A Late 4th millennium BCE cylinder-seal amulet from Tel Yaqush and its contribution to the understanding of EB I–II communities in the Central Jordan Valley

Abstract

This paper deals with a unique stone object found at the Early Bronze Age site of Tel Yaqush in the Central Jordan Valley. The object is understood by the authors to be a cylinder-seal amulet with incised geometric motifs, locally produced by a non-specialist craftsman in imitation of specialized seals of local glyptic tradition. The paper presents the object as part of the emerging local glyptic tradition of the period and discusses its significance to the understanding of social and cultural trends as related to the EB I–II chronological horizon in the region. The attempt to imitate a specialized object used to impress pottery vessels from a centralized ceramic production centre elicits a profound discussion on the concept of imitation and its social roots. It may be studied and interpreted using a network approach, which provides a good analytical tool to explore the village of Yaqush and its interactions within EB I–II southern Levantine social systems. Yaqush’s singular object and its specific archaeological context, serve as a basis to explore the occurrences of the 31st–30th centuries BCE and discuss relations between the Jordan Valley communities, and the way they are maintained by cultural transmission through objects and practices in this period.

Keywords:

• EBA southern Levant
• Central Jordan Valley
• EBA glyptics
• EBA urbanism
• network archaeology

Acknowledgments

We wish to thank Dr Eli Cohen-Sasson for a useful reference, and Prof. Raphael Greenberg for his comments on an earlier draft of this paper. The object itself was restored and preserved by the conservator Kyrill Radezky and illustrated by Nadeshda Knudsen. The impression of the object was prepared by Yossef Bokngoltz and photographed by Assaf Pertz.

Funds for this first season of excavations at Tel Yaqush came from the Brennan Foundation, Penn Museum Field Funds, Leonard Bernstein, Lee and Nancy Tabas, Matthew Hirsch, Mitchell Rothman and Leslie Simon, Libby Schwartz, the Eugene W. and Gloria Landy Family Foundation, Curtis and Stacey Lane, and Dan Rahimi and Julie Comay.

We wish to thank the Penn Museum, German Archaeological Institute and the Gerda Henkel foundation for supporting the project, and to all the students and volunteers.

Notes

1 2018 excavation season at Tel Yaqush was the first on behalf of the Penn Museum, University of Pennsylvania, and the Eurasia Department of the German Archaeological Institute (Berlin) co-directed by Mitchell S. Rothman, Mark Iserlis and Yael Rotem.

2 A recent radiometric date place this context in the 30th century BCE. The same phase (Stratum 1), excavated by Chicago expedition was recently dated to the 31st century BCE (Rotem et al. 2019: table 2, sample OxA-33648), suggesting for a long life span for this occupation phase.

3 The excavations in Area A were supervised in 2018 by Nadeshda Knudsen. The object itself was found by a University of Pennsylvania student, Yuyang Wang.

4 An impression from Tel Dan (Ben-Tor 1978: no. IE-5) may have had four motifs originally, but was not preserved fully.