Spoiler – We can't. What we can offer you is our pick of the coolest developments in Israeli archaeology over the past 10 years. So let's hop into the trenches and dig in:

So you're jogging with your dog through a wooded area of the Neve Yaakov neighborhood in northeast Jerusalem and all of a sudden, you see a 1,400-year-old wine press that definitely hadn't been there before.

5: Ancient wine press appears out of nowhere

The Israel Antiquities Authority was a little surprised, to say the least, when an archaeologically minded resident called in her find in May 2015, because none of its people were excavating in the area. But the IAA team dispatched to investigate discovered that the wine press had been discovered by a group of teenagers who were self-professed "archaeology buffs" who had taken it upon themselves to carefully excavate the site.

The archaeologists praised their careful work. "The story touched our hearts and reminded us of our own childhoods," said IAA archaeologist Amit Re'em. However, the Authority gently suggested that in the future, the young archaeologists call in professionals, as "non-methodic" work can damage ancient artifacts. Oh, and the teens were invited to put their talents to use as volunteers on official IAA digs.

In the 1950s, researchers and a group of Bedouin discovered a trove of tens of thousands of scraps of parchment and papyrus comprising parts of about 1,000 manuscripts that had been inscribed 2,000 years earlier. Because of their small size and delicate condition, many of the fragments were stored in cigar boxes and shelved.

4: The Dead Sea Scrolls -Maybe NASA can help?

The Israel Antiquities Authority has long aimed to make the content of the Dead Sea scrolls, as they became known, available to all through the internet. Great! But what to do about the many fragments, some minuscule, of the scrolls that have yet to be decoded?

In 2018, the IAA brought in the big guns and used special imaging technology developed for none other than NASA to shed new light on some of the scrolls.

One section written in proto-Hebrew did not appear to belong to any of the 1,000 manuscripts known today, causing researchers to wonder if there were parts of the Dead Sea Scrolls that had never been discovered.

The NASA technology even raised the tantalizing prospect that there could be an entire additional Dead Sea Scroll whose existence was unknown!

In 2018, archaeologists excavating the Raqefet Cave in the Mount Carmel region near Haifa discovered evidence that beer was brewed there 13,000 years ago – the earliest example of alcohol production found to date.

3: 'Drinking the dinosaurs' - Beer 13,000 years ago and today

The researchers, a joint team from the University of Haifa and Stanford University in California, found traces of beer that was brewed in the cave by the Natufian people, who lived between 15,000 and 11,500 years ago and were among the first people in the world to abandon a nomadic way of life. The Mount Carmel settlement was one of the most important Natufians communities, and researchers from the University of Haifa have been studying the Natufian sites on and around the Carmel for decades.

"They made beer and drank it, apparently as part of special ceremonies," explained Professor Dani Nadel of the Zinman Institute of Archaeology at the University of Haifa.

But why stop there? In theory, yeast that was good enough to brew beer back in the day should still do the job. In 2019, that theory became practice when Israeli researchers raised a glass to celebrate a long-brewing project of making beer and mead using yeasts extracted from ancient clay vessels – some over 5,000 years old.

Archaeologists and microbiologists from the Israel Antiquities Authority and four Israeli universities teamed up to study yeast colonies found in microscopic pores in pottery fragments from Egyptian, Philistine, and Judean archaeological sites in Israel spanning from 3,000 BCE to the fourth century BCE.

Scientists are touting the brews made from "resurrected" yeasts as an important step in experimental archaeology, a field that seeks to reconstruct the past in order to better understand the flavor of the ancient world.

"In Jurassic Park, the dinosaurs eat the scientists," he said. "Here, the scientists drink the dinosaurs," said Aren Maeir, an archaeologist from Bar-Ilan University.

2: Stop, thief! Antiquities Authority inspectors nab robbers in the act

This past decade has seen some Indiana Jones-like derring-do on the part of Israeli authorities who are doing battle with modern-day antiquities thieves. According to Amir Ganor, who heads the Antiquities Robbery Prevention Unit at the IAA, explained that bands of robbers have been operating in the Judean Desert for years, looking for objects that they sell for hefty profits.

In 2014, a group of robbers who were trying to sneak ancient scrolls and artifacts out of a cave in the Judean Desert were nabbed in the act – the first time antiquities robbers had been caught in 30 years. The would-be thieves were spotted by members of a desert search and rescue team that was on training maneuvers. The first responders contacted the Israel Antiquities Authority, who rushed to the site.

The suspects, Arabs from a village near Hebron, were digging illegally at a site archaeologists know as the Cave of Skulls and had already caused major damage by the time they were apprehended.

Artifacts found in their possession included a 2,000-year-old lice comb.

In the summer of 2019, US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman attended an unveiling ceremony for new sections of the Pilgrim's Road in the Old City of Jerusalem, which archaeologists have been excavating for the past six years.

