A World of Goods: Transport Jars and Commodity Exchange at the Late Bronze Age Harbor of Kommos, Crete

by Peter M. Day, Patrick S. Quinn, Jeremy B. Rutter, and Vassilis Kilikoglou

Hesperia, Volume 80, Issue 4
Page(s): 511-558
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2972/hesperia.80.4.0511
Year: 2011
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ABSTRACT:

The harbor site of Kommos, Crete, has yielded rich evidence for long-distance exchange in the form of ceramic transport jars of types used not only for distribution within Crete and the Aegean, but also across the eastern Mediterranean. An integrated petrographic and chemical approach is here employed in order to determine the provenance of short-necked amphoras, transport stirrup jars, Egyptian jars, and Canaanite jars. The results reveal a detailed picture of local jar production within southern Crete, as well as jars that have their origins in the Nile Delta and at several specific locations along the Levantine coast.