How far back can we peer into human history? Like astrophysicists gazing at the edge of the universe to detect evidence of the Big Bang, archaeologists and paleontologists search back before “history” to trace out human origins.
Prehistory (1,000,000 to 3150 B.C.)
Our knowledge of times so distant is spotty, to say the least. We call these earliest periods of human activity the Paleolithic (1,000,000–8300 B.C.) and Neolithic (8300–4500 B.C.) ages; the first is characterized by chipped stone tools and the second by polished stone implements. With the Chalcolithic period (4500–3150 B.C.), however, our knowledge of human civilization comes into sharper focus.a The age gets its name from two Greek words, chalcos, copper, and lithos, stone. Copper, the first metal used by man, makes its appearance during this time, though stone tools continued in use.
Two digs in 1997 will be exploring these earliest periods of history. The Har Karkom excavation, in the southern Negev, is the hands-down winner of the prize for investigating the oldest remains of any dig. In 1992, the expedition found a site believed to be a sanctuary from the beginning of the Upper Paleolithic Age, about 30,000 years ago. This site included large flint boulders with quasi-anthropomorphic shapes, numerous flint implements, human- and animal-shaped pebbles bearing evidence of human modification, and drawings formed by arrangements of pebbles on the ground. Subject of a heated debate in BAR, Har Karkom is identified by archaeologist and dig director Emmanuel Anati as a holy site from the time of the Exodus, perhaps even Mt. Sinai; others view it as simply a popular gathering place for nomads over the millennia. Whoever is right, the site has abundant pottery, altars, standing stones, campsites and tumulus gravesites dating from about 3000 to 2000 B.C.
Also exploring prehistory will be Yosef Garfinkel at Sha’ar ha-Golan, just south of the Sea of Galilee. The site contains much prehistoric art, with more than 150 clay and stone human figurines, the earliest pottery in Israel and monumental Neolithic architecture.
Bronze Age (3150 to 1200 B.C.)
The Bronze Age marks the dawn of civilization. The period gets its name from the bronze used in implements and weapons at this time, although for a good part of the Bronze Age many artifacts were still made of copper. Writing, the alphabet, cities, the political state, civil and religious administration, and vast public works—the hallmarks of human society—can all be traced to the Bronze Age.
Two of the greatest civilizations in history, the Egyptian and the Mesopotamian, rose in the Bronze Age. Ancient Israel was to be forever affected by her two great neighbors, at times a beneficiary of their cultures, at other times a victim of their conquests and at still other times a helpless battleground between the two. Many scholars have noted that the Bible’s accounts of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob seem to fit well with what we know of the Middle Bronze Age, even though many of those same scholars doubt that the patriarchs were historical figures. Although a matter of intense scholarly debate, the story of Joseph and his brothers seems to mesh with events in Egypt at the start of the Late Bronze Age.b
Tel Rehov, the site of a new dig next summer, was an independent Canaanite city-state mentioned in several Egyptian documents. According to an Egyptian stela found at nearby Beth-Shean, Rehov was loyal to the Egyptian pharaohs of the XIXth dynasty (13th century B.C.).
Chronologically, the Bronze Age divides in three: the Early (3150–2200 B.C.), the Middle (2200–1550 B.C.) and the Late (1550–1200 B.C.). The second half of the Bronze Age is also sometimes called the Canaanite period, named after the people who dominated ancient Palestine at the time. Along the Mediterranean coast, excavators at Ashkelon have discovered a major seaport of the Canaanites and Philistines, dating from 3000 B.C. until its destruction by 029Nebuchadnezzar in 604 B.C. Next season director Lawrence E. Stager of Harvard University will concentrate on the earliest Canaanite strata.
A Late Bronze Age public building—perhaps a temple or palace—will be excavated this summer at Tel Harassim (Kfar Menachem), in the Shephelah, the low hills bounded on the east by the Judean highlands and on the west by the Mediterranean coastal plain. The city was later destroyed and rebuilt by the Israelites.
