Beth Yerah 2003 Overview

J. David Schloen, Excavations of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago at Beth Yerah (Khirbet el-Kerak) and Nahal Tabor in Israel

This grant enables the publication of excavations by the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago at two related sites: (1) the Early Bronze Age mound of Beth Yerah (Khirbet el-Kerak) on the southwestern shore of Lake Kinneret (Sea of Galilee); and (2) Early Bronze Age tombs near the mouth of the Nahal Tabor (Wadi Bira), 10 km south of Beth Yerah, where the valley draining eastward from Mount Tabor in the Galilee highlands opens into the Jordan Valley (see the attached map). Multiple interments in these tombs over a long period brought with them dozens of intact ceramic vessels spanning all subperiods of the Early Bronze Age from the pre-urban Early Bronze I (ca. 3500-3100 B.c.E.) to the post-urban Early Bronze IV (ca. 2250-1950 B.c.E.).

Beth Yerah was inhabited during the pre-urban and urban phases of the Early Bronze Age (EB I-III; ca. 3500-2250 s.c.E.), attaining a size of some 20 ha within a massive 8m-thick fortification. It is an important type site for these periods and has given its name to the distinctive "Khirbet Kerak Ware" ceramic tradition that originated in Anatolia and is the hallmark of the EB III period in Palestine. Beth Yerah's location on Lake Kinneret at the nexus of major travel routes and contrasting environmental zones made it a nodal point, both economically and politically, and contributed to its prominence as an early urban center dominating the region. The site was abandoned after the collapse of urban society that ended the EB III period (ca. 2250 B.c.E.) and was not reoccupied until the Hellenistic period, after which it continued in use until the early Islamic period.

Pinhas Delougaz directed excavations at Beth Yerah on behalf of the Oriental Institute over the course of three campaigns: a ten-month season in 1952-1953 that focused on the later periods, and further excavations in August-September 1963 and July-September 1964 that focused on the earlier periods. In the latter campaigns he was assisted by Helene Kantor. During the 1963 and 1964 seasons at Beth Yerah, and again in 1966 (when no work was done at Beth Yerah), Delougaz also excavated a number of Early Bronze Age tombs in the Nahal Tabor (Wadi Bira), 10 km south of Beth Yerah.

Unfortunately, very little of the Early Bronze material was ever published, despite its importance for the archaeology of this period in northern Israel. Both Delougaz and Kantor have been dead for quite a few years. Kantor passed the material on to Douglas Esse in the 1980s, but his efforts to publish it were cut short by his own untimely death, and for the past ten years no one has been available to finish the task. The present project will rectify this situation, making available important data from two key sites.