The BronzeAge Shipwreckat Ulu Burun:
1986 Campaign
GEORGE F. BASS, CEMAL PULAK, DOMINIQUE
Abstract
The Institute of Nautical Archaeologyin 1986 com-
pleted its third excavationcampaign at Ulu Burun, near
Kas, Turkey. New finds include a unique gold scarabof
Nefertiti that may provideconfirmationfor a recentthe-
ory that she servedas coregentsometimeduring the latter
years of Akhenaten'sreign; a gold medallionwith a nude
goddess holding a gazelle in each hand, as well as other
typically Canaanitegold medallions;a rock-crystalcylin-
der seal with gold caps, probablyKassite;an Old Babylo-
nian hematite cylinder seal recut by an Assyrian artisan,
I. EXCAVATIONS AT ULU BURUN IN 1986*
George F. Bass and Cemal Pulak
During the summer of 1986, the Institute of Nauti-
cal Archaeology (INA) continued excavation of a Late
Bronze Age shipwreck off Ulu Burun, near Ka?, in
southern Turkey.' Diving began on 7 June and con-
tinued until the end of August. Once more, part of the
staff lived ashore in a camp built onto the southeastern
face of the rock promontory, while others lived aboard
the Virazon, again moored above the site. Diving,
mapping, and excavating techniques were the same as
those used in previous campaigns.
* The 1986
campaign was financedby the INA Board of
Directors, the Anna C. and Oliver C. Colburn Fund of
INA, the Institutefor Aegean Prehistory,the National Geo-
graphic Society and the National Science Foundation.The
excavatorswere G.F. Bass, director;Cemal Pulak, assistant
director;Donald A. Frey, photographer;Robin C.M. Pier-
cy, chief of operations;Tufan Turanli, captain of INA's re-
search vessel Virazon;Murat Tilev, engineer; and Yancey
Mebane, Karl Ruppert, and David Perlman, physicians.
Staff also included archaeologistsDouglas Haldane, Faith
Hentschel, Lisa Shuey, and Shelley Wachsmann; Texas
A&M graduate students Nicolle Hirschfeld, Ralph Peder-
sen, Lillian Ray, and Stephen Vinson; conservatorsJane
Pannell and Robert Payton; and illustrators Netia Piercy
(figs. 8, 9, 10, 13, 14, and 18), Sema Pulak (figs. 7, 11, 16
and 21), and Anika Liversage (fig. 27). Yasar Yildlz repre-
sented the Turkish General Directorateof Antiquities and
Museums.
See C. Pulak and D.A. Frey, "The Search for a Bronze
Age Shipwreck,"Archaeology38:4 (1985) 18-24 for the dis-
1
AmericanJournal of Archaeology93 (1989)
COLLON, AND JAMES WEINSTEIN
perhaps during the Amarna period;and, in a pithos, the
earliest known diptych of the type which held wax for
writing surfaces. More weights, bronze tools and weap-
ons, pottery,and copperand tin ingots also came to light,
as did another faience ram's-headrhyton. At the deeper
end of the site, several more stone anchors were uncov-
ered, bringing the known total on board to 12. The site's
ultimatecontributionsto the historyof trade,internation-
al relations, and technology must await complete exca-
vation and more positive dating.
The following report is divided into three sections,on
the excavations,the cylinderseals, and the gold scarab.
Diving twice daily, with nearly six hours between
dives, six days a week, we compiled 60 dives to be-
tween 50 and 140 ft (15 and 43 m), 1125 dives to be-
tween 140 and 150 ft (43 and 46 m), 1580 dives to
between 150 and 160 ft (46 and 49 m), and 2 dives to
170 ft (52 m), totalling 512 hours on the site in 1986.
Work was again concentrated on the shallower half
of the site, west of the large rock outcrop (figs. 1 and
2). We hoped to excavate completely the area upslope
of the uppermost rows of amphoras and copper ingots,
coveryof the site. A 10-day inspectionin 1983 is described
by G.F. Bass, D.A. Frey, and C. Pulak, "A Late BronzeAge
Shipwreck at Kas, Turkey," IJNA 13 (1984) 271-79, and
the first excavationcampaignby G.F. Bass, "A Bronze Age
Shipwreck at Ulu Burun (Kas): 1984 Campaign,"AJA 90
(1986) 269-96, and G.F. Bass, "The Ulu Burun Ship-
wreck,"VII. KazzSonuclarzToplantzsz(Ankara1986) 619-
35 (hereafterVII. KST). For the 1985 campaignsee C. Pu-
lak, "The Bronze Age Shipwreck at Ulu Burun, Turkey:
1985 Campaign," AJA 92 (1988) 1-37, and G.F. Bass,
"Underwater Excavations of the Ulu Burun Shipwreck,"
VIII. Kazz SonuclarzToplantzsz2 (Ankara 1987) 291-302
(hereafterVIII. KST 2). The site has also been publishedin
popular form, with color photographsof many of the arti-
facts, in G.F. Bass, "Oldest Known Shipwreck Reveals
Splendorsof the Bronze Age," National Geographic172:6
(December 1987) 692-733. The two cylinder seals de-
scribed here have been illustrated previously: D. Collon,
First Impressions:CylinderSeals in the Ancient Near East
(London 1987) 135-37, nos. 570-71.
2 G.F. BASS,C. PULAK,D. COLLON,AND J. WEINSTEIN
Fig. 1. Wreckseenfromnortheast
approximatelygrid squaresL-10 to N-10 and L- 1 to
N-11, where many small finds were recovered in
1985, includinga scaraband a plaque with Egyptian
hieroglyphs, as well as all of the gold jewelry found
that year. This goal was not realizedbecausethe area
continued to be surprisingly rich in small artifacts,
and becausenewly discovereddepositsof artifactsex-
tended the known boundariesof the site. We contin-
ued mapping and removingthe aforementionedrows
of amphoras and ingots, which had been discovered
undera thick layer of marineencrustationin 1985. To
the south of these regions,we completedexcavationof
the narrow, sand-filled gully that had in 1984 pro-
ducedsuch diversifiedfinds as a gold chalice,a falcon-
shaped gold pectoral, elephant and hippopotamus
tusks, glass ingots, amber and faience beads, an am-
phora filled with glass beads, and several bronze
weapons, and which in 1985 had yielded two bronze
swords and scrap silver in the vicinity of pithos
KW 250. Excavationwas extendedbelow this gully to
the rock outcrop and across the remainderof the up-
per half of the wreck. During this time the rows of
0. Negbi, CanaaniteGods in Metal: An Archaeological
2
Study of Ancient Syro-Palestinian Figurines (Tel Aviv
[AJA 93
ingots extending downslope to the north of the rock
outcrop were mapped but not removed. Lastly, to-
ward the end of the campaign,exploratorydivesat the
deepestvisible part of the site revealedtwo previously
unknownanchorsat a depthof 51 m; these may mark
the westernmostextent of the site. During these ex-
ploratorydives, a pithos, which seems to have rolled
down the steep slope, was spottedlying far below the
rest of the wreck, at an estimateddepth of 58 m.
Grid squareM-l 1, in the firstarea mentioned,con-
tinued to yield gold jewelry, including pendants of
four known Canaanite types: KW 703 is a pear-
shaped sheet of gold, 9.1 cm high, its ribbon loop for
suspension rolled forward and scored vertically (fig.
3). The pendantbears the framedrepoussefigureof a
nude female holding a gazelle in each raised hand.
The figure faces forward, wearing a crown, but her
feet are in profileto her right. She wears fourbracelets
on each wrist, and pairs of anklets. The figure is al-
most certainlythat of a deity of uncertainidentifica-
tion, being a good example of Ora Negbi's "Pictorial
Qudsu"group,2as well as of K.R. Maxwell-Hyslop's
1976)99-100,excepttheUlu Burunfiguredoesnotweara
Hathorwig.
1989] THE BRONZE AGE SHIPWRECK AT ULU BURUN: 1986 CAMPAIGN 3

H I I | J |j K L M J N I 0 P

9 9

110 I10

111 11

112 12

I13 13

1
14 14

8058 f
'61 819,727

115 15

. o ? +

16 16 i

I
17 17

18 18 I

4-. .q:
.. . .

19 19 I

+ + . .+ +

20 20
THE ULUBURUNWRECK
NEAR KAS - TURKEY
. . 0
INA 1986
21 21 I

O .5 1m
_t

H I J K I L MN 0
I I

Fig. 2. Site plan. Objectsmentionedin text are indicatedby their K(as) W(reck) numbers.
4 G.F. BASS,C. PULAK,D. COLLON,AND J. WEINSTEIN [AJA93

:ii : ::: :b

'5 :::

Fig.4. GoldroundelKW756.3:2

(fig. 4). It is decoratedin repousseby a four-pointed

star with curvedrays betweenits straightrays, all out-
lined by incised lines; single repoussebosses are cen-
teredin the fieldsbetweenthe rays, and the edge of the
pendant is outlined by repoussedots. This star-with-
curved-raymotif is much more like the commonmotif

". 1: -,: " W.",

.e '-

Fig. 3. Goldpear-shaped
pendantKW703.3:2

group b of nude goddesspendants3and P.E. McGov-

ern's type II.B.1.4 Four of these are in sheet gold from
Minet el-Beida and one in cast bronze from Akko,
while another, of cast gold from Zincirli in Anatolia,
may be of later, Iron Age date;5a parallel from Minet
el-Beida has gazelles held in a mannersimilar to that
on the Ulu Burun medallion.6
Sheet-goldpendant KW 756 is a roundel, 4 cm in
diameter,with its suspensionloop also rolled forward Fig. 5. Goldrectangular
pendantKW757.2:1

3 K.R. Maxwell-Hyslop, Western Asiatic

Jewellery c.
3000-612 B.C. (London 1971) 139.
4 P.E. McGovern, Late Bronze Palestinian Pendants
(JSOT/ASOR Monograph 1, Sheffield1985) 30.
5
6
Negbi(supran. 2) 100, 135.
Maxwell-Hyslop(supra n. 3) 139, pl. 106; C.F.A.
Schaeffer, "Lesfouillesde Minet-el-Beida
et de RasSham-
ra, troisiemecampagne,"
Syria13 (1932) pl. 9.1; C.F.A.
Schaeffer,UgariticaII (Paris1949)36-37, fig. 10;Negbi
(supran. 2) 100 with fig. 119, pl. 53.1701,and 191 for
bibliography.
1989] THE BRONZEAGESHIPWRECKAT ULU BURUN:1986CAMPAIGN 5

i
;:I::!-::: :::-:: .. -;::: :: .--;-;- ::;l:;:,(-:-::_:(i:I-

Fig. 6. Goldhorn-shaped
pendantKW892. 3:2

seen in variousmaterialsat Ugarit, Alalakh, and She-

chem than is that on gold roundel KW 138, found on
the wreck in 1984.7Two gold roundelsfrom Shechem
provideparallels for KW 756.8
Rectangularpendant KW 757, with roundedcor-
ners, is 2.5 cm high (fig. 5). The figure of a standing
woman, facing right, is scratchedon its surface. Her Fig. 8. BronzehoeKW839. 1:3
hair hangs straightbehindher ear to below her shoul-
der. Three horizontal scratchescross her waist. Her hem, like those of the wife of the Syrian merchant,
skirt is flounced,with three horizontallines abovethe shown newly arrived in Egypt by ship, in the 15th-
century Tomb of Nebamun at Thebes.9 The figures

;:- ~
;~'

