Beth-Shemesh and Sellopoulo: Two Commemorative Scarabs of Amenhotep Iii and Their Contribution to Aegean Chronology

Abstract

A medium-size Amenhotep III scarab recently discovered in the excavations at Tel Beth-Shemesh, Israel, together with two decorated Late Minoan IIIA1 cups enables a fresh look at the synchronism between Late Minoan IIIA1 and Amenhotep III. The scarab is identified as commemorative, produced on the occasion of Amenhotep III's first Jubilee or Sed festival. In light of this interpretation a new examination of the renowned and debated Amenhotep III scarab from Sellopoulo Tomb 4 is presented. It is proposed here to identify this scarab also as commemorative as it includes, in addition to the pharaoh's prenomen, an epithet which relates it too to Amenhotep III's first Sed festival.Both scarabs, from Beth-Shemesh and Sellopoulo, are shown to have been produced between Amenhotep III's Regnal Years 28/25 and 34 respectively – most probably around Regnal Year 28 – and presumably reached their destination about that time. Further analysis led to the conclusion that the envisioned Egyptian embassy to the Aegean, which may have been the source for the ‘Aegean List’ of Kom el-Hetan, took place also during Amenhotep III's Regnal Year 28.The two culturally different and geographically remote contexts in which the Beth-Shemesh and Sellopoulo scarabs were found – a destruction layer in Canaan and a tomb in Crete – tell the same story: Late Minoan IIIA1 was in vogue at least until the last decade of Amenhotep III's reign in the mid-fourteenth century bc. This conclusion has important implications for the political and cultural history of Knossos and may anchor the sequence of events of the Final Palatial period in a more solid chronological framework.

Knossian Gifts? Two Late Minoan Iiia1 Cups From Tel Beth-Shemesh, Israel

“…Sellopoulo Tomb 4 Burials I and II are also associated with Late Minoan IIIA1 pottery. The new evidence from Tel Beth-Shemesh strengthens the probability of an overlap between Late Minoan IIIA1, Late Helladic IIIA1 and the reign of Amenhotep III (see further discussion of this issue in Brandl, Bunimovitz and Lederman 2013).…”

“…This dating is corroborated by the reading and interpretation of the Amenhotep III scarab found near the Late Minoan IIIA1 cups as a commemorative scarab produced on the occasion of Amenhotep III's celebration of the Jubilee ( Sed festival) in the thirtieth year of his reign (which spanned the years 1390–1353 bc , cf . Hornung, Krauss and Warburton 2006, 204–6, 492; for further discussion see Brandl, Bunimovitz and Lederman 2013). The pottery from the ‘palace’ indicates that its destruction happened shortly after this terminus post quem .…”

“…The present article examines the Late Minoan IIIA1 cups from Beth-Shemesh within their Aegean context and emphasises their close affinity with comparable cups from the palace at Knossos, catalogued and republished here. The second, subsequent article (Brandl, Bunimovitz and Lederman 2013), is devoted to innovative reading and interpretation of Amenhotep III scarabs found with Late Minoan IIIA1 pottery at Tel Beth-Shemesh and Sellopoulo Tomb 4 as commemorative scarabs related to the first Jubilee ( Sed festival) in his thirtieth regnal year. In view of the fragility of the traditional archaeological-historical chronology of the Aegean Late Bronze Age and the current debate concerning some of its major tenets (see e.g .…”

Creta Capta: Late Minoan II Knossos in Mycenaean History

“…10 and 11). 56 For the necessity of pushing it late into LM IIIA1, see Brandl, Bunimovitz and Lederman 2013; this was earlier accepted by Macdonald (2001, 531). 57 Matthaus 1995, 183.…”