Winter Finds At Shiloh | January 2020 Update

I am writing to you from my desk at the Ritz Hotel in Jerusalem. We just completed our winter sifting project. The finds were amazing. We sifted dump piles from two previous excavations. I estimate that previous excavations missed 50-75% of the small finds such as scarabs, bullae, beads, coins, etc. How did we find what they missed? We wet sifted (washed) the material. After washing, what appeared to be small dirt-encrusted rocks, could be identified as important archaeological material. At Shiloh, we track the excavated matrix, using a color-coded label, through dry sift and wet sift. By doing this, we can use the context to date the finds and the finds to date the context (stratum). I intend to publish the finds from the old dump piles and compare the results to what was previously published by the excavators. I hope that this will motivate other archaeological teams to embrace this new methodology. In fact, last week we built and sold a mobile wet-sifting station to an Israeli team from Haifa University, and a second team also wants one. This is just another way that the ABR team that I lead is avante garde in archaeology in the Land of the Bible. I handpicked the members of the winter team because their work ethic is unmatched. My high expectations were met. I am so proud of this group. Some of the findings remain “top secret" at this point. I will pass along more information as I am able. Here are some links to news stories on our work that broke while we were in the field:

Shiloh Storage Jar Undergoing Restoration

Hasmonean Coin with Messianic Star Motif (Num 24:17)

We built a replica of Joshua's altar from Mt. Ebal (Josh 8:30) with stones from Mt. Ebal.

Winter Finds At Shiloh | January 2020 Update

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