French Palestinologist. Born in Paris, Guerin studied classical philology at the ficole Normale Superieure, Paris, and then taught in several lycees. Ide joined the Ecole Franpaise d’Athenes in 1852 and spent two years traveling and doing research in Greece, the Aegean, Turkey, Syria, and Palestine, He thus inaugurated a lifetime of scientific travel that also took him to Malta, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, and Nubia.
Most of Guerin’s time and energy from 1863 onward were devoted to the study of ancient Palestine, He carried out three major surveys; a detailed exploration of Judea Qudah) in 1863, of Samaria and the Jordan Valley in 1870, and of Galilee and Phoenicia in 1875. His subsequent travels to Palestine and Lebanon (in 1882, 1884, and 1888) were to prepare his last major publications, La Terre Sainte and Jerusalem, which were geared to the general public.
Guerin’s major contribution to archaeology and Near Eastern studies is the seven volumes of his Description geographique, historique et archeologique de la Palestine, an admirable achievement for one person and comparable to the scope and teamwork of the publications of the Palestine Exploration Fund. Nobody before him had conducted such a systematic exploration of the country. Traveling on horseback, he visited and recorded in detail and with scrupulous exactimde every ruin and village in Judea, Samaria, and Galilee, discovering numerous sites in the process. His method was to identify biblical sites from the landscape, analyze their mutual relationship, and combine his observations with the biblical evidence. His work greatly advanced what was known about the historical geography of Palestine. Guerin’s surveys belong to the prearchaeological phase of exploration in Palestine, when it was not yet recognized that tlie country’s many tells covered tlie sites of ancient cities and “progress” had not yet destroyed so many ancient remains.
GUSH HALAV (Ar., el-Jish; Gk., Gischala/Giscala), site located on the western flank of a deep wadi (Wadi Gush Halav) several miles nortliwest of Safed in Upper Galilee (map reference 191 X 270). The Greek name is probably a corruption of the Hebrew gMi/zWaw, (ht, “block of white”), perhaps in reference to the towering white cliffs on the east side of the wadi. Another possibility is that the name means “fat ground,” a derivation reflecting the area’s flourishing olive oil trade in antiquity.
Josephus, the first-century Jewish historian, presents the activities of an individual named John of Giscala, whose economic dealings are viewed harshly in both Life (70-76) and War (2.590-592; 4.92-120). The site is also mentioned in Ecclesiates Rabba (2.8), in a document from Wadi Mur-abba'at, on a sixth-century marble plaque from Beersheba, and in the Mishnah {Arakh. 9,6). The church father Jerome (in Lives of Illustrious Men and in his commentary on the Epistle to Pliilemon) reports, enigmatically, that the apostle Paul came from “Giscalis in Judea.”
The full extent of tlie ancient settlement, which was an important trading center in the Roman and Byzantine periods, cannot be determined. It surely included the top of the prominent hill now occupied by the Arab village of el-Jish; an ancient synagogue may have existed at the top of the hill, where a Maronite church now stands, A number of chamber tombs in the vicinity, which were the focus of medieval Jewish pilgrims, were excavated in 1937 (Maldiouly, 1938)3 and a monumental tomb on the western side of the modern village was discovered and excavated in 1973 (Vitto and Edelstein, 1974). A hoard of 237 coins was discovered some time prior to 1948 (Hamburger, 1954). The tombs and coins date to the Roman and Byzantine periods.
Sustained excavations at Gush Halav have concentrated on a monumental building on die eastern slope of the Jish hill. Early in the twentieth century, tlie German team of
Heinrich Kohl and Carl Watzinger (1916) spent several days clearing and recording this building, identified as a synagogue, as part of their investigation (1905-1907) of Galilean synagogues. Synagogues.] Two seasons of excavation at this lower synagogue site were carried out by a Duke University team, as a project of the American Schools of Oriental Research in 1977 and 1978 (Meyers, Strange, and Meyers, 1979; Meyers, Meyers, and Strange, 1990). Additional support for both seasons came from Garrett Evangelical Seminary at Northwestern University; the University of the Orange Free State in Bloemfontein, South Africa, supported the 1977 season. Eric M. Meyers served as project director; James F. Strange and Carol L. Meyers were associate directors.
To the surprise of the excavation team, the synagogue was found to be built on a considerable depth of debris, attesting to a long history of occupation at the site. In addition to a scattering of Late Bronze Il/Iron I sherds, the ceramic horizon includes some Iron II, Persian, Hellenistic, and Early Roman material; however, no structural remains from those periods could be discerned in the very limited area in which the excavation team was permitted to dig. The synagogue itself had stood for some three centuries; its history spans tlie Middle to Late Roman (250-306 ce). Late Roman (306363), Byzantine I (363-460), and Byzantine IIA (460-551) periods. After the collapse and abandonment of tlie synagogue in the mid-sixth cenmry, some sporadic occupation continued in tlie Byzantine IIB and the Early and Late Arab periods.
