The enigma of the lamp-and-bowl deposits: an analysis of the practice in the Shephelah, coastal plain, and Beth-Shean Valley during the Iron Age I
Enigmatic Canaanite lamp-and-bowl deposits are a fixture in the archaeological record of the southern Levant from the dawn of the Late Bronze Age IIB (LB IIB) until the end of the Iron Age I (Ir1). Petrie and Bliss first encountered the phenomenon during Tell el-Hesi excavations in the late 19th century; striking pottery assemblages comprising of a single lamp rested between two bowls attached rim-to-rim were recovered near the floors and walls of buildings. Despite over 100 years of scholarly interest, the identity, meaning, use, function, preservation, transformation, and eventual end of the practice remains a contentious issue.
With limited evidence for material expression in the Ir1, the existing literature has focused on the practice during the LB IIB. New material from Khirbet al-Ra‘i, however, forms the genesis of the project presented here and offers opportunity to assess the practice afresh in this period. This study will therefore address these contentious issues through the first dedicated analysis of the practice in the Ir1, one that focuses on the stratified record, dating, and ceramic composition for each deposit when forming observations and conclusions. Theories of appropriation and indigenization will also be applied to the material to assess the transformation and preservation of the practice in a time during which Philistine presence is attested in the land.
This analysis demonstrates that deposits were interred at periodic times during and postdating occupation of the building – for example, during times of renovations and following the destruction of a building by violent fire. For this reason, a new interpretation is promoted that argues deposits acted as apotropaic devices, which were symbolically intended to bury or ward off evil entities. The current analysis further shows that while intercultural characteristics are incorporated into the deposits, coupled with the fact that the practice is maintained at sites with Philistine and heterogenous communities, it continued to be a private practice of the indigenous Canaanites. As such, lamp-and- bowl deposits are strong ethnic-cultural markers, thus they represent an effective sign of Canaanite continuity in the Ir1 – the time during which Canaanite culture is ‘supposedly’ in decline.
