The
archaeology of Israel covers a period of over three millenniums of documented history. The ancient
Land of IsraelThe Land of Israel is, according to the Hebrew Bible, the region which was promised by their God to the descendants of Abraham through his son Isaac and to the Israelites, descendants of Jacob, Abraham's grandson. This land forms part of the Abrahamic, Jacob and Israel covenants...
was a geographical bridge between the political and cultural centers of
MesopotamiaMesopotamia "land between the rivers" is a name for the Tigris–Euphrates region in the eastern Mediterranean, largely corresponding to Iraq, as well as northeastern Syria, some parts of southeastern Turkey, and some parts of the Khūzestān Province of southwestern...
and
EgyptEgypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Western Asia...
. Despite the importance of the country to three major religions, serious archaeological research only began in the 15th century. The first major work on the antiquities of Palestine was Adrian Reland's
Palestina ex monumentis veteribus, published in 1709.
Edward RobinsonEdward Robinson was an American biblical scholar, known as the "Father of Biblical Geography".-Biography:Robinson was born at Southington, Conn. He graduated at Hamilton College, Clifton, N. Y., in 1816, studied at Andover, Mass., and in Europe at Halle and Berlin. On his return to the United...
, an American theologian who visited the country in 1838, published the first topographical studies. A Frenchman, Félicien de Saulcy, embarked on the first "modern" excavations in 1850.
Archaeological periods
- PREHISTORIC PERIOD
- Neolithic Period 8500-4300 BC
- Chalcolithic Period 4300-3300 BC
- BIBLICAL PERIOD
- Bronze Age 3300-1200 BC
- Early Bronze Age I (EB I) 3330-3050 BC
- Early Bronze Age II-III (EB II-III) 3050-2300 BC
- Early Bronze Age IV/Middle Bronze Age I (EB IV/MB I) 2300-2000 BC
- Middle Bronze Age IIA (MB IIA) 2000-1750 BC
- Middle Bronze Age IIB (MB IIB) 1800-1550 BC
- Late Bronze Age I-II (LB I-II) 1550-1200 BC
- Iron Age 1200-539 BC
- Iron Age I (IA I) (Judges) 1200-1000 BC
- Iron Age IIA (IA IIA) (United Monarchy) 1000-925 BC
- Iron Age IIB-C (IA IIB-C) (Divided Monarcy) 925-586 BC
- Iron Age III (Neo-Babylonian Period) 586-539 BC
- Persian Period 539-333 BC
- CLASSICAL PERIOD
- Hellenistic Period 333-165 BC
- Maccabean/Hasmonean Period 165-63 BC
- Roman Period 63 BC-330AD
- Early Roman Period (Herodian Period) (New Testament Period) 63 BC-70AD
- Middle Roman Period (Yavne Period) 70-135AD
- Late Roman Period (Mishnaic Period) 135-200AD
- Late Roman Period (Talmudic Period) 200-330AD
- Byzantine Period 330-638AD
- ISLAMIC PERIOD
- Arab Caliphate Period 638-1099AD
- Umayyad Period 638-750AD
- Abbasid Period 750-1099AD
- Crusader Period 1099-1244AD
- Kingdom of Jerusalem Period 1099-1187AD
- Ayyubid Period 1187-1244AD
- (Mamluk Period 1244-1291AD)
- Mamluk Period 1244-1517AD
- Ottoman Period 1517-1917AD
- MODERN PERIOD
- British Mandate Period 1917-1948AD
- Israeli Period 1948-Present
Neolithic period
The Neolithic period appears to have begun when the peoples of the
Natufian cultureThe Natufian culture existed in the Mediterranean region of the Levant. It was a Mesolithic culture, but unusual in that it was sedentary, or semi-sedentary, before the introduction of agriculture. The Natufian communities are possibly the ancestors of the builders of the first Neolithic...
, which spread across present-day
SyriaSyria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south and Israel to the southwest....
,
PalestinePalestine is a conventional name used, among others, to describe a geographic region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, and various adjoining lands.As a geographical term, Palestine can also refer to 'ancient Palestine,' an area...
,
IsraelIsrael officially the State of Israel , is a developed state in Western Asia located on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. It borders Lebanon in the north, Syria in the northeast, Jordan in the east, and Egypt on the southwest, and contains geographically diverse features within its...
and
LebanonLebanon , officially the Republic of Lebanon
[Republic of Lebanon is the most common term used by Lebanese government agencies...]
, began to practice agriculture. This
Neolithic RevolutionHowever, the Neolithic Revolution involved far more than the adoption of a limited set of food-producing techniques. During the next millennia it would transform the small, mobile and fairly egalitarian groups of hunter-gatherers that had hitherto dominated human history, into sedentary societies...
has been linked to the cold period known as the
Younger DryasThe Younger Dryas stadial, named after the alpine/tundra wildflower Dryas octopetala, and also referred to as the Big Freeze, was a geologically brief cold climate period following the Bølling/Allerød interstadial at the end of the Pleistocene between approximately 12,800 to 11,500 years ago, and...
. This agriculture in the
LevantThe Levant describes, traditionally, the Eastern Mediterranean at large, but can be used as a geographical term that denotes a large area in Western Asia formed by the lands bordering the eastern shores of the Mediterranean, roughly bounded on the north by the Taurus Mountains, on the south by...
is the earliest known to have been practiced.
Late Bronze Age
The Late Bronze Age is characterized by individual city-states, which from time to time were dominated by
EgyptEgypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Western Asia...
until the last invasion of Egypt by Merenptah in 1207 BCE. The
Amarna LettersThe Amarna letters are an archive of correspondence on clay tablets, mostly diplomatic, between the Egyptian administration and its representatives in Canaan and Amurru during the New Kingdom...
are an example of a specific period during the Late Bronze Age when the vassal kings of the Levant corresponded with their overlords in Egypt
Israelite period
There has been a great deal of interest among archaeologists and lay people as to whether the archaeological evidence in this period confirms or denies the historical accounts in the
Hebrew BibleThe Hebrew Bible is a term referring to the books of the Jewish Bible as originally written mostly in Biblical Hebrew with some Biblical Aramaic...
. Over the past thirty years, some archaeologists have led an effort to divorce archaeology in Israel from the biblical texts. Reflecting the change in biblical studies from historical reconstruction to textual criticism, the archaeology has become more sociological and processual and less a search for the
realiaRealia is a term used in library science and education to refer to certain real-life objects. In library classification systems, realia are objects such as coins, tools, and textiles that do not easily fit into the orderly categories of printed material. In education, realia are objects from real...
of biblical life. The earlier assumptions of people such as
AlbrightWilliam Foxwell Albright was an American archaeologist, biblical scholar, linguist and expert on ceramics. From the early twentieth century until his death, he was the dean of biblical archaeologists and the universally acknowledged founder of the Biblical archaeology movement...
and Wright who faithfully accepted the biblical events as history have now been seriously questioned. The work of the so-called "minimalists" such as
LemcheNiels Peter Lemche is a biblical scholar at the University of Copenhagen.-Biblical minimalism:Lemche is closely identified with the movement known as biblical minimalism, and "has assumed the role of philosophical and methodological spokesperson" for the movement...
,
ThompsonThomas L. Thompson is a biblical theologian associated with the movement known as the Copenhagen School. He was professor of theology at the University of Copenhagen from 1993 - 2009, lives in Denmark and is now a Danish citizen.-Background:Thompson obtained a B.A...
,
DaviesPhilip R. Davies is a biblical scholar with interests in Early Judaism, History of Ancient Israel, and the Dead Sea Scrolls. Davies has been labeled a biblical minimalist or member of the Copenhagen School....
and prominent Israeli archaeologists, have led to a re-examination of what we can really say we know about the period. Apart from certain externally attested events (e.g., siege of
LachishLachish was a town located in the Shephelah, or maritime plain of Philistia . This town was first mentioned in the Amarna letters as Lakisha-Lakiša . The Israelites captured and destroyed Lachish for joining the league against the Gibeonites Lachish was a town located in the Shephelah, or...
