Mount Adir: An Iron I Polity in the Upper Galilee?

Abstract

This is the final report of the excavations conducted at the site of the fortress of Mount Adir in two seasons separated by 43 years. In addition to summarizing the available data on the fortress, the study focuses on the broader context—the interconnectedness between the Iron IB settlement system in the Upper Galilee and the contemporaneous centres in the northern part of the country, especially in the coastal area. It seems that during the Iron Age IB a local political entity was established in the Meron Ridges—the ‘Upper Galilee Polity’—which controlled the entire Upper Galilee region. The fortress at Mount Adir played a central role in this entity and the ceramic assemblage that was found there indicates trade relations, mainly with the cities and ‘village-states’ of the northern coastal region. The end of the ‘Upper Galilee Polity’ was connected to the growth of political forces west and east of the Upper Galilee during the Iron IIA.