Kenrick 2013: pl. 14 PT241) in Anatolia, can be regarded within its area of spreading. The tondo of some of these is decorated with palmette and roulette stamps as in som black-glazed plates of the Hellenistic period. The motive of the Isis crown was placed in-between two roulette sequences in Üçtepe sample. This stamp, quite widespread in the ESA plates, was combined with palmettes in some samples. Crowfoot classified palmette under three groups in line with Samaria fragments and dated them to the second half of the 1st century BC and within the first half of the 1st century AD (Crowfoot 1957: 319). Üçtepe samples with the motif of the Isis crown should also be dated to the same period. The base fragments in the second form are compatible with Hayes’s Form 28-31, when their profile is taken into consideration. Hayes dates these plates, seen in wide region between the west and the east, to end of the 1st BC and first half of the 1st AD (Hayes 1985: 27). Some of the well-known dispersion areas of this plates are Atina (Hayes 2008: 28–29 pl 6, 135–139), Samos (Unterkircher 1983: 180 fig. 2, 7.1), Assos (Zelle 1997: 36–37 fig. 5, 17), Patara (Uygun 2011: 26 pl. 7–8, 97–102), Samosata (Zoroğlu 1986: 79 fig. 4, 1–3), Hama (Johansen 1971: 95 Res. 39, 13.1–8), Apemea (Vanderhoeven 1989: 32 form 13 cat. no. 340–364) and Berenice (Kenrick 1985: 231–233 fig. 42 B325.1–4).

1.2. Glazed Ware (fig. 2) A group of glazed bowls (cat. no. 13–15), turquoise or bluish-white color, was found in Üçtepe. Samples with outward mouths and conical bodies appear with different lip profiles. These ceramics, displaying a homogenous structure with regard to clay and glazing, must be the products of the same atelier. Glazed ceramics have been used from the Late Hellenistic to the Islamic period after their invention in Egypt at 4th millennium. Lead glazed wares have substituted alkaline technics in the Late Hellenistic-Early Roman period; the skyphoi are commonly in this group. The variety of Roman glazed ceramics, similar to Üçtepe samples, is known from Seleucia on the Tigris and green and grey tones are generally prevalent in glazes on Parthian ceramics. However, the blue-green glaze is also seen in the color repertoire of Seleucia on the Tigris (Debevoise 1934: 80), and Zeugma (Kenrick 2013: 39 PT330) in the Early Roman period. On the other hand, the use of the same glaze color continued during the Islamic period at Zeugma (Kenrick 2013: 66). When the early

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Parthian glazed ware in the Tigris-Euphrates region as well as the finding context of Üçtepe glazed bowls are considered, cat. no. 13–15 can be dated to 3rd–4th century AD.

1.3. Common Ware

Plate (fig. 3) In addition to differences seen in the clay’s color, a variety of both the lip and the body profiles can be observed in the outward plates. Cat. no. 25 shows similarity to the ESA and the Sagalassos samples with regard to the lip and the body profile within the ceramic groups with red slip. This form is dated to the 1st century BC, because it was used for both ESA (Crowfoot 1957: 330 Res. 79, 1–4) and ESD (Hayes 1985: 82). Cat. no. 17, with conical body profile, is known from both ESB and the Sagalassos typologies of Patara (Uygun 2011: plate 25, 379; plate 46, 684–689). The samples belonging to either group are dated to between the 1st and 2nd centuries AD. The Üçtepe sample, however, can be dated to the 1st century AD because of its context.

Bowl (fig. 3) Cat. no. 18 with round and ornamented body reminds of relief bowls in sigillata nord-italica (Atlante II: pl. LXX, 1). Although there is a relationship between its form and the decoration, it is obvious that the sample of Üçtepe was different in terms of the incise decoration technic. In addition to a motif resembling to stylized column under the thin strap, separating the lip and the body, there is also a triangle shaped motif between this columns. Although the manner of incised linear decoration is seen regularly on common ware in the Roman period, no samples similar to cat. no 18 were found. For this reason, the bowl should be dated to the Early Roman period owing to both the finding context and the usage of the column motif on the sigillata nord-italica.

Jar (fig. 3) There are two different body profiles and color on the clay-slip in small jars from Üçtepe Roman pottery. Cat. no. 19 has an ovoid body but cat. no. 20 has a globular one. Atelier difference can be clearly seen based on clay-slip structure of both jar. Nevertheless, this form resembles in many aspects the samples from Zeugma (Kenrick 2013: cat. no. 369, 372), Seleucia on the Tigris (Debevoise 1934: cat. no. 17), and Tell es-Sweyhat (Holland 2006: pl. 325, 1–2). The jars of Üçtepe, one form of them has been used for a long time within common ware, have been unearthed in the 1st layer, dating between the 1st and the 3rd centuries AD based on the coins (Tekin 1992: 48–50).

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Jug (fig. 3) Although the jugs are one of the most common groups among Roman ceramics of Üçtepe, cat. no. 21 is the only complete sample with cylindrical neck, rounded lip and ovoid body decorated with combed lines. This jug, qualified as a local example with its low firing and lower clay quality, also helps to complement the form of broken samples with round lip, wide neck and angled body profiles (cat. no. 22–23). Cat no. 23 is parallel with flagon’s fragments from the group of buff ware with frilled mouth unearthed from Zeugma (Kenrick 2013: 44 PT 388–389). On the other hand, cat. no. 22 is different in terms of both the clay-slip structure and the thin wall, reminding thin-walled Parthian ware obtained from Seleucia on the Tigris (Debevoise 1934: 17 fig.3). The jugs of Üçtepe found in different structural layers can be dated to between the 1st and 3rd centuries AD in line with the finding context. When the comparable jugs are taken into account, they can be dated to the 3rd century AD and incorporated into the buff wares of Euphrates-Tigris region.

Storage Vessels (fig. 4) Storage vessels have been preserved well compared to other Roman ceramics of Üçtepe. A round- lip, a short and wide neck and a downward extended body profile have been predominantly applied on huge storage vessels. Apart from the combed lines, wave and bead motifs surrounding the edge of lip have also been used for ornamental purposes. The handles could not be added to cat. no. 24–26 in spite of their heights no more than 40 cm. Angled body contour is similar to both storage vessels and cat. no. 21 except a small variation observed in their mouth profiles, as mentioned in the jug section. Along with the clay-slip structure, this similarity is the result of the unity of atelier. Cat. no. 27 with angled body profile differs from the other vessels due to having two vertical handles. This type of handle starts from the mouth and ends on the shoulder. At the end of this handle, a thin molding is present to emphasize transition profile from shoulder to body. Its clay-slip structure is the same as with both the other storage vessels and the cooking pots obtained from the same trench. The samples with a 20 cm mouth diameter and a 60 cm height were obtained as in-situ from the trench VI in the northwestern of Üçtepe. The mouth and the body profiles similar to other storage vessels were applied in a large-scale manner. Wave and zigzag ornament lines made with scraping technique were observed both on the edge of mouth and the shoulders. Üçtepe samples of this form, used long-term in the Roman period, were from a context, its terminus ante quem in the 2nd century AD with an Antonius Pius coin. Terminus post quem of the same layer is the 4th century (315–316 AD) with a Siscia coin. Üçtepe samples, similar to the storage vessels commonly manufactured in the Hellenistic and Roman periods, could be dated to between the 1st and the 2nd century AD in line with similar samples obtained

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Fig. 3. Common Ware. Bowls, plates, jars, jugs.

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from Zeugma (Kenrick 2013: pl. 28 PT452), Seleucia on the Tigris (Debevoise 1934: fig. 95–99) and Jaffa in Judean (Tsuf 2011: 278 fig. 58).

Cooking ware (fig. 4) In this group, there is one completed globular cookpot with inturned rim, corrugations on the wall and a rounded bottom. Two vertical handles, starting at the edge of the mouth and ending on the shoulder, remind of storage vessels. A commonality in terms of the clay-slip texture is observed between both pots obtained from the same trench. The other samples consist of mouth fragments and plenty of them, dated to the 3rd century AD based on context and analogies, have been found in the 3rd building level. Cat. no. 28 is the most common form among the cooking ware between the 2nd and 4th century. Globular body in cooking wares has been produced for long times with little changes on the rims and handles. Similarities to the Üçtepe samples, except details in the rim profile, can be seen in the cooking wares of Zeugma (Kenrick 2013: 49 pl. 27 PT437), Ain Sinu in northern Iraq (Vokaer 2010: fig. 2, 2) and Tell es-Sweyhat (Holland 2006: pl. 335).

Basin (fig. 4) There is only one type of mouth with slightly outward conical body, horizontal handle and flat-base profile among the common ware from Üçtepe. Basins have been generally used to knead dough or food preparation because of their low quality. Furthermore, with their shallow body profile, they are used for preserving foods from the external factors (Bonifay/Reynaud 2004: fig. 145, 13.10). The samples of this group are represented with two pots unearthed from the 1st and the 4th layers of Üçtepe. This type of pots has been produced without any change in its form during the Roman period. The sample was found near by two ovens on the structural layer at the trench VII, dated to the beginning of the 3rd and within the 4th centuries AD based on the context. However, wheelmade basins with deep conical wall and outward lip can be seen in common wares during the Roman period (Bonifay/ Reynaud 2004: 244–246 fig. 145).

Conclusion The ceramics obtained in the 1st–3rd structural layers in Üçtepe are grouped as tableware, common and storage vessels. The first group consists of the bowl, plate and jug fragments in the ESA, standing out in production centers such as Northern Syria and around Euphrates. Apart from the ESA, dated to the end of the 1st century BC and the first half of the 1st century AD, another imported group of materials are the conical-body bowls with blue glaze. Because glazed pottery was produced with using the technic of alkaline, this group

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The Examples of Roman Pottery from Üçtepe in South-East Anatolia

Fig. 4. Common Ware. Storage vessel, cooking ware, basin.

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could be related to Parthian glazed ware, the distribution area of which is the EuphratesTigris region. After the glazing was started to use in Egypt in 3rd millennium, the technic of alkaline was developed in 2nd millennium in Egypt as well. On the other hand, glazed pottery was produced by Parthian culture in the Hellenistic and the Roman periods. Many plates, bowls, beakers and jugs have been unearthed from Üçtepe being the common ware in Roman pottery. The samples used as storage vessels with similar forms and similar clay-slip texture were predominant in number. These ceramics, having a homogenous structure with their light-brown clay and medium sand additive texture, can be associated to the Buff wares samples, known as a local ceramic group of the Euphrates region. Basins with wide mouth diameter and shallow body profile constitute the last form group. Two samples with thick walls, obtained in the 1st and the 4th structural layers, differ from each other in terms of dating due to their different mouth profiles and ornament characters. According to the findings of Üçtepe, dated to the Roman period, it is clear that most of the architectural ruins belong to an agricultural settlement. A great number of storage vessels like huge pithoi and basins indicate the importance of Üçtepe with respect to the agricultural potential in the region. On the other hand, the tradition of covering a child’s grave with a storage vessel parts, unrelated to the necropolis context in trench VII, reminds a similar child grave observed in the Parthian tradition as well as other examples seen in Seleucia on the Tigris. Additionally, blue-glazed ceramics in Üçtepe settlement can be considered another evidence of the relationship with the Parthian culture.

Bibliography Atlante II, 1985. EAA, Atlante delle forme ceramiche, II, Ceramica fine romana nel bacino mediterraneo. Bonifay, M./Reynaud, P. 2004. Le Céramique. A. Ben-Abed-Ben Khader et al. (eds.) Sidi Jdidi I. La basilique sud. Rome, 229–316. Crowfoot, G. M., 1957. Terra Sigillata General List. Kenyon et al. 1957: 306–357. Debevoise, N. C., 1934. Parthian Pottery from Seleucia on the Tigris, Michigan. Gunneweg, J/Perlman, I./Yellin, J., 1983. The Provenience, Typology and Chronology of Eastern Terra Sigillata. Jerusalem. Hayes, J. W., 2008. Roman Pottery. Fine Ware Imports, The Athenian Agora XXXII. Athens. Holland, T., 2006. Archeology of the Bronze Age, Hellenistic and Roman Remains at an Ancient Town on the Euphrates River. Excavations at Tell Es-Sweyhat, Syria Volume 2. Chicago. Johansen, C. F., 1971. Les terres sigilées orientales. A. P. Christensen/C. F. Johansen (eds.), Les poteries hellénistiques et les terres sigilées orientales, Hama III 2. Copenhague, 55–204.

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Jones, F. F., 1950. The Hellenistic and Roman Periods. The Pottery. H. Goldman (ed.), Excavations at Gözlükule, Tarsus I. Princeton, 149–296. Kenrick, P. M., 1985. The Fine Pottery. Excavations at Sidi Khrebish Benghazi (Berenice) III 1. Tripoli. –

2013. Pottery Other than Transport Amphorae. W. Aylward (ed.), Excavations at Zeugma. California.

Kenyon, K. M., 1957. Roman and Later Wares, Terra Sigillata. Kenyon et al. 1957: 281–306. Kenyon, K. M./Crowfoot, G. M./Crowfoot, J. M. (eds.), 1957. The Objects from Samaria V. 3: Samaria – Sebaste, Reports of the Work of the Joint Expedition in 1931–1933 and of the British Expedition in 1935. London Mitsopoulos-Leon, V., 1991. Die Basilika am Staatsmarkt in Ephesos. Kleinfunde 1. Teil: Keramik hellenisticher und römischer Zeit. FiE 9, 2, 2. Wien. Robinson, H. S., 1959. Pottery of Roman Period, The Athenian Agora V. Athens. Rotroff, S. I., 1997. Hellenistic Pottery. Athenian and Imported Wheelmade Table Ware and Related Material, The Athenian Agora XXIX. Athens. Slane, K. W., 1997. The Hellenistic and Roman Pottery: The Fine Wares, Tell Anafa II (1997). Ann Arbor. Tekin, O., 1992. The Coins from Üçtepe with a Problematic Emission of Tigranes The Younger. Epigraphica Anatolica 20, 1992, 43–54. Tsuf, O., 2011. The Jaffa–Jerusalem Relationship during the Early Roman Period in Light of Jewish-Judean Pottery at Jaffa. A. A. Burke/M. Peilstöcker (eds.), The History and Arceology of Jaffa. USA, 271–290. Unterkircher, E., 1983. Terra Sigillata aus dem Heraion von Samos. Athenische Mitteilungen 98, 173–214. Uygun, Ç., 2011. Tepecik Kırmızı Astarlı Seramikleri (İ.Ö. 2.yy – İ.S. 4. yy) PATARA IV. 2. İstanbul. Vanderhoeven, M., 1989. Les terres sigilées. 1966–1972 Fouilles d’Apamée de Syria IX/I. Vokaer, A., 2010. Cooking in a Perfect Pot. Shapes, Fabrics and Function of Cooking Ware in Late Antique in Syria. S. Menchelli et al. (eds.), Late Roman Coarse Wares, Cooking Wares and Amphorae in the Mediterranean. BAR International Series 2185 (I). England, 115–129. Waagé, F. O., 1948. The Pottery. G. W. Elderkin (ed.) Antioch on Orontes I. The Excavations of 1932. Princeton. Zahn, R., 1904. Thongeschirr. T. Wiegand/H. Schrader (eds.) Priene, Ergebnisse der Ausgrabungen und Untersuchungen in den Jahren 1895–1898. Berlin, 394–468. Zelle, M., 1997. Die terra Sigillata aus der Westtor – Nekropole in Assos. Asia Minor Studien 27. Bonn. Zoroğlu, L., 1986. Samsat’da Bulunan Doğu Sigillataları İlk Rapor. Selçuk Üniversitesi Fen-Edebiyat Fakültesi Dergisi 3, 61–100.

Çilem Uygun, Mustafa Kemal University.

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Proceedings, 9 th ICAANE, Basel 2014, Vol. 2, 235–244

Turgay Yaşar Yedidağ

Hellenistic Moldmade Bowls from Phrygia Epiktetos: New Evidence from Dorylaion The excavation site of Dorylaion, which is now known as Şarhöyük, is located about 3 km to the north-east of Eskişehir, 2 km to the south of the Porsuk river. The layers of the Hellenistic period were uncovered during the excavation at the central area of the mound. This Hellenistic quarter, covering 900 square meters, is formed by a series of rubble foundations, mud bricks and open air courtyards inside the structures. Dorylaion moldmade bowls are the most reliable findings in dating the Hellenistic layers. They are classified in five main groups: Imbricate Bowls, Long Petal Bowls, Alternating Floral Bowls, Figured Bowls and Geometric Bowls. Although findings of molds are limited they reveal clearly the manufacturing of bowls in Dorylaion. Dorylaion excavation site, which is called Şarhöyük now, is located about 3 km to the northeast of Eskişehir, 2 km to the south of Porsuk river. Dorylaion is located at the junction of important roads of central Anatolia leading to the Marmara Sea, the Aegean coast and the Mediterranean region (Darga 1993: 481–483). The city was reckoned by Strabon among the cities of Phrygia Epiktetos as Aizanoi, Nakolia, Kotiaeion, Midaeion, and Kadoi (Strabon: XII, 8, 12). The excavation carried out so far revealed the existence of cultures of the Early Bronze Age, Hittite, Phrygian, Hellenistic, Roman, and the Byzantine Empire. The layers of the Hellenistic period were uncovered during the excavation in the center area of the mound. At this site, covering an area of 900 m2, a Hellenistic quarter was unearthed, formed by a series of rubble foundations, mud bricks and an open air courtyard inside the structures. Moldmade bowls are the most reliable findings for the dating of the Hellenistic layers. Bowls are arranged according to the type of decoration on the wall. They are classified in five main groups: Imbricate Bowls, Long Petal Bowls, Alternating Floral Bowls, Geometric Bowls, and Figured Bowls. Some bowls have no walls, so the fragments are classified under the group of Unclassified.

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Imbricate Bowls (MB1–MB11) (fig. 1) Imbricate bowls consist of overlapping small leaves or petals. Small rounded leaves with central rib are the most used decoration patterns in Dorylaion (MB1–MB4). This examples have the same wall decoration. This group was dated to the beginning of the 2nd century BC according to the parallels of rim pattern of MB1 with types from Pergamon (Bouzek/Jansova 1974: 69). In addition to this group, there are some samples decorated with rounded leaves (MB5, MB6), lotus petals (MB7), and rounded ribbed leaves (MB8). Another group has triangular leaves. In sample MB10 the leaves are closer to the natural form, but leaves of MB9 are stylized triangular leaves. On MB11, unlike to all other samples, leaves are in a very natural form. It indicates similarities with the findings of Athens dated to 225–173 BC (Rotroff 1982: Pl. 6, 31).

Long Petal Bowls (MB12–MB18) (fig. 2) Petals cover all the walls in bowls of this group. There are two groups stated by analyzing the composition of leaves on the wall. In the first group, the long petals have lines of jewelling and the space between the long petals left undecorated. MB12 and MB13 from this group have the same decoration. But there are alternating birds and tripods on the pattern of MB12, and alternating dolphins and tripods on MB13. In the second group, lines of jewelling are placed between the long petals (MB14–MB17). Parts of medallions are preserved on MB15 and MB16. Medallions occur with alternating rounded and pointed leaves. The composition on the wall on MB18 presents a mixture of two groups mentioned above. In this example, lines of jewelling are placed between and inside the long petal leaves. The varieties of the compositions on the walls don’t make a difference in chronology. Therefore this group of long petal leaves found in different archeological excavation sites is dated to the second half of the 2nd century BC (Hellström 1965: 22; Rotroff 1982: 35–36; Rotroff/Oliver 2003: 122–124; Edwards 1975: 176–177; Callaghan 1982: 65–67; Grace 1985: 22–23).

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Hellenistic Moldmade Bowls from Phrygia Epiktetos

Fig. 1. Imbricate Bowls.

Fig. 2. Long Petal Bowls.

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Fig. 3. Alternating Floral Bowls.

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Fig. 4. Figured Bowls and Geometric Bowls.

