The Israelite Pillared
House
Functionality and Evolution
By Ahmad Riad Ramadan
Outline
I. Brief overview of Israelite settlements (size,
geographic distribution, overall site plan)
II. Domestic architecture
A. Building materials
1) Stones and basalt
2) Timber (wood)
3) Mud and straw
Outline
B. The Long-Spaced House
1) The Divisions and their Functions
a. The Courtyard
b. The Broad Room
c. Access to the Upper Storey
d. The Lateral Spaces
e. The Pillars
f. The Roof
2) Openings and Lighting
a. Windows
b. Doorway and Egyptian Lock
c. Artificial Lighting
Outline
C. The Courtyard House: differences and similarities with
the long-spaced house
III. The Four-Room House, a model that evolved
A. Different hypotheses for the functionality of the four-
room house
B. Different hypotheses for the origin of the four-room
house
1) The Bedouin Hypothesis
2) The Late Bronze Age Hypothesis
Map of Iron Age Palestine
Brief overview of Israelite settlements
Settlements in Iron Age Palestine are open villages: peripheral belt of
houses encircling large open spaces.
Layout attested in many sites throughout Palestine: Ai, Giloh, Izbet Sartah,
Tell Esdar in Northern Negev , Tell en-Nasbeh, Beersheba.
Size: small settlements ranging from 0.5 to 1 acre in area
Densely populated due to clustering of houses. This is an indicator of the
social cohesion among the Israelite community. Clustering of houses often
lead to sharing of walls and open courtyards Tell Beit Mirsim
Stratum A. (next slide)
Individual houses form collectively units called family compounds
(neighborhoods), many of which form clusters. Several clusters define the
village. Iron Age I Israelite village at „Ai (next slide)
Brief overview of Israelite settlements
Brief overview of Israelite settlements
Archaeologist Dever has correlated Hebrew terms given to different
socioeconomic groupings found in the Bible with the actual archaeological
evidence. Table.
Brief overview of Israelite settlements
Large open spaces served many
purposes:
Herding of the cattle and
animal raising
Storage of grains in silos
lined with stones or dug in
the ground
Collective workshops
(pottery, gardening, stone
processing…) and social
activities (gatherings…)
Domestic Architecture
A. Building Materials
Most used materials: stones and basalt, timber (wood), mud and
straw.
Same materials were used in rural and urban centers. However,
processing of those materials differed. Cities and high-rank families
benefited from refined architecture and fine processing.
The materials were local, eg: the stones were obtain from the local
bedrock.
1) Stones
Stones were the most demanded material in view of longevity
Building Materials
Different types of stones were processed:
Limestone, abundant in the hillside of Palestine. Nari, a type of
limestone, was so tender that it could be easily worked. Used in dressing
of capitals of monumental buildings. Originates from vicinity of
Jerusalem
Ashlar masonry = the technique of dressing facades with stones.
Originates from Phoenicia and spread to Palestine in LBA. Many
examples in royal cities of Hazor, Megiddo, Samaria, Jerusalem etc.
Ashlars were so nicely cut that they required no mortar between them.
They were positioned in a header-and-stretcher fashion. . One type of
stone used in ashlar masonry is kurkar, a sandstone from the coastal
plains.
Basalt, magmatic rock, praised for hardness and resistance. Originating
from bedrock of Upper Galilee and Golan heights. Used in building of
stair steps, stelae and orthostats.
Building Materials
Header-and-stretcher technique (left)
Orthostat (right)
Building Materials
2) Timber
Timber (wood) was used in:
ceiling and roof beams
doors
window frames
To roof their houses, Israelite laid reeds and branches on
the wooden beams and covered them with mud and straw.
To increase waterproofness of roofs and ceilings, they
passed a stone roller.
Building Materials
Paleobotanists and Bible specialists retrieved many species of
trees used in domestic architecture:
Tamarisk, an evergreen native to the Aravah, Jordan Valleys, Coastal Plain
and the Negev.
Cedar, famous for longevity and height (up to 35 meter tall).
Heterogeneous applications in pillars, roof beams and also boats.
Acacia, native of Sinai and Arabian desert, resists high temperature and is
very resistant. Hence was used in furniture.
Phoenician juniper, native from Mount Hermon, grow berries.
Aleppo pine (oil tree), the only pine native from Palestine. Found in
ornaments of temples carved in this tree.
