Israel Archaeological News - General

[Resource Manager]

“Jerusalem 3D” Film Premiere in London

Posted on January 12, 2014 by Leen Ritmeyer

"My wife Kathleen and I are excited to have been invited by Taran Davies to attend the Jerusalem 3D Premiere in the iMax cinema in London this Wednesday, the 15th of January, 2014. Taran Davies is co-producer with George Duffield and Daniel Ferguson is the director.

Josh Glancy wrote in today’s Sunday Times:

“The documentary follows a trio of teenage girls from the three faiths that have their home in Jerusalem: Islam, Judaism and Christianity. Despite their different religions, they seem to experience the city in strangely similar ways. They live within minutes of each other, but their paths never cross.

Their stories are woven around an extraordinary portrayal of perhaps the world’s most religious and contested city at its most fervent. The 45-minute film has sold out at Washington’s Smithsonian Institution and has now been booked to play at cinemas and museums around the wold. It opens at London’s iMax cinema in Waterloo this week.”

 

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[Resource Manager]

Galilee Woman Delivers Archaeological Treasure From the Depths

By ROZ WOLBERGER

01/15/2014 13:12

Israeli resident reveals ancient sunken artifacts, including pottery from the Biblical Period, stored in her basement.

The Israel Antiquities Authority announced on Wednesday the staggering find of a large number of ancient pottery pieces, fully intact and safely stored...in a basement.

"It all began with a phone call to the IAA: "In my basement there are full boxes of ancient vases and pottery, that a member of my family, a fisherman, left before he died..." said Osnat Lester, a resident of Galilee town Poriya Illit.

"I want to pass the pottery on to the state, and I want my grandchildren to know where to see them in the future," explained Lester.

Soon after the phone call, two archaeologists from the IAA arrived at Lester's Galilee home and were amazed to see the extent of the treasure: wrapped in cloth and stacked in boxes were a large number of whole pottery vessels, clearly very ancient and rare. The surface of the vases were encrusted with sea shells and other ocean sediments, including the occasional fossil. Most of the pieces were fully intact, and the rest were in large fragments, neatly wrapped in fabric."

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[Resource Manager]

Proto-Aeolic Capital Associated with Judah’s Longest Spring Tunnel

Investigating royal iconography and large-scale construction in Iron Age Judah

Noah Wiener • 01/15/2014

"There has been a lot of talk recently about a “covered up” proto-aeolic capital. I’ll admit: I indulged in a bit of this myself last April. Last week, the conversation was reopened when Arutz-7 reported that the location of the site—sensationally (and without any substantiation) labeled “King David’s Castle”—would be announced Friday, January 17.

The capital is part of an undoubtedly important archaeological site just over five miles from Jerusalem’s City of David and four miles from Bethlehem. The find itself—a one-of-a-kind proto-aeolic capital still attached to its base—is a rare-yet-iconic First Temple period type. The iconography is familiar in Israel; proto-aeolic designs are etched on modern Israeli five-shekel coins.

The capital is associated with a 525-foot-long tunnel system, the largest and most impressively hewn spring tunnel in the region of Jerusalem. This labor required to carve such a system opens new questions regarding the Judahite administration and agriculture around Jerusalem. Unfortunately, most of last year’s discussion hinged on media reports of the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) response to the Kfar Etzion Field School’s attempts to publicize the find. The archaeological significance was all but ignored."

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[Resource Manager]

12012013, Cover Stories, Daily News

Archaeologists Return to Ancient City of Lachish

Wed, Jan 15, 2014

Following the spectacular discoveries made at Khirbet Qeiyafa, the archaeological team turns its sights on the 10th - 9th century BC layers of a famous ancient Judahite stronghold.

"According to the Biblical account, the ancient fortified city of Lachish was for a time considered, after Jerusalem, the second-most important city in the Kingdom of Judah. Today, its ruins can be seen atop a prominent "tel" or mound located in the Shephelah lowland of Israel between Mount Hebron and the maritime Mediterranean coast. The remains are a visible reminder of a city that represented a strength and glory ravaged through the military designs of advancing Assyrian and Babylonian armies long before the ancient Romans ever set foot in this country. It is best known as the location of a great siege by Assyrian king Sennacherib in 701 B.C.E."

