Todd Bolen, Author at BiblePlaces.com

Gath Season 2008 Report

The season at Philistine Gath (Tell es-Safi) is concluded and archaeologist Aren Maeir has a great wrap-up of the season for all who couldn’t be there. Gath is proving to be one of the most important excavations of recent times and Maeir’s helpful reviews to the public should be a model for all excavations (and we get it straight from the horse’s mouth and not garbled through a journalist!).

Some highlights (from my perspective):

They excavated material from Early Bronze, Middle Bronze, Late Bronze, Iron I, Iron II, and Crusader.
Gath appears to have been a large, significant site in Early Bronze, before the arrival of the Philistines.
Remains were found related to the earliest arrival of the Philistines at the site, including locally made Mycenean IIIC ware.
Important discovery from the time of David/Solomon: “a well-dated fragment of a seal impression (of the late 21st Dynasty in Egypt, ca. mid-10th cent BCE), and several nice clusters of carbonized grape pips. This latter find should be able to provide nice 14C datings for this phase. One cannot overemphasize the importance of the finds in this level, since it may provide the first concrete, well-dated (from several perspectives) context from the early Iron Age IIA in Philistia.”
Gath was a large site in the time of the first kings of Judah: “As such, it appears to mirror the role that Gath is portrayed as playing in the biblical text in the early monarchy, that of the major Philistine city, primus inter pares among the five Philistine cities.”
More evidence was revealed of Hazael’s destruction of the site in about 800 B.C.
Gath may have been destroyed twice by the Assyrians – first by Sargon II (712 B.C.?) and then by Sennacherib (701 B.C.).

Maeir concludes: “All told, the season was great, the team was fantastic and the find were extraordinary!”

Read the whole thing here.

Tagged Discoveries, Excavations

Seal of King Zedekiah's Official Discovered

Eilat Mazar announced yesterday that the seal of a government official was discovered in her excavations in the City of David. The story was covered by several media outlets (JPost, the Trumpet), and here’s my summary with a few thoughts.

What: The clay seal impression, about 1 cm (.4 inch) in diameter, has the name Gedaliah, son of Pashur.

Who: Gedaliah was a government official mentioned in the book of Jeremiah as serving the last king of Judah, Zedekiah. Gedaliah was among those who intended to kill the prophet Jeremiah. The relevant passage is Jeremiah 38:1-5.

Now Shephatiah the son of Mattan, Gedaliah the son of Pashhur, Jucal the son of Shelemiah, and Pashhur the son of Malchiah heard the words that Jeremiah was saying to all the people, 2 “Thus says the Lord: He who stays in this city shall die by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence, but he who goes out to the Chaldeans shall live. He shall have his life as a prize of war, and live. 3 Thus says the Lord: This city shall surely be given into the hand of the army of the king of Babylon and be taken.” 4 Then the officials said to the king, “Let this man be put to death, for he is weakening the hands of the soldiers who are left in this city, and the hands of all the people, by speaking such words to them. For this man is not seeking the welfare of this people, but their harm.” 5 King Zedekiah said, “Behold, he is in your hands, for the king can do nothing against you” (ESV).

Note: The man mentioned immediately after Gedaliah is Jucal the son of Shelemiah. His seal impression was found nearby in Mazar’s excavation three years ago.

Where, specifically: Trumpet reports:

”We found the bulla of Jehucal inside the palace structure,” Mazar told theTrumpet.com yesterday. “This time, we found the bulla of Gedaliah outside the wall, just at the foot of the same spot we found Jehucal.” The two must have been connected somehow, she said.

When: Zedekiah was king from 597-586 B.C. The date of the seal impression’s discovery is not given, as far as I can tell. With the last discovery of a seal impression, Mazar announced it so fast that later she had to go back and apologize for mis-reading the inscription (backwards).

Photos: For photographs of the seal impression, see theTrumpet.com. For some excellent line drawings of the inscription by G. M. Grena, see the files posted at biblicalist. For a general photo of the excavation area, see my photo here.

A few additional comments on the JPost article:

The excavation at the history-rich City of David, which is located just outside the walls of the Old City near Dung Gate, has proven, in recent years, to be a treasure trove for archeologists.

Actually, on the whole, I’d say that the discoveries have been minimal. This is a central area of the City of David and after three years of excavation, three seal impressions and two controversial building identifications is not what I’d call a “treasure trove.” A few meters down the slope Yigal Shiloh found an archive of more than 50 seal impressions, including one belonging to a government official more friendly to Jeremiah, Gemariah the son of Shaphan (Jer 36). Of course, it is altogether possible that Mazar has made other significant finds but is choosing to publicize them in the future.

The archeologist, who rose to international prominence for her excavation that may have uncovered the Biblical palace of King David nearby, has been at the forefront of a series of back-to-back Jerusalem archeological finds, including the remnants of a wall from the Biblical prophet Nehemiah, also in the area.

It seems to me that there’s a problem here when an archaeologist can “rise to international prominence” on the basis of a couple of sensationalistic identifications without peer review. If those identifications prove untenable (and there is significant discussion among archaeologists about both of the above issues), will she still be internationally prominent? Should an individual scholar be so elevated on the basis of his/her own unconfirmed claims? I would note here that lots of Bible skeptics would say the same thing; I am not among them, but still am uneasy about some of the ways these matters have been handled. Of course, this new seal impression is not part of the debate.