Alternating Floral Bowls (MB19–MB27) (fig. 3) Alternating Floral Bowls which are designed with long petals and acanthus leaves as the main motives (Rotroff 1982: 18) on the walls, are combined with grapevine and different floral motives (Edwards 1975: 156). This type of bowls date to the middle of the 3rd to the beginning of the 2nd century BC in Doryliaon. The group appears in quite varied compositions, two or three different floral motives are used alternating. Bowls with two floral motives are decorated with palm leaves-wavy stem with flowers (MB19); lotus petals, wavy stem with flowers or grapevine (MB20–MB21); lotus petalsacanthus (MB25) lotus petals-fern (MB23–MB24); pointed acanthus-flowers covered by lines of jewelling (MB22). On the other hand bowls with three floral motives are that decorated with fern-wavy stem with flowers or grapevine-palms (MB27) or lotus petals-grapevine and acanthus (MB26).

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Figured Bowls (MB28–MB32) (fig. 4) The decoration of figured bowls from Dorylaion focuses on mythologic figures and animals. An Eros figure on a Triton is seen on MB28. This kind of idyllic scene dates 225–150 BC (Thompson 1934: 311–476; Rotroff 1982: 19). The figure of Amymone, holding an oinoche in her hand on MB29 belonged to a Poseidon and Amymone group1 on Attic bowls. A dancing Satyr(?) on MB30 is another mythologic figure shown on moldmade bowls from Dorylaion. Besides these, masks (MB31) and architectual items (MB32) are other decoration patterns.

Geometric Bowls (MB33–MB34) (fig. 4) There are two examples of this group from Dorylaion. On MB34 the decoration consists of concentric semicircles with whirligigs in their center; this decoration known as Macedonian shield has been in use after the middle of the 2nd century (Hellström 1971: Pl.11, 154; Bouzek/Jansova 1974: Fig.5, 99–100; Rotroff 1982: Pl.68–89, 401). The other example MB33 has three concentric-circles on medallion and semicircles accompanied with knobs on the walls.

Unclassified (MB35–MB40) (fig. 5) The moldmade bowls unearthed only with a rim pattern or medallion are grouped as «unclassified». These bowls are grouped into figured and floral decorations. Flying birds (MB35), birds perched on girland (MB36) and rosettes between antithetical dolphins (MB37) occur in the figured group. Rosettes (MB38), palmettes (MB38) and a bunch of daphne leaves (MB39) appear on the floral group. Apart from these, there appears a Macedonian shield on medallion on MB 40.

Molds (MB41–MB43) (fig. 6) During the excavation in Dorylaion, three fragments of molds were found at the site. These findings suggest the existence of manufactured mold made bowls in this area. 1

Schwabacher 1941: 188–190, Pl. 1, A, Pl. 2, B.14; Rotroff 1982: 20–21 Pl. 41, 213, 43–82, 216; Edwards 1975: Pl. 67, 797; Siebert 1978: 286–287, Pl. 4, A24; Hobling 1925: 308, Fig. 10, t.

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Fig. 5. Unclassified.

MB41 is the fragment of a mold for imbricate bowls. This kind of bowls was manufactured in Athens in the late 3rd century BC (Rotroff 1982: 16–17). Bowls are dated to 200 BC in Corinth (Edwards 1975: 157–161), second quarter of 2nd century BC in Kyme (Bouzek/ Jansova 1974: 38), 2nd century BC in Labruanda (Hellström 1971: 2). In this example small leaves are placed in imbricate and irregular forms. MB42 and MB43 have simple figures in order to meet the local’s demand more cheaply. MB43 is preserved from the rim pattern to the medallion. The medallion is left empty surrounded by star pattern. Its walls are covered with alternating ribbed leaves and zigzags. Concentric circles are placed in the middle of lozenges on rim pattern. The rim pattern is bordered with hanging ivy leaves. In the sample, we see the simplest types of motifs shown on moldmade bowls. Particularly, the decoration of lozenges on the rim pattern and ivy leaves hanging from rim pattern have parallels with the West Slope wares. Molds unearthed in the excavation in Dorylaion are completely local and date to the first half of the 2nd century BC according to their layers.

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Fig. 6. Molds.

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Clay and Glaze The fabric is slightly micaceous clay. Additionally, MB2 and MB34 contain grit. MB20 also contains lime temper. There is a good deal of variation in the color of clay and glaze. The most common color is reddish yellow in clay. Other essential colors are light red, pink, light reddish brown, brown and gray. The color of the glaze is mostly red. But sometimes the color is reddish brown, reddish yellow, dark blue gray.

Conclusion Dorylaion moldmade bowls, a distictive type of Hellenistic vessels, are classified in five main groups as Imbricate Bowls, Long Petal Bowls, Alternating Floral Bowls, Figured Bowls and Geometric Bowls. As the limited number of the findings are not qualified to give a reliable comparison and chronological order, they are dated by analogy. Dorylaion moldmade bowls can be dated between the last quarter of the 3rd century and last quarter of the 2nd century BC. Although, findings of molds are limited, they reveal clearly the manufacturing of bowls in Dorylaion. MB41, belonging to the imbricate bowls, indicates the manufacturing of moldmade bowls in Dorylaion in the 2nd century BC. MB42 and MB43 dating to the same century indicate that craftsmen not only produced bowls in an usual composition but also in a quite primitive technique for local demand.

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Bibliography Darga, M., 1993. Şarhöyük–Dorylaion Kazıları (1989–1992). XV. Kazı Sonuçları Toplantısı C.1, 481–501. Bouzek, J./Jansova L., 1974. Megarian Bowls. J. Bouzek (ed.), Anatolian Collection of Charles University: Kyme I. Praha, 13–76. Callaghan, P., 1982. On The Origin of the Long Petal Bowl. Institute of Classical Studies 29, 63–68. Edwards, G., R., 1975. Corinthian Hellenistic Pottery, Corinth, Volume VII, Part III. New Jersey. Hellström, P., 1971. Labraunda: Pottery of Classical and Later Date Terracotta Lamps and Glass, Lund. Hobling, M., B., 1925. Excavation at Sparta, 1924–25: 5. Greek Relief-Ware from Sparta. The Annual of the British School at Athens XXVI., 277–310. Rotroff, S. I., 1982. Hellenistic Pottery: Athenian and Imported Moldmade Bowls. The Athenian Agora XXII, New Jersey. Rotroff, S. I./Oliver, A., 2003. The Hellenistic Pottery From Sardis: The Finds through 1994. Cambridge. Strabon, Geographika XII, 8, 12. Schwabacher, G., 1941. Hellenistische Reliefkeramik im Kerameikos. AJA 45/2, 182–228. Siebert, G., 1978. Recherches sur les ateliers de bols à reliefs du Peloponnese à l’époque hellenistique, Paris. Thompson, H., A., 1934. Two Centuries of Hellenistic Pottery. Hesperia 3.4, 311–476.

Turgay Yaşar Yedidağ, Research Assistant, Ahi Evran University, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Department of Archaeology, KIRSEHİR/TURKEY. E-mail: [email protected].

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Section

Reconstructing Ancient Eco-Systems

Organised and edited by

Jean-Marie Le Tensorer University of Basel

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Proceedings, 9 th ICAANE, Basel 2014, Vol. 2, 247–249

Jean-Marie Le Tensorer

Reconstructing Ancient Eco-Systems Human history is lined with major changes, revolutions, which have often been attributed to environmental crises prevailing even in Symbolic Thought when climatic events such as «The Great Flood», do play an essential part. The causes and origins of the Neolithic Revolution in the Fertile Crescent have been debated at great length and will still keep on opposing the defenders of an adaptation rising from environmental adjustments on the one hand, to the supporters of a revolution of symbols on the other hand, as expressed by the late Jacques Cauvin. Although researchers in various fields have been going into comprehensive studies of the Prehistory and History of the Middle-East, very few investigations have been actually devoted to reconstructing ancient eco-systems. Indeed, especially in Europe, prehistorians and quaternarists have built up a picture of climatic changes and modifications of landscapes with the help of sedimentology, palynology or palaeontology, while the archaeologists of the last millennia looked into the human impact resulting from the settling process, agriculture and breeding and ultimately, urban development. Historians have always taken into account the importance of environmental conditions and even climatic changes in the advent of the great civilizations. Herodotus already, as he witnessed the opposition between steppe areas befitting pastoral nomadism and the large and lush valleys of the Nile and the Mesopotamian Rivers, ascribed the emergence of cities to geographic causes. The issue of environmental history and successive climatic crises that affected the NearEast all along the Holocene – that is to say during the last twelve thousand years – sets up a mesmerizing topic which mobilizes researchers from all kind of field-studies, as we will note throughout this conference. To simplify matters, we observe that two different trends or theses are conflicting or supplementing views. A greater number among bio-chronologists, archaeozoologists and archaeobotanists agree or consider that the changes which are then perceived, are not really meaningful, that a climatic heterogeneousness between one region and the next is not consistent with great variations and that, once the Deglaciation is over in the Northern

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Hemisphere and after the climatic alterations at the beginning of the Holocene, the climate did remain just about the same since six or seven thousand years BP. Otherwise, different scientists from Archaeogeology among others, claim that major climatic oscillations, verging, at times, on severe fluctuations, are quite clearly identified in sedimentary deposits. These environmental crises might be, in that case, related to accurate, authentic historic events, such as dryness increasing dramatically and resulting in the disastrous arid episode around 2’200 BC during the Bronze Age which brought about the Fall of the Akkadian Dynasty. The Mesopotamian flatland is both utterly arid and quite liable to ecologic disturbances. It shows a long history of climatic disorders: floods or arid events, sudden disruptions in the course of the river, severe increase of salt-content in the soils, misuses or overexploitation of resources due either to intensive watering or to overgrazing from cattle-breeding. If we consider the Human element, the South of Mesopotamia was the cradle of civilization. Consequently, a massive population-growth together with an impressive shaping of the landscape and a spectacular increase of urbanization, took place. In a region particularly lacking building materials (such as timber, stones, metals) Man had to find new resources quite essential for economic and social improvements. And thus, in addition to natural environmental variations, the way resources and territories are used or developed, supplies one of the most significant aspects which might be evidenced in reconstructing ancient eco-systems. The drastic deforestation that started with the Neolithic period, inside the large river-valleys as well as uplands on top of hilly relieves and elevations, resulted in noteworthy repercussions as it modified the structure of the soils and brought about the alteration of the water resources. At the time, the Near-East taken as a whole, witnessed spectacular decreases of the lakes and dwindling away of the forest vegetation-cover. At the beginning of the Holocene, Neolithisation developed under favourable conditions, namely under mild weather in the winter-time and summer rains of a cyclonal type which encompassed Western Asia by and large. Theses climatic circumstances allowed forests to grow on elevations and down in the valleys, while the steppe-region would welcome pistachios, almond-trees and various thorny bushes. Starting from a rough 7000 years, a great climatic instability came ahead of a global and gradual drying out process foreboding the current climate. In the Jordan Valley, this phenomenon led to erosions and extensive run-offs quite expectedly to be detected in Chalcolithic sites. The emergence of the present climate could be attributed to the 4th millennium. Littoral modifications represent another crucial environmental occurrence because of the great Tardiglacial and Holocene transgression as well as the tremendous aggradations of the deltas. Hence, the shorelines have been undergoing major modifications, and this applies

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just the same, to the inner great lakes, such as Lake Lisan standing as a large natural boundary in the Rift Valley of the Dead Sea, nearly from Aqaba to the North of Lake Tiberias. The session has been fruitful thanks to a rough 30 presentations. Among them, only 6 papers have been finalised for the publication.

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Proceedings, 9 th ICAANE, Basel 2014, Vol. 2, 251–263

Cristina Bonfanti – Filiberto Chiabrando – Carlo Lippolis – Vito Messina

Mega-Sites’ Impact on Central Mesopotamia. Archaeological and Multi-Temporal Cartographic Study of the Al-Mada’in Area This paper presents the preliminary results of a study on the impact of ancient mega-sites on Central Iraq, focusing on the area of Al-Mada’in, one of the largest and most important complexes of ancient settlements in the world, as also witnessed by Greco-Roman, Chinese, Syriac, Middle-Persian and Arab sources.

1. Introduction Starting from 1920, immediately after World War I, the use of Remote Sensing products and applications in archaeology increased even more and is today a common way for performing archaeological research and study. The digital revolution and wider use of very high resolution satellites starting from the 1990’s, which allow to obtain images with high spatial resolution (up to 0.5 m) using data provided by commercial platforms (such us Quickbird, IKONOS, WorldView GeoEye, etc.), provide a phenomenal instrument for improving the knowledge of archaeological areas. In this scenario, starting from recent remote sensed data, the purpose of this work was to collect and organize all the cartographic information available on the area of al-Mada’in, in Central Mesopotamia, one of the largest and most important complexes of ancient settlements in the world, as witnessed by Greco-Roman, Chinese, Syriac, Middle-Persian and Arab sources. We also aimed at generating a digital copy of each document, and implementing a geo-database referring all cartographic data in a common system, useful for conducting a multi-temporal study. This study was performed by adding together non-conventional maps, recovered in archives or in literature (on site drawings, maps, etc.), with aerial data (Royal Air Force images) and the most used remote sensing platforms for archaeological research, such

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as Corona (Philip et al. 2002; Castrianni et al. 2010; Casana/Cothren 2008), Quickbird1 (Lasaponara/Masini 2006; Alexakis 2007), and World View (Scardozzi 2009). After the image processing phases, all these data were photo interpreted for grounding hypothesis on the evolution of the selected area during the past centuries.

2. Historical Background Since the foundation of Seleucia on the Tigris (at the very end of the 4th cent. BC), the area known at present as al-Mada’in – which precisely means ‹the cities› in Arabic – was the administrative, economic and cultural centre of the three great oriental empires alternating from the death of Alexander the Great until the Muslim conquest: the Seleucid, Arsacid and Sasanian empires. The royal capitals founded there, Seleucia, Ctesiphon and Veh Ardashir, were the counterparts to Rome and Constantinople, and, during the centuries, even a number of other major towns were built in the same area (up to seven, according to Arab sources), even if most of them have not yet been located on the ground (Negro Ponzi 2005; Hauser 2007): of particular importance must have been Veh Ardashir, founded in AD 230 by the first Sasanian King of Kings, Ardashir I, and Veh Antioch-e Khusrau, founded in AD 540 by Khusrau I for the deported population of Roman Antioch. Further to the Muslim conquest, the cities lost their importance and declined in size, however their population dropped sharply only after alMansur had founded Baghdad early in the second half of the 8th cent. AD. Muslim geographers continued to describe the area’s most famous sights, the ‹White Palace› (Qasr al-Abyad) of the Sasanian Kings of Kings, and the vault ascribed to Khusrau Anushirwan (Taq-e Kisra), which is considered today one the major Sasanian achievements in architecture and one of the most famous monuments in Iraq (Al-Ali 1968–69). The area of al-Mada’in extends for thousands of hectares about 30 km south of presentday Baghdad and its ancient cities (that can be actually defined as mega-sites in modern terms) shrank to villages only after a long time, having been abandoned one after the other and, sometimes, submerged by the floods of the river Tigris. When historical research began, the location of the various cities within the area was uncertain and even today is still a matter of debate. Thus, at the beginning of the 19th century, Claudius James Rich could recognize that this was the area were Ctesiphon was founded

1

Quickbird ended its mission life in December 2014. The satellite has been in service for over 14 years, which is nearly three times its initial mission life, and has made an impressive contribution to the extensive knowledge of the world. Quickbird data, dating back to its launch, will remain available for purchase in the archives of the commercial companies that sell its products.

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even if he couldn’t locate it on the ground (Rich 1836: 404–405), while in 1908 and 1911 Ernst Herzfeld, who visited al-Mada’in after a Tigris flood, misunderstood the location of the ruins of Seleucia (Herzfeld 1920: 50).

3. Archaeological Research Modern archaeological research in the area (Messina 2015), which immediately appeared outstandingly important for the study of ancient models of settlement in Central Iraq, started after two decades with two major projects. The first one was the American excavation of the University of Michigan, the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology, Ann Arbor, and the Museums of Toledo and Cleveland, directed by Leroy Waterman, Clark Hopkins and Robert McDowell from 1927 to 1936 (Waterman 1931, 1933; Hopkins 1972), which investigated the mega-site extending south of Tell ‘Umar, on the west bank of the Tigris, surely identified for the first time as Seleucia by the finding of seal impressions bearing official stamps of the city institutions in a private archive, inside one of the dwelling-blocks (McDowell 1935). This was followed by the first aerial survey of the area conducted by the Royal Air Force (RAF), which allowed the surveyors to acquire a set of aerial photos that are still a precious source of information. The second was the German expedition of the Deutsche Orient-Gesellschaft (DOG), the Islamische Kunstabteilung, and the Metropolitan Museum NY, directed by Oscar Reuther in 1928–29 and 1931–32 (Reuther 1930), which investigated the round city crossed by the modern bed of the Tigris, and the areas of the Taq-e Kisra, Al-Ma’arid, and Umm al-Za’atir, further to the north on the east bank of the river. A survey was conducted by Walter Bachmann, who produced what are still considered as the two most important archaeological maps of the area (figs. 1–2) in historic archives (Meyer 1929: fig. 2; Reuther 1930: fig. 1). To those, followed, after decades, the Italian survey of the west bank of the Tigris (Gullini 1966, 1967) and excavations at Seleucia and Veh Ardashir, held by the Centro Ricerche Archeologiche e Scavi di Torino per il Medio Oriente e l’Asia (Centro Scavi Torino) and the University of Torino under the direction of Giorgio Gullini from 1964 to 1976 and 1987 to 19892, which allowed to discover the most important public buildings of the Seleucid capital, such as the archives, the stoa and theatre (Messina 2006, 2010), and one of the workshop areas of the round city in front of Seleucia, surely identified as the Sasanian capital, Veh 2

Preliminary reports on the Italian excavations were published by G. Gullini, G. Graziosi, A. Invernizzi, M. Negro Ponzi, P. Schinaia, R. Venco Ricciardi and E. Valtz in the journal ‹Mesopotamia›, issues 1–12 (1966–1977) and 21, 23, 25 (1986, 1988, 1990). A synthesis was proposed both by Gullini 1966 and Invernizzi 1976. ‹Mesopotamia› indexes and complete bibliography are available on the website: www.centroscavitorino.it.

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Fig. 1. Multi-temporal elaboration including Bachmann’s 1928–29 map, 1969 Corona image and present interpretation. Triangles indicate German excavations, lozenge American excavations and stars Italian excavations. Continuous lines define degree 3 features, dotted lines degrees 2 and 1 features.

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Fig. 2. Multi-temporal detail of the Seleucia and Veh-Ardashir’s area, where Bachmann’s 1928–29 map and 1969 Corona images are superimposed using RPCs approach.

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Ardashir, by the finding of Ardashir I’s coins below the foundations of the s.-c. ‹Artisans’ Quarter› (Venco Ricciardi/Negro Ponzi 1985). These field researches allow us to recognize at least three mega-sites, two on the west and one on the east bank of the Tigris (Seleucia, Veh Ardashir, and Asbanabr, or the s.-c. ‹Sasanian Ctesiphon›, built around the Taq-e Kisra, but particularly further to the north), as well as to date the major phases of occupation of two of them (Seleucia and Veh Ardashir). Furthermore, a huge amount of data were collected that can be briefly summarized as follows: • Seleucia was founded at the very end of the 4th cent. BC and progressively abandoned from the second half of the 2nd cent. AD, having been affected by Tigris floods, as attested by the way some of its collapsed monuments were partially re-used (at the end of the Sasanian period) and pillaged in the Islamic period, probably with the aim of re-using resulting materials during the foundation of Baghdad; • Veh Ardashir was founded in the period of Ardashir I on the area of a cemetery dated to the 2nd cent. AD and covered by alluvial deposits resulting from river floods, having been reduced in size in the Islamic period, even if its occupation continued up to the 13th century in its central and most elevated part, in the area of Baruda; • The large area on the east bank of the Tigris, including the Tak-e Kisra, Al-Ma’arid and Umm al-Za’atir can be interpreted as a mega-site of the late Sasanian period, in which urban spaces alternated with unbuilt areas or gardens. It is unknown if it growth on a more ancient site of the Parthian or preceding periods, but this is considered very probable by many scholars. Subsequent ground surveys and landscape studies, such as those made by P. J. M. Fiey (1967a, 1967b), A. Oppenheimer (1983), G. Gullini (1966) and, more recently, M.M. Negro Ponzi (2005) and S. Hauser (2007), who particularly focused on the changing watercourse of the Tigris and the possible location of those sites still unidentified on the ground (such as Parthian Ctesiphon), were primarily based on the analysis of the abundant ancient literary sources and, particularly as far as topography is concerned, on the excellent work made by Walter Bachmann, which can be even more appreciated for its precision when compared with modern satellite imagery (fig. 1). However, all these pioneering studies took into consideration the results of the American, German and Italian fieldworks only to a limited extent, sometimes neglecting excavation data. For instance, the fact that the Tigris changed its course two times from the Hellenistic to the late Sasanian period is postulated by many scholars particularly on the basis of the interpretation of some records in the Babylonian Talmud and Syriac Christian sources (Fiey 1967a: 37; Oppenheimer 1983: 233; Negro Ponzi 2005: fig. 7), notwithstanding that the trace of only one paleoriver was surveyed by Bachmann on the ground (Messina 2015: 103–104).

