THESIS FOR THE PH. D. DEGREE Submitted to the UNIVERSITY OF LONDON FACULTY OF ARTS BY AVINI KHALIL DAJANI, B. A. Institute of Archaeology October 1956 HYKBOS PERIOD IN PALESTINE (Palestine under the Hyksos) . ST COPY AVAILA L Variable print quality CONTENTS Page Synopsis Acknowledgement s List of illustrations v Chapter I. Geographical outline: Introduction. Excavations and publications. l. Tell El Qadi (Hazor); 2. Mutasallem (Megiddo); 3, Gezer; 4. Afula; 5. Tell Dotha (Dothan); 6. Tell Ain Es-Sultan, Er- Riha (Jericho); 7. Beitin (Bethel); B. Tell Beit Mirsim (Kiriat-Sepher or Debir); 9. Tell El Ajjul (Ancient Gaza); 1O. Tell El Fara (Beth-Pelet or Shanihen). Chapter II. it Historical outline: Chapter III. IF Town Planning: 1. Layout and houses. 2. Fortifications. a. Fortified camp enclosures; b. Sloping revetment glacis. 3. Fortress Gates and Bastions. Ajjul (Ancient Gaza); Beth- Pelet (Tell Fara); Megiddo (Tell El Mutasallem); Tel'l Beit Mirsim. 4. Conclusion. 4 Chapter IV. 'T Religious Culture-. Sacred Places: High Places., Temples and Altars. a. Gezer, -, b. Megiddo; c. Nahariya. The Finds: a. Model Pots and other Pottery objects and Larnps; b. -Human religious figurines; c. Animal religious figurines. Chronology. Sacred Objects: The Standing Stones; the Cup- hollows; Serpent worship; Tree worship. Mythology. Religious ritual and Cult Practice. Chapter V. 10 Indust rie s: Section I: Metal weapons: introduction; dagger types 25,262 17., 27 and 31. Other weapons: axe-heads; adze-heads; Page lance or button spear-head; spear-heads; the composite bow; arrow-heads. Conclusion. Section 2% Pottery. Bowls: inverted rims; straight-sided; carinated. Goblets: high shouldered bowl "gobletl.; 'Jericho goblets; high pedestal (trumpet) goblets "Megiddo Gobletst'; three looped-feet goblets. Piriform Juglets.!. the pricked technique and the Tell El Yahudiya Juglets; plain pitiform yahudiya Juglets; conclusion. Cylindrical Juglets; Trefoil and pinched-mouthed Jugs; elongated dippers; one-shouldered handled Jugs. Table of Chronology. Conclusion. Section 3: Foreign Pottery vessels. Section 4: Alabaster: the material; the technique; the forms; conclusion. Section 5: Faience. Chapter VI. 112 Transportation: Section I: Animals: the Ass; the Ox; the Camel; the Onager. The Horse: A. Ajjul-horse burials: 1. Construction of tombs; 2. Disposition of the buried bodies; 3. The toggle pins; 4. The scarabs; 5. The pottery; 6. Other objects; 7. Lack of weapons; B. Conclusion. B, Other animal burials. C. Ajjul horse remains. D. Other archaeological evidence: scarabs; horses head figurines a. Ajjul, b. Aljisr; Ajjul horse bits and model chariots. Conclusion. Section II: Chariots: archaeological and literary evidence; conclusion. Chapter VII. 2.19 Daily Life: Introduction; the House; the Furniture; Crockery; Clothes; Hairdressing; Footwear; the Toilet, hair and beard; Personal Belongings; Meals; Fodder; Lighting; Farming and Plantations; Stock-breeding and other Animals. Chapter VIII. 23o Burial Customs: Introduction. Megiddo: Construction of tombs; disposition of the bodies; funeral offerings. A Cemetery near Tell Aviv Harbour: Construction of gt-aves; disposition of the bodies; funeral equipment. Page Beth-Pelet Cemetery: Construction of tombs; disposition of the bodies; funeral equipment. Ajjul Burials: The Tombs; disposition of the bodies; funeral offerings. Jericho tombs: The tombs; disposition of the bodies; burial offerings. Conclusion. Chapter IK. Conclusion. Bibliography. I SYN0PSIS The this thesis contents of give an archaeological0 picture of the civilization of Palestine (the land of Canaan) in the 1-21iddle-Bronze II Period c. 1800-1550 B. C. The citizens of this part of the world were sharing in the general civilization of the coastal area of Syria. They had, of course, close connections with the rest of the Near East. The Geographical formation of the lahd tehded to accentuate local differences, a condition which is favourable to a political organization based on the city-state. We may presume that each city-state had its chieftain, sheikh, or tribal leader, as in the period of the Amarna Letters. To call these chieftains, sheikhs, and tribal leaders "Hyksos" is a misnomer, because they were not foreigners to Palestine. The basic culture of Palestine in the Middle-Bronze II Period (the so-called Hyksos) does not reveal any break in the continuity of the preceding phase. It has always been stated that the Hyksos are bands of warriors. By the available archaeological evidence they impress us rather as a Peace-loving-people ruled by their chieftains, sheikhs or tribal leaders. They had never used the horse and the chariot as Egypt in thei3? a war technique in Palestine and until possibly - if last struggle against thogyptians before they were expelled from the country, i. e. bur Phase V or the ',WIII Dynasty. Their daggers were not as efficient as those of earlier and later periods. n They hardly used the spear (if at all) at the very early period of our Phase IIA i. e. 1750 B. C., though it was in comaon use in the N-iddle-Bronze I Period. The use of the bow and arrow in the early Phases of our period is also uncertain. However, in Phase V there is slight evidence of their use but they are not as comaon as in the Late Bronze Period. The archaeological evidence from a number of sites suggests that there was a state of instability. This was most probably one of the main reasons for the decline in th ei. r standard of living recognized in every aspect of their life. This feature of decline, with-a quantitative prosperity, could be compared with Palestine nowadays. 