The Hula Valley at sunrise. Courtesy Nathan Steinmeyer, BAS.

Today, the Hula Valley, north of the Sea of Galilee, is one of the most fertile agricultural regions in Israel. In the biblical period, however, it was better known as an important trade route connecting the commercial centers of Syria and northern Mesopotamia with the eastern Mediterranean and Egypt. Home to important biblical sites like Hazor, Dan, and Abel Beth Maacah, the Hula Valley is never mentioned by name in the Bible but it played an important role in the geopolitical history of the region.

Discover other lands mentioned in the Bible in the “Lands of the Bible” article from our new Knowledge BAR feature.

Exploring the Hula Valley

A fertile valley between the Golan Heights and the Upper Galilee, the Hula was home to several major Bronze Age and Iron Age cities. The valley also formed the northernmost extension of the Northern Kingdom of Israel. While today the region is filled with agricultural fields, historically the area was made up of extensive marshlands centered on the Hula Lake, which was fed by the Hasbani, Banias, and Dan rivers. The waters from the Hula Lake would then flow south through the marshlands into the Sea of Galilee. The Hula Lake has sometimes been identified as the Waters of Merom, where Joshua fought and defeated the Canaanite kings led by Jabin, the king of Hazor (Joshua 11). However, those “waters” are more often thought to refer to various springs located along the western side of the valley.

The six-chambered gate of Israelite Hazor. Courtesy Nathan Steinmeyer, BAS.

Although the Hula Valley has been inhabited since prehistory, its major settlements—Hazor, Dan (Canaanite Laish), and Abel Beth Maacah—were all established as Canaanite cities in the Bronze Age (c. 3300–1200 BCE). During this period, Hazor was the largest fortified city in the southern Levant and one of the most important in the entire Near East, with cultural and economic ties to Syria and Mesopotamia. This status is reflected in the Book of Joshua, where Hazor is called “the head of all those kingdoms” (Joshua 11:10).

Courtesy BAS.

The Hula Valley came under Israelite control during the Iron Age (c. 1200–586 BCE), when it became a frequent battle ground between the Israelite and Aramean kingdoms, as witnessed in the famous Tel Dan Stele. The valley’s major cities were largely destroyed during the Assyrian conquest of the Northern Kingdom by Tiglath-Pileser III (c. 733/732 BCE). The area thrived again during the Roman period (c. 37 BCE–324 CE), when it formed part of the agricultural hinterland of Caesarea Philippi/Panias.

View of the agricultural fields of the Hula Valley from Tel Hazor. Courtesy Nathan Steinmeyer, BAS.

With a warm Mediterranean climate and lots of water, the valley is exceedingly rich in flora and fauna, and today it is home to a large nature reserve. The valley is an important stop on the migratory path of birds traveling between Europe and Africa. As such, it is often filled with hundreds of bird species, including pelicans, cranes, herons, ibises, and many more. It is also home to many mammal species, including boars, jackals, otters, and lynx. The Hula Lake once covered nearly 5 square miles and was one of the largest bodies of fresh water in the region. However, following systematic attempts in the 20th century to drain the surrounding marshland in order to combat malaria, today the lake is only around 0.5 square miles.

This article first appeared in Bible History Daily on March 3, 2025.

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Roman boundary stone from the area of Caesarea Philippi. Courtesy Ecker and Leibner. photo T. Rogovski.

During excavations at Abel Beth Maacah in northern Israel, archaeologists made an unexpected discovery: a large Roman boundary stone, reused as a cover for a late medieval burial. Although surprising in a medieval context, Roman boundary stones are nothing new for this area, which during the late Roman period was part of the hinterland of Paneas (biblical Caesarea Philippi). While the boundary stone joins more than 40 other such markers, it provides new insight into an intriguing phenomenon alluded to in rabbinic sources and unknown anywhere else in the Roman world.

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The Effects of Diocletian’s Tax Reforms

Measuring more than 3 feet tall, the Abel Beth MaacahAbel Beth Maacah stone is one of the largest Roman boundary stones ever discovered. According to scholars writing in Palestine Exploration Quarterly, the stone would have stood upright, embedded several inches into the ground, making it easily visible. The Abel Beth Maacah stone is especially interesting as it contains the names of two previously unknown towns, Tirthas and Golgol, as well as the name of an imperial surveyor, Baseileikos. Like other boundary stones, it begins with the names of the four Roman Tetrarchs of the late third century CE: Diocletian, Maximian, Constantius, and Maximian. The Tetrarchs were co-emperors, with Diocletian and Maximian being the highest ranking with the title Augustus, and Constantius and Maximian being lower-level emperors with the title Caesar.

It is thought that such stones were placed as part of the tax reforms of Diocletian and Maximian, which altered the way taxes were levied around the empire. The boundary stones would have demarcated where the lands of one village ended and another’s began. However, this was more important than simply showing who owned what. It served the Roman government in determining which villages and cities owed taxes on which lands.