Iron Age (1200 to 586 B.C.)
With the arrival of the Iron Age, we get to what for many readers is “the good stuff.” This is the period when events in the Bible can be said to take place on the stage of history.
Because of its many Biblical connections, the Iron Age is one of the most intensely studied eras in the ancient Near East, as can be seen from the numerous digs that investigate the period. The Iron Age is divided in two: Iron Age I (1200–1000 B.C.) covers the period of the Israelite emergence in Canaan;c Iron Age II (1000–586 B.C.) encompasses the period from the united 030monarchy and divided monarchy (with Israel in the north and Judah in the south) to the Babylonian Exile. As with the previous eras, the Iron Age gets its name from the dominant material used in tools and weapons, though for the first few centuries bronze was much more widespread than iron.
The Iron Age saw some of the most dramatic events in the ancient Near East. First and foremost, the Israelites emerged in Canaan. Just how—whether by swift military conquest as described by Joshua; by a gradual and largely peaceful takeover, as the Book of Judges seems to indicate; or by a complex social development out of the local Canaanite society, as many scholars now believe—is one of the hottest topics of debate among excavators.
According to the Bible, Hazor, in northern Galilee, played an important role in Joshua’s conquests. Its king, Jabin, gathered together a league of kings to oppose Joshua. Consequently, when Joshua defeated them, he singled out Hazor and burned it (Joshua 11:1–13). Tel Hazor contains temples and fortifications from the Canaanite period and administrative buildings, a citadel and an underground water system from the Israelite period. A huge palace, built around 1500 B.C., shows signs of having been destroyed by a fire at the end of the Late Bronze Age, when the Israelites were settling in Israel. Last season, excavator Amnon Ben-Tor of Hebrew University discovered four cuneiform tablets, raising hopes that he will soon discover a major Canaanite cuneiform archive. Although many such archives have been found in Mesopotamia and Egypt, none has yet been uncovered in Israel.
Archaeologists at Beth-Shemesh, located at the meeting point of Canaanite, Israelite and Philistine settlements,d face the challenge of excavating a site from this transitional period (see Beth-Shemesh, in this issue). Once a Canaanite city-state, Beth-Shemesh later became an important part of King Solomon’s administrative organization. But it is difficult to pinpoint when and how this transition took place: The assemblage of Canaanite and Israelite 031artifacts dating from the Iron Age indicates that this was a site of great cultural and ethnic interaction.
Around the same time that the Israelites emerged in Canaan, the Ammonites appeared east of the Jordan and the Sea Peoples (chief among them the Philistines) arrived en masse from their Aegean homelands. Tell Safut, located about 8 miles southwest of Amman, served as a defensive-administrative center on the edge of the Ammonite kingdom.
Settling along the Mediterranean coast, the Sea Peoples displaced the Canaanites (who moved further north, into northern Israel and modern Lebanon, and became known as the Phoenicians) and immediately became a thorn in Israel’s side. Founded by the Canaanites as early as 1900 B.C., Dor fell to a Sea People tribe, the Sikils, in about 1200 B.C. The Phoenicians reconquered the city in 1050 B.C. and dominated its culture for the next 800 years. Politically, however, Dor came under Israelite control and became the capital of one of Solomon’s administrative districts. Archaeologists at Dor have found two Iron Age I destruction levels with Philistine pottery, early Phoenician artifacts, a skeleton crushed beneath a fallen wall and a cow’s scapula with a sailing scene and a dedicatory inscription.
In the 11th century B.C., the Israelites underwent dramatic changes. From a loose coalition of tribes and clans, they coalesced into a kingdom under their first monarch, Saul. Under the leadership of the charismatic David, the Israelites established their capital in Jerusalem in about 1000 B.C. and became a regional power.e Excavations at Kinneret, on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, have uncovered a city from the time of King David. Hadar, a stronghold of the Aramean kingdom of Geshur east of the Sea of Galilee,f features an 11th-century B.C. palace that may have belonged to Talmai, King David’s father-in-law (2 Samuel 3:3). After defeating the Amalekites, David shared the spoils with the elders of Judah, including one elder from Yatir, located about 12 miles west of Hebron (1 Samuel 30:27).
