Preliminary Report on the Results of the 2015 Excavation Season at Tel Kabri
Assaf Yasur-Landau,* Eric H. Cline,† Andrew Koh,‡ Nurith Goshen,§ and Alexandra
Ratzlaff**
The 2015 excavations at Tel Kabri, the capital of a Middle Bronze Age Canaanite
kingdom located in the western Galilee region of modern Israel, lasted from 14 June to 9
July 2015. Highlights of the season included the discovery of three more rooms
containing a minimum of 70 jars, connected to the original “wine cellar” (Room 2440)
discovered in 2013. Combining these with the discoveries of the 2013 season, we can now
confidently report that we have located a southern storage complex belonging to the
palace, with at least 110 restorable jars still in situ within four storage rooms, as well as
a different building complex with additional jars in what might be a fifth storage room
located to the northwest. Organic Residue Analysis is currently being conducted on each
jar, in order to determine the contents.
Fig. 1. Aerial view of 2015 excavated area at Tel Kabri
(photo by Griffin Aerial Imaging/Skyview Photography Ltd)
*
The Leon Recanati Institute for Maritime Studies and the Department of Maritime Civilizations, The Leon
H. Charney School of Maritime Sciences, University of Haifa
† Department of Classical and Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, The George Washington
University
‡ Departments of Classical Studies and Chemistry, Brandeis University
§ Graduate Program in the Art and Archaeology of the Mediterranean World, University of Pennsylvania
** Department of Maritime Civilizations, The Leon H. Charney School of Maritime Sciences, University of
Haifa
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Introduction
The 2015 excavation season at Tel Kabri in Israel was co-directed by Assaf YasurLandau of the University of Haifa and Eric H. Cline of The George Washington
University, with Andrew Koh of Brandeis University as Associate Director. It was
undertaken with grants from Bronfman Philanthropies and the Institute for Aegean
Prehistory (INSTAP), with additional funding provided by the Columbian College of
Arts and Sciences at The George Washington University, Brandeis University, as well as
private donors, including Joshua Eisen, BAF, and BASONOVA. Assistance in
conservation and storage was provided by the Leon Recanati Institute for Maritime
Studies, directed by Professor Michal Artzy. We are most grateful to all of these
institutions and people.
Fig. 2. Team members from the 2015 season at Tel Kabri
Senior staff members included Area Supervisors Nurith Goshen (University of
Pennsylvania) and Alexandra Ratzlaff (University of Haifa), with Assistant Area
Supervisors Ehud (Udi) Arkin and Paula Zajac (University of Haifa). Conservation work
and pottery restoration are being conducted by JJ Gottlieb and Roee Shafir (University of
Haifa).
Personnel conducting scientific analyses included residue analysis by Andrew Koh
(Brandeis University), radiocarbon dating by Felix Höflmayer (Austrian Academy of
Sciences), geoarchaeology by Ruth Shahack-Gross (University of Haifa), zooarchaeology
by Guy Bar-Oz and Nimrod Marom (University of Haifa), and Dafna Langgut (Tel Aviv
University). Results from these analyses will hopefully be forthcoming in the immediate
future.
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The international team included volunteers and staff from the United States and Israel
(Fig. 2); participating students came primarily from the three consortium schools -- The
George Washington University, Brandeis University, and the University of Haifa – but
others are currently enrolled at Yale University, the University of Pennsylvania, Bryn
Mawr, Purchase College, and elsewhere. During the excavation season, the team was
housed and fed at the Western Galilee Field School, in Achziv; we are most grateful to
the staff of the field school for their hospitality and many kindnesses.
Fig. 3. Plan of excavated area with portions of four storage rooms in D-West
Excavation Results
During the 2015 season, our efforts were concentrated in one main area, Area D-West,
aiming at excavating the area to the north and south of storage room 2440. This storage
room had been previously excavated during the 2013 season and was found to be filled
with wine jars (Yasur-Landau et al. 2013, Koh, Yasur-Landau, and Cline 2014). We were
trying to find out if this was an isolated room or part of a storage complex, as part of our
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ongoing research dealing with the Canaanite political economy. We suspected that it was
the latter, since we had exposed the northeast corner of Room 2520 in 2013, but it
remained uncertain whether it was a storage room unto itself or spillover from 2440.
