Lachish Research Articles

Revisiting the Late Bronze Age stratigraphy of Tel Lachish

This study investigates the stratigraphy of Tel Lachish during the Late Bronze Age. For a variety of reasons, a certain degree of confusion and disorder in the understanding of the stratigraphical sequence of this period has accumulated throughout the long-term research of the site, leading, consequently, to a distraction in the understanding of the site’s history. This study discusses these problems, examines the local stratigraphy in the various excavation areas, and proposes a new general division of the site’s history during the Late Bronze Age based on general horizons.

Archaeomagnetic Dating of the Outer Revetment Wall at Tel Lachish

The fortifications of Lachish, a key site in archaeology of the Iron Age Southern Levant, are the focus of ongoing debate. The Outer Revetment Wall, encircling nearly the entire site, was traditionally associated with Levels IV–III and was thought to have been in use during the Assyrian campaign in 701 BCE. It has recently been suggested that it was built a millennium earlier. Here we present archaeomagnetic dating of a mudbrick tower incorporated in this wall, indicating that it was burnt during the Iron Age and was most likely built during this period. Combining archaeological, historical and archaeomagnetic data reveals the intense fire that occurred during the 701 BCE Assyrian siege. This fire could have been set by the people of Lachish, in a desperate attempt to damage the Assyrian siege engines or siege ramp, as depicted in the well-known Lachish relief, or by the Assyrians as part of their siege tactics.

THE VEGETATION HISTORY OF THE SHEPHELAH, SOUTHERN LEVANT: MIDDLE BRONZE AGE–HELLENISTIC PERIOD (c.2000–100 BC)

SummaryAlthough the Shephelah region (Israel) is of a great archaeological significance and has been intensively excavated, very little is known about its landscape history. This study presents two large‐scale charred wood assemblages (>2300 items) that were recovered from Tel Azekah and Tel Lachish in order to reconstruct the ancient vegetation of the Shephelah. The two assemblages cover a temporal range from the Middle Bronze Age through the Hellenistic period (c.2000–100 BC). This new diachronic environmental investigation demonstrates that the natural arboreal vegetation in the Shephelah was dominated by oak and pistachio. From the perspective of the regional fruit tree horticulture, olive was the dominant component, indicating that the region included extensive olive orchards. Other documented fruit trees are grapevine, fig, sycamore fig, carob, date palm and almond. The high frequencies of olive remains throughout all investigated periods point to climatic conditions in the region being close to what we are facing today, with at least 400–450 mm of annual precipitation, which is required for a profitable grove. During the Iron Age II, the proportion of olive remains reached its zenith, most probably as a result of Assyrian agroeconomic management that assigned the Shephelah to olive oil production. At the same time, a reduction in natural Mediterranean trees was identified, representing intense human pressure on the natural environment. The discovery of charred cedar of Lebanon remains only at Lachish points to the high status of the site within the region.

The Level V City Wall at Lachish

ABSTRACT In a recent article published in this journal (Finkelstein 2020, PEQ 152, 85–93), newly published data on Level V at Tel Lachish was criticized. This new data indicates that Level V was a fortified city and that radiometric dating places its construction in the last quarter of the 10th century bce. This date is in accordance with the biblical tradition describing the fortification of Lachish during the reign of King Rehoboam of the Kingdom of Judah in the last quarter of the 10th century bce (2 Chr 11:5–12). In the past, various scholars have proposed dating the list of Rehoboam’s fortification to the reigns of later kings: Hezekiah, Josiah or even John Hyrcanus I. It is thus not surprising that Israel Finkelstein, an advocate of a later date, attempts to refute this new archaeological data.

