Tel Abel Beth Maacah Archaeology Project, Israel - Institute for Field Research


Location: United States

Season: 
June 23, 2019 to July 19, 2019

Application Deadline: 
Friday, April 5, 2019

Deadline Type: 
Rolling

Website: 
http://ifrglobal.org/program/israel-abel-beth-maacah/

Flyer: PDF icon syllabus-abel-beth-maacah-2019.pdf

Program Type

Field school

RPA certified

no

Affiliation:

Institute for Field Research, Connecticut College, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Azusa Pacific University

Project Director:

Dr. Naama Yahalom-Mack, Dr. Nava Panitz-Cohen, Prof. Robert Mullins

Project Description

Tel Abel Beth Maacah is a large multi-layered site in the Upper Galilee of Israel, strategically located at the intersection of ancient routes connecting Israel, Lebanon (Phoenicia) and Syria (Aram). The site appears in second millennium BCE Egyptian sources, in the Bible as loyal to King David in the 10th century BCE, and conquered by the Arameans and Neo-Assyrians in the 9th and 8th centuries BCE. Six seasons of excavation have revealed remains from the Middle Bronze, Late Bronze and Iron Ages. Of particular interest is the intensive Iron Age I-IIA occupation and intriguing traces of cultic activity. A rich assemblage of  finds, some of them unique, shed important new light on the interaction between  Israelites, Arameans and Phoenicians in this border zone. To learn more, go to the Abel Beth Maacha project website.

Period(s) of Occupation: Bronze-Iron Age

Project size: 
1-24 participants

Minimum Length of Stay for Volunteers: Participants must stay entire duration of the field school.

Minimum age: 
18

Experience required: 
No prior experience is required to participate in this field school.

Room and Board Arrangements

Students will live in comfortable and clean housing at Kibbutz Kfar Szold in the Hula Valley, a 15 minute ride from the tell and from the town of Kiryat Shemonah.  Air-conditioned rooms accommodate three or four people and include an equipped kitchenette and a bathroom with a shower. Each room has a porch that opens to a communal lawn. Linens and towels are provided. Rooms are cleaned twice a week. Free Wi-Fi is available in the rooms. The kibbutz has a spring, a pool and a convenience store.
All meals are communal events and will provide plenty of nutritious food in the tradition of local Israeli cuisine, heavy on fresh fruits and vegetables, and may include hummus, tehina, falafel, and other local specialties, alongside the usual staples of chicken, meat, and fish. A rich breakfast buffet is served in the field during the week. Lunch and dinner take place in the kibbutz dining room. All meals on the weekend are in the kibbutz dining room. Bread, jam, and peanut butter are provided during the week to prepare an early-morning snack in your room. The food is kosher. We can accommodate vegetarian, gluten-free and vegan diets.

Cost: 
Room and Board are included in the cost of the program.

Academic Credit

Name of institution offering credit: 
Connecticut College
Number of credits offered 8 Semester Credits
Tuition: 
$4,645

Location

Contact Information
Institute for Field Research
2999 Overland Ave. Suite 103
Los Angeles
CA
USA
90064
info@ifrglobal.org
Telephone: 
424-209-1173
Recommended Bibliography: 

MANDATORY READINGS

Students are required to read at least 200 pages prior to their arrival. The following will be available for download on the Abel Beth Maacah website one month in advance of the field school program.

  • Arie, E. 2008. Reconsidering the Iron Age II Strata at Tel Dan: Archaeological and Historical Implications. Tel Aviv 35: 6–64.
  • Berlejung, A. 2014. Arameans Outside of Syria: Palestine, Pp. 339–365 in: H. Niehr (ed.), The Arameans in Ancient Syria. Leiden/Boston.
  • David, A., Mullins, R. and Panitz-Cohen, N. 2016. A Mnxprra Scarab from Tel Abel Beth Maacah. Journal of Ancient Egyptian Interconnections 9: 1–13.
  • Dever, W.G. 1986. Abel-Beth-Maacah: Northern Gateway of Ancient Israel in L.T. Geraty/L.G.Herr (eds.), The Archaeology of Jordan and Other Studies. A Presented to Siegfried H. Horn, Berrien Springs 1986, 207–223.
  • Mazar, B. 1961. Geshur and Maacah. Journal of Biblical Literature 80/1:16–28.
  • Mullins, R. A. A Brief Introduction to Field Archaeology. Abel Beth Maacah Archaeological Project.
  • Na’aman, N. 2012. The Kingdom of Geshur in History and Memory, Scandinavian Journal of the Old Testament 26/1: 88–101.
  • Panitz-Cohen, N., Mullins, R.A. and Bonfil, R., Launching Excavations at Tell Abil el Qameḥ (Abel Beth Maacah), Strata 31 (2013) 27–42.
  • Panitz-Cohen, N., Mullins, R.A. and Bonfil, R., Second Preliminary Report of the Excavations at Tell Abil el-Qameḥ (Abel Beth Maacah), Strata 33 (2015) 35–60.
  • Panitz-Cohen, N. and Mullins, R.A., Aram-Maacah? Aramaeans and Israelites on the Border: Excavations at Tell Abil el-Qameḥ (Abel-beth-maacah) in Northern Israel, Pp. O. Sergi/M.Oeming/I.J. de Hulster (eds.), In Search for Aram and Israel: Politics, Culture and Identity, Tübingen 2016.

