ARCHEOLOGICAL SITES

ARCHEOLOGICAL SITES

IN ISRAEL

No. 2

Cover photo: An inscribed ivory pomegranate (43 mm. high) from the Solomonic Temple in Jerusalem

Recent archeological discoveries

The Church of "Marys Seat"

The remains of a large Byzantine church (5th 7th century), octagonal in shape and with multicolored mosaic pavement, was discovered near the highway leading from Jerusalem to Bethlehem. A flat rock in the center of the church is believed to be the Kathisma the seat where the pregnant Mary rested on her way to Bethlehem mentioned in early Christian sourses.

Beitsaida

A stone stela was exposed at the Iron Age II (9th 8th century BCE) Beitsaida city gate on the northern shore of the Sea of Galilee. It bears an engraved depiction of a bull-headed warrior armed with a dagger probably representing the Aramean god Haddad, also known by his biblical name Baal, god of rainfall and fertility.

HaTzor

At Tel Hatzor in Galilee, site of the largest Canaanite city in biblical times (Joshua 11:10), a carved basalt orthostat depicting a lion was uncovered. Dated to the Late Bronze Age (15th 13th century BCE), it was in secondary use in the Israelite level of the upper city. The orthostat weighs about a ton and is perserved in extremely good condition. It was probably one of a pair of lions that once guarded the entrance to the Canaanite royal palace of Hatzor (an identical lion was exposed in the Canaanite temple of the lower city of Hatzor during excavations in the 1950s).

Beit Shean

Two monumental Arabic inscriptions, in square Kufic script, were uncovered on the door jambs of the gate to the citys bazaar, built at the beginning of the 8th century by the Umayyad Caliph Abdallah Hisham. The letters are formed by green glass tesserae covered by gold foil and a thin layer of glass. The inscription reads:

Jerusalem, City of David

The remains of an impressive structure of the monarchy period, founded on bedrock and built of very large, roughly hewn rectangular stones, was discovered above the Gihon spring in the Kidron Valley. It is believed to be part of the fortifications built at the end of the First Temple period (8th-7th century BCE) by Menassah, King of Judah, to defend the entrance to the Gihon spring: Now after this he built a wall without the City of David on the west side of the Gihon, in the Valley...

(2 chronicles 33:14)

Recent archeological discoveries .......................................... 4

Cumulative Table of Contents ............................................. 37

banias

CULT CENTER of THE GOD PAN

The excavations were directed by Zvi Maoz on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority

The remains of the city of Banyas (Arabic pronunciation of Panias) are located in northern Israel, at the foot of Mt. Hermon. Here, below a steep cliff, the cold waters of the Banyas spring, one of the sources of the Jordan River, gush forth.

According to written sources, Banyas was first settled in the Hellenistic period. The Ptolemaic kings, in the 3rd century BCE, built a cult center to counter the Semitic one at Dan to the south, which indeed gradually declined. Then, in 200 BCE, the Seleucid ruler Antiochus III defeated the Ptolemaic army in this region and captured Banyas.

Almost 200 years later, in 20 BCE, the region which included Banyas was annexed to the Kingdom of Herod the Great and was ruled by his successors until the end of the first century CE. In the year
2 BCE, Herod Philip founded a pagan city and named it Caesarea Philippi (in honor of Augustus Caesar). It became the capital of his large kingdom which spread across the Golan and the Hauran. Contemporary sources refer to the city as Caesarea Panias; the New Testament as Caesarea Philippi. (Matt. 16:13)

During the Roman period, the center of the city spread over a plateau measuring 300 x 300 m., with natural features protecting it on three sides. At its peak, it extended even beyond these natural boundaries.

From the fourth century and until the Arab conquest, Panias functioned as an important Christian center. During the Arab period, the city was the district capital of the Golan in the province of Damascus and its name was changed to Banyas. During Fatimid rule in the 11th century, fortifications were constructed. Then the Crusaders, who ruled the town from 1129, surrounded it with a massive ring of fortifications. However, after repeated attacks, the city was conquered by Nur ed-Din of Damascus in 1164. Fearing that it might again serve as a Crusader fortress, the fortifications were dismantled at the beginning of the 13th century and are, therefore, only partly visible.

Banyas gradually lost its importance. Today there is a Druze holy place (Weli Sheikh Khader) in a whitewashed building on the cliff overlooking the spring.

Since 1967, but mainly during the last ten years, major excavations at the site have focused upon two areas: the remains of the sanctuary complex to the god Pan; and the center of the city the latter continue to the present.

The temenos (sacred precinct) dedicated to Pan was constructed on an elevated, 80 m. long natural terrace along a cliff which towered over the north of the city. At its western end is a large grotto which has been regarded as sacred to Pan since the Hellenistic period. At the foot of the sacred precinct is the spring, a major component in the sites sanctity. The cult site to the god Pan derives from the juxtaposition of natural features which include forest, spring and cave. From time immemorial, the site had been visited by wandering shepherds who worshipped at the cave and the spring.

The excavations uncovered remains of a cult center dedicated to the god Pan which developed in several phases during the Roman period. The temenos included a temple, courtyards, a grotto and niches for rituals. Several decorated niches were cut into the rock cliff, in which statues probably stood in the past. Inscriptions, mentioning donors, were carved between the niches. Of the temples which stood here, only the foundations survived. Following the Muslim conquest in the 7th century, this pagan cult center which had existed throughout the Byzantine period was destroyed and the ashlars of the walls removed for re-use.

The Temple of Zeus

Opposite the entrance to the sacred grotto, Herod the Great, in 19 BCE, built a temple in honor of his patron, Augustus Caesar, described by the contemporary Jewish historian Josephus Flavius (The Jewish War I: 404-405). This temple was 20 m. long and had two parallel walls, 10.5 m. apart. Cult niches which once contained sculptures were found along the inner faces of the walls, which also served as retaining walls. This semi-subterranean building also provided access to the sacred grotto behind the temple. This temple, only partly preserved, is depicted on contemporary coins minted by the city, showing a facade decorated with four Ionic columns.

The Court of Pan and the Nymphs

During the first century CE another shrine, dedicated to Pan and the Nymphs, was constructed east of the Temple of Augustus. This building consisted of three especially thick walls with cement foundations; it abutted the cliff on its north, creating a rectangular enclosure measuring 15 x 10 m. which apparently served as an open-air shrine. A small grotto was cut into the rock cliff behind it and, in a later period, niches for statues were added. A Greek inscription indicates that these niches date to the year 148: "The priest Victor, son of Lysimachos, dedicated this goddess to the god Pan, lover of Echo."

The Temple of Zeus and the Nemesis Courtyard

Around the year 100 (the 100th anniversary of Panias), during the reign of Trajanus Caesar, a Temple of Zeus was built at Banyas, east of the previous one. The temple consisted of two rooms: a hall measuring 8.25 x 7.6 m. which was originally covered with colored marble slabs and a 4.25 m.- wide front porch. The facade of the building was decorated with four columns with Corinthian capitals of especially fine workmanship. It has been suggested that rituals were also carried out on the roof of the building, opposite the niches cut into the cliff face. A 4 m.-wide paved courtyard, approached from the south by a broad staircase, was dedicated to Nemesis, goddess of revenge and justice, whose cult was popular in the region. A carved niche in the rock cliff above it bears the inscription: "For the preservation of our lords the emperors, Valerios [Titi]anos, priest of god Pan, dedicated to the lady Nemesis and her Shrine which was made by cutting away the rock underneath... with the iron fence in the month of Apellaios."

Temple Tomb of the Goats

In the third century, a cultic building for the burial of the bones of the sacred goats was erected at the eastern end of the sacred precinct. The structure was divided into three long halls oriented north-south. Along the walls of the central hall (which measures 12.5 x 6.6 m.) were two low galleries supported by rectangular niches (0.6 sq. m. each) opening onto the central hall. The niches contained sherds and a large quantity of animal bones, mainly of sheep and goats, bringing to mind the cult of the sacred goats related to the god Pan, as depicted on Roman coins of the city of Panias. These finds suggest that the structure was used as a temple-tomb for the interment of the bones of the sacred goats, whose cult was probably practiced in the buildings excavated at Banyas.

The temple was found covered by a mound of debris with an abundance of fragments of statues and statuettes, among them Athena, Zeus, Aphrodite, Apollo, Dionysos and Pan. The best-preserved statue (restored from two fragments) is that of a half life-size Artemis with a hunting dog attacking a hare at her feet. The statues and statuettes were probably offerings brought to the sacred precinct and destroyed as an act of anti-paganism at the end of the Byzantine period or in the early Arab period.

The Banyas National Park, which includes the excavated and restored archeological remains, is a unique tourist attraction, with a combination of wild natural beauty: cliffs, mountains, forest and an abundance of flowing water.

gamala

Jewish City on the Golan

Excavated by S. Gutman on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority

The city of Gamala on the Golan derived its name from gamal (Hebrew for camel), since it was situated on a hill shaped like a camels rump. The Hasmonean ruler Alexander Yannaeus founded the city in the first century BCE and it continued to be inhabited by Jews, as attested to by Josephus Flavius (Antiquities of the Jews 13:394). Josephus, a Jew, was Commander of Galilee during the Jewish Revolt against Rome and in 66 CE fortified Gamala as his main stronghold on the Golan. He gives a very detailed topographical description of the city and describes the Roman siege under the command of Vespasian which led to its conquest in 67 CE. The Romans attempted to take the city by means of a siege ramp, but were turned back by the defenders; only on the second attempt did they succeed in penetrating the fortifications and conquering the city. Thousands of inhabitants were slaughtered, while others chose to jump to their deaths from the top of the cliff (Josephus, The Jewish War IV, 1-83). Gamala has not been rebuilt since.

Josephus failure to provide a detailed geographical description of Gamalas location on the Golan made it difficult to locate. The identification was firmly established only in the course of archeological excavations during the 1970s.

The remains of the city are located on a rocky basalt ridge surrounded by deep gorges, with a shallow saddle separating it from the rest of the ridge, providing the city with outstanding defensive advantages. The top of the hill is narrow and pointed, creating a very steep slope in the north; the city was built on the more graduated southern slope.

