DOCSLIB.ORG

Christian Spolia in the Late Antique Mosque at Shivta in the Negev Desert (Israel) *

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Christian Spolia in the Late Antique Mosque at Shivta in the Negev Desert (Israel) * ECA 8 (2011), p. 101-119; doi: 10.2143 / ECA.8.0.2961368 Crosses’ Work Underfoot: Christian Spolia in the Late Antique Mosque at Shivta in the Negev Desert (Israel) * Glenn PEERS Scholars have productively studied the re-use of of reasons, some of which are perfectly evident architectural materials in Late Antiquity from the from their supercessionist vantage point. Likewise, point of view of practical, aesthetic and ideological at the end of this period, Muslims had a compli- motivations, and the number of those motivations, cated relationship to religions they encountered, as well as responses, marks a distinctive character- primarily Christianity, because that faith was closely istic of this period in relation to classical Antiquity. associated, naturally, with the empire that Islamic The almost-bricolage of the Arch of Constantine in forces contended against. This article examines one Rome (315) represents a sophisticated, rich demon- such encounter, which led to the integration of stration of the past in the present and, more to the Christian building materials into an early Islamic point, in its service1. Christians manipulated mate- mosque in the small town of Shivta (present-day rial remnants of the past, too, for a large number name, but also called Sbeita, Esbeita, Subeita, Isbayta) in the central Negev desert, some 50 kms south of modern Beer Sheeva (Fig. 1). There, clearly Christian materials had highly public and agonistic placement, but the motivations were not necessarily, or only, adversarial. They were faceted and not reducible to an antagonistic social model2. They were available for complicated understand- ings of the ongoing power and prestige that Islam was in the process of appropriating to itself. The town of Shivta has been the object of study by numerous travelers and archaeologists, along with other settlements in the Negev, a forbidding but deeply affecting desert terrain (Fig. 2)3. Leonard Woolley (1880-1960) and T.E. Lawrence (1888- 1935) visited the site in the spring of 1914, and their account of the region still stands as a useful and even romantic treatment of the historical remains and vivid landscape (Pl. 1)4. Their study * Many thanks to Samer Ali, Katia Cytryn-Silverman, Karni Golan, Mattia Guidetti, Mat Immerzeel, Amy Papalexan- drou, Na’ama Pat-El, and to Silvia Krapiwko and Aries Rochman-Halperin at the archive of the Israel Antiquities Authority. My colleague Stephennie Mulder read a version of this article and offered excellent advice. 1 See now Brilliant/Kinney 2011. 2 See Hayden et al. 2011. 3 On the region, see Erez Edelson 2006; Haiman 1995; Fig. 1. Map of the Negev, with principal sites marked Evenari/Shaman/Tadmor 1971. (from Figueras 1995a) 4 Woolley/Lawrence 2003, 97-120. 101 95300_ECA8(2011)_07.indd 101 27/02/13 15:23 was only a survey, nevertheless, but Shivta has suf- fered such intense scrutiny over the decades with the result of very few accurate archaeological reports. In fact, the site is woefully under-pub- lished, despite the attentions of Israeli archaeolo- gists in the last half-century5. The general outlines of the town, and its principal buildings, were known when Harris Dunscombe Colt, Jr. (1901- 1973), an American archaeologist, received permis- sion from British authorities to commence excava- tion at Shivta in 1933. His team worked at the site for several seasons, before being distracted by the nearby site of Nessana, which led to important finds and publications. Those excavations at Shivta were terminated at the end of 1938, when the dig house, along with its finds, equipment, and records, were destroyed6. The Colt excavations, then, were very poorly recorded, and many finds were lost, but they did lead to the uncovering of a fascinating aspect of the last phase of Shivta’s history, a mosque attached to the baptistery of the south church Fig. 2. Map of Shivta (after Segal 1985, Fig. 4) (Pls 2-3). The mosque is a modestly sized structure, and it comprises a small courtyard that leads into a cov- ered prayer room, a very unusual feature in the Negev, in fact (Pls 4-5). It was fit into a trapezoidal area that abutted the baptistery and domestic struc- tures, and opened onto the plaza that contained a