Itamar Taxel
Datos Biográficos
| ID | 643639 |
|---|---|
| NOMBRE | Itamar Taxel |
| NOMBRES | Itamar |
| APELLIDO | Taxel |
| FIRMA | TAXEL I |
| AFILIACIONES | Israel Antiquities Authority |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-4739-1956 |
| VERIFICADO | Sí |
| TOTAL DE OBRAS | 53 |
| TOTAL DE CITAS | 62 |
| TOTAL COMO AUTOR | 53 |
| TOTAL COMO EDITOR | 0 |
| PRIMER AÑO DE PUBLICACIÓN | 2006 |
| AÑO MÁS RECIENTE DE PUBLICACIÓN | 2026 |
| ÍNDICE H | 4 |
Yibnā (Yavneh) in the Late Ottoman and British Mandate Periods (ca. 1750–1948)
This article examines the history, archaeology, and material culture of the Palestinian village of Yibnā (Yavneh) during the Late Ottoman and British Mandate periods (ca. 1750–1948). Yibnā, located in the southern coastal plain between Jaffa and Majdal ʿAsqalān, was one of the largest villages in the Gaza subdistrict, occupying the ancient mound of Iamnia/Yavneh and its environs. The study integrates diverse sources in Arabic, Ottoman Turkish, an…
An Ayyubid Sgraffito Bowl from ʿAsqālan (Ashqelon, Israel)
This study discusses a rather unusual Ayyubid-period (late 12th century) glazed sgraffito-decorated bowl of Egyptian origin, which was found in ʿAsqālan (Ashqelon), on the southern Mediterranean coast of Israel. The ʿAsqālan bowl (and its few published counterparts) is chronologically and typologically placed between two major and much more renowned classes of Egyptian glazed wares—the Fustat Fatimid Sgraffito (FFS) and the Mamluk Barracks Sgraff…
The Pottery from the Byzantine Street (Area S2), Jerusalem
The Byzantine street segment exposed in Area S2 revealed pottery dated primarily to the Byzantine and the beginning of Early Islamic period, including from well-stratified contexts; these finds are accompanied by a handful of Early and Late Roman period pottery types which should be treated as residuals of pre-Byzantine activity in the area. The Byzantine- and Early Islamic-period pottery illuminate the chronology of the street and some later nea…
Iron Age to Ottoman-Period Pottery from the Excavation at Qedumim Square, Tel Yafo (Jaffa)
This study discusses the pottery retrieved from the excavation at the western foot of Tel Yafo, dated to Iron Age II and the Persian, Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine, Early Islamic, Crusader, Mamluk and Ottoman periods. The ceramic assemblage is generally similar to the assemblages retrieved from other contemporaneous contexts in Yafo, whilst also including a few rare or locally uncommon types. Hence, this pottery constitutes a contribution to our …
Roman Burial Caves South of Tel Yavneh and Roman Iamnia Town Limits
This study examines two clusters of Roman burial caves located approximately 1 km south of Tel Yavneh, forming part of a necropolis on the town’s southern perimeter. The first cluster, excavated in 1962 on Beth Gamliel hill, comprises eight rock-cut caves of loculi and arcosolia types, while the second, uncovered in 2022 in Area D, includes three caves adapted from earlier Intermediate Bronze Age shaft tombs. Analysis of architectural features, s…
An Infant Jar Burial from Zarnūqa
The article presents an exceptional late Ottoman-period funerary assemblage excavated in 2001 at the former Arab village of Zarnqa, on Israel's southern coastal plain.The assemblage, which formed part of a small cemetery in which mostly children were buried, included three storage jars covered by a stone surface-one contained the remains of a newborn baby, another contained grains and the third had an unknown content.The burial and grain jars wer…
A Crusader-Period Pithos-Type Jar from Petaḥ Tiqwa, Mulabbis
The Crusader-period (twelfth–thirteenth century CE) stratum uncovered at Mulabbis yielded a pithos broken into two halves and embedded in the ground. Both halves of the vessel exhibited remains of soot, indicating their use as sunken ovens or other fire-related installations. Pithoi are known to have commonly served as large stationary storage containers in domestic and commercial areas. While their primary use was for storing large quantities of…
A Line in the Sand
This article explores property and dune cultivation in Late Ottoman and British Mandate Palestine as exemplified by Rimāl Yibnā and al-Nabī Rūbīn/Yavneh-Palmachim dune field on the southeastern Mediterranean coastal plain. The study describes native agricultural practices from synchronous and diachronous perspectives, while proposing a way of bridging the epistemological gaps between native typologies of dune agriculture and modern scholarly anal…