Fig. 7. WhetstoneKW701. 1:1 Fig. 9. BronzefishhookKW924. 1:1

7 Bass,AJA90 (1986)289-90,pl. 17.4,withreferences to VI.G.1in McGovern(supran. 4) 75.

thoseat Ugarit,AlalakhandShechemin notes117-19,121; 8Maxwell-Hyslop(supran. 3) 144,pl. 115.
Bass,VII.KST (supran. 1) 628, 635 fig. 11. This is Type 9 T.
Save-Soderbergh,Four Eighteenth Dynasty Tombs
6 G.F. BASS, C. PULAK, D. COLLON, AND J. WEINSTEIN
!I
: whereas the males face left.
if
a-z,
Fig. 10. Bronze knife KW 800. 1:2
resembleone anotheralso in that on each the arm far-
ther from the viewer hangs down but slightly forward,
whereas the arm nearer the viewer is held forward
and upward. The Ulu Burun pendantis similar to but
slightly smaller than a sheet-gold pendant found in a
hoard of probable Late Cypriot IIIA1 date at Hala
Sultan Tekke that may be jewelry "ofa non-Cypriote
woman, from Egypt or Palestine."'0On the Hala Sul-
tan Tekke example, the woman's hair is similar, but
(Private Tombs at Thebes 1, Oxford 1957) pl. 23; G.F.
Bass, Cape Gelidonya:A Bronze Age Shipwreck(TAPS 57,
part 8, 1967) 65, fig. 74.
10P. Xstrom et al., Hala Sultan Tekke 8. Excavations
1971-79 (SIMA 45:8, Goteborg1983) 8 no. N 1157j, 9-10,
13 fig. 9. The hoardwas originallythoughtto be fromperhaps
as early as 1500 B.C., K. Nicolaou, "ArchaeologicalNews
fromCyprus, 1977-1978,"AJA 84 (1980) 67, pl. 13.24.
11Astrim et al. (supra n. 10) 8 no. N 1157k, 13 fig. 10;
Nicolaou (supra n. 10) pl. 13.23.
12R.W. Hamilton, "Excavationsat Tell Abu Hawam,"
QDAP 4 (1935) no. 416 on p. 64, pl. 39.1, designatedType
[AJA 93
her lower skirt, perhaps an underskirt, is cross-
hatched,and there is only one line abovethis, perhaps
the hem of an outer garment;two lines crossher waist;
both elbows are bent sharply, the forearms held up
with the palms of the hands facing away from the
body. Another pendant, from the same hoard, has a
male figure on its surface,"Ias does a pendant of the
same family from Tell Abu Hawam.12 All of these
pendants have their suspension loops rolled forward.
It is of interest that the two females face to the right,
The fourthgold pendantfromUlu Burun, KW 892
(fig. 6), is of Maxwell-Hyslop's horn-shapedtype,'3
with solid-casthorns and a rolled-overhollow loop for
suspension;its crescentis 4.4 cm wide. Maxwell-Hys-
lop says the type was especially popular in the 15th
and 14th centuries.'4 Good parallels appear in the
hoard at Shechemthat producedthe best parallels for
roundel KW 756, above. The type also occursat Me-
giddo,'5 Tell el-Ajjul,'6 Beth Shan, Gezer, and Ras
Shamra,17and in Greeceand Cyprus.18
Also found here were two cylinder seals (KW 714
and KW 881), discussedin Part II by Collon, and a
I I
a b
Fig. 11. Agate lentoids a) KW 840, and b) KW 793. 1:1
II.B.3 in McGovern (supra n. 4) 32-33, 156 pl. 6.76 (cf.
Type II.B.l.b on p. 30).
13Maxwell-Hyslop (supra n. 3) 149-50, pl. 115; this is
Type VI.B.1 in McGovern (supra n. 4) 68-69.
14Maxwell-Hyslop (supra n. 3) 151.
15Maxwell-Hyslop (supra n. 3) 150-51.
16F. Petrie,Ancient Gaza IV. Tell el Ajjul (London 1934)
pl. 20.168 and 174.
17Maxwell-Hyslop (supra n. 3) 151.
18 K. Niklasson in Astrom et al.
(supra n. 10) 177-78
no. 1247, 201 fig. 471.
1989] THE BRONZEAGESHIPWRECKAT ULU BURUN:1986CAMPAIGN
Fig. 12. Faienceram's-head
rhytonKW707.Ca. 1:1
uniquegoldscarabof Queen Nefertiti(KW 772) thatis
illustratedand treatedin Part III by James Weinstein.
In this same deposit were bronze arrowheads,
quartz and faience beads, lead fishing-net weights, a
few small bronze tools, a whetstone (KW 701: fig. 7;
1.0.06), and stone balance-panweights.
Less than half a meter upslope from these finds
were three bits of scrap gold. Two are the joining
halves of roundel KW 956, identical to the pendant
with granulatedlotus palmette found here in 1985.19
The third is part of a possible gold bar or disc
(KW 928), its edges removedby chisel. Bronzesin this
deposit included a hoe (KW 839: fig. 8; 1. 0.30) of
Cape Gelidonya Type 5;20three sickles; several ar-
rowheads;and four fishhooks,includingKW 924 (fig.
19Pulak(supran. 1) 26-27, fig. 32; Bass, VIII.KST 2
(supran. 1) 292, 299 fig.3.
20 Bass
(supran. 9) 91 withfig. 104.B68.
21 F. Petrie,Ancient Gaza III. Tell el Ajjul (London
1933)
pl. 22.85-88;J.-C. Courtois,AlasiaIII (Paris 1984) 18,
with additionalreferencesto Syriaand Cyprus,and 176
fig. 6.12-13; S. Iakovidis,Excavationsof the Necropolisat
Perati(Instituteof Archaeology,Universityof California,
LosAngeles,Occasional Paper8, 1980)95, 96 fig. 118;S.G.
Miller,"Excavations at Nemea,1975,"Hesperia45 (1976)
184,pl. 33a suggeststhelongevityof thetype.
22
Bass,AJA90 (1986)288-89,290 ill. 28.
7
j.::::
9; pres. 1. 0.05), of a type known throughoutthe east-
ern Mediterranean.21Here, too, was found a bronze
fingercymbal(KW 923) which matchesthat found in
1984.22KW 800 (fig. 10; 1. 0.23), the only complete
bronze knife of its type yet recoveredfrom the wreck,
has a down-curvingblade like examplesfoundat least
in Mycenaean contexts in western Asia Minor and
Rhodes.23Other finds in the depositincludelead fish-
ing-net weights, a lead and severalstone balance-pan
weights, and faience beads of a type recoveredduring
previouscampaigns.24
In neighboringsquares N-11 and N-12 were seven
fragmentarytin ingots, some easily recognizedas hav-
ing been cut from the typical four-handled"ox-hide"
shape.25Here, too, were found two possible Minoan
23N.K. Sandars,"LaterAegeanBronzeSwords," AJA67
(1963) 140-42, pl. 27.54, 56-57, and J. Deshayes,Les
outilsde bronze,de lIndus au Danube2 (Paris1960) 136
no. 2596, pl. 43.2596;132 no. 2529, pl. 42.2529;and,for
knivesfromMycenaewithstraightbladesbutwithhandles
terminating in knobslikethatat Ulu Burun,134nos.2554
and2555,pl.43.2554-2555.Otherexamples,fromtheMy-
cenaeancemeteryat Musgebi,nearBodrum,aredisplayed
in the BodrumMuseumof Underwater Archaeology.
24 Bass,AJA90 (1986)286-87, 289 ill. 26; Pulak(supra
n. 1)25.
25Pulak(supran. 1) cf. 9 fig.4, 10 fig.5.
8 G.F. BASS, C. PULAK, D. COLLON, AND J. WEINSTEIN
Fig. 13. Bronze fishhookor gaff KW 1225. 1:2
or Mycenaean seal blanks of agate:26 KW 840
(fig. 1 la; diam. 0.016) in N-12, and KW 793 (fig. 1lb;
diam. 0.026) in M-12.
Fourteen Canaanite amphoras and two pilgrim
flasks were raised from the heavily encrusted deposit
just downslope; other amphoras remain embedded in
the concretion. Here, also, was a nearly intact faience
rhyton (KW 707: fig. 12; 1. 0.18) in the shape of a
ram's head. It is the fifth rhyton of this type found on
the wreck, and its condition allows us to note that it is
similar to, but not identical to, faience rhyta in the
same form from Enkomi27 and Tell Abu Hawam.28
Conservator Robert Payton notes that it seems to have
been broken and mended in antiquity.
Close to this area was the joining fragment of stone
mace-head KW 278, found in 1985.29
Fig. 14. Bronze balance-panweight KW 873. 1:1
26 Cf.
J. Boardman,GreekGems and Finger Rings (Lon-
don 1970) 49 [colorplate] no. 3; on p. 63, however, Board-
man cites evidencethat the string-hole was bored after the
engraving of a seal, and the Ulu Burun stones are al-
ready bored;a Mycenaean preferencefor banded agates in
LH I-IIIA is noted on p. 57.
27A.S. Murray, A.H. Smith, and H.B. Walters, Excava-
tions in Cyprus (London 1900) 33, with fig. 61.1212 and
pl. 3.
28 Hamilton
(supra n. 12) 65 no. 428, pl. 30.
29 Pulak
(supra n. 1) 24.
[AJA93
Fig. 15. Glass relief bead KW 829. 2:1
In disassemblingthe row of copperingots marking
the lower border of the amphora deposit, we discov-
ered that they were stacked neatly on a cushion of
thorny burnet (Sarcopoterium spinosum)30 reminis-
cent of the dunnage found beneath copper ingots on
the Cape Gelidonya wreck.31Seeds of this species,
commonthroughoutthe eastern Mediterranean,have
been found on virtually all of the shipwreckswe have
excavatedin the Mediterranean,as well as in ampho-
ras of various periodsrecoveredduring INA's annual
surveys,32but this discoveryat Ulu Burun provides
the firstdirectevidenceof the plant'suse. Preservedby
copper corrosion products between the ingots were
many more murex operculalike those notedprevious-
ly.33 Perhaps preserved in the same way were numer-
ous tiny faience beads in several colors, like discoid
Fig. 16. Rock-crystal
beadKW767. 1:1
30 C.W.
Haldane, "ArchaeobotanicalRemains from Four
Shipwrecks off Turkey's Southern Shore,"Proceedingsof
the Fifth Conferenceof the Organizationfor the Phyto-Tax-
onomic Investigationof the MediterraneanArea, Istanbul,
12 September1986, forthcoming.
31 Bass
(supra n. 9) 49, 168-69.
32 Haldane
(supra n. 30). W. van Zeist first broughtthis
identificationto our attention (letter of 21 April 1986 to
Aleydis van de Moortel).
33Pulak (supra n. 1) 5.
1989] THE BRONZE AGE SHIPWRECK AT ULU BURUN: 1986 CAMPAIGN
Fig. 17. Africanblackwoodlog (Dalbergiamelanoxylon).3:20
beads found in 1984,34the latter seemingly bleached
of color.
Downslope of these ingots was a row of three pairs
of anchors, one anchor in each pair resting on the
other.A solitaryanchorlay at the northernmostend of
the row, but a newly uncoveredanchor,far down the
steep slope in squares P-18 and P-19, may be a miss-
ing mate for it, suggestinga fourth pair.
In the approximate area from which pithos
KW 251 was raised in 1984, a numberof Cypriot ce-
ramic pieces were found, some identical to those re-
movedfrom the pithos in 1984.35They may represent
additionalcontentsof the pithos:White Shavedjuglet
KW 1058, Base-ring II bowl KW 730, and a frag-
mentaryWhite Slip II milk-bowl, along with saucer-
shaped lamp KW 105936 and pitcher KW 812 with
trefoil mouth. In the same general area, but slightly to
the south, were pilgrim flasks37in at least three sizes
(large KW 747; mediumKW 795; small KW 761 and
776), wall brackets KW 759 and KW 1001,38 saucer-
shaped lamp KW 760 with fire-blackenednozzle,39a
badly damagedstirrupjar (KW 905), four amphoras,
a glass ingot,40fragmentsof tin ingots, over 100 lead
fishing-netweights in two sizes, several small bronze
tools, parts of what may be a pair of bronzetongs, and
34Bass, AJA 90 (1986) 274.
35Bass, AJA 90 (1986) 279-81, ills. 10-12; Bass, VII.
KST(supran.1) 626-27, 633 figs.6-7.
36Cf. Bass,AJA90 (1986)281,282ill. 14;Bass,VII.KST
(supran. 1) 626,634 fig.9.
37 Cf. Bass,Freyand Pulak(supran. 1) 276, 277 fig. 7;
Bass,AJA90 (1986)284-85, 286 ill. 21;Bass,VIII.KST2
(supran. 1) 295, 301 fig. 8; Pulak(supran. 1) 12 fig.7.
38 Cf. Bass, Frey and Pulak (supran. 1) 273, 276 with
fig.6; Bass,VIII.KST2 (supran. 1) 297,302 fig. 12.
39 Cf. Bass,AJA90 (1986)285, 287 ill. 22; Pulak(supra
n. 1) 13, 12 fig.6.
40 Cf.
Bass,AJA90 (1986)281-82 withills. 15-16;Bass,
VII.KST (supran. 1) 624, 633 fig. 5. Seealso"GlassGal-
lery Opensat BodrumMuseum,"JGS 28 (1986) 117-18
withfig.2.
41 This doesnot seemto be a duck,as is clearlythe case
with KW 350 (Pulak[supran. 1] 30 with fig. 37, 31; see
9
a large bronze fishhookor gaff, with its barb on the
outside (KW 1225: fig. 13; pres. 1. 0.10). A few bal-
ance-pan weights here include KW 727, a recumbent
young animal (perhaps a calf) weighing 3.15 g, and
KW 873 (fig. 14; 1. 0.021), shaped like a water fowl,41
weighing 2.02 g. Among a number of glass, faience,
and stone beadswas a blue glass relief bead (KW 829:
fig. 15; 1 0.026) of seeming Mycenaean manufac-
ture,42a rock-crystalbead (KW 767: fig. 16; diam.
0.016) similarto one froma Late Minoan tomb,43and
another possible Minoan or Mycenaean seal blank
(KW 819) of a green stone,possiblysteatite.A broken
ostrich egg44 and a meter-long, unworked piece of
Fig. 18. BronzechiselKW748.3:5
J.-C. Courtois,"Le tresorde poids de Kalavassos-Ayios
Dhimitrios1982,"RDAC(1983)123,126,pl. 17.5,wherea
fowlalsowitha longneckis identifiedas a duckor related
animal.
42 Cf. V.R.d'A.Desborough, The Last Mycenaeansand
TheirSuccessors(Oxford1964) pl. 20a, relief beadsof
"glasspaste,"probablyfromlalysos.
43 Cf.
C.W. Blegen, Prosymna (Cambridge 1937) fig.
599.10;andS. Hood,G. HuxleyandN. Sandars,"AMino-
an Cemeteryon Upper Gypsades,"BSA 53-54 (1958-
1959)250 no. X.11, 258 fig. 35.X.11foran examplewith
sevenflutes.
44
See D.S. Reese,"TheKitionOstrichEggshells,"Ap-
pendixVIII(B)in V. Karageorghis, Excavations at Kition
V, Part2 (Nicosia1985)371-82,andA. Caubet,"Lesoeufs
d'autrucheau ProcheOrientancien,"RDAC(1983) 193-
98 forreferences
to pastdiscoveriesin theeasternMediter-
ranean.See now D. White,"1985Excavations on Bates's
10 G.F. BASS,C. PULAK,D. COLLON,AND J. WEINSTEIN
Fig. 19.WoodendiptychKW737. 1:1
dark, dense African blackwoodor Dalbergia melan-
oxylon (fig. 17), called ebony by the ancient Egyp-
tians,45represent exotic trade goods. Lastly, scarab
KW 904, discussedby Weinstein in Part III, is of the
SecondIntermediatePeriod.
Before being raised, seemingly intact but badly
crackedpithos KW 252, just south of pithos KW 251
(fig. 2), was emptied of sediment and then disassem-
bled under water. The sedimentcontainednumerous
seeds and other parts of pomegranates,suggesting to
Cheryl Haldane that the jar containedwhole pome-
granates.Also recoveredfromthejar were severalbal-
last stones,bronzechisel KW 748 (fig. 18; 1.0.92) of a
type especially commonin the Levant,46bronze razor
KW 749 (similar to KW 344 raised in 1985),47and
wooden diptychKW 737 (fig. 19).
The diptych, reassembledfrom more than 25 frag-
Island,MarsaMatruh,"JARCE23 (1986)79 with n. 71.
We thankDominiqueCollonforreferringus to C.S.Gans-
dale,AnimalsofBibleLands(Exeter1970)191-92,forthe
Near Easterndistributionof the ostrichin more recent
times. Nicolle Hirschfeldhas broughtto our attentiona
fragmentfromthe storeroom complexat Gla (Prakt1982,
105-108).
45 The woodwas identifiedby DonnaChristensen of the
[AJA 93
ments, is of obviousimportancefor our knowledgeof
Bronze Age literacy. It consists of two rectangular
woodenleaves,6.2 cm wide by 9.5 cm high,joinedby a
three-piece,cylindricalivoryhinge;pluggedholesindi-
catethat the hinge had beenreplacedor repairedin an-
tiquity. The centralpiece of the hinge could not be lo-
cated,despiteour efforts.The inner facesof the leaves
were slightly recessed,and scoredwith crosshatching
for the retentionof wax writing surfaces.The inner-
most margin of one leaf was incised with geometric
marks.A pair of smallholes piercingthis leaf mayhave
been for a deviceto keepthe diptychclosed.It is proba-
ble that the diptychwas closedwhile in the pithos, for
its inner faces had not sufferedas much erosionas the
outer surfaces.The earliestpreviouslyknown writing
tabletsof this sortwere foundin a well at Nimrud,from
the late eighth centuryB.C.48On the walnut Nimrud
CenterforWoodAnatomyResearch,U.S. ForestProducts
Laboratory,Madison,Wisconsin.For Egyptianebonysee
A. Lucas, AncientEgyptianMaterialsand Industries4
(London1962)434-36.
46 Bass(supran. 9) 99-100 fig. 112.B129.
47 Pulak(supran. 1) 14, 15 fig. 10;Bass,AJA90 (1986)
292-93 withill. 33, wherea similarbladeis calleda knife.
48M.E.L. Mallowan, "The Excavationsat Nimrud
1989] THE BRONZEAGESHIPWRECKAT ULU BURUN:1986CAMPAIGN 11

