How to Observe in Archaeology Part 10

Pottery.

All wheel-made but rough: light red or buff faced of reddish clay: decoration rare and only in simple zigzags or waves in reddish-brown pigment: long-stemmed vases of 'champagne-gla.s.s' form are common (VIII, Fig. 4): rarely a creamy slip is applied to the red clay.

(b) Later period.

Cist-graves apart from houses, in cemeteries.

Implements.

Long narrow celts often riveted: spear-heads, leaf-shaped or triangular (IX, Figs. 3, 6, 10): axe-heads with socket, swelling blade and curved cutting edge: pins both 'toggle' and unpierced, straight and bent over.

Pottery.

Wheel-made, well potted, and commonly _ring-burnished_, the process beginning at the base of a vase and climbing spirally: little painted decoration: face usually dusky brown over pinkish body clay, but red and yellow-white faced wares also found: shapes, mostly bowls, open and half closed: ring feet, but no handles to vases: only occasionally lug-ears (IX, Figs. 1,2,3,5,6). Rims well turned over belong to the latest period, in which elaborate ring-burnis.h.i.+ng is common.

Beads, &c.

Diamond-shaped, with incised decoration, in clay or stone, common.

Pendants, &c., of sh.e.l.l, lapis lazuli, cornelian, crystal. Cylinders, of rude design like Babylonian First Dynasty, in stone and bone.

Spindle-whorls in steat.i.te and clay.

[ILl.u.s.tRATION VIII: SYRIAN POTTERY]

III. Iron Age (Late Hitt.i.te).

To this belong the ma.s.s of 'Hitt.i.te' remains in Syria. Graves are unlined pits, with urn burials, the corpse having been cremated.

Cylinders, &c., showing traces of fire, will belong to this Age.

Implements and weapons.

Arrow-heads of bronze: spear-heads of bronze and iron: axes, knives, and picks of iron (miniature models occur in graves): daggers of iron. _Fibulae_, of bronze, semicircular and triangular (as in Asia Minor) (IX, Figs. 4, 9, 11): plain armlets of bronze: pins, spatulae, &c., of bronze: thin applique ornaments. Bronze bowls (gilt) with gadroon or lotus ornament (moulded) in later period. Steat.i.te censers, in form of a cup held by a human hand, are not uncommon (IX, Fig. 7).

Pottery.

Tall narrow-mouthed urns, bath-shaped vessels, and bell-kraters common (VIII, Fig. 10): trefoil-mouth _oenochoae_ and _hydriae_; also _amphorae_ (VIII, Fig. 7).

In earlier period, white or drab slipped surface with geometric patterns (rarely rude birds) in black. In later period, pinkish glaze with geometric patterns in black-brown, concentric circles being a common motive. Tripod bowls in unslipped 'kitchen' ware (VIII, Fig.

8). Blue or greenish glazed albarelli, with white, brown, or yellow bands, occur (as in Rhodes).

Figurines.

Drab clay, painted with red or black bands and details. Two types: (a) Hors.e.m.e.n; (b) G.o.ddesses of columnar shape, often with flower headdresses, and sometimes carrying a child.

Seals, &c.

Scarabs with designs of Egyptian appearance: cylinders, steat.i.te or (more commonly) glazed paste, lightly and often scratchily engraved: hard stone seals finely engraved: flattened spheroids in steat.i.te with Hitt.i.te symbols on both faces, inscriptions being often garbled.

Inscriptions.

Most of those in Hitt.i.te script, both relieved and incised, found in Syria, are of this Age, but chiefly of the earlier part of it (cf.

Ill.u.s.tration VI). Those in Semitic characters begin in this Age; and to its later part (8th-7th cents.) belong important Aramaic inscriptions, e.g. the Bar-Rekub monuments of Sinjerli (Shamal). See tables of letter-forms appended to Palestine section, Ill.u.s.trations X & XI.

IV. Persian Period.

Imported Egyptian and Egypto-Phoenician objects (bronze bowls as in Age III: scarabs: figure-amulets), Rhodian (pottery), Attic (coins, small black-figure vases, &c.).

Weapons and implements.

Iron. Long swords: spearheads, socketed, often with square or diamond mid-rib: short double-edged daggers with round pommels: chapes (bronze) with moulded or beaten relief-work: knives, small and slightly curved: arrow-heads (usually bronze and triangular): horse- bits (usually bronze) with heavy k.n.o.bbed side-bars: ear-rings, wire armlets and pins (generally plain) of bronze: _fibulae_ as in Age III: circular mirrors, plain, of bronze: anklets of heavy bronze: kohl-pots, bronze, of hollow cylindrical form, with plain sticks.

Pottery.

As in Age II, plain, polished, rarely ring-burnished, but of less careful workmans.h.i.+p (VIII, Fig. 9.) Glazed albarelli, 'pilgrim- bottles', aryballi, &c., (as in Age III) common. White-yellow slipped ware with bands of black survives rarely from Age III.

Stone vessels.

Bowls on inverted cup-shaped feet not uncommon (VIII, Fig. 11).

Beads and seals.

Eye-beads in mosaic gla.s.s, and other gla.s.s beads (hard stone and bronze more rarely): conoid seals in hard crystalline stones, usually engraved with figure praying to the Moon-G.o.d: also soft stone, gla.s.s and paste conoids. Scarabs and scaraboids in paste. Cylinders become scarce.

V. h.e.l.lenistic. VI. Roman. VII. Byzantine.

Most of the characteristic Syrian products of all these Periods do not differ materially from those found in other East Mediterranean lands, e.g. Greece and Asia Minor. The change to Persian (Sa.s.sanian) types comes in the late seventh century A.D.

Two cla.s.ses of objects, examples of the first of which are mostly of Age III, but may be Persian, h.e.l.lenistic, or even Roman, are very commonly met with in Syria:

1. Figurines, single or in pairs or threes, of bronze or terra-cotta, representing cult-types. Most common is a standing G.o.d with peaked cap, short tunic, and arm raised in act of smiting: a seated G.o.ddess also common: figures of animals, especially a bull; and phallic objects (these mainly Roman).

2. Gla.s.s plain (iridescent from decay), ribbed, or moulded, in great variety of forms-bowls, jugs, cups, &c. Mostly late h.e.l.lenistic, Roman, and Byzantine, and especially common and of fine quality in the Orontes valley.

Parti-coloured gla.s.s (with white or yellow bands and threads) is earlier (Persian Period). Painted and enamelled gla.s.s with gilt or polychrome designs is later (ninth to fifteenth century, Arab).

[ILl.u.s.tRATION IX: SYRIAN WEAPONS, ETC.]

CHAPTER VI

PALESTINE

[See the diagrams of flint implements, Ill.u.s.trations II; pottery, XII; alphabets, XIV & XV.]

I. General Principles.

1. Study of the pottery of the country, not merely from books but from actual specimens, is an absolutely essential preliminary.

Without an acquaintance with this branch of Palestinian archaeology, so thorough that any sherd presenting the least character can be immediately a.s.signed to its proper period, no field research of any value can be carried out. (See further V below.)

2. A knowledge of the various Semitic alphabets is necessary for copying inscriptions. Unless the traveller be also acquainted with the languages he had better be cautious about copying Semitic inscriptions; without such knowledge he runs the risk of confusing different Semitic letters, which often closely resemble one another.

He should, however, be able to make squeezes and photographs.

The following are the languages and scripts which may be found in Palestinian Epigraphy.

Egyptian, in Hieroglyphics. Greek.

Babylonian Cuneiform. Latin.