Kale Hintz- History of the Old Testament
Barkay, Gabirl . “The Riches of Ketef Hinnom” Biblical Archeology Review (1992) 200 th Issue
The article “The Riches of Ketef Hinnom” starts off explaining how Barkay lived in
Jerusalem for more than 59 years and felt that he was able to connect with the land than therefore felt that he could almost put himself into the ancient Jerusalemites shoes. Barkay went in search of an area where his archeology could be put to use in finding ancient artifacts.
He came across the site of Keft Hinnom, which was “opposite of the Old City- to the southwest, across the Hinnom Valley from Mt. Zion” (Barkay). In the beginning of this dig the team found some very rare artifacts and the dig was much bigger than the team had expected. In the time of the second temple, the Roman general built his camp in this area because of its great location and surrounding view. The crew was digging on and off again between 1975 to 1996.
One tomb that was found was used by the Turkish army at the end of the 19 th century. The team also discovered that the roof of the cave was destroyed by an explosion, many modern things were found under the debris, like a Winchester double barrel rifle. They found fragments from stones and tiles that were used to make mosaics that would have covered the floor and the walls. Outside of the church are there were several different buildings, though they did not have the amount of artifacts that the church building had. With all of the discovery’s Barkay believes that it was possible to identify this church as “the church of St.
George outside walls, aka. St. George outside the Tower of David” (Barkay). Through their digging they found burnt bones and ashes, the team concluded that this area was also used as a cremation and burials. Because there was evidence of cremation in this area and using the dating methods, they have concluded that the area must have belonged to the “Tenth Roman
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Legion” (Barkay), because no one else in their time would have used these methods for body disposal. The team also found a group of graves that was dated around 70 C.E. In two tombs there was First Temple artifacts like, pots and coin. As the team continued to dig and find new artifacts they were able to material from the Herodian period, this material was around 13 feet under the top soil.
The biggest find in the dig was the seven caves that had been cut into the rock to be used as burial chambers. The chambers share the traits of the late Iron Age. Some of the characteristics of these tombs were that there were beds carved out that had head rests, which would indicate how many people could be in these at one time, some had as many as eight in one chamber, There was also a dug out are for the bones of the deceased to be placed to make room for the more recent deceased. Although the burial caves had been wrecked and looted there were still some artifacts that had been left behind for the archeologists to find. There was one cave that was not looted however and it is believed to be the only one that had not been looted from the First temple era in Jerusalem. This was a big find for the team, they were able to find a very large number of artifacts. Some of these artifacts were arrow heads, beads, pots, and seals.
Through their extensive searching for artifacts there were two amulets that were rolled up, these amulets were made of silver and had to go through an extensive process of unrolling in order to read what was inscribed on them. After the plaques were unrolled and protected the archeologist found that they were 99%% silver. The larger plaque was 18-19 lines and had around five letters per line, all together the large plaques was 97 mm long, and 27mm wide
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(4”x1” in. ) . His first word on the large plaque was Yahweh. In 1992 the studying of these plaques paid off and the believed meanings of the words on the plaques was published in
English. It is believed that these two amulets were intended to be worn on a necklace to bless and protect the wearer of them. It was also found through different dating methods that the two amulets were from the late 7 th century BCE. Overall these amulets were important because they are the only text from the first temple era that has been directly linked to the bible. .The findings of this archeological dig were both major finds to understand the way of live in ancient Jerusalem and also in the development of the Hebrew bible.
Overall I found this paper to be very interesting in several aspects. First the depth that was went into to describe the excavations and findings of the artifacts was phenomenal. I was most impressed with the silver amulets that ended up being scrolls with writings and biblical references on them. The amount of time that had to have went into the making of these amulets must have been outrageous, but I’m sure that the maker felt that they would bring the wearer of the amulets blessings and safety. Also that the makers of the time were able to put together such precise work and detail into such a small and fragile object blows my mind. I could not even begin to imagine the amount of time the creator had to spend etching away the silver with the diamond point pen.
I also found the material in this article interesting because it is yet again more proof that the Bible is not only relevant but that is has been around for much longer that what many people give it credit for. The amulets that were found had a passage or a poem on it about God,
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and because of our ability to date the artifact, these amulets are the first that use the Bibles words that came from the first temple period..
This article does however leaves me with a sour taste in my mouth because of what is said in the last couple of sentences. This article tells us that the area where these artifacts were found is left unguarded and unprotected today. Why would someone not want to preserve and protect the area where these awesome finds were dug up at. Not only were these finds very rare but they are also more proof to the factuality of the Bible and is historical accuracy. I hope in the future someone decides to buy the dig site and protect it and possible even such for other findings that could be as rare and special as the amulets found.
Overall I enjoyed reading this article and would suggest this one to someone who was interested in archeology and/or had questions on the historical reliance of the Bible in the First temple period.
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