Christopher Woods of the Oriental Institute is giving a free lecture on “Gilgamesh” for the Assyrian American Civic Club of Chicago, the Assyrian Universal Alliance Foundation, and the Mesopotamian Museum of Chicago. The lecture is this Sunday evening, at 5pm. More details are here.
If you’re near Penn State and are free Thursday evening, you might want to attend a lecture recently added to the 2012-13 program of the Central Pennsylvania Society of the AIA.
Dr. Amir Golani, Israel Antiquities Authority, “Economic Aspects of Silver Hoards and Jewelry at the End of the Iron Age in the Levant.” Thursday, October 25, 8:00 pm, in 101 Chambers Building
Abstract: The use of precious metals as a means for bartering throughout the ancient Near East dates back to the Bronze Age. The rise of the Neo-Assyrian Empire during the latter portion of the Iron Age II period (8th-7th century BCE) witnessed a steep rise in use of silver, appearing as silver ingots, cut silver chunks and whole and broken down silver jewelry. The sources of the silver indicate far-ranging trade contacts and its increased use reflects changing geo-political processes in the eastern Mediterranean and the ancient Near East. The silver, along with various textual sources that specify its use as a form of payment, are witness to the growing reliance on this metal as a medium of exchange. This talk will explore the sources of silver found in the southern Levant, the various forms in which it appears and how and why silver became a preferred medium of payment in the economic systems of the ancient Near East.
HT: Eric Welch
- Tagged Lectures
SourceFlix has just released a new video short, “Follow Me,” with some great footage of sheep and shepherds.
Hezekiah’s Pool (aka Patriarch’s Pool) in the Christian Quarter of Jerusalem has long been a swampy dump. The area was cleared last year and recently it held what Tom Powers believes is the first public gathering in its history.
Wayne Stiles: Beersheba epitomizes the faith God required to live in the Holy Land….God used this unassuming, barren place to shape some of the most significant lives in the Bible.
Heavy rains in the Eilat mountains and southern Aravah led to flooding of the Hai-Bar Yotvata Nature Reserve. Workers safely evacuated animals in danger of drowning.
Peter James answers some difficult questions about the Step Pyramid of Saqqara and the Bent
Pyramid of Dashur based on his years of repairing damaged structures in Egypt.
The Penn Museum is opening to visitors its conservation process of ancient Egyptian mummies.
Back issues of Christian History magazine are available as free pdf files.
Here is what looks to be like an interesting lecture this evening (in Hebrew): “The Tomb of David on
Mount Zion? Pierotti’s Cave?”
Amit Reem, IAA. At the Bible Lands Museum Jerusalem, 7:30pm. Free with museum admission.
HT: Jack Sasson
The Bent Pyramid of Dashur
Frank Moore Cross died this week. Hershel Shanks has written some reflections on their relationship.
James Davila describes his experience as a student. Eisenbrauns has a 50% sale on a volume of 55 key articles he wrote. Chuck Jones has created a list of his articles available on JSTOR. And Frank
Moore Cross: Conversations with a Bible Scholar is available as a free ebook.
A two-part interview with Robert Mullins on the new excavations of Abel Beth Maacah is now available at The Book and the Spade.
The Smithsonian Channel delayed the release of the documentary on the “Gospel of Jesus’ Wife.”
Hershel Shanks disagrees with Harvard Theological Review’s decision to delay publication of the article.
The historic souk of Aleppo, Syria, is a battleground today.
The Dead Sea will live again: Wayne Stiles explains and includes a slideshow, a video, and a map.
The 200th anniversary of the rediscovery of Petra is celebrated in a new exhibition in Basel.
“From Papyrus to Print: A Journey through the History of the Bible” is the central exhibit at the new
Bible and archaeology museum at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary.
Rachel Hallote will be lecturing on “Not-So-Innocents Abroad: The Beginnings of American Biblical Archaeology” on October 28 at Emory University.
Manfred Bietak will be lecturing on “Recent Discoveries at the Hyksos Capital, Tell el-Dab‘a
(Egypt)” on November 12, 7:00 PM in Hinkson Hall, Rodine Building, Trinity Evangelical Divinity
School.
