Biblical Archaeology Review - January-February 2018

Hazor stones

BIBLICAL ARCHAEOLOGY REVIEW 49

items, which are usually manufactured by indepen-

dent specialists. The Israelite basalt vessel carvers at

Hazor did not specialize in the manufacture of any

particular vessel type. Most of the types common in

the preceding Bronze Age are represented among

the vessels found in the Iron Age workshop. Thus,

we tentatively suggest that the production of basalt

vessels in this workshop was controlled by the Isra-

elite elite at Hazor and that the final products were

made for elites, who controlled the distribution of

these items and enjoyed the profits of their trade. In

the future, we plan to sample similar vessels at con-

temporary sites to see if they

were made of material from

the same basalt outcrops and,

hence, possibly manufactured

in the ninth-century workshop

at Hazor.

Finds of impressive basalt

artifacts from the Middle and

Late Bronze Ages indicate that

Hazor was a center for basalt

carving in that period. How-

ever, our workshop clearly

dates to the ninth century,

and it was Israelite specialists

who produced the same types

of basalt vessels that were

popular already during the second millennium B.C.E.

Could there be a connection between the Canaanite

and Israelite basalt-carving traditions at the site?

After Canaanite Hazor was destroyed and aban-

doned in the context of widespread social dislocation

in the eastern Mediterranean

at the end of the Late Bronze

Age, around 1250 B.C.E., it

was not resettled until about

200 years later—most likely by

early Israelites.^5 Even though

we don’t know where the

Canaanites went after they

had abandoned the site, the

evidence suggests that the

Iron Age inhabitants had some

understanding of and even rev-

erence for the Late Bronze Age

ruins at the center of the city.

This is seen in the decision

to leave the ruins of the Late

Sidon

Acco

Jerusalem

Tyre

Mt. Hermon

Mt. Carmel

Jordan River

Hazor

Megiddo

Arad

Gezer

Dan

MEDITERRANEAN SEA

DEAD

SEA

N

THE LONG ARTISTIC TRADITION of basalt carving at Hazor

is exemplified by these standing stones, or maṣṣeboth

(singular: maṣṣebah), an offering table, and a crouching

lion. Excavated from a single-room Canaanite “Shrine of

the Stelae” dated to the 13th century B.C.E., they are on

display in the Israel Museum, Jerusalem.

ZEV RADOVAN/BIBLELANDPICTURES.COM