Hadar, Tel - The BAS Library

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EXCAVATIONS

Tel Hadar was excavated in 1987–1997 by E. Yadin and M. Kochavi on behalf of Tel Aviv University. During the most recent seasons, additional occupation strata were exposed and the site’s definitive stratigraphy was established: strata I–III (formerly stratum I)—Iron Age II; strata IV–V (formerly stratum II)—Iron Age I; stratum VI—Late Bronze Age I.

EXCAVATION RESULTS

STRATUM VI. The settlement was first established in stratum VI. What later became the inner wall at the site, composed of large basalt rocks and encompassing an area of c. 2.5 a., was constructed at this time. On the eastern side of this wall was an unusual round tower, 20 m in diameter and partially protruding from the wall. Stone steps with monolithic stone posts at either side led from the domestic quarter to the tower. The tower itself was divided into rooms around a central courtyard. Collapsed stones from the tower’s high walls and roof preserved some of the rooms to the height of their door lintels. The pottery assemblage on the floors of the tower and the rooms adjacent to the inner wall is typical of the Late Bronze Age I and comparable to the assemblage from that period at Hazor.

STRATUM V. Encountered from stratum V were only a few stone-lined pits and some installations, which penetrated stratum VI remains and were covered by stratum IV remains. The few sherds found inside the pits are consistent with an Iron Age I dating and clearly precede the establishment of stratum IV.

STRATUM IV. During the initial excavation seasons at the site, stratum IV was designated stratum II. The abundant pottery found in its destruction layer has been dated to c. 1000 BCE. The Late Bronze Age city wall survived and served as the settlement’s outer wall during this period as well. The only structures found in this stratum are public buildings burned in a conflagration. On the southern side of the site, alongside the wall, were five public buildings: two warehouses, two tripartite pillared buildings, and a grain silo. Several pottery assemblages were found intact. These consist of storage vessels, unused kitchen ware, and imported luxury items.

STRATA III–I. Stratum I of the initial excavation seasons has been divided into three distinct strata, III–I, based upon the results of the latest excavations. All three date from the ninth and eighth centuries BCE (the Iron Age II). In stratum III a number of private houses with pillars were exposed. There is reason to believe that the outer wall was built in this stratum, doubling the intramural area. The private houses of stratum II were described previously (see Vol. 2, pp. 551–552). In the new stratum I, the latest at the site, remains of a public building were found at the highest point on the mound, atop the remains of the Bronze Age tower. Also from these strata are a fragmentary inscription engraved on the shoulder of a jar and a female figurine holding a tambourine.

SUMMARY

A comparison of the finds from Tel Hadar and Tel Chinnereth, on opposite shores of the Sea of Galilee, reveals that both sites flourished at approximately the same time. Two large cities were unearthed at Tel Chinnereth. The first dates to the end of the Middle Bronze Age and/or the Late Bronze Age I (i.e., stratum VI at Tel Hadar); the second dates to c. 1000 BCE (i.e., stratum IV at Tel Hadar). Both were surrounded by a similar city wall. The pottery from both sites is strikingly similar in each of the phases. Despite Tel Hadar’s small size, a huge fortification system and a complex consisting of a silo, commercial buildings, and warehouses were constructed there. It would therefore appear that in the Late Bronze Age I and the Iron Age I, Tel Hadar served as a secondary harbor of the great city of Chinnereth, along the route utilized to transport the grain of the Bashan to the Mediterranean Sea. In the Iron Age II ‘En Gev replaced Tel Hadar as a commercial port.

ESTHER YADIN, MOSHE KOCHAVI

Main publication: Tell Hadar, I: The Early Iron Age Pillared Building Complex (eds. M. Kochavi & E. Yadin), Tel Aviv (in prep.).

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