Uncategorized Archives - Page 498 of 559

New Blog: Tel Dan Excavations

The first excavation in Israel to have a running blog is the The Tell es-Safi/Gath Excavations Official (and Unofficial) Weblog. But it’s been several years and no one else seems to have caught on. Until now. The Tel Dan Excavations has started a new blog. At this point, the blog looks more like a website, with static pages but not daily updates. Presumably, with the start of the season this summer, they’ll keep us regularly informed of the progress.

Permit me one comment on the recruiting banner, as they encourage volunteers to sign up. The slogan says, on top of the graphic: “The 2008 season begins June 22! Will you find the missing pieces of the David inscription? Mail your volunteer application soon.” That’s certainly a tantalizing suggestion. Even though it’s been 14-15 years since the three fragments were found, there certainly could be more. And if more are discovered, you can bet that many of the scholarly theories about the Tel Dan Inscription (TDI) will be cast aside. In fact, here’s something that I had not picked up on until research last week. Perhaps you know that the TDI was probably written by the Aramean king Hazael and it mentions his killing of King Jehoram of Israel and King Ahaziah of Judah. This appears to contradict 2 Kings 9 which says that Jehu, not Hazael, killed these two kings. But here’s what I didn’t realize: the contradiction entirely hangs on two hypothesized words and letters in the TDI (they are reconstructed because the fragment breaks off at these points). In other words, we only know that it says “I killed Jehoram” because scholars hypothesized the words “I killed.” Of Ahaziah, it says “killed Ahaziah,” but the “I” is reconstructed. Whether this is a reasonable or unreasonable guess, it is only a guess. I sure hope they find more fragments. Maybe it’ll be you.

Iron Age gate and plaza at Dan

Tagged Opportunities, Resources

Weekend Roundup

There are a number of stories I’ve noted over the past week or so that may be of interest.

The Philistine city of Gath has been “civilized” with the creation of a new national park. I think they should have called it the Gath National Park, instead of the Tel Zafit National Park, as no one seriously questions the identification any more. The site is now off-limits to 4-wheel drive vehicles (that makes it a climb to the top!) and signs are posted around. See the Official/Unofficial Gath Blog for details.

A special exhibit this summer will feature a long portion of the Isaiah Scroll. The first 28 chapters (8 feet; 2.3 meters) will be displayed at the Shrine of the Book from May 13 to August 15, 2008. The Isaiah Scroll was once on display in the center of the exhibit, but because of stress on the manuscript, it was replaced by a replica many years ago.

You don’t have to go anywhere to see these 12 stunning photos of Egypt from National Geographic

(HT: Dr. Claude Mariottini).

The biographer of Kathleen Kenyon recently gave a lecture on the archaeologist at Baylor University. This link is to a (flawed) news report and not the lecture itself. I mentioned the biography itself before here.

Here’s a good little article on the excavations in the City of David around the possible palace of David. If you’ve kept up on the story, you won’t find anything new here, but it is an informed presentation. CBN has another, less helpful, tourist visit to the City of David.

(HT: Joe Lauer)

Tagged Jerusalem, New Exhibits

Golf Where Jesus Prayed

I’ve heard talk about a golf course planned on Arbel overlooking the Sea of Galilee for years, but this JPost article makes it sound like it’s getting closer to realization. (Interpreted for those unfamiliar with the Israeli system, that means that there are now less than 472,325 legal obstacles remaining.)

Here are a few numbers mentioned in the article:

2: Number of 18-hole golf courses in Galilee

150: Cost of the ultra-luxury resort (in millions of dollars)

8: Cost of water treatment plant already built (in millions of dollars)

The official website: www.israelbythesea.com

There will also is a golf course planned for Eilat, and JPost has a computer-generated image of what it might look like.

This blog post title is an allusion to the idea that Arbel may have been the mountain on which Jesus withdrew to pray (Matt 14:23; Mark 6:46; Luke 6:12). I should trademark it and trade it to the developers for one of the gazillion-dollar memberships.

Arbel and the Sea of Galilee from the west

Tagged Galilee, Not an April Fool's Joke

Book Released on Looting of Iraq

The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago has just published an 88-page book on the looting in Iraq in the aftermath of the war. From their website:

Catastrophe! The Looting and Destruction of Iraq’s Past
Edited by Geoff Emberling and Katharyn Hanson, 2008 With an introduction by Professor McGuire Gibson, this up-to-date account describes the state of the Iraq National Museum in Baghdad and chronicles the damage done to archaeological sites by illicit digging.

