BASOR 293 Abstracts
In Search of the First Empires
J. N. POSTGATE
Trinity College, Cambridge
United Kingdom
The correlation of archaeological evidence with political phenomena is notoriously difficult and has rarely been seriously addressed in a Mesopotamian context. Here the complex relations between the political and cultural regions attested for early historical times in ancient Mesopotamia are reviewed, and how they might be reflected in the archaeological record is considered. Two or three culturally defined regions (southern Mesopotamia, the middle Euphrates, and northern Mesopotamia) are recognized in the third and early second millennia B.C., and are compared with the political realities claimed in the public statements of ruling dynasties. Cultural homogeneity and political regimes of different kinds should have different archaeological correlates, and we should be looking for them. Such a comparison with the historical record may well suggest interpretations for the effective prehistoric archaeology of the formative Uruk period in the later fourth millennium.
The "Nordburg" of Megiddo: A New Reconstruction on the Basis of Schumacher's Plan
LORENZO NIGRO
Universitit degii Studi di Roma "La Sapienza"
Via Arco delia Pace, 51-00186
Roma, Italy
The so-called "Nordburg " of Megiddo, probably a palace of the end of MB IIA, was excavated at the beginning of this century by G. Schumacher and was reexplored by G. Loud 34 years later. Although he reexamined the structural sequence of the area and ascribed it to Level XII, Loud did not produce an overall plan of the building. That task was achieved for the first time by I. Dunayevsky and A. Kempinski, even though they did not focus their attention on the palace itself, but on the adjoining sacred area. The subsequent interpretations of the Nordburg were all more or less based on Loud's schematic plan, putting aside the original plan of Schumacher. This article draws up a new plan of the palace on the basis of the accurate drawings and descriptions produced by its first excavator, identifying its most characteristic features.
The Reading of KTU 1. 19:111:4 1: The Burial of Aqhat
WAYNE T. PITARDProgram for the Study of Religion
University of Illinois
Urbana,IL 61801
The description of Aqhat's burial in KTU 1.19:iii:41 has been the source of considerable controversy over the past five decades. The primary issue has revolved around the uncertain reading of the last word of the line. A new collation, supported by macro-photographs, argues for reading the disputed word as bknrt, instead of bknkn or bknkt. The meaning of the word, knrt, however, remains obscure.
Trojan Grey Ware at Tel Miqne-Ekron
SUSAN HEUCK ALLEN
Classics Department
Yale University
New Haven, CT 06520
This article examines Grey Ware, a class of ceramics, characteristic of Troy Periods VI and VIIA, associated with Homer's Troy. Found in a well-stratified 13th century B. C. context at the inland site of Tel Miqne-Ekron, it demonstrates material evidence of contact between Troy and the Canaanite settlement shortly after the accepted date of the Trojan War.
Early Greek Contacts with the Southern Levant, ca. 1000-600 B.C.: The Eastern Perspective
JANE C. WALDBAUM
Department of Art History
The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
P. 0. Box 413
Milwaukee, WI 53201
Studies of early Greek contacts with the Levant have focused primarily on the presence in Greece of imported luxury goods from the east and on the possible impact of those artifacts, and perhaps their itinerant makers, on the development of the Orientalizing style of Greek art. Alternatively, research on Greek imports in the Levant has concentrated on specific areas, including in particular Al Mina in Syria, Cyprus, and the Egyptian Delta. The rest of the Levantine coast, south of Syria, has been relatively neglected as a source of information on relations between Greece and the East.
On the basis of finds from both new and old excavations, this article examines the evidence for early Greek contacts with the southern Levant, concentrating specifically on Greek imports (primarily pottery) found in Palestine. The resulting picture is compared both qualitatively and quantitatively with contact patterns from better-known regions of the Mediterranean; the possible role of some sites in the dissemination of Greek pottery inland from the coast is assessed.
Maritime Trade and Royal Accountancy in an Erased Customs Account from 475 B.C.E on the Ahiqar Scroll from Elephantine
ADA YARDENI
72 Borochov Str.
Jerusalem 96622, Israel
The newly deciphered Aramaic text--the longest nonliterary text discovered so far--is an erased customs account on 11 surviving fragments of the fifth centur B.C. E. Ahiqar scroll from Elephantine. The customs were collected from Ionian and Phoenician ships and handed over to the royal treasury. The text records the dates (day and month) of the ships' arrivals and departures during one sailing season of ten months. Arranging the scroll fragments according to the dates enabled the reconstruction of most of the fragmentary and missing columns of the customs account as well as the rearrangement of the columns of the Ahiqar proverbs. Information from the customs account concerning the maritime trade includes the kinds of ships sailing to and from Egypt and the kinds of goods they carried, as well as the system of duty collection and royal accountancy in Egypt in the early Persian period.