The term incense-burner (or "incense-altar": Macalister 1904, 25) has been applied with varying degrees of justification to a great diversity of objects from the Near East (e.g. Oates 1974, 180 and Lapp 1975, 103 ff.), none of which possesses clearer indications of function than the small cuboid burners which form the subject of this paper (Fig. 1a). Three kinds of evidence are particularly indicative: (1) Inscriptions, carved (or incised) on the sides of many examples (e.g. Rhodokanakis 1926, 469-471 and Ryckmans 1927, 192), involve words for aromatic perfumes, including types of incense and the plants from which they can be obtained (e.g. Ryckmans 1935, 176-177 and Jamme 1953, 94-95). (2) Traces of burning are commonly found in their basins (e.g. Petrie 1937 a, 10 and Cleveland 1965, 118; et al.), and tests conducted on resinous substances actually discovered therein have yielded positive results (e.g. Plenderleith in Caton-Thompson 1944, 50)' (3) Contemporary depictions of incense-burning scenes on the sides of a related type of incense-burner (e.g. Rathjens 1955, 247, no. 399), as well as ethnographic parallels revealing similar objects used in modern Arabia (e.g. Tufnell1961, 32 ff. and Katakura 1977,73 ff.). Although the exact context in which these particular artefacts were used in antiquity may still perhaps be debated (e.g. whether for ritual purposes or not), their general function as incenseburners has clearly been established. It is not suggested that the cuboid incense-burner was the only type current at any time; it most certainly was not (e.g. Grohmann 1914,37 ff.; L6hr 1927; May 1935, 12 ff.; and Pritchard 1969, 428-434). However, the cuboid incense-burner has attracted considerable notice throughout this century, and various scholars have drawn attention to the object's apparent religious (e.g. Weiner 1927,29-32 and Cook 1930, 68 ff.), economic (e.g. Albright 1956,142-145 and Moorey 1980, 44 ff.) and social (e.g. Van Beek 1960,82 and Doe 1971, 27) significance. Recently, it has been mentioned in connection with the ancient Levantine political scene (e.g. Lemaire 1974, 63-74), though not without objection (e.g. Bartlett 1979, 61 ff.). Suggestions about the object's origins have varied: Syria (e.g. Petrie 19°6,34), Assyro-Mesopotamia (e.g. Petrie 1928, 19 and Legrain 1930, 10), Cyprus (Galling 1929, 247 ff.), South Arabia (e.g. Albright 1945, 28-29 and Millard 1963, 135 ff.), Assyria (e.g. Glueck 197°,328 and Stern 1975, 47) and Phoenicia (Stern in Aharoni 1973,52-53). Nor is its dating any more certainly agreed, varying from "Isin-Larsa through Islamic times" (Roux 1960, 27) to "the vast majority solely to the Persian period" (Stern 1973, 181).