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Weekend Roundup

Shmuel Browns reviews the new “Pharaoh in Canaan” exhibit at the Israel Museum and shares many photos.

Carl Rasmussen gives two reasons why he likes to visit Magdala.

Haaretz posts several impressive photos from this year’s celebration of the Samaritan Passover.

Tom Powers visits the Pools of Siloam through photographs of the American Colony. He also suggests (in a comment) that both pools existed from much earlier than the time of Jesus and he proposes distinct purposes for each.

“In an area of Israel that offers fewer attractions to visitors, Tel Arad is like coming upon an oasis of archeology.”

Fifteen years after the excavation of the “Cave of John the Baptist,” Popular Archaeology revisits the site with James Tabor.

Birket Ram is an interesting lake in the Golan Heights. Ferrell Jenkins looks at several historical sources and shares a wide-angle photo.

Leon Mauldin pays tribute to Ferrell Jenkins on his 50th Anniversary Tour.

A slackliner walked from one tower to another in the Tower of David Museum. Video here.

A 23-year-old Israeli hiker fell to his death when climbing in Wadi Rum in Jordan.

An oil deposit has been discovered near the Dead Sea.

The Biblical Museum of Natural History opened in Beit Shemesh in 2014.

It’s time to stop referring to the urban legend about NASA discovering Joshua’s long day.

Emek Shaveh has petitioned Israel’s Supreme Court to halt the transfer of the library and artifacts from the Rockefeller Museum to west Jerusalem. The Israel Antiquities Authority has responded that they’re only moving the library to protect fragile books.

Archaeology of Jordan Online went live this week. They provide a lot of great links (but don’t yet list our photo collection).

The latest edition of The Holy Land Magazine is online and features articles on Magdala, Shiloh, Tiberias, and Neot Kedumim

Revue de Qumrân is finally available on JSTOR.

HT: Joseph Lauer, Agade, Charles Savelle, Paleojudaica

Tagged Galilee, Jerusalem, Jordan, Museums, Negev, New Exhibits, Resources, Samaria

Interactive Map – The Allotments of the Southern Tribes

by Chris McKinny

The tribal town lists and boundary descriptions in the book of Joshua (chapters 13-21) are the most significant textual sources for the geography of the ancient Israel/Judah since they contain the vast majority of place names mentioned in the entire canon. In a soon-to-be submitted (and hopefully accepted) dissertation, I deal with the specific identifications of all of the towns and topographic markers mentioned in Joshua 15 (Judah); 18:12-28 (Benjamin); 19:1-10 (Simeon); and 19:40-46 (Dan) within the framework of a larger argument about the date and purpose of the town lists of Judah (Josh 15:21-62) and Benjamin (Josh 19:21-28). Over the course of the project, I compiled a digital archaeological database/atlas of all of the sites mentioned and discussed in the dissertation (embedded below). This project is called the “Interactive Map: A Historical Geography of the Administrative Divisions of Judah: The Town Lists of Judah and Benjamin in Joshua 15:21-62 and 18:21-28” (click to open in a separate window). The entire map is searchable and each entry (click on each button to expand) includes the biblical place name (in English, Hebrew and Greek), the identified ruin with an archaeological breakdown from the Middle Bronze until the Byzantine period including the Iron II size in dunams, and a bibliography of the archaeological data. The bibliography for the archaeological data contained in the database/atlas can be accessed here.

Satellite Bible Atlas users may also be interested in a more traditional map of the town lists/administrative division that I have prepared using the SBA‘s base map. A PDF of the map can be accessed here. I have added a JPEG version of the map below.

Tagged Historical Geography, Jerusalem, Judah, Negev, Resources, Shephelah

Weekend Roundup, Part 2

A mosaic found in Antioch on the Orontes from the 3rd century BC reads “Be cheerful, enjoy your life.”

The Washington Post has more on the discovery of a waystation built during the early years of Queen Hatshepsut.

A scholar believes he has found the oldest depictions of demons in ancient Egypt.
Atlanta Jewish Times has a story on Jodi Magness’s on-going work at the Galilean village of Huqoq.

New book: Hazor: Canaanite Metropolis, Israelite City, by Amnon Ben-Tor. Available from the Israel Exploration Society.

The Hazor Expedition needs more volunteers this summer. Get all the details here.

A recent donation to the Yale Babylonian Collection includes 360 cylinder seals from the third and fourth millennia BC.

ISIS has destroyed two gates of Nineveh, but most of what they bulldozed is modern reconstruction work.

Most of the 200 objects displayed on the ground floor of the Palmyra Museum were destroyed, including the famous Lion of Allat.

The US Senate has voted to ban all imports of antiquities from Syria in order to discourage looting.

Archaeologists are trying to solve the mystery of why 150 people were buried with shackles near the port of Athens.

An article by Philippe Bohstrom in Haaretz (premium) traces the history of writing materials from clay tablets to wax tablets.

Construction workers in Spain discovered a trove of 1,300 pounds of Roman coins dating to the 3rd and 4th centuries.

A replica of Noah’s Ark will sail from the Netherlands to Brazil before coming to the United States.

Another reason to visit Jordan: Jordanian Food: 25 of the Best Dishes You Should Eat

Wayne Stiles explains why the Judean wilderness is a perfect place to escape.

HT: Charles Savelle, Joseph Lauer, Agade, Ted Weis, Steven Anderson

Tagged Discoveries, Egypt, Excavations, Galilee, Greece, Jordan, Judah, Mesopotamia, Resources, Syria, Turkey

Weekend Roundup, Part 1

Archaeologists have announced the discovery of a 13th dynasty scarab in a gold ring at Tel Dor.

