Queries & Comments

046

An Archaeological Restorer Comments on Preservation

To the Editor:

Kol ha-Kavod [all honor] to BAR for taking the initiative in starting an Archaeological Preservation Fund. How desperately this is needed was made clear to me in my 9 ½ years in Israel. Helplessly I watched the magnificent western wall of the Solomonic citadel at Arad deteriorate and finally collapse through lack of preservation work. Joan Borsten in her article for BAR (“A Heritage in Danger,” BAR 03:03) has given a good thumbnail sketch of the sad situation. But even this only touches the tip of the iceberg.

I am in complete agreement with Dr. Zev Herzog of Tel Aviv University who feels that preservation should be the responsibility of the Israeli Department of Antiquities. When responsibility is divided, as it is now, between the Department and the National Parks Authority the result is a large grey area, neither black nor white, where nothing is done and neither is accountable.

In 1973 I was employed by the National Parks Authority as a restorer at Masada. And yet only a small fraction of my time at Masada was enlisted in actual preservation or restoration. As a matter of fact, from January to June of 1975 I was forbidden to work on the “mountain” because, as I was told, there were no funds for “that sort of work”. Instead I was sent to remodel the restrooms at the restaurant below. It was this that prompted my thinking about the need for a National Trust as an agency to enlist the support, academic and financial, in the field of preservation and restoration. To allow this responsibility to hinge on the personal whim of the National Parks Authority—and this governed by whether it has been a good or bad year in tourism—is in itself irresponsible.

If you will permit me to go a step further, I would suggest that the time is long overdue for archaeologists to consider preservation as a part of their total responsibility before leaving a site.

Perhaps those countries whose archaeological sites go begging for preservation should seriously consider calling a moratorium on excavating until such time that preservation catches up with excavation. It is the roots of our civilization that we are concerning ourselves with; and so my best wishes go to BAR in its endeavors.

A Series Albright Never Completed

To the Editor:

I have in my possession a book entitled History, Archaeology and Christian Humanism, by William F. Albright, published by McGraw-Hill in 1964.

In the preface the author states that the above-named book is the first volume of a projected series of three. The provisional title of the second volume was Experience In Quest of Reason: Phoenicia, Israel and Ionia. The third volume was to describe the history of ancient Syria and Palestine “with special reference to currents of civilization.”

Can you possibly let me know if these volumes were ever published and whether they can still be purchased.

The series never got beyond the first volume. Professor Albright made extensive notes for the succeeding volumes, but the books themselves were never done and there is little likelihood that they will ever appear. The materials would have to be worked through by some scholar and developed independently as a book. There is little chance of that at the present time.—Ed.

Rainey Responds to Yadin

To the Editor:

In response to Professor Yigael Yadin’s reply (BAR, December 1977, p. 3) to my article on Beer-Sheva (“Beer-Sheva Excavator Blasts Yadin—No Bama at Beer-Sheva,” BAR 03:03), I wish to emphasize that I stand by every word of my article. There is no need to answer Yadin’s very feeble arguments put forth now in defense of his bizarre theory about the high place at Beer-Sheva. Furthermore, the chronological debate seems to have come to its logical conclusion 047with the recent article by David Ussishkin about the date of Lachish Level III (in Tel Aviv 4, 1977, pp. 28–60). That Lachish III is the only candidate for the Sennacherib conquest is now abundantly clear. No one assumes today that Beer-Sheva Level II is later than Lachish Level III. So the buildings at Beer-Sheva in the high place controversy were all in ruins long before the date of Josiah’s reform.

It is also indicative of the past two decades in Biblical archaeology that Professor Yadin takes my criticisms so personally. I was fully aware that any voice raised against the “authority figure syndrome” would be castigated as “vicious and vulgar.” We have been dominated too long by prominent personalities who imposed their own ideas and axioms on the scholarly and lay public. The younger generation of archaeologists must now decide whether they have the courage to escape the personality cult or not.

