Silver Isotopes in Silver Suggest Phoenician Innovation in Metal Production

The current study presents Ag isotopic values of 45 silver artifacts with known Pb isotopic composition from the Southern Levant. These items originate from seven pre-coinage silver hoards, dating from the Middle Bronze Age IIC to the end of the Iron Age (~1650–600 BCE). These are the earliest silver artifacts analyzed for Ag isotopes; all former studies were performed on coins. All the sampled silver in this study contains relatively unfractionated Ag (−2 ≤ ε109Ag ≤ 1.5) that was more likely produced from hypogene, primary Ag-bearing minerals (e.g., galena and jarosite) and not from native, supergene silver. Four of the sampled hoards containing silver from Anatolia and the West Mediterranean (Iberia and Sardinia) are associated with the Phoenician quest for silver (~950–700 BCE). A significant amount of this Phoenician silver (12/28 items) plots within a narrower range of −0.5 ≤ ε109Ag ≤ 0.5. This is in contrast to non-Phoenician silver, which mostly underwent some degree of fractionation (16/17 items ε109Ag ≥ I0.5I). The results suggest that while all silver was exploited from primary ore sources, the Phoenicians dug deeper into the deposits, reaching ore minerals that did not undergo any weathering-associated fractionation. The results also call for further investigation regarding the influence of sealing and bundling in silver hoards on post-depositional fractionation of Ag isotopes.

Plant economy of the Trzciniec culture based on charred plant remains from Pielgrzymowice 9 site, in the context of archaeobotanical finds from southern Poland

In the paper, new carpological data from Pielgrzymowice site 9 are presented in the context of archaeobotanical finds from southern Poland. The results were obtained from detailed analyses of 45 samples from 38 archaeological features. Only charred plant remains were taken into account as they are considered contemporaneous with the Middle Bronze Age settlement. Among the cultivated plants, Panicum miliaceum, Triticum dicoccum, Triticum monococcum and Triticum sp. were documented. Among wild plants, several taxa were found, including Chenopodium t. album, Chenopodium sp., Melandrium / Silene, Polygonum lapathifolium and Fallopia convolvulus, among others. In archaeobotanical samples, Geranium sp., cf. Lamiaceae also appeared. In addition, plants typical of grasslands, forests and ruderal areas were noted, such as Coronilla varia, Rumex acetosella, Plantago media, Plantago lanceolata, Stellaria graminea and Hypericum perforatum. These results were compared with data coming from nine sites of the Trzciniec culture from Lesser Poland to track the Middle Bronze Age plant-based economy in southern Poland.

Identifying Wheel-Thrown Vases in Middle Minoan Crete? Preliminary Analysis of Experimental Replicas of Plain Handleless Conical Cups from Protopalatial Phaistos

Recent work in Middle Bronze Age Crete has revealed that most Protopalatial or First Palace period pottery is produced through the use of a combination of coil-building and the wheel, i.e., wheelcoiling. Experimental work conducted on pottery from Minoan sites of Northern and Eastern Crete (e.g., Knossos, Myrtos Pyrgos, Palaikastro) has indeed determined that Minoan potters did not develop the skills required to adopt the wheel-throwing technique. However, my recent technological study of Protopalatial ceramic material from Middle Minoan IIA (19th century BC) deposits from the First Palace at Phaistos, in Southern Crete, has revealed that though pottery was produced by the wheelcoiling techniques, yet other forming techniques were practised too. In this paper I present a preliminary analysis of experimental replicas of MM IIA Phaistian plain handleless conical cups, manufactured on the potter’s wheel using three different forming techniques: wheel-pinching, wheel-coiling, and throwing-off-the-hump. This analysis will proffer answers to several questions on the use of the potter’s wheel in Middle Bronze Age Crete and opens the possibility that at MM IIA Phaistos there co-existed potters who had developed skills to employ different forming techniques on the wheel, including possibly that of throwing-off-the-hump.

A Return to the Wheel: Rethinking Experimental Methodologies for the Study of the Potter’s Wheel

Research into the study of wheel-making techniques has grown, but studies of the tool or the wheel and its properties have remained understudied or considered insignificant until recently. In order to develop this research, the wheel and its practicalities, such as the physics, should be incorporated more into research of making techniques. Through the application of chaîne opératoire and experimental archaeology, this research questioned whether different wheel types produce different macroscopic traces on pots produced by the same technique. There are several results presented here that can shed light on the way archaeologists should investigate and understand early wheel potting, in particular the physics of rotation, which has received minimal attention as a result of a predominance for researching techniques over the tool (the wheel). The application of this research is used to better understand pottery and potter’s wheels from their adoption and development during the Middle Bronze Age on Crete, c. 2000 to 1500 BCE. A revision of experimental work and methodologies is combined with archaeological experimentation in order to help clarify not only how tools such as the wheel were used but subsequently what roles these craftworkers played in past societies.

