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Mycenaean Pictorial Pottery from Tell Atchana (Alalakh)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 September 2013

J. H. Crouwel  and
C. E. Morris
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Abstract

Considerable quantities of Mycenaean pottery were recovered by the late Sir Leonard Woolley from the site of Tell Atchana (Alalakh) in the Hatay province of Turkey, close to the Syrian border. This paper brings together the largely unpublished, Mycenaean pictorial pottery from the site. The Atchana material contributes examples both of standard chariot scenes and other less familiar themes to the corpus of pictorial pottery. The question of the dating of early pictorial pottery is briefly reconsidered. In addition to its artistic and chronological interest, the material from Tell Atchana also highlights the existence of not inconsiderable quantities of Mycenaean pictorial pottery in the Near East as well as in Cyprus.

Type
Research Article
Information
Annual of the British School at Athens , Volume 80 , November 1985 , pp. 85 - 98
Copyright
Copyright © The Council, British School at Athens 1985

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References

Acknowledgements. We are most grateful to all those who have helped with information and advice, offered photographs, or allowed us to study material in their care: Mrs V. Hankey, Dr P. R. S. Moorey, Dr P. Parr, Mr A. A. D. Peatfield, Professor A. M. Snodgrass, Dr J. N. Tubb, Professor E. Vermeule. The drawings of 14a–h and 18 are by Mr K. Bennett. The photographs of I appear through the kindness of Dr C. Özgünel and Dr E. Özgen. Mr R. L. Wilkins greatly assisted us in preparing the illustrations for publication.

Abbreviations in addition to those in standard use

MPVP E. Vermeule and V. Karageorghis, Mycenaean Pictorial Vase Painting (1982).

Woolley L. Woolley, Alalakh (1955).

1 Woolley 1.

2 Woolley esp. 369–76; Mellink, M. J., AJA 61 (1957) 399Google Scholar; Hankey, V., BSA 62 (1967) 111 f.Google Scholar (with full references to (Woolley); Mélanges de l' Universié St. Joseph 46.2 (1970) 15, 18 with figs, 1a, 2b, 2d; BICS 19 (1972) 144; Carre Gates, M.-H., Alalakh Levels VI and V: A Chronological Assessment. Syro-Mesopotamian Studies 4.2 (1981) 26f.Google Scholar; also Alalakh-Tell Atchana, Levels VI and V: a Re-examination of a Mid-Second Millenium B.C. Syrian City (doctoral dissertation, Yale University, 1976) 97–9, 279 f.

3 Woolley esp. 372; Hankey, op. cit. 111 f.

4 Collon, D., The Alalakh Cylinder Seals. British Archaeological Reports, International Series 132 (1982) 3Google Scholar; cf. Rowton, M. B., in CAH 3 i. I (1970) 230 f.Google Scholar

5 Institute of Archaeology, register of finds; Woolley 371; cf. id., AJ 30 (1950) 16.

6 Woolley 371.

7 Ibid. (14a, b, g); 14h listed as coming from Level II in the accessions register of the Ashmolean Museum.

8 Woolley 317 with n. 1.

9 A detailed analysis of amphoroid kraters and their decoration is to be found in Morris's forthcoming doctoral thesis, ‘The Minoan and Mycenaean Amphoroid Krater: a Study of a Late Bronze Age Ceramic Form’ (to be presented to the University of London). For discussion of chariots and the manner in which draught teams were harnessed and controlled, see J. H. Crouwel, Chariots and Other Means of Land Transport in Bronze Age Greece. Allard Pierson Series 3 (1981) esp. 23f. (glossary of technical terms); also M. Littauer and J. H. Crouwel, in MPVP Appendix 181–7.

10 For these traction elements see Crouwel, op. cit. 93–6.

11 MPVP bisected ‘wings’: iv. 2, 12, 15, 21, 26, 48, 50; striping of the pole stay and brace: iv. 16, 26, 49.

12 Details in added white: MPVP iii. 17, iv. 3, 19, 20, 26, 52, 69 (Cyprus), 50 (Ras Shamra); also Johnson, J., Maroni de Chypre, SIMA 59 (1980) no. 286 with pl. lvi.Google Scholar Terrets rendered as curls: MPVP iii. 17, iv. 48, 56, v. 5, 14; also Crouwel, op. cit. (n. 9) 108.

13 MPVP e.g. iv. 19–27; the flower motif in front of the horses on Side B (FM 18. 19) is well paralleled on a chariot krater from Ras Shamra (iv. 50).

