Tripartite Pillared Buildings and the Market Place in Iron Age Palestine

This article describes tripartite pillared buildings from nine sites in Iron Age Palestine (Tell Abu Hawam, TEll Qasile, Beth Shemesh, Hazor, Megiddo, Beer Sheba, Lachish, Tell el-Ḥesi, and Tel Malhata [fig. 1]), and presents three models that might explain their function in antiquity-as storehouses, stables, and barracks. All three models were proposed many years ago, but have received new impetus in more recent literature (Pritchard 1970; Yadin 1972a; 1976b; 1976c; Herzog 1973; Fritz 1977; Holladay 1986). However, significant problems remain with all three models. A fourth, that of a market place, is tested by ethnographic observations of market buildings and marketing systems in modern nonindustrial societies. Implications that arise from these observations are concerned with the archaeological remains of tripartite pillared buildings. In every case the implications confirm the model. The article presents excursuses that deal with the special problems of Megiddo, activity patterns in a pillared market, and biblical terms for storehouses.