OLYNTHUS MILLSTONES IN THE SOUTHERN LEVANT: THE BACKDROP TO THE MARITIME TRADE OF OLYNTHUS MILLSTONES

Abstract

This article aims to illustrate the background behind the maritime trade of Olynthus-type millstones in the eastern Mediterranean region. A look at the distribution of southern Aegean Olynthus millstones, whose provenances were identified by Williams-Thorpe and Thorpe’s petrographic analysis, reveals that millstones were not a major import into the southern Levant, where local Olynthus millstones were produced and distributed. They were more frequent in Cyprus, where they were valued locally due to the dearth of stones appropriate for use as millstones. The analysis of Williams-Thorpe and Thorpe also suggests that southern Levantine millstones, in contrast to millstones from earlier and later periods, were not exported to other Mediterranean regions. Shipwreck remains from the eastern Mediterranean, as well as the distribution of commercial Rhodian amphorae, reveal that Rhodian merchants carried wine and millstones from the southern Aegean to Cyprus. The southern Levant, where a number of locally produced Olynthus mills were unearthed, was self-sufficient in millstones. Hence, the Rhodian merchants, who dominated eastern Mediterranean trade, used the southern Aegean millstones as saleable ballast.     

SHRINES AND CERAMICS IN CHALCOLITHIC ISRAEL: THE VIEW THROUGH THE PETROGRAPHIC MICROSCOPE

The question of the nature of social and economic life in the Chalcolithic southern Levant has recently been the subject of increasing interest. Several archaeological sites and features in Israel have been interpreted as elements of religion. These include the shrines at En-Gedi and Gilat and the Nahal Mishmar hoard. The results of petrographic analyses of the pottery assemblages of these three sites, as well as the ceramic cores of copper artefacts from Nahal Mishmar and additional sites, are presented. In light of these results some previous hypotheses are tested. Alternative suggestions are offered as to the role of these sites in the life of the inhabitants of the Chalcolithic southern Levant.     

A PILOT STUDY IN NON-CONTACT LASER PHOTOTHERMAL ARCHAEOMETRY OF ANCIENT STATUARY PEDESTAL STONES FROM CYPRUS

Several samples of geological stones from statuary pedestals found in various archaeological sites in Cyprus have been characterized using non-contact laser infrared photothermal radiometry. Thermal diffusivities and effective optical absorption coefficients were calculated using a one-dimensional thermal-wave model. The mean values and standard deviations were tabulated and comparisons were made with lithographic and petrographic studies of the samples. Good correlations were found, thus demonstrating that laser photothermal archaeometry is a promising methodology for the accurate, potentially non-destructive and convenient characterization of the origins of ancient stones in Cyprus and other geological and archaeological sites.     

Rethinking Middle Bronze Age Communities on Cyprus: “Egalitarian” and Isolated or Complex and Interconnected?

Current views of Cyprus during the Middle Bronze Age (or Middle Cypriot period) depict an island largely isolated from the wider eastern Mediterranean world and comprised largely if not exclusively of “egalitarian,” agropastoral communities. In this respect, its economy stands at odds with those of polities in other, nearby regions such as the Levant, or Crete in the Aegean. The publication of new excavations and new readings of legacy data necessitate modification of earlier views about Cyprus’s political economy during the Middle Bronze Age, prompting this review. We discuss at some length the island’s settlement and mortuary records, materials related to internal production, external exchange and connectivities, and the earliest of the much discussed but still enigmatic fortifications. We suggest that Middle Bronze Age communities are likely to have been significantly more complex, mobile, and interconnected than once envisaged and that the changes that mark the closing years of this period and the transition to the internationalism of Late Bronze Age Cyprus represent the culmination of an evolving series of internal developments and external interactions.

     

K/AR DATING AS A MEANS OF SOURCING LEVANTINE EPIPALAEOLITHIC BASALT IMPLEMENTS

Through K/Ar dating of basalt implements from two Mount Carmel late Epipalaeolithic sites and samples of locally occurring basalts, it was possible to demonstrate clearly that the prehistoric inhabitants of these sites did not utilize the locally available Upper Cretaceous (88–77 My) basalts. The dates of the basalt implements are of Tertiary-Quaternary age (3.7-<0.250 My) which suggests the exploitation of basalt exposures at least 60 km east of the sites. This is the first direct evidence for long-distance exchange/trade of an essential raw material in the Levant as early as 13000 BP.     

