Housing the Ancestors

Courtyard Palaces of the Middle Bronze Age Southern Levant

Winter, Holly

Debate has surrounded the south Levantine Middle Bronze Age (MBA) Courtyard Palace form since their first discovery in the early twentieth century. Traditional views of the MBA Courtyard Palace were seen through the lens of renewed urban life at the beginning of the MBA, and these monumental constructions were interpreted as central administrative and redistributive institutions. This volume challenges established narratives through a detailed re-analysis of key sites such as Tell el-?Ajjul, Megiddo, and Shechem, and an investigation of several new structures from sites such as Pella and Deir ‘Alla. From this study, investigations reveal an absence of administrative and storage paraphernalia from within the structures, and instead an abundance of burials and other materials arguably to be associated with funerary rituals.