The main approach road led to the eastern part of the city, where a massive fortification wall was constructed. This wall, built of squared basalt stones, is some

6 m. thick. Several square towers situated along the wall, and a circular tower at the crest of the hill, contributed to the citys defenses. In the low-lying southern part of the wall, two square towers guarded the narrow gateway into the city. In some sections of the wall, rooms of adjacent houses had been filled with stones in order to strengthen the wall. This led researchers to hypothesize that the wall had been hastily constructed, or strengthened, on the eve of the Roman siege.

A five meter-wide breach was found at the center of the eastern wall. Scattered around it were dozens of ballista stones and arrowheads; similar finds were also uncovered in destroyed buildings inside the wall all material evidence of the breaching of the wall and the battle between the Roman attackers and the Jewish defenders of the city.

Inside the city, near the wall, an impressive public building was uncovered and identified as the synagogue of Gamala. It is rectangular in shape (25.5 x 17 m.) and oriented northeast to southwest in the direction of Jerusalem. Along the walls are several rows of stone-built benches. Pillars around the center of the hall supported the roof. In the courtyard, wide steps led down to a mikve (Jewish ritual bath) which served those who came to pray in the synagogue.

The houses of the city were built on terraces with stepped alleys between them. Well-constructed residences with large rooms, obviously of the wealthy, were uncovered in the west of the city. The large number of oil presses suggests that olives and the production of oil were the basis of the citys economy.

Evidence of fire and destruction uncovered in the buildings are vivid testimony of the drama which unfolded when the Roman Legions captured the city. But the huge mounds of collapsed stones also helped preserve Gamalas remains.

Several unique coins minted in Gamala during the Jewish Revolt were found during the excavations. On the obverse of some coins appears the word ligeulat (for the redemption of) and on the reverse, yerushalayim hakedosha (Holy Jerusalem).

The remains of Gamala have been preserved as a national park.

Kursi

CHRISTIAN MONASTERY ON THE SHORE OF

THE SEA OF GALILEE

The site was excavated by D. Urman and V. Tzaferis on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority

The Byzantine monastery of Kursi is situated east of the Sea of Galilee at the mouth of a wadi (riverbed) descending from the Golan Heights and creating a small, fertile valley along the shoreline. The remains of the ancient monastery came to light accidentally, during construction of a new road, and they were excavated in the years 1971-1974. The site is now open to the public as a national park.

The location of Kursi, its architectural features and the testimony of early travelers identify it as the site where, according to tradition, Jesus healed two men possessed by demons. (Matthew 8: 28-33) To commemorate the miracle, a monastery was built there, probably at the beginning of the 6th century.

The monastery is surrounded by a protective stone wall which creates a rectangular enclave measuring 140 x 120 m. The entrance, protected by a watchtower, faces west, towards the Sea of Galilee. In antiquity, a paved road led from the monastery to a small harbor which served Christian pilgrims arriving in boats.

A wide, paved path led from the entrance of the monastery complex to a large plaza in front of the church at the center of the complex. The 45 x 25 m. rectangular church consists of a courtyard surrounded by pillars; these formed an atrium through which one entered the prayer hall itself. In its interior, two rows of eight stone columns supported Corinthian capitals of marble with crosses carved in relief. The columns divided the prayer hall into a nave and two side aisles. The whole floor of the church was paved with colored tesserae. Preserved mainly in the aisles, square frames are decorated with floral and faunal motifs, such as grapes, figs, pomegranates, fish, birds and water fowl. The faunal representations were almost obliterated, probably by members of the iconoclastic movement which became active in the early Arab period (7th century). At the eastern end of the church was a raised apse reached by two steps with two square rooms beside it. One was used as a baptistery, attested to by a Greek inscription, dedicating it to the Abbot Stephanos in the time of the Emperor Mauricius (end of the 6th century).

Lateral wings were added to the sides of the church; the northern wing was an oil press, probably providing sacred oil for the pilgrims. To the south of the church there was a chapel with mosaic paving, beneath which was a crypt which contained the tombs of monks who had served in the monastery. Within the grounds of the monastery, living quarters for the monks and a hostel for housing pilgrims, as well as household utilities, were uncovered.

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Upon the slope overlooking the monastery to the south were the remains of a small chapel, incorporating a cave with a mosaic floor. In front of it stood a rock, some seven meters high, surrounded by revetment walls to prevent its collapse. This presumably marks the place where, according to tradition, the miracle recounted in the New Testament occurred.

The monastery was damaged by an earthquake in the middle of the 8th century and abandoned.

THE

Camel Caves

DWELLINGS OF
PREHISTORIC MAN

The Tabun cave was excavated (1969-71) by A.J. Jellinek of the University of Arizona and since 1971 under the direction of A. Ronen of Haifa University

The El-Wad cave was excavated by F. Falla of the French Archeological Mission in Jerusalem and by O. Bar Yosef of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (1980-81), and since 1980 by M. Weinstein-Evron on behalf of Haifa University

The caves are located on the western slopes of Mt. Carmel, some 20 km. south of Haifa, where Nahal Mearot (Valley of the Caves) emerges into the Coastal Plain. They were first excavated in the 1920s and 1930s. Then new digs were conducted from the late 1960s onwards, using advanced scientific methods based on modern geological, archeological and palynological (paleontological study of pollen, fossils, etc.) research.

Flint tools, animal bones and human burials found in the Carmel Caves contribute greatly to the understanding of the physical and cultural evolution of man in the early phases of his existence.

The Tabun Cave (Cave of the Oven)

The Tabun Cave was occupied intermittently during the Lower and Middle Paleolithic ages (half a million to some 40,000 years ago). In the course of this extremely long period of time, deposits of sand, silt and clay of up to 25 m. accumulated in the cave. Excavation proved that it has one of the longest sequences of human occupation in the Levant.

The earliest deposits contain large amounts of sea sand. This, and pollen traces found, suggest a relatively warm climate. The melting glaciers which covered large parts of the globe caused the sea level to rise and the Mediterranean coastline to recede. The Coastal Plain was narrower than it is today, and was covered with savannah vegetation. The cave dwellers used handaxes of flint or limestone for killing animals (gazelle, hippopotamus, rhinoceros and wild cattle which roamed the Coastal Plain) and for digging out plant roots. The tools improved slowly over a period of tens of thousands of years. The handaxes became smaller and better shaped and scrapers, made of thick flakes chipped off flint cores, were probably used for scraping meat off bones and for processing animal skins.

The upper levels in the Tabun Cave consist mainly of clay and silt, indicating that a colder, more humid climate prevailed when glaciers formed once more; this caused the Mediterranean Sea level to drop some 100 m., to its present level. It also produced a wider coastal strip, covered by dense forests and swamps.

The material remains from the upper strata in the Tabun Cave are of the Mousterian culture (about 200,000 45,000 years ago). Small flint tools, made of thin flakes, predominate here, many produced by the Levallois technique: a method of carefully trimming the flint core before the desired shape of the flake is struck off. Tools typical of this culture are elongated points, flakes of various shapes used as scrapers, end scrapers and many denticulate tools used for cutting and sawing.

The diet of the people who manufactured and used these tools consisted of fruit, seeds, roots and leaves with a supplement of meat gazelle, fallow deer, roe deer, and wild boar. The large number of bones of fallow deer found in the upper layers of the Tabun Cave may be due to the chimney-like opening in the back of the cave which functioned as a natural trap. The animals were probably herded towards it and fell into the cave where they were butchered.

The Tabun Cave contains a Neanderthal-type burial of a female, dated to about 120,000 years ago. It is one of the most ancient human skeletal remains found in Israel.

The Skhul Cave (Cave of the Kids)

Numerous human burials dated to approximately the same time were found in this nearby cave. Fourteen skeletons were uncovered, including three complete ones; they were defined as an archaic type of Homo sapiens, closely related to modern humans in physical appearance. It is believed that this human, with delicate facial features, a protruding chin and straight forehead, was fully developed around 100,000 years ago. The finds from these graves also show evidence of cult and rituals related to death and the spiritual realm.

The finds in the cave are of major importance to anthropological prehistoric research of the development of the human species. The theory that Homo sapiens did not develop from Neanderthal man, but that both lived contemporaneously, is becoming increasingly accepted: Neanderthal man became extinct while Homo sapiens developed into the modern human race.

The El-Wad Cave (Cave of the Valley)

This is the largest of the Mt. Carmel caves. The accumulated layers provide evidence of human presence from the end of the occupation of the Tabun Cave (approximately 45,000 years ago).

Important finds from this cave are of the Natufian culture (10,500 to 8,500 BCE), a highly developed culture relative to those preceding it. It signals the transition from the Palaeolithic to the Neolithic cultures, from plant-gathering and animal-hunting to plant-growing and animal-domestication. During this period, the level of the Mediterranean Sea rose again, as the glacial period came to an end, and the coastline stabilized, to roughly its present contours. The Coastal Plain became narrower and was covered by sparse forest and grasslands, with swamps in low-lying areas. The number of animal species had declined and consisted mainly of gazelles and wild cattle.

The population of the El-Wad cave used both the cave and the broad terrace in front of it. The settlement
is believed to have been permanent, a unique development in terms of previous lifestyles in the caves. It consisted of a few families living in a tent-village which served as the base for hunting expeditions and food gathering.

The Natufian flint tools are of very high quality and delicacy, very small and carefully retouched. These microliths were primarily scrapers for treating animal skins, points for wood- and bone-working, awls for piercing stones used as fishing weights, skins and decorative beads, blades for cutting meat and sawing bone and sickle blades (secured in wooden or bone scythes) for harvesting grain (which left a characteristic gloss on the edge of the blades). There were also microliths of lunate shape, used as arrowheads, for harpoons and as fish hooks and larger tools made of rough chunks of flint for cracking bones and hard-shelled seeds. Grinding tools, mortars and pestles made of stone, were used for food processing.

On the terrace in front of the cave, more then one hundred individual human burials were excavated. The dead were buried in a tightly flexed position, some with ornaments made of stone, bone or dentalia shell. The large number of skeletons provided anthropologists with the opportunity to study the physical characteristics of this Natufian population. The average height was between 1.58 and 1.65 m., the heads relatively large with wide and rather low foreheads, characteristics typical of populations of this period in the eastern Mediteranean Basin.

