Tancred's Tower (with bride and groom)

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Recently I learned that at the recently completed Kikar Tsahal (IDF Square) there are remains of something called TANCRED'S TOWER.

I wanted to photograph it yesterday, before the sun set completely.
But to my surprise I ended up doing a wedding shot instead!
If you don't believe me, click on the photos.

A bride and groom!

At one point the video photograph had the young man jump off the wall and shout with joy, wave his arms and click his heels.

I rather doubt that the young couple was aware of the history of the spot.

If you are up to it, here is the story as told in Jerusalem, a walk through time, Yad Ben-Zvi's Walking-Tour Guide, Vol. 1, p 162:

"The northwest corner of the city wall . . . was one of the points where the Crusaders concentrated their forces for the assault upon the city, in the first phases of the siege in the sweltering summer of 1099.

At the foot of the city wall we see the remains of a moat and above it are particularly large stones that protrude from the wall. These are the remains of the base of a fortified tower, the continuation of which is situated in the basement of the Christian College des Freres within the city walls. . . . The tower (which was built during or after the Crusader period) . . . is known as Tancred's Tower, after the Norman Crusader commander from Sicily, who bivouacked here with his forces during the siege.

In the north the Crusader forces breached the walls near Damascus Gate. Using battering rams and siege towers several stories high, they rained arrows upon the defenders on the wall."

Damascus Gate

William of Tyre, a contemporary Crusader historian, wrote of this "It was impossible to look upon the vast numbers of slain without horror . . . . Still more dreadful it was to gaze upon the victors themselves, dripping with blood from head to foot, an ominous sight which brought terror to all who met them."

After breaking through, the Crusaders rushed in to seize the Temple Mount where water from the cisterns quenched their thirst, following their weeks of shortage of water.

In the evening, after they already controlled the whole city, they proceeded to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre to offer prayers of thanksgiving.

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For That's My World Tuesday this was a glimpse of my wedding-couple-world of just yesterday and of the bloody slaughter of 910 years ago. Same place but so very different.

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Light of My Life

My youngest grandson had a birthday yesterday down in Sydney, Australia.

Happy second birthday, sweet Eyal!

Have a new year of life full of learning and growing, love and fun!

Fish enough for all

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Hard to believe, but Tiberias has even more cats than Jerusalem.

It must be the prospect of a seafood dinner.

The cats hang out on the basalt boulders at the waterline of the Sea of Galilee.

Look at this one in mid-air, descending from the Promenade to the rocks!

All along the Promenade are restaurants. Most days of the year the diners sit outside, the better to see the lake.

The cats see the tantalizing fish swimming but can never catch them. Instead they wait for the tourists to have pity and throw them some tidbits or leftovers.

This white-bearded human fisherman had caught a whole bucketful of fish with his long pole.

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Greetings to the Camera-Critter Sunday cat-lovers.

Squeaky-clean pane

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While entering the Jerusalem Central Bus Station to catch my Egged bus to Tiberias (an easy drive of 2 1/2 hours), I was delighted to see double. Perfect for "Weekend Reflections," the meme started by James in Pennsylvania.

The two young men seemed to be having a good time in their harnesses, doubtless earning some good shekels for their work.

The huge Central Bus Station certainly has enough glass to keep fearless window washers busy.

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A touch of class in Tiberias

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During my weeks in Tiberias, after our digging day was over I would often escape from the crowded hostel room and walk up to a hotel with real class--"The Scottie." Just to walk around their gardens and to enjoy the peaceful atmosphere.
Their brochure is titled "The Scots Hotel, St. Andrew's, Galilee, Owned and Managed by the Church of Scotland, Maintaining Christian Witness in the Land of Christ Since 1885."

The brochure continues:
"The city of Tiberias, named after Caesar Tiberius, was founded by Herod Antipas and is nearly 2,000 years old. During its history it has been ruled by Jews, Muslims, Druze, Crusaders, Turks, and the British, as well by the Romans. It was to here that, in 1885, David Watt Torrance, a 23 year old surgeon from Airdrie, Scotland, arrived to set up the Scottish 'Mission of the Jews' in the Holy Land."
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So this former hospital is now what has been converted.
Now it is a botique hotel complex, with its 19th century black basalt walls having been "sensitively refurbished." And a new modern wing was added.

Look at all the benches! Perfect for RuneE's "Bench on Friday" meme at Visual Norway.

These benches in a row sit in the fragrant herb (and other plants) garden. A pleasure for the nose as well as the soul.

Notice (if you enlarge the photo) the flag of Scotland.

This fine old bench is in the archaeology garden.

Nearby is a fishpond with underwater lights to illuminate the big ornamental fish!

Even the bench along the wall has underground illumination!

