Perspectiveson the Ancient Worldfrom Mesopotamiato the Mediterranean
THE FIRST
HURRIAN
Vol.60 No.2
June 1997
CAPITAL
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Bib licalA to the Mediterranean Perspectiveson the AncientWorldfromMesopotamia A Publicationof the AmericanSchoolsof OrientalResearch 62 page 62
Volume60 Number2 June1997
Four Thousand Yearsof History at Tel Beth-Shean: An Account of the Renewed Excavations AmihaiMazar
S
From its towering command of a strategic crossroads, the steep mound of BethShean beckoned excavators in the early part of this century. Returning to the site with its extended settlement history, archaeologists from the Hebrew University's Institute of Archaeology opened a large-scale project in 1989. Eight seasons of excavation have answered many of the unresolved issues, produced more precise stratigraphic and architectural definitions, and illuminated the settlement continuum and its shifting character on the tell. Of special note are the surprising finds from the Egyptian New Kingdom period when BethShean served as the center of Egyptian imperial rule in the north of Canaan.
0 77
Urkesh:The First HurrianCapital GiorgioBuccellatiandMarilynKelly-Buccellati The monumental building excavated at the margin of Tell Mozan offered its legacy in miniature: hundreds of seal impressions, small and fragile nuggets of clay. Discarded on the building's floor, the sealings provided satisfying proof that Tell Mozan was the site of the third-millennium Hurrian capital city Urkesh. But they also revealed the presence of a distinctive artistic style and a new phenomenon in third millennium art. Further excavations have shown that the building is attached to a much larger architectural complex. The excavators anticipate that the upcoming season of fieldwork will literally cross the threshold of a palace, entering thereby into the nerve center of one of the great seats of power of ancient Syro-Mesopotamia.
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The Amarna Age Inscribed Clay Cylinderfrom Beth-Shean WayneHorowitz What appeared at first to be an ordinary cylinder seal turned out to be a unique letter inscribed on a clay cylinder. Deciphering the short missive produced another surprise: the sender and recipient of the letter, Tagi and Lablaya, were two well known figures from fourteenth-century Canaan. About what were these two rebels communicating and why did their singularly small (secretive?) letter end up at the site of Egypt's main garrison?
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:
4dw
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Isotopes from Wood Buried in the Roman Siege Ramp of Masada:The Roman Period'sColderClimate Arie S. IssarandDan Yakir It's always one of the first questions out of the mouths of visitors to the ruins of Israel's Negev: has the climate changed from "back then"? Increasingly sophisticated analyses are beginning to piece together a reliable answer. Case in point: collect samples of 1900-year-old tamarisk branches from within the Roman siege ramp at Masada and compare their chemical composition to modern tamarisks. And the result: 50% more rain flowed through the wadis into the Dead Sea when Flavius Silva built his durable siege ramp.
107
Arti-Facts On the cover: Stepped trench (AS)on western side of mound, looking north. Excavationsof the AK building (RoyalPalace?)are at the end of the trench.
From
the
Editor
While waiting for the glue to set on pieces of a storejarI was reconstructing the other weekend, I walked over to the shelves of my basement workshop and chanced upon a box marked "Memorabilia and Junk." Knowing better, I opened the box anyway. Its contents of "junk" were restricted to a case filled with 45's (leaving out the adjective "old" as redundant anymore). I decided to save perusing the musical memories for some future date. I ventured instead into the "Memorabilia": an ordered cache of letters from family members and friends (leaving out the adjective "old" in case any might be reading this!). I sampled at random and was bowled over by the details of love gained and lost that I had long since put out of mind. At points in the past, these details must have meant the world. Now they belonged among the "small things forgotten," to borrow from the title of James Deetz's well-known introduction to historical archaeology in North America (In SmallThingsForgotten:TheArchaeologyof EarlyAmericanLife.New York:Doubleday, 1977). Who knows what might have been had the details differed? Who but the owner of the letters knows (if memory serves him well) the bigger picture that structured the details into a meaningful world? Archaeologists in the Near East hardly ever have such "details" of personal lives about which to speculate. Nevertheless, oftentimes it is the "small things recovered" that occupy the archaeological imagination, data that only meticulous excavation and imaginative analysis can provide. Such laborious efforts provided a rich harvest of seal impressions for the excavators of Syria's Tell Mosan. Giorgio and Marilyn Kelly-Buccellati have assembled a stratified corpus of inscribed seal impressions that totals nearly one thousand tiny clay sealings excavated from the floor of a large building. They built this corpus by collecting and reviewing one by one thousands upon thousands of clay lumps, all potentially qualifying as seal impressions. But what gratifying results! Among the thousand impressions, three (only!) tiny fragments mentioned the name of the city, enabling the Buccellati's to identify the site as ancient Urkesh, an illusive goal left totally to chance in most excavations. The seals that made the impressions belonged to the reigning Hurrian dynasty--the king, his queen and several royal courtiers. Beyond putting to rest the question of the tell's ancient identity,they reveal aspects of the Urkesh administration,especially that of the queen. Moreover, the seal impressions add a chapter to the history of glyptic design in Syria-Mesopotamia and illustrate the use and repetition of visual images to give expression to dynastic concerns. Their iconography manifests the dynasty's lionlike power and its concerns for the succession to the throne. The latter comes to expression most vividly, even poignantly, in "portraits" of the royal family: physical intimacy and gestures of touching link the older children to the royal couple, mirroring the connection through the royal line. "Small things recovered" begin to open up both cognitive and affective dimensions of the ancient world. Under the direction of Amihai Mazar, Hebrew University returned to Tell Beth-Shean over a half of a century after the site was vacated by the University of Pennsylvania projet. Alongside accomplishing the new effort's main goals--clarification of stratigraphy, refined definition of architectural units, and elucidation of the tell's settlement history-Mazar's team unearthed one especially intriguing artifact.Wayne Horowitz's article tells how Hebrew University archaeologists rescued a small inscribed cylinder from the University of Pennsylvania's sixty-year old dump. Barely an inch high, the cylinder preserved a short letter in the Amarna dialect of Akkadian-a unique artifact made more interesting by its sender and recipient-two personages who appear in other Amarna documents where we learn mostly others' perceptions of them. But the cylinder represents the first known correspondence between Tagi and Lab'aya. What details did their letter relate? Sadly, the letter doesn't contain much in the way of content: only its existence and unique form allow one to speculate on what was passing between these two rebels and how their communique ended up at the site of the Egyptian garrison. Since it was found in the dump, we don't know its ancient deposition. Assuredly, the little cylinder was not stored in a basket or jar labeled "Memorabilia and Junk." Just as assuredly, it reminds of the signal importance of the "small things forgotten," a significance that usually lies beyond the reach of archaeological inquiry.
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BiblicalArchaeolo Perspectives on the Ancient Worldfrom Mesopotamiato the Mediterranean
EditorDavid C. Hopkins Art Director Bucky Edgett,LuckyProductions Book Review EditorMichel Fortin Arti-FactsEditorsBruceand Carolyn Routledge EditorialAssistants Mary PetrinaBoyd, Ellen Rowse Spero Editorial Committee Kenneth G. Hoglund JefferyA. Blakely ElizabethBloch-Smith Douglas A. Knight J. P.Dessel Mary JoanLeith ErnestS. Frerichs GloriaLondon Ronald S. Hendel Jodi Magness RichardS. Hess Gerald L. Mattingly Louise Hitchcock Gaetano Palumbo Paul Zimansky Subscriptions Annual subscriptionratesare $35 for individuals and $45 for institutions.Thereis a special annual rateof $28 for students, those over 65, physically challenged, or unemployed. Biblical is also availableas part of the benefits Archaeologist of some ASORmembershipcategories.For details, contactASORat 617-353-6570.Postage for Canadianand other internationaladdressesis an additional $5. Paymentsshould be sent to ASOR Membership/SubscriberServices,PO. Box 15399, Atlanta,GA 30333-0399Phone 404-727-2345.Email:
[email protected]. VISA/Mastercard orderscan be phoned in. Back issues Backissues can be obtainedby calling SP CustomerServicesat 800-437-6692or writing SP CustomerServices,PO. Box6996,Alpharetta, GA 30239-6996. Postmaster Send addresschanges to Biblical t, ASORMembership Subscriber Archaeologis Services,P.O.Box 15399,Atlanta,GA 30333-0399. Periodicalsclass postage paid at Atlanta,GA and additionaloffices. Copyright@1997by the AmericanSchools of OrientalResearch. Correspondence All editorial correspondence should be addressed to BiblicalArchaeologist, 4500 MassachusettsAvenue NW, Washington,DC 20016-5690(ph:202-885-8699;fax:202-885-8605;email
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OF
woe"
Four An
ThousandYears of History at Tel Beth-Shean Account
of
the
Renewed
By Amihai Mazar "the mound of the fortress")towers steeply above the Beth-SheanValley to a height of 113m below sea level, set on the base of a hill originally some 125 m below sea level. The tell's location is strategicallyincomparable:the northern and southern sides are defended by deep ravines, through which the Harod (Jalud) and Asi Rivers flow, until they converge to the east of the mound. The site commands the main road descending from the Jezreeland Harod Valleys to the Beth-SheanValley.This road was a segment of the international highway that, even today, connects Israel's northern coastal plain with Transjordan.To the east of the mound, in the Beth-Shean Valley,this latitudinal road intersects with the important longitudinal thoroughfare that traverses the Jordan Valley. From here, it continues north to the Huleh Valley and the Lebanese Beqac. With its 62
BiblicalArchaeologist60:2 (1997)
Excavations
strategic advantages, as well as the abundant water and fertile landsnearby,Beth-Sheanwas an attractivesite forsettlement from earliest times. Indeed, there is evidence that settlers occupied the site as early as the end of the Neolithic Period (the fifth millennium BCE),with occupation continuing until Medieval times. Between 1921 and 1933, a team from the University Museum of the University of Pennsylvania, directed consecutivelyby ClarenceFisher,AlanRowe, and GeraldFitzGerald, conducted widespread excavations at Tel Beth-Shean(Rowe 1930, 1940; FitzGerald 1930, 1931, 1935; Oren 1973; James 1966;James and McGovern 1993). This expedition exposed an Early Islamic dwelling quarter covering the entire tell, a Byzantineround churchand dwelling quarteron the mound's View of TelBeth-Sheanduringexcavations,looking northeastfrom the Roman-Byzantinecity.All illustrationsprovidedby the Hebrew UniversityInstituteof Archaeology.
300,
Mediterranean *Acco 250
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Beth-Shean ella
..........P
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150
Jerusalem ?
Ashkelon
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.
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summit, and the remains of a monumental Roman temple. A large area excavated in the high, southern part of the tell contained settlement stratadating from the EarlyBronzeAge to the Iron Age. The most important finds belonged to the Late Bronze Age and IronAge I, which was the time of the Egyptian New Kingdom (fifteenth-twelfth centuries BCE).During this era, Beth-Shean served as the center of Egyptian imperial rule in the north of Canaan.This period yielded temples, governors' residencies, and the dwelling quarters of the soldiers and officials of the Egyptian garrison stationed at the site. The most renowned finds of this excavation included three monumental basalt stelae with inscriptions from the reign of Seti I and Ramsess II, a life-size statue of Ramsess III, as well as
numerous other Egyptian stelae and inscriptions. These constitutethe most significantassemblageof Egyptianmonuments found in Israel. Excavators found many objects of artistic value and ritual vessels in the temple and its vicinity, which represent one of the most valuable collections of such artifacts dating to the second millennium BCEfound in Canaan. Excavations in the cemetery to the north of the tell uncovered burial caves from various periods, including clay anthropoid coffins dating to the period of Egyptian domination. However, the excavators published only a small part of their finds at the time of their discovery and then decades later other scholars published more of the results. Other finds remain unpublished to this day. Numerous problems related to these excavations remain unsolved. In light of improved modern excavation and research methods, it was deemed appropriate to renew the study of Tel Beth-Shean. In 1983 Shulamit Geva and the late Prof. YigaelYadinconducted a brief excavation season in the site's Iron I Age levels (Yadin and Geva 1986). The prospect of renewing the excavations at Tel Beth-Shean on a large scale became viable in 1989. A team of the Hebrew University's Institute of Archaeology, directed by the author, joined in a large-scale archaeological project at Beth-Shean which was mainly intendedto explorethe RomanCity.Between1989-1995, the team carried out eight seasons of excavation lasting six weeks each, with the participation of workers from the town of Beth-Shean, volunteers, and archaeology students of the Hebrew University.'
TheTelland Its Environs With its steep, impressive shape, Tel Beth-Shean is one of the most imposing mounds in Israel.Yetit is not especially large: the ancient remains cover an area of ca. four hectares, which for extended periods was only partially occupied (see below). Beth-Shean'srelatively small size throughout its history can be understood when placed in the context of the settlement pattern throughout the entire Beth-Shean Valley. The valley boasts dozens of mounds and ruins of various sizes, some very large (the largestis TelRehov = Telles-Sarem, covering an estimated eighteen hectares), alongside much smaller mounds of some one-tenth of an hectare. In several places along the JordanRiver (such as around Kibbutz Kefar Ruppin) and near CEinHemed (the Sahne Spring), there are concentrations of four or more small mounds. It appears that the major Canaanite city state and Israelite urban center in the region was Rehov, which had been surrounded by a dense settlement in the valley. These settlements most probably based their subsistence on irrigation agriculture, which was facilitated by the abundance of springs and variables in elevation. During the Bronze and Iron Ages, Tel BethShean was only one of the settlement centers in the valley, and perhaps not even one of the more important ones. Why did the Egyptians of the New Kingdom choose BethShean as a garrison town? The status of the town in the previous period helps provide answer. During the Middle Bronze Age II, occupation on the mound was not BiblicalArchaeologist 60:2(1997)
63
extensive, and apparentlythe town was not fortifiedby the typical massive rampartsor glacis.Thus,it appearsthatwhile the site where the New Kingdom Egyptianschoseto establishtheiradministrative and military center in the north of the country was a site of strategic importance, the site nevertheless played only a secondaryrolein the patternof Canaanite settlement in the region. Thus, the study of TelBeth-Sheanis closely related to that of the entire valley. A research agenda which considers this factor requiresyearsof prolongedstudy,involving comparativesurveys and excavations at sites throughout the valley-2
ExcavationStrategy
The large scale excavations of the Universityof Pennsylvaniaconcentrated on the highest areaof the mound on the south, and they terminatedon disparate levels, resulting in the formation of several steps. On the summit, excavations ended in the IronAge I levels (LevelVI), while in the large area in the center of the summit, the excavations reached the sanctuary of Level IX (fourteenth century BCE).In the southeastern part of this area, the excavation stopped at Level XIII(the Early Bronze Age III).In 1933, a more limited area (sixteen by twenty-one m) was taken down from the EB III levels to bedrock. Levels XIV-XVIII date from the EB I to the Neolithic Pottery Periods. This situation allowed us to plan our work as a direct continuation of the Pennsylvania excavations and to simultaneously dig remains of various periods in different areas throughout the mound. During our work, we reexamined almostall the previousexcavationareas,and proceeded down, opening new areasas well. Since our expedition uncovered more occupation phases than those identified by the Pennsylvania team, we kept a separate tally of settlement phases in each excavation area. The enclosed table and site-map show the excavation areas, the correlationbetween the differentoccupation phases in the various areas,and their relationship to the stratanumbers utilized by the University of Pennsylvaniaexcavators.A presentationof the majorresults of our excavation follows, ranging in chronological order from the earliest to the latest periods.
The Early Bronze I Age
The University of Pennsylvania team identified a ca. six m deep accumulation dating to the EarlyBronzeAge and earlier. The present excavations explored the Early Bronze Age in areas M and R. Area M, which covered a total of 64
BiblicalArchaeologist60:2 (1997)
L
r
R
M
o
m
5o
/A Planof TelBeth Shean, with location of the excavationareasof the HebrewUniversityexpedition.Thisplan shows the main structuresin each area, dating to variousperiods.
77 Area M, view of the excavations on the lowest terraceof TelBethShean. People standing on the location of wooden pillarsin the Early Bronzestructure.
collapsed debris produced sherds of many large storage jars, covered with "band slip" (known also as "grain wash") as well as several small vessels typical of this period. Several sherds bore incised decoration,and one clay ram's head probably decorated the inside of a pottery bowl. Excavatorsfound many flint implements in this building, along with a large amount of charred grain. It is noteworthy that in this level, they found no vessels of "Grey Burnished Ware,"since the University of Pennsylvania team found such ware during excavations in earlier levels. Thus, this building should be attributed to a late phase of the EB I. Several C-14 dates of burnt grain seeds from this building yielded calibrateddates 3300-2946 BCE,with the average in the thirty-fourth century BCE.3 lRemainsof one of the two main halls of the sanctuaryof Stratum IX(fourteenth centuryBCE); below: occupation layerfrom the Early BronzeIV("MBI")period. V A group of pottery vessels from the EarlyBronzeIV ("MBI")period
occupation layer.
five hundred m2, was located in the southeastern comer of the tell. Here we began by cleaning building remains of the EB III uncovered by our predecessors (our Phase Ml), and then proceeded through a thin and enigmatic EB I/II transitional level (our Phase M2) to a major settlement phase of the EB IB (Phase M3). At this level we hit a unique public building built of mudbrick, whose walls were preserved to a height and width of more than one meter.While we do not learn the total dimension of this building, we excavated part of a large hall, (6.5 x 8.3 m inner dimensions), with a circular outercomer.Brickbenches lined its walls. Fourteenwooden pillars erected on flat stone bases supported its roof, and the stone bases were sunk below the plaster floor of the hall. The post holes in the floor could be well defined. We found a quern and pestle on a raised mudbrick platform in one comer and evidence for production of flint blades in another comer. A violent conflagrationdestroyed the building, resulting in the partial firing of the collapsed bricks. Several bricks bore manufacturers'marks,which had been impressed while the bricks were still wet. Lumps of clay, reeds and plaster found in the debris were probably part of the fallen roof. The
Following the violent destruction of this building, the inhabitants erected new structures in this area, containing two building phases (M2b and M2a) which are badly preservedand hardlyseparable.Theybuilta new curvedmudbrick wall just above the curved outer wall of the previous burnt building, a fact which demonstrates architectural continuity between Phases M3 and M2. However, the plan of the new building was altered,as evidenced by several new walls and floors. The excavators of this phase found three copper axes, a copper spearhead, and a well-made limestone mace head. These date to the end of the EB I or the beginning of the EB II. It appears that the structure at Beth-Shean was a public building related to a centralized socio-economic organization. It possibly fulfilled a role in economic administration such as the concentration and re-distribution of agricultural produce by a central authority. It thus may have important implications for understanding the emergence of complex societies in the late fourth millennium BCE,a process which eventually will lead to developed urban society in the following period. During this period Tel Beth-Shean was on of many sites in the Beth-Shean and Jordan Valleys, such as Tel Shalem (where fortifications attributed to this period were found), Tel ed-Diaba, TelKitan, and TelYakush west of the Jordan,and Tellesh-Shuneh east of the Jordan.It appears that the valley played a significant role in the settlement history of the country during this period.
The EarlyBronze Age II-III
Only a few remains may be ascribed to the EB II,such as sherds painted with red triangles filled with red dots in the style characteristic of this period. During EB III, BethShean and its vicinity were home to an especially dense settlement, representing the southernmost appearanceof the immigrants who arrived here from northeastern Anatolia and the Caspian Sea region, bringing with them the manufacturing tradition of "Khirbet Kerak" ware, which they continued to produce for generations. Areas R and M at Beth-Shean revealed several occupation phases from this period, with a limited area of Area R demonstrating at least four phases. The ceramic assemblage in each of these phases contained a substantial amount of BiblicalArchaeologist 60:2(1997)
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"KhirbetKerak"ware. Recentexcavationsat TelIztaba,oppositeTelBeth-Sheanand acrossthe HarodRiver,whereexcavators uncovered an extensive settlement with "Khirbet Kerak" ware, illustratethe density of EBIIIoccupation in the region.4 It is difficult to determine what brought about the end of this period. In several places, diggers found evidence of fire in the final phase of the EBIII,while in most of the excavated area, the floors of this latest stage were empty and lacked the signs of a violent end.
perhaps as the result of earthquakes.Both the date and function of this huge pit were a riddle for us. It appearsthat during the Middle Bronze Age, it was used for refuse disposal. If this was indeed the case, why was this huge pit dug in the lofty centralpart of the mound? We have no definitive answer to this riddle. One possibility is that in the EB period, the inhabitants dug the pit originally as a reservoir, while during the MB period they no longer utilized it as a reservoir and now used the pit for garbage disposal. However, this proposal has not been demonstrated. TheEarlyBronzeIVPeriod("MiddleBronzeI"or During the MB period a vast open area lay east of the pit. "Intermediate BronzeAge") It was paved with a thick layer of lime and covered an area ca. fifteen m long. Excavators found three hearths on this The "Northern Cemetery" excavated by the University abundant burial caves of EB of Pennsylvania contained the floor.They were circularin shape, eighty cm in diameter,and IV period (alsoknown as MBIor IntermediateEB /MB period). paved with wadi pebbles. They were apparently used for In our excavations in Area R, we detected scant remains of cooking or roasting food. Such a spacious, well paved courtoccupation from this period. These included only beaten yard with roasting installations could perhaps be related to earth floors and groups of stones, with no actual architec- a nearby shrine, yet there is no evidence of such a structure turalelements.Among the finds were severalcomplete pottery within the excavated area. vessels and copper implements, similar to those found in the Tothe west of the largepit, excavatorsuncovereda dwelling Northern Cemetery. Vessels painted in light red stood out quarter, containing three main phases of houses flanking a particularlyoutstanding in this assemblage. This pottery dif- street. The street itself had undergone many repavings and feredwidely fromthatof the lastphases of EBIII,demonstrating repairs with at least eight consecutive floors in a total accudiscontinuity between these two periods. The remains indi- mulation of 1.5 m. In these houses diggers exposed several cate that the settlementwas short-lived,and perhaps seasonal baby burials in storage jars. One to three pottery vessels in nature, where the inhabitants dwelled in huts and tents. accompanied each interment. One of the building phases This is similar to occupation at other mounds during this yielded a human skeleton haphazardly lying on his side, period, such as Jericho. However, it should be noted that which might represent evidence of sudden destruction by remains of substantial villages dating to this period do exist earthquake. in the region, such as the large site of TelYosef to the west of The pottery recovered from the various phases was very Beth-Sheanand a large settlement at TelAbu Niaj, across the homogeneous and was typical of the last phases of the MidJordan River. Thus the settlement from this period on Tel dle Bronze Age (seventeenth-sixteenth centuries BCE).The final phase of this period (our Phase R3) was marked by Beth-Shean was only one of many settlements of this period which represented various non-urban modes of subsistence. the abundant appearance of "Chocolate on White" ware, a very fine ware characterized by thick white slip on which brown geometric decorations were painted. This ware was TheMiddleBronzeAgeII Town Our excavations proved that there was an occupation gap typical of assemblages of the sixteenth century BCEin the Jordan Valley, Samaria Hills, and Transjordan. We did not during the Middle Bronze Age IIA (twentieth-nineteenth and perhaps even during the early part of the find imported wares including "Bichrome"vessels; the latcenturies BCE), MB IIB(eighteenth century BCE). Following this lapse, inhab- ter ceramic group was characteristicof assemblages dating itants established a permanent settlement, though apparently to the same period along the coast and in the Jezreel Valley. Excavation in Area M revealed burial pits cut into the limited to the summit of the mound, covering an area of ca. 1.2 hectares. Early Bronze Age settlement levels. Each pit contained a At the center of Area R, below the sanctuaries of the Late child, age eight-twelve, lying on his or her side in a flexed Bronzeperiod, excavatorsfound a huge oval pit, whose max- position, next to a concentration of animal (goat or sheep) imum length was ca. twenty-two m, width ca. eighteen m, bones. Several pottery vessels lay above the bodies. The Uniand six m deep at its center. The pit cuts through EB III set- versity of Pennsylvania expedition dug similar burial pits in tlement layers (though in fact it could belong to the EBperiod; the same area, and we found additional such burials in our Area L. in this case the edges of the EB occupation layer must have A hematite cylinder seal in local Canaanite style, Hyksos been eroded into the pit during later generations; see below) and was full of earth layers mixed with ash, Middle style scarabs (several of them especially fine), bone inlays with geometric designs, alabastervessels, jewelry,and miniaBronze II pottery sherds and animal bones, which had ture pottery chariotwheels were among the noteworthy finds been poured into it from all sides, towards its center. Buildings and floor surfaces constructed above and adjacent of this period. Severe erosion damaged the southern end of the mound, to the pit during the latest phase of the MB period and during the LB,all sank towards the center of this depression, and excavators found no evidence for Middle Bronze 66
BiblicalArchaeologist60:2 (1997)
A Generalview of the temple of StratumR2(fifteenth centuryBCE). V Isometricreconstructionof the StratumR2temple.
fortifications. Most likely, if any glacis or earth rampart had existed, traces of it would have been preserved. Thus either the town remained unfortified at this time or was protectedby a simplecurtainwall, which was completelydestroyed by erosion. Thus, the Middle BronzeAge settlement at TelBeth-Shean was small, unfortified, and of secondary importance. This settlement existed only during the latter part of the period, in the seventeenth-sixteenth centuries BCE.
