Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Lehmann, Gunnar
• Rosen, Steven A
• Neumeier, Bat-Ami
• Berlejung, A
• Niemann, H M

Titel

Excavations in Qubur al-Walaydah 2007-2009

Ist Teil von

• Die Welt des Orients, 2010-12, Vol.40 (2), p.137-159

Erscheinungsjahr

2010

Link zum Volltext

Quelle

Alma/SFX Local Collection

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• The first three seasons of excavations at Qubur al-Walaydah have exposed an extra-urban settlement of the Iron Age. The monumental character of the mudbrick architecture in Field 1 Stratum VIII (Iron Age IA) suggests considerable influence of the Egyptian imperial administration even in rural areas. According to the current evidence there was a settlement gap after which an Iron Age IB village with a clear Philistine character was built on top of the ruins of the Egyptian settlement. This village was abandoned before the beginning of the Iron Age II and no Iron II pottery nor remains were found in Field 1. Iron Age IB pottery was found also in Field 2 northeast of the Iron Age I village in Field 1, suggesting that the settlement in Field 2 may have started already in Iron Age IB and continued in Iron Age IIA. So far we have not yet uncovered Iron Age IB architecture in Field 2. After a gap, settlement resumed in the second half of the 8th century BCE (Iron Age IIB) and continued during the 7th century BCE (Iron Age IIC). The ceramic assemblages in Field 2 connect the site during Iron Age IIA and IIB firmly with the coastal settlements that are identified as Philistine. What was `Philistine' during Iron Age II is difficult to assess. The identity and the material culture of the populations in the coastal plain changed considerably during the 11th through 7th centuries BCE. It is of particular interest that pottery assemblages that appear abundantly in Judah, the Shephelah and the Beer-Sheba region were found in 7th century levels at Qubur al-Walaydah. The site was, thus, more connected to those eastern areas than at any previous period. Whether this included an ethnic presence of Judeans at Qubur al-Walaydah or a political expansion of Judah remains to be studied in the coming seasons. The site was abandoned at the end of the 7th century BCE and there are no later settlement remains in Qubur al-Walaydah.