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AMERICAN SCHOOLS OF ORIENTALRESEARCH ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICE ASOR,3301 NORTHCHARLESSTREET MD 21218 BALTIMORE, (410)516-3498 oo

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EricM. Meyers,President lames W.Flanagan,First VicePresidentfor Publications WalterE. Rast,Second Vice Presidentfor ArchaeologicalPolicy CharlesU. Harris,Chairmanof the Boardof Tlustees RobertH. Johnston,Vice Chairmanof the Boatd of Trustees Paul F Jacobs,VicePresidentfor the Corporation LydieShufro,VicePresidentfor Development GeorgeM. Landes,Secretary RogerS. Boraas,Assistant Secretary Holden Gibbs,Theasurer KateGould, Assistant TIeasurer RudolphH. Dornemann,AdministrativeDirector PamThrner,AdministrativeAssistant ASORNewsletter;VictorH. Matthews,Editor BiblicalArchaeologist;EricM. Meyers,Editor Bulletinof the AmericanSchools of Oriental Research; JamesW.Flanagan,Editor Journalof CuneiformStudies;William L. Moran,Editor W.F.AlbrightInstitute of ArchaeologicalResearch(AIAR) P.O. Box 19096,91 190 Jerusalem,Israel. SeymourGitin, Director JoeD. Seger,President Carol Meyers,First Vice President Second Vice President; JoyUngerleider-Mayerson, Acting BoardChair JohnSpencer,Secretary-Theasurer BaghdadCommittee forthe BaghdadSchool JerroldS. Cooper,Chairman Near EasternStudies The JohnsHopkins University Baltimore,MD 21218 AmericanCenterof OrientalResearch(ACOR) P.O. Box2470, JebelAmman, Amman, Jordan. PierreBikai,Director JamesSauer,President LawrenceT. Geraty,Vice President RogerS. Boraas,Secretary RandolphB.Old, Theasurer CyprusAmericanArchaeologicalResearchInstitute (CAARI) 11AndreasDhimitriou Street,Nicosia 136,Cyprus. StuartSwiny,Director GiraudFoster,President LydieShufro,VicePresident Ellen Herscher,Secretary AndrewOliver,Jr.,Teasurer ASORAncient ManuscriptsCommittee JamesC. VanderKam,Chairman Departmentof Theology Universityof Notre Dame Notre Dame, IN 46556 DamascusCommittee Michael J.Fuller,Chairman AnthropologyDepartment St. LouisCommunity College 3400 PershallRoad St. Louis,MO 63135

Biblical

Archaeologist

Perspectiveson the Ancient World from Mesopotamiato the Mediterranean P.O. BOXH.M., DUKESTATION DURHAM,NC 27706 (919)684-3075 Biblical Archaeologist(ISSN0006-0895)is publishedquarterly (March,June,September,December)by ScholarsPress,819 Houston Mill RoadNE, Atlanta,GA 30329, for the American Schools of Oriental Research(ASOR). Subscriptions:Annual subscriptionratesare $35 for individuals and $45 for institutions. There is a special annual rateof $28 for retirees.Single issues are $9 for individualsand $12 for institutions. In foreigncountries,add $5 for annualsubscriptionsand $2 forsingle issues. Ordersshouldbe sent to ASORMembership/ SubscriberServices,P.O.Box 15399,Atlanta,GA 30333-0399 (telephone:404-636-4757;Bitnet SCHOLARS@EMORYU1). Postmaster:Send addresschangesto Biblical Archaeologist, ASORMembership/Subscriber Services,P.O.Box 15399,Atlanta, GA 30333-0399.Second-classpostagepaidat Atlanta,GA and additionaloffices. Copyright? 1992by the AmericanSchools of OrientalResearch. All rightsreserved.No portionof this journalmay be reproduced by any processor technique without the formalconsent of the AmericanSchools of OrientalResearchand ScholarsPress. Authorizationto photocopyitems forpersonalor internaluse is grantedfor librariesand other users registeredwith the Copyright ClearanceCenter (CCC)TransactionalReportingService, providedthat the copier paythe base fee of $1.00 percopy plus $. 10perpagedirectly to CCC, 27 CongressStreet,Salem,MA 01970. This consent does not extend to other kinds of copying, such as copyingforgeneraldistribution,foradvertisingor promotionalpurposes,forcreatingnew collective works,or for resale.0006-8095/$87$1.00 + .10 Editor-in-Chief Associate Editor Book ReviewEditor SeniorEditor Designer

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EditorialCommittee WalterE. Aufrecht JoAnn Hackett EdwardF Campbell A. T. Kraabel Thomas E. Levy Douglas L. Esse P.KyleMcCarter VolkmarFritz LawrenceT. Geraty DavidW McCreery Carol L. Meyers SeymourGitin StephenGoranson S. Thomas Parker

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Advertising:Correspondenceshould be addressedto Dennis Fordor SarahFoster,ScholarsPress,P.O.Box 15399,Atlanta, GA 30333-0399(telephone:404-636-4757;fax:404-636-8301). Biblical Archaeologistis not responsibleforerrorsin copy preparedby the advertiser.The editor reservesthe right to refuse any ad. Adsfor the sale of antiquities will not be accepted. EditorialCorrespondence:Article proposals,manuscriptsand editorialcorrespondenceshould be sent to Biblical Archaeologist, PO. BoxH.M., Duke Station, Durham,NC 27706. Unsolicited manuscriptsmust be accompaniedby a selfaddressed,stampedenvelope.Foreigncontributorsshould furnishinternationalreplycoupons. Manuscriptsmust conformto the formatused in Biblical Archaeologist,with full bibliographicreferencesanda minimum of endnotes.See recent issues forexamplesof the properstyle. Manuscriptsmust also include appropriateillustrationsand legends.Authorsareresponsibleforobtainingpermissionto use illustrations. Composition by LiberatedTypes,Ltd.,Durham,NC. Printedby PBMGraphics,Inc., Raleigh,NC. Publisher:ScholarsPress

BiblicalA Perspectiveson the Ancient Worldfrom Mesopotamia to the Mediterranean A Publication of the American Schools of Oriental Research

Volume 55 Number 1 March 1992

Perspectiveson Phoenician Art Shelby Brown

..

Ancient literary and inscriptional recordsof Israel,Egypt,Assyria and Greece document that Phoenician craftsmen were renownedfor their skill in working ivory,metal, stone and wood as well as weaving and dyeing fine fabrics.However,modem critics have frequently scorned Phoenician artistry,or accordedit, at best, only backhandedcompliments, largelybecause the Phoenicians borrowedso many (in some cases most) of their motifs from a variety of foreignsources. Phoenician art can tell us a great deal about not only Phoenician artistic techniques and aesthetic tastes, but also about Phoenician religious beliefs and rituals, international tradeand travel in the ancient Mediterranean, and the exchange of ideas and techniques among cultures.

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Phoeniciansin Spain

28

Brigette Treumann-Watkins

POW

Greek and Romanhistorians and geographerstold of men in ships who came to the southern shores of the IberianPeninsula long beforeour era. They weresaid to havepassedthroughthe Pillarsof Heraklesandfounded a fortified town, Gadir, at the site of modem Cadiz, a province in southwest Spain,where they built a temple to the Tyriancity god Melqart,or Herakles, his Greek epiphany.No traces of the temple have ever been found, but excavations in the early 1960s uncovereda cemetery above Almunecar,a seaside resort,which led to furtherexcavationson a mound abovethe riverVelez. As at the Almunecar cemetery, the bulk of the pottery that came to light at Velez revealedstrong affinities to ceramics of the IronAge Near East and raised several significant questions. Were these traces of the elusive Phoenicians?

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QumranUpdate

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37

What Can Happen in a Year? James A. Sanders

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In the last year,drasticchangeshaveoccurredin the administrationof the Dead Sea Scrolls and the ongoing saga of the remainingunpublished material from Cave 4 at Qumran.The dismissal in December 1990 of JohnStrugnellas head of the international team editing the fragments set in motion a chain of events that culminated with a shocking announcement by the Huntington Librarythat it would open access to its copies of the material housed at the RockefellerMuseum in Jerusalem. As the realization of the traumatic events of the past year settle in, the scholarly community needs to look to the futureand establishguidelines to deal better with the next majordiscovery,so that all humankind will benefit, not just a select few. Fromthe Associate Editor'sDesk Introducingthe Authors Letterto the Readers Book Reviews

Page6

4 5 2 43

On the cover:Terracottamasks and protomes form a rarecategoryof Phoenician art that and is representedin both spans the Late BronzeAge throughthe first millennium B.C.E. the east and west. The masks are mostly of males, while the protomes, busts or heads with necks, are mostly of females. These terracottamasks and protomes are almost all from tombs, although some are from tophets (at Carthageand Motya)and sanctuaries. Formore information on these specific masks and protomes, see page 19.

Letter

to

the

Readers

be a scoundrel and freedomto make a fool of yourself just as equally as it provides the freedom of open and fair scholarly access and the pursuit of serious research. In the early days of open access, this was very obvious. Veryquestionable reconstructions and explanations of texts were providedto the media, and so-called unpublished documents appearedin the press, which turned out to have been published texts. Those of us who had moderatelyyet vocally advocatedfree access beganto fear that we had been wrong. Wefound that the responsibility of scholarship replaced the euphoria of freedom, and there beganto be a soberingfeeling as we realized the immense difficulty of dealing with the disorganizedmorass of fragmentarymaterial. l Indeed,two emotions came to the forewith the publication of the facsimile edition: a sense of the tremen,,-. dous egotism of those who believed that eight scholars could publish the material, and a sense of awe at the task which awaitedus. The same senses of responsibility andawe motivated the new editorial team as it began to reorganizethe editorial project.EmanuelTov,the new editor-in-chief,along with the other editors, Eugene Ulrich and Emile Puech, set about expanding the team of editors, regularizing procedures,bringingup the level of computerization and extracting real and realistic commitments for the completion of the work. Now we would have to show that the job could be done, and that with the fuss behind us, research could go on. studieshasbeenradically he fieldof Qumran I, for one, was proud of all my friends who stood on in the last a of series the developments stage at the ASOR/AAR/SBLannual meeting on Nochangedby of the so. We have seen or vember restructuring 25, 1991. Despite all kinds of past differences year and even remaining disagreements, they sounded two the editorial team, the appointment of a new common notes: that the scholars of the Dead Sea Scrolls editor-in-chief,the publication of bootleg texts of various of and the formal would work together to further researchin the field, and and complete opening forms, finally, that the new openness was one that could become the access and accessibility to the scrolls for all scholars and basis of a new flowering of the field. students, and, for that matter, the general public. But with the opening of the scrolls, we entered a At the same time, a vigorous debatehas ragedamong scholars within the field and outside of it. While most period of great new responsibility. For several years, the media had filled the public with the notion that the called for greaterand more open access, a few arguedfor scrolls somehow held the key to questions of greatimporthe status quo, admitting a mixture of self interest and tance. Wewere constantly askedwhether they provedthe the need to guaranteethe quality of the publications. Yet it was clear from the start that the old system, regardless Bible, if Jesusand Johnthe Baptistwere mentioned in the of its theoretical advantages,had failed, and that it could texts, if they related to Jewish-Christianrelations, and not withstand the pressuresmounting against it. how they altered our picture of the history of Judaism and Now that the dust has settled, we are truly in a new Christianity. It will now be up to the academic commuera. The old system had all the usual advantages of a nity to guide the public toward a much more nuanced totalitarian regime: tight control, an oligarchical rule, appreciation of the kinds of questions the scrolls can help to answer and those which they cannot. We can only hope and, some have even claimed, mind control. The new that this task will be made easier- not more difficult-by system, like all free environments, bringsthe blessings of the tremendous interest of the media in our work. true freedom.Yetat the same time, it providesfreedomto "'

