Gwanghyun D. Choi. Decoding Canaanite Pottery Paintings from the Late Bronze Age and Iron Age I: Classification and Analysis of Decorative Motifs and Design Structures-Statistics, Distribution Patterns—Cultural and Socio- Political Implications. Orbis Biblicus et Orientalis, Series Archaeologica 37. Fribourg and Göttingen, Academic Press and Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2016. 290 + CD-ROM. ISBN: 978-3-525-53039-9

Abstract

Abstract: This book is an ambitious attempt at cataloging and extracting meaning from the huge corpus of southern Levantine painted pottery of the Late Bronze Age and Iron Age I, stemming from a Ph.D. dissertation submitted to the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. The entire venture is commendable for both its innovative nature and its impressive scope: it is the first comprehensive attempt to catalog systematically all the motifs of “Canaanite” pottery, and it relies on a massive corpus of 3,225 vessels and sherds. It is most surprising that there is no such previous study, bearing in mind the rich corpus of works on comparative typology of pottery in the Bronze and Iron Ages in the southern Levant, including such pinnacles as Amiran’s 1970 classic and the recent much elaborated volumes edited by Gitin (2015). Furthermore, there are other basic studies of motifs on decorated pottery from the southern Levant, such as Dothan’s (1982) study, deeply influenced by Furumark’s seminal work, The Mycenaean Pottery: Analysis and Classification (1941) with its catalog of painted motifs. More recently, a vast catalog of Philistine iconography was published, including pottery, figurines and other representations.