Anson Rainey will be lecturing in the Chicago area on “The Order of Sacrifices in Levitical Ritual” in the inaugural lecture of a new series: “The Trinity Biblical and Ancient Near Eastern Archaeology Lecture.”  For more details on the Nov 15 lecture, see here.

The Albright Institute in Jerusalem is hosting a “Workshop on the History and Archaeology of the Negev and Edom in the Iron Age” on December 12.  For more details, see this flyer.

Ehud Netzer was remembered in a broadcast this week on LandMinds.

A special exhibit opened at the British Museum this week entitled, “Journey through the Afterlife: Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead.”  Ann Wuyts has some related information.

Atiqot has placed their two most recent issues online.  Arutz-7 explains the significance of this journal.

There are a couple of new articles about the irrigation system at Ramat Rahel.
Israel’s Supreme Court has ruled against a petition intended to stop the destruction of artifacts on the Temple Mount.

If you’ve ever wondered if Jews are or are not allowed to walk on the Temple Mount, you now have your answer.

There has been some discussion online recently about Rachel’s Tomb near Bethlehem in light of UNESCO’s claim that the Jewish holy place is actually a Muslim mosque.  Leen Ritmeyer has the best images and discussion, but my guess is that it probably was a Muslim shrine before it was “Rachel’s Tomb.”  In any case, the biblical evidence is decisively against the authenticity of the site. 

Maybe I’ll explain more one of these days, but for the real short answer, see 1 Samuel 10:2.  [I now see Jim Davila’s request for an explanation, so I’ll bump it up on my priority list and try to post on it soon.

UPDATE: That explanation is here.]

HT: Joe Lauer