Fig. 20. Hippopotamus

canineKW744. 1:4

diptych,traces of beeswax bearing cuneiforminscrip-

tions were preserved;analysisof the beeswaxshowedit
to be mixed with about 25%orpiment,49and this may
explain why an amphoraof orpimentwas on the Ulu
Burunship.50The Ulu Buruntabletdemonstratesthat
Homer's mentionof foldingwoodentablets (II. 6.169)
was not anachronistic.
Removal of the fragments of pithos KW 252 re-
vealed three more hippopotamus teeth, one incisor
and two canines (fig. 20); the four hippopotamusteeth
so far recovered51do not seem to come from the same
animal. Recent discoveriesof hippopotamusteeth at
other Bronze Age sites in the eastern Mediterranean
suggest that hippopotamusivory was used more ex- Fig. 22. MetalpilgrimflaskKW 1085.1:2
tensivelythan previouslyknown.52Potterydiscovered
underthe pithos includedtwo pilgrim flasks (KW 791 and 1183), several Canaaniteamphoras,spindle bot-
tle KW 844, and coarse-warestirrupjars KW 1188
(h. 0.44) and KW 1198 (h. 0.45). KW 1198, which
containedalmosteverytype of seed we have recovered
from the wreck, as well as several dozen faience and
stone beads and a large fleckof orpiment,is similar in
shape and painteddecorationto LH IIIA:2-IIIB stir-
rup jars from the House of the Wine Merchant at
Mycenae.53Also in this area were two rings, most
likely fashionedfrom Mediterraneantop shells,54one
found in the mouth of stirrupjar KW 1198. A central
groove inscribed completely around each ring pre-
serves a black substanceprobablyintended for affix-
ing pre-cut inlays to the ring. One ring preservesan
impressedzigzag patternin this bitumen-likematerial
that probablycorrespondsto the triangularshapes of
Fig. 21. ShellringKW801. 1:1 missing inlay pieces, while the second has impressed

(Kalhu),"Iraq 16 (1954) 98; D.J. Wiseman,"Assyrian
WritingBoards,"Iraq17 (1955)3.
49Mallowan(supran. 48) 99;Wiseman(supran. 48) 5.
50 Bass, AJA 90 (1986) 278-79; Bass, VII. KST (supra
n. 1) 626.
51
Bass,AJA90 (1986)283, 285 ill. 19.
52 A. Caubetand F.
Poplin,"Lesobjetsde matieredure
animaleetudedu materiau,"Ras Shamra-OugaritIII (Pa-
ris 1987) 278-83, 290-94; see also bibliographyin D.S.
Reese,"Hippopotamus and ElephantTeethfromKition,"
AppendixVIII(D) in V. Karageorghis, Excavationsat Ki-
tionV, Part2 (Nicosia1985)391-98.
53 H.W. Haskell,"Coarse-Ware Stirrup-Jarsat Myce-
nae,"BSA76 (1981)225-26.
54Pulak(supran. 1) 26, 27 fig.31.
12 G.F. BASS,C. PULAK,D. COLLON,AND J. WEINSTEIN
Fig. 23. Beakedjug KW725. 1:3
alternating rectangles and circles (KW 801: fig. 21;
diam. 0.023).
A meter to the south, pithos KW 253 (fig. 2) was
chiseled out of the crevicein which it was concreted.
Preliminary examination of its sediment revealedno
II. CYLINDER SEALS FROM ULU BURUN
Dominique Collon
Two cylinder seals58 were found in grid square
M-1 1, which yieldedthe four gold pendantsdescribed
in Part I and the gold Nefertiti scarab discussed in
Part III. Seal KW 714 (figs. 24-25; h. 2.8 cm; diam.
1.06-1.10 cm), of quartz var. crystal (rock-crystal),is
slightly chipped around the edges. Its perforation
(diam. 0.3 cm) is off center. The seal was perforated
from each end, but the point where the two perfora-
55Lucas(supran. 45) 253.
56J. Rutter(lettersto the authorson 12 December1986
and29 September1987).
57Bass,AJA90 (1986) 285, 288 ill. 23; Bass, VII.KST
(supran. 1) 624, 633 fig.3.
[AJA 93
artifactsor seeds. In the crevicewere four Canaanite
amphoras, terra-cotta pilgrim flask KW 1084, and
metal pilgrim flask KW 1085 (fig. 22; h. ca. 0.18),
visually identifiedas tin, which remindsus of the tin
pilgrim flask from 18th-Dynasty Egypt.55Large rim
fragmentsfound here and elsewheremay be from the
brokenpithos spottedfar below the site, at a depth of
approximately58 m, a discoverythat bringsthe num-
ber of pithoi on the wreck to seven.
In cleaning for mapping the rows of copper ingots
north of the rock outcrop, coarse-ware stirrup jar
KW 790, several tin ingot fragments, two pilgrim
flasks, and a dozen copper bun ingots were chiseled
free. The ingotsof the shallowerof these rows, stacked
11 deep in places, rest directlyon large, unidentified
ship timbers.Two stone anchorslying deeperthan the
lowest coherentrows of ingots, but not as deep as the
pair found during the exploratory dives mentioned
above,bring the total numberof anchorson the wreck
to 12.
An isolated find, beaked jug KW 725 (fig. 23;
h. 0.26) was chiseled out of a pocket on the eastern
side of the large rock outcrop.Jeremy Rutter, who is
studying the Mycenaean pottery from the wreck for
our final publication, but has seen only preliminary
drawingsof the jug, finds its shape closerto FS 144 of
LH IIIA:1 date than to FS 145 of LH IIIA:2,but sees
the decorationas LH IIIA:2 and concludesthat the
jug dates to the LH IIIA:2 early period,56contempo-
rary with kylix KW 57 foundon the wreckin 1984.57
INSTITUTE OF NAUTICAL ARCHAEOLOGY
AT TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY
COLLEGE STATION, TEXAS 77843
tions meet is extremely narrow. Strips of gold were
wrapped around and flattenedover each end to form
gold caps.A pink powderresiduewithin the caps, now
being analyzed, may indicate that an adhesive was
used. When in position the caps, which are 0.7 cm
high, overlapthe design and add 0.2 cm to the height
of the seal and increasethe diameterup to 1.4 cm.
The designof KW 714 was executedwith a cutting
58 I havenotbeenableto examinetheseseals
myself,but
haveworkedfromnumerousphotographs, a detaileddraw-
ing of KW881 (fig.27) by AnikaLiversage,andtheexcel-
lent notes and sketchessuppliedby RobertPaytonfor
figs.24 and26.
1989] THE BRONZEAGESHIPWRECKAT ULU BURUN:1986CAMPAIGN 13

shorter in front than at the back. The hemlines are

I indicatedby doublediagonallines. The first figureon
{70Xi
h4Ws
(^L-4
Fig. 24. CylindersealKW714. 1:1
wheel and drill. It consistsof a processionof three fig-
ures approachinga fourthfromthe left, as depictedon
the impression.They standwith one foot forwardand
a drill hole at the ankle;the other foot is indicatedby a
short horizontal line just below the angle formed by
the back of the skirt. The left arm is bent and held
level with the waist, and the right arm hangs down
behind. The hands are indicatedby drill holes. The
figures wear globular headdresses.A drill hole at the
nape of the neck indicates the hair which is either
worn in a bun or, more probably, is worn shoulder
length. All are bearded.Two parallel diagonal lines
indicate the upper edge of each of their garments.
These garmentsare drapedfromtheir right shoulders
and pass under their left arms, and are considerably
the left has two vertical lines on the skirt of his gar-
ment, the secondhas a single line and two shorttassels
hanging from the hem, while the third has only a
single line down his skirt. The last holds a short bow
behind him, but the others are empty-handed.
The fourthfigurewears a flatterheaddress,or pos-
sibly a hair band, but his hair style and beard resem-
ble those of the otherfigures.His right arm is bent and
held horizontallyat waist level;there are two horizon-
tal lines acrossthe garmentbelow it. He raises his left
hand in greeting. He wears a long garmentwith one
verticalline down the skirt,two horizontallines across
the bottom, and a heavy, slightly angled line indicat-
ing the hem. Two short horizontal lines below this
representthe feet. Whereas the first three figures are
well spaced,the fourth is smaller and looks cramped,
althoughthere are no indicationsthat he was inserted
later or that any recuttingwas involved.
Betweenthe figurestherearevarioussymbols.From
left to rightthese are an eye-shapeset vertically;a cross
abovea fishor bird;a crescent;a V-shape, set on its side
and pointingright, abovea diamond-shape.There are
line bordersroundthe top and bottomof the seal.
The closest parallel, as regardsboth subjectmatter
and execution, is a seal in the Chicago Field Muse-
um.59 This seal is Kassite, but its inscription is a
prayerand cannotbe dated.In attemptingto establish
a more precise date for the Ulu Burun seal we shall
have to rely on style of dress and posture as depicted
on the few Kassite seals which can be assigned to a
specificreign.