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Moreover, the network of exhausted ancient canals, recognized by Bachmann, and still visible in aerial photos or satellite imagery, was not taken into consideration, with the only exception of the ‹Nahr Malkha›, the famous royal canal that joined the Euphrates to the Tigris in ancient times.

4. Cartographic and Remote Sensed Data Organization A multi-temporal approach was followed with the purpose of retracing the transformations of the area. During the data acquisition the research was organized according to the following schema: first of all, an accurate bibliographic research was performed in order to collect all the published maps, such as those by Bachmann (Meyer 1929: fig. 2; Reuther 1930: fig. 1), Fiey (1967a: 37), Oppenheimer (1983: 233), Gullini (1966: pl. 1), and Negro Ponzi (2005: fig. 7); thus, the archive of the Centro Scavi Torino was analyzed in order to acquire all the available documentation concerning photogrammetric flights, topographic maps and remote sensed data; finally a complete web research finalized to find old images (Corona 1968–1969), digital elevation models (Aster and SRTM3), and recent remote sensing data – one archive’s 2005 Quickbird image and two Word-View 2 images were purchased – was performed in order to acquire complete information on the area. After the data acquisition, all information was harmonized in a GIS software for obtaining a complete cartographic geo-database: this is a fundamental support for remote archaeological analysis. Given that the harmonization of several spatial data could be performed only with a common system, a reference map was realized. For this purpose Quickbird scenes of the area were processed: first of all the Pansharpened4 image was realized, then, using the Rational Polynomial Coefficients approach (RPCs), the orthophoto was realized. The RPC model uses ratios of cubic polynomials to express the transformation from ground surface coordinates (latitude, longitude, elevation) to image coordinates (line, column) for the particular input image. The coefficients for the rational polynomial model are supplied in an auxiliary file with each RPC image kit. Using this approach, the use of a DEM (Digital Elevation Model) is also necessary for rectifying the image and obtaining an orthophoto of the area.

3 4

Shuttle Radar Topography Mission. A pansharpened image is a colored high-resolution image derived from the merging of a panchromatic high-resolution and lower resolution multispectral image.

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The Quickbird orthophoto was employed as reference map for all the other data. With the exception of the WordView 2 image that was processed using the RPCs, all employed information for the multi-temporal analysis was processed using as reference the Quickbird orthophoto by means of traditional rubbersheeting procedures, implemented in the employed GIS software (ArcMap ESRI). The achieved results supply a complete and updated geo-database of the area that was accurately analyzed for the evolution hypothesis reported in the next section. The cartographic products implemented in the GIS were: • Bachmann’s maps (1928–29); • Fiey’s map (1967); • Oppenheimer’s map (1983); • Gullini’s map (1966); • topographic map of Seleucia on the Tigris (1963–64) in the archives of the Centro Scavi Torino; • RAF aerial images (1936) in the archives of the Centro Scavi Torino; • Corona (1968–69); • Quickbird (2005); • WorldView 2 (2009–12). As mentioned above, all these data were georeferenced using the Quickbird orthophoto. According to the international standard, the employed projection was the Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM): the analyzed area is in the fuse 38 North.

5. Data Interpretation and Hypothesis Basing on the data available, an accurate photo- and bibliographic interpretation of the area was performed. The interpolation of topographical, surveyed, remote sensed, and archaeological data allowed us to verify the reliability of the traces recognized by us and other researchers, and propose the following classification: • features identified by photo-interpretation, surveyed on the ground, and attested by excavation can be considered sure (degree 3); • features identified by photo-interpretation and surveyed on the ground can be considered very probable (degree 2); • features surveyed on the ground can be considered probable (degree 1); • features identified only by photo-interpretation remain undetermined until they can be compared with other information (degree 0).

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Fig. 3. Multi-temporal map elaborated fusing Bachmann’s map and photo interpretation (see legend to fig. 1).

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On the basis of the Bachmann’s maps, RAF aerial photos, and World View 2 imagery, it seems for instance very probable that the Tigris flowed west of its present bed, closer to Seleucia, in the Hellenistic and early Parthian period (degree 2), for the branch of a paleoriver was not only surveyed on the ground by the German expedition in 1928, but also appears in 1937 aerial photos (fig. 3). Given that the date of this shifting is secured by the lifetime of Seleucia and no other paleorivers could be seen east of the present Tigris bed, the fact that it changed its course only one time since the late Parthian period, as supposed by Bachmann himself and confirmed by Gullini (1966: pl. 1), seems more probable than the hypothesis of a double shifting, exclusively based on the interpretation of some indirect literary sources. The maximum degree of reliability (degree 3) can be attributed to the phenomenon of progressive shifting of the three ancient canals clearly visible in maps, aerial photos or satellite images, which origin from a branch of the Nahr Malkha and run, from west to east, through the area in which Seleucia was founded (figs. 1, 3). Given that stratigraphic trenches were opened by the Italian expedition on each of the canals and that their course was surveyed and also detected by geomagnetic survey – the first conducted in the area in 1967, as far as we know (Lanza et al. 1972) – we can affirm that the south canal predates the foundation of the city, for it was artificially filled by layers of sediments with the purpose of transforming it into a large street, the central canal is contemporaneous to the city’s lifetime, for its banks are in stratigraphic correlation with the urban layout, and the north canal, which is much more narrow than the others, was dug in the Islamic period, supposedly for irrigation, as the materials found in its deposit even 4 m below the present surface clearly attest (fig. 4). The canals’ progressive shifting, which passed unnoticed even in modern studies, must be related to human activity and is one of the results of the impact the foundation and decline of Seleucia had on the area. Human activities were also devoted to the prevention of the Tigris floods and the control of the watertable’s dynamics. Tigris floods have been repeatedly registered in modern and present times, having transformed the area into marshes (as witnessed by Ernst Herzfeld in 1911), caused the collapse of the left half of the Taq-e Kisra façade in 1888, and submerged cultivated fields many times. Floods can be postulated also in antiquity, however, for they caused the collapse of the theatre of Seleucia at the beginning of the 2nd cent. AD, originated the alluvial deposits that were reached by the Italian excavation below the foundations of Veh Ardashir in the second half of the 2nd cent. AD, and the ebb deposits on its south-east curtains in the 5th cent. AD.

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Mega-Sites’ Impact on Central Mesopotamia …Al-Mada’in Area

Fig. 4. Multi-temporal map of the area of Seleucia, including contours extracted from achieved topographic maps of the Italian expedition and interpretation (see legend to fig. 1).

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Bibliography Al-Ali, S. A., 1968–1969. Al-Mada’in and its surrounding area in Arabic literary sources. Mesopotamia 3–4, 417–439. Alexakis, D./Sarris, A./Astaras, T./Albanakis, K., 2009. Detection of Neolithic Settlements in Thessaly (Greece) through Multispectral and Hyperspectral Satellite Imagery. Sensors 9, 1167–1187. Benjamin, F. R., 2011. Techniques of detecting and delineating archaeological site destruction using high resolution satellite imagery: an Iraq case study. ASPRS 2011 Annual Conference (May 1–5, 2011). Milwaukee (WI). Casana, J./Cothren, J., 2008. Stereo analysis, DEM extraction and orthorectification of CORONA satellite imagery: archaeological applications from the Near East. Antiquity 82 (317), 732–749. Castrianni, L./Di Giacomo, G./Ditaranto, I./Scardozzi, G., 2010. High resolution satellite ortho-images for archaeological research: different methods and experiences in the Near and Middle East. Advances in Geosciences 24, 97–110. Fiey, P. J. M., 1967a. Topography of al-Mada’in (Seleucia-Ctesiphon area). Sumer 23, 3–38. –

1967b. Topographie chrétienne de Mahozé. L’Orient Syrien 12, 397–420.

Gullini, G., 1966. Problems of Excavation in Northern Babylonia. Mesopotamia 1, 7–38. –

1967. Un contributo alla storia dell’urbanistica. Seleucia sul Tigri. Mesopotamia 2, 135–163.

Hauser, S., 2007. Veh Ardashir and the Identification of the Ruins at al-Mada’in. A. Hagedon/A. Shalem (eds.), Facts and Artefacts. Art in the Islamic World. Festschrift für Jens Kröger on his 65th Birthday. Islamic History and Civilization 68. Leiden/Boston, 461–488. Herzfeld, E., 1920. Seleukeia und Ktesiphon. F. Sarre/E. Herzfeld (eds.), Archäologische Reise im Euphratund Tigris-Gebiet, II. Berlin, 46–93. Hopkins, C., 1972. Topography and Architecture of Seleucia on the Tigris. Ann Arbor (MI). Invernizzi, A., 1976. Ten Years’ Research in the al-Mada’in Area, Seleucia and Ctesiphon. Sumer 32, 167–175. Lanza, R./Mancini, A./Ratti, G., 1972. Geophysical Surveys at Seleucia. Mesopotamia 7, 27–41. Lasaponara, R./Masini, N., 2006. On the potential of QuickBird data for archaeological prospection, International Journal of Remote Sensing 27:16, 3607–3614. McDowell, R. H., 1935. Stamped and Inscribed Objects from Seleucia on the Tigris. Humanistic Series 36. Ann Arbor (MI). Messina, V., 2006. Seleucia al Tigri. L’edificio degli archivi. Lo scavo e le fasi architettoniche. Monografie di Mesopotamia 8. Firenze. –

2010. Seleucia al Tigri. Il monumento di Tell ‘Umar. Lo scavo e le fasi architettoniche. Monografie di Mesopotamia 13. Firenze.

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2015. L’area di Al-Madā’in dal declino di Seleucia alla fondazione di Veh Ardashir. L. Caterina/ B. Genito (eds.), Archeologia delle Vie della Seta: Percorsi, Immagini e Cultura Materiale. Conferenze e Progetti CISA 3. Napoli, 87–110.

Meyer, E., 1929. Seleukeia und Ktesiphon. Mitteilungen der Deutschen Orient-Gesellschaft 67, 1–26. Negro Ponzi, M. M., 2005. Al-Mada’in: problemi di topografia. Mesopotamia 40, 145–169. Oppenheimer, A., 1983. Babilonia Judaica in the Talmudic Period. Beihefte zum Tübinger Atlas des Vorderen Orients 47. Wiesbaden. Philip, G./Donoghue, D. N. M./Beck, A. R./Galiatsatos, N., 2002. CORONA satellite photography: an archaeological application from the Middle East. Antiquity 76 (291), 109–118. Reuther, O., 1930. Die Ausgrabungen der Deutschen Ktesiphon-Expedition im Winter 1928/29. Wittenberg. Rich, C. J., 1836. Narrative of a Residence in Koordistan and on the Site of Nineveh. London. Scardozzi, G., 2009. Multitemporal satellite high resolution images for the knowledge and the monitoring of the Iraqi archaeological sites: the case of Seleucia on the Tigris. European Journal of Applied Remote Sensing 45.4, 143–160. Streck, M., 1917. Seleucia und Ktesiphon. Der alte Orient 16:3/4, 1–64. Venco Ricciardi, R., 1968–69. The Excavations at Choche. Mesopotamia 3–4, 57–68. –

1977. Trial Trench at Tell Baruda. Mesopotamia 12, 11–14.

Venco Ricciardi, R./Negro Ponzi, M. M., 1985. Coche, in La terra tra i due fiumi. Alessandria, 100–110. Waterman, L. (ed.), 1931. Preliminary Report upon the Excavation at Tell Umar, Iraq. Ann Arbor (MI). –

1933. Second Preliminary Report upon the Excavation at Tell Umar, Iraq. Ann Arbor (MI).

Cristina Bonfanti & Filiberto Chiabrando, Politecnico di Torino, Dept. of Architecture and Design. Viale Mattioli, 39, 10125, Torino (Italy). Carlo Lippolis & Vito Messina, Università di Torino, Dipartimento di Studi Storici. Via Sant’Ottavio, 20, 10124, Torino (Italy).

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Proceedings, 9 th ICAANE, Basel 2014, Vol. 2, 265–276

Frank Braemer – Bernard Geyer – Gourguen Davtian

From Site Catchment Analysis to Regional Settlement Pattern Analysis: Making a Regional Map of Environmental Resources’ Potential. The Case of Arid Syria The last decades have seen an increasing refinement in site catchment analysis, environmental and landscape studies in Near Eastern archaeology. To compare trends and dynamics in several regions, we propose methods for good representations at a macroregional scale of a synthesis of known environmental conditions and constraints identified at a micro-regional scale.

Introduction The last 30 years have seen an increasing refinement in site catchment analysis, environmental and landscape studies in Near Eastern archaeology. Research essentially by geographers, often integrated into archaeological programs, brings new perspectives on the way in which humans adapt their behaviour to the natural area they live in and how they fashion the landscape at the local scale: such studies are now an obligatory element of sites monographs (Matthiae et al. 2014; Braemer et al. 2004). Regional to macro-regional landscape studies have developed significantly and accompany regional archaeological surveys (Wilkinson 2003, Fouache 2006, Jaubert/Geyer 2006). Attempts to «constructing multidisciplinary landscape and settlement systems» in the last 15 years are on-going (MASS project http://oi-archive.uchicago.edu/OI/PROJ/MASS/introduction.htm, or the more recent CRANE project ). Specialists of climate global change think at the sub-continental scale even if their data, generally sedimentary cores, are issued from a dot on the map. The intense development of high precision modeling (chronological and spatial) of the last millennia rainfalls and temperatures by

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interpolation and generalization of punctual data (Arikan 2012) gives an erroneous feeling of data accuracy (Finné et al. 2011, Braemer et al. 2014). We should not place undue reliance on models that render precipitation and temperatures values over several millennia based on 1) current climate data whose validity is not always guaranteed and criticized and 2) the same taxon (pollen) used to validate paleoenvironment and paleoclimate changes, without putting into perspective the effects of human interventions which may vary significantly in time and space (Kanievski et al. 2014). To understand landscape change beyond the local and below the continental scales, and to compare trends and dynamics in several regions, we need methods for good representations and models at a macro regional scale. At this scale, reference environmental maps are often drawn with a low level of details. For example, Wilkinson et al. defines the notion of «area of uncertainty» by the 200–300 mm isohyets based on old rainfall references (Wilkinson et al. 2014, using Wachholtz 1996 and Sanlaville 2000). «Area of uncertainty» is a very good and operative concept by theorizing the importance of this arid steppe space for the history of settlements in the Fertile Crescent and enlarging the traditional river-centred view. Following Metral’s (1993) and Sanlaville’s (1993) first approaches, Wilkinson et al. inscribes these settlements in a new frame. However, the regional significance of this concept must be refined if we want to use it for increased spatial accuracy: for example parallel or additional spatial limits for the area of uncertainty can be proposed such as the variation of the 200 mm isohyet between wet and dry years (fig. 1). Beyond this discussion, and if we always consider this area of uncertainty that corresponds to the driest part of the Fertile Crescent steppe, more finely tuned descriptions of sub zones using homologous descriptors to compare one area to another are necessary. If these descriptors can be used at different scales, they become very operative and robust to understand factors that make areas more or less attractive for human subsistence and activity. This is one of the goals of the PaleoSyr/PaleoLib project funded by the French National Research Agency for 2010–2014 (Braemer et al. 2014; www.cepam.cnrs.fr/spip. php?rubrique175). Our aim is to establish in Western Syria and Lebanon, regional references for estimating 1) the potential daily water resource, as a major constraint to any form of land use, and 2) the cultivation and herding land-use potential, by drawing a synthesis of known environmental conditions and constraints identified at a micro-regional scale. The studied area covers the medium arid and lower arid bioclimatic zones that are areas where human occupation and land use are the most sensitive to any change in climate conditions, but also particularly constrained to changes in soils and superficial facies which govern vegetation growth. We will present here the methods used until now to synthesize environmental factors. First examples of cartographic arrangements with two methods were elaborated in the two different areas studied previously within archaeological surveys: the Marges arides to the

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Fig. 1. General map of Syria and studied zones, with 200 mm average annual isohyets (from Sanlaville 2000: fig. 21), and rainfall extremes isohyets in the periods 1966–67 and 1972–73 (from Chambrade 2012).

south east of Aleppo (Jaubert/Geyer 2006, Geyer et al. 2007, Geyer 2011) and the Leja basaltic plateau to the south of Damascus (Criaud/Rohmer 2010). Taking lessons from these first experiments, we propose a method to work within one frame at the macro regional scale.

1) Regional Synthesis: First Attempts In the Marges arides, J. Besançon and B. Geyer (2006) verified that the bioclimatic zoning based only on rainfall and subsequent vegetation values is not adequate to map the constraints and to explain the important variability in expansion of the sedentary populations and the exploitation of the land at different periods. To describe and explain this variability, it is necessary to draw the geosystems landscape which is a complex cross assemblage of topography and geomorphology, lithology and superficial facies, soils and water resource maps. With their knowledge of the specific Marges arides region they were able to characterize

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Fig. 2. Marges arides: general attractivity map based on the spatial distribution of the geosystems and their livability degree, hand drawn by J. Besançon et B. Geyer 2006.

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Fig. 3. Marges arides: final map with 5 classes of relative attractiveness. Fig. 4. Marges arides: attractivity and sites map.

27 descriptors comprising 5 for topographical features, 6 for geomorphology and lithology, 9 for the edaphic factors and 7 for water resources. The result is a map based on the spatial distribution of the geosystems and their livability degree (fig. 2) with 19 different classes of equivalent attractivity. Doing so, they put in perspective the weight of the climatic aridity, and have highlighted the weight of the edaphic component that may increase or counterbalance climatic aridity. Defining areas of attractiveness has highlighted the complexity of the distribution of aridity in the region. The major characteristics of the different components of the environment (rainfall, hydrology, lithology, soil, etc.) are coupled with what is known of the effects of anthropism on these environments to define spatial entities which share similar constraints and potentials, and thus similar relative «attractiveness»: the 19 different classes defined for the general attractiveness map were synthesized in 5 main zones (fig. 3). Relative attractiveness may change with time in a given region. It relies on consequences of climatic changes on the natural environment, but also predominantly on manmade water management developments, such as: wells (Geyer 2009), cisterns (Geyer et al. forthcoming) and qanats (Rousset 2010). Both archaeology and climatology contribute to this evaluation.

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Fig. 5. Leja: 20th century synthesis of «natural environmental data» or «relative attractivity map». Fig. 6. Leja: «relative attractivity map» as modified by water developments during the first half of the 1st mill. AD. (both maps by G. Davtian).

All these different components were elaborated and verified in the field, and at that time the attractiveness maps were handmade. The resulting maps are now computerized and used as GIS layers. Superimposing the attractiveness map and the sites map was the second study’s step that allows identifying at the regional scale: 1) areas systematically settled during the whole Holocene correlated to areas of high attractiveness, 2) areas less attractive where land developments and water management were major factors explaining land use and settlement patterns and, 3) areas where attractiveness grade and settlement density seems to be opposing, a fact that needs other explanations (fig. 4). Taking lessons from this experiment, we prepared for the Leja a simplified cartographic arrangement by superimposing 3 layers in the GIS (Braemer et al. 2015). The soil map is restricted to a raw calculation of 5 grades of rock and stone cover which is the main soil character in this rocky basaltic plateau. The bioclimatic map is based on rainfall and vegetal associations. The water resource map is based on a topographic map and field observations. The second step was model configuration, assigning quality levels to each class, and transforming vector layers to raster images in order to calculate 5 «quality» classes. This calculation gives a model of what we can consider today as a «natural environmental data map» showing micro regional potential for agricultural activities (fig. 5) which can be overlain with site maps, and landscape/hydraulic development maps by periods (fig. 6).

