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Biblical and Modern Jezreel

Aviva Bar-Am has written an informative article about ancient Jezreel and its modern counterparts in the Jerusalem Post. The first half discusses the battles around the village in 1948 and the kibbutz that was established there. The second half describes the biblical and archaeological significance, including this part:

Although archeologists have uncovered portions of a tower, found the city gate and dug to the bottom of the moat, the biblical Jezreel is overgrown with weeds and there isn’t much to see (I am also not sure how safe it is – there are open pits). It is much more fun to spend time at the tel’s excellent recreation site, centered by a striking monument to Palmah troops who fell here in 1948. From the heights of the tel you have a fantastic view of the Harod and Beit She’an valleys. Enjoy the shade produced by the fruit trees in the lovely reconstruction of Naboth’s plot.
You can also follow a lovely biblical trail on the northern edge of the mountain down the slope for about 35 minutes (allow about 50 minutes for walking back up). A delightful surprise awaits you at the bottom: the Jezreel Spring. It is one of 48 freshwater, full springs that lie under the mountain, the result of geological changes that occurred when the Syrian African Rift raised Mount Gilboa and lowered the valley.
Before you jump into the inviting pool, set within a grove of eucalyptus trees, look for a shaft a few meters from the end of the trail. It leads underground to a tunnel which you and your kids can enter (with a flashlight!), walk through water and end up on the other side of the road in a canal that leads directly to the pool.
The spring, of course, is mentioned in the Bible (isn’t everything in this region?) “The Philistines gathered all their forces at Aphek, and Israel camped by the spring in Jezreel…” [I Samuel 29:1].

The full article is here.

HT: Joe Lauer

Tell Jezreel and Mount Gilboa from west

Tagged Galilee, Samaria

Temple Model Overlooks Temple Mount

I was traveling last week when the Jerusalem Post reported on the installation of a model of the Second Temple above the Western Wall plaza, but readers who didn’t see it elsewhere may be interested. You can see another photo of the model at Arutz-7; it looks very similar to the model at the Israel Museum (formerly Holyland Hotel).

Some 50 people gathered on Wednesday to watch the installation of a Second Temple model on the roof of a yet-unfinished Aish HaTorah yeshiva building, across from the Western Wall and just a few hundred meters from where the real thing once stood.
With the Dome of the Rock and the Aksa Mosque standing conspicuously in the background, a crane lowered the 1.2-ton model onto the roof.
It took about a year for Michael Osanis, an immigrant from the former Soviet Union who has built a number of other Temple models, including one in the Temple Institute, also in the capital’s Jewish Quarter, to complete this model, which is made from gold, silver, wood and Jerusalem stone.
The model will sit on a new educational building for Aish HaTorah’s short-term outreach programs, which is set to open in December.
Aish, which provides a network of educational programs for Jews around the world, is also building a new “Exploratorium” – an interactive museum on Jewish history, which it expects will host 300,000 visitors annually after it opens in two years.
“What could be more appropriate than to have here, as people are standing looking out over our holiest place, the Temple Mount, a sense of what it was really like to have the Temple here?” asked Ephraim Shore, director of Aish’s programs in Jerusalem.
The yeshiva hopes that this model will help people to visualize the Temple and therefore forge a stronger connection with Judaism and Jewish history.
“It is hard for us to imagine a Temple and to feel that we are praying inside the Temple,” said Rabbi Hillel Weinberg, the head of Aish’s Jerusalem yeshiva.
“But now, everyone who comes and sees this Temple model, it will be much easier for them to connect to the Temple and to direct their prayers to the Holy of Holies.”
As the crane lowered the model into place, an argument broke out about which direction it should face. Should it mirror the way the actual Temple sat in relation to the Temple Mount, or sit the opposite way, making it easier for large crowds to see it?
Osanis swiftly decided that ease of access was more important, and positioned the model accordingly. Not everyone in the crowd was happy with the decision.

The story continues here.

HT: Joe Lauer

Tagged Jerusalem, Temple Mount

Assyrian Tablets Found in Tayinat Temple

The tablets may be “part of a possible archive.” From a press release from the University of Toronto:

Excavations led by a University of Toronto archaeologist at the site of a recently discovered temple in southeastern Turkey have uncovered a cache of cuneiform tablets dating back to the Iron Age period between 1200 and 600 BCE. Found in the temple’s cella, or ‘holy of holies’, the tablets are part of a possible archive. The cella also contained gold, bronze and iron implements, libation vessels and ornately decorated ritual objects.
“The assemblage appears to represent a Neo-Assyrian renovation of an older Neo-Hittite temple complex, providing a rare glimpse into the religious dimension of Assyrian imperial ideology,” said Timothy Harrison, professor of near eastern archeology in the Department of Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations and director of U of T’s Tayinat Archaeological Project (TAP). “The tablets, and the information they contain, may possibly highlight the imperial ambitions of one of the great powers of the ancient world, and its lasting influence on the political culture of the Middle East.”
Partially uncovered in 2008 at Tell Tayinat, capital of the Neo-Hittite Kingdom of Palastin, the structure of the building where the tablets were found preserves the classic plan of a Neo-Hittite temple. It formed part of a sacred precinct that once included monumental stelae carved in Luwian (an extinct Anatolian language once spoken in Turkey) hieroglyphic script, but which were found by the expedition smashed into tiny shard-like fragments.

