Magdala Lab Report 2022 (original) (raw)
Related papers
Pollen Analysis of the Iron Age II Siloam Tunnel Jerusalem
Five core samples were taken from the surviving plasters of the Iron Age II Siloam Tunnel on March 24, 2010, in the City of David Archaeological Park in Jerusalem. The reasoning behind sampling these surviving plasters has much to do with the type of material to be sampled. Though the opportunity afforded by my association with Dr. Ronny Reich to do such sampling was an essential ingredient in facilitating this research and I thank him for it. My past research had led me to believe that plasters are good repositories of the pollens that they come into contact with. If useful palynological information could be recovered from plasters like those at Bethsaida, Gamla, and Hippos, then it wouldn’t be much of a leap of faith to expect that valuable information could be gleaned from the plasters sealing this ancient water system in Jerusalem. Thus, in many respects, this report reflects our joint efforts to test these premises.
Pollen Analysis of the Bronze Age Channel Jerusalem
Four core samples were taken from the surviving plasters of the Bronze Age or “Dry Tunnel” on March 24, 2010, in the City of David Archaeological Park in Jerusalem. These samples were taken with a hand corer from opposing sides of the “tunnel” midway down the channel in two distinct loci. Three layers of plaster were discerned, but the surface layer was discarded in order to rule out or diminish modern contamination. Thus, only the middle dense layer, which came out as a solid plug and the deeper softer layer, capped by the plug and lying between the plug and the solid limestone bedrock, were sampled in the two loci. This amounts to two samples taken from the two deeper layers of plaster, at two distinct loci, making up a total of four samples (see figure 1). Pollen from these four samples was successfully extracted in the Palynology Laboratory at the Zinman Institute of Archaeology using a previously published procedure that was developed specifically for Israel’s archaeological dry land samples (Schoenwetter and Geyer: 2000). Standard 200-grain counts of the extracted pollen were subsequently made and the results and analysis of these counts will be presented below.
Society of Biblical Literature Pacific Regional Conference, Bible and the Near East program unit, 2022
This study focuses on pollen samples taken from plasters lining the Canaanite Water Channel and Siloam Tunnel as well as on mortar samples from their respective termini at the Dam wall and Siloam Pool of ancient Jerusalem. Behavioral and environmental interpretations of the pollen record suggest that though cultivar pollens make up a large proportion of the pollen spectrum, they are proportionally unchanging over time, which suggests a shift from an independent agricultural polis with its own nearby sources of cultivars to a religious capital dependent on tithes of food stuffs from further afield.
Society of Biblical Literature International Meeting Salzburg, Austria, Ancient Near East program unit
This study focuses on fossil pollen samples taken from plasters lining Channel II and the Siloam Tunnel as well as on mortar samples from their respective termini at the Dam wall and Siloam Pool of ancient Jerusalem. Behavioral and environmental interpretations of the pollen record suggest that though cultivar pollens make up a substantial proportion of the pollen spectrum, they are proportionally unchanging over time, which suggests a shift from an independent agricultural polis with its own nearby sources of cultivars to a religious capital dependent on tithes of food stuffs from further afield.
Pollen Analysis of the Stepped Street Drains of 1 st Century Jerusalem
My work related to pollen analysis in Jerusalem commenced in December of 2009, when sampling of plasters underlying the Siloam Pool and of mortar between the stones of the Iron Age Dam took place. During this period, I also availed myself of the opportunity to sample the (well preserved) plasters of the Bronze Age Channel and Siloam Tunnel (Geyer and Reich forthcoming). However, in many ways this research began in the summer of 1996 with the sampling of the plasters of the temple and granary at Bethsaida-Julias (Geyer 2000), was continued with the sampling of the plasters of the Basilica at Gamla (Geyer 2015), and the sampling of plasters associated with several of the many industrial structures at Hippos (Geyer 2010, 2011 and 2015), and now continues here with the further sampling of the subterranean water structures of 1st century Jerusalem, which is the subject of this report. In short, archaeological plasters are ideal repositories of ancient pollen, whether those plasters appear within the structures of Bethsaida, Gamla, Hippos or here in Jerusalem. More to the point, Jerusalem, so long as the plasters continue to be preserved, is a gold mine when it comes to such archaeological plasters. The plasters of Jerusalem, as this report will confirm, are full of recoverable fossil pollen and have and will continue to provide a ready resource for present and future pollen data relating to both historic anthropogenic activity and environmental impact at the site. As afore mentioned, the Bronze Age Channel and the Siloam Tunnel, which include, respectively, the Bronze Age Dam and Siloam Pool, were fully sampled and have already been reported upon and will soon see publication. However, as a continuation of this work, the surviving plasters from the lower, southern end of the 1st century water drainage channel that runs under and along the western side of the 1st century stepped street were also sampled and are the subject of this report.
