Archaeological Finds from the Biblical Periods at Lod (Bronze Age, Iron Age, and Persian Period)

Introduction

Lod is mentioned in biblical and nonbiblical sources from the middle of the second millennium BCE. Despite this, our archaeological knowledge about these settlement periods is limited and fragmented. The ancient tell of Lod is not prominent in the area and its boundaries are unclear. Following salvage excavations, we know that extensive remains of an ancient settlement lie in the northern parts of the city, dating from the Neolithic period to the end of the Early Bronze Age. The center of the tell is probably below a built-up area from the 1930s and 1940s (Lod’s central bus station area), which has hardly been excavated. It is therefore highly significant to publish the finds from the second millennium BCE and first part of the first millennium. This article will present the results of several excavations. In 1991 Rosenberger and Shavit (1993) excavated a small area east of the ancient settlement (Areas D–F) (Fig. 1), uncovering a tomb from the Late Bronze Age (ca. 1300 BCE) and many potsherds from Early Bronze Age (EB) IB (ca. 3050–3300 BCE). In 1996 a 200 m long and 10 m wide section was cut during a salvage excavation, By Badhi and the writer of this paper in the eastern and central part of the tell (Areas A–C), exposing mainly strata from the Roman period. At the bottom of the excavation hundreds of potsherds from the Iron Age and Persian period were found in situ, as well as sherds from the Middle and Late Bronze Ages. With the exception of three tombs, installations, and refuse pit that were damaged in various parts of the site in which remains from these periods were discovered.
In this article I will present the finds from the Bronze and Iron Ages that were found in situ, during the 1991–96 excavations, on the eastern side of the settlement. In the first part I will describe the finds according to their periods and present comparanda to stratified finds from parallel periods found in excavations at nearby tells. Next, I will try to examine the economic and cultural significance reflected in the material culture.

Finds from the Middle Bronze Age in Area B

The Middle Bronze Age finds were yielded under Roman period floors and walls. Their origin is therefore not in an archaeological layer with architecture but in a fill that was swept into the excavation area from nearby. The sherds were found in excellent condition: they are large and show no signs of weathering or damage from rolling in the drift. Judging by their condition, they originated in a nearby settlement layer that was damaged during the construction of Roman Diospolis.

The ceramic assemblage (Fig. 2)
Fragment no. 1 is of a flat bowl with a rounded, slightly inverted rim. Bowls of this type are common in Middle Bronze Age strata (see Table 1 for parallels from neighboring sites). Fragment no. 2 is of a small, closed carinated bowl. A similar bowl was found in Stratum XII at Tel Gezer. One cooking pot (Fig. 2: 4) is identical to those from Middle Bronze Age (MB) IIB Tel Michal, and another (Fig. 2: 5) is handmade and similar to examples from Stratum XII at Tel Gezer. Cooking pots of this type are typical of MB II and appear in a large variety of shapes and dimensions. Sherd no. 6 is from the inner grooved ring rim of a jar. Similar vessels were found in Stratum XII at Gezer. Fragment No. 7 is from the tall folded rim of a jar and has a thin ridge at its bottom. It also has parallels in Stratum XII at Gezer. The potsherds are typical of assemblages from settlement sites rather than graves, testifying to Middle Bronze Age occupation at Lod. Judging by the topography of the tell, the settlement was not fortified. The parallels from Tel Gezer enable to date it to the eighteenth–sixth centuries BCE.

Vessels from a jar burial and a pit grave from the Middle Bronze Age
Two tombs were found in Area C that penetrated into a layer from the Neolithic period and were covered with a layer from Late Bronze Age (LB) IB. No other potsherds from this period were found in the excavation of the area, and it seems therefore that Area C was outside the settlement limits during the Middle Bronze Age and so far away from it even debris originating in the settlement did not reach it.

The pit grave
A fully articulated skeleton was found in Locus 3023 alongside two dipper juglets (Fig. 3:1 2). Both juglets have a rounded shoulder and an elongated cylindrical body that tapers toward the bottom, terminating in a pointed base. One juglet has a cylindrical neck and a rim of the same width. The other has a concave neck and a rolled rim. Both juglets were made of levigated clay mixed with small brown and gray inclusions. The interior of the non-slipped juglet is dark yellow and the core of both vessels is gray to black. One juglet is red slipped and presents a well-executed dense vertical burnish. The second juglet is not slipped, but its surface has a smoothed and neat finish. The burial pit from which they were recovered penetrated into the strata of the earlier Neolithic settlement.