The press release continues here.

HT: Joe Lauer

Tagged Discoveries, Excavations, Turkey

Tel Kabri 2009 Excavation Results

Eric Cline writes on the ANE-2 list:

The co-directors of the Kabri Archaeological Project (KAP) would like to announce that a pdf of the preliminary results from the 2009 excavation season is now available at:
http://digkabri.files.wordpress.com/2008/10/preliminary-report-on-the-results-of-the-2009-excavation-season-at-tel-kabri.pdf If the direct link does not work for some reason, please go to http://digkabri.wordpress.com/, click on "2009 Season," and then click on the link there to download the pdf. Links to the results of previous seasons (2005, 2006, 2007, and 2008) are also listed at http://digkabri.wordpress.com/, under the "Previous Results" link
KAP Publications which have already appeared are: E.H. Cline and A. Yasur-Landau, "Poetry in Motion: Canaanite Rulership and Aegean Narrative at Kabri," in EPOS: Reconsidering Greek Epic and Aegean Bronze Age Archaeology: 157-165, S.P. Morris and R. Laffineur, eds. Aegaeum 28. Liège: Université de Liège. 2007. A. Yasur-Landau, E.H. Cline, and G.A. Pierce, "Middle Bronze Age Settlement Patterns in the Western Galilee, Israel," Journal of Field Archaeology 33/1 (2008) 59-83.

The report’s abstract reads:

The 2009 excavations at Tel Kabri, the capital of a Middle Bronze Age Canaanite kingdom located in the western Galilee region of modern Israel, lasted from 21 June to 30 July 2009. A highlight of the season was the discovery of numerous fragments of painted plaster, from both a previously-unknown Minoan-style wall fresco with figural representations and a second Aegean-style painted floor.

Tagged Excavations, Galilee

Video: Search for Sodom and Gomorrah

Ferrell Jenkins links to a new video on the excavations of Tall el-Hammam, believed by Steven Collins to be biblical Sodom. The 10-minute video is well-produced and the excavator’s arguments are easy to understand. I don’t need to make every mention of this excavation on this blog an occasion to disagree, but it is difficult to let certain statements slide by. Besides that, conservative Bible believers like myself are used to hearing critical dismissals from those who don’t trust the Bible. But just because something is opposed by critics does not mean that it is automatically right!

The problem, I believe, is that Collins’ statement “right place, right time” dooms his identification.

Finding ancient sites that have Middle Bronze occupation and then a gap until Iron Age is not difficult. That’s what Collins has found. This and the others in the area are no doubt important sites, but it does not fit the biblical data about Sodom. Collins concludes with the presentation with this statement:

Every turn of the spade at Tall el-Hammam reinforces the occupational profile predicted for Sodom from the Bible.

If this statement was negative, it would be accurate. That is, Tall el-Hammam does not match the occupational profile for Sodom given in the Bible.

Sodom, according to the Bible:

Intermediate Bronze (aka EB IV/MB I; 2300-2000 BC): occupied and destroyed
Middle Bronze (2000-1500 BC): not occupied
Late Bronze (1500-1200 BC): not occupied
Iron Age (1200-600 BC): not occupied

Tall el-Hammam, according to the excavations:

Intermediate Bronze (aka EB IV/MB I; 2300-2000 BC): occupied
Middle Bronze (2000-1500 BC): occupied [Sodom was not]
Late Bronze (1500-1200 BC): not occupied
Iron Age (1200-600 BC): occupied [Sodom was not]

With regard to the Middle Bronze occupation, understand this: you must revise the biblical dates in order for Collins’ identification to match the archaeology. He lowers the date of Abraham in order to create a match with his excavation results. The traditional biblical dating of the destruction of Sodom is approximately 2100 BC, but the Middle Bronze Age ends about 500 years later. (The key references that establish the biblical dating are Exodus 12:40 and 1 Kings 6:1.)

With regard to the Iron Age occupation, there is not one reference in the Bible to Sodom being occupied during this time. There are many references from the end of the Iron Age that indicate that its destruction testified to God’s judgment (Isa 1:9; 13:19-20; Jer 50:40; Amos 4:11; Zeph 2:9). This would hardly be the case for a city that was rebuilt and thriving as Tall el-Hammam was.

Understand, I want to believe. The data just gets in the way.

My previous posts on this site may be found here and here. Steven Collins has written a number of articles about Tall el-Hammam which may be found in his school’s journal here.

Tagged Dead Sea, Excavations

New Book: Eilat Mazar, The Palace of King David

The first preliminary report of Eilat Mazar’s excavations of the City of David is provocatively entitled, The Palace of King David. The cover art shows an artist’s reconstruction of the palace, based on far more than what Mazar has excavated in her first three seasons. The 100-page work is subtitled Excavations at the Summit of the City of David: Preliminary Report of Seasons 2005-2007, and it is to be published by Shoham Academic Research and Publication in 2009. Eisenbrauns has it available for pre-order for $22.50.

The publisher’s description is as follows:

The preliminary report of the excavations at the top of the City of David hill in 2005-2007 summarizes the main findings from the Chalcolithic (the 5th millenium [sic] BCE) through the early Islamic (the 11th century CE) periods and presents initial conclusions of great importance to the study of the ancient history of Jerusalem.

UPDATE (8/10): The book is now shipping.

Tagged Jerusalem, Resources