Prior Discovery of the Ship in the Holy Sepulchre

To the Editor:

Mr. Magen Broshi, in his article in your journal of December 1977 (“Evidence of Earliest Christian Pilgrimage to the Holy Land Comes to Light in Holy Sepulchre Church,” BAR 03:04) implies that the drawing of a ship made on a stone block in the area of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Jerusalem, behind the Chapel of St. Krekor (Gregory), owes its discovery to his clearance work at this site, which started in November 1975: He states, “The most astounding item we found was a bold drawing of a ship … ”.

With every respect for Mr. Broshi, I would, nevertheless, venture to point out that this drawing was found as long ago as late 1971 by Mr. A. G. Walls and Mr. S. Helms, at that time Architect and Senior Scholar respectively of the British School of Archaeology in Jerusalem. They were engaged in a survey of this area on behalf of the British School and at the request of the architect of the Armenian Community. They took photographs and made drawings of their find. One of the drawings is signed “S. W. Helms, Dec. 1971”.

“The Jerusalem Ship” was the subject of a Note by Mrs. Crystal M. Bennett, Director of the British School, and of an “analysis and dating” by Mrs. S. C. Humphreys of the Department of History, University College, London. These articles were published together (with the permission of the Armenian Orthodox Patriarch) on pp. 307–310 of Vol. 3, No. 2 (1974) of the International Journal of Nautical Archaeology and Underwater Exploration.

The very great differences between the analysis of Mrs. Humphreys and that of Mr. Broshi concerning the drawing of the ship and the inscription beneath it, are not relevant to this letter, which seeks only to correct any inference that might be drawn from a reading of Mr. Broshi’s article that the Jerusalem ship was unknown to, and unrecorded by, modern archaeologists prior to his work on the site in the autumn of 1975.

Magen Broshi replies:

Mr. Ross is absolutely correct, but this unfortunate omission is unintentional. My paper is an abridged version of a longer article due to appear shortly in the International Journal of Maritime and Underwater Archaeology, (Vol. 6, 3), and is in a sense a rejoinder to Mr. Humphrey’s paper. Naturally my original paper acknowledged my predecessors’ work and it is to be regretted that in the course of abbreviation this fact was omitted.

It is worthwhile to add in this connection that my description and interpretation of both the ship and inscription bear very little resemblance to those of my predecessors. The fact that they did not clean the stone led them to read ISIS MIRIONIMUS (instead of DOMINE IVIMUS) and to misinterpret some of the basic facts about the ship.

Prompt Publication Applauded

To the Editor:

David Noel Freedman’s call for prompt publication of information concerning new finds, is the best thing that’s happened in this field since I was a child. I recall that as a child I suffered a loss of enthusiasm in reading the published works of archaeologists, and of confidence in writers, when I realized that the book I was reading was about excavations undertaken before my parents even met or were born. So I have always wondered whether it is taxpayers’ money that finances these digs.

The new format and magazine are fine, though I miss the old-fashioned BAR—now, BAR is like any other magazine, calling attention to its glossy self, but the pictures are great, and I suppose we can’t have our pie and eat it too. I wish BAR would show more confidence in the Bible record by not giving so much space to those who prefer their own wisdom.

049

T-Shirt Krater

To the Editor:

We’re very pleased with our BAR T-shirts, but curious. In your ad you say that the vessel pictured on the front is a Late Bronze krater from Lachish. Can you be more specific?

The krater is published in Ruth Amiran’s Ancient Pottery of the Holy Land (Jerusalem, Massada Press), p. 132.—Ed.

Damaged BAR’s

To the Editor:

My BAR has arrived looking like a recent find in some ancient dig! The post office here advised that the wear and tear occurs in transit. Could something be done at your end of things? Your excellent work is wasted in my copy.

If your BAR arrives badly damaged, let us know, and we’ll send you another copy. There’s very little else we can do. At this point an outside envelope is prohibitively expensive.—Ed.

Exchanging BAR Binders

To the Editor:

I just received my March 1978 issue of BAR. I must say that it is a very attractive issue compared with your past format. There is, however, one serious problem with it: It is too large to fit into my BAR binder! In effect, I have paid $7.50 for a binder which will be too small to hold future issues of BAR! That is not fair! I have all the back issues and they fit perfectly into one BAR binder at its current size. Who is responsible for this increase in size of the latest issue? It makes our BAR binders unusable. The new issue is about an inch too long and an inch too wide.

