Biblical Archaeology Review - January-February 2018

Hazor stones

50 January/February 2018

Bronze Age ceremonial palace untouched and build

around rather than on top of them for the duration

of the Israelite occupation of Hazor.^6

It is also evidenced in the existence of a “ruin

cult” in this area that was identified by the late

co-director of the renewed excavations at Hazor,

Sharon Zuckerman.^7 Interestingly, the 11th-century

Israelite site included two cult places within view

of the Canaanite ruins, which Zuckerman believed

to reflect “conscious appropriation” of the Bronze

Age remains by the Iron Age inhabitants.^8 The

focus of these cult places was a single basalt stand-

ing stone, known in Hebrew as a maṣṣebah. Zucker-

man suggested that these basalt stones might have

been picked up from among the Canaanite ruins

and revered as memorials of the city’s glorious past,^9

since basalt craftsmanship reflects the significant

resources available to the Canaanite elite that some

THE BASALT VESSEL

WORKSHOP,

excavated at the

point of passage

between the upper

and lower cities at

Hazor, yielded two

dozen vessels in

various stages of

manufacture as well

as possible tools

and production

waste. Together,

these finds draw an

intriguing picture

of a craft tradition

passed from Bronze

Age Canaanites

to their Iron Age

successors, the

Israelites.

COURTESY HAZOR EXCAVATIONS