2 Egyptian-Levantine Connections: New evidence for Early Bronze Age Fortifications and Some Preliminary Results of an Initial Season of Investigations at Tel Erani, Israel Krzysztof M. Ciałowicz, Yuval Yekutieli, Joanna Dębowska-Ludwin, Karolina Rosińska-Balik, Omer Shalev and Michał Wasilewski Introduction This paper briefly outlines the results of the Israeli-Polish excavations at Tel Erani, Areas D3 and N3 (Fig. 2.1) in 2013, and its major preliminary discoveries. Located on the outskirts of Qiryat Gat, Israel, this large tell is the site of one of the most important Early Bronze Age occupations in the southern Levant. Known for having yielded significant evidence of an Early Bronze Age I occupation (c. 3700–2950 BC; Yekutieli 2007, 66) with many Egyptian remains from the late predynastic period (c. 3150–2950 BCE, Brandl 1989; Yeivin 1960a), it has also yielded remains of Early Bronze II (c. 2950–2800 BCE) and Early Bronze III settlements (c. 2800–2500 BC). This multi-season project, which plans to review and synchronise newly unearthed deposits with those of earlier excavations, hopes to achieve a holistic overview of the site and the history of its earlier occupations, effectively dating them and determining the significance of the material culture they yield. Excavation has yielded important information about a fortification first discovered in the last century in Area N (Brandl 1989; Yeivin 1960a; Yeivin and Kempinski 1993). In addition, results of a geomorphological survey of the site’s vicinity offer insights into available resources for its inhabitants, while preliminary analyses of a portion of the pottery assemblage and of a stone mace head offer early insights into what future work at the site may produce. The site and history of research Tel Erani straddles two branches of Nahal Lachish, c. 2 km west of where that seasonal watercourse emerges from the southern Shephela into the loessial plain of the northern Negev. The site covers an area of c. 24 ha, with a small, somewhat steeply inclined acropolis (16,180 m2, Map Ref. Google Earth coordinates: 31o36’46.52”N/34o47’11.01”) at its north-eastern edge, and two major terraces that make up a lower mound. The upper terrace, c. 20 m below the acropolis, has an area of 161,840 m2. The lower terrace, beginning at c. 10 m below, of uncertain dimensions, slopes gently to the south where it is bordered by Highway 35 that sits atop massive modern 14 Krzysztof M. Ciałowicz et al. fills that obscure the original topography, where the mound was bordered by the stream bed. Soundings by E. Braun and E. C. M. van den Brink indicate that precincts of the site lie south of the visible edge of the tell, perhaps as much as 4 m below the modern roadbed (Fig. 2.1). The history of archaeological inquiries and exploration of Tel Erani began in the late nineteenth century (Conder and Kitchener 1883, 259) and since its discovery it has been known by various Arabic names. In the 1920s, W. F. Albright (1921–1922, 11) suggested the site should be identified as the biblical ‘Gath of the Philistines’ (Tel Gat). After initial excavations indicated that that identification was incorrect, the Hebrew name of Tel Erani and variant spellings e.g.( Tel ʿErani, Tel Erany) was officially adopted and is today used by most scholars e.g.( Anđelković 1995; Ben-Tor 1991; Braun 2009; Gophna and Portugali 1988; Levy et al. 1995). The first archaeological work carried out at Tel Erani and known as the ‘Tel Gath Excavations Project’ was a large-scale excavation under the direction of S. Yeivin, then director of the Israel Figure 2.1. Tel Erani – general localization and map of the site (drawing by K. Rosińska-Balik). 2. Egyptian-Levantine Connections: New evidence for Early Bronze Age Fortifications 15 Department of Antiquities and Museums, during the years 1956–1961. Results (Yeivin 1960a; 1960b; 1961; 1962; 1963; 1967; 1968; 1975) were sufficient to indicate Albright’s identification was incorrect. Yeivin opened a series of trenches in the most representative parts of the site. Area N, where a massive fortification wall was discovered, is the focus of this paper. Yeivin dated the wall to Early Bronze Age I (EB I), but that dating was rejected by B. Brandl (1989, 383) who, on the basis of Yeivin’s primary documentation of the excavation, dated the wall to Early Bronze Age III (EB III). In addition, in Area D the Tel Gath Expedition recovered considerable Egyptian and Egyptianised material, including the first serekh (of Narmer) discovered in the southern Levant, which Yeivin (1960a, 195–196) also dated to EB I. Those discoveries were to greatly impact the study of the foreign relations of that period and the question of an Egyptian colony in the southern