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Nothing captures the world’s attention like a natural disaster — particularly a cataclysmic volcanic eruption. These can be perceived as primordial and fatalistic, a response to the extraordinary power of volcanism and our powerlessness in controlling such gigantic forces. Human memory records impressive volcanic events such as the 1883 Krakatau eruption in Indonesia and the AD 79 Vesuvius eruption in Italy. By comparison, relatively few have heard of the 1815 eruption of the Tambora volcano on the island of Sumbawa, also in Indonesia. Ten times more powerful than the eruption of Krakatau, it is now recognised as the largest explosive volcanic event in recorded history. It blasted 100 cubic kilometres of gases, rock and ash into the atmosphere and onto the island of Sumbawa and the surrounding Indonesian islands. Much more than this, the eruption changed, at least for a time, world climate. How did such a catacysmic event get by most of us? The answer lies in part with the invention of the telegraph in 1830. When Krakatau erupted in 1883 news spread quickly, and it became the first worldwide news story. In contrast, word of the 1815 Tambora eruption travelled no faster than a sailing ship, limiting its notoriety. 

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Orbital photograph of Tambora volcano with the huge caldera (6 km diameter and 1,100 m deep). Today the crater floor is occupied by an ephemeral freshwater lake, recent sedimentary deposits, and minor lava flows and domes from the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries. (Source: Earth Observatory, NASA).

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Before the eruption, Tambora volcano was around 4,000 meters high, but in 1815 it literally blew its top off and was reduced in size to 2,851 meters (see image left, Tambora volcano’s present flat-top profile), producing a crater 7 kilometers in diameter and 1,100 meters deep. 

A Disaster of Global Proportions

The volcano had never been active before in living memory, so the eruption was completely unexpected. In 1811, Java had fallen under British control, so we have contemporary reports of the eruption written by British resident agents, sea captains and army officers who were scattered along the East Indian Archipelago. These reports, in addition to modern-day volcanological and archaeological study, furnish fascinating insights into the nature and consequences of the eruption.

The great event began with ‘rumblings’ and a minor ash fall on April 5th, 1815. This was followed by a Plinian eruption column reaching heights of 33 kilometers, showering pumice and ash over the Island of Sumbawa, lasting for 2.8 hours. Between April 5th and 10th, the eruption became less intense, but the volcano continued to erupt and disperse small amounts of ash over the surrounding area. But this proved to be the “calm before the storm”. A larger, climactic eruptive phase began at 7 pm on April 10th with a 43 kilometer high Plinian column transporting material to a ‘great height’ and raining down ash and pumice on Sumbawa. This continued until around 10 pm when ‘violent winds’ were reported at Sangaar, a peninsula of Sumbawa, indicating a change in the eruptive style and marking the beginning of pyroclastic flows. These flows (a mixture of hot ash, dust and gas), affected the entire region around Tambora. They travelled down the volcano’s slopes at a rapid pace, destroying and killing everything, leaving deposits up to 20 m thick. (Carbonised tree trunks, rice and charred skeletons later recovered by excavators evidenced the high temperatures within these flows). Once they reached the sea, their impact generated a 4 meter high tsunami, which claimed lives along the northern cost of Sangaar before spreading out to areas of eastern Java.

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An artist’s depiction of people fleeing the 1815 Tambora eruption (Source: Greg Harlin)

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At the time of the eruption, there were an estimated 1800 settlements throughout the island of Sumbawa, all belonging to one of the six petty kingdoms or sultanates existing at the time (Sumbawa, Bima, Dompo, Sangaar, Pekat and Tambora).

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Digital Elevation Model (DEM) map of the Island of Sumbawa marked with the location of the excavation site (red star). The volcano’s location is identifiable by the crater. The six different kingdoms or sultanates are also highlighted (Data: 90m SRTM data)

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The kingdom of Tambora was a small and wealthy sultanate with about 10,000 inhabitants, located in the Sangaar peninsula on the volcano’s western flanks. Settlements were located inland, near rivers and a safe distance from seagoing pirates, with buildings constructed out of wood and bamboo. The people made a living by growing rice, mung beans, maize, and by trading items such as coffee, horses, beeswax, pepper, timber, incense and red dye.

But this all came to an end when the volcano erupted. The consequences were monumentally disastrous. The kingdom, along with a neighboring kingdom known as Pekat to its south, was buried under the ashfall, with no survivors. The unique language that was spoken became extinct, and the rest of Sumbawa was affected by an immediate famine and a lack of clean water. Survivors were reduced to eating dry leaves and selling their children to obtain rice. They were even driven to scavenge from the dead, digging up personal grave goods to use them for barter in an attempt to survive. Reports made by British sea captains describe the remains as ‘horrifying’: corpses were left lying about on roads, rice fields and beaches. There were so many of them that they couldn’t all be buried fast enough, becoming prey for dogs, pigs and birds. Not only humans were affected: 75% of the island’s livestock were also killed, and bird and bee colonies were wiped out by the ash.

Large parts of the Indonesian Archipelago were plunged into darkness for days as a consequence of the vast amounts of ash released by the eruption (See map below). The sounds of the accompanying explosions were audible as far away as Sumatra (2600 km) and in many places mistaken for cannon reports. The neighbouring islands of Bali, Lombok and south Sulawesi were hit badly; ash fall of up to 20-30 cm thick caused the collapse of buildings, trapping and killing those inside. Secondary effects such as famine, plague and epidemics plunged these islands into an abyss of poverty and misery.

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Isopach maps of the ash dispersal (Source: Oppenheimer, 2003: Fig 3b)

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The eruption also had major global effects. It has been connected to the 1816 climactic phenomenon known as the `year without summer’. Fine ash particles and sulphate aerosols were carried high up into the atmosphere by the eruption column, where winds transported them around the globe. This veil of volcanic dust blocked out solar radiation, causing the earth to cool down. In the northern hemisphere, temperatures were abnormally low, causing a cold summer. This led to catastrophic flooding and famine worldwide. Many crops failed to ripen, and poor harvests led to famine, disease and socioeconomic problems. Europe was still recuperating from the Napoleonic Wars and already suffering from food shortages. The effects of the eruption exaggerated these problems further, leading to food riots in Britain and France. In Switzerland, the food crisis was so bad that people resorted to eating moss and cat flesh.

The months and years following the Tambora eruption were remembered in popular writing for the remarkable meteorological and optical phenomena produced by the spreading dust veil. In England, spectacular sunsets and orange, red, purple and pink twilights were observed. It is claimed that some of the paintings of J.M.W Turner, characterised by vivid oranges and red skies, were inspired by these volcanically induced stratospheric optics. It has been estimated that, overall, this eruption caused 11,000 deaths from direct volcanic effects and an additional 49,000 from famine and disease.

The Excavations

Despite the massive destruction caused by eruptions, volcanic disasters have a remarkable way of creating a lasting record of the things they ‘destroy’. This was no less true of the Tambora event. Like Mount Vesuvius and ancient Pompeii, Mount Tambora left a legacy of a people and the physical vestiges of their civilization intact, available for study and view for future generations. The scorching pyroclastic flows which had buried and otherwise dessimated the island kingdom of Tambora had also carbonised everything in their path, effectively ‘freezing’ both organic and inorganic forms in the moments of the disaster.  It is this legacy that is now being excavated by archaeologists.

In 1980, P.T Veneer Products (a commercial logging company), discovered what appeared to be a site of human settlement to the northwest of the village of Pancasila, near the Tambora volcano. According to reports, the finds included pottery fragments (late 18th Century south China Porcelain), other pot sherds and bones. Others found coins, brassware and charred timber in the same region, all buried beneath a thick layer of volcanic deposits.

Finds like this continued to be discovered by locals, and in 2004 Volcanologist Haraldur Sigurdsson (University of Rhode Island) embarked to investigate these reports in this ‘museum gully’ as it had become known, which lay deep in the jungle on the volcano’s western flank. By using Ground Penetrating Radar, Sigurdsson was able to identify a complete house buried under 2-3 metres of pyroclastic flow and surge deposits. Although entirely charred, its form was well preserved, making it possible to distinguish beams and bamboo floors. Artefacts found inside the structure included Chinese porcelain, iron tools and copper bowls. Two victims were also discovered; one complete skeleton was found by the hearth in the kitchen area and the second, which was very badly damaged, identifiable only by the leg and a vertebra, was found on the porch.

Official excavations began in 2006 and continue to the present day. They have revealed a settlement that follows a linear composition, with houses spaced roughly 20 m apart, facing what was presumably a path or road through the site. The houses are built in the same style today, so it is possible to fairly accurately imagine how the kingdom of Tambora would have appeared (See photo below).

