1. religion and spirituality
2. judaism

‫זיכרון דברים‬
Remembered things
‫לזכרה של ד"ר שרון צוקרמן‬
In memory of
Dr. Sharon Zuckerman
3-4.12.2015
The Faculty of Humanities ‫הפקולטה למדעי הרוח‬
‫ יום חמישי‬3.12.2015 Thursday
‫מכון מנדל למדעי היהדות‬
‫אודיטוריום דן וואסונג‬
‫ קמפוס הר הצופים‬,‫בניין רבין‬
Mandel Institute of Jewish Studies
Dan Wassong Auditorium
Rabin Building, Mount Scopus
‫ התכנסות‬08:30 Assembly
‫ דברי פתיחה‬08:45 Opening Remarks
‫ ראש המכון לארכיאולוגיה‬- ‫אראלה חוברס‬
‫ מנהל משלחת חפירות חצור‬- ‫תור‬-‫אמנון בן‬
‫ האקדמיה הצעירה‬- ‫להבי‬-‫שרון אהרונסון‬
‫הישראלית‬
‫ נציג הסטודנטים‬- ‫נתנאל פז‬
‫ נציג המשפחה‬- ‫גדי איתי‬
Erella Hovers - Head of the Institute of Archaeology
Amnon Ben-Tor - Director of the Hazor Excavations
Sharon Aronson-Lehavi - The Israel Young
Academy
Netanel Paz - Student representative
Gadi Itai - Representative of the Family
(‫ תל חצור )המושב באנגלית‬- ‫ מושב ראשון‬09:30 First Session - Tel Hazor (English session)
‫ עמיחי מזר‬:‫יו"ר‬
Chair: Amihai Mazar
(‫תור )האוניברסיטה העברית‬-‫אמנון בן‬
‫חותם גליל בן האלף הרביעי לפנה"ס מתל חצור‬
Amnon Ben-Tor (The Hebrew University)
A Fourth-Millennium Cylinder Seal from Tel Hazor
(‫עידו וכטל )האוניברסיטה העברית‬
2010 - 2008 :‫החפירות בעיר התחתית בחצור‬
Ido Wachtel (The Hebrew University)
Excavations in the Lower City of Hazor: 2008–2010
(‫שלומית בכר )האוניברסיטה העברית‬
‫הארמון האדמיניסטרטיבי מתקופת הברונזה‬
‫המאוחרת בחצור‬
Shlomit Bechar (The Hebrew University)
The Administrative Palace of Late Bronze Age Hazor
(‫פיליפ שטוקהאמר )אוניברסיטת היידלברג‬
‫ מבט מחודש על‬:‫קרמיקה בסגנון אגאי בחצור‬
‫ פונקציה ומשמעות‬,‫כרונולוגיה‬
Philipp W. Stockhammer (Heidelberg University)
Aegean-type Pottery at Hazor: New Perspectives on
Chronology, Functions and Meanings
‫ הפסקת קפה‬11:00 Coffee break
‫ מחקרים בפולחן וזיכרון‬- ‫ מושב שני‬11:30 Second Session - Studies in Cult and Memory
(‫)המושב באנגלית‬
(English session)
‫ שלמה בונימוביץ‬:‫יו"ר‬
Chair: Shlomo Bunimovitz
(‫לביא )האוניברסיטה העברית‬-‫גדעון שלח‬
‫נשים אלות ומנהיגים גברים? פולחן ומגדר בתקופה‬
‫הניאוליתית בצפון סין‬
Gideon Shelach-Lavi (The Hebrew University)
Women Deities and Men Leaders? Worship and
Gender during the Neolithic Period of North China
(‫רפאל גרינברג )אוניברסיטת תל אביב‬
‫חיי הנצח של תילים‬
(‫יוסף מראן )אוניברסיטת היידלברג‬
‫ההשפעה ארוכת הטווח של מונומנטים בעבר‬
‫ מקרי מבחן ממזרח אגן הים‬:‫על הזיכרון החברתי‬
‫התיכון מתקופת הברונזה וראשית תקופת הברזל‬
(‫נורית שטדלר )האוניברסיטה העברית‬
‫רחם" בפולחנן של‬-‫ טקסי "קבר‬:‫על עקרות ובתולות‬
‫מרים ורחל‬
Raphael Greenberg (Tel Aviv University)
The Afterlife of Tells, Revisited
Joseph Maran (Heidelberg University)
The Long-term Impact of Monuments of the Past on
Social Memory: Case Examples from the Bronze and
Early Iron Age East Mediterranean
Nurit Stadler (The Hebrew University)
On Barrenness and Virgins: Womb-Tomb Rituals in
the Cult of Rachel and Mary
