Dots close together on a map: Mycenaean pottery in the Jordan valley

Pottery made in the Aegean during the Mycenaean period (ca. 1600-1100 BC) has been found at many sites in the Levant. Since such Mycenaean pottery is classified in detail and easily recognisable, this material is suitable to research long-distance trade and interconnections between the Mycenaean world and the Late Bronze Age Levant. However, at the majority of sittes, Mycenaean finds are very few and they occur in widely varying cultural contexts. The significance of such vessels is not immediately evident. In this article, I will explore the cultural meaning of a group of Mycenaean vessels in a coherent geographical area far away from Greece: the wider Jordan valley in Israel, Palestine and Jordan.