Tell el-Ful Revisited: The Assyrian and Hellenistic Periods (with a New Identification)

Abstract

This article deals with the settlement history of Tell el-Ful from the Iron Age until the Hellenistic period. The author rejects past theories that a great fortress was built at the site in the Iron I period and that the settlement was protected by a casemate wall in the Iron IIC. He also rejects the identification of Tell el-Ful as biblical Gibeah/Gibeah of Saul. The author proposes that the tower excavated by Albright and Lapp was first constructed in the Iron IIC as an Assyrian watchtower commanding the northern approach to Jerusalem, and that it was one link in a system of such forts around the capital of Judah. The author maintains that the building served as a Hellenistic fort in a later phase and suggests the possibility, however speculative, of identifying Tell el-Ful with Pharathon, mentioned as one of the forts constructed by Bacchides in Judea in the early 2nd century BCE, and with Perath/Parah of late-monarchic times.     

Production centers of cooking pots in Iron Age Judah

This paper will present and discuss a multifaceted research project dealing with the production of cooking pots during the Iron Age II (ca. 1,000–586 BCE) Judah (modern Israel). In particular the new compositional analysis of 541 cooking vessels from 11 sites in Iron Age Judah will be presented. The study employs petrographic and chemical (NAA) analysis. The results of this ongoing research have already produced interesting information about production centers and movements of cooking pots in Iron Age II Judah. Apparently, the vast majority of the cooking pots sampled were made of a similar type of clay, related to terra rossa soil. This is true also for sites in the northern Negev and Judean Desert, where the type of soil was not available in the region of the sites. Furthermore, many of the cooking pots distributed around Judah were made in Jerusalem according to a well-located chemical profile (JleB). Other groups may represent Judean Shephelah production centers as the Lachish area as well as production centers in southern Israel or ancient Edom. The implications of the importation patterns of cooking pots by peripheral Judean sites will be discussed.     

THE BROCH CULTURES OF ATLANTIC SCOTLAND: ORIGINS, HIGH NOON AND DECLINE. PART 1: EARLY IRON AGE BEGINNINGS c.700–200 BC

Summary.   A new overview of the broch and wheelhouse-building cultures is offered because recent comparable attempts have omitted substantial amounts of relevant data, such as discussion of the most plausible broch prototypes and of the details of the material cultural sequence, particularly the pottery. Well dated Early Iron Age roundhouse sites have often been described, but promontory forts of the same period, showing the specialized broch hollow wall, have not. The example at Clickhimin, Shetland, is now reliably dated to the sixth century BC at the latest and the associated pottery shows clear links with north-west France. Another unexcavated example in Harris can be restored in some detail and shows how these sites were probably used. The pivotal role of Shetland in the emergence of the new culture is confirmed by the early dating of the broch at Old Scatness to the fourth/third centuries BC. However, a separate development of the round broch tower seems also to have occurred in the west, in the third/second centuries BC. English Early Iron Age pottery is also prominent in some of the earliest sites in the west and north. The picture is of a dynamic, maritime zone open to influences from several remote regions.     

内蒙古赤峰市康家湾遗址2006年发掘简报

2006年,对内蒙古赤峰市康家湾遗址进行发掘。该遗址以夏家店下层文化遗存为主体,遗迹有房址、墓葬、灰沟、灰坑、灶等,出土较多陶器、石器、蚌器、骨器等。该遗址不属于石城址,房址均为土坑半地穴式。它的发现,为研究阴河中下游地区夏家店下层文化的聚落形态及建筑形式提供了重要资料。     

Spectrographic Analyses of Mycenaean Pottery from Ialysos on Rhodes: Results and Implications

Abstract

The changing relations between the important Mycenaean site of Ialysos on Rhodes and the Argolid (in the Greek Peloponnese) during the LH III period (the 15th-12th centuries B.C.) have been studied through the pottery found in the tombs of the cemetery from Ialysos. The results of spectrographic analyses of well characterised and dated pots from Ialysos have made possible a clear distinction between locally produced Rhodian pottery and imports that were primarily from the Argolid. During the LH IIIA2 period the large majority of the cemetery pottery at Ialysos was imported from the Argolid. The same situation pertains in the IIIB period, but there are examples of imported pottery from centres other than the Argolid, such as Crete. In the 12th century B.C. (IIIC), however, the position was completely reversed, and the fine Mycenaean pottery was almost exclusively made on Rhodes.     

