Traders and craftsmen in the central Mediterranean: archaeological evidence and archaeometric research (an addendum)

1992 ◽  
Vol 87 ◽  
pp. 231-235 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. E. Jones ◽  
L. Vagnetti
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Short Description ◽  
Chemical Compositions ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
Central Mediterranean ◽  
Archaeological Evidence ◽  
The Mediterranean

This addendum presents the tables of the chemical compositions of Late Bronze Age pottery that were omitted from the authors' paper with the same title, published in 1991 in the Proceedings of the Conference on Bronze Age Trade in the Mediterranean (Oxford 1989). In addition, a short description and bibliography is provided for those sites in Italy, Sardinia, and Sicily from which the pottery was analysed.

Mycenaean civilization

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeremy Rutter
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Bronze Age ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
Stages Of Development ◽  
Historical Reality ◽  
Mediterranean World ◽  
The Mediterranean

Mycenaean civilization takes its name from the hilltop citadel of Mycenae in the Argolid, celebrated in Homer’s epics as “rich in gold” and the capital of Agamemnon. In 1876, Heinrich Schliemann, fresh from his excavations at Troy, which in his view had established the historical reality of the Greeks’ legendary siege and sack of that city, unearthed five astonishingly rich tombs at Mycenae and claimed them to contain the burials of Agamemnon and his followers, thus inaugurating the study of Greece’s Late Bronze Age (LBA) past. One and a half centuries of subsequent fieldwork have exposed the remains of hundreds of settlements and thousands of tombs characterized by the distinctive material culture termed Mycenaean that flourished for over six centuries (c. 1700–1050 bce). This lengthy duration of the mainland Greek LBA (better known as the Late Helladic [LH] or Mycenaean era) is conventionally subdivided into three major stages of development: pre-palatial or early Mycenaean (LH I–IIB; c. 1700–1425/1400 bce); palatial (LH IIIA1–LH IIIB2; c. 1425/1400–1200/1190 bce); and post-palatial (LH IIIC; c. 1200/1190–1050 bce). The regions within which Mycenaean material culture was dominant changed significantly as a function of time, as did the culture’s external contacts within the Mediterranean world and continental Europe.

14C-Dating of the Late Bronze Age City of Hala Sultan Tekke, Cyprus: Status Report

Radiocarbon ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 61 (5) ◽  
pp. 1253-1264 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eva M Wild ◽  
Peter M Fischer ◽  
Peter Steier ◽  
Teresa Bürge
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Status Report ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
14C Dating ◽  
Archaeological Evidence ◽  
Southern Scandinavia ◽  
New City ◽  
The City ◽  
Vast Area ◽  
Existing Data

ABSTRACTHala Sultan Tekke is a large Bronze Age city located on the southeastern littoral of Cyprus. The city flourished from approximately 1650 BC to 1150 BC according to the archaeological evidence. Since 2010, Swedish excavations have exposed four new city quarters (CQ1–4) with three occupational phases, the 14C dating of which is of highest importance also for other contemporaneous cultures. The finds demonstrate vast intercultural connections in the Mediterranean and even with southern Scandinavia. In 2014, roughly 500 m to the east of CQ1, one of the richest cemeteries on the island was discovered. According to the archaeological evidence, the finds from the city date mainly to the 13th and 12th centuries BC. However, many of the wealthy tombs and the offering pits from the cemetery are considerably older with the oldest finds dating to the 16th century BC. This raises the question where the city quarters belonging to the oldest finds from the cemetery are situated. The radiocarbon (14C) dates from Hala Sultan Tekke have much influence on the dating of related sites because of numerous imports from a vast area. We present here new 14C data obtained in the course of the current excavations, which add to sets of already existing data.

