The Iron Age II Domestic Pottery from Tell Halif
The Context
Because this CD concentrates exclusively on late Iron II (8th c. BCE) pottery from Tell Halif, a
fortified town on the southern border of the kingdom of Judah, and specifically on pottery
collected from two pillared buildings on the western perimeter of that town,
information about the specific contexts in which the pottery was deposited is important
for understanding not only about the ceramic corpus itself but also
about the people who used the vessels.
I. The Geographic Context.
Tell Halif (Arabic name Khirbet Khuweilifeh, "little
caliph," ancient name likely is the town En Rimmon named
in the book of Joshua chapter 19) is a medium-sized site of some seven
acres on its fortified summit during the Iron II period. The town sat on
the most prominent hill in the immediate
region (31 degrees 23 minutes N, 34 degrees 52 minutes E), overlooking
a small valley on the Wadi esh-Sharia, which feeds the Wadi Beersheva drainage
system and simultaneously serves as a transportation route between Gaza
to the west and the Hebron hills to the east. Neighboring Tell Beit Mirsim,
also occupied as a fortified town of the Judahite kingdom in late Iron
II, is located eight kilometers to the northeast.
Tell Halif is situated at the juncture of three environmental
zones--the Judaean hills, the Shephelah, and the Negev--a unique location
which affected its selection for re-settlement in the Iron Age as well
as its settlement history over the
ages. Clearly eighth century BCE Halif/Rimmon served the need for border
defense for the kingdom of Judah; however, far from being strictly a military
outpost supplied from a central agency, Halif was populated by ordinary,
non-military people, who exploited the agricultural resources available
in the valley below the town, even conducting local business within the
town. Excavation in this town in Field IV on the western perimeter
of the fortification recovered evidence for the production of wine (hence
of viticulture, probably on the hills to the west of the tell), plowing
of fields (two iron plows were found in one house), and of commercial activity
(stone weights for balance scales were found on the floor of another pillared
building.) Also found in one house were two bullae, clay
imprinted with seals; along with the weightstones, scarab, and scaraboid, the bullae
are probably indicators of commerce practiced within that house.
II. The Stratigraphic Context.
Tell Halif's is a record of intermittent occupation,
with gaps in settlement history usually preceded by major destructions.
For instance, the earliest occupation of Halif
was an Early Bronze III fortified town (Stratum XV), whose foundations
were set on the limestone bedrock of the hill itself. Though the fortifications
were deep (at places the stone wall topped with sun-dried bricks was nearly
7.5 meters wide and remained standing more than 4 meters high), including
a protective ramp of crushed limestone covering the external face of the
curtain wall, the fortified town probably survived destruction for less
than a century. The site was subsequently abandoned for an undetermined
length of time, to be re-populated again in Early Bronze IIIA-B; the abandonment
of Halif lasted long enough to permit accumulation of ashes and small objects
from the burned Stratum XV town to a depth of 4 meters behind the fortification
wall, as seen in the excavations in Field I on the eastern slope of the
tell. Since that deposition of ash occured by natural forces--wind and
rain--an abandonment of some years must be inferred.
Similar destructions followed by abandonment of
Halif mark the history of occupation, as the case with the Iron II
settlement in late eighth c. BCE Stratum VIB. Deep deposits of ash and
tumbled bricks mark the end of Stratum VIB, the final phase of the Iron
II fortified town. The destruction--at the hands of an Assyrian armed force,
probably in the year 701 BCE--trapped approximately 250 ceramic vessels
on the ground floors of two pillared buildings in Field IV, and deposited
dozens more in the fallen roof and upper floors of the houses.
Halif/Rimmon was not entirely abandoned immediately
at the event of this 701 BCE destruction at the hands of the Assyrians;
rather a handful of survivors from the burning of the town resettled (Stratum
VIA) small portions of the now destroyed pillared buildings in Field IV
(a feature also observed in the excavation of same stratum VIB-VIA in Field III); these
"squatters" re-used some of the
stone foundation walls from the destroyed pillared buildings, adding new
walls in alighnment slightly different from the Stratum VIB houses. This new
Stratum VIA occupation apparently endured for only a few years, at which
time Halif/Rimmon was again abandoned, though in this instance not as a
result of violent destruction. Whether the disappearance of the Stratum
VIA settlement was the result of Assyrian military pressure is unknown.
III. The Context of the Stratum VIB Pillared Buildings.
Tell Halif was a fortified town in Stratum VIB; the fortification wall
F8010
was discovered in Areas F8 and G8, much of it, however, eroded down the slope of the tell
(significant portions of the "casemate" fortification wall and stone-lined "glacis" were
uncovered in Field III, immediately to the north of Field IV.)
The final phase of the Field IV Stratum VI town was destroyed in a fire that collapsed
the brick walls of the pillared buildings. This
destruction debris buried stone wall foundations and preserved artifacts
on the floors; it also preserved, in a more or less common level
within the collapsed bricks, artifacts which had probably been on the
upper floors of the pillared buildings. Separation of materials from
the two floor levels was possible, therefore.
