David P. Livingston
1999 represented the 18th season of excavation at Khirbet Nisya under the direction of ABR founder David Livingston. While the site’s Old Testament city is the focus of the excavation, this year’s dig uncovered artifacts mostly from the Late Hellenistic (Hasmonean) period of Palestine (152–65 BC).
April 11–16, 1999, eight men from the USA and Wolf Schleicher, surveyor and draftsman from Jerusalem, worked together for the spring 1999 Associates for Biblical Research Ai Excavation at Khirbet Nisya. This season was short, with only five days of excavation. Housing was provided at Pesagot, the Orthodox Jewish settlement above the site.
Trench 102 at Khirbet Nisya excavated this year. Within the fill of the trench, ten complete cooking pots from the second and first centuries BC were discovered. Interestingly, all were sitting flat at different levels, but none were sitting on a floor or surface.
Our chief objective was to enlarge and dig to bedrock a trench designated Area 102. This area was begun, but not finished, in 1998. First we widened the trench from 3 to 6 ft and made sloping sides to prevent collapse. The length of this portion of the trench was about 16 ft. The final depth to bedrock was about 12 ft below the original surface. All the debris in the balks (sides) of the trench was fill from elsewhere on the site.
At a depth of almost 8 ft, a Late Hellenistic (second-first century BC) cooking pot appeared in the balk, sitting perfectly level. This had been true also, at approximately the same depth, of two Late Hellenistic cooking pots in the 1998 excavation of this trench. As cleaning and excavating continued, still more cooking pots appeared in both balks and in the trench itself. By careful excavation, a total of ten Late Hellenistic cooking pots
Five of the ten Late Hellenistic cooking pots found at Khirbet Nisya. All had the characteristic two-rim handles and rounded base. Most were still intact; all are restorable.
BSP 12:3 (Summer 1999) p. 96
One of the Hellenistic cooking pots found sitting perfectly level in Trench 102. Full of soil and large pottery sherds, it had the broken base of a jug turned upside down as a lid. Evidence of some sacred rite or unique fill? Excavator David Livingston says it is not clear.
were unearthed before we reached bedrock. Each vessel sat perfectly level, not tilted in the slightest. The topmost was almost 8 ft beneath the surface and the deepest was at 11.5 ft. Laterally, the greatest distance separating the pots was slightly more than 8 ft.
All but four of the vessels were cracked and broken by the pressure of the fill upon them. However, almost all can be restored. We have no idea how they were used in the fill. None of the archaeologists to whom we talked had ever heard of such a find.
Debris of broken pottery mixed with soil was under and over the cooking pots. One of the vessels had a cover which was simply the broken base of a jug turned upside down. There was nothing inside this covered vessel but soil, pebbles, and broken pottery. Interestingly, some of the pottery pieces were quite large. How did they get into a covered vessel?
Also discovered in the trench were four bronze coins. The three we can read were from Alexander Jannaeus (103–76 BC), Procurator Pontius Pilate (AD 26–36), Constantine II (AD 337–361). The fourth is likely Late Roman or Byzantine, but is unreadable.
A double wall previously discovered in Area 38 was also excavated and will be added to our site plan. Here was a Byzantine structure, possibly a monastery or wealthy home.
A cave-like underground house, completely carved by hand into the limestone bedrock, had been excavated and cleaned previously. This season the work crew enlarged the opening and entrance to the dwelling. Wolf Schleicher and Dr. Eric Albert (of Pennsylvania) are cooperating to make a complete plan for the site.
Finally, on the last night of our stay, we showed 145 slides—the results of 20 years of excavations—to a group of settlers at Pesagot. The settlement wants to establish a museum at Pesagot and to make the site an archaeological park. All those present pled with us to continue digging.
Beside the cooking pots, other Hellenistic pottery was also found. Here is a “slipper” lamp with the wick spout on the right. The neck and double handle comes from a water jar (flask).
Coins found in Trench 102. Here are three bronze coins: a “widow’s mite” from Alexander Jannaeus (103–76 BC) with the characteristic eight-pointed star on the reverse; a coin from Procurator Pontius Pilate (AD 26–36) dated to the 17th year of Tiberius Caesar (AD 30); and a coin of Constantine II (AD 337–361) with the bust of the king on the obverse
Bible and Spade 12:4 (Fall 1999)