Preparations for season and visit to T. Eton

Yesterday (July 2nd) part of the team had a day of preparations for the the season. We started the day at Bar-Ilan University, where we collected materials from the project lab, then drove to Kibbutz Revadim, where we delivered the materials and checked out the accomodations (very nice – lots of new rooms too), and then headed to the tell, to go over the excavation areas, finalizing where we will be working, and other issues.
The following team members joined for the day: Alex Zukerman, Amit Dagan, Joe Uziel, Jeff Chadwick, Louise Hitchcock, Cynthia Shafer-Eliot (PhD student from the University of Sheffield, a new member of our team), Uri and Nir Reiss, and Richard Wiskin.
The tell looks in great shape, and it looks like we will have a GREAT season.

After the tell, we all drove to visit the excavations at Tel ‘Eton, directed by Avi Faust from Bar-Ilan University. This site, which is located in the southern Shephelah, just to the west of the “Green Line” is a very interesting site and Avi and his team have found very well-preserved Iron Age layers, including a very impressive late 8th century BCE destruction level (perhaps from the 701 BCE campaign of Sennacherib).

Here is a picture of Avi explaining the finds at Tel ‘Eton to us (photo courtesy of Louise Hitchcock)

Just a few days to go!

We are on the final stages of the countdown for the 2009 season which starts this Sunday! Things seem to be in place, plans are moving as they should, the “evil forces” around us seem to have chosen to be stay in their “holes” for the summer (….) and I looks like we will be able to say very soon: “Houston, we have liftoff!” :-)

This, Thursday, I’ll be out at BIU, Revadim and the site with some of the team, to bring some of the equipment from BIU to Revadim and have some last-minute discussions on our strategy for the season in Area A and F.

It’s definitely looking good!

Aren

Visits and lectures at Gezer and Ashkelon digs

On Monday evening, I was invited to give a lecture on the Tell es-Safi/Gath excavations to the Tel Gezer team, directed by S. Ortiz and S. Wolff (who are staying at Naveh Shalom). Needless to say (:-), I wowed them with our finds. Steve Ortiz, co-director of the Gezer excavations will be coming to lecture to the Safi team during the excavations.
Yesterday, Tuesday evening, I drove to Ashkelon to visit the Ashkelon excavations directed by L. Stager and D. Masters. After showing me around the excavations areas and some of their finds (including some really cool stuff which I suppose they will announce in the near future), I also presented a lecture to the Ashkelon team on the excavations at Safi. As usual, Larry Stager and I argued about the interpretation of the so-called “Goliath inscription” (discussed before on the blog more than once) – but that is already a regular part of the show…
During our season, Daniel Masters will be coming to present the Safi team about the Ashkelon excavations as well.

Updates on website

Joe has just added to the website a link to the Manual for Volunteers & Students and Schedule of “Extra Dig Activities” for the upcoming 2009 season. Please do take a look at it and feel free to download.

I do hope that in addition to the updates that will appear on the blog, we will also be able to add new materials to the website during the season.

Enjoy!
Aren

Schedule for after dig activites during the excavation

The schedule for the lectures, field trips and other “extra-dig” activities during the upcoming season at Tell es-Safi/Gath is now ready. For those of you who are interested, here is a link with the schedule:

extra dig activities for blog

Aren

Count down for the 2009 season

Today, June 14th, we are exactly 3 weeks before the beginning of the 2009 season (July 5th-31st). Things are beginning to fall together for the season, and a few updated are in order.
First of all, in the last few weeks we have had quite a few last minute/late signups, and the team has grown to quite in impressive size.
As of today (and today I received a registration package from someone!), we will be about 60 team members in the first week, 90 in the 2nd, 80 in the 3rd, and then 25 in the 4th. In light of the small numbers that had signed up up to quite recently, this is quite a nice development, particularly in light of the tight economic situation throughout the world. Who knows – perhaps we can serve as one of the indicators that the world financial crisis is over the worst…
As far as the plans for the summer season, we will be focussing our work in Area A and most of the team will be there. Our main objectives in Area A are to excavate in the Iron Age levels and in particular, to reach various Iron Age I levels in an extensive exposure as possible, including the earlier phases of the Iron I, which in previous season have only been exposed in a very limited manner in Area A (and in Area F as well). We hope to get a nice, “robust” representation of these important phases of the early stages of the Philistine culture.
In addition, we will have a small group working in Area F doing some very focused probes (directed by Jeff Chadwick) and perhaps, a small group working with Itzik Shai in Area E (depending on the results of the analyses carried out a few weeks ago. In addition, we will have a large team of archaeological scientists (up to 22-23 in the 3rd week) working in Area A with us, including the students in the archaeological science field school.
All told, it looks like we are going to have a great season and we should have some great finds.
I hope to keep updating on the blog, both in the preparations in the next few weeks, and needless to say, during the excavations as well.

