1. The Emergence of the Problem: The Alalakh Frescoes (1939 - 1987)
The question of connections in fresco painting between Crete and the Near East first arose in 1939, when Sir L.R. Woolley, in a brief preliminary report about his excavations at Tell Atchana (later to be identified as the ancient city Alalakh), announced the finds of mural decorations possessing Cretan affinities.1 They came from a house of the Late Bronze Age
level IV as well as from an even older context, the palace of Stratum VII, which was contemporary with the First Dynasty of Babylon, according to Woolley. In her inf luential book, the 50th anniversary of which is celebrated in this conference, H.J. Kantor recognized the possible importance of these finds but wisely did not speculate further on this matter, commenting only: “Definitive substantiation of these far-reaching claims awaits the full publication of the evidence.”2
Woolley published the fresco fragments from Alalakh in 1955,3stating that those from
the palace of level VII, named by him ‘Yarim-Lim’s Palace’ show “striking resemblances ... to the Minoan frescoes.”4 Unfortunately, the Alalakh frescoes were very fragmentary and their
style was hard to distinguish on the published black and white photographs,5 with one
exception: the creamy white reeds on red ground on a group of fragments fallen from the so-called grand salon of the piano nobile above magazines 11-136 were indeed painted
“unmistakably in the spirit of Cretan art” as stated by Woolley.7 They appear to sway in the
wind, a characteristic feature of Minoan art.8 Woolley’s main argument for a connection
between the Alalakh murals and those of Minoan Crete was that they both had been executed in true fresco technique (with additions in secco painting).9 Elsewhere Woolley concluded that
“there can be no doubt but that Crete owes the best of its ... frescoes, to the Asiatic mainland;”
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* Acknowledgments: We gratefully commemorate our partner at Tel Kabri and friend, Aharon Kempinski, whose untimely passing away on 2nd July 1994 is a great bereavement. We would like to thank A. Drori and the staff of the Israeli Authority of Antiquities for the permit to take the wall-painting fragments from the palace at Tel Kabri for two years with us to Heidelberg for study and restoring, the Visitors of the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford for the permit to publish here new photographs of the Alalakh fresco fragments, P.R.S. Moorey and M. Vickers for their help in the Ashmolean, and the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft for financial support of the travel of W.-D. Niemeier to the conference.
1 L.R. WOOLLEY, Illustrated London News, Dec. 2 (1939) 833. 2 KANTOR, 102.
3 L.R. WOOLLEY, Alalakh: An Account of the Excavations at Tell Atchana in the Hatay, 1937 - 1949 (1955) 228-34, pls. 26 b - 29 c.
4 Ibid. 228.
5 Cf. the discussion of the Alalakh fresco fragments based on the published black and white photographs by W.-D. NIEMEIER, “Minoan Artisans Travelling Overseas: the Alalakh Frescoes and the Painted Plaster Floor at Tel Kabri (Western Galilee),” in Thalassa, 192-94.
6 WOOLLEY (supra n. 3) pl. 28 a; NIEMEIER (supra n. 5) pl. XLVI b. For a new illustration in colour, see B. and W.-D. NIEMEIER, “Aegean Frescoes in Syria-Palestine: Alalakh and Tel Kabri,” in Wall Paintings of
Thera, pl. 14.
7 WOOLLEY (supra n. 3) 231.
8 H.A. GROENEWEGEN-FRANKFORT, Arrest and Movement: An Essay on Space and Time in the
Representational Art of the ancient Near East (1950) 197; W. SCHIERING, “Die Naturanschauung in der
altkretischen Kunst,” AntKunst 8 (1965) 3; G. WALBERG, Tradition and Innovation; Essays in Minoan Art (1986) 89, 98.
and he believed, “that trained experts, members of the ... Painters’ Guilds, were invited to travel overseas from Asia (and possibly from Alalakh) to ... decorate the palaces of the Cretan rulers.”10
Woolley’s argument for his suggestion that the inf luence had gone from Syria to Crete and not in the reverse direction was “that Yarim-Lim’s palace antedates by more than a century the Cretan examples in the same style.”11 However, Woolley’s date of Alalakh VII to “between
circa 1780 and 1730 BC”12proved to be too high. Yarim-Lim of Alalakh was not — as Woolley
had thought — identical with Yarim-Lim I of Yamhad (Aleppo), a contemporary of the great Hammurabi of Babylon and of Zimri-Lim of Mari, but a younger son of Yarim-Lim’s I son and successor Hammurabi, and he received Alalakh as an appanage principality from his elder brother, king Abban of Yamhad, probably when the latter was nearing the end of his reign.13
The documents of the clay tablet archives of Alalakh VII cover the reigns of Yarim-Lim, of his son Ammitaqum, and possibly of a son of the latter, Irqabtum or Hammurabi.14 Since the
Alalakh VII documents mention six kings of Yamhad, from Abban to Hammurabi II,15 and
three to four generations of officials and merchants at Alalakh,16 Alalakh VII must have
covered a considerable period of time, between ca. 70 years and almost a century.17 Alalakh
VII ended in a destruction which — according to scholarly agreement — is identical with the destruction of Alalakh mentioned in the res gestae of the Hittite king Hattuöili I.18 Scholars
have proposed dates for this destruction between ca.1650 and 1575 BC.19 An important
criterion for the absolute date of the destruction level of Alalakh VII is the fact that it did not contain any bichrome pottery, which does not appear before the following level Alalakh VI.20
According to the evidence from Tell el-Ajjul, bichrome ware came in use in the Levant at the beginning of the reign of the penultimate Hyksos ruler Apophis, or just before it.21 Apophis,
opponent of Kamose within a decade of the expulsion of the Hyksos by Kamose’s younger
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10 L.R. WOOLLEY, A Forgotten Kingdom (1953) 74-75. In the quotation we have omitted Woolley’s statement according to which Crete also owes the best of its architecture to the Asiatic mainland and that members of the Architects’ Guilds were invited to build the palaces of the Cretan rulers. As J.W. GRAHAM, “The Relations of the Minoan Palaces to the Near Eastern Palaces of the Second Millennium”, in E.L. BENNETT (ed.), Mycenaean Studies. Proceedings of the Third International Colloquium for Mycenaean Studies Held at
“Wingspread,” 4-8 September 1961 (1964) 195-215, esp. 196-202 on Alalakh, has demonstrated, the evidence
is far from substantiating Woolley’s theory of Near Eastern architects working in Minoan Crete. See also NIEMEIER (supra n. 5) 191.
11 WOOLLEY (supra n. 10) 74. 12 WOOLLEY (supra n. 3) 388-90.
13 See J.-R. KUPPER, “Northern Mesopotamia and Syria,” in History of the Middle East and the Aegean Region,
c. 1800-1380 B.C., CAH, 3rd edition, Vol. II.1 (1973) 17-18, 31; M.C. ASTOUR, Hittite History and Absolute Chronology of the Bronze Age (1989).
14 See the painstaking discussion by M. HEINZ, Tell Atchana/Alalakh: Die Schichten VII-XVII. Alter Orient und
Altes Testament (1992) 190-96.
15 KUPPER (supra n. 13) 31; HEINZ (supra n. 14) 190-97.
16 D. COLLON, The Seal Impressions from Tell Atchana/Alalakh, Alter Orient und Altes Testament 27 (1975) 16 n. 2, 45-46 n. 1, 145, 152-54; Eadem, “A New Look at the Chronology of Alalakh VII: A Rejoinder,” AnatSt 27 (1977) 127-28.
17 KUPPER (supra n. 13) 31 allows 75 years, ASTOUR (supra n. 13) 10 allows between 70 and 80 years. A. KEMPINSKI, “The Middle Bronze Age in Northern Israel, Local and External Synchronisms,” in M. BIETAK (ed.), High, Middle or Low? Acts of the Second International Colloquium on Absolute Chronology, Schloss
Haindorf/Langenlois, 12-15 August 1990. Ägypten und Levante 3 (1992) 70 even thinks of almost a century.
18 KUPPER (supra n. 13) 31-32; O.R. GURNEY, “Anatolia c. 1750-1600 B.C.,” in History of the Middle East and
the Aegean Region, c. 1800-1380 B.C., CAH, 3rd edition, Vol. II.1 (1973) 241; HEINZ (supra n. 14) 197.
19 Cf. NIEMEIER (supra n. 5) 190-91 with references in nn. 16-17; HEINZ (supra n. 14) 198-201. As to the different chronologies used in Near Eastern archaeology, see infra with n. 67.
20 A. KEMPINSKI, Syrien und Palästina (Kanaan) in der letzten Phase der Mittelbronze IIB-Zeit (1650 - 1570 v. Chr.).
Ägypten und Altes Testament 4 (1983) 218; Idem (supra n. 17) 70.
