Matthew Susnow’s research deals with Bronze Age archaeology of the southern Levant, religion in the Middle and Late Bronze Ages, functional analysis of cultic spaces, space syntax analysis, Iron Age religion, text (Akkadian, Ugaritic, Biblical Hebrew, Attic Greek), ritual theory, palatial economies, and ceramic and bone analysis. His research also focuses on methods and theory in the field of archaeology, integrating topics such as “liminality” and “ideology” into his archaeological analysis. Matt also investigates the topics of impurity, sin and morality in ancient Near Eastern sources.

Select bibliography:

• Susnow, M. forthcoming. Towards a Methodology for Identifying Ritual in the Archaeological Record: A Case Study from the Southern Levant. Journal of Religion.
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• Susnow, M. 2021. The Practice of Canaanite Cult. The Middle and Late Bronze Ages. Ägypten und Altes Testament 106. Zaphon: Münster.
• Susnow, M. 2021. The Space Syntax of Canaanite Cultic Spaces: A Unique Category of Spatial Configuration within the Bronze Age Southern Levant. BASOR 385: 131–152.
• Susnow, M., Horowitz, W., and Yahalom-Mack, N. 2021. Perforated Astragali in the Levant and Four Babylonian Omens. JNES 80(1): 91–100.
• Susnow, M. and Goshen, N. House of a king, house of a god? Situating and distinguishing palaces and temples within the architectonic landscape of the Middle and Late Bronze Age southern Levant. Levant 52: 69–91.
• Susnow, M. 2020. Liminality and Canaanite Cultic Spaces: Temple Entrances, Status Transformations and Ritual in Threshold Contexts. PEQ. https://doi.org/10.1080/00310328.2020.1836769
• Susnow, M. 2020. Traditionalism and Transformations in Canaanite Cultic Architecture: A View from MB Megiddo.” Pp. 149–162 in The Woman in the Pith Helmet: A Tribute to Archaeologist Norma Franklin, eds. J. Ebeling and P. Guillaume. Lockwood Press.
• Susnow, M. 2020. The House of the Deity: A Perspective from the Bronze Age Southern Levant. Pp. 81–104 in Cult, Temple, Sacred Spaces: Cult Practices and Cult Spaces in Hittite Anatolia and Neighboring Cultures. Proceedings from the First International HFR Symposium, 3–5 June, 2019, eds. S. Görke and C. Steitler. Weisbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag.
• Susnow, M., Bechar, S., and Yasur-Landau, A. 2020. Hazor Rulership and Ritual Manipulation. PEQ 152(2): 121–146.
• Yasur-Landau, A., Cline, E.H., Koh, A.J., Ratzlaff, A., Goshen, N., Susnow, M., Waiman-Barak, P., and Crandall, A. 2018M. The Wine Storage Complex at the Middle Bronze II Palace of Tel Kabri: Results of the 2013 and 2015 Seasons. AJA 122 (2): 309–38.
• Waiman-Barak, P., Susnow, M., Nickelsberg, R., Cline, E.H., Yasur-Landau, A., and Shahack-Gross, R. 2018. Technological Aspects of Middle Bronze Age II Production of Pithoi at Tel Kabri, Israel: Specialized Pottery Production in a Palatial System. Levant 50 (1): 32–51.
• Samet, I., Susnow, M., and Yasur-Landau, A. Ceramic Assemblages of MB and LB Palaces and Temples: A Comparative Study. IEJ 67: 129–50