Insights into the economic organization of the Phoenician homeland: a multidisciplinary investigation of the later Iron Age II and Persian period Phoenician amphorae from Tell el-Burak

Schmit, A.; Badreshany, K.; Tachatou, E.; Sader, H.

Abstract

This paper details the results of a large-scale multi-disciplinary analysis of Iron Age pottery from a settlement in the core of the Phoenician homeland. The research presented is centred upon a large corpus of Phoenician carinated-shoulder amphorae (CSA) from the later Iron Age II and Persian period contexts at the coastal site of Tell el-Burak. Traditional typological investigations are combined with a focused archaeometric approach including a new quantitative method for the morphometric analysis of amphorae, thin-section petrography, geochemistry and organic residue analyses, aimed at gaining a more detailed understanding of the organization of the Phoenician economy. Despite gradual, but marked typological changes, very little change in the fabrics of these amphorae was noted over the 400-year Iron Age occupation of the site. The research, thus, demonstrates that the production of Iron Age amphorae from Tell el-Burak was highly organized, and was undertaken by long-lived, sustained and centralized modes. The establishment of Tell el-Burak and this new pottery industry coincides with the proliferation of the world’s first great imperial powers, the Neo-Assyrian, Neo-Babylonian and Persian empires; the outcomes of this research provide new insights into socio-economic strategies adopted in the Phoenician homeland during this pivotal time.

Citation

Schmit, A., Badreshany, K., Tachatou, E., & Sader, H. (2018). Insights into the economic organization of the Phoenician homeland: a multidisciplinary investigation of the later Iron Age II and Persian period Phoenician amphorae from Tell el-Burak. Levant, 50(1), 52-90. https://doi.org/10.1080/00758914.2018.1547004

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Sep 11, 2018
• Online Publication Date: Jan 24, 2019
• Publication Date: 2018
• Deposit Date: Sep 14, 2018
• Publicly Available Date: Jul 24, 2020
• Journal: Levant
• Print ISSN: 0075-8914
• Electronic ISSN: 1756-3801
• Publisher: Taylor and Francis Group
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 50
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 52-90
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00758914.2018.1547004
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1319463