"...acquaint me with Rehov..."

Hello friends and family.  We have just returned from our five week excavation at Tel Rehov.  It was an amazing and very taxing experience and as you can imagine our feelings at the end were certainly bittersweet – we were relieved to be finished and sad that it was all over at the same time.  Tel Rehov is a very unique site among the other ancient cities in the land that have been excavated.  The architecture is often very unique and complex and many of the finds are not known anywhere else in Israel. 

Tel Rehov, or Tel eṣ-Ṣarem as it was once known to local Arabic speakers, is located seventeen miles south of the Sea of Galilee in the valley named for the ancient (and now modern) city of Beth Shean (Mom and Dad should remember this tel!).  The site is located just to the east of the Gilboa mountain range, near the junction of two main ancient roads and near the Harod spring that drains in the direction of the Jordan River.  This all means that the site had a close water source, arable land, and connection to trade in antiquity.  Given the location of the site then it is no surprise to find that it is well known in our ancient texts, primarily the annals of the kings of Egypt.  Can you think of a place when Rehov is mentioned in the Bible?  There are five instances when a city called Rehov is mentioned, but it is not this particular site.  It is too far north.  Our Rehov is not mentioned in the Bible, which is quite surprising.

The Institute of Archaeology of the Hebrew University has been excavating at Tel Rehov since 1997 under the direction of Dr. Amihai Mazar.  The 2010 season represents the tenth season of excavation at the tel.  Over the course of thirteen years of excavation HU has revealed a number of important things about the ancient cities at Rehov.  It is evident from the presence of an Early Bronze Age (EB) rampart that the site was inhabited sometime between ca. 3300-2000 B.C.E.  Following the EB in the Middle Bronze Age (2000-1550 B.C.E.) most of the sites in the land were made into massive cities with enormous walls – Rehov was not.  There is no evidence of any Middle Bronze occupation at the site.  The Late Bronze Age (1550-1200 B.C.E.) was the main period in which Rehov thrived.  During this period Canaan was under the rule of the Egyptians.  During this time the Egyptian pharaohs ruled the land via a series of local Canaanite governors who were loyal to Egypt.  We know from a text written during the reign of Pharaoh Seti I (1290-1279 B.C.E.) that a city in the vicinity of Beth Shean called Rehob was loyal to Egypt and did not participate in the various rebellions led by some of the Canaanites at this time.  Other Egyptian texts mention the site and point to its importance and prominence during this period. 

Following the Late Bronze Age (LB) many sites in the land suffered some kind of collapse, many sites were abandoned and some places were destroyed.  The cause of this collapse is not clear, but Rehov survived!  There is clear archaeological evidence for the transition between the LB and the Iron Age I (1200-1000 B.C.E.).  Archaeologically the Israelite material culture is well attested in the land in the Iron Age II (1000/980 – 586 B.C.E.).  At Tel Rehov there is clear evidence for a thriving city in the Iron Age IIA (ca. 980-840 B.C.E.), roughly the time of King David to King Ahab, but it was hardly your typical Israelite town! Interestingly the last mention of the city of Rehov in Egyptian records is during the reign of Pharaoh Sheshonq I (943-922 B.C.E.), who the Bible calls Shishak (1 Kgs 11:40; 14:25; 2 Chr 12).  Sheshonq campaigned into Canaan at the close of the united Israelite monarchy.  Sheshonq’s record itself is vague because it is only a list of towns and therefore we do not know the purpose of his campaign.  That he mentions Rehov is important because it means that despite the lack of attestation in the Bible, Rehov was still an active town during the Israelite monarchy.  The nature of the town remains in question however.  Rehov is the only Israelite city that we know of where beekeeping and commercial honey production was known.  The buildings in the Iron Age IIA strata are not like any seen in the many sites that have been excavated over the years.  There are numerous finds, many of which are cultic artifacts like altars or clay model houses, that have no parallels anywhere else in the land or even in Syria, though Egyptian style artifacts are prevalent.