The jar burial (Fig. 3: 3, 4)
A jar and a juglet were found in Tomb L3012. The jar has a wide, rounded body. Its bottom and upper parts are broken, and therefore the shape of the base and neck is unknown. The miniature (votive?) juglet found with the jar emulates its body shape. The upper part of its neck and the handle were not found, and had likely broken off when the juglet was placed in the grave. The jar was made of levigated clay with a few gray and white inclusions. The surface of the vessel is coarse as it was not smoothed out to remove production residue. The ware is reddish in color and its core is dark gray. The juglet is made of a grayish yellow ware and has a dark brown core with almost no inclusions.
Based on the location of the handles on the center of the body and their shape, both the jar and the juglet are from the end of the Middle Bronze Age or the beginning of the Late Bronze Age.
As mentioned, no settlement remains or other finds were found in the vicinity of these two burials. The graves were probably dug outside the settled area of ancient Lod, and their location may testify to the settlement boundaries.

Late Bronze Age pottery in Area A (Fig. 4)

Eight notable Late Bronze Age potsherds were found in Area A. Three of them are of bowls; three belong to cooking pots; one, to a jar; and one, to a spinning bowl. The bowls are made of levigated clay with a sandy texture and very few small white rock fragments. The bowl surface was not meticulously finished, and the potters left residual clay and grooves on both sides of the walls. Bowl no. 1 has a parallel in Strata VIII–VII at Tel Gezer; bowl no. 2 has a parallel in Tomb 10b at Gibeon; and bowl no. 3 has a parallel in Strata VIII–VII at Tel Gezer. Cooking pot no. 4 is similar to one in Tomb 10b at Gibeon, and cooking bowls nos. 5 and 6 have parallels in Stratum VI at Shiloh. Jar rim no. 7 is similar to one in Stratum VI at Tel Gezer. Spinning bowls are typical of Egyptian domestic context from the southern Levant (Oren 2019:275). They come from LB II strata at several sites across Israel. For additional parallels, see Table 2.
The potsherds described were not found within the context of a settlement but rather in a layer of natural dune sand beneath Roman period remains. They indicate that a Late Bronze Age settlement existed at Lod; however, the finds show that the settlement was west of Area A.

Late Bronze Age pottery in Area B (Fig. 5)

Three Late Bronze Age sherds were found in Area B, west of Area A: a krater rim (Fig. 5: 1), a pithos rim (Fig. 5: 2), and the rim of a Cypriot White Slip (WS) II bowl. The krater and pithos find parallels in Fosse Temple III at Lachish (Tufnell, Inge, and Harding 1940: Pls. 48: 252, 50: 270). The Cyprus bowl has parallels in various thirteenth-century BCE assemblages across Israel.

Late Bronze Age pottery in Area C, Stratum 3

A more significant ceramic assemblage from the Late Bronze Age was collected in Area C. It includes bowls, kraters, cooking pots, storage vessels and imported vessels.

Shallow bowls (Figs. 6, 7 and parallels in Tables 3 and 4)
The shallow bowls found in Area C were made of slightly sandy material. The surface of the vessels is slightly rough, and a meticulous finish is evident only on the bowls’ interiors and the outside of the rims. The lower part of the bowls’ outer wall is slightly grooved, and handprints and pieces of clay remain from the production process. Some of the bowls have a thin, rounded wall and a rounded rim shaped without folding or adding material (Fig. 6: 1–3) Bowls with a medium-sized diameter were made with a thicker wall, a rounded body, and a straight rim (Fig. 6: 4), or a folded one (Fig. 6: 5), which added considerable physical strength to the bowl. The latter is of higher quality than the other bowls and its meticulous finish, free from production residue, is notable. Shallow straight-sided bowls have a medium-sized diameter (Fig. 6: 6) or a small diameter (Fig. 6: 7, 8). Straight-sided bowls with a slightly larger diameter (Fig. 6: 9–12)
were made with a slightly rounded rim to add static strength to the bowl’s upper part. Bowls with a large diameter were usually made with a slightly thicker wall. One bowl has a simple rim (Fig. 6: 13), but most have a rim reinforced by folding (Fig. 6: 14) or thickening (Fig. 6: 15). The finish of most bowls is coarse and only one bowl (Fig. 6: 17) was smoothed and displays no production residue. Bowl no. 18 has a very large diameter; it was made of coarse clay, and its rim was reinforced by adding material to the outer and inner sides, similar to rims of bowls with a medium-sized diameter.
Most of bowls found in Area C have a slightly thickened rim. Sometimes the thickening is in addition to a slight carination (Fig. 7: 1–5); sometimes it is limited to the inside of the bowl (Fig. 7: 6–9), sometimes only to the outside of the rim (Fig. 7: 10–12) and in other cases both sides of the rim were thickened (Fig. 7: 13–16). One group of bowls (Fig. 7: 17–20) is characterized by a wide, flat thickened rim that was folded.
Bowls with this type of rim are very durable. The finish of this group is meticulous and neat, and some had a red band added on the rim. Vessels nos. 22 and 21 are unusual in shape for bowls, and judging by their rims, it is possible that they were, in fact, slightly closed basins rather than bowls.
The various parallels (Tables 3 and 4) for the bowls comes from the sites of Shiloh, Gezer, and Ashdod. Most of the parallels were found in the Late Bronze Age strata at Tel Gezer, located slightly east of Lod. Many parallels were also found in Stratum VI at Shiloh, and a few come from the Ashdod Strata XX–XVII, dating to the beginning of the Late Bronze Age.

