BIBLE HISTORY DAILY

Israel Under Assyrian Rule

Ancient cremains show the Jezreel’s agricultural importance

Assyrian cylinder seal from Horvat Tevet. Courtesy Omer Peleg et al.

What can a burial tell us about Assyrian administrative control over ancient Israel? Maybe a lot more than we think. Publishing in the journal Tel Aviv, archaeologists excavating at the site of Horvat Tevet in the Jezreel Valley suggest that a single grave may hold a major clue to understanding Assyrian administrative policy in the region they conquered from the Northern Kingdom of Israel in the seventh century BCE.

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Cremating a Clue

Horvat Tevet is about 10 miles northeast of the important city of Megiddo, which, during the period of Assyrian rule, was the capital of the imperial province of Megiddu. Across numerous periods, including under the Egyptians and the northern Israelite kingdom, Horvat Tevet served as an administrative hub and royal estate. However, like many sites in the strategically important Jezreel Valley, Horvat Tevet shrank in size and importance under the Assyrians, leading many archaeologists to suggest that the Assyrians neglected the region. That conclusion might now be challenged by an intriguing grave discovered at the site.

Plan and section drawing prepared by Elena Ilana Delerzon, IAA. Courtesy of Karen Covello-Paran and Omer Sergi, the Ḥorvat Tevet Expedition.

For those unfamiliar with the burial customs of the time, the grave at Horvat Tevet seems rather mundane. But when compared to other ancient Levantine burials, it is obvious that something is amiss. The burial consists of two separate burial pits, one of which is a cremation burial, a rarity in the Iron Age Levant (c. 1200–586 BCE). But even the more typical inhumation burial found alongside it was unusual, as the body was found in the fetal rather than supine position. The uniqueness does not stop there, however.

The Horvat Tevet cremains were spread across three separate urns, with a large quantity of grave goods found both inside and outside of the vessels. These included faience amulets, an alabastron, a stone weight, a cylinder seal, a glazed Assyrian bottle, various metal objects, ceramics, and nearly 100 beads. Although some of these objects were made locally, many were imported, largely from Philistia and Phoenicia but also Egypt and even Assyria.

While several features of the Horvat Tevet burial are unusual, the burial site itself is equally puzzling, at least until compared with burials known from Assyria. Indeed, many Assyrian cities and strongholds feature strikingly similar graves. Clearly, then, the grave at Horvat Tevet is connected to Assyrian burial practices, while the wealth of objects indicates the deceased came from among the higher echelons of local society.

How, then, does this relate to Assyria’s administration of the former Northern Kingdom? Although Megiddo was an Assyrian provincial capital, Horvat Tevet seems to have been less important, yet the grave is both rich and distinctly Assyrian. According to archaeologists, such a burial would have served to connect the deceased to the land around them. They suggest the individual may have lived at Megiddo, with their body transported to Horvat Tevet for burial. This connection, they argue, may help explain the apparent lack of development in the Jezreel Valley. Across other areas of Assyrian control, the Assyrians dedicated certain areas as royal agricultural territory, to be managed by local elites on behalf of the imperial administration. Under this assumption, the lack of development in the Jezreel did not reflect a lack of administrative oversight, but rather was an expression of Assyrian agricultural policy.

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