Recent Archaeological Finds

[Shammu]

Archaeologists unearth proof of plot to kill Prophet Jeremiah
03/08/2008

Picture: The seal impression found in Jerusalem's ancient City of David.

Israeli archaeologists have unearthed a seal impression belonging to a minister of the biblical King Zedekiah, which dates back 2,600 years, during an archeological dig in Jerusalem's ancient City of David. The finding helps corroborate the story pertaining to the biblical minister's demand to have the prophet Jeremiah killed.

The seal impression, or bulla, with the name Gedalyahu ben Pashur, who served as minister to King Zedekiah (597-586 BCE) according to the Book of Jeremiah, was found completely intact just meters away from a separate seal impression of another of Zedekia's ministers, Yehukual ben Shelemyahu, which was unearthed three years ago.

Both ministers are mentioned in the Book of Jeremiah (Jeremiah 38 1-4) along with two other ministers when they came to King Zedekiah demanding the death of the prophet Jeremiah for preaching to the besieged city to surrender.

The impressions, measuring 1 cm in diameter each, were found among the debris of the destruction of the First Temple period, by an excavation team led by Prof. Eilat Mazar of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

The excavation at the history-rich City of David, which is located just outside the walls of the Old City near Dung Gate, has proven, in recent years, to be a treasure trove for archeologists.

"Only rarely do archeologists come across findings of significant figures in history, which help lift the dust of history and bring the biblical story to life in such a tangible way," Mazar said.

The letters are in ancient Hebrew and are very clearly preserved, Mazar added.

This is not the first time seals were unearthed at the City of David site. In 1982, the Israeli archeologist Yigal Shiloh discovered a cache of bullae in a nearby site, including one with the name of Gemaryahu ben Shaphan - mentioned in the Bible as a minister and scribe during the reign of King Jehoiakim (608-597 BCE).

The current dig is being conducted on behalf of the Shalem center, a Jerusalem research institute, and the right-wing City of David Foundation, and was carried out under the academic auspices of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Archaeologists unearth proof of plot to kill Prophet Jeremiah

[Shammu]

Cave in Jordan Said to Have Been Used by First Christians

Excavators in Rihab, northern Jordan, say they have uncovered a cave underneath a third-century church that they believe was used by the very first Christians between the years 33, about when Jesus was crucified, and 70 A.D., when Jerusalem was destroyed by the Romans. The cave contains a circular structure that may have been an apse, and the floor of the later church above contains a mosaic that refers to the “70 beloved by God and the divine”—a reference, the excavators say, to the first followers of Jesus, who went to that area of Jordan to flee persecution.

You can read several of the original news reports here: from the BBC, AFP (the French news agency) and MSNBC.

You can also view a number of photos of the cave and the church above it..


Even stronger criticism has now emerged. Two University of Toronto scholars argue that the excavators have misread the inscription in the church; they claim, from both a rereading of the inscription and from the architecture, that the church is significantly younger than do the excavators. They also say that the cave below gives no indication of having been used in the first century. For full details, read “The Oratory of St. George in Rihab: The Oldest Extant Christian Building or Just Another Byzantine Church?” (PDF).

To learn more about churches in the Holy Land during the first centuries of Christianity, read “Ancient Churches in the Holy Land” and “Inscribed ‘To God Jesus Christ," which describes what may be the very earliest church yet found in Israel. Both articles are from the BAS Library.

Cave in Jordan Said to Have Been Used by First Christians

[Shammu]

2 000 year-old find...

August 11 2008 at 07:29PM

Jerusalem - Archaeologists on an Israeli-German dig south of Jerusalem have uncovered a cache of 15 silver coins dating back 2 000 years and lying in a pot hidden in a pigeon hole.

Describing the find as "exciting", Professor Manfred Oeming, co-director of the excavations at Ramat Rahel, said on Monday that "if you are lucky, you can find a treasure like this (only) every 20 years".

Professor Oded Lipschits, the head of the dig, believes the pot was hidden in a hurry, around the time the Romans destroyed the Biblical temple in 70 AD and the owner of the coins possibly intended to return for them.

Jews commemorated the anniversary of the destruction of the Temple - on the ninth day of the Hebrew month of Av - on Sunday.

The dig at Ramat Rahel is in its fourth season. The team at the site also found 380 coins from the Byzantine period, the fourth and fifth century AD.

Ramat Rahel is located about halfway between Jerusalem's Old City and Bethlehem, on the border between modern Israel and the West Bank.

