Israel Archaeological News - General

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Dead Sea Rises for First Time in 10 years

Higher level comes in the wake of huge storm that pounded Israel in early January

By GABE FISHER January 17, 2013, 11:54 am

A test conducted Wednesday revealed that the Dead Sea rose 10 centimeters since its last monthly measurement, the first recorded increase in volume for the iconic and endangered body of water in 10 years.

The higher level is the result of runoff from the fierce storm that swept across Israel last week, bringing record levels of rainfall and causing the Sea of Galilee to rise by some 70 centimeters, with more expected after the winter runoff.

The Dead Sea is fed by the Jordan River as well as a series of streams running from the Judean Hills, many of which experienced heavy flooding last week.

Pumping from the Sea of Galilee, which feeds the Jordan River, along with the diversion of water to the Dead Sea Works factory and the extremely arid climate have all contributed to a sharp drop in the level of the Dead Sea — over 20 meters since the 1970s.

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Ancient Site Restored after Modern Vandalism

Nabatean King Obodas, revered as a deity, built the southern Negev city of Avdat 2000 years ago. Vandals tried to destroy it three years ago. Now it has been restored.

By: Tzvi Ben-Gedalyahu

Published: January 30th, 2013
Latest update: January 31st, 2013

"Six different Israeli ministries invested nearly $2 million to repair damage, much of it irreversible, after unknown vandals in October 2009 assaulted the site, designated by UNESCO (United Nations Science and Culture Organization) as a world’s cultural heritage.

Three other Nabatean cities in the Negev have the same status, and unusual recognition that is credited to the discovery of some of the oldest Byzantine churches.

The vandals managed it pull down columns that stood for centuries, and they left behind damage that “never before has been seen in Israel,” according to the Nature and Parks Authority’s southern district official, Raviv Shapiro."

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Photo Essay: Tell es-Safi

Aren Maeir, Bar-Ilan University

"Gath of the Philistines is well known from the Bible as one of the five major cities of the Philistines ("Philistine Pentapolis"), appearing often particularly in the books of Samuel. The important role of the city in the text led scholars to search for its location from a very early stage of modern research in the Holy Land. Although the site of Tell es-Safi had been suggested as Gath's location as early as the mid-1800s, this identification was highly contested for many decades, and only since the mid-1970s—following Anson Rainey's analysis of the relevant biblical and other texts, and especially since the late 1990s with the commencement of the renewed excavations—has the identification of Tell es-Safi as biblical Philistine Gath (and Canaanite Gath, known from the el-Amarna texts as well) been widely accepted."

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H/t: BiblePlacesBlog

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Unearthed Board Games Shed Light on Ancient Holy Land Trivial Pursuits

A Jerusalem 'artifactologist,' who directs a national storage facility that holds more than a million archaeological items, says games offer insight into human life throughout the ages.

By Nir Hasson | Feb.10, 2013 | 10:53 AM

"A few years ago, a striking street from the Roman period was discovered in the back part of the Western Wall Square. This eastern cardo area features a wide lane, sidewalks, and entryways for stores. Archaeologists, led by Shlomit Wexler-Bedolah from the Israel Antiquities Authority, discovered an inscription in one of the sidewalk areas − the engraving stretches across two quadrants, each divided into squares, and has a large X in its center.

In another area, an engraving features a rectangle divided into 42 squares. An intensive search uncovered another six inscriptions of various types; and searches in other parts of Jerusalem’s Old City uncovered another 21 engravings − in the Damascus Gate square, around the Dung Gate, at the Jewish quarter’s cardo, and elsewhere. Each is actually a public game-board, dating from the Roman period, similar to public chessboards that can sometimes be found in public parks in Europe. Jerusalem in Roman times − Aelia Capitolina − is not unusual in this respect. Archaeologist Dr. Michael Saban, who investigates ancient games artifacts, alludes to hundreds of game boards of different types, from all historical periods. The oldest such board dates to the 7th century B.C.E., 9,000 years ago."

