Tel Yarmuth 2005 Overview

A monograph on the excavation of the acropolis of Tel Yarmuth in Israel
from the Early Bronze Age to the Byzantine period
(XXVIIth century BC - IVth century AD)
Michaël Jasmin

Tel Yarmuth in Israel (1477.1240 on the Israel Grid) is situated 35 km east of the Mediterranean Sea and some 30 km at the south-west of Jerusalem in the hilly country region of the Shephelah. The acropolis of Tel Yarmuth is usually associated with the biblical Yarmut of Joshua (Jos.10:1-5).

The first excavations as the site were undertaken in 1970 by A. Ben-Tor of the Hebrew University. Pierre de Miroschedji (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique) renewed the excavations under a joint expedition (CNRS, Hebrew University) from 1980 until now. The acropolis has been excavated from 1986 to 1997. Tel Yarmuth is a very well known place in the Levantine archaeology for its Early Bronze remains and sequence from the end of the chalcolithic period to the end of the Early Bronze III.

THE SITE OF TEL YARMUTH
The site of Tel Yarmuth is composed of two distinct topographic features: the lower town and the upper town, also called Acropolis. The lower town covers around 15 hectares, whereas the smaller upper town covers 1 ha. At the peak of its prosperity in the Early Bronze Age, the city covered both the lower town and the acropolis, an area of about 16 hectares. It was without doubt one of the largest site in the southern Palestine. Numerous publications have been made by Pierre de Miroschedji since 1980 about the Early Bronze city.

For the acropolis the situation is different, and with the exception of one short article, no large scientific article or book has been published yet.

THE TEL YARMUTH ACROPOLIS EXCAVATIONS
The acropolis of Tel Yarmuth have been excavated from 1986 to 1997, during six seasons : 1986, 1987, 1989, 1990, 1996 and 1997. The first seasons were carried out by Andre Lemaire, then the excavations has been supervised by myself in 1996 and 1997 until the completion of the dig's goals.

It was thought, with reason, that only the acropolis will bear testimonies of the entire sequence of occupation: while the Early Bronze city covered the whole site, both lower and upper tell, the later occupation from the Middle Bronze Age II onward was limited to the upper tell or acropolis. The first goal of the acropolis excavation was to provided a whole stratigraphic sequence of the occupation of the site. Two excavations have been undertake:

The first excavation (Acr.l) covered a limited surface of about 30 square meters. It revealed the Early Bonze III city wall that surrounded the entire 16 hectares of the site.

The second excavation (Acr.2), the larger, covered a surface of about 100 square meters. It started from the very top of the acropolis at 405 m. a.s.l. until it reached the top soil—seven meters below.

THE MAIN ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL RESULTS FROM THE EXCAVATIONS
The Tel Yarmuth acropolis provides the unique opportunity to study a site on the longue durée, with a quasi continuous occupation covering more than thirty centuries from the XXVIIth BC (Early Bronze Age) to the IVth AD (Byzantine period). It is usually thought that only major regional sites knew long continuous occupation. Tel Yarmuth is an original and instructive example: it shows clearly that after the impressive Early Bronze city, the renewed occupation on a village scale on the upper tell lasted for two millennia.