No title

Arcaeo is blical

of theAmerican Schoolsof OrientalResearch Volume50 Number APublication 4

Mosaics

of

December1987

Ancient Sepphoris

Biblical Archaeolog A Publication of the American Schools of Oriental Research

Volume 50 Number 4

December 1987

TheRiseandFallof Ekronof the Philistines: RecentExcavationsat an UrbanBorderSite

197

Seymour Gitin and 7TudeDothan 04

Workat TelMiqnehas providedus with new insight into hundredsof yearsof the history of ancient Ekron- fromits periodas a Canaanitecity-statein the fourteenthcenturyB.C.E., to the arrival of the Philistines in the thirteenthcenturyB.C.E., throughits apparentdestructionin 603 B.C.E.by Nebuchadnezzar.

Artistryin Stone:The Mosaicsof Ancient Sepphoris

223

Eric M. Meyers, Ehud Netzer, and Carol L. Meyers Duringthe 1987excavationseason at this site in Galilee, a startling discoverywas made:a beautifullypreservedmosaic floor datingto aroundthe thirdcenturyc.E.The excavatorsintroduce us to what has been hailed as the finest exampleof mosaic art fromancient Palestine.

Page223

The LionBowlfromKinneret

232

VolkmarFritz

/ ,'

In 1984,nearthe northwesternshoreof the Seaof Galilee,excavations uncovereda bowlmadeof a rareandbeautifulmaterialknown as Egyptianblue.By comparingit to similarobjectsfoundthroughout the ancientNearEast,the excavatordiscussesits functionand artisticinfluence.

Yahwehof SamariaandHis Asherah

241

David Noel Freedman a

24

A scrutinyof biblicaltexts anda groupof inscriptionsfound recentlyat QuntilletcAjrud,on the borderbetweenthe southern Negeb andthe Sinaipeninsula,suggeststhat the worshipof a goddess, a consortof Yahweh,was deeplyrootedin both Israeland Judahduringpreexilictimes.

Introducingthe Authors In Memoriam:YigalShiloh BookReviews

Page241

195 196 252

Front cover:This haunting portraitis part of the mosaic floor uncoveredthis summer at Sepphoris.Back cover:Lion-headedrhyton found in a Philistine shrine at Ekron.

Biblical Archaeologist is published with the financial assistance of

the EndowmentforBiblicalResearch,a nonsectarianfoundationfor the study of the Bible and the history of the Christian Church.

AMERICAN SCHOOLS OF

ORIENTAL RESEARCH

PA 19104 (215)222-4643 ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICE,ASOR,4243 SPRUCESTREET,PHILADELPHIA,

JamesA. Sauer,President Eric M. Meyers,First VicePresidentfor Publications William G. Dever,Second Vice President for ArchaeologicalPolicy GeorgeM. Landes,Secretary KevinG. O'Connell,Assistant Secretary Anne Ogilvy, Treasurer GoughW Thompson, Jr.,Chairmanof the Boardof Trustees Norma Kershaw,Directorof Tours CatherineFelix, StaffAssistant Ann Norford,Coordinatorof Academic Programs StephaniePinter, Secretary SusanWing,Bookkeeper

ASORNewsletter;JamesA. Sauer,Editor BiblicalArchaeologist;EricM. Meyers, Editor Bulletin of the American Schools of OrientalResearch;WalterE. Rast, Editor Journalof CuneiformStudies;Erle Leichty,Editor

W.E AlbrightInstitute of ArchaeologicalResearch(AIAR). P.O. Box 19096, 91 190 Jerusalem,Israel. SeymourGitin, Director JosephA. Callaway,President First Vice JoyUngerleider-Mayerson, President CarolMeyers,Second Vice President KevinG. O'Connell,Secretary-Treasurer

o

VOF

tI 713 d0

OO

UI

ry

4',>

~

Committeeforthe Baghdad Baghdad School. JerroldS. Cooper,Chairman Near EasternStudies,The Johns Hopkins University,Baltimore,MD 21218. AmericanCenter of OrientalResearch (ACOR). P. O. Box 2470, JebelAmman, Amman, Jordan. David W McCreery,Director EdgarHarrell,President LawrenceT. Geraty,Vice President BertDeVries,Secretary Anne Ogilvy, Treasurer

Biblical

CyprusAmericanArchaeological ResearchInstitute (CAARI). 41 KingPaul Street, Nicosia, Cyprus. StuartSwiny,Director CharlesU. Harris,President LydieShufro,Vice President Ellen Herscher,Secretary AndrewOliver,Jr.,Treasurer Damascus Committee. GiorgioBuccellati, Chairman Center for MesopotamianStudies, University of California,405 Hilgard Avenue,Los Angeles, CA 90024.

Archaeologist

P.O. BOXH.M., DUKESTATION,DURHAM,NC 27706 (919)684-3075

Biblical Archaeologist (ISSN0006-0895)is publishedquarterly(March,June,September, December)by the JohnsHopkins University Pressfor the American Schools of OrientalResearch(ASOR),a nonprofit, nonsectarianeducational organization with administrativeoffices at 4243 Spruce Street,Philadelphia,PA 19104.

EricM. Meyers Editor Associate Editor LawrenceT. Geraty ExecutiveEditor MartinWilcox Book ReviewEditor PeterB. Machinist LindaHuff Art Director Melanie A. Arrowood Assistant Editor IllustrationsEditor LealanNunn Swanson

Subscriptions.Annual subscriptionrates are $18 for individuals and $25 for institutions. There is a special annual rateof $16 for students and retirees.Subscriptionorders and correspondenceshould be sent to the JohnsHopkins University Press, 701 40th Street, Suite 275, Baltimore,MD W. 21211(telephone:301-338-6988;telex: 5101012198,JHUPress Jnls).

EditorialAssistants C. E. Carter JohnKutsko LueSimopoulos StephenGoranson CatherineVanderburgh JulieHull

Singleissues are $6;these shouldbe ordered from the JohnsHopkins University Press at the aboveaddress. Outside the U.S., U.S. possessions, and Canada,add $2 for annual subscriptions and for single issues. Second-classpostagepaid at Philadelphia, PA 19104and additionaloffices. Postmaster:Send addresschangesto the JohnsHopkinsUniversityPress,701W 40th Street,Suite 275, Baltimore,MD 21211.

EditorialCommittee Thomas E. Levy LloydR. Bailey JamesFlanagan KyleMcCarter,Jr. CaroleFontaine DavidW McCreery VolkmarFritz CarolL. Meyers JackSasson SeymourGitin DavidM. Gunn Neil A. Silberman A. T. Kraabel L. MichaelWhite BaruchLevine JohnWilkinson

Publisher The JohnsHopkinsUniversityPress Copyright? 1987by the AmericanSchools of OrientalResearch.

Advertising.Correspondenceshouldbe addressedto the JohnsHopkinsUniversity Press,701 W.40th Street,Suite 275, Baltimore, MD 21211(telephone:301-338-6982). Compositionby LiberatedTypes,Ltd., Durham,NC. Printedby PBMGraphics, Inc., Raleigh,NC. BiblicalArchaeologistis not responsible for errorsin copy preparedby the advertiser. The editor reservesthe rightto refuse any ad. Adsfor the sale of antiquitieswill not be accepted. Article proEditorialCorrespondence. posals, manuscripts,andeditorialcorrespondenceshould be sent to the ASOR PublicationsOffice,P.O.BoxH.M., Duke Station,Durham,NC 27706. Unsolicited manuscriptsmust be accompaniedby a self-addressed,stampedenvelope.Foreign contributorsshould furnishinternational replycoupons. Manuscriptsmust conformto the format used in BiblicalArchaeologist,with full bibliographicreferencesand a minimum of endnotes.See recent issues for examples of the properstyle. Manuscriptsmust also include appropriate illustrationsand legends.Authorsare responsiblefor obtainingpermissionto use illustrations.

the Authors Introducing Since 1980 Seymour Gitin has been the Director and Professorof Archaeologyat the W.F AlbrightInstitute of ArchaeologicalResearch,one of the American Schools of Oriental Research, in Jerusalem. He has excavated at numerous sites in Israel, including Gezer, JebelQacaqir, Tel Dor, and, most recently, Tel Miqne-Ekron. He also has been very active in promotingthe publication of excavations, servingon the editorialboardof BA, as Associate Editorof the ASOR Dissertation Series, as initiator and ProjectDirectorof Excavationsand Surveysin Israel, the English-languageversion of Hadashot Arkeologiyot (the archaeological newsletter of the Israel Department of Antiquities), and as Editor of the forthcoming ASOR annual number 49 on recent excavations in Israel. TrudeDothan is the E. L. Sukenik Professor of Archaeology of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She has excavatedat Athienou on Cyprus and at Hazor, En-gedi, TelQasile, TelEitun, andTelMiqne-Ekron-where she is Codirector of the dig with Seymour Gitin-in Israel. Professor Dothan has published many studies on the Philistine period in ancient Israel,including the seminal work The Philistines and Their Material Culture (New Haven:YaleUniversity Press, 1982). Prior to becoming a Codirector of the Joint Sepphoris Project,EricM. Meyersconductedexcavationsat Khirbet Shemac, Meiron, Gush Halav, and Nabratein in Upper Galilee. A Professorof Religion at Duke University, he is also currentlyFirstVice Presidentfor Publications of the American Schools of Oriental Researchand Editorof BA.

SeymourGitin and TRudeDothan I m m

=

DavidNoelFreedman

Ehud Netzer, a member of the faculty of the Institute of Archaeology at the Hebrew University, is an expert on Herodian architecture and remains. His digs at Herodium and Jerichohave attractedworldwide attention, and he is presently a Codirectorof the JointSepphorisProject. Carol L. Meyers is an Associate Professor of Religion and Associate Director of Women's Studies at Duke University. She is also a Codirector of the Joint Sepphoris Project, as well as Vice President of the W. E Albright Institute of Archaeological Research. She has excavated for over twenty years at sites in Israel and in North America. Volkmar Fritz is Professor of Old Testament and Biblical Archaeology at the Justus Liebig Universitiit Giessen in West Germany. A former Codirector of the excavations at Tel Masos, Dr. Fritz has directed the excavations at Kinneret since 1982. He is an authority on the Iron Age in

VolkmarFritz

Palestine and has published many articles on the topic in scholarly journals. David Noel Freedmanis Professorof Biblical Studies and Director of the Program on Studies in Religion at the University of Michigan;he also holds an appointment in biblical studies at the University of California at San Diego. A former Editor of BA, Dr. Freedmanis Editorof the Anchor Bible critical commentary series, a compendium of in-depth studies on each book of the Bible.

In Memoriam

a~

-

Yigal Shiloh, age 50, noted archaeologistand excavatorof the City of David, passed awayon November 14, 1987, at HadassahHospital in Jerusalem.Until two weeks before, ProfessorShiloh was at Duke University, where he had servedas the first Smart Family FoundationProfessorof Judaic Studies. His many students at Duke and colleagues there join in mourning the passing of a dear friend, teacher, and scholar. Despite a virulent cancer that sacked much of his physical strength and energy, Dr. Shiloh taught his classes up to severalweeks before his death, and the impression this feat made on all concerned was unforgettable. Yigal Shiloh will alwaysbe rememberedfor his intellectual rigor and physical vigor. He was a man of deep conviction. He lived and breathed archaeology and nothing excited him more than a detailed stratigraphic discussion on a field trip, especially at the City of David, around which he personally guided thousands of distinguished visitors. Strongly committed to his views, he was always open to intellectual challenges that were groundedin data and well reasoned. One of his earliest published articles was on ancient synagogues and Jewish art, a subject that continued to attract him his entire life. Most of his scholarly career was then devoted to the architecture and architectural

196

Biblical Archaeologist, December 1987

style of Iron Age Israel, from proto-Aeolic capitals to water tunnels, from four-room houses to Israelite masonry.What capturedhis heart, however,and won the attention of the world, was his pioneering excavation on a massive scale in the City of David. Fully computerized, with an international team of distinction, the City of David Excavationshowcasedone of Israel'sfinest younger scholars prosecuting the stratigraphicmethod on a scale that suited so enormous a site. Most balks were drawn; stone-by-stone drawings were always accompanied by first-ratereconstruction drawings, often color-coded to facilitate the visual understanding; and every artifact assemblage was carefully recordedand preparedfor final publication. In recognition of his tremendous achievement in the Jerusalemexcavation, he was awardedthe JerusalemPrize only days beforehis death. He struggled valiantly but in vain to regainhis vitality for the moment he would receive the prize he so covetedand for which he and his entire staff, and especially his field adjutantand wife, Tami, had invested so much of their physical and emotional energies. The City of David Excavationswill also be rememberedbecause of areaG and Yigal Shiloh'sheroic struggle with the haredim, the religious extremists who tried to close down the excavation on the pretense that the excavators were digging Jewish graves in violation of Jewish religious law. There was no tomb excavation nor violation of Jewish law and yet the extremists physically attacked, at one time knocking Yigal Shiloh down into a trench and injuring his back. The incident and subsequent struggle received such wide publicity there was talk of Yigal Shiloh runningforKnesset. His own mentor, the late ProfessorYigael Yadin,also became involved in the defense of the City of David Excavation as did all Israeliarchaeologistsandfriendsworldwide.Yigalsaw in these attacks a threat to academic freedom and a danger to the welfare of the state of Israel.In both regardshe was prescient, as the struggle against extremism and religious fundamentalism in Israel, as in many other places today,remains very much in vogue. Yigal Shiloh would want to be remembered as a fighter,and we areall gratefulto him for having stood his groundand for having made us all awareat a new level of meaning the high stakes in the Israeli archaeologial community's continuing strugglewith religious extremism. He may have lost his struggle with cancer but the fight he wagedmade all who observedhim these past two years admirehis courage,will, and love of life. All of us at BA, at Duke, and in the American Schools of Oriental Researchjoin with all who mourn him in saying thank you for all you have left to future generations.

I)I ab

de

shall

o

ur

.n her

i+t olds

will stro, c

I

"owlvna? Its-* I

_%

I&.

P.-?

turnagains

my

rem l~krd~n;-ad

hnd

the

nantof Pilisines* te

I

says shall~perish"'

and Fall oEkron

The

RIse

These sherds of Anatolian GreyPolished Warewith wavy incised decoration were found in field I in stratum VIIIA(which has been dated to around the late thirteenth centuryB.C.E.). This ware is not widely encounteredin Canaan, and the discoveryof these fragments thus hints at the establishment of new cultural connections for Ekronat the veryend of the Late Bronzeperiod.

Dothan GitinandTrude ofthe Phikti"nes bySeymour kronwasoneofthefivemajorcities(oftenreferred to as

Recent atan

Border

Excavations Urban Site

the Pentapolis) of the Philistines. It is well known from biblical texts, where its political status as a Philistine capital city is clearly delineated in the Book of Joshua "This is the land that yet remains: all the regions of the (13:2-3): Philistines ... northwardto the boundaryof Ekron,it is reckoned as Canaanite;there are five rulers of the Philistines, those of Gaza, Ashdod, Ashkelon, Gath, and Ekron."The city is also referredto as a focal point for events reputed to have taken place during the Iron I period-the story concerning the captureof the ark (1 Samuel 5:10),

Biblical Archaeologist, December 1987

197

Tel

Miqne

Identification

T

Mmd

Af

and the David and Goliath epic (1 Samuel 17:52). The references to it in the Bible often reflect the antagonism that existed between the Philistines and the Israelites. Amos (1:8), Jeremiah (25:20), Zephaniah (2:4), and Zechariah (9:5 and 7) denounce it as a symbol of evil to be destroyed. In 2 Kings 1:2-16 its god is several times referred to as Bacalzebub -that is, "Lordof the Flies'-a mocking distortion of Baal-zebul, "Exalted Lord."These references suggest, albeit in a backhanded way, the importance of the city. Until recently it was believed that Ekron, which most scholars identify with Tel Miqne (Khirbet el-Muqannac), was founded by the Philistines. Our excavations now show that this is not the case. They have also supplied much information about a long period in the life of the city. In this paper we would like to report what six seasons of excavation' at Tel Miqne have revealed about Ekron during the Late Bronze and early Iron periods (part 1) and during the Iron II period (part 2). But,

198

the

and

of

Ekron

is about 22 miles southwest of Jeruel Miqne (Khirbet el-Muqannac) salem. Rising 7 meters above the plain and covering 50 acres, it is the largest mound associated with the inner coastal plain and one of the largest Iron Age sites in Israel. It overlooks an ancient network of highways and is situated on the western edge of the natural and historical frontier zone that separatedPhilistia and Judah. William F.Albright was the first to survey this site in modem times. In 1924, based on ceramic evidence, he identified it with biblical Eltekeh (Albright1924, 1925).His identification was influenced by three factors. First,he had alreadyidentified Qatraas Ekron(Albright1923:5).Whenhe came to Khirbetel-Muqannac,he was looking fora site to fit the historical and geographicaldescriptionof Eltekeh. Second,while he recognizedthat Muqannacwas a largesite -estimating that in one section it was a quarterof a mile long-he did not comprehendits full dimensions. He did not recognize that the 40 acres of the lower tell and a second mound (the Northwest Acropolis),which he subsequently identified (correctly)as the later village of the Byzantine and Islamic periods, were integral parts of the site. Even after the survey by the Israel Department of Antiquities in 1957, in which JosephNaveh mapped the true size of the site and outlined its extensive Iron Age fortifications, he did not accept the identification of the site with Ekron (Albright 1975: 509, note 3). What Albright identified as Eltekeh is what is now known as the Northeast Acropolis,or upper city, of Ekron;this area has the appearanceof a Khirbeh (ruin).Fitting in with his identification of a Khirbehwas the site'sslight depth of debris, which he noted in his report. He did not know, however,as we do today,that at least one-thirdof the height of the tell was maskedby the buildup of alluvial sediment from the downflow of the Nahal Soreq. The terminus ante quem (the earliest possible date) of this accumulation of alluvial sediment falls in the Byzantine period, a calculation based on its latest ceramic evidence. Third, his failure to find any evidence of Late Bronze Age occupation strengthenedhis belief that the site was Eltekeh,which is only mentioned in texts from the first half of the first millennium B.C.E. Almost three decades later the researchersfrom the Circle for Historical Geography,using a set of factors similar to his, reaffirmedAlbright'sidentification of Muqannacwith Eltekeh (Kallai-Kleinmann1951, 1952).By 1953, however,his identification of Qatrawith Ekronwas coming under question. Benjamin Mazar (Maisler 1953) suggested that Ti1 Batash be identified as Ekronbecause of historical andgeographicfactors.Soon afterthis, the subject was reinvestigatedby Kallai (Kallai-Kleinmann1958)in his work on the town lists of Judah,Simeon, Bejamin, and Dan. Influenced by Mazar,a shift was made.Tel Batashwas identified with Timnah and Khirbetel-Muqannacwith Ekron.Kallaibasedhis new identificationpartly on his reinterpretationof the northwest boundaryline of Judahand the then-recent researchat Muqannac by Naveh, whose 1957surveyforthe Departmentof Antiquities really formed the basis of the identification (Naveh 1958: 166-70). It was Natan Aidlin, a member of the nearbyKibbutz Revadim,who alerted the Department of Antiquities to the factthat the site had a huge lower section of 40 acres (Naveh 1958:91). Subsequentdiscussion in the literaturehas supportedthe identification of T1iMiqne with Ekron,especially in view of our new perceptionof the size and strategiclocation of the tell as we look at biblical and extrabiblicaltexts (Wright1966:76, note 14;Aharoni 1979:270-73).

Biblical Archaeologist, December 1987

Philistines were among the Sea Peoples that first appearedin the eastern Mediterraneanin the second half of the thirteenth century B.C.E., and they emerge from biblical and Egyptianhistorical accounts as a strong influence on the history and culture of Palestine.At that time the two major powers,Egyptandthe Hittites, werepolitically weak andmilitarily impotent, and the SeaPeoplesexploited the powervacuum thus createdin the regionby invadingareaspreviouslysubjectto EgyptianandHittite control.In waveafter wave of land and sea assaults they attacked Syria,Palestine, and even Egypt; the last and mightiest wave, in which the Philistines took part, stormed the coast of Palestine at the beginning of the reign of Ramesses III (around 1198-1166 B.C.E.).Accordingto Egyptiansources, Ramesses defeatedthe invaders after fierce naval and land battles. Subsequently, according to the Egyptianaccount, Ramesses gavethem permission to settle on the southern coastal plain of Palestine.There they developedinto an independentpolitical factor of major importance and constituted a threat to the disunited Canaanitecity-states. Duringthe same periodthe Israelites,who hadinvadedPalestinefromthe east, were settling in the hill country.From the middle of the twelfth to the end of the eleventh century,they fought with the Philistines for the cultural and political domination of the country.Both historically and culturally this was the Philistines'most flourishingera.Fromthe early tenth century on, the Philistines steadily declined in importanceuntil they playedno more than a minor part in the history of Palestine. fromDothan(1982:1).Itis nowknownthatin theIronIIC Note:Theaboveis excerpted

The

there was a resurgenceof Philistine influence, and period (the seventh century B.C.E.) Ekron,togetherwith other Philistine cities againbecame prominent.

TelMiqne-Ekronas viewed from the south.

first, a brief overview of the areas of excavation and the history of the site is in order. Thus far at Tel Miqne evidence has been gathered in five fields. Field I, on the upper tell, is comprised of a

48-meter-long sondage (trench) on the slope of the Northeast Acropolis and additional soundings in immediately adjacent areas. Their purpose was to establish the stratigraphic profile and occupational history of the site. Field II is a sounding in the southeast corner of the lower tell. Field III is a large horizontal exposure of 1,080 square meters in the

center of the south face of the lower tell. These were opened in order to plan and date the fortification system and the gate of the lower city. Field IV is made up of four soundings strategically located along a 192-meter section line extending from field III across the center of the lower tell to the base of the Northwest Acropolis. In 1986 the sounding in the northwest quadrant of field IV was expanded horizontally to include an area of 120 square meters. The main objective in this field was to determine the character of the occupation of the inner city. Field V is a sounding on the Northwest Acropolis. It was done to establish the occupation sequence of the Iron II city. A survey of the tell and adjacent areas was also conducted, for the purpose of mapping the remains of the oil installation buildings. The sondage of field I indicates that the history of Ekron stretches well back beyond the Iron Age. This trench, which has provided the most complete stratified profile of the tell, has yielded pottery of the late Chalcolithic, Early Bronze I-II, and Middle Bronze IIA-C periods in mixed fills and mudbricks from occupied phases dating to Late Bronze and Iron I. In general, the site witnessed the following stages. During Late Bronze, Miqne was the site of a Canaanite city-state. Then in the twelfth century B.C.E.the Philistines (one of the Sea Peoples) turned it into a large fortified city that encompassed the entire 50 acres of the tell. Around the tenth century, a dramatic change took place, as the city, still fortified, shrank to about 10 acres, concentrated in the Northeast Acropolis, or upper tell. In the seventh century B.C.E.the city was expanded to include both the upper and lower tells, as it became a large urban industrial center. Finally, in the sixth century B.C.E.,Miqne was the site of a random, unfortified settlement, with a small occupation area on the lower tell.

Biblical Archaeologist, December 1987

199

Part1

The

Late

Iron

Ages

Bronze

and

Early

by TrudeDothan

T

he LateBronzeAgeat Ekron, unknownpriorto the current hasemergedasanimporexcavations, tantperiodof occupation.Stratum IX(theearlieststratifiedevidencefor the tell) includesin its finalphase a two-roomstructurethat clearly hadanindustrialfunction.Destroyed by fire,its floorwascoveredwith mudbrickdestructiondebris.In its northroomwe foundan installation consistingof an invertedstorejar with a hole in its base;it wassunken into a white plasterfloorandcovered with a heavylayerof grayash.Based on ceramicfindsthat includemany importsfromCyprus(black-on-red ware,a BaseRingI Bilbil,Monochromebowls,andWhiteSlipII milk bowls),this industrialinstallationhasbeendatedto the fif-

Topographicalmap of TelMiqne-Ekron showing the five fields currentlyunder excavation, designated with roman numerals.

teenth-fourteenth centuriesB.C.E. Abovethe heavydestruction layerof stratumIXis a sequenceof threearchitectural phases(stratum to the fourteenthdating VIIIB) thirteenthcenturiesB.C.E.The earliest phaseconsistsof a seriesof floors. Abovethis, in the next phase,are architecturalfeatures,includingtwo largeareasseparatedby a stonewall. Oneof these is a roomwith a cobbled floorandbeatenearthsurfaces.The otheris a courtyard,with a large well-builtplasteredvat thathas a sumpin its base.The finalphase consistsof a roomdividedby a mudbrickwall.It was coveredby a thick

100

S995

' "''

I

Be

layer of grayash and destruction debris.This complex yielded Mycenaean IIIBand Cypriote imports, as well as two Egyptian-stylevessels -

200

Biblical Archaeologist, December 1987

I

IB-III lOth-7th

ceramicIV

S m

vI o

5

V VI VII VIII

Ilth/lOth

Ilth 12th 12th 13th

a beer bottle and a bowl. (Such Egyptian-stylevessels are rareat Ekron.)The pottery assemblage was found together with a typical array of plain andpainted Canaanite coarse ware, including an example with the ibex-and-palm-treemotif. This phase also included a single burial;the skeleton was lying on its side, with a large storagejarat its head. Burial gifts included a faience seal and a scarabof Egypt'sNineteenth Dynasty that were placed on the skull and a calcite tazza of Egyptianstyle that was placed near the head. The discovery of a burial in this location may indicate that the eastern section of field INE lies on the periphery of the Late Bronze city. StratumVIIIA,which includes a sequence of four primarily mudbrick structures, is associated with the culmination of the LateBronzeAge (aroundthe end of the thirteenth The final, or highest, century B.C.E.). phase of this stratum has a main room with a cornering of two mudbrick walls and two stone socles with mudbrick superstructures. Tuyeresindicate that there was bronze-relatedindustrial activity during this period. On the floor we found fragments of two large kraters of Anatolian Grey Polished Ware. These belong to the second-to-last phase of the stratum, and, since this ware is not widely encountered in Canaan, they hint at the establishment of new cultural connections for Ekronat the very end of Late Bronze. (Fora full treatment of the Anatolian Grey Polished Ware,see Buchholz 1974.) Isometricplan of field I (on the Northeast Acropolis).Comparethe selected reference features (indicated by lowercase roman letters)with those shown in the photograph:(a) ashlar-facedmudbrick tower;(b)mudbrick city-wall; (c)stone wall separatingroom with cobbled floor and beaten earth surfacesfrom courtyardwith plastered vat; (d) wall line, possibly inner wall of double-wall system; (e) plastered vat; (f)stone socle; (g)square kiln; (h)part of citadel tower;and (i) shrine. (See part 2 of this article for discussion of features in strata IB-III.)

The history of the Canaanite city-state at Ekronduring the Late Bronze,especially as it is represented by the diverse group of ceramic imports, reflects the international characterof the period. Although the sequence of the Late Bronze city has been exposed only in the field INE sondage, ceramic finds from this period are attested in every field on the tell, suggesting that this city may have extended over most of its area.The circumferenceof the city could not be determined from the trial trench alone. To date, no trace of fortifications has been found.

INE and associated exclusively with MycenaeanIIIC:lbpottery, and the second- a reinforcement of the first- attested in fields I and IIIand associated with the first appearance of Philistine Bichrome pottery. A number of kilns of different types (which suggests a large industrial area)was excavatedin the area immediately adjacentto the citywall in field INE. The best preserved of these was associated with the second-to-the-lastphase of stratum VII.It is a unique square kiln that has a lower firing box with flues; this is separatedfrom the firing chamber by a mudbrick platform; The EarlyIron Age a stoking hole leads into its lower A major change in the occupation of chamber. the site is seen in stratum VII.The An enormous quantity of Myceabsence of Aegean and Cypriote im- naean IIIC:lbpottery was found ports signals the end of the Canaanite in this area,and neutron activation settlement. (The cessation of such analysis has shown that it was locally made (Gunneweg,Perlman, Dothan, imports is generally recognized as a hallmark of the termination of the and Gitin 1986).Locally made potLate BronzeAge in Canaanand tery of this type, associated with kilns of the early Iron Age, has also throughout the eastern Mediterrabeen noted elsewhere in the coastal nean.) A new pottery type appearslocally made MycenaeanIIIC:lbmarking the beginning of IronI. The stratum is also distinguished by the establishment of industrial kilns and a well-planned,fortified city in the first third of the twelfth century B.C.E. It is possibleto identify, on the basis of the changes in material culture, industrial activity, cult practices, and city planning, a new ethnic group with strong Aegean ties -the Philistines, one of the Sea Peoples. These changes show a strong inclination on the part of this groupto recreate as much as possible its home environment in the Aegean world. The city of this period was fortified by a mudbrick wall that was 3.25 meters thick. The mudbricks of the wall contained pottery whose A new pottery type appearsin stratum VII, latest date is LateBronzeII. Extenmarking the beginningof the Iron I period sions of the wall were found along (about 1200 B.C.E.). Locally made and of the form known as Mycenaean mIC:lb, this the tell's northeast and southern suggests the appearanceat Ekronof a crests, indicating that the Iron I city pottery new ethnic groupwith strongAegean tiesthe Philistines, one of the Sea Peoples.Note occupied the entire 50 acres of the the distinctive decoration on these sherds, tell. Two fortification phases were observed:the earliest attested in field which were found in field INE.

