‘Tisha B’Av brings evidence of KST era ruins’

    

When the sun sets in several minutes, the Jewish observance named Tisha B’Av will begin. It is known as the saddest day on the Jewish calendar because it marks calamities through history that tradition says had befallen the Jewish people on the ninth day of the month of Av. These include:

‣ the start of forty years of wandering the desert;

‣ the destruction of King Solomon’s Temple by the Babylonians;

‣ the destruction of the Second Temple by the Romans;

‣ the defeat at the Battle of Betar;

‣ England’s expulsion of Jews;

‣ Spain’s expulsion;

‣ and more, including the start of World War I, which led directly to the Second World War and the Holocaust.

The observance of Tisha B’Av involves, in part, fasting and reading the Book of Lamentations. It concludes with a joyful note, however, with the concluding prayer: “Restore us to You, O Lord, that we may be restored! Renew our days as of old,” of Lamentations 5:21.

Two days ago, the Israel Antiquities Authority announced the archeological discovery in the City of David of lumber it believes dates to the destruction of Solomon’s Temple. Watch the video above.

The IAA says:

Burnt Wooden Beams

from the Destruction of Jerusalem

during the First Temple Period

Discovered in the City of David

The charred beams were uncovered during excavations by the Israel Antiquities Authority and Tel Aviv University in Jerusalem within a building that collapsed by the intense fire at the time of the First Temple’s destruction. What likely preserved the beams for approximately 2,600 years was plaster that melted from the building’s walls, sealing the burnt wood beneath it.

Reut Vilf photo

A remarkable discovery was made recently at a dig in the Givati Parking Lot, as part of excavations conducted by the Israel Antiquities Authority and Tel Aviv University in the City of David, within the Jerusalem Walls National Park: massive wooden beams that were burned during the destruction of the First Temple in 586 BCE.

According to Excavation Director Efrat Bocher, “The beams appear to have served as the roof of an inner courtyard in a building from the First Temple period. During the destruction, they collapsed onto the floor. We believe that the plaster cladding of the building’s walls, melted by the fire, covered the charred wooden beams, and ultimately enabled their exceptional preservation.”

Reut Vilf photo

“It is very rare in Israel to find wood with such a large number of growth rings,” says Dr. Johanna Regev of the Israel Antiquities Authority and Weizmann Institute of Science, who is studying the find. “Here, in the City of David, we found beams with many rings, offering significant research potential—with more growth rings enabling higher dating resolution. Until recently, we could date finds from this time within a range of hundreds of years. Now, as we separate and collect the rings one by one in the field, we can attain much greater precision, potentially narrowing the dating range down to as little as ten years.”

The excavation directors note that Jerusalem’s returning residents, as they began to rebuild the city, probably made a deliberate decision to preserve the memory of the destruction by leaving behind remains that tell the story of the catastrophe. “The concept of a landscape of memory is familiar from many cultures around the world,” explains Dr. Yiftah Shalev, who directs the excavation on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority alongside Prof. Yuval Gadot of Tel Aviv University.

According to Dr. Shalev, “Preserving memory is a human need, seeking to preserve what once existed. Here we see it in its clearest form: a deliberate choice to leave ruins in place as a testament to the destruction and build the new layer over them.”

“We are just before Tisha B’Av,” adds Bocher. “This discovery makes you feel that you are witnessing the very moment of destruction, the moment when it all happened. It’s deeply moving.”

Minister of Heritage Amichai Eliyahu commented on the new discovery: “Jerusalem’s soil continues to provide tangible evidence of the city’s ancient past. The wooden beams burned in the destruction of the First Temple stand as a powerful reminder of the Jewish people’s presence in Jerusalem some 2,600 years ago. On the eve of Tisha B’Av, this discovery underscores that our connection to Jerusalem is rooted not only in faith, but also in history, archaeology, and collective memory. It is our responsibility to continue uncovering, preserving, and passing this heritage on to future generations.”

     

‘Archaeologists find evidence of ancient crimson’

    

Israel Antiquities Authority

The crimson fragments.

And now, I have sent a wise man, endowed with understanding, of my father Huram. The son of a woman of the daughters of Dan, and his father was a Tyrian man, who knew how to work with gold, with silver, with copper, with iron, with stones, with wood, with purple, with blue, and with fine linen and with crimson yarn …

II Chronicles 2:12-13

Adapted for use in the Master Mason Degree Lecture in many lodges

Here’s something you don’t see every day: The Israel Antiquities Authority announced Thursday the discovery of a tiny piece of ancient fabric exhibiting “scarlet worm.”

I don’t see anything on the IAA’s website explaining this, but The Times of Israel, among others, reports on the find. The following is copyright ©️ 2024 The Times of Israel.

Tiny 3,800-year old textile

found in Israel was dyed

with biblical ‘scarlet worm’

Israeli researchers have confirmed that a 3,800-year-old scarlet-red textile found in the Judean Desert in 2016 was dyed using a tiny insect referred to throughout ancient sources, according to an article published this week in the Journal of Archaeological Science.

The peer-reviewed study was a joint effort of Hebrew University, Bar-Ilan University and the Israel Antiquities Authority, researchers said in a press release. Archaeologists discovered the piece of textile, less than 2 centimeters (about a half-inch) across, in the so-called “Cave of Skulls” in the Tze’elim Stream near Masada, during a joint excavation to save heritage finds from antiquities theft in 2016.

IAA

The Cave of Skulls.

Researchers were struck by the textile’s dark-red color. Scientists carbon-dated the artifact to the Middle Bronze Age (20th-18th centuries BCE), and employed high-performance liquid chromatography—a technique used to identify the ingredients of mixed solutions—to trace the origin of the dye to a scale insect called Kermes vermilio. The crimson bug, found throughout the Mediterranean region but not in Israel itself, is probably the same “scarlet worm” (tola’at hashani) mentioned 25 times in the Bible, often next to mentions of blue (techelet) and purple (argaman), considered the most precious and prestigious colors in the ancient world.

IAA

The Scarlet Worm.

In the Bible, the Israelites are commanded to use the “scarlet worm” to dye the fabrics of the Tabernacle and the priestly garments. “In ancient times, the dye was produced from the female scale insect, which lives on the kermes oak tree (Quercus coccifera),” Na’ama Sukenik of the Israel Antiquities Authority explained in a press release.

“Collecting these kermes was done in a very short window of time—one month of the year, in the summer, after the female had laid her eggs but before they hatched—when the amount of dye was greatest,” Sukenik said.

Though references to dyes made from scale insects abound in ancient sources, very few textiles dyed with the creatures have been found that predate the Roman period. The tiny textile is the earliest evidence of the technique ever discovered, and “bridges the gap between written sources and the archaeological discoveries,” Sukenik said.

Read all about it here.

Lucky timing for this news. I was just preparing a Magpie post on the subject of the Auld Boy YouTube channel, where there is frequent and recent discussion of ancient purple, whether from Tyre or elsewhere. Click here.