The El-Wad cave is now open to the public and visitors may appraise the many prehistoric finds and their place in the development of the human race.

Jerusalem

THE NORTHERN GATE OF AELIA CAPITOLINA (Roman Jerusalem)

The excavations were carried out by M. Magen on behalf of the East Jerusalem Development Corporation

The gate in the northern wall of the Old City of Jerusalem, designed to serve those entering the city from the north, was constructed in 1538 during the reign of the Ottoman Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent. Known today as the Damascus Gate, it is the largest and most elaborate of all the Old City gates.

Massive architectural remains incorporated into the foundations of the present structure suggested the possibility that it concealed parts of an earlier gate. Indeed, during the 1930s and again in the 1960s, excavations along the outer side of the Damascus Gate exposed the remains of the fortified Crusader gate and, below it, the second century Roman city gate preserved almost intact.

New excavations between 1979 1984 enabled scholars to familiarize themselves with this unique gate. It was an impressive city gate with three entrances, protected on both sides by massive towers. Only the eastern entrance has survived in its entirety but it indicates that all the entrances were spanned by arches, while engaged columns on high bases decorated the sides of each entrance.

The walls of the towers were built of large, well-dressed stones with typically Herodian margins. They had, no doubt, been removed from public buildings and from the retaining walls of the Temple Mount, after Jerusalem was destroyed by the Roman legions. The eastern tower of the Roman gate has survived to a height of 12 m., almost its original height, while the western tower is preserved to a height of 11 m. A flight of steps gives access to the roof of the towers.

The later excavations put an end to the longstanding dispute concerning the date of the gates construction. It is now clear that the gate was part of Roman Aelia Capitolina built at the beginning of the second century.

After the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 CE, the Tenth Roman Legion was stationed in Jerusalem to watch over the ruins and keep the Jews from returning to live in the city and from visiting the Temple Mount. During his journey to the eastern part of the Roman Empire in the years 130-131, Emperor Hadrian ordered that a pagan colony be established in Jerusalem, to be named Aelia Capitolina. This was the cause of the Jewish (Bar-Kochba) revolt in the years 132-135 CE. The elaborate city gate was undoubtedly built by Hadrian to mark the northern border of the unwalled Roman colony.

Above the eastern entrance to the gate one can still see a fragmentary inscription in Latin, probably in secondary use, which ends ".. by the decree of the decurions of Aelia Capitolina." Another triumphal gate was erected on the eastern side of the city at the time. Its remains are known today as the Ecce Homo arch.

The northern city gate of Roman Jerusalem was in use during the second and third centuries. Its side entrances were blocked during the Byzantine and Early Arab periods, and later the Crusaders built a new, fortified gate at a much higher level, thus unwittingly preserving the remains of the Roman gate below it.

The Roman gate of Aelia Capitolina has been restored and opened to the public; upon descending below the bridge leading to the Ottoman Damascus Gate, one can enter once again through this early gate into the city or climb the original stairs to the walkway along the Old City walls to enjoy the breathtaking view of the Old City and the Temple Mount.

Jerusalem

An Inscribed Pomegranate
from the Solomonic Temple in Jerusalem

The Israel Museum recently acquired a thumb-sized ivory pomegranate, 43 mm. high. Its body is vase-shaped and it has a long neck with six elongated petals. The body is solid with a small, rather deep hole in the base, probably for the insertion of a rod. Around the shoulder of the pomegranate is an incised inscription in paleo-Hebrew script, part of which is missing. It was, however, possible to reconstruct the missing word based on the surviving text and biblical evidence. The inscription reads: (sacred donation for the priests of the house of [Yahwe]h).

This pomegranate is the only known relic associated with the Temple built by King Solomon on Mt. Moriah in Jerusalem. According to its paleographic style, the inscription dates to the mid-8th century BCE. The small pomegranate was probably a gift to the Temple of Yahweh in Jerusalem the only such temple in the Kingdom of Judah.

The pomegranate fruit (rimon in Hebrew), with its abundance of juicy seeds has been regarded as a symbol of fertility for thousands of years. It is frequently mentioned in the Bible and is one of the seven species with which the Land of Israel is blessed (Deuteronomy 8:8). It was also a favorite motif of Jewish art in ancient times: the capitals of two columns in the facade of the Temple in Jerusalem were decorated with pomegranates
(1 Kings 7:42) and so were the robes of the High Priest. (Exodus 28: 33-34)

We may therefore assume that the rites performed by the priests in the Temple in Jerusalem included the use of scepters decorated with pomegranates, such as the one on view in the Israel Museum.

Jerusalem

UMAYYAD ADMINISTRATION CENTER AND PALACES

The excavations were conducted by B. Mazar on behalf of the Israel Exploration Society and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem

The conquest of Jerusalem by the Arab army in 638 was the beginning of an important era in the citys long history. The new rulers, of the Umayyad Dynasty (660-750), aimed at changing the character of the city from a Byzantine-Christian city of many churches, to a Muslim religious center and the administrative seat for a subdivison of their empire. They restored the breached walls of the Temple Mount (Haram al-Sharif) and built two impressive sanctuaries on it: the Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aksa mosque.

The two Hulda Gates of the Second Temple period in the southern wall of the Temple Mount were restored in order to provide the faithful with easy access to the Harams esplanade. The facade of the western of the two gates, the "Double Gate," is preserved and the carved stone archway dating to this period is still visible.

In excavations carried out in the 1970s south and southwest of the Temple Mount, the remains of six massive buildings were uncovered. Not known previously, they were obviously an administrative center of the Umayyad government.

The area south of the Temple Mount, which had sloped southwards, was leveled by earth fills and massive building foundations which entirely covered the Byzantine structures below. The result was a flat surface upon which the buildings were constructed, intersected by paved streets. Clay pipes were inserted into the stones of the Temple Mount wall, to provide running water from the main aqueduct along the restored Wilsons Arch on the Western Wall. Rainwater was channeled into large cisterns beneath the buildings, and an extensive drainage system was installed.

The Islamic administrative center included palaces and other buildings, which have been only partly uncovered. The palaces were similar in plan: a central courtyard surrounded by many rooms. Other structures, known as "pillared buildings," had large stone-paved courtyards with rows of square pilasters supporting the roofs.

The largest and most impressive palace, near the southwestern corner of the Temple Mount, was excavated completely. It was obviously the seat of the Umayyad caliph whenever he visited Jerusalem. This palace measures 96 x 84 m. and is surrounded by a three meter-thick protective wall, constructed of large, trimmed stones, many in secondary use from the collapsed Herodian walls of the Temple Mount. Two main gates, one facing east and one facing west, gave access to the palace. A broad, stone-paved courtyard in the center of the building was surrounded by rows of columns supporting the roofing of the porticoes. Many of the columns came from Byzantine churches, as evidenced by traces of engraved crosses on them. The rooms around the central courtyard were paved with small stone slabs and mosaic. Plaster, decorated with geometric designs and floral motifs, covered the exceptionally thick walls.

A bridge was built from the roof of this palace to the Haram, providing direct access to the Al-Aksa mosque.

The palace was apparently constructed during the reign of the Umayyad caliph El-Walid I (705-715) and is similar to other fortified Umayyad palaces on the fringe of the desert in Transjordan and Syria. But unlike those, the palace in Jerusalem a fortified city was not protected by towers.

This magnificent complex of Islamic buildings was destroyed by the earthquake of 749; evidence of this are the fallen columns and collapsed walls.

Some of the buildings, and particularly the main palace, have recently been restored and are now open to visitors. They are an impressive addition to the many discoveries of earlier times those of the Second Temple, the Roman and the byzantine periods which have been exposed and preserved in this location.

Jerusalem

Burial sites and tombs of the Second Temple period

Tomb No. 5 was excavated by I.Y. Rahmani; tombs Nos. 8 and 9 by V. Tzaferis and tomb No. 10 by Z. Greenhut, all on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority. The rest of the tombs are above ground, or were scientifically published decades ago

The large number of burial sites and tombs in Jerusalem dating from the Second Temple period (second century BCE first century CE) have been the subject of intensive and continuing investigation. Hundreds of tombs, elaborate and simple, were hewn into the slopes of the hills surrounding the city, mainly on the Mount of Olives and Mount Scopus.

The burial caves were in continuous use for several generations by members of the same family. Simple tombs have a narrow opening, sealed with a square stone. Several dozen particularly large tombs have splendid facades, decorated with columns topped by gables with floral motifs. In primary burial, bodies were placed in niches (kuhim) or on benches (arcosolia) cut into the walls of the burial chambers. The most typical feature of the Jewish tombs of that period are the stone chests with lids (ossuaries). Thousands of these have been found in Jerusalem, some decorated and bearing inscriptions. They attest to the prevalent practice of collecting the bones of the deceased for secondary burial, a custom based on the Jewish belief in the resurrection of the dead. Following are descriptions of some of the more important tombs.

There are three famous tombs in the Kidron Valley:

The Bible recounts King Uzziahs deeds and conquests and also describes his burial: Uzziah rested with his fathers in the burial field of the kings, because, they said, he is a leper. (2 Chronicles 26:3)

King Uzziah was obviously not buried in the royal tombs within the City of David. Josephus wrote (Antiquities of the Jews 9:10,4) that "he was buried alone in his garden". The necessity to remove the bones of Uzziah from their original burial place was probably connected with the expansion of the city during Herods reign.

Among the bones stored in another ossuary were two heel bones pierced by a large iron nail, indicating crucifixion. This rare find was widely publicized and is of particular interest in view of the New Testament description of the crucifixion of Jesus.

I, Abba, son of the priest

Eleaz(ar), son of Aaron the high (priest),

I, Abba, the oppressed

and the persecuted (?),

who was born in Jerusalem,

and went into exile into Babylonia

and brought (back to Jerusalem) Mattathi(ah),

son of Jud(ah), and buried him in a

cave which I bought by deed.

This intriguing inscription caused much speculation as to the identity of the person buried here. One theory is that the remains in the decorated ossuary are those of the last king of the Hasmonean dynasty, Mattathias Antigonus who, in an attempt to restore the former independence of the Hasmoneans, had sought the help of the Partians. He was defeated and killed by the Romans in 37 BCE.