Archaeologists believe some sort of palace may have existed there around 700 BC, which may have served as an administrative office, a summer palace, or a palace for women.

In the 5th to 7th centuries AD the site houses a Byzantine church and monastry.

A kibbutz was founded on the site in 1926.

2 000 year-old find...

[Shammu]

Dead Sea Scrolls to be made available online
By Haaretz Service and News Agencies
27/08/2008

Israeli and American scientists are bringing the oldest known version of the Hebrew Bible into the 21th century. They're digitally reproducing the Dead Sea Scrolls online.

The ancient manuscripts containing almost the entire Hebrew Bible date back over 2,000 years. They are widely considered to be one of the most important archaeological finds ever. They were discovered accidentally by a Bedouin shepherd looking for a stray sheep in 1947.

The Antiquities Authority said Wednesday that reproducing the thousands of scroll fragments will take about five years.

Special imaging cameras are being used to record the priceless manuscripts without damaging them.

The IAA says its goal is to image the thousands of Scroll fragments in the State Collections in color and infra red using sophisticated digital cameras and placing them in an Internet data bank.

Among those aiding IAA staff are experts renowned worldwide for their work in imaging technologies, including an American scientist from NASA and specialists in digital photography and motion pictures.

Using powerful cameras and lights that emit no damaging heat or ultraviolet beams, scientists in Israel have been able to decipher sections and letters in the scrolls invisible to the naked eye.

The scrolls, most of them on parchment, are the oldest copies of the Hebrew Bible and include secular text dating from the third century BC to the first century AD.

A team of specialists has taken 4,000 pictures of some 9,000 fragments that make up the scrolls, which number 900 in total. A few large pieces of scroll are on permanent display at the Israel Museum.

"We are able to see the scrolls in such detail that no one has before," said Simon Tanner, a digital expert from King's College London, who is in charge of data collection.

Scientists hope the advanced imaging technology will also help them better preserve the scrolls by detecting any deterioration caused by humidity and heat.

The American space connection came through Greg Bearman, who recently retired as principal scientist for the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, an arm of the American NASA space agency. He offered the space-age imaging equipment.

"I am an acrchaeology buff," he told The Associated Press, and he brought imaging technology used in space to the Dead Sea Scrolls project. "This equipment is used to study planets," he said. "NASA uses the technology for imaging in space, and it works here."

A statement from the Antiquities Authority said the high-tech imaging would "improve the extent to which scientists can decipher the scrolls, using infrared photography that could appear to restore writing that faded over the centuries. Infrared technology was used to photograph all the findings in 1950, the statement said, but technology has advanced considerably since then."

"To protect the scrolls, the new imaging will be done in a setting that minimizes exposure to light," said Pnina Shor, an IAA official in charge of preserving ancient artifacts.

Dead Sea Scrolls to be made available online

[Shammu]

NASA Technology Illuminates Dead Sea Scrolls
 
by Hana Levi Julian

(IsraelNN.com) Scientists are using American space-age technology to bring to light the faded script on thousands of fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls, the oldest existing record of the Old Testament. Israeli authorities said experts will digitally photograph the scrolls and post them on the internet for the entire world to see.

The Israel Antiquities Authority unveiled the project Wednesday at a news conference in Jerusalem to mark the 60th anniversary of the discovery of the first Dead Sea scrolls. The scrolls were found in 1947 by a Bedouin shepherd near the ancient ascetic community of Qumran; some 2,000 years had elapsed from the time the pottery jugs containing the scrolls were placed in cool Judean Desert caves, until their chance rediscovery.

The technology developed by retired NASA scientist Dr. Greg Bearman, will also be used to monitor the scroll fragments on an ongoing basis for conservation purposes. But even more exciting is the expectation that it will reveal portions of the text that were invisible until now.

High-tech cameras using infrared photography are now being used to uncover sections of the 2,000-year-old scrolls that have faded over the centuries and become indecipherable, the Israeli Antiquities Authority said.

The project is expected to take about five years and the goal is to make the scrolls accessible to scientists and the general public, Antiquities Authority official Pnina Shor said.

"Now for the first time the scrolls will be a computer click away," said Shor, who heads the authority's department responsible for the conservation of artifacts. "This will ensure that the scrolls are preserved for another 2,000 years."

Experts have complained for years that only a small number of scholars have been allowed access to the scrolls and the thousands of fragments that were found in the caves near the Dead Sea. In recent years, steps have been taken to widen access, but many of the findings are still not properly identified and categorized.

