Let the Stones Speak

The Bible records that King David’s grandson, King Rehoboam, fortified 15 cities in the kingdom of Judah almost 3,000 years ago. The biggest of these was Lachish, recognized as Judah’s second most important city after Jerusalem. Prof. Yosef Garfinkel of Hebrew University is currently excavating at Tel Lachish. Two days before the end of the excavation, Let the Stones Speak host Brent Nagtegaal sat down with Professor Garfinkel to view the massive city wall his team is unearthing.

Shiloh is famous as the location of the biblical tabernacle. Archaeological excavations have been taking place annually on the north side of the ancient tel. Excavation director Dr. Scott Stripling believes his team may have found remains from the tabernacle itself, as well as the city gate and sacrificial deposits.

In this end-of-season interview, Dr. Stripling leads Let the Stones Speak host Christopher Eames through the three main areas of excavation at Tel Shiloh.

The biblical city of Ai was one of three cities that met a fiery demise when the Israelites conquered the Promised Land: “So Joshua burnt Ai, and made it a heap …” (Joshua 8:28). Over the years, archaeologists have proposed a few sites as being biblical Ai. One such site is Khirbet al-Maqatir.

Al-Maqatir was excavated by the Associates for Biblical Research for 14 seasons. This small site conforms with a number of key parameters for Joshua’s Ai.

In today’s interview, which was recorded in May, Let the Stones Speak co-host Christopher Eames speaks with Abigail Van Huss, one of the site’s excavators, about the history of the site and its identification as Ai.

The Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) safeguards the history of Israel. We've had the opportunity to work closely with the lAA on many projects over the years. Most recently, we've been working with Dr. Amit Re'em, the lAA director of Jerusalem district archaeology. Re'em is a man who has been "working, exploring, writing on ancient Jerusalem for more than 30 years."

In today's interview, Let the Stones Speak co-host Christopher Eames interviews Re'em about his background in archaeology and his role at the Israel Antiquities Authority.

After three weeks of excavation, our work at Jerusalem’s royal quarter has ended. We had a successful and productive season in an area of the Ophel that has not been touched since Dr. Eilat Mazar’s 2009-2010 excavations.

In today’s episode, Let the Stones Speak co-host Christopher Eames interviews excavation director Prof. Yosef Garfinkel about his perspective on the season and the future of the site.

Over a century of excavations at Tel Megiddo have finally unearthed a construction layer from the late seventh century B.C.E. and with it the largest assemblage of Egyptian pottery ever discovered in the southern Levant. This is at the precise time the Bible says King Josiah traveled to Megiddo to war against Egypt. On today’s program, host Brent Nagtegaal talks about the new discovery as well as the broader biblical context for King Josiah’s last stand at Megiddo.

On April 2, renewed excavation began in Jerusalem's biblical royal quarter in preparation for reconstruction work to highlight the ancient city's famed past. The three-to- four-week excavation is the first return to the area, known as the Ophel, since the excavations led by the late Dr. Eilat Mazar in 2009–2010. This current excavation is led by Hebrew University's Prof. Yosef Garfinkel, staffed by the Armstrong Institute of Biblical Archaeology (AIBA) and funded by AIBA alongside Daniel Mintz and Meredith Berkman. On today's program, host Christopher Eames interviews aiba staff member Brent Nagtegaal who was on the 2009 excavation and is helping coordinate the excavation this year.

The Temple Mount Sifting Project has produced some remarkable finds. The discoveries are diverse—from arrowheads to astragals—and unique, including items made of gold! Each discovery, just like the sifting project itself, makes a great contribution to the archaeological record of Jerusalem.

During their December interview, project co-director Zachi Dvira gave Let the Stones Speak co-host Christopher Eames an inside look at some of these finds. You can now see these for yourself in this second installment of that interview.

In a first for Israel, a tomb complex holding the bones of about 60 individuals was recently uncovered in the Negev region of southern Israel. On today's program, Let the Stones Speak host Brent Nagtegaal speaks with Israel Antiquities Authority senior researcher and Negev expert Dr. Tali Erickson-Gini about the unique discovery.

The Bible says King Solomon possessed such quantities of bronze (an alloy of copper and tin) that it became a common material, not worthy of being enumerated. From where did Solomon acquire such vast supplies of copper?

Let the Stones Speak co-host Christopher Eames interviewed Prof. Erez Ben-Yosef, director of excavations at Timna, to discuss the copper mines of Israel’s united monarchy.