Introduction
In the seventeen years since the publication of the first four volumes of this encyclopedia, the steadily expanding pace and range of archaeological investigation of the Holy Land and adjacent areas has produced significant new data on the ancient sites, history, social evolution, and material culture of the region—and thereby necessitated the present updated addition to the original four-volume work. This volume contains both new and revised site entries, reflecting not only the increase in archaeological knowledge, but also the intensification of multidisciplinary collaboration between archaeologists, historians, environmental scientists, information technologists, and archaeometric specialists in recent years. Indeed, since the 1970s, as the number of excavated and carefully documented sites has dramatically increased, more precise laboratory analyses and dating methods, along with the increasing use of cross-cultural comparisons and anthropological models, have further transformed the scope and nature of archaeological work in the Holy Land. Volume 5 of the New Encyclopedia of Archaeological Excavations in the Holy Land is intended to provide scholars, students, and general readers with an authoritative and up-to-date compilation of the new information and the new approaches to and interpretations of the material finds.
Archaeological work in the Holy Land in recent decades has been particularly characterized by increasing cooperation between local and foreign universities, government antiquities services, and international research institutes. Since the conclusion of the 1994 peace treaty between Jordan and Israel and with the steady growth of academic departments and archaeological institutes in Israel and Jordan, a greatly expanded range of scholarly contacts, exchange visits, and research collaboration has offered a wider regional vision, complementing the already important connections established with archaeologists working in other parts of the Near East and Mediterranean basin. The effect on archaeological scholarship has been to promote deeper investigation of complex questions of ancient ethnicity, cultural contact, economics, and environmental evolution, thereby deepening our understanding of the material context of the Bible and other ancient Near Eastern texts.
The day-to-day structure of archaeological work has also shifted, with the excavation of major tell and urban sites now augmented by an increasing emphasis on regional surveys and the excavation of rural and one-period sites. The pressure of modern urban and industrial development throughout the region has lent urgency to the work of surface documentation and rescue excavations, and both have contributed a significant proportion of the information included in this volume. Greater technical precision in the analysis of faunal and floral remains continues to add new dimensions to the reconstruction of ancient material life. At the same time, the expansion of maritime archaeology and environmental studies has enriched the traditional emphasis on historical events and cultures with anthropologically based studies of human adaptation, not only in the earliest prehistoric periods but through the better known periods of antiquity, extending into the Islamic and Ottoman periods as well.
Excavations at major tell sites such as Dor, Megiddo, Hazor, Beth-Shean, Ashkelon, Beth-Shemesh, and Tell es-Safi, among others, have continued, while the final publications of earlier, important excavations have occasioned the expansion and, in some cases, fundamental revision of information included in the earlier volumes of this encyclopedia. In each of the major archaeological periods, our understanding of the development of material culture in the Holy Land has been substantially advanced. Prehistoric research, combining planned research excavations, salvage work, and wide ranging survey has shed new light on the development of the earliest hunter-gatherer societies and the origins of settled agriculture. The study of the development of Bronze Age urbanization and the evolution of Iron Age society have been facilitated by a similar diversity of methods, with the refinement of relative and absolute chronology and the relationship of the material remains to events mentioned in biblical, post-biblical, and external historical sources continuing to be areas of major concern.
Some outstanding individual discoveries—in addition to the cumulative work of region-wide excavation and analysis—have shed dramatic light on the biblical and post-biblical periods and are presented in detail in this new volume. Important epigraphic finds such as the “House of David” Inscription from Tel Dan, as well as a Philistine inscription from Ekron and ostraca from sites such as Tel Zayit have provided important new data on specific historical questions and on general linguistic developments and the spread of literacy. The excavation of the Samaritan Temple compound on the summit of Mount Gerizim has uncovered the structure and plan of this major religious shrine, and has also answered some important and lingering questions about the date of the Samaritan schism.