Map of boundary stones discovered in the area of Caesarea Philippi/Paneas. Courtesy Ecker and Leibner. Map R. Sabar.

Strangely, despite several dozen such stones having been discovered, primarily in the hinterland of Caesarea Philippi, none have ever been found outside the Levant. However, since the tax reform of Diocletian and Maximian was an empire-wide reform, we might expect to find such stones all around the empire, not just in one particular region. Thus, the peculiar distribution of the stones has remained a problem for Roman and Levantine archaeologists.

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One possible explanation may be found in the specific function of these boundary stones. As suggested by some scholars, the stones indicated where the tax zone of one village ended and another began. With so many stones found around Caesarea Phillipi, many smaller settlements in the area may have been outside of the tax jurisdiction of the city. It is possible that the Herodian dynasty privatized the area, turning it into a patchwork of small tax zones rather than a single area under the authority of one city. This would explain the abundance of boundary stones in the region, as each of these small villages would have needed its own.

View of Lebanon from on top of Abel Beth Maacah. Courtesy Nathan Steinmeyer, BAS.

According to the scholars who published the Abel Beth Maacah stone, this practice may even be referenced in the Jerusalem Talmud. Compiled in the fourth century, not long after the reign of Diocletian, the Jerusalem Talmud says: “Diocletian oppressed the inhabitants of Paneas. They said to him: We are going (i.e., fleeing).” It appears that the region of Caesarea Philippi was hit particularly hard by Diocletian’s tax reforms, likely because of the abundance of small tax zones. Under the reforms, each zone had to pay taxes on every field under its control, whether in use or not. While this was not a problem for large cities that could distribute the added tax burden across hundreds of families, for small settlements, such a situation could quickly become untenable and result in more and more families leaving for areas with a lower tax burden. And, indeed, archaeology tells us that by the time of the Islamic conquest in the seventh century, the area of Caesarea Phillipi was largely abandoned.

This article was first published in Bible History Daily on February 17, 2025.

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Faience head from Tel Abel Beth Maacah. Photo Gabi Laron, Courtesy the Abel Beth Maacah Excavations.

A small faience head, excavated at the site of Abel Beth Maacah in northern Israel, may depict the city’s ninth-century BCE ruler, a period when scholars are not certain if the city was controlled by Israel, Phoenicia, or an entirely different kingdom. Publishing in the Oxford Journal of Archaeology, the excavation team suggests that the head could have belonged to a large votive statuette that was used during cultic rituals.

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The Iconography of a King

The faience head, which is about 2 inches tall, depicts a bearded man with an elaborate hairstyle and a striped headband. The man’s hair and eyes are painted black, while his headband features black and gold stripes. As the piece is broken at the neck, the team believes the head originally belonged to a larger statuette, likely between 8 and 10 inches tall, that was crafted from a mold.

Faience head from Tel Yoqneʿam. Courtesy Israel Antiquities Authority.

The head was discovered near the summit of the site in an excavated room that was possibly a cultic space. The room included an elaborate threshold and a semi-circular arrangement of stones that likely surrounded a larger standing stone (which no longer remains). Based on examples of statuettes found in similar contexts, the figure from Abel Beth Maacah was probably meant as a votive offering that depicted the person who was making the offering to the deity represented by the standing stone. If this was the case, however, does the head provide any clues as to who the person may have been?

To answer this question, the team examined similar statuette fragments from the region, as well as the head’s general style and iconography. Although no exact match was found, the head fits nicely into the iconographic repertoire of the period and is similar to several other statues and figurative depictions discovered in the region. These include a sarcophagus depicting King Ahiram of Byblos, an ivory figure from Arslan Tash that may depict King Hazael of Aram-Damascus, and even a very similar faience head from the site of Yoqneam, also in northern Israel. Another faience head was found at Tel Dan, only a few miles to the east, although it likely dates a century later.

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But who exactly this king or royal figure could have been remains a mystery. The excavated remains and radiocarbon evidence helped date the head to the ninth century, a time when Abel Beth Maacah was positioned in the borderland between the territories of the Northern Kingdom of Israel, Aram-Damascus, and the Phoenician city-states of Tyre and Sidon. However, it remains uncertain which of these entities ruled over the important city of Abel Beth Maacah. Given that the city appears to have been destroyed around the time of Hazael’s campaign in the late ninth century BCE, it likely was not part of the territory of Aram-Damascus, but that still leaves Tyre, Sidon, and Israel. It’s also possible that Abel Beth Maacah somehow remained a small, independent city-state with its own king. So, who was the king of Abel Beth Maacah? Hopefully, future discoveries at the site will yield more clues.

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The post Who Was the King of Abel Beth Maacah? appeared first on Biblical Archaeology Society.