The glaze is less opaque on the other side
Connectivity of Agrotechnologies between Late Antiquity and Early Modern Times in the Mediterranean Region
Early Islamic Groundwater-Harvesting Plot-and-Berm Agroecosystems Along the Southeastern Mediterranean Coast
Imported Table Wares in the Palestinian Countryside in the 19th and Early 20th Centuries and Their Integration into (and Influence on?) Local Dining Habits
Archaeological fieldwork in Israel has testified to the presence of a variety of imported glazed table wares of the 19th and first half of the 20th century—notably from the northeast Mediterranean, Europe and the Far East—in numerous locations, including in rural sites of various ranks. The influx of import of these ceramics to the southern Levant and their widespread use reflect the intensifying commercial activity in the eastern Mediterranean a…
Hamama
This article explores the history of Hamama, an Arab village in the Gaza Sub-District during the Late Ottoman and British Mandate period c. 1750–1948 CE, combining the often disparate fields of Ottoman/Levantine archaeology and Ottoman/Palestinian history for tracing its rise from an ordinary village into the Sub-District’s third largest settlement. Ethnographic sources and historical evidence testify that the village of Hamama had been inhabited…
Changes in Wine Consumption in Palestine, c. 600–1100 CE
This study provides an updated picture of the seventh- to eleventh-century CE production and distribution of local and imported wine jars and amphorae across Palestine, which—together with selected data on pottery production sites and winepresses—reflect changes in habits of wine consumption by the country’s population. Beginning in the seventh century CE, a gradual decline occurred in the manufacturing of Gaza jars, simultaneously with an increa…
Roman-period trade in ceramic building materials on the Levantine Mediterranean coast
The production and distribution of ceramic building materials (CBM) in the Roman period have long attracted the attention of archaeologists, as they provide clues to aspects of trade, identity, and technological and architectural traditions. However, there has been a notable scarcity of studies focusing on plain CBM in the southern Levant, particularly in the Mediterranean coastal region. This study concentrates on CBM (bricks, tubuli, drainage p…
Revising the Chronology and Typology of Gaza Ware, a Hallmark of Late Islamic Palestinian Pottery
Gaza Ware, one of the hallmarks of Palestinian pottery in Late Islamic/Ottoman times, was produced in the southern Coastal Plain and is characterised by dark-coloured fabric and a large variety of vessel forms. Although most scholars agree that Gaza Ware was already in use in the 18th century and continued into the 20th century, the earliest appearance of this pottery is still under debate. This article offers new insights into Gaza Ware typology…
Character and Evolution of Sunken Groundwater-Harvesting Agroecosystems in Aeolian Sand since Early Islamic Times, between Iran and Iberia
The Environmental History of the Navazo Agroecosystem in Late Holocene Sand Bodies Along the Atlantic Coast of Andalusia, Spain
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Shifting the Sands – Early Islamic Modification of the Caesarea Sandy Lowlands into Plot-and-Berm Water-Harvesting Agroecosystem
During the Early Islamic period, several emerging agricultural innovations enabled the cultivation of summer crops in unproductive Mediterranean lands. This necessitated the development of water harvesting methods. This study delves into the creation of the Plot-and-Berm (P&B) agroecosystem along the sandy coast of Caesarea, Israel. From the early tenth century to the mid-twelfth century, coeval to the later part of the Early Islamic period and t…
A Unique Assemblage of Late Islamic Magical Artifacts from Netafim 2
Many remains of the Muslim pilgrimage road from Cairo to Mecca, the Darb al-Hajj al-Maṣri are preserved in the Eilat region of southern Israel. These include sections of the road, camps, and other associated structures. Most of these remains date to the Mamluk and Ottoman periods. In one camp (Netafim 2), an assemblage of unusual objects was found, including fragmentary clay rattles, votive clay incense burners, anthropomorphic and perhaps zoomor…
Clay Boat Models from Yavneh-Yam