Fig.25. Impression
of cylindersealKW714. 3:2

59W.H. Ward, The Seal Cylindersof WesternAsia (Washington 1910) 188 no. 531.
14 G.F. BASS, C. PULAK, D. COLLON, AND J. WEINSTEIN
I 0
Figs. 26, 27. Cylinder seal KW 881. 1:1. IEnlargeddrawing of impression.3:1
The posture adopted by the first three figures is that
of the "king with a mace" on Old Babylonian seals.
This is often, and almost certainly erroneously,
thought to be a god, but is probably the king in war-
rior dress.60 The posture of the fourth figure goes back
to the third millennium B.C. In Old Babylonian times
it is that adopted by the king in ceremonial dress.61
Normally deities face left, but in view of the more im-
posing size, headdress and stance of the three advanc-
ing figures and the attitude of worship of the fourth, it
seems probable that the first three figures are gods and
the fourth is a worshipper, perhaps the king.62
The various symbols in the field may perhaps iden-
tify the gods, but this is by no means certain. The cross
may be an abbreviated star indicating an astral deity,
60 D.
Collon, Catalogue of the Western Asiatic Seals in the
British Museum, Cylinder Seals III: Isin/Larsa and Old
BabylonianPeriods (London 1986) 35, 100-104.
61 Collon
(supra n. 60) 36-38.
62 In a
recent, computer-basedstudy of Kassite seals of the
First Group, Donald Matthews of Cambridge University
has reached exactly the opposite conclusions and has pro-
vided compelling arguments in support of his views. The
three advancing figures would therefore be kings and the
single figure facing left would be a god. His study further
[AJA93
4.
Ani- 86
but crosses at this period may well have been used to
depict the sun. The fish, however, would signify the
water god. The crescent moon may indicate that the
moon god is depicted.The V-shape is probablya fly,
used to symbolizecourage and victory,63and its posi-
tion next to the god with a bow would support an
identificationof this figure as a warriorgod. The dia-
mondand eye-shapeare probablythe same symbolfor
which variousinterpretationshave been proposed(ear
of wheat, vulva), generallywith fertility connotations.
These may be placed on either side of the worshipper
as good-lucksymbols.
On the earliest datable Kassite seal, that of the son
of King Karaindash, ca. 1420 B.C., single figures
stand in the same posture as the gods on the Ulu Bu-
indicatesthat the Ulu Burun seal is of provincialmanufac-
ture and is exceptional in not having an inscription (a fea-
ture of virtuallyeveryother seal in the First KassiteGroup).
I am most grateful to him for allowing me to see the draftof
his results and for his commentson the Ulu Burun seal.
63 E. Porada, "Problems of Iranian Iconography,"The
Memorial Volume of the Vth International Congress of
Iranian Art and Archaeology, 1 lth-18th April 1986 I
(Teheran 1972) 173ff.
1989] THE BRONZEAGESHIPWRECKAT ULU BURUN:1986CAMPAIGN
Fig. 28. CylindersealKW881 andimpression.
run seal, but their garmentsare drapedover their left
shoulders and hang open over kilts.64A similar gar-
ment is worn by a figure on an undated seal in the
British Museum, but here the garment, although
draped diagonally as on our seal, covers both shoul-
ders.65On both of these seals the figurefaces a goddess
and is not necessarilydivine,but he also appearshold-
ing weaponswhich are divine attributeswhile facinga
robed worshipper on another related, and probably
early, Kassite seal.66
There are marchingfigures on an undated Kassite
cylinder seal impression from Nippur, and on three
glass beakers from Hasanlu found in a much later
context.67The upper part of the garmenton the Nip-
pur impression is draped as on the Ulu Burun seal,
while the Hasanlu figures wear garmentswith hori-
zontal yokes. Their skirts are no longer worn over
kilts, but are shorter in front, as on our seal, which
presumablydenotes a change in fashion at some time
during the Kassite period.
Parallels for both types of figures (gods and wor-
shipper) are found in the wall paintings which deco-
rate the doorwaysof Palace H at Dur Kurigalzu,the
Kassite capital. The paintings were found in a level
64 L. Legrain, The Cultureof the Babyloniansfrom Their
Sealsin the Collectionof the Museum(Publications of the
Section14, Philadelphia1925)no. 530.
Babylonian
65 E.D. van Buren,"TheEsotericSignificance of Kassite
GlypticArt,"Orientalia 23 (1954)1-39, pl. 2.14.
66 E. Porada, Corpus of Ancient Near Eastern Seals in
NorthAmericanCollectionsI: The PierpontMorganLi-
braryCollection(The BollingenSeries 14, Washington
1948)pl. 79, no. 574.
15
5:3
contemporarywith Level I1C elsewhere on the site
and date to the reign of the last Kurigalzu. They are
generally thought to representdignitaries.68The fig-
ures wear either fezzes or hair bands and their short-
sleeved garments seem to consist of a knee-length
overskirt and a long underskirt,but details are not
clear.
Edith Poradahas suggestedthat the hems of robed
figures were curvedon the earliest seals, but were cut
back at an angle during the reign of Kurigalzu I. By
the reign of BurnaburiashII (1359-1333 B.C.) they
were straight.The cursorystyle of the Ulu Burunseal
does not allow us to differentiateclearly between a
curvedor angledhemline,but the latteris morelikely;
it is definitelynot a straightline. The seal may there-
fore tentativelybe dated to the second quarter of the
14th centuryB.C.
Hematite cylinderseal KW 881 (figs. 26-28; h. 2.8
cm, diam. 1.15-1.20 cm) has been abradedon one side
and, as a result, the perforation(0.4 cm) is off center.
There is a "collar"halfway down the perforation,as
describedby Gorelickand Gwinnett.69
The seal was originally cut in the Old Babylonian
period with a scene consisting of the king with a
67 Porada(supran. 63) figs. 7-8; Legrain(supran. 64)
no. 561.
68 T.
Baqir, "Iraq GovernmentExcavationsat 'Aqar
Qiif- Third InterimReport,1944-5,"Iraq8 (1946) 80-
82, figs.5-7.
69 L. GorelickandA.J. Gwinnett,"Further Investigations
of the Methodof Manufacture of an AncientNearEastern
CastGlassVessel,"Iraq48 (1986)15-18.
16 G.F. BASS,C. PULAK,D. COLLON,AND J. WEINSTEIN
mace,70 facing the suppliant goddess, and a three-line
cuneiform inscription. The king is bearded and kilted,
wears a turban headdress, holds a mace at his waist,
and represents the concept of active, warrior kingship.
The goddess wears a horned headdressbelow which
her hair is looped in the nape of her neck, numerous
necklaces (now barely visible), a necklace counter-
weight down her back, and a flounced robe. She raises
both hands in intercession for the owner of the seal
whose name, together with that of his father and a
third line describing him as servant of a deity or ruler,
appeared in the inscription. This type of design is too
well known to require a more detailed description.
Between the figures are a star-disc and crescent and
the small figure of a kilted priest holding a cup and,
originally, a situla.
The seal must have been extremely worn when, at
some later date, it was partially and somewhat crudely
recut along the lines of the earlier design. This recut-
ting affected all the figures. The king's beard, splayed
across his chest, was misunderstood in the recutting.
The priest, whose head had probably been shaved
originally, was given a cap or headband and his kilt
was altered. His cup was recut, but no trace of his
situla remained.71 Possibly, but not necessarily, at this
time a thin, kilted figure was added behind the sup-
pliant goddess. He faces left, raising his right hand,
and in his left hand, which hangs by his side, he holds
a sickle sword of a type known throughout the second
millennium B.C . He wears a round cap or hair band
and a kilt marked by two lines at the waist, three lines
at the hem, and two lines down the front. This figure
is shorter and slimmer than the others, and the carving
is relatively flat and uninspired. Although kilted fig-
ures are occasionally added to scenes consisting of the
king and suppliant goddess,72 in this case the differ-
ence in style is too great for the figures to have been
contemporary.
It is not clear when the inscription was erased. The
fact that the figure we have just discussed does not over-
lap it may well indicate that it had not yet been abraded
at that stage. Traces of the verticals dividing the lines of
cuneiform and many of the more deeply cut wedges can
still be seen. The lower part of the right arm of the king
with a mace may have been partly erased at this time. In
the place of the inscription we have a four-winged
70 Collon
(supra n. 60).
71 Collon (supra n. 60) 33-35.
72 Collon (supra n. 60) nos. 543-45.
73 Collon (supra n. 60) 2, 199, nos. 161ff., esp. 185, 246
and 252ff.
74T. Beran, "AssyrischeGlyptik des 14. Jahrhunderts,"
ZAssyr 18 (1957) 141-215, figs. 2, 3, 11, 12, 18, 19; E. Po-
rada, "Remarkson Mitannian (Hurrian) and Middle Assy-
[AJA93
griffin-demonwhich has been cut with considerable
expertise.Two starsand two rosettesmasksomeof the
cuneiform signs, and it is possible that the circular
drillings between the original figures were cut with a
worn tubulardrill also at this time.
The griffin-demonstands upright. Its arms, ending
in talons, are held out horizontallytoward the shoul-
ders of the kilted figure and the king. Its torso is de-
picted frontally, with nipples and navel indicatedby
small drill-holes. Its legs, ending in talons, are twisted
towardthe right, but its head is turnedtowardthe left.
Its long, beak-likejaws are open wide to reveal fangs
and a pointed tongue, its staring eye is set below a
sharply angled brow, and it has the pricked ear of a
horse. Its two-tiered upper wings rise from its shoul-
ders. Two longer, three-tiered wings hang down on
either side of its body.
The initial design of this seal probablydates to the
secondhalf of the 18th centuryB.C., when the cutting
wheel was used to cut the deep grooveswhich formthe
basis of the figures, especially the goddess.73It is not
clear when the kilted figurewas added,but this is like-
ly to have been considerablylater, at a time when the
design was already worn. The griffin-demoncan be
securely dated, thanks to its presenceon seal impres-
sions on tablets from the reigns of the Middle Assyr-
ian kings Eriba-AdadI (1390-1364 B.C.) and Assur-
uballit I (1363-1328 B.C.).74
Hematite seal KW 881, in its latest form, and rock-
crystalseal KW 714 are thereforeprobablycontempo-
rary, the one fromAssyriaand the other from Babylo-
nia. We know that cylinder seals were being sent as
gifts in the Amarna period, and Assur-uballit writes
to the pharaohto informhim that he is sendingto him
a "genuine lapis lazuli seal."75 Indeed, lapis lazuli was
one of the principal requirements of the Egyptian
court at all periods.Old lapis lazuli cylinderseals and
scrap lapis were collectedand sent off as gifts to Egypt
and Greece.76The Ulu Burun cylinders are not of
lapis, but the fact that they were found with items of
goldjewelry, some of it scrap, is surely significant.
DEPARTMENT OF WESTERN ASIATIC ANTIQUITIES
THE BRITISH MUSEUM
LONDON WCIB 3DG
ENGLAND
rian Glyptic Art,"Akkadica13 (1979) fig. 11.
75Amarna Letter EA 16, 1.12.
76 SeeE. Porada,"Remarkson the T6d Treasurein
Egypt,"in M.A.Dandamayev
et al. eds.,SocietiesandLan-
guages of the Ancient Near East, Studiesin Honour of IM.
Diakonoff(Warminster1982) 285-303, and E. Porada,
"TheCylinderSealsFoundat Thebesin Boeotia,"
AfO28
(1981)1-70.
19891] THE BRONZE AGE SHIPWRECK AT ULU BURUN: 1986 CAMPAIGN
III. THE GOLD SCARAB OF NEFERTITI FROM ULU BURUN:
ITS IMPLICATIONSFOR EGYPTIAN HISTORY AND
EGYPTIAN-AEGEAN RELATIONS
James Weinstein
A major discovery of the 1986 season at Ulu Burun
was a splendid little gold scarab.77 This object is in-
scribed with the name of Nefertiti, wife of the Egyp-
tian pharaoh Akhenaten. It is one of the few late 18th-
Dynasty Egyptian objects excavated in the region of
western Asia Minor and the Aegean. Moreover, it is
the first object naming either Akhenaten or Nefertiti
to be found in this area of the ancient world; as such, it
is one of the most important Egyptian finds ever made
in the eastern Mediterranean.
THE SCARAB
The Nefertiti scarab (KW 772) is very small: 1.4
77 The author wishes to thank
George F. Bass and Cemal
Pulak for granting him permissionto publish the gold scar-
ab and the other Egyptian small finds and for providing
much of the descriptiveand contextual data on these arti-
facts. Cemal Pulak has providedmost of the informationon
the dimensions and condition of the objects. He and Prof.
Bass also supplied the authorwith photographs,casts, slides
and field drawings of the Egyptian finds, on the basis of
which their typological features and inscriptions could be
described.
The author also expresses his gratitude to Profs. John
Coleman and Albert Leonard, Jr., for reading this manu-
script and offering their insightful commentson Egyptian-
Aegean relations in the Late Bronze Age.
Abbreviationsused in this article are the following:
Davies (1908) N. de G. Davies, The Rock Tombsof El
Amarna VI. Tombs of Parennefer,
Tutu, and Ay (ASE 18th Memoir,
London 1908).
Harris (1973) J.R. Harris, "Nefernefruaten,"Gottin-
ger Miszellen 4 (1973) 15-17.
Harris (1974) J.R. Harris, "Nefernefruaten Reg-
nans,"Acta Orientalia36 (1974) 11-
21.
James (1974) T.G.H. James, Corpus of Hieroglyphic
Inscriptionsin the BrooklynMuseum
I: From Dynasty I to the End of Dy-
nasty XVIII (Brooklyn 1974).
Samson (1977) J. Samson, "Nefertiti's Regality,"JEA
63 (1977) 88-97.
Samson (1978) J. Samson, Amarna. City of Akhenaten
and Nefertiti, Nefertiti as Pharaoh
(Warminster 1978).
Samson (1982) J. Samson, "Nefernefruaten-Nefertiti
'Beloved of Akhenaten,' Ankhkhe-
prure Nefernefruaten'Belovedof Ak-
henaten,' Ankhkheprure Smenkh-
17
cm long, 1.00 cm wide and 0.5 cm high (figs. 29-30).78
The back has an open head and plain clypeus. A wide,
deep line divides the pronotum and elytra. A similar
line separates the elytra. The humeral callosities are
not marked on the elytra, which instead are incised
with thin parallel ribbing.79 The elytra, attachment
hole, and front edge of the clypeus exhibit consider-
able wear. The wear on the elytra is particularly no-
ticeable, with the left wing-case having lost most of its
ribbing. The fore, mid and hind legs meet where the
pronotum and elytra join. Three short diagonal lines
are incised near the top of the left rear leg.
The hieroglyphic signs on the base of the scarab are
kare 'Belovedof the Aten,'"Gottinger
Miszellen 57 (1982) 61-67.
Samson (1985) J. Samson, Nefertiti and Cleopatra:
Queen-Monarchs of Ancient Egypt
(London 1985).
Tawfik (1973) S. Tawfik, "AtonStudies I. Aton before
the Reign of Akhenaton,"MDIK 29
(1973) 77-86.
Tawfik (1975) S. Tawfik, "AtonStudies 3. Back again
to Nefer-nefru-Aton," MDIK 31
(1975) 159-68.
Tawfik (1981) S. Tawfik, "AtonStudies 6. Was Nefer-
nefruatenthe ImmediateSuccessorof
Akhenaten?,"MDIK 37 (1981) 469-
73.
Tufnell (1958) O. Tufnell, Lachish IV: The Bronze
Age (London 1958).
Tufnell (1984) 0. Tufnell, Studies on Scarab Seals 2:
Scarab Seals and Their Contribution
to History in the Early Second Mil-
lennium B.C., 2 vols. (Warminster
1984).
78
Preliminarycommentson the discoveryand significance
of the scarab as well as a color photographof this item ap-
pear in Bass, National Geographic(supra n. 1) 731-32.
79 Such lines are commonon the elytra of scarabs used in
pectorals and other pieces of jewelry in the tomb of Tut-
ankhamun:K. El Mallakh and A.C. Brackman,The Gold
of Tutankhamen(Montreal 1978) pls. 90, 92, 94-95, 104-
105, 106 (third bracelet from top); H. Carter and A.C.
Mace, The Tomb of Tut.ankh.AmenI (New York 1923)
pl. 65C-D. They also appear on the gold scarabof Akhen-
aten in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (see below), as
well as on the gold scarabof Queen Mutnodjmet,wife of the
last king of the 18th Dynasty, Horemheb: C.R. Williams,
Gold and Silver Jewelry and Related Objects (New York
1924) 71-72, pl. 6.15a-e.
18 G.F. BASS,C. PULAK,D. COLLON,AND J. WEINSTEIN [AJA93

Nefertiti's daughters.He believesthat the orientation

can be explained by the queen's "extraordinaryreli-
gious prestige"and by her desire to be close to the
Aten even in the writing of her name.80Fischeroffers
the additional suggestion that since the queen's car-
touche often follows the cartouches of Akhenaten,
which in turn face the cartouchesof the Aten, "there-
versal in her cartouchemay indicatethat her husband
is the sourceof her contactwith the god."'8
Every hieroglyph on line 1 of the Nefertiti scarab
inscriptionis set in the appropriatepositionfor a com-
plete reversalof the god'sname. However, one sign-
the reed-leafi-instead of facingleft, towardthe seat-
Fig. 29. NefertitigoldscarabKW772,back.3:1 ed-queen determinativeon line 3, faces right, toward
the t, n and solar-diskdeterminative.This means that
there is only a partial reversalof the god's name: the
small, closelypacked,and a bit clumsy.The nfr-signat name as a whole is reversed,but one element in the
the beginningof line 3 is missing the cross-barjust be- name is in retrogradeorder.This resultsin the i in itn
low the top of the windpipe. The two shortstrokesbe- and the seated-queendeterminativefacingin the same
neaththe lettert on the sameline arewrittenin charac- direction.
teristicAmarna style, i.e., verticallyratherthan diag- The compositionof this scarabis of some importfor
onally. The seated-queendeterminativeat the end of the history of New Kingdomjewelry. Gold and silver
line 3 is wearing a diademand holdinga flower.
The inscription has the long form of Nefertiti's royal-namescarabsare not numerousat any time dur-
ing the New Kingdom, but they are particularly
name, i.e., nfr-nfrw-itn nfrt-iiti, "Nefernefruaten scarce in the Amarna Age. This phenomenonis re-
Nefertiti."The long form is more commonon scarabs lated to the close mythologicalassociationof the scar-
and rings than the shortform, fromwhich it differsby ab beetle (4prr) with the theriomorphicsolar deity
the addition of the epithet or title, "Nefernefruaten."
Khepri (hpri), which resultedin a significantdecline
The long form normally occupies four lines of text- in the outputof scarabsin all materialsduringAkhen-
two for "Nefernefruaten,"two for "Nefertiti"-but on aten's reign.82Gold and silver rings largely replaced
this small object the entire text has been compressed their scarab counterparts as finger ornaments for
onto three lines. To accomplishthis, the artisan re-
movedthe walking reed-leaf sign from its normal po-
sition in the name nfrt-iitiand transferredit to the end
of line 2 (after nfr-nfrw-);this allowed him to squeeze
the remaininghieroglyphicsigns in the queen's birth
name onto line 3.
A distinctivefeature of Nefertiti's long name is the
reversal of the word itn at the beginning of the car-
touche.This orientationresults in the name of the god
facingthe seated-queendeterminativeat the end of the
cartouche.When the cartoucheenclosing the queen's
long name is written vertically, as it is most of the
time, the deity's name occupiesthe top line of the car-
touche, while the seated-queendeterminativeis at the
end of the bottomline. Tawfik points out that this re-
versal is not attested in the Nefernefruatenname of
Smenkhkareor in the names of any of Akhenatenand Fig. 30. NefertitigoldscarabKW772,base.3:1

