A LONG JOURNEY OF AMPHORISKOI FROM LEVANT TO EASTERN ADRIATIC: INTRODUCING THE DISTANT MARKETS OF LUXURIOUS PHOENICIAN PRODUCTS OF THE 2ND AND 1ST C. BCE

Recent excavations in the archaeological site of Tel Kedesh in the Upper Galilee Region of today’s Israel have revealed a myriad of ceramics from the Hellenistic Age, among which an impressive amount of small containers of luxurious commodity. Such widely exported vessels of peculiar morphology and composition, the so-called Phoenician amphoriskoi, presumably used to transport the Phoenician cedar oil, have been less commonly documented outside the Eastern Mediterranean Basin and the Black Sea Region. During the last decade, however, archaeological study of the material remains from the Eastern Adriatic shed light on pottery artefacts which might have originated from ancient Levant. The present study investigates the material culture of amphoriskoi from both the Levant (Tel Kedesh) and the Eastern Adriatic (Issa) testing the hypothesis which links containers of luxury Phoenician products from Levant with those discovered along the coast of the Adriatic.

Fifteen vessel fragments were analyzed using X-ray diffractometry (XRD), scanning electron and thin-section microscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray fluorescence, gas chromatography, and laser ablation inductively coupled mass spectrometry. Our preliminary data points out to similar texture and mineralogy of the matrix which is substantiated by a report on smectite-rich clay pellets present in both groups. We believe these pellets were used to optimize plasticity of pottery paste representing the composition of local soils. Further on, XRD mineralogy of both groups is rather similar which corroborates their compositional affinity.

These results stand as the first scientific testimony of Levantine ceramics in the region of Eastern Adriatic and are therefore an important line of evidence of the wider dispersion of Phoenician luxury products that introduce the Adriatic region as their market. This, therefore, represents and may serve as a strong evidence of trans-Mediterranean trade, commerce and mobility upsurge during the 2^nd and 1^st c. BCE.