[Magazine] The Biblical Archaeologist. Vol. 47. No 1

68 Pages·1984·19.85 MB·English

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ca n ~~1~ JSOT To Publish ASOR Monograph Series
The American Schools of Oriental Research and JSOTP ress are pleased to announce the
resumption of the ASOR Monograph Series. At least two monographs a year will be
published in the areas of ASOR's traditional interests, especially biblical studies and
ancient Near Eastern history and archaeology. Manuscripts are now being solicited for the
fourth and subsequent numbers in the series. Submit manuscripts to:
Eric M. Meyers
Editor, ASOR-JSOTM onograph Series
Box H.M.
Duke Station
Durham, NC 27706
BiblicaAl rchaeologist
A Publication of the American Schools of Oriental Research Volume 47 Number 1 March 1984
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6 LITERARYS OURCESF OR 36 The Bible and Archaeology 47 The Location of
THE HISTORYO F Eric M. Meyers Biblical Ziklag
PALESTINEA ND SYRIA This paper,b ased on a plenary address Joe D. Seger
The Ebla Tablets given at the 1983 annual meeting of Tel Halif and Tel Serach ave been
TpLofrho otrehve fiinsidrz eisomst V a ep isbgosiaarbnytlai 6ionn agt n rsadia tnp eDe.h weicn o sneviresir ePvsai erwd ee Ratbhreeects wheAaaemereocnehl rbo,igc icboyaln inincs S aitdclh ehserto usMo tdlhsiidee os dfr a leOenl aEdrtia ieosntn.t al toiadhf g eeGun titaoditwfehi,en. t dU hg aisisvsi n eptghna e bpt oiemb rDlo eiavsctava lill duiikn abeftyloey srt hmtshietae ekt sii onongf a s
archaeologicale vidence in support
41 THE MUSEUM TRAIL of each site.
18 New Discoveriesa t Ebla:
The MichiganS tateU niversity
The Excavationo f the
SamaritanC ollection 55 ENIGMATICB IBLE
WesternP alacea nd the
Robert T Anderson PASSAGES
RoyalN ecropoliso f the The Samaritanc ommunity is an "Vinedresserasn d Plowmen":
AmoriteP eriod important resource in the study of the 2 Kings2 5:12 and
Paolo Matthiae Bible, and this museum collection Jeremiah5 2:16
Recent work at Tell Mardikhs uggests preservesm any of its artifacts.
the existence of a cult dedicated to J. N. Graham
royal ancestors. 44 New Evidence of the The fate of the Jews exiled to
Babyloniaw hen Nebuchadrezzar
33 BA PORTRAIT FSaomunadr oitna nD Deilaossp ora has been kconnoqwuner.e Wd hJautd haha pinp e5n8e6d Bt o.C t.h ise wpeelol ple
The Successa nd Failureo f A. T Kraabel who were left behind?
RobertA lexanderS tewart Two recently published inscriptions
Macalister from steles found on the Greek island DEPARTMENTS
Page A. Thomas of Delos provide new insight on the 3 From the Editor's Desk
Samaritans.
At the beginning of the twentieth 4 Introducingt he Authors
century Macalister excavatedt he 58 Book Reviews
important site of Gezer. Although he 63 Books Received
made numerous finds, and later
became the leading figure in Irish
archaeology,h is work in Palestine
is now considered a failure. Why?
Biblical Archaeologist is published with the financial assistance of
Zion Research Foundation, a nonsectarian foundation for the study of the Bible
and the history of the Christian Church.
~o90O F op, ASOR 1984-85
Archaeologist IN
Biblical
/ 1m4 Fellowships
9a
Editor THE Scholarships
Professorships
Eric M. Meyers Travel Grants
Associate Editor
JamesW . Flanagan NEXT
ManagingE ditor The American Schools of Oriental Research is
Martin Wilcox offering over $143,000 in research, study and
Assistant to the Editor BA travel grants for the academic year 1984-85
and the summer 1985. Awards are available
Karen S. Hoglund to undergraduates, graduate students, semi-
Book Review Editor narians, and post-doctoral scholars.
