Excavations at Kedesh in Israel

FAIN: RZ-20428-99

Regents of the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1015)
Sharon Herbert (Project Director: September 1998 to December 2007)

The excavation and analysis of materials from Tel Kedesh, in rural Upper Galilee, Israel to assess the non-Greek contributions to culture in the Hellenistic period (323-20 B.C.E.).

This proposal seeks funds for three years of excavation at the site of Tel Kedesh in northern Israel and for study and publication of the finds. The major interpretive questions that we are addressing in this project concern the assessment of the non-Greek contributions to Hellenistic culture in the Near East. The method we are using is the excavation of a rural site where we have reason to expect to find remains of self-conscious non-Greeks, namely Phoenicians and Possibly Jews. From rigorous analysis of these remains we propose to refine and expand our understanding of what pattern of material remains can be reasonably taken to signify Phoenician or Jewish presence at a site. This, in turn, will help us and other scholars to understand better the nature and limits of the complex process of Hellenization in this part of the world.