Traces of Possible Neolithic Tsunami Found in Israel

Prehistoric tsunami disasters had a significant impact on coastal societies,” said lead author Dr Gilad Shtienberg from the Department of Anthropology at the University of California, San Diego, and colleagues at the Scripps Center for Marine Archaeology.”

“6,000 years of historical records and geological data show that tsunamis are a common phenomenon affecting the eastern Mediterranean coastline, occurring at a rate of around 8 events per century in the Aegean region over the past 2,000 years and approximately 10 per century over the past 3,000 years in the Levant basin.”

“Most of these events are small and have only local impacts.”

In the study, the researchers found a large paleo-tsunami deposit (between 9,910 to 9,290 years ago) at the archaeological site of Tel Dor in northwest Israel.

“Tel Dor, located along the Carmel coast of northwest Israel, is a maritime city-mound that has been occupied from the Middle Bronze II period (2000 to 1550 BCE) throughout the Roman period (3rd century CE) while Byzantine and Crusader remains are also found on the tel,” they said.

“The local environment of Dor is characterized by a series of unique embayments/pocket beaches that stand out from the linear morphology of the southeastern Mediterranean littoral shoreface.”

To conduct their analysis, the scientists used photogrammetric remote sensing techniques to create a digital model of the Tel Dor site, combined with underwater excavation and terrestrial borehole drilling to a depth of 9 m (29.5 feet).

In their samples, they found an abrupt layer of seashells and sand, dated to between 9,910 and 9,290 years ago, in the middle wetland layers deposited 15,000 to 7,800 years ago.

They estimate that the ancient tsunami had a run-up of at least 16 m and travelled between 3.5 to 1.5 km inland from the paleo-coastline.

The near absence of Pre-Pottery Neolithic A-B archaeological sites (11,700-9,800 years ago) suggest these sites were removed by the tsunami, whereas younger, late Pre-Pottery Neolithic B-C (9,250-8,350 years ago) and later Pottery-Neolithic sites (8,250-7,800 years ago) indicate resettlement following the event.

“We can’t know for sure why people weren’t living there, in a place otherwise abundant with evidence of early human habitation and the beginnings of village life in the Holy Land,” said Professor Thomas Levy, a researcher in the Department of Anthropology and the Levant and Cyber-Archaeology Laboratory in the Scripps Center for Marine Archaeology at the University of California, San Diego.

“Was the environment too altered to support life? Was the tsunami part of their cultural knowledge — did they tell stories of this destructive event and stay away? We can only imagine.”

“Our project focuses on reconstructing ancient climate and environmental change over the past 12,000 years along the Israeli coast, and we never dreamed of finding evidence of a prehistoric tsunami in Israel,” Dr Shtienberg said.

“Scholars know that at the beginning of the Neolithic, around 10,000 years ago, the seashore was 4 km (2.5 miles) from where it is today.”

“When we cut the cores open in San Diego and started seeing a marine shell layer embedded in the dry Neolithic landscape, we knew we hit the jackpot.”

3,800-year-old baby in a jar unearthed in Israel

Live Science reports that recent archaeological investigations conducted by the Israel Antiquities Authority in the ancient port city of Jaffa, which is located on Israel’s Mediterranean coast, have uncovered a middle Bronze Age burial, a pit filled with Hellenistic pottery dated from the fourth to first centuries B.C, coins, and pieces of Roman and medieval glass.

Team member Yoav Arbel said the 3,800-year-old skeletal remains of an infant were found in a jar that may have been intended to protect the delicate remains. “

While such burials of babies are not that rare, it is a mystery why the infants were buried this way, said Yoav Arbel, an archaeologist from the Israel Antiquities Authority who was part of the team that discovered the jar.

Arbel told Live Science, “You might go to the practical thing and say that the bodies were so fragile, [maybe] they felt the need to protect it from the environment, even though it is dead,” Arbel told Live Science.

“But there’s always the interpretation that the jar is almost like a womb, so basically the idea is to return [the] baby back into Mother Earth, or into the symbolic protection of his mother.”

The 4,000-year-old city of Jaffa, where the jar was found, is the older part of Tel Aviv, the second most populated city in Israel after Jerusalem. It was one of the earliest port cities in the world, and has been almost continuously occupied since about 900 B.C., Arbel said

“We’re talking about a city that was ruled by a lot of different people,” Arbel said. “Let’s say that a lot of flags flew from its mast before Israel’s flag of today.”