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Cover Stories, Daily News

Dead Sea Cave Yields New Finds

Mon, Feb 11, 2013

"Tucked almost secretively away within a cliff high above the Dead Sea, archaeologists have recently uncovered more artifacts that may hold clues to the history of a cave that has yielded contents dated to the turbulent times of Jesus, the First Century Jewish Revolt and the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Led by Dr. Haim Cohen of Israel's Haifa University, a small team ascended a steep escarpment of rocky terrain to the cave each morning at 5.45 a.m. beginning on November 28 for several weeks of painstaking excavation. The routine climb took 2 hours to reach the excavation site, a cave where Cohen had previously conducted excavations in 2003 and 2006. Cave 27, also called the "Mikveh Cave" or Cave of the Pool at Nahal David, is best known for the Second Temple period (530 BCE to 70 CE) mikveh, or ritual cleansing pool, dated to the time of the first centuries B.C. and A.D. It was discovered and excavated just outside the cave entrance. The cave is located in a cliff approximately 400 meters above the Dead Sea and is accessible from a plateau above the cave. Among the many other finds excavated in past seasons were Early Roman period potsherds, flint tools, remains of straw matting, textiles, date pits, ropes, olive pits, animal bones, two coins of Agrippa I, a glass bottle, an iron trilobate arrowhead from the Early Roman period, a pottery seal with a geometric decoration considered to be from the Chalcolithic period, and an ashen hearth. The most intriguing questions, however, have surrounded the presence of the mikveh at the entrance to the cave, a relatively unusual location for such a feature."

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Israel Unveils Herod's Archaeological Treasures

Herod's mausoleum headlines Israel's most ambitious archaeological show but Palestinians say treasures should stay where they were found

Harriet Sherwood in Jerusalem

guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 12 February 2013 17.24 GMT

"A magnificent mausoleum in which King Herod the Great, the biblical-era ruler of Jerusalem and the Holy Land, was laid to rest at the end of his 37-year reign of terror is the centrepiece of the most ambitious archeological exhibition ever mounted in Israel.

Herod's burial chamber, discovered less than six years ago after a 40-year search, has been reconstructed within the Israel Museum in Jerusalem for the first ever exhibition to focus on the murderous king. Thirty tonnes of artefacts were excavated from the site of the tomb, the desert palace of Herodium, situated near the West Bank city of Bethlehem, for the eight-month show, Herod the Great: The King's Final Journey.

During his bloodthirsty tyranny, he executed at least one of his wives and three of his sons as well as countless rabbis, opponents and people who simply got in his way. According to Matthew's gospel, he ordered the killing of all newborn babies following the birth of Jesus, although some scholars say his son, also called Herod, was responsible for the butchery (and others dispute it happened at all)."

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BUILDING WITH THE PAST: ARCHAEOLOGY’S IDEOLOGICAL ROLE IN ISRAEL

Article created on Sunday, February 17, 2013

"In October 2009, the archaeological National Park of Avdat in the Israeli Negev desert was anonymously vandalized (Figure 1). Widely publicized in the media, the vandalism was depicted as a destruction of a heritage site of the utmost importance. Following the arrest of local Bedouin suspected of committing the act in retaliation for the destruction of illegal buildings in their nearby home village, the Jewish regional council mayor emphasized the urgency of commencing a battle against the Bedouin over control of the Negev lands.

A national symbol

The vandalization of Avdat and the ensuing public discourse, underlines the site’s prominent role as a symbol of national heritage. In the 1960s – following the first excavations at Avdat – the site symbolized the Zionist attempt to mould the many Jewish cultures that came together in Israel into a homogeneous culture with shared aspirations and ideals. Since the 1990s, following processes of social privatization and globalization, the site has been reorganized as the convex of a number of tourist enterprises, attempting to promote the creation of a multi-cultural society."

