Week 4: Tell es-Safi/Gath

Week 4 found us with a much reduced team as most of the undergraduates returned to classes. The week was spent drawing sections, then taking down the shade so we could clean for final photographs at Tell es-Safi/Gath. It was wicked hot and reminded me of the many projects I’ve worked on where there was no shade. It was a frenzied week of sweeping our Area, A2 and helping out of neighboring areas in preparation for the final photographs.

Here Alex adjusts the meter stick for photographing the temple in the area neighboring ours. How do we know it's a temple? There are many parallels with the Temple at Tell Qasile. You can find out more info on Aren Maeir's blog: gath.wordpress.com
In addition, we scanned many of our notes. The week ended with final photographs, followed by aerial photographs, and covering our area to protect it.

Week 3, Day 4: Tell es-Safi/Gath

Today, one of my PhD students, Caroline Tully uncovered a very interesting floor with lots of debris on it, and Louise "Titch" Titcombe found a tiny pomegranate or opium pod shaped bead, maybe made of carnelian. Tomorrow is our last day of real digging and tonight I'm looking forward to the end of week party.

Week 3: Tell es-Safi/Gath

We've had some other exciting finds this week and I'll blog more about them soon, but in the meantime, this is our University of Melbourne Team Photo with the Australian Ambassador, the Honourable Andrea Faulkner. Note, the students accidentally held up the flag backwards.

Week 3, Day 3: Tell es-Safi/Gath

This week has been another whirlwind and I'll post more later. Today was another big day: one of my students found a tiny gold coil, and another found a fragmentary bull figurine in another rubbish deposit. We have found several floors and documented them, then started excavating them. I went with 3 of my students to see the small Philistine museum in Ashdod. The best part of it was that they had costumes, so we all dressed up like a Sea People's Warriors. They also had a very interesting exhibit on the problem of looting and forgeries. We tried to find the site of Ashdod, but we would've needed a better car, but we did get sense of the landscape. Afterwards, we took a quick dip in the sea, which was very warm. When we got back to the kibbutz, I finally got to see a photo of the very interesting horned altar found at Ashkelon in a previous season.

End of Week 2: Tell es-Safi/Gath

Today we had another exciting day at Tell es-Safi/Gath. It began with a visit from the Australian Ambassador, the Honourable Andrea Faulkner, and continued with uncovering this Philistine amphora.


Here, the Ambassador is speaking with one of my MA students, Sam Crooks.

We also had a visit from the Megiddo team and student Caroline Tully is pictured here speaking with the Megiddo Director, Israel Finkelstein.

Week 2, Day 4: Tell es-Safi/Gath

Although yesterday was rather slow, digging rubbish fill in several areas, we had a big day today. polyvinyl impressions taken of our chisel marks to be studied under an electron microscope in Canada,


In Sharon's square, in fill, perhaps in a courtyard, we found a sealing (aka bulla) but with no image or inscription, a gold earring, and a silver bead.

In Jo's area, we finished the uncovering of our phytolith surface.


While digging yet another rubbish deposit in Dean's area, we found a "celebrity" sherd that was featured in the BBC documentary being filmed on the Bible and a very nice, but broken flint knife.
Tomorrow, the ambassador!

Week 2, Day 2: Tell es-Safi/Gath

Today I supervised Sarah's happy removal of our 4th whole vessel. We also uncovered a layer of phytoliths, supervised by my PhD student Jo. However, I'm pretty tired from my lecture on Cypriot architecture last night, not to mention staying up till 11pm to e-mail from the Australian Ambassador: she's visiting us on Friday!

Week 2, Day 1: Tell es-Safi/Gath

Today was a pretty exciting day in the early Philistine Area, Area A2.

These are two of three Philistine bowls excavated at the north end of our area. They were found under last year's surface of hydraulic plaster (soon to be published in the Journal of Archaeological Science).

Sarah (pictured) and Sharon found the 3 Iron Age bowls and we are hoping for big things tomorrow!



More of our "sacrificed" young goat in a pit was excavated by Liora, our faunal specialist, with assistance from my student Amanda.

This nice rim sherd for a Philistine, Mycenaean style deep bowl came up in one of our pottery bags.

End of Week 1: Tell es-Safi/Gath

On Thursday night, we wrapped up a great week with a felafel party.


Despite the fun, we still had enough energy left to prepare for photos and trench tours. Our rubbish pile was cleaned for photographs and Emily is cleaning the Philistine pavement with chisel marks in preparation for further study.

The week ended with trench tours accompanied by our Aussie mascot.

Excavation: Day 4

Today, my students, Belle and Michelle, found lots of phytoliths under this basalt pestle. We also cleaned the jar smash for photos, and uncovered a chunk of hydraulic plaster from last year's fill.

