Off to the US of A

Tomorrow, I’m off the USA, to present a few lectures, etc..
On Tuesday evening, I will be presenting a lecture (about the archaeological background to the story of Jephtach) at a Jewish Film festival in Shreveport, Louisiana.

On Wednesday, I fly to New Orleans, where I will be participating in the annual ASOR conference (Wednesday to Saturday). I will be jointing chairing a double session on the Philistines on Friday (and giving a paper on the 2009 excavations at Tell es-Safi/Gath in one of the sessions).
Later on that afternoon, I will present a talk on the interface between archaeology and the bible based on the excavations at Tell es-Safi/Gath, at the Biblical Archaeological Society “Bible Fest“.

I then will have a time for a day of participation at the SBL meeting on Sunday, and then back to Israel on Sunday evening.

Should be a fun, and interesting trip, if not a little “packed with action”. I expect to see a lot of friends, and hear quite a few interesting lectures (and some not that interesting… :-).

Some food for thought…

Here is a picture of a piece of graffiti art that I passed this morning while walking my dog.
What can I say – a lesson to us all… :-)

Aren

P.S. So as just to clarify, I don’t support this type of wanton destruction of our urban environment… ;-)

First lab talk of the year

Yesterday, Itzik Shai presented the first lab talk of this academic year, restarting a tradition that has been going on for several years now in the Tell es-Safi/Gath Archaeological Project lab at Bar-Ilan University. Various members of the team where present, as well as a few students from the department.

Itzik talked about the results of the survey at Tel Burna, which was basically a preview of the lectures that he will be presenting at the forthcoming ASOR and SBL meetings in New Orleans (starting next week).

Itzik showed us results of the survey (including some great shots of the site, various plans and maps, and some of the finds) that he and Joe Uziel conducted in the summer, and discussed some of their plans for the initial excavation season planned for this coming summer.

Here is Itzik giving the lecture:

Aren

Great picture from Tell – courtesy of Esther Avraham

Esther Avraham, who is a student at Bar-Ilan University and participated in past years in the excavations, has sent me a great picture which she took a few years ago. In the picture, taken from Area F on the top of the tell, there is a view towards to the NW, over the Elah valley, more or less towards Ashdod. Notice in the foreground a Jackdaw (Corvus monedula) in flight. These fascinating birds live in the chalk cliffs of Tell es-Safi/Gath (these white cliffs most probably gave the site its names – Tell es-Safi [Arabic "pure mound"] and Medieval Blanche Garde [white fortress]).

Here’s the picture:

Aren

Funniest biblical oriented clip

John Walton, who is a professor of Old Testament at Wheaton College, and the father of Josh Walton, who has worked at Safi for several seasons (well-known for his torn yellow t-shirt that by the end of season has been known to go up to the tell on its own…) has put up a VERY FUNNY clip about how one should truly study the Bible.

Here it is – enjoy!

Clip thanks to John Anderson at the Hesed ve-Emet Blog

Great news – large grant for Louise Hitchcock!

I have been informed that Louise Hitchcock, of the University of Melbourne, who has been on our team (and played an important role, see e.g., here) for the last three years, has just been awarded a very large grant from the Australian Research Council. The grant will provide funding for the next three years for Louise and 20 or so students from Melbourne to participate fully in the excavations at Tell es-Safi/Gath and related research activities.

Here is Louise’s description of the grant:
“In the Wake of the Sea Peoples, In the Footsteps of Goliath:

Excavating the Philistine Site of Tell es-Safi/Gath

Australian Research Council Funded Discovery Project Administered by the University of Melbourne: 2010-2012

This project will enhance the international reputation of Australian research by bringing it into current scholarly debate on Philistine archaeology, a quickly growing sub-discipline in Mediterranean archaeology. Marginalized in the Bible as decadent, recent research sees the Philistines as a cosmopolitan culture resulting from migration from Cyprus and the Aegean, and interaction with the local Canaanite population.

