The Late Bronze Age tomb found in Aphek was also the only context which did not raise severe questions of interpretation. Tomb 1200, located in Area G, at the edge of the summit, was a well built tomb, in which eight burials were found, belonging to some of the richer residents of Aphek (Kochavi 1989: 76-78; Beck and Kochavi 1993: 68; finds from tomb Kochavi 1990: 32-33).
Fig. 1 A straight-sided alabastron from Tomb 1200
2
Warsaw University Tel Aviv University
We are grateful to Moshe Kochavi and Yuval Gadot for allowing us to publish the Mycenaean pottery as part of the final publication of Area X in Aphek. We would also like to thank L. French and P. A. Mountjoy for very useful comments given after the paper was delivered in Vienna.
So far, studies concerning the spatial distribution of Mycenaean pottery in Levantive sites have been relatively few, including STEEL (1998; 2002), LEONARD and Cline (1998), and VAN Wijngaarden (2002).
Fig. 2 Distribution of Mycenaean sherds in the stratum X13
In addition to local pottery and some Cypriot imports, it contained four almost complete Mycenaean vessels: two straight-sided alabastra (Fig. 1) and two stirrup jars as well as a fragment of a flask (Guzowska and Yasur-Landau forthcoming: cat. nos. 56-59). Unfortunately, we could not examine two of the complete vessels (a stirrup jar and an alabastron), lost in the years following the excavations, leaving behind only photographic and drawing documentation. Based on the documentation of the preserved vessels the assemblage can be dated no more precisely than to LHIIIA2-B1. Imitations of Mycenaean shapes in local clay were also deposited as burial gifts. Chronologically, this tomb may be assigned to the late 14th century into the 13th century.
World History
