Khirbet Safra 2018, Paul Gregor, Paul Ray, Constance Gane, Trisha Broy, and Jacob Moody
Al-Maktába: The Bookstore
Random Surveyhttps://digitalcommons.andrews.edu/iaham-news/1075/thumbnail.jp

Broy, Trisha

Gane, Constance

Gregor, Paul

Moody, Jacob

Ray, Paul

English

Andrews University

Andrews University Digital Commons @ Andrews University Institute of Archaeology & the Horn Archaeological Museum Newsletter The Institute of Archaeology & the Horn Archaeological Museum Summer 2018 The Institute of Archaeology & Siegfried H. Horn Museum Newsletter Volume 39.3 Paul Gregor Paul Ray Constance Gane Trisha Broy Jacob Moody Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.andrews.edu/iaham-news Table of ContentsPageSafra 2018Al-MaktábaRandom SampleINSTITUTE OF ARCHAEOLOGYHORN ARCHAEOLOGICALMUSEUMNEWSLETTERPaul J. Ray, Jr.                                EditorConstance E. Gane             Assoc. EditorRandall W. Younker            Assoc. EditorRobert D. Bates                  Assoc. EditorDorian Alexander                  Asst. EditorThe Newsletter is published four times ayear by the Institute of Archaeology,Andrews University. Annual subscriptionprice is $7.50. Museum membership,subscription, and editorial correspon-dence should be addressed to the HornArchaeological Museum, Institute ofArchaeology, Andrews University, 9047US 31, Berrien Springs, MI 49104-0990,Telephone 269-471-3273, Fax 269-471-3619, e-mail hornmusm@andrews.edu.Volume 39.3 Summer 2018ISSN 1095-2837                                   Khirbet Safra 2018Andrews University had its first season of excavations at Khirbet Safra from June 17-July27, 2018.  The excavations on the site were directed by Paul Z. Gregor, Constance Gane, and PaulRay of the Institute of Archaeology at Andrews University, with Gane, Ray and PhD archaeologycandidates Trisha Broy and Jacob Moody as Field Supervisors. Amal Rawahna and Nisrin KhaledFugh’a served as representatives for the Department of Antiquities of Jordan.Khirbet Safra is an approximately 2.6 acre, triangular-shaped site, located southwest ofMadaba and Main, overlooking the Dead Sea, with a casemate-type wall system surrounding it’sperimeter. The excavation fields were laid out using GPS on the basis of a grid of 6.0 x 6.0 msquares placed over a topographic map created by the Department of Antiquities surveyors in2017, with the tops of some partly-exposed walls also serving as fruitful locations for their initialplacement.  The casemate wall system was exposed in three of the four excavation fields (A, B, and C)that were opened this season. In each field, the walls were freestanding, built directly uponbedrock, which is uneven, with a number of various-shaped crevices. These crevices were filledwith a densely-packed, sterile, red-bricky-like material, lacking material culture. On top of bedrocka two-row outer wall, a one-row inner wall, and cross walls were constructed with large fieldstones and smaller chink stones. In two fields (B and C) doorways were found in the inner wall,leading between rooms on either side. In Field B the entrance was built over the step-like bedrockthat rose up gradually (or was perhaps modified), leading from the broad room of the casemateinto the long room of another structure, built immediately inside the inner wall. In each field,Khirbet Safra 2018 Excavation Team. (cont’d on p. 2)134the initial construction of the casematewall system dated to the early Iron Age I.  Field A, consisting of two squares(A1 and A3), laid out on the western edgeof the site, was supervised by ConstanceGane. Parts of both squares were excavat-ed to bedrock. Early Iron Age I ceramicremains were found directly upon thebedrock in Square A1, which consisted oftwo rooms next to the outer casematewall, both of which exhibited beaten-earthsurfaces, with ceramics dating to earlyIron Age I, with stone grinders and pes-tles, and numerous animal bones. Abovethis surface in both rooms is a mix of IronAge I, Iron Age II and Byzantine periodceramics among what appears to be mud-brick superstructure collapse, indicating aviolent disruption of occupation here.Square A3, though also disrupted bytectonic activity, provides a clearer occu-pational history. A doorway providesaccess between the southern and northernrooms against the inner casemate wall.Here, the same early sequence of red-bricky material with early Iron Age I pot-tery was covered by a plastered floor,with early Iron Age I ceramics