Tag: IAA

Report from Jerusalem #35, 22nd September 2011

Two-Horned Altar from Tell-Es-Safi

The site of Tell es-Safi is considered to be the Philistine city of Gath and work had been going on there for many seasons, under the direction of Prof. Aren Maier of Bar-Ilan University. A recent find has been a large stone altar with two squarish horns. It was found within the ruins of a large building of the lower city that was destroyed by Hazael of Aram in the 9th century BCE. The altar is made of a single piece of stone, which is unique for its size, according to Prof. Maier. The dimensions are 50cm by 50cm by one metre high, which is equivalent to the cubit by cubit by 2 cubits high of the wooden incense altar of the Mishkan, as described in Exod. 30:1. Although one side is broken, Prof. Maier claims that the altar only had the two horns on the one side, not the usual four, and the reasons for this are obscure, though it may have been a Philistine characteristic. Another important find of the season was a jar with an inscription, which seems to have been in a Philistine version of Hebrew, but is as yet undeciphered.

Damascus Gate Restored

The most ornate of the Jerusalem Gates, the Damascus Gate or Sha’ar Shechem, has been fully cleaned and restored after four years of work on the ancient walls of the city.  The restoration work included the reconstitution of the projecting external guardbox that was cantilevered over the main arched entry, and served as a sentry box for one soldier to monitor all who entered from the north. It was destroyed during the 1967 war and was finally restored and unveiled last month. The gate is highly elaborate and was commissioned by Suleiman the Magnificent from the famous Islamic architect Sinan Minmar (1489-1578) of Constantinople in the mid-sixteenth century CE. Sinan was also the architect of the Sulemaniye Mosque, the second largest in Istanbul, whose huge dome rests on four massive pillars. The Damascus gate is planned with a double chicane which in plan is like the Hebrew letter Lamed, with two right angle turns. In elevation it sports 22 or more stepped finials, and it is founded on an earlier Roman gate from the time of Hadrian. According to Avi Mashiah, the architect of the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) who supervised the work, this gate is the most beautiful one of the wall and therefore it has been amply recorded in drawings and photographs which enabled the restoration to be completed accurately. The work was carried out in carefully planned stages so that the many small-scale Arab merchants, who lined the walls of the gate, were able to continue trading without interruption.

Kenyon Institute: Move into Non-Archaeological Fields of Study

The Kenyon Institute, formerly the British School of Archaeology, in the Sheikh Jarrah area of East Jerusalem, has just announced a new series of lectures on Palestinian politics. The lecture for last week was entitled “The Question of Palestinian Representation in Historical Context and the State Recognition Initiative”, and was given by Dr. Abdel Razzeq Takriti of St Edmund Hall, Oxford. The Centre is also starting a series of classes in spoken Arabic, to run over the next three months.

From the point of view of the archaeological community of Jerusalem and the wider world, it would be most unfortunate if the Kenyon Institute, run by the Centre for British Research in the Levant, abandons the concern for archaeological subjects for which it was originally founded.

Continuos Occupation at Yavne-Yam

The ancient port of Yavne-Yam, that lies on the Mediterranean coast between Jaffa and Ashdod, recently gave up its latest secrets.  A complex of a fortress and a bath-house of the late Islamic period were excavated last season by a team from Tel Aviv University headed by Prof. Moshe Fischer. He pointed out that this latest find confirmed the use of the port city from the Middle Bronze Age period up to medieval times, and showed that the Islamic population continued the Roman practice of providing lavish bathing premises alongside their main public buildings. The latest finds, not yet published, indicate that the port was occupied continuously for a period of over three thousand years.

