A Note on Dating the Shechem Temple

While reading G. E. Wright's exceedingly lucid report on the very interesting results of his second campaign at Shechem 1 it occurred to me that the following point should be discussed among field archaeologists since its solution might have far-reaching implications for methods of dating in other excavations. In his discussion of the excavation in Field V, Wright suggests redating the famous temple of Shechem to ca., 1600 B. C.2 It is not my purpose here either to challenge this dating or to support it, but rather to discuss the method used by Wright in the interpretation of the data discovered by him in the temple. His main argument is based on the nature of " the fill on [italics are mine, Y. Y.] which the temple was built." 3 Wright was able to locate the original surface of the fill " in which a trench had been dug for the foundations of the temple." He points out that " the pottery from this fill both here and within the temple was consistently MB II C." He further states that " inside the cella at least two floor levels were visible in the balks with MB II C sherds found just under them " [italics are mine, Y. Y.]. Wright concludes this section of his discussion by saying that " from the considerable amount of evidence thus collected, a date ca. 1600 B. C. for the building of the temple seems mandatory. The erection of the structure is clearly earlier than the Late Bronze Age." 3 It seems to me that the most natural conclusion at which one can arrive from this evidence is that the temple was built after the MB II C phase, i. e. in the Late Bronze Age, since if the building was erected in the MB II C phase the fill below it should have contained MB II B, or earlier, sherds.