Excavations Archives - Page 84 of 98

Weekend Roundup

I am pleased to learn that my friend A.D. Riddle and his colleague David Parker have taken first place in the animation category of the Student Web Mapping Competition of the North American Cartographic Information Society. They were given the honor for their work on The Dead Sea: A History of Change (noted here previously). This is an excellent resource and they are to be congratulated for their work!

The Israel Postal Authority is releasing dozens of stamps that may be of interest to readers here, including Maritime Archaeology in Israel and Fruits of Israel.
Bryant Wood has a description of the infant jar burial excavated last summer at Khirbet el-Maqatir (Ai?).

Bible and Interpretation has posted a report of the 2005-2009 excavations at Tamar (Ein Hazeva) is now available. The 11-page pdf file (html version here) gives a review of the site’s history and includes numerous illustrations. I stopped at this site with a group last month and certainly would have benefitted if I had already read this report.

Tagged Dead Sea, Excavations, Weekend Roundup

Time Magazine on Archaeology in City of David

A couple of weeks ago I read an article in Time Magazine on archaeology in east Jerusalem. I would normally link to this kind of article (and many other bloggers did), but this one was so thoroughly one-sided that I couldn’t in good conscience link to it without a lengthy refutation. But you can waste your life on such drivel and I decided to pass.

A couple of days ago, the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA) reviewed the article and noted some of its problems. For instance,

The journalist respectfully refers to Daniel Seidemann, an outspoken foe of Israeli sovereignty and habitation in eastern Jerusalem, as a lawyer who works for a civil rights organization and, elsewhere in the article, as “Lawyer Seidemann,” but does not afford similar honorifics to the archeologist who heads the Jerusalem excavation. McGirk conveniently omits her credentials, introducing her simply as “Eilat Mazar” and incorrectly describing her as “an associate of the right‑wing Shalem think tank” And while he includes this incorrect affiliation – Time has already issued a correction stating that Mazar is not currently affiliated with the Shalem think tank – McGirk neglects to inform readers that Dr. Mazar is a respected archeologist – the granddaughter of Benjamin Mazar, who was a prominent archeologist, historian and former president of the Hebrew University. She received her PhD in archeology more than a decade ago, has published in scholarly journals, was a visiting scholar at the Hebrew University’s Institute of Archeology and is currently a research fellow there.
By contrast, McGirk characterizes those who oppose the field of biblical archeology and disagree with Mazar and her team’s findings as “scholars” and “experts.”

Note that this has nothing to do with the essence of the controversy, which is whether Israel has the right to excavate in Jerusalem. The “journalist” has carefully selected and withheld information in the manner of a defense lawyer or political lobbyist. This is all the more distasteful when it involves mischaracterization of scholars and archaeologists.

The conclusion:

Time’s readers cannot reliably learn about the controversies and arguments surrounding the history, archeology, and future of Jerusalem as long as Time’s Jerusalem bureau chief continues to serve as an advocate for one side of the debate instead of as a responsible and ethical journalist.

Time should be ashamed of this article. To the degree that it is not, we know that objective reporting is not its goal. If you read the original Time article, you should read this response.

Tagged Analysis, Excavations, Jerusalem

Decumanus Discovered in Jerusalem

Archaeologists revealed today that they have discovered portions of the main east-west street in Jerusalem during the Byzantine period. Known in Latin as the Decumanus, this main thoroughfare went from the area of today’s Jaffa Gate to the center of the city. Archaeologists uncovered large sections of the Cardo, Jerusalem’s north-south street, in the 1970s, but this is the first time that the Decumanus has been identified.

The Decumanus is depicted on the Medeba Map, a mosaic depiction of the land of Israel dating to A.D. 580. (See yesterday’s post for a photo.) According to the map, the Decumanus was neither as wide nor as long as the Cardo. The Byzantine-period street was discovered 13 feet (4.5 m) below present ground level and was paved with large flagstones.

The discovery was made during renovation work on the street running through Jaffa Gate (see area photograph here). Because of the high traffic volume, excavations have never been carried out in this area.

For more information, see the press release of the Israel Antiquities Authority (temporary link). Four high-resolution photos are also available(direct link here): (1) a view of the area of the street, taken on Feb 7; (2) a close-up view of the flagstones; (3) a large cistern discovered underneath the street; (4) the Medeba Map, with the Decumanus outlined in red. Haaretz has a brief article, and the other news outlets will have stories posted later in the day.