1 /11 Acknowledgements The writer would like to thank all those individuals - who have generously made available unpublished material , from their excavations, and to whom acknowledgements are made by name in the appropriate sections of the text and catalogue of plates, and also the officials in charge of collections in all the museums visited, for their willing- assistance and so-operation. Grateful acknowledgement is to be made to the British Council, and the Hashemite Goverr=ent of Jordan for a grant enabling the writer to come to the Institute of Arebaeology, London University. To Dr. Kathleen Kenyon, above all., deepest gratitude is expressed for her unfailing help and encouragement in all stages during the preparation of the study, and for having made such arrangements as to afford to the writer the possibility of undertaking it. The writer is indebted., too, to the staff of the Library and of the Photographic Department in the Institute of Archaeology, for their great help on all I occasions. List of illustrations. I. Middle-Bronze map of Palestine. IIa. The ancient Near East in the Patriarchal Period (second millennium B. C. ). IIb. Pack-asses from a tomb at Beni Hasan., Egypt c. 1900 B. C. III. Selected pottery vases from Nahariya temple. IV. Selection of daggers (types 25,0 26p 17p 27,31). V. Axe-heads and spear-heads. VI. The prieked vases found in Palestine. VII. Palestinian faience vases. VIII. Tell El Ajjul horse burials. Ix. Pottery vases and toggle-pins found in Tell El Ajjul horse burials. X. l. Pottery vases found in Tell El Ajjul horse burials. 2. Pottery vases found in Tell El Ajjul horse burials. 3. A scarab found in a tomb said to belong to Apepa I. 4. The scarabs found in Tell El Ajjul horse burials. 5. (A) Bronze bit with cheek-pieces; (B) Cheek-piece. 6. Bronze bit or wheel found in Tell El Ajjul. XI. Graph showing the frequency of some important Middle- Bronze II pottery vases. XII. A miniature jug representing a woman of the Middle- Bronze II Period. XIII. An imaginative drawing of Middle-Bronze II family life. (Drawn by Michael Ricketts. ) Chart I. Pottery, -1- CHAPTERI Geographical otitline Palestine (the Land of Canaan) is a tiny country, with an oblong shapes bounded on the west by a gently curved line of the Hediterranean coast, with a break where the promontory of Mount Carmel juts out to the sea; and bounded on the east by an arbitrary straight line along the Syrian Desert. On the north are the mountains of the Lebanon, dominated by the stern majestic and snowy peak of Mount Hermon., On the south the Wilderness of Sinai stretches between two seas, from the Ilediterranean coast on the west to the Gulf of Akaba, a narrow inlet of the Red Sea, on the east. Small as it is, valestine offers a remarkable variety of landscapesp soils and climates. It is a country of mountain and plain, desert and pleasant valleys, lakes and seaboardsp barren hills, desolate to the last degree of desolstion and stretches of fruitful soil. It Idistils extremest. Two mountain ranges, parallel with each other, descend the length of Palestine from the Lebanon, on eithEr side of the Jordan Valley. The range on the west forms the Hills of Galilee and the plateaus of 6amaria and Judea. 'The range on the east side of Jordan, which is the highero forms the mountains of Gilead, Moab and Midian. Between - the ranges is the deep cleft of the Jordan Valley, where civilization started, the rich Dead Sea and, beyond it.. the dry and wide river-bed., known as the Araba (i. e. the Plain) that runs to the Uulf of Akaba. Wherever you walk in the Land of Canaan, or the Land of the Bible.. you tread on history. And I hope that this thesis may throw fresh light on the archaeology and the history of the land during the Middle Bronze II period c. 1800-1550 B. C. Excavations and Publications Archaeological research has shown that Palestine played a leading part in the first stages in the develop- ment of settled life, thereafter., the great river. vallbys out-distanced the intervening areas in the development. But the fertile crescent as the zone of interaction between them remained a most important area, and Palestine was an essential link in the chain connecting them.