Excavations begin this summer at el-Araj, a candidate for the site of Bethsaida. Nyack College is participating and inviting others to join them.

The Temple Institute held a public practice reenactment of the Passover sacrifice last week. A few dozen photos have been posted.

Two Israeli Jews were arrested for trying to carry a goat up to the Temple Mount to make a Passover sacrifice.

A senior Egyptian archaeologist has claimed that the Pharaoh of the exodus was not Egyptian.

Paleojudaica provides some analysis.

The 8th-century citadel at Ashdod Yam was vandalized recently by youths who shared photos on social media. The teens who caused the damage have now apologized.

What’s there to see in Ashdod? Aviva and Shmuel Bar-Am lead readers on a tour of the sites.

Wayne Stiles shows you what you’ll see if you walk down the Kidron Valley.

For an CT article, Gordon Govier asks evangelical scholars to weigh in on the recent study that literacy in ancient Israel was more widespread than previously believed.

The full text is online for Lawrence Schiffman’s recent lecture entitled, “In the Valley of David and Goliath: Digging Up Evidence on the United Monarchy.”

Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary eBooks are on sale now for $4.99 each.

Now free online in pdf format: John J. Bimson, Redating the Exodus and Conquest, 2nd ed. Sheffield: The Almond Press, 1981.

A bidding war has resulted in sale of 1,000 historic photographs of the Holy Land to sell for nearly $1.5 million. Note to the loser: we can provide you with more than 1,000 images for half price!
Seth Rodriquez, a long-time contributor to this blog, has been invited to teach a course in biblical backgrounds at the Baptist Theological Seminary of Zimbabwe and he would appreciate your prayer and financial support.

HT: Agade, Joseph Lauer, Charles Savelle

Tagged Discoveries, Egypt, Excavations, Israel's Coast, Jerusalem, Resources, Temple Mount

The World of the New Testament in New York City

(by Gordon Franz)
There are two special exhibitions in New York City that illustrate the World of the New Testament. The first is at the Onassis Center in the Olympic Tower on 5th Avenue. This exhibit is entitled: “Gods and Mortals at Olympus.” All the objects from this display come from the city of Dion, a Roman colony in the first century AD, at the base of Mount Olympus. The port of Dion was probably where the Apostle Paul embarked on a ship to Athens on his Second Missionary Journey (Acts 17:14). Two highlights of this exhibition are a headless cult statue of Zeus Hypsistos (“Almighty”) and a mosaic of the epiphany of Dionysus, the god of wine and merrymaking. This exhibition is open until June 18, 2016. There are free guided tours on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 1 PM. Admission is free.

Click here for more information.

The second special exhibition is at the Metropolitan Museum of Art on 5th Avenue and is entitled “Pergamon and the Hellenistic Kingdoms of the Ancient World.” One-third of the 264 artworks on display come from the Pergamon Museum in Berlin. The church at Pergamon was one of the seven churches in the early chapters or the Book of the Revelation to receive a letter from the Lord Jesus (Rev 2:12-17). Three highlights of this exhibit are the 11-foot wide painting of the acropolis by the 19th century German artist Friedrich von Thiersch; a model of the altar of Zeus that some commentators suggest is “Satan’s throne” (Rev 2:13); and a 13-foot-tall statue of Athena Parthenos, similar to the one in the Parthenon in Athens, but on a much smaller scale. This exhibition closes on July 17, 2016. Admission is free with museum admission. The website says: “If you buy tickets at a museum ticket counter, the amount you pay is up to you . . . . Please be as generous as you can.

Suggested admission is $25 for adults, $17 for seniors, $12 for students, and free for children under 12.” Click here for more information.

Pergamon. Items inspired by the outstanding artistry and technical achievements of ancient Hellenistic culture

Tagged Museums, New Exhibits

Thutmose III Pendant Discovered in Jerusalem

A 12-year-old girl participating in the Temple Mount Sifting Project discovered an amulet dating to 1200 BC with the name of Thutmose III. From the press release:

The small amulet is in the shape of a pendant, missing its bottom part, measures 21mm wide, 4 mm thick and its preserved length is 16 mm. A loop on top allowed it to be strung and hung on the neck. The raised decoration displays a cartouche – an oval frame surrounding Egyptian hieroglyphics bearing the name of the Egyptian ruler. Above the oval framing is the symbol of an eye, and to its right are remnants of yet another hieroglyphic symbol depicting a cobra of which parts of the head and tail are preserved.

While Egyptian scarabs bearing the name of Thutmose III have previously been discovered in Jerusalem, this represents the first time his name has been found in Jerusalem adorning an amulet. “Objects bearing the name of Thutmose III continued to be produced in Egypt long after the time of his reign, reflecting the significance and lasting impression of this king,” said Barkay.
The amulet can be reconstructed based upon the discovery of an identical pendant found in Nahal Iron in northern Israel, announced in 1978,” said Zachi Dvira, co-founder and director of the Temple Mount Sifting Project. “Along with that pendant, which also bore the name of Thutmose III was another amulet bearing the name of King Seti I, an Egyptian pharaoh who ruled Egypt during the late 14th – early 13th centuries BCE. This seems to indicate that both pendants date to the same time period, namely the late 14th – early 13th century BCE.”

The press release includes more information. The story is also reported by The Times of Israel, Jerusalem Post, and others. A higher-res image of the photo above may be found here.

HT: Joseph Lauer

Tagged Discoveries, Jerusalem, Temple Mount