This is the fifth volume in the series of reports on investigations by the Lahav Research Project (LRP) at Tell Halif in southern Israel. It focuses on the Project’s efforts in Field II during three excavation seasons between 1977 and 1980. Field II was opened on the central summit of the tell in order to examine the ancient city’s intramural stratigraphy. The excavations uncovered twelve phases and sub-phases of occupation, stretching from the end of the Late Bronze Age to the late Roman period. Included were six phases of Iron Age domestic architecture (Strata VIIB-A and VID-A) revealing especially the vitality of the Iron II Judahite settlement during the 9th and 8th centuries B.C.E. In addition were remains of a substantial 6th- to 5th-century Persian fort or residence (Stratum V), as well as successive phases of 4th- to 2nd-century Hellenistic occupation (Stratum IV). Surface traces provide evidence of resettlement at the site during the late Roman period in the 2nd century C.E.

This multidisciplinary study takes a fresh look at Judean history and biblical literature in the late fourth and third centuries BCE. In a major reappraisal of this era, the contributions to this volume depict it as one in which critical changes took place. Until recently, the period from Alexander’s conquest in 332 BCE to the early years of Seleucid domination following Antiochus III’s conquest in 198 BCE was reputed to be poorly documented in material evidence and textual production, buttressing the view that the era from late Persian to Hasmonean times was one of seamless continuity. Biblical scholars believed that no literary activity belonged to the Hellenistic age, and archaeologists were unable to refine their understanding because of a lack of secure chronological markers. However, recent studies are revealing this period as one of major social changes and intense literary activity. Historians have shed new light on the nature of the Hellenistic empires and the relationship between the central power and local entities in ancient imperial settings, and the redating of several biblical texts to the third century BCE challenges the traditional periodization of Judean history. Bringing together Hellenistic history, the archaeology of Judea, and biblical studies, this volume appraises the early Hellenistic period anew as a time of great transition and change and situates Judea within its broader regional and transregional imperial contexts.

This volume appears as the fourth in a series of reports on the investigations of the Lahav Research Project (LRP) at Tell Halif, located near Kibbutz Lahav in southern Israel. The book and CD, also titled The Figurines of Tell Halif, contain the publication of the terra-cotta and stone figurine assemblage discovered in the Phase III excavations by LRP. The book presents the text of the report, including relevant archaeological contexts, while the CD is the primary source for detailed information about the figurines. It presents color photographs of each artifact, as well as artist’s drawings and QuickTime movies, along with descriptions and a working typology of the mixed Iron II, Persian, and Hellenistic period terra-cottas. Together, book and CD offer the entire corpus of 794 figurine and statue fragments and provide an invaluable addition to the corpus of Levantine figurines.

This seventh volume of final reports of the Lahav Research Project’s efforts at Tell Halif in Southern Israel focuses on the team’s excavations and related regional ethnographic research at adjacent Khirbet Khuweilifeh, an early twentieth-century settlement of Bedouin and Arab fellahin clients. These efforts illustrate the symbiosis between the itinerant Bedouin and their seasonal sharecropper neighbors along the northern flanks of the Negev desert during and following the First World War in southern Palestine. The stratigraphic excavation and recovery of material culture from Cave Complex A revealed a pattern of occupation dating from the late nineteenth century C.E. up to the mid-1940s and produced hundreds of artifacts and samples, giving testimony to the lifeways of the fellahin who had inhabited the complex. The associated ethnographic research with Bedouin sheikhs and Hebron-area merchant informants established that the Complex’s most recent occupants were the family of a plow maker named Khalil al-Kaayke. The studies elucidated in this volume articulate in more detail the family’s patterns of subsistence, showing the interdependence of the Bedouin and fellahin partners. Examination of the pottery remains provides a profile of the site’s Stratum I, early twentieth-century ceramic forms and also reveals earlier Islamic-period and pre-Islamic traces. Over the past century the lifeways of these early twentieth-century Bedouin and their fellahin village neighbors in southern Palestine have been rapidly disappearing. This volume serves to chronicle and preserve data on their waning history and culture.

This volume presents a collection of studies by international experts on various aspects of ancient Israel’s society, economy, religion, language, culture, and history, synthesizing archaeological remains and integrating them with discussions of ancient Near Eastern and biblical texts. Driven by theoretically and methodologically informed discussions of the archaeology of the Iron Age Levant, the 47 chapters in The Ancient Israelite World provide foundational, accessible, and detailed studies in their respective topics. The volume considers the history of interpretation of ancient Israel, studies on various aspects of ancient Israel’s society and history, and avenues for present and future approaches to the ancient Israelite world. Accompanied by over 150 maps and figures, it allows the reader to gain an understanding of key issues that archaeologists, historians and biblical scholars have faced and are currently facing as they attempt to better understand ancient Israelite society. The Ancient Israelite World is an essential reference work for students and scholars of ancient Israel and its history, culture, and society, whether they are historians, archaeologists or biblical scholars.