Recent Archaeological Finds

[Soldier4Christ]

At Mideast holy site, what is treasure?

JERUSALEM -- Off an East Jerusalem side street, between an olive orchard and an abandoned hotel, sit a few piles of stones and dirt that are yielding important insights into Jerusalem's history.

They come from one of the world's most disputed holy places - the square in the heart of Jerusalem that is known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary.

The story behind the rubble includes an underground crypt, a maverick college student, a white-bearded archaeologist, thousands of relics spanning millennia and a feud between Israelis and Palestinians which is heavily shaped by ancient history.

Among finds that have emerged are a coin struck during the Jewish revolt against the Romans, arrowheads shot by Babylonian archers and by Roman siege machinery, Christian charms, a 3,300-year-old fragment of Egyptian alabaster, Bronze Age flint instruments, and - the prize discovery - the imprint of a seal possibly linked to a priestly Jewish family mentioned in the Old Testament's Book of Jeremiah.

And the finds keep coming. On a drizzly November morning, Gabriel Barkay, the veteran biblical archaeologist who runs the dig, sat in a tent near the mounds examining some newly discovered coins stamped by various Holy Land powers: the Hasmonean dynasty of Jewish kings more than 2,000 years ago, a Roman procurator around the time of Pontius Pilate, the early Christians of the Byzantine Empire, two Islamic dynasties and the British in the 20th century.

Considering the wealth of findings, it is odd, perhaps, that this is an excavation that was never supposed to happen.

Jews revere the Mount as the site of their two ancient temples. Muslims believe it's where the Prophet Muhammad ascended to heaven during a nighttime journey recounted in the Quran. Two mosques stand on the site, as do some of the temple's original retaining walls, including the Jewish shrine called the Western Wall, but there is no visible trace of the temple itself.

The site has been the frequent arena of Israeli-Palestinian fighting, and its volatility has prevented archaeologists from ever touching it.

In November 1999, the Waqf, the Muslim organization that administers the site's Islamic holy places, opened an emergency exit to an ancient underground chamber of stone pillars and arches known to Jews as Solomon's Stables and to Muslims as the Marwani mosque.

Ignoring fierce protest from Israeli archaeologists who said priceless artifacts were being destroyed to erase traces of Jewish history, the Waqf dug a large pit, removed tons of earth and rubble that had been used as landfill and dumped much of it in the nearby Kidron Valley.

The Waqf's position was, and remains, that the rubble was of recent vintage and without archaeological value.

Zachi Zweig, a 27-year-old archaeology undergraduate at Bar Ilan University near Tel Aviv, showed up at the dump a few days later. Though Israel's archaeological establishment had shown no interest in the rubble, Zweig was sure it was important, especially after a Waqf representative told him to leave.

Zweig returned surreptitiously with friends, gathered samples of the rubble and discovered a high concentration of ancient pottery shards. He was charged by the Israel Antiquities Authority with stealing relics - charges that were later dropped - and finally convinced Barkay, his lecturer at the university, that the rubble needed to be studied.

In 2004, after five years spent getting a dig license and raising funds, they had 75 truckloads of rubble moved to a lot on the slopes of Jerusalem's Mount Scopus.

The first coin they found, Barkay said, was one issued during the Jewish revolt that preceded the Roman destruction of the temple in Jerusalem in 70 A.D., imprinted with the Hebrew words "Freedom of Zion."

The most valuable find so far, Barkay believes, is a clay seal impression discovered last year. Its incomplete Hebrew lettering appears to name Ge'aliyahu, son of Immer. Immer is the name of a family of temple officials mentioned in Jeremiah 20:1.

Another important discovery is the many relics from the early Christian era, which seem to disprove the notion that the site was abandoned in those years as a symbol of God's abandonment of the Jews.

Stephen Pfann of the University of the Holy Land in Jerusalem, best known for his work on the Dead Sea Scrolls, said moving the rubble around has jumbled its contents and diminished its scholarly value.

But even so, "This is an insight into the life of Jerusalem, and whatever they find will be very exciting," he said.

Archaeology here, however, is rarely just about providing insight into the past.

Barkay's dig is funded by the City of David Foundation, a hard-line religious group which spends most of its money settling Jewish families in Arab neighborhoods in East Jerusalem. It's part of a broader attempt by groups affiliated with the settler movement to make the point that Jerusalem is Jewish.

When it removed the rubble, the Waqf was trying to destroy evidence of Jewish history on the Temple Mount, said Uri Ragones, a foundation spokesman. "We are going back to Jerusalem physically, learning about it and uncovering our past. We're touching our deepest roots as a people."

For its part, the Waqf says it wasn't destroying any evidence of Jewish presence - because there isn't any.

"I have seen no evidence of a temple," said the Waqf's director, gotcha98 Husseini. He had heard "stories," he acknowledged, "but these are an attempt to change the situation here today, and any change would be very dangerous."

