arqueologia

Em maio já vira a notícia: Israel Finkelstein estará no Brasil em outubro próximo.

Agora leio no site da Abib: Regional São Paulo sediará Seminário Internacional com Israel Finkelstein

Leia Mais:
Israel Finkelstein

Acabei de ler no blog de Jim West e cito aqui porque pode interessar a alguns colegas.

Changes in the Megiddo Expedition’s Directorship

About a month ago our friend Eric Cline, co-director of the Expedition, wrote to me to announce his wish to retire from the Megiddo operation. Eric is busy with many duties as co-director at Kabri, now editor of BASOR, teacher, researcher, author and above all, family man, and all this has become a bit too much for him. I answered my friend Eric with warm words – to thank him for his over 20 years contribution to the success of the Megiddo Expedition and for his friendship.

As a result of Eric’s decision, we had to take decisions regarding the future management of the Expedition. Margaret, Sivan, Matt, Mario and I met today and decided as follows:
1. Starting in the season of 2016 (well, effectively as of today), the Expedition is directed by Israel Finkelstein, Matthew Adams and Mario Martin.
2. This means that Matt takes over the management of the Megiddo consortium.

For me personally it is with great satisfaction that I see two of my Megiddo students (one of them joined at the age of 18!) become co-directors.

Again, I am sure that I am speaking on behalf of all of us to thank Eric for his many years with us and wish him the best in the coming years; as I told him earlier today, he will remain a prominent member of the House of Lords of Megiddo/Armageddon…

Israel Finkelstein

Fonte: The Meggiddo Expedition – Posted Aug 10, 2015, 12:32 AM by Assaf Kleiman

Israel Finkelstein é muito citado em minha página, mas Eric Cline também vale a pena ser lido. Confira aqui.

Sir Leonard Woolley and Ur of the Chaldees – By Harriet Crawford: The Bible and Interpretation – July 2015

The most prominent feature of the site of Ur in 1922 was the high mound which covered the remains of the great ziggurat or staged tower dedicated to the Moon God Sin. It was here that much of Woolley’s work was to be focussed. He was able to trace the history of the ziggurat over more than five thousand years and to uncover evidence for the temples, defensive walls and other buildings which surrounded it.

Leia o artigo.

Sobre o livro:

CRAWFORD, H. Ur: The City of the Moon God. London: Bloomsbury T & T Clark, 2015, 160 p. – ISBN 9781472524195. Para Kindle aqui.

Diz a editora:
The ancient Mesoptamian city of Ur was a Sumerian city state which flourished as a centre of trade and civilisation between 2800-2000 BCE. However, in the recent past it suffered from the disastrous Gulf war and from neglect. It still remains a potent symbol for people of all faiths and will have an important role to play in the future.

This account of Ur’s past looks at both the ancient city and its evolution over centuries, and its archaeological interpretation in more recent times. From the 19th century explorers and their identification of the site of Mukayyar as the Biblical city of Ur, the study proceeds to look in detail at the archaeologist Leonard Woolley and his key discoveries during the 1920s and 30s. Using the findings as a framework and utilising the latest evidence from environmental, historical and archaeological studies, the volume explores the site’s past in chronological order from the Ubaid period in the 5th millennium to the death of Alexander. It looks in detail at the architectural remains: the sacred buildings, royal graves and also the private housing which provides a unique record of life 4000 years ago. The volume also describes the part played by Ur in the Gulf war and discusses the problems raised for archaeologists in the war’s aftermath.

Quem é a autora?
Harriet Crawford is Senior Fellow at the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge, and Reader Emerita at the Institute of Archaeology, University College London, UK. Her published works include Sumer and the Sumerians (2004), Dilmun and its Gulf Neighbours (1998) and The Sumerian World (2012). She has excavated in Iraq, Bahrain, Kuwait and Syria.

Leio no portal da Universidade Metodista de São Paulo:

Arqueólogo Israel Finkelstein é um dos convidados da Semana de Estudos da Religião  – 02/03/2015

A Semana de Estudos da Religião, promovida pelo programa de Pós-graduação em Ciências da Religião (PPGCR), já tem um convidado de destaque confirmado. Entre os dias 07 e 10 de outubro [de 2015], o evento receberá a visita do arqueólogo, pesquisador e escritor Israel Finkelstein.

Finkelstein é docente no Departamento de Arqueologia e Civilizações do Antigo Oriente Próximo da Universidade de Tel Aviv, Israel, e diretor da Expedição Megiddo. Entre os livros de sua autoria estão: “A Bíblia não tinha razão [The Bible Unearthed], “David and Solomon” e “The Forgotten Kingdom”.