The Underground Passage from Robinson’s Arch to Siloam Pool

Work by Prof. Ronnie Reich of Haifa University and Eli Shukron of the IAA has continued on this amazing underground passageway and the sewer that ran below it, where a Roman sword and a tiny golden bell were found recently. The excavators have now been able to continue their exploration right up to the Herodian retaining wall of the Temple Mount (the Haram es-Sharif) and have uncovered the stepped foundations that underlie the massive ashlars of the wall, near to its maximum height of over 40 metres at the south-west corner, where it rises from the bedrock of the Tyropaean Valley. The discovery of the base of the wall attracted enormous interest and the site was visited by the Mayor of Jerusalem and other important dignitaries and politicians, who were reported to have been seen weeping at the wonder of the exposed foundations of the retaining wall to what is, for Jews, their holiest site. It is hoped that the site can be prepared for public viewing in the near future. It will certainly be interesting to see how Herod’s engineers coped with the problem of founding their huge walls on the naturally irregular bedrock of the mountain.

Corpus of Graffiti  Inscriptions

Over the years individual explorers have come across graffiti scratched into cave walls and other rough surfaces in many different places and languages. It is now the intention to publish all the known and readable ones that have been found in Israel over many years by several different scholars.  Prof. Jonathan Price of Tel Aviv Classics Department says the study of these casual writings has been neglected so far but their importance has now been recognised and the Corpus will be of great interest to historians.  The graffiti so far known are dated from the 4th century BCE, the early Hellenistic period, to the early Islamic age of 7th century CE and the Corpus is likely to contain 13,000 items in over ten languages. Some examples are the Greek name “Christo” found on limestone walls in the Judean hills, the Jewish family name “Sh-ph-n” (“rabbit”) found in a first century CE burial cave, and the name “Yonatan” in another burial cave. Many scrawls were found in the extended caves used by the Jewish population to hide from the Romans during the Jewish Revolts of 66 and 135 CE. some of which have still to be deciphered.

Stephen G. Rosenberg

W.F. Albright Institute, Jerusalem

 

Report from Jerusalem #34, 22nd August

Boundary stone found in Lower Galilee

A local visitor to the small community of Timrat, which lies a few kilometres west of Nazareth, happened to come across a large stone inscribed in black with the three Hebrew letters reading “Shabbat”. Mordechai Aviam, head of Archaeology at the nearby Kinneret College, has suggested that this was a marker for the Shabbat boundary around the village, marking the extent allowed for walking beyond the village on the Sabbath in the Mishnaic period.  The letters are large and clear and extend over a length of half a metre.   Boundary markers have been discovered at other locations but are inscribed in Greek and, according to Aviam, this is the first one to be found in Hebrew.  The stone is dated to the Roman/Byzantine period when the village would have been inhabited, and volunteer teams are now being sent to the area to search for more examples.

Ancient Shechem to be opened to the Public

A team from Holland and the Palestinian Authority has been working since 1997 at Tel Balata, the site of the ancient city of Shechem, and they plan to open the site to the public next year. It is hoped that the remains uncovered, and in some cases reconstructed by the Drew-McCormick Expedition directed by G.E.Wright in the early 1960s, will soon be available to be seen by visitors. Tel Balata, just east of modern Nablus, has been the site of a Palestinian refugee camp and in the last few years has become a centre of  old car sales and a dumping ground for second-hand and stolen vehicles. All this is being cleared away by the present expedition, supported by a team from UNESCO, and it is hoped that the site can be presented next year in a form useful to scholars and attractive to tourists.

Jerusalem sewage ditch yields up more treasures

From the waste water channel that runs from the Temple Mount to the Siloam Pool, in which the small golden bell was recently found, a Roman sword with part of an attached belt and a small inscribed stone were recently uncovered in the silt by Eli Shukron, working for the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA). The sword had a two-foot iron blade and is a military type that Shukron believes may have been stolen from the Roman garrison by a rebel Jew and then abandoned in the escape passage. The inscribed stone, from the same period, of the Roman destruction of the City in 70 CE, shows a menorah of five branches on a triple leg base. It is a fairly rough rendition and unclear why only five branches are shown though it may be that the artist did not want to reproduce the exact form of the menorah, since that might have been considered sacrilegious outside the Temple. The sword was found fused to its leather scabbard, badly decayed but with two ring buckles that had attached it to a soldier’s belt.