A LateBronzeAgeI Temple
The University of Pennsylvania expedition uncovered a series of temples dating to the Late Bronze Age and Iron Age I. The earliest of these was the sanctuary of Level IX of This holy precincthad the fifteenth-fourteenth centuries BCE. an exceptional plan, including a central courtyard, two cultic structures to its east, and a series of rooms and corridors adjoining the courtyard on its other side. Area R in our renewed excavations incorporatedwhat remained of this complex (the southeastern part had been dismantled by the previous expedition). Our first goal was to ascertain whether the Level IX cultic complex had been built over earlier temples. Indeed, at the beginning of the 1989 season, below the courtyard of the Level IX complex (our local Phase R1), we unearthed an earlier temple (our Phase R2).5This was a modest structure,built of mudbrickscovered with white plaster.Its external length was 14.6 m and width 11.7 m. We found the temple
in a poor state of preservationbecause it had been constructed on top of the unstable fills of the huge Middle Bronze Age pit, and thus its walls had sunk towards the center of the pit. The building had three parts: the entrance vestibule, central space (hall), and inner room (holy of holies). Its plan was asymmetrical, with the opening leading from the entrance vestibule to the central hall located on the periphery of the hall. This contrasts with the accepted practice in Canaanite temples, where the entrance is in the center of the wall. Plastered benches lined the walls of the central hall and inner room. The bench that ran along the western wall of the centralhall was widened to form a kind of stepped platform. One of these steps supported a roughly worked, round stone column, as well as a posthole for a wooden column. Two rooms stood on the western side of the temple, one of which contained some kind of sanitary installation, with a sump. In the courtyard in front of the temple, diggers found cultic installations, including a deep, stone-lined pit, perhaps used in ceremonies related to water. Though the plan of this temple was exceptional, it possessed several features in common with the Fosse Temple at Lachish, the temple at Tel Mevorakh (both from the Late Bronze Age), and the temples at TellQasile dating to the Iron Age I. However, the temple at Beth-Shean was earlier than the others, having been built during the LB I, prior to the establishment of the cultic complex of Level IX. Likely, its users intentionally abandoned the building, as its floors were empty of finds. They then covered the temple with an artificial fill, on which they laid courtyard floor of the Level IX holy precinct. This temple is the earliest in the series of the BethShean temples. Excavatorsfound no evidence for any earlier cultic structures on this spot.
The Periodof EgyptianDominationat Beth-Shean
During a period of over threehundred years of the Egyptian New Kingdom,Beth-Sheanserved as the centerof Egyptian Pharaonicrule in northern Canaan. The definition of the size of the settlement at this time was one of the important results of the renewed excavations. We are almost certain that this occupation did not exceed an area of ca. 1.2 hectares, and that there was no significant Canaanite settlement at the site during this period. Beth-Shean served only as the headquartersof Egyptianrule, containingadministrativebuildings, temples, and dwelling quarters of the Egyptian officials and the soldiers serving in the Egyptian garrison. The occupation stratafrom this period at Beth-Sheanmay be divided into three subdivisions, concurrentwith the main chapters in the history of the Egyptian New Kingdom: 1) StrataIXa-b:The Eighteenth Dynasty (following the reign of Tuthmosis IIIuntil the late fourteenth century BCE), 2) Strata VIII-VII:The Nineteenth Dynasty (thirteenth century BCE), 3) Strata Late VII and Lower VI: The Twentieth Dynasty (twelfth century BCE).Each of these sub-periods included two occupational phases; the latest of each one of them was destroyed in a violent destruction. At the end of the 60:2(1997) BiblicalArchaeologist
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eighteenth, nineteenth, and finally the twentieth dynasties, there were periods of weakness in the Egyptian hold over Canaan. During such periods there were uprisings of the local population which may have caused these destructions. Strata IXA-B:The Timeof the Eighteenth Dynasty. The University of Pennsylvania had exposed the Level IX sacred precinct attributed to the Eighteenth Dynasty. We cleaned and studied whatever components of 0 cm 5 this complex were still identifiable sixty years after the excavation. It became clear that the western part of this complex contained two constructional phases: our local Phases Rla and Rib. Phase Rla (=LevelIXa)represented the final phase of the architecturalcompound as describedby AllanRowe (1930). The eastern half of the sanctuary,where the main cult rooms were located, was used with no change in both phases of Level IX. However in the western part, we detected two clear phases. In this location, Phase Rlb included earlier structureswhose plan differed from that of the laterphase. We detected several large rooms here. In one of them a round, stone-lined installation apparently served as an animal (sheep and goat) roasting pit. In the northwestern cornerof the area,several smallerrooms contained a rich assemblage of bowls, (top, left) A bowl decorated with a painting of and in kraters decorated the local a frieze of animals.The centralpartwas lamps, Canaanite style, as well as several discoveredby the Universityof Pennsylvania,while the two smaller typically Egyptian style vessels. This was probably a collection of offering fragmentswere revealed in the new vessels used in the local cult. This ear- excavationsof the StratumIXsanctuary lier phase of Level IX may be assigned (fourteenth centuryBCE). to the second half of the fifteenth cen(top, right)Two bronzedaggers from the tury BCE.
0
cm
5
m
StratumIXsanctuary.
Along the southernedge of the Level (above)A group of pottery vessels from IX precinct, the University of PennsylStratumIX. vania team had uncovered a series of (right)A pottery sherd painted with a rooms and corridors between two par- human figure holding a weapon or an allel walls. Its archaeologists suggested instrument.The style compareswell with that these were remains of a casemate the paintingof humanfaces found by the 0 5 cm wall, yet our excavation has shown that Universityof Pennsylvania.Allthese fragments these rooms were part of a large buildwere found in StratumIX,fourteenth centuryBCE. whose southern was ing part destroyed as well. It is noteworthy that in another room belonging to by the severe erosion which affected this side of the mound. One of the rooms was a bath, having no known parallels in this same structure,the University of Permsylvaniateam disCanaanite architecture. The room was well plastered with covered the celebrated relief on a basalt orthostat depicting and contained four a struggle between a lion and a dog or lioness. This is one of impermeable plaster, plastered steps. Excavators found a feeding channel and a drainage channel the most important examples of Canaanite monumental art. 68
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Egyptian weakness at the end of the Eighteenth Dynasty. In the dumps of the old excavations at the foot of the tell, excavatorsrecentlyfound a miniatureclay cylinder which dates to this period. This was a short message written in Akkadian from Tagi, the ruler of Gath-Carmel, to Laba~ya,the rulerof the land of Shechem,both well known figures in the el-Amama letters from Canaan (Horowitz this issue). The Nineteenth Dynasty (the ThirteenthCenturyBCE) During the thirteenth century BCE(the reigns of Seti I, RamessesII,and Memeptah),Egyptianrule over Canaan grew stronger, as evidenced by the establishment of citadels, governors' residencies, and headquarters of the Egyptian administration. The Egyptian administration rebuilt Beth-Shean (StrataVIII-VII),constructing a new temple,along with administrativebuildings and a dwelling quarter (James and McGovern 1993). The University of A A bath room with plasteredsteps in the southern buildingof Stratum Pennsylvania team has uncovered impressive monuIX(local phase R1;fourteenth centuryBCE). ments dating to this period, including two stelae with historical inscriptions attributedto the reign of Seti I and a monument from the reign of Ramesses II. Both were Remainsof a massive mudbrickstructurefrom the thirteenth century BCE found in later contexts. (Stratum VII)in Area N. In our excavations,we reachedLevel VII in Area N, located to the north of Area R. Excavators exposed a massive building here, with some of its walls exceeding 2.5 m in width. A large hall in this building (probably a basement, since it had no entrance) possessed a square silo and a brick bench, on which sat upper and lower grain grinding stones. A small room adjoining the hall contained a large amount of charred grain. The evidence for the storing and grinding of grain contrasts with the absence of baking ovens in the building. The building was destroyed in a fierce fire.Among the many pottery vessels in the buildingwere Egyptianstorage jars, sherds of Cypriot imports, and a complete "collared rim" pithos, one of the earliest examples of its type yet found in Israel.Thisbuilding is the sturIt testifies to the importance of this building, which was posdiest of all the excavated structures attributed to this level. sibly a palacelocatedsouth of the holy precinctand overlooking It is possible that it was part of the governmental citadel the valley to the south of the mound. which occupied this part of the mound, where it housed In the northeasterncomer of Area R we excavated a small an element of the Egyptian administration at Beth-Shean. segment of a building related to the later phase of Level IX, The destruction of this building is evidence of some trauwhich yielded evidence of a fierce destruction. We found a matic event in the history of Beth-Shean which apparently clay bathtub and a potsherd painted with a human figure. took place sometime duringthe end of the NineteenthDynasty, The latter is extremely similar to the fine Canaanite faces perhaps during the reign of Merneptah or shortly thereafter. The TwentiethDynasty (the TwelfthCenturyBCE) of a man and woman painted on pottery sherds discovThe Egyptian administrative center at Beth-Shean was ered by the University of Pennsylvania. The evidence in this area indicates that Level IX was violently destroyed in the reestablished during the Twentieth Dynasty along the lines fourteenth century BCE, perhaps as a result of the riots against of its predecessor.The University of Pennsylvaniateam called this Stratum "Level VI," and ascribed to it a temple, a govEgyptian rule which broke out in Canaan, encouraged by BiblicalArchaeologist 60:2(1997)
69
ernor's residency (Building 1500), and a dwelling quarter. Yet,since there was also a "LateLevel VI" (to which we shall return below), we term the bulk of Level VI as "Lower VI." Yigael Yadin and Shulamit Geva excavated a part of the dwelling quarternorth-east of the temple of Level VI in 1983 (their Stratum 4, Yadin and Geva 1986:40-88).We expanded and deepened this area (our Area S). We also investigated the Egyptian governor's residency (Building 1500) and reexamined part of the large area to its east (our Area N), where the previous excavations had already uncovered most of the buildings from this period. We re-excavated the area to the east of this residency as well (Area N), and it became clear that this period contained two occupational phases.6 Both phases contained houses flanking intersecting streets. The accumulation of debris in these two strata reached a depth of 2.5 m. The upper stratum (S3) was destroyed in a violent conflagration, represented by a thick destruction layer that was rich in finds. On the other hand, there was no evidence of destruction in the lower phase (S4), and it appears that the transition between S4 and S3 was the result of gradual, peaceful, local development. In any event, it is surprising to find two
0
cm
5
Fromthe Egyptiangarrison(clockwisefrom top): Planof the garrisonquarterat Beth-Sheanduringthe time of the TwentiethDynasty(twelfth centuryBCE, StratumLowerVI).Black: walls excavatedor re-excavatedby the new expedition.White:walls excavatedand dismantledby the Universityof Pennsylvania expedition. Building1500 is seen in the upper left cornerof the plan. A large kraterfound in the destructionlayerof StratumLowerVI. The kraterwas distortedas a resultof the destructionfire. View of the dwelling quarterof local phase S4 in Area S (=Stratum "LateVII"). A group of pottery vessels in Egyptianshape, producedat BethShean (TwentiethDynasty). A fragment of a Myc.IIICstirrupjar;StratumLowerVI(Twentieth Dynasty). 70
BiblicalArchaeologist60:2 (1997)
?r
I
I
I
cf
-?
--
? .
o m 10o
? ---"...
distinctconstructionalphasesin a relativelyshorttimespan of ca. eighty years. Thehousesin bothstrataS4andS3containedlargerooms with grinding, cooking,baking, and storing installations. One of the many ovens had been built in the Egyptian style typical of this period, with a small opening located on its side wall. The architecturaldecorationwas characteristicallyEgyptianas well. In the collapse accumulated in one of therooms,thefindsincludedremainsof wall paintings in blue, yellow, black, and red on a thick layer of mud-plaster.OtherEgyptian-stylefindsincludeda fragment of an Egyptian-style paintedchalkstonelintelanda fragment of a chalkstone relief depicting a part of a human figure sittingon a foldingchairof typicalEgyptiantype. Theseare minoradditionsto the collectionof Egyptianreliefs,architecturalfragments,andstelaefromthisperioduncoveredby our predecessors. Thepotteryassemblagesof bothstrataweresimilar:alongside localCanaanitevesselstypicalof the twelfthcenturyBCE were many Egyptianstyle vessels. Petrographicanalysis provedthatthe majorityof the latterwereproducedin local workshops by potters who were trained in the manufacturingtechniquesof Egyptianpottery.Thepotterspreserved shapesidenticalto thosecurrentat the time in Egypt.Bowls with everted red-paintedrims were especially dominant, and storagejarsand red-slipped,tear-dropshaped vessels were commonas well. Isolatedvessels had been imported fromEgypt,especiallysmallcups with one loop handle.The assemblagelackedimportedCypriotor Mycenaeanwares, aside froma small quanityof Myc.IIICsherds.Thesewere and sherdsof high qualityvessels (mostlystirrup-jars bowls) which were probably imported from Greece
or fromCyprus.The interpretationof these sherds
1 o:
o
cm
0
cm
thepresence remainsenigmatic: theymightrepresent of mercenariesof "SeaPeoples"originwho servedin the Egyptian garrison stationed at Beth-Sheanat this time,or they mightmerelyindicatethe continuity of traderelations.In any event,thisappearanceof a small numberof Myc. IIICimportedware during this period at Beth-Shean differed from the phenomenon of the local productionof similarware in
1
Twelfth-centuryartifacts (from top to bottom): Bronzefigurine depicting a humped bull (Zebu),time of the TwentiethDynasty. Scrapsilver from the hoard. b A gold pendant with a schematichuman figure. StratumLowerVI. A faience amulet showing the Egyptian "Horuseye" (wd t). An ivory duck'shead (partof a cosmetic box), Twentiethdynasty.
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the Philistine cities such as Ashdod and Ekron, which was related to the settlement of the Philistines in these towns (Dothan 1989). The finds in the houses portrayed the high standard of living enjoyed by the residents of the Egyptian garrison at Beth-Shean. They included thin gold leaves which plated various objects,a ram'shead of hammered gold which apparently had been a furniturecasing, gold earringsand pendants, silver rings, and carnelian and other stone beads. One of the rooms attributed to S4 contained two small hoards with bits and pieces of silverjewelry,wrapped in a scrapof linen woven in an Egyptian style. Several scarabs and faience amulets with various Egyptian motifs, such as the god Bes or the Horus eye, were common in these strata (for the large collection of such amulets from Beth-Shean,see McGovern1985). Diggers also found clay bird-head figurines which were typical of the Egyptian culture. One of them was painted in red and blue. Several seal impressions on clay sealings of documents (bullae) are evidence of the Egyptian administrative activity that took place here. In our Area Q, we cleaned and examined the previously excavatedBuilding1500,the LevelVIEgyptiangovernor's residency, and continued digging under its floors in order to explore fully its phases and to prepare it for preservation. It became apparent that the thick brick walls of this building were set on basalt stone foundations. When we excavated below these foundations, an earlierbuilding emerged, which appears to be contemporary with our Stratum S4 (the beginning of the Twentieth Dynasty). This earlier building was constructed in a typically Egyptian manner,with brick walls without stone foundations. Several of its rooms had mudbrickfloors, a technique well known from Egypt. The general outline of the building was similar to that of Building 1500: a square whose walls measured twenty m each. However, the inner division differed from the laterbuilding and offered a complex of rooms and narrow corridors. The plan, dimensions, and architecturaltechnique of this building were very reminiscent of the Egyptian citadel at Deir El-Balahsouth of Gaza,excavatedand dated to the Nineteenth Dynasty (Dothan 1993). Building 1500, and its predecessor, were chronologically close. It seems that builders erected both structures during the Twentieth Dynasty, and the variations in plan were the result of totally different functions. The early building apparently served as a military or administrative center, while Building 1500 was a kind of small palace. At its center was a hall with two columns supporting the ceiling. Hieroglyphic dedicatory inscriptions decorated the entrances to this hall. It is obvious that this hall was used for ceremonies and receptions.It is difficultto guess the reasonbehind this drastic change in the plan of a public building-from administrativecenter to ceremonial palace-which occupied such a central place in the settlement. In the area to the east of Building 1500, the University of Pennsylvania had uncovered remains of a large structure which they termed "Building 1700." Re-examination of this building (our Area N) showed that while it was 72
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View of Building1500, the Governor'sResidencyof StratumLower VI,with probes revealingearlierpublicEgyptianstructure.
indeed monumental in size, it postdated the period of the Egyptian rule at the site. It probablybelonged to the eleventh century BCEtown ("LevelUpper VI";see below). Beneath the foundations of this building, excavation revealed remains of two stratadated to the Twentieth Dynasty (twelfth century), though our predecessors had removed most of their remains. These structures covered the public structure of the Nineteenth Dynasty described above. It is difficult to determine the circumstances resulting in the violent destruction which terminated the Egyptian presence at Beth-Shean. One may surmise that the disappearance of Egyptian rule was related to changes that took place in the geopolitical structure of the country with the penetration of the "SeaPeoples" and the emergence of Israel. This was a period of unrestand insecurity.The Hebrew Bible's report of a Midianite foray into the Jezreel Valley and of Gideon's pursuit through the area of Beth-Shean (Judg 6-8) may be examples of the kind of event which might have brought about the destructionof Beth-Shean.However, while the Egyptians were able to reconstruct their stronghold at Beth-Shean following destructions at the end of the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Dynasties, it was apparently beyond their ability to do so at the end of the Twentieth Dynasty. Their presence ended. We have no data concerning the exact date of this demise, but information from other sites indicates that the Egyptian rule in the country held out until the reign of Ramesses VI or VIII (no later than 1127 BCE).
Beth-Sheanduringthe EleventhCenturyBCE
The fate of Beth-Shean during the eleventh century BCE is of particularinterestbecause the biblical account mentions Beth-Shean as the site where the Philistines hung the bodies of Saul and his sons after the battle on the Gilboa (1 Sam 31; 1 Chr 11). The ambiguity of the University of Pennsylvania excavationresultsleft the archaeologicalpicturerelating
to this period unclear. Geva attempted to draw historical conclusions from the excavations she conducted with Yigael Yadin (Geva 1989). Yet because these conclusions are based on meager data, they are unconvincing. Our excavations now allow us to define betterthis period archaeologically. In Area S, excavation revealed that the tracesof the last Egyptiansettlement had been partiallyrenovated during the eleventh century BCE.The inhabitants during this period apparently reconstructed some of the ruins of the earlier occupation. They rebuilt walls while the streets continued the same contours as in the previous stratum. However, the finds were of a purely Canaanite nature. It seems to me that the "twin temples"(the "northern"and the "southern" ones), which were uncovered by the University of Pennsylvania expedition and attributedto Level V, should be reassigned to this stratum. In the courtyard fronting these temples, excavators found a group of Egyptian monuments, including the aforementioned stelae of Seti I and Ramesses II, as well as a statue of RamessesM. These were relics of the previous golden days of Beth-Shean,since during this period, Egyptian presence was a thing of the past. Tothis periodwe ascribealso Building 1700-a monumentalpublicbuilding (mentioned above), whose northern wall foundation consisted of largebasalt boulders. The finds from this period contain no traces of Philistine presence in the town. The biblical account of the death of Saul at best related to an historical event in which the Philistine forces carried out a military campaign from Philistia to the Gilboa and the BethShean Valley, but never occupied this region for any length of time. The town of the eleventhcenturyBCE was destroyed by fire, apparently less extensive than thatwhich terminatedthe previousoccupation.
ThePeriodof the Monarchy (TheIronAgeII) During the reigns of David and Solomon, Beth-Shean became part of the United Israelite kingdom. The
0m5
b
m
Above: plan of the Governor'sResidency (Building1500)of StratumLowerVI; center: plan of the buildingfound below Building1500;below: plan of the citadel at Deirel-Balah(thirteenthcenturyBCE) to which the buildingbelow Building1500 can be compared.
