Excavations At Maresha Subterranean Complex 169

Tel Maresha is located in the foothills of Israel's Judaean Mountains. It was established in the Iron Age II (circa 700 BCE) and is mentioned in the Hebrew Bible (Josh 15:44; I Chron. 2:42). But it was mainly a Hellenistic-period town - a major Idumean political and administrative center. One of the unique and fascinating aspects of Maresha is its subterranean city - hundreds of underground galleries and chambers filled to the gills with artifacts. This volume is a report of the excavations of one of these rich subterranean complexes - SC 169 - which contained a full corpus of Hellenistic pottery forms - both local and exotic altars, figurines, amulets, seals and seal impressions, hundreds of inscriptions in Greek and Aramaic, coins, jewelry and much more. These finds tell the story of an affluent cosmopolitan society comprised of Idumeans, Phoenicians, Greeks, and Jews, who lived together in a vibrant urban setting until the city was destroyed, probably by the Jewish Hasmonean kingdom in 104 BCE.

Maresha is located in the Judean lowlands approximately 40 km southwest of Jerusalem and approximately 30 km southeast of Ashkelon. This volume is the final report of one of the most interesting subterranean complexes at Maresha. Located in close proximity to an area identified as a temple or shrine, its contents suggest a possible connection to this structure. It was within this cave complex that the "Heliodorus" stele was discovered (Chapter 12), along with Aramaic (Chapter 8) and Greek ostraca (Chapter 9), numerous figurines (Chapter 6), kernos lamps (Chapter 5), coins (Chapter 10), stamped handles (Chapter 7), astragals and an extraordinary array of faunal remains (Chapter 11). In addition, a 7th century BCE bulla of a sphinxa was found (Chapter 4). With contributions by Bernie Alpert, Einat Ambar-Armon, Donald Ariel, Baruch Brandl, Avner Ecker, Adi Erlich, Esther Eshel, Gerald Finkielsztejn, Dov Gera, Hava Korzakova and Lee Perry-Gal.

Final Report of Excavations on the Hill of the Ophel by R.A.S. Macalister and J. Garrow Duncan 1923–1925 contains the publication of the finds from this excavation a century ago that have been curated and stored in the archives of the Palestine Exploration Fund in London. This volume includes a history of the excavation and detailed descriptions and illustrations of finds ranging from the Chalcolithic through to the Ottoman periods. These include pottery, metal, bone and glass objects, seal impressions, figurines, clay tobacco pipes and other items, many of which have never been published before. Among the more significant finds from the excavation, both the subject of special studies, are an incised pottery sherd with images of two deity figurines interpreted as representing Yahweh and Asherah, and two incense burners that contribute to our understanding of the trade in incense in the Near East in the second and first millennia BCE. This volume will be of interest to students and researchers of ancient near eastern archaeology, and particularly those engaged in research in the southern Levant. The report complements the publications of the many subsequent excavations in the same area of Jerusalem, a location that is still today the focus of much attention for historical, religious and political, not to mention archaeological, reasons.

This is part of a three-volume final report of the renewed excavations at Ramat Raḥel by the Tel Aviv–Heidelberg Expedition (2005−2010). It presents the finds from the Babylonian-Persian pit, one of the most dramatic find-spots at Ramat Raḥel. The pit yielded a rich assemblage of pottery vessels and yhwd, lion, and sixth-century “private” stamp impressions, including, for the first time, complete restored stamped jars, jars bearing two handles stamped with different yhwd impressions, and jars bearing both lion and “private” stamp impressions on their bodies. Residue analysis was conducted on many of the vessels excavated from the pit to analyze their contents, yielding surprising results. The finds contribute to our understanding of the pottery of the Babylonian and early Persian periods (6th−5th centuries BCE) and to the study of the development of the stamped-jar administration in the province of Yehud under Babylonian and Persian rule. Also available from Eisenbrauns: Ramat Raḥel III: Final Publication of Aharoni'’s Excavations at Ramat Raḥel (1954, 1959–1962) by Oded Lipschits, Yuval Gadot, and Liora Freud; and Ramat Raḥel IV: The Renewed Excavations by the Tel Aviv–Heidelberg Expedition (2005–2010): Stratigraphy and Architecture, by Oded Lipschits, Mandred Oeming, and Yuval Gadot.

After Alexander: The Hellenistic and Early Roman Periods at Pella in Jordan details the excavation of Hellenistic and Early Roman period horizons carried out at Pella in Jordan by the University of Sydney since 1979. It deals with both the stratigraphy of the Hellenistic and Early Roman levels at Pella, and catalogues the pottery recovered from them. Short summaries of relevant work by the College of Wooster are also included. After a brief introduction to the site and history of excavations, a detailed description of the Hellenistic and Early Roman levels on the main mound of Khirbet Fahl, on nearby Tell Husn, and in select hinterland locations, then follows. The heart of the study centres on a detailed catalogue of the corpus of some 900 individual Hellenistic-Early Roman pottery fragments, accompanied by outline drawings for each fragment, and a smaller number of images of the more important pieces. Discussion of the relevance and importance of the material remains to the history and archaeology of the Hellenistic and Early Roman periods at Pella and more broadly to Jordan and the southern Levant concludes the study.

Ancient religions are definitely complex systems of gods, which resist our understanding. Divine names provide fundamental keys to gain access to the multiples ways gods were conceived, characterized, and organized. Among the names given to the gods many of them refer to spaces: cities, landscapes, sanctuaries, houses, cosmic elements. They reflect mental maps which need to be explored in order to gain new knowledge on both the structure of the pantheons and the human agency in the cultic dimension. By considering the intersection between naming and mapping, this book opens up new perspectives on how tradition and innovation, appropriation and creation play a role in the making of polytheistic and monotheistic religions. Far from being confined to sanctuaries, in fact, gods dwell in human environments in multiple ways. They move into imaginary spaces and explore the cosmos. By proposing a new and interdiciplinary angle of approach, which involves texts, images, spatial and archeaeological data, this book sheds light on ritual practices and representations of gods in the whole Mediterranean, from Italy to Mesopotamia, from Greece to North Africa and Egypt. Names and spaces enable to better define, differentiate, and connect gods.

A focused, interdisciplinary examination of a tumultuous, history-making era The Middle Maccabees lays out the charged, complicated beginnings of the independent Jewish state founded in the second century BCE. Contributors offer focused analyses of the archaeological, epigraphic, numismatic, and textual evidence, framed within a wider world of conflicts between the Ptolemies of Egypt, the Seleucids of Syria, and the Romans. The result is a holistic view of the Hasmonean rise to power that acknowledges broader political developments, evolving social responses, and the particularities of local history. Contributors include Uzi ‘Ad, Donald T. Ariel, Andrea M. Berlin, Efrat Bocher, Altay Coşkun, Benedikt Eckhardt, Gerald Finkielsztejn, Christelle Fischer-Bovet, Yuval Gadot, Erich Gruen, Sylvie Honigman, Jutta Jokiranta, Paul J. Kosmin, Uzi Leibner, Catharine Lorber, Duncan E. MacRae, Dvir Raviv, Helena Roth, Débora Sandhaus, Yiftah Shalev, Nitsan Shalom, Danny Syon, Yehiel Zelinger, and Ayala Zilberstein. Features Up-to-date, generously illustrated essays analyzing the relevant archaeological remains A revised understanding of how local and imperial histories overlapped and intersected New analysis of the book of 1 Maccabees as a tool of Hasmonean strategic interest