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Weekend Roundup

This summer’s excavation on Mount Zion begins soon. Here’s how you can help even if you can’t be in Jerusalem.

Leen Riitmeyer reports on a second arch of Titus uncovered in Rome. And he describes how his search to find the Dedicatory Inscription in the Colosseum ultimately succeeded.

If you’ve ever wondered how they raised animals from underneath the floor of the Colosseum, the

Telegraph has an illustrated article showing a reconstruction of the elevators. A 2-minute video shows the process. This is part of a government project to restore the floor of the Colosseum.

James H. Charlesworth has written a lengthy and informative review rebutting David Stacey and
Gregory Doudna, Qumran Revisited: A Reassessment of the Archaeology of the Site and its Texts.

Wayne Stiles explains how the four quarters of Jerusalem will be united.

“Wilderness” is the title of a symposium of Biblical scholars from the Universities of Manchester, Sheffield and Lausanne University of Lausanne.

The British Museum is lending 500 artifacts to a new museum in Abu Dhabi for five years. This includes “the world’s finest single Assyrian panel: the Banquet Scene (645-635BC).”

There is fear in Iraq for the safety of the traditional tomb of the prophet Nahum.

The latest issue of Biblical Archaeology Review includes articles on Solomon’s temple, Akhenaten’s monotheism, the Gospel of Thomas, and the missing pages of the Aleppo Codex.

Congress has passed legislation making it illegal to sell looted artifacts from Syria.

The Library of Congress in Washington D.C. hosted a Tyre Day Symposium to raise awareness about the city’s history.

“Of Kings and Prophets” is a new series beginning this fall on ABC.

A clumsy tourist fell and smashed a 4,000-year-old vase in the Heraklion Archaeological Museum on the island of Crete.

Barry Britnell is sharing photos of last year’s trip as he prepares to lead next year’s trip. Today: Northern Galilee and the Hula Valley.

HT: Ted Weis, Agade, Joseph Lauer

Tagged Antiquities Trade, Dead Sea, Galilee, Italy, Jerusalem, Lebanon, Lectures, Mesopotamia, Museums, Weekend Roundup

Second Inscription from Qeiyafa Published

For the short summary, check out Luke Chandler’s post. He includes a photo and discusses the biblical mentions of the name Ishbaal/Eshbaal.

The publication details are as follows:
Yosef Garfinkel, Mitka R. Golub, Haggai Misgav and Saar Ganor, “The ʾIšbaʿal Inscription from Khirbet Qeiyafa.” Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, pp. 217–33.

The article may be downloaded from academia.edu now (requires registration) or from JStor in the near future.

Here is the article’s abstract:

A new West Semitic inscription from Khirbet Qeiyafa is presented. It was incised in Canaanite alphabetic script on a pottery storage jar before ﬁring. Radiometric dating of the relevant layer has yielded a date of ca. 1020–980 B.C.E. The last few years have seen the publication of several new Semitic alphabetic inscriptions dated to the late 11th–10th centuries B.C.E. and originating at controlled excavations in Israel (Khirbet Qeiyafa, Beth Shemesh, Tell eṣ-Ṣâﬁ, and Jerusalem). The new inscription is an important addition to this corpus.

HT: Joseph Lauer

UPDATE (6/20): Luke Chandler has posted a follow-up, focusing on the word before Ishbaal.

Central part of the inscription
Photo by Tal Rogovski

Tagged 10th Century, Discoveries, Shephelah

Weekend Roundup, Part 2

Philistines living at Yavneh used hallucinogenic drugs, according to Israeli archaeologists.

The Dhamar Regional Museum in Yemen was destroyed in a Saudi airstrike. It was completely destroyed, according to these photos.

Revelers at a Burning Man festival destroyed prehistoric remains near Nahal Boker in the Negev (more at Haaretz premium).

The US has returned 25 artifacts looted from Italy, including a first-century BC fresco from Pompeii.

A fresco from a 12th-Dynasty tomb in Middle Egypt has been hacked out by thieves. A statement from the Catholic Leuven University confirms “the grave news that the tomb has been entered and that a relief has been stolen.”