University of Pennsylvania excavations uncovered many building remainsfrom the period of the Monarchy (Levels VIV) but the documentation is confusing. The renewed excavationsfound remains of this period in two areas:Area S and Area P. In Area S, on the southeastern corner of the tell, stood parts of a mighty building, perhaps a citadel, dating to the tenth century BCE.Its foundations consisted of basalt stones topped by a which was destroyed bricksuperstructure a by conflagration so violent as to fire the bricks to the consistency of pottery. Some of the walls were 2.5 m wide. Two additional fragmentaryburntbuildings of the same period were excavated at the northern part of Area S, showing thatthe summitof themound as crowned by massive, public structures during In one room, excathe tenth centuryBCE. vators found vessels typical of the Solomonic period, similar to those at other sites in the Beth-Sheanand Jezreel Valleys which were destroyed by fire as well. This common destruction was likelythe work of Shishak,a pharaoh of the Twenty-Second Dynasty, whose army passed through the Beth-Shean Valley five years after the death of Solomon. In AreaS, our predecessorsremoved all remains of the IronAge II following the time of the United Kingdom. Thus we opened a new excavationareaadjoining the western slope of the tell with the purpose of examining remains from IronAge II and later.This area (Area P) has so far yielded remainsof a large and well planned building dating to the eighth century BCE.Its brick walls, 1.2 m wide, were preserved up to 1.5 m high and plasteredwith thickmud plaster. The building was apparantly an elaborate version of the "four-room building" of the Iron Age: a large central hall was flanked by rooms on all three sides. Excavationsuncovered only the central hall and two rooms to its east: the back rooms were beyond the limit of the area and two additional rooms west of the centralhall were close to the slope of the mound and were heavily destroyedby erosion.The occurrence of this building in such proximity
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to the mound'sedge eliminatesthe possibilitythatcitywalls protectedIronAge Beth-Shean,as did most otherIronAge towns.Inthe excavatedpartsof thebuildinga thickdestruction layer containedfallen remainsof the upper floor,the upper parts of the walls, and burnt beams. Probablythis destructionwas the result of the Assyrianconquestof the northernpart of Israelduring the reign of Tiglath-pileser Thelayerof burntdebrisandmudbrickcollapse III(732BCE). buriednumerouspotteryvesselstypicalof thisperiod.Excavatorsfound a largeloom with over 120clay loom weights along a wall in the main hall. We still lack a stratigraphic destrucsequenceto fillthegapbetweenthe tenthcenturyBCE tionlayerfoundin AreaS andthe eighthcenturydestruction layerin AreaP. The bottomof a jarwith a Hebrewinscriptionin black ink on its lowerpartdatedto this period.The inscriptionapparentlylistednamesandquantitiesof commodities.Italso repeatedthe rare name zmathreetimes, once in the combination "Itzma3("thegoddess of Zma?"). Excavationuncoveredonly few remains dating to settlement activity following the Assyrianconquestat Beth-Shean.A few thin walls in AreaP postdatedthe destructionof the eighth-centurybuilding and apparently relatedto thisperiod.Thesewalls were unrelatedto the planof the previousbuildingand evidenced a scanty settlement on the site following the Assyrianconquest.Following this brief occupation,the mound expressed 0 a settlementgap until the Hellenisticperiod
TheHellenisticand RomanPeriods Above the Iron Age II remains in Area P, excavators revealedan occupationlevel fromthe Hellenisticperiod.The remainsincludedbuildingswith the thinstonewallsof ordinaryhouses,largecourtyards,andbakingovens.Excavators observedtwo to threesub-phases.A richassemblageof potteryvesselsof thisperiodincludedstampedRhodianhandles, mold-madeMegarianbowls, and terra-cottafigurinefragments.Ptolemaiccoinsand two silverTyriantetradrachmas offeredevidencefor the dateof the settlement:fromthe late third century BCEto the first century BCE.This settlement
of theHellenistictownof Scythbelongedto theestablishment on the otherside of thedeep opolis.OppositeTelBeth-Shean, Jaludriver,excavations at TelIztabahrevealed an extensive Hellenistictownwhichperhapswas partof the complex of Scythopolis(Bar-Nathanand Mazor1994:87-92). Practicallynothingwas found in our excavationwhich could be related to the Roman period. It appears that at thistime,when the largeRomancityflourishedon the south of thetell,themounditselfremainedunoccupied,asidefrom a monumentaltemple built on its summit, the remainsof which had been discoveredby the Universityof Pennsylvania. This temple overlooked the civic centerat the foot of thetell,andit shouldbe viewedas partof theoveralltown 74
BiblicalArchaeologist 60:2(1997)
cm
3 0
cm
5
ME::
in the south(top) Remainsof massive fort of the tenth centuryBCE eastern cornerof Tel Beth-Shean.Below: remainsof Egyptian structureof PhaseS4 (= LateVII). (above, left) A clay figurine of unique type, found in StratumS2 (= UpperVI);eleventh centuryBCE. (above, right)A painted strainerjug from the eleventh-centurylevel at Beth-Shean.
planning of this urban complex. In fact, the excavations carried out at the foot of the mound revealed possible monumentalstaircasewhichled to the topof the moundduring the Romanperiod (Tsafrirand Foerster1994:104).
The Byzantineand EarlyIslamicPeriods
A fine residential quarteroccupied the entire area of the mound duringthe Byzantineperiod.TheUniversityof Pennsylvaniateamalsoexposedthe foundationsof a round churchon the summit.Thesewere partsof the much larger
period, lay inside the gate. The mound must have been a fortified estate, which contained a few buildings along the wall and on the summit. The relationship between this estate and the Crusader fortress on the ridge south of the tell requires further study.
Conclusions
A An IronAge II dwelling, destroyed by fire probablyin the Assyriandestructionof 732 BCE,looking south.
< A Tyriantetradrachma of the mid first century BCE found in the
Hellenisticlevel.
Byzantine city that spread all across the mound. In three of our excavation areas (P,H, and L), we found portions of wellbuilt ashlar houses. One of the houses contained a mosaic floor with a motif of grape vines and grape clusters. The Byzantine houses on the lower part of the northern slope of the tell were very well preserved. During the EarlyIslamicperiod, a residentialquartercovered the tell as well. Thoughthe previousexcavationsuncovered the foundations of most of the houses of this period, we discovered at Area P some additionalbuilding remains and floor surfaces. It appears that the settlement terminated in the eighth century CE,probably as a result of the devastating earthquake of 749 CE.
TheMedievalPeriod During the Middle Ages, at the end of the CrusaderPeriod or duringthe Ayyubidperiod,a 1.2m wide stone wall enclosed the entire mound. Our excavations examined parts of this wall, as well as several buildings that contained pottery typical of the twelfth century CE.In the northwestern corner of the tell, a gate incorporated earlierarchitecturalcomponents. The plan of the gate was similarto that at the Crusaderfortress excavated on a ridge south of the mound (Seligman 1994). A stone-paved road ascended from the gate and reached buildings that stood on the mound's upper part.A room with a barrel-vaulted ceiling, which apparently belonged to this
The University of Pennsylvania's extensive excavations and their rich finds served as the base for the renewed study of Tel Beth-Shean with more refined methods. Our excavations have allowed for more precise stratigraphic and architectural definitions, and provide solid ground for the interpretation of the previous excavations. In addition, we have corrected misconceptions concerning the settlement continuum and character of the settlement on the tell over the various periods. The excavations at TellBeth-Sheancame to an end in 1996. We now plan to extend our research of the Beth-SheanValleyby startingexcavationof the largestmound in the valley-that of Tel Rehov.
Notes 1 The excavations at Tel Beth-Shean are directed by the author, under the auspices of the Institute of Archaeology of the Hebrew University at Jerusalem, in the framework of a joint expedition coordinated by the BethShean Tourism Development Administration, with the participation of the IsraelAntiquities Authority,the IsraelGovernment Ministry of Tourism, the Beth Shean Municipal Council, the Institute of Archaeology of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the National Parks Authority, and the Jewish National Fund. During the eight seasons of excavation, the staff included: N. Ayalon-Arad, N. Apelbaum, M. Arazy, R. Bellamey,A. Golani, S. Kim, T.Harpak, A. Cohen-Weinberger,A. Killebrew,A. Maeir,R. Mullins, J. Nicholson, N. Panitz-Cohen, A. Pink; Y. Rand, G. Stiebel, R. Voss, D. Weinblatt, and A. Ziv-Asudri. Additional staff included: M. Caplan and B. Arubas (surveying and plans), A. Cohen (petrographic studies), L. Horowitz (animal bones), and U. Baruch (archaeobotany). Administration was conducted by M. Efroni and A. Eldar. My thanks to Nava Panitz-Cohen who translated this paper from the Hebrew and to Robert Mullins for his suggestions and help. Such a research agenda on the Middle Bronze Age is presently being conducted as part of a doctorate being written at the Hebrew University by A. Maeir, under the guidance of the author. 2
3 The information was provided by I. Carmi and D. Segal from the C-14 laboratory at the Weitzmann Institute. The excavations were carried out by Gabi Mazor and Rachel Bar-Nathan on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority. 4
5 Note that in earlier preliminary reports, including Qadmoniot 27 (1994), we denoted this phase R3a, and the two later phases of Level IX (Strata IXa and IXb, see below) local phases R1 and R2 respectively. However, in this paper we are utilizing the local phase numbers for Area R which will appear in the final report: Stratum Ia = Phase Rla Level IXB = Phase Rib LBI temple = Phase R2 Middle Bronze II = Phases R3, R4, R5 6 In our main excavation area, Area S, we designated them Strata S3 and S4. The upper stratum (S3) is equivalent to "Level VI" in the University of Pennsylvania numbering system. The lower phase (S4),apparently should
BiblicalArchaeologist60:2 (1997)
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be rcorrelatedwith the phase termed Ilate VI" in the latest pubh rication
of the Pennsyll
amiaexca ataons d(Jamesand \bcGov em 1993:Map 1)
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james, E
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Geva, S. 1989 Stages in the Transition from Canaanite to Israelite Ilegemony Eretz-lsrael210:149-53.(1tIebre.)
Qadlnoniit 27:93-116 (Hebrhew) Thompson, 1 O) 1970 the God/f et S/hen, Leiden Brill \kal, N and Yadin, etxa, S.
Ifloroi itz, 1994 Irouble in Canaan: A Letter of the el-Amarna Period on a Cla Cylinder from Beth Shean. Qadminniot27:84-86. ( ebrew Amihai Mazar was horn in 1942 n Haifa, Israel. He studied archaeology and the history of Israel at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem where he completed his M.A. (1972) and Ph.D. (1976). H1espent a year of Post-Doctoral studies at the Institute of Archaeology of the University of London. Profcsor Mazar started teaching in the Institute of Archaeology of the HIebrew University in 1972, where he was notminated as Senior Lecturer (1982), Associate Professor (1986) and Professor (1993). Professor Mazar has directed a series of archaeological field studies and excavations. In 1968 he carried out a survey of the aqueducts of Jerusalem; in 1971-1974 and 1982-1991, he directedi the excavations of the Philistine town at Tell Qasile. Between 1977 and 1989 he was the Field Director of the excavations at Tel Batash (biblical Timnah) and from 1989 to 1996 he directed the excavations at Tel,Beth Shean. Smaller scale excavations were carried out by him at the Iron Age the "Bull Site," Giloh, Khirbet Marjameh, and at the Early Bronze I site of Hartuv. Professor Mazar has published four books and numerous articles on the archaeolgy of the Land of Israel in the Bronze and Iron Ages. His latest book, Tnimah(TelBatash)I: The Stnratigraphy and Arclutecture,the First Final Report on the excavations between -177-1989, is in prss. He is a member of the Archaeological Council of Israel, editor of the Hebrew magazine Qadmoniot,and since 1995, the Head of the Institute of Archateology of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Mazar is married and has three children.
76
i l Bibkical A!chae loist
6' 1997) :2
AtlBeth Shean, lie Early IranAge Stb~-ta.Qedem 23 Jerusalem: israel Exploration Societ.
1986 Investiatis
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Errata The editor regrets that the namreof Allison Bain, of Universite IL'val\wasinadxvertentlyomitted as a co-author of the Arti-Facts item Archaeoentononlogy'; Potentialin Near Eastern 'PanagioArchaeolrNi.The article also neglected to note Evxa University takopulu'sas'ociationwith Instituteof ArchaeologyL of London. Andrea Berlin's presentation of Palestinein the Hellenistic Periodincluded a mistaken caption. I he illustration of an imported stamped amphora handle on page 17 did not contain an impressionof the head of Helios. Rather,the inscription carries the name of the official Xenophantos and the month Planamos.On page 37, the caption describing the coin of Alexander Jannaeus contains a misspelling of the king's Grek name. IheGreekshould read\AXu \\1N\)A T BAlXILAH).
i'!!ii iii!":-";?-i." _le:;Li-•iisiii
~ii!!ii!i•!!!"•!•~iii il!iii•i:iiI!
i:i-Chl i~'"!!i • ii•ii ii•:!ii
:I•~~••i~•! ~i8:iii% i~ii~iii!ii!•~•:l~lii i i•••i
By Giorgio Buccellati and Marilyn Kelly-Buccellati
A
IN A HITTITE N EARLY HURRIANMYTH,PRESERVED VERSION,
tells the story of a young god, Silver, who lives
with his mother somewhere in the countryside
away from the cities. He has a quarrel with his friends, who taunt him because he has no father. Prompted, his mother tells him that his father lives in the big city:
Oh Silver! The city you inquire about, I will describe to you. Yourfatheris Kumarbi,the Fatherof the city Urkesh. He resides in Urkesh, where he rightfully resolves the lawsuits of all the lands. Your brother is Teshup: he is king in heaven and is king in the land. Yoursisteris Sauska, and she is queen in Nineveh. You must not fear any of them. Only one deity you must fear, Kumarbi, who stirs up the enemy land and the wild animals (adapted from Hoffner 1990:46-47). Let us consider a possible etiology. We may assume that the story's original setting is in the mountains, where silver,the metal, is actually mined. Thereare contrastsamong the small groups of mountain people. A group that controls silver establishes contacts with the cities of the plain, claiming ethnic affiliation (the chief god of the city, Kumarbi,
A view of the TurAbdin (the southern edge of the Taurusrange) from TellMozan (the surfaceof the tell is visible in the foreground). The large saddle in the mountain range marksthe location of the modern city of Mardin,where a strategicpass leadsto richcopper mines (Ergani)to the North.(Allillustrationscourtesyof the InternationalInstitutefor MesopotamianArea Studies.)
is the of the urbanrule of law (Kumarbi father" Silver);accepting administers justice); and paying allegiance in return for defense (Kumarbi is in control of enemies, both human and animal).
Urkesh All told, this myth would seem to provide a rathertransparent idealization of the relationship between mineral resources and their commercial exploitation! At any rate, se non e vero, ben inventato:this scenario may not be true, but it describes well the broader geo-political situation in northern Syro-Mesopotamia as we can reconstruct it in the early historicperiods. Metals (especially copper) were being mined in the Taurus,where urbanization proper had not yet developed, and were shipped to the urban markets in the plain. Some of these cities, in the piedmont area, were more likely than others to serve as gateways for this trade. Urkesh holds a privileged place in the myth. Its location at the site BiblicalArchaeologist 60:2(1997)
77
36
40
Tell
Tell
TURKEY
Amuda
Tell Halaf Fakharyi Tell Chuera Ch~ozan Tel
Tel
Brak
Ziyadah
TellAjaja
Tuttul
TeLe Tell Barri
*
. .
Bedar
Mozan
?
Ebla
36
Terqa Qraya
Eu/h/r
'tes .•
SYRIA IRAQ A The principaltrade routes along the Euphratesand in the Khabur region. Ancient Urkeshwas at the crossroadsof two majorarteriesNorth-Southconnectingthe Mesopotamianplainswith the Anatolianhighland,and East-Westalong the southernedge of the Taurus.
SI
f
[> Planof the High Mound indicatingthe majorexcavationareas. Note the great difference in elevation (some 15 m) between temple BAat the summit,in the center of the tell, and buildingAK,on the Westernslopes. The majorphase of the Templedates to about 2450 while building AK dates to about 2200 BCE. This would BCE,
correspondroughlyto the ancient skyline,with the temple dominatingthe urbanlandscape.
BA KW K
of Tell Mozan underscores its strategic position on the trade route from north to south. Whatever the merits of the proposed etiology, the fact remains that Urkesh was the city of the primordial god of the Hurrian pantheon, and that his association with the urban world is explicit and detailed. It is likely that such mythical prestige of Kumarbi's city was based on considerableculturaland political significancefrom the earliest periods. Urkesh must have been importantpolitically as well. Several kings are known from this city, and the Hurrian title endanis attested only in connection with this city name. In fact, Urkesh is the only Hurrian city for which one could reconstructa line of kings at the end of the third millennium (Buccellatiand Kelly-Buccellati[henceforth B&K-B]1988:3134). In this respect,the title of our articleneeds a qualification. 78
BiblicalArchaeologist60:2 (1997)
9L 65 0
0
o
m 100 -.-.,,,, i I
It could be taken in its double meaning that Urkesh was the earliest Hurrian capital and that it was the first one to have been positively identified. The latter is true enough; the former makes an exaggerated claim. It is in fact quite likely
SRdge logs
Section purlinsA.A'
Mozan TempleBA
that other major urban centers in the piedmont area of the Taurus, from Tell Chuera to Nineveh, which were contemporary with Urkesh, should have been independent from it politically and also ruled by Hurrian dynasts. But even if, and when, evidence for such new Hurrian capitals may be found, in the current state of our knowledge Urkesh certainly holds a position of predominance.
TellMozan | Partly excavated
Stones
0
A
Supporting
walls walls Perimetral
m
5
Altar .
Ramp
.
A Planof TempleBAshowing stone ramp,in front of the doorway which leads to what is known as a bent-axisapproachto the sanctuary.The section at the top shows a projectionof the pitched roof as reconstructedon the basisof calculationsderivedfrom the nature and size of the walls.
V One side of a double sided stele with a plowman behind a draft animaland his dog. Itwas found near TempleBA,and it probably dates to about the same time period (2450 BCE). Note the effective of movement in the of the rendering gesture plowman pushingthe into the furrow. plow
In 1984, when we set out to choose a new site to excavate in Northern Syria, after some ten years of work at Terqa,we picked Tell Mozan, proposing that it might be, precisely, Urkesh (B&K-B1988:25,38). In 1995, after eight seasons of excavation, we were able to confirm our hypothesis: the evidence came from small and fragileseal impressions,discarded on the floor of a large room in a well preserved building, which we labeled AK (B&K-B1995b;1996a;see also below). From the nature of the deposit and the layout of the building, we first assumed this to be a storehouse.While this initial assumption is still valid, what appears now is that this storage area is attached to a much larger architecturalcomplex, which we take to be the royal palace. But more about this later. First, a bird's eye view of the site and the major finds to date. During the first seasons, work was concentrated on the area of the city wall encircling the high mound and the temple of the lion, Temple BA. The city wall measured at least six meters high and eight meters thick. Directly in front of this wall, builders constructeda smooth glacis. Both the function of the wall and the glacis were negated when, at a later date, inhabitantsdumped materialfrom a burned building in the moat; it is dated by the door sealings and pottery found in the burntdeposit to EarlyDynastic(ED)111(2600-2350 BCE; B&K-B1988:65-82).We think that this wall was replaced by a structure surrounding the Outer City. Ceramics and a few seal impressions date the latest well preserved level in Temple BA, with its stone offering table, to just after the abandonment of the city wall. A stone lion emerged from the destruction level of this phase of the temple (B&K-B 1997a:61-62). A certain amount of realism in the rendering of its hair pattern characterizes its style. Just outside the temple, in a disturbed level under the sod layer,excavatorsuneartheda double-sided,round-topped stele (Kelly-Buccellati1989). One side shows an animal herd very realisticallyas being in motion. The opposite side depicts a plowman behind his draft animal with a dog above him. What is unique here is the fact that the plowman is using a diagonal line to push off from, as it were, in his motion forward. The dynamism of each scene is striking as is its subject centered on a simple act of daily life. Daily life scenes are a common feature of the seal impressions recently excavated by us and discussed below. In 1990 we started the excavation of a step trench on the western side of the mound. At the base of this trench we discovered a large building containing a number of seal impressions. This stratified corpus of inscribed seal BiblicalArchaeologist 60:2(1997)
79
impressions enabled us to identify the site as ancient Urkesh. The seals belonged to the reigning Hurriandynasty: the king, Tupkish;his queen, Uqnitu; and several royal courtiers. The king and the royal nurse, Zamena, have Hurriannames while the queen and one courtier have Akkadian names. The total number of inscribed seal impressions from the floor of the palace AK reached about 170, out of a total corpus of some 1000 impressions. These 170 impressions were made from a total of only 17 seals. This does not mean, however, that we have a mathematical proportion of 10 seal impressions for each seal. Far from it: the statistical dispersion is much greater. What emerges from these statistics is that very few seal impressions belonged to the king, namely 11,even though as many as 5 seals were used. In other words, few objects were stored on behalf of the king, and almost each objectwas sealed with a differentseal. Many more objects (72, to be precise) were sealed on behalf of the queen; however, only one of her seals was frequent (with 34 rollings). The majorityof containers, namely 81, were sealed on behalf of the courtiers, and specifically 28 with two distinct seals of the queen's nurse (totalling 17 rollings for one seal and 11 for the other); 27 with the seal of the queen's chief cook; and 26 for an individual whose title was not given. From what we have so far,then, it appears that the storehouse was used primarily for the benefit of the queen and her household.
A Seal of KingTupkishwith a lion recliningat the foot of his throne. The crown princestands on the lion'shead and touches the lap of the king in a dynasticgesture of dependence and filiation. V Seal of the king (whose name and Hurriantitle endan appear in the inscription)showing two attendants one of whom is holding a ball of thread (wool?) on the outstretchedpalm of the hand.
