Phoenician Metal Jugs

Phoenician metal jugs have long provided those of an inquiring disposition with an attractive and inspiring topic. They stimulate the intellectual curiosity of scholars of all sorts of denominations: Classical archaeologists, Orientalists, Etruscologists – amongst others. In addition they are linked to some of the most important discoveries of the so-called ‘Orientalizing’ period in the Mediterranean area:1 from the afaire Curium of the count Luigi Palma di Cesnola, through the excavations of the ‘princely’ tombs in Italy down to the recent discoveries in the Iberian peninsula. Further they are particularly characteristic as to their origin: they came from the Phoenician area, along the Lebanese and Palestinian coasts, even if here the metal jugs still elude us. This deiciency gave rise to a long debate about their origin and production.2 The shape spread out all around the Mediterranean Sea, where it was imitated, reworked and converted in its form, function and materials, according to the diferent political, social and economic inluences. This fact makes the Phoenician jug a real type-fossil for the period between the second half of the 8th century B.C. and the end of the 7th century B.C., a period particularly crucial for the history of the Mediterranean and of the ancient sea-going societies. Accordingly this essay, after two short paragraphs irst on the history of studies and inds and then about the morphology of Phoenician metal jugs, will be divided in several sections according to their geographical point of discovery. The account will also investigate bronze and silver jugs, further comparing them with their contemporary imitations in other materials.