Todd Bolen, Author at BiblePlaces.com

Great Deal: William M. Ramsay Collection

The Logos collection of 16 volumes by William Mitchell Ramsay is about to close in Community Pricing. Currently the price is $30, though a few more bids will push everyone’s price down to $25 (or even $20). After it closes, the selling price will probably be around $200 (though retail is listed at $800).

For less than $2 each, you get these electronic books in Logos’ superior format:

I’ve recommended this collection before and do so again.

Tagged Resources, Turkey

Transfiguration Celebrated on Mount Tabor

I am not very familiar with this annual observance. From the Jerusalem Post:

On August 18 and 19 the Greek Orthodox Church will celebrate the annual Feast of the Transfiguration, which celebrates the transfiguration of Jesus that is traditionally thought to have occurred at Mount Tabor in the Galilee. The Catholic Church celebrated the holiday earlier this month on August 6 with a festive mass at the Church of the Transfiguration at Mount Tabor.
[…]
During this feast a night vigil occurs in the Greek Orthodox Church, which is the most unique experience associated with the holiday. Arab Christians camp in the woods surrounding the church and spend the night there, during which time the Divine Liturgy is celebrated outside the church. The Divine Liturgy is celebrated inside the Church on the August 19.
To commemorate Jesus’s climb up the mountain, some pilgrims will ascend Mount Tabor by foot.

The full article gives some details about the Transfiguration from the New Testament. It does not mention that most scholars reject Mount Tabor as the location for this event or give any of the reasons why. Three reasons may be suggested:

1. The Gospels record that Jesus was in the vicinity of Caesarea Philippi before the Transfiguration (Matt 16:13). Nothing suggests that he traveled southward to Mount Tabor.

2. The event was intentionally private, and a setting on Mount Hermon or even in the mountains of Upper Galilee would be more suitable than a location on Mount Tabor. The international highway traveling through the Jezreel Valley passed next to the Mount Tabor and would have made privacy unlikely.

3. A military fort on the summit of Mount Tabor during Hasmonean and Roman times was probably in use during Jesus’ ministry and would have precluded the site as a get-away for Jesus.

Nevertheless, early Christian pilgrims were attracted to Mount Tabor as the location for this event. It is possible that its convenient location on the way to Capernaum was a factor. This would have eliminated the need for a multi-day trek up to the environs of Caesarea Philippi.

For more information (and links), see the Mount Tabor page at BiblePlaces.com (also in Spanish and French).

Summit of Mount Tabor. Nazareth is visible in the distance.

Tagged Galilee, Holidays, Jezreel Valley

Wednesday Roundup

The “crown” of Damascus Gate in Jerusalem has been restored, reports the Israel Antiquities Authority. Leen Ritmeyer posts additional photos and an illustration.

Following a report about illegal construction at Gibeah of Saul (Tell el-Ful), officials have removed a fence installed at the site by the Waqf. Arutz-7 has photos.

The proposed re-identification of Tell el-Ful as Parah/Parathon by Israel Finkelstein is critiqued by G. M. Grena and found wanting.

Aren Maeir notes a new page of photos by the Israel Antiquities Authority showing some ancient games and game pieces discovered in Israel.

Renovations on the Avenue of the Sphinxes in Luxor, recently reported to be completed in time for an October inauguration, have ground to a halted.

To judge from Turkey’s recent efforts to pillage museums around the world, one would not guess that their warehouses contain more than 25,000 items waiting to be catalogued and put on display in the Istanbul Archaeological Museum.

You can now visit the National Museum of Iraq in Baghdad in Google Street Views. Impressive!

Justin Taylor quotes from R. T. France’s commentary on Matthew seven differences between Galilee
and Judea in the time of Jesus: racial, geographic, political, economic, cultural, linguistic, and religious.

Many like Amazon for its quick shipping, but James Spinti of Eisenbrauns points to a bizarre exception (and he includes a screenshot).

HT: Jack Sasson

Tagged Egypt, Jerusalem, Turkey, Weekend Roundup

Jericho Excavations 2011

Rome “La Sapienza” University and the Palestinian Department of Antiquities and Cultural Heritage (MOTA – DACH) excavated at Jericho (Tell es-Sultan) in March 2011 and have now posted a preliminary report online.

