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Rich beyond the dreams of Avaris: Tell el-DabcA and the Aegean world – a guide for the perplexed1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 September 2013

Eric H. Cline
Eric H. Cline
Affiliation:
University of Cincinnati
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Abstract

The excavations at Tell el-Dabca/Avaris have produced exciting finds for the past 30 years, but none more riveting than the so-called ‘Minoan’ frescoes of the past half-decade. The publication of these fragmentary wall paintings has been commendably fast, but has also involved dramatic changes in the hypotheses put forth by the excavators. The present article attempts to summarize the situation by charting the discoveries announced between 1992 and 1996, and relating these to the changes in opinion of the excavators over that same period of time. Given the bombshell dropped most recently by Bietak, namely that the wall paintings may not be associated with the Hyksos period at all, but rather with the early 18th Dynasty Egyptian reoccupation of the site, it is here suggested that the spate of literature published by secondary authors (i.e. those not immediately involved in the excavation and interpretation of the site) be brought to a temporary halt, until Bietak and his team have completed their exploration of the relevant areas of Tell el-Dabca and have published all of the pertinent data, to both their satisfaction and ours.

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Articles
Information
Annual of the British School at Athens , Volume 93 , November 1998 , pp. 199 - 219
Copyright
Copyright © The Council, British School at Athens 1998

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References

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6 David O'Connor has recently published a user-friendly map and concise accompanying description of the remains visible and/or excavated by Bietak at the site: ‘Tell el-Dabca and its environs actually consists of three tells, or occupation mounds. The northeastern (and its possible outliers in the northwestern quadrant of the general region) is New Kingdom in date … a centrally located mound represents a substantial Twelfth Dynasty town, which expanded in size in the Thirteenth and Fifteenth Dynasties. Immediately to the southwest, another tell had some Twelfth Dynasty occupation, but expanded greatly during the Thirteenth and the Fifteenth. This tell, on present evidence, housed the palace and associated structures of the Fifteenth Dynasty pharaohs (i.e., the Hyksos of the Fifteenth Dynasty)’; O'Connor (n. 3), 53 with figure 2.6.

7 Bietak 1997. The underlying data and accompanying illustrations contained in these two most recent publications by Bietak are substantially the same, but the text and discussions are somewhat different, apparently due in part to extensive editing of Bietak's contribution to Oren's volume by Stephen Harvey; cf. Bietak 1997, 129 n. 1. Observant readers of German will also note a similarity between these two publications and much of Bietak's contribution to the catalogue accompanying the Tell el-Dabca exhibition in Vienna (Bietak 1994). Cf. now also, in French, Bietak, M., ‘Avaris: Tell-el Dabca’, Les Dossiers d'archéologie 213 (1996), 16–23Google Scholar.

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44 Bietak, M., Dorner, J., Hein, I., and Jánosi, P., ‘Neue Grabungsergebnisse aus Tell el-Dabca und cEzbet Helmi im östlichen Nildelta 1989–1991’, Ägypten und Levante, 4 (1994), 44–5Google Scholar; cf. also Anonymous, ‘Digging diary 1992–1993’, Egyptian Archaeology, 3 (1993), 9Google Scholar; Bietak 1995, 20–3.

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48 Ibid. Cf. now also id. 1997, 117.

49 Bietak 1996, 72.

50 Ibid. 73–4, fig. 57, pl. 33 a–b.

51 Ibid. 73, colour pls. 3 a–b, 4, 5, 6 a–b.

52 Ibid. 74.

53 Ibid. 73; Cline (n. 17), 32, 34; id. (n. 42), 268–9.

54 Bietak 1996, 75, colour pl. 6 c.

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56 Bietak 1996, 75, colour pls. 7 a–d, 8 a–b; cf. previously Bietak et al. (n. 40), 49–51, pls. 17 a, 19 a; Bietak in Bietak et al. 1994, 195 (no. 219); Marinatos in Bietak et al. 1994, 202 (no. 126), 203 (no. 227), 205 (no. 230), with colour plate.

