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Highlands of Many Cultures: The Southern Samaria Survey—The Sites
Israel Finkelstein and Zvi Lederman, eds.
(Tel Aviv: Institute of Archaeology, Tel Aviv Univ., 1997) Monograph Series, no. 14, 2 vols., 959 pp., 420 figs., 18 maps, $95.00
In the 1980s, while excavating Biblical Shiloh—an early Israelite cult site about 20 miles north of Jerusalem—dig director Israel Finkelstein decided to widen the scope of his research by surveying the surrounding region in Samaria. Finkelstein and assistant directors Zvi Lederman and Shlomo Bunimovitz sought to gain a better understanding of the settlement patterns of the hill-country populations during the Late Bronze (1550–1200 B.C.E.) and early Iron Ages (1200–1000 B.C.E.)—a transitional period when many scholars believe that the Israelites first emerged in this region.
These two handsome volumes provide a detailed presentation of the archaeological data from their survey of a 400-square-mile area located between Shechem and Ramallah. A third volume will integrate all the survey data with historical, economic and demographic information, with the hope of offering a full synthesis of the data from both the material culture and the literary record.
There is much to praise in this publication, not least of which is the way it successfully presents an enormous quantity of data from 585 sites, about half of which have never been published before. Especially useful is a representative corpus, with many plates, of the ceramics collected during the survey. This corpus underpins the judgments regarding the date of each site. Finkelstein and Lederman offer a general typology of sherds by period, and specific sherds from individual sites are discussed throughout the two volumes.
All indicator sherds (rims, bases, decorated sherds and unique pieces) are counted and broken down by percentage; attributions are assigned on the basis of diagnostic sherds (sherds that have chronological significance). The pottery assemblage collected, therefore, provides a unique opportunity for establishing settlement patterns at many of the sites. (Petrographic analyses will be included in volume three.) Two important studies on the geology and hydrology of the region, as well as its flora and climate, complement the ceramic presentation. The report also includes a listing of all the sites, many with photos.
Finkelstein carefully describes the geographic units included in the survey and how their geophysical features influenced the settlement patterns through the ages. He also includes his brilliant study of ethnoarchaeological data garnered from 16th- and 19th-century C.E. records and their application in establishing land-use and demographic patterns—not only in those periods, but throughout Biblical history. The editors first consider each pattern (whether land-use or demographic) within its subregion in southern Samaria and then relate it to previous population studies.
This book is invaluable for a better understanding of highland culture. Its lucid and up-to-date discussion should be required reading for any serious student of Biblical archaeology as well as for anyone using ethnoarchaeological materials to establish settlement patterns or population estimates. I look forward to examining the more interpretive results in volume three.
Highlands of Many Cultures: The Southern Samaria Survey—The Sites
