Material Culture Matters: Essays on the Archaeology of the Southern Levant in Honor of Seymour Gitin

346 Pages·2014·58.44 MB·English

by  John R. Spencer

M
Material
a
Culture t
e
r
Matters i
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Material
Dr. Seymour Gitin is completing his tenure as Director and Dorot
Professor at the W. F. Albright Institute of Archaeological Research
u
in Jerusalem. Much of his long career has been spent helping young
scholars expand their contacts and hone their skills. This volume
is a collection of articles by some of the many developing scholars l Culture
t
and Albright Fellows with whom Sy has shared his time and knowl-
edge. Their appreciation shows in the quality of their articles, the u
breadth of their interests, and their dedication to Sy Gitin.
The articles range from a discussion of tomb robbing in Pales- r
Matters
tinian areas, to a geographical analysis of the Shephelah region, e
to Islamic historical texts, to Israelite cult stands, to Middle

Bronze Age burials. In addition, there are several articles by
M
former members of the Tel Miqne–Ekron staff that draw on the
finds from that site and further demonstrate Sy’s willingness
to mentor and to share the publication of the site’s rich trove
of materials. a Essays on the Archaeology of the
This book not only honors Dr. Gitin by the willingness of
t
fellows to contribute to the volume; it also expands our knowl- Southern Levant in Honor of
edge base of the southern Levant and shows that “Material t
Culture Matters.” e Seymour Gitin
r
s
edited by
Edited by
Spencer,
Mullins, John R. Spencer,
and
Robert A. Mullins,
Brody
and Aaron J. Brody
Eisenbrauns
POB 275
Winona Lake, IN 46590
www.eisenbrauns.com
EISENBRAUNS
Material Culture Matters

Material Culture Matters
Essays on the Archaeology of the
Southern Levant in Honor of Seymour Gitin
Edited by
John R. Spencer,
Robert A. Mullins, and Aaron J. Brody
Published on behalf of the W. F. Albright Institute of Archaeology
by
Eisenbrauns
Winona Lake, Indiana
2014
© 2014 by Eisenbrauns Inc.
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America