imbeddedin the plaster, in the southern room.Above this level, a thick (up to 50 cm)ashy lens covered most of the two rooms,indicating a conflagration. Post-occupa-tional debris suggests a period of aban-donment. On top of this material is a beat-en earth surface that dates to theByzantine period. At this time substantialByzantine walls were built, at least oneupon an Iron Age I wall. A second beatenearth surface also dates to this time. Thesesurfaces and walls indicate a relativelywell-established Byzantine-period occu-pation on this part of the site.Field B, supervised by Paul Ray, con-sisted of three squares (B1-3) laid out onthe southwestern edge of the site, ofwhich one (B1) was completely excavat-ed, a second (B3) partly so, and a third(B2), while not excavated, was neverthe-less used to trace the outer wall on thisside of the site.  Bedrock was reached inparts of both of the excavated squares. In Square B1 several use layers werediscovered. The first occupation layer,dating to early Iron Age I, was locatedabove the red-bricky fill material on topof bedrock. Many animal bones and anumber of domestic and textile artifactswere found within this layer. During lateIron Age I, a beaten-earth surface was laidon top of the initial use layer, after which,during early Iron Age II, another beaten-earth surface was laid above a fill layer.Stone thresholds, connected with bothbeaten-earth surfaces were found in thedoorway of the inner casemate to keepeverything level on both sides of the wall.A destruction, probably by an earth-quake, sometime in Iron Age II, left ca.0.75 m of the mudbrick superstructure inthe broad rooms of the casemate structurein Squares B1 and 3, with smalleramounts of destruction debris in otherparts of the building, after which thestructures in this part of the site wereabandoned. Later, during the Byzantineperiod, there seems to have been somesquatter activities, as three isolated wholeforms (a juglet and two cups) and part ofa jar were found in pits dug in Square B3.Field C is located on the southeasterncorner of the site, and was supervised byTrisha Broy. The excavations in this fieldconsisted of two squares (C1 and C2).Some Late Bronze Age II/early Iron Age Itransitional pottery was found on the sur-face created from the red-bricky materialon top of bedrock. This material wassealed below a destruction layer, approxi-mately 0.10 m thick, that contained alarge amount of broken ceramic vesselsand domestic food preparation objects,such as grinders and pounders. Theceramics dated primarily to the Iron AgeI, with a few earlier forms.A second occupational level consistedof a beaten earth floor in both squares.The entrance between the broad room ofthe casemate and the room immediatelyinside was blocked at this time, as wasanother entrance between rooms furthernorth and east. Flat-lying pottery sherds, apair of bronze bangles, and a roof rollerwere found on this surface. Above thissurface was a series of ash layers, sug-gesting another conflagration. These locicontained ceramics that dated primarily tothe Iron Age 1. Above these ash layers isan abandonment layer consisting of boul-ders from wall tumble, dating to Iron AgeII.Field D, supervised by Jacob Moody,is located on the northernmost edge of thesite. Three squares (D1-3) were plannedfor Field D this season, of which only two(B1-2) were fully excavated.  This areawas chosen for excavation because of thevisible wall lines, some with stones largerthan anything else visible on the site. Thesoil is also rather shallow in this part ofthe site, in places only 0.10 m deep abovethe bedrock.Talmadge Gerald (r) and Local Worker Cleaning Surfaces in Field A at Safra.As in the other fields, there is a clearpreparation phase where the walls ofbuildings were laid upon a red-brickymaterial which leveled the unevenbedrock. The vast majority of this sub-stance was without material culturalremains, but early Iron Age I diagnosticsherds were found on top of this fill layer,helping to date the earliest construction inthis part of the site. The walls built on topof this material consist of sections of atleast two buildings in a square layout,with portions of three-four rooms beingexcavated. In these rooms, the first occupationallayer, which had flat-lying early Iron AgeI pottery, was built right on the bedrock,upon which was an ashy layer, with a halfof a small storage jar, and a possibleincense stand in one room, and part of anearly