Volume 58 Number 4
December 1995
POTS and People
181 Ethnicity, Pottery, and the Hyksos at Tell El-Maskhuta in the Egyptian Delta
Carol A. Redmount
Once a mysterious presence in Egyptian history, the Hyksos (ca. 1663-1555 BCE) offer a
fortunate case where a particular material culture can be associated with a specific people. Pottery unearthed at Tell el-Dab'a and Tell el-Maskhuta provides complementary
evidence for defining Hyksos material culture.While exhibiting a dominant Middle Bronze
Age Canaanite heritage, these ceramics show that the Hyksos produced a culture that joined
Caananite and Egyptian traditions with the addition of locally developed traits.
191 Ethnicity, Pottery, and the Gulf Olmec of Ancient Veracruz, Mexico
Philip J. Arnold III
The issues raised by pots and peoples, such as social variation and cultural change, are
comrnon to archaeologists on both sides of the Atlantic. These issues are especiallv well-illustrated by fhe Gulf Olmec, one of the earliest complex cliiefdoms in Mesoamerica. Maize
growers in the area of southern Veracruz and northern Tabasco, the Olmec (1200 BCE to 400
BCE) are reknowned for their megalithic sculpture. Analysis of their pottery traditions and settlement patterns leads to an intriguing hypothesis regarding one region of the Olmec
"heartland" and how its inhabitants, the Tuxtlas, were caught up in a process of ethnic
differentiation.
200 Ceramics, Ethnicity, and the Question of Israel's Origins
William G. Dever
The archaeological population groups that we now know in the early Iron I highland
villages of Canaan meet many of the tests for a distinct, new ethnic group. From cooking
pots to storage jars, an analysis of the ceramic corpus of the Late Bronze IIB/Iron IA horizon offers sufficient justification for recognizing a distinct population group. Defined by
other categories of material culture as well, this complex deserves the appellation "Proto-
Israelite."
214 Why Painted Pottery Disappeared at the End of the Second Millennium BCE
H. J. Franken and Gloria London
The pottery of Palestine at the close of the second millennium BCE, is notoriously ugly. Yet
the quality of the ceramic repertoire did rebound. Did the same Late Bronze Age potters
who produced the heavv wares with cracked bases relearn their craft somehow? Did the
innovations emerge from within or enter from outside the society? A study of how a
vessel is made and its clays, selected and treated is vital in any consideration of pots and
peoples. Ceramic technology permits a move beneath the shape of the rim or the decoration of the surface.
223 The Iron Age Fortresses at 'En Haseva
Rudolph Cohen and Yigal Yisrael
For three centuries or more, a series of fortresses-, at 'En Hasex-a dominated a crucial south-
ern crossroads and offered protection to those who traveled in their shadow. The main
periods of the fortress's life reflect the ebb and flow of the region's Iron Age history as
control of the region shifted between the Judahites, Edomites, and Assyrians. In the final
stratum of the Iron Age, 'En Haseva sheltered a small shrine from which excavators extracted
assemblage of arresting clay and stone cult vessels.The restorition of these artifacts from
what was probably an Edomite cultic installation adds further celebrity to what was one of
the most immense fortresses of biblical times.
236 Arti-Facts>
Pillared buiildings in Iron Age Moab and the scanning electron microscope.
243 Caught in the Net
John Younger
On the Cover: Three anthropomorphic cult stands from 'En Haseva. Recalling the finds at the Edomite shrine of Horvat Qitmit, the sculptures probably depicted human figures and represented their donors in the divine presence. Photograph courtesy of the Israel Antiquities Authority.