When looking at the sources that have been available from the Syria-Palestine region since the Chalcolithic and that depict or describe beings with more than one head or one face, two things become apparent: On the one hand, there are only a few sources and therefore beings with several faces or heads did not play a major role in the real world or mythological realm in the region if one compares the attested evidence with other cultures of the Near East. On the other hand, there are also clear innovations or inventions that distinguish the region unmistakably from other cultures, e.g. Egypt.

Evidence of multiple heads in the Syria-Palestine region extends from the fifth millennium to the time after Christ's birth, while multiple faces only appear towards the end of the third millennium.

The oldest finds from the Chalcolithic represent several animals or their heads on an object (such as a crown or a staff). It can be assumed that the multi-headed gods developed from these objects.

The earliest forms of double-headed animals were borrowed from nature and elevated to the divine realm in the centuries that followed.

Some of the multi-headed or multi-faced creatures known from the Bible, like many other finds from the Syrian-Palestinian region, can be traced back to Mesopotamian models or well-known depictions.

The seven-headed serpent can be understood as the enemy of the gods par excellence, which is conquered in many written documents and illustrations and was known throughout the eastern Mediterranean. Starting from Mesopotamia, it is known from Ugaritic sources up to the Revelation of John and Coptic sources, with the number seven being the expression for evil as a whole.

Multiheadedness is on the one hand a sign of power, but also of chaos and evil.

The multiplication of heads is an expression of power: the struggle of a god with a multiple-headed being, such as its defeat, puts the struggle in a completely different light than if the enemy had only one head.

1  Einleitung

2  Grundlagen  

    2.1  Eingrenzung der Materialbasis und des Vergleichsmaterials

    2.2  Wesen mit mehreren Gesichtern oder Köpfen in der Realität            

        2.2.1  Ein Kopf mit mehreren Gesichtern            

        2.2.2  Zwei Köpfe           

        2.2.3  Drei Köpfe            

        2.2.4  Zusammenfassung            

3  Mehrköpfigkeit im syrisch-palästinischen Raum          

    3.1  Objekte aus dem Chalkolithikum    

    3.2  Objekte aus der Frühbronzezeit      

    3.3  Von der Mittelbronzezeit zum ersten vorchristlichen Jahrtausend  

    3.4  Zusammenfassung

4  Mehrköpfigkeit in der Bibel   

    4.1  Das Alte Testament              

        4.1.1  Das Buch Ezechiel              

        4.1.2  Das Buch Daniel  

        4.1.3  Psalm 74 

        4.1.4  Die syrische Pešitta           

        4.1.5  Zusammenfassung            

    4.2  Das Neue Testament – Siebenköpfige Wesen in der Apokalypse des Johannes         

        4.2.1  Überlieferung     

        4.2.2  Interpretationen in der Forschung             

        4.2.3  Die siebenköpfige Schlange im Vorderen Orient  

        4.2.4  Zusammenfassung            

5  Exkurs: Biblische Wesen mit mehreren Köpfen im Mittelalter

6  Résumé         

Literaturverzeichnis      

Abbildungsverzeichnis 

Abkürzungsverzeichnis

Indices

Farbabbildungen            

This Festschrift assembles 32 contributions devoted to K. Lawson Younger, Jr. by his colleagues and students from North America, Israel and Europe. In accordance with significant topics of his own scholarly oeuvre the articles focus on Old Testament and Ancient Near Eastern studies. Among many other topics the relations of “Deuteronomy 13 and the Succession Treaty of Esarhaddon” are explored as well as “Rituals in the Gideon Narrative (Judges 6–8)”, “Deities in the Ammonite Personal Names” and “the textual evidence for “The ‘Priests’ of Ugarit”. Archaeological contributions focus on—to list just a few—“The Carmel in the Bronze and Iron Ages”, “Deer Antlers in Iron Age I Cultic Contexts at Tel Abel Beth Maacah” and the “Archaeological Evidence of Priests and Priesthood in Iron Age Israel and Judah”. Linguistic and cultural studies evaluate recent studies of Amorite and examine “East as Symbolic Space” and raise the question of “Aramaean Identity” in Iron Age Syria.

K. Lawson Younger, Jr.

Publications of K. Lawson Younger, Jr.

Bill T. Arnold and Brian T. Shockey: Deuteronomy 13 and the Succession Treaty of Esarhaddon: A Fresh Investigation

Richard E. Averbeck: The Meaning and Importance of “subdue” (kābaš) in Genesis 1:28

Barry J. Beitzel: An Inquiry into the Rendering of Hebrew sûf and yam sûf in the Early History of Translation

Koert van Bekkum: Moses Wilhelm Shapira’s “Deuteronomy” between Epigraphy and Literary Criticism

Daniel I. Block: Giving Nebuchadrezzar and Ezekiel Their Due: Rethinking the Exiled Prophet’s Final Word in Ezekiel 29:17–21

Scott Booth, Ariel Shatil, Nava Panitz-Cohen, Naama Yahalom-Mack, Carroll Kobs and Robert A. Mullins: The Buck Stops Here: Deer Antlers in Iron Age I Cultic Contexts at Tel Abel Beth Maacah and Their Implications

Caleb T. Chow: “Attribution Displacement” and its Implications for Biblical Historiography: A Methodological Discussion

Daniel E. Fleming: Why Did Emar’s Diviner Hold Documents for the Sale of City-Owned Land?