Jerusalem, always a focus of archaeological research, has witnessed a period of excavation and discovery unparalleled since the early 1970s. Renewed excavations in the City of David have widened our understanding of the evolution of the city through the Bronze and Iron Ages and have contributed new information—if not a final resolution—to the archaeological study of the origins of the Israelite monarchy. Excavations on the summit have revealed monumental structures and work further down the slope has uncovered a range of important fortifications and water installations established in the Middle Bronze Age. The identification of the nearby Pool of Siloam of the Herodian period represents a major addition to the archaeology of the New Testament. Elsewhere in the city, a wide range of rescue excavations prompted by plans for new construction or conservation concerns—detailed in the updated entry on Jerusalem in this volume—have substantially expanded the current archaeological understanding of the city’s evolution and material life through the Roman, Byzantine, Umayyad, and later periods.
On the regional level, archaeological research in Jordan has also steadily expanded and developed in recent years, tracing the material culture of the regions east of the Jordan River from the earliest prehistoric epochs through the Ottoman period. The work at the major tell sites and classical cities has continued, accompanied by a variety of more specialized research projects that have focused on aspects of resource extraction and inter-regional trade. Among the notable excavations over the most recent decades are the research at the Great Temple at Petra and the discovery of the carbonized papyrus scrolls in the Petra Church. The Jabal
As always, contemporary political and ideological developments have had far reaching effects—both positive and negative—on the conduct of archaeological research in the Holy Land. Scholarly debates over biblical historicity remain a contentious subject that is sometimes carelessly or unconsciously injected as a factor in modern political and religious debates. The archaeology of Jerusalem, in particular, remains a sporadic focus of contention between archaeologists and traditional religious authorities—even as the continuing archaeological exploration of the city has underlined its complexity and multicultural legacy. Yet at the same time, there has also been increasing cooperation between Israeli and Jordanian scholars in academic conferences, publications, and public education programs designed to heighten public awareness about the value of a shared archaeological heritage. Indeed throughout the region, despite continuing political and national conflicts, there is a growing recognition of the importance of multidisciplinary and multinational cooperation in the excavation—and no less important—the conservation and protection of all classes of archaeological remains.
As an important and active branch of world archaeology, the ongoing research into the ancient material culture of the Holy Land continues to develop and broaden its scope, encompassing an ever broader selection of sites, subjects, and themes. Many questions remain to be examined; many theoretical and historical questions remain to be resolved. Yet it is to be hoped that this new edition of the New Encyclopedia of Archaeological Excavations in the Holy Land will provide general readers and specialists alike with invaluable new information on the latest discoveries and developments in the ongoing archaeological study of the region’s ancient cultures and archaeological sites.
NEIL ASHER SILBERMAN
In the seventeen years since the publication of the first four volumes of this encyclopedia, the steadily expanding pace and range of archaeological investigation of the Holy Land and adjacent areas has produced significant new data on the ancient sites, history, social evolution, and material culture of the region—and thereby necessitated the present updated addition to the original four-volume work. This volume contains both new and revised site entries, reflecting not only the increase in archaeological knowledge, but also the intensification of multidisciplinary collaboration between archaeologists, historians, environmental scientists, information technologists, and archaeometric specialists in recent years. Indeed, since the 1970s, as the number of excavated and carefully documented sites has dramatically increased, more precise laboratory analyses and dating methods, along with the increasing use of cross-cultural comparisons and anthropological models, have further transformed the scope and nature of archaeological work in the Holy Land. Volume 5 of the New Encyclopedia of Archaeological Excavations in the Holy Land is intended to provide scholars, students, and general readers with an authoritative and up-to-date compilation of the new information and the new approaches to and interpretations of the material finds.
Archaeological work in the Holy Land in recent decades has been particularly characterized by increasing cooperation between local and foreign universities, government antiquities services, and international research institutes. Since the conclusion of the 1994 peace treaty between Jordan and Israel and with the steady growth of academic departments and archaeological institutes in Israel and Jordan, a greatly expanded range of scholarly contacts, exchange visits, and research collaboration has offered a wider regional vision, complementing the already important connections established with archaeologists working in other parts of the Near East and Mediterranean basin. The effect on archaeological scholarship has been to promote deeper investigation of complex questions of ancient ethnicity, cultural contact, economics, and environmental evolution, thereby deepening our understanding of the material context of the Bible and other ancient Near Eastern texts.