This book has an exciting goal to accomplish (p. 181): to investigate and change existing conventions on Phoenician pottery. To do so, R. examines wares, shapes, distribution patterns, use and contexts of Phoenician pottery, with due consideration also of broader historical questions that are relevant to her study. The endurance of many Phoenician pottery forms and the continuity between the Bronze and the Iron Ages has led R. to select the more composite term ‘Canaanite-Phoenician’ (hereafter CP), in order to ‘bind Canaanite and Phoenician pottery together along a line of continuous development and tradition’ (p. 1). This wider definition is thought to acknowledge ‘the cultural and chronological continuity and connection of Phoenician pottery with its predecessor, the Canaanite pottery of the Middle and Late Bronze Ages’ (p. 2). The term is applied both to pottery produced in Phoenicia and to vessels manufactured elsewhere, presumably by Phoenicians.
The chief methodological aspects are discussed in the introduction. The book deals primarily with the occurrence of CP pottery in the eastern Mediterranean, from the Levant to the Aegean islands. Punic pottery is not extensively discussed and is only tackled when appropriate. Given the variety within the CP pottery corpus, not every shape and type is discussed, although most pottery types are considered in order to present as full a picture as possible of the CP pottery production. Both fine and coarse wares are included in the discussion. Given the persistence of the same pottery shapes over long periods of time and their wide Mediterranean distribution, R. opts for a longue durée approach, covering a period from the Middle Bronze Age to the beginning of the Byzantine era (third millennium bce to fourth century ce). The geographic and the chronological extent of the book turn her study into a gigantic task that is demanding to master.
Chapter 1 is devoted to questions about assemblage and distribution. R. questions the use of vague definitions of Phoenician pottery, such as Near Eastern and Cypro-Phoenician. In her view such allusions diminish the influence of Phoenician activity as a whole (p. 7). Red Slip, Bichrome and Black-on-Red wares are treated as Phoenician products, with Red Slip and Bichrome continuing Bronze Age ceramic traditions. R. explores the nature of Phoenician presence in the Mediterranean by using four methodological devices: multiple workshops, commercial networks, pottery used in rituals and pottery as a sign of cultural changes. Bowls, plates, jugs, amphorae, bottles and oil lamps are among the Phoenician shapes attested throughout the Mediterranean. The dense presence of Phoenician pottery on Cyprus is viewed as a reflection of the special relationship between this island and Phoenicia, whereas the production of Phoenician pottery is associated with numerous centres of manufacture scattered throughout the Mediterranean. Although R. acknowledges changes over time in the distribution patterns of Phoenician pottery that were due to different historical circumstances, she ascribes a primarily Phoenician initiative to most of them.
Chapter 2 examines the evolution and distribution patterns of Phoenician amphorae, starting from the Bronze Age Canaanite jars. Discussion includes decorated as well as plain types of amphorae. Jars and amphorae are viewed as brands of Canaanite and Phoenician trade, imitated for their status in many places around the Mediterranean (p. 51). Special reference is made to the use of identifying marks on CP amphorae, a custom that appears as early as the Late Bronze Age and reflects a central organisation of Phoenician trade (pp. 23–4). R. suggests that the Phoenicians introduced the practice of inscribing and stamping amphora handles to the Greeks sometime in the archaic period. Amphora discussion is accompanied by figures documenting the typological evolution of CP amphorae as well as by coloured images of amphorae of the Bronze and the Iron Ages.
Chapter 3, the longest in the book, is devoted to the four main decorated wares of CP pottery: Red Slip, Bichrome, Black-on-Red and Black Slip. R. notices that many of the CP decorated pottery types were produced in ritual contexts (burials, sanctuaries or banquet-related settings), with Red Slip ware being primarily used for the Phoenician socio-cultic gathering known in texts as the marzeah (pp. 55–6). Starting from this working hypothesis, R. discusses the marzeah banquet in tandem with Greek and Italian banquet ceremonies (symposia), of which she stresses the Phoenician origin (p. 59). The typical marzeah set included bowls and plates of Red Slip ware although kraters, that were an essential device of Greek and Italian symposia, were not part of the Phoenician table ware, but were instead used as funerary urns. R. argues for a connection between the Phoenician Red Slip ware and Eastern Sigillata A of the late Hellenistic period. The latter displays technical and decorative features that had been typical of earlier Phoenician fine ware (pp. 79–87). The outset of Bichrome ware on the other hand reflects Mesopotamian connections, with its beginning in the Levant dating to the seventeenth/sixteenth century bce and being associated with the westward movement of the Hurrians (p. 93). The discussion of Bichrome pottery also tackles the Philistines, an ethnic group of which R. denies the existence and corresponding material culture (p. 97). Black-on-Red and Black Slip are both treated as Phoenician wares, and their dense presence and manufacture on Cyprus are viewed as part of a Phoenician-orchestrated activity on an island that was ‘the industrial area of the CP cities for decades’ (p. 117). Moreover, Black Slip is viewed as the possible source of inspiration for the Attic Black Glazed pottery, the distribution of which during the classical period rested, to a certain degree, in the hands of the Phoenicians (pp. 120–3).
Chapter 4 treats CP coarse ware. It has a tripartite structure and discusses domestic (jugs of all sorts, cooking pots), commercial (juglets, bottles, amphoriskoi) and ritual vessels (kraters, urns, lamps, tripod bowls). Although the focus is on coarse ware, fine and decorated versions of certain shapes are also considered and illustrated (e.g. p. 130, fig. 15). The chapter ends with a brief discussion of the occurrence of CP coarse ware in the East and West (p. 159).
In Chapter 5 R. attempts to reassess pottery groups that ‘have previously not been correctly identified as CP types’ (p. 161). These are presented in chronological order. They include the Late Bronze Age Red Lustrous Wheel-made pottery and small jars, Iron Age bent bottles and banded vessels of the Late Iron Age and Persian period.
Finally, conclusions appear in Chapter 6, with their main points being summarised on p. 182.
Overall, this is a daring and challenging new book that bravely takes up the task to examine and reassess CP pottery in the longue durée. Discussion is complemented by 28 composite figures and 62 photos, most of them coloured, that produce a panoramic view of CP ceramic production over time. What the reader might expect from a manual of this sort is a comprehensive chronological chart of the eras discussed and a map with the sites mentioned in the book. This would help visualise the chronological and the geographical extent of R.'s work and would make the book even friendlier to students. In her closing remarks (pp. 185–6) R. acknowledges that many of her perspectives and statements deviate from mainstream thought and are likely to attract criticism. She includes the Philistine question and her rather blunt opinions about Cyprus – in her view a primarily Phoenician island and industrial area (pp. 15, 117) – as the most likely ‘not only to be dismissed but also to be unsettling to certain readers’. Criticism is probably going to follow the publication of the book, but this established and honest author seems more than ready to handle it.
