Todd Bolen, Author at BiblePlaces.com

"But I Used the Tractor Carefully…"

The Jerusalem Post story on the on-going saga of “excavations” on the Temple Mount is here. The abbreviated version follows:

Genius #1: Shmuel Dorfman

“There was no damage to the remains of buildings or artifacts.”

Sir, can you tell me if you excavated with a tractor?

“They were under time pressure.”

It’s good to know that you can excavate with a tractor and cause “no damage” to ancient remains.

This guy wouldn’t pass Archaeology 101. Unfortunately he is the Director-General of the Israel Antiquities Authority.

Genius #2: Meir Ben-Dov, retired archaeologist

“There were no archeological findings in the ground,” Meir Ben-Dov told the committee. “They dug
a total of 50 cm. [18 inches] deep and all of it was fill-in from the earlier infrastructure that had been installed.”

Somebody should have told this guy about the Iron Age remains from an undisturbed layer that were discovered in this trench. Ben-Dov is not an honest man. He just expected that the Muslims would have destroyed it all so thoroughly that no one would ever be able to prove him wrong. Fortunately somebody was watching “the excavation” between tractor scoops and not all was lost.

The good news:

“The Knesset State Control Committee on Monday decided to ask the State Comptroller’s Office to investigate procedures for allowing the Wakf Islamic trust to excavate on the Temple Mount, amid claims by archeologists that the laying of electric cables there in August endangered ancient artifacts.”

Tagged Analysis, Jerusalem, Temple Mount

Material from First Temple Period Found on Temple Mount

A remarkable discovery of undisturbed archaeological material from the Temple Mount and dating to the Old Testament period was announced yesterday by the Israel Antiquities Authority. This is remarkable for a few reasons:

By all appearances, there was little apparent archaeological supervision of the Muslim digging of a trench on the Temple Mount last month. That’s why lots of people were screaming. It’s not that digging itself is bad, but digging without proper archaeological procedure is simply destruction.

Undisturbed layers from the First Temple period (1000-586 B.C.) are not often found anywhere in Jerusalem. This is because of later building activities and because of current inhabitation of the city.

No undisturbed layers from any period have been excavated on the Temple Mount, ever. This is owing to Muslim control of the site and their prohibitions against archaeological excavation. This dates back to the earliest “archaeologists” in Jerusalem, including Charles Warren in the 1860s.

It has been expected that the construction of the present Temple Mount by King Herod in the 1st
century B.C. was so extensive and destructive that little would remain (in stratified contexts) from the previous eras. The present discovery does not seem to constitute significant material in and of itself, but it certainly gives hope that more could be recovered should excavations be permitted. Similar discoveries from this time period have been made by Gabriel Barkay in his Temple Mount Sifting Project, but they were not from a stratified context as this was.

Enough of the significance of the discovery, here are some details:

Items discovered: ceramic table wares, animal bones, olive pits, bowls, juglet base, storage jar rim.

Date of items: 8th-6th century (roughly the times of Hezekiah to Josiah)

Location of discovery: southeastern corner of raised platform on Temple Mount

Archaeologist in charge: Yuval Baruch, Jerusalem District Archaeologist

Consulting archaeologists: Sy Gitin, Director of the W. F. Albright Institute of Archaeological
Research in Jerusalem, Israel Finkelstein of Tel Aviv University and Ronny Reich of Haifa University

The key statement making this an important discovery: “The layer is a closed, sealed archaeological layer that has been undisturbed since the 8th century B.C.”, Jon Seligman, Jerusalem regional archaeologist.

The skeptic: Eilat Mazar, “I think it is a smoke screen for the ruining of antiquities.”

The future: examination of the discoveries in a future seminar to be organized by the Israel Antiquities Authority

More information: Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs (with photos), Israel National News (with wrong dates), Haaretz, Jerusalem Post, Maariv (more detailed article in Hebrew)

Tagged Discoveries, Jerusalem, Temple Mount

Wheaton Archaeology Lecture Series

The 52nd Annual Archaeology Lecture Series is underway at Wheaton College, entitled “Ashkelon and the Ports of the Mediterranean.” The remaining lectures are:

Wednesday, Oct 31, 6:30pm

Brian Brisco, “The Persian Period at Ashkelon”

Billy Graham Center, Room 140

Wednesday, Nov 7, 6:30pm

Tracy Hoffman, “The Byzantine and Islamic Periods at Ashkelon”

Billy Graham Center, Room 140

Tagged Lectures

Lectures at Oriental Institute

The following lectures are free, open to the public, and held in the Breasted Hall of the University of Chicago, Oriental Institute.