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Biblical Archaeologist, March 1992

I am confident that our field is going to rise to new and greater heights. Already, some important developments are taking place that will help greatly in future progress. So much bad news appears in the press that I want to stress the good news here. A new foundation, called the Dead Sea Scrolls Foundation, has been organized. It has been incorporatedin the state of Indiana as an independent organization, with boardmembers consisting of members of the international team of editors, other Qumran scholars, nonQumran scholars, two scholars representing the Israel Antiquities Authority, and a few laypeople. This foundation will undertake to raise money for support of the publication of the scrolls, their conservation, and research.Although the foundation is just getting started,it is already clear that it will make progress possible in a number of significant areas, among them the use of modern computer technology. Some investigation of the possibilities of using CD-ROMtechnology is being carriedout by the foundation. It is hoped that the necessary support can be found to enable scholars to undertakethis project,which would make photographs,transcriptions and concordances to the scrolls available on computer. Those who have experimented with this new kind of interactive research tool are awareof its tremendous potential. In our case, it has a further advantage. It is possible with this technology to manipulate fragments and to test for possible joins of unassembled pieces. This foundation has many more plans, and as it begins to reach out for support, both academic and financial, those of us concerned about scrolls research should get solidly behind it. Clearly, only with the necessary financial resourcescan the immense problems the editors have inherited be solved and researchproceed rapidly. One sorely needed step was the hiring of a qualified conservatorwho has been recently engagedby the Israel Antiquities Authority to deal with the preservation of the scrolls and the many brittle fragments for future generations. It is expected that a second conservatorwill soon be hired. While in the past there have been a variety of views expressedon this subjectby non-experts,we can expect that the most up-to-dateand sophisticated tech-

Within the next month or so, the final installments of the inventory and catalog of all scroll materials undertaken by Stephen A. Reed of the Ancient Biblical Manuscript Center in Claremont, California,will be complete. This catalog,built on the earliercatalogof Elisha Qimron of Ben Gurion University, will enable scholars to navigate the various photographicseries and to use the material profitably even before publication. Without this inventory,the editors could neverhave succeeded in identifying all the fragments and assigning the entire collection to scholars for editing. All these developments will heighten the potential for progress next year when the Annenberg Research Institute in Philadelphia will host a group of scholars devoting themselves full-time to Qumran research. Under the leadership of Eric M. Meyers, director of the Annenberg and president of ASOR, the institute has gatheredtogether editors and interpretivescholars of the scrolls. This will be the first time such a group has had access to all scrolls materials. Besides the usual weekly seminars, the group will have special workshops in various techniques of scrolls research. The Annenberg Research Institute's extensive computer facilities are excellent for scrolls research and publication, and it is expectedthat experiments in the use of computersforthe reconstruction of scrolls will be conducted over the course of the year. The pace-ofevents surroundingthe Dead Sea Scrolls this year has been quick and continues apace. The developments we have mentioned spell the beginning of a new era in which researchwill proceed quickly, we hope. Yet some patience is in order.While much was accomplished in the early years of scrolls research (from 1947 through the early 1960s),we must now make up for some 25 years of only very slow progress. With the full release of the documents, we will have to put aside the all-encompassing politics that have rackedthe field for some six years now. Those of us who have been waiting decades for this material can now go back to our real work: understanding the history of Judaism and the backgroundof Christianity, what they shareandwhere they diverge.As we continue ourwork, it will be up to us to provethat with the entire corpus now before us we are capable of major strides in scholarship

niques will be used to store the material. Tov has completed a timetable for the publication of the remaining volumes and has also compiled a complete list of all unpublished fragments and the scholars who will prepare them for publication. This list includes many reassignments made by the editors as part of the reorganization of the publication project.

that will advance the study of Judaism and Christianity in the early centuries of our era.

