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‘Rich beyond the dreams of Avaris: Tell el-Dabca and the Aegean world—a guide for the perplexed’: A response to Eric H. Cline1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 September 2013

Manfred Bietak
Manfred Bietak
Affiliation:
Austrian Archaeological Institute in Cairo and Institute of Egyptology, University of Vienna
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Abstract

In his article in BSA 93 (1998) 199–219, Eric Cline comments on the recent discoveries at the site of Tell el-Dabca, where palatial quarters of the late Hyksos Period and the early 18th Dynasty have been discovered. For Aegean scholars the most spectacular finds from these excavations were numerous fragments of wall paintings which were identified as Minoan by experts working at the excavations and visiting colleagues. Cline particularly criticises the change of dating given to the paintings which were attributed by the excavators originally to the Hyksos period (1992) and afterwards to the Early 18th Dynasty (1995). Doubts have also been expressed about the validity of the new date and the identification of the paintings as Minoan or Aegean. This response tries to show: (1) the context of the paintings in the 18th Dynasty palace quarters in the light of recent research, (2) why a dating to the Hyksos period was originally considered, (3) why the paintings should be identified as Minoan and (4) that Cline failed to make himself knowledgeable enough about the archaeology of the site of Tell el-Dabca to give a serious opinion on the excavations and material.

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Articles
Information
Annual of the British School at Athens , Volume 95 , November 2000 , pp. 185 - 205
Copyright
Copyright © The Council, British School at Athens 2000

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References

2 Some more recent publications; Bietak, Avaris; id., ‘Dabca, Tell ed-’, in E. M. Myers et al. (eds.), The Oxford Encyclopedia of Archaeology in the Near East vol. 2. (New York- Oxford, 1997 99–101; id., ‘The Late Cypriot While Slip I-Ware as an obstacle to the high Aegean chronology: an abstract’, in M. S. Balmuth and R. H. Tykot (eds.), Sardinian and Aegean Chronology: Towards the Resolution of Relative and Absolute Dating in the Mediterranean, Proceedings of an International Colloquium, Sardinian Stratigraphy and Mediterranean Chronology, Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts 17–19 March 1995 (Studies in Sardinian Archaeology, v; Oxford, 1998), 321–2: id., ‘Une citadelle royale’; M. Bietak and J. Dorner, ‘Ägypten’, ‘Tell cl-Dabca’, ÖJh 67 (1998) Beiheft, ‘Grabungen 1997’, 1–5; eid., ‘Ägypten’, ‘Ausgrabungcn Tell cl-Dabca–cEzbet Helmi’, ÖJh 68 (1999Google Scholar), Beiheft, ‘Grabungen 1998’, 5–12; J. Dorner, ‘Zur Lage des Palastes und des Haupttempels der Ramscsstadt’, in Bietak, House and Palace, 69–71; id., ‘Die Topographie von Piramcsse’, E&L 9 (1999), 77–83 (with two coloured topographical maps); Fuscaldo, P., ‘A preliminary report on the pottery from the Late Hyksos Period settlement at cEzbet Helmi (Area H/III, Strata D/3 and D/2)’, E&L 7 (1998), 59–69Google Scholar; ead., Tell el-Dabca X, The Citadel of Avaris, Area H/III, The Pottery of the Hyksos Period, Part I: Locus 66 (Vienna, 2000Google Scholar), Part II: The Offering and Execration Pits, (UZK XVI; Vienna, c. 2001Google Scholar); Hein, I., ‘cEzbet Helmi–Tell cl-Dabca: chronological aspects of pottery’, in Eyre, C. J. (ed.), Proceedings of the Seventh International Congress of Egyptologists, Cambridge, 3–9 September 1995, (Louvain, 1998), 547–54Google Scholar (with rhyta shown on figs. 1 and 2); Hein, I. and Jánosi, P., Tell el-Dabca XI Areal A/V, Siedlungsrelikte der späten Hyksoszeit (UZK 17; Vienna, 2001Google Scholar).

