Forced Resettlement and Immigration at Tel Hadid

Biblical Archaeology Review 46:3 ^ | Summer 2020 | Ido Koch, Dan Warner, Eli Yannai, Lin Lawson Pruitt, Dennis Cole, James Parker

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Among the individuals mentioned in those texts, 12 had Mesopotamian names, five had probably Aramaic names, one bore an Egyptian name, and one had a name with the Yahwistic component Yhw -- Netanyahu.

The appearance of the foreign names in the documents, coupled with the scarcity of Yahwistic elements in them, points to the policy of forced resettlement for which the Neo-Assyrian state was notorious. The refugees' displacement in times of war -- a phenomenon, unfortunately, so familiar to us today -- was coupled with forced movements of conquered populations. The kings of the Neo-Assyrian Empire formulated and used this strategy for centuries. They grouped together and deported rivals from the center of the Assyrian heartland and from defeated polities alike. By isolating these groups within larger local populations, the Assyrian kings ensured loyalty to the state and minimized potential resistance among the common people, who were left to fend for themselves without their leaders and traditional social hierarchy...

In recent years, scholars at several excavations have focused on the materials left behind by deportees in the southern Levant, including pottery, objects with cuneiform writing, and seals with Babylonian-style decoration. Our renewed excavations at Tel Hadid, however, additionally focus on another social dimension by tracing the lived practices of these deported communities. Given the organized nature of the Assyrian deportations and the forced settlement of deportees, we expect that archaeological analyses will reveal changes and transformations in the customs and behavioral patterns of the migrants, who sought to maintain their social structure. We see such tendencies today in migrant communities attempting to preserve traditional practices in their new resettled homes.

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Archaeologists exposed 25 rock-hewn olive presses, spread over an acre along the southern slope of the lower terrace at Tel Hadid. They revealed three additional olive presses in the structures along the northern slope (where the cuneiform tablets were found) -- one cut into bedrock and two movable installations in association with the buildings. The installations on the southern slope largely appear alone or in pairs...

Composed of a large beam to which weights would be attached to increase pressure, the presses had a central collecting vat cut into the rock or into a stone boulder. A narrow shallow channel encircled the pressing surface and led into the vat through a hole. A shallow, usually circular, curved surface -- used for crushing the olives prior to pressing -- was cut in the rock near the vat. Archaeologists exposed a rock wall with a niche for the press-beam near some of the installations. The beams of movable installations were probably set within built walls.

Olive Oil Industry | Debora Aymbinderow

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