Sharon Zuckerman

'..Slaying oxen and killing sheep, eating flesh and drinking wine ..' : Feasting in late bronze age hazor

Abstract Communal feasts, events of ritual activity that involve shared food and drink consumption and display in religious and secular elite contexts, received considerable attention in anthropological and archaeological literature in recent years. In those studies, the focus was on the identification of feasting in the material record of ancient societies, and an attempt was made to decipher the complex social and political meanings inherent in such contexts. In this study, the aim is to identify and interpret traces of feasting activities in the context of Canaanite society of the 14th–13th century BCE. The site of Hazor, the largest Canaanite kingdom, serves as a case study for this discussion. Archaeological correlates of commensal feasts, uncovered in the extensive excavations of the site, are presented and discussed within the general picture of the Canaanite palatial system.

Shepherd Kings? A Zooarchaeological Investigation of Elite Precincts in Middle Bronze Age Tel Hazor and Tel Kabri

A zooarchaeological investigation of elite precincts from two major Middle Bronze Age sites in the Galilee region of northern Israel, Tel Hazor and Tel Kabri, was conducted with the aim of revealing differences in the animal economy between them. The results indicate that the elites of the polity of Hazor were strict consumers who exerted economic demands on the surrounding hinterlands and relied on specialized sheep herding. In Tel Kabri, by contrast, there is evidence that the Middle Bronze Age palace elites were engaged in locally based pastoral production as well as extensive utilization of diverse habitats around the settlement. These differences are ascribed to micro-regional differences in the hinterlands of the ancient polities. The dyadic relations between the economic and ecological gateway roles of Middle Bronze Age Hazor and Kabri are discussed.

Flint Knapping in the Late Bronze Age: A Dying Technology? A Perspective from the Lower City of Hazor

Abstract Expedient production constitutes a significant aspect of the lithic assemblages of the Bronze and Iron Ages, particularly of those postdating the Early Bronze Age. The study of this simple flint technology is usually neglected, framed under ‘opportunistic production’. The excavations at the Late Bronze Age Lower City of Hazor Area S, where flint items were collected systematically and sediments sieved, enabled a more detailed study of this relatively unexplored realm of material culture. We demonstrate through our analysis that although the reduction was simple, it was not opportunistic but rather composed of its own goals and logic. We further identify a new tool type — the ‘reverse lunate’ — and show that many of the tools are in fact small and could easily be overlooked without sieving. These findings not only demonstrate that flint knapping was still an integral part of domestic life in the Late Bronze Age, but also illustrate the potential of using this relatively common archaeological find to enrich our study of early state societies in the Ancient Near East.

Hazor in the Early Bronze Age

The first settlement on the upper tell of Hazor is attributed to the Early Bronze Age (third millennium b.c.e.), the first urban period in the southern Levant. This settlement, defined by Yadin as the “first city” of the site (Yadin 1972, 119–20), is not as well known as the later Bronze and Iron Age strata, mainly due to the very limited archaeological exposure of its remains and the fact that no Early Bronze Age remains were found in the Lower City. Following the renewed excavations, we can now offer a better view of the nature and status of this Early Bronze Age settlement, although much still remains unknown concerning the plan, material culture, and precise chronology of this undoubtedly important settlement. In what follows, the current state of our knowledge of Hazor in the Early Bronze Age, based on material remains excavated by both Yadin’s team and the Selz Foundation Hazor Excavations in Memory of Yigael Yadin, will be presented and assessed.

Area S: Renewed Excavations in the Lower City of Hazor

Tel Hazor, the largest site of the second millennium b.c.e. in the southern Levant, consists of two parts: the upper tell and the vast enclosure to its north, that is, the Lower City (fig. 45). Even prior to the beginning of the excavations at Hazor, the northern enclosure sparked the imaginations of scholars who were intrigued by its unique topographic character. Garstang, the first to conduct archaeological investigations at Hazor, interpreted this part of the site as a huge camping ground for Canaanite chariotry (Yadin 1972, 27–28). Yadin’s excavations in the 1950s proved beyond doubt that the northern enclosure was densely inhabited throughout the second millennium b.c.e. and should be termed the Lower City of Canaanite Hazor (Yadin 1972, 106–7). The Lower City was first settled in the Middle Bronze Age, in the seventeenth century b.c.e., and was totally abandoned by the Late Bronze Age, during the thirteenth century b.c.e. Yadin’s expedition exposed architectural features that can be attributed to the different phases of the Canaanite city. These tion from the Lower City to the Upper City, a liminal zone and a juncture between the “public” and the “private.” The Podium Complex is a remarkable example of monumental architecture in which great wealth was used to demonstrate the power of the rulers and their control over human and material resources. Like the medieval cathedrals in Europe, these structures were a display to impress the common res ident and fore ign visitors. The entrance at Hazor and the official palace entrance at Ugarit exhibit similar features: the location of the buildings close to the periphery of the city and not on its highest spot, and the presence/location of libation installations and “scoops” that were likely used in ritual washing and purification (Zuckerman 2007b). The presence of four rounded depressions arranged in a square on the upper slab of the podium suggests that an object was fixed onto the slab. This might have been a statue or a throne. Several ivory fragments strewn around the podium may be fragments of inlay for such a throne. Depictions of royal thrones from the Late Bronze Age are known from Syria: the maṣṣebah at Ugarit, a bronze figurine from Byblos, and a number of basalt statues from Hazor. Some of these objects depict figures holding a goblet or a bowl (Beck 1989). All these images reflect a connection between deities, kings, bamot, and libation rituals. The Podium Complex apparently served as the official entrance to the royal palace of Canaanite Hazor, most of which has not yet been excavated. The common features it shares with other contemporar y sites point to Hazor’s connections with the elites from neighboring regions during the Late Bronze Age. This type of royal entranceway was apparently not accessible to the general public but was restricted to diplomats, merchants, and important officials who were received by the king and government officials and who participated in rituals of washing and purification. The importance of the Podium Complex is reinforced by two inscribed objects uncovered in its destruction level. One is part of an Egyptian offering table of polished stone bearing a hieroglyphic inscription of a high official dated to the reign of Ramesses II (Kitchen 2003); the other is a fragment of a large stone basin bearing a dedicatory inscription in Akkadian (Horowitz and Oshima 2006, 85–86). These finds emphasize the importance of the Podium Complex in the fourteenth and the beginning of the thirteenth centuries b.c.e. Like the cult precinct in Area A, the building was destroyed in a fierce conflagration sometime in the thirteenth century b.c.e. In the last season of excavations, the extent of the Podium Complex and its destruction level were uncovered in the southern part of Area M. We hope the full extent and scale of the monumental Podium Complex will be exposed in the coming seasons.