Abstract
The present work is one of several recent volumes jointly produced by The Biblical Archaeology Society and the Israel Exploration Society. Like David Ussishkin’s Biblical Lachish and Ronny Reich’s Excavating the City of David, the book is colorful, clearly written, and helpfully aimed at a popular audience.
Amnon Ben-Tor is one of many Israeli archaeologists who learned the trade under Yigael Yadin, who dug extensively at Hazor in 1955–1958 and 1968. Joseph Aviram renewed excavations in the late 1980s, and since 1990 the ongoing expedition has been directed by Ben-Tor. Sharon Zuckerman served as co-director with Ben-Tor from 2006 until her unfortunate death in 2014.
In the introduction, Ben-Tor describes the geography and importance of the site, along with a very brief review of previous excavations. The first three chapters examine Hazor’s growth into a city during the Early Bronze Age, its severe decline in the Intermediate Bronze Age, and its florescence as the “head of all those kingdoms” (Josh 11:10) in the Middle Bronze, when an expansive lower city below the tel expanded the city’s footprint and population by ten-fold, to an estimated 15,000 inhabitants.
One could wish for a brief overview of findings from the lower city, but Ben-Tor mentions it only in passing and refers the reader to Yadin’s earlier publications. Of particular interest, however, is Ben-Tor’s description of the impressive Middle Bronze “Southern Temple” in the upper city, as well as an open-air “precinct of the standing stones,” where thirty unworked standing stones with attached offering tables stood beneath the sky. A fraction of what appears to be a well-built palace shares a wall with the Southern Temple, but little of the palace has been excavated, as it extends beneath a built-up courtyard for a massive “ceremonial palace” during the Early Bronze Age.
Ben-Tor dates the expansion of the city to about 1700 BCE, and explains that Hazor maintained close ties with northern cities in Phoenicia, Syria, Mitanni, and Mesopotamia. Material remains also reflect contact with Egypt. Several eighteenth-century cuneiform letters found in the archives of Mari, a small Mesopotamian kingdom, mention Hazor. One of the twenty cuneiform tablets found at Hazor so far documents a delivery of luxury goods from Hazor to Mari. This indicates the high status of Hazor and its king, Ibni-Addu, during that period.
In chapter four, Ben-Tor turns to the Late Bronze Age, when Hazor continued to enjoy a position of power and prestige, though possibly a change of dynasty: the upper city was completely reorganized. Previous temples, palaces, and even the sacred precinct of standing stones, were carefully covered over with fill to create a broad courtyard. Here, a large podium/altar topped by impressive white ashlars stood before a massive building thus far interpreted as a “ceremonial palace,” though Ben-Tor acknowledges that some think it likely served a more sacred function. A central hall was flanked by smaller rooms, some of which contained huge storage jars containing large amounts of grain and olive oil.
The Bronze Age city of Hazor came to a fiery end that Yadin and Ben-Tor both date to about 1230 BCE. In chapter five, Ben-Tor examines the evidence for who caused the destruction, and concludes that the Israelites were the only reasonable candidates. He cites former co-director Zuckermann’s argument for a model of internal revolt, but dismisses it. The biblical books of both Joshua and Judges include accounts of Hazor’s defeat, though at different times and by different people: they cannot both be right. However, Ben-Tor argues for kernels of historical truth in the stories, including the account in Joshua that the city was burned. Late Bronze Hazor certainly ended with a conflagration: large cedar beams and flooring in the ceremonial palace, fueled by giant jugs of olive oil, burned with such intensity that bricks and ceramics melted, and basalt orthostats cracked from the heat.
The city was largely abandoned for nearly two hundred years before being settled again, this time as an Israelite city. Here, Ben-Tor continues to support an early monarchic date for the six-chambered gate and casemate wall, arguing contra Israel Finkelstein and other supporters of a “low chronology” that would shift the rise of the city to about seventy-five years later, after the kingdom was divided (pp. 141–46). He argues for a central authority in Jerusalem whose power extended as far north as Hazor. This is where one could wish the author had said more about C14 evidence or other scientific dating methods that have been employed in the excavations. Though his arguments for dating are logical, they depend entirely on stratigraphy, pottery, and documentary evidence. It would be good to know if carbon dating confirms his conclusions.
Ben-Tor’s renewed excavations have uncovered impressive remains of the Israelite city, mostly on the eastern part of the tel, where the city grew to extend beyond the previous walls, extending the casemate wall with a solid one and using the six-chambered gate as a sort of dividing line between administrative and residential areas of the city. There was an apparent “ban” on construction upon the ruins of the former palace: small cultic installations were erected near it, but nothing upon it. A number of standing stones were uncovered, but no temples have been found from the Israelite period. On the western end of the tel, a citadel and large water system were constructed.
Ben-Tor observes that Tiglath-pileser of Assyria laid waste to the Israelite city of Hazor in 732 BCE, and was never to recover as a major city. Ben-Tor offers little detail about the Assyrian conquest, which would have been welcome. He reviews the meager settlements that persisted in the Assyrian, Persian, and Hellenistic periods in chapter six, then devotes the final chapter to ongoing conservation and restoration work at the site. He and his team are to be commended for this valuable work of preservation and interpretation, which too few tourists bother to visit.
Overall, this richly illustrated volume offers a helpful introduction to the history of Hazor and its strategic importance throughout the biblical period. We can be grateful to the authors, donors, and publishers who made it possible. If the field of archaeology is to prosper as more than an arcane science, it will need the kind of popular appreciation and potential support that books like this can engender.