Yitzhak Paz
Biographic Data
| ID | 643586 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Yitzhak Paz |
| GIVEN NAMES | Yitzhak |
| FAMILY NAME | Paz |
| SIGNATURE | PAZ Y |
| AFFILIATIONS | Israel Antiquities Authority |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 29 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 55 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 29 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2002 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
Ḥorbat ‘Illin Taḥtit
The excavation conducted at Ḥorbat ‘Illin Taḥtit (Lower) revealed the fringes of the previously excavated Early Bronze Age settlement at the site. A large residential structure, comprising two adjoining rooms and a large courtyard, was uncovered, as well as another, partially preserved structure, which was separated from it by an alleyway. Almost all the excavation loci contained a mixture of EB IA and EB IB pottery types. A small assemblage of k…
Khirbat Ḥasan
The excavations at Khirbat Ḥasan were carried out in a wide valley on the Naḥal Har’el floodplain. The findings attest that in antiquity, the inhabitants exploited the area for agricultural activities. Eight areas were opened: in Area A, water control systems dating from the Intermediate Bronze Age and the Roman–Byzantine periods were discovered; Area G yielded Hellenistic-period pottery, a Roman–Byzantine rural road and agricultural terrace wall…
Economic Strategies of Two Early Bronze Age Villages in the Southern Levant
The southern Levantine coast was settled continuously for three millennia, from the Neolithic period until its abandonment in Early Bronze Age II, in sharp contrast to inland sites that developed into urbanized cities. This study examines this phenomenon by investigating the pottery production component of the economic systems of two contemporary EB I villages: a shoreline coastal site that was abandoned (Dor South) and an inland site that evolve…
Weapons, Warrior Burials and Agency in the Intermediate Bronze Age Southern Levant
The Intermediate Bronze Age (c. 2500–2000 BCE) is known for its abundance of formal cemeteries and various other types of burial sites. These comprise a substantial number of internments that contain metal artifacts, identified as weaponry and associated with warfare, and typically defined ‘warrior burials.’ In this paper, we discuss some theoretical issues concerning the identification and role of the so-called weapons, the ideology of warriors …
Unveiling Regional Socio-economic Dynamics in the EB IB Southern Levant
Small Carnivore Hunting in the Early Neolithic
The Early Pre-Pottery Neolithic B Site of Aḥihud (Western Galilee, Israel)
The recent excavations at the site of Aḥihud uncovered the remains of an Early Pre-Pottery Neolithic B village on the bank of Nahal Ḥilazon (Acre valley, Israel) tributary channel. The site is in an ecotone between the western Galilee hills and the northern coastal plain. The lithic assemblage from the site includes typical PPNB arrowheads (about a third are El-Khiam and Helwan types) as well as hundreds of sickle blades. The fauna include eviden…
A numbers game
Excavations of 4th millennium BCE sites conducted in the past two decades have provided a significant amount of quantitative data regarding the use of pottery. This accumulated data provides an opportunity to engage in a comparative analysis between sites of different regions in the southern Levant, as well as of the different periods comprising the 4th millennium, including the Late Chalcolithic, Early Bronze Age IA, Early Bronze Age IB and Earl…
In Memoriam
Variation in economic specialization as revealed through the study of Pottery Neolithic faunal assemblages from the southern Levant
The “‘En Esur Knives” - A New Tool Type from The Early Bronze Age IB Period Site of ‘En Esur (‘Ein Asawir)
Lena Brailovsky-Rokser, לנה בריילובסקי-רוכסר, Itai Elad, איתי אלעד, Yitzhak Paz, יצחק פז, The “‘En Esur Knives” - סכיני עין אסור, Mitekufat Haeven: Journal of the Israel Prehistoric Society / מתקופת האבן, כרך נ (2020), pp. 209-222
Bridging the Gap Ebiii-Iba
Recent radiocarbon ( 14 C) research demonstrates that the urban culture of Early-Bronze III in the southern Levant ends around 2500 BC, and not around 2300 BC as was widely assumed. This should extend the Intermediate Bronze Age by 200 years. Charred olive pits from Intermediate Bronze Age contexts in the site of Khirbat el-‘Alya Northeast in the Judean Shephelah region (Israel) were 14 C dated, resulting in calibrated dates around 2500 BC. The d…
A 1st–2nd Century CE Assembly Room (Synagogue?) in a Jewish Estate at Tel Rekhesh, Lower Galilee
A Jewish farmstead dated to the 1st–2nd centuries CE was discovered during excavations at Tel Rekhesh in the Lower Galilee. In the centre of the western perimeter wall of the structure, a 9-m-square assembly room with an ashlar block bench along the walls was unearthed. It had an entrance in the north and two bases for pillars in the centre to support a flat roof. Given all these features, it has been suggested that the building was a rural synag…