), the answer is very little. Other authors such as Jamieson-Drake and
Israel FinkelsteinIsrael Finkelstein is an Israeli archaeologist and academic. He is currently the Jacob M. Alkow Professor of the Archaeology of Israel in the Bronze Age and Iron Ages at Tel Aviv University and is also the co-director of excavations at Megiddo in northern Israel. Previously, he served as Director...
have suggested that the empires of David and Solomon never existed - Judah not being in a position to support an extended state until at least the start of the 8th century. (Nevertheless, Finklestein accepts the existence of King David and Solomon but doubts their
chronologyChronology is a chronicle or arrangement of events in their order of occurrence in time, such as a timeline. It is also "the determination of the actual temporal sequence of past events".Chronology is part of periodization...
, significance and influence as described in the Bible.)
The "minimalist" view suggests that the term "Israelite Period" is misleading, reflecting modern Israeli nationalistic sentiments rather than historical fact, and therefore carrying political connotations and implications, especially regarding the
Israeli-Palestinian conflictThe Israeli–Palestinian conflict is an ongoing dispute between Israel and the Palestinians. It forms part of the wider Arab–Israeli conflict. The term is also used in reference to the earlier phases of the same conflict, between Zionist halutzim and the Arab population living in Palestine under...
. This view criticizes
historical revisionismWithin historiography, that is part of the academic field of history, historical revisionism is the reinterpretation of orthodox views on evidence, motivations, and decision-making processes surrounding a historical event...
as a tool in promoting the Israeli side of that dispute. However, the minimalists have also been accused of historical revisionism in promoting the Palestinian side of the dispute.
Despite an on-going debate of the issue, the prevailing view still holds that the Bible is not wholly a work of fiction, and that the Israelite Archaeological Period corresponds (through its artifacts) with some major Biblical events and figures.
The non-"minimalist" archaeologists do not claim that all or even most of the Bible is historically accurate, merely that the Bible reflects, at the very least, the spiritual culture of the Israelites in the 1200–539 BCE period. They claim that some of the major non-
supernaturalThe term supernatural or supranatural pertains to an order of existence beyond the scientifically visible universe. Religious miracles are typically supernatural claims, as are spells and curses, divination, the belief that there is an afterlife for the dead, and innumerable others...
Biblical story elements correspond to physical artifacts and other archaeological findings. Examples include mention of the Hebrew Kingdoms of David and Solomon in inscriptions that were traced to non-Hebrew cultural origin, as well as the
Dead Sea ScrollsThe Dead Sea scrolls consist of about 900 documents, including texts from the Hebrew Bible, discovered between 1947 and 1956 in eleven caves in and around the Qumran Wadi near the ruins of the ancient settlement of Khirbet Qumran, on the northwest shore of the Dead Sea.The texts are of great...
and House of David inscription, both found in Israel. Much of the debate remains centered on the chronology of the events.
This period marks the weakening of regional empires and the strengthening of local powers such as
IsraelThe Kingdom of Israel ) was one of the successor states to the older United Monarchy . It existed roughly from the 930s BC until about the 720s BC, when the kingdom was conquered by the Assyrian Empire...
,
JudahThe Kingdom of Judah existed at two periods in Jewish history. According to the Hebrew Bible, a kingdom emerged in Judah after the death of Saul, when the tribe of Judah elevated David, who came from the Tribe of Judah, to rule over it. After seven years David became king of a reunited Kingdom of...
and the kingdom of the
PhilistinesThe Philistines were a people who occupied the southern coast of Canaan, their territory being named Philistia in later contexts. Their origin has been debated among scholars...
. During this period, settlement of Israel led to the foundation of the
Kingdom of IsraelThe Kingdom of Israel ) was one of the successor states to the older United Monarchy . It existed roughly from the 930s BC until about the 720s BC, when the kingdom was conquered by the Assyrian Empire...
and the
Kingdom of JudahThe Kingdom of Judah existed at two periods in Jewish history. According to the Hebrew Bible, a kingdom emerged in Judah after the death of Saul, when the tribe of Judah elevated David, who came from the Tribe of Judah, to rule over it. After seven years David became king of a reunited Kingdom of...
. Much of the spiritual (although not necessarily chronological/historical) content of this period is described in the
Old TestamentIn Christianity, the Old Testament is the collection of books that form the first of the two-part Christian Biblical canon. These works correspond to the Hebrew Bible , with some variations and additions. In the Eastern Orthodox Church the comparable texts are known as the Septuagint, from the...
. Later in the period, the
AssyriaAssyria was a civilization centered on the Upper Tigris river, in Mesopotamia , that came to rule regional empires a number of times in history. It was named for its original capital, the ancient city of Assur...
n and Babylonian empires put an end to the Kingdoms of Judah and Israel, culminating in the destruction of the First Temple by the Babylonians in 586 BCE.
The Israelite period is characterized by large numbers of urban dwellings and a new local culture. The rich and diverse archaeological findings attest to strong international links and trade relations. The abundance of writings found indicate a broad distribution of knowledge among common people of ancient Israel and not just scribes, a unique phenomenon in the ancient world.
Persian period
Cyrus II of PersiaCyrus the Great , also known as Cyrus II of Persia and Cyrus the Elder, was the first Zoroastrian Persian Shāhanshāh...
conquered the Babylonian Empire by 539 BC and incorporated the entire area into the Persian Empire. Cyrus organized the empire into provincial administrations called
satrapSatrap was the name given to the governors of the provinces of ancient Median and Persian empires, including the Achaemenid Empire and in several of their heirs, such as the Sassanid Empire and the Hellenistic empires....
ies. The administrators of these provinces, called
satraps, had considerable independence from the emperor. The Persians allowed the Jews to return to the regions that the Babylonians had exiled them from.
The exiled Jews who returned to their traditional home encountered the Jews that had remained, surrounded by a much larger non-Jewish majority. One group of note (that exists up until this day) were the Samaritans, who adhered to most features of the Jewish rite and claimed to be descendants of the Assyrian Jews. For various reasons (at least some of which seem to be political) the returning exiles did not recognize the Samaritans as Jews. The return of the exiles from Babylon reinforced the Jewish population, which gradually became more dominant.
Hellenistic period
In the early 330s BC,
Alexander the GreatAlexander III of Macedon, popularly known as Alexander the Great , was an Ancient Greek king of Macedon who created one of the largest empires in ancient history...
conquered the region, beginning an important period of Hellenistic influence in Palestine. After Alexander's death in 323 BC, his empire was partitioned. The competing
PtolemaicPtolemaic Egypt began when Ptolemy I Soter declared himself Pharaoh of Egypt in 305 BC and ended with the death of queen Cleopatra of Egypt and the Roman conquest in 30 BC. The Ptolemaic Kingdom was a powerful Hellenistic state, extending from southern Syria in the east, to Cyrene to the west, and...
and
SeleucidThe Seleucid Empire was a Hellenistic empire, i.e. a successor state of Alexander the Great's empire. The Seleucid Empire was centered in the near East and at the height of its power included central Anatolia, the Levant, Mesopotamia, Persia, today's Turkmenistan, Pamir and parts of Pakistan...
Empires occupied various portions of the eastern Mediterranean. The Jews were divided between the
HellenistsHellenization is a term used to describe the spread of ancient Greek culture, and to a lesser extent, language. It is mainly used to describe the spread of Hellenistic civilization during the Hellenistic period following the campaigns of Alexander the Great of Macedon...
who supported the adoption of Greek culture, and those who believed in keeping to the traditions of the past, which led to the Maccabean revolt of the 2nd century BC.
Archaeology in Israeli culture
Many Israeli universities are involved in archaeological research, excavation, conservation and training.
Yigael YadinYigael Yadin was an Israeli archeologist, politician, and the second Chief of Staff of the Israel Defense Forces.-Early life and military career:...
