The Biblical Archaeologist - Vol.26, N.3

36 Pages·1963·3.86 MB·English

by  American Schools of Oriental Research

BIBLICAL ARCHAEOLOGIST
.O f
Published by
THE AMERICAN SCHOOLS OF ORIENTAL RESEARCH
Jerusalem and Bagdad
Drawer 93-A, Yale Station, New Haven, Conn.
VOL. XXVI September, 1963 No. 3
Fig. 1. Plastereds kull from Neolithic Jericho. (After K. M. Kenyon, Digging Up Jericho,p . 123,
pl. 21.)
Contents
Burials in Ancient Palestine: From the Stone Age to Abraham, by Joseph A. Callaway
74
The Macedonian Scene of Paul's Journeys, by Paul E. Davies ................................. 91
The Tomb of Moses is Still Undiscovered! ................. ....... ...................106
74 THE BIBLICALA RCHAEOLOGIST (Vol. XXVI,
The Biblical Archaeologist is published quarterly (February, May, September, December)
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Copyright by American Schools of Oriental Research, 1963.
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, BY TRANSCRIPT PRINTING COMPANY
PETERBOROUGH, N. H.
Burials in Ancient Palestine: From the Stone Age
to Abraham
JOSEPHA . CALLAWAY
Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
"Abrahamb uried Sarah his wife in the cave of the field of Machpelah
east of Mamre ... in the land of Canaan." (Gen. 23:19 RSV.)
We may wonder why Abrahamw anted a cave for a burying place for his
family. Actually in choosing a cave for a tomb he was following a well estab-
lished custom because multiple burials in caves and rock-cut tombs are found
in Palestine from the late Chalcolithic Age. Multiple burials in an under-
ground tomb are found at Azor near Tel Aviv dating to c. 3300 B.C.' Some
three centuries later, over three hundred individuals were interred in Jericho
Tomb K2.2 These burials occurredt welve to fifteen centuries before Abraham
purchased the cave of Machpelah. The practice of communal tomb burials per-
sisted even until the eclipse of Israelite culture in the Post-Exilic period.
Between the beginning of the fourth millennium and 3300 B.C. innova-
tions in burial customs appeared which broke radically with older Stone Age
traditions. The practice of communal cave-tomb burials is one new develop-
ment. However certain Stone Age traditionsp ersisted alongside new customs.
A common one was the practice of burying infants and children underneath
the floors of houses in which the family lived. In the period of the Israelite
1. J. Perrot, "Une tombe Ao ssuaires du IVe millenaire ' Azor, pres du Tel-Aviv," 'Atiqot, III,
(1961), pp. 1-83.
2. Jericho Tomb K2 will be published in Excavations at Jericho, II, by Kathleen M. Kenyon.
1963, 3) THE BIBLICALA RCHAEOLOGIST 75
monarchy, child burials in houses are still found at Dothan. Thus Old Testa-
ment burial customs seem to be rooted in traditionst hat in part reach back into
prehistory.
Accumulating evidence from burials set a new light of understanding
around certain Old Testament ideas about the dead. The idea that Abraham
"was gathered to his people" (Gen. 25:8), or statements that kings of Judah
"slept" or were "buried"w ith their fathers, must be understood against the
background of communal tomb burials. Also the concept of Sheol takes on a
new dimension of meaning in the light of cave tombs which were literal
houses of dust, dug down into the earth. We may venture the opinion that the
New Testament doctrine of the resurrection does not emerge ex nihilo, nor
apart from Semitic traditions,b ut instead it must be understooda s a part of the
pilgrimage of man's hopes and aspirationsr eflected in burial customs traceable
from the Stone Age. The main lines of those hopes that somehow always
found expression in the sad experience of interring members of one's family
are traced to the time of Abraham in this paper.
Stone Age Burials
Stone Age man lived in Palestine 600,000 years ago when the Dead Sea
extended to the south end of the Sea of Galilee and man had not mastered the
use of fire. But it was not until the time of Neanderthal man who lived in the
Mt. Carmel region some 50,000 years ago that evidence of burials is found.3
At least ten individuals were buried in the Skhul cave, and scatterede vidence
is found in other caves which were inhabited at the time. Although little care
seems to have been taken in depositing the corpses, some grave goods are
found. The jaw of a wild boar was deposited with one of the Skhul cave
burials. Individuals were usually laid in a pit in a flexed position, lying on one
side in an attitude of sleeping.