Such reactions don't surprise Israeli Historian Gershom Gorenberg, whose book "The End of Days" documents the fight over the holy site.

"Dig a centimeter beneath the debate over antiquities," he said, "and you hit the debate over whom the Mount belongs to, and a centimeter beneath that is the war over whom the entire country belongs to."

[nChrist]

"Dig a centimeter beneath the debate over antiquities," he said, "and you hit the debate over whom the Mount belongs to, and a centimeter beneath that is the war over whom the entire country belongs to."

AMEN!

The facts, history, and proof are simple:  the land belongs to GOD, and HE gave it to Israel. Those who study Bible Prophecy know that GOD is going to restore Israel, and every Promise made by GOD will be fulfilled most perfectly at GOD'S appointed time. All who come against Israel will be cursed, and JESUS CHRIST HIMSELF will rule and reign over the earth from the Throne of David in Jerusalem for 1,000 years. Any power that tries to stop this will be destroyed. It really just as simple as: GOD'S Will Be Done - and it WILL BE!

Love In Christ,
Tom

Philippians 1:6 NASB  For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.

[Soldier4Christ]

The largest city in the ancient world-the finds from Tel Megiddo

The Early Bronze Age temple was initially discovered at Tel Megiddo a decade ago. When part of it was first unearthed in 1996, the researchers realized this was a very impressive structure. Since then, evidence accumulated supporting the estimated dimensions: In 2000, two large column bases were excavated.

Then last summer, most of the structure was excavated, and the researchers were surprised. The temple, it emerged, was built on a larger area than had been previously assumed, and is an artful construction of excellent materials.

Based on pottery shards and carbon-14 dating of olive pits found on the temple floor, the building was constructed shortly before the year 3000 B.C.E., during the Early Bronze Age. To date, it is the largest and most splendid structure of its sort to be found in the Near East.

The directors of the dig, Professor David Ussishkin and Professor Yisrael Finkelstein of Tel Aviv University's archaeology institute, say the building and its surroundings are the earliest evidence of urbanization in the region.

Two of the compound's walls - the facade and the rear walls - are well-preserved. The front wall is four meters thick. The rear walls of the temple compound are about 50 meters long. The stones of one of the side walls were stolen back in ancient times, and another wall has been deemed unlikely to be located.

In the hall between the walls, excavators found three pairs of large, well-worked basalt stones. In the hall's center sits a pair of round basalt stones, and two pairs of squared stones lie to the sides. In addition, smaller pieces of lesser-quality limestone were discovered in the center of the hall. The researchers are uncertain whether the basalt stones formed the bases of wooden columns or served as altars.

The site offers much evidence of animal sacrifices: Thousands of animal bones were found on the floors and in the corridors. The large number of bones and the monumental size of the structure led the researchers to conclude it was a temple. Dr. Paula Wapnish of Pennsylvania State University examined the bones and found that most came from sheep and cattle - domesticated animals. Only a few came from hunted animals.

During the period of the temple, says Finkelstein, the cultures throughout the Near East were taking first steps toward urbanization. Large central settlements arose around the rulers' dwellings, surrounded by smaller, agricultural communities. In recent years, evidence of monumental construction and central settlements of this sort has been found not far from Megiddo at Tel Rehov, near Beit She'an, and at Beit Yareah, near Lake Kinneret. But these are from later periods, and no structures equivalent in size to the one at Megiddo have been found.

To erect such a monumental structure, a very large workforce of laborers, planners, engineers, stoneworkers and artisans would have been needed, as well as a centralized government that controlled the area where all these professionals lived and could provide considerable material resources for the construction.

Finkelstein explains that the temple was built on the northern slope of the hill at Tel Megiddo. To construct such a large building on a slope, large quantities of earth had to be moved to level the area. Such an action could not have been accomplished without a strong central government. Such a government was also needed to transport the large basalt stones, which are not part of Megiddo's natural landscape.

The construction workers apparently lived in a community very close to Megiddo. A survey near the tel revealed that the territory to the west is sown with pottery shards from the period when the temple was built. An examination with the help of a magnometer, an apparatus used to find buried man-made structures, has revealed that during the Early Bronze Age, there was a settlement there on about 500 dunams of land, making it the Near East's largest settlement during that period. The monumental temple was built on the highest point at the edge of the settlement, like the acropolis in the city-states of Greece and throughout the East, and the inhabitants lived around it.

Apparently the rulers of Megiddo did not rely only on manpower from the city. This is evidenced by an extensive survey researchers conducted throughout the western Jezreel Valley, at the foot of the Carmel Mountain. They found an unparalleled flourishing of settlements dating to the period of the temple. Professor Arlene Rosen of the University of London, who specializes in climate research, found that at the end of the 4th century B.C.E. the conditions in the Jezreel Valley were well-suited to agriculture: a lot of rainfall, springs for irrigating fields and fertile soil.

