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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.

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 Thumbnail


Authors

A. Schmit

E. Tachatou

H. Sader



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 Mar 29, 2024
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

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