Dr. Shlomit Bechar, HCMH Post-Doctoral and research fellow, published a new article in the Oxford Journal of Archaeology, titled “Abuse, Reuse, Recycle: The Uses of Basalt Orthostats at Hazor in the Bronze and Iron Ages”.

The paper investigates the use of basalt orthostats in Syro-Anatolia throughout the Bronze and Iron Ages, focusing on the changes in their consumption at Hazor. Used to reflect the wealth and power of city rulers in the Middle and Late Bronze Ages, this practice continued in the Iron Age in Syro-Anatolia, while at Hazor it stopped entirely. By applying counter-monumentality and spolia, it is suggested that, at Hazor, orthostats were used by the Iron Age inhabitants of the city to glorify the destruction of the Late Bronze Age city and to humiliate the previous royalty of Hazor, thus exhibiting their victory over its Canaanite rulers.