Here is the 1999 report from Dr. Bryant Wood of Associates for Biblical Research.

We had a very successful dig season at Kh. el-Maqatir in May and June.  There were a total of 58 people who participated in our two sessions, plus a group of about 50 on a Master's College tour who joined us for one day.  Of the ABR group, there were some six schools represented.  In addition to recovering Biblical history, an important goal of the KEM project is to train evangelicals in field methodology.  With the participation of a number of schools, we are able to achieve that goal by training faculty and students.  We were also pleased to have with us David Markham, a PhD student in geology, who is joining the KEM team as staff geologist.  Here is an update on what we found.

15TH CENTURY BC (LATE BRONZE I PERIOD), THE TIME OF THE CONQUEST

The Massive North Wall

The most significant result of this season's work was further clarification of the plan of the LB I fortress from the time of Joshua.  In Squares Q9 and R11, under the supervision of Oral Collins of the Berkshire Institute for Christian Studies, we found well-preserved sections of the north wall.  The wall here is 4.0 meters (13 ft) wide, the largest wall from that time period ever found in Israel!  It would have stood to a height of some 12 meters (40 ft)!  It is interesting that the dimensions of all of the architecture we have found from the LB I period are in even half-meter increments.  It is evident that the engineers who designed and built the LB I fortress at KEM were using a cubit which was 0.50 meters (20 in) in length.

Equally as surprising as the massive nature of the wall is the fact that it does not follow a straight line, but is curving.  This changes our outlook on the layout of the fortress.  It appears that the plan is curvilinear rather than rectilinear as we initially supposed.  In addition, the fortress is much larger than we first thought.  In the June 1998 season a crew from Lancaster Bible College, under the direction of professors Jim Ayers and Bob Spender, excavated Square S14 in an effort to find the north wall in this area.  Although they did not find the wall, they did find an unusual concentration of stones which, at the time, we were at a loss to explain.  It occupied the northern third of the square.  What was most intriguing was the fact that the southern edge of the stone pile formed a rough vertical face 40-60 cm. (16-24 in) in height along a east-west line .  The team opened the square to the north, T14, and found that the stone pile gradually tapered off until it met bedrock in the middle of the square.  A probe into the stone pile produced pottery mainly from the LB I period and earlier, but also a few sherds from the 1st century BC.

It is now clear what the stone pile is.  An extension of  the line of the outer, or north, face of the fortification wall leads directly to the vertical face of the stone pile in S14.  It appears that when the wall was still in existence in S14, the stones were piled against the north face, possibly by farmers clearing fields in the vicinity.  Between S14 and the LB I gate is a monstrous wall some 5 meters (16 ft), or more, in width, built in the Hasmonean period in the first century before Christ.  It runs roughly north-south and cuts through the area where the LB I wall once joined the gate.  When the Hasmoneans built their wall they reused stones from the LB I wall, including those in S14.  The pile of smaller stones was left behind, resulting  in a negative impression of where the LB I wall once stood.  A few large boulders were left behind in S14 as well, evidently originally part of the LB I wall but too heavy for the Hasmonean builders to move.

Floor Makes Negative Impression on Square Supervisor

Wilbur Fields, of Ozark Christian College, is working with a similar negative in Square Q19.  This is where the east half of the north wall met the back wall of the east half of the gate.  Unfortunately, the entire east half of the gate was robbed out along with the wall.  But, through careful excavation, Wilbur has detected the remnants of a floor in this vicinity.  It is in the south part of the square and ends where the wall once was.  Wilbur is quite excited about this "negative" evidence.  "I feel we can see where the wall was, even if we do not yet see the wall.  And I think that the outline of the wall will yet be found, just a little deeper, below the stone-stealer's clutches," he reports.

More Big Walls

In 1998 Steve Collins of Trinity College and Seminary, Albuquerque, found the northern edge of a fortification wall on the southern side of Square D14.  Further work in C14 to the south has shown that this wall is 3.0 meters (10 ft) wide and was constructed in the LB I period.  It is uncertain at this point how this wall relates to the overall plan of the fortress.  What is unusual about the wall is that it is curvilinear, but in the opposite direction from what one would expect if it were part of the southern wall of the fortress.  Then, on the last day of the dig, Steve's team uncovered what appears to be another massive wall lower down and in front of the 3.0 meter wall.  Much more remains to be done in this area.

The Ashes of Ai?

The Bible says that the Israelites burned Ai (Jos 8: 19, 28).  In the course of our excavations we are always on the lookout for evidence of this destruction.  Some of the stones we have excavated, particularly in the gate area, appear to have been burned.  Our geologist David Markham is doing tests to determine if this is the case.  It would be better however, if we could find a thick layer of ash with datable pottery in it.  Much of the site has been exposed to the elements and also has been under cultivation.  Any evidence of burning in these areas has long since disappeared.  We are hopeful, however, that somewhere in the fortress is a small area where evidence of burning has been preserved.  We may have found such an area in Square G24.

Square G24 was opened on the east side of the site to check a wall line that is visible on the surface.  In fact, Steve Collins and I spent a couple of days digging a trench across this wall during our initial test probes at the site in 1995.  In the limited time we had we were not able to determine the date or width of the wall.  So, in 1999 we revisited the eastern wall.  The first crew to work on it was from David Lipscomb University, Nashville TN, under the direction of Rodney Cloud.  In spite of the ruined condition of the wall, Rodney's team defined the north face and exposed much of the top surface in the four days they were with us.

