Strata

018

Maccabean Hometown Uncovered?

Modi’in Excavations Yield Synagogue, Tombs

Archaeologists excavating south of the modern city of Modi’in, 13 miles northwest of Jerusalem, may have discovered the first-century B.C.E. Hasmonean city of the same name—where the family of Judah Maccabee is buried, according to the Book of Maccabees (in the apocrypha).

In five excavation seasons over the past three years, Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) archaeologists Alexander Onn, Shlomit Weksler-Bdolah and Yehudah Rapuano have uncovered the ruins of a synagogue, a mikveh (ritual bath), monumental graves, two main roads, a system of alleyways criss-crossing the site in a grid pattern and an olive press. The synagogue is an impressive structure with two rows of four columns on each side of a central hall containing benches along its walls—a feature also found in synagogues at Masada, Herodium and Gamla. Signs of fire, together with datable pottery and coins, suggest that the synagogue was destroyed in the early second century C.E. by the Romans.

But does this site in modern Modi’in mark the spot of ancient Modi’in? “One can never be 100 percent sure unless you find an inscription, but based on a number of things, including the size of the settlement, its distance from Jerusalem, the public buildings and the number of monumental graves found, we believe this place is the most likely site where the ancient city of Modi’in may have been,” says Onn.

The ruins were uncovered during the construction of a highway; after the IAA declared the area a protected site, the road was diverted to the south and plans for constructing some 150 housing units nearby were cancelled.

Two other nearby locations are also candidates for the site of ancient Modi’in: the Arab village of El-Media, which lies 8 miles northwest of Modi’in, and Hurvat Titora, on the outskirts of modern Modi’in.

The burgeoning modern city of Modi’in—slated to to grow to a population of 250,000 by 2015—has undertaken conservation work at the site, restoring plaster, stabilizing walls, creating gravel paths for visitors and putting up signs. Alex Weinreb, a Modi’in resident who has worked as a volunteer over the past six years to preserve and promote the site, says the city should invest money in developing a Hasmonean Archaeological Park and museum that would attract tourists to the area and generate local jobs.

Weinreb observed that tombstones uncovered in modern Modi’in have flat tops with holes in each corner that may have supported a pyramid structure. If that theory is correct, the tombs would closely match the description of Maccabean family graves in 1 Maccabees 13:27–28: “And Simon built a monument over the tomb of his father and his brothers; he made it high so that it might be seen, with polished stone at the front and back. He also erected seven pyramids, opposite one another, for his father and mother and four brothers.”

019

Ramat Rachel Opens to Visitors

Site Was Home to Judean Royal Palace

On a glorious sunny afternoon this past November, Israeli President Moshe Katzav cut a red ribbon in front of the spacious courtyard of an ancient Judean royal palace and officially opened a long-neglected archaeological site to the public.

The ancient site, with remains spanning more than 1,000 years, is located on the grounds of Kibbutz Ramat Rachel, midway between Jerusalem and Bethlehem on the crest of a hill nearly 3,000 feet above sea level. In antiquity the site overlooked an important crossroad, with one route linking Jerusalem to the north and Bethlehem to the south, and the other connecting the coastal plain in the west to the Dead Sea and Judean Desert in the east. Ramat Rachel was extensively excavated by archaeologist Yohanan Aharoni in the 1950s and early 1960s and then again in 1984 by Gabriel Barkay. But until six years ago, the site was a confusion of archaeological ruins amid uninhibited weeds. Most Jerusalemites swimming at the popular kibbutz pool were largely unaware that just a few feet away there once stood the palace and citadel of a Judahite king.

Which king this was is disputed. Aharoni contended that it was King Jehoiachim (609–598 B.C.E.), though Barkay says that the evidence points to the earlier King Hezekiah (727–697 B.C.E.). (Barkay will lay out his arguments and evidence in a forthcoming article in BAR.) That the residence was elegant, however, cannot be disputed, judging by the presence there of 10 proto-aeolic capitals, a carved stone window balustrade, a sherd perhaps depicting a seated king, royal seal impressions and some of the finest ashlar masonry found in Israel.

