Tombs 1, 2 and 3

1. Discovery and Excavation

Toward the end of the 1959 season, the excavators uncovered a circular, stone-lined pit in Area K (on the western side of the tell) that diminished in size until it funnelled into a square-cut shaft in the bedrock. About 1 m down the shaft, a stone slab was uncovered, leaning against a vertical rock-cut doorway. Thus began the excavation of one of Tell Dothan's most significant discoveries, the so-called western cemetery (fig. 4).

The largest tomb of this cemetery (Tomb 1) was discovered four days before the conclusion of the 1959 season (figs. 5, 6). During those four days, the team worked around the clock in eight hour shifts in the hope of clearing the burial chamber. Approximately 1 m of the tomb chamber was exposed; 52 objects were removed, including chalices, lamps, bowls, pyxides and numerous other objects. Many vessels were complete, though fragmented, and some were intact. The pottery dated to the early Iron Age. The excavators could not finish clearing the burial chamber before the end of the season, and sealed the tomb with reinforced concrete until the following season. No one could have imagined that 2756 more vessels, 234 bronze objects and several hundred burials awaited discovery. Archaeologists had uncovered the largest single-chambered tomb with the largest number of burial deposits to have been excavated in Palestine at that time.

As noted above, the western cemetery was excavated over four seasons (1959, 1960, 1962 and 1964). Although Free was director of the Dothan Archaeological Project during those years, the tomb excavations were conducted under the direction of R. E. Cooley, who is in charge of the publication phase of the Dothan Archaeological Project, assisted by Gary Pratico.

Very little of this stratified tomb has been published to date. Apart from dictionary and encyclopedia articles, the most substantive studies are to be found in the preliminary reports (Free 1959: 26-28; 1960: 10-15) and in works largely concerned with matters of interpretation (Cooley 1968 and1983). The western cemetery in general and its largest tomb in particular will be the primary focus of the remainder of this article.

2. Tomb Architecture (figs.4-12)

During the Late Bronze Age, a pit (approximately 6 to 7 m deep) was cut into Early Bronze Age debris and lined with stones (fig. 7). The pit gradually diminished in circumference until it reached bedrock, at which point it became a shaft that opened to a stomion with seven steps that led into a very large burial chamber.

Tomb 1 therefore consists of three architectural components: a vertical shaft, a stepped entryway and the main tomb chamber in which were located eight crypts or loculi (figs. 4 and 5). Access to the stepped entryway and the main chamber was provided through a well-cut vertical shaft on the western side of the tomb (figs. 8 and 10). The chamber has a west-east orientation. The shaft measures 1.75 m x 1.00 m wide and is 1.51 m deep. Of the seven steps that lead into the tomb chamber, three of the steps were located within the shaft. The shaft depth to the first step is 1.00 m; 1.32 m to the second step and 1.51 m to the third step. The remaining four steps were within the tomb chamber; the seventh step is 3.30 m below the uppermost level of the shaft. The doorway to the tomb chamber was blocked by a stone slab that measured 1.10 m high x 1.00 m wide x 0.12 m thick.

The tomb chamber is irregularly shaped, although basically rectangular with rounded corners. At its largest extremities, the chamber measures 10.65 m west to east (Crypt H to the western wall of the shaft) and 6.90 m north to south (Crypt A to Crypt C). Excluding the crypts, the chamber walls measure 8.30 m west to east and 5.00 m north to south. The chamber contained eight crypts of which six were cut into the rock (A, C, D, E, F and H) and two were constructed at a later time (B in the northwestern corner of the tomb and G at the extreme eastern end; figs. 6, 10, 11, 12, 14, 15 and 16). The two later crypts were created by constructing stone walls below Crypts C and H respectively. Crypt dimensions are as follows:

The depth of the tomb chamber, from the bedrock surface at the center to the collapsed ceiling is 5.50 m.

A small channel was discovered on the northwestern side of the tomb, directly above Crypt C. This channel created an opening from the outside of the tomb to the interior of one of the chamber niches. The opening was roughly square on the interior, measuring 0.60 m x 0.60 m, narrowing to roughly circular on the exterior with a diameter of 0.20 m. Two large storage jars, each with a dipper juglet, were associated with this channel. Both were discovered on the outside of the tomb chamber, just below the channel entrance. This opening, together with the associated pottery, obviously served a ritual function, perhaps for libation offerings for "feeding the tomb." Similar installations were discovered in the great tombs of Ugarit, dating to the 14th and 13th centuries B.C.E. (Schaeffer 1939: 50-51).

3. Tomb Stratification

Although atypical for multiple burial tombs, Tomb 1 was clearly stratified. The uppermost level (Level 1) was completely sealed by the debris from the collapsed ceiling. Each of the five burial levels was clearly and completely separated from one another by a layer of limestone and/or earthen fill. The earliest level of burials (Level 5) was separated from the bedrock floor of the tomb by a layer of limestone and earthen fill. The following chart presents the section measurements for the five levels of the tomb and the intervening fills.

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