Daniel Master and Josh Walton visit the Safi lab

Today, we had a very nice visit of Prof. Daniel Master, co-director of the Ashkelon excavation, and Josh Walton, senior staff member of the Ashkelon team, to the Safi lab. In addition to showing them some of the new finds (including, of course, the stone altar), we had a long conversation with them about their experiences of using a digital system for field and lab recording at Ashkelon (in use there since 2007), as a background to what we hope will be a successful implementation of the the digital REVEAL system at Tell es-Safi/Gath in the 2012 season.

While the Ashkelon and Safi system are different, we heard quite a few good ideas, suggestions, warnings and advice on what to do and what not to do in moving from old-fashioned registration to a digital system. Besides being very interesting – this was extremely helpful for us.

Aren

Finally! Official announcement of the SSHRC grant for the EB at Tell es-Safi/Gath

After waiting some two months for the official announcement from the Canadian SSHRC, we can now finally put this up:

Prof. Haskel Greenfield (University of Manitoba) and Prof. Aren Maeir (Bar-Ilan University) have been awarded a seven year, large-scale grant from the Canadian government’s Social Science and Humanities Research Council for the study of the Early Bronze Age remains at the site of Tell es-Safi/Gath in Israel.

The project is entitled “The nature of early urban neighbourhoods in the southern Levant: Early Bronze Age at Tell es-Safi”, and will involve five years of excavation and two years of post-excavation analysis.

The CAN$2.7 million grant (with institutional matching actually reaching close to CAN$4 million) aims to carry out an interdisciplinary study of the Early Bronze Age III city at Tell es-Safi/Gath, with particular focus on the non-elite neighborhoods. In collaboration with a diverse group of scholars from Canada, Israel and other countries, and utilizing macro- and micro-archaeological perspectives, they plan to study facets of daily life in one of the larger cities of the first stage of urban culture in the Southern Levant. The large scale funding will enable a broad range of cutting-edge technological and analytical techniques to be used in this research, as well as comprehensive training of the next generation of students.

This research is conducted as part of the Tell es-Safi/Gath Archaeological Project, directed by Prof. Aren Maeir, which is a long-term project (commenced in 1996) aimed at studying the cultural and environmental history of the site of Tell es-Safi/Gath and its environs.

Woohoo!

:-)

Aren

Video clip of introductory class on the Philistines and Sea Peoples (in Hebrew)

Bar-Ilan University has put online a video of the first lecture in my class on the Philistines and Sea Peoples (in Hebrew), in which I give the general introduction to this topic and then talk about the Late Bronze Age background of the Philistines and Sea Peoples.

So, if you have just under and hour and a half of free time (and understand Hebrew) – watch and enjoy!

And if you enjoyed this (or not…), check out this clip (in English) in which my good friend and colleague, Ed Greenstein, of the BIU Bible Department, discusses “The Theory of Metaphor and Metaphor in the Bible” – very interesting!!!

Aren

Another horned altar mountain!

Now that a horned altar mountain has been reported from Switzerland, more examples are popping up. Alex Zukerman has sent me word of one in Georgia (that is the FSU Georgia, not in the US)! It’s called Mt. Ushba, and here is a picture of it:

Boy – those Philistines are getting around…

:-)

Aren

Aegean style torch at Tell es-Safi/Gath!

Today, while going thru some of the special finds from 2007, we noticed that a very interesting find had been discovered in Area F, but had gone unnoticed until now. What we found is a part of an Aegean-style torch, which is well-known from the Late Helladic Aegean (and Cyprus), but as of yet, has only been reported very rarely in the Levant – one example from Ugarit and one example from early Iron Age Beth Shean. As Assaf Yasur-Landau wrote in his book on the Philistine migration, this can be considered an item that is typical of non-Levantine behaviour patterns appearing in the Levant with the arrival on the “western” peoples that arrived at this time.

And BTW – this, to the best of my knowledge, the first example of this type from Philistia.

Here’s a picture of Shira Kisos holding the torch

Aren

New sieves for the dig

Here’s a very nice sketch of the new sieves that we have ordered for the dig, which we will have for the new season. The nice thing about them is: they can be worked by one person; they turn over easily; they have two levels of screens (one with 5 mm holes one with 2 mm holes) which can easily be detached so that the finds can easily collected after sifting. They are MAJOR improvements over the ones that we had previously used…

Thanks to Ely, Shira’ Kisos’ partner, who has made them for us (and made the sketch).

This means a lot of interesting small finds – be prepared!

Aren

Two horned mountain/altar in the Alps!

Barbara Stimpson, who was on the Safi team last year in Area D when the two-horned altar was discovered, has now reported that additional two horned altars are popping up all over. The latest one was noticed in the Alps, as can be seen from this photograph (upper left hand side) which she was kind enough to send me:

The Mürtschenstock mountain (elev. 2441 m asl) is south of the “Walensee” lake in the Canton of Glarus in Switzerland, and it can be seen very well from near Zürich…

Now how did the Philistines get there?

:-)

Aren

Congratulations to Cynthia Shafer-Elliott

The news is out that Cynthia Shafer-Elliott, who has been on the Safi team for many years, first leading the group from Sheffield, and now the group from William Jessup University, has been appointed to the position of Associate Professor of Hebrew Bible at William Jessup University. Way to go!

On the same occasion, Cynthia also should be congratulated on the fact that her doctoral thesis, which was completed at the University of Sheffield, will be published as “Food in Ancient Judah: Domestic Cooking in the Time of the Hebrew Bible” by Equinox this Autumn.

Way to go Cynthia!!

Mabruk!!

Aren

New article on Gath after Hazael has appeared!

Just got news that a very nice volume, edited by Angelika Berlejung (Leipzig), entitled: Disaster and Relief Management – Katastrophen und iher Bewaeltigung, has appeared. This volume, which is the proceedings of a very nice conference which I had the honor to participate in, and was held in Leipzig in October 2010.

Among the various articles in this volume, there is an article by yours truly on Gath after Hazael, which is entitled:

Maeir, A. M. 2012. Philistia and the Judean Shephelah After Hazael and the “Uzziah Earthquake.” The Power Play Between the Philistines, Judahites and Assyrians in the 8th Century BCE in Light of the Excavations at Tell es-Safi/Gath. In Disaster and Relief Management – Katastrophen und Ihre Bewältigung, ed. A. Berlejung. Forschungen zum Alten Testament 81. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck.

In this study, I summarize the relevant finds and discuss the historical context of Gath after the destruction by Hazael in the late 9th cent., and place it within the larger historical and archaeological context of the late 9th, 8th and 7th centuries BCE, with reference to the relevant written sources.

Enjoy!

UPDATE: The volume has arrived (and it is very nice).

Anyone interested in a pdf of my article is welcome to contact me.

Aren

New Tell es-Safi/Gath Facebook Page!

Please do check out the newly fixed up facebook page of the Tell es-Safi/Gath Archaeological Project, which has a lot of photos and other things on it.

Thanks to Chris McKinny for preparing it!

Aren