Peter B. Machinist Awards offer opportunities for humanistic
EditorialC ommittee study in the Middle East from prehistoric
Lloyd R. Bailey through Islamic times. Recipients participate
Carole Fontaine in the stimulating scholarly community of the
Volkmar Fritz Albright Institute for Archaeological Research
in Jerusalem, the American Center of Oriental
Lawrence T. Geraty Research in Amman, or the Cyprus American
David M. Gunn Archaeological Research Institute in Nicosia.
A. T. Kraabel
BaruchA . Levine Available awards include:
National Endowment for the Humanities
Carol L. Meyers
JackS asson Post-Doctoral Research Fellowships, up to
$22,000 stipend, in Jerusalem and Amman
JohnW ilkinson
Annual Professorships in Jerusalem,
Art Director Amman, and Nicosia, with room-and-
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to $5,000
Biblical Archaeologist (ISSN 0006-0895) is published Christian Science Zion Research Foundation
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tsiioonn sr, aatneds fCora nstauddae;n $t1s8 a fnodre riegtnir. eSdp feacciaull tayn:n $u1a0l isnu tbhsec rip- majoru rbans ites A19p8p3l.iF coartid oentd aeialsda lninde af oprp mlicoastti aowni narfodrsmi s aNtioovne%,m wberrit e
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Archaeologist as one of their annual membership
benefits. issue of BA spotlights
aAllr toicthlee rp reodpitoosraialsl, cmoarrneusspcornipdtesn, cleet stehrosu tlod thhee seednitt otro, tahned it with severala rticles,
Editor, Biblical Archaeologist, ASOR Publications
Office, Box HM, Duke Station, Durham, NC 27706. including a study of
Unsolicited manuscripts must be accompanied by a
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Books for review should be sent to Dr. Peter B.
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Postmaster: Send address changes to ASOR Subscrip-
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CKoRpeysreiagrhcth ,. 1984 by the American Schools of Oriental Gates, and "TheM ari Student working in the laboratory sherd
Archives"b y cboelrlse cotfi ornes eraorocmh earts CmAaAkeR uI.s eI nocfr tehaes iInngs tnituumte-' s
Dennis Pardee. sherd collections as well as geological and
mineral samples. Photo S. Swinv.
2 BIBLICALA RCHAEOLOGIST/MARCH1 984
Fromt he Editor'sD esk
This issueo fB iblicaAl rchaeologifseta turetsw o
articles on the important site of Ebla (Tell
Mardikh,f ifty kilometers south of Aleppo).T he
one written by LorenzoV igano represents the
first installment in a new series we are running entitled
"LiteraryS ources for the History of Palestine and Syria."
Each article in the series is a bibliographice ssay written
with the general readeri n mind but primarily directed to scriptions. The combined evidence of the tablet and the
the college, seminary, and beginning graduate student. seal impressionsp rovideu s with the name of the last king
Dennis Pardee,o f the Oriental Institute at the University of Ebla, Indilimgur (circa 1600 B.c.).
of Chicago, conceived the idea of these essays, and he, The evidence garneredb y Matthiae for the demise of
along with our BA staff, is preparinga nd editing the con- this culture around 1600 B.Ci. s substantial, and we leave it
tributions, whose topics also include the Mari archives; to our readerst o draw their own conclusions about the
Hebrew,M oabite, Ammonite, and Edomite inscriptions; broaders ignificanceo f this materialf ort he reconstruction
the Dead Sea Scrolls;a nd Phoenician and Ugaritict exts. In of Near Easternh istory aroundt he middle of the second
addition, there are in the works severalg enerala rticles on millennium B.C. The suggestion of Matthiae about the
the linguistic and epigraphich istory of the Levant.W e at cult of ancestorw orship,w hich flourishedi n Ugariti n the
BA plan to publish these essays together eventually as a Late Bronze II period and in Ebla toward the end of the
textbook. Surely this publication programd emonstrates Middle Bronze II period, is of special importance to BA
the commitment of the American Schools of Oriental readers.I n particular,t he distance that Matthiae suggests
Researcht o studying the written sources of man'sp ast as separates the biblical term rephaim from rp'um and the
well as investigating the anepigraphic remains of two worlds they representm ay now be measured in cen-
monuments and other kinds of nonwritten data. turies rather than in millennia. For the student of the
This issue of BA also includes an article on Ebla by biblical world,t he hitherto remotew orldo f inner Syriah as
Paolo Matthiae, directoro f the excavations conducted at finally been made more accessible by the reportingo f these
the site by the Italian Archaeological Expedition to Syria fascinating and important discoveries from Ebla of the
of the University of Rome. Lately,a ctivity has been con- Amorite period.