Conservators have long been concerned with the scrolls’ preservation and documentation. In 1991 the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA), advised by leading experts in the conservation of manuscripts, parchment and papyrus, established a laboratory dedicated solely to the conservation of the Dead Sea Scrolls. 

NASA Technology Illuminates Dead Sea Scrolls

[Shammu]

With the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls and now with NASA-like technology being used to read these ancient manuscripts, the world can read the words of ancient Jewish prophets who prewrote human history which is being played out today.

Scientists and skeptics have for years complained about not being able to have access to the Dead Sea Scrolls. Israel's Antiquity Authority has put in place a five year project that will give all interested parties the opportunity to view all the Dead Sea Scrolls and study the message found in these ancient manuscripts. Uniquely, all the books of the Old Testament are a part of the collection of scrolls except the book of Esther and there are multiple copies of many of the prophetic books. These prophetic books layout God's plan for the Jewish people for the "last days".

Time will not allow me to recite all prophetic scenarios, but only two examples. For example, the scroll of Ezekiel speaks of an "end time" regathering of the Jewish people to the land of their forefathers, Ezekiel 34-37. Jeremiah's scroll speaks of a terrible time in the future for the Jews, but promises that God will deliver the Jews from the "Time of Jacob's Trouble", Jeremiah 30-33.

The Dead Sea Scrolls are tangible evidence of Bible prophecy.

[Shammu]

Israeli diggers uncover parts of ancient wall

Wed Sep 3, 4:35 PM ET

JERUSALEM - Israeli archaeologists say they have uncovered new sections of Jerusalem's ancient walls, continuing a project started more than a century ago.

Yehiel Zelinger of the Israel Antiquities Authority said Wednesday that he located two wall segments just south of the Old City. The project continues work begun in the 1890s by American archaeologist Frederick Bliss and his British assistant, Archibald Dickie. The two tunneled along the length of the ancient wall and marked its route.

The modern diggers found beer bottles, a lamp and a shoe that Bliss and Dickie's team left behind.

They also found part of a wall built by the Hasmonean dynasty 2,100 years ago, and another section built by Byzantine rulers five centuries later.

The find will help scholars accurately outline the borders of historical Jerusalem.

Israeli diggers uncover parts of ancient wall

[Shammu]

Ancient Capital of 'Jewish' Khazar Kingdom
4 Elul 5768, September 4, '08
by Ze'ev Ben-Yechiel

A team of archaeologists claims to have discovered remnants of the legendary Khazar kingdom in southern Russia, according to a recent report. If the findings by the Russian team, reported by the French agency AFP, prove to be indeed the long-lost capital of the reputed Jewish state, they would represent one of the largest breakthroughs in Jewish archaeology.

Click here to view the map

"This is a hugely important discovery," said the leader of the expedition, Dmitry Vasilyev. Vasilyev, from Astrakhan State University, made the comments after returning from the excavation site, located near the Russian village of Samosdelka, just north of the Caspian Sea. The location of the site corresponds roughly to the area in which historians believe the empire may have existed.

"We can now shed light on one of the most intriguing mysteries of that period - how the Khazars actually lived,” he added. “We know very little about the Khazars - about their traditions, their funerary rites, their culture.”

The Jewish University in Moscow and the Russian Jewish Congress helped finance the excavations, which took place during the summer in various locations throughout the region in which the discovery was made. The digs were overseen by a number of university professors, and roughly 50 students took part as well.

The Khazars were known to be a semi-nomadic Turkic people who dominated the Pontic steppe and the North Caucasus regions from the 7th to the 10th century CE. The origin of the Khazars and their apparent conversion to Judaism is the subject of major dispute among modern historians.

In the 7th century CE, the Khazars founded an independent khaganate, or kingdom, in the Northern Caucasus along the Caspian Sea. It is believed that during the 8th or 9th century, around the height of their kingdom, the state religion became Judaism at the order of the king. At this point, the Khazar khaganate and its tributaries controlled much of what is today southern Russia, western Kazakhstan, eastern Ukraine, Azerbaijan, large portions of the Caucasus (including Circassia, Dagestan, Chechnya, and parts of Georgia), and the Crimea.
The first Jewish Khazar king was named Bulan, which means "elk", though some sources give him the Hebrew name Sabriel. A later king, Obadiah, strengthened Judaism, inviting rabbis into the kingdom and building synagogues.

References to a Jewish kingdom of Khazars are numerous in rabbinic literature from the Middle Ages and later. Among them is the famous tale by Rabbi Yehuda HaLevy, related in his 12th-century work The Kuzari, which recounted the conversion of the Khazar king to Judaism resulting from a lengthy conversation with an unnamed Jewish “wise man.”