Biblical Archaeologist, December 1987

201

plain at Ashdod (M. Dothan 1972, 1979)and Acco (M. Dothan 1986),as well as in the north, at Sareptain Lebanon(Herscher1975),and at the major city of Miletus on the southwest coast of Asia Minor (V.Hankey, personal communication). The locally made Mycenaean IIIC:lbat Ekron,with its similarities in ware, form, and decoration to the pottery manufacturedin Cyprus during the same period, reflects the firsthandknow-how of the new settlers. Not only did they use their skills to manufacturefine tableware, such as bell-shapedbowls, kraters with horizontal handles, stirrupjars, and strainer-spoutjugs, decorated with many variations on spirals and related motifs, but they also made plain vessels that can be traced to the Aegean. Forinstance, the lekane or kalathos (v-shaped,deep bowls, with horizontal handles made of well-levigated clay and in some cases decoratedwith plain bands)were most common. Also, small, rather delicate cooking pots, which were globular and had one or two handles, and which were not a continuation of a local Canaanite tradition, were well attested. They are known from Cyprus and the Aegean and also appearat Ashdod together with MycenaeanIIIC:lbpottery.The Canaanite ceramic tradition did continue in other forms, however- for instance in store jars,juglets, bowls, lamps, and cooking pots that were found with MycenaeanIIIC:lbpottery. In the kiln area,at least, the new ceramic style associated with the arrivalof newcomers makes up 60 percent of the pottery assemblage. A number of objects of a cultic nature were found in the kiln area. Decorated in a typical Mycenaean IIIC:lbstyle, they include several figurines and a stylized head with a spreadingheaddressand birdlike face reminiscent of the Ashdodaa female figurine, with a body in the shape of a couch, first found at Ashdod, that is considered a hallmark of the mother goddess in

202

Field I

Centuries B.C.E.

Strata IA

Sixth

IB

Lastquarter of seventh

IHA

I

IIB

III

Firstthree quartersof seventh

Secondhalf of eighth

Firsthalf of eighth

Secondhalf of eleventhl earlytenth

V

Firsthalf of eleventh

Citywall Citadel tower

Ashlarfaced

Offsetinset bastion

Citadel tower drain

tower

- - - - - -

and Citywall

0

ITenth/ninth

IV

*

Citywall Gate Tower Street

Plaster roadway

Oil industrial complex

Cobbled roadway

Second two-thirds of twelfth

VII

Firstthird of twelfth

Revetment

Citywall

VIIA

Endof thirteenth

Rooms

Domestic building (kilns)

*

Roadway Domes- Rooms Building tic buildings

Courtyard

Public area

Room

Occupationgap

Occupationgap

Occupationgap

Occupationgap

Occupationgap

Occupationgap

Gate Tower Platform Cultic & domestic buildings Domestic building

Field V

and

ToIbwer Rooms Industrial install. Mudbrick Plastered Building

VI

Field IV

Courtyard building

Inner wall line IC

Field III

Field II

City-

wall

Revetment Gate?

public

Plastered structure building (cultic) rooms Drainage installation Citywall Rooms

Industrial areaskilns

Domestic areas Bronzeindustry

VIIIB

Fourteenth/ thirteenth

Domesticarea Vat(burial)

IX

Fifteenth/ Fourteenth

Rooms Installation

Notes:FieldIVpresentsinformationfromthreesoundings(in the southeast,southwest,andnortheast-representedby the left subby the rightsubcolumn)that extendeda soundingin the northwest.The column),as well as froma horizontalexposure(represented heavylines ( ) signifydestruction;the dots (e),the presenceof only ceramicevidence.

Biblical Archaeologist, December 1987

This unique squarekiln, found in stratum VIIof field INEand here viewed from the north, may have been part of a large industrial areaimmediately adjacent to the city-wall. An enormous quantity of MycenaeanIIIC:lbpottery was also found in this area.

IRI

Severalobjects of a cultic nature were found in the kiln area in stratum VIIof field INE, including these figurines that are in the Mycenaean tradition. Note the similarity of the head in the middle of the top row, with its spreadingheaddress and birdlikeface, to the Ashdoda.

The shrine shown below, excavatedin stratum V of field I, lay on the peripheryof the city. It has yielded a rich assortment of cultic finds, including a lion-headed rhyton (see the cover of this issue.) Also recoveredhere were severalincised bovine scapulae, one of which is shown above,long known from shrines on Cyprusand associated with the public ritual of divination in which the ox was the chief sacrificial animal.

with beaten earth. Pillar bases were placed at two of its corners.The extension of this structure lies below the balk. Though its exact reconstruction is not yet known, we may conjecture on the basis of Aegean analogies the existence of two more pillars, one at each of the remaining corners.Thus we would have a feature known in the Aegean megaron. The next stage of occupation, representedby stratum VI, is defined by a sequence of floor levels within a building complex. The plan of this

complex, different in characterfrom the plan of stratum VII,consists of three rooms, separatedfrom each other by narrowpassageways,and part of a fourth room. The plan remains basically the same in stratum V, in which the special features and associated finds clearly identify it as a cultic installation or shrine. This small shrine, which lay on the periphery of the city, has yielded a rich assortment of cultic items from its different phases, including miniature vessels, clay figurines of the

22CM

This figurine- nicknamed Ashdoda- was found on the floor of a twelfth-century-B.C.E. house in the Philistine stratumXIIat Ashdod. Measuring17 centimeters in height, the figurineis most likely a schematic representation of a female deity and throne and is evidently a variant of the Mycenaeanfemale figure seated on a throne,sometimes holding a child, that is well known throughoutthe Greekmainland, Rhodes, and Cyprus.Drawing courtesy of the IsraelExplorationSociety.

!C-lf ~t~SL~_

This ivory comb, found in stratum VIIof field INE,is additional evidence of an Aegean connection not previously encountered at Ekron.

Aegean cult practices (T.Dothan 1982:234 and following). The broad pottery repertoireof both luxury and domestic vessels, as well as the small finds - for instance, an ivory comb-have strong Aegean connections that had not been previously encountered at Ekron.This is good evidence that the new settlers of this period come from an Aegean background. Also associated with stratum VIIis a well-built, rectangular, cobbled platform that was covered

Biblical Archaeologist, December 1987

203

of the earlier period appearsin gradually diminishing amounts. One of the special finds from field IIIassociated with this phase is a beautifully workedivory knife -----t handle with a suspension hole. Close ;.. parallels to it have been found at i••-•. ... Enkomi on Cyprus and at Ialyssos on Rhodes in the Aegean (Courtois 1984:26-11, plate 11).Also, a com~~~~~ ii~ plete example of this type of handle, ii l still attached to its iron blade, was found in the temple of stratum XII (mid-twelfthcentury B.C.E.) at Tel Qasile (Mazar1985a:7). In the same areaat Miqne a gold, double-coil hair Excavationsin field IV have revealed that duringIron I (approximately1200-1000 ring was recovered,and this points B.C.E.)there was an administrative district in the center of the city. A well-planned monumental building-possibly a governor'sresidence- was uncoveredthere. This again to the Aegean world (Higgins which was in at three successive stratum IV and used least 1961:91 and following). building, may phases of have originatedin stratum V was found with its plasteredmudbrick walls preserved The development of the city's to a height of 1.1 meters. Shown here is the building from stratum IVC. 7wo of its fortifications, first observedin field rooms have definite cultic indications. The southernroom (in the top left of the the the contained a bamah and while and benches, photograph top right of drawing) INE, was traced as well in the northernroom had a plastered,funnel-shapedinstallation set into the floor. The two southern section of the lower tell rooms opened into a courtyardwith a hearth and two pillar bases. The drawingindicates the pottery discoveredin the building, including a cache of vessels in the (field III),where remains of massive northernroom that contained an elaborate bottle with a dotted scale and triangle fortifications with attached rooms decoration;a horn-shaped,red-slippedand burnished bottle; an elongated bottle were uncovered.The heavy-white with horizontal red stripes;a red-slipped,black decoratedand highly burnished carinated beer bottle; a globularflask; a painted bowl; and a sherd with spiral deco- plasteredmudbrick walls of these ration (froma Philistine Bichrome,bell-shapedbowl with horizontal handles). Defortifications and rooms are typical based Philistine bowls with horizontal handles were found in the cornerof the room. of all buildings of the late-twelfth through eleventh centuries B.C.E.on the site. The fortifications of the lower tell relate to the reinforcetine Bichrome pottery in a sealed Ashdoda type, kernos fragments, and a lion-headedrhyton (T.Dothan context was found in the earliest ment of the earlier fortifications known from the northeast part of 1982: 234 and following; Mazar phase of stratum VI, which dates it to the final two-thirdsof the twelfth the city, a reinforcement associated 1980: 101-03). The rhyton is rewith the second phase of the Sea markablysimilar to one found in century B.C.E.Philistine Bichrome the temple favissa (arepositoryfor ware differsfrom the earlier,simply Peoples'occupation of Ekron. Near the fortifications, a crudiscardedcultic objects)at TelQasile. decoratedMycenaeanIIIC:lbpottery cible with traces of silver was found have a in with its red and black decoration objects long history (Such in the Aegeanworld.)In addition, divisions into metopes and its use of in a huge installation lined with hamra (ared, sandy plaster)?This several incised bovine scapulae were the fish and bird motifs in a highly recoveredhere. Bovine scapulae, stylized manner. This new pottery, suggests the existence of a metal inlong known from shrines on Cyprus, which has close affinities with the dustry. If such were the case, then are clearly associated with the pubElaborateStyle of MycenaeanIIIC:lb here, as in field I, we find an induslic ritual of divination in which the pottery that was just then appearing trial area located on the periphery of ox was the chief sacrificial animal in Cyprus, may have been triggered the Iron I city. Thus there seems to of settlers at The earliest a second influx 1986: have been a tradition of town planby (Webb 326-27). Ekron.Its appearanceon the scene ning that took into account ecologiscapula at Ekron,found in stratum VI, may mark this shrine as one of correspondswith the first historical cal factors (a similar awareness is the first cultic installations of the mention of the Philistines in the demonstrated in the Iron II city in Sea People/Philistines established in annals from the eighth year of field III, discussed in part 2 below). Ramesses III(T.Dothan, in press)? The character of the Iron I finds Philistia, and it may indicate that from its inception the complex func- Philistine Bichromepottery becomes in field IV, in the center of the city, tioned as a cultic installation. predominantby the end of this phase, differs markedly from those just The first appearanceof Philiswhile the MycenaeanIIIC:lbpottery described for field III. The four exca-

204

Biblical Archaeologist, December 1987

vation squares opened thus far in field IV indicate that this was undoubtedly an administrative district. A well-planned monumental building-possibly a governor'sresidence or palace- was uncoveredhere. Its plastered mudbrick walls were well preservedand still standing to a height of 1.1 meters. This building was used in at least three successive phases of stratum IV and may have originated in stratum V. Two of its rooms (fromstratum IVC)have definite cultic indications, both in their architecturalfeatures and in their special finds. In the southeast corner of the southern room, opposite the entrance, there was a plastered mudbrick bamah that was preservedto a height of 1 meter. On it were two bowls and a flask with red concentric circles. Near the bottom of the bamah was a bench that ran aroundits base. The presence of the bamah continued the local Canaanite tradition seen at

courtyardthat ran perpendicular to them. In the center of this was a large round hearth, well constructed, with a pebble base. It contained a heavy ash layerwith charcoal and bones, some of which were identified as fish bones. Nearby,chicken bones were found-a discovery that is unique in archaeologicalexcavations in Israel (B.Hesse, personal communication). Twopillar bases made of stone lay to the north and south of the hearth. They probably once held wooden pillars, long since disintegrated. Hearths are an important feature in Cyprus and the Aegean, particularly in the plan of the megaron, where they are the central architectural element. Hearths are rare, however,in Canaan. They are known only from Ashkelon, where three superimposed brick hearths came to light this season (LawrenceStager, private communication) and Tel Qasile (Mazar1985a:3-4). These Tel Mevorakh and Tel Qasile - also two cities and Ekronare all Philiswell known at Cyprus and in the tine and exhibit strong Aegean connections. Aegean at such sites as Enkomi, The latest building underwent Kition, Phylakopi, and Mycenae In minor modifications in plan in Dothan 1982: Canaanite only 251). (T. tradition these structures existed as the next two phases - strata IVBand independent shrines (as,for instance, IVA.A room dating to stratum IVA at Qasile). In the Aegean, as at Ekron, contained a large assemblage of they were part of a largerbuilding pottery- including at least a huncomplex. We are thus led to consider dred red-slippedbowls, flasks, and the question of influences and inter- chalices, some with debased Philisconnections between the Aegean and tine spirals - and special objects the Orient, a consideration that stacked on the floor. The diminutive must be made in light of the finds size of most of the vessels points to from both areas and taking into actheir special votive character.The count architecture, cult objects, and pottery assemblage has striking afcult practices (Mazar1980:61-73). finities to the collection from the The northern room had an offside entrance and a large mudbrick threshold that was cobbled with wadi pebbles. A plastered, funnelshaped installation (40 centimeters deep) was set into the floor at the eastern end of the room. A cache of vessels was found stacked alongside the east wall, and debased Philistine bowls with horizontal handles were found in one corner. The two rooms opened into a

shrine in stratum X at Tel Qasile and reflects the transition in Philistine ceramics from bichrome decoration to allover red slip. The cache of special finds, dating to the end of the eleventh and beginning of the tenth centuries B.C.E., included several terra-cotta vessels and many artifacts of ivory. In addition, there were a number of faience items, most notably a faience earplug4 decorated with a rosette

pattern. This collection of special finds has strong ties to New Kingdom art from the Twenty-firstDynasty in Egypt.The appearancehere of these artifacts indicates a turning point in Philistine material culture: Its uniqueness was lost and new features were introduced that reflect the impact of the nearby Egyptian and Phoenician cultures. The excavations of the early Iron Age city at Ekronprovide a clear glimpse into the history of a large urban center with a rich material culture: from its initial settlement, associated with the arrivalof the Philistines (SeaPeoples),to its refortification and development into one of the Pentapolis cities (featuring industrial areas,unique cultic installations, and a distinctive material culture, all reflecting strong Aegean ties), to its sudden end, witnessed by the stacks of vessels left on the floors of stratum IVA. The peak of the early Iron Age city was reached in the eleventh century B.C.E., as attested in all areas of excavation. This flourishing, however, came hand-in-handwith the loss of uniqueness of the material culture. The quality of the Philistine Bichrome pottery degeneratedas Egyptianand Phoenician influences had their effects on art and cult practices. Destroyed and partially abandoned, the bulk of the city lay barren for 270 years, until it was resettled in the seventh century B.C.E. Who destroyedthe city? What reasonsmilitary, political, or economic can account for the sudden abandonment of a major urban center? The answer probably relates to the change in the geopolitics of the region, which brought an end to the city of Tel Qasile around the early tenth century B.C.E., attributed to Davidic campaigns, and to Ashdod X, possibly by a raid of the Egyptian pharaoh Siamun. The effect of this destruction and what happened next in the life of the city will be treated in part 2.

Biblical Archaeologist, December 1987

205

Part 2

Urban in the

Growth

and

I

Period

Iron

Decline

at

Ekron

by SeymourGitin the beginning of the first milAt lennium B.C.E.a dramaticchange took place at Ekron.The city suddenly shrank from 50 to 10 acres, with its population restrictedto a small corner of the tell. Hundreds of years passed before it grew to encompass the entire site again. What forces brought about the decline, and subsequent revival, in Ekron's urban development during IronII?In the following, using excavationand historical data,5I shall attempt to answer this question. In doing this I shall focus on environmental, geopolitical, and economic phenomena. Iron IIA and IIB. StrataIIIand II have been found only in field I, on the Northeast Acropolis.This indicates that from about 1000 until 700 B.C.E. only the upper tell was occupied. The primarydata in these strataare fortifications6and citadel towers. The former,which include a massive 7-meter-widemudbrick tower that is faced with largeblocks of ashlar masonry in a header-and-stretcher construction, were built against a mudbrick city-wall that had two distinct construction phases. The earliest possible date for construction of the tower and the first phase of the city-wallis the beginning of the tenth century B.C.E.This date has been provided by the latest pottery from their mudbricks (red-slipped bowls with incurved rims), which is the most characteristic ceramic form of stratum IV,the last phase of Iron I in the lower tell, and which has good parallels dating to the eleventh-tenth centuries B.C.E. in Qasile X-IX (Mazar

206

From about 1000 until 700 B.C.E.(during Iron

IIA and IIB)only the uppertell was occupied. One of the primarydiscoveriesfrom this period is a set of fortifications, including a massive 7-meter-widemudbrick towerin field I (the only field in which strata III and II have been found). The tower, which is here viewed from the southeast, is faced with large blocks of ashlar masonry in a headerand-stretcherconstruction. Note the fallen stones and the dark ashy destruction debris above the ashlars. (See the isometric plan of field I in part 1 of this article.)

1985:figures39.6 and 52.2) andGezer X-IX (Dever 1986:plate 6.17). Because of the heavy erosion of the slope of the tell, strataIIIand II yielded no evidence of the inner city, which was directly related to the city-wall. On the top of the Northeast Acropolis,however,on a level 10.5 meters abovethat of the ashlarfaced tower, sherds attributableto the period representedby strata III-IIB (1000-750 B.C.E.)were found in the foundation and fill of a stonelined drainof stratum IIA. This may indicate that the remains of the inner city of IronIIA and IIBare to be found fartherwest on the ridge of the Northeast Acropolis. In stratum IIA,the stone-lined drainwas used with a citadel tower. Built of boulder-sizedstones, the tower had two occupation phases. The latest pottery from the floor adjacentto the tower and from the drain- sealed by walls of a second citadel tower of strataIB and IC- is

Biblical Archaeologist, December 1987

7ivo citadel towers found in field I are here viewed from the west. The three-rowtower of strata IB and IC is on the right in the foreground.It was built overan exteriorfloor of a tower (on the left in the background)from stratum IIA. The latest pottery from this floor and from the fill of a stone-lined drain associated with the stratum IIA tower dates to the second half of the eighth centuryB.C.E.

FieldIII

12

Stratum IA I B

Stratum

9C

-

NE street / •,•

Powo

ss

13aa

14a14b26a 2b U37 ~P~b?"

O00

"ig

38

- l05b 27a 27b 39 --15 D88i NO

tower DO

from the second half of the eighth century B.C.E. Twojarhandles stamped with Imlk (lamelekh, meaning "belonging to the king"),one stamped with Imlk hbrn, were found in the fill above a layer of heavy destruction debris that coveredthe ashlar-faced tower;these provideadditional evidence for this period.

Excavationsin field III, at the center of the southern face of the lower tell, have revealed much about the outer city of IronIIC (ap-

proximately 750-625 B.C.E.),a period that

saw the revitalization of Ekron.Shown here arepart of the fortifications, including a citygate that features a pier-cellplan, and northern and southern industrial zones. Note the following: two cells (numbered2 and 3 in the drawing)and the step (1)that leads down into the southern industrial zone; three buildings in the southern zone (building 1-13, 14, and 15; building 2-25, 26, and 27; and building 3, only partially excavated-37, 38, and 39); threepartially excavatedrooms in the northernzone (9, 12, and 64);the large courtyard-typebuilding of stratum IA, with a plan similar to that of an Assyrian opencourt building;and the street, with large troughand sewer, that divides the zones.

Iron IIC. In IronIICthe city was revitalized. In addition to occupying the uppertell, it expandedonce again onto the lower tell, and even beyond the limits of the mound itself. It thus greatly exceeded the size of the large city of Iron I. On the uppertell, in strataIB and IC of field I, a second citadel tower, constructed of boulder-sized stones, was built overthe citadel tower of the late eighth century B.C.E.in strataIIA. The tower had two floor levels, indicating two occupation phases, and was part of an extensive architecturalplan, as is evident from aerial photographs and a surface survey.Based on evidence from the lower tell in field IIISE,this plan also included olive oil installations dated to the seventh century B.C.E. The ashlar-facedmudbricktower and city-wall,part of the fortifications system of strataIIIand II of field I, were also in use in strataIB and IC. The latest pottery from the mudbricks of the substantial rebuild of the second and last phase of the

city-wall and from the destruction debris that coveredthe ashlar-faced tower is dated to the seventh century B.C.E.Like the destruction of stratum IBin the lower city, this can be associated with Nebuchadnezzar'sconquest of Philistiain 603 B.C.E. (Wiseman 1956:66-71; Malamat 1975).A wall line, above and parallel to the ashlar-facedtower,was also found on the east slope of the Northeast Acropolis. It may have been the foundation for the inner wall of a double-wallsystem that formed a stepped connection between the upper and lower parts of the seventhcentury-B.C.E. city on the Northeast Acropolis. Throughout the lower tell, in fields II, III,IV,and V, the stratigraphicprofile is identical. Stratum IC is founded directly on the IronI fortifications and buildings of stratum IV.Stratum IBis characterized by an enormous quantity of restorable pottery, sealed below a massive destruction debris with burnt roof tiles and collapsed mudbrick walls. It is distinguished from the earlier stratum IC by alterations in the building plan. The ceramic horizon of strata IBand IC is clearly the

seventhcenturyB.C.E. This is the

3-die'

O1.

A jar handle stamped Imlk hbrn ("belonging to the king of Hebron")was found in the fill above the layer of destruction debris that coveredthe ashlar-facedtower of strata IIIIB in field I.

time in the history of Ekronreferred to in the seventh-century-B.c.E. Assyrian Annals of Esarhaddonand Ashurbanipal,when all of Philistia was under Assyrian authority (Pritchard1969:291, 294). Stratum IA (which representsthe sixth century B.C.E.,the postdestruction phase) was only attested in the lower city by disparatearchitecturalremains constructed overthe plan of stratum IB. The best preservedfeatures of the town plan in the lower city, features that were mostly originally constructed in the period represented by stratum IC, are to be found in stratum IB.The city plan of stratum IBwas designed with wellconceived districts or zones. There were at least four such zones, each with its own specific purpose or occupational activity. These can be

Biblical Archaeologist, December 1987

207

1w '?iI

ow.

Above:Room 15 in building 1 of the southern industrial zone (strataIB of field III),as viewed from the east. The basin, two presses,perforatedstone weights, and the largefragmentsof a wooden beam (the darkpatches embedded in the floor)identify the room as an olive oil installation. Note the store jars sunk into the floor. Right: Reconstructionof the room, as viewed from the northeast. The olives were first crushedin the basin with a roller,yielding the "firstoil."Thepulp was then put in straw baskets that were stacked on top of the press, and pressed when stone weights were attached to the free end of the wooden beam.

tentatively groupedinto two main topographicareas of occupation: the outer city, including the fortifications and industrial zones; and the inner city, with its domestic and privatebuilding zones. Architectural units within each zone seem to have been oriented to an interrelated system of streets with a primary focus on the city-gate at the center of the southern face of the tell. The outer city. The fortifications are mainly seen in fields II and III,along the slopes of the southeastern quadrantof the lower tell. They include a double-wallsystem, the upperwall on the crest of the slope, and the lower wall at the bottom, as well as stables, a gatehouse, and a gate. Between the two walls and built up against the inner wall were several sections of stables extending along the slope for 85 meters. Connected to the inner wall, in field II in the southeast corner of the tell, were a series of insets/offsets. These may have been the foundation for a bastion similar in construction to the inset/offset double city-wall of Lachish III,as seen in a rendering based on Assyrian reliefs (Ussishkin

208

1982: 121-23). Connected to the lower wall was a gatehouse (measuring 28 by 11 meters) that protected the city gateway7 The city-gate,of which only the east side has been excavated,is located in field IIIat the center of the southern face of the tell. It consisted of a tower, three piers, two cells, and a roadway.In the gate, strataIB and IC were distinguished by two superimposed roads.The upper roadhad two door sockets, effectively narrowingthe gate entrance in stratum IB.The pier-cell plan of the gate has much in common with Judeanexamples from late Iron II at Gezer (Deverand others 1971: 112-18)and Lachish (Ussishkin 1978: 55-59), as well as Philistine Ashdod (Dothan and Porath 1982: 54-55). The industrial zone, used for olive oil production,was sealed by an enormous destruction layer. Locatedin an area immediately east of the city-gate,this zone had at least two major subdivisions, on either side of a well-constructed east-west street that ran perpendicular to the city-gateroadway.

Biblical Archaeologist, December 1987

- V"-S-AIEN0 wWGThe olive oil complex in the southernindustrial zone (stratumIB of field III),as viewed from the north. On the left is building 2 (with its southernroom, number 27, removedrevealingmudbrick walls from stratum IV). In the centeris building 1, which features a basin flanked by presses (a "preliminary" round type, and the more technologically advanced "Ekron" square type). On the right is part of the city-gate. The huge pillars lying in one of its cells may have been part of the construction of the gate. Runningacross the bottom is the street that divides this zone from the northernindustrial zone.

In the southern subdivision three buildings have thus farbeen excavated,two completely and one only partly.All are oriented on a north-south axis and open onto the street. One building, 15 meters long, consisted of two main rooms (14and

15) and anterooms (13aand 13b).Adjacent to it, a second building, similar in length but somewhat wider, had one main room (26) in its center, with smaller rooms (27a and 27b) to the south and an anteroom (25)to the north. To the east is a third building, where we have excavatedsegments of three rooms (37, 38, and 39). The focal point in each of the two fully excavatedbuildings was an olive oil installation room. In the building closest to the gate, the olive oil installation, the best example yet excavatedat the site, was located in room 15a.This room also contained 108 restoredpottery vessels, as well as small finds including a bronze juglet, cosmetic palette, and a Phoenician-type figurine. The oil installation was composed of two vat/presses, one on either side of a large rectangular crushing basin that was bordered on three sides by stone walls, and eight perforatedstone weights. Largepieces of carbonizedwood, which lay in a line between one vat/pressand its stone weights, may be remnants of a press-beam (Gitin 1985). The first step in producingoil involved crushing the olives in the basin by means of a roller, which yielded the "firstoil."The pulp was then put in straw baskets that were stacked on top of the press. A wooden beam, secured at one end in a niche in the wall behind the press and weighted at the other end with four stone weights, served as a lever for pressing the olive pulp. The two types of presses in room 15a,the "preliminary"round type and the

stored vessels and an unusual find: a store jar,sunk into the floor, containing eight well-preservediron agriculturaltools. Room 14 also contained a unique stone niche with a four-hornedaltar.Of the 21 store jarsfrom room 14, 2 may have been directly used in the olive oil separation process. One vessel, a huge jar/kraterwith 11 handles, had 2 circular holes about midway down from the top. If the juice producedin pressing the olive pulp was left standing in this vessel for a period of time, the oil would have risen to the top and the water would have settled near the bottom. The holes, when unplugged, would have allowed first the water and then the finished product, the olive oil, to be drained off into smaller vessels. A second store jarvessel - an "Ekron"-type had one hole near its base (compare similar "holed"jarsin room 25). In the second building, the olive oil installation was found in the center of the structure, in room 26. It consisted of one press, four perforatedstone weights, and a rear border-wallof stone. Like the installation in room 15a, it had also originally had a crushing basin and, perhaps,a second press with four perforatedstone weights. This is indicated, in part, by the evidence of stratum IC. Into this lower phase, in room 26, next to the oil press, a huge pit was dug and filled with a large stone crushing basin, which was found intact. The pit was sealed by the stone borderwall for the oil installation of stratum IB.Apparently, it was decided to reduce the size of

"Ekron"square type, represent two different stages of technological development. The latter, with a larger pressing surface and collection vat, was a more sophisticated unit that could hold 50 to 100 liters of liquid, as compared to the 25-liter capacity of the simple, or "preliminary,"press (Eitam 1987). Room 14, which is separated from room 15 by a double-pier roomdivider of stone, produced 88 re-

the oil installation by withdrawing the crushing basin from use. Instead of moving or breaking it, the inhabitants buried it in place. This intentional reduction in the size of an oil installation in stratum IB, which obviously resulted in a diminution of the installation's capacity to produce oil, represents a general phenomenon that is seen in architectural modifications in the buildings in all the zones of occupation of

Bibliography Aharoni,Y. 1975 Investigations at Lachish, The Sanctuaryand the Residency, Lachish 5. Series:Publications of the Institute of Archaeology 4. TelAviv: Institute of Archaeology, University of Tel Aviv. 1979 The Land of the Bible: A Historical Geography.Philadelphia: The WestminsterPress. Ahlstr6m, G. W. 1982 RoyalAdministration and National Religion in Ancient Palestine. Leiden:E. J.Brill. Albright, W.E 1923 Contributions to the Historical Geographyof Palestine. Pp. 1-46 in Annual of the American Schools of Oriental Research 2-3. New Haven, CT:American Schools of Oriental Research. 1924 Researchesof the School in WesternJudea.Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 15: 8. 1925 The Fall Tripof the School in Jerusalem:FromJerusalemto Gaza and Back. Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 17:5-6. 1943 The Excavation of TellBeit Mirsim, VolumeIII, The Iron Age. Series:Annual of the American Schools of Oriental Research21-22. New Haven, CT:American Schools of Oriental Research. 1975 Syria,the Philistines, and Phoenicia. Pp. 507-36 in volume 2, part 2, of The Cambridge Ancient History,third edition, edited by I. E. S. Edwardsand others. Cambridge:Cambridge University Press. Amiran, R., and Dunayevsky,I. 1958 The Assyrian Open-courtBuilding and its Palestinian Derivatives. Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 149:25-32. Barnett,R. D. 1975 The Sea Peoples. Pp.359-78 in volume 2, part 2, of The CambridgeAncient History, third edition, edited by I. E. S. Edwardsand others. Cambridge: CambridgeUniversity Press.