80Tawfik (1973) 82-86; Tawfik (1975) 162; Tawfik
(1981)470.
81 H.G. Fischer, The Orientationof HieroglyphsI. Rever-
sals (Egyptian Studies2, New York 1977) 92-93.
82 W.C.
Hayes, The Scepter of Egypt 2 (Cambridge,
Mass. 1959) 292; E. Hornung and E. Staehelineds., Skara-
biien und andere Siegelamuletteaus Basler Sammlungen
Denkmnaler
(Agyptische in derSchweiz1, Mainz1976)67.
The connectionbetweenthe hprr-beetleand Khepriin
Egyptianmythologyis describedin W.A.Ward,Studieson
Scarab Seals 1: Pre-12th Dynasty Scarab Amulets (War-
minster1978)44-45.
 1989] THE BRONZE AGE SHIPWRECK AT ULU BURUN: 1986 CAMPAIGN
Amarna Period royalty and officials. The heavy signet
ring, not the smaller ring with movable scarab bezel,
was generally used for official purposes during this
period. Gold signet rings were employed as official
seals and symbols of authority in the Amarna royal
court, and they were handed out as gifts to the king's
loyal followers.83 The popularity of these heavy gold
rings is reflected in the occurrence of at least eight ex-
amples in the tomb of Tutankhamun.84 Even Nefertiti
is represented by no less than four gold rings, all of
which are inscribed with the long form of her name;
there is one each in Paris,85 Cairo,86 Edinburgh87 and
Birmingham.88
Gold scarabs dating to the Amarna Period, on the
other hand, are rarities. Only one gold scarab is at-
tested for Akhenaten (fig. 31).89 This tiny object (1. 1.0
cm, w. 0.7 cm, h. 0.3 cm) is of unknown provenience.
Originally in the Timmins collection in Cairo, it was
subsequently acquired by the Earl of Carnarvon and
then, in 1926, by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in
New York.
The back of this scarab shows a lunate head with a
depressed base line. The eyes are indicated by single
lines radiating outward from the back of the head to
the edge of the scarab. A single line divides the prono-
tum and elytra. The humeral callosities are not
marked. As on the back of the Nefertiti scarab, the
elytra are incised with thin parallel ribbing. The fore,
mid and hind legs of the beetle are naturalistically
83 For
example, a relief in the tomb of Ay at Amarna de-
picts Akhenaten, Nefertiti and three of their daughtersbe-
stowing valuable gifts on the owner of the tomb: Davies
(1908) 22, pls. 29, 42. Amongthese presentsare severalsig-
net rings-but no scarabs.A succeedingscene shows Ay re-
turning with the royal gifts to his friends: Dayies (1908)
pl. 30. Again, signet rings ratherthan scarabsare depicted.
At his investitureas Viceroy of Kush in the reign of Tut-
ankhamun, Huy received a gold signet ring as his seal of
office: N. de G. Davies and A.H. Gardiner, The Tomb of
Huy (The Theban TombSeries4th Memoir, London 1926)
11, pls. 5-6.
84 A group of seven gold
rings and the ornamentalbezel of
an eighth were discoveredtied in a scarf in the antechamber
of Tutankhamun's tomb: Carter and Mace (supra n. 79)
114, 138, pls. 30, 67A; C. Aldred,Jewels of the Pharaohs
(New York 1971) pl. 91, cf. p. 217. A ninth gold ring, said to
be from a tomb "somewhere... in Upper Egypt,"is now in
the MetropolitanMuseum of Art: H.E. Winlock, "AGift of
Egyptian Antiquities,"BMMA 17 (1922) 171-72, fig. 2;
Hayes (supra n. 82) 300-301. T. Hoving, Tutankhamun:
The Untold Story (New York 1978) 351, is undoubtedly
correctin attributingthis ring to Tutankhamun'stomb.
85 Paris, Musee du Louvre E 7688: W.M.F.
Petrie, His-
toricalScarabs(London 1889) 43, no. 1332;P.E. Newberry,
Scarabs(London 1908) 168, pl. 31.30.
86Cairo,
Egyptian Museum Journal d'Entree 36804:
19
rendered, with the fore and mid legs meeting where
the pronotum and elytra join. The hind legs project
backward from near the rear corner of the wing-cases.
Altogether, the legs give the impression that the beetle
is walking on the base-plate. There are tubular pro-
jections at both openings of the longitudinal hole
through the scarab; these aided in threading the scar-
ab on a wire or piece of string.
The bottom of the scarab has a relatively large
base-plate. It is inscribed with the king's nomen, hi-
n-itn, "Akhenaten." The signs are much cruder than
those on the Nefertiti scarab. The bird is especially ill-
formed and inappropriate; it is not the crested ibis
Fig. 31. Gold scarab of Akhenaten.New York, Metropol-
itan Museum of Art 26.7.201. 3:1(CourtesyMuseum. Pur-
chase, EdwardS. Harkness, 1926)
E. Vernier, Bijoux et orfevreries(Cataloguegeneral des an-
tiquitesegyptiennesdu Musee du Caire,nos. 52001-53855,
Cairo 1927) no. 52191. The source of this ring is the Kar-
nak Cachette: G. Legrain, "Sur quelques monuments
d'Amenothes IV provenant de la cachette de Karnak,"
ASAE 7 (1906) 229.
87Edinburgh, Royal Scottish Museum 1883.49.1: G.T.
Martin, The Royal Tomb at El-'Amarna I: The Objects
(ASE 35th Memoir, London 1974) 77, 105, pl. 50.274; Al-
dred(supran. 84) pl. 69 (thirdfromleft). This ring is one of
a group of objectsreportedlyfound by peasants in or near
the Royal Tomb at Amarnain the early 1880s.
88
Birmingham,City Museum and Art Gallery 547'35-39.
This ring was kindly broughtto my attentionby Dr. Ber-
trandJaeger (letterof 2 February1987).
89New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art 26.7.201:
P.E. Newberry, The Timins (sic) Collection of Ancient
Egyptian Scarabsand CylinderSeals (London1907) 28 and
pl. 9.14; Hayes (supra n. 82) 293. I wish to thank Dr.
ChristineLilyquist,Curatorin the Departmentof Egyptian
Art, the MetropolitanMuseum of Art, for grantingme per-
mission to publish this scarab,and Dr. Peter Dorman, for-
merly Assistant Curator in that departmentand now Di-
rectorof ChicagoHouse in Luxor, Egypt, for facilitatingmy
studyof the scaraband arrangingfor photographsof it to be
taken.
20 G.F. BASS,C. PULAK,D. COLLON,AND J. WEINSTEIN
Fig. 32. ScarabKW904. 3:1
bird (;6), but rather the pintail duck (s') or white-
frontedgoose (gb).
Two scarabsof Akhenatenwith base-platesof pre-
cious metals have also been reported.The first, which
has a silver base-plate, is probablya fake,90while the
second, which has a gold base-plate, is lost.91Two
gold decorativeelements in the form of scarabswere
found in Tutankhamun's extraordinarilyrich tomb.
These tiny specimens, surmountedby sun disks and
flanking an equally small scarabof lapis lazuli, sit on
the bezel of a gold ring, and thereforecannot be con-
sideredtrue scarabs.92No gold or silver scarabshave
been identified for Smenkhkare or Ankhesenamun,
while the Ulu Burun example is the first scarabfabri-
cated in a preciousmetal that is known for Nefertiti.
THE SCARAB S CONTEXT AND OTHER EGYPTIAN
OBJECTS IN THE WRECK
The Nefertiti scarabcomesfromgrid square M-1 1,
where it was found in a cluster of small metal, stone,
and faience objects. The items in this heterogeneous
assemblage can be divided into two categories:tools
and weapons, and jewelry. The first group is repre-
sented by small bronze tools and arrowheads, lead
fishing-net weights, a whetstone and stone balance-
pan weights. The second group includes quartz and
faience beads, four gold pendants of Levantine types
(KW 703, 756, 757 and 892), two Near Easterncylin-
90London,
UniversityCollege 12458: Martin (supra
n. 87) 80 andn. 4, pl. 51.294.
91 Martin
(supran. 87) 80, no. 293. A blue-glassscarab
with a goldbase-platewas foundin the tombof Tutankh-
amun:CarterandMace(supran. 79) pl. 65A-B.
92 Aldred
(supran. 84) pl. 91 (topcenter),cf. p. 217;Car-
ter andMace(supran. 79) pl. 67A (topcenter).
93This scarab
appearsin a colorphotograph in Bass,Na-
tionalGeographic(supran. 1) 732. Initialcommentson
[AJA 93
der seals (KW 714 and 881)-both of which show
signs of wear-and the Nefertiti scarab.
The 1985 and 1986 seasons of excavationyielded
five other small inscribed Egyptian artifacts. Three
came fromthe immediatearea of the depositdescribed
above;these includea scarab(KW 338), a rectangular
stone plaque (KW 481), and half of a gold ring (KW
603). Anotherscarab(KW 904: fig. 32) was found in
square M-14; its original relationship to the other
Egyptian objects in the wreck is unclear. Finally, a
silver ring (KW 650: fig. 33) came from L-11, the
square situated directlysouth of the area from which
the Nefertiti scarabemanates.Sincefour of the six ob-
jects camefroman area of abouta half squaremeterin
square M-11, it is likely that these four items orig-
inally were storedtogetheron the ship.
The widely varyingdatesof these items are instruc-
tive. KW 338 (max. 1. [including the tubular gold
mount] 2.5 cm, w. 1.8 cm, h. 1.9 cm) is probably a
15th-Dynasty type.93The back of this bone or ivory
scarab has a trapezoidal head and clypeus, a single
horn projectingfrom the centerof the head and small
side notches to indicatethe division between the pro-
notum and elytra.94The side type is unknown;its de-
scriptionwill haveto await removalof the gold mount.
The design on the base consists of three columns of
amuletic hieroglyphicsigns, the two outside columns
of signs flanking a central column of hieroglyphsen-
closedwithin a "shrine."Abovethe "shrine"is a scar-
ab beetle with outstretchedwings.95Scarabsin bone
Fig.33. SilverringKW650.Ca. 1:1
KW338 canbe foundin Pulak(supran. 1) 2, 19,fig.34.
94See D. O'Connor,"TheChronology of Scarabsof the
MiddleKingdomandtheSecondIntermediate Period,"The
SSEAJournal15 (1985)figs.2 and4 (backtype10) forthe
datingof thisschematic
backtypeto the 15thDynasty.
95 Tufnell
(1984)124,pl. 20, assignsthedecoration
onthe
baseto her "panels-'shrine'"group(designclass3E5). A
commonmotif at the top of many scarabdesignsis the
wingedsun disk. The flyingscarabbeetle,on the other
1989] THE BRONZE AGE SHIPWRECK AT ULU BURUN: 1986 CAMPAIGN
or ivory are rare prior to the New Kingdom,96 but
since the other features of this object are altogether
typical of the Second Intermediate Period, the scarab
is unlikely to be a New Kingdom imitation.
KW 904 (1. 1.45 cm, w. 1.0 cm, h. 0.65 cm) is an-
other Second Intermediate Period item; it too should
be assigned to the 15th Dynasty.97 This scarab, made
of a stone or frit-like material, has a trapezoidal head
and clypeus, and side notches separating the areas of
the pronotum and elytra.98 The design on the base
consists of a single hieroglyph (the sn-sign) flanked on
either side by a flower with bent stalk; the flowers are
arranged in tete-b&he fashion.99
The appearance of two Second Intermediate Period
scarabs in the Ulu Burun shipwreck is not surprising.
Scarabs and plaques were often retained as amulets
and trinkets for decades, even centuries, after they
hand, is ratherunusual;for anotherexample, see P.E. New-
berry, Scarab-shaped Seals (Catalogue general des antiqui-
tes egyptiennes du musee du Caire, nos. 36001-37521, Lon-
don 1907) no. 37358.
96
Among the few pre-18th Dynasty examples are Ward
(supra n. 82) 34, pl. 1.10; G.T. Martin, Egyptian Adminis-
trative and Private-name Seals (Oxford 1971) no. 1277.
The bone or ivory scarab from the Cape Gelidonya ship-
wreck, originally dated by A.R. Schulman ("The Scarabs,"
in Bass [supra n. 9] 144, fig. 150.Sc 4) to the Second Inter-
mediate Period, has recently been reassignedby R. Giveon
("Datingthe Cape GelidonyaShipwreck,"AnatSt35 [1985]
99) to the New Kingdom.
97This scarab
appears in a color photographin Bass, Na-
tional Geographic (supra n. 1) 732.
98 This scarabalso belongs to back type 10 in the typology
established by O'Connor (supra n. 94) fig. 2. No informa-
tion is available on the side type, except that a photograph
seems to show a groovedbase, with a single groovealso indi-
cated for the legs.
99 Tufnell
(1984) 116, pl. 2, assigns this decorationto her
"floralmotifs-two stems"category(design class 1E2).
100The
varying dates of the four scarabs and a scarab-
shaped plaque recovered from the Cape Gelidonya ship-
wreck offer a useful parallel for the Ulu Burun finds. The
objectsin the former group, originally published by Schul-
man (supra n. 96) 143-47, and discussed subsequentlyby
Giveon (supra n. 96) 99-101 and H. Catling ("The Date of
the Cape GelidonyaShip and CypriotBronzework,"RDAC
1986, 68-71), covera minimum of several hundredyears.
The latest item in the Gelidonya group is probablySc 5.
The design on the base of this scarab shows the Ram of
Amun; an Atef crown is set on the animal's head. Giveon
recently lowered the date of the Gelidonya wreck to the
reign of Ramesses III or even IV, principallyon the basis of
sphragisticparallels for this design from the multiple-burial
tombs 984 and 934 at Tell el-Far 'ah (South) in Palestine.
But Giveon failed to take into accountthree chronologically
significant points: 1) these two tombs contain materials of
13th and 12th century date, with tomb 984 even possessing
two scarabs inscribed for Ramesses VIII (E. Macdonald,
21
were manufactured, in Egypt as well as in the Levant.
As a result, such objects often turn up in deposits of
much later date.?00
The rectangular plaque (KW 481: 1. 1.6 cm, w. 1.0
cm, h. 0.6 cm) is probably made of steatite.101 It is
inscribed pth nb m) 't ("Ptah Lord of Truth") on the
obverse, pth nfr hswt ("Ptah Perfect in Favors") on the
reverse.102 Scarabs and plaques inscribed for the god
Ptah and containing various epithets occur through-
out most of the New Kingdom in Egypt, as well as the
Late Bronze Age-early Iron Age in Palestine. They
are more common in the Ramesside Period than in the
18th Dynasty; in the latter period they are substan-
tially outnumbered by specimens inscribed for the god
Amun. The neat cutting and careful arrangement of
the signs on this particular plaque are consistent with
a dating in the 15th or 14th century B.C., i.e., the mid-
to-late 18th Dynasty.103
J.L. Starkeyand L. Harding, Beth-PeletII [BSAE 52, Lon-
don 1932] 26, pl. 57.375); 2) tomb 934 was severely dis-
turbed (Beth-Pelet II, 24), and the small finds in this cham-
ber tomb cannot be related to individualburials;and 3) the
design on the Gelidonyascarabappearson a scarabfoundin
an 18th-Dynasty shaft tomb (J 39, in chamberF) at Buhen
(D. Randall-MacIverand C.L. Woolley,Buhen [University
of Pennsylvania, Egyptian Department of the University
Museum, Eckley B. Coxe Junior Expedition to Nubia 8,
Philadelphia 1911] 176, pl. 59.10187). Although this tomb
was disturbed,the survivingpotteryand small finds appear
to be of 18th-Dynasty date, and none can be considered
diagnosticof the 20th Dynasty. Hence, Sc 5 does not provide
justification for redating the Cape Gelidonya shipwreckto
the early 12th century B.C.
101Previous
publicationsof this objectare Bass, VIII. KST
2 (supra n. 1) 292, fig. 5; Pulak (supra n. 1) 2, 19, fig. 35
(reverseside).
102 On the reverse
side, the plural strokes are set between
