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Publications (62)
Salvage excavations at Qlaʿ, a small fortified Iron IIB site in the southwestern Samaria Highlands, conducted in 1980, revealed several stone-built structures, numerous rock-cut olive-oil extracting installations and two large wine presses. In this article we present the main findings from this investigation, discuss technological and economic aspe...
Salvage excavations at Qla , a small fortified Iron IIB site in the southwestern Samaria Highlands, conducted in the 1980s revealed several stone-built structures, numerous rock-cut olive-oil extracting installations and two large wine presses. In this article we present the main findings from this investigation, discuss technological and economic...
Who made figurines for ritual feasting in the Late Bronze Age (LBA) palace at Tel Beth-Shemesh? This article attempts to answer this question by determining the age and sex of fingerprints on five zoomorphic figurines and a lamp from a unique room in the LBA IB–IIA palace that contains an assemblage normally associated with feasting. The age and se...
The Hebrew Bible and other ancient Near Eastern texts describe Egyptian, Aramean, Assyrian, and Babylonian military campaigns to the Southern Levant during the 10th to sixth centuries BCE. Indeed, many destruction layers dated to this period have been unearthed in archaeological excavations. Several of these layers are securely linked to specific c...
In contrast with the relatively rich documentation from the el-Amarna archive related to the main city-states of the southern Levant in the Amarna Age (Late Bronze Age IIA; 14th century b.c.e.), archaeological data from these sites is still wanting. This unfortunate situation highlights the importance of the ca. 60,000-item plant collection from th...
The article presents two pottery assemblages exposed in 2017 at Tel Beth-Shemesh, in the Level 3 Iron IIA Judahite administrative centre that replaced the Iron I Canaanite villages of Levels 7–4. The assemblages contribute to the study of the typological-chronological development of Iron IIA pottery in Judah. Both date to the mid-/late Iron IIA, i....
The Base Ring juglets of Late Bronze Age Cyprus have long been associated with opium due to their hypothetical resemblance to inverted poppy heads. Analysis of organic residues on Base Ring juglets from Cyprus and Israel, however, showed no trace of opium; instead, the vessels had contained a variety of perfumed oils. The analytical results are sup...
Over half a century ago Robert Merrillees raised a brilliant hypothesis according to which Late Cypriot Base Ring juglets, supposedly shaped like inverted poppy seed pod to advertise their contents, traded opium over the Eastern Mediterranean. This most appealing idea was enthusiastically embraced by students of the Ancient Near East, in spite of t...
Two Late Minoan IIIA1 cups were recently found in the excavations at Tel Beth-Shemesh, Israel. They were part of a larger assemblage of local Late Bronze IIA (first half of the fourteenth century bc) drinking and eating vessels sealed under a destruction layer in one room of a large edifice, presumably a ‘palace’. A commemorative scarab bearing the...
A medium-size Amenhotep III scarab recently discovered in the excavations at Tel Beth-Shemesh, Israel, together with two decorated Late Minoan IIIA1 cups enables a fresh look at the synchronism between Late Minoan IIIA1 and Amenhotep III. The scarab is identified as commemorative, produced on the occasion of Amenhotep III's first Jubilee or Sed fes...
The early Iron Age (twelfth-eleventh centuries BC) in the southern Levant (Israel/Palestine) saw the disintegration of Egyptian imperial control and of the Canaanite city-state system that had characterized the region in the Late Bronze Age. New social and cultural groups - Philistines and Israelites - appeared on the historical stage. Recent archa...
We present a zooarchaeological analysis of the faunal remains at Tel Beth-Shemesh, a site located in the Shephelah region of Israel, which has been dated to the Late Bronze Age and Iron Age I. The site, identified as the biblical city of Beth-Shemesh, was a Canaanite border town between Philistine and Israelite settlements and of great importance i...
At Ain Shems (Beth-Shemesh) in 1911–1912, Duncan Mackenzie exposed a massive city wall and its ‘South Gate’. Mackenzie published only a schematic plan of the gate, which he dated back to the ‘Canaanite period’, and covered it at the end of his work. The gate comprises one of the finest examples of Middle Bronze city gates known from the Land of Isr...
Two adjoining fragments of a storage jar bearing an archaic alphabetic inscription were found during the renewed excavations at Tel Beth-Shemesh. Analysis indicates that, though found in separate contexts, the two sherds derived from a common source of predominately Late Bronze II and Early Iron I materials. A date of 1150–1100 BCE for the provenan...
In two excavation cycles conducted at Tel Beth-Shemesh in the early 20th century, a scholarly myth about Philistine domination at the site during Iron Age I was born. Renewed excavations at Beth-Shemesh by the authors dispelled this unfounded hypothesis. In a sequence of Iron I levels, Canaanite cultural traditions are dominant. Only a meager amoun...
In 2007, a bronze zoomorphic weight, shaped as a humped bull or zebu, Bos indicus, was found in a Late Bronze Age context in the renewed excavations at Tel Beth-Shemesh. The similarity of this object to other figurines and balance weights not only demonstrates commercial and cultural ties among Late Bronze Age sites, but also indicates familiarity...
In the 14th (2005) season of the renewed excavations at Tel Beth-Shemesh, a small Philistine bell-shaped bowl with a unique fish motif depicted inside was discovered in an Iron I context (Level 6). Investigation of the motif — an 'X-rayed' fish — showed that it differs conspicuously from other Philistine fish images and that it drew its inspiration...
Beth-Shemesh has attracted the interest of scholars and students of the ancient Near East since the beginning of modern exploration of the Holy Land. First, the name Beth-Shemesh, "the House of the Sun," implied a temple dedicated to the sun deity. Second, the biblical aspects of the place are appealing. Beth-Shemesh and its environs are related to...
Judah and Philistia suffered different fates following Sennacherib's campaign in 701 BCE. While the Philistine coast and hinterland flourished under Assyrian rule, the Shephela of Judah was devastated and depopulated. New data unearthed at the renewed excavations at Tel Beth Shemesh illuminate the fate of the Shephelah of Judah during the 7th centu...
Thesis (Ph. D., Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations)--Harvard University, 1999. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 155-162).