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  • IntroductionAncient Technology in the Southern Levant
  • Amihai Mazar, Valentine Roux, and Naama Yahalom-Mack

This special issue of JEMAHS, dealing with various aspects of ancient technology in the southern Levant, is dedicated to Nava Panitz-Cohen, our colleague and friend, on the occasion of her 60th birthday. It brings together contributions to a workshop, "In Search of Ancient Technology: A Workshop on the Occasion of Nava Panitz-Cohen's Birthday," which took place on September 14, 2017 at the French Research Center in Jerusalem.

Nava combines unique abilities for archaeological fieldwork, research, and teaching, and she is a prolific author of archaeological studies. As a field archaeologist, she participated in no less than 20 excavation seasons at Beth Shean and Tel Reḥov. She enthusiastically and skillfully directed large excavation areas at both these sites where complicated stratigraphic sequences of mud-brick architecture spanning the twelfth through ninth centuries BCE were revealed. During the last six years she has served as co-director of the excavations at Abel Beth Maacah, together with Robert Mullins and Naama Yahalom-Mack, where significant discoveries have already been made (Panitz-Cohen, Mullins, and Bonfil 2013, 2015; Mullins and Panitz-Cohen 2015; Panitz-Cohen and Mullins 2016a, 2016b; Yahalom-Mack, Panitz-Cohen, and Mullins 2018). For more than 25 years of work in the Institute of Archaeology of the Hebrew University lab, Nava authored, co-authored, and edited stratigraphic reports and pottery studies that are fundamental in Israeli archaeology. Her outstanding MA thesis and PhD dissertation on the Iron Age and Bronze Age pottery from Tel Batash (Timnah) provided the core of two major chapters in the final report volumes (Mazar and Panitz-Cohen 2001; Panitz-Cohen 2006a, 2006c). She played a major role as researcher, author, and editor in the publication process of Tel Beth Shean and wrote the chapter on Iron Age I pottery (Panitz-Cohen 2009a). In addition, she is co-editor and author of several major chapters in the forthcoming publication of Tel Reḥov (Mazar and Panitz-Cohen, forthcoming) (Fig. 1). Among her own other studies we should note studies of Late Bronze pottery from Gezer (2004b), salvage excavations at the Iron Age city of Beer-Sheba (2005), Iron I wall brackets (2006b), spatial and technological studies of pottery from Tel Batash (2004a, 2009b, 2009c, 2011), the Iron Age II pottery from the Yavneh Iron Age repository pit (2010), several studies on finds from Tel Abel Beth Maacah and a synthesis of the Late Bronze period in the southern Levant (2014). She was a co-author of numerous articles relating to the excavations at Tel Reḥov and Abel Beth Maacah, and other finds (Mazar et al. 2005; Mazar and Panitz-Cohen 2007, 2008; Panitz-Cohen and Mullins 2016b; Panitz-Cohen et al. 2018; Cohen-Weinberger and Panitz-Cohen 2014). [End Page 1]


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Fig. 1.

Nava exploring the beehives in Area C at Tel Rehov. (Photo by A. Mazar.)

Nava's interest in the technology of ancient pottery production led her to cooperation with Valentine Roux, of the French National Center of Scientific Research (CNRS), in studies related to this subject. Together with the collaboration of the Bezalel Department of Ceramics, they organized a series of sessions and training courses in ceramic technology, which combined theory with potting practices. Her conviction that experimentation is the key to the technological approach was the starting point for the creation of an experimental archaeological unit within the Department of Archaeology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. During her years as an instructor at the Hebrew University, Nava has trained many students in fieldwork and pottery analysis, a testimony to her excellence as a teacher. Nava also serves as the editor of the Qedem Monographs series, published by the Institute of Archaeology of the Hebrew University.

In addition to Nava's impressive contributions to the field of archaeology, which are celebrated in this special issue, she is the dedicated mother of three boys and a great friend and colleague.

The articles published in this special issue are based on some of the papers presented at the workshop. They span a considerable time period, from prehistory to...

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