TheSeal Impressions
Inscribed Seals and the UrkeshDynastic Program The royal seals from Urkesh offer a new phenomenon in third millennium art:that is, the use and repetition of visual images to give expression to dynastic concerns. This dynastic program is carried out through the seal designs of the king, queen, and two of the royal courtiers. Illustration of their power and the succession to the throne are paramount in the iconography of these Urkesh dynasts (B&K-B1996a; 1996b). The seals convey the more abstract of the two concepts, that of depicting power, through a juxtaposition of the king vis-a-vis a powerful wild animal, the lion, which is also the symbol of an important god, Nergal.1 A scene of presenting gifts and a warrior are also motifs indicating power (B&K-B1996b:77). The queen's seal (ql)-with her inscription carried on the backs of two servants-conveys the same concept with different modalities. The other major theme centersaround the royal succession.In one of the king's seals (k2), reconstructed from three fragments, he is seated on the right with the crown prince, shown as a child, touching his lap in a gesture of filiation and dependence. The engraver placed a star behind him in the field. The prince stands on the head of a lion reclining at the foot of the throne of the king. This lion is rendered in realistic detail, especially noticeable in the way his mane is shown. A vessel stands directlyin front of the lion; it may be connected with the overflowing bowl held by a standing figure facing the scene. This figure, with its finely articulated profile, may be human, but the formality of the pose and the rigidity of the stance must be viewed in the context of the overall scene. The 80
BiblicalArchaeologist60:2 (1997)
bull under the inscription box faces the figure ratherthan the king.2 The figure then may be interpreted as that of a deity. If this is true, the lion shown being fed by a deity emerges as a dynastic emblem, linking figuratively and symbolically the ruling king and the crown prince. Another of the king's seals (kl), reconstructed from four rollings, depicts two attendants, one of whom is carrying what probably is a ball of wool or thread on the palm of an outstretchedhand. On the left of the seal there may be a table and a seated figure, probably the king. The hat of one of the figures and the shape of the table leg can be paralleled with an uninscribed Urkesh sealing from the same floor. While a ball of thread may appear to be a strange iconographic element on the seal of the king, the role of textiles in the wealth accumulation of the city of Ebla is well known. On the much later Apadana at Persepolis, the final two
Inscribed
King (kl-k6)
Seals
of
the
Queen (ql-q8)
Royal
Court
Queen's
Court
(hl-h4)
Corpusof inscribedseals belonging to the king and to the queen of Urkesh,and to membersof the queen'scourt,showing the numberof seals belonging to each. The seals depicted in this chartare identfied in the text by their owner (e.g., k = king) and numericalposition in the columns (e.g., k2 = the second seal in the king'scolumn). BiblicalArchaeologist60:2 (1997)
81
figures of the twelfth delegation also carry thread (Walser 1966:pl.19). Both these seals fit into the Urkesh dynastic program because they stress filiation and power. The theme of succession, on the other hand, is explicitly depicted in the eight seals of the queen identified thus far. In one seal of the queen (q4), she is shown on the left with a distinctive braided hair3style decorated with a braid ornament toward the end. A small girl, with the same hair style and braid ornament, touches her lap. Another seal of the queen (q6) offers a very similar scene with the addition of a table. In the corpus of queen's seals from this single floor, there are seven variations of this scene exhibiting her concern for dynastic continuity. A different seal of the queen (q2) has a number of members of the royal family including the same crown prince depicted on the seal of the king (with the same lap touching gesture) as well as a small child held on her lap. With this scene we now have three royal children among the figures: the prince, a princess, and a smaller child. Children are important symbols of the continuity of the dynasty both through the succession to the throne of the son and the consolidation of power through the daughters; for example, the daughter of Sargon, Enheduanna, became the en-priestessat Ur.4A smallerchild appears on two seals of the nurse of Uqnitum, who has the Hurrian name of Zamena. In this case Zamena is holding onto the child seated on the lap of the queen. In the field is an eight-pointed star,shown also on the royal family seal, which may indicate the royal male children. The physical intimacy shown through the queen's holding the small child in her seal and those of her nurse is one of the most striking aspects of these royal seals. Touching gestures also link the older children to the king and queen, mirroringin effect the tie through the royal line or in the case of the nurse, through the royal hierarchy.While the Urkesh king, queen, royal children, and courtiers are themselves depicted on these seals, as clearly indicated by the setting in each case, what we have are "portrait-like"representations of these individuals (B&K-B1997b:196-99).Their depictions in very specific iconographic settings, with some variation in physical characteristics, were sufficient for their immediate identification even by those who could not read the names of the seal owners in the inscriptions. In the seal of the queen showing the royal family, the head of the king is missing. One head of a figure seated in a similar fashion shows a small crown similar to the feathered crown worn by the crown prince. In the corpus of over 1000seal impressions, this is the only head which is a possible portraitof king Tupkish. The UninscribedSeals In the uninscribed seals, a number of scenes render common activities, either being performed singly or in pairs. In one of these scenes, two standing figures engage in an activity connected with a tall container while a third makes something in a bowl. Notably, the upturned elbow holds the prominent position in the design.5 One inscribed docket-sealed with an uninscribed seal showing a figure with an 82
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(top) The Urkesh royalfamily (q2) with queen Uqnitum and a smallchildon the left and Tupkish and the crown princeon the right. (center)Drawingof a portionof an impressionmade by the same seal as above. Duringthe initial phase of our researchwe had not been able to identify any seal impression giving the face of king Tupkish.A fragment discovered at a later date seems to fit this scene, and is now tentatively identified as providingjust such a portrait. (bottom) Urkeshimpressionsshow people engaged in a varietyof simple, everyday activities.Heretwo individualsare making something in a tall vat while a thirdstirsa bowl.
Seal of the cook of the queen (h3):the name of the female cook was probablywritten in the inscriptionbox above the young animalat the far right of the impression.Depictionof the professionsof the seal owners is one of the hallmarksof Urkeshglyptic.The churning woman representsthe cook;the butcheron the right holds a knife and a hornlessvictim.
arm extended over a table facing a seated figure holding a cup-may indeed refer in some way to the iconography of the queen's seals. The emphasis on the details of the gestures and also in some cases the iconography of the hat and dress links these types of uninscribed seals with those of the monarchs. It is also possible, given the example of the royal seals, that some themes on the uninscribed seals reflect the professions of the seal owners. While a number of the uninscribedseals do renderthemes common from the south, as in the Shamash and the Etana seals, most of them are new, either of the dynastic and related types just discussed or a more schematic style. In this category belong scenes that emphasize the geometric frame around the figural scene or contain a number of discreet elements which can be the disarticulated heads of animals (D. M. Matthews, 1997:136-37,his BrakStyle). These motifs have links with the same types of motifs found on the later Nuzi style seals and painting from Nuzi itself. The continuity in the visual arts extended to the architectural traditions, discussed below. It is now clear that there was a distinct type of northern art and architecturaltradition existing at least from the middle of the third millennium.
UrkeshGlypticStyles
From the iconography and style, it appears that the seals of the queen, the nurse Zamena, and the cook were carved in the same workshop, if not by the same seal carver.In them, there is an emphasis on fitting the inscription box within the overall design. This is clearest in a queen's seal where her title is simply NIN, Queen (q1). Here two servafts literally carry the inscription and therefore her name and title, on their backs. On Zamena's seals (hl and h2), two cases of the inscription box are shortened to accommodate the
head of the human-headed bull. The cook's seal (h3) boasts the two servants,the woman churningand the butcher, facing the inscriptionbox where she is describedas the female cook of Uqnitum. While the integration in the seal design of text and iconography is one of the characteristics of Akkadian art,the Urkesh emphasis on the integrationof the cultural meaning, as well as form, is rare.6 In the seals of the queen and the two courtiers connected with her, the figures are more expressionistic than those of the king, with the proportionately large eyes, heads and hands, narrow faces with long chins. They possess an emphasis on gestures, as in the outstretched and elongated arm of the attendant above the table, the nurse holding the child by the wrist while touching the lap of the child, or the hands of the woman churning shown in the up-and-down motion by depicting the hands at different heights. This workshop produced new variations of body positions best exemplified by the bending figures in q1 and h3. All the seals of the queen and her nurse Zamena, except ql, have motifs which are more specifically oriented toward the concept of succession. In fact, q3-8 are all variations of the scene whereby the queen is shown receiving homage from her daughter. This scene includes an attendant holding a bag or jarwith an elongated arm extended toward the queen, also possibly an exaggerated gesture of homage. The seals of the king are in general of a higher quality as they are more finely carved and, from the meager evidence for his seals from our corpus, appear to have a more varied content. The dramatically rendered prince standing on the head of the lion in the best preservedof the king's seals reflects the same intense interest in gestures to convey the deeper symbolic meaning as the queen's seals. However, the whole scene goes beyond the seals of the queen in showing a very dramatic royal setting. The seal carvers working for the king certainly were aware of the style of the queen's seals; the two figures in k1 have similar characteristics in the rendering of the heads. In terms of style, all the royal seals emphasize realistic details as shown in the carving of the horns and wool of the goat in the royal family seal or the boar under the inscription of one seal of the queen. The rendering of the lion on two seals of the king emphasizes the details of the lion's mane. Baskets are depicted in the seal of the queen's cook and in one seal of the queen herself. The rendering of realistic details also marks Old Akkadian seals from the south, but in the Urkesh royal seals the imagery is very different. There is another striking aspect of the seal iconography of Urkesh: the motifs of the inscribed seals reflect the professions of the seal owners. In the cook's seal, a woman bends over a basket in which are placed two jars; she is churning.7The profession of the cook is renderedthrough the action of this bending woman. The butcher with a kid and a knife stands on either side of the inscription naming the cook's profession. The nurse, too, had seals that visually indicated her profession as named in her inscriptions. 60:2(1997) BiblicalArchaeologist
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On these two seals the theme includesthe birdman,holding a staff, and a nude woman, both standing above a supine humanfigure. Two distinctseals contain the same scene, except that one is a mirrorimage of the other. Suchreversalof identicaliconographicmotifs was our first indicationthat Urkeshiconographycould includesuchvariations.
Functionof the Seals Our evidence for all these seals comes only from their rollings on clay which are in most cases small and incomplete. Thus far we have excavated over 1000 impressions from a single floor of the building; a rough estimate of the totalnumberof identifiableoriginalsealsrepresented in this corpus is around eighty. The seals were rolled on clay used to seal boxes, jars, bags, and baskets. The seal impressions give us a glimpse of part of the Urkesh administration, especially that of the queen since the greatest proportion of the inscribed seals were hers. Officials of the queen (and administrators directly connected to her) must have had the authority to seal goods in her name. These officials probably performed their duties elsewhere in the city or in surrounding farms where they sealed the containers.In this building, however,the containerswere opened by breakingthe clay sealings, most likely because the goods in the containers were redistributed for use within the building itself. Only one sealing had traces of two rollings: one of the cook and one of the queen. The number of seals belonging to the king are limited, so this does not appear to have been a principal area connected with bureaucrats linked to him directly. It is clear that seal carversworking for the dynasts carved all the inscribed royal seals in Urkesh. Only one inscribed seal may have been carved in the south; it resembles ED III and early Akkadian southern models. The seal owner has an Akkadian name, Innin Shadu. He certainly is an important official in the Urkesh court given the large number of his seal impressions excavated from the floor of this building. Other sealings probably arrived on containers from outside the administration of the city; this is most certain in the case of the only sealing showing the typically Akkadian motif of Shamash rising. Seal cutters working in Urkesh must have been familiar with Akkadian art. Akkadian art influenced some characteristicsof the dynastic artof Urkesh such as the emphasis on details. If we take into consideration the round-topped stele found, unstratified, near Temple BA, then we can say 84
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that the artists of Urkesh also considered the rendering of movement an important aspect of their art (Kelly-Buccellati 1990). The stele renders an everyday scene with an extraordinary movement of the plowman impelled forward by his own action of pushing from a diagonal line in the composition (see above, p. 79). There is no comparable scene in Akkadian art. Thus, while there are some superficial similaritiesbetweenAkkadianartand thatof Urkesh,8the differences are so profound as to indicate that the spirit which enlivened the art of Urkesh was generated by local concepts and ideas and was not an imitation of southern models. The reappearance of these concepts in the first millennium art of the Neo-Hittite states in northern Syria offers a further indication of its original autonomy and continued dynamism. What can the Urkesh dynasticprogramtell us aboutAkkadian art in the south? This type of visual communication could certainly have a place in the strong imperial concepts which were central to late Akkadian art. However no hints of this type of art can be found in Akkadian cylinder seals.9 In all probability, the Hurrian court at Urkesh itself developed and employed this dynastic pictorial vocabulary. HurrianArtistic Style In summing up the characteristics of this art, it is clear that artists from Urkesh developed a new visual language. Their art stresses two aspects of the internal vision of the Hurrian dynasty. Foremost is the concern for the royal succession as shown in the seals of the queen, but also in those of the courtier who was most interested in the succession, the royal nurse. In addition, on at least one of the king's seals there is a very clear statement of this same concern. The other aspect of the dynastic program indicated on these seals is the power of the dynasts as shown through images of internal harmony and strength. In our corpus, this is not as widely indicated as the first emphasis. On one of the queen's seals, her servants are literally carryingher name and title on theirbacks.The king, by portrayinghimself seated on his throne with a reclining lion, connects himself with the
All the Urkeshglyptic evidence has been pieced together from over 1000 tiny sealingsthe size of which is indicatedin this photo. The seal shown is one of the fragmentsfrom which the composite scene was derivedthat is shown here on page 82. Onlythe most meticulous excavationand the individualexaminationof thousands of clay lumpscould hope to salvage such ephemeral materialculture.
power of the lion, but more importantly with the deity symbolized by the lion. A presumably later king, Tishatal, also associated himself with a lion. Other characteristics of this art include its naturalism, especially in the rendering of specific details, the emphasis on gestures to communicate the important message in the seal designs, the expressionism of the queen's workshop seals, and the connection of the profession with the iconography of the official's seal design. Even when artists of Urkesh employ subjects prevalent in the south, they can construct the designs in a different manner, and, notably, sometimes carve them both in the positive and the negative as is the case with the birdman and the nude woman. These new data help us place the question of "Hurrian art"on a new footing. Whetheror not this art can be described as "Hurrian art" is too long of a discussion for this forum. Much of what is new in the dynastic program is art developed for a Hurrian dynast, his queen, and the royal courtiers connectedwith her.A number of uninscribedseals, too, exhibit similar characteristics,so that evidence for a body of artistic works connected with this dynasty is now being built up. How widespread this art is in the north in the third millennium is unclear. However, the idea of a visual vocabulary used to express dynastic concerns still existed in the first millennium in the north Syrian city states of the Neo-Hittite period, a weighty indication of the power of this idea in the north. Schematic style seals represent a different style, one to
this point unconnected with the royal seal designs. These seals were more widespread in third millennium northern art. They had a resonance which was more continuous in the north as it existed still in the art of the Nuzi period which in turn influenced later art. We find examples of the schematic style prominently utilized at Urkesh and Brak, but also to some extent outside the northern area at Mari. A sealing from Ebla contains a border of disarticulated heads shown full-face, while geometric frames also turn up there (Kelly-Buccellati1996).In other words, the northern schematic style emphasizing stock elements and geometric frames was at home in the north but is reflected in third millennium sites elsewhere. While the Hurrianpresence at Urkesh is strong and politically powerful, there is as yet little third millennium Hurrian evidence from Brak. Therefore we cannot connect, on the basis of our present evidence, the schematic style with Hurrian artists or Hurrian patrons in the same way that we can connect the dynastic art of Urkesh with its Hurrian royal patrons. Based on present evidence, the emerging picture of art in late third millennium northern Syro-Mesopotamia presents at least two styles first clearly indicated in the stratified context of the AK building at Urkesh. The first is the dynastic art linked to the Hurrian dynasty and at this point not found outside Urkesh. The second is a more widespread schematic style which had its roots in ED IIIglyptic but was more important in the Akkadian period. This style continued to dominate in the north into the Nuzi period. It cannot be linked specifically to Hurrian artists or patrons, although at least in the Nuzi period, it was probably also employed by artists who were Hurrian. The Identificationof Urkesh as Mozan The most importantepigraphicdata consist of the inscriptions found on the impressions of cylinder seals: from these we have been able to identify ancient Urkesh with the site of Tell Mozan. This is all the more remarkable as the fragments that give us these inscriptions are very tiny, in a poor state of preservation, and so fragile that their very recovery was extremely difficult. One thing is certain:given the nature of the evidence, the identification of Urkesh could only have happened as the result of methodical and controlled excavations. Such an identificationwould in fact have been possible if the bronze lions of Tish-Atalhad been traced immediately to Mozan; but no chance discovery would ever have brought to light the minute fragments of seal impressions with which we have been dealing in our excavations. Even upon recovery,the reading of the pertinent inscription boxes proved very difficult. There are only three very 60:2(1997) BiblicalArchaeologist
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Edgeof seal
Ii
Edgeof seal
Edgeof seal
The fragments of an inscriptionbox from different rollingsof the same seal of king Tupkish,and a normalizedrenderingof the same inscription,based on all availablefragments.
small fragments on which the name Urkesh is found. Two of them belong to the inscription box of the king's seal with the bearer of a globular object.The sign kQ presents the curious anomaly of being written with a sequence of strokes which is unusual, though not unattested. Finally,the fact that the inscriptionhas to be read as a mirrorimage to make sense (see below) made the initial reading even more difficult. The third fragment belongs to the inscription box of the seal with the lion. There are four other inscribed seals of the king, but in none of them does the name Urkesh appear.The reconstructed rendering of the legend with the royal name and title shows that part of the name of the city is still missing, a gap which might be rendered in English transcription by squarebracketsas follows: U[r]kesh.However, the cuneiform writing for this geographical name is so distinctive that there is no doubt about the restoration and therefore about the identification of the site. Epigraphyand Glyptics:The Positioning of the Inscription Box. One of the unexpected features of Urkesh glyptics is the striking correlation between scene and inscription. This is shown in the nuances of the dynastic program as portrayed in the seals of the king and the queen and in the representation of pertinent figurative elements in the seals of the cook and of the nurse. But there is more. For just as unexpected is the way in which the cuneiform inscription box is handled in many of these seals. We will illustrate here
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the two most interesting examples. In its early stages, cuneiform was written from top to bottom. We can verify this mode of writing on large monuments, which have an unequivocal right side up (e.g., the so calledObeliskof Manishtushu),and/or whenever the inscribed portion is combined with a figurative scene, as with the Code of Hammurapi or with seals. Assyriologists visiting the Louvre and looking at the Code are more likely to turn their head than to flip the stele sideways!But with small items like tablets or seal impressions we generally hold the object in such a way that we can read from left to right. Accordingly, an epigraphist's view of a seal is regularly sideways. The practice of top-to-bottom writing on seals is so universal in the third millennium that our seal of the queen reference (ql) came as a real surprise, since it was obviously read from left to right already in antiquity. It is the seal that spells out the title queen after her name, Uqnitum. Given the special interest of Urkesh glyptic artists in incorporating the legend with the scene design, it seems tempting to suggest that such an innovation in legend carving, unique within the third millennium and rare later, was intended for a special effect, which is underscored by the marked horizontality of the box. Let us contrast the seal of the queen with the others, where the inscription box serves as a vertical element which terminates on either side the sequential order of figures in the main composition. In most cases, the inscription box is linked with a minor compositional motif, which completes the vertical effect of the box, especially when the two are made to dovetail with each other, as in the case of the nurse's seals. In the seal impression of the queen, however, the frame is placed horizontally as if it were to be read at the same time that one looks at the scene. The horizontality of the inscription box is emphasized by the fact that there is no secondary motif beneath the legend. This absence of a secondary motif may itself have a specific connotative function, namely, to stress the burden that the rank of the queen places on her female servants, who are made to carry on their back the frame with her name and title fully legible. The seal of the cook (h3) presents yet another variation in the way in which the inscription boxes are integrated in the scene. We have, in fact, two distinct halves of the box. One is tall, and it occupies the entire field. In this case, however, the verticality of the box may serve a different connotative function than that of framing the scene on either side. It may in fact convey the exact opposite meaning: it gives the impression of a stele, centrally positioned so as to serve as the focal point faced directly by the two servants of the cook, the butcher and the churning woman. The two vertical framing elements, on either side of the composition, areprovided by the smallerhalf of the box, which was abraded on the seal but must have contained the name of the chief cook. The box, placed vertically, sits on the back of the bent woman, without a minor compositional element, as if imitating the position of the inscription box on the seal of the queen!
The Figurinesof Urkesh
0
cm
5
Queen's seal (ql) where her official title is given with the SumerogramNIN,"queen."The imageryseems to emphasize her officialstatus, in that two female servantscarryher inscriptionon their backs.The unity of idea and artisticdesign, the correlation between inscriptionand scene, representsa notable feature of glypticstyle at Urkesh.
More than 300 small terra cotta sculptures have been found in the Royal Storehouse and in adjacent areas of building AK at Urkesh. Third millennium floors have yielded both animals and human-like figures. The anthropomorphic figurines can be grouped typologically according to the way they are terminated. A good number share the characteristics of the "gaming pieces" found in early strata at Tepe Gawra, Tobler's "hitherto unknown anthropomorphic type." A different type of torso, outside this typology, but from the Royal Storehouse, has parallels at Tell Chuera. These pieces-and most of them are broken-are modelled in consistent manner. Most are made from the same local clay and baked. Surface finishing techniques include scraping with a sharp instrument and pinching and smoothing with fingers. A variety of incisions in the clay represent pelt, orifices, and the separation of body-parts. Dots provide decoration or indicate body-parts and are applied with blunt or pointed sticks and reeds. The animal figurines are remarkable for their realism, indicating that the figures were sculpted by artisans who were familiar with the way these animals looked and behaved. Herbivores hold their heads high above the grasses of the steppe; a bridled stallion turns his head to the right, refusing to pose for an official portrait. There are many animals represented in the Urkesh storerooms. The relationship of body-parts within each animal genus is consistent and permits identification. As might be expected, the animal figurines at Urkesh include equids, dogs, sheep, and goats. Given that panthers roamed the steppe in the third millennium and that seals represent Tupkish, king of Urkesh, enthroned with a lion by his chair, we may not be so surprised to find many felines in the figurine corpus. What is startling, however, is the realism of these small creatures. We can distinguish among the various species of equid represented; and we can trace the signs of domestication. The Urkesh figurines were all found in the same third millennium strata in the Queen's Storeroom or adjoining rooms. We have, then, an ideal single context to speculate responsibly about how the Urkesh figurines were used. We are working on this puzzle-using the available textual clues-as of this writing. Rick Hauser
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MirrorImaging and MirrorWriting. Thereis a second feature which is unique to Urkesh glyptics-unique in the third millennium, and quite rare later: mirrorimaging. In our corpus, there are three different types of such practice. The first type consists of paired matches. We have, in other words, two different sets of seal impressions which are the mirror image of each other. Clearly, we have the same scene in the seals of the queen with her daughter (q4 and q5) and of the bird man (p. 84), except that in each pair one scene is the mirror image of the other. The second type consists of a single set of seal impressions, which can be identified as being mirrorimages because the writing can only be understood when it is reversed. Such is the case for the king's seal with the bearer of a globular object (kl). One can appreciate now the point made earlier about the writing in a seal inscription being normally from top to bottom, rather than from left to right. When reading the text as a mirror image of the original impression, what is reversed is not the sequence of signs on a line, but rather the sequence of lines in a box. On the seal impression as we have it, the cuneiform signs are upside down (for example, the en and the da);and the sequence does not make sense, since the title endanis followed by a personal name, as if it said the king of Tupkish. But in the mirror image of the same seal impression the signs are right side up, and the text reads in the proper sequence: Tupkish, king of Urkesh. A possible explanation for such a doubling up of seal designs may be the desire to identify different but related seal users while retainingthe same basic iconographicmotifs. But we might also consider another, quite different explanation,which is suggested by the thirdtype of mirrorimaging: an epigraphicdoublet. Exemplifiedby the pair of seals belonging to the queen'snurse, Zamena,this kind of doublet presents a difference only in the inscription box and not in the scene (top boxes). The two seals from which these composite seal impressions derive are almost indistinguishable. The iconography is identical,and so is the sequence of lines in the legend box. But the size of one is slightly larger than the other, and some variations appear in the writing. The signs on the one seal (middle box) are right side up on the original seal impression, whereas the signs on the other seal are for the most part upside down. This clearly suggests that only the seal at top would have to be read as a mirror image. But what about the sequence of words? This is precisely what may give us a clue for the origin of this very curious Urkesh habit of mirror-imagewriting. It maybe (and we must stress the hypothetical nature of our suggestion) that the seal at top was read with an inverted word order, of a type which is found in Hurrian noun phrases.10If so, the seal at top would be the Hurrian version, so to speak, and the one below the Sumero-Akkadian version of one and the same prototype: Uqnitum's nurse-Zamena's seal versus the seal of Zamena, the nurse of Uqnitum. Alternatively:the version at top would be read in Hurrian on the seal impressionand in Sumerian or Akkadian on the seal itself; and conversely for the version 88
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"Uqnitum's nurse Zamena's seal"
Hurrian (?)
