Todd Bolen, Author at BiblePlaces.com

IWC Spring 2014 Lecture Series

In my estimation, perhaps the most interesting lecture series related to biblical archaeology is that held each year by the International Women’s Club at Tel Aviv University. They bring in outstanding lecturers who discuss topics of broad interest.

This year’s theme is “In the Eye of the Storm—‘Jerusalem in History and Archaeology Through the Ages.’” The schedule is as follows:

February 18: Dr. Gabriel Barkay, Jerusalem of Kings and Prophets

February 25: Prof. Avraham Faust, Jerusalem and Sennacherib: The City, before, during, and after the Assyrian Campaign of 701 BCE

March 4: Dr. Joe Uziel, Recent Excavations in Jerusalem and Their Importance for
Understanding the First Temple City

March 11: Dr. Stephen Gabriel Rosenberg, “The Hezekiah Tunnel.” How Was It Built and Why Was It Built?

March 18: Dr. Stephen Gabriel Rosenberg, The History and Archaeology of the Book of Esther

March 25: Dr. Guy Shtibel, “By Far the Most Famous City of the East” – Herod and Jerusalem

April 1: Dr. Guy Shtibel, The Eagle and the Flies – The Roman Siege of Jerusalem

April 8: Dr. Guy Shtibel, “Between Two Cities” – From Jerusalem to Aelia Capitolina

April 29: Dr. Yonatan Adler, Mikva’ot (Ritual Baths) in Late Hellenistic and Early Roman Jerusalem

May 13: Dr. Shlomit Weksler-Bdolah, Jerusalem (Aelia Capitolina) in the Roman Period: The Foundation of the Roman Colony and the Bar-Kokhba Revolt

May 20: Dr. Oren Gutfeld, From Aelia Capitolina to Hagia Polis Hierosalima: Changes in the Urban Layout of Jerusalem

June 10: Mr. Perez Reuven, The Umayyad Building Project on the Temple Mount and Its Environs

Individual lectures cost 50 NIS; the entire series is 400 NIS. The lectures will be held 9-11:30 am in the Gilman Building, Room 282, Tel Aviv University. A flyer with contact details is available here.

Tagged Jerusalem, Lectures

Weekend Roundup

Excavations in Hebron have already revealed an Iron Age house, artifacts from the 10th century, and Second Temple period items.

Nadav Shragai writes in Israel HaYom on recent Temple Mount discoveries that have not been publicized.

Plans are underway for a new museum at Petra.

The Rapid City Journal recounts how a collection of cuneiform tablets came to be in the collection of Black Hills State University in South Dakota.

National Geographic presents “Indiana Jones and the Adventure of Archaeology,” a new exhibition coming to the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History.

Ferrell Jenkins has posted several entries recently in his Visualizing Isaiah series: a skirt of sackcloth, trusting in horses and chariots, and a booth in a vineyard.

Jerusalem’s Biblical Zoo has welcomed a new male lion to replace the one who died last year.

ASOR has a roundup of stories from around the world.

HT: Joseph Lauer, Charles Savelle, Jack Sasson

Tagged Excavations, Jerusalem, Jordan, Judah, Museums, New Exhibits, Temple Mount, Tourism, Weekend Roundup

Lecture Series: History and Archaeology of the Three Jerusalems

The American Jewish University in Bel Air, California, is hosting the Simmons Family Charitable Foundation’s Twenty-Fifth Annual Program in Biblical Archaeology on Sunday, February 16, 9:00 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. The registration fee is $55. The schedule includes the following lectures:

Carol Bakhos, The Idea of Jerusalem in the Hearts of Those Who Call Out “Lord” or “Allah” or “Adonai”

Shimon Gibson, Christian Jerusalem: From Constantine the Great in the 4th Century to Emperor Heraclius in the 7th Century

Shimon Gibson, Jerusalem under the Moslems: from Caliph Omar to Saladin

Gabriel Barkay, When the Second Temple Stood

Gabriel Barkay, The Footprints of Kings in Jerusalem

The website includes more details about each lecture and provides a link for online registration. Gibson and Barkay are both excellent lecturers, and Jerusalem is a fascinating subject.

HT: G. M. Grena

The Dome of the Rock and Al Aqsa Mosque, early 1900s
Photo from the American Colony Collection

Tagged Jerusalem, Lectures

Byzantine Basilica Discovered near Kiryat Gat

Archaeologists in Israel revealed an impressive Byzantine church building with beautiful mosaic pavements at Moshav Aluma near Kiryat Gat. The site is in the eastern coastal plain, about 10 miles (16 km) east of Ashkelon and 30 miles (48 km) southwest of Jerusalem.