Plan of Stratum VIB
To see a detailed plan, click on an excavation unit (Area) in the plan below.
The Southern Pillared Building
Elements of a pillared building were recovered in
the southern half of Field IV
in Areas L8, L9, K8, and K9. The building duplicates the
typical plan of the "four-room" type house: three long rooms on the
eastern side and a broadroom on the west. A stepped entrance L8019
through Wall L8012 was found at the southeastern corner of the building and may have
opened onto a street or alley. Presumably this house was built
against the inner face of the town fortification system, though
both the fortification wall and the western wall of
the house are missing from Areas K9 and L9.
On the western end of the southern pillared building (the "broad room") excavation
in Areas L9 and K9 recovered the remainder of three small chambers.
The western limit of the pillared house had eroded down
the slope of the tell. However, earth and cobbled Surfaces K9004,
K9009, L90003, and L9006, two pillars K9010 and L9002, and Walls K9002,
K9003, K9005, L9005, and L9009 make it clear that the plan of these
rooms was similar to the
"four room" house plan used elsewhere during the eighth century. The
surviving dimensions of the southern pillared building are ca. 7.5 m.
(N-S) X 6.75 m. (E-W).
Artifacts found within the collapsed
destruction debris in Areas K8, L8, K9 and L9
suggest that domestic activities were
conducted on a second floor. (To date, however, no stairway to an
upper floor has been located in the excavation areas.) In addition to
whole and restorable ceramic vessels, loom weights, stone weights and a
large chert saddle quern were found fallen from the upper floor. All
evidence from the now complete exposure of the building points to
domestic activity mixed with home industry of weaving (loom weights)
and selling (weightstones). The inhabitants of this
building were also involved in farming; an iron plow point 1979 was found on Surface
K9004.
Households either gathered or purchased quantities of
foodstuff sufficient for long-term use and storage. The number of
storage jars on the ground floor of the southern pillared building suggest large
quantities of grain were kept in the house, whether in preparation for the siege of Halif
by Assyrian forces or as ordinary preparation for the non-growing seasons.
The Northern Pillared Building
In the northern part of Field IV, in Areas F8, F7, G8, G7,
H8, and H7, most of the remainder of a pillared building was
exposed. The trenching operation of Stratum I, along with earlier
disturbances in the Byzantine and Persian periods, partially dismantled
the foundations of this house. Nonetheless, because the disturbances
affected the architecture in minor ways, it was possible to
recover the greater portion of its dimensions. The surviving
foundations show a house plan considerably larger than the pillared
building in the southern part of Field IV: ca. 10.5 m. (N-S) X 9.5 m.
(E-W).
In the final phase of the northern pillared building five rooms
made up the ground floor.
The small room in the northwest corner of the building in Area F8, however,
appears to have been deliberately walled off, with doorways
blocked both on the east and the north walls. No
apparent reason for closing the room can be seen; nonetheless, a solid
stone and brick Wall F7012 was constructed across an opening between
Wall F7003 and Wall F8011, and doorway F7025 was blocked using boulder-sized stones
with bricks laid on top. During the final phase of Stratum VIB this
small room was no longer used.
Changes in the access to the broad/western room in Area G8 were also made. Again,
a doorway F7031 in Wall
G8006 was blocked with large stones and bricks laid on top. In this
instance, however, the room was not removed from use. Traffic was rerouted
around the southern end of Wall
G8006 and access gained from the south. In the room a grouping of cultic
objects were found (head of a pillar figurine,
ceramic incense stand,
two carved limestone blocks, perhaps "masseboth"); the demands
of cultic practice may have been the reason for the alteration
in the house plan.
The southern room(s) of the pillared building, found in Areas H7
and H8, had at one time been defined by walls subsequently
robbed in the Stratum I trenching. The location of these
walls are certain from the shallow "robber trenches" H7011 and H7015
across Area H7. In this reconstruction it is presumed that Robber
Trench H7011 represents the original line of the row of pillars
parallel to the row in Area G7, with Robber trench H7015 representing the
southern wall of the house.
As in the pillared building in the southern portion of Field
IV, so in the northern building: the pottery and artifacts found above
the living floors within the destruction debris support the
interpretation of domestic activities on a second floor. (To be noted,
however, is that no stairway to an
upper floor has been located in the excavation areas.) The artifacts
included storage vessels, lamps and weightstones. The
presence of several large storage jars on Surface F7006, in addition to
the vessels found Areas G8 and G7, also suggests
that large quantities of foodstuff were either gathered or purchased.
In Areas F7 and G7 two small Tabuns G7021 and F7015
along with Installations F7008 and G7022 and Mortar F7020 point to
food preparation in the ground floor of this pillared building.
The locations of the pottery on the floors in both pillared buildings
have been carefully recorded; seen here in an isometric rendering are vessels found in
one of the rooms of the northern pillared building:
Areas F7G7 map. From the isometric drawing it is
possible to view specific (tinted) vessels.
