SOME POT-MARKS FROM THE LATE BRONZE AGE FOUND IN CYPRUS AND EGYPT

by PAUL ASTROM

The Cypro-Minoan script has not yet been convincingly deciphered in spite of several attempts 1. It is therefore important that as much material as possible is brought to light; when sufficient surviving documents have become available, it may eventually be possible to decipher the script. It is the purpose of this paper to publish some unknown or hitherto unillustrat­ed pot-marks of the Late Bronze Age found in Cyprus and Egypt; although they are not all signs in the proper sense, they may in the end contribute something to the understanding of the Cypriote writing.

1. Red Lustrous Wheel-made spindle-shaped bottle from Egypt, preserv­ed in the Egyptological Institute of the University of Heidelberg, Inv. No. 5 (Fig. 1) 2. It comes from a collection formed in Cairo and is thus presumably from Egypt, where spindle-bottles of this type are common 3; there are no Cypriote objects in the collection of the Egyptological Institute. The height of the bottle is 31 cm. It is a very common type represented in Anatolia, Cyp­rus, Syria, Palestine and Egypt. In a paper in Medelhavsmuseet Bulletin, vol. 5 (forthcoming), I have argued that Red Lustrous Wheel-made Ware may

1 Cf. particularly O. MASSON, Les Inscriptions chypriotes syllabiques, Paris 1961, pp. 34 fE., 83, 394; E. SITTIG in La Nouvelle Clio 6, 1954, pp. 470 fE. and in Minos 4. 1956, pp. 33 fE.; S. E. MANN in Man 60, 1960, art. 53, pp. 40 fE. and H. D. EPHRON in Harvard Studies in Classical Philology, 65, 1961, pp. 39 fE. I have not yet seen S. DAVIS,

The Decipherment of the Minoan Linear A and Pictographic Scripts, Johannesburg 1967, where the Cypro-Minoan script also is said to have been deciphered.

2 I am indebted to Professor EBERHARD Ono for permission to publish this bottle. The photographs (Figs. 1 and 2) were taken by Mr. DIETER J OHANNES. Mr. ROBIN

HAGG has kindly helped me in acquiring the photographs. • See R. S. MERRILLEES, The Cypriote Bronze Age Pottery Found in Egypt, Studies

in Mediterranean Archaeology XVIII (forthcoming) .

8 Paul Astrom

be a Cypriote product, mixing Anatolian, Syro-Palestinian and Egyptian features. The fact that there are at least a dozen pot-marks of Cypro-Minoan types which have been incised before firing on the bases of Red Lustrous Wheel-made vases gives added weight to this suggestion. Some new examples are given in this article. On the base of this spindle-bottle there is a pot-mark (Fig. 2) which appears to be equivalent to the Cypro-Minoan sign 51 in Ven­tris & Chadwick, Documents, p. 62, Fig. 11. There are three vertical lines of which the central one is placed higher than the parallel flanking lines. An im­pression to the left of the top of the left line and a thin vertical groove to the left of the central line appear to be accidental. This type of bottle appears perhaps first in the second quarter of the 16th century and lasts into the 14th century B.C.

2. Red Lustrous Wheel-made long, arm-shaped vessel from Maroni Tomb 7 in the British Museum, London, lnv. No. A 51 4. It has so far remain­ed unknown that vessels of this shape have pot-marks near the bases 5.

On the side of the truncated conical base of this vessel there is a sign (Fig. 3) in the form of an inverted V, incised before firing. This is also a sign in the Cypro-Minoan script 6. The arm-shaped vessels are very common in Anatolia 7,

but as far as I know no signs or pot-marks have been recorded on them before 8.

3. Mycenaean In A2b amphoroid krater from Enkomi Tomb 83 in the British Museum, London, lnv. No. C 377. There are two Cypriote signs paint-

4 H. B. WALTERS, Catalogue of the Terracottas in the Department of Greek and Ro­man Antiquities, British Museum, London 1903, p. 6, A 51; Corpus Vasorum Antiquo­rum, Great Britain 1, British Museum 1, II C. a, PI. 11 :28 (Great Britain 11). For the signs from Maroni see O. MAssoN in Minos v, 1957, p . 15, § 8. I am indebted to the Trus­tees of the British Museum for permission to publish this and other photographs of pot-marks in the British Museum. I would like to thank Mr. D. M. BAILEY for kind assistance during my work in the museum.

6 The arm-shaped vessels in the British Museum, Inv. Nos. A 32 and A 33 also have pot-marks like A 51 but these were not mentioned either by MURRAY in A. S. MUR­RAY, A. H. SMITH and H. B. WALTERS, Excavations in Cyprus, London 1900, p. 9, Fig. 16 (A 33), p. 40, Fig. 68 :1108 (A 32), by H. B. WALTERS, op. cit., p. 5, Nos. A 32-33 or by A. H. SMITH in the Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum, Great Britain 1, British Mtseum 1, II C. a, PI. 11 :20 and 29 (Great Britain 11). The base of A 32 has an incised cross t with a tall vertical line, cf. VENTRIS & CHADWICK, Documents, Fig. 11 : 3, while there is a vertical incised line on the base of A 33, the latter possibly made after firing, cf. VENTRIS & CHADWICK, op. cit., Fig. 11 :1.

e Cf. VENTRIS & CHADWICK, op. cit., p. 62, Fig. 11 : 23. • F. FISCHER, Die hethitische Keramik von Bogazkay, Berlin 1963, pp. 72 f.; BITTEL

and others, Bogazk6y III (Wiss. Veraff. d. Dt. Orient-Ges. 75), Berlin 1957, pp. 33 fi . 8 Other signs on Red Lustrous Wheel-made vases will be recorded in The Swed­

ish Cyprus Expedition VoI. IV : lC (forthcoming).