At any rate, Rehov’s Iron Age IIA city was destroyed in a major fire (leaving behind what archaeologists call a “destruction layer” at the site), which was presumably intentional and may stem back to the invasion of the Arameans (1 Kgs 19; 2 Kgs 8-13).  Archaeologists love destruction layers because, when a site is destroyed people usually flee and leave all of their belongings behind, an unfortunate result for them but great for the archaeologists!  After this, the city was resettled to the south on the higher part of the tel in the eighth century (700’s) B.C.E.  This city was destroyed by the Assyrians in the 720s (who also conquered the Northern Israelite capital of Samaria) and was not resettled again for about 1000 years when an Islamic village was established on the upper mound of the tel. 

We have now had the privilege of being a part of two seasons of excavations at this unique site (we dug at Rehov in 2008, our first visit to Israel).  This season we participated in the dig for credit through the Rothberg International School of the Hebrew University.  We spent five weeks excavating, learning how to draw top plans and sections, take heights, record finds, wash, “read,” and mark pottery, and keep an excavation log.  This archaeological “field school” will fulfill our archaeology practicum requirements for our degree at JUC.

This season at Rehov we excavated in Area C, which is on the lower part of the tel and contains the remains from the Iron Age IIA, in a building labeled C-P.  This season we opened up a whole square (a 25 square meter area) and a half-square (12.5 square meters).  Both of these areas revealed a part of the northeastern corner of a very large complex of three rooms/buildings.  The architecture of the large complex is like nothing ever seen in the architecture of the Iron Age and the finds are unique.  What’s almost more amazing than this is that the destruction debris of this building began only about 10 centimeters under topsoil!

In our first square that we opened we worked with two other people (LeAnn and Becky, who are in our photo album :0) and excavated the square down to the floor of the room, which was a little over a meter below the topsoil.  In this area there were a ton of sherds (broken pieces of clay vessels) and many whole containers – storage jars, jugs, and bowls.  The main thing that we were looking for in the square, however, was not the “goodies” but the architecture – and really this is what archaeology is about.  We essentially spent the first 3 1/2 weeks excavating this square and the final week in the second half-square, in which we were attempting to define two walls that would close off the large room that we began working in, in our first square.  We have pictures posted of a few of our finds, but we had to pick the photos judiciously because the material has yet to be published (check out www.rehov.org for more pics to be posted at some point in the future!).          

The past five weeks have been both amazing and grueling at the same time.  If any of our readers have ever been on a dig you know how this works, but for those who have not, I will explain our basic daily routine.  We stayed at a kibbutz (a Jewish community centered around agriculture and in more modern times, housing guests like a hotel) called Beit Alfa, which is about a 15 minute drive from the excavation site.  Every day from Monday through Friday we needed to be on the bus to leave for the tel at 4:45 am, which means getting up around 3:45 so that we could have time to get ready and have a few minutes to eat something before running out the door.  We set foot out of our air-conditioned room and into the mid-80 degree early morning.  Once on the bus we would drive to the tel and arrive around 5:15 (or 5:30 depending on how long the bus driver waited for latecomers).  Work begins right away so that we can get the really heavy stuff out of the way before it gets too hot.  Temperatures in the Beth Shean Valley typically are above 100 degrees (the hottest recorded temperature in the Middle East, 129 degrees, was in fact recorded in the Beth Shean Valley).  We then have our very Israeli breakfast of tuna, bread, cottage cheese, tomatoes, and cucumbers on site about 8:30 am.  Then we work until 11 and take a short break for juice (or popsicles on Fridays!) and finally end the excavation at 12:15 pm.  We then have lunch from 1-2 and have two and a half hours until we wash the pottery that we excavated the day before.  So this is where most people take naps and relax and where the students and excavators do homework.  Pottery washing generally lasts until about 5 and then we “read” and sort the pottery from two days prior, meaning that we decide what pieces to keep and mark and what pieces get thrown away.  This generally lasts until about 6pm.  From 6 to 7 we have an hour of free time unless there was a workshop for the students participating in the dig for credit.  Dinner lasts from 7-8 and then very often there was a lecture at 8:15 that lasted until 9 or 9:30.  Then bed and then do it all over again.  This was basically a VERY intensive five-week archaeology class for us!  And, now that it’s over we have to prepare our top plans, lists of finds, and excavation reports to turn in to Hebrew University as soon as we can. 