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Fig. 7. Leja: «relative attractivity map» superimposing a classed Landsat image result of 5 grades ranking to bioclimatic, and water resources maps (G. Davtian).

We were thus able to reconstruct in both areas a first local history of regional land use. We mentioned above that settlement pattern changes in arid zones are not governed only by variations in rainfall, temperatures or dry season length, but by a set of factors. Each one has an impact that we are able to qualify and sometimes measure, for example the spatial impact of manmade developments. Comparing these local histories, we surmised that the quantity of information is now sufficient for a framework defining the general trends of settlement patterns in the steppe, and to obtain a useful picture of differences from one micro region to another (Braemer et al. 2014). However, we are comparing documents that are not constructed with the same data and hence we propose a new development of the analytical process.

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Fig. 8. Western Syria: Classed Landsat image result of 5 grades ranking on the basis of a 20 colours automatic classification (G. Davtian).

2) Macro-Regional Synthesis: Methodological Approach The goal of map making includes synthesizing qualitative elements that allow qualifying an area attractive or repulsive for cultivation and pastoral activity in the past. The main difficulty is to elaborate detailed soil «quality» reference maps at the sub-continental scale. Our working base is a mosaic of Landsat scenes covering the whole studied area with spatial detail and multi-scale views. These scenes are obtained on the same day to ensure that the colour spectrum is homogeneous from North to South, with 3 scenes covering Western Syria and Lebanon. The resulting mosaic allows processing homologous data at

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Noms groupements/géologie

Définition des groupements

Eau

eau

Basaltes potentiel agronomique A

Cl. 8, 12, 15, 17, 19, sur basaltes: Cultures riches, souvent irriguées sur sols épais. Très localement (Homs), formation naturelle couvrante (arbres/arbustes) [A]

Basaltes potentiel agronomique B

cl. 3, 7, 11, sur basaltes. Cultures généralement riches sur sols bien développés et fonds de vallées [B]

Basaltes potentiel agronomique C

cl. 16, 18, Cultures sèches généralement sur sols bien hydratés [C]

Basaltes potentiel agronomique D

cl. 6, 9, 10, 13, 14, 20, sur basaltes. Surfaces généralement non cultivées, sur roche largement décapée ou affleurante, avec localement possibilités de cultures intersticielles, sèches, pauvres. [D]

Basalte potentiel agronomique E

cl. 4 Zones anthropisées et généralement construites [E]

Calcaires tendres/formations superficielles potentiel agronomique A

cl. 11, 8, 12, 15, 17, 19 sur calcaires tendres et formations superficielles, cultures riches souvent irriguées sur sols bien développés [A]

Calcaires tendres/formations superficielles potentiel agronomique B

cl. 16, 18, 3, 7, sur calcaires tendres et formations superficielles, cultures riches sur sols bien développés [B]

Calcaires tendres/formations superficielles potentiel agronomique C

cl. 13, 14, 20, sur calcaires tendres et formations superficielles, cultures sèches sur sols relativement bien hydratés [C]

Calcaires tendres/formations superficielles potentiel agronomique D

cl. 6, 9, 10 sur calcaires tendres et formations superficielles. Surfaces généralement non cultivées, sur roche largement décapée ou affleurante, ou dépressions fermées, avec localement possibilités de cultures intersticielles, sèches, pauvres.

Calcaires tendres/formations superficielles potentiel agronomique E

cl. 4 Zones anthropisées et généralement construites [E]

Calcaires durs A Calcaires durs potentiel agronomique B

cl. 3, 11, 12, 19 sur calcaires durs, boisements ou cultures arboriculture, éventuellement en terrasses [B]

Calcaires durs potentiel agronomique C

cl. 7, 8, 17 sur calcaires durs, forêts ouvertes, maquis ou reboisements [C]

Calcaires durs potentiel agronomique D

cl. 6, 9, 10, 13, 14, 20, sur calcaires durs, surfaces non cultivées, généralement pauvres en sols sinon décapées, avec végétation naturelle pauvre [D]

Calcaires durs potentiel agronomique E

cl. 4 Zones anthropisées et généralement construites [E]

Table 1. Agronomical potential clusters.

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the same time with pixel precision and at the micro- to macro-regional scales. Before using the Landsat mosaic scene, a first test was realized on a colour-classified Landsat image of the Leja area. We identified with our field knowledge each colour-class in terms of ground surface nature and relative soil wetness and thickness, and proposed a classification in 5 classes corresponding to the former 5 grades of rock and stone cover map. This processed image was combined with the bioclimatic and water resource maps and the calculations yielded a 10 grades relative attractivity map (fig. 7). At the Western Syria scale, a first general automatic classification of the Landsat scene mosaic in 20 colour-classes was made. We then selected 2 windows corresponding to our field study areas plus one from the Homs survey (Philip and Bradbury 2010) for testing. We identified with our field knowledge each colour-class in each window in terms of ground surface nature and relative soil wetness and thickness. Differences in identifying and qualifying the same class in the same window are mainly due to differences in geological substratum (basalts, soft or hard limestone) and superficial features. Each category was then analysed separately and given a «quality» label on a 5 grade scale (fig. 8): 16 classes were so defined. Lastly these 16 classes were grouped in 5 clusters of agronomical potential (table 1). Each class definition was subject to scrutiny according to our field knowledge, and any change or addition in definition can easily be inserted into the model which produces updated maps.

Conclusion A raster image of this cartographic arrangement can then be used as a firm, homogeneous and controlled common basis to discuss similarities and differences from one zone to one another. For example, the pixel count in each category allows a quantification of the surface potential of an area. This final soil quality map, giving a synthetic edaphic value to each pixel, will then be superimposed with bio-climatic and water resource maps. Manmade developments that change landscape values will be also inserted by periods into the model using the process tested with the Leja case study and this opens the way to a comparative analysis of landscape history.

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Geyer, B./al-Dbiyat, M./Awad, N./Barge, O./Besançon, J./Calvet, Y./Jaubert, R., 2007. The Arid Margins of Northern Syria: Occupation of the Land and Modes of Exploitation in the Bronze Age. D. Morandi Bonacossi (ed.), Urban and Natural Landscapes of an Ancient Syrian Capital. Settlement and Environment at Tell Mishrifeh/Qatna and in Central-Western Syria, Proceedings of the International Conference held in Udine, 9–11 December 2004. Studi Archeologici su Qatna 1, Forum Editrice, Udine, 269–281. Geyer, B./Rousset, M.-O./Besançon, J., Forthcoming. Les citernes pluviales des steppes syriennes, éléments de la conquête d’une marge aride. M.-O. Rousset et al. (éds.), Habitat et environnement. Prospections dans les Marges arides de la Syrie du Nord. TMO, Série «Conquête de la steppe» n 4, Maison de l’Orient, Lyon. Jaubert, R./Geyer, B. (eds.), 2006. Les marges arides du Croissant fertile. Peuplements, exploitation et contrôle des ressources en Syrie du Nord. TMO 43, Série «Conquête de la steppe» n 2, Maison de l’Orient, Lyon. Kanievski, D./Van Campo, E./Guiot, J./Le Burel, S./Otto, T./Baeteman, C., 2014. Environmental Roots of the Late Bronze Age Crisis, PLOS One, 8, 8, e71004, doi:10.1371. Matthiae, P./Marchetti, N. (eds.), 2014. Ebla and its Landscape. Early State Formation in the Ancient Near East, Left Coast Press, Walnut Creek. Métral, J., 1993. Economie et sociétés: stratégies alternatives et cultures de l’aléatoire. Bocco et al. 1993: 381–387. Philip, G./Bradbury, J., 2010. Pre-Classical Activity in the Basalt Landscape of the Homs Region, Syria: Implications for the Development of ‘Sub-Optimal’ Zones in the Levant During the ChalcolithicEarly Bronze Age. Levant 42, 136–164. Rousset, M.-O., 2010. Qanats de la steppe syrienne. P.-L. Gatier et al. (éds.), Entre nomades et sédentaires. Prospections en Syrie du Nord et en Jordanie du Sud. TMO 55, Série «Conquête de la steppe» n° 3, Maison de l’Orient, Lyon, 241–270. Sanlaville, P., 1993, Développement et environnement. Bocco et al. 1993: 361–374. –

2000. Le Moyen-Orient arabe: Le milieu et l’homme, Paris: Armand Colin.

Wachholtz, R., 1996. Socio-economics of Bedouin Farming Systems in Dry Areas of Northern Syria. Kiel. Wilkinson T. J., 2003. Archaeological landscapes of the Near East. The University of Arizona press, Tucson. Wilkinson, T. J./Philip, G./Bradbury, J./Dunford, R./Donoghue, D./Galiatsatos, N./Lawrence, D./Ricci A./ Smith S. L., 2014. Contextualizing Early Urbanization: Settlement Cores, Early States and Agropastoral Strategies in the Fertile Crescent During the Fourth and Third Millennia BC. Journal of World Prehistory 27.1 (DOI 10.1007/s10963-014-9072-2), 43–109.

Frank Braemer & Gourguen Davtian, CEPAM, CNRS-Université de Nice Sophia Antipolis, Nice France. Bernard Geyer, Archéorient, CNRS-Maison de l’Orient et de la Méditerranée, Lyon France.

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Anne Devillers

New Approaches in Palaeofauna Reconstruction Large palaeofaunas played key ecological and socio-economic roles, capable of modifying and structuring ecosystems and influencing human communities. The data sets that can be used to evaluate these faunas include palaeontological finds, textual accounts, archaeozoological material and iconographic representations. A comparison between datasets completes inferences made from each one. Large mammalian faunas, also known as megafaunas, are key elements of past and present eco-systems, both because of the ecological role of their components, capable of modifying and structuring ecosystems and because of their economic and cultural significance to human populations. Their comprehension and reconstitution must therefore always be one of the important elements considered within the study of palaeoenvironments. Various approaches are available for the study of these ancient faunas, first and foremost, of course, the exploitation of archaeozoological data brings us first-hand information on local faunal assemblages, keeping in mind the anthropogenic influence on the taphonomic process; textual and iconographical sources offer an additional insight into the composition of ancient faunas, seen however through the bias of socio-cultural considerations of the authors or artists. All these data sets have been widely used, each contributing to our knowledge of what the zoological situation must have been like, but their comparison and confrontation, their simultaneous usage is only rarely exploited, perhaps because they proceed from parallel schools of thought and separate disciplines. Their synthesis can however bring a different light and permit to verify hypotheses or to formulate new ones. It is the aim of this communication to explore the potential of a cross-disciplinary approach to the study of palaeofaunas. A case study from 3rd millennium northern Mesopotamia was chosen to illustrate this discussion. It is a region and period upon which archaeological studies have concentrated for the past thirty years, and which has captured the heart of all who have worked there. The material available is relatively abundant and comes from well-documented contexts for the most part. An exhaustive inventory of identifiable animal representations in the

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published glyptic material was compiled and then confronted with the archaeozoological data for which meticulous reports have been published for several of the sites considered.

Role of Palaeofaunas Value for Ecosystems Large vertebrates are often keystone species, elements of the ecosystem capable of modifying, structuring and diversifying the animal and plant communities to which they belong or with which they co-exist through various regulating, nurturing or benefiting behaviours (Mills et al. 1993). Large grazers (figs. 1–2) impact the evolution of the vegetation and thus of the communities of smaller animals that the vegetation supports. In turn, large predators exert a considerable pressure on the grazers, regulate their populations and thus their impact on the vegetation. The removal of large predators can lead to degradation of the vegetation because of overgrazing (Ripple/Beschta 2007) or to a decline of small animals and birds because of the proliferation of medium predators (Crooks/Soulé 1999; Ritchie/Johnson 2009). Variations in the large fauna of an area thus profoundly impacts the entire eco-system balance and can even sometimes modify the whole aspect of an environment.

Value for People Large wild animals have long provided a substantial portion of the «goods and services» of ecosystems. Since the end of the Lower Palaeolithic large game has been a major source of protein for hominids (Renault-Miskovsky 1991). It has also contributed to the provision of clothing, shelter and, locally, fuel. Temporary taming or restraining of wild animals has led to other uses, such as transport (draught animals such as Scimitar-horned Oryx, Oryx dammah, in Egypt, Syrian Onager, Equus hemippus, in Mesopotamia) or the constitution of hunting reserves (e.g. Fallow Deer, Dama mesopotamica, in Cyprus and elsewhere). Finally, large wild mammals provided the material for the most influential domestication processes; Diamond has proposed the determinant aspect of the availability of domesticable animals and plants in the emergence of food production centres and the fashioning of the early evolution of cultures. He argues, quite convincingly, that nearly all efficiently domesticable species were found in the steppes and mountains of the Near East, definitively shaping the future of our cultural evolution (Diamond 1997). Once large mammals are domesticated, they provide meat, milk products, fertilizer, transport, traction, leather and wool. Animal symbolism unsurprisingly occupies a very large place in human cultures. Animal metaphors are universally used to evoke, describe or understand human categories. They can be idealised or vilified in comparisons. They often play a central role in myths, provide

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Fig. 1. Herd of Procapra gutturosa pasturing on the Mongolian steppe during spring migration.

Fig. 2. Reconstituted aurochs used for vegetation regulation in the Oostvaardersplassen, Holland.

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deities and totems, are attached to taboos. They participate in numerous rituals. Animal representations are pervasive in all forms of art and folklore. These representations, beyond their aesthetic value, often appear to have magic, symbolic or apotropaic significance. Reference to animals is an element of power as exemplified by identification of leaders with feared or beneficial animals, by the prestige of hunting, by the use of domestic animals to measure wealth and as currency in exchanges (Russell 2012). Strong relations to pets or to tamed animals as auxiliaries are found in almost all cultures on every continent.

Convergences and Divergences The data sets that can be used to evaluate the composition and distribution of ancient faunas are the archaeozoological and palaeontological collections on the one hand, historical and iconographical material on the other. Most often, faunal reconstructions rely on one of the two sets of data. Both archaeozoological (e.g. Uerpmann 1987; Vila 1998) and iconographical overviews (e.g. Van Buren 1939) have been proposed for Mesopotamia, the Levant and North Africa. However, each of these sets has its limitations and the simultaneous consideration of the two sets of data can offer a different, and sometimes more complete, perspective. When studying ancient fauna, one must keep in mind a number of difficulties inherent to the nature of the data used. Firstly, only a small part of the archaeozoological record is preserved, and what remains is often a biased sample linked to taphonomic processes, human exploitation or lack thereof and excavation policies. Secondly, the identification of faunal remains can be challenging and there are many cases where an identification down to the species levels is extremely difficult, or even impossible (Grigson 1969; Vila 1998; Ervynck 1999; Reitz/Wing 2008). Iconographic and historical material are subject to similar issues, such as a biased record due to artefact retrieval, artistic filters and choices and of course species identifications that are often open to controversy (Caubet/Poplin 2010). Two main lines of evidence can be invoked to assess reliability; one is the zoological accuracy of the design, which can be interpreted as a measure of the familiarity of the artist with the animal, the other is the subject of the representation, where animals depicted in their natural environment or in typical positions and activities usually indicate a local presence (Devillers 2008). These constraints make the interpretation of the data available a crucial part of the understanding and reconstitution of ancient faunas. Indications given by presence/absence and quantitative information must be analysed and understood as far as possible. For archaeozoological data, discussions centre on the understanding of human behaviour in respect to animals or on taphonomic considerations. Patterns of hunting, butchery, management of domestic animals and of their products all have an influence on the probability of animal

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remains to be left in locations later accessible to palaeontological or archaeological investigation. Taphonomic processes determine the probability for these remains to be fossilised, retained in situ and preserved in identifiable form (Dincauze 2000). For iconographic data, the differential presence or frequency in transregional analyses, combined with other sources of information on the human context, provide indices of reliability. The more abundant iconographic data can fill spatial or temporal gaps in the archaeozoological data, gaps that are inherent to the data retrieval and do not reflect true absences, also known as false zeros. This is especially true for wild species that appear less regularly in the faunal remains of a site, such as the large predators. Iconography also proves useful in supplementing the archaeozoological data when species leave remains that are difficult to separate from close relatives or leave few remains because of their natural scarcity. Two case studies come to mind in this instance, one is the famous analysis of the distribution of the European Bison in the Middle East by Boehmer1, the other is a recent proposal for the re-examination of the historic distribution range of the Arabian Oryx2. In summary, when there is convergence, over fairly substantial geographical areas, of the relative frequencies of archaeozoological remains and of iconographic representations of the same species, one can postulate with relative confidence that the frequency of indices reflects the composition of the fauna and not a taphonomic or cultural bias. When, however, there is no overlap between the different data sets, one must proceed more cautiously, keeping in mind the precautions discussed above. Divergences in the record can point to several scenarios, giving an insight into the cultural, socioeconomic and environmental circumstances that condition the selection of animals to be exploited or depicted, or to the subsequent taphonomic fate of remains and subsequent use, reuse or disposal of representations.

Upper Mesopotamia: a Case Study In 3rd millennium Upper Mesopotamia, iconographical data are sufficiently extensive, in the form of glyptic material, for several areas and in several periods, to allow regional surveys and comparison of local trends. Large sets of seals and seal impressions of known 1

2

Boehmer 1965: The distribution range of the European Bison (Bison bonasus) is still widely believed to have ranged from Western Europe to the Caucasus, based on historical accounts and on the limited palaeontological data. And yet, Boehmer showed, through a very perceptive analysis of the glyptic, that the former range of the species included most of the Zagros and probably the eastern Taurus. Devillers 2013: The Arabian Oryx (Oryx leucoryx) is now extinct in the wild. Its historic distribution (Harrison 1968) is reconstructed on the basis of accounts of travellers of the 19th and 20th centuries; archaeozoological remains are extremely few and controversial (Uerpmann 1987). A recent survey of the iconography has shown occurrences in Susa, Luristan and the Jiroft area.

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Domesticates

Devillers Upper Euphrates

Balikh

Khabur

Upper Tigris

Middle Euphrates

75%

51%

28%

10%

58%

Wild species: Bos primigenus

12%

Capra aegagrus

10%

11%

Ovis ammon Gazella subgutterosa

12%

20% 13%

15%

20%

32%

22%

36%

Dama mesopotamica Panthera leo

13%

11%

15% 13%

23%

10%

77%

Table 1. Occurrences of large mammal species representations in more than 10% of North Mesopotamian glyptic assemblages.

provenance have been published since the early 20th century. A survey of cylinder and stamp seals and sealings of the Uruk and Upper Dynastic periods found in situ in five regions of Upper Mesopotamia (fig. 3), the Upper Euphrates, the Balikh, the Khabur, the Middle Euphrates and the Upper Tigris, revealed more than 500 images with identifiable representations of animals, wild or domestic. The largest sample is from the Khabur basin, with 270 images from 11 sites. A publication of the full results of this survey is in preparation, covering the 4th and 3rd millennia in Upper Mesopotamia, a sample of results for the 3rd millennium is presented in this communication (fig. 4). The overall results of the study show the percentage of seals and sealings on which the most common large mammal species are found (the figures are detailed in table 1 for species represented in more than 10% of cases). Some general trends appear immediately. The same common set of species composes the most frequently represented assemblage in each region, nearly all of which are large mammals (smaller mammals, birds and insects appear only very occasionally as main subjects), both game species and their principal predators, either in naturalistic positions or in more or less conventional «combat» scenes with each other or with human figures. The percentages in which these species are represented varies however greatly from one region to another. One region in particular stands out, the Upper Tigris. This rather remote region, which presents the highest diversity in the total number of species represented (11 species), is characterised by the strong presence of Mouflon (Ovis gmelini), the surprising absence of Goitered Gazelle (Gazella subgutturosa) and the relative scarceness of lions (Panthera leo persicus). Except in the upper Tigris, lions are, unsurprisingly, common everywhere and the only carnivore represented in significant numbers. They appear in about a third of the images in the three north-western areas, and in an impressive three quarters of the impressions on the Middle Euphrates. The Middle Euphrates figures are heavily influenced by the data from Mari, which appears to

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Fig. 3. The five regions of Upper Mesopotamia included in the survey of animal representations in glyptic material.

Fig. 4. Occurrences of large mammal species representations in North Mesopotamian glyptic assemblages.