Ethnicity, Entrepreneurship, and Exchange: Mediterranean Inter-island Relations in the Late Bronze Age

1990 ◽  
Vol 85 ◽  
pp. 115-153 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Bernard Knapp
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Eastern Mediterranean ◽  
Copper Production ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
Central Mediterranean ◽  
Mediterranean World ◽  
Production Distribution ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Bronze Age ◽  
Metals Production

New data on Late Bronze Age Cypriot and Aegean material found in the eastern, southern, and central Mediterranean significantly alter timeworn concepts about the scope and extent of Mediterranean trade systems. Recent geochemical and statistical analyses highlight the pivotal role played by the production, distribution, and consumption of copper oxhide ingots in the Bronze Age economies of the wider Mediterranean world. As a consequence, it is possible to propose some basic hypotheses on metallurgical origins, and on the possible orientation of Mediterranean Bronze Age trade and traders.Two basic issues are involved: 1) did increased trade with the eastern Mediterranean stimulate production and intensify exchange mechanisms in the central Mediterranean? 2) or did eastern Mediterranean traders simply plug into an existing politico-economic system that somehow monitored metals' production and exchange further west?This paper also evaluates the impact of new archaeological and metallurgical data on traditional interpretations of Cypriot copper production and exchange in its Late Bronze Age Mediterranean context. Whilst Cypriot copper production remained important to the economy of the Bronze Age Mediterranean, it also made key tactical and commercial adjustments to the coming Age of Iron. Mechanisms of Mediterranean trade are still difficult to pin down, and it is unrealistic to do more than propose basic models of entrepreneurship, ethnicity, and exchange.

SARDINIA AND CYPRUS: AN ALTERNATIVE VIEW ON CYPRIOTES IN THE CENTRAL MEDITERRANEAN

2017 ◽  
Vol 85 ◽  
pp. 1-35 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anthony Russell ◽  
A. Bernard Knapp
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Current Literature ◽  
Eastern Mediterranean ◽  
Alternative View ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
Tyrrhenian Sea ◽  
Cultural Impact ◽  
Central Mediterranean ◽  
Foreign Objects ◽  
Trading Network

Recent research reveals what we term a ‘discourse of certainty’ regarding an assumed predominant socio-economic and cultural impact of Late Bronze Age Cypriotes or Mycenaeans on the local peoples of Sardinia and/or Sicily and Italy, not least in terms of a systematic, seaborne trading network extending from the Cyprus to the Tyrrhenian Sea. ‘Minimalist’ approaches to such a phenomenon have a long and venerable but more limited pedigree. In this study, we question why minimalist views have been so summarily dismissed in much current literature that seeks to evaluate an eastern Mediterranean presence or influence in the central Mediterranean. We focus on Sardinia, and on the range of Cypriot or ‘Cypriot-type’ materials found there. We consider the nature of the Cypriot–Sardinian relationship, and suggest that we should decouple foreign objects from foreign agents. We question several of the perceived Cypriot influences on Sardinian artefacts, and consider possible alternative mechanisms and routes of exchange between the east and central Mediterranean. We outline and discuss the array of presumed or actual Cypriot artefacts found on Sardinia, and argue that these do not add up to a ‘significant’ corpus of Late Cypriot materials and connections.

Toward the Reconstruction of a Sacred Landscape of the Judean Highlands

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-41
Author(s):  
Aaron A. Burke
Keyword(s):  
Economic Development ◽  
Bronze Age ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
Sacred Landscape ◽  
Archaeological Evidence ◽  
Landscape Features ◽  
Middle Bronze Age ◽  
Divine Name

Abstract At least a dozen biblical toponyms for sites and landscape features in ancient Judah’s highlands bear divine name elements that were most common during the Middle and Late Bronze Ages. In light of archaeological evidence from many of these sites, it is suggested that they were first settled as part of a settlement influx in the highlands during the Middle Bronze Age (ca. 2000–1550 BCE), following a reemergence of urbanism and a return of economic development that occurred under Amorite aegis. The cultic orientation of these sites may be suggested by reference to ritual traditions at Mari during the Middle Bronze Age but especially Ugarit during the Late Bronze Age. Such evidence may also serve to elucidate the various enduring cultic associations that persisted in connection with these locations during the Iron Age, as preserved in various biblical traditions.

