Figurines from Tell Balatah/Shechem

Problem The Drew-­McCormick Expedition conducted six seasons of excavation at the site of Tell Balâtah/Shechem between 1957-­‐1968. During those campaigns they uncovered several anthropomorphic and zoomorphic (clay and stone) figurines. This study represents the initial research for those figurines and their eventual publication and will briefly review the pertinent research done on figurines from the Levant and provide a detailed catalogue of the available figurines from Tell Balâtah/Shechem. Method The 38 available figurines were studied and detailed drawings were provided for each. The known data associated with every figurine are specified (provenance, registration number, size, condition, physical description, etc.) and, where possible, parallels from other published figurines are given, based on typology and iconography. Results A detailed catalogue for the 38 figurines was established and can be used to easily reference and compare the available terracotta and stone figurine corpus from Tell Balâtah/Shechem. Conclusions Due to the lack of readily available data on the original context of each figurine, no major conclusions about them, specifically, can be drawn at this time. This paper has laid the foundation for the further study of these figurines when all their contextual data have been made available