Todd Bolen, Author at BiblePlaces.com

Weekend Roundup

The Turkish government is building a 10-foot high wall around a cemetery along the eastern wall of the Old City of Jerusalem, according to signs posted there. The municipality has confirmed the report.

John the Baptist’s bones have been found in a monastery on a Bulgarian island in the Black Sea, according to government officials. They have everything to prove the identification except for evidence.

Extracts of the Cyrus Cylinder have been found in China carved on horse bones. The question is when the copies were made.

The French will finance a “national museum” in Bethlehem and train museographers, in a one million dollar deal signed recently. Construction is scheduled to be completed in 2012.

The Jewish Tribune has a story on the woman who discovered the Jerusalem cuneiform tablet.

Contrary to what I wrote before, the tablet was actually discovered during sifting in March. I mixed up a couple of different unannounced sensational discoveries.

Raphael Golb, accused of impersonating Dead Sea Scrolls scholars, has rejected a plea offer in Manhattan Criminal Court. For background, see here.

HT: Joe Lauer

Tagged Dead Sea, Jerusalem, Judah, Pseudo-Archaeology

Holy Sepulcher To Be Billed for Water

Who should pay for the water drunk by visitors to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem?

The church should, according to a new decision by the city’s water company.

From the Jerusalem Post:

“We are providing water to the pilgrims and tourist for free,” says doorkeeper Jawal Hussein. “It’s not fair. We should not have to pay.”
Slumped on a small stone bench at the entrance to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Hussein reflected on reports that the Jerusalem water company had decided to end a centuries-old tradition and is now demanding the church pay for its water.
Gihon, the public water company in Jerusalem, has also reportedly demanded the church pay its back bill dating to 1967, when Israel assumed control of east Jerusalem and the walled Old City from the Jordanians. According to AsiaNews.it, a Christian news site, the decision would break a tradition honored by both the British and Jordanian rulers who had controlled the site in the past century.

There is, however, a significant problem: who do they send the bill to? There is no single authority over the property, and the various church groups are hardly able to work things out between them.

There is also the question of fairness.

A Franciscan monk aiding a group of pilgrims from South Korea through the church paused to contemplate the water bill.

“I have heard about it but I don’t understand why the government wants to discriminate against us,” said the monk, who asked not to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter. “Are the synagogues and the mosques paying?” “We are doing a favor to the pilgrims and tourists,” he added. “The government must be earning something from [their visit]. We are doing them a favor.”
“But if the synagogues and mosque have to pay, then I guess we have to pay as well,” the monk added.
The Gihon water company issued a statement saying that they have not, “as of this moment,” cut off the water supplies of any religious institution.
It added that it was charging a standard price of about $4 dollars per cubic meter for water from all religious institutions in the Old City, including mosques, synagogues and churches.
“It should be stressed that this is a uniform fee for all,” the statement said.

Is this true? Does the rabbinate pay for the water that comes from the fountains at the Western Wall?

It seems to me that the rules should be the same for the two places, as both are religious landmarks freely open to the public.

Holy Sepulcher rotunda with visitors for Ceremony of Holy Fire (source)

Tagged Jerusalem, Tourism

Determining the Origin of Ancient Letters

X-Ray Fluorescence Spectrometry can help researchers to determine where a letter was written. An analysis of the recently discovered cuneiform tablet from Jerusalem reveals that it was written on local clays. This supports the theory that Jerusalem in the 14th century BC was ruled by kings with an educated class of scribes. From the American Friends of Tel Aviv University:

But Prof. Goren’s process, based on x-ray fluorescence (XRF) spectrometry, can go much further. Over the years, he has collected extensive data through physical “destructive” sampling of artefacts. By comparing this data to readouts produced by the XRF device, he’s built a table of results so that he can now scan a tablet — touching the surface of it gently with the machine — and immediately assess its clay type and the geographical origin of its minerals.
The tool, he says, can also be applied to coins, ancient plasters, and glass, and can be used on site or in a lab. He plans to make this information widely available to other archaeological researchers.
[…]
Its style suggests that it is a rough and contemporary tablet of the Amarna letters — letters written from officials throughout the Middle East to the Pharaohs in Egypt around 3,500 years ago, pre-biblical times. Using his device, Prof. Goren was able to determine that the letter is made from raw material typical to the Terra Rossa soils of the Central Hill Country around Jerusalem. This determination helped to confirm both the origin of the letter and possibly its sender.
“We believe this is a local product written by Jerusalem scribes, made of locally available soil. Found close to an acropolis, it is also likely that the letter fragment does in fact come from a king of Jerusalem,” the researchers reported, adding that it may well be an archival copy of a letter from King Abdi-Heba, a Jesubite king in Jerusalem, to the Pharaoh in nearby Egypt.