Preliminary results have now demonstrated that Room 2440 (the original “wine cellar” as
per our previous publications) was not an isolated storeroom, but was rather the
northernmost room in a Storage Complex that included at least four rooms (from north to
south: 2440, 2520, 2533 and 2546). These were all organized in a single row, with NS
wall 2441 functioning as the eastern wall of each of the rooms, and a narrow plastered
threshold leading between each room, immediately adjacent to this wall. At c. 17m long
and counting, this is now the longest single wall in the area, bordering western wall 2317
of the Orthostat Building for a portion of its length. Interestingly, it is a solid wall with no
direct means of access from the storage rooms to the areas of the palace lying to the east.
Fig. 4a-b. Photographs of four storage rooms in D-West,
looking from south to north (left) and north to south (right)
The entrance (2478) into the Storage Complex was from the middle of the north wall,
assuming the design of the room is symmetrical. A narrow transition space separated this
complex from the building to its north, which was approached via an entrance between
Walls 2500 and 2446, to be described below. These two entrances face each other,
creating the image of an entrance with two pairs of tiers, which was described in the
previous report.
The rooms of the Storage Complex are as follows, proceeding from north to south:
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Fig. 5. Room 2440, with jars still in situ both in the room and in the narrow space to the
north, as seen towards the end of the 2013 excavation season
Room 2440: Excavated and described in 2013, this is a broad room with inner
dimensions of 4.6m x 6.7m. It has a white plaster floor, with mudbrick walls on stone
foundations that were also plastered. The line of the plaster is still preserved and visible
near the base of all of the walls and in some instances still present on the mudbrick
superstructure. An installation, containing the lower part of a storage jar, was sunken into
the floor. The finds in this room, of which we estimate ca. 80-85% was excavated, were
described in the previous preliminary report, but included nearly 40 intact but shattered
storage jars. Subsequent organic residue analysis, conducted between August and
November 2013, indicated that all of the jars originally held resinated wine.
Fig. 6a-b. Two views of Room 2520, looking east (left) and north (right), with jars still in
situ; two plastered thresholds are visible in the left photograph, while Room 2440 is
visible in the background in the right photograph
Room 2520: A plastered threshold ca. 92cm wide led from Room 2440 to Room 2520
through Wall 2450. To date, only ca. 50% of this room has been excavated. We have not
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yet located the western wall of the room and the east-west axis has not yet been fully
exposed at any single point. However, it is likely that it had a similar dimension at least
on this axis to Room 2440, i.e. ca. 6.7m. Its north-south axis was somewhat shorter, so
that the room was a bit narrower, measuring only ca. 3.9m. The southern closing wall,
W2502, was similar in construction and dimensions to Wall 2450, i.e., with a fieldstone
foundation and a width of 1.1-1.2m, but it is somewhat warped, giving the entire room a
somewhat trapezoid appearance. It is also anticipated that an installation, on a NS line
with those found in the other rooms, is currently concealed beneath the unexcavated
section of the balk, which currently protrudes into the room at the west.
Fig. 7a-b. Two main types of storage jars in Room 2520: large handleless pithoi ca. 1m
tall (left) and smaller, more slender pithoi ca. 80 cm tall (right)
This room too had a thick plaster floor, which covered the base of the wall, indicating
that the walls themselves were covered with white plaster. The entire room had a thick
collapse level of mudbrick material containing much calcareous material, presumably
originating from the wall plaster. The floor has a fairly sharp rise running across the room
from northwest to southeast and a slight subsidence in the plaster on either side of the
rise, as do the other rooms in this row, a fact that will be discussed below.
The floor of the room was covered with storage jars, with at least 17 and possible as
many as 30 in the excavated part (the final number will be determined during restoration,
using a minimum number analysis). There appear to be two main categories: large
handleless pithoi perhaps ca. 1m tall, similar in size to the ones found in Room 2440; and
smaller handleless pithoi or storage jars which are slightly more slender and have a
maximum height of ca. 80cm. The collapse in this room shows a manifested
directionality, with many of the jars falling along an east-west axis (as can be seen in Fig.
7a-b).
On first inspection, the rims from the jars in this room appear to show greater variation
than the rims in Room 2440, including at least four distinct types. Several handles and
smaller size rims found in this room also indicate the presence of two-handled amphorae
in the assemblage. In addition, in the center of the room, by fine grids 9 and 10, were a
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number of small vessels that had been crushed by both the weight of the collapse and the
pithoi which fell on top of them. These include at least one juglet, two shallow bowls,
and a chalice.