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[Resource Manager]

Discovery of a Major Church with a Splendid Mosaic from the Byzantine Period (January 2014)

The discovery was made during a salvage excavation as part of development work by the Israel Land Authority prior to the construction of a new neighborhood at Moshav Aluma,near Pelugot Junction

"The discovery was made during a salvage excavation as part of development work by the Israel Land Authority prior to the construction of a new neighborhood at Moshav Aluma, near Pelugot Junction * Israel Antiquities Authority archaeologists say, "The church probably served as a center of Christian worship for neighboring communities."

The site will be open to the public on Thursday and Friday of this week (January 23-24)

Impressive archaeological finds including a major church some 1,500 years old with a magnificent mosaic and five inscriptions were uncovered during Israel Antiquities Authority salvage excavations, prior to the construction of a new neighborhood at Moshav Aluma in Shafir Regional Council, near Pelugot Junction. The excavations were directed by archaeologists Dr. Daniel Varga and Dr. Davida Dagan, and funded by the Israel Land Authority."

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[Resource Manager]

Carmel Cavemen Used Plants in Rituals 13,000 Years Ago, Archaeologists Find

Israeli archaeologists find new clues to elaborate Natufian burial behaviors and rituals, and diet.

By Ran Shapira | Jan. 23, 2014 | 10:26 AM

"Cavemen in ancient Israel not only buried their dead with flowers – they also apparently had an advanced culture of plant use, not only for consumption but for ritual as well.

The earliest evidence of using flower beds for burial, some 13,700 years ago, was reported in Raqefet Cave in Mt. Carmel last summer. In four different graves from the Natufian period, dating back to 13,700 to 11,700 years ago, dozens of impressions of salvia and other mint species were found under human skeletons.

Now Prof. Dani Nadel from the University of Haifa and his colleagues argue that use of plants in the Raqefet cave was much wider than for just burial rituals. In an article published in the Journal of Anthropological Archaeology they describe how Carmel dwellers of that time processed grains and used plants in day to day living, based on phytoliths found in the cave."

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[Resource Manager]

Old Manuscripts Get Face-Lift at Jerusalem Mosque

14 hours ago by Areej Hazboun

"In the 1920s, an urgent call went out to the literati across the Middle East from Arab leaders in Jerusalem: Send us your books so that we may protect them for generations to come. Jerusalem was soon flushed with writings of all kinds, to be stored and preserved at the newly minted al-Aqsa mosque library.

But many of those centuries-old manuscripts are in a state of decay. Now, religious authorities are restoring and digitizing the books, many of them written by hand. They hope to make them available online to scholars and researchers across the Arab world who are unable to travel to Jerusalem.

Hamed Abu Teir, the library's manager, called the manuscripts a "treasure and trust." ''We should preserve them," he said.

The al-Aqsa mosque, Islam's third holiest site, is located on a hilltop compound known to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary and to Jews as the Temple Mount. The holy site is ground zero in the territorial and religious conflict between Israel and its Arab neighbors."

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[Resource Manager]

Finding Israel's First Camels

Monday, February 3, 2014

"TAU archaeologists pinpoint the date when domesticated camels arrived in Israel"
 
The article can be found here.
 
The article states (my highlight):

"Camels are mentioned as pack animals in the biblical stories of Abraham, Joseph, and Jacob. But archaeologists have shown that camels were not domesticated in the Land of Israel until centuries after the Age of the Patriarchs (2000-1500 BCE). In addition to challenging the Bible's historicity, this anachronism is direct proof that the text was compiled well after the events it describes."
 
Further:

"In all the digs, they found that camel bones were unearthed almost exclusively in archaeological layers dating from the last third of the 10th century BCE or later — centuries after the patriarchs lived and decades after the Kingdom of David, according to the Bible. The few camel bones found in earlier archaeological layers probably belonged to wild camels, which archaeologists think were in the southern Levant from the Neolithic period or even earlier."
 
