ANCIENT ISRAEL REVEALED June 16 - July 3, 2007 Saturday, June 16: CHICAGO/TEL AVIV Depart Chicago in the evening. Sunday, June 17: JERUSALEM: David Citadel Hotel We arrive into Ben Gurion Airport and drive up to Jerusalem to Dear Members and Friends of the Oriental Institute: rest before our orientation lecture and dinner. (D) The Oriental Institute is pleased to present a comprehensive Monday, June 18: JERUSALEM: David Citadel Hotel tour of Israel. Uniquely situated at the crossroads of cultures, Touring begins on the Mt. of Olives and Mt. Scopus. Viewing Israel is among the most historically rich areas in the world. The Jerusalem from this perspective gives us an understanding of the Oriental Institute has had an archaeological presence there historical ramifications of its location. We enter the Old City at the Citadel built by Herod, and begin our historical overview from its since the early 1900s, when founder James Henry Breasted sent walls. Today’s Old City touring will focus on the First Temple an expedition to excavate at the site of Megiddo. The dig period including Hezekiah’s fortifications and the City of David, covered a span in time from 5000 to 600 BC. Each layer was where excavations have exposed the city and shaft leading to the carefully uncovered to reveal successive cultures that city’s water supply in the Kidron Valley. We will examine dominated the city. In 2005, the Haas and Schwartz Megiddo Hezekiah’s Tunnel, built through the rock to divert the water into Gallery opened at the Oriental Institute Museum, featuring an inner city reservoir, the Gihon Spring and pool of Siloam. (B/L) dozens of artifacts from the Institute’s excavations that have never been exhibited before, including an exquisite collection Tuesday, June 19: JERUSALEM: David Citadel Hotel of ivories. Megiddo is just one of the many fascinating and Touring today will focus on the Second Temple period beginning important sites you will visit on this tour to Israel. at the model of Jerusalem at that time. We continue our study of this period in the Jewish Quarter of the Old City, emphasizing the Since then, scholars from the Oriental Institute have recent discoveries of the Second Temple period; the southern wall undertaken intensive study of the Dead Sea Scrolls, excavated excavations; Herodian Quarter - the residence of the upper class at the sites of Ashkelon, Yaqush, and Tel Beth Yerah and XXXX. Jerusalemites; the Cardo - the main thoroughfare of the Upper City. The day ends with a walk through the Kidron Valley to see Our lecturer for this tour, Gabrielle Novacek, has worked some of the finest standing monuments of the Second Temple extensively throughout Israel, specializing in the Early Bronze period. (B/L) Age. Her superb depth of knowledge and experience in the region will surely make this a truly memorable travel-study Wednesday, June 20: JERUSALEM: David Citadel Hotel experience. We will spend the day as guests of the Department of Antiquities beginning at the Rockefeller Museum where the finds made Gil J. Stein before 1948 are housed, and continues outside the city center at Director, Oriental Institute Har Hotzvim, the central depot and laboratories of the department. Here the finds from all of the recent excavations throughout the country are registered, catalogued, cleaned, restored and preserved in preparation for publication and GABRIELLE NOVACEK received her BA at Harvard, where she eventual exhibition. Our final stop will be at the Second Temple graduated magna cum laude in Near Eastern Languages and Tombs of the Sanhedrin. These large rock-hewn tombs have Civilizations, her MA in Near Eastern Languages and magnificent carved facades adorned with architectural details, no Civilizations from the University of Chicago and will complete two alike. (B/L) her PhD in June 2007 (just days before departure!). At U of C, her course work focused on the archaeology of Ancient Israel Thursday, June 21: JERUSALEM: David Citadel Hotel and the Hebrew Bible, but she also spent significant time The focus of this day will be the monuments in the Old City working on Islamic archaeology and Egyptology. Her associated with the three major religions. Our guest lecturer this dissertation addresses problems relating to the Early Bronze morning is Dan Bahat, Israel’s foremost scholar on Jerusalem. Our Age in Israel, with the majority of her data coming from walking tour begins with some of the city’s oldest synagogues and Oriental Institute excavations at two sites in the Jordan continues to the tunnels along the Western Wall. Excavations have Valley, Tel Beth Yerah and Yaqush. exposed ancient remains starting from the Hasmonean period. We Gabrielle has conducted fieldwork at Harvard University's will see the lower courses of the magnificent wall of the Herodian excavations at the Philistine city of Ashkelon near Tel Aviv Temple Mount as well as ancient cisterns, gates