Thursday, 22nd February 2007 (Manchester); Thursday 6th December 2007 (London)
Dr. Rupert Chapman (British Museum)
SAMARIA: ROYAL CITADEL OF THE KINGS OF ISRAEL
Samaria was not only the capital of the Kings of Israel from 880 to 721 B.C.E but also the first palace complex of the two Hebrew kingdoms to be excavated, in two pioneering campaigns, the first by Harvard University and the second by the Palestine Exploration Fund and the British School of Archaeology in Jerusalem. Study of this royal complex has revealed a great deal about the art and architecture of the Hebrew kings, and given us a comparative standard by which to judge them against their neighbours in Phoenicia and Western Syria, as well as the Biblical accounts of the opulence of the kings of Israel. With the excavation of the later royal complex at Ramat Rahel, it continues to provide insights into royal administration and material for the study of the chronology of the Hebrew kingdoms. Samaria was also an important site during the Assyrian and Babylonian Empires and was rebuilt as a showpiece city by Herod the Great, as part of his grand project for the glorification of Israel. Partly due to these later periods of major construction, less survives of the Israelite levels than on many other sites; however, these levels are important in their own right.
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