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Showing posts from September, 2016

Cedars of Lebanon: Exploring the Roots

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The Hebrew word usually translated “cedar” is  erez . It appears in the Bible more than 70 times. David used it in his palace—supplied by the Phoenician monarch Hiram of Tyre ( 2 Samuel 5:11 ;  1 Chronicles 14:1 ). The Bible refers to the palace as a “house of cedar” ( 1 Chronicles 17:1 ). Israel, then as now, was impoverished in natural resources. As the old joke has it, if only Moses had turned right instead of left, Israel would have had the oil. Israel is also poor in sources of timber necessary in ancient times for the construction of important buildings like palaces and temples. Perhaps the most important sources of timber for these purposes were the famous Cedars of Lebanon.

Lebanese Cedar—The Prized Tree of Ancient Woodworking From Solomon’s Temple to the Jesus Boat, the Biblical world was built of cedar

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The famous Lebanese cedar tree was widely used in the construction of ancient temples, palaces and seagoing vessels, including Solomon’s Temple and the so-called “Jesus Boat.” But what exactly made its timbers so important for ancient woodworking? Though not used by Jesus himself, the so-called “Jesus Boat,” dating to the first century C.E., is very similar to the boats Jesus and his disciples would have used to cross and fish the Sea of Galilee. Analysis showed that at least some of the boat’s reused timbers were made from Lebanese cedar. In the Biblical world, Lebanese cedar ( Cedrus libani ) trees were highly sought after as an excellent source of timber for ancient woodworking. The wood’s high quality, pleasant scent and resistance to both rot and insects made it a popular building material for temples, palaces and seagoing vessels, from  Solomon’s famed Temple  to the so-called “Jesus Boat” of the first century C.E. Today, Lebanese cedar trees grow mostly in Lebanon a

Tarshish: Hacksilber Hoards Pinpoint Solomon’s Silver Source

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Tarshish: Hacksilber Hoards Pinpoint Solomon’s Silver Source Hacksilber isotope analysis associates Biblical Tarshish with Sardinia Noah Wiener   •   08/15/2015 This article was originally published in December 2013. It has been updated. —Ed. “Once every three years the fleet of ships of Tarshish used to come bringing gold, silver, ivory, apes, and peacocks … the king [Solomon] made silver as common in Jerusalem as stones.” – 1 Kings 10:22-27 “Tarshish did business with you out of the abundance of your great wealth; silver, iron, tin, and lead they exchanged for your wares.” – Ezekial 27:12 (Lamentation over Tyre) A hacksilber hoard from Tel Dor. According to the Bible, silver from Tarshish brought great wealth to Solomonic Jerusalem. From the Jul/Aug 1998 BAR, courtesy of Ephraim Stern. In the Bible,  King Hiram of Tyre supplies King Solomon with timber , craftsmen and gold for the construction of the  Jerusalem Temple , and the alliance with the Phoenici

Buried Treasure: The Silver Hoard from Dor

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At first, our discovery—an unadorned clay jar—seemed deceptively modest. For months we had been excavating an area overlooking the southern harbor of ancient Dor, south of Haifa on Israel’s Mediterranean coast. Digging conditions had been particularly arduous. To shield ourselves from the intense daytime heat—temperatures often reached triple digits, especially in the absence of a cool sea breeze—we put up a black gauze screen over the dig squares. Just beyond Dor’s southern harbor, a picturesque beach, frequently filled with bathers, proved tantalizing: Our volunteers were often distracted, longing for a refreshing dip as they perspired under the unforgiving Mediterranean sun.

12,000-Year-Old Shaman Funeral Reflects Natufian-Period Changes Natufian-period funerary ritual in the Southern Levant

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Hebrew University archaeologists uncovered a 12,000 year old grave inside a cave in northern Israel. (Photo credit: Naftali Hilger) One of the earliest funeral banquets ever to be discovered reveals a preplanned, carefully constructed event that reflects social changes at the beginning of the transition to agriculture in the Natufian period The woman was laid on a bed of specially selected materials, including gazelle horn cores, fragments of chalk, fresh clay, limestone blocks and sediment. Tortoise shells were placed under and around her body, 86 in total. Sea shells, an eagle's wing, a leopard's pelvis, a forearm of a wild boar and even a human foot were placed on the body of the mysterious 1.5 meter-tall woman. Atop her body, a large stone was laid to seal the burial space. It was not an ordinary funeral, said the Hebrew University archaeologist who discovered the grave in a cave site on the bank of the Hilazon river in the western Galilee region of northern

Ancient Israel’s Stone Age Purity in Second Temple times

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In the decades before the Roman destruction of Jerusalem and its Temple in 70 C.E., Jews gave a new and heightened emphasis to ritual purity. In fact, purity laws may have been interpreted more strictly at this time than at any point before—or since. A very early rabbinic text says simply, “Purity broke out among Israel.” 1  As early as this text is, however, it postdates the destruction of the Temple by about a hundred years. So it is fair to ask, How reliable is it?

Jewish Purification: Stone Vessel Workshop Discovered in Galilee

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An excavation at a cave in Galilee has uncovered what may be a 2,000-year-old stone vessel production center. In the first century C.E., Jews commonly used stone vessels in observance of Jewish purity laws. Photo: Courtesy Yonatan Adler. A chalkstone fragment discovered at ‘Einot Amitai. Photo: Courtesy Yonatan Adler. An excavation at a cave in Galilee has uncovered what may be a 2,000-year-old stone vessel production center. In the first century C.E., Jews commonly used stone vessels in observance of Jewish purity laws. Photo: Courtesy Yonatan Adler. Where do the “Stone Age” and the time of Jesus meet without the aid of a space-time wormhole? At the Galilean site of ‘Einot Amitai near Nazareth in northern Israel, where archaeologists have discovered a 2,000-year-old quarry and workshop that produced chalkstone vessels. “Stone vessels played an integral role in the daily religious lives of Jews during [the first century C.E.],” explained archaeologist Yonatan

Jewish Purification: Stone Vessel Workshop Discovered in Galilee

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An excavation at a cave in Galilee has uncovered what may be a 2,000-year-old stone vessel production center. In the first century C.E., Jews commonly used stone vessels in observance of Jewish purity laws. Photo: Courtesy Yonatan Adler. A chalkstone fragment discovered at ‘Einot Amitai. Photo: Courtesy Yonatan Adler. An excavation at a cave in Galilee has uncovered what may be a 2,000-year-old stone vessel production center. In the first century C.E., Jews commonly used stone vessels in observance of Jewish purity laws. Photo: Courtesy Yonatan Adler. Where do the “Stone Age” and the time of Jesus meet without the aid of a space-time wormhole? At the Galilean site of ‘Einot Amitai near Nazareth in northern Israel, where archaeologists have discovered a 2,000-year-old quarry and workshop that produced chalkstone vessels. “Stone vessels played an integral role in the daily religious lives of Jews during [the first century C.E.],” explained archaeologist Yonatan