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Photograph of a modern-day Sumbawan house. The buildings of the old kingdom of Tambora were constructed using the same techniques and in the same style as today (Photograph: Made Wita)

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In 2008, a house was uncovered containing a male skeleton sitting upright, adorned with a copper tobacco box tied to his waist and a ceremonial spear at his side. He wore rings inlaid with precious stones, a bracelet on his wrist, and a large brass pendulum necklace around his neck. During the 2009 excavation season, another carbonised house was discovered, this time with a body lying just outside under the volcanic debris, with his left arm held up to his head perhaps in a (failed) attempt to protect himself from the falling pumice. In 2011, the remains of half of a house were identified, with a complete piece of the thatch wall remarkably well preserved. Some coarse-ware pottery and a tarsal bone from a goat were also found within the kitchen area.

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One victim who was discovered during the 2009 excavations. His left arm is held up to his head perhaps in a (failed) attempt to protect himself from falling pumice. The carbonised beams of the house are also shown (Photograph: Rik Stoetman)

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The 2011 excavation trench (Photograph: Emma Johnston)

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Excavating carbonised building beams (Photograph: Made Wita)

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Based on the artefacts found, particularly the many bronze objects and jewels, evidence suggests the site was once inhabited by the wealthy or an elite who had grown prosperous through trade. Historical evidence supports this theory, as Tamborans historically were known in the East Indies for their honey, horses, red dye and sandalwood. The design and decoration of the artefacts suggest that the Tamboran culture was linked to Vietnam and Cambodia.

The excavations thus far have only scratched the surface. The rich finds suggest that there is much more waiting to be discovered at the site, now deservedly called ‘the Pompeii of the east’ (See table of finds, left). The excavations will continue in 2012 under the direction of Dr M. Geria of the Bali Institute for Archaeology.

Volcanic Deposits and Implications for Tambora

By examining the stratigraphy of the eruption deposits alongside the archaeological evidence, it is possible to identify the fateful events that took place at this site in April 1815 and brought an end to a thriving kingdom in the most horrific and deadly of circumstances.

The Tambora eruption deposits cover a greater spatial area compared to that of other Plinian eruptions. Nonetheless, the deposits are substantially thinner than has been noted for other, less explosive eruptions despite the proximity of the settlement to the volcano (at Tambora the pumice fall is 14-24 cm thick vs. Pompeii where the pumice reaches thicknesses of 280 cm). It is likely that this influenced the people of Tambora to stay rather than flee the site as was done during the AD 79 Vesuvius eruption. For the inhabitants, this light but persistent ash and pumice fall would have been confusing, but probably no more than a nuisance, hindering the chores of everyday life (See figure below, the eruption deposit stratigraphy recorded at the excavation location during the 2011 season. Photograph: Emma Johnston). 

However, they would not have been aware of the impending danger, and as night fell on April 10th, the intensity of the eruption would increase and larger pieces of pumice would begin to rain down more swiftly on the kingdom.

We know from the excavations and deposit stratigraphy that the houses were mostly inhabited when the accumulating pumice fall led to the collapse of the houses, trapping and killing those inside. The evidence uncovered so far indicates this was the fate of all victims identified so far.

However, some houses may have remained standing, their occupants seeking refuge inside. As night advanced, any survivors who sat in the darkness would have been unaware of what was coming next. The eruption’s intensity became too great to be sustained any longer: the eruption column collapsed and the pyroclastic flows swept down the sides of the volcano, destroying and burying anything in their path, including the kingdom of Tambora.

The kingdom of Tambora is particularly intriguing because very little is known about its residents, their language and their everyday lives. The remoteness of the site has kept it secret until recently. Now, with archaeological and volcanological research, a picture is beginning to emerge of the lives of the people who lived here and how they so quickly and dramatically came to an end one fateful night in April 1815.

For detailed information about the area and further inquiries, readers are directed to: http://visittambora.wordpress.com.

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The table above left summarizes the main finds found to date in the Tambora excavations (Information courtesy of Made Geria)

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Bill Tarant was not an archaeologist. When in the spring of 2008 he received a call from Felix Golubev, the producer of the James Cameron/Simcha Jacabovici documentary “The Lost Tomb of Jesus”, he knew it wasn’t a call for his archaeological insights.  It was about plans to make a second documentary, this time about another tomb located just a short distance from the now famous and somewhat controversial Talpiot Tomb, the subject of the “Lost Tomb of Jesus” documentary. This other tomb, known as the ‘Talpiot B’ Tomb, or more popularly as the ‘Patio Tomb’ because of its location securely beneath the patio of an apartment complex in the Talpiot neighborhood of southern Jerusalem, was already very familiar to Bill. In 2005, he, as a representatvie of GE Inspection Technologies (a company that sells remote visual cameras) was a member of the technical team instrumental in providing the camera resources and expertise to explore the tomb using a 7.5 meter long industrial Videoprobe and a Cazoom PTZ (Pan Tilt Zoom) camera.  Directed through a “soul pipe”, or long tubular opening reaching 25 feet down into the tomb beneath the patio surface, he and his colleagues, including Felix Golubev, investigating scholar James Tabor of the University of North Carolina, Charlotte, and filmmaker Simcha Jacabovici, were able to view and visually record the contents of the tomb without disturbing its sacred contents. The camera revealed burial niches and seven ossuaries (stone boxes containing the bones of the deceased), typical of many burials associated with the well-to-do Jewish inhabitants of 1st Century Jerusalem. Now, Felix was asking him to go back with the crew for a second probe.

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The first image of the ‘Patio Tomb’ taken during the 2005 exploration, showing an ossuary resting within a stone-cut niche. This tomb was unearthed and mapped briefly by archaeologists in 1981, then sealed off after protests. 

The “Patio Tomb” could be accessed only through a “soul pipe”, which led the remote camera system 25 feet below the apartment complex patio (built in modern times over the tomb location) to the tomb. 

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Above and below: Views of separate ossuaries within their niches inside the tomb as viewed during the 2005 exploration. 

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Bill had questions about the necessity of this second trip. “We filmed it for 2 days, dropping the camera through the soul pipe and saw nothing of great interest,” he said to Felix. In 2005, these ossuaries appeared to be unremarkable. They were only seven among many hundreds of similar bone boxes commonly found throughout the Jerusalem area over the years.

But now producer Felix and the other members of the research team wanted to get a much closer look at the ossuaries……close enough to detect and read any possible inscriptions on their sides, anything that would tell them more about who’s bones may occupy the boxes and with what family or group the tomb may be associated.

This got Bill’s attention. But this new expedition posed some unique challenges, requiring innovative thinking and bringing to bear the full professional capabilities of the technical team put together to help explore the tomb. In his own words, he explains how they did it……….

We met for lunch and Felix explained that they wanted to use a camera to get closer to the ossuaries and search for inscriptions to see if they could determine who was buried inside. From the video shot in 2005, we knew a PTZ would not work. It would not fit into the gaps between the ossuaries and the walls. We considered using a Rover Crawler with a zoom camera, but there was too much rubble on the floor of the tomb and the gaps between the ossuaries and the walls of the niches were too small, even if we cold drive it up to the ossuaries. We needed to use a smaller Videoprobe, but had to find a method to transport it 3 meters across the tomb. The probe we used to explore the tomb before was flexible along its entire length, causing it to droop, like a wet noodle. We needed a stiff extension for the Videoprobe arrangement.

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The narrow gaps between the ossuaries and the walls of the niches presented a major problem for a camera probe. 

In the past, for industrial applications, I used carbon fiber poles, painters poles, and metal tubes, but these were hand-held and never 3 meters long. For this application, whatever transported the probe would be required to first go down several meters, then be raised up to be parallel to the floor and then extend 3+ meters. Clearly we needed a custom solution.

Manufacturers and operators of high value assets can afford to contract with engineering companies to design and build highly automated and sophisticated tools, justifying the cost vs. savings. In our case there were no savings. The cost was to come out of the film shooting budget. This was not the Titanic or Mission Impossible. This was a project based on a hunch that there was something interesting inside the Patio Tomb.

Through a referral from a friend, Felix met Walter Klassen, an expert in two disciplines related to major motion pictures and TV. He is a special effects prop creator and a manufacturer of steady-cam equipment. His experience in remotely moving objects and expertise in cameras created a perfect match. His devotion to the movie business and love of a good challenge brought him on board. He would work within the limited budget to create a robotic arm that was crucial to the success of this venture.

Felix and I met with Walter at his studio in downtown Toronto. Felix brought out the tomb map, the building drawing and pictures of the patio and frame grabs from inside the tomb.  We discussed several key questions before coming up with a specification for the arm.

How were we going to get into the tomb?

Through the Soul Pipe

The Soul Pipe is 6” in diameter and 25 feet long, running inside a cement pylon and opening up near the roof of the tomb through a 90 degree elbow.

