The Regional Study—A New Approach to Archaeological Investigation - The BAS Library
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The Regional Study—A New Approach to Archaeological Investigation

Yoqne’am Regional Project looks beyond the tell.

By Amnon Ben-Tor

In the center of Israel there is a wide, fertile, well-watered plain called Jezreel (pronounced Jezre-el). Today it is the agricultural heartland of Israel—an area of open wheat, cotton and corn fields, fish ponds and agricultural settlements. In the past it was the battlefield where Barak, the commander of the prophetess Deborah, routed the chariots of Jabin, King of Hazor (Judges 4), where Gideon marched from his camp at Ein Harod and surprised and defeated the Midianites (Judges 7), where Saul and his son Jonathan were slain by the Philistines on the slope of Mt. Gilboa (1 Samuel […]

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Footnotes

1.

Note the word “tell” accompanies the Arabic names of sites, and “tel” is used with Hebrew names. BAR uses “tell” when speaking of archaeological mounds in general.

2.

Note the word “tell” accompanies the Arabic names of sites, and “tel” is used with Hebrew names. BAR uses “tell” when speaking of archaeological mounds in general.

3.

Note the word “tell” accompanies the Arabic names of sites, and “tel” is used with Hebrew names. BAR uses “tell” when speaking of archaeological mounds in general.

4.

Archaeologists have determined with a high degree of certainty that some vessels date to a particular time period. Sometimes they can narrow the range to within fifty to a hundred years. Such vessels are used to “diagnose” the strata in which they are found. See the photograph of a collar-rimmed pithos in “Excavations at Tell Mevorakh Are Prelude to Tell Dor Dig,” BAR 05:03, for a good example of a diagnostic vessel.