large reservoir. The baptistery belonged to the south church, which also accommodated itself to the pre-existing urban fabric, as the town predates Christianity. The arrival of the new religion in the seventh century did not necessitate clearing ground for a freestanding architectural statement, and that situation holds for most of the region during the Pl. 1. View toward Shivta from Mitzpe Shivta Early Islamic period7. In fact, the size of the (photograph: author) mosque indicates that the number of Muslim men was never large, and comparing the mosque with 5 That is not to say that scholars have not published aspects the three churches at Shivta, along with their sub- of the site or attempted to integrate the site into regional sidiary buildings, makes evident the inhabitants of studies. See Erickson-Gini 2010, 31-32; Harris 2007; Late Antique/post-conquest Shivta were predomi- Hirschfeld 2003; Rubin 1997; Tsafrir/Di Segno/Green 8 1994, 234; Negev 1993; Shereshevski 1991, 61-82; Segal nantly Christian . Muslims were not necessarily a 1983; Gutwein 1981, 89-93; Ovadiah 1970, 166-173. On dominant force in the Late Antique Negev, even if the Early Islamic period, see Ribak 2007, 217-218; the forms and presence of Byzantine authority were Petersen 2005, 62-64; Magness 2003, 185-187; Negev 9 1982. gone . The town was unusual in the Negev for 6 AT/64/6, letter of January 1939. continuing to produce inscriptions commemorat- 7 Guidetti, forthcoming. ing burials, as well as a new floor in the south 8 Rubin 1997. church in 639, for example10. Six kilometers away 9 Guidetti 2009a, 4. 10 Negev 1981, 47-67; idem 1990, 354. from the town is a large monastic community, now 11 Caner 2010, 255 n. 13; Harris 2007, 44; Figueras 1995a, called Mitzpe Shivta, scarcely excavated, but with 420-423; Ovadiah 1970, 138-139. impressive and widespread remains (Pl. 6)11. Shivta 102 95300_ECA8(2011)_07.indd 102 27/02/13 15:23 Pl. 2. View of Mosque and South Church, Shivta (photograph courtesy of the Israel Antiquities Authority Archives, Israel Antiquities Authority Archives: British Mandate Records Files: file no. 71, Isbeita, photograph 9918) Pl. 3. View of Mosque and South Church, Shivta (photograph courtesy of the Israel Antiquities Authority Archives, Israel Antiquities Authority Archives: British Mandate Records Files: file no. 71, Isbeita, photograph 9919) 103 95300_ECA8(2011)_07.indd 103 27/02/13 15:24 Pl. 4. View of Mosque, Shivta (photograph courtesy of the Israel Antiquities Authority, Israel Antiquities Authority Archives: British Mandate Records Files: file no. 71, Isbeita, photograph 9932) Pl. 5. View of Mosque, Shivta (photograph courtesy of the Israel Antiquities Authority Archives, Israel Antiquities Authority Archives: British Mandate Records Files: file no. 71, Isbeita, photograph 9933) 104 95300_ECA8(2011)_07.indd 104 27/02/13 15:24 junction of places of worship in this period, Mus- lim mosque and Christian baptistery, is naturally significant, but in the second, the use of spolia was not only antagonistic and competitive, but like the placement, part of an attempt on the part of the town’s Muslims to use these Christian markers for protective power, for mapping social worlds, and for marking zones of sanctity. In other words, the builders and users of this new addition to Late Antique Shivta engaged in a creative re-making of the urban, social, and religious fabric of the town that spoke with and manipulated Christian stones. Pl. 6. View of Mitzpe Shivta (photograph author) The most immediately apparent significance of this deployment of spolia by the new Muslim mas- ters of Shivta is deprecatory, that is Muslim feet therefore supported three sizeable churches within were being invited to tread on the crosses as a sign its perimeter and was evidently connected with a of dominance of Islam and powerlessness of Chris- prosperous satellite monastic community, as well. tianity. Of course, many such examples can be Likewise, it is the only town with a covered cited to prove the mastery of a religion and its fol- mosque12. These aspects reveal strong communities lowers through subjugation of another’s holy signs of both Christians and Muslims, and prosperity and representations. Triumphantly passing over the deep into Late Antiquity. unresisting markers of another’s power was a long- That relative scale needs to be borne in mind for established trope by the Late Antique period. For understanding the choices made by the