,
Benjamin MazarBenjamin Mazar was a pioneering Israeli archaeologist who shared the national passion for the archaeology of Israel that also attracts considerable international interest due to the region's biblical links...
, Eleazar Sukenik, Leo Mayer, Michael Avi-Yonah, Nathan Avigad and
Israel FinkelsteinIsrael Finkelstein is an Israeli archaeologist and academic. He is currently the Jacob M. Alkow Professor of the Archaeology of Israel in the Bronze Age and Iron Ages at Tel Aviv University and is also the co-director of excavations at Megiddo in northern Israel. Previously, he served as Director...
are some of the leading names in Israeli archaeology.
Israeli-Arab conflict
Nineteenth-century Zionism was founded on the belief that Jews had lived in the land of "Israel" (a name found only in the bible by that time) for at least 3,000 years, and that the migration of European Jews was thus a return to an ancestral homeland. The role of early Zionist and then Israeli archaeology was thus to assist in creating a sense of national identity: its most wide-ranging expression in the post-World War I era was the joint project of the Jewish Palestine Exploration Society and the Va‘adat Shemot (Names Committee) to rename Arab Palestine according to the template of biblical Israel, replacing all Arabic place-names with Jewish names. Today this attitude, while present in the wider Israeli community (both secular and religious), finds its most vehement expression in the settler movement, which justifies its encroachments on Palestinian lands with the argument (inter alia) that God's promise of the “Land of Israel” to Abraham, provides the Jews a “divine right” to Judea and Samaria. Israeli (and Jewish) scholar
Nachman Ben-YehudaNachman Ben-Yehuda is a professor and former dean of the department of sociology and anthropology at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Israel....
, quoting Y. Shavit, lists the following aspects of archaeology that have been placed in the service of Zionism: (1) confirming the essence of the biblical narrative; (2) proving the continuity of Jewish settlement in Israel as well as its size; (3) “to emphasize the attitude of Jewish settlers to the land”; (4) emphasizing the practical side of life in the land; (5) providing the contemporary Jewish presence with a deep “structural-historical” meaning; and (6) “to provide the new Jewish presence with concrete symbols from the past which can be transformed into symbols of historical legitimization and presence.”
Some Palestinians have retaliated by arguing that they, and not the modern Jews, are the genuine descendants of the ancient inhabitants of the land. As a practical expression of these views the Palestinian Authority has repeatedly sought to demonstrate that the Israelites had no place in Jerusalem or on the Temple Mount in either the First and Second Temple periods, with results that have alarmed serious archaeologist: for example, renovations on the Temple Mount conducted by the Islamic Religious Authority, especially in the area adjoining and underlying the El-Aqsa Mosque, have dumped debris and fill without investigating for evidence of an ancient Israelite presence, and have contributed to the bulge in the southern wall of the Temple.
The political dispute has repercussions for scholars. Keith Whitelam's "The Invention of Ancient Israel: The Silencing of Palestinian History" (1996), for example, argues that not only have traditional biblical scholars constructed an imaginary “ancient Israel,” (i.e., one which owes its shape to an uncritical acceptance of the bible), they and some Israeli scholars have conspired to deprive the Palestinians of their history. Whitelam goes on to point out how Israeli archaeological surveys of the West Bank are also expressions of land claims by the contemporary Israeli settlers. The Israeli archaeologist
Israel FinkelsteinIsrael Finkelstein is an Israeli archaeologist and academic. He is currently the Jacob M. Alkow Professor of the Archaeology of Israel in the Bronze Age and Iron Ages at Tel Aviv University and is also the co-director of excavations at Megiddo in northern Israel. Previously, he served as Director...
, who conducted some of these surveys, has explicitly rejected the identification of the ancient inhabitants of the land as “proto-Israelites”, but Whitelam and others maintain that he has played into the hands of the present-day right-wing settler movement. On the other side of the debate, conservative scholars have accused Whitelam and other like him who question the historicity of the Old Testament of anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism.
Damage to archaeological sites
In 2000, the
Israel Antiquities AuthorityThe Israel Antiquities Authority [רשות העתיקות] is an independent Israeli governmental authority responsible for enforcing the 1978 Law of Antiquities by regulating excavation and conservation, and by promoting research.The current Director-General of the IAA is Shuka Dorfmann and its offices are...
(IAA) charged the
Sea of GalileeThe Sea of Galilee, also Lake of Gennesaret, Lake Kinneret or Sea of Tiberias , is the largest freshwater lake in Israel, being approximately 53 km in circumference, about 21 km long, and 13 km wide. The lake has a total area of 166 km², and a maximum depth of approximately...
Drainage Authority (KDA) with causing "serious and irreversible damage" to Gesher Bnot Ya'akov, a 780,000-year-old site on the banks of the
Jordan riverThe Jordan River or River Jordan is a river in Southwest Asia which flows into the Dead Sea. It is considered to be one of the world's most sacred rivers...
in northern Israel. First discovered in the 1930s, Gesher had been the site of several excavations that provided archaeologists with crucial information about how and when
Homo erectusHomo erectus is an extinct species of the genus Homo, which originated in Africa and spread as far as China and Java. Depending on the definition of the species, it is considered to be either a direct ancestor of modern humans, or a separate species which co-existed with the distinct Homo...
moved out of
AfricaAfrica is the world's second-largest and second most-populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area. With a billion people in 61 territories, it accounts for about 14.8% of the...
, most likely through the
LevantThe Levant describes, traditionally, the Eastern Mediterranean at large, but can be used as a geographical term that denotes a large area in Western Asia formed by the lands bordering the eastern shores of the Mediterranean, roughly bounded on the north by the Taurus Mountains, on the south by...
ine corridor that includes Israel. "One of the rarest prehistoric sites in the world," it featured a remarkable level of organic preservation that archaeologists had not encountered at any other contemporary site in
EuropeEurope is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian Sea, the Caucasus Mountains , and the Black Sea to the southeast...
or
AsiaAsia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.6% of the earth's total surface area and with approximately 4 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population.Asia is traditionally defined as part of the...
.
While the KDA had procured permission from the IAA to work in a limited area to alleviate the regular flooding of farmland in the adjacent Hula Valley under the supervision of an IAA inspector, bulldozers entered the site at night, damaging
fossilFossils are the preserved remains or traces of animals, plants, and other organisms from the remote past. The totality of fossils, both discovered and undiscovered, and their placement in fossiliferous rock formations and sedimentary layers is known as the fossil record...
remains, manmade stone
artifactsAn artifact or artefact is any object made or modified by a human. In archaeology, an artifact is an object recovered by some archaeological endeavor, which may have a cultural interest. Examples include stone tools such as projectile points, pottery vessels, metal objects such as buttons or guns,...
, and organic material. The damage at Bnot Ya'akov was not widely reported by the Israeli media and public. Gideon Avni, an IAA archaeologist said, "We tried to get the story on the front page of newspapers [...] But this is part of the sociology of Israel. The interest in
biblical archaeologyFor the movement associated with William F. Albright and also known as biblical archaeology, see Biblical archaeology school. For the interpretation of biblical archaeology in relation to biblical historicity, see The Bible and history....
is greater than that for earlier or later periods." Ofer Bar-Yosef, a Harvard pre-historian agreed, stating, "I am quite sure that i[f] this was a matter of a biblical- or a
ChristianA Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic, religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth, who Christians believe was the Messiah prophesied in the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible, and the Son of God.The term "Christian" is also used adjectivally to...
-period site, many more voices would have been raised in protest."
Ashkelon
Archaeological excavation in
AshkelonAshkelon or Ashqelon is a coastal city in the South District of Israel. The ancient seaport of Ashkelon dates back to the Bronze Age...
began in 1985, led by
Lawrence StagerLawrence "Larry" Stager, Dorot Professor of the Archaeology of Israel and head of the Harvard Semitic Museum in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at Harvard University has overseen excavations under the Leon Levy Expedition to Ashkelon, the great Philistine port city,...