Walter stated that the 6” opening and 25-foot drop down to the tomb was feasible, but the elbow at the end of the soul pipe was problematic, for two reasons. The extension arm would have to be made of a material that could bend to negotiate the elbow, yet become rigid to support the cameras at the end. Secondly, the arm needed to rotate to cover the tomb, and the elbow would prevent any left/right movement.

There was another possible solution………

Drill a [new] core hole from the patio straight into the tomb.

From Walters perspective, this was possible, eliminating the incompatibility of the previous arrangement.  His concerns now were the extra weight of the extension poles required and the longer lengths of the necessary control cables.

From my perspective, using a larger PTZ camera would not be a problem as all of its functions were electrical. The pan, tilt, zoom, lights and focus were controlled through the single cable and that cable could be 600 feet long. However, the Videoprobe was a concern because of the length required to do the job. The 25 feet from the patio down to the tomb and the 15 feet needed in the tomb required a 40 foot probe. Though GE makes probes in lengths up to 100 feet, for this application I wanted to keep the length down to 25 feet. I needed as much light as possible to capture better images. Light travelling through glass fibers will attenuate, and the longer the probe, the less light. The color also changes — the longer the probe, the greener the light. I also wanted as much articulation as possible. The ability to move the camera head as much as 150 degrees (we actually went 180 degrees) would be needed to get into the tight places.

From Felix’s perspective, he had to find another way into the tomb. Even if he could drill the 25 feet, the cost would be high, and it would generate a lot of noise and vibration that would disturb the neighbors.

The next critical questions were:  How far did the arm have to reach? How high was the ceiling from the floor and how big will the access hole be?

The rough sketch of the tomb done in 1981 (when it was unearthed and mapped briefly by archaeologists in 1981, then sealed off after protests) showed it to be about 3 meters by 3 meters square. The 9 burial niches that were on the north, east and west side appeared to be just under 2 meters deep. It was agreed that if these measurements were close, the arm needed to extend to 3 meters. The insertion of the videoprobe into the niches would thus be accomplished by using a combination of a rigid tube, semi rigid tube and the probe itself.

Based on previous caves found and images taken from the video, the best guestimate was 1 meter high.

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So it was agreed that the robotic arm would compact into a meter bend at the ceiling level and clear the floor when it was raised to a horizontal level. It would then extend as needed to a maximum of 3 meters. It would also be able to rotate 360 degrees with a 4-pound PTZ camera, cable and a 25-foot videoprobe at its distal end.

Walter had what he needed to get started. Felix was on his way back to Israel to find a better place to drill that was closer to the tomb. Using the soul pipe and support pylon as a reference, Felix, working with local civil engineers, overlaid the tomb map with the original drawings of the building.  They determined that only two locations would work. One was east of the pylon and one west of the pylon. The east spot was located inside a tenant’s storage locker, the west in the hallway outside the locker. The tenant did not want to cooperate, which left the hallway as the only spot to drill.

Felix hired a Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) expert to survey the corridor to try to validate his best guess as to where to drill. The GPR indicated a void could be present at the end of the hall. Next, he contacted a local concrete drilling company to quote on drilling a 20 cm wide, two-meter deep hole. They determined a one meter long diamond tipped core bit was required to complete the job.

Measuring the Size of the Tomb

Before bringing Walter and the arm to Israel, the size of the tomb had to be confirmed. If the size of the tomb was even a half meter larger than the drawing, the arm would not reach. Modifying the arm in Israel was not an option. We had to measure the tomb from our entry point at the end of the hall.

Walter built a simple arm that we could lower into the tomb and raise the boom with the camera on the end. We rented a Cinetape ultrasonic range finder to attach to the PTZ camera. In June of 2010 I made the first of 3 trips to Israel. This trip had three objectives; get into the tomb, measure the tomb and find out if there was anything else we would need for the main shoot.

Drilling the first hole went well. The core bit slowly chewed through the limestone and reached 2 meters where Felix expected to break through into the tomb. The drillers continued. At 2.2 meters, no tomb. At 2.4 meters, no tomb. A decision was made to drill a second hole on an angle towards the tomb. At 2.4 meters, we were still drilling rock. All eyes were on Felix, wondering if he totally miscalculated and we were drilling in the wrong spot. We packed it in for the day.

After a tense meeting over dinner, we decided to drill a little bit deeper into the first hole. Even if we broke through in the wrong place, the camera would show us where we were on the map. At 8 a.m. the next morning we set up and the drillers began. At 2.5 meters the bit cut into the tomb. We were inside and Felix was right. He went from zero to hero as a result of 10 cm of limestone.

The measurement went according to plan and we confirmed that the size matched the drawing. As for the third objective, to determine what else was needed, we had some thoughts. From our new perspective, we got a better look at where the ossuaries were placed. Some were so close to the walls or to each other that I was concerned about getting the videoprobe, not closer, but further away in order to capture a wider view. I was also concerned about articulating the camera, should there not be enough room. When back in Toronto Felix, Walter and I planned to discuss some options.

We visited Walter soon after our return. The arm was 90% complete. Using the human arm as a reference to describe the robotic one, there were three sections. From the elbow to the shoulder were the metal poles at the top end of the arm. The elbow section articulated from 0 to 110 degrees. The ulna/radius from the elbow had four sections: The inner three would retract and extend into the outer section, fixed at the elbow. Two of the sliding parts were moved with a series of pulleys, controlled by a winch at the top. The third section was motor driven. This third section, in addition to moving in and out, could also move left and right. Finally, at the wrist there was an air cylinder that could move the camera from 0 to 90 degrees. The main reason for this was to allow Walter to increase the length of the arm and still clear the one meter ceiling to floor distance. (See photo illustration below of the entire apparatus)

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The insertion sequence would go like this:

1               The arm fully retracted and the camera head at 0 degrees.

2               The total arm carried into the hallway, then inserted into the hole.

3               Walter to connect the seat, winches and air control panel.

4               From the second hole we insert another PTZ camera to watch the arm.

5               The arm is lowered until the camera clears the ceiling.

6               The camera is raised to 90 degrees as the arm is lowered to the elbow.

7               Once the elbow is clear, the arm is raised with the up-down winch.

8               The camera is then lowered to 0 degrees so as not to hit the ceiling.

9               The arm is raised to 90 degrees and the in-out winch extends the two sections.

10             The motor is activated and extends the last section.

Once inside the tomb, the boom could be rotated left and right by moving the poles that made up the humerus (upper arm). The ulna/radius could extend and contract, the section connected to the wrist could move left and right and the camera could tilt up and down from 0 to 90 degrees.

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View of arm articulated camera up inside the tomb. Image taken from HD monitor.

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The arm aparatus set up at the end of the hall.

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In addition to the range of motion of the robotic arm, the PTZ camera (pictured below) could rotate  + / – 177 degrees and tilt + / – 140 and optically zoom in 10 to 1 (see drawing). The XLG3 Videoprobe which ran from the surface to the end of the arm through a semi flexible tube also had full range of motion, extending out from the tube and being able to articulate in all directions. The G3 also had interchangeable lenses allowing for wide angle and close up views. 

More Challenges

We discussed a major concern I had about the lack of space between the wall and the ossuaries. Because we could not change to a smaller Videoprobe, we were left with one possible solution…….move the ossuaries. Unfortunately, the agreement the producers made with the relevant parties was that we could not touch or move anything. This became a moot point. However, there was a challenge on the table and Walter and I thought of ways to do it, if we could.

The arm would not have enough torque to move the ossuary, nor could it retract with enough force to pull the ossuary if we managed to get a grappling hook into it.  I proposed that we attach a large fish hook to a small steel cable that ran to the surface and pull on it. But Walter responded with a much more practical method. He proposed an air bladder that would attach to a small pneumatic piston. The flat bladder would be positioned between the wall and the ossuary and then inflated. The more air, the more it would move.

We thus had a solution and it would not cost more than a few dollars for the bladder, cylinder and an airline. Walter built it into the arm on the off chance that, if we needed it, we could ask permission to use it. If they said no, we were no worse off.

We did not get to use it. In some way, the Haredim (orthodox Jews) who were monitoring the investigation knew about it before we arrived.  This would not have been included in this narrative, except that it solved a different problem we had on the first day of the shoot.

Recall that we measured the tomb from the first drilled hole. From that vantage point, we could see most of the tomb, but the support pylon prevented us from seeing into the first niche on the east side of the tomb. When we went to look at niche 1 from the third hole we could not reach the ossuary with the Videoprobe. We were almost a meter short. The producers were very disappointed. All that measuring and extra expense, and we were still short. The problem was that the ossuary was set over a meter deep into the niche. Had it been where the map showed it, we would have been in a better position.