builders example, Sudanese conquerors of the Roman col- and patrons of the new Islamic house of worship, ony at Meroe cut off the head of the bronze statue for the photographs of the Colt expedition record of the emperor Augustus and buried it under the the original arrangement of the steps leading from steps of their own temple dedicated to victory; all the reservoir plaza into the anteroom of the mosque who entered inevitably (and at least for a time, (Pls 3, 5, 7-8). The upper step and part of the lin- knowingly) trod on the head of the defeated tel leading into the mosque itself are re-used stones enemy14. The builders of the synagogue at Sardis from a Christian building, or at least had been also placed a relief of Artemis and Cybele face intended for such a building. The stones’ upward- down in the forecourt, as a sign, it would seem, of turned faces show two crosses between two com- their faith’s rightness and of authorities’ collusion pass-produced rosettes (the left-hand stone is quite in that statement15.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • TAU Archaeology the Jacob M
    TAU Archaeology The Jacob M. Alkow Department of Archaeology and Ancient Near Eastern Cultures and The Sonia and Marco Nadler Institute of Archaeology The Lester and Sally Entin Faculty of Humanities | Tel Aviv University Number 4 | Summer 2018 Golden Jubilee Edition 1968–2018 TAU Archaeology Newsletter of The Jacob M. Alkow Department of Archaeology and Ancient Near Eastern Cultures and The Sonia and Marco Nadler Institute of Archaeology The Lester and Sally Entin Faculty of Humanities Number 4 | Summer 2018 Editor: Alexandra Wrathall Graphics: Noa Evron Board: Oded Lipschits Ran Barkai Ido Koch Nirit Kedem Contact the editors and editorial board: [email protected] Discover more: Institute: archaeology.tau.ac.il Department: archaeo.tau.ac.il Cover Image: Professor Yohanan Aharoni teaching Tel Aviv University students in the field, during the 1969 season of the Tel Beer-sheba Expedition. (Courtesy of the Sonia and Marco Nadler Institute of Archaeology, Tel Aviv University). Photo retouched by Sasha Flit and Yonatan Kedem. ISSN: 2521-0971 | EISSN: 252-098X Contents Message from the Chair of the Department and the Director of the Institute 2 Fieldwork 3 Tel Shimron, 2017 | Megan Sauter, Daniel M. Master, and Mario A.S. Martin 4 Excavation on the Western Slopes of the City of David (‘Giv’ati’), 2018 | Yuval Gadot and Yiftah Shalev 5 Exploring the Medieval Landscape of Khirbet Beit Mamzil, Jerusalem, 2018 | Omer Ze'evi, Yelena Elgart-Sharon, and Yuval Gadot 6 Central Timna Valley Excavations, 2018 | Erez Ben-Yosef and Benjamin
    [Show full text]
  • Ετς Θεος in Palestinian Inscriptions
    ΕΤς θεος in Palestinian Inscriptions Leah Di Segni The acclamation Εἷς θεὸς, alone or in composition with various formulas, fre­ quently occurs in the East. In an extensive study, Ε. Peterson1 collected a large number of examples which he considered to be Christian, some as early as the late third century, from Syria (including Phoenicia, Palestine and Arabia) and Egypt, and concluded that Εἷς θεὸς was a typical Christian formula. Peterson’s conclusions were widely accepted and, not surprisingly, have become a self-ful­ filling prophecy, inasmuch as any inscription that contains this formula is auto­ matically classified as Christian, unless unequivocally proven otherwise. A more critical approach seems advisable, especially when dealing with Palestine, if for no other reason than the demographic diversity of this region, where Christians were still a minority at the beginning of the fifth century and possibly for some time later.2 While the material collected by Peterson from Egypt is indeed solidly Chris­ tian — mostly epitaphs with Christian symbols, many of them containing eccle­ siastic titles3 — the examples of Εἷς θεὸς from Syria include a sizable group of inscriptions that lack any positive identification. Of the dated material, a large majority of the unidentified Εἷς θεὸς inscriptions belong to the fourth century, whereas the texts identified as Christian by the addition of specific symbols and/or formulas come from the late fourth and fifth centuries. This seems to mean that in Syria the Εἷς θεὸς formula suffered a progressive Christianization, concomitant with the advance of Christianity in the province. In his collection of Syrian material, in fact, Prentice attributed the early specimens of Εἷς θεὸς to Ι Ε.