Next to tackle the project was Gene Merrill from Dallas Theological Seminary and several ABR volunteers.  The south face had almost entirely collapsed and was difficult to define.  Gene and his team succeeded in locating that south face and, much to our astonishment, found that the wall is 4.0 meters (13 ft) wide!  Unfortunately, time ran out so we were unable to trench through the wall to determine its date of construction.  On the last day of work at the G24 wall, Gene decided to clean the narrow area between the newly-found south face and the south balk of the square.  I received an excited call from Gene on the radio, "Bryant, come and see what I've found here!"  When I got to the square, I was excited as Gene was.  There, between the wall and the balk was a thick layer of black ash preserved under the rock fall!  The small amount of pottery Gene found in that ash dates to the time of the Conquest.  Granted, a small amount of ash does not a destruction make.  Further digging is needed before any conclusions can be drawn.  This will be top priority for next season.  We must determine the date of the wall and also open up Square F24 to the south to see if the ash layer continues in that direction.

Tammy's Pot

Gary Byers spent an exasperating season in search of the elusive western wall of the LB I fortress.  At least we know where it isn't!  With the line now defined by the segments in Q9 and R11, however, we are in a much better position to renew the search next year.  But all was not in vain.  In one of Gary's several squares, O7, one of the prize finds of the season was made.  Tammy Hunter, an airline attendant, discovered a nearly complete cookpot from the LB I period.  The finds in that square had been particularly sparse, but Tammy's persistence paid off when she discovered the pot wedged against a bedrock ledge in the final cleanup of the square.

THE IRON AGE I PERIOD, THE TIME OF THE JUDGES

Against the ruined inner face of the wall in R11 John Dorband, a computer engineer from Laurel MD, discovered a small stone-lined pit.  In it was a nearly complete jug and portions of the rims of several cooking pots.  The pottery dates to the 11th century BC, around the time of Eli and Samuel.  In addition to the pottery, there was a broken mortar and a large cylindrical object.  The cylindrical object is made of limestone and is 22 cm (8.7 in) in diameter, 50 cm (20 in) in length and weighs about 70 pounds.  It is nicely finished and must have served an important function in antiquity, but we are stumped as to what that function was.

HASMONEAN PERIOD (1ST CENTURY BC)

The North Wall

In addition to the 15th century fortress, a second fortress was built at KEM some 1300 years later by Jewish revolutionaries called the Hasmoneans.  The northwest corner of this fortress is located about 30 meters (33 yards) north of the LB I gate.  Oral Collins and Wilbur Fields supervised work there in 1997 and 1998.  This season Wilbur completed sectioning through Wall 2, the east-west wall.  As with other Hasmonean walls we have excavated, he found that it was not very well built.  It was constructed of field stones in an earth matrix and built on a thick earth fill over bedrock.  The LB I walls, on the other hand, are of solid stone founded directly on bedrock.  Wall 2 is 4.0 meters (13 ft) wide at its base and can be traced for 125 meters (137 yd) to the east to Square L34.

A Hasmonean Granary

Last year I reported a 2.5 meter wide wall in squares D14 and E14 which we thought dated to the LB I period.  Further digging by Steve Collins and his dig team produced a number of 1st century BC sherds indicating that the wall was part of the Hasmonean fortress.  In Square C14, Steve and his team found a circular structure built against the south side of the 3.0 meter wide LB I wall.  It is 4.0 (13 ft) in diameter with a low (1 meter, or 3 ft) high door on the east side.  The pottery inside and around the structure clearly dated it to the Hasmonean period. We puzzled over the structure for some time-was it a fortification tower?  A well?  Someone's house?  A pottery kiln?  A storage silo?  Our dig architect Leen Ritmeyer, who joined us for the last week of the dig, came to the rescue.  He identified it as a granary.  One would expect a granary to be inside the fortress wall, so it appears that the southern wall of the Hasmonean fortress lies south of Square C14.

Another Day, Another Wall

In 1998 I uncovered a 1.5 meter (3.8 ft) wide wall in Square AA17 which we did not have time to date.  This season we dug out the center of the wall and recovered pottery from the Hasmonean period.  To the north, in Squares A17 and B17, we found megalithic stones which appear to be remnants of a Hasmonean wall of unknown width.  At this point it is unclear how these walls relate to the overall plan of the Hasmonean fortress.

THE BYZANTINE PERIOD (5TH-6TH CENTURIES AD)

Work continued on the monastery under the direction of Todd Bolen, Randy Cook and Bill Schlegel of Master's College, IBEX (Israel Bible Extension).  The walls, floors, doors and stairways of the monastery, all in a poor state of preservation, are being exposed and planned.  This season the foundation of the apse was located on the east side of the church.  In Square B17 ABR Board member Larry Fuller and I dug through a thick fill of field stone and broken stone fragments that the Byzantine monks had placed over the remnants of the Hasmonean wall.  We retrieved a nice collection of Byzantine pottery from among the stones.


As you can see, good progress is being made in our excavation at Kh. el-Maqatir.  The plans of the two fortresses are coming into focus.  Much more remains to be done, however.  Pray that the Lord will keep the door open for us to continue our work there until we have all the evidence we need.  Your continued prayer and financial help are greatly needed.  Several members of the ABR family are in need of prayer support as well.  Gene Fackler's wife Sally is slowly recovering from multiple injuries received in a car accident June 10.  Gene is having vision problems stemming from cataract surgery.  ABR Board president David Hansen is recovering from prostrate surgery July 26 and Faith will have surgery August 5 to remove some cancerous cells detected in her last mammogram.  Thank you for upholding the Wood family and the ministry of ABR.


Serving Christ,
Bryant and Faith Wood