Lawrence H. Schiffman

Biblical Archaeologist, March 1992

3

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of Biblical Archaeologist sports, for the first time, a new subtitle, "Perspectives on the Ancient World from Mesopotamia to the Mediterranean." The addition of this subtitle represents an attempt to communicate more adequately the diverse nature of work that ASOR scholars are doing and that BA has been consistently publishing for many years. The new subtitle directs BA's gaze broadly towards a past that is ancient, whether prehistoric or merely premodern. The magazine's focus embraces a diverse, even fragmented, yet fundamentally interwoven cultural area. Today this geographical area includes cities hosting ASOR affiliated institutions (Amman, Jerusalem, Nicosia) or giving name to ASOR committees (Baghdad, Damascus). Wrestling with language appears sometimes to be the primary preoccupation of our generation of scholars, convinced, as we are, of the power of language to shape reality. The new subtitle resulted from the intellectual scrapping of an editorial board that is well aware of the potential for misinterpretation. Literally understood, the boundaries of this title might be read as to exclude both the Persian cultural region that rises above the Mesopotamian valley, and Egypt, which can be considered a part of Africa as much, if not more, than the Mediterranean. Neither is intended or implied, of course. Nor does the subtitle imply a subordination of biblical literature or culture, which are rooted in the heart of the area, Syria-Palestine, and which historically and archaeologically constitute one of the most important foci of the region. For many, especially in the West, the Bible is the literature of faith and continues to provide the entry way into archaeology from Mesopotamia to the Mediterranean. It remains a primary area of interest. Yet ASOR has stretched beyond the geographical, cultural and temporal boundaries of any biblically oriented research. As the chief means by which ASOR communicates the results of its research, and its significance, to ASOR members and to the general public, BA must present this same, fuller face to the world. "Perspectives on the Ancient World from Mesopotamia to the Mediterranean" offers a label for this orientation and goal.

&4rchaeologist are

Eachyearmanynew discoveries of madethatenrichourunderstanding the rootsof Westerntradition.Sinceit firstreportedthe discoveryof the Dead SeaScrollsin 1947,BiblicalArchaeologist hasled the way with fascinating reportsof the latestfieldwork.PubBA is beginningits lishedquarterly, articles. 55thyearof timely,challenging

To placeyoursubscription, complete thisformandreturnit to Scholars Press,P.O.Box 15399,Atlanta,GA ordersmust 30333-0399.Individual be prepaidby checkor moneyorder drawnon a UnitedStatesbankor by Forfasterservice VISAor MasterCard. or VISA,call(404) with MasterCard add$5 636-4757Foreignsubscribers forpostage.Fora sampleissue,send $3 to EO.Box H.M., DukeStation, Durham,NC 27706. O $35individuals L $45institutions enclosed L Checkormoney-order Visa O MasterCard LO

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4

Biblical Archaeologist, March 1992

David C. Hopkins Associate Editor

Introducing the Authors ShelbyBrownholds a Mellon Fellowshipand Lectureship in Classics at the University of Southern California, where she is writing a book on Greek and Roman art depicting events in the Roman arena. Although trained primarily as a classical archaeologist, she has long been interested in the Near East and in the cross-culturalborrowings between the ancient Near Easternand Classical worlds. She has participated in archaeological projects throughout the Mediterranean, including the ASOR Punic Project and the Canadian Team II Excavations at Carthage. Her book, Late Carthaginian Child Sacrifice and Sacrificial Monuments in their MediterraneanContexts is reviewed in this issue of BA.

Brigette TIeumann-Watkinsdid her graduate studies in the Department of Near EasternLanguagesand Civilizations at the University of Chicago,where she devotedher attention to early Phoenician settlement in southern Spain and its connections with the ancient Near East. She is now an independent scholar and pursues a very Phoenician livelihood: searching for silver as Director of Development for the National Law Center at George WashingtonUniversity in Washington,D.C. hj n n

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JamesA. Sandersreceived his Ph.D. from Hebrew Union College. He is currently Professor of intertestamental and biblical studies at the School of Theology in Claremont, as well as Professorof religion at Claremont Graduate School. A distinguished biblical scholar,Dr. Sanders also servesas presidentof the Ancient BiblicalManuscript Center for Preservation and Research. His past publications include Discoveries in the Judaean Desert IV: The Psalms Scroll of Qumran Cave 11 (ClarendonPress 1965) and The Dead Sea Psalms Scroll (Cornell University Press 1967).

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Silver bowl of the seventh century B.C.E.with

gold-platedfigural decoration, of unknown provenance.This bowl illustrates the subtlety and skill of the Phoenician craftsman at organizinghis design. The central medallion depicts two women dancing, facing one another, with a birdflying between them. In the middle register,five ibex, separated by trees and each accompanied by two birds, run clockwise; a lion attacks the flank of the ibex located above the heads of the dancers in the center. In the main register,women walk in a procession toward a basin on a stand. They are split vertically into two groupsand step bilaterally from a palm tree at the bottom of the design, below the central dancers, toward the basin at the top. The bilateral procession and other structuralelements arecharacteristic of a particular class of Phoenician bowls (Markoe1985: 13-33). The Phoenician artist influences the way an observerviews the design by manipulating details, such as height of repousse, size and placement of motifs, orientation of figures, and direction of glances and movements. Although many modern authorshave maligned Phoenician artists, such carefully crafted bowls do not seem to be the work of bungling, inferiorcraftsmen. Photo courtesy of the ClevelandMuseum of Art, number 47.491. Purchasedfrom the J.H.WadeFund.

