Israelite Tel Suite (1): Megiddo, 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.

Megiddo is an ancient tel in the lush Jezreel Valley of upper Israel. When it was excavated, twenty or more layers of civilization were uncovered, inspiring James A. Michener’s book The Source (1965). The most famous artifact from this tel is a bronze cast from a small jasper seal depicting a roaring lion with the Hebrew inscription, “Belonging to Shema, servant of Jeroboam.” Dated to the mid-eighth century BCE, this seal belonged to a high-ranking official under King Jeroboam II (cf. 2 Kgs 13–15). The stone wall depicted in the lower portion of this print is a section of the Solomonic gate at Megiddo.