10th Century Archives - Page 4 of 9

Weekend Roundup, Part 2

Appian Media has released a trailer for episodes 6–10 of Following the Messiah. You can get further updates on their Facebook page.

See the Holy Land has created a mobile app that provides a guide to 110 sites in Israel, Jordan, and Egypt. The Android-only app is available for free from seetheholyland.net or for $0.99 from Google Play.

Philippe Bohstrom considers new evidence from ancient mining operations in discussing whether David and Solomon’s kingdom ever existed.

“The British Library last week launched a new website showcasing 1,300 Hebrew manuscripts, ranging from ancient Torah scrolls and prayer books to philosophical, theological and scientific works.”

“The newly opened Louvre Abu Dhabi has been accused of displaying looted antiquities.”

Egyptian authorities are working to stop the illegal exporting of antiquities.
Some interesting discoveries were made during a recent excavation season at Gird-î Qalrakh in northern Iraq.

The Times of Israel provides some of the background of the making of the “Spoils of Jerusalem” relief that is now exhibited in the Arch of Titus exhibition at the Yeshiva University Museum.

Eisenbrauns has published a festschrift in honor of Israel Finkelstein: Rethinking Israel: Studies in the History and Archaeology of Ancient Israel in Honor of Israel Finkelstein, edited by Oded
Lipschits, Yuval Gadot, and Matthew Adams.

Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport may need to add a massive tent to accommodate travelers.

Chaim (Harold R.) Cohen died recently. A list of some of his publications is posted here.

HT: Joseph Lauer, Mike Harney, Agade

Tagged 10th Century, Antiquities Trade, Excavations, Mesopotamia, Museums, New Exhibits, Resources, Sad News, Technology, Tourism, Weekend Roundup

Dyed Clothes Discovered from Time of King Solomon

Archaeologists excavating in the Timna Valley near Eilat have discovered fabric that was dyed red and blue. This is the first time that such a colored clothing has been discovered from this ancient period. The Times of Israel provides a summary of a journal article and includes some photographs and a video.

Since 2013, Dr. Erez Ben-Yosef of Tel Aviv University has directed excavations in the Timna Valley where his team has found textiles dating back to the Iron Age (11-10 centuries BCE). On some of the fragments, there is a decorative pattern of red and blue bands.
In an article published Wednesday in the scientific journal PLOS ONE, the researchers hypothesize that the metalworkers, considered fine craftsmen, “were probably entitled to wear colorful clothing as a mark of their high status.”
According to Ben-Yosef and the IAA’s Dr. Naama Sukenik, the findings indicate that the society at Timna, identified with the Kingdom of Edom, was hierarchical and included an upper class that had access to colorful, prestigious textiles.
The concept of highly prized, skilled laborers flies in the face of conventional wisdom, which had supposed that slaves had largely manned the isolated copper mines.

Personally I think the speculation about the identification of the workers is unwarranted, given that we have essentially nothing to compare this with given the lack of preservation of perishable materials in the rest of Israel. And if the dating to the 10th century is correct, then this area was likely under the control of Israel, not Edom (2 Sam 8:14; 1 Kgs 9:26; 2 Chr 8:17). But one can certainly conclude that the workers here had access to a good shopping mall.

The official press release is posted here. The AFTAU has issued a press release here. Some high-res photos are available here.

HT: Joseph Lauer

“Slaves’ Hill” in Timna Valley;
“Solomon’s Pillars” is located on the left

Tagged 10th Century, Discoveries, Negev

Monumental Building from Time of Solomon Unearthed at Gezer

Philippe Bohstrom reports in Haaretz on the discovery of a large royal structure immediately adjacent to the Solomonic city gate.

A palatial building dating to the era of King Solomon 3000 years ago has been discovered in the royal city of Gezer, though there is no evidence which of the Israelite kings lived there, if any.
The monumental building dates to the 10th century BCE, the era associated with King Solomon, who is famed for bringing wealth and stability to the newly-united kingdom of Israel and Judah. The American archaeological team also found a layer featuring Philistine pottery, lending credence to the biblical account of them living in the city until being vanquished by King David.
The complex features a large central courtyard, like contemporary palace-like buildings found throughout the southern Levant, including at Hatzor and Megiddo. Though there’s no telling who ruled from there, if anybody did, the edifice is significantly larger than the size of ordinary houses of the time, excavation co-director Prof. Steve Ortiz, representing the Tandy Museum of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary of Fort Worth, Texas, told Haaretz. Among the features not found in usual domestic structures is ashlar masonry – large rectangular-shaped monolithic hewn stones – in the corners of rooms, Ortiz said.
[…]
The main feature is two parallel long rooms, or courtyards, surrounded on all sides by various rooms, numbering at least 15. The palace has two entrances from the east and west. The entrance from the west also connects this building to the monumental six-chambered gate associated by most scholars with Solomon. This entrance is more robustly built than the rest of the building: The walls are constructed with two to three rows of stones wide, built of roughly dressed field stones somewhat smaller in size than those used in the rest of the building.

