Monograph Series of the Sonia and Marco Nadler Institute of Archaeology – serie

This 3-volume set is the third in the series of final publications of the Megiddo Expedition (see Megiddo III: The 1992–1996 Seasons, 2000; Megiddo IV: The 1998–2002 Seasons, 2006). It reports the finds in the 2004–2008 seasons, with several references to the campaign of 2010. The main topics dealt with are: a final account of the Early Bronze Age cultic compound; excavations of the late Iron I layer in Area H and the Late Bronze II–III layers in Area K; report on the investigation of Schumacher’s Nordburg and Chamber f and its surroundings; the Late Bronze II–III, Iron I, and Iron IIA pottery of Megiddo; and a variety of microarchaeology studies.

Tel Malḥata: A Central City in the Biblical Negev presents the results of nine seasons of excavations—two by the first expedition and seven by the second.Tel Malḥata is an elliptical-shaped mound located in the eastern sector of the Arad–Beer-sheba Valley and spreads across some 18 dunams. Tel Malḥata is generally identified with biblical Moladah, one of the cities of Judah, although other identifications have been suggested. The Arabic name of the site, Tell el-Milḥ (“Hill of the Salt”), is apparently indicative of its association with the production and distribution of salt from the Dead Sea in more recent times. The many Bedouin graves on the upper terrace of the tell significantly hindered the planning of the excavations, and consequently the excavations were concentrated mainly where no graves were discerned. The two-volume report consists of 22 chapters that take the reader through six strata of civilization, ranging from the Middle Bronze Age to the early Byzantine period.

The publication of the full report of the Tel Beer-sheba Iron Age remains is a fulfillment of a scientific dream. The excavations at Tel Beer-sheba, carried out under the auspices of the Institute of Archaeology of Tel Aviv University, were the highlight of Yohanan Aharoni’s vast research program in the Beer-sheba Valley. He directed this program from 1969 until his untimely death in 1976 at the age of 56. The final season of excavations at Tel Beer-sheba, the eighth, took place in the summer of 1976 and was carried out after Aharoni’s demise by his chief assistants, Ze’ev Herzog, Itzhaq Beit-Arieh, and Anson F. Rainey. The latter two regrettably did not live to see the completion of this publication, but they shared in the work, as did the young staff members who enabled the Tel Beer-sheba project to become a reality.During the National Parks Authority site development, there was further exposure, mainly of the water supply systems, directed by Ze’ev Herzog with David Sappo (Western Quarter, 1990–1991), with Tsvika Tsuk (the well, 1993) and finally with Ido Ginaton (the water-system, 1994–1995).Now, after a lengthy process of analyzing the excavations in the storerooms of Tel Aviv University’s Institute of Archaeology and digging through the endless documentary material amassed, the full data is proudly presented. This work is offered not merely as a final report but as a starting point for further scientific inquiry on the abundant architectural, artifactual, and ecofactual data from Tel Beer-sheba.Volume I reports on the stratigraphy and architecture, volume 2 on the pottery; and volume 3 on the artifacts, ecofacts, and also provides concluding studies. The three volumes are profusely illustrated and an essential resource for anyone interested in the history of Judah, the Beer-sheba Valley, the site itself, and life during the Iron Age in the southern Levant.

Excavations at Beth-Shemesh are actually a story within a story. On the one hand, they are the story of the archaeology of the Land of Israel in a nutshell: from the pioneering days of the Palestine Exploration Fund, through the “Golden Age” of American biblical archaeology, to current Israeli and international archaeology. On the other hand, they are the fascinating story of a border site that was constantly changing its face due to its geopolitical location in the Sorek Valley in the Shephelah—a juncture of Canaanite, Philistine, and Israelite entities and cultures.It is no wonder that two celebrated biblical border epics—Samson’s encounters with the Philistines and the Ark narrative—took real or imagined place around Beth-Shemesh. In this report, summarizing the first ten years (1990–2000) of archaeological work in the ongoing project of the renewed excavations at Tel Beth-Shemesh, the authors have strived to tell anew the story of the Iron Age people of Beth-Shemesh as exposed and interpreted. Using the best theoretical and methodological tools that modern archaeology has made available, every effort has been made to keep in view archaeology’s fundamental duty—to read the ancient people behind the decayed walls and shattered pottery vessels and bring alive their lost world. Furthermore, the story of ancient Beth-Shemesh has been written in a way that will enable scholars, students, and other interested people to learn and understand the life of the communities living at Beth-Shemesh.As a result, the book is organized in a manner different from usual archaeological site reports. The two volumes will be essential for anyone who wishes the best and latest information on this important site.

