Oren Tal's research while affiliated with Tel Aviv University and other places
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Publications (90)
This study presents an assemblage of complete and fragmented clay-made boat models uncovered during controlled archaeological excavations from Yavneh-Yam, which is located on the southern coastal plain of Israel. First, the relevant contexts from the Persian and early Hellenistic periods at the site that yielded these models are contextualized with...
Silver coins were the first coins to be manufactured by mass production in the southern Levant. An assemblage of tiny provincial silver coins of the local (Judahite standard) and (Attic) obol-based denominations from the Persian and Hellenistic period Yehud and dated to the second half of the fourth century BCE were analyzed to determine their mate...
The continuing intensive excavations of the surroundings of Tel Yavne conducted by the Israel Antiquities Authority since 2019 have produced evidence of dense settlement from the Chalcolithic period until today, offering the opportunity for multi-disciplinary research on an array of topics. This book is a preliminary study, commencing with an overv...
An Aramaic-inscribed object made of copper-alloy was discovered in 1993 in the south-western part of Tulûl Mas‘ud (Moshav Elyakhin) and has recently been studied using an archaeometallurgical approach. Based on visual testing and multifocal light microscopy observation, the object was probably produced in a nearby workshop, with the inscription eng...
In this paper we present the analysis of faunal ecofacts retrieved from well-secured features during recent excavation work carried out in 2019 and 2020 by the German-Israeli Tell Iẓṭabba Excavation Project in the Seleucid-founded town of Nysa-Scythopolis. Founded under Antiochus IV Epiphanes (175–164 BCE) and destroyed by the Hasmonaeans in the la...
Lead isotope and portable energy-dispersive X-ray fluorescence spectrometry were applied to a small group of Hellenistic lead objects from Tell Iztabba (Beth Shean, Israel). The market weights and sling bullets from this short-lived Seleucid-founded site were analysed in order to understand their production process and the provenance of the raw mat...
The Seleucid town of Nysa-Scythopolis on Tell Iẓṭabba (Israel) was destroyed by the Hasmoneans at the end of the second century BC. In this article, we discuss the exact season and possible year of the destruction using a multimodal approach and argue for its destruction in spring/early summer 107 BC.
This paper discusses a recently discovered coin hoard in the German-Israeli Tell Iẓṭabba Excavation Project. The copper-alloy coins date from the time of Alexander II Zabinas (129/128–124/123 BCE). The linen cloth in which the hoard was wrapped is discussed in light of the site history and archaeology – a Seleucid-founded settlement that was destro...
A discovery of the use of small metal plates was recently made at the Frankish sites of ‘Atlit, Arsur and Acre. These plates
were used in the masonry, and we suggest for the first time their identification as construction implements that we term
“spacers”. At Arsur, due to the homogenous use of relatively small ashlars to maintain level courses of...
This article presents a unique example of a roughly round ballista stone (ca. 32 x 31 cm) retrieved during excavations at Apollonia-Arsuf. It bears a two-line (one horizontal, the other vertical) Arabic inscription. Given the context of the ballista stones found at the site, it can be dated to March–April 1265, when the town and castle of Arsur wer...
This study addresses the post-occupational history of Arsuf (Apollonia-Arsuf) on the Mediterranean coast of Israel. Archaeological excavations at the site have revealed its continuous occupation from the late sixth century BCE through to the mid-thirteenth century CE, when it was destroyed by the Mamluks and never properly reset-tled since. Althoug...
In this paper we present the analysis of archaeobotanical material retrieved by means of flotation from well-secured features during recent excavation work carried out in 2019 and 2020 by the German-Israeli Tell Iẓṭabba Excavation Project in the Seleucid-founded town of Nysa-Scythopolis. Founded under Antiochus IV Epiphanes (175–164 bce ) and destr...
This article deals with the results of the second excavation campaign of the German-Israeli Excavation Project at Tell Iẓṭabba, which is the location of the Seleucid-period founded town of Nysa (Scythopolis). The second excavation campaign, which forms the third season of our joint German-Israeli research project, was carried out in the month of Fe...
This article publishes artefacts unearthed in the framework of the German-Israeli Tell Iẓṭabba Excavation Project. It analyses and discusses faience and glass artefacts recovered during recent field seasons at the site known as the Seleucid-founded town of Nysa (Scythopolis), located in the Beth She’an National Park. In addition to analysing a Bes/...
