The contexts of painted plaster in the middle Bronze age palace of tel kabri

This article aims at providing an updated picture of the contexts of finds of the Aegean-style wall paintings from the Middle Bronze Age palace at Tel Kabri. Previous works published before our 2009 field season dealt with different aspects of chronology of some of the painted plaster assemblages. However, we believe that the discussion of the Kabri finds may well benefit from a full diachronic picture of the use of painted plaster in the palace, from its beginning in Middle Bronze Age i to its demise perhaps 250 years later in the Middle Bronze Age ii. As for relative chronology, all the painted plaster fragments found so far have been found within deposits dated to phase ds/dw iii, but have origins plausibly associated with the previous phase, ds/dw iv. This (phase iv) is thought to have been the phase of the painted palace, when more than one decorated composition adorned the walls of the monumental complex in Kabri. It is our hope that this picture will contribute here to the ongoing fruitful discussion concerning aspects of the chronology, technology, and meaning of Aegean-style as well as other wall paintings in the Levant, in sites such as Tel el-Burak, Tel el Daba, Qatna, and of course Alalakh.