This book brings to complete and final publication two past excavations conducted at the site of Ramat Raḥel. A major part of the report is devoted to publishing the results of Yohanan Aharoni’s long-term excavation project at the site during the years 1954, 1956, 1959–1962. The renewal of excavations at the site in 2004 triggered the need to reevaluate the site’s architecture and stratigraphy, and from that the idea to publish this report was born.

The second in a series of final publications of the Apollonia-Arsuf excavations, this volume reports the finds from the 1996, 2002, 2006, 2012, 2013, and 2017 seasons. The main topics are the excavation of areas to the east of the Apollonia National Park, outside the walled medieval town; the excavations carried out within and just outside the perimeter of the Park; skeletal remains; faunal remains; and a variety of finds, including pottery, glass, stone, metal, and bone objects as well as numerous coins.The analysis of the finds discussed in this report contribute to our understanding of the site during the Byzantine and early medieval occupation. Byzantine Apollonia, called Sozousa, was unwalled and extended over an area of some 280 dunams. Among its architectural remains are a church and industrial quarters with wine and oil presses, plastered pools, and raw glass furnaces. In the days of the Umayyad Caliph ‘Abd al-Malik (685–705), the site, at that point called Arsuf, was fortified by a wall that encompassed some seventy-seven dunams. By the end of the Early Islamic period, it became a ribbat (fort) where Muslim philosophers resided. In 1101, the site was conquered by the Crusaders. Towards the mid-twelfth century, ownership was transferred to a Crusader noble family, and the site became the center of a feudal seigneury. Construction of the castle in the northern sector began in 1241, and in 1261 administration of it, the town, and the seigneury of Arsur, as it was then called, passed to the Knights Hospitaller. By the end of the Mamluk siege in 1265, the town and castle were destroyed and never again settled.

This is the first of a three-volume final report on the Tel Aviv–Heidelberg Renewed Excavations at Ramat Raḥel, 2005–2010. It presents the stratigraphy and architecture of the excavation areas, including portions of the palatial compound, the subterranean columbarium complex, and the Late Roman cemetery; site formation of the tell; twentieth-century fortifications at the site; and the ancient garden and its water installations.

The story of copper and the role it has played since the dawn of metallurgy more than 7,000 years ago is a remarkable, at times breathtaking, often inspiring tale of evolution and innovation; it imparts some of the greatest technological achievements of man and his persistent striving towards efficacy in the transformation of stone into metal.The 37 chapters of this volume, dedicated to the memory of Beno Rothenberg, present a variety of new studies related to copper in antiquity, with case studies spanning from the British Isles to Oman, Cyprus, and Greece. Special emphasis is given to Timna and other copper ore districts of the Arabah Valley, which have been subjected to a surge of research in recent years. This new research is a direct continuation of Rothenberg’s pioneering work at Timna, and similarly takes advantage of the extraordinary preservation of archaeological sites there to shed new light on copper production technologies and the societies behind them. Rothenberg’s collaborative work at Timna during the second half of the 20th century was an important milestone in the foundation of the research discipline of archaeometallurgy, the study of metal and metal production in antiquity. The present volume, the work of 66 scholars, reflects the current prosperity of this discipline in its broadest sense, with contributions that reach beyond technological reconstructions and analytical reports, including studies on metalworkers’ diet and habitation and the metal trade. In this, the book aptly emphasizes Rothenberg’s impact, as his research on ancient copper was always part of a comprehensive search for a better understanding of past societies and historical processes.

Jacob Kaplan was a dynamic field archaeologist and an original researcher of the Pottery Neolithic and Chalcolithic periods in the Levant. This volume contains a selection of Kaplan's unpublished fieldwork as well as a broad survey of the thoughts, theories, and considerations that have placed his work at the forefront of Israeli archaeology.Kaplan played an important role in shaping the archaeological sequence of the late prehistory of Israel, especially due to his discovery and description in the early 1950s of the Wadi Rabah culture—a major entity in the late Pottery Neolithic period. On a broader scale, Kaplan incorporated the Pottery Neolithic and Chalcolithic periods in Israel into the sequences of the late prehistory of the Levant and touched on the question of the end of the Neolithic period—one of the most intensive, creative, and transformative eras in human history. His views on some of the basic chronological and cultural issues of these periods endure to this very day. This two-volume collection accords Kaplan the full recognition he deserves as an original, leading investigator of the late prehistory of Israel.