www.eisenbrauns.com
A special note of appreciation goes to the
Bodri Foundation,
San Francisco, California, for its generous support,
without which this volume could not have been published
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Material culture matters : essays on the archaeology of the Southern Levant in
honor of Seymour Gitin / edited by John R. Spencer, Aaron J. Brody, and
Robert A. Mullins.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 978-1-57506-298-3 (hardback : alkaline paper)
1. Israel—Antiquities. 2. Palestine—Antiquities. 3. Material
culture—Israel—History—To 1500. 4. Material culture—Palestine—
History—To 1500. 5. Gitin, Seymour. 6. Excavations (Archaeology)—
Israel. 7. Excavations (Archaeology)—Palestine. 8. Social archaeology—
Israel. 9. Social archaeology—Palestine. I. Spencer, John R. (John
Richard), 1945– II. Brody, Aaron Jed. III. Mullins, Robert A.
IV. W. F. Albright Institute of Archaeological Research.
DS111.1.M36 2014
933—dc23
2014005587
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National Stan-
dard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-
1984.♾™
Contents
Contributors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii
Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi
John R. Spencer
Sy Gitin: A Fellow’s Reminiscences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xvi
Aaron J. Brody
Personal Reminiscences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xviii
Robert A. Mullins
Bibliography of Seymour Gitin—Update . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxi
The Umayyad Pottery of Palestine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . 1
Marwan Abu Khalaf
Marked Jar Handles from Tel Miqne–Ekron . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
David Ben-Shlomo
The Southwestern Border of Judah in the
Ninth and Eighth Centuries b.c.e. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Jeffrey A. Blakely, James W. Hardin, and Daniel M. Master
Interregional Interaction in the Late Iron Age: Phoenician and
Other Foreign Goods from Tell en-Nasbeh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Aaron Brody
Three Middle Bronze II Burials from Tel Zahara . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
Susan L. Cohen and Wiesław Więckowski
A Late Iron Age Cult Stand from Gezer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
Garth Gilmour
Tomb Raiding in Western Ramallah Province, Palestine:
An Ethnographic Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Salah Hussein al-Houdalieh
Lambs to the Slaughter: Late Iron Age Cultic Orientations
at Philistine Ekron . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
Edward F. Maher
Competing Material Culture: Philistine Settlement
at Tel Miqne–Ekron in the Early Iron Age . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
Laura B. Mazow
v
vi contents
Mother-and-Child Figurines in the Levant from the
Late Bronze Age through the Persian Period . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
Beth Alpert Nakhai
The Evolution of the Sacred Area at Tell es-Sultan/Jericho . . . . . . . . . . 199
Hani Nur el-Din
“Ashdod Ware” from Ekron Stratum IV: Degenerated and
Late Philistine Decorated Ware . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209
Steven M. Ortiz
New Perspectives on the Chalcolithic Period in the Galilee:
Investigations at the Site of Marj Rabba . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221
Yorke M. Rowan and Morag M. Kersel
An Overview of Iron Age Gaza in Light of the
Archaeological Evidence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239
Moain Sadeq
Tobacco Pipes and the Ophir Expedition to Southern Sinai:
Archaeological Evidence of Tobacco Smoking among
18th- and 20th-Century Bedouin Squatters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255
Benjamin Adam Saidel
King David in Mujīr al-Dīn’s Fifteenth-Century
History of Jerusalem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265
Robert Schick
An Iron Age II Tomb at ʿAnata . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281
Hamdan Taha
The Ups and Downs of Settlement Patterns: Why Sites Fluctuate . . . . . . . 295
Joe Uziel, Itzhaq Shai, and Deborah Cassuto
The Horned Stands from Tell Afis and Hazor and the
“Crowns” from Nahal Mishmar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309
Alexander Zukerman
Contributors
Note: This list includes all of the contributors to this volume, their education,
their current affiliation, and their fellowships at the Albright Institute under
Dr. Sy Gitin’s Directorship.
Marwan Abu Khalaf (Ph.D., Oxford University) is an Associate Professor at Al-Quds
University in Jerusalem. He was an AIAR Senior Research Fellow (1996–2013).
David Ben-Shlomo (Ph.D., Hebrew University) is a researcher in the Hebrew Univer-
sity and Albright Institute. He was an AIAR Research Fellow (1999–2008) and an
AIAR Senior Research Fellow (2009–13).
Jeffrey A. Blakely (Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania) is an Adjunct Professor in the
Department of Hebrew and Semitic Studies at the University of Wisconsin–
Madison. He was the Annual Professor at the Albright Institute (1996–97). He has
served both as an officer and a trustee of ASOR for a number of terms.
Aaron J. Brody (Ph.D., Harvard University) is the Robert and Kathryn Riddell As-
sociate Professor of Bible and Archaeology and Director of the Bade Museum of
Biblical Archaeology at Pacific School of Religion. He was the George A. Barton
Fellow (1992–93), the Dorot Foundation Fellow (1993), and a United States Infor-
mation Agency Fellow (1995–96). He is also a member of the Board of Trustees
of the Albright Institute.
Deborah Cassuto (M.A., Bar-Ilan University) is a Ph.D. candidate at Bar Ilan Univer-
sity in the Martin (Szusz) Department of Land of Israel Studies and Archaeology.
She has been the Ernest S. Frerichs Fellow / Program Coordinator (2012–14) and
was an AIAR Research Fellow (2005–12).
Susan L. Cohen (Ph.D., Harvard University) is an Associate Professor in the Depart-
ment of History, Philosophy, and Religious Studies at Montana State University.
