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‘Atiqot 53 (2006)
ISBN 2948-040X
A Middle Bronze Age II Site West of Tell Qasille
(pp. 65–128)
Raz Kletter
Keywords: coastal plain, cemetery, burial, funerary rites, archaeozoology, anthropology, scarab, metal, beads, jar burials, rural site, numismatics, Ottoman period
The site remains comprise a cemetery, two pottery kilns and a settlement dating to Middle Bronze Age II. Ten burials were excavated, all except one (T800) were rectangular pit-graves dug into
kurkar
sandstone. Each grave contained one to three individuals; T800, which was round, contained seven individuals in secondary deposition. The average grave assemblage comprised about ten pottery vessels, which were usually placed in a row next to one long side of the burial. The pottery kilns are almost identical in size, direction and structure. They are of the vertical type, with two main superimposed parts: a combustion chamber and a firing chamber. The upper firing chamber was borne by clay supports, between which flues conveyed cold air from outside and exited the hot air from within. The finds retrieved from the kilns included wasters and a large quantity of slag. Remains of an unwalled settlement were found. No architecture was detected; however, there was a large quantity of MB II pottery mixed with whole and broken bricks. Among the finds were many domestic pottery vessels, fragments of ovens (tabuns), miniature chariot-wheels, a spindle whorl, loom weights, an alabastron, basalt grinding stones, daggers and an axe. It seems that the site was a small, unwalled village, established in the late phase of MB IIA. After a long interval, the site was reoccupied during the Hellenistic period, as it yielded stamped amphora handles and a Ptolemaic coin.