Galilee Archives - Page 72 of 84

Weekend Roundup

To everyone who has written me asking how to visit the new excavations at Magdala, Tom Powers answers your question. He also provides a map showing the excavation and construction areas.
For the first time in 2,000 years, Babylonian texts have been read aloud. The readings by Cambridge University scholars are available online.

The Anchor Yale Bible Reference Library for Logos Bible Software will no longer be on pre-publication discount after this week. Readers here may be particularly interested in the standard archaeological reference works by Mazar and Stern, but there are many valuable resources in this collection.

Raphael Golb was convicted of 30 counts of identity theft, forgery, and harassment.

Perhaps the weekend is a good opportunity for you to read my article on the location of David’s palace, if you haven’t already.

Tagged Dead Sea, Galilee, Resources

Greek Goddess Found in Byzantine Hippos

A wall painting of the Greek goddess of fortune was discovered in excavations this season at Hippos (Sussita). From the Jerusalem Post:

A wall painting (fresco) of Tyche, the Greek goddess of fortune, was exposed during the 11th season of excavation at the Sussita site, on the east shore of the Sea of Galilee, according to a University of Haifa statement released Thursday.
During the season of excavation, which was conducted by researchers of the University of Haifa, another female figure was found, of a maenad, one of the companions of the wine god Dionysus.
“It is interesting to see that although the private residence in which two goddesses were found was in existence during the Byzantine period, when Christianity negated and eradicated idolatrous cults, one can still find clear evidence of earlier beliefs,” said Prof. Arthur Segal and Dr. Michael Eisenberg of the Zinman Institute of Archaeology at the University of Haifa, who headed the excavation.

The story continues here. You can see several enlargeable photos here.

HT: Joe Lauer

Tagged Discoveries, Galilee

Archaeology and Women

“Digging Up Women” is the title of a new article posted at The Bible and Interpretation. Elizabeth McNamer provides some insight into the daily life of women using biblical texts and archaeological finds from Bethsaida. She writes:

Most of the artifacts found at Bethsaida are in the domain of women: loom weights, ovens, cooking pots, jugs, juglets, grinders, flourmills, fish plates, olive bowls, pruning hooks, oil lamps, water jugs, jewels, wine jars (and cellars), needles, ungent jars, eating utensils. Clothes were made of linen and wool. Making wool was a time-consuming task. It involved sheering the sheep, sorting and grading, spinning the yarn, and dying the wool, setting up the loom to make the fabric and then making it into clothing. Spinning was mandated by the Talmud (even rich women were required to spin). So many linen spores have been found at Bethsaida that we think there may have been a linen factory there. (It was required for sailing boats and for shrouds for the dead among other things). To clothe a family of six would have required about three hours a day of labor (and taking the Sabbath off). If she produced more than her family required, there were local markets and fairs at which the surplus could be sold.

The article provides some of the “other side” of the story, for archaeology is often most concerned with fortifications, palaces, and other discoveries built and destroyed by men.

Tagged Galilee

Franz’s Reflections on Hazor 2010

Gordon Franz has posted a review of his experience excavating at Hazor this summer. He considers it “the most pleasant, productive, and interesting season” of his eight years on the team. Some excerpts:

One important discovery this season made the international press: two fragments of a Middle Bronze legal tablet written in Akkadian and contemporary with, and similar to, the famous Hammurabi’s law code.
Robert Cargill asked the question on his blog: “Where was this in 2006 when I was digging there? lol.” The answer is quite simple: “Right under your feet where you were sitting during tea break at 7 AM every morning!” This discovery by the eagle-eyed conservator at Hazor, Orna Cohen, was made on the surface and not in the actual stratified excavation.
[…]
Another important discovery that will probably not make the international press is an Iron Age basalt workshop that was found in Area M. It was the first time in the archaeology of the Middle East that such a discovery was made….In the weeks that followed, I sifted much of the material from the floor of this workshop, saving the basalt chips, pottery, and organic matter. I also found an iron chisel. The excavation’s basalt expert, Jenny, will have plenty of material to study and analyze in order to understand the process of making basalt objects. Basalt is one of the hardest stones, which makes it difficult to work. It will be interesting to see whether the lab results show that the iron chisel had been tempered and made into steel. If so, that would go a long way in explaining how basalt was worked. Moreover, geological tests can be done to determine the basalt’s source.
[…]
One of the projects carried out by Orna Cohen and the Druze workers this summer was the reconstruction of part of the casemate wall near the Solomonic Gate. The Druze see themselves as the descendents of the Phoenicians and Hiram’s, king of Tyre, stone masons. They reconstructed the walls using the same techniques as Solomon’s workers: stone upon stone, and without the use of cement.
[…]
By the end of the 2009 season, we had removed most of the eighth-century walls and strata. At the beginning of this season, we spent the first week finishing that job. The next level of occupation was the ninth-century. I thought it would take a season to excavate the remains from that period. We blew through it in a couple of weeks. Area M is outside the Solomonic city so there were no tenth-century domestic dwellings outside the city. Thus we began to penetrate down to the Late Bronze Age palace. By the end of the season, we were on top of the palace and some monumental stones were beginning to appear.
It is in Area M that Dr. Sharon Zuckerman has suggested that the administrative palace of Hazor was and the Canaanite archive of the Late Bronze level would be located (2006: 28-37). When the archive(s) are found at Hazor, it/they will be a major contribution to Biblical studies and go a long way to resolve some of the thorny issues in Biblical Archaeology.