3 See also Niemeier, W.-D. and Niemeier, B., ‘Minoan frescoes in the eastern Mediterranean’, in Cline, E. H. and Harris-Clinc, D. (eds), The Aegean and the Orient in the Second Millennium: Proceedings of the 50th Anniversary Symposium, University of Cincinnati, 18–20 April 1997 (Liège, 1998), 69–98Google Scholar. Niemeieris unhappy about the laic date of the Tell el-Dabca paintings. He is a supporter of the high chronology. A dating of the paintings at the site of Kabri to the time before 1628 BC is, however, hard to support. The context is a palace at the end of the Middle Bronze Age and nobody, not even William Dcvcr, dates this phase a hundred years earlier into the 17th c. BC. Among the datable finds of this phase is White Painted VI ware which appears in Egypt at the end of the Hyksos Period and lasts till the first part of the 18th Dynasty (after 1600, more probably c. 1550–1450 BC) and in Canaan till LB IA (FIG. 1). Also Chocolatc-on-White Ware, a marker of the MB/LB transition, was found within this context. About the chronological position of Late Cypriot pottery within the stratigraphy of Tell el-Dabca sec Bietak, M. and Hein, I., ‘The context of White Slip wares in the stratigraphy of Tell el-Dabca and some conclusions on Aegean chronology’, in Karagcorghis, V. (ed), White Slip Ware. Proceedings of an International Conference Organized by the A. G. Leventis Foundation, Nicosia, in Honour of M. Wiener, Nicosia 20th–30th October 1998 (CCEM II; Vienna, 2001Google Scholar). The new publication by Manning, S. W., A Test of Time (Oxford, 2000Google Scholar), which I consulted only on the internet, offers no convincing evidence for an occurrence of WS I ware 100 years earlier in northern Cyprus than in the south-east. Nowhere has WS I been found within a typical Middle Cypriot contexts, e.g. together with WP III–IV wares.

4 Bietak, M., Dorner, J., Janosi, P., ‘Die Stratigraphie des Palastarcals’, E&L 11 (2001)Google Scholar; Bietak, M., in Bietak, M., Marinatos, N., and Palyvou, C., Taureador Scenes at Avaris and Knossos (Vienna, c. 2001Google Scholar).

5 In area H/I this stratum was given the local designation V, in areas H/II-H/VI the designation e/2.

6 Above (n. 2).

7 Fuscaldo (n. 2).

8 Bietak, M., ‘Eine Stele des ältesten Königssohnes des Hyksos Chajan’, Fs Labib Ilabachi Mitt. Kairo 37 (1981), 63–71Google Scholar; id., in Bietak, Hein, et al., Exhibition catalogue, no. 133; id., Avaris, fig. 52; Görg, M., ‘Nachtrag, zur Erklärung des Namens des Hyksosprinzen’, Mitt. Kairo, 37 (1981), 71–3Google Scholar; id., Biblische Notizen, 70 (1993), 5–8; Schneider, T., Lexikon da Pharaonen (Zurich, 1994), 137Google Scholar; id., Ausländer in Ägypten, I (Ägypten und Altes Testament, 42; Wiesbaden 1998), 53–5; Ryholt, K. S. B., The Political Situation in Egypt during the Second Intermediate Period c. 1800–1550 BC (Carsten Niebuhr Institute Publications, 20; Copenhagen 1997), 120–1, 128Google Scholar.

9 Simpson, W. K., ‘The Hyksos princess Tany’ chronique d'Égypte, 34 (1959), 233–9CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Hein, I. and Satzinger, H., Stelen des Mittleren Reiches, II (CAA Vienna 7; Vienna 1993), 162–4Google Scholar; M. Bietak, in M. Bietak, I. Hein et al., Exhibition catalogue, nos. 130, 131; idem, Avaris, fig. 53.

