ABSTRACT
The material culture in its variant content and context is an indicator of the cultural history of any region. In the case of Palestine in Iron Age II (tenth till sixth century BCE), the discussion by Biblical archaeologists on issues of relating material culture to particular ethnic groups, such as Israelites or Judahites, does not take into consideration that cultural accumulation from preceding periods may have a direct or indirect effect on the Iron Age cultural material. Two case studies of material culture are discussed. The first is the ceramic culture of the Iron Age, where red slip, burnished ware is considered as a “new ceramic tradition” by Israel Finkelstein and categorized as an element of Israelite material culture. The second is an iconographical study of a bulla recovered from the “refuse dump” of Eilat Mazar’s excavation area, south of the walls of Haram al Sharif. The bulla is considered a Judahite religious indicator by Mazar and others.
