The Tell es-Safi/Gath Excavations Official (and Unofficial) Weblog

re: digging in the lab!

arenmaeir — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 13:01:34 +0000

Today, we had an opportunity to do some digging in the lab! As you may recall, last summer, in the excavation of Area D, we found a complete cooking pot in the 9th cent. destruction level, about 5 meters from the stone altar. The cooking pot and sediments inside it were removed from the excavation intact, and were taken to the lab.
Today, Dr. Udi Weiss (our archaeobotanist) came to the lab to “excavate” the sediments from within the cooking pot – in the hope of finding remains of the “last supper” of whoever lived in this building before it was destroyed.
As you can see in the pictures below, Udi excavated away at the sediments, and although he did not find a complete side of meat in the pot, he saved the fine sediments from within which will be sifted and hopefully, we may find evidence of what was cooked that last day in the pot!

Here are Udi and Shira as the excavation starts!

Here is a closeup of Udi removing the sediments from the pot

Here is the cooking pot almost empty…

And here it is after it was completely emptied!

Next time – perhaps we’ll find the recipes as well! :-)

Aren

Restoring pottery from the 2010-2011 season

arenmaeir — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 14:10:04 +0000

In the last few months, Dina Castel, our pottery restorer, has been busy restoring the pottery from the 2010 and 2011 seasons in Area D. This assemblage, from the 9th cent. BCE destruction level (wrought by good ole Hazael), includes a wide variety of pottery types. Many of these vessels were found in the immediate vicinity of the horned altar which has been mentioned before.

Here are some pictures of Dina with the restored vessels and of a bunch of vessels being prepared for drawing.
Quite a nice bunch!

What can I say? This is nice stuff!

And if you join us this coming summer – you may have a chance to find such things yourself!

Aren

P.S. As some may have noticed – I corrected the dates of the seasons based on a comment from Todd Bolen…

Update on the team for this summer

arenmaeir — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 19:49:04 +0000

While the registration is still going at a slow pace, we are starting to get a nice idea about some of the organized groups that will be joining the team this summer. As of now, we will have the following groups:

University of Melbourne – led by Louise Hitchcock
Yeshiva University – led by Jill Katz
University of Manitoba – led by Haskel Greenfield
Central Bible College – led by Mark Jenkins
William Jessup University – led by Cynthia Shafer-Eliot
A Korean group – led by MiYoung Im (and perhaps, another Korean group as well)
Bar-Ilan University – led by Aren Maeir
Weizmann Institute – led by Steve Weiner
Brigham Young University – led by Jeff Chadwick

In addition, various potential team members have been in touch about volunteering.

I believe we will have a great team this year – as in previous seasons.

And, please note – don’t hesitate to contact me if you have ANY questions about the project.

So do the only logical thing – join the 2012 team!!! :-)

Aren Maeir

Iron I pottery workshop at Ben-Gurion University

arenmaeir — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 18:48:53 +0000

Today, I was fortunate to be able to participate in a very interesting workshop on Iron Age I pottery from the Northwestern Negev, organized by Prof. Gunnar Lehmann (prof. as of yesterday!!), from Ben-Gurion University.
The workshop, which was held at Ben-Gurion University in Beer Sheba, including two lectures (by David Ben-Shlomo on the Iron I materials from Tel Jemmeh; and by Mario Martin on a petrographic study of the pottery from the Iron I/II Negev Highland sites [with some very interesting results regarding the origin of the handmade "Negebite" pottery and the wheelmade ones as well]), and then a hands-on survey of a very nice selection of Iron I (and early IIA) pottery from a series of sites in the NW Negev, including:
Qubur el-Walayda; Tel Sera; Nahal Patish (and see here a description of our visit to this site a few years ago); Tel Jemmeh; Tell el-Farah (South); as well as a few other small sites in the general region.
The viewing of the assemblages demonstrated how micro-regional features are extremely important in analyzing pottery assemblages, and that each region (and subregion) has unique features and characteristics.
It was a fascinating and enriching day – and I hope we have many other such opportunities in the future.

Thanks to Gunnar!

Aren

Visit to Tell for sampling

arenmaeir — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 17:04:08 +0000

Yesterday, Thursday, January 25th, a group of us visited the tell to take some samples for analysis from Area A. Alex, Louise, Steve Weiner, Elisabetta Boaretto, Yotam Asscher and some visitors from Australia came to the tell to take some samples for phytolith analysis and 14C dating from the early Iron Age levels in Area A (Louise’s area).
Since it has rained in the last few days, there was a lot puddle around the tell, but we were very lucky and had great weather. As usual, the views of the tell and the surroundings at this time of year are stupendous – and for those of you who only see it in the dry summer months – quite hard to believe.