Walter E. Foster: Mari’s ARM 1 6: A New Translation and Commentary

Seymour Gitin: Ekron of the Philistines: A Response to Issues Raised in the Literature (3)

Holger Gzella: On the Origin and Meaning of ḥānīḵ in Genesis 14:14

Oliver A. Hersey: Genesis 1:6–8 and Ancient Near Eastern Celestial Perspectives

Richard S. Hess: Deities in the Ammonite Personal Names

John W. Hilber: The Contextual Method through the Lens of Relevance Theory

James K. Hoffmeier and Mark Janzen: Towards a Diplomatic, Contextual Reading of the Encounter Between Jacob and Esau in Genesis 33

J. Caleb Howard: Some of What’s New in the Study of Amorite

Neal A. Huddleston: Deposit and Read! A Discursive Explanation of Peripheral Akkadian Treaty Traditions and their Implications for Deuteronomy

Sara Kipfer and Wolfgang Zwickel: The Carmel in the Bronze and Iron Ages: A Multiperspective Approach

Michelle Knight: Geometry and Psalmody: Characterization and the Role of Deborah’s Song (Judges 5)

Jens Bruun Kofoed: East as Symbolic Space

Jacob Lauinger: The Supposed Recycling of a Silver Statue of a God from Middle Bronze Age / Old Babylonian Alalah (AlT 366 [40.05])

André Lemaire: Sabaic Inscription B-L Nashq? Revisited Within its Ancient Near Eastern Context

Theodore J. Lewis: A Magical Aramaic Curse in Jeremiah 10:11: A Performative Sociolinguistic Solution

Aren M. Maeir: “The priests, the Levites, and all the tribe of Levi, shall have no part nor inheritance with Israel” (Deut 18:1): Is there Archaeological Evidence of Priests and Priesthood in Iron Age Israel and Judah?

Alan Millard: Celebrating Victory in Poetry and Prose

Dennis Pardee: The “Priests” of Ugarit: The Textual Evidence

Jillian L. Ross: Rituals in the Gideon Narrative (Judges 6–8)

Hélène Sader: On Aramaean Identity or What is Aramaean in the Culture of Iron Age Syria?

Jack M. Sasson: Sightless in Gaza: On the Fate of Samson

JoAnn Scurlock: Northern Kingdom Voices in the Hebrew Bible? Jeroboam ben Nebat and Jehu ben Nimshi in the Tale of Elijah and the Prophets of Baʿal

Karel van der Toorn: Northern Prophets and Nazirites

David S. Vanderhooft and Luiz Gustavo Assis: The Successful Divinatory Procedure of Abraham’s Servant for Singling out Rebekah (Genesis 24:21)

Contributors

Abbreviations

The excavation report is devoted to two Bronze Age cemeteries in Tel Aviv, which allows for a very significant contribution to an understanding of ancient activity in the Qirya quarter prior to the development of the modern city of Tel Aviv. The excavations revealed two distinct chronoculturally complexes of tombs, one a burial ground of the Early Bronze Age, the other a cemetery of the Intermediate Bronze and Middle Bronze Ages. Their excavation and associated finds, as well as objects from nearby tombs from earlier excavations, are the subjects of this report.

The Early Bronze Age cemetery of the Qirya Quarter in Tel Aviv was a burial ground of uncertain size that indubitably covered a much larger area than has been excavated. Definitively included within its precincts are several quarried cave tombs used for multiple burials and a single, barely-preserved cavity. The evidence clearly indicates these tombs, once quarried, were used for the repose of individuals over a period of at least several generations. Thus, that part of the ridge devoted to mortuary functions may be deemed a formalized cemetery to which numerous people repaired when in need of disposing remains of departed members of their society.

Fifty tombs are assigned to the Intermediate Bronze Age. The paucity of excavated settlements of the IB period in the coastal plain means that our understanding of this period is derived almost exclusively from cemeteries. The excavation of this IB cemetery adds somewhat to the picture of what is believed to have been a rather dispersed IB settlement system. 

The presentation of the tombs (chs. 1–8) is followed by reports on the anthropological finds (ch. 9), Hellenistic and Roman finds (ch. 10), metal finds (ch. 11), lithic assemblage (ch. 12), beads and pendants (ch. 13), scarabs (ch. 14), shells (ch. 15).

