Excavations Archives - Page 52 of 93

Weekend Roundup

Plans to reconstruct Herod’s tomb at the Herodium have been scrapped.

The same article reports that the Herod exhibition at the Israel Museum has been extended to January 2014.

Tuesday’s Samaritan Passover ceremony is described in a Haaretz article. (I believe the first photo caption is wrong, for the animal is not slain until sunset.)

105 million euros is not enough to save Pompeii from deterioration, according to a New York Times video.

Ferrell Jenkins is back in Israel and he recently spent a morning with Shmuel Browns.

The Spring 2013 season at Tel Burna is over and they have found evidence of a destruction in the 9th century. There are still a few days left to sign up for the summer season.

Haaretz’s “Tourist Tip #218” describes the significance of the Broad Wall of Jerusalem.

The temporary bridge to the Mughrabi Gate next to the Western Wall still stands, but next month a committee is going to meet in Paris to discuss its replacement.

FoxNews reports on apps for archaeology.

Berlin’s Pergamon Museum has a new exhibition on the Mesopotamian city of Uruk. Better photos are available here.

Christianbook.com is now selling The New Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible (5 vols.) for only $99.99. (That’s 75% the $400 list.)

A rare, original set of the 13 volumes of the Survey of Western Palestine has just been listed by a UK bookseller for $6,400. For $35 more, you can pick up a digital copy of the oversized maps.

HT: Jack Sasson

Key Map for the Survey of Western Palestine. All 26 maps (plus one from Transjordan) are for sale here.

Tagged Excavations, Holidays, Italy, Jerusalem, Judah, Mesopotamia, Museums, Resources, Samaria, Shephelah, Weekend Roundup

Unique Ritual Bath Complex Excavated in Jerusalem

Archaeologists working for the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) recently excavated a unique ritual bath (mikveh) in the Kiryat Menachem neighborhood of Jerusalem (southwest of the Old City). Three separate collecting tanks (otzar) were carved into the rock in order to collect as much rainwater as possible.

The IAA press release quotes Benyamin Storchan, director of the excavation:

Numerous ritual baths have been excavated in Jerusalem in recent years, but the water supply system that we exposed in this excavation is unique and unusual. The ritual bath consists of an underground chamber entered by way of steps. The miqwe received the rainwater from three collecting basins (otzar) that were hewn on the roof of the bath, and the pure water was conveyed inside the chamber through channels.
The ritual baths known until now usually consist of a closed cavity that was supplied with rainwater conveyed from a small rock-cut pool located nearby. The complex that was exposed at this time is a more sophisticated and intricate system. The bath was apparently associated with a settlement that was situated there in the Second Temple period. Presumably, due to the rainfall regime and arid conditions of the region, the inhabitants sought special techniques that would make it possible to store every drop of water.
It is interesting to note that the bath conforms to all of the laws of kashrut, like collecting the water in it naturally without human contact, and ensuring that the water does not seep into the earth which is why the bath was treated with a special kind of plaster.

The full press release is here, and three high-res photos are available in a zip file. The story is also reported by the Jerusalem Post and Arutz-7.

Archaeologist Benyamin Storchan stands in the immersion chamber of the mikveh.

Aerial view of the excavations

Aerial view of three storage tanks and channels

All photos courtesy of the IAA. The second and third are by Skyview.

Tagged Discoveries, Excavations, Jerusalem

New Excavation Reports: Megiddo, Gezer, Sepphoris

Several significant excavation reports will be published in the next couple of months and Eisenbrauns is offering major discounts on pre-orders.

Megiddo V: The 2004-2008 Seasons

Gezer VII: The Middle Bronze and Later Fortifications in Fields II, IV, and VIII

Sepphoris I: The Pottery from Ancient Sepphoris

With the ongoing debate over the chronology of the Iron Age II, the Megiddo volumes may receive the most attention from scholars.

Eisenbrauns has a number of other excavation reports on sale, including volumes on Bab edh-Dhra, Lahav (volumes I-II), Tell el-
Hesi (volumes II-V), Gezer (volumes I-III, V), and Dothan. For those interested in a popular work, the Timnah volume is now marked down 50% (to $15).

There doesn’t seem to be a direct link to the sale page, so go to the home page, read about their phenomenal new “Online/Offline
Backup Service” (announced on April 1), and follow the link to the sale from there.

A couple of recently published excavation reports are reviewed in the current issue of Biblical Archaeology Review. In the article now available online, William G. Dever reviews Ashkelon 3: The Seventh Century B.C. and Hazor: The 1990–2009 Excavations: The Iron Age.

Tagged Excavations, Galilee, Jezreel Valley, Resources, Shephelah

Israeli Archaeology through the Eyes of the Last Survivor

Joseph Aviram, 97, has lived through many exciting years of biblical archaeology in the land of Israel. Nir Hasson looks at the history through his eyes in an article in the Weekend magazine.

