the cypriot and syrian pottery from al mina, syria

The Cypriot and Syrian Pottery from Al Mina, SyriaAuthor(s): Joan Du Plat TaylorSource: Iraq, Vol. 21, No. 1 (Spring, 1959), pp. 62-92Published by: British Institute for the Study of IraqStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4199649 .

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6z

THE CYPRIOT AND SYRIAN POTTERY FROM AL MINA, SYRIA1

By JOAN DU PLAT TAYLOR

CYPRIOT pottery of the Iron Age can now be dated much more closely through sites which have been published from north Palestine, notably Megiddo,

Samaria and Hazor, and also from trial excavations which have been undertaken in Syria. Yet further east the excavations at Nimrud help to fill the picture. These sites again throw light on the early levels at Al Mina, for though Professor Gjerstad inspected the Cypriot material, no specific report was made upon it.

In this paper, the Cypriot and Syrian pottery will be examined in detail with special reference to the collection of sherds which were handed over to the University of London, Institute of Archaeology, by the British Museum at Sir Leonard Woolley's behest.2 The writer is indebted to him for making it available. In the light of the comparative material, an endeavour will be made to clarify the position of the early levels at Al Mina with regard to other sites in the Near East and also to establish a chronological sequence, and to determine its bearing on the dating of the Greek pottery.

When Sir Leonard Woolley published his reports in 193 5-36 on the excavations at Al Mina (J.H.S., LVIII (1938), I-30, 133-70; A.J., XVII (I937), Iff.), he stressed the importance of the Cypriot pottery from the occupation of Levels VIII-VI. In subsequent studies (J.H.S., LIX, iff.; LX, iff.; Boardman B.S.A . 52 (I957) iff.) only the Greek pottery was examined.

The sherds when received were mixed together, but on examination, a great number were found to be marked with the level in which they occurred and from others it was possible to restore a few shapes. SDme bore a catalogue number and have therefore been useful for comparison with the material still remaining in Antioch. Hence, it has been possible to obtain some idea in which level types occur and to arrange them in sequence.

IT is perhaps appropriate to recapitulate the circumstances under which the Cypriot material was found. Of the ten levels uncovered, we are concerned only with levels VI-X.

Level IX and X rested on virgin soil (J.H.S., LVIII, i6, 1S 5)- Few struc- tural remains were uncovered and such as existed could only be distinguished

1 This paper has been prepared with the aid of a grant from the Central Research Fund of the Univer- sity of London, to whom the writer is much indebted. She is also grateful to Mrs. J. M. Birmingham for notes and information on material in the Antioch Museum, which it was not possible to revisit and from

Tarsus. Mr. George Hanfmann has also kindly sup- plied information on material from the latter site.

2 A few other Cypriot sherds in the Ashmolean Museum have been included through the kindness of Mr. John Boardman.



63 JOAN DU PLAT TAYLOR

by their different orientation; there were a few huts with clay floors and pebble foundations. The strata were thin but contained relatively abundant pottery of Geometric and sub-Geometric type, mostly imported. The material from Level IX was not very different from that of VIII, but it contained imitations of Proto-Geometric, and types also found in Rhodes and Delos.

With Level VIII (ibid, 17, 154.), the first recognizable rooms were uncovered with clay and cobble floors. " The pottery showed a complete change from the previous level; it is almost exclusively of Cypriot Iron Age type .. . . and entirely supersedes the Geometric.

Level VII (ibid, i 8) is a continuation of Level VIII and represents a reconstruction of buildings after gradual decay and though there was a difference in level, it was not always easy to distinguish. There was a falling off in Cypriot fabrics and some recrudescence of sub-Geometric wares from the Rhodian market.

One or two groups from Level VIII can be restored; notably Room 8, contained a saucer lamp, a Red Slip, flanged bowl (Fig. 6 I13), a hemispherical bowl with black paint on rim, (Fig. 6.4), a Black-on-Red bowl (Fig. 5.i) and a saucer lamp (J.H.S., LVIII, 154). Store jars of type z are characteristic of this level and fibulae of types 4, 7, 8 (J.H.S., LVIII, I 5 5). Scarabs, stamp seals and amulets were also found together with a bronze razor and mirror, some faience objects and a terracotta figurine with a pointed cap.

Levels VI and V represent two further stages in the port's history. Level VI is a replacement of the buildings of Level VII which had fallen into decay; and Level V is a continuation and reconstruction as Level VII was of VIII. Proto-Corinthian ware was fairly common in VI and Corinthian appeared in V. Cypriot fabrics still survived in VI, but had disappeared by the beginning of V.

This paper is concerned chiefly with the finds of Levels VIII-VI and an endeavour to establish a closer date for them in the light of material which has been found in recent excavations.

For the Cypriot pottery reference is made only incidentally to the types of the Swedish Cyprus Expedition, for it will become apparent that the system is in need of revision, and to emphasise it here would only be confusing. The tvpes discovered are as follows:

White Painted and Bichrome Wares The bulk of the sherds are of a clean brick-red clay with a white slip and

decorated in black and rust-red paint. The finish is wet-smoothed. A few are in cream or drab clay with black sand temper mostly in the jar and jug sherds. The fabric is on the whole the White Painted III group of the Swedish Cyprus Expedition (E. Gjerstad, The Swredisb Cyprus Expedition, IV. 2, 54) and more specifically the White Slip Painted ware of the Cyprus Museum Classifica- ti.on (Taylor and Williams, Classification of Pottery in Cyprus Aluseurn, I938, 2o).



THE CYPRIOT AND SYRIAN POTTERY FROM AL MINA, SYRIA 64

5-51gk42 / 2 55194

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gwy _iZzw 55/943 92

j,A,// 55/99 93 I0

: 2 2 2 =~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~51 '/991

5,51932_ 13 593 ,/15

Fig. 1. White painted and bichrome bowls. Scale'4.

The drab wares, however, may be from the Tarsus kilns where the White

Slip variety was rare.

Bowls One of the most common types was the deep bowl with ring base (Fig. i,1i-9)

in a variety of sizes, some as much as 20 cm. in diameter (Woolley, For,gottell Kinlgdom., pl. 20B). All were made in the white slipped fabric, some with addi- tional red bands. In the small size,, this form is most commonly found in Cyprus with the crossed panel (P1. XX, i), where it occurs at Stylli in T. 8 3 and



JOAN DU PLAT TAYLOR

6:15S (SCEIV.2, fig. XXI, 7; II, p1. XCIV, 6), and at Marion in T. 69:I5 (SEE II, pl. LXXIV), also in a group from Rizocarpaso (RDAC 1937-39, pl. XIII, 38). Elsewhere, it is found at Mersin (AAA XXVI, pl. 47.7) in period IIB-III, and at Megiddo in T. 22iB:8 (Guy & Engberg, Alegiddo Tombs, P1. 72.8) and in stratum V (Lamon and Shipton, Alcaiddo I P1. 30.I4I) in Bichromie ware. But only one sherd was found at Al Mina.

On the other hand, the concentric circle type was very common, either with single, or multiple rows of circles (P1. XX, 6-7). In Cyprus a few specimens in the Mluseum with single rows of concentric circles are from unknown provenance; another with grooves on the rim was found in the Deposit at Myrtou-Pigadhes (du Plat Taylor, Myrtou-Pvigadhes, form 430).

Professor Hanfmann attributes the fabric to the " Cilician \XWhite " from Tarsus, where a sherd with multiple circles was found, and also from Byblos (Dunand, Byblos II, I45, fig. 139, no. 8z56), also in Ahiram's tomb, (Mlontet, Byblos et L'Egypte, pl. CXLIII. 856). The form is close to a piece from Mersin Level IV (JAAA XXVI, pl. 48.I). At Mina all marked specimens came from Level VIII and seem to form the bulk of the stock of that period.

Two other forms of decoration are found on rim sherds of this type. The first, under the handle of a bowl from Level VIII (Pl. XX, S) shows the figure of a rather ill-drawn goat or ibex, below the loop. On the remaining portion of the side is a bird with part of a flower above, in yellow-brown paint. The bird resembles the style of one from Lachish rooms H 14. 1004 (Tufnell, Lachish III, pl. 89:35 0), in an undated context; and one upon a Cypriot goblet from a tomb group at Qarayeh, now in the Beirut Museum.

The animal is reminiscent of beasts on an amphora from Kaloriziki T. 5:2I, (unpublished) and a jug B 637 (SCEJ, IV.2, fig. XXIII.ii) in the Cyprus Museum, also on urns from the Yunus cemetery (Woolley, Carchemish III, pl. 68.7).

The remainder of the rims (P1. XX, 2-4) are of the "lotus" style which is attributed to type IV of the Cypriot series. The clay is for the most part pinkish-buff with white grits and wet-smoothed. The matt paint is dull black and crimson red. Two rims, one with a chevron border, and another with chevron and guilloche were found in level VIII, while more ornate pieces (Pl. XX, 3-4) with lotus flowers, and concentric circles, or bands, for border, are found in Levels VIII and VII. Though this decoration occurs on footed goblets in Cyprus, not a single goblet foot was found at Al Mina, but the decoration is present on vases from Amathus (T. 7.iii. SCE III, pl. X), Stylli T. I I :4 (SCE IV, 2, fig. XXXI, 4) and Gypsos (Cyprus Museum, unpublished). Some sherds from Crowfoot, Samaria III, fig. 33.3 belong to this group.

This style of decoration will be discussed below with the jars of similar design.

A smaller and shallower form of bowl with rounded sides (Fig. I, 2) was made in poor white slip fabric, and also in drab clay. It resembles a Black-on-



PLATE XX

1 3

a. White painted and bichrome bowl sherds. Scale approx. i.

