A case study of the Late Bronze and Early Iron Age cemeteries of Tell el-Far'ah (South)

The subject of this thesis is the study of the Late Bronze and Early Iron Age tombs of the site of Tell el-Far'ah (South) in southern Palestine, excavated in 1928 and 1929 by W. M. F. Petrie. Because contextual information on the tombs is particularly scant, this work essentially concentrates on the analysis of the material furnishings which were found in association with the burials. It is primarily concerned with the pottery assemblages, but the rich variety of small finds discovered in the tombs is also discussed. The prime interest of the tombs of Tell el-Far'ah, which cover the important transition period going from the 13th to the early 10th centuries B.C., does not only reside in the diversity of the nature of their furnishings, which, besides pottery also include beads, scarabs, amulets, metal and stone vessels, worked ivory, weapons and tools, but also in the variety of the foreign influences which they reflect. Although none of the tombs considered here does contain foreign imports in significant quantities (whether from the Aegean, Cyprus, Egypt or Syria), the majority of them, for example through the presence of local imitations of foreign pottery types, suggest that relationships between the various regions of the eastern Mediterranean were still alive during the period under consideration. Instead of ascribing the diverse innovations, changes and apparent disturbances of the Early Iron Age Levant to the activities of migrating populations from the Aegean (the “Sea Peoples”) this research proposes an alternative explanation to the question. It notably argues that the furnishings of the tombs of Tell el-Far'ah provide an important insight into the emergence of new patterns of trade and exchanges in the Mediterranean, accompanied by new forms of socio-economic organization.