FOREWORD

CHAPTER 1: DESCRIPTION OF THE SITE AND NOTES ON THE EXCAVATION

     Eliot Braun and Edwin C.M. van den Brink

CHAPTER 2: THE EARLY BRONZE AGE SEPULCHERS—2002 SEASON

     Eliot Braun

CHAPTER 3: THE INTERMEDIATE BRONZE AGE – MIDDLE BRONZE AGE CEMETERY

     Edwin C.M. van den Brink

CHAPTER 4: ADDITIONAL EB AND IB BURIALS IN THE CEMETERIES

     Eliot Braun and Edwin C.M. van den Brink with a contribution by Diego Barkan

CHAPTER 5: THE EARLY BRONZE AGE CERAMIC ASSEMBLAGE

     Eliot Braun

CHAPTER 6: THE GROUNDSTONE ASSEMBLAGE

     Eliot Braun

CHAPTER 7: THE INTERMEDIATE BRONZE AGE POTTERY ASSEMBLAGE 

     Edwin C.M. van den Brink

CHAPTER 8: DISCUSSION—THE CEMETERIES AND THEIR CONTEXTS

     Eliot Braun and Edwin C.M. van den Brink

REFERENCES CHAPTERS 1-8

CHAPTER 9: ANTHROPOLOGICAL REPORT

     Yossi Nagar

CHAPTER 10: ARCHAEOLOGICAL EVIDENCE FOR THE HELLENISTIC AND ROMAN  PERIODS

     Eliot Braun, Edwin C.M. van den Brink, Varda Sussman and Donald T. Ariel

CHAPTER 11: METALS FROM THE ANCIENT CEMETERIES

     Sariel Shalev and Sana Shilstein

CHAPTER 12: THE LITHIC ASSEMBLAGE

     Omry Barzilai

CHAPTER 13: BEADS AND PENDANTS 

     Naomi Porat

CHAPTER 14: TWO SCARABS FROM AN EARLY MIDDLE BRONZE AGE TOMB

     Daphna Ben-Tor

CHAPTER 15: THE SHELL FINDS

     Henk K. Mienis

APPENDICES 1–2: LOCI AND BASKET INFORMATION

     Appendix 1: Locus List

     Appendix 2: Basket List by Cave and Locus with Principal Finds

Gershon Galil’s study examines the formation of the books included in the “Deuteronomistic Composition”, and the historical and theological perceptions of the Deuteronomist (Dtr), who composed the “Deuteronomistic Composition” during the Babylonia exile, and completed it ca. 560 BCE.

According to the author, the “Deuteronomistic Composition” included not only the books of Deuteronomy, Joshua–Kings, but the book of Jeremiah as well. Deuteronomy is the preface to this composition, and Jeremiah seals it; in Deuteronomy the path is demarcated and the norms are fixed; the body of the composition, namely the books from Joshua to Kings, presents a detailed history of the relation between God and Israel, from the conquest of the good land to the destruction of the Temple and the loss of the land. The book of Jeremiah, which concludes the composition, discusses at length the decline and fall of Judah, analyzes the sins that brought about the destruction, and at the same time propagates the gospel of redemption among the exiles. Like Moses, who predicts exile but also redemption, Jeremiah is the prophet of destruction but also of redemption. So Dtr examines the past according to the principles of the “Torah of Moses” (Deuteronomy) – and delineates the future in light of God’s word in the mouth of His prophets – primarily Moses and Jeremiah.

God’s eternal love for Israel is the main tenet of Dtr’s worldview. In his opinion, the bond between the Lord and Israel is endless. Its beginning is in the days of the Patriarchs but it will never end. As the relationship is everlasting, the nation of Israel is divine by nature: eternal and holy. The circular nature of the relationship between God and His people implies, in essence, a reality of closeness and distance, affection and anger, sin and repentance, punishment and salvation. Fulfillment of the word of God is one of the central motifs of the “Deuteronomistic Composition”. Since the main message of Dtr is that God promises Israel a return to the land, eternal love and an everlasting covenant, the people may wonder whether God’s promises can be trusted. The answer comes in many scriptures that emphasize the fulfillment of the word of God and teach that God’s promises can always be trusted.

Chapter 1: The Scope and Literary Structure of the Deuteronomistic Composition

Chapter 2: The Chronological Framework of the Deuteronomistic Composition

Chapter 3: The Formation of the Book of Deuteronomy

Chapter 4: The Formation of the Book of Joshua

Chapter 5: The Formation of the Book of Judges

Chapter 6: The Formation of the Book of Samuel

Chapter 7: The Formation of the Book of Kings

Chapter 8: The Formation of the Book of Jeremiah

Chapter 9: The Historical Conceptions of the Deuteronomist

Chapter 10: The Theological Perceptions of the Deuteronomist

Appendix

Bibliography

This volume is a collection of studies dedicated to Ilan Sharon, Professor of Biblical Archaeology at the Institute of Archaeology of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the longtime co-director of the Tel Dor Archaeological Project. The volume is divided into four sections reflecting the main avenues in his scholarly career.

The articles of the first section discuss a wide range of methodological and epistemological themes related to archaeological field practices, analyses and interpretations.

The second section of the volume is dedicated to Tel Dor, the archeological site so identified with Ilan Sharon, and deals with a wide range of finds and themes from the Late Bronze Age to the Middle Ages. Most of the articles are devoted to the first millennium BCE, the timespan for which Tel Dor serves as one of the key sites in studying the cultural trajectory of the Levantine coast and intercultural contacts in the Eastern Mediterranean basin.

These contacts, which form a major module in the scholarship of the Phoenician world, constitute the subject of the third part of the volume, devoted to the cultural connections between the coastal region of

southern Phoenicia, and Dor specifically, and inland regions of the Levant.

The fourth and final part of the volume is devoted to studies in the archeology and history of the Iron Age Levant.