The challenge is to the Bible's historicity.

Early camel bones were found but this is subsequently "dismissed" assuming them to be "wild camels" so not to contradict the premise of the supposed "direct proof" that the Bibles historicity is placed into doubt by their findings.
 
One wonders why many do question "Scholarship" - the logic - yes there can be as well as illogical thought depending on motivation whether to prove or disprove the Word of God.

For further reading on Domestication of Camels may I suggest these two Papers:

The Domestication of the Camel in the Ancient Near East

and

The Domestication of the Camel: Biological, Archaeological and Inscriptional Evidence from Mesopotamia, Egypt, Israel and Arabia, and Literary Evidence from the Hebrew Bible

in: Ugarit Forschungen 42 (2010), Münster: Ugarit-Verlag 2011, 331–384.

[Resource Manager]

The Dead Sea Scrolls – Version 2.0

February 4, 2014

"The Israel Antiquities Authority is launching today an upgraded version of its Leon Levy Dead Sea Scrolls Digital Library. It includes 10,000 new photographs of unprecedented quality

A second, upgraded version of the Leon Levy Dead Sea Scrolls Digital Library was launched today. Visitors to the new website (http://www.deadseascrolls.org.il) will be able to view and explore 10,000 newly uploaded images of unprecedented quality. The website also offers accompanying explanations pertaining to a variety of manuscripts, such as the book of Exodus written in paleo-Hebrew script, the books of Samuel, the Temple Scroll, Songs of Shabbat Sacrifice, and New Jerusalem.

A year has passed since the Israel Antiquities Authority first launched the Leon Levy Dead Sea Scrolls Digital Library. The library presents hundreds of scroll fragments imaged in unprecedented quality, achieved with a unique camera developed specifically for this purpose and installed at the Israel Antiquities Authority scrolls conservation laboratory in Jerusalem. Over half a million people worldwide have visited the site; 25,000 new users enter the site every month. Dead Sea Scrolls scholars as well as the general public will now be able to view, explore and examine one of the greatest archeological discoveries of the 20th century on their personal computers and even on their cellular phones."

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[Resource Manager]

1,400 Year-Old Well Discovered in Tel Aviv

Archaeologists find advanced pulley system, irrigation ducts in the heart of Tel Aviv.

By Tova Dvorin

First Publish: 2/5/2014, 4:49 PM

"A large and impressive well was discovered in the Tel Aviv neighborhood of Ramat HaHayal Wednesday, a find archaeologists say dates back at least 1,400 years.

Archaeologists uncovered the well in the course of a wider salvage excavation project by the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) on Barzel Street, as a preparatory measure before establishing a hospital on the site by the Sufrin Group real estate company.

The well dates back to the Byzantine and Early Islamic periods - between 1,100 and 1,400 years ago, according to the IAA.

"The well, known as an 'Antilla' well, is the first of its kind found in Tel Aviv," Eli Haddad, director of the excavation on behalf of the IAA, stated. "The importance of the discovery is that it adds information about everyday life in the Yarkon 1,400-1,200 years ago, including agriculture."

"Pumping systems of this type were in the country starting from the Roman period (2,000 years ago) onwards, but few have been studied in depth," he continued. "Other discoveries have been made in Tel Ashdod, Yavne-Yam (now near Kibbutz Palmahim) and Ramle."

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[Resource Manager]

2,300-Year-Old Village Discovered Outside Jerusalem

By: Aryeh Savir, Tazpit News Agency

Published: February 18th, 2014

"The remnants of a rural town that was lived in for some two centuries during the Second Temple period were uncovered near the main route to Jerusalem. In June 2013, Israel Natural Gas Lines began construction of the 22 mile-long project, which runs from the coast to the outskirts of Jerusalem, and in the process the village was uncovered. For the past six months the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) has been conducting an archaeological salvage excavation of the site.