In these earliest burials two characteristicsw hich continue throughoutt he
Stone Age are apparent. First, there was a conscious effort to bury the dead in
close proximity to the living. Usually this meant that the dead were buried
underneath the floor of the cave in which they had lived and in which survi-
vors continued to live. And secondly, certain grave goods were deposited with
the corpses. There is no reason to believe that grave goods were specially pre-
pared for funerary purposes alone. Instead it seems that items of food, orna-
ments, tools and weapons taken from daily life were used. Thus items useful
for the living, including his habitation, were thought to be useful also for the
dead. The custom of burying the dead in close proximity to the living and the
deposit of grave goods taken from daily life suggests a primitive mythology
3. See Emmanuel Anati, Palestine Before the Hebrews, pp. 99-103.
76 THE BIBLICALA RCHAEOLOGIST (Vol. XXVI,
even 50,000 years ago. The future of the dead was apparently related to the
continuing existence of the living family. This implies a belief that death did
not bring complete annihilation of the individual.
By the time of Natufian man in Palestine c. 8000 B.C., revolutionary
cultural achievements had occurred.A comprehensivew orld view based upon
the rhythm of life and fertility cycles is evident in the art of Natufian
man. This intellectual achievement provided a stimulus for unusual cultural
vigor. The production of food was brought under the control of man, and on
the heels of this development villages began to be built and occupied. The
oldest settlement at Jericho dated by Carbon 14 to 7800 B.C. is one of the
first villages.4
ir (cid:127)
.. J?.
itr
ri
?- ,(cid:127)? , "
\? ri ohk c
Fig. 2. Ground plan of Natufian cave and terrace dwelling at Mugharet el-Wad, near Mt. Car-
mel. (After Garrod and Bate, The Stone Age of Mount Carmel, I, pl. III).
Certain Natufian groups continued to live in the caves at Mt. Carmel
and at campsites east of Bethlehem and in the Transjordan.A t Eynan east of
Merom a village of circular huts with stone foundations was built.
It is striking that burial customs do not reflect a significant change in
concepts in tlhe midst of these radical cultural changes. Fig. 2 is a plan of
the El-Wad cave and terraced welling near Mt. Carmel showing the locations
of 62 burials. H Group 1-10, inside the cave, marks a possible family burial
area underneath the floor of the cave. Other H numbers on the terraced enote
burials outside the cave. These are Natufian burials in the tradition of the
earlier Stone Age clustered about the area where the surviving memberso f the
family or tribe continued to live.
4. K. M. Kenyon, Archaeology in the Holy Land, p. 42, gives a Carbon-14 date of 7800 B.C. -? for
Na astturfuiacntu rme aant tihne tbhaes e Moft . thCea rtmelle l arte gJieornic. ho associate- by microliths and a bone harpoon he-d with
1963, 3) THE BIBLICALA RCHAEOLOGIST 77
The Eynanv illagec ommunityb uriedi ts deadi n circulars tone structures
like the housesi n which they lived.5A sixteen-footw ide stone walled struc-
turec ontaineda numbero f burialsw hich apparentlyh ad been depositedo ver
a long periodo f time.S everals mallc istern-likeg ravesa roundt he largec ircular
tomb containeds kulls and unarticulatedb ones probablyr emovedf rom the
largert ombt o maker oomf or additionabl urials.S pecialp referencef or skulls
is evidenti n the largen umberp reservedin the secondaryb urials.
Numerousb urialsa ref oundu nderneathth e floorso f housesi n Neolithic
Jericho,d ating immediatelya fter the Natufian settlemento f the city. The
remainso f overf ortyi ndividualsw ere excavatedf roma n areac overedb y one
house.A surprisingd iscoveryo f ten skullsw ith plasteredfa cialf eaturesr eveals
a continuingi nteresti n skulls firstn oticedi n the Eynanb urials.
Fig. 3. Jericho Neolithic burial, in situ, from which the cranium was removed. (After Kenyon,
Digging Up Jericho, p. 125, pl. 23.)