The view from the semicircular bench: ancient Roman capitals on pedestals and the Sea of Galilee.

The lovely gazebo . . .

. . . and its view of the lake.

The hotel swimming pool is just across the street, via a private wooden bridge.

Not bad, eh? :-)

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The old basalt Scots church and school buildings are also across the street.

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The interesting website, complete with history of the place, is http://www.scotshotels.co.il/index_en.html.

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A dreamy sky and sea

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Welcome to the skies above the Sea of Galilee, especially for SkyWatch Friday.

The sunset view from Tiberias to the eastern shore of the lake.
Last night and today the media are full of news of a possible start of peace talks with Syria.
The Golan Heights, in the photo above, might be returned to Syria if the negotiations really start.

Groups of tourists, usually Christian pilgrims, like to go out for a quiet sail in wooden boats made to resemble the fishing boats of the disciples of Jesus.
If you click to enlarge, you can see seagulls following the boat.

A few years ago, when the Sea of Galilee was full, this dock would have been at the level of the boat's deck. Now passengers have to climb stairs up to the dock.

Israel is nearing a water crisis after five years of drought.

The Star and Stripes were hoisted. It was a group from the United States.

As the boat backed out from the dock and came around, I heard the group's national anthem playing. The crew must have a big selection of them on board.

Sometimes the pilgrims stop in the middle of the Kinneret (the Sea of Galilee) for a moment of silence, prayer, and a hymn.

It must be very touching for them.

In addition to short 30-minute rides, the boats have routes to Capernaum in the north or to Kibbutz Ein Gev in the south.

The Ein Gev fish restaurant is famous for its St. Peter's fish.
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Simplicity

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The Tiberias dig is over but I don't want to leave the subject without showing you where I slept (or tried to) for several weeks.
For a big smile you should really click on the first photo.

It is the backside of my hotel/hostel, part of which had been torn off!
Fortunately construction of the new addition, the loud pouring of cement, started only on the evening I left.

The front is a little better, with some of the Old Tiberias basalt stone.
My dormitory room was on the top floor.

I grabbed the single bed on the side and let the backpacker girls have the four close-to-each-other beds. New roommates came and went; big turnover.

One day a big windstorm brought down the ceiling panel in our bathroom. Luckily the shower curtain rod caught it.

Yep, conditions were spartan.

The "grown-ups," the mostly older volunteers who came to the dig from abroad, stayed in the nicer hotel just up the street. But they were willing and able to pay for it. We had lunch and dinner at their hotel.

It was in the 90s F (low 40s C) most of the time, even in October-November. Most of the young folks in my room were anti-airconditioning. With the windows open, you could hear traffic on the busy streets below all night.

But when you have to rise at 4:00 a.m. you learn to sleep through almost anything.

The view to the south was the old cemetery with tombs of basalt.

A post on that is planned.

I spent lots of time hanging out the window, savoring the different moods of Tiberias, in haze, in sun, once even in rain.

The old Greek Orthodox monastery was nice to look at. I even managed to get inside the church once (a post will follow). The old monk does not open the gate very often.

The Sea of Galilee was right across the street. Here is a rare clear view of the Golan Heights on the eastern shore of the lake.

Tiberias attracts many Israeli and foreign tourists and pilgrims.

From my simple dorm room I could see the real hotels. So many, so big. Too big.

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I miss the old days when we dig volunteers used to sleep as a crew, all in big tents or in the former stable of an old monastery or in straw bungalos or in a big old kibbutz house.

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Qamats and qubbuts

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I am in a quandary whenever Q day comes around at ABC Wednesday. So today I have no qualms about not using Q words in English.
Instead I give you qamats and qubbuts. These are two of the vowels used in Hebrew.

See them on the chart?

In Tiberias I was delighted to find a new (2008) sculpture, by David Fine, near the Sea of Galilee.

The vowels, in black basalt, are shown in playful positions!

Actually, in modern Israeli Hebrew, we don't write the vowels very often. You will see a pointed/vocalized/voweled text only for some poetry or young children's books or a printed Bible or a newspaper in easy Hebrew for new immigrants.

Otherwise we just have the consonants and we have to "guess" how the words in context should be pronounced. If we left out the vowels in English, this blog would be from the Jrslm Hls.

As the sign says, "The Tiberias vocalization of Hebrew was based on the traditional Tiberias vowel system. After this system became the authoritative pronunciation for reading the Bible, all other methods were abolished."

That was the short explanation.

Here are parts of the long story, if you prefer, quoted from Wikipedia (here and here):

After the Talmud, various regional literary dialects of Medieval Hebrew evolved. The most important is Tiberian Hebrew or Masoretic Hebrew, a local dialect of Tiberias in Galilee that became the standard for vocalizing the Hebrew Bible and thus still influences all other regional dialects of Hebrew. This Tiberian Hebrew from the 7th to 10th century CE is sometimes called "Biblical Hebrew" because it is used to pronounce the Hebrew Bible . . . .

