UNDESERVEDLY OVERLOOKED? TRANSPORT VESSELS OF EMERGING IMPORTANCE IN AEGEAN INTERCULTURAL EXCHANGES,, ca. 1450 - 1150 B.C.
Jeremy Rutter

Students of eastern Mediterranean trade during the latter half of the second millennium B.C. have long been familiar with the two or three most prominent vessel types used for maritime transport of primarily agricultural produce in bulk: the Canaanite jar typical of the Syro-Palestinian littoral, the Nile delta, and Cyprus; the large, medium-coarse stirrup jar characteristic of the Aegean; and various short-necked as well as tall-necked, light-surfaced pithos types produced on Cyprus. Examples of all three were found on the Ulu Burun wreck and of the last two on the later Point Iria wreck. Fragments as well as complete examples of all three have also been found at the Minoan harbor town of Kommos. But the excavations of 1976-1995 at Kommos have also shown that several other ceramic types can be added to this list, each one indicative of a particular region within what is rapidly becoming a far more complex picture of interregional exchanges during the so-called Third Palace Period (ca. 1450-1200) in the Aegean than may once have been suspected. Examples of such additional transport vessel forms that have so far not received the attention they deserve are: reddish-brown burnished jugs from southwestern Anatolia; dark-surfaced and burnished jars of two different varieties from Sardinia; highly micaceous, dark-surfaced pithoi from Kythera; and short-necked, pale-surfaced amphoras from the western Mesara plain of Crete. Reconstruction of patterns in interregional exchanges during this peak period of Late Bronze Age trade in the central and eastern Mediterranean will depend on the ability of ceramic specialists working at major coastal centers to recognize, often from relatively small fragments, not just Canaanite amphoras and transport stirrup jars, but also all of the above - and no doubt other transport vessel types that have yet to be recognized!