The best preservedN eolithicp lastereds kull is showni n Fig. 1. Its facial
featuresa re well modeledi ndeed,w ith shells workedi nto the orbits pacest o
representth e eyes. Nine of the plastereds kullsw ere found beneatht he floor
of a PrepotteryN eolithic B house in AreaD and the otherw as discovereda t
the northe nd of the tell. Wide separationo f the skulls,c onsideredw ith the
fact that skeletonsw ere foundi n widelys eparatedp lacesw ithouts kulls,i ndi-
catest hat a specialv enerationw as held for someo f the ancestoros f thosew ho
inhabitedt he town. Fig. 3 illustrateos ne of the burialsi n situ fromw hich the
5. J. Perrot, "Le M6solithique de Palestine et les d6couvertes a Eynan (Ain Mallaha),"
Antiquity and Survival, II, No. 2/3 (1957). pp. 9r1a-1c1en0.t es
78 THE BIBLICALA RCHAEOLOGIST (Vol. XXVI,
skull was removed, possibly for restoration.T hus at Jericho the close relation-
ship between the dead and the living was heightened by restoration of the
facial appearance of the dead as he was in the abode of the living.
Stone Age burials suggest a rather complex view of existence after death
in some kind of community with the survivors of one's family. Perhaps the
idea of community should be emphasized, because any notion of independent
existence would have resulted in burial away from the habitation of the liv-
ing. We may suggest that the living community was the key to one's hopes
beyond death.. There is little evidence of a concept of a community of the
dead with existence unrelated to the living community. Consequently the
family or tribal groups were kept in close physical proximity, even in death.
Also the initial burial seems to be more important than preservation of
skeleton remains. The treatment of some skeletal remains is quite callous.
This suggests that no significance was attached to preserving one's bones in-
tact, as is found in biblical times, and it probablym eans that the physical body
had no place in a concept of the after-life for Stone Age man. Interest in the
skulls of individuals suggests that the skull, more than any other part of the
skeleton, preserved something of the appearance that recalled the personality
of the dead person. Something of the dead person lived in the preserved
remembranceo f his looks. Use of the actual skull suggests that this was more
than simply a remembrance that could be stimulated by a picture. It must
have been in some sense a quasi-physical existence to the primitive mind,
which would have made the influence of the dead person upon the living
quite considerable and intimate.
The First Intimations of Sheol
Sheol is used in the Old Testament as a name for the nether world which
is a realm of the dead, and it carries the significance of a place apart from the
realm of the living. The concept is more ancient than the term, and evidence
of the concept would be found when the dead began to be buried away from
the habitationso f the living in what might be called a community of the dead.
The first intimations of this concept are found in the late Chalcolithic Age in
the coastal plains region south of Mt. Carmel.
In 1937, E. L. Sukenik investigated a tomb which was found by workmen
quarrying kurkar,a solidified sand, at Hederah. He found a five-foot layer of
kurkar covering a stratum of sand from which box-like pottery vessels were
protruding. Excavation of the sand layer revealed an artificial cave in which
three types of ossuaries or bone-boxes had been deposited.6 The best pre-
served ossuary is shown in Fig. 4; it measures about two feet in height, two
feet in length and one foot in width.
6. E. L. Sukenik, "A Chalcolithic Necropolis at Hederah," Journal of the Palestine Oriental
Society, XVII, (1937), pp. 15ff.
1963, 3) THE BIBLICALA RCHAEOLOGIST 79
Similar tombs have been found at Benei Beraq7 and Azor8 near Tel
Aviv. A spacious oval chamberm easuring about thirty-five by twenty-five feet
was carved from kurkar at Azor, and remains of possibly a hundred ossu-
aries have been recovered from the tomb. Pottery on the floor of the tomb is
typical late Chalcolithic consisting of pottery chums or "birdv essels,"b owls on
fenestrated bases and small angular-walled deep bowls. The painted decora-
tion of the ossuariesi n style and choice of motifs, such as bands, triangles, trel-
lis and stars, may be related to similar art work at Ghassul. The pottery may
be related to Ghassul, Abu Matar and Safadi.
I7 ,
, 7
. !-
;(cid:127)I~(cid:127)
Fig. 4. House-shaped ossuary from Hederah. (After E. L. Sukenik, Journal of the Palestine Orien-
tal Society, XVII (1937), p. 20, fig. 5.)
