Hazor 17: Another clay liver model

Hazor 17, according to the numbering system established in the Cuneiform in Canaan volume, like Hazor 2-3 from the Yigael Yadin era at Hazor, is a fragment of a liver model from the Middle Bronze Age/Old Babylonian period, and thus parallels contemporary finds in Syria and Mesopotamia. The new piece provides an opportunity to re-examine divination practices at Hazor and to investigate the relationship between the Hazor tradition represented by Hazor 2-3 and now 17 and the tradition found at centres of cuneiform learning further east. Our study also includes a detailed examination of the philological features of Hazor 17, which sheds insight into the use of Akkadian and cuneiform as the international language and writing system of the latter part of the Middle Bronze Age in the west.