gregoryjenks

Category: Archaeology

  • Study Leave—Week Twelve

    This week marks the official end of my study leave, although I will be in Israel for another three weeks and then returning to Australia via St Andrews in Scotland.

    Much of this past week has been spent of the dig at Bethsaida, or else processing the finds in our daily ‘pottery reading’ sessions. We have had about 35 people on site for the two week session that is just ending, and work has been progressing in three areas: A South, A West and T.

    Area T is of particular interest to me as I am serving as the supervisor for that area, and it was first opened by the Australian team in 2012. This year we have opened a new 5m x 5m square immediately to the north of the square we opened last year to see whether the wall we exposed last year connects with anything near by. After two weeks of digging we have uncovered  at least one substantial wall running parallel to the wall found in 2012, and perhaps another wall perpendicular between the other two walls. These structures appear to be from the Mamluk period (shortly after the crusades collapsed), but it seems they may have been built on the remains of earlier walls from the Roman period. In the next two weeks we will dig deeper to try and clarify the lower structures as we are especially interested in finding evidence of the lives of the ordinary people who lived in this site as most of the remains higher up the mound are monumental structures reflecting the aspirations of the rich and powerful.

    The coin project has dominated the time when I have not been on the dig at Bethsaida. Work continues to finalise the coin database for the period 2001 to 2012, so that I have everything ready to report at the Bethsaida session of the SBL international meeting in St Andrews next month. The last few days I have begun to explore—and hopefully master—the mysteries of VBA for Excel, so that I can make the information more easily accessible to people (and maybe also simplify the data entry process).

    Last weekend I had an opportunity to visit some places that I had not seen before, including the fortress at Yehiam (Jidiin) and the ocean caves at Rosh Hanikra. The land here is as beautiful and complex as the people for whom it is home. Sadly, both places also reflect the history of conflict that is so much a part of the story of this land.

    Yehiam was a crusader fortress and then a Bediouin castle and more recently the scene of fighting between Jewish and Arab forces in 1948. The pristine cliffs at Rosh Hanikra were dynamited by British forces to build railway tunnels during WW2, only to have the bridges blown up by Jewish underground forces after the war to prevent Arab reinforcements coming south from Lebanon. In the longer term none of this will matter as the Earth will reclaim the cliffs and obliterate the scars of human violence, but in the short term both nature and humans suffer unnecessary violence—much of it generated by misplaced religious certainty. In the meantime, how best to live with compassion and generosity?

  • Study Leave—Week Eleven

    This has been the second last week of my period of study leave. It has been a time for drawing together some of the loose ends, and a time when the mind naturally begins to think about what lies just ahead when life returns to its ‘normal’ setting in a few weeks’ time.

    Sunday and Monday were spent at the coin department of Israel Antiquities Authority, as we worked through the last 50 or so coins concerning which there were unresolved questions. After carefully reviewing the annotations (in handwritten Hebrew) on the index cards during the previous few days, I was well prepared for the visit and we made great progress. There remains a lot of work to update the records, fill gaps, find missing information in the field records, etc. However, the critical elements—and those parts best done while in the country and with access to the physical coins—have been finished.

    Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday were spent on the dig at Bethsaida, as we opened up a new square in Area T. Work in this area had begin only in 2012. We are seeking to find evidence for the presence of non-elite population at the site. After going down just 40cm  across the 5m x 5m square, we have already found a packed earth floor from the Mamluk period (ca 1300–1500 CE) and some domestic walls. We have lots of pottery shards and the occasional items in glass and iron. By the time we finish the season at the end of June we may well have found material from the Early Roman period as well.

    Friday has been spent at the house, leaving Area T in the hands of my colleagues while I attended to some key writing tasks as well as the growing pile of unanswered emails. My paper for the Biblical Characters in the Three Traditions seminar at the International SBL meeting in St Andrew’s, Scotland next month is now finished, and so is the Keynote presentation that I will use on the day. The current big task is to finish the Bethsaida Coin Report for the years 2001 to 2012, and then find a way to turn it into a presentation for the Bethsaida Seminar at St Andrew’s as well as a vaguely interesting chapter for a colleague’s Festschrift.

    I have also begun to pile up (and weigh) the books and other papers that have accumulated during my study leave. They will need to be posted back to Australia in the next week or so, as that extra 10 kg just cannot be added to my checked luggage!

    It is now just one more week before the Australian volunteers will arrive to join us for the dig, and then stay for a special one-week course at St George’s College in Jerusalem. Once that happens I shall have moved from sabbatical mode back into teaching mode. It will be good to see so many familiar faces from home here in this place that has become so special to me. At the same time, it will be hard to begin the process of saying good-bye to people here who are now such a special part of my life. Happily, I am coming back in November to serve as a speaker at the Sabeel conference in Jerusalem.

  • Study Leave—Week Nine

    Nine weeks have now passed since I arrived in Israel for my study leave, and Easter is here again as the Eastern rite Christians celebrate Easter.

