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Yarmouth: The Dawn
of City-States in Southern Canaan
Pierre de Miroschedji
A central interest of Near Eastern archaeologists is the
origins and development of the early states. Pierre de Miroschedji's
excavations at Yarmouth have established a new corpus of key
information about this process. In this article Professor
Miroschedji provides an overview of the stratigraphy and finds
from the site and places them in the context of developments
during the Early Bronze Age in southern Canaan. Yarmuth clearly
qualifies as an early city. Work has exposed the earliest
massive and complex public architecture in the region, bold
in conception and meticulous in execution. A series of reconstructions,
drawn by Daniel Ladiray, reveals the physical nature of the
settlement of ancient Yarmuth.
The Rock Art of the
Negev Desert
Emmanuel Anah
Long a pioneer in the study of rock art, Professor Anati
here provides a report of his most recent work in the Negev.
The region around Har Karkom has proved to be exceptionally
rich in a wide variety of images that span the transihons
from hunters and gatherers to early pastoralists and historically
documented societies. Based on an encyclopedic knowledge of
rock art, an innovative set of interpre-tations of the meanings
and behaviors associated with the images are offered. Har
Karkom, in particular, fascinates because of the abundance
of cultic and ritual behaviors depicted in the art, well captured
in the author's splendid photographs.
State Formation
in Israel and Judah: A Contrast in Context, A Contrast in
Trajectory
Israel Finkelstein
Always probing, always challenging, Professor Finkelstein
offers here his latest re- evaluation of the pace and process
of state development in the Iron Age Levant. Setting the argument
within the "Low Chronology" he advocates for the early first
millennium BCE, strong contrasts between the evolution of
complex polities in Israel, Judah and the Transjordanian states
are linked to environmental, topographic, demographic, and
cultural variables. Certain to invite critical response, this
recasting of the process bases itself on archaeological data
and warily engages the biblical record.
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