Caroline Sauvage
Loyola Marymount University, Classics and Archaeology, Faculty Member
- Ancient Near East (Archaeology), Ancient Near East, Levantine Archaeology, Cypriot Archaeology, Cultural interrelations in the eastern Mediterranean from the BA to the EIA, Ancient Near Eastern social and economic history, and 49 moreAncient Ports, Mediterranean Underwater Archaeology, Coastal Geoarcheology, Textile Archaeology, Cypriot Bronze Age, Egyptology, Material Culture Studies, Ancient Textiles, Ancient Near Eastern History, Ancient Near Eastern Economy, Ancient Near Eastern Art, Ancient Near Eastern archaeology, Late Bronze Age Levant and new kingdom Egypt, 1) cultural interconnections and trade (Egypt and Levant), Ugaritic Studies, Cyprus and the East Mediterranean, Aegeo-Egyptian relations, Mediterranean archaeology, Near Eastern Archaeology, Ancient Mediterranean Art and Visual Culture, Egyptian Art and Archaeology, Ancient Visual Culture (Archaeology), Archaeology of Mediterranean Trade, Egyptian Archaeology, Ancient economies (Archaeology), Ceramics (Archaeology), Tell Tweini, Hebrew Bible and Ancient Near East, Ancient Trade & Commerce (Archaeology), Ancient Maritime Trade Routes, Chariot in the Ancient Near East, Archaeology, Aegean Archaeology, Amarna Egypt, Bronze Age Archaeology, Social Network Analysis (SNA), Maritime Law, Maritime Routes, Maritime Archaeology, Mesopotamian art and visual culture, History of Textiles, Archaeology of Empires, copper oxhide ingots LBA Cyprus Crete lead isotopes, Spinning, Weaving & processing, Spindle Whorls, Loom Weights, Warp Weighted Loom, Purple dye production, and Textile toolsedit
This monograph presents the archaeological material that was found during the first years of the excavations in Ras Shamra-Ugarit led by C. F. A. Schaeffer. The catalogue is the result of a multidisciplinary collective research project in... more
This monograph presents the archaeological material that was found during the first years of the excavations in Ras Shamra-Ugarit led by C. F. A. Schaeffer. The catalogue is the result of a multidisciplinary collective research project in which numerous specialists from a wide range of disciplines participated, many of them being members of the Syrian-French archaeological mission in Ras Shamra-Ugarit. Over the years, up until the armed conflict broke out in 2011, a huge number of finds were uncovered, those presented here representing only a small part thereof. The aim of the publication is to make available a selection of types which Schaeffer considered representative of the culture, his own research having made a significant contribution to deciphering it. With regard to the collections held by the National Archaeological Museum of France in St.-Germain-en-Laye, the finds from the harbour town of Minet el-Beida, which became a military zone after 1961 and was therefore no longer accessible, are worthy of particular attention. Adding to the series of publications on Ras Shamra-Ugarit that have come out since 1978, the aim of this volume is to contribute to knowledge of the archaeological site, which is one of the most important Bronze Age sites in the eastern Mediterranean region.
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The article presents a group of twenty-two mostly unpublished terracotta loom weights in the Villa collection of the J. Paul Getty Museum. Most have been classed as coming from the southern Italian Peninsula and are discoid or... more
The article presents a group of twenty-two mostly unpublished terracotta loom weights in the Villa collection of the J. Paul Getty Museum. Most have been classed as coming from the southern Italian Peninsula and are discoid or hemispherical. A functional analysis based on experimental archaeology demonstrates that these loom weights were used for weaving fine cloth. Their decoration includes dots and lines, imprints of coins, and images pressed in a mold of figures from mythology, and the iconography draws on themes from domestic life and women’s experiences. The assemblage of pyramidal and discoid or hemispherical loom weights may reflect chronological and cultural differences (e.g., Greek versus Italic) in weaving technology on the southern Italian Peninsula. Based on comparative material, we suggest dating the discoid and hemispherical Getty loom weights to the third to second centuries BCE, with a plausible context in or near Herakleia or Taranto.
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Charred archaeological stones of Olea europaea L. (olive) from Late Bronze Age Ugarit, Syria, were analyzed with geometric morphometry and compared with a morphological differentiation model established on the basis of analyses of modern... more
Charred archaeological stones of Olea europaea L. (olive) from Late Bronze Age Ugarit, Syria, were analyzed with geometric morphometry and compared with a morphological differentiation model established on the basis of analyses of modern spontaneous (uncultivated) olive populations and cultivated varieties of various origins within the Mediterranean Basin. The results allow a reinterpretation of the east–west morphological diversity previously observed in wild olives. The archaeobotanical data were compared in detail to the partly geographically structured modern morphological diversity of the cultivated olive. Ancient morphotypes could be distinguished, among which one is dominant in the assemblage. Their diffusion from east to west is shown, and their time of arrival in the northwestern Mediterranean can be evaluated by comparison to archaeological material from that area. Combining morphometric and genetic data, modern reference and archaeological material also guides us in understanding the mechanisms that prevailed in the long-term agrobiodiversity of the olive.