centrated in the areao f the WesternL owerC ity, which is Matthiae'sa rticle,b y the way,w as originallyp resented
situated in fronto f the RoyalP alaceG of the StateA rchives. as part of a 1983 symposium on Ebla organized by the
Among the most importantr esults of recent work-which University of Pennsylvaniau nder the sponsorship of the
is summarizedi n Matthiae'sp aper- is the discoveryo f the American Schools of Oriental Research.T his material is
WesternP alace of the Middle BronzeI and II periods, and being presented for the first time to English readers.
the identification of the royal necropolis of the Middle We are delighted to be able to present these two
BronzeI Ip eriod. Both of these discoveriesb earh eavily on excellent articles on Ebla to the readers of Biblical
the reconstruction of culture of one of the major urban Archaeologist.
centers of inner Syria in the period of the Amorite
dynasties.
When reading the essay by Vigano, please keep in
mind the new cuneiformd iscoveriesr eportedb y Matthiae.
These occur in a Middle Bronze II context and include a Eric M. Meyers
complete tablet with envelope and two cylinder seal in- Editor
BIBLICALA RCHAEOLOGIST/MARCH1 984 3
Photographb y JerryB auer
Photograph by Doug Knutson
PaoloM atthiae JoeD . Seger
A. T Kraabel
the Authors
Introducing
Lorenzo Vigano received his Ph.D. from the Pontifical Biblical have just finished work on material from Tepe Gawra and the
Institute in Rome where his dissertation, Titoli e Nomi di YHWH Royal Cemetery of Ur, and we hope to extend this work to Nippur,
alla Luce del Semitico del Nord-ovest, was supervised by Tell Fara, and Tell Billa."
Mitchell Dahood. He has taught Ugaritic and Phoenician at the
Institutum Biblicum Franciscanum in Jerusalem, and since 1980 An ordained minister of the United Methodist Church and a
he has been studying the Ebla texts at the Oriental Institute of the member of the North Arkansas Conference, Page A. Thomas is
University of Chicago. also Associate Librarian, Head of Technical Services, and
Cataloger of Rare Books and Special Collections at Bridwell
Dennis Pardee is Associate Professor in the Department of Near Libraryo f the Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist
Eastern Languages and Civilizations at the University of Chicago. University in Dallas, Texas. As a volunteer on the Tell Gezer staff
He has published numerous articles and reviews, and in 1980-81 in 1968 and 1969 he became interested in R. A. S. Macalister, and
he was a Fulbright Senior Lecturer at Aleppo University, during he did a research paper on the "Fortifications of Gezer" that em-
which time he also worked on collating Ugaritic tablets in phasized the excavations of Macalister as reported in the Palestine
Aleppo, Damascus, and Paris. Exploration Quarterly from 1902 through 1905. Mr. Thomas'
portrait of Macalister in this issue is a result of his continued
Since 1964 Paolo Matthiae has directed the Tell Mardikh excava- fascination with the archaeologist.
tions of the Italian Archaeological Expedition to Syria. In a BA
interview in 1976 Professor Matthiae said, "Iw as born in Rome. Robert T. Anderson is Professor and Chairman of the Department
My family is Italian, but of German origin. I studied at the of Religious Studies at Michigan State University. He has
University of Rome with orientalists [Francesco] Gabrieli and previously served as president of the Midwest American
[Sabatino] Moscati. My father was an art historian specializing in Academy of Religion and of the Central Michigan American
the Italian medieval period. I too, in my youth, was interested in Institute of Archaeology. In addition to several articles on
art history, but mainly of the Near East. After 1964, when I first Samaritan materials, Dr. Anderson is the author of Studies in
went to Tell Mardikh, my interest in art history was somewhat Samaritan Manuscripts and Artifacts (American Schools of
modified by research in the field. This experience has certainly Oriental Research, 1978).
changed my original interests."