-t

.~ ~~b Bhrmbunsejg.




Red type with a single row of concentric circles on the outside. Such small bowls were found in Pigadhes Deposit (Myrtou-Pigadhes, form 488), in Amathus T. I 6:5 9 (SCE IV, 2, fig. XXVIII, 9) and at Tarsus and Byblos (cf. Montet, Byblos et l'Egypte, p1. CXL, I I, 8 7 in Black-on-Red from Ahiram's tomb; the sherd is upside down).

The next most common type was the deep dish with ribbon handles (Fig. I, I 3). Five nearly whole bowls are recorded and at least twenty pairs of handles were noted among the sherds, all those marked being from Level VIII. The fabric is of the good white slip with bichrome bands. The shape is well known in Cyprus from Stylli T. 2 and 7 (SCE IV, 2, fig. XXXI.3), and other specimens in the Cyprus Museum. It is found at Tarsus in White Painted fabric; at Byblos, and at Megiddo in a rather deeper form with ring base in Stratum V.

Fig. I.I0 is a smaller and shallower version in pinkish clay with wet-smoothed surface.

The large bowl (Fig. 1.17), also in white slip ware, decorated with black and crimson paint, has the unusual feature of a channel below the rim. Sherds of at least two others were found, all belonging to Levels VIII-VII. The type may be compared with a bowl in SCE IV, 2, fig. 30:I8, and a rim sherd was found in the Pigadhes Deposit (Afyrtou-Pigadhes, form 386). The rim section also resembles one from Megiddo stratum III (Megiddo, I, pI. 23.25).

Of the two types of bowl with flanged rim (Fig. i, i i, i 2) no. i i has a flat- tened rim; the other a wider flange with string holes. The type is found at Tarsus and also in Cyprus with string holes (SCE IV, 2, fig. XII, 4); the latter are also a feature of some Proto-geometric dishes (Brock, Fortetsa Tx., pl. 37, 422. Mature geometric), from which the Cypriot version may be derived.

The second type (Fig. I, I 2) is almost carinated with flat out-turned rim, and has been mended with rivets in ancient times.

Barreljugs The sherds come almost entirely from Level VIII with a few survivors

marked VI. Necks of some dozen specimens are in the Institute Collection and at least one almost complete specimen is in Antioch. The form seems to have been a rather long barrel (Fig. 2.I) with tall, flaring rim, neck ridge and wide strap handle. The complete specimen resembles one in the Cyprus Museum (RDAC 1937-39, pl. XXXIX, 7-8), and another from Stylli T.3 (SCE II, pl. XXX) and one in the Louvre (CVA France S, Louvre 4, IICb, pl. 9.I). The clay is usually drab or brown with white grits, and wet-smoothed. The paint is black with bands of orange below the rim. Others are in pink clay with white slip, or cream clay with back grits. The shape is usually attributed to White Painted, or Bichrome V (SCE IV.2, fig. 49, I-2; 46.7).

The incurving rim (Fig. 2.S) was equally common. The clay is pink or orange with black and white grits and a white slip. The paint is black and orange brown, or dark purple and crimson. The form belongs to White




Painted III (ibid, fig. I9.I) and is similar to a smaller specimen from Stylli T. i6 (ibid. II, pl. XXXIV).

The square cut rim (Fig. 2.2-3) seems to belong to a form with flatter ends to the barrel (RDAC, 1937-39, pl. 39, 4-5), of which several pieces were found, but no section could be restored. It was probably close to a Bichrome type (SCE, IV.2, fig. 33, IB).

Neither type has been found in controlled excavations in Cyprus, and has been grouped previously on stylistic grounds. The square rim, however, is present in a White Painted II type in Amathus T. 7, i8, I9, 2i at an earlier

55/920 4 5 55/90 6

/919 911 5508 2. 55/109) 1q

55//2 551974 1

Fig. 2. Bichrome jugs and barrel jugs. Scale4'.

date (SCE, II, p1. XCII, io). Elsewhere these jugs are found at Tarsus, where the flaring rim is more common than the square-cut. The latter occurs at Catal Huyuk in Level III and a sherd was also found at T. Rifa'at.

These large barrels, either with concentric circles between bands, or with ornate concentric bands on the ends., appear to belong to the neighbou-rhood of Al Mina, perhaps being manufactured either at Tarsus or in Cyprus, where they are classed as White Painted, or Bichrome III or IV.

Barrel jugs are most frequent in Cyprus in earlier periods, types I-Ill, but the elongated forms occur in types IV-V only.

Bottle The neck and shoulder of a bottle (Fig. I.' 4) in thin buff clay, wet-smoothed

with some small black grits is decorated in black with broad bands of light red




paint, and comes from Level VIII-VII. The fabric is similar to that from Yunus (AAA XXVI, pl. XVIb), but the form is more like the Assyrian bottles from Assur (Haller, Graber und Grfifte Pon Assur, Taf. 3. a, v.) From Nimrud, a sherd decorated with concentric circles in black on a light ground, probably part of a bottle, was found in the debris of the well NN, North West Palace together with other material dateable to the end of the eighth century B.C.

At Zinjirli (Andrae, Ausgrabungen von Sendschirli V. Taf. i ga) there is one in red slip.

Bichrome jugs These jugs (Fig. '.1 5) are probably to be restored with pinched lip and ribbon

handle; the clay is creamy white with well-smoothed surface. The black paint is rather smudgy and the broad bands are a thin orange. The jug illustrated was found in Level V, but sherds of others are marked IX and VIII. These are in white slip ware with rather larger circles on the shoulder, and in one case there is a double handle. The type is perhaps Bichrome III (SCE IV, 2,

fig. XIX, 7 and XXIII, I7), some of which are found at Ay Irini in Periods IV-V (ibid. II, pl. CLXXXVIII, i), and at Stylli, Tomb I6:13, dr. 2 (SCE II, pl. XXXIV, 4). A somewhat similar jug was found at Vroulia (Kinch. Vroulia, pl. z6.2) and Turabi Tekke T.6o (J.H.S. XVII, 159, fig. Iz).

Squat ring-necked jugs Two necks of squat jugs in fine drab or red ware with some lime and mica

temper (Fig. 2.7), the surface well polished, cannot unfortunately be assigned to any level. The form, however, with bands of red or black paint is known from Amathus, T. I1:40 (SCE IV, z, fig. XXVII, IS), T.9: 125 and T.z3:39 (ibid. II, pl. XV, CVI). These may be related to the larger jugs of Samaria (III, fig. 2:4) period I.

Bichrome Burnished ware This fabric was at one time called " Parchment " ware in the Classification of

Pottery of the Cyprus Museum to distinguish it from the normal Bichrome types. It is also Myres Fabric XVI, c, j, 1, of the Cesnola Handbook. It belongs almost exclusively to these jugs with flat rim; in the best pieces the surface is highly burnished, but in others it is wet-smoothed.

Figure 2.8, from Level VII, is in brown-pink clay with black and white grits, and is horizontally burnished; the band of rust red paint is bordered with black. This type is said to be both imported and locally made at Tarsus. In Cyprus the form is similar to Amathus T. 9:89 (SCE II, pl. CXV, 7) and the bordered bands are found on Amathus T. I6:I27 (ibid., pl. CV, S), where they are grouped with type IV. At Hazor, sherds with bordered bands are found in Level IV (Yadin, Hazor I, pl. 70, I6-i 8).




The most common type is Fig. 2.9 (P1. XXb) of which more than a dozen were found complete or made up in Level VIII. From photographs the complete rim appears to be square-cut and slightly drooping as in Fig. 2.IO, i i. The type does not appear frequently in Cyprus; at Turabi Tekke a more squat form (J.H.S. XVII, i19) was found, but the type occurs at Yunus (AAA, XXVI, pl. XVIa, 2). No. 9 is close to one from Megiddo Stratum IV (AJegiddo II, pl. 9I.4) without neck-ridge, another from Hfa.or I, pl. LII, 22 from Level VI; pl. LVI, i9 from Level V with burnish marks, and one from Byblos, no. 7673 (Byblos II, I40, fig. I 3 3); another from Catal Huyuk V (no. 4492) in the Antioch Museum has concentric circles down the front. Further south the type is found at Atlit (,QDA1' VI, 142, fig. 6, 3, 4, fig. 7.I) and also T. el Rechidiyeh (RB I904, 567, pl. VI).

No. IO is close to the rim of Mlarion T. 75, II (SCIE II, pl. CXV, 6), and in form to the Red Slip jug with Phoenician inscription from Kition (Cesnola Atlas II, CXLI, I05i2). No. ii may be compared to one from Megiddo stratum III (Meggiddo I, P1. 3.79; I.33), others from Khirbet Selim in Beirut Museum (No. 269) and Turabi Tekke T. 6o (J.H.S. XVII, 159, fig. izi), and Hazor V, (P1. LVI. i 9). They are also found at Carthage in a derived form with more elongated body (Cintas. CGra_niqiepumique, P1. VI, 65 -66).

