Lots of health and happiness to all of the family, and may you all know much joy from the latest addition to your clan!

Here is a group shot of the spring team – Thanks guys!

2013 Spring Season Group Photo – what a great group!

In Area A1 – we are continuing to pick up hints of the Iron Age IIA city at Burna, as we are finding some burnt pottery similar to the destruction level of Hazael at nearby Tell es-Safi/Gath (2 Kings 12:17  - ca. 830 BCE). Could this level be related to the insurrectionist city of Libnah mentioned in 2 Kings 8 (ca. 845 BCE)?

“So Edom revolted from the rule of Judah to this day. Then Libnah revolted at the same time. Now the rest of the acts of Joram, and all that he did, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah?” (2 Kings 8:22–23 ESV)

Posing on an Iron Age IIB pillared structure – is it a pillared house (i.e. four-room house), a pillared public building (i.e. storehouse/stable)?

Removing a balk in A2 – going from Persian (6th) to Iron IIC (7th) to Iron IIB (8th) in a matter of hours

In Area A2 – we are also finding bits of evidence for a possible destruction level related to the end of the 8th cent. BCE (Sennacherib???). Additionally, today we found a very strange fragmentary figurine(?) with decorations similar to Philistine Bichrome. Could this level of a walled-city in the 8th cent. BCE be related to Sennacherib’s great sweeping conquest of Hezekiah’s Judahite kingdom in 701 BCE?

“As for Hezekiah, the Judean,⁷  I (Sennacherib) besieged forty-six of his fortified walled cities and surrounding smaller towns, which were without number. Using packed-down ramps and applying battering rams, infantry attacks by mines, breeches, and siege machines,⁸ I conquered (them). I took out 200,150 people, young and old, male and female, horses, mules, donkeys, camels, cattle, and sheep, without number, and counted them as spoil. He himself, I locked up within Jerusalem, his royal city, like a bird in a cage.⁹ I surrounded him with earthworks, and made it unthinkable¹⁰ for him to exit by the city gate. His cities which I had despoiled I cut off from his land and gave them to Mitinti, king of Ashdod, Padi, king of Ekron and S¸illi-bel, king of Gaza,¹¹ and thus diminished his land. I imposed dues and gifts for my lordship upon him, in addition to the former tribute, their yearly payment. (William W. Hallo and K. Lawson Younger Jr., eds., Monumental Inscriptions from the Biblical World (COS 2; Accordance electronic ed. Leiden: Brill, 2003), 303.)

Father (Amit) and Son (Ori) enjoy a trip to the dump in style – Ray Bans all around

The dump!

In Area B – we found an amazing 9 full buckets of Late Bronze Age pottery (of various types) from 1 square! We also found additional architecture that seems to clarify the nature of this occupation level during the 14th or 13th cent. BCE. Our prize find for the day was a heavy, well-preserved axe-head (see picture below). Could this level be related to the Canaanites living at the site around the time of the biblical account of Joshua’s conquest of the Shephelah?

“Then Joshua and all Israel with him passed on from Makkedah to Libnah and fought against Libnah. And the LORD gave it also and its king into the hand of Israel. And he struck it with the edge of the sword, and every person in it; he left none remaining in it. And he did to its king as he had done to the king of Jericho. Then Joshua and all Israel with him passed on from Libnah to Lachish and laid siege to it and fought against it. And the LORD gave Lachish into the hand of Israel, and he captured it on the second day and struck it with the edge of the sword, and every person in it, as he had done to Libnah.” (Joshua 10:29–32 ESV)

Late Bronze Age Axe-Head

Remember – you can help us answer those questions and many others by joining us this summer! The deadline is May 1st – so now is the time to secure your spot for digging up (possible ) biblical Libnah!

Here are a few highlights from each area:

In Area A1 – we found a very interesting piece of a store jar with a snake head on it. This phenomenon is well-known as far back as the Early Bronze Age (ca. 3000 BCE).  While this find does not indicate cult activity (it seems to be simply, popular iconography) it is interesting that we have a biblical text that mentions the depiction of a snake (hebrew – nehushtan) during the time of Hezekiah (ca. 715 BCE).

“He (Hezekiah) removed the high places and broke the pillars and cut down the Asherah. And he broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made, for until those days the people of Israel had made offerings to it (it was called Nehushtan).” 2 Kings 18:4

Store Jar sherd with snakehead – the mouth opening is on the left of the small plastic decoration, the holes for the eyes are on the right

Early Bronze Age Jar w/Plastic Snake Decoration – Copyright Israel Museum

In A2 – the team found two more fragments of Israelite Fertility Figurines (though not quite as nice as our flagship lady (below), see another one here). These finds along with the pottery and the well-built architecture from the center of the tell – continue to give us a clearer picture of the Iron Age IIB settlement of Tel Burna.  Which would be relevant for a biblical text such as this,

“Then Rabshakeh returned, and found the king of Assyria fighting against Libnah, for he had heard that the king had left Lachish.” (Isaiah 37:8)

Fertility Figurine (Iron IIB) from 2012 Summer Season in A2

Broken Head of Israelite Pillared Figurine

Considering an Israelite Pillared Figurine, head

Mor registering the finds with all the comforts she could ask for – courtesy of Amit

Scraper from Area A

In Area B – we found a very nice weapon head (either a small spearhead or an elongated arrowhead), in addition to loads of LB pottery.

