New Article on Massive Canaanite Jars from Ancient Libnah (Tel Burna)

The Tel Burna Archaeological Project is quickly approaching its final season later this summer, but there are still many, many publications in process with the team. Check out the latest article here (open access)– spearheaded by Matthew Susnow along with Itzick Shai and yours truly.

Object Biographies, Object Agency and a Local Community's Encounter with and Response to Foreign Commodities: The Pithoi from LB Tel Burna as a Case Study. This study investigates the effects that an encounter with a foreign object can have on local traditions. Notions of object agency and object biographies will be utilized to address what happens when people become entangled with new things: the new context can have an impact on the newly introduced object, and those newly introduced objects can similarly impact locals and their traditions. The Late Bronze Age southern Levantine site of Tel Burna will serve as a case study, where a number of imported Cypriot pithoi were found alongside locally produced pithoi. It will be demonstrated that in their new context, the Cypriot pithoi were given new meaning and function. At the same time, the imported pithoi played active roles in the localpotters of Tel Burna making pithoi. However, the local pithoi resemble local storage jars, so while the potters mimicked the concept of the Cypriot pithoi, they did so according to local normative forms.

Here is one of the massive pithoi after it was restored alongside its restorer.