‫ הפסקת צהריים‬13:00 Lunch break
‫ מחקרי חורבן ונטישה‬- ‫ מושב שלישי‬14:30 Third Session - Destruction and Abandonment
(Hebrew session)
(‫)המושב בעברית‬
Chair: Nadav Na’aman
‫ נדב נאמן‬:‫יו"ר‬
(‫לנדאו )אוניברסיטת חיפה‬-‫אסף יסעור‬
‫עלייתו ונפילתו של הארמון הכנעני כתופעה ים‬
‫תיכונית‬
,‫ יואב לרר‬,‫ נמרוד גצוב‬,‫ רון בארי‬,‫יאיר עמיצור‬
‫כהן )רשות העתיקות( דבורי נמדר‬-‫ענת וינברגר‬
(‫)האוניברסיטה העברית‬
‫חידושים אחרונים בחקר שרידי תקופת הברונזה‬
‫בנהריה‬
Assaf Yasur-Landau (Haifa University)
The Rise and Fall of the Canaanite Palace as a
Mediterranean Phenomenon
Yair Amitzur, Ron Beeri, Nimrod Getzov, Yoav
Lerer, Anat Cohen-Weinberger (Israel Antiquities
Authority) Dvory Namdar (The Hebrew University)
Latest Updates Regarding the Finds from the Bronze
Age in Nahariya
(‫עמי )רשות העתיקות‬-‫דורון בן‬
‫ העדות‬:‫שלושה מקרי מבחן לחורבנות בירושלים‬
‫הארכיאולוגית והעדות הטקסטואלית‬
Doron Ben-Ami (Israel Antiquities Authority)
Three Case-Studies of Destructions in Jerusalem:
The Archaeological and Textual Evidence
(‫רוני אלנבלום )האוניברסיטה העברית‬
‫"שבריריות" השפעת האקלים על קריסה ושפע של‬
‫ציביליזציה‬
Ronnie Ellenblum (The Hebrew University)
"Fragility" - The Effects of Climate on the Collapse
and Abundance of Civilizations
‫ יום שישי‬4.12.2015 Friday
‫סיור בתל חצור‬
‫ מספר‬- 29.11.15-‫ עד ה‬,‫)יש להירשם מראש‬
(‫המקומות מוגבל‬
‫יציאה מירושלים‬
Tour of Tel Hazor
(please sign up before November 29th)
Departure from Jerusalem
‫ איסוף מבנייני האומה‬06:30 Pick-up from the International Conference Center in
Jerusalem
‫ איסוף מהר הצופים‬06:45 Pick-up from Mount Scopus
We will drive up the Jordan Valley; pick-up at
‫נסיעה דרך כביש הבקעה ואיסוף בצומת צמח‬
‫ דיקן הפקולטה למדעי‬,‫ דרור ורמן‬:‫דברי פתיחה‬
‫הרוח‬
Tzemah Junction
Opening Remarks: Dror Wahrman, Dean, Faculty of
Humanities
:‫מארגנות הכנס‬
Organizers:
(‫שלומית בכר )האוניברסיטה העברית‬
shlomibechar@yahoo.com
052-4682050
Shlomit Bechar (The Hebrew University)
shlomibechar@yahoo.com
052-4682050
(‫דבי סנדהאוס )אוניברסיטת תל אביב‬
debby.reen@gmail.com
052-9597435
Débora Sandhaus (Tel Aviv University)
debby.reen@gmail.com
052-9597435
‫הזמנה זו מהווה אישור כניסה חד פעמי‬
‫ חניון מדעי הרוח וחניון‬,‫לקמפוס הר הצופים‬
‫בצלאל עם הצגת תעודה מזהה‬
This invitation is a one-time permit to enter the
Mount Scopus campus, Faculty of Humanities
parking lot and Bezalel parking lot, with a valid ID
A Fourth-Millennium Cylinder Seal from Tel Hazor
Amnon Ben-Tor (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem)
A cylinder seal dating from the fourth millennium BCE was found in the make-up of the
floor of the Middle Bronze Age Hazor storage facility (a make-up that contained an Early
Bronze Age III ceramic assemblage). The scene depicted on the seal consists of a group
of women seated on low benches, engaged in some manual activity, perhaps – on the
basis of parallels – related to pottery production or the textile industry.