Elongated Arrowhead or Spearhead (see a similar shaped spearhead here) ca. 13th cent. BCE

Medinet Habu – Ramses III attacking the Sea Peoples (early 12th cent. BCE) – Notice the Elongated Arrow – Copyright BiblePlaces, Todd Bolen

Check in for more great finds from our last day of excavating!

In Debi’s area (A1) we continued work along the casemate fortification. We also re-opened a new square from our very first season (2010) in which we had previously found a plastered floor with a destruction level that included complete vessels and a significant amount of ash (Iron IIA – 9th cent. BCE). It will be very interesting to see if we have earlier levels beneath this level related to the Iron Age IIA. For more on the significance of the dating of these levels see Itzick, Joe, Debi and Amit’s recent article (I guess that’s why they created et al here.

In Chris’ Area (B) – we harvested a ton of pottery from the new squares some Byzantine, but mostly clean Late Bronze Age material. In addition, we found a nice small, votive vessel and a significant concentration of mother of pearl near where we previously found many chalices, pithoi and bowls.

Here are some pictures from today’s work:

Removing a Balk in Area A1 near the Casemate Wall

Mother of Pearl in Area B

Defining the Tower in A1

Sweep, Sweep, Sweep!

Every man’s dream – to wash a Canaanite and/or Israelite’s dirty broken dishes…

I say a slight dripping of the nose in April > a full body sweat drip in June

We were able to begin excavations in all areas with help from ICB, TMC, some new volunteers and some old friends of the excavation.

In Area A1 – Debi’s team, in addition to working in several squares from previous seasons, began defining what seems to be a large tower in the northeastern corner of  the Iron II fortifications.

In Area A2 – Amit’s group opened a new square to define the western side of a  well-built Iron IIB (8th cent. BCE c. time of Hezekiah) structure with exceptionally large pillars. They also continued to work their way through a collapse (destruction?) from the same time period – the pottery so far seems consistent with the 8th cent. BCE.

In Area B – Chris’ group began dismantling a balk connected to the large Late Bronze Age (1550-1200 BCE – Canaanite era) structure down on the lower terrace. Inside of the balk we found several sherds of Cypriot imports – milk bowl/white slip and base ring. In addition, we continued to work our way through the top soil of our two new squares – all signs point to promising finds in the coming days. Hopefully, by the end of the week we will have a better idea of the layout of this building.

Cypriot Late Bronze “Milk Bowl” (White Slip) with wishbone handle from the Metropolitan Museum of Art – we found several sherds of this type today in Area B (note – this artifact was not found on our site, click here for more pictures and  its archaeological background)

Here are a few pics from Area B today:

Jaden and Justin pose for the camera in Area B

Removing the Balk – check out the long, well-built LB Wall

Blowing through Top Soil with Pickaxes

Among the notable initial finds for the opening day of the season, were a couple more chalices from Area B (thanks must go to the cows of Tel Burna since they helped us find them by destroying the balk ) and a nice spindle whorl. Tomorrow, we will be carrying out full excavations in all areas – that is if we are not rained out… Drop by if you are interested in finding some amazing finds related to the Canaanite and Israelite period!

Here are a couple pictures from the day (thanks Debi for photos):

Receiving an Explanation from Amit and Itzick

Area A1 Folks from TMC and ICBE (and Seth) – Removing the Large 7th Cent. BCE Olive Installation

J and Seth setting up the Total Station – Yes, it was cold despite the shorts

As Amit showed in the lecture, the finds from the site indicate in many ways that the site was  a textile production site – quite a rare find in the archaeology of Israel.  The paper was well-presented and as suggested by some of the participants, thought-provoking.

If you want more details about the site and what indicates its use as a textile production site – you’ll have to wait for the article, which I am sure will appear soon, or head to ASOR in November, where the lecture will be presented in English.

Way to go Amit and Debi!!!!

In it, Shai responds to Avraham Faust’s contention, inIsrael’s Ethnogenesis (2006: 147-48), that Philistine non-circumcision was confined to Iron Age I. Faust notes David’s description of Goliath as an “uncircumcised Philistine” in 1 Sam 17:26, 36, in which the term “uncircumcised” is intended as an insult. Faust claims that this type of  insult is only seen in texts referring to Iron Age I.

But Shai discusses two biblical texts which suggest that Faust’s conclusion is incorrect, and also discusses the finding of erect penis pottery at Philistine Ashkelon and Gath which appear to reflect uncircumcised penises. Shai points out the absence, in Jeremiah 9:24-25, of the Philistines from the list of circumcised peoples in that passage. Also, in Ezekiel 32:29-32, the Philistines are not among the nations who are punished by being made to lie down in the netherworld with “the uncircumcised”.

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