Some Notes on the Tal Atchana Pottery

Abstract

The fabric of the group of sherds examined by me was certainly indigenous and, in spite of the strong Minoan influence visible in some cases, no imported Cretan ware was traceable.The evidences of Cretan influence, however, are unmistakable.The large cups or bowls, of somewhat thin make, showing white rosettes on a dark ground, which are here exceptionally forthcoming, may certainly be regarded as derivatives of the egg-shell cups, with dark, metallic lustre ground and similar white rosettes, that characterise the finest M.M. IIa technique. That exquisite bowls of this class presenting decorative details that point to the Knossian Palace fabric were actually reaching the Syrian Coast by the approximate date of 1900 B.C. is now demonstrated by the fragment—the first-fruits of a still unexplored Ras Shamra tomb—kindly lent by Monsieur Claude Schaeffer and the authorities of the Louvre Museum to the Minoan Exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts. In the case of the Tal Atchana specimens, where the parallels belong to only one comparatively simple class of decoration and the whole fabric is of an inferior and imitative kind it is obvious that we may have to deal with a distinctly later dating. The white on dark rosettes themselves were still a common decorative motive in the later phase (b) of M.M. II which carries us down to about 1700 B.C. But the survival of this in a local style may clearly have gone down still later.