Israel Archaeological News - General

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Oldest Inscription Found in Jerusalem, But No One Can Read It

3,000-year-old text from King David’s time, in an unknown language on the top of a jug, is earliest alphabetical writing ever found in holy city

By STUART WINER July 10, 2013, 4:40 pm

"An ancient inscription dating back to the time of King David, recently discovered in Jerusalem, has researchers scratching their heads.

The 3,000-year-old text comes from the top of what remains of a large earthenware jug and is the earliest alphabetical written text ever uncovered in the city, according to a statement from Hebrew University, whose researchers found the artifact.

Dated to the 10th century BCE, the artifact predates by 250 years the earliest known Hebrew inscription from Jerusalem, from the period of King Hezekiah at the end of the 8th century BCE."

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A Virtual Tour of the Temple Mount

Link

 

H/t: BAS

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King David’s Palace was Uncovered in the Judean Shephelah 

Royal storerooms were also revealed in the joint archaeological excavation of the Hebrew University and the Israel Antiquities Authority at Khirbet Qeiyafa

 

(July 2013)

"Two royal public buildings, the likes of which have not previously been found in the Kingdom of Judah of the tenth century BCE, were uncovered this past year by researchers of the Hebrew University and the Israel Antiquities Authority at Khirbet Qeiyafa – a fortified city in Judah dating to the time of King David and identified with the biblical city of Shaarayim.

One of the buildings is identified by the researchers, Professor Yossi Garfinkel of the Hebrew University and Saar Ganor of the Israel Antiquities Authority, as David’s palace, and the other structure served as an enormous royal storeroom.

Today (Thursday) the excavation, which was conducted over the past seven years, is drawing to a close. According to Professor Yossi Garfinkel and Sa'ar Ganor, “Khirbet Qeiyafa is the best example exposed to date of a fortified city from the time of King David. The southern part of a large palace that extended across an area of c. 1,000 sq m was revealed at the top of the city. The wall enclosing the palace is c. 30 m long and an impressive entrance is fixed it through which one descended to the southern gate of the city, opposite the Valley of Elah. Around the palace’s perimeter were rooms in which various installations were found – evidence of a metal industry, special pottery vessels and fragments of alabaster vessels that were imported from Egypt. The palace is located in the center of the site and controls all of the houses lower than it in the city. From here one has an excellent vantage looking out into the distance, from as far as the Mediterranean Sea in the west to the Hebron Mountains and Jerusalem in the east. This is an ideal location from which to send messages by means of fire signals. Unfortunately, much of this palace was destroyed c. 1,400 years later when a fortified farmhouse was built there in the Byzantine period”."

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H/t: KG

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Wednesday July 24, 2013

Ancient olive press found in Jerusalem

"Excavations by Israel Antiquities Authority unearth cave housing ancient olive press near Jerusalem College of Technology • Researchers trying to ascertain artifact's date, say it's proof of "centrality of olive trade to Jerusalem's agrarian economy."

Yori Yalon and Israel Hayom Staff

 

A cave housing an ancient olive press was recently discovered during archeological excavations at a site near the Jerusalem College of Technology, the Israel Antiquities Authority said in a statement Tuesday."

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Part of Enormous 1,000-Year-Old Jerusalem Hospital Shown to Public In Old Jerusalem

You need an archaeologist before you can build a restaurant. That is how the Israel Antiquities Authority discovered a 19-foot high Crusade-era hospital building.

By: Jewish Press Staff

 

Published: August 5th, 2013

Crusader period from the years 1099-1291

"Part of an enormous Old City of Jerusalem hospital building dating to the Crusader period from the years 1099-1291 has been revealed to the public following excavations and research by the Israel Antiquities Authority. Records show that the Christians provided Jewish patients with kosher food. The building, owned by the Muslim Waqf religious authority, is situated in the heart of the Christian Quarter in the Old City of Jerusalem, in a region known as “Muristan,” a corruption of the Persian word for hospital. It is located near David Street, the main road in the Old City."

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Archaeologists Uncover Unfamiliar Jewish Village in Israel

Among the uncovered remnants are an ancient synagogue, houses, and large amounts of pottery production evidence in Shikhin, which is near the Jewish city of Sepphoris.

