You are currently browsing the monthly archive for February, 2006.
For those of you who read German, please note a short article on the dig that appeared in a Swiss internet newspaper, which is written with a very nice sense of humour!
The URL is:
http://www.livenet.ch/www/index.php/D/article/633/29725/
Aren
Most of the discussions of the Iron Age material from Tell es-Safi/Gath relate to finds that are connected to the Philistine culture, whether during the Iron Age I or IIA. It is important to note that during the Iron Age IIB, there is evidence of various activities at the site, but this evidence seems to be of a slightly different character than during the earlier stages of the Iron Age.
Judean-Style pillar figurine from Stratum A2
On Thursday, March 2nd, 2006, the Annual Archaeological Conference in Israel will be held at the Mt. Scopus Campus of the Hebrew University. There will be sessions throughout the day, with lectures on various topics (in Hebrew). In the afternoon session that will deal with excavations and studies relating to the Iron Age, which will be chaired by Ami Mazar (in room 302 of the Archaeology building), I will be giving a paper on the recent finds at Tell es-Safi/Gath. Among others, I will be mentioning the LB finds from this season, and, needless to say, I will discuss the new so-called “Goliath Inscription,” discussing some of the suggested implications of the find. For example, on the one hand, this well-dated inscription provides excellent evidence that the Proto-Canaanite script was still in use in the late 10th/early 9th cent. BCE (as B. Sass has recently argued), much later than previously accepted; on the other hand, it shows that Indo-European names (including those very similar to Goliath) were used by the Philistines in the Iron Age IIA.
Deposit of Lamps below floor of LB building - notice the gleefull look of the excavator!
See you there! (for the detailed program in Hebrew, see below)
Aren
I thought it would be of interest to post up a short explanation of a find, in order to give people an idea of what they may find if they join us. once a week a new object will be examined, so that those of you who are less familiar with what we find can get a feel for the finds. this week’s find is the lion-headed cup, many times falsely labeled a “rython” (Linda – I’m waiting for your comment!!!).
I have just been notified that a poster that was submitted to a joint Israeli-German scientific symposium on “Water is Life” (held in December 2005 in Jerusalem), marking 40 years of scientific collaboration between Israel and Germany, has now been put on line.
The poster summarizes the first stages of the cooperative, joint project between Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan (rep. A. Maeir) and the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitat, Munich (rep. M. Goerg and S. Wimmer) for the study of the cultural development of the Philistines.
This project is aims to combine the archaeological evidence (primarily from the excavations of Tell es-Safi/Gath) with a study of the historical, linguistic, and anthropological data, to understand the transformation and development of the Philistine culture, from the viewpoint of the transformation of an immigrant culture in a new and different environment.
The project is being funded by the German-Israel Fund for Scientific Research and Development (GIF) for 3 years (2005-2007) (project # I-799-176.4/2003).
Aren
On Thursday, March 9th, 2006, the Faculty of Life Sciences and the Martin (Szusz) Department of Land of Israel Studies and Archaeology, both of Bar-Ilan University, will be holding a meeting in honor of Prof. Mordechai (Morduk) Kislev, who is retiring from teaching at the University. Prof. Kislev is one of the world’s leading paleobotanists, and has published extensively on a wide range of issues, including ground-breaking studies on the early domestication of plants in the Ancient Near East. In the conference, there will be 4 sessions, dealing respectively with: Plants and their use; Ancient economy; Early agriculture; Agriculture and economy. The lecturers will include S. Lev-Yadun, M. Artzi, A. Maeir, A. Faust, H. Eshel, D. Zohari, E. Weiss, Z. Safrai, A. Danin, and others.
Since I have recently been asked about this several times, I wanted to inform all those interested in joining our team this summer, that this year (and hopefully in future seasons as well), we will be enjoying the accommodations of the Kibbutz Revadim Guest House. Located about 10 km from the tell, right off the main road between Jerusalem and Ashkelon (route 3), the conditions at Kibbutz Revadim are a substantial improvement over what we had in previous years (’nuff said!). The Kibbutz has recently completely revamped its guest services, with modern and well-made facilities, including hotel-like services, modern guest rooms (cleaned on a regular basis!), good food, a very nice pool, etc. (for pictures of the various facilities, please check out the pictures on the Hebrew website of Kibbutz Revadim). In addition, on the kibbutz one can visit the Philistine Museum, which has a very well-made exhibition of finds from the excavations at Miqne-Ekron (Gath of the Philistines sister city), and recreations of various aspects of Philistine life (such as the olive oil industry, ceramics, weaving, etc.).
BTW – for those of you who participated in past years on the Miqne-Ekron project and remember the accommodations at the time–don’t worry–the accommodations at Revadim have COMPLETELY CHANGED! :-)
Aren
Kris Hirst, the archaeology guide at About.com, has put out a very nice page about the Tell es-Safi/Gath blog, including a short interview with me. She once again stresses that to the best of her knowledge, the Safi blog is the first of its kind in the field.
Hopefully, the exposure (and the hundreds of “hits” on our site), will make our blog (and project …) popular, but also, will turn this kind of blog into a common method of outreach between archaeological projecs and the “lay public.”
Aren
This is Dina, our restorer, she has been part of our team since 1999, before she worked with other major projects such as that of Tel Miqne/Ekron. Besides working as a restorator, she received a BA in Archaeology from Hebrew University and has worked as a staff member in excavations in the Jewish quarter in Jerusalem. Below she describes just what it is she does in the lab;
“Yes!” you think, “I found another piece…” One sherd which fits together with another sherd and this is how the puzzle is slowly put together. Piles of sherds placed on a table gradually revealing their original forms, sometimes a chalice or Safi bowl.
The newest issues of BAR (March/April 2006) arrived today in the mail. They have gone thru a bit of a change in the style (a little similar to the National Geographic cover …). There are several interesting articles, and, as I mentioned previously, the news item about the “Goliath inscription.” Besides my comments that I already wrote, just one more thing – the title says that the inscription is proof of the assimilation of the Philistines. Au contraire! It shows that they did not assimilate! Rather, they were in a process of “acculturation,” or as I prefer, “creolization,” in which they were effected and influenced by the surrounding cultures, but still retained significant aspects of their own unique culture (in this case, the Indo-European names). With time, this transformation continued and gradually developed.
On another issue – I know the identity of the mysterious scholars who would not identify themselves regarding the temple model …….
Aren
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