Preliminary Report on the Cypriot and Greek Imports from the Iron Age Settlement at Tell el-Burak, Lebanon. A First Survey of Imported Pottery Reaching the Central Levant, Ca. 750-325 BCE

Abstract

Although “Phoenician traders” have been assigned a central role in the Iron Age Mediterranean, imports of pottery into “Phoenicia” have so far been rarely dealt with. This is mostly due to the limited data available from the Central Levant. The excavations in the Iron Age strata at Tell el-Burak (2001-2022) now first provide large amounts of Cypriot and Greek imports of the 8th-4th c. BCE from a site in Lebanon. This paper preliminarily presents this material and sets it into a wider picture. It focuses less on the decorated fine wares than on the coarse wares (transport amphorae and mortaria), mostly neglected in previous research. These notably overshadow the fine wares at Tell el-Burak and provide evidence for continuous trade with Cypriot and Greek commodities along the Levantine coast throughout the 7th-4th c. BCE.