HT: Al Sandalow, Jack Sasson, Joseph Lauer
The Siq of Petra
Photo from Pictorial Library of Bible Lands
Photo from Pictorial Library of Bible Lands
- Tagged Dead Sea, Lectures, Museums, New Exhibits, Syria, Weekend Roundup
(by Chris McKinny)
Today, I was able to make it over to the Cura Aquarum conference on Water in Antiquity that was mentioned previously here. The first session of lectures dealt with several topics of interest for readers of this blog. Below I have added a few brief notes from the lectures.
Today, I was able to make it over to the Cura Aquarum conference on Water in Antiquity that was mentioned previously here. The first session of lectures dealt with several topics of interest for readers of this blog. Below I have added a few brief notes from the lectures.
1. Is There Light at the End of the Tunnel? The Gezer Water System Project – Dan Warner*, Tsvika Tsuk, Jim Parker and Dennis Cole
Warner gave an update of their project after two seasons and discussed their plans for the 2013 season. The following are a few difficulties that they have encountered and a few goals that the seek to accomplish in their project:
- Macalister’s plans of the system differ from the seemingly more accurate plans of Father Vincent (no great shock there).
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| Entrance to Gezer Water System |
- Macalister built a large retaining wall for the material that he removed from the system, however, that retaining wall collapsed towards the end of the Gezer expedition – re-filling the system back to 60% of its original fill level. This is what they have spent the last two seasons removing. They have successfully excavated two of the systems three parts – 1.) the “keyhole opening” (see pic above) and 2. the “stepped and sloping water shaft”. On the last few days of excavation this past season they reached the water cavern itself (part 3.). All told they have removed around 439 tons of fill so far.
- Vincent’s drawings seem to indicate that there was an opening or exit in the cavern section of the system. One of their goals is to determine the location or existence of this opening.
- Dating: While admitting to not finding any datable materials in their excavations, Warner concluded that he believes that the Gezer water system should be preliminarily dated to the Canaanite period/Middle Bronze Age. He dates the system based on its close proximity to the Middle Bronze Age fortifications (conta the site’s former excavator William Dever). He also made note of several “cultic niches” along the walls of the water system one of which has what he referred to as an embedded massebah (i.e. “standing stone”) similar to what is seen on top of the tell. If this system does in fact date to the Middle Bronze age, Warner theorized that it would then be one of the largest such systems from that time period in all of the ancient Near East.
2. A New Assessment of the Upper Aqueduct to Jerusalem: its Date and Route – David Amit and Shimon Gibson*
- Very nice presentation on all of the available date including some recent excavations near Jaffa Gate/Mamilla.
- Concludes that the Upper Aqueduct was originally constructed during the time of Herod the Great, in order to provide water for the Temple Mount and the Herodian Palace on the Western Hill of Jerusalem. They interpret the large amount of “10th Roman Legion” epigraphic evidence (i.e. bricks with the imprint of “XLEGFR”) around the Upper Aqueduct near Rachel’s Tomb as evidence of repair and not initial building.
3. Dating and engineering of Siloam Tunnel, Jerusalem – Amos Frumkin* and Aryeh Shimron
- Frumkin showed convincingly that the Siloam Tunnel (i.e. Hezekiah’s Tunnel) dates to around 700 BCE on the basis of a date range provided by the assessment of C14 (piece of charcoal found in the original plaster) and speleothems (stalactites). As both of these pieces of evidence fit the textual data, they concluded that the tunnel was dug by Hezekiah. On a side note, since both of the authors are geologists, it was very nice to see them consider all of the evidence including the biblical and extra-biblical texts. This has not always been the case with geological assessments of Hezekiah’s tunnel see here.
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| City of David with Hezekiah’s Tunnel in Blue |
- Frumkin also showed that Hezekiah’s tunnel was not excavated along natural karstic shafts. This common theory he referred to as the “Karst Theory.” Instead of following any natural, easier path for excavation, he demonstrated that the tunnel’s excavators passed through many bedding plates or fractures perpendicularly.
- Of even more importance, Frumkin provided some very interesting rationale for why Hezekiah’s tunnel meanders on both starting points instead of being excavated in a straight line. He believes that the entire excavation process was marked by changes “on the fly.” He comes to this conclusion based on the several “false starts” inside the shaft and the “semi-circular loops” on the north-eastern and south-western beginning points (he also makes the point that the NE starting point dropped 5 meters from its initial starting point, another indication of a mistake). Frumkin hypothesized that the excavators soon realized that they were not going to be able to find each other by digging in a direct line, diagonally across the city. So instead, both excavation teams began excavating towards the slopes of the Kidron Valley, an area much closer to the surface, with hopes that they would be able to “hear” one another above ground. Testing this hypothesis – Frumkin and Shimron’s claim that they were able to hear someone inside of the tunnel from directly above, which would mean that their theory is plausible, at the very least.
