Water access is an essential component of any settlement, and particularly in areas such as the Southern Levant where rainfall is limited and confined to a part of the year. At the ancient mound (tel) of Tel Shimron in northern Israel, two springs which were active in modern times are located at the foot of the mound. Here we report the presence of a third spring on the tel within an ancient occupation area. Using both Fourier transform infrared spectrometry and optical microscopy on-site we identified a calcitic material composed of single well-ordered lenticular crystals adhering to the walls of an Iron Age II building. At one location these crystals were forming in a wet seepage area. We therefore concluded that this was a tufa spring deposit. Isolated fragments of this tufa were found occluded in sediments of different ages from the Iron Age onwards, which is consistent with this spring being active for at least the last 3000 years or so. We also identified a 5-10 cm thick layer of finely laminated sediments laid down under water. These sediments included fresh water siliceous organisms, as well as calcite crystals that had presumably precipitated from the water. We therefore conclude that this was a pool in which the spring water accumulated. Radiocarbon dating of charred seeds from the laminated layers showed that the pool existed around 700 cal BCE years ago. This macro- and microarchaeological study thus revealed an important component of settlement activity in this area that changes our understanding of human occupation on the mound.

The Iron I period (1200-1000 BCE) at the archaeological site of Ashkelon, Israel ushers in the beginnings of Philistine control of the city. Varied taxonomy in the animal bone remains in the context of domestic dwellings at Ashkelon reveals shifting patterns of consumption over time (Hesse and Fulton, 2020; Master and Aja, 2020). One hypothesis suggests that the use of cattle as traction/draught animals as part of an intensive agricultural system led to increased cattle bone remains in the Iron I, and these animals were likely pastured in fields directly related to the city (Hesse and Fulton, 2020). This hypothesis is tested by applying geographical and environmental interpretations to the isotopic composition of tooth enamel (carbon, oxygen and strontium) from domestic animals including cattle, donkeys, sheep and goats (caprines), and pigs. The hypothesis of draught cattle is not supported. While cattle were intensively managed, they were grazed in diverse locations across the landscape not centered around the city of Ashkelon. This specialized production strategy would have necessitated important cooperative social and economic relationships between urban consumers and inland farmers and herders who provided animals to the city.

In the Iron Age IIA Philistine cemetery at Ashkelon (modern Israel), roughly 11% of individuals exhibit severe and highly variable dental wear, which we explore here at two timescales: wear that accumulates over days and weeks (microwear) and wear that accumulates over months and years (macrowear). Using teeth from both adult and nonadult individuals, we first established categories of dental macrowear patterns and sorted individuals within them. We then made replicas of the teeth from 27 individuals having both typical and atypical dental wear and performed metrology by noncontact profilometry on a reflected light microscope. We then calculated each tooth's surface roughness (Sa) and collected qualitative observations of teeth within each macrowear category. Our findings show no macrowear or microwear pattern exclusive to sex or age group. Likewise, there are no statistically significant differences (p < 0.05) in Sa between adult males and females, and sampled nonadults fall within two standard deviations of the pooled adult means. The microscopic surfaces of all teeth show a wide variety of textures on the occlusal surfaces, including wavy striations, deep parallel striations, globular pitting, and newly described rectangular pits. These results indicate that individuals used their teeth as a third hand while manipulating objects and that children also participated in these activities. Due to the similarities in dental wear between Ashkelon and other coastal populations, we conclude that the observed wear patterns arose from the performance of specialized tasks for a marine-based economy.

The collapse of Bronze Age Mediterranean trade was a long-term process that took place through the 12th and 11th centuries BCE. The effects of this decline were particularly acute for coastal cities such as Philistine Ashkelon. This paper examines the response to this crisis in Philistia by examining redactional strata in the Deuteronomistic History that might speak to the period of early Philistine activity in the highlands. Through the memories preserved in these texts and in archaeological results from the late Iron Age I–early Iron Age IIA, it is argued that the Philistines reacted to the loss of Mediterranean trade by conducting raids that devastated rural highland settlements.

From 1985–2014, the Leon Levy Expedition to Ashkelon excavated a trench on the north side of Ashkelon's central mound (Grid 38) exposing a Bronze and Iron Age sequence over an area of some 450 m2. By combining different radiocarbon sampling strategies used over the years of excavation, an absolute chrono-cultural scheme is constructed for the latter half of the 2nd millennium b.c.e. with a focus on the transition to the Iron Age. This chronology is then synchronized with several nearby sites.

