By Gary D. Myers
KARME YOSEF, Israel -- Though New
Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary’s June 12 find will never be seen on
display in a museum, it is just as significant as the archaeological discoveries
from the Holy Land that fill the finest antiquity halls around the world. And
it is much, much larger.
The team, under the direction of the NOBTS Center for
Archaeological Research and the Israel Parks and Nature Authority, located a large open section in the cave at the
eastern end of the ancient water system at Tel Gezer. The discovery marks a
major milestone in the seminary’s three-year exploration at Gezer and sets the
stage for future research. The team still plans to locate the water source for
the system and explore the entire cave seeking a possible rear exit and pottery
evidence to help date its construction in future digs.
The dig leaders believe that the rock-hewn water tunnel was
cut by the Canaanite occupants of Gezer between 2000 and 1800 B.C. – around the
time of Abraham. Other scholars date the system to the time of the Divided
Kingdom after Solomon. The site is mentioned numerous times in the Bible
including in 1 Kings 9 when the city was given to Solomon by the Egyptian
pharaoh. Solomon rebuilt and fortified the city with a massive wall and unique
gate system.
“Opening the cave is something we have been working toward
for three summers wondering if it even existed,” said Dan Warner, associate professor
of archaeology and Old Testament at NOBTS and director of the Gezer Water
System Expedition. “It gave me a rush. Once inside it gave us a sense of
accomplishment and satisfaction, but we are not done by a long shot.”
A small dig team broke into the cavern at about 8 a.m. on
June 12. What they found was a large, wedge shaped open area of the cave measuring
26 feet wide by 30 feet long and reaches a height of close to seven feet at its
highest point down to only a few inches at its lowest. The surface inside is
covered with a thin layer of cracked mud similar to what one would find in a
dry pond or lake bed. The chamber also contains large boulders of chalk that
have broken free from the cave roof. The roof, which slopes up at a 45 degree
angle, seems relatively sound.
Though the cave was briefly opened by Irish archaeologist
R.A.S. Macalister in 1908, he was unable to take a photograph due to
condensation on his camera lens and poor lighting. The NOBTS team also encountered
condensation on the camera lens at first, but after ventilating the area with a
large fan the team was able to obtain the first photographs and videos of the
interior of the cave.
Macalister and French archaeologist Peré
Vincent both looked at the cave, and believed it was natural. The cave was only
open a short time during the Macalister excavation before a torrential rain caused a retaining
wall to collapse sending all of Macalister’s excavated dirt back down into the
water system, where it blocked the cave.
The NOBTS team was the first to see the cavern in over 100 years – only a few
people have ever seen the cavern in the past 3,800 years.
“This find verifies Macalister,” Warner said. “Macalister
was right. There is a cavern at the end of the water system.”
Once inside Warner and the other team leaders, Jim Parker
from NOBTS and Tsvika Tsuk, chief archaeologist for the Israel Nature and Parks
Authority, were able to confirm that the cave is indeed natural.
“It’s a cave – not a carved space – it’s a natural cave,”
said Parker, associate professor of biblical interpretation at NOBTS and the
dig engineer.
Parker said the space is larger than Macalister described.
Some of the differences in the dimensions may be attributed to the various roof
collapses since Macalister explored the cave. The roof collapses have also
opened more of the cave.
“We’re able to see a part of the cave that Macalister never
saw,” Parker said. “This leaves the possibility that there is another entrance
[to the cave] from another location off the tel.”
“We did some sound tests to see if we could hear inside the
cavern from outside on the tel,” Parker said. “The sound was very clear which
leads us to believe that it leads to some sort of opening or fissure in the
rock that in ancient days the water may have traveled outside the tel.”
At the start of this dig season the team intended to open
the entire mouth of the cave. However, the left side of the mouth was blocked
with boulders and the rest of the cave was filled with silt and dirt. So the
team simply continued a probe along the southern wall that the team began in
2011. About 26 feet into the probe Warner and Parker made a crucial decision.
With time running out on this year’s dig, Warner and Parker wanted to expose
more of the interior of the cave.
Instead of continuing along the southern wall of the cave,
the team made a 20 degree left turn toward the middle of the cave. On June 10,
the team cleared out 22 feet of dirt in the new angled probe. Parker ran new
calculations and speculated that the team was near the northern wall of the
cave. The dig team took another left turn at a 70 degree angle and began
digging in an effort to locate the wall. Less than an hour later they hit the
northern side wall of the cave. From that point the team began excavating along
the northern wall of the cave and ultimately entered the open space.
Important visitors
The discovery came just two days after visits by several high-ranking Israeli
authorities. Reuven Pinsky, head of the Heritage Division in the office of
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and Shuka Dorfman, Director-General
of the Israeli Antiquities Authority, each toured the water system on June 10.
Dorfman, IAA Deputy Director Uzi Dahari, and other IAA staffers toured the
water system with Parker and Warner early June 10. Later the same day Pinsky visited
the tunnel and cave. After hearing about the cave breakthrough, Dahari
scheduled another tour for June 14.
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