Akkadian(?)
"sealof Zamena nurseof Uqnitum"
Another case of two seals with a specialtype of reversal:while the scene is the same in both seals, in the seal at top the cuneiformsigns are reversedin the impression(hence they would have been in the positiveon the seal). The tentative suggestion is advanced that the same inscriptionmight have been read with differingword order depending on whether it was understoodas Hurrianor as Akkadian.
Mirror image of original
Original rolling
BuildingAKduringexcavation. A light canvascover,draped over a light structureof poles and ropes, protectsfrom the heat and the blinding light of the Summersun. Excavationsare regularlyheld in the Summer,because of the greater availabilityof workmen,who are for the most part either students or farmers.As excavationproceeded northward(to the left in the photo), the incorporationof the storehouse into a much largercomplex became increasinglylikely.Floorscontinued on the other side of the storehouse wall for nearlytwo dozen meters.At that point, excavatorsexposed traces of steps leading up to the floors, and the floors were thus able to be perceivedas the threshold or porchof a monumentalentryway.
below. This is a mere hypothesis, but, if correct, we would have evidence of a rathersophisticated use of multilinguism in the royal court of Urkesh and in its scribal circles.
TheArchitecturalSettingof BuildingAK: Storehouseor Palace? The building which we have labeled AK is located at the lowest end of the stepped trenchon the east side of the mound. We had assumed that we were digging in a storehouse, to judge from the nature of the finds (especially the discarded sealings) as well as from some aspects of the architecture(for example, the fact that the walls were not plastered). It must have been, however, an important storehouse, given its large dimensions and the organic arrangementof its plan. In fact, the large number of inscribed seals referring explicitly to the king, his wife, and her retainers left no doubt that it served the needs of the royal court. Because the southwestern portion of the building had been badly eroded, with rainwater settling in the south-
western corner,little if anything was found there, except for the foundations of the walls and the subfloors. However, this situationaffordedus a good view of the stratigraphicsequence before we even started excavating within the room. In anticipation of what these floor deposits might contain,we planned for a particularly careful excavation. It was only in this manner thatwe could retrievea rich glyptic harvest,aftercollecting and reviewing individually thousands upon thousands of clay lumps, all potentially qualifying as seal impressions. During our last season, in the summer of 1996, we had planned to extend our excavations to the north, assuming that we might find a few service rooms clustered around a courtyard.But it was to be quite different.Therewas no trace, in Sector F, of a wall to the west. In the place where we had expected a perimeter wall, the floors continued as if over a threshold. Some 22 meters to the north, we found clear remnants of steps leading up to this threshold. A round brick platform, and another possible platform, seemed to suggest the presence of column bases, though this remains quite BiblicalArchaeologist 60:2(1997)
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uncertain. Abruptly, our conception of the building had changed. And so had our perspective: instead of orienting our plan north, we now look at it from the point of view of the entrance. Clearly, such a monumental entrance could not be in keeping with a mere storehouse. In the end, we were only able to pose, but not really to test, a hypothesis: the whole building may indeed be the royal palace. It is for testing this hypothesis that we are gearing up in preparing for the excavations in the summer of 1997. The Palace Hypothesis Let us review some of the comparative material that assists us in formulatingthe palacehypothesis.There are four key components of the building plan for the part in which we are interested: (a) the entrance; (b) the ceremonial area accessed from the entrance (serving also as a transition element to other sectors); (c) a service area accessed directly from a and/or b; (d) a parallel service area, found only in certain cases. Disengagingourselvesfromthe twodimensional footprintmentality against which Jean-Claude Margueron (1982) has eloquentlyargued,we can ask:What is the perceptualfunctionof the entrance for such a building? One type found in the north and represented especially in the much later bfthilani model" gives great architecturalrelief to the entrance: it serves both as a focal point in the exterior facade and as a decompression chamber to the inside (both psychologically and climatically).In the south, instead,the entranceis like a panel which matchesspacesbetweenbuttresseswithin the exteriorwall, and the decompression takes place through long, narrow corridors which lead to a deep and recessed interior space as a terminal point of arrival. Excellent examples of the bit hilini type of building existed at Zinjirli (see the reconstructionsrecentlypublished in Parker1996:215): the impressive porticoed entrances of the two buildings are, precisely,classicalexamples of bithilanistructures--but some 1500 years later.The earliest known example of such a structure, apartfrom this possible Urkesh example, is the one from Emar (Margueron and Sigrist 1997). Whether or not the interpretation of building AK as a royal palace is valid we will find out during our upcoming season,but in any case excavationsthereareextremelypromising. Several concomitant factors lend special significance 90
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Kite photographof AKwith the traces of the monumentalentrance on the lower right (1996 excavations).The sand bags replace "negativewalls,"i.e., ancient walls which were robbed of their stones subsequentto the abandonment of the building.(Thesand bags at bottom serveto protectthe excavationarea from heavy water runoffduringthe winter.)
to the stratigraphy of building AK: (1) The storehouse was built de novo, according to a unified building plan, and it is likely that the same obtains for the remainder of the building. (2) The earliest floor deposit of the building is very well preserved.
of our building date to about 2200 to be more precise,Carbon-14deterBCE: minations favor a slightly later date while stylisticand epigraphic (2175BCE), considerations favor a slightly earlier date;2200 is a preliminaryand arbitrary average between the two measures. Obviously,the lower the date,the greater is the amount of deposition to be compressed in the centuries marking the turn of the millennium. In the coming season (summer1997), we will literally cross the threshold of the palace, entering thereby into the nerve center of one of the great seats of power of ancient Syro-Mesopotamia. We expect to encounter, on the basis of ample, if later,comparative material from northern Syria, a monumental stairway and porticoed entrance leading into a ceremonial reception area, where the throneroom was presumably Porch III located. To the right of the ceremonial reception area,the two service quarters Preservedstructures t l I functioned, as we originally assumed, A 1, Reconstructed/projected I II as storage areas,but for goods that were \ Hypothetical destined to immediate use by the royal Platform Excavation line court. In this sense, our "storehouse"is C.:=J: I ....... Preservedthreshholds -,1 not a long-termwarehousing depot, but J I ,Steps rather the provisioning center for the immediate needs of the court. Because " 0 m 5 mL mRamp ?of the presenceof many sealingsbelonging to the female cook of the queen (i.e., the chief supervisorof the royalkitchen), and because of the largenumber of sealPlanof the AKbuildingas excavated and projectedby us before the that had been ings placed on jars, the commodities stored 1996 season. have been might predominantly foodstuffs destined for the royal kitchen.
VI I
1-111
-Y
-
a''
,
(3) Later floor deposits contained within the walls of the same building rise to a height of almost two meters:this indicates a long and continuous period of occupation. (4) The building extends well into the mound, so that it is a reasonableexpectationthatwe may recoverit in its entirety, and preservation promises to be excellent as one proceeds to the east and north of the area exposed so far.It is true that the mound is sloping up in the same direction. This means that we should brace for many a season of excavations if we want to uncover the entire building, and if we want to proceed with the care to which we are accustomed. From all indications, the process will be well worth it. The strata that overlay the building belong in the late third and early second millennium, and such stratigraphic continuity is of particularinterestin view of recenttheories about a possible environmental catastrophe at the end of the third millennium (Weiss,Courty et al. 1993)The earliestfloors
Urkeshandthe Hurrians Even before our excavations and the consequent identification of the site, Urkesh was well known as the earliest documented Hurrianurban center;as the only city for which we have a known sequence of Hurriankings during the third millennium; as a mythical city, in the proper and specific sense that it was identified in Hurrian mythology as the residence of the primordial god of the their pantheon, Kumarbi. We can add now that it is also the only Hurriancapitalclearly matched with an actual archaeological site-since doubts exist regarding the possible capital(s) of that confederation of Hurrian states known as the Mitanni kingdom. Togetherwith the Sumeriansand the Akkadians, the Hurrians gave rise to one of the major new types of the earliest urban civilization, about 5000 years ago. What characterized Hurrian culture was its dependence on the vast mountain hinterland which begins in northern Syria. Urkesh was the BiblicalArchaeologist 60:2(1997)
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central gateway on the major communication routes which brought south the resources of the Anatolian plateau (especially metals, timber, stone). At the same time, Urkesh was situated in a privileged climatic niche, with abundant rainfalland a rich water table allowing for an extremely productive dry-farmingregime.The new insights that the Urkesh evidence makes possible on archaicHurrian civilization are of great significance for the history of the ancient Near East. Hurriancivilizationwas orientedtowards the northernmountainous regions (the Outer Fertile Crescent), and as such represented a distinctive type of early urban civilization, distinct, that is, from the two other majortypes of urban culture (Sumerian and Semitic, as at Ebla). Its mythology exercised a majorinfluenceon laterHittitereligion,which preserved many Hurriantexts and borrowed specific deities and myths. Customs first documented by the materialfound in our excavations (e.g., the importance of the queen and of the dynastic symbolism pertainingto the royal family) are also to be traced in later Hittite iconography. Hurrian onomastics extended all the way down to Palestine in the Amarna period. So did a type of third millennium ceramic ware (Early Transcaucasian, known as Khirbet Kerak in Syro-Palestinian archaeology). The first musical score, as preserved in Ugarit, was used to commit to memory the tune of a Hurrian religious hymn.
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View of the AKbuilding(looking North)with the two small "vaults" (B3 and D3 on the top plan, p. 91) on the right. On the other side of these vaults,excavatorsexpect to find the well-preservedremainsof a palatialreceptionarea.
Conclusion What specifically have we established so far in Urkesh, and what can we expect in the foreseeable future? We are, unfortunately,not too sanguine about finding tablet archives or importantartifactualinventories within building AK;even if it is the royal palace, we may have to be resigned to just discards, like the seal impressions, however informative.The reasonis that we have found no traceyet of a massive destruction at the site, and especially not within the presumed palace. Forour misfortune,the city does not seem to have been sacked in antiquity.There is, in fact, no clear-cut mention of it in the recordsof Akkadian conquestsl2-just as there is, on the other hand, no mention of it in the archives of Ebla. This is all the more remarkable in that, by contrast, Tell Brak/Nagar, which is not all that far from Mozan, had come under direct Akkadian rule and was in direct contact with Ebla. It would appear that a sharp cultural and political boundary divided the Khabur plains into a Northern and a Southern half, in spite of the total absence of geographical barriers between the two. This might suggest that, in the third millennium, the Hurrian urban sphere extended only along the piedmont
H
I
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A
-B K
*
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2:::
-0
6621
m
i
10
Planof the AKbuildingas we have excavated and projectedit after the 1996 season. Sector Eis understood as a monumentalentrance, but this is stilltentative. SectorsG-Kare purelyhypothetical,and serve only as a possiblescenariofor our next season of excavationsin the summerof 1997.
region of the Tur-Abdin, in what may be called the urban ledge of the vast rural hinterland in the mountains to the north.13When ancient documents employ the title, "King of Urkesh and Nawar," it is to the northern highland that the term Nawar refers, in our view, rather than being an equivalent of Nagar, the ancient name of Tell Brak. The title "King of Urkesh and Nawar" would then refer to the main city and its hinterland, somewhat like the title of "King of Mari and Khana."'14 Urkesh may well have been the major center of such a Hurrian urban ledge, and it would have dated back to the beginning of urban history. Such antiquity is suggested by the depositional continuity in the areas excavated so far at Mozan. The major architectural evidence we have to date from Mozan consists of an inner city wall, a temple, and the presumed palace dating respectively,and of course approxOnly the presumed imately,to about 2700, 2450 and 2200 BCE. with an explicit Hurshown to be associated can be palace all indications However, rian presence. point stratigraphic in the direction of a strong depositional continuity, and on this basis it seems possible to infer a fundamental Hurrian nature to the beginning of the settlement. The antiquity of Urkesh is also suggested, as we have seen, by the fact that the city enjoyed a central position in Hurrian myth. When the god Silver, in the story with which we began, eventually made his way to Urkesh to seek out his father, he failed to find him because he was away,
A Hurrianmyth tells of the citygod Kumarbi,the father of the city of Urkesh,whose son, Silver,fails to find him at home upon a visitto his city.Kumarbihad trekked off to the highlands;his roamingthe mountainsmay be depicted in this Urkeshseal impression.
roaming in the mountains. Whether or not one of our seal impressions does represent Kumarbi roaming in the mountains we cannot say for sure--nor will we try to follow him there. There is enough work ahead of us in his home city!
Acknowledgments
Our work at Mozan/Urkesh has been possible because of the constant support of the Syrian Directorate General of Antiquities and Museums: without interruption,the Directoratehas continued to foster that enviable climate of collegial respect and organizational efficiency that makes Syria such a haven for archaeological activity. We wish in particular to thank the Director General, Dr. Sultan Muhesen, and the Director of Excavations, Dr. Adnan Bounni, under whose tenure the excavations in building AK have taken place. The local officials of the Directorate in Hassaka and Qamishli, Mr. Jean Lazar and Mr. Ali Ali, have also been invaluable with their day to day assistance. The excavations of Building AK have been supported through grants from National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Geographic Society, the Ambassador InternationalCultural Foundation, the Ahmanson Foundation, the S. H. Kress Foundation, the L. J. and M. L. Skaggs Foundation, the Oriental Institute of the Pacific, the Cotsen Family Foundation, Syria Shell Petroleum Development B.V.,and various donors. The composite drawings of the Urkesh seals were made by Cecily J. Hilsdale, and the stippled drawings by Pietro Pozzi. This article is closely based on a lecture we gave at the Louvre on April 4, 1997.
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the power of Saron See
ite
1987.
1 This is also tr int the case wof t sotleier graAiing a barded enemy in h the Akkdian se a fm l ortgat 195:p 135 and on a variet of Akkadian clyinder seal including presentation ainmal combat, and scenes depicting battles betwe'en the gts. TShege'stres on thee loh stele d on a arepiarai puished Akkadia (I btreu 1996. yirecllt In Akkadianiar, the instaices of the nompsitional integratioin of the text and the sal deti gn are few, if the vertica (raming asptct of Akkadian e inscription boxes is nt taken into consideration~ early Akkadkanseal wxith a montifunderithe instcriiption whimchis part of the theme of the Kalki main composition -ibe beiongs to the hme r 1 :71 .l A beau itifu seal of a sribe fromIthe reign of Sihark1ishrri has he inscription ft nee e t tli baeks and betiten the hort oftl ater bueif In ths nbut ionexWiedcs otoe 0ase we Iixe i ciompisitir ntegrali car a oiert cu Ituratmen?inp In some Urkesh sea thete t and its v1ial re ntegrated b eqivaent in terms of the composition and on a eel li legh'ne u turat u which coi g s 1
lert
e have found some forty cuneiform tablets, complete or broken, all dating to the late Akkadian period The most interesting one is a school tablet, which had broken in antiquity, but could be reconstituted trom three pieces found within a short distance of each other on the floor of the building. This suggests that the tablet was discarded by its user who must have been a scribal apprentice, This leads us to assume the presence of a scribaaschool connected with the buiding. The text preserves a section of the lexical ist LU , a glossar of Sumerian profession names. The complete list has been found at Abu Salabikh ini Southern Iraq and at Ebla. A comparison of the three texts shoiwxssimilarities (the sequence and in some cases thc entry are identical) and differences (the Urkesh text has a greater incidence of determinatives and syllabic spellings).
Notes
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itr the [etn dees sitn r tnt he f of the 1 tie 8 38 s qitt as ed in othrpotrne 1c ipiritt fromhiiUtikesh lin reclini a te fo of the
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Iifc ro!ninW0rn theroitxl eptm on ofbetis iyigs ani and heads of bth deitie humans bothmai femalen Earl inas i esMi git d pssiI the figureof ann ps • ticH en he 1iesk 19 pL 3 A\sle I altri Marc iders attarei head with side braids Parrot 95:pn IX\ 329 The heavy uraming o the fact th~i har iSe iliteree tnt from thIe on ornantedbrae i of tie qteei ind tie p ess at Urkes 1i
Thst lh exa p
94
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pre narstin
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l hhle t ere re at eas eit a with eitie otr other figures hAditg a clld thIe xoc l ci cept sq uite dimerent Inm the integAied themes w the 0 rkesxAd tic rtrai loehner If v:, S i;t, andetti unpebo A1 r t Atute Universi af Bli seai widBiba of collction
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b t tx yirts a Ths was inietly shown in s telite picture pftlisxhed i intie Ao 583 1985. w e in t atcsx remas aa paern thAhom m the politica tratiSThs fows 1 we Buccelati 96140412 Si a and tion of ryaIt ttar ePastine
Bibliography Auerbsch, 1997
, frd Enccpd v. Ishtinuai Th as New York Oxford bUtversityx
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Map of the Haburregion with the "HurrianUrbanLedge"indicated as a band stretchingalong the piedmont area of the TurAbdin. While most scholarsassumethat the title "kingof Urkeshand Nawar"refersto the two ancient cities correspondingto modernTell Mozan and TellBrak,we assume insteadthat Nawarrefersto the mountainoushinterlandas approximatelycomprisedwithin the circle. Bleibtreu, E. 1996 WienerZeitschriftfiir die Kundedes Morgenlandes86:53-63. Boehmer, R. M. 1965 Die Entwicklung der Glyptik Wi'hrend der Akkad-Zeit. Berlin: Walter Degruyter Buccellati, G. 1967 Cities and Nations of Ancient Syria. Studi Semitici 26. Roma. Buccellati, G. and Kelly-Buccellati M. [B & B-K] 1988 Mozan 1. The Soundings of the First Two Seasons. Bibliotheca Mesopotamica20. Malibu: UNDENA. 1995a Mozan, Tall. Pp. 386-93 in Reallexikonder Assyriologie 8 (5/6). 1995b The Identification of Urkesh with Tell Mozan (Syria). OrientExpress3:cover page, 67-70. 1996a The Royal Storehouse of Urkesh: The Glyptic Evidence from the Southwestern Wing. Archivfir Orientforschung42-43:1-32. 1996b The Seals of the King of Urkesh: Evidence from the Western Wing of the Royal Storehouse AK. WienerZeitschriftfiir die Kunde des Morgenlandes86:65-100, pl. 1-7. 1996c Evidence for a Royal Palace at Tell Mozan/Urkesh. Orient-Express 3:72-76. 1997a S. v. Mozan, Tell. The Oxford Encyclopediaof Archaeology in the Near East. New York:Oxford University.
1997b The Courtiers of the Queen of Urkesh: Glyptic Evidence from the Western Wing of the Royal Storehouse AK. Subartu4/2:195216. Frankfort, H. 1952 The Origin of the Bit Hilani. Iraq14:120-31. Hoffner, H. A. 1990 Hittite Myths. Translated by H.A. Hoffner, edited by Gary M. Beckman. Society of BiblicalLiterature:Writings from the Ancient World 2. Atlanta: Scholars Press. Kelly-Buccellati, M. 1990a Trade Metals in the Third Millennium: Northeastern Syria and Eastern Anatolia. Pp. 117-30 in Resurrectingthe Past:A JointTribute to Adnan Bounni, edited by P. Matthiae, M. Van Loon, and H. Weiss. Nederlands: Historisch-Archaeologisch Instituut. 1990b Three Seasons of Excavation at Tell Mozan. Pp. 119-32 in Tall al-Hamidiya 2, edited by S. Eichler, M. Wifler, D. Warburton. Orbis Biblicus et Orientalis: Series Archaeologica 6. Freiburg and Gottingen: Universititsverlag Freiburg Schwiez. 1990c A New Third Millennium Sculpture from Mozan. Pp. 149-54 and pl. 26 in Essays in Ancient Civilization Presented to Helene J. Kantor, edited by A. Leonard and B. Williams. Studies in Ancient Oriental Civilizations 47. Chicago: Oriental Institute. 1996 Nuzi Viewed from Urkesh, Urkesh Viewed from Nuzi: Stock Elements and Framing Devices in Northern Syro-Mesopotamia. Studies on the Civilization and Culture of Nuzi and the Hurrians 8:247-68. Margueron, J. 1982 Recherches sur les palais misopotamiens de l'age du bronze. Paris: Librairie Orientaliste Paul Geuthner. 1987 Les palais syriens a l'age du bronze. Pp. 127-58 in Lesystemepalatial en Orient, en Grace et a'Rome, edited by E. Levy. Actes du
BiblicalArchaeologist60:2 (1997)
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Colloque de Strasbourg 19-22 juin 1985. Universite des sciences humaines ed Strasbourg. Travaux du Centre de recherche sur le Proche-Orient et la Grece antiques. Leiden: E. J. Brill. Margueron, J. and Sigrist, M. 1997 S. v. Emar, Oixfrd The EncyclopediaofcArchaeologin the Near East. New York:Oxford University. Matthews, D. M. 1997 The Early Glyptic of Tell Brak. Cylinder Sealsof ThirdMdillnnirn Syva. Obis Bibticuset Orientalis,Series Achaeologca 15. Freiburg and Gottingen: University Press Freiburg Switzerland. M. Milano, I ., LIiverani,M., Buccellati, G., and Kelly-13Buccellati, 1991 Mozan 2: The Epigraphic Finds of the Sixth Season. SyroA/esopotan an Studies 5/1. Malibu: UDENA. Parker, S. B. 1996 Appeals for Military Intervention: Stories from Zinjirli and the Bible. BiblicalArclhaeoloist 59:213-24. Walser, G. 1966 Die •ilkerschaefinauf den Relie aonPersepolis. Historischte Studien iiber den sogenantein Triibutzu an derApadanatreppe. Berlin: Verlag Gebr. Mann. Weiss, H., Courty, M.-A., Wetterstrom, W., Guichard, E, Senior, L., Meadow, R., and Curnow, A. 1993 The Genesis and Collapseof ThirdMillenniumNorth Mesopotamian Civilization. Science 261 /5124:995-1003. Wilhelm, G. 1989 The Hurrians. Translated by J. Branes with a chapter by D. L. Stein. Warminster. 1994 S.v. Mittan(n)i, Mitanni, Maitani. A. Historisch. Reallexikonder Assyriolohie 8 (3/4):286-96.