List of Contributors

Davidovich / Yahalom-Mack / Мatskevich: Preface

List of Publications - Ilan Sharon

Gilboa: Professor Ilan Sharon, A Comprehensively Biased Introduction

Part I: Archaeological Methods and Epistemologies

Maran: Archaeological Cultures, Fabricated Ethnicities and DNA Research: “Minoans” and “Mycenaeans” as Case Examples

Greenberg: Redundancy, Plurality, and the Digital Archaeological Record

Wachtel: Archaeological Predictive Modeling for the Mountainous Upper Galilee

Streit: Disentangling a Confusion of Tongues—On Chronological Schemes, Terminologies, and Radiocarbon Dating in the Eastern Mediterranean

Tamberino / Levy: Applications of Drone Photogrammetry at Tel Dor, Israel

Münger / Weinblum: The Archaeological Documentation System DANA (Digital Archaeology and National Archives): A View from the Field

Part II: Dor

Martin / Shalev: The Reoccupation of Southern Phoenicia in the Persian Period: Rethinking the Evidence

Sapir-Hen / Shalev: Animal Rituals from the Persian Period at Tel Dor

Monnickendam-Givon: In Search of “Ptolemaic” Dor

Nitschke: A Hellenistic Glass Pendant of a Child Deity (Harpokrates) from Tel Dor

Broers: A Late Bronze Age Gold Bull Head Pendant from Tel Dor

Yasur-Landau / Shalev: The Date of the Tel Dor Well and Its Contribution to the Study of Sea-Level Changes

Part III: Phoenician Connections

Maeir: Between Philistia, Phoenicia, and Beyond: A View from Tell es-Safi/Gath

Mazar: On the Relations between Phoenicia and the Beth-Shean Valley in the Iron Age

Katz: Phoenician Presence in the Upper Galilee during Iron Age II

Panitz-Cohen: An Iron Age IIA Phoenician Bichrome Jar from Tel Abel Beth Maacah

Brandl / Yahalom-Mack: A Clay Pendant with an Impression of a Phoenician Seagoing Ship from Tel Abel Beth Maacah

Part IV: Iron Age History and Archaeology

Shalvi / Gilboa: The Last Four-Room House in Israel: Stratum 10 at Tel Shiqmona in Context

Bonfil / Zarzecki-Peleg: “The iron which the king, my lord, gave to the smiths for work”: Aspects of Authority and Prestige in the City Plan of Hazor Stratum VIII

Zorn: Standing on Hole-y Ground: The Storage Pits at Tell en-Naṣbeh and the Role of the State

Kletter: Farewell, King Arawna: The Threshing Floor of the Ark (2 Sam. 24)

Garfinkel: The Border of Gezer and the Border of Gath: Elite Control of Land in Ancient Near Eastern Cities

Kranot / Neuman: Epilogue: “When in doubt, open a new locus; when not so in doubt, Twilight-Zone it”: The Educational Legacy of Ilan Sharon—An Associative-Multidisciplinary Archaeologist

Color Plates

The present volume brings together 14 papers of a workshop organized by the W.F. Albright Institute of Archaeological Research and the Centre de recherche français à Jérusalem. The objective of the workshop was to confront scholarly interpretations of the various transitional phases across the late 4th–3rd Millennium (Late Chalcolithic to Early Bronze I, EB I to EB II, and EB III to EB IV / Intermediate Bronze Age) in the southern Levant. The focus was on the nature of the cultural-period-defining traits and their value for distinguishing between changes related to endogenous or exogenous evolution, cultural or demic diffusion. These traits include material culture, architecture, mortuary practices as well as patterns of relationships between sites and subsistence strategies. – The traditional approach to structuring the past is based on a rigid chronological perception of time forced upon dynamic and fluidly transforming societies. The one-dimensional nature of the chronological approach results in periods of well-defined spatiotemporal cultural entities separated by “transitional” periods. These defined cultural entities are often treated as static, though we know they were not, so that we may interpret cultural, historical, sociological, and political aspects of the society. Transition periods, however, are often treated as outliers interpreted against one or both of the periods that bracket them.

Matthew J. Adams and Valentine Roux: Transitions during the Early Bronze Age in the Levant: Methodological Problems and Interpretive Perspectives

Eliot Braun: They Seek It Here, They Seek It There, “That Demned Elusive” Late-Chalcolithic to Early Bronze 1 Transition of the Southern Levant

Amir Golani: The Late Chalcolithic / Early Bronze I Transition and the Ashqelon Occupational Sequence

Valentine Roux: The Southern Levant during the Late Chalcolithic–Early Bronze I Transition: Dispersal and Return of the Descendants

Alex Joffe: New Models for the End of the Chalcolithic in the Southern Levant

Yuval Yekutieli: “Let’s Make a Clean Slate of the Past!” Alternative Reading of the Chalcolithic–Early Bronze Age Transition

Ian Cipin: The Chalcolithic as Transitional Period: Looking at the Big Picture

Ianir Milevski, Nimrod Getzov, and Yitzhak Paz: Uneven and Combined: The Synchronization of the Early Bronze Age I and the First Urbanization of the Southern Levant

Aaron Greener and Matthew J. Adams: A Rich Early Bronze Age I Groundstone Assemblage from Tel Megiddo East, Israel 

