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New Book: Excavating the City of David

It’s a bit risky to suggest that a book you have not read or even seen is in the top-ten must-have books on Jerusalem, but I’m willing to be so bold in the case of Ronny Reich’s new book, Excavating the City of David. Given how quickly Jerusalem’s history “changes” as new archaeological discoveries are made, it is not all that daring to suggest that the newest book is one of the most important. But I believe that the book will be a classic on the subject because it is written by the lead excavator of the longest running excavations ever in the City of David.

Since 1995, Reich has been working with Eli Shukrun in numerous areas throughout the most ancient portion of the city of Jerusalem.

They have excavated the area of the Gihon Spring where they discovered the Spring and Pool Towers. They cleared and re-dated the Siloam Channel and made new discoveries concerning the origin of Warren’s Shaft. In 2004, Reich and Shukrun discovered and revealed the first-century Pool of Siloam. In recent years, they have excavated the ancient street leading from the pool to the Temple Mount.

Sixteen years of often year-round excavation far exceeds the seven years of Kathleen Kenyon’s work (1961-67) or the eight years of Yigal Shiloh (1978-85). Reich also benefits from learning from the history of many dozens of excavations in Jerusalem (good and bad), and he has the latest archaeological tools to guide his research.

Excavating the City of David is published by the Israel Exploration Society and includes 384 pages and 207 illustrations. The book has two major sections (see details below in table of contents). The first reviews the history of excavation in the last 150 years. The second is a brief history of the City of David. The work collects the findings published in various articles (Hebrew and English) over the last 15 years, and it almost certainly includes new data and interpretations of the latest finds.

This book will be a major reference in the field for decades to come. It is available now for about $50 from the Biblical Archaeology Society and as a pre-order from Eisenbrauns. (It is not listed at Amazon.)

Table of Contents:

Introduction

The City of David–the archaeologists’ creation

The City of David: The History of its Excavation and Study

The Gihon Spring and the pool

Under Ottoman rule

Charles Warren
Charles Clermont-Ganneau
Conrad Schick and the discovery of the Siloam Inscription
Hermann Guthe, Conrad Schick and the discovery of Channel II
E. Masterman and C.A. Hornstein and Channel I
Frederick Jones Bliss and Archibald Dickie
Montague B. Parker and Father Louis H. Vincent
Raymond Weill

During the British mandatory period

The International Excavation Project
Robert A.S. Macalister and J. Garrow Duncan
John Winter Crowfoot and Gerald M. Fitzgerald

During the period of the divided city (1948-1967)

Kathleen M. Kenyon

After reunification of Jerusalem in June 1967

David Ussishkin and the survey of tombs in Silwan
David Adan-Bayewitz and Yigal Shiloh
Ronny Reich and Eli Shukron
Some small-scale excavations
Eilat Mazar
Doron Ben-Ami and Yana Tchekhanovets

Summary

What next?

A Brief History of the City of David

Early days
The first city—in the Middle Bronze Age II
The Late Bronze Age: “My king has caused his name to dwell in the Land of Jerusalem forever”
Biblical traditions: David, Solomon and the United Monarchy
Some geographical-historical issues
Text vs. pottery sherd
The kingdom of Judah
The return from Babylonian exile
The Early Hellenistic and Hasmonean periods
The southern City of David in the Herodian period
The Roman destruction of the city
The Late Roman period
The Byzantine period, the Church of Siloam
The Early Islamic period and the renewal of Jewish settlement in the southern part of the city
The Middle Ages—The Mameluke period and the reopening of the spring
The Ottoman period

Epilogue

Acknowledgements

Appendices

Chronological Table

Selected bibliography

Index

Index of textual references

Illustration credits

Tagged Jerusalem, Resources

Purim and the Book of Esther

The celebration of Purim begins tonight and commemorates the deliverance of the Jewish people described in the book of Esther. If you have not read the book in a while, this might be a good occasion to do so with family and friends.

You might understand the book better if you recognize that there are three sections. The first two chapters introduce the main characters and put them in position for their timely action. The central section reveals the plot, beginning with Haman’s successful efforts to secure a degree ordering the slaughter of the Jews and concluding with Haman’s death and the issuing of a counter-edict (3:1–9:19). The third section concludes the book with the declaration of the annual celebration of Purim to remember the deliverance of the Jews (9:20-10:3).

If you are a more advanced reader, you might pay more attention in your next reading to the author’s use of the number two. There are two queens, two heroes, two decrees, two banquets hosted by Esther, and many other such examples.

