ERETZ-ISRAEL Archaeological, Historical and Geographical Studies V O L U M E T H I RT Y- T H R E E Published by T H E I S R A E L E X P L O R AT I O N S O C I E T Y in cooperation with THE INSTITUTE OF ARCHAEOLOGY, HEBREW UNIVERSITY OF JERUSALEM JERUSALEM 2018 PUBLICATION OF THIS VOLUME WAS MADE POSSIBLE THROUGH THE GENEROSITY OF ThE LEon LEvy Foundation ThE Grossman Family EndowmEnt Fund ThE BiBliCal ArChaEology SoCiEty ISBN 978-965-221-117-0 © 2018 Copyright by the Israel Exploration Society Layout: A. Pladot Typesetting: Marzel A.S. — Jerusalem Printed by: Old City Press, Jerusalem L AW R E N C E E . S TA G E R VOLUME Editorial board Joseph Aviram, Amnon Ben-Tor, Jodi Magness, Ephraim Stern Editorial Directors Hillel Geva, Alan Paris Hebrew style editing Efrat Carmon English style editing Alan Paris Lawrence E. Stager 1943–2017 CONTENTS Preface The Editorial Board xi Larry Stager, Leon Levy and Ashkelon Shelby White xiii The Leon Levy Expedition to Ashkelon Philip King xiv A Tribute to Larry Stager Daniel M. Master Publications of Lawrence E. Stager xv xix Bibliographical abbreviations xxiii English Section Adam J. Aja What a Waste: Disposal in the Iron Age Near East 1* Manfred Bietak The Giparu of Ur as a Paradigm for Gender-related Temple Types in the Ancient Near East 9* Kathleen J. Birney An Astynomos at Ascalon 25* Oded Borowski Sennacherib in Judah — The Devastating consequences of an Assyrian Military Campaign 33* Annie Caubet The Date Palm from Kition, Cyprus: Late Bronze Age to Iron Age 41* William G. Dever Shoshenq and Solomon: Chronological Considerations 50* Roald F. Docter Carthaginian Domestic Amphorae, Lids and Stands: A View beyond the Tophet 59* Norma Franklin Exploring the Function of Bell-Shaped Pits: With a View to Iron Age Jezreel 76* Seymour Gitin Bronze Age Egyptian-Type Stone Stands from a Late Iron Age IIC Context at Tel Miqne-Ekron 83* John Huehnergard The Name Ashkelon 91* Jeremy M. Hutton Levitical Aspirations and Saintly Foundation Stories in Judges 17–18 98* Peter Machinist Achaemenid Persia as a Spectacle. Reactions from Two Pripheral Voices: Aeschylus, The Persians and the Biblical Book of Esther 109* Jodi Magness More than Just Filth: The Impurity of Excrement in Biblical and Early Jewish Traditions 124* Daniel Master Ally of Ashkelon: Phoenician Inluence in a Philistine Port Pierre de Miroschedji The Early Bronze Age Fortiications at Tel Yarmut — an Update 142* Patricia Smith and Gila Kahila Bar-Gal Age Biases in Phoenician Funerary Practices: the Example of Achziv 163* Joshua T. Walton Assyrian Interests in the West: Philistia and Judah 175* English summaries of Hebrew articles 133* 183* Hebrew Section Mordechai Aviam A Jewish Settlement (Farmstead?) at the Summit of Tel Rekhesh: A Contribution to Galilean History between the Two Revolts 1 Vladimir Wolff Avrutis Two Pottery Vessels Imported from the Middle Euphrates to the Southern Levant and Their Contribution to the Chronology of the and Eli Yannai End of the EB I and the Beginning of the EB II 10 David Ilan A Middle Bronze Age “Migdal” Temple at Tel Dan? 25 Eran Arie Game of Thrones: The Relations between Israel and Phoenicia in Light of the Archaeological Evidence 38 Shlomit Bechar Ritual Standing Stones at Hazor during the Bronze and Iron Ages 51 David Ben-Shlomo Pottery Production in Iron Age II Jerusalem: New Compositional Results 64 Amnon Ben-Tor A Fourth Millennium BCE Seal from Hazor 72 Yuval Baruch and Ronny Reich The Ritual Bath within a Cave beneath the Synagogue Floor at Susiya 82 Gabriel Barkay, Oren Tal and Alexander Fantalkin Towards the Identiication of Nob: A Biblical Priestly Town Saar Ganor and Igor Kreimerman An Eighth Century BCE Gate and a Gate-Shrine at Tel Lachish 98 Shimon Dar Field Towers and Their Afinity to Ancient Agriculture 111 92 Ido Wachtel, Roi Sabar Tel Gush Halav during the Bronze and Iron Ages and Uri Davidovich 129 Yifat Thareani The Empire in the Marshlands: in Search of the Structure of Assyrian Rule in the Hula Valley Naama Yahalom-Mack The Beginning of the Use of Iron in the Land of Israel 141 153 Amihai Mazar Weaving at Tel Reḥov and the Jordan Valley: A Chapter in Iron Age Technology and Economy 161 Nadav Naºman