Carinated bowls (Fig. 8 and parallels in Table 5)
Three main types of carinated bowls were found in Area C. The fragments of two large deep bowls (Fig. 8: 1, 2) were made of clay with almost no inclusions. The folded rim finish gave these bowls great strength, enabling to increase significantly the vessel’s diameter. Therefore, S-shaped rims characterize bowls of very large diameter relative to the that of other bowls. Some of the carinated bowls have an open profile (Fig. 8: 3–5) with a mid-body carination point. Most bowls, however, are closed. These divide into two groups: one of bowls with a carination point at the upper third or quarter of the body (Fig. 8: 6–8), and another of smaller bowls with a mid-body carination point (Fig. 8: 9–14). The bowls with the small-diameter preserve a long tradition of carinated kraters from the beginning of the Middle Bronze Age. The carination of the bowls from Lod is usually sharp and is sometimes emphasized by a thin ridge surrounding the outer
wall (Fig. 8: 7). The sharp carination and small diameter allowed the potters to create light, thin-walled vessels.
Most of the parallels for the carinated bowls were found in Strata X–VII at Tel Gezer. A few parallels come also from Stratum VI at Shiloh. In this context, it should be noted that the assemblage at Shiloh is limited and originates in a concentration of vessels recovered in a pit rather than a residential layer as at Tel Gezer.

Kraters (Fig. 9 and parallels in Table 6)
Almost all the kraters found in Area C, are of one type. Their upper part is S-shaped and their bottom part is rounded and deep. The rim is reinforced with the addition of clay inside and out. Some of the krater rims (Fig. 9: 1, 2) are hardly thickened and their strength was afforded by folding. Other thickened rims (Fig. 9: 3–6) have triangular section, and they are slightly thicker than the krater wall. Another type of krater rim (Fig. 9: 7–9) is thickened to protrude on either side, and its upper part is flattened. This thickening, aimed at strengthening the vessel, characterizes mainly the kraters with large diameters. Two kraters are of non-prevalent types: one is a unique example (Fig. 9: 10), for which no parallels were found, and another type (Fig. 9: 11), characteristic of southern Israel, finds parallels at Lachish. (It should perhaps be defined
as a pithos.) Most of the kraters were made of levigated clay mixed with large white inclusions. The upper wall of one krater (Fig. 9: 9) bears a combed decoration of straight and wavy lines. One krater base (Fig. 9: 12) is made of material similar to that of the other kraters, but while its interior was left untreated — likely as it belonged to a relatively closed vessel — the lower part of the outer wall is dark pink slipped and exceptionally burnished. A band of clay engraved with crosses was applied to the top of the sherd. Great care was taken in applying the decoration and engraving it, and it appears that the vessel was produced with particularly great attention to detail.
The parallels for the kraters are found in assemblages from the Fosse Temple at Lachish, which has the largest and most diverse collection of kraters in Israel. I chose therefore to bring these parallels despite the distance between Tel Lachish and Lod. At Shiloh, parallels were found only in Middle Bronze Age Stratum VIII. It appears that all parallels for bowls from Shiloh originate in Stratum VI, dated to the Late Bronze Age, while the parallels for the kraters al come from Middle Bronze Age Stratum VII. This difference may be due to the typological and functional uniformity of the bowl assemblage from Shiloh, which includes no kraters at all. Another possibility is that the design of kraters was more conservative than that of bowls, which was frequently changed.

Cooking pots (Fig. 10 and parallels in Table 7)
All cooking pots are made of brown or dark gray ware, mixed with a large amount of white and gray inclusions. One rim (Fig. 10: 1) is shaped differently from the others, but the ware it is made of indicates that it is doubtless belonged to a cooking pot. All the other cooking pots (e.g., Fig. 10) are similarly shaped: they have a rounded bottom, an almost vertical upper part, a carination at the top of the vessel and an everted rim. The rim is slightly thicker than the body and has a triangular section. Some of the rims have a thick section and others have a thin and delicate section with a shallow groove running along the lower part of the rim’s outer side. The parallels for the cooking pots were found in Stratum VI at Shiloh, Strata VIII–VI at Gezer, and Strata XVIII–XVI at Ashdod. Parallels found for the shallow and carinated bowls come from the same contexts.

