Land of the Bible has created a flight tour of the area destroyed in the Mount Carmel blaze. The imagery is from Google Earth and does not show the damage, but you get a good sense for the area affected. The map showing the burned region is the best I’ve seen.
Leen Ritmeyer has an excellent illustrated discussion on the identification of the “Beautiful Gate” at the Temple where Peter healed the lame man (Acts 3). He discusses the options and proposes that the Beautiful Gate should be identified with the Double Gate.
Jeff Chadwick will be lecturing on the 8th century at Philistine Gath (Tell es-Safi) at the Albright Institute in Jerusalem tomorrow (12/16).
Randall Price says that he has verified that the discovery of Noah’s Ark reported some months ago is a fabrication.
An intact, sealed jar discovered at Qumran in 2004 has been opened and analyzed.
Ferrell Jenkins has a link to a series of 162 historic photos posted online by the Palestine Exploration Fund.
The big storm in the Middle East revealed some archaeological treasures, including a Roman statue of a woman that fell into the Mediterranean at Ashkelon. Ferrell Jenkins has posted some photos of the cliffs of Ashkelon.
Joe Lauer sends along word of a note to journalists about the storm damage in Caesarea:
Tomorrow (Wednesday) the director of the Israel Antiquities Authority, Mr. Shuka Dorfman, the director-general of the Caesarea Development Company, Mr. Michael Carasenti and representatives of the Nature and Parks Authority will tour the national park and the surrounding area in order to assess the storm damage. The tour will begin at 10:30 in Caesarea harbor and will be open to media coverage. The Israel Antiquities Authority estimates it will cost millions of shekels to rehabilitate the antiquities that were damaged by the storm throughout the country, some of which have suffered enormous and irreversible damage.
Expect a story and photos in the media later today. Earlier reports about the damage are posted at Arutz-7, ShalomLife, and the Vancouver Sun.
