Some Late Helladic IIA pottery in the early Thutmosid Dra Abu el-Naga necropolis (Luxor, Egypt)

Dautais, Louis;Zulema Barahona-Mendieta
(2024) CHRONOS. Stratigraphic Analysis, Pottery Seriation and Radiocarbon Dating in Mediterranean Chronology Première édition — ISBN: [9782390614517], p. 117-140, published

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  • Dautais, Louisorcid-logoUCLouvain
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  • Zulema Barahona-MendietaUniversité de Barcelone
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Abstract
This paper contributes to the debate of the chronological interrelations between the Aegean early Late Bronze Age and Egypt by considering three Late Helladic IIA pottery fragmentary vessels found within the Dra Abu el-Naga necropolis, one of the main areas that form the Theban Necropolis in Upper Egypt (Luxor, West Bank). Based on bibliographical, museum, archival and archaeological studies, we describe each of the fragmentary vessels (a shallow semiglobular cup, a horizontal-handled piriform jar and a small multi-carinated alabastron) and their respective archaeological contexts (TT 11, TT 20 and TC 1030). Then, we discuss their value for Aegean-Egyptian chronological synchronisation. Unearthed respectively in 1899, 1911 and 2017, it should be stressed these three LH IIA vessels come from layers containing at least some grave goods from the first half of the 18th Dynasty, located near or within tombs dated stylistically and architecturally to the Early Thutmosid Era. Furthermore, they were all found only about 50 m from each other, a truly ‘spatial cluster’ on the same terrace on which a particularly intense funerary building activity took place in the Early Thutmosid Era. However, none of the vessels discussed was found intact and in primary position and all are fragmentary and in secondary position. Based on these considerations, we argue that these LH IIA vessels cannot be used as chronological locks in ‘primary’ but rather in ‘secondary’ key-contexts that in all respects support a contemporaneity between the Aegean LH IIA period and the Egyptian Early Thutmosid period, i.e. during the first half of the 15th century BCE.
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Dautais, L., & Zulema Barahona-Mendieta. (2024). Some Late Helladic IIA pottery in the early Thutmosid Dra Abu el-Naga necropolis (Luxor, Egypt). In Jan Driessen et Tiziano Fantuzzi (ed.), CHRONOS. Stratigraphic Analysis, Pottery Seriation and Radiocarbon Dating in Mediterranean Chronology Première édition (p. p. 117-140). Presses universitaires de Louvain. https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/243354