21 KEMPINSKI (supra n. 20) 131-48, 223. For Apophis as penultimate Hyksos ruler, see D.B. REDFORD,
brother Ahmose, reigned for about forty years or more.22 Thus the beginning of Apophis’ reign — and the introduction of bichrome ware — are to be dated to between ca. 1620/10 and 1590/80 depending on the Egyptian chronology used.23
Following these chronological corrections, the Alalakh frescoes no longer were as much earlier than their Cretan counterparts as Woolley had thought, but apparently still somewhat earlier.24 Nevertheless, we had problems with Woolley’s theory. The fresco technique of the wall paintings from Yarim-Lim’s palace appeared to be an isolated feature in the Near East. In all relevant publications one could read that the fresco technique was — with the exception of Alalakh — unknown in the Near East and in Egypt before the Hellenistic period and that the generally used technique was al secco or tempera.25 Crete, however, according to R.J. Forbes, formed “the home country of the real ‘buon fresco’ painting” which was at least in use from ca. 2000 BC on.26 As A. Moortgat — an authority on Near Eastern wall painting — stated, the free, natural composition of the reeds on the fresco fragments from Yarim-Lim’s palace disassociates them from all other ancient Near Eastern pictorial art and connects them to Minoan art.27 Therefore, the Alalakh frescoes seem to us to form an alien element within their cultural context. Since they appeared to be older than their Minoan parallels, they could not, however, be attributed to Minoan inf luence. Thus the Alalakh frescoes for a long time were a kind of mystery to us.
2. The Kabri Frescoes (1987-1993)
In March 1987, forty years after the publication of Kantor’s study, during a study travel through Israel, we visited the Archaeological Institute of Tel Aviv University and gave a guest lecture on Minoan relations with the Levant, in which the problem of the Alalakh frescoes was also addressed. Among the colleagues we met at this occasion was Aharon Kempinski. He told us about the interesting excavation which he had started the year before, in the Middle
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22 J. von BECKERATH, Untersuchungen zur politischen Geschichte der Zweiten Zwischenzeit in Ägypten.
Ägyptologische Forschungen 23 (1964) 128; L. HABACHI, The second Stela of Kamose and his Struggle against the Hyksos Ruler and his Capital. Abhandlungen des Deutschen Archäologischen Institutes, Abteilung Kairo 8 (1972)
59; KEMPINSKI (supra n. 20) 60.
23 See W.A. WARD, “The Present Status of Egyptian Chronology,” BASOR 188 (1992) 53-66, especially 53 and 56 on the date of the beginning of the 18th Dynasty varying between ca. 1570 and 1540 BC.
24 As to the problem of the dating of the first phase of Aegean representational wall painting due to the problems of stratigraphy at Knossos, see S.A. IMMERWAHR, Aegean Painting in the Bronze Age (1990) 39; W.-D. NIEMEIER, “Knossos in the New Palace Period (MM III-LM IB),” in D. EVELY, H. HUGHES-BROCK, and N. MOMIGLIANO (eds.), KNOSSOS: A Labyrinth of History. Papers presented in honour of Sinclair Hood (1994) 84-85. With the exception of a plaster relief fragment showing part of a bull’s foot, which Evans (A.J. EVANS, PM I [1921] 376, fig. 273) found stratified below the f loor of the Magazine of the Tripod Vases and which probably is of transitional MM IIIB/LM IA date, no representational wall decoration in Crete can be stratigraphically dated before the MM IIIB/LM IA transition, i.e. before ca. 1600 BC according to the traditional Aegean chronology — see P.M. WARREN and V. HANKEY, Aegean Absolute Chronology (1989) 135-37, 169.
25 As to the differences between the fresco and al secco techniques, see A. NUNN, Die Wandmalerei und der
glasierte Wandschmuck im Alten Orient. Handbuch der Orientalistik VII.1 (1988) 5-6; for the exceptional status
of the Alalakh frescoes see Ibid. 11-12; P. PHILIPPOT, Die Wandmalerei (1972) 21, 30. As to the general use of al secco technique in the Near East and in Egypt, see A. PARROT, Mission archéologique de Mari II: le palais.
2: peintures murales (1958) 58, 109; A. MOORTGAT, Alt-vorderasiatische Malerei (1959) 19; B. MULLER,
“Aspects de la peinture murale proche-orientale au IIe millénaire av. J.-C.,” Revue archéologique de Picardie, No. special (1995) 133 (Near East); A. LUCAS and J.R. HARRIS, Ancient Egyptian Materials and Techniques, 4th edition (1962) 351-53 (Egypt); R.J. FORBES, Studies in Ancient Technology III (1955) 235-41 (Near East and Egypt).
26 FORBES (supra n. 25) 241-42; M.A.S. CAMERON, R.E. JONES and S.E. PHILIPPAKIS, “Scientific Analyses of Minoan Fresco Samples from Knossos,” BSA 72 (1977) 121-84; S. HOOD, The Arts in Prehistoric Greece (1978) 83; IMMERWAHR (supra n. 24) 14-15.
27 MOORTGAT (supra n. 25) 12. Cf. also Interconnections, 103; F. SCHACHERMEYR, Ägäis und Orient (1967) 46.
Bronze Age city of Tel Kabri in Western Galilee. Four months after our visit, a threshold of limestone blocks covered with painted lime plaster was found in the palace of the local ruler at Tel Kabri.28 Painted red lines formed a kind of grid pattern enclosing hardly identifiable
representational painting. As Aharon immediately realized, painted plaster f loors are unknown in the ancient Near East,29 but are a typical feature of the Aegean Bronze Age
civilisations.30 He sent us a colour slide of the threshold and asked us if we would be
interested in joining him as partners in the Tel Kabri excavations. Hoping that Tel Kabri would help to solve the mystery of the Alalakh frescoes, we spontaneously agreed. Our fruitful collaboration with Aharon started in 1989 and was only interrupted by his untimely death in 1994. We commemorate him here in gratitude and friendship.
The threshold with the painted plaster led into a square hall of 10 by 10 meters in the ceremonial wing of the palace.31 The f loor of this hall, covered by painted plaster, was
excavated in 1989 and 1990.32 Since this painted f loor has already been discussed in a
conference paper after the 1989 season, when it was not yet completely excavated,33 we here
only illustrate the complete plan (Pl. Va) and add some new aspects. The f loor was executed in true fresco technique, as the thorough investigations on the site and laboratory analyses of samples in Verona have demonstrated.34 The colours identified in the f loor’s painting are
black, white, gray, red, yellow, orange, brown, and dark blue. According to spectrophotometrical analysis, white came from reserving the lime plaster background, black was from carbon, the range of red, yellow, and orange was derived from ochres, and brown resulted from mixing black and red. The dark blue remains somewhat enigmatic since it consists of a carbon-lime mixture and we do not know how the blue colour effect was produced.35 The colours and natural pigments are the same as used all over the eastern
Mediterranean, in the Aegean, the Near East and Egypt.36
The f loor was painted with a grid pattern of red lines imitating a pavement of stone slabs. The red lines represent the red plaster filling the interstices between the stone slabs as we find them on a series of Minoan stone f loors.37 The decoration of some squares
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28 A. KEMPINSKI, “Area D: The Architecture and the Finds,” in A. KEMPINSKI (ed.), Excavations at Kabri 2:
Preliminary Report of 1987 Season (1988) 36-41 (Hebrew), VI-VII (English Summary), pls. 9, 12.
29 The marbled squares painted on a podium in hall 64 of the palace at Mari and on a platform in courtyard 31 do not form real room f loors and are, in our opinion, to be seen as signs of Minoan inf luence; cf. infra with nn. 47, 49.
30 See E.S. HIRSCH, Painted Decoration on the Floors of Bronze Age Structures on Crete and the Greek Mainland (1977).
31 As to the layout of the palace at Tel Kabri, comparable to that of Yarim-Lim’s palace in Alalakh VII, see A. KEMPINSKI, “An Integrated Plan of the Palace in Light of the Excavations in Areas D and F,” in A. KEMPINSKI and W.-D. NIEMEIER (eds), Excavations at Kabri 7-8: Preliminary Report of 1992-1993 Seasons (1994) 26-28 (Hebrew), *18 (English summary) fig. 10, the latter repeated by NIEMEIER and NIEMEIER (supra n. 6) fig. 1.
32 W.-D. NIEMEIER, “Area D: The Painted Plaster Floor in Room 611. Technical, Stylistic, Iconographic and Chronological Implications,” in A. KEMPINSKI and W.-D. NIEMEIER (eds.) Excavations at Kabri 4:
Preliminary Report of 1989 Season (1990) XVI-XXVI, figs. 10-12; W.-D. NIEMEIER, P. CORNALE, P.
ROSANO’ and M. TAGLIAPIETRA, in: A. KEMPINSKI and W.-D. NIEMEIER (eds.), Excavations at Kabri
5: Preliminary Report of 1990 Season (1991) *24-*26.
33 NIEMEIER (supra n. 5) 197-98, pls. XLVII-LI. See also W.-D. NIEMEIER, “On the Origin of Mycenaean Painted Plaster Floors,” in E. de MIRO, L. GODART and A. SACCONI (eds.), Atti e memorie del Secondo
Congresso Internazionale di Micenologia, Roma - Napoli, 14-20 ottobre 1991, vol. III: Archeologia (1996) 1249-53.
34 NIEMEIER (supra n. 32) xvi-xvii; Idem (supra n. 5) 197; NIEMEIER et al. (supra n. 32). The investigations at the site were done by M. Tagliapietra, restorer, the laboratory analyses by P. Cornale, geologist, and P. Rosano’, chemist.
