Lahav VIII: The EB III and LB II to Iron II Strata in the Western City at Tell Halif

This volume presents the results of five seasons of excavation (1977–1987) in Field III at Tell Halif, Israel, conducted under the Lahav Research Project. This report provides a comprehensive record of the site’s Field III stratigraphy, architecture, and material culture from the Early Bronze III (ca. 2700–2200 BCE) and from the Late Bronze II through the Iron Age II (ca. 1400–586 BCE), with later remains extending into the Persian and Roman/Byzantine periods.

Excavations in Field III revealed the development of Tell Halif’s western defenses from the Early Bronze period onward, culminating in a substantial Iron Age II fortification line. This stratum includes casemate-like pillared houses fronted by a sloping stone-faced glacis, forming the city’s western fortification system. Four successive Iron Age II occupation phases document the evolution of domestic architecture and material culture from the ninth through early seventh centuries BCE, providing key evidence for patterns of household organization, daily life, and urban planning in the late Iron Age.

Together with complementary data published from other excavation areas at Tell Halif, the Field III materials offer an essential dataset for the study of Judahite settlement and fortification systems. This volume contributes significantly to scholarship on the social and architectural development of Iron Age towns in the southern Levant and to ongoing discussions of the historical and archaeological contexts of the late eighth-century BCE Assyrian campaigns in Judah.