Yitzhak Paz and Itai Elad: New Vistas on the EB IB–EB II Transition in the Coastal Plain: A View from ʿEn Esur, an EB IB Proto-urban Settlement

Maura Sala: The EB IB–II Transition at Tell el-Far‘ah North: Continuity Versus Discontinuity: A Preliminary Reassessment

Pierre de Miroschedji: The EB I–II Transition in the Southern Levant: Questions of Sequence, Terminology, and Chronology 

Liora Kolska Horwitz: Dynamics of Early Bronze Age Faunal Exploitation in the Sinai Peninsula: Modes of Production, Commodity Production and Trade

Omer Shalev, Naama Walzer, and Yitzhak Paz: The EBA–IBA Transition in the Judean Shephelah: A View from the IBA

Francesca Manclossi and Steven A. Rosen: Transitions, Truncations, Correlations, and Disassociations in Early Bronze Age Lithic Systems of the Southern Levant: Issues of Process 

The Salvage excavations that have taken place in the Beirut Central District before its reconstruction in the aftermath of the Lebanese armed conflict, have unveiled large portions of the ancient city’s history. The German-Lebanese team in charge of excavating the area labelled BEY 020, was one among fifteen others who were involved in this titanic task, which was continued after the year 2000 by the archaeologists of the Directorate General of Antiquities. The present volume III, “Small Objects and the Dog Burials” is the first of a series of three dealing with the final results of the German-Lebanese excavations on the site BEY 020. Volume I will cover “Architecture and Stratigraphy”, volume II will be devoted to “Pottery”.  Followed by an introduction to the historical setting and the stratigraphy, chapters of Part I deals with objects of clay, metal, bone, stone and glass. Oil lamps, terracotta figurines, tools, beads, coins, inscriptions etc. are illustrated on 40 plates. Part II is devoted to the 15 dog burials found and the phenomenon of dog burials throughout the Levant.

List of Figures, Tables and Plates / Abbreviations / Editors’ Preface

Introduction

1 The Historical Setting (Hélène Sader) 

2 The Excavation BEY 020 (Uwe Finkbeiner) 

2.1 History of the excavation 

    2.2 The excavation team 

    2.3 Excavation procedures

3 Stratigraphy, an Overview (Uwe Finkbeiner) 

    3.1 Introduction

    3.2 The findings under Rue Azmi Bey (Square 09/11)

    3.3 The findings under Rue Cadmus (Squares 08/09, 09/10, 10/09 – 12/10)

4 Structure of the Volume (Uwe Finkbeiner) 

    4.1 General 

    4.2 The chapters of part I, the “Small Objects” 

    4.3 Part II, “The Dog Burials of Beirut BEY 020”

    4.4 Bibliography

    4.5 Appendices

Part I: Small Objects

1 Oil Lamps (Anne-Marie Maïla Afeiche)

    1.1 Type 1: Late Bronze/Iron Age open-saucer lamps 

    1.2 Type 2: Folded-saucer lamp

    1.3 Type 3: Greek & Hellenistic lamps 

    1.4 Type 4: Roman lamps 

    1.5 Type 5: Byzantine lamps

    1.6 Decorations on the discus 

    1.7 Decorations on the shoulder

    Conclusion / Catalogue / Annex

2 Metal Objects (Aaron W. Schmitt) 

    2.1 Arrowheads and javelin heads

    2.2 Tools and instruments

    2.3 Jewelry 

    2.4 Bells

    2.5 Applications, fittings 

    2.6 Needles and pins

    2.7 Weights 

    2.8 Nails

    2.9 Miscellaneous 

3 Terracotta Figurines (Kirsten Lehmann-Jericke)

    3.1 Introduction 

    3.2 Find situation and find groups

    3.3 Production techniques

    3.4 Typology

    3.5 Function of the figurines

    3.6 Catalogue 

4 Other Objects of Clay 

    4.1 The clay pipes of the BEY 020 Excavation (Lana S. Shehadeh)

    4.2 Discs and some other objects of burnt clay (Uwe Finkbeiner) 

5 Bone Objects (Uwe Finkbeiner) 

    5.1 Pins 

    5.2 Tools 

    5.3 Varia 

6 Objects of Glass (Uwe Finkbeiner)

    6.1 Glass vessels 

    6.2 Glass beads and jewelry

7 Objects of Stone 

    7.1 Chipped stone artefacts from BEY 020 (Corinne Yazbeck)

    7.2 Stone objects (Uwe Finkbeiner)

8 The Coins from BEY 020 

    8.1 The pre-Islamic coins from BEY 020 (Ziad Sawaya) 

    8.2 Islamic and modern coins (Hassan Al-Akra)

9 The Greek Inscriptions (Frédéric Alpi)

Conclusion (Uwe Finkbeiner) 

Part II: The Dog Burials of Beirut

1 The Dog Burials of Beirut BEY 020 (Verena Lott)

    1.1 The Iron Age glacis

    1.2 The dog burials

    1.3 Catalogue 

    1.4 Conclusion 

2 Annex A: Catalogue of Sites with Dog Burials (Verena Lott)

3 Annex B: The Phenomenon of Dog Burials (Verena Lott)

Bibliography 

Appendices

Appendix A: Small Objects by Inventory-Number 

Appendix B: Small Objects by Square, Locus and Stratigraphic Unit

Appendix C: The Stratigraphic Units of BEY 020

Plates 1–40

The Old Testament scholar Izak (Sakkie) Cornelius has devoted his ongoing scholarly career to the cultures of the ancient Near East (including North Africa and Western Asia). In accordance with a focal point of his scientific research several of the studies assembled in this festschrift are devoted to the images of the divine and to that of goddesses in particular, encompassing the antiquities of Israel/Palestine, Egypt and the Near East.

