Bamboula (…“Seal impressions…”) Benson 1955Jack L. Benson

14

Bamboula tree or plant is at home in the Minoan environment. The general type occurs on the famous fragment of a silver vase^50 from Mycenae showing a battle before a city. Actually the Bamboula representation stands midway between this and the graceful, formal stylization of the lily motif which occurs in Minoan and Mycenean ceramics.^51

All the parallels adduced seem to suggest a range of about 1600-1450 B.C. - with preference given to the upper terminus - for the creation of the cylinder seal used to impress Sh 579. It is not surprizing, therefore, since this impression was made in the thirteenth century B.C. - as the Bamboula evidence indicates - that the relief seems low and details somewhat obscured. One more final consideration besides the style seems to betray the Minoan-Mycenean connections of this sherd. Although, as we have seen, there is some precedent in the Near East for the application of cylinder seal impressions to rims of pots, we must perhaps rather look for the inspiration of Sh 579 to the common occurrence of relief decoration on rims and handles of metallic vessels of Minoan-Mycenean origin. It may well be that the ornamentation of the Bamboula pithos rim is an attempt to imitate this effect. Such an inference is strongly supported by the occurrence, at the same site, of an impressed handle,Sh 545, which will be discussed next.

[handwritten: Sh 545] complete handle, with small adjoining portion of wall at top and base, from a large jug of the Plain Wheelmade II (local Cypriote fabric) with handle from shoulder to mid-neck. Fig. 13 Pl. 12; [handwritten: Fig.13 Pl. 12]

Handwritten: Clay: light pinkish to orange-buff fired light gray-green in spots; it contains much fine and medium, mostly dark, sand and a few very large white grits.

A continuous impression the length of the handle was rolled while the clay was quite soft: in addition to the ridge defining the pattern [handwritten: P 111]