The book can be ordered for $30 or downloaded in pdf format for free. An exhibit of the same name opens at the Oriental Institute on April 10.

Tagged New Exhibits, Resources

Tiberias Archaeological Park

The most important city in Galilee in the 1st century A.D. was Tiberias. Founded by Herod Antipas in 20 A.D. and named after the emperor, Tiberius, the city served as the capital of the region. In the New Testament, the Sea of Galilee is several times referred to as the “Sea of Tiberias,” indicating the city’s importance. But for two reasons most Christian tourists to Israel don’t know much about it. First, there is no record that Jesus ever visited the city. None of his miracles or sermons here, if he did any, are written down. Second, Tiberias today is the largest city in Galilee, and modern populations and ancient ruins don’t like each other. But in the last few years, excavations of the ancient city have been taking place in areas not yet covered by apartment buildings and shopping malls. This week, the Israel Antiquities Authority announced a plan to open an archaeological park to feature the Roman city. The press release is posted in full here with a few photos, and some extracts are posted below. The Jerusalem Post has the story in briefer form here.

Berko Park is slated to be magnet that will attract tourism from Israel and abroad to Tiberias and will expose the public at large to Tiberias’ glorious past, through all of its history which has its beginnings in the Early Roman period 2,000 years ago….
Berko Park extends across an area of approximately 100 dunams and is replete with ancient remains of the city of Tiberias that date from the time of the city’s establishment by Herod Antipas in the 1st century CE until the time of the Fatimid dynasty in the 11th century CE….
It is anticipated that the work in this part of the park will be finished this coming summer. Within the framework of the future expansion of Berko Park the Roman theater, which is located at the foot of Mount Berenice, is slated to be excavated. The theater is built of stone, is of imposing in size and faces east, thus those seated in it viewed the Sea of Galilee opposite them, the Golan Heights and Mount Hermon. The planners envision that this ancient and impressive theater will be used once again in modern times for the presentation of grandiose performances….
Berko Park is part of a more extensive area where there are important archaeological finds that are all expected to be included in a large archaeological park in which there are ancient buildings that were previously excavated and that stand exposed today in the area. Included among them are the beit hamidrash that is ascribed to Rabbi Yochanan, which was exposed in the area of Tiberias’ waste water purification plant, the Anchor Church on Mount Berenice, another Byzantine church structure that was recently uncovered, the cardo, the marketplace, the aqueduct and the water reservoir. The city of Tiberias and the Israel Antiquities Authority will continue to act to rehabilitate and conserve these ancient structures, and to include them in a wide-scale tourism program.

Tiberias and Sea of Galilee from south

Previous stories about Tiberias on this blog report on the Roman theater and the ancient church.

HT: Joe Lauer

Archaeologist Who Found Iron Age Remains on Temple Mount

The Canadian Jewish News has an article about the archaeologist who found Iron Age period remains on the Temple Mount a few months ago.

Yuval Baruch, left, made archeological history in October 2007 when he uncovered pottery artifacts on the site of Jerusalem’s Temple Mount. They are considered to be the first physical evidence of human activity during the time of King Solomon’s Temple (the First Jewish Temple). Baruch, who is Jerusalem’s district archeologist at the Israel Antiquities Authority, speaking at the Berney Theatre here, outlined his world-famous discovery as part of a lecture series put on by the Canadian Friends of the Hebrew University.

And the interesting part:

“I was not supposed to be left there alone, as the Waqf always has someone present when Israeli archeologists are on the site. It was in the evening after 8 p.m., and by chance the Arab electrical workers left me and a member of my staff for about 15 minutes while they went to pray. When I was alone in that brief time, I found the pottery shards among dust near the bedrock level,” he says.

And what he found:

Baruch’s findings include animal bones; ceramic bowl rims, bases and body shards; the base of a juglet used to pour oil; the handle of a small juglet; and the rim of a storage jar. In addition, a piece of a whitewashed, handmade object was found. It may have been used to decorate a larger object or may have been the leg of an animal figurine. The finds are dated from eight-to six-century BCE.

And I bet you can’t believe this:

“The reaction of the Muslim authority [the Waqf] was to ignore the finds,” he adds, which he says was not surprising since over the years the Waqf has tried to undermine Jewish historical ties to the site. “The Waqf’s official position is that there was never a Jewish Temple on the Temple Mount, he says.”

You can read the full story here.

Tagged Temple Mount