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Oil Exploration in the Valley of Elah

Matthew Kalman at AOLNews writes:

A baron from the prominent Rothschild family is teaming up with media mogul Rupert Murdoch in an attempt to break Israel’s foreign oil dependency by mining vast amounts of oil shale in the unspoiled Elah Valley, where the Bible says David fought Goliath.
But their business plan has morphed into a family battle all its own because of some unexpected opposition from Lord Jacob Rothschild’s second cousin, a celebrated eco-campaigner.
[…]
Oil shale mining involves heating the ground to transform buried, tar-like organic compounds into oil, and then extracting it. But the process is criticized for being an inefficient way of getting energy, because it takes so much energy to heat up the ground and create the oil, and then drill for it. Al Gore has described the practice as “utter insanity.”
Such technology is economical only when the price of oil is very high, as is the case right now. And Lord Rothschild has said he believes oil shale mining “could transform the future prospects of Israel, the Middle East and our allies around the world.”

The article continues here.

You can see photos and read more about the biblical significance of the Elah Valley here. Or you can enjoy a virtual flyover of the valley at LandoftheBible.com.

HT: Jay Baggett

Tagged Shephelah, Technology

Weekend Roundup

Tragic news comes out of Israel this week as a massive forest fire has killed more than 40 people and destroyed more than 10,000 acres on Mount Carmel. If you’ve traveled with me in the last 7-8 years, you probably spent a night at Kibbutz Beit Oren, which suffered great damage. For several photos of the mountain (in better days) and a map, see Ferrell Jenkins’ post. The fire may not be put out for another week.

Archaeologists are now studying ancient sites without ever visiting them, thanks to a NASA satellite.

Arizona State University archaeologist Stephen H. Savage has been studying Khirbet en-Nahas and with NASA’s Earth Observing-1 satellite been able to determine where “the ore is coming from; which parts of the site were used for smelting and which were not; and that different parts of the site were drawing ore from different regions.

Jennie R. Ebeling has an interesting and well-illustrated summary of discoveries made at Hazor in recent years.

Jweekly.com has a brief article summarizing the discoveries at Magdala.

Reading Acts has a brief summary of James Charlesworth’s presentation at NEAS in which he discussed whether the pool of Bethesda and the pool of Siloam were ritual baths (miqva’ot).

Shimon Gibson has the opportunity to publish important archaeological finds from excavations on Mount Zion in the 1970s and he is now raising funds. Making a donation is particularly quick if you have an Amazon account. Even a small contribution will help!

The winners have been selected for this week’s give-away of the Holy Land Revealed DVD set. It is perhaps notable that both winners live outside of the United States.

HT: Joe Lauer

Tagged Jerusalem, Weekend Roundup

My Favorite (Old) Travel Resources

Last month I pointed readers to a potentially great deal on a Logos Bible Software collection of works of early explorers. That offer is still available and accepting bids, but I commented at the time that an even better collection could be created. What are the best resources by 19th-century explorers of Palestine? Below is what I suggest would be a dream collection.

Burckhardt, John Lewis. 1822 Travels in Syria and the Holy Land. London: John Murray.

Clermont-Ganneau, Charles. 1896 Archaeological Researches in Palestine During the Years 1873-1874. 2 vols. London: Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund.

Conder, Claude R. 1878 Tent Work in Palestine. 2 vols. London: Richard Bentley & Son.

Conder, Claude R. 1889 Palestine. New York: Dodd, Mead & Company.

Dalman, Gustaf. 1935 Sacred Sites and Ways: Studies in the Topography of the Gospels, trans. Paul

P. Levertoff. New York: Macmillan. [This work is more recent than the others but uniquely valuable and out of copyright, I believe.]

Lynch, W. F. 1849 Expedition to the River Jordan and the Dead Sea. Philadelphia: Lea and Blanchard.

MacGregor, John. 1870 The Rob Roy on the Jordan, Nile, Red Sea, & Gennesareth, Etc.: A Canoe Cruise in Palestine and Egypt, and the Waters of Damascus, 2nd ed. London: John Murray.

Porter, J. L. 1882 The Giant Cities of Bashan and Syria’s Holy Places. London: T. Nelson and Sons.

Robinson, Edward and Eli Smith. 1841 Biblical Researches in Palestine, Mount Sinai and Arabia Petrea: A Journal of Travels in the Year 1838. 3 vols. Boston: Crocker & Brewster. [This is probably the most important work in this list.]

Robinson, Edward and Eli Smith. 1871 Later Biblical Researches in Palestine, and in the Adjacent Regions: A Journal of Travels in the Year 1852, 2nd ed. Boston: Crocker & Brewster.