This study presents an assemblage of complete and fragmented clay-made boat models uncovered during controlled archaeological excavations from Yavneh-Yam, which is located on the southern coastal plain of Israel. First, the relevant contexts from the Persian and early Hellenistic periods at the site that yielded these models are contextualized within the framework of contemporary geopolitical dynamics. This is in order to clarify the geopolitical…
Strainer-Type Smoking Pipes in Ottoman Palestine
Ḥamāma
This paper deals with the dialectics of settlement continuity and change in Palestine's southern coastal plain during the Mamluk and Early Ottoman periods (1270–1750 CE). Using Ḥamāma, an Arab village in Majdal ‘Asqalān's hinterland as a test-case, the paper introduces a new method of establishing settlement continuity — a major challenge in the study of the historical geography of late medieval and Ottoman Palestine, by showing continual presenc…
Limekiln services soil enrichment and water retention of an Early Islamic Plot-and-Berm groundwater-harvesting agroecosystem in coastal dunes near Caesarea, Israel
Refuse Usage and Architectural Reuse in the Field
Based on the mostly unpublished finds of a 1970s excavation and the initial results of a 2020 survey and excavation of the remains of an Early Islamic Plot-and-Berm (P&B) agroecosystem south of ancient Caesarea/Qaysariyya, this study discusses the agricultural incorporation of refuse in a pristine aeolian sand environment. The P&B agroecosystem, characterized by anthro-terrain/earthworks of sunken agricultural plots delimited by sand berms, compr…
Glass production at an Early Islamic workshop in Tel Aviv
Indigeneity and innovation of early Islamic glaze technology
Shifting the Sands – Early Islamic Modification of the Caesarea Sandy Lowlands into Plot-and-Berm Water-Harvesting Agroecosystem
During the Early Islamic period, several emerging agricultural innovations enabled the cultivation of summer crops in unproductive Mediterranean lands. This necessitated the development of water harvesting methods. This study delves into the creation of the Plot-and-Berm (P&B) agroecosystem along the sandy coast of Caesarea, Israel. From the early tenth century to the mid-twelfth century, coeval to the later part of the Early Islamic period and t…
Limekiln services soil enrichment and water retention of an Early Islamic Plot-and-Berm groundwater-harvesting agroecosystem in coastal dunes near Caesarea, Israel
Early Islamic Groundwater-Harvesting Plot-and-Berm Agroecosystems Along the Southeastern Mediterranean Coast
The Environmental History of the Navazo Agroecosystem in Late Holocene Sand Bodies Along the Atlantic Coast of Andalusia, Spain
Item does not contain fulltext
Towards an Integration of Historical Trees into the Mediterranean Archaeological Record
The concept of more-than-human agency maintains that objects, animals and plants can act as agents with various effects on people and that trees specifically may play a role in shaping and changing spaces (hence constituting a ‘planty agency’). Also, trees usually outlive several human generations and can therefore be termed ‘historical trees.’ Although this issue is especially relevant for the discipline of landscape archaeology, no systematic m…
High temperature pyrotechnology
An Early Islamic Inter-Settlement Agroecosystem in the Coastal Sand of the Yavneh Dunefield, Israel
This study examines the remains of an agricultural complex found in the Yavneh coastal dunefield, central Israel. Known as a plot-and-berm agroecosystem, the complex consisted of earthworks in a crisscross pattern of sand berms and sunken agricultural plots that were used for groundwater harvesting. The plots, which provided easy access to the high groundwater table and the berms around them, are overlaid by a gray sand unit covered by pottery sh…
The Inside Out of Childhood Archaeology
Two identical ceramic rattles dated to the Early Islamic period (ninth–eleventh centuries CE), retrieved from excavations at Mishmar David (Israel), were studied using petrographic analysis and x-ray radiography. The petrography shows that the rattles were made of a typical Egyptian Nile Valley clay, while the x-ray radiography provides important data regarding their interior, including the sounding elements they contain. Given the rarity of cont…
The glaze is less opaque on the other side
Character and Evolution of Sunken Groundwater-Harvesting Agroecosystems in Aeolian Sand since Early Islamic Times, between Iran and Iberia