Science Recorder | Jonathan Marker | Monday, August 05, 2013

"According to an August 2 press release from Samford University, religion professor Doctor James Riley Strange uncovered the remnants of an unfamiliar Jewish village in the Galilee sector of Israel. The announcement of the discovery was jointly presented by directors Strange, Mordechai Aviam of the Institute for Galilean Archaeology, and David Fiensy of Kentucky Christian University. Among the uncovered remnants are an ancient synagogue, houses, and large amounts of pottery production evidence in Shikhin, which is near the Jewish city of Sepphoris.

The archaeological sites are approximately five miles northwest of Nazareth, and are important to Jewish history as the uncovered information will help archaeologists to understand Galilean Jewish life and its economy around the creation of Christianity and the Judaism of the Talmud."

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History’s Garbage Dump (August 2013)

Researchers are examining what 400 Byzantine coins, 200 Samaritan lamps, an ancient ring with an inscription and gold jewelry were doing in a refuse pit from the Byzantine period?

"The archaeological excavations on behalf of the Tel Aviv University and the Israel Antiquities Authority have given rise to a mystery. The excavations, funded by the Israel Land Authority prior to expanding the city of Herzliya, are being conducted between the coastal road and the Israel Militaries Industries plant in an area located between Kfar Shmaryahu and Rishpon.

Numerous finds dating to the Late Byzantine period (fifth, sixth and seventh centuries CE) were among the antiquities discovered in excavations conducted in the agricultural hinterland of the ancient city of Apollonia-Arsuf, located east of the site. Among the finds uncovered are installations for processing the agricultural produce such as wine presses, and what also might be the remains of an olive press, as well as remains of walls that were apparently part of the ancillary buildings that were meant to serve local farmers."

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Also @

Hoard of 1,500-Year-Old Coins Found in Ancient Garbage Dump

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Herzliya Byzantine-era find sheds light on ancient Samaritans’ lives

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Regarding Recent Suggestions Redating the Siloam Tunnel

A web-exclusive discussion by Aren Maeir and Jeffrey Chadwick

Aren M. Maeir and Jeffrey R. Chadwick   •  08/13/2013

 

Back to the Hezekiah’s Tunnel scholar's study page.

"An article published in the Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research (the research journal widely known as BASOR) proposed a new understanding and dating of Jerusalem’s famous Siloam Tunnel, perhaps better known as “Hezekiah’s Tunnel.”

The study by geologists Amihai Sneh, Eyal Shalev and Ram Weinberger, all with the Geological Survey of Israel, was titled “The Why, How, and When of the Siloam Tunnel Reevaluated.”1 Having examined the ancient water tunnel, the three authors suggest that it was excavated following existing karstic cavities (hollows that form through the dissolution of natural bedrock by mildly acidic ground waters). An important statement made in the article is that it would have taken the ancient workmen about four years to dig the 533-meter tunnel."

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Assyrian Period Fortifications Unearthed in Ashdod

18 ft. high fortifications dating back to the 8th century BCE were discovered in the harbor of the ancient Philistine city.

By: Yori Yanover

Published: August 15th, 2013

"An archeological team headed by Dr. Alexander Fantalkin of Tel Aviv university has announced the discovery of one of the largest construction projects in the entire Mediterranean basin: a system of fortifications from the 8th century BCE, as well as coins, weights and parts of buildings from the Hellenistic period, have all been found in the archeological dig Tel Ashdod Yam – where the harbor of the philistine city of Ashdod used to be. The site is about 3 miles south of today’s thriving Israeli city of Ashdod.

This has been the first deep and well organized dig at the site, following the only previous dig there, carried out by the late archeologist Dr. Ya’akov Caplan in 1965-68.

The more recent dig has brought to light the remains of an 8th century BCE fortification system – a mud brick wall comprised of internal and external dykes circling a wharf. The dig has also unearthed ruins of buildings from the Hellenistic period (late 4th to early 2nd centuries BCE), as well as coins and weights."

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2700 Year-Old Inscription in City of David Excavations

This fascinating find will be presented at Megalim's Annual Archaeological Conference which will take place on Thursday, August 29th in the City of David.

By: Jewish Press Staff

Published: August 18th, 2013

"Archaeological excavations conducted by the Israel Antiquities Authority in the area of the Gihon Spring in the City of David, in the Walls around Jerusalem National Park, have unearthed a layer of rich finds including thousands of broken pottery shards, clay lamps and figurines. Most intriguing is the recent discovery of a ceramic bowl with a partially preserved inscription in ancient Hebrew. While not complete, the inscription presents us with the name of a seventh century BCE figure, which resembles other names known to us from both the Biblical and archaeological record (see examples below) and providing us with a connection to the people living in Jerusalem at the end of the First Temple period.