Phasaelis City Uncovered

At a site 20 km. north of Jericho, Hananiah Hizmi, working for the Archaeological Department of the Authority for Judaea and Samaria, is uncovering the 15 acres of a town planned by Herod the Great and started in the year 8 BCE, according to Josephus. It was the last of Herod’s great projects (he died in 4 BCE) and was being built as an agricultural complex in the name of his brother Phasael.  In this desert area, water was a problem and Herod’s engineers managed to bring it in by a thousand-metre long ground-level aqueduct from the springs now called Petzael. The site had been covered by Palestinian and Bedouin shacks and, as alternative accommodation has been provided, the huts have been cleared and the remains of the city uncovered. They include a water basin of 40m by 30m and 6m deep which was used to store the spring water and distribute it to adjoining fields. So far only two months of work have been spent on site and it is clear that much more time needs to be expended, as it is hoped to uncover all the residential and public buildings of this “new town” in the desert. If the remains come up as expected, this will be another example of a Herodian miracle, the building of a viable community in desert surroundings. The site continued in occupation for some time, as the excavators found the remains of a Byzantine Church with a mosaic floor. Today the name is preserved as the location goes under the title of El Fasayil and there is a small Jewish village at the springs called Petzael.

Bathhouse Hercules  in the Jezre’el Valley

In preparation for the building of a railway connection between Bet Shean and Haifa (partly for the benefit of Jordanian access to that port), a rescue dig at Horvat Tarbanet, west of Afula, has uncovered a  bright white marble torso and two fragments  that are clearly part of a statue of the Greek hero Hercules.  It is headless and portrays a highly muscular body with a lion’s pelt draped over the left arm (the animal’s head is visible), similar to the well-known Hercules Farnese statue of the Roman period.  The find was made by Walid Atrash of the IAA, who claims it to be of exceptional artistic quality. The torso, which stands about half-a-metre high was found by a bathhouse pool that had two rows of benches and a water-pumping system. The statue probably stood in a niche by the pool. It is dated to the late Roman period and it has been suggested that it was later deliberately smashed – hence the fragments – by iconoclasts in Byzantine or Islamic times.

Stephen Gabriel Rosenberg,

W.F.Albright Institute of Archaeological Research, Jerusalem

 

Report from Jerusalem, #32, 21st June

Bethsaida – Stratum  VII

Excavations at Bethsaida, which lies close to the northern shore of Lake Kinneret in the Galilee, re-started in June of this year. The work there has been conducted under the direction of Professors Rami Arav and Richard Freund for the last 25 years and has uncovered impressive remains of the Iron Age City that may have been the capital of the petty kingdom of Geshur.

Work this season will reach the foundations of the city, Stratum VII, which is currently dated to the middle of 10th century BCE. This is the period of the possible kingdom of David and Solomon, whose existence is doubted by the Tel Aviv School of Archaeologists, in opposition to the biblical account. This is a subject of debate at present and it is hoped that evidence this season from Stratum VII may help to throw light on the problem.

Hebrew University Museum – 70th Anniversary

A special exhibition has been mounted by the Hebrew University Museum of Jewish Antiquities on Mount Scopus to mark its 70th anniversary, having been founded back in the time of Prof Sukenik. Besides many items such as inscriptions, pottery and coins from the well-known excavations sponsored by the university, there are on show ceiling tiles from the Dura-Europos synagogue of the 3rd century CE, whose colourful frescoes are preserved in the National Museum of Damascus, the synagogue having originally been located in what is today Eastern Syria. The ceiling tiles are highly decorated and some of them mention the names of Samuel the Cohen, Abraham the treasurer and Samuel ben Supharah, who were presumably involved in the building of the synagogue.

Acre – Byzantine Structure Uncovered

The recent uncovering of an impressive building in the city of Acre, the ancient port north of Haifa, has prompted the speculation that this might be the remains of a church of the 6th century CE. The building was constructed of ashlar stonework and included a courtyard with a well and terracotta pipework. If they are the  remains of a church, it will be the first one discovered in the city, according to Nurit Feig of the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA), who directed the excavation, and would add weight to the recorded fact that the Bishops of Acre and Caesarea attended international congresses in the city during the Byzantine period. According to Vatican archives an Italian pilgrim visited the churches of Acre in 570 CE, but no other public buildings of the period have so far been discovered in Acre.

