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92
Mortuary Practices in Early
Bronze Age Canaan
By David Ilan
Why have a lot of burials been found in some sites and regions
in the Early Bronze Age Levant and virtually none in others?
Why is there so much less evidence for burials for the second
and third phases of the Early Bronze Age than for the first?
How do we explain this variance? To answer these questions,
the author proposes that territory, social boundaries, social
organization and changing ideologies may have played a role.
In particular, he points out that almost nobody was buried
with accompanying grave goods in the EB II–III. Proscribing
grave goods was a means of social leveling and perhaps reflects
religious beliefs to the effect that, “you can’t
take it with you.”
105
Real and Ideal Identities
in Middle Bronze Age Tombs
By Rachel Hallote
Are burials expressions of social reality or rather of a collective
idealized social identity? Drawing on the evidence both from
burials and from settlement archaeology, the author argues
for the latter for the Middle Bronze Age Levant, demonstrating
that tombs do not necessarily give an accurate picture of
the lives of the people buried in them.
112
Foreign Burials in Late Bronze
Age Palestine
By Garth Gilmour
Several unusual burials dating to the Late Bronze Age in the
Levant have been attributed to foreign elements. These include
larnax burials at Gezer and the Persian Garden in Acco and
the numerous double-pithos burials at Tell es-Sa'idiyeh in
the Jordan Valley. In the case of the two larnakes, the author
uses data from the burials to assess the place of these foreigners
in their adopted societies. For Sa'idiyeh, the author assesses
the conclusions of the excavator concerning both the identity
of the foreign group represented by the double-pithos burials,
and this group’s function in the local community and
offers an alternative interpretation—that the burials
are those of Hittite refugees who settled at the site after
the fall of the Hittite Empire.
120
Life in Judah from the Perspective
of the Dead
By Elizabeth Bloch-Smith
From archaeological and textual perspectives, scholars Israel
Finkelstein and Baruch Halpern respectively have argued for
systemic changes in Judahite society brought about by the
Assyrian invasions of the late eighth century BCE,changes
involving the growth of the state and an increase in the role
of the individual. Will a scrutiny of Judahite interments
reveal these abrupt societal changes or will they tell a different
story, one of evolution rather than revolution?
131
Mortuary Practices in the
Persian Period
By Samuel R. Wolff
The Persian period (586–332 BCE) in the southern Levant
saw the presence of Greeks, Cypriots, Phoenicians and Persians
on Levantine soil, mixing with the local inhabitants, many
of whom had only recently returned from exile. This mix of
cultures can be traced through the mortuary remains, which
the author surveys here, looking in particular at the location
of tombs relative to settlements, tomb typology and orientation,
the position of the body, and the analysis of skeletal remains
and grave goods.
View a comprehensive bibliography
of Persian period tombs.
138
Power and Its Afterlife: Tombs
in Hellenistic Palestine
By Andrea Berlin
Jerusalem’s enormous second temple period necropolis
includes several dozen “display tombs”—elaborate
rock-cut monuments that stand out on account of their size,
workmanship, and prominent positions. Such structures, which
first appear in the later second century BCE represent a significant
shift in Jewish tomb architecture. Its genesis and context
may be traced to the mid-second century BCE political transformation
of Jonathan from Maccabean rebel to Hasmonean dynast. Upon
Jonathan’s death in 143 BCE, his brother Simon built
an extravagant monument over the family tomb in Mode’in
(I Macc 13:27–29) inspired by two splendid imperial models:
the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus and the Belevi Monument near
Ephesus. In so doing, he introduced into Palestine the notion
of the tomb as a focus for conspicuous display.
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