Housing the Ancestors

Debate has surrounded the south Levantine Middle Bronze Age (MBA, 2000-1500 BCE) Courtyard Palace form since their first discovery in the early twentieth century. Traditional views of the MBA Courtyard Palace were seen through the lens of renewed urban life at the beginning of the MBA, and these monumental constructions were interpreted as central administrative and redistributive institutions. This book challenges established narratives through a detailed re-analysis of key sites such as Tell el- ‘Ajjul, Megiddo, and Shechem, and an investigation of several new structures from sites such as Pella and Deir ‘Alla. From this study, investigations reveal an absence of administrative and storage paraphernalia from within the structures, and instead an abundance of burials and other materials arguably to be associated with funerary rituals.

Holly Winter is a Near Eastern archaeologist with more than ten years’ field experience across the Middle East, has researched and lectured in the Middle East, Europe, the UK, the United States and Australia. She complete her PhD on Bronze Age monumental funerary architecture at the University of Sydney in 2023. Her interests centre on the Bronze Age Near East, and include architectural history, funerary rites and burial customs, urbanism and the creation of cities, and trade and international relations. Presently, she is employed as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Sydney on the Ha’il Archaeology Identification Project (HAIP), documenting stone structures In the Ha’il province, Saudi Arabia.

NEAF is proud to use this occasion to launch Holly’s recently published monograph, Holly A. Winter. Housing the Ancestors. Courtyard Palaces of the Middle Bronze Age Southern Levant. LEMA VII, Brepols, 2026.