The excavations, which cover about 750 square meters, revealed a small rural town with a few stone houses and a network of narrow alleys. Each building, which probably housed a single nuclear family, consisted of several rooms and an open courtyard. According to Irina Zilberbod, excavation director on behalf of the Antiquities Authority, “The rooms generally served as residential and storage rooms, while domestic tasks were carried out in the courtyards.”

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[Resource Manager]

Silver Hoop Earrings Found Among Ancient Treasure in Israel

By Owen Jarus, LiveScience Contributor | February 20, 2014 03:20pm ET

"A jug containing silver earrings and ingots has been discovered at the ancient biblical city of Abel Beth Maacah in Israel.

Found to the north of a massive structure that may be a tower, the jug and its treasure appear to date back to about 3,200 years ago, long before minted coins were invented, archaeologists said. Curiously, they found no sign that the treasure was hidden, and no one appears to have gone back for it, they added.

"We found it in a small jug leaning against a wall, apparently on a dirt floor," said researchers Robert Mullins, Nava Panitz-Cohen and Ruhama Bonfil in an email to Live Science. "It didn't seem to have been deliberately hidden in a niche or any other hidey-hole."

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[Resource Manager]

Nine Manuscripts with Biblical Text Unearthed in Qumran

West Bank excavation site known for Dead Sea Scrolls

27 FEBRUARY, 16:53

(ANSAmed) - ROME, FEBRUARY 27 - "The West Bank excavation site Qumran has brought to light another exceptional find after that of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Working on materials from archaeological excavations of the 1950s, archaeologist Yonatan Adler found three phylacteries - pouches used by religious Jews containing small manuscript scrolls with a biblical text - dating back to about 2,000 years ago. A total of nine manuscripts have been found by the Israel Antiquities Authority by using technology known as multispectral imaging, which makes it possible take specialized photos. The discovery was announced at the International TerraSancta Conference on 'Qumran and the Dead Sea Region' held in the Swiss city of Lugano."

 

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Also see Yonatan Adler for other Papers which may be of interest to readers.

[Resource Manager]

Archaeology

Lying about Leviathan: Archaeologists Find the Earliest Fish Tales

"Fishing has been a mainstay of human cuisine going back millennia. Archaeologists can show us how the ancients fished and cooked their catch."

By Miriam Feinberg Vamosh

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[Resource Manager]

Researchers from Kraków track 5 thousand years old trade routes in the Middle East

07.03.2014 HISTORY&CULTURE

"Archaeological research on site in Tel Erani in Israel is a key venture in the project Trade Routes of the Near East (TRoNE), conducted by the staff of the Institute of Archaeology of the Jagiellonian University in Kraków.
The researchers concluded first season of work, which took place in August 2013. This is the only excavation project currently carried out by Polish archaeologists in Israel.

"Our goal is to determine the course of trade routes connecting Egypt to the Middle East during the Early Bronze I, i.e., in the fourth millennium BC" - explained Dr. Joanna Dębowska-Ludwin, coordinator of the project.

One of the main parts of the project are the excavations at Tel Erani site near Ashkelon in Israel. it is one of the most important prehistoric sites in this country. The site is considered by experts to be the key to the so-called early colonization of Egypt in the area of the Levant. So far, it has not been a subject of comprehensive research. Archaeologists explained that the phenomenon of "early colonization" involved expanding trading networks by the Egyptians in the area of today's southern Israel and the Gaza Strip. From these outposts, raw materials and exotic products were imported to the Nile during the formation of the Egyptian state, more than 5 thousand years ago. These goods included copper, but also wine which was considered a luxury product."

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[Resource Manager]

Mysterious ancient masks displayed in Israel

Twelve 9,000-year-old stone masks unearthed in the Judean Hills and desert are exhibited together for the first time ever, at the Israel Museum.

By Abigail Klein Leichman

March 16, 2014

"Nine thousand years ago, a village of Neolithic farmers thrived in the Judean Desert and hills in the ancient Land of Israel. Using primitive stone tools, they fashioned face masks of stone – perhaps as a form of ancestor worship, though nobody knows for sure.

