BiblePlaces Blog

Khirbet el-Maqatir 2011 Report

With the absence of Bryant Wood from this year’s excavation, Gary Byers directed the team working at Khirbet el-Maqatir, a site proposed to be biblical Ai of Joshua’s time. Byers has summarized the findings of the season:

This year’s focus was three different time periods in three different parts of the site. 1.) The 4th-6th century AD Byzantine monastery on the rise to the northwest 2.) The 2nd century BC through 2nd century AD Hellenistic/Roman settlement on the low rise to the northeast 3.) Our major focus and the reason for choosing Khirbet el-Maqatir in the first place, the 15th century BC fortress of Ai from Joshua’s time in the saddle between these other two sets of ruins To our disappointment, three squares which we hoped would identify remains of city walls or interior structures from Joshua’s time went to bedrock without finding any architecture of significance. But in the other nine squares, we found interesting material related to our other two focus periods. Unfortunately, for the first time since we began excavating at Khirbet el-Maqatir, Dr. Bryant Wood was not in the field with us. He was home recouping from a recent stem cell transplant procedure and chemotherapy. His health continues to improve and his spirits are good. (Please continue to lift him up in prayer). But this year he is getting his information from square supervisor reports and analysis, back home, of the objects and pottery we found. This writer was with Dr. Wood when he first stepped on the site in 1994, and has participated with him in every dig season since. Consequently, it was my responsibility to lead the team in his absence. Every digger understood the situation and did their part to make things run smoothly. Of course, without Dr. Wood, it didn’t (!), but excavation results were still quite meaningful – no doubt empowered by the prayer support of folks back home. Our major interest in Khirbet el-Maqatir is the fortress of Ai from Joshua’s time. That period is also my special area of interest, so no one was any more disappointed than I when we did not find any architecture associated with Joshua’s Ai. I have been known to suggest that the Hasmonean, Roman and Byzantine periods are just modern history and not that interesting! But this year’s finds from these periods actually turned out to be pretty interesting, even to me.

The report continues with descriptions of the discoveries related to the Byzantine church, the Hellenistic-Roman settlement, and the 15th century BC fortress.

Tagged Excavations, Samaria

Zahi Hawass Fired as Egypt's Antiquities Minister

From the Associated Press:

Egypt’s antiquities minister, whose trademark Indiana Jones hat made him one the country’s best known figures around the world, was fired Sunday after months of pressure from critics who attacked his credibility and accused him of having been too close to the regime of ousted President Hosni Mubarak.
Zahi Hawass, long chided as publicity loving and short on scientific knowledge, lost his job along with about a dozen other ministers in a Cabinet reshuffle meant to ease pressure from protesters seeking to purge remnants of Mubarak’s regime.
“He was the Mubarak of antiquities,” said Nora Shalaby, an activist and archaeologist. “He acted as if he owned Egypt’s antiquities, and not that they belonged to the people of Egypt.”

The story reviews why the media loves him and why some others do not.

If this sounds all too familiar, see this March report. Be watching for word of a book deal.

Tagged Egypt

Archaeological Exhibit Opens at Hebrew U, 63 Years Later

From Haaretz:

Painted tiles from an impressive ancient synagogue in Syria, along with other archaeological artifacts, went on display on Mount Scopus last month – after a 63-year delay.
The exhibits were originally intended to be shown to the public on Mount Scopus in 1948, but the outbreak of the War of Independence froze plans to open the nearly-completed museum built there. The exhibits were placed in drawers for decades and became accessible to the public only last month.
Among the artifacts are tiles from the ancient synagogue discovered in the city of Dura Europos, which is located in the Syrian desert above the banks of the Euphrates. To this day – about 80 years after its discovery – this 3rd century synagogue is considered one of the most complete and impressive examples of Jewish religious structures from that period.

The article gives more of the story behind the long delay in opening the exhibit.

HT: Joseph Lauer

Tagged Jerusalem, Museums

Weekend Roundup

Egyptian mummies are cool again.