1: An ancient route leading to the Second Temple is excavated, revealing surprises

The Herodian road, which was traversed by pilgrims on their way to the Second Temple, was rediscovered by archaeologists in 1894. The excavated sections now run for 700 meters (2,300 feet), from the Pool of Siloam in central Silwan to the slopes of the southern corner of the Western Wall.

But the name "Herodian road" is misleading, as King Herod apparently had nothing to do with its construction. In fact, research published a few months after Friedman and former Trump advisor Jason Greenblatt attended the unveiling of the latest sections of the road indicates that it was most likely built by none other than the infamous Roman governor of Judea, Pontius Pilate.

More than 100 coins found beneath the ancient road prove it must have been completed between 31 and 40 CE, a period mostly covered by Pilate's governorship, Dr. Donald Ariel of the IAA explained.

Ariel suggested the possibility that Pilate had the street built to reduce tensions between the Romans and the Jewish population.

It will likely take another five years or so of work to dig out the full length of the Pilgrim's Road, and who knows what treasures will be revealed along the way?

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"We must understand that right now in Israel we have leadership who has been indicted for bribery, who, in my view, is a racist," Sanders said of Netanyahu.

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Sanders said that while Israel had a right to exist in peace and security, the US must formulate "pro-Palestinian" policy that would create a "level playing field in terms of the Middle East."

The Vermont senator noted that he was speaking as someone who had "lived in Israel" and was "proudly Jewish."

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The garum vats, some of the few to be discovered extant in the eastern Mediterranean region, were unearthed at a city-funded excavation in which young residents of Kibbutz Yad Mordechai, outside Ashkelon, and pupils from the Makif Vav Middle School, next to the site, took part.

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Dr. Tali Erickson-Gini of the IAA explains the central place fish sauce – which had to be prepared outside of urban areas due to the stench it created – held in the ancient Roman diet.

"Historical sources refer to the production of special fish sauce that was used as a basic condiment for food in the Roman and Byzantine eras throughout the Mediterranean basin," Erickson-Gini said.

"This is a rare find in our region and very few installations of this kind have been found in the eastern Mediterranean. Ancient sources even refer to the production of Jewish [kosher] garum. The discovery of this kind of installation in Ashkelon evinces that the Roman tastes that spread throughout the empire were not confined to dress, but also included dietary habits," Erickson-Gini noted.

Ashkelon Mayor Tomer Glam called the recent finds "additional proof [that] Ashkelon is one of the most ancient cities in the world.

"The recent excavation … produces a combination of the city's rich past, its present development, and its future progress," Glam said.

Visitors curious about the culinary habits of the ancient Romans can visit the dig free of charge on Sunday, Dec. 22, the first day of Hanukkah.

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The tree, which takes its basic forest green hue from hundreds of pairs of scissors, includes a number of objects that definitely shouldn't be taken on planes!

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A close look reveals at least one chef's knife with its blade encased in a plastic sheath; several box cutters; a number of colored lighters; Swiss army knives, and a few aerosol canisters.

News reports about the tree added that Vilnius airport security personnel confiscate several handguns a day.

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Residents of these communities, which border the Gaza Strip, bear the brunt of the rocket and mortar attacks from Gaza and experience high levels of stress and tension. The circumstances of these children's upbringing compounds the challenges they face when they enlist in the IDF at age 18.

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The Eshkol Regional Council reached out to Ben-Gurion University after noticing an increasing number of new recruits experiencing significant distress at the start of their military service, which is already a stressful period.

In an attempt to understand and possibly find ways of confronting the ongoing trauma, council members reached out to Professor Limor Aharonson-Daniel and Dr. Stav Shapira of BGU's PREPARED Center for Emergency Response Research and School of Public Health. Both have done work evaluating resilience in residents of the western Negev.

Aharonson-Daniel and Shapira plan to delve into the methods these young soldiers use to cope and what resources are available to them.

Once the information is collected, Shapira and Aharonson-Daniel plan to work with the IDF and with regional councils in the Gaza border region to develop a program to boost resiliency among the youth of the western Negev.

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Officials who attended the meeting at the President's Residence included European Commission Coordinator on Combating Anti-Semitism Katherina von Schnurbein; US Special Envoy for Monitoring and Combating anti-Semitism Elan Carr; UK Special Envoy for post-Holocaust issues Lord Eric Pickles; German Government Commissioner on Anti-Semitism Dr. Felix Klein; and French Special Representative on Racism, Anti-Semitism and Discrimination Frédéric Potier, all of whom provided Rivlin with overviews of their work.

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"Your clear voices and the work you do are crucial, particularly at such a challenging and hostile time," the president told the representatives.

"Anti-Semitism is anti-Semitism is anti-Semitism. There are no gray areas and there is no option other than zero tolerance. One can criticize us so long as it is criticism. The moment it turns to boycotts and actions against Israel that are influenced by anti-Semitism – we will not accept it," he said.

Carr said, "Many leaders around the world understand that anti-Semitism is not only against the Jews, but against society as a whole. It is a great honor to work alongside such leaders for a better and more just world, and I am proud to call them partners.

