Kabri - The BAS Library

Home > Books > The New Encyclopedia of Archaeological Excavations in the Holy Land

EXCAVATIONS

Excavations at Kabri were conducted over eight seasons, from 1986 to 1993, by A. Kempinski, E. Miron, and W. -D. Niemeier on behalf of the Institute of Archaeology of Tel Aviv University. Excavations were conducted in area B, the ancient nucleus where strata dated to the Wadi Rabah culture and assemblages belonging to the Early Bronze Age I–II were unearthed; areas F and D, the Middle Bronze Age palace; and area E, the Phoenician tell and the post-medieval Arab settlement. Also excavated were area C, the northern part of the tell, in which vestiges of the Middle Bronze Age II fortifications and related structures were found; and area T, the fortifications at the margins of the northeastern rampart.

EXCAVATION RESULTS

AREA B. In order to obtain a continuous stratigraphic sequence at the site, it was decided to remove the Early Bronze Age buildings in square J/14 and dig further down into the earlier occupation. A sequence of stone layers separated by soil fill was unearthed. Finds retrieved primarily from between the stone layers include large quantities of potsherds, flint and obsidian tools, basalt artifacts, spindle whorls, animal bones, and human burials. This assemblage of the Wadi Rabah culture is dated to the end of the sixth and beginning of the fifth millennia BCE.

AREA F. A new area east of the palace was excavated from 1989 to 1993. Four strata, three from the Middle Bronze Age and one from the Iron Age, were clearly identified. In stratum 4, three rooms were found which were apparently associated with a structure that preceded the Middle Bronze Age IIB palace. Inside a large courtyard, dated to the Middle Bronze Age IIB, a raised platform or altar constructed of stone slabs was uncovered. Perhaps this was a temple courtyard built next to the palace, similar to what was found in the palace at Alalakh (stratum VII). The top stratum was found to contain a square room which may have belonged to a farmhouse connected to the Phoenician building in area E, dated by its pottery to the Iron Age II.

AREA D. The palace area was further investigated during the 1989–1993 excavations. The entire Middle Bronze Age palace building, dating from the eighteenth–seventeenth centuries BCE, covered an area of c. 0.5 a. The palace’s ceremonial wing on the western side was excavated, as was an adjoining staircase, proof that the structure possessed a second story. On the palace’s eastern side, residential and storage rooms and workshops were found, containing pottery and a large group of loom weights. A cult area was unearthed on the palace’s southeastern side. Surrounding the palace were plastered courtyards and rooms. It is one of the few relatively well-preserved buildings of its kind in the Levant.

The hub of the palace was the ceremonial hall (hall 611), its plaster floor painted in a fresco technique: over a thick layer of relatively coarse plaster was a thinner and finer second layer, which was painted when still moist. This floor decoration was divided into a yellow and orange checkerboard pattern, the squares of which were covered with floral designs and patterns imitating colored marble. Decorated floors of this type were common in Minoan Crete and Mycenean Greece, but are only rarely attested to in the Levant. Similar decorations were found inside Yarim-Lim’s palace at Alalakh (stratum VII). The decorations found in Zimri-Lim’s palace at Mari are somewhat older, as are those from Crete and Santorini, suggesting that this style originated in Minoan Crete, whence it spread to the Levant.

Some 2,500 decorated wall fresco fragments were found near the ceremonial hall’s north wall. These are of higher quality than those of the floors. The style is Aegean, with an affinity to the miniature frescoes of Santorini. Frescoes of this kind have not been evidenced at other sites in the Levant, but their motifs—swallows, flora, boats, parts of buildings, and human figures—are quite similar to those of the wall paintings found at Akrotiri (Thera). They also resemble frescoes found at Alalakh and at Tell ed-Dab‘a in Egypt, capital city of the Hyksos. Many scholars are of the opinion that Aegean artists were commissioned by the rulers of Alalakh, Kabri, and Tell ed-Dab‘a to decorate their palaces. There appears to have been some degree of cooperation among different peoples of the eastern Mediterranean at the time, as well as an exchange of ideas, iconographic motifs, and artists. The Minoan-style floor and the remnants of frescoes in the Aegean style attest to the influence and international connections of the ruler of Kabri.

In the southeastern part of the palace was an 8.8 by 8.5 m courtyard (locus 703), from which five entrances led into the adjoining rooms, among them the ceremonial hall. On the eastern side of the plastered courtyard floor were found stone bases for columns that may have supported a ceiling. Under the floor near the central base were three jars containing seashells and burnt animal and fish bones, possibly connected to a religious ceremony of some kind. Hall 751 to the southeast of the courtyard also had a plastered floor, in the center of which was a square depression (1.3 by 1.3 m) with plastered margins. In the middle of the depression was an accumulation of ash. Nearby were other small, plastered pits, some containing ashes and bones. These finds attest to the probable ritual function of the hall.

No remains of the western part of the palace were found, probably due to the pits dug in that area during the Iron Age. Radiocarbon dating indicates a destruction of the palace in the last part of the seventeenth century BCE. The uppermost stratum revealed remains of floors, walls, pits, and various installations dated to the Iron Age II.

AREA E. In the years 1986, 1989–1990, and 1992–1993, excavations were conducted at et-Tell on the southern part of the site, focusing on the Phoenician settlement, dated to the Iron Age II. Three strata were encountered. The lowest is located beneath the casemate wall. It was found to contain pre-eighth-century BCE pottery. In stratum E3, the stratum of the Phoenician fortress, a large number of pottery vessels dated to the eighth–seventh centuries BCE were discovered. Another fortress (90 by 60 m) was uncovered in stratum E2; three of its casemates were excavated and found to contain considerable amounts of pottery, as well as seals, arrowheads, clay figurines, and East Greek and Etruscan pottery. The finds date stratum E2 to the second half of the seventh century BCE.

