A Modified Landscape as a Likely Arena of Social Differentiation and Identity at a Late Third Millennium BC Cemetery, Ramat Bet Shemesh, Israel

Abstract

Test excavations conducted in 2011, north of the ancient Khirbet el-Alia mound in the Ramat Bet Shemesh region of central Israel, revealed the remains of an Intermediate Bronze Age settlement and a related shaft tomb complex. Albeit very limited in scope, the excavation yielded suggestive information pertaining to the worldview of the site’s occupants. The placement and layout of rock-cut features in the cemetery hint at the incorporation of pre-existing natural features. Social stratification could be reflected by the spatial relationship between the cemetery with the neighboring settlement and mound.

Keywords:

• Intermediate Bronze Age shaft tombs
• Ramat Bet Shemesh
• social differentiation
• holy pilgrimage

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank the Israel Antiquity Authority for allowing him to use data that was collected during the excavation he conducted on its behalf.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Yitzhak Paz

Yitzhak Paz is a researcher and excavator in the Israel Antiquity Authority and a lecturer at the Department of Bible, Archaeology and Ancient Near Eastern Studies, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (Be’er Sheba’ and Eilat), Israel. His research focuses on the Early Bronze Age in the southern Levant. He graduated at Tel Aviv University, where he conducted salvage excavations at sites such as Tel Lod and Tel Bareqet. He is also co-director of the Japanese expedition to Tel Rekhesh, Israel, a multi-period mound in the lower Galilee.