Phoenician Feast of Merit_Motya Baal HS 18 (original) (raw)

2020, Tyre, Sidon and Byblos. Three global harbours of the Ancient World

Abstract

Collective consumption of food is one of the most distinctive features of community cults in the Ancient Near East. Rituals of commensality had both a political and social meaning and entailed the membership in an elitist group or in a wider community. Recent discoveries in Middle/Late Bronze Levant (Sidon) as well as in the Iron Age in Phoenician contexts (Motya) may illustrate the deep roots of rites which became typical custom of the Mediterranean civilisation.

Figures (10)

Professeur émérite, université de Bale

Professeur émérite, université de Bale

The main plan of Building C8 consists of two rows of rooms: a front wing, with the entrance room (L.4436) and other subsidiary spaces to the east and the west; in the rear row, a series of at least three parallel long rooms, possibly used as a warehouse” (fig. 1). The central room (L.4430) is the largest of me building. The floor level was slightly higher than in the western room. In the northern half of the room, the pavement was reinforced with small pebbles and pressed marl. In the south-western comer, the tine ofa red deer antler was retrieved on the floor. and against the western wall, just north of door (L.4414). there was a concentration of Red Slip and plain pottery. The assemblage included principally Red Slip plates and drinking vessels (pl. 1), jugs and large bowls (pl. 2), indigenous fine tableware, as chalices, plates, and miniaturist vessels, and many cooking vessels of

The main plan of Building C8 consists of two rows of rooms: a front wing, with the entrance room (L.4436) and other subsidiary spaces to the east and the west; in the rear row, a series of at least three parallel long rooms, possibly used as a warehouse” (fig. 1). The central room (L.4430) is the largest of me building. The floor level was slightly higher than in the western room. In the northern half of the room, the pavement was reinforced with small pebbles and pressed marl. In the south-western comer, the tine ofa red deer antler was retrieved on the floor. and against the western wall, just north of door (L.4414). there was a concentration of Red Slip and plain pottery. The assemblage included principally Red Slip plates and drinking vessels (pl. 1), jugs and large bowls (pl. 2), indigenous fine tableware, as chalices, plates, and miniaturist vessels, and many cooking vessels of

Impasto Ware (pl. 3).°° In the last stage of the use o the building, at the end of the eighth century Bc, Greel proto-Corinthian pottery also appears (fig. 2).°”7 The ceramic assemblage found in Building C8 is a proper good tableware service used for special occurrences celebrated by the members of the same social group in a public building. Small finds provide further evidence of this collective practice. Grinding stones and pestles are connected to the preparation of food, and the large quantities of faunal remains, basically belonging to caprovines (Ovis vel capra), fishes (tuna, Thunnus thunnus), shellfish, crabs (Brachyura) found inside the room represent the scraps of meal food. Luxury items, like a calcite alabastron, polished marble pieces, the teeth of a killer whale Orcinus orca, a carefully worked and inlaid mother-of-pearl, hint at

Impasto Ware (pl. 3).°° In the last stage of the use o the building, at the end of the eighth century Bc, Greel proto-Corinthian pottery also appears (fig. 2).°”7 The ceramic assemblage found in Building C8 is a proper good tableware service used for special occurrences celebrated by the members of the same social group in a public building. Small finds provide further evidence of this collective practice. Grinding stones and pestles are connected to the preparation of food, and the large quantities of faunal remains, basically belonging to caprovines (Ovis vel capra), fishes (tuna, Thunnus thunnus), shellfish, crabs (Brachyura) found inside the room represent the scraps of meal food. Luxury items, like a calcite alabastron, polished marble pieces, the teeth of a killer whale Orcinus orca, a carefully worked and inlaid mother-of-pearl, hint at

—— aaa EE OY finds in Building C8: Levantine strainer-spouted Jar (MC.15,.4468/14; proto-Corinthian kotyle (MC.11.2491/1); proto-Corinthian oinochoe (MC.13.4441/1 ) E gyptian calcite alabastron (MC.12. 95); a tine of a red deer antler (MC.13.RF.1). Domestic tools: pestles (MC.12.83, MC.12.114), smoothing (MC.11.54, MC.15.51), and grinding stones {MC.15.61, MC.14.138, MC.11.70).

—— aaa EE OY finds in Building C8: Levantine strainer-spouted Jar (MC.15,.4468/14; proto-Corinthian kotyle (MC.11.2491/1); proto-Corinthian oinochoe (MC.13.4441/1 ) E gyptian calcite alabastron (MC.12. 95); a tine of a red deer antler (MC.13.RF.1). Domestic tools: pestles (MC.12.83, MC.12.114), smoothing (MC.11.54, MC.15.51), and grinding stones {MC.15.61, MC.14.138, MC.11.70).

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