Among other Jewish sources supporting the Jewish identity of the Khazars is a letter written by Avraham ibn Daud, a renowned writer, who reported meeting rabbinical students from Khazar in Toledo, Spain in the mid-12th century. The well-renowned Schechter Letter recounts a different version of the conversion of the Khazar king, and mentions Benjamin ben Menachem as a Khazar king. Saadia Gaon, considered by many to be the greatest rabbi of his generation in the 10th century, also spoke favorably of Khazars in his writings.

The belief in a Jewish Khazar kingdom enjoyed wide belief in non-Jewish literature as well, including classical Muslim sources cited in modern times to demonstrate that the homeland of the Jews is in Khazar and not Israel.

The city Vasileyev claims to have found was referred to as Itil in Arab chronicles, which the archeologist said may actually be an Arabic reference to the Volga River, on which the city was founded, or to the river’s delta region.
Historical sources describe Itil as a city of unusual ethnic and religious tolerance and diversity. Travelers to the city described houses of worship and judges for Christians, Jews, Muslims and pagans.

Until now, however, remains of the city had never been identified, and many believed that in the intervening millennium since the demise of the Khazar empire in the 10th century, all signs of the city were washed away into the Caspian Sea.

Although archaeologists have been excavating in the area of Samosdelka for the past nine years, only now has Vasileyev’s team been able to claim findings conclusive enough to identify the site of the capital.  Among the discoveries his team has unearthed are the remains of an ancient brick fortress.

"Within the fortress, we have found huts similar to yurts, which are characteristics of Khazar cities,” said the researcher.  “The fortress had a triangular shape and was made with bricks. It's another argument that this was no ordinary city."

Ancient Capital of 'Jewish' Khazar Kingdom

[Shammu]

Wall dating to Second Temple unearthed
Sep. 3, 2008
Etgar Lefkovits , THE JERUSALEM POST

The remains of the southern wall of Jerusalem that was built by the Hasmonean kings during the time of the Second Temple have been uncovered on Mount Zion, the Antiquities Authority announced Wednesday.

The 2,100-year-old wall, which was destroyed during the Great Revolt against the Romans that began in 66 CE, is located just outside the present-day walls of the Old City and abuts the Catholic cemetery built in the last century where Righteous Gentile Oskar Schindler is buried.

The sturdy wall, which is believed to have run 6 km. around Jerusalem, was previously exposed by an American archeologist at the end of the 19th century, the state run archeological body said.

The Israeli archeologist who started the ongoing excavation a year-and-a-half ago also uncovered the remains of a city wall from the Byzantine Period (324-640 CE) that was built on top of the Second Temple wall at a time when ancient Jerusalem reached its largest size after its southward expansion.

"In the Second Temple period the city, with the Temple at its center, was a focal point for Jewish pilgrimage from all over the ancient world, and in the Byzantine period it attracted Christian pilgrims who came in the footsteps of the story of the life and death of their messiah," said Yehiel Zelinger, the excavation's director.

He said the builders of the Byzantine wall were unaware of the existence of the earlier structure, yet they placed their wall precisely along the same route due to its advantageous location for the defense of the city.

The Second Temple Period wall, which was built without mortar, was "amazingly" well-preserved today to the height of three meters, more than 2,000 years after it was constructed, Zelinger said.

He voiced the hope that the First Temple wall would be uncovered next.

The excavation was initiated as part of a plan to build a promenade along the southern side of Mount Zion.

The promenade, which is expected to become a major tourist attraction when it is completed in the next few years, will run alongside parts of the newly exposed ancient wall.

The ancient walls were found by cross-referencing the detailed plans and maps of an excavation carried out in the 1890s by the Palestine Exploration Fund under the direction of archeologist Frederick Jones Bliss and his assistant Archibald Dickie with updated maps of the area.

"We knew that the walls were here somewhere but we didn't know exactly where," Zelinger said.

During the dig, the Israeli archeologists also found "souvenirs" left behind by the 19th century excavators: a laborer's shoes, the top of a gas light that was used to illuminate the tunnels, and fragments of Czech beer and wine bottles from 120 years ago.

The site, which will be open the public in the coming years, will be accessible to visitors for a sneak preview late on Thursday afternoon ahead of an archeological conference being held that evening at the nearby City of David.

The dig was carried out with the financial support of the City of David Foundation, which aims to settle Jews throughout east Jerusalem.