This is part of a three-volume final report of the renewed excavations at Ramat Raḥel by the Tel Aviv–Heidelberg Expedition (2005−2010). It presents the finds from the Babylonian-Persian pit, one of the most dramatic find-spots at Ramat Raḥel. The pit yielded a rich assemblage of pottery vessels and yhwd, lion, and sixth-century “private” stamp impressions, including, for the first time, complete restored stamped jars, jars bearing two handles stamped with different yhwd impressions, and jars bearing both lion and “private” stamp impressions on their bodies. Residue analysis was conducted on many of the vessels excavated from the pit to analyze their contents, yielding surprising results. The finds contribute to our understanding of the pottery of the Babylonian and early Persian periods (6th−5th centuries BCE) and to the study of the development of the stamped-jar administration in the province of Yehud under Babylonian and Persian rule.Also available from Eisenbrauns: Ramat Raḥel III: Final Publication of Aharoni'’s Excavations at Ramat Raḥel (1954, 1959–1962) by Oded Lipschits, Yuval Gadot, and Liora Freud; and Ramat Raḥel IV: The Renewed Excavations by the Tel Aviv–Heidelberg Expedition (2005–2010): Stratigraphy and Architecture, by Oded Lipschits, Mandred Oeming, and Yuval Gadot.

Megiddo, a key site for the study of the Bronze and Iron Ages, is unique among the sites of the ancient Near East. Featuring remains from over 30 settlements, Megiddo is strategically located on the main highway of the Old World, leading from Egypt to Mesopotamia. It is mentioned in important verses in the Bible and in Egyptian and Assyrian texts. Beyond archaeology, it is of great significance to the fields of the history of ancient Israel and biblical studies. The Tel Aviv University excavations at the site aim, through the implementation of modern methods, to achieve a full stratigraphic-chronological sequence, while placing special emphasis on studies related to the exact and life sciences. The three volumes of Megiddo VI: The 2010–2014 Seasons display a rich set of finds, spanning about 1,000 years of history from the Middle Bronze Age to the Iron Age IIB. They include a large number of studies in archaeology and the exact and life sciences, including topics such as radiocarbon dating, geoarchaeology, paleomagnetism, and metallurgy.

This book presents the final report of the excavations at Yotvata, the largest oasis in the Arabah Valley, conducted by the Sonia and Marco Nadler Institute of Archaeology of Tel Aviv University in 1974–1980 under the direction of Dr. Zeʾev Meshel. The report covers two central sites: a fortified Iron I site and an Early Islamic settlement. The Iron I remains consist of an irregular casemate wall surrounding a courtyard. The location of this site suggests that the settlement was established in order to protect the water sources and to overlook and supervise the nearby crossroads. Based on the relative proximity of the site to Timna, it may be concluded that the oasis formed the main source of water and wood for the population involved in copper production in that region.The rich finds uncovered at the Early Islamic settlement—including a large courtyard building and a nearby bathhouse, among other structures—point to habitation from the end of the seventh to the early ninth century CE. The proximity of the settlement to a sophisticated irrigation system (qanat) and the administrative/economic ostraca discovered at the site suggest that it served as the center of an agricultural estate owned by an elite Muslim family. Among the unique finds is a large assemblage of locally produced, handmade pottery, which is thoroughly studied here.The findings from the excavations at the Yotvata oasis have made a major contribution to the study of Early Islamic settlement and material culture in the greater Arabah region and beyond.

Megiddo VII reports in meticulous detail the archaeological findings from two elite, interrelated tombs from the Late Bronze I period, both exceptionally preserved and richly furnished: Tomb 16/H/50, a monumental masonry-constructed chamber tomb from the Middle Bronze III, and Burial 16/H/45, a simpler pit within the former’s mausoleum.Carefully excavated under unusually pristine conditions, these tombs afford a unique opportunity for in-depth study. Directed by experts from Tel Aviv University and supported by an international consortium of institutions, the excavation employed cutting-edge techniques, documentation, and analytical methods to capture, preserve, and study archaeological data. Presented in twenty-four chapters, the report deploys an arsenal of archaeological scientific methods on a targeted area of the mound. It chronicles the architectural and artifactual finds and situates them within their broader temporal, spatial, and cultural contexts.Presenting fresh insights into the funerary practices and societal structures of the Middle and Late Bronze periods, this volume is indispensable for researchers in the fields of Near Eastern archaeology and archaeological science and for those interested in the complexities of ancient funerary practices.