The full release is here.

HT: Joe Lauer

Tagged Jerusalem, Technology

Gag Order on Temple Mount Report

From the Jerusalem Post:

A gag order is being maintained on a sensitive state comptroller’s report believed to blast the lack of Israeli oversight on the Temple Mount, but most of the report is expected to be cleared for publication before the Knesset reconvenes in mid-October, The Jerusalem Post was told Tuesday. The report, which discusses Israel’s authority on the Temple Mount, including governmental oversight of excavations and construction on the site, is viewed as highly sensitive for diplomatic and security reasons, and the first Knesset debate on the report was held Tuesday behind closed doors. The report probes, among other bodies, the performance of the Jerusalem Municipality, the Antiquities Authority, and the Israel Police in enforcing laws and regulations pertaining to the site, as well as the roles of the attorney-general and respective prime ministers in confronting and shaping policy in the face of the challenges posed by the site in recent years. MKs who read the report described it as “all-encompassing” and “very serious”, but noted that the report only concerns the performance of governmental bodies covered within the mandate of the State Comptroller’s Office. The report does not examine the activities of non-governmental bodies, except regarding official bodies’ responses to their actions. “The report revealed many problems that cannot be accepted in a democratic state that tries to prevent – by law – the destruction of a cultural site that is significant, as a world cultural site and a Jewish one,” said MK Otniel Schneller (Kadima), who heads the State Control Committee subcommittee on security, foreign affairs and international trade relations, which was tasked with reviewing the report.

The full story is here.

Tagged Jerusalem, Temple Mount

Beautiful LB Bracelet Discovered in Galilee

The site of Ramat Razim in southeast Safat/Tzfat/Safed is the location of some extraordinary discoveries, including a decorated bronze bracelet. From Arutz-7:

One who could afford such a bracelet was apparently very well-off financially, Covello-Paran said, “and it probably belonged to the wife or daughter of the village ruler. In the artwork of neighboring lands, gods and rulers were depicted wearing horned crowns; however, such a bracelet, and from an archaeological excavation at that, has never been found here.” The bracelet was found inside the remains of an estate house, part of an ancient settlement that existed in a rocky area overlooking the Sea of Galilee and the Golan Heights. Made of indigenous limestone, the building included a paved central courtyard surrounded by residential rooms and storerooms. The residents apparently engaged in barter. Along with the bracelet, a Canaanite scarab was found that is made of stone and engraved with Egyptian hieroglyphs. In antiquity, scarabs were worn as pendants or were inlaid in rings, and were used as a seal or talisman with magical powers. “This is the first time that a 3,500-year-old village has been excavated and exposed in the north of Israel,” Covello-Paran said. “To date, only the large cities have been excavated in the region, such as Tel Megiddo or Tel Hazor. Here we have gained a first glimpse of life in the ancient rural hinterland in the north, and it turns out that it was more complex than we thought. It seems that the small village at Ramat Razim constituted part of the periphery of Tel Hazor, the largest and most significant city in the Canaanite region at the time, which is located about 10 kilometers north of the settlement at Ramat Razim.”

The full story is here. The Late Bronze Age (1500-1200) is the time of Joshua, not Joseph.

Tagged Discoveries, Galilee

Weekend Roundup

There are reports of bulldozer work being carried out on the Temple Mount.

Current excavations at Shiloh are noted in this Arutz-7 article. The article itself says very little, but the photos indicate that the work is being carried out in Area C, where archaeologists previously uncovered a series of Iron I buildings (from the time of Samuel).

Israeli officials are denying claims that the Jordan River is so polluted it is unsafe for baptism.

A student recounts her experience in the final season of excavations at Tel Kedesh in the Upper Galilee.

The Daily Star (Lebanon) has an update on recent finds in the 12th season of excavations at Sidon. A one-minute telecast in Arabic shows the work in progress and some of the finds.

Haaretz carries a longer story on how recent excavations of the Jaffa Gate have apparently changed everything. There are some problems with the article, however, and you might wait to revise your book (or your class notes) until the excavators publish their report. Take note, as well, of Leen Ritmeyer’s analysis of the article.

HT: Joe Lauer

Tagged Galilee, Jerusalem, Lebanon, Samaria, Temple Mount