Investigated during the 1993 excavation season were the remnants of the latest settlement (stratum E1), built over the Iron Age site. The finds were dated from the Ottoman period to 1948. In the course of the excavations, potsherds dated to the Persian period were also found, as were the remains of a tomb containing Hellenistic period pottery.

NAAMA SCHEFTELOWITZ

Main publications: Excavations at Kabri: Preliminary Reports of 1987–1991; 1992–1993 Seasons (Preliminary Reports 5–8; eds. A. Kempinski & W. -D. Niemeier), Tel Aviv 1992–1994; A. Kempinski, Tel Kabri: The 1986–1993 Excavation Seasons (The Emery & Claire Yass Publications in Archaeology; Tel Aviv University, Sonia and Marco Nadler Institute of Archaeology, Monograph Series 20; eds. N. Scheftelowitz & R. Oren), Tel Aviv 2002; ibid. (Reviews) BASOR 336 (2005), 75–77. — IEJ 55 (2005), 120–121; N. Scheftelowitz, Tombs and Burial Offerings: Tel Kabri as a Case Study to the Mortuary Practices in Northern Israel in the Middle Bronze Age II (M.A. thesis), Tel Aviv 2004 (Eng. abstract).

Studies: W. -D. Niemeier, Aegaeum 7 (1991), 189–201; 18 (1998), 69–98 (with B. Niemeier); id., AJA 97 (1993), 332–333; 99 (1995), 304–305; id., Recent Excavations in Israel, A View to the West: Reports of Kabri, Nami, Miqne-Ekron, Dor and Ashkelon (Archaeological Institute of America Colloquia and Conference Papers 1; ed. S. Gitin), Dubuque, IA 1995, 1–16; id., BASOR 322 (2001), 11–32; id., TA 29 (2002), 328–331; A. Kempinski, Michmanim 5 (1991), 36*–37*; id. (& W. -D. Niemeier), ESI 10 (1991), 76–77; 13 (1993), 14–15; 14 (1994), 16–19; id., Ägypten und Levante 3 (1992), 69–73; id., EI 23 (1992), 149*; 25 (1996), 97*; id., (& W. -D. Niemeier), IEJ 42 (1992), 260–265; 43 (1993), 181–184, 256–259; id., Aspects of Art and Iconography: Anatolia and its Neighbors (Nimet Ozgüc Fest.; eds. M. J. Mellink et al.), Ankara 1993, 333–338; id., AJA 98 (1994), 487–488, 494–495; id., MdB 89 (1994), 38; id., The Hyksos: New Historical and Archaeological Perspective (University Museum Monograph 96 and Symposium Series 8; ed. E. D. Oren), Philadelphia 1997, 327–334; I. Finkelstein, TA 19 (1992), 201–220; A. M. Maeir (& Y. Garfinkel), Levant 24 (1992), 218–223; id., PEQ 132 (2000), 37–58; S. J. Garfinkle, Archaeology 46/6 (1993), 18; E. H. Cline, AJA 98 (1994), 331–332; N. Getzov, ‘Atiqot 27 (1994), 211; id., ESI 113 (2001), 6*–7*; L. Nigro, Ricerche sull’architettura palaziale della Palestina nelle eta del bronzo e del ferro (Contributi e materiali di archeologia orientale 5), Roma 1995; H. Pastor Borgñon, Aula Orientalis 13 (1995), 211–216; B. Brimer & R. Amiran, ‘Atiqot 30 (1996), 121–122; E. J. Stern & Y. Gorin-Rosen, ibid. 33 (1997), 7*–8*; A. Zertal, Michmanim 9 (1996), 73–82; W. G. Dever, OEANE, 3, New York 1997, 261; P. Young Forsyth, Thera in the Bronze Age (American University Studies 9: History 187), New York 1997; J. C. Waldbaum & J. Magness, AJA 101 (1997), 23–40; Wasser im Heiligen Land: Biblische Zeugnisse und Archäologische Forschungen (Schriftenreihe der Frontinus Gesellschaft Suppl 3; ed. W. Dierx), Mainz am Rhein 2001, 141–142; A. Caubet, Aegaeum 18 (1998), 105–113; B. & W. -D. Niemeier, The Wall Paintings from Thera. Proceedings of the 1st International Symposium, 30.8.–4.9. 1997 (ed. S. Sherratt), 2, Athens 1998, 763–802; P. Militello, Simposio Italiano di Studi Egei (L. B. Brea & G. Pugliese Carratelli Fest., Roma 18–20.2.1998), Roma 1999, 91–108; M. Bietak & K. Kopetzky, Synchronisation, Wien 2000, 112–113; Y. Goren & S. Zuckermann, Ceramics and Change, Sheffield 2000, 165–182; M. Peilstöcker, ICAANE, 1, Roma 2000, 1335; S. Rutgaizer, ESI 111 (2000), 9*; Y. Garfinkel, Studies in the Archaeology of Israel and Neighboring Lands, Chicago, IL 2001, 143–159; D. Shalem, ibid., 7*–8*; S. L. Cohen, Canaanites, Chronologies, and Connections, Winona Lake, IN 2002 (index); M. Negbi & O. Negbi, Beer-Sheva 15 (2002), 325–340; N. Schreiber, The Cypro-Phoenician Pottery of the Iron Age (Culture and History of the Ancient Near East 13), Leiden 2003, 202–204; H. Smithline, ESI 116 (2004), 4*–6*; Artifax 20/4 (2005), 4.