Matthew Susnow
Biographic Data
| ID | 268655 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Matthew Susnow |
| GIVEN NAMES | Matthew |
| FAMILY NAME | Susnow |
| SIGNATURE | SUSNOW M |
| AFFILIATIONS | Hebrew University of Jerusalem |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-4095-8443 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 22 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 27 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 22 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2018 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
A Decorated Middle Bronze Age Reed from Wadi Murabbaʿat
Go Figure: The Unique Trajectories of Figurine Use and Religious Ideologies in the Middle- and Late-Bronze Age Southern Levant
This article explores the differences between cultic practices and religious ideologies as expressed in the material culture of the Middle and Late Bronze Ages in the Southern Levant. Whereas the periods share much in common in terms of material culture and political organization, we suggest that the cultic practices in the earlier period were dictated by elite ideologies aiming at social inclusion, unity, integration and group cohesion, while th…
A Cache of Astragali from Tel Nagila
This paper presents a cache of 31 astragali from the site of Tel Nagila, dating to the Middle Bronze Age. This is the earliest known cache of astragali from the Southern Levant outside tombs, and may be the forebearer of the later caches found in cultic contexts in the Late Bronze and Iron Ages. This paper presents the context in which the cache was found, adjacent to a tower that functioned as part of the site’s fortifications; the social mechan…
A Unique Iron I Installation with a Double Basin and Drain from Tel Abel Beth Maacah
Between the Real and Ideal: Efficacy in an Ancient Mesopotamian Building Ritual
This article investigates how ritual transforms the ordinary into something extraordinary. It is the capacity of ritual to differentiate, and to be differentiated from other activities, that provides a group with a framework for seeing what they are doing as being meaningfully different than ordinary. Without the proper focusing lens – ritualization – special nonordinary acts and objects can look very mundane indeed. Furthermore, there is often a…
Object Biographies, Object Agency and a Local Community's Encounter with and Response to Foreign Commodities: The Pithoi from LB Tel Burna as a Case Study
This study investigates the effects that an encounter with a foreign object can have on local traditions. Notions of object agency and object biographies will be utilized to address what happens when people become entangled with new things: the new context can have an impact on the newly introduced object, and those newly introduced objects can similarly impact locals and their traditions. The Late Bronze Age southern Levantine site of Tel Burna …
From space to Place: The making of temples
Defining the Use of Cultic Space in the Early Iron Age: Tel Abel Beth Maacah as a Test Case
Numerous studies on the Late Bronze Age to Iron Age (IA) transition in the southern Levant have underscored how IA I (1190–980 BC) society displays evidence of both cultural continuity and discontinuity. This article investigates the role of cult in this process of transition, utilizing evidence revealed at Tel Abel Beth Maacah in the northern Hula Valley. Employing a methodology based on spatial analysis of artifacts, the article aims to establi…
Hoofprints in the sand: A study on domestic sheep (Ovis aries) from Iron Age southern Phoenicia using traditional biometric methods
Metalworking in Cultic Spaces: The Emergence of New Offering Practices in the Middle Bronze Age Southern Levant
This article addresses the relationship between metalworking and cultic space in the Bronze Age Southern Levant, tracing the earliest evidence of metallurgical activities within Southern Levantine temples to the beginning of the Middle Bronze Age. This coincides with the appearance of a series of new cultic traditions in the region, including the large-scale dedication of votive offerings in temple settings. It is demonstrated that the local prod…
Approaching and Avoiding the Dead in Iron Age Israel: A Reexamination of the Textual and Archaeological Evidence
This article addresses the tension between approaching and avoiding the dead in ancient Israel, found both in the archaeological and biblical evidence. Its point of departure is a possible relationship between the prevalent tendency in the Iron Age southern Levant towards extramural burial (interment outside settlement boundaries) and attitudes regarding death in the Hebrew Bible, especially the concept of death pollution. By pursuing a reexamina…
Religious Innovation and Elite Ideology at Bronze Age Hazor
Hazor was the largest Bronze Age site in the southern Levant, established as an urban centre with many temples. This study explores how Hazor's elites used religion as an ideological tool to promote their legitimacy, to reinforce social hierarchy, and to maintain control over the populace. Accordingly, a methodology employing the spatial analysis of temple assemblages will be used to show that the use patterns of many of Hazor's temples diverge f…
Toward a Methodology for Identifying Ritual in the Archaeological Record: A Case Study from the Southern Levant
Ritual cannot be studied in a vacuum. It is a process that differentiates and gains meaning in its role within its broader social system. This article addresses a major methodological issue in the archaeology of ritual, that there is no consensus on how to interpret ritual in past cultures. This study develops a methodology for identifying ritual in the archaeological record, one that is broadly applicable to archaeological contexts in different …
