Tel Sera 2001 Overview

The Publication of Tel Sera’: The Bronze Age Strata (Area A), Israel
Eliezer Oren

The Shelby White - Leon Levy grant is requested for the publication of the final report on the Bronze Age settlement strata at Tel Sera' (Tell esh-Shari'a) in the western Negev (drainage basin of Nahal Besor / Gaza), Israel. Identified with Biblical Ziklag - King David's city of refuge, Tel Sera' is located on the north bank of Nahal Gerar, ca. 7 km upstream from Tel Haror and about 18 km east of Gaza. This region with its dense cluster of major Bronze and Iron Age tells (ancient Gaza, Tell el-Ajjul, Tell Far'a, Tell Jemmeh, Tel Haror, Tel Sera' etc.) played significantly in the political, cultural and economic history of Canaan, i.e., intensive contacts with Egypt, widespread Philistine settlement, Assyrian administration on the border of Egypt, etc.

Large-scale excavations from 1972 to 1978 by Ben-Gurion University expedition under the direction of E.D. Oren uncovered the rich settlement assemblages (strata I -XIII), with some gaps in habitation, from the Chalcolithic through the Byzantine periods. The results of the excavations contribute significantly to the study of political history and cultural exchanges with Egypt as well as to certain pivotal issues in the chronology of the Bronze and Iron Ages in Canaan. Tel Sera' played importantly in the settlement history and economy of the western Negev, particularly during the Hyksos period (Middle Bronze Age III), the period of Egyptian domination (Late Bronze Age II-III), the Philistine (Iron Age I) and Assyrian period (Iron Age III). The proposed publication project will focus on the rich settlement strata XII-IX, from the Middle Bronze Age III to Late Bronze III, ca. 1600-1150 BCE.

The final report will comprise a detailed presentation of all the carefully documented and processed data - architectural, stratigraphic and artifactual, including specialized studies on various aspects of material remains. The report will be concluded by a synthetic chapter on the history and material culture of Tel Sera against the background of the western Negev as well as the North Sinai corridor (Ways-of-Horus) between Canaan and Egypt's Nile Delta.