Tourism & History
August 15, 2010
5770: BEST EVER HEBREW YEAR FOR TOURISM WITH
3.1 MILLION TOURISTS VISITING ISRAEL
TOURISM MINISTRY PREPARES FOR TENS OF THOUSANDS OF TOURISTS AND VISITORS OVER THE HOLIDAY PERIOD
The year 5770 of the Hebrew calendar, which comes to a close in three weeks time, is the best ever Hebrew year for incoming tourism: about 3.1 million tourists visited Israel during 5770 - 18% more than 5769 (2.6 million) and 10% more than 5768 (2.8 million).
During the past few months, the Tourism Ministry has been preparing to welcome the 260,000 tourists who are expected to visit Israel during the Jewish holidays in September as well as the tens of thousands of Israelis who are expected to visit tourism, leisure and entertainment sites around the country.
Tourism Minister Stas Misezhnikov has toured the country in recent months to investigate the readiness and levels of cleanliness and maintenance of, among others, hotels and tourism attractions. The minister will also visit additional hotels in the coming days in Eilat (24.8.10), Jerusalem and Tel Aviv where particularly high levels of occupancy are expected, in order to check their readiness for the upcoming New Year holidays.
Within the framework of the Tourism Ministry’s preparations for welcoming tourists, inspection teams from the Ministry will carry out inspections in tourism areas where high tourist traffic is expected during the Jewish holidays, including tourist sites, hotels and city spaces, checking, among others, the readiness and levels of cleanliness and maintenance of hotels and tourism attractions in order to ensure a pleasant vacation for tourists and Israelis alike.
Tourism Minister Stas Misezhnikov noted that the focused marketing efforts of the ministry in the last year have succeeded in significantly increasing incoming tourism and improving Israel’s image as an attractive tourism destination: “The Tourism Ministry will increase its marketing activity in the coming year in order to progress the ministry’s target of bringing another million tourists to Israel by 2012 and 5 million by 2015.”
The Ministry’s tourism offices in Jerusalem, Eilat and Nazareth will operate on a normal footing during the holidays and the intermediate days of Sukkot. The office at Ben Gurion International Airport will remain open 24 hours a day, including during the Jewish holidays.
(Courtesy of Israel Ministry of Tourism)
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August 12, 2010
EXTREMELY RARE 2200-YEAR OLD GOLD COIN UNCOVERED EXCAVATIONS AT TEL KEDESH
Head of IAA Coin Department: “This is the heaviest and most valuable ancient gold coin ever found in an excavation in Israel”
The coin, which apparently served ritual purposes, depicts a queen — apparently Arsinoë II — wife of her brother Ptolemy II
An extremely rare 2200-year old gold coin was uncovered recently in the excavations of the University of Michigan and University of Minnesota at Tel Kedesh in Israel near the Lebanese border. The coin was minted in Alexandria by Ptolemy V in 191 BCE and bears the name of the wife of Ptolemy II, Arsinoë Philadephus (II).
According to Dr. Donald T. Ariel, head of the Coin Department of the Israel Antiquities Authority, “This is an amazing numismatic find. The coin is beautiful and in excellent preservation. It is the heaviest gold coin with the highest contemporary value of any coin ever found in an excavation in Israel. The coin weighs almost one ounce (27.71 grams), while most ancient gold coins weighed 4.5 grams. In Ariel’s words, “This extraordinary coin was apparently not in popular or commercial use, but had a symbolic function. The coin may have had a ceremonial function related to a festival in honor of Queen Arsinoë, who was deified in her lifetime. The denomination is called a mnaieion, meaning a one-mina coin, and is equivalent to 100 silver drachms, or a mina of silver.
The obverse (‘head’) of the coin depicts Arsinoë II Philadelphus. The reverse (‘tail’) depicts two overlapping cornucopias (horns-of-plenty) decorated with fillets. The meaning of the word Philadelphus is brotherly love. Arsinoë II, daughter of Ptolemy I Soter, was married at age 15 to one of Alexander the Great’s generals, Lysimachus, king of Thrace. After Lysimachus’ death she married her brother, Ptolemy II, who established a cult in her honor. This mnaieion from Tel Kedesh attests to the staying power of the cult, since the coin was minted a full 80 years after the queen’s death.
According to Ariel, “It is rare to find Ptolemaic coins in Israel dating after the country came under Seleucid rule in 200 BCE. The only other gold Ptolemaic coin from an excavation in Israel (from `Akko) dates from the period of Ptolemaic hegemony, in the third century BCE, and weighs less than two grams.”
The excavations at Tel Kedesh, conducted since 1997, has uncovered a large Persian/Hellenistic administrative building, complete with reception halls, dining facilities, store rooms and an archive. While the documents in the archive were not preserved, the excavations yielded 2043 bullae, from which the flourishing of the Hellenistic phase of the building can be dated to the first half of the second century BCE.
Ariel notes that although the inscription on the coin identifies the queen as Arsinoë Philadelphus, “it is plausible that the second-century BCE mnaieia actually depict cryptic portraits of the reigning queens. Consequently, the queen represented on the Tell Kedesh mnaieion may actually be Cleopatra I, daughter of Antiochus III, whose marriage to Ptolemy V in 193 sealed the formal end of the Fifth Syrian War.”
Some three years ago an Alexandrine hoard of Ptolemaic gold coins appeared on the world antiquities market. That hoard, however, contained no coins of Ptolemy V, so the extreme rarity of the mnaieion from Tell Kedesh remains unimpaired.
