On Monday evening, I was invited to give a lecture on the Tell es-Safi/Gath excavations to the Tel Gezer team, directed by S. Ortiz and S. Wolff (who are staying at Naveh Shalom). Needless to say (:-), I wowed them with our finds. Steve Ortiz, co-director of the Gezer excavations will be coming to lecture to the Safi team during the excavations.
Yesterday, Tuesday evening, I drove to Ashkelon to visit the Ashkelon excavations directed by L. Stager and D. Masters. After showing me around the excavations areas and some of their finds (including some really cool stuff which I suppose they will announce in the near future), I also presented a lecture to the Ashkelon team on the excavations at Safi. As usual, Larry Stager and I argued about the interpretation of the so-called “Goliath inscription” (discussed before on the blog more than once) – but that is already a regular part of the show…
During our season, Daniel Masters will be coming to present the Safi team about the Ashkelon excavations as well.

And finally, earlier yesterday, before I drove to Ashkelon, I went to Tell es-Safi/Gath with the Itamar, the ranger from the Israeli Nature and Parks Authority to go over where we going to conduct our activities on the site (they give the OK for this, since the site is a national park and it is under their jurisdiction).

Aren