Zvi Lederman

Canaanite Resistance: The Philistines and Beth-Shemesh—A Case Study from Iron Age I

In two excavation cycles conducted at Tel Beth-Shemesh in the early 20th century, a scholarly myth about Philistine domination at the site during Iron Age I was born. Renewed excavations at Beth-Shemesh by the authors dispelled this unfounded hypothesis. In a sequence of Iron I levels, Canaanite cultural traditions are dominant. Only a meager amount of Bichrome Philistine pottery was found, and other items of Philistine affiliation are missing. Furthermore, pork consumption was completely avoided at Beth-Shemesh in contrast with adjacent Philistine sites. Review of geopolitical changes in the Shephelah during the Late Bronze-Iron Age transition indicates that the Canaanite inhabitants of Beth-Shemesh took advantage of their location at the Philistine periphery and resisted Philistine hegemony. By denying foodways (eating and drinking) that symbolized their new aggressive neighbors, the people of Beth-Shemesh culturally identified themselves as “non-Philistine.” But since an inverse process, by which elements of Philistine culture were adopted by Canaanites living within the Philistine territory, is also evident, it is apparent that whether adopting or denying Philistine cultural elements, the indigenous population of the Shephelah changed its previous way of life during Iron Age I.

The Final Destruction of Beth Shemesh and the Pax Assyriaca in the Judean Shephelah

Abstract Judah and Philistia suffered different fates following Sennacheribs campaign in 701 BCE. While the Philistine coast and hinterland flourished under Assyrian rule, the Shephela of Judah was devastated and depopulated. New data unearthed at the renewed excavations at Tel Beth Shemesh illuminate the fate of the Shephelah of Judah during the 7th century BCE—the era of the pax Assyriaca in the Levant.

An Archaic Bacl Inscription from Tel Beth-Shemesh

Abstract Two adjoining fragments of a storage jar bearing an archaic alphabetic inscription were found during the renewed excavations at Tel Beth-Shemesh. Analysis indicates that, though found in separate contexts, the two sherds derived from a common source of predominately late Bronze ii and early iron i materials. A date of 1150–1100 BCE for the provenance of the inscription is most likely. The inscription consists of six or seven alphabetic signs incised on the jar before firing. Though only the word or name element bcl is unequivocally recognizable, the original inscription seems to have included a statement of ownership and an indication of the contents of the vessel. A paleographical analysis of the letter signs shows the writing to be characteristic of the mid-12th century BCE or slightly earlier and a date of ca. 1150 BCE, in accordance with its archaeological context, is entirely plausible. The use of the divine name Bacl may hint at the cultural background of the iron Age i population of Beth-Shemesh.