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Devillers Upper Euphrates

Balikh

Khabur

Upper Tigris

Middle Euphrates

Domesticates

75%

51%

28%

10%

58%

Cattle

20%

13%

7%

2, 5%

42%

Goats

45%

28%

12%

5%

8%

Sheep

10%

10%

9%

2, 5%

8%

Table 2. Occurrences of domestic species representations in North Mesopotamian glyptic assemblages.

be the most divergent individual site, a particularity that is perhaps to be expected in view of the strong southern influence known to have prevailed at Mari in pre-Akkadian times. The main differences are a much greater importance of bovids (50 % instead of 10%), the presence of felids other than lions and the reversed frequency of Fallow Deer versus the run-of-the-mill gazelle. Gazelles are the most numerous of the hunted ungulates on the Upper Euphrates, the Balikh and the Khabur, they are superseded by Mesopotamian Fallow Deer on the Middle Euphrates and are almost anecdotal on the Upper Tigris, where they are replaced by Mouflons and Mesopotamian Fallow Deer. The Bezoar (Capra aegagrus) is found everywhere in equal percentages except on the Middle Euphrates; the aurochs (Bos primigenus) on the contrary appears only on in this area3. These are the only wild species that appear in more than 10% of cases. The proportion of domestic animals represented (table 2) tends to be higher than that of wild species except on the Khabur and the Upper Tigris. The proportion of domestics is especially high on the Upper Euphrates where they constitute a massive 75% of all representations. Among domestic animals, small livestock, mainly goats, predominate everywhere except on the Middle Euphrates where it is very largely outnumbered by cattle. The bestiary that emerges from this iconographic sample closely parallels, both in composition and relative prevalence, the one that can be constructed from archaeozoological data, either presented at a regional level (Zeder 1995; Kolinski/Piątkowska-Malecka 2008; Piątkowska-Małecka/Smogorzewska 2010) or detailed for individual sites, such as Tell Brak (Clutton-Brock 2001; Dobneyet al. 2003), Tell Beydar (van Neer/De Cupere 2000; De Cupere/van Neer 2014), Habuba Kabira (von den Driesch 1993) or Tell Arbid (PiątkowskaMałecka/Smogorzewska 2010). Such a coincidence between animals depicted and animals found in archaeozoological deposits may appear expected. However, on a global scale, Russell notes that a match of frequencies is rarely attained between taxa represented in 3

However the distinction between domestic cattle and aurochs was made in part on the basis of the context in which the animals are shown, which may not be entirely reliable.

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art and bone assemblages, as «people depict animals because they are food for thought rather than just food» (Russell 2012: 14). The congruence, in the case of 3rd millennium Upper Mesopotamia, clearly reflects a preoccupation of the regional culture with the local resources, in particular with the livestock and its protection on the one hand, with locally available game on the other hand. A few differences between the two sets of data are striking and require more complex interpretation. One of them is the almost total absence in the glyptic of domestic pigs and wild boars, two animals abundantly found in archaeozoological deposits (Dobney et al. 2003; Kolinski/Piątkowska-Malecka 2008; Piątkowska-Małecka/ Smogorzewska 2010).

Applications of Ancient Fauna Reconstructions Indicators of Ancient Environments, Climates and Climate Changes The palaeoecological significance of animals is based on hypotheses on their ecological preferences inferred by analogy with present day relatives or with assemblies of known context. Ensembles of large mammals, in particular, have been widely used to characterise environments or detect environmental changes linked to the climatic oscillations of the Quaternary and thus reconstruct the context of human evolution (Renault-Miskovsky 1991). The method has limitations, however, as many species have a large potential of adaptation to changes that are not too rapid and may thus poorly reflect relatively small environmental variation. Nowadays, data derived from the reconstruction of faunas are mostly useful in the framework of multidisciplinary studies that include palynology and physicochemical methods.

Contribution to the Understanding of the Evolution of Ecosystems A holistic approach to the description, analysis and assessment of ecosystems and their evolution, integrating the study of abiotic environment, of animal and plant communities, of human socioeconomic, affective and cultural activities and of the links between these actors is increasingly advocated in the evaluation of the current state and future of the biosphere. A similar approach applied to past ecosystems can provide powerful references, benchmarks and models. It is the aim of the very new science of social zooarchaeology (Russell 2012).

Reference for Conservation Biology Mitigation Actions Conservation biology, described by its inventor Michael Soulé as a «mission-oriented crisis discipline» (Soulé 1985; Meine et al. 2006), is a relatively recent, multidisciplinary science developed in response to the biodiversity crisis. Its goals are to evaluate human impacts on

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Fig. 5. Feeding of reintroduced Oryx leucoryx in the Talila reserve, Syria (Palmyra), 2008.

biological diversity and to develop practical approaches to prevent the extinction of species and the destruction of habitats (Wilson 1992). Palaeozoological data are useful to conservation biologists in revealing past conditions created by anthropogenic and natural processes. These conditions can serve as benchmarks of ecological properties and processes to be favoured or restored. The data can be used to determine whether a taxon is native or exotic to an area, distinguish invasive from recolonizing taxa, choose a management action likely to produce a desired result (figs. 5–6), reveal unanticipated effects of conservation efforts, and identify causes of ecological conditions (Donlan et al. 2005; Lyman 2006).

Acknowledgments I thank Professors Eric Gubel, Philippe Talon and Eugène Warmenbol for their continued support and I am grateful to Dr Roseline Beudels and her collaborators of the Conservation Biology unit at the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences for their precious advice and many interesting discussions.

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Fig. 6. Habitat restoration effort in preparation for the reintroduction of Gazella subgutturosa marica and Oryx leucoryx in Talila reserve, Syria (Palmyra), 2008.

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Anne Devillers, Scientific Collaborator, Royal Museums of Art and History, Brussels. This research was funded by the Belgian Federal Science Policy Office (BELSPO) Interuniversity Attraction Poles Programme IAP 7/14: Greater Mesopotamia. All figures and photos are by the author.

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Proceedings, 9 th ICAANE, Basel 2014, Vol. 2, 291–303

Ianir Milevski – Bernardo Gandulla – Pablo Jaruf

Eco-Systems or «Socio-Systems»? The Case of the Chalcolithic of the Southern Levant The Chalcolithic Ghassulian culture of the southern Levant lasted for about 800 years starting in the second half of the 5th millennium BC. A great deal of research has been involved in the southern facies of this culture, mainly in the Northern Negev. Changes in settlement patterns at the end of Ghassulian Chalcolithic and the collapse of this culture has been interpreted in relation to the influence of eco-systems on the material culture of the southern Levant in that particular semi-desertic area. In this paper we will offer our interpretation on the developments concerning the end of the Chalcolithic from a socioeconomic context, without ignoring the influence of the environment and natural sources on the development of the rural communities of the southern Levantine Chalcolithic.

Introduction Some scholars have discussed the existence of a possible crisis in the sites of the southern Levant, particularly in the Northern Negev at the end of the Chalcolithic period. The interpretation of archaeological evidence concerning this phenomenon deserves special attention because from a theoretical and methodological point of view it represents an issue that, in our understanding, cannot be solved by disregarding human and social aspects in favor of a external determinism. Hence the question we pose: eco-systems or socio-systems? With the aim to explaining the end of the Chalcolithic in the southern Levant and the transition to the Early Bronze Age (EBA) I, researchers have proposed several possible scenarios. Some scholars have considered variables external to Chalcolithic society, one is the possible ecological degradation of the environment and the collapse of the Chalcolithic society due to a change in climate during the second quarter of the 4th millennium B.C. (Goldberg/Rosen 1987; Levy 1998; Burton/Levy 2011: 187–188; contra Blackham 2002: 100–102). Lovell (2002) pointed out that: «The majority of Chalcolithic sites come to an

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abrupt end with no reoccupation in the ensuing Early Bronze Age». Meanwhile, Joffe (1993: 41) estimated that only 21% of the Chalcolithic sites in low-lying areas were reoccupied in EBA I. It has been suggested that whereas climatic conditions had been more favorable at the beginning of the Chalcolithic, towards the end of it climate gradually evolved into presentday conditions (Sanlaville 1996). As the Negev was always a marginal area, its inhabitants had already developed a survival strategy and mechanisms to cope with the aridity of the environment, including pastoralism in periods of extreme drought, and were, therefore, successful in addressing climate fluctuations. In fact, this would amount to delegitimizing the determinant nature of the assumption concerning the collapse of Chalcolithic societies in the southern Levant as a result of ecologic degradation brought about by a change in climate. We intend to address this topic based on the evidence at our disposal.

Chronology From a chronological point of view, our study is located in what some authors have defined as the Ghassulian (e.g. Gilead 2011) or Late Chalcolithic period (e.g. Garfinkel 1999) (ca. 4500–3800/3700 BC). According to these researchers, there must have been a hiatus between the latest stages of the Chalcolithic and the first stages of the EBA I. From a methodological point of view, we could consider two approaches to address the study: on the one hand, according to Butzer’s (1982) approach, human history is a continuation of natural history; on the other hand, in the nineties, some scholars suggested that this argument could be inverted in the sense that human beings could, in fact, modify the landscape through their activities causing, for instance, the desertification of large expanses of land by cutting down the trees (e.g. Bottema et al. 1990). Polanyi (1966) asserted that the relationship between a specified culture and its environment is equivalent to a complete entity and its constituent parts. Consequently, culture would depend on the natural habitat including all its social and economic components. This paper intends to discuss the proposal according to which the end of the Chalcolithic period was brought about by a climate trend towards greater dryness which had a particular impact on the sites in the Beersheva Valley where annual rainfall nowadays is under 200mm. This area was inhabited during the Chalcolithic period but not during the ensuing EBA I, unlike other semiarid regions such as the Jordan Valley. The collapse of the Chalcolithic settlements at the beginning of the 4th millennium B.C. may help to illustrate the problems associated with the attempt to establish a causal relationship between the widespread degradation of the land and human activities. In fact, it is unlikely that these activities had a negative impact on the landscape as some authors suggest

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Eco-Systems or «Socio-Systems»? The Case of the Chalcolithic of the Southern Levant

Fig. 1. Today’s phytogeography and rainfall in the southern Levant.

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Fig. 2. Palynological diagram of core DI from the Dead Sea. Adapted from Baruch (1992: figs.1–2).

regarding the Beersheva area (Levy 1981; Gilead 1988; Lovell/Rowan 2011), this being a region with a relatively dense line of farming villages along the main drainages. Rosen (2011) suggested that this settlement system was originated by a colonization event towards the middle of the 5th millennium over a span of hundreds of years. We suggest that this phenomenon is associated with the first metal smelting industries and their sources in Wadi Feynan. Around 3800/3700 BC, and perhaps even earlier, all the settlements throughout the length of Nahal Beersheva were abandoned. There is no apparent continuity between these settlements and the EBA I few hundreds of years later (Gilead 1995, 2011).

Climate and Habitat Phytogeographical areas in Palestine are well-defined nowadays (fig. 1) and the main problem lies in determining whether the same situation existed approximately 6500 years ago. The area under study is the semi-desertic Irano-Turanian region with under 200 mm. annual rainfall. One of the methods that provides an outline of climate change is the study

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of speleothems, i.e. the study of stalactites and stalagmites in caves that reflect the volume of rainfall in cycles of years. The work by Bar-Matthews and Ayalon (2011) in the Soreq cave shows a peak in the curve stretching from the middle of the 5th millennium up until the beginning of the 4th millennium BC, a period identified with the Chalcolithic. Another method used to study climate change is palynology that measures the amount of pollen grains deposited during certain periods and enables the determination of the botanical activity in one period or another. This method involves the creation of several cores, i.e. deep excavations performed with drills to recover evidence of the botanical history of specified sites. We unfortunately lack a core that is an exact match for the Negev. The Ein Gedi pollen core on the shores of the Dead Sea is the closest core in the area north of the Negev labeled D I (fig. 2). According to studies conducted by Baruch (1991), by 4500 BC one can observe an increase in the amount of olive tree pollen. We can conclude that there must have been a colder and humid period during the Chalcolithic throughout the entire southern Levant. The same situation can be observed in the palynological core of the eastern Mediterranean published by Langgut and others (2011). Naturally, each core reflects the climate situation of the surrounding areas. However, based on the speleothemic studies for the north and center added to the information furnished by the two palynological cores, we can suggest that climate changes did occur during the Chalcolithic, throughout the southern Levant.

Flora and Fauna One central issue in this period is the culmination of the process known as the «secondary products revolution» (Sherratt 1980), including the production of dairy goods and horticulture and the probable domestication of some trees, particularly olive trees (e.g. Lovell 2008). Grigson (2007) shown that the distribution of animal husbandry (sheep, goats, cattle and pigs), coincides approximately with present-day phytogeographic regions. Pigs, which are animals that require large amounts of water, are found in the Mediterranean area whereas they are practically absent in the semiarid Irano-Turanian area. Pigs are also to be found in the sites located in the area extending between these two regions (Gilat, Grar, Ghassul). Now, if we observe the map of the Chalcolithic sites (fig. 3), we shall see that below the 150 mm yearly rainfall line archaeological pig remains amount to less than 2%. If we rely on this information, we can infer that the situation during the Chalcolithic period was similar to present-day conditions, perhaps with a slightly higher rainfall pattern. If we were to conduct a study of the faunal remains over time comparing general data with data from the semiarid areas (Grigson 1998), we would see two things: the Chalcolithic and EBA maintain the same trends –with a few slight differences – both in general and in

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Fig. 3. Distribution of 5th–4th millennium BC sites of the southern Levant with more than 7% (black circles) and less than 2% (white circles) pigs. The dotted line represents the limit of dry farming. Adapted from Grigson (2007).

the semiarid areas, while in the case of pigs, differences are barely noticeable. Differences are more visible in the relationship between cattle and sheep and goats which increase in the EBA. Changes can also be observed even between different Chalcolithic sites within the same sub-areas, as in the case of Grar and Gilat (Grigson 1998, 2006). The same occurs in the different phases of Teleilat Ghassul (Bourke 2001), but the general trends persist: a high number of sheep and goats followed by cattle, pigs and other animals. However, this last site, in both phases, has produced a considerable amount of botanical remains and seeds including wheat, barley and others (Bourke 2001; Meadows 2005). We emphasize this because barley is sensitive in areas with an annual rainfall below 200 mm.

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In fact, wheat, barley and vegetable remains have been found in the Beersheva sites, particularly in storage pits (Perrot 1963: 373; Paz et al. 2014). This seems to prove that a heavier rainfall favored grain farming or that these products were traded with neighboring areas in the Shephela and the high, damper area of Hebron, such as occurred in the EBA (Milevski 2011).

Society and Metallurgy We shall now address the analysis of Chalcolithic society. We intend to open the subject to achieve a broader view of the ongoing discussion: Did the Chalcolithic period in the Beersheva area come to an end as a result of climate change or rather as a result of changes in social structure or behavior? On the one hand, there are those who suggest a chiefdom society (e.g. Levy 1998). On the other, there are those who support the existence of an egalitarian society (e.g. Gilead 1988; Joffe et al. 2001). Our approach suggests defining Chalcolithic as a society with a community -patriarchal system of production, similar to that proposed by Suret-Canale (1974); a mode that would be based on the organization of villages as social units (Jaruf et al. 2013; Milevski 2013). Chalcolithic society has some form of continuity with the Neolithic. However, there are certain aspects that mark differences between one and another such as the standardization and greater production of pottery, the improvement of wool and particularly dairy product processing, and the invention of metallurgy including two different technologies applied to copper. All this involves a greater division of labor, even within the framework of villages or communities that have not yet achieved a complex level of social development. The birth of metallurgy marked the beginning of a new branch of production and, hence, greater specialization. Two metalworking industries have been defined: a simple technology involving the use of clay casting moulds and crucibles, and open installations, using pure copper for the production of simple «tools» such as axes and chisels (e.g. Golden 2010), and another more complex technology that used the lost-wax casting technique and arsenic-rich copper to create more elaborate objects such as those found at Nahal Mishmar and other sites (e.g. Levy 2007) (table 1). The copper sources were mainly to be found in Wadi Feynan, Transjordan, whereas the pure copper mining, smelting and melting sites and those where cast metal objects were produced are located in the area of Beersheva (Golden 2010). A separation between extraction and production in technological and geographical terms is also a characteristic of the EBA (Shalev 1994). Crucibles and moulds were made of clay. There is a larger variety of tools and weapons; the production of daggers, for instance, required a greater degree of dexterity since the blades are finer yet more resistant. The lost-wax casting technique dissapeared during the EBA (Genz 2001).

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EBA I

Mineral

Copper +

Copper +

Sources

Surface collection

Surface collection

Geological sources

Feynan (Timna?)

Feynan (Timna?)

Place

The ores are transported to Nahal Beersheva, 150 km from the sources

Feynan, near the sources, copper blocks («cakes»)

Process

Ovens, crucibles

Ovens, clay blowers

Casting

Clay moulds/open installations, bifacials and awls

«Cakes» are transported to production sites, melting in crucibles, casting in clay moulds/ stone installations

Additional processes

Heating and hammering of the blades

Heating and multiple hammering of the blades

1. Raw Material

2. Extraction

3. Production

Table 1. Metallurgical production during the Chalcolithic and the EBA in the southern Levant.

By EBA III there is evidence that some of the objects are produced directly at Feynan, at the site of Hamra Ifdan, and that part of the copper is stored in the form of ingots and copper blocks. These pieces were possibly sent to other sites where the material was cast in moulds to produce tools and weapons (Levy 2007). A comparison between the location of the extraction and production sites and the distribution of copper objects during the Chalcolithic and EBA (fig. 4) shows two key changes, aside from the disappearance of the Beersheva sites. Firstly, the lost-wax casting technique disappears during the EBA. Secondly, the sites in the Beersheva area are very few and seem to have gone through all the stages of the metallurgical industry. The domestication of donkeys in the EBA may have enabled a larger circulation of copper objects from Feynan throughout the rest of the southern Levant. If we compare the Chalcolithic with the EBA I, the evidence points to the fact that while in the first period the material was brought from the raw material sources and processed exclusively in the Beersheva area, during the EBA I there were sites near the copper sources at Feynan where the material was smelted, impurities were removed and copper blocks or cakes were produced. These were then transported to different sites to be used in the manufacture of tools and weapons by casting in moulds.

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Fig. 4. Centers of production and distribution of copper implements during the Chalcolithic and the Early Bronze Age I of the southern Levant.

The components of metallurgical production in the EBA indicate a key change in the structure and level of craft expertise. This change may be recognized principally by the unity of the repertoire of objects and the use of the same source-metal for a wide range of products. The separation between extraction and production in technological and geographical terms is also characteristic of the period (Milevski 2011).

Conclusions The changes in the settlement patterns towards the end of the Chalcolithic and its collapse were associated with the influence of climate change, particularly in the semi-desertic area of the Negev, i.e. the Beersheva valley. Our analysis has proved that in other semi-desertic areas such as the Jordan Valley, the Chalcolithic did not come to an abrupt end and that the EBA IA–IB developed in sites like Jericho (Anfinset et al. 2011; Kenyon 1981), Fazael (Bar 2014), and even further north. Moreover, the area of Nahal Habesor also shows evidence of

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settlement continuity from the Chalcolithic to the EBA IA (Gophna 1995). The same applies to the southern coastal plain. Contrarily, in Wadi Feynan sites associated with copper extraction and production only began to appear in the EBA IA (Levy 2007). Nevertheless, our interpretation is focused on the socio-economic context. Though we do not disregard the environmental influence and the existence of possible changes in climate towards the end of the period, the exceptions pointed out in the paragraph above are signs that, perhaps in the case of the Beersheva sites, changes may have occurred in the extraction, production and distribution of raw material and copper objects that contributed to the abandonment of these sites. It is true that it may be suggested the contrary, i.e. that the disappearance of these sites affected the production and distribution of copper objects. Or, that the production of copper required water as well as wood as fuel to function. However, this hypothesis fails to explain why the sites where metallurgical activities were practiced in the Feynan copper mine area and in the semi-desertic Irano-Turanian region, with similar or worse climate conditions than in the Beersheva Valley, only came into being after the end of the Chalcolithic, during the EBA IA, when the sites in that valley had disappeared. It is based on these arguments that we prefer to explain these changes not in terms of changes in the eco-systems but rather as a product of changes in «sociosystems».

Acknowledgments We thank the organizers of 9ICAANE and Jean-Marie Le Tensorer for organizing the theme «Reconstructing Ancient Eco-systems» and accepting our paper in the congress. We also want to thank the National Fund of Science and Technology (Argentina), for the grant we received to research the Chalcolithic period (PICT 0883/2010) in the framework of which this paper is presented.