The site contains 50 feet of accumulated rubble from successive
CanaanCanaan is an ancient term for a region encompassing modern-day Israel and Lebanon, the Palestinian Territories, plus adjoining coastal lands and parts of Jordan, Syria and northeastern Egypt...
ite, Philistine, Phoenician,
IranIran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran is a country in Western Asia. The name Iran has been in use natively since the Sassanid period and came into international use from 1935, before which the country was known internationally as Persia...
ian, Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine, Islamic, and
CrusaderThe Crusades were a series of religiously-sanctioned military campaigns waged by much of Latin Christian Europe, particularly the Franks of France and the Holy Roman Empire. The specific crusades to restore Christian control of the Holy Land were fought over a period of nearly 200 years, between...
occupation. Major findings include shaft graves of pre-Phoenician Canaanites, a Bronze Age
vaultA Vault is an architectural term for an arched form used to provide a space with a ceiling or roof. The parts of a vault exert a thrust that require a counter resistance. When vaults are built underground, the ground gives all the resistance required...
and ramparts, and a silvered bronze statuette of a
bull calfAppearances of the Bull in mythology and worship are widespread in the ancient world. It is the subject of various cultural and religious incarnations, as well as modern mentions in new age cultures.- Paleolithic findings :...
, assumed to be of the Canaanite period.
Beit Alfa
One of the earliest digs by Israeli archaeologists,
Beit AlfaBeit Alfa is a kibbutz in the Northern District of Israel, near the Gilboa ridge. The kibbutz was founded in 1922 by Hashomer Hatzair volunteers. In 1940 some of the members, affiliated with Hashomer Hatzair, moved to Ramat Yohanan kibbutz, in exchange for supporters of Mapai from Ramat Yohanan...
is the site of an ancient Byzantine-era synagogue, constructed in the fifth century CE, with a three-paneled mosaic floor. An
AramaicAramaic is a Semitic language with a 3,000-year history. It has been the language of administration of empires and the language of divine worship...
inscription states that the mosaic was made at the time of Justin (apparently
Justin IFlavius Iustinus , known in English as Justin I, was a Byzantine Emperor , who rose through the ranks of the Byzantine army and ultimately became its emperor, in spite of the fact he was illiterate and almost seventy-years-old at the time of accession...
), who ruled from 518 to 527 CE. The mosaic is one of the most important discovered in Israel. Each of its three panels depicts a scene - the
Holy ArkThe Torah ark or ark in a synagogue is known in Hebrew as the Aron Kodesh by the Ashkenazim and as the Hekhál amongst most Sefardim. It is generally a receptacle, or ornamental closet, which contains each synagogue's Torah scrolls...
, the
zodiacIn astronomy, the zodiac is the ring of constellations that lines the ecliptic, which is the apparent path of the Sun across the sky over the course of the year. The Moon and planets also lie within the ecliptic, and so are also within the constellations of the zodiac. In astrology, the zodiac...
, and the story of the sacrifice of
IsaacIsaac or Ishak ) was the only child of Abraham and Sarah, and the father of Jacob and Esau, described in the Hebrew Bible. He is regarded as one of the three patriarchs of the Jewish people...
. The zodiac has the names of the twelve signs in Hebrew. In the center is
HeliosIn Greek mythology the sun was personified as Helios Homer often calls him simply Titan or Hyperion, while Hesiod and the Homeric Hymn separate him as a son of the Titans Hyperion and Theia or Euryphaessa and brother of the goddesses Selene, the moon, and Eos, the dawn...
, the sun god, being whisked away in his
chariotThe chariot is the earliest and simplest type of carriage, used in both peace and war as the chief vehicle of many ancient peoples. Chariots were built in Mesopotamia by the Mesopotamians as early as 3000 BC and in China during the 2nd millennium BC. The original chariot was a fast, light, open,...
by four galloping horses. The four women in the corners of the mosaic represent the four
seasonA season is a division of the year, marked by changes in weather.Seasons result from the yearly revolution of the Earth around the Sun and the tilt of the Earth's axis relative to the plane of revolution...
s.
Carmel Caves
Misliya Cave, southwest of Mt. Carmel, has been excavated by teams of anthropologists and archaeologists from the Archaeology Department of the
University of HaifaThe University of Haifa is a university in Haifa, Israel.About 16,500 undergraduate and graduate students study in the university a wide variety of topics, specializing in social sciences, humanities, law and education. The University is broadly divided into six Faculties: Humanities, Social...
and
Tel Aviv UniversityTel Aviv University is a public university located in Ramat Aviv, Israel. In 2006, it had 29,000 students.-History:...
since 2001. In 2007, they unearthed artifacts indicative of what could be the earliest known Homo Sapiens. The teams uncovered hand-held stone tools and blades as well as animal bones, dating to 250,000 years ago, at the time of the
MousterianMousterian is a name given by archaeologists to a style of predominantly flint tools associated primarily with Homo neanderthalensis and dating to the Middle Paleolithic, the middle part of the Old Stone Age....
culture of Neanderthals in Europe. No human skeleton has yet been found.
Beit She'arim
Beit She'arimBeit She'arim , also known as Beth She'arim or Besara , is the archeological site of a Jewish town and necropolis. The site is part of the Beit She'arim National Park, which borders the town of Kiryat Tiv'on on the northeast and is located close to the modern moshav of Beit She'arim...
is an archeological site of a Jewish town and
necropolisA necropolis is a large cemetery or burial ground, usually including structural tombs. The word comes from the Greek νεκρόπολις - nekropolis, meaning "city of the dead"...
, near the town of Kiryat Tiv'on, 20 km east of
HaifaHaifa is the largest city in northern Israel, and the third-largest city in the country, with a population of over 264,900. Haifa has a mixed population of Jews and Arabs giving an example for peaceful co-existence. The Arab population used to be predominantly Christian, while some of the Jewish...
in the southern foothills of the Lower Galilee. Beth She'arim was excavated by
Benjamin MazarBenjamin Mazar was a pioneering Israeli archaeologist who shared the national passion for the archaeology of Israel that also attracts considerable international interest due to the region's biblical links...
and
Nahman AvigadDr. Nahman Avigad , born in Zawalow, Galicia , was an Israeli archaeologist.-Biography:...
in the 1930s and 1950s. Most of the remains date from the 2nd to 4th century CE and include the remains of a large number of individuals buried in the more than twenty catacombs of the necropolis. Together with the images on walls and
sarcophagiA sarcophagus is a funeral receptacle for a corpse, most commonly carved or cut from stone. The word "sarcophagus" comes from the Greek σαρξ sarx meaning "flesh", and φαγειν phagein meaning "to eat", hence sarkophagus means "flesh-eating"; from the phrase lithos sarkophagos the word came to refer...
, the inscriptions show that this was a Jewish necropolis.
Gath
Tell es-SafiGat or Gath 'Gath of the Philistines' was one of the five Philistine city-states, established in northwestern Philistia. According to the Bible, the king of the city was Achish, in the times of both David and Solomon. It is not certain whether this refers to two kings of this name or not...
/Gath is one of the largest pre-
ClassicalClassical antiquity is a broad term for a long period of cultural history centered on the Mediterranean Sea, comprising the interlocking civilizations of Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome collectively known as the Greco-Roman world...
sites in Israel, situated approximately halfway between
JerusalemJerusalem is the capital of Israel and its largest city in both population and area, with a population of 747,600 residents over an area of if disputed East Jerusalem is included...
and
AshkelonAshkelon or Ashqelon is a coastal city in the South District of Israel. The ancient seaport of Ashkelon dates back to the Bronze Age...
, on the border between coastal plain and the Judean foothils (
ShephelahThe Shephelah is a designation usually applied to the region in south-central Israel of 10-15 km of low hills between the central Mount Hebron and the coastal plains of Philistia within the area of the Judea, at an altitude of 120-450 metres above sea level...