A
Cntr
or
Scholas
chlalyCom
Pres
uncaio
Preliminary Excavation Reports
Sardis,Idalion,and TelleI-HandaquqNorth William G.Dever,editor Contents: TheSardisCampaigns of 1992and H. 1993,Crawford Greenewalt,Jr.,Christopher Ratt6,andMarcusL. Rautman;TwoLateRoman Wellsat Sardis,MarcusL. Rautman;Idalion, PamelaGaber andContinuity, Cyprus:Conquest andWilliamG. Dever;EarlyTownDevelopment in theJordanValley: andWaterManagement at Tellel-Handaquq North,Jonathan Investigations B. Mabry,with MarciaL. Donaldson,Katherine Gruspier,GrantMullen,GaetanoPalumbo, MichaelN. Rawlings,andMarcusA. Woodburn. 156pages Code:850203 ISBN:0-7885-0315-4 Cloth:$84.95
Published Pottery of Palestine LarryG.Herr withWarrenC. Trenchard Code: 850301 310 pages Paper:$34.95 ISBN:0-7885-0280-8
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Muwatalli's Prayer to the Assembly of Gods through the Storm-God of Lightning (CTH 381) Dr.GiorgioBuccellatiis ProfessorEmeritusof the Ancient Near Eastand Historyat the Universityof California,LosAngeles where he was the foundingdirectorof the Instituteof Archaeology. He receivedhis Ph.D.fromthe Universityof Chicagoin 1965and, togetherwith Marilyn,has co-directedthe excavationsat Terqa (1976-1983)and at TellMozan(1984-).ProfessorBuccellatiis the authorof scoresof articles,papers,and excavationreportsand the publisherof UndenaPress.Dr.Buccellaticurrentlydirectsthe InternationalInstituteforMesopotamianAreaStudies. Dr.MarilynKelly-Buccellatiserves as Professorof Art History at CaliforniaStateUniversity,LosAngeleswhere she has taught since 1973.ProfessorKelly-Buccellatireceivedher Ph.D.fromthe Universityof Chicagoin 1974.She has co-directedexcavationsfor ten seasonsat Terqa(1976-1983)and for the nine seasonsof the continuingprojectat TellMozan(1984-).She has published numerousarticlesand edited InsightthroughImages:Studiesin Honorof EdithPorada(UndenaPublications,1986).
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The Amarna Age InscribedClay Cylinder from Beth-Shean By Wayne Horowitz
Akkadian cuneiform, the international language of the second millennium BCE. NOCTOBER The vast majorityof the documents 14,1993,archaeolin the in Amarna archive were the 350 letHelthe ogists working lenistic Period excavations ters, or inventories attached to letters, discovered a small inscribed commonly known as "the Amarna in a in context the letters."These inscribedclay tabletsprocylinder secondary of the of vide us with a glimpse of the incoming dump University Pennsylvania excavations on the western slope of and outgoing communications of the Tell Beth-Shean.1The object, although courts of Amenophis III and IV,whose the size and shape of a small cylinder empires included the land of Canaan. seal (height: 24 mm; circumference:40 Messengers, mar?ipri, carried the letters with them from sender to recipient. mm; holes at its top and bottom), upon closer inspection, proved not to be a Although the language of the Amarna at all. seal the letters was Akkadian, the dialect of the cylinder Surprisingly, small cylinder preserved a short letter letters was not the standard dialect of in the Amarna dialect of Akkadian.This the Mesopotamian cuneiform homewas altogether unexpected. There are land, but rather a mixed dialect that no other examples of Akkadian letters includedboth standardAkkadianvocabinscribed on cylinders. The Beth-Shean ularyand formsas well as featuresdrawn A is second from West Semitic dialects. cylinder unique. discovery us as well: the sender and The Amarna letters can be divided surprised of the and letter, recipient Tagi Lab>aya, roughly into two groups: 1) the Interare two well known figures from fournationalCorrespondence, lettersfromroyal 0 1 cm Canaan whose names court to for example, to court, teenth-century royal a in number of times the Pharaoh from the Amarna appear King of the Hittites; Thisdiminutiveclaycylinderwas firsttaken to Archives from Egypt. What is the sigand 2) the Vassal Correspondence,letnificance of this cylinder against the be an ordinarycylinderseal. Uponcloserexam- ters between Pharaoh and his vassals, in of the the ination, it turned out to be an unique letter background Amama Age mainly local rulers in Canaan. western Levant? In the VassalCorrespondence between passingbetween two well-knownAmarnaAge actors:Tagiand Labtaya.Whythey chose this Pharaoh's court and local rulers in TheAmarnaArchivesand The form of communicationremainsan intriguing Canaan,one reads of the internalaffairs AmarnaAge2 puzzle.Photocourtesyof the Instituteof Archae- of the Egyptian empire. For example, In 1887, an Egyptian woman disthe letters refer to the payment of taxes ology of the Hebrew University. covered a cache of cuneiform tablets and tribute, deal with the protection of now known as the Amarna archive.This archive,which today trade routes between Egypt proper and points east, and connumbersapproximately380 tabletsand fragments,was named tain requests from loyal vassals for Pharaoh to intervene for the archaeological site at which it was found, Tell El on their behalf against external threats, rebellious vassals, or Amarna. As the ancient Egyptian city Akhetaten, Amarna roving bands identified as hapiru(capiru).3 served briefly as the capital of Egypt during the reign of During the reign of Akhenaten's father,Amenophis III, IV the Pharaoh under the who, (1363-1347 BCE) Amenophis many such vassal letters concerned themselves with alleged self-selected name of Akhenaten, had exchanged the tradi- anti-Egyptian activities in northern Canaan. In these letters, tional cult of Egypt for the cult of the Aton and moved the the ringleader of an anti-Egyptian alliance was identified as to this new location. The which a certain Lablayaof Shechem. Lab)aya'ssupporters included Amarna documents, capital both the of IV that and of a number of his own vassals, including the sons of Lab>aya, originate during reign Amenophis his father Amenophis III (1402-1363), are written on clay in and Tagi, the governor of the town of Ginti-Kirmil (Gat BiblicalArchaeologist 60:2(1997)
97
Carmel) in the vicinity of the Carmel range. The letteron the 1993Beth-Shean clay cylinder was addressed from Tagi of Ginti-Kirmil to his overlord Lablaya of Shechem. It may provide a key to understanding the events surrounding a midfourteenth century episode of unrest in Pharaoh'sCanaanite possessions.
TheBeth-SheanCylinder
The size and shape of the letterfrom Tagito Lalbayaon the Beth-Sheancylinder,thatof a smallcylinderseal,is unique among all known cuneiform letters.4 The cylinder preserves holes at its top and bottom and so could have been hung from a courier's neck as a pendant rather than carried.5The unique form parallels unique context: it is the first known correspondence between Tagi and Lab'aya to be recovered and is, in addition, the first known letter actually addressed to Lablaya himself. All other occurrences of Lab'aya and Tagiin the Amarna letters are to be found in lettersfromthe two to Pharaoh, or in referencesto the activitiesof Lab)aya, his sons, and/or Tagi in the letters of others. This roster includes the letter of Abdi-Heba of Jerusalemto Pharaoh(EA 289), the only Amarna letter to mention Beth-Shean (Bit Sawo-a-ni),which was One of the several hundredAmarnatablets containingcorrespondenceand inventorylists. an Egyptian fortress town during the Tabletssuch as this one contain numerousreferencesto Lab'ayaand Tagi,but the cylinder Amarna period. representsthe first known communicationbetween them. In these letters, Tagi, Lab'aya, and the contents of Tagi's letter to Lab'aya in lines 5-9 appear the sons of Lab'aya are at first in revolt against Egyptian In the to preserve a copy of part of a letter of Tagi to Pharaoh (i.e., Pharaoh. to then succumb and finally authority short letter on the Beth-Sheancylinder,Tagiwrites to Labtaya in modem terms, lines 1-4 preserve a cover letter from Tagi quoting a letter that he had previously sent to the Egyptian to Lab'aya, while lines 5-6 begin the equivalent of a carbon copy of a previous letter from Tagito Pharaoh). Beyond this, king: little can be said with any degree of certainty. For example, 1. To Lab'aya, we do not learn what Tagi wrote to Pharaoh in his original 2. my lord, 3. speak. letter,nor can we discernthe immediate historicalbackground to Tagi's cylinder letter, nor determine why Tagi chose to 4. Message of Tagi: write his letter on a cylinder rather than on a tablet as was 5-6. To the King (Pharaoh), my lord: 7-8. "I have listened carefully to your missive to customary. Nonetheless, data in the surviving letters from Amama allow us to develop the following scenario that may 9. me... 10-12. (illegible traces) provide a historical context for the Beth-Shean cylinder. The cylinder's text preserves two separate examples to HistoricalReconstruction Akkadian letter opening formulas. Lines 1-4 preserve the The surviving Amarna letters make it clear that, once standard introduction to an Akkadian letter: To Recipiboth Tagi and Lablaya eventually submitted to from of the letter The contents of Sender. rebellious, ent...speak. Message letters from Tagi to Pharaoh (EA 264-266)open Pharaoh. The with where one lines thus start should to 5-6, Tagi Lab'aya finds the first words of a standard opening of an Amarna let- with statements of Tagi'ssubordinatestatus to Pharaoh.6Furter to Pharaoh from a vassal (To the King, my lord). Thus, thermore, the letter of Abdi-Heba of Jerusalem to Pharaoh 98
60:2(1997) BiblicalArchaeologist
(EA 289:18-24, the only Amarna letter to mention Beth-Shean)places military personnel from Tagi's town Ginti-Kirmil in the Egyptian garrison town of Beth-Shean:
250
Behold, the land of the city of GintiKirmilbelongs to Tagi and the men of Ginti-cityare the garrisonin BethShean. Should we act as Lab'aya, when he was giving the land of Shechem to the hapiru? Men from Tagi's city would have hardly been allowed to serve in the garrison at Beth-Shean if Tagi was not, at least openly, a loyal vassal of the Egyptian king. Lab'aya,too, eventually succumbed to Pharaoh.EA 245 recordsthat Lab'aya was summoned by Pharaoh, arrested, and then ransomed,while EA250 reports that Lab>ayawas subsequently murdered at the hands of men of the land of Gina (Jenin).Thus, although we are not certain when Tagi wrote the BethShean cylinder to Lab~aya, one may guess that the letter on the Beth-Shean cylinder was written at a time when Tagi was openly loyal to Pharaoh, but 150 secretly maintained ties with Lab'aya, forexample,a transitionalperiodbetween Tagi's submission to Pharaoh (EA 264-266) and the events that lead to Lab'aya's death (EA 245, 250). If so, this might explain why Tagitook the unusual step (precaution?)of sending his letter to Lab'aya on a cylinder rather than a tablet. Delivery of a cylinder by a courier, perhaps wearing the letter around his neck in the guise of a cylinder seal, rather than by an official messenger (mar ?ipri) bearing a tablet, might have insured maximum secrecy.In this case, the inherent risk of sending any written message at all may be justified by the fact that the very brief written message on the BethSheancylinderwould have authenticateda longeroralmessage from Tagi to Lab'ayaconcerning the delicate matter of Tagi's dealings with Pharaoh. Finally, if the cylinder was brought to Beth-Sheanby courier,one might further propose that the cylinder arrived at Beth-Shean with the military personnel from Tagi's capital Ginti-Kirmil in the Carmel region, who formed a garrison in Beth-Shean (EA 289:18-24). But why in the first place would Tagi send a letter from his city in the Carmelregion to Lablayaof Shechem in Samaria by way of Beth-Shean in the Jordan Valley? Here, too, other letters from Amarna may provide a satisfactory solution. The letters of Lab'aya's son Mut-Ba'lu to Pharaoh (EA 255-256) place Mut-Ba'lu in the city of Pihilu (Pella) east of the Jordan (less than fifteen km from Beth-Shean) after his i
(
Beth-Shean*
Pella
200
Shechem
Shecher
.200 fatherLablaya'sdeath. Thus,one might suppose that Lablaya's kingdom, at least late in his life just prior to his surrender to Egypt and his subsequent death (the date proposed here for the Beth-Shean cylinder), included territories as far east as Pella. This could explain why Tagi'sletterwas sent eastwards from Ginti-Kirmilin the direction of Beth-Shean (and Pella), ratherthanto the south towardsShechem.Hence,the BethShean cylinder letter might even have been deposited at Beth-Shean by Tagi's men from Ginti-Kirmilin EA 289 before they could send the cylinder on to its ultimate destination at a city or field headquarters of Lab'aya in the east (perhaps Pella). A number of other scenarios might also explain the presence of Tagi's cylinder letter to Lab'aya at Beth-Shean. Tagi himself could even have written and then discarded the letter in Beth-Shean (either accidently or intentionally), after accompanying or joining the men from Ginti-Kirmil who formed the garrison in Beth-Shean, without ever sending it on to Lab'aya.Second, Lab'ayamay have received the cylinder letter in Beth-Shean or brought it to Beth-Shean later if and when he visited the city. Third, Lab>aya(or an agent of his) may have received and then misplaced the letter at BethShean, or perhaps even hidden it to prevent the existence of a message from Tagi to Lab'aya from becoming known to the Egyptian authorities. Finally, the cylinder letter could BiblicalArchaeologist 60:2(1997)
99
have been discovered at Beth-Shean by forces sympathetic to Pharaoh and confiscated there, or the letter could have been discovered in transit by Egyptian forces in Canaan or their allies, and then brought to Egyptian officials at BethShean as proof of Tagiand Lab-aya'sperfidy.Thus, one might even speculate that the discovery of Tagi's letter to Lab'aya could have contributedto Pharaoh'sdispleasurewith Latbaya. If so, then the cylinder from Beth-Shean itself could have been one of the factors which prompted Pharaoh to order that Lab'ayapresent himself at the Egyptian court-the very order that began the chain of events that led to Lab'aya's death.
respondence from Shechem. Alter OrientundAltes Testament 42:95-111. Horowitz,W. 1996 An InscribedClayCylinderFromAmarnaAge BethShean.Israel Journal46:208-17. Exploration 1994 Troublein Canaan-A Letterof the el-AmamaPeriodon a Clay 27:84-86.(Hebrew.) CylinderfromBethShean.Qadmoniot Izre'el,Sh. Orientalis 1990 A New Translationof the Amarnaletters. Bibliotheca 47:577-604.
James,F.and McGovern,P. 1993 TheLateBronzeEgyptianGarrisonat BethShan:A Studyof Levels VIIandVIII.2 vols. Philadelphia:The UniversityMuseum. Lemche,N. P. 1992s.v.Habiru, Hapiru. in TheAnchorBibleDictionary.Edited by D. Notes N. Freedman.New York:Doubleday. 1This articlepresentsa recastingand abbreviatedversion of the much Moran,W.L. 1992 TheAmarnaTablets.Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University longer edition of the Beth-Sheancylinder with a historicalinterpretation publishedby the authorin IsraelExploration Journal46 (1996):208-17. Press. An earlierpreliminarydiscussion of the cylinderappearedin Hebrew 1987 LesLettres D'El-Amarna. Translated by D. Collonand H. Cazelles. in Horowitz1994. Paris:Les ditions du Cerf. 2 For a general bibliographyof the AmarnaArchives, see Izre'el 1990, which is a review of Moran 1987 (the Frenchedition of Moran 1992). Forpersonalnamesin theAmamaarchives,see Hess 1993a.Also, of particularinterestin thecontextof the 1993Beth-SheancylinderareNa'aman 1975;Adamthwaite1992;Albright1943(lettersfromPella);Hess 1993b; Rainey1968;and Wright1964. 3 Fora recentgeneralstudy of Hapiru/Jlabiru (caprri)with furtherbibli1992. see Lemche ography, 4Clay cylinderseals, althoughless commonthanstone seals, were used in the ancientNearEastandhavebeen recoveredin Canaanand thewest. A largerclay cylinderpreservinga cuneiformtextof an uncertainnature (perhaps a scribal exercise or incantation)was found at Amarna and publishedas EA355.Fora stone cylinderseal with an Akkadianinscription fromBeth-Shean,see now Jamesand McGovern1993:231,no. 1. 5In this contextcomparethe arrestof a Mittannianmessengercarrying a "claytabletat his neck"in an inscriptionof AmenophisII (see Singer 1988:1-5, who now places this incident in the Valley of Sirion in Lebanonratherthanthe SharonValleyin Israel). 6Forexample,EA264opens:Tothe King,my Lord:Messageof Tagiyour slave:At the feet of the King,my Lord,I fall seven and seven times.
Bibliography Adamthwaite,M. R. 1992 Lab'aya'sConnectionwith Shechem Reassessed.Abr-Nahrain 30:1-19. Albright,W. 1943 TwoLittleUnderstoodAmama Lettersfromthe MiddleJordan Valley.Bulletinof theAmericanSchoolsof OrientalResearch89:717. EA (Dieel-Amarna-Tafeln...) mit Einleitungund 2 vols. 1915 Die el-Amarna-Tafeln Erliauterungen. Editedby J.A. Knudtzon.Vorderasiatische Bibliothek2. Leipzig: Hinrichs. Hess, R. 1993a AmarnaPersonalNames.WinonaLake:Eisenbrauns. 1993b SmittenAnt Bites Back:RhetoricalFormsin the AmarnaCor-
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Na'aman,N. 1975 The PoliticalDispositionand HistoricalDevelopmentof Eretz IsraelAccordingto theAmarnaletters.Ph.D.diss. TelAviv University.(Hebrew.) Rainey,A. F. 1968 Gath-Padalla.IsraelExploration Journal18:1-14. Singer,I. desdeutschen 1988 'Emeq?aronor'EmeqSiryon?Zeitschrift PalistinaVereins104:1-5. Wright,G. E. 1964 Shechem. New York:McGrawHill BookCo.
Dr.WayneHorowitzis a lecturerat The Hebrew Universityin the Departmentof AncientNear EasternStudiesand The RothbergSchoolfor OverseasStudents. Americanby birth,Dr. Horowitzhas lived in Israel for eleven yearssince completinghis Ph.D.at the Universityof Birminghamin England.Previously,Dr. Horowitzreceivedhis B.A. at BrandeisUniversityand studied at the Universityof Californiaat Berkeley.Dr.
Horowitz's research interestsareancientNearEastern mythology tabletsof thelandof Israel.Dr. andastronomy, andthecuneiform fortheongoingHazorexcavations. Horowitzis alsoanepigrapher Dr.Horowitzis married, hasthreechildren,andlivesin a small villagejustoutsideJerusalem.
from
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the tamarisk and acacia trees which grew along the dry river beds flowing to the Dead Sea. These they piled up and T THEENDOFTHEYEAR72 CE,AN UNUSUAL EXUBERANT then covered with marls and gravel, excavated in the of the western the solitude vicinity. Thus, they slowly advanced towards the walls. At activity interrupted the same time, the Roman ballistica shooters and archers shore of the Dead Sea. The Tenth Roman legion, rebuffed the efforts of the besieged rebels to interfere with with its commander, Silva, the Roman governor of conquered Judea, came down to lay siege to the fortress the progress of the work. When the ramp reached the wall, the Romans started of Masada. With the legion came all its auxiliary force, to which were added thousands of Jewish prisoners of war, to breach it with their siege machine. This accomplishedbrought to work as forced labor. The fortress sheltered 967 and the inner wall of wood the besiegers had built set ablaze-the army preparedto breakin. Thatnight, with invaJewish people, rebels and their families, who were taking its sion imminent, all the besieged committed suicide. and been had after Jerusalem temple conquered refuge The description of the fortress,the story of the siege, and burnt by the Romans, about two years earlier. The fortress the end of the besieged were narrated by the ancient histohad been built about hundred years earlier by the Edomiterian Josephus Flavius in his book The Jewish Wars. The Jewish king Herod on a huge limestone plateau, towering ruins of Masada have been thorougly excavated (during the above the valley of the Dead Sea and surrounded on all sides 1960s by Israeli archaeologists headed by Professor Yigal cliffs. by precipitous Yadin [1966]),and the Roman camps are currentlybeing excaWith their methodical approach to sieges, the Romans startedbuilding their siege works by surrounding the fortress vated. Yadin intepreted the data as providing detailed information of Josephus' account, but this evaluation conwith a circular stone wall, along which eight army camps were built. After completing the construction of the wall and tinues under debate (see, e.g., J. Naveh 1989). In the year 1993 CE,a peculiar activity could have been camps, they began to build their siege ramp. For this purnoticed on the foot path that climbs along the flank of the fortress of the western the side chose besieged pose, they where a down-faulted block offered a stepping stone that Roman siege ramp, leading to the partly reconstructedwalls provided easier access to the walls. For the building mater- of Masada. On this foot path, a small group of people armed with a mechanical saw, slowly climbed the path looking ial of their ramp the attackers ordered the cutting down of
By Arie S. Issar and Dan Yakir
The isolated plateau of Masadastands out prominentlyon the western shore of the Dead Sea. The plateau hosted a successionof palace fortresses,perhapsbeginning in the Hasmoneanperiod,with Herodresponsiblefor the majorepisode of construction.The plateau
was occupied by Zealotsin rebellionagainst the Romanrule of Judea, a rebellionthat was brought to an end by the Romansiege of Masadain 72 CE.Photographcourtesyof RichardCleave.
