David Ben-Shlomo

• Ariel University

The paper deals with a ceramic assemblage excavated at the Late Chalcolithic site of Neve Ur, specifically with Pit B116, where large numbers of V-shaped bowls, as well as other vessel types, were found. The high percentage of V-shaped bowls, compared to the percentage found in the surrounding excavated area, as well as their condition, suggests th...

The study presented here deals with the manufacturing technologies of cooking pots in Iron Age II Judah (ca. 1000–586 BCE). Two aspects were studied on an assemblage of ca. 500 cooking pots: paste preparation with a highlight on temper analyses as well as fashioning and finishing techniques. The research is conducted as a part of a substantial mult...

Unlabelled: This paper, jointly written by participants of a workshop held in 2021, argues for an increased recognition and application of neutron activation analysis (NAA) in the archaeology of the ancient Mediterranean. Discussing the methodological strengths and challenges, it highlights the great potential NAA has for collecting proxy data fro...

The study presented here deals with the manufacturing technologies of cooking pots in Iron Age II Judah (ca. 1,000-586 BCE). This is the first comprehensive technological study carried out on Iron Age pottery in the Levant and one of the most extensive studies on ancient cooking ware. Two aspects were studied on an assemblage of ca. 500 cooking pot...

This article will discuss a recent, multifaceted study of the production of cooking pots during the Iron Age II (ca. 1,000–586 BCE) in Judah (modern Israel). In particular, the article will present the compositional analysis of 541 cooking vessels from 11 sites in Iron Age Judah. The study employs petrographic and chemical (NAA) analysis and examin...

The article discusses Philistine iconography and figurative material culture in Philistia during the Iron Age. The primary archaeological evidence is surveyed, highlighting significant human, zoomorphic, and vegetative motifs. The different traditions and sources reflected by the figurative objects are also discussed. In addition, the archaeologica...

This article will describe and discuss the results of the 2020–2021 seasons of the excavations at Khirbet ‘Aujah el-Foqa, a site in the southern Jordan Valley, north of Jericho. During these seasons, a section of the northern side of the site was excavated, including one complete structure. This structure, as well as the units around it, also conta...

This article describes and discusses a stamped sealing found at Middle Chalcolithic Tel Tsaf (5th millennium BCE). This is the earliest stamped sealing found in the southern Levant. The article describes the object, as well as its petrographic composition, find-spot and parallels. Furthermore, the artefact’s implications for the rise of administrat...

Philistine Bichrome pottery is one of the most important, well‐known and easily identifiable features of the Philistines material culture of the early Iron Age (ca. 1200‐1000 BCE) in the southern Levant. The Philistines were probably a group of immigrants from the Aegean region and Cyprus arriving at several sites in the southern coastal plains of...

During the Persian (or Achaemenid) period, simply band-painted bowls, plates, jugs, table amphorae and hydriae are documented in the Levant — in particular in the coastal regions — as one of the most common groups of decorated ceramics. Vessels of this style — mostly drinking vessels — were recorded in significant quantities at most coastal sites i...

This paper presents new compositional analysis of 26 fragments of the much‐debated cylindrical and ovoid jars, a vessel type first defined at Khirbet Qumran and associated with the Dead Sea Scrolls. The new samples include 15 examples from Tel Ḥevron, a site which yielded a pottery workshop and that carries certain similarities with Khirbet Qumran...

Bronze Age trade in the Eastern Mediterranean is well attested in south Levantine archaeological research, with imported vessels generally playing a significant role in the ceramic assemblage. While the majority of these vessels are found repeatedly at many different sites, there are cases where a rare find sheds new light on the way in which trade...

More than a century of study of the Philistines has revealed abundant remains of their material culture. Concurrently, our understanding of the origins, developmental processes, and socio-political matrix of this fascinating culture has undergone major changes. Among other facets, Philistine technology has been discussed, but in our opinion, a broa...

The paper surveys and discusses the updated archaeological evidence for Philistine cult and religion, and cult and religion in Philistia during the Iron Age. The evidence can be related to public or official cult, represented in temple and shrine structures, and to that coming from households, representing possibly more popular religion. The eviden...

