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Midweek Roundup

A Second Temple period hall near the Western Wall has been excavated and restored. The “Hall of Ages” is scheduled to be opened to the public in a few weeks. HT: Joe Lauer

The Baptist Press has a story on the “Joseph coins,” in which they quote Steven Ortiz and Robert Griffin as skeptical.

G. M. Grena has some comments about the upcoming ASOR meetings at his LMLK blogspot, including this note of interest to Qeiyafa watchers:

By the way, Prof. Garfinkel will have some interesting photos of jar handles with special impressions that in many ways parallel the LMLK phenomenon.

BAS reports that from January to August 2010 the Oriental Institute will launch a new exhibit
“Pioneers to the Past: American Archaeologists in the Middle East, 1919-20.”

James Henry Breasted had received a large donation from John D. Rockefeller, Jr. to establish the Oriental Institute in 1919 and quickly organized an expedition to travel across the Middle East to acquire objects for the Institute and identify sites for excavation. World War I had just ended, the political map of the Middle East had not yet been redrawn, and it was a dangerous time to be travelling through the region. The exhibit will present the incredible adventure story of the Breasted expedition through photographs, excerpts from letters, original documents from the archives, and objects purchased on the trip.

BAS is now offering a free e-book entitled “Israel: An Archaeological Journey” (requires quick registration if you haven’t already). The contents include:

The Fury of Babylon: Ashkelon and the Archaeology of Destruction, by Lawrence E. Stager
Vegas on the Med: A Tour of Caesarea’s Entertainment District, by Yosef Porath
How Jewish Was Sepphoris in Jesus’ Time?, by Mark Chancey and Eric M. Meyers
Where Masada’s Defenders Fell, by Nachman Ben-Yehuda
A New Reconstruction of Paul’s Prison, by Ehud Netzer

Tagged Egypt, Jerusalem, Shephelah, Temple Mount

Nabatean Site of Avdat Vandalized

The Nabatean site of Avdat was vandalized on Sunday night and two Bedouin have been arrested, including the site’s sole security guard. From Ynet:

Hundreds of archeological artifacts were found smashed, walls smeared with yellow and brown paint, and oil paint was smeared on the ancient wine press. Items hundreds and thousands of years old were severely damaged. […] "We came in the morning and found the place in shambles," described Shapira, "They broke the staircase, destroyed the walls, and painted on them. The worst is that the two most ancient churches in Israel were destroyed, and 13-foot columns were shattered with hammers along with artifacts and the authentic marble alter, which is the most important (artefact) in the city."

The Jerusalem Post has the story and a couple of photos. The Haaretz Hebrew article has two photos (but not the English version). The Ynet article (Hebrew) has a gallery of 11 photos. If you prefer a three-minute video (Hebrew), you can find that here. Thanks to Joe Lauer for all of the links.

Tagged Negev

Kikar Tzahal (IDF Square), Jerusalem

The photo below shows another very familiar place in Jerusalem, at the northwestern corner of the Old City walls. This site, I believe, may be distinguished as the location most often renovated in the modern city’s history. I’ve long suspected that the municipality, which has its offices on the north side of this square, uses the area as training grounds for its construction crews.

This American Colony photo shows how the area looked sometime between 1932 and 1946. The round building on the right served as Barclay’s Bank on the lower floor and basement, while the rest of the building held offices of the City Hall. Because it was located next to “No Man’s Land” from 1948 to 1967, the building’s facade today bears pockmarks from the hostilities. Mayor Teddy Kollek’s office was in the second floor of this building for many years.

This picture could have been taken many times since, as the area has been torn up time and again to install various traffic features, water fountains, and pedestrian walkways. This photo was taken in December 2006 after the construction of a traffic tunnel. The round building is in the distant center.

This photo was taken in July 2009 by Peter Wong and looks west (the municipal building is off to the right). It shows excavations of the area, including what appears to be a cistern in the top center.

Shortly after Peter took this photo, the area was cemented over.

Tagged American Colony Photos, Excavations, Jerusalem

Ancient Lighthouse at Patara

A Turkish newspaper reports that the government will fund the restoration of a 1st century A.D. lighthouse from Patara. I wouldn’t believe everything you read in the article, but if it was built very early in the reign of Nero, it is possible that the apostle Paul saw it on his visit mentioned in Acts 21:1-2. (Nero reigned from 54 to 68, and Paul’s visit was in approximately 57.)

