A Reassessment of the Mycenaean Pottery at Tarsus

Abstract

Since the publication of the Late Bronze Age material from Tarsus in 1956, there have been important developments in the study of Mycenaean pottery–a ware that forms the distinctive feature of the LB IIb levels at Tarsus. At Mycenae itself the work of the Helleno-British expedition has produced comparable material, some stratified, some in bulk, which is presently under study. Major excavations have taken place at Tiryns, Lefkandi, Perati, Ag. Irini (Keos) etc. and are either fully or partially published. In Cyprus the work of Dikaios at Enkomi is published and new work at Paphos has brought startling results. All these affect the standing of the Tarsus material.My previous opinion, used by Desborough (1964, 206), that the pottery was “Mycenaean of the transition from LH IIIB to C, with the accent rather on LH IIIB” had become quite obviously wrong and this opinion was corrected in my notes on early LH IIIC pottery written in 1968 (French VI, 136 and n. 7). Shortly after, I sought permission to study the Tarsus material when possible and this permission was kindly granted by Professor Goldman and Professor Mellink in April 1971. The significance which Professor Mellink attached to the project can be judged from her comments (1971, 168).