Showing posts with label Saar Ganor. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Saar Ganor. Show all posts

Wednesday, August 31, 2016

Archaeological Proof of David vs. Goliath Battle On Display in Jerusalem - Tazpit Press Service BREAKING ISRAEL NEWS

The Khirbet Qeiyafa Archaeological Site. (Bible Lands Museum Jerusalem Spokesperson)

Archaeological Proof of David vs. Goliath Battle On Display in Jerusalem


“And the men of Israel and of Yehuda arose, and shouted, and pursued the Philistines, until thou comest to Gai, and to the gates of Ekron. And the wounded of the Philistines fell down by the way to Shaaraim, even unto Gath, and unto Ekron.” I Samuel 17:52 (The Israel Bible™)
By: Anna Rudnitsky
Biblical archaeology was revolutionized several years ago when evidence of the existence of the alleged kingdom of David was brought to light in the form of a fortified Iron Age town excavated in the Elah Valley by Hebrew University Professor Yosef Garfinkel and Israeli Antiquities Authority (IAA) archaeologist Saar Ganor. The place was described by the Bible as the location of the battle between David and Goliath. The highlights of the findings of the Elah Valley excavations will be presented to the public for the first time at an exhibition scheduled to open at the Bible Lands Museum in Jerusalem on September 5.
“Archaeology cannot find a man and we did not find the remnants linked to King David himself,” Professor Garfinkel told Tazpit Press Service (TPS). “But what we did find is archaeological evidence of the social process of urbanization in Judea.”
According to Prof. Garfinkel, the evidence of urbanization fits in with what is described in the Bible as the establishment of the Kingdom of David, when small agrarian communities were replaced by fortified towns. “The chronology fits the Biblical narrative perfectly. Carbon tests performed on the olive pits found in Khirbet Qeiyafa show that the town was built at the end of the 11th century BCE,” Garfinkel explained to TPS.
Two phenomena particularly attracted the attention Garfinkel and Ganor of when they began excavations at the site of Khirbet Qeiyafa about ten years ago. Numerous iron stones were found and a wall of unusual form, with hollows in two places, enveloped the site.
Experience David's Ancient City
The archaeologists only realized in the second year of their excavations that they had found a fortified town from the Iron Age that perfectly fit the description of the Biblical town of Shaarayim. The name in Hebrew means “two gates,” and the hollows in the modern wall, built on top of the ancient one, were precisely in the same place as the previous existence of two gates, which is quite a rarity for a relatively small town.
The geographical location of the town also fits right in line with the Biblical depiction of Shaarayim, mentioned in the context of the aftermath of the battle between David and Goliath when the Philistines “fell on the way to Shaarayim.” The town is also mentioned in the book of Joshua as being situated near Socho and Azeka, two archaeological sites surrounding Khirbet Qeiyafa.

The southern gate of the Khirbet Qeiyafa archaeological site. (Bible Lands Museum Jerusalem Spokesperson)
The southern gate of the Khirbet Qeiyafa archaeological site. (Bible Lands Museum Jerusalem Spokesperson)

Other remarkable findings at the site include two inscriptions in the Canaanite script that are considered to be the earliest written attestation to date as to the use of the Hebrew language. A pottery shard contains the distinctly identifiable Hebrew words of “king,” “don’t do,” and “judge.”
The Bible Lands Museum exhibition, called “In the Valley of David and Goliath,” will feature the pottery shards as well as a clay model of a shrine found at the site and the huge stones used in the casemate wall around the town. “Although I led the excavations, I myself was amazed to see the different pieces brought together in a way that allows visitors to get a clear picture of how the town looked and that gives them an opportunity to go back in history to the times of the kingdom of David,” Professor Garfinkel said.

Friday, June 19, 2015

Netanyahu Sees Rare King David-era Inscription

Netanyahu Sees Rare King David-era Inscription



JERUSALEM, Israel -- At a time when many in the world question Israel's right to the land, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu weighed in on an extraordinary archaeological find from the time of biblical King David. 
Archaeologists Prof. Yosef Garfinkel, with the Hebrew University Institute of Archaeology, and Saar Ganor, with the Israel Antiquities Authority, showed Netanyahu the rare 3,000-year-old inscription at his office in Jerusalem this week. 
They told him that until five years ago there were no known inscriptions from the Kingdom of Judah in the 10th century B.C.
"Today we have four inscriptions -- one from Jerusalem, one from Beit Shemesh, and two from Khirbet Qeiyafa," Garfinkel said in an interview with CBN News.
Archaeologists say these inscriptions have revolutionized thinking about that time period.  It wasn't a prehistoric era with illiterate people. They clearly had writing skills and commercial activity.
The ancient writing appeared on pottery shards discovered in Khirbet Qeiyafa, identified with Sha'arim in the Bible in the Valley of Elah. That's the place where the Bible says a young David fought and killed the Philistine giant, Goliath.
Conservators worked almost a year in the laboratory to put the more than 100 pieces of the pot together.
"The inscription read: "the estate of Eshba'al son of Beda."
Garfinkel said this particular find provided a fascinating name.
"The name Beda is unique. We don't know what it is but Eshba'al is  very well-known name. It appears in the Bible a few times but all the time it's mentioned it's from the time of King David," Garfinkel told CBN News. 
"There is the famous Eshba'al, son of King Saul. He ruled for two years and then his head was cut off and brought to David in Hebron. But this is not our guy, we have another Eshba'al," he said.
Eshba'al means "man of ba'al," which was a Canaanite god. 
Because the Israelites didn't like ba'al, Garfinkel said that one of Saul's son's name was changed to Ishbosheth, man of shame in the book of Samuel.  He told CBN News that all Eshba'als in the Bible and archaeology are from the time of King David.
"This is fascinating that you see the correlation between biblical text and archaeological text," he said.
For years, some experts said there was no proof that King David existed. But Garfinkel and Ganor's work at Khirbet Qeiyafa helped proved skeptics were wrong. 
Netanyahu said the inscription attested "to what happened here, in this country, in the time of King David."