and paved streets. and recently supervised excavations of the Late Bronze Age Touring then continues with the Islamic monuments on the palace at the Oriental Institute project at Tel Atchana Temple Mount including the Dome of the Rock and El-Aqsa Mosque. Lastly, we will study the Christian Quarter. We follow the (ancient Alalakh) in Turkey. She is currently finishing two Via Dolorosa to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre visiting the volumes for publication: the final excavation report for the Church of St. Anne, the Bethesda Pool, Ecce Homo Arch and OI campaign to Beth Yerah in the 1950s and 1960s (never excavations, Mt. Zion including King David’s Tomb and the published); and a volume highlighting the artifacts in the Coenaculum, believed to be the site of the “Last Supper,” and exit Haas and Schwartz Megiddo Gallery at the Oriental Institute, the city from the beautiful Damascus Gate stopping to examine for which she served as curator. the excavations. (B/L) Friday, June 22: JERUSALEM: David Citadel Hotel This tour should be considered moderately strenuous. It requires walking over rough uneven terrain, step climbing and some long This morning a Yad Vashem docent will accompany us through the driving days. All participants are expected to be physically active and museum built as a memorial to the victims of the Holocaust. The able to walk independently throughout our full touring days. remainder of the day will be at leisure. (B) Saturday, June 23: JERUSALEM: David Citadel Hotel Sunday, July 1: TEL AVIV: Sheraton Hotel We drive to the caves of Beit Guvrin, believed to have been dug After visiting Elijah’s Cave, we continue to the Roman port of for stone to build the Roman’s coastal cities, and later used as Caesarea. Ongoing excavations are exposing greater expanses of the churches by the Byzantines and Crusaders. Continue to Lachish, Roman city, port and aqueduct, which brought water from Mt. conquered by the Assyrian King Sennacherib in 701 BC. The Carmel. We will arrive in Tel Aviv in time to swim before dinner.(B/L) capture of Lachish was the subject of a magnificent series of wall reliefs for the palace at Ninevah. These reliefs can now be seen at Monday, July 2: TEL AVIV: Sheraton Hotel the British Museum. (B/L/D) Our touring is completed at the Ha’aretz Museum and Tel Qasile, a well-preserved Philistine temple. The afternoon will be at leisure Sunday, June 24: JERUSALEM: David Citadel Hotel to relax on the beach or stroll on the boardwalk before our We start the day with a tour and lecture at the W.F. Albright farewell dinner in the port of Old Jaffa. (B) Institute of Archaeological Research, the oldest American research center for Ancient Near Eastern Studies in the Middle Tuesday, July 3: TEL AVIV/CHICAGO East. The remainder of the day is devoted to an in-depth visit to Transfer to the airport for our flight home. the Israel Museum, which houses the Dead Sea Scrolls and many other archaeological treasures. (B) TOUR COST: $6845 (includes group airfare from Chicago) Monday, June 25: SODOM: Crown Plaza Hotel This morning we will drive to the desert settlement at Tel Arad, Single Supplement: $1480 an impressive Early Bronze Age city and Israelite citadel. This day Land Arrangements Only: $5560 ends with a spectacular descent through breath-taking desert vistas to the Dead Sea. We will have time to experience the unique water of the Dead Sea. (B/L/D) RESERVATION FORM - Ancient Israel Tuesday, June 26: TIBERIAS: Radisson Moriah Plaza Please make reservations for the following people: This special day begins with an early ascent to the great fortress Name #1 of Massada. Built by Herod as a sanctuary, it was later occupied by the Zealots and others fleeing the Romans. Touring continues at Street address City/State/Zip code Qumran, believed to have been an Essene settlement whose library housed the Dead Sea Scrolls, discovered in nearby caves. Home telephone Business telephone We continue to ancient Jericho, the oldest urban settlement in the world. Touring here will include the newly excavated Name # 2 synagogue dating to between 75 and 50 BC and a winter palace Street address City/State/Zip code built by the Hasmonean monarchy. We then drive up the Jordan Valley to Tiberias and our hotel on the Sea of Galilee. (B/L/D) Home telephone Business telephone Wednesday, June 27: TIBERIAS: Radisson Moriah Plaza Total deposit enclosed $800 per person (payable to Drive through the rolling hills of the Galilee to the ancient site of Archaeological Tours)___________________ Sepphoris, which houses amid its villas a very fine mosaic, locally Please charge my deposit of $________ to my credit card. referred to as the “Mona Lisa of Sepphoris.” Touring continues at Bet She’an, where excavations have revealed evidence of Bet She’an’s role as an Egyptian provincial capital as early as the 14th- Name as listed on the credit card 12th centuries BC.