The Joint Archaeological Expedition to Tell el-Hesi, vol. 5, Tell el-Hesi: The Muslim Cemetery in Fields V and VI/IX (Stratum II).

AuthorKane, Carolyn

Tell el-Hesi, located slightly northeast of Gaza, was first excavated by the great English archaeologist Sir Flinders Petrie in 1890. The impressive mound dominated the surrounding plain, and he spent six weeks at the site. He believed it to be the ancient Lachish, which is actually a few miles farther east of Tell el-Hesi. His lasting gift to archaeology was developing the analysis of ceramic finds and using the results as a chronology for stratigraphy.

From 1891 to 1893 the American Frederick Jones Bliss worked several seasons on the acropolis mound. Nearly eighty years later excavations were reopened by the Joint Archaeological Expedition (1977-83). Five expedition reports have been published, and the last is the subject of this review. The site is now believed to date from the Chalcolithic period ca. 3500 B.C.E. to the late Islamic period ca. 1550-1800 C.E. (with interruptions). There is no evidence for EBI, II and late BI or occupation after ca. second century B.C.E. to what the author refers to as "Late Arabic." The area was conquered by the Turks in the first quarter of the sixteenth century, and the term Ottoman would describe the period more accurately. The last evidence for Stratum I is, not surprisingly, an Israeli military trenching in 1948. The site through history was always a strategic military outpost.

The volume is a systematic analysis and study of the material culture and remains from the 453 mostly nomadic Muslim burials from Stratum II, phase two of the excavation. With great care and consideration the archaeologists decided to treat all strata with equal importance. They were seeking earlier cultures to study, and to their credit did not by-pass the Muslim levels. Archaeologists in the past have not been as scrupulous.

There are seven chapters and ten detailed appendices, including a glossary, plus a good bibliography, but no index. This thorough study and systematic analysis of the cemetery finds...

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