The existence of archery in Early Bronze Age southern Levant warfare
The Early Bronze Age was a time of major changes in southern Levantine regions. The spread of urbanisation in the course of the third millennium BC was accompanied by various socio-political transformations, tensions and also violent encounters, even if the evidence for the latter is hard to detect in the archaeological record. The almost complete absence of arrowheads from settlements and tombs in the southern Levant from this period has led to …
The Circles Building (Granary) at Tel Bet Yerah (Khirbet el-Kerak)
New excavations conducted in the Circles Building (Granary) at Tel Bet Yerah, first excavated in 1946, form the basis for a revised, detailed description of the construction and use of this unique structure. Stratigraphic soundings have established that the structure consisted of three platforms with seven circles sunk into them, enclosing a paved courtyard that was open toward the east. The structure was constructed in a single operation, at the…
An early bronze age fertilized agricultural plot discovered near Tel Yarmouth, Ramat Bet Shemesh, Israel
The Early Bronze Age at Tel Nagila
The excavations of R. Amiran and A. Eitan at the site of Tel Nagila are best known for the Middle Bronze Age remains exposed at the site. Yet Early Bronze remains were sporadically excavated in restricted locations where the excavators deepened their investigations below Middle Bronze strata. As such, a study of the albeit limited EB remains furnishes us with an opportunity to provide a more complete settlement history of the site, as well as a l…
A Modified Landscape as a Likely Arena of Social Differentiation and Identity at a Late Third Millennium BC Cemetery, Ramat Bet Shemesh, Israel
Test excavations conducted in 2011, north of the ancient Khirbet el-Alia mound in the Ramat Bet Shemesh region of central Israel, revealed the remains of an Intermediate Bronze Age settlement and a related shaft tomb complex. Albeit very limited in scope, the excavation yielded suggestive information pertaining to the worldview of the site’s occupants. The placement and layout of rock-cut features in the cemetery hint at the incorporation of pre-…
A Submerged Monumental Structure in the Sea of Galilee, Israel
Yesodot, Israel
Le site de Yesodot, dans la Shéphélah (piémont de Judée), est une illustration pertinente des ambiguïtés relatives à la transition du Chalcolithique récent au Bronze ancien. Alors que la plupart des traits observés peuvent être rapportés à l’une de ces périodes ou aux deux conjointement, l’assemblage, considéré dans sa totalité, ne peut pas être attribuée uniquement à l’une des deux. De plus, l’hypothèse selon laquelle il s’agit d’un assemblage m…
Miniature Votive Bowls as the Symbolic Defense of Leviah, an Early Bronze Age Fortified Town in the Southern Levant
The Early Bronze Age (EBA) fortified town of Leviah was destroyed in a violent conflagration that was most manifest in the eastern gate area. Along with extensive burnt and collapsed remains of the fortifications at this point, were hundreds of sling-stones and some mace heads, indicating that a ferocious battle had taken place, along with two dozen miniature bowls. They were found in clear connection with the fortified gate complex. While quite …
Re-Examining Space Fillers and Potmarks
Early Bronze Age Canaanite glyptic and pottery traditions encompass many iconographic components, some of which are not fully understood. While various aspects of Canaanite glyptic traits have been thoroughly discussed, the component arbitrarily dubbed 'space fillers' has been neglected. Incised 'potmarks', which are part of the Early Bronze Age ceramic production process, have also been studied only sporadically. This article aims to show a rela…
Raiders on the Storm
Archaeological research of the Early Bronze Age (EBA) in the southern Levant is rich in evidence for the destruction of urban centres: burnt destruction layers during most stages of the EBA and massive fortifications that were repeatedly strengthened and altered testify of a troubled and insecure era. However, until recently direct evidence of actual fighting at fortified EBA settlements was virtually unknown and the destruction layers could as e…
Re-Examining Space Fillers and Potmarks
Early Bronze Age Canaanite glyptic and pottery traditions encompass many iconographic components, some of which are not fully understood. While various aspects of Canaanite glyptic traits have been thoroughly discussed, the component arbitrarily dubbed 'space fillers' has been neglected. Incised 'potmarks', which are part of the Early Bronze Age ceramic production process, have also been studied only sporadically. This article aims to show a rela…
Tell Qudadi and Tel Gerisah
