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Weekend Roundup, Part 2

“Archaeologists uncovered signs that Alexander the Great was worshipped as a divine figure in an ancient temple in Iraq.”

“A Sumerian ‘sacred code’ has been deciphered, revealing divinely inspired building instructions echoed in the Bible.”

The latest issue of Biblical Archaeology Review includes stories on archaeology in Midian, the location of Peter’s house, and mosaic pavements of biblical scenes at Huqoq.

“Brazil Adventist University [in São Paulo] inaugurated the Museum of Biblical Archaeology (MAB), the first museum of its kind in South America.”

Bryan Windle recommends five YouTube channels related to biblical archaeology.

Leon Mauldin shares a photo of an Ammonite deity and a map showing the area of ancient Ammon.

New release: William Kennett Loftus: A 19th-Century Archaeologist in Mesopotamia: Letters transcribed and introduced by John Curtis (The British Institute for the Study of Iraq, £15; Amazon)

Two new releases: Scribal Culture in Ancient Egypt, by Niv Allon and Hana Navratilova. Hieroglyphs, Pseudo-Scripts and Alphabets, by Ben Haring. Both books are in the Cambridge Elements series on Ancient Egypt in Context. Both are available as free ebooks until December 6.

New release: Trade and Seafaring in Antiquity: Red Sea – Persian Gulf – Indian Ocean, edited by Stefan Baumann, Kerstin Droß-Krüpe, Sebastian Fink, Sven Günther and Patrick Reinard (Zaphon, 90 EUR).

The Associates for Biblical Research has a Christmas book sale, with free shipping on book purchases over $60 with code Christmas2023. Books on sale include:

HT: Agade, Arne Halbakken, Keith Keyser, Charles Savelle, Paleojudaica

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Weekend Roundup, Part 1

A new study reports on some of the earliest evidence of warfare—424 biconical slingstones from the Early Chalcolithic period discovered at two sites in northern Israel.

Chandler Collins has produced his latest Jerusalem Tracker, with the latest news, publications, and media about the holy city.

The latest issue of DigSight, produced by the Institute of Archaeology at Southern Adventist University, has stories on a new museum exhibit, the inscribed ivory comb, and a new Archaeology and Cultural Background Study Bible.

The Biblical Archaeology Society has announced its publication awards for 2023 in the following categories:

  • Best Book on Archaeology
  • Best Dig Report
  • Best Book on the Hebrew Bible
  • Best Book on the New Testament

Bryan Windle discusses the top ten archaeological discoveries related to the book of Joshua on a latest episode of Digging for Truth.

Israel’s Good Name reports on a berry-picking expedition near Shiloh that he went on this summer.

James R. Strange is on The Book and the Spade discussing his new book, Excavating the Land of Jesus.

Jerusalem University College has announced its online courses for the spring semester, including:

HT: Agade, Arne Halbakken, Keith Keyser

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Weekend Roundup, Part 2

A mosaic in a 4th-century Roman villa in Cappadocia now measures 6,000 square feet, and they’re not done digging. (Most of the photos don’t seem to be showing up right now.) This article has a few images, and this one has a video made with still images.

“Turkey has unveiled a new archaeology research centre that includes the country’s first archaeometry laboratory and vast digital archive” in the city of Gaziantep.

“On the plateau overlooking the ancient Pyramids of Giza in Egypt, a major outdoor art exhibition brings together the work of 14 international contemporary artists who have created site-specific installations responding to the iconic monuments.”

Sara E. Cole writes about current research into the “Book of the Dead” texts in the Getty Collection.

New release: The Nubian Pharaohs of Egypt: Their Lives and Afterlives, by Aidan Dodson (AUC Press, $35)

New release: Women in Ancient Egypt: Revisiting Power, Agency, and Autonomy, edited by Mariam F. Ayad (AUC Press, $95)

Zoom lecture on Dec 5: “Crafting Luxury: Dress in Ancient Persia,” by Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones. “In conjunction with the British Museum’s recent exhibition Luxury and Power: Persia to Greece, it was decided to attempt to create the types of garments worn by the elite of the Persian court in the Achaemenid period.”

Rome Reborn 4.0 is a digital model of Rome as it appeared in the year AD 320. Users are able “to glide above the historic landmarks while listening to expert narrations about 43 monuments, temples, structures, and locations.”

One of the books highly discounted for Accordance right now is What the Old Testament Authors Really Cared About: A Survey of Jesus’ Bible, edited by Jason DeRouchie. This is my preferred textbook for Old Testament class, and I wrote the chapter on 1-2 Chronicles. On sale for $20. Amazon has it in hardcover for $47.

At a festschrift celebration, Gary Rendsburg gives a 20-minute presentation about his 45 years in academic life.

HT: Agade, Arne Halbakken

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Weekend Roundup, Part 1

A new dataset of radiocarbon dates from Gezer “provides an independent source of absolute dates that will allow researchers to better understand the events at Gezer and to place them in a regional perspective.” Of particular interest is that the Solomon gate dates to the time of Solomon, contrary to the Low Chronology promoted by Finkelstein who calls the study “meaningless.” The underlying journal article is here.

When the war began in Israel on October 7, Israel’s museums acted quickly to protect their most precious artifacts.

Avshalom Halutz writes a “short history of Gaza,” reviewing the last 5,000 years of the coastal city’s conflicts (Haaretz premium) 

Ariel David reports on the recent study that argues that Jerusalem’s Millo was “defensive complex that protected the ancient water spring of Jerusalem for centuries.”