The article contains photos and more background about the historical importance of Gezer along with a little bit of the reasoning for dating this stratum to the 10th, and not 9th, century.

HT: Joseph Lauer

Gezer from the west, showing area of palace excavations
Photo by Bill Schlegel

Tagged 10th Century, Discoveries, Shephelah

Seal from Time of David Discovered in Temple Mount Debris

Archaeologists have been sifting debris discarded from illegal excavations on the Temple Mount for more than a decade now. Yesterday they announced the discovery of a seal dating to the 10th century BC. From a press release from the Temple Mount Sifting Project:

“The seal is the first of its kind to be found in Jerusalem,” stated Dr. Gabriel Barkay, the co-founder and director of the Temple Mount Sifting Project. “The dating of the seal corresponds to the historical period of the Jebusites and the conquest of Jerusalem by King David, as well as the construction of the Temple and the royal official compound by his son, King Solomon… What makes this discovery particularly significant is that it originated from upon the Temple Mount itself.”
The seal was discovered by Matvei Tcepliaev, a ten year old boy, visiting the Temple Mount Sifting Project from Russia, and was only recently deciphered by archeologists. Since the project’s inception in 2004, more than 170,000 volunteers from Israel and around the world have taken part in the sifting, representing an unprecedented phenomenon in the realm of archaeological research.
[…]
“The discovery of the seal testifies to the administrative activity which took place upon the Temple Mount during those times,” said Barkay. “All the parallel seals with similar stylistic designs have been found at sites in Israel, among them Tel Beit Shemesh, Tel Gezer, and Tel Rehov, and were dated to the 11th – 10th centuries BCE,” asserted Barkay.
“Upon the base of the seal appear the images of two animals, one on top of the other, perhaps representing a predator and its prey. Additionally, the seal is perforated, thus enabling one to hang it from a string,” said Barkay.
Aside from the seal, which was likely used to seal documents, hundreds of pottery sherds dating to the 10th century BCE have been discovered within the soil removed from the Temple Mount. Additionally, a rare arrowhead made of bronze and ascribed to the same period by its features, has been discovered.

The press release includes photos of the seal and other finds from the same period. The organization recently released a video which documents the success of the project in a bid to raise additional funds.

HT: Joseph Lauer

The Temple Mount Sifting Project in 2006

Tagged 10th Century, Jerusalem, Temple Mount

New Resource: The Regnal Chronology of the Kings of Judah and Israel

For many years I have enjoyed taking students deep into the world of ancient Israel, exploring its land, its people, and its stories. One place that is always most rewarding is the era of Israel’s kings, for this terrain is little known and yet abounding with riches.

The chronology, however, can get people tied up real fast. That’s why I’m excited about a new
resource that maps everything out with clarity. The Regnal Chronology of the Kings of Judah and Israel: An Illustrated Guide puts every detail in its place, so with one glance you can figure out in any given year who is ruling, the king’s age and regnal year, and every extrabiblical synchronism. It truly puts everything at your fingertips.

Chris McKinny has been developing this resource for many years while living, studying, and teaching in the Jerusalem area. Both the digital book and the e-poster reflect his passion for the subject, and they’re now available at an introductory price of $9.99 for the e-poster, $19.99 for the digital book (pdf), or $24.99 for both.

I encourage you to take a look. You can order it quickly and easily here. And we would appreciate it if you would tell friends, pastors, students, and teachers about it. This sort of resource is unique, and we believe there are many who will absolutely love it, if they know about it.

Tagged 10th Century, Resources

Second Inscription from Qeiyafa Published

For the short summary, check out Luke Chandler’s post. He includes a photo and discusses the biblical mentions of the name Ishbaal/Eshbaal.

The publication details are as follows:
Yosef Garfinkel, Mitka R. Golub, Haggai Misgav and Saar Ganor, “The ʾIšbaʿal Inscription from Khirbet Qeiyafa.” Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, pp. 217–33.

The article may be downloaded from academia.edu now (requires registration) or from JStor in the near future.

Here is the article’s abstract:

A new West Semitic inscription from Khirbet Qeiyafa is presented. It was incised in Canaanite alphabetic script on a pottery storage jar before ﬁring. Radiometric dating of the relevant layer has yielded a date of ca. 1020–980 B.C.E. The last few years have seen the publication of several new Semitic alphabetic inscriptions dated to the late 11th–10th centuries B.C.E. and originating at controlled excavations in Israel (Khirbet Qeiyafa, Beth Shemesh, Tell eṣ-Ṣâﬁ, and Jerusalem). The new inscription is an important addition to this corpus.

HT: Joseph Lauer

UPDATE (6/20): Luke Chandler has posted a follow-up, focusing on the word before Ishbaal.

Central part of the inscription
Photo by Tal Rogovski

Tagged 10th Century, Discoveries, Shephelah