Feasting at Roca: Cross-Cultural Encounters and Society in the Southern Adriatic during the Late Bronze Age

2015 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 259-281 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francesco Iacono
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Social Consequences ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
Archaeological Remains ◽  
Cultural Backgrounds ◽  
Central Mediterranean ◽  
Cultural Encounters ◽  
Public Events ◽  
Social Encounters

This study examines some assumptions related to Late Bronze Age interaction between the Aegean world and central Mediterranean societies. It asserts that, contrary to what is often assumed, this relationship was extremely important and had considerable social consequences. It is argued that such an importance can be appreciated only by acknowledging that interaction is constituted by real-world social encounters. On the basis of this insight, the contextual evidence from the site of Roca in Apulia is analysed. It is proposed that archaeological remains here represent a series of public events—i.e. large feasts—possibly entailing the participation of people of different cultural backgrounds and in which a subtle strategy of representation of relative distance and closeness was adopted to promote interests within Roca's community. Such interests are interpreted with reference to the increasing connections between the eastern and western portions of the Mediterranean, substantiated in the circulation of metal and pottery models and types.

The Bronze to Iron Age transition at Kilise Tepe

1999 ◽  
Vol 49 ◽  
pp. 111-122 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. K. Hansen ◽  
J. N. Postgate
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Present Article ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Left Bank ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
Anatolian Plateau ◽  
The Mediterranean ◽  
The Bronze Age

The mound of Kilise Tepe, formerly known as Maltepe, stands above the left bank of the Göksu near where the river leaves the Mut basin to plunge between cliffs down to the coast at Silifke about 45km to the southeast. It thus dominates one of the best-known routes from the Mediterranean to the central Anatolian plateau. Excavation at the site began in 1994, and confirmed the presence here of Late Bronze Age occupation, already deduced from collections of surface sherds by Mellaart and French, but also revealed Iron Age, Hellenistic and Byzantine layers. The present article addresses rather specifically the ceramic evidence for the end of the Bronze Age and subsequent Iron Age occupation, with particular emphasis on the chronological framework and certain wares in these levels not previously described.

Saved by the Baguette

Tsunami ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 136-150
Author(s):  
James Goff ◽  
Walter Dudley
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
The Mediterranean ◽  
Recent Eruption

Volcanoes are an important cause of catastrophic tsunamis, none more so than Santorini (Thera) that erupted with devastating power approximately 1600 BC. This Late Bronze Age eruption generated a tsunami that rampaged throughout the Mediterranean and saw the beginning of the end for the Minoan civilization at the time. In more recent times, the 1883 eruption of Krakatau in Indonesia caused similar mayhem. However, the recent eruption of Krakatau’s child, Anak Krakatau, shows the disturbing ability of volcanoes to rebuild and repeat. In this chapter, these events and several more are charted through their local and distant effects, concluding with a salutary tale about the man in Martinique who was saved by a stolen baguette.

Travellers' tales and science-based archaeology: ex oriente lux revisited

Antiquity ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 89 (343) ◽  
pp. 219-220 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Bernard Knapp
Keyword(s):  
Copper Oxide ◽  
Bronze Age ◽  
Cultural Change ◽  
Lead Isotope ◽  
Eastern Mediterranean ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
Cultural Contact ◽  
Mediterranean World ◽  
The Mediterranean ◽  
At Will

Ling and Stos-Gale (above, p. 206) end their study on a safe, if rather vague, note: “[w]e could, perhaps, consider the maritime-themed rock art depictions [of ships and copper oxide ingots] as records of travellers’ tales, where representations of reality mingle with myths, magic and sailors' stories”. Yes, perhaps we could, since at least two of the ingot depictions (Kville 156:1 at Torsbo, Norrköping) look strikingly similar—as the authors note—to the ‘pillow ingots’ (Kissenbarren) known from the Mediterranean world. Or, perhaps, we could remain more cautious before even broaching the idea of interconnectedness between Late Bronze Age Scandinavia and the eastern Mediterranean. Such a suggestion requires a lot more faith in the basic arguments of Kristiansen and Larsson (2005)—namely, that Europe and the Mediterranean formed a massive, open network through which warrior elites and others travelled at will—than I am able to muster. For Kristiansen and Larsson, cultural contact and cultural change ultimately still flow ex oriente—thus, they return whence Childe began. Yet whereas their work is an attempt at synthesis, not analysis, Ling and Stos-Gale have a stab at analysis, of the lead isotope variety. The question is how well they succeed.

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