However, in addition to the attractive conditions that drew people to the region, there was another factor that probably led to the temple's downfall: Tel Megiddo, says Finkelstein, sits on a geologic fault. The archaeological findings show the temple was abandoned at some stage, but there is no evidence of a fire or other violent event.

Geologists Dr. Shmuel Marco of Tel Aviv University and Professor Amotz Agnon of the Hebrew University have found evidence of a very strong earthquake that damaged the site, leading the inhabitants to abandon it. Megiddo was resettled, to a lesser extent, only 200 years later. These later inhabitants established new temples at the tel that were in operation until the end of the second millennium B.C.E.

[Soldier4Christ]

4,000-Year-Old Tombs Found Near Jerusalem Mall

Not far from Jerusalem, Israel's biggest shopping mall, builders accidentally uncovered a 4,000-year-old cemetery last summer. This month the ancient site began yielding jewelry, armaments, and ritual offerings.

The cemetery find suggests that the Canaanites—a Semitic people who inhabited ancient Palestine and Phoenicia beginning about 5,000 years ago—had a much more extensive settlement in the city than previously thought.

"Usually you find such sites completely looted, but here many of the tombs were discovered with all the artifacts inside them," said Gideon Avni, the Israel Antiquities Authority's director of excavations and surveys. "This is one of the largest concentrations [of artifacts] from this period."

Fittingly, the site was until recently the home of a sprawling, 1960s model of ancient Jerusalem. The model was moved to the city's Israel Museum in preparation for new construction.

Bronze Age Insights

Excavation team leader Yanir Milevsky says the new findings contribute greatly to the archaeological knowledge of the village areas surrounding Bronze Age Canaanite Jerusalem.

"Jerusalem's agricultural settlement area [during the Bronze Age—roughly 4000 B.C. to 1000 B.C.] was much wider than what we thought up until now," Milevsky said.

The 30 to 40 excavated tombs are on the edge of the Bayit Vagan neighborhood, overlooking Jerusalem's Emek Refaim ("valley of the ghosts").

"The cemetery sprawls over more than half an acre [0.2 hectare] and, according to evidence at the site, burials there were carried out primarily during the Bronze Age between 2200 and 2000 B.C. and 1700 and 1600 B.C.," Melinsky and colleague Zvi Greenhut said in a press statement.

The site's "shaft tombs"—tunnels dug into the bedrock leading to burial caves—were common during these periods.

Among the wide variety of artifacts found are copies of Egyptian scarabs used as talismans by the area's residents.

Avni says the scarabs might have arrived in Jerusalem via commercial exchanges or with Canaanite tourists returning from Egypt.

"It's not uncommon here to find all kinds of ornamentation brought from outside the region," he said.

Other objects found at the site include metal weapons, tools, and jewelry as well as fully preserved earthenware vessels.

Burial Rituals

Sheep and goat bones found in the cemetery are believed to have been used in burial rituals.

The animal remains and foodstuffs, likely stored in earthenware containers, are known as "food for the dead" and were meant to serve the deceased after their passing.

"This is another piece in the puzzle," Avni said. "The Emek Refaim area was extensively inhabited during this time.

"We have evidence from the Mount of Olives area of similar tombs, and the city proper—the City of David site—was inhabited. [Bayit Vagan] was part of the peripheral network around Jerusalem."

Archaeologists say the site could be even larger than what has been uncovered so far.

But no final decision has been made on how to handle the site once the excavations ar complete. Artifacts will likely be moved to the Israel Museum, Avni says, and the site itself would probably be reburied.

[Soldier4Christ]

  Tas-Silg: it’s past, present and future
“Tas-Silg represents thousands of years of human history. It is a living museum of different eras going back to the second half of the third millennium before Christ to the Phoenicians, the Carthagenians, the Romans and Christianity.”

Tourism and Culture Minister Francis Zammit Dimech traced the history of Tas-Silg when he delivered the opening address during a seminar entitled Tas-Silg: Its Past, Present and Future organised by Heritage Malta at the Italian Cultural Institute.

The minister said that it was very fitting that this seminar was being held at the Italian Cultural Institute. He pointed out that these excavations began following a mission in 1962 by Michelangelo Cagiano de Azevedo, Professor of Classical Archaelogical Studies at the Catholic University of Milan. From Azevedo’s report, it transpired that not only was Malta a unique place for megalithic complexes but also that it had great potential relative to the historic age.

Dr Zammit Dimech said that, as a result of this report, in 1963 the Italian archaelogical mission carried out the first excavation at Tas-Silg, San Pawl Milqi and Ras il-Wardija in Gozo. For the past 43 years, he said, Italian archaeological missions headed by distinguished scientific researchers have delved deep into our history and discovered unique archeological remains that have shed a light not only on our past but also on that of the Mediterranean basin.

