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November 28, 2008
Digging in Goliath's home
Archeological excavation finds evidence of Philistines' history.
RHONDA SPIVAK
The University of Manitoba is planning to participate this summer in major archeological excavations in Israel at Tel es-Safi, located 13 kilometeres to the northeast of Kiryat Gat.
Archeologist Dr. Haskel Greenfield, a professor of anthropology at the university, is organizing a field school at the site for people interested in receiving credit towards a degree or volunteering to dig for pleasure. "We are looking for volunteers from all over Canada," he said.
"The site is famous because it is now considered to be the biblical site of Gath, which is one of the major Philistine cities that is described in the Book of Samuel and the Book of Kings. This is where Goliath came from. The Philistine army that was fielded against David came from this town," said Greenfield.
"In the early 20th century, the biblical Gath was originally identified as a mound that is right near Kiryat Gat, but that was a mistake. Archeologists realized this mistake about 20 years ago.... The Israeli development town of Kiryat Gat [established in 1955] was given its name because it was thought at the time that the mound next door was ancient Gath," he said.
There's a joke among archeologists working in the region that Kiryat Gat needs to be renamed "Kiryat Not Gat," Greenfield added.
According to Greenfield, the Philistines were only one of many people who lived at the location. "It seems the site was settled between 5,000-6,000 years ago. It became one of the urban centres by 4,700 years ago, which is the time period that I'm looking at. The site was occupied during the Middle Bronze Age – the time of the biblical patriarchs – by the Canaanites and, during the late Bronze Age, it was occupied by the Canaanites as part of the Egyptian empire," he said.
Greenfield, who is excavating pre-biblical ruins, from "before the time of Abraham," from the Bronze III period, made a significant discovery this summer at the site. "We uncovered the complete skeleton of a domesticated ass, which is approximately 4,500 years old. It is very unusual to find a complete intact skeleton. It was found in the fill of an early Bronze III house," he said.
"The finding tells us that this is a time when people are transporting goods by asses, before camels. Before this time, they would have used oxen. There were camels in the region but they were wild and not domesticated at this time," he noted.
The excavations at Tel es-Safi are being led by Aren Maeir, professor of archeology at the University of Bar-Ilan in Ramat Gan. Greenfield's wife, Tina Greenfield, who has a master's of anthropology from the University of Manitoba and specializes in biblical archeology, is also excavating at the site. She said, "The dig is unique because so much evidence of people's daily life and activities has been uncovered. For example, excavators have found olive oil-making workshops, workshops with loom weights for weaving, bone tool workshops. Haskel and I anticipate that we could dig there for the next 10 years."
She added, "In the ruins of what was a street with houses running off it, archeologists have uncovered three levels of disposition. They'll find people's personal effects. You never find this stuff."
"The ancient city of Gath has a strategic location at the foothills. It controls the coastal highway and the ways to the mountains. From the site, you can see to Ashdod and the route to Bethlehem is nearby," said Haskel Greenfield. "They [the Philistines] arrived in Gath from what is now modern Turkey and Greece and they conquered the area and pushed the Egyptians back into Egypt, and they displaced the Canaanites and settled up and down the coastal plane of Israel."
Greenfield also said that there was an Arab village at the site of Tel es-Safi in 1948. After Israel's War of Independence, "those Arabs who were still there were evicted when the site was made into an Israeli national park. But the Arab villagers were given alternate land nearby with perpetual grazing rights and the Arab clan that is there is quite well off today," he said.
Anyone interested in participating in the excavations can contact Greenfield at [email protected].
Rhonda Spivak is a freelance writer who divides her time between Israel and Winnipeg.
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