BiblePlaces Blog - Page 379 of 571

Jericho’s Neolithic “Skyscraper”

Over the last 60 years there has been some debate concerning the function of the “oldest building in the world” at Jericho (i.e. the Neolithic tower at Jericho/Tell es Sultan). The Neolithic tower is well-known to visitor’s of Jericho, but its function as a structure has befuddled archaeologists. Amihai Mazar best sums up the various views like this,

“The walls and tower of PPNA (Pre-Pottery Neolithic A) Jericho are a most surprising discovery from a period when almost no public architecture is known elsewhere. They were explained by Kenyon as a fortification system, and they led her to define Jericho as the earliest urban community known. An alternative suggestion, offered by O. Bar-Yosef, is that the massive walls were intended to protect the settlement from the thrust of silt and eroded debris from the wadi to the west. The round tower remains unexplained by this theory, but it could not have had a defensive purpose due to its location on the inner side of the wall. Perhaps it had some ritual function.”*

Neolithic tower with adjoining wall

Enter “worker intimidation” to the list of potential explanations. Arieh O’Sullivan disseminates the theory of Ran Barkai and Roy Liran at The Media Line.

The world’s first skyscraper was built by early farmers, who were frightened into erecting a solar marker by mankind’s early bosses, archaeologists say.

Long before its Biblical walls came tumbling down, Jericho’s residents were being enticed to give up hunting and gathering and start farming for a living. They settled in this oasis next to the Jordan River and built a mysterious 8.5-meter (28-foot) stone tower on the edge of town.

When discovered by archaeologists in 1952, it was dated at over 11,000 years old, making it the first and oldest public building even found. But its purpose and the motivation for erecting it has been debated ever since.

Now, using computer technology, Israeli archaeologists are saying it was built to mark the summer solstice and as a symbol that would entice people to abandon their nomadic ways and settle down.

“The tower was constructed by a major building effort. People were working for a very long time and very hard. It was not like the other domestic buildings in Jericho,” said Ran Barkai of the Department of Archaeology at Tel Aviv University, who was part of a team that did the computer analysis.

Barkai and fellow archaeologist Roy Liran used computers to reconstruct sunsets and found that when the tower was built the nearby mountains cast a shadow on it as the sun set on the longest day of the year. The shadow fell exactly on the structure and then spread out to cover the entire village.

HT: Joe Lauer

*Quote taken from Mazar, Amihai. Archaeology of the Land of the Bible. New York: Doubleday, 1992.

Sad News from Cairo Museum

Yesterday, Egypt’s Minister of Antiquities Affairs, Zahi Hawass, issued a press release reporting that several objects from the Cairo Museum were taken during the break-in. The items listed as missing are:

1. Gilded wood statue of Tutankhamun being carried by a goddess

2. Gilded wood statue of Tutankhamun harpooning. Only the torso and upper limbs of the king are missing

3. Limestone statue of Akhenaten holding an offering table

4. Statue of Nefertiti making offerings

5. Sandstone head of an Amarna princess

6. Stone statuette of a scribe from Amarna

7. Wooden shabti statuettes from Yuya (11 pieces)

8. Heart Scarab of Yuya

The press release also reports that an antiquities magazine was broken into yesterday at Dashur.

The press release is available in pdf format and at Zahi Hawass’ blog.

Tagged Egypt

Guest Bloggers

For the next month, I will be stepping away from this blog as I begin a series of exams in my studies.

I am very thankful for several friends who have volunteered to contribute to the blog in my absence. I have known these three men for up to 15 years, traveled in Middle Eastern and/or European countries with all of them at various times, and have greatly benefited from their knowledge and friendship over the years. I am grateful for their willingness to serve you and relieve me in the weeks ahead. I would like to introduce you to Chris, A.D., and Seth.

Chris McKinny is finishing up his M.A. thesis at the Jerusalem University College. Last semester he taught full-time at the Israel Bible Extension campus of The Master’s College. Chris has a particular passion for archaeology, and he has spent summers excavating at Tell es-Safi (Gath) and Tel Burna (Libnah?) in the Shephelah of Judah. Chris lives in Jerusalem with his wife Mindy (whose photographic work has been featured on this blog in the past). He blogs occasionally at Seeking a Homeland.