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Ehud Netzer Publications Available to Public

Noah Wiener   •  02/15/2013

"Ehud Netzer, a prominent Israeli archaeologist and the world’s leading authority on Herodian architecture, died on October 27, 2010 from a fall at Herodium, where he had been digging for 38 years in search of Herod’s tomb. Herod the Great was the ancient world’s builder par excellence. Netzer described Herod as “a king who lived and breathed the art of construction, deeply understood its ways and, quite simply, loved to build.” One might fairly say that Ehud Netzer himself lived and breathed the man and the works of Herod."

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An Ancient Industrial Installation was Revealed beneath the Asphalt in Yafo (February 2013)

The Israel Antiquities Authority exposed remains of an installation for extracting liquid which dates to the Byzantine period

"Archaeological excavations of the Israel Antiquities Authority provide a glimpse at hundreds of years of magnificent history that lies beneath the busy streets. The excavations are being conducted prior to modernizing the infrastructure, on behalf of the Tel Aviv municipality, by the Mashlama Le-Yafo, within the framework of the Magen Avraham Compound project. Recently impressive remains of an industrial installation from the Byzantine period which was used to extract liquid were exposed on Hai Gaon Street.

Installations such as these are usually identified as wine presses for producing wine from grapes, and it is also possible they were used to produce wine or alcoholic beverage from other types of fruit that grew in the region. Yafo’s rich and diverse agricultural tradition has a history thousands of years old beginning with references to the city and its fertile fields in ancient Egyptian documents up until Yafo’s orchards in the Ottoman period.

According to Dr. Yoav Arbel, director of the excavations on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority, “This is the first important building from the Byzantine period to be uncovered in this part of the city. The fact that the installation is located relatively far from Tel Yafo adds a significant dimension to our knowledge about the impressive agricultural distribution in the region in this period. The installation, which probably dates to the second half of the Byzantine period (sixth century – early seventh century CE), is divided into surfaces paved with a white industrial mosaic. Due to the mosaic’s impermeability such surfaces are commonly found in the press installations of the period which were used to extract liquid. Each unit was connected to a plastered collecting vat. The pressing was performed on the mosaic surfaces whereupon the liquid drained into the vats. It is possible that the section that was discovered represents a relatively small part of the overall installation, and other elements of it are likely to be revealed in archaeological excavations along adjacent streets which are expected to take place later this year”."

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More on:

Israel Unveils Herod's Archaeological Treasures

 

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March 2013, Cover Stories, Discoveries

The Egyptian Fortress in Jaffa

By Aaron A. Burke and Martin Peilstöcker Sun, Mar 03, 2013

"Archaeologists are rediscovering a Late Bronze Age Egyptian stronghold in the land of ancient Canaan.

In a very real sense, the ancient port city of Jaffa may offer a valuable historical and archaeological example of the age-old issues and dynamics that have beset occupying powers the world over for thousands of years. Archaeologists have been exploring and studying the ancient Egyptian fortress at this coastal city to obtain insights on what it was like for both conqueror and conquered when there are "strangers in the land" ...

Situated on the central coast of Israel, on the south side of Tel Aviv, and 60 km to the northwest of Jerusalem, Jaffa’s antiquity and importance as a Mediterranean port was well established before the resumption of excavations in 2008 by the Jaffa Cultural Heritage Project. While the biblical texts have served as a primary historical referent, Jaffa’s importance in other periods is much more clearly understood in classical sources including Josephus, but also even from Egyptian New Kingdom literature and administrative documents. Following excavations during the 1950s of the archaeological remains of an Egyptian fortress in Jaffa, a fortress that existed for most of the Late Bronze Age (ca. 1460 to 1130 BC), seeking to understand Jaffa’s role in the Egyptian New Kingdom imperial control of Canaan became of paramount importance."

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Fossilized Pollen Unlocks Secrets of Ancient Royal Garden in Israel

March 8, 2013

"Tel Aviv — Researchers have long been fascinated by the secrets of Ramat Rahel, located on a hilltop above modern-day Jerusalem. The site of the only known palace dating back to the kingdom of Biblical Judah, digs have also revealed a luxurious ancient garden. Since excavators discovered the garden with its advanced irrigation system, they could only imagine what the original garden might have looked like in full bloom — until now.

