Plain Pottery Traditions of the Eastern Mediterranean and Near East by Claudia Glatz

Author:Claudia Glatz [Glatz, Claudia]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781629580906
Barnesnoble:
Goodreads: 23681836
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Published: 2015-05-15T00:00:00+00:00

6 Conspicuous Consumption of Inconspicuous Pottery: The Case of the Late Bronze Age Southern Levant

Sharon Zuckerman

The Late Bronze Age (1550–1150 BC) was a period of intensive political and social interaction in the eastern Mediterranean and the southern Levant. Polities organised around the palatial centres of empires (the Hittite, Egyptian, Assyrian and Babylonian), and the petty kingdoms of Cyprus, the Levantine coast and the southern Levant were involved in an intricate web of international relations in which they exchanged letters, diplomatic gifts, ideas and mutual influences (Bunimovitz 1995; Liverani 2008). The rulers of these polities held communal feasts and public rituals as a means of legitimising their rule and conspicuously showing their political and social power. Such feasts are depicted in iconographic works and described in written documents (Yasur-Landau 2005; Zuckerman 2007b). Residues of such communal feasts are represented in the archaeological record through the assemblages of excavated structures, which served as loci for such events. The material residues of feasts include archaeozoological and archaeobotanical remains, as well as luxury objects made of precious materials and vessels used for the storage, preparation and consumption of food and drink (Hayden 2001; Dabney et al. 2004). An important place, at least in terms of their relative quantities, is held by ceramic vessels. These form the majority of every assemblage connected to feasting activities, and their sheer quantity is often the main reason for the interpretation of public rituals or feasting for an assemblage.

In the following, I discuss the role of plain pottery vessels in the public rituals and communal feasts that were conducted in the monumental structures of the Late Bronze Age southern Levant. As a starting point and a case study, the discussion is based on the results of the renewed excavations at Hazor, the largest Canaanite kingdom of the southern Levant.

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