A plan being examined by Israel’s Tourism Minister would apply a 3.5% tax to tourists’ purchases at hotels, restaurants, goods, and services. The Haaretz (premium) article also notes that “Israel dropped to 72nd place out of 141 countries in the World Economic Forum 2015 Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Index released this month.”

This week’s guest on the Land and the Book is Dr. Filip Vukosavovic, Curator at the Bible Lands Museum in Jerusalem.

Coming to theaters in January: RISEN.

Final deliberations have begun on the fate of an archaeological center in the City of David.

HT: Agade, Joseph Lauer, Ted Weis, Charles Savelle

Proposed Archaeological Center

Photo Credit: City of David

Weekend Roundup, Part 1

A cylinder seal from the Early Bronze period may depict the earliest known musical scene in Israel. The seal was found in western Galilee in the 1970s.

“A record-breaking heat wave in Israel sparked forest fires, caused flight delays and prompted a sharp increase in reported cases of dehydration and fainting.” Temperatures in Tel Aviv reached 42ºC (107ºF).

ISIS has begun destroying statues in Palmyra’s museum, says the International Business Times. Nothing has been destroyed, reports the New York Times. ISIS is promising not to destroy the site’s monuments. Reuters recounts some of Palmyra’s illustrious history. Experts fear for remains of the city’s Jewish history, including the longest biblical Hebrew inscription known from antiquity.

If you want to preserve the Dead Sea Scrolls, it’s best to leave them in a dark cave. Do not use tape or glass panels, according to this article on conservation at the Jewish Independent.

Digging up Jericho: Past, Present & Future is the title of a conference being hosted next month at the Institute of Archaeology at University College London.

Ken Dark is on the Book and the Spade discussing the archaeology of Nazareth (part 1, part 2; mp3 links here).

Gabriel Barkay says that careful surveillance is required for archaeological activity on the Temple Mount.

Aren Maeir has fired up the tractor in his excavations of Gath.

The St. Louis Zoo offers a Biblical Animal Scavenger Hunt.

HT: Agade, Joseph Lauer, A.D. Riddle

Weekend Roundup, Part 2

The lighthouse of Alexandria is to be rebuilt near its original location.

An ancient Egyptian temple has been discovered at the Gabal Al-Silsela quarries.

One of the earliest complete copies of the Ten Commandments (from the Dead Sea Scrolls) will be on display at the Israel Museum two days a month for the next seven months.

Wayne Stiles: The Mount of Olives—Where to Stand and What to Read

A PEF lecture by James L. Starkey’s son: Not for the Greed of Gold: A Tribute and Biography of the Life and Career of J.L. Starkey, Director of the Wellcome-Marston Archaeological Expedition to Palestine, 1932-1938.

A new aerial panoramic photo from SourceFlix: Where David fought Goliath.

The Museum Center at 5ive Points in Cleveland, Tennessee, is hosting an exhibition with artifacts from Khirbet el-Maqatir.

Vandals have painted Palestinian flags on the ruins of the UNESCO World Heritage site of Haluza in southern Israel.

The Israeli government has approved a five-year plan to upgrade the Western Wall plaza.

HT: Agade, Paleojudaica

Tagged Discoveries, Egypt, Jerusalem, Lectures, Museums, Negev, Shephelah, Temple Mount, Weekend Roundup

Weekend Roundup, Part 1

Palmyra has fallen to ISIS. The fear now is for the safety of the monuments and museum.

This CNN slideshow features 19 monuments destroyed in the war.

“Cyber-archaeologists” are working to virtually restore what has been destroyed.

Archaeologists were baffled at a meticulously excavated Byzantine-era winepress in Jerusalem until they learned it was exposed by local teenagers.

Catacombs are being constructed in Jerusalem to bury the dead. The first stage of the underground necropolis will hold 22,000.

This weekend’s celebration of Shavuot/Pentecost may be the largest in Israel’s history.

Donald Brake is on the Land and the Book discussing Jesus: A Visual History.

A 20-year-old female tourist died at Masada after she suffered heat stroke and fell from a cliff.

UPDATE: More details here.

What would be at the top of your list of yet-to-be-discovered finds in biblical archaeology? Steven Anderson lists his top ten.

HT: Joseph Lauer, Agade, Ted Weis

Tagged Discoveries, Holidays, Jerusalem, Resources, Syria, Tourism, Weekend Roundup