Evidence from later periods includes mikvaot (ritual baths) and a columbarium (a tomb with niches in which urns were placed) from the Second Temple period (first century B.C.E.-first century C.E.), a villa and bathhouse built by the Roman Tenth Legion sometime between the third and fourth centuries C.E., a Byzantine church and monastery, and early Islamic remains.

In 1996, the Ramat Rachel archaeological project was conceived with the aim of preserving the site and presenting it to the public. The remains of the Judean palace are now the focal point of an archaeological garden designed by Jerusalem sculptor Ran Morin. Morin has added much to the site, including pedestrian paths and a sculptured observation point that spirals up to a deck overlooking a vast panorama of Jerusalem and Bethlehem. A still-to-be-completed promenade will encircle the southern slope of the hill, along ancient stone agricultural terraces, and end at the Park of Olives, where Morin’s hallmark sculpture stands—olive trees crowning three towering columns, which themselves stand upon a 20-foot-tall platform.

During his excavations, Aharoni identified what most likely are the corners of the casemate wall surrounding the Judean palace. At these corners, Morin erected sculptures (visible at left, above) rising to the probable height of the ancient wall, each made up of stones piled upon each other at seemingly improbable angles; the stones appear to be at once tumbling and withstanding the pull of gravity. In addition, Morin placed replicas of the proto-aeolic capitals found at the site on one edge of the citadel’s courtyard.

There has been no attempt to reconstruct the ancient buildings at Ramat Rachel, a good thing, perhaps, given how bad so many reconstructions are. Unfortunately, the captions and plans printed on signs at the site do little to help visitors understand what they are seeing. Once the BAR article is published, however, take it in hand and make Ramat Rachel one of your first stops in Jerusalem.

020

Digs Update

Two On, One Off

While the volatile situation in the Middle East and the resulting decline in the number of tourists visiting Israel has caused one long-running dig to forego a field campaign this summer, two digs have recently announced that they are seeking volunteers during the month of July.

The excavation at Yavneh-Yam (ancient Jamnia), 11 miles south of Tel Aviv, headed by Tel Aviv University’s Moshe Fischer, needs volunteers from July 6 to August 1 to help uncover seventh-century B.C.E. Iron Age buildings (shown below) and to investigate the site’s late Byzantine and early Islamic occupation layers. Yavneh-Yam was occupied from the Bronze Age through the Middle Ages, and was the site of a Jewish victory, under the leadership of Judah Maccabee, against the Greek army of Gorgias during the second century B.C.E. Housing is available at the nearby Ayonot Youth Village (four to a room with bathroom, shower and air conditioning). Volunteers must commit to a minimum of two weeks; fees total $650. Applications should be submitted by the end of May 2003. For further information, contact Moshe Fischer at fischer@post.tau.ac.il or consult the Yavneh-Yam Web site (www.tau.ac.il./~yavneyam).

Excavations at Ramat Hanadiv, a palatial complex about 15 miles south of Haifa that dates to the first century B.C.E. reign of King Herod, will be underway from July 6–31. The well-preserved site shown below at right (many of the palace walls stand over six feet high) has yielded pottery (above), glassware, coins and metal objects from the early Roman period. This season the team headed by Hebrew University’s Yizhar Hirschfeld will focus on the palace’s residential area. Volunteers will be housed at the Dor Holiday Village resort, located on the seacoast not far from the site. Transportation to and from the dig, and lectures on the site and history of the area, as well as weekly trips in the vicinity, will be offered. Minimum participation is one four-day work week; daily room and board per person will be $100 for single occupancy, $80 double, and $70 triple. 021Contact Hani Davis, volunteer coordinator, by email at hani@actcom.co.il or by fax 972–2-5812452 for further information.

