We’re about to finish the 1st week of excavations (one more day) and things are looking really nice!
The IAA excavation came to an end today, with some really nice results. In association with the thick walls of what appears to be a public building, there was a great assemblage of pottery, including several bowls (some stacked on in the other), cooking jugs (one fallen over from a nearby ring stand), juglets and other vessels. Clearly, this is just part of the finds from this very interesting building. At the end of the day (and the short dig), the square was covered over. Hopefully, we’ll return to this, and expand it, in a coming season! Thanks to Svetlana from the IAA who supervised the excavation!
Here are some pictures from the IAA dig:
In our areas, we had some nice results as well!
In Area M, the finds are popping out, including more vessels and a collection of loomweights. In the new squares we are reaching the destruction as well!
In Area K2 – more and more architecture is beginning to appear, and it looks like there is good preservation!
In Area K – a very large wall with a stone foundation has appeared, and possible brick walls are to be seen as well.
In Area Y – all the squares are beginning to show finds, fitting in very nicely with the picture from the remote sensing. In addition, we had a visit from Ron Shaar and Yoav Vaknin (HU), Ruthy Shahack-Gross (Haifa) and Oren Ackerman (Ariel), to discuss and suggest analyses to understand the burnt brick features and chalk deposits that we started to uncover last year, and continue this. Hopefully, this will develop further in the future.
In Area D, in addition to uncovering more parts of the fortifications, they had a very nice alabaster bead.
After spending some time in Area Y, Yoav Vaknin went on to take samples for archaeomagnetic analyses, from a tabun in the IAA excavations (see picture) and from the burnt features in Area M.
And here is the daily clip!
The Tell es-Safi/Gath Archaeological Project Official (and Unofficial) Weblog 