57 Bietak 1996, 74–5, fig. 57.

58 Ibid. 75.

59 Anon. (n. 39), 10.

60 Bietak 1996, fig. 55.

61 Bietak 1995, 23, 26; cf. also Bietak and Marinatos 1995, 49; Warren (n. 3), 4; Jánosi, P., ‘Die stratigraphische Position und Verteilung der minoischen Wandfragmente in den Grabungsplätzen H/I und H/IV von Tell el-Dabca’, Ägypten und Levante, 5 (1995), 63–71Google Scholar.

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63 Ibid.

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66 Bietak and Marinatos 1995, 49.

67 Bietak 1996, 76.

68 Ibid., fig. 55.

69 Bietak and Marinatos 1995, 49.

70 Ibid.

71 Ibid.

72 Bietak 1996, 75. S. W. Manning, ‘From process to people: longue durée to history’, in Cline and Harris-Cline (n. 28), 318–19, believes that the best Aegean comparisons for the ivy decoration are from the LM I B period onwards, rather than the LM I A period, as per Bietak.

73 Bietak 1996, 72.

74 But cf. Bietak in Bietak et at. 1994, 52, fig. 39.

75 Bietak 1996, 76.

76 Bietak 1996.

77 Cline (n. 17), 34; id. (n. 42), 269.

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87 Cf. now Bietak 1996, 29, colour pl. I b and cover photograph.

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91 Bietak 1996, 29.

92 Bietak 1997, 104 and n. 35 (although Aruz is misspelt).

93 Bietak 1996, 26, 29, fig. 22. 8, pl. 11 a; previously id., ‘Der Friedhof in einem Palastgarten aus der Zeit des späten Mittleren Reiches und andere forschungsergebnisse aus dem östlichen Nildelta (Tell el-Dabca 1984–1987)’, Ägypten und Levante, 2 (1991), 67, fig. 15, pls. 22 c, 23 b.

94 Bietak 1995, 20, pl. 14. 2.

95 Bietak 1996, 82; cf. Schwab in Bietak et al. 1994, 256 (no. 347). Bietak 1997, 117 states: ‘In H/III, bags of arrowheads, most likely of Late Helladic typology of bronze or copper were found lying beside a large palace wall’.

96 Bietak 1996, 70.

97 Ibid. 70, 72; cf. also Hein in Bietak et al. 1994, 261 (no. 358); Barber, R-L. N., The Cyclades in the Bronze Age (London, 1987), 153, fig. 111Google Scholar.

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99 Ibid. 87 n. 104.

100 Bietak 1992, 26–8.

101 Bietak et al. (n. 44), 44–5; Bietak 1995, 20–3; Bietak and Marinatos 1995, 49, 62.

102 Bietak 1996, 76.

103 Ibid.

104 Cf. Bietak 1992, 28; id. 1995, 26; Bietak et al. (n. 44), 58; Bietak and Marinatos 1995, 61; Hankey, Egyptian Archaeology (n. 42), 29; ead., Minerva (n. 42), 13–4; Cline (n. 42), 268–9, 277–8; Shaw, M. C., ‘Bull leaping frescoes at Knossos and their influence on the Tell el-Dabca murals’, Ägypten und Levante, 5 (1995), 110Google Scholar; also comments by M. H. Wiener in the discussion section Ibid. 131–2.

105 Bietak 1996, 80. There are certainly a number of later 18th and 19th Dynasty Egyptian Pharaohs who married foreign princesses, primarily to cement diplomatic bonds or a treaty with a foreign power. Cf. Amarna Letters EA 1–5, 17, 19–22, 24–5, 31–2; Schulman, A. R., ‘Diplomatic marriage in the Egyptian New Kingdom’, JMES 38 (1979), 177–93Google Scholar; Moran, W. L., The Amarna Letters (Baltimore, 1992), 1–3, 6–11, 41–84, 101–3Google Scholar; Cline, E. H., ‘Amenhotep III, the Aegean and Anatolia’, in O'Connor, D. B. and Cline, E. H. (eds), Amenhotep III: Perspectives on his Reign (Ann Arbor, MI, 1998), 248Google Scholar; Haider, E, ‘Menschenhandel zwischen dem ägyptischen Hof und der minoisch-mykenischen Welt?’, Ägypten und Levante, 6 (1996), 149–56Google Scholar.

