Introduction | History of Research | Historical and Biblical Connections | Affiliated Organizations and Resources

Ron E. Tappy, Project Director and Principal Investigator
G. Albert Shoemaker Associate Professor of Bible and Archaeology
Director, James L. Kelso Bible Lands Museum
Pittsburgh Theological Seminary
tappy@fyi.net

History of Research
Despite the importance of the Nahal Guvrin region from the point of view of historical geography, the site of Tel Zayit received scant archaeological attention prior to the work of The Zeitah Excavations (pic). During a brief visit to the area in 1954, Y. Aharoni and R. Amiran observed a small but rather high tell called Khirbet Zeitah el-Kharab situated immediately north of Route 353. They reported their observations regarding this site and a number of others in a bulletin from the Israel Exploration Society later that year. In a succinct summary of Zayit, they commented that the mound rose up in two stages and that the southernmost section of it stood taller (Aharoni and Amiran 1954:224) (pic). This relates directly to our fuller descriptions of the relationship between the lower settlement and the acropolis (pic). Though they noted pottery forms and techniques ranging from the Late Bronze Age to the Arabic period, they attributed the bulk of the ceramic evidence they saw to the Iron Age. As a result, they concluded that this site represented primarily a Judahite settlement on the border of Philistia. Additional surveys of sites located in the foothills of Judah during the late 1970s supplemented the information published by Aharoni and Amiran by observing that the earliest pottery visible on the surface dated to the Middle Bronze Age (see Had. Arkh., 1979:31). This report recorded traces of a burnt mudbrick wall located on the eastern side of the mound (pic). Though we were not able to see the actual outline of a wall in this area, we did find several large fragments of burnt mudbrick near the foot of this slope during our surface survey in 1998. This official publication by the Department of Antiquities and Museums also mentioned several artifacts from the Late Bronze Age, including a faience bowl, a bone handle with engraving, and a scarab dating to the XIX or XX Dynasty of Egypt. We believe some of these materials correspond to those now kept in a small archaeological collection at Kibbutz Gal-’on (residents of the kibbutz showed us a faience bowl and several Egyptian scarabs that reportedly came from nearby Zayit). In an unpublished dissertation completed at Tel Aviv University, Y. Dagan determined that the overall size of the site, in fact, proved larger than previously recognized (Dagan 1992:153). He now understood the habitation area to cover 25 dunams rather than the 15 dunams recorded earlier in the “Archaeological News” published by the Department of Antiquities (pic). In his thorough study, Dagan also commented on the remains of a mudbrick wall located near the eastern side of the tell and noted that its exposure had resulted from unauthorized excavations. In addition, he observed the presence of a well on the edges of the occupation area and recorded that four pillars of stone (monoliths) stood exposed to a height of 1.2 meters in the lower settlement (pic). The chronological distribution of ceramic fragments recovered from the surface during Dagan’s survey appeared as follows: two sherds from the MBA; many fragments, mostly of Egyptian imports , from the LBA; numerous pieces from the Iron Age (pic); and fewer items deriving from the Persian, Hellenistic, Roman, early Arab, Mameluk (pic), and Ottoman periods. The ongoing work of The Zeitah Excavations has made great strides toward clarifying numerous details in the observations made by these earlier explorers. For example, we now know that both the size of the overall habitation area and the chronological range of occupying cultures were more extensive than previous archaeologists believed about the site. For an overview of the project or more information on the site's historical and biblical connections, follow the appropriate links to those topics. BIBLIOGRAPHY Aharoni, Y., and R. Amiran     1954     “A Visit to the Tells of the Shephelah,” Bulletin of the Israel Exploration Society (Hebrew), p. 224. Dagan, Y.     1992     The Shephelah During the Period of the Monarchy in Light of Archaeological Excavations and Surveys. Unpublished PhD Dissertation. Tel Aviv University, p. 153. Had. Arkh. (unsigned report)     1979     Hadashot Arkheologiyot 72. Jerusalem: Israel Department of Antiquities and Museums (Hebrew).