Biblical Archaeologist, December 1987

209

In room 26 of building 2 in the southern industrial zone, a stone crushing basin from stratum IC was found in a pit dug in stratum IB. This suggests that there was a diminution in the productionof olive oil in the period representedby the latter stratum. Apparently it was decided to reduce the size of the installation by withdrawing the basin from use. Instead of its being moved or brokenup, it was buriedin place.

Storejar of the "Ekron" type with a conical ceramic lid from room 15 in the southern industrial zone (stratumIB of field III).Note additional lids on left.

ration. Twosmall well-finished square stones, which appearto have been (becauseof their size and shape) candidates for altars,were also found in this area,perhapsinstratum IB.Note, for example, that dicating the activity of an altar two perforatedstone weights from workshop. The altars in rooms 26 an olive oil installation, probably and 14b,both in the northeast corfrom stratum IC, were reused as ners and next to their respective building stones in walls of anteentrances, were on the same eastrooms 13 and 25 in the southern in- west axis. dustrialzone. Similarcases havebeen Rooms 27a and 27b are south of observedelsewhere in stratumIB (see room 26. Although these were main below on field IIINE,room 12, and storerooms - as indicated by their field IVNW,the inner city rooms). containing the largest number of Also note that the entrance of the store jars,48, of any room in the to the industrial industrial zone - not one lid from a adjacent city-gate, store jarwas found there. Of the 38 zone, was narrowedin stratum IB. is a result of the conical ceramic store-jarlids found this, too, Perhaps of connected in with the southern industrial zone, 34 lessening activity the industrial zone. These indicacame from room 15, mostly from tions of a diminution in the produc- subdivision 15b.This may indicate tion of olive oil help to define the that room 27 was used to store division between strastratigraphic empty jarsand that room 15bwas tum IC and stratum IB.The date for where they were filled. Tothe north, this (approximately 630 B.C.E.)is separatedfrom the main room (26) the end of the suggested by Assyrian by a double-pierconstruction that is and the beginning of the Egyptian similar to the one that separates domination in Philistia, in the last rooms 14 and 15, was anteroom 25. third of the seventh century B.C.E. Like anteroom 13, it contained a The in change hege- large number of loom weights, as (Malamat 1979). no doubt the ecoaffected well as an installation composed of mony nomic environment, as well as the an upper trough and a lower large structure of the stone basin with a spout and flat geopolitical region. Also in room 26, north of the drain that led into the street. It is olive press, were two four-horned an exact parallelin form and location altars, one in an early stage of prepa- to one found in a building dating to

210

Biblical Archaeologist, December 1987

the seventh century B.C.E. at Tel Batash-Timnah.8 Evidence for the northern subdivision of the industrial zone came from segments of three partially excavatedrooms in fields IIINEand IVSE.The architecturalsandwiching of these three rooms -between stratum IV elements of the eleventhtenth centuries B.C.E. and sections of a large sixth-century-B.C.E. building of stratum IA- offers the best example of the stratigraphicprofile in the lower city. These three rooms, like those of the completely excavated buildings in the southern zone, were coveredby a massive layer of burnt destruction debris, which sealed hundredsof restorable pottery vessels from the seventh century B.C.E.,numerous loom

weights, and many unique objects, such as a large copper clasp and a zoomorphic vessel. The olive oil installation, composed of two presses, a crushing basin, and perforatedstone weights, was aligned on a north-south axis and built up against a stone border-wallin room 12. The north wall of this room contained a perforatedstone weight in secondaryuse, probablytaken from an olive oil installation of stratum IC. In the adjacentroom 64, two four-hornedaltarswere found, one round and one square, similar in size and form to those from the other buildings. Most significantly, the upper surface of the square altarwas heavily burnt. This is the only example at the site of an altar surface coated with ash. In stratum IA there was no evidence of any kind of industrial activity in the large courtyard-type building, with a plan similar to that of an Assyrian open-court building (Amiran and Dunayevsky 1958), that was constructed over the destruction debris of stratum IB. To the north and east of this building, the destruction debris of stratum IB was left exposed. Note also that the southern industrial zone, covered by a heavy destruction debris, and the

I

~C

?r

ii;

"

. ".

r

Le..

.

1~r .-

Five of the twelve altars found in stratum IB. Leftrear,left front, and right:four-hornedaltars fromthe southern industrial zone (the two on the left from room 26 and the other from room 14 in field III);middle, rear:small altar from the private building zone (room9 in field IV); center:round altar from the domestic zone (room8 in field IV).

fortifications and city-gate of stratum IB were also left exposed in stratum IA.

city. Here strata IB and IC were primarily differentiated by resurfacings of floors and by superim-

posed walls. Also, severallarge stone pillars and three perforatedstone weights from an olive oil installation, in secondaryuse within the walls of stratum IB,probablycame from stratum IC. StratumIA is represented only by foundation stones of one room with a door socket and an associated cobble surface built over the stratum IBplan. The architectural plan of stratum IBcontains seven rooms that appearto be segfeatures were oriented on an eastments of at least three buildings. west axis, except for the roadway, The dominant, or central, room was which was in the direct line of the rectangularwith an entrance in the city-gate.Of special interest is the middle of its east wall. This room four-hornedaltar found in the sounding in the southwest quadrant; produceda small four-hornedaltar and a largenumber of jugs, one of it was somewhat largerthan the in which contained a cache of silver four-hornedaltars found the round industrial zones. Also, a small jewelry.A round four-hornedaltar horns came from this was also found in the northern room. altarwithout Like our To the west and south of the main investigations quadrant. of the these room was a large,open, public area of the area city-gate, of no evidence soundings produced (L-shaped)that was enclosed on the so destruction west the stratum IB prevby a mudbrick wall 12 meters zone. in the industrial alent long. Although the floors of most of The privatebuilding zone, a the seven rooms were coveredwith a more exclusive area,was located in huge destruction debris of fallen of the inner northwest the mudbricks,which sealed hundreds quadrant The inner city. The domestic district of stratum IBwas north of the northern subdivision of the industrialzone. It was attested in field IV,in soundings in the center of the lower tell, by architecturalelements of buildings, courtyards,and a roadway.The contents of the buildings and courtyardswere strongly suggestive of household and domestic activities. All of the architectural

Biran,A., and Cohen, R. 1981 Aroer in the Negev. EretzIsrael 15:250-73. Botta, P.E., and Flandin, E. 1849 Monument de Ninive: Inscriptions, volume 4. Paris:Imprimerie Nationale. Briend,J.,and Humbert, J.-B. 1980 TellKeisan 1971-1976. Paris: J.Gabalda. Broshi, M., and Gophna, R. 1984 The Settlements and Population of Palestine During the Early BronzeAge II-III.Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 253: 41-53. Buchholz, H.-G. 1974 Grey TrojanWarein Cyprus and Northern Syria.Pp. 179-87 in BronzeAge Migrationsin the Aegean; Archaeological and Linguistic Problems in Greek Prehistory.(Proceedingsof the First International Colloquium on Aegean Prehistory,Sheffield, 1970),edited by R. A. Crossland and A. Birchall.ParkRidge,NJ:

NoyesPress.

Cogan, M. 1974 Imperialism and Religion: Assyria, Judah,and Israel in the Eighth and Seventh Centuries B.C.E.Series:Society of Biblical LiteratureMonograph19. Missoula, MT:ScholarsPress. Courtois, J.-C. 1978 Ugaritica VII:Mission de Ras

ShamraXVIII,editedby C. F.A.

Schaeffer.Series:Institut Franyais dArch6ologiede Beyrouth Bibliothque Archeologiqueet Historique 99. Paris:Mission Archtologique de Ras Shamra. 1984 Alasia III: Les Objets des niveaux Stratifits d'Enkomi Fouilles. C. F.A. Schaeffer (1947-1950).Paris. Dever, W.G., and others 1971 FurtherExcavationsat Gezer, 1967-1971. The Biblical Archaeologist 34: 94-132. 1986 Gezer IV:The 1967-71 Seasons in Field VI, "TheAcropolis."Part 2: Plates, Plans. Series:Annual of the Nelson Glueck School of Biblical Archaeology 4. Jerusalem: Hebrew Union College. Dothan, M. 1972 The Relations between Cyprus and the Philistine Coast in the

Biblical Archaeologist, December 1987

211

of whole and restorablevessels as well as significant small finds, the L-shapedareaproducedno evidence of destruction. Of importance for defining this area as part of a private occupation zone is the high incidence of small closed ceramic forms- as contrasted with the large open vessels, jars,and kratersthat are dominant in other zones of the town plan. Also significant is its high percentageof decoratedwares.Out of 207 pottery forms thus far distinguished, 26 (12.5percent) were decorated.In the industrial zone, in the two buildings with 377 whole forms, only 4 percent were decorated.Only in the private building district were fine wares, such as Assyrian-typeand East Greek vessels, present. Immediately to the north, a deep sounding in field V penetrated to the foundations of the Northwest Acropolis,which provedto be a late phenomenon formed by Islamic, Byzantine, and Roman remains. Below this acropolis, evidence was found for the northern continuation of the privatebuilding zone. This included segments of a pillared room sealed by a heavy layer of burnt destruction debris that contained seventh-century-B.C.E. ceramic forms similar to the stratum IBpottery assemblage in field IVNW.

/7/7/y

typs

fro

Straum

I

r?i_

XR.,

The RiseandFallof Ekronin the

Iron Age. Environmental,geopolitical, and economic factorswere the primaryphenomena that shaped the growth and decline of Ekronin the Iron Age. The first and foremost of these factorswas Ekron'sstrategic location on the edge of the natural frontier zone, the inner coastal plain, that separated the coastal plain from the low hills of the Shephelah. This gave Ekron strong military advantages, both as a defensive bulwark on the northeast frontier of Philistia and as a forward base for incursions inland into Judah. Second, Ekron overlooked the ancient network of highways leading northeast from Ashkelon and Ashdod to Gezer and

212

inland via the Nahal Soreqto Bethshemesh. This made it a natural entrep6t at the main commercial crossroads.Third, its local environment was ideal to support a large population and even to create an agriculturalsurplus. Sitting on the south bank of the WadiTimnah, one of the main arteries of the Nahal Soreq,it benefitted from the drainage system for the Judeanhill country (Orniand Efrat1971:41-43). It

Biblical Archaeologist, December 1987

thus had an accessible perennial source of water, a high water-table that made it easy to dig multiple wells in the settlements surrounding the city, and a constantly renewed fertile alluvial soil from the Soreqbasin suitable for intensive agriculture.The Philistines' choice of the site for a largefortress city is thereforenot surprising. These environmental factors were more or less constant through-

Late Bronze Age (Tel Mor,

Chronology for StrataIB and IC he pottery of strata IB and IC at Ekron is from the seventh-century-B.C.E. ceramic horizon. Stratum IB, however, produced ceramic types that first appeared only near the end of the second half of the seventh century B.C.E. Following are five examples of this.

The globular-shaped,metallic ware cooking pot with an everted, slightly grooved rim. This was the dominant inland type, with parallels at Mesad Hashavyahu (Naveh 1962: 103, figure 5.1-3), En-gedi V (Mazar, Dothan, and Dunayevsky 1966: 23, figure 8.14-15), Lachish II (Aharoni 1975: plate 47.19-20), Aroer II (Biran and Cohen 1981: 255, figure 6.2), and Batash II (Kelm and Mazar 1985: 112, figure 17.2).

The sack-shaped,sometimes elongatedcooking pot with a vertical ridgedrim. This was a coastal type, with parallels at Mesad Hashavyahu (Naveh 1962: 103, figure 5.4), Ashdod VI-VII (M. Dothan 1971: figure 55.1; Dothan and Porath 1982: figure 20.6), and Batash II (Kelm and Mazar 1985: 112, figure 17.1). The balloon bottle. Perhaps a derivative of a seventh-century-B.C.E. Assyrian form (Lamon and Shipton 1939: plate 9.16), this is unique to sites of the southern coastal plain, with parallels at Ashdod VII (Dothan and Porath 1982: 143, figure 21.11) and Batash II (Kelm and Mazar 1985: 115, page 19.4).

The mortariumwith a foldedrim, ridgedbody,andflat base. This has parallels at Mesad Hashavyahu (Naveh 1962: 101, figure 4.16-17), En-gediV (Mazar, Dothan, and Dunayevsky 1966:65, figure 16.2),Ashdod VII(M.Dothan 1971: figures 50.1 and 59.11-12),Keisan4 (BriendandHumbert 1980:plates 28.1 and 31.5-6), Aroer II (Biranand Cohen 1981:255, figure 6.1), and BatashII (Kelm and Mazar 1985: 110,figure 16.7). The East Greek Skyphos. This is mostly found at coastal sites, with parallels

Ashdod).Praktika 1: 51-56. 1979 Ashdod at the End of the Late Bronze Age and the Beginning of the Iron Age. Pp. 125-34 in

Symposia Celebrating the Seventy-fifthAnniversaryof the Foundingof the American Schools of Oriental Research (1900-1975), edited by E M. Cross. Cambridge, MA: American Schools of Oriental Research. 1986 Sardinia at Akko? Pp. 105-16 in

Studies in SardinianArchaeology, edited by M. S. Balmuth. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. Dothan, M., and Freedman, D. N. 1967 Ashdod I. cAtiqot 7. Dothan, M., and others 1971 Ashdod II-III, the Second and Third Seasons of Excavations.

cAtiqot 9-10. Dothan, M., and Porath, Y. 1982 Ashdod IV, Excavation of Area M. cAtiqot 15.

Dothan, T. 1973 Philistine Material Culture and its Mycenaean Affinities. Pp. 187-88 and 376 in Acts of the

International Archaeological Symposium: The Mycenaeans in the EasternMediterranean,

at MesadHashavyahu(Naveh1962: 107,figure 7.1-8 and 11-12).Fora detailed treatment of the parallels of this form and its dating, see Magness (in press). The ceramic assemblage of stratum IA producedforms similar to and typologically developed from the main body of material of stratum I, but also many new forms and ware groups absent from stratum IB. The most prominent of these new forms was the small severely cyma-shaped, pointedbase, sausage store jar in an orange ware - a later development of the sausage store jar from stratum IB (compare Briend and Humbert 1980: plate 25.8). Thus, the final phase of settlement in Iron IIC, stratum IA, may have been an "afterlife"of short duration extending into the sixth century B.C.E. The chronology of the strata IB and IC cities of Ekron is based on the ceramic and historical evidence. Stratum IC belongs to the Assyrian period, approximately 700 to 630 B.C.E.,and stratum IB to the final period of semiindependent status under the influence of Egypt, 630-603 B.C.E.,With the 603-B.C.E.destruction of stratum IB ascribed to Nebuchadnezzar's Babylonian conquest of Philistia (Malamat 1979: 209). Note: A complete reporton the corpus of seventh-century-B.C.E. pottery from Ekronis presentlybeingprepared.Parallelsforthe ceramictypes fromrooms 14and 15andfrom the rest of the stratumIBcity, supportingthe date of the seventh century B.C.E., can be found at Tel Batash-Timnah (Kelm and Mazar 1985: 109, figure 15; 110, figure 16; 112-13,figures 17-18;and 115,figure 19)and at AshdodVII-VI(M.Dothan 1971:figures 50-51, 77, 89, and 93-95; Dothan andPorath1982:figures 19-24 and 26-28). Note that examples of lmlk-type store jars (Tufnell'stype 484) in late-seventh-century-B.C.E. context should not be consideredunusual (Kelmand Mazar 1985: 114).RestoredImlktype jars,without stampedhandles, thus far have come from the southern industrial zone - one from room 14 and two from room 13.

Nicosia 1973. Nicosia: Department of Antiquities, Cyprus.

1982 The Philistines and their Material Culture.New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. 1983 Some Aspects of the Appearance of the Sea Peoples and Philistines in Canaan. Pp. 99-120 in

Griechenland, die Agais, und die Levantewdhrend der "Dark Ages," edited by S. DegerJalkotzy. Vienna: Osterreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften. 1985 The Philistines Reconsidered. Pp. 165-76 in Biblical Archae-

ology Today:Proceedingsof the International Congresson Biblical Archaeology,Jerusalem, April 1984. Jerusalem: Israel

ExplorationSociety. in press

The Arrival of the Sea Peoples: Cultural Diversity in Early Iron Age Canaan. In Recent Excava-

tions in Israel: Studies in Iron Age Archaeology,edited by S. Gitin and W. G. Dever. Series: The Annual of the American

Biblical Archaeologist, December 1987

213

out the IronAge. Only when new geopolitical factors and commercial interests were introduced into Philistia did the size, function, and status of Ekronchange. This can best be understoodby our taking a closer look at the historical recordof Ekron as reflected in the biblical tradition and other textual sources in relation to the results of the recent excavations at Tel Miqne. By the first quarterof the tenth century B.C.E. a critical shift in the balance of power occurredwithin the old boundaries of the land of Canaan.Gaining ascendancy over Philistia after two hundredyears of military confrontation, the inland states of Israel'sUnited Monarchy forced the Philistine city-states to withdraw to their original territory and assume the status of secondclass political and commercial power.This shift of dominance from the coastal to the inland states is vividly portrayedin the biblical text (1 Samuel 5:17-25 and 8:1; 1 Chronicles 14:8-16 and 20:4-8). Thus, Ekronno longer served as a border city and as a majorpoint of contact between the coastal plain of Philistia and inland Judah.In a sense, the frontier passed it by as Judeaninfluence moved westwardand Ekron became a small, less important Philistine city. No doubt this reduction in powerand influence resulted in a changedpolitical organizationof the Philistine capital cities. Before the appearanceof the United Monarchy,the Philistines had a politicalmilitary association of the "five -srnym- that took joint action lords"

statuschangedseveraltimes, first underthe controlof Egypt,then, in

against a common enemy. Afterwards, the alliance of Philistine cities is a rarity, and the ruler of each city-state is referred to as a king-mlk (Oded 1979). During the tenth through eighth centuries B.C.E.(represented by strata III and II), Ekron functioned mainly as a semi-independent state, never regaining the position that it held in Iron I as a major political and economic Philistine capital city. Its

and returnedto its former status as a great city-state. This was precipitated by a new geopolitical circumstance- the emergence of the NeoAssyrian empire. As Assyria became the dominant superpowerof the late

214

ing the stimulus for the regeneration of Ekron. In the last quarterof the eighth theninthcenturyB.C.E.,fora short time underthe authorityof Aram- century B.C.E., the Neo-Assyrian Damascus(Aharoni1979:307, 325, kings, after campaigningin Israel, undertook a series of military ven342).Bythe mid-eighthcentury to the tures in Philistia to gain control of B.C.E.,withUzziah'scampaign the coastal routes in preparationfor coastalplain,Philistiaseems once their assault on Egypt(Pritchard to have been under Judean again 1969: 282). The combined results of control(Aharoni1979:345).Soon allowed the a weakened Judah afterwards, campaigns of Tiglath-pileserIII in 734 B.C.E.,SargonII in 712 B.C.E., the Philistinesto overcomethe

cities of the Negebandthe Shephelah of Judah(2Chronicles28:18). This momentof independencewas short-livedandsoon interruptedby the Assyrianinvasions(Aharoni 1979:377).Throughoutthis period, Ekronseemsto havemaintainedits quality,though peculiar"ethnic" undergreatlyreducedcircumstances. This canbe inferredfrombiblical texts- forinstance,fromthe "Bacalzebub,the godof Ekron" passage (2Kings1:2-3)andthe prophetic admonition,"Iwill turnmy hand againstEkron,andthe remnantof the Philistinesshallperish"(Amos in the ninth andas 1:8).Apparently, late as the mid-eighthcenturies B.C.E.,Ekronwas stillregarded by Israelas Philistine,prominent enoughforits godto be consulted andits city inveighedagainst.The Assyriansalso consideredthe areaof the coastalplainas belongingto the Philistines,as indicatedby the use of the wordPi-lis-tein Assyrian documentsof the period(Pritchard 1969:287;Tadmor1966). At the beginningof the seventh centuryB.C.E.(instratumIC),Ekron experiencednew physicalgrowth

eighth and seventh centuries B.C.E.,

it took controlof the commerceof the easternMediterranean basin, one of its avowedgoals(Cogan1974: 92). In the process, it conquered Philistia, Judah,and Egypt,provid-

Biblical Archaeologist, December 1987

and Sennacherib in 701 B.C.E.brought

all of Philistia, as well as Judah, securely under the hegemony of Assyria (Ephcal1979a).It was Sennacherib,however,who restored Ekronto its status as a major city-state, controlling more than its own immediate environs. Sennacherib took the towns of Hezekiah, king of Judah,and gave them to, among others, Padi,king of Ekron (Pritchard1969: 288). By the second quarterof the seventh century B.C.E. the cities of the littoral, as well as Ekron, and the other Assyrian vassal city-states of Philistia, achieved a high level of prosperity.This enabled Esarhaddon,king of Assyria, to call upon the twelve kings of the seacoast - including his vassals Sil-bel, king of Gaza;Mitinti, king of Ashkelon; Ikausu, king of Ekron;and Ahimilki, king of Ashdod-to provide building materials and their transportto construct his palace in Nineveh (Pritchard1969:291).His successor son, Ashurbanipal,during his first campaign against Egyptin 667 B.C.E., also called upon the vassal kings of the Philistine cities to support his campaigns against Egypt and Ethiopia. Included among them was Ikausu, king of Ekron (Pritchard 1969: 294). The vassal lists of the Assyrian kings are most instructive. They show Assyrian control over twentytwo major city-states, including the kingdoms of Phoenicia, Judah, Edom, Moab, Philistia, and Ammon, as well as of the island of Cyprus. The twelve cities of the seashore that are mentioned in this list are

near the critical line of march from Assyria to Egypt.The city-state of Ekronwas a geographicfocus in this line of march, and probablyserved as a logistical supportbase for the Assyrian war effort (Ephcal1983). More importantly,Ekronwas at a central point on the east-west geographicaxis, separatingthe Assyrian-controlledhinterland of Judah,Edom, Moab, and Ammon to the east from the Assyriancontrolled port cities of the coastal plain to the west (Ephcal1979a). These factors were vital to Ekron's development and expansion during the first three-quartersof the seventh century B.C.E. Assyrian sources shed no light on the end of Assyrian rule in Philistia, which most likely occurred around630 B.C.E. (Tadmor1966).We can, however,gain a picture from other sources, which indicate that at this time Philistia once again came under the Egyptiansphere of influence (Porten1981;Malamat 1979)? This change of ruling powers in Philistia, ending the Pax Assyriaca in the eastern Mediterraneanbasin, is markedby the diminution of oil production at Ekronand by the beginning of stratum IB.Soon a new superpowerconflict developed and old enemies, Egyptand Assyria, combined forces to challenge the growing might of Babylonia(Malamat 1979).It is within this context that the Saqqarahpapyrus,or Adon letter, was written, foreshadowing the end of the Philistine city-states, including Ekron. Sent to the Egyptian pharaoh by his loyal vassal Adon, king of one of the Philistine city-states, the letter requests a force to rescue the king from the Babylonians, who had already reached Aphek. Recently, this Philistine city has been identified as Ekron, the closest Philistine site to Aphek, based on the reading of the document's newly discovered demotic address (Porten 1981). Although this reading is still somewhat controversial, at the very least the document

provides the backgroundfor the last days of Philistia at the end of the seventh century B.C.E. Biblical texts also reflect the shaky political status of the Philistine city-states in this period, with prophetic forebodingof what was to come: "Tomake them a desolation and a waste, a hissing and a curse. ... and all the foreign folk among them; all the kings of the land of Uz and all the kings of the land of the Philistines (Ashkelon, Gaza, Ekron,and the remnant of Ashdod)"(Jeremiah25:18, 20). "For Gaza shall be deserted and Ashkelon shall become a desolation; Ashdod's people shall be driven out at noon, and Ekronshall be uprooted"(Zephaniah 2:4).Apparently,these admonitions reflect the historical reality evidenced in the Babylonianchronicles that describe a 603-B.C.E. campaign by Nebuchadnezzar,king of Babylon,against a city in Philistia, which some scholars suggest may have been Ekron (Porten1981; Malamat 1979).After this the texts are silent about Ekron,and only the excavation data indicate that the site moved through another majortransition from stratum IB to stratum IA, to a partially abandonedsettlement in the sixth century B.C.E. Phenomenal physical and economic growth was the dominant feature of the strataIB and IC cities, and the olive oil industry was the chief stimulus. The results of a thorough surface survey of the tell and the immediately adjacentareas in two seasons during 1985 and all the seasons of excavationhave shown that there were 111agricultural/ industrial installations at Ekron. These were found in three industrial belts: 76 along the crest of the tell, including those excavated in the northern and southern industrial zones in field III, 18 on the slopes of the tell, and 17 in a 10-acre area off the north slope of the tell. Of these, 102 are oil installations, 8 are wine presses, and 1 may be associated with the manufacturing of textiles. Of the 102 oil installations, 88 were of

Schools of Oriental Research49. Dothan, T., and Gitin, S. 1982 Notes and News: Tel Miqne (Ekron)1981.Israel Exploration Journal32: 150-53. 1983 Notes and News: Tel Miqne (Ekron)1982. Israel Exploration Journal33: 127-29. 1985 Notes and News: Tel Miqne (Ekron)1984. Israel Exploration Journal35: 67-71. 1986 Notes and News: Tel Miqne (Ekron)1985. Israel Exploration Journal36: 104-107, plate 16B-D. 1987 Notes and News: Tel Miqne (Ekron)1986. Israel Exploration Journal37: 63-68, plates 3-4. Eitam, D. 1979 Olive Presses of the Israelite Period. TelAviv 6: 146-55. 1987 Tel Miqne-Ekron- Surveyof Oil Presses: 1985. Excavations and Surveysin Israel, 1986. (Pages 72-74 of volume 5 of the English edition,of Hadashot Arkeologiyot 88: 20-21, the Archaeological Newsletter of the Israel Department of Antiquities and Museums.) Ephcal,I. 1979a Assyrian Dominion in Palestine. Pp. 276-89 in volume 4, number 1, of The WorldHistory of the Jewish People, edited by A. Malamat.Jerusalem:Massada. 1979b Israel:Fall and Exile. Pp. 180-92 in volume 4, number 1, of The WorldHistory of the Jewish People,edited by A. Malamat. Jerusalem:Massada. 1983 On Warfareand Military Control in the Ancient Near Eastern Empires:A ResearchOutline. Pp. 88-106 in History,Historiography,and Interpretation,edited by H. Tadmorand M. Weinfeld. Jerusalem:Magnes. Frankel,R. 1984 The History of the Processing of Wineand Oil in Galilee in the Periodof the Bible, the Mishnah, and the Talmud.Ph.D. dissertation at the University of Tel Aviv. (Hebrew) Gitin, S. 1985 Dramatic Finds in Ekron.