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2007. Culture, Ecology and Pigs from the 5th to the 3rd millennium BC around the Fertile Crescent. U. Albarella et al. (eds.), Pigs and Humans: 10000 Years of Interaction. Oxford, 83–108.

Jaruf, P./Gandulla, B./Milevski, I., 2013. Entre revoluciones: las formaciones pre-estatales del período Calcolítico palestinense. XIV Congreso Internacional de la Asociación Latinoamericana de Estudios de Asia y África, La Plata, 969–998. Available at: http://www.aladaa.com.ar/ coleccionaladaa/ALADAA_XIV_Congreso_Internacional_2013-1.pdf Joffe, A. H., 1993. Settlement and Society in Early Bronze I and II, Southern Levant: Complementarity and Contradiction in a Small-scale Complex Society. Sheffield. Joffe, A. H./Dessel, J. P./Hallote, R., 2001. The ‘Gilat Woman’: Female Iconography, Chalcolithic Cult, and the End of Southern Levantine Prehistory. Near Eastern Archaeology 64, 9–23. Kenyon K., 1981. Excavations at Jericho. Volume Three: The Architecture and the Stratigraphy of the Tell. London. Langutt, D./Almogi-Labin, A./Bar-Matthews, M./Weinstein-Evron, M., 2011. Vegetation and Climate Changes in the South Eastern Mediterranean during the Last Glacial-Interglacial Cycle (86 ka): New Marine Pollen Record. Quaternary Science Reviews 30, 3960–3972. Levy, T. E., 1981. Chalcolithic Settlement and Subsistence in the Northern Negev, Israel. Unpublished Ph. D. diss., University of Sheffield. Sheffield. –

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Polanyi, M., 1966. The Tacit Dimension. London. Rosen, S.A., 2011. Desert Chronologies and Periodization Systems. Lovell/Rowan 2011: 71–83. Sanlaville, P., 1996. Changements climatiques dans la region Levantine à la fin du Pleistocène superieur et au début de l’Holocène. Leur relation avec l’évolution des societés humaines. Paléorient 22.1, 7–30. Scheftelowitz, N./Fabian, P./Gilead, I., 2009. Chalcolithic Secondary Deposition Festivities: The Case of Horvat Qarqar South, Israel. Paper presented in the 15th Annual Meeting of the European Association of Archaeologists. Riva de Garda, Trento. Shalev, S., 1994. The Change in Metal Production from the Chalcolithic Period to the Early Bronze Age in Israel and Jordan. Antiquity 68, 630–637. Sherratt, A., 1980. Plough and Pastoralism: Aspects of the Secondary Products Revolution. I. Hodder et al. (eds.), Pattern of the Past: Studies in Memory of David Clarke. Cambridge, 261–305.

Ianir Milevski, Israel Antiquities Authority, «Raíces» Program, Ministry of Science and Technology, Argentina. Bernardo Gandulla & Pablo Jaruf, University of Buenos Aires.

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Proceedings, 9 th ICAANE, Basel 2014, Vol. 2, 305–321

Tina L. Greenfield – Melissa S. Rosenzweig

Assyrian Provincial Life: A Comparison of Botanical and Faunal Remains from Tušhan (Ziyaret Tepe), Southeastern Turkey In the 9th century BCE, the Neo-Assyrian Empire established the provincial capital of Tušhan (modern Ziyaret Tepe) in southeastern Anatolia. This paper synthesizes botanical and faunal data across elite and non-elite contexts at Tušhan in order to demonstrate differential land-use and consumption within Neo-Assyria’s imperial economy.

Introduction The combination of botanical and faunal data sets in archaeological research, referred to as ‹Archaeobiology› or ‹Bioarchaeology› in American and British archaeology, respectively (Smith/Miller 2009), has the potential to elucidate the integrative practices that support agro-pastoralism, demonstrate the interplay of ‹domestic› and ‹wild› species in ancient economies, and track the environmental effects of crop and animal husbandry over time and space. This paper applies the collaborative method to the recovery of site-specific details on the Neo-Assyrian political economy as it functioned at the Assyrian provincial center of Tušhan (modern-day Ziyaret Tepe) in southeastern Turkey. In particular, this essay provides a synthesis of plant and animal material across elite and non-elite residences at Tušhan in order to demonstrate differential land-use and consumption within the imperial economy of Neo-Assyria. As will be explained below, similarities in the distribution of plant and animal remains across contexts point to the homogenizing effects of a standardized, redistributive economy. However, depositional variations reveal resource inequities and alternative economic strategies among officials and subjects of the empire. In the 9th century BCE, the kings of Neo-Assyria led a series of major campaigns into lands beyond the pale of the Assyrian heartland in northern Iraq. These offensives resulted in the annexation of territories in Upper Mesopotamia, Syro-Palestine, Elam, Babylonia and

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Fig. 1. The Neo-Assyrian empire at its maximum territorial extent.

Egypt (fig. 1). By the end of the 7th century, Assyria had become an expansionary empire of unprecedented size and longevity in the ancient Near East. In order to secure their imperial holdings, the rulers of Neo-Assyria established provinces in many of these newly conquered territories. At the northernmost extent of the empire, on the southern banks of the Upper Tigris River, Aššurnasirpal II (reigned 883–859 BCE) founded the provincial capital of Tušhan. Holding the line against Aramaean and Urartian interests in the region, Tušhan played a strategic role as a fortress and outpost for the empire’s army. Aššurnasirpal II’s dedicatory inscription (882 BCE) also alludes to Tušhan’s importance as an agricultural collection and redistribution center for the empire: I brought back the enfeebled Assyrians, who, because of hunger and famine, had gone to other lands to the land Shubru. I settled them in the city of Tušhan. I took over this city for myself and stored therein barley and straw from the land Nirbu (Grayson 1991: 242–243, A.0.101.17 ii 6–28). This paper examines Tušhan’s relevance in this capacity, as an integral node in the imperial economy of Neo-Assyria, using plant and animal data to explore the procurement and circulation of agro-pastoral resources at the provincial level.

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Fig. 2. Northward view from the mound of Ziyaret Tepe, with the floodplain, Tigris River, and bordering foothills in the background (Photograph by A. Wodzinska).

Tušhan’s Environmental and Archaeological Setting The archaeological site of Tušhan consists of a 32 hectare mound standing nearly 30 meters high within the floodplain of the Upper Tigris River Valley (figs. 2, 3a). Inhabitants at this location would have enjoyed access to the Tigris River, flowing southwards into Iraq, as a source of water and transport, and found the alluvial soils of the valley beneficial to settled agriculture. The landscape also would have supported pastoral practices, with limestone foothills running to the north and east providing steppe vegetation suitable for grazing herds in a semi-arid region that receives roughly 580 mm of precipitation per annum, primarily in the winter months (Türkeş et al. 2002). The tell of Ziyaret Tepe contains multiple occupation periods, from the late 3rd millennium BCE into the Ottoman period (Matney et al. 2009: 84). Under the Neo-Assyrians, the settlement reached its zenith. Occupation spread across the expanse of the upper mound and into the lower town, and included a city fortification wall, three city gates, a palace, an administrative center, and domestic neighborhoods (Fig. 3b). These elite and non-elite spaces, namely the governor’s residence in Operation A/N and the lower town homes in Operation K, provide the data for the following analysis.

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Fig. 3a. The Upper Tigris region including the location of Tušhan (Ziyaret Tepe).

Fig. 3b. Plan of Neo-Assyrian Tušhan based on survey and excavation.

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Fig. 4. The ‹Bronze Palace› in Operation A/N.

The ‹Bronze Palace› is the name excavators have given to a monumental Assyrian building sitting on the acropolis of Ziyaret Tepe (fig. 4). This structure was home to the provincial governors of Tušhan, eight of whom are known to us from cuneiform texts (Radner/ Schachner 2001: 767–770). The palace contained a number of paved rooms and courtyards, including a throne room. Under the baked-brick courtyard, excavators found several deposits containing hoards of luxury items, including a number of 8th and 7th century bronze vessels; finewares made of ceramic, glass and stone; and carved ivories for jewelry and furniture decoration (Matney et al. 2009). These finds attest to the material wealth of the

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Fig. 5. The lower town houses in Operation K.

officials operating in the Bronze Palace and inform our designation of this building as an elite residence. In the lower town, archaeology exposed several non-elite, Neo-Assyrian period houses abutting the city-wall in Operation K (fig. 5). Excavators describe these homes as mudbrick structures with reed-thatched roofs that contained kitchen spaces with tannurs and benches, as well as paved courtyard spaces for additional domestic activity (Matney/Rainville 2005: 33–34). Small finds in these homes included regular cooking wares, a few palace-quality Neo-Assyrian vessels, as well as beads and tokens made of stone and clay (ibid.). While these artifacts demonstrate a connection with the Neo-Assyrian empire, the material remains in

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the houses do not evince the material wealth observed in the Bronze Palace that overlooked these dwellings, and are therefore interpreted as the living spaces of non-official, non-elite subjects working for the imperial administration.

Archaeobotanical Analysis Rosenzweig compared fourteen archaeobotanical samples totaling 439 L of soil from the Bronze Palace with fifteen samples totaling 684 L of soil from the lower town neighborhood in order to discern differential plant use that might distinguish Neo-Assyrian elites from subjects of the empire.1 The plant assemblage compiled from the Bronze Palace comprises samples from Rooms 1, 2, 6, 7, 9 and 13. The botanical collection from Operation K includes samples from Rooms A through H. The following analysis uses ratios to make the data between the two assemblages commensurable (Miller 1988), or else relies upon measures of presence and absence to discuss ancient plant use at Tušhan.

Crop Consumption Patterns Fundamentally, both the Bronze Palace and the lower town homes contained crops that are known through textual sources to have been regular constituents of the imperial economy of Assyria (Postgate 1974). These crops include barley, wheat, lentil, pea, fig and grape (tab. 1), and their ubiquity across elite and non-elite contexts indexes the institutionalizing effects of the empire’s redistributive economy on the inhabitants of Tušhan. Given the standardization of the crop packages across assemblages, it is the plentifulness of food supplies in the Bronze Palace that marks officials’ elite access to the empire’s surplus provisions. Across measures of crop proportion and density, the Bronze Palace contains a greater frequency of crop remains than the homes of non-elites in Operation K (tab. 2). These statistics pinpoint the governors’ palace as a site of privileged storage and consumption, where officials had access to an abundance of agricultural produce. Even though residents in the lower town houses utilized the same cereals, legumes and fruits as officials in the Bronze Palace, they nonetheless did not have the power to accumulate these foodstuffs on par with the Assyrian officials. Without the ability to accrue long-term stores of food, subjects were susceptible to hunger. In economic parlance, non-elite subjects living in Tušhan were at greater risk of experiencing food shortages than officials in the provincial capital. This risk was artificially created by the imperial redistributive system, not by environmental or technological conditions of agricultural production. 1

For more detailed information on the sampling, taphonomy, and distributive make-up of this assemblage, see Rosenzweig 2014.

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Table 1. Absolute counts of identified plant remains from Operations A/N and K.

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Operation A/N

Operation K

proportion (ratio of crops to non-crops)

3.14

1.47

density (number of crops items/liter of soil

5.05

2.44

Table 2. Measures of crop abundance that demonstrate food storage and consumption disparities between Operations A/N and K.

To counteract the food inequities driven by imperial economics, subjects living in the lower town tapped a greater range of plants for consumption. Cultivars that appear only in Operation K include rye, common vetch, and hackberry (tab. 1). While the Assyrian Empire did not prize rye as an edible grain, subjects could have cultivated the cereal along the margins of fields, and harvested wild forms of the plant that would have sprung up in the floodplain. Common vetch could have been grown in fallow fields and among the rocky slopes of the steppe. The few hackberries recovered from the Operation K homes allude to seasonal gathering, as these trees would have grown wild along the banks of the Tigris River and provided fruits in the early spring. The numerous nut shell fragments found in the nonelite houses probably derive from similar gathering practices. Several weedy taxa gesture towards what could have been a crucial element of domestic agriculture – gardening. Perhaps because of a lack of exposure to fire, vegetable seeds rarely survive in the archaeobotancial record, making it difficult to produce material evidence for this practice. Assyrian texts, however, mention a few plants that were gardened for consumption, including onions, garlic, and spices (Postgate 1987). The Operation K assemblage includes potential garden herbs like basil thyme, wild garlic, chamomile, wild carrot, wild mint, and wild poppy. If subjects had the opportunity and the means to manage garden plots, it seems likely that they did so.

Non-Cultigen Consumption Patterns Beyond cultivated plants, there are a number of weedy taxa in the lower town neighborhood, and these botanicals are the greatest source of diversity in these homes. There are twenty non-crop plants that show up only in Operation K. Of these, four taxa (ragweed, shepherd’s purse, sandmat, and black nightshade) flower during the foddering season, October through March. Thus, these plants may have been used by agro-pastoralists to provision their herds and flocks with forage to supplement or make up for a lack of imperially-supplied fodder (i.e. barley silage). It is worth noting that seventeen of these plants could have grown in the foothills of the river terraces surrounding the floodplain. Of these, four taxa (water hemlock, grape hyacinth, Russian thistle and valerian) would have been found at altitudes greater than 850 m above sea level. This suggests that the subject agro-pastoralists of Tušhan ventured into the foothills and beyond (e.g. as far as the Tur Abdin mountains to the south), most likely to find pasturage for their livestock. Finally, there are two plants in Operation K that

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Table 3. NISP and relative frequencies of identified animal remains from Operations A/N and K.

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are indicative of overgrazed lands: grape hyacinth and star of Bethlehem. The presence of these plants in the lower town neighborhood suggests that Tušhan’s subject agro-pastoralists moved onto increasingly marginally-productive lands to support their animals and themselves. Whether these plants entered the archaeological record through animal or human consumption, they represent non-elites’ use of a variety of landscapes. This diversity of plants and their ecological contexts points to agricultural practices conducted by imperial subjects outside the realm of imperial production in order to cope with the inequities of imperialism.

Zooarchaeological Analysis The faunal remains from Ziyaret Tepe’s 2000–2013 seasons were analyzed by Greenfield. Samples chosen for this analysis come from the floors of kitchens, courtyards and domestic spaces within the Bronze Palace and Operation K residences. In this study, faunal specimens from the Bronze Palace were compared to animal remains from Operation K in order to highlight and compare patterns of consumption and distribution between elite and non-elites residences. There was a significant difference in sample size between the two residences: a total of 993 specimens were identified from the Bronze Palace, compared to 287 specimens from Operation K. Due to the difference in sample sizes, a 95% statistical formula was used to correct for this disparity and to standardize the data for analysis.2

Disposal, Distribution and Consumption Patterns It is evident based on the disposal, distribution and consumption patterns of faunal remains found within the two residences that the citizens of Tušhan based their animal economy on the production, husbandry, and management of domestic animals over the exploitation of wild species for the bulk of their sustenance (tab. 3). Comparison of the disposal of faunal remains between buildings established that the vast majority of the animals deposited within these two residences are domesticates (between 87– 88%).3 This suggests that there is a fairly standardized disposal pattern of domestic and wild animals across the site, regardless of their elite or non-elite context. Similarly, the consumption of domestic taxa from both areas is similar. Sheep and goat have the highest frequencies, followed by cow, domestic pig, 2

3

See Greenfield 2014 for a detailed description of the faunal remains from the Bronze Palace and Operation K as well as the statistical formulas implemented for comparative analyses between the residences. Also see (Miracle 2001, 2005; Thomas 1976: 201; Wonnacot/Wonnacot 1990) for applications of this technique on other data sets. Frequencies are based only on identifiable domestic or wild categories and do not include specimens with an unknown state of domestication.

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and to a much lesser extent, equids and dog. The implication of this pattern is that there is no disparity between the domestic species represented in elite and non-elite spaces. Wild taxa are varied; the most common are boar, deer (both large and small) and hare. Unlike the domestic species, these wild animals are not distributed in a standardized pattern across areas. There is a clear difference in wild species present in elite and non-elite contexts. Each building has its own unique variety and frequencies of wild animals. The residents of Operation K consumed small game, while the elites in the Bronze Palace exploited bigger game and exotic animals (tab. 3). These patterns suggest differences in consumption activities, which are often indicators of wealth or status. The difference between domestic and wild exploitation patterns at the site can be interpreted in terms of risk management strategies. The overall production strategy for domestic taxa is one of low risk management for a variety of products, since there are large quantities of remains from a few different domesticated species. In contrast, the exploitation pattern for wild taxa is high risk given their low frequencies and diverse taxonomic representation. The contrast between the heavy emphasis on domesticated animals and the low frequency of wild taxa point toward a failure to maximize alternative food opportunities (Greenfield 2014). This puts the economic system at serious risk of collapse in the event of catastrophic herd management failure (e.g. disease, war, etc.).

Wealth and Status People of high or low economic standing will often consume high status animals in order to keep or emulate a higher rank in society. This pattern is evident in the disparity of wild species found between the Bronze Palace and Operation K. Some wild taxa are clear indications of status, since exotic animals in particular would have required considerable resources to acquire or maintain. A small number of exotic animals are present in the Bronze Palace and presumably were consumed/presented as part of a display of wealth not present in Operation K. There are number of bird taxa that might be considered ‹exotic›, such as cranes and partridges. There are other luxury raw materials, such as ivory fragments from elephant and tortoise/turtle shell specimens. The higher frequencies of red deer in the palace suggest that larger wild taxa also mark high status. The significant quantity of high status animals present in the palace may be interpreted as evidence for wealth display and conspicuous consumption. The presence of exotics only in the palace stands in stark contrast to the wild taxa distribution from Operation K. This disparity is one of the signatures of status and social inequality across the site. The wild taxa in the lower town homes can be associated with non-elite (i.e. non-exotic) species such as rabbit/hare and small deer. These taxa were probably present for utilitarian (consumption) purposes as a result of a need to acquire additional meat to supplement a diet based on domestic animals. It is not clear at this point in time why fish (an easy

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Fig. 6a. Corrected relative frequencies of body portions from sheep and goat in Operation A/N.

Fig. 6b. Corrected relative frequencies of body portions from sheep and goat in Operation K.

source of protein) were not extensively exploited, given the proximity of the Tigris River to the settlement; however, analysis of the micro-fauna may provide evidence of fishing at Tušhan. An additional indicator of status or wealth in ancient complex societies is the portions of meat that were consumed (Curet/Pestle 2010; Grant 2002; Greenfield 2014; Redding 2010; Zeder 1991). The analysis of individual taxa and their associated body portions allows for

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Fig. 7. Potential distribution of wild taxa surrounding the settlement of Tušhan. Map and faunal distributions by Daniela Arrayo-Barrantes (Greenfield 2014).

patterns to emerge regarding disparities in meat distribution. Particular preference for a specific species and body portion can inform not only on the consumption behavior of individuals or groups across a site, but also on differential access to those selected or preferred species and body portions. Therefore, it is possible through the analysis of the distribution of body elements by species to determine if specific groups were denied or provided access to meat according to their status. For ease of analysis, body elements of animals can be grouped into highly desired, heavy meat bearing portions (anterior-proximal, posterior-proximal); less desired, less meat heavy portions (anterior-distal, posterior-distal); and least desired portions with little or no meat (cranial, throax and distal ends of limbs). Data on the body portions from two taxa (sheep and goat) were chosen to compare and highlight similarities and differences between these data from the two site contexts (fig. 6a–b). The general pattern shows that officials in the Operation A/N palace received higher frequencies of better quality, high status body

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portions than the non-elite in Operation K, who possessed a majority of what is considered the lower status or poorer cuts of an animal.

Distance and Status Part of reconstructing the exploitation strategies at Tušhan is recognizing where wild species were located in the surrounding landscape. Data on the distances from Tušhan to the nearest species-specific habitats are provided to further determine if individuals from different buildings were affected by time controls imposed upon them (fig. 7). The common wild animals that were in close or direct proximity to the settlement would have been turtles, birds and waterfowl, hares, fish, and possibly dogs. Various rodents and wolves were probably not consumed, but were present in the landscape. Species, such as gazelles, red, roe and fallow deer, boar, wild goat, and ‹wild and exotic› cattle, would have been present in the landscape further afield. Based on taxa frequencies, the elites (or their proxies) had access to and were able to acquire highly prized wild animals that were further afield. Non-elites appear to only have had access to smaller sized animals, such as hare and turtles, found in very close proximity to the settlement and that could be exploited frequently because less time was expended. As seen in fig. 7, the hunting of large cervids, which would have been found much further away from the settlement than other smaller animals (e.g., hare), would have required more time and energy to acquire as potential food supplements.