RECOMMENDED READINGS

Aharoni, Y. The Land of the Bible: An Historical Geography. Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 1981.

Akkermans, P. and G. Schwartz, The Archaeology of Syria. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003.

Ahlstrom, G. W. The History of Ancient Palestine. Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress, 1993.

Ben-Tor, A. and R. Greenberg, The Archaeology of Ancient Israel. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1994.

Cline, E. H. Biblical Archaeology: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009.
ISBN: 978-0-19-534263-5 (General background in biblical and near eastern archaeology. It introduces the first explorers in the Holy Land, some controversies in archaeology, and gives a brief overview of the periods most closely related to biblical history.)

Currid, J.D. Doing Archaeology in the Land of the Bible: A Basic Guide. Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 1999. ISBN: 0-8010-2213-4 (Introduces archaeological periods and emphasizes field techniques.)

Dever, W. G. What Did the Biblical Writers Know and When Did They Know It? What Archaeology Can Tell Us About the Reality of Ancient Israel. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2002.

Dever, W. G. Who Were the Early Israelites and Where Did They Come From? Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2006.

Faust, A. Israel’s Ethnogenesis: Settlement, Interaction, Expansion and Resistance. Equinox, 2006.

Finkelstein, I. and A. Mazar, The Quest for the Historical Israel: Debating Archaeology and the History of Early Israel. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2007. ISBN: 978-1-58983-277-0 (This book looks at the current debate on the historicity of the Bible by Israel’s two most prominent archaeologists.)

Finkelstein, I and N. A. Silberman, The Bible Unearthed: Archaeology’s New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origins of Its Sacred Texts. New York: Free Press, 2002. ISBN-13: 978-0684869131.

 Hayes, J. H. and J. M. Miller, Israelite and Judaean History. Westminster, 1977.

 King, P. and L. Stager, Life in Biblical Israel. Westminster John Knox, 2001. ISBN: 978-0-66422-148-5.

Liverani, M. Israel’s History and the History of Israel. Oakville: Equinox, 2003.

  Mazar, A. Archaeology of the Land of the Bible. New York: Doubleday, 1991. ISBN: 978-0-38542-590-2 (This is the standard college text in English for biblical archaeology.)

  Moorey, P. R. S. A Century of Biblical Archaeology. Westminster John Knox, 1991.

  Murphy-O’Connor, J. The Holy Land: An Oxford Archaeological Guide from Earliest Times to 1700. 4th edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998. ISBN 0192880136.

  Pederson, J. Israel: Its Life and Culture. 4 vols. Oxford: Oxford University, 1940.

  Rainey A. and S. Notley, The Sacred Bridge: Carta’s Atlas of the Biblical World. Jerusalem: Carta, 2005.

  Richard, S. (ed.) Near Eastern Archaeology: A Reader. Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns, 2003.

  Redford, D. B. Egypt, Canaan and Israel in Ancient Times. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University, 1992.

  Matthews, V. A Brief History of Ancient Israel. Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2002.

  Moscati, S. (ed.), The Phoenicians. I.B. Tauris, 2001.

  K. L. Noll, Canaan and Israel in Antiquity: An Introduction. Sheffield: Sheffield University, 2001)

  Meyers, C. Discovering Eve: Ancient Israelite Women in Context. Oxford: Oxford University, 1988.

 Stern, E. Archaeology of the Land of the Bible. Volume II. The Assyrian, Babylonian and Persian Periods, 732-332 BCE. New York: Doubleday, 2001.

n  Vaux, R. de Ancient Israel: Its Life and Institutions. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans and Dove, 1997.

n  Kessler, R. The Social History of Ancient Israel: An Introduction. Minneapolis: Fortress, 2008.