BASOR 307 Abstracts
Egyptian-Canaanite Interaction at Nahal
Tillah, Israel (ca. 4500-3000 B.C.E.):
An Interim Report on the
1994-1995 Excavations
THOMAS E. LEVYDepartment of Anthropology
University of California, San Diego
La Jolla, CA 92093-0532, U.S.A.
tlevy@weber.ucsd.edu
The nature of the Dynasty O-Dynasty I Egyptian presence in southern Israel has been a source of debate since the excavations of Tel Erani on the fringe of the northern Negev in the 1950s when numerous Egyptian artifacts were discovered. Since then, a wide range of models have been used to characterize the nature of Egyptian-Canaanite relations. These models include warfare/conquest, commercialization, distance parity, and world systems. The recent Nahal Tillah Regional Archaeology Project has provided a wealth of new empirical data to help clarify the nature of this interaction. Large-scale exposures on the Halif Terrace have revealed a wide range of Egyptian artifacts including epigraphic finds, evidence of Egyptian food consumption patterns, amulets, ceramics, an Egyptian-style mortuary structure, and more. The data from these new excavations require a reexamination of previously held assumptions concerning the dynamics of Egyptian-Canaanite interaction ca. 3500 to 3000 B.C.E.
An Inner and Outer Gate Complex at Tell en-Nasbeh
JEFFREY R. ZORNDepartment of Near Eastern Studies
Cornell University
Ithaca, NY 14853
jrz3@cornell.edu
At Tell en-Nasbeh (Mizpah), W. F Bade uncovered a two-chamber gate at the northeast corner of the site and a four-chamber gate on the east side. The relationship of these gates to each other, and to the offset-inset wall of King Asa of Judah, has puzzled scholars. Most have assumed that the four-chamber gate was never completed or only functioned as the settlement's gate until an Assyrian destruction in 701 B.C. It is more likely that the two gates are a single, Inner-Outer Gate complex, built by Asa in the ninth century B.C., which functioned until the Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem in 586, after which the four-chamber gate was replaced by new constructions associated with the transformation of Mizpah into an administrative center under Gedaliah. The two-chamber gate functioned until the fifth century B. C. Fresh evaluations of the topography in the intergate area, the site's stratigraphy and in situ ceramic deposits are marshaled to support this theory.
The Macellum of Gerasa
(Jerash, Jordan): From a Market
Place to an Industrial Area
ALEXANDRA USCATESCU Departamento de Ciencias de la
Antiguedad y de la Edad Media
Universidad Autonoma de Barcelona
08193 Bellaterra-Barcelona
Spain
MANUEL MARTIN-BUENO
Departamento de Ciencias de la Antiguedad
Universidad de Zaragoza
50009 Zaragoza
Spain
This article summarizes the results of excavations at Gerasa carried out by a Spanish team over an eight-year period beginning in 1983. The archaeological team discovered a building in the southwestern sector of the Gerasa cardo maximum and identified it as a macellum or Roman food market. Archaeological evidence proves that the macellum, was constructed in the first part of the second century A.D. The building's function changed over a period of approximately seven centuries, beginning in the second century A.D. (Roman period) and extending until the eighth century (Early Islamic period). Of special interest is the use of the ancient market as an industrial area during the Late Byzantine period (late fifth-sixth centuries A.D.).