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11th Annual Archaeology Conference in City of David

11th Annual Archaeology Conference
City of David, Jerusalem, Israel

Wednesday, September 1, 2010
From 4:00 pm visit new excavation sites in the City of David

The City of David

18:30 Gather in the City of David, Area E

19:00 Opening Remarks

Ahron Horovitz, Director of the Megalim Institute
Representative of the Israel Antiquities Authority
Guy Alon, Israel Nature and National Parks Authority

19:15 First Session – Chair: Prof. Aaron Demsky

Prof. Jodi Magness

Archaeological Evidence of the Sassanid Persian Invasion of Jerusalem

Prof. Zohar Amar, Dr. David Illouz

The Persimmon in the Land of Israel

Ms. Sara Barnea

The History of the Mapping of the Jewish Cemetery on the Mount of Olives

20:40 Break

21:00

Second Session – Chair: Dr. Hillel Geva

Dr. Doron Ben-Ami, Ms. Yana Tchekhanovets
The Givati Parking Lot – Roman-Period Discoveries and Finds

Eli Shukron, Prof. Ronny Reich
The excavation between the stepped Shiloah Pool and the interior face of the damming wall at the southern end of the Tyropoeon Valley, Jerusalem

Prof. Ronny Reich, Eli Shukron
The Large Fortification Near the Gihon Spring in Jerusalem, and its Relationship to Wall NB Discovered by Kathleen Kenyon

22:00 Estimated end of conference

Entrance is free, but spaces are limited (there is no advance registration)

It may be cold at night so dress accordingly

Parking is available in the Mount Zion Parking Lot and the Givati

Parking Lot (for a fee)

Public Transportation: Buses 1, 2, 38.

www.cityofdavid.org.il

HT: Joe Lauer

Tagged Jerusalem, Lectures

Biblical Archaeology in 2010

Brian Janeway has just posted a review of last year’s ASOR meetings in an article entitled “Biblical Archaeology in 2010: Going Strong Still!” If you missed the meetings or just would like a review, start here.

Eight papers were given on Khirbet Qeiyafa, the 10th century site next to the Elah Valley.

Khirbet Qeiyafa is the only known fortified city in Judah dated to the time span from the end of the 11th century to the beginning of the 10th century BC. The excavated pottery places the site in Iron IIA period and includes finger-stamped jar handles, ‘pre-LMLK’ jars, and late Philistine decorated pottery known as ‘Ashdod Ware.’ Petrographic analysis shows that the Philistine vessels were not made locally and were probably imported to the site. Dr. Aren Maeir, director of the excavations at nearby Tel es-Safi/Gath confirmed during the response period that the pottery assemblage was definitely not Philistine. Interesting comments were also offered by Bill Dever and John Holladay, both of whom compared the Qeiyafa pottery assemblage to Gezer 8 below the Solomonic Gate and Jane Cahill believes it parallels material found in Jerusalem above the stepped-stone structure at a time that coincides with an expansion of the city. Ron Tappy spoke about a new early 10th century phase found at Tell Zayit that predates the famous abecedary inscription.

The Elah Valley was the scene of the battle of David and Goliath, and this was the subject of another paper:

Another interesting presentation was given by Jeffrey Zorn of Cornell University entitled “Reconsidering Goliath: An Iron I Philistine Maryannu.” In it he revises the idea that Goliath was an infantry soldier through a textual analysis of his weaponry and accoutrements. Zorn asserts that the fish scale body armor, probably attached to an underlying tunic, bronze greaves, which are only found in Mycenaean Greek contexts c. 1200 BC, and his being accompanied by a shield-bearer, all point toward Goliath being a maryannu. Maryannu is a Hurrian term for an elite warrior who fought on chariots, usually alongside two attendants, as attested in Egyptian depictions at Medinet Habu of 3-man Egyptian and Hittite teams fighting at the Battle of Kadesh (c. 1275 BC).

Janeway reviews other presentations, but I’ll excerpt only one more.

