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June 8, 2012
Ancient treasure find
Canaanite jewelry trove unearthed in Megiddo.
ARIEH O’SULLIVAN THE MEDIA LINE
Archeologists digging at Tel Megiddo in northern Israel have unearthed what turns out to be one of the largest troves of Canaanite treasures ever found, buried in rubble from 3,100 years ago. The treasure was hidden inside a clay vessel that had been unearthed in the summer of 2010. The pot was filled with dirt and had been sent for testing. Only recently was the dirt examined in a restoration laboratory and the treasure revealed.
The hoard includes a collection of gold and silver jewelry, beads, a ring and a pair of gold earrings with molded ibexes and wild goats that was likely made in Egypt.
“We find about 10 [whole] vessels every year. The only thing that was unusual was that the jug was found inside a bowl. It was put inside a bowl 3,000 years ago and was covered by another bowl and it was put in the corner of a courtyard,” said archeologist Eran Arie.
The hoard is one of the largest and most intriguing ever found in Israel. The treasure likely belonged to a wealthy, perhaps royal, family and was found in the layer of settlement dating to 1,100 BCE, about 150 years prior to the Israelite conquest of Canaan, Arie said.
Israel Finkelstein, a professor Tel Aviv University’s department of archeology and Near Eastern cultures, who has been digging at Megiddo for nearly two decades, said the jug was discovered in the remains of a private home in the northern part of the site. It was dated to the period called Iron I.
The ancient city of Megiddo lies on the western border of the Jezreel Valley and has dozens of layers of civilization. It is mentioned repeatedly in Egyptian chronicles and was a major city during the era of the biblical Jewish kings. Christian tradition holds that it is Armageddon, the site of the final battle between good and evil.
It’s another fascinating find from a unique archeological site. Tel Megiddo was an important Canaanite city-state until the early 10th century BCE and a pivotal centre of the northern kingdom of Israel in the following centuries. It is a multi-layered site comprising clearly differentiated time periods. There are 10 or 11 strata from this time period that are well dated through radiocarbon analysis. “Such a sequence of radiocarbon dates doesn’t exist anywhere else in the region,” noted Finkelstein.
The hoard contained nine pairs of lunette (moon-shaped) earrings of common Canaanite origin made out of gold and a gold ring with a seal. There were also more than 1,000 beads made from semi-precious carnelian, which was frequently used in the making of Egyptian jewelry in the same period. It also contained a number of silver jewelry pieces.
Arie was supervising the area where the jug was found. He said the layer his team was excavating had gone through a conflagration, or destruction, perhaps connected to the treasure.
“Maybe somebody knew that the family had this kind of hoard and they were looking for it and when they didn’t find it they set it all on fire,” Arie speculated. “It was not hidden under the floor, but on the floor. So the people didn’t know that they were going to perish. It was probably hidden by some kind of organic material, sacks, textile, leaves, something that we didn’t find.”
Arie said an examination of the jewelry showed that some of it had originated from a different period. “Probably part of it was stolen or robbed from an earlier strata, or some of it may have been heirlooms,” he speculated. “What was unique in this hoard is that it contained gold and silver jewelry together.”
Arie said the source of the silver was to the north, while the gold came from Egypt to the south. The mixture of the silver and gold jewelry can be seen as evidence of the waning Egyptian influence in the area. “The hoard itself showed that they knew of and still appreciated the Egyptian style,” he said. “This is exactly the period that the Egyptians are not here anymore,” he added. It was during this same time that Israelites began to appear in the central mountains and Philistines in the coastal plane. Megiddo remained a strong Canaanite city well into the Israelite period.
Excavations at Megiddo are ongoing.
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