The producers called Walter and I aside, but still let the camera roll the tape and then later let us know how they felt. We asked for some time to come up with a way to extend the reach.

After thinking it through, we decided to use the space used by the bladder at the end of the piston and added a rigid plastic pipe to where the bladder was to have been. Coupled with the length of the piston, we added about .8 of a meter. That was enough to reach where we had to get in niche #1. This kluged solution actually gave us much more reach and control than we had before it was added.

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We spent a week in September of 2010 investigating every niche and ossuary and documented it all on tape. We discovered two significant and now very controversial ossuaries (which included the news-making “Jonah” ossuary). They were the last two we shot in niche 3. Both were difficult to reach and capture with the Videoprobe, as the distance between objects was small. What we saw could not have been discovered by a PTZ. Only by manipulating the camera into the spaces and taking shots at all possible angles were we able to see the Greek inscription clearly enough to read most if it without post enhancements (that is, not enhancing the images after the shot, but adjusting exposure, contrast etc.)

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Above and below: Views of the inscribed images discovered on the “Jonah Ossuary”, made possible through the robotic arm camera system devised by the team engineers.

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The Broadcasters were happy with what we shot, but complained that much of the story was shot inside the tomb, which was done in standard definition. They asked if it were possible to reshoot the tomb in HD. Felix asked me if there was anything I could do to make it happen.

Rising to the challenge, I called Kevin Bush, the engineer in charge of the PTZ product line. In his laid back central New York State manner, he said it was possible. That was all I needed to hear. I told Felix we could do it, but he would have to pay for Kevin to join us in Israel. My logic was twofold. One, it was a great incentive for Kevin to skunkwork the project and get it built, and two, if something happened to the camera while in Israel, he would be in a position to fix it. Felix agreed, Kevin agreed and another problem was solved.

One last technology item before this saga ends. Rami Arav, one of the archaeologists working on this project, asked for a way to measure the tomb, as this is a common practice on all archaeological digs.

The solution was simple. The PTZ had an optional laser measurement feature. A pair of red lasers with a 2” distance between them was used as a reference measurement on a captured, still image. We calibrated the screen by placing cursers on the laser dots and assigning the distance between them as 2”, as that distance is constant regardless of how far away the camera is. We could then place new cursers anywhere on the image and the computer would calculate the actual distance.

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Taking the laser measurements

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In conclusion, I feel fortunate that the success of the robotic arm and remote cameras was showcased in a documentary. But most importantly, this experience taught me that anything can be done if you get the right people on your team and believe in what you are doing. Fortunately, I did not have to interpret or justify the significance of the discoveries. My job was to help discover.

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*What is the controversy surrounding the Patio Tomb? Among other things, the cameras captured inscriptions and images that, according to the principal investigators, suggested possible examples of the earliest Christian art or symbolism, depicting the concept of a resurrection, a core belief of Christianity. Although the interpretation of the finds is steeped in dispute among scholars, the art could predate by at least 200 years the earliest Christian symbols now known to exist in the catacombs of Rome. See “The Resurrection Tomb” in this issue for more about the exploration and finds of the Patio Tomb.

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All photos credit William Tarant, GE Inspection Technologies and Associated Producers, Ltd.

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The material culture of humanity litters our world.  The residues and trash of past civilizations fill up museums, and have provided the fodder for countless dissertations.  From an evolutionary perspective, much of the variation in human cultural practices is “noise;” it does not provide a significant adaptive advantage or disadvantage to the population in question.  But the capacity for culture, and the use of culturally derived technologies, behavioral practices, and social institutions to adapt to varying environmental circumstances has been a critical part of humanity’s success. 

Whereas other primates (e.g., the living great apes, and some populations of capuchin monkeys) may exhibit culture, and produce technologies that assist in foraging, humans are unique in being dependent on cultural practices for survival.  But how far back in time does this dependency on culture go?  The oldest evidence for material culture in the human family tree extends back to nearly 2.6 million years ago (Ma) in Africa.  Stone tools found at sites dated roughly between 2.6 and 1.6 million years ago are attributed to the Oldowan Industrial Complex, named after the type site of Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania (Plummer, 2004).  Oldowan archaeological sites are restricted to East Africa between 2.6 to 2.0 Ma, and thereafter are found in North and South Africa.  In the Oldowan, large pebbles, cobbles, or angular blocks of stone (cores) were struck with another rock (a hammerstone) to detach flakes that had sharp edges and could be used for a variety of cutting tasks (Fig. 1).  Large mammal butchery was one demonstrable use of the artifacts, as cut marked bones are coeval with the oldest stone tools, but they may have been used to work wood and process plant foods as well. 

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Figure 1.  Oldowan artifacts from Kanjera South made from red felsite.  A.  Hammerstone.  B.  Core showing flake release surfaces.  C.  Flake.  Photo credits:  Jim Oliver and Tom Plummer  

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One of the primary goals of my research is to investigate the adaptive significance of Oldowan tools.  Were stone tools a critical part of the foraging ecology of early humans, or were they only used incidentally, or seasonally, more akin to chimpanzee tool use?  It is likely that more than one species of early human used Oldowan tools, including two members of the human genus Homo, named Homo habilis (ca. 2.4 – 1.4 Ma) and Homo erectus (ca. 1.9 – 0.2 Ma).  Understanding how Oldowan stone tools were manufactured, transported, used, and discarded across the landscape will tell us something fundamental about the behavior and cognitive sophistication of the oldest stone tool makers, and the importance of tool use and manufacture to their lives.  Although not abundant, there are a growing number of Oldowan sites from Africa.  Here I will be describing on-going research from sites in roughly the middle of the timespan for the Oldowan, from the Homa Peninsula, southwestern Kenya.

The Oldowan Site of Kanjera South, Kenya

Since 1995 I have been co-directing research on the Homa Peninsula in southwestern Kenya with Dr. Richard Potts of the Human Origins Program of the Smithsonian Institution, working with an interdisciplinary team of paleontologists, archeologists, and geologists investigating the late Pliocene and Pleistocene deposits exposed there (Behrensmeyer et al., 1995; Bishop et al., 2006; Braun et al., 2008, 2009a,b; Ditchfield et al., 1999; Ferraro, 2007; Ferraro et al., ms; Plummer et al., 1999, 2009a,b).  The Homa Peninsula juts into the Winam Gulf of Lake Victoria.  Centrally located on the peninsula, the peaks of the Homa Mountain carbonatite complex are ringed by sediments deposited by streams and lakes as well as alluvial fans off the flanks of the mountain.  Fossil-bearing sediments extend back in time to at least 6 Ma, with the oldest well-dated archaeological occurrence being found at Kanjera South (Fig. 2). 

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Figure 2.  Location of Kanjera South on the Homa Peninsula, Winam Gulf, southwestern Kenya.

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Based on magnetostratigraphy and biostratigraphy, the archaeological sites at Kanjera South are approximately 2 million years old.  Excavation through silts and fine sands from an ephemerally flowing system of small, shallow channels in the margins of an ancient lake has recovered multiple levels of stone artifacts and associated fauna through three beds (from oldest to youngest KS-1 through KS-3) spanning several meters of sediment (Fig. 3) (Plummer et al., 1999). 

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Figure 3.  A.  Excavation 1.  B.  Artifacts and fossils being recovered during excavation.  C.  Composite stratigraphic log shows the basal three beds of the Southern Member of the Kanjera Formation (KS-1 to KS-3) and the base of KS-4.  Spatially associated artifacts and fossils are found as diffuse scatters and also in more vertically discrete concentrations from the top of KS-1 through KS-3, with KS-2 providing the bulk of the archaeological sample.  Photo credit:  Tom Plummer

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Except for several discontinuous conglomerate units, hominin activity was the primary agent of accumulation of the Kanjera archaeological materials (Plummer et al., 1999; Ferraro, 2007).  The 169 m² Excavation 1 is the largest excavation to date, and has yielded approximately 3700 fossils and 2900 artifacts with 3D (N, E, and Z) coordinates from a one meter thick sequence, exclusive of materials from spit bags and sieving.  This represents one of the largest collections of Oldowan artifacts and fauna found thus far.