14 MPVP 26, 29 (their Middle II phase).

15 MPVP 34, 41 f. The authors attribute the piece to their Middle III or Ripe I groups.

16 MPVP 32, 34. The fragment is placed in their Middle III group.

17 Cf. MPVP iv. 18 (Klavdia), v. 8 (Ras Shamra).

18 See our 1; MPVP iv. 16, 26, 49, 61, 74.

19 MPVP iv. 50 (Ras Shamra), 54 (Maroni), viii. 5. 1 (Mycenae, larnax fragment); Frizell, B. in Hägg, I. and Hägg, R. (eds.), Excavations in the Barbouna Area at Asine, fasc. 2 (1978) 74 f.Google Scholar no. 65 with figs. 57, 60 (Asine fragment by the same painter as iv. 50 from Ras Shamra); Courtois, J.-C. and Courtois, L., in Ugaritica VII (1978) 296 nos. 1–2Google Scholar with fig. 34 (two fragments, possibly by the painter of the piece from Asine and iv. 50).

20 For naves shown as a solid circle, MPVP iii. 2, v. 4.

21 Crouwel, op. cit. (n. 9) 65 with fig. 8.

22 MPVP iii. 17, 21, iv. 1, 19, 29; also Betts, J. H. and Green, J., BICS 11 (1964) 70f.Google Scholar no. 2 with pl. i.2.

23 MPVP iv. 19.

24 MPVP e.g. iv. 28, 48–50, 58, 61, 74, v. 4, 13, 14, xii. 3, 5.

25 MPVP iv. 21, cf. also iv. 19.

26 MPVP esp. iv. 19, 21, 49.

27 MPVP iii. 21 (Enkomi).

28 MPVP 17–20, 174f. (their Painter I, active in the Early II phase).

29 MPVP iii. 4.

30 MPVP iii. 12.

31 MPVP iii. 13; the hourglass motif also occurs on two amphoroid kraters (iii. 12 and iv. 6). For their interpretation, see MPVP 15, 19f.; Dikaios, P., Enkomi, Excavations 1948–58 (1969–1971) 918–25Google Scholar; Crouwel, op. cit. (n. 9) 139 with n. 132.

32 MPVP iii. 10.

33 MPVP 20, referring to xiii. 29–31.

34 The chariot-scene on the Pyla-Verghi krater is framed by barred, vertical bands, similar to those on the ‘Window krater’. The Kition fragment preserves a trace of a chequer-board frame.

35 B. Rutkowski, Frühgriechische Kultdarstellungen (1981) fig. 1 esp. no. 3.

36 Ibid. fig. 1.

37 Ibid. fig. 1.10; Pini, I., in Corpus der minoischen und mykenischen Siegel v. 2 (1975) no. 728.Google Scholar

38 MPVP 28, 31 and iv. 6, 7, 39–41, 43–5 (Cyprus), also viii. 14 (a neckless krater from Mycenae by the painter of iv. 6).

39 A raised wing is sometimes shown (FM 7. 22–32), but these are not plump water birds like 13 (for these see FM 7. 1–12). Minoan birds often do have a raised wing, see FM 7. i–l, and Immerwahr, S. A., AJA 49 (1945) 540 with fig. 5.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

40 MPVP iv. 7; more fully discussed by Immerwahr, op. cit. 537–41 with figs. 1–4.

41 MPVP iv. 43 (no illustration), also Karageorghis, V., Op Ath 3 (1960) 142 f.Google Scholar with pl. v. 1–2, 4, where he suggests that a fragment from Maroni (MPVP iv. 44) may be by the same painter. The Maroni bird has a detached, plume-like wing, probably a simplified version of the raised wing.

42 MPVP e.g. iii. 13, 16, iv. 4.

43 Buchholz, H.-G. and Karageorghis, V., Prehistoric Greece and Cyprus (1973) no. 970 (Ialysos)Google Scholar; CVA Denmark 2 pl. 49.1 (Siana, Rhodes); CVA Cyprus 1 pl. 3.6 (Kourion); Dikaios, Enkomi, Excavations 1948–58 (1969–71) 238, 309, 837 no. 2064/1 with pls. 61.3, 87.4, 111, 305g; Johnson, op. cit. (n. 12) nos. 130, 249, 287 with pls. xxiv, li, lvi (Maroni); Karageorghis, Op Ath 3 (1960) pls. ix.vi, XIII.viii (Enkomi); id., Excavations at Kition I. The Tombs (1974) no. 1O6A–B with pls. lvi, xclvi; id., in Hala Sultan Tekke I. SIMA 45.1 (1976) pl. lvii, 213; MPVP iii. 2 (Zeus krater, Enkomi), iii. 7 (Enkomi), iv. 46 (Cyprus); Walters, H. B., Catalogue of the Greek and Etruscan Vases in the British Museum i. 2 (1912) C 376 (Enkomi).Google Scholar