 

This fascinating find will be presented at Megalim’s Annual Archaeological Conference which will take place on Thursday, August 29th in the City of David."

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Also @

Israel Antiquities Authority

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Baffling Dead Sea Scrolls Text Gets New Interpretation

A single phrase in the Psalms Scroll bewildered scholars for decades. Then two students had an epiphany.

By Ran Shapira | Aug. 18, 2013 | 6:07 PM

"Modern Israelis ascribe several meanings of the Hebrew root taph-bet-ayin: “to demand,” “to investigate,” “to prosecute” and while about it, “to sue”. None of these meanings were useful in deciphering a mysterious line in the Dead Sea Scrolls.

For decades scholars struggled with a phrase sporting the Hebrew word “tit’ba’e’ch”. Their efforts to interpret the phrase to conform with the modern usage of the root resulted in contortions that the Cirque de Soleil could only envy.

Therein, contend two students, lies the mistake. The root in question had another use too.

The verse with the word titbaech appears in a poem called (in English at least) “Apostrophe to Zion” — which appears in the so-called “Psalms Scroll”, together with other poems very much like the biblical Psalms."

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Evidence of 3,000-Year-Old Cinnamon Trade Found in Israel

Owen Jarus, LiveScience Contributor | August 20, 2013 07:14am ET

"How far would you go to get your cinnamon fix? If you lived in the Levant 3,000 years ago (a region that includes modern day Israel), very far indeed new research indicates.

Researchers analyzing the contents of 27 flasks from five archaeological sites in Israel that date back around 3,000 years have found that 10 of the flasks contain cinnamaldehyde, the compound that gives cinnamon its flavor, indicating that the spice was stored in these flasks.

At this time cinnamon was found in the Far East with the closest places to Israel being southern India and Sri Lanka located at least 3,000 miles (nearly 5,000 kilometers) away. A form of it was also found in the interior of Africa, but does not match the material found in these flasks."

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Jerusalem the Movie filmed in iMax 3D

Posted on August 19, 2013 by Leen Ritmeyer

"About two years ago, we mentioned in a post that an epic movie about Jerusalem was being made in iMax format. As of August 16, this year, the movie has been released and will be distributed by National Graphic. It shows stunning helicopter photography of the Land of Israel and tells the story of Jerusalem through the eyes of three young women, Christian, Jewish and Arab. Here you can watch the trailer:
 

We are pleased to have been able to contribute to this movie with reconstructions of Jerusalem in the Second Temple and Byzantine periods."

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Jerusalem – new reconstruction drawings

Posted on August 27, 2013 by Leen Ritmeyer

"Our Image Library has been updated with many new drawings. There are two new series on Jerusalem, new reconstruction drawings in portrait orientation of the Tabernacle, the Temples of Solomon and Herod, also of Herodium and other sites.

Throughout its history, the size of Jerusalem expanded, but also diminished at times, as shown here:"

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Canaanite Altar Discovered in Northern Israel

Researchers were able to establish that this was later a place of Jewish dwellers.

By: Jewish Press Staff

Published: August 28th, 2013

"An archaeological discovery in the Tel Rechesh excavations at the Tabor River Reserve in northern Israel: a joint archaeological expedition, which included researchers from the University of Tenri, Japan, and the Institute of Archaeology of Galilee Kinneret Academic College, have unearthed a Canaanite cult altar. 

 

The excavations in this area have been going on for six years now. 

 

The same excavations also revealed large parts of a Jewish farmhouse dating back to the Second Temple. Researchers were able to establish that this was a place of Jewish dwellers based on typical stone tools, oil lamps and coins minted in the city of Tiberias."

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Newsletter Tuesday September 3, 2013

Timna Park Rediscovered by Tel Aviv Archaeologists

Carbon dating debunks decades-old assumptions, proving that the Kingdom of Israel, not Egypt, had control over the special copper ores when mining activity was at its peak • Chief archeologist: Bible consistent with the new findings.

"The magnificent rock formations at Timna Park have always exuded mystique, as if they contained many hidden secrets from a rich past. Now one of those secrets, kept by the desert sands, is exposed thorough advanced technology.