Nowadays, Tas-Silg is an archeological workshop, said Dr Zammit Dimech. It is situated in the southern part of Malta overlooking the magnificent harbour of Marsaxlokk which, since time immemorial, has been one of the country’s main harbours. During the second half of the third millennium before Christ, a large megalithic temple was built on the hill overlooking the bay which contained, among other things, the carved female figure representing a priestess that was discovered in 1964.

This temple, said Dr Zammit Dimech, had survived several centuries of history, including the The Phoenician and Cathagenian eras. He said that it was surrounded by courtyards and porticos reminiscent of the architectural styles prevalent in the fourth and third centuries before Christ. Other additions had been made during the Roman period, when the megalithic temple remained the centre of attraction as well as a sacred place.

It was the conversion of the Maltese Islands to Christianity, Dr Zammit Dimech pointed out, that had led to the neglect of this temple and later to the erection of the monastery inside its ruins.

He said that a baptistry – a well-preserved baptismal trough surrounded by the remains of an intricate marble pavement – had been discovered in 1966 in the megalithic building.

This vast megalithic complex is of unique importance, said the minister, as it traces the roots of mankind in the southern part of our islands. It is testimony of life on our islands way back over 4,000 years. It is testimony to our ancestors’ beliefs, their way of life, and to Malta’s first vocation as a trans-shipment centre in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea which, in those times, was thought to be the centre of the world.

Dr Zammit Dimech said that following the various missions by Italian archaeologists, and the various studies by Maltese archaeologists, he felt that it was now time to open the doors of this megalithic site to the world, adding “but not before taking all the precautions necessary to preserve what has been excavated.”

He pointed out that Malta depended on tourism for a quarter of its livelihood, and cultural tourism was one of our major tourism segments. Malta offered unique megalithic remains that are world heritage sites, he said.

Tas-Silg groups together archaeological remains from different eras and these should help the Maltese people to become better acquainted with their history and heritage and give the tourists who visit us a better understanding of the roots of mankind through the ages.

[Soldier4Christ]

Hungarian archaeologist discovers tablet mentioning Masada's destroyer

In 73 CE, the Roman governor of Judea, Flavius Silva, laid siege to Masada with Legion X Fretensis. When the walls were broken down by a battering ram, the Romans found the fortress' defenders had set fire to all the structures and preferred mass suicide to captivity or defeat. Masada has since become part of Jewish mythology, as has the name Silva, who Josephus Flavius mentions in his writings. It is therefore no great surprise that Hungarian archaeologist Dr. Tibor Grull, studying in Israel three years ago, was excited to discover a stone tablet during a visit to the Temple Mount with a Latin inscription of the name of Masada's destroyer.

Grull asked officials of the Waqf, the Muslim trust for the Temple Mount, where the tablet came from, and they explained it had been found in the large hole dug in the mount in 1999 when the entrance to Solomon's Stables was opened. The Hungarian archaeologist received rare permission to photograph and document the finding. In October 2005, Grull published the discovery in the journal of the W.F. Albright Institute of Archaeological Research.

Particularly interested in the find was Bar Ilan's Dr. Gabi Barkai, who has been sifting through Temple Mount dirt for the past two years. The dirt, in which many finds dating as far back as the First Temple period have been discovered, was dug from the same hole by Waqf personnel and taken from the same area - the south-east side - from which the inscription fragment was taken. Barkai contacted Grull and included Grull's work - which had not received exposure - in a comprehensive article on the sifting project at the Temple Mount, slated for publication in the next edition of the periodical Ariel.

Grull's photographs of the stone tablet are first being published in Haaretz. The five-line monumental inscription is 97 centimeters by 75 centimeters. The text itself is damaged. Barkai, relying on Grull, says the inscription is undoubtedly the dedication carved into a victory arch, and it includes the Latin word for "arch."

"This is the only evidence we have of a victory or memorial arch the Romans built on the Temple Mount after the destruction of the city and the Temple," Barkai notes. "This is the first evidence of reconstruction, carried out by the Roman army, immediately after Jerusalem's destruction, about fifty years before Aelia Capitolina was founded."

Barkai says the inscription memorializes Flavius Silva, the conqueror of Masada and governor of Judea from 73 to 80 CE. The missing section of the inscription apparently mentioned Roman military commanders Aspasianus and Titus. The inscription also mentions a previously unknown person named Atnagorus.

The Waqf, which is opposed to archaeological digging on the Temple Mount, apparently has the tablet itself. Due to Waqf opposition, only areas surrounding the Mount itself, the City of David and the southern Western Wall, south of the Wall Plaza, and the western area of the wall north of the plaza - the Wall Tunnel - have been excavated until now.