I would suggest that you either reduce the size of all future issues to the original size, so they fit the BAR binders you have sold. If you cannot do this, then increase the size of the BAR binders you sell in the future and couple this with a refund for those persons who have unknowingly bought binders for years 4 through 6 of BAR which will now be too small.

I still want to continue to receive BAR, but I also want to be able to store it in a BAR binder which will protect it in the years to come for future reference.

BAR sells binders in two sizes, one (for $7.50) to fit volumes I–III, and a larger one (for $7.95) to fit the new, larger BAR which came out in March 1978.

Most people who use the BAR 050binders want a complete set of BAR’s. Those who subscribed after we began publication have ordered back issues to complete their set. If you have done this, your smaller binder should be completely filled. If you have not, you may wish to order the back issues to fill it.

The new, larger BAR binder, which will also hold three years of BAR is intended to be used for volumes IV–VI.

We will, however, exchange the smaller binder for the larger binder for anyone who recently ordered a smaller binder intending to use it for 1978 BAR’s. Please include an additional 45 cents for the larger size.—Ed.

BAR’s New Format

To the Editor:

Your new format is great!

This letter is a summary of many, many letters we have received from our readers. We are delighted that our new format has been so well-received.—Ed.

Wrong Caption

To the Editor:

The picture of the “archaeology student” investigating Hezekiah’s Tunnel with a flashlight (see “Ancient City of David to Be Re-excavated,” BAR 04:01) looks suspiciously like BAR editor Hershel Shanks. The caption should have read: “I could have sworn the fuse box was down here somewhere.”

Here’s another T-shirt suggestion: “The best archaeologist is one out standing in the field.”

Abba Cave Bones Not Last Hasmonean King

To the Editor:

I noticed in the Hadassah Quarterly “Hadassah Headlines”, Winter 1977/78 edition, an article referring to new archaeological finds in Israel. This article mentions a recent tomb excavation site, presumably in Jerusalem, where 2000 year old remains and an inscription have been found. According to the article, the inscription indicates the possibility that this tomb is the burial place of the last Maccabean King Mattathias Antigonus.

I would be interested to find out if this information is factual. Also, if the tomb identification is generally accepted, it would be interesting to have an article about this subject in BAR.

The tomb to which you refer is the so-called Abba Cave in Jerusalem in which an ossuary was found containing disarticulated bones. An inscription discovered on the cave wall stated that Abba, who was exiled in Babylon, had brought the remains of Mattathiah, son of Judah, to Jerusalem for interment.

Preliminary examination of the bones in the ossuary revealed that one of the interred individuals had been beheaded.

Josephus Flavius relates that Mattathias Antigonus, the last Hasmonean king, was beheaded.

The beheaded person and the inscription led to early speculation that the Abba Cave was indeed the tomb of the last Hasmonean king whose bones had been returned to Jerusalem after his death.

Recent detailed examination by anthropologists of the bones in the ossuary (see Patricia Smith, Israel Exploration Journal “The Human Skeletal Remains from the Abba Cave” Volume 27, No. 2–3, pp. 120–124) has led to the conclusion that the beheaded individual is “female and elderly … and therefore the remains in question are not those of Mattathias Antigonus.”

We are nevertheless considering a future article on this intriguing tomb.—Ed.

Future Articles

To the Editor:

May I make a proposal for a future BAR article dealing with whether some of the holy places, like the Garden of Gethsemane, the Pool of Bethesda, the Coenaculum, the Lithostrotos, the ruins of Caiaphas store-rooms and the Jewish flight of stone stairs from the Kidron Valley to the church of St. Peter in Gallicantu, are authentic and how this is proven.

This is not one article, but many. We have discussed whether the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is really Jesus’ burial place (“The Evolution of a Church—Jerusalem’s Holy Sepulchre,” BAR 02:03) and we’ll cover some of the sites you mention in future articles. Thank you for the suggestion.—Ed.

