#maresha

DEPOSITO DI 600 ASTRAGALI RINVENUTO A MARESHA, ISRAELE

Gli archeologi dell’Israel Antiquities Authority hanno rinvenuto oltre 600 astragali, relativi a zampe di quadrupedi, nei pressi dell’antico centro urbano di Maresha, o Marissa, nell’Israele centrale. Gli astragali risalgono al periodo ellenistico del centro urbano, circa 2.300 anni fa, e il loro uso  potrebbe indicare un uso rituale per contattare le divinità ma anche quello ludico legato a…

Sometime between 400 and 200 BC?  So says new evidence being reported by NPR and Grist. An interesting line from the Grist piece, noting that eating chicken (though not meat in general) seems to have been a relatively recent cultural decision: Perhaps we can just decide that we’re not gonna raise animals in horrific conditions just so we can have our all-you-can-eat buffets and cheap burgers.…

Bet Guvrin-Maresha National Park  is located off the Bet Shemesh-Kiryat Gat road (no. 35) opposite Kibbutz Bet Guvrin. The tour takes between 1-5 hours. The park is open year-round, especially in spring for the wildflowers. Opening hours are April-September 8 A.M.-5 P.M; October-March 8 A.M- 4 P.M. Last entry one hour before above closing hour. Contact: 08-681-2957; 08-681-1020. For additional information on events and tours: *3639. Entrance Fee: Adult NIS 29; child NIS 15 Israeli senior citizen: 50% discount; Group (over 30 people): Adult: NIS 23: child NIS 14. Pets are forbidden. The trail and the picnic corner at the Bell Caves are wheelchair-accessible.

The Polish Cave

This cave was named “the Polish cave” after graffiti left by Polish soldiers from the Anders’ Army serving in Palestine who had carved in the word “Warsaw”and a Polish Eagle during World War II, in 1942/3. The graffiti is on the boulder where my friend Nadim is sitting. Behind you can see a columbarium – but not THE Columbarium.

  The Columbarium Cave

Quarried caves used for the raising of doves and pigeons for food, fertilizer and perhaps for sacrifice, dated to the end of the 3rd century BC. Note that the doves have light and a water supply. The original owner/s used to provide grain to draw the doves to nest here.

  The Most Beautiful Olive Oil Press in Israel

This is a Cave for oil-press olive-oil production. Although it is for seasonal the press is decorated, plastered. There is even a niche for a small olive oil alter for good luck. It is interesting the olive manufactured originally included oil from the crushed pits which added a certain taste to the oil . The Romans introduced a technolgy to produce the olive oil without crushing the pits which they considered sour. As you can see even the cisterns are a work of art.

Complex 61 Caves

This complex is a system of about 30 interconnected caves, originally quarries for building material. The walls of ancient Maresha were made of chalk stone, plastered-over to protect from the rain. Visitors to Complex 61 traverse the caves climbing underground up and down and around according to how people used to make use of such spaces in antiquity. The cave provides natural climate control. Surprisingly enough, the exit is only a few meters away from the entrance. You can see the small hole in the roof, where the excavation of each cave began, as well as ancient stairs, cisterns and columbaria (What else?).

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Phoenician Burial Caves

These Phoenician or Sidonian Burial Caves are a series of highly decorated burial caves from the Hellenistic period (third-second centuries BCE). The frescos are copies. The paintings prove the presence of other cultures at Maresha. The subjects of the paintings are hunting scenes with wild and mythological creatures. My friend Arky volunteered to show how the deceased fitted in the grave in the wall. After a year the bones were collected and deposited in the room at the end of the cave.

Bell Caves

This is the most amazing part of the caves: So BIG! So WHITE! So airy! So clean! There are 800 large bell caves at Maresha, between which the ancient inhabitants connected by passageways. The largest are 18 meters high. The bell caves were created by opening a hole in the hard surface rock (Caliche a sedimentary rock, a hardened natural cement of calcium carbonate) and then quarrying downward into the softer chalk limestone) below in the shape of a bell. The limestone was used for road paving. Arabic inscriptions and crosses are found on the walls which leads to believe that many of the caves were dug during the transfer from the Byzantine Period to the Early Arab period, in the seventh-tenth centuries CE.

For more extreme spelunking (caving) go here.

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Israel is a living archeological site - in order to build anything here, one first must conduct a comprehensive archeological dig to determine what is beneath the ground.  Imagine if we did that in the USA?  

We joined the only dig open to and funded by tourists at Beit Guvrin national park - the town of Maresha. This was an Edomite town where the residents dug caverns beneath their homes for storage and industry.  A town with 5 olive oil presses is considered an oil exporter and Maresha had 22. They also raised 22,000 pigeons - with no pigeon bones found yet.  The archeologists believe this town served the Jewish pilgrims headed to the Temple in Jerusalem and sold them oil and pigeons (for sacrifices).

In Maresha, they've discovered written evidence of the story of the Maccabees and the rise of the Hasmonean period.  When the Hasmoneans conquered Maresha (which sided with the Greeks in that conflict), they offered the residents the choice to convert to Judaism, leave or die (ancient world was not very diplomatic).  The majority choose to leave and destroyed their homes and property in the process.  That's what we were digging up in the soft chalky dirt of the caves - our cave was Lucy.  One of the families who converted had a son who became King Herod of Judea. 

Any person over the age of 8 could have a pick-axe as well as a shpakle to conduct their dig.  How could that go wrong?  Actually, TK and BK were very responsible with their pick-axes and the only injury was a self-inflicted cut on TK's finger.

The caves are rich with "finds" - mostly pieces of pottery from everyday life.  In addition, people have found tablets with proclamations and history - including the history of the Maccabees success (and the prequel to that - when a Greek tax collector was refused at the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem because the priest said the money in the temple is for the poor, hungry and widows). We had pottery finds as well!

AK shows off a find.

TK was a very focused archeologist and found many pieces.

BK was attentive and found small and large finds. The kids also learned how to sift through the dirt we all carried out of the cave in a schlep line to find even more stuff - including shells used for decoration and ink.

We left Lucy the cave and the kids and I explored an unexcavated cave on our derrieres and back including entering a grain silo and water cistern.  It was candlelit and very cool - tight spaces.  And it will be dug out over time!  We completed that trip and joined Neal in a fully excavated cave with a water system and olive oil presses - all underground. It was literally and figuratively cool. Again - Israel connecting our ancient history in this land to the current era.

Our next experience was to jump into the current era with the pre-Shabbat throngs of people at Ben Yehuda market. It seems as if all of Jerusalem and its suburbs come to this market - a farmer's market times ten.  Nuts, fruits, vegetables, meats, cheeses, falafel, schwarma, eggs, kippot, halvah and more are all for sale in the many storefronts of this market. Quite possibly the best Rugelach we ever had is made in this market at Marzipan.  Not to be missed.