The archaeological excavations at Tel 'Ein Gev, Israel, from 1990-2004 yielded finds from a major fortified city, including a casemate wall, a citadel, and several tripartite pillared buildings. However, the date of these buildings and even the date of the establishment of the site itself has not been clarified yet. Until now it has been believed that there were two strata of pillared buildings and that the city wall was contemporary to the lower pillared buildings because the wall supports the podium of these buildings. However, the pottery sherds from the city wall include types older than the ones from the lower pillared buildings.
Through the analyses of both the pottery assemblages and the stratigraphy of the building remains, the present writer shows that it is more reasonable to see three strata of pillared buildings, dated to the 8
th, the 9
th, and the 10
th centuries B. C. To study the pottery assemblages, I categorized bowls, kraters, cooking pots, and storage jars as to type and analyzed the frequency of their appearance according to the building units and strata. As a result, it is clear that there are three distinct pottery assemblages for the pillared buildings. The assemblage from the citadel coincides with the middle period assemblage from the pillared buildings, and from the city wall the types from all periods appear.
Concerning the building remains, the foundations of the northern and the middle lower buildings appear to have two phases. The building methods and the materials of these buildings were also different from those of the southern lower building, suggesting different construction time. Further more, during the probe (L510) in the north of the northern pillared building, which had hitherto been considered to be at the lowest level, an even lower floor was discovered. I also show that it is impossible to argue for a 9
th century date for the lower pillared buildings based on the typological similarity of the casemate wall of 'Ein Gev to those of Jezreel and Samaria.
From these studies, I conclude that the Iron Age stratigraphy of Tel 'Ein Gev should be divided into three strata (St. IV, V, VI) and that the city started during the 10
th century B. C.
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