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for something.Theystopped,thencleared some soil and revealed branches of the trees the Romans had buried more than 1900 years ago. From these branches they cut pieces, which were numbered and put into plasticbags. After they had collected enough samples, the team left the place,leavingbehindthemthe archaeologist in chargeof the site, looking quite relieved that no damage had been inflicted upon the ramp. A few weeks later, another operation took place in the same area.A field car was traveling in the dry river beds (wadis)cascadingdown fromthe escarpment to the Dead Sea.Fromtime to time, the car stopped near one of the tamarisk trees growing along the banks, and a man got out of the car. After choosing one of the tree's thickerbranches,he cut a piece of it, marked it, placed it in a plastic bag, and then continued to another cluster of trees to repeat the same procedure. About a year after these operations took place, a letter et Cosmochemica Acta told published in the journal Geochemica the story behind these activities (Yakiret al. 1994).It reported that the cellulose of the tamarisk trees, buried in the ramp, was depleted in carbon-13 (C13)isotopes, compared to the cellulose of the contemporary trees sampled in the same region. Moreover, it noted that the C13composition of the ancient trees resembled the composition of the trees of the more humid central part of Israel. The depletion in this isotope supported the conclusion of the senior author of this article(Issar)that the whole region had enjoyed a more humid climate during the time that these ancient trees thrived. Meteorological observations during the last century have shown that rainy years in this region coincided with colder years and vice versa. The letter's final conclusion stated that about two thousand years ago, the climate of Masada was colder (Issar 1990). The letter's information fit nicely into a large scientific jig-saw puzzle that the senior author had been constructing during the last decade. Issar had compiled the results of many other investigations carried out by various scientists in different fields in different countries situated along the bordersof the deserts of the world. Entitled"ClimateChanges during History and their Impact on the Hydrological Cycle and Socio-Economic Systems," the project received sponsorship by UNESCO through the InternationalHydrological Program (IHP; Issar 1995a;Issar 1995b). The decision to sample and analyze the trees buried in the ramp was made one afternoon at Sede Boker, the campus site of the J. Blaustein Institute for Desert Researchat the Ben Gurion University of the Negev. Professor Joel Gat and Dr. Dan Yakirfrom the Weizmann Institute in Rehovot (WIS), part of a team of scientists conducting work in the 102
BiblicalArchaeologist 60:2(1997)
The Romansbuilt a siege rampup the western side of the plateau. They piled up tamariskand acaciatrees harvestedfrom the nearby wadis and coveredthem with marlsand gravel.The dryconditionsof the RiftValleyhave preservedsome of the vegetation that undergirdsthe ramp,makingit availablefor sampling.Photograph courtesyof the authors.
region, told Issar about the results of their research.The WIS scientists' role in the projectwas to explain the water regime of tamarisk trees in the desert through the use of isotopes. The more general and inter-institutionalresearch concerned itself with the hydrology of forestation of desert areas, overseen by the WaterResourcesCenter of the Institutefor Desert Research (Issar et al. 1996). The scientists of the WIS and a team of German scientists were cooperating in the specific isotopic project. The isotope group set out to investigate whether variations in the natural isotopic composition of wood from desert plants recordvariations in climatic conditions. The tamarisk, a tree common to desert and saline environments,was among the plant species used in this study. The researchersbelieved they could use plant material as a climatic indicator because accumulating evidence suggested that environmental conditions influence the concentration of naturally occurring, non-radioactive isotopes such as C13in plant organic matter during its formation. The concentration of C13in the plant organic matter under drier conditions is significantly higher than in plants growing under wet conditions. A short explanation of the processes underlying these observations is necessary. All of the carbon in a plant (about half its mass) comes from C02 in the atmosphere.C02 diffuses in and out of leaves through special pores called stomata. Inside the leaves, a certain fraction of the CO2is fixed in most plants by an enzyme called rubisco (ribulose bi-phosphate carboxylase/oxygenase). This is the first step in photosynthesis by which all
buildup of C13is very small under optimal conditions. However, this may change if the plant is exposed to environmental stresses, such as high temperatures or drought. This point provides a link between climatic conditions and the C13signature of the wood. For example, during a drought, plants close their stomata in an attempt to prevent evaporation of water from the leaves. As a result, the exchange of C02 between the leaf and the atmosphere is restricted, the build up of C1302concentration inside the leaves becomes significant, and more of it is fixed by rubisco. Wood formed under this condition would show less depletion of C13compared to wood formed under more optimal conditions. This isotopic signature of the environmental conditions prevalent during the growth of the plant is conserved in the wood and can be resurrected by high precision isotopic analysis,even aftermany years.Forthe isotopic analysis, a small piece of the wood is chemically purified, and then combusted at about 1000C with oxygen. Under these conditions, all the carbon in the sample is converted to CO2that can be purified and injected to a mass spectrometer that provides a very precise measurement of the ratio of C13to C12in the sample. A A stub from a branchof a tamarisktree protrudesfrom under a Plant species respond differentlyto environmentalchange stone of the land-fillof the ramp.Chemistsanalyzedthe wood and have differentisotopic signaturesin their wood. The WIS (cellulose)sample to determine what ratio of carbon isotopes it team has found, however, that tamariskprovides a most suitcontained. The scientistsviewed the ratio as a climaticindicator. able material for climate reconstructionby isotopic analysis. Photographcourtesyof the authors. To test this conclusion, the team carried out isotopic analysis on wood from tamarisktrees growing under the temperate 7A wadi flows toward the Dead Sea with its decoration of tamarisk climate of central and northern Israel and under arid contrees and other desert-adaptedplant species.Tamarisktrees also ditions in the Negev and Judean Deserts. As expected, the flourishunder more temperate conditions,offering analystsa chance C13content of the wood from the desert regions was signifto comparethe ratiosof carbon isotopes preservedin wood grown icantly higher than that of the wood from central Israel. In under different climaticconditions. fact, using contemporary trees from sites that also have continuous meteorological records allowed the calibration of variations in C13content of the tamarisk wood against climatic parameters such as relative humidity. Applying these findings to the wood dug out at Masada strongly supported the idea that the ancient trees grew under more humid conditions than those which prevail today. Indeed, they suggested that air relative humidity in the Roman period was about 15%higher than today, comparable to the currentconditions in the more humid northern Negev region. Notably, this region receives at least twice as much annual rainfall as the Masada region today. Interestingly,researchersalso obtained samples of ancient tamarisk wood in another study carried out a few kilometers south of Masada in the salt caves of Mount Sedom, a huge salt plug situated near the shore line of the Dead Sea. They used wood remains for dating the formation of the organic matter is ultimately formed. This special enzyme preferentiallyfixes C02 molecules containing the more abun- caves. They dated some of these wood samples to the Roman dant (99%)isotope of carbon,namely C12.The wood therefore period and a few others to much earlier periods (up to becomes depleted in C13relative to C02 in the atmosphere 3780 years BCE.) Analysis of the isotopic composition of these (by a few tenths of a percent).If C1202is preferentiallyremoved samples revealed that the C13content in the sample from the by the plant cells, it can be expected that C1302concentration Roman period matched that of the wood from Masada. will build up in the intercellularair spaces in the leaves. Rapid The earliersamples showed C13content similar to that of present day trees around Masada, indicating again a dry climate mixing with the atmosphere insures, however, that such BiblicalArchaeologist 60:2(1997)
103
at that time. Taken together, the tamarisk data 34 indicated that a humid episode occurred during the Roman period. 33 The new data from the Masada siege ramp fit into a collection of many other observations, all 0 of which point to the same conclusion: namely " 32 that about two thousands years ago the climates of the areas bordering the deserts of the Middle E 31 East were colder and more humid. These observations include changes in the isotope composition 0 0 30 018 and C13 of the carbonates and variations in the spectrum of pollen which accumulated on the bottom of the Sea of Galilee. A group of scientists 29 headed by Dr.MiraStiller(formerlyfrom the WIS) gathered and analyzed the sediment core (Stiller 28 et al. 1984). They found that the 018 isotope was -27 -26 -24 -22 -25 -23 -21 depleted in the deposits the age of which is around 613of stem cellulose 2000 years BCE.Such a depletion reflects colder, and therefore wetter, climate conditions. Distributionof isotope compositionsof d-018versusd-C13from The pollen analysis of the sample core showed that at the same time the quantity of olive pollen increased samplesof tamarisktrees in the vicinityof Masadaand in central while that of oak decreased (Baruch1986).Such proportional Israel.The samplesfrom the siege ramp(representedby circles)are depleted in both C13and 018 relativeto contemporarytrees in the changes may be interpretedas a function of the cutting down same region (the triangles)and in C13relativeto contemporarytrees of the natural forest and the planting of olive orchards,made from centralIsrael(the squares).Becausethe drierthe climate,the of the abundance As most of the possible by precipitation. more C13and 018are used in photosynthesis,these deficiencies basin draining into the Sea of Galilee is semi-arid, once the climatehad become warmer and drier,the yield of these plan- translate into moisterclimaticconditionsat the time the siege ramp trees were cut down. tations would have dropped, and they would have been abandoned. A group of scientists, headed by Professor Mebus Geyh in the level of the Dead Sea was correct, although not to from the University of Hannover, Germany, has researched the extreme of 70 meters.' The cold climate most likely started sometime between the average 08 from about forty speleothems (cave deposits or formations)taken from ten caves in the Galileein the north- 300 BCE-200BCE.This period was also the time when the ern part of Israel. Their results showed rather similar trends Nabateans came down from the mountains of Transjordan to the Negev and startedto build theirsettlementsand develop of isotopic composition to those from the Sea of Galilee and from the analysis of tamariskwood (Geyh, Wakshal,and their agriculture,based on methods of water harvesting (EveFranke n.d.). nari, Shannan, and Tadmor 1971). Until then, the Nabateans The salt caves of the Mount Sedom provide another had lived on the highlands of Moab and Edom, which enjoy kind of climatic data that also evidences a higher level of pre- a higher level of precipitation, due to their altitude. They cipitation in Roman times. These caves were formed through stayed in the Negev, with some brief retreats, until the sevthe dissolution of the rock salt, from which most of the moun- enth century CE.During most of this period they were tain is built, by water infiltrating from the flat top of the incorporated in the Roman Empire, made a fortune from mountain. Each time the level of the Dead Sea rose due to their involvement in the commerce of the myrrh and more rains on its drainage basin, its water penetrated the frankincense, and produced on the terraced wadis of the desert, which they built, a special type of wine, which was caves, leaving behind them a marked line of solution and debris containing drift wood. Amos Frumkin of the Hebrew exported through the port of Gaza to Rome. and dated the The influence of this colder and more humid period on a University, speleologist, surveyed, mapped, ancientshorelines in the caves (Frumkinet al. 1991).Frumkin's the other countries in the Mediterranean basin turned the conclusions confirmed the results of the geographer provinces of the Levant and north Africa into the bread basSea ket of Rome. Moreover, today's abandoned terraces-found who the ancient Dead shore Klein (1982), mapped Cipora lines all along its western bank and dated them according to in all the areas bordering the desert in these countries-proarchaeological sites. Accordingly, she claimed that the sea vided the olive oil and wine of the Roman Empire. The countriessituatedon the northernside of the Mediterlevel about two thousand years ago was approximately 70 raneanwere also more humid. This,however, was not always m above the present. Many geographers, at that time, did not greet her conclusions enthusiastically.But Frumkin'ssur- beneficial. For example, in the Fucino Lake in the Apennines vey has shown that Klein's general conclusion about a rise in central Italy west of Rome, the water table rose to such an 104
BiblicalArchaeologist60:2 (1997)
A Mt. Sedom is composed primarilyof rocksalt out of which caves have been dissolvedby the episodic infiltrationof water.These episodes correspondto risinglevels of the Dead Sea, which depends on increasedrainfallin its drainage basin. Bymapping and dating the dissolutionlines left behind by these episodes, researchershave determinedthat the level of the sea was higher duringthe Roman period,thus markingthe period as cooler and wetter than the present. Photographcourtesyof RichardCleave.
V The Nabateansfounded Oboda (cAbdah),in the middleof the photograph,at the center of the Negev desert. Itssettlement representsthe expansionof the Nabateansfrom their traditional location on the heights of Moab and Edom.Nabateanexpansion can be related in partto the advent of colder and wetter meteorological conditionsin the third centuryBCE. Photographcourtesyof Richard Cleave.
was disappearing, an indication that it was too cold to practice agriculture. Another region besides the Mediterraneanwhere the historical records demonstrate a correlation between climate and historical events is that of WesternAsia. But as the rains in this region are monsoonal, the effect of a colder period is just opposite to that of the Mediterranean.In China,the colder periods coincided with driest climatic periods because of the strengthening of the Siberian anticyclone and southward shift of the polar front.Thus, during a majorpart of the period of the Roman-Byzantine Empire (from ca. 300 BCEto ca. 600 CE),the people of China, especially in its northern part, suffered from droughts and famine. Prof. Zhang Peiyuan from the Institute of Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing, maintains that the severe cold caused the migration south of the Mongol tribes. This brought the Chinese people at ca. 220 BCEto begin building the GreatWall as protection against these tribes (personal communication 1993).In Japan,Sakaguchi (1983)found that during the same period of time, which he calls the Kofun period, the people of this country suffered from famine, when the rice crops failed as a result of low temperatures. He maintained that this period was even colder than the one which prevailed during The Little Ice Age. Thus the data from Masada, as well as the other data collected in the framework of UNESCO's project investigating the impacts of climate variations on water management and related socio-economic systems (Issar1995a),fit well into the global picture of a cold period around two thousand years ago.
Notes 1Raban and Galili (1985) mapped changes in the sea levels of the Mediterranean during the last seven thousand years, drawing their conclusions mainly from sub-marine archeological surveys. Low sea levels are a function of global colder periods, when large quantities of sea water are impounded by the expanding glaciers in the poles regions, and vice versa during global warm periods.
Bibliography Baruch, U. 1986 The Late Holocene Vegetation History of Lake Kinneret (Sea of Galilee), Israel. Paleorient12 (2):37-48. Evenari, M., Shannan, L., and Tadmor, N. 1971 The Negev: The Challengeof a Desert. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
extent that around 50 CEthe Roman emperor Claudius was forced to order the digging of a stupendous drainage system of subsurface galleries. EmperorHadrian completed the system around 150 CE(Giraudi 1989). At the same time, the isotope composition of the core drilled at the bottom of Lake Van in central Anatolia shows a clear depletion similar to that observed in the Sea of Galilee. Lake Van also saw its water level rise (Schoell 1978). In Scandinavia, the glaciersadvanced, and in Irelandpollen of cereals
Frumkin, A., Carmi, I., Zak, I., and Magaritz, M. 1991 Holocene EnvironmentalChange Determined from the Salt Caves of Mount Sedom, Israel. TheHolocene1:191-200. Geyh, M. A., Wakshal, E., and Franke, H. W.
nd
13andOxygen-18 DataofSpeleothemes Carbon-14, fromUpperGalilee. Unpublished Report.
Giraudi, C. 1989 Lake Levels and Climate for the Last 30,000 Years in the Fucino Area. Paleo 3 (70):249-60. Issar, A. S. 1990 WaterShall Flowfrom the Work.Heidelberg: Springer Verlag.
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1995a Inipacts of Climate Variations on Water Managemientand RelatedSocio-ecolzomic Systems. IHP-IV Project H-2.1. Paris: UNESCO. 1995b Climatic Change and the History of the Middle East. AmericanScientist 83:35055. Issar, A., Adar, A. D., Berliner, P., and Yair,A. 1996 Hydrologyof Forestationin Arid Regions. Report submitted to The Alton-Jones Foundation, Charlottesville, Virginia. Klein, C. 1982 Morphological Evidence of Lake Level Changes, Western Shores of the Dead Sea. IsraelJournalof EarthSciences31:6794. Naveh, J. 1989 The Aramaic and Hebrew Ostraca and Jar Inscriptions. In Masada, The Yigael Y1dinExcavations 1963-1965,FinalR&Torts, edited by J. Aviram, G. Foerster,and E. Netzer. Vol. 1. Jerusalem: Israel ExplorationSocietyand the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Reconstructedwine press at Shivta(Sobata),a central Negev village settled in the Middle Raban, A. and Galili, E. Nabatean/EarlyRomanperiod. Gaza became the port of embarkationfor wine produced 1985 Recent Maritime Archaeological from grapes grown in this region whose precipitationwas probablytwice the amount Researchin Israel:A PreliminaryReport. experiencedtoday. Photographcourtesyof the authors. The International Journal of Nan tical Arclaeology and UnderwaterExploration
14(4):321-56. Sakaguchi, Y. 1983 Warm and Cold Stages in the Past 7,600 Years in Japan and their Global Correlation. Bulletin of the Department of Georgraphy/ University of Tokyo15:1-31. Schoell, M. 1978 Oxygen Isotope Analysis on Authigenic Carbonates from Lake Van Sediments and their Possible Bearing on the Climate of the Past 10,000 Years. Pp. 92-97 in TheGeologyof LakeVan,edited by E. T. Degens and F. Kurtman. Ankara: The Mineral Research and Exploration Society of Turkey.
Stiller, M., Erlich, A., Pollingher, U., Baruch, U., and Kaufman, A. 1984 The Late Holocene Sediments of Lake Kinneret (Israel): Multidisciplinary Study of a 5 m Core. Pp. 83-88 in GeologicalSnirvey of Israel.Jerusalem: Ministry of Energy. Yadin, Y. 1966 Masada:Herod' Fortressand the Zealot'sLast Stand. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson. Yakir,D., Issar, A., Gat, J., Adar, E., Trimborn, P. and Lipp, J. 1994 C:3and Oi' of Wood from the Roman Siege Rampart in Masada, Israel (AD 70-73):Evidence for a Less Arid Climate for the Region. Acta 58(16):3535-39. Geochemicaet Cosmochenmica
Dr. Arie S. Issar is Professor at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Department of Geology and
Mineralogy,wherehe holds the Alain PoherChairin Hydrogeologyof AridZones. ProfessorIssar earnedhis M.Sc.and Ph.D.degreesfromThe HebrewUniversityof Jerusalemand served, from1965to 1974,as head of the HydrogeologicalDivisionof the GeologicalSurveyof Israel.Subsequently,he becamethe head of the WaterResourcesResearchCenterof theJacobBlausteinInstitutefor Desert Research.He has served widely as an internationalconsultanton variouswaterprojectsand has been a visiting scholarat the Universityof ComplutenseMadrid,FreeUniversityof Amsterdam,the University of Tokyo,and the Universityof Arizona. Dr.Issarhas publishedmorethaneighty papersin scientificjournalsconcerninghydrogeologyand hydrochemistryof aridzones as well as the impactof climatechangeon the hydrologyand socioeconomicsystems. Dr.Dan Yakir(not pictured)is a biologistinterestedin plant-environmentinteractions.He received his B.Sc.,M.Sc.,and Ph.D.at The HebrewUniversityof Jerusalem.Dr.Yakircompletedpost-doctoral and a fellowshipat the CarnegieInstitutein Washington.He has work at UCLAand Duke Univrersity worked at the WeizmannInstitutein the ScienceDeptartmentof EnvironmentalSciencesand Energy Researchsince 1991.
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BiblicalArchaeologist60:2 (1997)
Arti-Facts Searching
for
Ancient
The traveling exhibition Searchingfor Ancient Egypt, organized by the Dallas Museum of Art and the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology,will open at the DallasMuseum of Art in September, 1997. The exhibit features 140 objects from the University of PennsylvaniaMuseum, representingall periods of Egyptian art, from the Predynastic through Roman periods (c. 4000 BCEto the fourthcenturyCE).In additionto highlighting a century of excavations carried out by the University of Pennsylvania Museum, the exhibit demonstrates the range of purposes for which Egyptianartwas adapted throughout its long history.These functions include divine cult, royal propaganda, and private self-presentation, as well as personal religion, architectural ornamentation, and funerary ritual. The Universityof PennsylvaniaMuseum houses one of the nation's largestcollections of Egyptian artifacts, with nearly 50,000 objects, and has been actively involved in Egyptological fieldwork for nearly a century.Its first Curator,SaraYorkeStevenson, encouragedthe museum to support the work of Sir William Flinders Petrie and the Egypt Exploration Fund, through which the collection received a number of important artifacts. The museum's own excavations began in the first decade of this century. Between 1915 and 1925, Clarence Fisher worked at Memphis, Dendera, and Dra abu el Naga, as well as at BethShan in Palestine. Among his many discoveries was the palace of the Nineteenth Dynasty pharaoh Merenptah, a large portion of which is now exhibitedin the Museum. In 1929,Alan Rowe began productive excavations at Meydum, but his work was cut short by the Depression. The Museum did not resume excavation in Egypt until 1955. In the early 1960's, William Kelly Simpson and David O'Connor excavated at Nubian sites destined to be destroyed by the construction of the Aswan Dam, and in 1966, they
Egypt began the University of Pennsylvania-Yale Expedition to Abydos, which continues its work in Egypt to this day. Since 1989,David P.Silverman has conducted epigraphic and archaeological surveys at the sites of el Bersheh and Saqqara. The exhibition will display some of the Museum's finest Egyptian objects,many of which have never been exhibited before. It features architectural elements from the Old Kingdom tomb chapel of the official Kaipure as well as a doorjamband window from the palace of Merenptah.The royal art exhibited includes stone vessels naming two of Egypt's earliest kings, Narmer and Khasekhem; a gilded bronze figure of Tutankhamun;a life-sized head of Osorkon; and a monumental granite head of Thutmose III. A wide range of deities are represented in various media, including stone, bronze, faience, and gold. Non-royal sculpture includes statues and reliefs of officials dating from the Old Kingdom through the Roman Period. Along with the tomb chapel, funerary arts displayed in the exhibit include limestone and cartonnage sarcophagi, segments of the Book of the Dead on papyrus, a rare painted fabricburial shroud, and sandstone ba-figures from Nubia. The minor arts are represented by exemplary ceramics from the Predynastic Period; slate palettes in the form of animals; jewelry in precious and semi-precious stones, electrum, and gold; an ivory wand inscribed with mythical animals; and a variety of cosmetic items. The exhibition will open at the Dallas Museum in September of 1997, after which it will travel to the Denver Museum of Art, the Seattle Art Museum, the Joselyn Art Museum in Omaha,Nebraska,and the BirminghamMuseumof Art.A completecatalogue, edited by David Silverman and published by CornellUniversityPress,will be available.
A Greygranite head of a male statue, found in Kerma,Sudan. 1784-1688 BCE. 7 Slate statuette of the god Amon. 18th-19th Dynasty,ca. 1350 BCE.
Denise Doxey UniversityofPennsylvaniaMuseum
Foran importantomissionfrom last issue'sArti-Facts,see Errataon p. 76.