6

ncient literary and inscriptional recordsof Israel, Egypt, Assyria and Greece document that Phoenician craftsmen were renowned for their skill in working ivory,metal, stone and wood as well as weaving and dyeing fine fabrics.In contrast, until fairly recently, modern critics frequently scorned Phoenician artistry or accordedit, at best, only backhanded compliments. This is largely because the Phoenicians borrowed so many (in some cases, most) of their motifs from a variety of foreign sources, often modifying them and sometimes "gettingthem wrong" accordingto the conventions of their original contexts. Phoenician artists did frequently care more about the general "look" of a motif than its exact adherence to an original, but even when they copied motifs exactly, we often

Perspectives on

Phoenician Art byShelbyBrown

Biblical Archaeologist, March 1992

simply do not understandthe significance of the borrowedsymbols in a Phoenician context. As a result, scholars have tended to emphasize the derivativenature of Phoenician art and to focus on its apparentlack of meaning in comparison with the imagery of other artistic traditions. As one might expect, however, Phoenician art rangeswidely in quality and significance, according to the skills of individual artists and the varying, often overlapping,functions for which particularobjects were intended. These functions included fulfilling a specific role in a religious ritual, serving as an affordable copy of an expensive prototype, and being beautiful. Much of Phoenician art served a practical purpose, yet was also intended to appeal to the eye. I will thereforenot distinguish here between artist and craftsman (assuming that most ancient artists were male). Deciding what art, if any,to call "Phoenician"in the Late Bronze Age

decorate objects and to communicate ideas to their ancient audience. We can appreciateand admirethe decorative images, but we often fail to understandthe ideas behind them.

deal not only about Phoenician artistic techniques and aesthetic tastes but also about Phoenician religious beliefs and rituals, international trade and travel in the ancient Mediterranean, and the exchange of ideas and techniques among cultures. In particular, these objects document the iconography from which Phoenician craftsmen chose symbols of myth, religion and daily life both to

the gods. Phoenician settlements have frequently been razed, looted or built over, both in antiquity and modern times. Most that survive have either not yet been found or not been thoroughly excavated, especially in Phoenicia. Phoenician tombs and sanctuaries are often repositories of art that might not otherwise be preserved. Much of the art was portable,

and the artists, too, were mobile. As a result, Phoenician goods found their way, in the first millennium B.C.E., deep into Assyria (modern northern Iraq)and across the Mediterraneanas far as Italy and Spain. The products of Phoenician craftsmen influenced Etruscanand Greek artists during the first third of the first millennium B.C.E., even before the Phoenicians had established themselves as a majorpresence in the western Mediterranean. Ironically,most surviving Phoenician art has been discoveredoutside Phoenicia proper.In Phoenicia, archaeologists have excavatedtoo few sites to remedy this situation and, where they have excavated,they have usually not dug deeply enough (with the exception of Sarepta;see Pritchard1978).The virtual absence of Phoenician art in Phoenicia itself poses a dilemma for those trying to identify what, specifically, makes early Phoenician art "Phoenician." The problem is not unlike that confronting early students of Greek vase painting of the seventh and sixth centuries B.C.E. Their researchwas hamperedby the fact that most of the surviving vases have been found in Etruscantombs in northern Italy (Boardman1974:9-10). In the west, we can usually identify as "Phoenician"the art commonly found in quantity at wellexcavatedPhoenician sites in Spain, Sicily, Sardiniaand Tunisia. These artifacts,most dating to the seventh throughsecond centuries B.C.E., often differ from those presumablymade by eastern Phoenicians, which date

Phoenician "MinorArts": Contexts and Problems The Phoenician art that survives today consists mainly of relatively small objects sometimes called "minorarts."These are often made of expensive materials such as silver, gold, ivory and semiprecious stones, but they also occur in terracotta, bronze, glass and paste. Some larger, heavier items of stone are also preserved. Unfortunately, objects made of carvedwood and textiles have almost all perished. Most of the arthas survivedin funerary contexts. Gravegoods include personal possessions or insignia of rank and status purchasedor inherited in life and taken to the grave, such as jewelry,scarabsand amulets, metal bowls, and ivory boxes and cosmetic implements. Other, more (circa 1550-1200 B.C.E.)is not easy, functional objects, such as bronze raand in the early Iron Age there is a terracottamasks, and stone sarevidence in the artistic most of zors, gap from about 1200 to 900 or 800 B.C.E. cophagi and commemorative monuForthese reasons, I focus here on the ments, were associated with funerary first millennium from the ninth cen- rituals. Limitations of space prevent discussion here of the vast corpus of tury B.C.E. on. I propose to illustrate a sample of Phoenician art in four jewelry,amulets and scarabs,the bronze and terracottafigumedia: many ivory (furnirepresentative and the rarerstone sarcophagi rines and boxes toiletries, mostly ture, Moscati 1988:292-99, 328-53, from the east), metal (bowls from (see the east, razorsfrom the west), stone 370-93, 394-403). Phoenician art is found in sanc(stelae and cippi - tombstones from the west), and terracotta(masks tuaries as well as funerarycontexts, but less often in areas of habitation. and protomes - small molded heads This does not mean that all the art from both east and west). These examples illustrate a great was created for the dead or to worship mainly from the ninth to eighth centuries B.C.E.At all Phoenician sites

of any period, it is difficult to isolate true Phoenician art from products

imitating it and to distinguish locally made Phoenician objects from those imported or copied from other Phoenician sites. Many objects are also difficult to date because the owners passed them on as heirlooms, which are rarely found in contexts close in date to their period of manufacture.

Biblical Archaeologist, March 1992

7

A section of the outerfrieze of a silver bowl dating to the seventh centuryB.C.E. from Amathus, Cyprus.The Phoenicians regularlycombined images borrowedfrom a varietyof foreignartistic traditions, including Egyptian,Assyrian and Greek. This bowl illustrates the attack on a walled, Near Easterncity by soldiers depicted in three differentstyles. Fromthe right, four "Greekhoplites"(named for their characteristicshield, the hoplon)approachthe city with the left, two "Egyptians" raised spears, while behind them march four 'Assyrianarchers' bTo scale the citadel on ladders, holding their shields over their heads; beyond them Egyptianlooking men fell trees in an orchard.Drawn from Markoe1985:CY4. Unless otherwise noted, all drawings by the author.

