Biblical Archaeology Review - January-February 2018

Digs 2018

26 JAnuARY/FEBRuARY 2018

GATH OF THE PHILISTINES. At Tell es-Safi /Gath, hometown of the

giant Goliath (1 Samuel 17:4), archaeologists have unearthed sig-

nifi cant evidence of Philistine occupation in addition to remains

from prehistoric to modern times. Above, Tina Greenfi eld and Liz

Arnold excavate a donkey skeleton that was placed as a ritual

deposit below the fl oor of an Early Bronze Age III house. Right,

BAS dig scholarship winner Jessie Blackwell of the University of

Kentucky holds pieces of a Middle Bronze II platter she found

while excavating part of the glacis of the city wall in Canaanite

Gath’s upper city.

AREN MAEIR

DANIEL FRESE