106 Bietak 1996, 75.

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109 Knapp, in Cline and Harris-Cline (n. 28), 206, pleads for the abandonment of the term ‘Minoan’ in connection with these paintings at Avaris.

110 Bietak and Marinatos 1995, 60.

111 Shaw (n. 104), 94.

112 Ibid. 110.

113 See now Rehak (n. 107), 401.

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117 Bietak 1996, 76.

118 Shaw (n. 104), 112.

119 Cf. Niemeier 1991 (n. 108); Cline (n. 42), 265–87.

120 Cf. Cline, E. H., ‘“My brother, my son'”: rulership and trade between the LBA Aegean, Egypt and the Near East’, in Rehak, P. (ed.), The Role of the Ruler in the Prehistoric Aegean (Liège, 1995), 143–50Google Scholar.

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122 Cf. Bietak 1996, 36, 48 9, 55; id. 1997. 98, 113; id., ‘Canaanites in the eastern Nile delta’, in A. S. Rainey (ed.), Egypt, Israel, Sinai: Archaeological and Historical Relationships in the Biblical Period (Tel Aviv, 1987), 52; Bernal (n. 4), 321, 336–52; Redford (n. 2), 100–1; Redmount, C. A., ‘Pots and peoples in the Egyptian Delta: Tell el-Maskhuta and the Hyksos’, JMA 8/2 (1995), 64–5, 82–3CrossRefGoogle Scholar; E. D. Oren, ‘Introduction and Overview: Structure and Goals’ in Oren 1997, xxi–xxii; O'Connor (n. 3), 63–4 n. 8; Holladay (n. 14). 198.

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124 Bietak 1996, 26, 29, 41, fig. 25, pl. 12 c–d; id., ‘Zur Herkunft des Seth von Avaris’, Ägypten und Levante, 1 (1990), 15, fig. 5; cf. also Bietak et al. (n. 44), 57, fig. 19.

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128 Cf. Bietak 1996, 48; id. 1997, 98; id., ‘Die Chronologie Ägyptens und der Beginn der mittleren Bronzezeitkultur’, Ägyptm und Levante, 3 (1992), 29; also Säve-Söderbergh, T., ‘The Hyksos rule in Egypt’, JEA 37 (1951), 55–71Google Scholar; Van Seters, J., The Hyksos: A New Investigation (New Haven, 1966Google Scholar), passim;, Hayes (n. 3), 3–4; Bernal (n. 4), 352–4; Redmount (n. 122), 64, 82; but cf. O'Connor (n. 3), 62–3.

129 Mellink (n. 17); Oren (n. 122) xxii; cf. previously Kantor (n. 114), 74, and even earlier scholars such as Meyer, E.. Geschichte des Altertums, v/2.1, 2nd edn (Stuttgart, 1928), 41–58Google Scholar.

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134 Cf. Shaw (n. 104), 92 n. 3, 95–6, 112–13.

135 Cf. Galán, J. M., ‘Bullfight scenes in ancient Egyptian tombs’, JEA 80 (1994), 81–96Google Scholar, with further bibliography; also Kempen, Y., Krieger, Boten und Athleten, Untersuchungen zum Lanlauf in der Griechischen Antike (Sankt Augustin, 1992Google Scholar), passim.

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137 Cf. Shaw (n. 104), 95–6.

138 Bietak 1996, 76.

139 Bietak and Marinatos 1995, 62.

140 Cline (n. 17), passim; id., ‘Egyptian and Near Eastern imports at Late Bronze Age Mycenae’, in Davies and Schofield 1995, 91–115 with references.