This is a well-known type of seal of the "Jemdet Nasr" family, named after the
south Mesopotamian site where it was first identified. Several such seals are known
from various sites in the Levant, as well as in Egypt, but the Hazor seal is the only one
uncovered to date in Israel.
This paper deals with several questions raised by the find: To what extent does it
resemble other Jemdet Nasr seals found in the Levant? Given its finding in an Early
Bronze III context – that is, hundreds of years later than its date of production – how and
when did it arrive in Hazor?
Excavations in the Lower City of Hazor: 2008–2010
Ido Wachtel (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem)
The goal of the renewed excavations in the Lower City (Area S), directed by Dr. Sharon
Zuckerman between 2008 and 2010, was to uncover and explore residential buildings in
an effort to illuminate processes of growth and decline of the city. The excavations
uncovered a sequence of five strata from the Middle and Late Bronze Ages, displaying
the developments and changes of this domestic area over time. Significant changes were
discerned in the final phase of the building, when most of its entryways were blocked
and the area appears to have been abandoned in a planned and orderly way. This
observation is of particular importance as it stands in sharp contrast to the violent
nature of the end of Canaanite Hazor, as evident in the public monumental structures in
the Lower City, excavated by Yadin, and on the acropolis, excavated by the renewed
excavations.
The Late Bronze Age Administrative Palace at Tel Hazor
Shlomit Bechar (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem)
During the second millennium BCE, Tel Hazor was the largest Canaanite city in the
Southern Levant, spanning approximately 200 acres. During this time, both the Upper
and Lower Cities were occupied, the Upper City consisting of monumental public
buildings and the Lower City containing public and cultic structures, as well as
residences.
During the last two seasons co-directed by Prof. Amnon Ben-Tor and Dr. Sharon
Zuckerman, new finds offered valuable information on the administrative and royal
complexes of Late Bronze Age Hazor. These have enabled the identification of the
administrative palace of Hazor, situated on the pathway on the northern slope
connecting the Lower City and the acropolis.
This paper presents the architectural remains of the palace, along with the
material assemblages found in this context. These include the ceramic assemblages as
well as monumental inscriptions uncovered in the last phase of use of the palace. The
implications of these finds are presented and discussed in relation to other
contemporary finds.
Aegean-type Pottery at Hazor: New Perspectives on Chronology, Functions and
Meanings
Philipp W. Stockhammer (Heidelberg University)
The long-term excavations at Hazor have brought to light a considerable number of
Aegean-type vessels. Due to the excellent documentation of their context, they are of
great importance – not only for a re-evaluation of the end of Bronze Age Hazor from the
perspective of the Aegean-type pottery, but also for an analysis of local practices with
and meanings of Aegean-type pottery at Hazor and beyond. In my presentation, I will
shed light on the changing nature of consumption of this pottery in the city from the
Middle Bronze Age until the end of the Late Bronze Age. On the basis of contextual
analyses, I will show that while the early imports can be associated with elite practices,
the mass importation of Aegean-type pottery led to a process of emulation and a loss of
interest in it on the part of the local elites during the 14th century BCE. The broad
distribution of Aegean-type pottery led to many different and individual appropriations
and ultimately also to the production of imitations by local potters.
Women Deities and Men Leaders? Worship and Gender during the Neolithic
Period of North China
Gideon Shelach-Lavi (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem)
The Niuheliang site in northeast China is famous for the ritualistic structures and
artifacts discovered there and dated to the peak of the Neolithic period (c. 4500–3000
BCE). One of those structures, known as the "goddess temple", was so named because of
the remains of a large clay human statue found in it. This statue was identified as female,
and the unique elongated structure was interpreted as a temple devoted to fertility
worship. In the 1980s, when Niuheliang was excavated, the worship of a Neolithic
goddess was viewed as part of the matriarchal society which, according to the dominant
Marxist paradigm, typified this period. In recent decades, however, the Marxist
paradigm has been replaced in China with a much more traditional emphasis on the
long-term continuity of Chinese culture and social norms. Thus, interpretations of
Neolithic ritualistic sites, such as Niuheliang, changed, with the emphasis on the
prominent role of women now replaced with attempts to identify typical "Chinese"
customs such as ancestor worship and male domination. This lecture will examine
evidence for gender-related activities dated to the Neolithic in north China and will
consider how those discoveries are presented to the public in research and museums.