Lachish

ROYAL CITY OF THE KINGDOM OF JUDAH

The excavations were conducted by D. Ussishkin of Tel Aviv University

Tel Lachish, the mound of the ancient city of Lachish, is located in the lowlands of the Judean Hills, some 40 km. southeast of Jerusalem. The abundance of water sources and the fertile valleys of the area favored the existence of a prosperous city over a considerable period of time.

The mound of the city was first excavated during the 1930s. Systematic and in-depth excavations of large areas of the mound were again conducted between 1973 and 1987.

The Canaanite city

A large, fortified Canaanite city was established at the beginning of the 2nd millennium BCE on a hillock dominating the surrounding area. It was fortified by a wall and a glacis, a ramp-like structure of compressed earth with a hard, smooth surface of lime plaster. The fortification was completed by a fosse (moat) at the foot of the glacis.

A large palace of numerous rooms and a courtyard, probably the residence of the Canaanite King of Lachish, stood on the acropolis the highest part of the city. It could not be completely exposed, as a later Israelite palace was built above it.

From letters sent by the kings of Lachish to their overlords, the pharaohs of Egypt (the 14th century BCE el-Amarna correspondence) it may be deducted that Lachish was an important urban center and the seat of the Egyptian governor of southern Canaan.

Two temples are known from this period at Lachish. Finds from the Fosse Temple, at the western foot of the mound, include cult vessels, offering bowls and imported items of pottery, faience and ivory, all evidence of wealth. The temple on the acropolis, with Egyptian architectural elements, included an entrance chamber, a main hall (16 x 13 m.) and a raised holy of holies. Two octagonal stone columns supported the wooden ceiling, while the walls were decorated with painted plaster.

Canaanite Lachish was totally destroyed by fire at the end of the 12th century BCE. According to one theory, the destruction was wrought by the Philistines of the nearby Coastal Plain; according to another, more widely accepted theory, it was wrought by the Israelites, whose capture and destruction of the city is recorded in the Bible. (Joshua 10:31,32)

The Israelite city

Rebuilt as a fortress-city of the Kingdom of Judah, Lachish gained in importance after the split of the kingdom into Judah and Israel. As the largest city on the western border of the Kingdom of Judah facing the Philistines of the Coastal Plain, Lachish was fortified with a double line of massive mud-brick walls on stone foundations. The main city wall on top of the mound was 6 m. wide, with a sloping glacis supported by a revetment wall along the middle of the slope. The city gate, in the southwestern wall, is one of the largest and most strongly fortified gates known of this period. It consists of an outer gate in a huge tower built of large stones which protrudes from the line of defenses. The gatehouse, on top of the mound, consists of three pairs of chambers with wooden doors on hinges.

A palace-fortress was built on the acropolis and probably served as the residence of the governor appointed by the King of Judah. During the 8th century BCE a new wing was added to the palace, enlarging it to 76 x 36 m. Next to the palace was a courtyard with stables and storerooms; the whole complex was surrounded by a wall with a gatehouse.

The city of Lachish was destroyed by the Assyrian army during Sennacheribs campaign against the Kingdom of Judah in 701 BCE. The destruction was total; the buildings were burned to the ground and the inhabitants exiled. The Assyrian campaign, during the reign of King Hezekiah, and the encampment of the Assyrian army at Lachish are described in detail in the Bible. (2 Kings 18:14-17; 2 Chronicles 32:9) The conquest of Lachish is depicted in monumental stone reliefs found at Sennacheribs palace at Ninveh, providing a rare contemporary "photograph" of the battle and conquest. These relief-images of the Assyrian attack have been confirmed by archeological evidence at the site: the attack on Lachish was launched from the southwest; the attackers built a siege ramp against the slope of the mound, which according to calculation contained some 15,000 tons of stones and earth! The ramp was covered with plaster to allow the Assyrian battering ram to be moved up to the city wall and breach it. The citys defenders constructed a counter-ramp inside the city, thus raising the city wall, which forced the Assyrians to raise the height of their ramp in order to overcome the citys new defenses. The fierceness of the battle is attested to by the remains of weapons, scales of armor, hundreds of slingstones and arrowheads.

During the reign of King Josiah (639-609 BCE), the city of Lachish was rebuilt and fortified. This much poorer city was captured and destroyed by the Babylonian army in 587/6 BCE. (Jeremiah 34:7) In one of the rooms, which opened onto a courtyard outside the city gatehouse, a group of ostraca were found during the excavations in the 1930s. Now known as the Lachish Letters, they constitute an important corpus of Hebrew documents from the First Temple period. Written in paleo-Hebrew script on pottery sherds, they are messages sent by the garrison commander of a small fortress to his commanding officer in Lachish.

Timna

VALLEY OF THE ANCIENT COPPER MINES

The survey and excavations at Timna were conducted by B. Rotenberg, on behalf of the Arava Expedition under the auspices of the Haaretz Museum of Tel Aviv, the Institute of Archeology, Tel Aviv University and (since 1974) the Institute for Archeo-Metallurgical Studies of University College, London

The Timna Valley is located in the southwestern Arava, some 30 km. north of the Gulf of Eilat. It is a semi-circular, erosional formation of some 70 sq. km., opening in the east towards the Arava; on the north, west and south it is surrounded by cliffs, about 300 m. high. In the lower parts of these cliffs and on the slopes in front of them, copper-rich nodules (up to 55% copper) mainly of malachite and chalcocite, were mined in ancient times. Ever since man discovered, in the 6th millennium BCE, how to turn a piece of rock into malleable metal, copper has been mined and smelted in the Timna Valley even in modern times, by the Israeli Timna Mining Company, which is no longer in production.

Extensive remains of human activity during early periods are still visible in the rugged hills. There is evidence of copper mining in shafts and galleries and copper smelting in furnaces of various types, and there are remains of camps and several cult sites, including an Egyptian mining sanctuary.

The existence of the remains of copper production at Timna was known from surveys conducted at the end of last century, but scientific attention and public interest was aroused when in the 1930s Nelson Glueck attributed the copper mining at Timna to King Solomon (10th century BCE) and named the site "King Solomons Mines"; this theory has not been verified by subsequent field work.

Surveys and excavations in the Timna Valley were conducted between 1959 and 1990. From the surprising findings it is now possible to reconstruct the long and complex history of copper production there, from the Late Neolithic period to the Middle Ages. Mining activities in the Timna Valley reached a peak during the reign of the Pharaohs of the 14th12th centuries BCE, when Egyptian mining expeditions, in collaboration with Midianites and local Amalekites, turned the Timna Valley into a large-scale copper industry.

Copper mining

After an initial phase of surface collection of ore nodules in prehistoric times, the early miners followed outcropping ore veins underground. These earliest shafts, hammered into the rock with large and clumsy stone tools, were irregular big holes from which galleries spread in all directions, following the ore.

The Egyptian miners who came later used metal chisels and hoes and excavated very regular, tubular shafts, with footholds in the walls for moving down, and up, the shafts. Some of these shafts penetrated to a depth of 30 m. and more, before reaching the copper-rich sandstone formation. From the shafts, narrow galleries followed the ore occurrence, widening into underground cavities where large bodies of ore nodules had to be mined out. As the complex network of galleries grew, heavy loads of ore had to be dragged along the narrow galleries, to be hauled to the surface. These sophisticated multi-leveled shaft-and-gallery mines, with proper underground ventilation, are the earliest systematic mines of this kind discovered to date.

Mining was abandoned when the concentration of ore nodules declined. The abandoned shafts and galleries were either intentionally filled with mining waste, or gradually filled up with wind- and water-carried sand. Evidence of their existence is visible today in saucer-like "plates" thousands of them on the slopes below the Timna Cliffs.

Copper production

The earliest, well-preserved copper smelting furnace dates from the 5th millennium BCE. It consisted of a small pit dug in the ground, with a low substructure of field stones, and was ventilated by goatskin bellows. Smelting in these pits was primitive and inefficient.

During the following three millennia, copper was produced with steadily improving furnaces and control of the metallurgical processes. Already in the Chalcolithic period (4th millennium BCE), iron ore (available in Timna) was added as flux to the smelting charge of copper ore and charcoal, which greatly improved the smelting. Another big step forward, in the early third millennium BCE, was "tapping" the fluid slag out of the hot furnace, which made continuous smelting possible and saved precious fuel. The metallic copper produced by this process remained at the bottom of the furnace as an irregular ingot probably the earliest copper ingot in history.

There is no evidence of mining or smelting in Timna from the middle of the 3rd millennium BCE until the late 2nd millennium BCE, when Egyptian mining expeditions arrived. There are the ruins of numerous work camps, mainly workshops for copper smelting. One of the larger ( 400 sq.m.) camps was excavated; in its central courtyard, a stone-lined storage pit contained copper ore nodules to be crushed on a nearby stone platform. A variety of grinding tools, such as granite hammers, mortars and pestles, anvils and "saddle-backed" sandstone querns were found on this platform. Near the smelting furnaces, at a distance from the workshops, slag heaps, charcoal pits, tuyères, stone tools and potsherds were found.

In the 14th century BCE, during the Egyptian-Midianite copper production at Timna, a very advanced smelting furnace, consisting of a bowl-shaped smelting hearth dug into the ground and lined with clay mortar, was in use. It was about 40 cm. in diameter and up to 50 cm. high. Some of the furnaces had a dome-shaped top. In front of the smelting hearth was a shallow pit, flanked by two large stones, which served as the slag tapping pit. A clay tube penetrated the furnace wall opposite the tapping hole and served as a tuyère through which air was blown by pot-bellows. For each furnace three bellows were needed and the smelting area was littered with hundreds of tuyère fragments.

