outlook: aramaeans outside of syria 347
have to be mentioned36 and deserve a closer look. Clear borders of the
aramaean chief-/kingdom of Geshur are difficult to establish; natural lines
can be drawn with the yarmuk river to the south and the hermon range to
the north, while the connection of kinneret and tel hadar shows that the
Jordan river was not a real frontier to the west.
the Geshurite city of kinneret (Vi and V [= iron age i] with a later and
only scattered settlement iV) was founded ca. in the 12th century B.C. as
the residence of an aramaean tribal chief-/kingdom.37 the fortified and
well-planned city extended over nine hectares and had ca. 2,200 inhabit-
ants. storage facilities, an industrial zone for oil production, and architec-
ture point to a highly differentiated social structure. the city was a center
of long-distance trade with phoenicia, egypt, north syria, Greece (euböa),
and philistia. it was also a center for metal casting (deposit), which indi-
cates contacts with Cyprus (copper import).
On the eastern shore of the sea of Galilee was at the same time tel
hadar iV (late 11th century B.C.), where the late Bronze age city wall was
re-used as an outer wall. public buildings (two warehouses, two tripar-
tite pillared buildings, a grain silo) and imported luxury items indicate
that the site was a commercial center. pottery points to the fact that tel
hadar was in the iron age i closely linked to kinneret. Both sites have a
similar city wall and share the same regional south syrian/aramaean form
of storage jars and the “snake-house” or fenestrated vessels of the Jordan
rift and hule valleys.38 it therefore appears that tel hadar was, in (the
late Bronze age i and) in iron age i the secondary harbor of kinneret.
tel hadar i of the 8th century B.C. revealed a town with a public build-
ing at the highest point of the mount, one aramaic inscription engraved
on the shoulder of a jar, and a female tambourine-holder.39 at this time
aramaean economic interests had apparently already shifted to ein Gev,
to the south and right of the shore.
in ein Gev (stratum V–iV), a large fortified town with storage facili-
ties (tripartite pillared buildings), existed from the 10th or 9th to the 8th
36 hafÞórsson 2006: 218, 222, 229, and 235f doubts aramaean rule in et-tell, kinneret,
dan, and the Golan, and more or less even the existence of a political entity Geshur in this
period. his de-constructions sometimes include some useful observations but do not offer
any useful re-constructions.
37 see note 32.
38 for the interpretation as shrine models, see ilan 1999: 95f; Nissinen – münger 2009:
134–137. for a “snake-house” in dan, see Biran 1994: 152f (room 7082) and ilan 1999: 95f
with pl. 36.11.
39 kochavi 1993. see further kochavi – yadin 2008.