Aren

Visit to the tell and nice picture

Today, I visited the tell as part of field trip of Bar-Ilan University students to sites in Philistia. We spent about 4 and 1/5 hours on site and managed to cover a very nice amount of the major issues and finds relating to the site.
In general, the site is in great shape and the various areas show very little, if at all signs of “wear and tear” from the last time I visited. Also, due to the fact that it was a relatively dry winter, there are not a lot thorns and thistles in the excavation areas, which will make it much easier for the team when we begin working in July.
At the very end of the visit, after finishing a visit to Area C6 and portion of the siege system in the eastern side of the site, we walked by a really nice field of sunflowers that were in full bloom, just to the east of tell, right under Areas E and A.
See here some very nice pictures of this.

Sale on popular book on Tel Batash/Timnah

David Maltsberger (BUA) has informed me that he has a large collection of the very nice book by Ami Mazar and George Kelm “Timnah: A Biblical City in the Sorek Valley” (Eisenbrauns), which is a popular account, with many illustrations, of the excavations at this important site. For those interested in Tell es-Safi/Gath, the finds from Batash/Timnah are very relevant, and you might want to pick up one of these.

If you are interested, you can contact David at dmaltsberger@bua.edu, and he will mail them in the US for $5 post-paid or overseas at cost ($25US).

Aren

re: Pre-Season work at Tell es-Safi/Gath

Today, a group of us went up to the tell for some pre-season planning and work. The tell looked great and from what we could see, there was very little damage in the various areas.

There were two objectives in the work at the tell today.

The first was to continue checking out the possible evidence for LB metalurgical activities in Area E on the eastern side of the tell. As I noted awhile ago, in analyses of materials from the western section of Area E carried out at the Kimmel Center for Archaeological Science at Weizmann Institute of Science, traces of metal were found. Due to the possibility that this might indicate an area in which metalurgical activities were conducted in the late LB, the ERC project “Early Israel” led by Israel Finkelstien (TAU) and Steve Weiner (WIS) were very interested in checking this area. After visiting the site earlier this spring, it was decided that before additional excavation was conducted, additional samples should be taken from the relevant section. And so, today, a group of us (Steve, Israel, Naama, Adi, Joe, Amit, Shirly and yours truly) went to the site to clean the relevant section and then take samples.
Here are a few pictures from the work today:

Naama, Steve, Adi and Israel examining the section

Naama taking a sample from the section

Steve and Adi registering the samples.

The 2nd reason that we went to the tell was so that Joe, Amit, Nir and I could meet and discuss some of the logistics of the coming season. This included deciding on the location of the breakfast area (a new area for old timers!), where the bathroom would be located (no change…), and other, mainly technical issues.

Mini-Symposium on Archaeological Science at the Weizmann Institute

Today, I had the pleasure of participating in a mini-symposium on archaeological science that was held at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, and was organized by Prof. Steve Weiner. As I’ve already mentioned in the past (here and here, for example), Steve and I co-direct the Joint BIU/WIS Program in Archaeological Science, which has, if I may say, turned out to be quite a success!

In the mini symposium there were several very interesting lectures from several guests from abroad, and I capped off the day (the grave yard shift…), with a lecture on how we integrate field archaeology and archaeology science at the Tell es-Safi/Gath excavations.

Here is a list of the lectures:
* Prof. Martin Jones (University of Cambridge): “Why humans share food”
* Prof. Joseph Maran (University of Heidelberg): “Reflections on the relation between science and archaeology”
* Prof. Walter Kutschera (University of Vienna): “Why the puzzle of dating the Minoan Eruption of Santorini is still not solved?”
* Prof. Tim Jull (University of Arizona): “AMS dating studies at the University of Arizona applied to archaeology and paleoclimate in the Americas”
* Dr. Melinda Zeder (Smithsonian Institution): “Archaeological Sciences and the Origins of Agriculture”
* Dr. Bruce Smith (Smithsonian Institution): “General Patterns of Niche Construction by Small-Scale Pre-Industrial Societies”
* Prof Aren Maeir (Bar Ilan University): “Integrating Field Archaeology and Archaeological Science at Tell es-Safi/Gath”

All told, a very interesting, informative and enlightening day. In addition, I got meet in person several people who I only knew from reading their publications. It’s always nice to be able to “put a face” on a familiar name.