Boat resurfaces at Sea of Galilea.Boat resurfaces at Sea of Galilee The Sea of Galilee or Lake Kinneret (Hebrew ים כנרת), is Israel's largest freshwater lake. It is approximately 53 km (33 miles) in circumference, about 21 km (13 miles) long, and 13 km (8 miles) wide; it has a total area of 166 In January 1986, a drought in Israel produced an archaeological windfall windfall An unexpected profit or gain. An investor holding a stock that increases greatly in price because of an unexpected takeover offer receives a windfall. . The waters of the Sea of Galilee receded, and two brothers from a nearby kibbutz kibbutz: see collective farm. kibbutz Israeli communal settlement in which all wealth is held in common and profits are reinvested in the settlement. The first kibbutz was founded in Palestine in 1909; most have since been agricultural. noticed the partial outline of a boat emerging from its muddy banks. Archaeologists and volunteers, directed by Shelley Wachsmann of the Israel Department of Antiquities Antiquities, nearly always used in the plural in this sense, is a term for objects from Antiquity, especially the civilizations of the Mediterranean: the Classical antiquity of Greece and Rome, Ancient Egypt and the other Ancient Near Eastern cultures. and Museums in Tel Aviv Tel Aviv (tĕl əvēv`), city (1994 pop. 355,200), W central Israel, on the Mediterranean Sea. Oficially named Tel Aviv–Jaffa, it is Israel's commercial, financial, communications, and cultural center and the core of its largest , worked feverisly for two weeks to excavate the 27-foot-long vessel and preserve it in a makeshift concrete pool. The boat--the only ancient craft found at the Sea of Galilee -- is now in a museum undergoing preservation treatment, Wachsmann says. It dates to between 100 B.C. and A.D. 70. The boat is of a class described in the Gospels and in the writings of 1st century A.D. Jewish historian Josephus, Wachsmann notes. Its crew of five used four oars to propel the vessel and a wider oar for steering. Total capacity was at least 15 men. Wachsmann says wear and tear at the craft's joints suggests it spent 10 to 20 years sailing the Sea of Galilee. He adds it may have participated in a bloody battle described by Josephus that took place on the lake in A.D. 67. |
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