the nfr and hs signs, rather than after the hs-sign, as would
be expected.This reorderingof the signs was probablydone
for artisticeffect.
103 A greenjasper plaque from Tomb 221 at Lachish (Tuf-
nell [1958] 126, 235, pls. 39-40.377) providesa useful par-
allel for the Ulu Burun specimen. The obverseside of this
rectangular plaque with rounded corners is inscribed
"Amun-Re,"while the reverse side is inscribed (vertically)
"Ptah Lord of Truth." The careful cutting of the signs on
this plaque is reminiscentof the engravingon the Ulu Bu-
run specimen.Tomb 221 is contemporarywith Fosse Tem-
ple II, i.e., the 14th century B.C. (Note that a scarab from
this same tomb [Tufnell (1958) 125, 235, pls. 39-40.376] is
also inscribed"Ptah Lord of Truth.") A rectangulargreen
schist plaque inscribed"PtahLord of Truth"down one long
face was found by Petrie at Amarna:W.M.F. Petrie, Tell el
Amarna(London 1894) pl. 15.138. Two other Ptah plaques
probablyof the same general periodare in Leiden and Lon-
don. The formeris a well-cut plaque, inscribed"Amenhotep
is (my) Lord"on one side, and "PtahLord of Truth"on the
other:C. Leemans,Monumens egyptiensdu Musee d'Anti-
quitesdes Pay-Bas a Leide. Objetsd'habillement.Ustensiles
22 G.F. BASS, C. PULAK, D. COLLON, AND J. WEINSTEIN
The silver ring (KW 650: 1. of bezel 1.9 cm, max. w.
of bezel 1.3 cm, internal diam. of hoop 1.8 cm) was
enclosed in a concretion when it was brought to the
surface in 1985. The object was cleaned in 1986 and
subsequently catalogued. The bezel is extremely
worn, and the reading of its vertically inscribed in-
scription must be considered tentative. A nb-sign is
visible at the bottom. Standing on the nb is a short
vertical line intersected at about the half-way point by
what seems to be a pair of crossed arrows. If indeed
these are arrows, then the sign should be understood
as the symbol of the goddess Neith. An elongated,
somewhat rounded sign which is slightly wider at the
top than at the bottom and has incised horizontal and
vertical interior lines, surmounts the putative Neith
symbol. It has been suggested to the author that this
top sign may be a counterpoise.104 The author has not
yet discovered any exact parallels for this ring, which
is certainly a New Kingdom product and may well
belong in the 15th or 14th century B.C.
The fragmentary gold ring (KW 603: 1. of remain-
ing portion of bezel 1.4 cm, max. w. of bezel 2 cm,
max. preserved h. 2.0 cm) is another worn piece.105
The wear is especially noticeable on the bezel. Chisel
marks along the break show that this object was delib-
erately cut in half; about half of the bezel and a fourth
of the hoop survive. The preserved upper half of the
bezel displays three hieroglyphs, while the missing
lower half probably contained an additional group of
signs. A mJ 't-feather is visible on the left side. The
thin bird in the center is an Egyptian vulture, while
the figure on the right is a seated woman perhaps hold-
de toilette. Bijoux et autres objets de parure (Description
raisonnee E. F. G.) (Leiden 1848-1850) pl. 44.646. The
London plaque is inscribed "Ptah Lord of Truth" on the
obverseside, while the reverse side is said to have the name
of Amun-Re: W.M.F. Petrie, Buttons and Design Scarabs
(BSAE 38, London 1925) 19, pl. 11.624. The phrase "Ptah
Lord of Truth" is especially commonon scarabs,less so on
plaques, during the Ramesside Period (e.g., Macdonald,
Starkey and Harding [supra n. 100] pls. 48.7, 53.194-98,
55.281, 303, 57.350, 352, 357, 386; cf. the clumsy writing of
the text on many of these poorly made specimenswith that
found on the Ulu Burun plaque).
104 1 am indebtedto Susan
Hollis, Harvard University, for
this suggestion,which was offeredon the basis of a replicaof
the ring that I showed to her in December 1987.
105Bass, VIII. KST2 (supra n. 1) 293, fig. 7; Bass, Nation-
al Geographic(supra n. 1) color photographon p. 732; Pu-
lak (supra n. 1) 2, 18-19, fig. 33.
106 A
plaster impressionof the ring shows the human head
much more clearly. Cemal Pulak concurs with the author
regardingthe identificationof a human head on this figure
[AJA 93
ing an 'nh-sign (the latter being extremely faint). The
m' 't-sign and seated woman face toward the left,
while the bird is facing right. Both the m 't-feather
and the vulture have carefully incised interior lines. In
addition, the vulture displays a most peculiar feature,
namely, a female human head.106 This attribute
brings to mind a Middle Kingdom limestone statue in
the Cairo Museum that also has the body of a vulture
and the head of a queen.107 The bird has a cap remi-
niscent of that on a Horus falcon, but since this cap is
out of place on a vulture, it probably represents a short
wig. A triangular indentation (a nb-sign? part of the
Red Crown?) is just above the head of the seated wom-
an, and small depressions, probably accidental, can be
seen above the vulture and the triangular indentation.
The closest well-dated parallel for the design and
general character of the bezel inscription appears on a
gold ring in Leiden.108 The center of the upper half of
the Leiden ring is dominated by a human-headed fal-
con or ba bird. Surrounding the bird on three sides are
the hieroglyphs comprising the prenomen of Ay, hpr-
hprw-r' ir m' 't. The m 't-sign behind the falcon is
oriented toward the left, just as it is on the Ulu Burun
ring. The lower half of the Leiden ring contains a mr-
sign, perhaps to be read with the falcon and sun disk
above as mr r', "beloved of Re," and the epithet ',
phty, "great of strength." The naming of Ay, Tut-
ankhamun's successor, on this ring suggests that the
Ulu Burun piece may be a product of the late 18th
Dynasty, i.e., the late 14th century B.C.
A second parallel for the Ulu Burun ring is a su-
perb silver-tin alloy ring in the Brooklyn Museum.109
(letter of 10 January 1986).
107
Cairo, Egyptian Museum Journal d'Entree 64770:
L. Keimer, "Surun fragmentde statuetteen calcaireayant
la forme d'un oiseau (vautour?)a tete de reine,"ASAE 35
(1935) 182-92; L. Troy, Patternsof Queenshipin Ancient
Egyptian Myth and History (Acta UniversitatisUpsalien-
sis. Boreas. Uppsala Studies in Ancient Mediterraneanand
Near Eastern Civilizations14, Uppsala 1986) 118. This cu-
rious figure (h. 24.5 cm) is of unknownprovenience.
108Leemans (supra n. 103) pl. 40.202; Petrie (supra n. 85)
44, no. 1355; Newberry (supra n. 85) 169, pl. 31.34. An-
other parallel can be seen in Leemans (supra n. 103)
pl. 40.142; the designon this heavy signet ring also has a hu-
man-headedfalcon on the base. There is no royal name on
this object,however,and a date for it is difficultto ascertain.
109
Brooklyn Museum 37.727E: Egypt's Golden Age: The
Art of Living in the New Kingdom, 1558-1085 B.C. Cata-
logue of the Exhibition (Boston 1982) no. 335 (entry by
M. Eaton-Krauss). This ring formerly was in the New
York Historical Society: Williams (supra n. 79) 92-93,
pls. 8.27a-c, 10.d-e.
1989] THE BRONZE AGE SHIPWRECK AT ULU BURUN: 1986 CAMPAIGN
This item, like the Leiden example and probablyalso
the Ulu Burun ring, is characterizedby two groups of
signs, one above the other. The upper half of the bezel
has a human-headedfalcon or ba bird flankedon the
left by a hk, -sign, and on the right by a seated figure
of the goddessMaat. The bottomhalf of the bezel con-
tains various amuletic hieroglyphs: two dd-pillars,
two hs-vases, and the htp and nb signs. Williams
datedthe ring to the first half of the 14th centuryB.C.,
but Eaton-Krauss reasonably proposes reading the
signs on the upper half of the bezel as hk. -ml 't-r',i.e.,
the prenomenof Ramesses IV of the 20th Dynasty. 10
In either case, the engravingon this ring is so superior
to that on the Ulu Burun ring that the subjectmatter
and layout of the design probablyhave little value for
dating the Ulu Burun piece.
The intentional destructionof the Ulu Burun gold
ring shows that this item was on the ship as scrapmetal
or bullion, not as a piece ofjewelry. Otherscrapgold-
including four halved roundels (KW 551 and 956),
part of a bar or disk (KW 928) and some bits of the
metal-was found slightly upslope and in the general
area of the gold scarab.1 Scrapsilver was also discov-
ered in the wreck.112Presumablyall of this discarded
material was being shipped to western Asia Minor
and/or the Aegeanwhere it would be sold for its metal-
lic contentand eventuallymelted down for reuse.
It may be concluded that most of the inscribed
Egyptian objects in the wreck were either heirlooms
or objectsbeing kept for their intrinsicvalue. The con-
text of the gold scarab,the wear on this item as well as
on the silver ring and the gold ring, the deliberatecut-
ting of the gold ring, and the widely varying dates of
the Egyptian small finds cumulatively indicate that
the Nefertiti scarabwas on the ship as a piece of bric-
a-brac. These objects may have belonged to a mer-
chant,jeweler or even the ship's captain, and were be-
110The viewsof WilliamsandEaton-Krauss
appearin the
publications citedin n. 109above.
11' The roundeland bits of
gold were foundduringthe
1985season:Bass,VIII.KST2 (supran. 1) 292,fig.3. The
baror diskfragmentwas recovered duringthe 1986season.
Anemptygoldscarabmount(KW479)wasdiscovered dur-
ing the 1985seasonnearscarabKW 338 andplaqueKW
481;this itemmayalsohavebeena pieceof scrapgold:Pu-
lak (supran. 1) 19.
112 Pulak
(supran. 1) 17. The silverring (KW 650) is so
badlywornthatit toois likelyto havebeena pieceof scrap.
13 Seeaboveandn. 87.
114
Brooklyn Museum 33.51: James (1974) 171, pls.
12.423,83.423;Martin(supran. 87) 72, 105,pls. 18.256,
47.256. Paris, Musee du LouvreAF 9904: C.E. Loeben,
23
ing saved for eventual sale or melting down. They
should not be viewed as royal gifts from Egypt to an
Aegean or Asiatic potentate.
THE ORIGIN OF THE SCARAB
Because gold scarabs are so uncommonduring the
Amarna Period, it is worth speculatingon the origin
of the Nefertiti scarab. The least likely origin is the
Royal Tomb at Amarna.No objectsinscribedfor Nef-
ertiti can be relatedwith certaintyto this tomb, which
probably was destroyedin the reign of Horemheb or
shortly thereafter.One possible item of Nefertiti's fu-
neraryequipmentthat may comefromthis tombis the
gold signet ring in Edinburgh which was mentioned
earlier in this article.13 There is no reason to doubt
that this objectcomes from Amarna, but its proposed
association with the Royal Tomb is problematic.A
secondobjectis a calciteshawabti,fragmentsof which
are in the Brooklyn Museum and the Musee du
Louvre.'14Two other artifactsthat have been attrib-
uted to the burial of Nefertiti are a fragmentaryfa-
ience throw-stick and some now lost gold "winding-
sheets."'15These items are not from controlledexca-
vations, however, and it seems likely that Nefertiti
was buried some place other than the Royal Tomb.
Thus there is littlejustificationfor associatingthe gold
scarabwith the Royal Tomb.
A more likely scenario is that the Nefertiti scarab
belonged to an official of the Amarna Age or his
spouse, and was exportedfrom Egypt duringthe post-
Amarna phase of the 18th Dynasty. Any item naming
a member of the despised Amarna royal family and
the Aten would have becomequite useless to its Egyp-
tian owner once the Amarnaheresywas over.A sensi-
ble Egyptian would have disposed of the scarab as
quickly as possible, either by having it melted down
for its metallic value or by selling it to someone who
"EineBestattungdergrossenkoniglichenGemahlinNofre-
tetein Amarna?Die Totenfigurder Nofretete," MDIK42
(1986) 99-107, pl. 7. No informationis availableon the
provenienceof eitherfragment,andreservations havebeen
expressedaboutthe supposedassociationof the Brooklyn
piecewith the RoyalTomb:see, e.g., James (1974) 171;
R. Krauss,Das EndederAmarnazeit (Hildesheimer Agyp-
tologischeBeitrdge7, Hildesheim1978) 97-100; Martin
(supran. 87) 38 andn. 11,72 andn. 2, butseep. 105,where
Martin says the shawabtiis "almostcertainlyfrom the
tomb."
115See Loeben(supran. 114) 107, n. 69. The "winding-
sheets"arementioned byA.H. Blackman, "TheNugentand
Haggard Collectionsof EgyptianAntiquities,"JEA 4
(1917)45;see alsoMartin(supran. 87) 80.
24 G.F. BASS, C. PULAK, D. COLLON, AND J. WEINSTEIN
had no interest in the subject of the inscription on the
base. One can easily envisage an Egyptian official sell-
ing this attractive little bauble, which could no longer
be worn in public, to a foreigner, who probably could
not read the name inscribed on the scarab-and pre-
sumably would care little about the name even if he
could understand it.
Yet a third possibility is that the scarab derives from
the tomb of an Egyptian governmental or military of-
ficer, and was sold off or stolen when the tombs of the
major functionaries of the Amarna Period were
cleaned out. It is not known for certain, however,
when the officials' tombs at Amarna were abandoned.
All were left unfinished, and many seem never to have
been used for interments. It may be supposed that any
tombs that were actually used would have been emp-
tied and their contents transferred to Memphis or
Thebes either when the royal court abandoned Amar-
na in the reign of Tutankhamun, or when the Royal
Tomb was destroyed in the reign of Horemheb or
shortly thereafter.
An interesting feature of the gold scarab, cut gold
ring and silver ring is that the inscriptions on all three
items have some sort of royal affiliation. The gold
scarab is inscribed with the name of an Egyptian
queen. The design on the bezel of the gold ring is dom-
inated by a vulture with female human head; this fig-
ure can be related to the vulture goddess as a symbol of
Egyptian queenship.1"6 The silver ring seems to have
the symbol of Neith, a patron deity of the Red Crown
and kingship, and in earlier times a goddess linked to
Egyptian queens. 17Since the first two objects are as-
sociated with female royalty, and the third may con-
ceivably be also, one is tempted to relate these three
artifacts to a single source. But such a connection may
be totally spurious, inasmuch as it cannot be demon-
strated that the three items even date to the same peri-
od. Moreover, since both the vulture goddess and
Neith would have been officially proscribed during
the Amarna Period, an active participant in the
Amarna heresy is unlikely to have worn the gold and
silver rings (at least openly). Hence this feature of
commonality may not provide evidence for the origin
of the scarab and two rings. One can only hope that
116 See
Troy (supra n. 107) 117-19. The possibility that
this bird and that represented in the Cairo statue are in-
tended to be ba birds has been consideredby the author, but
ultimatelyrejected,primarilybecausethe vulture is not used
