Gideon Sa’ar, Israel Minister of Education, visits the Safi lab!

Today, as part of a visit that Gideon Sa’ar, the Israeli minister of education, conducted at Bar-Ilan University, he came to the lab of the Tell es-Safi/Gath Archaeological Project! Although yours truly could not be there (since I do not have the physical, or for that matter, paranormal powers to be in two places at once, and I am currently in Heidelberg…), Amit Dagan, loyal Safi staff member (:-), was in charge of the show at the lab, and gave the minister an explanation about some of the finds from the dig. In addition, Amit stressed to Mr. Sa’ar that archaeology can be used as an excellent education tool for school kids, and suggested that the Ministry of Education develop more programs in which “hands-on” archaeological work can be used to teach history, culture and related issues.

Here is a link to a brief Hebrew news communique by Bar-Ilan University, in which Amit is mentioned.

Lecture in Heidelberg

As I had posted before, yesterday, I gave a lecture about the excavations at Tell es-Safi/Gath (focussing on the LB and Iron Ages) at the institute of Archaeology of the University of Heidelberg. Although it was quite late at night (started at 8:15…), about 25 people showed up and most seemed very interested and “alive”. At the end of the lecture there were a few questions and altogether, I had a very nice time. I’m in (cold, rainy, and occassionaly snowy) Heidelberg until the end of next week, a guest of Prof. J. Maran. I am working on trying finish the editing of the not-final page proofs of the Tell es-Safi/Gath I volume, which if things go well, should go to press in the not to distant future.

Aren

The gymnastics of the foto shoot!

Dr. Jill Katz (YU), who headed the YU team in the last few seasons and in 2009 supervized two squares in Area A, sent me this great photo of the process of taking a field photo during the season. On the ladder, Richard Wiskin, our photographer, is preparing to take a foto of one of the squares that Jill supervized, and Steve Weiner (WIS) and yours truly, are stretching their arms as high as possible, holding flashes (which are needed to produce good lighting and contrast in the foto [and counteract the shading that is produced by the tarps above the squares]).

Amit Dagan gives a talk about Handmade vessels

Last week (apologies for the late posting), Amit Dagan (one of the core staff of the Tell es-Safi/Gath Project) gave a very interesting talk in the lab about the hand made vessels (sometimes called “Negbite pottery” that were found at the “Kfar Menachem site” (which Amit worked on for his MA thesis) and at Tell es-Safi/Gath as well. Amit showed that although these type of vessels were most often reported from sites in the Negev (from the Bronze through Iron Ages), in fact, they appear at sites in the more temperate areas of the Land of Israel, but are most often not reported in the excavation reports. He suggests that these vessels were used for different functions, whether as simply made pottery containers, or as various installations that are used for various daily functions.

Jeff Chadwick’s (aka Achish Melek Gath) assessment of the Qeiyafa ostracon

Prof. Jeff Chadwick (field supervisor of Area F), from BYU, has been interviewed about the Qeiyafa inscription.

See his judicious views on this issue here.

Aren

New article has appeared!

I just saw that an article stemming from the Tell es-Safi/Gath project, that was accepted for publication in the Journal of Archaeological Science is now available in an in-press, pre-final versionon line.

The article, by Ofir Katza, Dan Cabanes, Steve Weiner, Elisabetta Boarettoa, Ruth Shahack-Gross and yours truly, is entitled Rapid phytolith extraction for analysis of phytolith concentrations and assemblages during an excavation: An application at Tell es-Safi/Gath, Israel describes a new method for the rapid extraction and identification of phytoliths from archaeological contexts. This method, which was first developed and used at Tell es-Safi/Gath, offers a new, efficient and rapid way to get a picture of phytolith concentrations in the archaeological contexts that are being excavated. In particular, this enables rapid analysis and assessment of the phytoliths in specific archaeological contexts (on a daily basis) and enable the excavators to pay special attention to contexts which are relevant, and this making decisions from one day to the other, while in the field. In the past, most often, results of phytolith analysis were only available after the excavation was over.
If I may add, this is another example of the very exciting methods (and results) in archaeological science that are being applied at the excavations. For those interested in learning more about this, see here.

Eric Welch Describes his Time at Safi!

Eric Welch, who is a PhD candidate at Penn State, and an old hand on the Safi team (he’s been working for the last 4 seasons in Area F, and has served as a square supervisor for the last few seasons [I've mentioned Eric before, such as here]), has written a very nice piece about his work at Tell es-Safi/Gath for the Biblical Archaeology Society (since he received a travel scholarship from them to participate in the dig – similar to Caroline Tully mentioned in a previous post).
From his description, it turns out that Eric is quite a romantic – not to mention that he apparently has a thing for inflatable, yellow kangaroos!
:-)

Upcoming lecture on Tell es-Safi in Heidelberg

if you happen to be in the vicinity of Heidelberg, Germany, on February 2nd, I will be presenting a lecture on the excavations at Tell es-Safi/Gath at the Institut für Ur- und Frühgeschichte und Vorderasiatische Archäologie at the Ruprecht-Karls-Universität in Heidelberg.

Ulmus canescens – rare tree found near Tell es-Safi/Gath

For those of you interested in the ecology surrounding our site, Oren Ackerman (project geomorphologist) has informed me that several examples of the Ulmus canescens (known also at the Grey Elm, Grey-leafed Elm, or Hoary Elm), which is a tree that is very rare in Israel, have been recently found just to the east of Tell es-Safi/Gath.

For those of you who read Hebrew, here is the notification from the KKL (Jewish National Fund) about this.

Aren

Heads up! Astounding archaeological find!

I was just informed of an outstanding archaeological find – just reported here.