141 Cf. most recently Cline (n. 17), 31; Warren and Hankey (n. 133), 138–46, figs. 6–7; P. M. Warren, ‘Summary of evidence for the absolute chronology of the early part of the Aegean late bronze age derived from historical Egyptian sources’, in Hardy and Renfrew 1990, 25; id. (n. 3), 5–10, 13; Hankey 1995 (n. 133), 18–20; Manning 1995 (n. 132), 203–4, 206, 221, 224–5; idem ‘Dating the Aegean Bronze Age: without, with, and beyond, radiocarbon’, Acta Arckaeologica, 67 (1996), 15–37; previously Hankey and Warren (n. 133), 145–7; Kemp and Merrillees (n. 133), 226–45; Vincentelli, I. and Tiradritti, F., ‘La presenza egea in Egitto’, in Marazzi, M., Tusa, S., and Vagnetti, L. (eds), Traffici micenei nel Mediterraneo: Problemi storici e documentazione archeologica (Taranto, 1986), 327–34Google Scholar; Hankey 1987 (n. 133), 44–7; Manning 1988 (n. 132), 28–9, 33, 60–1.

142 Manning 1996 (n. 141); Betancourt (n. 17), 429.

143 Bietak 1996, 80; id. 1997, 124.

144 Cf. Kantor (n. 114), 63–6, 71–2, 74; Smith, W. Stevenson, The Art and Architecture of Ancient Egypt (London, 1981), 219–22Google Scholar, figs. 215–16; Warren (n. 3), 5, with additional references; Aruz (n. 81), 42–3.

145 Note that the division between the Egyptian 17th and 18th Dynasties is artificial to some extent, since the same family is involved. Queen Ahhotep's titles included ‘Mistress of the shores of Hau-nebut’, which Bietak (1996, 80, and 1997, 124) finds ‘puzzling’ and intriguing, since ‘Hau-nebut’ is a geographical term which was once thought to be a reference to the Aegean (cf. e.g. Meyer (n. 129), 54–7). However, Vercoutter, J., ‘Les Haounebut’, BIFAO 46 (1947), 125–58Google Scholar and Vandersleyan, C., Les Guerres d'Amosis (Brussels, 1971), 139–74Google Scholar (cf. also id., ‘OUADJ-OUR ne signifie pas “mer”: qu'on se le dise!’, GM 103 (1988), 78–80; Iversen, E., ‘Some remarks on the h3w-nbw.t’ ZÄS 114 (1987), 54–9Google Scholar; Nibbi, A., ‘Some further remarks on the Haunebut’, ZÄS 116 (1989), 153–60Google Scholar) have long since demonstrated to the satisfaction of most scholars that while the term was indeed apparently used as a reference to ‘Greeks’ in the Late Period, it was more likely a reference to areas in Syria–Palestine during the New Kingdom Period. Bietak now suggests that the identification should be ‘reconsidered seriously’; cf. also recently Hankey, Minerva (n. 42), 13–14; Jánosi, P., ‘The Queens Ahhotep I and II and Egypt's Foreign Relations’, Journal of the Ancient Chronology Forum, 5 (1991/1992), 99–105Google Scholar; Bernal (n. 4), 416–17.

146 Cf. Laffineur, R., ‘L'incrustation à l'epoque mycénienne’, L'Antiquité classique, 43 (1974), 5–37CrossRefGoogle Scholar; id., ‘Material and craftsmanship in the Mycenaean shaft graves: imports vs. local productions’, Minos, 25–6 (1990–1), 269–76; Sakellariou, A. Xenaki and Chatziliou, C., 'Peinture en Métal' a L'époque mycénienne: incrustation damasquinage niellure (Athens, 1989Google Scholar), passim.

147 Original publication in Annales du Service des Antiquités, 7 (1906), 115–20Google Scholar; also Frankfort, H. J., The Art and Architecture of the Ancient Orient (London, 1963), 138–9Google Scholar; Van Seters (n. 128), 71–2; Bernal (n. 4), 354.

148 Branigan, K., ‘Byblite daggers in Cyprus and Crete’, AJA 70 (1966), 123–6CrossRefGoogle Scholar; id., ‘Further light on prehistoric relations between Crete and Syria’, AJA 71 (1967), 117–21; id., ‘The early bronze age daggers of Crete’, BSA 62 (1967), 211–40; cf. also Bietak (n. 122), 52 and id. 1997, 98 on the possible Byblite origins of the Hyksos residents of Avaris.