Fig. 8a-b. Two views of Room 2533: looking northeast to southwest with jars still in situ
(left) and looking east with jars removed and installation visible (right)
Room 2533: Threshold 2518 allows access from Room 2520 to Room 2533 to its south,
through Wall 2502. This too was a broad room; ca. 60% of it was excavated. Its western
wall has not yet been located, so that the east-west axis has not yet been fully exposed at
any single point. However, it is likely that it too had a similar dimension on this axis to
Room 2440, i.e. ca. 6.7m. It is approximately the same width as Room 2520, with a
north-south measurement of 3.9m. A thick collapse of mudbrick material with many
calcareous inclusions, without traces of burning, covered the floor and the pottery on it.
Fig. 9a-c. Three views of Installation VS. 2533.61 within Room 2533,
at various stages of excavation
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An installation, Vs. 2533.61, is located near the apparent middle of this room, in a similar
location to the installation previously found in Room 2440 during the 2013 excavation
season. It is made of a small pithos, which has its rim removed and is sunk ca. 80cm into
the plaster floor. The fact that the pithos base is still intact, and not perforated, indicates
that this was probably not a drain but rather was perhaps a means of collecting, and then
perhaps reusing, the liquids spilled in this room. Several grape seeds, as well as pieces of
charcoal, were found within this installation.
The floor of the room was found covered with crushed pithoi and storage jars, in a
density greater than that seen in the other rooms. A minimum count established the
presence of at least 50 (and perhaps as many as 65) large and small storage pithoi, with a
variety of rims similar to that seen in Room 2520. However, conditions of greater
moisture in this room, perhaps caused by an avocado tree with relatively deep roots, have
resulted in a poorer state of preservation for a number of the vessels. While some are
restorable, others are so crushed and the pottery so disintegrated that the remains are
more smears than they are sherds and thus could not always be fully retrieved.
The assemblage also contained some smaller vessels, including fragments of at least two
dipper juglets. A number of these were found along the northern wall of the room, as if
they had fallen from shelves, and in some instances were found within the larger vessels.
Fig. 10a-b. Two additional views of Room 2533: fragmentary storage jars in middle of
room (left); additional jars and smaller vessels by the northern wall of the room (right)
One characteristic of this room, unseen in the other two rooms to the north, was the
occurrence of jars heaped one on top of the other in several parts of the room (see Fig.
10a-b). One possible explanation is that they were stored on shelves located one above
another, and then fell and were crushed in heaps when the walls and roof collapsed.
Although it seems unlikely that jars this large would be kept up on shelves, this
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explanation will also account for the lack of directionality in their collapse, unlike that
seen in Room 2520.
Fig. 11a-b. Partial Room 2546, to south of Room 2533: looking west after removal of
storage jars (left); looking west with fragmentary jars still in situ (right)
Room 2546: Another threshold leads south through Wall 2540, allowing access from
Room 2533 to Room 2546. Only a small triangular portion of this room was excavated
during the 2015 season, since it continues under the modern road that runs through the
area. However, even in this small area, ca. 1m NS by 2.5m EW, there are approximately
seven jars that were excavated this season.
A Probe under the Floor of Room 2533
It was noted that all three of the storage rooms (2440, 2520, and 2533) which have
significant portions of their floor visible have some sort of rise or higher area running
across the room from west to east (or east to west). In Room 2533, this is very
pronounced and approximately 1m wide; here it is also higher than the plaster on either
side of the rise (see Fig. 8b). This rise or higher area in the floor of each room is also
reflected in the eastern wall of each room (NS wall 2441).
A 2x1m probe was therefore opened in Room 2533, parallel to Wall 2441, in order to
ascertain the reason for the warping of the floor in all the storage rooms along east-west
lines. Within the probe, an earlier EW wall (2549) was found below the later plaster
floor; the floor has subsided to the north and south of the wall, but remains raised in the
area in which it was supported by the wall. It was also discovered that Wall 2441 is later
than Wall 2549, and that it has relatively shallow foundations, extending ca. 50cm below
the floor level of Room 2533.
Based on the results from this probe in Room 2533, we believe that the warp/rise in the
floor across each of the three rooms is caused by the existence of an earlier set of walls
(and possibly storerooms) underlying this later set of rooms. In each case, the warp/rise
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lies immediately above the earlier wall, so that the floor has not subsided in the same way
as elsewhere in the room, resulting in a plaster “crop mark” as it were.
