3,000-year-old House Preserved

December 1, 2011

Though it had been excavated 40 years earlier, little was known about it. “We had seen the structure in the old photographs and were sorry that such a rarely preserved finding had disappeared due to neglect. We were not even sure that we would be able to find it again. It was practically a miracle that we managed to locate and uncover it, and that it is still so well preserved,” the archaeologists explained.

It is the best-preserved four-room house that dates back to that period (1020–931 BC). A house with four living spaces was the common design in that era. A personal seal with an inscription was found, but it is not known yet if it is Hebrew or Phoenician, which will tell researchers whether the site was Israelite or Phoenician.

Other findings, such as purple-colored pitcher shards and hundreds of the dye-producing mollusk shells, give evidence of expansive trade. Phoenicians were great traders and famous for the blue/purple dye, believed to be the same used for the Israelite high priest’s robe (Exod. 39) and the blue thread in the tassels of the prayer shawl (Num. 15:38).

If the settlement isn’t Phoenician, then surely the Israelites traded with them or learned the dye trade from them, as we know that both King David and Solomon traded with the king of Tyre in the region of Phoenicia (2 Chron. 2).

Source: By Charleeda Sprinkle, Assistant Editor

Photo Credit: Isranet