Category: Archaeological Report from Israel, August 2019

Destruction in Palmyra

Reports continue to circulate that ancient Roman monuments are being destroyed in the city of Palmyra in Syria by Islamic State terrorists, who claim that these antiquities are pagan structures that need to be obliterated. Evidence of the destruction is confirmed by satellite images. The structures include the main amphitheatre, the temple of Baal Shamin, the temple of Bel, the triumphal arch and others of the Roman period; all of these constitute the area designated as a World Heritage Centre by UNESCO, who have declared the destructions to be a war crime. The Islamic State leaders have also killed Khaled-al-Asaad, the 82-year old archaeologist who had looked after the remains for the last forty years. The UNESCO Director General Irina Bokova has declared that the perpetrators must be held responsible for their crimes and it is hoped that UNESCO can organize a suitable court to hand down punishments, and see to it that no further damage is caused to this historic site.

Ancient Sarophagus Discovered in Ashkelon

The local police and an Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) unit recently seized a stone sarcophagus from building workers who were concealing it so that its finding would not delay their construction work on site. The sarcophagus is a rare decorated one and is dated to the late Roman period. The heavy stone coffin is adorned with the figure of a man leaning on his left arm and with a tunic wrapped around his waist.  Judging by the image and its clothing, the IAA thought that the tomb was not that of a Jew and, in accordance with normal practice, would have been placed near the family vault, but nothing further has been found. Besides the figure of a man, the stonework is also decorated with carvings of an amphora and vines with grapes and leaves. The IAA said it was aware of the need of speed on construction sites but that in an historic city like Ashkelon (on the coast, south of Tel Aviv) there had to be care taken to see that historic artifacts were carefully preserved and if found, they must be inspected by the IAA before they can be removed or inadvertently damaged.

Byzantine Mosaic from Kiryat-Gat

The relic of a floor mosaic from a Byzantine church was discovered two years ago in the industrial park of Kiryat Gat, 25 km east of Ashkelon.  It shows a rare street map of a settlement named Chortaso or Kartasa, in Egypt which, according to Christian tradition, was the burial site of the prophet Habakkuk. Other parts of the mosaic depict a number of animals, a goblet with red fruit and a Nile scene with a sailing boat. The images are elaborate and the artist had used tiles of seventeen different colours which, the IAA said, made it the most elaborate ever discovered in Israel. The mosaic is being prepared for display to the public at its site in the Kiryat-Gat industrial complex.

Davidic Seal Found at Temple Sifting Project

At the sifting site set up by Prof. Gabriel Barkai, to search through material removed from the Jerusalem Temple site by the Wakf in 1999, a ten-year old Russian boy volunteer, Matvei Tcepliaev,  recently unearthed a small dark stone seal that has been dated to the tenth century BCE. According to Barkai, this is the first seal of its kind to have been found in Jerusalem. Its dating corresponds to the period of the Jebusites, the conquest of the city by King David, and the building of the Temple by his son Solomon. It is particularly significant that it comes from the Temple site itself, Barkai added. It is well known that the sifting programme is ongoing and that to date more than half a million finds are in the process of being examined and researched.

Stephen Gabriel Rosenberg

W.F. Albright Institute of Archaeological Research, Jerusalem

This report comes to members of AIAS from Stephen Rosenberg in Israel. It represents his personal assessment. The Society takes no responsibility for its content.

Ancient Road Station Near Jerusalem

During construction of improvements to Highway 1 the road from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, at Abu Gosh at the west entry to Jerusalem, archaeologists uncovered a Byzantine period road station. The station, next to a deep spring called Ein Naka’a, included a 16m. long church with a side chapel (6.5 m. by 3.5 m.) that had a white mosaic floor and a baptisterium in the shape of a four-leaf clover in one corner. According to Yoli Schwartz of the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) who excavated the site, finds included oil lamps, coins, glass vessels, marble fragments and mother-of-pearl shell, indicating intensive activity at the site, just beside the ancient road from the coast up to Jerusalem, much on the lines of the present highway. The finds are being closely studied and documented and the site will be cleared and preserved for public viewing.

Canaanite Inscription from Khirbet Qeiyafa

In 2012, Prof. Yossi Garfinkel of the Hebrew University and Saar Ganor of the IAA found scattered shards of 10th century BCE ceramic jars at the site of Khirbet Qeiyafa in the Elah Valley. Many of the fragments carried individual letters of Canaanite script and it was finally possible to join matching pieces together, when it was found that one jug, carefully restored, was inscribed with the name Eshbaal ben Beda. Prof. Garfinkel noted that one Eshbaal ben Shaul is mentioned in I Chron, 8:33. He was ruling over (northern) Israel while David was ruling over Judah. That Eshbaal (whose name had been changed to Ish-Boshet) was murdered and decapitated and his head brought to David. Prof. Garfinkel said that these letters showed that writing was more widespread at this period than had been thought, since they now had this and three other inscriptions (another from Qeiyafa, one from Jerusalem and one from Bet-Shemesh) which had been published.

Second Temple Mikveh under House Near Jerusalem

The Jerusalem District archaeologist, Amit Re’em, of the IAA, announced the discovery of a two-thousand year old ritual bath (mikveh) under the floor boards of a house in Ein Kerem, a suburb of Jerusalem, The mikveh was discovered by opening a trap door in the floor of the house, that gave access to stone steps leading down to a rock-cut basin of 3.5m. by 2.4m. containing stone-cut pottery vessels of the 1st century CE, together with further fragments and traces of fire, that may be some indication of the destruction of the city in 70 CE. The owner and his wife contacted the IAA when they opened the trap door and together they cleaned out the mikveh and recorded the finds. Seeing that the salon floor had a ready-made trap door, it is possible that the original builders of the house were aware of the mikveh in their basement but did not give the information to the present owners for fear that it might reduce the value of the property. This is of course not the case and the present owners are very proud that they have an apartment based on an historic mikveh that has been excavated and recorded by the IAA.

Tombs in Galilee Declared World Heritage Site

The Rabbinic tombs in Bet-Shearim, south-east of Haifa, have been declared a World Heritage Site by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization at their meeting in Bonn in Germany last week. The committee said that “Bet Shearim bears unique testimony to ancient Judaism under the leadership of Rabbi Jehudah the Patriarch, who is credited with Jewish renewal after 135 CE.” The initial approach to UNESCO was prepared by archaeologist Dr. Tzvika Gal of the IAA and handled over the last four years by archaeologist Dr. Tzvika Zuk of the Israel Nature and Parks Authority. Bet-Shearim is the ninth site to be inscribed on the World Heritage list and it contains many engraved Menorah (candelabra) representations and other Jewish symbols, as well as the tombs of many prominent Rabbinic and other figures of the period, after interment in Jerusalem had become impossible and undesirable due to the Roman and later occupations. There are also numerous inscriptions in Greek, Aramaic and Hebrew in the Bet-Shearim caves.

Burial Cave in Jerusalem Entered Illegally

The IAA unit for the Prevention of Robberies recently arrested a Palestinian father and his four children and a family friend, who were digging in an ancient burial cave on Mount Scopus by the Hebrew University. The six were apprehended while working in the cave with shovels and other digging equipment. The father said that two of his children had heard muffled sounds from the cave and he, who claimed to be an exorcist, was looking for the treasure that, he said, the spirits were also searching for. The six suspects were released on bail and will be brought to court shortly and charged with entering an archaeological site illegally, for which the punishment can be up to five years in prison.

Stephen Gabriel Rosenberg

W.F. Albright Institute of Archaeological Research, Jerusalem