American Schools of Oriental ResearchNewsletter 36(3):2-3. 1986 IronAge ResearchGroup

Biblical Archaeologist, December 1987

215

the more technologically advanced "Ekron"type. Evenwith only a little more than 2 percent of the site excavated,it is now clear that the industrial zones took up at least 20 percent of the cities of strataIBand IC. This is the largest olive oil production center to be found anywhere in the ancient Near East (Eitam 1987).10It was probablyestablished and had reached its zenith in stratum IC, as a direct result of the stability producedby the peace enforced on Philistia and Judahby Assyria in the first two-thirdsof the

seventhcenturyB.C.E. (Ephcal1979a).

In effect, the formation of a new and enlargedpolitical and economic unit created the favorableconditions for the development of a highly centralized industry.This new geopolitical factor introducedby the presence and commercial policies of Assyria was the motor that poweredthe regenerationof the urbanprocess at Ekron.This may, in effect, be offered as an example of the achievement of the longtime Assyrian goal of urbanization of its territories:the increase of agriculturalproduction, provision of new income for administrative purposes, and the securing of trade routes (Oppenheim 1964: 118). It is possible to suggest several reasons why Ekronwas chosen as the site for an olive oil production center: Geography.Ekron'snatural border location and its proximity to the main communication arteries affordedit easy access to the hill country, where most probablythe olives were grown,and to inland and coastal cities, where the oil was marketed. From the latter, oil could be shipped to Egypt,Cyprus, and Phoenicia. The type of land Tbpography. availablefor building such a production center would have been of prime importance. Of all the potential sites, only Ekron,which occupied at that time the upper tell, had a large enough suitable areanearby (the unoccupied lower tell), so that alreadysettled living space or valu-

216

able farming and pasturelandwould not have to be appropriated. Availability of local workers.It is likely that the eighth-century-B.C.E. city on the upper tell was not destroyedin the Assyrian campaign of 701B.C.E. Therefore,Ekron'slabor force was left intact, and so probably were its buildings and means of food production (Na'aman1974;Ephcal 1979a).Note that the Sennacherib annals specifically state that he only conquered and carriedoff the spoils of those officials, politicians, and common people of Ekronwho had rebelled against him (Pritchard1969: 288). Other sites in the area, such as Gezer and Lachish, were left in ruins by the Assyrians, and their populations were either greatly reducedor forced to move. Gezer was only partially rebuilt in the transition from the end of the eighth century to the beginning of the seventh century B.C.E. (Gitin, in press-b),and at Lachish there was a gap in occupation until the rebuild in stratum II (Ussishkin 1983). Sourceof surplus labor.With massive Assyrian deportations from Israel in the north at the end of the eighthcenturyB.C.E. (Ephcal1979b), it is quite possible that the Assyrians would have preferredto send Israelite captives to a Philistine city like Ekronratherthan to a former Israelite city like Gezer. There is evidence to support at least the presence of Israelite craftspeopleat Ekron:eleven four-hornedaltars,of the twelve found, are typologically related to the northern style of altar from the previous period (May 1945: 8, plate XII).This type of altar is not found in Judahor anywhere else in Philistia; they may have been produced at Ekronby Israelitecraftsmen. Availability of food supply for an increasedpopulation. Using conservative demographicfigures, one can estimate that the 50-acremound of Ekron,plus the 10-acresettlement off the slope, had a population of around6,250 during the period representedby stratum I (Broshiand

Biblical Archaeologist, December 1987

Gophna 1984)." This is an enor-

mous number of people for a site at this time. By comparison, the closest site to Ekron,Gezer, during its most concentratedperiod of occupation, Middle BronzeII through Late Bronze,had a population of about half that size.12 Ekronis on the edge of a rich alluvial plain, the "Imperial Valley of Israel,"and had the potential for raising the food requiredfor such a large population. This must have also been true during the IronI period when the city was almost as large as it was in strataIB and IC. Security of investment. Ekron's royalfamily may have had a stronger bond of loyalty to the Assyrian king than the royalty at former Judeanor Israelite cities. Padi,the first king of the period representedby stratum I, was put on the throne by Sennacherib (Pritchard1969:298), and it may be assumed that the authority of his successor, Ikausu, also came directly from Esarhaddonand ' shurbanipal(Pritchard1969: 291, 294). On the other hand, it was a sometimes rebellious Hebrew dynastic king, Manasseh, who ruled Judahas a vassal of the Assyrian king (Pritchard1969:291, 294; 2 Chronicles 33:11-13;Reviv 1979). Perhapsthe huge amount of capital requiredto build this industrial center was more easily raised for investment in a Philistine city that had a special relationship with the Assyrian king. In this respect, it is also important to note the long-term commercial interests of Assyria in Philistia (Tadmor1966). It should be rememberedthat the six factors mentioned above, created as they were by a historically unique geopolitical situation, were largely true only of Ekron in the seventh century B.C.E. Although Ekron continued to produce olive oil on a large scale in stratum IB, following the transition from Assyrian to Egyptian hegemony in Philistia, as the excavation data indicate, there was some diminution in production. No doubt, the

Formedin Jerusalem.American Schools of Oriental Research Newsletter 37(3): 10. in Tel Miqne: A TypeSite for the press-a Inner Coastal Plain in the Iron Age II Period.In Recent Excava-

I

tions in Israel: Studies in Iron Age Archaeology, edited by ur.

The monumental building in field IV underwent only minor modifications of plan in strata IVBand IVA,and the northernroom from stratum IVAyielded a largeassemblage of potteryand special objects. A selection of the latter is shown here. Frontrow: Seven Hathor pendants made of faience. Middle row:A painted limestone baboon; two faience rings, one with a Sekhmet inscription;two faience earplugs(earrings),one with a rosette decoration. Back row:A speckled stone bowl and an ivory inlay of a human head. These objects have strong ties to New Kingdomart from the Twenty-firstDynasty (approximately1085-945 B.C.E.) in Egypt,and their appearanceindicates a turningpoint in Philistine material culture,as its uniqueness was lost and new features from other cultures were introduced.

1 ?

*

/

This largeeleven-handledvessel found in room 14 of building i (stratum IB of field III) may have been used in the olive oil separationprocess. With the two holes pluggedand the vessel filled with the juice producedin pressing, the oil would have, over time, risen to the top and the water settled to the bottom. The unpluggingof the holes would have then made it possible to drain off first the water and then the finished product, the oil.

S. Gitin and W.G. Dever. Series: Annual of the American Schools of Oriental Research49. A Ceramic 7Tlpologyof the Late in press-b Iron II, Persian,and Hellenistic Periods at Tell Gezer, Textsand Plates. Series:Annual of the Nelson Glueck School of Biblical Archaeology 3. Jerusalem: HebrewUnion College. Gunneweg, J.,Perlman,I., Dothan, T., and Gitin, S. 1986 On the Origin of Pottery from Tel Miqne-Ekron. Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 264: 17-27.

Herscher,E. 1975 The ImportedPottery.Pp. 85-96 in Sarepta:A Preliminary Reporton the IronAge, by J.B. Pritchard.Philadelphia:The University Museum. Higgins, R. A. 1961 Greek and Roman Jewellery. London:Methuen. Kallai-Kleinmann,Z. 1951 Researchesof the Circle for Historical Geography.Bulletin of the Israel ExplorationSociety 16:3-4, 50-51. (Hebrew) 1952 Notes on Eltekeh, Ekron,and Timnah. Bulletin of the Israel ExplorationSociety 17:62-64. (Hebrew) 1958 The TownLists of Judah, Simeon, Benjamin,and Dan. VetusTestamentum 8: 134-60. Kelm, G. L., and Mazar,A. 1985 Tt1Batash (Timnah)Excavations Second PreliminaryReport (1981-1983).Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research Supplement 23: 93-120. Lamon, R. A., and Shipton, G. M. 1939 Megiddo I. Series: Oriental Institute Publication 42. Chicago:University of Chicago Press. Magness,J. in EarlyArchaic Greek Pottery press from Ill Batash.In Timnah I,

Biblical Archaeologist, December 1987

217

$

TEL MIONE-EKHON

--

ZONES of OCCUPATION Formtifcaionr,-

IndI ri 'st il

.

-..-tlc

-

PrI,jIe

/ V

~01 -''-

' !,

~

"~~~ 'I

I

,','

.. ( "v

S..

O' "

"

. It, :•'

,

!

-

0

",

~

',•

\ •

200

An assemblage of artifactsfrom the olive oil installation room in the southernindustrial zone (stratum IB3of field III).The artifacts, which are related to the destruction of 603 B.C.E. by Nebuchadnezzar,include a ceramic store jar, iuglets, bottles, bowls, a chalice and loom weights, a bronzejuglet, stone bowls, a limestone cosmetic palette, and an iron sickle blade.

dustrial zones would requireanother essential conditions for its having been selected as an oil production industry (Eitam 1987).•- This observation may necessitate a reevaluation center in the period of stratum IC of Albright'soriginal understanding pertainedto its continuation in of the presses as dye-vats(Albright the period of stratum IB,albeit in a 1943: 55-62). The importance of texdifferentpolitical and economic tiles for Philistia is suggested by the setting. list of Assyrian tribute taken from Another economic activity, Philistine sites; it mentions linen which may have originated or have been expandedduring the Assyrian suits, robes, robes of byssus, and tent period of stratum IC, can be inferred cloth (Tadmor1966). A clue to the nature of the orfrom the largenumber of loom weights, as well as from some of the ganizational control of Ekronin stratum IBmay be found in the fournon-oil-productioninstallations in horned altars.It is clear that the of stratum IB. the industrial zone to The evidence strongly points size, plan, and industrial base of the cities of strataIBand IC were depenof textile some kind manufacturing. a strong central authority. dent on industrial for a second Support from the fact comes Obviously, such an authority must activity also also maintained careful control have have oil must installations that the over the months of least ten for idle at been city and especially over its valuable most olive between the year, harvests. asset, the oil industry. altars from the The four-horned use of the the efficient Therefore, excavated inindustrial in the and buildings, as equipment building

218

Biblical Archaeologist, December 1987

well as a large four-hornedaltar (not freestanding,found on the surface in the southeast corner of the tell, near another large oil installation) were most likely used for burning incense. It is not impossible that the burning of incense is evidence of the presence and control of the priestly organization and, through it, governmental supervision of the production of oil.'4 Final Comments Our excavations at Tel Miqne have

shown that Ekronhas a history much longer than was previously supposed. There is evidence for occupation as early as the Chalcolithic period. It was the site of a Canaanite city in the Late Bronze Age. The arrivalof the Philistines initiated a major period, which reached its peak in the eleventh century B.C.E.during Iron I. Iron II

then witnessed a process of urbani-

edited by G. Kelm and A. Mazar. Series: Qedem 24. Jerusalem: The Hebrew University. Maisler (Mazar),B. 1953 The Campaignof Sennacherib in Judah.EretzIsrael 2: 170-75. (Hebrew) Malamat, A. 1975 The TWilightof Judah:In the Egyptian-BabylonianMaelstrom. Supplements to VetusTestamentum 28: 123-45. 1979 The LastYearsof the Kingdom of Judah.Pp. 205-21 in volume 4, number 1, of The World

Thiscacheof ironagricultural toolswasfoundin a jarset into thefloorof a roomin building 1 in thesouthernindustrialzone(stratumIBof fieldIII).Notethe two-headedplows,singleheadedplow,knife,andsickleblade.

zation that was shaped by environmental, geopolitical, and economic factors-the latter two very important. In future research, these conclusions will be retested in light of new excavation data - especially the results of the Miqne environmental studies program. Although there is much yet to learn about the development of Ekron as an urban border site, what has been learned already has added greatly to our understanding of the urban development, town planning, and material culture and industry of Philistia. Notes 'In 1981 and 1982, two pilot seasons of excavation were conducted at Miqne by the W F. Albright Institute of Archaeological Research and the Institute of Archaeology of the Hebrew University, with the support of the Brandeis University/American Schools of Oriental Research Joint Archaeological Program

in Israel. This was followed in 1984-87 by four major seasons of excavations by the Albright Institute and the Hebrew University. Sponsoring institutions for these years included Boston College, Brown University, the Lehigh Valley Center for Jewish Studies (Allentown College of St. Francis de Sales, Cedar Crest College, LaFayette College, Lehigh University, Moravian College, Muhlenberg College), Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, and the University of Lethbridge. Additional support came from Aurora University, Baltimore Hebrew University, the Harvard Semitic Museum, and the Israel Oil Industry Museum. The project is affiliated with the American Schools of Oriental Research and the Israel Exploration Society.

The excavationcamp, equipment, and international student travel grants have been funded by the Dorot Foundation. The fellowship program for local students is supported by Eugene and Emily Grant and Estanne Abraham. The publications program has been funded

History of the Jewish People, edited by A. Malamat. Jerusalem:Massada. May,H. G. 1935 Material Remains of the Megiddo Cult. Series: Oriental Institute Publication 26. Chicago:University of Chicago Press. Mazar,A. 1980 Excavations at Tell Qasile, Part 1, The Philistine Sanctuary: Architecture and Cult Objects. Series:Qedem 12. Jerusalem: The Hebrew University. 1985a Excavations at Tell Qasile, Part 2, The Philistine Sanctuary: VariousFinds, the Pottery, Conclusions, Appendices. Series:Qedem 20. Jerusalem: The Hebrew University. 1985b The Emergenceof the Philistine Material Culture. Israel Exploration Journal35: 95-107. Mazar,B., Dothan, T., and Dunayevsky,I. 1966 En-gedi.The Firstand Second Seasons of Excavation 1961-1962. cAtiqot 5. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston 1982 Section on Earplugs.Pp.231-33 in Egypt'sGolden Age. Boston: Museum of Fine Arts. Na'aman,N. 1974 Sennacherib's"Letterto God"on his Campaign to Judah.Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 214: 25-39. Naveh, J. 1958 Khirbetal-Muqanna-Ekron. Israel Explorationlournal 8: 87-100, 165-70. 1962 The Excavationsat Mesad Hashavyahu.Israel Exploration Journal 12:89-113.

Biblical Archaeologist, December 1987

219

-V *6

_

mU W Jum

lip

hoopY

Above left: Sherdsof MycenaeanIIIC:lb ware from stratum VIIof field III. Above right: Displayed hereis a fragment of a Philistine Bichromekraterwith black and white decoration on a white slip background,a vessel typical of Ekronduring the twelfth and eleventh centuries B.C.E. Bottom: The Philistines' distinctive use of the birdmotif is illustratedin this drawing of a fragmentof a Philistine Bichromekraterfound in stratum

VIoffieldI.

by Philip and Muriel Berman.Research funds came from the S. H. and Helen R. Scheuer Family Foundation.The Friends of Miqne, whose ongoing supporthas helped make the projecta reality,are Philip and Muriel Berman;BernardBell; Herman and Rosa L. Cohen; Arnold and Amalia Flegenheimer;Artemis

220

Joukowsky;MarthaSharpJoukowsky; David, JoyUngerleider-Mayerson; Daniel, and JoanneRose;RichardJ. Scheuer;and Daniel and MarionWolk. Fundingfor the 1984 season came, in part, from a grant from the National GeographicSociety. In 1984 Keren KayemetL'Israelwas responsible for the construction of the 5.5-kilometer access roadto the tell. The projectis also deeply indebted to KibbutzRevadimfor its active assistance and to Natan Aidlin, the liaison with KibbutzRevadim,for his encouragementand enthusiastic support, which continue to be so vital to the success of the project. The principal investigatorsand field directorsof the projectare TrudeDothan and Seymour Gitin. The directorof the volunteer programand consortium relations is ErnestFrerichsof BrownUniversity. The three main fields of excava-

Biblical Archaeologist, December 1987

tion were under the supervision of the following people: Field I was supervised by Ann Killebrew,a graduatestudent at the HebrewUniversity; field IIIwas supervisedby BarryM. Gittlen, professor of archaeologyat BaltimoreHebrew University; field IVwas supervisedby J.P. Dessel and KathyWheeler,graduate students at the University of Arizona, and by YosefGarfinkel,a graduatestudent at Hebrew University. The coordinator of the environmental research programis geoarchaeologistArlene Rosen, and the staff anthropologistsare BrianHesse, an associate professorat the University of Alabama,and Paula Wapnish,a researchcollaboratorat the Smithsonian Institution. Other research and technical staff members include: David Eitam, curator,IsraelOil Industry Museum; A. Shomroni, engineer;Erez Cohen and David Hully, architects;Doug

Batash in the summer of 1986 and confirmed by the excavators,GeorgeL. Kelm and Amihai Mazar. 9Some scholars have posited that following the retreatof Assyrian power, Judah,under Josiah,controlled part of the coastal plain. Although a Judean corridormay have extended through the Nahal Soreq,including Tel BatashEdition Series have appeared in 1981, Timnah and reachingthe coast at Mesad 1982, and 1984. The reportsfor 1985 and Hashavyahu(Kelmand Mazar 1985: 1986 are in press. Formore information 117-18; Malamat 1975),the evidence on these informally circulated reports, from the excavationsat Miqne does not contact the Albright Institute (P.O.Box indicate Judeancontrol of Ekronduring 91 190 Jerusalem, any part of the seventh century B.C.E. 19096, Israel). '0Fora discussion about the develop2Althoughthe cultural connections of the first and second groups of Sea ment of the theory that the vats, well known throughout Judah,were not dye Peoples is clear, caution must be exercised in labeling the earliest settlers plants but, rather,olive oil presses, and "Philistines";the Philistines undoubtedly for the dating of olive presses and comexisted as an ethnic group in the earlier parativematerial, see Eitam (1979: period, but historical referencesto them 150-54). Forbackgroundand a descripare lacking. tion of the development of the tech3The silver was identified by nology involved in olive pressing, see M. Motis. Frankel(1984:chapters2-4). 4This earplugis the first of its kind "Using Broshi'scoefficient of 250 found in Israel.Earplugshave a long hisinhabitants per hectare, and figuring Ekronat 25 hectares,we can estimate a tory in Egyptianjewelryand are known in Egypt in different materials, ranging total population of around6,250. For from faience to gold. Eighteenth Dynasty the rationale for higher and lower coefdepictions of them are seen in the wallficients, see Shiloh (1980)and Stager have at these a rosette Amarna; paintings (1985). decoration identical to the faience ear12Gezer,with an occupied areaof 30 acres duringthe second millennium plug from Ekron.Their use through the Twenty-firstDynasty is attested in B.C.E., wouldhavehad3,000inhabitants female mummies of that era that have (see note 11 above). elongatedearlobes (Museumof Fine Arts, '3Evenat this preliminary stage of Boston 1982:233, footnote 303). analysis, the multipurpose characterof 5Fora functional analysis of the the rooms in the industrial buildings is industrial rooms of the seventh-century- clear. Foran excellent treatment of mulB.C.E.city, based on architectural eletifunctional rooms, see Stager(1985:17). ments and ceramic data, see Gitin (in 14Fora discussion of the association of cultic commodities and the possible press-a). 6These fortifications may be those relationships between cults, specifically depicted in the relief found at Khorsabad. altars and the productionof oil, see This relief portraysthe siege of Ekron Stagerand Wolff (1981).Although the altars are presently only associated with by the Neo-AssyrianKing, SargonII, in 712 B.C.E.and also contains the first men- stratum IB-the post-Assyrianperiodtion of the Assyrian name for Ekron, they may have also been used in stratum IC duringthe period of Assyrian domi'amqar(r)una(Bottaand Flandin 1849: nation. Fora discussion on whether plates 93 and 99; Tadmor1958).They may in addition have been the fortificaAssyrian rule included cultic imposition tions that protectedthe city against on vassal states, see Cogan (1974:40-57) Sennacherib in 701 B.C.E.(Pritchard and Ahlstr6m (1982:8). In any case, the 1969:287-88). association of altarswith the priestly 7Themain elements of the IronII class and the administration of the olive fortification system were first identified oil industry does not requireAssyrian cultic imposition. It could have been the by Naveh (1958)duringhis 1957 survey. 8This is an observationI made local priestly class that administeredthe olive oil industry. during a visit to the excavations at Tel Guthrie and Ilan Sztulman, photographers;Avriel Genesen-Yarus,pottery registrar;Dina Castel, conservator;and SarahHeilbrecht, cartographer. Forpreliminary reportsof the project, see Dothan and Gitin (1982, 1983, 1985, 1986, and 1987);T. Dothan (in press);Gitin (in press-a);and Eitam (1987).Fourfield reportsin the Limited

Oded, B. 1979 Neighbors on the West. Pp. 222-46 in volume 4, number 1, of The World History of the Jewish People, edited by A.

Malamat. Jerusalem:Massada. Oppenheim, A. L. 1964 Ancient Mesopotamia: Portrait of a Dead Civilization. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Oren, E. 1985 "Governors'Residencies"in Canaanunder the New Kingdom: A Case Study of Egyptian Administration. Journal of the Society for the Study of Egyptian Antiquities 14: 38-56.

Orni E., and Efrat,E. 1971 Geography of Israel. Jerusalem: Israel Universities Press.

Porten,B. 1981 The Identity of King Adon. Biblical Archaeologist 44: 36-52.

Pritchard,J.B., editor 1969 Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament, third edition. Princeton:

Princeton University Press. Reviv,H. 1979 The History of Judahfrom Hezekiah to Josiah.Pp. 193-204 in volume 4, number 1, of The World History of the Jewish People, edited by A. Malamat. Jerusalem: Massada. Sandars, N. K. 1978 The Sea Peoples, Warriors of the Ancient Mediterranean, 1250-1150 B.C. London: Thames and Hudson.

Shiloh, Y. 1980 The Populationof IronAge Palestine in the Light of the Sample Analysis of Urban Plans, Areas, and Population Density. Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 239: 25-35. Stager, L. E. 1985a The Archaeology of the Family in Ancient Israel. Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 260: 1-35. 1985b Merenptah, Israel, and Sea

Peoples:New Light on an Old Relief. Eretz Israel 18: 56-64.

Stager,L. E., and Wolff,S. R. 1981 Productionand Commerce in Temple Courtyards:An Olive Press in the SacredPrecinct at

Biblical Archaeologist, December 1987

221

.c~'-5

Y

r ,

r csr*

ct /? ~

r3 i'l fP

i

i

I

1

--

f

?, :;i

r

~Ll~a'.eIcr r

L'\ ")

i;r"

???

4

I ' r

I'

ComputerconsultantAldenArndtusingHewlett-Packard portablecomputerto recordexcavationdata. he excavations at Tel Miqne-Ekron,directed by Trude Dothan and Seymour Gitin, are a joint project of the W. E Albright Institute of Archaeological Research(one of the American Schools of Oriental Research) and the Institute of Archaeologyof the HebrewUniversity.Throughits study of Ekron,which was a bordersite duringmuch of the period,the projectseeks to understand the interaction-political, cultural, and economic-between the Philistines and the Israelites in the Iron Age (approximately1200-600 B.C.E.).At present, the excavatorsareparticularlyconcernedwith the founding and development of the urban settlement at the beginning of Iron I, a period marked by the first appearanceof the Sea Peoples (Philistines); the unique characterof Philistine culture and industry in IronII;and the factorsthat led to the expansion and contraction of the city throughout the period. Eventually, in conjunction with excavationsat Ashdod,Ashkelon, Batash-Timnah, Gezer, and Lachish (Gitin 1986), the project will evaluate the cultural and economic exchangeamong sites in the inner coastal zone and in the two adjacent zones for which it served as a frontier-the Shephelah of Judahand the Philistine coastal plain. In addition to excavation, another majoractivity of the project is education-to provide an introduction to the archaeology of ancient Israel. The daily experience of participants in the field is an integral part of a summer's course of study, and instruction is given in such areas as excavation techniques, recording,andprocessingartifacts,as well as in the use of archaeology in elucidating historical and cultural change. The projectalso includes a publications programthat issues interim preliminary reports and annual field reports in a limited edition series. The workup of data is greatly facilitated by the use of three computer programs. One is employed duringexcavationto createthe artifactcatalogues of pottery, objects,and other samples of material culture. A second is used to input all of the field excavationrecords.And a third takes the data from the first two programs,restructuresit, and prints it for the annual field report. Anyone interested in learning more about the project should contact Seymour Gitin at the W.E Albright Institute (PostOffice Box 19096, 91 190 Jerusalem,Israel;telephone: 282-131 or 288-956; telex: 25330 NAWASIL)or Ernest S. Frerichs at Brown University (Programin Judaic Studies, Brown University, Providence,Rhode Island 02912-1826, United States; telephone: 401-863-3900; telex: 952095 BrownUniversity).

222

Biblical Archaeologist, December 1987

Tel Dan. Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 243: 95-102. Tadmor,H. 1958 The Campaigns of SargonIIof Assur. Journalof Cuneiform Studies 12: 22-40, 77-100. 1966 Philistia Under Assyrian Rule. The Biblical Archaeologist 29: 86-102. Ussishkin, D. 1978 Excavationsat Tel Lachish1973-1977. TelAviv 5: 1-97. 1982 The Conquest of Lachish by Sennacherib.Tel Aviv: Institute of Archaeology,University of Tel Aviv. 1987 Lachish:Keyto the Israelite Conquest. Biblical Archaeology Review 13(1):18-39. Webb,J.M. 1983 Excavationsat Lachish 1978-1983: Second Preliminary Report.TelAviv 10:97-175. 1985 LevelsVIIand VI at Tel Lachish and the Endof the Late Bronze Age in Canaan. Pp. 213-28 in Palestine in the Bronzeand Iron Ages: Papersin Honour of Olga 7bfnell, edited by J.N. Tubb. London:Institute of Archaeology, University of London. 1986 The Incised Scapulae.In Kition V,edited by V.Karageorghis. Nicosia: Department of Antiquities, Cyprus. Wiseman, D. J. 1956 Chronicles of Chaldaean Kings (626-556 B.C.),in The British Museum. London:Trusteesof the British Museum. Wright,G.E. 1966 Fresh Evidencefor the Philistine Story. The Biblical Archaeologist 29: 70-86.

i)n Stone The

of

Mosaics Ancient

Sepphoris by EricM. Meyers,

Ehud Netzer, and

CarolL. Meyers he1987 oftheJoint season

One of the panels (number 16)of the mosaic in the main hall of the monumental building at Sepphorisdepicts a procession. It includes eleven separatehuman figures, one of whom is riding a donkey.All are carryinggifts or offerings,such as the vividly colored rooster shown in the closeup (left). The elegant and peaceful procession may representlife in the countrysidein the third centuryc.E.;or, since this panel is one of three that form a U-shape around the southern end of a central section made up of a series of scenes relating to the god Dionysos, it may depict a procession related to the central Dionysiac theme of the continuing rejuvenationof nature. Whatever its significance, its beauty is surely enhanced by its 30-centimeter-wideborder,which consists of geometricpatterns, groupsof birds and fish, and human faces. The faces may representmasks, an interestingpossibility in light of the nearness of the monumental building to the theater.

SepphorisProjectwas a campaign with many important objectives. Several laid out in the west to were probes continue work in an area of the site where many stepped pools have been recovered(Meyers,Netzer, and Meyers 1986: 15-17). Workin the eastern sector of the theater was also continued. In addition, severalnew, small soundings were begun southwest of the citadel. Finally, further excavation in the area (designated 86.1) just south of the main entrance to the ancient theater of Sepphoris, where traces of monumental architecture were located in 1986, was undertaken. It was our hope to resolve outstanding problems and to preparefor another season to be carried out in 1988. Fieldworkto meet these goals began in mid-July,under the direction of Ehud Netzer of the Hebrew University. The codirectors, Eric and Carol Meyers of Duke University, joined him at the first of August.

Biblical Archaeologist, December 1987

223

Above: The most imposing structureof Sepphoristoday is the citadel or fortress,here looming above the area where the mosaic is being cleaned. Thepresent superstructureof this large square fort dates to the late nineteenth centuryC.E.,but its foundations are ancient, although probablynot as early as either the nearby theater or the monumental building that houses the mosaic. Above right: The best photographsof the mosaic, especially the details of each panel, had to be taken from directly above. Zev Radovan(on the right),one of the threephotographers to recordthe find, and his assistants erected this rig to provide a stable setting for the camera.Right: The brilliant colors of the natural stone tesseraecan best be seen when the mosaic is wet. Thus,preparingit to be photographedinvolved keeping it as wet as possible. A farmerfrom the nearby modern village of Zipporihauled up an irrigation tank, and the floor was hosed down repeatedlyduring the sessions, which lasted for hours.