Jars (Fig. 11 and parallels in Table 8)
No complete jars were found, so the information we have includes only rim and neck fragments. The jar rims are divided into several types. Some of the jars have a rounded/rolled, everted rim that is neither folded nor thickened (Fig. 11: 1–3). Some rims are molded everted rim (Fig. 11: 4, 5). These rims continue a type common in the Middle Bronze Age. Some jars have a cylindrical or conical neck and an everted folded rim (Fig. 11: 7, 8). In rare cases the neck is both outwardly rounded and outwardly folded (Fig. 11: 8, 9).
Vessels with short necks display outwardly rounded/rolled rims. These rims likely belonged to pithoi. One jar (Fig. 11: 14) has a ridge surrounding the top of the neck, slightly below the rim (Fig. 11:14). Rims of this type are extremely rare up to the Iron Age. Two rims (Fig. 11: 15, 17) belong to jars and one (Fig. 11: 16) is of a large and coarsely made krater or a wide diameter rim pithos, somewhat similar to the rim of the krater discussed above (Fig. 9: 11). One fragment (Fig. 11: 17) is of a large jug or jug-jar, and a single fragment (Fig. 11: 18) comes from a large flask.

Ceramic vessels imported from Cyprus and Mycenae (Fig. 12)

The ceramic assemblage includes several sherds of imported pottery belonging to the following ware families or vessels: Monochrome (Fig. 12: 1), White Painted (WP) VI (Fig. 12: 2), Base Ring II (BRII) (Fig. 12: 3–8, White Slip II (Fig. 12:9), Knife Shaved (Fig. 12:10), pithos (Fig. 12: 11), Bichrome Wheel Made Ware (Fig. 12:12–14), and Red-on-Black (Fig. 12: 15). The four Bichrome sherds and the Red-on-Black sherd are dated to the late Middle Cypriot or beginning of the Late Cypriot period (LC) IA. The BR sherds are small and the vessel type they belonged to cannot be identified with certainty. Their dating cannot therefore be based on the typology but rather on the type and quality of the surface treatment— particularly on the dense, well-executed burnish. Based on these parameters, nos. 3–6 belong to early types (BR I) while no. 8 is a late bowl type (BR II). The BR sherds are dated to the fourteenth–thirteenth centuries BCE. One (Mycenaean?) sherd (No. 16) is dated to the thirteenth century BCE.
The parallels for the pottery from Area C were selected from dated strata at nearby sites. The ceramic assemblage from Lod is similar to those from Lachish in the south to Gezer in the north. Additional parallels were found also at Megiddo and some parallels from Hazor. Although there are parallels from Megiddo and Hazor, the ceramic assemblage in Lod bears resemblance mainly to those from the Shephelah and the Coastal Plain.
The parallels for Stratum VI at Shiloh and Strata X–VI at Gezer date most of the assemblage to the fifteenth–fourteenth centuries BCE. A few parallels (mainly for kraters and jars) were found also in the Middle Bronze Age assemblage at Shiloh, but it should not be inferred from this that the pottery from Lod includes Middle Bronze Age vessels. The typological similarity indicates conservatism, traditionalism, and continuity in the production of various types of pottery from the Middle Bronze Age into the Late Bronze Age.

Pottery from a Late Bronze Age tomb (Fig. 13)

