Ynetnews has a story on renovations of David’s Tomb on Mount Zion.
Leen Ritmeyer’s recent lecture on how he identified the location of Solomon’s Temple is recounted in a story in the Baptist Press.
A sarcophagus cover with a Medusa decoration is the now on display at Caesarea. The IAA press release (temporary link) also has some high-resolution images (direct link).
A hoard of 1,300 silver coins apparently from the Hellenistic period have been discovered in Rafah in the Gaza Strip, announced the Hamas-run “ministry of tourism and antiquities.”
The Museum of Tolerance to be built in the Mamilla neighborhood of Jerusalem will be half the size of the original plan because of reduced sources of funding. Plaintiffs who filed suit against the
construction have lost their case and been fined by the court.
I’ve had little time this month for noting the latest stories. As time permits, I’ll continue to try to catch up.
HT: Joe Lauer and Paleojudaica
4 thoughts on “Tuesday Roundup”
Todd, it's interesting that they're being so vague about the origin of the coins. Are you able to identify them by enlarging the image in the google story? Two of them are quite clear.
I'm not an expert in this area, but I can definitely discern that 2 of the coins are "Athena Owls", & another is of Alexander. Each of these typically sells for about $300 on eBay, & they date to about the same Hellenistic (pre-Roman) era.
When I saw the photo in the news story, my reaction was [& this is not sarcasm]: "Wow, those look like they just arrived from eBay (rather than from an archeological excavation)."
Of course they were probably cleaned professionally prior to the photo session.
I'm not sure that I'd trust anything in that article. The photo is certainly suspicious, especially given the lack of any specifics in the article. The other thing is: who in Gaza would be excavating these and not selling them?
Very funny, Todd! (Your comment about selling them!) Yes, I suppose the other suspicious issue is that the hand is holding 4 coins, but if you wanted to publicize your finding of 1,300 coins (i.e., a hoard), why wouldn't you show the whole pile?
Then again, maybe I was wrong. Maybe instead of buying them from eBay, they kept these 4 & sold the other 1,296! Or maybe they couldn't sell any of them, so they decided to issue a press release about a bogus excavation just to drum up some free publicity!
Usually archeologists photograph the artifacts on a desk/table with a scale for reference, not in their hand (the Qeiyafa ostracon being a rare exception, for whatever reason).
And welcome back, by the way! Glad you had a safe, & un-sick trip!