Priceless archeological relics of King Solomon are lost in the Meadville Pa Dump. The Artifacts were excavated from the Solomonic Gate at Gezer during the 1971 Allegheny College-Hebrew Union College summer study program in archaeology organized by campus Chaplin Don Hobson. If these artifacts are ever recovered, it is my wish they be donated to the Lawrence Lee Pelletier library, Meadville, Pa in recognition of Dr Pelletier's achievements in building and leading the college and in Honor of Allegheny Chaplin Don Hobson*. The Solomonic Gate at Tel Gezer, Israel (1971), from which these artifacts come, was the first archaeological confirmation of a Biblical passage in history.
King Solomon's Gate, Biblical Archaeological Proof at Tel Gezer
A&E Home Video.
AB43361 - DIGGING FOR TRUTH : ARCHAEOLOGY AND THE BIBLE
Description of Lost Items:
10th Century BCE Heavy 6" Tall Earthenware Perfume Vase with Handles & Pointed base
- This particular item was right on the edge of undisturbed strata. I actually
argued that the item was in-situ - My supervisor after seeing me bust ass in
120+ degree heat of the square called it "out-of-situ" and told me to take it
home. This is the premier piece of the missing pieces with some interesting
twists. Assuming perfume was a valuable item at the time of King Solomon, it's
style may place it in the time of Solomon
(1000 BCE). The city of Gezer was a wedding gift to King Solomon (of the many
wives) from an unknown Pharaoh of Egypt approx 950 BCE. This item was found
between the second and third towers of the gate where Solomon reportedly sat and
dispensed Justice, right on the edge of undisturbed strata. Could it have been the property of King Solomon himself? The
vase/urn was approx 2" diameter with 1" very think walls, a very small
narrow cavity for perfume, pointed (not flat) base, thin neck with 2? small
handles. Last seen in Perfect condition. A very heavy rugged object.
References: The James A De Rothschild Expedition at Hazor Second Season 1956 Hebrew University Jerusalem Magnes Press.
[Plate CXCII Area F Photos 3, 4] From neck down like 3 except thinner, same coloration patterns
[Plate CLII Area F "The Tunnels" Drawings 1, 2, 3]
[Plate CXC Area F Photos 5, 6.] Similar Top to Number 6, but I recall a double handle?
[Plate CXXXIX Area F "Tomb 8063" drawings 8, 9]
Slimmer body.
Bronze Age Loom weight - Out of Situ - Round Baseball size rock with chisel marks all around and a 1/3" hole through the middle late bronze age to Iron age 2 (includes Solomonic era). Last Seen in perfect condition. Very Rugged object.
Reference: The James A De Rothschild Expedition at Hazor Fifth Season 1968 Israel Exploration Society The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
[Page 264] Diagrams 8, 9, 10, 11 describe loom weights of the period
[Page 265] Description
10th Century BCE Saucer lamp w/wick lip - Small fired bowl with pinched upturned lip to place a wick. Unquestionably Solomonic Era. Last seen in Perfect condition. Very fragile object. (Maybe the light he used to write his Archives :)).
References: The James A De Rothschild Expedition at Hazor Second Season 1956 Hebrew University Jerusalem Magnes Press.
[Plate CXXXIX Area F "Tomb 8063" Drawings 17,18]
[Plate CXC Area F Photo 13]
Pedestal plate - small 4" diameter plate with a 1-2" base pedestal - all one piece, Badly cracked when found, but still together.
10th Century BCE tripod base small saucer - small fired pottery bowl with three knobs for "feet"- Solomonic era. Broken in two pieces when found.
Earthen water jug - Large contemporary Israeli kiln fired water pot used by volunteers at the Tel about 14" high and 8" wide with a spout or nipple to drink from. Holds about a gallon :)
Gezer and Hazor were sister cities, both were ruled by King Solomon in the 10th Century BCE. The above referenced plates and drawings are from Strata X (as in marks the spot, Hazor's Solomonic Strata) and the Late Bronze Age 2 Strata's immediately preceding Solomonic Rule.