According to a Tel Aviv University team of archeologists who studied the ancient Negev park, the mining activity at the site was at its height during the 10th century B.C.E., under the rule of kings David and Solomon. This essentially debunks the long-standing theory, devised almost 50 years ago, that the mines, used for the extraction of copper, were actually under the control of the ancient Egyptians. The discovery was made possible thanks to carbon-14 dating, a technology that was not available when the site was first explored."
 
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Also @

A New Chronological Framework for Iron Age Copper Production at Timna (Israel)1

 

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Updated: Wed, 04 Sep 2013 21:27:22 GMT | By Tia Ghose, LiveScience

Animal Sacrifice at Temple Powered Ancient Jerusalem's Economy

Animal bones found in a dump dating to the end of the second Temple period suggest that animal sacrifice powered Jerusalem's economy.

"Pilgrims came from hundreds of miles away to sacrifice animals at an ancient temple in Jerusalem, new research suggests.

An analysis of bones found in an ancient dump in the city dating back 2,000 years revealed that animals sacrificed at the temple came from far and wide.

"The study shows that there is a major interprovincial market that enables the transfer of vast numbers of animals that are used for sacrifice and feasting in Jerusalem during that time period," said study co-author Gideon Hartman, a researcher at the University of Connecticut.

The finding, published in the September issue of the Journal of Archaeological Science, confirms visions of the temple depicted in historical Jewish texts and suggests the economic heart of the city was its slaughtering operation."

 

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Biblical-Era Town Discovered Along Sea of Galilee

By Owen Jarus, LiveScience Contributor   |   September 16, 2013 08:13am ET

"A town dating back more than 2,000 years has been discovered on the northwest coast of the Sea of Galilee, in Israel's Ginosar valley.

The ancient town may be Dalmanutha (also spelled Dalmanoutha), described in the Gospel of Mark as the place Jesus sailed to after miraculously feeding 4,000 people by multiplying a few fish and loaves of bread, said Ken Dark, of the University of Reading in the U.K., whose team discovered the town during a field survey.

The archaeologists also determined that a famous boat, dating to around 2,000 years ago, and uncovered in 1986, was found on the shoreline of the newly discovered town. The boat was reported on two decades ago but the discovery of the town provides new information on what lay close to it."

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Public release date: 17-Sep-2013

Contact: James Hathaway
University of North Carolina at Charlotte

Mt. Zion Dig Reveals Possible Second Temple Period Priestly Mansion

Quirks of history protect details regarding domestic lives of Jerusalem elites from the time of Jesus

"In excavating sites in a long-inhabited urban area like Jerusalem, archaeologists are accustomed to noting complexity in their finds -- how various occupying civilizations layer over one another during the site's continuous use over millennia. But when an area has also been abandoned for intermittent periods, paradoxically there may be even richer finds uncovered, as some layers have been buried and remainundisturbed by development.

Such appears be the case at an archaeological dig on Jerusalem's Mount Zion, conducted by the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, where the 2013 excavations have revealed the well-preserved lower levels of what the archaeological team believes is an Early Roman period mansion(first century CE), possibly belonging to a member of the Jewish ruling priestly caste.

If the mansion does prove to be an elite priestly residence, the dig team hopes the relatively undisturbed nature of the buried ruin may yield significant domestic details concerning the rulers of Jerusalem at the time of Jesus.

Particularly important in the season's discoveries were a buried vaulted chamber that has proven to be an unusualfinished bathroom (with bathtub) adjacent to a large below-ground ritual cleansing pool (mikveh) -- only the fourth bathroom to be found in Israel from the Second Temple period, with two of the others found in palaces of Herod the Great at Jericho and Masada.

Shimon Gibson, the British-born archaeologist co-directing the UNC Charlotte excavation, notes that the addition of the bathroom to the mikveh is a clear sign of the wealth and status of the resident.

"The bathroom is very important because hitherto, except for Jerusalem, it is usually found within palace complexes, associated with the rulers of the country," Gibson said."We have examples of bathrooms of this kind mainly in palatial buildings."

The other example of a contemporary mikveh with an attached bathroom is at a site excavated in Jerusalem in the nearby Jewish Quarter."A bathroom that is almost a copy of ours was found in an excavation of a palatial mansion," noted Gibson. "It is only a stone's throw away and I wouldn't hesitate to say that the people who made that bathroom probably were the same ones who made this one. It's almost identical, not only in the way it's made, but also in the finishing touches, like the edge of the bath itself."

