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No.57 October 2003 | Contex HOME LECTURE REPORT Andy Simpson Since 1978, Jonathan Tubb has been Curator for Syria-Palestine in the Department of the Ancient Near East at the British Museum. He is the author of many articles and several books on Levantine archaeology and is currently chairman of Archaeology Abroad, a group dedicated to getting young people involved in excavations overseas. He is also Chairman of the Palestine Excavation Fund, founded in 1865 to promote the scientific exploration of the Levant. In 1985 he began work at the major site of Tell es-Sa'idiyeh, as featured in this lecture, this report being based upon his lecture notes, which he kindly supplied to your reporter! There was a good turnout on a warm summer's
evening for June's most informative lecture on archaeology in the Levant. Jonathan
explained that there were excavations in Jordan to answer important questions
through large-scale excavation as a means to an end understanding the trade
relations of Old Kingdom Egypt and the Early Bronze Age Levant, ie. The
cultural and geographic area comprising Anatolia, Textual evidence for this trade is primarily from" Egypt and includes the Palermo Stone which records maritime trade between the two regions, particularly in cedar wood, and sealings and "labels" of ivory or wood for wine and oil jars, often recording the origin and quality of the contents, dating back to 3,300 BC, the Early Bronze Age I or Proto-Urban period. From 3200 BC there is archaeological evidence from Egypt for three types of Canaanite ceramics from high status and royal tomb sites such as Giza - "red polished ware" - burnished red slip, found at Abydos by Flinders Petrie in the 1900s, though at first their exact origin was unclear. Also found are painted ware and combed ware. Forms include one or two handled jugs, juglets or jars. The talk concentrated on the olive oil trade, looking at evidence for manufacture of olive oil- pottery assemblage criteria, archaeo-botanical remains including olive presses consisting of stone slabs, tilted towards a receiving plaster-lined basin as found at Ras Shamra, where the surrounding black, greasy earth contained olive pips and wood. At Beth Yerah (Khirbet Kerak) at the south end of the Sea of Galilee, excavations have found a stone mortar set into the floor and an assemblage of large vats and distinctive pottery, a well- known signature type production feature of early Bronze Age Canaanite olive oil production. Tell es-Sa'idiyeh Jonathan has found further evidence for the manufacture of olive oil on a large, industrial scale at Tell es-Sa'idiyeh, where he has been digging on the site since 1985. It lies 1.5km east of the River Jordan; a spring-fed wadi flows alongside, and there is a large double occupation mound (tell) some 40m high, with a total base area of 14 hectares, first dug archaeologically in the 1940s and occupied from the 4th Millennium BC into the Roman period. Large - scale American excavations occurred 1964-67, now published. An excavation permit was granted to the British Museum from 1985, with nine excavation seasons to date, up to 1996. There is a purpose-built excavation HQ, with a mixed team including a hundred local workers and twenty to twenty-five specialist staff. On
the upper tell the team excavated occupation phases dating from the end of
the late Bronze Age to the Hellenistic period - the most important being
the 12th century BC - when the site was controlled by Egyptian Pharaohs of
the 20th Dynasty with evidence for a large administrative complex or ‘Governor's
residency’. Some 480 Egyptian period graves were dug in the lower tell,
many with rich finds indicating a sophisticated and affluent society. They
were due into ruins of 3rd Millennium BC occupation, the rest of the talk
concentrating on this phase. In addition to earlier surface finds, the earliest
excavated finds are from the Early Bronze Age, at the end of the 4th Millennium
BC. Traces of a city wall have been found. From the EBA period, 2950-2650
BC, there is evidence of olive oil production. There are four occupation
phases, including a top squatter occupation phase after the destruction
by fire of the previous phase. Architecture is of mud-brick on stone foundations
(following a similar plan to buildings in the underlying phase) covered by
ash and charred material from the destruction of this penultimate phase around
2700 BC. The Debris included Abydos jugs, pottery found also in A further area was successfully excavated in the hope of finding a less eroded area, and unearthed fewer later graves and well preserved mud-brick walls standing up to 1.5m high which retained features such as doorways, again covered by dense destruction debris. A fine selection of pottery was recovered, both coarsewares and finewares. platters and store-jars with ribbon decoration, and specialised vessels such as hole-mouth jars with a wide spout peculiar double vessels and large vats with ledge and lug handles indicative of olive oil production. The intense heat of the final destruction had baked hard the mud brick and plaster. Also found were mud brick platforms with channels cut through them. 1992 excavations added more rooms to the plan, with no sign of external walls, with the building carefully laid out on a series of terraces, linked in one case by a mud brick paved staircase. In one sunken room were found pierced bivalve shells interpreted as a possible token or tallying system as they surrounded the remains of thirteen narrow-necked storage jars. Charred beams of olive wood were also found in the room along with a large deposit of charred olive pits. By the end of the 1993 season it was clear that the building was not domestic but part of a large complex designed for olive oil production and storage. It seems the olives were kept in large jars in sunken rooms, with shells possibly used to keep accounts. Mortars set into the floors were used to bruise the olives, and stone presses and/or mud-brick benches with layers of stones and straw matting used to extract high-quality oil. The solid residues from the first pressing were taken to the vats. The mash was then heated using stones themselves heated in fire-pits, double vessels used to transport the hot mash to the separating vessels, the hole-mouth jars. Finally, after separation when the oil had risen to the surface, water would be added to the top of the hole-mouth jars to run off the oil through the side-spout. The most recent excavations were in 1995/1996,
finding a lengthy section of wall, a bath and drain installation and mud-brick ‘bins’ and
platforms, all combined to suggest, in medieval terms, a "palace" with
a variety of specialised activities going on under one roof, with olive oil
production in the eastern wing and weaving in the western wing. This was
suggested by water-related process evidence - plastered installations - plus
flint blades and bone spatulae, and in another part, possible wine- making,
evidenced by Abydos juglets, figs, and grape seeds. Wine was another important
export to The 1996 excavation found rooms possibly associated with a public wing of the building, with one room called the "scullery", finds including a dinner setting for 11 persons - complete with long, slender flint knives and 11.Abyjios mugs, one of them so tiny it may have been for an infant, with four large platters, awaiting cleaning when the fire occurred, encrusted with food remains, and 2,000 beads and pendants, perhaps from a necklace. An unusual find was the "Teapot" for infusing liquid, with a strainer at the base of its neck, and plug of something over which boiling water could be poured. Botanical analysis indicated remains of chick-pea paste - humous - on the dishes recovered from the ashes, plus charred figs, the first complete charred pomegranate from the Levant and fruit of the grape, ie raisins, plus grain (wheat and barley, with wheat stored "on the ear"). This indicated that the fire occurred around harvest time in June/July. After the destruction, which was probably an accident, rather than hostile action, there being no human remains present, there was squatter occupation for ten to fifteen years with previous architecture patched-up and modified. The whole area was abandoned until the 12th century BC, when it was re-used as a cemetery, leaving a low tell. |