House of a king, house of a god? Situating and distinguishing palaces and temples within the architectonic landscape of the Middle and Late Bronze Age southern Levant
Two different types of monumental architecture arise as part of the urban landscape of the Middle and Late Bronze Ages in the southern Levant: palaces and temples. While these architectural feats stand out as different from domestic architecture, there is little discourse on what defines a space as a palace or as a temple. This article uses access analysis to demonstrate that, in terms of space syntax, the complexity and organizational schemes of…
The Space Syntax of Canaanite Cultic Spaces: A Unique Category of Spatial Configuration within the Bronze Age Southern Levant
The existence of temples within urban, rural, and extramural settings in the Middle and Late Bronze Age southern Levant is well documented. However, defining what qualifies these spaces as “cultic” is significantly less clear. Accordingly, in this paper I utilize access analysis to define sacred space as a unique category of spatial configuration within the region, one that contrasts with other types of public and domestic spaces. As such, the tr…
Contextualizing an Iron Age IIA Hoard of Astragali from Tel Abel Beth Maacah, Israel
Astragali, the knuckle or ankle bones of mammals, have been collected, used and modified by humans in different parts of the world for millennia. Large hoards dating from Iron Age IIA (tenth–ninth centuries BC) are attested at a number of sites in the southern Levant, and a recently discovered hoard of 406 astragali at Tel Abel Beth Maacah in northern Israel presents an opportunity to investigate this phenomenon, shedding light on the function of…
Perforated Astragali in the Levant and Four Babylonian Omens
The Woman in the Pith Helmet
This volume celebrates the career of Norma Franklin, an archaeologist who has made important contributions to our understanding of the three key cities of Samaria, Megiddo, and Jezreel in the Northern Kingdom of Israel during the Iron Age. The sixteen essays offered herein by Franklin’s colleagues in archaeology and biblical studies are a fitting tribute to the woman in the pith helmet: an indomitable field archaeologist who describes herself as …
Liminality and Canaanite Cultic Spaces: Temple Entrances, Status Transformations and Ritual in Threshold Contexts
This article investigates the applicability of the concept of liminality to the archaeological analysis of temple thresholds, with a primary focus on the Bronze Age southern Levant. Previously, studies on cultic spaces have emphasized temple cellae as the central focal point of ritual. In contrast, ritual performed at temple thresholds has largely been an ignored phenomenon. This study presents theoretical, textual, and archaeological data to sup…
Hazor rulership and ritual manipulation
Hazor was unquestionably the largest Bronze Age Canaanite site, standing as an anomaly in the southern Levant in terms of its size, elaborate public architecture, special geopolitical stature and far-reaching international networks. While the site has been well established as an urban center with many temples, the use of each of Hazor’s temples and how they relate to one another remains unclear. In this study, we analyze the rituals and other act…
Technological aspects of Middle Bronze Age II production of pithoi at Tel Kabri, Israel: Specialized pottery production in a palatial system
A study of pithoi production technology at the Middle Bronze Age Canaanite palace at Tel Kabri, Israel, utilized experimental and analytical methods. Pithoi from two phases of the palace were produced using local alluvial raw material, by coil/slab technique, and finished on a slow wheel. Firing at c. 600°C for a short duration seems to be related to the potters’ knowledge of the limitations of the raw material used, further indicating no signifi…
The Wine Storage Complexes at the Middle Bronze II Palace of Tel Kabri: Results of the 2013 and 2015 Seasons
Hazor rulership and ritual manipulation
Hazor was unquestionably the largest Bronze Age Canaanite site, standing as an anomaly in the southern Levant in terms of its size, elaborate public architecture, special geopolitical stature and far-reaching international networks. While the site has been well established as an urban center with many temples, the use of each of Hazor’s temples and how they relate to one another remains unclear. In this study, we analyze the rituals and other act…
The Wine Storage Complexes at the Middle Bronze II Palace of Tel Kabri: Results of the 2013 and 2015 Seasons
Liminality and Canaanite Cultic Spaces: Temple Entrances, Status Transformations and Ritual in Threshold Contexts
This article investigates the applicability of the concept of liminality to the archaeological analysis of temple thresholds, with a primary focus on the Bronze Age southern Levant. Previously, studies on cultic spaces have emphasized temple cellae as the central focal point of ritual. In contrast, ritual performed at temple thresholds has largely been an ignored phenomenon. This study presents theoretical, textual, and archaeological data to sup…
Metalworking in Cultic Spaces: The Emergence of New Offering Practices in the Middle Bronze Age Southern Levant
This article addresses the relationship between metalworking and cultic space in the Bronze Age Southern Levant, tracing the earliest evidence of metallurgical activities within Southern Levantine temples to the beginning of the Middle Bronze Age. This coincides with the appearance of a series of new cultic traditions in the region, including the large-scale dedication of votive offerings in temple settings. It is demonstrated that the local prod…