“Hebrew Bible, History, and Archaeology” featured papers by Anson Rainey, who made the case for identifying biblical Ziklag at Tell Sera’, based on biblical and medieval texts and Jeffrey Hudon of Andrews University, who proposed that the now famous LMLK storage jar seals had a longer period of production and use that originated during the reign of King Uzziah in the late 8th century and not to the later Hezekiah. The circumstances in 2 Chron 26:9-10 in its description of royal estates and viticulture occur in the same regions as the stamps have been found. They served as important royal symbols of the Judahite kingdom. These estates were established all across the kingdom from ‘En Gedi to the Shephelah and were the functional explanation for the LMLK stamps according to another paper by Hayah Katz of The Open University of Israel.

The full article is here.

Tagged Lectures, Philistines, Shephelah

Oriental Institute Video Lectures

The Oriental Institute has posted online the video files for the Member’s Lectures series. This is yet another terrific resource from the OI, and you can’t beat the price. Lectures include:

Tracking the Frontiers of the Hittite Empire Ann Gunter, Northwestern University
April 7, 2010

Biblical Archaeology, the Limits of Science, and the Borders of Belief Nina Burleigh
March 3, 2010

Death’s Dominion: Chalcolithic Religion and the Ritual Economy of the Southern Levant Yorke Rowan, Oriental Institute
February 3, 2010

Sea of Galilee Boat Shelley Wachsmann, Texas A&M University
Cosponsored by the Archaeological Institute of America
October 7, 2009

After the Revolution: the Oriental Institute and Archaeology in Iran Abbas Alizadeh, Director, Iran Prehistoric Project, Oriental Institute
October 7, 2009

Past, Present and Future of the Landscape in the Land of King Midas: Gordion, Turkey
Naomi Miller, University of Pennsylvania Museum MASCA-Museum Applied Science Center for Archaeology
March 4, 2009

Death and the City: Recent Work at Tell Brak, Syria Augusta McMahon, University of Cambridge
January 7, 2009

Tagged Lectures

Archaeology Conference in Honor of Anson F. Rainey

The following announcement was posted on several lists, including biblicalist. Most lectures are in Hebrew. Dr. Rainey’s astonishing career is surveyed on the Tel Aviv University website.

Bar-Ilan University The Faculty of Jewish Studies The Martin (Szusz) Department of Land of Israel Studies and Archaeology and Tel Aviv University The Jacob M. Alkow Department of Archaeology and Ancient Near Eastern Cultures

The Sonia and Marco Nadler Institute of Archaeology

Cordially invite the public to the 30th annual conference of the Martin (Szusz) Department of Land of Israel Studies and Archaeology:

“And They Went Up and Toured the Land” – in honor of Professor Anson F. Rainey on the occasion of his 80th birthday.

Thursday, May 6, 2010, Mintz Auditorium, Building 403, Bar-Ilan University.

8:30-9:00: Registration and Refreshments

9:00-9:20: Greetings:

Prof. Haim Taitelbaum, Vice Rector
Prof. Avraham Faust, Chair, Martin (Szusz) Department of Land of Israel Studies and Archaeology
Prof. Shlomo Bunimovitz, Chair, Jacob M. Alkow Department of Archaeology and Ancient Near Eastern Cultures

9:20-11:00: Session 1: Archaeology. Chair, Prof. Ze’ev Herzog

Yuval Gadot: The Central Coastal Plain in the Late Bronze Age – Geography, History and Archaeology
Shlomo Bunimovitz and Zvi Lederman: The Hanan Clan: Epigraphic Evidence for Iron Age Canaanite Continuity in the Northern Judean Shephelah
Avraham Faust: An Assemblage of Bullae from Tel ‘Eton and the Development of Administration in the Kingdom of Judah
Ze’ev Herzog: The Hezekiah/Josiah Cult Reform Debate: An Archaeological Perspective

11:00-11:30: Break

11:30-13:30: Session 2: Linguistics and Bible. Chair, Prof. Shlomo Izre’el

Israel Knohl: Merneptah’s “Israel” and Biblical “Israel”
Shawn Zelig Aster: Isaiah 31 and Relations Between Judah and Assyria During the Reign of Sargon II
Gershon Galil: The Book of Joshua: Formation and Historical Reliability
Daniel Sivan: The Case System in Northwestern Semitic Languages
Chaim Cohen: Four New Philological Notes Concerning the Languages of the El-Amarna Letters according to the Comparative Philological Method of Prof. Moshe Held z”l

13:30-14:45: Lunch Break

14:45-16:30: Session 3: Historical Geography. Chair, Prof. Joshua Schwartz

Ze’ev Safrai: Historical Geography, 35 Years after Ben-Arieh
Aren Maeir: The Identification of Philistine Gath, 25 Years Later
Oded Lipschits: Further Thoughts on the Ancient Name of Ramat Rahel
Yigal Levin: The Identification of Khirbet Qeiyafa – A New Proposal

16:30-16:50: Break

16:50-19:00: Session 4: History. Chair, Dr Boaz Zissu.