Figure 2.I2, I 3 belong to miniature white painted juglets in clean whitish clay with thin black paint. No. I3 has a brown red band below rim and inside. The Bichrome types are found in VIII, for No. 12 see MIyres, Cesnola Col. no. 68 3, Ayrto-1'igadhes, form 45 0-5 i and perhaps Id. 773 (SCE' II, pl. CLXV, ii). The type is also found at Lindos (Blinkenberg, P1. 43, 94 S) associated with other concentric circle sherds. For no. 13 see Turabi Tekke (J.H.S. XVII, 159, fig. 12.5), also at Tarsus (note JMIB) and Idalion (SCE II, pl. CLXV, I2, no. 653). The bodies of these jugs are represented by a few sherds, handles and a base of similar clay, or in sandy buff ware, decorated with rows of small concentric circles or with large vertical circles in red, bordered with black lines on the sides (P1. XXIIb, i). MIost have a wet-smoothed surface, but one survivor in Level V had a highly burnished finish, similar to the large Bichrome burnished jugs. The bordered bands are found on a similarly burnished bowl from Amathus T. i6.127 (SCE II, pl. CV). The form is not unlike one from lalysos T. LXIV (Clara Rhodos III, fig. ioi); see also Tel Kefrik (Ash. I914,

78 9-0) in Syria, and Byblos (Montet, B3yblos et L'Egypte, pl. CXLIII, 858) fromAhiram's tomb;SendschirliV,Taf. I 87; CarchemishIII, pl. 68a, centre bottom, from temple courtyard, also Yunus cemetery YC45 (AAA 26, pl. XVI.7, I-2) and others. This particular type seems to be more common in north Syria than elsewhere.

Large jugs with vertical circles The majority of sherds of this type were found in Level VII-V, but one

piece with large concentric circles on the shoulder is marked IX.




Three sherds (P1. XXI, i) belong probably to one jug. The clay is cleanish buff with some white grits, the wet-smoothed surface slightly flaking; the broad red vertical bands are bordered with black and the small circles are in black. Traces of a lotus with volutes can be seen on the front of the neck. The sherds are marked VII. The style and shape of jug is close to those from Stylli (SCE IV.2, fig. 34.8, T. I 1:3), another from Ormidhia (Cesnola Atlas II, p1. CXXII, 930) and Curium T. i6 (BMExcav. fig. I33). Recently one from the Pierides collection with a Cypriot inscription, has been published (AJA 6o, pl. 119, fig. 5-6).

Another sherd from the shoulder of a jug (P1. XXI.3) from Level VII bears the figure of a man carrying a flower. The clay is poor and the bordering bands are of thin black with yellowish brown between., The style of figure is similar to that on the Hubbard vase (BSA XXXVII, 1936-37, pl. 8i), and on a jug from Curium (Cesnola Atlas II, pl. CXVIII, 9II), also BM T. 2I,

(Excav. fig. I36) and (RDAC, 1937-39, pl. XXXIX, 7-9). Barred concentric circles are found at Zinjirli (Va 77.36) and in Stylli, tomb ii-i2 (SCE II, p1. XXXIII, 2, 3).

The shoulder of a large jug (P1. XXI, 9) with many fragments of the side, has a large, closely lined concentric circle on each side and a panel of small circles down the front. The clay is greenish, with airholes and many dark grits; the surface is wet-smoothed. The decoration is in rather smudgy lines of orange, brown and black.

Similar jugs are found at Zinjirli (Ausgrab. von Sendschirli V, pl. I7g), at Carchemish (Carchemish III, pl. 68a, bottom left) from temple court floor, Mersin Level III-IV (AAA 26, pl. 48.3) and from Ormidhia (Cesnola Atlas, II, p1. CXII, 928) and Amathus T. 295 (BM Excav. fig. Is6.s) which has the same design.

The third type of jug bears concentric circles between the bands of the vertical circles on the side. Body sherds only were found in Level VI-V. The fabric (P1. III, 8) is gritty brown with much black and white grit; the surface is wet-smoothed and the decoration in very thin black paint. The design is close to those from Bamboula T. 6a (unpublished, Cyprus Museum), and another in the Cesnola collection (Myres. Cesnola Handbook, no. 269). The type is also found at Mersin (AAA XXVI, pl. XLVIII, 2) in Level III, and at lalysos (Clara Rhodos III, fig. 39) from cremation LI. A sherd from Megiddo (Megiddo I, p1. 29, Iog) would appear to be similar. Another sherd in pink clay (P1. XXI, S) with buff surface comes from the side of a jug, perhaps like that from lalysos XXII (Clara Rhodos III, fig. 39).

Another piece from Mina Level V (P1. XXI, 7) is in buff clay with small black grits. The surface is well smoothed and the decoration in black and rust- red paint in rather smudgy technique. Similar sherds from Tarsus (No. 3364) are in the Adana Museum; cf. also Marion T. 5.6 (SCE II, pl. 36) for general arrangement of design.



7I JOAN DU PLAT TAYLOR

Amphorae and craters The bulk of the White Painted and Bichrome sherds could not definitely be

assigned to any particular form, jug, amphora or crater, but the following types of rim can definitely be attributed to jars.

The largest types seem to belong mainly to Level VIII. The first (Fig. 3.1)

is in coarse greenish buff clay with much small black grit and white lime temper. It is wet-smoothed and the paint is black. This style of decoration is known from Amathus T.2.48 (SCE II, pl. CXVII; IV, 2, fig. XXX, 2) and possibly from Dali (Cesnola Atlas II, p1. CVIII-IX). Outside Cyprus they are found also at Tarsus and Mersin, and Byblos (II, Io86).

The jar with wavy line (Fig. 3.2) is of brown clay, but otherwise similar to the preceding jar. The type is found at Amathus in T. 7 and T. I6 (SCE II, pl. XI) and in Stylli T. 6.4 (SCE IV.2, fig. XXX, 3).

The cross lines on the handle of Fig. 3.13 from Level VII are a feature of type II, but the rim belongs to III. The clay is coarse pink with black and white grits; the paint a drab maroon.

The panel design on the neck was very rare and only one small piece (P1. XXIIa, 3) in Bichrome could be attributed to Level VIII. The clay is brown with brown and white grits; the surface white slipped. The paint is clean black and light red.

Only one fragment of the neck of a large jar with concentric circles (P1. XXIIa, 5) and the shoulder of another was found as a survivor in Level III. The clay is red to greenish buff with black grits, wet-smoothed. The paint is black and light red. This type of neck is found in Tsambres T. 12.13 (RDAC 1937-39, pl. XXIII, i) and also possibly from Limbia (Cesnold Atlas II, pl. CXIII, 887, and 889-go).

Amphorae with flat or drooping flange do not seem to occur before Level VI. The clay is buff with greenish white surface and the paint brownish-black. Figure 3.5 in shape resembles a rim from Megiddo (Megiddo II, pl. 89.7) from Room 2102, stratum Va. Figure 3.9 with knobbed handle and concentric circles on the neck can be compared with a piece from Tarsus and also from Byblos (II, 217, fig. i87: 8743). Other rims from Mina were more undercut and decorated in Bichrome as Fig. 3.6.

Smaller jars in Bichrome are probably from the same level. Figure 3.4 is in brown clay with white slip; decoration in black and rust brown bands. The type is found in the Idalion deposit (SCE II, pl. CLXVI, 629) and at Marion T. 84:I8 (ibid. pl. CXI). The decoration occurs on jars from Amathus T. 7 (ibid. pl. XI); also at Tell Rechidiyeh, Sidon, Tyre and Catal Huyuk. The wavy band type (Fig. 3.7) is also found at Idalion (ibid. IV, 2, fig. XXXVI, 6, I 5 34). One from the Cesnola collection (Myres, Cesnola Handbook, 669) has lotus on the shoulder. Two other sherds which show the multiple decoration of concentric circles on the shoulder of a jar (PI. XXIIa) are from Level VII. A complete jar of this type is in the Antioch Museum.




55 898 1- 524

551877 4/55/890

ss/ezz <6

t ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~S1 5/73

IWI

55/I97 8 /

89~~~~/7

55/187

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 4

5.51874 1

Fig. 3. White painted and bichrome amphorae. Scale 4.

11509 F




The short-necked jars without rim flange are Bichrome (Fig. 3.I0-12, 14-5). All are in light buff clay or white slipped. The decoration is purple brown. The type is known from Tarsus. Fig. 3.II can be compared with Amathus T. 7:6o (SCE IV.2, fig. 30.1); Fig. 3.I4 is also found at Amathus in T. 13:40, and T. 7:280 (Ibid.fig.22.Iand3i.8)andatMarioninT.84:5 (ibid.fig.48.7). The jar (Ant. J. XVII, pl. XIII. I) may belong to this group, but the shape is not Cypriot.

Two craters with bulls and lotuses have already been published (Ant. Journal, XVII, P1. XII) and a few sherds of this style are in the Institute collection. They were found in Level VIII and were considered to be Cypriot in style, but not in origin. The bull crater, now in Damascus, is rather coarse, in the Black-on-Red fabric, but a similar rim (Fig. 3.8, PI. XXIIa.2) is of white slip ware with Bichrome decoration. The second crater is in buff ware with dark grits and grog; the paint is black and dull red. A third (Fig. 4.3)1 with lotuses and rosettes is much more Cypriot in style (cf. SCE IV.2, fig. XXXV.I4; LI.z).

The clay is a coarse salmon pink with a thin creamy white slip, the paint is a thin black, which has fired purplish and dull red brown. The level is uncertain, but it probably came from VII-VI.

The rim of the first crater is similar to one from Mersin (AAA XXVI, P1. 79.3; 46.6); the style of the bulls, however, is very close to those on a barrel- jug recently acquired by the Cyprus Museum, from " Fteros " near Gypsos, (RDAC 1937-39, I35, fig. 2). A sherd from Tell Beit Mirsim (AASOR XXI-II, pl. z8, 5-6) from stratum A is not dissimilar.

