Trends of Continuity and Change in the Phoenician Coroplastic Production during the Iron Age and Persian Period

Abstract

This paper offers a scenario on the Phoenician imaginary through the analysis of the local coroplastic production between the Iron Age and the Persian period. The aim is to give an order to the many coroplastic subjects according to a macro-chronological subdivision based on archaeological contexts and manufacturing techniques. Two distinguished phases are thus identified, the Phoenician I and Phoenician II productions. More general issues are also addressed regarding the possible use of these figurines in various contexts, their geographical distribution, and a semantic analysis of the represented subjects. The paper also seeks to trace the dynamics of continuity and discontinuity in the local coroplastic art through the identification of two non-local productions, i.e. the Cypro-Phoenician and Graeco-Phoenician productions.