Horvat Tevet in the Jezreel Valley: Royal Economy and Early Monarchic Israel

Horvat Tevet is a small site in the rural hinterlands of the Jezreel Valley. Excavations at the site revealed unique finds from early monarchic Israel. These finds shed light on the royal economy which enabled the formation and maintenance of early monarchic Israel, and thus shed new light on its origins. In this lecture, I will present the finds from Horvat Tevet, demonstrating that it functioned as an administrative center for a royal Israelite estate. Consequently, I will discuss the implication of that to our understanding of the origins and formation of early monarchic Israel.

Dr. Omer Sergi is a senior lecturer in the Department of Archaeology and Ancient Near Eastern Cultures in Tel Aviv University. His field of expertise is the archaeology of the southern Levant in the Bronze and Iron Ages, and in the interaction between material culture and biblical text. He directed the excavations in Horvat Tevet (2018 - 2019) and he is co-director of the research project: "The Material Expression of Palace-Clan Relations in the Iron Age Levant". His book "The Two Houses of Israel: State Formation in Israel and Judah and the Origins of Pan-Israelite Identity" will be published by SBL.