tel-

In that burn layer at Tel Halif, we found Assyrian arrowheads and ballista stones: evidence of the assault that destroyed the village in 701 BCE, part of the military campaign that the emperor Sennacherib immortalized in stone relief wall panels now displayed in the British Museum.

For me it was at Tel Halif, in southern Israel.

Like those long-gone inhabitants of Tel Halif, we saw the destruction coming — fire on the hillsides of Eaton Canyon was visible from our bedroom window.

At Tel Azekah, another Israeli site, Carly once excavated the skeleton of a young woman who had been crushed beneath pottery that had fallen from the upper floors.

Like the ruins of our house, the site at Tel Halif mostly yielded small finds: the pottery that families used to store, prepare and consume food and drink; small clay figurines that may have been children’s toys.