Week 5

Week 5

Last week I forgot to mention that DR. Otieno Kisiara (originally from Kenya), of Nazareth College, Rochester, N.Y. brought a small group of his students to dig for 2 weeks. We hope the good experience of excavating fascinating Bethsiada will convince him to bring larger groups in the years to come. Dr. Richard Freund & archaeologist Maha Darawsha of Hartford University arrived with 17 volunteers for their usual pilgrimage of digging for 2 weeks followed by an Ulpan of 2 weeks of studies including Hebrew & Arabic. The Arabic is being taught by our good friend Maha Darawsha. Dr. Boyd Seevers & Dr. Randy Nelson from Northwestern College, St. Paul, brought a group of 20 volunteers for the week. This brought the total number of volunteers up to ~70 !!!

Much work continued digging to the east of the iron age main city road. Its breathtaking to peer down from the street & see what may be the exit (staircase) leading out of the city to the spring located southeast of the city. Good work guys !!Steve's crew unrelentingly worked in chamber 3. Quite a nice marble bead turned up, as you can see at the bottom right. Hopefully by the end of next week, the last of this season's excavation, we'll have a good idea of the foundation of chamber 3.

The volunteers of Nicolae's crew removed lots of dirt & rocks in the residential complex of area C. A quite beautiful ivory bead was found, which is pictured below along with the other pictures. Ivory decorations were made from elephant & hippopotamus tusks & apparently its impossible to tell the difference - both being quite lovely. Another loom weight was discovered to go along with the 12 unearthed at the end of week 2.

An absolutely beautiful, 100% complete, oil lamp was found lying upside down by a wall of a residence in A west. This is another unique artifact for Bethsaida, as usually only small pieces of oil lamps are found. Ancient Roman oil lamps were small devices, typically made of terra cotta, that were used by the ancient Romans for artificial light. They were fueled by olive oil, and had anywhere from one to a dozen wicks. Many had handles so they could be carried from room to room, and also so they could by carried by actors in plays or by participants in various ritual activities. Ancient Roman oil lamps often contained molded reliefs of erotic scenes, gladiators, mythical characters, or floral patterns. These lamps were fairly popular, since they could be released as collectible sets (for example, a set of lamps with a different god on each lamp), and because they were relatively cheap (they were typically mold made instead of hand-crafted, so they were not as expensive or time-consuming to produce).

A coin about the size of an American older silver dollar was found near the surface of a new locus in A west. We cleaned it in some lemon juice which is mildly acidic & realized that it was Maria Theresa "thaler" silver coin,. This coin, dated 1765, was the "dollar" of 18th century Europe & was extensively used, even being seen in circulation today in east Africa.

Maria Theresia, the Archduchess of Austria and queen of Hungary and Bohemia (1740-80), consort of Holy Roman Emperor Francis I and dowager empress after the accession in 1765 of her son, Joseph I, Maria Theresia strengthened and unified the Austrian monarchy in the 18th century. Born in Vienna on May 13, 1717, she was the daughter of Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI. In 1736 she married Francis Stephen of Lorraine (later Holy Roman Emperor Francis I), and the couple eventually had 16 children, including two future emperors, Joseph II and Leopold II, and Marie Antoinette, later queen of France.

On the 21st of September, 1753, Empress Maria Theresia signed a coinage convention with the Prince Elector of Bavaria. This Treaty also defined the silver content of every coin and fixed ratio between the Gulden and Taler at 2:1. In addition, the coins had raised edged lettering to prevent clipping. Between 1746 and her death on November 29, 1780, Austrian mints and the mints of several Austrian States produced no less than 43 different silver Taler designs using bust portraits of Maria Theresia, as well as, various denominations of Kreuzers, ¼ and ½ Talers, and gold Ducats. The Maria Theresia Taler was also known as the "Levantine Taler" and has been considered the world's most famous silver coin. The silver Taler itself was the currency of the Empire, the Austrian hereditary lands, and very important for trade with Levant (parts of Turkey, Lebanon, Syria.The "Levantine Taler" also became the best known and most popular silver coin in the Arabian world and the unofficial currency of some of the lands in North Africa. In Austria, Maria Theresia Talers were legal tender until October, 1958. Owing to an imperial patent dating back to September 19, 1857, the 1780 design of the empress Maria Theresia "Levantine Talers" have been continuously restruck unchanged, as an historical souvenir combining beauty of design with the value of silver.

Another interesting large, thick coin, most likely made of bronze, showed up in area A west, (see pic on bottom right) thought by Rami to be from the 3rd century BCE. We'll try cleaning it in an electrolysis bath to verify what is. You'll see the results of this cleaning a week from now when the results of week 6 are published. Here's an example from ~ 240 BCE.

After its conquest by Alexander the Great, Egypt was ruled by members of the Ptolemaic dynasty, founded by Ptolemy I Soter, son of Lagus, one of Alexander’s Macedonian generals. From 323 until 30 BC the Ptolemies ruled not only Egypt, but Cyprus and many other near eastern nations. Most Ptolemaic coinage is consistent, bearing the image of Zeus, protector of the dynasty, on the obverse, and the eagle on the reverse. The inscription Ptolemaiou Basileos, “Belonging to King Ptolemy” also adorns the reverse. Zeus had married his sister Hera, as had many of the Egyptian pharaohs--likewise the Ptolemies, when they could, married their siblings. Ptolemy II Philadelphos was the son of Ptolemy I and his half-sister Berenice. In 273 Ptolemy married his sister Arsinoë. He had shrines built to himself and his wife and had statues of the two raised in Egyptian temples.

Ptolemy XII Auletes left his throne to his daughter Cleopatra and her eldest brother and husband Ptolemy XIII in 51 BC. At the age of 18 she seized the throne herself, expelling her husband, and issuing coins bearing her portrait on the obverse and the traditional eagle on the reverse, together with the inscription Kleopatras Basilisses, “belonging to Queen Cleopatra”. She was first expelled by Ptolemy’s party but later reinstated by Julius Caesar who, after disposing of Ptolemy XIII, forced her to marry her younger brother Ptolemy XIV. In 47 she bore a son whom she claimed was Caesar’s, and called him Ptolemy XV Caesar (Caesarion). When her husband Ptolemy XIV died, reportedly poisoned by her, she made her son her co-ruler. She visited Caesar in Rome in 46 but returned to Egypt after his assassination in 44. She aligned herself with Marcus Antonius in 41 and bore him twins in the following year. In 37 Antonius and Cleopatra established a permanent personal and political alliance; he formally recognized his three children by Cleopatra. In doing so Antonius alienated Octavian, the future emperor, because he had set aside his wife Octavia, the sister of Octavian. In reapportioning areas of the Roman empire over to Cleopatra and his children by her, Antonius alienated the Roman people. Octavian declared war on Cleopatra in 32; Antonius and Cleopatra were defeated at the naval battle of Actium in 31, deserted by much of Antonius’ Roman fleet. Antonius committed suicide and Cleopatra followed suit shortly after, reportedly, to avoid suffering the humiliation of appearing in Octavian’s triumphal parade.

Link to all the pictures I took this season - CLICK HERE

Note : Interesting archaeology blog - http://archaeologydigs.blogspot.com/

Human interest - http://www.communitycorrespondent.com/kptm/, search for Judith Schwartz