The Limited Times

Now you can see non-English news...

A stone with a bas-relief of a nursing lioness was discovered in the Golan Heights - voila! tourism

2023-03-12T09:05:40.875Z


During a study tour by students from the Kinneret Academic College at the Ein Neshut Shagolan site, two students found a large stone with a relief of a lion cub from a lion cub. Details here! tourism


A boundary stone at the excavation site in Nafh (photo: Assaf Peretz, Israel Antiquities Authority)

An unusual discovery while learning: During a study tour of the Ein Neshut ruin in the Golan Heights, two students from the Department of Land of Israel Studies at Kinneret Academic College found a stone relief of a lion cub nursing a lion cub.



About 20 master's degree students on a tour went on a tour within the framework of an academic campus themed "The Jewish Village in the Galilee and the Golan in Antiquity", under the direction of Prof. Moti Aviam, in some of the ancient villages of the Golan.

The day began with a visit to the excavation of another lecturer in the department - Dr. Michael Ezband - in the ancient village of Majdolya. During the visit to the ancient village, under the guidance of the excavator, one of the students, Liel Mimoni, found a coin in an excellent state of preservation of the emperor Gallianus from the third century AD. An important addition to the information from the site .



However, the exciting discovery came later: towards the end of the day, the group arrived at the Ein Neshut site, where the remains of an ancient synagogue were excavated by Dr. Zvi Uri Maoz. Under the guidance of the lecturer, the students dispersed around the site to study its characteristics and after about half an hour gathered again to present their findings One of the students, Tzvia Dahan, told her friends that she and another student - Michael Benish - came across a carved stone that may have depicted a lion. So it was decided together to go back and look for the stone, and indeed - a few minutes later the stone was located once again, which was identified by Prof. Aviam as a fragment of a beautiful relief of a lioness nursing a cub.

The stone fragment found in the Golan, with a relief of a nursing lioness on it (Photo: Prof. Moti Aviam)

The stone was taken to a safe place to protect it (Photo: Prof. Moti Aviam)

Lion statues are known in many synagogues in the Galilee and the Golan

Due to the real fear that the stone (which was found on the slope of the hill) would be stolen from the area - like quite a few archaeological finds, in sites of this type - Prof. Aviam decided to try and move the stone to a safe place, and to notify the Antiquities Authority immediately.

This was indeed done, when one of the sturdy students lifted the heavy basalt stone on his shoulder, and with the help of his friends, brought it to the bus.

Immediately after that, a message was sent to the archaeologist of the Golan region of the Antiquities Authority, Tzviki Badihi, who is also a former student of the department, about the discovery of the relief and its location, and in the meantime, the relief was transferred, with coordination, to temporary custody at the Kinneret College until it is handed over to the state treasures.



The impressive relief is surprising in terms of its state of preservation, but it is not unique: lion statues are known in many synagogues in the Galilee and the Golan, and in the excavation of the synagogue in Ein Neshut itself, Dr. Maoz previously found fragments of eight statues of lions and lionesses, to which the new stone lioness and cub have now been added.



This is how, Prof. Aviam concludes, an academy that actually combines theoretical studies with experience in the field: understanding the historical and archaeological context, experience in surveys and excavations at the various sites, and of course - constant coordination with the state authorities and the law in any situation where this is required.

This is also an opportunity to reiterate that the Antiquities Authority must be reported to the Antiquities Authority on any ancient find discovered during a trip and tour in Israel.

  • tourism

  • news

Tags

  • Archaeology

  • The Golan Heights

  • lioness

Source: walla

All life articles on 2023-03-12

You may like

News/Politics 2024-03-12T12:13:21.230Z

Trends 24h

Life/Entertain 2024-03-28T17:17:20.523Z

Latest

© Communities 2019 - Privacy

The information on this site is from external sources that are not under our control.
The inclusion of any links does not necessarily imply a recommendation or endorse the views expressed within them.