Biblical Archaeology Review

They include the large fortress of Umm et-Tuwabin and the urban center at Khirbet Sheikh ‘Isa in the Ghor es-Safi, the cave sanctuary and cemetery at Deir ‘Ain ‘Abata, the forts at the mouths of the wadis Numeira, ‘Isal and Kerak, the farmstead of Qasr el-Bilieda and the fortified settlements with adjacent cemeteries at Khirbet Sekine and Haditha.

One exception to the pattern may be the ephemeral occupation at the site of Zahrat adh-Dhra’ 1, to the north, in the Ghor al-Mazra’a. It is likely that future investigations between these two ghors will reveal more Middle Bronze Age settlement sites.

B. Arubas, “The Impact of Town Planning at Scythopolis on the Topography of Tel Beth-Shean: A New Understanding of Its Fortifications and Status,” in Amihai Mazar, ed., Excavations at Tel Beth-Shean 1989–1996, Volume I. From the Late Bronze Age IIB to the Medieval Period (Jerusalem: The Hebrew University and Israel Exploration Society, 2006) pp. 48–58.

Eliezer D. Oren, The Northern Cemetery of Beth Shan (Leiden: Brill, 1973), pp. 132–150.

Trude Dothan, The Philistines and Their Material Culture (New Haven: Yale Univ. Press, 1982), pp. 252–288.

Harold W. Attridge, “Study of the New Testament in the Pluralistic Context of the Twenty-First Century,” in Frank Ritchel Ames and Charles William Miller, eds., Foster Biblical Scholarship: Essays in Honor of Kent Harold Richards (Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2010), pp. 55–57.

(Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 1984).

First published (in Hebrew) by Hanan Eshel, Esther Eshel and Ada Yardeni in Cathedra 132 (2009), pp. 5–24.