The Long-Lasting Occupation of Tombs in Question: from the Example of Tell Keila, Palestine—Abridged version
p. 399-415
Résumés
Several tombs have been identified and excavated on the site of Tell Keila, on the edge of the Judean Highlands and the coastal plain of Shephelah, in an area of multiple cultural and religious contacts and influences (polytheist Canaanites and Philistines, Judeans, Jews then Christians), from the Middle Bronze Age to Late Antiquity. These tombs were occupied during several centuries, if it is not during a millennium, between the Iron Age and Late Antiquity. The fact that none of these tombs bear any religious signs nor inscriptions raises questions in terms of identity and ethnicity.
This contribution aims to understand these data by liberate itself from the many prejudices defined through typological conventions or historical stereotypes often found in the scientific literature. It will also examine the meaning and implications of the funerary use of these tombs over the long term.
Plusieurs tombes ont été dégagées et relevées sur le site de Tell Keila à la marge des Hautes Terres de Judée et de la plaine côtière de la Shéphélah, dans une zone de contacts et d’influences culturelles et religieuses multiples (cananéens, philistins polythéistes, judéens, juifs puis chrétiens), du Bronze moyen à l’Antiquité tardive. Ces tombes ont été occupées pendant plusieurs siècles, voire un millénaire, entre l’âge du Fer et l’Antiquité tardive. Le fait qu’aucune tombe ne porte de signe religieux ni d’inscription soulève des questions en matière d’identité et d’ethnicité.
Cette contribution se propose d’appréhender ces données en s’affranchissant des nombreux préjugés présents dans la littérature scientifique, qu’ils soient définis à travers des conventions typologiques ou des stéréotypes historiques. Elle s’interroge aussi sur la signification et les implications de cette utilisation funéraire de ces aménagements sur le temps long.
Entrées d’index
Mots-clés : âge du Bronze, âge du Fer, période romaine, Antiquité tardive, Tell Keila, Cisjordanie, Palestine, Tombes collectives, éthnicité, identité culturelle, temps long
Keywords : Bronze Age, Iron Age, Roman period, Late Antiquity, Tell Keila, West bank, Palestine, Collective Tombs, Ethnicity, Cultural Identity, Long term
Note de l’éditeur
This article is not a translation but an abridged version of the French article “La question de l’occupation des tombes sur le « temps long » à partir de l’exemple des nécropoles de Tell Keila (Territoires Palestiniens)”.
Texte intégral
1Several tombs have been excavated and raised by a Palestinian-French team at the site of Tell Keila (near Hebron, in the Palestinian territories), on the edge of the Judaean Mountains and halfway between the mountains and the Shephelah coastal plain, a region characterized by diverse cultural exchanges and influences in Antiquity (fig. 1). Indeed, according to archaeological, biblical, and literary sources, Tell Keila was subject to various authorities or cultural influences from the Middle Bronze Age (Canaanite under Egyptian rule, Philistine, Judaean, Roman, and Proto-Byzantine) and was occupied by multiple ethnic and/or religious groups (polytheists, Jews, and Christians).
Fig. 1. Tell Keila, Location and site map.
S. Blétry, UPVM3.
2These tombs are all characterized by a long period of exclusively funerary use over several centuries or even a millennium. Most of them were dug during Iron Age II (although tomb 11 dates from the end of the Late Bronze Age, fig. 2) and were still being used in the Late Roman or Proto-Byzantine period. Because of their Iron Age construction date, they fall into categories that were defined on the basis of other contexts and whose relevance in the specific case of Tell Keila needs to be investigated. This subject is all the more delicate because none of the tombs contained any religious symbols or inscriptions, raising questions about identity and ethnicity. For example, is it appropriate to describe them as Jewish tombs simply because their typology, defined largely on the basis of necropolises in Jerusalem, places them in that category? And what about one of these tombs, laid out in the Herodian period, which corresponds to the beginning of the Roman occupation (tomb 26, fig. 4)?