44 Johnson, op. cit. (n. 12) no. 249 with pl. li.

45 MPVP iii. 2, 7; Dikaios, op. cit. (n. 43).

46 MPVP iv. 46; Buchholz and Karageorghis, op. cit. (n. 43), on one side of the krater the lower body is rounded, on the other pointed (this latter side is not illustrated).

47 Johnson, op. cit. (n. 12) nos. 249, 287 (Maroni); CVA Cyprus i, pl. 3.6 (Kourion); Karageorghis, Excavations at Kition I. The Tombs (1974) pl. lvi.

48 MPVP iv. 4–5, 32–4, vii. 4 (bulls and cows), iii. 6, 21 (chariot sidings).

49 Both types of shield, the ‘tower’ one with an oxhide covering, appear on a recently discovered mug fragment from Tiryns, see MPVP x. 19.1. The vase shape and the sponge pattern inside point to a LH IIIA1 date.

50 MPVP iii. 2, 18, 29, v. 38, ix. 15 (cf. also iii. 12, v. 2, ix. 12, 13).

51 MPVP iii. 17 (Side B not illustrated, see Walters, op. cit. (n. 43) C 348 with fig. 115).

52 Long, C., The Ayia Triada Sarcophagus. SIMA 41 (1974) 36 f.Google Scholar with figs. 17, 37, 52, 87. See also Lang, M., The Palace of Nestor in Western Messenia ii. The Frescoes (1969) nos. 22, H64Google Scholar, 31, 54, and 58 Hnws with pls. 129, 130A, B, D, M (men wearing animal skins); the arrow-like markings seen on 7 H5 (pl. 120) perhaps suggest a hide robe. Cf. also, the di-pte-ra-po-ro ‘wearer of leather’ (? garment), mentioned in Linear B tablets from Knossos and Pylos, see Ventris, M. and Chadwick, J., Documents in Mycenaean Greek (2nd edn. 1973) 217 and glossary.Google Scholar

53 MPVP iii. 18 (De Clercq krater from Cyprus, unprovenanced), 29 (Homage krater, Aradippo), 19 (fragment, Ras Shamra).

54 The De Clercq krater (see n. 53); illustrated also in a roll out drawing in Perrot, G. and Chipiez, C., Histoire de l' art dans l' Antiquité iii (1885) fig. 526.Google Scholar Side B of the Homage krater (see n. 53) shows silhouette human figures and a single, long-robed figure, alternating with vertical groups of framed parallel chevrons; see drawing in Caubet, A., Karageorghis, V., and Yon, M., Les Antiquités de Chypre, Âge du Bronze. Notes et documents des musées de France 2. Musée du Louvre (1981) 42.Google Scholar

55 Cf. perhaps the enigmatic object on a fragmentary krater, MPVP iii. 20 (called an altar or chair).

56 MPVP iii. 3, 5 (bull), v. 55 (deer), 58, 59 (goat), 60 (deer, goat, ? boar).

57 MPVP iii. 2, 6, 13, 16, 26, iv. 4.

58 Woolley illustrated on the same plate another body sherd with this excavation number (pl. ccxxix, 3rd row, right). To judge from the decoration (and number) it could be from the same vase. Unfortunately we have been unable to locate this sherd.

59 For animals in this pose see MPVP v. 54, 106, ix. 48, xi. 78 (deer), iii. 26, v. 58, 106 (goats), iv. 4, 32, 73, xii. 8 (bulls or cows), v. 114, xii. 8 (lions). For birds see v. 64, 76, ix. 98.

60 The only remote parallel seems to be the row of deer on a fragmentary deep bowl krater from Enkomi, (MPVP v. 106)Google Scholar, one with its head turned back, their bodies with an arrow-like fill. The possibility that 18 belongs to the Cypriot Rude or Pastoral Style seems unlikely, particularly in view of the differences in style.