Ossuaries from Azor fall into three general types which are described
as rectangular, animal-shaped and ovoid jars. Most of them are rectangular
house-shaped chests of the general type shown in Fig. 4. Sukenik pointed out
that the house-shaped ossuary developed from the practice of burying the
dead underneath the floor of the house in which he had lived. This practice,
which we have noted as the prevailing custom during the Stone Age, became
a physical problem because there was not room enough under floors of houses
for many burials, accordingt o Sukenik. Therefore the ossuaryb urial developed
as a substitute for the house burial. The house-shaped ossuary symbolized
shelter for continued existence beyond death.
The associationo f the house and the ossuariesi s quite valid. Perrot notes
that the ossuaries from Azor suggest wooden beams projecting from the roofs
of houses and the legs on some of them reflect houses built on piling. Whether
the association implies also the idea of community with the surviving family
that seemed to be evident in Stone Age burials is not clear. One thing is clear:
these are the first elaborates econdaryb urials, and they seem to reflect a new
7. J. Ory, "A Chalcolithic Necropolis 3enei Beraq," Quarterly of the Department of Antiquities
in Palestine, 12, (1946), pp. 43-57. a"'
'
8. J. Perrot, "Une tombe ossuaries . . . ," op. cit.
80 THE BIBLICAL ARCHAEOLOGIST (Vol. XXVI,
attitude toward death. Where the Stone Age burials were related to the living
community, these seem to introduce the idea of a community among the dead.
Importancei s placed upon properb urial and also the preservationo f the indi-
vidual's bones for some kind of existence after death. It is entirely possible that
we have here evidence of the first notions of the nether world as a separate
community of the dead. The pottery ossuaries in the shape of houses suggest
that the dead were thought to need a house, and pottery bowls and churns
probably held food and drink for the dead person. Thus the basic needs of
the living were considered to be needs of the dead also.
The strange Chalcolithic underground communities of Abu Matar and
Safadi near Beersheba have subterraneanc hambers very much like the burial
chamber at Azor.9 The remains of twelve human bodies, mostly young indi-
viduals, were found in the chamberso r passagesa t Abu Matar, and some were
found at Safadi. In two cases at Abu Matar stone circles a little over three
feet in diameterc overed the graves of children. However the scarcityo f burials
in dwelling chambers may be due to an abandonment of the custom of sub-
floor interments because of the physical problem of excavating graves in the
hard soil. And there is the possibility that ossuaryb urials may be discovered in
a chamber away from the tell.
Stone Age customs seem to persist in burial practices at Ghassul, east of
Jericho.10I n the course of excavation of the site, numerous burials of children
were found beneath the floors of rooms, and in at least one instance, in Room
13d of Level IV, Tell I, the disturbed remains of two adults were found. Usu-
ally the child burials were in pottery jars which had been broken to admit the
body of the child. A piece of a second jar was normally used to cover the open-
ing of the broken jar which held the corpse. The small number of adult bur-
ials discovered means that either a cemetery was located away from the tell,
or that some method of disposing of the dead was used which did not allow
the remains to be preserved.
Proximity of Ghassul to the mountains of Moab in Transjordan raised
the possibility that megalithic funerary monuments in that region might be
associatedw ith the site. In 1933 Moshe Stekelis excavated one of the fields of
tumuli at Adeimeh, one and one-half miles east of Ghassul."1O ne hundred
sixty-eight "cist"t ype burial chambers, illustrated in Fig. 5, were found, and
and fragments of Ghassulian-type comet pottery vessels, footed bowls and
fan-shaped flint scrapers associated the graves with the Ghassulian period.
A typical burial consists of a small chamber from two to five feet in
length, apparently measured to fit the individual. The "cist"w as lined with
9. J. Perrot, "Excavations at Tell Abu Matar," Israel Exploration Journal, 5, (1955), pp. 173ff.
10. See A. Mallon, R. Koeppel and R. Neuville, Teleilat Ghassul I, (1934), and R. Koeppel, H.
Senes, J. W. Murphy and G. S. Mahan, Teleilat Ghassul II, (1940).
11. M. Stekelis, Les monuments megalithique de Palestine, (1935).
1963, 3) THE BIBLICALA RCHAEOLOGIST 81
upright flat stones and, after interment of the dead, a large flat stone was.
leaned against the front of the chamber.T able-like flat stones were laid across
the top. Individuals were buried in a crouching position, resting on the back
with the head against the back wall of the chamber.