Using a unique technique for separating fossilized pollen from the layers of plaster found in the garden’s waterways, researchers from Tel Aviv University’s Sonia and Marco Nadler Institute of Archaeology have now been able to identify what grew in the ancient royal gardens of Ramat Rahel. And based on the garden’s archaeological clues, they have been able to reconstruct the layout of the garden."

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Bronze-Age Donkey Sacrifice Found in Israel

By Megan Gannon, News Editor | LiveScience.com – 7 hrs ago

"Archaeologists in southern Israel say they've uncovered a young donkey that was carefully laid to rest on its side more than 3,500 years ago, complete with a copper bridle bit in its mouth and saddle bags on its back.

Its accessories — and the lack of butchery marks on its bones — lead researchers to believe the venerated pack animal was sacrificed and buried as part of a Bronze Age ritual.

Donkeys were valuable beasts of burden in the ancient Near East. Donkey caravans helped open up vast trade networks across the Levant and Anatolia in the 18th and 17th centuries B.C., according to archives from Amorite settlements like Mari in modern-day Syria. Ancient Egyptian inscriptions from around the same time show that hundreds of pack donkeys were used in large-scale expeditions to mining sites in the eastern desert and southern Sinai, researchers say."

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Some of the Earliest Evidence of Growing Legumes and Cultic Sexual Symbols were Uncovered in a Stone Age Site (March 2013)

The Israel Antiquities Authority conducted an archaeological excavation prior to the construction of the new railroad line to Karmiel by the National Roads Company of Israel

"Among the finds: thousands of broad bean seeds and a large number of arrowheads and stone axes.

This Sunday, March 17, the Israel Antiquities Authority will conduct tours of the excavation site for the public – free of charge

A new site dating to the Stone Age was exposed in large scale archaeological excavations the Israel Antiquities Authority is carrying out at Ahihud Junction prior to the construction of a new railroad line to Karmiel by the National Roads Company. In the excavations, which are spread over 1,800 square meters, remains of two main periods were discovered: the Pre-Pottery Neolithic period and the Early Chalcolithic period (seventh millennium BCE – fifth millennium BCE)."

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Where in the Temple was Jesus when he was 12 years old?

 

Posted on March 13, 2013 by Leen Ritmeyer

 

"In his post of Monday, March 11, 2013, Todd Bolen of Bibleplaces, remarks on a statement reportedly made by Dan Bahat in an Italian newspaper:
 

There’s an article in the Italian press (with a Google translation in English here) in which Dan Bahat allegedly claims that he knows the exact place where Jesus taught the rabbis at the age of 12. He identifies an area on the south side of the Temple Mount where he says that excavations have uncovered the scales on which the teachers stood.

 

This is the paragraph that was translated by Google:
 

“The paths of Christian pilgrims in Jerusalem could be enriched by a new holy place” the point where Jesus’ amazed the rabbis with his wisdom when he was 12 years old. I think I can show exactly where this and ‘happened.” This is an area in the southern part of the Temple, where excavations have brought to light the scales on which the teachers of the law were standing normally.”

 

So much for Google translator that wrongly translated “scale” with “scales” instead of “steps”, as mentioned by Ferrell Jenkings in his comment on Todd’s blog. I once saw “out of sight, out of mind” translated as “invisible moron”! So, better get your dictionaries out."

 

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Holy Land Farming Began 5,000 Years Earlier Than Thought

By Douglas Main, LiveScience Staff Writer | LiveScience.com – 8 hrs ago

"AVDAT, Israel — For thousands of years, different groups of people have lived in the Negev desert, building stone walls and cities that survive to this day. But how did they make their living?

The current thinking is that these desert denizens didn't practice agriculture before approximately the first century, surviving instead by raising animals, said Hendrik Bruins, a landscape archaeologist at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.

But new research suggests people in this area, the Negev highlands, practiced agriculture as long ago as 5000 B.C., Bruins told LiveScience. If true, the finding could change historians' views of the area's inhabitants, who lived in the region in biblical times and even before, he added."