The Early Iron Age at Troy Reconsidered

Neutron Activation Analysis (NAA) of Protogeometric ceramics at Troy supports a revision of our understanding of the site in the Protogeometric period. Previous interpretations of this period at Troy emphasized the importance of either Greek migration or Greek trade networks. A category of amphoras previously thought to be imports appears to have been made locally. NAA also indicates local production of a new class of handmade cooking pots, as well as more traditional Gray ware vessels. Analysis reveals a high degree of cultural continuity at Iron Age Troy, with inhabitants adopting and adapting a wider vocabulary of Protogeometric vessel types in the Aegean while integrating them with established local pottery traditions and resource use. The combinations of local and non‐local components seen at Troy are more consistent with long‐term dynamic Aegean interaction spheres than with more tenuous models of Aeolian migration or Euboian expansion.     

The Chronology of the Southeast Arabian Iron Age

Drawing on the results of the Australian Archaeological Expedition's excavation of Tell Abraq, a three-fold division of the southeast Arabian Iron Age is suggested. A re-analysis of ¹⁴C data in line with the latest agreed calibration curve together with an analysis of the foreign parallels of southeast Arabian Iron Age pottery permits the construction of a complete Iron Age sequence. The results argue for a lower chronology for the Iron II and III periods than has, up until now, been suggested.     

Original DocumentsExtracts from the Pipe Roll of the Exchequer, 21 Edw. III. (A.D. 1353), Relating to the Early use of Guns and Gunpowder in the English Army

This report is concerned with a sampling excavation of Bronze Age, Roman and late Saxon/early medieval settlement traces near the church at Wraysbury, Berkshire. The most extensive evidence is for an agricultural settlement of the late ninth to twelfth centuries A. D. based on a series of ditched enclosures and trackways. The settlement moved location during the eleventh century. The environmental evidence is particularly important. A large faunal assemblage including extensive fish remains exists for the late Saxon and medieval phases as well as an unusual collection of charred plant remains. There are important groups of Late Bronze Age and Saxon pottery.     

Middle Bronze Age Settlement Patterns in the Western Galilee,Israel

Abstract

During the Middle Bronze Age (MB) II period (ca. 1750–1600 B.C.), Tel Kabri, located in the western Galilee, Israel, was the center of a thriving polity with economic and cultural connections to Egypt, Cyprus, and the Aegean. While Kabri and some neighboring sites have been partially excavated, the rise and fall of the polity has not been clearly understood. We present evidence from the Kabri Archaeological Project (KAP) to reconstruct shifting settlement patterns, demography, and aspects of trade in the Kabri hinterland from MB I to Late Bronze Age (LB) I. We argue that Kabri, in the northern part of the Acco plain, follows a different developmental trajectory than does the site of Acco and its hinterland in the southern part of the plain. Acco was urbanized early in MB I and developed a mature hinterland that persisted throughout MB II and into LB I. Kabri did not begin to bloom until late in the MB I period. Its rapid rise during MB II was accompanied by the abandonment of village sites far from the center of the polity and the fortification of nearby settlements. These efforts to consolidate power and to maintain the flow of goods into the center did not last long, and the polity of Kabri soon collapsed.     

A Late Iron Age settlement in Wādī Banī Ḫālid: First season of the joint Omani-Italian archaeological project

This paper introduces the first results of the joint Omani-Italian archaeological project at Wādī Banī Ḫālid (northern Šarqiyyah governorate, eastern al-Ḥaǧar), where a dense Iron Age and ancient Islamic occupation was detected. The aim of the project is the definition of the Iron Age settlement patterns along the eastern al-Ḥaǧar landscape and its relationship with both the coastal areas and the al-Ḥaǧar inner piedmont sites of central Oman. In fact, this project follows previous studies of the coastal environment between Muscat and Raʾs al-Ḥadd, where several seasonal fishermen villages were investigated, and their connections with inner permanent sites, such as Lizq, recognised during the Early Iron Age II (1300–600 BCE). Therefore, Wādī Banī Ḫālid stands as a peculiar case of an Iron Age territorial unit, a natural scenario made of a narrow alluvial valley which provided natural conditions for the development of a complex culture. Moreover, the material culture emerged after a first excavation campaign proved that the main occupational phase of the imposing fortified settlement WBK1 is the Late Iron Age (late first millennium BCE to third–fourth centuries CE), thus hopefully allowing new questions to be posed for the definition of Late Iron Age cultures and the chronology in central Oman, which is mostly known based on the excavation of funerary evidence. For this reason, the first part of the paper focuses on the results of the first season in Wādī Banī Ḫālid, and the second part discusses the links between Wādī Banī Ḫālid and the south-eastern Arabia general framework during the Late Iron Age.     

