IEJ Vol 70/1: CONTENTS 1 ITZHAQ SHAI and CHRIS MCKINNY: Canaanite Votive Offerings and Their Significance within Their Context at Tel Burna ABSTRACT: Votive objects are a common part of cult and ritual throughout the world. In this study, we present and discuss two miniature votive vessels and other related ritual deposits from a Late Bronze cultic enclosure at Tel Burna, Israel. We conclude that the Cypriot character of many of the finds (including one of the two votive objects) might indicate that the cult centre was established by merchants during the Late Bronze Age. 18 SARA LEVAVI-EILAT: Discarded Women: A New Theory on the Use of Late Bronze Age Plaque Figurines of the Southern Levant ABSTRACT: Mould-made plaque figurines of the Late Bronze Age are generally between 12 and 20 cm in length and are made by pressing clay into an open-faced mould, leaving the back flat. They depict nude women, facing front, some of which are understood to be representing a goddess. Until the rise of pillar figurines in the Iron Age II, these plaques were the most common type of figurine in the southern Levant. The aim of this study is to determine how Late Bronze Age plaque figurines were used in antiquity. Using as evidence the figurines’ physical attributes and archaeological contexts, as well as parallel figurines from Egypt and Mesopotamia, I argue that they were portable talismans that were broken during healing rites and then discarded 36 MITKA R. GOLUB: In the Name of the Father: Patronyms in Iron Age II Hebrew Epigraphy ABSTRACT: In this article, I examine the use of patronyms in Hebrew personal names on Iron Age II epigraphic artefacts from Israel and Judah: stamp seals—a public form of name representation—and inscriptions. The study reveals a significant difference between Israel and Judah regarding the presence of a patronym: 91% (136 out of 149) of the stamp seals from Judah include a patronym, while 10 out of 11 stamp seals from Israel do not. A smaller but significant difference was also found in inscriptions: 49% of names in Judah but only 28% in Israel include a patronym. In addition, the study shows that the extensive use of patronyms is characteristic of Judaean stamp seals throughout the period. This difference in the use of patronyms between Judah and Israel may be attributed to the different nature of the two polities. 49 NOAM ARNON, DAVID BEN-SHLOMO and HANS MOMMSEN: Iron Age Pottery from the Cave of the Patriarchs at Hebron ABSTRACT: Four pottery vessels from the Cave of the Patriarchs were collected from the cave under the monumental structure, possibly the traditional ‘Machpelah Cave’. This space, usually inaccessible, was visited in 1981, and the vessels were collected at that time and later published in brief by Yeivin. The vessels were subjected to compositional analyses, including petrography and Neutron Activation Analysis, and are discussed here in more detail. They are dated on the basis of parallels to the Iron Age IIB (late ninth and eighth centuries BCE). The results of the analyses indicate various sources in the central hills, including the Hebron and Jerusalem regions. This is the first study dealing with pottery from the Cave of the Patriarchs. 64 SEAN DUGAW, ODED LIPSCHITS and GUY D. STIEBEL: A New Typology of Arrowheads from the Late Iron Age and Persian Period and Its Historical Implications ABSTRACT: The origin and dissemination of socketed copper-alloy ‘Scythian’ arrowheads throughout the ancient Near East has been a matter of much scholarly interest and debate. Here we present the first comprehensive study of the temporal and geographic distribution of such arrowheads from the Southern Levant. Several previously unnoticed patterns with historical implications for the late Iron Age and the Persian and Hellenistic periods are discussed. The accompanying typology developed for the purpose of this research should further facilitate excavators’ ability to cross-reference new finds against parallels in the existing corpus to date. 90 SHLOMIT WEKSLER-BDOLAH and LEAH DI SEGNI: A Latin Epitaph of a Soldier from Magen’s Excavations in Damascus Gate and the Burial Grounds of Jerusalem between 70 and 130 CE ABSTRACT: The article discusses the inscribed tombstone of a Roman soldier, recently rediscovered in storage at Damascus Gate. This tombstone adds to a group of tombs and tombstones that were documented in the past in this area and along the northern wall of the Old City of Jerusalem. The concentration of tombs suggests that after 70 CE, when the Tenth Roman legion camped on the southwestern hill of Jerusalem, soldiers and camp followers were buried along the roads that led from the military camp to the north and east. After 130 CE, areas extending north of the camp were included in the city limits and were therefore banned for further burial. Indeed, tombs later than the mid-2nd century CE are rare here, and burial seems to have disappeared by the end of this century. 99 RONNY REICH and YUVAL BARUCH: A Note on the Date of the Stone Collapse at the Western Wall of the Temple Mount ABSTRACT: Shimon Gibson has recently suggested that the stone collapse of the Western Wall of the Temple Mount is the outcome of the 363 CE earthquake (Gibson 2014; 2016). This note provides several arguments to refute this suggestion. 106 OREN TAL and MICHAL PIASETZKY-DAVID: Inscribed Spindle Whorls from a Byzantine Burial Cave at Yavne-Yam, Israel ABSTRACT: This paper discusses two inscribed spindle whorls from a Byzantine period burial cave excavated at the site of Yavne-Yam, Israel. The spindle whorls (or perforated items) bear unintelligible incised inscriptions that suggest that these were never meant to be read; hence, they may be considered as magical items. The nominal function of these objects was to transmit a message, be it to the world of the living or the world of the dead. 114 REVIEWS 126 BOOKS RECEIVED — 2019