The Environmental Setting of Hominin Activities

The habitats that were available to hominins, and whether they preferred a specific habitat or utilized a range of habitats, are important to document to understand their adaptation.  Over larger timescales and geographic regions, patterns of environmental change can be related to patterns of hominin (living humans and related fossil species) evolution to investigate whether environmental change triggered evolutionary change (DeMenocal, 1995).  It seems likely, for example, that the spread of grassy environments played an important role in transformations in the human evolutionary tree through time.  Early in our excavation it became apparent that the faunal signal from Kanjera South was more “open” than is typically associated with early archaeological sites.  Antelopes whose living relatives are found in open settings today dominate the bovid sample, and fossil zebras are also common.  This fauna indicates that grassy habitats were well represented within the regional plant paleocommunity.  On a more local scale, analysis of the chemistry of soil carbonate nodules associated with the archeological horizons provides information about the vegetation cover (proportion of grasses using the C₄ photosynthetic pathway versus plants such as bushes, shrubs, or trees using the C₃ photosynthetic pathway) at the time that hominins were making, using and discarding stone tools at the site.  The Kanjera soil carbonates have  δ¹³C values indicative of a very grassy setting (> 75% grass) within the range of open habitats such as wooded grasslands to open grasslands today.  Stable carbon isotope analysis of enamel indicates that these taxa uniformly had a large amount of grass in their diets, reflecting the dominance of grass in the vegetation community (Fig. 4). 

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Figure 4.  Stable carbon isotopic composition of fossil mammal tooth enamel from KS-2 in Excavation 1.  The KS-2 fauna is supplemented by several taxa unique to KS-1 or KS-3, or found on the surface of the KS-1 to KS-3 sequence, to provide a more complete sense of the diet of the mammalian community during the deposition of the archeological levels.  The shading reflects the relative importance of C₃ browse versus C₄ grass in the diet, with δ¹³C values greater than -1 reflecting a diet with more than 75% C₄ vegetation.  A probable ostrich (cf. Struthio) eggshell fragment was also analyzed.  Modified after Plummer et al. (2009), Figure 3.

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This is true even for taxa that normally have a C₃-rich (fruit or browse) diet (e.g., tragelaphine antelopes and the monkey Cercopithecus sp.).  One of the two teeth from Deinotherium, an elephant-like creature that normally exclusively browsed, has the most positive δ¹³C value ever documented for this taxon indicating that it at least occasionally consumed C₄ plants.  The strong C₄ signal occurs across the spectrum of animals found at Kanjera South, including non-dispersing taxa such as monkeys, rhinos, tragelaphine bovids, and suids.  This confirms that the grassland dietary signal is not simply the result of dry season domination of the residential mammalian community by migratory grazers congregating near a permanent water source.

The ca. 2.0 Ma sediments at Kanjera South thus provide some of the best early evidence for a grassland dominated ecosystem during the time period of human evolution, and the first clear documentation of human ancestors forming archaeological sites in such a setting.  The presence of artifacts and archeological fauna both low and high in the KS-2 sequence and in the underlying KS-1 and overlying KS-3 indicates that hominins repeatedly visited this grass-rich area on the landscape for hundreds or even thousands of years.  This is significant for several reasons.  The open setting contrasts with the more wooded settings associated with other Oldowan sites.  This suggests that by 2 Ma, the hominins forming the Oldowan sites were utilizing a broad spectrum of habitats during their foraging.  Activities in open settings may have correlated with hominin utilization of plant or animal resources that were specific to those habitats.  Moreover, the formation of sites in an open setting provides one line of evidence that hominins, in at least some paleoecosystems, were able to compete effectively with large carnivores.  This is an important finding, as there is clear evidence that Oldowan hominins were consuming animal carcasses, and this dietary shift would have increased the frequency in which hominins and carnivores came into contact, perhaps in competition for the same carcass.

The Importance of Lithic Technology

We are very fortunate that the Homa Peninsula and its immediate environs has a geologically complex history, so that a diverse array of rocks are exposed in outcrops or as cobbles in conglomerates (Braun et al., 2008; 2009a, b).  This raw material diversity is reflected in the artifact assemblages at Kanjera South, which were made using a greater variety of raw materials than typically found at most other Oldowan sites (Fig. 5) (Plummer, 2004). 

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Figure 5.  Artifacts made from a representative sample of raw materials from Kanjera.  Photo credit:  Tom Plummer

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Extensive raw material surveys both on and off the Homa Peninsula combined with petrological and geochemical characterization of samples collected from primary outcrops and ancient stream and river conglomerates have been used to build a lithological data base for sourcing most of the rocks used in artifact manufacture.  We thus have a good idea of how far the artifacts were transported away from their sources prior to their discard at Kanjera South (Braun et al., 2008).  Moreover, these rocks vary in physical properties (e.g., hardness) that can be quantified, with the harder, and often more easily flaked raw materials being found in conglomerates off the Homa Peninsula, outside of the drainage system of Homa Mountain (Fig. 6).

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Figure 6.  The placement of Kanjera within the zone of the radial drainage system of the Homa Mountain carbonatite complex.  Non-local “high quality” raw materials are found in conglomerates at least 10-13 km away from Kanjera.  Image provided by David Braun.

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Hardness is an important variable, as experiments have shown that a flake of a hard raw material, like the quartzite found off of the Homa Peninsula 10 or more km away from the site, will maintain a sharp edge much longer than a flake of a soft raw material, such as limestone, that outcrops locally.  The geographic distribution of raw materials varying in their physical attributes provides an opportunity to assess aspects of hominin decision making in the selection, transport, and flaking of stone.  If stone tool manufacture was not a critical component of the foraging behavior of the hominins at Kanjera, there would be little pressure to transport stone, and one would expect the artifact assemblage to be overwhelmingly dominated by locally available raw materials from the conglomerates in the radial drainage system off of Homa Mountain.  What we found is that approximately 30% of the artifacts recovered from Kanjera were made from rocks that were transported to the site from conglomerates at least 10-13 km away (Braun et al., 2008).  Moreover, these nonlocal raw materials were more extensively flaked, and flaked more efficiently (generating more cutting edge per unit volume) than the local raw materials found on the peninsula (Braun et al., 2009a, b).  Flakes of some of the nonlocal, hard raw materials are occasionally retouched (the removal of tiny flakes from an artifact’s edge to resharpen it).  Retouching is uncommon in the Oldowan, and at Kanjera it was only carried out with the hard, non-local raw materials.  This again reflects the attention hominins paid to raw materials best suited for tool use.  The finding that there are not nearly enough cores to account for all of the flakes at the site further hints that the artifact sample at Kanjera was part of a larger transport system.  It appears that cores were being carried by hominins, for use to dispense flakes as needed for various cutting tasks.

The fact that hominins were investing energy in the transport of hard raw materials, and more efficiently reducing them, suggests that artifact manufacture was of great importance in their day-to-day lives.  But what was it that they were doing with these artifacts?  One certain use was animal butchery.  Hominins were predominantly acquiring small antelopes the size of Grants Gazelles or a bit larger (Ferraro et al., ms).  The representation of the different bones of the skeleton indicates that complete carcasses of these animals were brought to the site.  Analyses of dental eruption and long bone fusion indicate that many of these antelopes were immature when they died.  Damage to the fossils indicates that hominins were using stone tools to slice meat off of bones, and to break bones open for their fatty marrow.  Carnivore toothmarks are also found on bones, showing that they too were interested in the carcasses at the site.  But the carnivore damage largely follows the hominin damage, and appears to represent scavenging of the leftovers of the hominin meals. 

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Figure 7.  A shaft fragment from an ungulate leg bone showing a single, deep stone tool cutmark and carnivore toothmarks.  One toothmark overlays the cutmark, indicating that the hominins had stripped meat off the bone prior to carnivore gnawing.  Photo credit:  Tom Plummer.

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The overall pattern of hominin access to the complete carcasses of small antelopes may be the signal of hominin hunting.  If so, this would be the oldest evidence of hunting to date in the archaeological record.  There are bones from larger antelopes and other ungulates as well, but their skeletons are not as complete, and it is unclear whether the hominins were having access to fleshy carcasses of these animals, or whether larger bovids were sometimes acquired by scavenging carnivore kills.

Artifact use-wear analysis provides another avenue for assessing the range of activities carried out by ancient hominins.  We categorized the traces produced by working different materials (e.g., soft and hard wood, grass, wild tubers, animal skin and flesh) using an experimental collection of artifacts made using the same raw materials as those used by the Kanjera hominins.  This use-wear reference collection was then available for diagnosing what hominins were cutting and scraping based on the use-wear of the tools found at the archaeological site.  Thus far, the use-wear on the quartz and quartzite subsample of Kanjera artifacts confirms that animal butchery was conducted on-site, but also demonstrates the processing of a variety of plant tissues, including wood (for making wooden tools?) and tubers (Gibbons, 2009; Lemorini et al., 2009).  This is significant, because the processing of plant materials appears to have been quite important, but would otherwise have been archaeologically invisible.

Summary and Future Research

Research at Kanjera has informed us a great deal about the habitat use and behaviors of Oldowan hominins, and about the importance of stone technology to the lives of our ancestors living 2 million years ago.  Hominins were foraging in a variety of habitats, from grasslands to woodlands, and processing plant and animal foods with stone tools.  Tool use seems to have been adaptively significant, as hominins preferentially utilized and transported stones that were hard, and produced flakes that held a sharp edge for a long time.  Hominins consumed foods including animal carcasses and tubers that would have required stone tool use to acquire and/or process, were of high nutritional value, and came in packets large enough to be shared.