High-resolution investigation of a conflagration event in the North-East Temple at Lachish via integration of forensic, stratigraphic and geoarchaeological evidence: A model for studying architectural destruction by fire

Burnt structures are well known archaeologically throughout the Near East. This study proposes an integrated interpretational framework for reconstructing fires in mud-brick structures using macro- and micro-archaeological types of evidence employing well-established tools. While previous research often utilized either macroscopic field evidence or micro-geoarchaeological data, here we present the integration of stratigraphy, architecture and location of artefacts in the framework of archaeology of crisis, spatial reconstruction of fire temperatures using micro-geoarchaeology, insights from experimental archaeology, and concepts from fire investigation. We demonstrate the utility of this integrative framework in a high-resolution reconstruction of a destructive fire event that occurred in the Late Bronze Age North-East Temple at Tel Lachish, ca. 1210–1126 BCE. We identify the area of ignition and the fire propagation path, and propose the cause of the fire in relation to the archaeology and history of the site in the 12th century BCE.

A VIOLENT END OR A RESPECTFUL BEGINNING? CAVE 120 AT LACHISH REVISED

A VIOLENT END OR A RESPECTFUL BEGINNING? CAVE 120 AT LACHISH REVISED

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Previous article FreeBack CoverPDFPDF PLUSFull Text Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditEmailQR Code SectionsMoreBack cover: The excavation areas at Tel Lachish. (Photo by the Fourth Expedition to Lachish) Previous article DetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Volume 387May 2022 A journal of ASOR Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/720352 Views: 622Total views on this site © 2022 American Society of Overseas Research. All rights reserved.PDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

Agricultural resources in the Bronze Age city of Tel Lachish

In this paper, we present the results of the plant macrofossil analyses from the site of Tel Lachish, Israel with focus on the botanical assemblage of the Middle and Late Bronze Age layers collected in two different areas of the tell: Area S, a trench on the western edge of the site, whose samples belong to Late Bronze Age deposits, and Area P, the palace area on the top of the mound with samples ranging from the Middle to Late Bronze Age. Systematic sampling of these areas and analysis of the remains have extended our knowledge of the agricultural resources of one of the most influential Late Bronze Age cities in the southern Levant. Multivariate statistics have been applied to gain insight into regional patterns of crop growing. Fruit crops account for the majority of the identified remains from this site, which also included large quantities of Hordeum vulgare (barley) and Triticum dicoccum (emmer wheat) grains. The virtual lack of chaff remains is not solely a matter of preservation, since the Late Bronze Age assemblage preserved fragile small seeds. Rather, this finding suggests that cereal processing took place some distance from the area of deposition. Overall high diversity, ubiquity and proportions of fruit crops indicate that these played a fundamental role in their cultivation and probably also in cultural life at Lachish throughout the 15th–12th centuries bce.

The Fortifications of Areas CC and BC at Tel Lachish

During the Fourth Expedition to Tel Lachish in the years 2014-2017 a series of fortifications was uncovered in Area CC, in the center of the northern edge of the mound. In addition to the previously known city walls of Levels I–IV, the expedition discovered a new city wall, built in Level V and dated to the late 10th and the first half of the 9th centuries BCE.

Early alphabetic writing in the ancient Near East: the ‘missing link’ from Tel Lachish

The origin of alphabetic script lies in second-millennium BC Bronze Age Levantine societies. A chronological gap, however, divides the earliest evidence from the Sinai and Egypt—dated to the nineteenth century BC—and from the thirteenth-century BC corpus in Palestine. Here, the authors report a newly discovered Late Bronze Age alphabetic inscription from Tel Lachish, Israel. Dating to the fifteenth century BC, this inscription is currently the oldest securely dated alphabetic inscription from the Southern Levant, and may therefore be regarded as the ‘missing link’. The proliferation of early alphabetic writing in the Southern Levant should be considered a product of Levantine-Egyptian interaction during the mid second millennium BC, rather than of later Egyptian domination.