The Turkish government has allocated a budget to restore an ancient lighthouse, believed to be the world’s oldest.
Culture and Tourism Minister Ertuğrul Günay said Wednesday that his ministry would grant 800,000 Turkish Liras for the restoration of Nero’s Lighthouse, discovered four years ago in the ancient city of Patara, located near today’s Mediterranean town of Gelemiş in Antalya province.
[…]
The lighthouse has been dated to around A.D. 60 because the name of Nero, the Roman emperor at the time, was found on significant remnants of the circular inscription that surrounded the structure.
[…]
The team came across the ruins of the historical lighthouse, which stands 60 meters from the sea today, during excavation work done in Patara in 2005. “It was covered under an 11-meter high sand dune,” Işık told daily Milliyet at the time. “We had to remove approximately 3,000 truck loads of sand to uncover it. But it should be restored, or we will lose it forever.”
[…]
“The world’s oldest lighthouse was known to be the one in Lacaruna, Spain,” Işık said. “The lighthouse we have found is 60 years older than the one in Spain. It has ancient Hellenistic features. The bronze inscriptions indicate that this was a monument of the roman period.”
Işık said they believed the lighthouse was destroyed by a tsunami because a human skeleton was found among the ruins. The skeleton could have belonged to a lighthouse keeper who was trying to escape a tsunami but was crushed under the lighthouse’s stone blocks, she said.

The full article is here.

HT: Explorator

Patara lighthouse. Sea is just visible on right.

Tagged Turkey

Monotheism Conference at American Jewish University

I disagree with the premise that biblical monotheism evolved as man became smarter and more sophisticated, but this conference with leading scholars will certainly have interesting insights nonetheless. The conference is being held on the AJU campus in Los Angeles. More details and registration details are available at their website.

What Do We Mean When We Say ‘Monotheism’?

Monotheism is a basic tenet of Jewish belief. In a fascinating day devoted to this topic, a group of eminent archaeologists and scholars will broaden our understanding of the origin of monotheism and how it has shaped our religious thinking.

Please join us as our esteemed AJU Distinguished Professor of Biblical Literature and Semitic Languages, Dr. Ziony Zevit, addresses this question and introduces the following speakers and their topics:

Dr. Mark Smith, Skirball Professor of Hebrew and Near Eastern Studies at New York University, The Old and the New in Israelite Monotheism.

Dr. Barry Gittlen, Professor of Biblical and Archaeological Studies at Towson University, An Archaeological Introduction to Biblical Cult Places and Images.

Dr. Jeffrey Tigay, A.M. Ellis Professor of Hebrew and Semitic Languages in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at the University of Pennsylvania, Monotheism in the Hebrew Bible.

Dr. Steven Fine, Professor of Jewish History at Yeshiva University in New York and Director of Yeshiva University’s Center for Israeli Studies, The Archaeological Evidence for Monotheism in Synagogues and Churches in the Roman World.

Dates: Sunday, January 10, 2010

Meeting Duration: 10am – 3pm

Tuition: $50 Includes lunch

If you’d rather hear Clinton and Bush lecture at AJU, there’s more information here.

HT: G. M. Grena

Tagged Lectures

Biblical Archaeology Conference in Omaha

The University of Nebraska at Omaha is hosting a Biblical Archaeology Conference from October 29-31. From the press release:

Scholars from around the world will present the latest research on excavations at Bethsaida, an ancient city located near the north coast of the Sea of Galilee in Israel, at the University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO).
The 11th annual Batchelder Biblical Archaeology Conference is Oct. 29-31 at the Thompson Alumni Center on the UNO campus.
Biblical scholars from the U.S. and around the world will host presentations about their research. This year’s conference will welcome Dr. Oded Borowski as one of two keynote speakers. Dr. Borowski found and chaired the Department of Near Eastern and Judaic Languages and Literatures, now the Department of Middle Eastern and South Asian Studies. He is professor of Biblical Archaeology and Hebrew Language, and director of Mediterranean Archaeology at Emory University.
[…]
The other keynote presenter is Dr. Dan Bahat…. Dr. Bahat served the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) as the Chief Archaeologist of Jerusalem for 35 years, then as a scholar at Bar-Ilan University, and is currently affiliated with the University of Toronto.
In 1991, the Consortium of the Bethsaida Excavations Project (CBEP) was formed and has been housed at UNO since its inception. Its mission is to excavate the ancient city of Bethsaida, research the data discernible from the remains and disseminate the conclusions to both academic and popular audiences.

Significant objections have been raised by others of the identification of et-Tell as biblical Bethsaida.

Lecture titles are not given, but apparently they will be related to Bethsaida. Last year Eisenbrauns published Cities through the Looking Glass, a collection of articles from this conference in 2003 (see contents at Google Books).

For the full press release, including more details about the two speakers and registration details, see here.

Tagged Galilee, Lectures