MODIIN-MACCABIM-RE’UT, ISRAEL—The Times of Israel reports that more than 2,500 volunteers and students from the fourth through twelfth grades have assisted the Israel Antiquities Authority with the excavation of a Crusader fortress tower at Givat Tittora, a strategically located hilltop site in central Israel. Excavation director Avraham Tendler said that many pieces of jewelry have been uncovered in the tower’s inner courtyard, where clay ovens, cooking pots, jars, serving dishes, a table, olive pits, grains, charred grape pips, and animal bones were also found. Tendler explained that over a period of hundreds of years, working women probably lost the jewelry, which includes rings, necklaces, bracelets, earrings, and hair pins. The site will eventually become part of a nature park. To read about another discovery in Israel, go to “Byzantine Riches.”