Search Records
Items left in Apartment on North Street, Meadville Pa above TV Shop (mid-block across from supermarket at right end of the block from the Apart/TV Shop perspective. Called Shillings Sylvania in one conversation) in May of 1974 in several carefully packed boxes addressed for shipment. Box contents included textbooks (each had "Pride" written across the page edges visible at a glance), Mounted Photo Exposition of Anti-Vietnam 1972 Miami Fl demonstrations, 2 years of Campus newspapers, Pentax Camera, personal effects, and papers, colorful red/orange woven Israeli Shawl, Black rectangular flat steamer trunk. Solomonic vase was packed wrapped in white grocery plastic bag with 1 yr of Campus Newspapers beneath and one year above. Unsure if it was within the steamer trunk or the cardboard box. Unsure if I did or did not include a drying agent but I believe I did. I remember asking Don Hobson about it. I was planning to be gone at least two years in the Peace Corps. The vase was the absolute center of the Pack strategy, ...within something within something else to prevent crushing. (Although vase is very rugged). Most of the Apartments furniture was inherited from Recht and others and was reportedly included in the cleanout. Broken down couch. Old 4" floppy mattresses w blue stripes. Train trunk/something covered with wax(?). Recht's old wooden Drafting table. Recht's custom shelving, printing stuff. Standing Lamp with brass feet. Attempts to recover the items in the seventies indicated they had been taken to a Meadville dump by the landlord. Roommate at the time charged with shipping was Steve Harris? (76) ? definitely from Pa, former tenant at the unit was David Recht (72), John Watkins (72)(?). Unity Center associations with Recht and Apt.. Photos may exist of apartment contents among the 6 or 7 residents during the yrs prior. Who the Landlord hired to truck the contents of the apt to the Dump is Unknown.
The artifacts will be jealously remembered by the other members of the Allegheny program :) Somebody from Gezer 71 may have photos of the artifacts. I also spent three years showing them off to anybody who would listen while at Allegheny, including some people from Meadville such as Jazz Musician Tim Smith.
The issue of the handles being single or double is confused in memory and may take some time to sort itself out. Vase handles may relate to specific period dating, but my pottery knowledge at that time (actually everybody else's as well) was superficial, and until recently I would not have known what I was looking at. There is a strong chance the vase is identical to the Solomonic vase image 3, but I can not say for sure. Irregardless, these artifacts carry a double whammy. Relics of the Solomonic era (950 BCE) are irreplaceable and priceless by themselves, but these are also specifically associated with the first scientific proof in history of the truth of a specific Passage in the Bible. They are the only archeological relics of that historic milestone that exist from the Solomonic Gate at Gezer itself that I am aware of. Little, if anything, was catalogued from the bottom of the Solomonic square itself, due to archeological "rules of evidence", it was mostly... or all... out of situ.
Ron Nielson - currently Lyonsville Race Track - Dump Manager in 70's
John - Current Dump administration - indicates dump was closed off in late 70's at a total size of 17 Acres. Dump can be up to 60 feed deep. Test borings indicate Landfill tends to preserve papers, 10 year old Newspapers are still readable. Dump area active in 74 ball parked at 5 acres. Environmental regulation changes could prove a major challenge to any attempts at recovery.
Ronald Nielson 26924 State Hwy 77 Guys Mills, Pa. Ph 814-967-4230
Resource (See Jesselson)
* In character spirit and relationship, the true Dumbeldoor of my life
** This page was posted one Month before the start of the second Iraq war and AFTER conversations with Meadville Landfill authorities. The subsequent controversy/publicity over lost archaeological artifacts soon after the war is another of the hundreds of odd coincidences since the dig, minor individually, but stunning when considered in their totality. Handwriting from the steamer trunk containing the artifacts, if it survives, will match and PREDATE the Nathan R note. [Nathan R Note]
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