A comparative archaeometric study of Late Bronze Age Black Lustrous and Red Lustrous Wheel-made wares from the Eastern Mediterranean

Black Lustrous Wheel-made Ware (BLW) and Red Lustrous Wheel-made Ware (RLW) are two distinctive fine ceramic types that circulated across the Eastern Mediterranean during the Late Bronze Age (c. 1650–1050 BCE). While RLW has been extensively studied and its production linked to Rough Cilicia (Southern Anatolia), the provenance, manufacturing, and distribution of BLW remain poorly understood. BLW appears in small quantities at sites across Cyprus, the Levant, Egypt, and Southern Anatolia, yet its relationship to RLW has not been systematically examined through archaeometric analysis. This study presents the results of an archaeometric investigation of 45 BLW samples from Alalakh (Türkiye), Enkomi (Cyprus), Ashkelon (Israel), and Aniba (Egypt) to address questions regarding raw material sources, production, and possible connections between BLW and RLW in terms of provenance and technological traditions. To achieve this, a multi-analytical approach was employed, integrating laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) and strontium-neodymium (Sr-Nd) isotope analysis for elemental and isotopic characterization for provenance determination, and petrographic thin-section analysis for fabric characterization. Additionally, 22 reference clay samples from the northern Cyprus were analyzed to assess potential raw material sources for BLW. The analytical results demonstrate that BLW was produced using multiple clay sources available in northern/northeastern Cyprus, supporting the archaeological hypothesis of a Cypriot origin. Compositional data further indicate that BLW and RLW represent distinct manufacturing traditions, with RLW linked to Southern Anatolia, while BLW belongs to the Cypriot Late Bronze Age ceramic tradition.