The more ornate may be compared with Cypriot pieces from Idalion (SCE IV, 2, fig. 36.4, Id. 629), Kition (J.H.S. XVII, 157, tomb 6o), Ormidhia (Cesnola Atlas, pl. CXII), an unpublished piece from Ayios Elias, Trachonas (T. I 1945),

also another in the Louvre (SCE IV, 2, fig. 32.5). The border of lotuses is like those found on Naukratis bowls (Naukratis I, pl. VII) and on Ahiram's sarcophagus (Montet. Byblos et L'Egypte, pl. CXXX). The procession of bulls is to be found on a bronze patera in the Louvre (BSA XXXVII, 94). Another sherd (P1. XXIIa, 7) in buff clay with black grits and white slip, painted in purple black and light red, is probably from the neck of the Bichrome jar (MP 203, Fig. 4.3). The style is like SCE IV.a, fig. 35.14, but the guilloche design would assign it to a type V (ibid. fig. 39.i6; 48, 3, 9). Another sherd in drab clay with black grits, wet-smoothed, is decorated with thin black and light red paint on plant and bird. It bears the head of a bird and part of a lotus flower closer in style to the former animal group and belonging to a jug perhaps rather than a jar.

The lotus design is well known in Syrian art, but is not so often found in pottery. It is a familiar decorative element on Rhodian pottery and at Nauk- ratis; but was not found at Tarsus. Some types are found on sherds from

1 The drawing has been prepared from a field sketch, as the whereabouts of the amphora is not

known, though it is probably in Antioch.



PLATE XXI

K s0

_~~~~~~ 7

2. Bichrome jug sherds. Scale approx. i.



PLATE XXII

I~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~A

3a. Bichrome amphora sherds. Scale approx. i.

3 >3 '

7b. Bichomc and lack-on-cd sherd. Scalc pprox, i

3b. Bichrome ampdhoracko~ sherds. Scale approx. j




the coarse crater from Byblos, in Ahiram's tomb and Square 67 (Montet, Byblos et L'Egypte, pl. CXLIII, 869).

Two very coarse Bichrome sherds (P1. XXIIa, 8, 9) from Levels VI-V, of red clay with large white grits and white slip, one very crudely painted with a lotus, are probably a local development, though the poor drawing bears some resemblance to type VI designs (SCE IV. 2, fig. 5 9. 3), and on a Cypriot jar found at Olynthus (Excavations V, pl. 32, P 5 2. Pre-Persian burnt layer, 479 B.C.)

This highly decorated ware which is attributed by the SCE to Bichrome IV-V seems to be very largely Cypriot in origin, but must now be assigned to an earlier date than was previously given. The two important craters from Mina in Level VIII quite clearly assign the series to the eighth century.

We may, however, also note that the guilloche and rosette were a popular design in wall decoration in north Syria, Tell Halaf (Oppenheim, Tell Halaf 13 1),

Assyria (Nimrud, etc.) in the eighth century; also the fighting bulls on the Mina crater and the Cypriot barrel jugs are close in style to those on the Nimrud ivories of the time of Sargon II (I.L.N. Aug. 22, 1933, figs. I3-16). Else- where, the lotus decoration of a rather poor type is found in Palestine at Fara in tombs of XXI-XXII Dyn. and at Gerar in Levels F and D of similar date. The Rosette style as well is found at Samaria VI (Samaria III, fig. 33.2 and Reisner, Havard Excavations, fig. I57.2) before the destruction by the Assyrians.

The bulk of the unassigned sherds were in greenish-brown or drab ware with black linear decoration; multiple lines flanked by broad bands. The thickness varies, but on the whole they seem to belong to jars. The majority of the marked sherds were from Level VIII, but some appeared in all four levels. Bichrome sherds in many cases had a faded black paint now almost mauve. The Bichrome brown-red ware with white slip, though occurring in Level VIII, appeared much more frequently to be marked VI.

Of the plain jars, type z (Fig. 4. 2, J.H.S. LVIII, fig. 26) persists throughout the early levels. It appears to be the" hippo" jar of Megiddo which begins in stratum V and continues to develop until II. The Mina specimen is closest in shape to the early form (Megiddo I, pl. 20, i i i). Rim sections occur at Samaria (Samaria III, fig. 8.I; 21:2, 4) belonging to periods V-VI. Similar jars are found at Joya and Tel el Rechidiyeh (National Museum, Beirut).

Types I, 4, S and I9, where stratified, are not found earlier than V. Type 19 is found with type 2 at Gerar, pl. LIV in Level GH, and belongs to the hole- mouth jars of which only the rims are found at Lachish (III 540-42, pI. 97) from Level II, and Samaria (Samaria III, fig. I 2: 2i) in period VIII; it does not appear before the seventh century. Type 3, 4 and S are close to types from Gerar (pl. LVI, 47c, k, h) from Level AB of the same period.

Black-on-Red ware Only a small proportion of the sherds were of this type and the fabric was

very variable in quality. Where it was possible to relate the sherds to a level, 11509 1 2




the best fabrics were associated with Level VIII, deteriorating throughout ViI-VI, with some recurrence of good, but different fabrics in V. The best juglet fabric was of the ware known both in Palestine and Cyprus, but the bowls with the wheel-burnish seem to be Palestinian rather than Cypriot.

-- ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ - - II I - li l

F3

Fig. 4. Store jars (1-2), scale --!-; (3), bichrome amphora, scale I.

Deep BowPls with rournded sides. The best specimens were lightly wheel burnished on a hard metallic body with orange-red slip. Two sherds were polished similarly to the best of the juglet ware: on another a large patch was misfired to black, obscuring the design: these last were probably unslipped.

Figure 5.1 found in Room 8 of Level VIII, has small concentric circles on the side; while others have only multiple bands. The concentric circle type was common at T. Abu Hawam (,QDAP IV, 6) in Level III. At Megiddo it extends from the end of stratum V into stratum III, partly in the Sanctuary




(Megiddo I, p1. 29:107); and at Samaria it was found in the Sanctuary E207 (III, fig. 33:2) of Period VI. In Cyprus the plain banded variety is more common and the burnishing coarser and combined with hand burnish. The nearest are perhaps from Pigadhes (Myrtou-Pigadhes, form 492), Stylli T. I3:I

(SCE II, P1. XXXIV) and Rizocarpaso (RDAC 1937-39, p1. XIII, 56), whereas those from Marion T. 4:2 (SCE II, pl. CXIV, I3) are much larger. The group, both plain and with concentric circles is attributed to Black-on-Red I. At Tarsus, Hanfmann places them before 8oo, but remarks that wheel burnish is rare on that site.

I( P) 55/1070 0

_ _ , 5

ss/,3 54/42' {L

K' 557,064 7 ll 2/ 1 X 5511069

______ ll 0

551106J ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 107 7 449~ 55/6

X t} t {55/10668

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~i NO)\

5511/077 t 5414.92* 5511067 12

,5511066 3 , <

;== 4 55//999

Fig. 5. Black-on-red ware. Scale -

A second type (Fig. 5.2, 3), both with and without the concentric circles come from Level VII-VI. The fabric is a red clay, coarsely and unevenly wheel burnished on the inside; on the outside it is a streaky buff, poorly finished and the paint is matt. Figure 5.3 is similar, but the clay is a soft brown buff with a dark red matt slip, well worn on the outside; part of a very large dish was in coarse hard buff clay with much lime temper; the matt red slip was much pitted. This type seems to be a development of the previous bowls, but in fabric is closer to the Cypriot Black-on-Red from Amathus or Curium. The form too is recorded from Tarsus.

11509 F3




Figure 5.5 is much smaller, of fine buff ware with a worn, hand burnished orange slip: the interior is poorly finished, but a brighter colour, and the sherd is burnished only on the outside. No level is given, but the better fabric would suggest that it belongs to Level VIII. The form is not unlike that from Pigadhes (Mjrtou-Pigadhes, form Soo) and a bowl from Marion T. 75:8 (5GB IV, 2, fig. XXXVII.2). There may have been handles as on one from Byblos (Montet, Bjblos et l'Egypte, pl. CXLII, 857, 859).

The flanged bowl (PI. XXIIb, 8, Fig. 5.9) comes from Level VII-VI. The clay is clean and well-fired and the bowl is wheel burnished inside and hand burnished outside. The bands and circles are in thin matt black paint. A similar cup with single vertical handle in the British Museum (I934, VII-i6.i) is said to be of Syrian or Phrygian origin. The rim form, however, may be related to the Red Slip bowls (Fig. 6).

The deeper cups with rounder body (Fig. 5.11, I2) are not marked with a level. Figure 5 .1 I, however, may be an imitation of the Euboean cup, or Ionian bowl, and is made in the fine ware, red-brown clay, wheel burnished over the matt black paint; a fabric which would place it early in the series. The shape is similar to some kylix rims from Tarsus, in local clay with dark red slip.

The bowl rim with body ridge (Fig. 5.I 2) may belong to a goblet like one from Lapithos (SCL I, pl. XLII), but more probably, to the low Black-on-Red bowls with rounded sides from Marion (T. 6A:io; io:68; 79:1I; 83:17; 98:23) SCG II, pls. XXXVII, XXXIX, LXXIX, LXXXI, LXXXVII, and a much larger version in the Cyprus Museum from Polis Chrysochou (unpublished). The clay is a fine brown buff with a very thin, light red slip. The bands and circles are in black. The body ridge is found both on Pigadhes goblets, at Kaloriziki T. i i :I6 (unpublished) and at Ktima (French excavations). Else- where, at Tarsus (Adana Museum 2255, 36:II5I), there is a cup of similar shape with vertical handles, and from Megiddo (Megiddo I, pI. 32.69) comes a bowl of the Cypriot type in stratum Va-IVb.