Excavations at Abel Beth Maacah. Courtesy Nathan Steinmyer, BAS.

Hello from Abel Beth Maacah in the far north of Israel! Being a dig volunteer here has been such a joy and an incredible learning experience. Every morning around 4:45 we arrive at the tel (ancient mound) by bus and we begin our hike up the hill to the main dig site. Once there, we put the shades up over our area, collect our team’s tools for the day, get instructions from our supervisor, and begin!

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The first week was definitely a shock to the system as the workload is very intense. We had to break new ground and that meant the topsoil was not only thousands of years old, but hard! We use pickaxes, hoes, trowels, dustpans, and brushes. We fill buckets with soil, pottery, finds, and bones that we collect. From there, we bring them to our main site where we soak, sort, and file them away for future study and analysis. The artifacts we have collected will all be recorded and processed over the course of the entire year—so it is very important that our time at the dig site is productive.

Early morning on the Tel. Courtesy Maria Cambra.

We arrive back at our kibbutz, have a meal together, shower, hand wash and hang up our clothing, and then have a rest. We then have a pottery-cleaning hour where we wash the pottery that has been soaking for 24 hours since the previous day. It is a great time to speak with others and I have honestly learned so much from people during this time—teachers, students, professors, volunteers, and directors. They all have so many interesting stories and insights! Afterward, there is pottery sorting where we get to watch all the experts sit around a table and examine and choose the pieces to keep and those to discard. It is so intriguing! They have been doing this for years and it is quite the honor to be here and watch them work. Many of these finds will also be restored and put on display. After this, we usually have an evening lecture, dinner, and then we are on our own. Most go straight to bed and crash, as the days are long and the mornings come so early—but we love it!

Buckets full of pottery. Courtesy Maria Cambra.

Abel Beth Maacah

Located at the meeting point of Israel, Phoenicia, and Syria and strategically positioned between Dan and Hazor, the northern site of Abel Beth Maacah is possibly the capital of the Aramean kingdom of Maacah (Joshua 12:5; 2 Samuel 10:6, 8). In the Bible, Abel Beth Maacah figures prominently in 2 Samuel 20:14–22 when Sheba son of Bichri took refuge there after calling for revolt against King David. Joab’s negotiations with the “wise woman” of the city resulted in Sheba’s beheading. The Bible also notes that the city was conquered by Ben Hadad of Aram-Damascus (1 Kings 15:20) and by Tiglath-pileser III in 733/732 BCE (2 Kings 15:29).

Maria Cambra is a pastor’s wife and mother to three beautiful children. She and her family have lived and served overseas for more than 23 years, but are currently residing in the U.S. Maria was one of ten recipients of a 2023 BAS Dig Scholarship, a BAS program that supports students and archaeological enthusiasts who want to join an excavation project.

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Volunteers’ Views

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A storage jar from Abel Beth Maacah featuring an Old Hebrew inscription “belonging to Benyaw” (line drawing). The Yahwistic name Benyaw, which translates as “Yahweh has built,” suggests the site was under Israelite control already by the ninth century BCE.
Top, Photo Credit: Nava Panitz-Cohen.
Middle, Infra-red Image Credit: Tal Rogovski.
Bottom, Line Drawing Credit: Yulia Rudman.

Five faded letters inscribed on a storage jar is all the textual evidence we have from ninth-century BCE Abel Beth Maacah in the far north of Israel. However, this short and unassuming text may shed new light on ancient Israel’s borders as we know them.¹

The biblical site of Abel Beth Maacah (2 Samuel 20:14-22; 1 Kings 15:20; 2 Kings 15:29) is a prominent 25-acre mound in the northern part of the Hula Valley not far from the Israel-Lebanon border. Located at the crossroads of ancient Israel, Aram-Damascus, and Phoenicia, this region likely shifted its political allegiance many times, especially during the tenth and ninth centuries as these kingdoms were expanding and competing with one another.

A small village at the beginning of the Iron Age, Abel Beth Maacah expanded in the 11th century to become the largest city in the region. Even though the city had somewhat decreased in size during the tenth and ninth centuries, its intense urban character continued, as is attested by its massive architecture, which includes a possible citadel with casemate rooms, courtyards, and silos. Fascinating finds from this period include a faience figurine head of an elite bearded man and a hoard of several hundred astragali bones of sheep, goat, and deer found in an amphora near an earlier shrine.^a

Archaeologists also found 35 storage jars, buried in the mudbrick debris of a storehouse that was destroyed in the late ninth or early eighth century BCE. Stacked neatly in rows on a beaten earth and plastered floor, their standardized shape, size, and manufacture point to a specialized mode of production that was probably centralized and controlled by a local authority. The jars, which stand nearly 2 feet high, have a capacity of about 11 gallons, and some were most likely used to store wine. Petrographic analysis indicates that they were made from clays typical of the northern Hula Valley and were therefore probably produced in a local workshop.

