Bronze and Iron Ages in Eastern Mediterranean (Archaeology)

The aim of this paper is to discuss the issue of the employment of coloured glazed devices in architecture in the Iron Age Northern Levant, in light of current researches and archaeological evidence from old and recent excavations in Northern Syria and Southern Anatolia. Glazed ceramics from Tell Afis (Syria) and Zincirli (Turkey) are discussed in light of their provenance contexts, comparing such artefacts with a wide spectrum of visual sources both from the Northern Levant and North Mesopotamia. This analysis aims at understanding the possible function of these glazed ceramics, hypothesizing their possible employment in the architectural decorations of ancient buildings.

The study discusses and calls attention to assemblages that are recent victims of illicit metal detectoring in
Eastern Europe. The first one is a Ha B1 sword hoard, allegedly from Mátészalka (Hungary, Szabolcs-Szatmár-
Bereg County). The assemblage was looted in 2017. In less than a year, two of the finds have entered the
British antiquities market and they were sold under fake provenance. The second find could have been a late
Period V (Ha B3) elite burial. The looted assemblage has appeared on the domongol.org metal detectorist blog,
and it is allegedly originating from “Ternopil Oblast” (Ukraine). It contains a bell helmet with solar barge
decoration and a fragment of a unique Hajdúböszörmény-type situla, the parallels of which relate this find
to the Rivoli (Italy) burial and the metallurgical sphere of the Eary Iron Age.

This study explores the nature of Canaanite cult in the Middle Bronze Age (MB). To date, most scholarship focusing on this subject has done so against the backdrop of the ancient Near East. Thus, essential aspects of cult in the ANE were assumed to be of similar significance in Canaan. Monumental temple architecture and cultic figurines, for example, were presumed to be the central indicators of cultic activity in Canaan. However, none of these previous studies took into account the uniqueness of the local Canaanite landscape and the impact the landscape had on the development of culture and religion in the region.
The research conducted in this thesis therefore approaches Canaanite cult from a Mediterranean perspective, understanding the southern Levant as an eastern Mediterranean micro-region (per the definition of Horden and Purcell in The Corrupting Sea) of highly variegated landscapes within a compact and small area. As such, the southern Levant was intricately connected to the maritime trade networks that prospered during the MB. The Mediterranean was an outlet for connectivity to other regions – for trade and inevitably for the transmission of ideas and traditions. Thus, the Levant differed from the core areas of the ANE as Syro-Mesopotamia and Egypt.
The methodology followed was straightforward: a comparison of coastal to inland sites. Chapter one surveyed the state of research of MB cult practiced in Canaan. In chapter two, aspects of Canaanite cult at coastal sites were analyzed. In chapter three, the major features of cult at inland sites were analyzed. Chapter four synthesized the findings from the previous chapters, gleaning insights on aspects of similarity and difference between inland and coastal areas.
A number of observations and conclusions were found. For example, coastal sites tended to be open air in nature, featuring maṣṣebot, miniature vessels, metal figurines, stone anchors, and ship and shrine models. On the other hand, inland sites in Canaan often featured large migdal temples and lacked many of the cultic objects of coastal sites, including large concentrations of female figurines, miniature vessels, and stone anchors. Certain objects, such as maṣṣebot, were found throughout, being central
VII
components of cult in MB Canaan and a continuation of an Intermediate Bronze Age tradition.
Moreover, the eastern Mediterranean perspective allowed for a more focused and localized discussion of cultic traditions that prior studies tended to ignore. For example, instead of assuming migdal temples were a feature characteristic of MB Canaanite cult, it was demonstrated that they were only late MB imports from Syria. It would seem that this study and the methodology employed in it should serve as a basis for further studies on the topic of Canaanite cult.

