BiblePlaces Blog - Page 319 of 558

Eilat Mazar and Her Critics

The controversy surrounding the work of Eilat Mazar in Jerusalem is the focus of a recent article written by Morey Altman for the Jerusalem Report. At the heart of the conflict is the role of the Bible in archaeological interpretation.

Eilat Mazar readily concedes the use of Scripture as a guide but acknowledges the limitations of the Bible as an historical document. “The fact is all historical documents are biased because they are written by people.”
But she’s also critical of those who too readily dismiss the use of the Bible as a reference tool. “You don’t want to go the other extreme and ignore a document that’s potentially helpful. Information at hand, whether we’re talking about the Bible or historical documents, may direct us a certain way, but the minute you start excavating, you are obliged by very high scientific standards,” she maintains. “We can use the Bible as a starting point, just as archaeologists working in the Near East have always done,” she tells The Report. “People investigated what they knew, and they knew the Bible.”
Nevertheless, Finkelstein’s concerns go beyond the validity of Scripture. “It is not clear whether the wall was an outer wall or an inner wall within the city,” he tells The Report. “And in any event, no 10th century BCE city-wall has ever been found in Jerusalem.”

I hope that Finkelstein wasn’t trying to make the argument that Mazar could not have found a 10th-century wall because no 10th-century wall has ever been found.

The article concludes with a quotation from Mazar that she still has a few secrets.

Tagged 10th Century, Jerusalem

Weekend Roundup

Luke Chandler has responded to some of my questions about the recently announced cultic room at Khirbet Qeiyafa. I’m still curious if anyone else is convinced that Garfinkel has found one cultic room, let alone three. (Or, did pillars ever support roofs or were they only used for worship?)

The results from the first two seasons of excavation at Tel Burna (Libnah?) were presented at the ASOR meeting yesterday and the PowerPoint presentation is now available for download.

Haaretz reports on the development of the Abraham Path, a route intended to run from Haran in Turkey south to the patriarch’s burial place in Hebron.

Wayne Stiles introduces readers to the first-century boat found on the shore of the Sea of Galilee. The Jerusalem Post article includes 7 photos.

In his weekly column, Joe Yudin gives the historical basis for locating the Pools of Bethesda next to the Church of St. Anne.

The reason that the Jordan River today is a pathetic stream composed largely of sewage is that “97% of its historical flow of some 1,250 million cubic meters per year has been diverted by Israel, Syria and Jordan,” according to a report described in the Jerusalem Post.

The AP reports on the progress being made in mapping every tombstone on the Mount of Olives.

Another former church in Turkey, this one famous for hosting the Second Council of Nicaea, has been turned into a mosque.

HT: Al Sandalow, Joseph Lauer

Tagged Galilee, Jerusalem, Shephelah, Tourism, Turkey

City of David: Then and Now

There’s a good chance that many of our current blog readers were not with us back in 2005. So while I’m traveling today, I thought I’d re-post a link to a photo comparison of the City of David. It’s worth a look.

I also have just created a PowerPoint presentation with these two photos to make it easier to flip back and forth.

Tagged Jerusalem, Then and Now

Gezer Excavations, 2006-2009

Several weeks ago I mentioned briefly the preliminary report from the first four seasons of the Gezer excavations of Ortiz and Wolff (2006-2009). As it may be easy to skip reading a lengthy online report, I thought I would return to it and note the conclusions here, in easier-to-read bullet-point fashion:

“Major results from the first four excavation seasons include:

the exposure of the Middle Bronze Age glacis;
the discovery of a Late Bronze Age stratum, consisting of several wall fragments and a large pillar base that probably indicates the presence of a major public structure;
the clarification of the Iron Age fortification systems;
the distinguishing of three major architectural strata from Iron II;
a large Israelite four-room house and three public buildings that were destroyed in the eighth century BCE, probably as a result of Tiglath Pileser III’s campaign in the region;
and the excavation of three Hellenistic building complexes.”

Not mentioned in the conclusion, but potentially quite significant with regard to the date of the Solomonic gate and its associated level is the discovery of a stamp.

Several storage-jar stoppers/plugs were discovered in the deep contemporary construction backfill within one of the chambers created by this system. One of these stoppers bore an Egyptian stamp typical of the so-called ‘Early Iron Age Mass-Produced Seals’ (EIAMS) series, dated by some scholars from the twelfth/eleventh to the early tenth centuries BCE, and by others, to the mid-tenth century BCE, thus dating the glacis and retaining wall system to late Iron I or early Iron II.

Something major was clearly going on at Gezer in the Iron Age before the 9th century. As noted before, Sam Wolff has written that the team is a season or two away from floor levels associated with the (Solomonic) six-chambered gate.

Tagged Excavations, Shephelah

Wednesday Roundup

Luke Chandler reports on the discovery of three cultic rooms at Khirbet Qeiyafa. The evidence revealed thus far is limited, and I’ve posted a few questions that I’d like to see answered in a comment on Luke’s post.

The first-ever Crusader inscription in Arabic has been discovered in Jaffa. The inscription mentions the name of the Emperor Frederick II and the date “1229 of the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus the Messiah.”

A new Bible museum will be built in Israel. Though the Haaretz article reports that the cabinet decided on a location in Jerusalem, it also identifies possible locations as the Adullam Nature Reserve, Neot Kedumim, and a place in Jerusalem near the Israel Museum.

The Boğazköy Sphinx has been transported from the Berlin Pergamon Museum to Turkey where it will go on display with its counterpart on November 26 in Boğazkale. (For background, see here.)

Ferrell Jenkins names some photos that are worth 1000 words each. In addition to our Pictorial
Library, he recommends the free resources at Holy Land Photos and David Padfield’s website.

The largest Paleo-Hebrew inscription in the history of the world is now on a rooftop in southern California.

Israeli government officials have figured out a positive way to spin their defeat in the campaign to have the Dead Sea named as one of the New 7 Wonders of Nature.

HT: Jack Sasson

Tagged Dead Sea, Discoveries, Jerusalem, Shephelah, Turkey, Weekend Roundup

Book Deal Today: Carta’s New Century Handbook

This one won’t wait for tomorrow’s roundup because it’s a “Deal of the Day” at Eisenbrauns. I’ve mentioned before (many times) the incomparable value of The Sacred Bridge, by Anson F. Rainey and R. Steven Notley (2005). This work sells for $135, but if you do not need the original languages printed in the text (Hebrew, Greek, Egyptian, Akkadian), you can save half by purchasing the Carta’s New Century Handbook and Atlas of the Bible for $70.

If you don’t mind bent corners and you make up your mind before noon today (and before they sell out), you can save more than half again and get the book for $25. I wonder if there is a book published in the last 10 years in the field of biblical studies that has more packed into 280 pages than this one.

Eisenbrauns also has a non-bent-corner edition for less than Amazon at $50.

You can see the publisher’s information sheet, including the table of contents, in this pdf file. My previous assessment of “The Sacred Abridgement” can be found here.

Tagged Resources