"It is important that you know that my country, headed [by my] boss President Trump, and my boss Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, stand with you in the struggle for the security of Jewish people around the world and for the State of Israel," Carr added.

Pickles said that Jewish identity was an important and significant part of British identity, and that the fight against anti-Semitism was for Britain as a whole.

Potier declared that "this is the time for initiating action, not just making speeches," and Klein added, "anti-Semitism is taking on new guises and working together around the world is vital. This is a global issue and we must join hands to fight it."

Following the meeting, Rivlin marked the anniversary of Kristallnacht with a conference under the title, "Rising Anti-Semitism – the New Reality For Jews Around The World," which was organized in conjunction with the Diaspora Affairs Ministry, Gesher and the Foreign Ministry.

"Soon, we will mark the 81st anniversary of Kristallnacht," Rivlin told the conference.

"We must always remember that if anti-Semitism is not stopped in time, it quickly goes from words to broken glass, violence and murder. We must take bold action. We must be extremely concerned that anti-Semitism is rising around the world … It is inconceivable that 81 years after Kristallnacht, synagogues from Pittsburgh to Halle are under attack," Rivlin added.

Rivlin said, "We must use all legal tools at our disposal to prevent hate crimes and to prosecute them. We must ensure the security of Jewish communities, not just accept as fact that schools and synagogues needs guards, walls and gates."

Turning to specific courses of action, Rivlin praised social media as a powerful tool for spreading messages to combat hatred, and said that the definition of anti-Semitism as worded by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance should be "adopted at all level," as it takes into account "all forms of anti-Jewish hatred."

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Katz opens the door to the studio he rents on a quiet moshav near Ness Ziona in central Israel, offering Israel Hayom a peek at a sculpture in progress – a stylized, tail-less buck deer, which for now he is calling "Male."

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Sometimes, Katz says, his ideas crystallize as he plays with the materials. Other times, he starts with an idea, and then embarks on a long process of trying to express that idea.

"It's a process of finding solutions to express the idea that's in my head," Katz says. "It's much harder to try and express something I can picture in my mind than it is to start working on something and not know what it will become."

Video: Noga Martin

When he starts with a specific idea, the first thing he does is make rough sketches. "I have to," he says. "It's the way to get closest to or uncover the vague impressions in my head."

Then he uses a computer program to turn the sketch into a clean illustration of what he wants to sculpt. Finally, he carves the components out of Styrofoam and covers each one with air-dry clay, which he sands until it attains the texture of smooth plaster. For the sculptures that have a few parts, he uses thin metal rods to attach the different sections. He taught himself to spot-weld.

Katz makes up to nine editions of a piece. He recreates the prototype using ancient molding and casting techniques, but with modern materials – bubblegum pink silicon and epoxy clay, a material he likes because it's both lightweight and strong.

Katz was born in Sao Paolo, Brazil. In 1978, when he was five, his family left Brazil, which was still under a military dictatorship. Both of his parents are of Polish Jewish descent; his father's family arrived in South America before World War II, and his mother's father survived the Holocaust in Europe.

After a year in Ashkelon, his family moved to Kibbutz HaMa'apil in northern Israel. He remembers watching his father, an avid amateur artist, draw. As a child, Katz also loved drawing ("designing," he stresses) sneakers and cars, which he would imagine jumping off the paper and taking shape. After his compulsory IDF service, he studied graphic design, but the confines of a career as a graphic designer were not for him.

But his graphics training is very much present in his recent work, which is characterized by clean lines and curves and a mostly primary palette – red, blue, yellow, and black – offset by touches of bright green or orange. And, while he no longer spends his time sketching out designs for cars, Katz uses automotive paint on his sculptures due to its durability.

The pieces on show in Aspen, which are part of a new direction his art has taken in the past four years, are a departure from what he was doing earlier in his career. In 2013, Katz had a solo show in Tel Aviv. Most of the pieces he showed – a real-size life preserver made out of concrete and rebar; a chain of wooden rafts loaded with packing crates; a photo-realistic cantaloupe with slices cut out that don't quite fit back in which Katz says represents an immigrant's sense of incompleteness – explored themes of otherness, confusion, and alienation.

After the 2013 show, Katz felt he had closed a circle and done as much conceptual work as he wanted to. His new work focuses on form, line, and color. And wit: "Arnold" portrays a fleshed-out stick figure bodybuilder with both arms raised in a flex, while "Atlas" takes the burden of the globe off the mythical figure's back and halves it. Others are more purely abstract. In a few sculptural strokes, "Performance" (which was snatched up two weeks after being uncrated at Forre Fine Arts) perfectly conveys a lone performer on stage.

For now, Katz is pleased to have his work in the spotlight while he keeps busy in the studio.

Benny Katz's current work is also on display at Avant Gallery in Miami and Oeno Gallery in Ontario, Canada. Visit www.benny-katz.com or @bennykatzart on Instagram.

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