    That liturgical cycle began for me with an Easter play performed by some of the young adults of the Sabeel community in Nazareth. As befits a Nazareth version of the story there was a considerable emphasis on Mary and the Annunciation, but the story certainly included Holy Week, Good Friday, and Easter morning. There was an impressive use of digital imagery to convey the story, and to tease out its larger significance. The performance was presented in the small theatre at Beit Miriam, The International Marian Center across the street from the Basilica. You will find a good set of photos from this event on the Sabeel Nazareth Facebook page.

    On Sunday I was invited to join the Greek Orthodox Palm Sunday celebrations, followed by a meal with a local family in Nazareth. Some photos and videos of that event have already been posted on my own Facebook page.

    Much of Monday through Wednesday was devoted to work on my paper for the “Biblical Characters in the Three Traditions” seminar at the Society of Biblical Literature international meeting in St Andrews, Scotland just before I head home in mid-July. I did not quite reach my goal of completing that 7,000+ words project before heading to the airport on Wednesday afternoon to meet Eve, but I am only about 500-1000 words short. That paper explores the rivalry between Herod’s three surviving sons (Archelaus, Antipas, and Philip) as reflected in their coins, and draws on some of my recent work in the coin department at Israel Antiquities Authority. “We Three kings” is all but finished, although I then need to turn it into a 10 min Powerpoint presentation for the seminar session.

    On Tuesday I spent several hours at a local Bedouin school where a friend of mine teaches English. I took a session with four of her regular classes from the Middle School (or Junior High, as they would say). This was a fascinating experience and gave me a small insight into the Bedouin experience within the larger Israeli society. The kids also seemed to enjoy the sessions, so I think it was a good day for us all.

    Eve arrived here on Wednesday evening, after a pretty gruelling flight from Australia via London. We are having a couple of days in Jerusalem, staying at St George’s College where we met back in December 1991. Thursday was spent visiting some special places around the Old City, but also included about 4 hours at the Sabeel office in Jerusalem. Friday morning began with a visit to the Mt Olives followed by several hours at the Israel Museum. Later afternoon we went down to the Damascus Gate to sit for an hour or so and watch the passing parade of humanity, which is especially rich this week due to so many people from Coptic and Orthodox communities being here for the Easter celebrations.

    For the next two weeks I am on annual leave, so please note that there will be no study reports during that time.

  • Study Leave—Week Eight

    This week began with some unseasonal rain, including thunder and lightning through much of Saturday here in Tiberias. The drop in temperatures was enough to send me searching for the ancient electric radiator, much to the delight of Fifi, my canine companion. He promptly settled down in front of the heater with a satisfied expression on his face. The rain continued through Sunday, while the cold weather lasted until Monday. By Tuesday things were beginning to warm up again.

    I left for Jerusalem early on Sunday morning, with hopes of attending the 9.30am Arabic service at St George’s Cathedral. However, the traffic was exceptionally bad and what should have been a 2.5 hour trip took me over 4.5 hours. It seems to have been the result of road closures on Highway 1 during a visit by the US Secretary for Defence, exacerbated by wet weather and the usual Sunday morning traffic peak. Happily the traffic was much better when I returned home on Tuesday afternoon, and I was also able to break my journey for brief visits with Yuval Hollander (Director for the Bethsaida DVD last year), and Hanan Shafir (the dig photographer).

    My three days at the IAA Coin Department were very productive. By Tuesday afternoon I had completed the first draft of the detailed numismatic descriptions for most of the coins between 2012 and 2001. The remaining 45 coins need some additional work by Donald Ariel before I can prepare their descriptions. The annual coin reports for seasons up until 2000 already have such descriptions, but these had not previously been compiled for the last 12 seasons. This should make the coins much more accessible to other researchers, and in the process I have learned a great deal about the study of coins. There remains a great deal yet to learn, but working closely with the head of the IAA Coin Department has been a fantastic introduction to the field.

    After returning from Jerusalem I switched back to the book project, and by Friday morning I had another chapter completed: ch 10, Easter people. This explores the relevance of the resurrection of Jesus for Christians today, and was by far the most challenging for me of the chapters done so far. Overnight Thursday I also received the contract from Polebridge Press for the book, so that has now been signed and returned!

    I am hoping to get one more chapter completed before Eve arrives next Wednesday evening, as I doubt there will be much time for writing during the next three weeks!

  • Study Leave—Week Seven

    The past week has been dominated by writing, but I guess that is one of the reasons for study leave?

    What began as a short section about Nazareth in a chapter of my new book, has drawn me into some extensive research around the archeological evidence for Nazareth at the beginning of the first century CE. I have read just about everything there is to read, and modified my views on some points of detail in the process. There has also been some really helpful feedback from colleagues such as Rami Arav, Richard Freund, and Carl Savage from the Bethsaida project. Along the way the material has  developed into a stand-alone chapter, “The Quest for the Historical Nazareth,” that will now appear in a collection of essays being edited by J. Harold Ellens. The short section in my own book has also been modified as this research continued. Some possibilities for future archaeological research in Nazareth have also emerged, so it will be interesting to see where this all leads.