). The site was settled from Prehistoric thru Modern times, and was of particular importance during the Bronze and Iron Ages, and during the Crusader period. The site is identified as Canaanite and Philistine Gath, and during the Iron Age was one of the five main cities (the
PentapolisA pentapolis, from the Greek words penta 'five' and polis 'city' is geographic and/or institutional grouping of five cities.-Significant historical cases:...
) of the
PhilistinesThe Philistines were a people who occupied the southern coast of Canaan, their territory being named Philistia in later contexts. Their origin has been debated among scholars...
. The site was excavated briefly in 1899 by the British archaeologists
Frederick Jones BlissFrederick Jones Bliss was an American archaeologist. After training under Flinders Petrie in Egypt, Bliss became involved with the Palestine Exploration Fund working in the field of Biblical archaeology at the site of Tell el-Hesi between 1894 and 1897, while cuncurrently leading an expedition...
and
Robert Alexander Stewart MacalisterRobert Alexander Stewart Macalister was an Irish archaeologist.Macalister was born in Dublin, Ireland and studied at Cambridge University. Although his earliest interest was in the archaeology of Ireland, he soon developed a strong interest in biblical archaeology. Along with Frederick J...
, and since 1996, by a team from
Bar-Ilan UniversityBar-Ilan University is a university in Ramat Gan, Israel. Established in 1955, Bar Ilan is now Israel's second largest academic institution. It has nearly 26,800 students and 1,350 faculty members...
directed by
Aren MaeirAren Maeir is a professor at Bar Ilan University and director of the Tell es-Safi/Gath Archaeological Project . Born in 1958 in Rochester, New York, USA, he moved to Israel in 1969 and has lived there since...
. Among the noteworthy finds from the ongoing excavations are the impressive late 9th cent. BCE destruction level (Stratum A3), apparently evidence of the destruction of Gath by
HazaelHazael was a court official and later an Aramean king who is mentioned in the Bible...
of
AramAram is the name of a region mentioned in the Bible located in central Syria, including where the city of Aleppo now stands.-History:...
(see II Kings 12:18), a unique
siegeA siege is a military blockade of a city or fortress with the intent of conquering by attrition or assault. The term derives from sedere, Latin for "to sit"....
system relating to this event that surrounds the site (the earliest known siege system in the world!), and a 10th/9th cent. BCE inscription written in archaic alphabetic script, mentioning two names of
Indo-EuropeanIndo-European may refer to:* Indo-European languages** Aryan, a 19th century term for Indo-European speakers.* Proto-Indo-European language, the reconstructed common ancestor of all Indo-European languages....
nature, somewhat reminiscent of the etymological origins of the name Goliath.
Gezer
Tel
GezerGezer was a town in ancient Israel. Scholars believe that Gezer is Tel Gezer , a site around midway on the route between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. Today the site is a national park in modern Israel....
is a strategically located archaeological site which sits on the western flank of the
ShephelahThe Shephelah is a designation usually applied to the region in south-central Israel of 10-15 km of low hills between the central Mount Hebron and the coastal plains of Philistia within the area of the Judea, at an altitude of 120-450 metres above sea level...
, overlooking the coastal plain of Israel, near the junction between
Via MarisVia Maris is the modern name for an ancient trade route, dating from the early Bronze Age, linking Egypt with the northern empires of Syria, Anatolia and Mesopotamia — modern day Iran, Iraq, Turkey and Syria....
and the trunk road leading to Jerusalem. The
telTell, tel , meaning "hill" or "mound", is a type of archaeological site in the form of an earthen mound that results from the accumulation and subsequent erosion of material deposited by long human occupation...
consists of two mounds with a saddle between them, spanning roughly 30 acres. A dozen inscribed boundary stones found in the vicinity verify the identification of the mound as Gezer, making it the first positively identified Biblical city. Gezer is mentioned in several ancient sources, including the
Hebrew BibleThe Hebrew Bible is a term referring to the books of the Jewish Bible as originally written mostly in Biblical Hebrew with some Biblical Aramaic...
and the
Amarna lettersThe Amarna letters are an archive of correspondence on clay tablets, mostly diplomatic, between the Egyptian administration and its representatives in Canaan and Amurru during the New Kingdom...
. The biblical references describe it as one of Solomon's royal store cities.. Gezer was excavated by R.A.S. Macalister in 1902 and 1907. Major findings include a soft
limestoneLimestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the mineral calcite . The deposition of limestone strata is often a by-product and indicator of biological activity in the geologic record...
tablet, named the
Gezer calendarThe Gezer calendar is a tablet of soft limestone inscribed in a "Phoenician" or what has been called paleo-Hebrew script. It is one of the oldest known examples of Hebrew writing, dating to the 10th century BCE. It was discovered in excavations of the ancient Canaanite city of Gezer, 50 km...
, which describes the agricultural chores associated with each month of the year. The calendar is written in
paleo-Hebrew scriptThe Paleo-Hebrew alphabet is an abjad offshoot of the ancient Semitic alphabet, identical to the Phoenician alphabet. At the very least it dates to the 10th century BCE...
, and is one of the oldest known examples of Hebrew writing, dating to the 10th century BCE. Also found was a six-chambered gate similar to those found at Hazor and Megiddo, and ten monumental megaliths.
Mamshit
MamshitMamshit is the Nabataean city of Memphis. In the Nabataean period, Mamshit was important because it sat on Incense Road, on the route from the Idumean Mountains to the Arabah, which passed through Ma'ale Akrabim and continued on to Beer-Sheva or to Hebron and Jerusalem. The city covers and is the...
, the Nabatean city of Memphis (also known as Kurnub in Arabic), was declared a world heritage site by UNESCO on June 2005. The archaeological excavation at Mamshit uncovered the largest hoard of coins ever found in Israel : 10500 silver coins in a bronze jar, dating to the 3rd century CE. Among the Nabatean cities found in the Negev (
AvdatAvdat , also known as Ovdat or Obodat was the most important historic city on the "Perfume Road" after Petra between the 7th century BCE and the 1st century BCE. It was inhabited by Nabataeans, Romans and Byzantines...
,
HaluzaHaluza, also known as Halasa and Elusa, is a city in the Negev that was once part of the Nabataean Incense Route. Due to this historic importance, UNESCO have granted four cities in the Negev the joint status of a World Heritage Site; Haluza is one of these, the others being Mamshit, Avdat, Shivta...
,
ShivtaShivta or Sobota or Subeitah or Subaytah , is an archaeological site in the Negev Desert of Israel, east of Nitzana. Until 1948, there was a Palestinian village of the same name, Subaytah, south of the archaeological site, which is now the Israeli Artillery Corps main training facility.Long...
) Mamshit is the smallest (10 acres), but the best preserved and restored. Entire streets have survived intact, and numerous Nabatean buildings with open rooms, courtyards, and terraces have been restored. Most of the buildings were built in the late Nabatean period, in the 2nd century CE, after the Nabatean kingdom was annexed to Rome in 106 CE.
Masada
A UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2001,
MasadaMasada is the name for a site of ancient palaces and fortifications in the South District of Israel on top of an isolated rock plateau, or large mesa, on the eastern edge of the Judean Desert overlooking the Dead Sea...
is the site of ancient palaces and fortifications in the South District of Israel on top of an isolated rock plateau, or large
mesaA mesa is an elevated area of land with a flat top and sides that are usually steep cliffs. It takes its name from its characteristic table-top shape. It is a characteristic landform of arid environments, particularly the southwestern United States...
, on the eastern edge of the Judean Desert overlooking the Dead Sea. According to
JosephusJosephus , also known as Yosef Ben Matityahu and, after he became a Roman citizen, as Titus Flavius Josephus, was a first-century Jewish historian and apologist of priestly and royal ancestry who survived and recorded the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70...
