Greek pottery as marker of Phoenician exchange networks in the Mediterranean

and patterns of consumption

Xth to IVth c. B.C.

Iva Chirpanlieva

Laboratoire Orient et Méditerranée, CNRS, Paris

I. PERIODS OF EXCHANGE AND DYNAMICS OF THE NETWORKS

PERIOD I Renewing contacts and creating networks

End of XIth to IXth c. B.C.

Principal sea-roads between the Levant, Cyprus and the Aegean sea

in the Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age

Protogeometric,

Distribution map of Greek ceramics Early and Middle Protogeometric

(1050/1025-960/950 B.C.) found in the Levant

PERIOD II Regular exchange between the middle of the IXth and the begining of the

VIIth c. B.C.

Euboean semi-circle pendant skyphoi

Distribution map of Euboean semi-circle pendant skyphoi and plates in the Mediterranean

Products circulating

in the Phoenicians exchange networks in the

Mediterranean

PERIOD III Declin of the first part of the VIIth century and development of new markets

PERIOD IV

(650/625-525 B.C.)

PERIOD V

Persian domination – new commercial networks

(525 – 332 B.C.)

From the end of the VIth century the development of the Persian Empire constitutes a new

economic driver for the oriental Phoenician network

Chronology of the imported fine Attic pottery in Kition

III. Patterns of consumption and contexts of use

« People wanted things, all sorts of things. Why?» Lin Foxhall

.

" You who sleep on beds of ivory

and who widen weakly on your divans,

and who eat the lambs of the fat herd and

the veal of the cowshed;

who sing to the sound of the lute, [and]

invent, as David, in your use, instruments

for the singing;

who drink the wine in cups, and anoint with the best oil.".

Ivory figurine:

A man holding a cup

bothros 1, sol 2, sanctuaiey of Kathari

Principal forms of the drinking vessels imported from

Greece VIIIth to IVth c. B.C.

The predominant forms are easy to adapt to the oriental manner of drinking :h

olding the bowl in one hand by the bottom.

Attic

Vth-IVth

East Greece

VIIth-VIth

Phoenician plates

Euboea

IXth-VIIIth

and

Attic

VIIIth century

Gold and silver plate, Idalion

Imported plates

Red Slip plate, Kition

It is very clear that Greek pots constituted a foreign element due to maritime exchange rather than to

processes of acculturation

This cultural exchange is better interpreted as fashionably mode, rather than as an aspect of early

Hellenization of the Phoenician cities.