Locating the Sanctuaries of YHWH of Samaria and YHWH of Teman 176 Rami Arav Law and Order in the 11th Century BCE; Bethsaida as a Case Study 186 Abraham Faust The Land of the Philistines? Reexamining the Settlement in the Periphery of Philistia 195 Yitzhak Paz and Ram Gophna Between Palmahim and Ashkelon — Settlement Patterns in the Southern Coastal Plain of Israel during the Early Bronze Age 205 Mike Freikman Chalcolithic Pillar Figurines from the Golan: A New Interpretation 211 Irit Ziffer, Zvi Lederman and Shlomo Bunimovitz A Cypriot Cylinder Seal from Tel Beth-Shemesh 221 Ian Stern, Samuel Wolff and Adi Erlich A New Tanit Pendant from Maresha: The Sidonian/Phoenician Connection 229 Yiftah Shalev Between Tyrian Dor and Sidonian Ashkelon: Settlement Patterns in Southern Phoenicia 238 EXPLORING THE FUNCTION OF BELL-SHAPED PITS: WITH A VIEW TO IRON AGE JEZREEL Norma Franklin Zinman Institute of Archaeology, University of Haifa In the central and northern limestone hill country of Israel, rock-cut sphere-shaped pits dot the numerous archaeological sites. They are variously described as “bell-shaped,” “bottle-shaped,” “laskshaped,” and occasionally as “pear-shaped”;1 in Levantine archaeology, they nearly all carry the qualifying epithet “cistern.” The interior globular shape and volume of the pits are dictated by the nature of the limestone bedrock, which is limestone with a nari crust in the central hill country of Israel.2 The common denominator is the single circular opening that cuts through the nari and forms a neck that extends through the nari layer and at least a few centimeters of the limestone substrata. Most rocky hilltop sites have rock-cut bellshaped pits; some are visible3 on the surface, but they are hardly ever documented. Scattered over the hill of Tel Jezreel, ca. 93 bell-shaped pits were surveyed in the 1990s by members of the British School of Archaeology in Jerusalem. Although many were entered, none were excavated (Cameron and Woodhead 1999: 4, 10). In keeping with the archaeological trends at that time, they were referred to as “cisterns” and basically dismissed as having been hewn in relatively recent times by the inhabitants of the Ottoman village of Zerin. However, before a review of the Jezreel bell-shaped pits can be conducted, we must irst examine the research conducted concerning the function of bell-shaped pits elsewhere in the Mediterranean.4 attention has been paid to how they were actually illed with water. There are basically two systems used to ill cisterns, both employ rainwater harvesting. The irst has been practiced from ancient times until today in rural areas; it involves diverting the runoff from hillsides and channeling it into cisterns. The second collects water from courtyards and roof tops in urban areas and funnels it via pipes and channels into cisterns. The rural system can be used in an area that has an annual rainfall of at least 200 mm. and with four or ive possible runoff events a year. A large catchment area is required, often covering a few thousand square meters; the area must be stable, have sparse vegetation cover, and have a 3 to 15 degree slope. For example, it has been calculated that to ill a 100 m.3 cistern in an area with an average annual rainfall of 200 mm., a catchment area of 2,500 m.3 with four annual runoff events is required (Ali et al. 2009: 12–13). This form of rainwater harvesting is traditionally a low investment technique used by small rural groups (Ali et al. 2009: 5–6 and table 1:10–12), who have control of their land. This is important as, even during the dry season, contamination must be avoided, and the catchment area cannot be used for grazing or little else. However, despite these precautions, the runoff from the irst rain must be used to clean the catchment area and not collected (Ali et al. 2009: 12–15). Eighty-three bell-shaped cisterns in the area between Bethlehem and Hebron were documented by Julian Koelbel (2009: 6–8, ig. 2.1).6 Over half of these cisterns were — to some extent — still in use.7 Unfortunately, the water was not potable, as it contained organic and inorganic material, including Bell-shaped pits as cisterns As mentioned above, Levantine bell-shaped