Abstract
The bīt ḫilāni is a well-known type of the north Syrian palace architecture from the first half of the first millennium B.C. The purpose of this study is to investigate methodological problems in studies of this type, and to evaluate its influence on historical researches.
First, we study the distribution and features o f plans o f remains regarded as bīt ḫilāni (BH) type, and by doing so, we reveal that study of the type had serious shortcomings from the beginning, i.e., from the first step of defining the type. This is a problem that should have been solved fifty years ago, but it has influenced the study of ancient Palestinian history ever since.
Presently, some Biblical archaeologists are arguing that the Iron Age IIA (tenth century B.C.) should be dated a hundred years later. Their assertion is based on the traditional views that the BH-type architecture must have been constructed at Palestine, and that there are no signs of similarly developed royal institutions or monumental buildings in the region from eastern Turkey to Transjordan from the tenth century B.C. Reexamining the plans of the BH-type architecture in Palestine shows that the former view cannot be substantiated. Consequently it is too early to reconsider the chronology of Palestine by means of discussing the BH type.
What we should do now is to return to the starting point of the BH research, i.e., Assyrian texts. Neo-Assyrian kings emphasized that they copied characteristic porticos from north Syrian palaces called bīt ḫilāni in Assyrian palaces. At the present stage, the most reasonable definition for a BH-type building will be “a public building which has an entrance having columns with decorated bases.”
