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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

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

Weekend Roundup

Leen Ritmeyer has a posted (with a follow-up) on his identification of several stones in the eastern wall of the Temple Mount that are clearly pre-Herodian. Ritmeyer dates them to the time of King Hezekiah, suggesting that he was the one to build the 500-cubit square Temple Mount that Ritmeyer has previously identified. He includes some helpful illustrations and photos.

A review of current excavations in Turkey is given at Today’s Zaman. New Testament sites being excavated include Alexandria Troas, Miletus, Hierapolis, Sardis, Smyrna, and Laodicea. There are many other sites as well. Many of these cities have very impressive remains, unlike many sites in Israel. Today’s Zaman also has an article on recent discoveries at Sardis.

NASA has a photo of a street of Ephesus at night, with (the planet) Jupiter illuminating the way.
Across the way in Greece, the ancient hippodrome of Olympia has been discovered. This is a good story that counters the myth that everything to be found has already been found.

A couple fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls have now been published by James H. Charlesworth.

One of the fragments may be from the Samaritan Pentateuch, and the other appears to be from Nehemiah, making it the first portion of that book to be found among the DSS. Paleojudaica gives more info and links.

If you’re a tourist in Israel and have a question, you can now call the 24-hour tourist hotline. It’s easy (dial *3888), but it’s not a toll-free number.

Tagged Discoveries, Excavations, Jerusalem, Temple Mount

When You're Not Digging

One thing (an important thing) to consider when choosing an excavation to join is the extra-curricular activities. By that I mean the evening lectures and the afternoon or weekend tours. Digging in the dirt is nice, but your experience will be greatly enhanced if you can learn about your site and travel around the area. Having said that, and having looked at the schedule at Gath this season, I would certainly recommend choosing Gath for your excavation next year. Check the schedule out at the Gath blog. A tip to other excavations interested in boosting their number of volunteers for future seasons: put your extra-curricular schedule online. And start a dig blog.

Yigael Yadin lecturing at Megiddo excavation, 1967from forthcoming photo collection of David Bivin

Tagged Excavations

DigMegiddo – Excavation Blog

Today is the first day of excavations at Megiddo, and a new blog intends to narrate the season from the perspective of archaeologist Eric Cline and 9 students. Apparently 8 of the bloggers are female, which may say something about the attitude of guys towards archaeology or perhaps the recruiting skills of Cline. You can check it out here: http://digmegiddo.wordpress.com/

Tagged Excavations

Gezer Excavations 2007

The Star-Telegram has a brief article on the recent season of excavations at Gezer. The main finds mentioned are walls burned by the Assyrians in the 8th century and a rare silver coin from the Ptolemaic period. The excavation project is described at gezerproject.org, and some general information and pictures of Gezer is available at BiblePlaces.com.

Gezer high place in 1968Photo by David Bivin; from forthcoming CD from BiblePlaces.com

Tagged Excavations, Shephelah