The director of the Israel Antiquities Authority excavations, Daniel Varga, describes the structure in a press release issued by the IAA:

An impressive basilica building was discovered at the site, 22 meters long and 12 meters wide. The building consists of a central hall with two side aisles divided by marble pillars. At the front of the building is a wide open courtyard (atrium) paved with a white mosaic floor, and with a cistern. Leading off the courtyard is a rectangular transverse hall (narthex) with a fine mosaic floor decorated with colored geometric designs; at its center, opposite the entrance to the main hall, is a twelve-row dedicatory inscription in Greek containing the names Mary and Jesus, and the name of the person who funded the mosaic’s construction.

The press release gives more detail of the mosaic floor:

The main hall (the nave) has a colored mosaic floor adorned with vine tendrils to form forty medallions. The medallions contain depictions of different animals, including: zebra, leopard, turtle, wild boar, various winged birds and botanical and geometric designs. Three medallions contain dedicatory inscriptions in Greek commemorating senior church dignitaries: Demetrios and Herakles. The two were heads of the local regional church. On both sides of the central nave are two narrow halls (side aisles), which also have colored mosaic floors depicting botanical and geometric designs, as well as Christian symbols.

The site will be open to the public on Thursday and Friday (Jan 23–24) before the mosaics are removed for future display in a local museum. The church building itself will be buried. More information is available in the press release. The photos posted below are available via this link. Brief news articles have been published by the Jerusalem Post, Washington Post, and Times of Israel.

Excavation of the Byzantine basilica at Moshav Aluma

An excavation volunteer cleans the mosaic floor

Mosaic floor of the Byzantine basilica
All photos by Yoli Shwartz, courtesy of the Israel Antiquities Authority

Tagged Discoveries, Israel's Coast

Now Available: Edward Robinson’s Works on Logos

Logos Bible Software is offering a set of 8 volumes entitled “Classic Studies and Atlases on Biblical Geography.” What you need to know is that it includes the three volumes of Edward Robinson’s Biblical Researches in Palestine. The collection is now listed on the Community Pricing, which is always the most affordable way to purchase books from Logos. Once they receive enough orders, the price will jump up $100 or so. Now you can bid what you feel the set is worth.

For those who don’t know, Edward Robinson’s set is the seminal work on historical geography of the land of Israel. Robinson and his student Eli Smith traveled throughout Palestine in 1838 with a goal of locating ancient sites, primarily on the basis of name preservation. I have a couple of sets of this work, including one original edition from 1841. I once began creating an electronic edition, but other matters came in the way and it was set aside. Now you can purchase this at an attractive price. (And, yes, Google Books has long had this for free, but what you save in money you’ll pay for in the headache of trying to sort out the volumes from various editions that do not go together.)

I do wish that Logos would add to this collection the fourth volume, Later Biblical Researches in Palestine (1856). This was based on a later trip that Robinson and Smith made to answer some outstanding questions.

The other titles included:

The Bible Atlas of Maps and Plans, by Samuel Clark
Atlas of the Historical Geography of the Holy Land, by George Adam Smith
An Historical Textbook and Atlas of Biblical Geography, by Lyman Coleman
Sacred Geography and Antiquities, by E. P. Barrows
Physical Geography of the Holy Land, by Edward Robinson

Once upon a time, I created a list of the best resources by 19th-century explorers of Palestine.

You can put in your bid here. And here is another collection of similar works, but no longer at the attractive Community Pricing.

HT: Charles Savelle

Robinson's Arch with new excavations, db6806245201

Robinson’s Arch in Jerusalem, named for Edward Robinson
Photo by David Bivin

Tagged Resources

Weekend Roundup

Noah Wiener has a follow-up article on the spring tunnel discovered in the Rephaim Valley. He includes a great photo of the tunnel.

Zachi Zweig disagrees with Leen Ritmeyer’s dating of the newly revealed course of ashlar stones on the Temple Mount. He dates it to the Early Islamic period.

A woman has turned over to the IAA a large collection of pottery discovered by a relative in the Mediterranean Sea.

The winter dig at Khirbet el-Maqatir began in the snow. They spent several weeks excavating three caves.

The ancient Myceneans once used portable grills at their picnics.

Archaeologists have discovered grain from the Neolithic period at Çatalhöyük.

The report for the 2013 excavation season at Tall el-Hammam is now online.

The first two volumes of NGSBA Archaeology are available for download. (NGSBA = Nelson Glueck School of Biblical Archaeology.)

Just published: The Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology of the Levant: c. 8000-332 BCE, edited by
Margreet L. Steiner and Ann E. Killebrew. Oxford University Press. 912 pages. $165.

Wayne Stiles explains how to make the maps in your Bible atlas fully searchable.

HT: Joseph Lauer, Tim Graham, Jack Sasson

Tagged Greece, Israel's Coast, Jerusalem, Jordan Rift, Photo Resources, Resources, Temple Mount, Turkey, Weekend Roundup