The Big Picture has 13 great photos of the declining level of the Dead Sea.

Why visit the Bible Lands Museum Jerusalem? Bible History Daily points out 10 great biblical artifacts.

That same museum is hosting a new exhibit “By the Rivers of Babylon” that is profiled in Haaretz.

The Tower of David Museum in Jerusalem is using iPads and phones to improve the visitor’s experience (NYTimes).

The Melbourne Museum has produced a recreation of the eruption of Mount Vesuvius that destroyed Pompeii.

Illegal excavations in Alexandria have revealed a Graeco-Roman necropolis.

An update on the Nineveh destruction from Agade: “Reliable reports from the Mosul that for good reason cannot be attributed are that the fortifications of Nineveh have not been damaged in any way.

Unfortunately, Nabi Younis, however, is now completely destroyed.”

HT: Agade

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From IraqiNews.com:

A Kurdish official revealed on Tuesday evening that the ISIS organization had bombed large parts and tracts of the ancient Nineveh wall, indicating that such an act violates the right of human culture and heritage.
The media official of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) in Mosul, Saed Mimousine said in an interview for IraqiNews.com, “ISIS militants blew up today large parts and expanses of the archaeological wall of Nineveh in al-Tahrir neighborhood,” explaining that, “The terrorist group used explosives in the process of destroying the archaeological fence.”
Mimousine added, “The Wall of Nineveh is one of the most distinctive archaeological monuments in Iraq and the Middle East,” adding that, “The fence dates back to the Assyrian civilization.”

The full article includes a photo of the gate. A related article shows a photo of an explosion.

Nineveh is best known as one of the capitals of ancient Assyria. In the 8th century BC, Jonah visited the city and Sennacherib began construction on his “Palace Without a Rival.” Fortunately, many of the important artifacts were removed from the site in the 19th century and are now on display in the British Museum.

HT: Agade

Nineveh, north palace of Ashurbanipal, after capture of Babylon, tb112004733
Relief from Ashurbanipal’s palace in Nineveh
Now on display in the British Museum
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They now think they know who was buried in the Amphipolis tomb. This article has more details and illustrations.

King Tut’s beard was knocked off and then re-attached with epoxy glue. Here’s a close-up of the botched repair.

Leen Ritmeyer suggests a location for the stairs of the Antonia Fortress where Paul went up and down.

Medical imaging technology has been put to use in reading burned papyri from Herculaneum.

Approval has been given to re-open the old Acropolis Museum.

You can subscribe to the weekly podcast of The Book and the Spade at christianaudio.com. This week Clyde Billington gives an update on Temple Mount archaeology. Last week I addressed the problem of sensational stories in biblical archaeology.

The latest issue of Ancient Near East Today is now available.

Ferrell Jenkins shares photos of Aphek/Antipatris and the “other Aphek.” I particularly like his aerial photo of the northern site.

Miriam Feinberg Vamosh describes the history of Jezreel and its recent excavations in an illustrated pdf article at The Bible and Interpretation.

Iraq is seeking to have the ruins of Babylon put on the UNESCO World Heritage List.

ICYMI: Accordance photo collections are on sale through Monday.

HT: Ted Weis, Agade

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Accordance Bible Software has some excellent photo resources on sale through Monday. Here are some of their offerings:

Bible Lands PhotoGuide 4, with 50 new articles and thousands of additional photographs ($69.90)

Bible Times PhotoMuseum, with 500 high-res images and extensive explanatory notes ($44.90)

100 Archaeological Sites and Biblical Landscapes in Israel, with 1,500 photos by Hanan Isachar ($79.90)

Churches and Monasteries in Israel, with hundreds of photos and descriptions by researcher and cultural journalist, David Rapp ($39.90)

American Colony Collection, with 4,000 images from the early 1900s, created by BiblePlaces.com ($99.90)

Views That Have Vanished, with 700 photographs taken in the 1960s, created by BiblePlaces.com ($26.90)

The Graphics Premier Bundle includes everything listed above, now reduced to $239.

These are some great resources at sale prices through January 26. Accordance has long been the most popular Bible software for Mac and it has been available on PC for more than a year now. You can
learn more about this outstanding software here. Or check out the many endorsements here.

Tishbe
Screenshot from Accordance Bible Lands PhotoGuide 4
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In 2012 Daniel Wallace mentioned in a debate the existence of an early fragment of the Gospel of Mark. LiveScience has an update with information from Craig Evans:

A text that may be the oldest copy of a gospel known to exist — a fragment of the Gospel of Mark that was written during the first century, before the year 90 — is set to be published.
[…]
This first-century gospel fragment was written on a sheet of papyrus that was later reused to create a mask that was worn by a mummy.
[…]
Evans says that the text was dated through a combination of carbon-14 dating, studying the handwriting on the fragment and studying the other documents found along with the gospel. These considerations led the researchers to conclude that the fragment was written before the year 90. With the nondisclosure agreement in place, Evans said that he can’t say much more about the text’s date until the papyrus is published.
[…]
Evans said that the research team will publish the first volume of texts obtained through the mummy masks and cartonnage later this year. It will include the gospel fragment that the researchers believe dates back to the first century.

The full story is here.

HT: Craig Dunning

UPDATE: There are some errors in this LiveScience article. See the post by Peter Williams (together with the comments) here. (HT: Ulrich Wendel)

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Over at Biblical Remains, Larry Largent provides a good review of the movie “Patterns of Evidence,” showing tonight only. My hope is that those who trust the Bible will ignore the film completely, but if you’re tempted to go, read Larry’s review first.

Here’s a portion:

This is the problem with the documentary format. It is not the best format to put forth and test supposed “new” ideas and solutions no matter how much they are qualified by “perhaps’s” and “could’s.” Time constraints mean that creditable opposition is never addressed. In “Patterns,”  all scholarship becomes flattened in a “them” vs the revised chronology paradigm. The film lumps together traditional biblical maximilists and secular minimalists in a gang of “archaeological giants” that the revised chronology will take down with nothing but a sling and a prayer.
Apparently, arguing that secular scholars might be right in the date of the exodus but wrong in the details is simply not as provocative as claiming that scholars have everything under the sun about the exodus wrong. This is the problem with the medium Mahoney is using to argue for the historicity of the exodus. When it comes to the box office, the more provocative solution is always the best one, but when it comes to doing good historical, archaeological and biblical research,  a theory’s glitz bears little on its accuracy. Real historical research is pounded out in the dialogue of hundreds of articles and papers, and refined in the open response to accusations of error in hundreds of pages – a 2 hour time limit and audience fatigue is not a problem.
In six hundred theaters tonight, viewers will come away from the film with no idea that they have just picked up a broken arrow. They won’t know that the revised Egyptian chronology is not a new theory and has been shown to create as many problems for biblical chronology as it solves.

Yes and yes. There may be a better way to understand the Bible’s relationship to archaeology, but this movie is not it.

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