Todd Bolen, Author at BiblePlaces.com

What’s New and Popular at BAS

With the most recent “roundup” here on Wednesday, there are not enough items of interest to warrant another edition this weekend. Instead, I have recently learned about (a new?) feature at the BAS website. You can check the same link each week for new content. From BAS:

Here’s a quick list of what’s brand new and most popular this week on the award-winning Web site of the Biblical Archaeology Society, publishers of Biblical Archaeology Review magazine.
BRAND NEW
Roman Ships Transported Live Fish June 03, 2011
Large Underground Water Source Found in Jerusalem June 02, 2011
Hawass Says Report of New Pyramids is Inaccurate June 01, 2011
Jerusalem Tunnels Reveal City’s Ancient Past May 31, 2011
Researchers Create Replicas of Cuneiform Tablets May 27, 2011
MOST POPULAR
A Case Against the Repatriation of Archaeological Artifacts
The Pharaoh, the Bible and Liberation (Square)
The Birth and Death of Biblical Minimalism
Scholar’s Study
2011 Archaeological Digs Seeking Volunteers

Three items struck me in the list’s one-sentence introduction:

1. What is the difference between “brand new” and “new”? Is it necessary or helpful to include the word “brand”?

2. Is there some value in informing your readers that your website is “award-winning”? Does it matter what kind of award it is?

3. In the 1990s we spoke of the World Wide Web, but it seems that in the last ten years or so, the Web has become the web and we don’t have Web sites, but websites.

None of these items are all that significant, but they stood out to me.

With regard to the links themselves, I recommend “A Case Against the Repatriation of Archaeological Artifacts,” by Rachel Hallotte.

Tagged Weekend Roundup

Photo of the Day: Dock at Troas

Apparently one fisherman grew tired of wading from his boat to land each day and built himself a little dock. This rickety walkway does nothing to remind the visitor of the glory of the ancient city of Troas and its important harbor, long reclaimed by the ocean.

The apostle Paul passed through the port several times, beginning with his first trip to Europe and the city of Philippi (Acts 16:8-10). Luke joined Paul at this time, based on the first occurrence of the first person plural in the narrative.

On his third missionary journey, Paul returned this way to visit friends as he traveled to Jerusalem.

His lengthy oratory put Eutychus to sleep, an event which might have gone unnoticed had not Eutychus been sitting in a window on the third floor (Acts 20:9). As the NET Bible puts it, “Fast asleep, he fell down from the third story and was picked up dead.”

Some have suggested that following his release from prison in Rome, Paul was later arrested in Troas. This would explain why Paul left his cloak and scrolls there, and why he requested that Timothy bring them to him quickly (2 Tim 4:13).

Strabo called Troas “one of the most famous cities of the world,” but by the sixth century, its harbors were apparently silted up and the city was no longer a significant crossroads in the Byzantine empire.

Tagged Photo of the Day, Turkey

Rare Ibex Scenes Caught on Video

I love BBC’s Planet Earth series, and a clip of the dramatic footage of ibex males fighting is now on Youtube.

A follow-up BBC series is Life, and to judge from previews, the quality looks as spectacular. Here is a scene of ibex climbing down the cliffs of En Gedi, with a dramatic chase of a kid by a fox.

Last month I noted the five-minute video entitled “The Crags of the Wild Goats,” produced by SourceFlix.

UPDATE: Ferrell Jenkins has written about ibex and their significance in Scripture. As he notes in the comment below, there was no collusion in our efforts today.

Tagged Dead Sea, Judah

Wednesday Roundup

The theft of dozens of antiquities from Eleusis (Eleusina, Elefsina) has been solved and the items recovered by Greek police.

Nearly 2,000 artifacts smuggled out of Turkey have been recovered and returned this year alone. The article notes that the country has almost 200 museums.

The Israeli government approved a plan to rehabilitate the polluted Kishon River. After the three-year process is complete, plans call for converting the area into a park with bicycle and walking paths.

Leen Ritmeyer comments on Israel’s largest underground stream, discovered recently in construction of the railway under Jerusalem.

Wayne Stiles explains the historic significance of Beth Shean and its attraction to archaeologists. The article also includes a two-minute aerial fly-over of the ancient city.