As is so often the case in archaeology-a field in which one can never know what a season'swork will uncover- the expedition'scarefully laid plans were demolished on Friday,July 31, when, with six digging days to go, the excavations in area 86.1 began to revealseveral patches of mosaic pavement at the floor level of a monumental building. The first glimpses of these mosaics arousedgreat excitement and anticipation. Some mosaics had alreadybeen uncoveredat Sepphoris in the 1986 season, but they had all been either monochromatic white/ buff or else had featuredsimple black lines on a white or buff background.To the amazement of the students and volunteers working in this area,the emerging mosaic floor apparentlyhad geometric patterns, depictions of human figures, and even inscriptions. The excavatorshad to contain their excitement temporarily,however.The next day was the Sabbath,

224

a nonworkingday;so the mosaics were reburiedfor the weekend. In a way, this was fortuitous. It allowed some time for properplans for their excavation to be made. The Meyers, meanwhile, arrivedfrom the States and listened eagerly to the news about the unusual discovery.With Netzer, they discussed a strategy to uncover,record,and safeguard the find. Workon the mosaic resumed on Monday,August 3. Although the potential importance of the mosaic was clear,we were not quite prepared for what came to light in the next days:seventeen surprisinglywellpreservedmosaic panels set within a lush borderof acanthus volutes, with Greek inscriptions labeling fifteen of the panels. Even more surprising than its size and state of preservation was the astonishing beauty of the scenes and figures. From the teenage workerswho helped uncover it, to the art historians who came to make initial assessments of it, all

Biblical Archaeologist, December 1987

recognized the mosaic as a stunning work of art. Preservationspecialists came from Jerusalemto help in the final stages of the excavation and cleaning of the mosaic floor. A two-dayphotographic"shoot"was arrangedfor the end of the week. Because the permanent preservationof the mosaic could not be carried out in the few remaining days of the 1987 season, a full photographicrecordwas mandatory. Three separatephotographic series, in both color and black and white, were carriedout: one by the photographer(G. Larom)of Hebrew University's Institute of Archaeology, one by the expedition'sregular photographer(E.Meyers),and one by an independent specialist in archaeological photography(Z. Radovan). After photographycame the most frustratingaspect of the season, the reburialof this beautiful mosaic under tons of sand and dirt. Excavation of the rest of the mosaic-for there are portions at the southern

Preliminaryplan of the monumental building, showing a main hall and three wings. The main hall, which contains the extraordinary mosaic floor just discovered,is a triclinium, or dining hall. Thenorthern wing features a long area that may have been a courtyard, with a cistern at one end, and a trapezoidal room that probablyserved as a toilet. The diagonal wall of this room, which gives it its peculiar shape, may have been constructed at an angle to accommodate an entrance to the theater,orperhaps a small plaza between the monumental building and the theater.In the threerooms and associated hallway that make up the western wing, evidence of a second story has been found, including white and black tesserae (stone tiles) similar to those used in the mosaic floor of the hallway but too high in the debris to have come from a groundlevel floor. The eastern wing and a possible southern wing are still largely unexcavated. Probablybuilt in the third century c.E.,the building was subjected to numerous alterations, the precise explanation of which awaits furtherexcavation.

end that are under a later wall and a balk-and its full context had to be delayeduntil the 1988 season. What follows is thereforeonly a provisional statement about the setting of what must surely be consideredone of the finest, if not the finest, examples of mosaic art in ancient Palestine. Indeed,the Sepphoris floor compares favorablywith some of the best examples found anywhere in the Roman Empire. Although the chronological parameters seem fairly secure and the archaeologicalcontext reasonably well understood, it should be emphasized that this initial discussion comes quickly after the digging season and that it is providedin the spirit of open scholarly exchange. The Monumental Building The mosaic was constructed on the northeast-to-southwestaxis of a building that was probablybuilt in the third century c.E.The building is about 23 meters wide; its length is still unknown, because excavations are not complete, but it can be estimated to be about 30 meters long, based on topographicevidence.

From what has been excavated thus far,several features of the building can be described.It contains a main hall (with mosaic pavement), flankedby three-wings,on its eastern, northern, and western sides. The outlines of the northern and western wings are fairly clear,but little yet can be said about the largely unexcavated eastern wing. The northern wing is interesting because it may have contained an open court, which would have been used for household chores. A water cistern, probably associated with the building, is situated at the end of the possible courtyard area. In addition to this long courtyardor hall, the northern wing contains a small room, with a mosaic floor and severalfeatures obviously dealing with water usage and drainage, which has been tentatively identified as a toilet; the drainagefrom a toilet installation goes aroundthe edges of the room, presumably to take sewage out of the building. In the center of its mosaic floor, which was uncoveredin the 1986 season, is a Greek inscription: TFEA,"health." Outside of the main hall, the

floors were in some places paved with mosaics and with smooth plaster in others. Some of the walls, which remain standing to a height of 2 meters in places, were also plastered.Built of large ashlar stones, the walls have an averagewidth of 60 centimeters. Severalfresco fragments were uncoveredin the debris, suggesting that part of the plastered walls or ceilings of the building were decorated with geometic and floral designs. In the western wing evidence has been recoveredof a second floor. Severalhundrednails were found, some with fragments of wood still attached to them. The ceiling was apparentlymade of wooden beams, upon which the floor of the room abovewas laid. A large quantity of white, and also some black, tesserae were also recoveredin the debris. These tesserae were too high up in the debris to represent tiles loosened from the ground floor. Rather,they may have come from a second story, from a floor laid mainly with white tiles and featuring a black border. Such a floor would have been similar to those found elsewhere in the building, at groundlevel. Excavationsthus far completed indicate that during the century in which the building stood, a number of changes were made. Some of the alterations, early in the building's existence, were done carefully. Others, made later in its history, were less successful and perhaps represent a period of degeneracy. The determination of the sequence and significance of these changes, which include drainage work, doorway blockages, and installation of benches, awaits the results of further excavation. The building was covered over in antiquity by a massive destruction layer. Although it is too soon to be certain about the cause of its destruction, our initial sense is that something sudden, like an earthquake, caused the building to be destroyed. The date of this devasta-

Biblical Archaeologist, December 1987

225

decoratedmosaic pavement lies, is 6.90 meters wide. The length, as best as can be determined at this The of Mosaics point, is at least 9.20 meters. In the he pavementdiscoveredat Sepphorisis an outstandingexample of the stylistic eastern and western walls are two, and technical achievements of the mosaic medium in antiquity.The floor is of and perhapsthree, doorways,which the type, invented in the Hellenistic period, called opus tessellatum- that is, comgive access to this largehall from posed of very regularmarble and stone cubes called tesserae (tessellae).Thousands those wings. The openings are each of mosaics survivebecause of their materials and their function as a floor covering. 1.10 meters wide. The proceduresfor laying a mosaic floor are outlined both by Vitruvius (VII,1) Largehalls with mosaics of the and Pliny (XXVI,186 and following).The first layer,a conglomerateof rough stones sort discoveredat Sepphoriswere and mortar,was laid on levelled groundandtoppedby a second layerof cnlshed stone in Roman buildings as triclinused andpotteryfragmentsmixed with mortar.Tesseraewerepressedinto a third layerof soft plaster and then flattened. Finally, the mosaic surface was levelled by using ia-that is, dining rooms. The guests emery. Coarsertesserae (upto 2 centimeters square)were used to coverlargerareas at a festive meal sat on three couches, of neutral backgroundand simple ornament. Smallertesserae (forexample, 6 milli- placed near three of the walls of the meters square),often of irregularshapes, were set for figures and more intricate room. In the case of Sepphoris,the designs. couches would have been situated on It is assumed that mosaicists drewupon a stock repertoryof scenes andpatterns the eastern, northern, and western made availablein the form of sketchbooks.Undoubtedly,there were also travelling The word triclinium in fact is walls. guilds of mosaicists who were commissioned for special assignments and who derived from two Greek words, treis trained local craftsmen. In the case of Sepphoris,there seems to be a close connection to the Syrian school, which is well representedby the discoveries in Antioch. and kline, meaning "threecouches." In the Sepphorispavement, the The brilliance of the colors, the animation of the figural designs, and the rich ornamented borders make multicolored mosaic floors among the most striking placement of the couches is actually material remnantsof the ancient world.In the Hellenistic and EarlyRomanperiods, indicated in the mosaic floor. Four mosaics depended closely on painting traditions. Such mosaics are often our only gammas (or angles) are laid in black evidence of famous paintingslost throughthe vicissitudes of time. As the technique stone near the corners of the white became standardized,however,it replacedpaintingas the primarypictorialmedium mosaic that forms the background from late antiquity through the medieval period. for the colored mosaic panels and The third-centurySepphorispavementattests to the high level of productionto similar which craftsmen aspired and the patrons demanded. Mosaics can reveal much borders.Other triclinia, with mosaic of patterns arrangements about the buildings they decorateandthe people who lived in them. These buildings were commissioned by wealthy citizens who formed the local municipal aristoc- and similar settings for three banracy,and it is the activities and concerns of this groupthat the mosaics often reflect. quettes, are present in the Roman Forexample, in Sepphoristhe figuralpanels illustrate Dionysiac scenes drawnfrom world: for example, at Antioch in mythology and from actual cult practices. Both the arrangementof the seventeen Syria and Port Magnus in North panels and the scenes selected indicate that the room functioned as a triclinium, Africa. The Sepphorisarrangement, perhapsfor banquets held for members of a guild connected to the nearbytheater. however,with so many doors, is Severalof the scenes areunique in the repertoireof Dionysiac subjects thus fardis- unusual. The guests would therefore covered, especially because of the accompanying Greek inscriptions explicitly not havebeen seated againstthe walls identifying the scenes. closer to the center of the room. but For further reading, see H. P. L'Orangeand P. J.Nordhagen,Mosaics (London, The a decodecision to install 1966);K. M. D. Dunabin, The Mosaics of Roman North Africa (Oxford,1978);and caused rated mosaic spepavement P.Fischer,Mosaic: History and Technique(London,1971). cial problems. If we assume that the Christine Kondoleon,Department of Art, Williams College.

Making

T

mosaic was not intended for the original construction of the building

tion can probablybe fixed, by two

in which it lies, the artist or artisan

coin hoards as well as by the ceramic evidence, to the second half of the fourth century. Perhaps the earthquake of 363 c.E., which destroyed

noted the total destruction of Sepphoris. Howeveruncertain the cause of its destruction, the fact that the building housing the mosaic was never rebuilt is certain, although many Galilean sites, was also reparts of it may have had limited sponsible for the late-fourth-century reuse. disruption of life in Sepphoris.Cyril, The Main Hall the Bishop of Jerusalem,reported The main hall of this monumental this earthquake.He listed the cities that suffereddamage and especially building, the room in which the

charged with organizing the mosaic's orientation in an already existing large room, with existing structural features, had to deal with the matter of viewer orientation to figural designs on the floor. If one entered the hall at Sepphoris from the south, the one side on which no couches were placed, and if one thereby would have had a

226

Biblical Archaeologist, December 1987

X`c~-~n: ?r'i

r

?s~?????? -LiL?;:~~_

i:?~, ?-?4~11

:% ?:? -?

J ???

rlL

:: l.v ~-J?~;,i t~i ?~,bj !R

C

bers and workers wrapped themselves in sheets, and reclined on imaginary benches in the white U-shaped portion of the mosaic

r

\, :.?

floor meant for the seating of guests in the triclinium. The "guests"onthe left side of

~:'~w';~""-ga~,'r~.i~jE .i` I: I'' ?,

c? 'k; ~~?? -???? '~n?lfD i??II

I)

;; :?1

?i

P~iQ?

?i~z

r.a ?..

"

;`o~'" rc~

-? i i;'C?.' f~?

'''

I ?-

z~(4;P1-~?C '+?"^~t?L, C?~ r, d ;-:~-=1?; r~z*''~~~~~--r ?5 ~i-~C~L?I~? ~cr~f,? ,.i -r.3....

4.

~1:: ????-"

~?r? ,i

- II-?B~, ,--r -4 . -It?-?c~c-ti: ;I~~t~~p~ ': ~ls? J,

Togaparty,excavation style. After the mosaic was cleaned and photographed,staff mem-

this picture would have had a frontal view of the main Dionysos scene, the center panel (panel 1); and those at the top could look head on at the "Mona Lisa" portrait.

`I; F-

in each of the directions in which couches were situated. Of course, i?~ a \V ? r I' \iY) ; Y -(E this means that the only way a visi;?(':? I~ i?~ A4 L ~ s?i; .~ C -.5a~.: ~c, ,? .4 i ~:??~-.1~??~--?-? `~ ~:(;(.~.-"?"j"-~F?".: ?~??.-~-~ -?" tor could have had a proper look at rr: ~t"yl?.1 .'nurrlm7 -? .....,~-;~.. ''I 2u I~''' "" )rr~: jr :t~-~cy?I: :r c I ~??-r~all the scenes inside the triclinium IBI1~LI~ would have been by walking around r illS ;u?~~ ?? ?~rzurrr~ii .r before sitting down! :~e~ ~ T~ Clearly, in organizing the mosaic scenes, the planner had to take into 17 account the function of the room, -? the location of entryways, and even the traffic patterns in the vicinity of _ ? ,•.. .;-'" ,. zS--., -. % the building. In the case of Sepphoris, with one exception, all of the 12 13 1 115 4 scenes are laid out so as to give a frontal view to the nearest side. The 18 1 3 1 92 exception is the central panel, for which there is no one nearest side. 8 7 9 16 101 This panel is oriented to the west. ----The significance of this orientation is not yet clear. It may be related to the direction from which guests , S16 would have entered the building; that is, that it faces west may have I The mosaic in the main hall of the monumental building, as viewed LJ II from the west. The central rectangle,measuring3.2 by 1.65 meters, is been influenced by the existence of made up of fifteen panels, each with a Greekinscription.Depicted here are scenes taken from roads or access routes within the mythology of the god Dionysos. Around this is a border,60 centimeters wide, that features major the city to the west of the building. twenty-two acanthus medallions and originally included female portraitsin the central volutes on the two narrowsides. Enclosing the southernend of the central rectangleand its Not enough is yet known about the acanthus borderis a U-shapedpanel, which is composed of a series of threepanels: number city plan on the eastern end of the 16 on the west, number 17 on the east, and one on the south that is unexcavated.These may have formed one continuous processionalscene, 6 meters long. (Note that the diagramis acropolis to prove or disprove such a provisionaland not to exact scale.) Dionysos was worshippedas early as the Mycenaean possibility. period (ca. 1400-1150B.C.E.)and was a populardeity in Greeceduring its classical period(ca. Another consideration in the In the second century B.C.E., the mysteries of Dionysos were also celebratedin 550-324 B.C.E.). Asia Minor. The arrangement of the mosaic was light. frequencyof Dionysiac themes in art, of which many cities in Italy and in this mosaic is a prime example, in the second and thirdcenturies C.E.attests to the sustained Often the major entrance to a triinterest in his cult. It'spossible that the proximity of the theater to the monumental building was from a courtyard area. clinium had some bearingon the mosaic's focus on this god, since he was a god of the theater. Such is the case in several large resifrontal view of the mosaics, then the south. The fact that there were, dential buildings of the Roman pein addition, other entries meant that riod found at Antioch. For the Sepnone of those seated around the decorated pavement would have had not every entering guest (unless all phoris building, the one possibility this view. Conversely, if some of for an adjoining courtyard would be guests used only one entry, with the those seated in the triclinium around other doors being for the host or serthe southern side, the one side on the scenes had frontal views, those could have had a which no excavations at all have so vants) possibly far been carried out. A courtyard entering on the side without couches frontal view of the entire decorated would not. We are assuming here there would have provided light and portion of the pavement. that an important entrance, perhaps One solution, which was adopted also would have afforded all those at Sepphoris, is to have scenes facing the main entrance, was in fact on seated in the triclinium a pleasant ?Z