Rogers, Mary Eliza. 1867 Domestic Life in Palestine. Cincinnati: Poe & Hitchcock. [Not as well known, but a fascinating read! It has recently been reprinted.]

Smith, George Adam. 1909 The Historical Geography of the Holy Land. 26th ed. New York: A. C. Armstrong and Son. [This is a classic.]

Thomson, William M. 1880 The Land and the Book. Vol. 1: Southern Palestine and Jerusalem. New York: Harper & Brothers.

Thomson, William M. 1882 The Land and the Book. Vol. 2: Central Palestine and Phoenicia. New York: Harper & Brothers.

Thomson, William M. 1885 The Land and the Book. Vol. 3: Lebanon, Damascus, and Beyond Jordan. New York: Harper & Brothers.

Tristram, Henry Baker. 1868 The Natural History of the Bible: Being a Review of the Physical Geography, Geology, and Meteorology of the Holy Land, with a Description of Every Animal and
Plant Mentioned in Holy Scripture, 2nd ed. London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge.

1874 The Land of Moab. London: John Murray. [This is in the current Logos offering.]
Twain, Mark. 1869 The Innocents Abroad. Hartford: American Publishing.

Wilson, Charles, ed. 1881 Picturesque Palestine, Sinai and Egypt. 4 vols. London: J. S. Virtue & Co.

[This has been published in non-Logos format at LifeintheHolyLand.com.]

I have excluded works specifically on Jerusalem from this list, as those would make up their own collection. Also the size and challenge of digitizing another would surely necessitate a separate collection:

Conder, Claude R. and H. H. Kitchener. 1882 The Survey of Western Palestine, 11 volumes. London:

The Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund. [For a list of volumes, see here. A reprint edition now sells for about $4,000. We have produced electronic editions of the maps and index.]

Two final comments: (1) All of the resources listed above were used extensively in the creation of the annotations in the American Colony and Eric Matson Collection. (2) A Logos representative read my previous post and contacted me for this list. I am hopeful that they will catch the vision and bring back these rare and valuable works for our and future generations.

Tagged Resources

Noah’s Ark Theme Park Announced

From MSNBC:

A full-scale replica of Noah’s Ark will be the biggest feature of a creationism-themed amusement park expected to open in 2014 in northern Kentucky, Gov. Steve Beshear announced Wednesday.
The $150 million park will be built by a for-profit group called Ark Encounter LLC, which is partnering with Answers in Genesis, most widely known for its high-tech Creation Museum in Petersburg, Ky., Beshear said at a Capitol news conference.
Site selection is not decided, he said, but the organizers have options on 800 acres in Grant County off Interstate 15, about 40 miles from the Creation Museum, which is outside Cincinnati, Ohio. The Ark Encounter website says the park will go in the Grant County site.
“Bringing new jobs to Kentucky is my top priority, and with the estimated 900 jobs this project will create, I am happy about the economic impact this project will have on the Northern Kentucky region,” Beshear said in a prepared statement.
The park is expected to draw 1.6 million visitors a year, Beshear said, citing a feasibility study by America’s Research Group.
In addition to the full-size ark, the complex will include a walled city, live animal shows, a children’s interactive play area, a replica of the Tower of Babel, a 500-seat special effects theater, an aviary, a journey through biblical history, and a first-century Middle Eastern village.

The story continues here. The official site of Ark Encounter is here. Answers in Genesis has issued a press release here. There are several images available here.

My family had the opportunity to visit the Creation Museum mentioned above this summer. We thought it was excellent and would highly recommend a visit. This new park will certainly spark more conversation, as it brings closer to home questions such as (1) did Noah build such an ark for a local flood; (2) would all of the animals fit inside; and (3) how much faith would it take for one man to persevere in the construction. It’s interesting how much opposition there is today to the establishment of a theme park; I can’t imagine that Noah faced any less of a snarky, sneering response.

Proposed Ark Encounter theme park

Tagged New Exhibits

Give-Away: The Great Courses: The Holy Land Revealed

This week’s give-away is a treat for several reasons. First, this resource is brand new. When I received it in the mail a couple of weeks ago, it was not even listed on the publisher’s website.

Second, the value of this resource is much higher than any previous (or likely, future) give-away item. The retail value is $375, though it is on sale until the 28th for $99.95. Third, I have two copies to give away.

I would assume that most of my readers are familiar with The Great Courses. This company finds the best professors to teach on popular subjects and then makes the audio and/or video lectures available for a fraction of the cost of tuition. You don’t get credit, but you may save more than a thousand dollars from a comparable university course.

The latest course to be produced is entitled “The Holy Land Revealed.” The instructor is Jodi Magness, professor at U of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is well regarded for her historical and archaeological research, including her excellent book, The Archaeology of Qumran and the Dead Sea Scrolls.

