Ashkelon 10

The excavation of the Philistine cemetery produced not only human remains but a wealth of objects, including pottery, jewelry, metals, and personal seals. In this volume, the material culture is addressed by scholars who frame their work within the larger world of southern Levantine cultural patterns.

In the process of excavating the area of the Philistine cemetery, an examination of the broader landscape in this part of Ashkelon led to the discovery of a Roman vineyard covering the Iron Age remains. This is one of the few vineyards excavated in the region, and the findings are also presented in this volume.

This five-hundred-page volume features hundreds of full-color illustrations and includes a catalog of 141 separate burial events. It represents an important contribution to the study of the peoples of the eastern Mediterranean in the first millennium b.c.

Daniel M. Master is Jonathan Blanchard Professor of Archaeology at Wheaton College and was codirector of the Leon Levy Expedition to Ashkelon from 2007 to 2016. He currently oversees the publication of the Ashkelon final report series and is codirector of the ongoing excavations at Tel Shimron. He is also coeditor of Dothan I: Remains from the Tell (1953–1964) and general editor of The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Bible and Archaeology.

Adam J. Aja is Chief Curator at the Harvard Museum of the Ancient Near East and chief stratigrapher at the Tel Shimron excavations. He served as grid supervisor and later as assistant director for the Leon Levy Expedition to Ashkelon. He also worked for several seasons at the Tel Miqne-Ekron excavations and at Tel Tayinat in Turkey.

Rachel Kalisher is a bioarchaeologist whose research focuses on life history, kinship, and maternity in antiquity. She has been with the Ashkelon team since 2015 and is also the staff bioarchaeologist at the nearby Tel Shimron and Tel Megiddo excavations.

Abbreviations

Contributors

Photographic Credits

Editor’s Preface

Authors’ Preface

Part One: Historical Setting, Architecture, and Stratigraphy

1. The Context of the Discoveries in Grid N5 at Ashkelon

Daniel M. Master, Adam J. Aja, and Simeon D. Ehrlich

2. Stratigraphic Summary of the N5 Iron Age Cemetery

Adam J. Aja and Daniel M. Master

Square 64 Simeon D. Ehrlich

3. Data Recording and Spatial Analysis George A. Pierce

Part Two: Catalog of Burials

4. Catalog of Burials Adam J. Aja, Rachel Kalisher, Daniel M. Master, and George A. Pierce

Part Three: Artifacts

5. Pottery Daniel M. Master

6. Metal Artifacts Adam J. Aja

7. Beads and Pendants Joshua T. Walton and Adam J. Aja

8. Stamp Seals and a Cylinder Seal Noa Ranzer and Ido Koch

Part Four: Human and Faunal Remains

9. Bioarchaeological Results from the N5 Iron Age Cemetery

Rachel Kalisher, Sherry C. Fox, Kathryn E. Marklein, and Marina Faerman

10. The Non-Human Faunal Remains from Grid N5 Deirdre N. Fulton and Christina Olson

Part Five: Archaeometric Analyses

11. Radiocarbon Dates from the Ashkelon N5 Iron Age Cemetery

Elisabetta Boaretto, Larisa Goldenberg, and Daniel M. Master

12. Analysis of Burials from the N5 Iron Age Cemetery at Ashkelon for the

Eggs of Intestinal Parasites Tianyi Wang and Piers D. Mitchell

Part Six: Conclusion

13. The Philistine Cemetery at Ashkelon

Daniel M. Master, Adam J. Aja, and Rachel Kalisher

Bibliography

Concordance of Stratigraphic Contexts

Index

Ancient Near East

Archaeology

           Levant

Levant

           History