Online lecture in the BAS Scholars Series on Dec 6: “The Life of Jesus Written in Stone: The Earliest Commemorative Churches in Roman Palestine,” by Jordan Ryan, Wheaton College ($10)

Online “gala event” on Dec 10: “New Discoveries in the Temple Mount Sifting Project Research,” with Zachi Dvira, Gabriel Barkay, Haim Shaham, Anat Mendel-Geberovich, and Mordechai Kedar

New release: From Nomadism to Monarchy? Revisiting the Early Iron Age Southern Levant, edited by Ido Koch, Oded Lipschits and Omer Sergi (Eisenbrauns, $100)

Jerusalem Seminary is offering a 6-week audit-only version of “Israel Matters: A Theology of People and Land,” with Gerald McDermott, for only $79. A full description is here.

Now online: A Biblical Archaeology Conference held last Saturday, hosted by the Institute for Creation Research, with presentations by Randall Price and Tom Meyer

Bible Mapper Atlas has added a number of new maps in the last few months:

HT: Agade, Arne Halbakken

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New Video Series: Land of the Bible, with William Varner

My longtime colleague William Varner has traveled to Israel more than 50 times, and a few years ago he worked with a team to film a complete tour. The resulting video series has been used with great effect in several courses at The Master’s University, and now TMU’s Center for Thinking Biblically has made the entire series available for free—no tuition required!

Here is a quick index of the eight sections, with notes to help you navigate to specific episodes.

Old Jerusalem (12 episodes, including the topography of Jerusalem, Church of the Holy Sepulcher, Christ Church, and the Tower of David Museum)

City of David (15 episodes, including Hezekiah’s Tunnel, Pool of Siloam, Davidson Museum, Kidron Valley tombs, and Southern Steps)

Temple Mount and more (19 episodes, including Mount of Olives, Jerusalem model, the Shrine of the Book, Western Wall Tunnel, Bethlehem, Herodium, and four episodes on Hebron)

Mount Zion and more (14 episodes, including Burnt House, Temple Institute, Via Dolorosa, Pools of Bethesda, Schindler’s Grave, and Garden Tomb)

Benjamin and Jericho (12 episodes, including Michmash, Wadi Qelt, High Place of Gibeon, and the Mount of Temptation)

Negev and more (22 episodes, including Gezer, Azekah, Lachish, Beersheba, Arad, Tabernacle Model, Masada, and Qumran)

Nazareth and more (17 episodes, including Caesarea, Mount Carmel, Megiddo, Jezreel, Mount Tabor, and Sepphoris)

Galilee and more (21 episodes, including Capernaum, Gamla, Caesarea Philippi, Dan, Beth Shean, Ai, Shiloh, and Mount Gerizim)

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Weekend Roundup

Haaretz has an update on the season at el-Araj (Bethsaida?) that just concluded. “The archaeologists are not saying they found the house of Peter. They are saying they found a Byzantine basilica that goes back earlier than thought, to the late fifth century, that was built over a ‘venerated wall’ that the builders presumably thought had belonged to the house of Peter. It didn’t, but the wall next to it may have.”

According to a new article in the latest issue of Biblical Archaeology Review written by Chris McKinny and friends, the Millo of Jerusalem was not an earth filling on the slopes of the City of David but the “Spring Tower” guarding the Gihon Spring. The full article is currently available online to all.

Leen Ritmeyer reports on some inscriptions recently discovered inside the Golden Gate in Jerusalem.

Now on Academia: Leen Ritmeyer’s article, “Imagining the Temple Known to Jesus and to Early Jews,” published in The Temple of Jerusalem: From Moses to the Messiah, edited by Steven Fine (Brill, 2011, $227).

The latest issue of Tel Aviv is now available, with several open-access articles including:

In the final episode of the Flora & Faith series, Brad Nelson goes to the wilderness and considers the role of the rotem tree in the story of Elijah. A free study guide for the entire series is also available.

Up to 50,000 bronze coins from the 4th century AD have been discovered off the coast of Sardinia. The coins are in excellent condition.

“Investigators say they have figured out how bronze statues from a shrine built 2,000 years ago in Asia Minor to venerate the emperors of Rome ended up in museums around the world.”

The second set of fully lemmatized Amarna letters has been released on Oracc. “The online edition of the Amarna Letters aims to make transliterations, translations, and glossaries of the letters and administrative texts available to both scholars and the wider public. At this time, the project comprises 305 texts.”

Jonathan Tubb, archaeologist and curator at the British Museum, died in September.

New release: Representations of Writing Materials on Roman Funerary Monuments: Text, Image, Message, edited by Tibor Grüll (Archaeopress, £16-40)

The Albright has a number of fellowships, awards, and internships available for next year. The application deadline is December 1.

This week we released two new volumes in the Photo Companion to the Bible series: Ezra and Nehemiah. These historical books have all kinds of illustrative potential, such that we have on average nearly 200 slides per chapter. They are on sale right now as a set for only $59. We are grateful for the positive response by many, including Luke Chandler, Leon Mauldin, and Charles Savelle.

HT: Agade, Arne Halbakken, G. M. Grena

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About the BiblePlaces Blog

The BiblePlaces Blog provides updates and analysis of the latest in biblical archaeology, history, and geography. Unless otherwise noted, the posts are written by Todd Bolen, PhD, Professor of Biblical Studies at The Master’s University.

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