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Archaeoi4 .-iblical
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Shiqmim's Violin-Shaped Figurines Ghassulian
Bone
Artifacts
For the past few years, I have been researching the artifacts from Chalcolithic Ghassul at the Pontifical Biblical Institute (PBI)in Jerusalem.When I firstsaw the bone violin-shaped figurine found at Shiqmim, it reminded me a great deal of some of the more enigmatic bone objects from the Institute'sTeleilatGhassul.Thus,I was particularly intriguedby the articlepublished by Thomas Levy and JonathanGolden (BiblicalArchaeologist 59:3 [1996]:150-59) on the bone violin-shaped figurine found at Shiqmim. Certainly,the Shiqmimfigurineis unique. Nevertheless, a number of the features of this object echo the iconography of Ghassulian bone artifacts.Since it has been some time since any new informationaboutTeleilat Ghassul has been published, the site is still noted only for its unusual wall paintings. Many of the smaller examples of Ghassulian material culture are often disregarded. Ghassul remains, however, the earliest large Chalcolithic village yet discovered, and, because of this, it is interesting to compare its artifacts to those from later sites like Shiqmim. Levy and Golden's characterization of the Shiqmim figure as a mnemonic device is a provocative suggestion. The Ghassulian bone carving pictured to the right might be an even more likely candidate for such an interpretation.This rectangularobjectmea-
The
Glory
of
and
sures 5.9 cm long and 3 cm high, and from .2 to .9 cm in thickness. It looks as if it were meant to be mounted on a slender pole or stick-the cylindrical aperturein the center is .4 cm in diameter. By far the most unusual aspect of the objectis its symmetry.The apertureis in the exact center of the rectangle, and the punctate marks on either side are almost exactly equal. The carving on this objectis more delicate than that of the Shiqmim figurine, but the possible associations that these marks could recall would be similar.Also, the fact that the carving was undoubtedly made to be mounted points to an interpretation that these marks are symbolic as opposed to being merely decorative. It is a beautifully finished article and displays a high level of craftsmanship. Levy and Golden state that the rare bone violin-shaped figurines have been found only at Gilat. Coincidently, I discovered a piece of what appears to be a small bone, violin-shaped figurine in the PBI storeroom during this past summer. The contoursof the shouldersand the refined finishing technique applied to it suggest this identification instead of a more utilitarian bone piece. Although the shape is not similar to violin-shaped figurines found elsewhere, this kind of base is not unusual in Ghassulian examples.
greatpoliticalstate,with its capital city of Constantinople, and as the center of Christian orthodoxy in the East. Through the presentation of both religious and secular art, including the schematic recreation of a church interior, the exhibition identifies the characteristic modes of artistic expression that engendered a rich visual language throughout the breadth of the Byzantine Empire. Among the objects in the exhibition that exemplify the religious art of the period are the inlaid marble icon of St. Eudokia from the Archaeological Museum in Istanbul, Turkey;a double processional icon with VirginHodegetriaon front and ManofSorrowson back,fromthe Metrop-
Byzantium
The Second Golden Age of Byzantine civilization, from the mid-ninth to the midthirteenthcentury,set a standardof imperial elegance and artistic quality for both contemporary Europe and the Islamic East. For the first time ever, this great era is the focus of a major exhibition at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, TheGloryof Byzantium,on view from March 11 through July 6,1997.
TheReligiousandSecularCultureof the SecondGoldenAgeof Byzantium The first section of the exhibition displays to the dual roles of the empire-as a
rchaeologist602
SandraA. Scham PontificalBiblicalInstitute Jerusalem
olis Church in Kastoria, Greece; and the richly decorated frontispiece of TheLiturgical HomiliesofSaintGregoryof Nazianzosfrom the Monastery of Saint Catherine, in Sinai, Egypt. Examples of secular art include one of a pair of gold and cloisonne enameled braceletsfrom the Museum of Byzantine Culture in Thessalonike, Greece, and the Veroli casket, an ivory box covered with scenes from classical mythology now in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
Byzantium'sImpacton Neighboring States The second section of the exhibition addresses the multi-culturalcomposition of the Middle Byzantine Empire,exploring the
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interaction of the empire's culture with that of its immediate Christianneighborsand the conrivals-including version of the Slavic people to EasternOrthodoxy,an event of lasting historical significance. Works of exceptional importancefrom Ukraine,the Russian Federation,and Buldemonstrate garia interaction with Byzantium's the Slavs, including the monumental mosaic of Saint Stephen from Kiev, Ukraine; the Staraia Riazan' necklace from The Kremlin, Moscow; and the great necklace from the Preslav Treasure, now in the National History Museum, Sofia, Bulgaria. Byzantium's interactionwith its east Christian neighbors is representedby elaboratelydecoratedmanuscripts from the Armenian Mechitaristi Monastery at San Lazzaro, Venice. Byzantium's continuing relationship to the Christians now in Islamic lands is seen through fresco fragmentsfrom The National Museum, Damascus,Syria,and the Studium BiblicumFranciscanumMuseumin Jerusalem, Israel, as well as such icons as The HeavenlyLadderoffohnKlimaxfrom the Monastery
(above, left and right)Late12th century necklacefrom StaraiaRiazan',of gold, preciousstones and pearls. Bowl showing the Ascension of Alexander. Midtwelfth-centuryAnatolian. (left) Detailfrom an icon with the Heavenly Ladderof John Klimax.Latetwelfth-century Byzantine.
influences. Two exceptional manuscripts fromthe libraryof the TopkapiSarayMuseum, Istanbul, represent Islamic translations of Byzantine texts. Silk textiles from the church treasuries of Auxerre and Sens in France demonstrate the interaction of Islamic and Byzantinemotifs in these centuries.A unique copper gilt and cloisonn6 bowl with Islamic inscriptions and the Ascension of Alexander offers the centerpiece of this gallery.
of SaintCatherinein Sinai,Egypt. Byzantium'sInteraction with the Islamic East This section of the exhibitionilluminates the reciprocalnatureof Byzantineand Islamic
Byzantium'sInteraction with the Latin West The final galleries examine the interaction of Middle Byzantine art with that of WesternEurope from Italy through Scan-
dinavia and Germany to France, England, and Spain. Byzantine art reached the West in a variety of ways, including the Byzantine territorial possessions in South Italy, trade, and diplomatic exchanges, marital connections to Germany,and Crusaderspolia [plunder].The Reliquary of SaintAnastasios the Persianin the shape of a cupola church is among the works that are known to have been brought to the Latin West during the Middle Byzantine centuries. The Madonna and Childby the Italian artist Berlinghiero (died by 1236)offers one of the outstanding examplesof western artinfluencedby Byzantium. The curators of The Gloryof Byzantium are William D. Wixom, Michel David-Weill Chairman of Medieval Art, and The Cloisters, and Helen C. Evans, Associate Curator for EarlyChristianand ByzantineArt,Department of MedievalArt.The exhibitionis made possible by Alpha Banking Group. Sponsorship is provided by Citibank. Support is provided by Papastratos S.A. Additional assistancehas been receivedfromthe National Endowment for the Humanities, the Foundation for Hellenic Culture, Marinopoulos Group, Halyvourgiki Inc., Constantine and Mrs. Yeli Angelopoulos and donors. Papayannopoulou, anonymous An indemnity has been granted by the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities.
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the and
Ages.
Israel Finkelstein.xiii + 197pp., 60 figures. Sheffield:SheffieldAcademic Press, 1995;US$60.00. In a long series of articles and monographs, spanning close to fifteenyears, Israel Finkelstein has repeatedly addressed the problem of intermittent settlement and the relationship of pastoral nomadism to sedentary agriculturein the Bronzeand Iron Ages of the southern Levant. In his most recentmonograph,Livingon theFringe,Finkelstein has distilledthisresearchinto a synthetic treatmentof Bronzeand IronAge settlement in the "climatological frontier" of the arid southern portions of the southern Levant (Negev, Sinai, and Edom.) Living on the Fringeis divided into two parts. The first deals with issues of general relevanceto the study of settlementand subsistence change in the arid margins of the southern Levant, while the second offers "case studies" of particular periods of settlement expansion in these marginal areas during the Bronze and IronAges. In the first part, Finkelstein introduces the problem of intermittency in the quantity of archaeological remains through time, restates his well-known argument on the archaeological "invisibility" of pastoralnomads,discounts climatic change as a prime-mover in settlement change, and attempts to detail the causes and archaeologicalcorrelatesof sedentarization and nomadization. The final chapter (six) of part one, is largely a reprint of an article published by Baruch Rosen and Finkelstein in Palestine Exploration Quarterly. This chapter is a case study of the carrying-capacityand likely subsistence regimes of the Sede-Boqer area in the northern Negev during the Intermediate Bronze Age (EB IV), Iron Age, and Byzantine period. While this study is admirable in its contextual richness and quantitativerigor,it is poorly integratedinto the monographas whole, which for the most part treatsagro-pastoralproduction in terms that are quite general. This is unfortunate
when one considers how clearly chapter six demonstrates the degree to which the viability of a particular production regime is relative to very local conditions of environment and political economy. In the second part of this monograph, Finkelstein reviews a number of case studies that are well-known from his previous articles. In particular,he discusses EBArad as a polity of sedentarized nomads controlling the southern copper route, the "despecialization" of pastoral nomads and sedentary agriculturists in the Intermediate Bronze Age (EB IV), the rise of a "chiefdom"of sedentarized nomads at Iron I Tel Masos, and the existence of a largely "invisible" Arabian trade route in the late Iron II period. Finkelstein also reserves one chapter to fire another shot in his ongoing battle with Piotr Bienkowski on the existence of Iron I pottery at sites in southern and centralEdom. By way of conclusion, Finkelstein stresses that the settlement history of arid zones in the southern Levant is a cyclical process. This process is characterized by the shifting of an ever-present "desert population" along the sedentarynomadic continuum in response to changes in the economic and socio-political conditions of these marginal areas. Overall, Finkelstein should be congratulated forpresentingthe fruitsof many years of research in one convenient package. As is typicalfor Finkelstein,this work is marked by the author's impressive command of the relevant primary data, as well as his keen interest in the broader literatureon pastoral nomadism. Indeed,Livingon theFringemight well serve as a bibliographic resource to recent researchon both the archaeology and ethnography of the Negev and Sinai. A general weakness of this book is the author's tendency to rely on analogies of formal similarity to justify his arguments, rather than explicating the specific causal forces at work in each historic period. Consequently,Finkelstein'suse of the ethnographic literatureappearsselectiveand opportunistic,
while his explanationsfor variabilitybetween periods in what are ostensibly the same phenomena seem ad hoc. So, for example, why does "control" of the southern trade route by the "desert peoples" of EB II and Iron I encourage sedentarization, while the "control"of this trade route by Assyria in Iron II promotes continued nomadism? Similarly, if courtyard space indicates that both EB II Arad and the Iron Age "fortresses" of the Negev are sedentarized nomads, why is courtyard space individuated in the first instance and communal in the second? Such questions may not be fatal to Finkelstein's arguments, but they are symptoms of his tendency to use general principles (e.g. "nomads do X, Y, and Z") without clearly explaining the causal forces that determine why those principles do, or do not, apply in any particular case. An exception is Finkelstein's "specialization/ despecialization" model by which he explains settlement in the Intermediate Bronze Age. While I disagreewith thisexplanation,becauseit assumes that surplus production is dependent on an urbanizedlandscape (ignoringthe "normal" surplus built into most forms of agricultural production) and relies on negative evidence ("invisible" nomads), its explicitly stated model of causation is welcome. Livingon theFringeis an importantbook for Syro-PalestinianArchaeology because it locates one of our leading figures and points to where many of us are going. While I disagreed with many specific points in this book, this disagreement was stimulating rather than disappointing. I had to think hard about why I disagreed with the author and reflectcarefully upon the validity of my own position. Being challenged by an intelligentauthorin commandof his or her subject is one of the pleasures of scholarship. In this sense, reading Livingon theFringeis decidedly pleasurableand definitely worthwhile.
Bruce Routledge Universityof Pennsylvania
iipI
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i 60E
IN CAUGHT ELECTRONIC
OPPORTUNITIES
THE
NET
IN ARCHAEOLOGY
by JohnYounger The appearance of a new e-mail discussion list, from Romania, leads to an assessment of such lists in countries other than the U.S. Off on my own expedition this summer to Italy and Tunisia, I surf for information-and find a great site from the Tunisia Board of Tourism. Finally, I lurk on "ArchComp-L,"the discussion list about archaeologicalcomputing, and learn mostly how little I know.
A ListIs Born Soon afterthe firstof the year,I receivedan e-mailannouncement that a new discussion list had formed.Usually,I dutifully record it on my web-site for archaeologicaldiscussion groups and take only a mild interest. This list was on Romanian archaeology,which I thought would be useful though of limited interest. But then I looked again: the list was originating in Romania! True,Arheologie-L is still in its fledgling phase; it has fifty-seven subscribers, about 20% from inside Romania (I didn't even know there was a server there!), 10% from the United Kingdom, and an expected 45% from the U.S. The locations of the rest of the subscribers included the Czech Republic,Hungary,and Bulgaria.I knew that there were internet enthusiasts in the Czech Republic and in Hungary-they subscribe to ANE and AegeaNet, too; but I didn't know that Bulgaria was even on-line!
DiscussionListsin OtherCountries
Dianathe Huntressdepicted on a mosaicfound in Utica.Costumed in a short dress, Dianastringsher bow to shoot an arrowat a doe. An olive tree occupiesthe middleof the scene from the earlythird centuryCE.View this and a magnificentselection of mosaicsat http://www.tourismtunisia.com.
How many more lists, I suddenly thought, originate from countries other than the U.S.? So I went over my web-site on archaeological lists and totted them up, not that that list is complete (what list of e-mail lists or web-sites is?), but it may be a representative sample of discussion lists that focus on Old World archaeology. Britainleads, with six e-mail discussion lists: BritArch(of course) and Arch-Metalsand Arch-Theory-typically British; and there's Med-and-Ren-Music with its precise hyphens, IntArchabout publishing archaeology over the Internet,and Aegyptian-L on the Aegyptian language and literature. Canada produces five lists: the technical MAPC (Materialist Anthropology and the Production of Culture), and, interestingly enough, four medieval lists (Elenchus on Christianity in LateAntiquity, MedArt-Lon art history,ArthurNet on Arthurian studies, and the more general Interscripta). From Denmark and Ireland come three lists each: from Denmark originates Syria, Papy on papyrology, and ArchArctic,appropriatefor the country that founded Iceland;and from Ireland come three ethnic lists: Celtic-L, Gaelic-L, and EthNet-L on Irish and British Ethnography. Finally, Germany produces two lists (ForumNeo-Lithics and IusRomanum) and Italy, Greece, and Sweden one
each: Coptist on Coptic from Italy, Romiosini on Byzantine studies from Greece, and OldNorseNet from Sweden. I have mixed feelings about the results. I always think that people, as well as nations, whose own interests lie at the heart of their efforts will probably feel involved and passionate enough to sustain them. I like seeing those lists that appear ethnically or historicallyappropriateto the countries they originate from. It seems right that Britain should entertain theoretical archaeology lists since Oxbridge has been developing such approachesand methods. And it seems proper for Ireland to explore its Gaelic roots, Denmark its arctic connections, Sweden its Norse traditions, and Greece its Byzantine glories. But I find it appalling that it is taking so long for other countries to develop the technology to participate in the Internet. The lag-time seems enormous, and the costs to knowledge and research are great, let alone to national pride and the spirit of internationalism. I am even more bothered when countries other than the U.S. aren't sponsoring their own discussion lists on topics of national concern. Dear to my heart is Greek archaeology, but now that Greece has long developed its own corps of archaeologists, technicians, and scholars and an agenda for
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excavating and producing its own archaeological heritage, why hasn't it produced its own "GreekArch"or "AegeaNet"? I don't have an answer; it's not a problem with fonts. Perhaps as the Internet develops and more and more countries find themselves logged-on, they will eventually see e-mail, discussion lists, and the World Wide Web as new sites for exploring their heritage. In the meantime, Romania's Archeologie-L leads the way; long life to it!
How I Am Spending My Summer
While y'all are reading this edition of "Caught," I'll be touring Rome and Campania with the Duke-in-Rome Program until the end of June-Paul Rehak in my department is leading the students, and I'm tagging along. And then we're off to Tunisia for a spot of R & R. Since I was in this international mood, I thought I'd see what was on-line from Tunisia.Quite a bit, and it didn't take much looking to find valuable stuff. I startedoff with "Argos," the archaeological search-engine managed by Anthony F. Beavers & H. Sonpal. After entering the keyword "Tunisia,"
"Argos"pulled up fifty-nine matches within seconds, though only a few looked promising. The web-site from the Carthage ArchaeologicalFieldshool was helpful, with many links and tips on how to see the country-after reading the section on bike-tours, I'm also tempted to bicycle through it! The Tunisia National Tourism Office was a pleasant surprise, an enjoyable site with click-on maps and hotlinks to sections on hotels, transportation, food (a yummy picture of a "brik",a kind of over-large fried wonton), and some of the more important sites, including Carthage and E1 Djem. The images of the Roman mosaics are few but overwhelming. The site first presents thumbnail details which, when the scale is impresyou click on them, show the entire mnos•aic; sive (a window and a half) and the freshness of both mosaic and the photograph is breathtaking.Armed with a couple of "briks,"I'm packed! If you have any comments or questions, or would like to see a topic discussed, e-mail me:
[email protected] or check out my Web home page: http:/ /www.duke.edu/ web/ jyounger/.
A general list of archaeologicale-mail discussionlists Argos,an archaeologicalsearch-engine: httpJ/www.duke.edulwebfjyounger/archlist.html At this site you will find the subscriptioninformationto all httpY/argos.evansville.edul the discussionlistsmentioned in this edition of "Caughtin Arheologie-L,an email discussionlist on archaeology in Romania: the the Net."' to subscribe,mailto "
[email protected]" ForAncient Near Eastsites: following: subscribearheologie-Ifirstname last_namethe list is run by Dr.MirceaAngelescu, directorof the Romanian ABZU (httplwww-oi.uchicago.edu/OI/DEPTiRAiABZU/ABZUNEW.HTML). ArchaeologicalInstitute ForAegean, Greekand Romanweb sites: Duke-University-in-Rome Program: with images! httpl/www.duke.edulclassics/cs145/ Kapatija(httpi/www.duke.edul/ebljyounger/kapat96.html). Sites &servicesmentioned in the text: CarthageArchaeologicalFieldschool: ANE:to subscribe,mail to "
[email protected]" http://members.tripod.com/-Djebbanalindex.html TheTunisiaNationalTourismOffice: one of the following: "subscribeane", "subscribeanehttpi/www.tourismtunisia.com/and www.tunisiaonline.corm digest", "subscribeanenews", "subscribeanenews-digest".
ARCHCOMP-L list (ArchaeologicalComputing) FromNovember 1996 through March1997 the list (about 325 subscribers)was generating about 2 messages a week, usuallyfrom a few contributors,includingthe list-owners.ArchComp-L is for the informed;the list'spostings use technical language, which, I'm sure, will be familiarto anyone who has perusedthe basicintroductoryliteratureon computing applicationsin archaeologyl--I thought I had, but apparentlyI have some light summerreadingto do! I also discoveredthat I'musing the wrong computer-all the software programsmentioned are designed for Windows.Most of the postings were what I would term "presentational:"listsof appropriateURLs,resourcesand announcements.The only discussion concernedthe virtuesand vices of metricand non-metricmultidimensionalscaling,and there were some postings on Pattern Recognition,Image Processing,ClusterAnalysis(usingfuzzy rules),and Multivariateanalysis. Therewere the expected announcements:a conference on Remote SensingApplicationsin Archaeologywith a NASAastronautas a speaker (talkabout veryRemote Sensing!)and a posted URLfor sites with aerial and satellite imagery and a call for grant proposalsfor the NationalCenterfor PreservationTechnologyand (http:/eleftheria.stcloud.msus.edulrsaa), Training.One posting gave out informationon how to transformextreme oblique (aerial)photographs into maps and plans.This is a technique I will find useful:from the ground I have taken lots of photographsof things high up in the air,and one of these days I want to use these to generate detailed elevational drawingsof the LionGate and AtreusFacadeat Mycenae. The list is also archived: Tosubscribeto ArchComp-L, mail "subscribearchcomp-lYourName"to "
[email protected]". httpl/listserv.acsu.buffalo.edularchives/archcomp-l.htmI.
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OFORIENTAL AMERICAN SCHOOLS RESEARCH 0
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1997-98 BOARDOFTRUSTEES P. E. MacAllister Chairman of the Board Joe D. Seger President W. H. Holden Gibbs Chair, Finance, Treasurer James Ross Secretary Paul Jacobs Chair, CAMP Al Leonard Chair, COP Walt Rast Chair, CAP
CLASSOF1998
CLASSOF1999
David Albright * Jerold Cooper * Nan Frederick * Gough Thompson, Jr.* Ted Campbell * R. Thomas Schaub * Tammi Schneider * Deborah Stern * Richard Scheuer * Lydie Shufro ** Walter Rast * (Ex. officio)
Walter Aufrecht Jeffrey Blakely ** William Devert Holden Gibbs * Holland Hendrix * Paul Jacobs t (Ex. officio) Al Leonard (Ex. officio) Eric Meyers ** Joe Seger *
& INSTITUTES OVERSEAS TRUSTEES COMMITTEE
CLASSOF2000
Julie Hanson ** Burton MacDonald ** James Ross ** John Spencer t Jodi Magness t Randal Younker t P. E. MacAllister * Gerald Vincent *
HONORARY TRUSTEES Alexander Abraham Frank Moore Cross Norma Kershaw Philip King C. C. Lamberg Karlovsky George Landes Leon Levy Martin Meyerson Kevin O'Connell John Warrington Ernest Frerichs
Patty Gerstenblith, AIAR Anne Ogilvy, ACOR Andrew Oliver, CAARI
ADVISORY TRUSTEE COMMrITEE Alfred Gottschalk
LIFETRUSTEES Charles U. Harris
Eugene M. Grant Eileen G.Wilkinson Elizabeth Moynihan Lawrence Stager Gus Van Beek * Board Elected
**Individual Member Elected
$ Corporate Member Elected
The mound of Beth-Shean (Arabic:Tellel-Hosn, i.e., "the
moundof the fortress")towers steeplyabove the BethShean Valleyto a height of 113 m below sea level. The site commands the main road descending from the Jezreel and
HarodValleysto the Beth-SheanValley,a vitalsegment of the internationalhighway.Withits strategicadvantages,as well as the abundantwater and fertile landsnearby,Beth-Shean was an attractivesite for settlement and offers evidenceof occupationas earlyas the end of the NeolithicPeriod(the fifth millenniumBCE)and continuinguntil Medievaltimes.
