Figure 23.3 Phoenician bronze bowl from Nimrud, late ninth–eight centuries bce, featuring the pantheon of a coastal town (probably Sidon). British Museum, London.
Source: Digital reconstruction after drawings by A. H. Layard and R. D. Barnett.
During the eighth and early seventh centuries bce, the aforesaid iconographic and stylistic trends evolved, with workshops specializing in flatter bowls featuring a wide array of narrative content densely spread over concentric friezes arranged around central medallions. The friezes include siege scenes, combat of all kinds, processions involving sacred boats, and many other motifs (Markoe 1985, 2007). The motif of the “Slaying Pharaoh” repeatedly recurs on their medallion (as an icon of loyalty oaths; Gubel 2012). To judge by the number of finds beyond the Phoenician coast (Vella 2010), the Phoenician koinai of Cyprus played a crucial role in their production, whereas the most recent examples betray a growing Etruscan input in their manufacture (Markoe 2007: 170). New evidence from Crete corroborates, however, that other (mainland) Phoenician workshops active during the eighth century bce remained faithful to axially arranged repetitions of clusters of symbols (e.g., at Eleutherna; Stampolides 2004: 277n349) and yet others adhered to friezes of striding bulls (Almagro-Gorbea 2004). Modern research follows and expands a first classification of workshops and individual hands based on recurring characteristics (e.g., “star,” “rosette,” marsh-pattern bowls; Barnett 1974; Almagro-Gorbea and Torres Ortiz 2015) (see also chapter 24, this volume, along with figure 24.1).
These bowls were used during banquets prefiguring the Greek symposion, but also for libations in sanctuaries. They were placed on bronze stands, the most popular type of which had their shafts decorated with one to three protuberances in the form of floral corollae with drooping leaves. These recur on associated accessories for the banquets such as braziers, incense stands (thymiateria), and torch holders widely distributed throughout the Mediterranean during the eighth–seventh centuries bce. The caryatid stands (a trumpet-shaped shaft of a related type) feature a nude goddess (“Breast Astarte”) instead of the characteristic floral design reminiscent of the Phoenician balustrade pillars depicted on ivories and neo-Assyrian representations of the city of Sidon (Morstadt 2008; Jiménez Ávila 2002: 165–212). These recur on the collar of oinochoai in the western Mediterranean also with zoomorphic and anthropomorphic spouts (Jiménez Ávila 2002: 37–104).
Bronze was also commonly used for insignia of rank and status, such as bronze sceptre heads with battlements and lion heads of a type current in the ninth–eighth centuries bce Near East (Niederreiter 2005). Sceptres or incense burners with ram heads are also typically Phoenician, judging by preserved iconography: they appear in the hands of twin deities or acolytes still represented on Persian-age Sidonian coinage. This iconography hence corroborates the city’s role in the genesis of Phoenician art (Gubel 2001). The type of oinochoai they carry in the other hand are well attested in the Phoenician red-slip series, reproducing silver and metal prototypes attested in Sidon and the western Mediterranean (Taloni 2015). Inscribed Egyptian situlae (libation vases), as well as deviating iconographic details, underscore a Phoenician share in this late seventh- to sixth-century bce Egyptian production; one is tempted to link such artistic intrusions with the bronze workers of the Memphite “Camp of the Tyrians” (Hdt. 2.112; Gubel 2015a: 249–50).
Jewelry
Pendants worn on necklaces, including sun-discs, lunar crescents, or a combination thereof derive from Mesopotamian models and survived from the early first millennium bce until the Alexandrian conquests (Quillard 1979, 2013). The same goes for a unique type particularly well attested in the Khaldeh cemetery (south periphery of Beirut), the Omega pendant, the concept of which ultimately reached black Africa (Gubel 2015a: 241–43). Golden bracelets inlaid with lapis lazuli and carnelian reflecting Tanite prototypes were found in the tomb of Queen Yaba (Nimrud, in a late eighth-century bce context, although probably older heirlooms). The excavations of Nimrud and the Phoenician governor’s tomb in Larnaka (Cyprus) also yielded some spectacular examples of fibulae with chains ending on floral pendants (Flourentzos and Vitobello 2009). Typically, Phoenician pendants in the shape of ankh signs (crux ansata), cartouches, amulets of all sorts, and cylindrical amulet cases were adopted from Third Intermediate period Egyptian sources. The amulet cases were designed to carry rolled amulets made of tiny sheets of papyrus, silver, or gold, bearing magical formulae and/or motifs (Hölbl 1989: 104–23). Also adopted from Egyptian repertoire were bracelets, simple armlets and anklets, elongated cartouche rings, or hoops with lotus or papyriform extremities and (twisted) loops for the earlobes (Culican 1986: 177–94, 337–54, 363–88, 481–16, 527–34, 541–48, 615–27; see also Culican 2009). Whether the early first-millennium bce small recipients made of precious materials (Azize 2003) were copied on calcite, glass, and faience alabaster or the other way round remains an open question.
