When the Philistines went to return the Ark of the Covenant to Israel, their first stop was Beth-Shemesh (1 Samuel 6:9), which was situated in the border zone between the Judahite hill country and the Coastal Plains controlled by the Philistines. The Iron Age settlement of Tel Beer-Sheba in the Negev is often listed as Judah’s southern border (e.g., 2 Samuel 3:10). Located on the periphery of the Judahite kingdom, both Beth-Shemesh and Beer-Sheba are important for understanding Judah’s state formation in the tenth and ninth centuries B.C.E.
Tel Beth-Shemesh
Tel Beth-Shemesh: A Border Community in Judah (Renewed Excavations 1990–2000: the Iron Age), 2 vols.
Edited by Shlomo Bunimovitz and Zvi Lederman (Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2016), xvi + v + 774 pp., b&w illustrations, $189.50 (cloth)
These two volumes report on the first ten years of renewed excavations of the Iron Age settlement at Tel Beth-Shemesh. To make the archaeological publication friendlier to a varied audience, authors present each historical period of the site in three parts that consecutively relate the general historical context, archaeological stratigraphy, and contextual interpretation of finds. Broader topics addressed in the book cover agricultural economy, the development from a village to administrative center, and the last days of the settlement. Also included are studies of artifacts, such as a gaming board, stone tools, jewelry, and amulets.
Located in the Judahite lowlands (Shephelah), Tel Beth-Shemesh offers an intriguing story of a border town that had to adjust to the changing geopolitical situation of the region. Accordingly, the guiding theme of the publication is the phenomenon of being located on a political and cultural border.
Beer-Sheba
Beer-Sheba III: The Early Iron IIA Enclosed Settlement and the Late Iron IIA–Iron IIB Cities, 3 vols.
Edited by Ze’ev Herzog and Lily Singer-Avitz (Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2016), xii + 1536 pp., b&w illustrations, $289.50 (cloth)
Representing the full report of the Iron Age cities at Tel Beer-Sheba, these three volumes are a result of archaeological exploration started at the site in 1969 by the late Yohanan Aharoni of Tel Aviv University. Individual volumes are devoted to stratigraphy and architecture, pottery, and artifacts—for a total of 37 chapters. An analysis of the site’s archaeobotanical and archaeozoological remains, evidence of iron production, and social and cultural aspects of ancient life at Beer-Sheba are also presented, as well as the challenges of modern-day preservation of this UNESCO site.
Rigorous publication of stratigraphy and meticulous analysis of the pottery has allowed the authors to conclude that the Iron Age IIA, a period crucial for the debate on the emergence of the Biblical “United Monarchy,” extends from the mid-tenth down to the early eighth century, and that the evolution of the state in Judah was initiated in the Shephelah rather than in the highlands. Indeed, the contemporary finds from Jerusalem are poor in comparison, underscoring the fact that Jerusalem assumed its role as the capital of Judah only in the eighth century.
The portable limestone altar from Iron Age IIB Beer-Sheba is incised with a lion leaping onto a camel; the scene is framed by rows of triangles filled with cross-hatch.
When the Philistines went to return the Ark of the Covenant to Israel, their first stop was Beth-Shemesh (1 Samuel 6:9), which was situated in the border zone between the Judahite hill country and the Coastal Plains controlled by the Philistines. The Iron Age settlement of Tel Beer-Sheba in the Negev is often listed as Judah’s southern border (e.g., 2 Samuel 3:10). Located on the periphery of the Judahite kingdom, both Beth-Shemesh and Beer-Sheba are important for understanding Judah’s state formation in the tenth and ninth centuries B.C.E. Tel Beth-Shemesh Tel Beth-Shemesh: A Border Community in Judah (Renewed Excavations […]
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