In a recent study of the book, I appreciated this statement by Robert Gordis:

Anti-Semites have always hated the book, and the Nazis forbade its reading in the crematoria and the concentration camps. In the dark days before their deaths, Jewish inmates of Auschwitz, Dachau, Treblinka, and Bergen-Belsen wrote the Book of Esther from memory and read it in secret on Purim. Both they and their brutal foes understood its message. This unforgettable book teaches that Jewish resistance to annihilation, then as now, represents the service of God and devotion to His cause. In every age, martyrs and heroes, as well as ordinary men and women, have seen in it not merely a record of past deliverance but a prophecy of future salvation” (Megillat Esther. New York: Rabbinical Assembly, 1974, p. 14).

More about the modern celebration of the holiday is given in this article published yesterday by Arutz-7. A couple of years ago we posted a few photos of the holiday in connection with an article about “The Tomb of Mordechai and Esther.”

Tagged Holidays

Touring Israel

A number of articles or blog pieces have appeared recently about various sites and trails around Israel.

Shmuel Browns recently completed an eight-day hike on the Israel Trail, beginning at its southern end near Eilat. He posts some reflections and photos from his experience. The last picture in particular should get some of you to thinking about when you’re going to book your next flight to Israel. Browns also recommends a hike from the Timna Valley where one can see many plants in bloom this time of year.

Yoni Cohen writes in the Jerusalem Post about hiking in the Yehudia Forest Reserve, though the article is too brief. The National Parks official website has similar information, and I noted previously (with links) that this is the best place to hike in the summer. Last week Cohen wrote about Ein Akev and Ein Zik near Kibbutz Sede Boqer.

Ferrell Jenkins has written about two of the lesser known sources of the Jordan River, the Nahal Senir (Hasbani) and the Nahal Iyon (Bareighit). He also recently pointed readers to his free guide to biblically related artifacts in the British Museum.

Leon Mauldin is touring Israel now and has recently visited Gordon’s Calvary, Anathoth, and Gibeon.

Carl Rasmussen has begun a blog and his most recent post features several beautiful photos of a synagogue mosaic at Sepphoris.

In a new column at the Jerusalem Post, Wayne Stiles writes of Tel Dan and Qumran. On his blog, Stiles notes the release of a DVD four years in the making entitled “Experience the Land and the Book.”

Tagged Tourism, Travels, Weekend Roundup

Stolen Egyptian Antiquities Recovered

A police trap has led to the recovery of 12 objects recently stolen from the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. From the Luxor Times Magazine:

Ahmed Attia Mahmod lives at Dar El-Salam district in Cairo formed a group to attack the Egyptian Museum on 28th January, during the clashes that occurred around the museum which distracted the attention.
This was revealed when he was arrested with a friend of his who owns a coffee shop in the same district and a third partner with 12 objects of the Museum’s missing objects. The perpetrators started to spread videos and pictures of the objects to mobile phones of others trying to find a buyer. The Antiquities police in co-operation with the Armed Forces tracked them and set them a trap with the help of a foreigner who works at the American Embassy in Cairo convening the criminals that he will buy the objects for 50 million dollars when the police and military police arrested them.

The full story is here. The same source provides a list of all 54 missing objects from the museum.

HT: Jack Sasson

Tagged Egypt

Israel to Remove Minefields

Israel has finally decided to remove its minefields. From Arutz-7:

A law that will require the removal of all known mines in Israel passed its second and third Knesset reading Monday. The law, originally sponsored by former MK Tzachi Hanegbi (Kadima) and later by MK Roni Bar-On (Kadima), was approved by a 43-0 vote. It authorizes the Defense Ministry to set up a new department that will be responsible for clearing minefields in the Negev, Golan, and other parts of the country that the IDF had set up in the early days of the state.
[…]
Among those present in the Knesset plenum as the law was passed was Daniel Yuval, who was badly hurt several years ago when he entered a minefield in the Golan. Yuval, now 13, lost a leg to the mine that exploded when he inadvertently stepped on it in a snow-covered field where signs indicating that the field was mined were difficult or impossible to see. Yuval became an Israeli ambassador for the cause of land-mine removal, speaking around Israel and at international forums on the problem of land mines.

The full story is here.

Minefield near the southern end of the Sea of Galilee

Tagged Golan, Tourism

Na'aman Lecture at Penn State

Professor Nadav Na’aman of Tel Aviv University will be lecturing this week at Pennsylvania State University on the subject of “Text and Archaeology: Two Sets of Competing Data of Urban Culture Decline.” The lecture will be held on Thursday, March 17, 2011 at 4:00 p.m. in 102 Weaver Building.

It’s probably just a coincidence that this week Penn State professor Donald Redford is lecturing on a variety of subjects in Jerusalem.

HT: Eric Welch

Tagged Lectures