    [Show full text]
  • Vol. V, No. 11 the Ancient Near East Today
    November 2017: Vol. V, No. 11 The Ancient Near East Today A PUBLICATION OF FRIENDS OF ASOR TABLE OF CONTENTS Beyond the Texts: An Archaeological Portrait of Ancient Israel 1 and Judah An Affair of Herbal Medicine? The ‘Special’ Kitchen in the Royal 2 Palace of Ebla The Bible as Tool for Learning to Evaluate Competing Voices in 3 an Age of “Fake News” Not Just for the Birds: Pigeons in the Roman and Byzantine Near 4 East Chapter One Beyond the Texts: An Archaeological Portrait of Ancient Israel and Judah Beyond the Texts: An Archaeological Portrait of Ancient Israel and Judah By: William G. Dever Countless books have been written about ancient Israel. But this work is the first mainstream history of ancient Israel to be published in English in 40 years. It also differs from previous scholarship by attempting to prove an alternative, archaeological based history, or as the title has it, a “portrait.” I am a veteran of more than 50 years of fieldwork and research in the archaeology of Israel, with hundreds of publications. Even so, I believe that a portrait is the best that I, or anyone, can offer. The distinguishing feature of this book is the William G. Dever employment of a rich array of archaeological data on ancient Israel and her neighbors as the primary evidence for illustrating the origins, the settlement horizon, and the monarchy, ca. 1300-586 BCE. In each chapter the biblical texts are brought into the picture only secondarily, and then only to compare and contrast their idealistic narratives with the “real- life” portrait that archaeology now provides.
    [Show full text]
  • The Transfiguration at Shivta. Retracing Early Byzantine Iconography*
    The Transfiguration at Shivta. Retracing early Byzantine iconography* Emma Maayan Fanar** University of Haifa, Art History Department UDC 75.033.2(569.492 Shivta) 75.046.3:27–312–6 DOI 10.2298/ZOG1741001M Оригиналан научни рад ‘Tell the vision (to horama) to no man, until the Son of Man be risen again from the dead.’ Mt 17, 9 The Transfiguration constitutes one of the most important ently quite rich, as attested by its three churches, built ac- events in the New Testament. Yet, only few pre-iconoclastic cording to the practice current elsewhere in the Land of examples of the Transfiguration scene have survived: S. Apol- Israel; a monastic complex was possibly attached to the linaire in Classe, Ravenna, St. Catherine Monastery, Sinai and Northern church.3 That number of churches in a small Poreć in Istria, each has its unique iconography. Therefore, place was not unusual for the Byzantine settlements in scholars have concluded that the Transfiguration scene became 4 widespread only after the iconoclastic controversy. We aim to Palestine, but all three Shivta churches were much invest- show, that Transfiguration scene in Shivta, an early Byzantine ed and painted, with geometric floor mosaics, while the 5 settlement in the Negev desert, allows a glimpse into the early three apses of the Northern church were clad in marble. Christian iconography of the well-known scene, providing a Contrary to neighbouring Nessana and other Negev missing link to its development in the post-iconoclastic period. settlements,6 Shivta seems neither especially important nor Keywords: Shivta, Transfiguration, Early Byzantine iconogra- situated on any important roads or trade routes.7 Hirschfeld phy, Negev suggested that Shivta could have been on the pilgrimage route from Jerusalem through Rehovot-in-the-Negev and Nessana to Sinai (the route taken by Antonius of Piacenza Shivta in 560).8 This source however is unclear, and probably refers Shivta (Sobbota/ Soubaita/Esbeita) was a rural set- to Mitzpe Shivta and to the hostel of St.
    [Show full text]
  • The Bedouin Population in the Negev
    T The Since the establishment of the State of Israel, the Bedouins h in the Negev have rarely been included in the Israeli public e discourse, even though they comprise around one-fourth B Bedouin e of the Negev’s population. Recently, however, political, d o economic and social changes have raised public awareness u i of this population group, as have the efforts to resolve the n TThehe BBedouinedouin PPopulationopulation status of the unrecognized Bedouin villages in the Negev, P Population o primarily through the Goldberg and Prawer Committees. p u These changing trends have exposed major shortcomings l a in information, facts and figures regarding the Arab- t i iinn tthehe NNegevegev o Bedouins in the Negev. The objective of this publication n The Abraham Fund Initiatives is to fill in this missing information and to portray a i in the n Building a Shared Future for Israel’s comprehensive picture of this population group. t Jewish and Arab Citizens h The first section, written by Arik Rudnitzky, describes e The Abraham Fund Initiatives is a non- the social, demographic and economic characteristics of N Negev profit organization that has been working e Bedouin society in the Negev and compares these to the g since 1989 to promote coexistence and Jewish population and the general Arab population in e equality among Israel’s Jewish and Arab v Israel. citizens. Named for the common ancestor of both Jews and Arabs, The Abraham In the second section, Dr. Thabet Abu Ras discusses social Fund Initiatives advances a cohesive, and demographic attributes in the context of government secure and just Israeli society by policy toward the Bedouin population with respect to promoting policies based on innovative economics, politics, land and settlement, decisive rulings social models, and by conducting large- of the High Court of Justice concerning the Bedouins and scale social change initiatives, advocacy the new political awakening in Bedouin society.