A tomb excavated in Area D, on the eastern side of the settlement, included a burial pithos and several ceramic vessels that were left as grave goods or offerings for the deceased. The pottery found in and around the tomb will be presented beginning with the locally produced vessels and ending with the imported ones.
Pithos (Fig. 13: 1): This storage vessel is very wide at the shoulder, which has a 45-degree angle, a very short cylindrical neck, and a thick ring rim. Rope marks forming a slightly wavy wall are visible on the upper part of the body, below the shoulder, indicating the jar’s reinforcement with ropes when it was made on the wheel. At the join of the neck to the shoulder, the potter created a ridge, similar to the “collar” commonly seen on “collared-rim pithoi.” A similar pithos that either has no “collar” or a thin, almost invisible one was found in a tomb at Tel Gedor (Ben-Arieh 1981: Fig. 2: 4) and is dated by the excavator to the 13th century BCE.
Cypriot White Shaved Ware dipper juglets: The dipper juglets were made of a very light yellowish ware typical of the Cypriot dipper juglets of this family. The body and neck, up to the edge of the rim, were shaved vertically with a knife, and the handle was shaved until it had a narrow rectangular section. Shaved dipper juglets have been found in many Late Bronze Age assemblages from the fourteenth–thirteenth centuries BCE.
BR II “Bilbil” jug: This jug has a globular body, slightly flattened at the top, cylindrical neck slightly thickened at its center, everted rim with a chamfered, pointed edge, and a convex base. The decoration was made using the multi-type brush technique typical of Base Ring II Ware: a group of diagonal bands on the center of the neck and a group of horizontal bands on its bottom and on the body’s lower part. A group of intersecting bands were painted on the vessel’s body, between the two groups of horizontal bands.
Jugs from the Ring Base Ware group have been found in many assemblages in Israel. Jugs with a similar decorative motif were found in the tomb at Tel Gedor (Ben-Arieh 1981: Fig. 5: 2, 3) and a thirteenth-century BCE tomb at Tel Dan (Biran and Ben-Dov 2002: Fig. 2.66).
WP IV-VI Cypriot teapot: WP IV-VI teapots have been found in a large number of assemblages in Israel, and can be divided into two groups based on the body’s typology, the slip color, and the decoration style. The earliest type in group is made of yellow to dark yellow ware; the vessel’s body is rounded, and its height and width are almost identical. The color of the decoration is reddish brown. The decorative scheme consists of a mid-body horizontal band surrounding the body and two groups of vertical bands, one running above the horizontal band up to the vessel’s rim and the other below the horizontal stripe down to its base.
Two typical teapots from the early stage were found in a fourteenth-century BCE grave in Naḥalat Aḥim in Jerusalem (Amiran 1961: Fig. 2: 22, 23) and in Tomb 44 at Megiddo (Guy and Engberg 1938: Pl. 24: 3), in which most of the vessels date to the fifteenth–fourteenth centuries BCE.
The thirteenth-century teapots are made of a light, almost white ware; their body is globular; and their painted decoration is either very dark brown, or usually even black. The decoration scheme no longer includes a horizontal band on the center of the body. Instead, horizontal bands are painted on the neck and rim, and there are groups of vertical bands all over the body. Sometimes several bands were painted on the spout and its join spot to the body. Parallels for teapots of the late type were found in a thirteenth-century grave at Qubeiba, near Lachish (Ben-Arieh, Ben-Tor, and Godovitz 1993: 11).
A three-handled jug: This jug has a low ring base, a globular body, a wide, and a nearly cylindrical neck with a smoothed-out ridge at its upper part. Its rim is simple and slightly splayed. The jug had three handles, which were probably double stranded, running from the rim to the shoulder. The vessel was made of slightly grayish dark yellow levigated clay, with a gray core. The low ring base is not common, but from the appearance of the vessel’s finish it was locally made. The handles were attached to the upper exterior edge of the neck, in a way characteristic of the local pottery tradition. However, the connection of three handles to one jug is a unique example in Israel. This jug therefore finds no parallels in any Late Bronze Age assemblage, in Israel or outside it. According to its location in the excavation, it was associated with the burial, but like all other vessels associated with the grave, it was found near it and not inside it. The stratigraphic context may indicate that the jug was not placed in the grave as a burial offering and rather ended up next to the grave incidentally. Its unique typology hinders a precise chronological definition and stratigraphic relation to the grave. However, as no other complete vessels were found in the vicinity of the tomb, we may assume that the jug was placed in the tomb initially as a burial offering in the Late Bronze Age. Given its unique shape, we may also assume that it was not locally produced but imported from a nearby region—not from Cyprus, Mycenae, or Egypt but from another country.
The isolated grave, located east of the ancient tell, is in an open sandy area. No other burials or settlement remains were found in its vicinity. This helps define the settlement boundaries in Late Bronze Age Lod, which, we may assume, did not extend into this area. The settlement remains in Area C (see above) indicate that the eastern boundaries of the Late Bronze Age settlement at Tel Lod extended east of Area C but did not reach Area D.

