Shephelah Archives - Page 48 of 68

Weekend Roundup

Archaeologists at Hazor have discovered 14 large storejars full of grain burned in a massive conflagration during the period of the judges (c. 1300 BC). Volunteer Rob Heaton shares his experiences in the last days of the dig and more.

The 2012 Lautenschläger Azekah Archaeological Expeditions Blog is being updated daily. Yesterday they confirmed the discovery of ancient fortifications.

Matti Friedman describes a day of digging at the Philistine city of Gath.

The Israel Antiquities Authority’s Archaeological-Educational Center invites the public to

“Archaeologists for a Day” program at Adullam Park in the Shephelah on Monday, July 30. The cost is 20 NIS and pre-registration is required at [email protected], Tel: 02-9921136, Fax: 02-9925056. The invitation (Word doc in Hebrew) provides more details.

Seth Rodriquez has identified the most interesting photos for a Bible teacher from NASA’s Visible Earth website.

High-tech aerial photos remove the ground cover so you can see what lies below.

In a new article at The Bible and Interpretation, Yosef Garfinkel reviews some attacks on his work at Khirbet Qeiyafa and provides “an unsensational archaeological and historical interpretation” in which he provides 14 “facts,” concluding that “the site marks the beginning of a new era: the establishment of the biblical Kingdom of Judah.” That last word is problematic.

At Christianity Today, Gordon Govier interviews evangelical scholars about the potential impact of the discoveries at Khirbet Qeiyafa.

A 19th-century map of Jerusalem has been discovered in an archive in Berlin.

The story about Islamic clerics wanting to destroy the Egyptian pyramids is not true.

HT: Roi Brit, Joseph Lauer, Jack Sasson

Tagged Egypt, Excavations, Galilee, Jerusalem, Shephelah, Weekend Roundup

Updates from the Khirbet Qeiyafa Excavation

Luke Chandler is volunteering at the excavations on the northern side of the Elah Valley and he briefly notes a few items of interest:

An early Iron Age inscription has been discovered.
This may be the final season of excavating Khirbet Qeiyafa.
The excavators have identified the next site they wish to excavate.
Chandler has also has posted a series of photos from the first week of the dig.

Don’t miss his great photo of a sling stone!

Excavations near western gate of Khirbet Qeiyafa
(photo source)

Tagged Discoveries, Excavations, Shephelah

Weekend Roundup

In the 1920s, archaeologists had the chance to study remains underneath Al Aqsa Mosque. The findings of a Jewish mikveh, Byzantine mosaic, and other pre-Islamic items were not made public until recently. Nadav Shragai describes their importance and connects them with the discoveries made in the Temple Mount Sifting Project.

Shragai mentions in that same article that rebar and other construction material is now laying on the Foundation Stone, the holy rock inside the Dome of the Rock. Leen Ritmeyer has photos.

“The Palestine Archaeological Databank and Information System is now accessible openly without registration.”

The Tel Burna team has aerial photos showing the great progress they have made.

“The Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem on Friday became the first World Heritage Site to be listed under the name of Palestine.” (JPost)

Four caves in Mount Carmel with early evidence of human occupation were also designated as a World Heritage site.

The ESV Concise Bible Atlas is now available. The 64-page paperback sells for $10, and both size and price may be attractive to the weak and the poor. (See here for my comments on its big brother.)

John Monson is interviewed this week on the Book and the Spade, with attention given to his upcoming participation in the Khirbet Qeiyafa excavation and the shrines discovered there.

The widening of Highway 1 will slow down traffic from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem for many years.

Matti Friedman retells the story of the discovery of the Cave of the Treasure, a cache of more than 400 copper objects more than 5,000 years old.

“An ancient Phoenician port in Beirut dating back to at least
500 B.C. was destroyed Tuesday,” said archaeologists. There’s no port there, according to the
Archaeological Assessment Report.

The Day of Archaeology 2012 was yesterday, but posts will continue to be added for another week.

HT: Charles E. Jones, Jack Sasson

Fortifications, silos, and architecture from the 9th-8th centuries at Tel Burna

Tagged Jerusalem, Judah, Lebanon, Resources, Shephelah, Temple Mount, Weekend Roundup

Lecture Schedule for Azekah Expedition

The first season of excavations at Tel Azekah in more than 100 years begins in a few weeks and the directors have announced an impressive schedule of guest lectures:

The Lautenschläger Azekah Expedition and its Directors—Prof. Oded Lipschits, Prof. Manfred Oeming and Dr. Yuval Gadot—are proud to present the program of the guest academic lectures for the coming excavation season, starting July 15th. The lectures will be held at 6:00 p.m. in the academic hall of the Nes-Harim Guesthouse. Scholars and students are warmly invited.