Despite how strange the baby burial seems to modern eyes, it’s not an unusual find for the region.

“There are different periods when people buried infants in jars in Israel,” Arbel said. “The Bronze Age all the way to less than 100 years ago.” 

The finds were detailed in the 100th issue of the journal Atiqot, which includes more than 50 other studies on archaeology from Jaffa.

Because Jaffa has been almost continuously used for four millennia, the other finds described in the journal span the Hellenistic, Crusader and Ottoman periods.

For instance, at another site, Arbel and his team found a big rubbish pit brimming with pieces of imported amphorae (ceramic vessels) dating to the Hellenistic period, from the fourth to the first centuries B.C.

These roughly 2,300-year-old amphorae, which were used to hold wine, were crafted on various Greek Aegean Islands such as Rhodes and Kos, Arbel said. This one pit provides more evidence that trade routes between Jaffa and Greece were robust, Arbel said.

Archaeologists also found: 30 coins dating to the Hellenistic, Crusader (12th–13th centuries), late Ottoman (late 18th–early 20th centuries) and British Mandate (1942) periods; the remains of at least two horses and pottery dating to the Ottoman Empire; 95 glass vessel fragments from Roman and Crusader times; and 232 seashells, including those from the Mediterranean Sea, land snails and three mother-of-pearl buttons.

There’s also the witty, ancient Greek mosaic discovered near an A.D. fourth- or fifth-century necropolis, saying “Be of good courage, all who are buried here. This is it!”

In essence, it means “this is life!” and that death is everyone’s shared destiny, said Zvi Greenhut, head of the publication department at the IAA, told Live Science.

Israeli Archaeological Dig Uncovers 9,000-year-old Mega City

The largest ever Neolithic settlement discovered in Israel and the Levant, say archaeologists  — is currently being excavated ahead of highway construction five kilometres from Jerusalem.

Because of its scale and the preservation of its material culture, the 9,000-year-old site, situated near the town of Motza, is the ‘Big Bang’ for prehistory settlement research, said Jacob Vardi, co-director of the excavations at Motza on behalf of the Antiquities Authority,

Vardi said It’s a game-changer, a site that will shift what we know about the Neolithic era drastically.” He said that some international scholars are beginning to realize the existence of the site may necessitate revisions to their work, he said.

“So far, it was believed that the Judea area was empty and that sites of that size existed only on the other bank of the Jordan river, or in the Northern Levant. Instead of an uninhabited area from that period, we have found a complex site, where varied economic means of subsistence existed, and all these only several dozens of centimeters below the surface,” according to Vardi and co-director Dr. Hamoudi Khalaily in an IAA press release.

Roughly half a kilometer from point to point, the site would have housed an expected population of some 3,000 residents. In today’s terms, said Vardi, prehistoric Motza would be comparable to the stature of Jerusalem or Tel Aviv — “a real metropolis.”

According to an IAA press release, the project was initiated and financed by the Netivei Israel Company (the National Transport Infrastructure company) as part of the Route 16 Project, which includes building a new entrance road to Jerusalem from the west running from the Route 1 highway at the Motza Interchange to the capital.

According to co-director Khalaily, the people who lived in this town had trade and cultural connections to widespread populations, including Anatolia, which is the origin for obsidian artifacts discovered at the site. Other excavated materials indicate intensive hunting, animal husbandry, and agriculture.

“The society was at its peak” and appeared to increasingly specialize in raising sheep, said Khalaily.

In addition to prehistoric tools such as thousands of arrowheads, axes, sickle blades, and knives, storage sheds containing large stores of legumes, especially lentils, were uncovered. “The fact that the seeds were preserved is astonishing in the light of the site’s age,” said the archaeologists.

Alongside utilitarian tools, a number of small statues were unearthed, including a clay figurine of an ox and a stone face, which Khalaily joked was either a human representation “or aliens, even.”

In the ancient, unrecorded past as well as today, the site is situated on the banks of Nahal Sorek and other water sources. The fertile valley is on an ancient path connecting the Shefela (foothills) region to Jerusalem, said the IAA. “These optimal conditions are a central reason for long-term settlement on this site, from the Epipaleolithic Period, around 20,000 years ago, to the present day,” according to the press release.

“Thousands of years before the construction of the pyramids, what we see in the neolithic period is that more and more populations turn to live in a permanent settlement,” said Vardi. “They migrate less and they deal more and more in agriculture.”

