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<< Other Photo Pages >> Tel Motza - Ancient Village or Settlement in Israel

Submitted by bat400 on Wednesday, 18 September 2013  Page Views: 23704

Multi-periodSite Name: Tel Motza Alternative Name: Motsa
Country: Israel
NOTE: This site is 6.505 km away from the location you searched for.

Type: Ancient Village or Settlement
Nearest Town: Jeruselem  Nearest Village: Motsa
Latitude: 31.790000N  Longitude: 35.170000E
Condition:
5Perfect
4Almost Perfect
3Reasonable but with some damage
2Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site
1Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks
0No data.
-1Completely destroyed
2 Ambience:
5Superb
4Good
3Ordinary
2Not Good
1Awful
0No data.
no data Access:
5Can be driven to, probably with disabled access
4Short walk on a footpath
3Requiring a bit more of a walk
2A long walk
1In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find
0No data.
no data Accuracy:
5co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates
4co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map
3co-ordinates scaled from a bad map
2co-ordinates of the nearest village
1co-ordinates of the nearest town
0no data
2

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Tel Motza
Tel Motza submitted by dodomad : Israel Antiquities Authority archaeologist Anna Ririkh shows the temple site and the altar used for religious rituals and practices, dated to the early monarchic period (9-10th century. BC) of the Judaean monarchy. The site was uncovered in Tel Motza near Jerusalem during rescue excavations. The findings include ritual pottery vessels, fragments of chalices and figurines of animals Image Cre... (Vote or comment on this photo)
A settlement spanning the Mesolithic to Neolithic Ages in the Eastern Mediterranean. Includes Natufian, Pre-Pottery Neolithic A (PPNA) and Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (PPNB) cultures, 11,000 to 7,800 BC and beyond. This period covers a move to semi-sedentary life, the domestication of wild grains, and early animal domestication.

The site has been excavated by the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA), and Tel Aviv University's Department of Archaeology and Ancient Near Eastern Civilizations. Did you know the dreidel game is as ancient as this excavation? The jews do spin a dreidel even now as a part of their tradition.

Note: Israeli dig uncovers 2,750-year-old temple revealing human and animal figurines. Transition from hunting to agricultural society parallels development of woodworking tools,
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Tel Motza
Tel Motza submitted by dodomad : Ceramic figurines of human heads, part of a rare cache of sacred vessels found in an archaeological dig outside Jerusalem Image Credit: Clara Amit/Israel Antiquities Authority Site in Israel (Vote or comment on this photo)

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Yad Vashem, memorial del Holocausto 2

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Nearby sites listing. In the following links * = Image available
 2.6km WNW 288° Motza Neolithic City* Ancient Village or Settlement
 6.3km E 96° 2000 year old stone fragment in Jerusalem* Marker Stone
 6.3km SE 135° Talpiot Tomb Rock Cut Tomb
 6.3km ESE 103° Temple Mount* Ancient Temple
 6.5km ESE 106° City of David* Ancient Village or Settlement
 6.5km ESE 108° Hezekiah's Tunnel* Ancient Mine, Quarry or other Industry
 7.0km ENE 73° Shuafat road Chalcolithic period site* Ancient Village or Settlement
 8.3km SSE 158° Rachel's Tomb Ancient Temple
 15.4km SSE 154° Herodion* Ancient Palace
 17.3km WSW 253° Tel Beth-Shemesh* Artificial Mound
 17.8km WNW 288° Emmaus Ancient Village or Settlement
 19.6km SW 234° 2,000-year-old ‘Emperor’s Road’ near Beit Shemesh* Ancient Trackway
 19.8km WSW 238° Ramat Beit Shemesh ritual baths* Ancient Village or Settlement
 22.6km WSW 243° Khirbet Qeiyafa* Ancient Village or Settlement
 24.3km WSW 246° Tel Azeqa Ancient Village or Settlement
 24.4km SW 230° Khirbat Ethri* Ancient Village or Settlement
 25.0km WNW 288° Tel Gezer* Ancient Village or Settlement
 25.6km SW 228° Tel Burgin* Ancient Village or Settlement
 26.0km ENE 75° Jericho* Ancient Village or Settlement
 26.8km N 10° The Gilgal associated with Elijah and Elisha Stone Circle
 27.9km E 101° Qumran* Ancient Village or Settlement
 29.6km SW 234° Tel Goded Ancient Village or Settlement
 29.9km ENE 70° The Gilgal associated peacefully with Joshua Stone Circle
 30.0km S 191° Cave of the Patriarchs Rock Cut Tomb
 30.1km W 267° Tel 'Ekron Ancient Village or Settlement
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"Tel Motza" | Login/Create an Account | 5 News and Comments
  
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Israeli dig uncovers 2,750-year-old temple by bat400 on Wednesday, 18 September 2013
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Rare evidence of the religious practices and rituals in the early days of the Kingdom of Judah has recently been discovered at Tel Motza, to the west of Jerusalem. The finds, dated to the early monarchic period and including pottery figurines of men and horses, provide rare testimony of a ritual cult in the Jerusalem region at the beginning of the period of the monarchy.