There is a great deal of more research to be carried out on the Homa Peninsula.  In addition to further research at Kanjera, the next round of excavations will include several new Oldowan sites to the west and south of the Homa Mountain carbonatite complex.  These sites will allow us to investigate how Oldowan hominin behavior and technology varied across different habitats, and with differential access to high quality raw material.

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Literature Cited

Behrensmeyer, A.K., Potts, R., Plummer, T. W., Tauxe, L., Opdyke, N. & T. Jorstad (1995).  The Pleistocene locality of Kanjera, Western Kenya: stratigraphy, chronology and paleoenvironments.  Journal of Human Evolution  29:247-274.

Bishop, L., Plummer, T. W., Ferraro, J., Ditchfield, P., Braun, D., Hertel, F., Hicks, J. & R. B. Potts (2006).  Recent research into Oldowan hominin activities at Kanjera South, Western Kenya.  African Archaeological Review 26: 31-40.

Braun, D., Plummer, T. W., Ditchfield, P., Ferraro, J. V., Maina, D., Bishop, L. C., Potts, R. (2008) Oldowan Behavior and Raw Material Transport: Perspectives from the Kanjera Formation. Journal of Archaeological Science 35: 2329–2345.

Braun, D., Plummer, T. W., Ditchfield, P., Bishop, L. & J. Ferraro (2009a).  Oldowan technology and raw material variability at Kanjera South, Kenya.  In Hovers, E. & D. Braun (eds) Interdisciplinary Approaches to Understanding the Oldowan, Springer, Dordrecht, pp. 99-110.

deMenocal, P.B.  (1995).  Plio-Pleistocene African climate. Science 270: 53-59.

Braun, D., Plummer, T. W., Ferraro, J., Ditchfield, P. & L. Bishop (2009b).  Raw material quality and Oldowan hominin toolstone preferences: Evidence from Kanjera South.  Journal of Archaeological Science 36: 1605–1614

Ditchfield, P., Hicks, J., Plummer, T. W., Bishop, L. & R. Potts (1999).  Current research on the Plio-Pleistocene deposits north of Homa Mountain, Southwestern Kenya.  Journal of Human Evolution 36:123-150.

Ferraro JV (2007) Broken bones and shattered stones: on the foraging ecology of Oldowan hominins. PhD dissertation. University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California.

Ferraro, J.V., Plummer, T.W., Pobiner, B.L.,  Oliver, J.S., Bishop, L.C., Braun, D.R., Ditchfield, P.W., Seaman, J.W. III, Binetti, K.M., Seaman, J.W. Jr., Hertel, F. and R. Potts.  (manuscript) Earliest evidence of persistent hominin carnivory.

Gibbons, A.  (2009).  Of tools and tubers.  Science 324: 588-589.

Lemorini, C, Plummer, T, Braun, D, Crittenden, A, Marlowe, F, Schoeninger, & P. Ditchfield (2009).  Functional interpretation by use-wear analysis of 2 million-year-old Oldowan tools from Kanjera South, Kenya.  Presented at the annual meetings of the Paleoanthropology Society in Chicago, Illinois, March 31 & April 1.

Plummer, T. W., Bishop, L., Ditchfield, P. & J. Hicks  (1999).  Research on late Pliocene Oldowan sites at Kanjera South, Kenya.  Journal of Human Evolution 36:151-170.

Plummer, T. W. (2004).  Flaked stones and old bones: biological and cultural evolution at the dawn of technology.  Yearbook of Physical Anthropology 47: 118-164.

Plummer, T. W., Bishop, L., Ditchfield, P., Kingston, J., Ferraro, J., Hertel, F. & D. Braun (2009a).  The environmental context of Oldowan hominin activities at Kanjera South, Kenya.  In Hovers, E. & D. Braun (eds) Interdisciplinary Approaches to Understanding the Oldowan, Springer, Dordrecht, pp. 149-160.

Plummer T. W., Ditchfield, P.W., Bishop, L. C., Kingston, J.D., Ferraro, J.V., Braun, D. Hertel, F. & R. B. Potts (2009b) Oldest Evidence of Toolmaking Hominins in a Grassland-Dominated Ecosystem. PLoS ONE 4(9): e7199, 1-8.

Acknowledgements

I am grateful to the Office of the President of Kenya, and the National Museums of Kenya for permission to study the Kanjera fossils and artifacts.  The Homa Peninsula field research was conducted through the cooperative agreement between the National Museums of Kenya and the Smithsonian Institution.  Logistical support and funding was also provided by the Smithsonian’s Human Origins Program.  Funding from the L. S. B. Leakey Foundation, the National Geographic Society, the National Science Foundation, the Wenner-Gren Foundation, and the Professional Staff Congress-City University of New York Research Award Program for Kanjera field work is gratefully acknowledged.  I thank the co-director of the Kanjera project, Laura Bishop, and Rick Potts and the Human Origins Program for support during all phases of the Kanjera research.  Collaborators on this project include Laura Bishop and Fritz Hertel (paleontology), David Braun (lithic technology), Peter Ditchfield and John Kingston (geology and geochemistry), Jennifer Parkinson, Jim Oliver, and Joe Ferraro (zooarcheology) and Rick Potts (archaeology, logistics).

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About the Author

Tom Plummer is an Associate Professor in the Anthropology Department at Queens College, City University of New York, and a member of the CUNY graduate faculty and the New York Consortium in Evolutionary Primatology.  His research broadly focuses on late Pliocene and early Pleistocene hominin behavior and ecology, with a special interest in exploring the adaptive significance of the first stone tools.  He co-directs field research on the Homa Peninsula, Kenya with Richard Potts, where Plummer is focusing on late Pliocene and Pleistocene archeological and paleontological sites.   

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Cover Photo, Top Left: View of excavations at Kanjera South. Photo credit: Tom Plummer

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There is no question that the ancient Levant could be described as a major crossroads of civilization. Over and over again, dig sites throughout Israel, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria have turned up artifacts left by the armies and settlers of one empire after another. Through this interview conducted by Popular Archaeology Magazine, Dr. Eric H. Cline, Co-Director of excavations at the site of Tel Kabri in northwest Israel, explains why this site stands out from the rest. The unfolding story of investigations at this site continue to intrigue scholars and the public alike………..   

Q: What brought your attention to this site [Tel Kabri] in the beginning?

A: I became involved because of its international relations 3,700 years ago. That’s my professional interest — international relations in the ancient world, particularly between Greece and the Near East. Kabri, which is a Canaanite palace, has Minoan wall and floor paintings in it.  So I was intrigued by the question: Why would a Canaanite ruler have a Minoan artist painting his walls and floors? And is there any evidence that there were Minoans living at the site, or Cycladic artisans, and what does it say about the ancient world?

We already knew about this site because Kabri had been excavated before by Kempinski and Niemeier from 1986 to 1993, and they found a painted floor and about 2,000 fragments of painted plaster.  

Q: Were they [the painted floor and fragments] recognized as possibly Minoan or Aegean at the time of the discovery?

A: Yes, absolutely. Niemeir [an expert in identifying Aegean/Minoan artwork] joined the project back then when they started to find these things, but their project was over in 1993 and the site then lay unexcavated.  

Assaf Yassur-Landau, the excavation Co-Director, excavated there as a volunteer in 1990 and thought at the time that he wanted to come back and dig there himself.  We [ Assaf and I] were both excavating at Megiddo, so we knew each other. He did some preliminary testing at Kabri in 2003 with some geophysical equipment and saw indications that the palace was perhaps as much as twice as big as Kempinski and Niemeier thought. So when I ran into him in 2004 he asked if I wanted to re-open the excavations at Kabri with him. I said yes.  In 2005 we did a very preliminary season of excavations just to see if the geophysical indications were correct:  Was the palace realy twice as big?  And was there anything worth a new multi-season excavation?  During the excavations, we found walls and floors at a good distance from the previous excavations. So the answer to both questions was yes.  

Before we really started to do any digging we needed to do a regional survey of the area.  In 2006 and 2007 we surveyed what we thought would have been the kingdom of Kabri and came up with some interesting data that indicated that it was probably a fairly large [Canaanite] kingdom, but that it only lasted for about 250 years. It apparently had a meteoric rise and just as meteoric a fall after the palace was destroyed by unknown people.

Q: Were the Aegean/Minoan paintings discovered previously by Kempinski and Niemeier dated to that 250-year time period? 