Now that our dig is over we are back on Mount Zion at JUC.  The directors of the school just left for their month-long vacation to the States and we are holding down the fort along with two other students.  The current student life directors are getting ready to leave and we are planning on moving in to our little apartment on campus probably sometime next week.  We are attempting to work on Tel Rehov related homework and a few other projects that we have put on hold for the five weeks while we have been digging.  In addition to this we are just trying to relax a little before the fall semester kicks in and we get back to classes and figuring out how to work in our new position as Student Life Directors at JUC. 

We hope that you enjoy seeing the pictures of the dig.  We had a lot of fun at Tel Rehov this season and we are hoping for maybe another season of excavation there before we finish out at JUC.  Blessings to you all! 

Justin & Mandy    

New Photos!

Hey everyone!  Our updated blog post is below!  Also don't forget to check out our three latest photo albums.... we have captured our final field studies of the spring semester, our Easter in Jerusalem, and our visit with my (Mandy's) parents in May, ready for your viewing pleasure.  :0)

Blessings!

Looooooooong Overdue Update!

Hello, Friends and Family! After three months of silence from our blog, we are finally surfacing again to update! Our apologies to everyone who was breathlessly awaiting our next adventure! We have news, news, news! But first, what have we been up to?

We left you in our last entry rambling in the flower-filled fields of the Shephelah. The remainder of our semester included two other field studies, one of which took us back to the Shephelah, to Maresha and Beit Guvrin. In addition to these, we also had a chance to visit a couple of additional sites, including a second temple village complete with tunnels built for the Second Jewish Revolt (132-135 CE) and a caravan sarai located between the Shephelah and Jerusalem. The village site is called Horvat Etrei, and the tunnels were intentionally constructed to prepare for the revolt. The Romans would talk about how the rebels would appear and disappear, and it took them awhile to figure out that they would attack and then disappear into these tunnels. They prepared the tunnels to be hard to find, well-stocked with supplies, and even had some “false turns” so the enemy would be misdirected in the darkness and plummet to his death into some pit. The tunnel we took wasn’t that long, but it was only wide enough for our shoulders, crawling on our hands and knees. After our adventure in the tunnel, we headed back to Jerusalem, stopping at Horvat Hanot, a remarkable caravan sari, on our way. This location had the remains of a Byzantine church, and a beautiful mosaic that covered the entire floor, only visible to visitors who came equipped with brooms (they keep the mosaic covered with dirt to protect it).

Between this field study and our final field study of the semester, we had opportunities to help JUC with cooking! As we mentioned in our previous entry, we have continued to help the breakfast/lunch cooks, Nat and Shirley, when the short-term groups came on campus, and we would cook breakfast/lunch when Nat and Shirley would go on field studies. We especially looked forward to our times to cook for the few students who remained on campus when the remainder went on field studies, because this remnant were comprised mostly of the longer-term students who perhaps missed American cooking a bit more than the semester-only students. We wanted to spoil them just a bit, so we had a ton of fun preparing zucchini bread, oatmeal with cinnamon apples, and a potato “sausage” frittata for breakfast, and Cajun blackened chicken salad, Justin’s special rosemary chicken and homemade mashed potatoes, and tacos (with homemade flour tortillas!) for lunch. We had so much fun preparing the food, and the students, we hope, had fun eating it. :0)