Clay Boat Models from Yavneh-Yam
This study presents an assemblage of complete and fragmented clay-made boat models uncovered during controlled archaeological excavations from Yavneh-Yam, which is located on the southern coastal plain of Israel. First, the relevant contexts from the Persian and early Hellenistic periods at the site that yielded these models are contextualized within the framework of contemporary geopolitical dynamics. This is in order to clarify the geopolitical…
Ḥamāma
This paper deals with the dialectics of settlement continuity and change in Palestine's southern coastal plain during the Mamluk and Early Ottoman periods (1270–1750 CE). Using Ḥamāma, an Arab village in Majdal ‘Asqalān's hinterland as a test-case, the paper introduces a new method of establishing settlement continuity — a major challenge in the study of the historical geography of late medieval and Ottoman Palestine, by showing continual presenc…
Early Islamic Crude Handmade Ware
This study presents new evidence about a class of Early Islamic ceramics that have been largely overlooked; namely, crude handmade ware, sometimes previously referred to as ‘Negebite’ Ware, typical of the southern portions of what is now modern‐day Israel and Jordan. A large array of handmade vessels retrieved in excavations of an Early Islamic settlement in the Yotvata oasis of the ‘Arabah Valley, Israel and comparative material from neighbourin…
Tel ‘Afar (Tell al-Akhdar)
A monumental building at the coastal site of Tel ‘Afar, on the Via Maris—the road linking Antioch and Alexandria, was previously identified as the villa of a wealthy citizen of Caesarea. A new geological and archaeological survey at the site and re-examination of the findings from previous excavations, provide a new interpretation of the function and character of this building. Taken together, the analysis of the ceramic assemblage and the archit…
Life in the Dunes
This article discusses a section of the Israeli coastal plain known as Yavneh Sands between 1800 and 1948. This sand-dune strip, which legally belonged to the large village of Yubna/Yavneh and to the waqf of the major pilgrimage site of Nabi Rubin, was a peripheral territory, both economically and socially. The area was de facto controlled by wandering and sedentary Bedouin groups, who were accompanied by (seasonal?) peasant villagers, fishermen,…
Newly-Identified Type of Late Antique Palestinian Amphora
This study discusses a new type of Late Antique (second half of seventh century ad) Palestinian commercial amphora. Archaeological finds from surveys and excavations, along with petrographic analysis, indicate that this amphora type was produced in and/or around the town of Yavneh, on the southern coastal plain of historical Palestine. The morphology of the Yavneh-type amphora is alien to local ceramic traditions but has strong affiliations with …
A Re-Appraisal of the Archaeological Findings at Tel Hashash
Tel Hashash is located within the boundaries of modern Tel Aviv. Surveys and excavations carried out in the site by the late J. Kaplan and H. Ritter-Kaplan during the 1960s and 1980s revealed remains and finds dated mainly to the Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine periods. The present paper includes the presentation and analysis of these yet unpublished remains, and a revision of the excavators' conclusions about the function and history of the sit…
An Uncommon Type of Smoking Implement from Ottoman Palestine
The presence of an uncommon and barely reported type of ceramic smoking implement found in Ottoman-period archaeological contexts in sites in Palestine is discussed. This implement, part of a large group of much more common Near Eastern smoking implements, expands our knowledge about the material culture and daily habits of the local population, and provides somewhat surprising evidence for the ethnic diversity of Palestine in the Ottoman period
Ceramic Evidence for Beekeeping in Palestine in the Mamluk and Ottoman Periods
This paper discusses the presence of a ceramic vessel type in archaeological assemblages of the Mamluk and Ottoman periods in Palestine, the function of which has not been elicited. Similar vessels are documented in the rural Arab agriculture of Palestine as beehives. The identification of their function adds another element to our understanding of the economy and material culture of these periods in Palestine.
