GPR Mapping of buried monumental retaining walls at biblical Kiriath-Yearim near Jerusalem

ABSTRACT

In 2019 a ground-penetrating radar (GPR) investigation was conducted at Kiriath-Yearim near Jerusalem, one of the largest Bronze and Iron Ages mounds in the highlands of the southern Levant. The main objective was to test an archaeological hypothesis regarding the existence of an Iron Age summit compound which was supported by monumental stone retaining walls.

We used a wheeled GPR with simultaneous central frequencies of 200, 400, and 800 MHz. Despite attenuation in the topsoil, scattering by distributed rock fragments, and asphalt pavement, we were able to penetrate almost a meter and detect anomalies.

Some of the GPR anomalies are consistent with the above-mentioned theory, meaning that their locations agree with data retrieved in nearby control trenches and with the plan of the site.

The excavation findings, jointly with the GPR interpretation, indeed imply the existence of a rectangular monumental summit compound that dates to the 8th century BCE.

KEYWORDS:

• GPR
• Jerusalem
• walls
• archaeological feature
• 3D reconstruction
• remote sensing

Acknowledgments

The Shmunis Family Excavations at Kiriath-jearim is a joint project of Tel Aviv University and the Collège de France, funded by Sana and Vlad Shmunis (USA). Israel Finkelstein of Tel Aviv University and Thomas Römer and Christophe Nicolle of the Collège de France direct the project.

We thank HUJI's Neev Center for Geoinfomatics for its equipment and computational facilities. We are especially grateful to Dr. John K. Hall, co-founder of the Center.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

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Notes on contributors

Darvasi Yaniv

Darvasi Yaniva is a Ph.D candidate at the Neev Center for Geoinfomatics at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Specializing in near-surface geophysical methods. Experienced with shallow seismic and ground penetrating radar (GPR). Well-versed in GIS platforms and programming languages.

Agnon Amotz

Agnon Amotz has been teaching geology and geophysics at the Hebrew University for over three decades, since he completed doctoral studies at the University of California, Berkely. Agnon. He had been a visiting professor at Stanford University, GFZ-Potsdam, and Institut de Physique du Globe (Paris). His research topics span the geology and geodynamics of circum Arabia, from the Red Sea and Levant to the Zagros - Persian Gulf, and from these active plate boundaries to the fossil transform and spreading axis in Troodos. He has been an instructor at the Institute of Earth Sciences (IES) of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJ). After founding and directing the first geophysical lab at HUJ (the Paleomagnetic Lab), Agnon initiated and cofounded the Neev Center for Geoinfomatics. Neev Center was founded to promote teaching and research of geology & geophysics at IES. Agnon is an author of numerous scientific peer-reviewed articles, has edited three article-collections, and has been an academic advisor for about thirty graduate theses and post-doc fellowships. He has been selected a Helmholtz International Fellow, in addition to local Israeli prizes.

Finkelstein Israel

Finkelstein Israel is Professor Emeritus of Archaeology at Tel Aviv University and Director of the School of Archaeology at the University of Haifa. He is a member of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities and a foreign member of the French Académie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Finkelstein taught at the University of Chicago and the Sorbonne and spent research years at Harvard and the Hebrew University. Finkelstein conducted many field projects, among them the excavation of the celebrated site of Megiddo. He is the author of 16 books and ca. 400 articles. In 2005 Finkelstein won the Dan David Prize in the Past Dimension. In 2009 he was named Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Minister of Culture. In 2010 Finkelstein received a doctorate Doctorate honoris causa from the University of Lausanne and in 2017 he received the MacAllister Field Archaeology Award of the American Schools of Oriental Research. In 2009-2014 Finkelstein co-directed the European Research Council-funded project titled “Reconstructing Ancient Israel: The Exact and Life Sciences Perspective”. In the years 2008-2014 he edited Tel Aviv, the journal of the Institute of Archaeology of Tel Aviv University, published by Taylor and Francis in the UK.