Kamares ware at Hazor.

The writers discuss evidence of Kamares ware found at Hazor in Israel. A petrographic analysis of two pottery sherds with a gray-black slip and decoration found at Tel Hazor shows that, while the petrography of the first sherd may support a provenance in Crete, the other sherd has a different petrographic profile and is of local Canaanite origin. The first sherd can thus be attributed to the Kamares group and is part of a small group of middle Minoan items, especially clay vessels, found outside Crete. It is a unique find in early 2nd-millennium B.C.E. Canaan; along with the inscribed sherd of Tel Haror, it is the only ceramic evidence so far of contacts between the palatial systems of Minoan Crete and Canaan. Its main contribution to the study of international relations in the Middle Bronze Age is in its petrographic profile, which suggests its provenance is somewhere in north-central Crete, likely in the vicinity of the Palace of Knossos. Different Minoan palaces may be seen as responsible for the distribution of Kamares ware and perhaps other trade items to various regions outside Crete.