Detailed interview about Tell es-Safi/Gath on the “Landminds” radio program

On By arenmaeirIn Miscellaneous

This Tuesday, on Memorial Day evening (Erev Yom Hazikaron), I had the very enjoyable opportunity to be interviewed by Barnea Levi Selavan and David Willner (of the Foundationstone organization) for their “Landminds” radio show. In the interview, which lasted more than two hours (!!!), I discussed in detail many aspects relating to the excavations at Tell es-Safi/Gath (including a general survey of the periods represented at the site), various aspects relating to the Philistines, insights from the archaeological finds on the biblical text, and much more.

Check it out!

Since it was so long, the interview was divided up into 4 sections, which can be found here:

Section 1
Section 2
Section 3
Section 4

Hope you listen to this – and hope you enjoy the interviews!

Aren

6 thoughts on “Detailed interview about Tell es-Safi/Gath on the “Landminds” radio program”

  1. Michael Welch

    Dear Dr. Maeir, Hi!!! These are Fantastic. Have you ever studied those giant volumes on Samaria from the Harvard excavations by Dr. Reisner and his team. It seems like the one hundred plus Samaria Ostraca were found in some burnt destruction layer. Could this be an Aramaean destruction? Thank you for everything that you do. With Much Gratitude and Admiration, Michael

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    1. arenmaeir

      Michael,
      The ostraca from Samaria are found in the Assyrian destruction of the city, ca. 722 BCE, about a century after the Aramean campaigns by Hazael.

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      1. Michael Welch

        Dear Mr. Grena, Hi!!! It is a very common misconception that people have that there were only 64 ostraca found by Dr. Reisner and his team. If you go to the museum at Istanbul, there are over 100. There are just 64 that have been considered legible. I believe you can see the others on InscriptiFact. I seem to remember that Dr. Christopher Rollston helped Dr. Zuckerman and Dr. Lundberg put them on the site from the old Harvard excavation photographs and Dr. Ivan T. Kaufman’s photographs. With Much Gratitude and Admiration, Michael

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  2. Ian H

    I just listened to the whole fascinating interview. Wow, what a great mix of comprehendive overview and enticing specifics about Tell Es-Safi/Gath! Especially exciting for me was the discussion near the end about the as you say “online” interdisciplinary science that goes on during the digs, and actually informs the course of excavation in “real time”. Very cool. I will also be interested to hear more about the “Invasion Biology” angle too… it’s cool that in the interview you dispell the simplistic notion that the Philistine’s came to the coastal plain “en masse” D-Day style, yet you also offer up new lines of approaches (like Invasion Biology) to help untangle the much more complex but potentially tractable course of events… Sure hoping to get out there this season!
    ~Ian

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