The team excavated four areas with remains from the Early and Middle Bronze periods. The report contains the following sections:

Palestinian Culture Protection: Jericho, 10,000 years of History of Humankind
Restorations of EB IIIB (Sultan IIIc2, 2500-2350 BC) Palace in Area G
Area A: MB I-II (Sultan IVa-b, 1900-1650 BC) stratigraphic sequence, MB III (Sultan IVc, 1650-1550 BC) Cyclopean Wall and rampart, Iron Age IIC (Sultan VIc) house and installations
Area B: the South Gate in EB IIIA (Sultan IIIc1) double line of fortifications
Area E: MB II (Sultan IVb, 1800-1650 BC) Curvilinear Stone Structure and connected features
Area E: MB II (Sultan IVb, 1800-1650 BC) Curvilinear Stone Structure and connected features
Middle Bronze II-III (Sultan IVb-c) Palace foundation walls W.633 and W.1175
EB IV (Sultan IIId) installations
EB IIIB (Sultan IIIc2) Palace G

Palace G is believed to be the residence of the city’s governors in the third millennium BC.

The continuation of the exploration of Palace G during this season allowed to produce a more complete plan and architectural section of the building, which extended at least on three different terraces on the eastern slope of the Spring Hill. The connection with previous excavation plans to the north-west (in Sellin and Watzinger’s squares 5G-H; Sellin – Watzinger 1913, 39-42, figs. 18-20) and in Kenyon’s square HII (see above note 45), allow to draw out an overall plan of the palace, which was the seat of the rulers of Jericho in the third quarter of the 3rd millennium BC. Its monumental architecture and special finds, such as carefully executed pithoi and storage jars, seal impressions, ceremonial vessels, as well as the copper dagger, further corroborate this identification.

The palace was restored this season with plastered mudbricks. Photos of the excavation and restoration works are also available (figures 1-3, 4-5, 6-8, 9-11, 12-15, 16-19, 20-21, 22-25).

HT: ANE-2

Tagged Excavations

Hercules Statue Discovered in Jezreel Valley

The Israel Antiquities Authority has announced the discovery of a headless statue of Hercules at a site 3 miles (4 km) northwest of Afula in the Jezreel Valley. From the press release:

A rare statue of Hercules was exposed at Horvat Tarbenet in the Jezreel Valley in excavations of the Israel Antiquities Authority, within the framework of the Jezreel Valley Railway project, directed by the Israel National Roads Company
A marble statue of Hercules from the second century CE was uncovered in excavations the Israel Antiquities Authority is conducting at Horvat Tarbenet, within the framework of the Jezreel Valley Railway project, directed by the Israel National Roads Company.
According to Dr. Walid Atrash of the Israel Antiquities Authority, “This is a rare discovery. The statue, which probably stood in a niche, was part of the decoration of a bathhouse pool that was exposed during the course of the excavations. It is c. 0.5 m tall, is made of smoothed white marble and is of exceptional artistic quality. Hercules is depicted in three dimension, as a naked figure standing on a base. His bulging muscles stand out prominently, he is leaning on a club to his left, on the upper part of which hangs the skin of the Nemean lion, which according to Greek mythology Hercules slew as the first of his twelve labors”.

The press release continues here. Three (similar) photos of the statue are available in a zip file.

Hercules statue discovered at Horvat Tarbenet. Photo: Israel Antiquities Authority.

UPDATE (8/16): The story is reported in the Jerusalem Post.

Tagged Discoveries, Jezreel Valley

Egypt’s Desire for a Statue in Boston

The construction of the Grand Egyptian Museum in Cairo has authorities seeking to bring back the most impressive items that have left the country. Yesterday’s story in the Boston Globe reveals some of the inner workings in the case of the bust of Prince Ankhhaf now in Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts. It’s an interesting read, particularly if you are concerned with the movement to repatriate antiquities. Unlike some other cases, no one disputes the legality of Boston’s ownership.

In a smoky office a short drive from the Pyramids of Giza, Mohamed Saleh, once the director of Cairo’s Egyptian Museum and now the man in charge of the collections for a planned $550 million Grand Egyptian Museum, is asked how much he knows about the bust of Prince Ankhhaf. The precious 4,500-year-old statue, 20 inches tall, left Egypt decades ago and is now on prominent display at Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts.
Saleh nods, smiles, and opens his laptop. Just a few clicks, and the stoic ancient face pops onto his screen. Four words are all Saleh needs.
“It is a dream,’’ he says.
The dream is the idea of the Ankhhaf bust returning from Boston, where it has rested since 1927. The Egyptian government is demanding the statue’s return, and the MFA has refused.
But this conflict – one of many the MFA has faced over works in its permanent collection – has been further complicated by the recent tumult in the Egyptian government. And while some claims for ownership of works can be made on legal grounds, this one treads on murkier terrain. The bust of Ankhhaf was given to the MFA by a previous Egyptian government, so the current government has no legal case. Any appeal must be made on moral grounds: that the piece is part of Egypt’s patrimony, and belongs at home.

The story continues here, but you must go to the museum’s website for photos.

HT: Jack Sasson

Tagged Egypt, Museums