pits are commonly deined as cisterns5 but scant 76* TH E FU NCTION OF BELL -SH A PED PITS: W ITH A V IEW TO I RON AGE J EZR EEL animal excrement (Koelbel 2009: 23). This is not surprising since there is no mention of any settling basins or settlement traps, and it was merely noted that some of the cisterns had a stone cover-ring, while others had a more modern concrete structure (Koelbel 2009: 12). In Jordan, the situation is similar; a number of bell-shaped cisterns were still in use until the 1980s. Only one of the Jordanian bell-shaped cisterns was recorded as having a large settlement basin near its mouth, which prevented the deposition of sediment (Shqairat, Abudanh, and Twaissi 2010: 217–220, ig. 7). The second system of rainwater harvesting, collecting water from open courtyards and roof tops, has been documented at a few archaeological sites where architectural remains were preserved. In Crete, the Minoan-period (ca. 1900–1700 BCE) palaces had a network of small channels and terracotta pipes that led to bell-shaped cisterns. This urban system of rainwater harvesting is well documented from the Archaic to Hellenistic periods throughout the semi-arid Mediterranean mainland and island areas (Mays, Antoniou, and Angelakis 2013: 1918–1919). Similarly, during the Hellenistic and Roman periods, approximately 30 bell-shaped pits were recorded as cisterns in the city of Samaria by the Harvard Expedition (Reisner, Fisher, and Lyon 1924: 146–147, ig. 67, 152). However, the Samaria examples date back to the early Iron Age and were simply being re-used as cisterns (see below). Bell-shaped pits as grain silos In the Mediterranean world, bell-shaped pits were purposely hewn as grain silos, and underground grain storage8 is known from the Neolithic to the Roman period, with increased use during the Iron Age (Valls et al. 2015: 178–179). Underground storage provides an ambient temperature and a reduced oxygen atmosphere, enabling the grain to be kept alive but dormant (Dunkel 1995: 477). Additional beneits include: the grain is inaccessible to animals and hidden from possible human enemies, and the strong odor it emits is trapped underground, thus not attracting insects. The danger of spontaneous combustion that can occur in above-ground silos is reduced in sealed subterranean silos due to low 77* oxygen levels that can be further reduced by the addition of straw, which traps any residual oxygen in its ibers (Dunkel 1995: 479). In 16th-century CE Valencia, Spain, 48 bellshaped silos,9 between 5.5 to 12 m. deep and 4 to 8 m. in diameter with entry shafts ca. 60 to 70 cm. in diameter and 0.80 cm. to 1 m. long, were revealed with the help of ground-penetrating radar (Valls et al. 2015: 181, ig. 4). These silos had hemispheric limestone capstones and were sealed with bitumen (Valls et al. 2015: 183–184, ig. 8). In Malta, there are over 200 (ca. 9-m.-deep) rock-cut bell-shaped pits,10 known locally as fossae that continued in use as late as 1962. They too are all are capped with a circular or lat stone and then sealed to help prevent water seepage (Dandria 2010: 49–52). A description of the workings of a fossa written in 1898 relates “[w]hen grain is deposited in a silo, a layer of barley straw of the thickness of a sheaf is placed all around the walls, and a thicker layer at the bottom. When illed up with grain, more straw is packed on the top of it, and the top slab is then put on and hermetically sealed” (Dandria 2010: 50). Although the examples provided above are medieval or later, recent excavations in Malta have revealed bell-shaped silos with capstones that date to 1100 BCE and may have continued in use through the medieval period (R. McLaughlin, pers. comm., 2016).11 In the Levant, recognition of bell-shaped pits as grain silos12 is virtually non-existent. However, in Hartha, Jordan, 18 rock-cut bell-shaped silos (ca. 6 to 7 m. deep), sealed with a lat stone lid and covered with straw and a mound of soil, were documented (Valls et al. 2015: 185, table 1). In the 1930s, the Joint Expedition to Samaria excavated six bell-shaped pits, featuring a recessed ledge around their mouth for a capstone, which they conirmed as grain silos (Crowfoot, Kenyon, and