Synthesis and Conclusions A more comprehensive picture of the Assyrian political economy emerges when archaeobotanical and zooarchaeological studies are integrated. Both the plant and animal analyses confirm that there was a standardized imperial economy circulating staple foods in Tušhan. Nested within this homogenized economy, however, are aspects of production, distribution and consumption that created or perpetuated social inequalities between officials and subjects of the empire. The non-elites used landscapes and plants underutilized or ignored by the agricultural system employed by Assyria’s redistributive surplus economy. Extended landuse for agro-pastoralism contrasts, however, with the faunal data on localized, small game hunting by these same people. Elites possessed privileged access to surplus storage in the plant analysis, and were involved in the conspicuous consumption of exotics, bigger game, and better cuts of meat in the animal analysis. Similarly, elites had access to a greater variety of wild game over larger distances. Consequently, it is evident that diverse, multi-tiered food provisioning mechanisms were in place at Tušhan that established and maintained social difference among members of the empire.

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Acknowledgment The authors would like to thank John MacGinnis for reading the original paper in Basel on their behalf, and Timothy Matney for supporting their research at Ziyaret Tepe. Comments and editing of the manuscript were helped with thoughtful suggestions from Timothy Matney and Haskel Greenfield.

Bibliography Curet, L. A., /Pestle, W. J., 2010. Identifying High-Status Foods in the Archeological Record. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 29, 413–31. Grant, A., 2002. Food, Status and Social Hierarchy. N. Milner/P. T. Miracle (eds.), Consuming Passions and Patterns of Consumption. Cambridge, 17–23. Grayson, A. K., 1991. Assyrian Rulers of the Early First Millennium BC, I (1114–859 BC). RIMA II. Toronto. Greenfield, T. L., 2014. Feeding Empires: The Political Economy of a Neo Assyrian Provincial Capital through the Analysis of Zooarchaeological Remains. University of Cambridge Ph.D. dissertation. Cambridge. –

i. p. Feeding Empires: Provisioning Strategies at the Neo-Assyrian Provincial Capital of Tušhan. J. MacGinnis et al. (eds.), The Provincial Archaeology of the Assyrian Empire. McDonald Institute Monographs. Cambridge.

Greenfield, T. L./Wicke, D./Matney, T., 2013. Integration and interpretation of architectural and faunal evidence from Assyrian Tušhan, Turkey. Bioarchaeology of the Near East 7, 1–29. MacGinnis, J., 2013. Population and Identity in the Assyrian Empire: A Case Study. O. A. Cetrez et al. (eds.), The Assyrian Heritage: Threads of Continuity and Influence. Uppsala, 131–153. Matney, T./Rainville, L., 2005. Archaeological investigations at Ziyaret Tepe 2003–2004. Anatolica 31, 19–68. Matney, T. et al., 2009. Excavations at Ziyaret Tepe 2007–2008. Anatolica 35, 37–84. Miller, N. F., 1988. Ratios in Paleoethnobotanical Analysis. C. A. Hastorf/V. S. Popper (eds.), Current Paleoethnobotany. Chicago, 72–85. Postgate, J. N., 1987. Some Vegetables in the Assyrian Sources. Bulletin on Sumerian Agriculture 3, 93–100. –

1974. Taxation and Conscription in the Assyrian Empire. Rome.

Radner, K./Schachner, A., 2001. From Tushan to Amedi: Topographical questions concerning the Upper Tigris region in the Assyrian period. N. Tuna et al. (eds.), Salvage Project of the Archaeological Heritage of the Ilısu and Carchemish Dam Reservoirs Activities in 1999. Ankara, 753–776.

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Redding, R., 2010. Status and Diet at the Workers’ Town, Giza, Egypt. D. Campana et al. (eds.), Anthropological Approaches to Zooarchaeology: Complexity, Colonialism, and Animal Transformations. Oxford, 65–75. Rosenzweig, M. S., 2014. Imperial Environments: The Politics of Agricultural Practice at Ziyaret Tepe, Turkey in the First Millennium BCE. University of Chicago Ph.D. dissertation. Chicago. Smith, A./Miller, N. F., 2009. Integrating Plant and Animal Data: Delving Deeper in Subsistence: Introduction to the Special Section. Current Anthropology 50.6, 883–884. Türkeş, M./Sümer, U. M./Kılıç, G. 2002. Persistence and periodicity in the precipitation series of Turkey and associations with 500 hPa geopotential heights. Climate Research 21, 59–81. Wicke, D./Greenfield, T. L. 2013. The ‘bronze palace’ at Ziyaret Tepe: Preliminary remarks on the architecture and faunal analysis. D. Kertai/P. A. Milgus (eds.), New Research on Neo-Assyrian Palaces. Heidelberg, 63–124. Zeder, M. A., 1991. Feeding Cities: Specialized Animal Economy in the Ancient Near East. Smithsonian Series in Archaeological Inquiry. Washington, DC.

Dr. Tina L. Greenfield, Department of Anthropology, Co-Director, NEBAL, St. Paul’s College, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. [email protected]. Dr. Melissa S. Rosenzweig, Assistant Professor of Archaeology, Departments of Anthropology and Classics, Miami University, Oxford, Ohio, USA. [email protected].

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Proceedings, 9 th ICAANE, Basel 2014, Vol. 2, 323–332

Leigh A. Stork

The Relationship between Pins and Textiles in the Carchemish Region during the Early 3rd Millennium BC Pins are the most frequently found metal items in the Carchemish region of the Euphrates Valley, with the vast majority of these found in mortuary contexts. The prevalence of pins in burials is related here to the increased importance of textiles in the Carchemish regional economy at this time. The recent rescue and salvage excavations in the Euphrates River Valley of Syria and Turkey have greatly expanded our understanding of the settlement patterns and socio-political development of the region, especially with regards to the Late Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age and the impact that the episodic incursions of foreign populations and their material culture had on this environmentally and geographically diverse sub-region of the Near East. One such period that witnessed a high degree of foreign impact on the Carchemish region was the Uruk Expansion of the mid–late 4th millennium. It is currently thought that the demand for commodities drove the southern Mesopotamians increasingly further from their home cities, with timber, precious and utilitarian stone, agro-pastoral resources and metal viewed as the prime movers that motivated this expansion period (Algaze 1989, 1993). Of these commodities, metal and agro-pastoral goods and their long history of exploitation in the Euphrates Valley made the Carchemish area highly attractive to both local and southern Mesopotamian populations, an assumption that is supported by both the number and duration of settlements. The Uruk Expansion halted at the end of the 4th millennium BC, contributing to the change in settlement patterning and socio-political systems at the beginning of the 3rd millennium. It is this post-expansion period that is focused on here, particularly the economic development during the transitional Early Bronze I and II periods. This transitional period lasted between 3100 and 2600 BC and was traditionally viewed as being a period of collapse or decline. However, the EB I–II periods have turned out to be a fairly interesting period of

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proto-history, mainly because of the significant changes to the socio-political and economic organisation of the settlements. While the entirety of the Euphrates Valley has been researched in depth, the discussion here is centred on the Carchemish region because of its large quantity of published material. In terms of the specific sites, this includes the settlements located between Qara Quzaq in modern Syria and Horum Höyük in modern Turkey (fig. 1). This stretch of the Euphrates River Valley was ideal for settlement because of the wide Pleistocene terraces and basins that can be found on either side of the river. Unlike today, there would have been an extensive gallery forest in the northern part of the Carchemish region which provided plenty of timber resources for building and fuel use, though it appears that by the beginning of the 3rd millennium the amount of forest cover in this region was starting to decline (Peltenburg 2007: fig. 1.3). Palumbi (2008: 154) relates this trend to a change in the nature and representation of power. He views the concurrent increase in metal woodworking tools and appearance of metal axes as evidence of ‹conquering› the land through deforestation so that there would be more available land for pastoralism. It is unclear to what degree the deforestation in the Euphrates Valley was caused directly by human agency, though there is undoubtedly a link between the loss of woodland and the increase in metallurgical, pastoral, and agricultural activities that occurred around the beginning of the 3rd millennium BC. In addition to the abundant forests, there was open grassland extending from the forested zone south of the modern Turkish-Syrian border where steppe land predominates. When combined with abundant rainfall of about 300 mm per year, the plains and basins of the Carchemish area allowed for large arable areas and therefore more numerous settlements if not necessarily large ones. Agricultural crops were mainly comprised of wheat and barley, though it has recently been proposed that viticulture may also have been an important aspect in the economies of southeastern Turkey and the southern Caucasus (Batiuk 2013). While this stretch of the river valley was ideal for the cultivation of cereals, it was also an important resource area for mobile pastoralists. Flocks of sheep and goats could be moved between the plains, river terraces, and steppe zones depending on the availability of food sources. Furthermore, the animals and their secondary products could be traded for food and craft resources produced by the settled portion of the population. This interaction allowed for an increase in animal and human populations, which then influenced the agricultural output of the settlements, and so on. The degree of recent archaeological research in this region is fairly high, and modern excavations have paid greater attention to the faunal data meaning that there is more evidence for managed sheep and goat herds at many sites within the Euphrates Valley, which appears to be linked to the increased exploitation of wool for textile production in the early 3rd millennium (McCorriston 1997; Sudo 2010; Zeder 1998).

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The Relationship between Pins and Textiles in the Carchemish Region …

Fig. 1. Map of EB I–II Carchemish region sites.

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Textiles are known to have held a prominent position in the economies of the Near East during the latter part of the Late Chalcolithic into the Early Bronze Age (Good 2012; Oates 1993), but in the Carchemish area we need to take an indirect approach to studying the impact of textile production on the local social, political and economic structures because of the scarcity of extant textiles and direct textual evidence. Instead, we can look to the objects and materials related to textile production and use this as evidence in place of the finished items themselves. In the Euphrates Valley more direct evidence for the prominence of textile and wool commodities can be found in the number of artefacts and features relating to textile production. These include: loom weights, spindle whorls, dye vats or pits, and fragments of looms or their negative imprints. Long after the textiles themselves have decayed, it is the profusion of these associated items as well as impressions of fabric on sealings that provide some of the most tangible evidence for evaluating the impact of textiles in the Carchemish area during the Early Bronze Age. Among the items associated with textiles, however, it is actually metal pins that provide some of the most abundant evidence for the use of textiles in the Carchemish region during the first half of the 3rd millennium. While the metal and woollen textile craft industries appear quite disparate on the surface, one thing that binds them together is the use of these two products in the clothing or costuming of individuals, including the deceased. The use of woollen textiles for clothing is fairly self-explanatory and has been depicted in early iconography such as the shell reliefs from Mari (see Parrot 1962: plate XI) which show metal pins being used to secure textiles that have been draped as cloaks, capes or shawls. Unfortunately, in the Carchemish region such explicit visual linking of textiles and metal pins is absent. Instead, what we have is a surprisingly large number of metal pins and yet surprisingly limited evidence for textile production. Part of this disparity is due to the degree of attention given to these different types of objects; stone, bone and clay loom weights and spindle whorls have been given short shrift in most site reports while the opposite is true for metal objects, which tend to come from hoards or mortuary contexts. In fact, part of the reason why the metal assemblage from the Carchemish region is so well-known is because nearly all of the published metal artefacts were excavated from mortuary contexts. Apart from ceramics, metal items were among the most frequent grave goods in the Carchemish area at the beginning of the 3rd millennium (Stork 2014: fig. 3). Of the 375 burials from the six sites that were researched, 179 of these had metal grave goods, totalling more than 525 metal objects. The vast majority of these items came from the Birecik Dam Cemetery, where half of its 312 burials accounted for 410 metal objects altogether (Squadrone 2007: 198). The cemetery at Carchemish also had a large quantity of metal grave goods, with more than 67 objects reliably documented (Falsone/Sconzo 2007: tables 5.2 and 5.3). Other published objects were reported from burials at Qara Quzaq (Montero Fenollós 2004), Shiukh Tahtani (Falsone/Sconzo 2008, 2010), Hacınebi (Stein et

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Fig. 2 Distribution of metal grave good types from the Carchemish region in the EB I–II.

al. 1997: 115–116) and Tilbeş Höyük (Fuensanta 2007: 143), which altogether accounted for approximately 50 metal artefacts. Of these more than 525 objects, the most frequently deposited items were personal ornaments, and when this broad category is divided into more specific types of objects it can clearly be seen that the inhabitants of the Carchemish region overwhelmingly preferred to bury their dead with pins over any other type of metal object (fig. 2). That the inhabitants of the Carchemish area so clearly preferred to use metal pins over other types of objects in burials is something of a surprise. In the past, archaeologists have placed a disproportionately higher degree of emphasis on the presence of weapons in burials and the role that these items played in identifying ‹chiefs›, ‹princes› or other elite individuals. This top-down emphasis ignores the widespread use of metal grave goods, especially pins, by non-elite individuals in the Carchemish area and the possibility that these items may have been viewed as social necessities rather than purely as status markers. This possibility is reinforced by the inconsistent use of metal pins across the Upper Euphrates Valley burials in the EB I–II. If we look at the distribution of pins across this area more closely, it can be seen that there was not an established ‹uniform› for the deceased. Instead, there is actually a visible degree of variation in terms of the number of pins used in a given burial or the number of pins present at a given site. This difference becomes more apparent if the ratio of the total number of pins to the total number of burials is calculated and scaled. The Carchemish area is estimated to have 95.9 pins per 100 burials while the Samsat-Lidar region further upriver had 31.4 pins per 100 burials. North of the Taurus range

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in the Malatya-Elazığ region there were approximately 30 pins per 100 burials.1 These ratios show that while pins were the most frequently deposited metal grave good overall in the early part of the 3rd millennium BC, there are clear regional differences in their use. Reasons for this disparity in pin use may be due to differences in mortuary custom, given that the northern sites had more long-term connections with the Kura-Araxes populations and therefore had different influences on their mortuary customs. However, I would suggest that we should also look at the change in socio-economic systems from the Late Chalcolithic to the Early Bronze Age to help explain changes in land use patterns and by extension the differential visibility of textiles and pins in conspicuously ‹wasteful› contexts. It has been suggested by Porter (2012) that family units moved north from the Mesopotamian heartland in order to specifically exploit secondary agro-pastoral resources, especially wool. In this scenario, ‹Small groups of people ventured forth to establish exchange relationships with northern centers that were already well enmeshed in wool production, in addition to exploring the steppes west of the Euphrates› (Porter 2012: 140). If this was the case, then we should expect to see a sharp increase in the amount of ovi-caprid bones within settlements as well as an increase in temporary campsites in the surrounding areas. Furthermore, we would also expect a visible increase in the number of artefacts related to wool processing and textile production within the sites themselves if there was a dramatic increase in the demand for wool from southern Mesopotamia. If the Uruk Expansion was spurred on largely by the demand for wool commodities, then it can be assumed that these individuals or groups would have sought the closest land that suited their purposes. This ideal region may have been the Carchemish region of the Euphrates Valley, though at this time we simply do not have enough faunal data or textile related evidence to prove conclusively that this was in fact the case. While Porter’s (ibid.) scenario possibly accounts for the movement of population groups in the Late Chalcolithic, it does not fully explain why there seems to be so much evidence for textile and metal consumption in the following EB I–II, a period often described in terms of socio-political and economic stagnation due to the post-Uruk regionalisation (Akkermans/Schwartz 2003: 211–232). I would suggest that it is because of this regionalization and the breakdown of the old socio-economic systems that the consumption patterns of metal objects and textiles in this area of the Euphrates Valley became so distinct from neighbouring regions. The presence of so many metal pins in the burials of the Carchemish region would imply that the costuming or shrouding of the deceased was an important aspect of mortuary custom in this area, a custom that may relate to local expressions of individual or group status and identity within mortuary contexts. But the high proportion of EB I–II burials with metal pins in this region 1

Though this figure is skewed due to the fewer burials overall and the rich array of metal objects in the Arslantepe ‹royal› burial (Stork 2014).

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also signals the fact that many more individuals or families were able to afford these items than in previous periods due to a decentralized socio-economic system where metal and wool commodities were much more widely available. The increasingly important role of pastoral resources is reflected in the faunal assemblage, the presence of loom weights, spindle whorls and other items associated with textile production, and from the increased use of metal pins in mortuary contexts. These features are roughly contemporaneous, with the production of other specialized craft goods within local systems viewed by Palumbi (2010: 149–152) as a natural outcome of specialized pastoralism. It should, therefore, not be surprising that there was such a high rate of consumption of pins and textiles in the Carchemish region in the EB I–II if the increased production of metal pins and textiles in the EB I–II periods was closely linked to the increased focus on specialized pastoralism. The end of the Uruk Expansion and the resulting regionalization in the EB I–II meant that commodities such as woolen textiles and metal objects were not only produced locally, but now the majority of these items were consumed locally. One unintentional outcome of this regionalization may have been a cycle in which surplus goods were kept within the local markets which allowed these items to essentially become more affordable, thereby allowing more individuals to have access to these goods. This greater availability in turn promoted the conspicuous consumption of textiles and metal pins in mortuary contexts, which then necessitated the production of both a greater quantity and quality of these items. The result of which meant that more wool-producing sheep were needed, meaning that more pasture land and agricultural resources were needed to feed the increased animal population, which allowed a greater amount of goods to be produced and consumed. Because the Carchemish area served as a trade and communication ‹choke point› (Rothman 2004: 93) during the Late Chalcolithic, there was a significant amount of resources flowing into and out of these settlements during the Uruk Expansion – all of which contributed to the high concentration of Uruk settlements, colonies or outposts in the Carchemish area. Given this history and settlement pattern, the primary causes that contributed to regional differences in metal pin and woollen textile consumption in mortuary contexts can be looked for in the socio-economic development of the Near East. In particular, we can look at the degree of Uruk influence that these regions experienced during the Late Chalcolithic and the extent of the residual southern Mesopotamian influence in terms of what customs, goods and resources were maintained into the Early Bronze Age. The distribution pattern of metal pins in burials is just one way in which the visibly different socio-economic trajectories that the various regions of Mesopotamia followed after the end of the Uruk Expansion. We know that metal and agro-pastoral resources were exploited locally in the Euphrates Valley before, during and after the Uruk Expansion period, implying that these craft industries were never under the sole control of centralized Uruk

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authorities. Because these resources were kept within the local economy after the end of the Uruk Expansion there was a large population of local consumers in place, accounting for the unique consumption pattern of metal pins and why their context of use and social, political and economic role was so different than neighbouring regions (Stork 2014). While direct evidence for the role that metal and wool commodities played over time is often difficult to come by because of the lack of texts from this period, it is possible to get a sense of the overall socio-economic impact of these commodities by taking a closer look at the contexts in which they were used as well as the related environmental data. Mortuary data provides a rich corpus of material to work with and we can use this data as a starting point for further discussion of the social and economic value placed on metal and wool commodities and any associated differences in land use patterns that contributed to distinct regional patterns of their use during the EB I–II. Furthermore, the socio-economic development of the Carchemish region during the first half of the 3rd millennium is worth examining in greater detail because it effectively bridges the gap between the ‹collapse› of the Uruk settlements and the appearance of monumental tombs in the EB III–IV. These later monumental tombs have been frequently discussed within the context of mobile pastoralists, corporate social identities, and a physical and ideological connection to the land through the commemoration of ancestors (Porter 2012). Therefore, what we may be seeing in the mortuary data of the EB I–II is a gradual building up to the exclusionary use of metal and textiles in the EB III–IV, a period in which sheep, goats and metal are documented as having a major role in the economies of the Near East. It is at this time that there is an even more explicit connection between documented land use patterns, the production and trade of textiles, and the use of metal in elite mortuary contexts (Archi 1992; Pettinato 1981). To summarize, it is very likely that the prevalence of pins and textiles in the EB I–II burials in the Carchemish region is tied to the increased importance of secondary pastoral resources to the local and regional economy. While direct evidence for this connection is currently sparse, by integrating the study of metal use with the faunal data and other artefact studies, we can start to develop a more comprehensive picture of the long-term impact that land-use patterns and agro-pastoral strategies had on the social, political and economic structures of this region.