Shallow dishes vith incurving sides and base ring are a common Cypriot form. Figure 5.4 from Level VIII is in buff clay with a thick crimson slip, glossy, but not burnished, with matt black bands. Figure 5.IO is in buff ware with a mottled brown slip and generally rather a poor fabric. Other sherds are of soft buff-red ware, hand burnished on the outside and with a matt red slip inside: gritty buff ware with grit and grog temper, or a coarse greenish-brown body with a dark crimson slip. The shape is found at Tarsus in quantity and also at Megiddo in stratum Va-IVb (Megiddo II, pl. 90.I), at Tell Rifa'at in Syria, and in the Pigadhes Deposit (Myrtou-Pigadhes, form 486, 487), Amathus (SCE II, pl. CXIII, i6, 33) and elsewhere.

It is apparent that at least four classes of fabric are represented, of which the later Slip wares from Levels VII-VI most nearly approach the Cypriot types. The hand burnish of some specimens, however, would seem to call




for a date fairly high up in the eighth century or late ninth for Level VIII; as in Palestine hand burnishing is usually considered to be replaced by wheel burnish around 800 B.C.

Black-on-red ware is, for the most part, current on the mainland in the ninth and early eighth century, and the rarity at Al Mina may suggest that its vogue was almost over.

Juglets These sherds also exhibit a considerable range of fabrics and are, for the

most part, fine and well made. Ring-necked juglets are represented by a neck and handle and some small

flat base sherds (Fig. 5.8): the former has a cream-buff body with white grits and an orange slip, polished on body but not on neck or handle. Bases of others are in soft powdery ware, slipped and wheel burnished; one with black and brown grits is flaking and apparently unpolished. Bands of black paint and some concentric circles are still visible. One sherd is marked Level VIII. The type is found in Lachish Tzz4 (III, pl. 36.64), at Samaria in periods II and VI, (III, fig. 33).

The only other recognisable shapes are the piriform luglet and the globular jug with vertical circles. The piriform juglet, of which the body of one (Fig. 5.7) and the lip of another (P1. XXIIb, 7) remain, are in a fine light buff to cream clay, with very few grits. The surface is hand burnished and pitted, and slipped light red to brown, somewhat unevenly. The rim sherd has a brighter, tomato red slip. The black paint runs over the burnish. The form is identical with that of Lachish (III, type 339a, pl. 36.62), found in T. zi8, and dated C. 850 B.C.,

and at Al Mina are found in Level IX-VIII. Some sherds belong also to the high shouldered juglet with multiple bands. The globular jug with ring base (P1. XXIIb, 6; Fig. 5.6) is of thin pinkish-buff

clay, brown inside and with a tomato red slip on the outside. It is hand burnished, except under the base; the paint is matt black. It was found in Level VI.

The larger jugs or amphorai with large vertical circles and intersecting multiple bands are found not only in Black-on-Red ware, but also in a light brown ware of very similar fabric, which can be conveniently classed with them.

Parts of several jugs have a red to light cream body, highly polished and pitted (P1. XXIIb, 6.5). Most have groups of concentric circles, some with broad borders, and one sherd has the " pot-hook " concentric circle. These come from Level VII. The brown ware sherds are in a fine, pink buff clay with highly polished surface over a black-brown paint; in one case, the polished surface is rather worn (pl. XXIIb, 2-4). All of these sherds are from Level VIII-IX.

These are not unlike the fabric of Hazor (I pl. L 15-I7) from Level VII, and may well be from the shoulders of the decanters, with very fine lines, as in Samaria VI (III, fig. Io.17).




The amphora neck (Fig. 5.13) from Level VI is of coarse red clay with black sand and white grits; the body has a light core covered with red wash outside and inside the neck and is wet smoothed. The paint is black. The type is Cypriot Black-on-Red 111(V), (SCE IV, z, fig. LI, 7; LII, I3), which is also found at Tarsus.

Red Slip Ware This fabric occurs throughout Levels IX-V, but the best is to be found in

Level VIII where it is also most numerous. In the early levels the clay is yellow-buff or orange with a light red burnished slip showing no burnish marks. In the later levels, the ware becomes progressively coarser, harder and often red-brown; the slip is matt, crimson or light red, and often worn off. In between, various degrees of hand and wheel burnishing are found correspond- ing to the Palestinian techniques. The group appears to belong technically to the " Samaria " ware (Samaria III, 94ff.), but the clay and fabric are not identical, which may be to some extent accounted for/by the distance apart of the sites.

Dishes and bowls The most common type appears to be the thin shallow dish with everted

rim and sagging base. (Fig. 6.1-3). The fabric is a fine pinkish buff, rather thin, covered with a closely burnished red slip inside and over the rim; on the bottom are concentric bands of red slip, sometimes with incised grooves over them. The whole surface is well polished, but now very worn and any trace of burnishing is difficult to see. (For the technique, see Iraq XVI, Pt. II, p. i69).

From sherds three whole bowls and one lid (Fig. 6.za) were restored and sufficient remained for perhaps another ten dishes, some rather shallower. Woolley states (JHS LVIII, 15 5) that these dishes which " occurred freely in Level VIII upwards " were " absolutely lacking below Level VIII floors."

These dishes belong to the type 5 7 at Megiddo (Megiddo I, pl. z5, 146.8) which appears first in stratum VB (Megiddo II, type 363, opp. pl. 87) and continues into stratum III (Megiddo I, 169, 8;note70, 187). A dozen dishes were found in Megiddo tomb 8oC (pl. 78.8). At Samaria, they are found in periods III-IV (Samaria III, is4ff, fig. i9); various differences in technique have been noted but the general resemblance to the group is clear. They range therefore from about 850 to 722 B.C. At Hazor also they occur in Level VII (Hator I, pl. XLIX, 23), in the last half of the ninth century B.C.

In Syria, they are found at Tabbat el Hammam (Braidwood, Syria XXI, I940, 194) in the early Iron Age (Phoenician) level, and also in the Amuq in the Judaidah IV period, where they " constitute a kind of luxury ware ". Elsewhere this type occurs in a tomb group in the American University Museum, Beirut, associated with Mycenean pottery, where it probably belongs to a



THE CYPRIOT AND SYRIAN POTTERY FROM AL MINA, SYRIA 8o

47/907 2a

(. < 5511059

K \S/030 7

55/202 /4

559995 0

55/1047 8 ss/9

\ / \ ~~~~~ ~ ~~ ~~~~~~~~~~121 5 1

55,/1024

11

49Ev_ _s_s5

55/oss5 14

'24

55/0/041 25 - S/99522 55/0 3 19

__5.5/514998 --

27 551955//027 29

557/46 3-2 : 55/995 22 55//054 23

/,s 3 4 55/1 510522 27

_

/

>S~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~5511027 29/

____________________________________J -551188/

35

551/89/ 31

ss//no/ 38

Fig. 6. Red slip bowls. Scale14



JOAN DU PLAT TAYLOR

later re-use of the tomb; at Atlit (QDAP VI, 129; figs. 6:2, 10:2) they are found in the cremation cemetery.

In every case the type can be fairly closely dated to the last half of the ninth and the first half of the eighth century, usually associated with Red Slip jugs q.v. The presence of the dishes in quantity at Al Mina is a criterion for placing the beginning of Level VIII in the ninth century, for they are not commonly found elsewhere after the middle of the eighth century.

The next most common form are the bowls and dishes with flanged rim and flat or raised base. Rim sherds were numerous for the most part from Level VIII, where the fabric was good, burnished and slipped all over. In Level VII the bowls are not slipped outside and the colour is more of a plum red. Six types of deep bowl could be distinguished; Fig. 6.7 with rounded section was in brown-buff clay with crimson slip; others had a matt red slip, or burnished red bands inside the rim. All were wheel burnished inside.

Figure 6, nos. IO, 13, I5, 24, have straight sides and a low carination. The clay is light brown and the red slip covers the inside and over the rim, but does not cover the base. All are well burnished all over.

Figure 6.io is from Level VIII; cf Atlit (QDAP VI, fig. 8.2), CPP type 3P from Fara 271.

Fig. 6.I 3 is from Room 8, Level VIII and there are numerous other rims of this type down to Level VI-V. These sharper rims, no. 24, appear at Samaria (Samaria III, fig. 32.68) in hard reddish wheel burnished ware, in periods VII- VIII. Another specimen was also found at Kaloriziki, Cyprus (Tomb 6a, I2)

with Bichrome burnished jugs. Figure 6.15 is from Level IX-VIII and has a rather more rounded rim. A complete example is in the Antioch Museum. Many bowls of this shape are found at Tarsus, but burnished only on the outside or not at all. The form is close to one from Hazor IX-X (Hagor I, pl. XLV, 2) in yellow slip, but the rim is flatter. Figure 6.9, 12, 14, 22, have a smaller flange; only i9 is marked VIII, but the two others in darker red slip may belong to Level VII. No. 9 is well polished, but no. I2 has only a thin red slip outside, and grooves below rim and on the body. No. I9 is in hard brown ware with matt red paint inside and has three bands below the rim.

The next group (Fig. 6.I 6-i 8) are shallower dishes with the carination nearer the rim. Only no. 20 is marked VIII, the remainder are from Level VII-VI, and would therefore seem to be a development of the former deeper bowls. A number of rims of varying depth were found. Nos. 17, 31 are in fine brown ware, but the former has a dark red burnished slip inside and is very worn, whereas the latter has a matt slip and some painted bands outside. They are not unlike a Red Slip dish from the Early Iron Age tomb group from Qarayeh (Beirut National Museum 2022).

