This section includes the Aegean and some of the Cypriot pottery recovered from Bates’s Island at Marsa Matruh, and discusses the significance of this imported material on the North African coast. The Cypriot wares are mainly White Slip and Base Ring Wares, with small amounts of Monochrome, White Shaved, Red Lustrous, and Bichrome Wheelmade Ware.*

The excavations on Bates’s Island produced only very small quantities of Late Bronze Age Aegean pottery. The seventeen fragments presented in the catalog represent virtually all of the Aegean ceramic material that was found (another five or six small sherds were recorded). These sherds, however,...

Seven Late Bronze Age lamps were recovered from Bates’s Island.¹ As might be expected, they all display clear signs of use. Only one, 8.1, comes from a secure context architecturally: the lower phase of the hearth in the northeast corner of Room S119, but it is noteworthy that 8.4 and 8.6 both derive from deposits rich in fish and animal bones; 8.7 was found in association with quantities of snails, limpets and other edible marine shells; 8.2 and 8.3 were found in a surface context.*

Nozzle fragment from lamp. Wide flaring shape. Tan clay with large white inclusions. Traces of...

The following cataloged objects were excavated from either purely Late Bronze Age deposits or from deposits that contained largely Late Bronze Age material invaded with small quantities of later intrusive items that should not detract from their presumptive Bronze Age origin. Objects from clearly later (i.e., post-Bronze Age) contexts that, as artifacts, parallel similar objects found in reliably early deposits are cataloged as post-Bronze Age metal finds, but they have been designated as possible survivals from the Late Bronze Age. An asterisk (*) following an entry’s trench coordinates and deposit numbers indicates that it comes from a post-Bronze Age mixed...

The total animal bone fragment sample includes 2,976 Late Bronze Age bones (32 deposits), 21 Late Bronze Age (?) bones (4 deposits), 242 mixed Late Bronze Age bones (3 deposits), 56 Post Late Bronze Age bones (2 deposits), 7 Earlier Greek bones (1 deposit), 8 Earlier Greek (?) bones (1 deposit), 2,131 Roman bones (20 deposits), 113 Roman (?) bones (4 deposits), 180 Islamic bones (5 deposits), 120 Undateable bones (11 deposits), and 718 Surface bones (17 deposits). The identifiable bones are noted on Table 1.

The vast majority of the domestic mammal bones are Ovis aries (sheep)/Capra hircus (goat),...

In July of 1989, a visit was made to Marsa Matruh at the request of Prof. Donald White to discuss details about the study area, Bates’s Island and its associated lagoon, with the University of Pennsylvania team. A total of 50 soil samples (50 bags, each 1–2 kg.) was taken to Giza for examination and for the study of both macroscopic and microscopic botanical remains. The study area was revisited in March, 1990, for a study of modern vegetation as well as to collect samples from the bottom of the lagoon for pollen analysis.

In general, the vegetation is...

The Greek, Egyptian, and Roman pottery described here (12.1–12.93) was, in the main, excavated during the various seasons’ work on Bates’s Island, but the study also includes surface sherd material found in July and August of 1989 at the eastern end of the island, and on the lagoon bed immediately off the eastern tip.*

The Greek wares include an SOS amphora (12.36) of the last third of the 8th century b.c. or a little later, 7th to 6th century b.c. cups and other vessels, mainly from East Greek areas, Athenian pottery, mostly of the 5th and 4th century b.c.,...

The following metal objects were excavated from post-Bronze Age deposits. In the case of several categories, either a post-Bronze Age or modern identity appears beyond dispute (e.g., coins, religious medals, and lead musket shot); other classes of artifacts could either belong to the Bronze Age or the post-Bronze Age period but are assumed to be contemporary with the later objects found in their respective deposits, since there is nothing intrinsic to their makeup to preclude their being manufactured at virtually any time in the island’s history.

Octagonal pendant with attached suspension loop and single loose chain link. Obverse displays the...

Pottery of the types described in the following catalog was in every case retrieved from the island’s upper occupation levels; presumably, it matches what Bates reported from near surface levels inside as well as outside the Sponge-Divers House (S101).¹ Indeed, most of our own cataloged sherds were found closely associated with this structure and, as such, provide our best indications for its 17th century construction date.²

The range of artifacts is purely domestic and may be divided into the following categories:

1. Painted (14.1–14.3)

2. Tin-glazed (14.4)

3. Sgraffito (14.5–14.7)

4. Marbled (14.8, 14.9)

5. Slipped (14.10)

6. Solid or partially solid glazed (14.11...

Bates’s Island is a unique type of site. It is not a snapshot in time, as represented by shipwreck sites such as Uluburun and Cape Gelidonya, because the ceramic reports clearly demonstrate that the island enjoyed at least 50 years of activity and short-term occupation for as much as 150 years, and it is also not a typical land-based site, such as Tell el-Ajjul or Tell Abu Hawwam. Its extreme physical isolation, without a hinterland of any appreciable size, means that, ideally, every single artifact has significance as an intra- or inter-regional import and should be addressed as such. Moreover,...