Israel / Palestine: Archaeology & Archaeological Findings

[marhawkman]

Yeah; my missus picked up some Minoan potsherds at Knossos, about a thousand years older than that. In some locations, relics are co common that archaeologists just throw them aside.

Well, some towns in Germany make the... apparently legit, claim that the reason some of their roads are so old and worn looking... is that they were built by the ROMAN LEGIONS 2000-ish years ago.

Seriously, stone cobble roads last a ridiculous amount of time when built and maintained properly. so what if it's a little bumpy when it's able to last millennia?

OOH! another fun fact I learned recently: one of the reasons archaeologists spend so much time studying cuneiform... is that even today 4000 or so years after they were written... we have 10,000 examples of Elamite Cuneiform alone. then there's Persian, Hittite, and all the others who used Cuneiform too! Why so common? Well, a lot of the time they'd take the clay they wrote on, bake it in an oven to make it stop being squishy and allow them to transport the document long distances. Yeah, well... it's effectively pottery at that point, and they'd often just pile the used documents in dark holes instead of actually destroying them. Sometimes they'd keep them as official records, but sometimes they'd just toss them in a corner and forget about them. they're durable enough that it meant that tens of thousands of those documents survived for 4+ MILLENNIA.

Some really old things are actually very common. Hmm... I wonder how much it'd cost to buy a real one?

 

[Victory]

The King Darius inscription mentioned in post #84 was not after all a genuine relic!

https://www.jpost.com/archaeology/article-733292

 

[Floyd1]

Archeologists discover 6,000-year-old fishing hook in central Israel.​

Experts believe that ancient artifact could be one of the oldest fishing hooks ever found and say it was used to catch big fish like sharks and tuna.​

Archaeologists in Israel have discovered a rare artifact that could be one of the oldest fishhooks in the world. The 6,000-year-old copper fishhook was unearthed during excavations carried out by the Israel Antiquity Authority ahead of the construction of a new neighborhood in Ashkelon in 2018.



The hook, which is believed to have been used for fishing sharks or other large fish, has never been presented to the public before and will be displayed for the first time at Israel’s 48th Archaeological Congress in April.

Dr. Yael Abadi-Reiss with the hook

The find was presented by Dr. Yael Abadi-Reiss, co-director of the excavation, and Dr. Daniel Varga, both from the Israel Antiquity Authority. “This unique find is 6.5 cm long and 4 cm wide, its large dimensions making it suitable for hunting 2–3 m long sharks or large tuna fish. More ancient fishhooks found previously were made of bone and were much smaller than this one.”
“The use of copper began in the Chalcolithic period and it is fascinating to discover that this technological innovation was applied in antiquity for the production of fishhooks for fishermen along the Mediterranean coast,” Abadi-Reiss explained.
During the Chalcolithic period, Ashkelon was surrounded by sizable settlements that relied on agricultural practices still prevalent in modern times. These communities sustained themselves through livestock rearing, including sheep, goats, and cattle, as well as cultivating crops such as wheat, barley, and legumes, and managing fruit orchards.
“We learn about the dietary habits of the people who lived here 6,000 years ago from the remains of animal bones found in ancient rubbish pits, from burnt wheat grains found in ovens, and from the hunting, cooking and food-processing tools retrieved, including flint sickles, and a variety of pottery vessels that served for the storage, cooking and the conservation of food by fermentation and salting.”

“The rare fishhook tells the story of the village fishermen who sailed out to sea in their boats and cast the newly invented copper fishhook into the water, hoping to add coastal sharks to the menu,” Dr. Abadi-Reiss said.
Dr. Yotam Asscher and Magda Batiashvilli, both from the Israel Antiquity Authority, are conducting research on the copper fishhook. Thanks to advanced technologies available to contemporary scholars, fresh insights into this intriguing artifact are now possible, answering questions that were once beyond reach.
The extraordinary discovery will be showcased for the very first time at the 48th Archaeological Congress, organized jointly by the Israel Antiquity Authority, the Israel Exploration Society, and the Israeli Archaeological Association. The Congress, scheduled for April 3, 2023, promises to be an exciting platform for presenting and discussing ground-breaking research in the field.
According to Israel Antiquity Authority Director Eli Escusido, the upcoming 48th Archaeological Congress, to be held in Jerusalem, will be a momentous occasion for the Israel Antiquity Authority.

Excavation site in Ashkelon
(Photo: Yael Abadi-Reiss, Israel Antiquity Authority)
The Congress will take place at the new Jay and Jeanie Schottenstein National Campus for the Archaeology of Israel and will provide a venue for a gathering of archaeologists and scholars from around the world.
During the Congress, a state-of-the-art visitors’ center will be opened to the general public, allowing them to witness the behind-the-scenes activity that characterizes Israel’s extensive archaeological work.
According to the Israel Antiquity Authority, it’s eager to showcase Israel’s rich heritage to the world, with the upcoming congress being a great opportunity to do so.

Source: https://www.ynetnews.com/travel/article/hy1q8vz11h

 

[Mythopoeika]

Made of copper? Pure copper would be too soft (and probably wasn't available then anyway), so this may have been like a bronze with mostly copper and a few impurities.

 

[marhawkman]

heh, we have references to the use of fishing hooks in literature written quite a long time ago.

So yeah.... we already knew they existed just not what shape they were.