The directors of the Megiddo Expedition (Tel Aviv University’s Israel Finkelstein and David Ussishkin, and Penn State University’s Baruch Halpern) have announced that they will temporarily suspend their volunteer program. They may revisit this decision if the security situation in the Middle East dramatically improves; prospective volunteers are advised to check the expedition’s Web site (www.digmegiddo.com) for updates. The expedition will resume its work in the summer of 2004, concentrating on the Bronze Age temple compound and the Iron Age ashlar palace. The site of Megiddo, 12 miles southwest of Nazareth, features some of the most elaborate Iron Age architectural remains in Israel and is associated with numerous battles chronicled in the Bible.

David Amiran, 1910–2003

A Geographer Among Archaeologists

The community of Israeli geographers has lost one of its pillars: David H. K. Amiran, the founder of academic geography in the country, died on February 26th at age 92. In 1949 Amiran established the department of geography at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, assembling a group of European geographers that had emigrated to Israel.

From the beginning, he sought to create links between Israeli geographers and the international community of geographers, particularly those in the United States, Britain and France. Amiran also helped to establish geography departments at the University of Haifa, Tel Aviv University and Ben Gurion University in Beersheba.

David Amiran was born and educated in Germany, where he was taught that the discipline of geography involved studying both the physical environment and how human society functioned within it. After he emigrated to Israel in the 1930s, Amiran investigated the topographical and geological characteristics of numerous ancient sites in the country. He gained additional experience working with topographical maps during his service with the British Army during the Second World War. After the State of Israel was established, Amiran initiated two major mapping projects, which resulted in the publication of the Atlas of Israel and the Atlas of Jerusalem.

Amiran’s focus on the interaction between the physical and the human environment was invaluable to archaeological research. His seminal papers on the geomorphology and physiography of the country guided archaeologists in their understanding of the location of ancient sites. Amiran’s detailed geographical research into earthquakes enabled archaeologists to decipher traces of ancient physical upheaval in their excavations.

David Amiran’s meticulous studies of the history of rainfall and climate change in the region (an interest first sparked by his work in the Meteorological Service during the British Mandate period) led to new archaeological insights. For instance, Amiran argued that the omission of the southern basin of the Dead Sea in the Madaba Map—a sixth century C.E. mosaic map found in Madaba, Jordan, depicting Byzantine Palestine and Lower Egypt—indicates that a drier climate prevailed in the region during the sixth century.

In 1991 he published a paper suggesting that the ancient city of Arad flourished during the Early Bronze Age thanks to a period of more plentiful rainfall. (David’s wife Ruth, who survives him, is a prominent Israeli archaeologist, well-known to readers of BAR for her excavations at Tel Arad and for her monumental work in early pottery in Israel.)

David Amiran was a long-time member of the Board of Directors of the Israel Exploration Society, which dedicated one of the volumes in its Eretz Israel series to him in 1991.

019

What is it?

A

Phoenician amulet to ward off disease

B

Egyptian game-piece in the shape of a Semitic prisoner

C

Bauble sold in Ephesus to Roman tourists

D

Cypriot statuette depicting the hero Odysseus

021

What It Is, Is…

B Egyptian game-piece in the shape of a Semitic prisoner

This small turquoise-colored pawn from Egypt dates to the later part of the New Kingdom era (c. 14th–10th centuries B.C.) and represents a Semitic prisoner with his hands bound behind his back. The long hair and beard the prisoner sports were apparently characteristic of Semitic peoples at the time: A number of Egyptian reliefs and wall paintings depict Semites with these attributes.

From the birth of their civilization through the Roman period, the ancient Egyptians were enthusiastic board-game players. This pawn may have been used to play senet, a popular game of strategy and skill. The senet board had 30 squares arranged in three horizontal rows of ten squares each. Players sat opposite each other and threw astragali (“knucklebones” or small animal bones) to determine how many squares they could move. (The exact rules of the game are not known, however.) Game pieces ranged from plain discs to elaborate figurines like this one.

Maccabean Hometown Uncovered?

Modi’in Excavations Yield Synagogue, Tombs