{"id":232,"date":"2021-05-03T20:30:49","date_gmt":"2021-05-03T20:30:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/insidecrane.utoronto.ca\/?p=232"},"modified":"2021-05-03T20:30:50","modified_gmt":"2021-05-03T20:30:50","slug":"the-gezer-project","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/insidecrane.utoronto.ca\/?p=232","title":{"rendered":"The Gezer Project"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The ancient site of Gezer commands one of the principal routes into the central highlands towards Jerusalem, and has attracted numerous archeological expeditions for well over a century. This interest is in large part due to Gezer\u2019s importance as a type-site during the Bronze and Iron Ages, as well as its appearance in texts in connection with Solomon and Simon Maccabeus. CRANE\u2019s recently established \u201cGezer Project\u201d, is a unique and ambitious attempt to create more accessibility to the vast volume of data accumulated in three separate generations of excavations which have produced an exceptional stratified sequence of occupation. The primary goal is to integrate all of this information into one searchable database with the ability to analyze and query across all Gezer excavation projects, and to eventually conduct comparisons with other contemporary sites in the region. \u201cWe\u2019re adding legacy data from the Phase I Hebrew Union College\/Harvard Semitic Museum excavations,\u201d says Stanley Klassen<\/a>, CRANE Data Integration Manager at U of T’s Department of Near & Middle Eastern Civilizations, \u201calong with Phase II from the seventies, and data from the recent Tandy excavations. Which is really exciting.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Aerial shot of the Field III gate with the Administration building to the west (courtesy of the Tel Gezer Excavation Project).<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Creating such a database was the dream of the late John S. (Jack) Holladay, Jr., director of the Gezer Gate excavations in Field III of the Phase I expedition. Klassen is using the OCHRE<\/a> (Online Cultural and Historical Research Environment) database management system to fulfill that dream. In addition to Klassen, others involved in adding data include Charles Wilson, a PhD student in Near Eastern Art and Archaeology at the University of Chicago who helped initiate the Gezer Project in OCHRE, as well as Steve Ortiz and Sam Wolff, the co-directors of the Tel Gezer Excavation Project, with the assistance of Sandra Schloen and Miller Prosser of OCHRE Data Service.\u00a0 Klassen supervises CRANE students as part of U of T\u2019s Work Study program, and during the last two years, he\u2019s had some of them work \u201calmost exclusively to integrate the Gezer data from Field III. As of now, we’ve got all of the information describing nearly eight hundred loci added to the system.\u201d The next step is to add more complete descriptions of the artefacts, and details and images of the pottery, in addition to all the discoveries from the other Gezer projects. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Jack Holladay inside the Field III gate with western piers behind him (courtesy of the HUC excavation).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Once the Gezer Project goes online, researchers will be able to access the Gezer data along with the tens of thousands of digital files available. Gezer specific queries can be conducted as well as \u201ccross-project\u201d inquiries with other sites in the OCHRE database system. The potential for others to ask questions of the information entered is extremely important. An example Klassen gives is that the destruction of the early Iron IIA four-entry gate in Field III is dated by the Phase I team to around 925 B.C.E: \u201cThere are others who want to date it to the ninth century. So getting this data out there detailing the stratigraphy and the pottery, and having all of the information in OCHRE and on the web, is very important, particularly for the formative period of the Iron IIA.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Written by Jaime Weinman<\/a>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The ancient site of Gezer commands one of the principal routes into the central highlands towards Jerusalem, and has attracted numerous archeological expeditions for well over a century. This interest is in large part due to Gezer\u2019s importance as a type-site during the Bronze and Iron Ages, as well as its appearance in texts in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":239,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/insidecrane.utoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/insidecrane.utoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/insidecrane.utoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insidecrane.utoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insidecrane.utoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=232"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/insidecrane.utoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":240,"href":"https:\/\/insidecrane.utoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232\/revisions\/240"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insidecrane.utoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/239"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/insidecrane.utoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=232"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insidecrane.utoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=232"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insidecrane.utoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=232"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}