Strata
Excavating Dump Yields Lintel, Other Artifacts
Once again, politics and archaeology are entangled. The Jerusalem Post, in a story headlined “Rare Temple Mount lintel neglected by Antiquities Authority” (January 5, 2001), charges that a 3-foot-long carved stone fragment from the Second Temple period, found in January 2000 amid earth dug up from the Temple Mount and then dumped in the Kidron Valley by the Waqf—the Muslim religious authority that administers the Temple Mount—is languishing in the courtyard of the Rockefeller Museum, headquarters of the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA).
Depending on whom you speak to, the artifact is either so rare as to require immediate publication or is merely an interesting—but not revolutionary—architectural fragment that is being studied and will be published in due course. Archaeology student Zachi Zweig, a member of the Committee for the Prevention of the Destruction of Antiquities on the Temple Mount, told the Post, “This stone is the most important artifact ever recovered from the Temple Mount. It is part of a stately gate and it very well could have been from one of the entrances into the Temple itself.” But Jon Seligman, Jerusalem district archaeologist for the IAA, told BAR that the fragment is probably a door jamb rather than a lintel. While it could date to late Second Temple times, he says, it may also come from a later period.
If you have been following BAR’s coverage (most recently, “More Temple Mount Antiquities Destroyed,” BAR 26:05), you know about the Waqf’s unsupervised digging on the Temple Mount since the end of 1999. Intended initially to create a large gateway to the underground al-Marawani mosque (in the area popularly called Solomon’s Stables), the work on the Mount still continues as of this writing. Last October, trucks again began to roll off the Mount, carrying earth from a former park area along the eastern wall of the Mount in preparation for paving. Archaeologist Eilat Mazar, a member of the watchdog committee, reported that 70 trucks were counted exiting the Mount in a two-week period this past December. No representatives of the IAA were permitted to inspect the work.
In mid-January alarms again sounded when the Israeli press reported that an open trench and a tunnel were being dug to link the al-Marawani mosque to a smaller mosque beneath the al-Aqsa mosque. An Israeli police spokesman visited the mount and denied the existence of a tunnel but confirmed that a trench, described by the committee as more than 120 feet long and almost 3 feet deep, has been dug between the al-Aqsa mosque and the Dome of the Rock. Contrary to police denial of the tunnel, the Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz reported that eyewitnesses, including radio journalist Danny Zaken, have seen electric lights in the tunnel and “an iron grill in the floor through which can be seen remnants of an old floor.”
The IAA has been hamstrung by the current political situation between Israel and the Palestinians. The Israeli government, ignoring its own antiquities laws, has allowed the Waqf to continue the Temple Mount construction without any archaeological supervision. Nonetheless, the IAA has a responsibility to study and publish the finds from the dumps. Seligman reports that sifting through the dumps in the Kidron Valley and elsewhere has yielded building blocks, pieces of thresholds, nails, organic materials, Second Temple period coins and large quantities of ceramics. In addition, he says, the Waqf has piled architectural fragments such as column drums on the Mount. These potentially important artifacts will likely remain unreported for some time in the storerooms and courtyard of the Rockefeller Museum. First publication of the lintel is slated for a preliminary report in the IAA’s Archaeological News (Hadashot Archeologiot), perhaps within a year. More complete publication in the Authority’s journal Atiqot will not come for several years. While the scientific value of the finds is limited because they have been removed from their context on the Temple Mount, they are nonetheless important additions to the sparse historical and archaeological data we have from what archaeologist Gaby Barkay calls “a universal asset” that is now being “irreversibly damaged.”
One Ex-General Follows Another
Does the director of the Israel Antiquities Authority need to be an archaeologist? That is a question that is dividing the Israel archaeological community.
Outgoing director Amir Drori is a former general in the Israeli army. When he was appointed 12 years ago he had little archaeological experience, but it was something. He had a bachelor’s degree in archaeology and he had dug with Yigael Yadin at Masada, Herod’s palace/fortress overlooking the Dead Sea.
The newly appointed director, Yehoshua “Shuka” Dorfman, has no prior archaeological experience. He, too, is a former general in the Israeli army. Some say that his appointment was engineered by an informal group that takes care of retired Israeli generals. They add that he was appointed without serious consultation with the community of professional archaeologists or even with the Archaeological Council, which is appointed to advise the governmental authorities involved.
Backing up this claim, Tel Aviv University professor Moshe Kochavi, the chairman of the Archaeological Council, has resigned not only as chairman, but as a member. Whether others will follow is unknown at this writing. Kochavi believes that the director of the IAA should be an archaeologist, he told BAR.
In the meantime, by all reports Dorfman is a very likable person who had an excellent reputation in the army and who is trying to work amicably and cooperatively with all factions in the archaeological community. And some archaeologists say that what is needed in an IAA director is not so much professional archaeology experience as good administrative and diplomatic skills. Who could name an archaeologist who wouldn’t be objectionable to some faction or other in the often strong-willed and sometimes contentious Israeli archaeological community?
