BiblePlaces Blog - Page 483 of 554

Gold Coins from 1st Century Found at Ramat Rahel

Haaretz is reporting on the discovery of a hoard of coins at a site three miles south of ancient Jerusalem.

A few days ago, archaeologists made a most surprising find at the bottom of such a columbarium, at a site at Kibbutz Ramat Rachel near Jerusalem – a hoard of coins from the time of the destruction of the Second Temple (70 C.E.).
Late in July, archaeologists from Tel Aviv University identified, beneath the floor of the columbarium, a ceramic cooking pot from the 1st century C.E. that held 15 large gold coins. “It’s very special to find a hoard like this, and it’s very exciting,” related the director of the excavations at the site, Dr. Oded Lipschits, of TAU. “We discovered the hoard with a metal detector, and then we went down into the niche and found this small cooking pot inside it.”
What was a pot holding coins doing at the bottom of a cave used for raising pigeons? According to Lipschits, the pot was covered up in a way that indicates that it had been concealed in a hurry. “We know that coins like these were brought to the Temple,” he says. “Possibly after the Temple was destroyed there was no place to bring the coins, and since the columbarium was no longer in use, they buried the coins here. This arouses sad thoughts as we approach Tisha B’Av,” he added, referring to the Hebrew date (the ninth of Av) that traditionally marks the destruction of both the First and Second Temples.

For photos, see the Hebrew version of the article. (HT: Joe Lauer).

Unrelated to the coin discovery is discussion of the function of the building that has previously been identified as a palace of the Judean kings (something akin to Camp David in the U.S.).

Lipschits says that one of the aims of the current dig is to clarify the purpose of this structure. “The accepted claim is that it is a palace of the kings of Judea, but I’m dubious of that. The palace lacks any Judean characteristics, and there is no reason that a royal palace would have been built here, when the City of David is not far away.”
Lipschits believes that the palace was built during the period of the Assyrian subjugation. “This entire complex is, in my opinion, an administrative center for the occupying regime, a place where agricultural produce was collected, for delivery as a tax to the Assyrians.”
During the period of the return to Zion (beginning 539 B.C.E.), the Assyrian regime was replaced by a Persian one, but the administrative center continued to operate. Many seal impressions from this period have been found, bearing the name “Pahwat Yahud,” the name of the country under this regime. The Ramat Rachel excavation is is the main accumulation in the country of impressions of this sort, and Lipschits sees this as further proof that the site was an administrative center.

There’s some confusion about this elsewhere, but I think the journalist has it correct. What Lipschits is suggesting, contrary to his predecessors (Aharoni, Yadin, and Barkay) is that the palace was an Assyrian center, following the time of the Assyrian subjugation of Judah under Hezekiah. While most would agree that Assyria maintained some sort of control over Judah for about 50 years after Sennacherib’s failed attempt to conquer Jerusalem, Lipschits goes farther in claiming that Ramat Rahel was an on-site command post for Assyria. Here’s a brief summary of archaeologists’ conclusions about this important and beautiful building:

Yohanan Aharoni: Palace of Judean king Jehoiakim (cf. Jeremiah 22); ca. 600 B.C.
Yigael Yadin (never missing an opportunity to disagree with YA): Palace of Judean queen Athaliah; ca. 840 B.C.
Gabriel Barkay: Palace of Judean king Hezekiah; ca. 700 B.C. (possibly built, destroyed, and rebuilt during his reign)
Nadav Na’aman and Oded Lipschits: Assyrian headquarters in Judah; ca. 700 B.C.

If you’re interested in more, you can start with the article by Barkay in Biblical Archaeology Review, Sept/Oct 2006, pp. 34-44.

Tagged Discoveries, Excavations, Jerusalem

New Alphabetic Inscription from Zincirli

This dramatic new find may not be directly related to the Bible, but it will certainly provide helpful information about the biblical world during the time of a critical period in the history of Israel and Judah–the 8th century B.C. Here is the press release:

On July 21, 2008, the Neubauer Expedition to Zincirli, directed by Prof. David Schloen of the University of Chicago and by associate director Amir Fink, found an inscribed basalt stele at the site of Zincirli (pronounced “Zin-jeer-lee”) in Gaziantep province in southeastern Turkey. The remarkably well-preserved stele, 70 centimeters wide and 95 centimeters tall, was found intact in its original location. It was set into a stone wall with its protruding tenon still inserted into the stone-paved floor. The alphabetic inscription on the stele is written in Sam’alian, the language spoken in the region of Zincirli (ancient Sam’al) during the Iron Age. It commemorates the life of “Kattammuwa servant of Panamuwa,” probably a high official of King Panamuwa, who reigned during the eighth century B.C. A bearded figure is depicted on the stele, seated in a chair in front of a table laden with food. Beside him is a thirteen-line inscription, elegantly carved in raised relief and preserved in almost pristine condition nearly three millennia after it was inscribed. It describes the establishment of the memorial stele and associated mortuary rites. This stele is unique in its combination of pictorial and textual features and thus is an important addition to our knowledge of ancient language and culture. An analysis and translation of the inscription will be presented by Prof. Dennis Pardee of the University of Chicago at the November 2008 meeting of the Society for Biblical Literature in Boston and will be published soon thereafter. Zincirli is the site of the ancient walled city of Sam’al, capital of an Iron Age kingdom that inherited both West Semitic and Neo-Hittite (Luwian) cultural traditions. The 40-hectare (100-acre) site was first excavated more than a hundred years ago and produced a number of royal inscriptions and other fascinating finds that are on display in various museums. Since 2006, Zincirli has been excavated annually by a team from the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago—the Neubauer Expedition, a large-scale and long-term project of archaeological research at this important site.

We’ll have to wait a few more months before the content of the inscription is revealed. For more comments, see Paleojudaica.

Gath Season 2008 Report

The season at Philistine Gath (Tell es-Safi) is concluded and archaeologist Aren Maeir has a great wrap-up of the season for all who couldn’t be there. Gath is proving to be one of the most important excavations of recent times and Maeir’s helpful reviews to the public should be a model for all excavations (and we get it straight from the horse’s mouth and not garbled through a journalist!).

Some highlights (from my perspective):

They excavated material from Early Bronze, Middle Bronze, Late Bronze, Iron I, Iron II, and Crusader.
Gath appears to have been a large, significant site in Early Bronze, before the arrival of the Philistines.
Remains were found related to the earliest arrival of the Philistines at the site, including locally made Mycenean IIIC ware.
Important discovery from the time of David/Solomon: “a well-dated fragment of a seal impression (of the late 21st Dynasty in Egypt, ca. mid-10th cent BCE), and several nice clusters of carbonized grape pips. This latter find should be able to provide nice 14C datings for this phase. One cannot overemphasize the importance of the finds in this level, since it may provide the first concrete, well-dated (from several perspectives) context from the early Iron Age IIA in Philistia.”
Gath was a large site in the time of the first kings of Judah: “As such, it appears to mirror the role that Gath is portrayed as playing in the biblical text in the early monarchy, that of the major Philistine city, primus inter pares among the five Philistine cities.”
More evidence was revealed of Hazael’s destruction of the site in about 800 B.C.
Gath may have been destroyed twice by the Assyrians – first by Sargon II (712 B.C.?) and then by Sennacherib (701 B.C.).

Maeir concludes: “All told, the season was great, the team was fantastic and the find were extraordinary!”

Read the whole thing here.

Tagged Discoveries, Excavations

Seal of King Zedekiah's Official Discovered

Eilat Mazar announced yesterday that the seal of a government official was discovered in her excavations in the City of David. The story was covered by several media outlets (JPost, the Trumpet), and here’s my summary with a few thoughts.

What: The clay seal impression, about 1 cm (.4 inch) in diameter, has the name Gedaliah, son of Pashur.

Who: Gedaliah was a government official mentioned in the book of Jeremiah as serving the last king of Judah, Zedekiah. Gedaliah was among those who intended to kill the prophet Jeremiah. The relevant passage is Jeremiah 38:1-5.

Now Shephatiah the son of Mattan, Gedaliah the son of Pashhur, Jucal the son of Shelemiah, and Pashhur the son of Malchiah heard the words that Jeremiah was saying to all the people, 2 “Thus says the Lord: He who stays in this city shall die by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence, but he who goes out to the Chaldeans shall live. He shall have his life as a prize of war, and live. 3 Thus says the Lord: This city shall surely be given into the hand of the army of the king of Babylon and be taken.” 4 Then the officials said to the king, “Let this man be put to death, for he is weakening the hands of the soldiers who are left in this city, and the hands of all the people, by speaking such words to them. For this man is not seeking the welfare of this people, but their harm.” 5 King Zedekiah said, “Behold, he is in your hands, for the king can do nothing against you” (ESV).

Note: The man mentioned immediately after Gedaliah is Jucal the son of Shelemiah. His seal impression was found nearby in Mazar’s excavation three years ago.

Where, specifically: Trumpet reports:

”We found the bulla of Jehucal inside the palace structure,” Mazar told theTrumpet.com yesterday. “This time, we found the bulla of Gedaliah outside the wall, just at the foot of the same spot we found Jehucal.” The two must have been connected somehow, she said.

When: Zedekiah was king from 597-586 B.C. The date of the seal impression’s discovery is not given, as far as I can tell. With the last discovery of a seal impression, Mazar announced it so fast that later she had to go back and apologize for mis-reading the inscription (backwards).