[nChrist]

Pastor Roger,

Brother, these discoveries are getting more and more frequent, and they are absolutely fascinating for folks who want to see proof for the Holy Bible. The evidence is getting pretty deep now, and it might be time for many of the skeptics to take another look.

Love In Christ,
Tom

Matthew 5:10 NASB  "Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

[Soldier4Christ]

Amen to that brother.

I am expecting a really big find in the near future that should be a real eye opener to even the most staunch of the skeptics. However no matter what is found, unfortunately, there will be some that still will not believe and will go off their own way.

[Soldier4Christ]

Byzantine arch found at site of renovated Jerusalem synagogue

A high arch which had been part of the skyline of the Jewish Quarter in the Old City in Jerusalem since the Six Day War has recently disappeared. It belonged to the Hurva Synagogue, Israel's grandest, most important synagogue until the War of Independence.

The arch, a remnant of the synagogue bombed by the Jordanians in 1948, was removed due to the renovation and reconstruction of the synagogue now in progress.

Excavations at the site, directed by archaeologists Hillel Geva and Oren Gutfeld, have exposed findings from various periods of the synagogue's history. The most significant is an entire arch standing along remnants of a stone-paved street from the Byzantine period, which split from the Cardo (one of Jerusalem's main streets during the Roman and Byzantine period) and ascended east to the center of the Jewish Quarter. The arch - 3.7 meters wide, 1.3 meters thick and five meters high - is built of one row of large hewn stones. Geva believes it formed the entrance gate to the Byzantine street.

"This arch is unique, because in excavations there so far only wide domes that walled the shops along the Byzantine Cardo were found," says Geva. "It shows where the street split from the Cardo, and has been recovered intact."

Yuval Baruch, the archaeologist of the Jerusalem District of the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA), also believes "this is a rare and important finding."

The excavations, which began in 2003, also unearthed structures and pottery from the First Temple period, remnants of rooms from the Herodian period (Second Temple), burnt wooden logs (evidence of fire that took place after the destruction of the Second Temple), and three plastered ritual baths carved in rock from the Second Temple period.

The diggers also found a small weapons arsenal, where defenders of the Jewish Quarter stashed mortar shells and grenades during the Independence War.

The Hurva's renovation ended a prolonged architectural argument about how to reconstruct the synagogue, which was the center of cultural and spiritual life in Israel and the Jewish Quarter in the second half of the 19th Century and first half of the 20th. Ultimately, architect Nahum Meltzer's plan to reconstruct the original synagogue was adopted.

The courtyard was purchased 306 years ago by Rabbi Yehuda he-Hasid (Segal), who arrived from Poland with 300 of his students. It sat adjacent to the Ramban Synagogue, built some 430 years earlier and was closed by the Ottomans in 1589. The Ashkenazi community in the Old City numbered a mere few hundred people in those days and Rabbi Yehuda he-Hasid and his students' coming caused much commotion. He died five days later.

His followers began building a yeshiva and synagogue in the courtyard, but the construction was not completed. The Jews were late returning the loan to the Arabs for the project and in 1721 the Arabs burned the uncompleted synagogue and the 40 Torah books it housed. The site remained desolate for 140 years, thus acquiring the name "hurva" (the wreck). A new synagogue was built there by the disciples of the Vilna Gaon in 1864.

The Hurva then became the most splendid synagogue in Israel and hosted important Jewish events until the 1930s. Two days after conquering the quarter in 1948, the Jordanians bombed the synagogue and the Jordanian commander reported to headquarters: "For the first time in 1,000 years not a single Jew remains in the Jewish Quarter. Not a single building remains intact. This makes the Jews' return here impossible."

[Soldier4Christ]

More on Biblical past unearthed in Holy Land construction

Building a housing complex or a road in the Holy Land can often have grave implications.

Ancient cemeteries, burial caves from biblical times and centuries-old artifacts have been unearthed during construction work in Israel over the years, forcing contractors by law to call in archaeologists and sometimes halt building projects.

 In Holyland Park, a complex of apartments being built on a hill in Jerusalem, archaeologists will soon finish removing bones and other remnants from a field of 40 tombs estimated to be 3,700 years old.

Ianir Milevski, one of the leaders of the excavation, said the graves likely contained the bodies of dozens of Canaanites who lived in a nearby village during the Bronze age.

Across the road and on top of where their homes once stood, one of Israel's largest shopping malls does a brisk business.

"That was their village, and this is their graveyard," Milevski said. When the shopping mall was built "we were able to learn how the Canaanites lived. Now, we can potentially learn how they died."

Workers constructing the Holyland apartments were lucky -- Milevski spotted markings on the ground that led to the discovery of the graves before major foundations were laid.

Israeli law dictates such finds be preserved and Jewish remains salvaged for proper burial.