Among the architecture uncovered in the excavation are large buildings that show signs of habitation, as well as what the archaeologists identify as public halls and spaces used for worship. In a brief video published by the IAA, archaeologist Lauren Davis walks a narrow path between remains of buildings — a prehistoric alleyway. “Very much like we see in buildings today, separated by alleys between,” said Davis.

According to the archaeologists, this alleyway is “evidence of the settlement’s advanced level of planning.” Likewise, the archaeologists discovered that plaster was sometimes used for creating floors and sealing various facilities during the construction of the residents’ domiciles and buildings.

In addition to signs of life, the archaeologists uncovered several graves. According to Davis, in the midst of a layer dating to 10,000 years ago, archaeologists found a tomb from 4,000 years ago. “In this tomb are two individuals — warriors — who were buried together with a dagger and a spearhead,” she said.

“There’s also an amazing find,” said Davis, “which is a whole donkey, domesticated, that was buried in front of the tomb probably when they sealed it.” Added Vardi, the donkey was apparently meant to serve the warriors in the world to come.

According to Amit Re’em, the IAA’s Jerusalem District archaeologist, despite the roadworks, a significant percentage of the prehistoric site around the excavation is being preserved and all of it is being documented.

Each architectural structure is being documented through 3-D modeling. “When we finish the excavation here,” said Vardi, “we will be able to continue to research the site in the laboratory,” adding that this is an unprecedented use of technology.

“In addition, the IAA plans to tell the story of the site at the site by means of a display and illustration. At Tel Motza, adjacent to this excavation, archaeological remains are being preserved for the public at large, and conservation and accessibility activities are being carried out in Tel Bet Shemesh and Tel Yarmut,” announced the IAA release.

3000-year-old temple-era gold bead found by 9-year-old Jerusalem boy

A nine-year-old boy, the Temple Mount Sifting Project (TMSP) revealed earlier this week, found the first-ever Temple-era gold granule bead during wet sifting of earth from the Temple Mount.

In August, while sifting through the soil with his kin, Binyamin Milt, a resident of Jerusalem, unearthed a perfectly preserved small, flower-shaped cylinder, made of four layers of tiny gold balls, unaware that the item he carried was probably forged around 3,000 years ago.

In fact, the bead was so well preserved that when the boy took the bead to the supervising archaeologist, he initially wrote it off as likely to be an unidentified modern object, not even writing down the boy’s contact information before hurrying back to continue sifting.

It was only while sorting through the summer’s artefacts in Dr Gabriel Barkay’s backyard that he realized the bead was strikingly similar to several similar items he had found when he excavated burial systems from the First Temple period in Katef Hinnom.

While those beads were made of silver, they were identical to the gold bead in both shape and manufacturing method (called granulation).

Similar beads have been found in several other sites across Israel, dated to various periods, with the overwhelming majority dating to the Iron Age (12th to 6th centuries BCE).

Once the bead’s significance had become clear, TMSP researchers called all the families who participated in the sifting on that specific day, until they made contact with Binyamin.

Pieces of gold jewellery are rarely found among archaeological artefacts from the First Temple period since gold at that time was not refined and generally contained a significant percentage of silver.

Granulation is a technique which demands of the goldsmith a considerable amount of expertise and experience, due to the many components and complex manufacturing stages.

The granules are shaped using tiny metal pieces which are melted on a bed of charcoal or charcoal powder, which absorbs air, preventing oxidation.

Once the metal melts, the surface tension of the liquid produces ball-shaped drops. An alternative method involves dripping the liquid metal from a height into a bowl and constantly stirring the drops.

At this stage, it is not yet clear what purpose the bead served, though initial projections by TMSP members say it could have been part of an ornament worn by an important personage who visited the Temple, or by a priest. More info on the piece will be published once all the artefacts from the summer are processed.

TMSP was founded in response to illegal renovations which were carried out in 1999 by the northern branch of the Islamic Movement, disposing of over 9,000 tons of dirt, mixed with invaluable archaeological artefacts, dumping it all into the Kidron Valley.

Archaeologists Dr Gabriel Barkay and Zachi Dvira retrieved the rubble and began sifting through it in 2004, with the goal of understanding the archaeology and history of the Temple Mount, while preserving history.

Over the years, it has grown into an internationally significant project, bringing in over 200,000 volunteers who have helped the researchers find thousands of priceless artefacts.