According to Anna Eirikh, Dr. Hamoudi Khalaily and Shua Kisilevitz, directors of the excavation on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority, "The ritual building at Tel Motza is an unusual and striking find, in light of the fact that there are hardly any remains of ritual buildings of the period in Judaea at the time of the First Temple. The uniqueness of the structure is even more remarkable because of the vicinity of the site's proximity to the capital city of Jerusalem, which acted as the Kingdom's main sacred center at the time." According to the archaeologists, "Among other finds, the site has yielded pottery figurines of men, one of them bearded, whose significance is still unknown."

Tel Motza and the surrounding region are renowned for their prime archaeological importance. From the 1990's to the beginning of the present millennium, the site was excavated in preparation for the new route taken by Highway 1.

At the time, the site's archaeologists proposed once more identifying the site with the Biblical settlement "Mozah" mentioned in the Book of Joshua – a town in the tribal lands of Benjamin bordering on Judaea (Joshua 18: 26). The proposal was based, among other things, on the discovery at the site of a public building, a large structure with storehouses, and a considerable number of silos. At the time, archaeologists identified the site as a storehouse, run by high-ranking officials, for Jerusalem's grain supplies.

The current excavations have revealed evidence that provides another aspect to our understanding of the site. According to archaeologists Eirikh, Dr. Khalaily and, Kisilevitz, "The current excavation has revealed part of a large structure, from the early days of the monarchic period (Iron Age IIA). The walls of the structure are massive, and it includes a wide, east-facing entrance, conforming to the tradition of temple construction in the ancient Near East: the rays of the sun rising in the east would have illuminated the object placed inside the temple first, symbolizing the divine presence within. A square structure which was probably an altar was exposed in the temple courtyard, and the cache of sacred vessels was found near the structure.

The assemblage includes ritual pottery vessels, with fragments of chalices (bowls on a high base which were used in sacred rituals), decorated ritual pedestals, and a number of pottery figurines of two kinds: the first, small heads in human form (anthropomorphic) with a flat headdress and curling hair; the second, figurines of animals (zoomorphic) – mainly of harnessed animals. The archeologists stress that "The find of the sacred structure together with the accompanying cache of sacred vessels, and especially the significant coastal influence evident in the anthropomorphic figurines, still require extensive research."

Ritual elements in the Kingdom of Judah are recorded in archaeological research, especially from the numerous finds of pottery figurines and other sacred objects found at many sites in Israel, and these are usually attributed to domestic rituals. However, the remains of ritual platforms and temples used for ritual ceremonies have only been found at a few sites of this period.

Thanks to coldrum for the link. For more, see archaeologynewsnetwork.blogspot.co.uk. [Note, item from Dec 2012 but we thought worth highlighting]
[ Reply to This ]

Ram And Bovine Figurines Dated Back 9,500 Years by bat400 on Tuesday, 09 October 2012
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Two small figurines discovered near Jerusalem have been dated between 9,000 and 9,500 years ago and support the notion that religion and society played a significant role during the Stone Age.

According to a press release by the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA), the ram and wild bovine statuettes were found while the authority was excavating near Tel Motza prior to work on the Jerusalem-Tel Aviv highway, a few miles north of Jerusalem.

Archeologists are speculating that the two artifacts may have been good luck charms that were carried by hunters.

“It is known that hunting was the major activity in this period,” Hamoudi Khalaily, director of the dig, said in the IAA press release. The figurines “may have been the focus of a traditional ceremony the hunters performed before going out into the field to pursue their prey.”

The objects were found near the fieldstone and mud foundation of a round building, according to Khalaily and fellow archaeologist Anna Eirikh. The ram figurine was made with twisting horns and measured 15 cm in diameter. Cut from from limestone, its legs were made with simple incisions to distinguish them from the rest of the body. The bovine figurine resembles a large animal with prominent horns and was sculpted from smoothed dolomite.