    By Wednesday morning the new chapter had been finished, and mercilessly cut back to the required maximum of 6,000 words. Now it was time to begin the next chapter for my own book: ch. 9, “Son of Mary, son of Joseph.” This material had been marinating in the back of my head for some days now, so it came together pretty quickly (and hopefully pretty well). It was completed by dinner time on Friday. It was challenging to write around topics like “A Palestinian Jesus” and “A Jewish Jesus,” and then to articulate what each Jesus might say to those two communities. It was also an interesting exercise to correlate Jesus with the Millennium Development Goals.

    There were not so many events away from Tiberias this week and had there been I would doubtless not achieved so much writing. Even so, a few events stand out for mention.

    Last Saturday evening I attended a bell ringing concert in the large Salesian Church on the ridge in Nazareth. The visiting international ringers were excellent, although I find hand bells a tad underwhelming. One sour note was the large number of Jewish pieces in the concert, and the apparent lack of awareness of the Palestinian context in which they were performing.

    On Sunday I went to Haifa to worship once again with the local Anglican community there. As I did not get lost as many times as on previous occasions, I arrived about 30 minutes before the service. Before long I found myself robed in a borrowed alb, and assisting the parish priest, Asis Hatim Shehadeh, with the service. After the liturgy I enjoyed coffee and sweets with the congregation, and then an extended lunch with Hatim and his family. Having been there on several occasions now, I am beginning to feel quite at home in this community.

    On Monday and Tuesday this week, Israel observed Memorial Day and then Independence Day. In the week leading up to these events the streets and buildings had been festooned with blue and white flags, although Memorial Day is a very solemn observance that begins and ends with the wail of air raid sirens across the country. For the Arab population in Israel and in the occupied Palestinian territories this is a sad occasion as they commemorate the Nakhba, or Catastrophe. It was a powerful experiece to attend a large rally on the site of the destroyed village of Khubbayza, as part of the annual Right of Return marches around the country. The event was well organised, and a handful of Israeli police were in attendance to manage the traffic. Their presence actually gave me some hope for the future resolution of this conflict, as it seemed that the norms of civil society were in operation.

    During the week I also had an opportunity for an extended visit to the Beit Shearim necropolis. I have visited this site with groups a number of times, but it was good to have an opportunity to explore some of the less accessible caves.

    I will take a break from writing for the next few days, and focus on the coins from Bethsaida once again. On Sunday I am heading to Jerusalem for a few more days in the coin department at Israel Antiquities Authority. Hopefully I shall be there early enough to attend the 9.30am Arabic service at St George’s Cathedral.

  • Study Leave—Week Six

    The past week has been a delightful mix of experiences.

    The week began and ended with new chapters being completed. This means that half of the new book now exists in draft form, and I have some growing sets of notes for several of the other chapters. I seem to be on track to have the book finished by the end of my sabbatical. The HODOS online community that I set up in January 2001 is proving to be a great forum for exploring my ideas for the new book, and I am finding that some of the material that I generate in those discussions can be used in the book. This was certainly the case over the last few days, so I deferred plans to work on the coin chapter and followed the creative energies to complete the first draft of chapter 7, “Calling Jesus Names.”

    Most of Saturday was spent at Iqrit, a depopulated village where the people return once a month for a liturgy and community day. The church was packed, and afterwards I stayed on to mingle with the locals. After an informal picnic lunch, the music and dancing began. It was a lovely time to share with them all.

    Early Sunday morning I headed south to Jerusalem for a few days working in the coin department at Israel Antiquities Authority, arriving in time to catch the Arabic service at St George’s Cathedral. This was a very productive few days, and I am now beginning to prepare the detailed numismatic descriptions of the individual coins from 2012, 2011 and 2010. My goal is to work back to close the gap in the records since 2000, but I am starting with the most recent seasons.

    While at IAA I was able to speak with Yardenna Alexandré, who was responsible for the excavations at Mary’s Well in 1997/98 as well as the 2008/09 excavations across the street from the Basilica of the Annunciation in Nazareth. Her detailed report on the Mary’s Well excavations has now been published by IAA, and I was able to get an informal verbal report on the unpublished finds from 2008/09. Having access to the scholars working on the digs and with the coins has been such a valuable aspect of my study leave. By week’s end I had also received my copy of the excavation report from the Franciscan excavations at the Basilica in the late 1950s and early 1960s, so I hope to have a good grasp of the major Nazareth sites soon. An essay on the archaeology of nazareth has just been accepted as a chapter in a book being edited by a colleague, so now I need to  pull together my ideas about that topic. I am looking forward to that as Nazareth is such a significant place for me.

    On Wednesday afternoon I had an extended meeting with people from the local Sabeel community to plan shared events, including their participation in the Bethsaida dig again this year. they do an amazing amount of community work, with more than 140 events in 2012. This year they are especially focusing on interfaith relations, to reduce the tendency among local Christians and Muslims to isolate themselves from one another.

    In the evening I enjoyed a concert of classical Arab music, performed by a local music and choral ensemble. This was a fund-raising event for a new unit at the Nazareth English Hospital, and the music was superb. This video of a similar concert in 2012 gives a very good sense of the event I attended.

    Most of Wednesday and all of Thursday was devoted to writing. By the end of Thursday I had the first draft of chapter seven completed, as noted above.