Significantly, one of the jars is inscribed. Written in black ink using the Old Hebrew script, the little inscription is slightly over 2 inches long, running around the middle of the jar’s body, just below and to the left of the handle, which bears a deeply incised cross-shaped potter’s mark. It consists of the prepositional lamed (“for” or “belonging to”) followed by four letters that spell out the personal name bnyw (vocalized Benyaw), meaning “Yahweh has built.”²

Although the verbal element bn(h) (“to build” or “create”) is common in Semitic languages, what makes the name uniquely Israelite is the -yaw ending. This is a shortened form of the divine name Yahweh, the national deity of Israel and Judah. The -yaw was typically used in names from the Northern Kingdom of Israel; in Judah, the ending was -yhw and -yh (vocalized “yahu” and “yah,” respectively). Furthermore, the script itself has diagnostic features that are clearly Old Hebrew rather than Phoenician, and it cannot be Aramaic, which only developed as an independent script in the late eighth century. The Benyaw inscription can thus be safely assigned to the Old Hebrew language and script, fitting comfortably in the ninth or possibly early eighth century.

So who was Benyaw anyway? He certainly is not the famed Benaiah ben Yehoiada from the time of David and Solomon (2 Samuel 23:20; 1 Kings 2:25, 1 Kings 46). We assume he was a resident of the city. He may have been the owner and sender of the jar, its recipient, or even a tax collector. Or perhaps he was a local entrepreneur or a local agent who was commissioned by the state.

We also do not yet have concrete answers about the jar’s contents, the building in which it was found—whether a private or state-run facility—or the identity of the kingdom in control of the site. Indeed, we have no compelling evidence as to whether Abel Beth Maacah was under Israelite, Phoenician, or Aramean control in the tenth and ninth centuries. But finding an Israelite name or any name honoring the Israelite national god this far north is a good indication that the city was under Israelite control or had close contacts with the Northern Kingdom. Continuing research will hopefully paint a better portrait of this individual, who would have never guessed that his name would become the focus of so much interest and debate nearly 3,000 years later!

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ROBERT A. MULLINS is Professor and Chair of the Department of Biblical and Religious Studies at Azusa Pacific University. He co-directs the Tel Abel Beth Maacah Archaeological Project.

Notes:

1. For full discussion, see Naama Yahalom-Mack et al., “The Iron Age IIA ‘Benyaw Inscription’ on a Jar from Tel Abel Beth Maacah,” Palestine Exploration Quarterly (2021), pp. 1–23, https://doi.org/10.1080/00310328.2021.1975070.

2. Reading courtesy of Christopher Rollston of the George Washington University.

a. Nava Panitz-Cohen and Naama Yahalom-Mack, “The Wise Woman of Abel Beth Maacah,” BAR, July/August/September/October 2019.

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The post Shifting Borders? appeared first on Biblical Archaeology Society.

BAS Dig Scholarships allow students and enthusiasts alike to participate in the excitement of excavating biblical history Photo: Courtesy of the Jezreel Valley Regional Project.

For almost four decades, the Biblical Archaeology Society has been connecting volunteers with the opportunity to participate in some of the most exciting and groundbreaking archaeological excavations in the Near East and around the Mediterranean. In this pursuit, BAS puts together a yearly list of dig sites looking for volunteers, in addition to offering dig scholarships. For the 2022 excavation season, BAS received many incredible applicants for our dig scholarship program and we are pleased to highlight this year’s eight winners.

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Matthew Burden: El Araj, Israel

Matthew Burden is a pastor serving in a rural area of eastern Maine, where he lives with his wife and three children. He does some independent writing on the side and is a lifelong history lover, with a particular fascination with the world of late antiquity.

Courtesy Matthew Burden.

Chaya Cassano: Abel Beth Maacah, Israel

Chaya Cassano is a Ph.D. candidate in Classics at CUNY Graduate Center, and teaches Classical subjects as an adjunct instructor in New York. She is currently working on her dissertation and her interests are ancient history and papyrology.

Courtesy Chaya Cassano.

Kaitlyn Hawn: Hippos, Israel

Kaitlyn Hawn hails from Minnesota and is a graduate of Gordon College and Jerusalem University College. She is currently a Ph.D. student at the University of Oxford. Her main interests include Second Temple Judaism, New Testament, and historical geography.

Courtesy Kaitlyn Hawn.

Caitlin Hubler: Tel Azekah, Israel

Caitlin Hubler is a rising third-year doctoral student in Hebrew Bible at Emory University. Hubler’s work traces the development of Israelite religion as informed by the philosophical contexts of the ancient Near East. Her writing has appeared in Journal for the Study of Old Testament as well as Mockingbird Magazine and the Project on Lived Theology.