35 NIEMEIER et al. (supra n. 32) 25*.
36 See IMMERWAHR (supra n. 24) 15-16, Fig. 5. For Alalakh, see WOOLLEY (supra n. 3) 233-34.
37 For instance: A.J. EVANS, PM II (1928) 683; Idem, PM III (1930) 357-58; L. PERNIER and L. BANTI, Il
palazzo minoico di Festòs, vol II: il secondo palazzo (1951) 46, 73, 266. Ayia Triadha: F. HALBHERR, E.
STEFANI and L. BANTI, Haghia Triada nel periodo tardo palaziale. AnnScAtene 55 (1977) 72, 80, 82, 87-88, 90-91, 154, 157, 160.
undoubtedly represents the marbling of gypsum slabs, as our thorough investigation with 1:1 tracings as well as with infrared photographies demonstrated.38 Painted stone imitations
regularly occur in Minoan art. The earliest known example on a fresco fragment comes from the ‘Loom-Weight Deposit’ at Knossos and is ascribed to either MM II or MM III.39 A dado
with painted imitation of gypsum slabs from the east border of the palace at Knossos was dated by Evans with stylistic arguments to MM IIIA.40 Of LM IA date are painted gypsum
imitations from the West House at Akrotiri on Thera, where they formed dadoes in rooms 4 and 5,41and a ‘chessboard’ pattern in the centre of the northeastern wall of room 4.42 In LM
IB-II we frequently find painted dadoes imitating gypsum slabs in the palace at Knossos.43
In the Near East, similar painted stone imitations roughly contemporary with the Kabri f loor or earlier were found at two sites.44 Like Alalakh, the Middle Bronze Age city and palace
of Tel Kabri were destroyed and abandoned in the pre-bichrome phase of MB IIB.45 Thus the
stone imitations painted on the basalt orthostates in room 5 of the so-called ‘Chamber of Audience’ in Yarim-Lim’s palace at Alalakh, of which no illustrations have been published,46
are roughly contemporary to the Kabri ones. Earlier than the Kabri and Alalakh examples are the painted stone imitations in Zimri-Lim’s palace at Mari. There they decorated a podium on the east side of hall 64 (Pl. Vb),47 the dadoes of a passage leading into court 31,48 and a
platform near to the north-west corner of that court.49 The excavator of Mari, A. Parrot,
compared the painted stone imitations to those painted on dadoes at Knossos.50 Elsewhere
he asked for possible connections between the Mari and the Knossos murals, and, pointing to the evidence for connections between Mari and Crete provided by the Minoan precious objects mentioned in the Mari archives, he apparently tended to see some Cretan inf luence in the Mari murals. This was, however, impeded by the dating of the Minoan figural
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38 NIEMEIER (supra n. 5) 198, pls. XLIX b (infrared photograph), L a (water colour). For a colour photograph and a new corrected version of the water colour, see now NIEMEIER and NIEMEIER (supra n. 6) pls. 1-2. 39 EVANS (supra n. 24) 251-52, fig. 188 a; IMMERWAHR (supra n. 24) 22-23, fig. 6 f. The find context of the fragment was dated by NIEMEIER (supra n. 5) 193, n. 3, to MM II. For the following correction, see NIEMEIER (supra n. 24) 81: The Loom-Weight Deposit apparently is a filling for the construction of new substructure walls in MM III and contains mixed MM II-III material. Thus the fresco fragment can be either MM II or MM III.
40 EVANS (supra n. 24) 355-56, fig. 255.
41 Room 4: CH.G. DOUMAS, The Wall-Paintings of Thera (1992) 49, 86-91, figs. 49-56; for a reconstruction of the dadoes within the decoration system of the room, see CH.A. TELEVANTOU, Akroteri Theras: oi
toichografies tes Dytikes Oikias (1994) 133-42, figs. 27-32. Room 5: DOUMAS, op. cit. 64, 50-51, figs. 14-17; for
a reconstruction of the dadoes within the decoration system of the room, see N. MARINATOS, Art and
Religion in Thera: Reconstructing a Bronze Age Society (1984) fig. 17 facing p. 32.
42 TELEVANTOU (supra n. 41) 156-59, fig. 37, colour pl. 14; for a reconstruction within the decoration system of the room, see Ibid. 133 fig. 27 E-Z, 139 fig. 31, 142 fig. 32.
43 See, for instance, A.J. EVANS, PM IV (1935) 893-94, fig. 873. This dado in the West Porch belongs to the same pictorial program as the paintings of the adjoining Corridor of the Procession which are possibly of LM IB date — cf. CH. BOULOTIS, “Nochmals zum Prozessionsfresko von Knossos: Palast und Darbringung von Prestige-Objekten,” in R. HÄGG and N. MARINATOS (eds.), The Function of the Minoan Palaces.
Proceedings of the Fourth International Symposium at the Swedish Institute at Athens, 10-16 June, 1984 (1987)
145-47.
44 We do not discuss here the examples from Alalakh level IV (WOOLLEY [supra n. 3] 232, fig. 29 a-c), which is of 15th century date (see H. KLENGEL, Geschichte und Kultur Altsyriens [1979] 68-75), and from Qatna (see R. du MESNIL du BUISSON, Le site archéologique de Mishifre-Qatna [1935] 143, frontispiece), which is probably of 14th century date (see Interconnections, 17-18).
45 Cf. KEMPINSKI (supra n. 17) 70-72. 46 WOOLLEY (supra n. 3) 92.
47 PARROT (supra n. 25) 67-69, fig. 54, pl. XV, 1-2.
48 A. PARROT, Mission archéologique de Mari II: les palais, 2: architecture (1958) 165, pl. XXXIX,2. 49 Ibid. 166, fig. 187, pl. XXXIX,1.
wall-paintings to not before 1600 BC by the Aegean specialists.51 B. Muller (= B. Pierre) has discussed the imitation of stone slabs at Mari, Alalakh, Tel Kabri, Crete, and Thera within the context of an east Mediterranean koiné in wall-painting and argued that the dominating movement of this koiné went from the Orient to the Aegean at the beginning of the second millennium BC.52 To this we would subscribe. We do, however, not agree with her idea that Mesopotamia was the place of origin of the painted imitations of stone dadoes and f loors. As we think, the idea of the painting of imitations of stone dadoes and f loors must have originated in an area where ashlar was actually used for dadoes and f loors. The Mesopotamian Bronze Age architecture was constructed of mudbrick.53 Stone blocks were exclusively used in foundations and only where they could easily be obtained.54 On the other hand, in Crete and the Levant stone dadoes (orthostates) are known from at least the beginning of the Middle Bronze Age on.55 Ashlar f loorings were very common in Crete, although the known examples all are from the New Palace period,56 but the MM IB painted imitations of ashlar f loors in Phaistos and Mallia57 suggest that Crete had ashlar f loorings already by the beginning of the Old Palace period around 1900 BC.58 In the Levant, ashlar f looring does not seem to have been very common.59 In Egypt, stone dadoes were unknown60 and ashlar f looring was very rare.61 Thus Crete and the Levant appear to be possible candidates for the origin of painted imitations of stone dadoes and f loor. According to the present evidence, those imitations exist earlier in Crete than in the Levant. The earliest preserved examples of painted imitations of marbled stone slabs in the Near East, those in the palace at Mari (Pl. Vb), imitate gypsum,62a material frequently used in Minoan architecture63 but not in the Levant.64 All this appears to indicate that painted imitations of gypsum dadoes and slabs at Mari show Minoan inf luence.
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51 PARROT (supra n. 25) 109-110. As to the Cretan objects mentioned in the Mari archive, see SWDS, 126-28, nos. D.2-12, with references.
52 B. PIERRE, “Decor peint à Mari et au Proche-Orient,” M.A.R.I., Annales de Recherches Interdisciplinaires 5 (1987) 569, 572; B. MULLER, “Les peintures murales de l’Euphrate à la Méditerranée: des conceptions communes?,” Sources et travaux historiques 36-37 (1994) 53; MULLER (supra n. 25) 133-35.
53 See H. FRANKFORT, The Art and Architecture of the Ancient Orient, 4th revised edition (1970) 18. There are no Bronze Age predecessors for the use of gypsum in architectural contexts from the 9th century BC on for wall reliefs in the palaces of the Neo-Assyrian empire, which probably were due to Aramean inf luence; cf. A. MOORTGAT, Die Kunst des Alten Mesopotamien (1967) 133-34.
54 Cf. FRANKFORT (supra n. 53) 42.
55 See G. HULT, Bronze Age Ashlar Masonry in the Eastern Mediterranean: Cyprus, Ugarit, and Neighbouring
Regions (1983) 38-39, 46-47, 66; NIEMEIER (supra n. 5) 191, with references in nn. 21-25.
56 HULT (supra n. 55) 47-48, 74.
57 Phaistos: D. LEVI, “Gli scavi a Festòs nel 1956 e 1957,” AnnScAtene 35/36 (1957/58) 332-33 = HIRSCH (supra n. 30) 17, C 43. Mallia, Maison E: G. DAUX, “Chronique des fouilles et découvertes archéologiques en Grèce en 1964,” BCH 89 (1965) 1000-1001, figs. 1-2 = HIRSCH (supra n. 30) 13, C 22-23, fig. 4. Mallia, in the vicinity of Quartier Mu: J.-C. POURSAT, “Malia, atelier de sceaux,” BCH 102 (1978) 832, fig. 1; Idem, “Quartier Mu,” BCH 109 (1985) 892; for the date, see Idem, “Le début de l’époque protopalatiale à Malia,”
Eilapine. Tomos timiotikos gia ton kathegete Nikolao Platona (1987) 463.
