Abstract
For many years, the Late Bronze/Iron Age transition in the southern Levant has been the subject of intense debates concerning chronological matters and cultural developments. Ceramic studies were often the focal point of the discussion, but they usually concentrated on the appearance of Aegean-style pottery in the southern Coastal Plain and the nearby Shephelah, while largely disregarding the indigenous pottery tradition. In this paper, I study the processes of continuity and change in ceramic shape morphology and decoration techniques of three important tell-sites in the Shephelah: Lachish, ʿAzẹqȧ (Tel Azekah) and Ekron. It will be shown that marked innovations took place during the transition to the Iron I. These were most likely triggered by the appearance of foreign potters who produced local Aegean-style wares and seem to have influenced the traditions of the indigenous ceramic workshops. Such insights not only allow a fine-tuning of the relative chronology of the region at the end of the second millennium BCE, but also illuminate the transmission of professional knowledge and cultural traits through the ages.
Acknowledgments
This article presents parts of the results of my PhD dissertation written under the supervision of Prof. Oded Lipschits, Prof. Yuval Gadot and Dr. Anat Cohen-Weinberger. I would like to thank them for commenting on my work and providing many valuable insights.
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Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Frontmatter
- The Wars of Ebla at the Time of Minister Ibrium
- ‘I Have Made a Highway of Biainili’:
- Potters in Transition
- Ein neues zweisprachiges altbabylonisches Vokabular aus Ur
- Children, Donkeys and Eponyms at Dūr-Katlimmu
- Ad astra: Graphic Signalling in the Acrostic Hymn of Nebuchadnezzar II (BM 55469)
- Eine bedeutende Salzquelle in Karapınar Konya – Meke Gölü (Meke Maar) und ein Gleichsetzungsvorschlag für liki „Salzlecke“ im Staatsvertrag des Kuruntija und Tutḫalija IV.
- Archäologische Forschungen am Karacadağ und eine hieroglyphenluwische Inschrift aus Karaören
- The New Inscription from Türkmenkarahöyük and its Historical Context
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Frontmatter
- The Wars of Ebla at the Time of Minister Ibrium
- ‘I Have Made a Highway of Biainili’:
- Potters in Transition
- Ein neues zweisprachiges altbabylonisches Vokabular aus Ur
- Children, Donkeys and Eponyms at Dūr-Katlimmu
- Ad astra: Graphic Signalling in the Acrostic Hymn of Nebuchadnezzar II (BM 55469)
- Eine bedeutende Salzquelle in Karapınar Konya – Meke Gölü (Meke Maar) und ein Gleichsetzungsvorschlag für liki „Salzlecke“ im Staatsvertrag des Kuruntija und Tutḫalija IV.
- Archäologische Forschungen am Karacadağ und eine hieroglyphenluwische Inschrift aus Karaören
- The New Inscription from Türkmenkarahöyük and its Historical Context