Tagged Discoveries, Excavations, Jerusalem

Thursday Roundup

Dr. Zvi Greenhut, Deputy Director of Survey & Excavations, Israel Antiquities Authority is interviewed on Arutz-7 Radio about his excavations of Moza (Emmaus?). A summary of his Iron Age finds is given at the IAA website.

Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas has purchased three fragments of Dead Sea Scrolls, with verses from Exodus, Leviticus, and Daniel.

The Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel lists 93 threats to open spaces in their annual report, with the largest number falling in the north.

Richard Jones of Lee University will give a lecture entitled “Biblical Archaeology on the Karak Plateau, Jordan” on Jan. 23 at 10:30 at the Museum Center at Five Points in Cleveland, Tennessee.

Professor Emeritus Abraham Malamat of the Hebrew University passed away today at the age of 87.

HT: Joe Lauer and the Yehuda Group

Tagged Excavations, Jordan, Lectures, Weekend Roundup

Tiberias Gate and Theater

One of the sites in Israel with the most productive excavations in the last two years is Tiberias.

Founded in AD 19 by Herod Antipas and named after the Roman emperor, the city of Tiberias quickly became an important center on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee. Its significance continued through the first millennium with the production of the Masoretic Text here.

Unfortunately, most visible remains in the city have been from the medieval period and later. Recent excavations, however, have revealed substantial remains of the south gate and bridge, as well as the Roman theater. The origins of these structures date to the 1st century.

Biblewalks.com has excellent descriptions and photographs of these recent discoveries. If you’ve been to Tiberias but not seen these latest finds, you can do no better than spend a few minutes browsing the pages about Tiberias, the south gate, and the theater.

Tagged Discoveries, Excavations, Galilee

First-Century House Excavated in Nazareth

The Israel Antiquities Authority announced today that for the first time archaeologists have found a building in Nazareth from the time of Jesus. The residential dwelling was revealed in excavations adjacent to the Church of the Anunciation and dates to the Early Roman Period (40 BC – AD 70).

According to the excavation director, Yardenna Alexander:

The discovery is of the utmost importance since it reveals for the very first time a house from the Jewish village of Nazareth and thereby sheds light on the way of life at the time of Jesus. The building that we found is small and modest and it is most likely typical of the dwellings in Nazareth in that period. From the few written sources that there are, we know that in the first century CE Nazareth was a small Jewish village, located inside a valley. Until now a number of tombs from the time of Jesus were found in Nazareth; however, no settlement remains have been discovered that are attributed to this period.

The full press release is here (temporary link), and it includes a couple of photographs (zip).

The AP reports:

The dwelling and older discoveries of nearby tombs in burial caves suggest that Nazareth was an out-of-the-way hamlet of around 50 houses on a patch of about four acres (1.6 hectares). It was evidently populated by Jews of modest means who kept camouflaged grottos to hide from Roman invaders, said archaeologist Yardena Alexandre, excavations director at the Israel Antiquities Authority.
[. . .]
At the site, Alexandre told reporters that archaeologists also found clay and chalk vessels which were likely used by Galilean Jews of the time. The scientists concluded a Jewish family lived there because of the chalk, which was used by Jews at the time to ensure the purity of the food and water kept inside the vessels.
The shards also date back to the time of Jesus, which includes the late Hellenic, early Roman period that ranges from around 100 B.C. to 100 A.D., Alexandre said.
The absence of any remains of glass vessels or imported products suggested the family who lived in the dwelling were “simple,” but Alexandre said the remains did not indicate whether they were traders or farmers.
[. . .]
Work is now taking place to clear newer ruins built above the dwelling, which will be preserved. The dwelling will become a part of a new international Christian center being constructed close to the site and funded by a French Roman Catholic group, said Marc Hodara of the Chemin Neuf Community overseeing construction.
Alexandre said limited space and population density in Nazareth means it is unlikely that archeologists can carry out any further excavations in the area, leaving this dwelling to tell the story of what Jesus’ boyhood home may have looked like.

Expect a media frenzy with the timing of this story a few days ahead of Christmas. A minor sidenote: this discovery should put to rest the theory of at least person who has claimed that since Nazareth is mentioned in the first century only in the New Testament, the city did not exist at that time. It is true that Nazareth is not mentioned in Josephus and other contemporary sources, but that is only an indication of how insignificant the town was.

Tagged Discoveries, Excavations, Galilee