Knossian Gifts? Two Late Minoan Iiia1 Cups From Tel Beth-Shemesh, Israel

Abstract

Two Late Minoan IIIA1 cups were recently found in the excavations at Tel Beth-Shemesh, Israel. They were part of a larger assemblage of local Late Bronze IIA (first half of the fourteenth century bc) drinking and eating vessels sealed under a destruction layer in one room of a large edifice, presumably a ‘palace’. A commemorative scarab bearing the name of Amenhotep III and related to the first Jubilee (Sed festival) in his thirtieth regnal year was found alongside the cups, providing further chronological evidence. This article examines the Late Minoan IIIA1 cups from Beth-Shemesh within their Aegean context and emphasises their close affinity with comparable cups from the palace of Knossos, catalogued and republished here. The Tel Beth-Shemesh cups are the second occurrence – after Sellopoulo Tomb 4 – of Knossian Late Minoan IIIA1 pottery found together with Amenhotep III's scarab. This new evidence strengthens the likelihood of some chronological overlap between Late Minoan IIIA1 and the reign of this Pharaoh. The article also considers the biography of the two Minoan cups, as social agents within the intricate network of the Late Bronze Age palatial gift exchange in the eastern Mediterranean. While it is possible that the cups came to Beth-Shemesh directly from Knossos, another viable option is that they arrived as a gift from the Egyptian court. The two rare Late Minoan IIIA1 Knossian cups could have reached Egypt on the occasion of Amenhotep III's much-discussed official embassy to the Aegean – including Knossos – and then been sent as royal gifts to the ruler of Beth-Shemesh.

Past Food for Thought: The Potential of Archaeology

“…2). In the last few years, a fourteenth-century-BCE palace (Level 9; LB IIA) that can be attributed to the queen Bēlit-labi'at was excavated at the site (Bunimovitz et al 2013).…”

“…The vessels were very probably produced in the area of the palace at Knossos on Crete in the early fourteenth century BC, thus enabling us to determine the exact place of origin as well. The excavators therefore interpreted them as royal gifts of the ruler of Knossos to the queen of Tel Beth-Shemesh (Bunimovitz et al 2013). In the case of Tel Beth-Shemesh, there is a clear indication that early Aegean-type imports-most of them of Cretan originwere appropriated by local elites and integrated among their feasting dishes.…”

Beth-Shemesh and Sellopoulo: Two Commemorative Scarabs of Amenhotep Iii and Their Contribution to Aegean Chronology

“…In the companion article (Bunimovitz, Lederman and Hatzaki 2013), the circumstances of the recent discovery at Tel Beth-Shemesh of two Late Minoan IIIA1 cups and an Amenhotep III scarab in the same context are fully detailed. We therefore recount here only the main contextual and stratigraphic information.…”

“…In the present article we introduce new data that corroborate the chronological synchronisation between Amenhotep III and Late Minoan IIIA1, at least until the last decade of Amenhotep III's reign. First, we present a recent find of an Amenhotep III scarab discovered together with two rare Late Minoan IIIA1 cups in the destruction layer of an early Late Bronze Age IIA (first half of the fourteenth century bc ) public building currently under excavation at Tel Beth-Shemesh, Israel (for the cups and their Knossian comparanda see Bunimovitz, Lederman and Hatzaki 2013). 4 The scarab is interpreted as a commemorative scarab produced on the occasion of Amenhotep III's celebration of his first Jubilee or Sed festival.…”

Understanding linear a through the lens of maritime history during the bronze age

“…However, it is possible that such contact have been occurring since much earlier. Also as seen from archaeological evidence, Late Bronze Age Aegean had contacts with the Near East, in particular, the Aegean had possible connections with Amenhotep III (Egypt) during the first half of Late Minoan IIIA (Bunimovitz et al, 2013).…”