Religious Innovation and Elite Ideology at Bronze Age Hazor
Hazor was the largest Bronze Age site in the southern Levant, established as an urban centre with many temples. This study explores how Hazor's elites used religion as an ideological tool to promote their legitimacy, to reinforce social hierarchy, and to maintain control over the populace. Accordingly, a methodology employing the spatial analysis of temple assemblages will be used to show that the use patterns of many of Hazor's temples diverge f…
Contextualizing an Iron Age IIA Hoard of Astragali from Tel Abel Beth Maacah, Israel
Astragali, the knuckle or ankle bones of mammals, have been collected, used and modified by humans in different parts of the world for millennia. Large hoards dating from Iron Age IIA (tenth–ninth centuries BC) are attested at a number of sites in the southern Levant, and a recently discovered hoard of 406 astragali at Tel Abel Beth Maacah in northern Israel presents an opportunity to investigate this phenomenon, shedding light on the function of…
Perforated Astragali in the Levant and Four Babylonian Omens
Toward a Methodology for Identifying Ritual in the Archaeological Record: A Case Study from the Southern Levant
Ritual cannot be studied in a vacuum. It is a process that differentiates and gains meaning in its role within its broader social system. This article addresses a major methodological issue in the archaeology of ritual, that there is no consensus on how to interpret ritual in past cultures. This study develops a methodology for identifying ritual in the archaeological record, one that is broadly applicable to archaeological contexts in different …
Technological aspects of Middle Bronze Age II production of pithoi at Tel Kabri, Israel: Specialized pottery production in a palatial system
A study of pithoi production technology at the Middle Bronze Age Canaanite palace at Tel Kabri, Israel, utilized experimental and analytical methods. Pithoi from two phases of the palace were produced using local alluvial raw material, by coil/slab technique, and finished on a slow wheel. Firing at c. 600°C for a short duration seems to be related to the potters’ knowledge of the limitations of the raw material used, further indicating no signifi…
The Wine Storage Complexes at the Middle Bronze II Palace of Tel Kabri: Results of the 2013 and 2015 Seasons
The Woman in the Pith Helmet
This volume celebrates the career of Norma Franklin, an archaeologist who has made important contributions to our understanding of the three key cities of Samaria, Megiddo, and Jezreel in the Northern Kingdom of Israel during the Iron Age. The sixteen essays offered herein by Franklin’s colleagues in archaeology and biblical studies are a fitting tribute to the woman in the pith helmet: an indomitable field archaeologist who describes herself as …
Liminality and Canaanite Cultic Spaces: Temple Entrances, Status Transformations and Ritual in Threshold Contexts
This article investigates the applicability of the concept of liminality to the archaeological analysis of temple thresholds, with a primary focus on the Bronze Age southern Levant. Previously, studies on cultic spaces have emphasized temple cellae as the central focal point of ritual. In contrast, ritual performed at temple thresholds has largely been an ignored phenomenon. This study presents theoretical, textual, and archaeological data to sup…
Hazor rulership and ritual manipulation
Hazor was unquestionably the largest Bronze Age Canaanite site, standing as an anomaly in the southern Levant in terms of its size, elaborate public architecture, special geopolitical stature and far-reaching international networks. While the site has been well established as an urban center with many temples, the use of each of Hazor’s temples and how they relate to one another remains unclear. In this study, we analyze the rituals and other act…
House of a king, house of a god? Situating and distinguishing palaces and temples within the architectonic landscape of the Middle and Late Bronze Age southern Levant
Two different types of monumental architecture arise as part of the urban landscape of the Middle and Late Bronze Ages in the southern Levant: palaces and temples. While these architectural feats stand out as different from domestic architecture, there is little discourse on what defines a space as a palace or as a temple. This article uses access analysis to demonstrate that, in terms of space syntax, the complexity and organizational schemes of…
The Space Syntax of Canaanite Cultic Spaces: A Unique Category of Spatial Configuration within the Bronze Age Southern Levant
The existence of temples within urban, rural, and extramural settings in the Middle and Late Bronze Age southern Levant is well documented. However, defining what qualifies these spaces as “cultic” is significantly less clear. Accordingly, in this paper I utilize access analysis to define sacred space as a unique category of spatial configuration within the region, one that contrasts with other types of public and domestic spaces. As such, the tr…
Contextualizing an Iron Age IIA Hoard of Astragali from Tel Abel Beth Maacah, Israel
Astragali, the knuckle or ankle bones of mammals, have been collected, used and modified by humans in different parts of the world for millennia. Large hoards dating from Iron Age IIA (tenth–ninth centuries BC) are attested at a number of sites in the southern Levant, and a recently discovered hoard of 406 astragali at Tel Abel Beth Maacah in northern Israel presents an opportunity to investigate this phenomenon, shedding light on the function of…
