Todd Bolen, Author at BiblePlaces.com

Bad "Archaeology"

Eric Cline has a good op-ed on “biblical archaeologists” who are frauds. Entitled “Raiders of the faux ark,” the Boston Globe piece exposes some of the “discoveries” made by guys with no archaeological training whatsoever. It’s not only worthwhile to expose such “scholarship” for what it is (and Cline does this more thoroughly in his recent book, From Eden to Exile: Unraveling Mysteries of the Bible), but he avoids making a mistake that many do – lumping all religious scholars in with the nut cases. The article in full is worth reading, but here is an important paragraph:

Religious archeologists and secular archeologists frequently work side by side in the Holy Land. Among the top ranks of researchers, there are evangelical Christians, orthodox Jews, and people of many denominations. It is not religious views that are the issue here; it is whether good science is being done. Biblical archeology is a field in which people of good will, and all religions, can join under the banner of the scientific process.

From reviews I’ve read, I think I would find more to disagree with in his book than in this article. A couple of evangelical writers are working on a book debunking some of the “amazing discoveries” made in the last few decades and I’ll mention it here when that gets closer to publication.

Tagged Analysis, Tomb of Jesus

O Jerusalem, the Movie

One of the most important events in the 20th century was the birth of the State of Israel in 1948. One of the most popular books about the battle between Jews and Arabs was O Jerusalem, a work of historical fiction by Collins and LaPierre. It is recommended reading for all. A movie based on the book and with the same title is coming out on October 17 and you can see the trailer here (and the official website is here). It’s hard to tell from a trailer whether the movie will be fair to the book or to the historical reality, and the movie is rated “R” for “some war scenes.” If nothing else, it makes me want to re-read the book.

Mark Twain on the Sea of Galilee

My earliest memory of a large lake is of Lake Tahoe in northern California, but the body of water I’ve been to the most is the Sea of Galilee. Mark Twain compared the two on his visit in the 1860s:

The celebrated Sea of Galilee is not so large a sea as Lake Tahoe by a good deal—it is just about two-thirds as large. And when we come to speak of beauty this sea is no more to be compared to Tahoe than a meridian of longitude is to a rainbow. The dim waters of this pool cannot suggest the limpid brilliancy of Tahoe; these low, shaven, yellow hillocks of rocks and sand, so devoid of perspective, cannot suggest the grand peaks that compass Tahoe like a wall, and whose ribbed and chasmed fronts are clad with stately pines that seem to grow small and smaller as they climb, till one might fancy them reduced to weeds and shrubs far upward, where they join the everlasting snows. Silence and solitude brood over Tahoe; and silence and solitude brood also over this lake of Gennesaret. But the solitude of the one is as cheerful and fascinating as the solitude of the other is dismal and repellent” (Mark Twain, Innocents Abroad, pp. 375-76).

From Picturesque Palestine, 1880s

A few months ago

Tagged Then and Now

Jerusalem Quarry: Photos

ABC has some photos of the quarry, or you can watch a two-minute video with relatively poor footage of the site (and two guys who can’t correctly pronounce the object of the discovery).

BiblePlaces.com has some exclusive photos of the quarry area, with thanks to Aubrey Laughlin for sharing them with us. Click on each photo for a higher-resolution version, which you are free to use for personal and educational purposes.

General view showing how the ancients cut away the mountain

View showing the proximity of the quarry to Ramat Shlomo

Showing a cross-section of the mountain and Jerusalem in the distance

Notice the trenches cut in the rock in the foreground

A view showing where quarrying activity ended.

You can easily see where the rocks were extracted

A trench made in order to extract the stone

Next challenge: Identify the stones removed from this quarry (bonus points if you can put each one back in its original location!).

Tagged Discoveries, Jerusalem, Temple Mount

Jerusalem Quarry: The Location

I have been asked where exactly the quarry was located. Here are two maps from Google Earth that show the area of the quarry, about 2 miles (3 km) north of the Old City. You can click on each for a larger view.

General view. Note the highway to the east of the quarry is similar to the ancient route (known sometimes as the Central Ridge Route or the Road of the Patriarchs).

Closer view, which will be helpful if you’re in the neighborhood and want to see it yourself.

Tagged Discoveries, Jerusalem, Temple Mount

NEAEH Update Volume Status

It seems like it has been years that rumor has been circulating that a fifth “update” volume is due out for the New Encyclopedia of Archaeological Excavations in the Holy Land (NEAEH).

Word from the Israel Exploration Society today is that the volume “will not be released before the beginning of next year.” I guess that means that it can be anytime after January 2008. Which guarantees that it will need a significant update by the time it first appears. That’s true for many published and delayed works, but especially true in the archaeology of Israel. (You can still get the four-volume set at Eisenbrauns for the great price of $150).

Tagged Resources