This thesis aims to provide an insight into the characterization of Philistine cult, ritual, elite and domestic space through archaeological, inferential, and comparative site-by-site analyses. In the studies of the Southern Levant, the identification of Philistine ritual practice has been a matter of controversy since the 1980s due to the scarcity of evidence. It has become apparent that the ritual-related architecture and finds have been overlooked by some archaeologists, who failed to consider the significance and nuances of the structures and finds. Instead, they relied on ‘cult’ or ‘ritual’ as a misinterpretation of ‘otherness’ and selectively-chosen comparisons to assert their claim. The corpus of Philistine cult sites is fragmented across various studies and excavation reports; only in the past decade have scholars begun to collate studies of Philistine iconography and architecture. This thesis sets out to provide a collection of reliably identified - and less reliably - identified cult sites by re-assessing their previous interpretations. It will focus on examples from Tel Miqne-Ekron and Tell es-Safi/Gath to demonstrate this shift in thought, re-examining these cult related buildings through domestic, elite and ritual approaches, working towards a more cohesive framework of ritual and cult identification and interpretation.  [Please message/email for complete copy]

When and why did the Phoenicians initiate long-term connections between the Levant and western Europe? This is one of the most hotly debated questions in ancient Mediterranean history and cultural research. In this study, we use silver to answer this question, presenting the largest dataset of chemical and isotopic analyses of silver items from silver hoards found in Phoenician homeland sites. Intertwining lead isotope analysis of silver items with precise archaeological context and chronology, we provide analytical evidence for the onset of Phoenician westward expansion. We suggest that the quest for silver instigated a long, exploratory phase, first in Anatolia (Asia Minor) and Sardinia, and subsequently in the Iberian Peninsula. This phase preceded the establishment of sustainable , flourishing Phoenician colonies in the West by over a century. In so doing, our results buttress the "precolonization" theory, accord it a firm chronological framework, and demonstrate that the quest for silver (and probably other metals) was an incentive for Phoenician westward expansion. Furthermore, our results show that the Phoenicians introduced innovative silver production methods to historic Europe. silver | lead isotope analysis | Phoenicians | Sardinia | Iberia

PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION:
"The Medinet Habu Records of the Foreign Wars of Ramesses III is a new translation and commentary of the Textual record of Ramesses III’s military activity. As such it dwells heavily upon the inscriptions dealing with Libyans and Sea Peoples. Since the format is oral formulaic, the texts are scanned and rendered as lyric. The new insights into the period covered by the inscriptions leads to a new appraisal of the identity of Egypt’s enemies, as well as events surrounding the activity of the Sea Peoples. The exercise is not intended to dismiss, but rather to complement the archaeological evidence."

Tophet narratives have monopolised the study of infants and children in Phoenician communities, overshadowing fresh approaches to this topic that developed during the last decades. Notwithstanding the lack of textual and epigraphic data, Motya provides a wide range of resources for examining this theme: alleged child-specific artefacts, iconographic sources and skeletal remains. This chapter offers an overall review of the published evidence from Motya connected to infancy and childhood and represents a first attempt to introduce a fresh anthropology-based perspective.

The Terrace Building Complex at the Iron Age site of Gordion in Turkey has been called the 'most complete picture of organized textile production at a Mediterranean palatial center.' Artefactual analysis of the numerous textile tools discovered in the Terrace Building has provided a foundation for ambitious models of the Phrygian political economy: it’s been suggested that textiles produced in this ‘industrial quarter’ were intended as payment for the Phrygian army, or tribute. Analyses of the individual ‘workshop’ units of the Terrace Building, however, does not necessarily support the notion that the complex was built as a workshop exclusively for such politico-economic ends. Rather, the wide range and spatial arrangement of the myriad non-textile-related finds in this monumental building indicate that these were multi-purpose units. The straightforward models derived for identifying craft specialization and characterizing its relationship to social and political organization are, in the case of Gordion, insufficient. I draw on the emerging theory of the ritual economy to explore connections between the production zone of the Terrace and the wider cultural and political landscape of Early Phrygian Gordion in order to derive a more culturally embedded model for the relationships among craft activity, social capital, and economic value.