“The sculpting is extraordinary and precisely depicts details of the animal’s image,” Khalaily said. “The head and horns protrude in front of the body and their proportions are extremely accurate.”

When placed within the existing archeological context, the discovery reinforces the role of religion in the lives of the Stone Age populations that lived in the Middle East at that time. “The archaeological evidence from this period, particularly the artistic objects such as the figurines that were discovered, teaches us about the religious life, the worship and the beliefs of Neolithic society. Other evidence has been derived from the study of tombs and funerary customs of the same prehistoric society,” Khalaily said.

Eirikh presented an alternative theory to the idea that the artifacts were carried by hunters and linked the figurines to the advent of animal domestication that was beginning to occur at the time.

The Natufian people, whose culture flourished in the region slightly before the creation of the figurines, lived by hunting and gathering. Animal bones recovered from this time period show that gazelle were probably the Natufian hunters’ main prey, in addition to deer, aurochs and wild boar.

According to research, the Natufian communities were the precursors to the first Neolithic settlements of the region and probably the world. Some evidence points to the cultivation of wild cereals, that would have been made possible by a worldwide climate change shift that occurred around 10,000 years ago.

Archeologists have speculated that the Natufian began the domestication of dogs around this time and the high incidence of immature goat and gazelle bones at the archeological site known as Nahal Oren points to the domestication of these animals, supporting Eirikh’s theory. Gazelles may have eventually fallen out of favor for domestication because goats are less selective in their diet and can adapt better to a changing environment.

For more, see http://www.redorbit.com.
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Neolithic Man: The First Lumberjack? by bat400 on Tuesday, 09 October 2012
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During the Neolithic Age (approximately 10000–6000 BCE), early man evolved from hunter-gatherer to farmer and agriculturalist, living in larger, permanent settlements with a variety of domesticated animals and plant life. This transition brought about significant changes in terms of the economy, architecture, man's relationship to the environment, and more.

Now Dr. Ran Barkai (Tel Aviv University's Department of Archaeology and Ancient Near Eastern Civilizations) has shed new light on this milestone in human evolution, demonstrating a direct connection between the development of an agricultural society and the development of woodworking tools.

"Intensive woodworking and tree-felling was a phenomenon that only appeared with the onset of the major changes in human life, including the transition to agriculture and permanent villages," says Dr. Barkai, whose research was published in the journal PLoS One. Prior to the Neolithic period, there is no evidence of tools that were powerful enough to cut and carve wood, let alone fell trees. But new archaeological evidence suggests that as the Neolithic age progressed, sophisticated carpentry developed alongside agriculture.

Within Pre-Pottery Neolithic A (PPNA,) humans remained gatherers but lived in more permanent settlements for the first time, he says. Axes associated with this period are small and delicate, used for light carpentry but not suited for felling trees or other massive woodworking tasks. In Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (PPNB,) the tools have evolved to much larger and heavier axes, formed by a technique called polishing. The researchers' in-depth analysis of these tools shows that they were used to cut down trees and complete various building projects.

"We can document step by step the transition from the absence of woodworking tools, to delicate woodworking tools, to heavier woodworking tools," Dr. Barkai says, and this follows the "actual transition from the hunter-gatherer lifestyle to agriculture." He also identifies a trial-and-error phase during which humans tried to create an axe strong enough to undertake larger woodworking tasks. Eventually, they succeeded in creating a massive ground stone axe in PPNB.

Whether the transition to an agricultural society led to the development of major carpentry tools or vice versa remains to be determined, says Dr. Barkai, who characterizes it as a "circular argument." Whatever the answer, the parallel changes led to a revolution in lifestyle.

Beyond the change from a hunter-gatherer to an agricultural economy, a new form of architecture also emerged. Not only did people begin to live in permanent villages, but the buildings in which they lived literally took a different shape. The round and oval structures of earlier domiciles were replaced by rectangular structures in PPNB, explains Dr. Barkai. "Evidence tells that us that for each home, approximately 10 wooden beams were needed. Prior to this, there were no homes with wooden beams." In addition, humans began to produce limestone-based plaster floors for their homes — which also represented a growing use of wood, since plaster is manufactured by heating limestone.

These architectural developments also necessitated the felling of trees in large quantities.

Thanks to coldrum for the link. For more, see http://www.aftau.org
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    Evidence The Sophisticated Carpentry Developed Alongside Agriculture During Neolithic by bat400 on Friday, 12 October 2012
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    Coldrum sends a link to a similar article on the same subject at redOrbit.
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