The Hathor Temple

At the foot of the huge sandstone formation in the center of the Timna Valley known as "King Solomons Pillars," a small Egyptian temple was excavated. Dedicated to Hathor, Egyptian goddess of mining, it was founded during the reign of Pharaoh Seti I (1318-1304 BCE) and served the members of the Egyptian mining expeditions and also their local co-workers. The sanctuary consisted of an open courtyard measuring 9 x 6 m., with a naos (cult chamber), where a niche had been cut into the rock, apparently to house a statue of Hathor. The temple was badly damaged by earthquake and rebuilt during the reign of Pharaoh Ramses II (1304-1237 BCE), with an enlarged courtyard (10 x 9 m.) and a new, solid white floor. The walls were made of local sandstone and granite but the facade was of white sandstone from the mining area. The temple, with its two square columns bearing Hathor heads, must have been an exciting sight in the light of the rising sun. In the temple courtyard there was a workshop for casting copper figurines as votive offerings. Among the finds in this temple were hieroglyphic inscriptions including cartouches (seals) of most of the pharaohs who reigned in the 14th12th centuries BCE. There were also numerous other Egyptian-made votive offerings, including many copper objects, alabaster vessels, cat and leopard figurines of faience, seals, beads and scarabs as well as Hathor sculptures, figurines and plaques. Altogether several thousand artifacts were uncovered in the Egyptian temple.

With the decline of Egyptian control of the region in the middle of the 12th century BCE, the mines at Timna and the Hathor temple were abandoned. However, cultic activities in the temple were restored by the Midianites, who remained in Timna for a short period after the Egyptians left. They cleared most traces of the Egyptian cult and effaced the images of Hathor and the Egyptian hieroglyphic inscriptions on the stelae. Other changes were made: a row of mazeboth (stelae), was erected and a bench of offerings was built on both sides of the entrance. Remains of woolen cloth found along the courtyard walls provide evidence that the Midianites turned the Egyptian temple into a tented desert shrine. Among the finds in this Midianite shrine was a large number of votive gifts brought especially from Midian, including beautifully decorated Midianite pottery and metal jewelry. Of particular significance is the find of a copper snake with gilded head. It is reminiscent of the copper serpent described in Numbers 21:6-9.

The evidence of a sophisticated Midianite culture, as found in Timna, is of extraordinary importance in the light of the Biblical narrative of the meeting of Moses and Jethro, high priest of Midian, and the latters participation in
the organization and cult of the Children of Israel in the desert. (Exodus 18)

Recent archeological discoveries .......................................... 4

Cumulative Table of Contents ............................................. 37

CULT CENTER of THE GOD PAN

The remains of the city of Banyas (Arabic pronunciation of Panias) are located in northern Israel, at the foot of Mt. Hermon. Here, below a steep cliff, the cold waters of the Banyas spring, one of the sources of the Jordan River, gush forth.

According to written sources, Banyas was first settled in the Hellenistic period. The Ptolemaic kings, in the 3rd century BCE, built a cult center to counter the Semitic one at Dan to the south, which indeed gradually declined. Then, in 200 BCE, the Seleucid ruler Antiochus III defeated the Ptolemaic army in this region and captured Banyas.

Almost 200 years later, in 20 BCE, the region which included Banyas was annexed to the Kingdom of Herod the Great and was ruled by his successors until the end of the first century CE. In the year
2 BCE, Herod Philip founded a pagan city and named it Caesarea Philippi (in honor of Augustus Caesar). It became the capital of his large kingdom which spread across the Golan and the Hauran. Contemporary sources refer to the city as Caesarea Panias; the New Testament as Caesarea Philippi. (Matt. 16:13)

During the Roman period, the center of the city spread over a plateau measuring 300 x 300 m., with natural features protecting it on three sides. At its peak, it extended even beyond these natural boundaries.

From the fourth century and until the Arab conquest, Panias functioned as an important Christian center. During the Arab period, the city was the district capital of the Golan in the province of Damascus and its name was changed to Banyas. During Fatimid rule in the 11th century, fortifications were constructed. Then the Crusaders, who ruled the town from 1129, surrounded it with a massive ring of fortifications. However, after repeated attacks, the city was conquered by Nur ed-Din of Damascus in 1164. Fearing that it might again serve as a Crusader fortress, the fortifications were dismantled at the beginning of the 13th century and are, therefore, only partly visible.

Banyas gradually lost its importance. Today there is a Druze holy place (Weli Sheikh Khader) in a whitewashed building on the cliff overlooking the spring.

Since 1967, but mainly during the last ten years, major excavations at the site have focused upon two areas: the remains of the sanctuary complex to the god Pan; and the center of the city the latter continue to the present.

The temenos (sacred precinct) dedicated to Pan was constructed on an elevated, 80 m. long natural terrace along a cliff which towered over the north of the city. At its western end is a large grotto which has been regarded as sacred to Pan since the Hellenistic period. At the foot of the sacred precinct is the spring, a major component in the sites sanctity. The cult site to the god Pan derives from the juxtaposition of natural features which include forest, spring and cave. From time immemorial, the site had been visited by wandering shepherds who worshipped at the cave and the spring.

The excavations uncovered remains of a cult center dedicated to the god Pan which developed in several phases during the Roman period. The temenos included a temple, courtyards, a grotto and niches for rituals. Several decorated niches were cut into the rock cliff, in which statues probably stood in the past. Inscriptions, mentioning donors, were carved between the niches. Of the temples which stood here, only the foundations survived. Following the Muslim conquest in the 7th century, this pagan cult center which had existed throughout the Byzantine period was destroyed and the ashlars of the walls removed for re-use.

The Temple of Zeus

Opposite the entrance to the sacred grotto, Herod the Great, in 19 BCE, built a temple in honor of his patron, Augustus Caesar, described by the contemporary Jewish historian Josephus Flavius (The Jewish War I: 404-405). This temple was 20 m. long and had two parallel walls, 10.5 m. apart. Cult niches which once contained sculptures were found along the inner faces of the walls, which also served as retaining walls. This semi-subterranean building also provided access to the sacred grotto behind the temple. This temple, only partly preserved, is depicted on contemporary coins minted by the city, showing a facade decorated with four Ionic columns.

The Court of Pan and the Nymphs

During the first century CE another shrine, dedicated to Pan and the Nymphs, was constructed east of the Temple of Augustus. This building consisted of three especially thick walls with cement foundations; it abutted the cliff on its north, creating a rectangular enclosure measuring 15 x 10 m. which apparently served as an open-air shrine. A small grotto was cut into the rock cliff behind it and, in a later period, niches for statues were added. A Greek inscription indicates that these niches date to the year 148: "The priest Victor, son of Lysimachos, dedicated this goddess to the god Pan, lover of Echo."

The Temple of Zeus and the Nemesis Courtyard

Around the year 100 (the 100th anniversary of Panias), during the reign of Trajanus Caesar, a Temple of Zeus was built at Banyas, east of the previous one. The temple consisted of two rooms: a hall measuring 8.25 x 7.6 m. which was originally covered with colored marble slabs and a 4.25 m.- wide front porch. The facade of the building was decorated with four columns with Corinthian capitals of especially fine workmanship. It has been suggested that rituals were also carried out on the roof of the building, opposite the niches cut into the cliff face. A 4 m.-wide paved courtyard, approached from the south by a broad staircase, was dedicated to Nemesis, goddess of revenge and justice, whose cult was popular in the region. A carved niche in the rock cliff above it bears the inscription: "For the preservation of our lords the emperors, Valerios [Titi]anos, priest of god Pan, dedicated to the lady Nemesis and her Shrine which was made by cutting away the rock underneath... with the iron fence in the month of Apellaios."

Temple Tomb of the Goats

In the third century, a cultic building for the burial of the bones of the sacred goats was erected at the eastern end of the sacred precinct. The structure was divided into three long halls oriented north-south. Along the walls of the central hall (which measures 12.5 x 6.6 m.) were two low galleries supported by rectangular niches (0.6 sq. m. each) opening onto the central hall. The niches contained sherds and a large quantity of animal bones, mainly of sheep and goats, bringing to mind the cult of the sacred goats related to the god Pan, as depicted on Roman coins of the city of Panias. These finds suggest that the structure was used as a temple-tomb for the interment of the bones of the sacred goats, whose cult was probably practiced in the buildings excavated at Banyas.

The temple was found covered by a mound of debris with an abundance of fragments of statues and statuettes, among them Athena, Zeus, Aphrodite, Apollo, Dionysos and Pan. The best-preserved statue (restored from two fragments) is that of a half life-size Artemis with a hunting dog attacking a hare at her feet. The statues and statuettes were probably offerings brought to the sacred precinct and destroyed as an act of anti-paganism at the end of the Byzantine period or in the early Arab period.

The Banyas National Park, which includes the excavated and restored archeological remains, is a unique tourist attraction, with a combination of wild natural beauty: cliffs, mountains, forest and an abundance of flowing water.

Jewish City on the Golan

The city of Gamala on the Golan derived its name from gamal (Hebrew for camel), since it was situated on a hill shaped like a camels rump. The Hasmonean ruler Alexander Yannaeus founded the city in the first century BCE and it continued to be inhabited by Jews, as attested to by Josephus Flavius (Antiquities of the Jews 13:394). Josephus, a Jew, was Commander of Galilee during the Jewish Revolt against Rome and in 66 CE fortified Gamala as his main stronghold on the Golan. He gives a very detailed topographical description of the city and describes the Roman siege under the command of Vespasian which led to its conquest in 67 CE. The Romans attempted to take the city by means of a siege ramp, but were turned back by the defenders; only on the second attempt did they succeed in penetrating the fortifications and conquering the city. Thousands of inhabitants were slaughtered, while others chose to jump to their deaths from the top of the cliff (Josephus, The Jewish War IV, 1-83). Gamala has not been rebuilt since.

Josephus failure to provide a detailed geographical description of Gamalas location on the Golan made it difficult to locate. The identification was firmly established only in the course of archeological excavations during the 1970s.

The remains of the city are located on a rocky basalt ridge surrounded by deep gorges, with a shallow saddle separating it from the rest of the ridge, providing the city with outstanding defensive advantages. The top of the hill is narrow and pointed, creating a very steep slope in the north; the city was built on the more graduated southern slope.

The main approach road led to the eastern part of the city, where a massive fortification wall was constructed. This wall, built of squared basalt stones, is some

6 m. thick. Several square towers situated along the wall, and a circular tower at the crest of the hill, contributed to the citys defenses. In the low-lying southern part of the wall, two square towers guarded the narrow gateway into the city. In some sections of the wall, rooms of adjacent houses had been filled with stones in order to strengthen the wall. This led researchers to hypothesize that the wall had been hastily constructed, or strengthened, on the eve of the Roman siege.