Associated with the cist-chambers were hearths specially built for some
part of the funerary ceremony. In Fig. 5 the hearth can be seen at a right angle
to the axis of the chamber. No pottery or bone fragments were recovered
from the cinders of the hearths, so that their role in the ceremony is unknown.
Articulated skeletal remains in the cist-chambers rule out cremations. It is
possible that a ceremonial meal was observed in connection with the burials.
o Oo
oA& C
,-, ..a
O
0.
. .o
&
oD1"0?1' -9"b
r
(1 :1: d
1 :::. o0 . 0 L/ s
.: 10:..;~ "8
IPA"
..I.* I,,I
Fig. 5. "Cist" tomb plan with associated hearth under tumulus, east of Ghassul. (After M. Stek-
elis, Les monuments megalithiques de Palestine, p. 44, fig. 6.)
The cist-tomb burials belong with the Chalcolithic ossuary burials in
time, but it is difficult to speculate on their significance. Architecturallyt hey
cannot be associatedw ith Ghassul, although pottery associationsc an be made.
There does seem to be a concept of a separatedc ommunity of the dead evident
in the location of the cemetery, but the living community to be associatedw ith
it remains unknown.
On the other hand the elaborate secondary burials of Hederah and Azor
in communal chambers clearly indicate a changing concept of the after-life
from Stone Age traditions.C ontinuing evidence of child burials beneath the
floors of houses suggests that the developing idea of a community of the dead
was primarily for adults, and that the infant or child was thought to have a
different kind of existence after death. Of course it is possible that children
82 THE BIBLICALA RCHAEOLOGIST' (Vol. XXVI,
were buried in the houses or rooms for sentimental reasons, to keep them
nearby, but it is likely that the child was not viewed as a person in the same
light as adults.
The First True Communal Tombs
Soon after 3300 B.C. the hill country of Palestine came alive with people
moving about its valleys and ridges. The static and isolated Chalcolithic cul-
tures died out and nomad groups established campsites or villages at strategic
locations which later developed into the great cities of the land. Jericho was
reoccupied and new settlements appeared at Jerusalem, Ai, Mizpah, Gezer,
Megiddo, Beth-shan, and Tirzah.
Tombs furnish major evidence of the newcomers because almost no
stratified tell evidence remains. For some 300 years the mingling tribes of
nomads or semi-nomads buried their dead in elaborate underground tombs
which were literal cemeteries. The common element in all the burials was the
practice of communal burial in single underground chambers located away
from the habitations of the living. A fully developed concept of a community
of the dead is evident. It is likely that family ties were thought to continue in
the community of the dead because each tribe probably had its own burial
chamber. Now clearly the dead were thought to have had a destiny of their
own, apart from the living. This in turn implies a significant development in
mythology.
Three interesting burial customs may be observed in the period from
c. 3300-3000 B.C. A focal point from which the customs may be considered
is the so-called Troglodyte Crematorium of Gezer, illustrated in Fig. 6.12
The tomb is a large irregularo val-shaped chamber measuring 31 feet in length
and 24 feet in width. On the southwest side is a stepped entrance leading
into what was likely the original phase of the tomb, indicated by a broken
line running under Enclosures E, B, and A.
During the earliest use of the tomb some form of cremation was practiced
for the first time in Palestine. Only Tomb A94 at Jericho, belonging in the
same period, has other cremation evidence. Ashes from cremations reached a
depth of about one foot just inside the stepped entrance to the tomb at Gezer.
A draft of air necessary for the intense cremation flames was made possible by
a vent in the roof of the chamber, cut in an inverted funnel shape. It was
originally believed that whole bodies of individuals were cremated, and a
small leg bone of a sheep fashioned into an amulet, which was recoveredf rom
the ashes, was pointed out as a part of the burial equipment of a person who
was cremated. Fragmentso f numerous skulls around the fringes of the pile of
ashes indicated that a considerablen umber of cremationst ook place.
12. R. A. S. Macalister, "Report on the Excavation of Gezer," Palestine Exploration Fund, Quarterly
Statement, (1902), pp. 347ff.; cf. also G. E. Wright, "The Troglodytes of Gezer," Palestine Ex-
ploration Fund, Quarterly Statement (1937), pp. 67-68.