    [Show full text]
  • Dynamic Stability Analysis of Jointed Rock Slopes Using the DDA Method: King Herod’S Palace, Masada, Israel Y.H
    ARTICLE IN PRESS International Journal of Rock Mechanics & Mining Sciences 41 (2004) 813–832 Dynamic stability analysis of jointed rock slopes using the DDA method: King Herod’s Palace, Masada, Israel Y.H. Hatzora,*, A.A. Arzib, Y. Zaslavskyc, A. Shapirad a Department of Geological and Environmental Sciences, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva 84105, Israel b Geotechnical Consulting, 80 Krinizi st., Suite 23, Ramat-Gan 52601, Israel c Seismology Division, Geophysical Institute of Israel, Lod, Israel d The International Seismological Center, Pipers Lane, Berkshire RG194NS, UK Accepted 19 February2004 Abstract A dynamic, two-dimensional, stability analysis of a highly discontinuous rock slope is demonstrated in this paper. The studied rock slope is the upper terrace of King Herod’s Palace in Masada, situated on the western margins of the seismicallyactive Dead Sea Rift. The slope consists of sub-horizontallybedded and sub-verticallyjointed, stiff, dolomite blocks. The dynamicdeformation of the slope is calculated using a fullydynamicversion of DDA in which time-dependent acceleration is used as input. The analytically determined failure modes of critical keyblocks in the jointed rock slope are clearly predicted by DDA at the end of the dynamic calculation. It is found however that for realistic displacement estimates some amount of energy dissipation must be introduced into the otherwise fullyelastic, un-damped, DDA formulation. Comparison of predicted damage with actual slope performance over a historic time span of 2000 years allows us to conclude that introduction of 2% kinetic damping should suffice for realistic damage predictions. This conclusion is in agreement with recent results of Tsesarskyet al.
    [Show full text]
  • Caesarea-Ratzlaff201
    The Plurality of Harbors at Caesarea: The Southern Anchorage in Late Antiquity Alexandra Ratzlaff, Ehud Galili, Paula Waiman-Barak & Assaf Yasur-Landau Journal of Maritime Archaeology ISSN 1557-2285 Volume 12 Number 2 J Mari Arch (2017) 12:125-146 DOI 10.1007/s11457-017-9173-z 1 23 Your article is protected by copyright and all rights are held exclusively by Springer Science+Business Media, LLC. This e-offprint is for personal use only and shall not be self- archived in electronic repositories. If you wish to self-archive your article, please use the accepted manuscript version for posting on your own website. You may further deposit the accepted manuscript version in any repository, provided it is only made publicly available 12 months after official publication or later and provided acknowledgement is given to the original source of publication and a link is inserted to the published article on Springer's website. The link must be accompanied by the following text: "The final publication is available at link.springer.com”. 1 23 Author's personal copy J Mari Arch (2017) 12:125–146 DOI 10.1007/s11457-017-9173-z ORIGINAL PAPER The Plurality of Harbors at Caesarea: The Southern Anchorage in Late Antiquity 1 2 3 Alexandra Ratzlaff • Ehud Galili • Paula Waiman-Barak • Assaf Yasur-Landau1 Published online: 1 August 2017 Ó Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2017 Abstract The engineering marvel of Sebastos, or Portus Augusti as it was called in Late Antiquity (284–638 CE), dominated Caesarea’s harbor center along modern Israel’s central coast but it was only one part of a larger maritime complex.
