A compass belonging to one of the famed “Lamed Heh” fighters was recently discovered by archeologists atop a hill in the Judean Lowlands. “Lamed Heh” means 35 in Hebrew and refers to the 35 IDF soldiers who were massacred in an ambush when they tried to make their way to the Gush Etzion region south of Jerusalem to help break the siege of the area during Israel’s War of Independence in 1948.
The 35 are remembered to this day as a significant part of Israel’s history.
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The discovery was revealed on the eve Israel’s National Memorial Day (Yom HaZikaron in Hebrew) for the Fallen Soldiers of the Wars of Israel and Victims of Actions of Terrorism which is being observed on Tuesday.
nThe compass, as well as Bren type machine gun pods, were discovered behind a rock which is believed to have served as a shelter for one of the soldiers. They were uncovered in an archaeological study by Dr. Rafi Lewis from Ashkelon Academic College and Haifa University and Eyal Marco from the Israel Antiquities Authority.
According to the researchers, the compass belonged to either the unit commander Danny Mas or one of the two scouts who fought in force, Yitzhak Halevi or Yitzhak Zebuloni. This is the first study in which evidence is collected from the famous battle, from which no one returned.
For the past two years, Dr. Lewis and Eyal Marco have been conducting what they describe as a unique archaeological study on the battle hill of the “Lamed Heh.” Dr. Lewis and Marko met for the first time as part of their IDF reserve service in the Eitan unit that searches for missing IDF personnel. There, they use archaeological methods to search for soldiers whose burial place is unknown.
The research, which uses archaeological methods to investigate events that took place in the recent past, examines Givat Leh from the archaeological and environmental angle, and collected – for the first time, in an orderly and systematic way, evidence that remains to this day on the battlefield.
“We saw that the material evidence from the battle was disappearing,” said Marco and Dr. Lewis, “the objects are weathering in the field, and travelers are collecting souvenirs, and we felt that if we don’t do it now, in a few years we won’t have the opportunity to recreate the battlefield. With the help of colleagues, family members and reserve friends, we set off.”