The newly excavated building was found to contain a mosaic, roof tiles, pottery and coins. It was founded on a Hellenistic layer that included Rhodian amphorae and locally made pottery. The find cannot yet be opened to the public but will be fenced off and protected by sand and a textile covering while the adjoining mall and car park are completed.

Austrian Hospice –  Salvage Dig

A rescue dig is in progress at the Austrian Hospice, famous for its coffee, cream and Sachertorte, on the Via Dolorosa in the Old City, Jerusalem. The site is close to the triumphal arch built for Hadrian’s visit to Aelia Capitolina in 135 CE, and the eastern Cardo of the city. The Austrian Hospice began rebuilding a low retaining wall on their north-eastern boundary, which had collapsed a few years ago. When excavating for a new foundation, older structures were immediately revealed and the IAA were called in. To date they have uncovered a substantial archway from the Ottoman period and a well-preserved medieval vaulted chamber. Considerable remains of 14th century CE imported tableware, including bowls from Italy and the Far East, indicate that this was an area occupied by well-heeled inhabitants, indeed an elite medieval society. The work continues.

Egyptologist Held For Selling And Smuggling Antiquities

It was reported that a retired US university lecturer in Egyptology was guiding a group of about twenty American tourists around the sites of two Tells in the Galilee and was selling them valuable archaeological artefacts for them to take out of the country. The suspect guide was detained at Ben Gurion airport by Customs and IAA officials but allowed to leave after signing a confession and posting a large deposit to ensure his return for future trial. The tourists were stopped at the Egyptian border at Taba, where they were found to be taking out valuable items. The photographs of the antiquities found on the guide and in his hotel room show fairly standard series of Roman oil lamps and bronze and silver coins of the Second Temple period.

The information released by the police and the IAA is sketchy pending the trial, and it is believed that the IAA are using the case to warn tourists against buying antiquities from unauthorized dealers and taking them out of the country, which is a criminal offence with a penalty of up to three years imprisonment.

Stop Press! Opening of Ophel City Walls Site

21st June saw the official opening of a new archaeological park to the north-east of the City of David Centre. The excavations were directed by Dr. Eilat Mazar of the Hebrew University, who described the remains as being possibly situated around the Water Gate mentioned in Nehemiah 3:26. These descriptions are still controversial and it is hoped that more information will be available in the next Report.

Stephen Gabriel Rosenberg,

W.F. Albright Institute of Archaeological Research, Jerusalem

 

Report from Jerusalem, #31, 11th May

Demonstrations over Graves in Jaffa

Problems continue with the ultra-orthodox trying to prevent the digging up of human remains for development and archaeological research. The latest incident has centred on the Andromeda Hill site in Jaffa, where 150 skeletons have been uncovered during archaeological digs that have been going on for some time before the building of the “Eden Hotel” luxury project. The digs were proceeding over the last year, and have also uncovered many pig bones among the human remains which, in the view of the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA), indicated that the burials were of a pagan nature and would not be of interest to the “Atra Kadisha”, the ultra-orthodox Jewish movement.

It seems that previous excavations in the area in 1993-1994 turned up a jar containing a foetus burial that was dated to c.1900 BCE. In the view of the IAA that find was conclusive evidence of the pagan nature of the area’s population.

Last June protests were held, both near the site and in Manhattan near the home of the US developer, and in late March of this year, hundreds of followers of the Atra Kadisha movement held a mock funeral for the remains. Whenever human bones of any nature are uncovered by the IAA, they are treated reverentially and handed to the relevant funeral authorities after examination, and very rarely retained for further research.