The NY Times profiles the full-size replica of Noah’s Ark being built in Holland. One consideration the original builder did not have: making the boat fire-proof. The article mentions the possibility of the ark visiting London for the Olympic Games next year as well as interest from Texas and Israel. A photo shows how impressive the boat is.

After raising $3 million for the replica of Noah’s Ark in Kentucky, an updated webpage now provides details about various sections of the theme park. Visitors will enjoy seeing reconstructions of the Tower of Babel, a walled city, and a first-century village. The children’s area will include zip lines.
Yuval Baruch, Jerusalem District Archaeologist, is interviewed on the LandMinds radio show.

An article in Popular Archaeology reviews the excavations of copper mines in the Aravah and the possible implications for our understanding of the time of Solomon.

Israel is celebrating today “Jerusalem Day,” and the unification of the city in 1967 is remembered in the return of Jehuda Hartman to the Western Wall to “update” an iconic photo. Hartman comments on some of the great changes to the Western Wall area in the last four decades.

HT: Explorator, Jack Sasson

Tagged Greece, Jerusalem, Weekend Roundup

Graffiti Found Inside Tiny Chamber in Great Pyramid

From Past Horizons:

Researchers on the Djedi robot expedition have now obtained video images from a tiny chamber hidden at the end of one of the shafts leading from the Queen’s chamber. This tunnel is particularly hard to explore because it is extremely narrow (20cm x 20cm), it is built at angle of 40 degrees and has no outside exit.
The team overcame these practical difficulties by using a robot explorer that could climb up inside the walls of the shaft whilst carrying a miniature ‘micro snake’ camera that can see around corners.
The bendy camera (8 mm diameter) was small enough to fit through a small hole in a stone ‘door’ at the end of the shaft, giving researchers a clear view into the chamber beyond.
The ‘micro snake’ camera’ allowed all walls of the camber to be carefully examined, revealing sights not seen by human eyes since the construction of the pyramid
[…]
When pieced together, the images gathered by Djedi revealed hieroglyphs written in red paint that team members suggest were made by workmen. Prior to this, researchers had only found hieroglyphs in the roof of the King’s Chamber, which lies some distance above the Queen’s Chamber.
“We believe that if these hieroglyphs could be deciphered they could help Egyptologists work out why these mysterious shafts were built,” Dr Richardson said.

The full story includes photos.

HT: Jack Sasson

Tagged Discoveries, Egypt

Walk a Mile Underneath Jerusalem

Matti Friedman, writing for the AP, describes the various “underground tours” that are open to tourists in Jerusalem. He also touches on the political and religious complications.

Underneath the crowded alleys and holy sites of old Jerusalem, hundreds of people are snaking at any given moment through tunnels, vaulted medieval chambers and Roman sewers in a rapidly expanding subterranean city invisible from the streets above.
At street level, the walled Old City is an energetic and fractious enclave with a physical landscape that is predominantly Islamic and a population that is mainly Arab.
Underground Jerusalem is different: Here the noise recedes, the fierce Middle Eastern sun disappears, and light comes from fluorescent bulbs. There is a smell of earth and mildew, and the geography recalls a Jewish city that existed 2,000 years ago.
Archaeological digs under the disputed Old City are a matter of immense sensitivity. For Israel, the tunnels are proof of the depth of Jewish roots here, and this has made the tunnels one of Jerusalem’s main tourist draws: The number of visitors, mostly Jews and Christians, has risen dramatically in recent years to more than a million visitors in 2010.
But many Palestinians, who reject Israel’s sovereignty in the city, see them as a threat to their own claims to Jerusalem. And some critics say they put an exaggerated focus on Jewish history.

The story continues here. The underground “route” that Friedman describes begins with a walk through Hezekiah’s Tunnel (or its alternate, the Siloam Tunnel). Then, later this summer, one will be able to enter the Roman drainage system and walk all the way to the Western Wall plaza. In several years, a new route will take visitors on the first-century street beneath the prayer plaza. That will link up with the Western Wall tunnels which run north along Herod’s well-preserved retaining wall.

For more of the political angle on the “Underground Jerusalem” excavations, see last month’s article in Haaretz (noted here). For some additional photographs, see Leen Ritmeyer’s post.

HT: Joseph Lauer

Western Wall tunnel: northern section through Hasmonean aqueduct

Tagged Excavations, Jerusalem, Tourism