HU Credits: 2

Degree/Cycle: 2nd degree (Master)

Responsible Department: Archaeology & Ancient near East

Semester: 2nd Semester

Teaching Languages: English

Campus: Mt. Scopus

Course/Module Coordinator: Prof. Yosef Garfinkel

Coordinator Email: garfinkel@mail.huji.ac.il

Coordinator Office Hours: Tuesday 2:15 afternoon

Teaching Staff:
Prof. Yosef Garfinkel

Course/Module description:
This course explores the archaeological site of Tel Lachish, one of the most important cities in the ancient Near East. Students will examine its significance in Canaanite and Israelite periods, analyzing archaeological findings, historical texts, and their implications for understanding the region's history and culture.

Course/Module aims:
We will use Tel Lachish as a case study for research methods in archaeology: the history of the research, the settlement patterns at the site, and the relationship between archaeology, the Bible, and history.

Learning outcomes - On successful completion of this module, students should be able to:
By the end of this course, students will be able to:
1. Understand the historical and cultural significance of Tel Lachish
2. Analyze archaeological evidence from various periods of occupation
3. Interpret biblical and extra-biblical texts related to Lachish
4. Evaluate the methods and challenges of biblical archaeology
5. Discuss the impact of Tel Lachish discoveries on our understanding of ancient Near Eastern history

Attendance requirements(%):
100

Teaching arrangement and method of instruction: Frontal lecture, Zoom, Power-Points

Course/Module Content:
1. Tel Lachish in Context
2. The expeditions to Lachish
3. Early Bronze Age Lachish
4. Middle Bronze Age City State Lachish
5. Late Bronze Age City State Lachish
6. Canaanite cult in Lachish
7. Early alphabetic writing
8. The Iron Age I around Lachish
9. Iron Age IIA-B Lachish, in the Kingdom of Judah
10. The Assyrians at Lachish at 701 BC
11. The last century of Judean Lachish
12. The Lachish Letters
13. Post-Exilic Lachish: Persian and Hellenistic periods

Required Reading:
Excavation Reports
Torczyner, H. 1938. Lachish I: The Lachish Letters. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Tufnell, O., Inge, C. and Harding, G. L. 1940. Lachish II: The Fosse Temple. London: Oxford University Press.

Tufnell, O. 1953. Lachish III: The Iron Age. London: Oxford University Press.

Tufnell, O. 1958. Lachish IV: The Bronze Age. London: Oxford University Press.

Aharoni, Y. 1975. Investigations at Lachish: the Sanctuary and the Residency (Lachish V). Tel Aviv: Gateway Publishers.

Ussishkin, D. 2004. The Renewed Archaeological Excavations at Lachish (1973–1994). Tel Aviv: Institute of Archaeology, Tel Aviv University.


Canaanite writing
Höflmayer, F., Misgav, H., Webster, L. and Streit, K., 2021. Early alphabetic writing in the ancient Near East: the ‘missing link’from Tel Lachish. Antiquity, 95(381), pp.705-719.

Finkelberg, M., Uchitel, A., Ussishkin, D. and Eshet, Y., 1996. A linear a inscription from tel lachish (lach za 1). Tel Aviv, 23(2), pp.195-207.

Middle Bronze Age
Garfinkel, Y., Hasel, M.G., Klingbeil, M.G., Kreimerman, I., Pytlik, M., Carroll, J.W., Waybright, J.W., Kang, H.G., Choi, G., Chang, S. and Hong, S., 2021. The Canaanite and Judean cities of Lachish, Israel: preliminary report of the fourth expedition, 2013–2017. American Journal of Archaeology, 125(3), pp.419-459.

Garfinkel, Y., 2024. How to date a city wall? The case study of Middle Bronze Age Lachish. Palestine Exploration Quarterly, pp.1-22.

Late Bronze Age lChronology
Ussishkin, D., 2016. Level VII and VI at Tel Lachish and the end of the Late Bronze Age in Canaan. In Palestine in the Bronze and Iron Ages (pp. 213-230). Routledge.

