Archaeology Magazine - January/February 1983 - 19

an opening 4.25 meters long and 3.1 meters high,
permitting easy movement within the granary and
creating a greater cubic storage capacity than would
have been possible with a solid brick cross wall.
Based on the probable height of the arch, the
granary's original interior height would have been
about 5.5 meters, with approximately four meters
above ground level. The building's capacity would
have been about 155.78 cubic meters, capable of
containing about 132.23 tons of wheat- or 4,408
bushels, enough to feed 1,000 people, each consuming two pounds per day, for just over four months.
Since archaeologists saved every potsherd found
in the excavations, approximately seven tons of
sherds were removed from the large granary. Smithsonian volunteers have labored for years to reconstruct the vessels, searching through hundreds
of trays of sherds to find pieces that join. This
search and the reassembling of a storage jar, with
an average of 150 sherds, for example, often requires
more than six months. To date, 44 major assemblages or reconstructions have been completed. The
only whole or easily restorable pieces are small
household vessels such as bowls, juglets, pilgrim
flasks (canteen-like forms), and lamps. No storage
jars were found either whole or crushed in one
place so they could be easily reassembled. A remarkable amount of Greek sherds, including Attic
Black and Red-Figure ware, Black Ware, and plain
amphorae, was also recovered from the granary.
But only the small Black Ware bowls with incurving
rims from the fourth century b.c. and later and
the amphorae were reconstructible. The other Greek
sherds belong to the late sixth to early fourth
centuries, and attest to a considerable fondness for
these beautiful wares during the Persian period.
They are clearly out of context in the granary debris,
and most of them are probably there because they
were in the soil quarried from the vast pits on the tell
used for making the mudbrick of this structure.
One of the ostraca, or potsherds with writing,
recovered from the granary has a painted South
Arabic monogram spelling the name 'A bum . This
name appears in at least three other inscriptions
found along the Arabian incense route, although it
is not certain, of course, that all refer to the same
person. Three years after the ostracon was found,
one of the volunteers who was reconstructing a large
storage jar checked the ostracon and discovered
that it joined her jar! This ostracon, together with
another that bears evidence of a South Arabic ra,
indicates that South Arabs had visited Jemmeh,
probably as caravaneers bringing frankincense and
myrrh to Gaza, the principal incense port on the
Mediterranean in Hellenistic and Roman times. It
is reasonable to suppose that caravans stopped at
Jemmeh to purchase wheat for the long journeymade in 65 stages, according to the historian Plinyalong the western fringe of the "Empty Quarter,"
the great desert in Arabia, back to southern Arabia.
The granaries at Jemmeh belong to the late
fourth to third centuries B.c. when all of Israel was
under the control of Egypt's Ptolemaic Empire. In
view of the long history of grain management in
Egypt, it is not surprising that the Ptolemies established a central grain storage depot in the southern-

most cereal-growing region of Israel, an area that
earlier had served as the border between Israel and
Egypt. In all probability, grain from all over was
brought to this center from which it could be transported to Egypt, shipped overseas through Gaza, or
traded locally. For some reason, the granaries went
out of use following the Seleucid conquest under
Antiochus III about 198 b.c. Whether they were
systematically destroyed in that conquest or were
shaken down by an earthquake cannot be determined
in the absence of historical records. The fact that
the large granary was destroyed and filled in quickly
is certain from the distribution pattern of the potsherds within the structure- the pieces were scattered widely, both horizontally and vertically, in
the debris. The building was probably filled with the
collapsing mudbrick superstructure in a matter of
minutes.
Whatever happened, the long occupation of Jemmeh came to an end around the beginning of the
second century b.c. Why was the site abandoned?
Among the many possible explanations, two are especially attractive. It may be that the springs in the
wadi near the site dried up, so that the water requirements of the settlement could no longer be
met. It is also possible that the wadi itself changed
course, cutting into the north side of the site and
beginning the collapse of the tell. The next settlement, the large late Roman-Byzantine town of Orda,
was built not on the tell but on the rolling plains
immediately to the south. Although abandoned as a
site of permanent settlement, the tell was not unused
in subsequent periods. A few burials of later times,
a small hoard of Crusader coins, and the continuing
grazing of Bedouin flocks attest to the presence of
visitors over the centuries. But the remains of Tell
Jemmeh's long history were left to be pieced
together by archaeologists of our time, a process
that will no doubt continue in centuries to come.
For Further Reading on Tell Jemmeh: Joan
Oates, "Late Assyrian Pottery from Fort Shalmaneser," Iraq 21 (1959): 130-46, is a very useful
catalogue of pottery, including especially Palace
Ware bowls and beakers or cups; W.M. Flinders
Petrie, Gerar (British School of Egypt and
Bernard Quaritch, London 1928), this brief final
report on the 1927 excavations at Tell Jemmeh
is interesting but its conclusions are not reliable;
P.S. Rawson, "Palace Wares from Nimrud: Technical Observations on Selected Examples," Iraq
16 (1954): 168-72, is an excellent discussion of
the technical aspects of Assyrian Palace Ware
beakers; Hay im Thdmor, "Philistia Under
Assyrian Rule," Biblical Archaeologist 29 (1966):
86-102, is an excellent summary of Assyrian
activities in Philistia in the eighth and seventh
centuries b.c.: Gus W. Van Beek, "Frankincense
and Myrrh," Biblical Archaeologist 23 (1960):
69-95, and reprinted in Biblical Archaeologist
Reader 2 (Anchor Books, New York 1964): 99-126,
is a useful discussion of the production and uses
of these substances, the routes involved in trade,
and the economic effects of the trade in southern Arabia.
1983
January/February

Archaeology Magazine - January/February 1983

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