LATE BRONZE AGE RESISTANCE AND IRON AGE ACCEPTANCE OF MYCENAEAN INFLUENCES IN NORTHERN LEVANT
Channel: European Association of Archaeologists
Date: 2020-12-18

Northern Levant experienced during the Late Bronze Age a large diffusion and appreciation of Mycenaean containers, which were traded in the eastern Mediterranean both for their content and/or for their appearance: painted containers, Mycenaean kraters in particular, became not only a luxury good in northern Levant but also a status symbol for specific social groups. By end of the Late Bronze Age, with the collapse of the eastern Mediterranean trading system and the political turmoil in northern Levant, a new phenomenon took place: local pottery production started to manufacture vessel which were Mycenaean in style and permeated the local repertoire at all social levels. This production did not mirror the same repertoire as the Late Bronze Age imported assemblage and involved also some eclecticism in using Mycenaean morphological features together with local elements, i.e. making a hybrid production. This paper presents the two different ways of acceptance and appreciation of Mycenaean products in the Late Bronze Age II (1400-1160 BC) and in the Iron Age I (1160-900 BC) according to the material culture of a large village located 40 km east from the Orontes delta and from the harbors of Sabuniye and Al/Mina: it seems evident that while the Late Bronze Age appreciation of these products was strictly related to specific social classes and to specific trading routes, the Iron Age diffusion of this specific pottery reflects the presence of an community of migrants which settled in the Amuq and merged with the local population.


Author(s): Pucci, Marina (Università degli studi di Firenze; Oriental Institute Chicago)