On Friday 30 July, Scholastic Mark Logtenberg and Frs. Terry Kersch (a Basilian father), George Schultze, and Ryszard Wtorek visited the archaeological excavation at Tel Azekah, at the invitation of Fr Josef Briffa, a member of our community, who is a staff member of the Lautenschläger Azekah Expedition. Josef introduced the group to Prof. Oded Lipschits of Tel Aviv University, the Director of the Excavation.  Oded encouraged them to visit the area which Josef supervises and then join the other family, friends, and sponsors participating in the “digs” annual visitor’s day.

Tel Azekah / Tell Zakariya is almost equidistant between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, and is today part of Britannia Park.  Climbing the Tel on the south-west side, one has a panoramic view of the coastal plain, the historical land of the Philistines, and the skyline of modern-day Tel Aviv in the distance.  Crossing to Josef’s dig on the north-east side, the view is of the Elah Valley, the traditional place of David and Goliath’s encounter (1 Samuel 17:1).  Josef pointed out various features of his summer’s work with the expedition. In previous seasons, he and his fellow archaeologists and volunteers have uncovered a significant threshold and channel of an Iron Age gate to the hilltop enclosure.

In its decade long effort, the team has found artefacts and structures passing through the Middle Bronze (1700 BC) and Iron Ages to the Hellenistic and Roman periods.  During the excavations of 2020, in a different area of the site, Josef helped uncover a section of Middle Bronze Age mudbrick wall just below what was apparently a pottery workshop. Both the vibrancy and challenges of life in each historical moment came to mind.

The Canaanites occupied the most imposing fortification at Azekah until 1140 BC when its society collapsed along with multiple Near Eastern ancient empires.  During the Iron Age, the Kingdom of Judah occupied the area and fortified the site.  Josef explained that historical texts chronicle two major conquests of the site, one by the Assyrian Sennacherib in 701 BC and the other by the Babylonian Nebuchadnezzar in 586 BC.  

The Lautenshlӓger Azekah Expedition [external link] is a consortium of university archaeologists, students, and volunteers, led by Tel Aviv University and the University of Heidelberg, who bring their discoveries from the field to publication.  Interested students can apply to work on its summer excavations, and this summer PBI is hosting Father Andrea Valori, a student of the PBI in Rome, who is now at the dig.