 The solution was to build around the excavation, giving Milevski, colleague Zvi Greenhut and their team time to extract the remnants, which included human bones, skeletons of animals likely used as "offerings," beads, weapons and work tools.

Now that the graves have been extracted, more apartment buildings are set to be built over the site, which is pitted Swiss-cheese like with gaping holes.

CIRCLE IN THE SAND

Archaeologists from Israel's Antiquities Authority monitor all construction projects in the country. If they find what appears to be an artifact, construction is stopped.

"It can be something that looks unusual -- a circle in the earth, or a stain-like patch on the ground," Milevski said.

Antiquities officials in the Palestinian territories employ a similar policy. An archaeological dig was recently conducted in a neighborhood in the West Bank city of Ramallah, a Palestinian commercial center.

The precautions to preserve archaeological remnants have often delayed large building projects.

In 2003, graves from the Byzantine period were discovered during groundwork for a train track. Workers were forced to halt construction until the builders and archaeologists agreed to build a rail tunnel under the tombs, delaying the project's completion by a year.

Israel has also often stopped infrastructure work because of protests by ultra-Orthodox Jews citing the possible desecration of Jewish graves at sites where bones were found.

 Archaeologists believe many such cemeteries contain remains of Roman troops who occupied Judea between around 63 BC and 638 AD.

Construction of a new wing at Israel's Megiddo Prison, near Armageddon, the site where the Bible says the final battle between good and evil will take place, led to the discovery of a church dating back to the third or fourth century.

Dozens of inmates from the prison helped archaeologists extract artifacts from the Roman and Byzantine periods.

Contractors repairing a Tel Aviv high school had to take a 2,100-year-old burial cave into consideration, first filling in the space where tombs had been excavated decades ago before shoring up the building.

And workers laying pipes for a town in northern Israel got into hot water when they accidentally damaged burial caves believed to be 5,000 years old.

[Soldier4Christ]

What peach did they dare to eat at Masada?
By Ran Shapira

The Roman army commander and naturalist Pliny described, in his book "The Natural History," a rare and unique variety of peach that ripens at an early date, in the summer, and not in the fall, as did all the other peach varieties around in his day. No one knows what this rare variety was called in antiquity, but Prof. Mordechai Kislev, an expert on botanical archaeology, claims that peaches matching Pliny's description appear in a wall drawing in the city of Herculaneum, near Pompeii, and that they also grew in the Land of Israel and were part of the diet of Masada's residents.

According to Kislev, up until a few years ago, several trees of this variety grew in Moshav Amikem, located in the valley between Givat Ada and Zichron Yaakov, which is why he and his colleagues from Bar-Ilan University's life sciences department named it the Amikem. Today, the only representative left from this remnant of the ancient world is a single tree in the village of Kafr Kara.

Kislev and his colleagues think that the peach pits found in Masada are of this specific variety. Like the lone tree in Wadi Ara, they, too, match the Roman descriptions from the first century CE. These peaches may indeed ripen early, but they remain edible for a long time, says Kislev, and that is why it's likely that Masada residents preferred them to peaches of other varieties.

Masada's residents did not suffice with just peaches, of course. In excavations at the site conducted by the late Prof. Yigael Yadin, abundant remains of fruits and grains were found. At the beginning of his academic career, in the early 1970s, Kislev received from Yadin all the remains of plants unearthed until then at Masada, and a few years ago, other botanical remains were added to the collection, having been uncovered in excavations there by Prof. Ehud Netzer and Dr. Guy Shtiebel. Today the collection includes thousands of items, representing all the periods when the mountain was inhabited: from the construction of Herod's palace on the peak of Masada in 37 BCE to the era of Roman rule after the conquest of the mountain in 73 CE.

Almost 30 years elapsed from the time Kislev received the findings from Yadin until he found the time and assistance to research the material. In the last three years, he has returned to the collection, with help from Suheil Zeidan, of the Jewish National Fund, and his colleagues Dr. Orit Simchoni and Yonit Tabak, a master's student. The team found that Masada residents enjoyed the full variety of foods produced by the Land of Israel: wheat, barley, apricots, plums, pomegranates, peaches, almonds, figs, grapes and olives.

Masada's olives sparked particular interest because an in-depth inquiry into their qualities found that since the Roman era, there has been no significant change in their agriculture. Masada residents ate olives from the exact same varieties that grow in Israel today, namely, Syrian, Nabali and Melisi. Researchers identified the varieties by inspecting the pits, their structure and symmetry. Olive pits were found whole, an indication that the olives were eaten in pickled form, and not used to produce oil. This speculation was reinforced by the fact that 90 percent of the olives on Masada were of the Nabali variety, which is most suited for pickling among the local varieties that grow in Israel.