Rural Settlement in the Vicinity of Yavneh in the Byzantine Period
This article deals with the rural vicinity of the towns of Yavneh and Yavneh-Yam (on Israel's coastal plain) in the Byzantine period (ca. mid-fourth to mid-seventh centuries C.E.), and synthesized archaeological data relating to the Jewish, Christian, and Samaritan populations of this region. The present study is based on literary sources and a few previous archaeological discoveries, but mainly is focused on the results of comprehensive archaeol…
An Uncommon Type of Smoking Implement from Ottoman Palestine
The presence of an uncommon and barely reported type of ceramic smoking implement found in Ottoman-period archaeological contexts in sites in Palestine is discussed. This implement, part of a large group of much more common Near Eastern smoking implements, expands our knowledge about the material culture and daily habits of the local population, and provides somewhat surprising evidence for the ethnic diversity of Palestine in the Ottoman period
A Re-Appraisal of the Archaeological Findings at Tel Hashash
Tel Hashash is located within the boundaries of modern Tel Aviv. Surveys and excavations carried out in the site by the late J. Kaplan and H. Ritter-Kaplan during the 1960s and 1980s revealed remains and finds dated mainly to the Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine periods. The present paper includes the presentation and analysis of these yet unpublished remains, and a revision of the excavators' conclusions about the function and history of the sit…
Jamniah/Yavneh
For much of its history, ancient Yavneh was a major city on Israel's southern coastal plain located about 7.5 km east of the Mediterranean shore, on a hill that rises about 60 m above sea level and 30 m above surface level.
Rural Settlement Processes in Central Palestine, ca. 640–800 c.e
As a partial response to the paucity of synthetic studies that deal with the countryside of the Palestinian heartland during Early Islamic times, this article concentrates on rural settlement processes and rural—urban relationships in a specific part of central Palestine—the Ramla-Yavneh region—between ca. 640 and 800 C.E. Several excavated or systematically surveyed rural sites, located within the immediate hinterland of the region's urban and s…
The Inside Out of Childhood Archaeology
Two identical ceramic rattles dated to the Early Islamic period (ninth–eleventh centuries CE), retrieved from excavations at Mishmar David (Israel), were studied using petrographic analysis and x-ray radiography. The petrography shows that the rattles were made of a typical Egyptian Nile Valley clay, while the x-ray radiography provides important data regarding their interior, including the sounding elements they contain. Given the rarity of cont…
Luxury and common wares
In the following article the published and unpublished ceramics from 38 selected excavated sites (urban, rural and others) have been examined in order to reassess some socio-economic aspects related to the distribution patterns of glazed table wares in Early Islamic Palestine. The substantial differences between the types of glazed table wares used at different forms of settlement, argue that certain types should be considered luxuries, used by a…
Glass production at an Early Islamic workshop in Tel Aviv
Majdal Yaba The History and Material Culture of a Fortified Village in Late Ottoman- and British Mandate-Palestine
Majdal Yaba, located at the western fringes of the Samaria Hills, was a village founded in the 13th century around the former Crusader castle of Mirabel, which in its turn was built at the site of ancient Migdal Aphek. The importance of the place was raised again in the 17th century, when the village was taken over by the Rayyan family, who emigrated from Transjordan. The latter established there their own estate center in the form of a monumenta…
Majdal Yābā
In 2016 another excavation season was carried out at Majdal Yaba, concentrating on three rooms (02, 03 and 22) in the ground floor of the Ottoman-Mandatory manor house. Rooms 02 and 03 are large, adjacent halls apparently designated as storage and working areas, while Room 22 is a smaller living quarter. Each of the rooms revealed evidence for at least two main construction and utilization phases during the late Ottoman and British Mandate period…
Fragile Biography
Two Rare Early Abbasid Paint-Decorated Ceramic Bowls from el-Khirba/Nes Ziyyona, Israel
This article discusses two near-complete ceramic vessels—a deep, cup-shaped bowl and a shallow bowl/plate—found in recent excavations carried out at the rural site of el-Khirba/Nes Ziyyona in central Israel, in an early Abbasid context dated to the ninth century. The vessels bear unusual painted decorations on their exterior and interior. The decoration of the first bowl consists of alternating pairs of large black and white palm trees and large …