58 Here the controversial low and high chronologies for the Aegean roughly synchronize — see WARREN and HANKEY (supra n. 24) 128-35, 169 (low chronology); S.W. MANNING, The Absolute Chronology of the Aegean
Early Bronze Age (1995) 217 (high chronology).
59 HULT (supra n. 55) 40, 73. 60 Ibid. 66.
61 Ibid. 36, 73.
62 Cf. MULLER (supra n. 25) 134.
63 Cf. J.W. GRAHAM, The Palaces of Crete, revised edition (1969) 4-5, 143-44, 204-208; J.W. SHAW, Minoan
Architecture: Materials and Techniques. AnnScAtene 49 (1971) 20-23.
64 The stone dadoes and ashlar f loors in early Middle Bronze Age Ebla IIIA and in later Middle Bronze Age Alalakh are of basalt and limestone — see P. MATTHIAE, I tesori di Ebla (1984) pls. 49-51, 55, 63, 64, 74; R. NAUMANN, Architektur Kleinasiens von ihren Anfängen bis zum Ende der hethitischen Zeit, 2nd edition (1972) 82. As to the use of gypsum in early 1st millennium Mesopotamia, see supra n. 53.
But is this possible from the chronological point of view? The Mari paintings were probably executed before the 35th year of Hammurabi of Babylon, in which he captured Mari,65although there is some doubt whether the palace was destroyed by Hammurabi or only
later, by the Hittite king Muröili I during the course of his famous raid on Babylon, or even by the subsequently installed Kassite dynasty.66 Moreover, there exist problems both in
Mesopotamian and Aegean absolute chronologies. In Mesopotamia, we are confronted with no less than five different chronologies starting from different datings of the First Dynasty of Babylon and Hammurabi: the ultra-high, the high, the middle, the low and the ultra-low chronologies.67 While the highest two and the lowermost one are increasingly ruled out, there
is as yet no consensus on the choice between the middle and the low chronologies.68 In the
Aegean, the traditional chronology as originally introduced by Evans69 came under attack
from 1987 on, when P.P. Betancourt and S.W. Manning, starting from radiocarbon dates from Thera, suggested that the Aegean Late Bronze Age had begun considerably earlier than in the traditional chronology.70 Since then the controversial discussion has not ended, and today
modified forms of the traditional low chronology and the new high chronology are opposed to each other without reaching a consensus.71
According to the Mesopotamian middle chronology, the 35th year of Hammurabi’s reign was 1757 BC; according to the Mesopotamian low chronology, it was 1691 BC. According to the Mesopotamian middle chronology, Muröili I’s raid against Babylon entailing the end of the First Dynasty of Babylon happened in 1594 BC; according to the Mesopotamian low chronology, it happened in 1531 BC. If the fragment from the Loom-Weight deposit at Knossos is of MM II date (Aegean high chronology: 1900/1875 - 1750/20 BC; Aegean low chronology: 19th century - 1700/1650 BC), it is — assuming that Hammurabi’s 35th year actually forms the terminus ante quem for the Mari parallels — earlier than the latter or roughly contemporary to them, according to both possible combinations of chronologies (Mesopotamian middle and Aegean high chronologies or Mesopotamian and Aegean low chronologies).72 If the Loom-Weight deposit fragment is of MM III date (Aegean high
chronology: 1750/20 - 1700/1680 BC; Aegean low chronology: 1700/1650 - 1600 BC), it is roughly contemporary or somewhat later than the Mari parallels, when again using both possible combinations of chronologies. If the palace of Mari survived the conquest by Hammurabi and remained in use, the painted stone imitations at Mari may be even considerably later than the Loom-Weight Deposit fragment. In summarizing all of the evidence hitherto discussed, I think, with J.C. Crowley,73that most probably the painted stone
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65 Cf. KUPPER (supra n. 13) 14, 28; C.J. GADD, “Hammurabi and the End of his Dynasty,” in History of the
Middle East and the Aegean Region, c. 1800-1380 B.C., CAH, 3rd edition, Vol. II.1 (1973) 179-82, 189.
66 See Interconnections, 20. The list of regnal years of Hammurabi only reports the dismantling of the city walls of Mari for his 35th year; cf. KUPPER (supra n. 13) 28.
67 A good survey is to be found in H. TADMOR, “The Chronology of the Ancient Near East in the Second Millennium B.C.,” in B. MAZAR (ed.), The World History of the Jewish People, First Series: Ancient Times, Vol.
II: Patriarchs (1970) 63-84, with bibliography p. 260, nn. 5-7.
68 Cf. W.G. DEVER, “The Chronology of Syria-Palestine in the Second Millennium B.C.E.: A Review of Current Issues,” BASOR 288 (1992) 11; A. MALAMAT, “Mari and Hazor: The Implication for the Middle Bronze Age Chronology,” in M. BIETAK (ed.), High, Middle or Low? Acts of the Second International
Colloquium on Absolute Chronology, Schloss Haindorf/Langenlois, 12-15 August 1990. Ägypten und Levante 3
(1992) 122.
69 See A. FURUMARK, The Chronology of Mycenaean Pottery (1941) 110, with references to Evans.
70 P.P. BETANCOURT, “Dating the Aegean Late Bronze Age with Radiocarbon,” Archaeometry 29 (1987) 45-49; S.W. MANNING, “The Bronze Age Eruption of Thera: Absolute Dating, Aegean Chronology and Mediterranean Cultural Interrelations,” JMA 7.2 (1987) 17-82.
71 See most recently P.M. WARREN, “The Minoan Civilisation of Crete and the Volcano of Thera,” Journal of
the Ancient Chronology Forum 4 (1990/91) 29-39 (low chronology); MANNING (supra n. 58) 217-29 (high
chronology).
72 As to the incompatibility of the Mesopotamian low and Aegean high chronologies, cf. MANNING (supra n. 58) 219.
73 J.C. CROWLEY, The Aegean and the East: An Investigation into the Transference of Artistic Motifs between the
imitations at Mari form a Minoan intrusive motif in the palace’s painted decoration which is otherwise Mesopotamian in character74— although showing some Egyptian inf luence75— and
was painted in secco technique.76
Coming back to the Kabri f loor, the character of the decoration changes in other zones. Here yellow and dark blue f lowers are filling the squares in a checker pattern. The yellow colour is much faded, and often it is no longer possible to distinguish the single motifs. The squares which contained the yellow f lowers are marked in grey on the plan Pl. Va. The dark blue painted f loral motifs depicted stylized linear iris-blossoms of the characteristic Minoan ‘V-type,’77 elegantly curved sprays of more ‘naturalistic’ iris blossoms,78 as well as yellow
crocuses.79 All these f lowers frequently occur in Aegean wall-painting and pottery
decoration,80 where they have a symbolic meaning.81 As A. Sarpaki convincingly states, in
Aegean iconography only a selection of the plants belonging to the actual Bronze Age environment is depicted, this selection — together with the other environmental motifs selected — gives us the conceptual environment, tinged by cultural concepts, and she continues: “This is the reason why the repertoire of Aegean iconography is precise and repetitive, exhibiting a type of koiné between areas which interacted culturally.”82Therefore it
is of interest that the crocus and iris apparently did not play any role in Canaanite iconography,83 where other f lowers with symbolic meaning like the lotus of Egyptian origin
were preferred.84
In 1990, when starting to excavate the doorway leading out from Hall 611 to the north, we saw that here the ashlar blocks of the original threshold had been robbed. In the last, very brief, un-palatial phase of the use of the palace,85the hole left by this activity was leveled with
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74 Interconnections, 18, 98-101.
75 Ibid. 49, 96; and more decisively J. ARUZ in the discussion following our paper (infra).
76 See MULLER (supra n. 25) 133.
77 NIEMEIER (supra n. 5) 198, pl. LI b; NIEMEIER and NIEMEIER (supra n. 6) pl. 4. 78 NIEMEIER (supra n. 5) 198, pl. L b, LI a; NIEMEIER and NIEMEIER (supra n. 6) pls. 5-6. 79 NIEMEIER (supra n. 5) 198, pl. L b, LI a; NIEMEIER and NIEMEIER (supra n. 6) pls. 5-6.
80 See H. MÖBIUS, “Pf lanzenbilder der minoischen Kunst in botanischer Betrachtung,” JdI 48 (1933) 7-9, fig. 4 (crocus), 10-11, fig 5 C-D (iris); O. HÖCKMANN, “Theran Floral Style in Relation to that of Crete,” in C.G. DOUMAS (ed.), Thera and the Aegean World II, Papers presented at the Second International Scientific
Congress, Santorini Greece, August 1978 (1980) 607-608, 609, fig. 2; I. DOUSKOS, “The Crocuses of
Santorini,” in CH.G. DOUMAS (ed.), Thera and the Aegean World II: Papers and Proceedings of the Second
International Scientific Congress, Santorini, Greece, August 1978 (1980) 141-46; S. AMIGUES, “Le crocus et le
safran sur une fresque de Thera,” RA (1988) 227-242 (crocus); W.-D. NIEMEIER, Die Palaststilkeramik von
Knossos: Stil, Chronologie und historischer Kontext (1985) 61-63, fig. 20 (crocus), 63-66, fig. 21 (iris); R.