Courtesy Caitlin Hubler.

Chloe Hunt: Huqoq, Israel

Chloe Hunt is a graduating senior at Austin College majoring in Classical Civilizations and Art History. Chloe has been looking forward to going on the Huqoq excavation since before her freshman year of college. Upon returning to the U.S., Chloe will live in Fort Worth, Texas, and assist with renovations of historic homes in the downtown area.

Courtesy Chloe Hunt.

Priscila de Moraes: Caesarea Maritima, Israel

Priscila de Moraes is a first-year Ph.D. student at Cornell University. She is part of the History of Art and Archaeology track, and her research is focused on the art and architecture of late antique and early Byzantine places of worship in the Near East.

Courtesy Priscila de Moraes.

Sully Sullivan: Khirbat al-Balu’a, Jordan

Sully Sullivan is earning a bachelor’s degree in Classical and Near Eastern Archaeology and The Growth and Structure of Cities at Bryn Mawr College. His research interests include urbanism, gender, and landscape in the ancient Near East. This will be his first summer in the field, but will definitely not be the last.

Courtesy Sully Sullivan.

Zeynep Türker: Megiddo, Israel

Zeynep Türker is an undergraduate student majoring in archaeology at Bilkent University in Ankara, Turkey. Her main academic interests are ancient Near Eastern archaeology and the region’s Bronze and Iron Age languages.

Courtesy Zeynep Türker.

For more information on how you can volunteer to join an archaeological excavation, visit our digs page. Whether you’re interested in the worlds of Kings David and Solomon, want to walk in the footsteps of Jesus and the apostles, or work in an ancient Phoenician city, we’ve got an archaeological dig for you. Dozens of archaeological digs in Israel, Jordan, and elsewhere are looking for volunteers to help them excavate history.

Dig the Biblical World

Scholarship Winners Speak Up

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Digs 2018: Migration and Immigration in Ancient Israel 

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Dusty dawn. Students from Hebrew University haul soil excavated from Khirbet al-Ra‘i at sunrise. Courtesy Ornit Luckatch.

How has the pandemic changed field archaeology? We recently asked leading dig directors what long-term impacts the pandemic will have on field projects and excavations in Israel. Some archaeologists see change on the horizon, others point toward exposed inequalities, and yet others argue that Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) will merely be a soon-forgotten bump in the road. Here is what they had to say.

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Matthew Adams (Tel Megiddo, W.F. Albright Institute)

Despite not digging with co-directors Israel Finkelstein and Mario Martin at Megiddo in northern Israel in 2020 or 2021, Matthew Adams, as Director of the W.F. Albright Institute in Jerusalem, was able to help several smaller digs get started. Based on this experience, Adams believes there may be a trend toward smaller projects on the horizon: “One thing I learned from the couple of excavations that did go into the field is that they went with smaller teams. I don’t think this means that digs will remain small forever, but now when directors are planning their seasons, they will consider the value of less excavation, slower excavation, and smaller teams versus more excavation, faster excavation, and bigger teams.”

Excavators from Cornell College and William Jessup University dig at Abel Beth Maacah in the far north of Israel. Area Supervisor Fredrika Loew holds an Iron Age IIA jar uncovered in her area. Courtesy Tel Abel Beth Maacah Excavations.

Nava Panitz-Cohen & Naama Yahalom-Mack (Abel Beth Maacah, Hebrew University)

While excavation at Abel Beth Maacah in the far north of Israel was able to continue during the pandemic, the 2020 season lasted only one week, and the dig team the following season was less than half its normal size. But like Adams, Nava Panitz-Cohen and Naama Yahalom-Mack, who co-direct the dig with Robert Mullins of Azusa Pacific University, don’t necessarily view this as a negative. “We learned that small, limited excavation could be very efficient, and sometimes it even makes us select our research questions more precisely,” they said. “Going forward, I think we will combine large seasons with small, targeted ones.”

Daniel Master (Tel Shimron, Wheaton College)

Baylor student Abigail Keeney holds a Middle Bronze Age juglet (c. 2000–1550 B.C.E.) found at Tel Shimron in northern Israel. Courtesy Tel Shimron Excavation.

Although Shimron in northern Israel was in the field in 2021, they missed the previous season due to COVID-19. That did not slow down co-directors Daniel Master and Mario Martin’s writing and publication efforts, however, thanks to the team’s forethought in digitizing their project records. “There is real value in having all of your records digitized so that you are not beholden to one warehouse or physical collection of books in one country,” said Master. “I would like to see actions taken to ensure that not only project directors but also the national agency that is responsible for caring for the antiquities of the country have a complete digital record. That way multiple people have access, and the records are not just stuck someplace.”