in Egyptian art and inscriptionsto representthe ba bird.
117 Ramadan el-Sayed, La Deese Neith de Sais 1: Impor-
tance et rayonnement de son culte (Bibliothequed'Etude
86:1, Cairo 1982) 92-99.
1 8 The
Cypriot potterymay eventually proveto be of some
[AJA 93
additionalEgyptian artifactswill be discoveredin the
wreck that will shed light on this question.
EGYPTIAN-AEGEAN RELATIONS IN THE POST-
AMARNA ERA
The Nefertiti scarab and the other Egyptian finds
in the wreck are an importantnew sourceof informa-
tion for the historyof Egyptian relationswith the Ae-
gean world (assuming, of course, that this was the
ship's destination).But before we can fit these objects
into our expanding knowledge of Late Bronze Age
trade, we must first establish the date of the wreck.
For this we currentlyhave two sourcesof information:
the Egyptian artifactsand the Mycenaeanpottery. 18
The Egyptian scarabs,rings, and plaque include at
least one object (the Nefertiti scarab) dating to the
Amarna Period. A second item, the cut gold ring,
probably also belongs in the late 18th Dynasty and
may even be slightly later in date than the Nefertiti
scarab. Since both of these objects are well worn, a
certainamountof time must be allottedfor their use in
Egypt. It is thereforereasonableto supposethat one or
both pieces came aboardship in the post-Amarnaera.
Since none of the Egyptian objects in the wreck are
diagnosticof the RamessidePeriod, the Egyptian evi-
dence suggests that the wreck is contemporarywith
the late 18th Dynasty or, at the latest, the very begin-
ning of the 19th Dynasty. In absolute terms, this is
approximatelythe last quarterof the 14th centuryor
the early years of the 13th century.
The Mycenaean pottery in the Ulu Burun wreck
providesa measureof confirmationfor this date. This
material is basically LH IIIA:2, with some pieces be-
longing to types that may continue into early LH
IIIB.19 This pottery can only be of secondaryvalue
for dating the wreck, however, since there is no evi-
dence for dating the transitionfrom LH IIIA:2 to LH
IIIB any more precisely than to about the last three
quartersof the 14th centuryB.C.120Hence the Myce-
naean potteryprovidesat present no more than a ter-
minus post quem for the wreck in the secondquarter
of the 14th century B.C.
Assuming that the ship sank a generation or two
after the deathof Akhenaten,the Nefertiti scarabcan-
chronological value, but this material has not yet been
studied.
"9 This dating is based on Pulak (supra n. 1) 22-23, per-
sonal correspondencefrom Jeremy Rutter, who is studying
the Mycenaean pottery, to Cemal Pulak (29 September
1987), and a letterto the authorfrom Mrs. Vronwy Hankey
(9 April 1988).
120See below and n. 123.
1989] THE BRONZE AGE SHIPWRECK AT ULU BURUN: 1986 CAMPAIGN
not be used as evidence for Egyptian-Aegean relations
during the Amarna era. But this does not in any way
diminish the significance of this artifact or any of the
other Egyptian finds in the wreck. To the contrary,
the importance of these items is that they testify to the
nature and extent of Egyptian-Aegean relations dur-
ing the period for which we heretofore have had al-
most no indication for contacts, namely, the time be-
tween the death of Akhenaten and the early years of
the Ramesside era.
Egyptian connections with the Aegean world did
not come to a complete halt with the death of Akhen-
aten, but they did decline sharply from their peak in
the reigns of Amenhotep III and Amenhotep IV/
Akhenaten. This is apparent from the limited, rather
ambiguous archaeological data in Egypt as well as in
the Aegean world. On the Egyptian side, contact is
probably evidenced by a portion of the Mycenaean
pottery discovered by Petrie and more recent excava-
tors at Amarna.121 Unfortunately, although some of
121V. Hankey, "The Chronology of the Aegean Late
Bronze Age," in P. Xstrom ed., High, Middle or Low? Acts
of an International Colloquium on Absolute Chronology
Held at the University of Gothenburg20th-22nd August
1987 2 (Goteborg 1987) 48-50. While some of the Aegean
materialsrecentlydiscoveredon Bates's Island, Marsa Ma-
truh, may also fit into the post-Amarna era (D. White,
"1985 Excavations on Bates's Island, Marsa Matruh,"
JARCE 23 [1986] 75-84), the finds at this interesting site
cannot be dated specificallyto this short period.
122
Hankey (supra n. 121) 48-49.
123For the
problemof dating the abandonmentof Amarna,
see M. Bell, "A Hittite Pendant from Amarna," AJA 90
(1986) 150. P.P. Betancourt ("Dating the Aegean Late
BronzeAge with Radiocarbon,"Archaeometry29 [1987] 46,
table 1) has recently pushed for the second quarter of the
14th century B.C. as the beginningof LH IIIB. This dating
is based on two critical but unstated assumptions: 1) LH
IIIB ceramicsbegan arriving in Egypt already in the reign
of Akhenaten, and 2) the high chronologyfor Akhenatenis
the correctone. Neither of these suppositionsis demonstra-
ble; in fact, both may be wrong. If one acceptsHelck's ultra-
low chronologicalscheme for the 18th Dynasty (W. Helck,
"'Was kann die Agyptologiewirklich zum Problemder ab-
soluten Chronologiein der Bronzezeitbeitragen?'Chrono-
logische Annaherungswertein der 18. Dynasty,"in Xstrom
[supra n. 121, Vol. 1] 26: Akhenaten = 1340-1324 B.C.,
Horemheb = 1305-1293 B.C.) and follows Hankey's view
that the LH IIIB pottery reached Amarna in the reign of
Horemheb, it could equally well be argued that the LH
IIIA:2/IIIB transition took place ca. 1300 B.C. Thus, on
the basis of the Egyptian evidence,we can only bracketthe
transition from LH IIIA:2 to LH IIIB within a range of
approximately three-quarters of a century. While such a
conclusion effectively destroys the value of the Mycenaean
potteryat Amarna for providinganythingresemblinga pre-
cise date for the transition from LH IIIA:2 to LH IIIB:1, it
is betterto acknowledgethis situationthan to continueusing
25
the LH IIIA:2-IIIB pottery at this site surely belongs
to the period of the 18th Dynasty rulers who suc-
ceeded Akhenaten, the amounts and types that belong
in this category are uncertain. Hankey favors a date
for the small quantity of LH IIIB pottery at Amarna
in the reign of Horemheb,'22 and there is no inherent
reason for denying such a late attribution. However,
there is no published stratigraphic evidence for this
date or for dating any of the LH IIIB pottery at
Amarna more precisely than to the period from
Akhenaten to Horemheb, i.e., to the entire occupation
of Amarna during the late 18th Dynasty; hence it can-
not be determined whether the LH IIIB pottery ar-
rived at Amarna before or after its abandonment as a
royal capital in the reign of Tutankhamun.123
In the Aegean world, Egyptian imports during
post-Amarna times are limited to a few items found on
Crete.124 One artifact is inscribed with the name of a
pharaoh; this is a scarab containing an abbreviated
version of Horemheb's prenomen.125 It was a surface
a chronologicalframework for Mycenaean pottery that is
based on unprovableassumptionsregardingEgyptianchro-
nology and stratigraphy.
124 Rectangular faience plaques inscribed for Amenhotep
III occur in LH IIIB contexts at Mycenae, but there is no
reason to see these objects as post-LH IIIA imports:
E. Cline, "AmenhotepIII and the Aegean:A Reassessment
of Egypto-AegeanRelationsin the 14th CenturyB.C.,"Ori-
entalia 56 (1987) 9, 11. As for a supposedlylate 18th-Dy-
nasty scarab found at Zafer Papoura (J.D.S. Pendlebury,
Aegyptiaca:A Catalogueof Egyptian Objectsin the Aegean
Area [Cambridge1930] 27, pl. 1.47), the parallel cited by
Pendleburyfor this item from Amarna is weak. The three
signs on this scarab-the nfr, falcon, and winged uraeus-
can in fact be read as the trigram imn, "Amun."In crypto-
graphic writing, the nfr would stand for i, by acrophony
from ib, "heart";the falcon would represent m, by acro-
phony from Mntw, "Montu";and the uraeus would be read
as n, by acrophonyfrom ntrt, "goddess"(E. Drioton, "Tri-
grammesd'Amon,"WZKM 54 [1957] 13-14). Scarabsand
plaques having the falcon in the center of the design, the
uraeus (with or without outstretchedwings) to the left and
one of several possible signs to the right, are commonin the
New Kingdom,especiallyin the RamessidePeriod:see, e.g.,
Tufnell (1958) pls. 37-38.319 (obverse);Macdonald,Star-
key and Harding (supra n. 100) pls. 50.98, 55.291-92, 312;
A. Rowe, A Catalogue of Egyptian Scarabs, Scaraboids,
Seals and Amulets in the Palestine ArchaeologicalMuseum
(Cairo 1936) no. 594. Hence the design on the base of the
Zafer Papoura scarab does not allow us to date this piece
specificallyto the late 18th Dynasty.
125 H.W. Catling, "Archaeologyin Greece, 1974-75," Ar-
chaeologicalReportsfor 1974-75 (London 1975) 27, fig. 50.
The publishedphotographshows dsr-hpr-r'ratherthan the
full writing of dsr-hprw-r'.The plural strokeslikewise are
missing in severalother Horemhebcartoucheson small ob-
jects: R. Hari, Horemhebet la reine Moutnedjemetou lafin
d'une dynastie (Geneva 1965) pl. 61a.7, 14, 17 and 38. For
26 G.F. BASS, C. PULAK, D. COLLON, AND J. WEINSTEIN
find in the modern village north of the palace at Knos-
sos, so its time of arrival in Crete cannot be estab-
lished. A scarab allegedly containing the name of
Ankhesenamun, the wife of Tutankhamun, has been
reported from an LM IIIB floor in a house at Po-
ros.126 Finally, a small amount of Egyptian pottery
has come from LM IIIA:2 and IIIB contexts at Kom-
mos.127 Some of this pottery may reflect Egyptian
trade with Crete in the final decades of the 18th Dy-
nasty, but Minoan chronology is not sufficiently pre-
cise to allow us to date this material within such nar-
row limits.
The relatively small numbers of late 18th Dynasty
Egyptian finds at Aegean sites and in the Ulu Burun
wreck is striking. In contrast to the far more numerous
Egyptian imports that arrived in the Aegean world
during the reign of Amenhotep III,128 the few finds
from the post-Amarna era are little more than trinkets
and bric-a-brac; none demonstrate that Egyptian-Ae-
gean contacts were anything more than sporadic and
insignificant at this time. The paucity of the Egyptian
merchandise on the Ulu Burun vessel in comparison
to the goods aboard this ship which originated in Cy-
prus, the Levant and the Mycenaean world reinforces
this view. If the Ulu Burun ship's contents give a fair
and reliable picture of the state of maritime trade in
the eastern Mediterranean world during the post-
larger objects containing cartouches missing the plural
strokes,see H. Gauthier, Le Livre des Rois d'Egypte II: De
la XIIIe dynastiea lafin de la XVIIIe dynastie(MIFAO 18,
Cairo 1910) 385, no. 12; 389, no. 27; 390, nos. 33 and 36;
394, no. 62.
126Heraklion Museum 2474: A. Kanta, The Late Minoan
III Period in Crete: A Survey of Sites, Pottery and Their
Distribution (SIMA 58, Goteborg 1980) 4, 315; W. Heick,
Die Beziehungen Agyptens und Vorderasienszur Agiis bis
ins 7. Jahrhundert v. Chr. (Ertrige der Forschung 120,
Darmstadt 1979) 95, 284 n. 118. Accordingto V. Hankey
and P. Warren, "The Absolute Chronology of the Aegean
Late Bronze Age," BICS 21 (1974) 152 n. 3, the scarabhas
been identified by Roger Moorey. There are no published
illustrations of this object, however, and since most of the
scarabssaid to contain the name of Ankhesenamunactually
read imn 'nh.s, "Amun(is) her life,"or contain some related
statement (see, e.g., Hornung and Staehelin [supra n. 82]
237, nos. 234-35), comments regarding the chronological
and historical significanceof this object should be withheld
until this piece is properlypublished.
127 Accordingto L.V. Watrous
("ForeignTrade at the Mi-
noan Harbor Town of Kommos:The Late Bronze Age Im-
ported Pottery," paper presented at the 6th International
Symposium on Aegean Prehistory in Athens, 1987), the
Egyptian and Levantine pottery is most common at Kom-
mos in LM IIIA:1, becomesless commonin LM IIIA:2, and
practicallydisappearsin LM IIIB. A typologicaldating for
the Egyptian ceramicsis not yet available.
128
Cline (supra n. 124) 1-36.
[AJA 93
Amarna era, then it is likely that the Egyptians were
only minor participants in this activity. Foreign mer-
chants handled the Egyptian trade goods being
shipped to the Aegean and Asia Minor, and the Egyp-
tians themselves had little or no direct contact with the
ultimate recipients of this material.
Whether these items were even acquired in Egypt is
uncertain. It is conceivable that the Egyptian and
other African items were not picked up in Egypt but
on Cyprus or somewhere along the Levantine coast,
where any one of a number of major trading emporia
probably could have supplied the Egyptian and other
African objects (including the ebony and ostrich egg)
found in the Ulu Burun wreck.129 On the other hand,
a ship such as that found at Ulu Burun may have ac-
quired substantial quantities of raw materials and fin-
ished goods in Egypt and then sold off most of this
cargo in Levantine and Cypriot ports, i.e., before the
ship headed out toward the Aegean. In such a situa-
tion, the wreck's contents would reflect mostly what
the ship had picked up at its most recent port(s) of call,
and not what it had sold along the way.
THE SCARAB S SIGNIFICANCE FOR EGYPTIAN
HISTORY
The appearance of Nefertiti's long name on the
gold scarab offers only minimal assistance in delimit-
129 It may be
significant in this regard that the names of
Amenhotep IV/Akhenaten and Horemheb appear on ob-
jects excavated in Syria and Cyprus. These two kings (as
well as Nefertiti) are mentioned on calcite vase fragments
found in the palace at Ugarit: C.F.-A Schaeffer, Ugaritica
III (Mission de Ras Shamra 8, Paris 1956) 164, fig. 120;
C.F.-A. Schaeffer, "Les fouilles de Ras Shamra-Ugarit.
Quinzieme, seizieme et dix-septieme campagnes (1951,
1952 et 1953), Rapport sommaire,"Syria 31 (1954) 41.
From British Tomb 93 at Enkomi has come a silver ring
inscribedwith AmenhotepIV's name:London,British Mu-
seum 97-4-1-617; A.S. Murray, A.H. Smith and H.B. Wal-
ters, Excavations in Cyprus (London 1900) 17, 36, pl.
4.617; H.R.H. Hall, Catalogueof Egyptian Scarabs,etc. in
the British Museum I: Royal Scarabs (London 1913) no.
2678. Horemheb's name has recently been found on the
pommelof a staff or cane from Hala Sultan Tekke: G. Hult,
Hala Sultan Tekke 7 (SIMA 45:7, Goteborg 1981) 40, 43,
figs. 98-99, 101; P. Astr6m, "A Faience Sceptre with the
Cartoucheof Horemheb,"in StudiesPresentedin Memory
of Porphyrios Dikaios (Nicosia 1979) 46-48; P. Xstrom,
"Aegyptiacaat Hala Sultan Tekke," OpAth 15 (1984) 18,
fig. 15a-b; R. Hari, "Un monumentcyprioted'Horemheb,"
in Studi in onore di Edda Bresciani (Pisa 1985) 249-54.