Some Excavations Cancel
The turmoil in Israel and the West Bank is taking a toll on archaeology. As we went to press, we received word that some excavations in Israel had decided to cancel their dig seasons this year; others (such as the one at Zayit, pictured below) were waiting to see what effect the Israeli election would have on the political situation. If you had hoped to join a dig this summer, check our Web site (www.biblicalarchaeology.org) for the latest developments. You should also check directly with the digs you’re considering; contact information can be found on our Web site or in our January/February 2001 issue (see “Get Your Hands Dirty” BAR 27:01).
Several dig directors have pointed out to us that their excavations are far from the areas that have seen violence and that they feel they will be able to warn volunteers about which areas to avoid. Needless to say, the decision to join a dig is more weighty this year than ever. We are also certain that those excavations that dig this season will greatly appreciate the volunteers who decide to go.
Here’s some additional information to round out the dig listings in our previous issue: from July 1–26, Yizhar Hirschfeld will be excavating inside a first-century B.C. palace at Ramat Hanadiv, south of Haifa. For information, fax 972–2-582–5548, e-mail hani@actcom.co.il or see the Website at www.hum.huji.ac.il/archaeology/ramathanadiv/.
During August, Amos Kloner and Michael Cohen will expose a pre-urban village at Beit Guvrin, southwest of Jerusalem. The site was inhabited from Roman to Ottoman times and is next to the “underground city” of Maresha. For details, e-mail mcohen40@study.haifa.ac.il or visit www.israntique.org.il.
Please also note that the e-mail address for the El-Ahwat and the Assawir excavations is now amitrom@nonstop.net.il and the Web site is http://ahwat.haifa.ac.il.
Scholar Specialized in Aramaic Paraphrases of the Bible
In 1973 I was spending a self-created sabbatical in Israel with my wife and two young daughters. We had visited a number of archaeological sites, like Masada, that had been prepared for tourists, but I wanted to see what I naively called a “live” dig; that is, an excavation that was still going on, one that was still looking for, and hopefully unearthing, treasures from the ground. I inquired of the director of what was then the American school, now the William F. Albright School of Archaeological Research, if there were someone who could take me to such a dig. The director was William Dever. He had been previously affiliated with Hebrew Union College in Jerusalem, and he recommended a young fellow who was teaching at HUC and who really knew the archaeological sites. His name was Michael Klein. Michael was the archaeological guide for the American Reform rabbinical students who came to study for a year in Jerusalem.
So I called Michael Klein. To tell the truth I can’t remember whether or not he actually took me to any ongoing excavations. I didn’t even know then that excavations occurred mostly in the summer (it was still mid-winter). But Michael and I became good friends. He and his wife Shoshi even took a trip with my wife Judy and me to the Sinai, a veritable tabula rasa at the time.
Michael and Shoshi were then renting an apartment on Tchernikovsky Street in Jerusalem in which the great Israeli archaeologist Yohanan Aharoni, the head of the department of archaeology at Tel Aviv University, had once lived. On the wall of the study Aharoni had written notes regarding the books that once stood on the room’s shelves. Michael showed me Aharoni’s notations, which had been carefully preserved when the wall was repainted, as if they were sacred script.
Michael and I continued our friendship over the years, always visiting each other when I was in Israel or he was in Washington. He went on to become the much-admired and revered dean of the Jerusalem campus of Hebrew Union College. He was an excellent dean—administratively effective, diplomatic, well-organized, even-tempered. But most of all he was a scholar. He never wanted to get so involved in administration that he would lose touch with his scholarship. His chosen field was Targum studies. Targumim are early Aramaic paraphrases of the Bible. Michael was one of the world’s leading Targum scholars. His magesterial, two-volume Genizah Manuscripts of Palestinian Targum to the Pentateuch is a model of scholarship. In a review in the Jewish Quarterly Review, the reviewer called it “an impressive work,” adding, “Klein’s care and thoroughness are constantly in evidence.”
Michael gave me greatly needed emotional support in the dark days of the fight to free the Dead Sea Scrolls, when most of Israel—the scholars, the archaeologists, the media and the courts—seemed to be against me. Not long after I was sued by Israeli Dead Sea Scroll scholar Elisha Qumron and was waiting to see whether the government itself would sue me for publishing photographs of the unpublished scrolls, Michael courageously invited me to deliver a lecture at Hebrew Union College in Jerusalem. I remain deeply grateful.
Michael died last November after a long struggle with cancer, leaving behind his wife, his two sons, Mattan and Elad, and two daughters, Rachel and Ruth, as well as a multitude of friends. We are all the poorer now, but for his life we are richer. His memory will indeed be a blessing.
A. Nutcracker
B. Handsaw
C. Dental floss
D. Safety pin
What It Is, Is …
D. Safety pin.
More properly known as a wing fibula, this second-century A.D. decorative safety pin was used to secure garments, usually at the shoulder. Pairs of these finely wrought fasteners were essential items in the jewelry boxes of elegant women throughout the Roman Empire. This particular fibula, discovered in Pannonia (modern Hungary), attests to the skills of the empire’s jewelry makers: The 7-inch-long silver pin is covered in gold foil, decorated with carnelian (a red gem) and accented with a circle-and-heart motif. More rudimentary examples fastened the clothes of Roman soldiers.