The Kelsey Museum of Archaeology at the University of Michigan and the Department of Classical and Near Eastern Studies of the University of Minnesota are embarked on a large-scale excavation project at Tel Kedesh in the Upper Galilee of Israel (see map), under the joint direction of Professors Sharon Herbert (Michigan) and Andrea Berlin (Minnesota). This project marks a renewal of Kelsey-sponsored explorations of the Graeco-Roman Galilee, which began with Leroy Waterman's work at Sepphoris (1931) and continued with Professor Herbert's excavations at Tel Anafa (1978-86). After preliminary exploratory seasons in 1997 and 1998 the UM/UMINN team completed two NEH sponsored summer field seasons in 1999 and 2000 and is planning a 3rd full season for May 21-July 14 of 2006 (application and medical forms). A preliminary report on the 1997-2000 field work has appeared in BASOR 329 (February 2003).
Kedesh is the largest unexcavated tel site in Upper Galilee, occupying 20-25 acres (see aerial photo). It is located on the land of Kibbutz Malkia some 450 m above sea level in the Anti-Lebanon mountain range. As is amply demonstrated in the ancient sources, Kedesh is located in a border area between Phoenician and Jewish spheres of control; while the site lies close to areas of Jewish population in antiquity, it appears throughout much of its recorded history to have been under Phoenician political or cultural control. The goals of the UM/UMINN project are to explore the Hellenistic and Roman occupation levels of the site with the intent of identifying and expanding knowledge of continuing Phoenician elements in the material record of the Hellenistic era with particular attention to how these changed as they interacted with those of the Greeks and Romans during their political control of the region.
Excavation, with the exception of a step trench put down the southern end of the north tel, was limited to the south tel. In the first exploratory season, the UM/UMINN team opened two small probe trenches and discovered substantial Hellenistic remains of a mid 2nd c BCE house just below the modern surface. The second exploratory season, in March 1998, consisted of one week of magnetometric survey that revealed the outlines of several large building complexes as well as a fairly regular north-south village grid plan. One particularly impressive structure appeared in the southeast quadrant of the tel, adjacent to the house found in the 1997 probe.
During the 1999 and 2000 seasons the UM/UMINN team began to systematically explore the SE structure revealed by the magnetometric survey. The excavations revealed a large building, measuring 56 m east-west by 40 m north-south, with an impressive entry way on the south side leading to an off-enter open courtyard (10 x 14 m) to the N. Single rows of rooms lay along the N and W sides, separated from the court by a narrow corridor. The east half of the building is the site of a complex set of interconnecting rooms most likely of domestic function. One group at the NE corner of the court appears to be a bath similar to that found at nearby Tel Anafa. The north and the east rooms appear to have administrative or ceremonial functions. Both the size and plan of this building are typical of Persian and Hellenistic official structures elsewhere in the Near East, and it is clear this building, too, must have served public and administrative functions. The material found within the building dates largely to the first half of the second century B.C.E., making it contemporary with the house found west of this large building in the 1997 probe and further explored in the 1999/2000 seasons. Nothing on or under the floors of the large building dates later than the middle of the 2nd c BCE. On the basis of the structure’s date and function, we have named it the Hellenistic Administrative Building (HAB). There is evidence as well of a Persian period predecessor.