?r ~ I~t?u

i~Yr~c~-~ ;~tlle ::?t rr

"

~~~

Biblical Archaeologist, December 1987

227

Dionysos in Myth and Art

T

he newly discoveredpavementat Sepphorisexemplifies the enormous popularity and importance of the god Dionysos among the Greeks and Romans of antiquity. Best known as god of wine and the grapevine,he came especially to be equatedwith the themes of divine enthusiasm, revelry,and ecstatic release. He was, however,more generallya god of vegetation and fertility who personifiedthe mystical, procreativeforces essential to earthly life and its renewal.Dionysos became the patron god of the theater and the dramatic or poetic arts, in conjunction with his divine counterpart or opposite Apollo. And as a deity associated simultaneously with nature and poetic song, he also assumed a significant place within the rustic pastoralgenre that developedin literatureand the visual arts duringthe Hellenistic and Roman periods. Greek artists graduallyevolveda standardizedrepertoryof themes and mythic figures in orderto portraythe complex and synthetic aspect of Dionysos. By Roman times he normally appearedin a rustic setting accompaniedby female devotees or bacchantes, the wild and lusty satyrs,the shepherd-godPan,erotes or putti (cupids) harvestingand tramplinggrapes,and his favoriteanimals, the goat and the tiger or panther. Depictions of Dionysos often included stylized plants or tendrils, especially his attributes, the grapeand ivy vines, as symbols of his regenerativepowers. His elaborateentouragecould be portrayedeither as a train of drunkenrevelers,or komasts, or as a triumphalprocession celebratingthe Easternvictories of Dionysos, who, like Herakles, was renowned in myth as a world conqueror.The Dionysiac theme of triumphant global dominion became an importantcomponent in the art, coinage, and ceremonial of the Hellenistic kings who inheritedAlexander'sempire, and later in the coinage and propagandaof the Romanemperorsas well. Among the Romans, the pastoral, festive, and triumphal imagery of Dionysos was also widespreadin privatearts- decorativemetalwork,wall-paintings,statuary,sarcophagus reliefs, and mosaic pavements. The pavement from Sepphoris beautifully encompasses the diverse range of themes connected with Dionysos. Wesee the god andhis mythic companions in the act of joyous song, intoxication, revelry,and triumphal procession, set amidst the rustic occupations of the shepherdand the making of wine, along with other scenes probablyshowing Dionysiac cult practices.The images of drinkingand revelry,and aboveall the central panel depicting the symposium of Herakles and Dionysos, are especially suited to the decorationof a triclinium, or banquethall. But the exuberant vegetalborderof the pavementwith its enigmatic female heads also contains the tigerandgoats of Dionysos, andthus it suggestsas well the mystic, life-givingpowers of the god. The pavement is not only a majoraddition to the body of Romanmosaic but also a monument that may someday tell us much about the religious life of Sepphorisand its leading citizens. For further reading, see A. Bruhl, Liber Pater. Origine et expansion du culte dionysiaque ai Rome et dans le monde romain (Paris, 1953);H. Jeanmaire, Dionysos. Histoire du culte (Paris,1978);and W.E Otto, Dionysos, Myth and Cult (Bloomington, 1965;reprintedDallas, 1981). David Castriota,Department of Art, Duke University.

view of the courtyard garden. It remains to be seen in next season's excavations whether an expected entrance and courtyard will be found south of the triclinium. The existence of so many other doorways to the Sepphoris triclinium, however, is atypical of triclinia in general and raises some doubt as to whether the

228

southern wall, too, would have had an entry.

The SepphorisMosaic As the above description of the triclinium indicates, the design of the mosaic is basically rectangular. It is composed of two distinct parts, one colored and one white. The colored

Biblical Archaeologist, December 1987

part of the floor can be described as a T-shape, with the major part of its design forming a rectangle (measuring 7.2 meters by 5.4 meters and oriented longitudinally northeastsouthwest) that is augmented by two outwardly facing rectangular panels, one on the western and one on the eastern side of its southern end. It is almost certain that yet another such panel runs across the entire southern end; only the 1988 excavations can substantiate this supposition. These colorful augmentative panels thus form a U-shape, which, when combined with the main rectangle (with its border) yields the T-shape of the colored portion of the floor. The rest of the mosaic, the white part, constitutes a second, longer, U-shaped unit on the north. (This organization of the colored and white portions of the mosaic makes the identification of the main hall as a triclinium all the more compelling.) The main rectangle consists of a series of fifteen panels surrounded by a border of acanthus leaf medallions. This arrangement means that there are three main components to the decorated carpet: the fifteen central scenes; the surrounding border of acanthus; and the eastern and western (and possibly southern) panels. In addition, each of these components has some associated geometric designs or figural elements that form borders. In the case of the group of fifteen panels, the central panel is set off with a geometric border. The acanthus medallions twenty-two in number-themselves make a border; and they in turn have framing lines and a two-part geometric border consisting of curled waves and a double guilloche. The fifteen panels, all with legends or captions of one or two Greek words, depict mythological scenes relating to the god Dionysos (see the accompanying sidebar). This makes the mosaic a kind of emblema-that is, a series of scenes relating to a certain subject and

Ile~

CT

~ Ildn ?

(compareDauphin 1979).The fact that two of the animals-the tiger and the goat-are ones closely associated with Dionysos may be coincidental. But that is unlikely, in which case the acanthus borderwould in fact have a thematic relationship to the mythological scenes that it encloses. Technically, then, it might r r: not be appropriateto call the series I it. of fifteen Dionysos scenes an emblema. The animal depictions are not specifically mythological or fan. `r %r wv: # ciful, however,and hence only their r t ? -Nie zoological identity with Dionysiac faunal themes links them to the 1 r C444F mythological scenes. lip' Not all of the inhabited acanfA~~CAIthus volutes contain floral designs and faunal images. In the center of This charmingscene shows one of the putti or erotes (cupids),that recurin the borderalong with wild animals of variouskinds, in this case a deer or gazelle and a leopard.At least some the borderon the northern end, and of the animals in the mosaic are associated with Dionysos in his mythology. also in the central medallion on the south (although that part is badly 13, 14, and 15 on the east. The placed within a wide borderthat is damaged),two female portraitswere middle panel in these two sets of not usually connected to the theme uncovered.The one on the north is three are smaller than the two of the scenes. The central panel undoubtedly the showpiece of the mentioned above,the one oriented to flanking ones. spectacular mosaic floor. That porthe west, is the largestof the fifteen. trait (designated 18)depicts an Although the state of preservaIt depicts the symposium of Dionysos tion is, as we have indicated, remark- exquisite woman. All who have seen and Herakles and sets the thematic her have been struck by her beauty ably good, the tiny size -2 to 3 miland by the way her mysterious eyes content for the other fourteen. Flank- limeters on a side - of many of the tesserae in the figural scenes has seem to follow the viewer wherever ing that scene (numbered1 in the meant that several of the fifteen he or she may move. She has been accompanyingdiagram2)are two somewhat smaller panels on the dubbed the "MonaLisa"of Galilee panels have not survived intact. In addition to the damagepresent in 6 south (2)and the north (3). not because she directly resembles and 10 noted above,scene 15 is also These three are surroundedby da Vinci's famous painting but rather broken up. Panel 2 is partially distwelve additional panels (4 through because she seems to have the same corsoutheast rupted,and panel 5 has only the quality of timelessness and of superb 15),beginning at the ner. The four corner panels (4, 6, 10, right side of its scene visible. That artistry.Also, the woman in the Sepand 12)are smallest. They each are right side, however,is perfectly prephoris portraithas the same faint served and is quite impressive. Dehint of a smile, and that is perhaps apparentlyoriented in the same in middle as the direction what first promptedthe sobriquet. panels (5 spite the fact that some scenes are the south and 11 in the north) on damagedbeyond recognition, the Finally,the long panels (16and each of the short sides, or ends, of mythological content of all seems 17)on the west and on the east are the rectangle.Panels 4 and 6 are thus assured.Together,these fifteen neither mythological scenes nor scenes constitute a visual rendering decorative medallions. They are aporiented to the south, as is 5 beof "thelife and times of Dionysos." tween them; 10 and 12 face north, parently processional scenes, depict6 and both with With respect to damage, the 11. (Actually along ing real people carrying all manner 10 are broken, but it can be assumed wide border(60 centimeters) of inter- of agricultural and other products: twined acanthus tendrils has suffered perhaps offerings or victuals and that they are situated in the same 4 and the greatest disruption. Still, the their as are decorations for a festival or banquet. counterparts, way content of the medallions, or acan12 respectively). The eastern panel is only partly thus volutes, seems clear:Wild aniOn the long sides are the preserved, but the western one consix remainingpanels, three on each tains eleven separate human figures mals, hunting scenes, and domestic animals fill most of the leafy frames in various postures. side: 7, 8, and 9 in the west; and

Biblical Archaeologist, December 1987

229

as-g.I-

.649,41

64

as

aIsweet :-I1-.w.: a So for

.66mosas 'ww avast'

3fa-0.@of 14,

,ago 9. t

-400 '04..IM

?111* *-let bawflaw seft &S4-44JA Ia0a

6wj f-i4q.. u: a 49901

a"

I.dw 0 4.!

so

a .

Lee - -V;114 'N a7?%-

adwrib.a.44, 0. 0. Qi: a 'is tog=,so a we 0Vise . Vim Ile.Soap 66

Z=sla on CM .

trn Tow

Aft!

9 011,

vw *101.

00

gas'.

age,

fib* J", it .606. offvw zo Ole 64-16&4 too- 91 1 IAN 6 IN a a 8 %:,aq4aa 9Ara. go!!,. oftemov Val w8*42yan doom "amp" NOWS40.6446 .-aft as

a

ca. 8V

-gall Data&*&

7I

.T

ov

I.L

OK

i'i

230

Above: Shown here are two of the best preserved scenes among the fifteen Dionysos panels. At the right is panel 5, with the or Greeklabel MEOH,meaning "drinking" The club at the upperleft is a "drunkenness." good indication that the reclining figure,who is vomiting into a bowl held by the female at the right, is the inebriated Herakles,one of the most prominent of the heroes in Greek mythology. The panel on the left is broken, but its survivingportion revealsDionysos riding in a chariot. The god holds a thrysos, a stylized sacred branch that is holy to him. The Greek word for this branch, which was often carried both by the god and his worshippers,is bakchos,hence the terms Bakchoi(male)and Bakchai(female)for the followers of Dionysos (who was known by the name Bacchus in Italy). The inscription HOMHHmeans "procession"and perhaps refersto Dionysos' triumphalreturnfrom India. One of the figuresplays a double pipe, as do figuresin severalother of the Dionysos panels. Here the god is shown smooth-faced, although in much earlierrepresentations he is usually depicted with a full beard. Left:This bird appearsbetween two of the acanthus medallions at the northeast corner of the central rectangle. This detailed view shows the skillful execution of the mosaic. Here, as in the "MonaLisa"portrait(see the coverof this issue), the subtle tones and shadings achieved by the artisan werepossible because of the largepalette (tesserae of more than twenty-fivedifferentcolors were used) and because of the miniature size of many of the tesserae.

Biblical Archaeologist, December 1987

If the entire floor constitutes a unified Dionysiac ensemble, then it is possible that these panels represent a triumphal procession celebrating Dionysos' global victories. Whatever their thematic meaning may be, their artistic beauty is enhanced by an elaborate border, 30 centimeters wide, around each of the panels. The border consists of a geometric frame which in turn is surrounded by a series of small panels depicting groupings of three fish, groupings of two birds, and human heads, possibly representing masks. In the first two cases, several different species of fish and birds are represented in the panels in which they appear. It will take some years before a complete examination of all the complex features of the mosaic can be properly carried out, before a detailed description of all the scenes and other elements can be provided, and before an assessment of the mosaic's historic, artistic, and religious significance can be achieved. Meanwhile, this brief presentation of the Sepphoris mosaic, surely one of the outstanding examples of mosaic art in the Roman east, will have to suffice. Given its unparalleled beauty and its existence in a leading Galilean city with a diverse population, we were reluctant to wait for final analysis before releasing any information. Although, as we have said, its true significance cannot be properly established yet, some tentative suggestions or observations are in order. The Mosaic and the Peoples of Sepphoris: Preliminary Observations The previous two seasons at Sepphoris, in 1985 and 1986, had already provided important information relating to the various religious groups- Jews, Christians, possibly Jewish-Christians (minim), and Romans or pagans - that occupied the city in Roman times. The Roman community, which is almost certainly the one to be most closely as-

sociated with, or responsible for,the mosaic pavement described above,is also known from some of the coins producedby the Sepphorismint. One example has several goddesses standing in temples (Meshorer1985: 36-37); another shows the Capitoline Triad(Zeus, Hera, and Athena). The archaeological finds from Sepphoris itself that relate to the pagan presence there are indeed notable. The theater, set deeply into the scarp on the northern side of the Sepphorishill, epitomizes the existence of Roman culture in this Palestinian city. And the two small bronze figurines, of Pan and Prometheus, discoveredin the 1985 season, are unusual for Roman Palestine and bespeak a high level of cultural achievement. The mosaic carpet of the triclinium, however,although perhaps adumbratedby the numismatic scenes and by the previous discoveries, surely represents a higher level of Greco-Romanculture than anyone had heretofore imagined. The large building in which the mosaic is located and the colorful stone carpet itself indicate a degree of wealth and a standardof taste greaterthan any of us had expected. Whoever commissioned the mosaic, which may have been designed or executed by someone of the Antioch school, was an individual (orindividuals) of considerable means and artistic discretion. The individuals who sponsored the largebuilding and its triclinium with mosaic were most likely Romans. But it is at least theoretically possible that the Jewish community of ancient Sepphoris was also involved in the enterprise. After all, it was in the third century c.E., according to numismatic evidence, that the Jewish boule or town council of Sepphoris entered into an agreement with the Roman Senate (see Meyers, Netzer, and Meyers 1986: 7). In the same century in which the mosaic was laid, the Jewish component of Sepphoris

seems to have had a strong political role. Its literary or religious creativity is markedby the publication of the Mishnah at Sepphorisearly in that century, in the time of Rabbi Judahthe Prince and his friendaccordingto traditional anecdotal sources -the emperor Caracalla.In addition, fragments of a synagogue mosaic floor, with Hebrew letters, were found in the 1987 season in the remains west of the citadel. Although not in situ, they supplement in a significant way the synagogue inscriptions alreadyknown from Sepphoris (Hiittenmeister and Reeg 1977: 402-07). Even if direct Jewish sponsorship or involvement in construction is deemed unlikely, the largebuilding with its striking mosaic floor must have been well known to the Jewish inhabitants of Sepphoris.The Jewsundoubtedly attended the theater, which dominated the upper city visually and culturally. Scarcely any resident of the city could have been ignorant of the mimes or spectacles held there. Since the building with the mosaic is in such close proximity to the theater, the Jewsof Sepphoriscould hardly have been unawareof the existence of such a spectacular artistic achievement as the mosaic pavement. The multireligious composition of Sepphoris'population may represent a special form of cultural symbiosis, a possibility that finds considerable support in Jewishliterary sources (Urbach 1959). Similar symbiosis apparentlyexisted at nearby Beth Shecarim, site of the official burial ground of the rabbis in underground catacombs, according to the epigraphic and pictorial evidence (Avigad 1976). The identity of the sponsors of the mosaic at Sepphoris may never be definitively established. Yet the existence of the mosaic and of the nearby theater establish the fact that Sepphoris was a thoroughly Hellenized city in the third century c.E. The attraction of Roman culture for

all its inhabitants was clearly powerful. Whether Jewor pagan,Christian or Judeo-Christian,the residents of this Galilean city clearly lived in a Greco-Romanmilieu. Surely the prevailing ambience in many aspects of the city's culture was set by the artistry in stone of the Sepphoris mosaic. Notes 'Fieldstaffmembersforthe season wereZevWeiss(whosupervisedthe excavationof the buildingwith the mosaicandcontributedto its analysis), DavidAmit,MarvaBaluka,RivkaBirger, MichaelDadon,MaryJuneNestler,and YigalYisrael. 2Thenumberingof the panelshere is provisionalandonly intendedforuse in this article.

Bibliography

Avi-Yonah,M. 1975 Ancient Mosaics. Series:Cassell's IntroducingArchaeologySeries 5. London:Cassell and Company,Ltd. Avigad,N. 1976 Beth Shecarim,volumes I and III. Jerusalem:MassadaPress. Ben-Dov,M., and Rappel,Y 1987 Mosaics of the Holy Land. New York:AdamaBooks. Dauphin, C. 1979 A RomanMosaic Pavementfrom Nablus. Israel ExplorationJournal 29:11-33. Hiittenmeister, F, and Reeg, G. 1977 Die antiken Synagogenin Israel, volume 1.Wiesbaden:Dr. Ludwig Reichert. Levi,D. 1947 Antioch Mosaic Pavements. Princeton:PrincetonUniversity Press. Meshorer,Y. 1985 City-Coinsof Eretz-Israeland the Decapolis in the Roman Period. Jerusalem:IsraelMuseum. Meyers,E., Netzer, E., and Meyers,C. 1986 Sepphoris-Ornament of All Galilee. Biblical Archaeologist 49: 4-19. J.B. Toynbee,J.M. C., and Ward-Perkins, 1950 PeopledScrolls,A Hellenistic Motif in ImperialArt. Papersof the British School at Rome 18:30-37. Urbach,E. E. 1959 The RabbinicalLawsof Idolatryin the Second and Third Centuries in the Light of Archaeologicaland Historical Facts.Israel ExplorationJournal 9: 149-165, 229-245.

Biblical Archaeologist, December 1987

231

The from

Lion

Bowl

Kinneret

Volkmar Fritz hvby ince 1982, I have directedex-

ence during the period represented

atTellel-cOreimehby stratum II. Partsof the tower cavations

(ancient Kinneret,near the northwesternshore of the Sea of Galilee). During the third season, we uncovereda lion bowl in the destruction debris of the last settlement. The debris belonged to a huge tower that was already in exist-

232

were apparentlyreused during the period representedby stratum I to strengthen the northern corner of the small fortified settlement. (See Fritz 1986a, 1986b,and 1987 for excavationreports.) On the basis of the pottery found

Biblical Archaeologist, December 1987

filled by other material. The upper part of the body and the legs show strong muscles; the paws are stylized but still executed in great detail. The head of the lion ends in a shaft that is only 3 millimeters long; a small cylindrical hole runs from the mouth through the shaft. The bowl is made of Egyptian blue (Lucasand Harris 1962: 174, Foster1979:9-12), a material Shown above and on the facing page are three views of the lion bowl found in 1984 at Kinneret 340-44; composed of a mixture of silicon, a (Chinnereth),near the northwesternshore of the Sea of Galilee. This vessel, probablymanufacturedin Syriaand dating to the final phase of the Neo-Assyrianempire (around744-627 copper derivative like malachite, B.C.E.), was cast in a mold, from a rare,artificially producedmaterial called Egyptianblue. calcium carbonate,and natron. The Note the strongly stylized representationof a righthand, with carefully renderedfingernails, dry powderthat was producedwhen on the bottom of the bowl, as well as the naturalistic rendition of the lion. These two motifs are common in Syrianart but rarein combination. It has been suggested that the bowl served these elements were fired was mixed as a libation vessel or incense arm, but its size (13 by 7.7 by 3 centimeters)makes this unlikely. with water and used as paint or paste. Rather,the shaft at the back, which may have been connected to a skin container,and the blue was for paintused Egyptian hole that runs from the mouth throughthe shaft suggest that it was used as an ointment bowl. in as as the Old Photographscourtesy of the author. ing Egypt early Kingin a house next to the tower,stratum I can be dated to the second half of the eighth century B.C.E. It would appearthat the last settlement was built after the Assyrian conquest in 734 B.C.E. and surviveduntil around 700 B.C.E.

The lion bowl is 13 centimeters long, 7.7 centimeters wide (inside measurement), and 3 centimeters deep.It has a flat rim with two incisions on the outside. The exterior of the base is decoratedwith a representation of the right hand of a human being; even though the hand is strongly stylized, some elements,

especially the fingernails,are shown in great detail. The bowl is held between the paws of a lion. This lion makes a strong and powerfulimpression. The head is sculpted in a naturalistic style, although with no mane. Its mouth is open wide, showing impressive teeth. The lower jaw is formed into the bottom of the bowl with the tongue hanging out. The lion's face, which is encircled by a collar, is smooth, without any whiskers; the ears are heart-shaped.Nose, lip, and eyebrowsareveryprominent;the eyesockets are empty and may have been

dom (about 2700-2200 B.C.E.).It was

used in the Near Eastas a paste beginning aroundthe middle of the second millennium B.C.E. Finds of this material, however,are very rare.Among the more than sixty lion bowls recoveredfrom other excavations, only one other (foundin Hasanlu, in northwestern Iran)was made from it (van Loon 1962: 15).Like the lion bowl from Hasanlu, the specimen from Kinneretwas cast in a mold that may in turn have been taken from a wax model. Lion bowls are part of a larger group of finds. These objects exist in a wide variety of sizes, decorative motifs, materials, and quality of workmanship, and they evidently had equally varied applications. Ivory,limestone, steatite, serpentine, and Egyptianblue were all used in their construction; some were plain, others were overlaid partially or entirely with gold. Various uses have been suggested for these objects, from personal (cosmetic containers or receptacles) to cultic (censers, inReconstructiondrawing of one of three lion bowls found in a groupat Hasanlu in Iran. Made of steatite in the ninth century B.C.E., it

has threelions, one forming the spout and two others clambering over the edge of the shallow basin. Drawing courtesy of Grace Muscarellaand the Hasanlu Projectof The University Museum, Philadelphia.

Biblical Archaeologist, December 1987

233

Lake

or

Vn

-

)

Wk

dip

Ui

dwr

dip

Left:The crossed bands decoration is featured on the undersideof this steatite lion bowl of unknown, but probablynorth Syrian,provenance. The spout coming from the lion's body is hollow. It has been suggested that the second hole below the spout was used to fit a slender handle into the bowl (see Walter1959).Photographcourtesy of the Museumffir Kunst und Gewerbe,Hamburg.Above: This Syrian-stylelion bowl features a palmette decoration on its underside. This type of floraldesign was verycommon throughoutthe Levantin antiquity. Photographcourtesy of the museum at Karlsruhe, WestGermany.

cense arms, or libation vessels). Most lion bowls known so far are, unfortunately,of uncertain origin. An unpublished catalog compiled by KurtGalling lists 61 bowls. Of these, only 28 were found in excavations, with 8 coming from Syria, 11 from Assyria, 2 from Iran, 1 from Anatolia, 2 from Samos, and 4 from Palestine.' Besides the largenumber of bowls found in Nimrud (which can be explained both by the large

234

amounts of booty brought to the Assyrian capital from vanquished Syrian cities- Barnett 1982:46and by the extensive excavations carried out in Nimrud), most of the lion bowls come from sites in Syria. Therefore,the center of manufacture must be looked for there.2From Syria this artifactwas exportedas far as Hasanlu to the east and Samos to the west. The style of the bowls also

Biblical Archaeologist, December 1987

points to Syria as the place of origin. Decorative motifs used on them include crossed bands (apure geometrical design), the palmette motif (avery common element of art throughout the Levant),the human hand, and other forms of lion decoration (as in the case where the heads rise above the rim of the bowl and the bodies are engravedin relief). All of these motifs are common in Syriandecorative art.

Left: Examples of the palmette motif as it appears on various artifacts from the ancient Levant. Above: This vessel found at Hansanlu and the one discovered at Kinneret are the only known lion bowls made of Egyptian blue. It was once heavily decorated with gold leaf, and the head, with its scalepatterned (squamiform) mane, retains much of the original gold. There is a representation of a hand on the underside, on the back of which is a gold geometric flower. To sphinxlike figures with outspread wings guard the front of the bowl. A hole running through the lion allowed for liquid to be poured out of its mouth. Depressions in its eye-sockets and on the rim of the bowl may have been set with semiprecious or precious stones. All drawings by Lealan Swanson.

The combination of the hand and lion motifs is rather rare. Altogether there are only six pieces where this occurs (among them are those from Hasanlu and from Samos). This is surprising because among the bowls without the lion, the hand is the most common type of decoration. Forty-two examples of this type are known so far, compared with only eleven bowls decorated with the palmette motif and the crossed bands. When the lion became the dominant element of the bowl, the motif of the hand seems to have diminished. The origin of the hand motif is not known. There are two different kinds of cultic objects where the hand is an essential feature: the incense arm in Egypt (Przeworski 1930: 133 and following; Albright 19411943: 72; Parrot 1964: 237 and following) and the libation vessel in Anatolia (Amiran 1962: 170-74; Kozloff 1973; Bittel, Naumann, Beran, Hachmann, and Kurth 1957: 33 and

following; Walter 1959: 73-74). At the end of the incense arm the hand held a bowl in which the offering of incense was presented. The rather long libation vessel (known from Bogazkoy and some other places in Anatolia, Cyprus, and northern Syria) is hollow inside and ends in a small bowl held by hand. It was probably used for pouring an offering of a liquid in some sort of cultic ceremony. In both artifacts the hand represents the human being approaching the goddess with a special kind of offering. In contrast to these cultic vessels, the hand holding the lion bowl seems to have less significance. More likely, the bowl is held by a hand to imitate a common practice of servants holding vessels for more important persons. The hand therefore marks a special manner of presentation. This same interpretation may be applied to the ivory vessels that end in a spoon held by a hand. In addition to the hand, the

bowl discovered in our excavation is held by a lion. This duplication of motifs further indicates that both the hand and the lion were meant as ornaments and that they had no special function. The lion is fashioned in a very prominent way and is unique in style. On most vessels, the face of the lion shows some or all of the following stylistic characteristics: The mane, eyes, nose, and ears are emphasized. The mane is stylized either by a kind of hatching or squamiform (a scalelike pattern). The eyes are rather large, often made of different material and inset. The nose is usually very prominent, with the whiskers engraved, either as horizontal or as vertical stripes. The ears are most often heart-shaped, or they are pointed back in a naturalistic way. There are two different ways in which the lion can be attached to the bowl: Either his paws are set on the rim of the bowl or they span the bowl. This way of portraying the lion

Biblical Archaeologist, December 1987

235

Threeviews of a lion bowl, carvedfrom black steatite, that was found in the sanctuary of the goddess Hera at Samos, off the coast of 7Trkey.Like the bowls from Hasanlu and Kinneret,this brings togetherthe hand and lion motifs (a rarecombination), but unlike their more realistic representations,the Samos lion has a rounded face and ears and simple lines for the mane and muzzle. The upper part of the bowl is decorated with incised flowers, and, underneath, the hand is squaredoff like the shoulders of the lion. The hollow core of the brokenspout is clearly visible from the back. Photographscourtesy of the Samos Excavations. A hand has also been carved on the underside of the steatite bowl shown below, which is from Yunusch,Syria. Like the hand on the lion bowl from Kinneret,it is renderedwith little detail. Frequently, however,such hands featureincised decorations, as if they were painted or tattooed. Photographcourtesy of the Trusteesof the BritishMuseum.

is typical of Syrian art during Iron Age II (approximately 930-540 B.C.E.). It can be clearly assigned to the late Hittite style, common in that period (see Akurgal 1961: 94-100, 1966: 101 and following, but note that he does not include lion bowls in his discussion). The lions in stone as well as of ivory show the same elements. Lions sculpted into column bases and orthostats have their mouths opened wide. Their whiskers and manes are very prominent and the ears are shaped like hearts, but the eyes are rather small. Generally, the facial features are executed in a rather clumsy style. It is obvious that the lion bowl from Kinneret does not belong to this style, as the head and the body are entirely different from all other lion bowls. In fact, the more natural style and depiction of the lion has its closest parallel in Neo-Assyrian

236

art. For example, the hunting scene in the palace of Assurbanipal at Nineveh portrays a lioness with an emphasis on the muscles that is strikingly similar to the lion bowl from Kinneret (see Barnett, no date: 53-104, plates IX-XVI). The wounded beast is very realistic; even with three arrows in her back she still gives the impression of power and danger. Despite the fact that the ears follow a Syrian tradition, and the whiskers are entirely missing, the lion bowl from Kinneret shows the definite influence of the Assyrian style in the time of the Neo-Assyrian empire. In this combination it is unique so far; only the piece from Hasanlu may be assigned to the same tradition, although it was executed differently. The lion bowl from Kinneret demonstrates the taking over of new elements into Syrian

Biblical Archaeologist, December 1987

/?

\?

s~ ;iii,

?~

The origin of the hand motif used on the lion bowl from Kinneretis not known. In the two kinds of cultic objects shown here, however, the hand is an essential feature.Above is an Egyptianincense arm that terminates in a flat metal hand with an attached metal bowl. Below this is an Anatolian libation vessel, which was made to look like a human forearmand a hand holding a bowl. In these artifacts the hand representsthe human being approachinga deity with a special kind of offering.In contrast, the hand holding the lion bowl has less significance;it is probably merely an imitation of the practice of servants holding vessels for more important persons. Photographcourtesy of the Pelizaeus Museum, Hildesheim. Drawing of vessel from Bogazk6yby Lealan Swanson.

art after the Assyrian conquest of Syria-Palestinein the second half of the eighth century B.C.E.By export, this new cultural trend reachedthe southernmost provinces of the empire. The function of the lion bowl has been discussed over a long period of time (see summaries in Parrot 1964:237-40 and Kozloff 1973); however,neither the use as libation vessel, like the vessel from Bogazk6y, nor the use as an incense arm, like those known from Egypt,can be proved.To the contrary,the size of the bowl makes such interpretations unlikely. The shaft with a hole makes it clear that the bowl was fitted onto a kind of vessel or case Although the portrayalof lions on many Syrianartifacts of the period can be assigned to the late Hittite style (as illustrated here by the two lions that formed the base of a wooden column at TellTayinaton the Antioch Plain), the lion bowl from Kinneretfinds a closer parallel in Neo-Assyrianart (as represented here by the drawing by S.-E.Gauthier of a relief from the palace of Assurbanipalabout 668-627 B.C.E.).Photograph courtesy of

the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago.

Biblical Archaeologist, December 1987

237

The interpretationof the vessel from Kinneretas an ointment bowl is supportedby the discoveryof a clay vessel from Cretethat was clearly used for that purpose.Note that a bowl- which has been brokenoff but which has been restoredfor one of the photographsis connected to a container (decoratedwith the head and paws of a lion). Theremay have been a funnel on top of the container.Photographcourtesy of the ArchaeologicalInstitute, Heidelburg,WestGermany

238

Biblical Archaeologist, December 1987

containing a liquid that was poured into the bowl through the lion's mouth (Amiran 1962: 170-74, 1972: 67-77; Muscarella 1974:26). The only liquid that would suit such a special bowl is oil, mixed with various spices, that was used for ointment. The lion bowl therefore can only be interpretedas an ointment bowl. That this interpretation is correct was recently provedbeyond any doubt by a vessel from Crete (Hampe 1969;see also Fritz 1986a:37). On this object, kept today in the museum at Heidelberg, a bowl is connected to a container that is decoratedwith the head and paws of a lion. Most of the bowl is broken off, and what was probablya kind of funnel on top of the-container is missing as well. The use is clear, however:The ointment was pouredfrom the container into the bowl and could also be pouredback. In the case of the lion bowl it must be assumed that the container was made of a different material (probablyskin) and connected by way of the shaft. An example of such a combination is seen in a raretype of vessel where a small bowl is connected to a container imitating the form of an animal skin. The skin vessel could be replacedif necessary, while the bowl could be used for a lifetime.

