24.07.08 – day 4

Day 4 / 20 (20%)

Prof. Lipschits in area C4

This rectangle of area C4 has been excavated down to the bottom.  The part on the right – the white surface that was under the garden soil – is clearly different from the left part of the trench, which goes down lower.  This was either a channel contemporary to the original Assyrian structure – perhaps a channel leading water along the west face of the citadel – or a “robber’s trench” – dug by people from later times who wanted to extract building stones from the ground to use in their own buildings.

Oded in area D4 - the Byzantine monastery

Living quarters, including the remains of a kitchen, have been found in this area of the monastery.

Prof. Lipschits in area D6

At the bottom of this picture the layer of rich garden soil from the Iron Age period is visible.  Area D6 is in a different part of the site from C4 – the Assyrians had extensive gardens in their citadel.

Part of a casemate wall, also in area D6

Here are some of the finds from this week, cleaned up and on display:

A Byzantine coin horde uncovered today and yesterday, containing approximately 350 coins.

Various seal impressions on jar handles from several Biblical periods - Assyrian, Persian and perhaps even pre-Assyrian.

A very fine lmlkh - "to the king" - seal impression, which also bears the name of the city of Hebron. Second from left in the row of handles above.

Shard of Byzantine oil lamp, with writing in Greek

The writing on the lamp is a Christian religious inscription – or at least it was meant to be.  Because the Byzantines who made it did not know Greek, they copied the inscription from somewhere else by sight, introducing errors into the text and rendering it jibberish.