Unlike most of the aforesaid jewelry types, bracelets with embossed designs (scarabs, griffins, and sphinxes), some of which were executed in the “open-work” style (or ajouré technique) were no longer produced in the Punic realm. In the western circles, the fashion of nose rings (nezem) instead gained popularity. “Leech” or “boat”-shaped earrings also found a clientele in the western Mediterranean. These were often decorated with granulation, in the same manner as the crescent-shaped or twisted rings with swivel mounts, inserting stamp seals in different (semi-) precious materials (Quattrocchi Pisano 1974).
Ivories
The Levantine Late Bronze Age tradition of carved ivories gained a new momentum between the ninth and the early seventh centuries bce. The Phoenician share in this production by far outnumbered the output of contemporary Aramaean, Luwian, and Palestinian workshops (Barnett 1975; Herrmann 1992: 75–111; Ciafaloni 1992; Winter 2010: 187–333, 381–430; Gansell et al. 2014). The dwindling number of Syrian elephant herds (often ascribed to the overproduction of carved ivories) may have contributed to this craft’s decline in the early seventh century bce. This could not have been the only decisive factor, however, as the Phoenician towns sustained intense relationships with Egypt and had founded Carthage in the late ninth century bce, both areas that would guarantee the supply of African elephant tusks. The sack of Sidon and the subsequent curtailing of Tyre’s economic drive under Esarhaddon in the early seventh century bce, in turn, resulted in a dramatic reduction of Phoenician luxury products in the west, including ivories and bowls of the classical Phoenician type (Gubel 2012: 34).
Ivory works from Punic sites (Carthage, Palestrina, Carmona, Cádiz) include both imported heirlooms and local interpretations. The vast majority of Phoenician plaques were carved in the champlevé technique (raised or slightly raised relief; see figure 23.4), whereas a smaller amount of open-work panels (ajouré) and three-dimensional figurines in pharaonic attire were produced by the hands of exceptionally skilled artists. Oftentimes combined with cloisonné work—inlaid with semiprecious stones or polychrome paste (occasionally overlaid with gold foil)—the panels were destined to decorate prestigious furniture, such as sets of thrones, footstools, tripod tables with ivory lion’s feet and beds, cupboards, and the like. Only a few ivories have been excavated on the Phoenician coast (Byblos and Sarepta), but Nimrud farther inland yielded dazzling scores (figure 23.4). North Syrian–style ivories found there no doubt arrived as booty of Assyrian raids, while the Phoenician examples are more likely to represent diplomatic gifts and dowries, as supported by information in the Assyrian annals and the rich jewelry set of Sargon II’s Phoenician Queen Yaba. The Salamis set of furniture and possibly the Arslan Tash and Samaria sets of ivory panels may also be seen in the light of the intermarriage politics aimed at safeguarding Phoenician trade.
Figure 23.4 Champlevé furniture panel, Nimrud, eighth century bce. Metropolitan Museum of Art (Rogers Fund, 1962), New York. Miniaturized version of the decoration of Sidonian stone shrines.
Source: Public domain.
Ivory b
ridle and harness ornaments such as crest-holders, blinkers, and frontlets imitating that of similar bronze accessories worn on battlefields were probably also worn during military and religious parades. Sphinxes, winged scarabs, deities in Egyptian attire, cartouches with pseudo-hieroglyphs, and oudjat-eyes frequently recur on blinkers and frontlets (Gubel 2005). Modestly shaped trapezoidal and cylindrical pyxides have tentatively been identified as small containers of spices during banquets, whereas others no doubt contained cosmetics. Knobbed terminals of sceptres, hair pins, and combs with animal scenes, as well as a few bracelets with scarabs, completed the series of personal attire.
