Rome’s ongoing subway system project has uncovered several glimpses of the past, this time the ruins of a Roman military commander’s 14-room luxury villa. ASOR Cultural Heritage Initiatives has a report on the current status of the Ain Dara Temple. Authorities caught tomb raiders in Galilee as they used a bulldozer to loot graves from the Roman period. 3D computational geometry is being used in a long-distance virtual reconstruction to piece together ancient cuneiform texts. Christopher Rollston is on the OnScript Podcast speaking about the Isaiah seal impression. The Digital Archive for the Study of pre-Islamic Arabian Inscriptions “seeks to gather all known pre-Islamic Arabian epigraphic material into a comprehensive online database, with the aim to make available to specialists and to the broader public a wide array of documents often underestimated because of their difficulty of access.” A proposed restructuring at University College London may have adverse effects on the Petrie Museum. You can learn how to help here. Bible Gateway has published an interview with Lois Tverberg about her new book, Reading the Bible with Rabbi Jesus. On sale for Kindle: Provan, Long, and Longman, A Biblical History of Israel ($3.99). Accordance has a big sale going on now on atlases and related resources. The Satellite Bible Atlas is now available on Accordance, and it too is on sale (40% off) until March 12. BAS is offering subscriptions to its video lecture service for 75% off for a limited time. David Z. Moster’s latest video explains how to use the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia. Wayne Stiles shares some new video footage shot over biblical Joppa. The LMLK Blogspot links to a new video of aerial footage of Hebron. HT: Ted Weis, Agade, Charles Savelle, Mark Hoffman
A headless statue of Aphrodite and a large mosaic were discovered during subway construction in Thessaloniki.
“Researchers have discovered the oldest figurative tattoos in the world on the upper arms of two ancient Egyptian mummies, the British Museum said.”
Iraqi authorities discovered 75 artifacts near the Shrine of the Prophet Abraham after a torrential rain.
Egypt’s Ministry of Antiquities Newsletter for January 2018 has been published.
Rome was covered by a rare snowfall this week. Photos here.
The Frist Center in Nashville is hosting over 200 objects from the Roman Empire, courtesy of the British Museum.
Four Persian kings are buried in the necropolis of Naqsh-e Rustam, including Darius I.
A rare 2nd-3rd century AD Roman ivory relief of Greek mythology is for sale.
A Hungarian pilot has flown his stunt plane through the Corinth Canal.
Wayne Stiles explains how your mind is like an archaeological dig.
HT: Agade, Charles Savelle, Joseph Lauer, Ted Weis, Paul Mitchell, Mark Hoffman
- Tagged Discoveries, Egypt, Excavations, Greece, Italy, Mesopotamia, Museums, Weather, Weekend Roundup
Adi Erlich reports the results from the renewed excavations of the Beth Shearim that she directed.
The closing of the Megiddo Prison will (finally) permit the opening of an archaeological park that features an early place of Christian worship.
“A rare, intact bronze ring from the Middle Ages bearing the image of St. Nicholas was discovered by chance during recent landscaping work in the garden of a home in the Jezreel Valley community of Moshav Yogev.”
The shrinking Dead Sea is attracting some strange people.
Photographs from the 1952 Qumran Caves’ Expedition are now online.
Israel’s Good Name explored some places in Jerusalem that many tourists never see.
On Purim 89 years ago the Graf Zeppelin flew over Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.
The entire double issue of Biblical Archaeology Review that celebrates Hershel Shanks is currently available in its entirety to all.
Accordance Bible Software is offering a large Lifeboat Switcher discount if you come over from any
other Bible software platform.
HT: Agade, Charles Savelle, Joseph Lauer, Ted Weis, Mark Hoffman
- Tagged Dead Sea, Discoveries, Excavations, Jerusalem, Jezreel Valley, Tourism, Weekend Roundup
Seven inscriptions from the Assyrian king Esarhaddon have been found in looter tunnels beneath the tomb of Jonah in Mosul, Iraq.
A rare pair of 2nd AD Roman boxing gloves was unearthed near Hadrian’s Wall in Hexham, England.
