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In the Footsteps of Bagira Ethnicity, Archaeology, and ‘Iron Age I Ethnic Israel’

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In the Footsteps of Bagira Ethnicity, Archaeology, and ‘Iron Age I Ethnic Israel’ RAZ KLETTER In the Footsteps of Bagira Ethnicity, archaeology, and ‘Iron Age I ethnic Israel’ he present paper focuses on Iron I ‘Israel’, re- My quarrel is not so much with the substance of viewing recent literature and asking why this these characteristics, though as I shall show we Ttopic remains so ‘hot’ in research. can profit from a certain change of emphasis; my main objection is that such a formulation prevents us from understanding the phenom­ Introduction enon of ethnic groups and their place in human This article, expanding on an earlier work (Kletter society and culture. This is because it begs all 2006), has two aims. The first is to show that the the critical questions… . (Barth 1969: 11) search for ethnicity in archaeology is dependent on the way ethnicity is defined and on written sources. Misunderstanding Barth, following a primordial, The second is to review studies of Iron Age I ‘ethnic pre­Barthian definition, Dever wonders how one can Israel’. There is an ongoing, heated debate between doubt that ‘maximalists’ and ‘minimalists’, trying to prove or re­ fute such identity. Which side in this debate is right? we do have a distinct, new ethnic group here. The only question seems to be whether we can label them ‘Israelites’… Ethnic ‘Israelites’ – or Ethnicity and archaeology better (as hereafter) ‘Proto­Israelites’ – pos­ Definitions of ethnicity sessed of an overall material culture that led William Dever begins a discussion of Israelite ethni­ directly on into the true, full­blown Iron Age city with a definition: culture of the Israelite Monarchy of the 10th century bce and later. That cultural continu­ Let us begin by defining the phenomenon that ity alone would entitle us to regard these Iron we seek to observe, namely ethnicity, or ‘people­ I villagers as the authentic progenitors of later hood’. By ‘ethnic group’ I mean (following Barth biblic al ‘Israel’, i.e., as presumed ‘Proto­Israel­ and others) simply [sic] a population that is (1) ites’. (Dever 1993: 23–4) biologically self­perpetuating; (2) shares a fun­ damental, recognizable, relatively uniform set of Is Proto­Israelites a better term than Israelites? We cultural values, including language; (3) consti­ are not dealing with biological evolution whereby tutes a partly independent ‘interaction sphere’; Proto­Israelites are mutating into Israelites. Ethnicity (4) has a membership that defines itself, as well does not work backward: ethnic groups are formed as being defined by others, as a category… and at a certain time. They do not evolve from ‘Proto­ (5) perpetuates its sense of separate identity… . Ethnic ’ groups that are themselves already ethnic (Dever 1993: 23) groups. Five years later Dever presents the minimal­ ists as manifestations of the anti­Christ: Fredrik Barth (1969: 10–11) did indeed mention this definition – though not as his own, but as a former A threat to biblical studies, to Syro­Palestinian definition; one which he strongly rejected a few lines archaeology, to theoretical and religious studies, later: to the life of synagogue and church, and even to 2 Approaching Religion • Vol. 4, No. 2 • December 2014 Paperspace Company website the political situation in the Middle East [sic]. (Dever 1998: 39)1 He brings up three Iron Age I sites where ‘archaeo­ logical data attest to ethnicity beyond any reason­ able doubt’: Gezer, Izbet Ṣartah, and Ekron, with Canaanite, Proto­Israelite, and Philistine ethnicities, respectively (Dever 1998: 47). While the conclusions may be correct, the arguments are not. The notion that Gezer is Canaanite, or Ekron Philistine, derives from decades of studies based on written sources. The cities and their material cultures were first iden­ tified on the basis of written sources; presenting them as independent archaeological examples constitutes circular reasoning. In yet another paper Dever continues to equate pots and peoples, material cultures and ethnic groups: This extensive complex of many types of diverse but related data constitutes what archaeologists call an ‘assemblage.’ And such an assemblage is Ethnic groups do not evolve from ‘proto-ethnic’ ethnic always assumed to have cultural, and therefore groups. One cannot ascribe antiquity to ethnic groups what I would call ‘ethnic,’ significance. (Dever on such basis (adapted from ‘evolution of man’ by architect Hans-Stotijn). 