The Cemetery of Azor and Early Iron Age Burial Practices

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Ben-ShlomoThe Cemetery of AzorFigure 18Selection of non-Philistine (Canaanite) pottery from Iron I graves at Azorlinear decoration (Fig. 18:6–7); two examples ofcooking jugs (Fig. 18:8–9) should also be noted. 3Many of these forms also have parallels in Tell QasileStrata XI–X (Mazar 1985, 60–63) or at Tel MiqneStrata VB–IVA (Ortiz 2000, 162–63). Flasks, eitherplain or with black decoration appear (Fig. 18:12),with one example of a ‘double flask’ (Fig. 18:13), aswell as several complete pixides (Fig. 18:10–11),plain, decorated in bichrome (Fig. 18:10) or redslipped (Fig. 18:11).3 The shape of the jug is very similar to Iron I Aegean style cooking jugs(Killebrew 1999, 93–94; Dothan and Zukerman 2004, 28–31, figs 36–37,Type P) but it appears here outside the Philistia core, in a late Iron Icontext and is very small (8 cm high). Possibly, the jug had some functionin relation to funerary customs. Cooking jugs appear in LCIII burials atKourion (Daniel 1937, 70, pls II:10, V:8,31) and a cooking amphora wasused for a dog burial at Ashkelon Phase 18 (Stager 2006, 15).Petrographic analysis conducted by the author onabout 30 samples from the burials indicate that thePhilistine pottery from the various burials at Azorwas made of local clay. This pottery was made,similarly to the non-Philistine pottery, from hamricrendzina-derived soil, typical of the central coastalplain, and not occurring in proper Philistia, to thesouth. This implies that potters familiar with thePhilistine tradition worked at Azor; they could havebeen Philistine themselves, non-Philistine individualscatering a Philistine population, or local potterssupplying their customers with Philistine style vesselsas elaborate burial gifts.The pottery of Phases IV–V graves represents atypical late Iron I assemblage, which is not knownfrom many excavated sites, and especially not from44 Levant 2008 VOL 40 NO 1
Ben-ShlomoThe Cemetery of AzorFigure 19Selection of Iron IIA pottery from Azorfunerary sites. The early Iron I (the 12th century BC)is not represented, as Philistine Monochrome, elaboratePhilistine and Iron IA Canaanite do not appearin the assemblage. On the other hand, this assemblageis earlier than the ‘full blown’ Iron IIA as it lacks thethick red-slipped and burnished pottery and theFigure 20Pottery types according to grave period (110 complete vessels)Levant 2008 VOL 40 NO 1 45
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The Cemetery of Azor and Early Iron Age Burial Practices

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