During the fall/winter of 2005/2

For 2 weeks of the 2009 pre-season, excavation conservation around the outer city gate was conducted by Orna Cohen. She was assisted by Chip Bouzard with a group from Wartburg College & Dr. A. Hix of Shorter College.

Jane Marshall, who studied at the prestigious Palazzo Spinelli school of restoration in Florence, Italy, conducted restoration & conservation of the eastern outer iron age walls just north of the main city gate. This was done during the 2008 excavation season when we were able to take advantage of Jane's background & experience working in her field in Italy. She filled the larger gaps with rocks, then all the gaps were filled with a mixture of fine dirt, chopped hay & water. Jane & Rami both attest that this same method & material would have been used when the city walls were built & maintained during the iron age period ~3000 years ago.

Eastern wall

During the fall/winter of 2005/2006 conservation work was conducted on the city gate & the walls of the 4 chambers just inside the city gate. Orna Cohen, a conservator with vast experience at many other sites which include Hatzor & the Galilee boat at Kibbutz Ginosar, was in charge of the project. She was assisted by an experienced crew of Druze workman from the Golan Heights. Looking carefully at the 2 pictures below on the left & the pictures on the photo gallery notice that there are horizontal pieces of wood placed in the walls 4 - 5 feet up from the floor. The original wood from this iron age entrance (~3000 years ago) was burned to charcoal when the city was razed in 732 BCE & the upper floors collapsed onto the gate/chamber area. The large basalt stones above the burned wood were carefully removed by the workman, the areas cleaned & new pine wood was installed. The upper stones were then replaced as shown in the body of the pictures. The original wood was probably oak & was most likely placed in the walls to give the structure a little flexibility in the event of an earthquake. A new threshold, made of wood, was placed at the base of the city gate doors (not shown).

Orna also continued restoration during the winters of 2006/2007 & 2007/2008 on the eastern city wall adjacent to the iron age main city road. Her workman used boulders, rocks & dirt that had been removed the previous seasons from the main city road. See the pictures below & notice the upper areas of restoration.