Tell Qudadi and Tel Gerisah are two multi-period sites located on the Yarkon River. Recent research has revealed that they were the only settlements along the central Coastal Plain that were inhabited during the Early Bronze Age III. Tell Qudadi and Tel Gerisah could have played important roles as an outpost and as a main inner anchorage site, respectively, in maritime activities between Old Kingdom Egypt and the North Levantine coast.Keywords: Y…
Fortified Settlements of the EB IB and the Emergence of the First Urban System
(2002). Fortified Settlements of the EB IB and the Emergence of the First Urban System. Tel Aviv: Vol. 29, No. 2, pp. 238-261
Raiders on the Storm
Archaeological research of the Early Bronze Age (EBA) in the southern Levant is rich in evidence for the destruction of urban centres: burnt destruction layers during most stages of the EBA and massive fortifications that were repeatedly strengthened and altered testify of a troubled and insecure era. However, until recently direct evidence of actual fighting at fortified EBA settlements was virtually unknown and the destruction layers could as e…
Variation in economic specialization as revealed through the study of Pottery Neolithic faunal assemblages from the southern Levant
A Submerged Monumental Structure in the Sea of Galilee, Israel
Bridging the Gap Ebiii-Iba
Recent radiocarbon ( 14 C) research demonstrates that the urban culture of Early-Bronze III in the southern Levant ends around 2500 BC, and not around 2300 BC as was widely assumed. This should extend the Intermediate Bronze Age by 200 years. Charred olive pits from Intermediate Bronze Age contexts in the site of Khirbat el-‘Alya Northeast in the Judean Shephelah region (Israel) were 14 C dated, resulting in calibrated dates around 2500 BC. The d…
The Early Bronze Age at Tel Nagila
The excavations of R. Amiran and A. Eitan at the site of Tel Nagila are best known for the Middle Bronze Age remains exposed at the site. Yet Early Bronze remains were sporadically excavated in restricted locations where the excavators deepened their investigations below Middle Bronze strata. As such, a study of the albeit limited EB remains furnishes us with an opportunity to provide a more complete settlement history of the site, as well as a l…
Community Archaeology in Proto-Historical Tel Bareqet, Israel
Community archaeology has become very popular over the past decade, and community archaeology projects are yielding interesting results in many regions around the globe (Merriman, 2004). These projects seem to be gaining academic importance as well, and are considered by some people to be vital to the survival of archaeology as a whole (Marshall, 2002: 218).Still, community archaeology projects often stir debate regarding their importance, role, …
The Early Pre-Pottery Neolithic B Site of Aḥihud (Western Galilee, Israel)
The recent excavations at the site of Aḥihud uncovered the remains of an Early Pre-Pottery Neolithic B village on the bank of Nahal Ḥilazon (Acre valley, Israel) tributary channel. The site is in an ecotone between the western Galilee hills and the northern coastal plain. The lithic assemblage from the site includes typical PPNB arrowheads (about a third are El-Khiam and Helwan types) as well as hundreds of sickle blades. The fauna include eviden…
Yesodot, Israel
Le site de Yesodot, dans la Shéphélah (piémont de Judée), est une illustration pertinente des ambiguïtés relatives à la transition du Chalcolithique récent au Bronze ancien. Alors que la plupart des traits observés peuvent être rapportés à l’une de ces périodes ou aux deux conjointement, l’assemblage, considéré dans sa totalité, ne peut pas être attribuée uniquement à l’une des deux. De plus, l’hypothèse selon laquelle il s’agit d’un assemblage m…
Re-Examining Space Fillers and Potmarks
Early Bronze Age Canaanite glyptic and pottery traditions encompass many iconographic components, some of which are not fully understood. While various aspects of Canaanite glyptic traits have been thoroughly discussed, the component arbitrarily dubbed 'space fillers' has been neglected. Incised 'potmarks', which are part of the Early Bronze Age ceramic production process, have also been studied only sporadically. This article aims to show a rela…
Tell Qudadi and Tel Gerisah
Tell Qudadi and Tel Gerisah are two multi-period sites located on the Yarkon River. Recent research has revealed that they were the only settlements along the central Coastal Plain that were inhabited during the Early Bronze Age III. Tell Qudadi and Tel Gerisah could have played important roles as an outpost and as a main inner anchorage site, respectively, in maritime activities between Old Kingdom Egypt and the North Levantine coast.Keywords: Y…
A 1st–2nd Century CE Assembly Room (Synagogue?) in a Jewish Estate at Tel Rekhesh, Lower Galilee
A Jewish farmstead dated to the 1st–2nd centuries CE was discovered during excavations at Tel Rekhesh in the Lower Galilee. In the centre of the western perimeter wall of the structure, a 9-m-square assembly room with an ashlar block bench along the walls was unearthed. It had an entrance in the north and two bases for pillars in the centre to support a flat roof. Given all these features, it has been suggested that the building was a rural synag…