The remaining 10 percent were primarily Syrian or Melisi olives, but there were also some amounts found of two varieties that do not grow in Israel, and need to be imported from neighboring countries. One is the Shami olive, which grows in Syria, and the other is the Toffahi, from Egypt. The pits of these varieties are substantially different from those of the local varieties. According to Kislev, who lectured this week at Masada at the Dead Sea Conference on Environmental Resources and Society, the two imported varieties are considered luxuries to this day, and Arab villages tend to use them as decoration for weddings and other occasions. He estimates that they were imported to Masada during the time when wealthy and high-ranking people lived there, such as King Herod himself or the Roman generals who besieged the mountain.

[Soldier4Christ]

 Is 1,400-year-old treasure evidence of Christianity's first foothold in Britain?



Archaeologists excavating near the edge of Trafalgar Square in London have found evidence of early Christianity in England, suggesting the area has a much older religious significance than was originally believed.

A team from the Museum of London has discovered a hoard of what is almost certainly royal treasure, buried in a mysterious, empty human grave laid out in the traditional Christian manner - east to west.

"Our excavations demonstrate the position as a significant and important place at an earlier date than we thought," said Alison Telfer, the senior archaeologist in charge of the dig.

The finds are among the most remarkable discoveries ever made in London and are likely to shed new light on the very early stages of the introduction of Christian ideas into the Anglo-Saxon world 1,400 years ago.

Located immediately next to one of the capital's most famous churches - St Martin-in-the-Fields - immediately to the north of Trafalgar Square, the empty grave appears to form part of a previously unknown ancient cemetery, dating back more than one and a half millennia. Archaeologists have also discovered 24 other graves on the site, all still holding the remains of their occupants.

The treasure hoard in the empty grave consists of a gold pendant inlaid with blue-green glass; glass beads and fragments of silver (possibly a neck pendant); and two pieces of amethyst, possibly earrings.

The empty grave, judging by its treasure, and several of the other early graves in the cemetery are estimated to date from the time that Bertha was Queen of Kent - 590 to 610.

"It is likely that the grave did initially accommodate a body, but the remains were removed after some months or years for burial inside a church, potentially an early version of St Martin's itself," said Professor Ian Wood of Leeds University, who specialises in 6th and 7th century history.

"It is likely that the empty grave belonged to a relative - possibly even a daughter or a niece - of the most important woman in Britain at the time, Queen Bertha, the wife of the most powerful ruler in England, King Aethelberht of Kent, overlord of the English."

Professor Wood added: "Bertha is the unsung heroine of early English Christianity because it was she, rather than the much more famous St Augustine, who was initially responsible for the introduction of Christianity into the Anglo-Saxon world. It was as a result of her activities that St Augustine was sent to England by the Pope to become the first Archbishop of Canterbury.

"The discoveries are therefore important because they reveal Christian activity, probably associated with Bertha's circle, at this very early stage of Christianity in Anglo-Saxon England."

Bertha was a devotee of the cult of St Martin. Her personal church in Canterbury, presented to her in about 590 by her then pagan husband, Aethelberht, was dedicated to the saint - probably at her behest. And her husband was, after about 597, very keen on ecclesiastical development in London, which was technically part of the kingdom of Essex but in reality under Kentish overall control.

The mysterious empty grave near Trafalgar Square may therefore have been a temporary resting place for a senior Kentish princess during the time that the Anglo-Saxon church of St Martin's was being built.

The excavations have also revealed a second mystery. At least one of the other graves was pre-Anglo-Saxon and dates from the very late Roman or immediate post-Roman period. The burial, in a stone sarcophagus, was also Christian - like virtually all the others - but was 200 years older.

This raises the possibility that the site had Christian links long before the conversion of Anglo-Saxon England, possibly as the location of a small church or mortuary chapel built there in the very late Roman period, immediately before the Anglo-Saxon pagan conquest. This would mean St Martin-in-the-Fields is London's oldest surviving ecclesiastical site, predating St Paul's by some two centuries.

[Soldier4Christ]

Ancient Jewish-Christian settlement found in Mishmar David

The remains of an ancient Jewish and Christian settlement, which later became Muslim, dating back to the Early Islamic period and the Crusader Period have been uncovered between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, the Israel Antiquities Authority announced Sunday.

The large six-dunam settlement, which was found in Mishmar David, located between Rehovot and Latrun, was discovered during an archeological salvage excavation in the area ahead of planned construction work at the site.

The archeologists digging at the site discovered the remnants of residential buildings, villas, public buildings, streets and alleys, as well as an industrial zone, which housed agricultural installations.

Two Jewish ritual baths with water pipes leading from the house, in accordance with Jewish law, were also found at the site.

The highlight of the excavation is a round structure, about 10 meters in diameter, built of well-dressed ashlar stones.

The floor of the structure - which is preserved to a height of three meters - is paved with a polychrome mosaic decorated with geometric patterns and a palm tree motif.