Além da participação na Semana de Estudos da Religião, o professor terá um encontro com o Grupo de Pesquisa do PPGCR “Arqueologia do Antigo Oriente Próximo”.

Veja a programação com a participação do professor Israel Finkelstein:

07/10 – Primeira conferência – Aberto ao público
08/10 – Segunda conferência – Aberto ao público
09/10 – Seminário com o Grupo de Pesquisa “Arqueologia do antigo oriente próximo” e convidados
10/10 – Seminário ABIB-SP – Aberto ao público

Leia Mais:
Israel Finkelstein

Você se lembra da polêmica dos códices de chumbo da Jordânia, que alguns alegaram ser do começo do cristianismo? Isto foi em 2011.

Leia, primeiro, para recordar:

:: Códices de chumbo do começo do cristianismo? – Observatório Bíblico: 01/04/2011

:: Vídeo sobre os falsos códices de chumbo – Observatório Bíblico: 04/09/2011 [clique também nos links do “Leia Mais” no final do post]

Agora, o assunto, que não morreu, é denunciado em artigo de Jim West. O artigo, publicado por ele em The Bible and Interpretation, neste mês, é:

The Tale of the Lead Codices from Jordan: A Brief History [O caso dos códices de chumbo da Jordânia: uma breve história] – By Jim West: The Bible and Interpretation – January 2014

Até porque o texto denunciado por Jim West demoniza os biblioblogueiros que negaram a autenticidade dos códices de chumbo…

Ele escreve, entre outras coisas:
One would imagine, then, that with the bulk of evidence against those claiming the codices are authentic, that the matter would have died out several years back. Unfortunately, that is not the case at all. Supporters of the authenticity of the artifacts continue to portray them as valuable pieces of history. But they haven’t stopped there. They’ve also taken to demonizing all who would dare to call into question the ‘artifacts’. Even as recently as a few weeks, statements were made which demonstrate the lengths to which certain people will go to protect their investment. Claire Palmer, in a lengthy post [The Blogging Truth] at a website called the ‘International Times’, wrote…

Como disse certa vez Larry Hurtado, alguns temas parecem ter características de zumbis, pois não importa quantas vezes você os mate, eles sempre voltam…

I call these “zombie claims”:  No matter how often you kill ‘em off with the facts, they come back again, typically after sufficient years have passed that the news media will have forgotten the previous appearance(s) (and the memory of today’s news media is impressively short). Indeed, in today’s world of internet and e-communication, such zombie claims get a new life rather quickly, and get buzzed around the world almost overnight.

Robert Deutsch, um dos mais importantes negociantes de antiguidades em Israel, foi absolvido, em março de 2012, de seis acusações de falsificação de vários artefatos arqueológicos. Agora, ele move uma ação contra a IAA – Autoridade Israelense de Antiguidades – exigindo o pagamento de mais de 3 milhões de dólares por danos…

Você se lembra do caso do Ossuário de Tiago e da Inscrição de Joás? De Oded Golan?

E seria bom ler também Supreme Court says Israel cannot hold Jehoash Tablet but challenges antiquities trade.

Agora, em The Bible and Interpretation, o artigo sobre a ação movida por Robert Deutsch contra a IAA:

Deutsch Files $3 Million Suit Against Israel Antiquities Authority – By Matthew Kalman – December 2013

Que começa assim:
Nearly two years after the spectacular collapse of the Jerusalem archaeology forgery trial and his sweeping acquittal on all charges, Robert Deutsch, proprietor of the Archaeological Center in Old Jaffa, has filed suit demanding more than $3 million in damages from the Israel Antiquities Authority, the Jerusalem District Attorney and individual officials behind the 10-year prosecution. Deutsch, one of the most prominent antiquities dealers in Israel, was acquitted in March 2012 on all six charges against him after being accused of “forgery with the intention of aggravated fraud” of various artifacts together with Tel Aviv antiquities collector Oded Golan and others.


Deutsch filed suit on 28 November in the Tel Aviv District Court against the Israel Antiquities Authority, its director Shuka Dorfman, the head of its anti-theft unit Amir Ganor, the Jerusalem District Attorney and Assistant District Attorney Dan Bahat who led the prosecution. He is seeking 12 million shekels ($3.4 million) in damages – an astronomical sum for Israel. In an interview, Deutsch said the multi-million-dollar damages demanded were “a drop in the ocean” compared to the wreckage wrought to his reputation and business by the affair. Deutsch was never accused of any involvement with the alleged forgery of either the James Ossuary or Jehoash Tablet, but when those items propelled the sprawling, 18-count indictment sheet into the headlines, as the main co-defendant his name was yoked to the allegations against Golan.