Yigael Yadin features prominently in the story, as do other well-known figures. Here is an excerpt about Moshe Dayan, Yohanan Aharoni, and Yadin:

Aviram also vividly recalls the more dubious legacy of another chief of staff who dabbled in archaeology. “Moshe Dayan helped us a great deal,” he says, “but very regrettably he engaged in robbery digs. He always wanted us to come to his house in Zahala to show us vessels. We knew about the stealing. Everyone knew. He was even caught a few times.”
Aviram declines to say more. Nor is he eager to talk about the “wars of the archaeologists,” which began in the 1970s. The most heated dispute of all continues to simmer today, at one level or another: It was between Yadin, as the representative of the biblical approach − those who find evidence for the Bible narrative in excavations − and the critical approach, which finds mainly contradictions between archaeological finds and the Scriptures.
“As long as there were no archaeologists, there were no arguments,” Aviram adds. “But suddenly there is a young generation. Well, arguments started. After the great success came the great arguments. Did Joshua capture Hatzor or not? Scientific disputes are fine, but it became personal and opposing camps sprang up. I always reassured Yadin. When he read something that [Tel Aviv University Institute of Archaeology head] Yohanan Aharoni wrote against him, it would drive him crazy, and he would fire off an angry letter. But his wife, who typed up the letters, told me she didn’t send them. There was a file of angry letters in the house that were never sent.”

The full story is worth reading. (Haaretz provides 10 articles per month with free registration.)

HT: Charles Savelle

Yigael Yadin lecturing at Megiddo, db6703260103

Yigael Yadin lecturing at Megiddo excavations, 1967
Photo from Views That Have Vanished

Tagged Excavations

Archaeology Students Need Travel Scholarships

Classroom learning is valuable, but experience in the field is essential for students aspiring to careers in archaeology and ancient Near Eastern history. The costs for even a short summer excavation can be prohibitive for many students, and thus ASOR is sponsoring March Fellowship Madness in an effort to raise $10,000. This is a great opportunity to help needy students in a worthy effort. ASOR has pledged that 100% of all gifts will go directly to the scholarships, and if the goals of 100 donors and $10,000 are met, an additional $5,000 will be donated.

You can read all of the details and donate at the ASOR site. If half of this blog’s readers donated $25 each, they would more than double their goal today and 30 students would receive scholarships.

Tagged Excavations, Travels

Report Published for Gezer Regional Survey

The Gezer Excavation Project includes a major regional survey under the direction of Eric Mitchell.

A preliminary report of the first five seasons (2007-2011) has now been published in Hadashot Arkheologiyot. Some excerpts:

Purpose: “The purpose of the project is to carry out a systematic high resolution archaeological survey of the region, within 1 km of Tel Gezer, and to locate and publish all features therein. This survey will aid in gaining a better understanding of the historical development of relationship between the ancient city of Gezer and its surrounding landscape.”

History: “The immediate vicinity of Tel Gezer has been investigated by R.A.S. Macalister who noted over 200 archaeological features within 1.5 km of the tell (Macalister 1912 III: Pl. VIII). In recent years, A. Shavit conducted a survey of the entire Gezer Map. Shavit noted that his survey was intensive but he was selective in the surveyed areas.”

Methodology: “To date, 1260 features have been recorded during the current investigations. Features are defined as any individual cultural element deposited on, built on, or carved into the landscape.

Therefore, with features such as winepresses, which include a basin, vat, channel, and cupmarks, each individual feature was added to the total and thus, the number of sites can be reduced significantly.”

Tombs: “Forty-one tombs were accessible for interior survey. Seven basic categories of tomb type have been encountered during the survey. These include tombs with irregularly shaped interior plans (6), simple bench-style tombs (4), arcosolium or recessed bench tombs (5), a distinct simple double arcosolia type (5), loculus or kokhim tombs (9), tombs with multiple styles (3), and tombs that are incomplete, partially filled, or otherwise do not fit into the above categories (9).”

Surface Visibility: “While modern and old disturbances could have easily hidden the existence of tombs, caves, and presses where agricultural land now stretches, the ploughed fields and orchards now offer excellent surface visibility and provide ample opportunity to observe and collect pottery, tesserae, and chert flake scatters, which would otherwise have been obscured by dense brush.”

Conclusions: “The results of the 2007–2011 Tel Gezer Survey seasons have been encouraging in terms of both artifacts and features documented, as well as total area covered. At the current rate, it is estimated that two to three additional seasons will be necessary to complete surveying a 1 km radius around Tel Gezer. Our goal for the future is to publish a catalog of features within our survey area, as well as articles on the tombs and presses of Tel Gezer. At the end of the project, we will analyze all our GPS location data for features and artifacts from every season via mapping software. Using this data, we can construct a clearer understanding of distribution patterns for various features, as well as draw wider conclusions about the use of the land around the ancient city of Gezer.”

The full report includes five images. Check out the official website for information about joining the team.

View of arcosolia in Gezer tomb
Photo by Tel Gezer Regional Survey

Tagged Excavations, Shephelah