The Riddle of Ramat Raḥel: The Archaeology of a Royal Persian ...

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16Fig 3 - Late Persian period jars from Building 824 (Photo by P. Shargo)6th Century BCE Stamped Storage Jars and pottery assemblagesThe excavations at Ramat Raḥel yielded a profusion of artifacts that demonstrate a significantpresence at the site at the beginning of the Second Temple period. Out of a total of about 640 yhwdstamped jar handles from the Persian and Hellenistic periods (6th–2nd centuries BCE) known tous to date, 365 (60%) were found at Ramat Raḥel. Of the 495 yhwd stamped jar handles from theearly and middle types (see Vanderhooft and Lipschits 2007; Lipschits and Vanderhooft 2001),dated to the Persian and the beginning of the Hellenistic period (6th–4th centuries BCE), 332stamped handles were discovered at Ramat Raḥel (67%). This data is a clear indication that duringthe Persian and Early Hellenistic periods the edifice at Ramat Raḥel was used in anadministrative/governmental capacity for collecting wine and oil jars in Judah, probably as a levy.During the renewed excavations at Ramat Raḥel, two well contextualized pottery assemblagesfrom the Persian period were excavated. All the pottery sherds belonging to these assemblageswere carefully collected, studied, and restored. The earliest pottery assemblage was excavated in adiscard pit that dates mostly to the 6th century BCE (the Babylonian and the Early Persianperiods). The second pottery assemblage was excavated in the collapse of Building 824, whichdates to the late 4th century BCE (the end of the Persian or the Early Hellenistic periods, and seeabove). The two assemblages provide a rare opportunity to study the changes in the typology ofpottery in this period, but even more importantly to date both the zenith of administrative activitiesat Ramat Raḥel as well as its decline.The earliest assemblage came from the southeastern corner of the site, where a huge pit wasexcavated. It contained hundreds of broken pottery vessels, among them more than 10 restorablejars, some of them bearing stamp impressions from the early yhwd types, and some with 6thcentury “private” stamp impressions together with lion stamp impressions on body sherds (Fig. 4).
17Fig. 4 – Storage Jars found at Pit 13174, dated to the sixth-fifth century BCE (Photo by P. Shargo)These finds, together with hundreds of stamp impressions on jar handles dated to the Persian andHellenistic occupation periods at the site, are the best indication that Ramat Raḥel was the maincenter of the yhwd system in which the jars circulated. This Persian period system of stamping jarhandles continued the lmlk and rosette systems of stamped handles from the late Iron Age and thelion stamped handles from the Babylonian period.In this regard, the place of the lion stamp impressions on the body or the handles of jarsdeserve special attention. Seventy-seven lion stamped jar handles were excavated at Ramat Raḥel,out of a total of about 110 stamped handles known to us to date (Lipschits 2010). Furthermore, amodified typological classification demonstrates that two out of 10 types were found solely atRamat Raḥel, one additional type was found at Ramat Raḥel and Nebi Samwil only, and that allthe other types are represented mainly at Ramat Raḥel (ibid).The lion stamp impressions can no longer be dated to the very beginning of the Persianperiod. 6 A new study of the iconography of this type hints at the connection of these objects withthe Assyrian-Babylonian world and interpret this “object” as a human head in profile, just as it iswell known from the Babylonian world (Ornan 2010; Sass 2010). Furthermore, petrographicanalysis of the lion stamped handles shows a resemblance of the rosette jar handles to Iron Agepatterns (pottery production in the Shephelah of Judah and in the area of Jerusalem) rather than toPersian-period patterns of the yhwd jars (pottery production solely in the area of Jerusalem) (Grossand Goren 2010: 11-12).6 The reason for dating the lion stamp impressions to the early Persian period is the absence of these stamped handles fromthe “classic” Persian period strata on the one hand, and the historical assumption that they cannot be dated to the pre-Persian period (i.e., to the “Exilic period”) on the other. Besides, Stern (1982: 209-210; 2001: 541; cf. to Ariel andShoham 2000: 141) interpreted the “object” or “indistinct signs”, which is part of a scene depicting a lion standing on hishind legs, with the two front legs stretched out wide, as an Achaemenid “fire altar.”
Page 1 and 2: 1The Riddle of Ramat Raḥel:The Ar
Page 3 and 4: 3including lmlk and “private” s
Page 5 and 6: 5casemate wall and an additional ca
Page 7 and 8: 7seasons were conducted at the site
Page 9 and 10: 9Building Phase II - Iron Age and P
Page 11 and 12: 11Raḥel in the Persian period. In
Page 13 and 14: 13that forms its inner wall, up to
Page 15: 15Jerusalem, Samaria continued to e
Page 19 and 20: 19ConclusionsThe new interpretation
Page 21 and 22: 21Geva, H. 2003b. Summary and Discu

The Riddle of Ramat Raḥel: The Archaeology of a Royal Persian ...

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