- Interestingly, Frumkin points out that this subterranean-to-above-ground communication could very well be what is meant in the Siloam Inscription where it reads, “… the tunnel … and this is the story of the tunnel while …the axes were against each other and while three cubits were left to cut? … the voice of a man … called to his counterpart” (italics mine).
All told, it was a very interesting set of lectures that showed that even old excavations can be given new interpretation and nuanced meaning through the advancements and developments of the discipline.
*Presenter
The Cura Aquarum in Israel will be held next week at Neve Ilan. Many of the lecture topics are of interest.
Monday October 15, 2012 (Neve Ilan Hotel)
Session A: 09:00 – 10:30 Ancient water systems in Israel 1
Chairperson Jim Parker
1. Is There Light at the End of the Tunnel? The Gezer Water System Project – Dan Warner, Tsvika Tsuk, Jim Parker and Dennis Cole
2. A New Assessment of the Upper Aqueduct to Jerusalem: its Date and Route – David Amit and Shimon Gibson
3. Dating and engineering of Siloam Tunnel, Jerusalem – Amos Frumkin and Aryeh Shimron
Session B: 11:00 – 12:50 Ancient water systems in Israel 2
Chairperson Dennis Cole
4. The Inverted Siphon Pipelines to Tel Bet Yerah/es-Sinnabris – Yardenna Alexandre
5. The “’Otzar” in Ancient Ritual Baths: Second Temple Period Innovation or Anachronistic Interpretation? – Yonatan Adler
6. When were the Qanat Systems introduced to the Holy Land? – Yosef Porath
7. The Early Islamic aqueducts to Ramla and Hebron – Amir Gorzalczany and David Amit
Session C: 14:15 – 15:15 Ancient and modern water systems in Israel 3
Chairperson Ronny Reich
8. Touring Israel’s ancient water systems – Tsvika Tsuk
9. Water in Israel and in the Middle East – past, present and future – Shimon Tal
Session D: 15:35 – 17:00 Turkey 1
Chairperson Werner Eck
10. Grundwassernutzung in der hethitischen Hauptstadt Hattusa um 1600 v. Chr. – Hartmut
Wittenberg
11. Ancient Water Systems of the Lamas Çayi and the surrounding hinterland – Dennis Murphy
12. Die Datierung der römischen Kaikos- und Madradag-Kanalleitungen in Pergamon – Henning Fahlbusch
Session E: 17:20 – 18:50 Turkey 2
Chairperson Henning Fahlbusch
13. Das städtische Abwassersystem von Pergamon – seine Entwicklung in hellenistischer und römischer Zeit – Kai Wellbrock
14. The aqueducts and water supply of Tralleis – Eddie Owens
15. Antike Wasserbauten von Antiochia (Tuerkei) – Mathias Döring
Tuesday October 16, 2012 (Neve Ilan hotel)
Session F: 08:30 – 09:30 The Military
Chairperson Mathias Döring
16. Das Heer und die Infrastruktur von Städten in der römischen Kaiserzeit – Werner Eck
17. Water as weapon and military target in Ancient Mesopotamian warfare – Ariel Bagg
Session G: 09:50 – 11:20 Groundwater and Roman Aqueducts
Chairperson Eli Dror
18. Ground water use and understanding in ancient times: lessons for today and tomorrow – Michael Knight
19. Sinter deposits in Roman aqueducts – Gül Sürmelihindi and Cees Passchier
20. The Atlas Project of Roman Aqueducts (ROMAQ) – Cees Passchier, and Gül Sürmelihindi
Session H: 11:50 – 13:15 Greece and Spain – Sanctuaries, Mills and Aqueducts
Chairperson Dennis Murphy
21. The role of water in ancient sanctuaries. The Sanctuary of Amphiaraos – Anna Androvitsanea
22. When Ceres commands her nymphs – An investigation of the relation between mills and aqueducts in the antique Mediterranean – Stefanie Preißler
23. The Glass kiln (Horno de Vidrio), a drop tower in the water supply to the city of Toledo (Spain) during the Roman era – Marisa Barahona
More details about the conference are available here.
HT: Jack Sasson
Hezekiah’s Tunnel in Jerusalem