Final Reports of The Leon Levy Expedition to Ashkelon - ASHK

The Leon Levy Expedition to Ashkelon continues its final report series with a study of the Iron Age I. Following the dramatic collapse of the Mediterranean world at the end of the Bronze Age, new groups emerged across the Levantine littoral. One of those groups was the Philistines, famous archenemies of the Israelites in the Hebrew Bible. This volume shows how Ashkelon became a Philistine city. The volume presents evidence for the arrival of a new group from the West that changed fundamental patterns of life. Ceramics shapes, architectural patterns, foodways, industrial technology, decorative traditions, and forms of writing are all explored in this volume, and each of these forms of evidence shows how the newly arrived Philistines first responded to the Levantine world around them. After settling in the seaport of Ashkelon, the Philistines continued to trade internationally, as was typical of earlier inhabitants of the city, and their ongoing maritime connections provide additional insight into the economy of the Mediterranean in the twelfth and eleventh centuries B.C. This volume represents the culmination of more than thirty years of archaeological research into questions of Philistine culture, bringing together research from more than thirty scholars covering all aspects of ancient life in Ashkelon during the Iron Age I.

This eighth installment in the series of Final Reports of The Leon Levy Expedition to Ashkelon presents a synthetic study of the remains dating to the seventh through the twelfth centuries. Bringing together contributions from specialists on architecture, fortifications, ceramics, small finds, and organic remains, Ashkelon 8 opens a window onto everyday life during a period when Ashkelon was one of the most important cities in the southern Levant.

The first chapters survey the city’s architecture and fortifications, including a detailed analysis of the history of Ashkelon’s walls. The copiously illustrated chapters on ceramics cover both local and imported goods, including an unparalleled collection of Chinese ceramics. Essays on glass, metals, and coins shed light on the economy and trade practices, while the chapters on organic material provide valuable insight into the site and serve as a model for similar studies at Islamic- and Crusader-period sites throughout the Levant. Together these studies detail daily life, reconstruct vast trade networks, and illuminate cultural events previously known only from textual sources.

Based on thirty years of work in more than two dozen areas of excavation, Ashkelon 8 is an essential resource for scholars investigating the history and archaeology of the Islamic and Crusader periods in Ashkelon.

The Leon Levy Expedition to Ashkelon continues its final report series with a study of the fortifications of the North Slope. From the first gate and rampart in the Middle Bronze Age through mud-brick towers from the Iron Age, these defenses are evidence of how the seaport of Ashkelon was both a political force in the southern Levant and an economic power in the eastern Mediterranean. This volume includes the

monumental mud-brick gate of Ashkelon, the shrine of the silver calf, and towers from the time of the Philistines. Since each ancient fortification phase was also a massive earth-moving project, the detritus of the entire city found its way to the North Slope. Within the extensive fill, excavators uncovered indications of connections with Crete, Cyprus, Lebanon, and Egypt, while also collecting evidence of local Bronze Age agriculture and animal husbandry in an urban center.

An indispensable resource for scholars interested in the history of the Bronze Age in the eastern Mediterranean, Ashkelon 6 spans twenty-five chapters with more than 500 full-color pages and a number of foldout plans. The architecture, stratigraphy, pottery, and other finds are presented in detail, shedding new light on this important period in the history of ancient Canaan.

Combining old surveys with new material from salvage excavations, The Land behind Ashkelon provides a wide regional context for the excavations at Tel Ashkelon. This volume is a distillation of numerous excavations by many talented archaeologists, brought together by Yaakov Huster, a man who has devoted his life to preserving the cultural heritage of the Ashkelon region.

Yaakov Huster has not only revisited older surveys but has also taken into account the enormous amount of new information collected by the archaeologists of the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) over the last several decades. This volume synthesizes all available data to create the most accurate and updated regional survey of the Ashkelon region to date. As such, it is an invaluable resource to anyone studying Ashkelon and its hinterland.

In this volume, Dr. Michael D. Press publishes the complete Iron Age corpus of terracotta anthropomorphic and zoomorphic figurines from the Leon Levy Expedition. Adapting a methodology of typology, iconography, and iconology, Press lays out his theoretical framework for analyzing and understanding the figurines of Ashkelon and those from Philistine cultures. Throughout this study, which covers nearly six centuries of Philistine life, the well-dated archaeological contexts of the figurines are stressed as much as their form and decoration. With an uncanny eye for form and detail, Press succeeds in changing our understanding of Philistine iconography while providing a model of method and theory that could be applied to the coroplastic art of many cultures.

Ashkelon 3: The Seventh Century B.C, written by Lawrence E. Stager, Daniel M. Master, and J. David Schloen has won of the 2012 Irene Levi-Sala Book Prize. The Irene Levi-Sala Book prize award is dedicated by the Sala Family Trust, London, to the memory of Dr. Irene Levi-Sala, who was a gifted archaeologist and maintained a keen interest in the culture and archaeology of Israel. The purpose of this prestigious prize is to encourage and reward high quality publications, both scholarly and popular, on the archaeology of Israel against the wider context of Near Eastern history and archaeology.

The Leon Levy Expedition to Ashkelon continues its final report series with a study of the city destroyed in the campaign of the Babylonian king Nebuchadrezzar in December of 604 B.C. In this era, Ashkelon’s markets linked land routes from the southeast to a web of international Mediterranean merchants, and this volume describes the Iron Age bazaar where shopkeepers sold the goods of Egypt, Greece, Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Judah. In addition, in another part of the city, a winery produced a homegrown vintage for distribution abroad.

This volume spans more than 800 full-color pages illustrating the range of imported and local artifacts recovered by more than ten years of excavation. The twenty-eight chapters, by more than two dozen contributors, combine to describe Ashkelon’s pivotal role in the economy and politics of the late seventh century B.C. As such, Ashkelon 3: The Seventh Century B.C. is a indispensable resource for those interested in the Iron Age history of the Eastern Mediterranean and the study of trade and economy in the ancient world.

Since 1985, the Leon Levy Expedition to Ashkelon, directed by Lawrence E. Stager of Harvard University, has been a leading American archaeological project in Israel. Now, the work of the project is being collected in ten final report volumes published by the Harvard Semitic Museum. The first volume, Introduction and Overview (1985-2006), spans more than 700 copiously illustrated pages, many in full color, and includes subjects ranging from microscopic DNA to monumental architecture. In addition, Volume 1 includes plans and descriptions of every architectural phase excavated during the course of seventeen field seasons and reveals the archaeological sequence of the site and aspects of the city plan from the Bronze Age to Crusader times, with special emphasis on Canaanite (Bronze Age) and Philistine (Iron Age) Ashkelon. The chapters in this volume, by more than three dozen contributors, combine to describe Ashkelon's cultural constants and contingencies over la longue durée (3000 BCE to 1500 CE).  As a result, Ashkelon 1: Introduction and Overview (1985-2006) will be an indispensable resource for investigating the maritime and terrestrial history of the southeastern Mediterranean littoral.

The seaport of Ashkelon flourished under Roman and Byzantine rulers. Its far-flung maritime connections are reflected in the imported pottery found by the Leon Levy Expedition to Ashkelon. Dr. Barbara L. Johnson brings a wealth of expertise and many years of experience to her study of this material, presenting and identifying a diverse array of vessels that illuminate the trading networks that knitted together the Mediterranean world.