Aren Maeir (Tell es-Safi/Gath, Bar-Ilan University)

Aren Maeir, long-time director of the Tell es-Safi/Gath excavation in southern Israel, used the loss of the 2020 field season to write and publish. He hopes that other excavators did the same: “I think it is the responsibility of archaeologists to excavate in a manner that they can then publish. It is irresponsible to continue excavating to no end, leaving tons of unpublished material for the next generation. It is our duty to conduct our excavations and complete them and not leave a burden of work for the future.”

Yosef Garfinkel (Khirbet al-Ra‘i, Hebrew University)

Yosef Garfinkel, director at Khirbet al-Ra‘i in southern Israel, discussed the potential volunteer shortages that could arise if the pandemic continues: “If COVID continues for decades, it is possible that we will not have volunteers for ten years or more—or maybe that we will stop having volunteers at all. We can have conferences by Zoom, but we cannot excavate by Zoom. Maybe we will have to change the way we excavate. Maybe we will need to work with Israeli youth or excavate with paid workers instead.”

Volunteers carefully dig the remains of a temple courtyard at Tel Moza, located only 4 miles from Jerusalem. The temple, recently excavated by archaeologists, functioned from the eighth–sixth centuries B.C.E. Courtesy David Moulis, Tel Moza Expedition Project.

Jennie Ebeling (Jezreel Expedition, University of Evansville)

Jennie Ebeling co-directs, with Norma Franklin, the Jezreel Expedition in northern Israel. They have completed field excavation and are currently working on publishing their findings. Ebeling discussed the increased disparities that pandemic restrictions have created for access to field work. “In terms of field archaeology, the disparities in access to resources for foreign archaeologists working in Israel have become really obvious,” she explained. “Over the next few years, we are going to be looking for interested and invested people to step up and make it possible for students and archaeologists to go to Israel, Jordan, and Cyprus to get field experience. If we want to have North Americans represented in these projects in the Middle East, then we are going to have to make it happen.”

Oded Lipschits (Tel Azekah & Tel Moza, Tel Aviv University)

Tel Aviv University student Steve De Santiago celebrates the return of happier days at Azekah in the Shephelah (foothills between the coastal plain and the Judean hill country). Courtesy Benjamin Sitzmann, Lautenschlager Azekah Expedition.

Oded Lipschits was barely slowed by the pandemic and even brought a large group of volunteers to excavate at Tel Moza, the site of a remarkable temple in central Israel in 2021. While the pandemic presented some difficulties in terms of ensuring team adherence to safety protocols, he feels that COVID-19 ultimately changed little in the world of archaeology. “When the project begins, everything is normal. We work with the same students, the same tools, the same shade nets. We cannot run a ‘digital’ excavation. We need people, we need tools, we need buckets, and we need to remove as much dust and soil as we can,” Lipschits said. “So once COVID ends, I think that archaeology should—and probably will—continue as before.”

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Abel Beth Maacah in the Bible

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Digs 2019: A Day in the Life

Digs 2020: 8 Stops in Northern Israel

Digs 2021: Digging During a Pandemic

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Hebrew inscription reads “Ibnayo,” “Belonging to Benaiyo” (reading provided by Christopher Rollston, The George Washington University). Photo: Dead Sea Scrolls Laboratory, Israel Antiquities Authority

A Hebrew inscription on a jar unearthed at Tel Abel Beth Macaah may resolve a long-running dispute about the extent of Israelite territory in the 9th-century B.C.E. Written in Hebrew, the inscription reads Ibnayo: “belonging to Benaiyo.” Benaiyo was an Israelite name, suggesting–but not proving–that Abel Beth Macaah was an Israelite city at the time when Ahab was the Israelite King.

Abel Beth Maacah is in the area where ancient Israel, Aram and Phoenicia met. As Lauren Monroe explains in “Abel Beth Maacah in the Bible” (Bible History Daily), different mentions in the book of Samuel imply that Abel Beth Maacah was either an Israelite or an Aramaean city. Avraham Biran was the first advocate of the theory that it was an Israelite city. Israel Finkelstein, and others, argue that the Israelite Kingdom did not extend that far until generations later.

The find was announced in late 2020 by Azusa Pacific University, runners of the dig with Hebrew University. The directors are Robert Mullins of Azusa Pacific University, and Naama Yahalom-Mack and Nava Panitz-Cohen of the Institute of Archaeology at Hebrew University.

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Found in a complete jug, the silver hoard of Abel Beth Maacah, pictured here before undergoing conservation work to separate the silver pieces, is one of the earliest discovered in Canaan. Photo: Gabi Laron.

The researchers discovered a room from the ninth-century B.C.E. that contained broken jars. The ink inscription was so faint that they did not see it until the pieces were sent for restoration. It took multispectral images from the lab to enable them to read the Hebrew writing. Another jar contained grape residue and a grape seed. The room may have been an ancient wine cellar.

