Our man in the ground

I have just returned from an archaeological excavation in Israel. Brushing off the dust, it has been another reminder of just how much ongoing work is continuing to reveal life in Biblical times to us.

The site I was involved in this year, Tel Hadid, occupies a prominent place overlooking the main coastal highway used throughout history to travel between Africa and Asia.

Interpretation of what is being found at Tel Hadid will be a careful process and awaits peer-reviewed publication. However, I can tell you that impressive stone walls, sling stones and arrow heads will all testify to an important period of Biblical history when Judah was attacked by the Babylonian empire.

Fast-moving landscape

When you travel in Israel from May until August you cannot help but notice the number of active archaeological sites. I had time to visit alternative sites and was struck again by just how rapidly the landscape is changing in the light of ongoing excavations. From El-Araj in Galilee (a possible site of Bethsaida) to Tel Motza in Jerusalem (a 3,000-year-old temple), it is hard to keep up with the latest stories of discovery.

Nowhere is this more evident than at the City of David in Jerusalem. The excavations are controversial, with disputes over land ownership and criticism over the methods used. But the results are stunning.

Pool of Siloam coming to light

At the City of David, the discovery of the Pool of Siloam (John 9) in 2004 led to the excavation of several steps that marked one side of it. Work stopped as most of the pool was beneath privately owned land. However, over the past few months work has restarted and the enormous pool (the size of two Olympic swimming pools!) is once again seeing the light.

The ‘stepped street’ or ‘Pilgrimage Road’ that leads from the pool to the Temple has been excavated over several years but is now joined by an underground drainage channel from the first century that allows a visitor to walk the kilometre distance from the Pool of Siloam to yet more excavations at what used to be a car park nearer the Temple Mount. Years ago, walking the Hezekiah tunnel where the Gihon spring waters flow was a highlight of a trip to Jerusalem, but that is now joined by an extensive number of tunnels and underground walkways revealing the entire sweep of Biblical history.

All these excavations have yielded a wealth of finds, some with direct Biblical connections such as clay stamps bearing the names of Biblical personalities. But much of what is found does not have this ‘wow’ factor. Instead, most finds illustrate life in Biblical times and demonstrate how the Bible writers were part of the world about which they write.

A good example of this is a discovery from the Pilgrimage Road announced in May 2023. A 2,000-year-old chalkstone slab was unearthed with seven rows of mundane text. It was a simple list bearing names, measures and numbers by a merchant from the time of the New Testament.

Importance of everyday literacy

It does not directly confirm anything in the Bible, but it does illustrate the level of everyday literacy at the time of Jesus. Monumental inscriptions and carved proclamations demonstrate the literacy of the elite. Rough writings on a stone slab tell us something about the ordinary people. Nahshon Szanton, the excavation director who published the find, observed: ‘There were many who knew how to read and write during this period.’ All this sets the background for the creation of the books of the New Testament. Could they really be the product of first-century fishermen, businessmen, a doctor and a tax collector? Yes, the evidence from the ground reveals levels of literacy among everyday Jewish people. The first Christians really were a people of the book and came to faith in a culture that valued the skills of reading and writing.