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Archaeologists Reopen Investigation of Early Humans at Manot Cave in Israel

Thu, Mar 28, 2013

Excavations may shed new light on early modern humans and Neanderthals in the Levant.

"Situated in the western Galilee region of present-day Israel, Manot Cave lies about 10 km north of the Hayonim Cave site and 50 km northeast of the well-known Mt. Carmel cave sites. Although less-known than the well-publicized prehistoric "sister" sites of Qafzeh and Kebara, the cave has recently yielded evidence of human occupation dated back to at least Upper Paleolithic times, when early modern humans and Neanderthals are suggested to have coexisted around the Mediterranean and further north into present-day Europe. Adding to evidence uncovered at other similar locations, scientists hope that the finds of the cave will help elucidate the story of early modern human and Neanderthal existence in the Levant, and perhaps even help answer questions related to one possible stage in the spread of modern humans from Africa to Europe."

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Byzantine Winepress, Unique Lantern Unearthed in Dig

Archaeologists working at spa in southern Israel say lantern is shaped like a miniature church

By MATTI FRIEDMAN April 4, 2013, 5:59 pm

"Archaeologists digging near a spa in southern Israel have uncovered Byzantine-era remains that include a large wine-press and a unique clay lantern decorated with crosses.

The stone remnants of what must have been a significant wine-making apparatus include compartments for storing grapes, a treading floor, and pits for collecting liquid, all spread over an area of more than 100 yards. It would have been in use about 1,500 years ago, the Israel Antiquities Authority said in a statement Thursday."

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Article:

Mysterious Stone Structure Discovered Beneath Sea of Galilee

Owen Jarus, LiveScience Contributor

 

Date: 09 April 2013 Time: 11:08 AM ET

 

"A giant “monumental” stone structure discovered beneath the waters of the Sea of Galilee in Israel has archaeologists puzzled as to its purpose and even how long ago it was built.

"The mysterious structure is cone shaped, made of “unhewn basalt cobbles and boulders,” and weighs an estimated 60,000 tons the researchers said. That makes it heavier than most modern-day warships.

Rising nearly 32 feet (10 meters) high, it has a diameter of about 230 feet (70 meters). To put that in perspective, the outer stone circle of Stonehenge has a diameter just half that with its tallest stones not reaching that height.

It appears to be a giant cairn, rocks piled on top of each other. Structures like this are known from elsewhere in the world and are sometimes used to mark burials. Researchers do not know if the newly discovered structure was used for this purpose."

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Mikve from Second Temple era found in Jerusalem

Posted on April 10, 2013 by Leen Ritmeyer

"Today’s Jerusalem Post reports:
 

An archaeological excavation conducted by the Israel Antiquities Authority near a highway construction site in the Kiryat Menachem neighborhood of Jerusalem, unearthed a rare ritual bath (mikve), dating back to the late Second Temple period.

 

Many mikva’ot – Hebrew for ritual baths, mikveh in the singular, – have been excavated in Jerusalem and elsewhere. These baths were used for purifying oneself by total immersion.

A mikveh is usually a stepped pool carved out of the rock with a small dividing wall built on the upper steps. The purpose for this was to descend on one side and, after immersion, ascend on the other side, thus preventing contact with those who were not yet purified."

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Copper Plates Baffle Archaeologists

Mon, Apr 15, 2013

"First discovered during a survey two years ago, four disk-shaped copper plates found by archaeologists near the ancient site of Hippos-Sussita just east of the Sea of Galilee continue to mystify them.

Now, archaeologists involved in the ongoing excavations at the site are reaching out to scholars and the public alike to help them find the answer to the riddle.

