our students wish to compare and contrast, as they should and must, the principal literary narrative accounts of this fascinating and (literally) critical period of Greek history, then they could do a great deal worse than read Agesilaus and the Failure of Spartan Hegemony with the same care and conscientiousness as have been lavished 1 upon it by its author. If, however, they also wish to re-assess the crisis of Sparta and 1 to re-evaluate the largely negative, I agree (132 n. 46, 150 and n. 101, 173, 257) achievements of the man allegedly 'by common consent the greatest and most s illustrious of his time' (Theopompos F 321), then I humbly suggest that they f complement their reading of H. with that of at least one other recent and relevant monograph.

https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0009840X00284217

Hellenistic Phoenicia John D. Grainger: Hellenistic Phoenicia . Pp. ix + 228; 7 maps. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1991. £30.

Classical Landscape with Figures. The Ancient Greek City and Its Countryside

Ancient Lachish (Tell ed-Duweir) in southern Israel is a key site for understanding the Canaanite cultures of the Middle and Late Bronze Ages and the Kingdom of Judah in the Iron Age of the Levant....

The Canaanite and Judean Cities of Lachish, Israel: Preliminary Report of the Fourth Expedition, 2013–2017

Ritual and cult at Ugarit

The Sharon in general, and the Yarkon basin in particular, are ecologically very sensitive, as they suffer from severe drainage problems, most of the soil in this region is of poor quality, and the area could not have been used for intensive agri culture. Consequently, this was a fringe area that witnessed significant fluctuations in settlement. During most of the Iron Age II, and especially the eighth century BCE ? a period of great prosperity throughout the country ? there were very few settlements in the region (see below), and this period was one of the lowest points in the history of the area. However, during the first century of the Iron Age II (the tenth century BCE), the region experienced great prosperity and a surge in settlement activity. Given the settlement history of the region, the present paper seeks to compare the local settlement fluctuations with settlement processes in other parts of the coastal plain on the one hand, and in the rest of the country on the other, in order to exemplify the unique prosperity witnessed by the Yarkon basin and the Sharon at the transition between the second and first millennia BCE. It is our claim that the phenomenon bears implications for our understanding of the general settlement processes that were operating in the eleventh and tenth centuries BCE throughout the country, as well as for the current discussion of the United Monarchy. Our reconstruction of the settlement history of the region is based on the results of planned excavations, surveys and salvage excavations.

Century BCE: Ecology, Settlement Patterns and Political Involvement

During the recent excavations at Tel Lachish a previously unknown Canaanite temple of the 12th century BCE was uncovered in the north-eastern corner of the mound. This article describes its possibl...

The Level VI North-East Temple at Tel Lachish

The isolated Late Bronze temple at Tel Mevorakh was interpreted by its excavator, E. Stern, as a “road sanctuary” which sits on an important trading route, and as a daughter site of Tel Dor. This article, wish to reexamine this interpretation by drawing the attention to the ancient natural landscape which surrounds the temple, especially the Taninim River and the Kabara Marsh. Those major water sources where significant natural barriers which prevented the passage of main roads in this area. Probably, they also formed a political border which divides between Tel Mevorakh and the Carmel Coast. Therefore, this paper offers that the Tel Mevorakh temple was part of the settlement system of the northern Sharon, and was isolated from roads. The main reason that led to the establishment of a cult-site at Tel Mevorakh was its unique natural surroundings, which was related in the minds of its worshipers to the mythical world of the gods.

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Revisiting the Isolated Canaanite Temple of Tel Mevorakh

Tell Beit Mirsim in the Judean Shephelah was excavated by William F. Albright and Melvin G. Kyle in the 1920s and 1930s. These excavations established the relative chronology for the entire southern Levant because of good preservation conditions, facilitated by the multiple destruction layers at the site, and thanks to Albright’s familiarity with pottery. Ninety years later, the excavations have been renewed with the aim of investigating the economy and social structure of the kingdom of Judah. The first season of renewed excavations by the Institute of Archaeology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem has unearthed the remains of Iron Age IIB domestic structures, one of which belongs to the four-room-house type, and an olive oil press. The excellent preservation of the remains enables the reconstruction of activity areas and suggests that Tell Beit Mirsim could be the perfect lab for exploring the economy of the kingdom of Judah.

Itamar Weissbein

Papers

The Canaanite and Judean Cities of Lachish, Israel: Preliminary Report of the Fourth Expedition, 2013–2017

The Level VI North-East Temple at Tel Lachish

Revisiting the Isolated Canaanite Temple of Tel Mevorakh

In the Footsteps of Albright