The rich iconography of the ivories is of a crucial importance to our understanding of Phoenician art, religion, and society, only comparable with that of the above-mentioned bowls’ friezes. Individual motifs depicted on the reduced surface of the stamp seals’ bases, for example, are better contextualized when they appear in the ivories within a broader narrative context. The ivories’ iconography shows that the multiple elements borrowed from contemporary Egyptian art were not merely adopted simply because of their decorative qualities. Rather, Phoenician artisans combined Egyptian motifs in original compositions that translated visually their own local legends and beliefs (Ciafaloni 1995; Gubel 2012). For instance, we see that several ivories deal with the solar cycle, cosmology, and the restraint of evil forces by the king, who appears frequently dressed like a Pharaoh, invariably curried with elements from older Oriental and contemporary Egyptian models (for Phoenician religion, see chapter 19, this volume). Finally, many ivory plaques reproducing mythological animals alternating with floral or other designs (e.g., the sacred tree) give us an idea of how the now-lost reliefs and wall paintings of Phoenician palaces and temples may have looked. Finally, the stylistic analysis of the ivories allows us to discern several workshops, with Sidon as a main production center of the “Court Style” ivories, besides other workshops (Byblos, Arwad).
Seals
On the eve of the first millennium bce, papyrus scrolls were favored by Phoenician scribes and private correspondents to the expense of the traditional Near Eastern clay tablets. Easier to transport and store on the shelves of official and private archives alike, the papyrus sheets’ surface far better suited the tracing of the Phoenician cursive script. Once rolled up, these documents were tied with a string and subsequently sealed with an oval clay pellet with the impression of a stamp seal (bulla). Needless to say, this practice explains both the extreme rarity of Phoenician cylinder seals and the growing numbers of stamp seals on a pace with the development of administrative and commercial activities.
The early first millennium witnessed a modest revival of the import of steatite scarabs from Third Intermediate period Egypt, an activity that would only peak in fuller strength again during the seventh–sixth centuries bce with the Saite output and Phoenician imitations largely distributed throughout the Mediterranean (Hölbl 1986). Stamp seals of the scaraboid type (with plain backs and sides) prevailed during the ninth–eighth centuries bce. Their compositions frequently involve animals displaying regional styles, both from the northern (Lyre Player and Yunus/Carchemish Cemetery groups) and southern Levant. Sometimes we find “Free Field” compositions with an abundance of secondary elements crammed between the main figures (horror vacui), while oftentimes the decoration of stamp seals was divided by two or more horizontal registers. Tyrian workshops seem to have concentrated on the diffusion of small steatite and faience scarab seals, with a sharper focus on yet embryonal Phoenician motifs such as enthroned divinities and worshippers or (mythological) animals flanking sacred trees (Boschloos 2014).
The earliest Phoenician (semiprecious) hardstone scaraboid seals appeared during the early first millennium when regional styles prevail. These lapidary artists obviously preferred to draw on the same repertoire of motifs used by ivory carvers, sculptors, and bronze workers. From the late ninth century bce onward, inscriptions were added to the seals on behalf of the owners, allowing epigraphers to discern Phoenician from Aramaean and other Northwest Semitic seals (e.g., figure 23.5; Bordreuil 1987; Avigad-Sass 1997: 270–79, 409–16). However, since several of these inscriptions represent secondary additions to seals carved by Phoenician craftsmen—that is, usurpations—the epigraphic data by itself cannot define the original cultural milieu of a seal, but only in combination with its iconographic and stylistic characteristics (Lemaire 1993). Together with ceramics, ivories, bowls, and the diffusion of the alphabetic script, the distribution of these seals mirrors the impact of Phoenician trade on peripheral Levantine regions. In the glyptic medium, this phenomenon is evidenced, for instance, by the penetration of Aramaean elements into the composition, or by the choice of new types, such as the Cypro-Phoenician cubical seals (Gubel 1987b). Before their number dwindled because of the destruction of Sidon and the curtailing of Tyre’s overseas trade in the early seventh century bce, several Phoenician workshops resolutely favored scarab-shaped seals over scaraboids.
Figure 23.5 Limestone scaraboid seal of Phoenician manufacture with Aramaic (?) inscription, eighth century bce. The Egyptian dwarf god Bes figures in a central cartouche surrounded by a frieze of reversed pseudo Egyptian hieroglyphs. Brussels, Royal Museums of Art and History. O.4789.
Source: Royal Museums of Art and History, Brussels.