"They were found in the Hippos necropolis during several surveys", says Israeli archaeologist Dr. Michael Eisenberg of the Zinman Institute of Archaeology at the University of Haifa, Israel. He directs the Hippos Excavation Project, which has uncovered remarkably well-preserved monumental remains and artifacts at this ancient mountaintop Greco-Roman city, a site that overlooks the Sea of Galilee. "None were found during excavation, but all were found very near to robbed and open graves. It was Dr. Alexander Iermolin, conservator from the institute of Haifa, who first found the pieces during a metal detector survey. They were totally ignored even by us as at first glance they look rather modern.""

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King David Era Find ‘Buried’ by Authorities for Political Reasons

Soon the area will be handed over to the PA.

By: Yori Yanover

Published: April 19th, 2013

"The initial discovery was made by Benjamin Troper, the training coordinator of the Kfar Etzion field school, who suddenly, while aiding a troubled tourist down a deep cave south of Jerusalem, turned to look at the nearby wall and saw an ancient stone column.

“I had gone down that hole dozens of times,” Tropper told Makor Rishon, “but this was the first time, because I was helping the tourist, that I came down looking in that direction.”

What he saw was a bona fide ancient column with a crown, which he recognized from his years as tour guide and from the time he spent working in excavating ancient Jerusalem.

That’s the story of a remarkably rare archeological discovery, which no one has heard about. For some reason, possibly political, the Israeli authorities have been trying to silence this discovery which could usher in a breakthrough in our understanding of the periods of King David and his son, King Solomon."

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While Jerusalem Day is Celebrated Above Ground, Archaeological Discoveries Reveal City’s Layers

Posted on April 29, 2013 by Judy Lash Balint/JNS.org and filed under Features, Israel, Special Sections.

By Judy Lash Balint/JNS.org

"Tens of thousands will visit the Old City on May 8 for Jerusalem Day, the anniversary of the reunification of Jerusalem during the 1967 Six Day War. While celebrations go on above ground, new excavations underneath and around the Old City are being uncovered and opened to the public, peeling back layers of history and expanding understanding of events in the center of the Jewish universe.

Old City expert Rabbi Barnea Selevan, a veteran licensed tour guide and co-director of Foundation Stone, is excited about a series of archeological digs taking place in the vicinity of the Western Wall. For the past several years, the Western Wall Heritage Foundation has sponsored excavations at the back of the plaza, and workers have uncovered part of a Roman colonnaded street dating back to the 2nd century C.E.

But what was ignored until recently, according to Selevan, are several small stone buildings, overgrown and blocked by material from the dig."

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An Enormous Quarry Dating to the Second Temple Period was Exposed in the Ramat Shlomo Quarter of Jerusalem

Within the framework of an excavation project the Israel Antiquities Authority is conducting An Enormous Quarry Dating to the Second Templ Period was Exposed

May 2013

"Within the framework of an excavation project the Israel Antiquities Authority is conducting prior to the construction of Highway 21 by the Moriah Company:

An Enormous Quarry Dating to the Second Temple Period was Exposed in the Ramat Shlomo Quarter of Jerusalem

Tools used by the quarrymen and a 2,000 year old key were also uncovered at the site. The huge stones that were quarried there were presumably used in the construction of the city’s magnificent public buildings

An enormous quarry from the time of the Second Temple (first century CE) was exposed in recent weeks in excavations the Israel Antiquities Authority is carrying out prior to the paving of Highway 21 by the Moriah Company. A 2,000 year old key, pick axes, severance wedges etc are also among the artifacts uncovered during the course of the excavation."

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The Eastern Gate of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem

 

Posted on May 8, 2013 by Leen Ritmeyer

 

"I am often approached by people that are under the impression that the Eastern Gate of the Temple Mount had to be directly opposite the entrance leading into the Holy Temple.  According to Middot 1.3, there was only one gate in the Eastern Wall of the Temple Mount:  “the Eastern Gate on which was portrayed the Palace of Shushan”.

The Eastern Gate is an important gate of the Temple Mount, as on Yom Kippur the scapegoat that was chosen by the High Priest in front of the Temple, would have been led through the Court of the Women, down a stairway to and through the Shushan Gate and into the Kedron Valley. From there it was led over the Mount of Olives into the Wilderness of Judea.

 

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