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

Abstract

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 This paper details the results of a large-scale multidisciplinary analysis of Iron Age pottery from a settlement in the core of the Phoenician homeland. The research presented centres on 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 organisation 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 the Iron Age amphorae from Tell el-Burak was highly organised 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 and the outcomes of this research provide new insights into socioeconomic strategies adopted in the Phoenician homeland during this pivotal time.

Phoenician lime for Phoenician wine: Iron Age plaster from a wine press at Tell el-Burak, Lebanon

“…This research therefore serves as a reference point for future investigations of similar installations throughout the Mediterranean. Most importantly, the results of this study provide insights into technological innovation and advancements in plaster manufacturing that support the interpretation of Tell el-Burak as a highly specialised centre for the production, processing and storage of agricultural commodities (Schmitt et al 2019: 81).…”

“…Finally, microscopic analysis demonstrates that grog is the main aggregate used in the production of plaster at Tell el-Burak. Although these ceramic fragments are too small for systematic petrographic study, their composition suggests a parallel with the fabrics (especially fabric 1A) that characterise the amphorae found at Tell el-Burak (Schmitt et al 2019: 69–70). These vessels could therefore be the possible source of tempering material added into the lime.…”

“…This notion is further supported by the presence of the same range of microfossils in the plaster samples and in the analysed fragment of limestone from the wine press. Such microfossils occur regularly in Eocene and Miocene chalks (Figure 10) found in the area spanning from the north of Sidon to the south of Tyre (BouDagher-Fadel & Noujaim Clark 2006: 83–85; Schmitt et al 2019). Furthermore, the same range of microfossils has been recorded in sand samples from Sidon (Ownby & Griffiths 2009).…”

“…These vessels could therefore be the possible source of tempering material added into the lime. Notably, grog tempering was not employed by the long-established community of potters at Sarepta (4km from and contemporaneous with Tell el-Burak), where some of these amphorae were probably produced (Schmitt et al 2019: 82). Without denying that the use of grog could have had symbolic value (Chapman 2000: 54), it seems more likely that, at Tell el-Burak, this practice was functional.…”

“…The dataset from Tell el-Burak includes an archaeobotanical assemblage (Orendi & Deckers 2018) dominated by Vitis vinifera (common grape vine) seeds (41.7 per cent), along with an exceptional number of transport amphorae (Orendi & Deckers 2018; Schmitt et al 2019). Most importantly, three plastered structures have been uncovered.…”