Here are some pictures that I took yesterday:

A view of the tell from the north

Here are some of the group that was on the tell – all happy and cheerful!

Here is a view of the puddles in the squares in the eastern side of Area A – notice that so far, the balks are still standing not too badly!

Here is a view to the Bedouin camp just to the east of the tell

And here is Yotam – actually doing the work…

It’s always a pleasure to visit the site during the winter months!

Aren

Great clip about Neot Kedumim

arenmaeir — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 22:05:13 +0000

Todd Bolen has blogged about Neot Kedumim and put up a great video clip about this fantastic place.

Neot Kedumim is a center where they try to recreate the nature and agriculture of biblical times – very well worth a visit!

Aren

New article on Cypro-Minoan in Philistia by Brent Davis

arenmaeir — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 18:16:01 +0000

Brent Davis, senior member of the Univ. of Melbourne team at Tell es-Safi/Gath (and Louise Hitchcock’s chief assistant) has informed my (and sent me a pdf) of an article of his that was just published, discussing the possible use of Cypro-Minoan writing in Philistia.

Briefly put, after reviewing the relevant evidence from Philistia and beyond, Brent is rather sceptical regarding suggestions to ID Cypro-Minoan inscriptions from Philistia, in particular regarding the inscription from Ashkelon that Cross and Stager published in 2006 in IEJ (mentioned here).

As Brent is one of the leading experts in the field of Aegean writing systems, his input and perspectives on this issue is important, since much of what has been written on this topic has been written by people who were not bona fide experts on this topic.

The article is entitled: Davis, B. 2011. Cypro-Minoan in Philistia. Kubaba 2: 40–74.

Very interesting – and a very important study on the topic of early Philistine language and literacy, of which we know so little.

Way to go Brent!

Aren

Very nice web article on archaeological science at Tell es-Safi/Gath and other sites

arenmaeir — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 08:04:12 +0000

A very nice journalistic piece has just appeared on the use of archaeological science at Tell es-Safi/Gath and other sites, with interviews with Steve Weiner (WIS) and yours truly.

Aren

Safi, Ugarit and Cola…

arenmaeir — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 07:16:34 +0000

Since I have not posted recently, I thought it time to post on something completely out of the blue, only vaguely connected to Safi (one has to do this once in a while…).
A few years ago, one of the volunteer team members on the dig (and I apologize for having forgotten who it was – I’ll gladly add the name of who it was, if this can be provided – UPDATE – my “senior moment” noted above has been circumvented! Louise Hitchcock has reminded me that it was VAIA LIOUSAS, from the Univ. of Melbourne team – THANKS VAIA!!!), visited Syria right before coming to Israel for the excavations. To my surprise and enjoyment, she was nice enough to bring me a can of cola from Syria! Most amusingly, it turned out that the popular local cola beverage in Syria is called “Ugarit Cola” – named after the well-known ancient site in NW Syria – Ugarit/Ras Shamra.
In light of the very difficult news that we have been hearing from Syria in the last few months, I can just hope that in the near future things will be peaceful – and perhaps even if there is a regime change – might we even wish for peace between Israel and Syria, and then I could even go and get my own can of “Ugarit Cola”!
In any case, here is a picture of the can – and I decided to put it with a background of one of the original reports on the first French excavations (by C.F.A. Schaeffer) at Ugarit (Schaeffer, C. F. A. 1962. Ugaritica IV. Mission de Ras Shamra XV. Paris: Imprimerie Nationale):

And now, that we have made a connection between Safi and Ugarit, hopefully in the future seasons we will find actual material evidence of this at Tell es-Safi/Gath…
:-)
Aren

P.S. I have not yet opened the can – so I don’t really know how it tastes…

Great clip of panoramic view from the top of the tell

arenmaeir — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 05:40:13 +0000

Louise Hitchcock has kindly uploaded to YouTube a video (taken by her husband Brian two weeks ago) giving a 360 degree panoramic view of Tell es-Safi/Gath and its surroundings, taken from the summit of the upper tell. The clip starts and ends from the north and gives a view, in the following order:
Ekron, Ramleh, Beth Shemesh area, Elah Valley, Sephelah and Judean hills, Maresha and Beth Guvrin, Lachish region, Tel Zayit region, Qiryat Gath region, Ashkelon, Qiryat Malachi, Ashdod, nearby power station, Kibbutz Kfar Menachem.

The clip gives a nice perspective on the importance of the viewpoints from the site and why it was so important a site in so many periods.

The clip was taken on the modern outlook point on the top of the tell, which was built above the remains of the Crusader castle, Blanch Garde.

Thanks Louise and Brian!

Aren