There have been other important finds at Tel Abel Beth-Macaah, including a late Bronze age silver hoard, one of the earliest ever found in Canaan. In the future, further discoveries may further establish the that Abel Beth-Maacah was an Israelite city in the time of King Ahab. Or new evidence might contradict this find, revealing the site was Aramaean or Phoenician, or even an independent city.

Related reading in Bible History Daily:

Rare Inscription Dedicated to Hadrian Found in Jerusalem IAA excavations north of Jerusalem’s Damascus Gate have uncovered a stone fragment engraved with an official Latin inscription dedicated to the Roman emperor Hadrian.

Were There Arameans at Abel Beth Maacah? Because of its border location and the Biblical references that associate Arameans with Maacah, Robert Mullins and Nava Panitz-Cohen are digging for Arameans at the site of Abel Beth Maacah in northern Israel.

Who Is the Wise Woman of Abel Beth Maacah? In 2 Samuel 20:14–22, this woman stands up to Joab, the commander of King David’s army, and adroitly negotiates the salvation of her town.

This Bible History Daily feature was originally published on January 4, 2021.—Ed.

The post 3,000-Year-Old Hebrew Inscription Discovered appeared first on Biblical Archaeology Society.

They answered five questions about the pandemic’s effect on their excavation.

Participants masked up at Abel Beth Maacah, in 2020. From left to right are Hebrew University students Yam Shemesh, Ofer Naveh, Harel Shochat, Or Fenigstein, Dor Heimberg, Yami Shaish, Adiel Zanzouri, and Dror Cohen. Photo Courtesy of the Abel Beth Maacah Excavations.

(1) How did you make the decision to dig during a pandemic?

Nava Panitz-Cohen, Naama Yahalom-Mack & Robert Mullins: We had very important research questions to address and did not want to entirely give up on the season. When we saw that the level of contagion had dropped to the point that everything had more or less reopened in Israel, under restrictions of social distancing, pods, and masks, we decided to conduct a small-scale dig that would try to achieve at least one of our goals. We must add that the decision was also somewhat emotionally based, because digging at our site in the summer is a real battery charge for us, and we simply wanted to get out in the field.

(2) What safety measures did you put in place to keep your team safe?

Panitz-Cohen, Yahalom-Mack & Mullins: We followed the Hebrew University of Jerusalem health-safety protocol, which in turn was determined by the Israeli Ministry of Health. We limited the time we dug (one week) and the number of participants (12), almost all of them our Hebrew University students, and kept them in small “pods” with separate rooms, cars, and dig contexts. We wore masks and did not accept visitors as we usually do. Being out in the open air most of the time helped, of course.

(3) What was the largest negative effect of the pandemic on your dig?

Panitz-Cohen, Yahalom-Mack & Mullins: We had to cancel what would have been a large season for 2020, with many participants. Not only did we miss out on uncovering exciting new data (e.g., we had planned to dig the storeroom in Area K where we found whole jars, one with a Hebrew inscription, in 2019), we missed working together with our many dear friends and colleagues who are long-time partners, and with all the people who were planning to join our team.

(4) Did the pandemic have any unexpected positive effects on your dig season?

Panitz-Cohen, Yahalom-Mack & Mullins: Having a streamlined dig with a limited amount of dedicated and hard-working students, with relatively very few logistics (e.g., we brought our own food since the kibbutz dining room was not operative, and we didn’t even wash the pottery, but just took it back to our institute and processed it there), no time limit at the end of the day since we traveled in private cars, and the like allowed us to be very efficient and focused. Thus, we accomplished our goals way beyond our expectations for such a short period of time.

(5) What are your plans for 2021?

Panitz-Cohen, Yahalom-Mack & Mullins: Although we are planning a “regular” season, we are keeping our options open to be more flexible in how and when we dig if there will still be health and travel restrictions. We are waiting, like the whole world is, to see the developments and will make our decisions in the spring of 2021. Possibly, we will have a small-scale “local” season again if our overseas team members are unable to join us. Most of all, we wish everyone the best of health and a speedy return to the routines that we love … be it excavating or anything else that makes us fulfilled and happy!

Download the Digs 2021 ebook for additional interviews with directors whose excavations were affected by the pandemic.

If you would like to join an excavation in 2021, visit biblicalarchaeology.org/digs for opportunities. This page includes a description of each site, goals for the coming season, important finds from past seasons, biblical connections, and profiles of dig directors.

Not a BAS Library member yet? Join the BAS Library today.

Related reading in Bible History Daily:

Digs 2019: A Day in the Life by Robert Cargill

Digs 2018: Migration and Immigration in Ancient Israel by Robert Cargill

Digs 2017: Digging Through Time by Ellen White

Digs 2016: Passport to the Biblical World by Robin Ngo

Digs 2015: Blast from the Past by Megan Sauter

Digs 2014: Layers of Meaning by Noah Weiner

The post Digging Abel Beth Maacah appeared first on Biblical Archaeology Society.