 

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5,000-Year-Old Leopard Trap Discovered in Israel

By Tia Ghose, Staff Writer   |   September 24, 2013 02:33pm ET

"Archaeologists have unearthed a 5,000-year-old leopard trap in the Negev Desert in Israel.

The trap, which was found along with a 1,600-year-old trap, was originally thought to be just a few hundred years old, and is nearly identical to traps that have been used by desert-dwelling Bedouins in the area in the last century.

"The most exciting thing is the antiquity of these carnivore traps, which is totally unexpected," said study co-author Naomi Porat, a geochronologist with the Geological Survey of Israel."

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Nahman Avigad – Excavator of the Jewish Quarter in Jerusalem

Posted on September 25, 2013 by Leen Ritmeyer

Ha’aretz reports that today, September 25th, is the birthday of the late Prof. Nahman Avigad:

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Underground Battle for the Temple Mount

Posted on October 4, 2013 by Leen Ritmeyer

 

"In today’s Makor Rishon (Hebrew) newspaper, Arnon Segal published an article, called Otiot porchot be-avir (letters blossom in the air). Based on the diary of the Rabbi of the Western Wall, Rabbi Meir Yehuda Getz, he retells the story of the underground excavations and the struggle that took place inside Warren’s Gate in 1981. Warren’s Gate is the northern-most of the four original Herodian gateways that gave access to the Temple Mount through the Western Wall."

 

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09012013, Cover Stories, Daily News

Ancient Date Palm Tree Flourishes Again

Mon, Oct 07, 2013

"It was a bit like shades of Jurassic Park -- but this was about plants, not animals. And it was real -- nothing fictional about this.

During excavations by the late Ehud Netzer in 1973 at the site of Herod the Great's fortified mountaintop palace at Masada in Israel, archeologists uncovered a cache of seeds stowed away in a clay jar about 2,000 years ago. For decades, the ancient seeds were stored in a drawer at Tel Aviv's Bar-Ilan University. But in 2005, in collaboration with the Louis L. Borick Natural Medicine Center at Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem, botanical researcher Elaine Solowey received one of them for an experimental planting."

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Archaeological Stunner: Not Herod's Tomb After All?

While attention is focused on a blockbuster exhibition purporting to display the tomb of Herod the Great, two archaeologists claim there's no way the egomaniac king was interred there.

By Nir Hasson | Oct. 11, 2013 | 9:13 AM

"In May 2007, at a dramatic press conference, archaeologist Ehud Netzer revealed that King Herod’s tomb had been discovered on the slopes of Herodium. Now two archaeologists argue that what was found there can't be Herod's last resting place.

The mountain site lying southeast of Jerusalem includes an ancient fortress, palaces and a town. Netzer had uncovered remnants of a grand structure with a cone-shaped roof and the shattered remains of three elaborate sarcophagi ‏(stone coffins‏). One of these, meticulously chiseled out of red stone, was thought to have once contained the body of the great king of Judea."

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Comment on article by Leen Ritmeyer available here:

Herod’s Tomb at Herodium
 

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Two Articles of Interest from the Christian Science Monitor - What Archaeology Tells Us About the Bible - In Jerusalem, the Politics of Digging up the Past:

Cover Story

What Archaeology Tells Us About the Bible

A contentious dig in Israel delves into the kingdoms of David and Solomon, stirring a debate over the veracity of the biblical record.

By Christa Case Bryant, Staff writer / October 13, 2013

But archaeologists are not. To a certain extent, they are storytellers, who fill in the gaps with interpretation. Many are trained in additional fields, such as history, ancient languages, or religious studies, that allow them to explore and hypothesize well beyond the bounds of artifacts and methodical measurements.

That's especially true of the early United Monarchy period, before there were coins or seals with people's names on them that could be used to verify dates, says Eric Meyers, a religion professor and biblical archaeologist at Duke University in Durham, N.C. "There is always an interpretive jump that is made by individuals, and you have to be wary of who's doing it and what they're doing with it."

To be sure, archaeologists working in Israel have developed sophisticated techniques for piecing together ancient history, such as dating certain layers based on pottery shards or on events such as a catastrophic fire."

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H/t: PaleoJudaica