Remarks on an Enamelled Tablet,Preserved in the Museum at Mans,and Supposed to Represent the Effigy of Geoffrey Plantagenet

Abstract

One of the most intriguing problems in the study of Gothic architecture in the Latin East concerns the network of interrelationships between the major architectural centres in the eastern Mediterranean, especially the Crusader states of the Levant, the kingdom of Cyprus and Hospitaller Rhodes. Although scholars have been aware of the artistic links between these areas for decades, the Cyprus-Rhodes connection remains to this day largely unexplored, despite the obvious interest it presents for the development of ecclesiastical architecture in the region. This article examines the architecture of the Carmelite church in Famagusta and its formal affinities with Rhodes cathedral, in order to identify the conditions and modes of transmission of architectural designs from Cyprus to Rhodes in the second quarter of the 14th century. It will also attempt to demonstrate that the same basic design had been employed for two buildings of radically different status and function, in a reflection of the circumstances, financial or ideological, surrounding their creation.     

The Sultan's Domain: British Cyprus' Role in the Redefinition of Property Regimes in the Post-Ottoman Levant

This article argues that property law is the main means through which Britain built its imperial sovereignty on Cyprus and in the post-Ottoman Levant. It charts the development of an official British expertise in Ottoman land legislation following the so-called affair of the Sultan's claims to properties in Cyprus. To settle this matter in the island which they had obtained to ‘occupy’ and ‘administer’ through a treaty with the Sublime Porte, colonial authorities were compelled to become conversant with the 1858 Ottoman Land Code. Hence, the article argues that because of its ambiguous status – a province occupied and administered by Britain but under the nominal suzerainty of the Sultan from 1878 to 1914 – Cyprus, as the first Ottoman territory to pass under direct Western rule, played a decisive role in the elaboration of a colonial knowledge in Ottoman land laws. And this, despite long-standing economic and political ties between Britain and the Ottoman Empire and exposure to other settings where layered land tenure systems prevailed. Published in treatises authored by British administrators of Cyprus, the legal expertise in Ottoman land law thus acquired was then transposed to other territories which passed under British rule, such as Palestine.     

LEAD ISOTOPE ANALYSES OF BRONZE AGE COPPER‐BASE ARTEFACTS FROM AL‐MIDAMMAN,YEMEN: TOWARDS THE IDENTIFICATION OF AN INDIGENOUS METAL PRODUCTION AND EXCHANGE SYSTEM IN THE SOUTHERN RED SEA REGION*

The results of the lead isotope analysis (LIA) of 15 copper‐base artefacts from the Bronze Age site of al‐Midamman, Yemen, are reported. The LIA data suggest the existence of an indigenous Bronze Age metal production and exchange system centred on the southern Red Sea region, distinct from those in neighbouring regions of Arabia and the Levant. These preliminary results are highly significant for the archaeology of the region, suggesting that local prehistoric copper extraction sites have thus far gone unrecorded, and highlighting the need for systematic archaeometallurgical fieldwork programmes in the countries surrounding the southern Red Sea.     

Saul’s Journey to Zuph

Abstract

In this study I have discussed two distinct, though intimately connected, topics. To begin with, the status and role of the major polity in the MB II southern Levant was scrutinized. It is apparent that one must deal with this site on a completely different scale from other contemporary southern Levantine sites. As suggested, in fact it should be placed within the context of the Syro-Mesopotamian cultural sphere. As such, its dominant role in the political and economic framework of the Southern Levant is seen, and the far-reaching effect that it had on inter- and intra-regional trade is evidenced.

With this as a background, an analysis of the trade patterns of the MB II southern Levant reveals intricate patterns that fit in nicely with the suggested reconstructions of the political and social structure of this period. When these suggested patterns are implemented on a local, regional scale (in regard to the Central Jordan Valley), as sort of a case study of the larger picture, the entire picture fits together nicely. Evidence for international trade is seen predominantly at a limited number of large central sites (e.g. Hazor, Kabri). These centres seem to incline towards different international cultural connections. Within the southern Levant itself, the picture is different. Evidence for intense contacts between the different regions is apparent. Likewise, within the regions themselves (exemplified in this case by the Central Jordan valley) an extensive and intensive web of trade contacts is evidenced. These trade patterns appear to mirror the underlying political and social structures, that of the MB II Canaanite culture.     

PREHISTORIC ANTIGORITE PROCUREMENT IN CYPRUS

The Canadian Palaipaphos Survey Project in the Paphos district of south-western Cyprus investigated extensive areas of the Esouzas, Xero, and Dhiarizos River valleys, locating hundreds of archaeological sites spanning the nine millennia from the aceramic Neolithic period to the recent era (Rupp et al. s1984 and 1986). Antigorite artefacts were recovered from Neolithic, Chalcolithic and Bronze Age settlements. A number of geological sources have been proposed for the material from which these artefacts were manufactured. The results of neutron activation analyses of archaeological and geological specimens suggest that the Troodos ophiolite/Kouris River secondary deposits were the primary source of antigorite for the prehistoric populations of the study area. Extreme care must be taken when analysing antigorite samples to avoid material with grey-black magnetite-rich inclusions. since these have radically different trace element chemistries from the pure antigorite.     

