Congratulations to Ami Mazar, Bub Mullins and the Beth Shean Valley Archaeological Project team, for the just-appeared 2nd volume on the Tel Beth Shean excavations. As usual, this volume, as all of Ami’s, are chock-full of fascinating information and analyses. As usual, Ami is keeping up with his simply astounding publication record.
The title of the volume is:
Mazar, A., and Mullins, R.A., eds. 2008. Excavations at Tel Beth-Shean 1989–1996, Volume II: The Middle and Late Bronze Age Strata in Area R. Jerusalem: Israel Exploration Society.Below are the table of contents, which, as can be seen, is full of many very interesting chapters (including two by yours truly…):
CONTENTS
List of Contributing Authors. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . VII
List of Figures. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . VIII
List of Pottery Plates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . XI
List of Color Photos in CD. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . XII
List of Tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . XIII
Abbreviations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . XV
Preface. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . XIX
Chapter 1. Introduction and Overview A. Mazar and R.A. Mullins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Chapter 2. Reflections on Levels XI–IX of the University Museum Excavations
R.A. Mullins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Chapter 3. Area R: The Stratigraphy and Architecture of the Middle and Late Bronze Ages:Strata R-5–R-1 R.A. Mullins and A. Mazar. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
I. The Middle Bronze Age II (Strata R-5–R-3) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
The Oval Crater . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Strata R-5–R-4: Remains to the North and East of the Oval Crater . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Strata R-5–R-4: Remains to the West of the Oval Crater. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Stratum R-3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Synopsis of the Middle Bronze Age Burials. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
II. The Late Bronze Age IA (Stratum R-2) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
Stratum R-2: The Temple Phase . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
Stratum R-2’: Post-Temple Activity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
III. The Late Bronze Age IB–IIA (Strata R-1b–R1a). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
The Northwestern Rooms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
The Central Courtyard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
The Southwestern Complex . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
The Street . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
The Southern Building. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
The Northeastern Area. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180
Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195
Appendix 3.1: Note on the Middle Bronze Age Burials in Area M A. Mazar . . . 199
Appendix 3.2: Interpretation of the Stratigraphic Sections R.A. Mullins . . . . . . 201
List of Loci in Area R . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223
List of Walls in Area R . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238
Chapter 4. The Middle Bronze Age II Pottery A. Maeir . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242
Pottery Plates 1–37 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312
Chapter 5. The Late Bronze Age Pottery R.A. Mullins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 390
Pottery Plates 38–79. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 463
Chapter 6. Provenience Studies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 548
Chapter 6A. The Petrography of the Late Bronze Age PotteryA. Cohen-Weinberger. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 548
Chapter 6B. Instrumental Neutron Activation Analysis of Selected Pottery from TelBeth-Shean and the Central Jordan Valley A. Maeir and J. Yellin . . 554
Chapter 7. Figurative Art and Glyptics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 572
Chapter 7A. Ceramic Figurines and Zoomorphic Vessels, a Painted Sherd andVarious Cylinder Seals A. Mazar. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 572
Chapter 7B. Two Middle Bronze Age Cylinder Seals D. Collon . . . . . . . . . 578
Chapter 8. Canaanite and Egyptian Scarabs from Area R B. Brandl . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 582
Chapter 9. The Metal Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 606
Chapter 9A. The Metal Objects: Catalogue and Discussion N. Yahalom-MackWith Contributions by L. Gershuny and A. Mazar . . . . . . . . . . . 606
Chapter 9B. Chemical Analysis of Metal Objects N. Yahalom-Mack,S. Shilstein and S. Shalev. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 621
Chapter 10. The Stone Vessels C. Clamer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 626
Chapter 11. Groundstone Tools and Objects N. Yahalom-Mack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 639
Chapter 12. The Textile Industry N. Yahalom-Mack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 661
Appendix 12.1: A Note on the Late Bronze Age Textile IndustryA. Yasur-Landau . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 669
Chapter 13. Various Finds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 672
Chapter 13A. Clay, Stone, Faience, Bone and Ivory ObjectsN. Yahalom-Mack and A. Mazar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 672
Chapter 13B. A Hieratic Sign S. Wimmer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 688
Chapter 14. The Flint Assemblages of Areas R, P, S, N, and Q R. Bankirer and O. Marder . . 690
Chapter 15. Botanical Remains . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 702
Chapter 15A. Beth-Shean as a Trade Center for Crops in the Bronze Age:Botanical and Entomological Evidence O. Simchoni,M.E. Kislev and Y. Melamed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 702
Chapter 15B. Identification of Wood Remains from Area R U. Baruch . . . . . . 716
Chapter 16. Interpretation of the Radiocarbon Dates from Area R A. Mazar . . . . . . . . . . 718
Index of Finds by Loci Compiled by M. Schiffer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 722
Contents of CD
A. Lists of Loci and Walls in Area R.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
B. Tables and Graphs related to Chapter 6B . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
C. Selected Color Pictures (see list on p. XII) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
D. Plans and Sections (digital copies of all the line drawings in Chapters 1–3) . . . . . . . . . . . .
Happy reading,
Aren
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