NY Times article on Kh. Qeiyafa

Today, the NY Times came out with an article on the finds from Kh. Qeiyafah, a site in the Elah valley just to the west of Tell es-Safi/Gath. As some of the 2008 team may recall, some of us visited the site during the summer.

The press notice comes out in conjunction with a paper that will presented about the site at a meeting that is being held today in Jerusalem. Additional press notices about this should be appearing in other venues as well – I know this since I was interviewed for both the NY Times and other news agencies.

Whatever the case, the finds from the site are VERY interesting (as I wrote elsewhere in the past).

Shalom Paul Fs – with an article on a find from Safi

Last week it was announced that the Festschrift for Shalom Paul, celebrating his 70th birthday has just appeared, with a slew of interesting article by a large group of scholars.

Among others, there is a short piece by yours truly on an interesting find from Tell es-Safi/Gath – a seated image of diety, which was found in the 9th century BCE destruction level (Stratum A3), which we relate to the conquest of Gath by Hazael.

Here is a little picture of the figurine

This is the title of the article:
Maeir, A. M. 2008. A Seated Figurine from Tell es-Safi/Gath: A Philistine Image of El? In Birkat Shalom: Studies in the Bible, Ancient Near Eastern Literature, and Postbiblical Judaism Presented to Shalom M. Paul on the Occasion of His Seventieth Birthday, eds. C. Cohen, V. Hurowitz, A. Hurvitz, Y. Muffs, B. Schwartz and J. Tigay. Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns.

The figurine, which originally was apparently applied to some other object, is reminiscent of the Canaanite god “El”, and I thus suggest in this article that perhaps, this is a manifestation of this god as part of the Philistine pantheon (of which we know so little).

Tell es-Safi/Gath in the upcoming NOVA documentary

In the last few days, there have been various announcements in the press about the soon to be aired documentary series by NOVA, which is entitled “The Bible’s Buried Secrets.” This series is supposed to be aired in the US as of November 18th, 2008, and I suppose will be aired in other countries as well. Two seasons ago, the film team spent a day or two at the site during the season, and those of you who were on the team that season may remember them.
NOVA has put out a trailer (if this link does not work for you, go to the webpage and open it on your own), which, as all film trailers invariably are, is a bit tacky, but if you watch it and you are quick, you can see a few spots which were taken at Tell es-Safi/Gath. Most obvious is a quick shot of our team member Linda Meiberg (U Penn), who was a square supervisor in Area A that season, who is holding a really nice bichrome Philistine sherd and washing it for the camera.

Here’s a picture of Linda, Alex and yours truly discussing an interesting brick that was found in the excavations in Area A