Material, Method and Meaning: Papers in Eastern Mediterranean Archaeology in Honor of Ilan Sharon

This volume is a collection of studies dedicated to Ilan Sharon, Professor of Biblical Archaeology at the Institute of Archaeology of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the longtime co-director of the Tel Dor Archaeological Project. The volume is divided into four sections reflecting the main avenues in his scholarly career. The articles of the first section discuss a wide range of methodological and epistemological themes related to archaeological field practices, analyses and interpretations. The second section of the volume is dedicated to Tel Dor, the archeological site so identified with Ilan Sharon, and deals with a wide range of finds and themes from the Late Bronze Age to the Middle Ages. Most of the articles are devoted to the first millennium BCE, the timespan for which Tel Dor serves as one of the key sites in studying the cultural trajectory of the Levantine coast and intercultural contacts in the Eastern Mediterranean basin. These contacts, which form a major module in the scholarship of the Phoenician world, constitute the subject of the third part of the volume, devoted to the cultural connections between the coastal region of southern Phoenicia, and Dor specifically, and inland regions of the Levant. The fourth and final part of the volume is devoted to studies in the archeology and history of the Iron Age Levant.