61 Hankey, V., BSA 62 (1967) esp. 145Google Scholar; also, Levant 6 (1974) 136, 139. MPVP 168–72 (cf. v. 24, for the first fragment of a chariot krater, reputedly found in Egypt, at Tell el-Muqdâm, Nile Delta). Some recent additions: Dothan, M., Bulletin of the American School of Oriental Research 224 (1976) 17Google Scholar with fig. 19 (Akko); Toueir, K., Archéologia 88 (Nov. 1975) 69Google Scholar; Bouni, A., Lagarce, E. and Lagarce, J., and Saliby, N., Syria 53 (1976) 275Google Scholar, fig. 26.2 (both Ibn Hani); Courtois, J.-C. and Courtois, L., in Ugaritica VII (1978) fig. 34. 1–12, 15, 19Google Scholar; 37.1, 12; 40.2; 41.–2, 4, 6–7; 44.1; 53.2, 49–51, 54; 54A–C; Lambert, J. B., McLaughlin, C. D., Leonard, A. Jnr, Archaeometry 20.2 (1978) pl. i cluster 2 no. 68 (Megiddo)Google Scholar; Oren, E. and Netzer, E., Israel Exploration Journal 23 (1973) 253Google Scholar with pl. 70B (Tell esh Shari'a); Bikai, P. M., The Pottery of Tyre (1978) 56Google Scholar with pls. xlviii.3 and lxxxviii. 3.

62 Hankey, op. cit. (n. 2).

63 See MPVP passim; one krater fragment from Minet el Beida (iii. 19) is attributed to the ‘Early III’ phase, but should be later in view of the chevron-filling ornament.

64 MP 430 ff.

65 MPVP 3, 11–25. Cf. also the somewhat confused chronology of E. Slenczka, who attributes the earliest pictorial pottery to LH IIIA2 early, while dating it to c. 1420–1400 BC, which would be more appropriate for LH IIIA1, see Figürlich bemalte mykenische Keramik aus Tiryns. Tiryns vii (1974) Beil. 2 and p. 152 (chronological table).

66 There is some pottery with less complex pictorial decoration from Mainland Greece that can definitely be dated, by find context or vase shape, to LH IIIA1:see MPVP vii. 2 (Mycenae), 5 (Thebes); probably also x. 19.1 (Tiryns, see above, n. 49); add French, E., BSA 59 (1964) 251Google Scholar with pl. 69c. 1 (Mycenae); Frizell, B., An Early Mycenaean Settlement at Asine. The Late Helladic IIb–IIIA: 1 Pottery (1980) no. 65 and p. 113 with fig. 5 and pl. i.Google Scholar

67 MPVP, most importantly 3, where the chronological chart shows that Amarna (c. 1375–1340 BC) corresponds to their Early III (LH IIIA1) and Middle I (LH IIIA2 early); see also 12, 20 n. 37, 26 for other (contradictory) references to the Armarna period.

68 Hankey, , in Acts of the International Archaeological Symposium ‘The Mycenaeans in the Eastern Mediterranean’ (1973) 128–36Google Scholar; also Journal of Mediterranean Anthropology (1980) 38–49; Hankey, and Warren, P. M., BICS 21 (1974) 147 f.Google Scholar

69 MPVP 174 (Painter 1).

70 Most recently in MPVP esp. 5–9, 71, 174; cf., however, 169 (s.v. iii. 13, 8 = our 12, 14) for workshops in Cyprus, with 28, where it is suggested that two pieces by the same hand, iv. 6 (Enkomi) and viii. 14 (Mycenae), were both made at Mycenae.

71 Discussed, for example, by Benson, J. L., AJA 87 (1983) 403f.CrossRefGoogle Scholar (review of MPVP); id., Bamboula at Kourion (1972) 107–10; Slenczka, op. cit. (n. 65) 96–102, 148; Catling, H. W., Jones, R. E., and Millett, A., RDAC (1978) 70–90.Google Scholar

72 See MPVP 5–9, 17–19 (iii. 10, 12). The authors describe the influence of Aegean wall-painting as a ‘present mystery’, since they consider the pieces to have been made on Cyprus (17). Also Immerwahr, S. A., Hesperia 46 (1977) 37 with n. 29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

73 Detailed discussion of the scientific evidence by H. W. Catling and R. E.Jones in the latter's Greek and Cypriot Pottery: A Review of Scientific Studies (in press) chapter 7.

74 Catling, H. W., Blin-Stoyle, A. E., and Richards, E. E., BSA 58 (1963) 100, 104 (group 2), 114.Google Scholar