Tiberian Hebrew incorporates the remarkable scholarship of the Masoretes (from masoret meaning "tradition"), who added vowel points and grammar points to the Hebrew letters to preserve much earlier features of Hebrew, for use in chanting the Hebrew Bible. The Masoretes inherited a biblical text whose letters were considered too sacred to be altered, so their markings were in the form of pointing in and around the letters. . . . The Aleppo Codex, a Hebrew Bible with the Masoretic pointing, was written in the 10th century likely in Tiberias and survives to this day. It is perhaps the most important Hebrew manuscript in existence.
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The Masoretic Text (MT) is a Hebrew text of the Jewish Bible (Tanakh). It defines not just the books of the Jewish canon, but also the precise letter-text of the biblical books in Judaism, as well as their vocalization and accentuation for both public reading and private study. The MT is also widely used as the basis for translations of the Old Testament in Protestant Bibles, and in recent years also for Catholic Bibles.
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Menorah in Magdala

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Where are archaeology volunteers taken on their weekly field trip?
To other digs, of course, to be guided around by the director of the site!

Don't mind the sign "Archaeological excavations. DANGER -- NO ENTRY."

Our group drove 4 miles south of Tiberias, along the Sea of Galilee, to Migdal.
Migdal in Hebrew, Magdala in Aramaic.
Readers of the New Testament will know that the town was most likely the birthplace or place of residence of Mary Magdalene, a devoted follower of Jesus.

Something like a scene from "Raiders of the Lost Ark" greeted our expectant eyes.
A stone box-shaped object literally under wraps, hidden by a heavy cloth and white sandbags.
It stood in the front of a 1st century synagogue. The basalt benches still in situ!

As he uncovered it, the archaeologist in charge cautioned us not to take any close-up photographs of this very recent and very spectacular find.

I compromised and sneaked a shot of only half of the stone structure. The carved decorations are different on each side and on the top.
They think it is the base of the table used 2,000 years ago for reading the Torah scroll.


In this Photo from the Ministry of Tourism, you see what the whole country was excited about!

You will enjoy reading the authoritative article about the discoveries at Migdal, available here.

This is the paragraph about the menorah:

According to the excavation director, Dina Avshalom-Gorni of the IAA, “We are dealing with an exciting and unique find. This is the first time that a menorah decoration has been discovered from the days when the Second Temple was still standing. This is the first menorah to be discovered in a Jewish context and that dates to the Second Temple period/beginning of the Early Roman period. We can assume that the engraving that appears on the stone, which the Israel Antiquities Authority uncovered, was done by an artist who saw the seven-branched menorah with his own eyes in the Temple in Jerusalem. The synagogue that was uncovered joins just six other synagogues in the world that are known to date to the Second Temple period.”

Ironically, this synagogue would not have been found if ground had not been broken by the Magdala Center, a Catholic pilgrim center planned to be built by the Legionaries of Christ/ Regnum Christi Movement. The Israel Antiquities Authority stepped in to do its always-necessary survey (before anything is built) and were so surprised to find all these treasures.

The Center will eventually be built around, not ON, the antiquities. But can you imagine how a synagogue from the time and place of Jesus will draw vast numbers of visitors of all faiths?!
Don't you just love how these things work? :-)

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Dancing at the dig site

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The month-long fall season of our excavation in Tiberias ended last week.
On Thursday we were digging from 5:30 until 13:00, then a little snack and several hours of pottery washing. We rushed back to the hotel for a quick shower, then walked back to the site for our evening FAREWELL PARTY.

Roi, the dig administrator, took on the role of Grill Master. Hot dogs, chicken wings, and skewers of meat and chicken hearts.
The portable gas-fed Weber grill worked wonders.

There was lots of posing, e.g. my area supervisor Asaf and me.

Our very young and capable staff: Katia, Shulamit, Yuli, and Asaf.

The men are the paid workers, Bedouin from northern Israel.

Dig director Dr. Katia Cytryn-Silverman presented a certificate from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem to each volunteer.

After the meat, salads, pita, humus, tehina, wine, beer, and Coke, this volunteer married couple brought out a birthday cake.

The younger Bedouin gathered off to the side. One man sang while another played a double flute-type instrument that has been know in the Middle East since antiquity.

The flute sounded like a bagpipe minus the bag.
Click on the photo and you'll see the boy's cheeks full of air.

The old-time music really got our blood racing! Everyone was clapping to the beat and the Bedouin danced the debka.

Here is a very short video for you to get an idea of the music. Like it?

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