The current dig is being conducted on behalf of the Shalem center, a Jerusalem research institute, and the right-wing City of David Foundation, and was carried out under the academic auspices of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Is there relevance to the fact that the City of David Foundation is “right-wing”? Is the JPost suggesting that this discovery or its interpretation is affected by the political views of a funding organization? Should the identity of the the financial supporter have priority over the identity of the academic authority? Would the JPost have identified another institution as “left-wing”?

UPDATE (8/3): In an email, the City of David Foundation includes this additional information:

Dr. Eilat Mazar completed the third phase her excavation of what she believes to be Kind [sic] David’s palace at the City of David site a month and a half ago and is currently sifting through the remains of that excavation. It was in this material that she found the seal. Much of the rubble from the dig has yet to be sifted and it is likely that more discoveries will be made.

Tagged Discoveries, Jerusalem

Restoration of Rolling Stone Tomb

A few years ago I posted a photo comparison of one of the best rolling stone tombs in Israel – before vandals destroyed it and after. For convenience, here are those pictures of the Khirbet Midras tomb again.

1990:

2004:

A friend visited recently and passed on a few photos. It looks like the tomb has been partially restored. You might want to stop by next time you’re in the area. Khirbet Midras is east of the road going from Azekah to Bet Guvrin.

Tomb exterior

View from inside tomb; rolling stone is on the right side

Burial niches (aka loculi, kokhim)

Thanks to A.D. Riddle for sharing these photos.

Tagged Then and Now

Digs, Blogs, and a Bomb

The excavations at Ramat Rahel have recently begun and they have their own blog. Today they found a bomb! Other excavations in Israel with blogs include Gath (regular and professional), Megiddo (regular), and Dan (they had good intentions). I don’t know of any blogs for the current excavations at Hazor (where is that archive?), Gezer (is this another Macalister dump?), or Ashkelon.

There’s a few more days if you want to join in excavations on a site that used to be called Khirbet Qeiyafa, but is now dubbed the much more appealing “Elah Fortress.” There’s some info here on what to bring. Here’s the season brochure (front, back). You can also watch a YouTube video on the site.

Next year Bryant Wood is headed back to Khirbet el-Maqatir after a hiatus since Palestinian terrorism restarted in 2000. Excavations of the candidate for biblical Ai are scheduled for May 20 – June 6, 2009.

The Jerusalem Report has a lengthy article (published online, but poorly formatted, by the JPost) about the state of Dead Sea Scroll and Qumran research, including various theories of who lived at Qumran and who were responsible for the scrolls. The article also discusses the newly publicized “Gabriel’s Vision” tablet, and includes a sidebar on the Palestinians’ demand that the scrolls be turned over to them.

If you didn’t hear it already, Codex Sinaiticus is beginning to be posted online this week. Here’s the story, and here’s the link to one of the oldest Bibles in existence. Come back in a year if you want to read the whole thing.

Six months and $200,000 later, Zion Gate is now back in view. The hundreds of bullet holes and shell marks are still visible, but the stones are now stabilized and less likely to collapse on a vehicle executing a beautiful 11-point turn as they exit the city.

Zion Gate, before renovation

And perhaps tourism to Iraq is not so far off.

Tagged Excavations, New Exhibits

Museum in Gaza to Open

The International Herald Tribune has the story:

It may sound like the escapist indulgence of a well-fed man fleeing the misery around him. But when Jawdat Khoudary opens the first ever museum of archaeology in Gaza this month, it will be an act of Palestinian patriotism, showing how this increasingly poor and isolated coastal strip ruled by the Islamists of Hamas was once a thriving multicultural crossroad.

Now only if there was a way for non-Palestinians to get there. If he’s depending on revenue from Palestinians interested in history, he is going to be a poor man.

The exhibit is housed in a stunning hall made up partly of the saved stones of old houses, discarded wood ties of a former railroad and bronze lamps and marble columns uncovered by Gazan fishermen and construction workers.
And while the display might be pretty standard stuff almost anywhere else – arrowheads, Roman anchors, Bronze Age vases and Byzantine columns – life is currently so gray in Gaza that the museum, with its glimpses of a rich outward-looking history, seems somehow dazzling.
“The idea is to show our deep roots from many cultures in Gaza,” Khoudary said as he sat in the lush, antiquities-filled garden of his Gaza City home a few miles from the museum. “It’s important that people realize we had a good civilization in the past. Israel has legitimacy from its history. We do too.”

Someone’s going to have to explain this one to me. I’m not sure how Roman or Byzantine antiquities have anything to do with the legitimacy of Palestinian Arabs.

It’s a good article with a nice photo. I recommend reading the whole thing, and I hope the venture is successful.

HT: Joe Lauer

Tagged Museums, New Exhibits

Interview with Leen Ritmeyer

Justin Taylor at Between Two Worlds has posted a two-part interview with Leen Ritmeyer. Ritmeyer served as the archaeological and architectural reconstruction editor for the forthcoming ESV Study Bible, of which Taylor is the managing editor.

Part one of the interview focuses on what the place of Jesus’ crucifixion looked like. It includes a stunning, high-resolution reconstruction of the Temple Mount as it may have looked in the time of Jesus.

Part two of the interview concerns what the tomb of Jesus looked like. It features a high-resolution image of what the “new tomb” may have looked like.

I have had the privilege of having an preview of dozens of graphics and hundreds of full-color maps that will be included in the ESV Study Bible and I concur with Ritmeyer’s assessment:

It is vital for Bible students to have a correct knowledge of the background of the Bible, and I am sure that the Study Bible will be of tremendous help for those who love to study the Word of God. With its many exquisitely rendered reconstruction drawings and accurate maps, a new standard has been set for biblical illustration, raising the bar for many years to come.

Tagged Jerusalem, Resources