UK Archaeologist Claims To Have Found Jesus Christ’s Childhood Home In Israel

The stone altar 2,800 years old offers insights into the acquisition of Atroth in Jordan. An archaeologist from Britain sheds new light on a fascinating ancient site under a convent in Nazareth.

Ken Darke, a professor at the University of Reading, investigates the archaeological history of the area underneath the Nazareth Convent, which is said to be the site of the childhood home of Jesus, in his new book, Sisters of the Nazareth Convent.

Research states that a partially rock-cut Early Roman-period house was found at the historic site, as well as Roman-era excavations and burials, a well-preserved cave-church, and prominent surface-level Byzantine And evidence from the Crusader churches was found. .

Cave churches and later churches are believed to be associated with the ancient house.

Dark in 2015 Identified The first century AD house within the crypt or cellar of the Byzantine Church which was later built on top of it. The houses and relics of the Byzantine Church are preserved within the Sisters of the Nazareth Convent.

“This is certainly a site that throws a lot of light on what was in Nazareth of the first century, and there is no reason to discount the possibility that the people who built the Byzantine Church were probably the first May have been right in identifying — the century home as the childhood home of Jesus, ”Pro Dark told Granthshala News via email.

In his research, Darke states that the first archaeological discovery at the site occurred in the 1880s, leading to a series of excavations by the nuns of the convent until the 1930s.

The site was then examined by Henry Senes, a Jesuit priest and former architect based at the Pontifical Bible Institute in Jerusalem. Senius worked there from 1936 and 1964, drawing detailed descriptions of the structures discovered by the nuns, but according to Dark did not publish any academic papers or research on the site. The site was then largely forgotten by experts.

In 2006, Dark established a new project to reorganize the site and investigate earlier research. The archaeologist found that a first-century house on the site later formed part of the quarry and then rock-cut tombs.

According to research sent to Granthshala News, “a burial on the site, probably in the fourth century, a cave-church was built in the hill adjacent to the first-century house.” “A large surface-built church was built in the fifth century, above the first-century house and the fourth-century cave church.”

The large and elaborate church complex may have been the Byzantine Nazareth church and survived to the fifth and seventh centuries, possibly described as the church’s nurture in the “de locis sanctis”, which was dated to the seventh century by the Irish monk Adomon Work.

“Their description exactly matches the archaeological features of the site,” Dark’s research says. “If so, the first-century house was recognized as the place where Jesus was brought, judging from the cave-church.”

According to research, the cave-church is probably described by the pilgrim Agaria in a fourth-century account of Nazareth.

“There is no archaeological reason that identification is impossible, although it is unable to prove it using any available archaeological or written evidence,” the research says.

Last year, in a separate project, the room was hailed as the Last Supper of Jesus revealed in stunning detail thanks to the stunning 3D laser scanning technology.

Israel uncovers King David-era fortress on Golan Heights

The Golan Antiquities Authority’s excavations uncovered a fortified complex between the 11th to 10th centuries BCE from the time of King David. This unprecedented fortified complex raises new research concerns regarding the Iron Age settlement of the Golan.

Archaeologists claim that the fort was built by the kingdom of Geshur, an ally of King David, to control the region.

Before constructing the new Hispin neighbourhood, excavations were performed and funded by the Ministry of Construction and Housing and the Golan Regional Council, with the participation of many residents of Hispin and Nov, and students from the pre-military academies at Natur, Kfar Hanasi, Elrom, Meitzar and Katzrin.

According to Barak Tzin and Enno Bron, excavation directors on behalf of the Antiquities Authority, “The complex we exposed was built at a strategic location on the small hilltop, above the El-Al canyon, overlooking the region, at a spot where it was possible to cross the river.

The c. 1.5-m.-wide fort walls, built of large basalt boulders, encompassed the hill. In the excavation, we were astonished to discover a rare and exciting find: a large basalt stone with a schematic engraving of two-horned figures with outspread arms. There may also be another object next to them.”

A figure carved on a cultic stone stele was found in the Bethsaida Expedition Project in 2019, directed by Dr Rami Arav of Nebraska University, at Bethsaida just north of Lake Kinneret (Sea of Galilee).

The stele, which depicts a horned figure with outspread arms, was erected next to a raised platform adjacent to the city gate. This scene was identified by Arav as representing the Moon-God Cult.

The Hispin stone was located on a shelf next to the entrance, and not one but two figures were depicted on it. According to the archaeologists, “It is possible that a person who saw the impressive Bethsaida stele decided to create a local copy of the royal stele.”