"This is one of the most beautiful and complete sections of construction in the Hasmonean building style to be found in Jerusalem," Zelinger said.

Wall dating to Second Temple unearthed

[Shammu]

Jews Enter Rachel's Tomb by Car for First Time in Years
4 Elul 5768, September 4, '08
by Gil Ronen

(IsraelNN.com) It was a special and moving day at Rachel's Tomb, on the road between Bethlehem and Jerusalem. For the first time in almost eight years, Jews were allowed to enter the compound by private cars. After a month-long trial period, the authorities will assess whether or not to continue the new arrangement.

When the Oslo War broke out in 2000 and Rachel's Tomb began coming under fire from Arabs, the compound was fortified and private cars were not allowed in. From then on, visitors had to take a bulletproof bus from the Central Bus Station in Jerusalem to reach the holy site.

'By donkey, bicycle or horse'
Chaim Silverstein of the Rachel Imeinu Foundation said: "It's a great day for us today. We're not giving up until people will be able to access Rachel's Tomb by foot, by bicycle, by donkey, by horse, any way that they want to so they can visit our Mother Rachel."

Rabbi Menachem Porush said that "the most difficult thing for us is that Rachel our Mother was taken from us and was closed off by barriers and walls, while the essence of the location of the tomb is that it is on the way and accessible for everyone to come and pray. We must not stop working until all the walls are taken down."

Jews Enter Rachel's Tomb by Car for First Time in Years

[Shammu]

Prehistoric Funerary Precinct Excavated In Northern Israel

ScienceDaily (Sep. 2, 2008) — Hebrew University excavations in the north of Israel have revealed a prehistoric funerary precinct dating back to 6,750-8,500 BCE.

The precinct, a massive walled enclosure measuring 10 meters by at least 20 meters, was discovered at excavations being undertaken at Kfar HaHoresh. The Pre-Pottery Neolithic B site in the Nazareth hills of the lower Galilee is interpreted as having been a regional funerary and cult center for nearby lowland villages.

Prof. Nigel Goring-Morris of the Hebrew University's Institute of Archaeology, who is leading the excavations, says that the precinct is just one of the many finds discovered at the site this year – including remains of a fully-articulated, but tightly contracted 40 year old adult male.

Accompanying grave goods include a sickle blade and a sea shell, while a concentration of some 60 other shells were found nearby. The sea shells provide evidence for extensive exchange networks from the Mediterranean and Red Seas. Symbolic items include small plain or incised tokens. An entire herd of cattle was also found buried nearby.

While fertility symbols during this period are often associated with female imagery, at Kfar HaHoresh only phallic figurines have been found to date, including one placed as a foundation deposit in the wall of the precinct.

Exotic minerals found at the site include malachite from south of the Dead Sea, obsidian (natural volcanic glass) from central Anatolia, and a votive axe on serpentine from either Cyprus or northern Syria.

"Cultic artifacts, installations and their contextual associations attest to intensive ritual practices in the area," says Prof. Goring-Morris.

Burials at the site now total at least 65 individuals, and display an unusual demographic profile – with an emphasis on young adult males. Graves occur under or associated with lime-plaster surfaced L-shaped walled structures, and are varied in nature from single articulated burials through multiple secondary burials with up to 17 individuals. Bones in one had been intentionally re-arranged in what appears to be a depiction.

The Pre-Pottery Neolithic B, ca. 8,500-6,750 BCE, corresponds to the period when the first large village communities were established in the fertile regions of the Near East when a wide ranging cultural interaction sphere came into being throughout the Levant.

Prehistoric Funerary Precinct Excavated In Northern Israel

[Shammu]

prehistoric funerary precinct dating back to 6,750-8,500 BCE

While fertility symbols during this period are often associated with female imagery, at Kfar HaHoresh only phallic figurines have been found to date, including one placed as a foundation deposit in the wall of the precinct.

That would put it pre-flood. God doesn't bring down His wrath against the planet without serious provocation.

[Soldier4Christ]

Jerusalem dig uncovers ancient city walls

Israeli archaeologists unveiled on Wednesday a 2,100-year-old Jerusalem perimeter wall -- along with beer bottles left behind by 19th century researchers who first discovered the stone defences.

The wall, on Mount Zion at the southern edge of Jerusalem's Old City, dates back to the Second Jewish Temple, which was destroyed by the Romans in AD 70.

Yehiel Zelinger, who headed the excavation for the Israel Antiquities Authority, said the location of the wall indicated that Jerusalem had expanded to the south at the time, reaching its largest size in biblical times.

