Interregional Contacts Between Tell En‐nasbeh and Littoral Philistine Centres in Canaan During Early Iron Age I*

Abstract

Philistine bichrome ware from Tell en‐Nasbeh, an Israelite village in the hill country, has been characterized by instrumental neutron activation analysis. A group of pottery stylistically indistinguishable from wares made in Philistia is shown to be of local origin, while other sherds match kiln wasters found in the littoral Philistine city of Ashdod. These findings attest to complex and reciprocal interregional contacts between the Philistines and the Israelites during the eleventh to twelfth centuries BC.

Pottery production in Jerusalem during the Iron Age: A new compositional profiling

“…Thus, a very limited amount of published archaeometric studies focusing on Jerusalem pottery production during the Iron Age (or any other period) is actually available. A “Jerusalem Reference Group” was defined in the literature (Mommsen et al., ) more than 30 years ago and has been quoted ever since (e.g., Gunneweg, Asaro, Michel, & Perlman, ; Gunneweg & Perlman, ; Gunneweg, Perlman, & Meshel, , p. 283; Perlman, Gunneweg, & Yellin, , pp. 231–232; Adan‐Bayewitz, Asaro, Wieder, & Giauque, , pp.…”

“…The location of the JCC production center was located well outside the town, in vicinity to the F I G U R E 2 Geological map of the Jerusalem area (JCC = Jerusalem Convention Center; JQ = Jewish Quarter; F = formation) (after Sneh & Avni, 2011), showing also the Qidron, Refaim, and Soreq rivers (dashed lines); numbers denote approximate locations of soil samples [Color figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com] TA B L E 1 Samples analyzed in this study according to type, class, and period Thus, a very limited amount of published archaeometric studies focusing on Jerusalem pottery production during the Iron Age (or any other period) is actually available. A "Jerusalem Reference Group" was defined in the literature (Mommsen et al, 1984) more than 30 years ago and has been quoted ever since (e.g., Gunneweg, Asaro, Michel, & Perlman, 1994;Gunneweg, Perlman, & Meshel, 1985, p. 283;Perlman, Gunneweg, & Yellin, 1986, It was therefore assumed in several publications that this Moz . a clay would represent by default the clay sources of ancient Jerusalem pottery, possibly due to its being a natural "clay" source.…”

Chemistry Versus Data Dispersion: Is There a Better Way to Assess and Interpret Archaeometric Data?

“…Chemical fingerprints, generated from the elemental concentrations of a reasonable number of elements in each sample, become the basis on which ceramics are sorted into groups and on which they are archaeologically assessed (e.g., Perlman et al 1972;Abascal-M et al 1974;Picon and Vichy 1974;Schneider and Hoffmann 1976;Attas et al 1977;Artzy et al 1978;Schneider 1978;Davidson 1981;Allen et al 1982;Cesana et al 1983;Olin and Blackman 1987;Sharon et al 1987;Mommsen et al 1988Mommsen et al , 2006Yellin and Gunneweg 1989;Boquet et al 1992;Gunneweg et al 1994;Steponaitis et al 1996;Mirti et al 1998;Day et al 1999;Buxeda i Garrigós et al 2003;Blomster et al 2005;Harrison and Hancock 2005;Kilikoglou et al 2007;Stark et al 2007;Hughes 2009). Chemical fingerprints, generated from the elemental concentrations of a reasonable number of elements in each sample, become the basis on which ceramics are sorted into groups and on which they are archaeologically assessed (e.g., Perlman et al 1972;Abascal-M et al 1974;Picon and Vichy 1974;Schneider and Hoffmann 1976;Attas et al 1977;Artzy et al 1978;Schneider 1978;Davidson 1981;Allen et al 1982;Cesana et al 1983;Olin and Blackman 1987;Sharon et al 1987;Mommsen et...…”

“…The chemical analysis of ancient and historic ceramics is relatively common in archaeological publications. Chemical fingerprints, generated from the elemental concentrations of a reasonable number of elements in each sample, become the basis on which ceramics are sorted into groups and on which they are archaeologically assessed (e.g., Perlman et al 1972;Abascal-M et al 1974;Picon and Vichy 1974;Schneider and Hoffmann 1976;Attas et al 1977;Artzy et al 1978;Schneider 1978;Davidson 1981;Allen et al 1982;Cesana et al 1983;Olin and Blackman 1987;Sharon et al 1987;Mommsen et al 1988Mommsen et al , 2006Yellin and Gunneweg 1989;Boquet et al 1992;Gunneweg et al 1994;Steponaitis et al 1996;Mirti et al 1998;Day et al 1999;Buxeda i Garrigós et al 2003;Blomster et al 2005;Harrison and Hancock 2005;Kilikoglou et al 2007;Stark et al 2007;Hughes 2009).…”

The Judahite Temple at Tel Moẓa near Jerusalem: The House of Obed-Edom?

“…11 Dr. Ido Koch called my attention to two other occurrences of Philistine artefacts discovered in the Land of Benjamin and Jerusalem. See Gunneweg et al 1994;Uziel, Szanton andCohenWeinberger 2015: cf. Finkelstein 1990: 191-192;Mazar and Karlin 2015. …”