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“An ongoing underwater archaeological project [near Antikythera Island in Greece] most recently recovered a large marble head of a bearded male figure believed to be part of a statue of Hercules.”

Archaeologists discovered granite blocks from the time of Khufu at the temple of the Sun in Heliopolis, along with many other remains.

A study of cattle teeth discovered at Ur sheds light on the economy, health, and diet of ancient Mesopotamia.

Isabella Segalovich gives a brief history of women’s eyebrows in art.

Robyn Ramsden gives workshops on how to create your own Nag Hammadi codex.

“Italy has been so successful in recovering ancient artworks and artifacts that were illegally exported from the country it has created a museum for them.”

“The funerary portraiture from the city of Palmyra, in the eastern Roman Empire, is a rich and heterogenous display of identity dating to the first three centuries CE.”

“A new exhibit at the Israel Museum uses VR technology to bring back to life the rich heritage of the destroyed Great Synagogue of Aleppo.”

New release: The Archaeology of Iran from the Palaeolithic to the Achaemenid Empire, by Roger Matthews and Hassan Fazeli Nashli. Also available as a free download.

New release: A Guide to Scenes of Daily Life on Athenian Vases, by John Howard Oakley (University of Wisconsin Press, 2020). Summarized and reviewed here.

Carl Rasmussen shares photos of the only completely preserved chapel for emperor worship in the Roman world.

Joel Kramer’s latest video is about his visit to Babylon and how the prophecies against the city were fulfilled.

HT: Agade, Joseph Lauer, Arne Halbakken, Paleojudaica

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Restoration experts are very carefully moving several large columns and Corinthian capitals from the Garden of Gethsemane to the Terra Sancta Museum. The columns may have originally belonged to the Roman temple that Hadrian built over Jesus’s temporary tomb.

Archaeologists discovered one of the oldest known mosques in the world in a salvage excavation in the Negev city of Rahat.

The 12th season has begun at Tel Burna, and you can see their dig plan here and the most recent excavation update here.

Yet again: Israel’s Environmental Ministry recommends building a canal linking the Dead and Red Seas (subscription). A few days earlier Jordan decided to cancel the stagnating plan.

Zoom lecture on June 29: “Disease & Death in the Early 1st Century CE,” by Julie Laskaris ($7).

An online lecture on July 6 will discuss the work being done to open up access to satellite imagery over Israel.

In part 2 of his David and Goliath series, Brad Gray looks at the contrast between David and Saul (which is, in my opinion, the central point of the story).

In the latest Biblical World podcast episode, Oliver Hersey talks with Paul Wright about Jesus and Jezreel.

Regular readers know that I greatly appreciate the books of Lois Tverberg, and her recent post is helpful in explaining the difference between the Rabbi Jesus books and whether they should be read in any order. Her first “Rabbi Jesus” book was Sitting at the Feet of Rabbi Jesus.

Israel MyChannel has a number of videos with original 3D models of Jerusalem. For instance, this one gives a tour of Jerusalem in the time of Jesus. Impressive.

Upcoming DIVE (Digital Interactive Virtual Experiences) tours through the Museum of the Bible ($20 ea.):

  • The Southern Steps and the Davidson Center: July 13, 2022
  • Ancient Shiloh: August 10, 2022
  • Armageddon — The Valley of Megiddo: September 7, 2022
  • Masada: October 19, 2022
  • The Valleys of Jerusalem — Kidron and Hinnom: November 9, 2022
  • Caesarea: December 7, 2022

HT: Agade, Joseph Lauer, Arne Halbakken

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Archaeologists have excavated two Late Bronze tombs belonging to wealthy families near Hala Sultan Tekke on Cyprus.

“New excavations of the ancient complex of Girsu in Iraq, led by the British Museum, have the potential to rewrite accepted histories of the development in Mesopotamia.”

“The pyramids in Egypt are more famous, but the ones in Sudan hide royal burial sites that archaeologists can explore—as long as they don’t mind swimming.” (National Geographic; requires email registration)

“The Lost Heritage Atlas initiative is dedicated to collecting the history and memory of those archaeological sites, monuments, sacred places or cultural items that have been completely destroyed.

A rapid change of climate did not cause the fall of the Akkadian empire.

New releases: The Oxford History of the Ancient Near East: Volume II: From the End of the Third Millennium BC to the Fall of Babylon and The Oxford History of the Ancient Near East: Volume III: From the Hyksos to the Late Second Millennium BC, by Karen Radner, Nadine Moeller, and D. T. Potts. $150 each (slightly cheaper at Amazon)

thetruesize.com allows you to easily compare the sizes of countries. Israel, for example, is smaller than any of its neighbors.

“Jordan’s Tourism and Antiquities Ministry plans to encourage visits to Madaba after the Arab League designated the city as the Arab Capital of Tourism” for 2022.