Pottery from the Iron Age and Persian Period

Iron Age pottery was found in areas A, B and D. It was found without stratigraphical contexts, and unrelated to architecture or floors. It appears to have accumulated mainly in fills and next to installations found out of the inhabitant areas of the Tell. The only stratum with Iron Age architectural remains was found in Area B, but according to the Iron age ceramic finds from all the areas, the tell was inhabited from the beginning of the Iron Age until at least the eighth century BCE. Therefore, I decided to present in this report as large as number of potsherds, some of the potsherds found in the Iron Age stratigraphical context as in Area B, and also from the other areas. This publication is intended to provide information about the settlement at Tel Lod during the Iron Age. Special emphasis will be placed on describing the stratigraphy and finds of Area B.
Most of the pottery is body sherds of jars, cooking pots, and kraters, and can therefore be assumed to be originate in settlement contexts and not in burials. Many sherds were slipped with a dark red to purple color, and sometimes very dark brown to black. The exterior of most bowls and kraters was densely hand burnished horizontally or vertically.
Parallels for the Iron Age pottery from Lod are limited to sites in its immediate vicinity. However, there are very few sites from this period that were excavated methodically. The nearest large and significant tell near Lod is Tel Gezer. Its excavations, and especially of its upper gate—the Iron Age gate—appear in a ceramic study published apart from the excavation report (Holladay 1990). Another excavation near Lod was conducted at Tel Batash (Mazar and Panitz-Cohen 2001). The vessel forms and ceramic production technologies evident in the Tel Batash assemblage resemble more closely forms and techniques of the Judean Shephelah than those of the Coastal Plain; but during the period discussed here (Iron Age IIA), there are many similarities and connections between these two parts of the country. Another site that yielded important parallels for the pottery from Tel Lod is Tel Qasile, in the Yarkon basin, close to the stream’s outlet into the sea (Mazar 1985). These excavations were conducted from the border of the Shephelah east of Lod (Mazar 2019:8, 9), to the area of the distribution area of pottery decorated by Sea-Peoples-style. Excavations a little farther away from Lod were conducted at Tel Bet Shemesh, on the fringes of the Shephelah in the Soreq River basin, and at Aphek, north of Tel Lod and near the sources of the Yarkon River. The closest site to Lod where an archaeological excavation was carried out and finds from the period were uncovered is Tel Hadid. The site features a repository pit from the Iron II; (Brand 1996 with plates). The author of this paper excavated and Iron IIB burial cave in Tel Hadid (Yannai 2012).
Early Iron Age pottery from Area B (Fig. 14 and parallels in Table 9)
Seven sherds from Area B can be dated safely to Iron Age I (eleventh century BCE), based on comparanda. A bowl with an S-shaped rim profile and a thick wall (Fig. 14: 1) is made of a yellowish orange ware with a light gray core. The upper part of the rim is decorated with a bright-red band. This bowl follows the distinct ceramic tradition of the end of the Late Bronze Age. Parallels are found in Area H, Strata XII and XI and in Area G, Stratum XII at Ashdod. A bowl with an S-shaped rim profile and a thin wall (Fig. 14: 2), made of orange ware with a gray core, finds parallels in Area K, Stratum VI at Ashdod. A “bell-shaped” bowl (Fig. 14: 3) made of dark pink ware with a light gray core resembles bowls in Area G, Stratum XIIIb at Ashdod and in Stratum XII at Tel Qasile.
The closed krater in Figure 14: 4 has a smoothed-out carination and the upper part of its wall has a 45-degree angle. The rim is slightly everted and has a triangular section. The exterior of the vessel is bright-red slipped. This krater has parallels in Stratum XII at Tel Qasile.
A cooking pot (Fig. 14: 5) in this assemblage has a vertical rim with a triangular section. It is made of dark brown ware with a very dark gray core. It finds a parallel in Stratum XII at Tel Qasile. A globular cooking pot (Fig. 14: 6) is made of dark yellowish-gray ware with a light gray core. The vessel’s full profile be reconstructed based on parallels. According to some researchers, this cooking pot type is characteristic of the Sea Peoples’ settlements (Yasur-Landau 2010: 259). Parallels are found in Area H, Strata XII and XI, and Area G, Stratum XIIIb at Ashdod. Fig 14: 7 displays an open carinated krater with a Philistine spiral decoration typical of Iron Age I.

Pottery from Area A (Fig. 15 and parallels in Table 10)

Of hundreds of body sherds and vessel fragments from Area A, only 14 were worthy of drawing. None can be dated precisely with certainty but the assemblage includes sherds typical of late Iron Age I and of early Iron Age IIA.
The bowl in (Figure 15: 1 has a rounded wall and a thick rim, protruding inward and outward. It was made of orange ware with a gray core, red slipped and hand burnished horizontally inside and out. Another bowl (Fig. 15: 2) has a thick rounded wall; its upper part has an S-shaped profile, and its rim is thick and has a triangular section and a straight upper part. It was made of gray ware with a gray core, and it was burnished horizontally inside and out. A third bowl (Fig. 15: 3) has a rounded wall and an S-shaped upper part. The color of its ware alters between dark pink and yellowish, and it is neither slipped or burnished. It finds a parallel in Area H, Stratum VI at Ashdod.
Figure 15: 4 is a krater with a rounded shoulder, a very wide mouth, and a rim with a triangular section. Its ware is dark orange with a light gray core. It is neither slipped nor burnished. This krater, as well as krater no. 5, continues a Late Bronze Age tradition. There is a parallel in Area H, Stratum XII at Ashdod.
Krater no. 5 resembles krater no. 4 closely, but is smaller in diameter. It finds parallels in Strata XII and XI at Tel Qasile.

One krater (Fig. 15: 6) has a cylindrical body and a thick rim, protruding inward and outward. Its ware is orange with a light gray core, and it is red slipped inside and out but not burnished. Krater no. 7 is similar to krater no. 6, but its interior bears visible marks of horizontal hand burnish. The upper part of the wall of krater no. 8 has a 45-degree angle and a thick rim protruding inward and outward. Three other kraters, (Fig. 15: 6–8) are similar to many kraters in Tel Qasile Stratum IX and in Tel Michal Stratum XIV. “Bell shaped” krater no. 9 displays an almost invisible white slip on the outside with a number of vertical and diagonal lines in red. This krater belongs to the Philistine Bichrome ware group, which includes a large range of variations. And though there are many examples, some of which are very similar to the Lod krater, no two vessels in this group are identical.
The upper part of the body and the broad mouth of cooking pot no. 10 were preserved. Its upright rim has a ridge at the bottom and the rim’s upper part is rounded. The upper part of the body of cooking pot no. 11 is rounded, its mouth is smaller in diameter and its rim is everted. Parallels are found in Area D, Strata II–I at Ashdod and in Stratum VII at Tel Qasile. Closed cooking pots nos. 12–14). are small medium-sized and large, respectively. The upper part of the body is at a 45-degree angle. The rim is thickened and has a sharp ridge protruding outward. These cooking pots are similar to examples from Area D, Strata II–I at Ashdod and Stratum XII at Tel Michal.
As stated, part of these ceramic vessels may be dated to the end of Iron Age I and others, to the beginning of Iron Age II.

