Ricerc@Sapienza

In Spring 2019 the Italian-Palestinian joint team of Sapienza University of Rome and the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities of Palestine Dept. of Archaeology and Cultural Heritage resumed rescue excavations at the Necropolis of Khalet al-Jam’a, 2.2 Km south-east from the Church of Nativity in Bethlehem. Works were focused on Tomb A7, identified in 2015, a huge underground burial place, dating back to the Iron IIC (8th-7th century BC), but also including earlier depositions dating from the EB IVB-MB.

The diffusion of copper weapons during the late 4th and 3rd millennia BC in the Southern Levant marks a distinct transformation of the economy and society of this region, as it coincides with the earliest urban experience. This paper provides an overview of copper and copper-alloyed weapons through a study of the technology and functional features of this material at the key site of Tell es-Sultan/Jericho in Palestine.

Gabriella Scandone Matthiae recognized and first published one of the most outstanding finds from Middle Bronze Ebla, the club of Pharaoh Hotepibra Harnedjheryotef, retrieved in the “Tomb of the Lord of the Goats”, an Eblaite king called Immeya. Though Hotepibra belongs to a group of rather obscure rulers of the 13th Dynasty, according to Manfred Bietak he reigned in Tell el-Dab‘a/ancient Avaris, bearing the title of “son of the Asiatic”, an epithet which may reflect special relationships established between Egypt and Syria-Palestine during the Second Intermediate Period.

Sapienza University of Rome and the Palestinian MoTA-DACH have been committed since 1997 to theprotection, scientific re-evaluation and tourist rehabilitation of Tell es-Sultan, ancient Jericho. Excavations, surveys,and restorations over 15 field seasons allow an update of our knowledge on the history of this long-lived site of theancient Near East, as well as making it possible to match data collected by three previous expeditions within a singlecomprehensive picture