This week’s Explorator mentions several articles that may be of interest to readers here:
Evidence for tsunami events at Caesarea:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/10/091026093728.htm Rethinking the ‘odds’ of the Talpiot Tomb:
http://www.bibleinterp.com/articles/tomb357926.shtnl Feature on mapping Iraq’s archaeological sites:
http://www.dvidshub.net/?script=news/news_show.php&id=40707 A Roman-era cemetery from near Hebron:
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=235964
Early Western visitors were intrigued by a conical mountain about 4 miles (6 km) southeast of Bethlehem. Known by the Arabs as Jebel el Fureidis (Little Paradise Mountain), the site was believed to be the monument built by King Herod and named after himself.
Edward Robinson visited the site in 1838. He described his visit in his second volume of Biblical Researches in Palestine: “Leaving here our horses, a steep ascent of ten minutes brought us to the top of the mountain, which constitutes a circle of about seven hundred and fifty feet in circumference. The whole of this is enclosed by the ruined walls of a circular fortress, built of hewn stones of good size, with four massive round towers standing one at each of the cardinal points. . . . The tower upon the East is not so thoroughly destroyed as the rest” (170-71).
Today one can see how impressive that solid eastern tower is. Excavations began at Herodium in 1962 under the Franciscan Virgil Corbo. After Israel took the area in 1967, Ehud Netzer continued the archaeological work. Two years ago, Netzer discovered the long-sought-for tomb of Herod.
We’re not sure who built the enormous water reservoirs three miles south of Bethlehem, but there’s no evidence that they are related to their namesake. It is most likely that King Herod or one of his successors built these pools to supply Jerusalem with water. A complex and sophisticated series of aqueducts was constructed both to feed these three pools as well as to transport the water from here to multiple locations in Jerusalem.
The water system naturally required repair over the years, but it continued in use, off and on, through the British Mandate period. One evidence of the significance of these pools is the presence of a fortress built by Suleiman the Magnificent in the 16th century. (Yes, this is the same ruler who built the walls around the Old City of Jerusalem and constructed the fortress still standing at Aphek-Antipatris.)
The photo below was taken by the American Colony photographers in the early 1900s.
Solomon’s Pools, view from west, early 1900s Today the area has changed dramatically, making it difficult even to locate Suleiman’s fortress. Other attempts that I have made to photograph the three pools have been thwarted by the forest that has been planted in the area.
Solomon’s Pools, view from west, 2006The top photograph is from the newly published Southern Palestine volume of The American Colony and Eric Matson Collection (originally Library of Congress, LC-matpc-07571). The CD includes more than 550 high-resolution photographs from the Dead Sea, Jordan River, Jericho, Judean hill country, Shephelah, and Negev.
A press conference by Hebrew University is being reported at GNews, with beautiful photographs of the finds.
The largest cache of rare coins ever found in a scientific excavation from the period of the Bar-Kokhba revolt of the Jews against the Romans has been discovered in a cave by researchers from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Bar-Ilan University.
The coins were discovered in three batches in a deep cavern located in a nature reserve in the Judean hills. The treasure includes gold, silver and bronze coins, as well as some pottery and weapons.
The discovery was made in the framework of a comprehensive cave research and mapping project being carried out by Boaz Langford and Prof. Amos Frumkin of the Cave Research Unit in the Department of Geography at the Hebrew University.
The discovery included 120 gold, silver, and bronze coins, many in excellent condition. You can read the rest of the article here. As other news sites prepare stories, you can find them via this Google News link.
As for the “Cave Research Unit,” when word gets out about that, I bet they get lots of applicants!
UPDATE: The story is now covered by the Jerusalem Post, Haaretz, and Arutz-7.
UPDATE (9/16): Joe Lauer notes a link with interviews (mp3) of the archaeologists who discovered the coins.
From the Associated Press:
BETHLEHEM, West Bank (AP) — Workers renovating a house in the traditional town of Jesus’ birth accidentally discovered an untouched ancient tomb containing clay pots, plates, beads and the bones of two humans, a Palestinian antiquities official said Tuesday.
The 4,000-year-old tomb provides a glimpse of the burial customs of the area’s inhabitants during the Canaanite period, said Mohammed Ghayyada, director of the Palestinian Authority’s Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities.
Workers in a house near the Church of the Nativity uncovered a hole leading to the grave, which was about one meter (yard) below ground, he said. They contacted antiquities officials, who photographed the grave intact before removing its contents.
They dated the grave to the Early Bronze Age, between 1,900 B.C. and 2,200 B.C.
Jerusalem-based archaeologist and historian Stephen Pfann called the find “an important reference to the life of the Canaanites,” adding that it could give a glimpse into life in the area before the time when the Biblical patriarchs are said to have lived.
While many artifacts exist from this period, intact graves are rare, mainly because of looting, he said.
The article continues here (and another photo here). A few comments:
The tomb dates to the Intermediate Bronze period, also confusingly known as Early Bronze IV or Middle Bronze I. Many tombs from this period, including intact ones, have been found throughout Israel. In fact, this period is primarily known from its cemeteries, with relatively few settlements discovered. (See this post for photos of a cemetery from this period found a couple of years ago in Jerusalem.)
More importantly, this tomb indicates an early presence in the city that later came to be known as Bethlehem, the city of David’s birth. I don’t see anything about material from this period in NEAEH, which may indicate the significance of this discovery.
HT: Joe Lauer
The Jerusalem Post reports on a new museum that has opened at the traditional Inn of the Good Samaritan.
The Museum of the Good Samaritan, which is located on the Jerusalem-Jericho Road near Ma’aleh Adumim, was officially opened Thursday evening after a nine-year archeological excavation at the site.
The official dedication of the NIS 10 million museum, which displays mosaics from the West Bank and Gaza, coincided with US President Barack Obama’s long-touted Middle East speech in Cairo in which he reached out to the Muslim world….
The site, known as the Inn of the Good Samaritan, received its name in the Byzantine period when it was identified with the inn mentioned in the Parable of the Good Samaritan in the New Testament.
The site lies on the upper end of the ascent on the main road from Jericho to Jerusalem, which pilgrims followed when traveling from the Galilee and Transjordan to the Holy City.
Over the last decade, archeologists have uncovered remains dating back to the Second Temple period at the site.
During the Byzantine period, the site was revived as a way station for Christian pilgrims, and an inn was constructed that included a large church, a cistern, residential quarters, and a fortress to protect pilgrims from brigands.
In the Crusader period, with the expansion of pilgrimage to Jericho and especially to baptismal sites on the Jordan River, the inn was renovated and a fortress erected above it to guard the road to Jerusalem.
The structure housing the museum was built in the Ottoman period as a guard post, which remained in use until recently.
The mosaics on display at the museum were discovered in the West Bank and Gaza and belong to Jewish and Samaritan synagogues – including a mosaic from a Gaza synagogue – as well as churches.
The full story is here.
Traditional Inn of the Good Samaritan with Jerusalem in the distance