Small Carved Bowl with a Tube Unearthed from Tel ‘En Gev: Its Significance for Aram-Israel Relations during the 9th Century BC

Abstract

A small steatite bowl with a tube carved with a hand design was unearthed from Stratum MIII by B. Mazar and colleagues at Tel ‘En Gev in 1961. Northern Syria is relevant to the manufacture of bowls of this kind, which are often assumed to have been brought into the Southern Levant after Assyrian domination during the seventh century BC. However, this study revisits their distribution pattern and date, and suggests that although these bowls were likely produced in the ‘Amuq Plain in northern Syria, they were already found in the Southern Levant from before the mid-ninth century BC, when they began to be manufactured in Syria. Therefore, these bowls from the Southern Levant, including that from Tel ‘En Gev, may reflect the Aramaean impact on the area, prior to the mid-nineth century BC.