Tel Mashav: The Eyes of Tel Hazor

Tell Hazor è uno dei siti maggiormente indagati nel Levante meridionale. È stato un grande centro urbano del secondo e primo millennio a.C., in grado di controllare la Galilea settentrionale (e probabilmente anche le Alture del Golan) – le vie di contatto e il territorio circostante. Ciò è stato dedotto non solo in base alle dimensioni del sito e ai ritrovamenti effettuati durante le molteplici campagne scavo, ma anche grazie alle diverse menzioni di Hazor presenti in svariati testi scritti del Vicino Oriente Antico. Tuttavia, nonostante l’incredibile quantità di informazioni a disposizione sulla città di Hazor durante le età del Bronzo e del Ferro, il suo territorio circostante è ancora poco noto. Uno dei siti di maggior interesse nelle immediate vicinanze è Tel Mashav, situato a circa 3 km a ovest di Hazor. Tell Mashav era con ogni probabilità una fortezza posta a controllo dell’itinerario che collegava la regione con l’area occidentale; al tempo stesso fungeva da protezione per Hazor stessa, avvisando gli abitanti di eventuali pericoli imminenti. La posizione chiave di Tel Mashav, collocato su un’altura dominante Hazor, le vie di contatto con i territori circostanti e infine un’estesa porzione della vicina Valle di Halula, permette di interpretare il sito come una fortezza con funzioni strategiche paragonabili a siti fortificati di epoche successive. Questo lavoro dimostrerà che fortezze simili sono sempre state costruite in funzione di grandi centri urbani, ma che Tel Mashav potrebbe anche essere visto come parte integrante dell’intero sistema di fortificazioni di Hazor.Tel Hazor is one of the most extensively excavated sites in the southern Levant. It was a large urban center in the second and first millennia BCE, which controlled the upper Galillee (and probably also the Golan Heights) – its roads and hinterland. This conclusion is known not only from the size of the site and the finds exposed during the many years of excavations, but also from documents found throughout the Ancient Near East. However, though we have acquired an immense amount of knowledge on the daily life in the city of Hazor in the Bronze and Iron Ages, we have hardly any data on its surrounding and environs. One of the conspicuous sites in Hazor’s vicinity is Tel Mashav, located about 3 km to the west of Tel Hazor. This site was a fortress inhabited in the Bronze and Iron Ages. This paper will explore the connectivity and dialogue between the two sites. It will be argued that Tel Mashav is a fortress controlling the road leading to the west, protecting Hazor’s inhabitants and warning them in times of danger. The strategic location of Tel Mashav, overlooking extensive areas of the Hula Valley and the approaching roads, as well as its position above Tel Hazor, allow us to suggest that this was a fortress with strategic qualities which are shared by fortresses built in later times. It will be shown that similar fortresses have always been built in relation to large sites but that the fortress at Tel Mashav could be viewed as part of Hazor’s fortification system

Synchronizing Geomagnetic Field Intensity Records in the Levant Between the 23rd and 15th Centuries BCE: Chronological and Methodological Implications

Abstract Archeomagnetic records are an important source of information on the past behavior of the geomagnetic field. Frequently, however, coeval archeomagnetic intensity (archeointensity) datasets from nearby locations display significant discrepancies, hampering precise reconstruction of high‐resolution secular variation curve. This is the case for the time interval between the later phase of the Early Bronze and the early phase of the Late Bronze Ages (23rd–15th centuries BCE) in the Levant and Mesopotamia. We address the problem by cross‐correlating archeointensity datasets from four major multilayered archeological sites in the southern Levant (Hazor and Megiddo), northern Levant (Ebla), and western Upper Mesopotamia (Mari). We report new archeointensity data, obtained using the Thellier‐IZZI‐MagIC and the Triaxe methods, from six strata at Hazor and four radiocarbon‐dated strata at Megiddo. From 39 pottery fragments, 199 specimens passed our selection criteria, from which we calculated the mean archeointensity for each stratum. To strengthen the comparison of these data with previously published data from Mari and Ebla, obtained using the Triaxe method, we conducted a blind test of the methods that resulted in indistinguishable results or a difference of less than 1 μT. The synchronized compilation, constrained by radiocarbon data from Megiddo, displays a V‐shaped pattern with a prominent minimum of at least 200 years centered around the 18th century BCE. The study highlights the importance of stacking archeomagnetic data obtained by different archeointensity methods only after cross‐testing the methods and ensuring that archeological samples were dated in a consistent manner

The genomic history of the Bronze Age Southern Levant

We report genome-wide DNA data for 73 individuals from five archaeological sites across the Bronze and Iron Ages Southern Levant. These individuals, who share the “Canaanite” material culture, can be modeled as descending from two sources: (1) earlier local Neolithic populations and (2) populations related to the Chalcolithic Zagros or the Bronze Age Caucasus. The non-local contribution increased over time, as evinced by three outliers who can be modeled as descendants of recent migrants. We show evidence that different “Canaanite” groups genetically resemble each other more than other populations. We find that Levant-related modern populations typically have substantial ancestry coming from populations related to the Chalcolithic Zagros and the Bronze Age Southern Levant. These groups also harbor ancestry from sources we cannot fully model with the available data, highlighting the critical role of post-Bronze-Age migrations into the region over the past 3,000 years