A combination of good fortune, anthropological sleuthing and cutting-edge lab technology has come together to present 12 of these priceless masks, together for the first time since their creation, at Jerusalem’s Israel Museum.

The groundbreaking exhibition “Face to Face: The Oldest Masks in the World” opened March 11 and runs through September 13, 2014.

“This is the fruit of 10 years of research, lab work and scientific work to find the masks, compare them and understand more about these unbelievably rare objects,” said Debby Hershman, the museum’s curator of prehistoric cultures, during a press tour of her laboratory before the exhibition opened. Wearing white cotton gloves, she held up four of the masks to show journalists."

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[Resource Manager]

More on:

03012014, Cover Stories, Daily News

Archaeologists Excavate Ancient Aramean City in Israel

Tue, Mar 18, 2014

"Popularly known as the site where archaeologists recently excavated an ancient jug containing a silver hoard, it sits near the border between modern day Israel and Lebanon to the north, in an area that brings to mind the political and military tensions that have so often plagued the border areas of these neighboring countries. Even thousands of years ago, this area figured prominently in conflicts and disputes among ancient players.

Today the location is known as Tel Abel Beth Maacah, an archaeological site that has been identified by biblical scholars as the likely location of an ancient city that, at one time, may have had important Aramean connections. It is mentioned a number of times in the biblical account, including the battle related to the revolt against David by Sheba ben Bichri. In the early 19th century BCE it was conquered by Ben-hadad of Damascus, and by the Neo-Assyrian king Tiglath-pileser III in 733 BCE. Scholars suggest that it may have been at one time the capital of the Aramean kingdom of Maacah."

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[Resource Manager]

Israel Building Center for Ancient Artifacts (Update)

Mar 18, 2014 by Daniel Estrin

"Israel is building a national archaeological center to store and showcase its rich collection of some two million ancient artifacts, including the world's largest collection of Dead Sea Scrolls, Israel's Antiquities Authority said Tuesday.

Most of Israel's state antiquities collection, currently stored in large warehouses that are closed to the public, will be moved to a new 35,000-square-meter (377,000 square foot) center—the Antiquities Authority's first public center for exhibiting its hoard of treasures that date back as far as 5,000 years. Parts of the center will be open to the public.

Israel is calling the archaeological library and archives the largest of their kind in the Middle East."

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also @

 

Jerusalem Post

Antiquities Authority to Build in Jerusalem Largest Archeology Library in Mideast

[Resource Manager]

03012014, Cover Stories, Daily News

New Excavations Explore 6,000-Year-Old Settlement in Israel

Fri, Mar 28, 2014

"Located within the fertile plain of the Jezreel valley in northern Israel, the archaeological site known as Ein el-Jarba has been yielding finds that are beginning to tell a story of a people who lived there more than 6,000 years ago, before the pyramids arose in Egypt and before the ancient Canaanites dominated the region.

Archaeologist Katharina Streit, a PhD student with the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, has been leading a team of archaeologists, students and volunteers through full-scale excavations at the site to uncover evidence of an Early Chalcolithic (or Copper Age) human settlement.[1] Before implements of bronze were even invented, a community with skills enough to produce distinctive pottery, other ceramic ware, and tools made of obsidian, lived and died in this place."

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[Resource Manager]

June 2013, Cover Stories, Daily News

Archaeologists Excavate Ancient Aramean City in Israel

Tue, Mar 18, 2014

"Popularly known as the site where archaeologists recently excavated an ancient jug containing a silver hoard, it sits near the border between modern day Israel and Lebanon to the north, in an area that brings to mind the political and military tensions that have so often plagued the border areas of these neighboring countries. Even thousands of years ago, this area figured prominently in conflicts and disputes among ancient players.