Fig. 12a-b. Results of the probe under the plaster floor of Room 2533: EW Wall 2549
(left) and heavy collapse of mudbrick material adjacent to and south of Wall 2549 (right)
In addition, remains found by this earlier Wall 2549 included a heavy collapse of reddish
mudbrick material, which contained much charred organic material, as well as pieces of
charred wood. Parts of a storage jar still in situ and crushed against the side of Wall 2549,
and resting on a beaten earth surface with charcoal and other organic material, were left
in situ for a more complete excavation of this level in future seasons.
We have tentatively concluded that Wall 2549 belongs to an earlier phase of the palace,
perhaps Phase DW IV of the MBII, dating to before the Storage Complex of Phase DW
III was constructed. If indeed the east-west warping in the floors of the other rooms of
the Storage Complex, i.e. Rooms 2440 and 2520, is also the result of EW walls buried
beneath them, then we might hypothesize that there is another row of rooms that are
buried, belonging to an earlier phase of the palace, perhaps destroyed by fire.
Unit/Complex North of the Storage Complex
During the 2015 season, it became clear that Wall 2455+2443, which is the northern wall
of the Storage Complex, is not parallel to Wall 2446+2500, which is located slightly
further to the north. Furthermore, although Wall 2446 joins and makes a corner with Wall
2441 (the eastern wall of the Storage Complex), it has lower foundations than both Wall
2441 and Wall 2443. Both of these facts together suggest that Wall 2446+2500 is the
southern wall of a different complex within the palace.
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Transition unit: A trapezoid shaped transition unit separates the Storage Complex from
the complex to its north. Its floor was not covered in plaster, but was made from a beaten
earth surface, emphasizing a difference between the two complexes to either side.
Fig. 13a-b. Transitional area and complex to the north of the Storage Complex:
trapezoid shaped transition unit between Wall 2455+2443 and Wall 2446+2500 after
removal of pottery, looking west (left); same elements with jars still in situ before
removal of pottery, looking east (right)
The eastern part of this unit, located east of the entrance to the Storage Complex, was
excavated in 2013 and was referred to as the "eastern chamber" in the preliminary report
for that season. Within it were found numerous storage jars.
The western part of this unit was excavated this year. It is considerably narrower than the
eastern part, measuring only 1m in width in its narrowest side (in comparison with 1.5m
in the eastern part). Nevertheless, several additional storage jars were found within this
area.
A Northern Unit/Complex: The entrance to this unit or complex was through an
opening in Wall 2446+2500. The room north of this wall, which may have served as a
storage room, had a thick plaster floor; one large storage handleless jar and fragments
from other jars were found on the floor. A pit with the remains of a 19th century CE
terrace cut this room from east to west; the plaster floor was found tilting into this pit.
North of the disturbance, there is a heavy collapse, with debris of plaster and pottery
resting on the floor. Included among this were the remains of three small storage jars with
handles, found upside down in the collapse. It may be that these fell from a second story
or from a high shelf.
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Fig. 14a-b. Northern Unit/Complex: fragmentary pottery and plaster debris resting on
floor, looking east (left); thick plaster floor with jar fragments, looking east (right). Note
that the pit and terrace wall disturbing the area (seen centered above, on the edges of the
two pictures) have temporarily been left in place rather than removed.
Additional Rooms?
At the western border of the excavated area in this northern region, Wall 2500 ends,
forming an entrance to a yet-unexcavated space to its south. Future excavations will
determine whether this is an access to another row of storerooms or to units of altogether
different function.
Excavation Method
Having experienced the trials and tribulations of digging a storage room during the 2013
season, we began following our rather unorthodox daily schedule from the very
beginning of the 2015 excavation season. Since the small area in which we were
excavating could not accommodate all of the team members at once, half of the team
excavated from 5 am to 1 pm each day while the other half of the team excavated from 2
pm to 7 pm. Those who were on the AM shift then spent the afternoon processing the
finds as per normal (pottery washing and reading; flotation; bone sorting), while those on
the PM shift did the same thing in the morning. In this way, nobody worked longer than
normal, but we were again able to get in more hours of excavation and processing than
could otherwise have been done. We were therefore not only able to once again excavate
the jars in an orderly fashion, but also to take samples for residue analysis and
petrography, as well as soil samples for wet-sieving for zooarchaeology and flotation for
archaeobotanical remains, before systematically removing each jar and its contents
carefully.