    [Show full text]
  • Late Byzantine Remains Near Shiqmona: a Monastery, a Cemetery and a Winep Ress
    ‘Atiqot 63, 2010 LATE BYZANTINE REMAINS NEAR SHIQMONA: A MONASTERY, A CEMETERY AND A WINEP RESS RAZ KL ETTER INTRODUCTION 2006b:46–51). Although it was covered and fenced, the fence disappeared and, when studied Following plans to widen the Haifa–Tel Aviv fifty years later, Peleg (1988:25) reported that highway opposite Tel Shiqmona, a salvage “all the remains have since been destroyed”. excavation was carried out from December The present excavation proves not only that 1999 to February 2000 (map ref. NIG 196/747, most of the chapel survived, but that it was OIG 146/247).1 The excavation was carried out part of a much larger building (not entirely immediately east of the highway, in an area excavated), most probably a monastery. about 8 m wide and 300 m long, from Ha-Toren Together with the monasteries reported by Street in the north to Zarfat Road in the south Dothan (1954–1955) and ‘Ad (pers. comm.), (Fig. 1). The northern part of the excavated there is valid evidence of a concentration area is an exposed rock escarpment, while the of monasteries related to Shiqmona. This central and southern parts lie on the more gentle strengthens the view that Shiqmona was a western slope of the Carmel mountain, and city during the late Byzantine period and were covered by a municipal garden. This area not a village, as dozens of late Byzantine was part of the Shiqmona cemetery excavated monasteries were located in proximity to cities, by Elgavish (1994). such as Jerusalem, Bet She’an, and Bethlehem. The excavation revealed finds from the late While this phenomenon is noted here, it merits Byzantine period, including a monastery, a a separate study, such as those that have been large winepress, a dozen rock-hewn tombs prepared for desert monasteries by Hirschfeld (robbed), and two large buildings (see Fig.
    [Show full text]
  • A Pigeon Tower Structure Near Byzantine Shivta, Israel
    Journal of Arid Environments 145 (2017) 81e89 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Arid Environments journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jaridenv Signs of soil fertigation in the desert: A pigeon tower structure near Byzantine Shivta, Israel * Yotam Tepper a, , Baruch Rosen b, Annat Haber c, Guy Bar-Oz a a Zinman Institute of Archaeology, University of Haifa, 199 Aba-Hushi Avenue, Haifa, Mount Carmel, 3498837, Israel b Israel Antiquities Authority, POB 180, Atlit 30300, Israel c Dept. of Zoology, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 69978, Israel article info abstract Article history: This article explores a means used by Byzantine agriculturists in the Negev in southern Israel to achieve Received 4 August 2016 sustainable soil improvement: pigeon manure. We found high concentrations of manure in ancient pi- Received in revised form geon towers strewn across the Byzantine agricultural landscape, characterized by the widespread con- 29 April 2017 struction of terraces and dams to manage runoff and floodwater. We show that nitrogen (N), phosphate Accepted 31 May 2017 (P) and organic matter (OM), reliable and recognized indices of soil characterization used by both Available online 16 June 2017 practical agriculturists and archaeologists, are associated with such towers. The distribution patterns of these indicators have shown congruent and significant perturbations north of the pigeon tower at Shivta. Keywords: Negev desert Comparisons with other ancient Levantine installations of this type suggest that the perturbations we fi Soil analysis identi ed are associated with a single, above-ground opening that did not survive the destruction of the Pigeon tower. The door facilitated the controlled, periodical extraction of accumulated manure from inside the Dovecote tower.