This article deals with the results of the first excavation campaign of the German-Israeli Tell Iztabba Excavation Project, which is the location of the Seleucid-period founded town of Nysa (Scythopolis). The first and second seasons of our joint German-Israeli research project were carried out in the months of February and September 2019; the focu...
Tell Iẓṭabba is located close to the modern town of Beth Sheʾan (Israel), and was where the Seleucid foundation of the later Decapolis city of Nysa-Scythopolis was established in the early 2nd century BCE. As a result, the site is of major importance for studying Hellenization processes in the Levant. This paper presents the results of magnetic pro...
This report catalogues and contextualizes the coin finds from the 2019 and 2020 excavation seasons of the German-Israeli archaeological project on Tell Iẓṭabba (Beth Shean). The majority of the coins are Hellenistic and relate to the Seleucid settlement at the site. Although the sample size is small, it contributes to our understanding of the overa...
Fragments of wall paintings retrieved from Hellenistic Tell Iẓṭabba (Nysa-Scythopolis), an archaeological site located in the area of the Beth She'an Valley (Israel), are the subject of this study. This research aims to characterize the plaster and color pigments of wall paintings retrieved from the site in order to gain new information concerning...
Open data on figshare: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.12014514
This article is a follow-up on an earlier publication of a bi-lingual Greek-Samaritan inscription discovered at the site of Apollonia-Arsuf (Sozousa) in Area P1 in 2014. It presents the yet unpublished results of an additional season of excavations carried out in 2015 around the structure where the inscription was unearthed. This season of excavati...
The contents of a small trash pit discovered in the recent excavations in Hellenistic Philoteria (Tel Bet Yeraḥ/Khirbet el-Kerak) offer a unique opportunity to study the components of what appears to have been a single festive meal. Extant remains include numerous mammal bones, mollusc shells, and ceramic tableware; they suggest a rustic Mediterran...
open access: https://doi.org/10.11588/propylaeum.552
Open acces publication: https://doi.org/10.11588/propylaeum.552
Panel 8.6: Archaeology and Economy in the Ancient World – Proceedings of the 19. International Congress of Classical Archaeology, Cologne/Bonn 2018
The Social Archaeology of the Levant - edited by Assaf Yasur-Landau December 2018
A selection of fourth century BCE silver jewelry, which is part of the Samaria and Nablus Hoards, was studied using nondestructive and minimally destructive analyses. A metallurgical methodology was applied and improved, based on the composition of the joints and bulk of the objects. The results indicate that most of the analyzed jewelry is made of...
A selection of fourth century BCE silver jewelry, which is part of the Samaria and Nablus Hoards, was studied using nondestructive and minimally destructive analyses. A metallurgical methodology was applied and improved, based on the composition of the joints and bulk of the objects. The results indicate that most of the analyzed jewelry is made of...
This paper re-evaluates previous records and adds new data to the relative sea level (RSL; namely the sea level related to the level of the national terrestrial datum) reconstruction in Israel from the last 2400 years based on ancient coastal water wells. Different methods for obtaining the most accurate modern offset between coastal groundwater le...
A fourth century BCE silver jewellery collection, which is part of two hoards of Samarian coins (the Samaria and Nablus Hoards), was studied by non-destructive analyses. The collection, which consists of pendants, rings, beads and earrings, had been examined by visual testing, multi-focal microscopy and SEM-EDS analysis. In order to enhance our kno...
Consumption practices and waste management are two aspects of human behavior which are closely linked together. This relationship varies according to environmental and social circumstances and presents itself in unique ways in different communities. This paper aims at understanding the consumption and disposal practices of a Late Antiquity coastal...
The maritime installation, sometimes called the ‘port’ or the ‘military harbour’ of Apollonia-Arsuf, is located at the foot of the cliff on which the Crusader castle of Arsur stands, about 37 km south of Caesarea, Israel. Opinions have differed as to the true nature of the site: was it a real port or harbour? Was it just a mooring basin for small c...
This paper surveys and discusses Samaritan burial customs outside Samaria based on the finds of yet unpublished tombs excavated in the second half of the 20th cent. C.E. in the southern Sharon Plain (within the northern city limits of modern-day Tel Aviv). The tombs are associated with Samaritan rural populations because of their location and the f...
This article documents an oil press discovered in the southern part of the Crusader town of Arsur (Area E), dating to the twelfth century CE. To date, no olive press from the Crusader period, excavated in systematic-scientific excavations, has been published in full. The article also discusses the olive oil industry in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusale...
