The Azor Cemetery: Moshe Dothan’s Excavations, 1958 and 1960

PUBLISHED 2012. Please visit the publication's webpage: https://whitelevy.fas.harvard.edu/publications/azor-cemetery-moshe-dothan’s-excavations-1958-and-1960

The largest and probably most important excavation at Azor was conducted by Prof. Moshe Dothan during 1958 and 1960 on behalf of the Department of Antiquities of Israel. The excavation brought to light a large group of Iron Age I (1200-1000 BCE) tombs yielding abundant Philistine pottery and representing diverse burial customs. Preliminary analysis of the human bones indicated several skull-types, possibly representing a certain ethnic diversification as well. These include brachicephalic skull type, which are considered as typical of Alpine or Balkanic populations. Therefore, this is, as yet, the most extensive evidence for Philistine funerary customs in Philistia. Such evidence could be now integrated with other aspects of material culture retrieved from the Philistine cities sites of Ashdod, Ashkelon and Ekron, in which the Iron Age cemeteries have not yet been found.

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Ashdod VI: The Excavations of Areas H and K (1968-1969)

PUBLISHED 2005. Please visit the publication's webpage: Ashdod VI: The Excavations of Areas H and K (1968-1969)