Elusive destructions: reconsidering the Hazor Iron Age II sequence and its chronological and historical implications. (2nd September 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Shochat, Harel; Gilboa, Ayelet
• Is Part Of: Levant. Volume 50:Number 3(2018)
• Page Start: 363
• Page End: 386
• Publication Date: 2018-09-02
• Subjects: Hazor -- Kingdom of Israel -- Iron Age chronology -- Aram-Damascus; Middle East -- Antiquities -- Periodicals; Middle East -- History -- Periodicals; Middle East -- Civilization -- To 622 -- Periodicals; 939.4
• DOI: 10.1080/00758914.2019.1669337
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0075-8914

Abstract

Abstract: Hazor, a key Iron Age II site in the southern Levant, was excavated by Yigael Yadin in the 1950s and subsequently by Amnon Ben-Tor. The Iron Age II stratigraphic sequence established proved very influential and nearly canonical; it was interpreted as representing periodic building-and-destruction cycles. The three superimposed 'cities' thus reconstructed were inter-alia understood to reflect alternating Israelite/Aramean domination in this conflict-prone border area before the final Assyrian destruction in the late 8th century BCE. Here we offer an alternative reconstruction for Hazor's stratigraphic/architectural development, with repercussions for several chronological and political-historic aspects of the Kingdom of Israel and the greater Levant.