Animal husbandry from the Middle Bronze Age through the Iron Age in the Shephelah\u2014faunal remains from the new excavations at Lachish

Lachish (Tell ed-Duweir) is located in the southern part of the Judean foothills, known as the Shephelah, and is one of the larger and most extensively excavated multi-period sites in the southern Levant. We present the faunal results of the first three seasons of the most recent excavations, the Austrian-Israeli Expedition to Tel Lachish. The expedition focusses on two areas of the tell encompassing the Middle Bronze Age III through the Iron Age II, area S (deep section) and area P (palace area). The aims for the faunal analysis are threefold: comparing the results between the two areas, seeing how our results compare to previous analyses, and comparing Lachish to other synchronous sites in the Shephelah. We observe differences in subsistence strategies between the areas in addition to diachronic differences. Ovicaprids dominate all assemblages, but we see shifts in the sheep to goat ratio and mortality profiles through time indicating changes in subsistence strategies. Our new results largely agree with the results from previous analyses, showing the value of previous studies and their potential compatibility with newer research. A synchronic comparison of Lachish within the Shephelah shows the occupants of the site were largely self-sufficient but possibly engaged in an exchange of resources in the vicinity.

The sceptres of life-sized divine statues from Canaanite Lachish and Hazor

Despite the investigation of hundreds of ancient temples across the Near East, life-sized statues of divine figures are rare and none have been found in the Canaanite Levant. In this article, contextual and iconographic analyses are used to argue for the interpretation of objects from Canaanite temples at Tel Lachish and Hazor, Israel, as sceptres associated with life-sized statues. This represents the first evidence for life-sized divine figures in the region. In turn, this identification may assist in the recognition of similar objects from elsewhere in the Levant and beyond, and stimulate discussion of the power embodied by these statues.

Household and Family Religion in Persian-Period Judah: An Archaeological Approach

Household and Family Religion in Persian-Period Judah: An Archaeological Approach

Dov Levitte and Yosef Garfinkel, A Diorite New Kingdom Scarab from Tel Lachish

This paper presents a rare scarab made of diorite and set in a golden bezel that was excavated in a topsoil locus at Tel Lachish. Although it lacks a clear stratigraphic context, the scarab still presents important data on the Late Bronze Age at Lachish

Dov Levitte and Yosef Garfinkel, A Diorite New Kingdom Scarab from Tel Lachish

Dov Levitte and Yosef Garfinkel, A Diorite New Kingdom Scarab from Tel Lachish

Dov Levitte and Yosef Garfinkel, A Diorite New Kingdom Scarab from Tel Lachish

Dov Levitte and Yosef Garfinkel, A Diorite New Kingdom Scarab from Tel Lachish

Religion at Lachish under Egyptian Colonialism

Religion at Lachish under Egyptian Colonialism

New Radiocarbon-based assessment Supports the Prominence of Tel Lachish during late Bronze age IB-IIA

ABSTRACTThis article presents a new suite of radiocarbon (14C) dates for the lower portion of the Late Bronze Age (LBA) sequence of Area S, Tel Lachish. The results show that the lowest levels reached by Ussishkin in the 1980s (S-2 and S-3) date significantly earlier than was previously thought. Level S-3, with its monumental architecture, belongs in the 2nd half of the 15th century BCE, as does the commencement of Level S-2. The laminated deposit of S-2 continues through the first half of the 14th century BCE, coinciding at least in part with the Amarna period. This redating leads to improved agreement between archaeological and textual evidence regarding the presence of a substantial, prominent settlement at Lachish during LB IB-IIA, from the reign of Thutmoses III through the Amarna period.

Four Judean Bullae from the 2014 Season at Tel Lachish

The article presents four decorated epigraphic bullae unearthed in the Level III destruction at Lachish during the 2014 season, focusing on the epigraphic, iconographic, and historical aspects of the seal impressions.

An Eighth-Century b.c.e. Gate Shrine at Tel Lachish, Israel

Excavations conducted on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority at Tel Lachish exposed the southern half of the six-chambered gate in Level III. In the eastern chamber, a gate shrine was uncove...