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Weekend Roundup, Part 2

After 31 years of hosting The Book & The Spade, Gordon Govier shares some personal reflections.

An aging Lebanese potter laments the passing of his craft.

Archaeologists have found evidence of the “plague of Cyprian.”

Satellite images from the US State Department’s Cultural Heritage Center “document the scale of destruction that looters continue to inflict on archaeological heritage sites during the ongoing conflict in Syria.”

Identifying a complete set of Edward Robinson’s Biblical Researches in Palestine at archive.org is a bit confusing, but David Stark has posted links to volumes 1 and 2 (3 volumes from 1841 in a 2-volume set, 2nd/11th eds.) and volume 3 (the 1856 volume, Later Biblical Researches, 11th ed.).

Now on pre-pub for Logos Bible Software: Near East Archaeological Society Bulletin (1958–2013) (78 issues) – $99.95.

ASOR’s Archaeology Weekly Roundup has more.

I’ll be traveling the better part of the next two weeks and will not be posting much. If they discover an archive at Hazor, Gezer, or Gath, I’m sure that one of my fellow contributors will let you know.

HT: Charles Savelle, Jack Sasson, Joseph Lauer, Ted Weis

Tagged Lebanon, Resources, Syria, Weekend Roundup

Weekend Roundup, Part 1

Luke Chandler reports on the first week of excavations at Lachish. They made some significant finds in his square on each of the first three days.

They had a fantastic third week of excavations at Tel Burna.

A Roman theater (or amphitheater?) has been discovered in ancient Smyrna as the municipality demolishes a poor neighborhood. This may have been the place where Polycarp was martyred.

Beit Guvrin National Park has been declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Wayne Stiles captures the beauty and historic significance of Nahal Zin with photos, a video, and Google Street View.

“The truth about Jesus’ tomb, romance and the Holocaust” is a rather flashy title for an update of Simcha Jacobovici’s lawsuit against Joe Zias.

ABR has created a new video series, Is It Time To Throw Away Your Bible? They have now shared a couple of free episodes: King David and Solomon: Men or Myths? Part One and Part Two. The video set is on sale for only $20.

Robert Cargill reflects on the passing of Yuval Peleg.

Cave at Beit Guvrin National Park
Photo from Judah and the Dead Sea

Tagged 10th Century, Excavations, Negev, Resources, Shephelah, Turkey, Weekend Roundup

Yuval Peleg Killed in Archaeology Accident

Very sad news out of Israel today. Archaeologist Yuval Peleg was conducting a salvage excavation ahead of the construction of a road in the West Bank when he was killed by falling rocks.

From The Jerusalem Post:

A 46-year-old man was killed in an accident at an archaeological dig site between Homesh and Karnei Shomron in the West Bank on Thursday. He was later identified as Yuval Pelleg.
An initial investigation into the incident found that an Israeli and several Palestinian workers were digging at the entrance to a cave when rocks began falling down the mountain, trapping the man.
People on the scene succeeded in removing some of the rocks from on top of the man. A military medical crew attempted to resuscitate him while his lower half remained trapped under the rocks, but were forced to pronounce him dead on the scene.

From Jerusalem Online:

Gershon Mesika, the head of the Shomron Regional Council, stated, “In the framework of building a new road, a new cave was discovered. According to the procedure, an archaeologist was sent to survey the cave and to study it. Then, there was the disaster. We are sorry for the loss of the senior level archeologist doing research in Samaria.”

The Times of Israel has a map of the area in which was working. Jerusalem Online has a photo of the accident scene. Arutz-7 has another here. Robert Cargill has a photo of Yuval here. A lecture that he gave in 2012 about recent excavations at Qumran is online here. The preliminary report that he wrote with Yitzhak Magen of Qumran excavations from 1993 to 2004 is online here. Jim West notes that Yuval had a wife and two small children.

HT: Joseph Lauer

Tagged Sad News

Artifact of the Month: Sennacherib Prism

(Posted by Michael J. Caba)

This month’s artifact is known as the Sennacherib Prism. Made in ancient Assyria in c. 700 BC of baked clay, the prism is approximately 15 inches tall. The cuneiform script in the Akkadian language refers to Israelite King Hezekiah and to Assyrian King Sennacherib, both of whom are mentioned in the biblical text (cf. 2 Kings 19:9). In the inscription the Assyrian ruler boasts of trapping Hezekiah in Jerusalem like a caged bird. The artifact was purchased from a Baghdad antiquities dealer in c. 1919 and is now in the Oriental Institute Museum, University of Chicago. It is one of eight similar prisms with nearly identical text found so far (e.g., the Taylor Prism in the British Museum).

Of particular interest to biblical studies is the “spin” Sennacherib put on the story of his assault into the land of Israel in comparison to the typical portrayals in the biblical text of this and similar events. For instance, Sennacherib included his victories such as his aforementioned claim to have locked up Hezekiah in Jerusalem like a caged bird; yet he conveniently neglected to mention that he lost his entire army in the process. In fact, this approach to recording events is quite typical for Ancient Near Eastern rulers. In contrast, the Biblical text repeatedly takes a more evenhanded attitude to historical events by recording both the victories and defeats of the Israelites, and, perhaps more importantly, the reasons thereof. The more balanced approach by the biblical authors speaks to their interest in historical and theological accuracy, and also to the fact that they were inspired by One who has similar interests.

