Hidden in a 74-Year-Old Newsreel: The Foundations of What Would Be the State of Israel

Israel's History - a Picture a Day (Beta)

Hidden in a 74-Year-Old Newsreel: 

The Foundations of What Would Be 

the State of Israel

Posted: 22 Apr 2014

The Jewish version of a "barn-raising" in what appears to be a new settlement 

in the Jezreel Valley (British Pathé newsreels, 1940)

In our last posting we introduced readers to the latest archive released online -- British Pathé -- with its 85,000 newsreels uploaded to YouTube in April 2014.

Historians will have a field day.

This Israel Daily Picture site presents early photographs and films and ends its research at the 1940 point.

The British Pathé films include many films on the struggle to bring Jews into Palestine in the 1940s and the 1948 Arab-Israeli war.

We were intrigued by one 8-minute silent film entitled Peasant Farmer Plugs Field With Bullocks, 1940.

The film open with an Arab peasant tilling his field with a primitive plow. But after that 10-second segment the films shows Jewish settlers building a new community in the Galilee, Jewish farmers plowing and irrigating their fields, a street scene in what appears to be Tel Aviv, Jews praying at the Western Wall, doctors and students on Mt. Scopus' Hadassah Hospital and Hebrew University. There are also segments showing the Arab shuk and the Dome of the Rock on the Temple Mount.

We invite readers to identify the location of the "barn raising" photo above and to "plow" through other films to find noteworthy scenes.

Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610

Peasant Farmer Plugs Field With Bullocks (1940)

Where is Armageddon? - (Hint - not where you have been told...) ISRAEL TODAY

It is not in the Jezreel Valley, near Tel Megiddo and Nazareth, as many have been led to believe. 

It is Jerusalem.

Where is Armageddon?

Wednesday, March 26, 2014 |  Gershon Nerel  ISRAEL TODAY

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Most Evangelical Christian pilgrims visiting the Land of the Bible identify Tel Megiddo in the Jezreel Valley with the apocalyptic Armageddon mentioned in the Book of Revelation. This common opinion is also disseminated by many Israeli tour guides and is often advertised by the Ministry of Tourism. However, we must ask, is this conventional "recognition" really beyond any doubt?

The full article appears in the April 2014 issue of Israel Today Magazine.

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More Treasures from the "Cigarbox Collection" -- Part 2

More Treasures from the "Cigarbox Collection" -- Part 2



The cigarbox collection

We continue to scan and research the treasure trove of 
photographs donated to Israel Daily Picture, pictures 
taken by the donor's father in the Land of Israel in the 
first decades of the 20th century. We hope to unveil the 
collection and the donor's account in his own words 
in the near future.

Meanwhile, we present two more special pictures and 
a response to yesterday's picture from Yizraela, an 
octogenarian from Nahalal, who is an expert on the 
early days of the community and its photographs.

Kibbutz Mishmar Haemek in the Jezreel Valley (circa 1926) with 
Mt Tabor in the background.  The community was evacuated
 briefly during the 1929 Arab riots. 
In the 1948 war it was attacked by 
Arab artillery and aircraft.

Young women doing laundry.  A notation on the back of the photo 
says that they are Yemenites.  Are they Jewish? 
The talit prayer shawl in the tub suggests
 that they are. (circa 1920)

Yizraela Bloch (named for the "Jezreel" Valley where she was born) is the 
photo archivist of Nahalal.  The spry octogenarian was shown yesterday's 
photo of the children of Nahalal and asked if one of the boys could be Moshe Dayan.



She responded: "Moshe Dayan couldn't be one of the children in the picture 
because you can see the water tower that was built in 1924 in the background. 

The building in the foreground was the kindergarten and behind it the first
 grade class room. In 1924 Moshe Dayan would have been older then the 
kids in the picture." [Dayan was born in 1915.]

Confirming the unique nature of the "Cigarbox collection," Yizraela was very interested 
in the photograph which she doesn't have in the archive collection. She was also 
surprised that she didn't know the kindergarten teacher in the photo.

   The children of Nahalal and their teacher.

Our special thanks to NSP for interviewing Yizraela.

http://www.israeldailypicture.com/2013/04/more-treasures-from-cigarbox-collection.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+IsraelsHistory-APictureADaybeta+%28Israel%27s+History+-+a+Picture+a+Day+%28Beta%29%29

8,500-year-old skeletons found in ancient well

By SHARON UDASIN

Jerusalem Post

 

11/08/2012

Skeletal remains of a young woman and older man discovered at the bottom of a Neolithic well in the Jezreel Valley.

Photo: Clara Amit / Israel Antiquities Authority

In a mortal mystery that cannot help but beckon the age-old tragedies of Antigone and Haimon, or Romeo and Juliet, the 8,500-year-old skeletal remains of a young woman and an older man have been discovered at the bottom of a Neolithic well in the Jezreel Valley.

Excavators discovered the well during a dig of the Israel Antiquities Authority at Enot Nisanit in the western Jezreel Valley, which occurred ahead of an enlargement of HaYogev Junction at Road 66 by the National Roads Company. Archeologists are estimating that the well was built approximately 8.500 years ago, and the young woman found at its bottom was around 19 years old, with a man "older than her," according to the Antiquities Authority.

Archeologists are now left to ponder how the man and woman ended up at the bottom of the well – musing about possibilities such as a tragic accident or even a vengeful murder.

“What is clear is that after these unknown individuals fell into the well it was no longer used for the simple reason that the well water was contaminated and was no longer potable," said Yotam Tepper, excavation director on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority.

The well was connected to an ancient farming settlement, built of stones and bedrock, and at one point residents had used it for their subsistence, Tepper explained. Two capstones to narrow the opening had been set on top of the well, which measures about 8 meters deep and 1.3 meters in diameter, he added.

Many artifacts found in the well, such as flint sickle blades for harvesting, arrow heads and stone implements, are sure indications that the people who quarried it were among the first farmers in the Jezreel Valley, according to Tepper. Other discoveries in the well shaft, like animal bones, charcoal and other organic items, will enable future studies about the domestication of plants and animals, as well as help determine the exact age of the well, he explained.

“The well that was exposed in the Jezreel Valley reflects the impressive quarrying ability of the site’s ancient inhabitants and the extensive knowledge they possessed regarding the local hydrology and geology which enabled them to quarry the limestone bedrock down to the level of the water table," Tepper said. "No doubt the quarrying of the well was a community effort that lasted a long time.”

Dr. Omri Barzilai, head of the Prehistory Branch of the Israel Antiquities Authority, stressed that wells from the Neolithic period are "unique finds in the archeology of Israel, and probably also in the prehistoric world in general."

To date, the two oldest wells in the world have been exposed in Cyprus, indicating the onset of the "domestication phenomenon," according to Barzilai.

"It seems that ancient man tried to devise ways of protecting his drinking water from potential contamination by the animals he raised, and therefore he enclosed the water in places that were not accessible to them," Barzliai said.

Excavators previously exposed a well 1,000 years older than those in Cyprus at the Atlit Yam site in Israel, he explained.

Whether the man and women at the well's bottom were the victims of sparring families, a crime of love, or a simple accident, the well itself will be a valuable tool to examining an ancient civilization.

"The exposure of these wells makes an important contribution to the study of man’s culture and economy in a period when pottery vessels and metallic objects had still not yet been invented," Barzilai said.

http://www.jpost.com/Sci-Tech/Article.aspx?id=291031