‘A wonderful city of palms and dates’: Salamis-Constantia in transition from Late Antiquity to the early Middle Ages (ca. 600–ca. 800 CE)

The article focuses on Salamis-Constantia, the political and ecclesiastical capital of the island of Cyprus, from the 360s to the tenth century, marking the passage from Late Antiquity to the early Middle Ages. The aim here is to debunk the historiographical model proposed for interpreting the declining fortunes of Cypriot urban sites, while at the same time applying the category of transition in order to explain the changes experienced in the local economic life, material culture and socio-political structures.     

Identifying stone tools used in mining,smelting, and casting in Middle Bronze Age Cyprus

Abstract

Metallurgical production sites are often difficult to identify in the archaeological record because ore beneficiation and slag processing in the past involved the use of ground stone tools that were similar to those used in other contexts to prepare cereals and foods. Analysis of the ground stone assemblage from a Middle Bronze Age copper mining and production site at Ambelikou Aletri in Cyprus provided an opportunity to distinguish industrial and domestic ground stone tools and to identify the types of tools used in different stages of metal production. A comparison of tool morphologies, raw materials, and wear and breakage patterns from Ambelikou Aletri with those from contemporary domestic contexts, suggests that distinctions in the nature and structure of industrial and domestic tool kits do exist and those distinctions have an important role to play in identifying mining, smelting, and casting sites in the future.     

PRODUCTION,EXCHANGE, AND SOCIO-POLITICAL COMPLEXITY ON BRONZE AGE CYPRUS1

Summary. During the centuries 1700–1400 BC, the archaeological record of the eastern Mediterranean island of Cyprus shows a number of significant innovations: urban centres with public and ceremonial architecture, differential burial practices, writing, an intensification of metallurgical production and export, extensive trade relations with the surrounding cultures of the eastern Mediterranean, fortifications, ‘mass’burials, and increased finds of weaponry. Documentary evidence from Egypt, the Levant, and the Aegean sheds further light on these developments. These changes represent the transformation of an isolated, village-based culture into an international, urban-oriented, complex society. One of the key questions to consider is why these developments in Cyprus lagged so far (400-1200 years) behind those of the island's neighbours: Egypt, Crete, Syria-Palestine, and Anatolia. Using concepts from development economics and political anthropology, and models developed by archaeologists working on similar problems elsewhere, this study attempts to explain the process of change and innovation apparent in the Cypriot archaeological record of 1700–1400 BC.     

EARLY IRON AGE BALANCE WEIGHTS AT LEFKANDI, EUBOEA

Summary.   This report analyses the 16 stone balance weights and fragments recovered in 1994 from the ninth-century BC Tomb 79 in the Toumba cemetery at Lefkandi, Euboea, the tomb of the 'Warrior Trader'. In material, shapes, and mass standards, the weights are for the most part virtual duplicates of common LBA balance weights from Cyprus and the Levant and attest to (a) the long-term continuity of maritime trading across the Bronze/Iron Age divide in the Cypro-Levantine world, and (b) the active participation of Euboeans in this commercial sphere no later than the early ninth century. Discussed also is the relationship between some of these weights and the later Euboeic weight standard.     

Beyond Boundaries: Nature,Culture and a Holistic Approach to Domestication in the Levant

The main objective of this paper is to suggest an alternative approach for the investigation of domestication in the Levant. First, basic data regarding domestication in the Levant are presented. Then the various traditional approaches towards domestication in the prehistoric Levant, labeled (1) environmental, (2) social and anthropological, and (3) cognitive, are briefly reviewed. This discussion forms the basis for a proposal of a “holistic approach,” in which domestication is regarded as a long-term, multidimensional and multirelational phenomenon, including many elements—such as plants, animals, humans, material culture and ancestors—with increasing human manipulation of these various constituents. After a presentation of the theoretical framework, a growth metaphor is used to reconstruct the process of domestication (ca. 20,000–6500 B.P.) as a number of phases: (1) germination in the Kebaran; (2) development in the Early Natufian; (3) retreat/dormancy in the Late/Final Natufian; (4) growth in the Pre-Pottery Neolithic A; (5) florescence in the Early- and Middle Pre-Pottery Neolithic B: (6) further development in the Late Pre-Pottery Neolithic B; (7) dispersal in the Final Pre-Pottery Neolithic B and the Pottery Neolithic. In each of these phases, relations between the various elements are dealt with, special attention being paid to symbolical relations, as evidenced by “art” and ritual.     