A.D. Riddle is studying ancient Near East history and languages in the PhD program at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He recently completed a certificate in GIS and cartography at the University of Wisconsin. A.D. really likes to spend his time around maps and pictures of the Bible Lands. One of his projects was the winner of the 2009 NACIS Student Web Mapping Competition (viewable online here). A.D. is married to his wife of 13 years and has two sons, ages 2 and 4.

Seth Rodriquez recently completed the PhD program in Old Testament Archaeology & History at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. His dissertation was a detailed analysis of Iron Age weapons that examined both the biblical text and the archaeological record. He has earned two masters degrees in biblical studies and has studied long-term at both the Jerusalem University College and the Israel Bible Extension of The Master’s College. Seth lives with his wife and three children in northern Kentucky.

Oriental Institute Works Online

The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago continues to make available older but valuable resources in pdf format. In the next few weeks, all of the titles from the Oriental Institute series will be online. Some recent additions include:

The Sumerian King List. By Thorkild Jacobsen. Assyriological Studies 11. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1939

The Excavation of Armageddon. By Clarence S. Fisher. Oriental Institute Communications 4. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1929

The Annals of Sennacherib. By Daniel David Luckenbill. Oriental Institute Publication 2. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1924

The Babylonian Genesis: The Story of Creation. By Alexander Heidel. Miscellaneous publication. Second edition. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1951

The Gilgamesh Epic and Old Testament Parallels. By Alexander Heidel. Miscellaneous publication. Second edition. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1949

The full catalog is accessible here. The current issue of The Oriental Institute News & Notes is also
available.

HT: Agade

Tagged Resources

Grant Awarded for Research of Ancient Villages

Most archaeological work today focuses on the larger cities, such as Megiddo (15 acres) and Gath (100 acres). Smaller villages receive less attention, despite what they can contribute about the daily lives of more “average” ancient peoples. An archaeologist at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville has received a large grant from the National Endowment of Humanities to study villages in the Late Bronze and Early Iron Ages. From the University of Tennessee:

A University of Tennessee, Knoxville, archaeologist who excavates ancient villages in the Near East has received a grant to reshape the modern understanding of the region’s political, economic and social structure by studying its smallest rural settlements. J.P. Dessel, a UT Knoxville historian who specializes in Bronze and Iron Age villages of ancient Israel, has received a $50,000 award from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) that will allow him to integrate his own research with other studies to show how rural villages affected the social landscape of ancient Israel, otherwise dominated by major cities like Jerusalem and Megiddo. "I hope to rebuild our understanding of the biblical region from the village up," Dessel said. "Most of what we know about the ancient Near East in the Bronze and Iron ages is the result of studying major urban areas, cities that represent the social and economic elites of the time. "By looking at small settlements, I expect to show that rural villages were just as vibrant and dynamic as some of the city-states in their midst." […] Dessel’s own excavations have focused on two tiny village sites near Nazareth — Tell el-Wawiat and Tell ‘Ein Zippori — that were occupied between 1550 and 1000 B.C.E., but his yearlong study will include a review of other archaeological data from village sites. His focus on a rural heartland will offer a contrast to urban-focused archaeology that emphasizes ancient texts and elite culture. "This project will show that these villages were diverse and culturally complex entities rather than simple sites focused on agricultural production," he said. "We’ll be able to understand the culture of the region against a backdrop of an extensive rural settlement that spanned both the late Bronze Age and the early Iron Age."

The full press release is here.

Tagged Galilee

Archaeology in Saudi Arabia with Google Earth

NewScientist reports on a recent article in the Journal of Archaeological Science:

Indiana Jones, put down your whip. To scour the globe for archaeological sites these days all you need is a desktop computer.
Almost two thousand potential archaeological sites in Saudi Arabia have been discovered from an office chair in Perth, Australia, thanks to high-resolution satellite images from Google Earth.
“I’ve never been to Saudi Arabia,” says David Kennedy from the University of Western Australia, Australia. “It’s not the easiest country to break into.”
Instead Kennedy scanned 1240 square kilometres in Saudi Arabia using Google Earth. From their birds-eye view he found 1977 potential archaeological sites, including 1082 “pendants” – ancient tear-drop shaped tombs made of stone.
According to Kennedy, aerial photography of Saudi Arabia is not made available to most archaeologists, and it’s difficult, if not impossible, to fly over the nation. “But, Google Earth can outflank them,” he says.

The story continues here.

HT: Agade

Tagged Technology