Webster, L., Streit, K., Dee, M., Hajdas, I. and Höflmayer, F., 2019. New radiocarbon-based assessment supports the prominence of Tel Lachish during late Bronze age IB-IIA. Radiocarbon, 61(6), pp.1711-1727.


Late Bronze Canaanite cult
Koch, I., 2017. Revisiting the Fosse Temple at Tel Lachish. Journal of ancient near eastern religions, 17(1), pp.64-75.

Weissbein, I., Garfinkel, Y., Hasel, M.G., Klingbeil, M.G., Brandl, B. and Misgav, H., 2019. The Level VI north-east temple at Tel Lachish. Levant, 51(1), pp.76-104.

Lachish and Gath
Ussishkin, D., 2015. Gath, Lachish and Jerusalem in the 9 th Cent, BCE-an Archaeological Reassessment. Zeitschrift des Deutschen Palästina-Vereins (1953-), (H. 2), pp.129-149.

Iron Age gate shrine
Ganor, S. and Kreimerman, I., 2019. An eighth-century BCE gate shrine at Tel Lachish, Israel. Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, 381(1), pp.211-236.

LMKL
Ussishkin, D., 1977. The Destruction of Lachish by Sennacherib and the Dating of the Royal Judean Storage Jars. Tel Aviv, 4(1-2), pp.28-60.

Sennacherib Relief
Ussishkin, D. 1982. The Conquest of Lachish by Sennacherib. Tel Aviv: Institute of Archaeology, Tel Aviv University.

Uehlinger, C. 2003. “Clio in a World of Pictures—Another Look at the Lachish Reliefs from Sennacherib’s Southwest Palace at Nineveh.” Pages 221–307 in “Like a Bird in a Cage”: The Invasion of Sennacherib in 701 BCE. Edited by L. L. Grabbe. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press.

Assyrian siege ramp
Ussishkin, D., 2004. Area R and the Assyrian siege. The Renewed Archaeological Excavations at Lachish (1973–1994), 2, pp.695-767.

Eph'al, I., 1984. The Assyrian siege ramp at Lachish: military and lexical aspects. Tel Aviv, 11(1), pp.60-70.

Gottlieb, Y., 2004. The weaponry of the Assyrian attack. Section A: the arrowheads and some aspects of the course of the Lachish siege battle, pp.1907-1969.

Garfinkel, Y., Carroll, J.W., Pytlik, M. and Mumcuoglu, M., 2021. Constructing the Assyrian Siege Ramp at Lachish: Texts, Iconography, Archaeology and Photogrammetry. Oxford Journal of Archaeology, 40(4), pp.417-439.

Additional Reading Material:
Dever, W. G. 2017. Beyond the Texts: An Archaeological Portrait of Ancient Israel and Judah. SBL Press. (Chapter on Lachish)
Fantalkin, A., & Tal, O. 2006. Redating Lachish Level I: Identifying Achaemenid Imperial Policy at the Southern Frontier of the Fifth Satrapy. In O. Lipschits & M. Oeming (Eds.), Judah and the Judeans in the Persian Period (pp. 167-197).
Garfinkel, Y. 2024. Colonial Archaeology in Palestine in the 1930s: The First Expedition to Lachish. Jerusalem: Israel Exploration Society.
Garfinkel, Y., Keimer, K.H., Ganor, S., Rollston, C. and Ben-Shlomo, D. 2019. Khirbet al-Ra‘i in the Judean Shephelah: The 2015–2019 Excavation Seasons. Strata: Bulletin of the Anglo-Israeli Archaeological Society 37: 13–50.

Garfinkel, Y., Kreimerman, I., Hasel, M.G. and Klingbeil, M.G. 2019. First Impression on the Urban Layout of the Last Canaanite City of Lachish: A View from the Northeast Corner of the Site. In A. Maeir, I. Shai and C. McKinny (eds.) The Late Bronze and Early Iron Ages of Southern Canaan (Archaeology of the Biblical Worlds 2), pp. 122–135. Berlin: de Gruyter.

Grading Scheme :
Essay / Project / Final Assignment / Home Exam / Referat 60 %
Presentation / Poster Presentation / Lecture/ Seminar / Pro-seminar / Research proposal 40 %

Additional information: