Tag: diet

Report from Jerusalem #66, 20th January 2015

Earliest Evidence of Olive Oil Found

At a salvage dig conducted at Tzippori in the lower Galilee last year by the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) and directed by Dr. Ianir Milevski and Nimrod Getzov, and reported in the Israel Journal of Plant Sciences, pottery was found with a residue of olive oil dating back some eight thousand years. The directors researched fragments of the pottery with scientist Dr. Dvory Namdar of Hebrew University and found by chemical means that the jars had absorbed organic remains containing olive oil, that could be traced back to the Early Chalcolithic period. Of the twenty shards that were examined two samples of the pottery were found to be particularly ancient and could be dated back to 5800 BCE.

Remains of an olive oil industry of this period were found some years ago at Kfar Samir near Haifa, but the find at Tzippori is the earliest evidence of its use in domestic vessels in Israel and perhaps in the Middle East as a whole. Together with evidence of field crops such as grain and legumes, it indicates that the composition of the basic Mediterranean diet existed at the earliest periods, much as it remains today.

Fragment Showing Menorah of Second Temple Period

A rescue dig in the Carmel National Park near Yokne’am, 20 km. south-east of Haifa, being dug before the construction of a water reservoir for the town, exposed an industrial area of the late Roman and early Byzantine period with a number of refuse pits. In one of the pits one of which the directors for the IAA, Limor Talmi and Dan Kirzne, found the small fragment of a glass bracelet, about 25 x 12 cm. decorated with the symbol of a seven-branched Menorah (candelabra) like the one known from the Second Temple. The bracelet was of turquoise-coloured glass and was found with many other pieces and fragments of glass vessels, jewellery, and even small window panes, which suggested that the area had included a glass manufactory that served the surrounding residential population, who were clearly living in relative affluence.

Damage to Ancient Sites in Syria

The United Nations, through UNITAR, has reported that more than 290 historic and cultural sites have been damaged by the civil war in Syria, according to evidence from satellite images. The sites included Raqqa and the oasis city of Palmyra, the ancient city of Bosra and early settlements in the north of Syria. In addition, the head of Syria’s antiquities and museums agency is reported as saying that thousands of museum artifacts have been moved recently to secure warehouses to avoid the danger of looting.

Looters of Ancient Cave Arrested

Last December two Arabs were caught red-handed digging a large hole into an ancient cave near the West Bank in search of buried gold objects. They had been hired to carry out the work by two Israelis from Hefer, who were also arrested.

The illegal excavators were equipped with drills, lighting units, shovels, buckets and a generator. They were discovered by the Robbery-prevention unit of the IAA and taken to the police station at Tayiba for questioning. Unauthorised excavation is a criminal offence and punishable by up to five years in prison.

Ancient Looted Coins Found in Private Home

A man was initially arrested at an antiquities site in the Bet Shemesh area where he was discovered using a metal detector. The police found that he was carrying digging tools and later searched his home where they found 800 ancient bronze coins of the Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine periods, as well as other ancient objects and jewellery. Dr. Klein, deputy director of the Robbery-prevention unit of the IAA said that unauthorized searching for ancient coins is a criminal offence. Ancient coins are most important to archaeologists and historians and, if found in situ, can provide dates, names of rulers and the place of production.

Temple Outer Wall Destruction Reassessed

The large stones that lie at the foot of the southern end of the western outer wall of the Temple Mount have always been considered to be the result of toppling by the Roman forces, when they destroyed the Second Temple in 70 CE. However, Prof. Shimon Gibson, who is digging nearby near the Zion Gate, has now re-examined them and claims that they fell as a result of a major earthquake that occurred in 363 BCE, one that has been well documented as damaging several monuments in the Jerusalem area and the adjoining Rift valley.

‘‘By The Rivers Of Babylon”

A new exhibition at the Bible Lands Museum in Jerusalem sets out to describe the life of the Jews exiled from Jerusalem in the years 597 and 586 BCE. It is based on an archive of Babylonian cuneiform documents that describe life in the town of Al-Yahuda (literally, the City of Judah) where the exiles were at first located. The exhibition includes the texts, some models and small sculptures, and remains open until mid January 2016.

Stephen Gabriel Rosenberg

W.F. Albright Institute of Archaeological Research, Jerusalem

Report from Jerusalem #60, 20th April 2014

Exhibition of Early Masks at the Israel Museum

A new temporary exhibition at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem shows a collection of twelve masks from Jericho and other sites around the Dead Sea.