An Early Islamic Inter-Settlement Agroecosystem in the Coastal Sand of the Yavneh Dunefield, Israel
This study examines the remains of an agricultural complex found in the Yavneh coastal dunefield, central Israel. Known as a plot-and-berm agroecosystem, the complex consisted of earthworks in a crisscross pattern of sand berms and sunken agricultural plots that were used for groundwater harvesting. The plots, which provided easy access to the high groundwater table and the berms around them, are overlaid by a gray sand unit covered by pottery sh…
A Basmala -Inscribed Jug from Arsur’s Mamluk Destruction of ad 1265
Early Islamic Palestine
This article concentrates on the outlining of major settlement forms and land uses in Early Islamic Palestine and some of the social and demographic dynamics related to their physical, functional and hierarchic evolution throughout the 7th to 11th centuries. It provides a fresh and at times revised viewpoint concerning these themes and others, by using historical and mainly archaeological data related to a wide selection of urban, rural and other…
Newly-Identified Type of Late Antique Palestinian Amphora
This study discusses a new type of Late Antique (second half of seventh century ad) Palestinian commercial amphora. Archaeological finds from surveys and excavations, along with petrographic analysis, indicate that this amphora type was produced in and/or around the town of Yavneh, on the southern coastal plain of historical Palestine. The morphology of the Yavneh-type amphora is alien to local ceramic traditions but has strong affiliations with …
Roman and Byzantine Burials at Yavneh-Yam
This paper discusses Roman and Byzantine tombs and burial caves at Yavneh-Yam (the harbor site of ancient Iamnia) excavated in the 1960s and 1980s. It focuses on the finds recovered during these excavations as a means to enhance our knowledge on the site’s social and religious history vis-à-vis the inhabited site’s recent excavations and studies. More specifically, the discussed funerary remains reflect the changes in the site’s social compositio…
High temperature pyrotechnology
Same medium, different messages
This study provides an original cross-period theoretical perspective on the unique regional phenomenon of storage jar stamping in Judea between the Iron Age 2 and the Early Islamic period (eighth century BC to ninth/tenth century AD). A six century-long tradition of jar stamping for economic and administrative (and possibly religious) purposes under governmental initiative and control ended during the Hellenistic period, to be renewed under diffe…
Indigeneity and innovation of early Islamic glaze technology
The Archaeology of Regional Muslim Pilgrimage Reevaluated
This research constitutes a first attempt to discuss a Muslim pilgrimage site from a holistic, in-depth archaeological perspective. Our case study is Nabi Rubin, on the southern coastal plain of Israel, which was active from at least the early 15th century until the late British Mandate period and was one of the major foci of Muslim pilgrimage in historical Palestine. Pilgrimage to Nabi Rubin was characterized by a one-month-long organized celebr…
Life in the Dunes
This article discusses a section of the Israeli coastal plain known as Yavneh Sands between 1800 and 1948. This sand-dune strip, which legally belonged to the large village of Yubna/Yavneh and to the waqf of the major pilgrimage site of Nabi Rubin, was a peripheral territory, both economically and socially. The area was de facto controlled by wandering and sedentary Bedouin groups, who were accompanied by (seasonal?) peasant villagers, fishermen,…
Towards an Integration of Historical Trees into the Mediterranean Archaeological Record
The concept of more-than-human agency maintains that objects, animals and plants can act as agents with various effects on people and that trees specifically may play a role in shaping and changing spaces (hence constituting a ‘planty agency’). Also, trees usually outlive several human generations and can therefore be termed ‘historical trees.’ Although this issue is especially relevant for the discipline of landscape archaeology, no systematic m…
Arsuf (Apollonia, Palestine) Post-Occupational History
Archaeology and Historical Studies (43 obras) · Archaeology (40 obras) · Geography (32 obras) · History (32 obras) · Ancient history (28 obras) · Ancient Mediterranean Archaeology and History (20 obras) · History (19 obras) · Art (17 obras) · Palestine (15 obras) · Geology (14 obras)