Iron Age I biconical jar and severalgrinding stones, pounders, and a possiblehob in another one. Further excavation isneeded to determine the function of thesebuildings.No clear occupation layers werefound above the ash layer, indicating, itwould seem, a possible abandonment ofthis area of the site. These abandonmentlayers contained mostly Iron Age I sherdswith a few datable Iron Age II sherds. Thetopsoil had nearly an even mix of IronAge I and II sherds, with only two smallByzantine period body sherds. (PaulGregor, Paul Ray, Constance Gane, TrishaBroy and Jacob Moody)AL-MAKTÁBAThe BookstoreMUSEUM AND INSTITUTE MEMBERSHIPS AVAILABLEat the following levels:Benefactor $1000 Patron $500 Sponsor $100Sustainer $50 Contributor $25 Participator $10Newsletter subscriptions are included in each level of membership, or you may subscribe for just $7.50 per year.Just clip this form and send it to:Horn Archaeological Museum Your Name: Andrews UniversityBerrien Springs, MI 49104-0990 Address:Membership level: Phone: Subscription only ($7.50): E-mail:Donations: Fax:Total Enclosed:Please make checks payable to: Horn ArchaeologicalMuseum. Erratum:In the article on the ASOR2017 Annual Meeting in Newsletter39.2, the third sentence of the firstparagraph should have read: Theplenary address was presented byIrene Winter, Professor Emerita,former William Dorr BroadmanProfessor of Fine Arts at HarvardUniversity, entitled “Archaeology,Object History, Art History:Questions of Definition andDiscipline.” We apologize toProfessor Winter and regret boththe oversight and incorrect informa-tion in the published material.  Essenes at Qumran?New studies seem to confirm theoriginal supposition that Qumran,the site located near the Dead SeaScroll caves, was likely the home ofan all-male, celibate Jewish sect,known as the Essenes, during theSecond Temple period. Researchdone on 33 newly-excavated skele-tons from the cemetery at site hasrevealed that almost all were male,with the genders of only three inde-terminate. The skeletons of 53 previ-ously-unearthed bodies have alsobeen reexamined, with six of theseven individuals formerly tagged aswomen actually being men. New City Found in Iran:Archaeologists have recently discovered the remains of a city with a mudbrick fortification wallin North Khorasan Province, in northeast of Iran. A cemetery and structures from the BronzeAge as well as material from the Median and Achaemenid periods have been found at the site.Pliny and Whales:In the 1st cent. AD Pliny the Elder wrote about graywhales being attacked by killer whales in the Bay ofCádiz. Archaeologists have recently found bones ofthese whales in an ancient Roman fish-processing sitealong the Strait of Gibraltar that substantiate Pliny.Mass Grave Found:          A mass grave has beenfound at the site of Gebelel-Silsila (ancient Kheny),65 km (40 mi) north ofAswan, Egypt, at a placewhere cliffs on both sides ofthe Nile River come close tothe water’s edge. Sandstonequarries and numeroustombs of the officials incharge exist at the site, usedfrom the 18th Dynasty toGreco-Roman times. Thetwo-chambered, 5.0 m deepshaft grave has yielded theremains of 50 adults and 25children. Burial goodsinclude scarabs, amulets,seals, beads, bracelets, andvarious ceramic vessels.To discover more about archaeology, theInstitute, and the Museum, contact us at:VOX: 269-471-3273FAX: 269-471-3619E-mail: hornmuseum@andrews.eduor visit our website at:www.andrewsarchaeology.orgThe Institute of ARCHAEOLOGYSiegfried H. Horn Museum    Andrews University, Berrien Springs, MI 49104-0990Address Service RequestedNon-profit OrganizationU.S. Postage  PAIDPermit No. 5Berrien Springs, MI 49103Harbor Excavations at Corinth:Underwater excavations at Lechaion, one of the two ancient har-bors of Greek city of Corinth, are providing new insights intoRoman engineering under Julius Caesar, who rebuilt them in 44BC, after their destruction a century earlier (146 BC), when theRomans conquered the city. The latest finds have revealed thestone block structures including some well-preserved woodencaissons and pilings used as foundations.

The Institute of Archaeology & Siegfried H. Horn Museum Newsletter Volume 39.3

https://digitalcommons.andrews.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1075&context=iaham-news

The Institute of Archaeology & Siegfried H. Horn Museum Newsletter Volume 39.3

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

Andrews University