Finds from three rooms in the northwest corner of the HAB allow identification of some of the administrative functions and to some extent the administrators themselves. In the room next to the corner fourteen huge jars (2.6 m in height) were discovered leaning against the walls; residue analysis of two of the jars (carried out at the Pillsbury Research Labs in Minneapolis) showed them to have contained bread wheat. The room also held two Rhodian wine amphorae. It is clear that functioned as a storeroom for food and drink. The corner room to the W of the storeroom, along with corridor to its south, had an archival function. This is inferred from the upwards of 2000 thumbnail-sized clay sealings that the UM/UMINN team found there. These are tiny (av. 15mm) clay pellets, which carried impressions of individuals’ seal rings and were commonly used to close and notarize papyrus documents in the Persian, Hellenistic and Early Roman eras. The sealings are all that remain of what must have been a sizeable archive. Most of the sealings carry pictures, and of these about 75% are recognizable Greek gods and heroes, with the goddess Agathe Tyche (Greek for good luck) being the most common. There are a sizeable number of Seleucid imperial portraits, including several of the kings who ruled during the years that the HAB was in use (third-mid second centuries B.C.E.). There are also a small number of Phoenician seals: some have inscriptions mentioning the city of Tyre; some are identical to Phoenician coin images; and about 15 carry the image of the goddess Tanit along with an inscription in Phoenician “he who [rules] over the land”. This last group probably derives from a local official, perhaps a Phoenician governor appointed by the Seleucid king to administer the combined territories of southern Phoenicia and northern Israel.
The datable evidence indicates an abrupt, though temporary, abandonment of the Hellenistic Administration Building shortly after the middle of the second century B.C.E. The two Rhodian amphorae in the store room support this date, one dating to 146 B.C.E. and the other between 180-145 B.C.E. Dated sealings from the archive include 3 of 164/3 BCE and one of 148/7. These dates are very close to year of the battle in the plain of Hazor between Jonathan and Demetrius reported in First Maccabees (11.63-74) and Josephus (Ant 13.154-62). It seems likely that the Greek defeat in this battle and subsequent retreat and loss of life at their camp near Kedesh was the reason for the building’s abrupt abandonment. Other evidence suggests that the nature of the HAB’s abandonment was not permanent, however. The archive room alone of all the excavated areas was destroyed by fire. While this fire had destroyed the papyrus archive (and baked the clay sealings), only a few of the over 50 pottery vessels found on the floor of the room were burned. These vessels were found covered with a thin layer of soil that apparently largely protected them from the fire. This suggests that the room was first abandoned, perhaps for a period of several years, and only later set on fire. It appears that the HAB suffered at least two damaging episodes during the third quarter of the second century B.C.E., the earlier being the hasty abandonment of the building itself along with the house west of it, and the later being the deliberate burning of the corner archive room. This was succeeded by a reoccupation dated by coins, amphora handles and pottery to the last third of the 2nd c BCE. The re-occupation seems to have been a reasonably prosperous period, with residents acquiring imported and regional luxury table wares (primarily ESA, as well as Cypriot and Egyptian vessels). It is clear that the building no longer functioned as an integrated administrative center. The area of the HAB was finally abandoned as a living space by the early first century B.C.E. Surprisingly, given the Roman Temple nearby, there is no evidence for occupation of the area in the Roman era.
In addition to the intensive investigation of the HAB the UM/UMINN team opened exploratory trenches in the center and highest point of the southern tel as well as the probes in the saddle between the N and S tells and a step trench down the lower slopes of the north tel. In the south central trench the team uncovered the southern end of an apsidal mortuary chapel of Byzantine date. A monochromatic mosaic floor made up of white tessarae lies outside the chapel to the west. The step trench on the south slope of the north tel and three probes in the saddle between the tels tested what preserved stratigraphy might be traced between the modern village visible at the top of the N tel and the classical remains on the south tel. While these explorations did reveal a sample of the mediaeval through Ottoman occupation layers at Kedesh, they did not provide a continuum, since the preserved architecture dropped precipitously from Abassid to Middle Bronze Age. It would seem that the north tel was not occupied in the Classical through Byzantine eras. It is possible that it was used as a necropolis in these eras, given the presence of 4th c BCE Phoenician sarcophagi in the saddle.
In the 2006 season we will concentrate our efforts on the area of the HAB and nearby houses. We plan to excavate the bath, which was just beginning to appear along the east side of the HAB’s courtyard at the end of the 2000 season and to explore the public rooms and complex entry system, where we hope to find remains of the Persian period predecessor of the HAB.
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