No. 20 is a shallow dish in burnished ware, still with the wide flange. Parts of several others were among the sherds. No. zo may be compared with the dish in the Adoni-Nur tomb (APEF V, 6I, no. 69), though it has a rounder




section. Nos. i6-I8 with bands and grooves on the outside which were only found in Level VII-VI are close to Hazor level X types (Hazor I, pl. LIV, 6, Io) and also Megiddo III-II. A rim also of this type was found at Tel Rifa'at (P 263, unpublished).

A number of rims of the " fish plate " type of dish were noted from Level VIII to V. No. 25 from Level V is in hard red ware with red slip on the inside; it is wheel burnished. No. 28 from Level VII-VI is in cream ware with light red slip inside and over rim and is also burnished. Six other sherds show degeneration continuing until that from Level V-IV. No. 30 is in red- brown ware with a thin light red slip. This dish may be related to the Yunus bowls type B I2 from Carchemish (AAA XXVI, pl. 23). A few examples are also noted from Tarsus.

Nos. 8, i i belong to the well-known group of bowls with imterrupted ridge or " bar Handle "; on only one sherd was the interruption visible. No. iI

from Level VIII is in hard brown ware with red, continuously polished slip, all over, while no. 8 with the deeper moulding is in coarse brown ware with a dark red slip. This type of bowl is found both in stone and in pottery. In the Yunus cemetery at Carchemish, type B 32 (AAA XXVI, pl. XXIV, I6) it was associated with a Bichrome juglet in an early Bath burial, YH 4. The general type and fabric compare with those from Samaria (Samaria III, fig. 16)

where the better fabrics are found in Periods IV-VI. No. 8 from Level VII-VI with the wider ridge, is found at Megiddo in III (Megiddo I, P1. 23.8) and II (ibid. 12), and Hazor V (Hazor I, pl. LIV, 4); at Samaria the form sur- vives in period VIII (Samaria III, fig. i 2. I).

No. 2I with grooved flange in a coarser brown ware is from Level VI. This rim was identical with one from Nimrud (Room AA, Governor's Palace) and in this context, it could be attributed to the reign of Sargon 722-705 B.C.,

or to the subsequent century. The rim is not unlike that of some tripod bowls (Iraq XII, Pt. II, I69-70, P1. 32.1); cf. also Samaria III, fig. 7.I from periods IV-VA.

The plain rimmed bowl, no. 29 is in similar fabric; one more carinated is very close to the Samaria bowls, and some from Lachish tomb zx8 in fabric; another with a squarer rim has a dark red slip. They are found in Level VII-VI, but cf. Samaria III, fig. 5.2 from period III and Lachish III, pl. 79, II-I4.

Hemispherical bowls as no. 4, possibly having a flat base, were found in Level VIII; the one illustrated from Room 8 is of thin brown ware with red slip inside and over rim, and a narrow black band on the rim. Others are without the black band, and some in buff ware with brown bands. This type is better known in Cyprus, at Marion T. 10:3 and Amathus T. 7:84 df. (SCE IV, 2, fig. 37.1) and Ha.or 1, P1. LXXVIII, z6 from period III. The bases, nos. 23.26 are in similar fine fabric, but seem to have had upright rims.

No. 6, however, may be a thicker version of Samaria III, fig. I8.4, found in periods V-VI. The clay, however, is nearer to that of the round bottomed

11509 F4




bowl, no. 5, with concentric red slip bands and incisions on the outside. The surface is worn, but was originally burnished and finished as nos. 1-3. The rim may have been everted as Ha.zor I, pl. LXXVII, 9 from period III; the base is close to Samaria III, pl. XVII, I4, fig. I8.9 from period VI. Both 5 and 6 are from Level VIII.

Certain burnished plain ware bowls and dishes nos. 32-34, 37, 39 should perhaps be included here for though they are unslipped or cream slipped, there is little difference in fabric. Only one, no. 32 is marked Level VIII, but it is probable that all come from the same group of levels.

The keeled bowl no. 36, from Level VII-VI is unlike the remainder of the slip ware as it is of hard, red-brown ware, rather rough with a very light red slip, and evenly wheel burnished. It is much closer to Samaria III, fig. 18.7, from period VI. The shape is known also at Tarsus in a coarse fabric, possibly like no. 3 5, which is in white slipped pottery.

Lastly the coarse flat dishes nos. 38, 40, 4I cannot unfortunately be attributed to any level. The thick sandy micaceous body with grey core and worn red slip, is close in fabric to some ware from Hama E, (5B. 442, Copenhagen Museum) and rims from Tell Rifa'at (Pi, unpublished). The form, however, is that of HaZor I, pl. XLVII, 2I-22, of period VIII, and pl. LI.i 8 of period VI; and is perhaps related to the dish from Samaria III, fig. 4.19 from period III. They should therefore be attributed to the early part of Level VIII.

Jugs Part of the shoulder of a jug with strainer spout and double handle is illus-

trated in A.J. XVII, P1. XI, 2; 3rd row second from left. The body is of hard red-brown ware, evenly burnished over an orange slip. Part of a base-ring may belong. It is marked Level IX-VIII, no. i8z. The ware is of the best quality comparable to the early levels of Samaria. Strainer spouted jugs do not occur later than Stratum IV at Megiddo (AMegiddo I, pl. III, 75-77) or Samaria period III (Samaria III, fig. 5.2) im Palestine; and at Hazor a double handled sherd (Hazor I, P1. L.26) is found in period VII. This fact is another useful pointer that the transition of Level IX-VIII lies somewhere near the middle of the ninth century.

The wide neck (Fig. 6.27) of hard red ware with white grits and vertically burnished dark red slip may belong to such a jug as Samaria III, fig. 5.2; or fig. 2.2 from periods I-III. A coarse rim ot this type was found at Tell Rifa'at (P I17, unpublished). In both cases the technique is closer to some jars from Atchana (Alalakh, pl. XCIX, g, j). The type should therefore be early, and is probably a survivor in Level VII-VI in which it was found.

Only one complete jug (Fig. 7.7) with pinched lip was found from Level VII-VI; but a number of lips and double handles of types similar to SCE IV, 2, fig. XXVII, 5-6 also came from the same level. Fig. 7.7 is in light buff ware with hand burnished light red slip. This type is not so common; one with a




Cypriot inscription is said to have been found at Kition (A.J.A., 60, 3 52, 3 5 8, pl. ii 8, Ia). Close parallels are found at Tel er Rechidieh (R.B., 1904, pl. VI, 2), Burj, near Tyre (American University Museum Beirut, 48.7i) and five in a tomb group from Khirbet Selim (National Museum, Beirut) associated with a White Painted II dish. In general they resemble Samaria III, fig. 22, 7-9, period III-VI, Megiddo (Afegiddo I, p1. 3, 83-6) from strata IV-II, and HaIor I, pl. L, 25 from Level VII. Similar jugs with more widely spaced grooves are found in the Amman tombs (JDAR I, fig. I. 26.31), to which one base sherd may belong. The folded base is characteristic.

5,571062 1

55//ozo 3 ss/,o03 6 55/870 7

Fig. 7. Red slip jugs. Scale 4.

The double-handled version is, on the other hand, much more widely known. The sherds are for the most part in the best cream or brown ware with continuously burnished slip; but one rim and base, marked VI, have a matt slip. In Syria, this type is found at Joya (Beirut National Museum), Tabbat el Hammam (Syria XXI (1940) fig. 4:8); in Palestine at Megiddo (Megiddo II, pl. 91.3) and Atlit (QDAP VI, fig. 6.i) and in Cyprus, at Amathus Tomb 7:I7

(SCE IV.2, fig. XXVII, 4) and Tomb 13:39 (ibid. 5). The sherds are not always sufficient to indicate whether the necks are splayed, but on the whole the conical neck does not seem to be represented (ibid., 6).

Funnel-necked jugs are represented by rim and neck sherds (Fig. 7.5, 6) with double neck-ridges in Level VII-VI. Two have grooves instead of ridges and another has some black paint. No. 6 is in cream clay with a matt slip while no. S has a wheel burnished slip. This type of jug is represented at Qarayeh near Sidon (Beirut National Museum), Sahab (QDAP XIII, pl. XXXV, I7), Gerar (pl. LX, 83M) Level F-G and at Amathus T i6:75 (SCE IV, 2, fig. XLIII, 6).



JOAN DU PLAT TAYLOR

The body sherds include fragments from angular shoulders no. 3 which may belong to the above or to the type (SCE IV, 2, fig. XXXVIII, 6) from Amathus T. 25:7, and Hazor (Ha.Zor I, pl. LII, zo) from Level VI. One neck sherd seems to be closer to Megiddo I, pl. 3.78 from stratum II (or SCE IV, z, fig. XXVII, 4). Two of the necks are much smaller (Fig. 7.1, 4), one is in cream clay with worn red slip, to which a small thick base may belong. The type is perhaps that of SCE IV, 2, fig. 43.5 from Amathus T. 9: I z6; or Gerar, pl. LX, 84g from Level E. The other, of coarser brown clay with vertically burnished crimson slip, was found in Level VII.

Red slip of this type was numerous in the unpublished groups in the Beirut National M'useum, where the Cypriot imports were represented by only one or two pieces. In Cyprus, Gjerstad has drawn attention to its importation (SCE IV, 2, z87ff.) in Cypro-Geometric I-II, but claims it as Cypriot in CG III, rising from 21% to 36%. But it is not always clear from the description to what fabric the pieces belong, and many, especially the burnished types, are likely to be imported, throughout. Karageorghis (A.J.A. 6o, 352) has now shown that some of type III have been found in an earlier context. In view of the similarlity of fabrics and shapes, Gjerstad's suggestion of a time lag in the Cypriot imitation of the mainland fabrics seems unjustified (ibid. 438), and if importation ceased, that the development is parallel.

