K·E·L·S·E·Y M·U·S·E·U·M N·E·Vv·S·L·E·T·T·E·R
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THE KELSEY K·E·L·S·E·Y M·U·S·E·U·M MUSEUM of N·E·VV·S·L·E·T·T·E·R ARCHAEOLOGY PUBLISHED BY THE ASSOCIATES OF THE MUSEUM SPRING 1998 Kelsey Team Explores Kedesh in Upper Galilee between Jonathan and the Seleucid king Demetrias took place here in 145 BCE In May 1997 the Kelsey began excava homicide (Josh. 20: 1-3). It also appears and that the site was abandoned after tions at Tel Kedesh in the Upper Galilee in several of the histories from the the Jewish victory (1 Macc. 11.63, 73) . of Israel. I am codirecting the expedition period of Graeco-Roman occupation According to the historian Josephus, along with Andrea Berlin, a graduate of (3rd century BCE-3rd century CE). We Kedesh was again a Tyrian outpost and the University of Michigan Interdepart learn from Zenon, a 3rd-century BCE stronghold in the first centuries BCE mental Program in Classical and CE (War II.459; Ant. Art and Archaeology and XIII.154); and it served as an currently an assistant profes encampment for the Roman sor at the University of general Titus at the beginning Minnesota. This project marks of the First Jewish Revolt (War a renewal of Kelsey-sponsored IV.104). explorations of the Graeco The Kelsey team is focusing Roman Galilee, which began our efforts on the Hellenistic with Leroy Waterman's work at and Roman-period remains of Sepphoris (1931) and contin Tel Kedesh proper. Our ued with my own excavations immedia te goals are to clarify at Tel Anafa (1978-86). the date and character of the Kedesh is the largest tel site site's Hellenistic and Roman in Upper Galilee, occupying occupation. In particular, we 20-25 acres. It is located on hope to identify the site's the land of Kibbutz Malkia population(s) and to explore some 450 m above sea level in their ties and interactions wi th the Anti-Lebanon mountain the Phoenicians, Jews, Greeks, range. Situated in one of the and Romans living through richest agricultural zones of out this area. The identifica modern Israel, the area of tion of Kedesh as a Phoenician Kedesh and the Upper Galilee outpost in the later Hellenistic has been home since antiquity and early Roman periods to a tapestry of different naturally suggests the identity cultural and ethnic groups of at least some of the site's from the Israelite tribe of residents. The early Hellenis Naphthali to Phoenicians tic occupants, however, from the nearby city of Tyre. remain unidentified, as does In more recent times it was the site's precise character at the site of a Palestinian that time. Since Kedesh and its farming village until 1948. people probably passed in and Today it lies among the out of Tyrian control from the thriving apple orchards of Persian period onward, and Kibbutz Malkia and provides were at least briefly under the pasturage for the kibbutz's rule of the Hasmoneans and University of Michigan undergraduate Mandy Leins is positioning the later perhaps Herod the Great, herd of cattle. Many succes electronic range pole near the remains of the Roman temple at Kedesh. sive layers of occupation can we are especially interested in be seen in a road cut through the social and economic the north end of the tel, and a Roman traveling merchant from Egypt, whose effects of such changes in political temple, preserved to architrave height, account of his travels is preserved on control. stands on a low hill to the east of the scraps of papyri in the Michigan library, Tel Kedesh and its environs are rich mound. that Kedesh was a flourishing farming in remains from the Early Bronze Age The ancient site is mentioned a village in his time, providing him with through to modern times and have clear number of times in the Bible, most food supplies and the luxury of a bath potential to elucidate the questions outlined importantly as one of the "cities of (P. Zen. 59004). From the book of above as well as many other issues. A refuge" for those guilty of unintentional Maccabees we hear that a battle site of this size and importance demands continued 2 SPRING 1998 Notes from the Director The Kelsey helped sponsor fieldwork on three continents this year, with excavations at Paestum in Italy and Kedesh This past year the Kelsey staff and Associates have been in Israel and a study season at Leptiminus in Tunisia. Last busy and productive on many fronts, bringing previously summer's work at Paestum was planned as a final season, planned projects to fruition and working on upcoming but the extraordinary finds-including the foundations of a projects. As a new director I have spent much of my time monumental 6th-century BCE building, votive objects, "getting educated" about the myriad activities going on silver coins, and potsherds inscribed in