As a rule, Egyptianizing motifs occupied two-thirds of the available space on the stamp’s base between a winged solar disc in the upper and an Egyptian nub offering basket in the seal’s upper and lower segments. These arrangements recur during the later seventh to early fourth centuries bce on the bulk of the “classical Phoenician scarabs” (Boardman 2003) in green jasper (if not the Sardinian variant thereof). In the earlier Punic contexts, they were mixed with red carnelian seals, possibly heirlooms from unknown late eighth- to seventh-century bce production centers. Parallels from the Levant, motifs borrowed from the iconography in coins of mainland Phoenician towns, and popular Achaemenid themes assign a fair share of this Punic production to homeland workshops (Amrit, Byblos?).
To sum up, seals are attested all over the Mediterranean realm as red fossils of Phoenician (and subsequently Punic) trade, and they illustrate changes in the balance of power. The initial and predominant Egyptianizing style and iconography betray the impact of the cultural interaction with other Mediterranean cultures as reflected by Cypriot, Euboian, Persian, Greek, and, finally, Etruscan style idioms (Boardman 2003). Mounted in gold, silver, and bronze swivel rings worn initially on elaborate chains, several seals were obviously used to sign and countersign official documents on papyrus scrolls, as indicated by hundreds of bullae from state archives dispersed all over the Mediterranean throughout the Persian and early Hellenistic periods (Redissi 1999; Kaoukabani 2005).
Other Minor Arts and Crafts
By the end of the eighth century bce, a new artisanal production was ushered in under Phoenician initiative—namely, inscribed ostrich eggs with painted or engraved designs (figure 23.6; Gubel 2015b). These large eggs, of which a few survive, were decorated on the potters’ wheels with horizontal bands in the bichrome ware tradition, combined with vertical friezes, with metopes featuring floral designs, and variants on the Tanit symbol. This production was readily adopted in the Punic world with regional accents (“eye” cups and a multitude of new motifs) and enjoyed a considerably long life (Savio 2004). Novelties in the realm of cosmetic accessories included engraved Tridacna squamose shells with vegetal and figurative motifs linking with the repertoire of bowls and ivories, distributed in the east and west from the eighth to sixth centuries bce (Stucky 2014; see also chapter 24, this volume, and figure 24.2). The umbos of such shells (i.e., the most prominent, highest part of the mollusk’s shell) were often reshaped in the form of female heads. Their hairdo and other traits recur on “alabaster” grinders and cosmetic palettes circulating in the central and southern Levant around the early seventh century bce.
Figure 23.6 Rollout of decoration on ostrich egg with Phoenician
inscription, ca. 700 bce. One of the earliest prototypes of the pre-Punic production. Royal Museums of Art and History, Brussels O. 4809.
Source: Royal Museums of Art and History, Brussels.
This is also the cultural background of the Galera anthropomorphic vessel, an heirloom from the final apogee of Phoenician handicraft in the outgoing Iron Age II (Gubel 1987a: 75–79). Artifacts in glass, glass paste, and faience preceding the Persian age include bowls engraved with designs in the Egyptianizing style recurring on copies of metal oinochoai. Between the sixth and fourth centuries bce, miniaturized copies of vases, stamps seals, and apotropaic masks with demonic features were widely distributed all over the Mediterranean (Caubet 2007: 198–203). A faience copy of a Phoenician arrow-head referring to Reshef (Michailidis 1947), as well as early first-millennium Egyptian lotiform chalices anticipating later Phoenician compositions (Tait 1963) both illustrate early Iron Age Phoenician initiatives in the production of faiences.
A few exceptions notwithstanding (e.g., glass-paste demonic masks), the better part of amulets current in the Phoenicio-Punic realm was produced in steatite, faience, or bone and imported from Egypt, others occasionally adapting Pharaonic prototypes (Hölbl 1986).
Other artwork is obviously directly modeled on embroidered motifs on textiles (which, as other organic materials are not preserved). This is most evident in the geometric designs decorating several early first-millennium bce Phoenician bowls on a stone threshold from Khorsabad, elsewhere as the pattern of scale palmets on reliefs from Arwad, recurring on ivories and on the Kazaphani terracotta busts (Markoe 1988). The contemporary popularity of guilloche borders, lotus-and-bud (i.e., papyrus-and-bud) friezes, and diamond designs makes a strong case for the existence of a blossoming textile industry, including carpets/rugs, already preceding a later Punic production known mostly from textual references (Moscati 1972: 499–501). Finally, the amount of murex shells found at most Phoenician sites and in Sidon in particular underscores that the Tyrian purple-dyed textile industry prized in the Roman world may rightfully boast a high antiquity.
The Oxford Handbook of the Phoenician and Punic Mediterranean Page 52