The Afterlife of Tells, Revisited
Raphael Greenberg (Tel Aviv University)
In an unpublished paper, which I shared and discussed with Sharon Zuckerman well
over a decade ago, I attempted to lay out the case for a more comprehensive view of
archaeological sites, one that endows them with significance during, between, and after
occupations, even if they are never excavated. "The typical perception of archaeological
sites as fragments of a frozen past, and of the archaeologist as privileged interpreter of
the past, is inaccurate", it said. "Sites often continue to play varied roles in the human
landscape, serving as material, strategic, or symbolic resources; archaeology is only one
way among many of using this resource". In this paper I will recapitulate the main points
of the earlier one, investigate to what extent I have followed my own advice in the
excavation and presentation of Tel Bet Yerah, and offer some reflections on the roles and
desires of archaeologists in an increasingly forgetful world.
The Long-Term Impact of Monuments of the Past on Social Memory: Case
Examples from the Bronze and Early Iron Age East Mediterranean
Joseph Maran (Heidelberg University)
There has been much discussion about whether Greek sanctuaries of the early 1st
millennium BCE, such as Olympia, Delphi, or Delos, may have arisen out of predecessors
of the Bronze Age or were newly founded without any continuity from previous periods.
This issue was usually addressed by looking for signs of continuity or discontinuity of
cult practices from the Late Bronze Age to the Early Iron Age. In my paper I will try to
show that an understanding of continuity that is exclusively based on the notion of a
linear evolution of cult practices is much too simplistic and fails to grasp that in an
inner-societal perspective, continuity may express itself in much more intricate ways. In
the discursive construction of social memory, still visible remains of a distant past were
sometimes instrumentalised for new ends by associating them with narrative traditions
that enabled their integration into new political and religious contexts. In this paper I
discuss the case examples of so-called ritual tumuli dating from the 3rd or 2nd millennia
BCE that often were shaped out of the debris of destroyed monumental buildings at the
sites of Hazor, Tiryns, Lerna and Olympia, and I focus on how the remains of a
monument of a chronologically distant period were chosen in a much later one as a focal
point for constructing social memory. In these acts of claiming a line of continuity,
periods separated by centuries and sometimes even a millennium were often bridged.
Barren Women and Virgins: Tomb-Womb Rituals in the Cult of Mary and Rachel
Nurit Stadler (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem)
In my paper, I discuss tomb-womb structures, along with the ritual experience that takes
place within them and its meanings, focusing on two venerated (female) shrines in the
vicinity of Jerusalem: the Tomb of Mary and the Tomb of Rachel. Following my
ethnographic study of these sites, I claim that the rituals performed in them are based on
a physical and mimetic experience – that is, rituals that mimic the process of birth and
rebirth and the cycle of life. I show that pilgrims and visitors link them to concepts of
virginity and barrenness, while strengthening a notion of heroic motherhood that
centers on fertility, giving, and care. Finally, I demonstrate how these notions are linked
by the rituals that take place within these tomb-womb structures to ties with the land
and to territorial claims. I argue that the revival of these particular shrines is linked to
the political situation, especially to the uncertainty of borders and to land appropriation.
The Rise and Fall of the Canaanite Palace as a Mediterranean Phenomenon
Assaf Yasur-Landau (Haifa University)
The combination of connectivity and adaptation to life in micro-regions where
Mediterranean agriculture was used as a shield against the uncertainty of years of
hardship gave rise not only to the Mediterranean economy, but to a variety of forms of
government characterized by palaces. The emergence of Canaanite palaces at the
beginning of the second millenium BCE can be seen, therefore, as a phenomenon that did
not arise as a direct consequence of traditions of government of the Ancient Near East,
but rather from processes common to the entire eastern Mediteranean basin - from
Crete to Canaan. These processes led to forms of government with distinctly local
characteristics, on the one hand, but which adopted the Syrian and Mesopotamian
symbols of rule on the other. The fall of the Canaanite palaces should also be viewed as
linked to the processes of collapse and revival that took place throughout the
Mediterranean basin at the beginning of the Iron Age.