Preface  /  Table of Contents  / List of Contributors  / List of Abbreviations

Renate M. van Dijk-Coombes / Liani C. Swanepoel / Gideon R. Kotzé: From Stone Age to Stellenbosch: An Introduction to the Volume

Silvia Schroer: Were Goddesses already Worshipped in the Early Chalcolithic Period? 

Salima Ikram: A Great Cat Walks South: A Petroglyph from Kharga Oasis (Egypt) 

Renate M. van Dijk-Coombes: The Many Faces of Enheduanna’s Inana: Literary Images of Inana and the Visual Culture from the Akkadian to the Old Babylonian Period

Takayoshi M. Oshima / Alison Acker Gruseke: She Walks in Beauty: An Iconographical Study of the Goddess in a Nimbus 

Christian Frevel: The Many Faces of the Goddess: Sekhmet

Angelika Berlejung: Another Face of the Goddess: A Terracotta Plaque from Qubur al-Walaydah

Astrid Nunn: Frauenbildnisse und ihre Gesten

Katharina Pyschny: Feeding, Nursing, Caring … : Some Notes on the Woman and Child Figurines from Persian Period Israel/Palestine

Louis C. Jonker: A Conflation of Divine and Royal Imagery? The Case of the Winged Symbol in Achaemenid Persia

Herbert Niehr: Die Beterstatue von Tell Fekheriye als Dokument der Königsideologie des Herrschers Haddayisʿi von Bīt Baḫiāni

Martin Leuenberger: Yahweh and His Asherah in the Three Pithoi Inscriptions from Kuntillet ʿAjrud: A Re-evaluation 

Izaak J. de Hulster: The Horizontal Dimension of the Ancient and Biblical View of the World

Gideon R. Kotzé: Looking again at the Nakedness of Noah 

Joel M. LeMon: Clapping and Shouting in Psalm 47:2 with Attention to the Iconography of Applause 

Ruhan Slabbert / Liani C. Swanepoel: Fake, Pseudo or True? Classifying Two Votive Animal Mummies from a South African Museum

Samantha Masters / Franziska Naether: South Africa and the Ancient World: Artefacts and Their Use in Teaching and Outreach

Index of Ancient Sources / Index of Authors / Index of Subjects

This richly illustrated book explores Canaanite religion and ritual from an archaeological perspective. It sheds new light on the use of space within southern Levantine temples as well as the religious ideologies motivating the behavioral patterns identified in those cultic contexts. Religion and ritual are both universalistic and particularistic. The aim of this study is to arrive at a more holistic understanding of MB and LB religion in the southern Levant. To achieve this goal, this book is organized into three main parts: (1) where Canaanite cultic activities were conducted; (2) what activities and rituals were performed within Canaanite cultic spaces; and (3) why and how those activities were conducted in those spaces. The central thesis of this book is that Canaanite religion was remarkably responsive and adaptive and was reflective of the diversity of the various micro-regions in the southern Levant.

This study has arrived at five new observations regarding Canaanite cult as practiced in Canaanite temples. First, temple architecture and the activities conducted within temples were neither static temporally nor interregionally. Cultic spaces in the southern Levant were responses to different particular circumstances and situations. The settings, locations and the construction types of temples related to, affected, and were affected by the rituals and activities that were conducted in those spaces. A second insight in this study is that ritual in the southern Levant was highly responsive and adaptive. The diachronic changes noted throughout the MB and LB in temple architecture, temple locations, ritual activities as well as in iconography and material culture unquestionably reflect changing cultural, geopolitical and socioeconomic phenomena. A third insight is that in contrast to Mesopotamian, Hittite and Egyptian temples, temples in the southern Levant remarkably do not reflect the concept of the house of the god. Neither the layout of Canaanite temples nor the activities performed within the temples reflect the layouts or activities of southern Levantine domestic spaces. A fourth insight: Rather than perceiving Canaanite cultic spaces as the houses and residences of deities, it seems these spaces functioned as venues for hosting feasts and commensal meals based around sacrifice and other ritual activities. These were therefore spaces within which social cohesion and group unity were forged. Depending on who controlled the temples, these spaces could also function as tools for creating and maintaining social and ritual hierarchy and inequality. A fifth observation relates what Canaanites did to why. Social behaviors and organization were controlled and maintained through ritual, feasting, commensality, the competitive and public presentation of offerings, and through the use of iconography. However, these actions were also informed by Canaanite religious ideology. Temples in the southern Levant functioned as conduits for initiating contact with the divine. Rather than the divine presence of deities being contained within temples, there was an effort to entice the deities out of temples in order to transform the entire landscape into a religious and sacred landscape.