The fortified city of Bethsaida is considered by scholars to be the capital of the Aramean kingdom of Geshur that ruled the central and southern Golan 3,000 years ago.

According to the Bible, the kingdom maintained diplomatic and family relations with the House of David, and one of David’s wives was Maacah, the daughter of Talmi, king of Geshur.

Cities of the kingdom of Geshur were found along the Kinneret shore, including Tel Ein Gev, Tel Hadar and Tel Sorag, but such sites are rare in the Golan.

Archaeologists will now start researching the possibility that the Geshur kingdom had a more extensive presence in the Golan than was previously thought.

Following this discovery, changes in the development plans will be carried out together with the Construction and Housing Ministry so that the unique fortified complex will not be damaged.

The complex will be developed as an open area along the El-Al river bank, where educational archaeological activities will be carried out, as part of cultural heritage and a link with the past.

This aligns with the authority’s policy that learning the past through working in the field strengthens the younger generation’s bonds with their roots.

Temple where Jesus reportedly healed bleeding woman found in Israel

The University of Haifa has excavated an ancient church, claimed by archaeologists to be the site of a biblical “miracle,” at Golan Heights in Israel.

Professor Adi Erlich, referring to a biblical story in which Jesus stops the bleeding of a woman who had been suffering for 12 years, as mentioned in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke, said, “We suggest that the church uncovered by us may have been this church that was related to the miracle.”

The Christian miracle — in which where the woman touches the back of Jesus’ robes in a bid to get better — takes place while Jesus is on his way to the home of Jairus, whose own daughter was sick, in the Roman city of Caesarea Philippi, previously called Banias. 

According to the biblical text, when the sick woman touched Jesus’ garments “immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering.”

The region is now part of the Banias Nature Reserve in northern Israel where Erlich and her team of archaeologists have been piecing together ancient history.

The team of researchers had previously established that a nearby temple from the fourth century was possibly where Jesus revealed himself as the Messiah to his disciple Peter.

The site was built atop a Roman-era shrine to the Greek god Pan from the third century.

Another clue that the dig revealed: a small souvenir-like stone with crosses carved into it. Erlich theorized that the stone was left by religious pilgrims around the year 400 at the site — suggesting it was a memorial to the miracle and not an active temple at the time.

The possibly holy locale features springs, caves and a ritual “cultic pool and a water aqueduct,” according to the academic.

“Once conservation is over, everybody is welcome to come and visit,” said Erlich.

Jerusalem’s Western Wall yields four 1,000-year-old gold coins

Four gold coins were recently found in a pottery jar uncovered during an excavation in West Wall Plaza in the Old City of Jerusalem.

The valuable 1000-year-old coins show the political and historic power change between the two Muslim dynasties that controlled the city at the time.

A little juglet or bottle was discovered about two months ago by inspector Yevgenia Kapil of the Israel Antiquity Authority about two months ago, during preliminary digging as part of a plan by the Jewish Quarter Development Corporation to build an elevator facilitating access to the plaza from the Jewish Quarter.

Last month, archaeologist David Gellman, director of the excavation, emptied out the dirt inside the juglet and discovered four gold coins in excellent condition.

Robert Kool, the antiquities authority’s coin expert, examined them and determined that they dated from the late 940s through 970s C.E., the early Islamist era.

Two of the coins are gold dinars that were minted in Ramle under the rule of the Caliph Al-Muti’ (946-974) and his regional governor, Abu ‛Ali al-Qasim ibn al-Ihshid Unujur (946-961 C.E.).

The other two coins were minted in Cairo by the Fatimid rulers al-Mu‘izz (953-975 C.E.) and his successor, al-‘Aziz (975-996 C.E.).

“The profile of the coins found in the juglet is a near-perfect reflection of the historical events.

This was a time of radical political change, when control over Eretz Israel passed from the Sunni Abbasid caliphate, whose capital was Baghdad, Iraq, into the hands of its Shiite rivals – the Fatimid dynasty of North Africa,” Dr Kool explains.

“Four dinars was a considerable sum of money for most of the population, who lived under difficult conditions at the time.

It was equal to the monthly salary of a minor official, or four months’ salary for a common labourer,” he says, adding that for members of the elite in those days, however, it was a relatively small sum.

“The small handful of wealthy officials and merchants in the city earned huge salaries and amassed vast wealth.

A senior treasury official could earn 7,000 gold dinars a month, and also receive additional incomes from his rural estates amounting to hundreds of thousands of gold dinars a year.”