(Courtesy of the Israel Antiquities Authority and the IAA Spokesperson)
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August 3, 2010
An extraordinary and unique artifact discovered in an excavation fascinates archaeologists at the Israel Antiquities Authority:
A Rare Bronze Horned-Bracelet, 3,500 Years Old
Hypothesis: It was used by the village ruler
The first known village from this period in all of northern Israel was uncovered in an excavation, which was took place in the vicinity of Zefat, with funding provided by the Ministry of Transport and Ministry of Housing.
An unusual and intriguing find that is fascinating the archaeologists at the Israel Antiquities Authority was exposed in archaeological excavations at Ramat Razim, southeast of Safed. The excavations were carried out within the framework of the development of the region in which new neighborhoods, commercial areas and a medical school are slated to be built. In the current stage of the development the infrastructure system for the entire project will be built, foremost of which is a new approach road to the city of Safed, which is being advanced on behalf of the Ministry of Transport and Ministry of Housing by the Yaffe Nof Company and its team of professionals.
According to Karen Covello-Paran, director of the excavation on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority, "We discovered a wide rare bracelet made of bronze. The ancient bracelet, which is extraordinarily well preserved, is decorated with engravings and the top of it is adorned with a horned structure. At that time horns were the symbol of the storm-god and they represented power, fertility and law. The person who could afford such a bracelet was apparently very well off financially, and it probably belonged to the village ruler. It is interesting to note that in the artwork of neighboring lands gods and rulers were depicted wearing horned crowns; however, such a bracelet, and from an archaeological excavation at that, has never been found here”.
The bracelet was found inside an estate house dating to the Canaanite period (the Late Bronze Age) that was exposed in the excavation, and which was part of an ancient settlement that existed on the southeastern slope of Ramat Razim, in a rocky area that overlooks the Sea of Galilee and the Golan Heights. The building was made of indigenous limestone and included a paved central courtyard surrounded by rooms that were lived in and used as storerooms. Along with the bracelet, a Canaanite scarab was found that is made of stone and engraved with Egyptian hieroglyphs. In antiquity scarabs were worn as pendants or were inlaid in rings, and they were used as a seal by the people who carried them or as a talisman with magical powers. We also learn from these valuable finds that the residents of the building were also engaged in barter.
According to archaeologist Covello-Paran, “This is the first time that a 3,500 year old village has been excavated and exposed in the north of Israel. To date, only the large cities have been excavated in the region, such as Tel Megiddo or Tel Hazor. Here we have gained a first glimpse of life in the ancient rural hinterland in the north, and it turns out that it was more complex than we thought. It seems that the small village at Ramat Razim constituted part of the periphery of Tel Hazor, the largest and most significant city in the Canaanite region at the time, which is located c. 10 kilometers north of the settlement at Ramat Razim”.
“The ancient inhabitants of Ramat Razim raised sheep and goats, and farmed. Numerous basalt querns that were used for grinding wheat into flour were found in the building. In addition, we also found large storage vessels that were used to store grain and liquids, which stood on the floor to a height of more than a meter. An ancient oven for cooking was found in one of the residential rooms alongside ceramic cookware and tools, including flint blades, and intact bronze implements such as a long needle (15 centimeters) for sewing sacks or treating skins, and a long decorated pin that was used to fasten a dress or gown”.
The Israel Antiquities Authority is working to integrate the site in the extensive development plans for Ramat Razim, alongside the research institute and medical school, as an open place for visitors, together with the other assets of nature that exist in the region.
(Courtesy of the Israel Antiquities Authority)
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August 1, 2010
Bar-Ilan archaeologists uncover Philistine temple at Biblical Gath
Bar-Ilan University archaeologists have uncovered two major finds in the biblical city "Gath of the Philistines" (the home of Goliath).
Prof. Aren Maeir, of Bar-Ilan's Martin (Szusz) Department of Land of Israel Studies and Archaeology, announced this morning that he and his international team have discovered a Philistine Temple, including a number of ritual items, dating back to the Iron Age (10th century BCE).
"Interestingly, the architectural design of this Temple, with its two central pillars, is reminiscent of the architectural image that is described in the well-known Biblical story of Samson and the Philistines, when Samson knocks down the temple by standing between the pillars and pushing them down. Perhaps this indicates that the story of Samson reflects a type of temple that was in use in Philistia at the time," said Prof. Maeir, who has directed the excavations at Tell es-Safi/Gath for 13 years. Tell es-Safi/Gath is located in the southern coastal plain of Israel, not far from Kiryat Gat, about half-way between Jerusalem and Ashkelon.
Prof. Maeir also indicated that his team had found impressive evidence of an earthquake in the 8th century BCE reminiscent of the earthquake mentioned in the Book of Amos I:1. The team uncovered walls moved from their place and collapsed like a deck of cards as a result of the powerful earthquake - assessed at a magnitude of 8 on the Richter scale - reported Maeir.
This summer's excavations at Tell es-Safi/Gath have also uncovered further evidence of the destruction of the city by Hazael, King of Aram Damascus, around 830 BCE, as mentioned in Second Kings 12:18, as well as evidence of the first Philistine settlement in Canaan (around 1200 BCE) and different levels of the Canaanite city of Gath.
The Tell es-Safi/Gath Archaeological Project is a long-term investigation aimed at studying the archaeology and history of one of the most important sites in Israel. Tell es-Safi/Gath is one of the largest tells (ancient ruin mounds) in Israel and was settled almost continuously from the 5th millennium BCE until modern times.
Participants in this summer's dig hail from the US, Canada, Australia, Spain, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, UK, Holland, Poland, and Israel.
(Courtesy of the MFA Newsletter)
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