April 2010 - Page 3 of 5 - BiblePlaces.com

Antiquities Thieves Arrested in Shephelah

Officers from the Israel Antiquities Authority arrested four antiquities thieves illegally excavating a site near Moshav Zecharya in the Shephelah. They were charged with crimes that bring up to five-year prison sentences. From the Jerusalem Post:

“Me and my men noticed a vehicle parked near the site close to Moshav Zecharya. Over the last few months we have discovered holes in the ground left by potential robbers on the site, so we had reasons to believe that the vehicle belonged to them. We snuck up to the site and saw the men digging a deep hole near one of the ancient walls. When we saw what they were doing we immediately arrested the perpetrators and called the border police unit to take them away to the police station, where they spent the night before seeing a judge the next morning,” said Ganor.
[…]
Ganor said that the alleged robbers, like everyone involved in the trade of archeological artifacts, were looking to get rich from their findings. “Where archeologists see history, robbers see dollar signs. The hope of finding valuables, be they ancient coins, jewelry or even pottery, is what drives them to destroy centuries of history.”
According to Ganor, every year 150 robbers are caught in the act of digging up archeological sites. Of these, 85 percent are charged and convicted. Ganor said that the Antiquities Authority knows of 300 archeological sites that are dug up every year and estimates that there are probably 300 more that they don’t know of.
“Israel has more than 30,000 archeological sites. Many of them have stories or legends about buried treasure hidden within them. Dreams of ancient riches are what drive the robbers to commit the crimes,” said Ganor.
“The robbers are very familiar with the land, often more than us. They know where the sites are and know where to look for valuables. Sometimes they also dig up graves in search of objects that were buried alongside the deceased.”
Ganor said it was impossible to profile the average robber. “Unfortunately it is a problem that exists in all segments of the population. There are Jews, Arabs, Palestinians, even foreign nationals – all share the dream of digging up the find that will make them rich.”

The full article is here.

HT: Joe Lauer

Tagged Shephelah

Jaffa Gate Restoration

In late December, the exterior of the Jaffa Gate of Jerusalem was shrouded in scaffolding. On Wednesday conservation work will be completed and the restored gate will again be visible to visitors. From the Israel Antiquities Authority:

During the preservation work at Jaffa Gate, extensive conservation treatment was carried out on all of the gate’s facades and its interior: stones were reinforced and hazards that endangered the safety of the visiting public were removed, the bullet damage to the gate was preserved, weathered stones and decorations were treated and the gate underwent a thorough cleaning. Among other things, the gate’s dedicatory inscription, which was in a severely deteriorated physical state and was quickly becoming detached from the structure, was completely dismantled and conserved.
Jaffa Gate was first inaugurated in 1538. It constituted part of the city walls and in fact it was only toward the end of the nineteenth century did it become a center of bustling and prosperous activity. The period culminated in the year 1898, when it was decided to breach a wide entrance in the city wall of Jerusalem (as we know it today) and thereby allow the German Kaiser, Wilhelm II and his wife, Augusta Victoria, to enter the city in their carriage. Thus, for the first time in the history of modern Jerusalem, carts could enter the Old City.
In the War of Independence the gate was the focal point of some very harsh battles. During the war Jaffa Gate was completely blocked by an armored vehicle that had been damaged in the fighting and was wedged in the opening. In the cease-fire agreements between Israel and Jordan Jaffa Gate stood at the opening to the no man’s land that stretched from Jaffa Gate to Zahal Square and the Mamilla neighborhood and separated it from Jordanian controlled Jerusalem in the east. Consequently, the blocked armored vehicle was not removed, and the gate remained closed the entire period that the city was divided. The remains of the bullets that pierced the stones of the gate are clearly visible on the upper parts of the structure.

An inauguration ceremony for the gate will take place on Wednesday, April 21 at 11:30 a.m.

Jaffa Gate under scaffolding, January 2010

Tagged Jerusalem

Fishing Ban in Sea of Galilee Explained

The recent sharp decline in the number of fish in the Sea of Galilee is the result of poisoning, overfishing, low water level, and birds, according to the Jerusalem Post. This article by Ehud Zion Waldoks is the best researched piece I’ve seen on the subject. Two hundred fishermen have licenses to fish, and the decision to ban fishing for two years has them up in arms. They don’t want government compensation of 2,000 shekels (about $530) a month; they want to fish.

According to the Agriculture Ministry, the number of fish in the lake has dropped significantly in the last decade and especially over the last two years – so much so that there is now a significant chance that Lake Kinneret will cease to have fish in it at all if fishing continues as usual. If that were to happen, it would represent an ecological disaster and negatively affect water quality as well, according to the Water Authority. The Agriculture Ministry has attributed part of the decrease to overfishing and mass poisoning. The drastically lower water level of the lake in recent years has also contributed to the decrease, the Water Authority believes.

The full article is here.

Tagged Galilee

The Whereabouts of the Jaffa Gate Clock Tower

Between the years 1907 and 1922, Jaffa Gate was home to an imposing 40-foot (13-m) clock tower.

The Ottoman authorities erected the tower in honor of one of the anniversaries of Abdul Hamid. Not all were impressed with the addition. G. K. Chesterton described the timepiece as “an unnaturally ugly clock, at the top of an ornamental tower, or a tower that was meant to be ornamental” (The New Jerusalem [1920]).

Jaffa Gate, breach in city wall, mat04933

Jaffa Gate with clock tower, 1918-1922 Source: Jerusalem CD (Library of Congress, LC-matpc-04933)

Soon after the British took control of Jerusalem, the tower was dismantled. According to a 1922 report of the Pro-Jerusalem Society (cited in part here), the tower “has been bodily removed from the north side of the Jaffa Gate, which it too long disfigured, and is being set up again in fulfilment of a promise (less aggressively and shorn of its more offensive trimmings) in the central and suitable neighbourhood of the Post Office Square.”