The article describes and discusses the results of the archaeological excavations at Tel Ḥevron Plot 53 during 2017. These were follow-up excavations to the larger ones conducted during 2014, and were mainly aimed towards the completion of the exposure and restoration of two large ritual baths (miqwa'ot), dated to the early Roman period. In the cou...

Among the painted pottery types in the Levant during the fifth and fourth centuries B.C.E., the "East Greek" class is especially conspicuous and usually assumed to have been produced in Ionia. This pottery is the subject of a comprehensive research project, examining it from typological, analytical, and other perspectives. Our conclusion is that th...

The present study focuses on the excavation and analysis of an early Iron Age kiln found at Tel Hebron. Remains of quicklime and slagging material found at the bottom of the kiln were analysed using FTIR and SEM-EDS, showing that the kiln was originally used for lime production. Later addition of small inner chambers suggests that the feature was r...

With the emergence of urban culture in the southern Levant in the Early Bronze Age, new types of pottery and ceramic techniques appeared, among them pottery (usually combed) coated with a white material. A selection of sherds from Early Bronze strata was studied in an attempt to analyze this material. Using microscopy and various other methods, the...

Here we explore aspects of Canaanite palatial economy through an analysis of finds from the Middle Bronze Age palace at Tel Kabri, a 34 ha site located in the western Galilee of modern day Israel. The palace was founded in the middle part of the MBA I period, and continued without interruption until an advanced part of the MBA II period. Despite th...

The authors report and describe the remarkable grain silos discovered at Tel Tsaf in the southern Levant. These tall, white, barrel-shaped towers seem to mark the first appearance of monuments of demonstrative surplus.

A program of petrographic analysis of Mamluk-period Hand-Made Geometrically Painted Ware (HMGP), supplemented by hand-made plain vessels and cooking pots, was undertaken as an offshoot of a wider study of the hand-made pottery industries of the 12th–16th centuries in Bilād al-Shām. The aims of the wider project were to establish a chronological fra...

The paper presents the results of a recent petrographic study that analyzed over 100 Iron II clay figurines found in and around the City of David, Jerusalem. The study was essentially the first archaeometrical analysis of the production mode of domestic cultic objects in the southern Levant. The paper also discusses the differences in production mo...

Lead isotopes, thin- and sherd-section analyses are coupled on pottery-vessel fragments excavated from the Late Bronze Age site of Hala Sultan Tekke (south-east Cyprus) and representing fabrics used for the production of storage and trade containers. The fabrics of the sherds are first described according to general macroscopic observations. Based...

The site of Tell Jemmeh near Gaza has long been suggested as the location of an Assyrian administrative centre or even the seat of an Assyrian governor. This paper revisits this issue in the light of the more comprehensive evidence we now have on the site from Van Beek's excavations. Tell Jemmeh yielded both architectural features (in plans and bui...

This monograph describes the results of the archaeological excavation at the site of Tell Jemmeh, Israel, undertaken by the Smithsonian Institution and directed by Gus W. Van Beek during the years 1970–1990. All the artifacts from the excavations were shipped from Israel to Washington, D.C., and have been restored, studied, and analyzed in the Nati...

This article examines the role of Til 'ItonlTrll 'liin within the settlement system of Shcphelah and the Hebron Highlands from the Late Bronze Age to the early Hellenistic Period. For each period, the article reviews the nature of occupation and examines the ceramic style and petrography, in order to learn about the settlement's position in the per...

This articleexamines major changes in Philistia during the Iron Age II. The four excavated cities of Philistia, which include Tel Miqne-Ekron, Ashdod, Ashkelon and Tell es-Safi/Gath, show variable characteristics in the different sub-periods of the Iron II. The article suggests that the ‘urban imposition’ suggested for Philistia during the Iron I m...

The ‘Dor 2006’ shipwreck was discovered in 2006 south of the Dor/Tantura lagoon, Israel. The hull remains are of a large ship that was unable to enter the shallow anchorage. Among the finds were 20 ceramic items, including bowls, cooking–pots, jugs, a juglet, lids and amphoras. The cargo has not yet been found. Pottery typology, coins and 14C tests...

During the 2012 excavations at the Ophel, a large building was partially revealed; it is broadly dated to the early (?) Iron Age IIA (it is hoped that a more accurate dating will be obtained after the study of its finds has been completed). A pile of large pottery fragments (L.223C) from seven pithoi was used as a stabiliser for the earth fill unde...