Levant in the era of Narmer/late Dynasty 0. Later excavations adjacent to Yeivin’s Area D, conducted by A. Kempinski and I. Gilead (1991) for Tel Aviv University, focused on what they believed to be a period of transition from a pre-urban to an urban EB I occupation. In 1993 and 1994, E. Braun and E. C. M. van den Brink (1997) conducted salvage excavations on the southern fringes of the lower terrace. The new joint expedition to Tel Erani After a hiatus in archaeological exploration, a joint Israeli-Polish mission to Tel Erani was initiated in 2013 by Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and Jagiellonian University in Krakow. Polish Participation is part of a larger project on ‘Trade Routes of the Near East (TRoNE)’, and was financed from the National Science Centre of Poland granted on the basis of decision no. DEC-2012/07/B/HS3/03381, which examines Levantine-Egyptian trade connections in the fourth millennium BC (Dębowska-Ludwin et al. 2012). The first season’s excavations at Tel Erani, directed by Yuval Yekutieli, Krzysztof M. Ciałowicz, and Joanna Dębowska-Ludwin, concentrated on Areas D3 and N3, with ‘3’ indicating this to be the third long-term expedition to the site. Area N and the fortification Work in Area N3, in the north-western precinct of the mound, began by locating the fortification found and identified by Yeivin (1960a, 1962, 1967) as a ‘city wall’, in order to obtain its precise measurements and determine its date. This had been alternately claimed to be EB I by its excavator and Kempinski and Gilead (1991), and EB III by Brandl (1989). Yeivin proposed dating of the wall, which he associated with Egyptian activity, was based mainly on an assumption of a very short-lived Egyptian presence at the site. Brandl (1989, 368–376) dissociated the fortification from the Egyptian equation and dated it later, further reinterpreting material from Yeivin’s excavation as evidence for greatly prolonged Egyptian contacts. As there was no direct evidence for an Egyptian association with the fortification and the chronological range of the Egyptian pottery from Tel Erani was poorly understood when Brandl did his study, it was hoped that new information might determine the dating of what was then known to be a massive mud-brick construction. Our excavation included three 5 m × 5 m squares adjacent to the old trenches, planned so as to unearth both the inner and outer façades of the fortification (Fig. 2.2). Nearly the entire area of one square, E7, proved to have been filled by the fortification wall. This is clear in the 16 Krzysztof M. Ciałowicz et al. Figure 2.2. Plan of squares at Area N3 in 2013 (balloon photography). Figure 2.3. Profile of the fortification wall at square E7 – eastern bulk (photo by K. Rosińska-Balik) 2. Egyptian-Levantine Connections: New evidence for Early Bronze Age Fortifications 17 Figure 2.4. Profile of the fortification wall at square E7 – southern bulk (photo by K. Rosińska-Balik) photogrammetric pictures of sections (Figs 2.3, 2.4), where lines of bricks and light grey mortar encountered in the excavation are documented. All the rows of bricks are skewed towards the inner façade. That distortion is apparently associated with a juncture of two structures, since at that point a smaller wall (W528) perpendicular to the main structure was unearthed. That smaller wall is more clearly visible in Square F7 (Fig. 2.5). By the end of the season, the inner façade of the fortification wall was found in a very clear line in Square F6. Its line may also be seen in Square F7, where it deviates slightly. Such deviation is understandable, as the construction is very ancient and made of unbaked mud-bricks that may have been deformed due to exigencies of climate and pressure. Unfortunately, the area immediately adjacent to the fortification wall, Square F6, was devoid of architectural remains, but it did yield some scant finds. The most interesting was a broken stone mace head (of which further discussion can be found below). Square F7 was especially informative as it yielded information on additional mud-brick structures in an area beyond the inner façade of the fortification. Among them were two parallel walls, which, together with the fortification, delineate a small room. What appears to be a mud- brick pavement was discovered outside one of them. The pottery from this small room, which notably had at least two floors, dates to EB Ib1. In addition, the team also cleared an old trench immediately west of the other squares in which a number of modern items, such as bullets and cartridges from the mid-twentieth century were found. It appears that a number of shallow dugouts in vicinity of these squares include 18 Krzysztof M. Ciałowicz et al.