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
So, if you can wait until November, you will be able to see what hopefully will be a level-headed documentary on aspects relating to the Bible and archaeology, in which there will be some nice shots of the excavations at Tell es-Safi/Gath (and a few other, minor, and largely insignificant sites as well … :-)
Aren
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October 11, 2008 at 5:37 pm
G.M. Grena
Looks like a very interesting show. Thanks for mentioning it, & for you & your team’s contributions. Looks like it covers all the major finds. I especially liked seeing the first video of the Zayit Abecedary stone. And yes, I saw Linda right after Amihai Mazar discusses the goddess figurine.
October 13, 2008 at 2:11 am
Ole Olesen
Perhaps NOVA will air this right after the US elections to give US viewers something else to think about :-) It does sound interesting and I will try to get some of the folk here in Oregon to tune in as an introduction to current archaeology.
Nice photo of Linda, Alex and you!
Such memories from summer 2008!!
(Disappointed by the vandalism. It doesn’t sound like they were just trying to relocate the sign about the “Crusader” tower.)
Ole
October 29, 2008 at 4:30 pm
arenmaeir
Justin Lev-Tov has informed me (via Tristan Barako) that in the TV version of the documentary, all the Philistine related issues have been cut out. They will appear though in the DVD version.
Aren
November 6, 2008 at 6:31 pm
Tristan Barako
The Philistine scene, which is about 10 minutes long and includes footage of Tell es-Safi, will also appear on the NOVA website under “Video Extras” (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/bible/).
November 6, 2008 at 10:05 pm
arenmaeir
Tristan,
Thanks!
Aren
November 6, 2008 at 10:15 pm
Tristan Barako
No problem. Check out also our The Bible’s Buried Secrets blog where we are have posted some of our thoughts on the show, our bibliography, and are all the web chatter about the show. http://www.providencepictures.com/news/the-bibles-buried-secrets/
November 19, 2008 at 1:39 am
hea
Is there any evidence in support of the Exodus? Did it really happen? Ph.D. scientist Gerald E. Aardsma has studied and written on the Exodus for many years. He has some compelling evidence which shows that the Exodus did indeed happen! If you are looking for factual, scientific data, Dr. Aardsma has a book regarding the Exodus that you can order by going to this link: http://www.biblicalchronologist.org/products/Exodus_book.php.
November 25, 2008 at 8:45 am
Tell es-Safi/Gath on the NOVA documentary « The Tell es-Safi/Gath Excavations Official (and Unofficial) Weblog
[...] es-Safi/Gath on the NOVA documentary Despite the fact that I had thought that we would be starring in the NOVA documentary on the Bible, in fact, from what I was told, the [...]