Today the location is known as Tel Abel Beth Maacah, an archaeological site that has been identified by biblical scholars as the likely location of an ancient city that, at one time, may have had important Aramean connections. It is mentioned a number of times in the biblical account, including the battle related to the revolt against David by Sheba ben Bichri. In the early 19th century BCE it was conquered by Ben-hadad of Damascus, and by the Neo-Assyrian king Tiglath-pileser III in 733 BCE. Scholars suggest that it may have been at one time the capital of the Aramean kingdom of Maacah."

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[Resource Manager]

11 Ancient Burial Boxes Recovered in Israel

BY JON GERBERG

Associated Press

March 31, 2014

JERUSALEM — "Israeli authorities on Monday unveiled 11 ancient burial boxes dating to around the time of Jesus, recovered by police during a midnight raid on antiquities dealers suspected of stealing the artifacts.

The boxes include a pair of ossuaries believed to contain the remains of two noblemen who lived in Jerusalem some 2,000 years ago.

Some are engraved with designs and even names, giving clues to their origin and contents. The boxes contain bone fragments and remnants of what experts say is pottery buried with the deceased.

Israel's Antiquities Authority said the boxes were recovered last Friday, shortly after midnight, when police observed two cars parked suspiciously at a military checkpoint on the outskirts of Jerusalem. When they investigated, they found four people involved in an exchange of the boxes. Once police recovered the items, they alerted the authority."

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also @ Israel Antiquities Authority
 
Two Thousand Year Old Ossuaries Containing Jewish Bones from the Second Temple Period were Seized this Weekend in Jerusalem (March 2014)

[Resource Manager]

An Impressive Byzantine Period Monastery with a Spectacular Mosaic Floor was Exposed at the Entrance to Hura in the Northern Negev (April 2014)

It was discovered during excavations conducted by the Israel Antiquities Authority prior to the construction of an interchange by the Netivei Israel Company

"An impressive monastery dating to the Byzantine period was discovered at the entrance to Hura in the northern Negev during the course of an IAA salvage excavation for the purpose of building an interchange on Highway 31, at the initiative of the Netivei Israel Company. The structure, measuring 20 × 35 meters, is divided into halls built along an east–west axis, the most outstanding of which are the prayer hall and dining room due to the breathtaking mosaic carpets revealed in them.

The prayer hall is paved with a mosaic on which a pattern of leaves is vibrantly portrayed in blue, red, yellow and green colors. The dining room floor is a colorful mosaic pavement depicting floral motifs, geometric decorations, amphorae, baskets and even a pair of birds."

 

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[Resource Manager]

New German Bible Lexicon

 

Posted on April 1, 2014 by Leen Ritmeyer

 

"At the end of last year, SCM R. Brockhaus published a new German Bible Lexicon, the Lexicon Zur Bible. The lexicon has been in print for many years, but this new edition has been very much updated and expanded. The entries are arranged in alphabetical order and many archaeological sites are conscisely described. The Google Map geo-data of each archaeological site is also included. In contrast to the previous versions, the almost one thousand illustrations are in full color and consist of photographs, maps, charts and diagrams. About 40 of my reconstruction drawings, some of which were specially commissioned, are also incorporated, see my drawing of Nehemiah’s Jerusalem below."

 

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[Resource Manager]

New City of David Centre Approved

 

Posted on April 4, 2014 by Leen Ritmeyer

 

"It was announced today that the new City of David Centre for visitors, called in Hebrew “Mercaz Kedem” has been approved. It is to be built over the archaeological remains found in the Givati Parking lot. Ari Yashar of Arutz Sheva writes:

 

“The plan to build the visitors’ center will aid in exposing the important archaeological finds to the broader public and serve as a focus for tourism that will help in developing the city of Jerusalem,” noted the Committee’s announcement of the project’s approval."

 

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[Resource Manager]

The Irene Levi-Sala Award for Best Final Excavation Reports

Posted on April 7, 2014 by Leen Ritmeyer

"On April 24, 2014, the award ceremony of the Irene Levi-Sala Book prize will take place at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Beer Sheva on the occasion of the Irene Levi-Sala Annual Research Seminar."

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