Fig. 2

Bottle from Egypt

Fig. 1

Fig. 3 Vessel from Maroni

Fig. 4 Krater from Encomi

Fig. 5 Fig. 6 Mycenaean or Cypro-Mycenaean cup

Fig. 7 Minoan stirrup jar from Enkomi

Fig. 8 Mycenaean jug from Rala Sultan Tekke

.. ,I . ·'.i ,

Fig. 9

Fig. 11

Mycenaean vase (three-handled jar?)

Fig. 12

Fig. 10

Mycenaean stirrup jar

(from Alambra ?)

/

Some pot-marks from the Late Bronze Age found in Cyprus and Egypt 9

ed in matt brown to red-brown paint inside about 7 cm. from the base. The colour of the paint of these signs is - as usual - not the same as that of the decoration. The signs painted on Mycenaean vases have usually been made later than the pots themselves 9. The signs on this krater have been drawn by Stubbings 10, but they are illustrated here for the first time (Fig. 4). The inside placing is unique. It is tempting to speculate about its significance. Is it possibly a secret message - hidden in the bottle - to be revealed at the destination, when the contents were emptied? Or is it a word meaning " refill", "fill up", to remind the owner that the contents (wine?) were getting low?

4. Mycenaean or Cypro-Mycenaean UI B cup with a vertical handle from the rim to the shoulder, in the British Museum, London, Inv. No. 97 4-1 1022, from Enkomi Tomb 66. Cf. R. B. Waiters, Catalogue of the Greek and Etruscan Vases in the British Museum, vol. I, part I1, No. C 635. On the base there is an encircled cross (Fig. 5) painted in red in a different shade from the brown decoration. On the side of the exterior of the cup there is a painted, pale red, vertical band (Fig. 6) extending from just below the rim to the encircling, decorative band near the base. It joins an irregular, hori­zontal band painted just above the horizontal, decorative band near the base. There is another oblique to horizontal line painted in yellow to the left, pos­sibly once joining the horizontal band of the pot-mark, giving it a somewhat anchor-like appearance.

For cross-signs on pottery see my Excavations at Kalopsidha and Ayios Iakovos in Cyprus, Studies in Mediterranean Archaeology Il, Lund 1966, pp. 176 ff.

5. Late Minoan III B stirrup jar from Enkomi Tomb 48 in the British Museum, London, Inv. No. 974-1 970. WaIters, op. cit., No. C 549; Murray, Smith & Waiters, Excavations in Cyprus, p. 48, Fig. 73, No. 970; Furumark, Mycenaean Pottery, type 185 : 11; Idem, The Chronology of Mycenaean Pot­tery, p. 139. Careless manufacture. There is a red pot-mark near the base (Fig. 7) resembling a T on its side. Cf. Stubbings, op. cit., p. 62, No. 31, and the Cypro-Minoan sign in Ventris & Chadwick, op. cit., p. 62, Fig. 11 : 2.

6. Mycenaean IU B jug from Rala SuItan Tekke in the British Museum, London, Inv. No. 98 12-1 227. Waiters, op. cit., No. C 576; Corpus Vaso-

9 Cf., however, a Mycenaean III B cup from Kourion "Bamboula" Tomb 6, see J. F. DANIEL in AJA XLV, 1941, p. 276, Fig. 15, where the signs are painted under­neath, before the decoration. If this pot was made in Greece - as its quality suggests -the signs were also made there.

10 F. STUBBINGS, Mycenaean Pottel'y from the Levant, p. 47, No. 19; O. MASSON in Minas V, 1957, p. 20, No. 203; FURUMARK, Mycenaean Pottery, type 54 : 8.

10 Paul Astrom

rum Antiquorum, Great Britain 1, British Museum 1, II C. b, PI. 4 : 18 (Great Britain 16); Opuscula Atheniensia V, p. 116, n. 7, with references.

On the base there is a curved line painted in red, possibly traces of a pot-mark (Fig. 8) 11.

7. Mycenaean III A 2/1I1 B stirrup jar in the Art Museum of Stanford University, Stanford, California, lnv. No. 526, ex Cesnola Collection, said to come from Alambra. The vase is decorated with encircling bands and lines; the shoulder is plain. On the base there is a pot-mark resembling an E (see the sketch drawn in full scale, Fig. 10, and the photograph, Fig. 11); it is not certain whether the middle horizontal bar joined the vertical bar or not, as that part is covered by the inventory mark. The" E" is a sign in the Cypro-Minoan linear script, see Ventris & Chadwick, op. cit., p. 62, Fig. 11: 35.

8. Part of neck, shoulder and handle of a Mycenaean III B vase, prob­ably of a fairly big three-handled jar, in the British Museum, London, lnv. No. 1966 11-18 1, of unknown provenance. Cf. Furumark, Mycenaean Pot­tery, type 36 or 40, pp. 590 f. The fragment is 6 cm. wide, 6.2 cm. high and the flat handle is 2.6 cm. wide. Warm buff clay, brownish-buff slip; lustrous black to brown painted decoration which covers the lower part of the neck and flanks the handle like brackets 12 (only the left side preserved); the paint is too diluted to cover the handle completely (and there is an empty space above). On the outside of the middle of the handle there is an incised chevron (Fig. 9). The type of the vase suggests that is was found in Cyprus or the Levant.

11 Cf. now also T. B. L. WEBSTER in Kadmos V, 1966, p . 147, where two other signs on bases of Mycenaean vases in Stanford are recorded.

12 Cf. e.g. STUBBINGS, op. cit., PI. XIII : 7-8.