We also had a chance to celebrate Easter here! As with most holidays in Israel, the feel of Easter is much different than it is in the States. For one thing, its tie to Passach (Passover) is keenly felt, as there are large groups here who celebrate both holidays. Many, many people come to Jerusalem during this time for both holidays, so it is very busy with people and traffic. Holy Week offers many events leading up to Easter, with the biggest day actually on Friday and Saturday, including a procession from the Mt. of Olives to the Holy Sepulcher. On Satuday, the “Holy Fire” ceremony is carried out from the Holy Sepulcher, and torches and candles are lit by everyone participating, from the center of the Old City outwards to the gates and beyond. We weren’t able to go this year, but some of our friends went, and they described people running around with candles of fire, lighting everyone else’s candles… it is a bit frantic (and a bit scary) but definitely an interesting event. On Sunday, it is actually rather quiet in the city. Church services go back to their usual schedules, celebrating the resurrection. To celebrate, Justin and I went to the Holy Sepulcher, the most trusted spot of Jesus’ death and resurrection. To be there on Resurrection Sunday was truly moving. Interestingly, we were able to get into a room we had never been to before, which only technically was open to Greek Orthodox… In one of the side offices, the church had an entire room dedicated as a reliquarium, a place that held the relics of the Greek Orthodox martyrs. They had books and bones and other cherished items under glass, and we were able to walk through it, see everything, and see our fellow visitors’ reactions to the items. It was absolutely amazing.

Our final field study of the semester was an overnight trip back to Galilee! With our focus being the Second Temple period, we focused in primarily on sites that addressed the “accommodate or confront” tension of the period (as well as most periods in the country, I might add). Foreign Greek and Roman culture and religion came in from the west, and the Jews in the land had to figure out what was acceptable and what was not acceptable, what they could adopt and what they could not adopt. The line was not clear cut, and in parts of the country, some felt that they could accommodate more than others. So, there is some blend in architecture and art (such as pagan elements on mosaics inside synagogues, or synagogues built according to the plan of a Roman pagan temple), and there are also locations that mark the battles of the first revolt (such as Gamla and Yotopeta), the first confrontation against these new influences. There were those who were able to find a line of compromise to attain peace, and there were others who felt that the purity of their religion was being threatened and thus needed to defend it. And the outstanding question of the field study was, “Who was right? Where should the line be drawn?” The question, I believe, is complicated and difficult to wrestle with. Everyone must wrestle with these issues at one point or another, and in varying degrees… especially in the Middle East, where East and West truly do converge. Ultimately, I think both sides have valid arguments, and those who strain to hear both sides will benefit the most.

A couple of weeks before the end of the semester, just as our focus was turning towards finals and, beyond that, our uncertain fall semester, we met with the director of our school. The school has already helped us with so much, between our scholarships, our work in the kitchen, and the leftovers that Nat and Shirley continually donated to the “gleaners” as they called us and a few other off campus students. Paul informed us that they were beginning to make plans for the fall semester, and to line up their staff. As a result, the school offered us the position of Student Life Directors for the next two years! Our basic financial needs will now be taken care of, and we will live on campus with the students, organizing activities, being there for emergencies, and otherwise doing any odd jobs that needed to be taken care of. We were so overwhelmed by the offer, and so grateful for God’s provision. For those who have been following our journey, you know that we moved to Israel with only about a semester’s worth of funds. It has been the scariest journey, but we have really learned to trust God for our needs. He has taken care of us and has gotten us through this first year….and now, He has made a way not only for our second year of study here, but also for an additional year. We are especially grateful for this, because now we will have a little more time for modern Hebrew study, seeing the country, and, most importantly, finishing our theses. With the funds we have left, we also hope to be able to come home for a visit, maybe next summer! So, stay tuned on that one. :0)

So, with the end of the semester, our thoughts turned to our summer events, which included a visit from my (Mandy’s) Dad and Mom right after our semester ended, our 5 weeks at Tel Rehov digging again, working at JUC, hopeful research towards our theses, and a couple other projects here and there. For not being able to officially work in Israel, we have become surprisingly very busy!

