Tel Azor Overview

David Ben-Shlomo
The site of Tel Azor is located about 6 km southeast of Tel Aviv, on the road to Jerusalem (map reference 131.159), in the midst of a densely populated region. The archaeological site should be probably identified with an ancient settlement of the same name, as the name of the Arab village, Yazur, indicates, and is mentioned in Joshua 19:45 (LXX version).

The largest and probably most important excavation at Azor was conducted by Prof. Moshe Dothan during 1958 and 1960 on behalf of the Department of Antiquities of Israel. The excavation brought to light a large group of Iron Age I (1200-1000 BCE) tombs yielding abundant Philistine pottery and representing diverse burial customs. Preliminary analysis of the human bones indicated several skull-types, possibly representing a certain ethnic diversification as well. These include brachicephalic skull type, which are considered as typical of Alpine or Balkanic populations. Therefore, this is, as yet, the most extensive evidence for Philistine funerary customs in Philistia. Such evidence could be now integrated with other aspects of material culture retrieved from the Philistine cities sites of Ashdod, Ashkelon and Ekron, in which the Iron Age cemeteries have not yet been found.

Most of Moshe Dothan’s excavation at the site was conducted in an Iron Age cemetery (Area D) with at least 58 identified tombs. The majority of the tombs are dated to Iron Age I, though several are dated to the end of the Late Bronze Age (13th century BCE), Iron Age IIA (10th-9th centuries BCE) and Iron Age IIC (7th-6th centuries BCE). The Iron Age tombs are of five types: regular pit burials, burials in two large jars, brick cases tombs, cremation burials in jars and collective burials. Many of the burials were rich in pottery and various other finds. Other material from the excavation is dated to later periods (Persian, Hellenistic, Roman-Byzantine, Islamic), but its relation to specific tombs should be examined. In Area B, remnants of a Chalcolithic–Early Bronze Age IA structure were found (this area is connected to J. Perrot excavations of the Chalcolithic ossuary burials). In Area C a cave was excavated with an MB IIC shaft grave and an MBIIC-LBA burial cave yielding 21 scarabs among other finds. Only several relatively short reports have been published on the vast material relating to this excavation. These include an article describing one of the cremation burials, Tomb D63 (M. Dothan. A Cremation Burial from Azor, A City of Dan. Eretz-Israel 20 (1989):164-174 [Hebrew]).