2007: 49) An assumed relation becomes a direct equation. Israel and concludes with accusations against the Dever blames others for inadequate or unrealis­ ‘minimalists’: tic definitions of ethnicity, and says that he follows Barth : The current ideologically driven trend to deny the earliest Israelites their ethnic iden­ Much of the current frustration and apparent tity is ominous … . Fortunately, there is ample failure in recognizing ‘ethnicity in the archaeo­ empiric al evidence from archaeology to frus­ logical record’ is due, I believe, to (1) in adequate trate this scheme and to discredit its perpetra ­ or unrealistic definitions of ‘ethnicity;’ and tors. (Dever 2007: 60) (2) the lack of an appropriate analytical method­ ology, especially in assessing ‘ethnic traits’ in A scientific debate should be argued with logic. Such mater ial culture remains. Elsewhere I have drawn harsh polemics only discredit the maximalist cause. on the work of the eminent anthropologist and Dever uses material culture as synonym for ethnicity; ethnographer Fredrik Barth (1969) in order to he does not follow Barth, but holds a pre­Barthian define an ‘ethnic group’ as a population that is view. (1) biologically self­perpetuating; (2) shares a Barth (1969) turned the understanding of eth­ fundamental, recognizable, relatively uniform set nicity upside down. It is not possession of cultural of cultural values … . (Dever 2007: 53) features (language, religion, etc.) that makes so­ cial groups distinct, but social interactions between Yet, in his view Barth’s view is limited – ‘best suited to groups that renders the differences visible or mean­ the analysis of modern, not ancient, cultures’ (Dever ingful (Maleševic 2004: 2–3). Barth saw ethnic 2007: 53 – without bringing any evidence in support groups as units of ascription maintaining dynamic of this assertion). For Dever (ibid. 53) the primary (social, not material) boundaries. Ethnicity is socially task remains to find a set of distinctive archaeological constructed (Hutchinson and Smith 1996: 7–10). ‘ethnic traits’. He presents such a trait­list for ancient Anthony Smith’s ‘ethno­symbolism’ defines an ethnic community as a group of people who share most of 1 Notice the missing ‘other’ here: Islam. the following: Approaching Religion • Vol. 4, No. 2 • December 2014 3 Raz Kletter Chinese shop, San Francisco. Any object can be an Ethnic Marker. Not the price, material, shape, or use matter, but the feelings attached to the object. 1) a collective proper name; ‘trait list’ of ethnic markers exists. Anything may be 2) a myth of common ancestry; an ethnic marker; what is important is not the object 3) historical memories; itself (material, size, price), but the feelings attached 4) one or more differentiating elements of common to it. Each community develops unique and changing culture; markers: certain songs, a decoration on a pot, the way 5) an association with a specific homeland (which one moves a hand in greeting. may be symbolic); Other definitions of ethnicity maintain no rela­ 6) a sense of solidarity among at least parts of the tion to material culture. For example, for Jones an group. (Smith 1991: 21; cf. Smith 1981: 66; 1986; ethnic group is Hutchinson and Smith 1996: 5–7) any group of people who set themselves apart Smith maintains some relation to material culture and/or are set apart by others with whom they (point 4 above), but it is of secondary importance. interact or co­exist on the basis of their percep­ The core of ethnicity lies in shared myths, memor­ tions of cultural differentiation and/or common ies, and associations; that is, feelings and perceptions, descent. (Jones 1997: xii, cf. 84)3 not material objects. Ethnic groups are a form of imagined community (Anderson 1983). Separating ‘us’ from ‘them’ is based on the way a group identi­ less: nobody ever used this term for self­definition, or fies itself and is identified by others.2 Hence, no fixed was called by others Proto­Israelite. 3 Jones should have perhaps used ‘and’ instead of ‘and/ or’. Without self sense of solidarity or identity there 2 In this regard, the term ‘Proto­Israelite’ is meaning­ can be no ethnic community (Smith 1981: 68). 4 Approaching Religion • Vol. 4, No. 2 • December 2014 John Boardman (2006) believes that ethnicity is a However, he fails to show how it can actually retrieve modern construct that should not be applied to an­ ethnicities by archaeological means. Alexander H. cient periods. However, I follow Smith in that while Joffee suggested that there are two ways of progress­ the use of the term ‘ethnicity’ is modern, it existed ing: and could be important in ancient periods too. We can build our understanding of ethnicity Can archaeology retrieve ethnicity? from the top down, from texts and ‘history’… In the wake of Barth, archeologists began to ask or from the bottom up, from different types of whether ethnicity can be identified from material archaeological evidence. (Joffee 2001: 213) remains. An early study by Kathryn Kamp and Nor­ man Yoffee (1980) is typical: it starts optimistically, How can we achieve the latter without the former? but ends up much less so. Kamp and Yoffee call for an As an example, Joffee (2001) interprets pottery as­ ‘entirely new approach’, which ‘focuses on the behav­ semblages from Tyre, Megiddo, and Lachish along iors that generate differences in the material culture ethnic lines; but, like Dever’s example, it is not an ar­ of ethnic groups’, using statistics and clusterings of chaeological case.
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