Letters on All Kinds of Things

We try to share with our readers a representative sampling of our mail. Some of the letters we receive don’t directly concern the contents of the magazine—but we thought you might like to share these too. For example, here’s a letter from a woman who wanted to let us know her heart was with us even though 051she couldn’t contribute to BAR’s Archaeological Preservation Fund:

I wish I could send a large check to your Save-Our-Heritage-Fund, but I can at least say thank you for the pleasure and diversion your magazine has given me. I shall be ninety in another month and BAR has helped me through some wearisome days. It’s a great good magazine.

Here’s a letter from a woman who received a letter and brochure from us, asking her to subscribe:

We were going through the usual pile of mail and saw your letter—with irritation. “Somebody else has our name … ” And it was poised over the waste basket when I noticed a sentence and said to my husband: “Hey! Listen to this.” I set it aside on the check-later file. As if we weren’t miles behind in our reading and had any spare minutes. Yet! It appears to be something I can’t live without. Enclosed is our check.

The woman who wrote the following letter had ordered two BAR binders in late 1977, one for her old BAR’s and one for the year 1978 and beyond. Our business office wrote that she should only order one binder because in 1978, the size of the magazine was going to change. This was the women’s reply to that letter:

Thank you for your note. If the BAR is changing size in 1978, then I really don’t need more than one binder to hold the issues to date.

I appreciate your thoughtfulness. It’s typical of the atmosphere surrounding your delightful publication.

A final letter was forwarded to the Editor by our Circulation Manager with the following note “Here’s an example of what we do in the Circulation Department. Come and see us sometime.”

Dear Sirs:

We have become so enamored of the Biblical Archaeology Review that we have lost our heads. We have ordered and reordered wildly. Now we need help in untangling all this.

According to our records: On April 29 we sent a check for $8.50 for a 1977 subscription for D. Tawney.

On May 9 we sent a check for $17. 00 for back issues of Vol. I and II.

On September 13 we sent a check for $58.50 for two 052subscriptions—3 years each. (I believe they were to be sent to First Presbyterian Church starting in 1978.)

On October 13 we send a check for $9.75 for a subscription renewal for D. Tawney. (Which we need not have done, as this was taken care of by the two 3-year subscriptions ordered one month earlier.)

On October 14 we sent a check for $19.00 for back issues of Vol. I and II.

About the time we ordered the second set of back issues of Vol. I and II, we ordered a 1977 subscription for Barbara LaBenske. We received a notice that this has not been paid. Since we have reordered for D. Tawney for 1978 which we did not need to do, we would like this check to cover the 1977 subscription for Barbara LaBenske. Then this would make two 1977 subscriptions (for D. Tawney and Barbara LaBenske) paid for, and two 3-year subscriptions starting 1978 paid for. (Please mark them D. Tawney and Barbara LaBenske.)

Now, as to what we have received from the two orders of Vol. I and II. We have received one full set, except for Vol. II No. 3. On the other set, received only Vol. I, Nos. 1 and 2, and Vol. II No. 1. We would like either the sets completed or the appropriate amount of money refunded.

We appreciate your help in these matters at your earliest convenience. We enjoy your magazine and look forward to future issues.

The circulation department satisfactorily straightened the matter out, which is something of a miracle in itself.—Ed.

049

Dig at Ancient Akko

Excavation will continue this summer at Tell Akko in the Phoenician, Israelite, Canaanite, Hellenistic and Crusader levels of the Mediterranean port city. Volunteers who can work at least two weeks are needed. The season will start July 9 and end August 25. For further information write to: Professor M. Dothan; Department for the History of Maritime Civilizations; University of Haifa; Haifa, Israel.

049

Negev Dig Seeks Volunteers

Excavations will continue this summer at Tell esh-Shari’a, a Negev site identified with Ziklag, David’s city of refuge. Thus far excavations have revealed fortifications, public and private buildings, graves, Hebrew and Egyptian inscriptions, jewelry and imported artifacts dating from 1700 B.C. to 600 A.D.

The dig is conducted by volunteers from Israel, the United States and Europe. The 1978 season will be from July 24 to August 22. Course credit is possible. Volunteers live in the dormitory at Ben Gurion University. For additional information write to Dr. Eliezer Oren, Excavation Director, Tell esh-Shari’a, P.O. Box 653, Beer Sheva 84120, Israel.