From a Fortified Canaanite City-State to “a City and a Mother” in Israel: Five Seasons of Excavation at Tel Abel Beth Maacah

Hoofprints in the sand: A study on domestic sheep (Ovis aries) from Iron Age southern Phoenicia using traditional biometric methods

“…Their elevations are over 100m above or below sea level (Table 2). The material culture associations of these settlements are distinct from those on the coast in the Bronze and Iron Ages, reflecting the geopolitical realities of regional powers and ethnocultural centers in the inland southern Levant during these eras (see Supplement S1 for further details) (Mazar et al, 2005;Panitz-Cohen et al, 2013;Ben-Tor, 2016;Ben-Tor et al, 2017;Yahalom-Mack et al, 2018). Previous zooarchaeological analyses from these tells suggest animal economies based on ovicaprids that range from traditional agropastoralism to proximate producer/consumer scenarios (Marom et al, 2009(Marom et al, , 2014(Marom et al, , 2020Marom and Zuckerman, 2012).…”

Faunal remains from Tel Abel Beth Maacah: Social change in the late second millennium BCE Hula Valley

“…The MB IIB and Iron Age I are the periods during which the site was most settled intensively (Panitz-Cohen et al 2013, 2015Yahalom-Mack et al 2018). The tell was occupied in its entirety during the MB IIB, surrounded by impressive fortifications, raising questions about its rank in the regional settlement hierarchy, given its proximity to the mega-city of Hazor and the large fortified city of Dan not far down the road (Yahalom-Mack et al 2018). The transition from the Middle to Late Bronze Age (LBA) appears to have been peaceful, as no traces of destruction in the latest MB IIB phase were found.…”

“…During most of the second millennia BCE, this key region was controlled by Hazor, a polity located in the southernmost part of the valley, identified at present day Tel Hazor/Tell el-Qedaḥ. Hazor dominated numerous smaller settlements such as Dan (Biran 1974), Qiryat Shemona (Gadot and Yasur-Landau 2012), and Abel Beth Maacah (henceforth ABM) (Panitz-Cohen et al 2013, 2015Panitz-Cohen and Mullins 2016a;Yahalom-Mack et al 2018), which were towns and forts in its proximate agropastoral hinterland. In the last quarter of the second millennium BCE Hazor lost its prominent position.…”

The contribution of Mediterranean connectivity to morphological variability in Iron Age sheep of the Eastern Mediterranean

“…Carmel (Gilboa & Sharon, 2003); Tel Abel Beth Maacah (9th to 6th centuries BCE), an inland town in the Hula Valley, north of the Sea of Galilee (Yahalom-Mack et al, 2018); and Iron Age 2 to Persian period Tel Keisan (9th to 4th centuries BCE), which is located between the Galilee coast and foothills (Humbert, 1981; Schipper, n.d.). These sites were chosen because they are in different degrees of remoteness from the sea, and because they have a fair number of astragali from Iron Age contexts, some of which could be identified as sheep.…”