"The Tombs of Nazareth Pollen Analysis"
ASOR Conference Chicago, 2023
Since January of 2010 pollen sampling and analysis of structures and the ceramic artifacts recovered from them within excavations throughout the Galilee region have been an ongoing project sponsored jointly by the Israeli Antiquities Authority and the universities of Haifa and San Diego. This paper focuses primarily on fossil pollen recovered by pollen washes from ceramic storage vessels associated with the four adjacent, but separate, burial caves excavated in the heart of Nazareth. However, a secondary focus of this work will be the gradual transformation of burial rituals within Israel from the Early Bronze to the Late Roman periods. It is the belief of the authors, that fossil pollen recovered from ancient artifacts and structures has and will continue to provide essential economic and anthropogenic perspectives to new and ongoing archaeological research. This study serves as an example of this approach.
Pollen Analysis of a 1st Century Pottery Works Cana, Israel
In the spring of 2010 modern day residential expansion led to the clearing of agricultural land on the slopes above the traditional site of ancient 1 st century Cana. Prior to digging the foundations for a new house a small archaeological crew from Israel Antiquities Authority, headed by Yardenna Alexandre, was called in to first survey and then excavate the footprint of the proposed structure. What was revealed upon excavation was a small industrial complex containing three workrooms, a cistern, a small pool for mixing clay and three, possibly more, pottery kilns. During the few weeks that these 1 st Century structures were once again open to our view, pollen samples were taken from first the plaster floors and then later from select pieces of the recovered pottery. Both of these projects were undertaken during my 2009-2010 sabbatical year at the Zinman Institute of Archaeology, University of Haifa, and are the subject of this paper and an upcoming coauthored article. Eight of the pollen samples were taken from the workrooms, cistern and pool, which reveal the work patterns of the potters. Eight more samples were taken from a pile of small jugs found stacked in one of the rooms, which small jugs, along with some storage jars recovered in situ from the interiors of the kilns, were the only pottery types found within the industrial complex. This is in stark contrast to Kefar Hananya typology where we find primarily a manufacture of cookware. The results of these two small studies give us a window into the economy of 1 st century Cana, as well as providing us with a more detailed analysis of the specialization and structuring of pottery manufacturing throughout the entire Galilean region.
The Rock Cut Pool Pollen Analysis 2023 ASOR Conference Chicago
American Society of Overseas Research (ASOR), 2023
Since January of 2010 pollen sampling and analysis of the water system structures underlying ancient Jerusalem's City of David (Ir David) excavations have been an ongoing project sponsored jointly by the universities of Haifa and San Diego. These have included Channel II, the Siloam Tunnel, the Siloam Pool, the Stepped Street and herein, as a final project, The Rock Cut Pool. This paper focuses primarily on fossil pollen recovered by pollen washes from ceramic storage vessels associated with the structure known as The Rock Cut Pool. However, a secondary focus of this work will be to place these latest findings in the context of the previous results from pollen extracted from plasters lining the surrounding structures, of which they are an integral part. It is the belief of the authors, that fossil pollen recovered from ancient artifacts and structures has and will continue to provide essential economic and anthropogenic perspectives to new and ongoing archaeological research.
A detailed pollen record for the time interval of $2500-500 BCE, which covers the time period of the Intermediate Bronze Age (Early Bronze Age IV) into the Iron Ages in the Levant, is presented. The study was conducted in the Ze'elim Gully, which drains the southern Judean Highlands into the Dead Sea. During the Bronze and Iron Ages, the Judean Highlands exhibited dramatic settlement fluctuations. To better understand these oscillations, highresolution fossil pollen data were combined with a recent pollen data set, lithological features, radiocarbon dating and palaeohydrological information derived from the Dead Sea levels. Due to the occurrence of hiatuses in this fluvial environment, we used a composite profile which was based on two palynological-sedimentological profiles. This integrated information enabled us to reconstruct in great detail for the first time the environmental conditions in relation to the picture derived from archaeological field-work in the Judean Highlands. Evidence for drier climate conditions at the end of the Late Bronze Age may account for the dramatic changes in the settlement pattern which include the destruction of a large number of urban centres and shrinkage of other major sites, not only in the Judean Highlands but in the entire southern Levant. This arid phase may have been one of the reasons for the collapse of eastern Mediterranean civilizations in the mid-thirteenth and twelfth centuries BCE. The improved conditions in the Judean highlands during the Iron Age I (evident by the increasing percentages of both Mediterranean elements and agricultural taxa, e.g. olive and cereals) enabled the recovery of settlement activity, which is the backdrop for the rise of ancient Israel.