Fortified Settlements of the EB IB and the Emergence of the First Urban System
Fortified Settlements of the EB IB and the Emergence of the First Urban System
(2002). Fortified Settlements of the EB IB and the Emergence of the First Urban System. Tel Aviv: Vol. 29, No. 2, pp. 238-261
The Early Bronze Age Fortifications of Tel Bet Yerah
Throughout much of its history, Early Bronze Age Bet Yerah (Khirbat al-Karak) was massively fortified. Using previously unpublished data, three superimposed fortification systems are described: the earliest (Fortification A), dated EB II (and possibly late EB I) is a massive mudbrick fortification including a paved direct-entry gateway and gate shrine; the latest (Fortification C), dated to late EB III, is an extraordinary stone and brick system …
Community Archaeology in Proto-Historical Tel Bareqet, Israel
Community archaeology has become very popular over the past decade, and community archaeology projects are yielding interesting results in many regions around the globe (Merriman, 2004). These projects seem to be gaining academic importance as well, and are considered by some people to be vital to the survival of archaeology as a whole (Marshall, 2002: 218).Still, community archaeology projects often stir debate regarding their importance, role, …
Re-Examining Space Fillers and Potmarks
Early Bronze Age Canaanite glyptic and pottery traditions encompass many iconographic components, some of which are not fully understood. While various aspects of Canaanite glyptic traits have been thoroughly discussed, the component arbitrarily dubbed 'space fillers' has been neglected. Incised 'potmarks', which are part of the Early Bronze Age ceramic production process, have also been studied only sporadically. This article aims to show a rela…
Raiders on the Storm
Archaeological research of the Early Bronze Age (EBA) in the southern Levant is rich in evidence for the destruction of urban centres: burnt destruction layers during most stages of the EBA and massive fortifications that were repeatedly strengthened and altered testify of a troubled and insecure era. However, until recently direct evidence of actual fighting at fortified EBA settlements was virtually unknown and the destruction layers could as e…
Re-Examining Space Fillers and Potmarks
Early Bronze Age Canaanite glyptic and pottery traditions encompass many iconographic components, some of which are not fully understood. While various aspects of Canaanite glyptic traits have been thoroughly discussed, the component arbitrarily dubbed 'space fillers' has been neglected. Incised 'potmarks', which are part of the Early Bronze Age ceramic production process, have also been studied only sporadically. This article aims to show a rela…
Tell Qudadi and Tel Gerisah
Tell Qudadi and Tel Gerisah are two multi-period sites located on the Yarkon River. Recent research has revealed that they were the only settlements along the central Coastal Plain that were inhabited during the Early Bronze Age III. Tell Qudadi and Tel Gerisah could have played important roles as an outpost and as a main inner anchorage site, respectively, in maritime activities between Old Kingdom Egypt and the North Levantine coast.Keywords: Y…
Miniature Votive Bowls as the Symbolic Defense of Leviah, an Early Bronze Age Fortified Town in the Southern Levant
The Early Bronze Age (EBA) fortified town of Leviah was destroyed in a violent conflagration that was most manifest in the eastern gate area. Along with extensive burnt and collapsed remains of the fortifications at this point, were hundreds of sling-stones and some mace heads, indicating that a ferocious battle had taken place, along with two dozen miniature bowls. They were found in clear connection with the fortified gate complex. While quite …
A Submerged Monumental Structure in the Sea of Galilee, Israel
Yesodot, Israel
Le site de Yesodot, dans la Shéphélah (piémont de Judée), est une illustration pertinente des ambiguïtés relatives à la transition du Chalcolithique récent au Bronze ancien. Alors que la plupart des traits observés peuvent être rapportés à l’une de ces périodes ou aux deux conjointement, l’assemblage, considéré dans sa totalité, ne peut pas être attribuée uniquement à l’une des deux. De plus, l’hypothèse selon laquelle il s’agit d’un assemblage m…
A Modified Landscape as a Likely Arena of Social Differentiation and Identity at a Late Third Millennium BC Cemetery, Ramat Bet Shemesh, Israel
Test excavations conducted in 2011, north of the ancient Khirbet el-Alia mound in the Ramat Bet Shemesh region of central Israel, revealed the remains of an Intermediate Bronze Age settlement and a related shaft tomb complex. Albeit very limited in scope, the excavation yielded suggestive information pertaining to the worldview of the site’s occupants. The placement and layout of rock-cut features in the cemetery hint at the incorporation of pre-…