The evidence from Palestine makes it clear that everywhere in the north, this ware was never in use much after the end of the eighth century. It is affiiliated to the red wares from Hama, and some forms at least are found in Jordan associated with Assyrian pottery. In north Syria from the Amuq to the Euphrates, though few pieces have been published, it occurs on many sites and in quantity at Tell Halaf (Von Oppenhieim, Tell Halaf, 309 ff) and it was reaching Nimrud by the end of the eighth century.

Red Slip ware seems, therefore, to have its origin on the Syrian and Phoeni- cian coast, but to have ceased to be made in any quantity after the area had been overrun by the Assyrians.

From the groups of sherds which bear stratification marks and which can be directly related to other well-dated sites, the following chronology emerges:

Sherds from Level IX-VIII were not numerous, but could be associated with types of Black-on-Red ware from Lachish early in Level III (c. 9I 5-800), Samaria III (85o-840), Hazor X-VII (925-8I5) and Megiddo IV (850750o)1, and cannot therefore be dated much later than 800 B.C.

Level VIII contained types from Samaria III-VI (850-722), Hazor VII-III (84o-650), Hawam III (I000-840), Megiddo IV-III (8 5 o-65 o), besides showing relations with Atlit, Mersin, Tarsus and Yunus cemetery; and must carry the occupation on to the middle of the eighth century.

Level VII also must cover the latter part of this period, probably down to

1 I follow Dr. Kenyon's dating.




the Assyrian conquest; but few sherds can be attributed to it. As the sherds are rarely clearly divided between Levels VII and VI, we can only assume a separation between the two levels from the appearance in the latter of types from Samaria VII-VIII (722-5 20), Megiddo 11 (65 0-520), which reach Assyria, and which are also found in closer association with places under Assyrian domination, as Amman, and must therefore be dated after that event.

Confirmation of the pottery sequence is found also in the fibulae and terracottas.

Two flbulae, MN 365 and 5 3 (Fig. 8, 4) from Levels VIII and VI (J.H.S. LVIII, I69-70) may, (from the description and sketch) belong to early types similar to that from Hama (Ingholt, Sept Campagnes, 83, pl. XXV, 3-4, Riis, Hama, fig. i67B), period I and Level FN, c. 1200-1000 B.C., or Blinkenberg

2

Fig. 8. Bronze fibulae. Scale 1: 1.

type XmI, Ic from Deve Huyuk. Amathus I6.6I (SCE II, pl. CLII, 12).

Figure 8, 1-2, are redrawn from field sketches and were found in a group of six below the foundations of Level VII, together with some coarse Cypriot pottery. No 3 was found with three others, smaller, in Level VI.

Knee fibulae (J.H.S. LVIII, fig. 17) of types 4, 7, and 8 from Level VIII have a wide distribution on the mainland in the eighth century: at Megiddo (Megiddo I, pl. 79.1I) from stratum III, Gerar (pl. XVIII, S) from Level FL, Lachish (Lachish III, pl. 56, 29, 36, 37) from tomb groups of the last quarter of the eighth century; and eastwards at Hama (Sept Cam1pagnes, 83, pl. XXV, 3-4) in Level F, in the Jordan tombs of Adoni Nur (APEF VI, pl. VII, I9, 2I, 22),

Sahab QDAP XIII, P1. XXXIV, i66-8), Yunus cemetery (AAA XXVI, pl. XIX), Assur (Haller, Graber und Grwifte, Taf. 22, group 30) and Nimrud, Fort Shalmaneser (Iraq XX, pl. XXXVIQ). In Cyprus, only two are recorded, from Idalion (1528, SCE II, pl. CLXXVII, 4) and Ay. Irini (2705, ibid., pl. CCXLI, Io0).




Type I (JHS LVIII, fig. I7) is Blinkenberg's type XIII, iI from North Syria (AAA pl. XXIIIa), but is also found in some numbers at MIegiddo (Megiddo I, pl. 79, I4, i6; pl. 78, I3) beginning in stratum III.

Type z is a variant of Blinkenberg's type XIII, 5 a from Deve Huyuk (AAA VII, pl. 23c); one from Lachish (Lacbish III, 392; pl. 58.I7). Type z is associated with another from the Bastion of Level III, eighth century.

Type 3 is probably Phrygian (Blinkenberg's type XII, de) from the Ankara region, and is a variant of those now found in the tumuli at Gordion (P'enn.yl- vania Univ. MAlseum Bull. XVII, 4, 36, fig. 29) and belonging to the last quarter of the eighth century.

All these fibulae were in use throughout the eighth century, though they may continue into the seventh.

The terracottas are also associated with groups from the seventh century: The heads (J.H.S. LVIII, fig. 6) from Level VI-V are not properly Cypriot,

but are related to the Palestinian types found in Tell Beit Mirsim A (A.A.S.O.R. XXI-XII, pls. 3 I, 5 5-7) where they are dated to the end of the seventh century (also Albright, Melanges Dussaud, I 20).

At Lachish (Lachish III, 377; pI. 28, 10, I I, I3; 3 1, 1-14) they belong mostly to the eighth-seventh century.

Associated with these was the decorated leg of a horse (?) (Fig. I.i6) in buff ware with Bichrome decoration in Cypriot style. It belongs probably to a horse or ass as in the Cesnola Collection (Handbook, no. 2078-85). The head of one of these was found in the Pigadhes Deposit (Myrtou-Pigadhes, pl. VI, f).

The Astarte figures have been fully discussed by Riis (J3eryths IX, 69ff), where he shows the naked type to have begun in the seventh century.

Woolley has pointed out (J.H.S. LVIII, i8) that the Cypriot, now more properly Phoenician pottery types, did not persist much into Level VI. We may then reasonably infer that the Cypro-Phoenician period lasted from the mid-ninth century until the Assyrian invasion in the last half of the eighth. Whether Tiglath Pileser III, or Sargon, but most probably the latter, was responsible for the interruption of trade, we cannot be certain, but it is clear that the port must have declined at the end of Level VII and there may have been a short period of abandonment.

The revival marked by the reconstruction of Level VII, must have taken place under Assyrian domination when the Corinthian traders sought to re- open the market. This does not seem to have been supported by the Cypro- Phoenician merchants judging by the lack of later pottery types, so that by the end of the seventh century the port was again abandoned. The gap of 8o years postulated by Professor Robertson, between the end of V and the reconstruction of Level IV, with the revival of Greek trade, is supported by the absence of local wares of the same period. This would seem to indicate that the over-running of the Syrian coast by the Babylonians put a stop to all trade for a considerable time.




In this survey of the Al Mina pottery, it is clear that the Red Slip ware and Black-on-Red have made the principal contribution to the dating of the site. Such stratified material as was available follows closely the pattern from other sites, though too few pieces were marked to make a detailed analysis.

However, Red Slip and " Samaria" ware emerge as characteristic of the southern Phoenician coast (Lebanon) and their distribution throughout the surrounding Syrian kingdoms is clear. Black-on-Red ware too, appears to originate in this area, whence both fabrics spread to Cyprus.

The Cypriot wares on the other hand, appear to be made equally in Cyprus, Tarsus, and now at Misis (AJA 63(1959), 79), and in north Syria, for though the types appear in Lebanon and north Palestinian groups they are not so numerous as at Mina and some of the northern sites, with the exception of Tyre. It is apparent too, that some of the juglets with flat lips, especially the fine fabrics, formerly thought to be Cypriot, were manufactured on the mainland and imported to Cyprus.

Cypriot fabrics up to now, have only been found sporadically on the mainland which made dating a difficult matter. But now quite a number of small ports along the Syrian and Lebanese coast have been recognised where Cypriot pottery has been found, from which a clearer picture of its distribution emerges.

Starting from the north, at Qalat er Rus (Ehrich, 1Pottery of the Jebeleb Region, App. II), soundings revealed a level with Cypriot pottery ornamented with hatched bands and concentric circles. At Tell Sukas (ibid., 57ff), the " SW test pit " was divided into seven levels. The lowest yielded late Bronze Age types; VI-V contained " Samaria " red ware prior to the appearance of Bichrome Cypriot, while IV is characterised by concentric circle decoration, and III is called Phoenician. In II only is Rhodian, Orientalizing and Ionian pottery recorded.

At Tabbat el Hammam (Syria XXI (1940), i83ff) there was a small port with stone quay and breakwater. The sounding indicated that the site was re- occupied in the Iron Age; the first level yielded some 3 5 % of Cypriot sherds, together with local wares similar to Judeideh IV. Red banded wares with black borders, burnished and Red Slip sherds and fine dishes were also noted, as well as a sherd with a Phoenician inscription.

Byblos. Though the bulk of the material from the excavations belongs to earlier periods, the stele of Sheshonk and Osorkon from the Temple (Montet, Byblos, 49, 54) are witness to the continuity of occupation. A number of finds (Byblos II, pls. CLXXXI, CCIV), including fibulae, stone palettes and a Cypriot bowl with concentric circles were all grouped together in the first two metres of Squares, I 1-29/I I-2I. Of the same period are the sherds from the dromos of Ahiram's tomb, which, as is admitted in the postscript of Byblia Grammata, was enlarged to include the later burial. The Cypriot bowl is identical with that from Mina; the flbulae and palettes find parallels in Megiddo stratum III (Me,giddo I, pl. 78-9, iii). The crater (86) with lotus from Ahiram's tomb




together with another (6543) from the adjoining trench 67 are similar to the decorated group from Al Mina.

