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August 08, 2006
Trying to Define a Question in the Hopes of Finding an Answer
The following table is an attempt to synchronize the archaeological findings from Aphek and its nearby (3 km, 1.8 miles) neighbor, 'Izbet Sartah. The Aphek observations in this table come only from the acropolis.
| Site and Stratum | Period | Date | Observations and finds |
| Aphek X13 | Late Bronze II | 14th - 13th cent. BCE | "Canaanite" Palace V |
| Aphek X13 | Late Bronze II | ~1230 BCE | Letter from Ugarit |
| Aphek X12 | Late Bronze II | in or slightly after 1230 BCE | "Egyptian Governor's" Palace V destroyed |
| 'Izbet Sartah S III | Late Bronze/Iron I | Late 13th cent. BCE | 'Izbet Sartah first very limited occupation |
| Aphek X11 | Late Bronze/Iron I | ca 1200 BCE | Two residential quarters |
| 'Izbet Sartah S III | Late Bronze/Iron I | Late 13th cent. BCE | 'Izbet Sartah Stratum III peacefully abandoned |
| 'Izbet Sartah S II | Iron I | 12th cent. BCE | 'Izbet Sartah rebuilt on different plan and expanded to about 10 acres |
| Aphek X10 | Iron I | 12th cent. BCE | Pits and ash layer; Philistine pottery |
| Aphek X9 | Iron I | 11th cent. BCE | Private houses; Philistine |
| 'Izbet Sartah S I | Iron I | 11th cent. BCE | 'Izbet Sartah Stratum I peacefully abandoned after a couple of decades of occupation |
| Aphek X8 | Iron II | 10th cent. BCE | Stone-lined silos |
In putting this together, I have used Finkelstein, 73- 80, Beck and Kochavi, 30, along with a small dose of Dever, 81-42, and a generous helping of my own discretion if not good judgment.
Why is this important? First, along with the letter from Ugarit that can be dated by its content, several other tablets were found, including a two column lexical tablet and a three column lexical tablet. Both are very fragmentary. The third column of the three column text is very likely in the local "Canaanite" language. The same may be true of the second column of the two column tablet. Regardless of language, each of these various columns is written in the Akkadian syllabary just like the multicolumn lexical texts from Ugarit that have an Ugaritic column. Second, sometime between the founding of Stratum III at 'Izbet Sartah and its final abandonment, someone dropped a very crudely written ostracon with a very poor effort at a 22 letter abecedary and three additional lines of gobballygug into a silo there. Or if it weren't dropped into the silo, it got there somehow. The ostracon is written, if one dare call it writing, in a "Proto-Canaanite" alphabet. It is common to date this ostracon to the 12th century, (see Naveh, 1978, 31-35, for example) but the archaeological evidence for a date range narrower than about 200 years is lacking. Third, I know a couple that is pushing the upper limits of middle age that walks three miles everyday (except Saturday and Sunday) and have been known to walk much further. So, 1.8 miles doesn't seem very far. Fourth, there is a question about where the inhabitants of 'Izbet Sartah came from and where those that bailed out of Aphek went. Now I am not saying that one can make any real decisions based on these observations but they continue to provide food for thought as I work on my next post on identifying a scribal school.
References:
Dever, William G., Who Were the Early Israelites and Where Did They Come From?, Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans Publishing, 2003
Finkelstein, Israel, The Archaeology of the Israelite Settlement, Jerusalem: Israel Exploration Society, 1988
Naveh, Joseph, “Some Considerations on the Ostracon from ‘Izbet Sartah,” Israel Exploration Journal, 28:1–2 (1978), pp. 31–35.
Posted by DuaneSmith at August 8, 2006 02:32 PM | Read more on Scribal Schools |
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Comments
Duane,
Have you looked at "Cuneiform in Canaan." It is a new IAA publication. I picked it up in Israel when I was there this summer. By the way, have you ever been to the IAA office in Jerusalem? I could not believe how small it was and how much they got done in such a small space. Anyway, if you don't get your copy soon, drop me an email and I will loan you mine.
Best Wishes
Joe
Posted by: Joe Cathey at August 9, 2006 06:00 AM
Joe,
Thanks for the offer. I have a copy on backorder at Eisenbrauns but they haven't gotten their stock copies from IAA as yet. Let's wait a little while and see if it comes. I do appreciate the offer and may take you up on it at some point. I don't remember having been to the IAA office in Jerusalem, if I was there it sure didn't make much of an impression.
Duane
Posted by: Duane at August 9, 2006 06:34 AM
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