10 Bietak, in Bietak, Hein et al., Exhibition catalogue, no. 126; id., Avaris, fig. 54, Schneider 1994 (n. 8), 274; id., 1998 (n. 8), 40–3; Ryholt, (n. 8), 127–8.

11 In area H/III and H/VI where this stratum alone was found, the local stratum designation is e/1.2.

12 P. Fuscaldo, c. 2001 (n. 2).

13 In area H/III and H/VI the local stratum designation is e/1.1.

14 K. Groflsehmidt, ‘Anthropologische Untersuchungen am Skelettmaterial von Areal H/I VI’, E&L. 11 (forthcoming).

15 Bietak, Hein et al. Exhibition catalogue, nos. 348. 349; I. Hein, in Fs S. Wenig (forthcoming).

16 In area H/I this stratum was given the local designation IV. in areas H/II–VI the designations e and d were given.

17 I. Hein, E&L 11 (in preparation)

18 Bietak, Avaris, 68–70; id., BSFE 135, 8–11; id., Une citadelle royale, 37–40.

19 Lacovara, P., ‘State and Settlement: Deir el Ballas and the Development, Structure, and Function of the New Kingdom Royal City’ (Ph.D. diss., Univ. Chicago, 1993), 27Google Scholar; id., The New Kingdom Royal City (Studies in Egyptology; London, 1997), 81.

20 A date after the 18th year has been postulated because of epigraphical reasons which are, however, not cogent: Hodjah, S. and Berlev, O., ‘Objets royaux du Musée de Beaux-Arts Pouchkine à Moscou’, Chronique d'Égypte, 52 (1977), 22–39CrossRefGoogle Scholar; D. Franke, ‘Zur Chronologie des Mittleren Reiches 12. 18. Dynastic, Teil II. Die sogenannte “Zweite Zwischenzeit Altä’gyptens”, Orientalia, NS 57 (1988), 264Google Scholar; Vandersleyen, C., L'Égypte et la vallée du Nil II. De la fin de l'Ancien Empire à la fin da Nouvel Empire (Paris, 1995), 216–17Google Scholar. See, however, Redford, D. B., History and Chronology of the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt (Toronto, 1967), 48–9Google Scholar, and Ryholt (n. 8), 186, who argues for dating the fall of Avaris at latest to the 17th year of Ahmose.

21 Bietak, , Egyptian Archaeology, 2 (1992), 26–8Google Scholar; Janosi, P., ‘Tell el-Dabca cEzbet Helmi, Vorbericht über den Grabungsplatz H/I (1989–1992)’, E&L 4 (1994), 20–38Google Scholar; id., ‘Die stratigraphische Position und Verteilung der minoischen Wandfragmente in den Grabungsplätzen H/I und H/IV von Tell el-Dabca.’, E&L 5 (1995), 63–71; id. ‘Die Fundamentplattform eines Palastes (?) der späten Hyksoszeil in cEzbet Helmi (Tell el-Dabca)’, in Bietak, House and Palace, 93–106.

22 Investigations were made independently by M. Bichler (Atominstitut der Österreichischen Universitäten) with NAA and petrography and by P. Fischer (Chalmers University of Technology, Göteborg) with SIMS. Peltz, C., Schmidt, P., Bichler, M., INAA of Aegean pumices for the classification of archaeological findings’, Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry, 242/2 (1999), 361–77CrossRefGoogle Scholar; C. Peltz, P. Schmidt, M. Bichler, V.M.F. Hammer, E. Halwax, T. Ntaflos, and P. Nagl, ‘Separation and analysis of Theran volcanic glass by INAA, XRF and EPMA’ (forthcoming).

23 I should like to thank Péter Jánosi for his assessment of the stratigraphy of this compound.

24 Bietak, M. and Marinatos, N., ‘The Minoan wall paintings from Avaris’, E&L 5 (1995), 62Google Scholar post scriptum.

25 Hein, I., Keramik der frühen 18. Dynastie aus Tell el-Dabca (Habil thesis, Univ. Vienna in preparation)Google Scholar. For preliminary reports see Hein, I., ‘Die Keramik aus 'Ezbet Helmi—erste Eindrücke’, E&L 4 (1994), 39–43Google Scholar; ead., (n. 2); and ead., in E&L 11 (in preparation).

26 B. Knapp himself states, however, in connection with Keftiu and Aegean traders, that the evidence of the Tell el-Dabca frescoes indicates that ‘contacts between Egypt and the Aegean went beyond the purely commercial’, in Myers (n. 2), The Oxford Encyclopedia of Archaeology in the Near East, 1. 21.

27 P. Betancourt, ‘Relations between the Aegean and the Hyksos at the end of the Middle Bronze Age’, in Hyksos, Oren, Hyksos 429–32; id., ‘Crete’, in Myers (n. 2), ii. 71.

28 Niemeier, W.-D., ‘Minoan artisans travelling overseas’, in Laffineur, R. and Basch, L. (eds.), Thalassa: L'Égée préhistorique et la mer (Liège, 1991), 189–210Google Scholar; id., ‘Tel Kabri: Aegean fresco paintings in a Canaanite palace’, in Gitin, S. (ed.), Recent Excavations in Israel: A View to the West (Dubuque, Iowa, 1995), 1–15Google Scholar; W.-D. and B. Niemeier, (n. 3).

29 Shaw, M., ‘Bull-leaping frescoes at Knossos and their influence on the Tell el Dabca murals’, E&L 5 (1995), 110Google Scholar.

30 Marinatos, N., ‘The Tell el-Dabca paintings: a study in pictorial tradition’, E&L 8 (1998), 83–99Google Scholar; L. Morgan, ‘Bull sports and the labyrinth’, in Davies and Schofield, Interconnections, 29–53; Bietak, Marinatos, Palyvou, (n. 4).

31 R. Seeber, in Bietak, Marinatos, Palyvou (n. 4), black: carbon, iron oxide; blue: Egyptian blue; white: lime; yellow:

32 Doumas, C., ‘Conventions artistiques à Thera et dans la Medilerranée à l'époque préhistorique’, in Darque, P. et Poursat, J.-C. (eds.), L'iconographie minoenne, actes de la table ronde D'Athènes (21–22 Avril 1983) (BCH, Suppl. XI; Athens and Paris 1985), 29–34Google Scholar.

33 For the shaven scalp, painted blue as a sign of youth see Davis, E., ‘Youth and age in the Thera frescoes’, AJA 90 (1986), 399–406CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

34 Exception: Bietak, , E&L 4 (1994), pl. 19Google Scholarb, where green is created by a yellow ground colour, covered by a thinned transparent blue, see, however, ibid., pls. 14 a, 17 b, 19 a, 20 b, 21 a.

35 Ibid., 54, pl. 15 b, and Marinatos, (n. 30), figs. 24, 26.

36 The theory of female leapers, which originated with Sir Arthur Evans, is not unproblematic. Contrary to males we have no evidence that gymnastics and hard physical training for girls were part of Minoan ideals and tradition nor do we have such evidence anywhere in the Mediterranean. Anatomical details as well as the phallus sheath of the white acrobats of the Toreador frescoes are unambiguously male. The female breast of one of those acrobats turned out to be an by over-reconstruction (see the new study of the originals by Marinatos and Palyvou, in Bietak, Marinatos, Palyvou (n. 4). See too Damiani-Indelicato, S., ‘Were Cretan girls playing at bull-leaping?’, Cretan Studies, 1 (1988), 39–47Google Scholar; Marinatos, N., ‘The bull as an adversary: some observations on bull-hunting and bull-leaping’, in: Αφιἑρωμα στο Στυλιανὁ Αλεξἰου, Ariadne, 5 (Rethymnon, 1989), 23–32Google Scholar; ead., Minoan Religion: Ritual, Image, and Symbol (Columbia (NC), 1993), 219–20). Last detailed discussion of the Aegean skin-colour code in favour of female bull-leapers with the relevant bibliography: Blakolmer, F., ‘Überlegungen zur Inkarnatsfarbe in der frühägäischen Malerei’, OJh 62 (1993), 5–18Google Scholar.

