Early Beth Shan (Strata XIX–XIII) – G.M. Fitzgerald`s Deep Cut on the Tell

G. M. FitzGerald's Deep Cut at Beth Shan, a large-scale research project in the southern Levant, is a window to the earliest civilization at this major tell, documenting human activity during the Neolithic and Bronze Age. In 1933, his last season excavating at Beth Shan, FitzGerald gave us a preliminary picture of a series of late prehistoric events that reflects the chronological progression of cultures within the region. His pioneering research effort left us with a tantalizing but incomplete story.

In 1998, Eliot Braun researched FitzGerald's field notes at the University of Pennsylvania Museum and reveals in this final excavation report some of the mound's earliest secrets, including chrono-cultural and historical-stratigraphic phasing. He has integrated his work with FitzGerald's original publications, reinterpreting the data and synthetic studies of the site's major features for a more comprehensive story. Copious illustrations such as field photos and documents give the reader the aura of the 1933 excavation and a view of Beth Shan as its deepest levels were probed. Braun reviews architectural remains and stratigraphy and includes broad typological comparisons of material remains, with reference to those of other regional sites and ceramic sequences. Two appendices offer one of the earliest archaeobotanical studies in the Near East and raw data derived from FitzGerald's field notes.