Lecture Summaries: 16 March, 2006

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"Tel Yarmuth and the emergence of proto-state organizations in the southern Levant"
by
Pierre de Miroschedji

In operation since 1980, the Tel Yarmuth excavations have yielded considerable information for monitoring and understanding the gradual development of political organizations in the Southwestern Levant during the third millennium BCE.
     The lecture presented a summary of the latest discoveries at the site, especially a succession of three palaces dated to the EB III (ca 2600-2300 BCE). The latest palace, Palace B1, covering 6000 square meters, is a unique building complex in the contemporary Levant. It testifies to the existence of an elaborate palatial architecture and to the functioning of what may be called a palatial economy. It was part of a larger complex of public buildings, which implies a remarkable concentration of power on this site. These development took place against the background of a remarkable settlement expansion in southwestern Canaan, which suggest that, toward the end of the EB III, political organization may have appeared that exceeded the territorial extension of a single city-state.

Professor Pierre de Miroschedji is Directeur de recherche au CNRS, Directeur du Centre de recherche français de Jérusalem

Last modified 13 June, 2006