A: Yes. The palace was only occupied for about 250 years and it goes through about four phases. It looks like the paintings date to one of the middle phases. We believe they were up on the wall and on the floor, and then they were torn down during a renovation phase before the palace was destroyed. It seems that somebody liked them so they put them up. Then somebody didn’t like them and they took them down. Or they may have simply fallen off. 

It should be noted that there are only four other places [archaeological sites] in the Near East that have these kinds of paintings. One is Kabri, the only one in Israel. Another is Tel Dab’a in Egypt, and then in Turkey there is Alalakh which Sir Leonard Woolley excavated. Finally there is Qatna in Syria, which is being excavated right now by a German/Italian/Syrian team. 

Q: How does the Canaanite structure at Tel Kabri compare to the Canaanite structure found at Hazor, considered the largest known Canaanite site?

A: The one at Hazor is larger. In terms of size, Kabri is about the third largest in all of Israel. But it is dated only to the Middle Bronze period. 

We also have an interesting situation where the excavations at Hazor have shown that the temples for the same time period show a Syro-Mesopotamian influence. But Kabri appears to show a Western influence. We have published two articles attempting to explain that. The answer, we think, may be as simple as the fact that Hazor was larger and wealthier and could afford the goods and services from Mesopotamia. Perhaps Kabri could not afford that, so it looked elsewhere for innovation. Perhaps artisans from the Cyclades were cheaper. During our excavations in 2009 we found 100 more pieces of plaster at the site supporting this view to add to the Kempinski/Niemeier record. Sixty of these were painted fresco pieces.

Q: You went back to the site in December 2009/January 2010 to excavate. What emerged from that excavation?

A: There is a certain feature at Kabri that the previous excavators [Kempinski and Niemeier] had uncovered. They suggested that it was the bottom of a staircase. When we started excavating there, it became clear that it was not a staircase. It was a plastered corridor. In 2008 we started digging just to the east of it and we found what looked like a drain connected to it. So in the summer of 2009 we started excavating more to find out why there was a drain associated with it. It turned out that plaster, which is of the same time period as the painted floors, was on top of this ancient corridor. The corridor had pottery in it, strewn all at one depth, as if something sudden had happened. In the side of the corridor, hidden in the wall, was at least one entrance and perhaps as many as three entrances. One of the entrances had a cracked block that, had we been excavating in Greece, I would have said it was the lintel block to the entrance to a tomb. So we could see this cracked block with soil beneath it, in what was otherwise a solid stone wall. Next to it was another faint outline where the stones looked like they were horizontal and vertical, indicating the possibility of a blocked opening in the wall, and then another one [blocked opening] on the other side, as well. We didn’t know what this was. But it was in the middle of the palace, it was a hidden entrance in a wall, which one could not have seen unless one was actually in there.  This was interesting because at the site of Qatna in Syria they had just found similar openings in their palace.  Those openings led to a royal tomb.

In December 2009/January 2010 we returned to conduct some additional probes.  We took the top off of the associated wall, and found that the lintel block was just the first of seven. We could see that what we really had was a corbeled passageway that went directly through the wall.  It was a hidden passageway, but it didn’t lead to a tomb as at Qatna. It led into a room that we didn’t know existed, either in another part of the palace or outside the palace. The room to which it led is plastered with a very thick floor and the pottery there in that stratigraphy pushed the dating of the palace back by another 50 years.  It was an earlier part of the palace.  And although we had not found the entrance to a tomb [as at Qatna], we found something very peculiar, as it is a secret passageway made through a wall in the basement of the palace. We think it could have been a sally port [a secret back entrance] so that if the enemy is attacking the front gate, for example, defenders within the palace can go out the sally port at the back and come back around and destroy the attacking enemy.  Or, as a subterranean way to get from one part of the palace to another, could it have been used for secret purposes?  We have no idea.

The pottery in the corridor continues to be a mystery. It was at the entrance to this passageway. Does it represent some sort of ritual? Now we are thinking that when they filled in the corridor and plastered it over, they may have used it as a garbage dump before filling it in and plastering it. We will be investigating that further. So there may be another opening or two, but they are probably not connected to royal tombs.

[Another significant outcome of the December 2009/January 2010 excavations was the discovery that the palace was built some 150 years earlier than previously thought, making it one of the earliest Middle Bronze Age palaces found in Israel to date.]

Q: Getting back to the Aegean-style paintings: We know that the volcanic eruption at Santorini (ancient Thera) ocurred around 1628 B.C.E., and that it may have caused an exodus of people who then spread to other places in the Mediterranean area. Is there any possibility, given your Aegean-style fresco painting findings, that a group of Minoans escaping this eruption may have settled at Kabri?

A: There is no evidence so far that Minoans, or any other Aegean people, such as those in the Cyclades or mainland Greece, migrated to and settled at Kabri as a group. We don’t have enough Minoan pottery to support that. I suspect that, yes, the eruption at Santorini may have caused a migration of people from the island, including artisans who may have painted at Akrotiri or Knossos and were in need of employment, staying at Kabri temporarily. Certainly the paintings at Kabri look an awful lot like the ones on Santorini [ancient Thera].  So it may have been a refugee situation, but that would be mere speculation. The one thing we can support right now is that, if there was a group of Aegean people at Kabri, they were only living there temporarily.

Ancient tablets of Assyrian origin were found at the site of Kanesh in Turkey (ancient Anatolia). Back in the 19th century B.C.E. merchants from Assyria went and lived at Kanesh in Anatolia, trading textiles for silver and tin, and we would never had known that there were Assyrians there, if not for the tablets. The tablets record that they were there. When the Assyrians arrived at Kanesh, they completely adopted the Anatolian ways, so it may be that Minoan people migrated to Kabri and simply adopted Canaanite ways, in which case we would never know that they were there, except for the paintings.  

And here is another possibility: The one thing about pushing the timeline of the palace back earlier [as we discovered during the 2009/2010 excavations] is that it is conceivable, pending Carbon 14 datings, that the paintings at Kabri are a little older than we think. It was at one time thought that the paintings were 16th century (B.C.E.). We are now quite sure that they are 17th century. In fact, we think that the paintings we found may possibly be the oldest discovered in the Near East. Any date earlier than the 17th century would suggest that the influence had gone from east to west.

Q: Is there evidence at the site that might support that?

A: No. It is very unlikely that the Kabri frescoes are earlier than the late 17th century, but Sir Leonard Woolley had originally suggested that this technique of painting on fresco came from the East and went west to the Aegean. That was later discounted and determined that it went the other direction. But there is an outside chance that Woolley was right, and I would not rule out the possibility that it started in the East.  For example, the inlaid daggers found at Mycenae have also been found elsewhere, and their antecedents are at sites like Byblos in the Near East. The whole idea of inlaid metal is actually eastern that gets taken later to the Aegean. It is therefore possible that the fresco painting technique originated in the East and went west, as well. So there are all kinds of possibilities. And this would apply to explaining the Aegean influence at Kabri. 

Q: What is it about the frescoes/paintings that clearly identify them as Aegean or Cycladic in nature?

A: There are a couple of things: One is this whole technique of painting on the plaster wall while it is still wet. That is an Aegean technique. In the Near East, they more often painted after the plaster was dry. Second, there is a technique of using strings to help in the painting process. For example, the Minoans took a string and just tightened it so that it contacted the wet plaster and created a perfectly straight line. We have plaster at Kabri that shows that. The other thing they did was take string and dip it in, for example, red paint, and tighten it quickly against the plaster. The red paint thus makes a perfectly straight line. That is how the floor at Kabri was created. That is a Minoan technique.

Q: Have you found any symbols or designs, things or animals, etc. in the fresco paintings that would tell you that they are Cycladic or Aegean?

A: Yes and no.  The first excavators, Kempinski and Niemeier, found a floor with a pattern of red squares with flowers or vegetation in it. There is something that looks like an Iris and other floral motifs — maybe Aegean, maybe not. The 2,000 fresco fragments that they found, when placed together using ancient Santorini artwork as a model, does look very much like the miniature fresco at Santorini. Little pieces that look like ships and other pieces that look like architecture were found. There are a couple of pieces that look like they are part of the wing of a griffin.  In one of my lectures where I talk about Aegean style paintings I laugh a bit because other excavators at other sites have found bits and pieces of what they say come from a griffin. So imagine our surprise last season when we came up with 5 or 6 pieces of a fresco that have a deep rich blue background (a typical Aegean-style fresco color that has never been found in Israel before), with a figure in the foreground in white with black outlines (also typically Aegean), and as we are looking at it we are thinking that we have seen this before.

Q: What is it?

