The Philistine Cemetery at Ashkelon:funerary remains and mortuary practice

Summary

During the 2013-6 seasons, an extramural cemetery was discovered at the coastal site of Ashkelon in Israel. Dated almost entirely to the Iron IIA period, more than 200 sets of remains were exposed and excavated, providing for the first time a secure and sizeable number of burials from which to generate an understanding of Philistine burial practices and mortuary ritual. The majority of bodies were found in primary inhumation with various depositional practices observed, among them simple pit, individuals covered with sherds, and cist burials, with both sexes represented and a dearth of infants. In this paper, we discuss the cemetery, the ceramic assemblage, and objects of personal adornment in order to help to shed light on these remains and the funerary practices that accompanied them in death. We then provide a short sketch of comparative material in order to situate the findings at Ashkelon within the southern Levant and the wider eastern Mediterranean world.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 17089