This monograph presents the final excavation report of the Iron Age
fortress at Tell Qudadi (Tell esh-Shuna) situated on the northern bank
of the Yarkon river estuary in the central coast of Israel. The main
excavations were conducted in 1937-38 and were published in a very
preliminary form, dating the first phase of the fortress to the 10th or
9th century BC, whereas the second phase, attributed by the excavators
to the northern Israelite kingdom, was ascribed to the latter part of
the 9th century BC until 732 BC, when it was destroyed during the
military campaign led by Tiglath-pileser III. Such a reconstruction of
events was unreservedly accepted by other scholars. The present authors
offer a new chronological scheme for two architectural phases of this
impressive Iron Age fortress, suggesting a new chronological affiliation
of the fortress to the period between the second half of the 8th and
first half of the 7th centuries BC. Accordingly, the site formed part of
the sophisticated network that was created on behalf of the Neo-Assyrian
rule. The study of the site's Iron Age IIB pottery assemblages enables a
reassessment of a number of contested chronological issues in a wider
Mediterranean setting.