, a first-century Jewish-Roman historian,
Herod the GreatHerod , also known as Herod I or Herod the Great Herod , also known as Herod I or Herod the Great Herod , also known as Herod I or Herod the Great (born 74 BC, died 4 BC in Jericho, was a Roman client king of Israel. He is often confused...
fortified Masada between 37 and 31 BCE as a refuge for himself in the event of a revolt. Josephus also writes that in 66 CE, at the beginning of the First Jewish-Roman War against the Roman Empire, a group of Judaic extremist rebels called the
SicariiSicarii is a term applied, in the decades immediately preceding the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 CE, to an extremist splinter group to the Jewish Zealots, who attempted to expel the Romans and their partisans from Judea.-History:The Sicarii used stealth tactics to obtain their...
took Masada from the Roman garrison stationed there. The site of Masada was identified in 1842 and extensively excavated between 1963 and 1965 by an expedition led by Israeli archeologist Yigael Yadin. Due to the remoteness from human habitation and the arid environment, the site has remained largely untouched by humans or nature during the past two millennia. Many of the ancient buildings have been restored, as have the wall-paintings of Herod's two main palaces, and the Roman-style bathhouses that he built. A synagogue thought to have been used by the Jewish rebels has also been identified and restored. Inside the synagogue, an
ostraconAn ostracon is a piece of pottery , usually broken off from a vase or other earthenware vessel. In archaeology, ostraca may contain scratched-in words or other forms of writing which may give clues as to the time when the piece was in use...
bearing the inscription
me'aser kohen ("tithe for the priest") was found, as were fragments of two scrolls. Also found were eleven small ostraca, each bearing a single name. One reads "ben Yair" and could be short for Eleazar ben Yair, the commander of the fortress. Excavations also uncovered the remains of 28 skeletons. Carbon dating of textiles found in the cave indicate they are contemporaneous with the period of the Revolt. The remnants of a Byzantine church dating from the 5th and 6th centuries CE, have also been excavated on the top of Masada.
Old City of Acre
A UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2001, Acre's Old City has been a site of vast archeological excavations and preservations of ancient structures since the 1990s. The major find has been an underground passageway leading to a 13th century CE fortress of the
Knights TemplarThe Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon , commonly known as the Knights Templar or the Order of the Temple , were among the most famous of the Western Christian military orders...
. The excavated remains of the Crusader town, dating from 1104 to 1291 CE, are well preserved, and are on display above and below today's street level.
Rehov
RehovRehov is an archaeological site, an important Bronze- and Iron Age Canaanite city built upon Tel Rehov a large earthen city mound in the Jordan Valley in Israel, approximately 5 km south of Beit She'an and 3 km west of the Jordan River...
is an important Bronze and Iron Age archaeological site approximately five kilometers south of Beit She'an and three kilometers west of the Jordan River. The site represents one of the largest ancient city mounds in Israel, its surface area comprising 120,000 m² in size, divided into an "Upper City" (40,000 m²) and a "Lower City" (80,000 m²). Archaeological excavations have been conducted at Rehov since 1997, under the directorship of Amihai Mazar. The first eight seasons of excavations revealed successive occupational layers from the Late Bronze Age and Iron Age I (12th - 11th centuries BCE). The Iron Age II levels of the site have emerged as a vitally important component in the current debate regarding the chronology of the
United MonarchyThe united Kingdom of Israel was a kingdom in the Land of Israel according to the Bible, a period referred to by scholars as the United Monarchy.-Background:...
of Israel. In September 2007, 30 intact beehives dated to the mid-10th century BCE to the early 9th century BCE were found. The beehives are evidence of an advanced honey-producing beekeeping (apiculture) industry 3000 years ago in the city, then thought to have a population of about 2000. The beehives, made of straw and unbaked clay, were found in orderly rows of 100 hives. Organic material (wheat found next to the beehives) was dated using carbon-14 radiocarbon dating at the
University of GroningenThe University of Groningen , located in the city of Groningen, was founded in 1614. It is one of the oldest universities in the world and one of the largest universities in the Netherlands. Since its inception more than 100,000 students have graduated...
in the Netherlands. Also found alongside the hives was an altar decorated with fertility figurines.
Tel Arad
Tel AradTel Arad or 'old' Arad is located west of the Dead Sea, about 10km west of modern Arad in an area surrounded by mountain ridges which is known as the Arad Becken. The site is divided into a lower city and an upper hill which holds the only ever discovered 'House of Yahweh' in the land of...
is located west of the
Dead SeaThe Dead Sea is a salt lake in Jordan to the east and in the West Bank and Israel to the west. Its surface and shores are below sea level, the lowest elevation on the Earth's surface on dry land. The Dead Sea is deep, the deepest hypersaline lake in the world. It is also one of the world's...
, about ten kilometers west of modern
AradArad is a city in the South District of Israel. It is located on the border of the Negev and Judean Deserts, west of the Dead Sea and east of the city Beersheba. The city is home to a diverse population of 23,300, including Ashkenazi and Sephardi Jews, both secular and religious, Bedouins and...
. Excavations at the site conducted by Israeli archaeologist Yohanan Aharoni in 1962 have unearthed an extensive early Bronze Age settlement that was completely deserted and destroyed by 2700 BCE. The site was then apparently deserted until a new settlement was founded on the southeastern ridge of the ancient city during the Iron Age II. The major find was a garrison-town known as 'The Citadel', constructed in the time of King David and Solomon. An
IsraeliteIn the Bible, the Israelites were the descendants of the Biblical patriarch Jacob. They were divided into twelve tribes, each descended from one of twelve sons or grandsons of Jacob....
temple, the earliest ever to be discovered in an excavation, dates back to the mid-10th century BCE. Among the artifacts unearthed at the site are ostraca dating to the mid-7th century BCE, one of which refers to the "House of Yahweh", which is thought to be the only direct reference to the Temple at Jerusalem in a Hebrew inscription. New excavations on the upper hill and within the temple began in 2005 by archaeologist Yehuda Goverin.
Tel Be'er Sheva
A UNESCO World Heritage site since 2005,
Tel Be'er ShevaTel Be'er Sheva is an archeological site in southern Israel believed to be the remains of the biblical town of Be'er Sheva The modern town of Beersheba is situated west of the tel. The Bedouin town of Tel Sheva lies to the east....
is an archaeological site in southern Israel, believed to be the remains of the biblical town of Be'er Sheva. Archaeological finds indicate that the site was inhabited from the Chalcolithic period, around 4000 BCE, to the sixteenth century CE. This was probably due to the abundance of
underground waterAn aquifer is an underground layer of water-bearing permeable rock or unconsolidated materials from which groundwater can be usefully extracted using a water well. The study of water flow in aquifers and the characterization of aquifers is called hydrogeology...
, as evidenced by the numerous wells in the area. Excavated by Yohanan Aharoni and
Ze'ev HerzogZe’ev Herzog is an Israeli archeologist, professor of archaeology at The Department of Archaeology and Ancient Near Eastern Cultures at Tel Aviv University...
of Tel Aviv University, the settlement itself is dated to the early Israelite period. Probably populated in the 12th century BCE, the first fortified settlement dates to 1000 BCE. The city was likely destroyed by
SennacheribSennacherib Sennacherib Sennacherib (Akkadian Sîn-ahhī-erība ("(Moon god) Sîn has replaced (lost) brothers for me") was the son of Sargon II, whom he succeeded on the throne of Assyria (704 – 681 BC).- Rise to power :...
in 700 BCE, and after a habitation hiatus of three hundred years, there is evidence of remains from the Persian, Hellenistic, Roman and Early Arab periods. Major finds include an elaborate water system and a huge
cisternA cistern is a receptacle for holding liquids, usually water. Often cisterns are built to catch and store rainwater...
carved out of the rock beneath the town, and a large horned
altarAn altar is any structure upon which offerings such as sacrifices and votive offerings are made for religious purposes, or some other sacred place where ceremonies take place. Altars are usually found at a shrines, and they can be located in temples, churches and other places of worship...
which was reconstructed using several well-dressed stones found in secondary use in the walls of a later building. The altar attests to the existence of a temple or
cultCult may popularly refer to a religious group with relatively few adherents whose beliefs or practices are regarded by others as strange or sinister.The term "cult" was originally used to denote a system of ritual practices...
center in the city which was probably dismantled during the reforms of King Hezekiah.