The 3.2-metre (10.5-foot)-high wall was not supported by any mortar or other bonding material and formed part of a 6 km (3.5-mile)-long fortification around the city, he said.

The present wall around Jerusalem's Old City is 4 km (2.5 miles) in circumference.

The ancient wall on Mount Zion had disappeared from view by the time a similar stone barrier, also uncovered in the dig, was built at the site during the Byzantine period more than 250 years later. Nonetheless, the second wall followed almost exactly the same path.

"During these two periods, Jerusalem was the centre ... to the Jews during the Second Temple Period and to pilgrims from the Christian world (during the Byzantine Period)," Zelinger said.

British archaeologists surveyed the site in the 19th century, leaving behind a shoe and beer and wine bottles, which Zelinger's team found and put on display on Wednesday.

[nChrist]

THANKS BROTHERS!

As usual, the articles are fascinating and indicate an escalation of important discoveries. They are important for the lost because they prove the absolute TRUTH of the Holy Bible. They are important for Christians because they strengthen our FAITH in the sure knowledge that GOD'S WORD is REAL. FAITH is a word most often used with things that can't be proven in scientific ways according to man's satisfaction. HOWEVER, we are watching many things in GOD'S WORD that are being proven in scientific ways. FAITH will still be FAITH because many men will ignore or discount the PROOF. I like the fact that many young Christians and Babes in CHRIST will look at the significance of these discoveries and simply say "YES!" A good analogy might be Doubting Thomas standing in the presence of the RISEN CHRIST! It turns out that there was a good reason for all recorded Biblical History in GOD'S WORD. If one is like a "Doubting Thomas", he or she can put it all together and SEE that the PROOF is there in the Holy Bible.

In FACT, there are countless PROOFS in the HOLY BIBLE! The HOLY BIBLE contains GOD'S Own PROOF that the HOLY BIBLE is HIS WORD! The HOLY BIBLE isn't JUST an amazing book and literary masterpiece, RATHER THE VERY WORD OF GOD HIMSELF!

Love In Christ,
Tom

Favorite Bible Quotes 172 - Hebrews 11:7 By faith Noah, being warned
of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to
the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and
became heir of the righteousness which is by faith.

[Soldier4Christ]

Archaeologists shed light on ancient Canaanite burial rituals
Team wraps up this year's dig in Sidon after uncovering several buildings, artifacts and graves

The British Museum's excavation team in Sidon on Wednesday declared the end of its mission for 2008 at the "Freres" excavation site near the southern port city's fortress.

"Sidon is a remarkable archaeological city where we have found that economics and religion are closely related," archaeology expert and field supervisor Claude Doumet Serhal told The Daily Star. "And for the first time, we have discovered ways of burying the dead during the Canaanite period i.e. 3, 0000 years B.C. and the accompanying ceremonial religious rituals."

According to Serhal, excavation works have lasted more than two months this year. "We have expanded our work for a better understanding of the historic era that goes back to 3,000 years B.C.," she added.

Serhal expressed her gratitude to the General Directorate of Antiquities and Sidon's archaeology office for providing "all what had been necessary for the team to accomplish its mission successfully."

"Our discoveries included eight rooms and 25 warehouses containing pottery and burnt wheat," she said.

"But what surprised us," she added, "was the discovery of melted bronze material which indicated that the old Bronze Age existed before the Canaanite period."

Serhal also said her team had unearthed 92 graves where children and teenagers were found buried in jars, in addition to warriors along with their spears, knives and arrows that dated to 2,000 years B.C.

"We have also discovered the old oven known as 'Tannour' and a pestle to grind cereals," she added. "Some of the ovens discovered contained bones of goats, birds and fish representing the gifts that had been offered for the dead at the time.

"The Freres site also included a four-meter-wide building of which we have discovered the ruins of five rooms so far, which were also related to the religious rituals of that period. Some 300 broken earthen plates and 600 lamps of the Canaanite period were also unearthed," she said.

According to Serhal, the excavation team could also prove the existence of commercial exchange between old Sidon, Egypt and Greece through the discovery of utensils with hieroglyphic inscription and the signature of Pharaoh Taousarat in addition to some Greek cups.

The British team has been working in Sidon for 10 years in coordination with the General Directorate of Antiquities and Sidon's archaeology office, the British Old House Institution, the Issam Fares Foundation, the National Cement Company of Sabaa, the Hariri Foundation, Sidon's school network and Byblos Bank.