From an archaeological perspective, the exhibition centers on the Iron Age (circa 1200–586 BCE), the period marking the formation of the Israelite monarchy. Geographically, the kingdom occupied the eastern Mediterranean region, encompassing the territories of Israel in the north and Judah in the south—an area corresponding approximately to the boundaries of the modern Israel/Palestine.

As for the house's architectural scheme, it is based on the four-room house, also referred to as “Israelite house” and “pillared courtyard house”, which is known to emerge in the central highlands of Canaan during the late 13th -early 12th centuries BCE in response to environmental and socio-economic needs. This “House of the Father” was the basic unit of Israelite society through which the ancient Israelites organized their social, economic, and religious worlds. The research background for this reconstruction has been presented by Phillip J. King and Lawrence E. Stager in Life in Biblical Israel (Knox/Westminster, 2001).

The tripartite structure reflects the ancient Israelites’ own conceptualization of their social order as a hierarchy of interrelated households, in which each level was encompassed by the one above it.

The reconstruction is positioned not just as domestic architecture, but as a node within an agrarian economy of the Iron Age Levant. While the HMANE house is a reconstruction rather than the exact replica of a specific house, it is grounded on decades of excavations in Israel and Judah. Scholars identify the so-called “four‐room house” as emblematic of Israelite domestic architecture from Iron Age I onward, though debates continue about its origins (Canaanite, Israelite, or regional). The exhibit’s ground floor arrangement—stable/food storage/workshop—and upper floor living spaces reflect the functional realities evidenced by floor plans, animal bone assemblages, pottery and storage installations from archaeological sites.

circa 1200–586 BCE

It is built of sun-dried mud bricks on a rough stone foundation. The upper floor(s) were used for sleeping, eating and domestic activities. This pillared house is filled with ancient artifacts, as well as some replicas and estimates. It is modeled after one of several comprising a joint family compound in a hill-country village located a little north of Jerusalem. This arrangement parallels the ancients' own view of their social organization as a three-tiered hierarchy of nested households, where each level of the hierarchy was contained within the next higher level. There are two interior levels to the house. Family members lived on the upper level, though the roof was often used for this purpose due to its additional space and more-comfortable atmosphere.

The materials chosen for the reconstruction aim to mimic ancient building technology: mud brick for walls, stone footings, perhaps wooden beams for upper floors. The museum text notes the dirty, multifunctional lower floor and stored equipment like a “threshing sled” in some examples.

circa 1200–586 BCE

The ground floor served multiple purposes: a stable (for animals), storage, kitchen and workshop area. Excavations in some Israelite house from the period indicate that sheep or goats might have been occasionally kept inside as well. 2 Samuel 12:3 talks about a poor man's lamb who ate, drank and slept with him. This might be referring to the same practice. The four-room house would not crystallize as a design until the later 12th - 11th centuries BCE, despite its functional qualities. The typical layout of the four-room house consisted of a rectilinear plan divided into three, four, or more spaces/rooms.

circa 1200–586 BCE

A larger central space was separated by one or two rows of stone pillars with an entrance that led from an exterior courtyard into the central space. Ancient Israel was a society based in agriculture, and in family. This kinship connection extended to ways kingship and government were understood and ideas of faith as well. This hierarchy is illustrated in this area, whose full title is The Houses of Ancient Israel: Domestic, Royal, Divine. This arrangement mirrors how ancient Israelite society understood itself: each “house” (bayit) nested inside a higher‐order institution. The reconstructed house represents the base household level, but implicitly ties into larger structures of power and religious

circa 1200–586 BCE

These family homes were the place for extended families to gather, and to live. This formed the base for society at the time — a time which included, among other things, the reigns of King David and King Solomon. The four-room house's popularity continued among the Israelites until the end of Iron Age II, coinciding with the Babylonian Destruction and exile. A number of such houses have been excavated in a number of places like, Tel BeerSheba, City of David, and in ancient Avaris in Egypt.

circa 1200–586 BCE

In 2022 CE, the exhibit underwent several updates, including the installation of new presentation tools and informational plaques. As part of the modifications, certain areas and displayed items were rearranged or removed. The lower level (inspect) of the house, in particular, was tidied and simplified, with a number of objects reduced or taken out—among them the lamb that had been displayed in the pen on the right-hand side.

circa 1200–586 BCE

The Harvard Museum of the Ancient Near, formerly called the the Harvard Semitic Museum, where the exhibit is located. By housing ancient Near Eastern exhibitions, the museum explores the rich history of cultures connected by the family of Semitic languages. Exhibitions include a full-scale replica of an ancient Israelite home, life sized casts of famous Mesopotamian monuments, authentic mummy coffins, and tablets containing the earliest forms of writing. Like the artifacts it displays, the museum itself has a rich and nuanced history.

In this 360° photo, step into a full-sized recreation of an Ancient Israelite home from our exhibition "The Houses of Ancient Israel". In archaeological terms, the exhibition focuses on the Iron Age (1200–586 BCE), during which the monarchy of ancient Israel emerged. This presentation was made in partnership with the Cambridge Science Festival, where a full-scale replica of an ancient Israelite home was built. The kingdom was located at the eastern end of the Mediterranean, and was divided between Israel in the north and Judah in the south. The area roughly corresponds to the modern state of Israel.

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