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Bibliography Akkermans, P./Schwartz, G., 2003. The Archaeology of Syria: From Complex Hunter-Gatherers to Early Urban Societies (c. 16, 000–300 BC). Cambridge. Algaze, G., 1989. The Uruk expansion: cross-cultural exchange in early Mesopotamian civilization (with Comments and Reply). Current Anthropology 30, 571–608. –

1993. The Uruk World System: The Dynamics of Expansion of Early Mesopotamian Civilization. Chicago.

Archi, A., 1992. The city of Ebla and the organization of rural territory. Altorientalische Forschungen 19, 24–28. Batiuk, S., 2013. The Fruits of Migration: Understanding the ‘longue dureé’ and the Socio-economic Relations of the Early Transcaucasian Culture. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 32, 449–477. Falsone, G./Sconzo, P., 2007. The ‘champagne-cup’ period at Carchemish. A review of the Early Bronze Age levels on the Acropolis Mound and the problem of the Inner Town. Peltenburg 2007b: 73–93. –

2008. Tell Shiukh Tahtani: Report of the 2008 Season.

–

2010. Tell Shiukh Tahtani (North Syria): report of the 2010 excavations season conducted by the University of Palermo Euphrates Expedition.

Fuensanta, J. G., 2007. The Tilbes project (Birecik Dam, Turkish Euphrates): the Early Bronze evidence. Peltenburg 2007b: 142–151. Good, I., 2012. Textiles. D. T. Potts (ed.), A Companion to the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East. Chichester, 336–346. McCorriston, J., 1997. The fiber revolution: textile extensification, alienation, and social stratification in ancient Mesopotamia (and Comments and Reply). Current Anthropology 38, 517–549. Montero Fenollós, J.-L., 2004. La ‘Tumba de la Princesa’ de Qara Quzaq: metal, muerte y prestigio en la Cuenca sirio-mesopotámica a omienzos del III milenio a.C. Historiae 1, 36–55. Oates, J., 1993. Trade and power in the fifth and fourth millennia BC: new evidence from Northern Mesopotamia. World Archaeology 24, 403–422. Palumbi, G., 2008. The Red and Black. Social and Cultural Interaction between the Upper Euphrates and Southern Caucasus Communities in the Fourth and Third Millennium BC. Rome. –

2010. Pastoral models and centralised animal husbandry. The case of Arslantepe. M. Frangipane (ed.), Economic Centralisation in Formative States: The Archaeological Reconstruction of the Economic System in 4th Millennium Arslantepe. Rome, 149–163.

Parrot, A., 1962. Les fouilles de Mari, douzième campagne (Automne 1961). Syria 39, 151–179. Peltenburg, E., 2007. New Perspectives on the Carchemish sector of the Middle Euphrates Valley in the 3rd Millennium BC. Peltenburg 2007b: 3–24.

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Stork (ed.), 2007b. Euphrates River Valley Settlement: The Carchemish Sector in the Third Millennium BC. Oxford.

Pettinato, G., 1981. The Archives of Ebla: An Empire Inscribed in Clay. Garden City. Porter, A., 2012. Mobile Pastoralism and the Formation of Near Eastern Civilizations: Weaving Together Society. Cambridge. Rothman, M. S., 2004. Studying the Development of Complex Society: Mesopotamia in the Late Fifth and Fourth Millennia BC. Journal of Archaeological Research 12, 75–119. Squadrone, F. F., 2007. Regional culture and metal objects in the area of Carchemish during the Early Bronze Age. Peltenburg 2007b: 198–213. Stein, G./Boden, K./Edens, C./Pearce Edens, J./Keith, K./McMahon, A./Özbal, H., 1997. Excavations at Hacınebi, Turkey – 1996: Preliminary Report. Anatolica XXIII, 111–172. Stork, L., 2014. On Pins and Needles: understanding the role of metal pins in the Upper Euphrates Valley during the Early Bronze I–II. Levant 46, 321–338. Sudo, H., 2010. The development of wool exploitation in Ubaid-Period settlements of North Mesopotamia. R. Carter/G. Philip (eds.), Beyond the Ubaid. Chicago, 169–179. Zeder, M., 1998. Environment, economy, and subsistence on the threshold of urban emergence in Northern Mesopotamia. Bulletin of the Canadian Society for Mesopotamian Studies 3, 55–68.

Leigh A. Stork, Independent Researcher.

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Section

Islamic Session

Organised and edited by

Denis Genequand University of Geneva

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Proceedings, 9 th ICAANE, Basel 2014, Vol. 2, 335–355

Ignacio Arce

Qasr Kharana Revisited The aim of this paper is to review some technical and spatial issues involved in the construction of Qasr Kharana1, paying special attention to its vaulting system, its origins and the original appearance of some missing elements like the dome of the main audience hall. The paper includes an appendix on the setting of the building in its surrounding landscape, and some recent discoveries related to it.

Architectural Typology and Building Techniques We could describe this singular building as a paradigmatic Umayyad qasr designed combining imported elements with others devised in the Levant. The plan of its lower and upper storeys is set using almost exclusively the so-called Syrian bayt (pl. buyut)2 as basic compositional unit which consists of a main oblong room flanked by two lateral chambers on each side which are entered through the main one. The fact that the lateral rooms of contiguous buyut in the main southern bay of its upper floor are shared (and not duplicated as is the case of other Umayyad qusur like at Jabal Says, Anjar, Mshatta, or Tuba) gave as a result a quite compact plan3 with a very small courtyard.4

1

2 3 4

This Umayyad qasr is unique due to its remarkable state of preservation. It was the object of analysis by Jaussen and Sauvignac (1923) and Urice (1987), the work of whom represent the basis on which we develop ours. The research conducted is part of the project titled «Analysis and Documentation of Building Techniques and Architectural Typology in the Transitional Period between Late Antiquity and Early Islamic Period», funded by the Spanish Ministry of Culture within the program Ayudas a proyectos arqueológicos en el exterior (see Arce 2007, 2008, 2009c, 2011) The first antecedents are found in the Parthian palace of Hatra. From the Nabatean period onwards they are found in the area of the Hauran (S. Syria). Apparently, the only similar case was Qasr Bayir, which was almost completely destroyed (Creswell 1989: fig. 130). This could have been the reason why the planned portico in the court was never built (see figs.1a, 8).

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In contrast, in the construction of its walls and vaulting system building techniques of Persian (Partho-Sassanian) origin were used. This combination of architectural types and building techniques of disparate origin, and the final formal and spatial result, is precisely what makes of this early building a paradigm of the Umayyad qusur during the formative period of early Islamic architecture (fig. 1). The building technique used in the construction of its walls is alien to the Levant. It uses a gypsum-based mortar both as binding element (in which are embedded the stones), and also as finishing plaster, leaving no identifiable discontinuity between them (fig. 1b). This proves that the same mortar was applied simultaneously in the core and on the facing of the wall, hence the material continuity. The stone used was unsquared limestone roughly cut and set in horizontal courses, the height of which (55–58 cm) was probably determined by the time needed for the mortar to set and the amount of work that could be completed in that span of time (fig. 1b–c, 10). The biggest boulders were placed in the lower section of each course, while the upper section of the courses was made of medium and small-size flattish stones, offering an horizontal setting line on top of which was built the following course. These horizontal joints are the only apparent ones as no vertical discontinuity or joints are seen on the walls. The characteristics of the mortar and building technique used, give its elevations the singular appearance of continuous plastered horizontal layers. This resembles somehow the appearance achieved using pisé (tapial) building technique, although the two are not related, as pisé/tapial consists of rammed earth compacted inside wooden forms, which leaves very characteristic traces, including vertical joints. At Kharana, in some cases, wavy decoration was applied with the fingers on the surface of the still wet mortar plaster. The building technique used at Kharana can be found in several Sassanian structures like at the Fire Temples of Tepe Hissar (Goddard 1938). Decoration on the façades is found in just a few areas: firstly, above the main entrance, where a small frieze of decorated niches of carved stucco crowned the top section between the two quarter rounded towers; secondly, a continuous row of gypsum-made bricks laid at 45º, which define a characteristic decorative band that runs around the building; and thirdly, the hoods crowning most of the openings, which are also built with these «bricks» (figs. 1d, 10). The combination of the two latter elements can be found with almost the same configuration in Sassanian forts like that of Tureng Tepe in Gorgan (Hyrcania; fig. 1c). The different openings have a well defined and identifiable function according to their size, location and shape, which correspond to similar levels of functional specialization found in South Arabian/Yemenite architecture, from where they seem to have been imported. Firstly, those devoted exclusively to ventilation (called Shakus in Yemen), correspond to the narrow slits without any tapering towards the interior, piercing (usually obliquely) the wall to provoke internal currents of air, which are found in most of the upper floor rooms; secondly, those intended to illuminate (Takhrim in Yemen), placed in the upper sections of

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Fig. 1. Qasr Kharana. a. Plan of the upper floor (Jaussen/Savignac 1923). b. View of room 44, from the unfinished section of the building, showing the building technique used. c. Sassanian fort of Tureng Tepe in Gorgan, Hyrcania (Boucharlat/Lecomte 1983). d. Qasr Kharana, façade detail.

the walls or on top of doors and other openings; thirdly, the openings devoted primarily to observation (Taqa in Yemen), which can logically also ventilate and illuminate. Only three of the latter kind can be identified in the whole building: the one in the throne hall (room 26), and the two which allow the control of visitors approaching the site from the NW (from Mushash and Muwaqqar), and from the East (from Amra and Azraq).5 Other openings correspond to floor drains to evacuate water from the different floor levels, and those from the latrines located in the staircases (rooms 33 & 55). 5

These two latter ones (opened in rooms 40 & 48) were mistakenly blocked in the restoration carried out in the 1960s (see figs 10 b & c).

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Roofing: Diaphragm Arches, Ribbed Cross Ceilings and Domes on Squinches Almost all the rooms in the building are roofed using diaphragm arches6 which support barrel vaults spanning between them. Kharana represents one of the earliest known examples of this solution with barrel vaults instead of flat lintelled ceilings spanning the diaphragm arches, a technique imported into the Levant during7 the Umayyad period. All the arches spring from a three-stepped moulding of precast gypsum. Each of the three layers were cast separately on a piece of cloth, and then applied to the walls. This precast element is composed of a vertical saw-tooth moulding between two fillets. The pattern and the technique used are, once more, of clear Sassanian origin. Also of Sassanian origin are the decorative parabolic arches in gypsum plaster placed on the walls between the colonnettes and decorated with saw-tooth moulding, and the triple colonnettes (fig. 1b) which support the springers of the diaphragm arches of the main rooms of the upper floor (rooms 26, 29, 37, 44, 51 & 59; compare with the Sarvistan palace, Bier 1986). Urice pointed out that the building was not completed, at least as it had been originally planned. This seems to be the case of the porticoes from its small central courtyard and the rooms 40 through 46 in the upper floor. He also remarked that it could have been built in two phases due to the two different building techniques identified in the construction of the diaphragm arches. Both facts are not unusual in Umayyad buildings, as there are many buildings with several construction phases and changes in plan, even during the process of execution.8 However it is important to remark that the two different techniques used (which served to identify the two building phases) are both of Persian tradition. In the first one (fig. 2a), the diaphragm arches are built with coarse-cut thin limestone slabs, and the barrel vaults resting on them are quite shallow (they are built with the same material in the fashion of the pitched-brick vaults). In the springers of the arch, the slabs corbel out at an increasingly greater angle, being built without centering. At the apex of the 6

7

8

A diaphragm arch consists of a self-standing arch placed transversally in a room, in order to reduce the span of the room ceiling. The resulting sections can be covered by a lintelled ceiling made of wooden or stone beams, trusses, or alternatively with barrel vaults resting on the arch and the perimeter walls. The widespread use of diaphragm arches with lintelled ceilings during the Nabatean and the Classical periods in the Levant (Syria and Palestine), and in particular in the Hawran region (South of Syria), is possibly the result of an early Parthian import. This system has been since then systematically used in the region in cisterns and dwellings, especially if the span exceeded 5 m. Contrastingly, the solution using barrel vaults resting on the diaphragm arches, was probably introduced into the Levant from Persia by the Umayyads as no earlier samples of this variation exist in the Levant region, while it is already present in the earliest Parthian samples at Ashur and at the Taq-i-iwan in Khark (Khuzistan), and at Sarvistan (Bier 1986: fig.87). See Arce 2003, 2006. This would lead us to describe them as different «building activities» (not necessarily linked in all cases to different construction phases).

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Fig. 2. Qasr Kharana, a. Room 51, Diaphragm arches showing the first building technique with the central third of the span of the arch built with vertically set flat stones, which rest on the lateral sections of the arches built without centering, using radially projecting slabs. b. Relieving arches from the court using a similar building technique. Note the different location and function of the openings (Takhrim, Shakus and Taqa), plus the small square drain at the upper floor level. c. Qasr Kharana, room 59: Diaphragm arches showing the prefab gypsum ribs used in the construction of the arches (Building technique nº2). d. Ukhaidir. Similar solution used in the construction of the arches (from Reuther 1912). e. Amman Citadel (Almagro/Arce 1996).

arch shoulders, the slabs are placed transversally, spanning the remaining central section of the arch. The fast-setting gypsum-based mortar guarantees a quick bonding between the slabs required for this kind of construction. A similar technique is found in the relieving arches over the doors (fig. 2b) of this first phase, recalling samples from Persia (i.e. those from the Sassanian palace at Firuzabad; Dieulafoy 1884, L’Art antique de la Perse, quoted in Creswell 1969: fig. 103). The shape of these raised relieving arches above doors and windows are typical from the Yemenite architecture and become common in the Hawran in the 6th c. AD (Ghassanid phase of Qasr al-Hallabat), being also used by the Umayyads in several qusur (Hallabat Mosque, Qastal, Kharana itself, etc.). In the second technique (fig. 2c), the central section of the arches is composed of rounded blocks of white limestone laid haphazardly on a thick bed of mortar. Both mortar and stones are comprised by two lateral pre-cast gypsum ribs, which serve as a formwork and temporal

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Fig. 3.a. Qasr Kharana, room 61 diaphragm arches crossed perpendicularly defining four square sections covered by coffers (current condition). b. Idem before restoration (Urice 1987). c. Bab al-Mardún Mosque (Toledo) catalogue of ribbed vaults used. d. Cordoba Mosque, al-Hakam lantern. Ribbed vault created by crossing diaphragm arches (note how some of the sections are covered using the same technique at smaller scale, almost in a fractal fashion).

centering, and are left embedded in the arch once the mortar sets. Pre-cast gypsum structural elements, such as these ribs, are Sassanian in origin. They are also found at Amman Citadel palace (Arce 2001a, 2003a; fig. 2e), at Sarvistan (Bier 1986: fig. 80), and at Ukhaidir (with brickwork, Reuther 1912: fig. 130; fig. 2d). At Kharana they were also used for the construction of the series of small windows over the entrances to the reception halls built during this second phase. The barrel vaults built over the arches corresponding to this phase are higher in section, than those from the first one.

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The First Cross Ribbed Vaults, and the Hazarashen Coffered Ceilings It has been already pointed out (Arce 2003), how the solution found in room 61 at Kharana represents the earliest solution and technical antecedent of what will become in later decades the standard ribbed cross vaults found at many buildings from al-Andalus, such as those at Cordoba Mosque (fig. 3d), and the Bab al-Mardún Mosque in Toledo (fig. 3c, where all the possible combinations of solutions are found; Arce 2003, 2006). In this small square lateral room of the main central bayt of the southern bay, the ceiling is built by means of two diaphragm arches crossed perpendicularly, defining four square bays which were covered with coffered ceilings (fig. 3a–b). Now we will analyse in greater detail these «coffered ceilings» covering the spaces defined by these crossing ribs. Each of them appear as two rotated squares inscribed one inside the other. This arrangement can be repeated more times, resulting in a characteristic appearance of increasing smaller and deeper squares rotated 45 degrees and inscribed in the previous ones. This kind of coffering can be found at Kharana itself (in room 51, above the arched squinches at the corners of the room). The author found and studied similar ones in the Throne Hall at the Amman Citadel (Arce 2000). This research concluded that this element is the result of translating into a different material (stone) an architectural element / building system devised originally to be built with wooden beams. The original building system is devised to cover a square room with wooden beams shorter than the span of the room to be covered. The beams are placed diagonally (starting from the four corners of that square room) till the remaining uncovered space is a smaller and rotated square. This process is repeated as many times as needed, leaving a small central opening, for the purpose of lighting and ventilation. This building system is found for the first time in Parthian architecture, being still used in all the Caucasian area (Georgia, Armenia) and in northern Iran and Tajikistan (fig. 4e–h). Actually, the main region where this building system is still found is Armenia (the Armenian term hazarashen means «the one thousand beams»), although these examples are more recent in time (dating mainly between the 9th and 14th c. AD).9 The influence of Persian culture on Armenia is well known (an Arsacid dynasty was ruling Armenia in the early 4th c. AD). In many Armenian churches, we can find the so-called gavit, a kind of atrium covered by two pairs of diaphragm arches which cross perpendicularly and are placed parallel to the 9

Dvin and Aruc are the first archaeologically documented samples where for the first time appears in Armenia the gavit hall covered with this system. The centralised halls of the vernacular houses of Armenia called glaxtun (darbazi in Georgia and karadam in Azerbaijan) are lighted by an opening called erdik, opened in the «false dome» of superposed beams above described (called solomokas when covers a small rectangular opening and hazarashen, when crowns a bigger – octagonal – hall. See Cuneo 1988: 27).

© 2016, Otto Harrassowitz GmbH & Co. KG, Wiesbaden ISBN Print: 978-3-447-10614-6 — ISBN E-Book: 978-3-447-19478-5

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Arce

© 2016, Otto Harrassowitz GmbH & Co. KG, Wiesbaden ISBN Print: 978-3-447-10614-6 — ISBN E-Book: 978-3-447-19478-5

Qasr Kharana Revisited

343

perimeter walls (fig. 4c) in a spatial and structural solution very similar to the one found at room 61 in Kharana (Cuneo 1988), or in the Bab al Mardun and Cordoba mosques. This type of atrium is illuminated through the resulting square central opening, which in many cases presents also the hazarashen solution to reduce the span of the opening (figs. 4b–c).10 Actually the earliest sample, still standing, of this «family» of Persian/Caucasian architectural elements and its related building techniques, would be «flat domes» or «lanterns» from the maqsura in the Great Mosque in Sana’a (see fig. 4a), which were built using the original material (wood beams). The author had the opportunity to visit in 2007 the restoration works directed by Dr. Hisham Awwad, and to verify de visu that Serjeant and Lewcock’s description (1983) of the «lanterns» or «flat domes» from the maqsura in front of the mihrab, corresponds to this kind of architectural element. The ceiling in front of the mihrab and to the west of it, is composed of a large corbelled ‹flat dome› or ‹lantern›, flanked on either sides by a pair of smaller flat ‹domes›. On close examination the corbelling is seen to be made of large flat pieces of wood resting on beams, while the top of the flat circular ‹dome› or ‹lantern› in the centre is of ancient alabaster, long since turned black and thickly plastered over 10 The fact that this system of coffered ceiling is associated in the same buildings with diaphragm arches

crossed perpendicularly, and that both are found in the architecture from Partho-Sassanian tradition found in northern Iran and in the Caucasian region, leads us to consider that we are dealing with two similar (because related) expressions of a common building tradition in Armenia and the Hawran (via Yemen). In some Armenian cases, like at Arak’eloc’vank, Ani and Horomayr the arches are also displayed diagonally in plan within the main space of the room, like in the samples from al-Andalus (see Cuneo 1988: 43, 279): This would lead to the hypothesis that the transition from diaphragm arch towards ribbed vaults/ceilings could have also been developed in parallel in the Caucasian areas of Armenia and Azerbaijan, in both cases with common Persian roots. This hypothesis is reinforced by the fact that the squinch, which once more is a typical Persian-origin architectural element, is preferred and almost the unique known solution in Armenian architecture as transition solution to support a dome on a square, at least in Antiquity and Late Antiquity periods. However, the earlier cases of ribbed vaults at Bab elMardún (Toledo) and Cordoba mosques, demonstrate that the Umayyads fully developed this transition and carried it to al-Andalus already in the 8th c. AD.