A Carved Bone Object from Tell Abu al-Kharaz in Jordan: A Palestinian Workshop for Bone and Ivory?

Abstract

AbstractA carved bone handle (?) was found by the Swedish Jordan Expediton in 1992 at Tell Abu al-Kharaz in a building within the Iron Age I–II citadel. The building was destroyed in afierce conflagration, dated c. 800 B.C., according to analysis of the ceramics. The handle can be compared to a coherent group of bone handles found in the Burnt Palace at Nimrud and to one from Iron Age Hazor, Stratum VI. A group of ivories from Nimrud and Hazor can also be attributed to the ‘bone handle’ workshop.The discovery of the Abu al-Kharaz handle is significant for a number of reasons. First the presence of similar material at Tell Abu al-Kharaz and Hazor suggests the presence of a workshop in the area: that more examples were found at Nimrud than at Hazor and Tell Abu al-Kharaz merely reflects the well-known Assyrian predilection for collecting loot at their capital cities. Furthermore, the relatively securely dated context of the Abu al-Kharaz handle to ‘before 800 B. C.’ considerably refines the dating of the gr...