Gunneweg, Jan, Perlman, Isadore and Asaro, Frank 1987, A Canaanite Jar from Enkomi, Israel Exploration Journal, 37, 168-172 This paper provides obvious evidence that articles of trade were shipped from Canaan to Cyprus. This may be a start to study the inter-relations between peoples of Canaan and the rest of the Mediterranean Basin during the Middle and Late Bronze periods on the basis of the so called "Canaanite Storage jar". A specimen of an elongated type of Canaanite jar was sampled from Enkomi in Cyprus and submitted to instrumental neutron activation analysis at the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory of the University of California to learn from where in the Mediterranean this type of jar came. The experimental data showed that the jar was made in Canaan, more specifically, in Ashdod and its immediate environs. That the vessel was similar to Egyptian found store jars becomes again a good topic to be investigated by scientific methods. Canaanite Storage Jar from Enkomi In a note, published in the Israel Exploration Journal 38 (1988), pp 224-226, A. Mazar has pointed out that he agrees that this storage jar found at Enkomi came from Ashdod. He, further noticed the occurence of similar storage jars found in the "Ingot Temple" at Enkomi of a 'secure 12th century BCE' context and also found in Qasile Strata XII-X. However, there is a "but" to be clarified: Mazar's reconstructed globular form of the jar is not similar to that as depicted above. Our jar was reconstructed according to the minimal diameter of the shard as found which only allows to an elongated shaped_reconstrction which, indeed, occurs in much larger quantities in Egypt as rendered in our paper. Therefore, also the chronology, as suggested by Mazar, does not pertain to the 12th century BCE solely. Comments? Please write: Jan Gunneweg To return, click Archaeometry abstracts of our work or click "BACK" or click the Homepage . Jan Gunneweg Ph.D., The Hebrew University, revised November 2005