Acreditamos que uma onda de terremotos ao longo de 50 anos, de cerca de 1225 a 1175 a.C., contribuiu substancialmente para o colapso da civilização da Idade do Bronze Recente no Mar Egeu e no Mediterrâneo Oriental. Cerca de 50 locais da Idade do Bronze Recente nesta região mostram evidências de destruição catastrófica, de acordo com Robert Drews, da Universidade Vanderbilt. Esses locais devastados da Idade do Bronze Recente correspondem muito de perto aos locais atingidos por terremotos devastadores documentados no século passado. Esses locais, ao que parece, foram sujeitos a terremotos ao longo da história – e provavelmente muito antes disso (Nur e Cline).

Uma queda acentuada nas chuvas pode ter levado ao colapso de várias civilizações do leste do Mediterrâneo, incluindo a Grécia antiga, cerca de 3.200 anos atrás. A fome e o conflito resultantes podem ajudar a explicar por que toda a cultura hitita, pessoas que possuíam carros de combate e que governavam a maior parte da região da Anatólia, desapareceram do planeta, de acordo com um estudo publicado na revista PLOS ONE (Archaeology Briefs).

We believe that an earthquake storm lasting 50 years, from about 1225 to 1175 B.C., substantially contributed to the collapse of Late Bronze Age civilization in the Aegean and eastern Mediterranean. Nearly 50 Late Bronze Age sites in this region show evidence of catastrophic destruction, according to Robert Drews of Vanderbilt University. These devastated Late Bronze Age sites correspond very closely to sites struck by damaging earthquakes documented over the last century. These sites, it seems, have been earthquake-prone throughout history—and probably long before that (Nur and Cline).

A sharp drop in rainfall may have led to the collapse of several eastern Mediterranean civilizations, including ancient Greece, around 3,200 years ago. The resulting famine and conflict may help explain why the entire Hittite culture, chariot-riding people who ruled most of the region of Anatolia, vanished from the planet, according to a study published in the journal PLOS ONE (Archaeology Briefs).

Para os interessados no debate sobre as origens de Israel, este post de James F. McGrath pode ser proveitoso:

Drought, Earthquake, and the Emergence of Israel [Seca, terremoto e o surgimento de Israel] – By James F. McGrath: Exploring Our Matrix – August 22, 2013.

O trabalho de campo em Khirbet Qeiyafa ocorreu entre 2007 e 2013. Agora, a expedição se concentra na análise dos resultados e na elaboração dos relatórios finais da escavação. Um novo projeto de campo está começando em Tel Lachish, fruto da cooperação entre o Instituto de Arqueologia da Universidade Hebraica de Jerusalém e o Institute of Archaeology of Southern Adventist University, Collegedale, TN, USA.

Durante os últimos 30 anos, o relato bíblico sobre o estabelecimento de um reino no Judá bíblico tem sido muito debatido. Foram Davi e Salomão governantes históricos de uma sociedade urbana no início do século X a.C., ou este nível de desenvolvimento social foi alcançado somente no final do século VIII a.C., 300 anos mais tarde? Escavações recentes em Khirbet Qeiyafa indicam uma cidade fortificada bem planejada em Judá, aí pelo final do século XI, início do século X a.C. Os novos dados têm profundas implicações para os estudos bíblicos e para a arqueologia e a história de Israel.

The fieldwork lasted from 2007 to 2013. Now the expedition concentrates on the analysis of the finds and writing the final excavation reports. A new field project is starting at Tel Lachish, cooperation between the Institute of Archaeology of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the Institute of Archaeology of Southern Adventist University. 


During the past 30 years, the biblical narrative relating to the establishment of a kingdom in Biblical Judah has been much debated. Were David and Solomon historical rulers of an urbanized state-level society in the early 10th century BC, or was this level of social development reached only at the end of the 8th century BC, 300 years later? Recent excavations at Khirbet Qeiyafa, the first early Judean city to be dated by 14C, clearly indicate a well planned fortified city in Judah as early as the late 11th-early 10th centuries BC. This new data has far reaching implication for archaeology, history and biblical studies.

Do próprio. É a alegação do Professor Yosef Garfinkel, da Universidade Hebraica de Jerusalém.

Mas…

Confira sobre isso:

:: Claim: Palace of David Discovered in the Foothills of Judah – Todd Bolen: BiblePlaces.com Blog – July 18, 2013
Professor Yosef Garfinkel has announced the discovery of two royal public buildings in his excavations at Khirbet Qeiyafa. According to the press release, one is the palace of David and the other was the king’s storehouse.

