On Sunday, The New York Times posted an article about the meaning of the Hebrew word tekhelet, mentioned in Exodus 26:1 and elsewhere in the Hebrew Bible. Instead of light blue, Zvi C. Koren argues that is was a “closer to a bluish purple.”
On Tuesday, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem posted a press release about the publication of the first volume of The Corpus Inscriptionum Iudaeae/Palestine (CIIP) series. There are 9 volumes of the series scheduled and the goal is to collect “all the inscriptions ever found in Israel and the Palestinian Authority from the period of Alexander the Great (4th century C.E) until Mohammed (beginning of the 7th century A.D.)” The first volume “includes more than 700 inscriptions from Jerusalem and surrounding areas up until the destruction of the Second Temple.”
Also on Tuesday, reports about a break in at an artifact storehouse near the Giza pyramids were posted here and here.
On Wednesday, Aren Maeir posted on his blog a summary and a critique of recent lectures at Hebrew University about the Philistines and Sea Peoples.
Also on Wednesday, an article about archaeology in Libya (in light of the current unrest in that country) was posted by Scientific American here.
On Thursday (as was previously posted on this blog) Zahi Hawass announced that he will step down. Reports of this event can be found here and here. Hawass also posted a report on his blog that day about the dangers that are threatening archaeological sites and artifacts in Egypt. Biblical Archaeology Review intends to publish an interview with Hawass in the next issue.
Also on Thursday, Israel National News posted an article on a new training program being offered by the Israel Antiquities Authority. It is “a program to teach Jews from around the world how to conserve ancient buildings. The program, called Saving the Stones, is a five-month international training internship in historical and archeological conservation.” The IAA’s press release is here.
On Friday, a new exhibit with body casts from Pompeii opened at Discovery Times Square. The exhibit website is here and an article about it in the New York Times is here.
The McMullen Museum of Art at Boston College is currently displaying a collection called Dura-Europos: Crossroads of Antiquity. Admission to the museum is free.
HT: Jack Sasson, Joseph I. Lauer, A.D. Riddle
3 thoughts on “Weekend Roundup”
We're taking our 9th grade humanities kids to the exhibit at the Discovery TSX on Monday. Should be great. I can't wait to see the plaster casts!
Seth,
Thanks for the Weekend Roundup notice about the interesting NY Times article on tekhelet. As a (hobby)photographer, I'm interested in color and light, so I found such information interesting. In my own experience, many people seem to disagree about various shades of blue: is an item blue, green, teal, etc. Ten people will usually come up with at least five different opinions! Perhaps, as one person in the article suggests, the exact shade does not matter. However, if it is used to dye 'holy' items, you would think that care would be taken to establish a specific formula. I look forward to hearing more about this.
Nora
Great update and maybe a little late now, but it currently reads, "….the period of Alexander the Great (4th century C.E)…."
Small typo.
This should read B.C.E…