The site of Tell Ǧemme was excavated by W. M. F. PETRIE during 1926-1927 and by Gus VAN BEEK on behalf of the Smithsonian Institution during the years 1970-1990. This paper includes a preliminary account of the Bronze Age remains from VAN BEEK'S# excavations. This strategic and large mound is located on the ancient border between Canaan and Egypt a...

Update summery of Shaar Hagolan project

The article examines an Iron Age II B–C ceramic form, the mortarium bowl, which is usually acknowledged as an imported type, but is not yet fully integrated into the study of east Mediterranean trade during this period. Several mortaria are examined by Thin Section Petrographic Analysis, and the previous studies of Iron Age II and Persian period mo...

This article examines the issue of the distribution of transport stirrup jars found in the Late Bronze Age Levant. These vessels, representing long-range commodity exchange, are presumed to be largely of Cretan origin according to both their appearance and previous archaeometric analyses. However, determining whether non-Minoan sources of such vess...

The occurrence of imported Mycenaean pottery in the Late Bronze Age southern Levant is one of the most conspicuous aspects of Eastern Mediterranean trade connections during this period. A group of 183 Mycenaean pottery vessels from 14 sites in northern Israel, from both coastal and inland settlement contexts were analyzed by Neutron Activation Anal...

Feasting has attracted much attention in archaeological research, both within the Near East and elsewhere in the world. Recent evidence of feasting includes occurrences in the Near East at prehistoric as well as Bronze and Iron Age sites, reflecting the diversity of types and functions of feasts. This article presents new evidence for feasting rela...

The development of pottery production during the Bronze and Iron Ages at Tell es-Safi/Gath, Israel, is examined based on the analysis of 224 pottery vessels representing most periods within this ca. 1700 years time frame. The main tools employed were visual examination of manufacturing techniques and petrographic thin section analysis, all of which...

The new results from the Pottery Neolithic site of Sha‘ar Hagolan in Israel, dated to 6400–6000 BC (calibrated), reveal advanced notions of settlement planning, including the introduction of courtyard houses, a street system and infrastructure such as the construction of a water well. It is suggested, on the basis of the Near Eastern archaeological...

The new results from the Pottery Neolithic site of Sha'ar Hagolan in Israel, dated to 6400–6000 BC (calibrated), reveal advanced notions of settlement planning, including the introduction of courtyard houses, a street system and infrastructure such as the construction of a water well. It is suggested, on the basis of the Near Eastern archaeological...

Thirteen sherds from the site of Tell es-Safi/Gath (Central Israel) were analyzed by neutron activation; six of these were also analyzed by thin section petrography. These include mostly Late Bronze II and early Iron Age II imports (and possible imports) from Greece or Cyprus, as well as a sherd with a Late Bronze Age Egyptian Hieratic inscription....

A new examination of the results of the excavations by Moshe Dothan at the cemetery of Azor (1958, 1960) is presented, indicating a variability in burial practices in a relatively small area. The different types of burials are discussed as well as the finds from the graves, which date to the late Iron I and Iron IIA. The variability of burial custo...

This study presents an analysis of various aspects relating to the changes in cooking vessels during the Iron Age in Philistia and the southern Levant, with particular emphasis on the morphology, manufacturing technology, and regional distribution of cooking jugs. We have combined archaeological data and petrographic analyses to evaluate the techno...

The article describes and discusses a group of previously unpublished clay sealings and seals from Tel Miqne-Ekron against the background of comparable evidence from other Philistine city sites. The character of the motifs on the seals and seal impressions as well as the nature and function of the clay sealings are examined. Most items date to the...

Following the excavations at Tel Ashdod, a class of Iron Age II decorated pottery was identified that became known as "Ashdod Ware." In the present study, this pottery is defined as Late Philistine Decorated Ware. Based on its typology, decoration, distribution, chronology, and provenience, it is suggested that this class of vessels, which first ap...

In a recent issue of Tel Aviv, Finkelstein and Singer-Avitz (2001) presented a revised interpretation of the Tel Ashdod excavation results. Several of their conclusions could have far-reaching implications, particularly with regard to chronology. However, these conclusions derive in many cases from either limited or negative data, and at times the...