Hostname: page-component-7479d7b7d-c9gpj Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-11T04:59:24.449Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A Sardinian Askos from Crete

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 September 2013

Lucia Vagnetti
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

An askos (BSA 49 [1954] 222, pl. 25:111) found by R.W. Hutchinson in Tomb 2 at Khaniale Tekke near Knossos is recognized as an export from nuragic Sardinia; similar askoi are common there in the same chronological range, c. 850–680 B.C., as that represented by the Cretan context. Although other good parallels have also been found outside Sardinia, notably at Vetulonia in Etruria, the Tekke piece is the first Sardinian artefact of the Early Iron Age to be identified in the Aegean. Its presence there is related to the Phoenician element in the complex pattern of long distance trade that preceded the arrival in Italy of the first Western Greeks.

Type
Articles
Information
Annual of the British School at Athens , Volume 84 , November 1989 , pp. 355 - 360
Copyright
Copyright © The Council, British School at Athens 1989

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Acknowledgements. This short note owes much to many colleagues and friends. I wish to express my warmest thanks to Dr H.W. Catling, to Prof. J. Boardman and to Dr C. Kritzas for permission to re-study the juglet in the Heraklion Museum, where my gratitude also goes to Miss M. Bredaki and to Mrs A. Karetsou for all their kind help while I was there. D. Ridgway has improved my English text and shared his extensive experience of Greek ‘pre-colonial’ matters with me. M.L. Ferrarese Ceruti has offered her deep knowledge of Nuragic pottery, and has commented on this piece elsewhere (note 4 below). R. Peroni and F. Lo Schiavo have, as always, given unfailing support and many useful suggestions. Mistakes and inexactitudes are of course the responsibility of the author. I am also indebted to Mr A. Mancini for inking the drawing and to Mr Xilouris for the photographs.

1 Hutchinson, R.W., Boardman, J., ‘The Khaniale lekke Tombs’, BSA 49 (1954) 215–228Google Scholar; Boardman, J., ‘The Khaniale Tekke Tombs, II’, BSA 62 (1967) 57–75.Google Scholar

2 Boardman, cit.; see also Higgins, R., Greek and Roman Jewellery (1980; 2nd ed.), 107–111Google Scholar; Coldstream, J.N., ‘Greeks and Phoenicians in the Aegean’, in Niemeycr, H.G. (ed.), Phōnizer im Westen (1982) 261–275.Google Scholar

3 Hutchinson, Boardman, cit. 222, pl. 25:111; Boardman, cit. 64.

4 For a first presentation of the Tekke jug see Ceruti, M.L. Ferrarese, ‘Creta e Sardegna in età postmicenea. Una nota’, Convegno Internazionale ‘Il passaggio dal miceneo all’ alto arcaismo. Dal palazzo alla città' (Roma, March 1988 in press).Google Scholar

5 A thorough study of the class is being prepared by A. Moravetti; preliminary observations in Moravetti, A., ‘Una collezione privata da Gavoi. La brocca askoide’, in Sardegna Centro-orientale dal Neolitico alla fine del mondo antico (1980) 67–70Google Scholar; Id., ‘Il Nuraghe Santu Antine di Torralba. Brocche askoidi, pintadere e lisciatoi’, in Moravetti, A. (ed.), Il Nuraghe Santu Antine nel Logudoro Meilogu (1988) 189–206.Google Scholar

6 Lilliu, G., La Civiltà Nuragica (1982) 131 ff.Google Scholar: the two main shapes are shown at figs. 154 and 160 and a good selection of the most characteristic decorative patterns in figs. 153–166.

7 Contu, E., ‘Ceramica sarda di età nuragica a Lipari’, in Brea, L. Bernabò, Cavalier, M., Meligunìs-Lipara IV (1980) 829–36Google Scholar; Ceruti, M.L. Ferrarese, ‘Considerazioni sulla ceramica nuragica di Lipari’, Atti del II Convegno di Selargius (Selargius-Cagliari 1986), (1987) 431–442.Google Scholar

8 Orsi, P., ‘La necropli sicula di Pantalica’, MA, 21 (1912) 317, pl. 9:66Google Scholar; C. Giardino, ‘Sicilia e Sardegna fra la tarda età del bronzo e la prima età del ferro. Aspetti di contatti nel Mediterraneo centro-occidentale nell ambito della metallurgia’, II Conv. Selargius cit. 419–29.

9 See note 5 and Schiavo, F. Lo, ‘Osservazioni sul problema dei rapporti fra Sardegna ed Etruria in età nuragica’, L'Etruria mineraria. Atti del XII Convegno di Studi Etruschi e Italici 1979 (1981) 299–314Google Scholar; Gras, M., Trafics tyrrhéniens archaīques (1985) 152–6Google Scholar; Schiavo, F. Lo, Ridgway, D., ‘La Sardegna e il Mediterraneo occidentale allo scorcio del II millennio’, II Conv. Selargius cit. 391–418, esp. 394–5.Google Scholar

10 Ceruti, M.L. Ferrarese, ‘Un bronzetto nuragico da Ossi (Sassari)’, Studi in onore di Giovanni Lilliu per il suo settantesimo compleanno (1985) 51–59.Google Scholar Ead. cit. in note 7; Fadda, M.A., in Civiltà Nuragica (exhibition catalogue; Milan 1985) 117–8Google Scholar, figs. 11–2.