A final problem for dating Phoenician art is its often conservative nature. Artists sometimes repeated the same motifs in similar ways for centuries.

WhatMakesPhoenician

plied to subgroupswithin the corpus of Phoenician art. As a result, the non-specialist may understandably become quite confused. Egyptianattributes generally dominate, and "Egyptianizing"is the adjective most commonly used to describe Phoenician art. In the last

Art "Phoenician?" The hallmark of Phoenician art is its eclecticism. Most often, we recognize Phoenician art by its unusual combiThe of hallmark nations and modifications of motifs and designs borrowedfrom a variety art is Phoenician of foreign sources, such as Assyrian, Syrian, Greek and Egyptian.Someits eclecticism. times it is possible to identify a work as Phoenician because of the distinctive organizationof its designs, but century, scholars debatedwhether or not Phoenician ivories were acrare to so have been do attempts The eclec1985: tually Egyptian.In addition to specichapter3). (Markoe fic Egyptianthemes, such as the tic Phoenician "compositestyle"is one that artists of the different lend- winged sun disk or Pharaohsmiting his enemies, Phoenician artists often ing traditions would probablynot have used, especially when motifs of employed common elements of Egypparticularreligious or social signifi- tian designs, such as the regular cance are depicted out of context. spacing of figures across a relatively Modern critics, dependingupon plain background,the standardized which borrowedstyle they consider proportionsof human and animal figures in profile, the smooth, undominant, may call a Phoenician decoratedexpanses of flesh or clothwork "Egyptianizing," "Assyrianiz"Cypro-Phoenician" ing," (Assyrianiz- ing, the symmetry of individual ing Phoenician art found in Cyprus) motifs and designs, and the colors or "Syrianizing"("Syro-Phoenician"). common in Egyptianart:black, Unfortunately,all scholars are not in white, green, red, yellow and blue. complete agreement as to which ob- The modern scholarly debate on the jects should be called "Phoenician" nature and extent of Egyptianinfluence on Phoenician art, in particular and how these terms should be ap-

8

Biblical Archaeologist, March 1992

on whether it increased through time or predominatedin certain periods, still continues (Markoe 1985: 16-17). Sometimes Phoenician artists imitated specific foreignstyles rather than modifying or recombining a variety of foreign motifs. It can be difficult to recognize art as "Phoenician"when it copies a foreign model closely. To complicate matters even further,Phoenician artists were by no means the only ones to borrow generously from foreign iconographies. Forexample, there are many similarities between Syrianor north-

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ern Syrianart (Weiss1985).Nevertheless, Syrian art can at times be distinguished from Phoenician. Syrian artists more often borrowedmotifs and themes from Anatolia than from Egypt.They depicted more figures frontally and drew squatter,plumper forms and distinctive faces with largeeyes and noses, receding chins and pinched lips. They also tended to fill the availablespace in a given field more completely (Winter1976: 2-8; Barnett 1982:43-44). Similarly, some Cypriot ("Cypro-Phoenician") art is distinguished from the main body of Phoenician art because it borrowsso many Assyrian motifs

in quantities, mainly in palaces, at sites all along the Levantinecoast, inland in Iraqand in tombs on Cyprus. Fewer,isolated examples occur, largelyin sacrificial and funerary contexts, in Rhodes, Samos, Crete, Greece and Italy (Barnett1956; 1982: 47). The majority of these ivories date to the ninth and eighth centuries B.C.E. Ivory-carvingwas a longestablished craft in the Near East, and the Phoenician ivories have many precursorsin the second millennium, but the evidence to establish continuity in traditions of carving ivory has not yet been found. As

ratherthan emphasizing Egyptian iconography(Markoe1985: 8). Clearly, the study of Phoenician art is often complicated, and scholars view various aspects of this composite style differently.Having noted the problems and controversies,I attempt in what follows to move beyond judgments of what is "good"or "bad"in Phoenician art and beyond consideration of the degrees of foreign influence to evaluate briefly the kinds of information we can gain from the art in each medium. Ivory Phoenician ivories have been found

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winged sphinxes. Sphinxesare usually winged in Phoenician art but not always in Egyptian. Left:A plaque from the North WestPalace illustrates the slender proportionsand graceful lines characteristicof Phoenician work. Photo from Barnett 1982:plate 50a, with the permission of the Israel ExplorationSociety, Jerusalem.Above:A pyxis (cylindricalcontainer)from the South East Palace reveals the blockier,squatter forms and distinctive faces characteristicof much Syrianart. Drawing from Barnett 1975:plate XXI (S6),with the permission of the British Museum, London.