Return of ancient Christian artifacts demanded by Jordan

The story goes that a Bedouin farmer found a cache of small metal plates, bound by leaden rings, formed into codices, about 70 in number, in Northern Jordan between 2005 and 2007, and had them smuggled into Israel for sale. Another Bedouin, Hassan Saeda, living in Northern Israel, is holding them and claims that they are his family heirloom. It is said that Israeli archaeologists, (having been contacted by Saeda, who has been trying to sell the artifacts), say that the pieces are forgeries.

The Jordanian authorities however claim that the codices or miniature books  are extremely important and of significance equal to that of the Dead Sea scrolls, but so far the IAA have declined to comment, having no detailed knowledge of them. Nevertheless David Ellington, a British historian of Christianity, is said to have told the BBC that the codices are a major discovery of Christian History and that he hoped to have them moved to Jordan for examination. The codices are in Hebrew and Greek but written in a code so far undeciphered, though the language is clear.

It seems that a report on the matter was printed in the Daily Telegraph recently, and there has been much speculation about them on the internet, so readers in the UK may have more knowledge of this matter, as all details on the subject are very scanty in Israel, and no-one seems to have seen the pieces, which may well seem surprising if they really are so important.

Jacobovici discovers “Nails of the Cross”

Simcha Jacobovici, the Canadian-Israeli maker of popular films on Biblical Archaeology, hit the headlines in mid-April by announcing that he had retrieved two Roman nails from the IAA storerooms and that they were the nails of the cross on which Jesus was crucified. He said that the nails had come from the ossuary of Caiaphas, the High Priest who had handed Jesus over to the Roman authorities. The ossuary had been reported by the IAA but no details of the nails had been given or even recorded and Jacobovici was of the opinion that they were very significant, claiming that they had been buried with the remains of Caiaphas to indicate his guilt in arresting and reporting Jesus to the Romans.

Jacobovici has made films on the Death of Jesus and on the Exodus, and Israeli archaeologists have said that although his latest claims make good TV, they do not make good history.

The Kenyon Institute. formerly the British School of Archaeology in Jerusalem

In recent years the name of the British School has been changed to the Kenyon Institute to give it a more modern title and yet retain its prime connection to the archaeology of the Holy Land, in honour of Kathleen Kenyon, the great British archaeologist. It is housed in an attractive older building in the Sheikh Jarrah district of northern Jerusalem and houses an extensive archaeological library, two lecture rooms and a convenient hostel for the use of visiting scholars. It has for years been sponsoring lectures and even digs on archaeology and in September 2007 gave room to a one-day conference on “British Groundbreakers in the Archaeology of the Holy Land”, which was organized by this society, the AIAS, and was addressed by scholars from Israel, Palestine and Jordan, while the UK was represented by several speakers from the PEF.

Funding for the Institute comes mainly from the Council for British Research in the Levant (CBRL), and the Institute is administered by the British School in Amman, Jordan, but has its own local director and staff. There were a number of recent changes in the directorship and the present acting director is Omar Shweiki.

The Institute has not been very active in the recent past but has now started a series of three lectures entitled “The Modern Middle East”, which centres on the recent revolutions in the Arab world, commonly called “the Arab Spring”.

This trend in lectures suggests that the Institute is turning to the study of current affairs, which the AIAS and the archaeological community in general, would find unfortunate if it implied any move away from the original speciality in archaeology.

Stephen Gabriel Rosenberg –W.F.Albright Institute of Archaeological Research, Jerusalem

Report from Jerusalem, #29, 4th February 2011

Jordan Baptismal Site Reopened

On 18th January a ceremony was held to mark the re-opening of the site on the River Jordan where John the Baptist is supposed to have baptised Jesus. It had been closed for over forty years as a military zone and has now been released by the army and renovated by the Israel Nature and Parks Authority who have improved access for pilgrims and tourists. The site is known in Arabic as Qasr al-Yehud (Castle of the Jew) and pilgrims can enter it from both the Israeli and Jordanian side, though crossing between them is not possible as it is fenced off mid-river to mark the boundary between the two countries.

The ceremony, marking also the Feast of the Epiphany, was led by Theophilos III, Patriarch of the Greek Orthodox Church of Jerusalem, and was attended by an estimated 15,000 pilgrims, most of whom watched the ceremony on screens while the lucky few got to immerse themselves in the river in white cloaks.

