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Area E Background information Area E was started in 1995 as a check on the sequences in Area A but on the opposite side of the high tell, figure 13. We were interested in obtaining a good Iron II exposure and wanted to see if we would be more successful in obtaining that easily in Area E. The same situation presented itself in Area E that we had found in Area A. In 1999 we encountered a major Iron II building but had to excavate through two meters of overlying architecture of the Ayyubid, Roman and Hellenistic periods, figure 14. The Iron Age and later structures again destroyed most evidence for the second millennium BC and cut down into architecture of the end of the Early Bronze Age. A room of an Early Bronze Age IV building was excavated in several phases but is clearly part of a larger building. The artifactual remains of the building were very rich and may indicate a religious function. Evidence of metal-working is very much in evidence in the structure as well. The exposure of the earliest phase of the building is very small but seems to indicate a date at the beginning of the Early Bronze Age, EBIVA. Square E3 was opened in 1999 to obtain a larger exposure of the EBIV building and particularly to try to obtain a bigger collection of materials from its latest phases. Iron Age II and later materials from 2001 In Area E on the north side of the high tell, Sara Kayser removed the baulk between the previously excavated squares E9 and E12, so we could expose as much of the substantial building remains that were excavated at the end of the 1999 season in E9. She reached this level in more than half of the area by the end of the season and is within 15 to 20cm of reaching it in the remainder of the area. We first removed three major architectural phases, one dating to the Roman period and the other two to the Hellenistic period. Many segments of mosaic floors with yellowish tan-colored tessarae set in pinkish plaster, were scattered and not in situ in the upper Hellenistic level. Here we also found a Hellenistic wine jar on a floor in the northeast corner of the room and a wine-jar handle with a seal impression, figure 15. Unfortunately the impression was not legible. The most interesting Hellenistic find from this area is a small piece of jewelry in the form of a six-pointed star that had been made by joining twelve gold granules. Persian period pottery was found in scattered patches but its context was disturbed by Hellenistic intrusion into underlying remains. We did reach shallow Iron II remains to connect with the two highest phases of Iron II foundations encountered in 1999. Several pits, one apparently Hellenistic, must be excavated completely in order to understand the Iron Age remains and to make a coherent plan of the architecture. One and possibly more Iron Age II levels were encountered over, and partially cutting into, the large foundations excavated earlier. A major wall, which may continue into the underlying layer, extended along the east baulk. Additional work is necessary to gain a better understanding of the building that we have encountered. A small cluster of objects was found on a floor about 30cm above the floor level of the major building, figure 16. The objects included a typical Iron II platter bowl, without slip, a very badly made jar that was complete except for the neck and rim, and a very nice basalt tripod bowl. We were greatly surprised and very pleased when we began to remove the soil from the jar. The jar was filled with almost 300 beads, figure 17! When the jar was removed another 50 beads were found beneath it because the jar had a hole in its base. There are 42 different varieties of stone, gold, silver, frit, glass and shell beads. A selection of shell and stone beads are shown on figure 18. Most noteworthy are the shell beads that have been incised to represent fish. Included were two complete and two fragmentary cylinder seals. Included in the cache were two complete faience cylinder seals and two fragmentary cylinder seals. One of the complete seals was decorated with a simple ritual scene consisting of three figures, figure 19. Two of the figures face right with the larger, rear, left figure holding up its right arm. The right figure faces the other two and holds what may be a lightning bolt depicted as a fine wavy line in an uplifted right hand. A "standard," made of three superimposed globes, is positioned behind the right figure and separates the two groups. The other seal was decorated with a couchant gazelle. The animal has its head and horns turned over its body and its legs are drawn underneath with its hooves touching. The figure is cut side-ways so that the base line is not at the bottom of the seal but rather in a vertical position to the base of the seal. The two fragmentary seals were included, one is cut into a dark stone, probably steatite, and the other was mould-made out of faience. They were the tops of seals created in a Neo-Assyrian linear-style glyptic. Also included, were an Egyptian or Egyptianizing faience scarab, a battered, hollow, fluted gold bead and an elaborate ram's head bead made of different colors of glass. The scarab or sphinx was decorated with a lion striding to the right, wearing a kilt on its front legs. The head is obscured so it is impossible to tell whether the head is a lion's head or a human head. Three, possibly four, hieroglyphic signs are clear in the field around the lion, the nefer, and ra signs are clear.
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