An integrated approach to reconstructing primary activities from pit deposits: iron smithing and other activities at Tel Dor under Neo-Assyrian domination

Adi Eliyahu-Behar, Sana Shilstein, Noa Raban-Gerstel, Yuval Goren, Ayelet Gilboa, Ilan Sharon, Steve Weiner

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

30 Scopus citations

Abstract

Secondary pit deposits in historical occupations of Near Eastern mounds are usually regarded as uninteresting and are seldom analyzed. We used an integrated approach to study all the artifacts as well as the sediments in a pit at Tel Dor, on Israel's Carmel coast, dating to the 7th c. BCE - a period when the site served as an Assyrian administrative center. This pit was unusually large, had a peculiar ceramic assemblage, and many macroscopic metallurgical wastes. A detailed excavation and analysis revealed that the pit served intermittently as a waste disposal site for an iron smithy and for pottery that was presumably involved in maritime trading. On two occasions the area was also used for animal penning. Despite the obvious importance of the iron industry to the Neo-Assyrian Empire, actual workshops are rare in its archaeological record. Hence the new information regarding an Iron Age iron smithy in the southern Levant contributes to the study of this industry, and also to the history of Dor in this period.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)2895-2908
Number of pages14
JournalJournal of Archaeological Science
Volume35
Issue number11
DOIs
StatePublished - Nov 2008
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • FTIR
  • ICP
  • Iron Age
  • Iron smithy
  • Neo-Assyrian occupation
  • Petrography
  • Phoenician commercial jars
  • Pit
  • SEM-EDS
  • Site formation processes
  • Tel Dor
  • XRF

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