Israel Then

Excavations at an archaeological research site, En Esur (Ein Asawir), located near Wadi Ara north of Tel Aviv in the Sharon Valley have uncovered a 5000 year old city about ten times the size of Jericho.

A 1,500-year-old byzantine-era church with spectacular multicolored mosaic floors with flower, winged eagle, and leaf patterns glistening in the sunshine and hundreds of lamps was discovered by the Israel Antiquities Authority and nearly 5000 volunteers in Ramat Beit Shemesh near Jerusalem in the fall of 2019, the Jerusalem Post reported.

Earlier this year, four ninth-grade boys from the Haemeq Hamaaravi High School in Kibbutz Yifat located in Israel’s Jezreel Valley were out enjoying a glorious spring day by the Zippori Stream in the Galilee region near the Sanhedrin Trail.

The city of Gath (1 Sam. 6:17) was one of the main cities of the Philistines who were enemies of the Israelites in the Old Testament.

When hiking you might be thinking you may be lucky if you see a deer, a pretty bird, or a nice sunrise.

A small clay sealing approximately one centimeter in diameter dating back to the 7th century BCE was unearthed in the City of David beneath the Western Wall, bearing the inscription, “Belonging to Adoniyahu, the Royal Steward,” and also etched in calligraphy, the name of a character found in the Hebrew Bible, Adoniyahu, which translates to“The Lord is my Master,” the Times of Israel reported.

The remnants of a 2,000 year old Jewish settlement including watchtowers, limestone vessels used for purity rituals, underground tunnels used by Jewish rebels during the Bar Kochba Revolt, and an oil lamp embellished with nine branched menorahs were uncovered near the outskirts of Beersheva in early 2019 per the Baltimore Jewish Press.

A small round 2,700 year old clay seal, also known as a docket, was excavated by the Israel Antiquities Authority near the Western Wall Plaza in Jerusalem, bearing a Hebrew inscription which translates as, “Belonging to the governor of the city.”