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This last Monday (25/2), Dr. Christine Thompson, who is a NEH fellow at the Albright Institute in Jerusalem, gave a talk in the Safi lab, as part of our bi-weekly talk series. Christine presented the results of her PhD work (UCLA) in which she examined the relationships between the Aegean and the Levant during the LB and Iron Ages, from a perspective of the imports of silver to the Levant. From her study, based on a comprehensive Lead Isotope Analysis program of silver objects from a wide range of sites in the Southern Levant, she demonstrated that a very different pattern of metal trade existed in the LB, Iron I and Iron II-III. Among other points, she claims that there is little evidence for contacts between Greece and the Levant during the 10-9 centuries BCE. Also, very interestingly, she believes that silver from Sardinia was in circulation during the Iron Age I – something that indicates that the image of a “dark age” with little international trade during the Iron I, may not be the case.
After a lot of “peer-pressure” (and quite an uproar about what happened in the “blogosphere” [ see, e.g., here, and here, and here) Jim decided to go back on line with a new blog address: jwest.wordpress.com
Since the last post on the snow in Jerusalem was so popular, I am posting a picture that I took of the snow in Jerusalem, this Tuesday. The picture was taken at 7 in morning, as I was driving out of Jerusalem (I took it as I was waiting at a traffic light – not while I was driving …). Even though the snow continued for several hours, unfortunately, the snow melted away completely by the next day.
Aren
Recently, Haaretz published a very interesting article about Ottoman/British Mandate “well houses” in Jaffa and its vicinity and its relationship to the Citrus industry during this time. Among others, there is a description of buildings that belong to the El-Azi family in Jaffa. The El-Azi family are long-time inhabitants of the region of Tell es-Safi/Gath and till today they have two groups of houses in which members of the family live, about 3 km to the west of the tell. Also, the El-Azi family has the grazing rights on and around the tell.
Over the years, we, the members of the project have developed a close relationship with the family and in particular with Yunis, the family head (“Sheikh”) and his sons. In fact, every summer, there is the “mandatory” visit to their houses in which we drink tea, eat fruit, and discuss what has happened over the last year.
Here is a link (katzav-and-yunis.jpg) to a picture of Yunis el-Azi (on right with gray shirt) shaking hands with Moshe Katzav (in white shirt), the former president of the State of Israel (the latter, now, “fallen from grace” [and actually, perhaps even on the way to the "slammer" for alleged sexual mis-conduct] …) during the ex-President’s visit to the excavations in the 2005 season (Right behind Yunis and to his right, you can see Dr. Stefan Wimmer’s “gingy” head with sunglasses).
Of particular importance to the project are the stories about the pre-1948 village which Yunis has told us over the years, revealing all kinds of forgotten information about the village of Tell es-Safi, various things about the surrounding areas, and of course, interesting stories about the relationships between the inhabitants of the region in the pre-1948 years.
Aren
Today, someone asked me for an updated bibliography on the Tell es-Safi/Gath Archaeological Project, so, being a general nice guy, I quickly compiled one. Since it came out so nice, I thought readers of the blog might find it useful! As you can see, we’ve managed keep out of mischief and quite busy over the last decade or so!!
This is a good opportunity to thank the excellent, devoted staff, students and volunteers who have worked on the Safi project, for all the hard and dedicated work. In particular, I would like to thank the long-term “core-staff” who have been so instrumental in carrying out so much of the research listed below.
The list includes studies that have been published and/or those that are in press and should appear in the not-too-far future.
See the list below:
Congratulations to Ami Mazar, Bub Mullins and the Beth Shean Valley Archaeological Project team, for the just-appeared 2nd volume on the Tel Beth Shean excavations. As usual, this volume, as all of Ami’s, are chock-full of fascinating information and analyses. As usual, Ami is keeping up with his simply astounding publication record.
The title of the volume is:
Mazar, A., and Mullins, R.A., eds. 2008. Excavations at Tel Beth-Shean 1989–1996, Volume II: The Middle and Late Bronze Age Strata in Area R. Jerusalem: Israel Exploration Society.Below are the table of contents, which, as can be seen, is full of many very interesting chapters (including two by yours truly…): Read the rest of this entry »
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