Shechem V: The Late Bronze Age Pottery from Field Xiii at Shechem / Tell Balatah

Substantial ceramic and architectural remains attributable to the Late Bronze Age were excavated in Field XIII in 1968 by the Drew-McCormick Expedition.

The Late Bronze Age sequence spanning the Late Bronze I, IIA, and IIB contains ceramics from occupational contexts and also from a cache of 850 restorable and complete vessels from a Basement Chamber sealed below destruction debris. This analysis provides data on the ceramic typological development and the technological processes or chaine operatoire at a Northern Hill Country site. While mostly domestic in nature, the ceramic assemblage also comprises imported Cypriot White Slip and Base Ring Wares that place the territorial kingdom, governed by the ambitious ruler Lab'ayu, within a wider regional trade system encompassing the Dothan-Jezreel and Beth Shean Valley routes.

The findings from this investigation align with recent scholarship that shows the early Late Bronze I was defined by contracted settlement over a protracted period of time, in contrast to the architectural and ceramic complexity exhibited in the Late Bronze IIA, and to a limited extent in the Late Bronze IIB.

This report continues the effort to publish the excavation findings from ten seasons of excavations spanning 1957 to 1972 and originally led by Expedition Director G. Ernest Wright. 33 b&w illustrations and 33 tables.