PORTER, “The Theran Wall Paintings’ Flora: Living Plants and Motifs - Sea Lily, Crocus, Iris, Ivy,” in Wall
Paintings of Thera.
81 As to the religious symbolism, cf. N. MARINATOS, Minoan Religion: Ritual, Image, and Symbol (1993) 141, 195; for other possible kinds of symbolism, see A. SARPAKI, “Plants chosen to be depicted on Theran Wall-Paintings: What does it all mean?,” in Wall Paintings of Thera.
82 SARPAKI (supra n. 81).
83 As our partner at Tel Kabri, A. Kempinski, and other distinguished Israeli colleagues who are working in the Bronze Age and visited the Tel Kabri excavations, like M. ARTZY, T. DOTHAN, A. MAZAR, B. MAZAR and O. NEGBI, have confirmed. The term “Canaanite” here is used in the sense of R. AMIRAN, Ancient
Pottery of the Holy Land (1969) 167-70, who has termed the area between the Amuq plain to the north and
the deserts to the south and to the east “Greater Canaan” for the Middle and Late Bronze Age, since they form a largely uniform civilization with regional variations.
84 Cf., for instance, M. KAPLAN, The Origin and Distribution of Tell el-Yahudiyeh Ware (1980) 33-34, pls. 126-127; E.D.T. VERMEULE and F.Z. WOLSKY, Toumba tou Skourou (1990) 386-87, pls. 182-83; J. ARUZ, “Imagery and Interconnections,” in Hyksos Egypt and the Eastern Mediterranean World, 40-41, figs. 31-32; H. WEIPPERT,
Palästina in vorhellenistischer Zeit, Handbuch der Archäologie, Vorderasien II.1 (1988) 302-307, figs. 3.51-3.53.
85 Evidence for the unpalatial character of this very last phase of the palace is provided by the robbing of the ashlar blocks of the threshold in the doorway leading out of Hall 611 to the north and of the orthostates along the walls of Hall 611. Due to the latter activity, the painted plaster f loor of Hall 611 was destroyed along its edges — see Pl. Va. Storage jars were put along part of the walls of Hall 611 after the robbing of the orthostates.
stones and lumps of mud lime, and the doorway finally was covered by a very coarse lime f loor. In the filling underneath this lime f loor, we found, in the last days of the 1990 season, the first tiny fragments of wall painting. Analyses again executed by Cornale and Rosano’ showed that they also were painted in true fresco technique, and that in addition to the natural pigments used for painting the f loor, in the wall painting synthetic Egyptian blue was also used.86 During the 1991 season, the filling was completely excavated and more than 2000 very
small fragments were recovered from it.87 By courtesy of the Israeli Authority of Antiquities,
we were able to study the fragments for two years in Heidelberg. Our initial impression during the recovery proved to be correct: the fragments were not found as fallen from the wall, but in a secondary context, completely jumbled and wantonly crushed to be used together with other debris as filling material.
Little by little, we were able to make progress in identifying the motifs represented on these tiny fragments. A series of them was painted with spotted brown colour, which on some of them runs out in knob-like protuberances (Pl. Vc). In Aegean art, knob-like protuberances form a widespread convention for representing a rocky shore.88 In wall painting, we find the
same motif and a similar coloring in the rocky shore to the right of the ‘Departure Town’ or ‘Polis IV’ of the south wall of the miniature fresco from the West House at Akrotiri on Thera.89 On two of our fragments, a wavy strip is left white. The same enigmatic motif
appears in the rugged red-brown terrain to the right of the ‘Departure Town’ or ‘Polis IV.’90
The representation of the rocky shore not only follows Minoan artistic conventions without parallels in the arts of the ancient Near East, but also shows a typical Aegean landscape.91 The
Mediterranean coast of Israel looks very different and is almost exclusively formed by f lat plains and sandy shores.92
More and more it became clear that the Kabri fragments belonged to a miniature fresco with a similar theme as the Theran one. Rough sea is represented in the ‘shipwreck scene’ on the north wall of the Theran miniature fresco by a gray stippling of loop-like dashes.93 We
find the same motif on some of the Kabri fragments (Pl. Vd). The curved grey-brown stripes narrowing to one end probably belonged to boats.94 Other fragments of the Kabri wall
painting belonged to representations of architecture. They show isodomic masonry in white and blue as well as rounded so-called ‘beam ends’ (Pl. VIa). The same motifs appear in the town representations on the Theran miniature fresco: isodomic masonry in white and blue, and in red and brown,95 which may represent ashlar masonry, mudbrick work, and
or/plastered facades painted with imitations of ashlar masonry,96as well as ‘beam ends’ above
the gate of the ‘Arrival Town’ or ‘Polis V.’97 Representations of isodomic masonry are not
restricted to the Aegean, but also exist in the Mari murals. But there they are pink-orange and
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86 NIEMEIER et al. (supra n. 32) 24*. On Egyptian Blue and its introduction to Crete as early as MM II, see IMMERWAHR (supra n. 24) 16.
87 B. and W.-D. NIEMEIER, “The Fragments of a Minoan Wall Painting from Locus 723,” in A. KEMPINSKI and W.-D. NIEMEIER (eds.), Excavations at Kabri 6: Preliminary Report of 1991 Season (1992) 8*-11*. 88 Cf. E. HALLAGER, The Master Impression: A Clay Sealing from the Greek-Swedish Excavations at Kastelli, Khania
(1985) 16, with references.
89 DOUMAS (supra n. 41) 71, fig. 36; cf. L. MORGAN, The Miniature Wall Paintings of Thera: A Study in Aegean
Culture and Iconography (1988) 34; TELEVANTOU (supra n. 41) 259-60. The town next to the rocky shore
is designated as ‘Departure Town’ by MORGAN, op. cit. 12-13, and as ‘Polis IV’ by TELEVANTOU, op. cit. 199.
90 Cf. MORGAN (supra n. 89) 34, who thinks that it may represent a dyke for irrigation. 91 Cf. Ibid. 34.
92 Cf. J. ROGERSON, Atlas of the Bible (1985) 58-59. 93 DOUMAS (supra n. 41) 62-63, fig. 29.
94 Cf. the boats on the south wall of the Theran miniature fresco: DOUMAS (supra n. 41) 79, fig. 38; TELEVANTOU (supra n. 41) 278, colour pl. 66.
95 DOUMAS (supra n. 41) 71 fig. 36, 84 fig. 47, 85 fig. 48; TELEVANTOU (supra n. 41) 264-74, colour pls. 25, 43, 44, 53, 56, 57, 67, 68.
96 See MORGAN (supra n. 89) 71-74.
undoubtedly represent mudbricks.98 The round ‘beam ends’ are a typical Aegean feature, seemingly without parallel in the Near East, and have a religious connotation.99 Thus, apparently an Aegean town like those on the Thera miniature fresco was represented on the Kabri fresco, as hypothetically reconstructed in Pl. VIa. There were also fragments representing f lora and fauna, of which we here illustrate the charming miniature representation of a f lying swallow (Pl. VIb). Representations of swallows are known from Thera, Crete and the early Mycenaean mainland,100 but to our knowledge not from the Levant. Two of the Kabri fresco fragments show parallel horizontal lines with alternating curved triangles and dots between them. This is Evans’ ‘notched plume’ motif,101 which is applied in different media of Aegean art to the wings of griffins and sphinxes.102 The S-spiral on another fragment may have belonged to the neck of a griffin. Thus, we have hypothetically reconstructed a griffin in f lying gallop and with S-spirals on the neck, similar to that on the east wall of the Theran miniature fresco (Pl. VIc).103 The winged Griffin and Sphinx are fabulous creatures which certainly did not originate in Crete, but were introduced to the island from the Levant.104 In the Aegean they got, however, some characteristic new features which they did not have before, among them the ‘notched plume’ wings.105 Thus the griffin (or sphinx) of the Kabri miniature fresco appears to be an iconographical re-import to the Levant, and all preserved motifs of the Kabri miniature fresco have a purely Aegean character.
Where had the Kabri miniature fresco been situated? We think that the material of the fill containing the wall fresco fragments was not brought from elsewhere but was formed by debris from this area. Thus, the miniature fresco probably belonged, together with the painted plaster f loor, to the interior design of Hall 611 and ran along the wall in the zone above the doors in a similar position to that of the miniature fresco in room 5 of the West House at Akrotiri.106
3. The Tell el-Dabca Frescoes (1992 - Present)
At the end of our paper at the Thalassa conference in spring 1990, after having discussed the Alalakh fresco fragments and the painted plaster f loor at Tel Kabri, we speculated that Aegean frescoes may have existed at more Canaanite sites.107 For this M. Bietak ascribed an
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98 B. PIERRE-MULLER, “Une grande peinture des appartements royaux du palais de Mari (salles 219-220),”
M.A.R.I., Annales de Recherches Interdisciplinaires 6 (1990) 484-85, fragments M 4592-94, 4599, p. 524-25.
99 Cf. MORGAN (supra n. 89) 75-77.
100 The swallow in particular often appears in Theran wall painting and vase painting — cf. S.A. IMMERWAHR, “Swallows and Dolphins at Akrotiri: Some Thoughts on the Relationship of Vase Painting to Wall Painting,” in TAW III, vol. I, 238-41. In Crete we find it on a series of seals, some of them depicting cult scenes — cf. J.P. RUUSKANEN, Birds on Aegean Bronze Age Seals: A Study of Representation (1992) 56-57. The fact that we have only one fresco representation of a swallow from Crete, EVANS (supra n. 37) 379, fig. 211, probably is due to accidents of preservation. The swallows on a gold foil from Shaft Grave III at Mycenae, G. KARO,
Die Schachtgräber von Mykenai (1930/33) 47, no. 24, pl. 21, are of Minoan inf luence.
101 EVANS (supra n. 24) 548-51.
102 Cf. C. d’ALBIAC, “The ‘Diagnostic’ Wings of Monsters,” in: C. MORRIS (ed.), Klados. Essays in Honour of
J.N. Coldstream. BICS Suppl. 63 (1995) 64-67.
103 DOUMAS (supra n. 41) 65, fig. 32; TELEVANTOU (supra n. 41) 252-54, colour pl. 47.
104 Griffin: H. FRANKFORT, “Notes on the Cretan Griffin,” BSA 37 (1936/37) 106-122; A. BISI, Il grifone:
storia di un motivo iconografico nell’Antico Oriente Mediterraneo (1965) 171-72, 193; MORGAN (supra n. 89)
50-53; CROWLEY (supra n. 73) 46-51, 271-73. Sphinx: A. DESSENNE, Le sphinx, étude iconographique: des
origines à la fin du second millénaire (1957) 122-29; CROWLEY (supra n. 73) 40-44, 271-72.
105 DESSENNE (supra n. 104) 130 no. 294, 133 no. 299; BISI (supra n. 104) 193-95; CROWLEY (supra n. 73) 44, 48.
106 For the reconstruction of room 5 of the West House at Akrotiri, see CH.A. TELEVANTOU, “New Light on the West House Wall-Paintings,” in TAW III, vol. I, 313-14, figs. 4-6; for an attempt to reconstruct Hall 611, see W.-D. NIEMEIER, “Tel Kabri: Aegean Fresco Paintings in a Canaanite Palace,” in S. GITIN (ed.), Recent
Excavations in Israel: A View to the West, Archaeological Institute of America, Colloquia and Conference Papers No. 1 (1995) 10, fig. 1.14.
“almost mantic foresight” to us after he had found fresco fragments with strong Minoan affinities at Tell el-Dabca in the eastern Nile Delta.108 As the earlier Austrian excavations
under the directorship of Bietak at Tell el Dabca and other excavations in the eastern Nile
Delta have demonstrated, the Hyksos rule of the Second Intermediate Period followed a considerable inf lux of Canaanites from Syria-Palestine, and Tell el-Dabca was the Hyksos
capital Avaris.109 From 1989 on, the main excavations at Tell el-Dabca/Avaris have focussed
on Ezbet Helmi, at the western edge of the site. The discovery of “Minoan wall-paintings” at Ezbet Helmi was first announced in 1992.110 Several thousand fragments were found in areas
H/I and H/IV.111 These all came from secondary contexts, unstratified from the upper
levels, from filling levels of the 18th Dynasty, and from walls and foundation trenches of reparations and additions to the mudbrick platform of a monumental building,112probably a
palatial fortress.113 With good reason, the excavators think that the frescoes from which these
fragments come originally had adorned walls of this monumental building,114which first was
dated by them to the late Hyksos period before the conquest of Avaris by Ahmose.115 As P.
Jánosi has demonstrated, the position of this palatial fortress next to the Pelusiac branch of the Nile fits very well with the description on Kamose’s second stela of the women fearfully looking down from the roof of the palace to Kamose’s f leet on the river during his (unsuccessful) attack against Avaris.116
More fresco fragments were found in Areas H/II and H/III, ca. 200 m to the southwest of area H/I. According to the preliminary reports, the architectural remnants probably belonged to two major structures, a Hyksos palace followed by an early 18th Dynasty one.117
The fresco fragments in Area H/II also came from mixed contexts and were dated by the excavators “either to the late Hyksos period or to the early 18th Dynasty.”118 The only in situ
finds of lime plaster were made in Area H/III. On the lowermost part of the facade of the Hyksos period building, lime plaster without preserved representative painting but “typical of Minoan wall painting” was found.119 In the level of the early 18th Dynasty, fresco fragments
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108 M. BIETAK, “Die Wandmalereien aus Tell el-Dabca/Ezbet Helmi: Erste Eindrücke,” Ägypten und Levante 4
(1994) 56. For the use of fresco technique together with al secco technique, see Ibid. 46.
109 Tell el-Dabca: M BIETAK, “Avaris and Piramesse: Archaeological Exploration in the Eastern Nile Delta,”
Proceedings of the British Academy 65 (1979) 218-68; Idem, “Canaanites in the Eastern Nile Delta,” in A.F.
RAINEY (ed.), Egypt, Israel, Sinai: Archaeological and Historical Relationships in the Biblical Period (1987) 41-56;
Idem, Avaris, The Capital of the Hyksos: Recent Excavations at Tell el-Dabca (1996) 10-67. Other sites: W.G.
DEVER, “Relations between Syria-Palestine and Egypt in the ‘Hyksos’ period,” in J.N. TUBB (ed.), Palestine
in the Bronze and Iron Ages. Papers in Honour of O. Tufnell (1985) 71, with references; C.A. REDMOUNT, “Pots
and People in the Egyptian Delta: Tell el-Mashkuta and the Hyksos,” JMA 8.2 (1995) 61-89.
110 M. BIETAK, “Minoan Wall-Paintings unearthed at Ancient Avaris,” Egyptian Archaeology 2 (1992) 26-28. 111 For the location of these areas and others which will be mentioned later, see the most recent published plans
of Ezbet Helmi: BIETAK, Avaris (supra n. 109) 69, fig. 55.
112 P. JÁNOSI, “Die stratigraphische Position und Verteilung der minoischen Wandfragmente in den Grabungsplätzen H/I und H/IV von Tell el-Dabca,” in Hyksos Egypt and the Eastern Mediterranean World, 63-71.
113 P. JÁNOSI, “Tell el-Dabca - Ezbet Helmi: Vorbericht über den Grabungsplatz H/I (1989-1992) Ägypten und
Levante 4 (1994) 31, 37; Reconstruction: BIETAK, Avaris (supra n. 109) 71, fig. 58.
114 BIETAK (supra n. 110); Idem (supra. n. 108) 44; Idem, “Connections between Egypt and the Minoan World: New Results from Tell el-Dabca/Avaris,” in Egypt, the Aegean and the Levant, 20; JÁNOSI (supra n. 113) 32;
Idem (supra n. 112) 66.
115 BIETAK (supra n. 110) 26; Idem (supra n. 108) 55-58; Idem (supra n. 114) 20; JÁNOSI (supra n. 113) 27-33;
Idem (supra n. 112) 66.
116 JÁNOSI (supra n. 113) 37 with n. 94. The relevant passage of the text of Kamose’s second stela: J.B. PRITCHARD (ed.), Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament, 3rd edition (1969) 554; HABACHI (supra n. 22) 34.
117 BIETAK (supra n. 114) 23; M. BIETAK and N. MARINATOS, “The Minoan Wall Paintings from Avaris,” in
Hyksos Egypt and the Eastern Mediterranean World, 49; BIETAK, Avaris (supra n. 109) 70.
118 BIETAK and MARINATOS (supra n. 117) 49. 119 Ibid.
were found on both sides of a wall “concentrating around a portal.”120 From the stratigraphical evidence in Area H/III, M. Bietak and N. Marinatos, in 1995, came to the conclusion that “Minoan wall painting existed in Avaris both during the late Hyksos period and the early 18th Dynasty.”121
The fragments from Area H/I-H/IV at Ezbet Helmi instantly created much sensation, since among the scenes depicted on them are spectacular representations of bull leaping so closely identified with Minoan cult and culture (Pl. VId).122 Other categories of motifs on the fragments having parallels in the Aegean are those representing elements of the landscape, like barren hills,123‘Easter egg’ pebbles which are very much a Minoan iconographic form (Pl. VId, upper left),124and plants, most of which are at home in the Aegean and in Egypt and are represented in both arts, but some of which are alien to Egypt and are not depicted in Egyptian
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120 Ibid.; M. BIETAK, “Le début de la XVIIIe Dynastie et les Minoens à Avaris,” Bulletin de la Société Française d’Égyptologie 135 (1996) 14.