The goals of the project are to:

• Work in collaboration with the project directory to identify local, regional, and foreign components in the Philistine material at Tell es-Safi/Gath.
• Compare these features to those at Canaanite, Cypriot, Aegean, and other Philistine sites.
• Document and analyze continuity and change in the earlier Late Bronze Age (14th-13th c BCE) and Iron Age I-II (between 1180 and 800 BCE).
• Consider the formation of Philistine culture as a product of interaction by a limited number of migrants from multiple neighboring regions in the Mediterranean
• Increase the presence of Australian scholarship in Near Eastern and Aegean archaeology
• Produce collaborative publications and workshops on the site of Tell es-Safi/Gath with other members of the team
• Subsidize teaching relief for the production of research publications
• Funding to support up to 4 post-graduate excavation assistants and 16 undergraduate student trainees from the University of Melbourne to excavate at Tell es-Safi/Gath”

The grant has even made headlines in the Australian press.

Way to go Louise!

Aren

Congrads to Debi Cassuto!

Debi Cassuto, one of the core staff of the project, recently published an article “Bringing Home the Artifacts: A Social Interpretation
of Loom Weights in Context,” in a volume edited by Beth Alpert Nakhai, “The World of Women in the Ancient and Classical Near East” (Newcastle-upon-Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2008).

This volume has been reviewed by S.L. Budin in the Bryn Mawr Classical Review (http://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/2009/2009-10-60.html) and Debi’s article in particular received extremely high praise.

Way to go Debi!!!

Aren

Two clips on 2009 season

Thanks to Yotam Asscher (who is a PhD candidate at the Weizmann Institute of Science in archaeological science) here are two clips from the 2009 season.

The first clip, which is more serious (for the most part), shows various aspects relating to the archaeological science work conducted in the field. Do take a look at it, since it gives you a nice idea of some of the very interesting and innovative field methods used as a regular part of the excavation. And, thanks to Yotam, there are some “other” shots as well…

The 2nd clip is a little more “light hearted”…
During the season, while bringing the equipment trailer to the top of the tell, Nir, our technical guy, forgot to check if the trailer was properly attached to his truck. Subsequently, the trailer ended up at the bottom of the tell, in a pit.
See some of the “action” in this clip.

Enjoy.
Aren

Visit to Faynan

As I had mentioned on Saturday night, yesterday I went for a quick visit to the excavations in Faynan. Along with a small group of archaeologists from Israel (including Debbi Cassuto from the Safi team), we drove down to the Eilat-Aqaba border in the middle of the night on Saturday, crossed over to Jordan, drove up by bus to Faynan, met some 4X4 cars and then were given the “royal tour” of the excavations at the site, by the directors, Tom Levy and Mohammad Najjar. After a 5 hour visit to the site, we turned around and returned to Israel. I got home at 11:15 pm on Sunday.
Since this was my first visit to Faynan, I was particularly interested in going, even though it was quite an intensive trip with little sleep. There is no doubt that the site is quite a fantastic site and that it is without a doubt one of the most interesting sites in the Levant.
Without going into the details, I am very convinced with Tom and Mohammad’s interpretation of the Iron Age sequence at the site, meaning that there is a substantial stratigraphic, artifactual and 14C evidence for substantial evidence for 10th cent. BCE intensive metallurgical activities at the site (despite, e.g., a recent article by Israel Finkelstien claiming the opposite).
This clearly has important implications regarding the understanding of the formations of polities in the southern Levant during the Iron Age IIA.

Here are some pictures from our visit:

Here is Tom explaining the site of Khirbet Nahas to the group.

And here Mohammad explaining at Khirbet Nahas

Here is Tom explaining next to the giant (6 meter deep) pile of copper slag at the site.

Off to Jordan – to a quick visit to Faynan

Tonite, I’m off to Jordan for a quick visit to Tom Levy’s excavations at Faynan. Will update when I return – should be very interesting.

Aren