An ivory bowl from Early Iron Age Tell es-Safi/Gath (Israel): manufacture, meaning and memory

Aren M. Maeir, Brent Davis, Liora Kolska Horwitz, Yotam Asscher & Louise A. Hitchcock World Archaeology 2015, 1-25

Περίληψη (στα Αγγλικά)

In 2013, an ivory bowl was discovered in a chalky matrix in the Early Iron Age (Philistine) levels in Area A at Tell es-Safi/Gath. Conservation revealed it to be a shallow vessel with a single lug handle, decorated in the interior and on the base with an incised twelve-petal lotus-rosette surrounded by five concentric circles. Applying an object biography approach, we investigate the history and far-flung socio-cultural connections of the Tell es-Safi/Gath bowl, which is unique within Philistia. Specific reference is made to parallels in the ivory hoard from the Late Bronze/Iron Age transition (c. late twelfth century/early eleventh century BCE) palace at Megiddo, Stratum VIIA. It is proposed that the Tell es-Safi/Gath bowl was one of aset manufactured somewhere in Canaan. The vessel became separated from the set, ending up as afoundation offering at this Philistine site.