Phoenician ceramic tableware between East and West: some remarks on open forms and on their absolute chronology

Abstract

In this paper a typological and chronological framework of the evolution of open forms of the Phoenician table pottery is outlined, starting from the Iron Age documentation of the Syro-Palestinian coast (11th-6th centuries BC) up to the colonial elaborations of the Iberian Peninsula (9th-6th centuries BC). The definition of the chrono-typological horizons identified in both areas is combined with an analysis of the issues affecting the absolute chronology of the Iron Age in the Mediterranean basin. The focus is on the early stages of the Phoenician presence in West, given the increasing number of archaic evidences emerged notably at Huelva and Cadiz. The analysis is also carried out through the comparison with other archaic contexts recently come to light, for example, at Utica and Carthage.