Tell es Safi: Day 3, a Juglet

On day 3 Derry uncovered a complete Philistine juglet. We also have part of another hearth, and some cool animal bones like a piglet jaw and the cervical vertebra of a cow. It must be day 3, because we also found a whole vessel on day 3 last year!

Day 2 at Tell es-Safi/Gath 2010

I think everyone is doing a great job, despite a few beers last night to break the ice. So far, we have a cobbled surface that may be an extension of the foundation that supported last year's find of hydraulic plaster. Dani is excavating a pottery smash and Dean is instructing his team. You can see more photos on my Facebook page.

Day 1 at Tell es-Safi/Gath 2010

I have 21 great students that managed to get 8 grid squares clean on Day 1 of the 2010 season of the University of Melbourne team at Tell es-Safi/Gath. There was also time for the kibbutz pool. Tonight a beer, Tomorrow, digging starts!

Inauguration Day!

A group of the IAS fellows gathered at Marie-Henriette Gates apartment to celebrate the Inauguration of Barack Hussein Obama.

I May Be All Wet, But My Martini's Still Dry...

About once a week, usually on Shabbat, I migrate to the American Colony for drinks. This time I was joined by Ann Killebrew, Albright Fellow Penelope Mountjoy, and IAS fellows: Jeremy Rutter, Marie-Henriette Gates, and Robert Schiestel.

Ashkelon in November & My Close Encounter with a Qassam

In November Dan Master showed our Institute research group around Ashkelon. Here, we're standing in front of the Canaanite Gate. Over the last few weeks, it hasn't been safe to go there.
Last week, we went to a conference at Beersheba U on the Philistines.

On the way south to Beersheba, we could see the smoke rising over Gaza, which may be from the destruction of the UNRWA facility there.
One of the most interesting things about the talks was hearing about Philistine regionalism.

Afterward, some of your group wanted to look at some pottery stored in a nearby area called Omur. There was an air raid there and we had to spend some time in a bomb shelter and heard 3 loud booms.

These bomb shelters are a fact of life for Israeli's, especially in the south and the north, and for Palestinians.

Study in Jerusalem: Visiting Safi & Megiddo

I've been doing research at the Institute of Advanced Study at Hebrew University in Givat Ram since Nov 1. Our theme is Regional Narratives and our time is divided between weekly field trips and seminars, and doing our own research. There is a broad range of regional specialization among the different participants including Turkey, Greece, Egypt, the Canaanites, the Israelites, and the Philistines. In addition to interacting with each other, there has been interaction with fellows at the Albright and with members of the other IAS research group on urbanism. This has included joint seminars and fieltrips. We also had a mini conference in early December. I would say my teaching will have benefitted as much from being here as colleagues have been very generous with sharing information and circulating offprints, especially of items not readily available on JSTOR.

In November it was nice and green at Tell es-Safi and the bedouin tent was pitched below Area A.

Aren Maeir took us around Tell es-Safi, which is now a national park. The tell was very green - looking very different than it does in the summer.

There was also time to discuss the Goliath inscription.

A couple of days ago, Israel Finkelstein gave us a 4 hour tour of Megiddo, which included some interesting historical anecdotes about research there. Here we're near the entrance to the site at the Late Bronze Age gate.

Costco comes to Melbourne!

Costco is finally due to open in Melbourne in 2009 at Docklands. Yippeeee!

Happy New Year from the Judean Desert!

Today I had a a great time. I went to the the Judean desert with my friends Norma Franklin and Shimon Gibson to help Shimon measure an Iron Age building in the area of Buqeah. We found some unrecorded features and measured lots of walls. The best part was being warm! I'm going to try and bring my earlier activities up to date since arriving in Israel on Nov.1 very soon. It has been a very busy year for me that has involved publishing 2 books, writing some articles, organizing the 12th International Aegean Conference: DAIS, The Aegean Feast that brought 48 speakers from 14 countries to Melbourne, seeing my husband join me in getting dual Aussie/US citizenship, going to a conference in Cyprus, digging in Israel in July, then returning for 4 months in November, breaking my toe last February, and of course, teaching my students. I plan to gradually update my activities chronologically.

Merry Xmas, Happy Hanukah, Kwaanza, & Solstice!

Christmas week involved attending my first Hanukah candle lighting, and in fact, I made it to 4 of them, plus going to midnight mass in Bethlehem, which was sung in Latin, with passages presented in many languages. I had lots of time to mill around, meet Santa, and visit the grotto of the Nativity before the 2 hour High Mass. I think I like Hanukah: what's not to like about 8 days of donuts, latkes, and prezzies!