A five meter-wide breach was found at the center of the eastern wall. Scattered around it were dozens of ballista stones and arrowheads; similar finds were also uncovered in destroyed buildings inside the wall all material evidence of the breaching of the wall and the battle between the Roman attackers and the Jewish defenders of the city.

Inside the city, near the wall, an impressive public building was uncovered and identified as the synagogue of Gamala. It is rectangular in shape (25.5 x 17 m.) and oriented northeast to southwest in the direction of Jerusalem. Along the walls are several rows of stone-built benches. Pillars around the center of the hall supported the roof. In the courtyard, wide steps led down to a mikve (Jewish ritual bath) which served those who came to pray in the synagogue.

The houses of the city were built on terraces with stepped alleys between them. Well-constructed residences with large rooms, obviously of the wealthy, were uncovered in the west of the city. The large number of oil presses suggests that olives and the production of oil were the basis of the citys economy.

Evidence of fire and destruction uncovered in the buildings are vivid testimony of the drama which unfolded when the Roman Legions captured the city. But the huge mounds of collapsed stones also helped preserve Gamalas remains.

Several unique coins minted in Gamala during the Jewish Revolt were found during the excavations. On the obverse of some coins appears the word ligeulat (for the redemption of) and on the reverse, yerushalayim hakedosha (Holy Jerusalem).

The remains of Gamala have been preserved as a national park.

CHRISTIAN MONASTERY ON THE SHORE OF

THE SEA OF GALILEE

The Byzantine monastery of Kursi is situated east of the Sea of Galilee at the mouth of a wadi (riverbed) descending from the Golan Heights and creating a small, fertile valley along the shoreline. The remains of the ancient monastery came to light accidentally, during construction of a new road, and they were excavated in the years 1971-1974. The site is now open to the public as a national park.

The location of Kursi, its architectural features and the testimony of early travelers identify it as the site where, according to tradition, Jesus healed two men possessed by demons. (Matthew 8: 28-33) To commemorate the miracle, a monastery was built there, probably at the beginning of the 6th century.

The monastery is surrounded by a protective stone wall which creates a rectangular enclave measuring 140 x 120 m. The entrance, protected by a watchtower, faces west, towards the Sea of Galilee. In antiquity, a paved road led from the monastery to a small harbor which served Christian pilgrims arriving in boats.

A wide, paved path led from the entrance of the monastery complex to a large plaza in front of the church at the center of the complex. The 45 x 25 m. rectangular church consists of a courtyard surrounded by pillars; these formed an atrium through which one entered the prayer hall itself. In its interior, two rows of eight stone columns supported Corinthian capitals of marble with crosses carved in relief. The columns divided the prayer hall into a nave and two side aisles. The whole floor of the church was paved with colored tesserae. Preserved mainly in the aisles, square frames are decorated with floral and faunal motifs, such as grapes, figs, pomegranates, fish, birds and water fowl. The faunal representations were almost obliterated, probably by members of the iconoclastic movement which became active in the early Arab period (7th century). At the eastern end of the church was a raised apse reached by two steps with two square rooms beside it. One was used as a baptistery, attested to by a Greek inscription, dedicating it to the Abbot Stephanos in the time of the Emperor Mauricius (end of the 6th century).

Lateral wings were added to the sides of the church; the northern wing was an oil press, probably providing sacred oil for the pilgrims. To the south of the church there was a chapel with mosaic paving, beneath which was a crypt which contained the tombs of monks who had served in the monastery. Within the grounds of the monastery, living quarters for the monks and a hostel for housing pilgrims, as well as household utilities, were uncovered.

.

Upon the slope overlooking the monastery to the south were the remains of a small chapel, incorporating a cave with a mosaic floor. In front of it stood a rock, some seven meters high, surrounded by revetment walls to prevent its collapse. This presumably marks the place where, according to tradition, the miracle recounted in the New Testament occurred.

The monastery was damaged by an earthquake in the middle of the 8th century and abandoned.

THE

DWELLINGS OF
PREHISTORIC MAN

The caves are located on the western slopes of Mt. Carmel, some 20 km. south of Haifa, where Nahal Mearot (Valley of the Caves) emerges into the Coastal Plain. They were first excavated in the 1920s and 1930s. Then new digs were conducted from the late 1960s onwards, using advanced scientific methods based on modern geological, archeological and palynological (paleontological study of pollen, fossils, etc.) research.

Flint tools, animal bones and human burials found in the Carmel Caves contribute greatly to the understanding of the physical and cultural evolution of man in the early phases of his existence.

The Tabun Cave (Cave of the Oven)

The Tabun Cave was occupied intermittently during the Lower and Middle Paleolithic ages (half a million to some 40,000 years ago). In the course of this extremely long period of time, deposits of sand, silt and clay of up to 25 m. accumulated in the cave. Excavation proved that it has one of the longest sequences of human occupation in the Levant.

The earliest deposits contain large amounts of sea sand. This, and pollen traces found, suggest a relatively warm climate. The melting glaciers which covered large parts of the globe caused the sea level to rise and the Mediterranean coastline to recede. The Coastal Plain was narrower than it is today, and was covered with savannah vegetation. The cave dwellers used handaxes of flint or limestone for killing animals (gazelle, hippopotamus, rhinoceros and wild cattle which roamed the Coastal Plain) and for digging out plant roots. The tools improved slowly over a period of tens of thousands of years. The handaxes became smaller and better shaped and scrapers, made of thick flakes chipped off flint cores, were probably used for scraping meat off bones and for processing animal skins.

The upper levels in the Tabun Cave consist mainly of clay and silt, indicating that a colder, more humid climate prevailed when glaciers formed once more; this caused the Mediterranean Sea level to drop some 100 m., to its present level. It also produced a wider coastal strip, covered by dense forests and swamps.

The material remains from the upper strata in the Tabun Cave are of the Mousterian culture (about 200,000 45,000 years ago). Small flint tools, made of thin flakes, predominate here, many produced by the Levallois technique: a method of carefully trimming the flint core before the desired shape of the flake is struck off. Tools typical of this culture are elongated points, flakes of various shapes used as scrapers, end scrapers and many denticulate tools used for cutting and sawing.

The diet of the people who manufactured and used these tools consisted of fruit, seeds, roots and leaves with a supplement of meat gazelle, fallow deer, roe deer, and wild boar. The large number of bones of fallow deer found in the upper layers of the Tabun Cave may be due to the chimney-like opening in the back of the cave which functioned as a natural trap. The animals were probably herded towards it and fell into the cave where they were butchered.

The Tabun Cave contains a Neanderthal-type burial of a female, dated to about 120,000 years ago. It is one of the most ancient human skeletal remains found in Israel.

The Skhul Cave (Cave of the Kids)

Numerous human burials dated to approximately the same time were found in this nearby cave. Fourteen skeletons were uncovered, including three complete ones; they were defined as an archaic type of Homo sapiens, closely related to modern humans in physical appearance. It is believed that this human, with delicate facial features, a protruding chin and straight forehead, was fully developed around 100,000 years ago. The finds from these graves also show evidence of cult and rituals related to death and the spiritual realm.

The finds in the cave are of major importance to anthropological prehistoric research of the development of the human species. The theory that Homo sapiens did not develop from Neanderthal man, but that both lived contemporaneously, is becoming increasingly accepted: Neanderthal man became extinct while Homo sapiens developed into the modern human race.

The El-Wad Cave (Cave of the Valley)

This is the largest of the Mt. Carmel caves. The accumulated layers provide evidence of human presence from the end of the occupation of the Tabun Cave (approximately 45,000 years ago).

Important finds from this cave are of the Natufian culture (10,500 to 8,500 BCE), a highly developed culture relative to those preceding it. It signals the transition from the Palaeolithic to the Neolithic cultures, from plant-gathering and animal-hunting to plant-growing and animal-domestication. During this period, the level of the Mediterranean Sea rose again, as the glacial period came to an end, and the coastline stabilized, to roughly its present contours. The Coastal Plain became narrower and was covered by sparse forest and grasslands, with swamps in low-lying areas. The number of animal species had declined and consisted mainly of gazelles and wild cattle.

The population of the El-Wad cave used both the cave and the broad terrace in front of it. The settlement
is believed to have been permanent, a unique
development in terms of previous lifestyles in the caves. It consisted of a few families living in a tent-village which served as the base for hunting expeditions and food gathering.

The Natufian flint tools are of very high quality and delicacy, very small and carefully retouched. These microliths were primarily scrapers for treating animal skins, points for wood- and bone-working, awls for piercing stones used as fishing weights, skins and decorative beads, blades for cutting meat and sawing bone and sickle blades (secured in wooden or bone scythes) for harvesting grain (which left a characteristic gloss on the edge of the blades). There were also microliths of lunate shape, used as arrowheads, for harpoons and as fish hooks and larger tools made of rough chunks of flint for cracking bones and hard-shelled seeds. Grinding tools, mortars and pestles made of stone, were used for food processing.

On the terrace in front of the cave, more then one hundred individual human burials were excavated. The dead were buried in a tightly flexed position, some with ornaments made of stone, bone or dentalia shell. The large number of skeletons provided anthropologists with the opportunity to study the physical characteristics of this Natufian population. The average height was between 1.58 and 1.65 m., the heads relatively large with wide and rather low foreheads, characteristics typical of populations of this period in the eastern Mediteranean Basin.

The El-Wad cave is now open to the public and visitors may appraise the many prehistoric finds and their place in the development of the human race.

THE NORTHERN GATE OF AELIA CAPITOLINA (Roman Jerusalem)

The gate in the northern wall of the Old City of Jerusalem, designed to serve those entering the city from the north, was constructed in 1538 during the reign of the Ottoman Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent. Known today as the Damascus Gate, it is the largest and most elaborate of all the Old City gates.

Massive architectural remains incorporated into the foundations of the present structure suggested the possibility that it concealed parts of an earlier gate. Indeed, during the 1930s and again in the 1960s, excavations along the outer side of the Damascus Gate exposed the remains of the fortified Crusader gate and, below it, the second century Roman city gate preserved almost intact.

