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Lynn H. Wood Archaeological Museum Lecture Series 2010-11

October 7, 2010, 7:00 p.m.
Khirbet Qeiyafa 2010: Excavating in the Shadow of Alexander the Great, by Michael G. Hasel

(Southern Adventist University)

October 28, 2010, 7:00 p.m.
Uncovering the Past: 50 Years of Biblical Archaeology, by William G. Dever (University of Arizona, emeritus)

November 16, 2010, 7:00 p.m.
Ancient Coins of Khirbet Qeiyafa: A Stronghold on the Road to Jerusalem, by Yoav Farhi (Hebrew University of Jerusalem)

March 16, 2011, 7:00 p.m.
In Search for Joshua’s Ai, by Bryant Wood (Associates for Biblical Research)

The museum lecture series is free and open to the public. All lectures are held in the Lynn Wood Hall building on the campus of Southern Adventist University. For driving directions and parking information, visit our website.

Tagged Lectures

Flight Tours over Israel with Google Earth

Google Earth is a fantastic tool that combines high-resolution aerial imagery with a “flying” engine so that users can travel anywhere in the world in seconds. The problem is that most people don’t know where they’re going. Jay Baggett is on the way to solving this problem for students and teachers of the Bible. His new website, Land of the Bible, features more than a dozen video tours through the 3-D landscape of Israel and Jordan.

After you get an introduction on the home page, you can see a list of the flights in the left sidebar.

You’ll notice that Jay has plans to create many more in the future. If you want a short tour, you can start with “David & Goliath,” which begins David’s hometown in Bethlehem and brings you down to the Elah Valley and the stage for the famous battle. As the video proceeds, the “tour notes” on the right make it clear what you are seeing and why it is important.

Fly-over tour at landofthebible.com

For a longer tour, click “From Dan to Beersheba.” This is a great way to get a feel for the whole land and how one site is related to another. If you want to “pick up the pace,” you can always click the “fast-forward” button; each click doubles the speed of the video.

Most of the tours are located in the “Pilgrim’s tour of Israel and Jordan.” Since most visitors see similar sites on the same basic route, this tour will be useful to many tourists even if they were not on Jay’s trip last year.

The videos require a Google Earth plug-in and they do not seem to work in Firefox. This is a great tool and I look forward to seeing the new fly-overs as Jay finishes them.

Tagged Technology, Tourism

Skeleton Wrapped in Gold Foil Discovered on Crete

This tomb in Crete dates roughly from the time of Kings Manasseh and Josiah. From the AP:

ATHENS, Greece — Greek archaeologists have found an ancient skeleton covered with gold foil in a grave on the island of Crete, officials said Tuesday.
Excavator Nicholas Stampolidis said his team discovered more than 3,000 pieces of gold foil in the 7th-century B.C. twin grave near the ancient town of Eleutherna.
Cemeteries there have produced a wealth of outstanding artifacts in recent years.
The tiny gold ornaments, from 1 to 4 centimetres (0.4 to 1.5 inches) long, had been sewn onto a lavish robe or shroud that initially wrapped the body of a woman and has almost completely rotted away but for a few off-white threads.
“The whole length of the (grave) was covered with small pieces of gold foil — square, circular and lozenge-shaped,” Stampolidis told The Associated Press. “We were literally digging up gold interspersed with earth, not earth with some gold in it.”

The full story is here. I have not seen any photos yet.

The archaeologists have produced a few videos of the excavation before this latest discovery:

The ruins are on the north slopes of Mount Ida, the mythical birthplace of the god Zeus.

Mount Ida from Phaistos, Crete

HT: Joe Lauer

Tagged Discoveries, Greece

Visit Ancient Rome with Google

How many times have you rushed through an ancient site, taking as many pictures as you could, but when it was all done you didn’t realize exactly what you saw? And when it comes time to label your photos or describe them to a friend, you’re at a loss? Google Street View could be a useful tool in your attempt to “remember” what you saw and where. The ambitious program is venturing not only into European cities, but their ancient ruins as well. Pompeii was put online last year and now work is underway for the ruins of ancient Rome. Once it is complete, you’ll be able to retrace the steps of your tour and make sure that you don’t confuse the Arch of Septimus Severus with the Arch of Constantine. BBC News has a 2-minute video describing the project.

Arch of Constantine, Rome

Tagged Italy, Technology

1st Century Mosaic Found in Apamea, Syria

From the Syrian Arab News Agency:

Hama, central Syria, (SANA) –The national Archeological expedition found a unique reddish brown mosaic with a length of 4.8 meters and a width of 3 meters in addition to several coins dating back to the 1st century AD.
Head of Hama Antiquities Department Abdul Qader Farzat said the mosaic was uncovered in Chamber No. 5 Acriba Bath inside Apamea which is six meters long, five meters wide and 4 meters high.
Farzat pointed out that the expedition worked mainly on the western corridor of the bath which is 11 meters long where clay dishes dating back to Byzantine Age were found in addition to a wall upon which a clay canal was found.

The full article is here.

HT: Joe Lauer

Tagged Discoveries, Syria

The Palace of David: A Flawed Proposal

Several years ago Eilat Mazar announced with great fanfare that she had discovered the palace of David. It was right where she had predicted it would be. Her analysis was based in part on the Bible, which she believed gave clues to where David’s palace was.

The main verse in Mazar’s proposal is 2 Samuel 5:17:

When the Philistines heard that David had been anointed king over Israel, all the Philistines went up to search for David. But David heard of it and went down to the stronghold.

The key word for locating the palace is “down.” Because David went from the palace “down” to the stronghold, the palace must be north of the stronghold because of the topography of Jerusalem.

But the Bible doesn’t say that David went from the palace, and it doesn’t say that he went to the stronghold of Jerusalem. In fact, I’m certain that he did not.

You might read the passage in 2 Samuel 5 yourself. I think you’ll be surprised that Mazar ever made this proposal, that it has been published twice in Biblical Archaeology Review, and that it (apparently) has never been critiqued.

Then you might check out my analysis published today at The Bible and Interpretation. Who do you think is right? Does it matter how one reads the biblical text as long as it agrees with the archaeological discoveries?

Area of excavations of possible palace of David

Tagged Analysis, Jerusalem