Sukenik 1942: pl. 11:3). Bell-shaped pits as wine cellars in el-Jib (biblical Gibeon) Bell-shaped pits have also been recognized as temperate wine cellars. Excavations at el-Jib (biblical Gibeon), a hilltop site north of Jerusalem, revealed a total of 63 bell-shaped pits13 cut into the limestone 78* NOR M A FR A N K LI N in the northeast sector of the tell (Pritchard 1964: 1). They ranged in depth from 0.9 to 3.2 m.,14 with an average volume of 5.8 m.3 (Pritchard 1964: 2–3). The majority of the pits were in two areas of prepared bedrock: Industrial Area I, with an area of 675 m.3 and containing 11 bell-shaped pits;15 and Industrial Area II, with an area of 300 m.3 and containing 27 bell-shaped pits (Pritchard 1960: 26–28). Descriptions were provided for only 36 of the bellshaped pits (Pritchard 1964: 2–8). Fifty-two of the pits held pottery mostly dated to the Iron Age II, while pottery from 26 of the pits was exclusively from the Iron Age II (Pritchard 1960: 28). One of the pits had its capstone still in situ (Pritchard 1960: 26).16 In order to conirm if they could have been used as cisterns, one of the bell-shaped pits (Locus 105) was tested for its porosity; however, the water drained completely away in just four days (Pritchard 1964: 9). A few bell-shaped pits outside of the excavation area had been plastered in recent times and re-used as water cisterns. One of these was still in use in the 1960s, and the temperature of its water was a constant at 65°F — an ambient temperature suitable for wine storage (Pritchard 1960: 27–28). The Iron Age II storage jars found in the bell-shaped pits had a capacity of 9.75 gallons, and it was calculated that these rock-cut bell-shaped wine cellars could store ca. 50,000 liters of wine at a constant temperature (Pritchard 1960: 28). Grain, oil, wine, and water at Samaria At Samaria,17 there were a variety of pits, caves, and cisterns cut into the bedrock18 that lay below the Israelite and Roman cities; however, the main type of cavity was the bell-shaped pit. As mentioned above, approximately 30 bell-shaped pits were documented by the Harvard Expedition and attributed to the Hellenistic period or later (Reisner, Fisher, and Lyon 1924; Franklin 2004: 191, ig. 1). The Harvard Expedition was correct that the Hellenistic and Roman-period buildings were equipped with channels and pipes to funnel rainwater into the bell-shaped pits that served as household cisterns. Their mistake lay when they presumed that these bell-shaped pits originated in the Hellenistic and Roman periods. The scenario that they proposed was as follows: In order to hew a bell-shaped pit, a deep construction pit irst had to be dug through the earlier strata down to the bedrock. Then, the construction pit would be left open while the bellshaped pit was hewn out, which was no simple task. Finally, upon completion of the bell-shaped pit, a masonry shaft was constructed to connect the bell-shaped pit with the Greek or Roman occupation levels (Reisner, Fisher, and Lyon 1924: 41, 139). One of these masonry extension shafts was 4.55 m. long (Reisner Fisher, and Lyon 1924: 183); however, the absurdity of this sequence of events was not questioned. In fact, it is more logical that the Hellenistic-period builders discovered preexisting bell-shaped pits when laying the deep foundations for the buildings and extending their necks with a masonry shaft converted them into household cisterns. Stager (1990) identiied a pre-Omride Iron Age occupation phase at Samaria, which he dubbed Building Period 0. His analysis was based on the work of the second team, the Joint Expedition to Samaria. He recognized that Building Period 0 was an early Iron Age agricultural settlement that included six bell-shaped pits and several wine and oil installations, which were previously attributed to the Early Bronze Age by the Joint Expedition. The six bell-shaped pits were sealed below the 9thcentury BCE Building Period I courtyard loor and were not re-used in later periods (Stager 1990: 93). They had been identiied by the Joint Expedition as grain silos, but Stager re-classiied them as bellshaped pits for olive oil storage (Stager 1990: 97). However, both he and the Joint Expedition