Eretz magazine recalls the magnificent discovery fifty years ago of the Cave of the Treasure with its 429 copper objects from the 4th millennium BC.

Leon Mauldin has been circling the Old City of Jerusalem, posting photos and descriptions about each of Jerusalem’s gates: Golden Gate, Herod’s Gate/Flower Gate, St. Stephen’s Gate/Lion Gate, Zion Gate, and most recently, the Huldah Gate.

Al-Ahram Weekly reviews the major finds of the season in Aswan, Luxor, and Alexandria.

U.S. officials have broken up a ring of smugglers that was bringing Egyptian antiquities into the U.S.

The ASOR Blog has its weekly review of major archaeological stories around the world.

All journals published by the University of Cambridge are open for free access to the public for the next six weeks.

Israel is opening its baptismal site on the Jordan River. Again. I’m sure we’ve had this story at least twice before. Maybe this is a brilliant marketing strategy: keep faking the grand opening.

HT: Joseph Lauer, Jack Sasson

Tagged Egypt, Jerusalem, Weekend Roundup

Alleged Destruction of Antiquities at Ein Kerem

From Haaretz:

Have the Tourism Ministry and the Jerusalem municipality buried treasures from the Second Temple under a giant lavatory? That possibility is just one of the problems cited by opponents of a plan to improve a spring in the city’s Ein Karem neighborhood, at one of Israel’s most important Christian tourism sites.
The spring is the fourth most important site in the Holy Land to Christian pilgrims, after Jerusalem’s Old City, Bethlehem and Nazareth, and about one million people visit it each year. According to Christian tradition, this is the place where Elizabeth, John the Baptist’s mother, and Mary, Jesus’ mother, met when both women were pregnant. But for the last two years, these visitors have been greeted by the adjacent sight of a huge, sealed building that, according to the approved plan, is supposed to serve as a public lavatory and a municipal warehouse for gardening tools.
[…]
But perhaps worst of all was the handling of the site’s archaeological relics. A salvage dig conducted by the Israel Antiquities Authority discovered ancient water systems that carried water from the spring to terraces on the wadi. This led the deputy mayor of Jerusalem, Naomi Tsur, to call a meeting in November 2009 to discuss how these relics could be preserved. The meeting, attended by Tourism Ministry and Antiquities Authority representatives, decided to freeze construction of the building and look into building an archaeological park there instead.
But on the very day the meeting was held, the tourist corporation’s vice president, David Mingelgreen, sent the municipality a letter saying that, for reasons unknown, all the archaeological findings had been buried under tons of earth the day before. Thus, by the time the meeting occurred, there was nothing left to salvage.
From his letter, Mingelgreen appeared to view the findings as a nuisance. “The goal is to refrain as far as possible from work that will require archaeological digs,” he wrote.

There is more here.

HT: Joseph Lauer

Tagged Judah

The Philistines of Gath and Their Temple

From the Jerusalem Post:

The word Philistine has come to denote boorishness, an underdeveloped sense of beauty and sophistication, and vulgar materialism.
But remnants of an ancient Philistine hub now being excavated in the ancient city of Gath tell a different story: one of an advanced society boasting sophisticated architecture and an advanced political life.
Excavators of Tell es-Safi/Gath, one of Israel’s largest archeological sites, resume work this week in search of further remnants of a Philistine temple believed to have been toppled by an earthquake in 8th century BCE – an event familiar to millions the world over through the biblical story of Samson.
The temple was discovered a year ago by a team led by Prof.
Aren Maeir of Bar-Ilan’s University’s Department of Land of Israel Studies and Archaeology. Dating back to the Iron Age (10th century BCE), it features two central pillars in accordance with the image described in the story of Samson in the Book of Judges: “He pulled the two pillars together, and down came the temple on the rulers and all the people in it.”
The team has also uncovered collapsed walls that appear to date from an earthquake in the 8th century BCE – an event that could be identical to the earthquake prophesized by the prophet Amos.

The full story is here. On his blog, Aren Maeir is posting daily updates of the excavations.

HT: Joseph Lauer

Tagged Philistines