The origins of the Philistines have traditionally been understood within the context of a migration of “Sea Peoples” at the beginning of the Iron Age. However, excavations in other areas of the eastern Mediterranean have not yielded compelling evidence of a large-scale migration. We contend that migration is still the best explanation of the evidence, but the effect on the archaeological record of the disparate responses of the hostcommunities into which the immigrants settled has been overlooked. Whereas those immigrants who settled in places such as Cilicia, the Amuq Plain, and Phoenicia encountered a decentralized political landscape into which they were quickly absorbed, the immigrants who landed in the southern Levant faced a still-powerful Egypt which was able to confine them. Within a restricted space, the immigrant Sea Peoples and indigenous Canaanites were galvanized into a unique Philistine ethnos.

The ancient Mediterranean port city of Ashkelon, identified as "Philistine"during the Iron Age, underwent a marked cultural change between the Late Bronze and the early Iron Age. It has been long debated whether this change was driven by a substantial movement of people, possibly linked to a larger migration of the so-called "Sea Peoples." Here, we report genome-wide data of 10 Bronze and Iron Age individuals from Ashkelon. We find that the early Iron Age population was genetically distinct due to a European-related admixture. This genetic signal is no longer detectible in the later Iron Age population. Our results support that a migration event occurred during the Bronze to Iron Age transition in Ashkelon but did not leave a long-lasting genetic signature.

Nebuchadnezzar burned the city of Ashkelon to the ground in the late 7th century B.C. E. in order to erase Ashkelon from history. Ironically, this very act froze the 7th century city in time, preserving its material remains for thousands of years. The Leon Levy Expedition to Ashkelon has worked for decades to show how Ashkelon's ruins give us unique insight into the dynamic international world of the late Iron Age.

Pits and silos are storage features that often occur at prehistoric archaeological sites. Their shape, size and content may show a large degree of variability, and their function may be related to a number of behaviors that can provide valuable insight into the occupational history of a site. Such structures are usually investigated through the study of their macroscopic content, which may include stone, ceramic and metal artifacts, charred remains, and plant material in the case of good preservation conditions. However, pits and silos are generally characterized by complex life cycles that encompass also the partial or total removal of fill deposits, and the re-use of earlier structures, which hinder a proper interpretation of their function. This requires the application of a microarchaeological approach to the study of the sedimentary matrix of fill deposits, especially when macroscopic remains are absent or not uniquely related to a specific human activity. Here we present the study of a series of pits from the Late Bronze Age levels at Ashkelon, Israel, which were characterized by multiple fills layers. Using a combination of infrared spectrometry, phytolith analysis, and micromorphology of sediments, we show that one of the pits was used as grain silo and maintained through time. Radiocarbon dating of charred wheat seeds recovered from the primary depositional context thus identified caused a fundamental re-evaluation of the stratigraphy of the excavation area and a better understanding of its chronology.

The eroding coastal sections of Ashkelon, Israel contain exposed sequences of natural and anthropogenic sedimentological deposits; some of unknown origin. Ashkelon, an important and long-occupied ancient coastal city, is directly referred to within written records of past tsunami events yet field studies and archaeological descriptions have not yet corroborated these claims. This is not unusual, nor unexpected, given the amount of anthropogenic and natural disturbance that can erase the sedimentary remains, as well as the relatively recent advancements in identifying such deposits. A sequence of sediments at the base of an eroding coastal archaeological section shows clear waterborne transport characteristics and was previously interpreted as alluvial; however, no alluvial sources could be associated to the deposit. In this study, the sedimentological characteristics of this section were described and analyzed in greater detail to determine their nearest similarity to possible transport mechanism such as storms, rivers, and tsunamis. The deposits contain fining-upward sequences, rip-up clasts, imbricated inclusions, fine mud layers, microfauna (foraminifera), and broken diagnostic pottery from the 4–5th c. BC Reconstructions of the coastline at the time of the event place the sampled profile at least 100m inland from the shoreline, at an elevation +2.0 to 2.4m above sea level. River-channel features were not identified in the section. For this area, modern observations of major storms show inundations of <75m which are not coupled with depositional deposits (erosional only), suggesting that these deposits are not storm-related. Rather, it is possible that the deposits support the arrival of an undocumented tsunami at Ashkelon some time following the 4–5thcenturyBCE. These results reinforce the importance of the reassessment of many coastal sedimentological studies in light of improved capabilities of recognizing possible tsunamigenic sediments, as well as increased field efforts for the purpose of producing more complete tsunami catalogues; and also highlights the need to better record and document eroding coastlines that may contain valuable information regarding both anthropogenic and natural history.