Wednesday, Nov 7, 7pm-9pm

Allison Thomason, “Banquets, Baubles and Bronzes: Material Comforts in Neo-Assyrian Palaces”

Wednesday, Dec 5, 7pm-9pm

Scott Branting, “Mapping the Past”

Wednesday, Jan 9, 7pm-9pm

Harald Hauptmann, “Neolithic Revolution of the Ancient Near East”

Wednesday, Feb 6, 7pm-9pm

Terry Wilfong, “Anxious Egyptians: Personal Oracles as Indices of Anxieties in the Later Periods”

Wednesday, Mar 5, 7pm-9pm

David Schloen, “Excavations at Zincirli”

Wednesday, Apr 2, 7pm-9pm

Nadine Moeller, “Tell Edfu, Egypt”

Wednesday, May 7, 7pm-9pm

Larry Stager, “Excavating Ashkelon, Sea Port of the Phillistines”

Wednesday, Jun 4, 7pm-9pm

Stuart Tyson Smith, “Death at Tombos: Pyramids, Iron, and the Rise of the Nubian Dynasty”

Tagged Lectures

Online Lectures by Younger

Someone asked recently about online lectures related to archaeology. I have learned about a couple that aren’t exactly archaeological in nature, but may be of interest to readers here.

K. Lawson Younger is a professor at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, and a highly regarded scholar in the field of Ancient Near Eastern Studies. He recently gave two lectures at Brigham Young University which can be viewed online.

Biblical Studies and the Comparative Method – Younger’s expertise on this is obvious when you realize that he was co-editor of the monumental Context of Scripture.

Finding Some of the Lost Tribes of Israel – Some might be surprised that a Mormon university would ask a Christian scholar to speak on this. I bet you that he doesn’t say that the ten lost tribes are in America! Younger has written much on this subject.

Start with these:

1998 The Deportations of the Israelites. Journal of Biblical Literature 117, pp. 201-227.

2002 Recent Study of Sargon II, King of Assyria: Implications for Biblical Studies. Pp. 288-329 in Mesopotamia and the Bible. Ed. M. Chavalas & Younger. Grand Rapids: Baker.

2003 Israelites in exile: their names appear at all levels of Assyrian society. Biblical Archaeology Review 29, no. 6 (Nov-Dec), pp. 36-45, 65-66.

But these are also relevant:

1999 The Fall of Samaria in Light of Recent Research. Catholic Biblical Quarterly 61, pp. 461-
482.

2002 Yahweh at Ashkelon and Calah?: Yahwistic names in Neo-Assyrian. Vetus Testamentum 52, pp.207-218.

2003 ‘Give Us Our Daily Bread’: Everyday Life for the Israelite Deportees. In Life and Culture in the Ancient Near East. Ed. R. Averbeck, M.W. Chavalas & D.B. Weisberg. Maryland: CDL.

2004 The Repopulation of Samaria (2 Kings 17:24, 27-31) in Light of Recent Study. Pp. 254-80 in The Future of Biblical Archaeology. Ed. J. Hoffmeier & A. Millard. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans.

Thanks to A.D. for the notice and the references.

Earthquake Evidence

Scientists have just released a report on a massive earthquake in 749 A.D. in Israel. The Jerusalem Post article is misleading in suggesting that they just now learned about this particular earthquake, as any visitor to Beth Shean will attest when viewing the fallen columns. But some more information has been learned based on excavations at Umm el-Kanater in the Golan Heights.

The discovery by Tel Aviv University scientists that a major earthquake (over 7 on the Richter scale) took place on the Golan Heights in the year 749 CE – and none of similar magnitude in some 975 years – means the area is long overdue for another one. So say the TAU geologists and archeologists who published their findings in Seismology Research Letters released to the press on Sunday.
The archeological signs of the earthquake were found at Umm el-Kanater (“Mother of the Arches”), a five- or 10-minute drive from Katzrin and near Moshav Natur east of the Kinneret. The damage consisted of a broken pool of water whose two parts were moved a meter from one another. The pools had been used to collect water for a nearby village inhabited from the Byzantine Period until the middle of the eighth century. The dig site has been open to the public for more than three years.
The village suffered destruction, including damage to an elaborately built synagogue that collapsed and whose stones were fortunately not stolen, unlike those of many other archeological sites on the Golan.

You can read the rest at the Jerusalem Post.

The reference to 975 years is enigmatic. It probably is a reference to an earthquake in 1724 A.D., but why that means Israel is due for another one at this time is not clear.

Umm el-KanatirPhoto courtesy of David Bivin (March 2007)

Tagged Discoveries