Though this appeared in comments I’ve exalted it to a post of its own since some folk don’t read comments and this one is both thorough and extensive. It is also from someone with first hand knowledge of the happenings at Kh. Qeiyafa.

Jim West and readers,

I follow this blog for years and am pleasantly amused at being its topic.  It is 2am – I am now editing it at 3am -so I will allow myself to ramble, in this inner circle. Thanks.  Foundation Stone has undertaken to develop Elah Fortress for its educational value.  See http://www.elahfortress.com for our own presentations and for collected updates.  The important thing to know is the science is telling its story.

The experts are putting their reputations on the line; e.g. Hagi Misgav the epigrapher working on the ostracon and reporting to Prof Garfinkel that it is Hebrew, though Aren has reservations.

Each news outlet decided on a different slant. None complete, some raising issues not even on our minds; what can you do.

Feel free to send me questions.

Israel Finkelstein was much more open and raised quieter questions in the private session than you see being quoted. We are in full agreement with him from our inception over a decade ago, and are careful and sticklers in all our excavations- Tel Yavne and others, that the science must be sound, inclding when we are excavating Muslim and Christian remains.

(Allow to make the point -This month Foundation Stone worked a Byzantine layer near Yavne with Hartford and Haifa Universities. Our main excavator is a wonderful Muslim woman, Maha Darwarsha. We continue in December.   Earlier we carefully uncovered the Crusader chataeau of Ybellin on the top of Tel Yavne, at least a little, showing the awesome destruction of Baibars ‘gunpowder, according to Dan Bahat, where it blew off whole sections. All this requires reporting, illustrations, and conservation, which we raise money to pay for. This is what the science requires, thus we contribute to the historical record for all to learn, and we fully support it. – Now we know, always mix your cement with olive oil, it holds together even when being blownup! )

It is just a confluence of astounding finds that had a roomfull of Israel’s senior archaeologists -Trude Dotan and David Ussishkin are 80 plus-each reviewing their own finds and life’s work! in light of the revelations here.

There are more than 4 pits, incidentally.  The point many miss is that the huge city itself is mute testament to a polity, to a government. Dating of the pottery has a huge consensus that it is the 10th century even without the olive pits.  Israel said, maybe it is Philistine? At an earlier session, excavators fresh from a summer of digging of Gath, Ashkelon, Timna; and earlier excavators of Ekron Timna and Lachish, agreed one after another, as Sy Gitin said, “this is not a coastal assemblage!” While Zvi and Shlomo of TA digging Bet Shemesh, nearby and also in Judah, said, “This is like our Level II to IV, early Iron Age.”

Note: At that meeting they were not even told of the existence of the olive pits at all, because tests were as yet insufficient.

Current theory, I am told, calibrates carbon 14 dates.  Prof Finkelstein disagrees with that approach, yet it is still far earlier even according to him.  Prof Garfinkel said today at the conference in HU, “And if it is Philistine? What are they so worried about to go to such great lengths? Even so it shows here is an opposing force of might.”

Friends, you cannot appreciate really the massivity of the site until you walk it. Stones up to 8 tons each, multichambered gate, surrounding the hill…

Prof Israel was being interviewed long before this Tuesday when he came, the times story was filed a way back, and he said on Tuesday, “From what I heard I about it I did not realize how big this was.” He also told Ethan Bronner of the Times, standing next to Prof Garfinkel, something like this; “Yossi and I are both men of science, and if the evidence shows otherwise we revise our opinions.”

The main point here is as Aren said in the Times article, you have to notice this site and its finds, and follow it for years to come; it is not just another dig.  Our intention is to develop the infrastructure so that students and public can visit, and, participate in the dig.

Just the view alone is magnificent. You stand in the fortifications and see out to the Philistine coast on one side and up the mountains of Judea in the other side, with the valleys and roads below you, at a well traveled crossroads even today.

Understand that everyone is sensitive, particularly on THIS blog to producers and charlatans and true believers rushing to conclusions and feeding sloppy mush.

You cannot believe how much we are not moving on now because each step must be sure, which is why the dig ended inearly august and only now we released, because a series of scientific tests like carbon 14 from Oxford, came back with increasing corroborations, and three private scientist meetings were resounding in unanimity. As IAA Dr. David Amit said, “You have to realize everyone in this room is agreeing 10 Century BCE with all that implies; this is an earthquake.”

The implications are enormous: eliminating the line and divisions between Iron Age I and II, potentially -this with Lily of TAU in the room whose dating theory this is with Zev Herzog; revising understanding of how writing spread perhaps developed in Pheonicia and then adopted in one shot here two decades later, says Dr. Hagi Misgav. Jug handles with a mark never, ever found in such quantities. An Israel Antiquities Authority archival storeroom curator told us they do not even enter this feature in the computer for the 1 million objects in their care; they never attributed significance to it. And more.

Let’s take in the facts and discuss them all together. We look forward to the ride!  Please pepper us with questions to our website, just be patient if we cannot answer them all quickly.

Yours

Barnea

I have one question- when will a high resolution photo be introduced to the public and if you have one, I’ll be more than happy to upload it here.

UPDATE: One further comment was made a few minutes ago to a previous post by Barnea- A detail for you faithful readers – there are about 50 letters, and the piece is broken and apparently mssing at least the first line. As there is empty space at the bottom, it seems the end is clear.

This is an interesting detail indeed.