Serious (and not-so-serious) musings about the project
The boys and girls are back! Today, we started a short, week and a half season at Safi, to excavate some features and taking samples for analyses from various areas.
Nice to get the gang together, great weather and views, and a lot of fun and interesting work!
Haskel Greenfield kindly notified me about a just-appeared article, by him and Katja (who is also a veteran Safi volunteer team member, from years back!). They question (rightfully so!) the simplistic connection between the consumption of dogs and the Sea Peoples, based on examples from Tell Zirāʿa. In other words, if you find evidence of dog consumption in early Iron Age sites, does this serve as an indicator for Philistines or Sea Peoples?
Very nice study!
The article (which is open access) is:
Soennecken, K.; Greenfield, H. J. 2024. Dog consumption at Tell Zirāʿa: Is it a “cultural marker” for the “Sea Peoples”? Humans 4: 148–182.
Here’s the abstract:
It has been argued that the increase in the consumption of dogs in the southern Levant during the Iron Age was due to the advent of the Philistines/“Sea Peoples” into the region. In this study, we test this proposal through the presentation of new information on dog consumption and its depositional context in Bronze and Iron Age strata from the archaeological site of Tell Zirāʿa (Jordan), and we compare the results to other sites in the region. Our study does not support that such behaviour is a signal of ethnic identity.
So happy to hear that Itzik Shai has been granted the rank of Full Professor at Ariel University!
Itzik, who is an old time Safi staff member, and has contributed substantially to research and publications on finds from the site, directs his own project at Tel Burna, and is also VP for Research and Development at Ariel University. Itzik without a doubt is well-deserving of his new rank!
Woohoo!
Luke Janssen, who runs the podcast “Reaching into Plato’s Cave“, interviewed me a few years ago on the origins of Judaism, the origins of Israel, the historical background of the Exodus, and other topics.
He kindly sent me a link to the session.
Check it out! Interesting stuff!
Tomorrow night, Jews all over the world celebrate the 1st night of Passover, also known as חג החרות – the Festival of Freedom – commemorating the exodus of the People of Israel from the slavery in Egypt.
This year, with all the difficulties we have experienced in Israel and its region, particularly since October 7th, 2023, and in light of the 133 missing hostages, still being held by the HAMAS is Gaza, commemorating freedom has so much extra meaning.
So here’s wishing you all – and in particular the hostages in Gaza – a true celebration (and granting) of freedom.
And in addition, a wish that Israel, Palestine, the entire Near East, and in fact the entire world, will see peace prevail, and in the words of Jeremiah (31:16): וְיֵשׁ תִּקְוָה לְאַחֲרִיתֵךְ נְאֻם יְהוָה וְשָׁבוּ בָנִים לִגְבוּלָם (=for your work will be rewarded, declares the Lord, they will return from the land of the enemy)
On Tuesday, I had the pleasure and honor to host in the Safi lab, the director General of the Israel Ministry of Regional Copperation, Mr. Yigal Shadmon.
During his visit, we discussed regional research projects that we already started, and the potential for additional ones.
Also, I gave him one of the bottles of beer made from ancient yeast!
As mentioned previously, in the Israeli exhibition in the Venice Biennale, a figurine from Safi is also included.
See below the cool 3D animation in which the figurines are walking. See if you can identify the Safi figurine!
Here’s a picture of the Safi figurine:
And here is the animation:
Tell es-Safi/Gath has a presence at the Israeli exhibit in the Venice Bienalle, which is now in the news due to its closing, demanding the return of the Israeli hostages held in Gaza. One of the topics in the exhibition are Iron Age “pillar figurines”, and one of the figurines is from Tell es-Safi/Gath!
Talking about enmeshment of past, present and future…
Today, I traveled three and a half hours from the zen monastery where I slept last night, to Tsukuba, to give a lecture at Tsukuba University. I was hosted by Prof. Shigeo Yamada, who first met me at the train station, gave me a short tour of the city.
Later in the afternoon, I gave a lecture on Tell es-Safi/Gath and the Philistines, which was attended by a nice group of faculty and students.
We then went for supper with some of the faculty and students at the university faculty club.
Tomorrow, Shigeo and his wife Keiko will take me on a tour of Mount Tsukuba, the iconic double-peaked holy mountain near the city.
Today, I spent the entire morning at the beautiful Tokyo National Museum, hosted by Dr. Takuzo Onozuko, curator the West Asian and Egyptian archaeological materials at the museum.
We first started in the gallery which he curated, with a very nice collection of objects form all over the ancient Near East.
From there we went to the special exhibit of the Golden Hall of the Chuson-Ji Temple, from Northern Japan. This was the final week of this special, and stunning exhibit, and the lines of people waiting to get in were lore than long. Thanks to Takuzo’s “protekzia” – we got in without the line…
From there, I went on my own to see the various galleries of the impressive collections of Japanese art and archaeology in the museum.
Very interesting morning!
And now I’m on my way to stay at a Zen monastery in the mountains northwest of Tokyo. Should be interesting…
Here are some photos from my visit:
The Tell es-Safi/Gath Archaeological Project Official (and Unofficial) Weblog 