Jezreel...a notorious place in the Old Testament. The Israelite king Ahab pouted over Naboth's vineyard here and his wife Jezebel saw to it that her husband "inherited" it. Here Jezebel was killed when her own servants threw her out of the palace window. The dogs devoured her body before anyone got around to burying it. In Jezreel, Jehu slaughtered the seventy sons of King Ahab, an act that Hosea the prophet condemns explicitly. Yet it is also a beautiful place. The book of 1 Samuel mentions a fountain/spring which lies at the foot of the Jezreel Valley floor, a lush fertile expanse that extends east to west nearly all the way across Israel. The valley floor is below sea level, but Jezreel sits several hundred meters above the valley floor.
The Jezreel Expedition hopes to begin excavations next May. This week I assisted their staff in a survey of the area to document and plot various features like cisterns/silos, wine presses, olive presses, graves, buildings, etc. We did no excavation but identified many features that show promise for future work. The two pictures here are of a cistern or silo that is about 5 meters deep. These silos all go thru the bedrock and then flare out underneath in the soft limestone. Over 100 of these are on the site in all kinds of conditions dating to 9-10th century B.C. We had to walk carefully! I didn't get to enter any of them.
Jezreel Expedition Website
And for you Alaskans, yes...they have a ski area open year around. You have to see it to believe people ski in 100 degree weather.
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