149 Betancourt 1987 (n. 132), 45–9; Manning 1988 (n. 132), 17–82; also the discussion section in Ägypten und Levante, 5 (1995), 121–6Google Scholar.

150 Cf. Cline (n. 17), 7; Negbi (n. 29), 81–3; Manning 1995 (n. 132), 217.

151 Cf. now M. Bietak, ‘Excursus: the chronology of MB II and Middle Kingdom Egypt’, in Oren 1997, 125–8 previously id., ‘Problems of Middle Bronze Age chronology: new evidence from Egypt’, AJA 88 (1984), 471–85; id., ‘The Middle Bronze Age of the Levant – a new approach to relative and absolute chronology’, in P. Åstrom (ed), High, Middle or Low? (Acts of an International Colloquium on Absolute Chronology Held at the University of Gothenburg 20th–22nd August igSy), Pt. 3 (Göteborg, 1989), 78–120; id., ‘Egypt and Canaan during the middle bronze age’, BASOR 281 (1991), 27–72; id., ‘Die Chronologie Agyptens’ (n. 128), 29–37; Dever, W. G., ‘Relations between Syria, Palestine and Egypt in the “Hyksos period”,’ in Tubb, J. N. (ed.), Palestine in the Bronze and Iron Ages: Papers in Honour of Olga Tufnell (London, 1985), 69–87Google Scholar; id., ‘Tell el-Dabca and Levantine Middle Bronze Age chronology: a rejoinder to Manfred Bietak’, BASOR 281 (1991), 73–9Google Scholar; id., ‘The chronology of Syria-Palestine in the second millennium BC’, Ägypten und Levante, 3 (1992), 39–51; id., ‘The chronology of Syria-Palestine in the second millennium BCE: a review of current issues’, BASOR 288 (1992), 1–25; id., ‘Settlement patterns and chronology of Palestine in the middle bronze age’, in Oren 1997, 285–301; Weinstein, J. M., ‘The chronology of Palestine in the early second millennium BC’, BASOR 288 (1992), 27–46Google Scholar; id. (n. 3), 84–90. Holladay (n. 14), 210 n. 5, has stated most recently that ‘…the absolute dates maintained by Bietak … do not, as yet, command universal assent … and, indeed appear unworkable—as presently formulated—in terms of Western Asiatic relative chronologies, particularly those of Syria-Palestine.’

152 Cf. Cline (n. 17), 5.

153 Bietak 1996, 76.

154 Cf. Warren and Hankey (n. 133), 215.

155 Bietak 1996, 76.

156 Cf. Betancourt 1987 (n. 132); Manning 1988 (n. 132); id. 1995 (n. 132), 200–16.

157 Bietak 1996, 76.

158 Ibid. 78, pl. 34 a–b; id. 1997, 124–5.

159 Cf. Foster and Ritner (n. 3); Artzy, M., ‘Conical cups and pumice, Aegean cult at Tel Nami, Israel’, in Laffineur, R. and Basch, L. (eds), Thalassa: L'Égée préhistorique et la mer (Liège, 1991), 203–6Google Scholar; P. M. Warren and H. Puchelt, ‘Stratified pumice from bronze age Knossos’, in Hardy and Renfrew 1990, 71–81; J. S. Soles and C. Davaras, ‘Theran ash in Minoan Crete: new excavations on Mochlos’, in Hardy and Renfrew 1990, 89–95; P. P. Betancourt, P. Goldberg, R. Hope Simpson, and C. J. Vitaliano, ‘Excavations at Pseira: the evidence for the Theran eruption’, in Hardy and Renfrew 1990, 96–9; T. Marketou, ‘Santorini tephra from Rhodes and Kos: some chronological remarks based on the stratigraphy’, in Hardy and Renfrew 1990, 100–13; D. G. Sullivan, ‘Minoan tephra in lake sediments in western Turkey: dating the eruption and assessing the atmospheric dispersal of the ash’, in Hardy and Renfrew 1990, 114–19; V. Francaviglia, ‘Sea-borne pumice deposits of archaeological interest on Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean beaches’, in Hardy and Renfrew 1990, 127–34; Stanley, D. J. and Sheng, H., ‘Volcanic shards from Santorini (upper Minoan ash) in the Nile Delta, Egypt’, Nature, 320 (1986), 733–5CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