Different Shades of Grey Minyan: Dissecting an “Iconic” Ceramic Class of Middle Bronze Age, Mainland Greece

The Middle Helladic Grey Minyan ware is usually assigned with archetypical features, including the systematic use of the potter’s wheel. However, because of the significant variation observed, terms such as “True Grey Minyan” and “Imitations of Grey Minyan” were commonly applied in order to emphasise the differences, which, nonetheless were never systematically analysed. The main subject of the present paper is to highlight the differences existing in the potting traditions of Grey Minyan in two nearby regions, namely the Argolid and Attica, which seem to belong to different cultural spheres, given the divergence observed especially in the shape repertoire. The identification of different production and consumption practices is obviously related to different cultural phenomena, as evidenced through (a) the production of similar wheel-fashioned and hand-built Grey Minyan shapes in Attica, and (b) the introduction of foreign potting traditions, namely wheel-fashioned Grey Minyan pots, which are completely alien to the local, handmade ceramics of the Argolid.

The Introduction of the Potter’s Wheel to Ancient Sudan

Doherty (2015) has previously investigated the origins of the potter’s wheel in Egypt in depth. However, how the potter’s wheel came to be used in Sudan has not yet been properly analysed. This paper will present the author’s initial investigations into the pottery industry of Sudan and the manufacturing techniques employed by Sudanese potters. Evidence seems to suggest that rather than being an indigenous invention, the potter’s wheel came to Sudan as part of the colonisation of Sudan by Egypt during the Middle-Late Bronze Age. Throughout this period, various Egyptian towns were founded along the river Nile. One such town was Amara West (inhabited c. 1306–1290 BC). By the Middle Bronze Age, Sudanese potters had well-developed pottery techniques, principally coil- and slab-building. Amara West and other Egyptian colonies used the by then well-established wheel-throwing and coiling techniques (RKE) to manufacture their pottery, principally imported from Egypt. However, these colony towns contained both Sudanese and Egyptian vessels, sometimes in the same contexts, and occasionally with blended manufacture techniques and decoration. This paper will endeavour to postulate upon the effect and legacy of the imposed technology of the potter’s wheel on the Sudanese pottery industry.

The non-ferrous metal toolkit of the Petrovka Culture of the South Trans-Urals

The article presents data on the morphological and typological characteristics of the trade tools of the Pet-rovka Culture of the South Trans-Urals and middle Tobol River region, originating from the sites of Chelyabinsk, Kurgan, and Tyumen Regions (77 specimens in total; 126 specimens in total including knives). According to the radiocarbon dating, the chronological period of the Petrovka sites in the Southern Trans-Urals spans the 19th through 18th centuries B.C. The distribution of tools into types was based on the techniques of typological division of the artifacts, taking into account their shape, presence of certain qualitative features, as well as consideration of the geographical and cultural areal of similar articles. The produce of the Southern Trans-Urals center is repre-sented by a diverse set of metal tools and by functioning of large settlements with metallurgical specialization — Kulevchi 3, Ustye 1, and Shibaevo 1. In the typology of the tool complex of the Petrovka Culture of the Southern Trans-Urals and the Middle Pre-Tobol region, common Eurasian types dominate, being genetically associated with the centers of the Middle Bronze Age of the Circumpontian Metallurgical Province — the Late Yamnaya-Poltavkino, Catacomb Culture, and metal-producing centers of the Corded Ware Culture — Volsk-Lbische and Balanovo. A pronounced variety of the morphotypes of the tools, especially knives, is characteristic of the initial stage of ethnogenesis of the cultures of the forest-steppe and steppe zone of Eurasia during the transitional pe-riod from the MBA to the LBA. Common Eurasian types of tools are characteristic of the cultures of the 1st phase of the Eurasian (West Asian) metallurgical province of the forest-steppe and steppe belt from the Don region to the Irtysh region: Abashevo; Sintashta; Early Srubnaya (Pokrovka); Petrovka (Early Alakul). Specific groups of tools inherent in the tribes of the Petrovka Culture were revealed: axes with a massive head; medium-curved sick-les with a prominent handle; socketed spearheads without eyelets and raised ribs along the edge of the socket; forged arrowheads with a through socket; knives with a straight prominent handle — double-edged and single-edged; knives with a forged open socket. In the appearance of some types of tools among the Petrovka population of the Trans-Urals, such as forged socketed tools — chisels, knives, arrows, double-edged knives with a prominent handle, and sickles with a small curvature, the influence of the Abashevo stereotypes of production is discernible. In the meantime, sufficient data have been obtained on the direct imports or on the conjugation of types of the metal tools and weapons of the Sintashta, Petrovka, and Seima-Turbino Cultures in closed complexes.

Review of The Foreign Relations of the “Hyksos.” A Neutron Activation Study of Middle Bronze Age Pottery from the Eastern Mediterranean

Patrick E. McGovern, The Foreign Relations of the “Hyksos.” A Neutron Activation Study of Middle Bronze Age Pottery from the Eastern Mediterranean. With Updated Preface 2020. Oxford: BAR International Series 888, 2020. ISBN 9781841710884. Pp. Xxii + 242, 17 black and white plates and 29 black and white figures. £57 Online Addendum to the above publication, entitled “Origins of the Enigmatic Hyksos?: New Data, Working Hypo- thesis, and Methodological Considerations.” Pp. 243, 86 black and white figures. Addendum available at: https:// www.researchgate.net/publication/343290808_APPENDIX_4_AFTERWORD_PETROGRAPHIC_ ADDENDUM_AND_POTTERY_FIGURES_by_Patrick_E_McGovern_and_Christopher_Wnuk_to_be_ appended_to_The_Foreign_Relations_of_the_Hyksos_A_Neutron_Activation_Study_of_Middle_Bro