Preface

List of Abbreviations

Part I

Chapter 1: Introduction

     1.1 Introduction to the Research Topic: Religion in the Southern Levant

     1.2 The Need for a New Approach to Canaanite Religion

     1.3 Aims and Research Questions

     1.4 Methodology 

     1.5 The Novelty of this Study’s Approach 

     1.6 Organizational Scheme of this Study

Chapter 2: Overview of the Research: Working Definitions, Background, and Rationale

     2.1 Definitions: Defining the Terms of this Study – “Middle and Late Bronze Canaan” and Canaanite Religion”

     2.2 General Overview of the MB and LB Southern Levant 

     2.3 History of Research and Scholarship of Canaanite Religion

     2.4 Theory 

Part II

Chapter 3: Towards a New Direction in Analyzing Canaanite Cultic Architecture 

     3.1 What are Temples?

     3.2 The Present Study on Cultic Architecture

     3.3 Applying these Approaches Throughout Part II

Chapter 4: Architecture

     4.1 The Organization of this Analysis on Temple Architecture 

     4.2 The Intermediate Bronze Age 

     4.3 MB Open-Air Loci of Cultic Activity 

     4.4 Standardized Temple Architecture in MB Canaan: Migdal Temples 

     4.5 Rural Migdal Temples

     4.6 Discussion: Migdal Temples in the southern Levant and Beyond

     4.7 Other less well-defined Temples from the MB

     4.8 New Temples in the LB 

     4.9 Discussion: Making Sense of the Diversity in Canaanite Temple Architecture

Chapter 5: Temple Courtyards 

     5.1 Methodology 

     5.2 Temples with a Temenos

     5.4 Temple Courtyard as Spaces for Accessing the Divine 

Chapter 6: Synthesis and Conclusions 

     6.1 Southern Levantine Temples as Houses?

     6.2 Integrating Temple and Temple Courtyard 

Part III

Chapter 7: Identifying Activities in the Archaeological Record: Introduction and Methodology 

     7.1 The Need for a Methodology in Determining Activity Types in Temples

     7.2 Methodology in Household Archaeology

     7.3 Methodology For Cult: A Rubric for Identifying Activity Types in Cultic Contexts

     7.4 Types of Contexts Considered in this Study

Chapter 8: Hazor Area H, The Orthostat Temple 

     8.1 Contextual Analysis 

     8.2 Analysis of Behavioral Patterns

     8.3 The Use of Space in the Orthostat Temple: General Trends and Diachronic Changes in how Cult was Practiced in Area H at Hazor