Egypt has announced the discovery of a large cemetery near the city of Minya. Photos are here.
“Remains of a 2,600-year-old statue with an inscription written in Egyptian hieroglyphics has been discovered in a temple at Dangeil, an archaeological site along the Nile River in Sudan.”
LiveScience reports on the excavations that have identified a different location for the Plutonium at Hierapolis.
The theater in Perga will be restored with a grant of 3 million Turkish Lira.
The Church of the Holy Sepulcher was closed for several hours today in protest of a new tax plan.
The US Supreme Court has ruled the Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago will be allowed to retain thousands of cuneiform tablets that originate from Iran.
The Minerva Center for the Relations between Israel and Aram is hosting its annual conference on
May 14–17, 2018, in Leipzig, Germany on the theme of “Re-Writing History by Destruction.”
Adriano Orsingher provides a short introduction to tophets on the ASOR Blog.
A conference on “Rethinking Layard 1817-2017” will be held in March in Venice.
BBC and Netflix have created an 8-part series on the Trojan War that is the most expensive drama in
BBC’s history.
HT: Agade, Joseph Lauer, Ted Weis, @go2Carl
- Tagged Discoveries, Egypt, Excavations, Lectures, Mesopotamia, Movies, Museums
A 12-minute video on the discovery of the Isaiah seal impression describes the background and significance of this find. The video includes interviews with Eilat Mazar and Shmuel Ahituv.
Christopher Rollston issues some cautions about identifying that seal impression with the prophet Isaiah. He follows up with more here. Michael Welch goes further and says that the seal belongs to
Isaiah (son of) Nobai or Isaiah the Nobian and not the famous prophet.
Biblical Archaeology Review is honoring its founder Hershel Shanks with a double issue, the table of contents of which is now online.
Mark D. Smith investigates the probability of a body of an criminal executed by Rome being buried.
Wayne Stiles considers the purpose of Jesus’s transfiguration and its significance to us today.
Ferrell Jenkins recalls his own experiences in visiting the Jordan River near Jericho.
How was Jesus heard without a microphone? That’s the topic on this week’s The Land and the Book broadcast with Barry Britnell.
Sharon Herbert will be lecturing at the Albright Institute on March 1 on “New Work on the Sealings and the Archive from Tel Kedesh.”
Now’s a good time to sign up for the summer excavations at Tell es-Safi/Gath.
HT: Agade, Joseph Lauer, Ted Weis
- Tagged Discoveries, Excavations, Galilee, Jerusalem, Jordan Rift, Lectures, Philistines
Eilat Mazar believes that she may have discovered a seal impression that belonged to the prophet Isaiah. The bulla was found south of the Temple Mount along with a couple dozen other seal impressions. The discovery is reported in the just-released issue of Biblical Archaeology Review.
Alongside the bullae of Hezekiah and the Bes family, 22 additional bullae with Hebrew names were found. Among these is the bulla of “Yesha‘yah[u] Nvy[?].” The obvious initial translation, as surprising as it might seem, suggests that this belonged to the prophet Isaiah.9 Naturally, this bulla is far more intriguing than all the others found adjacent to Hezekiah’s bulla….
This material, coming from the northwestern end of the foundation trench,10 included the bulla of Yesha‘yah[u] Nvy[?]. It was located only 6.5 feet southeast from the wall of the Building of the Royal Bakers, while the bulla of King Hezekiah was found about 13.1 feet southeast from the same wall; thus, less than 10 feet separated the bulla of Yesha‘yah[u] Nvy[?] and the bulla of King Hezekiah….
Could it therefore be possible that here, in an archaeological assemblage found within a royal context dated to the time of King Hezekiah, right next to the king’s seal impression, another seal impression was found that reads “Yesha‘yahu Navy’ ” and belonged to the prophet Isaiah? Is it alternatively possible for this seal NOT to belong to the prophet Isaiah, but instead to one of the king’s officials named Isaiah with the surname Nvy?
The full story is in the latest issue of Biblical Archaeology Review, and stories based on that can be found at National Geographic and The Times of Israel.