Several blogs have inaccurately reported that the MB tablet was found in the excavations above the palace in Area M, but Franz states that it was found on the surface of the tell west of Area M.
Franz’s full report is here.

Hazor upper city from east

Tagged Excavations, Galilee

Hellenistic Gold Coin Found at Kedesh

From the Israel Antiquities Authority (temp link):

An extremely rare 2200-year old gold coin was uncovered recently in the excavations of the University of Michigan and University of Minnesota at Tell Kedesh in Israel near its Lebanese border. The coin was minted in Alexandria by Ptolemy V in 191 BCE and bears the name of the wife of Ptolemy II, Arsinoë Philadephus (II).
According to Dr. Donald T. Ariel, head of the Coin Department of the Israel Antiquities Authority, “This is an amazing numismatic find. The coin is beautiful and in excellent preservation. It is the heaviest gold coin with the highest contemporary value of any coin ever found in an excavation in Israel. The coin weighs almost one ounce (27.71 grams), while most ancient gold coins weighed 4.5 grams. In Ariel’s words, “This extraordinary coin was apparently not in popular or commercial use, but had a symbolic function. The coin may have had a ceremonial function related to a festival in honor of Queen Arsinoë, who was deified in her lifetime. The denomination is called a mnaieion, meaning a one-mina coin, and is equivalent to 100 silver drachms, or a mina of silver.
The obverse (‘head’) of the coin depicts Arsinoë II Philadelphus. The reverse (‘tail’) depicts two overlapping cornucopias (horns-of-plenty) decorated with fillets. The meaning of the word Philadelphus is brotherly love. Arsinoë II, daughter of Ptolemy I Soter, was married at age 15 to one of Alexander the Great’s generals, Lysimachus, king of Thrace. After Lysimachus’ death she married her brother, Ptolemy II, who established a cult in her honor. This mnaieion from Tel Kedesh attests to the staying power of the cult, since the coin was minted a full 80 years after the queen’s death.
According to Ariel, “It is rare to find Ptolemaic coins in Israel dating after the country came under Seleucid rule in 200 BCE. The only other gold Ptolemaic coin from an excavation in Israel (from `Akko) dates from the period of Ptolemaic hegemony, in the third century BCE, and weighs less than two grams.”
The excavations at Tell Kedesh, conducted since 1997, has uncovered a large Persian/Hellenistic administrative building, complete with reception halls, dining facilities, store rooms and an archive. While the documents in the archive were not preserved, the excavations yielded 2043 bullae, from which the flourishing of the Hellenistic phase of the building can be dated to the first half of the second century BCE.

Gold Coin from Tell Kedesh; photo by Sue Webb (via IAA)

The full release and high-resolution photo are here. In earlier days, Kedesh was one of the three cities west of the Jordan River designated as a city of refuge (Josh 20:7). More information about the biblical site is here. I noted a story about these excavations last week.

Tagged Discoveries, Galilee

Beautiful LB Bracelet Discovered in Galilee

The site of Ramat Razim in southeast Safat/Tzfat/Safed is the location of some extraordinary discoveries, including a decorated bronze bracelet. From Arutz-7:

One who could afford such a bracelet was apparently very well-off financially, Covello-Paran said, “and it probably belonged to the wife or daughter of the village ruler. In the artwork of neighboring lands, gods and rulers were depicted wearing horned crowns; however, such a bracelet, and from an archaeological excavation at that, has never been found here.” The bracelet was found inside the remains of an estate house, part of an ancient settlement that existed in a rocky area overlooking the Sea of Galilee and the Golan Heights. Made of indigenous limestone, the building included a paved central courtyard surrounded by residential rooms and storerooms. The residents apparently engaged in barter. Along with the bracelet, a Canaanite scarab was found that is made of stone and engraved with Egyptian hieroglyphs. In antiquity, scarabs were worn as pendants or were inlaid in rings, and were used as a seal or talisman with magical powers. “This is the first time that a 3,500-year-old village has been excavated and exposed in the north of Israel,” Covello-Paran said. “To date, only the large cities have been excavated in the region, such as Tel Megiddo or Tel Hazor. Here we have gained a first glimpse of life in the ancient rural hinterland in the north, and it turns out that it was more complex than we thought. It seems that the small village at Ramat Razim constituted part of the periphery of Tel Hazor, the largest and most significant city in the Canaanite region at the time, which is located about 10 kilometers north of the settlement at Ramat Razim.”

The full story is here. The Late Bronze Age (1500-1200) is the time of Joshua, not Joseph.

Tagged Discoveries, Galilee