The petrography of imported Levantine Combed vessels from early Old Kingdom Giza

Karin Sowada, Mary Ownby, Anna Wodzińska

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    10 Citations (Scopus)
    258 Downloads (Pure)

    Abstract

    Thin-section petrography was used to examine 36 samples of imported Early Bronze Age Combed vessels from Giza, Egypt. The samples come from fragmentary pots found in early Old Kingdom tombs of high officials, and the workers’ settlement at Heit el-Ghurab. Most date to the 4th Dynasty; coeval with the ARCANE Early Central Levant (ECL) 4 and Early Southern Levant (ESL) 5b periods. Results reveal a primary fabric with slight variations, containing material pointing to production centres close to Cretaceous formations outcropping in Central Lebanon, from Beirut and Tripoli. No fabrics from the southern Levant were identified. The results also demonstrate that by the early Old Kingdom, supply-lines to ceramic production centres in the Central Levant, linked to the acquisition of coniferous timbers, largely supplanted the diffuse networks of the Early Dynastic period.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)197-214
    Number of pages18
    JournalLevant
    Volume52
    Issue number1-2
    Early online date29 Oct 2019
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2020

    Bibliographical note

    Copyright the Author(s) 2019. Version archived for private and non-commercial use with the permission of the author/s and according to publisher conditions. For further rights please contact the publisher.

    Keywords

    • Egypt
    • Old Kingdom
    • Levant
    • Giza
    • ceramics
    • trade
    • petrography

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