Le mobilier du palais royal d'Ougarit.

• Author: Dunham, Sally
• Position: Book review

Le mobilier du palais royal d'Ougarit. Edited by VALERIE MATOIAN. Ras-Sharnra-Ougarit, vol. 17. Lyon: MAISON DE L'ORIENT ET DE LA MEDITERANEE, 2008. Pp. 392, plates. [euro]35 (paper).

This volume presents papers given at an international round table conference in December 2005 on the archaeological objects found in the royal palace of Ugarit. The study of the objects from the palace is part of the program of the Ras Shamra mission to exhaustively publish this important building and its contents (Y. Calvet, pp. 11-12). Valerie MatoIan, the editor of this volume and the director of the study of the palace objects, notes in the introduction that the study of the objects is a long-term project of which the present volume must be considered only a preliminary publication (p. 22). In the first chapter Mato'fan gives an overview of the documentation available for making a comprehensive evaluation of the objects and the difficulties involved in using this documentation (pp. 23ff.). This multifaceted discussion includes topics such as the different classes of objects (pp. 45-53), the relation of texts and objects (pp. 59-61), and the dating of the objects (pp. 53-56). These sections often involve the presentation of unpublished pieces such as glass and faience objects in the palace (pp. 49-43) or an unpublished bronze pot that could be like those mentioned in the trousseau of queen Ahatmilku (pp. 59-60).

The next three chapters deal with objects of organic materials--bone (E.Vila), ivory (J. Gachet-Bizollon), and ostrich eggshell (Matoian). Vila discusses the faunal remains stored in the Damascus Museum and the references to specimens in the excavation archives. Both groups consisted mainly of teeth, especially canines from bears and boars. She observes that the reason they were found in the palace remains uncertain--hunting trophies, raw materials to be made into elements of adornment, or vestiges of magical-medical practices? Gachet-Bizollon notes that the completion of her study of the ivories of Ugarit (2007) allows for a comparative view of the palatial and non-palatial repertoire. This shows that most of the ivory pieces found in the city belong to objects in vogue in the Late Bronze Age, such as double combs, round boxes with tenons, rods (bobbins?), spindle whorls, "buttons" (see Gachet-Bizollon 2007: 225-29), and "duck-boxes." This repertoire is rare in the palace. Another difference is that the use of elephant ivory is predominant in the...