Subsistence practices in an arid environment: a geoarchaeological investigation in an Iron Age site,the Negev Highlands,Israel

The Negev Highlands (southern Israel) is an arid zone characterized by settlement oscillations. One settlement peak occurred in the early Iron Age IIA (late 10th and early 9th centuries BC). The most conspicuous structure in many sites of this period is an oval compound comprised of an internal courtyard surrounded by rooms. Two hypotheses for the function of these oval compounds are that they served as Israelite fortresses which guarded the southern border and routes of the Solomonic kingdom, or that they represent local agro-pastoral groups. In order to gather more information regarding the subsistence practices conducted in these oval compounds, we carried out a small-scale excavation at the site of Atar Haroa. We focused on sediment sampling and used several geoarchaeological, as well as isotopic, techniques in order to identify macroscopic and microscopic remains related to animal husbandry and crop agriculture. The remains identified from the archaeological sediments were compared with modern reference materials collected from abandoned Bedouin camps. The excavation included two half rooms and several test pits in the courtyard of the oval compound, featuring one Iron Age occupation level composed of gray sediments and relatively small amounts of pottery, bones and macro-botanical charred remains. Micromorphological, mineralogical, dung spherulite and isotopic analyses carried out on the gray occupational sediments from the rooms show that they originate from wood ash and dung, both used as fuel. Similar analyses of the gray sediments in the courtyard show that they originate only from degraded livestock dung. Phytolith analyses show that the gray anthropogenic sediments have similar concentrations of phytoliths as in control (yellowish) sediments and in the dung of winter free-grazing desert livestock and lichen-grazing black dwarf Bedouin goats. Phytoliths indicative of cereal crops are completely absent in the archaeological dung remains, indicating that cereal crops were not processed by the site inhabitants. Based on ethnographic and archaeological parallels, and on the presence of grinding stones and absence of sickle blades in the excavated rooms, we infer that the inhabitants at the oval compound at Atar Haroa subsisted on livestock herding and bought or exchanged cereal grains. Our results support the hypothesis that the inhabitants at the oval compound at Atar Haroa were desert-adapted pastoralists, rather than garrisoned soldiers.     

Iron smelting and smithing in major urban centers in Israel during the Iron Age

By-products of iron production, mainly slag and bloom fragments, unearthed at three Iron Age urban centres in Israel (Hazor, Tel Beer sheba and Rehov), were analysed in order to better understand the organization of iron production during the Iron Age. The production remains studied are all dated not earlier than the Iron Age IIA, and thus shed light on a period of transition from bronze to iron production. Chemical composition and microstructural analyses enable us to determine that both the smelting of iron ores and the refining of the bloom took place within the urban centres of Hazor and Beer-Sheba. We show that slag cakes are the products of smelting, possibly carried out in pit-furnaces. Hammerscales, products of primary and secondary smithing, were attached to slags. From these observations we infer that all stages of iron production were practiced in these urban centres.     

Report on Underwater Excavation at the Phoenician Harbour,Atlit, Israel

Atlit is a small Phoenician settlement on the Carmel coast, with an artificial harbour, built during Iron Age II, before the Assyrian occupation, and used until the end of the Persian era. There are no remains of any later construction, in contrast to other Phoenician ports such as Sidon and Tyre. The study of Atlit harbour has therefore provided invaluable information on the positioning, planning and construction of Phoenician harbours in the Levant. This article is a summary of the most recent underwater excavation seasons at the harbour, and presents our conclusions on construction techniques and their historical implications. © 2009 The Author     

Al-Khidr site on Failaka Island in the Bronze Age: Pottery perspective

The objective of this article is to evaluate the results of the excavation at the site of Al-Khidr on Failaka Island that was probably a port or a fishermen’s settlement in the past. A very large number of stone architectural remains and artifacts have been discovered there. Al-Khidr is a typical Dilmun culture site and the settlement was probably contemporary with the known sites F3 and F6 located on the south-west coast of the island. Based on the pottery that has been processed, we preliminarily dated the site to a period between the beginning of the second millenium and approximately 1500 BC, although older settlement may have occurred, beginning at the end of the third millennium.     