37 Doumas, C., The Wall Paintings of Thera (Athens, 1992), pl 109, 112Google Scholar. The difference can be seen on the original more distinctly than in the publication.

38 Bietak, , E&L 4 (1994), pl. 18Google Scholarb; id., Une citadelle royale, 30.

39 e.g. Evans, , PM II, 590–606Google Scholar, figs. 377–97. Catalogue in Immerwahr, S., Aegean Painting in the Bronze Age (Philadelphia, 1990), 193, 199, 204Google Scholar; Press, L., Architektura w Ikonografii Przedgreckiej (Warsaw, 1967), 101Google Scholar, fig. 44; 103, fig. 45, 214, fig. 92. See also the later representations at Pylos: Lang, M., The Palace of Nestor at Pylos II (Princeton, 1969), pl. 139Google Scholar.

40 Bietak, , E&L 4 (1994), pl. 15Google Scholarb; id., ‘Une citadelle royale’, 30. Bietak, and Marinatos, , E&L 5 (1995), fig. 4Google Scholar; Shaw, (n. 29), 105–13, pls. 1, 10.

41 Bietak, , E&L 4 (1994), 32–3Google Scholar, pl. 21; id., in Davies and Schofield, Interconnections, 24, pl. 4/3,4; id., ‘Hyksos Rule’ (Philadelphia, 1997), fig. 4.31; see C. Palyvou, in Proceedings of the 8th Cretological Congress, Herakleion 1996 (in press).

42 Above, (n. 30); L. Morgan, ‘Minoan paintings and Egypt, the case of Tell el-Dabca’, in Davies and Schofield, Interconnections, 33–4.

43 Bietak, M., ‘The mode of representation in Egyptian art in comparison to Aegean Bronze Age Art’, in Sherrat, S. (ed.), Proceedings of the First International Symposium The Wall Paintings of Thera, Thera Hellas, 30th August – 4th September 1997, vol. 1 (Athens, 2000), 227–33Google Scholar.

44 Marinatos (n. 28), 86.

45 Ibid., 96, fig. 22.

46 Bietak, , E&L 4 (1994), pls 15, 16Google Scholar; id., in Davies and Schofield, Interconnections, col. pl. 1–2, Marinatos (n. 30), fig. 24, Bietak, ‘Une citadelle royale’, 30, 59: Bietak, Marinatos, Palyvou (n. 4).

47 Bietak, , E&L 4 (1994), 50Google Scholar, fig. 17, pl. 17, b; id., in Davies and Schofield, Interconnections, col. pl. 3/1; L. Morgan, in Davies and Schofield, Interconnections, 39.

48 Ibid., figs. 1, 2, 5, 6, 8, 9, 11, M. Bietak, in Davies and Schofield, Interconnections, col. pl. 4/1, 2.

49 Ibid., col. pl. 4.1; Bietak, M. and Marinatos, N., E&L 5 (1995), 55Google Scholar.

50 Bietak, in Bietak, Hein et al., Exhibition Catalogue, cat. no. 227, colour plate.

51 Bietak, and Marinatos, , E&L 5 (1995), 58–9Google Scholar, figs. 12, 14.

52 Ibid., fig. 13.

53 Bietak, , E&L 4 (1994). pl. 14Google Scholara; identification: Morgan, in Davies and Schofield, Interconnections, 34.

54 Rehak, P., ‘Interconnections between the Aegean and the Orient in the Second Millennium BC’, AJA 101 (1997), 399–402CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

55 Bietak, Avaris, pl. iv–v.

56 Bietak, Marinatos, Palyvou (n. 4); eid, ‘The maze tableau from Tell el-Dabca’, in International Symposium. See meanwhile Bietak, M., ‘Tell el-Dabca/Avaris’, in Kandler, M. (ed.), 100 Jahre Österreichisches Archäologisches Institut 1898–1998, (Vienna, 1998), 201–15, col. pl. 25Google Scholar; Bietak, Une citadelle royale, 30.