She was an Educational and Cultural Affairs Fellow (2000–2001) and an AIAR
Associate Research Fellow (2001–8). She is also a member of the Board of Trustees
of the Albright Institute.
Garth Gilmour (Ph.D., Oxford University) is a Research Associate at the Department
of Old and New Testaments at the University of Stellenbosch and at the Institute
of Archaeology at the University of Oxford, and Administrator of the European
Association for Jewish Studies, based at Yarnton Manor in Oxford. He was the
George A. Barton Fellow at the Albright Institute (1995), a Miqne Fellow (2000–
2001), and an AIAR Senior Fellow (2002–14).
vii
viii Contributors
James W. Hardin (Ph.D., University of Arizona) is an Associate Professor of Anthro-
pology and Near Eastern Archaeology in the Department of Anthropology and
Middle Eastern Cultures at Mississippi State University and is a Senior Research
Associate in the Cobb Institute of Archaeology. He was a United States Informa-
tion Agency Fellow (1994–95).
Salah H. al-Houdalieh (Ph.D., Heidelberg University) is Professor of Archaeology at
Al-Quds University in Jerusalem. He was an AIAR Post-Doctoral Fellow (2000–
2011) and an AIAR Senior Fellow (2011–12).
Morag M. Kersel (Ph.D., University of Cambridge) is Assistant Professor in the De-
partment of Anthropology at DePaul University (Chicago). She was an Educational
and Cultural Affairs Fellow (2003–4) and an AIAR Senior Fellow (2013–14).
Edward F. Maher (Ph.D., University of Illinois–Chicago) is a Research Associate at
the Field Museum of Natural History (Chicago, IL) and Lecturer in Anthropology
at North Central College (Naperville, IL). He was the George A. Barton Fellow
(2000–2001) and a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellow (2004, 2010).
Maher participated in the excavations at Tel Miqne–Ekron (1993–96) and was the
first recipient of the Sean W. Dever Memorial Prize (2000).
Daniel M. Master (Ph.D., Harvard University) is a Professor of Archaeology at Whea-
ton College. He was a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellow (2008–9).
Laura B. Mazow (Ph.D., University of Arizona) is an Assistant Professor in the Depart-
ment of Anthropology at East Carolina University. She was a United States Infor-
mation Agency Junior Research Fellow (1997–98), the Samuel H. Kress Founda-
tion Fellow (1998–99), an Educational and Cultural Affairs Fellow (2002–3), the
George A. Barton Fellow (2003–4), a National Endowment for the Humanities
Fellow (2012), an AIAR Post-Doctoral Fellow (2009–11), and an AIAR Senior
Fellow (2011–14).
Robert A. Mullins (Ph.D., Hebrew University) is an Associate Professor of Biblical
Studies at Azusa Pacific University. He was a United States Information Agency Ju-
nior Research Fellow (1997–98), the James A. Montgomery Fellow (1998–2000),
the Ernest S. Frerichs Fellow/Program Coordinator (2000–2002), and a National
Endowment for the Humanities Fellow (2004).
Beth Alpert Nakhai (Ph.D., University of Arizona) is an Associate Professor in the Ari-
zona Center for Judaic Studies and in the School of Anthropology at the University
of Arizona. She serves on Albright’s Sean W. Dever Memorial Prize Committee
(2001–13) and was an AIAR Senior Fellow (2007–8). She worked with Trude
Dothan and Sy Gitin on the Tel Miqne–Ekron Excavation Project (1981–85).
Contributors ix
Hani Nur el-Din (Ph.D., École Pratique des Hautes Études, the Sorbonne), is an Assis-
tant Professor of Archaeology at the Institute of Archaeology, Al-Quds University
in Jerusalem. He was an AIAR Research Fellow (1989–96), an AIAR Post-Doctoral
Fellow (1997–2001), and an AIAR Senior Research Fellow (2001–14).
Steven M. Ortiz (Ph.D., University of Arizona) is Professor of Archaeology and Bib-
lical Backgrounds and Director of the Charles D. Tandy Institute for Archaeology
at the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary (Fort Worth, TX). He was a
United States Information Agency Junior Fellow (1994–95), the George A. Barton
Fellow (1995–96), and an AIAR Research Fellow (1989–90). He is currently a
co-director of the Tel Gezer Excavation Project affiliated with the Albright/ASOR.
Yorke M. Rowan (Ph.D., University of Texas, Austin) is a Research Associate at the
Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago. He was a Council of American
Overseas Research Centers, Advanced Multi-Country Research Fellow (1994–
95), a United States Information Agency Junior Research Fellow (1999–2000), a
National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Fellow (1999–2000), an Educa-
tional and Cultural Affairs Fellow (2007–8), and a NEH Fellow (2013–14). He has
also served as a member of the Board of Trustees of the Albright Institute.
Moain Sadeq (Ph.D., Free University of Berlin) is Professor of History and Archae-
ology at Qatar University, an adjunct professor at the University of Toronto, and
a Research Associate at the University of Chicago. He was the founding chair of
the Palestinian Department of Antiquities in Gaza, was cofounder of Al-Aqsa Uni-
versity in Gaza, and has taught archaeology and art history in Palestine and North
America.
Benjamin A. Saidel (Ph.D., Harvard University) is an Associate Professor of Anthropol-
ogy at East Carolina University. He was a United States Information Agency Junior
Research Fellow (1993–94), the George A. Barton Fellow (1998–99), an AIAR
Post-Doctoral Fellow (1999–2000), a National Endowment for the Humanities
Fellow (2000–2001), the Ernest S. Frerichs Fellow/Program Director (2002–5),
and an AIAR Senior Fellow (2009–14). He is also a member of the Board of
Trustees of the Albright Institute.
Robert Schick (Ph.D., University of Chicago) is an independent researcher. He was
the Islamic Studies Fellow (1994–95), a National Endowment for the Humanities
(NEH) Fellow (1995–96), the Islamic Studies Fellow (1996–99), and a NEH Fel-
low (2008–9).
Itzhaq Shai (Ph.D., Bar-Ilan University) is a Senior Lecturer of Archaeology at the
Israel Heritage Department at Ariel University, Israel, and the director of the Tel
Burna Archaeological Project. He was an AIAR Post-Doctoral Fellow (2006–12).