Ria de Aveiro A: a shipwreck from Portugal dating to the mid-15th century; a preliminary report

The remains of a coasting vessel were found in a lagoon close to the coast. Four radiocarbon determinations provided a date in the mid-15th century and it has been the subject of several seasons of excavation of CNANS. The excavation strategy is described, as are its surviving constructional details which are analysed with reference to early sources for Portuguese naval architecture. This coaster has constructional features found in ocean-going ships of the Iberian-Atlantic tradition. Its cargo of pottery is one of the most extensive and closely dated from the Age of Discovery and includes 18 forms.     

香港西贡沙下遗址DI区发掘简报

2002年春,香港古物古迹办事处与广州市文物考古研究所在香港西贡沙下遗址DI区进行考古发掘,面积1000平方米。发掘新石器时代晚期、商周时期和宋代文化层,清理了石器制作场、墓葬、灰坑及柱洞等遗迹,出土大量石制品和陶器,还有少量汉、宋、明、清时期的遗迹和遗物,为研究香港及珠江三角洲地区考古学文化的序列提供了宝贵的资料。     

2002年度香港西贡沙下遗址C02区和DⅡ02区考古发掘简报

20 0 2年 ,香港古物古迹办事处和河南省文物考古研究所联合在香港发掘西贡沙下遗址 ,发掘面积达 70 0平方米。发现有新石器时代晚期、青铜时代和宋元代的遗存。遗迹中属新石器时代晚期有房址、灰坑等 ,青铜时代有房址、灰坑、石器制造场、灰沟等 ,宋元代有灰坑。遗物中有不同时代的石器、陶器、硬陶器、瓷器、釉陶器等。     

Living on the Edge? Transformation of a Marginal Pleistocene Landscape Into a Settlement Area in the Northeastern Part of the Netherlands

ABSTRACT

This paper will examine settlement location during the Iron Age in the northeast part of the Netherlands, an area shaped by Pleistocene geology. In recent years, a number of Late Iron Age/Early Roman settlements situated on the low lying slopes of sand ridges and nearby stream ridges revealed traces of an earlier Iron Age occupation. Palynological data revealed that this part of the landscape was used by humans before it was transformed into an area of settlement. An analysis of excavation data from two key sites at Denekamp-De Borchert and Groningen-Helpermaar, as well as other known sites, lead to the conclusion that the transformation of ‘peripheral landscapes’ into permanent settlement locations was preceded by a phase of arable cultivation which left no trace of permanent habitation. It is also suggested that the impact of human behaviour on the natural landscape in the Early and Middle Iron Age was much bigger than previously anticipated. When excavating this type of settlement areas dating to the Late Iron Age, archaeologists must be aware that only of a small group of archaeological features exist. The proposed model for the choice of settlement location may be more widespread, because of similarities in landscape between the study area presented here and other landscapes in Northwest-Europe (e.g. parts of Germany and Denmark).     

Prehistoric Settlement,Mobility and Societal Structure in the Peak District National Park: New Evidence from Ceramic Compositional Analysis

Detailed compositional and technological analysis of a large assemblage of prehistoric ceramics from numerous sites situated within the Peak District National Park has been used to explore the settlement patterns, societal structure, mobility and interaction of the populations that inhabited this area during the Early Bronze Age to Early Iron Age. A surprising pattern emerges of the widespread dominance of a single, geographically restricted temper type, which appears to have been transported and mixed with locally procured clay and used to produce pottery at numerous different sites. The distribution of this and several other compositional groups are defined via thin‐section petrography and compared to raw material field samples. The resulting patterns are used to assess the validity of previous theories about prehistoric life in this region during the third to first millennia bc .