Chapter 9: Hazor Area C, The Stelae Temple

     9.1 Contextual Analysis 

     9.2 Analysis of Behavioral Patterns

     9.3 Vernacular Cult at Hazor: Interpretation of the Stelae Temple

Chapter 10: Lachish Fosse Temple

     10.1 Contextual Analysis 

     10.2 Analysis of Behavioral Patterns

     10.3 The Idiosyncratic Practice of Cult at the Fosse Temple 

Chapter 11: Tel Mevorakh 

     11.1 Contextual Analysis

     11.2 Analysis of Behavioral Patterns

     11.3 The Role and Function of the Roadside Shrine at Tel Mevorakh 

Chapter 12: Nahariya 

     12.1 Contextual Analysis 

     12.2 Analysis of Behavioral Patterns

     12.3 The Nahariya Cult: A Unique MB Extramural Space within the Canaanite Religious Landscape

Chapter 13: Other Cultic Sites in the MB and LB Southern Levant

     13.1 General Trends

     13.2 MB Cultic Sites

     13.3 LB Cultic Sites 

     13.4 Discussion and Conclusions: Trends in Canaanite Cultic Sites

Chapter 14: Household Activity Types

     14.1 Hazor, Area C (MB III) Household Activities 

     14.2 LB and Iron Age Southern Levantine Household Activities

     14.3 Trends in Activity Types Outside of the Southern Levant 

Chapter 15: Canaanite Activities in Cultic Spaces 

     15.1 Understanding the Activities Conducted within Canaanite Temples

     15.2 The Contrast between Activities in Cultic Spaces Versus Domestic Spaces 

     15.3 The Use of Space in Other Ancient Near Eastern Temples

     15.4 Ritual, Ritualization, and Activities in Canaanite Cultic Spaces

     15.5 Conclusions: The Utility of the Methodology 

Part IV

Chapter 16: Religious Praxis

     16.1 Introduction 

     16.2 Diachronic Change 

     16.3 Practices According to Ritual Texts

     16.4 Canaanite Ritual Praxis

     16.5 Insights into Ritual Praxis in Canaan

Chapter 17: Canaanite Religious Structure and Ideology

     17.1 Introduction 

     17.2 Methodological Approach to the Use of Text and Analogy in this Study 

     17.3 Canaanite Religious Ideologies

     17.4 The Structure of Cult and Ritual 

     17.5 Iconography 

     17.6 Discussion: Insights into Religious Ideology through Analogy

     17.7 Conclusions: The Particulars of Canaanite Religious Ideology

Part V

Chapter 18: Conclusions

     18.1 Conclusions Arrived at in this Study: Parts II–IV

     18.2 New Insights into Canaanite Religion 

     18.3 Concluding Remarks: Why all of this Matters 

     14 Content

Bibliography

Tables

Figures

The present volume is the second volume in the series of final reports of the Tell es-Safi/Gath Archaeological Project. In the first volume, various studies and reports on and relating to the project were presented, up until the 2010 season. In the current volume an assortment of excavation reports and topical studies of finds are presented. Chapter 2: final report on Ḥorvat Shimon, a small Iron IIB site, located ca. 1 km to the west of Tell es-Safi/Gath. Chapter 3 deals with the excavations at various locations along the Iron IIA (9th century BCE) Aramean siege system. In addition to the elements relating to the siege system itself, other finds that were discovered, primarily in Area C6, are described and discussed. Chapter 4 presents the final publication of a late Iron I/early Iron IIA tomb, excavated in 2006, including studies on the human remains, isotopic analyses on these remains, pottery, radiocarbon dating, faunal analysis, and the jewelry and amulets discovered in the tomb. Chapter 5 is the final report on the stratigraphy and architecture of the excavations in Upper Area F, near the summit of the site. Chapter 6 discusses the Middle Bronze Age at the site. In this chapter, a general survey of the MB on Tell es-Safi/Gath, based on materials found in the surface survey and the excavations in Area F is presented. Chapter 7 is an updated summary and final report on the Late Bronze Age finds from Area E. The report includes a variety of studies on the remains from the LB, including the stone implements, shells, beads, a scarab, the imported pottery, figurines, lithics and the archaeobotanical remains. Chapter 8 presents an analysis of stone weights found in the excavations up until the 2014 season. Chapter 9 presents the relatively small amount of coins found during the project, including surface finds and finds from the excavations.

Chapter 1: Introduction and Overview

Introduction and Overview (Aren M. Maeir)

Chapter 2: Ḥorvat Shimon: An Eighth Century BCE Site on the Periphery of Tell es-Safi/Gath

Ḥorvat Shimon: An Eighth Century BCE Site on the Periphery of Tell es-Safi/Gath: The Site and Finds (Amit Dagan and Aren M. Maeir)

Petrographic and Chemical Analysis of Pottery from Horvat Shimon (David Ben-Shlomo)

Chapter 3: Area C: The Siege Trench and Features in its Vicinity

The Excavations in Area C (Shira Gur-Arieh and Aren M. Maeir)

Petrographic Analysis of Pottery from Area C (David Ben-Shlomo)

The Shells from Area C (Henk K. Mienis)

Chapter 4: The Excavations in Cave T1, Area T

The Excavations in Cave T1, Area T: Background and Stratigraphy (Joe Uziel and Aren M. Maeir)

The Pottery from Cave T1 (Joe Uziel and Aren M. Maeir)

The Human Remains from Cave T1 (Marina Faerman and Patricia Smith)

Radiocarbon Dates from Cave T1 (Elisabetta Boaretto)

Strontium Isotope Investigation of Human Mobility based on Teeth from Cave T1 (Ian Moffat, Renaud Joannes-Boyau, Les Kinsley, Malte Willmes and Rainer Grün)

The Faunal Remains from Cave T1 (Liora Kolska Horwitz and Rebecca Biton)

The Iron Age I/IIA Jewelry from Cave T1 (Josephine A. Verduci)

Seals and Amulets from Cave T1 (Stefan J. Wimmer and Manfred Görg)

Concluding Remarks (Joe Uziel and Aren M. Maeir)

Chapter 5: The Stratigraphy and Architecture of Area F-Upper, Strata F4-F8a

The Stratigraphy and Architecture of Area F-Upper, Strata F4-F8a (Jeffrey R. Chadwick and Aren M. Maeir)

Chapter 6: The Middle Bronze Age in Area F

Middle Bronze Age Fortifications and Finds in Area F (Jeffrey R. Chadwick, Eric L. Welch, Joe Uziel and Aren M. Maeir)

Petrographic Analysis of Middle Bronze Age Pottery from Area F (David Ben-Shlomo)

Chapter 7: The Late Bronze Age Remains in Area E: Final Report

The Late Bronze Age Stratigraphy and Architecture (Itzhaq Shai, Joe Uziel and Aren M. Maeir 379)

The Aegean-Type Pottery (Philipp W. Stockhammer)

Jewelry from Stratum E4 (Shira Albaz)

An Additional Scarab from Area E (Daphna Ben-Tor)

Late Bronze Age Figurines from Area E (Joe Uziel and Itzhaq Shai)

Ground Stone Objects from Stratum E4 (Merav Y. Levmore-Raziel)

The Second Millennium BCE Lithic Assemblage from Area E, Seasons 2005-2011 (Francesca Manclossi And Steven A Rosen)

Canaan’s Staples, Seasonal Vegetables and Luxury Fruits: Finds from Stratum E4 (Suembikya Frumin, Yoel Melamed and Ehud Weiss)

The Shells from the Late Bronze Age in Area E (Henk K. Mienis)

Overview of the Late Bronze Age Remains from Area E (Itzhaq Shai, Joe Uziel and Aren M. Maeir)

Chapter 8: Balance Weights

Balance Weights (Ely Levine)

Chapter 9: Coins from Excavations at Tell es-Safi/Gath (1996–2010)

Coins from Tell es-Safi/Gath (1996–2010) (Donald T. Ariel)