Terebinth and oak spread confusion among scholars because they have the
same root ’ēl which refers to divinity. Terebinth is found in the Negev,
lower Galilee and Dan Valley.
The oak Quercus ithaburensis is native from Hulah Plain, the Dan Valley
and the Golan Heights. It can live 300 to 500 years
Building Materials
3) Mud and straw
Buildings built of mud outnumbered all other building techniques in
those regions where wood and stone are scarce.
Mud can be assigned two functions in Israelite architecture:
Brick manufacture
Mortar preparation
Brick manufacture: mud was poured in square or rectangular molds and
left to dry in the sun. Bricks had to be covered with plaster lining every
year to prevent water infiltration.
Straw was added to mud to increase its consistency and lower its
adhesion to the walls of the mold.
No evidence of firing kilns before the Early Roman Period.
The Four Room House
General Features of the Four-Room House:
The Israelite Pillared House is also known as the Four-Room House.
It is a family of buildings that share many features.
All of them have the four fundamental rooms:
The wide courtyard
The broad room
The two lateral spaces flanking the courtyard
The overall layout of the four-room house plan is oblong (rectangular).
Others can also be square-shaped.
The Four-Room House
Dimensions: averaged 12m x 12m for square-shaped houses
Capacity: could accommodate up to two dozens people
Two varieties of four-room houses have been identified:
The long-spaced house in which the two lateral rooms and the
courtyard form three long parallel spaces.
The courtyard house that lack such a layout of three parallel
spaces.
Time span: the very early types of four-room houses appear during the
Early Iron Age (1200 BC) and keeps on evolving in its layout until the
destruction of the Kingdom of Judah in the 6th century BC.
The Long-Spaced House
It is the most widespread type of
house in Iron Age Palestine.
It is reserved for private
dwellings, i.e. it was most
probably a domestic structure
rather than an administrative one.
Some representations of long-
spaced houses : The one above is
a representation of Building 436
at Tell el- Far„ah.
The one below represents House
M.379 in Tell en-Nasbeh.
The Long-Spaced House
1) The Divisions and their Functions
a) The Courtyard
The most spacious room of the four already mentioned
Archeological findings in many courtyards include: mud-brick
ovens, hearths for cooking, jars and kraters for storage of grains and
water, deep-cut cisterns and various manufacturing tools.
These findings reveal the multiple functions of this place: a place for
cooking, working and storing all kinds of edibles.
House 1727 at Shechem and House XIV at Khirbet Raddana attest
oval-shaped hearths in their courtyards.
The Long-Spaced House
A major controversy arose concerning
whether or not the courtyard was roofed.
Many scholars thought that because the
houses must have had small windows, the
need for an open courtyard was essential
for the passage of light and air.
However, complications came with the
discovery that most Israelite houses were
made of two floors. This is because the
decision of the lower courtyard being
roofed or not depends on the layout of the
upper floor.
Unroofing the lower courtyard causes a
problem in room-to-room communication.
That is, in the case of unroofed lower
courtyard, one would have to cross all the
rooms in order to reach the farthest point
from the stairs.
The Long-Spaced House
If the lower courtyard is roofed, however, its ceiling is at the same time the
floor of an upper courtyard.
This way, room-to-room access is facilitated by the presence of a hallway
which is in fact the upper courtyard.
Thus, on the lower level: ventilation and light penetration is achieved by:
Open entrance doors
Small windows
Opening of the ceiling for the staircase
The interstices (spaces between) the wooden beams of the ceiling
On the upper level: proper aeration and luminosity is provided by the
opening of the roof.
Excavations of two-storey houses in Shemesh and Tell el-Umeiri (near
Amman) have attested the collapse of the ceiling over the beaten earth of
the lower courtyard.
The Long-Spaced House
The Long-Spaced House
b) The Broad Room
Located at the back of the house. Its wall was often part of the outer
fortification in the casemate wall.
In one-storey houses, it is thought to have served as a living quarter.
In two-stories houses, it was kept as a storeroom or workshop. The
reason is that the Israelite segregated living areas from working areas.
The living quarter were located on the upper floor while the workshops
were on the lower level.
Two possible reasons for such a separation:
Better living conditions upstairs because of better ventilation and
luminosity
Preference to keep away from the animals that dwelled on the ground
floor
The Long-Spaced House
c) Access to the Upper Storey
Two kinds of staircases were
attested by excavations:
The internal wooden
staircase
The external stone
staircase
Evidence for the existence of a second storey:
The external staircase through which the upper floor was accessible
from the lower one
The pillars on the ground floor that were used to be erected very
close to each other in order to distribute the heavy weight of the
walls of the upper floor. Distant pillars wouldn‟t have been enough.
