Arkeo Blusukan

Possible Gateway to Pan Sanctuary Discovered  HAIFA, ISRAEL— LiveScience  reports that recent excavations at the Greco-Roman city of Hippos near the Sea of Galilee may shed light on the discovery last year of a  remarkable  bronze mask depicting the half-man half-goat god Pan. (Michael Eisenberg/University of Haifa) University of Haifa archaeologist Michael Eisenberg led a team that unearthed a six-foot-tall Roman gate near a stone building where the mask was found, leading him to speculate that the gate might have led to a sanctuary dedicated to Pan. "The mask, and now the gate in which it was embedded, are continuing to fire our imaginations," Eisenberg says. "The worship of Pan sometimes included ceremonies involving drinking, sacrifices and ecstatic rituals, including nudity and sex. This worship usually took place outside the city walls, in caves and other natural settings." The possible sanctuary was located  near the city gates and was constructed ...

2,000-Year-Old Estate in Israel Yields Coin Cache  MODI’IN, ISRAEL—A cache of silver coins was discovered during salvage excavations at a 2,100-year-old agricultural estate in Israel. The coins had been placed in a crevice against a wall of the estate. Olive presses and wine presses suggest that the family grew olive trees and vineyards. Ritual baths, vessels made of chalk, and bronze coins minted by Hasmonean kings were also found. (© Assaf Peretz, courtesy of the Israel Antiquities Authority) The Times of Israel   reports that the 16 silver coins include one or two tetradrachms or didrachms minted in the city of Tyre from every year between 135 and 126 B.C. “It seems that some thought went into collecting the coins, and it is possible that the person who buried the cache was a coin collector,” said coin expert Donald Tzvi Ariel of the Israel Antiquities Authority. Excavation director Abraham Tendler thinks that the estate’s Jewish residents may have participated i...