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

6and poorly built walls as well as some installations (Aharoni 1964: Fig. 2, and see Fig. 1). It isclear that the walls of Stratum IVb cannot be related to such vivid administrative activity. Thus,from the outset—from the very first excavations at Ramat Raḥel, and from the earliestpublications written about the site—"the riddle of Ramat Raḥel" was always there, lurking in thebackground. No one, however, verbalised the actual riddle and hence, no solutions were everposited. Only the renewed study of Aharoni's excavations and the new excavations project at thesite have given voice to the actual question.Fig. 1 – Plan of Stratum IVa-b according to Aharoni 1964In 2004 Tel Aviv University, supported by the Shelby White–Leon Levy Program forArchaeological Publications, undertook the preparation of a final comprehensive publication ofAharoni’s excavations. The project traced the whereabouts of most of the documentation andretrieved most of the finds from Aharoni's excavations, and by 2011, had scanned, computerized,and fully catalogued all the data. By now the project has completed the process of amalgamatingAharoni’s material with an enhanced stratigraphic and architectural analysis of the excavations.This material is now in the process of publication, and the Final Report of Aharoni’s excavationsat Ramat Raḥel is scheduled for publication in 2012 (Lipschits and Gadot forthcoming).The Renewed Expedition began excavating at Ramat Raḥel in 2004 as a joint effort of theInstitute of Archeology of Tel Aviv University and the Theological Seminary (Wissenschaftlich-Theologisches Seminar) and the Faculty for Jewish Studies (Hochschule für jüdische Studien) atHeidelberg University. After a preliminary underground survey (2004), six extensive excavation