Fig. 2. Graves 10 and 11.
S. Blétry, UPVM3.
Fig. 4. Grave 26.
S. Blétry, UPVM3.
3Likewise, should it be assumed that the site was completely Christianized in Late Antiquity and that these tombs therefore became those of a Christian population? The presence in Tell Keila of a church used by a village community and a baptistery, the dedication of which bears the name of a deacon from the local area, supports this hypothesis (fig. 5). It is one of the rare cases that permits a challenge to the hypothesis that the hundreds of churches discovered in Israel and the Palestinian territories were for the most part used only by exogenous monastic communities that were marginalized and isolated from the rest of the population. Nevertheless, we have no evidence that allows us to definitively settle this debate for Keila.
Fig. 5. Baptismal basin and inscription.
S. Blétry, UPVM3.
4Questions of ethnicity and identity, both for the Iron Age and Late Antiquity, arouse much debate in the region. They have often been approached via assumptions, stereotypes, and generalizations, the scientific basis of which must be re-examined. Because this type of tomb was used by the Jewish population of Jerusalem, some have tried to define it as being strictly exclusive to the followers of that religion. In general, the hypothesis of a population of heterogeneous origins has been neglected, even though in specific cases, and at sites very close to Keila, it has been proven to be true, including in some instances based on funerary evidence. The idea that populations of diverse origins and cultures could have cohabited in the same place and used the same type of tomb is too often dismissed. The argument is often made that the preservation of bones from older inhumations in secondary deposits is characteristic of Judaism. But this practice is also found in plenty of other cultures, including during Late Antiquity.
5Typological comparisons with other tombs and other sites, urban or rural, do not provide an absolute answer. Caution calls for an appropriate degree of methodological doubt regarding this question, which can never be definitively settled.
Bibliographie
Ashkenazi, Aviam 2017 Ashkenazi J., Aviam M., Monasteries and villages: Rural economy and religious interdependency in Late Antique Palestine, in Vigiliae Christianae, 71-2, p. 117-133.
Bar 2003 Bar D., The Christianization of rural Palestine during late Antiquity, Journal of Ecclesiastic History, 54, p. 401-421.
Bar 2004 Bar D., Population, Settlement and Economy in Late Roman and Byzantine Palestine (70–641 AD), in Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, 67-3, p. 307-320.
Blétry et al. 2018 Blétry S., Duval H., Girardi C., Loupmon T., Rjoob A., Tell Keila, résultats de quatre années de recherches, Syria 95, 2018, p. 213-243.
Finkelstein 1999 Finkelstein I., State formation in Israel and Juda, a contrast in context, a contrast in trajectory, in Near Eastern Archaeology, 61-2, p. 35-52.
Finkelstein, Silbermann 2004 Finkelstein I., Silberman N. A., La Bible dévoilée, Paris, 552 p. (Folio Histoire, 127).
Kloner, Zissu 2007 Kloner A., Zissu B., The necropolis of Jerusalem in the Second Temple period, Leuven and Dudley, MA., 820 p. (Peeters).
Magen 2012 Magen Y., Christianity in Judea and Samaria in the Byzantine period, in Malka A. H., Levin E. (Eds.), Christians and Christianity I, Corpus of Christian sites in Samaria and Northern Judea, Jerusalem, (Judea and Samaria Publications, 13), p. 1-92.
Zissu, Kloner 2015 Zissu B., Kloner A., The necropolis of hellenistic Maresha, Judean foothills, Israel, in Parise M., Galeazzi C., Bixio R., Germani C. (Eds.) Hypogea 2015: Proceedings of International Congress of Speleology in Artificial Cavities, Rome, March 11/17 2015, Rome, (Hypogea), p. 100-114.
Auteur
Université Paul Valéry Montpellier 3, CRISES EA 4424, Montpellier, France
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