Our paper presents an overview of recent scholarship regarding the so-called “Ṯab’ilu” ductus among Ugaritic scribal hands, with special attention paid to the epigraphic finds of the 5th season of excavations at Ras Shamra in 1933, during... more
Our paper presents an overview of recent scholarship regarding the so-called “Ṯab’ilu” ductus among Ugaritic scribal hands, with special attention paid to the epigraphic finds of the 5th season of excavations at Ras Shamra in 1933, during which several of the “Ṯab’ilu” tablets were found. On the basis of recent archeological research on the acropolis, as well as the renewed collation of the pertinent alphabetic tablets, we attempt to formulate a plausible contextual interpretation of the institutional and historical background of the “Ṯab’ilu” dossier, which, among other things, accounts for the surprising linguistic diversity attested therein (the “Ṯab’ilu” corpus includes not only alphabetic Hurrian texts, but also the small corpus of Akkadian magical texts in alphabetic cuneiform script).
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The inscribed spindle whorl RS 5.179—MAN 76780.03 was “rediscovered” recently among the objects conserved in the comparative archeology collections of the Musée d’Archéologie nationale in Saint-Germain-en-Laye. The object was originally... more
The inscribed spindle whorl RS 5.179—MAN 76780.03 was “rediscovered” recently among the objects conserved in the comparative archeology collections of the Musée d’Archéologie nationale in Saint-Germain-en-Laye. The object was originally found in 1933 during C.F.-A. Schaeffer’s excavations on the acropolis of the tell of Ras Shamra-Ugarit; it dates to the 13th century BC. The spindle whorl is remarkable in several respects: its large size, its weight, and the presence of a notch along its side suggesting that it was used as a high whorl for the production of thick thread by plying. It also carries a short inscription in alphabetic Ugaritic cuneiform script: the word {plk}, “spindle”, easily legible on the flat under-side of the whorl, is unique within the corpus of spindle whorls from the Late Bronze Eastern Mediterranean in that it permits a direct association of this category of object with its name in the local vernacular language. The inscription itself, rather awkward in certain respects, can be thus characterized as a type of “direct label”. In terms of function, we suspect that the inscription was not so much intended to transmit information as it was to emphasize and highlight the use of the cuneiform alphabet; we consider it plausible that such a use would have conferred on its owner a certain cultural prestige, perhaps at a moment when cuneiform alphabetic writing had become “stylish” among the elites of the city, perhaps round the same time as the institutionalization of the alphabetic Ugaritic cuneiform script as the main graphic vehicle of the royal administration.
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Lead isotope analyses were carried out on fragments of White Slip II ware, a Late Bronze Age Cypriote pottery ware, and on raw materials possibly used for their production. Sherds originate from three Late Bronze Age sites (Hala Sultan... more
Lead isotope analyses were carried out on fragments of White Slip II ware, a Late Bronze Age Cypriote pottery ware, and on raw materials possibly used for their production. Sherds originate from three Late Bronze Age sites (Hala Sultan Tekke and Sanidha in Cyprus and Minet el-Beida in Syria) and clays come from the surroundings of Sanidha, a production site for White Slip ware. X-ray fluorescence (XRF) and a Principal Component Analysis (PCA) are combined with Pb isotope analyses to further investigate the effectiveness of the latter method within a multiproxy approach for pottery provenance study. The pottery sherds from the three sites are compared between themselves and with potential raw material. Additional X-ray diffraction (XRD) and analyses using a scanning electron microscope (SEM) equipped with an energy dispersive X-ray detection (EDX) facility were performed on selected sherds and clays. This work confirms that the clay source used for pottery production in Sanidha derives from local weathered gabbro. It also shows that different origins can be proposed for White Slip II ware sherds from Hala Sultan Tekke and Minet el-Beida and that clays were prepared prior to White Slip II ware production. It finally confirms the effectiveness of Pb isotopes in tracing pottery provenance not only by comparing sherd assemblages but also by comparing sherds to potential raw materials.► The use of lead isotopes in multiproxy approach to trace pottery provenance is tested. ► Pottery fragments and potential clay sources from Cyprus are analyzed. ► Various origins are proposed for the pottery fragments. ► A link is established between the pottery fragments and some clay sources. ► Clay processing prior to pottery making is attested.