Syrian sites as centers of the manufacture of ivories. Of the bowls found in Nimrud, 12 out of 13 are made from ivory.

Bibliography

To sum up, the lion bowl from Kinneret is of special importance because of its style. It shows a strong Neo-Assyrian influence that is probably a consequence of the rise of the Assyrian empire. The political situation during the second half of the eighth century B.C.E.caused a change in the art of Syria, a change that can be observed in other artifacts. The new style was imported (by way of vessels for daily use) into the provinces of the former kingdom of Israel, along with the new administration, after the Assyrian conquest in 734 B.C.E.

Notes 'I have listed neither those bowls labelled Rasm et-Tangara,because of their doubtfulprovenance,nor those found in the plain of Antioch. The latter were excavatedby the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago and are on displaythere; they have not yet been published. 2Further suggesting that North Syria was a center for the manufacture of lion bowls (and bowls of other design) are both the large number of bowls excavated in northern Syria (of the 77 that have been found, 46 are from Catal Hiiyiik alone-Muscarella 1974: 25) and a partially finished bowl also discovered at Catal Hilyiik (Muscarella 1974: 26; the design of this particular bowl is unclear). Barnett (1982: 46) also suggests five North

Akurgal, E. 1961 Die Kunst der Hethiter. Miunchen: Hirmer. 1966 Orient und Okzident. BadenBaden: Holle. 1968 Orient and Okzident: The Art of Greece; its Origins in the Mediterranean and Near East, translated by W Dynes. New York: Crown. 1980 The Art and Architecture of Turkey. New York: Rizzoloi International Publications. Albright, W. E 1932 The Fourth Joint Campaign of Excavation at Tell Belt Mirsim. Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 47: 3-17. 1941- The Excavations of Tell Beit 1943 Mirsim. Volume III. The Iron Age. Series: Annual of the American Schools of Oriental Research 21-22. New Haven, CT: American Schools of Oriental Research. Amiran, R. 1962 The "Arm-Shaped"Vessel and its Family. Journal of Near Eastern Studies 21: 161-74. 1972 A Lion Bowl Made of Pottery. Museum Haaretz Bulletin 14:

67-77. Barnett, R. D. no Assyrian Palace Reliefs and date their Influence on the Sculptures of Babylonia and Persia. London: Batchwork Press. 1982 Ancient Ivories in the Middle East. Series: Qedem 14. Jerusalem: The Hebrew University. Bittel, K., and Giiterbock, H. G.

1935 BogazkayI: Neue Untersuchungenin der hethitischer Hauptstadt. Berlin:

Seen from Hasanlu. Journal of Near Eastern Studies 24: 193-217. Fischer, H. 1963 "The Evolution of the Arm-like Censer" in Varia Aegyptaica. Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt 2: 28-34. Foster, K. P. 1979 Aegean Faience of the Bronze Age. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. Freyer-Schauenburg, B. 1966 Elfenbeine aus dem samischen

Heraion. Hamburg:Cram, de Gruyter and Company. Fritz, V. 1978 Kinneret und Ginnosar. Voruntersuchung fiir eine Ausgrabung auf dem Tell el-cOreme am See Genezareth. Zeitschrift des Deutschen Palaistina-Vereins 94: 32-45. 1986a Kinneret. Vorbericht uber die Ausgrabungen auf dem Tell elcOreme am See Genezaret in den Jahren 1982-1985. Zeitschrift des Deutschen PalastinaVereins 102: 1-39. 1986b Kinneret. Ergebnisse der Ausgrabungen auf dem Tell elCOreme am See Gennesaret. Antike Welt 17(1): 13-26. 1987 Kinneret: A Biblical City on the Sea of Galilee. Archaeology 40(4): 42-47. Galling, K. 1970 Zwei SalbgefAse und ein Armreif aus dem syrischen Raum. Zeitschrift des Deutschen PalhistinaVereins 86: 1-9. Hampe, R. 1969 Kretische Ldwenschale des siebten Jahrhunderts v. Chr. Sitzungsberichte der Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften Abhandlung 2: 9-42. Kozloff, A. P. 1973 A Toast for the Gods. Bulletin of

Abhandlungender Preussischen the Cleveland Museum ofArt Akadamie der Wissenschaften 60(2): 44-51. Philosophisch Historisch Klasse. Lucas, A., and Harris, J. R. 1962 Ancient Egyptian Materials and Bittel, K., Naumann, R., Beran,T., Hachmann, G., and Kurth,G. Industries, fourth edition. 1957 Boazk6y III: Funde aus den Grabungen 1952-1955. Berlin:

G. Mann.

London: Edward Arnold Ltd. Madhloom, T. A.

1970 The Chronologyof Neo-

Dyson, R. H. 1965 Problems of Protohistoric Iran as

Assyrian Art. London: Athlone Press.

Biblical Archaeologist, December 1987

239

May,H. G. 1935 Material Remains of the Megiddo Cult. Chicago:University of Chicago Press. Muscarella,O. W. 1965 Lion Bowls from Hasanlu. Archaeology 18:41-46. 1974 The Third Lion Bowl from Hasanlu. Expedition 16(2):

25-29. 1981 Laddersto Heaven:Art Treasuresfrom the Lands of the Bible. Toronto:The Landsof the Bible ArchaeologyFoundation. 1982 A Catalogue of Ivoriesfrom Hasanlu. Philadelphia:University Museum, University of Pennsylvania. Parrot,A. 1964 Aquisitions et Inedits du Mus~e du Louvre.Syria 41: 213-50. Porada,E. 1965 The Art of Ancient Iran.New York:Crown. Przeworski,S. 1930 Les encensoirs de la Syrie du Nord et leurs prototypes egyptiens. Syria 11: 133-43. PrzeworskiS., and Zakharov,A. 1934 Antiquites de Marash Moscou et a Tilfis. Syria 15:222-25. Reichert,A. 1977 Kultgerite. Pp. 189-94 in Biblisches Reallexikon, second edition, edited by KurtGalling. Ttibingen:J.C. B. Mohr. Stuckey,R. A. 1971 Vier L6wenverziertesyrische Steatitgefiisse.Berytus 20: 11-24. van Loon,M. N. 1962 A Lion Bowl from Hasanlu.

Citp SLIDES FROM

TOURSLED

SCHOLARS TOURSNOTED

SETS ISRAEL

1988 TOURS THAILAND/BURMA Jan. & Nov.; F. K. Lehman, U. of Illinois

EGYPT Feb. & Nov.

Dr. Robert Bianchi, The Brooklyn Museum

GUATEMALAMarch CAVES& CASTLESJune

1) Tour the Holy Land: 100slides& tapecass. (alsoavail,in Spanish) 2) Israel Past & Present: geogr.& historicsurvey 100slides& tapecass. in 3) Jesus: a biography sightandsound--80slides

Prof. Norman Totten, Bentley College

INDONESIA

$35.

March& August

Prof. William Collins, U. of C, Berkeley Prof. Robert Hefner, Boston U.

TREASURESOF BYZANTIUM

$35.

April

Dr. Robert Bianchi, The Brooklyn Museum

SICILY May

Prof. William Biers, U. of Missouri

+ tape cassette + map.

4) Bedouins of Sinai: ethnologicstudywith 40 slides& booklet 5) LivingReefs of the Red Sea: underwater marvelsby Dr. D. Darom 80 slides& tapecass. All Prices IncludeAirmail. ChequeUS fundshas to be madeout to: NathanMERON. available Catalogue on paiement of $1.00 for airmail expenses

Expedition 4(4): 14-19.

Walter,H. 1959 Orientalische Kultgerate. Mitteilungen des Deutschen ArchidologischenInstituts Athenische Abteilung 74: 69-74, plates 115-23. Weiss,H., editor 1985 Ebla to Damascus: Art and Archaeology of Ancient Syria. Washington,D.C.:Smithsonian Institution. Winter,I. J. 1985 IvoryCarving.Pp. 339-46 in Ebla to Damascus: Art and Archaeology of Ancient Syria, edited by H. Weiss.Washington, D.C.:Smithsonian Institution.

240

ARCHAEOLOGICA BY

orb

Biblical Archaeologist, December 1987

ANATOLIAN TURKEY May& Sept. EASTERN TURKEY June MattanyaZohar, Hebrew U.

$20.

ETRUSCANITALYMay

Prof. Nancy de Grummond,Florida St. U.

PERU May

Prof. Andrew Miracle, Texas ChristianU.

$30.

CHINA Ancient Capitals May, June & October

China & Tibet Silk Route

August September

CYPRUS/RHODES & CRETE October MattanyaZohar, Hebrew U.

ISRAELOctober

Prof. E. Oren, Ben-GurionU.

P.O.Box 18040

JERUSALEM 91180Israel

tours archaeological 30 East42 Street Suite1202 J New York,NY 10017 212-986-3054

ANNOUNCING IN A MAJOR

THE FIRST VOLUME NEW SERIES

Royal Inscriptions of Mesopotamia ASSYRIAN RULERS OF THE 3RD AND 2ND MILLENIA BC (TO 1115 BC) A. Kirk Grayson, with G. Frame & D. Frayne The twenty main volumes of the royal inscriptions of Mesopotamia will present in standard editions all the cuneiform texts of the royal inscriptions from Sumer, Babylonia, and Assyria. This first volume covers the earliest inscriptions of the Assyrian periods. $75.00 o~TO ,UNIVERITYl~l

ONTO 0 R S$ ,,

Yahweh

of

Samaria

and

his

Asherah by David Noel Freedman

vertheyears,archaeol-

ogists have criticized biblical scholars, and biblical scholars, not this lying down, have retaking in kind. The rhetoric has sponded often escalated without a corresponding increase in wisdom or knowledge. I believe we must bring the two disciplines together.After all, both have long histories and have been developed,advocated,and worked through by qualified, competent people. And if each does its own work, it can make up for the deficiencies of the other. Forinstance, our understanding of a biblical passage can certainly be improvedby a knowledge of what was going on at the time it was written. Archaeology can be very useful here because its excavation of material culture and analysis of artifacts aim to re-create the life of people in ancient times. Similarly, the exegesis of biblical passages can be of assistance to archaeologists by

A female figurine from the IronAge in Palestine. Drawing by Linda Huff

Biblical Archaeologist, December 1987

241

The discovery of an inscription brings together archaeologists and biblical scholars. A case in point: the discoveries at Quntillet CAjrud. providinguseful incidental information and thus helping in the evaluation of finds. Bringingarchaeologyand biblical studies together is not an easy task, but there is one circumstance in particularthat lends itself to the attempt: that is, when an inscription is discovered.Severalgood examples come to mind. There is the royalinscription of a king of Moab,Mesha, who is actually mentioned in the Bible. This is the only royalinscription of any length that has been found in the basic region of Israel. It was found in Transjordanand it is a remarkabledocument. The first scholars who worked on it reflected on the fact that the perspectiveof this king-his religious, political, and social views -would be the counterpartof what an Israelite king would have written about himself. Another is one in which the Assyrian king Sennacheribgavehis view of the siege of Jerusalemin 701 B.C.E.,which resulted in the capitu-

lation of King Hezekiah of Judah. What is particularlyinteresting is that this providesa contemporary Assyrian account of events that are describedin great detail in the Bible. It must be borne in mind, however, that just because the Assyrian inscription is contemporarywith the events doesn'tmean that it is

242

1

l

,-*. ; AIaA tRAI O,'A

..11,

) . ':Z* L

% . i8b.-.

, ?

"

I

R

-l

Standingin the southern Sinai is Quntillet cAjrud(HorvatTeiman),whose name means "solitary hill of the water-wells."Fora short period sometime between the mid-ninth and mideighth centuryB.C.E., this was the site of an Israelitefortresson the road between Gaza and Eilat. Excavationsat this single-periodsite have uncoveredraretextile remains and a wealth of inscriptionalmaterial. Photographby AvrahamHay courtesy of the Universityof TelAviv Institute of Archaeology.

necessarily more reliable or truthful than the biblical account. On the contrary,royalpropagandahas probably not changed over the millennia. Nevertheless, it is established that Hezekiah paid tribute, but, contrary to the usual Assyrian procedure,the city was not captured(it was not even entered)and the king was not replacedand his dynasty was not removed.Sennacheribwent home, because of a palace conspiracy,and this confirms the biblical account that something quite unusual had taken place. A third inscription, and one that

Biblical Archaeologist, December 1987

has caused much scholarly disputation, is a literary text found on a chapel wall in Transjordan,at a place called Tell Deir cAlla. What makes this inscription especially tantalizing is that the wall on which it was written collapsed and crumbled into tiny fragments.As a result, we have a big jigsaw puzzle with about 1,000 pieces. Remarkablyenough it actually can be read.Also, it is a literary text, and very,very few of these have ever been found because literature was not consideredimportantenough to waste either good papyrusor good wall space.

Should avidNoel Freedmanhas been making his valuablecontributions to the field of biblical and ancient Near Eastern studies for over forty years. It would be difficult to name a scholar whose contributions have been more pervasive through the whole breadthof the field. It would also be difficult to name an individual who has done our field more good. His scholarlybooks and articles are a mountain of works in literary,historical, linguistic, epigraphic,and orthographicstudies. He is an untiring traveleras a lecturer to academic and lay audiences all over North America and beyond. In his classroom teaching he draws students into the intricacies of the meticulous study of the small item, always somehow managingto keep them awareof the forestas they study the individual leaf of a tree. He is continuously involvedin organizinglectures and conferences, and he is the administrativeand spiritual force of the society of scholars known as the Biblical Colloquium. And then there is his editing. He has served as editor of several important journals in the field, including Biblical Archaeologist. Contributors to the Anchor Bible commentaries on the Bible regularlyremark that he has been a collaboratoras much as an editor.He has helped hundredsof scholars in making their published researchmore accurate and more comprehensible. David Noel Freedmanis the greatest editor since R. Professor Freedman holds chairs at two institutions, the University of Michigan and the University of California. He has served on the faculty of the University of Michigan since 1970, where he was appointed to the Thurnau Chair in Religious Studies. And last year he accepted the endowed chair in HebrewBiblical Studies at the University of California,San Diego. To celebrate his appointment at UCSD, an inauguralwas held on February22, 1987.The program included lectures presentedin his honor through the day by distinguished archaeologists:YigalShiloh of the HebrewUniversity of Jerusalem,at that time Visiting Smart Professorat Duke University (this was one of ProfessorShiloh's last public lectures, which he gave in spite of the illness that recently brought about his untimely death; see the memorial at the beginning of this issue); William G. Dever of the University of Arizona; Carol L. Meyers of Duke University; and Eric M. Meyers of Duke University. The day culminated with ProfessorFreedman'sinaugurallecture. All of the lectures treated both archaeology and the Bible. The total attendance for the day was over two thousand. The presentarticle is basedon ProfessorFreedman'slecture. Likeso much of his scholarship,it is stimulating, provocative,and very important.He deals with evidence that the God of Israel was believed to be associated with a consort, a goddess, for much of the biblical period. The topic was particularlyappropriate for.the occasion of his inauguralbecause it brought together his interests and skills in biblical interpretation,archaeology,epigraphy,and orthography(and even a dash of Shakespeare). Readers.shouldbe awarethat this transcribedtext conveysonly a fractionof the warmth and good humor of the man. The inaugural day in southern Californiawas festive throughoutas the audience was remindedrepeatedlythat learning can be a joy.This was true of all of the lectures, and it was especially evident duringthe inauguraladdress.ProfessorFreedman'swit and his humanity touched the audience of scholarsand laypeoplein such a way that they still speak of that occasion with fondness as well as with respect for the man'serudition. It was a reminderto us all that the expression"agentleman and a scholar"means something. Still, even transcribedon the printedpage,David Noel Freedman'slecture is clearly an important contribution to our pursuit of an understandingof the biblical world. It is impressive and intriguing in itself, and-like all of his work-it invites and stimulates us to join in the inquiry ourselves.

D

RichardElliott Friedman

the at

inscription

Quntillet CAjrud be

read

as

refer-

to Yahweh's "asherah" a wood (perhaps

ring

to his or pole) '"Asherah" (a god-

dess

consort)?

The hero of the episode reported in the inscription is a very unlikely person-in fact, one who was once thought to be fictional. He is the man called Balaam, son of Beor, who is well known from stories in the Book of Numbers, where he appears as a diviner. Who would have thought that somebody else, outside of the Bible, regarded him as a folk hero? I don't think anybody believed that such new data about Balaam would be found. Furthermore, this inscription is in a sanctuary, where, presumably, the content would have been of the greatest importance. The Deir cAllfi inscription dates from about 500 years later than the period when Balaam is supposed to have lived as a contemporary of

Moses (around1200 B.C.E.). Strangely enough, the hero is not only the same person, but he is also up to the same tricks. This is a man who, as you know, makes his services available to the highest bidder. He is what I would call an amiable polytheist. This is also the pagan view of Balaam. The biblical attitude, though, is much less favorable. A fourth inscription, and one I would like to concentrate on for the remainder of this paper, was found in an equally unlikely place. This site has no biblical name because nobody knows how to connect it

Biblical Archaeologist, December 1987

243

Four Inscriptions

Above: The Moabite Stone. Photographcourtesy of the Princeton University Press.Below: A section of Combination II of the Deir cAlla inscription. Photograph courtesy of the Deir cAlli Expedition.

244

The Moabite Stone. The Moabite Stone, also referredto as the Stele of Mesha, is a slab of black basalt, 3.5 feet high by 2 feet wide, carvedwith a thirty-four line inscription by King Mesha of Moab.Dating to aroundthe middle of the ninth century B.C.E. and written in a language close to Biblical Hebrew,the stele is dedicated to the god Chemosh in gratitudefor Mesha'svictories over the Israeliteking, a successor of Omri (who is mentioned by name). Compare the biblical account in 2 Kings 1:1. The stone, which now resides in the Louvre,had to be restoredfrom fragments, owing to the circumstances surrounding its discovery by Western scholars. In 1868, F.A. Klein, an Anglican minister from Alsace, was visiting Dhiban (ancient Dibon, in what is today Jordan)when he learned that an inscribed stone lay in its ruins. Klein could not readthe stone, but he measured it, made a sketch, and copied a few words.Basedon his information,the Berlin Museum attempted to buy it from the bedouin. Because the Transjordanwas at that time part of the Ottoman empire, the negotiations involvedthe Turkish authorities, in particularthe pasha (orgovernor)of Nablus. The bedouin, however,had no love for the pasha, and may have thought the stone possessed some magical quality; consequently, they broke it up and distributed the pieces as talismans. Its subsequent reconstruction was made possible by the Frenchorientalist, Charles Clermont-Ganneau,who had also learned of the stone and, during the period the Germans were trying to buy it, had had a papersqueeze made of it (andwho in addition seems to have made a competing offer).It was he who trackeddown andpurchasedmost of the pieces, which eventually went to the Louvre. The Sennacherib Inscription. The famous text in which the Assyrian king Sennacheribboasts of his campaignof 701 B.C.E., when he shut up Hezekiah in Jerusalem"likea birdin a cage,"is known in severalversions. One is the Taylor Prism, discoveredby Austen HenryLayardin Sennacherib'slibraryat Nineveh andnow in the BritishMuseum. The second, andbest preserved,versionis the Chicago Prism at the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago. The third is the Rassam Prism, found by Hormuzd Rassam (an early associate of Layard)in Ashurbanipal'slibraryat Nineveh in 1853.These inscriptions are in Akkadian, written in cuneiform, on clay that had been molded into the shape of prisms. The Deir cAlla Inscription. The inscription at Deir cAllf (in Jordan)was discovered in 1967. Dating to around 700 B.C.E.(the precise date is still under discussion), it is written in a language similar in syntax and vocabularyto Biblical Hebrew.The inscription is written in ink on plaster.The excavator, H. J.Franken,has suggestedthat, instead of its once havingbeen on a wall, the texts may havebeen on a stele or some kind of display area.Whateverthe original surface, an earthquake dislodged the plaster from it, breaking the inscription into hundredsof fragments.Scholarshavepieced these togetherinto fifteen differentgroups,called combinations. The work of reconstructingthe inscription, which is now on display in the Amman Museum in Jordan, continues. Inscription from Quntillet cAjrud. During three seasons of excavation conducted between October 1975 and May 1976 the site of Quntillet cAjrud yielded a great deal of written material, including letters incised on pottery beforeit was fired;inscriptions on stone vessels; inscriptions written in black or redink on plaster,which in most cases hadflakedoff walls;and inscriptions accompanied by drawings on pottery vessels. The inscription under discussion here belongs to the last category.Writtenin red ink on the shoulder of a large pithos that was almost completely restoredfrom fragments, the early

Biblical Archaeologist, December 1987

Left:Partialview of the inscription and drawings on pithos A from Quntillet cAjrud.Courtesyof Ze'evMeshel. Below: The Chicago Prism, which contains Sennacherib'sinscription. Photograph courtesy of the Oriental Institute Museum of the University of Chicago.

vtp %~$?~ilf~ir~~/L~;;wv;n?rvY 40wo Owl! )NO,~~~4 ~ it vow Iil lF?--~~iii-~ r Jr~~?1-SC*~Pk-;-~ lR!~cT~~Z;-t:

Hebrew script is associated with drawings of three figures: two representations of the god Bes,a collective name for a groupof Egyptiandwarfdeities, and a female figure that is shown playing a lyre. The identification of the latter is difficult, but William Dever has suggestedthat it is Asherah.

Bibliography

Beck,P. 1982 The Drawingsfrom HorvatThiman(KuntilletcAjrud).TelAviv 9: 3-86. Dever,W.G. 1984 Asherah,Consort of Yahweh?New Evidencefrom Kuntillet cAjruid. Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research255: 21-37. Hackett,J. at Deir cAlli. Biblical 1986 Some Observationson the Balaam Tradition Archaeologist 49: 216-22. Hoftijzer,J.and van der Kooij,G. 1976 Aramaic Textsfrom Deir Alla. Series:Documenta et Monumenta Orientis Antiqui 19. Leiden:Brill. Luckenbill,D. D. 1924 The Annals of Sennacherib.OrientalInstitute Publications. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. McCarter,P.K. 1985 The Moabite Stone. Pp.644-45 in Harper'sBible Dictionary,edited by P.J.Achtemeier. San Francisco:Harperand Row. 1987 Aspects of the Religion of the IsraeliteMonarchy:Biblical and EpigraphicData. Pp. 137-55 in Ancient Israelite Religion, edited by P.D. Miller, Jr.,P.D. Hanson, and S. D. McBride.Philadelphia:Fortress. Meshel, Z. 1978a Kuntillet cAjrud--A Religious Centrefrom the Time of the Judaean Monarchyon the Borderof Sinai. Series:IsraelMuseum Catalog 175. Jerusalem:The IsraelMuseum. 1978b Kuntillet cAjrud:An IsraeliteReligious Center in Northern Sinai. Expedition 20(3):50-54.

~i~'lt~?~~?~2~c~LCLCor pw` F3jJ-jljc 11/~*il;o~f'l7Ti ~S~l~iOWN ME21no? ~"~-~ *OF-SamI ??s~

rikllp~i~~~~?i7lr1~5~ T=F?_PTSr~j ---

Biblical Archaeologist, December 1987

245

with the Bible. It is called Quntillet cAirud in Arabic, and it is on the border between the southern Negeb and the Sinai peninsula. It was a one-period site, very appealing to archaeologists. (Then you don't have to worry about contamination or mingling of artifacts from different strata. You can just dig up the finds.) Fortunately, a lot of inscriptions have been found, most of them in Hebrew. The settlement lay not far from the road between Gaza and Eilat, and served as both fortress and stopping-place for caravans. Given the desolate area and forbidding terrain, it is understandable that many of the inscriptions are heartfelt prayers of thanksgiving and for safekeeping. If you have ever been in that part of the world, you can understand such sentiments. But there they are, and because it is so dry, many inscriptions have survived. Now we are going to confront a central problem, with all the skills, techniques, and technology available. It amounts to nothing more than a slight difference in spelling in the English translation of the inscription: Should a particular word begin with a capital letter or a small one? The inscription expresses a religious sentiment - more particularly, a blessing. It says, "Ibless you by" and then we have the tetragrammaton, the sacred personal name of the God of Israel, followed by the name of a city, Shomeron-that is, Samaria, the capital of the northern kingdom, Israel. Following this word is the term at the center of the controversy, which should be rendered "his Asherah" in my opinion. In the Bible the word occurs in both the singular ('2rr) and plural ('7rim), so presumably there was more than one such figure. Since Asherah was worshipped in more than one place, separate shrines and images would bear her name, and to distinguish one from others, double determination would be both necessary and appropriate. Thus for another well-known female

246

Asherah was a Canaanite fertility goddess. The fluidity in the conception of Northwest Semitic deities often resulted in her identity being fused with those of the other two major Canaanite goddesses, Astarte (goddess of sexual love) and Anat (goddess of war), as well as with those of deities from other cultures-for instance, the Egyptian goddess Hathor. Consequently, in the absence of identifying inscriptions, scholars are often cautious in identifying the representation of a female as a specific deity Shown here are three such representations. Above left: Dating to around 1350 B.C.E., this gold pendant discovered at Ugarit shows a

goddess wearinga hip girdle and an Egyptian-stylecollar and wig with a crown. Photograph from Syria35 (1958):1-2, plate 2. Above right: A column-base figurineof a nude female-a type verycommon in Palestine in the IronAge (approximately1200 to 586 B.C.E.).Photograph

courtesy ot the Princeton University Press. Below: This impression of a cylinder seal found at Bethel shows Baal and Astarte facing each other, with the name 'Astarte," written in Egyptian hieroglyphs, between them. This seal has been dated to the Nineteenth Dynasty (around the thirteenthcentury B.C.E.).Photographcourtesy of the JointExpedition of the Pittsburgh

Theological Seminaryand the American Schools of Oriental Research.

Biblical Archaeologist, December 1987

-Nowqkb. w

,m two%1?

deity, who shares featureswith Asherah, we have the doubly determined qualificationIshtarof Nineveh and Ishtarof Arbela. When it comes to the use of a pronominal suffix ("his")with Asherah, we may point to the tradition that in the Canaanite myths, preservedon the tablets of Ugarit, Asherah is the consort of El, the chief of the gods, whereas in the Phoenician pantheon reflected in the story of Elijahat Mount Carmel (1 Kings 18)Asherah is linked with Baal, apparentlyas his consort. So it would be legitimate and important to specify the god to whom she was attached in this fashion:"his Asherah"and not some other god's. The technical question here is this: Can a propernoun be determined? Accordingto the authorities on biblical grammarand the formalities of Biblical Hebrew,the answer is no. The initial "A"in the word cannot be capitalized, and the word must thereforebe a common noun. In other words,asherah can'tbe Asherah. It has to be something else. There are several candidates:One is a wooden pole; another is a sacred grove;and a third is a holy place at which you can invoke the deity, or pronounce a blessing. My own belief is that if the precedingdivine name had been "Baal"and not "Yahweh," then there would have been general agreement that two gods were intended:the pair,familiar from the Bible, Baal and Asherah (compare 1 Kings 18).Indeed,Baaland Asherah were a couple made in the Phoenician heaven. I am going to give an example later about a determined proper noun from that semiliterate playwright, William Shakespeare. In other words, I believe the way to approach a strange grammatical construction is not by invoking a rule that somebody invented in the nineteenth century that says it is impossible but rather by investigating the possible reasons for such an unusual arrangement. It all goes back to the character and mythic history of

Now therefore send and gather all Israel to me at Mount Carmel, and the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal and the four hundred prophets of Asherah (1 Kings 18:19). Asherah. She was not only a remarkable female deity but also has a central role in many colorful myths. Are there any conditions under which someone would say not "Asherah" but "his Asherah"?I think there are, and I will try to show you how it happened. There is a famous story in the Bible, one that has been analyzed and discussed endlessly. It is the story told in 1 Kings 18:1-46 about the contest between the prophetsof Baal and the prophet Elijahat Mount Carmel. I will not repeat the main elements here, but I want to call attention to certain details that have not received much emphasis. This is a contest, basically, to decide whether Baalor Yahwehis the real god. Conceptually at least, Yahweh and Baalbelong to the same world of discourse. They have worshippers who prayto them and they are regardedas capable of respondingto such requests by mighty acts. The test, in this instance, although dramatically portrayedas a burst of fire from heaven, actually concerns a basic component of Canaanite and Israelite religion. That is, which god is responsible for the rains, fertility, and agriculturalabundance?The fire from heaven-a bolt of lightning- signals the end of the drought and the return of the rains. I wish to point out that in this story,along with the 450 prophetsof

:r

,ZI~E

~1~W~IAT

?'~c C

2~~1~

~~LC~FIL ~c; I

1;;

r),r

~c~a~LICI',

''

-'5

i~A~C~~

?~ 9 r C ~i)

(I:

?r ~~`~RCI

fl

.t

r.

!1)

Limestone stele with Baal, the Canaanite weather-godwho is associated with thunderstorms, in a characteristicpose. He holds a scepter in his right hand and has a spear-tippedlightning bolt in his left. Photographcourtesy of the Princeton University Press.

Biblical Archaeologist, December 1987

247

Baal,therearealso 400 prophetsof Asherah.All of these aresummoned to MountCarmelwhereElijah,the lone prophetof Yahweh,will confrontthem (see 1 Kings18:19).In the contest,Elijahis triumphantand immediatelyordersthe arrestof the 450 prophetsof Baal,whomhe then slaughtersat the WadiKishon (1Kings18:40).Now forourquestion:Whathappenedto the prophets of Asherah?Sincethereis no mention of Asherahorherprophetsat this pointin the text, scholarssolve the problemin one of two ways.In the firstof these,they suggestthat the prophetsof Asherahareincluded with the prophetsof Baalandeliminatedwith the latter.Thatis possiblebutgratuitous.The otheris simplerandwidelyadopted.Since the prophetsof Asheraharenot mentionedat the endof the story, they obviouslydon'tbelongat the beginning,andthereforethey should be removedfromthe scene.I havea little difficultywith suchprocedures.Emendationin the direction of a desiredresultis too easyand generallywrong.One of my rulesis thatyou shouldneveremenda text to supportyourowntheory;you shouldalwaysemendin the opposite direction. Now I will tryto explainthe text as it stands.The chiefclue I derived froma storyof ArthurConanDoyle entitledTheHoundof the Baskervilles, which featuresthe wellknowndetectiveSherlockHolmes. The keyto the solutionof the

Elijah brought fire from the sky when the prophets of Baal could not; so all 450 were killed. But what happened to the prophets of Asherah? Nothing.

inscription from Quntillet cAjrud hundredsof miles away,which speaks of "Yahwehof Samariaand his Asherah."The inscription has been dated reliablyby eminent

scholarsto around800 B.C.E. The

reign of Jehoahaz,the king of Israel and son and successor of Jehu,can

be set in the years814-800B.C.E. In

other words,the inscription is contemporarywith that king and can be used in conjunction with the statement in 2 Kings 13:6to clarify the picture. In Samaria,around800 B.C.E.,

the officialcult of Yahweh

included the worship of his consort Asherah. Our next witness is the prophet Amos, whose oracles, though addressedto the people of Israela generation later, reflect much the same situation. Accordingto Amos and Israel killed the kings of Judah 8:14 people all overthe country inOmri of and wiped out the dynasty voke or swearby a deity called 'asmat andAhab.He alsowasdetermined Baal to eliminatethe worshipof WmrWn, literally, "theguiltiness of The noun in question is Samaria." fromIsraelin accordancewith the while no such goddess feminine and policyandprogramof the prophets from the onomastiknown is as yet mentionedearlierandas the ulticon of the ancient Near East, the mateoutcomeof the contestat name reads and sounds very much MountCarmel.In a gruesomeepisodedescribedin 2 Kings10:18-28, like 'a?rat bmer6n,which would be "Asherahof Samaria,"andwith which Jehuassembledthe worshippers the Israelites would have been quite of Baalin the latter'stemple(in Samaria)andby a ruseslaughtered familiar. Such puns and parodieson them all, destroyedthe temple,and divine names, especially of repudiated gods, are known in the Bible (for turnedthe placeinto a latrine. "Thushe destroyedthe Baalfrom instance, bacal zbbizb,"Lordof the Flies"for BaalZebul, "ExaltedLord"), Israel"(verse28). Onceagain,we mayaskthe ques- and in this case 'a?matmay be a play on the word 'airat.In any case, a tion:Whathappenedto Asherah, Baal'Sconsortandcompanion?Con- goddess worshippedin Samariais involved and it would be no surprise sideringthe vehemenceof Jehu's mystery is something that did not to discoverthat the Asherah was still BaalBaal and The bark. The did not against campaign dog happen. we mightexpectsome standing there. same applies here. What happened worshippers, wordaboutthe treatmentofAsherah. Not only does this evidence supto Asherah and her prophets? we have a none. Rather But there is and confirm our observations port Nothing. about the established religion of We must now consider the polit- laterwordfromthe reignof Jehu's "The Samaria around 800 B.C.E., but we ical fallout from this contest and the son andsuccessor,Jehoahaz: in remained Asherah also learn that the prophetAmos and between standing Elijah ongoing struggle Samaria" seems to have been the first to proof state the over Kings Jezebel religion 13:6). (2 In spiteof the violent repuditest against the worship and invocaIsrael. Some years later, there was a ationof Baal,his associate,Asherah, tion of the goddess. violent revolution, inspired by the remainedin Samariauntouched. In another place, Amos comprophets Elijahand Elisha, and carWhoseAsherahwasshe now?The plains that "aman and his father go ried out by Jehu,the general of the answermaybe foundin that odd to 'the girl,'in orderto profanemy armies. In the course of it, Jehu

248

Biblical Archaeologist, December 1987