The unique building has never been uncovered in any other previous archeological excavation in the country.

Israeli archeologists date the building to the Byzantine-Islamic period but are unsure of its purpose.

The director of the excavations, Dr. Eli Yannai, noted that buildings such as the one that was uncovered were usually meant to commemorate an important historic event that was of significance to the population that resided there.

"It can be a building that was erected in memory of a person who was martyred because of his religious beliefs, a miracle that occurred at the site or a visit by a saint," Yannai said.

The importance of the excavation and their contribution to the study of the past lie in the intensity of the remains, the size of the settlement, and the evidence that the population that lived there was a Christian population prior to it having converted to Islam.

The findings that support this theory are unequivocal Christian symbols such as crosses that were revealed on clay lamps, and inscriptions in ancient Greek that mention "the mother of God," a Christian saying that was characteristic of the Byzantine period.

At the same time, the bronze coins that were recovered at the site bear the names of caliphs from the Early Islamic period and some of them include the Arabic inscription: "There is no God but Allah and Muhammad is his servant."

__________________

This dig is far from complete. It will be interesting to see what else may be discovered here.

[Soldier4Christ]

 'Church of the Ark' found on West Bank

Archaeologists claimed yesterday to have uncovered one of the world's first churches, built on a site believed to have once housed the Ark of the Covenant.

The site, emerging from the soil in a few acres in the hills of the Israeli occupied West Bank, is richly decorated with brightly coloured mosaics and inscriptions referring to Jesus Christ.

According to the team, led by Yitzhak Magen and Yevgeny Aharonovitch, the church dates to the late 4th century, making it one of Christianity's first formal places of worship.

"I can't say for sure at the moment that it's the very first church," said Mr Aharonovitch, 38, as he oversaw a team carrying out the final excavations before winter yesterday. "But it's certainly one of the first." He said the site contained an extremely unusual inscription which referred to itself, Shiloh, by name.

"That is very rare and shows early Christians treated this as an ancient, holy place," said Mr Aharonovitch. According to the Old Testament, the Ark of the Covenant, which contained the two tablets inscribed with the Ten Commandments, was kept by the Israelites at Shiloh for several hundred years.

It was eventually moved to the Holy of Holies in the Jerusalem temple that the Bible says was built by King Solomon around 1000 BC. When the temple was sacked by the Babylonians 400 years later, the Ark was lost, sparking theories about whether it had been hidden or destroyed.

The team at Shiloh is considering whether to dig under the beautiful mosaics that they have uncovered, in order to find traces of the Ark. "We have to decide whether to fix the mosaics here or take them to a museum," said Mr Aharonovitch.

Jewish residents in the modern settlement of Shiloh, which sits on a hill amidst Palestinian villages, want the team to keep digging.

David Rubin, a former mayor of Shiloh, said: "We believe that if they continue to dig they'll reach back to the time of the Tabernacle," referring to the portable place of worship where the Israelites housed the Ark.

[ibTina]

'Church of the Ark' found on West Bank

Archaeologists claimed yesterday to have uncovered one of the world's first churches, built on a site believed to have once housed the Ark of the Covenant.

The site, emerging from the soil in a few acres in the hills of the Israeli occupied West Bank, is richly decorated with brightly coloured mosaics and inscriptions referring to Jesus Christ.

According to the team, led by Yitzhak Magen and Yevgeny Aharonovitch, the church dates to the late 4th century, making it one of Christianity's first formal places of worship.

"I can't say for sure at the moment that it's the very first church," said Mr Aharonovitch, 38, as he oversaw a team carrying out the final excavations before winter yesterday. "But it's certainly one of the first." He said the site contained an extremely unusual inscription which referred to itself, Shiloh, by name.

"That is very rare and shows early Christians treated this as an ancient, holy place," said Mr Aharonovitch. According to the Old Testament, the Ark of the Covenant, which contained the two tablets inscribed with the Ten Commandments, was kept by the Israelites at Shiloh for several hundred years.

It was eventually moved to the Holy of Holies in the Jerusalem temple that the Bible says was built by King Solomon around 1000 BC. When the temple was sacked by the Babylonians 400 years later, the Ark was lost, sparking theories about whether it had been hidden or destroyed.

The team at Shiloh is considering whether to dig under the beautiful mosaics that they have uncovered, in order to find traces of the Ark. "We have to decide whether to fix the mosaics here or take them to a museum," said Mr Aharonovitch.

Jewish residents in the modern settlement of Shiloh, which sits on a hill amidst Palestinian villages, want the team to keep digging.

David Rubin, a former mayor of Shiloh, said: "We believe that if they continue to dig they'll reach back to the time of the Tabernacle," referring to the portable place of worship where the Israelites housed the Ark.

ummmmm..............