:: Peter van der Veen on the Methodological Problems of Calling the Qeiyafa Discovery ‘David’s Palace’  – Jim West: Zwinglius Redivivus – July 18, 2013
Even though I would be thrilled to have a palace of king David at Khirbet Qeijafa, how can we jump so quickly to our conclusions as Yossi Garfinkel does? 


:: Explorator 16:13-14, de 21.07.2013, traz dezenas de links sobre o assunto e comenta: Big news this week was obviously the claim that King David’s palace had been discovered at Khirbet Qeiyafa (how close the association of the palace to David seems to vary from publication to publication), although by the end of the week we were beginning to (rightly) see some skepticism about the claims.

A New Ceramic Inscription from Jerusalem (10th century BC?) – George Athas: With Meagre Powers 10/07/2013

A new inscription purportedly dating to the 10th century BC has been discovered in excavations at Jerusalem. The inscription was inscribed on the shoulder of a large ceramic pithos jar that was turned up in Eilat Mazar’s excavation in the ‘City of David’ area (just south of the Old City walls). The Hebrew University of Jerusalem has issued a statement about the find, which I copy below at the end of this blog post (see blue section). Two photos accompanied the statement, and I have included them here in this blog post, too (…) To me the script certainly looks very old. I’m not sure I’d label it ‘Proto-Canaanite’, though. On first glance I would say tenth century BC seems about right, with the script bearing some resemblance to Phoenician. This is, of course, a preliminary estimate, because although there is a hi-res photo of the inscription here, I’d need to see the pottery up close in person to make a more definitive evaluation.

The 10th Century BCE Jerusalem Inscription – Jim West: Zwinglius Redivivus 10/07/2013

Hebrew University of Jerusalem archaeologist Dr. Eilat Mazar says she has unearthed the earliest alphabetical written text ever uncovered in the city, the university announced Wednesday. The inscription is engraved on a large pithos, a neckless ceramic jar found with six others at the Ophel excavation site below the southern wall of the Temple Mount. According to Dr. Mazar, the inscription, in the Canaanite language, is the only one of its kind discovered in Jerusalem and could be an important addition to the city’s history.The inscription is engraved in a proto-Canaanite / early Canaanite script of the eleventh-to-tenth centuries BCE, which pre-dates the Israelite rule and the prevalence of Hebrew script. Reading from left to right, the text contains a combination of letters approximately 2.5 cm tall, which translate to m, q, p, h,n, (possibly) l, and n. Since this combination of letters has no meaning in known west-Semitic languages, the inscription’s meaning is unknown.  Dated to the 10th century BCE, the artifact predates by 250 the earliest known Hebrew inscription from Jerusalem, which is from the period of King Hezekiah at the end of the 8th century BCE.

The Decipherment of the New ‘Incised Jerusalem Pithos’ – Christopher Rollston: Rollston Epigraphy – Ancient Inscriptions from the Levantine World 11/07/2013

This inscription is written in the Early Alphabetic script. The inscription is written dextrograde. I am most comfortable with a date in the 11th century BCE. The extant lexeme on this inscribed pithos is arguably the word “pot.” [= pote, vaso, panela]  The word “pot” may have been followed by a personal name, such as “Ner” or (perhaps) a commodity such as “nard.” I prefer the assumption that it is a personal name. In terms of the language of this inscription, the language is certainly Northwest Semitic, and I would suggest that it is methodologically safest to posit that the language is Canaanite (as the script is Early Alphabetic, that is, Proto-Canaanite). However, I think that someone could propose that the language is Phoenician. In fact, I also believe that it is linguistically possible (but perhaps slightly more difficult) to argue that the language is Old Hebrew. Ultimately, however, as is often the case, there is no diagnostic element present which allows us to draw a firm conclusion. For this reason, the matter of the precise dialect of Northwest Semitic must be left open for this inscription, but my belief is that “Canaanite” is the best way to refer to the language of this incised pithos. Finally, I should like to conclude by stating that I believe this is a nice inscription, important in various ways. Of course, I personally would be very disinclined to “build a kingdom upon this potsherd.” But I would wish to state that this is an inscription that fits nicely into, and augments, the totality of our epigraphic evidence for the early Iron Age [os sublinhados são meus].

Uma animada discussão de biblistas sobre esta inscrição pré-israelita, ainda não decifrada, está em andamento na lista Biblical Studies.

E um alerta: qualquer artefato arqueológico encontrado em Jerusalém costuma vir embrulhado em muitos interesses políticos e, em consequência, recheado de informações contraditórias na mídia não especializada e, o que é pior, até na mídia especializada. Sobre isto, confira aqui e aqui.