Biblical Archaeologist, March 1992

9

Ivory-Working Techniques composed Elephantoftusks are the mostsuit-

largely dentin, ablepartforcarving.The dentinis coveredby a hardbony material, cementum,which forms the surfaceor"rind" ofthetusk.Nearits tip the tusk is solid,but at its base it is filled with pulp, living tissue throughwhich a nerve cavity extends the length of the tusk (St. Clair and McLachlan1989: 1). A cross section throughthe base of the tusk revealsa hollowcylinder, naturallyformingthecircularshape ofapyxisorcylindrical"box," oneof the items commonly fashioned from ivory tusks in the ancient NearEastandMediterranean. Topreparethe tusk, carversfirst removedthecementumbyabrading it, leavingbehindthe dentin.Then they cut the dentinwith sawsinto crosssectionsorlongitudinalstrips of differentsizes accordingto their needs.Thefinalproductwasworked firstwithcoarsechiselsorgougesto block out figuresin the roundor removeunwantedmaterial.Thenit finer wasworkedwithprogressively tools:chiselsandknivesformodeling, scribers for engraving,and drillsformakingholes.Lastly,files and abrasiveswere used to polish away any remainingtool marks. Sometimesivoryplaqueswere inlaidwithpasteorothermaterialsin a techniqueborrowedfrommetalworking(cloisonnd),or the backgroundsof lowreliefswerecutaway so that the decorationsthemselves were left virtually freestanding see St. Clairand McLach(ajour,; 1989:5;Barnett1982:11-15). lan Thereis some debateabouthow or even whetherivorycarvingrelates more directly to stone and woodcarving.Woodcarvingseemns the more obvious parallel,although the classical Greek sculptor Pheidias (fl. 450-425 B.C.E.), famous for his enormous gold-and-ivory statues of Athena at Athens and Zeus at Olympia, workedin both marble and ivory. The Phoenician craftsman sent to Jerusalemby Hiram of Tyre (2 Chronicles 2:13-14) was adept in even more media.

10

with Phoenician art in other media, mis on Cyprus. The ivories from all there is a troublesome gap in the evi- these sites seem mainly to be panels dence between the late second and from furniture such as chairs, The first millennium B.C.E. thrones, footstools and beds. Phoeniearly of the New excian craftsmen also made smaller Egyptians Kingdom items of ivory,such as boxes, handles celled in carving luxury goods and for fine furniture of In the fans or fly-whisks, cosmetic immaking ivory. LateBronzeAge the Canaanite fore- plements, and even horse blinkers ' ' The Phoenicians and Syrianswere known for their skill in making ivoryfurniture,including chairs, thrones, beds, tables and footstools. Fragmentsof furniturethat areprobably Phoenician have been tentatively restored from Nimrud and Salamis, including this ivory thronefrom Tomb 79 in Salamis, Cyprus, of the late eighth century B.C.E.Ivory

plaques were applied over a wooden frame that has completely decayed. The seat, indicated by a dark stain on the soil around the throne,is also lost. The back was decorated with vertical,plain and floral-patterned plaques and capped with a band of sheet gold stamped with a scale pattern. This was one of threeivory thronesin the tomb;still other ivories may have belonged to a bed and table. Drawn from Karageorghis1969:plate 6.

bears of the Phoenicians worked ivory and hoardedit as treasure (Barnett1982:25-31; note the unusual ivories at Kamidel-Lozin the Biqacvalley of Lebanon,Hachmann 1983: 82). Phoenician ivories first came to light in Iraqin 1845 with the discoveries of Austen Henry Layardat the North West Palace of Ashurna-

and harness trappings.Paint, gold leaf, and inlaid stones, glass and paste made many of these Phoenician ivories bright and colorful. Some later ivories from the west, made perhapsat Carthage,also survive from the seventh century B.C.E. in Carthage,Samos, Malta, southern Spain and southern Italy.These are toilet articles such as combs, mirror handles and plaques from small sirpal II (883-859 B.C.E.)at Nimrud More 1975: boxes. ivories Finds from Tharros,Sardinia, (Barnett 15-18). turned up in the following century, in particular,document the use of during continued excavationsbegun small luxury goods of ivory in the in the 1940s under the direction of west into the second century B.C.E. Max Mallowan.Recently,the DepartThe size of the furniture panels ment of Antiquities of Iraquncovand other objects was limited by the ered still more ivories at Nimrud carver'sability to obtain relatively flat pieces of sufficient size from a 1982: (Barnett 51-52). The early discoveries at this site curved tusk of ivory.When joined towere supplemented in the late nine- gether on a wooden frame, furniture teenth and early twentieth centuries panels formed decorativepatterns of repeatedabstractand representaby extensive finds at a number of other palaces (in Assyria at Khorsa- tional motifs, ratherthan narrative bad, in northern Syriaat Arslan Tash scenes, which are in any case rarein and Zincirli, in Israel at Samaria) Phoenician art. Carversoften marked and, most recently, in tombs at Sala- panels with letters from different

Biblical Archaeologist, March 1992

alphabets,not just Phoenician, as keys to their correct placement on pieces of furniture. Motifs include ones wholly Egyptianin origin, such as sphinxes and various representations of the god Horus, as well as modified Egyptianthemes, such as youths wearing Pharaoniccrowns

corpus of more than 80 examples, excluding the hoardfrom Nimrud. Basedon the evidence of this corpus, seventhcenturiesB.C.E. areless well- Markoe (1985: 1)arguesforcefully known than the ivories since, except for the structuralbalance and unifor a hoard from Nimrud, they occur formity of design of these bowls and in isolation at a wide variety of sites against those who have seen on in east and west. In 1849, Layarddis- them only an "indiscriminatehodge-

Metal: Bowls and Razors Bowls. Phoenician bronze and silver bowls dating to the ninth through

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trating the same motif carved(in mirror image) with slight variations,probably by different craftsmen. Theprojectingtongues show that these plaques were meant to be inserted into a largerconstruction,possibly a piece of furniture,where they most likely would have flanked a differentcentral motif. Each panel shows a youth wearinga modified pharaonic crown with uraeus (the Egyptian royal symbol of a rearingcobra)and a hybrid Egyptian-Assyriancostume. He graspsthe stem of an elaboratelotus plant in his left hand and raises his right to it in a gestureof ritual greetingoften seen in religious contexts in Phoenician art. Photo from Barnett 1975: plate III, C1 and 2, with the permission of the BritishMuseum, London.

