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The Bible Lands Museum Jerusalem is hosting a special exhibition entitled By the Rivers of Babylon beginning next month. An international conference on Jerusalem in Babylonia will be held on February 2-3.

Now online: the Fall 2014 issue of DigSight, published by Southern Adventist University’s Institute of Archaeology.

See the Holy Land has published new articles on Kathisma and the Church of St Alexander Nevsky (the Russian excavations), and an updated article on Magdala.

Free video lecture online: Doctors, Diseases and Deities: Epidemic Crises and Medicine in Ancient Rome, by Sarah Yeomans of the Biblical Archaeology Society.

Matthew Karsten hiked portions of the Israel National Trail and has some spectacular photos to show for it.

Aren Maeir will be giving a lecture on the latest work at Gath at the Albright Institute on January 15.

Registration for MEMRA’s ancient language courses ends soon.

G. M. Grena shares some personal thoughts and more from his time at the ASOR 2014 conference.

The British Museum explains why it was so pleased to be involved in the latest Night at the Museum movie.

The new Exodus movie is “an unimaginative, mind-numbing bore,” according to Michael Heiser.

Egypt has banned the movie “Exodus: Gods and Kings” for being historically inaccurate.

ISIS is threatening to blow up the walls of ancient Nineveh.

Vassilios Tzaferis has died in Athens. Among Tzaferis’s excavations was the tomb of the crucified
man.

HT: Agade, Exploring Bible Lands

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Archaeologists believe that they may have discovered a Roman-period synagogue in the Golan Heights.

A massive underground city from 3000 BC has been discovered in Turkey’s Central Anatolian province of Nevsehir.

More about the Summeily bullae, including a response by Israel Finkelstein, is reported by the AP.

The IAA busted over 100 antiquities thieves in 2014, the latest with a metal detector at Khirbet

Marmita near Beth Shemesh. Before that, two Israelis and two Palestinians were arrested for planning to loot gold from a cave in the West Bank.

Papyrus scrolls are hot items in the online antiquities market.

On Monday, 38 Tyrian shekels from the lifetime of Jesus will be sold by auction. They date consecutively from 5 BC to AD 33. The reserve amount is $125k.


Haaretz reviews the most intriguing archaeological stories of 2014.


Archaeology magazine picks their top 10 discoveries of the year.

Most of the top 10 posts of 2014 by Wayne Stiles are related to Bible geography.

Ferrell Jenkins shares some new NASA photos of Israel and the Middle East.

“Secrets of the Bible: The Fall of Jericho,” featuring Bryant Wood, airs on the American Heroes Channel on Sunday, January 4, at 8:00 and 11:00 pm.

HT: Ted Weis, Explorator, Joseph Lauer

Besichtigung des Ausstellungsstückes im Alten Museum - Jäger und Gejagte, Die exotische Tierwelt des römischen Mosaiks aus Lod (Israel).
© Uwe Steinert, Berlin.
www.uwesteinert.de
Holiday greetings from the Friends of the Israel Antiquities Authority; photo by Yuri Molodkovtsu
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The new excavations at the Citadel of David are described by Seth J. Frantzman in an article at the Jerusalem Post. The excerpt below begins with a quotation from Amit Re’em, the Jerusalem District Archaeologist.

“He spoke of a lot of water; baths, ritual baths, pools. Herod loved water and this is proof,” says the archeologist pointing to the drainage system that goes under the Old City walls and ends at Sultan’s Pool. Re’em, energetic and constantly on the move during the tour, is fluent in all the historical geography, shifting from the story of the High Priest Annas to the tale of how Jesus was brought to the palace of Herod, according to the New Testament.
Re’em envisions tourists being greeted one day by holograms in which they will see virtually the different walls from the various periods. “In this beautiful place we can see all the archeological and historical sequence of the history of Jerusalem.”
Eilat Lieber, the general director and chief curator of the museum, has a vision for the Kishle that involves opening it to the public for tours as well as making it a center of culture.
“We want to put an exhibition about the finds with a floating glass floor [at the upper level]. What is important to us is to know about the history and create a new cultural space for activities like lectures, music and modern art, bring the past and future together.”

The full story gives more of the modern history and plans for the museum’s future.

Citadel of David with snow from west, tb012800201
Citadel of David in Jerusalem
Photo from the Jerusalem photo collection
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Gordon Govier has selected the top ten discoveries for Christianity Today, putting at the head of the list: (1) Herod’s Gate at Herodium; (2) Khirbet Summeily bullae; (3) Sheshonq’s scarab.
Robin Ngo has compiled an unranked list of the top ten for the Biblical Archaeology Society.

Looking the lists over, I would conclude that if you’re into spectacular discoveries, this wasn’t your year. If you include the broader world of archaeology, you fare better with the excavation of the Amphipolis tomb.

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From the Jerusalem Post:

A fragment of a glass bracelet inscribed with a seven-branched menorah from the Second Temple was discovered during Hanukka at an excavation in the Mount Carmel National Park, the Israel Antiquities Authority announced Tuesday.
According to a statement from the IAA, excavations were carried out there in recent weeks prior to the construction of a water reservoir for the city of Yokne’am, at the initiative of the Mekorot Company.
During the excavation, an industrial region and refuse pits were exposed which were part of a large settlement that existed in the late Roman and early Byzantine periods, during the end of the fourth Century and beginning of the fifth Century CE, the IAA said.
The excavation’s co-directors Limor Talmi and Dan Kirzne said in the statement that last Thursday they made the findings at the end of the dig.
“While examining the contents of one of the boxes, which contained hundreds of glass fragments that had been discarded in the refuse pit, we found to our surprise a small fragment of a bracelet,” they said in a joint statement.
“Naturally it was extremely dirty, but still, you could see it was decorated. After cleaning, we were excited to discover that the bracelet, which is made of turquoise colored glass, is decorated with symbols of the seven-branched menorah – the same menorah which according to tradition was kept alight in the Temple for eight days by means of a single cruse of oil.”

The full article considers various theories of the item’s significance and includes four photos.

UPDATE: Joseph Lauer has sent along a link to seven high-res photos.

1
Bracelet inscribed with menorah
Photo courtesy of the Israel Antiquities Authority
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Miriam Feinberg Vamosh has written a number of popular books  over the last couple of decades, including Daily Life at the Time of Jesus, Women at the Time of the Bible, Food at the Time of the Bible, and How Kids Lived in Bible Days. Her books are well-researched and beautifully illustrated, and I frequently recommend them to students.

Miriam has recently created a new website where you can find her latest articles and blog posts. The website also tells more about her latest book, The Scroll. This work of historical fiction describes the journey of a young woman who survived Masada.

I am happy to see Miriam make her insights more available to students of the Bible around the world.

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