11 Lilliu cit. fig. 160; Badas, U., ‘Genna Maria, Villanovaforru (Cagliari). I vani 10/18’, II Conv. Selargius cit. 133–146, pls. II, IV.Google Scholar Among the many examples from Vetulonia the following items are closest to the Tekke jug: Levi, D., CVA Firenze, IV B k, pls. 1:18–19Google Scholar; 3:16; 6:18; 7:2; 8:12; 13:21, 24.

12 Ceruti, M.L. Ferrarese, ‘La Sardegna e il mondo miceneo,’ in Civiltà Nuragica cit. 245–54Google Scholar; F. Lo Schiavo, ‘La Sardegna nuragica e il mondo mediterraneo’, ibid. 255–84; Schiavo, F. Lo, Macnamara, E., Vagnetti, L., ‘Late Cypriot Imports to Italy and their influence on local Bronzework’, PBSR 53 (1985) 1–71Google Scholar; Ceruti, M.L. Ferrarese, Vagnetti, L., Schiavo, F. Lo, ‘Minoici, Micenei e Ciprioti in Sardegna alla luce delle piú recenti scoperte’, in Balmuth, M.S. (ed.), Studies in Sardinian Archaeology, III: Nuragic Sardinia and the Mycenaean World (BAR Int. ser. 387, 1987) 7–37Google Scholar; Vagnetti, L., Schiavo, F. Lo, ‘Late Bronze Age long distance trade in the Mediterranean: the role of the Cypriots’ (paper read at the Early Society in Cyprus conference, Edinburgh 1988Google Scholar; in press).

13 I do not know of any other ceramic or bronze object of likely Sardinian origin in EIA contexts in the Aegean. However, in the hope that this note might stimulate colleagues to discover such items in new and old contexts, I would also like to draw attention to a little clay object found in tomb 40 of the Toumba cemetery at Lefkandi, dated to the LPG–SPG I period, i.e. before 900 B.C. It is a pendant of black burnished fabric, decorated with impressed circles, and could represent a long spouted jug. A northern Macedonian connection has been suggested; but I wonder if it could possibly be a clumsy reproduction of a Sardinian jug of the earlier variety. See Popham, M.R., Touloupa, E., Sackett, L.H., ‘Further Excavation of the Toumba Cemetery at Lefkandi, 1981’, BSA 77 (1982) 220 and 235Google Scholar, pls. 21:15, 28:e.

14 Ridgway, D., ‘Sardinia and the first western Greeks’, in Balmuth, M.S. (ed.) Studies in Sardinian Archaeology, II, (1986) 173–186Google Scholar; Id. cit. in notes 9, 16.

15 G. Buchner, ‘Die Beziehungen zwischen der euböischen Kolonie Pithekoussai auf der Insel Ischia und dem nordwestsemitischen Mittelmeerraum in der zweiten Hälfte des 8. Jhs. v. Chr.’, in Niemeyer (ed.) cit. 277–298; D. Ridgway, L'alba della Magna Grecia (1984) and the papers cited in note 14; Bernardini, P., Tronchetti, C., ‘La Sardegna, gli Etruschi e i Greci’, Civiltà Nuragica cit. 285–307Google Scholar; Bernardini, P., ‘S. Antioco. Area del Cronicario (Campagne di scavo 1983–86),’ RivStFen 16 (1988) 73–119.Google Scholar

16 16 Od. 14. 287–98, on which see Mele, A., Il commercio greco arcaico: prexis ed emporie (1979) 87–91CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Ridgway, D., ‘The Pithekoussai shipwreck’, Studies in honour of T.B.L. Webster II (1988) 97–107Google Scholar; Id., ‘Western Geometric pottery: new light on interactions in Italy’ Third Symposium on Ancient Greek and Related Pottery (Copenhagen, September 1987; in press).

17 Boardman cit. 63–67.

18 Op. cit. note 2 above. On the bronze bowl with Phoenician inscription from Tekke tomb J see recently Guzzo, M.G. Amadasi, ‘Iscrizioni semitiche di nord-ovest in contesti greci e italici (X–VII sec.a.C.)’, Dial. Arch., 3rd series, 5 (1987) 13–16.Google Scholar For a general survey of the early Phoenician activity in the Mediterranean, including the Aegean see Niemeyer, H.G., ‘Die Phönizier und die Mittelmeerwelt im Zeitalter Homers’, JRGZM 31 (1984) 3–94.Google Scholar

19 Shaw, J.W., ‘Excavations at Kommos (Crete) during 1981)’, Hesperia 51 (1982) 188.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

20 Kilian, K., ‘Zwei italische Kammhelme aus Griechenland’, Etudes Delphiques, BCH, Suppl. IV (1977) 429–442Google Scholar; Close-Brooks, J., ‘A Villanovan belt from Euboea’, BICS 14 (1967) 22–24Google Scholar; Hase, F.W. von, ‘Zur Interpretation villanovazeitlicher und frühetruskischer Funde in Griechenland und der Ägäis’, Kleine Schriften aus dem Vorgeschichtlichen Seminar, Marburg, 5 (1979) 62–99Google Scholar, inclines for a chronology after the foundation of the colonies. See also Kilian-Dirlmeier, I., ‘Fremde Weihungen in griechischen Heiligtümern vom 8. bis zum Beginn des 7. Jahrhunderts v. Chr.’, JRGZM 32 (1985) 215–254.Google Scholar

21 Karageorghis, V., BCH, III (1987) 695 ff.Google Scholar, fig. 187; V. Karageorghis, F. Lo Schiavo, ‘A West Mediterranean obelos from Amathus’, RivStFen (in press).