Resettlement of Ruins and Memories in the Making
Lehrstuhlinhaber/in:
Gefördert durch die Gerda Henkel Stiftung (https://www.gerda-henkel-stiftung.de)
Projektleitung/Project director
Projektpartner/Co-directors
Institute of Archaeology – Department of Archaeology and Ancient Near Eastern Studies, Hebrew University of Jerusalem/Israel
University of Regensburg, Germany
Project office / Project coordinator
Maryam Matta – University of Oldenburg
Contact:
de
Resettlement of Ruins and Memories in the Making
A Case Study on Hazor and the Shaping of Early Israelite Identities during the Iron Age
Forschungsprojekt 2024-2027 im Förderschwerpunkt “Lost-Cities” der Gerda Henkel Stiftung
Project-team
Director/Projektleiter:
- Prof. Dr. Benedikt Hensel - Chair of Hebrew Bible – University of Oldenburg/Germany
Co-directors/Projektpartner:
- Dr. Erik Eynikel – Faculty of Catholic Theology – University of Regensburg/Germany
- Dr. Igor Kreimerman – Department of Archaeology and Ancient Near Eastern Studies- The Hebrew University of Jerusalem/Israel
Project coordinator – Project office
Two Doctoral Students (Archeology and Hebrew Bible)
Staff members of the Hazor excavation project
The Task of the Project
Within this recent and crucial discussion, the “Resettlement of Ruins and Memories in the Making”-project strives to understand the resettlement processes of the lost city of Hazor in their interaction with the memory shaping and identity construction of the early origins of Israel and in its significant literary traditions, which later become the Hebrew Bible. This task will be met
- through the lens of the megapolis of Hazor, whose complex settlement history of de- and re-urbanization as one of the largest former megacities of the Southern Levant in antiquity covers the entire period targeted in this project.
- by bringing these detailed observations into a general and much needed overall picture of cultural and ethnic continuities, discontinuities, and LBA/Iron I-II transitions in the Southern Levant.
This task can only be met through the unique multidisciplinary approach chosen for this project, which will combine the perspectives from the disciplines of archaeology, social/cultural history, anthropology, and Hebrew Bible studies. The project has two primary objectives, leading to the two areas of research described in the following section:
- “Resettlement of Ruins and Remembering the Past” (Archaeology): Hazor presents a unique case of acknowledgement, treatment and manipulation of Bronze Age remains during the Iron Age. The project plans on advancing the identification of more cases of this kind through new excavations. Did the new settlers have prior knowledge of the destroyed buildings? Did they choose specific spaces to rebuild/leave in ruins? What can be said about the (cultural or ethnic) identity of these new settlers in Hazor?
- “Memories in the Making and the Origins of Israel” (Hebrew Bible Studies and Cultural History): The project pursues the task of a historical, literary-historical, and cultural historical reconstruction of the imagination of Hazor and the Canaanites within the biblical traditions and how these memories are linked to the transitional processes of the origins of Israel, or rather the “memories of Israel” as an early tribal culture.
Each area of research will by necessity be accompanied by the archaeological excavations at Hazor where the PI and the research team are involved.
Publications (TBA)
- Hensel, Benedikt/Kreimerman, Igor, “Neue Ausgrabungen in der Megapolis Hazor: In die Siedlungsschichten des alten Israel hinabsteigen,” in: Welt und Umwelt der Bibel 1 (2024), 62-65.
