MIKHAIL YU. TREISTER NORTH SYRIAN METALWORKERS IN ARCHAIC GREEK SETTLEMENTS? Summary The Syrian origin ofa casting mouldfor jewellery found at Al Mina leads to a discussion of similar moulds of the same origin, including examples from East Greek sites, and of the jewellery types produced. The presence of Syrian craftsman adds force to arguments for the importance of Syrian products and workmanship in Greek orientalising art. In the 1930s Sir Leonard Woolley explored the area of the mouth of the River Orontes in North Syria and excavated a settlement at Al Mina which yielded a remarkable quantity of Greek Geometric pottery. The excavation reports were published in a moderately detailed manner, with the objects other than pottery summarily (Woolley 1938; 1959, 172-188; Boardman 1980, 38-54; 1990a, 169-190; Riis 1982,244-251, n. 16-S. 244; Graham 1986). The pottery finds, Greek, Cypriot and Syrian were studied more intensively (Beazley 1939; Robertson 1940; Smith 1942; Boardman 1957; 1959; du Plat Taylor 1959; Coldstream 1968,310-316; Riis 1970, 137 ff.; Gjerstad 1974: Popham, Hatcher, Pollard 1980; Popham, Pollard, Hatcher 1983). Less attention was paid to the finds other than pottery (Boardman 1990b, 11, 15, N 121; Francis, Vickers 1983). W. R6llig has recently stated that the role of Al Mina, whose actual character is unknown despite being called a 'Greek emporion, Greek commercial or trading town, Greek outpost, centre of Greek commercial activities' has been much over-rated (R611ig 1992, 95). The point of view reflects a tendency in modern scholarship to revise the earlier suggested important role of Al Mina in Greek-Oriental contacts (Niemeyer 1984, 27). Perhaps the most clear expression of this is found in A.J. Graham's view that the finds and architecture of Al Mina clearly attest, not a Greek city, but a Levantine settlement, probably founded by Phoenicians. The author considers that Al Mina was just one of many places in the Eastern Mediterranean where Greeks made contact with the Orient. 'It should be recognized, therefore, that there is little left of the interpretation which made Al Mina a uniquely early Greek colony in the East, and a uniquely important place for contacts between Greece and the Orient' (Graham 1986). J. Boardman (1990a, 171) has stated that his attempt to evaluate the probable role of Al Mina in the 'orientalising revolution' 'is bedevilled by the incomplete publication of the finds at Al Mina'. Therefore, the publication of the casting mould from 1937 excavations at Al Mina, I is significant for ethnic OXFORD JOURNAL OF ARCHAEOLOGY © Blackwell Publishers Ltd. 1995, 108 Cowley Road, Oxford OX4 UF, UK and 238 Main Street, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA. 159