The Greek Reporter lists six lesser-known archaeological sites to visit near Athens.

Carl Rasmussen shares about a funny thing that happened on his way to the temple of Apollo at Didyma.

Mark Hoffman reports on the creation of three new Pauline pilgrimage paths in Greece to open in the next couple of years. Anyone want to go hiking?

HT: Agade, Joseph Lauer, Arne Halbakken, Explorator

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A recent study found evidence for the domestication of olive trees dating back to 7,000 years ago.

A visitor center under construction at the Armon Hanatziv Promenade [south of Jerusalem’s Old City] will use smart technology to allow visitors to optically zoom in to different landmarks of the modern city as well as see a virtual reality view of how the landscape looked thousands of years ago.”

Rabbi Mordechai Becher writes about how the Dead Sea Scrolls speak to Jews in the 21st century.

The latest issue of Near Eastern Archaeology is all about Tel Rehov. Abstracts of the articles are available online.

Amanda Borschel-Dan will be interviewing Joe Uziel and Jodi Magness in Jerusalem on July 6 about “how archaeology unveils hidden clues into what actually happened during the destructions of the First and Second Temples.”

Virtual Workshop at the Albright Institute on June 23: “Perspectives on the Persian Period,” with Carl S. Ehrlich, Mary Joan Winn Leith, Yigal Levin, and Katja Soennecken

Walking the Text’s recommended resource this month is the brand-new Rose Guide to the Feasts, Festivals, & Fasts of the Bible, edited by Paul H. Wright. It is in stock at Christianbook (and cheaper than Amazon).

New release: Water the Willow Tree: Memoirs of a Bethlehem Boyhood, by George A. Kiraz (Gorgias Press, 2022).

David Barrett, creator of Bible Mapper, has just released TimeGlider, “a free, online, scrollable, searchable timeline of Bible events. With a few button clicks you can even generate a hyperlink to display your own custom event on the timeline, and you can embed this link in digital resources (Word documents, web pages, emails, etc.) to show your event within its chronological context.”

Charles Savelle and Leon Mauldin offer kind words about the value of the 1 & 2 Kings volumes in the Photo Companion to the Bible. The introductory pricing ends today.

HT: Agade, Joseph Lauer, Arne Halbakken

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Carl Rasmussen reports that the Classical Archaeology section of the Istanbul Archaeology Museum has reopened after a long closure, though the all-important upper floor is still not open. On his visit he discovered the “Assos Tablet” that he’s long been looking for.

Babylonian cuneiform texts are shedding light on the life of the ancient Judeans who were living in exile in Babylon.

Emlyn Dodd shares the ancient Egyptian recipe that he used for making olive oil.

A British tourist was given a 15-year jail sentence in an Iraqi prison after picking up a few potsherds as souvenirs.

“New York prosecutors have seized five Egyptian [antiquities] from the Metropolitan Museum of Art as part of an international trafficking investigation involving the former head of Paris’s Louvre Museum.”

Hybrid workshop on July 1: Performing Tutankhamun: One Hundred Years of Retellings

Turkish Archaeological News has a roundup of stories from the month of May.

Clyde Billington is on The Book and the Spade to discuss Jewish perspectives on the exodus, including recent research by Lawrence Schiffman and Joshua Berman.

Accordance Bible Software is offering their best deals ever on graphics collections, including our Cultural Images of the Holy Land and Trees, Plants, and Flowers of the Holy Land. I would also recommend The Virtual Bible: 3D Reconstructions of the Biblical World ($20) and the bundle of five resources (including tabernacle and temple) from Rose Publishing ($40). See all the discounts here.

HT: Agade, Joseph Lauer, Arne Halbakken, Explorator

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Claudia Chotzen describes her experience as a volunteer excavating the En Gedi synagogue 50 years ago.

The Institute of Biblical Culture is beginning a year-long biblical Hebrew course in July, and you can receive $300 off with coupon BIBLEPLACES.

Jerusalem University College has a number of excellent study options, including Historical and Geographical Settings of the Bible, Jesus and His Times, and Pastor and Parishoner trips.

Bible Archaeology Report: Top Ten Discoveries Related to the Book of Judges. It’s fun to try to make some guesses before reading through.

The latest from Walking the Text with Brad Gray: David and Goliath: Guard Your Shephelah (20 min)

Virtual lecture on June 19: Aren Maeir will be speaking on “New Views on the Philistines: What Archaeology Reveals about Goliath and His Peers” in the BAS Scholars Series ($10).

On sale for Kindle: Zondervan Essential Atlas of the Bible, by Carl Rasmussen

Our team spent years developing the Photo Companion to 1 & 2 Kings, and we finally released it this week. Woohoo!

HT: Agade, Joseph Lauer, Arne Halbakken, Explorator

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