The Middle and Late Bronze Age tomb complex at Ashkelon, Israel: The architecture and the funeral kit

This dissertation focuses on two aspects of the Middle and Late Bronze Age family tombs at Ashkelon: the architecture and my hypothesis regarding a “funeral kit” in ancient burials. I first suggest that the form and function of the tombs reflected funerary and mortuary beliefs and practices from the Middle Bronze Age II B/C (1850/1750–1550 BCE) through the Late Bronze Age II (1550–1250 BCE). Based on the analysis of the burials placed in these tombs, I conclude that a relatively predictable set of ceramics, scarab(s), and toggle pin(s) accompanied the body. I explain how the funeral kit was employed in the mortuary and funerary practices of ancient Ashkelon. Incorporating the work of scholars such as van Gennep, Binford, Saxe, Tainter, and O'Shea, I separate all the grave goods in these tombs into three categories: essential, status, and personal goods. The essential items, deemed necessary to equip the individual for his/her journey into the afterlife, made-up the “funeral kit.” In addition, I consider that which the tomb architecture and the funeral kit reveal about ancient beliefs. More than forty of the burials from the Ashkelon tombs were relatively undisturbed and were analyzed in situ. Not only were the skeletal remains in their original (or nearly original) positions, but so were the grave goods. Thus, this study is distinctive in that the pottery and funerary items could be associated with individual burials. As a result, I have been able to conduct a comprehensive analysis of the position in which individuals were laid to rest, the grave goods and their placement around them, and the changes in these assemblages over time.{09}I am suggesting, for the first time, that there was a prescribed set of grave goods, used during the funerary ceremony, and deposited with the deceased. Comparative analyses can be undertaken on the previously excavated materials from other ancient sites in search of cultural ties, which may yield new information concerning ancient settlement patterns. This study provides crucial information to enhance our understanding of ancient funerary and mortuary practices in non-literate ancient societies.