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‘Atiqot 74 (2013)
ISBN 2948-040X
An Intermediate Bronze Age Settlement and a Middle Bronze Age II Cemetery at the ‘Third Mile Estate’, Ashqelon
(pp. 143–165)
Tali Erickson-Gini and Yigal Israel
Keywords: Mediterranean coast, cemetery, burial, funerary banquet, burial goods
A salvage excavation was conducted on the eastern slopes of a
kurkar
ridge that runs parallel to the Mediterranean shoreline. The excavation revealed remains from the Intermediate Bronze Age and Middle Bronze Age II. Architectural remnants of the Intermediate Bronze Age (2200–2000 BCE) comprise a ‘cluster’ of round or oval rooms, constructed of mud bricks. The pottery assemblage from the site is characteristic of the Intermediate Bronze Age in southern Canaan. Sixteen pit graves dating to MB II were discovered in three clusters. The inhabitants buried here may have lived in a satellite settlement of the MB II fortified city at Tel Ashqelon. The cemetery contained individuals interred with grave goods, including domestic wares dating to MB IIB–C, in particular storage jars along with dipper juglets and bowls.