The palmette attachment on ‘Phoenician’ metal jugs

This paper focuses on the most characteristic decorative motif to be found on the so-called ‘Phoenician’ jugs, namely the inverted palmette attachment, placed at the lower end of the handle1. Firstly, it reviews the origin, evolution and various elaborations of the palmette as an autonomous ornament within the Mediterranean. To that purpose, it will discuss this motif from a morphological and a typological perspective, by analyzing the similarities and the differences detectable in both the metal and clay jugs (the iconography). Building on this analysis, it will re-examine the debate on the provenance and the production of ‘Phoenician’ jugs excavated in the central and western Mediterranean (the context). Finally, it will investigate, against the framework of their findspots, the symbolic connotations apropos the several meanings and functions that this group of jugs took on (the iconology).