The Israelite kingdom reached its zenith under Solomon, David’s son. Solomon built a magnificent temple to Yahweh in Jerusalem, fortified outlying cities and forged alliances with neighboring powers.g But the glory would not last long. Immediately after Solomon’s death, the realm split into the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah. A mere five years after Solomon’s death, Pharaoh Shishak conducted a devastating campaign in both Israel and Judah. The two kingdoms survived the onslaught, but the reprieve was to be short-lived. In the eighth century B.C., Assyrian armies applied the coup de grace to the northern kingdom and pillaged much of Judah. Only thanks to the ingenuity of King Hezekiah, who built a tunnel to divert water inside Jerusalem’s walls, did Judah escape the fate of the Israelite kingdom.h
An even greater danger, however, soon loomed. Assyria gave way to a newly ascendant Babylonia. Under Nebuchadnezzar, Babylon defeated Judah in the early sixth century B.C. and made its king her vassal. In 586 B.C., fearing that Judah would join Egypt in an alliance against Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar swiftly and brutally put an end to what was left of Judah’s kingdom by destroying Jerusalem and exiling Judah’s inhabitants.
Persian Period (559 to 332 B.C.)
When Cyrus the Great of Persia defeated the Babylonians late in the sixth century B.C., he allowed Judah’s exiles to return home. Thanks to the benign rule of the region’s new superpower, the Persian period in ancient Israel saw the revival of Israelite religious life, most notably in the rebuilding of the Jerusalem Temple. New settlements also sprouted up, such as at Tel Tanninim, which shows continuous occupation levels from the Persian period to the Crusader period (1099–1291 A.D.). Times would soon turn turbulent, however.
Hellenistic Period (332 to 141 B.C.)
Alexander the Great’s conquests ushered in the Hellenistic age in 332 B.C., a time of cultural ferment and interchange that left a permanent mark on Judaism. The Seleucids, Alexander’s successors in Syria, attempted to introduce pagan practices in Israel, but were rebuffed by a revolt led by the Hasmoneans. Yavneh-Yam, the site of ancient Jamnia, a maritime stronghold of Hellenized Phoenicians, played a significant role in this struggle. The Jewish leader Judas Maccabeus pursued the army of Gorgias to the plain of Jamnia (1 Maccabees 4:15) and burned the harbor 032of Jamnia and the fleet that was in it (2 Maccabees 12:8–9). Excavations there have revealed Hellenistic dwellings and red-figure pottery.
Hasmonean Period (141 to 37 B.C.)
A priestly-warrior clan, the Hasmoneans ruled Israel for little more than a century, from 141 to 37 B.C.i As in centuries past, this relatively quiet period would soon be shattered by the arrival of the greatest empire the world had yet known.
Herodian Period (37 B.C. to 70 A.D.)
When the Romans swept through the ancient Near East in the first century B.C., they were content to appoint locals to rule on their behalf. In ancient Israel, their surrogate was a half-Jew, half-Idumean named Herod. Though hated by most of the populace and even by much of his own family because of his murderous habits, Herod proved to be ancient Israel’s most prodigious builder. His engineers nearly doubled the size of the Temple Mount and totally renovated the Jerusalem Temple. They built whole cities, elegant tombs and sumptuous palaces.j A marvel of ancient engineering, 033Herod’s harbor at Caesarea Maritima could hold an entire Roman fleet. Excavators at this Mediterranean site have uncovered Herod’s royal palace and his temple to Roma and Augustus; an inscription bearing the name of the Roman procurator Pontius Pilate, who resided in the city; and lavish remains from the Roman and Byzantine cities.
