Shimon Ilani

A new location proposed for Bethagidea of the Madaba Map

A new location is proposed herein for the site of Bethagidea that is marked on the famous Byzantine mosaic map from Madaba, Jordan. According to the features preserved on the mosaic and based on rather few historical sources, Bethagidea is located southeast of Gaza, in the northwestern Negev. For the last decades the site was identified with Khirbet El-Jindy, located adjacent and to the east of Netivot. The newly suggested location of Byzantine Bethagidea is at a distance of some 8 km southwest of the previously identified site (coord.158400/588390, Israel new grid).The site is probably named after the Hebrew/Aramaic/Greek words of Gdi/Gadia/Gide, which may reflect the major domestic agricultural occupation of the Byzantine inhabitants.The new identification is based on several findings: foundation remains of a major building that resembles the graphical sketch of Bethagidea as it appears on the Madaba map; exceptionally large numbers of man-made water cisterns around it and the proximity to major water s...

A Stone Oil Lamp with Seven Nozzles from the Late Second Temple Period – First Century CE

A circular oil lamp 22 cm in diameter with seven nozzles was archaeometrically studied to verify its authenticity. It is made of silica-enriched limestone of the Early Senonian sequence exposed in the Jerusalem area. Traditional Jewish decorations are carved in the upper part of the lamp: a seven-branched menorah (candelabrum), wheat ear, a basket with figs, pomegranates, date palm tree, grape leaf and grapes, olive branches and barley ear. This oil lamp is the product of the Jewish limestone industry that flourished during the late Second Temple Period in Jerusalem (first century CE), related to religious purity laws. The prevalence of malleable silicified limestone in the Jerusalem environs and sophisticated processing techniques such as use of a lathe facilitated the production of this stone oil lamp. The distribution of the chemical elements of the patina is identically to the stone. The multi-layered patina attached firmly to the lamp‘s outer and inner surface and the microcolonial fungi structures a...

Campanian volcanism within the Asher-1 borehole

Asher Oil Corporation. 1964. Composite log. Compiled by Naphta Israel Petroleum Corporation. Folkman,Y. 1966. The lithostratigraphy and petrography of the Zalmon and Yagur formations in the Haifa– Jalame area. Geol. Surv. Isr. Rep. M.P. 179/66 (in Hebrew). Ilani, S., Kafri, U., Harlavan, Y. 2005. Miocene volcanism in the Western Galilee coastal plain. Isr. J. Earth Sci. 54: 47–53. Kafri, U. 1969. Geology and groundwater of the Cenomanian formations in Galilee, west of the watershed. Ph.D. thesis, Hebrew Univ., Jerusalem (in Hebrew). Kashai, E. 1958. A note on the revision of the stratigraphy of the southern Carmel. Bull. Res. Counc. Isr. 7G: 164–165. Sass, E. 1980. Late Cretaceous volcanism in Mount Carmel. Isr. J. Earth Sci. 29: 8–24. Segev, A., Sass, E., Ron, H., Lang, B., Kolodny, Y., McWilliams, M. 2002. Stratigraphic, geochronologic, and paleomagnetic constraints on Late Cretaceous volcanism in northern Israel. Isr. J. Earth Sci. 51: 297–309. Isr. J. Earth Sci.; 54: 179–181