The course is only available in video DVD format, and the set includes 36 half-hour lectures on 6 DVDs. You can see a complete list of the lectures in the right sidebar on this page, but I’ll just note a few of particular interest here.

Biblical Jerusalem’s Ancient Water Systems
Samaria and the Northern Kingdom of Israel
Discovery and Site of the Dead Sea Scrolls
Herod as Builder—Jerusalem’s Temple Mount
Monumental Tombs in the Time of Jesus
Masada—Herod’s Desert Palace and the Siege

I’ve only had time so far to watch three of the lectures. I chose one of Magness’ specialities:
“Discovery and Site of the Dead Sea Scrolls.” When that finished, I continued into “The Sectarian Settlement at Qumran.” (The third: “Synagogues in the Time of Jesus.”) Because I’ve studied this subject in some measure (and read Magness’ book), I did not expect to learn much. But I wanted to see how the information was covered, how visual aids were used, and how effective I would judge the course to be overall for people without graduate degrees in the field. Overall, I would rate these lectures at 9 out of 10. The information was solid (no surprise) and the visual aids were generally helpful (but why no photo of Cave 1 when she was describing the discovery?). The presentation was good too, though my first impressions were that it must be hard to lecture directly into the lens of a camera. I think when The Great Courses calls me up, I’ll request to have a live audience. (I’m not holding my breath!)

Another quibble: the course is entitled “The Holy Land Revealed.” This is a potentially ambiguous title. I was expecting more of a geography-type course. But this is clearly focused on archaeological discoveries that illuminate the land’s history. Not only that, you should know that it is not evenly balanced across the periods. This is not surprising if you know Magness’ expertise. Naturally she is going to teach at greater length what she knows best.

What that means is that only eight of the lectures cover the Old Testament period. Four are from the Roman, Byzantine, and Islamic periods, leaving twenty-four covering the Second Temple period.

That means that those who watch this course are going to get a great education in Pharisees, Maccabees, synagogues, Herod, and Jewish revolts. But if your interest is exploring the archaeological world of the Old Testament in depth, you may want to wait for the next course. I found on Magness’ university bio that she was preparing a 36-lecture course for The Teaching

Company entitled “The World of Jesus.” I’m guessing that this is the same course, but they changed titles without modifying the content very much. So if you think of this as a course primarily on “The World of Jesus,” I think you’ll be very satisfied.

There is much more information about the course here, and you can sign up for the free copies below. The rules: one entry per person, deadline is Friday noon (PST), and after the winners are notified, all names and email addresses will be deleted.

UPDATE (12/3): Congratulations to winners Etti and Alexander.

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Tagged Give-Away, Resources

Scientists Work with Archaeologists at Megiddo

Nature has a good article about the collaboration between archaeologists and scientists on an excavation.

Important evidence relating to this debate is being unearthed by a unique collaboration between archaeologists and natural scientists, working shoulder-to-shoulder at Tel Megiddo and several other important Israeli sites. "In the past, all too often, archaeologists and scientists worked together, but it was two parallel lines," says archaeologist Aren Maeir of Bar-Ilan University in Ramat Gan, Israel. It could take months or even years before finds were sent away to the lab, he says, with results taking just as long to come back. "On top of that, sometimes the samples weren’t taken correctly." The Tel Megiddo dig is different. Chemists make up half of the two dozen excavators on the team, which is being led by Finkelstein and Steve Weiner, a structural biologist specializing in mineralized tissues who is director of the Kimmel Center for Archaeological Science at the Weizmann Institute in Rehovot, Israel. Funded by a European Research Council grant worth €3 million (US$4 million) over five years, the pair hope that their work at Tel Megiddo and elsewhere will show that this model of close collaboration should become the norm for archaeology. […] When Nature visited Tel Megiddo in October, excavators were working with brushes, tweezers and teaspoons to gather sediment samples into small plastic vials before taking them to an infrared spectrometer set up on a folding table at the edge of the site. The chemical clues yielded by the spectrometer gave immediate feedback to the diggers as they collected further samples. Chemical analysis can distinguish between soil layers that look identical to the naked eye, explains Weiner. In a paper published this month, for example, he and his colleagues show how infrared spectrometry can reveal the distinctive origins of seemingly identical layers of calcite, a form of calcium carbonate (L. Regev et al. J. Archaeol. Sci. 37, 3022–3029; 2010). Wood burnt at above 500 °C produces calcite, although the mineral can also come from limestone slaked to make lime for construction, and is found in the soil used to make mud bricks. Each type of calcite has a distinctive infrared signature, providing information that helps archaeologists to distinguish between a floor, a wall or a kiln.

The whole article is worth reading.

Tagged Excavations, Technology