Iron Age II pottery from Area B (Fig. 16 and parallels in Table 11)
Nine potsherds found in Area B can be dated, with a high degree of certainty, to the beginning of the Iron Age. Other sherds from this area appear to be from a later phase of the Iron Age.
A bowl (Fig. 16: 1) with a thick and rounded wall has a triangular rim with a ridge at its bottom, on the outer side. It is made of orange ware with a light gray core. It has a parallel in Tel Qasile Stratum VIII (Mazar 1985: Fig. 55: 17).
Another bowl (Fig. 16: 2) has a wall rounded in its bottom part, and straight and upright in its upper part. The bottom of the rim protrudes slightly inward and its tip is pointed. A shallow, notched depression surrounds the bowls exterior, below the rim. The upper part of the rim is decorated by a red band, inside and out.
No. 3 is a deep “bell-shaped” bowl, with a slightly rounded wall, almost upright at the top. It has a round-sectioned rim protruding inward and outward and painted with a red band all around. It is made of light pink ware with a dark pink core. It finds a parallel in Tel Qasile Stratum XII.
A shallow bowl in this assemblage (Fig. 16: 4) has a rounded wall and very thick triangular rim. It is made of light gray ware with a dark gray core and has few inclusion of organic material.
Two closed large kraters (Fig. 16: 5, 6) have an upper wall at a 45-degree angle and an everted rim. Both are made of orange ware with a gray core and are red slipped inside and outside with no burnish marks.
There are similar kraters in Area K, Strata VI–V at Ashdod and in Tel Qasile Stratum VII
A smaller krater (Fig. 16: 7) has a squat globular body, no neck, an everted rim, and a pair of handles on the upper part of the body. It is dark-red slipped on the outside and on the inside of the rim and hand burnished horizontally.
A cooking pot (Fig. 16: 8 has a thick rim with a round section and a triangular ridge protruding upward at the lower part of the rim. Similar rims were found in Area A (Fig. 15: 13).
No. 9 is a jug of which the hemispherical upper part of the body was preserved, a cylindrical neck, and a slightly thickened rim with a triangular section. A pair of very thick handles connect the top of the body with the rim. It is made of orange-gray ware and a gray core mixed with many white inclusions, and it is red slipped on the outside and on the upper part of the neck on the inside.

Iron Age II pottery from Area D (Fig. 17 and parallels in Table 12)
Bowl no. 1 has a parallel in Area D, Stratum IVa at Tel Batash. Bowl no. 2 has a parallel in Phase UG (Upper Gate)-1 at Tel Gezer and in Area D, Stratum IV at Tel Batash. Krater no. 3 finds a parallel in Gezer Phase UG-3a; krater no. 10, in Phase UG-3a; and krater no. 7, in Phase PG (Pre-Gate)-2. Krater no. 5 has a parallel in Gezer Phase UG-2 and in Area D, Stratum IVb at Tel Batash. Krater no. 9 resembles vessels from Gezer Phase PG-2, Area D, Stratum IV at Tel Batash, and Stratum XI at Tel Qasile. Krater no. 10 has a parallel in Stratum XI at Tel Qasile.
Cooking pot no. 12 has a parallel in Gezer Phases PG-2 and UG-3a and in Area D, Stratum IVb at Tel Batash, and cooking pot no. 13 has a parallel in Gezer Phase UG-1.

Summing up the Iron Age ceramics
Iron Age pottery from the Lod excavations was not found in settlement strata and its stratigraphic context is unclear. Though it does not enable to date the strata, it does provide convincing evidence for settlement at Tel Lod during the Iron Age. The pottery was dated based on parallels from stratified contexts in tells excavated in Tel Lod’s vicinity, mainly Tel Gezer and Tel Batash in the Shephelah, and tells excavated in the Coastal Plain, such as Tel Michal, Tel Qasile, and Tel Ashdod. It seems that the assemblages discovered should be dated to Iron Age I, Iron Age IIA, and perhaps also to the beginning of Iron Age IIB—the beginning of the 8th century BCE at the latest.
The similarity in the sherds’ typology and the use of similar technologies for the surface treatment of the vessels—the red slip and various types of burnish—correspond with Tel Lod’s location between the fringes of the Shephelah in the east and the Coastal Plain harbors in the west. The earlier sherds find parallels in the Coastal Plain, while the later ones (especially from Area D) are similar to finds from Tel Gezer and Tel Batash. Based on this, early in the Iron Age the inhabitants of Lod were connected culturally to the coastal settlements, but over the course of the Iron Age, they tightened their connection with the Shephelah at the expense of their ties with the coastal cities.