Tel Dan
Tel DanTel Dan , also known as Tel el-Qadi , is an archaeological site in Israel in the upper Galilee next to the Golan Heights...
, previously named Tell el-Qadi, is a mound where a city once stood, located at the northern tip of modern-day Israel. Finds at the site date back to the Neolithic era circa 4500 BCE, and include 0.8 meter wide walls and pottery shards. The most important find is the
Tel Dan SteleThe Tel Dan Stele is a black basalt stele discovered during excavations at Tel Dan in northern Israel. It was erected by an Aramaean king and contains an Aramaic inscription commemorating victories over local ancient peoples including "Israel" and the "House of David." Its author is unknown, but...
, a black basalt
steleA stele is a stone or wooden slab, generally taller than it is wide, erected for funerals or commemorative purposes, most usually decorated with the names and titles of the deceased or living — inscribed, carved in relief A stele ' onMouseout='HidePop("13352")' href="http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Davidic_line">house of David
The Davidic line refers to the tracing of lineage to the King David referred to in the Hebrew Bible, as well as the New Testament...
". Proponents of that reading argue that it is the first time that the name "David" has been recognized at any archaeological site, lending evidence for the Bible account of David's kingdom. Others read the Hebrew letters 'דוד' as "beloved," "uncle" "kettle," or "a god named Dod," (all of which are possible readings of vowel-less Hebrew), and argue this is not a reference to Biblical David.
Tel Hazor
A UNESCO World Heritage site since 2005, Tel Hazor has been excavated repeatedly since 1955. Findings include an ancient Canaanite city, which experienced a catastrophic fire in the sometime in the 13th century BCE. The date and causes of the violent destruction of Canaanite Hazor have been an important issue ever since the first excavations of the site. One school, represented by Yigael Yadin, Yohanan Aharoni, and Amnon Ben-Tor, dates the destruction to the later half of the 13th century, tying it to biblical descriptions in Joshua which hold the Israelites as responsible for this event. The second school, represented by Olga Tufnell,
Kathleen KenyonDame Kathleen Mary Kenyon , was a leading archaeologist of Neolithic culture in the Fertile Crescent. She is best known for her excavations in Jericho in 1952-1958.-Biography:...
, P. Beck and M. Kochavi, and Israel Finkelstein, tends to support an earlier date in the first half of the 13th century, in which case, there is no necessary connection between the destruction of Hazor and the process of Israelite Tribes settlement in Cannan. Other findings at the site include a distinctive six chambered gate dating to the Early Iron Age, and pottery features as well as administration buildings dating to either the 10th century under Solomon or, on a lowered chronology, the Omrides in the 9th century.
Tel Megiddo
A UNESCO World Heritage site since 2005, Tel Megiddo is composed of twenty-six stratified layers of the ruins of ancient cities in a strategic location at the head of a pass through the
Carmel Ridge, which overlooks the Valley of Jezreel from the west. Megiddo has been excavated three times. The first excavations were carried out between 1903 and 1905 and a second expedition was carried out in 1925. During these excavation it was discovered that there were twenty levels of habitation, and many of the remains uncovered are preserved at the
Rockefeller MuseumThe Rockefeller Museum, formerly the Palestine Archaeological Museum, is an archaeological museum located in East Jerusalem that houses a large collection of artifacts unearthed in the excavations conducted in Palestine beginning in the late 19th century...
in Jerusalem and the Oriental Institute of the
University of ChicagoThe University of Chicago is a private, coeducational research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by oil magnate and benefactor John D...
. Yigael Yadin conducted a few small excavations in the 1960s. Since 1994, Megiddo been the subject of biannual excavation campaigns conducted by The Megiddo Expedition of Tel Aviv University, directed by Israel Finkelstein and
David UssishkinDavid Ussishkin is an Israeli archaeologist. Now retired as Professor of Archaeology at Tel Aviv University, Ussishkin has directed and co-directed important excavations at a variety of sites, including Lachish, Jezreel and Megiddo.- Bulldozer use :...
, together with a consortium of international universities. A major find from digs conducted between 1927 and 1934 were the Megiddo Stables – two tripartite structures measuring 21 meters by 11 meters, believed to have been ancient stables capable of housing nearly 500 horses.
Tzippori
Excavations in
TzipporiTzippori , also known as Sepphoris, Dioceserea and Saffuriya is located in the central Galilee region, north-northwest of Nazareth, in modern-day Israel...
, in the central Galilee region, six kilometers north-northwest of
NazarethNazareth is the capital and largest city in the North District of Israel. Known as "the Arab capital of Israel," the population is made up predominantly of Palestinian Arab citizens of Israel...
, have uncovered a rich and diverse historical and architectural legacy that includes Assyrian, Hellenistic, Judean, Babylonian, Roman, Byzantine, Islamic, Crusader, Arabic and Ottoman influences. The site is especially rich in mosaics belonging to different periods. Major findings include the remains of a 6th century synagogue, evidence of an interesting fusion of Jewish and pagan beliefs. A Roman villa, considered the centerpiece of the discoveries, which dates to the year 200 CE, was destroyed in the
Galilee earthquake of 363The Galilee earthquake of 363 was a severe earthquake that shook the Galilee and nearby regions in 363 CE.-Impact:* Tzippori was severely damaged.* Nabratein and the Nabratein synagogue were destroyed.....
CE. The mosaic floor was discovered in August 1987 during an expedition led by Eric and Carol Meyers, of
Duke UniversityDuke University is a private research university located in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day town of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892...
digging with Ehud Netzer, a locally trained archaeologist from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.. It depicts
DionysusIn classical mythology, Dionysus or Dionysos is the god of wine, the inspirer of ritual madness and ecstasy, and a major figure of Greek mythology, and one of the twelve Olympians, amongst whom Greek mythology treated him as a late arrival...
, the god of wine, socializing with
PanPan , in Greek religion and mythology, is the companion of the nymphs, god of shepherds and flocks, of mountain wilds, hunting and rustic music. His name originates within the Greek language, from the word paein, meaning "to pasture". He has the hindquarters, legs, and horns of a goat, in the same...
and
HerculesHercules is the Roman name for the mythical Greek demigod Heracles, son of Zeus and the mortal Alcmena. Early Roman sources suggest that the imported Greek hero supplanted a mythic Italic shepherd called "Recaranus" or "Garanus", famous for his strength, who dedicated the Ara Maxima that became...
in several of the 15 panels. In its center is a life-like image of a young lady, possibly
VenusVenus is the second-closest planet to the Sun, orbiting it every 224.7 Earth days. The planet is named after Venus, the Roman goddess of love and beauty. After the Moon, it is the brightest natural object in the night sky, reaching an apparent magnitude of −4.6...
, which has been named "The
Mona LisaMona Lisa is a 16th century portrait painted in oil on a poplar panel by Leonardo da Vinci during the Italian Renaissance. The work is owned by the Government of France and is on the wall in the Louvre in Paris, France with the title Portrait of Lisa Gherardini, wife of Francesco del Giocondo...
of the
GalileeGalilee , is a large region in northern Israel which overlaps with much of the administrative North District of the country...
." Additional finds include a Roman theater on the northern slope of the hill, and the remains of a 5th century public building, with a large and intricate mosaic floor.
Archaeology of the Old City of Jerusalem
Heribert AdamHeribert Adam is professor emeritus of political sociology at Simon Fraser University, specializing in human rights, comparative racisms, peace studies, Southern Africa, and ethnic conflict. Originally from Frankfurt, Germany, he is a former president of the International Sociological Association's...
and
Kogila MoodleyKogila Moodley is a published academic and sociologist at the University of British Columbia, where she was the first holder of the David Lam Chair of Multicultural Studies...
write that both Jews and Muslims have rejected proposals to internationalize Jerusalem, insisting instead on exclusive
sovereigntySovereignty is the quality of having supreme, independent authority over a territory. It can be found in a power to rule and make law that rests on a political fact for which no purely legal explanation can be provided...
over the city. Exploring the differing claims, they highlight the writings of Neil Silberman, an Israeli archaeologist, who has demonstrated how legitimate archaeological research and preservation efforts have been exploited by both Palestinians and Israelis for partisan ends. Silberman submits that rather than attempting to understand "the natural process of
demolitionDemolition is the tearing-down of buildings and other structures, the opposite of construction. Demolition contrasts with deconstruction, which involves taking a building apart while carefully preserving valuable elements for re-use....