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and graspingfantastic plants. This last theme resembles a native Egyptian scene of Nile gods binding plants symbolizing the unity of Upper and LowerEgypt;its significance in a Phoenician context is unclear. A few motifs seem more distinctively Phoenician. The "Womanat the Window"wearing an Egyptian wig may referto real or mythological sacredprostitution. Other scenes of animals and animals in combat are subject to a wide variety of interpretations. The motifs of the later,westernmade ivories reflect the earlier ones: women wearing Egyptianwigs, animals of various kinds, men battling animals, and mythological creatures, such as griffins and sphinxes.

covereda cache of more than 100 metal bowls and other vessels decorated in a variety of styles in the North West Palace at Nimrud. Some of the bowls have since disappeared, but more than 50 have been published in at least preliminary fashion (Barnett1974: 12-13). Many of these seem to be Phoenician in origin. After Layard'sdiscoveries, excavators in the second half of the nineteenth century unearthed bowls in sanctuaries and tombs in Italy, Greece, Crete, Rhodes and Cyprus. Other isolated finds, usually without provenance,have found their way to museums in Europe,Iranand the United States. Recently, Glenn Markoepublished a comprehensive

podge of symbols." Apparentprecursorsto these bowls are rare,but there are several similar Egyptianbowls and an example from Ugarit dating to the Late BronzeAge. As with the ivories, there is a gapin the evidence between the Late Bronze Age and the early first millennium (Markoe1985: 15, 19, 99). In the ninth and eighth centuries, many metalworking centers were active in many parts of the ancient Near East,not just in Phoenicia. Assyrian kings mention metalwork along with ivories in the lists of tribute they received and booty they seized. After the eighth century B.C.E.,

production in the east apparently waned and individual craftsmen and

Biblical Archaeologist, March 1992

11

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ing a helmeted warriorfighting a griffinand a lion. Drawn from Barnett 1982:plate 54B.

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whole workshops perhapsmoved westward.By the seventh century, it may be possible to identify a center of production on Cyprus and a Phoenician workshop in Etruria(Markoe 1985: 7-8, 11, 27, 68, 141-42). The bowls are usually shallow, approximately3 to 5 centimeters (1 to 2 inches) deep and 15 to 20 centimeters (6 to 8 inches) in diameter, anddecoratedwith concentric friezes encircling a central medallion. On shallowerbowls the design is engravedon the interior;on deeper ones it is applied to the exterior. Certain bowls are finely crafted, detailed pieces, some gold-platedor highlighted in gold. These indeed merit the praise Homer gives Phoenician bowls in the Iliad (chapter 23, lines 741-44; Lattimore 1962). Decorative motifs on bowls include files of animals or mythological creatures,hunting scenes, duels between men, between animals, and between men and animals or mythological beasts (forexample, sphinxes and griffins),files of soldiers marching to or engagingin battle or siege, processions, some towardan enthroned figure, and recognizable i 1 off, I1,o ,111 111,648111

An eighth-century-B.C.E. ivorypanel from the North WestPalace at Nimrud. Thepanel represents the so-called "Womanat the Window," a motif found on a number of Phoenician ivories from differentLevantinesites. The woman, wearing an Egyptianwig, looks out froma window recessedinside a three-stepped frame and supportedbelow by four columns with elaboratepalm capitals. The decorated neckline of her garment is visible (the shoulders of her dress seem to be made of crinkly material; Barnett 1975: 173). This motif has been associated with temple prostitution, a practice mentioned by the Greekhistorian Herodotusin connection with a Babylonian goddess like Aphrodite (Histories1.199).Saint Augustine claims that the Phoenicians gave their daughtersas prostitutes (De civitate dei IV 10).Otherreferencestie CypriotAphrodite (relatedto PhoenicianAstarte)to a story about a woman looking out a window (Barnett 1975: 149).Photo from Barnett 1975:plate IV C14and 15, with the permission of the British Museum, London.

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Egyptianthemes such as Pharaoh vanquishinghis enemies. Phoenician metalsmiths also inserted Egyptian attributes and motifs throughout their work in the form of Egyptian dress and hairstyles and symbols like the hoveringHorus falcon, a sign of victory. Clear examples of narrativeare rare,although some of the scenes of dueling probablyrepresent episodes from lost stories taken out of their narrativecontext. Some bowls are inscribed with personal names in Phoenician, Aramaic, Greek and Cypriot Syllabic. The inscriptions within the central medallions of two bowls from Italy may name the craftsman,but most inscriptions are located below the rim or at the base of the bowls and probablyname the owners (Markoe A deep silver bowl, gold-platedon the exterior, of unknown provenance.In the upperregister, foot soldiers in groupsof threeproceed to the right. Below, a Horus falcon, an Egyptian symbol of victory,hoversovera lion hunted by a spearmanand archers.Phoenicianmetalsmiths inserted Egyptianattributes and motifs throughouttheir work. Photo courtesy of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, number 27.170. Gift of Miss MaryThatcherin memory of her sister, Miss MarthaThatcher. .Ito

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