Sad news this evening with the information that Dr. Gabriel (Gaby) Barkay z”l, passed away. May his memory be a blessing.
Gabi was for many years a leading figure in the archaeology of the Land of Israel in general and Jerusalem in particular, and among his many accomplishments, is well-known for his excavations in the Ketef Hinnom Cemetery, where he discovered the famous “Priestly Blessing” silver amulets.
Gaby was universally appreciated for his erudite knowledge on many topics, and for being a real “mensch”!
He will be missed by the entire archaeological community…
On Monday, 12th January, 2026, a workshop entitlted “Cult and Identity in Aramean Contexts” will be held at Bar-Ilan University, in Room 312 in the building of the Faculty of Jewish Studies (Building 410). The workshop is jointly organized by the RIAB Center and S. N. Kramer Institute of Assyriology of Bar-Ilan University.
See below the schedule of the workshop, which will include three very interesting lectures relating to archaeological, textual and historical aspects connected to the Arameans.
When I arrived home today from Ethiopia, I was happy to find on my desk a copy of the new volume of the final publications of the Tel Miqne-Ekron excavations, so kindly sent to me by Sy Gitin (thanks!).
The full title is:
Gitin, S., ed. 2025. Tel Miqne-Ekron 14/1: Objects and Material Culture Studies: Middle Bronze Age II Through Iron Age II. College Park, PA: Eisenbrauns.
Congratulations – and thanks – to Sy and all the contributors!
Since I was a bit “under the weather” for a day or two, I didn’t manage to update on our progress since Thursday.
On Friday (2/1), the team (I stayed back, not feeling well…), went from Debark to the nearby site of Werq Amba, a very interesting site possibly related to the Gideonite/Solomonic wars. In addition to very fascinating finds on the the site, the site was “occupied” by a large troop of Gelada Baboons, who were quite friendly, and allowed the team to get quite close to them.
In between all the various activities, we even managed to celebrate Sophia’s birthday!
With that visit, we ended the research part of our trip, and started making our way back to Addis, first flying to Gonder and from Gondar to Addis. In Addis, we had to pop over to the offices of the EHA, to submit the pottery we had collected in our surveys.
Today, Sunday, our team flies back home, to Israel, Germany and the US.
We are already excitedly awaiting our next field trip, to expand the study of the sites we visited and surveyed this time. Some of what we did was quite hard, physically, but the great spirits, humor and professionalism of our entire team, made our work super successful and enjoyable!
All in all, this was a super successful and extremely interesting field expedition, and we even achieved more objectives than originally planned!
Today (Thursday, 1.1.26), we started the day with a visit to a church that was located right next to the school yard where we were staying, to see a beautiful celebration of St. George’s day.
Thrn, we drove a few km SE of Dil Yibza, to visit the site of Amba Wati (the fortress of Wati), a site very much connected to the battles between the Gideonites and the Solomonic Kingdom.
We visited the church in the village, and surveyed and scanned the site situated just above the village.
The site looks like it has much potential!
After finishing at the site, we drove back to Dil Yibza, to pick up our equipment, and then drove out of the Semien Mountains nature reserve, all the way to Debark.
As we drove, we had a great view of Ras Dejen mountain from afar, and could really get a perspective on how high we climbed in the last few days!
On the way out, we saw a big troop of Gelada Baboons and with them a few Walia Ibex (which we had seen already on the way in), but also got to see a few Menelik’s bushbucks (Tragelaphus scriptus meneliki), which was a special treat.
The drive to Debark was quite long, not always on great roads, but we have no complaints! After several days, we are back in place where we can take a shower, and sleep in a real bed!
Today (Wednesday, 31/12) we made our way from deep in the Semien Mountains, (our base camp for two days was at the village of Tiguna, near the various Kidus Yared sites), back to Dil Yibza, the small town which we had stayed at three nights ago.
Before we left the village, we conducted an interview with one of the elders of the village, who told us about memories relating to Beta Yisrael communities that had lived in the region years ago.
The trail back was quite challenging, about 17 kms, going back up and down, but overall going up from ca. 3400 masl to ca. 4250 masl. Most of the team (save for Sophia and Elad, who showed high levels of stamina) rode up on mules, which was a unique experience on its own, which took us about 6 hours of riding. The ride was quite “interesting” which at time was challenging in more ways than one. Not for the faint hearted…
Tomorrow, we will visit the nearby site of Amba Wati, a site connected to the Gideonite/Solomonic wars.
After the last three extremely challenging days, the entire team is completely exhausted and we will have a good sleep tonight…
Kidus Yared, Saint Yared, was an important saint in Christian and Beta Yisrael traditions, and has several holy places named after him, as well as a monastery.
Today (Tuesday, 30/12), we walked up to a holy cave in his honor. The walk took 4 hours on the way up, and 3 hours on the way down, with many very trying ups and downs, narrow paths, rock croppings to climb, and overall altitude change of 400 nasl, from 3400 at our camp to 3800 at the cave.
Along the way, both back and forth, we saw troops of Gelada Baboons, a vulture that flew right by us (not sure the species), and much other beautiful flora and fauna. Needless to say, the vistas were breathtakingly impressive, including views towards several sites relevant to the battles between the Gideonites and the Solomonic Kingdom, but many geographical features as well.
Among the interesting material culture that we saw are game boards carved in the rock, and manure patties drying in the sun.
At the cave, we met several monks who lived in the small local monastery next to the cave, and the highest ranking monk told us the stories relating to Kidus Yared – told in Amharic, and translated into English by Tadele, who is in charge of the logistics, and an integral part of our research team.
Overall, it was a very interesting day, but very, very challenging from a physical perspective. We all finished the day completely exhausted.
Today (monday), we left Dil Yibza in the morning, and drove to about halfway up Ras Dejen mountain. We didn’t go the top, but started walking towards the site of Kidus Yared, a series of site dedicated to Saint Yared, a figure who was sacred to both the Christians and the Jews in Ethiopia. While we walked, a caravan of donkeys and their donkey handlers, who were carrying our equipment started walking as well, and soon overtook us on the way to our night time camp location. It took us until late afternoon to reach our camp, where the staff were already starting to set up our camp.
We’ll be sleeping here two nights.
Our walk today included views which were so beautiful that any superlative doesn’t do justice! In fact, it’s almost so stunning that one wonders whether it is legal…🥸
Of the various interesting things we saw today, noteworthy are the Lobelia rhynchopetalum (Giant Lobelia), and endemic Afro-alpine plant, which covers many slopes and can grow very tall. Another interesting plant is the Torch Lily (Kniphofia foliosa) with beautiful red and yellow flowers.
Here are some pictures, in addition to those that I posted earlier.
This morning, we started our trek into the Semien Mountains on the way to the sites we will be studying. As we have internet access, here are a few pictures from the first few hours.
Today at noon, the entire team finally got together in Debark. We started driving from Debark, into the Semien Mountains nature reserve, and in the evening arrived in Dil Yibza, the center of the local government and the last place where we have to get permission to continue.
Along the way, the views were simply beyond belief! From Debark we drove up to the Wogera plateau and from there we continued to the Semien Mountains, crossing dramatic scenery of stunning beauty.
It’s also wheat harvest time, so we saw farmers threshing and winnowing their wheat, using traditional methods.
Archaeological Projects and Discussions with Aren Maeir 