Joe Yudin owns Touring Israel, a company that specializes in “Lifestyle” tours of Israel.“An
archaeological dig!” said the bat mitzvah girl’s grandmother that I
recently guided for, “It’s too hot for that! I’m staying in the hotel.”
“But
you will be down in a cave and the temperature is really cool. You’ll
be out of the heat, in the shade and having fun.” I responded standing
in the middle of the lobby at the King David Hotel.
“A cave! Are you out of your mind! How do we get down into the cave?” she asked.
Oh she’s from Long Island I thought to myself, “Well there is a ladder and you go down into this hole in the ground and…”
“What!” said yelled and I actually ducked thinking that she would take a swing at me, “A hole in the ground? No way, Jose!”
“Wait.
I guarantee this will be one of the best experiences of the trip. If it
looks too scary for you to do I’ll take you to a café and we’ll wait
together until the family is through digging with the archaeologist.”
Begrudgingly
this seventy-one year old grandmother of eight went along with us. I
was interrogated the whole forty-five minute ride to the Beit Guvrin
National Park just outside Beit Shemesh and I gladly explained from the
beginning.
King Solomon’s son, Rehoboamwas in a predicament when
he inherited the throne of his father in 925 BCE. The ten northern
tribes of Israel had seceded from the kingdom and Judah was left with
Jerusalem and the land to the south including Hebron and Beersheba.
Rehoboam
built a series of fortified cities between his cities on the spine of
the Judean Hills and the hostile coastal plain inhabited by Philistines
and other foreigners. Maresha- which is now inside the Beit Guvrin
National Park - was one of the largest of these fortified cities. As the
Kingdom of Judah grew, so did Maresha, and suburbs expanded down what
today is known as Tel Maresha to the place where the dig is taking
place.
In
586 BCE, Nebuchadnezzar and his Babylonian army destroyed the Kingdom
of Judah along with Jerusalem and Maresha, taking the Jews away as
slaves. After the Jewish return from exile seventy years later they
found that the Edomites had moved in from across the Jordan River. After
the Maccabean revolt from the Greeks, known as Hanukkah, the later
Maccabeans probably came into Maresha and kicked out the descendants of
the Edomites who had become assimilated into Greek culture and were
considered the enemy.
Before the Edomites left, however, they
dumped their homes into their basements and only carried away a small
portion of their wealth, hence leaving behind treasure buried deep
inside the caves, which is what we would be looking for.
Once we
arrived at Beit Guvrin we were greeted by the archaeologist (and
grandfather of seven) Bernie Alpert who led the family down the ladder,
into a hole in the ground and out into a giant man made cave complex
carved out of the soft chalk stone 2,300 years ago. The grandma from
Roslyn, New York went right along and enjoyed every minute of it
crawling around on her hands and knees, digging sifting, taking pictures
getting dirty and bonding with her grandchildren like she never had
before. She even found an oil lamp from the time of the Maccabees and I
spotted a smile and a teardrop all at the same time.
We
climbed out of the cave, formed a chain up the ladder and passed our
buckets of dirt to ground level and while in the shade, under a canopy
we sifted through the dirt looking for treasure, and we indeed found
some. A clay shard with some ancient Greek writing on it, a hinge from a
door, pots, amphorae, plates and grandma’s oil lamp.
After the
dig, Bernie took us on a cave crawl through a candle lit unexcavated
cave complex and then he took us into a completely excavated cave
complex where we saw water systems, olive presses, pigeon coops and
secret hiding places. Later I took them to see ancient colorful cave
paintings in some exquisite family tombs and then to the later roman
part of the city, to Beit Guvrins coliseum where the gladiators would
fight each other and wild animals (and the Romans thought they were
civilized).
On the way back to Jerusalem everyone was tired, but happy, and grandma wore a smile from ear to ear.
Archaeological Seminars Institute, Ltd.www.archesem.comTel: (02) 586-2011Joe Yudin
became a licensed tour guide in 1999. He completed his Master’s degree
at the University of Haifa in the Land of Israel Studies and is
currently studying toward a PhD.