121 BIETAK and MARINATOS (supra n. 117) 49.
122 BIETAK (supra n. 110) figs. on pp. 26-27; Idem (supra n. 108) 46-49, frontispiece, pls. 15-16; BIETAK and MARINATOS (supra n. 117) 49-54, figs. 2-4. As to the close identification of bull leaping with Minoan cult and culture, cf. MARINATOS (supra n. 81) 218-20; Eadem, “The ‘Export’ Significance of Minoan Bull-Hunting and Bull-Leaping Scenes,” Ägypten und Levante 4 (1994) 98-93; L. MORGAN, “Minoan Painting and Egypt: The Case of Tell el-Dabca,” in Egypt, the Aegean and the Levant, 40, with references in n. 97; M.C. SHAW, “Aegean Sponsors and Artists: Ref lections of their Roles in the Patterns of Distribution of Themes and Representational Conventions in the Murals,” in Techne, 497-99. D. COLLON, “Bull-Leaping in Syria,” Ägypten und Levante 4 (1994) 81-88, has suggested that the Minoan bull-sports had their immediate antecedents in Syria, where a group of glyptic representations depict bull-sports. The only example from a datable archaeological context is a seal impression from the Level VII palace at Alalakh, Ibid. 81, pl. 1,2. Thus the terminus ante quem is formed by the destruction of Alalakh VII in the later 17th century or around 1600 BC (cf. supra with nn. 20-23). For stylistic reasons, Collon argues that the seal was probably made around 1700 BC, perhaps in a royal workshop in Aleppo; see D. COLLON, “The Aleppo Workshop: A Seal cutter’s Workshop in Syria in the Second Half of the 18th Century B.C.,” Ugarit-Forschungen 13 (1982) 33-43. Since Collon is using a rather high version of the middle chronology, the date may be lowered to the first half of the 17th century BC. As opposed to Collon’s suggestion, we would agree with BIETAK (supra n. 108) 56-57, ARUZ (supra n. 84) 36-39, and SHAW, op. cit. 499 n. 104, in seeing Minoan inf luence in those Syrian seal representations. As Aruz has pointed out, these and other seals of Collon’s ‘Aleppo’ group show decisive stylistic innovations: the animals break away from any ground line and the setting of the scene, the traditional schemes of composition, are ignored. As to the bull leaping scenes, in two of them, on the Alalakh VII sealing and on a cylinder seal, formerly in the Erlenmeyer collection, now on loan to the Metropolitan Museum (COLLON, Ägypten und Levante 4 [supra] pl. 1,3; ARUZ [supra n. 84] 37 fig. 16, 38 figs. 17 and 19), the bull-leapers are symmetrically doubled in an unrealistic way, apparently indicating that the iconographic motif was adopted from Crete, but probably not the actual ritual sport of bull-leaping. Bietak sees some problem in the fact that we do not have contemporary bull-leaping scenes from Crete. But when adopting the high Aegean chronology — to which the present authors are tending — this problem disappears and the Syrian seals in question are roughly contemporary to the oldest preserved Minoan representation of actual bull-leaping from the MM III-LM IA Knossian Temple Repositories; cf. A.J. EVANS,
PM III (1930) 218, fig. 149. As to the dating of the Temple Repositories in MM IIIB - LM IA, see I. PINI,
“The Hieroglyphic Deposit and the Temple Repositories at Knossos,” in T.G. PALAIMA (ed.), Aegean Seals,
Sealings and Administration. Proceedings of the NEH-Dickson Conference of the Program in Aegean Scripts and Prehistory of the Department of Classics, University of Texas at Austin, January 11-13, 1989. Aegaeum 5 (1990)
46-53; NIEMEIER (supra n. 24) 79. The date of the MM IIIB-LM IA transition according to the Aegean high chronology is ca. 1700/1680 - 1675/50 BC; see MANNING (supra n. 58) 217-20.
123 MORGAN (supra n. 122) 33 pointing to parallels from Kea and Thera. The fragment mentioned by Morgan is now published in a water colour: BIETAK and MARINATOS (supra n. 117) fig. 15.
124 Another example: BIETAK and MARINATOS (supra n. 117) 59, fig. 14. For the ‘Easter egg’ pebbles being a Minoan iconographic form, see MORGAN (supra n. 89) 34; Eadem (supra n. 122) 33.
art, like lilies125and possibly olive trees (if Bietak’s identification is correct).126 The animals in the Ezbet Helmi paintings, lions, leopards, antelopes, and dogs, are all found in Egyptian as well as in Aegean art.127 But their f lying gallop is a typical movement expressing animal speed in Aegean art and not introduced to Egypt before late in the Hyksos period.128 Two animals at home in the Nile and often depicted in Egyptian art, the crocodile and the hippopotamus,129do not appear in the Ezbet Helmi fragments yet known. Fragments of the wings of two griffins, one large-scale and one small-scale, have been identified at Ezbet Helmi.130 Of both wings, only the upper edge is preserved. Thus it is not certain if the wings had ‘notched plumes.’ But the hanging spirals appear to indicate that the griffins were of Aegean type. Most recently the head of the smaller griffin has been identified.131
As to the representations of human figures, beards like that painted in parallel lines on the fragment of a near life-size head132very seldom appear in Aegean wall painting.133 But other features of the head have good parallels in Aegean wall painting, like the internal markings in sinuous lines of the ear as well as the eye of a more rounded type than in Egyptian art and with the iris and pupil painted in red ochre with a black dot.134 Bietak and Marinatos interpret the head as that of an Aegean bearded priest, with comparisons to a number of representations on sealstones.135Two men of small size, painted against a facade, have been identified as belonging to the same composition,136which, according to Bietak and Marinatos, was probably a procession like that of the north wall of the Theran miniature fresco or that on the Kea miniatures.137 The movement and the position of the arms of the ‘runner’ is comparable to that of the man on a fragment of the Tylissos miniature fresco,138as well as of the ‘Captain of the Blacks’139and another male figure on Knossian fresco fragments.140 Two rather well preserved bull leapers from two different compositions have Minoan hairstyles, with long curly hair, and wear a bracelet on the upper arm (one on Pl. VId, lower left).141 This
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125 Ibid. with references in n. 32; illustration: BIETAK and MARINATOS (supra n. 117) 59 fig. 14.
126 BIETAK (supra n. 108) 45-46, no. F 1, pl. 14 A. The earliest finds of olives in Egypt date from the 14th century BC and it may not have been planted until yet later; see. L. MANNICHE, An Ancient Egyptian Herbal (1989) 128-29. MORGAN (supra n. 122) 33-34 doubts the olive tree identification and thinks that myrtle may be depicted. Myrtle is thought to have been used by the Egyptians for its medicinal and aromatic properties, but is not generally included among the garden plants of Egyptian wall paintings; see MORGAN (supra n. 122) 34 with references in n. 43. In Aegean wall painting, myrtle appears rather often (if correctly identified); see Ibid. 33-34 with references in nn. 39-42.
127 MORGAN (supra n. 122) 34-36. Published are the fragments of a leopard: BIETAK (supra n. 108) 50-51, no. F 9, pl. 19 A; BIETAK and MARINATOS (supra n. 117) 61, fig. 16; of an antelope: BIETAK (supra n. 114) 24, pl. 4.1; and of a dog: BIETAK and MARINATOS (supra n. 117) 55, fig. 6.
128 KANTOR, 92-97, 106-107; Interconnections, 26, 77, 155; CROWLEY (supra n. 73) 113-17; MORGAN (supra n. 122) 36-38.
129 See E. BRUNNER-TRAUT, “Krokodil,” Lexikon der Ägyptologie III (1980) 791-802; L. STÖRK, “Nilpferd,”
Lexikon der Ägyptologie IV (1982) 501-506.
130 BIETAK (supra n. 108) 52-53, nos. F 15 (small-scale) and F 32 (large-scale) pl. 21 A-B. 131 See BIETAK (supra n. 120) 22, fig. 12.
132 BIETAK (supra n. 110) 49, no. F 6, pl. 17 A; BIETAK and MARINATOS (supra n. 117) 55-56, fig. 7. 133 MORGAN (supra n. 122) 38, with reference in n. 78, knows only one example in the miniature fresco from
Thera.
134 Cf. Ibid. 38, with references in nn. 76-77.
135 BIETAK and MARINATOS (supra n. 117) 55-56, figs. 8-9. Cf. also the ‘portrait’ seal representations of priests, J.H. BETTS, “The Seal from Shaft Grave Gamma,” TUAS 6 (1981) 74-83, with references; MARINATOS (supra n. 81) 128-29, figs. 89-91.
136 BIETAK and MARINATOS (supra n. 117) 55-57, figs. 9. 10.
137 Thera: MARINATOS (supra n. 41) 59-60, fig. 38; DOUMAS (supra n. 41) pl. 79. Kea: L. MORGAN, “Island Iconography: Thera, Kea, Milos,” in TAW III, vol. I, 254-57, figs. 1-4.
138 M.C. SHAW, “The Miniature Fresco of Tylissos reconsidered,” AA (1972) 172 no. 3, 174 fig. 3, 184 fig. 13. 139 EVANS (supra n. 37) colour pl. XIII opposite p. 756.
140 A.J. EVANS, The Knossos Fresco Atlas (1967) pl. VI, fig. 11. 141 BIETAK (supra n. 108) frontispiece, pls. 15 B. 16.
is a typical Minoan custom,142as is also the wearing of a seal at the wrist by one of the two.143 On the latter, a kilt of Minoan type is also preserved,144as are the white boots. More white boots with parallels in the Aegean are extant on other fragments.145 As pointed out by L. Morgan, the fact that the Keftiu in Egyptian tombs are depicted wearing white boots shows that the latter were characteristic of Aegean men.146 Further, there are fragments of at least three acrobats from Ezbet Helmi, apparently performing in a grove of palm trees, of which one is published.147 Acrobats occur in Minoan as well as in Egyptian art,148but the acrobat of the published fragment wears a Minoan kilt, white boots and a headgear of Minoan type with a waz-lily.149 The so-called ‘African’ on a fresco fragment from Thera, recently reconstructed by Marinatos as an acrobat wearing a plumed headgear and performing next to a palm tree,150forms a parallel in Aegean wall painting.