A. T. Kraabel received his Th.D. from Harvard Divinity School
James D. Muhly is Professor of Oriental Studies and Chairman of and currently is Vice President and Dean of Luther College in
the Graduate Group in Ancient History at the University of Decorah, Iowa, which he refers to as the "Switzerland of Iowa."
Pennsylvania. Among his other important positions, he is also Dr. Kraabel writes, "My interest in the past has always been at the
Director of the Center for Ancient Metallurgy and Co-director, point where biblical studies, classics, and archaeology intersect,
with Robert Dyson, of the Sumerian Metals Project in the Univer- and I became interested in excavating synagogues as a result of my
sity Museum. Dr. Muhly reports, "In the Sumerian project we work as E. R. Goodenough's last research assistant and as a con-
4 BIBLICALA RCHAEOLOGIST/MARCH1 984
LorenzoV igan J.N . Graham
RobertT Anderson
sequence of the discovery of the synagogue at Sardis by a
Harvard-Cornelle xpedition under the leadership of G. M. A.
Hanfmann.I joinedt he Sardiss taff,a ndw rote my dissertationo n
the Jewso f Greco-RomanA sia Minor.T hen, because of mutual
connections with Goodenough, Eric Meyers and I got together
and createdt he KhirbetS hemacp rojectw ith some powerfulh elp
from G. E. Wright.M y involvement with Shemac ended after
publication of the first phase (1970-1973), and I began to work
more intensively on the Sardisp ublications. I have a chaptero n PageA . Thomas
the Judaismo f Sardist hat concludes the final reporto n the Sardis
Synagogue( in press),a nd I am workingo n a similar chaptern ow
for the final publication of the Churches of Sardis.
Joe D. Segeri s Middle EasternA rchaeologist for the Cobb Insti-
tute of Archaeology at Mississippi State University. He is also
Director of the Lahav ResearchP roject,a private organization
formed to forwardf ield researcha t Tel Halif. Dr. Seger,w ho has
a Th.D. from HarvardU niversity, directed the Hebrew Union
College excavationsa t Tell Gezeri n the fall of 1969,t he springo f
1970,a nd all seasons from 1972t hrough1 974,a ndh e is currently
a Trustee of the W. E Albright Institute for Archaeological
Researchi n Jerusalem.
J.N . Grahami s Head of the Religious Studies Department in a
high school in SouthW ales.H is master'si n Old Testamenth istory
fromU niversityC ollege Cardiffi nvolveda n investigationi nto life
in Palestine duringt he period of the BabylonianE xile. Worko n
his degreeb eganh is interest in the relationshipb etween archae-
ology and biblical study, and he has developed this interest by
introducing related courses in his school. As an aid for other
teachers he has produced a handbook entitled The Dead Sea
Habakkuk Commentary.
James D. Muhly
BIBLICALA RCHAEOLOGIST/MARCH1 984 5
Literary Sources for the History
of Palestine and Syria
EBLA
e
SbTablets
Lorenzo
by Vigand
reviseda nd edited by Dennis Pardee
large mound of 140 acres and 50 feet high, torch (Hirsch 1963: 38 and 75 and following; Pettinato
located in the vicinity of the modern Arab 1981a: 14-19; 1980a).
village of Mardikh in Northern Syria, attracted Tell Mardikh is located about 42 miles south of Alep-
the attention of many archaeologists in the po on the road to Hamath in the northern Syrian plateau,
past, yet the mound resisted identification (Matthiae 1980: roughly midway between the Euphrates river and the
16-39; Pettinato 1981a: 20-21). It was only after a decade Mediterranean Sea. Its geographical location on one of the
of excavation of the site by a team from the University of main arteries of caravan traffic made Ebla a center of trade
Rome (Matthiae 1980: 40-61; Pettinato 1981a: 23-28) that, and political power in ancient times, open to Mesopotamia
in 1968, its name appeared in an inscription on the torso of on one side and on the other to the Great Sea and its coasts
a headless statue and this barren tell was identified as the as far as Egypt.
