TKI-L EX NASBEH FA'CAVATIONR — BAllK 493 



more than 40 feet away from the ahove-mentioncd tombs I found on 

 the surface a fragment of a ledt^e handle which seemed to answer my 

 question aftirmatively. 



LAST lloru DlSCfJVERIES 



'J\) «rain. if possible, more certainty on (liis ])oin(. I directed an 

 Eirv])ti:ni foreman and two local workmen (o siid< a shaft where (he 

 telltale ledjxe handle frafrment was found, and before lonj; we had 

 other ledce handles and a basketful of Early Bronze Age ware of 

 the kind found in our deepest level on the Tell. The excavation 

 sewn openetl tlie broken-down remains of a typical Early Bronze Ajje 

 cave tomb, and a passage leading away from it into bedrock beyond, 

 may be the approach to one that is still undisturbed. But we were 

 too close to the date agreed ui^on with the department of antiquities 

 for the division of the season's finds to risk the opening of another 

 tomb. Our whole stalf. working at the utmost pressure, could 

 scarcely hope to complete, in the time remaining, the drawing, 

 photographing, and recording of the objects which already covered 

 all our taides and slielvos at headquarters. So I reluctantly gave 

 directions to wall up the underground passage and fdl up the shaft 

 in expectation of a time when we may return to delve still further 

 into the historical secrets of that rocky and weather-beaten hillside. 



The same pressure for time and space compelled us to halt on 

 the brink of interesting revelations in the excavations on the Tell 

 itself. At the farthest edge of the last strip excavated, we opened 

 on the inner edge of the city wall a vaulted ])assage and a long flight 

 of stone steps leading down into — what? Around the entrance 

 were house foundations of the Maccabaean period, and house walls 

 running out upon the city wall during a long time after the last 

 walled city had ceased to exist. Two Hellenistic lamps and a coin 

 found in the descending passage .suggest that the Maccabees were 

 its builders, and certainly the last who used it. "When fully excavated 

 it was found to end in an underground cave or grotto. In the center 

 was the mouth of a rock-hewn cistern carefully covered with flat 

 .stones, a bit of thoughtfulness which .<^hows that those who did it 

 had no expectation of leaving it forever as they walked up the long 

 flight of steps 2.000 years ago. 



A peep into the depths of the cistern showed a small cone of 

 loose debris rising above the washed-in sediment at the bottom. 

 Its connection with the Maccabaean level, and the fact of its being 

 underground, made me eager to excavate the ci.stern. A week might 

 have sufficed to extract and record the secrets of its past. But we 

 had no week to spare. So we had to content ourselves with photo- 

 graphs and drawings of the externals. ITnder my direction the 