From 2013 to 2016, the Leon Levy Expedition to Ashkelon excavated an Iron Age IIA cemetery immediately adjacent to the ancient city. This research uncovered over 200 individuals buried in simple pits, built tombs, and cremation jars. The discovery represents a fundamental contribution to the history of the Philistines, as it demonstrates, for the first time, a typical burial practice for Philistine adults in the Iron Age. As such, it becomes a type-site against which other southern Levantine discoveries can be compared and provides new information about Iron Age death and burial in the eastern Mediterranean.

Five seasons of excavation (2008-2012) undertaken by the Leon Levy Expedition to Ashkelon in the area of the forum of Roman Ashkelon (ancient Askalon), a major seaport on the southern Levantine coast, have revealed a continuous sequence of occupation and building activity from the Hellenistic to the Crusader periods. Of primary interest are two monumental Roman phases: a first-century C.E. basilical structure that housed the city's bouleuterion and a Severan enlargement and renovation of this building. Most of the Severan phase has been revealed, as well as substantial portions of the earlier basilica/bouleuterion phase and a monumental Hellenistic complex. This article provides an overview of these architectural phases, the evidence for their date, suggestions for reconstruction, and a conspectus of the pre- and post-Roman use of this area of the city As some of the few systematically excavated examples of these building types in the southern Levant, these structures shed light on the principal monuments and the urban development of an important seaport at the height of its prosperity, and the evidence for the dismantling of the bouleuterion in late antiquity provides a glimpse into the end of Roman civic organization in an important city of the east.

It has been suggested that the collapse of the Late Bronze Age trading networks severed connections between Cyprus and the Philistine cities of the southern Levant. However, the excavators of the Leon Levy Expedition to Ashkelon have uncovered two examples of vessels made in Cyprus and then imported to Philistia during the mid-12th century b.c. These vessels are characterized below, and the consequences of their discovery are briefly addressed.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine the accuracy of the wrist insufflation test based on mean radiocarpal and midcarpal joint space volumes. Methods: Twenty-nine patients underwent 3-4 portal radiocarpal and radial midcarpal portal insufflation before wrist arthroscopy. The volume remaining in the radiocarpal space at equilibrium was recorded, and the contour of the dorsal wrist and distal radioulnar joint was palpated for a fluid wave. After insufflation, wrist arthroscopy was performed and diagnoses were recorded. The mean volumes of the intact radiocarpal and midcarpal spaces were then compared with those of the compromised radiocarpal and midcarpal spaces to determine the overall sensitivity and specificity of the test. Results: A total of 29 patients 18 male and 11 female) underwent wrist insufflation before wrist arthroscopy. The mean age of the patients was 42 years range, 17 to 69 years). Intact radiocarpal spaces accepted a mean of 3.5 +/- 0.16 mL of fluid, whereas compromised radiocarpal spaces accepted a mean of 5.5 +/- 0.48 mL of fluid P < .01; 95% confidence interval, 2.87 to 3.30). Intact midcarpal spaces accepted a mean of 2.5 +/- 0.18 mL, whereas compromised midcarpal spaces accepted a mean of 5.6 +/- 0.38 mL P < .01; 95% confidence interval, 1.70 to 2.30). The overall sensitivity of the test was 83.3%, and the overall specificity was 100%. Conclusions: Complete scapholunate interosseous ligament and triangular fibrocartilage complex tears can be detected when there is an increased radiocarpal joint space volume with insufflation through the 3-4 portal combined with a fluid wave over the radial midcarpal space or the distal radioulnar joint. Complete scapholunate interosseous ligament and lunotriquetral interosseous ligament tears can also be detected when there is an increased midcarpal space volume with insufflation through the radial midcarpal portal combined with a fluid wave over the radial radiocarpal space or the ulnar radiocarpal space. Level of Evidence: Level IV, therapeutic case series.