A: There are a number of possibilities. One could be the wing of a flying fish, like that found at Melos. It could also be a palm tree. It could be a woman’s white hand, but there are no fingernails. Compared to a griffin piece found at Mycenae, however, there is a close resemblance. We think we may have the wing of a griffin, in which case it is really funny that I have been making fun of everyone else about the griffin interpretation. There are another couple of pieces that add to the interpretation of it as part of a griffin. But the problem is that this griffin image type is dated to the 14th century B.C.E., and we are looking at 17th century fragments. A three-hundred year difference may be a little too large.  But if our find is a griffin, it is interesting to note that griffins are in both Near Eastern and Aegean cultures.

These fresco finds have told us something else that is important, however. Where we found them, and this is where it gets very interesting, was nowhere near where the original excavators [Kempinski and Niemeier] found theirs, so we are in a totally separate part of the palace. Their fragments were found used as packing material underneath a threshold. Ours were found face down on a white plaster floor and the only way that we realized they were there was when we were cleaning the floor. A white piece would pop up. And as we turned the white piece over to reveal the colored front, we could see that our wall painting had been ripped off the wall anciently and then used to patch the floor. And our wall fragments are completely different from the fragments that they found. Ours are in a different scale. This means we have a second wall painting. As we excavated the squares, we could see that one of these pieces was part-way into a balk [a section of an area that is left un-excavated for stratigraphic and other purposes], so we know that when we go back and take out that balk, there will be more pieces. There were also more pieces found to the east, and we did not excavate the square to the east. So we have high hopes that we will find more wall fresco fragments.  Moreover, one of the fragments was thicker than the others, which indicates that it was not a part of a wall. It must have been part of a floor. The original painted floor that Kempinski and Niemeier excavated is not missing any pieces, so our piece must be from another floor from somewhere else in the palace, reused as a patching piece on another [unpainted] floor. We are now looking for that other floor.

It is interesting to note that their [Kempinski and Niemeier’s] floor and wall painting discoveries and our floor and wall painting discoveries date from the same phase. So did some artist come and say, “Hey, I can redo your palace for you.”  Or, was there a succeeding king who wanted to redo it all?  We think there may be a whole Aegean theme throughout the whole palace.  Perhaps in this other part of the palace it is not as grand as in the first part. And, It may be that we will find Minoan pottery or other evidence of them actually being there. Answers to these questions await further excavation.

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Painted fresco fragments excavated at Tel Kabri.  Courtesy Tel Kabri Excavations.

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Painted fresco fragments excavated at Tel Kabri.  Courtesy Tel Kabri Excavations.

Painted fresco fragments excavated at Tel Kabri. Courtesy Tel Kabri Excavations.

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Q: Based on what you have done so far, and your idea of how big this palace might be, what percentage would you say has been excavated thus far?

A:  Hard to say, until we find the limits. We found what we believe is the northern or enclosing wall, and a very strange road or walkway adjacent to it on the outside, so we know how far it goes on the north. We are not yet sure how far it extends on the east, nor do we know how far it extends on the south. We think we know how far it is to the west, and we are looking for that because that should be the entrance. So, because we don’t know how big it is, we can’t guess how much we’ve excavated. But I would be surprised if we have excavated any more than 10 to 20% of the palace site. There is a lot more to do.  And based on what they are finding at Qatna, which has similar dates, I think we still have some very interesting things to find, especially because our palace, like that at Qatna, ended in a fiery destruction. We may find some very interesting things that got caught in that destruction. So what was horrible for them may be a bonanza for us, and I think we have only begun to scratch the surface on the palace.

Then there is the rest of the site aside from the palace. We have not yet touched the fortifications. It had a huge mudbrick set of fortifications. Up on the acropolis of the mound, previous excavators have found evidence of Greek mercenaries from the Iron Age. The palace part was basically abandoned until the Iron Age and then it is only inhabited sporadically in our area. So at some point we want to go up and investigate the acropolis portion of the mound where they have found evidence for the presence of Greek mercenaries. Think of the coincidence — or is it a coincidence — that in the Middle Bronze Age we have Minoans painting the palace and then in the Iron Age we have Greek mercenaries at the site.  What is it about Kabri that the Greeks or Aegeans like so much?  

The other question I have is this: If this site was inhabited in the Middle Bronze Age and the Iron Age, why isn’t it inhabited in the Late Bronze Age, when there was so much contact with and influence from the Myceneans in this part of the world?  

Kabri is like no other site I have ever investigated, because it is so huge and because it was only occupied during the Middle Bronze Age, with a puzzling absence of occupation and then suddenly an Iron Age presence on the acropolis.  

Q: Do you think the MB palace at Kabri is considerably larger than the same at Megiddo?

A: Yes, the palace is probably larger than the one at Megiddo. But it depends upon what period we are talking about. For the Middle Bronze period, it is probably larger. It is interesting because when you are driving to the site, there is a little bump in the road, and that means you have just driven over the fortifications. So the palace, including the fortifications, is huge.  

Q: What are your plans for this coming dig season?

A: We want to reconstruct the history of the palace. If we can reconstruct the life-cycle of the palace in its 250-year history, including evidence of feasting and things like that, that would be good. Along the way, if we should happen to find more painted frescoes, then that would also be very good, and we are anticipating that we will find more. If we are able to investigate the other features in that mysterious corridor, that would be a plus, and we are planning to do that. And then, as I mentioned, outside the northern wall we see this very strange, intriguing stone feature that is only one level of stones thick. It zigzags, which is usually seen on Crete. It is either a walkway or the bottom of a wall. If it is a wall, then it is a protective wall going around the palace. I think it is a roadway and that the road may well be extending around the palace.  A similar roadway can be found at Knossos and elsewhere. If it is a roadway, and this is the northern perimeter of the palace, and the entrance is on the west, then what we see may indeed be turning a corner and headed to the entrance. So if we continue to excavate in that direction this coming season, it may lead us to the missing entrance to the palace. 

So what we are basically doing is making sure we understand not just the history of the palace but also its size and what is immediately happening outside of it.  

To summarize, the coming season should help us understand a bit more about the history, life-cycle and size of the palace, as well as uncover more painted plaster and define what is going on with the mysterious corridor. We also hope to see what is going on just outside the palace with the roadway or wall feature and whether or not we can locate the missing entrance. All of these things will also hopefully give us more insight into what is happening inside the palace.  

All in all, even though what we are doing is supplementing and expanding upon what the previous excavators have done, it turns out that there is much more to investigate than previously thought.

*Courtesy Tel Kabri Excavations. 

Top Cover Photo: Aerial view of Tel Kabri. Courtesy Tel Kabri Excavations.

Second photo from top: Excavating the corridor feature of the Middle Bronze Age Palace. Courtesy Tel Kabri Excavations.

Eighth photo from top: The curious “zigzag” structure excavated at Tel Kabri. Courtesy Tel Kabri Excavations.

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About Eric Cline

Dr. Eric H. Cline, a former Fulbright scholar, is an award-winning author, teacher, and advisor with degrees in Classical Archaeology, Near Eastern Archaeology, and Ancient History from Dartmouth College (1982), Yale University (1984), and the University of Pennsylvania (1991) respectively. He currently serves as Chair of the Department of Classical and Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at the George Washington University in Washington, D.C.

Dr. Cline’s primary fields of study are the military history of the Mediterranean world from antiquity to present and the international connections between Greece, Egypt, and the Near East during the Late Bronze Age (1700-1100 BCE). He is an experienced field archaeologist, with 28 seasons of excavation and survey to his credit since 1980. He has worked in Israel, Egypt, Jordan, Cyprus, Greece, Crete, and the United States, including eight seasons at the site of Megiddo (biblical Armageddon) in Israel, where he is currently the Associate Director (USA). He is also Co-Director of the new series of archaeological excavations at the site of Tel Kabri, also located in Israel.

A prolific researcher and author with ten books and nearly 100 articles to his credit, Dr. Cline is perhaps best known for his book, The Battles of Armageddon: Megiddo and the Jezreel Valley from the Bronze Age to the Nuclear Age (Ann Arbor 2000; paperback 2002), which received the 2001 Biblical Archaeology Society (BAS) Publication Award for “Best Popular Book on Archaeology,” was a Main Selection of the Natural Science Book Club, sold out its first printing in less than four months, and has now been translated and published into Croatian (2005). 

Dr. Cline has been interviewed by syndicated national and international television and radio hosts including Robin Roberts and George Stephanopoulos on ABC’s “Good Morning America,” Bill Hemmer and Martha MacCallum on Fox New Channel’s “America’s Newsroom,” Fergus Nicoll on the BBC World Service/The World Today, Kojo Nnamdi on NPR’s “Public Interest” show, Michael Dresser on “The Michael Dresser” show, and Richard Sheehe on WRGW.

Born in Washington, DC (at GWU Hospital) and raised in California (San Francisco and Los Angeles), Dr. Cline is married and has several children, two cats, and varying numbers of fish.