ignored the ca. 30 bell-shaped pits previously documented by the Harvard Expedition (see Franklin 2004: 191, ig. 1). In fact, there are ca. 100 bell-shaped pits spread over the summit and slopes of the hill of Samaria, some of which appear on the plans and sections prepared by the Harvard and Joint Expeditions (see Sukenik 1940: 60–63, ig. 3; and Franklin 2004: 190). One striking example is a bell-shaped pit hewn into the bedrock platform that supported the Israelite palace (Reisner, Fisher, and Lyon 1924: 41, ig. 9, 146, ig. 67). This large bell-shaped pit19 was hewn either during Building Period 0 or when the Israelite palace was built in Building Period I and is located within the palace conines. Was it a royal silo or a wine cellar? Later, it was converted TH E FU NCTION OF BELL -SH A PED PITS: W ITH A V IEW TO I RON AGE J EZR EEL into a cistern, and a 2.68 m-long masonry-built neck that connected the bell-shaped pit and Room 45 of the Hellenistic period was added (Reisner, Fisher, and Lyon 1924: 146–147, ig. 67). Classifying bell-shaped pits The possible different functions of bell-shaped pits have been outlined above. Can these varied functions be recognized in the archaeological record? First, a pit’s topographic location can help determine if it served as a cistern. If the site was a rural one, then there would have to be an extensive sloping catchment area with a bell-shaped pit situated at the lowest point, and it must include a settling basin or sediment trap20 (Ali et al. 2009: 8, ig. 2). Conversely, this means that bell-shape pits cut into the highest point of a rural site cannot be cisterns. If it is an urban site, then there should be architectural remains for courtyards and buildings adjacent to the bell-shaped pit in order for it to qualify as a cistern, and it has been suggested that the presence of a large number of small cisterns may be directly proportional to the size of a building (Mays, Antoniou, and Angelakis 2013: 1921). There are also four criteria that can assist in identifying whether a bell-shaped pit was used as a silo: the presence of a mud-plaster coating, rubefaction of the silo walls due to burning of waste grain, carpological evidence in the sediment at the bottom of the silo, and the presence of capstones or mud covers (Miret i Mestre 2014). Underground silos were always sealed and had a ledge around the mouth of the bell-shaped pit to accommodate a close itting capstone (Valls et al. 2015: 186). These subterranean silos would always be hewn at the highest point of a site in order to avoid the accumulation of rainwater and the penetration of the water table (Valls et al. 2015: 179). The capacity of the silos can also indicate if they were private or public. Small-sized bell-shaped pits probably signify a family store, since once opened, the grain must be consumed quickly due to its environmental exposure (Dunkel 1995: 488). Larger silos are for long-term storage, as grain can be stored underground for at least ive years without deteriorating as long as the seal is intact (Dunkel 1995: 495).21 79* Bell-shaped pits that do not have a ledge around their mouth are more likely to have been used as cellars for storing jars of wine and oil. Both commodities beneit from cooler subterranean conditions but would not need to be hermetically sealed. The bell-shaped pits at Jezreel There are ca. 100 bell-shaped pits at Jezreel; most — if not all — were irst surveyed in the 1990s and 2012.22 Eleven bell-shaped pits were excavated by the joint Tel Aviv University and British School of Archaeology in Jerusalem team.23 They acknowledged that the bell-shaped pits were dificult to date; nevertheless, they designated them as “water cisterns” and attributed them to an undeined medieval or Ottoman period (Ussishkin and Woodhead 1992: 3–5, 50). It has been since recognized that some of the Roman and Byzantine-period courtyard houses used the bell-shaped pits as cisterns (Grey 2014: 110, 115). This is true of the bell-shaped pits with built-up masonry necks that connected the bedrock pit mouth with the Roman, Byzantine, or even medieval-period occupation levels, for example, the bell-shaped pit in Area D, Square RR/65 (see Ussishkin