The site is also deemed by some to represent the place where the Children of Israel are said to have crossed into Canaan by the fords, under the leadership of Joshua.

The Passing of Vendyl Jones

Vendyl Jones, who was said to have spent much of his life looking for the Ark of the Covenant, passed away in late December 2010. He had been a pastor in the Baptist Church and was drawn to Jewish texts and practices by his reading of the Bible, so much so that he called himself a Noahide, that is, one who keeps the seven Jewish commandments for Gentiles. In 1964 he came across literature on the Copper Scroll and started searching for the treasures of the Temple. His fame rested on his identity with the “Indiana Jones” played by Harrison Ford, but Vendyl denied the connection. In Israel his enduring image was photographs of him in the press digging in the soil with a trowel in one hand and the Bible in the other. He claimed to have found samples of the “ketoret” incense used in the Temple. It was a reddish powder and was confirmed by tests at the Weizmann Institute, though disputed by other scholars.

Drainage Channel and Street of Ancient Jerusalem

After the work of seven years, the surface water drain from near the Temple Mount to the Pool of Siloam has been cleared and will shortly be opened to tourists. The work has been conducted by Prof. Ronny Reich and Eli Shukron for the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) and has opened up a stepped street above the channel that goes back to the early Roman period. Remnants of pottery and other domestic waste suggest that the channel, which is from 1m. to 2m. high under the street, was used by refugees escaping from the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple in 70 CE. Josephus carries a vivid account of the Roman forces searching for the escapees, enslaving some and killing others.

Parts of the tunnel had already been uncovered by Charles Warren, at the Western Wall end, and by Bliss and Dickie at the Siloam end, but this is the first time that it has been possible to see the two ends as one continuous passageway and sewer. The present section runs for 600 metres and it is presumed that it extends further northwards for an equal amount to the Damascus Gate.

Jerusalem Leper Hospital to be Arts Centre

The former Hansen Hospital, named after the doctor who isolated the germ that caused leprosy, is to be renovated as the City centre for the visual arts. It stands on a large piece of ground opposite the Jerusalem Theatre in the prosperous Talbiyeh neighbourhood. It is a pleasant three-storey structure with balconies around a central courtyard and its interest to archaeologists is that it was built in 1887 by the German architect Conrad Schick (1822-1901), who came to the city as a missionary and died there as an early explorer and archaeologist. He is known as the builder of models of the Temple Mount and the surveyor of maps of Jerusalem. It was a set of his pupils who first saw and drew his attention to the Siloam Inscription in the water tunnel. As an architect he was responsible for the layout of one of the early neighbourhoods outside the old City, the Mea Shearim housing complex, now largely inhabited by members of the ultra-orthodox Jewish community. One wonders if they realize that their homes were planned and built by a former Christian missionary.

Byzantine Church in the Judaean Hills

Due to the discovery of illegal plunder from the site, the chief IAA investigator of archeological theft, Amir Ganor, started a dig at the ruins of Hirbet Madras, south-west of Jerusalem and just north of Beit Guvrin, where he uncovered the floor of a 6th Cent. CE structure that was thought to be a synagogue but, thanks to many stones carved with crosses, is now seen to have been a church. It has a magnificent mosaic floor of geometric patterns that incorporate representations of lions, foxes, peacocks and fish. The church is built over another structure, probably five centuries earlier, of the early Roman period, that might have been a village synagogue. There are also underground tunnels alongside, that may have served as hiding places for the Jews during the Bar-Kochba Revolt (132-135 CE), as found at Beit Guvrin nearby. Steps from the church lead down into a small burial cave that the excavators think was considered to be the holy resting place of the Prophet Zechariah, but the reasons for this are obscure.

The site, which is now on an isolated hilltop, will be covered over again, until plans and funding become available to secure it and open it to the public.

Stephen Gabriel Rosenberg,

W.F.Albright Institute, Jerusalem