Assuan. But it is the same goddess, also a consort of Yahu(which is equal to Yhwh) at Bethel. Since there was a third major temple or sanctuary in the northern kingdom at Dan, we may speculate that a third goddess was associated with Yahwehat that site. We have already accounted for Asherah and Anat, and the remaining major goddess of the Canaanite pantheon, Astarte, may have been worshipped there. The southern kingdom was not immune to the worship of goddesses. Weknow that in Jerusalem,for a long time, they worshippedIshtar,who was called "theQueen of Heaven," and who very likely was identified with a West Semitic deity as well, presumably Asherah, who was, after holy name"(Amos 2:17).While most all, the queen of the gods (Jeremiah scholars interpretthe statement as a 44:15-30). condemnation of prostitution, posEzekiel, who was a firm upunder holder of biblical religion and deeply sibly prostitution religious the reference offended sponsorship, primary by what was happening in almost certainly is not sexual but the temple of Jerusalem,reportsritual. Resort to "thegirl"seems to during the mystical trip that he took be the worship of a goddess, presum- while he was in exile in Babylonably at a major shrine such as Bethel, that in the forecourt, right at the where Amos preacheda fiery mesentrance of the Jerusalemsanctuary, We can even make a reasonable was an image (Ezekiel 8:3).This idol sage. effort at identifying the principal had a name, and the name is usually goddess there, although the trail is a translated to mean "theimage of long one and takes us further in both jealousy"(semel qin'c).This must be time and space than our previous the female counterpartof Yahweh, excursion to Quntillet cAjrud. the zealous God ('alqannZ-Exodus Among the papyriof the fifth cen20:5), and we must think again of B.C.E. at in Yahweh and his consort. Our investury Elephantine Upper we find reference not to Egypt, only tigation suggests that the worship of Yahu (shortfor Yahweh),the chief a goddess, consort of Yahweh,was god of the Jewish community there, deeply rooted in both Israel and but also to a goddess called AnatJudahin preexilic times, in spite of yahu (cntyhw), a compound name, vigorous prophetic protests and which should be interpretedas a strenuous efforts by reformingkings. bound construction: Anat of (belong- And remember that our question ing to) Yahu.There is another name, was merely, "Doyou spell the word asherah with a capital A or a small presumably of the same goddess, which readscaznatbaytil (cntbytl), a?"Amazing what can be spun out to be interpretedas cAnat of Bethel. of a brief inscription like that. cAnat is the well-known goddess of Now for the Shakespearean Canaanite myth, who plays a central quotation. In the last six lines of role in the Ugaritic epics, here iden- Romeo and Juliet, the prince says, tified with the shrine at Bethel, and A glooming peace this morning with it brings, surfacingcenturies later in far-off

The worship of a goddess, consort of Yahweh, may have been deeply rooted in both Israel and Judah in preexilic times, despite prophets and reforming kings.

The sun for sorrowwill not show his head. Go hence, to have more talk of these sad things. Some shall be pardonedand some punished. Fornever was a story of more woe Than this of Juliet and her Romeo. Citing the double determination in the last line ("herRomeo") may not be as farfetchedan analogy to the expression "Yahwehand His Asherah"as it may seem. The point is not so much that this Romeo has to be distinguished from other Romeos but that this Romeo had another girlfriend at the beginning of the play.Thus when Juliet won his heart and hand, he became "her Romeo."When YahwehdefeatedBaal in the contest at Mount Carmel, Asherah, who had been associated with the latter, now became the former'sconsort. Hence the ungrammatical expression "Yahwehand His Asherah."

MitchellDahood Memorial Prize Competition for 1988 Subject: Northwest Semitic Studies and the Hebrew Bible Prize: Cash award of $1,500 to the winner Deadline for submission of Manuscripts: March 20, 1988 Please submit manuscripts or inquiries to: David Noel Freedman 445 West EngineeringBuilding University of Michigan Ann Arbor,Michigan 48109 (313)764-4475

Biblical Archaeologist, December 1987

249

BokD

eiet

The Redactionof Genesis, by GaryA. Rendsburg,xii + 129pp. WinonaLake, Indiana: Eisenbrauns, 1986;$12.50. BeforeAbrahamWas,by Isaac M. Kikawada and Arthur Quinn, 144pp. Nashville, Tennessee:Abingdon Press, 1985;$9.95. There is no question that source criticism is in the process of losing its position as the one and only legitimate scholarly approachto the Pentateuch.The two books reviewedhere arepart of a growing body of studies that presentan alternative view of the biblical text- a view that stresses its unity instead of fragmenting it into the sources or documents out of which it is assumed to have been assembled. This movement does not arise out of a fundamentalist rejection of source criticism or, more particularly,of its Documentary Hypothesis, according to which the documents J,E, D, and P constitute the sources of the Pentateuch. It comes, rather,out of a shift in the paradigmfor biblical studies, from the historical to the literary.The literary approachutilizes the same data (the biblical text), but because its assumptions are different,its interpretationof the data is different.It is, however,no less "scientific"than its predecessor, even though its conclusions are radically opposedto those of source criticism. The two books have a number of similarities and differences.Both deal with the material from Genesis, The Redaction of Genesis with the entire book and BeforeAbraham Waswith the first eleven chapters.Both use the same or similar criteriaof analysis:evidence for authorial or redactionalunity as witnessed by recurringwords and phrases, structuralpatterning,and thematic linkage or continuity. These are found, often in abundance,in sections which earlier scholars had assigned to different documentarysources. Despite their basic methodological agreement,the authors develop their argumentsquite differently.Rendsburg, whose work is more systematic, speaks throughout of "redactionalstructuring,"

252

as if to posit independent sources that were later given unity by a redactor.It is only in the penultimate chapterthat he comes to grips with the issue of the Documentary Hypothesis:"Allof this material demonstrateshow attention to redactional structuringgreatly weakens the Documentary Hypothesis, indeed accordingto the present writer, renders it untenable"(page104)."Theevidence presentedhere points to the following conclusion: there is much more uniformity and much less fragmentationin the book of Genesis than generally assumed. The standarddivision of Genesis into J,E, and P strandsshould be discarded"(page105).This does not mean that Rendsburgthinks that all of Genesis was composed by one author ex nihilo. His analysis proceeds section by section: the primevalhistory,the Abrahamcycle, the Jacobcycle, the Josephstory.He finds evidence of variant sources or traditions within some of these sections, but for each section he also finds evidence of the unifying hand of a compiler. Did the same compiler edit all four sections into one book?Here Rendsburghesitates, but indicates that "thiswould not be a difficult conclusion to reach"(page106). The book by Kikawadaand Quinn is a frontal assault, or, as the coverputs it, "aprovocativechallenge to the Documentary Hypothesis."However,its tone is not at all belligerent;in fact, it is most reasonableand persuasive.Kikawadaand Quinn initially give a sympathetic presentation of the Documentary Hypothesis, and state that a rejectionof it does not rendervain all the scholarshipthat it produced.After giving a source-critical analysis of some of the Genesis material they proceedto examine extrabiblical stories that contain some of the same kinds of structuring,duplication, and inconsistencies found in Genesis 1-11. Since there is little doubt regardingthe authorial unity of these extrabiblical stories, might not the same be said of Genesis? It is well known that the Bible borrowedthemes and motifs from elsewhere in the ancient Near East;Kikawada and Quinn posit the same type of borrowingfor structuralforms. The credit that Rendsburgreservesthroughout most of his book for a redactor,Kikawada and Quinn give more readily to an author.They bolster the extrabiblical analyses with internal analyses of Gene-

Biblical Archaeologist, December 1987

sis 1-11 that are similar to Rendsburg's, although with less emphasis on catchwords and more on themes and structural patterning. Froma rhetoricalpoint of view Kikawadaand Quinn'sbook is more effective than Rendsburg's.Therein lie both its strengthand its weakness. While Rendsburgremains neutral, almost distant, from his evidence and lets it speak for itself, Kikawadaand Quinn are constantly explaining and drawingconclusions for the reader.The explanations are satisfying for the most part,and certainly appropriate;a sympathetic reader will accept them eagerly.But all it takes for an unsympathetic readeris one false note or forcedinterpretationand the entire edifice will crumble. There are one or two places where Kikawadaand Quinn come precipitously close - as in their "midrashic"explanation of the transition between inanimate and animate beings (pages79-80), and the suggestion that Ham committed incest with his mother (page103).One should bewareof too much of a good thing; it is all well and good (andindeed helpful and convincing) to find ancient Near Eastern structuralpatterns in Genesis 1-11, but then to suggest, as chapter5 does, that Genesis 1-11 is a paradigmfor structuring other sections of the Bible, is somewhat excessive. The epilogue- an apologetic readingof Judgesin light of what Kikawadaand Quinn think modern literary sensibilities are or should be should have been omitted altogether. These flaws should not be allowed to detract from the book's many good points and generally convincing argument, however. The real issue is not whether a given the Documentary Hybook "disproves" will never be believers pothesis (ardent whether the but discipline of convinced) biblical studies is moving towardsa new consensus on approachesand methodologies. These two books, both of which acknowledgetheir dependenceon earlier works, point in that direction. What remains is the further solidification of the particularliteraryapproachthey espouse, with more formal definitions of its criteria and their application.Tobe sure, criteria like verballinks and chiastic patterningswill alwaysremain subject to abuse, just as shifts in vocabularyand doublets do. But they are valid textual

criteria and warrantcarefulexamination. The sustained efforts and results of The Redaction of Genesis and Before Abraham Wasare encouragingand deserve to be taken seriously. Adele Berlin University of Maryland

Jerusalemin the Nineteenth Century,by YehoshuaBen-Arieh,xiii + 438 pp. Jerusalem and New York:Magnes Press/St. Martin'sPress, 1984; $29.95. Jerusalem:the Holy City in the Eyes of Chroniclers,Visitors, Pilgrims,and Prophetsfrom the days of Abrahamto the Beginnings of ModernTimes, by F E. Peters,xiv + 656 pp. Princeton:Princeton University Press, 1985; $35.00. One of the cities most often describedin the Middle East is Jerusalem,and the value of both these books is that they aboundin quotations. ProfessorPeters takes the reader,with the aid of contemporaryquotations, all the way from Genesis to the middle of the nineteenth century,and ProfessorBen-Ariehtakes us all through the nineteenth century, with a few illuminating comments from the twentieth. The authors (of many different languages)they quote providea contemporarypicture of what Jerusalem has meant, either to its citizens or to those on visits. Both books are well illustrated,and Ben-Arieh'sis rich in contemporarypictures. Anyone interested in Jerusalem should have these two books. Toread them is to learn a great deal about the city, because they contain translations from languagesthat I (forone) do not know and from books that are extremely rare.In teaching about Jerusalemthe two books are thereforea great help. Peters'book is a continuous joy to read. He has chosen the quotations from the original authors extremely well, and although he fears that, in the pieces that connect the quotations, "Itmay be that I have over-explained"(pagex), his explanations are of exactly the right length and providethe book with an intelligible shape. His book is divided chronologically, and he providesa lively picture of Jerusalemby quoting its permanent citizens and its visitors. He coversboth a

human and a religious point of view. His is a long book, with no pages wasted. The first quarteris about biblical and postbiblical Jerusalemand ends with the renaming of the city as Aelia Capitolina by the RomanEmperor Hadrian.The next quarterof the book is about three centuries of Christian and four centuries of Muslim rule. The Crusades are at the halfwaypoint, and there follows an excellent section on the Mamlukes. The last quarterof the book is about Christian pilgrims, the Ottoman empire, and almost "modern"pictures of Jerusalem,seen through the eyes of early nineteenth-century travellers. Readerswho wish to follow up a passage will find the sources in the notes. Peters' achievement in this long book is to keep the reader'sinterest the whole time. Ben-Arieh,whose subject is historical geography,focuses on the Old City; the New City he plans to treat in a second volume, now in preparation.The present book starts off with a section on the plan, economy, water supply,and health of Jerusalem.It is then divided into four sections, one on the Muslims, one on the Christians, and two on the Jews.The last section of this should maybe have been kept to his second volume, since the Jewishcommunity after 1870 is not intelligible by itself when it is geographicallyseparatedinto the Old City and the growingNew City. The introduction of each section, on the political control of Jerusalem,gives a valuable insight into what the communities could achieve. This part, and many of the quotations, have much of the interest of the other book by Peters. Forinstance Ben-Ariehhas chosen excellent pieces on sanitation. In 1864 Dr. Chaplin wrote "TheFeversof Jerusalem," in which he said that annually one-fourth of the population of Jerusalembecame ill with a "factitiouskind of malaria," owing to lack of drainageand disposal of garbage:"Allkinds of animals and vegetable matter are allowed to lie and rot in the street"(page90). There are some other less wellhandled pieces from the reader'spoint of view. If there is to be a second edition of this book, the pieces on the water supply and the population, for example, should be revised. But the facts are extremely interesting. Naturally Muslims started out as the main community, numbering

6,000, but by the end of the century their number had only doubled, to about 11,750.Christians multiplied by about four, and their number at the end of the century was 10,250, almost equalling the Muslims. But Jewsincreasedfar more. From 2,250 in 1800, the smallest of the communities, they reached 11,000by 1870, and (with the addition of the New City) they had reached35,000 by 1900. Forsolid information about Jerusalem, both books should be bought. If you can only affordone, it should be the masterly work by Peters. JohnWilkinson Washington,D.C.

Ancient Seals and the Bible, edited by LeonardGorelickand ElizabethWilliamsForte.IIMAS(TheInternational Institute for Mesopotamian Area Studies) Occasional Papers,Volume2/1, 65 pp. + 12 plates and 20 figures.Malibu, CA: Undena Publications, 1983; $13.00. A symposium held at the JewishMuseum of New Yorkin December 1982, coordinated by LeonardGorelick and Elizabeth Williams-Forte,has been published as a book with a prefaceand an introduction. In the preface,Williams-Forteendorses the new Syro-Palestinianarchaeology "with its methods, theoretical concerns and goals as distinct from those of Biblical archaeologists."Gorelick'sintroduction gives an overviewof the symbolic use of seals in the texts of the Old and New Testaments.There are thirty references to seals and sealings in each. Gorelick separatesthese into metaphoricand functional categories.The latter category is subdividedinto bureaucraticuse, which entails designation and delegation of authority as well as protection of government property,and nonbureaucratic or personaluse, such as votive offerings, amulets, and ornaments. Whereastwothirds of the Old Testament references are to functional seals, only one-thirdof the New Testamentreferencesto seals belongs to this class. The explanation for this differencestems from the need in Old Testamenttimes for "controland trappingsof nationhood,"a need less critical in New Testamenttimes. Another interesting observationis that fifty per-

Biblical Archaeologist, December 1987

253

cent of the Old Testamentreferencesare nonbureaucratic,whereas in the New Testamentall referencesare nonbureaucratic;the personal seal was of no significance to the poor and powerless early Christians. In his provocativearticle, "'Asthe Seal upon thine Arm':Glyptic Metaphors in the Biblical World,"William Hallo discusses severalbiblical passagesreferring to seals and examines them in the light of literaryand lexical evidence from Mesopotamia.Accordingto Hallo, there is a term for seals in Sumerianthat belongs to the "substratevocabularyof the early Chalcolithic Age."In Hebrew, however,the two terms, hotam and tabacat, are of Egyptianorigin. Fromthe seal'sbasic use as a legal means of marking ownership,it also became a symbolic representationof the individual. This would explain the enigmatic referenceto Judah's"leavinghis seal as part of himself"in the story of Tamarand Judahin the book of Genesis. The seal, or hotam, was actually a cylinder seal and the cord, or petil, was the necklace to which the seal was attached;the staff, or mateh, was the pin that attached the seal to the necklace. As Hallo states, this clearly shows that the cylinder seal was part of the imageryof the biblical author. Consideredprecious items, seals were donatedto gods as votives and were placed on the cult statues of the deity. Hallo suggests that the rings mentioned in Exodus35:22 that were broughtto the Tabernacleas offeringswere actually signet rings. The seals were symbols of a personalrelationship and were considered special gifts between man and god or from the king to his officers, like the signet ring conferredto Josephby Pharaoh.This finds expression in the books of Jeremiah,Haggai,and the Song of Songs in phraseslike "makeyou a signet." The referencein these texts is to the stamp seal set in a ring. The "sealupon thine arm"refersto the earlier form of stamp seal suspendedfrom the wrist. The cylinder seal is known from archaeological evidence to havebeen suspended from a pin that fastened the robe;later it was attached to a necklace. In "TheSnake and the Treein the Iconographyand Texts of SyriaDuring the BronzeAge,"Williams-Fortemakes an attempt to identify scenes representing the WeatherGod fighting his snake

254

adversary,depicted on Middle Bronze Age seals from North Syriaand Anatolia, with texts from LateBronzeAge Ugarit. This approachis based on Thorkild Jacobsen'sidea of the anthropomorphic deity fighting his early nonanthropomorphic form that developedinto his adversary.The snake in these seals represents the conqueredenemy of the WeatherGod. Williams-Forte'sidentification of the WeatherGod scenes with later texts is a most tempting idea. It would be easier for the reader,however, if the iconographicstudy were separated from the interpretative/textualanalysis. Her identification of the tree branchas the special weapon of this god on seals from the twentieth century B.C.E.onwards in Anatolia and later in Syriaand her identification of the snake in scenes hitherto unrecognizedas such are interesting. Although most of the Weather God'sattributes are present in the Middle BronzeIIA seals, the four stages of his battle with the serpent are only representedin seals from the Middle BronzeIIB.This cycle is rarelyrepresented in LateBronzeAge seals, the period of the Ugaritic texts. Williams-Fortedoes not accept the identification of the snake with Yamor one of his companions, since the snake is not necessarily a sea monster. She puts forwardthe unconvincing identification with Bacal's (= the WeatherGod) second enemy, Mot, who representsdeath and sterility. Williams-Fortebelieves that "theconnection between the storm god, tree and serpent in the early pictorial, and possibly textual traditions of the 'Landsof the Bible'may providethe link, previously missing, between these figures that will allow furtherinquiry into the precise significance of the evil snake'sappearancein the tree in the garden." Ruth Hestrin offersa summary of the Hebrewseals of officials, with and without titles, from the eighth through sixth centuries B.C.E. The titled officials are RoyalSteward,Scribe,Son of the King, Servant,Governorof the City, and Chief of the Corv~e.On the "private" seals of office-holders,the names are inscribed without their titles. Important information about this categoryof seals is derivedfrom the famous ostracaand seals from Aradand Lachish.Although the late eighth century date for the lamelekh seals was established by the

Biblical Archaeologist, December 1987

recent excavationsof Lachish, as well as their connection with the "private" seals impressed on the same jar,the purpose and place of productionof these sealings still remain obscure. FrankMoore Cross discusses the various aspects of the beautiful "Miqneyaw,Servantof Yahweh"seal, whose allegedorigin is the vicinity of Jerusalem. Inscribedon both sides, this seal finds parallels in other Hebrew seals of the eighth century,particularlyits first half. On the strength of the comparative material, Cross also confirms the eighthcentury date of the much debatedseals of 'Elyaqimndcar Yawkinfound in Tell Beit Mirsim, Ramat Rahel, and Lachish. A review of the instances in which the title cebed Yahwehor "ServantDN" (deity name) appearin West Semitic sources shows that it is frequentlyused by priestly officials ratherthan by kings. The name Miqneyawis mentioned once in the Old Testamentas the name of a famous musician. This elegant seal, accordingto Cross, may have been that of a high cultic functionary,perhapsa chief musician in the temple. Hence, the plural term cabde Yahwehof Psalms 135:1possibly designates a temple choir. The final article in this book is by A. JohnGwinnett and Gorelick, who present some results of their studies of the manufactureof the seals, in particular those pertainingto the use of a drill. The illuminating and at times provocative articles in this volume make us wish that lectures from symposia of this nature were more often made available. PirhiyaBeck Tel Aviv University

BOOK PUBLISHERS

Please send all review copies to: Dr. PeterB. Machinist Department of Near EasternStudies The University of Michigan 3074 FriezeBuilding Ann Arbor,Michigan 48109

OTSADIN 0

EDD CHURCH, WORD, AND SPIRIT

HistoricalandTheological Essays in Honor of Geoffrey W. Bromiley

Edited byJames E. Bradley and Richard A. Muller Foreword by DavidAllan Hubbard Written to celebrate the unparalleled contribution of Geoffrey W. Bromiley to Christian scholarship, this book contains essays divided into three main areasof Bromiley's special interest and concern: medieval church history, the Reformation, and modern church history and theology. Cloth, $29.95

THE BELOVED DISCIPLE His Name, His Story, His Thought

Vernard Eller In order to introduce the layperson to the methods of biblical scholarship, VernardEller investigates the author of the Fourth Gospel and his main purpose in writing the Gospel. Paper, $8.95

THE CHRISTIAN STORY: A PASTORAL SYSTEMATICS Volume =:Authority: Scripture in the Church for the Worid

Gabriel Fackre Fackreoffers a survey of views on from inerrantist to authority-- - and sets forth an experientialist alternative perspective along lines. ecumenical and•narrative Paper, $'4.95

ACCORDING TO LUKI A New Exposition of the Third Gospel

David Gooding In this fresh and original approach to the Gospel According to Luke, David Gooding uses a careful analysis of the Gospel's literary structure to bring out Luke's unique presentation of the person and work of Christ. Paper, $12.95

THE RELEVANCE OF JOHN'S APOCALYPSE

Donald Guthrie Noted biblical scholar Donald Guthrie offers helpful and challenging insights on the relevance of the book of Revelation for the church today. Paper, $5.95

250

Biblical Archaeologist, December 1987

TRADITION AND INTERPRETATION IN THE NEW TESTAMENT Essays in Honor of E. Earle Ellis

Edited by Gerald F. Hawthorne with Otto Betz In this collection of essays in honor of Professor E. Earle Ellis, distinguished New Testament scholars from the United States, England, and the European Continent discuss numerous aspects of tradition and interpretation in the New Testament, shedding significant new light on the text. Cloth, $29.95

THE NEW EVE IN CHRIST The Use and Abuse of the Bible in the Debate about Women in the Church Mary Hayter Taking a determinedly non-partisan approach, Mary Hayter presents a careful and intelligent interpretation of the Word of God concerning the ordination of women and their wider role in the church. "An outstandingexam le ofo ow the Bible shouldbe usedin sheddinglight on contentiousissues." -MCHAEL GREEN Paper, $8.95

LL INTERNATIONAL THEOLOGICAL COMMENTARY Edited by Fredrick Carlson Holmgren and George A. F. Knight

A PROMISEOF HOPEA CALLTO OBEDIENCE JoelandMalachi

by Graham Ogden and RichardR. Deutsch Paper,$7.95

WRATHAND MERCY Habakkukand Zephaniah

byMaria EszenyeiSzeles Paper,$7.95

REFORMING FUNDAMENTALISM Fuller Seminary and the New Evangelicalism

George Marsden George Marsden, widely regarded as a leading authority on American fundamentalism, uses the history of Fuller Seminary as a framework for a study of evangelicalism and fundamentalism since the mid-194os. Cloth, $19.95

PSEUDONYMITY AND CANON An Investigation into the Relationship of Authorship and Authority in Jewish and Earliest Christian Tradition David G. Meade Focusing especially on the New Testament, David G. Meade uses tradition and canon criticism and argues convincingly that the authority of Scriptureis in no way diminished by the presence of pseudonymous works. Cloth, $35.00

EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS Leon Morris In this commentary Morris takes a fresh look at each of the problems posed by the letter to the Romans and attempts to show the meaning of what Paul wrote. While the text is intelligible to lay people with no technical knowledge, the footnotes take account of a ood deal of recent scholarship. Cloth, $27.95

THE EERDMANS BIBLE DICTIONARY Allen C. Myers, Project Editor "Firstrate. ... Pastors,students, teachers,and the laity in eneralwill find the volumea veritablemine of format." informationin concise -BRUCE METZGER "Hasnopeeramong one-volumeBible dictionariescurrentlyavailable.It is balanced,up-to-date,accurate, an well-written,and compresses enormousamount of usefuland importantinformationinto a relatively briefbut attractiveformat.This importantreferenceworkis a mustfor alfseriousstudentsof the Bible." -DA VID E. A UNE Cloth, $29.95

KI FCDJ*ICEUUUELE THE ENCOUNTER SERIES Richard John Neuhaus,

GeneralEditor

ENCOUNTER Volume s The Bible, Politics, and Democracy Paper, $10.95

6 Volume

SERIES

Jews in Unsecular America Paper,$8.95 CHRISTIAN FAITH AND THE BIBLE OF JUDAISM The Judaic Encounter

THE CHURCH IN RESPONSE TO HUMAN NEED Edited by Vinay Samuel and Chris Sugden Of particularinterest to persons concerned about the church's social development and relationship.to oppression, this book contains the revised conference proceedings from the consultation '"TheChurch in Response to Human Need," held in Wheaton, Illinois. Paper, $17.95

with Scripture

Jacob Neusner Well-known authority on Jewish literature, history, and religion, Jacob Neusner seeks to illuminate for Christians what he considers to be TYNDALE NEW TESTAMENT the primary contribution of Jewish COMMENTARIES Edited by R. V. G. Tasker bibfical interpretation to Christian faith: the belief that Scripture forms Revision Edited by Leon Morris a commentary on everyday life, as MATTHEW (Replacement) much as eve day life brings with it a Richard France fresh understanding of Scripture. Paper, $6.95 Paper, $12.95 x CORINTHIANS (Revised) NEW CENTURY Leon Morris BIBLE COMMENTARY Paper, $6.95 Edited by Ronald E. Clements 2 CORINTHIANS (Replacement) and Matthew Black ColinKruse With the publication of this latest Paper, $6.95 addition to this popular commentary 2 PETER AND JUDE (Revised) series, the New Testament portion of MichaelGreen the series is now complete. Paper,$6.95 HEBREWS ON READING KARL BARTH R. McLellanWilson Paper,$10.95 IN SOUTH AFRICA A TIME TO SPEAK Edited by Charles Villa-Vicencio The Evangelical-Jewish Foreword byAllan Boesak Encounter Set in the framework of Barth's Edited byA. James Rudin witness that the God of Jesus Christ and Marvin R. Wilson is in a special way the God of the "Thisvolumecombines basic poor, the essays in this volume withprofoundtheological explore the implications of Barth's information analysis.Suitableforthelayreader,it theology for the situation in South containschallenges as wellfor Africa today. Paper, $14.95

scholars professional ofboth religious traditions.Not onlyJewsand butProtestant,Orthodox, Evangelicals, andRomanCatholicChristians will wanttoreadandre-readthis richvolume." extraordinarily

m~inter

PROPHETIC FRAGMENTS Cornel West Believing the crisis of religion in America to be profound and pervasive, West, a major contemporary theologian, examines the relation of Christianity to culture and politics. Paper, $13.95

TEXT AND INTERPRETATION A Practical Commentary A. S. van der Woude, General Editor Practical and expository, this new series of paperback commentaries aims to provide the readerwith clear and concise explanations of the biblical text. GENESIS Claus Westermann Paper, $16.95

Prices subject to change. For more information on these and other recent Eerdmans titles, write for a copy of our latest catalog. Examination copies of most publications are availableto qualified professors.

At your bookstore, or write:

l Rl

775

Paper, $11.95 -EUGENEJ. FISHER

FaU

LIBERTYAND LAW Reflections on the Constitution in American Life and Thought RonaldA. Wells and ThomasA. Askew, Editors The editors of this volume have sought to find the best writing available by Christian scholars who would bring their Christian commitments to bear in their reflections on the American Constitution. Paper, $13.95

PUBLISHINGCO. WiM.B. EERDMANS AVE.S.E./ GRANDRAPIDS,MICHIGAN49503 JEFFERSON z255

1987 Biblical Archaeologist, December 1987

251

the Crossroa Mapping of Faith and History T ARPER

.,.

A))

'.ir~

c!r

The Harper Atlas of the Bible sets the Bible in its full context for the first time, conveying in stunning four-colorgraphic detail an almost tangible sense of the land, events, and the people portrayed in the world'smost famous book. Drawing upon the latest research to illuminate biblical narrative, the Atlas combines five years' work by an international team of fifty eminent archaeologists, linguists, epigraphers, geographers, interpreters of ancient texts, geologists, and historians. A new standard in Bible atlases, The Harper Atlas of the Bible will guide readers to a deeper understanding of the Bible's origins in its own time, and to its profound meaning for today. James B. Pritchard, general editor, was for many years professor of religious thought and curator of biblical archaeology at the University of Pennsylvania. He has authored and edited many distinguished books in biblical studies.

Features: full-color maps -134 full-color photo*466 graphs, diagrams and drawings : Extensive chronology * Biographical profiles *Place-name index, listing all names in ancient and modern forms At bookstores everywhere, or call toll-free (800) 638-3030.

Harper

o&ow

Biblical Archaeologist, December 1987

255

Theology

Today

'THEOLOGY TODAY distinguishes itself by a prudent selection of outstanding articles. It carries on theological discussion in responsibility to the church. I personally appreciate it very much. Jiirgen Moltmann. 'THEOLOGY TODAY is always in the front rank, living up to its name and intention. It has only txvo or three competitors and probably no superiors. Martin E. Marty. 'THEOLOGY TODAY is essential reading for all who are interested in serious and It is for me a necessity to my continuing theological timely theological discussion. education.' Richard J. Mouw

Now in its 45th year, THEIOLOGY TODAY influential quarterly journal of theology in the THEOLOGY TODAY has consistently been at Its authors suggest the future of theology in a the crises of today in the light of the resources future. lor a provocative idea of what theology

SUBSCRIPTION THEOLOGY 1 I

is the most widely circulated and world. Ecumenical in its emphasis, the front of theological discussion. new age by thinking critically about of the past and the challenge of the can be, subscribe today.

ORDER FORM

TODAY,

Box 29, Princeton, N.J. 08542,

U.S.A.

RATES:

One year (4 issues) Two years (8 issues)

Name Street

State

City

USA, Canada, Mexico: $16.00 per year, $30.00

for two years

All other countries: $21.00 per year, $40.00

for two years

Zip Special Student Rate: One year:

$12.00 USA, $ 17.00 overseas Individual issues $5.00 USA, $6.00 overseas

Country

O O

256

EInter a new subscription

in my name

Renew or extend my subscription

Biblical Archaeologist, December 1987

E

Check enclosed,

E Please bill me

U.S. funds

oO

SOF OA/

The American Schools

0

Oriental

of

4b '

Research

and

The

Johns

Hopkins University

Press

Books

Journals

Scrollsfromthe Wildernessof the Dead Sea (Cross) ThePaleo-HebrewLeviticusScroll(llQpaleoLev) (Freedmanand Mathews) AmericanArchaeologyin the Mideast(King) TheSynagogue in LateAntiquity(Levine) A ComprehensiveIndex to BiblicalArchaeologist Volumes36-45 (1973-1982) (MacKay) Excavationsat AncientlMeiron(Meyers,Strange,and Meyers) ScrollsfromQumranCaveI (Trever) Excavations,1981-83 PreliminaryReportsof ASOR-Sponsored (BulletinSupplement23) (Rast) Excavations,1980-84 PreliminaryReportsof ASOR-Sponsored (BulletinSupplement24) (Rast) The Johns HopkinsUniversityPress 701 West40th Street, Suite 275 Baltimore,MD21211 All previouslypublishedworks,in printand not listed above,are still handledby Eisenbraunsfor ASOR. Eisenbrauns P.O.Box 275 WinonaLake,IN 46590

Subscriptions, claims, and back issues Ordersfor ASORjournalsand correspondenceabout subscriptionsor single issue purchasesshould be sent to the Johns HopkinsUniversityPress. (telephone301-338-6988,telex /5101012198) Advertising Correspondenceabout advertisingshould be addressedto the Johns Hopkins UniversityPress. (telephone301-338-6982) The Johns HopkinsUniversityPress 701 West40th Street, Suite 275 Baltimore,MD21211 Editorial Correspondence Articleproposals,manuscripts,and editorialcorrespondenceshould be sent directlyto the journaleditors. BiblicalArchaeologist,Eric M. Meyers ASORPublicationsOffice Box LHM, Duke Station, Durham,NC 27706 Bulletinof ASOR,WalterRast Departmentof Theology ValparaisoUniversity,Valparaiso,IN 46383 Journalof CuneiformStudies,Erle Leichty Departmentof OrientalStudies Universityof Pennsylvania,Philadelphia,PA 19104 JamesA. Sauer ASOR AmericanNewsletter, Schools of OrientalResearch 4243 SpruceSt., Philadelphia,PA 19104

Journals and Membership Bulletinof ASOR

ASOR Newsletter

of Joumrnal CuneiformStudies

Archaeohloqist

free

free

free

free

$33.00 35.00

$12.00 14.00

$28.00 30.00

$14.00 16.00

Nonmember Subscriptions individual UnitedStates Canada,Mexico outsideNorthAmerica

40.00 43.50 50.00

15.00 15.50 16.50

35.00 36.50 38.50

18.00 20.50 24.00

students,retirees,handicapped UnitedStates Canada,Mexico outsideNorthAmerica

35.00 38.50 45.00

14.00 14.50 15.50

30.00 31.50 33.50

16.00 18.50 22.00

institutions UnitedStates Canada,Mexico outsideNorthAmerica

50.00 53.50 60.00

22.00 22.50 23.50

45.00 46.50 48.50

25.00 27.50 31.00

Subscriber Category

Membersof ASOR life(singlememberships: $1200.00; $1500.00) jointmemberships: annual(annualfee:$15.00) andCanada U.S.,U.S.possessions, andCanada outsideU.S.,U.S.possessions,

Biblical

The

at Exvcavations

?-

+

+-

++

+

.+

+ •

~

+.~+++i.• •++++ i.++ + ,• sr,+++++ ...

Tel

AMiqne

-Ekroon

. ,

. +

.