Just four miles to the north, Shuni served as a hospital and spa for the people of Caesarea. The site features a mosaic floor; a public bath; an octagonal Asclepion, dedicated to the Roman god of medicine, Asclepius; and a theater where water festivals were held. A massive wall surrounds Ramat ha-Nadiv (about 1 mile from Shuni), a fort built by Herod to protect Caesarea’s water supply and the northern border of Judea.
While these public works were being built on a grand scale, other events—less noticed at the time, but in the long run more revolutionary—were taking place out of the limelight. In the small towns of Galilee, an itinerant preacher named Jesus taught his listeners that sincerity of heart was preferable to rote religious practice.k Excavations at Bethsaida, the birthplace of the apostles Peter, Andrew and Philip, have yielded a residential quarter dating to Jesus’ time as well as a strongly fortified Iron Age city.
At the same time, across the Jordan River, the Nabateans gained control of the region from Madaba in the north to the Red Sea in the south. These prominent traders, merchants and caravan guides established their capital at Petra, carving buildings out of the red sandstone mountains. At Khirbat Al-Mudayna, south of Amman, excavators have uncovered a Nabatean temple and storehouse.
Roman Period (70 to 324 A.D.)
The deep resentment against Roman rule led to two bitter Jewish revolts. The first ended in disaster in 70 A.D. with the second destruction of Jerusalem and its Temple. A second Jewish revolt, led by Simon Bar-Kokhba, fared no better and was crushed in 135 A.D.l The landscape of ancient Israel became thoroughly Romanized: Jews were banned from living in, or even visiting, Jerusalem, which was rebuilt as a Roman city named Aelia Capitolina. Major towns throughout the region could boast of a Cardo (a main street with porticoed shops on either side), baths, gymnasia and amphitheaters. After the Second Jewish Revolt, Sepphoris became for a time the seat of the Sanhedrin, the central legal and spiritual council of the Jewish people. Described by the Jewish historian Flavius Josephus as “the ornament of all Galilee,” the city includes a synagogue and ritual bath, and a Roman villa, theater, reservoir, glass-making installation and aqueduct.
An early Roman basilica and what may have been a palace have been discovered at Banias, at the foot of Mount Hermon. Beth Guvrin featured a large Roman bathhouse and an amphitheater spectators.
Byzantine Period (324 to 638 A.D.)
By the early fourth century, Christianity won the favor of Constantine the Great and became the official religion of the empire. The centuries that followed, called the Byzantine period, saw the building of magnificent churches throughout the Holy Land.m Two such churches graced Abila, in northern Jordan.
In the Roman and Byzantine periods, Ein Gedi was home to a flourishing Jewish community. The fourth-century A.D. church father Eusebius described the site as “a large village of Jews.” Excavations in the 1970s uncovered the remains of a magnificent Byzantine synagogue. This building’s mosaic floor incorporates numerous inscriptions, including one that appears to hint that the village’s wealth resulted from the cultivation of plants used in medicine and perfume. In his first season of renewed excavations at the site, director Yizhar Hirschfeld uncovered a Byzantine stone tower containing a large stone vat that may have been used to produce balsam oil. He also excavated several dwellings and a street from the Roman and Byzantine Jewish towns.
The Byzantine centuries marked the first great Christian era in Israel, an age that drew to a sudden end with the Islamic conquest of 638 A.D.
If you have never served on a dig, we hope this whirlwind tour through human history will inspire you to move from observer to participant. Many excavations simply could not function without volunteers. If you join their ranks, you will work alongside a diverse array of fellow enthusiasts from many countries and of all ages and faiths. Your lodgings and food will likely be spartan and simple, the weather hot and dusty, but the experience will be unmatched by anything you’ve ever done before. You will be, so to speak, diving into time and retrieving the timeless.
How far back can we peer into human history? Like astrophysicists gazing at the edge of the universe to detect evidence of the Big Bang, archaeologists and paleontologists search back before “history” to trace out human origins.
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