46 January/February 2018

The Israelites of the Iron Age (c. 1200–

586 B.C.E.) are not remembered for their arts and

crafts. The Biblical writers relate that King Solomon

hired Phoenicians to cut the wood required to build

the Jerusalem Temple and cast its bronze furnish-

ings (1 Kings 5:6–9; 1 Kings 7:13–14). It is possible

that the prohibition against making graven images

discouraged much in the way of original artistic

development in Israel.

The Canaanites, who lived in the southern Levant

during the preceding Middle and Late Bronze Ages

(c. 2000–1200 B.C.E.), however, were known for

their intricate ivory carvings and work in bronze,

gold, and silver, as seen in the impressive objects

found in their temples, palaces, and tombs. Some of

these Canaanite craft traditions persisted into the

Iron Age, including the ivory inlays found and pos-

sibly produced in the Israelite capital of Samaria in

the ninth or eighth centuries B.C.E.*

Another Bronze Age Canaanite craft tradition

that continued into Iron Age Israel was basalt ves-

sel carving. The discovery of a unique workshop

for basalt vessels at Hazor^1 in 2010 sheds new light

on this largely overlooked Israelite craft and allows

us to study various aspects of basalt vessel produc-

tion for the first time.^2 It also invites investigation

into the connection between the Late Bronze Age

Canaanite inhabitants of Hazor and the Israelites

who rebuilt the site in the succeeding Iron Age.

Located in northern Israel near numerous basalt

outcrops, Hazor had a tradition of basalt carving

from at least the Middle Bronze Age (c. 2000–1500

B.C.E.). In the 1950s and in 1968, famed Israeli

archaeologist Yigael Yadin and his team unearthed

at Hazor some of the most impressive stone sculp-

tures known from Bronze Age Canaan, including

altars, orthostats, stelae, vessels, and statues. The

Hazor Excavations directed by Amnon Ben-Tor since

the 1990s have unearthed more orthostats, a large

square podium associated with a Canaanite palace,

and a headless sculpture of a male figure standing

behind a large vessel. All these stone artifacts were

made of basalt, hinting at the possibility that Hazor

*See Strata, “The Samaria Ivories—Phoenician or Israelite?” bar, Sep-

tember/October 2017; and Rupert Chapman, “Samaria—Capital of Israel,”

bar, September/October 2017.

Danny Rosenberg and Jennie Ebeling

Romancing

Stones

The Canaanite Artistic Tradition at Israelite Hazor

the