Material Culture Matters

Essays on the Archaeology of the Southern Levant in Honor of Seymour Gitin

John R. Spencer, Robert A. Mullins, Aaron J. Brody

• Publisher: Eisenbrauns
• Year: 2014
• Print ISBN: 9781575062983
• eBook ISBN: 9781575068787
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Ancient History
• Index: History

Dr. Seymour Gitin is completing his tenure as Director and Dorot Professor at the W. F. Albright Institute of Archaeological Research in Jerusalem. Much of his long career has been spent helping young scholars expand their contacts and hone their skills. This volume is a collection of articles by some of the many developing scholars and Albright fellows with whom Sy has shared his time and knowledge. Their appreciation shows in the quality of their articles, the breadth of their interests, and their dedication to Sy Gitin.

The articles range from a discussion of tomb robbing in Palestinian areas, to a geographical analysis of the Shephelah region, to Islamic historical texts, to Israelite cult stands, to Middle Bronze Age burials. In addition, there are several articles by former members of the Tel Miqne–Ekron staff that draw on the finds from that site and further demonstrate Sy's willingness to mentor and to share the publication of the site's rich trove of materials.

This book not only honors Dr. Gitin by the willingness of fellows to contribute to the volume; it also expands our knowledge base of the southern Levant and shows that "Material Culture Matters."

Table of contents

• COVER Front
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Contributors
• Preface
• The Umayyad Pottery of Palestine
• Marked Jar Handles from Tel Miqne–Ekron
• The Southwestern Border of Judah in the Ninth and Eighth Centuries b.c.e.
• Interregional Interaction in the Late Iron Age: Phoenician and Other Foreign Goods from Tell en-Nasbeh
• Three Middle Bronze II Burials from Tel Zahara
• A Late Iron Age Cult Stand from Gezer
• Tomb Raiding in Western Ramallah Province, Palestine: An Ethnographic Study
• Lambs to the Slaughter: Late Iron Age Cultic Orientations at Philistine Ekron
• Competing Material Culture: Philistine Settlement at Tel Miqne–Ekronin the Early Iron Age
• Mother-and-Child Figurines in the Levant from the Late Bronze Age through the Persian Period
• The Evolution of the Sacred Area at Tell es-Sultan/Jericho
• “Ashdod Ware” from Ekron Stratum IV: Degenerated and Late Philistine Decorated Ware
• New Perspectives on the Chalcolithic Period in the Galilee: Investigations at the Site of Marj Rabba
• An Overview of Iron Age Gaza in Light of the Archaeological Evidence
• Tobacco Pipes and the Ophir Expedition to Southern Sinai: Archaeological Evidence of Tobacco Smoking among 18th- and 20th-Century Bedouin Squatters
• King David in Mujīr al-Dīn’s Fifteenth-Century History of Jerusalem
• An Iron Age II Tomb at ʿAnata
• The Ups and Downs of Settlement Patterns: Why Sites Fluctuate
• The Horned Stands from Tell Afis and Hazor and the “Crowns” from Nahal Mishmar