Academic literature on the topic 'Forensic archaeology – Israel – Lachish'

Abstract. Strontium isotope ratios (87Sr ∕ 86Sr) of biogenic material such as bones and teeth reflect the local sources of strontium ingested as food and drink during their formation. This has led to the use of strontium isotope ratios as a geochemical tracer in a wide range of fields including archaeology, ecology, food studies and forensic sciences. In order to utilise strontium as a geochemical tracer, baseline data of bioavailable 87Sr ∕ 86Sr in the region of interest are required, and a growing number of studies have developed reference maps for this purpose in various geographic regions, and over varying scales. This study presents a new data set of bioavailable strontium isotope ratios from rock and soil samples across Israel, as well as from sediment layers from seven key archaeological sites. This data set may be viewed and accessed both in an Open Science Framework repository (https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/XKJ5Y, Moffat et al., 2020) or via the IRHUM (Isotopic Reconstruction of Human Migration) database.

The 21 inscribed ceramic sherds (or ostraca) known as the "Lachish Letters", which were discovered during the British Mandate Period excavations of Tell ed-Duweir (Lachish), underwent eighty years of scholarship that improved our understanding of at least some of these inscriptions. The archive is terse and fragmentary, and the least well-preserved and faded ostraca from this collection have been seriously overlooked, ironically when the "Lachish Letters" have more or less been regarded as a homogenous group of documents written during the final decades of the Judahite kingdom. Some of the ostraca were discovered in different stratigraphic contexts and pertaining to different settings, if not timeframes. The principal aim of this study is to produce an updated edition of these ostraca by objectively and systematically reassessing and understanding these artefacts, the inscriptions they bear, and their respective stratigraphic layers and archaeological contexts. This is carried out by integrating past studies and modern-day developments on the ostraca (and the site itself) from different perspectives: archaeology, palaeography, philology, the Hebrew Bible, and Classical Hebrew studies. This interdisciplinary approach enables a revision of outstanding controversial issues and a dismissal of outdated proposals on the readings, interpretation, and import of these ostraca in their contemporary world. Despite the illegibility of some inscriptions, this study pays attention to all 21 ostraca via physical examination under the lens, to confirm or deny any dubious readings as far as the naked eye can tell us. A crucial criterion is the integration of photographic data and written documentation gathered from unpublished and archived material of the Mandate Period that were accessible to the author at the time of writing. The study concludes that this surviving group of ostraca is far from homogeneous, and there still exist lacunae in their historico-archaeological contexts and interpretations. Our understanding of the source and function of the ostraca (especially the few legible messages and lists of names) remains riddled with controversies, which derive from the fragmentary nature of the corpus and the limitations in the documentation and preservation of these artefacts.

Due to the nature of war, persons are killed with various types of weapons. Throughout the history of humanity, weapons were used in this regard and these weapons left injuries on the victims that are distinguishable. The type of force conveyed by the ancient weapons effected injuries that enable modern-day bioarchaeologists to extrapolate which weapons caused which injuries. The Assyrians depicted their wars and battles on reliefs. An analysis of these depictions, with an extrapolation of the lesions expected in skeletal remains, could contribute to better understanding of the strategies of war in ancient times. This dissertation will discuss how the evaluation of human remains in comparison to Assyrian reliefs may contribute to the chronological knowledge of war and warfare in the Iron Age Ancient Near East – especially at Lachish. A discourse of the approaches available to researchers regarding access to data in the forensic bioarchaeological field will be presented.
Biblical and Ancient Studies
M.A. (Biblical Archaeology)

The archive as a site of ‘knowledge retrieval’* has long been the exemplary domain of astute historical inquiry. Following the recent ‘historic turn’* to address the politics of knowledge in the broader human and historical sciences, rather than its function as a site of ‘knowledge retrieval’*, I will reflect on the function of the archive as a site of ‘knowledge production’* in the writing of the histories of ancient Israel. Aligned within the conversations among historians and archivists and the new archival turn, the research will endeavour to offer a contribution to the debate on the topic of historical methodology of ancient Israel in the disciplines of Biblical Archaeology and History of ancient Israel. I will argue that an examination into the function of the archive as historical a priori in a study of the discourses on the Lachish reliefs in the disciplines discloses the practical and theoretical tenets that converge to construct knowledge on the Lachish reliefs and hence also knowledge on ancient Israel. The research will contend that a bounded formation of knowledge on the Lachish reliefs has evolved in the disciplines since the nineteenth century that is along the British imperial archival grain. * Terminology from Stoler, A L 2002. Colonial Archives and the Arts of Governance: On the Content in the Form, in Hamilton C, Harris, V, Taylor, J, Pickover, M, Reid, G & Saleh, R (eds) 2002. Refiguring the Archive. Cape Town: David Philip, 83-102.
Biblical and Ancient Studies
MA (Biblical Archaeology)
1 online resource (xii, 194 leaves) ; illustrations (some color), maps

Focusing on one archaeological mound, Tell ed-Duweir, in the lowland region of Palestine, in the vicinity of Hebron, identified as biblical Lachish, the fortress city in the kingdom of Judah, Chapter 4 moves between London, the Tell, and its neighbouring villages. The chapter is a history of a landmark excavation, which uncovers the variety of its archaeological, biblical, anthropological, social, and political layers. Drawing on a wealth of written and visual materials at the Wellcome Institute, the British Museum Archives, the Israel Antiquities Authority, the National Archives, as well as on the press and archaeologists’ records, the chapter relates the identification of the Tell as Lachish, the discovery of the famous Lachish Letters (in pre-Exilic Hebrew), and their effect on Biblical Archaeology and epigraphy, to the rise of new fields of knowledge such as physical anthropology and anthropometrics. The chapter argues that the excavation project was regarded by archaeologists as a means of modernizing rural Palestine and the lives of Palestinian peasants and labourers. It recovers the modernizers’ daily life on the Tell and their representations of it in writing, photography, and documentary films. It also recoups the process of the Tell’s expropriation, as a historical monument, by the mandate authorities. Alongside the reports of archaeologists like James Leslie Starkey (who was murdered on his way from the Tell to the opening of the new Rockefeller museum in Jerusalem), Olga Tufnell, and Charles Inge, the chapter recovers the voices of villagers as they are heard through their petitions to the government about their denied access to the excavated land.