    [Show full text]
  • The Geological and Morphological Structure of Herodium and the Quarries for Building Stones and Fill Materials (Shimon Ilani, Tsevi Minster, and Daniel Wachs)
    HERODIUM Final Reports of the 1972–2010 Excavations Directed by Ehud Netzer Volume I Herod’s Tomb Precinct Roi Porat, Rachel Chachy, and Yakov Kalman with contributions by: N. Ahipaz, S. Amorai-Stark, B. Arensburg, A. Barash, A. Belfer-Cohen, R. Bouchnick, A. Ecker, E. Eshel, G. Foerster, J. Gärtner, M. Hershkovitz, S. Ilani, R.E. Jackson-Tal, I. Ktalav, T. Minster, R. Nenner-Soriano, O. Peleg-Barkat, R. Sarig, D.R. Schwartz, G.D. Stiebel, D. Wachs, and B. Zissu Israel Exploration Society Institute of Archaeology, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem Jerusalem 2015 THIS VOLUME WAS MADE POSSIBLE BY THE SAMIS FOUNDATION ISBN 978-965-221-099-9 ©2015 Israel Exploration Society All rights reserved. This book may not be reproduced in whole or in part, in any form (except for brief excerpts of reviewers), without permission from the publisher. Editing by Robert Amoils Layout by Avraham Pladot Typesetting by Marzel A.S. — Jerusalem Printed by Old City Press Ltd., Jerusalem Contents Samuel Israel .................................................ix–x Preface ................................................xi–xxi List of Loci .............................................xxii–xxviii List of Illustrations, Plans, Tables, and Plates ...........................xxix–xliv PART I: Introduction Chapter 1: Herodium in History (Daniel R. Schwartz)........................1–14 Chapter 2: History of Research (Rachel Chachy) ..........................15–19 PART II: Stratigraphy and Architecture Chapter 3: The Stratigraphy in the Area of Herod’s Tomb Precinct (Roi
    [Show full text]
  • Kebara V — a Contribution for the Study of the Middle-Upper Paleolithic Transition in the Levant
    Kebara V — A Contribution for the Study of the Middle-Upper Paleolithic Transition in the Levant ITAY ABADI Institute of Archaeology, and The Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel School for Advanced Studies in the Humanities, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Mt. Scopus, Jerusalem 9190501; and, Dead Sea and Arava Science Center, Yotvata 88820, ISRAEL; [email protected] OFER BAR-YOSEF† Department of Anthropology, Peabody Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA; †deceased ANNA BELFER-COHEN Institute of Archaeology, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Mt. Scopus, Jerusalem 9190501, ISRAEL; [email protected] submitted: 13 April 2019; accepted 11 December 2019 ABSTRACT The excavations at Kebara Cave (Mt. Carmel, Israel) revealed an important archaeological sequence of late Mid- dle Paleolithic units superimposed by Early Upper Paleolithic ones. This sequence provides important insights concerning our knowledge of the Middle-Upper Paleolithic transition in the Levant. Here we present a detailed description of the lithic assemblage from Unit V, considered as the last Middle Paleolithic occupation on site. This assemblage is dated to 48/49 ky cal BP, thus representing the final stages of the Middle Paleolithic in the region. Although in previous publications the material of Unit V was considered as a Middle/Upper Paleolithic admix- ture, the results of the current study indicate (at least concerning the assemblage presented here) that the number of Upper Paleolithic items is negligible. We discuss the role of this assemblage for understanding some of the late Middle Paleolithic lithic variability, as well as the appearance of the Upper Paleolithic blade technology in the Levant.
    [Show full text]
  • The Armies of the Hasmonaeans and Herod
    Texte und Studien zum Antiken Judentum herausgegeben von Martin Hengel und Peter Schäfer 25 The Armies of the Hasmonaeans and Herod From Hellenistic to Roman Frameworks by Israel Shatzman J.C.B. Möhr (Paul Siebeck) Tübingen Die Deutsche Bibliothek - CIP-Einheitsaufnahme Shatzman, Israel: The armies of the Hasmonaeans and Herod : from Hellenistic to Roman frameworks / by Israel Shatzman. - Tübingen : Mohr, 1991 (Texte und Studien zum antiken Judentum ; 25) ISBN 3-16-145617-3 NE: GT © 1991 J.C.B. Mohr (Paul Siebeck) P.O. Box 2040, D-7400 Tübingen. This book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, in any form (beyond that permitted by copyright law) without the publisher's written permission. This applies particularly to re- productions, translations, microfilms and storage and processing in electronic systems. The book was typeset by Sam Boyd Enterprise in Singapore, printed by Guide-Druck in Tübingen on non-aging paper by Gebr. Buhl in Ettlingen and bound by Heinr. Koch in Tübingen. ISSN 0721-8753 MENAHEM STERN IN MEMORIAM Preface I became intrigued by the subject of this book in the course of my work on the military confrontation between the Jews and the Romans from the death of Herod to the War of Bar-Kokhva, which I was asked to contribute to Vol. VIII of the series The World History of the Jewish People: U. Rappaport (ed.), Judea and Rome (Masada Publishing Press, 1983, in Hebrew). While working on those chapters, I realized that no com- prehensive account had ever been written of the army of Herod, and as for the Hasmonaeans, there existed then only B.
    [Show full text]