New excavations between 1979 1984 enabled scholars to familiarize themselves with this unique gate. It was an impressive city gate with three entrances, protected on both sides by massive towers. Only the eastern entrance has survived in its entirety but it indicates that all the entrances were spanned by arches, while engaged columns on high bases decorated the sides of each entrance.

The walls of the towers were built of large, well-dressed stones with typically Herodian margins. They had, no doubt, been removed from public buildings and from the retaining walls of the Temple Mount, after Jerusalem was destroyed by the Roman legions. The eastern tower of the Roman gate has survived to a height of 12 m., almost its original height, while the western tower is preserved to a height of 11 m. A flight of steps gives access to the roof of the towers.

The later excavations put an end to the longstanding dispute concerning the date of the gates construction. It is now clear that the gate was part of Roman Aelia Capitolina built at the beginning of the second century.

After the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 CE, the Tenth Roman Legion was stationed in Jerusalem to watch over the ruins and keep the Jews from returning to live in the city and from visiting the Temple Mount. During his journey to the eastern part of the Roman Empire in the years 130-131, Emperor Hadrian ordered that a pagan colony be established in Jerusalem, to be named Aelia Capitolina. This was the cause of the Jewish (Bar-Kochba) revolt in the years 132-135 CE. The elaborate city gate was undoubtedly built by Hadrian to mark the northern border of the unwalled Roman colony.

Above the eastern entrance to the gate one can still see a fragmentary inscription in Latin, probably in secondary use, which ends ".. by the decree of the decurions of Aelia Capitolina." Another triumphal gate was erected on the eastern side of the city at the time. Its remains are known today as the Ecce Homo arch.

The northern city gate of Roman Jerusalem was in use during the second and third centuries. Its side entrances were blocked during the Byzantine and Early Arab periods, and later the Crusaders built a new, fortified gate at a much higher level, thus unwittingly preserving the remains of the Roman gate below it.

The Roman gate of Aelia Capitolina has been restored and opened to the public; upon descending below the bridge leading to the Ottoman Damascus Gate, one can enter once again through this early gate into the city or climb the original stairs to the walkway along the Old City walls to enjoy the breathtaking view of the Old City and the Temple Mount.

The Israel Museum recently acquired a thumb-sized ivory pomegranate, 43 mm. high. Its body is vase-shaped and it has a long neck with six elongated petals. The body is solid with a small, rather deep hole in the base, probably for the insertion of a rod. Around the shoulder of the pomegranate is an incised inscription in paleo-Hebrew script, part of which is missing. It was, however, possible to reconstruct the missing word based on the surviving text and biblical evidence. The inscription reads: ˛ÂÈ˙ÈÏÌð΢(sacred donation for the priests of the house of [Yahwe]h).

This pomegranate is the only known relic associated with the Temple built by King Solomon on Mt. Moriah in Jerusalem. According to its paleographic style, the inscription dates to the mid-8th century BCE. The small pomegranate was probably a gift to the Temple of Yahweh in Jerusalem the only such temple in the Kingdom of Judah.

The pomegranate fruit (rimon in Hebrew), with its abundance of juicy seeds has been regarded as a symbol of fertility for thousands of years. It is frequently mentioned in the Bible and is one of the seven species with which the Land of Israel is blessed (Deuteronomy 8:8). It was also a favorite motif of Jewish art in ancient times: the capitals of two columns in the facade of the Temple in Jerusalem were decorated with pomegranates
(1 Kings 7:42) and so were the robes of the High Priest. (Exodus 28: 33-34)

We may therefore assume that the rites performed by the priests in the Temple in Jerusalem included the use of scepters decorated with pomegranates, such as the one on view in the Israel Museum.

The conquest of Jerusalem by the Arab army in
638 was the beginning of an important era in the citys long history. The new rulers, of the Umayyad Dynasty (660-750), aimed at changing the character of the city from a Byzantine-Christian city of many churches, to a Muslim religious center and the administrative seat for a subdivison of their empire. They restored the breached walls of the Temple Mount (Haram al-Sharif) and built two impressive sanctuaries on it: the Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aksa mosque.

The two Hulda Gates of the Second Temple period in the southern wall of the Temple Mount were restored in order to provide the faithful with easy access to the Harams esplanade. The facade of the western of the two gates, the "Double Gate," is preserved and the carved stone archway dating to this period is still visible.

In excavations carried out in the 1970s south and southwest of the Temple Mount, the remains of six massive buildings were uncovered. Not known previously, they were obviously an administrative center of the Umayyad government.

The area south of the Temple Mount, which had sloped southwards, was leveled by earth fills and massive building foundations which entirely covered the Byzantine structures below. The result was a flat surface upon which the buildings were constructed, intersected by paved streets. Clay pipes were inserted into the stones of the Temple Mount wall, to provide running water from the main aqueduct along the restored Wilsons Arch on the Western Wall. Rainwater was channeled into large cisterns beneath the buildings, and an extensive drainage system was installed.

The Islamic administrative center included palaces and other buildings, which have been only partly uncovered. The palaces were similar in plan: a central courtyard surrounded by many rooms. Other structures, known as "pillared buildings," had large stone-paved courtyards with rows of square pilasters supporting the roofs.

The largest and most impressive palace, near the southwestern corner of the Temple Mount, was excavated completely. It was obviously the seat of the Umayyad caliph whenever he visited Jerusalem. This palace measures 96 x 84 m. and is surrounded by a three meter-thick protective wall, constructed of large, trimmed stones, many in secondary use from the collapsed Herodian walls of the Temple Mount. Two main gates, one facing east and one facing west, gave access to the palace. A broad, stone-paved courtyard in the center of the building was surrounded by rows of columns supporting the roofing of the porticoes. Many of the columns came from Byzantine churches, as evidenced by traces of engraved crosses on them. The rooms around the central courtyard were paved with small stone slabs and mosaic. Plaster, decorated with geometric designs and floral motifs, covered the exceptionally thick walls.

A bridge was built from the roof of this palace to the Haram, providing direct access to the Al-Aksa mosque.

The palace was apparently constructed during the reign of the Umayyad caliph El-Walid I (705-715) and is similar to other fortified Umayyad palaces on the fringe of the desert in Transjordan and Syria. But unlike those, the palace in Jerusalem a fortified city was not protected by towers.

This magnificent complex of Islamic buildings was destroyed by the earthquake of 749; evidence of this are the fallen columns and collapsed walls.

Some of the buildings, and particularly the main palace, have recently been restored and are now open to visitors. They are an impressive addition to the many discoveries of earlier times those of the Second Temple, the Roman and the byzantine periods which have been exposed and preserved in this location.

Burial sites and tombs of the Second Temple period

The large number of burial sites and tombs in Jerusalem dating from the Second Temple period (second century BCE first century CE) have been the subject of intensive and continuing investigation. Hundreds of tombs, elaborate and simple, were hewn into the slopes of the hills surrounding the city, mainly on the Mount of Olives and Mount Scopus.

The burial caves were in continuous use for several generations by members of the same family. Simple tombs have a narrow opening, sealed with a square stone. Several dozen particularly large tombs have splendid facades, decorated with columns topped by gables with floral motifs. In primary burial, bodies were placed in niches (kuhim) or on benches (arcosolia) cut into the walls of the burial chambers. The most typical feature of the Jewish tombs of that period are the stone chests with lids (ossuaries). Thousands of these have been found in Jerusalem, some decorated and bearing inscriptions. They attest to the prevalent practice of collecting the bones of the deceased for secondary burial, a custom based on the Jewish belief in the resurrection of the dead. Following are descriptions of some of the more important tombs.

There are three famous tombs in the Kidron Valley:

The Bible recounts King Uzziahs deeds and conquests and also describes his burial: Uzziah rested with his fathers in the burial field of the kings, because, they said, he is a leper. (2 Chronicles 26:3)

King Uzziah was obviously not buried in the royal tombs within the City of David. Josephus wrote (Antiquities of the Jews 9:10,4) that "he was buried alone in his garden". The necessity to remove the bones of Uzziah from their original burial place was probably connected with the expansion of the city during Herods reign.

Among the bones stored in another ossuary were two heel bones pierced by a large iron nail, indicating crucifixion. This rare find was widely publicized and is of particular interest in view of the New Testament description of the crucifixion of Jesus.

This intriguing inscription caused much speculation as to the identity of the person buried here. One theory is that the remains in the decorated ossuary are those of the last king of the Hasmonean dynasty, Mattathias Antigonus who, in an attempt to restore the former independence of the Hasmoneans, had sought the help of the Partians. He was defeated and killed by the Romans in 37 BCE.

ROYAL CITY OF THE KINGDOM OF JUDAH

Tel Lachish, the mound of the ancient city of Lachish, is located in the lowlands of the Judean Hills, some 40 km. southeast of Jerusalem. The abundance of water sources and the fertile valleys of the area favored the existence of a prosperous city over a considerable period of time.

The mound of the city was first excavated during the 1930s. Systematic and in-depth excavations of large areas of the mound were again conducted between 1973 and 1987.

The Canaanite city

A large, fortified Canaanite city was established at the beginning of the 2nd millennium BCE on a hillock dominating the surrounding area. It was fortified by a wall and a glacis, a ramp-like structure of compressed earth with a hard, smooth surface of lime plaster. The fortification was completed by a fosse (moat) at the foot of the glacis.

A large palace of numerous rooms and a courtyard, probably the residence of the Canaanite King of Lachish, stood on the acropolis the highest part of the city. It could not be completely exposed, as a later Israelite palace was built above it.

From letters sent by the kings of Lachish to their overlords, the pharaohs of Egypt (the 14th century BCE el-Amarna correspondence) it may be deducted that Lachish was an important urban center and the seat of the Egyptian governor of southern Canaan.

Two temples are known from this period at Lachish. Finds from the Fosse Temple, at the western foot of the mound, include cult vessels, offering bowls and imported items of pottery, faience and ivory, all evidence of wealth. The temple on the acropolis, with Egyptian architectural elements, included an entrance chamber, a main hall (16 x 13 m.) and a raised holy of holies. Two octagonal stone columns supported the wooden ceiling, while the walls were decorated with painted plaster.