For information on similar artifacts related to the Bible, see Bible and Archaeology – Online Museum.

(Photo: BiblePlaces.com. Significant resources for further study of this “group” of prisms: The Context of Scripture, volume 2, pages 302-303; Lost Treasures of the Bible, by Fant and Reddish, pages 158-163.)

Roads of Arabia Exhibition

(Post by A.D. Riddle)

A friend and I recently took a 24-hour road trip to Kansas City, Missouri to see the “Roads of Arabia” exhibition. We have been following the exhibition on this blog since just after it began showing in 2010 (see here), and it looks like Missouri is about as close as it was ever going to get to where I live.
The exhibition was larger than I had envisioned and it took about four-five hours to explore most of the exhibit (we had to skim over some parts). It begins with stone tools from the Lower Paleolithic and works its way up to the modern kingdom of Saudi Arabia. I learned a lot of interesting things, and there were a few surprises. Writing the curator in advance ensured I was able to take photographs, but that did not stop guards and docents from stopping us several times and telling us photography was not permitted. If you visit the exhibit, do not assume you will be able to take pictures—find out ahead of time, if that is something you want to do.

My interest in going was motivated by (1) the difficulty (or impossibility) of ever visiting Saudi Arabia to see these objects and sites, and (2) the occasional connections to Arabia sprinkled throughout the Bible. In particular, the exhibit displayed a number of objects from these biblical sites/kingdoms:

Midian
Dedan
Kedar (Qedar)
Sheba/Sabeans
Tema
Nabateans

Stela of Babylonian king Nabonidus from Tema.

The exhibition catalog was available in the museum store for $70, and after him-hawin’ over the price tag, I decided to get it. It was well-worth the cost.

Al-Ghabban, Ali Ibrahim; Béatrice André-Salvini; Françoise Demange; Carine Juvin; and Marianne Cotty, eds.

2010 Roads of Arabia: Archaeology and History of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Paris: Somogy Art Publishers and Musée du Louvre; Washington, D.C.: Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution.

The volume is 607 pages long, and it is far more than a catalog. Not only does it have high-quality color photographs of all the objects on display, it has chapters on archaeology and history, each accompanied by maps, site plans, drawings and photographs. The chapters that caught my eye were:

“Geographic Introduction to the Arabian Peninsula,” by Paul Sanlaville
“The Story of the Origins,” by D. T. Potts
“Antiquity,” by Christian Julien Robin
“Languages and Scripts,” by Christian Julien Robin
“The Frankincense Caravans,” by Françoise Demange
“North-Eastern Arabia (circa 5000-2000 BC),” by D. T. Potts
“The Kingdom of Midian,” by Abdulaziz bin Saud Al-Ghauzzi
“The Oasis of Tayma,” by Arnulf Hausleiter
“Dedan (al-Ula),” by Said F. Al-Said
“The Kingdom of Lihyan,” by Hussein bin Ali Abu Al-Hasan

The full table of contents is available in pdf here.

The book does not appear to be affordably priced at Amazon ($221), but it can be ordered from the Smithsonian ($79.50 including shipping) or from the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art ($82.50 including shipping). One blogger gives something of a book review here with several snapshots of pages.

Here is a list of stops the “Roads of Arabia” exhibition has made since it opened in 2010.

2010
Jul 14–Sep 27 Musée du Louvre, Paris
Nov 12–Feb 27 CaixaForum, Barcelona

2011
May 17–Sep 4 The State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg

2012
Jan 26–Apr 9 Pergamon Museum, Berlin
Nov 17–Feb 24 Smithsonian Institution’s Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Washington, DC

2013
Jun 15–Nov 4 Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Pittsburgh
Dec 22–Mar 9 The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

2014
Apr 25–Jul 6 Neslon-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO
Oct 17–Jan 18 Asian Art Museum, San Francisco

I continue to see notices that the exhibition will show in Chicago and Boston, but no locations or dates have been given yet.

Tagged Arabia, Museums

The Sacred Bridge, Second Emended and Enhanced Edition

I noted on the Weekend Roundup that Carta had released a second edition of The Sacred Bridge but it was not clear what changes had been made.
I have since learned from sources at Accordance Bible Software what those changes include:

1. Many typographic corrections, both in the text and in the map descriptions. That’s good, since I don’t think I’ve seen a book with more typos than this one.

2. A few newer or updated pictures and maps.

3. A few places with rewritten text or updates in the archaeological information, especially from Steven Notley.

4. In the Accordance version, the detailed graphic timelines in the inside covers are now added, which were omitted in the first edition on Accordance.

Here’s the kicker: if you purchased the first edition in print, you have to pay full price for the second edition. (That’s the way it’s always been with print publishing.) But if you had purchased the electronic edition from Accordance, the second edition is a free upgrade. I think that is great business practice, but I don’t recall seeing it implemented very often. Kudos to Accordance for taking care of their customers!

I have praised the first edition previously here.

Tagged Resources