South of Beirut, at Tell er Rechidiyeb (R.B. I906, 567, pl. VI) " caveau A" contained a number of low necked amphorai with concentric circles on the neck, containing cremations, some Red Slip jugs, five Bichrome burnished jugs and three flasks. In the National Museum, Beirut, there are a number of amphorai with concentric circles with red bars across, from the same site; also a water jar of Mina type 2.

At Ayaa, on the road to Beirut (Syria I, zI If, 305 ff) Black-on-Red and white painted and Bichrome sherds with lotus flowers were found; also in Sondage G at the castle of Sidon (ibid, io8ff, fig. 27). Red Slip jugs were found at Bur/ near Tyre (48.7I, American University Museum, Beirut), Khirbet Selim in a tomb group (National Museum, Beirut) and at Qarayeh (ibid.), where they are much more numerous than white painted or Black-on-Red. At the latter site Gjerstad notes that the Bichrome III goblet is accompanied by a large Black-on-Red bowl with plain bands. At Khirbet Selim, a white painted II dish and miniature barrel jugs are found with the Red Slip wares, together with vertical circle jugs and flasks with round necks.

At Erzib (PEQ, 1948, 88) a number of tombs were found during the war which yielded a quantity of fine Black-on-Red jugs and Red Slip urns of Phoenician type, but they remain unpublished.

Tell Abu Hawam (QDAP IV, iff) is the port which gives access to the whole of north Palestine through the plain of Esdraelon. At this site in Level III we find Black-on-Red, Red Slip and only one Bichrome Cypriot jug; a few other types, however, travelled inland to the great Israelite cities of Megiddo, Hazor and Samaria, where Red Slip wares were much used.

Outside the region, in Philistia and south Palestine connections are only evident from a small number of imports. Tell Qasile, another Israelite city flourished (Level VII-VIII, I.E.J. I, I95ff) at the same time as the three great cities; at Atlit, where the evidence from the cemetery is meagre, Red Slip jugs and bowls belong to the same period.

Further south, Cypriot and Red Slip pottery is found in very small quan- tities and is obviously imported.

As regards the Cypriot evidence, Gjerstad examined the sherds from Al Mina (SCE IV, 2, 25 5ff) and assigned the bulk of those from Level VIII to his type III and a few to type IV; those from Level VII he assigned to type IV, while he recorded a few type V from Levels VI-V, ranging from 850-475 B.C.

From the evidence which is now presented by Al Mina, it is clear that there is need of some revision of the Cypriot dating, but as Mrs. J. M. Birmingham is dealing with the problem elsewhere, attention will only be drawn to specific connections within the island.

The Cypriot pottery most clearly resembles types from the sites of Stylli and Idalion on the central plain, easy of access from the east coast, and from a tomb




group at Rizocarpaso on the Carpass peninsula. But the Red Slip and Black- on-Red wares are chiefly represented at Kition and Amathus on the south coast. The former is considered to be a Phoenician foundation and the stratigraphical evidence (SCE, IV, 2, 438; III, 67ff) indicates that both these fabrics were plentiful in the occupation of periods 1-111 and that some Bichrome was present from period IV. The grouping is very similar to Al Mina Level VIII.

At the nearby cemetery of Turabi Tekke (J.H.S. XVII, I 52ff and fig. i2z)

we find tombs contemporary with the later part of Al Mina. Tomb 56 in particular contains a " lotus " amphora, flat-rimmed juglets and Bichrome jugs with concentric circles on the shoulder. The absence of Black-on-Red is of interest and the presence of jars with black-bordered red bands. " Cup and saucer " bowls do not occur later than 800 B.C. in Palestine and are common in Megiddo (Megiddo I, P1. 38 and p. I7I). The repertory of tomb 6o is the closest to Al Mina and the flask is obviously similar to one from Megiddo (Megiddo I, P1. 36.2) from stratum III.

The series falls into place with Al Mina and also with the last phase of Tomb 7 of the next site of Amathus (SCE II, 3off). Here many groups have a high proportion of Red Slip and Black-on-Red covering this phase of the mainland series.

At Kaloriziki near Curium and at Marion on the north-west coast, the cemetries contain some imports from the mainland. Recently, a new cemetery found at Marion contains many tombs of this period, which up till now, was sparsely represented there.

Northward and eastward we find that Mina through the Amuq plain is associated with a number of sites. Reference has already been made to the material from Judedeih; up the valley towards Sakce GMzu, Black-on-Red juglets and concentric circles vases were reaching Zinjirli. Before Barrekub, a contemporary of Tiglath-pileser III a courtier carries a jug with lotus flower bands (Sendschirli IV, pl. LXI).

Up the Afrin valley towards Carchemish lies the way to Assyria; on the route, trial excavations at Tell Rifa'at have produced sherds of White Painted jugs and red slip dishes in what appears to be an Aramaean level.

At Carchemish, Cypriot pottery is found in the Sargonid fort; in Yunus cemetery pot burials with cremations yield a number of Black-on-Red juglets and in one, YC 47, a buff juglet was found to which Woolley has already called attention (A.J. XVII, 9-Io).

Little mention is made of Red Slip ware from this site, but at Tell Halaf (von Oppenheim. Tell Hala); 309ff) the principal pottery of the Kapara period is of this type together with Assyrian Palace ware and Cypriot concentric circle ware, some with " lotus " pattern.

At Nimrud, Red Slip wares are found in the Sargonid palaces also associated with the white " palace " ware (Iraq XVI, Pt. II, p. i 64ff) and it is not improbable that some of these vases were brought to Nimrud with the other booty from




the Sargonid conquests. The position of Al AMina as a port on the Syrian coast is not easy to assess. Woolley has indicated that we have only the ware- houses of a trading post and that the residences were elsewhere. Consequently domestic and personal objects are rare. Again though Mina lies at the mouth of the Orontes, it is only one of several coastal sites at which the Cypriots were trading regularly.

In Cyprus, this expansion is coincident with the rise of new pottery types (III) in the island and the arrival of Phoenician material. Thlough little is so far known of the settlements, the tomb groups are prosperous. From the pottery chronology now established for Al Mina, this expansion must have taken place during the latter part of the ninth century, when the Phoenicians were at the height of their power.

Professor Sidney Smith has shown (Ant. J., XXII, 94ff) that the establish- ment of the port by Greeks' probably took place during the Urartian supremacy when there would be little interference with coastal trade. What the Greek traders were seeking to exchange we cannot say, but the finds from Al Mina in period VIII onwards do not now isolate it from the rest of Phoenicia. Trade also was carried on with the inland sites, but with the descent of the Assyrians on the coast the westward trade would have fallen off. Professor Smith has related the case of the revolt of some of these towns against Sargon, which may have caused a temporary decline.

In the rebuilt town of Level VI in the seventh century, the scarcity of Cypriot fabrics seems to imply that the coastal trade was falling off, and that the general orientation was now towards Assyria. The Corinthian and Rhodian merchants, however, appear to have tried to revive this trade with very little success, for by the last quarter of the seventh century we have scarcely any evidence for the continuation of the site, and it seems probable that it was finally abandoned when the Babylonians overran the Syrian ports at the beginning of the sixth centurv.

From the foregoing discussion concerning levels X-V at Al Mina, a revised dating based on the Syrian and Palestinian evidence may now be put forward. Most of the material from levels IX-VIII can now be dated to the eighth century, while a few pieces need not be later than 800 B.C. The revised date for levels X-VIII is therefore 825-720 B.C., rather than 750-65o as previously suggested by Sir Leonard Woolley.2

Though level VII on architectural grounds belongs with level VIII, it has not been possible to separate the material of level VII from VI, a difficulty which Prof. Robertson also encountered with the Greek pottery (JHS LX, 2ff).

1 See now Boardman BSA 52 (I957), 5ff. where he suggests they were Euboeans.

2The evidence for the earliest occupation in the neighbourhood of Al Mina is still tenuous, but in addition to the stray finds noted by Sir Leonard

Woolley (JHS LXVIII, 148), an unstratified rim sherd of a Late Bronze Age crater, similar to those from Megiddo stratum VII (1I, pl 68, I4), 1300--

II00 B.C., iS in the collection of the Institute of Archaeology.



THE CYPRIOT AND SYRIAN POITERY FROM AL MINA, SYRIA 92

It is probable that many of the sherds which are labelled Vil-VI come from the clearance of the walls and floors of level VI and therefore do in fact belong to the last occupation of level VII, through which the foundations of VI were dug. Most of the later Cypriot material could fall within this transitional stage when Woolley suggests the Cypriot died out.

For levels VI-V, objects that can be dated suggest that these two levels cover the whole of the seventh century B.C., rather than 60-55o. The local pottery shapes derive from the previous periods, but there is much greater influence from Assyrian and Greek types, and the markedly Cypriot, or Syrian characteristics are no longer apparent.

For Greek pottery, the revised dating suggests that the higher dates will have to be retained. The Proto-geometric and Cycladic cups from levels X-VIII may now be placed firmly at the beginning of the eighth century B.C.

The position is ably discussed by Boardman (op. cit., 5ff), where he reconsiders the Greek evidence for date and suggests that the Euboeans looked "towards the riches of the east before they sought the cornlands of Italy and Sicily ".

The Greek wares in levels VII-V are principally Proto-Corinthian, Corinthian and Rhodian. The raised dates are supported by the Proto-Corinthian evidence (JHS LX, i6ff) where one aryballos belongs to the eighth century, and many pieces to the seventh. The Rhodian material is more difficult to assess, but its presence in this reasonably well attested context may assist in confirming an earlier date for some of the types.



the cypriot and syrian pottery from al mina, syria

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