Category: Sites

Although it is now the end of the summer dig season, not much has yet been announced about recent finds but there has been plenty of other news.

The Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) has begun to compile a register of private collections of antiquities. There are estimated to be 100,000 collectors who hold more than 15 significant artefacts and, since February of this year, they have been required by law to register with the IAA. So far few have come forward as it seems owners are worried that their items may be impounded and are also concerned about security. The IAA says there is no intention to requisition any item, only to register it and see if private collectors are holding items that may help to further identify or explain artefacts held by the State. The IAA will issue certificates to approved collectors and will also help with photographs and historical analysis.

Ben-Gurion University in Beersheba is designing a programme to investigate documents where one ancient text has been overwritten by another. These are called palimpsests and the university scientists are finding methods of highlighting the original text, which may have been partly scratched off to make way for the later one. In several cases an original Hebrew text has been deciphered under a later Arabic one. The texts in question are mainly medieval and come from such sources as the Cairo Geniza, the Al-Aksa MS Library in Jerusalem and Al-Azar MS Library in Cairo. The method of investigation is being developed by the computer science and humanities departments of the university and, when fully operational, the scientists hope to be able to examine further documents now in the British Museum, the Louvre and other national libraries.

The large site opposite the City of David Visitors Centre, which used to be the useful Givati car park, is throwing up more and more evidence of intensive use. The latest finds indicate that it housed a luxurious Roman mansion, of which 1000 sq. m have already been uncovered by Dr. Doron Ben-Ami of the IAA. This was the area where the ornate gold ear-ring was found recently and the small sealing stamp in the shape of a boxer’s head. The mansion was built in two storeys around a central courtyard and had a tiled roof. It seems to have been destroyed in the earthquake of 363 CE which devastated many buildings around the Jordan Valley, both in Israel and Transjordan.

About six months ago a small stone doorway was uncovered to an underground tomb in Tzippori (Sepphoris) in the Galilee. The landowner was preparing to build a chalet on his garden plot and discovered this underground opening, of which the lintel bears the name of the 3rd-century Rabbi Joshua ben Levi. The Tiberias magistrates court and the owner have now reached agreement for the IAA to conduct an excavation of the site, which will begin shortly. There is considerable speculation and doubt about the inscription, as this Rabbi Joshua is mainly known to have lived in Lod, much further south. There is also some concern that extreme Jewish religious elements, who oppose any disturbance of buried remains, will oppose the dig.

The recent visit of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to the offices of the PEF during his visit to London caused some excitement in the Hebrew press and the PM mentioned his pleasure at the visit at his press conference. The Jerusalem Post said he was ‘thrilled’ and it gave a brief history of the Fund. It must have been an exciting day at the offices and I wonder how the small premises managed to contain all the security and the press. Congratulations to the PEF for arranging it.

It was announced by the IAA that sections of a Canaanite wall of the MBA II period were recently uncovered by Prof. Ronnie Reich and Dr. Eli Shukron in the area of the Jerusalem National Park around the City of David. It is built of massive boulders and stands 8 m high in places. The size of the wall and its location confirms, according to Reich, that Jerusalem was at that period an urban entity with a ruler who was able to organise such an impressive set of defences. The wall is known to have run for at least 24 m and will have continued further west as well. We await further details of this impressive find.

The dig at Sussita, on the east side of Lake Kinneret, directed by Prof. Arthur Segal and Dr. Michael Eisenberg of Haifa University, has come up with the find of a cache of three figurines of Aphrodite, dating back about 1500 years. The figures are 30 cm (12 in) tall and stand with the nude goddess covering her private parts, known in the trade as ‘the modest Venus’. They are of clay, made from a mould and would have been cast in large numbers to aid women in childbirth and young ladies seeking love, according to Segal.

Another important find this season at Sussita was a small semi-circular, theatre-like structure. It was originally roofed and would have seated about 600 people. Such a structure is unusual in Israel where the known theatres housed an audience of several thousand and were not roofed. A small structure like this may have been used for poetry and musical events and would be a small public hall, called an Odeon, or even a Bouleterion, a conference chamber for meetings of the town council.

Stephen Rosenberg,
W.F.Albright Institute, Jerusalem

Another stone quarry used for the Temple Mount works by Herod the Great has been uncovered in an inner suburb of Jerusalem recently. This is the third quarry of that period uncovered in recent months. It is situated in Shmuel Hanavi Street and was excavated by the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) in a rescue dig directed by Dr Ofer Sion, before the building of residential flats on the quarter-acre site. The size and colour of the remaining white limestone blocks indicate that they were being prepared for the massive retaining walls built by Herod’s engineers to support the Temple platform. The excavation revealed datable coins and shaped metal plates that were used to wrench the blocks from their base. The site lies approx 2 km from the Temple Mount, which is quite close, but the multi-tonne blocks still had to be transported over hill and dale; exactly how they managed this has not yet been completely understood by the experts but, whatever the explanation, it is clear that Herod worked his men hard. However, they were happy to be involved in the rebuilding of the Temple at a time of high unemployment in Jerusalem.

As you can imagine, the Israel Defence Forces often run across and over ancient remains during their exercises in remote desert, and deserted, areas. At a recent joint conference held with the IAA, the army has now agreed to co-operate with the IAA, who prepare site maps of the areas the army are going to train over and make them aware of any possible antiquities they may encounter. The army on their part have agreed to notify the IAA immediately they come across remains that may be of archaeological interest. The IAA has started to initiate training courses to make the soldiers aware of possible antiquities and is training them to be on the lookout for sites of possible interest to the archaeologists. These joint efforts are particularly important in the Negev, where the majority of archaeological sites remain uncovered, and where the army have their primary training grounds.

Ashdod has started to expand its Corinne Maman Archaeological Museum to be perhaps the foremost museum of the Philistines in the world, with an associated research centre, interactive display of statues and burial remains, and an ‘Ashdod Album’ of the city’s history.

Our own Prof. Shimon Gibson is joint director at the Mount Zion Gate excavations which have been running for several weeks this month and have turned up remains from the First Temple period to the Islamic era. They have recently uncovered a rare ten-line inscription, probably in Aramaic, on a stone cup of the type used by priests and others in the first century CE to avoid ritual impurity contamination. The discovery was only announced in the last few days. The script is clear but cryptic and will take specialists some weeks to decipher, says Shimon. We await the results with interest.

Stephen Rosenberg,
W.F.Albright Institute, Jerusalem

On the road from Jerusalem to Jericho stands the site of the ancient Inn of the Good Samaritan where, in a parable which Jesus told, a Samaritan helped a robbed and wounded wayfarer and took him to the inn on this road at the time of Jesus. After extensive archaeological work, uncovering remains from the Second Temple period, a new indoor and outdoor Museum has been opened on the site in a building that was a guard house in the Ottoman period. The museum houses a wonderful collection of mosaics from Jewish and Samaritan synagogues and early churches from the West Bank and Gaza. The inspiration for the mix of exhibits comes from the parable of the Samaritan. The museum is open free of charge every day except Saturday.

On the subject of mosaics, 13 years ago a large and colourful mosaic was discovered in Lod, 25 km west of Jerusalem. It was one of the finest early Byzantine mosaics in the country, showing a mass of land and sea animals, and had been left covered up to protect it. It is now being reopened and will be exhibited by the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) in the new Lod Museum Archaeological Centre, thanks to funds donated by the Leon Levy and Shelby White Foundation.

In the Levant it has been assumed that the use of pottery does not go back to before about 6000 BCE. For instance, the early levels of the city of Jericho, which date back to about 8000 BCE, have no pottery vessels. But recently one bowl-like artifact from China, that dates back to about 16000 BCE, has been identified as a pottery product by Chinese, American and Israeli archaeologists working in a small cave in the Hunan province of China. Israeli scholars Elisabetta Boaretto and Steve Weiner led the scientific work and the claim is that the hunter-gatherers of the period also produced pottery. The matter of the early dating is complex and not yet agreed by all scholars but it would make sense that China produced the earliest pottery!

At the ancient cemetery of Sepphoris, in the Galilee, a recent find has been a tomb lintel with the inscription in Aramaic, ‘This is the tomb of Rabbi Tanhuma and Rabbi Shimeon the Priest, Huna, Shalom’. It dates to the 3rd or 4th century CE according to Dr Mordechai Aviam of Kinneret College in the Galilee.

The Sultan’s Pool in Jerusalem is now a venue for outdoor pop concerts but originally was one of the main water reservoirs for the city. Part of the lower aqueduct supplying it has recently been found in a rescue dig directed by Dr Ron Beeri for the IAA, before the building of a new Montefiore Museum at the site. The section uncovered is from the Ottoman period. It is 3 m high and incorporates a small tower and ceramic pipework that fed into the pool and also into a fountain for use by pilgrims. The remains will be incorporated into the museum.

Prof. Adam Zertal does it again! You may recall that he had uncovered several outdoor ritual enclosures in the course of his extensive (in time and place) survey of the tribal area of Manasseh. He has now disclosed that he has discovered the largest known underground cave in the region, some 4 km north of Jericho. It extends over 4 acres and lies 10 m below the desert surface. It was used as a vast quarry in the Roman period and, after that, possibly as a Byzantine monastery and a hiding place for many years. The roof is supported by 20 integral pillars on which are many carvings, including crosses and a wheel-like diagram that Zertal thinks may have been a representation of the 12-month zodiac.

The northern city of Tiberias on the Sea of Galilee is now becoming of great interest to archaeologists. The city dates to the early Roman period when it was built by Herod Antipas as a tribute to the Emperor Tiberius. Extensive excavations south of the present town have revealed the southern gate, the market place and a whole urban complex and harbour of great sophistication. Much of the exploratory work was directed by the late Prof. Yizhar Hirschfeld of the Hebrew University, who died recently at the early age of 56 and did not live to see the completion of his work.

At present under excavation is a large theatre that may have seated 5000-7000 spectators. It is by the hillside but built at right angles to it, so as to avoid the spectators having the sun in their eyes. The fine stonework of the proscenium and stage have been uncovered and work is continuing on the auditorium, under the direction of Dr Walid Atrash of the IAA, who estimates that it will be at least another year before the whole theatre is uncovered. When that is complete, the town will be as interesting to visit as Bet Shean is today.

Stephen G. Rosenberg,
W.F.Albright Institute, Jerusalem