Tom Powers has recently learned that the plan was carried out, and the clock tower was re-erected, in substantially different form, in Allenby Square. But it didn’t stay there long, for about a decade later, the tower was demolished. According to the Palestine Post (Sept. 27, 1934), the demolition was required by roadwork being done to relieve traffic congestion. (75 years later, roadwork to relieve congestion is still being done in the area!)

The photo below, unearthed from the Library of Congress archives by Tom Powers, shows the tower before its demolition.

Allenby Square with clock tower (1934) Source: Diary in photos, Vol. 1, Library of Congress

Tagged American Colony Photos, Jerusalem

Archaeology Conference in Honor of Anson F. Rainey

The following announcement was posted on several lists, including biblicalist. Most lectures are in Hebrew. Dr. Rainey’s astonishing career is surveyed on the Tel Aviv University website.

Bar-Ilan University The Faculty of Jewish Studies The Martin (Szusz) Department of Land of Israel Studies and Archaeology and Tel Aviv University The Jacob M. Alkow Department of Archaeology and Ancient Near Eastern Cultures

The Sonia and Marco Nadler Institute of Archaeology

Cordially invite the public to the 30th annual conference of the Martin (Szusz) Department of Land of Israel Studies and Archaeology:

“And They Went Up and Toured the Land” – in honor of Professor Anson F. Rainey on the occasion of his 80th birthday.

Thursday, May 6, 2010, Mintz Auditorium, Building 403, Bar-Ilan University.

8:30-9:00: Registration and Refreshments

9:00-9:20: Greetings:

Prof. Haim Taitelbaum, Vice Rector
Prof. Avraham Faust, Chair, Martin (Szusz) Department of Land of Israel Studies and Archaeology
Prof. Shlomo Bunimovitz, Chair, Jacob M. Alkow Department of Archaeology and Ancient Near Eastern Cultures

9:20-11:00: Session 1: Archaeology. Chair, Prof. Ze’ev Herzog

Yuval Gadot: The Central Coastal Plain in the Late Bronze Age – Geography, History and Archaeology
Shlomo Bunimovitz and Zvi Lederman: The Hanan Clan: Epigraphic Evidence for Iron Age Canaanite Continuity in the Northern Judean Shephelah
Avraham Faust: An Assemblage of Bullae from Tel ‘Eton and the Development of Administration in the Kingdom of Judah
Ze’ev Herzog: The Hezekiah/Josiah Cult Reform Debate: An Archaeological Perspective

11:00-11:30: Break

11:30-13:30: Session 2: Linguistics and Bible. Chair, Prof. Shlomo Izre’el

Israel Knohl: Merneptah’s “Israel” and Biblical “Israel”
Shawn Zelig Aster: Isaiah 31 and Relations Between Judah and Assyria During the Reign of Sargon II
Gershon Galil: The Book of Joshua: Formation and Historical Reliability
Daniel Sivan: The Case System in Northwestern Semitic Languages
Chaim Cohen: Four New Philological Notes Concerning the Languages of the El-Amarna Letters according to the Comparative Philological Method of Prof. Moshe Held z”l

13:30-14:45: Lunch Break

14:45-16:30: Session 3: Historical Geography. Chair, Prof. Joshua Schwartz

Ze’ev Safrai: Historical Geography, 35 Years after Ben-Arieh
Aren Maeir: The Identification of Philistine Gath, 25 Years Later
Oded Lipschits: Further Thoughts on the Ancient Name of Ramat Rahel
Yigal Levin: The Identification of Khirbet Qeiyafa – A New Proposal

16:30-16:50: Break

16:50-19:00: Session 4: History. Chair, Dr Boaz Zissu.

Dr. Paul Wright, Director, Jerusalem University College: Blessings and comments about Anson Rainey (in English)
Victor Hurowitz: Demonyms and Toponyms: Symbolism and Hermeneutics
Brian Schultz: A New Proposal for Tamar/Tadmor in 1 Kings 9:18 (in English)
Aaron Demsky: The Phoenician Connection of the Greek Sphinx
R. Steven Notley: Was the Galilee No Longer Jewish in the Days of Judah Aristobulus?

Closing Remarks – Prof. Anson F. Rainey

All papers will be in Hebrew unless English is specified.

Open admission. For information call 03-5318350 or use email address on the announcement.

Anson Rainey lecturing, Nov. 1963
Photo by David Bivin

Tagged Lectures

Thursday Roundup

Will Israeli tour guides be allowed to take their tour groups to Bethlehem and other West Bank sites?

The UK has banned images of the Western Wall from appearing in ads promoting tourism to Israel because it is deemed to be in “occupied territory.”

Terror warnings in Sinai have caused most Israelis to cut short their vacations.

Remember the Jerusalem model at the Holyland Hotel? It was moved to the Israel Museum a few years ago, when the property owners began to construct luxury apartment towers, obviously more profitable than what they made from entrance fees to the model. Israel is now reeling from charges of a new bribery scandal, this time alleging that former prime minister Ehud Olmert took hundreds of thousands of shekels in kickbacks in exchange for approving the apartment project.

If you try to bring your iPad along on your trip to Israel, it will be confiscated. (More here).

The 47th annual World Bible Quiz for Youth will take place in Jerusalem next week. Among the 46 competitors is the son of Israel’s prime minister. There’s also talk of reviving the Bible Quiz for Adults.

Tagged Jerusalem, Weekend Roundup