Our visit with my parents was absolutely wonderful! We’ve posted a few pictures from their visit on our album for you to see as well. It was so much fun to take them around to not only the touristy sites of Jerusalem, but also just the fun day-to-day things that we do. They got to see how we do our grocery shopping (we carry the groceries back in backpacks, ¾ of a mile, uphill all the way), as well as how we dry our laundry in our tiny apartment (no balcony, so the laundry gets strung from one side of the apartment to the other). It was fun to watch them experience the cultures of Israel (some friendly, and some not-so-friendly), the lack of personal space (especially at the Central Bus Station!), and little things like working with Shekels and the metric system. We took them to Beth Shean in the north as well as to Caesarea on the Mediterranean. We ate fun food (lots of falafel!) and walked lots and lots and lots! They got to meet our amazing landlord, Micha and talk to him about his family and living in Israel, and they also met our equally amazing shopkeeper, Shaban, who continually offered them drinks and discounted prices on his goods. All in all, it was a marvelous 2 ½ weeks, and we were sad to see them go.

After my parents left, we had 2 weeks before leaving for Rehov to start our dig. During this time, we not only worked at the school, but we also arranged to move out of Micha’s apartment and on to campus, to help save some of our rent money. We have enjoyed living in Talpiot and in Micha’s apartment so much, it was difficult to go. But, we knew it was the best decision and would save quite a bit of money in the long run. We are not able to quite move in to our permanent home on campus, as the current Student Life Directors will still be here until the end of July. When we do move, we will be moving into a room that has a first century tomb…empty, of course, but still unique! So, we will be moving from a bomb shelter (where we lived in Talpiot) to a first century tomb (now, how many people can say that? :0) Until then, we are moving around from dorm room to dorm room as they need us to, and most of our stuff is in storage at the school (so, now our stuff is divided between 3 or 4 different locations? Crazy!). We are grateful for a place to stay, though, so we continue to be flexible as needed.

And now… We are at Rehov! We have been here now for over 3 weeks, and we have 2 weeks left to go! All of our adventures here will definitely require a separate entry, so I will save that for a later time (hopefully not 3 months later!). In short, we have been traveling back and forth from Jerusalem on the weekends, and have been living at Kibbutz Beit Alfa during the week, which is close to the tel. We are having so much fun this year, as we are digging in Area C, in a destruction layer that dates to approximately the time of the Aramean invasion of the land (possibly Hazael). There are many, many “goodies” that are turning up in our area, and we haven’t even reached the floor yet! So, there will be many more exciting things yet to come.

As a side note, this past week we were able to get our Student Visas renewed, so we are officially here for another year! We can’t believe how quickly this year has gone, but how long it also has felt. We have learned so, so much in this past year, and we know that what we have learned we could not have gained anywhere else. We are so grateful for the prayers and support of our friends and family back home, and we are excited for you to share in our news of God’s provision for us! We couldn’t have done it without you. :0)

Our prayer needs for the next coming months include:

1. A New Home. As much as we want to be flexible and practical with our living conditions, I (Mandy) really do miss being a little more settled and having a place to call Home. Please pray that we can get settled without many unexpected surprises after the dig is over.
2. A New Position. Justin and I are both eager and a bit anxious about our new position. We’ve never done anything like this before! Please pray that we will be adaptable to the needs of the position, creative in solutions, open-minded, and gracious with ourselves and each other through this upcoming first semester. Please also pray that we can find a reasonable balance between our work and our own personal boundaries, to give as much as we can, and to also protect our relationship and our own time.
3. Time. We want to make sure we have the time to get the projects done that we have committed ourselves to this summer, as well as try to take time to work on our theses. Please pray for rest for us during the month of August, as well as time to study.
4. Family. With the extra year we will now be committing to, we also know that this means an extra year away from family. Please pray for our families during this time, as we know it is hard to be so far away from them.

Thanks, everyone, for your patience in waiting for our long overdue update! Year Number 1 is almost wrapped up, and we look with anticipation towards Year Number 2. We love you all, and we’re excited to have you along for our extended adventure. :0)