Canaanite Lachish was totally destroyed by fire at the end of the 12th century BCE. According to one theory, the destruction was wrought by the Philistines of the nearby Coastal Plain; according to another, more widely accepted theory, it was wrought by the Israelites, whose capture and destruction of the city is recorded in the Bible. (Joshua 10:31,32)

The Israelite city

Rebuilt as a fortress-city of the Kingdom of Judah, Lachish gained in importance after the split of the kingdom into Judah and Israel. As the largest city on the western border of the Kingdom of Judah facing the Philistines of the Coastal Plain, Lachish was fortified with a double line of massive mud-brick walls on stone foundations. The main city wall on top of the mound was 6 m. wide, with a sloping glacis supported by a revetment wall along the middle of the slope. The city gate, in the southwestern wall, is one of the largest and most strongly fortified gates known of this period. It consists of an outer gate in a huge tower built of large stones which protrudes from the line of defenses. The gatehouse, on top of the mound, consists of three pairs of chambers with wooden doors on hinges.

A palace-fortress was built on the acropolis and probably served as the residence of the governor appointed by the King of Judah. During the 8th century BCE a new wing was added to the palace, enlarging it to 76 x 36 m. Next to the palace was a courtyard with stables and storerooms; the whole complex was surrounded by a wall with a gatehouse.

The city of Lachish was destroyed by the Assyrian army during Sennacheribs campaign against the Kingdom of Judah in 701 BCE. The destruction was total; the buildings were burned to the ground and the inhabitants exiled. The Assyrian campaign, during the reign of King Hezekiah, and the encampment of the Assyrian army at Lachish are described in detail in the Bible. (2 Kings 18:14-17; 2 Chronicles 32:9) The conquest of Lachish is depicted in monumental stone reliefs found at Sennacheribs palace at Ninveh, providing a rare contemporary "photograph" of the battle and conquest. These relief-images of the Assyrian attack have been confirmed by archeological evidence at the site: the attack on Lachish was launched from the southwest; the attackers built a siege ramp against the slope of the mound, which according to calculation contained some 15,000 tons of stones and earth! The ramp was covered with plaster to allow the Assyrian battering ram to be moved up to the city wall and breach it. The citys defenders constructed a counter-ramp inside the city, thus raising the city wall, which forced the Assyrians to raise the height of their ramp in order to overcome the citys new defenses. The fierceness of the battle is attested to by
the remains of weapons, scales of
armor, hundreds of slingstones and arrowheads.

During the reign of King Josiah (639-609 BCE), the city of Lachish was rebuilt and fortified. This much poorer city was captured and destroyed by the Babylonian army in 587/6 BCE. (Jeremiah 34:7) In one of the rooms, which opened onto a courtyard outside the city gatehouse, a group of ostraca were found during the excavations in the 1930s. Now known as the Lachish Letters, they constitute an important corpus of Hebrew documents from the First Temple period. Written in paleo-Hebrew script on pottery sherds, they are messages sent by the garrison commander of a small fortress to his commanding officer in Lachish.

VALLEY OF THE ANCIENT COPPER MINES

The Timna Valley is located in the southwestern Arava, some 30 km. north of the Gulf of Eilat. It is a semi-circular, erosional formation of some 70 sq. km., opening in the east towards the Arava; on the north, west and south it is surrounded by cliffs, about 300 m. high. In the lower parts of these cliffs and on the slopes in front of them, copper-rich nodules (up to 55% copper) mainly of malachite and chalcocite, were mined in ancient times. Ever since man discovered, in the 6th millennium BCE, how to turn a piece of rock into malleable metal, copper has been mined and smelted in the Timna Valley even in modern times, by the Israeli Timna Mining Company, which is no longer in production.

Extensive remains of human activity during early periods are still visible in the rugged hills. There is evidence of copper mining in shafts and galleries and copper smelting in furnaces of various types, and there are remains of camps and several cult sites, including an Egyptian mining sanctuary.

The existence of the remains of copper production at Timna was known from surveys conducted at the end of last century, but scientific attention and public interest was aroused when in the 1930s Nelson Glueck attributed the copper mining at Timna to King Solomon (10th century BCE) and named the site "King Solomons Mines"; this theory has not been verified by subsequent field work.

Surveys and excavations in the Timna Valley were conducted between 1959 and 1990. From the surprising findings it is now possible to reconstruct the long and complex history of copper production there, from the Late Neolithic period to the Middle Ages. Mining activities in the Timna Valley reached a peak during the reign of the Pharaohs of the 14th12th centuries BCE, when Egyptian mining expeditions, in collaboration with Midianites and local Amalekites, turned the Timna Valley into a large-scale copper industry.

Copper mining

After an initial phase of surface collection of ore nodules in prehistoric times, the early miners followed outcropping ore veins underground. These earliest shafts, hammered into the rock with large and clumsy stone tools, were irregular big holes from which galleries spread in all directions, following the ore.

The Egyptian miners who came later used metal chisels and hoes and excavated very regular, tubular shafts, with footholds in the walls for moving down, and up, the shafts. Some of these shafts penetrated to a depth of 30 m. and more, before reaching the copper-rich sandstone formation. From the shafts, narrow galleries followed the ore occurrence, widening into underground cavities where large bodies of ore nodules had to be mined out. As the complex network of galleries grew, heavy loads of ore had to be dragged along the narrow galleries, to be hauled to the surface. These sophisticated multi-leveled shaft-and-gallery mines, with proper underground ventilation, are the earliest systematic mines of this kind discovered to date.

Mining was abandoned when the concentration of ore nodules declined. The abandoned shafts and galleries were either intentionally filled with mining waste, or gradually filled up with wind- and water-carried sand. Evidence of their existence is visible today in saucer-like "plates" thousands of them on the slopes below the Timna Cliffs.

Copper production

The earliest, well-preserved copper smelting furnace dates from the 5th millennium BCE. It consisted of a small pit dug in the ground, with a low substructure of field stones, and was ventilated by goatskin bellows. Smelting in these pits was primitive and inefficient.

During the following three millennia, copper was produced with steadily improving furnaces and control of the metallurgical processes. Already in the Chalcolithic period (4th millennium BCE), iron ore (available in Timna) was added as flux to the smelting charge of copper ore and charcoal, which greatly improved the smelting. Another big step forward, in the early third millennium BCE, was "tapping" the fluid slag out of the hot furnace, which made continuous smelting possible and saved precious fuel. The metallic copper produced by this process remained at the bottom of the furnace as an irregular ingot probably the earliest copper ingot in history.

There is no evidence of mining or smelting in Timna from the middle of the 3rd millennium BCE until the late 2nd millennium BCE, when Egyptian mining expeditions arrived. There are the ruins of numerous work camps, mainly workshops for copper smelting. One of the larger ( 400 sq.m.) camps was excavated; in its central courtyard, a stone-lined storage pit contained copper ore nodules to be crushed on a nearby stone platform. A variety of grinding tools, such as granite hammers, mortars and pestles, anvils and "saddle-backed" sandstone querns were found on this platform. Near the smelting furnaces, at a distance from the workshops, slag heaps, charcoal pits, tuyères, stone tools and potsherds were found.

In the 14th century BCE, during the Egyptian-Midianite copper production at Timna, a very advanced smelting furnace, consisting of a bowl-shaped smelting hearth dug into the ground and lined with clay mortar, was in use. It was about 40 cm. in diameter and up to 50 cm. high. Some of the furnaces had a dome-shaped top. In front of the smelting hearth was a shallow pit, flanked by two large stones, which served as the slag tapping pit. A clay tube penetrated the furnace wall opposite the tapping hole and served as a tuyère through which air was blown by pot-bellows. For each furnace three bellows were needed and the smelting area was littered with hundreds of tuyère fragments.

The Hathor Temple

At the foot of the huge sandstone formation in the center of the Timna Valley known as "King Solomons Pillars," a small Egyptian temple was excavated. Dedicated to Hathor, Egyptian goddess of mining, it was founded during the reign of Pharaoh Seti I (1318-1304 BCE) and served the members of the Egyptian mining expeditions and also their local co-workers. The sanctuary consisted of an open courtyard measuring 9 x 6 m., with a naos (cult chamber), where a niche had been cut into the rock, apparently to house a statue of Hathor. The temple was badly damaged by earthquake and rebuilt during the reign of Pharaoh Ramses II (1304-1237 BCE), with an enlarged courtyard (10 x 9 m.) and a new, solid white floor. The walls were made of local sandstone and granite but the facade was of white sandstone from the mining area. The temple, with its two square columns bearing Hathor heads, must have been an exciting sight in the light of the rising sun. In the temple courtyard there was a workshop for casting copper figurines as votive offerings. Among the finds in this temple were hieroglyphic inscriptions including cartouches (seals) of most of the pharaohs who reigned in the 14th12th centuries BCE. There were also numerous other Egyptian-made votive offerings, including many copper objects, alabaster vessels, cat and leopard figurines of faience, seals, beads and scarabs as well as Hathor sculptures, figurines and plaques. Altogether several thousand artifacts were uncovered in the Egyptian temple.

With the decline of Egyptian control of the region in the middle of the 12th century BCE, the mines at Timna and the Hathor temple were abandoned. However, cultic activities in the temple were restored by the Midianites, who remained in Timna for a short period after the Egyptians left. They cleared most traces of the Egyptian cult and effaced the images of Hathor and the Egyptian hieroglyphic inscriptions on the stelae. Other changes were made: a row of mazeboth (stelae), was erected and a bench of offerings was built on both sides of the entrance. Remains of woolen cloth found along the courtyard walls provide evidence that the Midianites turned the Egyptian temple into a tented desert shrine. Among the finds in this Midianite shrine was a large number of votive gifts brought especially from Midian, including beautifully decorated Midianite pottery and metal jewelry. Of particular significance is the find of a copper snake with gilded head. It is reminiscent of the copper serpent described in Numbers 21:6-9.

The evidence of a sophisticated Midianite culture, as found in Timna, is of extraordinary importance in the light of the Biblical narrative of the meeting of Moses and Jethro, high priest of Midian, and the latters participation in
the organization and cult of the Children of Israel in the desert. (Exodus 18)