Potsherds from the Persian period (Fig. 18)
Several pits containing potsherds from the Persian period were found during the excavations. They were found in no stratigraphic context and are unrelated to any architecture. Mortaria fragments from these pits have parallels in Tel Mevorakh Stratum III (Stern 1978: Fig. 4: 17, 23) and in Tel Michal Stratum X (Singer-Avitz 1989b: Fig. 9.1: 17, 18). Jar no. 4 has parallels in Tel Mevorakh Stratum III (Stern 1978: Fig. 7: 2, 4), and Tel Michal Strata IX–XII (Singer-Avitz 1989b: Figs. 9.3: 1, 9.4: 3).

Summary

Recently discovered findings indicate that the beginning of the settlement in the area of Lod as early as the Epipaleolithic period (Arbel and Segal 2024; Karkovsky and Segal 2024). The site was subsequently settled during the beginning of the Pottery Neolithic period (Yarmukian culture; sixth millennium BCE).
This settlement flourished, becoming one of the largest settlements in the country during the period of the Lodian culture, which corresponds to the Jericho IX culture (Gopher and Blockman 2004, 2015; Yannai 2016; Yannai 2017).
In previous publications I have dealt with the history of Lod between the fifth and second millennia BCE. The Lodian culture settlement appears to have been abandoned at the end of the Pottery Neolithic (fifth millennium BCE), and no evidence was found at the site of occupation associated with the Wadi Rabah culture or the Early Chalcolithic period. It was resettled in the fourth millennium BCE, during the Late Chalcolithic period (Yannai and Marder 2000), contemporaneously with many other sites in its vicinity (Itach 2018 and bibliography there). From the Late Chalcolithic period to this day, Lod has been settled continuously. It was an important center of settlement during EB IB (late fourth millennium BCE). A large collection of Egyptian jars was unearthed at the site, some bearing names of pharaohs Narmer and Ka, of the earliest Egyptian dynasty (Yannai and Marder 2000). Alongside pottery imported from Egypt, vessels were also found at Lod that were locally produced using Egyptian-inspired technologies. These indicate that Lod was inhabited by Egyptian immigrants who reside in the land’s southern regions. The Egyptian finds indicate that Lod was an Egyptian administrative center in the Yarkon and Ayalon basins. After the Egyptians retreated, Lod was inhabited during the entire Early and Intermediate Bronze Ages (third millennium BCE). At the beginning of MB IIA, while towns in Lod’s vicinity (mainly Gezer and Aphek) became fortified cities, Lod remained unwalled. Therefore, the tell of Lod has no defined boundaries, such as those of cities that were surrounded by walls or earthen embankments. Excavations in 2000 (Yannai and Marder 2000) revealed a tabun, a patch of a plaster floor, and a typical MB II cooking pot. These finds are the only evidence of a settlement from this period. The jar burial and two juglets from Area C indicate that this area was outside the settled area that prevailed on the northern side of the site.

It is possible that in the Late Bronze Age the inhabited area on the north of the tell was abandoned and the settlement migrated several hundred meters south. Its exact location is unknown to us. From this period, a single tomb and two ceramic deposits that were discarded as garbage were exposed, one near the previously river bed of the Ayalon (Area F) and the other (Area C) above the Yarmukian culture layer from the period (Yannai and Marder 2000). Its remains were not found in the 2000 excavations in the northern part of the tell, and it is therefore likely that the settlement extended slightly north of Area C and was very limited in size.
Y. Aharoni and others identified Lod as a city mentioned among the 119 cities conquered by Thutmose III on his campaign to Canaan (Aharoni 1963: 143). This identification is inconsistent with the small size of the unfortified settlement and the meager finds it yielded. Most likely, the city mentioned in Thutmose’s list refers to another site.
Iron Age pottery was recovered in all excavation areas. Aside from a large winepress located on the northwestern side of the site outside thesettlement (Wolff 2023), and massive stone-built facilities that were exposed west of the tell, which were probably used as water wells (Arbel and Segal 2024), no clearly defined loci from this period have been found at Lod in any of the excavations. Based on the ceramic evidence, at the beginning of the Iron Age, the inhabitants of Lod had ties to the centers of settlement of the Sea Peoples in the Coastal Plain—mainly to Azor (Bushnino and Yannai 2015), Jaffa, and Ashdod.
Based on the later pottery (mainly from Area D), during Iron Age IIA (tenth or ninth centuries BCE), their cultural affiliation shifted, and the ties to the Coastal Plain were replaced with connections with Hadid (Brand 1998), Gezer, Tel Batash, and other Iron Age II sites in the Shephelah. The ceramic assemblages contain no pottery from the eighth century BCE and later. The inhabitants of Lod may have been exiled to Assyria, as were their neighbors from Hadid and Azor (Na’aman and Zadok 2000). The few potsherds from the Persian period indicate the renewal of the settlement during this period (and see mentions of Lod in the Bible: Ezra 2:33; Nehemiah 7:37).

Bibliography