Research master thesis | Archaeology (research) (MA/MSc)
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To understand southern Levantine funerary practices and the related cult of the dead within the territories of Israel, Palestine and Jordan, archaeology has long relied on biblical sources. This...Show moreTo understand southern Levantine funerary practices and the related cult of the dead within the territories of Israel, Palestine and Jordan, archaeology has long relied on biblical sources. This tendency has led to oversimplified comparative methodologies, in which the ancient Israelite cultural distinctiveness, between the Iron Age and the rise of the Roman power, has been stressed by opposing it to the neighbouring regions. Those elements of funerary rituals, not fitting biblical narratives have often been interpreted as ‘foreign’ and as such, neglected. However, dying is a complex social process through which the personhood of the deceased is reconstructed as a new identity, as well as its relationship with the living. Multiple overlapping factors affect this process: geographical, historical, socio-economic, ethnic and kinship components, and lastly personal attachments. This thesis aims to re-evaluate the southern Levantine old archaeological data sets and the complexity of death in terms of 'social process' by both putting aside the biblical reconstructions and introducing the methods deriving from funerary taphonomy. By combining both archaeological and osteological analyses regarding four case studies – Tell es-Saʿidiyeh, Tell Mazar, Lachish and Jerusalem – it attempts to reconstruct the progression of the funerary process through four main phases: the choice of the tomb-type, the preparation of the body, the deposition and the manipulation of the remains. The sequential process results in a multi-faceted experience embodying both deeply rooted rituals/beliefs and local variations due to groups and/or individual choices. In this context, the concept of foreign is re-defined as contamination and reflection of personal interests.Show less
The Early Bronze Age of the Southern Levant was a period of immense change and developing complexity. One of the greatest transformations of this period was the erection, maintenance and...Show moreThe Early Bronze Age of the Southern Levant was a period of immense change and developing complexity. One of the greatest transformations of this period was the erection, maintenance and modification of fortifications systems characterised by circum-settlement walls and additional elements such as towers, gates and bastions. While fortifications are almost always referred to in academic works on the period, a more focused investigation of them is needed. Also the recent focus on ascribing a non-military socio-symbolic function has resulted in confusion and varying views as to the actual function(s) of such fortification systems in the Early Bronze Age, which remains largely undefined and a matter ongoing debate. Why were they built? This paper serves to address this by investigating the primary function(s) of Early Bronze Age fortifications. This has been undertaken foremost via a contextual examination of a selected sample of Early Bronze Age fortification systems found at various sites across the Southern Levant – to ascertain whether they are indicative of (or at least consistent with), superfluous to or indeed compromising to a pattern of military architecture. This has been supplemented by other lines of evidence such as the presence of weapons, destructions, human remains and textual and artistic material. While alone these are often ambiguous correlates, their sum in combination with the specific analysis of the elements of the actual fortification systems at the selected sites supports the conclusion the primary function for Early Bronze Age fortifications in the Southern Levant was a military one. Other socio-economic functions of these fortifications have also been identified though these were secondary and did not compromise the defensive integrity of the whole system.Show less
Main goal of the thesis is to investigate the role of basalt in the ceramic technology of cooking pots in the Iron Age Lehun, Mudayna and Tel Yin'am. Assessing that the physical properties of...Show moreMain goal of the thesis is to investigate the role of basalt in the ceramic technology of cooking pots in the Iron Age Lehun, Mudayna and Tel Yin'am. Assessing that the physical properties of basalt are as much suitable as those of calcite, or maybe better, I attempt to confirm and interpret the increasing use of basalt in the Iron Ages at the expense of calcite.Show less
