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Bilbil juglets are Old World artifacts. And, while there are numerous Bilbil juglets (the Bilbil juglets link is to Museums in Israel dot gov] and illustrates examples of bilbil juglets, like the one at the Oriental Institute, which is like juglets) in various other museums across the globe. This article is written with consideration to a juglet at a particular museum location. The object is made of clay and is considered pottery. Its description is- "Fine, brown, gray core, well fired, well hand-made, well burnished outside; Cypriote". The piece is a ‘thrown vessel’ made using a pottery wheel. The Period is late Bronze Age IIB ca. 1400-1200BCE. The site is Tel Megiddo, stratum VIIB/A Ca. 1300-1200 BCE. Excavated by the University of Chicago. And, is specifically from The Southern Levant Collection of the Oriental Institute, located in Chicago, Illinois (an image of the particular Bilbil juglet referenced in this article can be found on page 32 of the Oriental Institute's "The Southern Levant Collection" pdf link).
Contents
The Haas and Schwartz Megiddo Gallery was opened to the public on January 29, 2005 thereby allowing the at-large public to view a larger Holy Land collection as well as this specific object. The object is Mycenaean, typically Greek, was the center of Greek life during the period and material was heavily traded and represents a type of Mycenaean container typically imported to the Southern Levant. [1]. The petite object is some 14.2x9.0 cm, and is a ‘curved neck’ Bilbil Jug [3].
Many scholars think that these Bilbil jugs were used in the trade of Opium. A reason some scholars think this is due to traces of opiates found in some of the styles of the jugs, as well as the shape of the vessel resembling an upturned Papaver somniferum. The name Bilbil was given because of the sound emanated when liquid flowed out of the jugs. The jar belongs to a classification variety known as ‘Base Ring I Ware’ [2].
Object Origin
Tel Megiddo - is a site situated at the most important land route in the ancient Near East, The Via Maris, where it dominated trade for over 6,000 years. Megiddo is also the site of the many battles, and represents one of the most embattled sites in history, has another name; that of the "final battle" Armagiddo which is where we get the name Armageddon. Due to the historic unique location of the site, The city of Megiddo was situated between Egypt and Mesopotamia, and was the site of a famous battle Pharaoh Thutmose III.
A Tel is a mound or hill. Megiddo was built atop such a hill, or mound. However, unlike a natural geological outcrop, a tell is built atop the debris of a former settlement. This site; Tel Megiddo was excavated, over the course of numerous digs, by the University of Chicago Oriental Institute. And, constituted some of the most aggressive destruction in archaeological history [3]. The Oriental Institute is the present location of the object; Bilbil jug in this report. The object was acquired through Oriental Institute excavations at Megiddo, and is from Stratum VIIA The Bilbil jug as an import from Cyprus - Cyprus was part of old pre-Greece and was part of Mycenaean culture [4]. The Mycenaean culture traded regularly with those along the Southern Levant and represent the use of maritime to shore trade among peoples [5].
The object is presently considered ‘cultic’, a subset of ritualistic. This may be due to the fact that the curved-neck Bilbil Jugs contain opiates which is thought to have been used in ceremonial application. It is important to note that there are two types of bilbil jugs/juglets; curved necks which contain opiate residue and straight neck bilbil jugs which do not. Some scholars think that those straight necked jars were used in homes for decoration. This artifact was originally recorded and documented as, "Jug type 407 (P6298) Pls. 67:20, 139:3 (Loud). As technology changed and the object was examined, it was revealed that it contained trace opiates [6].
Opium residue was found through analysis in some of the juglets. "The picture presented by the distribution of small and relatively mundane objects, such as Cypriot bowls and juglets, must of necessity become more fine-grained. Certainly the prime selling point for the Base-ring juglets must surely have been their content. Closed shapes, Cypriot or Mycenaean, may well have held substances unobtainable in Egypt, or held what were regarded as superior versions of local products" [Michaelides, D., Kassianidou, Vasiliki, and Merrillees S., Robert Egypt and Cyprus in Antiquity published by Oxbow Books, Oxford 2009]. It is a well-known fact among scholars that opiates were used throughout ancient history- with many scholars concluding that the use of opiates connected ancient humans with spiritual inspirations leading to founding of various religions M. D. Merlin, "Archaeological Evidence For The Tradition Of Psychoactive Plant Use In The Old World", University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, HI 96822 (2003) Economic Botany 57 (3) pp. 295–323 The New York Botanical Garden Press, Bronx, NY 10458-5126 U.S.A. Web. 2 Feb. 2016 [7]. Because opium is widely found along several countries, may have been traded by land via the ancient Silk Road.
Object Biography
A brief history of how a Bilbil juglet ended up in the Oriental Institute: The University of Chicago’s first president was William Rainey Harper - a specialist in ancient Hebrew and set a tone of archaeological research in The Holy Land. Through a combined financial investment President Harper and Mrs. Caroline Haskell donated funds to construct the Oriental Institute. The museum was completed in 1896. And, James Henry Breasted was charged with the task of bringing objects back from Egypt. The result inspired John D. Rockefeller to fund a first expedition Ca. 1903/04. The favorable results were further encouraged through the meeting of J.H. Breasted to American minister Edgar J. Banks, a biblical archaeology enthusiast. The large return of artifacts, more than a thousand supported the rational for the first epigraphic survey, Ca. 1905/07 from Abu Simbel to Wadi Halfa. Breasted was prolific and compiled a successful children’s textbook, ‘Ancient Times’. The disciplined focus of the University to study in the ancient Near East along with donations from the Rockefellers approved the formation of the Oriental Institute in the Haskell Oriental Museum in 1919. This newly formed "laboratory" went into the field to perform its first survey 1919/1920 and the famous survey of Megiddo in 1925.
Oriental Institute
The Oriental Institute is located in Chicago Illinois and storehouses a collection of Old World artifacts with many originating in the East/middle-east.