Insights into the economic organization of the Phoenician homeland: a multi-disciplinary investigation of the later Iron Age II and Persian period Phoenician amphorae from Tell el-Burak

Aaron Schmitt*a http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8997-1898, Kamal Badreshanyb http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8799-7234, Evgenia Tachatoua http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6596-6197 & Hélène Saderca Institute of Ancient Studies, Ancient Near Eastern Archaeology, Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz, Germanyb Department of Archaeology, Durham University, Durham, UKc Department of History and Archaeology, American University Beirut, Lebanon.Aaron Schmitt (corresponding author), Institute of Ancient Studies, Ancient Near Eastern Archaeology, Johannes Gutenberg University, Hegelstr. 59, 55122 Mainz, Germany. Email: aaronw.schmitt@gmail.com*Joint first authors.This paper details the results of a large-scale multi-disciplinary analysis of Iron Age pottery from a settlement in the core of the Phoenician homeland. The research presented is centred upon a large corpus of Phoenician carinated-shoulder amphorae (CSA) from the later Iron Age II and Persian period contexts at the coastal site of Tell el-Burak. Traditional typological investigations are combined with a focused archaeometric approach including a new quantitative method for the morphometric analysis of amphorae, thin-section petrography, geochemistry and organic residue analyses, aimed at gaining a more detailed understanding of the organization of the Phoenician economy. Despite gradual, but marked typological changes, very little change in the fabrics of these amphorae was noted over the 400-year Iron Age occupation of the site. The research, thus, demonstrates that the production of Iron Age amphorae from Tell el-Burak was highly organized, and was undertaken by long-lived, sustained and centralized modes. The establishment of Tell el-Burak and this new pottery industry coincides with the proliferation of the world’s first great imperial powers, the Neo-Assyrian, Neo-Babylonian and Persian empires; the outcomes of this research provide new insights into socio-economic strategies adopted in the Phoenician homeland during this pivotal time.