Photos: For photographs of the seal impression, see theTrumpet.com. For some excellent line drawings of the inscription by G. M. Grena, see the files posted at biblicalist. For a general photo of the excavation area, see my photo here.

A few additional comments on the JPost article:

The excavation at the history-rich City of David, which is located just outside the walls of the Old City near Dung Gate, has proven, in recent years, to be a treasure trove for archeologists.

Actually, on the whole, I’d say that the discoveries have been minimal. This is a central area of the City of David and after three years of excavation, three seal impressions and two controversial building identifications is not what I’d call a “treasure trove.” A few meters down the slope Yigal Shiloh found an archive of more than 50 seal impressions, including one belonging to a government official more friendly to Jeremiah, Gemariah the son of Shaphan (Jer 36). Of course, it is altogether possible that Mazar has made other significant finds but is choosing to publicize them in the future.

The archeologist, who rose to international prominence for her excavation that may have uncovered the Biblical palace of King David nearby, has been at the forefront of a series of back-to-back Jerusalem archeological finds, including the remnants of a wall from the Biblical prophet Nehemiah, also in the area.

It seems to me that there’s a problem here when an archaeologist can “rise to international prominence” on the basis of a couple of sensationalistic identifications without peer review. If those identifications prove untenable (and there is significant discussion among archaeologists about both of the above issues), will she still be internationally prominent? Should an individual scholar be so elevated on the basis of his/her own unconfirmed claims? I would note here that lots of Bible skeptics would say the same thing; I am not among them, but still am uneasy about some of the ways these matters have been handled. Of course, this new seal impression is not part of the debate.

The current dig is being conducted on behalf of the Shalem center, a Jerusalem research institute, and the right-wing City of David Foundation, and was carried out under the academic auspices of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Is there relevance to the fact that the City of David Foundation is “right-wing”? Is the JPost suggesting that this discovery or its interpretation is affected by the political views of a funding organization? Should the identity of the the financial supporter have priority over the identity of the academic authority? Would the JPost have identified another institution as “left-wing”?

UPDATE (8/3): In an email, the City of David Foundation includes this additional information:

Dr. Eilat Mazar completed the third phase her excavation of what she believes to be Kind [sic] David’s palace at the City of David site a month and a half ago and is currently sifting through the remains of that excavation. It was in this material that she found the seal. Much of the rubble from the dig has yet to be sifted and it is likely that more discoveries will be made.

Tagged Discoveries, Jerusalem

Restoration of Rolling Stone Tomb

A few years ago I posted a photo comparison of one of the best rolling stone tombs in Israel – before vandals destroyed it and after. For convenience, here are those pictures of the Khirbet Midras tomb again.

1990:

2004:

A friend visited recently and passed on a few photos. It looks like the tomb has been partially restored. You might want to stop by next time you’re in the area. Khirbet Midras is east of the road going from Azekah to Bet Guvrin.

Tomb exterior

View from inside tomb; rolling stone is on the right side

Burial niches (aka loculi, kokhim)

Thanks to A.D. Riddle for sharing these photos.

Tagged Then and Now

Digs, Blogs, and a Bomb

The excavations at Ramat Rahel have recently begun and they have their own blog. Today they found a bomb! Other excavations in Israel with blogs include Gath (regular and professional), Megiddo (regular), and Dan (they had good intentions). I don’t know of any blogs for the current excavations at Hazor (where is that archive?), Gezer (is this another Macalister dump?), or Ashkelon.

There’s a few more days if you want to join in excavations on a site that used to be called Khirbet Qeiyafa, but is now dubbed the much more appealing “Elah Fortress.” There’s some info here on what to bring. Here’s the season brochure (front, back). You can also watch a YouTube video on the site.

Next year Bryant Wood is headed back to Khirbet el-Maqatir after a hiatus since Palestinian terrorism restarted in 2000. Excavations of the candidate for biblical Ai are scheduled for May 20 – June 6, 2009.

The Jerusalem Report has a lengthy article (published online, but poorly formatted, by the JPost) about the state of Dead Sea Scroll and Qumran research, including various theories of who lived at Qumran and who were responsible for the scrolls. The article also discusses the newly publicized “Gabriel’s Vision” tablet, and includes a sidebar on the Palestinians’ demand that the scrolls be turned over to them.

If you didn’t hear it already, Codex Sinaiticus is beginning to be posted online this week. Here’s the story, and here’s the link to one of the oldest Bibles in existence. Come back in a year if you want to read the whole thing.

Six months and $200,000 later, Zion Gate is now back in view. The hundreds of bullet holes and shell marks are still visible, but the stones are now stabilized and less likely to collapse on a vehicle executing a beautiful 11-point turn as they exit the city.

Zion Gate, before renovation

And perhaps tourism to Iraq is not so far off.

Tagged Excavations, New Exhibits