site of the ancient city of Ebla, which Sargon, founder of The settlement of Ebla had already begun at the end
the Old Akkadian dynasty, and his grandson Naram-Sin of the fourth millennium s.c., and the city attained its
proudly claimed to have conquered and to have put to the apogee in the middle of the third, but after that it
6 BIBLICALA RCHAEOLOGIST/MARCH1 984
experienced a slow but steady decline until its final 2700-2400 B.c.,b egin to appear.I t was located on the lower
destruction around 1600 B.C(. Matthiae 1980: 52 and 56). westernf lank of the Acropolis;i t had a largeA udienceH all
connected to the higher part of the Upper City by a stair-
Archaeology way. The following year forty-twot ablets were found in a
Paolo Matthiae, at the head of a group of archaeologists small storager oom of the same palace, and then, in 1975,
from the University of Rome, began excavatingt he site in in two small rooms an archive of approximately 16,000
1964 (Matthiae 1980:4 0-64; 1974; 1975: see 1979c for an tablets and fragmentso f tablets was discovered( Matthiae
English version of this article). The first objective was to 1975, 1979c).I n one of the rooms the tablets were written
determine the natureo f what was apparentlyt he ramparts or copied by scribes;i n the second they were filed in order
of the LowerC ity. Digging began in the southwest corner on wooden shelves.T hough the shelves themselves burned
and soon brought to light part of the wall and one of the and collapsed in the destruction of the palace, the inden-
city gates from the Amorite period (aroundt he year 2000 tations (Matthiae 1980: 150-58) in the walls for the sup-
B.C.). Concurrent excavation on the west side of the ports of these shelves ares till visible today.I t is worthm en-
Acropolis soon uncovereda temple designated Temple D. tioning that the fire was not completely destructive, for it
During the campaigns of 1966 and 1967 the badly baked the clay, thus preventinga ny furtherd amaget o the
damaged Royal Palace E of the Middle Bronze IIA period tablets.
and sector G on the Acropolis were excavated.T he year In 1976a n additional1 ,600t ablets andf ragmentsw ere
1968 was marked by the discovery of a torso of a votive recovered in rooms adjacent to the Archives (Matthiae
statue with an inscription dedicating it to Ishtaro n behalf 1977:1 48-76, especially 162a nd following).T he campaign
of Ibbit-Lims, on of Igris-Hepak, ing of Ebla( Pettinato1 970; of the following year, in which the excavations were ex-
1981a : 23-28; Lambert1 981a ), and by the consequent iden- pandedt o the west side of the PalaceG , was markedb y the
tification of the site (Matthiae 1970; Astour 1971: 18; discoveryo f the PalaceQ and the necropoliso f the Amorite
Pettinato 1981a:2 8). period, dated to around 1700-1650 B.C(. Matthiae 1979a).
Encouragedb y this, the excavationsw ere expandedt o Summingu p, the primaryb uildingsd iscoveredt o date
several points along the outer wall of the LowerC ity, and at Eblab elong to two differentp eriods:E arlyD ynastic III,
the southeast gate with its associated fortifications were representedb y the RoyalP alace G on the Acropolis, with
located and excavated. its Audience Hall surroundedp robablyb y a portico,a ndb y
Only in 1973 did the Royal Palace G, dated around the Administrative Quartersw ith the Archives; and the
Amorite period, from around 2000 to 1600 B.c., attested by
the City Gate A, the Temple D, the SanctuaryB 2, the For-
tress M, the temples BI and N, the ramparts, and the
Building Q with the annexed necropolis and its tombs of
the Princess and of the so-called Lordo f the Goats (Mat-
thiae 1979b).
The
Texts
The total of the texts founda t Eblai s more than 17,000c lay
tablets, fragments included, and, of them, about 1,650,1
including the most important of the complete or nearly
complete tablets, have been published in two main series:
one, by the InternationalC ommittee fort he Publicationo f
the Ebla Texts (compareM atthiae 1978: 41 and following;
unsigned 1978) set up by the Missione Archeologica
Italiana in Siria of the University of Rome, called Archivi
Reali di Ebla (ARET);a nd a second, Materiali Epigrafici di
Ebla (MEE), by the Istituto Universitario Orientale di
Napoli.
