Hesi after 50 Years and 130 Years

This volume is the first in a new iteration of the Joint Archaeological Expedition to Tell el-Hesi series that builds on previously published volumes. It publishes a final report for part of one of Tell el-Hesi’s excavation fields; a reevaluation of the stratigraphic findings of the original 1891–1892 excavations on Tell el-Hesi, based on excavation work from the 1970s and 1980s; in-depth studies of groups of small finds from the tell; and zooarchaeological analyses that widen the investigative perspective to include the region around the tell.

Paying tribute to the long excavation history at Tell el-Hesi, the contributors to this volume employ state-of-the-art scientific methods that honor the careful work and findings of a century of excavations. Hesi After 50 Years and 130 Years will be an important reference for scholars researching the history and culture of southern Palestine.

John R. Spencer is Professor Emeritus of Biblical Studies from the Department of Theology and Religious Studies at John Carroll University. He is coauthor of Tell el-Hesi: The Muslim Cemetery in Fields V and VI/IX and coeditor of Material Culture Matters, both published by Eisenbrauns.

James W. Hardin is Codirector of the Cobb Institute of Archaeology and Professor in the Department of Anthropology and Middle Eastern Cultures at Mississippi State University. He is the author of Lahav II—Households and the Use of Domestic Space at Iron II Tell Halif: An Archaeology of Destruction and coeditor of Gezer VII: The Middle Bronze and Later Fortifications in Fields II, IV, and VII, also published by Eisenbrauns.

Jeffrey A. Blakely is Adjunct Professor in the Department of Classics and Ancient Near Eastern Studies at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and Adjunct Professor in the Department of Anthropology and Middle Eastern Cultures at Mississippi State University. He is the author of numerous excavation reports and guides, including The Tell el-Hesi Field Manual and Tell el- Hesi: The Persian Period (Stratum V), the latter also published by Eisenbrauns.

List of Illustrations

List of Abbreviations

Editor’s Preface

James W. Hardin

Chapter 1. Introduction

John R. Spencer and Jeffrey A. Blakely

Chapter 2. Field IV at Tell el-Hesi: A Final Report

Geoffrey E. Ludvik and Jeffrey A. Blakely

Chapter 3. The Presence and Function of Early Bronze Age Terracotta Animal Figurines at Tell el-Hesi

John R. Spencer

Chapter 4. Dating the Joint Archaeological Expedition’s Phantom Stratum (IX): Bliss’s City V at Tell el-Hesi

Jeffrey A. Blakely and James W. Hardin with Rachel Banks, Eric M. Carlucci, Gretchen Ellis, Donald Farrow, Benjamin L. Hatfield, Geoffrey E. Ludvik, Amanda R. Morrow, Jonathan L. Schadeberg, and Danielle Zwang

Chapter 5. Dating and Interpreting Hard Stone Beads from Tell el- Hesi: A Case Study in Residuality

Geoffrey E. Ludvik

Chapter 6. Meat on the Hoof: A Zooarchaeological and Isotopic Investigation of Herd Management at Khirbet Summeily in the Iron Age

Kara Larson

Plates

Bibliography

Download a PDF sample chapter here: Introduction