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Organic Residue Analysis
After the successful characterization of what would be dubbed the “wine cellar” (Room
2440) after the 2013 season, 80 organic residue analysis (ORA) samples were extracted
this season from approximately 70 additional unique vessels. While the vast majority of
the samples from 2013 were taken from large storage jars, the 80 samples from this
season were more varied, including smaller storage jars with handles possibly used for
transport and a larger assortment of fine ware.
With sherd sampling well in hand after ample experience dealing with intact vessels in
2013, our attention turned to some methodological questions raised by scholars in the
past. For example, in one instance, two adjacent sherds from the same jar were isolated in
the same fashion but treated to differing extraction strategies. One was treated in the
usual non-destructive manner espoused by our project while the second sherd was ground
into loose powder before ORA extraction (in the fashion adopted by many ORA projects
outside our own). In addition, in order to expand on our 2013 analysis of Jar 11, when
the sherd taken from higher up in the jar produced fewer and weaker chromatogram
peaks than a sherd taken from near the base, this year we sampled sherds from both the
base and rim of a jar. We anticipate that the rim sherd will produce weaker peaks, but we
wish to quantify the full extent of this phenomenon.
In the northwest corner of 2520, two storage jars were sampled to the farthest extent this
season. At the bottom half of each base, two sets of three samples were taken in rapid
succession. Dafna Langgut took an outside soil sample, bottom base sherd half, and
inside soil sample for palynological studies. An inside soil sample, bottom base sherd
half, and outside soil sample were then isolated for ORA analysis. During the subsequent
ORA extraction process back at the field school for these three samples, the boiled and
filtered remains were collected and provided to Dafna Langgut for additional comparison
to her three samples that did not go through the ORA extraction process.
Finally, we saved thirteen additional base sherds that were adjacent to thirteen of the base
sherds sampled this year. We will extract residues from these sherds in 2017 and compare
the resulting chromatograms to chromatograms produced this year from their neighboring
sherds. We expect to gain insight into the nature of organic residue degradation after
excavation even in light of proper isolation and storage. Overall, with 80 new samples
from 2015, we anticipate a newfound ability to address broader questions related to the
palatial economy at Kabri in a manner that is hopefully even more insightful than what
was possible in 2013.
Conclusions
The discovery of additional storerooms filled with large quantity of storage vessels may
prove to be an important cornerstone in our understanding of the Middle Bronze Age
palace and its operation at Tel Kabri. In terms of spatial organization, a distinct Storage
Complex has emerged in the south, containing at least four different rooms. The complex
was planned and constructed as one unit during Phase DW III, the last phase of the
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palace, dating to the MBII period, very likely within the 17th century BCE. It was
destroyed most likely during during the same period or soon thereafter, collapsing on top
of the full contingency of storage vessels.
The discovery has also provided new insights regarding the spatial organization of the
Middle Bronze Age palace. The entrance to the complex is from the north, away from the
entrances to Hall 611 and the Orthostat Building, indicating a separation between the
ceremonial wing of the palace and the storage complex. The distinct possibility that the
Storage Complex was preceded in time by a series of earlier rooms dating to Phase DW
IV was also raised this season, and should be examined in future seasons.
From a pottery typology point of view, the finds provide a robust sample of a variety of
storage vessels belonging to the final stage of the palace, thus greatly enriching the
existing repertoire. The samples collected from the pithoi and storage jars for ORA may
provide further evidence for the contents of the storerooms, including whether they too
contained wine or if they held other commodities. The study of palynological samples
and micro-archaeological samples taken from various loci within the storerooms may
also provide valuable insights on depositional processes in the Storage Complex. Finally,
the short-lived samples obtained for 14C dating this season can potentially sharpen the
absolute chronology for the last two phases of the palace, and may prove useful in the
broader picture of the absolute chronology of the Middle Bronze Age in the Eastern
Mediterranean.
References Cited
Andrew J. Koh, Assaf Yasur-Landau, and Eric H. Cline. 2014. “Characterizing a Middle
Bronze Palatial Wine Cellar from Tel Kabri.” PlosOne: August 27, 2014; DOI:
10.1371/journal.pone.0106406
(http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0106406)
Assaf Yasur-Landau et al. 2013. “Preliminary Report on the Results of the 2013
Excavation Season at Tel Kabri”
(https://digkabri2013.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/preliminary-report-on-the-results-ofthe-2013-excavation-season-at-tel-kabri.pdf)
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