Red Lustrous Wheelmade ware is of considerable interest in that it forms part of the international trade in luxury products throughout the East Mediterranean during the Late Bronze Age. The most common Red Lustrous Wheelmade (hereon 'RLWm') shapes, namely spindle bottles, pilgrim flasks and arm-shaped vessels, found over an extraordinarily wide area, from Nubia to Anatolia, from Palestine to Crete, are thought to have contained valuable commodities such as resin for incense, or perhaps perfumed oils. Moreover, they are frequently found in special contexts such as temples and tombs. But although the ware is very well known from innumerable consumption contexts, there is as yet no evidence from production contexts. Indeed its source is still something of a puzzle, a conundrum; in the past both Syria and Anatolia have been raised as serious possibilities, while the most recent synthesis favours Cyprus as the source (Eriksson 1993), largely because at the time most of the ware had been found on Cyprus. Yet a rather dramatic discovery in 2000-2001 has changed the picture substantially; excavations by Dr. Jürgen Seeher at Bogazköy, the Hittite capital Hattusha, have unearthed thousands of RLWm ware sherds, found dumped into large artificial ponds, probably from nearby temple complexes. Previously, Eriksson had recorded 22 spindle bottles and c.100 arm-shaped vessels at Bogazköy; now the amount of RLWm ware from this single site rivals that found from the whole of Cyprus. This raises many possibilities. Was RLWm in fact made in central Anatolia? Was it manufactured in Cyprus and exported in massive quantities? Could it perhaps have come from somewhere in between the two (e.g. Cilicia)? Or was it in fact made in various locations?
Scientific analyses, and in particular ceramic petrography, can throw some light on this problem. The petrographic (and chemical) studies I have conducted, initially on material from Kilise Tepe in Turkey and Memphis-Saqqara in Egypt (see Internet Archaeology article, Knappett, 2000), now include material from 4 sites on Cyprus - Hala Sultan Tekke, Kalavassos, Kouklia and Kazaphani - as well as from Bogazköy, the site mentioned above. At the very least the analyses show the remarkable homogeneity of the fabric, such that it is extremely hard to imagine anything other than a single source area. This does mean that the material is moving in huge quantities from somewhere. Could that somewhere really be Bogazköy? It seems most unlikely, judging from petrographic comparisons with samples of local wares, and the nature of the mostly volcanic local geology. It would appear instead that the site is receiving huge quantities of this ware from somewhere far to the south. Could that somewhere indeed be Cyprus? Once again the predominantly volcanic geology of much of the island renders this unlikely. But there is one part of the island that is different - the north, around Kyrenia - which is actually characterised by limestones, and occasional outcrops of low-grade metamorphic rocks. Such geology represents a much better fit with the petrographic characteristics of RLWm ware (see Knappett 2000). Moreover, one of the Cypriot sites from which samples have been taken, Kazaphani, is located in this region close to Kyrenia, and a great deal of RLWm ware was found there. Northern Cyprus remains a possible source area, although further investigation, through ceramic and clay sampling, is hindered by the current political situation on the island. Another candidate as a source area, it should be noted, is Cilicia (southern Anatolia). The geology of the south coast of Cilicia, around Anamur and Ovacik, provides a good general fit (i.e. limestones and low-grade metamorphic rocks). Geographically it would make some sense too as a source area. It is not very far from Kilise Tepe, where the RLWm ware that was found did not seem entirely foreign to local traditions (Knappett 2000). But unfortunately very little (if any?) Hittite archaeology is known from the Anamur-Ovacik area.
This must be a unique situation in the Late Bronze Age of the East Mediterranean. Other wares of such widespread distribution, notably Mycenaean wares, have multiple production sources. And yet somehow, even given a single source area, we still cannot say for certain where RLWm ware comes from, although we are closing the net bit by bit, through an integrated approach that treats archaeological, geological, and analytical data together. And as recently understated by Ian Todd in a paper on connections between Anatolia and Cyprus: "The intricacies of Late Bronze Age trade and international relations and the role of Cyprus still merit further investigation" (2001, 213). The RLWm ware conundrum is pivotal to such questions, all the more so in the light of the recent finds at Bogazköy.
Eriksson, K.O., 1993. Red Lustrous Wheel-made Ware (SIMA 103, Jonsered).
Knappett, C., 2000. 'The provenance of Red Lustrous Wheel-made Ware: Cyprus, Syria, or Anatolia?' Internet Archaeology 9, http://intarch.ac.uk/journal/issue9/
Todd, I.A., 2001. 'Early Connections of Cyprus with Anatolia', in V. Karageorghis (ed.), The White Slip Ware of Bronze Age Cyprus: Proceedings of an International Conference Organised by the A.G. Leventis Foundation, Nicosia, in Honour of Malcolm H. Wiener. (Wien: Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften), 203-213