Dr. Paul Wright, Director, Jerusalem University College: Blessings and comments about Anson Rainey (in English)
Victor Hurowitz: Demonyms and Toponyms: Symbolism and Hermeneutics
Brian Schultz: A New Proposal for Tamar/Tadmor in 1 Kings 9:18 (in English)
Aaron Demsky: The Phoenician Connection of the Greek Sphinx
R. Steven Notley: Was the Galilee No Longer Jewish in the Days of Judah Aristobulus?

Closing Remarks – Prof. Anson F. Rainey

All papers will be in Hebrew unless English is specified.

Open admission. For information call 03-5318350 or use email address on the announcement.

Anson Rainey lecturing, Nov. 1963
Photo by David Bivin

Tagged Lectures

Conference: Israel in Egypt and in Canaan

From the ANE-2 List:

International Conference for Biblical Archaeology in Germany

Israel in Egypt and in Canaan: In Search of the Historical Environment of Exodus and Conquest

Location: Christian Gästezentrum Württemberg, Schwäbisch Gmünd (near Stuttgart, Southern Germany), October 1-3, 2010

Early or Late? Did the Biblical Exodus Really Occur and When Did It Happen?
Who was the Pharaoh of the 10 Plagues and the Exodus?
How Can Excavations on the Eastern Border of Egypt Help Determine the Exodus Itinerary?
Israel’s Ethnogenesis
Do We Find Evidence of the Israelite Tribes in Egypt?
The Earliest Inscription Referencing Israel in Canaan?
Do the Destructions at the End of the Late Bronze or Middle Bronze Ages Yield Evidence of the Israelite Conquest?
Archaeological Exhibition on Jericho
Plenum Discussions

Lecturers:*

Dr John J. Bimson
Prof. Dr James K. Hoffmeier
Prof. Dr Manfred Görg
Dr Thomas Tribelhorn
Dr Peter van der Veen
Richard Wiskin
Prof. Dr Uwe Zerbst
Prof. Dr Wolfgang Zwickel

* Translation in English and German will be provided for German and English lectures

For more information and for registration, see the English language flyer (pdf).

Tagged Egypt, Lectures

Lecture at UCLA: Ancient Universe of the Queen of Sheba

From the UCLA Newsroom:

If she actually existed, the Queen of Sheba may have been African. Then again, she could have been Arab. While she may have been from Yemen, near today’s city of Ma’rib, she probably was also active in Ethiopia, near the modern city of Aksum. But so far, archaeologists have not found a tomb, palace or temple that can be definitively attributed to the prominent figure from the Hebrew Bible and the Quran. "We know there was an empire that spanned about 1,000 years and had many queens and kings," said Michael Harrower, a postdoctoral fellow at UCLA’s Cotsen Institute of Archaeology. "But we don’t have archaeological evidence for a specific queen that we can say was Sheba. In fact, the biblical character may be a compilation or summary of history of the time." But if archaeology so far has not uncovered the historic Sheba, it has made considerable headway in understanding the 3,000-year-old empire that archaeologists call the Kingdom of Saba — the Arabic name for "Sheba" — whose location and era are consistent with biblical accounts of the queen. On Saturday, April 3, the Cotsen Institute will present a talk at which Harrower and NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory principal scientist Ronald Blom will discuss these findings. The free event, which is open to the public, begins at 2 p.m. in the Lenart Auditorium of the Fowler Museum at UCLA, on the Westwood campus. Parking is available in Lot 4 for $10. Showcasing the latest advancements in satellite imagery and computer mapping, "The Ancient Universe of the Queen of Sheba" will explore a 200,000-square-mile-area, stretching east from Ethiopia across the Red Sea into Yemen and Oman on the southern Arabian Peninsula. Topics will include the Kingdom of Saba’s impressive irrigation system, its coveted reserves of frankincense and its long-distance trade routes to the Mediterranean.

The news release continues here. More information is here.

Tagged Lectures