57 See Marinatos and Palyvou in Bietak, Marinatos and Palyvou (n. 4).

58 Bietak, , E&L 4 (1994), pl. 19Google Scholarb id., in Davies and Schofield (eds.), Interconnections, col. pl. 4/2; Marinatos, , E&L 8 (1998Google Scholar), figs. 1, 6.

59 Marinatos, S. and Hirmer, M., Kreta, Thera und das mykenische Hellas3 (Munich, 1976), pl. 49, 51Google Scholar.

60 Bietak, , E&L 4 (1994), pl. 19Google Scholarb; id., in Davies and Schofield, Interconnections, col. pl. 4/2; Marinatos (n. 8) figs. 1, 6.

61 Marinatos (n. 58), 88, 98–9, figs. 24–33.

62 Ibid., fig. 24.

63 Rehak (n. 54), 401.

64 Doumas (n. 37), no. 27 (above left without phallus sheath visible); Evans, PM II, fig. 516; see also the clearly curved, cut on terracotta reliefs (ibid., fig. 487).

65 Rehak, P., ‘Aegean breechcloths, kilts, and the Keftiu paintings’, AJA 100 (1996), 40CrossRefGoogle Scholar, n. 63. However, Rehak did not draw the consequences from this difference, but suggested that the manufacture of the Chieftain Cup was unfinished.

66 Evans, , PM III, fig. 313Google Scholar; ibid., suppl. pl. XXXIX.

67 See n. 41.

68 Doumas (n. 37), figs 122, 128.

69 However, even a date of the paintings to the late Hyksos period (c. 1550 BC) would not support a high chronology which would put the Theran paintings, with the close iconographic relationship of some of their typical features to the Tell el-Dabca paintings, before 1628 BC.

70 Cline and Harris-Cline (n. 3).

71 Bietak, Avaris, 67.

72 Ibid., 82.

73 Bietak, Hyksos Rule, 125.

74 D. O'Connor, ‘The Hyksos Period in Egypt’, in Oren, Hyksos, 45, 53, fig. 2.6, 56.

75 Bietak, M., Tell el-Dabca II, Der Fundort im Rahmen einer archäologisch-geographischen Unlersuchung über das ägyptische Ostdelta, (UZK I; Vienna, 1975Google Scholar).

76 Pusch, E. B., Becker, H., and Fassbender, J., ‘Wohnen und Leben, oder: weitere Schritte zu einem Stadtplan in der Ramsesstadt’, E&L 9 (1999), 155–70Google Scholar, figs. 1–2 (lower right section), figs. 3–4 (lower left section), and new areas not yet published.

77 Bietak, , E&L 4 (1994), 57–8.Google Scholar; id., Avaris, 70. I speak in connection with the pottery unmistakably of ‘mercantile connections’.

78 Only in the very first announcement about the paintings does the editor of my article in Egyptian Archaeology, 2 (1992), 26Google Scholar, mention in an abstract the suggestion about a Minoan community in the Delta. I may expect Cline to have also read later preliminary reports. In his n. 7 Cline complains that the results of Tell el-Dabca appear in several publications simultaneously (what Cline himself and many colleagues do themselves). I would personally prefer to publish once only but one is asked again and again to contribute written versions of lectures given at seminars and congresses in many different countries. Liza Giddy, Vivian Davies. Eliezer Oren, and others can certainly testify that I produce such manuscripts only very reluctantly and under much pressure. Certainly there is justification in providing information in different versions and languages, especially to colleagues who have difficulties with the German language.

