FIGURE 2 - uploaded by Constance von Rüden
Content may be subject to copyright.
Miniature landscape from Tall Mishrife/Qatna (von Rüden 2011: pl. 66); courtesy of Constance von Rüden.
Source publication
At several sites around the eastern Mediterranean, murals with stylistic and technical characteristics of Minoan and Mycenean wall paintings have been discovered since the mid‐twentieth century. These similarities have almost exclusively brought the question of itinerant craftspeople and their ethnicity into focus, but without tracing in detail how...
Context in source publication
Context 1
... findings from Qatna, discovered early in the twenty-first century among Late Bronze Age IIA debris, were one of the latest discoveries in this group of murals. Again, many of the identified motifs, such as undulating landscapes, palm trees, or dolphins have their best parallels in the iconography of the Aegean (Fig. 2). Moreover, transparent paint applied directly to the white lime plaster hints at a relationship with techniques used in the Cyclades, as well as Kabri (von Rüden 2011: 74-9, 81-3). However, Qatna also makes one aware of possible methodological traps in the interpretation of these similarities. Fortunately, in Qatna, the joining of many ...
Similar publications
Despite the importance of weapons and armour as part of material culture in the Mediterranean during the first millennium BCE, such objects have generally not been studied beyond stylistic analyses. Bronze was extensively used in the construction of these materials; however, its characterisation is complicated due to patination and the different ma...
Citations
... Among the most popular poetic texts worldwide are the Homeric Epics, the Iliad and the Odyssey. It is characteristic that after a B.B.C. special they are ranked tenth and first respectively, in the list of the ten works of the international literature that have shaped the world; this list were sorted and ranked by authors, critics, and academics [ Based on archaeological evidence, Giannakos ([9], [10], [11]) proposed c.1400± stages of Troy VI: 'First: Section 5 and Section 7; Second: Section 2, Section 3 and Gate VIS, "so that the castle-area expanded by a considerable extend;" Third: Section 4; Fourth: the addition of Towers VIh, VIi.' Blegen [[4], 1: 81,109,116,112] characterized 'essentially correct' this classification: 'the previous fortification of Early VI, which Dörpfeld had attributed to Troy V, has not been demolished all at once', as expected after a devastating Fall and looting, 'but piece-by-piece, during successive construction stages.' at Sections: a part of Section 7 and, probably, the part of Section 6 which was founded on burnt debris of Troy V [[4], 1: , and, ...
... From these remnants we infer the trace of this fortification (Figs.3-6: the blue triple dashed-line). [ [14], 68:'<3,00m', [79][80][81]; [ [12], 1:124: 3,00m]) is 'the last surviving piece of the older fortification,' [[4], 1:109] and 'presents three (re-)construction stages' [ [14], 69-70], which resulted probably by attacks against the, adjacent to it, 'Scaean(s)'=left/western ] Gate VIU. Section 5 was 'founded on a layer that contained a good deal of pottery of Early and possibly Middle VI; it cannot have been erected before late-"Early VI"' (1550-1500(+)), 'but its north end points to an early-VIe dating, perhaps slightly earlier than the Wall R' [[4], 1: 111,191,200,254], namely at 1500/1500(-) B.C.. ...
... Moreover, a 'remarkable polymetallurgy' appears by FN-period in the Aegean and Southeastern Attica. Two sherds with spiral motifs, characteristic of the chalcolithic eastern Balkans, lead to a probably higher dating of this earlier metallurgical evidence ([ [255] [78][79][80][81][82][83]). At gallery-3 of the ancient mine in Thorikos [258], the findings of LN-FN pottery of do not establish a clear link between pottery and the early mining activities in Thoricos. ...
Cutting-Edge Technology had appeared in Greece around the 6th-5th millennium B.C. and continued to develop uninterruptedly until the Mycenaean era. Archaeological finds document the transfer of Greek Technology, during the 2nd millennium BC, from the Mycenaean Palace centers to the courts of the rulers in Troy, the Levant, Cyprus, Egypt and the Land-of-Ḫatti, and its adoption even in the inner (sacred) Halls of Palaces. Mycenaean influence is apparently connected to the era of great power and economic prosperity of the Palace centers in Greece, before 1350/1320(+) 1 B.C., and not with the era of economic decline and gradual collapse of the Palaces that followed. We infer that this corresponds to the era before-and-after the Fall of Troy.
In the Aegean-type wall paintings of Tell el-Dabca, Egypt, steatite was used as a constituent of the white colour. Previous research has revealed that the use of talc as a pigment can be considered as an important marker of Aegean craft traditions. In this case study it is therefore of primary importance to trace back the origin of this particular mineral and rock, especially since it can be found in several locations in the Mediterranean including Egypt, Crete and Cyprus. While there is still no generally valid strategy to assign archaeological objects made from this particular material to a specific steatite deposit, the physio-chemical characterisation of the latter mostly relies on the measurement of Rare Earth Elements (REE's) or other methods focusing on the chemical composition of the whole rock. In this paper, a new way to determine steatite origin is presented using electron microprobe characterisation of spinels inside the steatite matrix. Those tracer minerals can not only be the source of information concerning the formation of steatite but their core composition can in some cases also reflect the primary composition of the precursor ultramafic rock. This method focuses on the geotectonical history and genesis of the protolith rather than on steatite's chemical composition. The results reveal the spinels to have similar characteristics to those of supra-subduction ophiolites in the Egyptian Central Eastern Desert. We suggest a correlation between gold and steatite exploitation and thus the use of local raw materials for the creation of the Aegean-type paintings.