Selected iron arrowheads and bolts retrieved from the destruction layer of the Crusader castle of Arsur/Arsuf, which was taken down by the Mamluk army (headed by Baybars) in late April 1265, were studied. Being the only site within the boundaries of the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem that has thus far yielded more than 1200 iron arrowheads, an archaeom...
An all-metal brazier probably used by Roman sailors is described and analyzed here in order to gain a
better understanding of some Roman manufacturing techniques. The aim of this study is to determine the composition and structure of this brazier in order to understand how it was made; to propose a possible date and place of manufacture; and to ver...
In March 1265 C.E., the Mamluk sultan Baybars laid siege to the town of Arsur in the central coastal plain of Israel and, after 40 days of fierce fighting, took it by storm. The entire site of Arsur was razed, and it has been left in ruins ever since. Among the excavated features of the castle, a cesspit used for refuse by the besieged Hospitaller...
An archaeometallurgical analysis is presented of 14 bronze artifacts retrieved from an Early Hellenistic-period farmstead in controlled archaeological excavations at Rishon Le-Zion, Israel, and dated to the first quarter of the third century BCE according to coins and pottery vessels. The bronze assemblage includes a needle, pins, spatulas and fibu...
The Apollonia-Arsuf Excavations yielded hundreds of Roman discus lamps. The typical pagan and erotic figurative motifs had been intentionally broken off, an act familiar at other sites in Roman Palestine that was often said to be the work of monotheists of either the Samaritan or Jewish faiths. This article surveys the evidence at hand and consider...
The canonization of the Pentateuch has preoccupied scholars from different disciplines from antiquity to the present. However, two major questions still require an explanation: when did it happen and why did it happen? In this two-part article an attempt has been made to clarify these issues. Based on an interdisciplinary approach, where the insigh...
Selected iron arrowheads and bolts retrieved from the destruction layer of the Crusader castle of Arsur/Arsuf, which was taken down by the Mamluk army (headed by Baybars) in late April 1265, were studied. Being the only site within the boundaries of the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem that has yielded thus far more than 1,200 iron arrowheads, an archaeo...
Tel Hashash is located within the boundaries of modern Tel Aviv. Surveys and excavations carried out in the site by the late J. Kaplan and H. Ritter-Kaplan during the 1960s and 1980s revealed remains and finds dated mainly to the Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine periods. The present paper includes the presentation and analysis of these yet unpublis...
Tell Qudadi (Tell esh-Shuna) is located on the northern bank of the mouth of the Yarkon River. A preliminary trial excavation was conducted at the site in October 1937 under the direction of P. L. O. Guy, followed by extensive excavations carried out from November 1937–March 1938 on behalf of the Hebrew University, headed by E. L. Sukenik and S. Ye...
The article summarizes the 1981 excavation at Tel Yacoz, which revealed remains from the Persian and Hellenistic periods. The Persian period settlement extended over an area of at least 1.5 ha and was probably the largest settlement in the lower Nahal Śoreq basin at that time. Remains of Greek-style fresco and stucco architectural elements seem to...
This article discusses debris from a secondary glass workshop at late Byzantine Ramla (South), Israel. The debris consists of fragmentary glazed and unglazed fired mud bricks that probably formed part of the workshop's furnace, and glass refuse-raw chunks and lumps, moils, waste, and fragmentary vessels. Chemical analysis shows that the vessels and...
This article supplements an earlier contribution to the Journal of Glass Studies (v. 46, 2004, pp. 51-66) and attempts to verify, by archeological evidence and chemical analysis, the assumption that late Byzantine Apollonia-Arsuf was a major center for the making of both primary and secondary glass in the sixth and seventh centuries. Excavations (c...
Josephus has supplied us with a detailed description of Alexander Jannaeus' defensive alignment, erected in ca 86/85 B.C.E. against Antiochus XII Dionysus on his way to Arabia. The term 'Yannai Line' was coined by the late J. Kaplan, who in a series of preliminary publications attempted to relate archaeological remains discovered in Tel Aviv and Be...
Studies dealing with the defensive system of the Kingdom of Judah in the Late Iron Age have mentioned the fortress excavated at the French Hill, north of Jerusalem (the possibility of its use during the Persian period has also been raised). The plan and finds from this fortress have never been published, and its description has appeared in a very p...
