Todd Bolen, Author at BiblePlaces.com

Balsam Plants Living Again at En Gedi

A few years ago, scientists succeeded in raising a date palm tree from a 2,000-year-old seed found at Masada. Now botanists are attempting to revive the balsam plant. From an article published last week in Haaretz:

Saplings of the balsam plant that have been cultivated in Kibbutz Ein Gedi’s botanical garden for the past two years are a first test of the possibility of bringing the legendary bush, which flourished in the Second Temple period, back to the Dead Sea region, two scholars told a Jerusalem audience yesterday.
Speaking at a conference organized by the Elad association in Jerusalem’s City of David, Prof. Zohar Amar and Dr. David Iluz of Bar-Ilan University described their research into the plant’s identity.
Since the 1970s, there have been several failed attempts to acclimate the plant believed to be balsam, one of ancient Palestine’s most economically significant plants, to modern-day Israel. But the staff of Ein Gedi’s botanical garden are optimistic that the current effort will succeed.
The plant is mentioned dozens of times in ancient sources, from the Bible to the Talmud, as well as in Greek and Roman writings. The most prestigious perfume known in the ancient Near East was produced from it, and it was also known for its healing qualities.
The balsam plantations in the Dead Sea area were under direct royal control, and the methods of cultivation and production were a closely guarded secret and a powerful political tool. For example, the balsam groves in Jericho became a bone of contention between Cleopatra of Egypt and Herod the Great. During the Bar Kokhba Revolt, in the second century CE, Jewish fighters uprooted the plants so they would not be captured by the Romans.

The story continues here. There is quite a bit of variety in the translations for balsam, but you may recall some of these:

Genesis 37:25 (HCSB) Then they sat down to eat a meal. They looked up, and there was a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead. Their camels were carrying aromatic gum, balsam, and resin, going down to Egypt.

2 Samuel 5:23 (NIV) so David inquired of the Lord, and he answered, “Do not go straight up, but circle around behind them and attack them in front of the balsam trees.

Song of Solomon 5:13 (NAS)
“His cheeks are like a bed of balsam,
Banks of sweet-scented herbs;
His lips are lilies
Dripping with liquid myrrh.

HT: Joe Lauer

Tagged Dead Sea, Technology

Classical City Uncovered on Egypt’s Coast

The AP reports on the excavation of Leukaspis (Antiphrae) on the northern coast of Egypt. From the AP:

Today, it’s a sprawl of luxury vacation homes where Egypt’s wealthy play on the white beaches of the Mediterranean coast. But 2,000 years ago, this was a thriving Greco-Roman port city, boasting villas of merchants grown rich on the wheat and olive trade.
The ancient city, known as Leukaspis or Antiphrae, was hidden for centuries after it was nearly wiped out by a fourth century tsunami that devastated the region.
More recently, it was nearly buried under the modern resort of Marina in a development craze that turned this coast into the summer playground for Egypt’s elite.
Nearly 25 years after its discovery, Egyptian authorities are preparing to open ancient Leukaspis’ tombs, villas and city streets to visitors — a rare example of a Classical era city in a country better known for its pyramids and Pharaonic temples.

The story continues here. Click on the slideshow link on the side to see seven photos.

HT: Joe Lauer

Tagged Egypt, Excavations

Ataroth Temple Follow-up

The reports last week on the Iron Age temple discovered at Ataroth (Ataruz) did not include comments from the American director who has overseen work on the site for the last decade. A story in the university’s denomination’s news network gives some more information (and one photo of the temple).

“[This is] the largest and best-preserved temple from the biblical period. It will shed important light on the cultic, or religious, life of that period,” said Dr. Chang Ho Ji, chairman and professor in the Counseling and School Psychology department and a collaborating faculty in the History department of La Sierra University, a Seventh-day Adventist school in Riverside, California.
[…]
“This is an extremely important find and one that has relationships to biblical history; it is very exciting,” said Dr. Lawrence Geraty, president emeritus of the school and an archaeology professor there, in an e-mail to Adventist Review. Geraty pioneered the cooperation among several Adventist institutions, including Atlantic Union College, Canadian Union College, Andrews University, and La Sierra, and the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, starting in 1984 with a dig at Tall al-‘Umayri.
Jordanian Department of Antiquities (DoA) Director General Ziad Saad announced the recent discovery as the largest early Iron Age II temple in the region, dating back to between 1000 and 800 BC.
The multi-chambered temple, which includes a 20-by-20-meter courtyard, yielded over 300 cultic artifacts, leading experts to believe it was once a political and religious base for either the Moabite or the northern Israelite kingdom.

The full report is here. Previous notices on this blog can be found here and here. Joe Lauer notes a similar story in the Jordan Times.

Tagged Discoveries, Jordan

Lost City in Egyptian Desert

Yale Alumni Magazine has a fascinating and well-written article on the discovery of Umm Mawagir.

The NY Times article is less interesting but has better illustrations.