The masks are all of stone and dated to the Pre-pottery Neolithic B period of about nine thousand years ago. They were dispersed among several museums and private collections and have been collected together here for the first time. The Israel Museum had two of them, one from Nahal Hemar in the Judean Desert and one from nearby Horvat Duma, according to Debby Hershman, the curator. They are all beautifully mounted on separate stands and individually spotlit in a dark room, which gives one an uncanny feeling of being watched by surreal ancestors, and found wanting. Their purpose is unclear but the Museum speculates that they were used for unknown rituals in a world where the symbols of death breathed life into those that viewed them. The exhibition remains open until 13th September 2014.

Crac Des Chevaliers Threatened

It has been reported that Syrian government forces have been shelling the walls of this well-preserved Crusader castle, in the Homs gap of Syria, where rebels have been entrenched. The castle is an UNESCO World Heritage site and one of the most important standing medieval castles in the world. Heavy shelling had already damaged some of the interior structures, according to earlier reports.

Prehistoric Diet in Ramle

Archaeologists of Haifa University, led by Dr. Yossi Zaidner, have uncovered early human remains at the Hector site in Ramle, south of Ben Gurion airport, in a very deep pit-like area that dates back to the Mousterian period of the Paleolithic era of 170,000 years ago. The remains include a considerable number of large bones that relate to equids, fallow deer and rhinoceros, which were presumably the diet of the humans that camped out in this deep and open area. This is one of the earliest remains of human settlement in the Middle East and is most unusual, according to Dr. Zaidner, for being located in an open- air camp rather than a cave.

Second Temple Ossuaries Looted

Two Palestinians from Bethlehem were recently arrested trying to sell eleven ossuaries to two Israeli collectors. They were all detained by police at a security checkpoint and reported to the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA), whose Eitan Klein recognized the artefacts as Second Temple burial coffins by their fine double rosette carvings on the limestone. The ossuaries had come from an unknown cave in the Jerusalem area, and one of them was quite small and probably that of a deceased child.  Two of the ossuaries had names inscribed, but only the first names, being Yoezer and Ralfin, written in Hebrew and Greek.

The boxes will be held by the IAA pending the trial of the criminals, and the bones transferred to the Ministry of Religious Affairs for conventional Jewish burial.

Tomb of Prominent Canaanite?

During a rescue dig before the laying of a gas pipeline at Tel Shadud near Sarid, 6 kms. south-west of Nazareth,  a cylindrical clay coffin with an anthropomorphic carved lid of an Egyptian type, was found. Inside was an adult skeleton, tentatively identified by Dr. Ron Be’eri, one of the directors of the dig, as a Canaanite who may have served the Egyptian government. With the body was found a gold signet ring with the name of Seti I, father of Ramesses the Great, engraved on it. This dates the remains to 13th century BCE. Nearby were the graves of two men and two women, who may have been family members of the coffin deceased, as well as pieces of pottery, a bronze dagger and bowl and other bronze fragments. These were considered to be offerings to the gods and also utensils for the use of the deceased in the afterlife. Dr. Be’eri thought that the skeleton may have been that of an Egyptian official or a wealthy Canaanite of the local elite, imitating Egyptian customs. The IAA will take DNA samples from inside the coffin to try and determine the original nationality of the deceased.

Prize Awarded to Prof. Gabriel Barkai

The Moskowitz Prize for Zionism has recently been awarded to three recipients – to Michael Freund of the Jerusalem Post, to Rabbi Yosef Zvi Rimon of the ex-Gush Katif settlers, and to archaeologist Prof. Gabriel Barkai, who share the prize of $100,000. The award to Prof. Barkai is for his lifelong work on the ancient history of Jerusalem and in particular for his salvage of the remains removed from the Temple Mount by the Islamic authorities, and for setting up the major sifting complex to analyse those remains.

Jerusalem Spring Citadel Dig Completed

After fifteen years of work at the Gihon Spring, Professors Ronny Reich and Eli Shukron have now completed their uncovering of the great fortress that protected the spring in the Canaanite period of 1,800 years ago, and continued in use during the reigns of David and Solomon and thereafter. The structure was of truly massive stonework the like of which was  notseen again until the time of Herod the Great. The work was discovered when a new visitors’ centre was planned, whichhad to be delayed until the archaeologists had completed their investigations. It can now go ahead and the public will be allowed access to see the exposed megaliths of the impressive foundations of the fortress. The question now remains – if the Gihon Spring was so heavily fortified, why did Hezekiah (or another) have to build the extensive rock-cut tunnel to protect the spring from the Assyrians?

Stephen Gabriel Rosenberg,

W.F. Albright Institute of Archaeological Research, Jerusalem