One wonders whether the occurrenceof objectscontaining
Horemheb's name in Syria, Cyprus, and Crete (the latter
having no stratigraphiccontext)might indicatethe revivalof
Egypt's relationswith the Mediterraneanworld in the peri-
od immediatelyfollowing the AmarnaAge.
1989] THE BRONZE AGE SHIPWRECK AT ULU BURUN: 1986 CAMPAIGN
ing the date of the artifact within the lifetime of Nefer-
titi. The epithet or title nfr-nfrw-itn was incorporated
into the queen's cartouche early in Akhenaten's
reign-certainly by regnal year 5, but possibly as ear-
ly as regnal year 2 or 3-before the royal family had
left Thebes for Amarna.'30 It continued to be used on
monuments into the second decade of Akhenaten's
rule; its last-dated appearance is in the famous scene
of regnal year 12 in the tomb of Huya at Amarna,
where Akhenaten and the "Great Royal Wife" are
shown riding in a palanquin to a reception to receive
13
foreign tribute.
The latest possible date for the scarab is regnal year
3 of Tutankhamun, when the young king abandoned
the worship of the Aten and transferred his seat of
government to Memphis or Thebes.132 Although
there is no direct evidence for the date of Nefertiti's
death, it is generally assumed that the queen had died
when these events took place, which may have been
anywhere from three to seven years after Akhenaten's
death. (The precise number of years is dependent on
two factors: 1] the number of regnal years given to
Smenkhkare, and 2] whether one allows for a core-
gency between Akhenaten and Smenkhkare, and if so,
how many years one assigns to this coregency.) Scar-
abs naming Nefertiti and the Aten would not have
been produced after this time, and reissues of scarabs
inscribed for members of the Amarna royal family are
unknown; hence it is safe to assume that this scarab
was not manufactured after year 3 of Tutankhamun.
The maximum theoretical dating range for the scar-
ab is thus the period from early in Akhenaten's reign to
about regnal year 3 of Tutankhamun. Absolute dates
for this time-span vary widely because of the current
fluidity of 18th-Dynasty Egyptian chronology. Red-
ford's high chronology places the reign of Amenhotep
IV/Akhenaten at 1377-1360 B.C.'33 Hornung's
130 R.W. Smith and D.B. Redford, The AkhenatenTemple
Project 1: Initial Discoveries (Warminster 1976) 80 n. 31;
D.B. Redford, Akhenaten: The Heretic King (Princeton
1984) 188, cf. pl. 4.10.
131 N. de G. Davies, The Rock Tombs of El Amarna III.
The Tombsof Huya and Ahmes (ASE 15th Memoir, Lon-
don 1905) pl. 13.
132 The question of whether Memphis or Thebes became
the new royal residence and/or administrative capital of
Egypt continuesto be debated;for the latest evidencelinking
Tutankhamun to the Memphite area as well as earlier
views on this controversy,see J. van Dijk and M. Eaton-
Krauss, "Tutankhamun at Memphis," MDIK 42 (1986)
35-41.
133Redford (supra n. 130) 13.
134 E.Hornung, Untersuchungenzur Chronologieund Ge-
schichtedes Neuen Reiches (AgyptologischeAbhandlungen
11, Wiesbaden 1964) 108.
27
middle chronology gives a probable dating for this
king's rule at 1364-1347 B.C.'34The low chronology
favored by Krauss dates Akhenaten to 1352-1336
B.C.,135while that of Wente and Van Siclenplacesthe
king's reign at 1350-1334 B.C.136Finally, a very low
dating scheme recently espoused by Helck dates the
king to 1340-1324 B.C.137Thus, the maximum dates
for the scarab could be as high as about 1376-1358
B.C. (on Redford'schronology),or as low as approxi-
mately 1339-1317 B.C. (on Helck's chronology).
A more precise date for the scarab can perhaps be
obtainedthrougha study of the unusual writing of the
epithet or title nfr-nfrw-itn.There are no other pub-
lished examples of this partial reversal in Nefertiti's
long name, whether on the talatat from Akhenaten's
temples at Karnak, the inscriptionsemanating from
Amarna or Hermopolis or on any other objects on
which Nefertiti's name appears. It is not altogether
impossiblethat the writing is a scribalblunder or re-
flects the decision of an artisan to have the three tall
signs on the left-handside of the inscriptionface in the
same directionfor some aestheticor other idiosyncrat-
ic reason. As argued below, however, it is more likely
that the partial reversalis deliberate.
A parallel for this unusual writing of the god's
name occurson a pair of gold sequins fromthe tombof
Tutankhamun.'38 Both ornaments contain the car-
touches of a king. One cartouchereads 'nh-hprw-r'
mr-ltn, "Ankhkheperurebeloved of the Aten," while
the other has nfr-nfrw-itn hk', "Nefernefruatenthe
Ruler." In the latter cartouche,the reed-leaf i on the
top line faces left, toward the remaining signs in the
god's name as well as towardthe seated-kingdetermi-
native on the left side of the bottom line. Thus, while
most of the god's name on the Nefertiti scarab is re-
versed to face the (seated-queen) determinativeeven
while the i is oriented in the same direction as that
35Krauss (supra n. 114) 200-202.
136E.F. Wente and C.C. Van Siclen III, "A Chronologyof
the New Kingdom,"in J.H. Johnson and E.F. Wente eds.,
Studies in Honor of George R. Hughes, January 12, 1977
(SAOC39, Chicago 1976) table 1.
137Helck (supra n. 123) 26.
138J.R. Harris (1974) 16 n. 20, fig. 3; see also Harris
(1973) 15. These ornamentsare also mentionedby Samson
(1977) 94-95; Samson (1978) 108, 127, figs. 8, 15; Samson
(1982) 66; Samson (1985) 95. They are now in the Nelson-
Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, nos. 67-21/5 and
67-21/6, and will soon be published by Rolf Krauss in an
article entitled "Einige Kleinfunde mit Namen von Amar-
naherrschern."(I wish to thank Dr. Krauss for providing
me with a prepublicationcopy of this paper.) The checkered
historyof these objectsaftertheir discoveryby Howard Car-
ter is recountedby Hoving (supra n. 84) 356.
28 G.F. BASS, C. PULAK, D. COLLON, AND J. WEINSTEIN
determinative,on the sequins most of the god's name
reads in the same direction as the rest of the car-
touche-but the i is reversedto face the (seated-king)
determinative.
The critical question is whether these jewelry ele-
ments from Tutankhamun's tomb contain the car-
touches of Nefertiti or Smenkhkare. Tawfik has
pointed out that the word itn in the Nefernefruaten
name of Smenkhkareis not reversed"becausethere is
no king determinativewithin the cartouche that the
god Aton should face."139The appearance of the
seated-king determinativeon the sequins thus can be
interpretedin one of several ways: 1) the sequins be-
long to Smenkhkare, whose Nefernefruaten name
here partially imitates Nefertiti's practiceof reversing
the word Aten; 2) the partial reversal in the second
cartoucheis a miswriting and has no bearing on the
identificationof the personnamed on these sequins;or
3) the names on these ornamentsbelong to Nefertiti.
The fact that we now have a partial reversalattested
on a scarab of Nefertiti, and both the scarab and se-
quins are made of gold (not some cheap materialsuch
as steatite or faience, which not infrequently are in-
scribed with miswritings) argues for the writing on
the latter object being a legitimate variant of a pha-
raoh's Nefernefruaten name and not an error. This
variant is so unusual-other than on the scarab and
sequins, it is known only from a cartouchereading h-
n-itn, "Akhenaten,"on an alabaster plaque in Ber-
lin'40-that one can hardly be blamed for thinking
that the same person is referredto on both the scarab
139 Tawfik
(1973) 86. Tawfik was clearly botheredby the
peculiarwriting on the sequins, since on one occasionwhere
he mentions these objects, he remarks that "the word
Aten ... is not reversedas is usually (italicsthe author's)the
case in the Nfr-nfrw-itn name of Smenkhkare"(Tawfik
[1981]470).
140 G. Roeder, Aegyptische Inschriften aus den Staatlichen
Museen zu Berlin 2 (Leipzig 1924) 253, no. 2045. The par-
tial reversal on this plaque is especially interestingbecause
it is just like the one on the Nefertiti scarab:the word itn as a
whole is reversed,but the reed-leaf i is in retrogradeorder.
The major differencebetween the two reversals is that the
end of Akhenaten'scartouchedoes not contain a determina-
tive for the god's name to face.
141 There is evidence for at least one other variant in the
writing of Nefertiti's name. At Amarna, Petrie found 32
clay molds used for making double-cartouche plaques.
Eighteen of these are in University College, London,and on
them and apparentlyalso a brokengreen faienceplaque, the
word itn in the left cartoucheconsistentlyfaces in the same
direction (toward the left) as the seated-queen determina-
tive: J. Samson, "Royal Inscriptionsfrom Amarna,"ChrEg
48 (1973) 247-48, fig. 2; see also G. Fraser, A Catalogueof
[AJA 93
and sequins. If such is the case, then the individualcan
only be Nefertiti.'41
There has been much discussionin recentyears re-
garding the political and religious status of Nefertiti.
The most radical proposal offered on this topic has
been that of John Harris and his principalsupporter,
Julia Samson, who argue that Nefertiti and Smenkh-
kare were one and the same person, with Nefertiti
abandoningher position as queen sometimeafter reg-
nal year 12 of Akhenatenand taking a new name as
well as the title of a king.'42Both Harris and Samson
interpretthe nameson the sequins as referringto Nef-
ertiti as pharaoh, with Samson assigning the sequins
to a brief periodjust afterAkhenaten'sdeathbut prior
to Nefertiti's adoption of her new throne name of
Smenkhkare.143
James Allen has recently put forth an intriguing
theory which accepts the Harris-Samson claim that
Nefertiti became king late in Akhenaten'sreign (cer-
tainly no earlierthan regnalyear 12, since in that year
Nefertiti still held the title of "GreatRoyal Wife" in
the tomb of Huya), but also suggests that at her hus-
band's death or perhaps shortly thereafter, Nefertiti
was succeededby another ruler, Smenkhkare.'44Al-
len's argumentthat Nefertiti and Smenkhkareare two
different rulers-the conclusion drawn by the great
majority of Egyptologists-is based on a complex
analysis of the various sets of names associatedwith
Nefertiti and Smenkhkare. His conclusion that the
gold sequins belong to Nefertiti is based on two fac-
tors: 1) reversalof the god's name occursonly in Nef-
theScarabsBelongingto GeorgeFraser(London1930)34,
pl. 10.271a; Hall (supra n. 129) nos. 1966-67. The lintel
overthe entranceto the tomb of Ahmoseat Amarnacontains
two cartoucheswith the long name of Nefertiti (Davies [su-
pra n. 131] pl. 27); interestingly,the cartoucheon the left
side of the lintel has the word itn facing toward the seated-
queen determinative,while the cartoucheon the right side of
the lintel has the same word facing in the same direction
(towardthe left) as the seated-queendeterminative.
142 Harris (1973); J.R. Harris, "Nefertiti Rediviva,"Acta
Orientalia35 (1973) 5-13; Harris (1974) 11-21. The prin-
cipal supporterof Harris's claim is Julia Samson,who has
written extensively on this topic; see, e.g., Samson (1985)
83-99; Samson (1977); J. Samson,"Akhenaten'sCo-regent
and Successor,"G6ttingerMiszellen 57 (1982) 57-59; Sam-
son (1982). For some negativeassessmentsof this theory,see
Tawfik (1975); Redford(supra n. 130) 191-92.
143 See referencesabovein n. 138. The
datingof the sequins
early in Nefertiti's "reign"appears in Samson (1985) 95.
144 J.P.
Allen, "Nefertiti and Smenkh-ka-re,"to be pub-
lished in the proceedingsof the InternationalSymposiumto
Commemoratethe CentennialAnniversaryof the Discovery
of Tell El Amarna, February 1-3, 1987, Chicago.
1989] THE BRONZE AGE SHIPWRECK AT ULU BURUN: 1986 CAMPAIGN
ertiti's name, where there is a determinativefor itn to
face; and 2) the nomen nfr-nfrw-itn plus epithet nor-
mally does not have a reversalbecause there is no de-
terminative for itn to face, but in the one case where
there is a determinative (namely, on the sequins), a
reversalhas been inserted.
Allen sets the length of Nefertiti's reign as pharaoh
at about three years based on a hieratic graffitoin the
tomb of Pere at Thebes.145 This inscription is dated to
regnal year 3 of "Ankhkheperurebeloved of..., the
Son of Re, Nefernefruaten beloved of Waen[re],"a
king who is to be identifiedwith Nefertiti accordingto
Allen's analysis. Whether Nefertiti's reign was entire-
ly coeval with that of her husband,or continuedon for
a short time after his death, remains a mystery.
The inscription on the Ulu Burun scarab does not
provide decisive evidence for linking "Nefernefruaten
Nefertiti" with "Nefernefruaten the Ruler," but it
does support the equation. The principal objectionto
this identificationcomes from the shawabti of Nefer-
titi. The inscription on this piece of tomb equipment
gives Nefernefruaten Nefertiti the titles of "Heiress,"
"GreatOne in the Palace"and "GreatRoyal Wife"-
impressive titles, but not those of a pharaoh. If this
objectwas inscribedafter Nefertiti died, then she was
not a king at the time of her death. And yet the fact
that this figure is holding acrossher chest the flail and
scepter, symbols of Egyptian kingship, indicates that
Nefertiti was much more than an ordinary queen.
Allen has suggested that Nefertiti may have been de-
posed by Smenkhkare after her brief reign; in that
145 A.H. Gardiner, "The Graffitofrom the Tomb of Pere,"JEA 14 (1928) 10-11.
29
case the titles on her shawabtiwould only reflectthose
that she held at her death rather than those that she
possessedwhen she was king.
CONCLUSION
The Egyptian finds from the Ulu Burun shipwreck
form a remarkablecollectionof artifacts.I believethat
they point to the late 14th/early 13th century B.C. as
the most likely date for the wreck. They fill a con-
spicuous lacuna in the history of Egyptian-Aegean
trade in the Late Bronze Age, demonstratingthat
commercial relations between the two areas-while
limited in scope and probablyindirect-persisted into
the post-Amarnaphase of the late 18th Dynasty. Fi-
nally, they indicate that most of the Egyptian goods
being shipped to the Aegean during this period were
trinketsor raw materials.
The gold scarabis the key piece in this group.Nefer-
titi is one of the most interestingfigures in Egyptian
history, but only recently has her role in the develop-
ment of the Amarna Revolution been the focus of so
much scholarly attention. This scarab offers a new
piece of evidence to identify Nefertiti with a king
namedon a pair of sequinsas "Ankhkheperurebeloved
of the Aten, Nefernefruaten the Ruler." While the
linkageis not indisputable,it may be consideredproba-
ble that sometimelate in Akhenaten'sreign or shortly
after his death, Nefertiti was pharaohof Egypt.
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