Israel Tel Suite (2): Lachish, 1983

Hand-pulled collagraph on 100% rag paper, edition 85/100, 30 × 22 in. (76.2 × 55.9 cm)

Gift from a private collection

The Israelite Tel Suite is a collection of four intaglio collagraphs depicting four important archaeological sites related to biblical Israel. A tel is a mound covering the site of an ancient settlement, generally consisting of many layers of rubble and artifacts left by successive civilizations. Each of these prints is itself a
kind of tel, featuring three horizontal strata that divide the image into a kind of cross-section of archeological time. Bowden visually incorporates imagery of each tel’s current landscape with artifacts from that site embedded in the earth, including, near the center of each composition, an especially important object relating to the tel’s history.

Lachish was a prominent Israelite city southwest of Jerusalem (mentioned more than 20 times in the Hebrew Bible). Significant finds at Lachish include several ostraca (pottery fragments) of great interest for linguistic and historical research of ancient Hebrew. The ostracon depicted in this print (commonly known as Letter 4) shows text written in a cursive script, the most developed form of Paleo-Hebrew, shortly before Lachish was conquered by Nebuchadnezzar II in 586 BCE (cf. Jer 34:7). The lower section of the print shows a portion of a mural found at Ninevah depicting the Israelites being marched into captivity by King Sennacherib (see 2 Kgs 18–19; 2 Chron 32;Isa 37).