Natural Science in Archaeology

130 6 Soft Stones and Other Carvable Materials
fine-grained calcite that has a hardness of 3. Various types of alabaster were a popular
medium for carving vases, bowls, and statuary in Mesopotamia from the Protodynastic
Period onward. The most famous alabaster quarries in Egypt are located
at Hatnub, although smaller sources between Helwan and Asyut were exploited in
Pharaonic times.
A famous alabaster vase from Uruk depicts a ritual scene before a goddess. At
Tell Brak, alabaster heads were recovered from the Eye Temple dating to the Uruk
Period (ca. 4000–2900 BCE) (Mallowan 1947; Oates 1985). In Assyrian palaces a
principal use of alabaster was for the production of panels depicting scenes of war,
hunting, and ritual ceremonies. Some of the most famous of these were found in
the palace of Sargon II at Khorsabad (ca. 705 BCE). White alabaster was used for
monumental statuary in Mesopotamia, some of which was quarried near Mosul and
used by Assurnasirpal in 879 BCE. In 645 BCE the great wall relief of a lion hunt
was produced for King Ashurbanipal at the site of Nineveh.
In ed-Dur, a pre-Islamic site in the lower Arabian Gulf, flat alabaster fragments 1 cm
thick were discovered in the remains of two private houses. These fragments appear to
have been used as windowpanes to enhance natural light. Such alabaster plates were
used in Yemen as late as 1928 and can still be seen today in mosques (Potts 1996).
Phoenician tombs found at Almuñécar, Trayamar, and Villaricos in Spain, included
alabaster wine jars among their funerary goods. Alabaster was also a preferred raw
material for small flasks and boxes that contained perfumes, oils, and unguents during
the Greco-Roman Period. Pliny (N.H. 36.12, 60) considered alabaster the best
Fig. 6.4 Persian Period
alabaster bottle, Tel Michal,
Israel