As I've tried for the last couple of years, here's a summary of the first week of the third season (and likely the last) of my department's excavations at Tel Tibneh in southwestern Samaria:
This season's main goal is finding other remnants of the hypothesized monumental Herodian-period structure the excavation's director thinks stood at the top of the tel during said period. This hypothesis was raised last year based on the discovery of three column sections: two drum pieces and a well-decorated base. A secondary goal is exposing more of an 8th-7th century BCE destruction layer in Area A, possibly associated with the Assyrian conquest of the Kingdom of Israel. This year I'm working full-time as an assistant area director/supervisor for the entire season - three weeks.
We opened up the week with opening Area G not far from Area A, slightly closer to the top of the tel, in hopes of perhaps uncovering the proposed monumental building. We did find a building, but probably not the one we're looking for. The one we found looks to have been built in the Herodian period, and reused in the Early Roman period.
In Area A new squares were opened up. So far it seems that another building parallel to the Herodian-Roman one from Area A was located there, which makes sense, as it shows that there was some basic town planning at the site, at least during the Herodian period. Another square was opened up near the city wall (dated to the 1st century CE) and showed that there wasn't a tower by the wall in the northern edge, as had been previously suggested.
Overall it was a good first week, and though we didn't find the monumental Herodian building (yet?), things look promising in terms of understanding site history. I'll note that today was particularly exciting for me because we discovered a certain type of vessel which, surprisingly, I was the only one on the team to recognize as an important vessel from the Kingdom of Judah, which seems to show that though our site is well inside Samaria, it had ties with the Kingdom of Judah as well. I hope that in the near future I'll be able to share more details about this particular type of vessel.
In the mean time, some pictures:
An ancient nail:
A Seleucid coin:
A decorated stone vessel fragment:
An imported Hellenistic fish plate fragment:
One of the new squares in Area A, with some very curious square tiles:
This season's main goal is finding other remnants of the hypothesized monumental Herodian-period structure the excavation's director thinks stood at the top of the tel during said period. This hypothesis was raised last year based on the discovery of three column sections: two drum pieces and a well-decorated base. A secondary goal is exposing more of an 8th-7th century BCE destruction layer in Area A, possibly associated with the Assyrian conquest of the Kingdom of Israel. This year I'm working full-time as an assistant area director/supervisor for the entire season - three weeks.
We opened up the week with opening Area G not far from Area A, slightly closer to the top of the tel, in hopes of perhaps uncovering the proposed monumental building. We did find a building, but probably not the one we're looking for. The one we found looks to have been built in the Herodian period, and reused in the Early Roman period.
In Area A new squares were opened up. So far it seems that another building parallel to the Herodian-Roman one from Area A was located there, which makes sense, as it shows that there was some basic town planning at the site, at least during the Herodian period. Another square was opened up near the city wall (dated to the 1st century CE) and showed that there wasn't a tower by the wall in the northern edge, as had been previously suggested.
Overall it was a good first week, and though we didn't find the monumental Herodian building (yet?), things look promising in terms of understanding site history. I'll note that today was particularly exciting for me because we discovered a certain type of vessel which, surprisingly, I was the only one on the team to recognize as an important vessel from the Kingdom of Judah, which seems to show that though our site is well inside Samaria, it had ties with the Kingdom of Judah as well. I hope that in the near future I'll be able to share more details about this particular type of vessel.
In the mean time, some pictures:
An ancient nail:
A Seleucid coin:
A decorated stone vessel fragment:
An imported Hellenistic fish plate fragment:
One of the new squares in Area A, with some very curious square tiles:
