POTMARKS FROM TELL TWEINI FIELD A

Abstract

Archaeological and ethnographic sources provide evidence for the practice of marking objects of all sorts by a variety of means in many different cultures around the world. In the Eastern Mediterranean of the Late Bronze and Early Iron Ages, the preponderance of extant evidence is in the form of marks impressed, incised, or painted on ceramic vessels. The great majority of Late Bronze Age potmarks have been recovered from Cyprus and neighbouring Ras Shamra/Minet el Beidha, with smaller quantities found along the Eastern Mediterranean and Aegean littoral. Scholarly attention at first focused on incised and painted potmarks as signs of Aegean or Cypriot writing but recent work has more broadly considered the contexts and ductus (manner of application) of the marks with the aim of identifying their functions. Geographical focus has also broadened as increasing numbers of potmarks have been noted in archaeological assemblages from the Levant and, to a more limited degree, Anatolia. In the Iron Age, the prevalence of evidence shifts to the Levant. Here we present seventy-seven potmarks from Field A in the centre of Tell Tweini. This assemblage represents a significant addition to the hitherto published corpora of potmarks from the Late Bronze/Early Iron Age Levant. A more elaborate study was originally planned but the unstable situation in Syria has made further documentation and investigation impossible. We are aware of the preliminary character of this presentation but we nevertheless want to disclose these data now in the hope that this contribution – in anticipation of a more profound study in the future – will to some extent enhance the increasing evidence for marked vessels in general and their connotation for the circulation of goods in the Late Bronze/ Early Iron Age Eastern Mediterranean in particular.