160 Cf. Vandersleyen, C., ‘Une tempête sous le règne d'Amosis’, Revue d'Égyptologie, 19 (1967), 123–59Google Scholar; id., ‘Deux nouveaux fragments de la stèle d'Amosis relatant une tempête’, Revue d'Égyptologie, 20 (1968), 127–34; Goedicke, H., ‘The end of the Hyksos in Egypt’, in Lesko, L. (ed), Egyptological Studies in Honor of Richard A. Parker (London, 1986), 37–47Google Scholar; E. N. Davis, ‘A storm in Egypt during the reign of Ahmose’, in Hardy and Renfrew 1990, 232–5; Foster and Ritner (n. 3). Redford 1997 (n. 2), 16; Wiener, M.H. and Allen, J. P., ‘Separate lives: the Ahmose Stela and the Theran eruption’, JNES 57 (1998), 1–28Google Scholar.

161 Cf. Foster and Ritner (n. 3), 10.

162 Cline (n. 17), 5–8.

163 Ibid.

164 M. H. Wiener, comment during discussion session, in Laffineur and Niemeier 1995, 286; cf. also id., comments in discussion section, Ägypten und Levante, 5 (1995), 128–9.

165 G. Kopcke, comment during discussion session, in Laffineur and Niemeier 1995, 285.

166 Morgan (n. 116), 29–53; Redmount (n. 122), 61–89; A. B. Knapp, ‘Mediterranean Bronze Age trade: distance, power and place’, in Cline and Harris-Cline (n. 28), 193–207.

167 Cline (n. 17); id. (n. 42); id. (n. 120).

168 Karageorghis, V., ‘Relations between Cyprus and Egypt—Second Intermediate Period and Xlllth Dynasty’, Ägypten und Levante, 5 (1995), 73–9Google Scholar; cf. Bietak 1996, 35, 59, 63, 70, fig. 49, pl. 26 a–c.

169 Bietak 1996, 59.

170 Ibid. 63, fig. 48 b; cf. also Clerc, G., ‘Un fragment de vase au nom d'Ahmosis (?) à Palaepaphos-Teratsoudhia’, in Karageorghis, V. (ed.), Tombs at Palaepaphos 1. Temtsoudhia, 2. Eliomylia (Nicosia, 1990), 95–103Google Scholar; Jacobsson, I., Aegyptiaca from Late Bronze Age Cyprus (Jonsered, 1994Google Scholar), passim; L. C. Maguire, ‘Tell el-Dabca: the Cypriot connection’, in Davies and Schofield 1995, 54–65.

171 Arnold et al. (n. 131), 13–32.

172 Bietak 1996, 79.

173 Ibid. 74, 79.

174 Ibid. 80–1; cf. previously id. 1992, 26–8; id. 1995, 26.

175 Maimonides (n. 36), 2, 5.

176 Bietak 1996, 76.

177 See e.g. the discussion section in Ägypten und Levante, 5 (1995), 126–32Google Scholar.

178 Bietak is clearly aware of the need for full publication of all relevant data; in Bietak 1997, 127 he states: ‘Some of the criticism is based on the claim that the results of Tell el Dabcxsa have not yet been fully published in order to control the results presented by the excavator. This is true, but complicated excavations need some time for their evaluation and subsequent publication … the evaluation of the material is not in the hands of a single individual, but of an international group of at least 20 scholars based in different countries. The material is not secret, it is accessible. We always have an open door for interested colleagues.’

179 With apologies to Lord Byron, Don Juan (1818–1824), canto I, st. 216.