Nami's Middle Bronze Age Suburb: The Coastal Settlement at Site 104–106

This study presents a late 19th to early 18th cent. BCE, MBIIA settlement in the immediate vicinity of Tel Nami on the Carmel Coast of Israel. Site 104–106 has been all but destroyed by modern agricultural activity as well as quarrying, but a large number of ceramics and small finds were salvaged during a 1985–6 survey of Tel Nami?'s hinterland as well as subsequent geoarchaeological research of the area. Little of the site remains, and the current study functionally amounts to a salvage project for an MBIIA coastal site, which was mentioned in an earlier survey. Geomorphology reveals how the sandstone kurkar ridges in this area of the coast governed the dynamic relationship between Tel Nami and its hinterland. Comparable ceramic chronology for Site 104–106 presented derives from Aphek-Antipatris, Megiddo, Kabri, Tel Ifshar, Tel Nami itself, and other MBIIA coastal sites of the Southern Levant. The ceramics include well-produced local wares as well as imports from coastal Lebanon, Syria, and Cyprus confirmed by petrographic analyses. Finds suggest a small agro-industrial site in the immediate periphery of the coastal Tel Nami.     

Characterizing the rural landscape during the Iron Age and Roman period (ca. 1200 b.c.–a.d. 400): An intensive survey of Wadi al-Feidh,southern Jordan

Abstract

Archaeological surveys in the southern Levant have traditionally focused on areas with favorable climates and flat terrain where large urban sites are found, corresponding with a research focus on social complexity and state formation. Fewer surveys have explored the rocky, difficult-to-reach areas where large-scale agriculture was rare. This article uses survey data from the 2009 survey of Wadi al-Feidh, southern Jordan, to demonstrate the importance of exploring these environmentally marginal areas. Employing an intensive survey methodology, we recorded a range of sites and features previously unrecognized in this region. These findings suggest that subsistence patterns shifted from small-scale, mixed agro-pastoralism in the Iron Age (1200–586 b.c.) to a more intensive, top-down strategy of agricultural production by the Roman period (ca. 100 b.c.–a.d. 400). The results provide new insight into regional socioeconomic change in the southern Levant from the perspective of peripheral communities.     

A Late Bronze Age Shipwreck with a Metal Cargo from Hishuley Carmel,Israel

A 13th‐century‐BC shipwreck site, Hishuley Carmel, is described and discussed. It provides direct evidence for marine transport of copper and tin along the Israeli coast and may indicate inland and maritime trade‐routes of metals in the Mediterranean. The shipwreck represents a supply‐system providing the demand for bronze in the Levant. Trace‐elements and lead‐isotope analysis suggest that the copper came from Cyprus, similarly to bun and oxhide ingots from Uluburun. The source of the tin cannot yet be ascertained. The medium‐size ship was probably grounded and wrecked during a storm. Some of the cargo may have been salvaged in Antiquity. © 2012 The Authors     

The application of ancient DNA analysis to identify neolithic caprinae: a case study from the site of Hatoula,Israel

The evidence for wild sheep (Ovis orientalis) in archaeological sites from the southern Levant is examined through the application of ancient DNA analysis to specimens from the Pre‐Pottery Neolithic A (8300–7500 uncal. BC) site of Hatoula, Israel. The results indicate that at least one of the bones from this site, previously identified as sheep, is in fact goat. To date this is the earliest faunal sample to have yielded DNA in the region. This study highlights the problems in applying morphological criteria to distinguish between caprine species, and illustrates how ancient DNA analysis can serve as a powerful tool in resolving questions of species attribution. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The DEEPSAL Project: Using the Past for Local Community Futures in Jordan

ABSTRACT

The Deep Past as a Social Asset in the Levant (DEEPSAL) project, conducted in 2015–16 by the Council for British Research in the Levant, examined two communities in southern Jordan, Beidha and Basta, who live near significant Neolithic archaeological sites. The project collected information on the communities’ current socioeconomic conditions, their relationship with local cultural heritage and how that cultural heritage currently benefits or hinders them. The information was used to inform nascent strategies to utilize the sites sustainably as development assets and suggest alternative strategies as necessary. The results showed that a tourism-based strategy is suitable for Beidha but there was a need to focus on basic business skills. For Basta a tourism-based strategy is currently unsuitable, and efforts should rather focus on supporting educational activities. The results of the project are presented here within the context of archaeology’s increasing interest to use archaeological resource to benefit local communities, and outlines lessons for that effort.