The clay tablets of the Royal Archives of Ebla utilize
the cuneiform writing system introduced by the Sume-
rians. The tablets themselves may have different shapes:
Small round tablets, usually with short economic ac-
counts and functioning like an invoice, were transferred on
to large rectangular ones with full summaries reporting the
transactions of several years. There are also square tablets
with round edges and with two to five columns per side;
BIBLICAL ARCHAEOLOGIST/MARCH 1984 7
:ANATOLIA'
Carchem'sh.
Allk Aleppo,,,
Marl
A"j. ..ms ?t?~;
Babylo. sKish
ersalem. AbuSlbh
:,Fara
fI
1A_
,) S?d
iizaAg.
these contain a few Sumerianw ordsw ith Eblaite transla- with the forerunnerso f the canonical lists in the Babylo-
tions. They may be considered school exercises and are nian periods.
found together with large rectangularo nes, which may Very close to the content of the type of texts men-
hold an entire glossary (Pettinato 1979a: xvii and tioned above is the Vocabularyo f Ebla (Pettinato 1982;
following). 1981c;A rchi 1980a),w hich is composed of a list of 1,450
Another peculiarity of the Ebla tablets, in common Sumerian words followed by their Eblaite counterparts.
with the pre-Sargonict exts in Mesopotamia, is that each The Vocabularyo f Ebla (VE)i s the result of a patient
item is enclosed in a separate square or rectangularb ox, reconstruction of this lengthy text from 114t ablets. This
termed a case; the cases are arrangedi n vertical columns. list is based on four principal sources: a large tablet with
These featuresa nd the shape of the cuneiform signs, what the Sumerian terms only (TM 75.G.2422; compare Pet-
the experts refert o as paleographyp, oint to a dating of the tinato 1982: 118-30), the bilingual texts A and B, and the
Ebla tablets around 2600-2500 B.C.s, hortly after those text Az, which starts at the entry number 1090.2B esides
found at Faraa nd Abu Salabikh (Pettinato 1981a:9 -12; these there are 40 tablets or fragments that could be con-
Picchioni 1981a). sidered "excerpts"o f the VE (Pettinato 1981c: 244 and
The majority of the clay tablets found at Ebla deal following; 1982:x xvii-xxix, 91-113, 347-81). Their origin
with the economic reportso f expenses or acquisitions to is almost certainly the school milieu, and they were used
the royalp alace. These reportsl ist a wide rangeo f goods: by young students to learn the Sumerian signs and their
from precious metals like gold and silver, to wool, pronunciation.3T he real name of the VE comes from its
garments, weapons, or rations of barley for the palace first entry:s e-bar-UNKINw, hich could mean"booko f the
personnel. assembly" (Pettinato 1981c: 249 and note 20).4 This list
Another groupo f texts deals with lists of various pro- follows an acrographic order-that is, the words are
fessions, of animals, birds, fish, miscellaneous words, groupeda ccordingt o the initial sign of the Sumeriant erm.
geographicaln ames, and so on (Pettinato 1981b;A rcari The first section begins with the sign NIG- and ends with
1982),a practices o common in ancient Mesopotamiat hat the repetition of the same symbol; this one is followed by
the dimensions and the shapeo f the tablets,t he numbero f a second segment characterized by the KA- sign, and
columns on each side, and the number of cases in each anotherb y SAG-,U j-,S A-,1 -, GIS-,a nd so on; in total there
column are almost perfectly identical with tablets found are ninety-three sections in the VE (Pettinato 1981c:
in other distant locations like Uruk, Nippur, Kish, or the 246-50; 1982:x viii-xxi).
previously mentioned Faraa nd Abu Salabikh (Biggs1 981: The treatyb etween Eblaa nd Assur belongs to the few
especially 129-33; Pettinato 1981b: xxi-xxvi; Nissen historical texts (Pettinato 1976a: 48; 1976b: 14; 1981a:
1981). So it is possible to say that these kinds of tablets 103-05; Sollberger1 980;P icchioni 1981b);it is a long com-
from Ebla fit well into the Mesopotamian tradition and merciala greementr egulatingt radeb etween the two cities.
pattern of lexical texts, and that they should be included It starts by listing the localities under their respective
8 BIBLICALA RCHAEOLOGIST/MARCH1 984