and Woodhead 1992: 40–42). Other adaptations include a bell-shaped pit that was converted into a Byzantine-period columbarium (Ussishkin and Woodhead 1992: 10). However, the Jezreel bell-shaped pits originated in an early phase of the Iron Age, and their history is very similar to those at Samaria (Franklin 2008: 46–47), including the fact that not all of the bell-shaped pits were reused, and one is shown on the Iron Age plan for Area A, Square O/53 (Ussishkin and Woodhead 1994: 8, ig. 6, 10). Another, revealed in the excavation of Area A, Square R/48 (“Cistern” 184), is located in the small space between the second and third eastern piers of the Iron Age gateway. Presumably, the builders of the gate purposely avoided laying the gate’s foundations over the compromised bedrock of the bell-shaped pit; however, the excavators still maintained that the pit was hewn in relatively modern times (Ussishkin and Woodhead 1994: 16–17, ig. 18, 19, 22, ig. 27; 1997: 19–20, ig. 12, 22, ig. 16). 80* NOR M A FR A N K LI N Synthesis Bell-shape pits had a variety of purposes; their use in the Levant as cisterns has been greatly exaggerated, while their utilization as temperate, secure wine cellars, oil repositories, and grain silos has been virtually ignored. The bell-shaped wine cellars at el-Jib (biblical Gibeon) are not an exception; they would have been the norm in the central hill country, where vineyards lourished and ancient wineries have been found (e.g., Samaria and Jezreel).24 Stager (1990) recognized that at least some of the bell-shaped pits at Samaria were for oil storage,25 and these must have existed at other sites as oil was an essential commodity. However, I believe that the majority of the bell-shaped storage pits were grain silos — for bread was “the staff of life” according to the Hebrew Bible (Ebeling 2016: 187). Grain was also essential for making beer, an important beverage in the ancient world (Ebeling and Homan 2008). Underground grain storage is the best way to ensure that grain will still be it for consumption after four or ive years, especially in case of harvest failure. Also, grain had to be kept dormant yet viable so that a percentage could be used as seed the following year. The evidence provided by examples from non-Levantine sites conirms that bell-shaped silos were the preferred method of long-term grain storage until recently. Tel Jezreel, situated in the Jezreel Valley (the “bread basket” of Israel), would have required both private and public silos for short-term and long-term storage alike. Then, as these rock-hewn silos slowly went out of use and their capstones gone, some were adapted as makeshift cisterns to provide water for livestock and humans. But, in most instances, the basic prerequisites for rainwater harvesting were not followed. As a result, contaminated cisterns proliferated, and their origin as airtight, damp-proof grain silos forgotten. Acknowledgments I wish to thank Jennie Ebeling and Philippe Guillaume for reading an earlier version of this article and making valuable comments. Notes 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 In this article, we will refer to all examples as “bellshaped” in deference to Lawrence E. Stager, who used that term in his groundbreaking 1990 article and in whose honor this article has been written. Nari limestone is a hard caliche layer deposited over softer chalkier stone (Shiloh and Horowitz 1975: 37). It can be presumed that many are concealed below tell debris and extant villages. For this study, only examples from Israel, Jordan, the Palestinian Authority, Spain, and Malta have been included. The idea that the bell-shaped pits were cisterns was promulgated by William F. Albright, who claimed that waterproof lime plaster was developed in the 12th-10th centuries BCE and led to the proliferation of bell-shaped cisterns (1960: 113). Based on his survey results, Koelbel estimated that there were three times more cisterns in the area of the Palestinian Authority than had been documented by the British during the Mandate period. This would bring the number of bell-shaped pits in the area of ancient Judea and Samaria to ca. 7,000 (Koelbel 2009: 15). The capacity of 46 of