Cult, Craft, and Context: Reassessing the Archaeological Interface of Ritual and Production at Iron Age Tell es-Safi/Gath
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.62721/diffusion-fundamentals.40.1286Keywords:
Iron Age, Philistia, southern Levant, production, ritual, archaeology, stratigraphy, material cultureAbstract
The relationship between cultic activity and production has long been recognized as a structural feature of ancient Near Eastern societies, yet it is frequently conceptualized through analytical dichotomies that separate ritual from economic practice. This study presents a comprehensive reassessment of this relationship through a contextually grounded analysis of Iron Age remains from Tell es-Safi/Gath. Focusing on chalices, figurines, and inscriptions within well-defined Iron IIA contexts, and emphasizing their stratigraphic, spatial, and depositional characteristics, the paper demonstrates that ritualized practices permeated domestic, industrial, and formally cultic settings. Rather than proposing a generalized model, the study advances a context-sensitive framework for identifying ritualization within specific archaeological settings. Comparative evidence from Philistia and the southern Levant indicates that these patterns are variable and locally contingent. The results challenge entrenched dichotomies between “official” and “domestic” religion and call for a reassessment of the integration of ritual and production in Iron Age societies.
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