79 Bietak, , E&L 4 (1994), 58Google Scholar.

80 Id., ‘Connections between Egypt and the Minoan world. New results from Tell el-Dabca-Avaris’, in Davies and Schofield (eds). Interconnections, 26.

81 Bietak, Hyksos Rule, 124.

82 Hankey, V., ‘A Theban “battle axe”’, Minerva, 4/3 (1993). 13Google Scholar. See Meyer, E., Geschiehte des Altertums, II (Berlin and Stuttgart, 1928), 54–5Google Scholar, who also suggested a dynastic, connection, however of a different kind and going certainly too far. His reasons are: (i) the Aegean motives on weaponry of king Ahmose; (ii) the strange title ol the mother of this king, queen Ahhotep, as nbt idbw H3w-nbwt ‘Mistress of the shores of Hau-nebut’ a region considered at that time in general as the Aegean. As opposed to this identification, which was accepted by many Egyptologists (e.g. Gardiner, A. H., Ancient Egyptian Onomastica I (London. 1948), 206–8Google Scholar) see Vandersleyen, C., Les Guerres d'Amosis (Brussels, 1971), 167–74Google Scholar; Vercoutter, J., ‘Les haou-nebout’, Bulletin de l' Inslitut française d'archéologie orientale, 46 (1946), 125–58Google Scholar; id., Bulletin de l'Inslitut fraçaise d'archéologie orientale, 48 (1948), 107–209.

83 Morgan (n. 42), 44.

84 Reusch, H., ‘Zum Wandsehmuek des Thronsaales in Knossos’, in Grumach, E. (ed.), Minoica: Festschüft zum 80. Geburstag von Johannes Sundwall (Berlin, 1958), 334–58Google Scholar; Niemeier, W.-D., ‘Zur Deutung des Thronraumes im Palast von Knossos’, Ath. Mil. 101 (1986), 63–6Google Scholar; Marinatos, N., Minoan Religion, Ritual, Image and Symbol (Columbia, 1993), 151–5Google Scholar, figs. 122, 128 31, 134; ead., ‘Divine kingship/queenship in Minoan Crete’, in Rehak, P. (ed.). The Role of the Ruler in the Prehistoric Aegean (Aegeum 11; Liège, 1995), 37–48Google Scholar.

85 Summary and Egyptological literature in Seipel, W., ‘Heiratspolitik’, Lexikon der Ägyptologie II (Wiesbaden, 1977), 1104–7Google Scholar; Schulman, A. R., ‘Diplomatic marriage in the Egyptian New Kingdom’, JNES 38 (1979), 177–93Google Scholar. We also have evidence that already Tuthmosis III had several foreign wives from Syria (Winlock, H. E., The Treasure of Three Egyptian Princesses (New York, 1948Google Scholar); Sethe, K., ‘Urkunden der 18. Dynastic IV/9 10’, in Steindorff, G. (ed.), Urkunden des Ägyptischen Altertums, iv (Leipzig, 1907), 669–1Google Scholar). We have also some evidence that from the dawn of Egyptian history marriage was used as a political instrument in the unification process. For the ancient Near East see: Liverani, M., ‘Three Amarn a essays’, in Monographs on the Ancient Near East 1/5 (Malibu, 1979), 21–33Google Scholar, Pintorc, F., Lo scambio dei doni nel Vicino Oriente durante i Secoli XV–XIII (Rome, 1973), 12–32Google Scholar, Zaccagnini, C., ‘On Late Bronze Age marriages’, in Bondi, S. F., Pernigotti, S. et al. (eds.), Studi in onore di Edda Bresciani, (Pisa, 1985), 593–605Google Scholar.

86 So Rehak (n. 54), 402.

87 Marinatos (n. 30), 99.