, eradication, rebuilding, evasion, and ideological reinterpretation that has permitted ancient rulers and modern groups to claim exclusive possession," archaeologists have instead become active participants in the battle over partisan memory. In his opinion, archaeology, a seemingly objective science, has exacerbated, rather than ameliorated the ongoing
nationalistNationalism is an ideology, a sentiment, a form of culture, or a social movement that focuses on the nation. It is a type of collectivism emphasizing the collective of a specific nation...
dispute. Silberman concludes: "The digging continues. Claims and counterclaims about exclusive historical 'ownership' weave together the random acts of violence of bifurcated collective memory." Adam and Moodley conclude their investigation into this issue by writing that, "Both sides remain prisoners of their mytholgized past."
An archaeological tunnel running the length of the western side of the
Temple MountThe Temple Mount , also known as Mount Moriah and by Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary , is a religious site in the Old City of Jerusalem. Due to its importance for Judaism and Islam it is one of the most contested religious sites in the world.The Temple Mount contains the holiest site in Judaism...
, as it is known to
JewThe Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...
s, or the Haram al-Sharif, as it is known to
MuslimIslam Islam Islam ( al-’islām,
[There are ten pronunciations of Islam in English, differing in whether the first or second syllable has the stress, whether the s is or , and whether the a is pronounced as in father, as in cat, or (when the stress is on the i) as in the a of sofa...]
s, became a serious point of contestation in 1996. The tunnel had been in place for about a dozen years, but open conflict broke out after the government of
Benjamin NetanyahuBenjamin "Bibi" Netanyahu is the current Prime Minister of Israel. He previously held the same position from June 1996 to July 1999 and is currently the Chairman of the Likud Party....
decided to open a new entrance to the tunnel from the
Via DolorosaThe Via Dolorosa is a street, in two parts, within the Old City of Jerusalem. Since the 18th century, it has been traditionally held to be the path that Jesus walked, carrying his cross, on the way to his crucifixion...
in the Muslim quarter of the Old City. Palestinians and the Islamic
WaqfA waqf is an inalienable religious endowment in Islam, typically denoting a building or plot of land for Muslim religious or charitable purposes...
authorities were outraged that the decision was taken without prior consultation. They claimed that the work threatened the foundations of the compound and those of houses in the Muslim quarter and that it was actually aimed at tunnelling under the holy compound complex to find remains of Solomon's Temple, similar to previous attempts undertaken by Jews in the 1980s. As a result, rioting broke out in Jerusalem and spread to the West Bank, leading to the deaths of 86 Palestinians and 15 Israeli soldiers.
Damage to archaeological sites
During the
1948 Arab-Israeli warThe 1948 Arab–Israeli War, known by Israelis as the War of Independence or War of Liberation and by Palestinians as the Catastrophe , was the first in a series of wars fought between the newly declared State of Israel and its Arab neighbours in the long-running Arab-Israeli conflict.The war...
, and throughout the period of Jordanian occupation of Jerusalem which ended in 1967, Jordanian authorities and military forces undertook a policy described by their military commander as "calculated destruction,", aimed at the Jewish Quarter in the Old City of Jerusalem. The Jordanian actions were described in a letter to the
United NationsThe United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and the achieving of world peace...
by Yosef Tekoa, Israel's permanent representative to the organization at the time, as a "policy of wanton vandalism, desecration and violation," which resulted in the destruction of all but one of 35 Jewish houses of worship. Synagogues were razed or pillaged. Many of them were demolished by explosives, and others subjected to ritual desecration, through the conversion to stables. . In the ancient historic Jewish graveyard on the
Mount of OlivesThe Mount of Olives is a mountain ridge in east Jerusalem with three peaks running from north to south. The highest, at-Tur, rises to 818 meters . It is named for the olive groves that once covered its slopes...
, tens of thousands of tombstones, some dating from as early as 1 BCE, were torn up, broken or used as flagstones, steps and building materials in Jordanian military installations. Large areas of the cemetery were levelled and turned into parking lots and gas stations.
The Old City of Jerusalem and its walls were added to the
List of World Heritage Sites in danger in 1982, after it was nominated for inclusion by
JordanJordan , officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, is a country in Western Asia spanning the southern part of the Syrian Desert down to the Gulf of Aqaba. Jordan shares borders with Syria to the north, Iraq to the northeast, Saudi Arabia to the east and south, the Gulf of Aqaba to the southwest,...
. Noting the "severe destruction followed by a rapid urbanization," UNESCO determined that the site met "the criteria
proposed for the inscription of properties on the List of World Heritage in Danger as they apply to both 'ascertained danger' and 'potential danger'."
Work carried out by the Islamic Waqf since the late 1990s to convert two ancient underground structures into a large new mosque on the Temple Mount/Haram al-Sharif damaged archaeological artifacts in
Solomon's StablesSolomon's Stables is the common name of an area located directly underneath the south eastern corner of the Temple Mount, an area where the bedrock falls away steeply from the level of the Temple Mount platform...
and
Huldah GatesThe Huldah Gates are the two sets of now-blocked gates in the south wall of the Temple Mount, which is also one of Jerusalem's Old City walls. The western set is a double arched gate , and the eastern is a triple arched gate...
areas. From October 1999 to January 2000, the Waqf authorities in Jerusalem opened an emergency exit to the newly renovated underground mosque, in the process digging a pit measuring and deep. The
Israel Antiquities AuthorityThe Israel Antiquities Authority [רשות העתיקות] is an independent Israeli governmental authority responsible for enforcing the 1978 Law of Antiquities by regulating excavation and conservation, and by promoting research.The current Director-General of the IAA is Shuka Dorfmann and its offices are...
(IAA) expressed concern over the damage sustained to Muslim-period structures within the compound as a result of the digging. Jon Seligman, a
Jerusalem DistrictThe Jerusalem District is one of six administrative districts of Israel. Its land area is 652 km²...
archaeologist told
Archaeology magazine that, "It was clear to the IAA that an emergency exit [at the Marwani Mosque] was necessary, but in the best situation, salvage archaeology would have been performed first." Seligman also said that the lack of archeological supervision "has meant a great loss to all of humanity. It was an archeological crime.".
Some Israeli archaeologists also charged that archaeological material dating to the First Temple Period (ca. 960-586 BC) was destroyed when the thousands of tons of ancient fill from the site were dumped into the
Kidron ValleyThe Kidron Valley is the valley on the eastern side of The Old City of Jerusalem which features significantly in the Bible...
, as well as into Jerusalem's municipal garbage dump, where it mixed with the local garbage, making it impossible to conduct archaeological examination. They further contended that the Waqf was deliberately removing evidence of Jewish remains. For example, Dr. Eilat Mazar told
YnetYnet is one of the most popular Israeli news websites. While it is owned and operated by Yediot Ahronot, the country's leading daily newspaper, most of the content is original work published on the website only, written by a semi-independent staff. Originally launched in both Hebrew and Arabic...
news that the actions by the Waqf were linked to the routine denials of the existence of the Jerusalem Temples by senior officials of the Palestinian Authority. She stated that, "They want to turn the whole of the Temple Mount into a mosque for Muslims only. They don't care about the artifacts or heritage on the site." However, Seligman and Gideon Avni, another Israeli archaeologist, told
Archaeology magazine that while the fill did indeed contain shards from the First Temple period, they were located in originally unstratified fill and therefore lacked any serious archaeological value.
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