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David Maltsberger (BUA) has informed me that he has a large collection of the very nice book by Ami Mazar and George Kelm “Timnah: A Biblical City in the Sorek Valley” (Eisenbrauns), which is a popular account, with many illustrations, of the excavations at this important site. For those interested in Tell es-Safi/Gath, the finds from Batash/Timnah are very relevant, and you might want to pick up one of these.
If you are interested, you can contact David at dmaltsberger@bua.edu, and he will mail them in the US for $5 post-paid or overseas at cost ($25US).
Aren
Today, a group of us went up to the tell for some pre-season planning and work. The tell looked great and from what we could see, there was very little damage in the various areas.
There were two objectives in the work at the tell today.
The first was to continue checking out the possible evidence for LB metalurgical activities in Area E on the eastern side of the tell. As I noted awhile ago, in analyses of materials from the western section of Area E carried out at the Kimmel Center for Archaeological Science at Weizmann Institute of Science, traces of metal were found. Due to the possibility that this might indicate an area in which metalurgical activities were conducted in the late LB, the ERC project “Early Israel” led by Israel Finkelstien (TAU) and Steve Weiner (WIS) were very interested in checking this area. After visiting the site earlier this spring, it was decided that before additional excavation was conducted, additional samples should be taken from the relevant section. And so, today, a group of us (Steve, Israel, Naama, Adi, Joe, Amit, Shirly and yours truly) went to the site to clean the relevant section and then take samples.
Here are a few pictures from the work today:
Naama, Steve, Adi and Israel examining the section
Naama taking a sample from the section
Steve and Adi registering the samples.
The 2nd reason that we went to the tell was so that Joe, Amit, Nir and I could meet and discuss some of the logistics of the coming season. This included deciding on the location of the breakfast area (a new area for old timers!), where the bathroom would be located (no change…), and other, mainly technical issues.
Today, I had the pleasure of participating in a mini-symposium on archaeological science that was held at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, and was organized by Prof. Steve Weiner. As I’ve already mentioned in the past (here and here, for example), Steve and I co-direct the Joint BIU/WIS Program in Archaeological Science, which has, if I may say, turned out to be quite a success!
In the mini symposium there were several very interesting lectures from several guests from abroad, and I capped off the day (the grave yard shift…), with a lecture on how we integrate field archaeology and archaeology science at the Tell es-Safi/Gath excavations.
Here is a list of the lectures:
* Prof. Martin Jones (University of Cambridge): “Why humans share food”
* Prof. Joseph Maran (University of Heidelberg): “Reflections on the relation between science and archaeology”
* Prof. Walter Kutschera (University of Vienna): “Why the puzzle of dating the Minoan Eruption of Santorini is still not solved?”
* Prof. Tim Jull (University of Arizona): “AMS dating studies at the University of Arizona applied to archaeology and paleoclimate in the Americas”
* Dr. Melinda Zeder (Smithsonian Institution): “Archaeological Sciences and the Origins of Agriculture”
* Dr. Bruce Smith (Smithsonian Institution): “General Patterns of Niche Construction by Small-Scale Pre-Industrial Societies”
* Prof Aren Maeir (Bar Ilan University): “Integrating Field Archaeology and Archaeological Science at Tell es-Safi/Gath”
All told, a very interesting, informative and enlightening day. In addition, I got meet in person several people who I only knew from reading their publications. It’s always nice to be able to “put a face” on a familiar name.
Read the rest of this entry »
As you may have noticed, today I replaced the “header” photo of the blog with a really nice aerial picture of the site that was taken from an “ultralight” two man aircraft at the end of the 2001 season.
The view is from the NE of the site, looking SW. If you notice, you can see the shoulder of the pilot on the right, lower hand side. On the upper right hand side there is a view towards to west, through Philisia towards Ashkelon and the Mediterranean, while to upper left you can see the beginning of the Judean foothills (Shephelah) towards the east.
Area A and E are on the eastern side of the tell, and one can clearly see the summit of the tell and the lower city, as well as the remains of the Palestinian village and modern sheep and cattle pens.
Here is the picture with captions – really nice!
Aren
Today, the media reported that in two excavations in Jerusalem some very interesting epigraphic materials were recently discovered.
In the first, it was reported that an excavation of the Israel Antiquities Authority in the Ras al-Amud neighborhood in east Jerusalem, a inscribed handle with a Hebrew name was found. The name was read as “MNHM” (menachem), although based on the picture that was published, I’m not too sure of that since I seem to see a dividing line after the first letter and before the 2nd (but we will have to wait for further details)
Here is the picture that was published of the handle
The 2nd notice that appeared today was also from an excavation of the IAA in Jerusalem, in the “City of David”/Silwan, directed by Ronny Reich and Eli Shukron. They report a seal with the name Saul, that derives from an 8th cent. (Iron IIB) context.
Here is a picture of the seal:
Now what does this have to do with the Tell es-Safi/Gath excavations? From the way I see it, this is the warmup show for us! For the next few weeks, as more and more excavations go into the field, we will hear of various interesting finds.
What I hope is that not too long after, in the month of July, the Safi team will stun them all with some really super finds from Safi…
(shhh, but don’t tell anyone yet).
:-)
Aren
As you may know, Harrison Ford recently received an award from the Archaeological Institute of America for his contribution, in the form of his image of Indiana Jones, to the field of archaeology.
See here a clip put out the AIA about why the award was given to Ford:
And see here Ford’s thanks for receiving the award:
Just for the record, see my comments about Indiana Jones, recently published in BAR:
Now get on your hat and join us this summer!!!
And thanks to Jim Davila for posting the youtube link.
Aren
Now that most of the registration forms are in, it appears that my initial fears that the current world-wide economic situation would have a very bad effect on registration for the 2009 season at Tell es-Safi/Gath were unnecessarily pessimistic. Although we don’t have as many team members as in the very large seasons (over 100 team members), the numbers are quite nice, and it appears that in the 2nd and 3rd weeks we will even be about 60 or so people in the field! This is a nice development!
If you are still interested in signing up, although the official deadline has passed, if you contact me immediately, there is still an option to join our team for this summer!
Yesterday, I visited the site and it appears that the various excavation areas are in a very good state. I could not see any substantial problems of erosion and/or illicit excavations that might have occurred since the last summer.
Best,
Aren
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