For much of the twentieth century, Egyptologists shied away from explorations in the vast sand sea known as the Western Desert. An expanse of desolation the size of Texas, the desert seemed too harsh, too implacable, too unforgiving a place for an ancient civilization nurtured on the abundance of the Nile. In spring, a hot, stifling wind known as the Khamsin roars across the Western Desert, sweeping up walls of suffocating sand and dust; in summer, daytime heat sometimes pushes the mercury into the 130 degree–Fahrenheit range. The animals, what few there are, tend to be unfriendly. Scorpions lurk under the rocks, cobras bask in the early morning sun. Vipers lie buried under the sand.
When Egyptologists finally began investigating the Western Desert, they gravitated first to the oases. But in 1992, a young American graduate student, John Coleman Darnell, and his wife and fellow graduate student, Deborah, decided to take a very different tack. The couple began trekking ancient desert roads and caravan tracks along what they called “the final frontier of Egyptology.” Today, John Darnell, an Egyptologist in Yale’s Near Eastern Languages and Civilization department, and his team have succeeded in doing what most Egyptologists merely dream of: discovering a lost pharaonic city of administrative buildings, military housing, small industries, and artisan workshops. Says Darnell, of a find that promises to rewrite a major chapter in ancient Egyptian history, “We were really shocked.”

The article continues here.

HT: Joe Lauer

Tagged Discoveries, Egypt

Lectures on David and Solomon in Los Angeles

The American Jewish University of Los Angeles is hosting a lecture series in February on the first two kings of the Davidic dynasty. For registration details, see their website.

What Do We Know About the REAL David and Solomon, the Most Glorious Kings of Ancient Israel, and How Do We Know It?
Sunday, February 27 * 9:30am – 4:30pm

In a fascinating day of biblical and archaeological exploration, a group of eminent biblical scholars and archaeologists will broaden our understanding of the life and times of David, the warrior, and Solomon, the wise. They will consider the facts, sift through the evidence and explain their significance.

Please join us as Mr. Fred Simmons author of King David, A Play in Prose and in Verse on How a Poor, Young Shepherd Boy Became the King of Israel, introduces the program, and Dr. Ziony Zevit, AJU Professor of Biblical Literature and Semitic Languages, introduces the topic and our speakers.

Dr. William Schniedewind, Professor of Biblical Studies and Northwest Semitic Languages, UCLA, David and Solomon: How the Bible Tells Their Story and How a Historian Reads It.

Dr. Carleen Mandolfo, Professor of Hebrew Bible, Claremont School of Theology, David and Solomon on the Silver Screen: How Hollywood Tells Their Story and Influences Our Understanding.

Dr. Jon Seligman, Chief Archaeologist, Jerusalem District, Israel Antiquities Authority, The Archaeological Footprints of David and Solomon in Jerusalem.

Dr. Michael G. Hasel, Professor of Near Eastern Studies and Archaeology, Southern Adventist University, Recent Excavations and the Battle Between David, Goliath and the Archaeologists.

Tagged Lectures

Ataroth in the Bible

Following yesterday’s post on the discovery of the Moabite temple at Ataroth, I thought it might be helpful to note the biblical significance of this site. It’s not a very well-known place, but I was
surprised just how much we know from the Bible and extrabiblical sources.

In the time of Moses, Ataroth was one of the cities requested by the tribes of Reuben and Gad following the conquest of the land of Sihon the Amorite (Num 32:3). You may recall that at first Moses was upset with this request, thinking that they were afraid to enter the Promised Land with its formidable enemies (as was the previous generation). But after some clarification, Moses granted their request and the Gadites fortified the city (Num 32:34).

The presence of the Gadites at Ataroth is confirmed in the Moabite Stone about 550 years later. King Mesha claims to have conquered the city: “Now the men of Gad had always dwelt in the land of Ataroth, and the king of Israel had built Ataroth for them; but I fought against the town and took it and slew all the people of the town as a satiation (intoxication) for Chemosh and Moab” (ANET 320).

Mesha ruled in the middle of the 9th century, so unless King Uzziah of Judah regained the land, the area around Ataroth may have remained Moabite for several centuries. Perhaps the recently discovered temple was built in the aftermath of Mesha’s conquest.

An obscure note in the genealogies of 1 Chronicles may indicate that the Gadites had moved further north by the 8th century (1 Chr 5:17).

Scholarly consensus locates biblical Ataroth at Khirbet Attarus/Ataruz. There is also a Rujm Attarus and a Jebel Attarus. Khirbet Attarus is located 8 miles (14 km) northwest of Dhiban on the west slope of Jebel Attarus. MacDonald gives a list of more than a dozen scholars who agree on this identification (“East of the Jordan,” 113).

Ataroth is east of the Dead Sea and north of the Nahal Arnon, which constituted Moab’s northern border (map from biblos.com)

MacDonald writes, “Khirbat ‘Atarus is a good example for the location of biblical Ataroth, agreeing with both biblical information and the Mesha Inscription. The preservation of the biblical name at the site and archaeological remains from the Iron Age are also evidence for this choice” (114).

MacDonald’s excellent work is available, along with other ASOR titles, in restricted pdf format from Boston University’s website. (Only viewing is allowed.)

For more on the Hadad figurine discovered in the temple, see Ferrell Jenkins’s post.

Tagged Jordan