Archaeology of Syria-Palestine (original) (raw)
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ORA 34, 2019
In this article, I propose that the search for archaeological evidence regarding the emergence of Aram-Damascus should be expanded to the northern Jordan Valley. An examination of settlement (and political) oscillations in the region between the Late Bronze III and early Iron IIA points to two pivotal events in the history of the northern Jordan Valley: (1) the destruction of Late Bronze Age Hazor; and (2) the destruction wave of the late Iron I cities (e.g., Dan, Kinnereth and Tel Hadar). From a regional perspective, the latter event is more significant, as its implications go beyond the single-site level. Relying on the long-term cultural affiliation of the northern Jordan Valley with Syria, and other clues gathered from available textual sources (e.g., the Amarna correspondence and Sheshonq I’s list), it is possible to associate this event with the territorial expansion of a polity situated in southwestern Syria, perhaps Aram- Damascus.
2007
New work over the last thirty years on the archaeology of Syria-Palestine in the later sixth and seventh centuries has significantly questioned the once-accepted view of an economy in decline, seen in part as a contributory factor to the supposed “easy” conquest of the region. Coinage, ceramics, and settlement profiles depict, rather, an economic resilience that successfully weathered the political and military disruptions of the seventh century. The relative soundness of the economy at the end of the seventh century gave crucial support to ʿAbd al-Malik during the succession dispute with Ibn Zubayr, and following its resolution ʿAbd al-Malik’s reforms were to ensure decades of continuing economic prosperity in Syria-Palestine. In the eighth century, a standardized coinage ensured monetary confidence, townbased industries were built up on a major scale to supply regional markets, while improvements to the infrastructure of agriculture—rather than the introduction of new crops—and the exploration of natural resources promoted settlement in the countryside. Over two centuries, the economy had changed, bringing significant shifts in urban and rural settlement patterns, but had not, to any significant extent, failed.
Proceedings of the 10th International Congress on the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East Volume 2, 2018
The recent discovery and excavations of the mid/late 3rd millennium BC cities of Tell Al-Rawda and Tell Shʻaīrat, and the surveys conducted around them, unexpectedly highlighted the arid zone of inner Syria, to the north of Palmyra (in the so called ‘Shamiyah region’). In this article, the coauthors, who are also respectively co-directors of the two archaeological expeditions, demonstrate that Tell Al-Rawda and Tell Shʻaīrat have a common regular and geometric urban pattern, which indicates the cities are pre-planned ‘new cities’. This reveals the discovery of an urban model, also recognized in northern Syria and largely diffused in the steppe land. Both sites appear as key to understanding the dynamic of urbanization in Syria. They certainly illustrate the birth of a precocious territorial state, possibly connected to the ‘Very Long Wall’, onto the desert margins of Syria in a context of territorial conquest. This event took place around 2500 BC, before the construction of Palace G of Ebla. The paper also offers a comparison between different items of material culture from the two sites.
The study of settlement patterns in the Akkar plain and of storage facilities on the site of Tell Arqa during EBA IV lend evidence for a strong increase in cereal production in this region during the last centuries of the third millennium. This does not support the hypothesis of a climate change-induced crisis by the end of the millennium (the socalled 'crisis of 2100 BC'), at least in this area of the Levant. New practices for grain storage in stone-built, corbelled silos -vs. the earlier practice of storage in the basements of houses -are however introduced ca. 2000 BC. This, in addition to a renewed pottery repertoire and the probable wider availability of metal, hints to extended contacts with inland Syria, and the possible (and temporary?) influx of people from this region at the beginning of the second millennium. Such changes should be considered within the framework of relations between areas with different and complementary economic systems (a mediterranean-type economy on the coast and a widely pastoral-based one inland), which developed steadily, and parallel with the agricultural prosperity in the Akkar, during the later stages of EBA IV, rather than as the outcome of sudden natural and/or political events.
Archaeology of Syria-Palestine (Course Syllabus)
The growth and development of the discipline of Syro-Palestinian Archaeology in a general survey of exploration, excavation and scholarly research; and an examination of the archaeological evidence from prehistoric times to the end of the Iron Age.
E. B. Aitken, J. M. Fossey (dir.), The Levant, crossroads of late antiquity: history, religion, and archaeology / Le Levant, carrefour de l'Antiquité tardive : histoire, religion et archéologie (MUMCAH 22), p. 255-272. Leiden: Brill, 2013