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Eric (aka Chris) has posted a very nice image of the top of the tell, with a suggeted reconstruction of the site’s fortifications. Although, clearly, he would like it to be from the MB II, to me it looks more like a Crusader fortification.
For those of you who might be interested, a report on a research project that was recently completed as part of the overall “Tell es-Safi/Gath Archaeological Project” has now been posted on the internet.
Those of you who stayed for the final days of the season probably remember that on the last day we had aerial fotos taken by a company with a hot air balloon.
As some of you may also remember, they came close to two hours late …
Today, I received a CD with the fotos that were shot that day, and I thought I’d share some with you.
Here, you can see me, not a very “happy camper”, in a picture taken by one of the company people – giving them a look that says everything …
This picture is a nice view of the the central portion of the tell (with the summit seen in the background) and the white chalk cliffs up front, looking south, south-west.
Aren
Now that international orders are coming in for dig shirts and hats, and the orders are being filled and sent out (our dedicated staff is working around the clock), don’t complain when these unique, collector items run out and are unavailable on the market.
Thus, this is the opportunity to order your own! Be the first on your block (yes, even if it is your prison block …) to have a shirt and hat.
For details on the shirts and hats, and how to order them, see: http://gath.wordpress.com/2007/07/24/dig-shirts-and-hats-for-the-2007-season/
Chris (aka Eric) Welch, has pointed out a short clip/preview of a forthcoming movie dealing with Bible and archaeology. The crew was on site for a day during the season and some brief can be seen. Take a look – all I did was talk a little – I am not responsible for other things …
Aren
P.S. This imposter, Steve, is following me all around nowadays … :-)
Immediately after the dig, I went on a vacation with my wife Adina and a couple of friends to the Galilee for R&R and getting back the use of my normal neural capacity (whatever that is …).
With my return, Shira (Area C6 supervisor) sent me some small clips that the volunteers in Area C6 prepared (and I thought they were digging …).
Here they are:
the race – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=neqhmuS3CzA
the dig – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=crLoVP4q-ZI&mode=related&search
the hit- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVq_0yG4Umc&mode=related&search
As you may notice, there is much to work on for the next Academy Awards…
Aren
the vanilla fight – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmwoTYloANs
This week was the fourth and final week of our field school for this season. On Sunday, Dr. Oren Ackermann of Bar-Ilan, who has been associated with the Tell es-Safi/Gath project almost since its inception, spoke about the geology and geomorphology of the site and the influence of human inhabitation on the ecology of the area. On Monday staff member Alex Zuckermann lectured on the pottery of the site, and on Tuesday Dr. Jeff Chadwick of Brigham Young University, AKA Achish Melek Gath and also a long-time Safi staff member, spoke about his work on the various excavations that had been conducted at Tell Rumeidah/Hebron. This is a major Bronze and Iron Age site in the center of the Judean hills which is not very well known archaeologically because none of the several excavations that have been conducted there has yet been fully published, mostly because of political circumstances.
Since there were less students and volunteers in general this week, we also had less people on our field trips, but those who came had some challenging adventures. This week Amit Dagan joined me in leading the group. On Sunday we went to Horvat Etri, a Second-Temple period Jewish village, complete with miqvaot (ritual baths), burial caves, a public structure that may have served as a synagogue and a small tunnel apparently used by the Jewish inhabitants when hiding from Roman soldiers during the Bar-Kokhba revolt. On Wednesday, we had a whole afternoon of crawling through such tunnels, both at Khirbet Midras and at Tel Goded. For some of the “larger” members of our group, such as myself, spending two hours crawling on our bellies in the dark is, as I said, a challenge at the least. Thanks to Amit for spending those two afternoon with us!
And that sums up the season! In all, I think that it was educational, interesting and most of all fun. I look forward to seeing everyone back next year, and to all those who followed our exploits from afar – there’s nothing like actually being here!
Yigal Levin
We had a very interesting find yesterday, connected to the group of cultic objects that I had reported previously. As it turned out, many of the cultic objects had special holes on them which indicated that they were originally meant to be hung from something. Read the rest of this entry »
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