Abstract
THE article contributed to the Times of November 3 by Mr. J. W. Crowfoot, in connexion with the exhibition illustrating the excavations of Samaria now open at the rooms of the Palestine Exploration Fund at 2 Hinde Street, London, W., gives a very in formative view of the general results which have been achieved by recent work on the site of the city of Ahab. It is evident that the joint expedition, for which Harvard University, the Palestine Exploration Fund and other bodies are responsible, has not only added a great deal to the map of ancient Samaria, as Mr. Crowfoot says, but it has also reached a most important phase in its undertaking in the proposed extension of the investigation on the north side of the site, where it is possible that the principal gate of the city may lie. The superior character of the stone work of the Israelitish levels was already known from the work carried out by the expedition of Harvard University in pre-War days. This skill in the construction of fortifications is confirmed by the discovery of the remarkable bastion to which Mr. Crowfoot refers. Even more suggestive of the influences at work in the northern kingdom are the remarkable ivories which have been discovered and are regarded as a corroboration of the reference by the prophet Amos to the “ivory couches” of Samaria, which these remains of plaques and other carvings once adorned. It may be trusted that the reference by Mr. Crowfoot to the dependence of the projected excavation on the provision of funds is a reminder rather than a warning.
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Samaria. Nature 134, 730 (1934). https://doi.org/10.1038/134730c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/134730c0