Shechem

From ArchaeoWiki

Shechem (Hebrew: שְׁכֶם‎ / שְׁכָם, Šəḫem, "Shoulder"; Arabic: Tell Balatah) is an important archaeological site situated in the Central Hill Country of the southern Levant, some 2 km east of present-day Nablus. The site is located in the saddle between the slopes of Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim and controlled the strategic pass through the valley between the two mountains.

1 Description
2 Excavation
3 Stratigraphy
4 Bibliography
- 4.1 Excavation Reports
- 4.2 Derivative Studies
5 External links

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Description

The site of ancient Shechem was a medium-sized settlement, having a surface area of some 4 ha.

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Excavation

The site was excavated between 1956 and 1973 over ten field seasons by the American Drew-McCormick Archaeological Expedition to Shechem, serving as a training ground for many subsequent American archaeologists and excavators of other sites.

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Stratigraphy

The earliest human occupation yet revealed at Shechem dates to the fourth millennium BCE, with fragmentary evidence of isolated surfaces, pits and wall portions excavated in the deepest levels of Fields V, VI and IX, immediately above the native bedrock. This phase belongs to the transitional period between the Late Chalcolithic and the Early Bronze Age. Thereafter, excavation suggests that the site was abandoned and uninhabited for some two millennia before being reoccupied at the beginning of the Middle Bronze Age.

The resulting main phase of occupation witnessed the settlement's expansion to its greatest extent and was revealed across a total of eight major strata (XXII-XV). The MBA saw the construction of large fortification systems and the formation of an acropolis, starting in Stratum XX (early MB IIB), as well as the later building of the so-called Fortress Temple (Migdol) in Stratum XVI (MB IIC).

The final MB II settlement at Shechem (Stratum XV) was decisively terminated with widespread destruction, suggestive of military intervention.

With the destruction of the final LBA settlement phase in Stratum XI, the city mound remained seemingly abandoned until the early Iron II period.

Stratum IX of the Iron II witnessed the erection of Building 5900 and the site's development as an Israelite hill town. The Iron Age habitation continued until the site's destruction—presumably during Assyrian campaigns—in the late eighth century BCE.

Ephemeral evidences suggest that limited settlement activity took place on the mound in the Late Iron II (Stratum VI) and again in the Persian (Stratum V) and Hellenistic periods (Strata IV-I) before the site's final abandonment until modern times.

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Bibliography

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Excavation Reports

Campbell, Edward F. [1991], Shechem. II, Portrait of a Hill Country Vale: the Shechem Regional Survey, (edited for the expedition by Karen I. Summers), [ASOR Archaeological Reports 2], Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1991. ISBN 1555406424

Campbell, Edward F. and Wright, G. R. H. [2002], Shechem III: The Stratigraphy and Architecture of Shechem / Tell Balatah, [ASOR Archaeological Reports 6], 2 volumes, Boston: American Schools of Oriental Research, 2002. ISBN 0897570626 (set)

Cole, Dan P. [1984], Shechem I: The Middle Bronze IIB Pottery, (edited for the expedition by James F. Ross and Edward F. Campbell), Ann Arbor: ASOR, 1984. ISBN 0897572068

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Derivative Studies

Boling, R.G. and Campbell, E.F. [1987], "Jeroboam and Rehoboam at Shechem", in Perdue, I.G., Toombs, L.E. and Johnson, G.L. (eds), Archaeology and Biblical Interpretation: Essays in Memory of D. Glenn Rose, Atlanta: John Know Press, 1987, pp.259-272. ISBN 0804200033

Boraas, R.S. [1986], "Iron Age Ceramics at Tell Balatah: A Preliminary Investigation", in Geraty, T.L. and Gerr, Larry G. (eds), The Archaeology of Jordan and Other Studies Presented to Siegfried H. Horn, Berrien Springs: Andrews University Press, 1986, pp.249-263. ISBN 0943872278

Campbell, Edward F. [1965], "Shechem in the Amarna Archive", in Wright, G.E., Shechem - The Biography of a Biblical City, London: Duckworth, pp.191-207.
- [1968], "The Shechem Area Survey", BASOR 190 (1968), pp.19-41.

Campbell, E.F. and Ross, J.F. [1963], "The Excavation of Shechem and the Biblical Tradition", BA 26 (1963), pp.2-34.

Clamer, C. [1981], "A Late Bronze Burial Cave near Shechem", Qadmoniot 53-54 (1981), pp.30-34. (Hebrew)

Dorsey, David A. [1987], "Shechem and the Road Network of Central Samaria", BASOR 268 (1987), pp.57-70.

Finkelstein, Israel [2006], "Shechem in the Late Bronze and the Iron I", in Czerny E., Hein I., Hunger H., Melman D. and Schwab A. (eds), Timelines - Studies in Honour of Manfred Bietak, [Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta 149], Leuven: Peeters, Volume II, 2006, pp.349-356. ISBN 904291730X

Finkelstein, Israel and Naʾaman, Nadav [2005], "Shechem of the Amarna Period and the Rise of the Northern Kingdom of Israel", IEJ 55 (2005), pp.172-193.

Fritz, Volmar [1982], "Abimelech und Sichem in Jdg. IX", VT 32 (1982), pp.129-144.

Horn, Siegfried H. and Moulds, L.G. [1969], "Pottery from Shechem Excavated 1913 and 1914", Andrews University Seminary Studies 7 (1969), pp.17-46, pls.I-IX.

Kerkhof, V.I. [1969], "Catalogue of the Shechem Collection in the Rijksmuseum can Oudheden in Leiden", OMRO 50 (1969), pp.28-109.

Seger, J.D. [1974], "The Middle Bronze IIC Date of the East Gate at Shechem", Levant 6 (1974), pp.117-130.

Stager, Lawrence E. [1999], "The Fortress-Temple at Shechem and the 'House of El, Lord of the Covenant'", in Williams Jr, P.H. and Hiebert, T. (eds), Realia Dei: Essays in Archaeology and Biblical Interpretation in Honor of Edward F, Campbell, Jr, at His Retirement, Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1991, pp.228-249.

Toombs, Lawrence E. [1972], "The Stratigraphy of Tell Balatah (Ancient Shechem)", ADAJ 17 (1972), pp.90-110, 173-185.
- [1976], ""The Stratification of Tell Balatah (Shechem)", BASOR 223 (1976), pp.57-59.
- [1979], "Shechem: Problems in the Early Israelite Period", in Cross, Frank Moore (ed.), Symposia celebrating the Seventy-Fifth Anniversary of the Founding of the American Schools of Oriental Research (1900-1975), Cambridge, MA : American Schools of Oriental Research, 1979, pp.69-83. ISBN 0897575032
- [1985], "Temple or Palace: A Reconsideration of the Shechem 'Courtyard Temple'", in Thompson, H.O. (ed.), Put Your Future in Ruins: Essays in Honor of Robert Jehu Bull, Bristol, IN: Wyndham Hall, 1985, pp.42-60.