Situated at the ancient border between the polities of Israel, Aram and Phoenicia, and the modern countries of Israel, Lebanon and Syria, the large tell of Abel Beth Maacah holds tremendous promise, both for understanding the history of this multi-cultural arena, as well as for refining “Biblical archaeology” methods themselves.

In 2 Samuel 20 Sheba ben Bichri, a Benjaminite, flees to Abel Beth Maacah, seeking refuge from David’s wingman, Joab. As Joab and his army build a siege ramp against the city wall, they are interrupted by the “wise woman of Abel” who admonishes, “They used to say in the old days, ‘Let them inquire at Abel’; and so they would settle a matter. I am one of those who are peaceable and faithful in Israel; you seek to destroy a city that is a mother in Israel; why will you swallow up the heritage of the Lord?” It is clear from her remarks that Abel has an Israelite history and lore that precedes Joab’s time and is otherwise unknown to him. Whereas Joab is a threat to Abel, Sheba legitimately seeks refuge there. In the pro-David, Judahite perspective of the text in its final form, the city’s allegiance goes with Joab and David, with Sheba’s head handed down to Joab from Abel’s ramparts – hardly what one expects from the “peaceful” in Israel.

In this illustration of 2 Samuel 20 from the Morgan Bible, Sheba’s head is handed down to Joab from the ramparts at Abel Beth Maacah.

There seem to be two competing perspectives on the city in this text: one that preserves a memory of the city as Israelite, but not in any way connected to or invested in David’s political ambitions, and another that represents the city as an active participant in David’s rise to power. A representation of the city as inimical to David may also be preserved in 2 Samuel 10:6-8, but here Abel is associated with the Aramaeans: “When the Ammonites saw that they had become odious to David, the Ammonites sent and hired the Arameans of Beth-rehob and the Arameans of Zobah, twenty thousand foot soldiers, as well as the king of Maacah, one thousand men, and the men of Tob, twelve thousand men… The Ammonites came out and drew up in battle array at the entrance of the gate; but the Arameans of Zobah and of Rehob, and the men of Tob and Maacah, were by themselves in the open country.” If “Maacah” here refers to our site, then this text preserves a memory of the site as Aramaean in the exact same period that 2 Samuel 20 identifies it as “A mother in Israel.” To further complicate matters, 1 Kings 15:20 (1 Chronicles 16:4) lists Abel Beth Maacah among the cities conquered by the Aramaean King Ben Hadad, in the early 9th century, a detail that makes little sense if 2 Samuel 10:6 is to be trusted.

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The point here is that none of these Biblical reflections on the city is to be trusted on its own. To privilege any one passage as “historical” is to silence the other contradictory representations, to reduce to two dimensions a multi-dimensional memory of the site that incorporates a number of “truths,” some of which may not be historical, as such.

Tel Abel Beth Maacah. Photo: Courtesy Tel Abel Beth Maacah Excavations.

Such is the nature of the Bible; but what does it mean for “Biblical archaeology” and for archaeology at Abel Beth Maacah in particular? It means that we must first of all be the best archaeologists we can be, treating the material culture on its own terms, independent of Biblical representations of the site. The archaeology cannot simply be a means of clarifying the textual record; rather our first step, as archaeologists, must be to rigorously interrogate every aspect of the material culture, using all of the tools and methods employed by archaeologists who do not have texts to work with. We must set our research agenda based on what the tell reveals to us—indeed what the tell demands of us—and not what the Bible suggests we might find. Once we have a clearer picture of the cultural horizons and phases of occupation at the site, what sorts of activities took place there and what sorts of people occupied its spaces, then we need to consider how the picture of the site that emerges finds echoes in, and correlations with, the Biblical record. It is in these points of connection between the material and the textual record that we may discern something real about the past at Abel Beth Maacah.

This Bible History Daily feature was originally published on July 27, 2014.

Lauren Monroe is associate professor of Hebrew Bible and Ancient Israel at Cornell University in Ithaca, NY, and at time of first publication was the director of the academic program/field school at Abel Beth Maacah. She is the author of Josiah’s Reform and the Dynamics of Defilement: Israelite Rites of Violence and the Making of a Biblical Text (Oxford University Press, 2011).

More on Abel Beth Maacah in Bible History Daily:

Who is the Wise Woman of Abel Beth Maacah?

Gender in Archaeology at Abel Beth Maacah

Were There Arameans at Abel Beth Maacah?

Silver Hoard from Abel Beth Maacah Illuminates Biblical Border Town

Abel Beth Maacah Excavations Uncover Silver Hoard at an Ancient Crossroads

The post Abel Beth Maacah in the Bible appeared first on Biblical Archaeology Society.