KNOSSIAN GIFTS? TWO LATE MINOAN IIIA1 CUPS FROM TEL BETH-SHEMESH, ISRAEL

Two Late Minoan IIIA1 cups were recently found in the excavations at Tel Beth-Shemesh, Israel. They were part of a larger assemblage of local Late Bronze IIA (first half of the fourteenth century bc) drinking and eating vessels sealed under a destruction layer in one room of a large edifice, presumably a ‘palace’. A commemorative scarab bearing the name of Amenhotep III and related to the first Jubilee (Sed festival) in his thirtieth regnal year was found alongside the cups, providing further chronological evidence. This article examines the Late Minoan IIIA1 cups from Beth-Shemesh within their Aegean context and emphasises their close affinity with comparable cups from the palace of Knossos, catalogued and republished here. The Tel Beth-Shemesh cups are the second occurrence – after Sellopoulo Tomb 4 – of Knossian Late Minoan IIIA1 pottery found together with Amenhotep IIIs scarab. This new evidence strengthens the likelihood of some chronological overlap between Late Minoan IIIA1 and the reign of this Pharaoh. The article also considers the biography of the two Minoan cups, as social agents within the intricate network of the Late Bronze Age palatial gift exchange in the eastern Mediterranean. While it is possible that the cups came to Beth-Shemesh directly from Knossos, another viable option is that they arrived as a gift from the Egyptian court. The two rare Late Minoan IIIA1 Knossian cups could have reached Egypt on the occasion of Amenhotep IIIs much-discussed official embassy to the Aegean – including Knossos – and then been sent as royal gifts to the ruler of Beth-Shemesh. Κνωσσιακά δώρα; Δυο ϒστερομινωικά ΙΙΙΑ1 κύπελλα απο την θέση Tel Beth-Shemesh, Ισραήλ Δυο ϒστερομινωικά ΙΙΙΑ1 κύπελλα ανακαλύφθηκαν πρόσφατα κατα την διάρκεια των ανασκαφών στην θέση Tel Beth-Shemesh στο Ισραήλ. Αποτελούσαν μέρος ενός μεγαλύτερου κεραμικού συνόλου της τοπικής Ύστερης Εποχής του Χαλκού ΙΙΑ (πρώτο μισό του 14ου αιώνα π.Χ) που απαρτιζόταν από σκεύη πόσεως και κατανάλωσης τροφής. Το σύνολο βρέθηκε «σφραγισμένο» κάτω από ένα στρώμα καταστροφής σε ένα από τα δωμάτια μεγάλου κτιριακού συγκροτήματος, πιθανότατα «Ανακτόρου». Μαζί με τα κύπελλα ανασκάφηκε και ένας αναμνηστικός σκαραβαίος που φέρει το όνομα του Amenhotep του III, ο οποίος, καθώς συνδέεται με το πρώτο ιωβηλαίο (εορτασμός του Sed) επ’ ευκαιρία του τριακοστού έτους της ηγεμονίας του, μας προσφέρει περαιτέρω στοιχεία χρονολόγησης του συνόλου. Το συγκεκριμένο άρθρο εξετάζει τα δυο ϒστερομινωικά ΙΙΙΑ1 κύπελλα από την θέση Beth-Shemesh εντός των Αιγαιακών τους συμφραζομένων και παράλληλα δίνει έμφαση στο γεγονός οτι παρουσιάζουν σημαντικές ομοιότητες με αντίστοιχα κύπελλα, που παρατίθενται και επαναδημοσιεύονται εδώ, από το ανάκτορο της Κνωσσού. Τα κύπελλα από την θέση Tel Beth-Shemesh αποτελούν, μετά από τον Τάφο 4 στο Σελλόπουλο, την δεύτερη περίπτωση όπου ϒστερομινωική ΙΙΙΑ1 κεραμική ανασκάπτεται μαζί με σκαραβαίο του Amenhotep του III. Η δεύτερη αυτή περίπτωση ενισχύει την πιθανότητα η ϒστερομινωική ΙΙΙΑ1 περίοδος να συμπίπτει χρονολογικά με την βασιλεία του συγκεκριμένου Φαραώ. Το άρθρο συζητά επίσης την «βιογραφία» των δυο Μινωικών κυπέλλων ως κοινωνικά ενεργών φορέων μέσα στο δαιδαλώδες δίκτυο ανταλλαγής «ανακτορικών» δώρων στην Ανατολική Μεσόγειο κατα την Ύστερη Εποχή του Χαλκού. Ενώ είναι πιθανόν τα δυο κύπελλα να έφτασαν στην θέση Tel Beth-Shemesh απευθείας από την Κνωσσό, δεν αποκλείεται η εκδοχή να κατέληξαν εκεί ως δώρο προερχόμενο από την Αιγυπτιακή αυλή. Τα δυο σπάνια ϒστερομινωικά ΙΙΙΑ1 κνωσσιακά κύπελλα θα μπορούσαν να έχουν φτάσει στην Αίγυπτο κατα την περίσταση της πολυσυζητημένης «διπλωματικής αποστολής» του Amenhotep του III στο Αιγαίο – συμπεριλαμβανομένης της Κνωσσού – και έπειτα να στάλθηκαν ως βασιλικά δώρα στον ηγεμόνα της Tel Beth-Shemesh.

Opium or oil? Late Bronze Age Cypriot Base Ring juglets and international trade revisited

Abstract The Base Ring juglets of Late Bronze Age Cyprus have long been associated with opium due to their hypothetical resemblance to inverted poppy heads. Analysis of organic residues on Base Ring juglets from Cyprus and Israel, however, showed no trace of opium; instead, the vessels had contained a variety of perfumed oils. The analytical results are supported by textual evidence attesting to a lively trade across the eastern Mediterranean in aromatic substances and compounds, rather than in opium. The poppy-head shape of the Base Ring juglets was not a reference to their contents.

Migration, Hybridization, and Resistance: Identity Dynamics in the Early Iron Age Southern Levant

This chapter confronts the systemic divide in modern scholarship that separates Aegean prehistory from Classical archaeology and considers its ramifications. In so doing, the problems of periodization, absolute chronology, and regionality are tackled. The relative chronology of the early Iron Age is based on painted pottery, the most abundantly preserved item of material culture that has been subjected to closest scrutiny. The chapter discusses four critical developments in the history of Greece during the early Iron Age that were to have an impact on the Mediterranean. Among these were overseas travel and settlement, exchange of commodities and the literacy revolution. The contrast between palatial and non-palatial Greece in the Bronze Age mirrors the contrast, in the early Iron Age, between the Greek polis, on the one hand, and the polis-less tribal states based on kinship, on the other. The chapter also presents the schematic language family trees of Naveh and Sass.