The Early Bronze Age at Tel Nagila
The excavations of R. Amiran and A. Eitan at the site of Tel Nagila are best known for the Middle Bronze Age remains exposed at the site. Yet Early Bronze remains were sporadically excavated in restricted locations where the excavators deepened their investigations below Middle Bronze strata. As such, a study of the albeit limited EB remains furnishes us with an opportunity to provide a more complete settlement history of the site, as well as a l…
The Circles Building (Granary) at Tel Bet Yerah (Khirbet el-Kerak)
New excavations conducted in the Circles Building (Granary) at Tel Bet Yerah, first excavated in 1946, form the basis for a revised, detailed description of the construction and use of this unique structure. Stratigraphic soundings have established that the structure consisted of three platforms with seven circles sunk into them, enclosing a paved courtyard that was open toward the east. The structure was constructed in a single operation, at the…
An early bronze age fertilized agricultural plot discovered near Tel Yarmouth, Ramat Bet Shemesh, Israel
The existence of archery in Early Bronze Age southern Levant warfare
The Early Bronze Age was a time of major changes in southern Levantine regions. The spread of urbanisation in the course of the third millennium BC was accompanied by various socio-political transformations, tensions and also violent encounters, even if the evidence for the latter is hard to detect in the archaeological record. The almost complete absence of arrowheads from settlements and tombs in the southern Levant from this period has led to …
A 1st–2nd Century CE Assembly Room (Synagogue?) in a Jewish Estate at Tel Rekhesh, Lower Galilee
A Jewish farmstead dated to the 1st–2nd centuries CE was discovered during excavations at Tel Rekhesh in the Lower Galilee. In the centre of the western perimeter wall of the structure, a 9-m-square assembly room with an ashlar block bench along the walls was unearthed. It had an entrance in the north and two bases for pillars in the centre to support a flat roof. Given all these features, it has been suggested that the building was a rural synag…
The “‘En Esur Knives” - A New Tool Type from The Early Bronze Age IB Period Site of ‘En Esur (‘Ein Asawir)
Lena Brailovsky-Rokser, לנה בריילובסקי-רוכסר, Itai Elad, איתי אלעד, Yitzhak Paz, יצחק פז, The “‘En Esur Knives” - סכיני עין אסור, Mitekufat Haeven: Journal of the Israel Prehistoric Society / מתקופת האבן, כרך נ (2020), pp. 209-222
Bridging the Gap Ebiii-Iba
Recent radiocarbon ( 14 C) research demonstrates that the urban culture of Early-Bronze III in the southern Levant ends around 2500 BC, and not around 2300 BC as was widely assumed. This should extend the Intermediate Bronze Age by 200 years. Charred olive pits from Intermediate Bronze Age contexts in the site of Khirbat el-‘Alya Northeast in the Judean Shephelah region (Israel) were 14 C dated, resulting in calibrated dates around 2500 BC. The d…
Variation in economic specialization as revealed through the study of Pottery Neolithic faunal assemblages from the southern Levant
In Memoriam
A numbers game
Excavations of 4th millennium BCE sites conducted in the past two decades have provided a significant amount of quantitative data regarding the use of pottery. This accumulated data provides an opportunity to engage in a comparative analysis between sites of different regions in the southern Levant, as well as of the different periods comprising the 4th millennium, including the Late Chalcolithic, Early Bronze Age IA, Early Bronze Age IB and Earl…
Economic Strategies of Two Early Bronze Age Villages in the Southern Levant
The southern Levantine coast was settled continuously for three millennia, from the Neolithic period until its abandonment in Early Bronze Age II, in sharp contrast to inland sites that developed into urbanized cities. This study examines this phenomenon by investigating the pottery production component of the economic systems of two contemporary EB I villages: a shoreline coastal site that was abandoned (Dor South) and an inland site that evolve…
Weapons, Warrior Burials and Agency in the Intermediate Bronze Age Southern Levant
The Intermediate Bronze Age (c. 2500–2000 BCE) is known for its abundance of formal cemeteries and various other types of burial sites. These comprise a substantial number of internments that contain metal artifacts, identified as weaponry and associated with warfare, and typically defined ‘warrior burials.’ In this paper, we discuss some theoretical issues concerning the identification and role of the so-called weapons, the ideology of warriors …
Unveiling Regional Socio-economic Dynamics in the EB IB Southern Levant
Archaeology (28 works) · History (23 works) · Geography (21 works) · Ancient history (19 works) · Archaeology and Historical Studies (18 works) · Bronze Age (18 works) · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies (16 works) · Bronze (15 works) · History (15 works) · Ancient Egypt and Archaeology (13 works)