The Long-Spaced House
d) The Lateral Spaces
Two lateral spaces flank the courtyard. Two rows of pillars mark the limit
between the three rooms.
Subdivision of these lateral spaces into a few smaller room has often been
attested.
The floor of those lateral spaces was paved with flagstones. That of the
courtyard was typically made of beaten earth.
Between the pillars were found mangers. This indicate the very particular
function of those spaces: they were stables for cattle, donkeys or oxen raised
inside the house.
Animal raising offered a few advantages:
Primary products (meat…)
Secondary products (wool, milk…)
Warmth through heat radiation from the animals' skins
Feces as an important fertilizer
The Long-Spaced House
e) The Pillars
Very specific landmark of the Israelite house.
However, they are not the determining feature that enables
archaeologists to classify such buildings as private dwellings. Many
administrative buildings as well as temples and palaces also have
pillars.
The determining feature is the broad room that we already mentioned.
Could be made in stone or in wood depending on the status of the
family and the availability of the materials.
Served many purposes:
Limit between lateral places and courtyard, separating dwellers from
their animals
Support for the upper floor
Attachment point for the animals
Important note: they were not beit-il ! (worshipped monolithic stones).
The Long-Spaced House
f) The Roof
Many roles were played by the roof:
Storage place and surface on which food was dried
During warm season, living quarter for the dwellers seeking fresh
air
Place of rituals and worship where offerings were placed for the
divinities. “And the houses of Jerusalem and the houses of the
kings of Judah shall be defiled (= damned) like the place of
Tophet – all the houses upon whose roofs offerings have been
made to the whole host of heaven , and libations have been
poured out to other gods” (Jer. 19:13)
The Long-Spaced House
2) Openings and Lighting
a) Windows
No windows were excavated because all sites had walls too short
to demonstrate windows.
Their presence can only be inferred from ivory plaque
illustrations.
Also, The Biblical text refers to windows in the episode of the
spies sent by Joshua to Rahab‟s house in which they lowered a
rope through one of the windows. (Joshua 2:15)
Functions:
Must have been small to conserve fair temperature in all
seasons
Evacuation of smoke and odors because of the absence of
chimneys
Light and air for the lower quarters of the house
The Long-Spaced House
b) Doorway and Egyptian lock
Three elements make up the doorway: lintel, doorposts and sill
(threshold)
Lintel: stone on top of the doorway that rests on the doorposts. Had a
ritualistic connotation. Bible mentions the Israelite ritual of wetting
lintel and doorposts with lamb blood to repel evil.
Doorposts: support on which dwellers would write their profession of
faith (Shema).
Sill: boundary between outside and inside worlds. Book of Judges
(19:27) :“In the morning her master got up, opened the doors of the
house, and when he went out to start again on his journey, there was
his concubine lying at the door of the house with her hand on the
threshold”.
The Long-Spaced House
Lock and Key ( next slide)
Key resembled a toothbrush. Long (25-50 cm) and bent at the
extremity of the teeth. Could be carried on the shoulder because of its
weight and size. “I will place the key of the house of David on his
shoulder.” (Isa. 22:22)
Lock was called a tumbler or Egyptian lock. Three major parts:
Wooden bolt that slides
The socket to hold the bolt in horizontal position
Wooden case that contains the moveable pins
Originality of the device: the door had a hole through which the key
holder would introduce the key and reach the bolt. This maximizes
security. Details of the key-lock device is exemplified in the Song of
Solomon:
The Long-Spaced House
“My lover thrust his hand
Through the hole (in the door)
and my belly yearned for him.
I rose to open to my lover,
With my hands dripping myrrh
With my fingers dripping choice myrrh
Upon the sockets of the bolt
I opened (the door) for my lover,
But my lover had turned and gone.”
The Long-Spaced House
c) Artificial Lighting
Olive oil was burned in ceramic lamps placed in small niches in the
wall.
Temples and well-off residences owned lamp stands.
The Long-Spaced House
The Courtyard House
Far less widespread type than the long-spaced house type. Concentrated in
royal cities such as Hazor, Megiddo, Samaria...
Particular features to courtyard houses:
No pillars
Larger than long-spaced houses
Thicker walls
Wider courtyards and rooms
Position of doorways is more studied
Overall more sophisticated construction indicates that they most probably
aimed at housing administrative offices.