Monday, July 16th, Prof. Aren Maeir (Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan) The Excavations of Philistine Gath

Wednesday, July 18th, Prof. Shlomo Bunomovitz (Tel Aviv University) The Excavations of Beth-Shemesh

Monday, July 23rd, Prof. Yosef Garfinkel (The Hebrew University, Jerusalem) The Excavations of Kh. Qeiyafa

Wednesday, July 25th, Mr. Ido Koch (Tel Aviv University) The Judean Lowland under Judahite Hegemony: The Great Eighth Century BCE

Monday, July 30th, Dr. Izhak Shai (Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan) The Excavations of Tel Burna

Wednesday, August 1st, Dr. Erez Ben-Yosef (Tel Aviv University) Iron Age Copper Production of the Southern Levant

Monday, August 6th, Dr. Yuval Shahar (Tel Aviv University) Late Hellenistic and Early Roman Period Hideout Systems in the Judean Lowland

Wednesday, August 8th, Ms. Shirley Ben-Dor Evian (Tel Aviv University) Egypt, Philistia and the Judean Lowland during the First Millennium BCE

Monday, August 13th, Dr. Ran Barkay (Tel Aviv University) The Pre-History of the Judean Lowland

Wednesday, August 15th, Prof. Bernard Levinson (University of Minnesota, USA) The Neo-Assyrian Influence upon Deuteronomy

Monday, August 20th, Prof. Manfred Oeming (Heidelberg University, Germany) David against Goliath (1 Sam 17) – an Old Fight in Modern Research

Wednesday, August 22nd, Prof. Konrad Schmitt (Zurich University) [TBA]

See the Azekah website for more information.

HT: Jack Sasson

Shephelah view southwest from Jarmuth panorama, tb030407652

Shephelah of Judah from Jarmuth (Yarmut)
Azekah is visible on horizon on right side
(photo source)

Tagged Lectures, Shephelah

Cave Discovered in Gezer Water System

This week a team excavating the ancient water system at Gezer discovered a natural cavern that measures 26 by 30 feet with a height of up to 7 feet. The date of the system is still under discussion, but it may belong to the Middle Bronze Age (2000-1500 BC). From Baptist Press:

The team, under the direction of the NOBTS Center for Archaeological Research, located a large open section in the cave at the eastern end of the ancient water system at Tel Gezer in Israel…. The team still plans to locate the water source for the system and explore the entire cave, seeking a possible rear exit and pottery evidence to help date its construction in future digs. […] "We’re able to see a part of the cave that Macalister never saw," Parker said. "This leaves the possibility that there is another entrance [to the cave] from another location off the tel…." "We did some sound tests to see if we could hear inside the cavern from outside on the tel," Parker said. "The sound was very clear, which leads us to believe that it leads to some sort of opening or fissure in the rock that in ancient days the water may have traveled outside the tel." At the start of this dig season the team intended to open the entire mouth of the cave. However, the left side of the mouth was blocked with boulders and the rest of the cave was filled with silt and dirt. So the team continued a probe along the southern wall that they began in 2011. About 26 feet into the probe, Warner and Parker made a crucial decision. With time running out on this year’s dig, Warner and Parker wanted to expose more of the interior of the cave.

The full story is here. The team has posted a five-minute video with the archaeologists chatting in the cave. Gezer breakthrough from Baptist Press on Vimeo. HT: Joseph Lauer

Tagged Discoveries, Excavations, Shephelah

The Recovered Gezer Boundary Inscription

Eric Mitchell and Jason Zan have written an article for the Baptist Press about their success this season in discovering a new Gezer boundary inscription and recovering one lost for more than 100 years. The article includes a photo of the recovered inscription (#4), and promises a full report in a journal in due course.

This lost boundary inscription was discovered in 1881 by Charles Clermont-Ganneau and his description of the episode helps to explain why scholars failed to locate it in the last century. From Archaeological Researches in Palestine 2:232:

In 1881, seven years after this incident, I had occasion to return to Palestine, and resumed, on my own account, the exploration of the neighbourhood of Gezer, which had been so unduly broken off. I had been persuaded all along that some more inscriptions must be in existence, similar to those I had discovered, marking out the boundary of the town towards the north-west. I started searching in this quarter, with the help of the fellahin, as on the previous occasion; it was not long before my labours were crowned with success, for about two or three hundred yards to the northwest of the first inscription I discovered some large characters, absolutely similar to the former, and cut into the face of a rounded rocky platform with almost perpendicular sides.
I have no record of these characters, but a rough sketch hurriedly made in my note book. I meant to go back and take a squeeze of them, fix the exact position of the inscription, and pursue my investigations on the spot; but, unfortunately, I was suddenly recalled to France, and was unable to carry out this intention. I regret this, for I am convinced that there still remains quite a series of these texts to be collected round about Gezer, I am certain that a search of this kind would not be unfruitful, and recommend it to future Palestine explorers.

As of this month, 13 boundary inscriptions have been found near Gezer, but I have to ask, did no other cities have similar markers?

Clermont-Ganneau’s sketch of “Inscription D”

Tagged Discoveries, Shephelah