Cosmopolitan Societies in the Levant: Tell el`Ajjul, Gaza

The most important aims of the project are: 1. The recording, cataloguing, digitalising and evaluation of the material excavated by William Flinders Petrie early in the 20th century, which is currently stored at the University College in London, England. 2. The inventarisation and interpretation of the material finds from the renewed and ongoing campaigns at Tell el- `Ajjul, i.e., the collection of finds from the campaigns 1999, 2000 and 2001 together with a thorough re- interpretation of the material accumulated by earlier excavations. 3. An analysis of international trade relationships in which the Middle- and Late Bronze Age Societies of Tell el- `Ajjul were part, in order to better understand the societal mechanisms of a large city, with a special focus on the imported pottery from Egypt, Cyprus, Crete, Greece, Syria and other regions of the Levant. 4. The seriation of imported wares with the locally produced houshold ceramics in order to obtain a deeper comprehension of the dichotomy between strong international connections and integration into the local system of city-states characteristic for the Middle- and Late Bronze Ages in the Levant. 5. The attempt to arrive with a more profound theory about the historical identity of Tell el-`Ajjul, using the availbale informations from historical geogrpahy as well as the preliminary results of the study of the site`s material culture. 6. The constant improvement of the database POLDI which will aid in a quicker and more efficient evaluation of the available material. 7. The speedy publication of interim reports within a time- span of not more than two years after the material was obtained on site as well as the publication of a final report within not more than three years after the conclusion of on- site research.

The tracking down of the enormous and very rich find material from Tell el-cAjjul, its recording, digitalization, programming into the picture database "MontAjjul", and the complete re-evaluation of Petrie`s conclusions supported by the new evidence from finds and stratigraphy of the current excavations, were the basis of the research project. Tell el-cAjjul, situated near the Mediterranean Sea, is one of the largest and richest ancient cities in today`s Palestine (Gaza strip). It flourished during the Middle and the Late Bronze Ages, i.e. between approximately the 17th and the 13th centuries B.C. From 1930-1934 the British archaeologist, F. Petrie, rediscovered the city and excavated parts of the settlements and a number of cemeteries. In order to revise Petrie`s cursory and much debated conclusions the project leader started new excavations in 1999 which continued in 2000. Due to the prevailing system in the 1930s, viz. the division of finds between the British Protectorate and the excavator, a large portion of the find material from Tell el-cAjjul was disseminated to collections and museums all over the world. We succeeded in tracking down almost 9,000 objects in Great Britain, Ireland, U.S.A., Australia and Israel. It can be stated that it is the first time since the 1930s that key information from Tell el-cAjjul is collected in one entity, namely in our database "MontAjjul" The wealth and the intercultural connections of the cosmopolitan societies of Tell el-cAjjul as indicated by the results of Petrie`s excavations were confirmed by well stratified remains from the new excavations. These produced numerous complete finds, amongst them a high percentage of imported items from Cyprus, the Jordan Valley, Egypt, Greece, Lebanon, Syria, Anatolia and Crete. Other finds include hoards of excellently manufactured gold jewellery from Petrie`s and the new excavations, scarabs, faience, glass and stone objects as well as bronze, silver and lead objects. There is undoubtedly no other site in the Southern Levant which has produced so much material from such diverse provenance. We came to the conclusion that the wealth of societies of Tell el-cAjjul was built on trade. The new, limited, excavations alone have produced over a thousand imported items. Cypriote imports dominate. Therefore we are convinced that Tell el-cAjjul with its excellent geographical position functioned as the trade centre of Cypriote ceramics in the Southern Levant during the Middle and Late Bronze Ages. Outstanding is also the figure for scarabs and scaraboids, namely 1,249 to date. Many of the scarabs were imported but it seems that the majority were produced locally: the production and distribution of scarabs is another source of income. Caches with gold scrap, which represents raw material, were frequently found at Tell el-cAjjul. Gold most likely was imported from Egypt and Nubia and worked into delicate, granulated, jewellery which was exported.