Perforated Astragali in the Levant and Four Babylonian Omens
Approaching and Avoiding the Dead in Iron Age Israel: A Reexamination of the Textual and Archaeological Evidence
This article addresses the tension between approaching and avoiding the dead in ancient Israel, found both in the archaeological and biblical evidence. Its point of departure is a possible relationship between the prevalent tendency in the Iron Age southern Levant towards extramural burial (interment outside settlement boundaries) and attitudes regarding death in the Hebrew Bible, especially the concept of death pollution. By pursuing a reexamina…
Religious Innovation and Elite Ideology at Bronze Age Hazor
Hazor was the largest Bronze Age site in the southern Levant, established as an urban centre with many temples. This study explores how Hazor's elites used religion as an ideological tool to promote their legitimacy, to reinforce social hierarchy, and to maintain control over the populace. Accordingly, a methodology employing the spatial analysis of temple assemblages will be used to show that the use patterns of many of Hazor's temples diverge f…
Toward a Methodology for Identifying Ritual in the Archaeological Record: A Case Study from the Southern Levant
Ritual cannot be studied in a vacuum. It is a process that differentiates and gains meaning in its role within its broader social system. This article addresses a major methodological issue in the archaeology of ritual, that there is no consensus on how to interpret ritual in past cultures. This study develops a methodology for identifying ritual in the archaeological record, one that is broadly applicable to archaeological contexts in different …
Defining the Use of Cultic Space in the Early Iron Age: Tel Abel Beth Maacah as a Test Case
Numerous studies on the Late Bronze Age to Iron Age (IA) transition in the southern Levant have underscored how IA I (1190–980 BC) society displays evidence of both cultural continuity and discontinuity. This article investigates the role of cult in this process of transition, utilizing evidence revealed at Tel Abel Beth Maacah in the northern Hula Valley. Employing a methodology based on spatial analysis of artifacts, the article aims to establi…
Hoofprints in the sand: A study on domestic sheep (Ovis aries) from Iron Age southern Phoenicia using traditional biometric methods
Metalworking in Cultic Spaces: The Emergence of New Offering Practices in the Middle Bronze Age Southern Levant
This article addresses the relationship between metalworking and cultic space in the Bronze Age Southern Levant, tracing the earliest evidence of metallurgical activities within Southern Levantine temples to the beginning of the Middle Bronze Age. This coincides with the appearance of a series of new cultic traditions in the region, including the large-scale dedication of votive offerings in temple settings. It is demonstrated that the local prod…
A Cache of Astragali from Tel Nagila
This paper presents a cache of 31 astragali from the site of Tel Nagila, dating to the Middle Bronze Age. This is the earliest known cache of astragali from the Southern Levant outside tombs, and may be the forebearer of the later caches found in cultic contexts in the Late Bronze and Iron Ages. This paper presents the context in which the cache was found, adjacent to a tower that functioned as part of the site’s fortifications; the social mechan…
A Unique Iron I Installation with a Double Basin and Drain from Tel Abel Beth Maacah
Between the Real and Ideal: Efficacy in an Ancient Mesopotamian Building Ritual
This article investigates how ritual transforms the ordinary into something extraordinary. It is the capacity of ritual to differentiate, and to be differentiated from other activities, that provides a group with a framework for seeing what they are doing as being meaningfully different than ordinary. Without the proper focusing lens – ritualization – special nonordinary acts and objects can look very mundane indeed. Furthermore, there is often a…
Object Biographies, Object Agency and a Local Community's Encounter with and Response to Foreign Commodities: The Pithoi from LB Tel Burna as a Case Study
This study investigates the effects that an encounter with a foreign object can have on local traditions. Notions of object agency and object biographies will be utilized to address what happens when people become entangled with new things: the new context can have an impact on the newly introduced object, and those newly introduced objects can similarly impact locals and their traditions. The Late Bronze Age southern Levantine site of Tel Burna …
From space to Place: The making of temples
Go Figure: The Unique Trajectories of Figurine Use and Religious Ideologies in the Middle- and Late-Bronze Age Southern Levant
This article explores the differences between cultic practices and religious ideologies as expressed in the material culture of the Middle and Late Bronze Ages in the Southern Levant. Whereas the periods share much in common in terms of material culture and political organization, we suggest that the cultic practices in the earlier period were dictated by elite ideologies aiming at social inclusion, unity, integration and group cohesion, while th…
A Decorated Middle Bronze Age Reed from Wadi Murabbaʿat
Archaeology (19 works) · History (18 works) · Archaeology and Historical Studies (15 works) · Ancient history (14 works) · Ancient Egypt and Archaeology (12 works) · Bronze Age (11 works) · Ancient Near East History (10 works) · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies (8 works) · Geography (8 works) · History (8 works)