Canaanite water tunnel at Tel Gezer

Canaanite water tunnel at Tel Gezer, By ד”ר אבישי טייכר, CC BY 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=10771647

Gezer III- A Ceramic Typology of the Late Iron II, Persian and Hellenistic Periods at Tell Gezer

Seymour Gitin

(Jerusalem- Nelson Glueck School of Biblical Archaeology, 1990) Text volume, 270 pp.; Data Base and Plates Volume, 345 pp., $90.00

Volumes of the final report on the excavation of Tell Gezer (1964–1974) continue to pour out. Eventual publication of the full report now seems assured. When complete, Gezer will be one of the very few major Near East excavations in modern times to publish a complete final report.

The latest in the series is Volume III by Seymour Gitin, the current director of the W. F. Albright Institute of Archaeological Research in Jerusalem.

Gitin’s new volume provides a typology of the Late Iron II, Persian and Hellenistic pottery recovered at the site during the 1972–1973 seasons. Based on over 300,000 potsherds, Gitin divides the excavation area (Field VII) into 12 strata containing over 250 different pottery forms. Volume III consists of a text volume of 270 pages and a volume of plates and database information of 348 pages.

Previously published volumes in the series include Volumes I, II, IV and V as well as the field manual used in the Gezer excavation and adopted at a number of other sites. The authors and editors of these volumes include G. Ernest Wright, William G. Dever and Joe D. Seger, each of whom directed various phases of the Gezer excavation, and senior staff members H. Darrell Lance, Dan P. Cole and Reuben G. Bullard. Volumes VI and VII in the series are yet to come.