the cisterns ranged from 3 to 428 m.3, the average being 92 m.3 However, his igures were 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 skewed by some extremely large cisterns; the majority were only around 60 m.3 (Koelbel 2009: 12–13). This article only addresses the identiication of rockhewn bell-shaped silos, and other kinds of underground silos are not dealt with here. The silos were cut into a heavy clay soil with limestone crust substrates and had to be lined with a 1.5 to 2 cm.thick layer of lime mortar to prevent damp penetrating (Valls et al. 2015: 182), while at other locations silos could be cut into clay or limestone (Valls et al. 2015: 186). The smallest are ca. 9 m. deep with a diameter of ca. 4.5 m. with a capacity of up to 500 tons. For more information on excavations of silos in Malta, go to: http://www.qub.ac.uk/sites/FRAGSUS. Underground grain silos, either masonry built or simply circular shaft pits, have been identiied as such (see Stager 1971), but recognition has not extended to the bell-shaped pits. They are referred to as “jug-shape cellars” or simply as “cellars” (Pritchard 1964). Locus 216 has been omitted as its depth was exceptional at 23 m. The pits are referred to as “vats” (Pritchard 1960). TH E FU NCTION OF BELL -SH A PED PITS: W ITH A V IEW TO I RON AGE J EZR EEL 16 Locus 153 is probably the covered cistern in ig.73 17 18 19 20 21 22 (Pritchard 1964). Evidence for other capstones was reported from 30 of the other bell-shaped pits, but many were simply fragments (Pritchard 1964: 6, 8–9). Samaria the city, not the geographical region. The bedrock of Samaria is Senonian kaªkula chalk with a nari limestone crust (Shiloh and Horowitz 1975: 46). The bell-shaped pit (“Cistern No. 14”) was 9.25 m. deep with a rock-cut mouth 95 cm. in diameter. Although settling basins and sediment traps help reduce the accumulation of soil sediment, a cistern needs to be cleaned out every four or ive years (Ali et al. 2009: 16). Interestingly, there are unsubstantiated claims of even 100 years (Dandria 2010: 50). Only sixty-eight could be located in a survey conducted 81* in 2012 by the current Jezreel Expedition (Ebeling, Franklin, and Cipin 2012). They were all found between 81 and 115 m. above sea level and inadvertently referred to as “cisterns.” 23 The 11 bell-shaped pits documented within the excavated areas were: three in Squares X/51, HH/61, and MM/56–57; two in Area A: one in Square O/53 and one in Square R/48 (“Cistern” 184); one in Area B in Square O/69; one in Area D in Square RR/65; two in Area F: one in Courtyard 5047 and one in Square U/38; and one in Area D near PP-SS Wall 753. 24 For wine production at Jezreel, see Franklin, Ebeling, and Guillaume 2015. 25 Oil would have been kept in ceramic containers and not poured freely into the pit (contra Stager 1990: 97). References Albright, W.F. 1960 The Archaeology of Palestine, rev. ed., Harmondsworth. Ali, A., Oweis, T., Salkini, A.B. and el-Naggar, S. 2009 Rainwater Cisterns, Traditional Technologies for Dry Areas, Aleppo. Cameron, K. and Woodhead, J. 1999 Excavations at Tel Jezreel: Data Structure Report No. 498, Edinburgh. Crowfoot, J.W., Kenyon, K.M. and Sukenik, E.L. 1942 The Buildings at Samaria, Samaria-Sebaste 1, London. Dandria, S. 2010 “Il-Fosos — Underground Grain Storage in the Maltese Islands,” Treasures of Malta 48, pp. 47–54. Dunkel, F.V. 1995 “Applying Current Technologies to LargeScale, Underground Grain Storage,” Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology 10, pp. 477–496. Ebeling, J.R. 2016 “Engendering the Israelite Harvests,” NEA 79, pp. 186–194. Ebeling, J.R., Franklin, N. and Cipin, I. 2012 “Jezreel Revealed in Laser Scans: A Preliminary Report of the 2012 Survey Season,” NEA 75, pp. 232–239. Ebeling, J.R. and Homan, M.M. 2008 “Baking and Brewing Beer in the Israelite Household: A Study of Women’s Cooking Technology,” in Alpert Nakhai, B. (ed.), The World of Women in the Ancient and Classical Near East, Newcastle upon Tyne, pp. 45–62. Franklin, N. 2004 “Samaria: From the Bedrock to the Omride Palace,” Levant 36, pp. 189–202 2008 “Jezreel: Before and after Jezebel,” in Grabbe, L.L. 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