Todd Bolen, Author at BiblePlaces.com

Weekend Roundup

On this week’s broadcast of The Book and the Spade, Gordon Govier and I talk about the recent discoveries of the Elisha inscription at Tel Rehov and the Roman Legion base at Megiddo. Listen here.

Ferrell Jenkins discusses the discovery of huge columns at Laodicea.

Luke Chandler had a fantastic day visiting sites in Samaria and recommends his tour guide to others.

An article in Haaretz explains why women in Tel Aviv have been enjoying archaeological lectures in English for 40 years now.

HT: Joseph Lauer

Tagged Jezreel Valley, Jordan Rift, Lectures, Samaria, Tourism, Turkey

Wednesday Roundup

An enormous refuse pit from the Byzantine period was recently excavated near Apollonia-Arsuf.

A large Crusader hospital in the Muristan of Jerusalem’s Old City has recently been revealed to the public following recent excavations and renovations. The project is covered by other new sources including the Jerusalem Post.

Grave robbers are taking advantage of Egypt’s political mayhem to loot the tombs of Saqqara, Dashur, Luxor, and Aswan.

Sean Freyne passed away on Monday.

The Kindle version of the Holman Bible Atlas is on sale for $4.74.

HT: Jack Sasson

A group of Samaritan oil lamps found near Apollonia-Arsuf. Photograph by Pavel Shargo, courtesy of the Institute of Archaeology, Tel Aviv University.

Tagged Egypt, Excavations, Israel's Coast, Jerusalem, Weekend Roundup

Jewish Village of Shikhin Excavated in Galilee

From the Jerusalem Post:

Archeologists say they have found remains of the ancient Jewish village of Shikhin, located in the central Galilee, which could be instrumental in the study of Jewish life in the region and the origins of Christianity.
Dr. Mordechai Aviam of Kinneret College’s Institute for Galilean Archeology and co-director of the Shikhin expedition, said on Sunday the findings so far include evidence of an ancient synagogue and remnants of pottery production.
The expedition is a joint project led by Aviam, Samford University Religion Professor James Riley Strange and Kentucky Christian University Biblical Studies Professor David Fiensy.
Aviam said the project, which has included two years of excavations thus far, would help to answer crucial historical questions surrounding the identity of the Galileans.
“Who were the Galileans?” he asked. “Where they remnants from the First Temple period? Were they people who came from Judea? Were they people who converted [to Judaism]?” Aviam noted that the village is mentioned along with neighboring city Sepphoris (modern Tzipori) by first-century historian Flavius Josephus, and in the Talmud as a village home to many potters.

The story continues to describe the record number of oil lamp molds that have been discovered at the site.

HT: Joseph Lauer

Tagged Excavations

Weekend Roundup

Hershel Shanks has weighed in on the Israeli government’s astonishing about-face on the Jehoash Inscription.

Gordon Govier and I discuss the “palace of David” discovery in this week’s broadcast of The Book and the Spade (direct link here).

Luke Chandler has an exclusive scoop on recent finds from Khirbet Qeiyafa.

Ferrell Jenkins has posted a beautiful aerial photo of Gezer.

Wayne Stiles writes about 5 Christian Sites in Jerusalem You Should Know About.

My memory of whitewater rafting on the Jordan River is more thrilling than what this Haaretz writer
describes, but maybe it’s just grown with the telling.

This article about antiquities thieves in Jordan reveals that some ancient sites are guarded by
powerful genies.

The Garden of Eden is to become a national park in Iraq. (If you don’t see a guard armed with a
flaming sword, it may be a swindle.)

Accordance is ending the summer with some deals sure to interest those who love Bible geography,
history, and archaeology.

HT: Joseph Lauer, Jack Sasson

Walls of alleged “palace of David” at Khirbet Qeiyafa.
Photo by Steven H. Sanchez

Tagged Forgery, Jerusalem, Jordan Rift, Mesopotamia, Resources, Shephelah, Weekend Roundup

IAA: Jehoash Tablet Is an Antiquity

Matthew Kalman has a very interesting article on the latest in the Jehoash Ossuary trial, reporting that the Israeli government is now demanding to keep the artifact on the basis that it is authentic! Kalman reports:

In a stunning about-turn, after losing a 10-year legal effort to prove that an Israeli antiquities collector faked an inscription from Solomon’s Temple, Israel’s deputy state attorney begged the high court in Jerusalem on Wednesday to allow the Israeli government to keep the artifact on the grounds that it is “an antiquity.”
Oded Golan, the Israeli antiquities collector who was acquitted of forging the Jehoash Tablet after a seven-year criminal trial, said he had offered to loan it to a museum for study and public display, but he would fight the attempts by the state to confiscate it.
[…]
Following Golan’s arrest, a panel of experts appointed by the Israel Antiquities Authority declared the Jehoash Tablet and the James ossuary fakes. Golan and four others were indicted in December 2004 on multiple counts of forgery and accused of being members of an international antiquities forgery ring. None of the charges held up in court.
A year after Golan’s acquittal, Judge Farkash ordered the prosecution to return the Jehoash Tablet, the James ossuary and the other items to Golan.
But after arguing for a decade that the Jehoash Tablet was a fake, the prosecution has suddenly decided it is an antiquity, and therefore the property of the state under the 1978 Israel Antiquities Law.

Read the full report for quotations from the prosecutor and defendant. Kalman concludes with the hint that a compromise may be in the offing. See here for expert analysis that the inscription is genuine.

Jehoash Inscription.
Photo by Matthew Kalman

Tagged Forgery, Jerusalem

Answer: Most-Eroded Site in Israel

The site identified as the most eroded site in Israel is Tell Jemmeh, located on the bank of the Nahal Besor about 7 miles (12 km) due south of the city of Gaza. The site was identified as biblical Gerar by W. J. Phythian-Adams and Sir Flinders Petrie. Benjamin Mazar’s suggestion that Tell Jemmeh is Yurza is now commonly accepted. Yurza is mentioned in Egyptian and Assyrian texts but not in the Bible. The source of the quotation is the “Jemmeh, Tell” article by the late Gus W. Van Beek in The Anchor Bible Dictionary, volume 3, page 677.

We had a number of good responses in the comments yesterday, all of which show that there are many severely eroded tells in Israel. The correct answer was given by Dr. Carl Rasmussen, but if you’re feeling bad that you lost out, you can take comfort in the fact that you lost to someone who has written one of the best Bible atlases!

Tell Jemmeh side washed out by Nahal Besor, tb050701352

Tell Jemmeh, showing erosion caused by the Nahal Besor.
Photo from the Pictorial Library of Bible Lands, volume 5

Tagged Challenge, Negev