 

[Floyd1]

Made of copper? Pure copper would be too soft (and probably wasn't available then anyway), so this may have been like a bronze with mostly copper and a few impurities.

But the Chalcolithic period was before the bronze age. As for the softness, I'm inclined to agree, but that's what they're saying here.

 

[Floyd1]

heh, we have references to the use of fishing hooks in literature written quite a long time ago.

So yeah.... we already knew they existed just not what shape they were.

Yes, the interest here is the age and size of the hook, giving newer insight into the dietary habits of the people at that time.

 

[marhawkman]

Yes, the interest here is the age and size of the hook, giving newer insight into the dietary habits of the people at that time.

Hmm yeah, one thing in the Book of Job suggests that they would seemingly try to pull anything with fins out of the water and eat it. Yeah this quote is part of the discussion of Leviathan. the discussion was about how Leviathan was unusual in that it was too big to be pulled from the water with a hook. At first you don't quite get it then you realize... these people were catching fish bigger than they were?

 

[Victory]

An early Hebrew inscription from Mount Ebal near Nablus that was found on a folded lead tablet during an excavation in the 1980s recently underwent x-ray tomographic measurements to reveal hidden text.

Epigraphic analysis of the data revealed a formulaic curse written in a proto-alphabetic script likely dating to Late Bronze Age that predates any previously known Hebrew inscription in Israel by at least 200 years.


https://www.jpost.com/archaeology/article-743039

 

[Floyd1]

Ancient architectural treasures found off the coast of Israel​

Ship carrying marble columns and capitals likely destined for an elaborate public building like a temple or a theatre, found by swimmer; IAA says 1st such find of its kind in the Eastern Med​

Roman-era capital found off the cost of Israel

Archeologists found Corinthian column capitals adorned with vegetal motifs, that were partially carved, and marble columns, 6 meters, (nearly 20 feet) long. The valuable architectural artifacts were likely destined for the construction of an elaborate public building - a temple or perhaps a theater.
The find was discovered by Gideon Harris, a swimmer, who saw the artifacts on his swim in the sea and alerted the IAA. “We have been aware of the existence of this shipwrecked cargo for a long time,”, Koby Sharvit, Director of underwater archaeology at IAA said. “but we didn’t know its exact whereabouts as it was covered over by sand, and we could therefore not investigate it. The recent storms must have exposed the cargo, and thanks to Gideon’s important report, we have been able to register its location and carry out preliminary archaeological investigations, which will lead to a more in-depth research project,” he said.
From the angle of the cargo, archeologists believe the ship likely sank in a storm.

Roman-era column off the coast of Israel

“Such storms often blow up suddenly along the country’s coast,” Sharvit said, “and due to the ships’ limited maneuvering potential, they are often dragged into the shallow waters and shipwrecked," he said.
“From the size of the architectural elements, we can calculate the dimensions of the ship; we are talking about a merchant ship that could bear a cargo of at least 200 tons. These fine pieces are characteristic of large-scale, majestic public buildings. Even in Roman Caesarea, such architectural elements were made of local stone covered with white plaster to appear like marble. Here we are talking about genuine marble,” Sharvit said.
“Since it is probable that this marble cargo came from the Aegean or Black Sea region, in Turkey or Greece, and since it was discovered south of the port of Caesarea, it seems that it was destined for one of the ports along the southern Levantine coast, Ashkelon or Gaza, or possibly even Alexandria in Egypt.”

Rare marble artifact found off the coast of Israel


The swimmer's find, Sharvit said, has led to resolving a long-lived research issue: “Land and Sea archaeologists have long argued whether the Roman period imported architectural elements were completely worked in their lands of origin, or whether they were transported in a partially carved form, and were carved and fashioned at their site of destination. The find of this cargo resolves the debated issue, as it is evident that the architectural elements left the quarry site as basic raw material or partially worked artifacts and that they were fashioned and finished on the construction site, either by local artists and artisans or by artists who were brought to the site from other countries, similarly to specialist mosaic artists who traveled from site to site following commissioned projects," he said.

https://www.ynetnews.com/travel/article/hk6qgd1hn#autoplay

 

[ramonmercado]

Shit stirring reveals interesting find.

A new analysis of ancient feces taken from two Jerusalem latrines dating back to the biblical Kingdom of Judah has uncovered traces of a single-celled microorganism Giardia duodenalis—a common cause of debilitating diarrhea in humans.

A research team led by the University of Cambridge say it is the oldest example we have of this diarrhea-causing parasite infecting humans anywhere on the planet. The study is published in the journal Parasitology.

"The fact that these parasites were present in sediment from two Iron Age Jerusalem cesspits suggests that dysentery was endemic in the Kingdom of Judah," said study lead author Dr. Piers Mitchell from Cambridge's Department of Archaeology.

"Dysentery is a term that describes intestinal infectious diseases caused by parasites and bacteria that trigger diarrhea, abdominal cramps, fever and dehydration. It can be fatal, particularly for young children."

"Dysentery is spread by feces contaminating drinking water or food, and we suspected it could have been a big problem in early cities of the ancient Near East due to overcrowding, heat and flies, and limited water available in the summer," said Mitchell.

The fecal samples came from the sediment underneath toilets found in two building complexes excavated to the south of the Old City, which date back to the 7th century BCE when Jerusalem was a capital of Judah.

https://phys.org/news/2023-05-early-toilets-reveal-dysentery-testament.html