Major originality: They have shown to possess an open courtyard even
though they are usually two-storey buildings.
The Courtyard House
Tell Beit
Mirsim III, the
western tower
(left)
Hazor II
Area B,
Houses # 3100
and 3067
(right)
The Courtyard House
How was then room-to-room access facilitated? Archaeologists believe that
Israelites built wooden balconies that lined the upper rooms. Those balconies
overhanged the lower open courtyard and rested on wooden beams protruding from
the floor of the upper rooms on the sides. See next slide.
Access was achieved by wooden stairs or steep stairs resting on the balconies.
In their layout, courtyard houses are not much different from long-spaced houses
and yet the latter do not have open courtyards on the lower floor.
The reason for this is that the courtyard houses have wider courtyards so that, even
with the balconies (that are about 0.7 to 0.8 meter wide), the open space will not be
shut and air and light can penetrate.
Long-spaced houses have too-narrow courtyards. Balconies would almost
completely shut the open space in this case. That is why Israelites sacrificed an
open space for a more practical way of moving about in the long-spaced houses.
The Courtyard House
A Model That Evolved
A. Different hypotheses for the functionality of the four-room
house
The Cultic Hypothesis
Was advanced by scholars such as Thiersch and Andrae
They thought that the pillars inside the four-room houses were cultic
elements that were worshipped.
Massively rejected by Albright, Muller, Watzinger and others: they
claimed that those pillars had an architectural role, no more.
Storehouse function versus domestic function
Some scholars such as Dever insisted on a careful discrimination
between those buildings that were granaries or other store places and
private dwellings, although the two functional types are very similar
(three long spaces separated by rows of pillars or walls)
A Model That Evolved
Three main distinctions:
Size: Storehouses and granaries have larger dimensions than four-
room houses
Compartmentalizing: No subdivisions were found within the three
large spaces
Broad Room: This feature is completely lacking in the storehouses
which is the focal feature of the four-room houses.
A Model That Evolved
A. Different hypotheses for the origin of the four-room house
Many hypotheses elaborated to attempt to solve the issue of the origin of the
four-room house.
Among those hypotheses, two are particularly interesting:
The Bedouin Hypothesis
The LBA hypothesis
1) The Bedouin Hypothesis
Elaborated by the co-excavators of Tell Masos Strata III-II: Fritz and
Kempinski.
Origin of the four-room house plan = the tent or hut, hence a semi-
nomadic origin because of the resemblance between the area just outside
a tent and the open courtyard.
In the course of this “from tent to house” evolution, two buildings
marking the transition two-to-three room houses deserve careful
attention: House 34 and House 74.
A Model That Evolved
House 34: Broad room and
enclosed courtyard. Entrance
through courtyard. Two-room
house. (upper picture)
House 74: Later development
from House 34. Three-room
house. More oblong. Broad room
at the back and courtyard flanked
by one lateral space only.
Presence of pillars. Entrance now
located in the middle of the small
base of the courtyard, opposite the
broad room. (lower picture)
A Model That Evolved
Hypotheses A,B and C were proposed by
Fritz and Kempinski.
Hypothesis D was proposed by Herzog.
A Model That Evolved
1) The LBA Hypothesis
Dever opposed the semi-nomadic origin developed by Fritz and
Kempinski
Main counterargument: The area just outside the tent and the
open courtyard have totally different functions, despite their
similarities. The area outside a tent is a sitting area for social
gathering. The courtyard has a workshop and storage function.
Dever‟s proposal: Egyptian origin, advocating that the long-
spaced house has been inspired from the “Late Bronze Age
Egyptian-style villa”.
He believes that the four-room house is a formidable adaptation
to the farming tradition of Israelites, hence its longevity.
Bibliography
Dever, W. Monumental Architecture in Ancient Israel in the Period of the
United Monarchy.
Dever, W. Who Were the Early Israelites and Where Did They Come
From?
Mazar, A. (1992). Archaeology of the land of the Bible. Chapter8
Netzer, E. Domestic Architecture in the Iron Age.
Shiloh, Y. (1987). The Casemate Wall, the Four-Room House and Early
Planning in the Israelite City. BASOR 268.
Shiloh, Y. The Four-Room House. Its Situation and Function in the
Israelite City.
Stager, L. (2001). Life in Biblical Israel. Chapter2.