Associated with the bull leaping scenes of the fragments integrated in the reconstruction on Pl. VId are two interesting ornaments: a maze-like or labyrinth pattern as background and a half-rosette and triglyph frieze as dado.151 Maze-like patterns occur in Egypt and in the Aegean,152 but the half-rosette and triglyph frieze is a characteristic Aegean motif153 with religious connotation.154 Thus all motifs of the fresco fragments from area H/I and H/IV at Tell el-Dabca/Ezbet Helmi have parallels in the Aegean. Several of them also occur in Egyptian art, but others are of distinctive Aegean character: the bull leaping, the f lying gallop, the dress and jewellery, the triglyph and rosette frieze.
4. The Re-examination of the Alalakh Frescoes (1994-1996)
After all these exciting fresco fragments had been found at Tel Kabri and Tell el-Dabca/Avaris, it was even more of a desideratum to restudy the Alalakh fragments. For some time we had tried to find them, and had even travelled to the Antakya museum where most of the finds from Alalakh are kept. But then Aharon Kempinski heard from P.R.S. Moorey that the fresco fragments found by Woolley in Yarim-Lim’s palace of Alalakh Level VII are kept in the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, to which they were handed in 1957 by the British Museum in London. This was for us an irony of fate, since we had visited the Ashmolean several times for studies in the collection and in the Evans archive, but we had always gotten stuck in the Evans room and had never entered the next room in which the Alalakh fragments are exhibited. Participation at the Spring 1994 Oxford colloquium in
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142 Cf. M. EFFINGER, Minoischer Schmuck (1996) 62, with references.
143 BIETAK (supra n. 108) pl. 15 B (photograph); Idem (supra n. 114) pl. 1,1 (water colour). As to the Minoan custom of wearing seals at the wrist, see J.G. YOUNGER, “Non-Sphragistic Uses of Minoan-Mycenaean Sealstones and Rings,” Kadmos 16 (1977) 141-59; Idem, “Representations of Minoan-Mycenaean Jewellery,” in EIKVN, 272-73; EFFINGER (supra n. 142) 85-86. As to peculiarities of the Tell el-Dabca bull-leaper with the seal at the wrist which led Younger to doubt that it was painted by a Minoan artist, see infra with n. 247. 144 BIETAK (supra n. 108) pl. 16. As to P. Rehak’s view according to which this kilt is a miscomprehended
Minoan ‘breechcloth,’ see infra with n. 260.
145 BIETAK (supra n. 108) 52, no. F 13, pl. 20 B; as to its identification as a boot, see MORGAN (supra n. 122) 39 with references to parallels from Knossos, Tylissos, and Melos.
146 Ibid. 39. On the boots in the Keftiu representations, see J. VERCOUTTER, L’Égypte et le monde égéen préhellénique (1956) 289-95, pls. XXX-XXXIV.
147 BIETAK (supra n. 108) 49-50, no. F 7, pl. 17 B; Idem (supra n. 114) 24, pl. 3,1. 148 MORGAN (supra n. 122) 35, 39-40, fig. 4-6.
149 See references in Ibid. 39, with references in nn. 84-85.
150 N. MARINATOS, “The ‘African’ of Thera reconsidered,” OpAth 17 (1988) 137-41; Eadem, Acrobats in Minoan
Art (forthcoming).
151 See the photographs of the actual fragments, BIETAK (supra n. 108) 47-48, no. F 4, pls. 14 D, 15 B, p. 51, no. F 10, pl. 18 B. Another fragment shows a diagonal maze-like pattern: Ibid. 46, no. F 2, pl. 14 B, C. 152 MORGAN (supra n. 122) 43-44, with references in nn. 149-52.
153 BIETAK (supra n. 108) 51 with references in n. 140; SHAW (supra n. 122) 499-504.
154 EVANS (supra n. 37) 605-608; W.-D. NIEMEIER, “Zur Deutung des Thronraumes im Palast von Knossos,”
honour of Sinclair Hood, who as a young archaeologist had been Woolley’s collaborator at Alalakh in 1947-1948,155 gave us the opportunity to study the Alalakh fragments and to
discuss them with distinguished colleagues.156
We shall discuss here two groups of fragments for which we have produced new reconstructions. A restored panel, probably coming from the NE part of the salon, has at the upper edge a horizontal violet band framed by two yellow-brown ones outlined in black.157
Near to the left edge of the panel, the yellow-brown horn of a bull is preserved and above it, on the corner of the restored panel, part of the black curved outline of an object. The exact upright position of the horn appears to indicate that not a living animal but rather an isolated bull’s head or a bucranium, seen from the front, was represented, as suggested by Woolley.158
He found it tempting to see in the bull design an analogy with Knossos, but then preferred a north-Syrian origin for the motif, pointing to the tradition of the frontal bull’s head going back to the pottery of the Tell Halaf culture. To our knowledge there is, however, no continuity with regard to the frontal bull’s head motif in the Near East between Tell Halaf and the wall paintings from the palace of the 15th century BC at Nuzi,159where this motif possibly
is inf luenced by Minoan prototypes.160 In Crete, frontal bulls’ heads are to be found on seals
from MM IB-II on161 (high chronology: ca. 1925/1900 - 1750/20 BC; low chronology: 19th
century - ca. 1700/1650 BC), in vase painting from MM III on162 (high chronology: ca.
1750/20 - 1700/1680 BC; low chronology: ca. 1700/1650 - 1600 BC), as also in wall painting.163
What was the rounded object between the horns of the Alalakh fragment? Representations of frontal bulls’ heads and (more seldom) bucrania with rounded objects frequently occur in Aegean art. In Minoan vase painting, seal representations, and thin golden cut-outs from Shaft Grave IV at Mycenae inf luenced by Minoan iconography, we see double axes between the horns,164while on inlaid metal vessels we find rosettes instead of the double
axes.165 The curve of the black object at the edge of the Alalakh fresco fragment in question
is rather f lat. If reconstructed as a rosette, this would be very large. Thus we consider the reconstruction as a double axe to be more probable (Pl. VIe). If this is correct, it would form strong evidence for a Minoan character of the fresco.
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155 H.V.F. WINSTONE, Woolley of Ur: The Life of Sir Leonard Woolley (1990) 249-56.
156 Beside P.R.S. MOOREY, to whom we are grateful for all his help, these colleagues were P.P. BETANCOURT, R. LAFFINEUR, N. MARINATOS, O. NEGBI, J. SCHÄFER, W. SCHIERING, and J. WEINGARTEN. 157 For a colour photograph of the fragment, see NIEMEIER and NIEMEIER (supra n . 6) pl. 12.
158 WOOLLEY (supra n. 3) 231.
159 R.F.S. STARR, Nuzi (1937/39) 143-44, pls. 128-29; Interconnections, 33, 113-14, fig. 51. 160 Cf. CROWLEY (supra n. 73) 175-76, 188.
161 MM IB-II: P. YULE, Early Cretan Seals: A Study of Chronology (1980) 123-24, pl. 4, motif 3 A. MM III-LM I: A. ONASSOGLOU, Die ‘talismanischen’ Siegel. CMS Suppl. 2 (1985) 120-28, pl. XLVI. LM I: J. WEINGARTEN, “Aspects of Tradition and Innovation in the Work of the Zakro Master,” L’iconographie minoenne. BCH Suppl. XI (1985) 169-73, fig. 1.
162 J.H. CROUWEL and W.-D. NIEMEIER, “Eine knossische Palaststilscherbe mit Bukranion-Darstellung aus Mykene,” AA (1989) 6-7, figs. 3-4.
163 EVANS (supra n. 37) 742, fig. 475; Idem (supra n. 122) 40-41, fig. 25 a, d. According to Evans, these bulls’ heads formed ornaments on garments of large, seated female figures, whereas STEVENSON SMITH (Interconnections, 80) thought that they may have belonged to representations of architecture. If this is true, they reproduce much larger prototypes.
164 Vase painting: CROUWEL and NIEMEIER (supra n. 162) 7, figs. 3-4. Seal representations: EVANS (supra n. 37) 619, n. 1; N. PLATON and I. PINI, CMS II.3: Irakleion, Archäologisches Museum, Die Siegel der
Neupalastzeit (1984) 14, no. 11; M.A.V. GILL, in I. PINI, CMS XI: Kleinere europäische Sammlungen (1988) 268,
no. 259; V.E.G. KENNA and E. THOMAS, CMS XIII: Nordamerika II, kleinere Sammlungen (1974) 17, no. 15. Golden cut-outs from Shaft Grave IV: KARO (supra n. 100) 91-92, nos. 353-54, pl. 44. As to the Minoan inf luence in these pieces, cf. E.T. VERMEULE, The Art of the Shaft Graves at Mycenae (1975) 48-49. 165 VERCOUTTER (supra n. 146) 306, pl. 35, no. 231 (representation of a silver Keftiu cup in the tomb of
Senmut in Egyptian Thebes); E.N. DAVIS, The Vapheio Cups and Aegean Gold and Silver Ware (1977) 118-23, no. 24, fig. 95, 263-66, no. 109, figs. 210-12.