Latest Updates Regarding the Finds from the Bronze Age in Nahariya
Yair Amitzur, Ron Beeri, Nimrod Getzov, Yoav Lerre, Anat Cohen-Weinberger (Israel
Antiquities Authority) and Dvory Namdar (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem)
A new salvage excavation currently being conducted at Tel Nahariya, located on a kurkar
ridge south of the Ga'aton River, west of the modern city, has revealed several episodes
of Bronze Age destruction. The site was established during the MB IIa, concurrently with
the shrine located 800 meters north of the tel (its excavations were renewed in 2012 in
collaboration with Dr. Sharon Zuckerman).
The site of Nahariya continued to exist during the LB, after the abandonment of
the shrine. In the southern part of the tel, large, fortified LB II administrative buildings
were found; they had been destroyed in a huge conflagration that left its mark on the
entire site. The richness of finds, such as imported vessels from Cyprus, the Aegean,
Syria and Egypt, many non-local stones, metal arrowheads, female figurines and a
handle stamped with scarab impressions, points to the great importance of the site in
antiquity as a harbor for traders. By that time the large site of Kabri had already been
destroyed and the settlement in the western Galilee had declined. It seems unlikely,
therefore, to assume that the fortresses of Nahariya served this shriveling population,
and we suggest that their main role was to serve the foreign seamen. This interpretation
is in keeping with the unique and as yet unexplained MB ritual practices exhibited at the
nearby extra-urban shrine and the varied exotic substances imported from afar detected
in the seven-cupped bowls uncovered there.
Three Case-Studies of Destructions in Jerusalem: The Archaeological Evidence
Doron Ben-Ami (Israel Antiquities Authority)
While the wholesale destruction of Jerusalem in 70 CE is clearly visible to all excavators
reaching this horizon in the city, the remains of other destructions are not always easy
to comprehend. In recent years three such destruction layers have been excavated in the
Givati Parking Lot, located at the southern foot of the Temple Mount. The earliest of
these, dated to the first half of the second century BCE, is closely connected to the shortlived Seleucid presence in Jerusalem. The deliberate dismantling of the massive
fortification system built by the Seleucids probably attests to the Hasmonean takeover of
the city.
A second destruction marks the end of the Roman culture in the city. The Givati
excavations have shown that during the late third century CE, the eastern hill of
Jerusalem witnessed the establishment of spacious complexes built as insulae, the
orientation of which conformed to the orthogonal grid of the Roman city at the very core
of Aelia Capitolina. These structures met a violent end in the 363 CE earthquake, evident
throughout the excavation area in the collapse of the walls of the second-storey rooms
and in the piling up of the stones of the debris to substantial heights.
The third massive destruction is dated to the end of the Byzantine period. The
archeological evidence strongly suggests that this destruction is associated with the
outcome of the Persian invasion of Jerusalem in 614 CE.
"Fragility" – The Effects of Climate on the Collapse and Abundance of Civilizations
Ronnie Ellenblum (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem)
The reconstructions and analyses of past climatic events indicate that short-term
disturbances (droughts, cold spells, untimely rains and flooding), lasting from several
years to one or two decades – that is, for less than the error-range of the experimental
data – induce powerful domino effects and have an impact on complex civilizations. The
frequency, intensity, length and contiguity in time and space of these disturbances
are therefore more important factors in socio-political disturbances than changes in the
average temperature, which exhibits smaller annual variations than those experienced
on a daily or seasonal basis and which societies are better equipped to prepare for and
adapt to.
The paper relies upon the abundant literary and archaeological evidence of two
of the greatest literate civilizations of mankind – the Roman and the Islamic Middle
Eastern – in two experimentally proven periods of climatic change: the MCA and the
beginning of the Roman Optimum. The sources refer both to the strength, duration and
geographical extension of the climatic disturbances themselves and to the ways they
affected existing societies, providing explanations for periods of decline and periods of
affluence. The textual and archaeological testimonies considered have made it possible
to develop the "Fragility" model presented in this paper.