Regional mineralogical and technological characterization of Cypriot Iron Age pottery: a view from Tel Dor

Abstract

Excavations at Tel Dor, a Phoenician site on the northern coast of Israel, produced one of the most varied and best-stratified assemblages of Cypriot Iron Age ceramics ever found outside Cyprus. A long-term investigation of the nature of socio-economic liaisons between Dor and Cyprus, inter alia, by identifying through ceramic typology and petrography the specific Cypriot production centres that sent their products to Dor is currently in progress. This paper focuses on the analytical identification of production centres first suggested by macroscopic observations; temporal trajectories and cultural implications are addressed only preliminarily. The results indicate that the Cypriot vessels that reached Dor were only produced at Salamis, Kition, Amathus and Paphos, and that the vista of imports at Dor keeps changing throughout the period under consideration. This is the most comprehensive analytical study of Cypriot Iron Age ceramic fabrics to date. It has the potential to build a foundation for provenance studies of Cypriot Iron Age ceramic fabrics and the interconnections they embody. It is constrained, however, by the fact it was mainly production centres represented at Dor that were studied.