Although the synagogue appeared almost square to its earliest investigators, the work of tlte 1978-1979 expedition established that it is a small basilical building with two rows of four columns, Basilicas.] The interior dimensions of its main room, which is bounded on three sides by corridors or rooms, are 13.75 X 10.6-11.0 m. Only its southern, Jerusalem-oriented wall borders directly on exterior space. That facade wall is also the only one constructed witli well-dressed ashlar masonry. The single major entry is in the center of that wall, and the building’s bema is situated against tire inside of the southern wall to the west of the entrance. Benches were recovered on tlie west and north. Remnants of heart-shaped columns and otlier architectural fragments, as well as a hoard of 1,953 coins dating mainly to the fourth-sixth cenmries, were found in the debris in or adjacent to tlie building. Perhaps the most notable architec-mral fragment is a lintel with an eagle and a garland finely carved on its underside. Anyone entering the building would have to look directly overhead to see this decorative element. An Aramaic dedicatory inscription on one of the columns, first published in tlie nineteenth century, reads “Jose bar Nahum/made this (column?)/may it be for him/a blessing.”
The paucity of decorative elements suggests religious conservatism; yet, the adaptive use of space, the high quality of the prominent masonry, and the idiosyncratic placement of the essential feamres of a synagogue building reflect authentic independence and technological expertise. The flourishing of Gush Halav in the Late Roman and Byzantine periods is reflected in the sophisticated simplicity of its lower synagogue.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Hamburger, H. “A Hoard of Syrian Tetradrachms and Tyrian Bronze Coins from Gush Halav.” Israel Exploration Journal 4 (1954): 201236.
Kohl, Heinrich, and Carl Watzinger. Antike Synagogen in Galilaea. Leipzig, 1916.
Makliouly, Na’im. “Rock-Cut Tombs at el-JTsh.” Quarterly of the Department of Antiquities in Palestine 8 (1938): 45-50.
Meyers, Eric M., James F. Strange, and Carol L. Meyers, “Preliminary Report on the 1977 and 1978 Seasons at Gush Halav (el-Jish).” Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, no, 233 (1979): 3358. ¦
Meyers, Eric M., and Carol L. Meyers, with James F. Strange. Excavations at the Ancient Synagogue of Gush Halav. Meiron Excavation Project, vol. 5. Winona Lake, Ind., 1990.
Vitto, Fanny, and Gershon Edelstein. “The Mausoleum at Gush Halav” (in Hebrew). Qadmonioij (1974); 49-55.
Carol L. Mevers
GUY, PHILIP LANGSTAFFE ORDE (18851952), British archaeologist and administrator, instrumental in the establishment of both the Palestine and Israel departments of antiquities. Born in Lanarkshire, Scotland, Guy was educated at the universities of Glasgow and Oxford. After active service in World War I, he joined Leonard Woolley’s expeditions to Carchemish and Amarna, where he served as ceramic specialist. In 1922, he was appointed chief inspector of the newly established Palestine Department of Antiquities and in that position was called upon to undertake salvage excavations and surveys tliroughout the country. In 1927 Guy succeeded Clarence Fisher as director of the Megiddo excavations of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago. There, in addition to supervising the excavation of the Megiddo tombs, Guy introduced the extensive use of aerial photography from helium balloons to aid in mapping and analyzing the excavated architecmre. As a result of professional disagreements witlt the autlforities of the Oriental Institute, however, Guy ended his association with the Megiddo expedition in 1935.
As director of the British School of Archaeology in Jerusalem in 1938-1939, Guy planned a comprehensive archaeological survey of Palestine. He personally undertook initial explorations for this survey in tlie Negev desert and on tlie coastal plain. During World War II, Guy served in the British army as military governor of Benghazi and Asmara and as a member of the Allied Supply Mission to Syria. After the war, he returned to the civil service in Palestine, as director of the Government Stud Farm in Akko for tlie Department of Agriculture (1945-1947). He subsequently
Renewed his professional connection to the Palestine Department of Antiquities (1947-1948).
As one of the few British administrators to remain in the newly created State of Israel, Guy was appointed chief of the Division of Surveys and Excavation of the Israel Department of Antiquities in 1948. In that position, he carried out important salvage excavations at Jaffa, Beth-Yerah, and Ayyelet ha-Shahar. He also established the department’s system of regional inspectors and revived his earlier plans for a comprehensive national archaeological survey.
[See also Beth-Yerah; British School of Archaeology in Jerusalem; Jaffa; Megiddo; and the biographies of Fisher and Woolley.]
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Avi-Yonah, Michael. “P. L. O. Guy, 1885-1922: InMemoriam.” Israel Exploration Journal 3 (1953): 1-3. Includes a bibliography of Guy’s work.
Guy, P. L. O. “Balloon Photography and Archaeological Excavation.” Antiquity 6 (1932): 148-155, plus 4 pis.
Guy, P. L. O. Megiddo Tombs. Chicago, 1938.
Neil Asher Silberman
World History