the Achaean behind the Museum's deceptively calm facade. In this first alphabet-will send the jointly sponsored Michigan newsletter I will touch on a few of the year's highlights from Bowdoin team back into the field again this summer to the Museum's exhibits and fieldwork programs. explore further this tantalizing site. During its summer Our exhibits program got off to a spectacular start this study season the Leptiminus Archaeological Project September with the opening of the Sepphoris show, curated analyzed artifacts collected during five seasons of excava by Elaine Gazda and Elise Friedland. This loan exhibition, tion and field survey, including more than 90,000 pieces of organized by the North Carolina Museum of Art, centered diagnostic pottery. Finally, our work at Kedesh (about on recent excavations at this important Roman-era site in which I have more to say on pp. 1-3) is preliminary and northern Israel by teams from North Carolina, Florida, and exploratory but shows promise of many productive seasons Israel. Gazda and Friedland designed a special display on in the future. the Kelsey's 1931 expedition to Sepphoris and produced a Back at home the Kelsey basement was the site of major booklet of essays on that expedition, The Scientific Test of the demolition and remodeling to convert it into a laboratory for Spade. The exhibit, jointly displayed at the Kelsey and the the study and publication of the Museum's fieldwork and Museum of Art and sponsored by numerous generous excavated objects. The laboratory is to be named after Henry benefactors, brought in a record number of visitors this fall. and Helga Hosmer, who plan a bequest in support of field It was accompanied by several special programs, the most work undertaken by Kelsey affiliates and the Interdepart dramatic of which was Joyce Klein's Zippori Live!, a reenact mental Program in Classical Art and Archaeology (lPCAA). ment of daily life in ancient Sepphoris (see photo on p. 4). Construction is complete and, thanks to generous support In February the redesigned Egypt and the Ancient Near from the College of LS&A, we are now installing extensive East Gallery was opened to the public with a lecture entitled computer equipment, which will make this a state of the art "Worlds without End: The Quick and the Dead in Ancient facility for the publication of archaeological materials. The Egypt" by Professor Lorelei H. Corcoran of the University of laboratory will be featured in the behind-the-scenes tour of Memphis. The new installation, curated by Janet Richards, the Kelsey at the Spring Associates' Event on May 1. puts on view objects never before displayed and features a These, then, are a few of the Museum staff and Associ reconstruction of a Karanis household courtyard of the 1st- ates' accomplishments over the past year. In future newslet 3rd centuries CE (see article on pp. 6-7). Complementing the ters I hope to highlight other activities-the ongoing Near Eastern Ga!lery is Lauren Talalay's reinstallation of our computerization of the registry and our growing presence collection of David Roberts's lithographs of Egypt. In on the World Wide Web, our continuing conservation addition, Thelma Thomas has put some of our most beauti concerns, our outreach and development efforts, and our fully inscribed early Islamic textiles in the turret gallery and publications. As to my own education as a museum is opening a larger textile show, Reconstructing Personal Style director, I can only say it, too, will be an ongoing process. in Late Antiquity, on April 17 (see p. 5). Terry Wilfong is After ten years as a curator at the Kelsey I thought I knew planning an exhibit of the musical instruments from Karanis the Museum pretty well, but after just ten months in the for next winter, and Lauren Talalay and I are putting Director's office I know I can never learn enough. together a photographic survey of the Museum's many Sharon Herbert fieldwork projects undertaken since Sepphoris. Director extensive pre-excavation and explora Surprisingly for a site of its importance, at the western edge of the lower tel and tion and testing to insure, insofar as no accurate topographical map had ever another in the center south. We exca possible, that major field seasons when been made of Tel Kedesh, and this was vated these probes for nine days, then they are undertaken will yield maxi one of the major goals of our 1997 processed the finds for four days. Both mum information with minimal destruc season. Using the Kelsey'S Sokkia probes revealed stone walls and floors tion. To these ends we have begun our electronic surveying station, we were at depths varying from .5 to 1.3 m below work at Kedesh with two short explor able, under Geoff Compton's guidance, modern surface.