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Weekend Roundup, Part 1

There is so much going on that I need to make an early start on the Weekend Roundup. There will be more tomorrow.

Ferrell Jenkins and Leon Mauldin are now traveling in Israel, with the goal of visiting places they have never seen before. Ferrell’s first post shows a well-preserved Roman road in the western hills of
Judah and Leon’s features a Roman milestone.

Shmuel Browns posts his list of “Top Ten” Jerusalem Sites. You might bring this list on your next visit to Jerusalem (or hire Shmuel to guide you around).

Joe Yudin guides his readers on a tour of significant tombs in Jerusalem, including “King David’s tomb,” the so-called family tomb of King Herod, the Muslim cemetery in Mamilla, and Jason’s
Tomb. I think an illustration or two would enhance the article.

A group of archaeologists and students in Israel have submitted a petition to lawmakers to drop support for a law that would allow the continuation of excavations in the City of David that are funded by Elad.

If you missed the “Office Hours” interview with Carol and Eric Meyers on Thursday, you may watch the video online. In the 50-minute interview, they discuss both professional and personal aspects of their lives in archaeology, including vandalism of sites, their children’s presence on digs, middle-of-the-night excavations, how to get a start in archaeology, and forthcoming books.

Reuters has a brief story about tunnel systems carved by rebels during the first and second Jewish
revolts.

Jason’s Tomb in Jerusalem

Tagged Jerusalem, Lectures, Shephelah, Weekend Roundup

Lectures on the Historicity of Solomon

The Memory and Identity Working Group, University of California, Berkeley is hosting a lecture entitled “Mining for Solomon” by Professor Steven Weitzman (Stanford University) on Tuesday, September 6, 2011, 4:00 pm, 254 Barrows Hall.

After a century-long search for traces of the historical King Solomon, archaeologists have recently claimed to locate the possible source of his fabled wealth in southern Jordan. Has scholarship at last found evidence of the real King Solomon? Weitzman’s presentation will address this question by exploring the pre-history of the archaeological quest for Solomon, a quest with surprisingly important historical consequences that go beyond our understanding of the biblical past.

For other upcoming lectures sponsored by the group, see their website.

Trinity Evangelical Divinity School invites the public to a lecture by William G. Dever entitled “The Golden Age of Solomon: Fact or Fancy?” The lecture will be held on Monday, October 3, 2011 at 7:00 pm in Hinkson Hall, Rodine Building. A flyer may be viewed here (pdf).

HT: Jack Sasson, A.D. Riddle

Tagged 10th Century, Lectures

2011-12 Lectures at Southern Adventist University

September 21: Steven M. Ortiz, Gezer: The Search for the City of Solomon

October 12: Michael G. Hasel, The 2011 Excavation Season at Khirbet Qeiyafa, Israel

February 15: Martin G. Klingbeil, Ancient Near Eastern Passports: Two Stamp Seals from Khirbet Qeiyafa

March 21: Daniel Master, Transformations in the Twelfth Century BC: The Coming of the Philistines to Ashkelon

All lectures begin at 7:00 p.m., are free of charge, and are open to the public. For more information, see the website of the university’s Institute of Archaeology. SAU is located in Collegedale, Tennessee. Previous lectures may be ordered on DVD for $10, including shipping. (The above information is taken from the Institute newsletter, as the website has not yet been updated with this year’s schedule.)

Tagged Lectures

Gaddafi and the Bible

A headline in the Jerusalem Post catches my eye: “Libya interim rulers set Saturday ultimatum for Sirte.” The first paragraph identifies Sirte as Muammar Gaddafi’s hometown. The name sounds familiar and I turn to Acts 27:17 where it says of the sailors carrying Paul to Rome: “Fearing that they would run aground on the sandbars of Syrtis, they lowered the sea anchor and let the ship be driven along.”

Sirte sounds a lot like Syrtis and so I wonder if the city is perhaps along Libya’s northern shore. Google Maps confirms that it is.

View Larger Map

I open up the article on “Syrtis” in the Anchor Bible Dictionary and learn that this is the name of two dangerous gulfs off the coast of modern Libya. In that article, Mark J. Olson identifies the Greater Syrtis with the modern Gulf of Sirte:

According to Strabo (2.5.20), the Greater Syrtis covered an area approximately 450–570 miles in circumference, and 170–180 miles in breadth. This is the modern Gulf of Sirte, off the coast of Libya. The Lesser Syrtis is the modern Gulf of Gabes off the coast of Tunisia. The ancient mariners’ fears of running aground while still far out at sea are echoed in Dio Chrysostomus’ warning: “Those who have once sailed into it find egress impossible; for shoals, cross-currents, and long sand-bars extending a great distance out make the sea utterly impassable or troublesome” (Or. 5.8–9)” (6: 286).

I don’t think this helps me understand the passage in Acts better, but it may help me to remember the name of Syrtis. And it does provide a modern connection when teaching students today.

A search on Google reveals that Peter Kirk has observed this connection. He wrote in March, “How appropriate it is that a biblical place of danger has now become a place of danger for Gaddafi.”

In January I recommended Gordon Franz’s article, “Why Were the Sailors Afraid of the Syrtis Sands (Acts 27:17)?”

This screenshot from Google Earth shows Sirte in relation to Crete, Paul’s place of departure. The ship was not destroyed by the sandbars of Syrtis but instead sailed west and was wrecked on the island of Malta (Acts 28:1).

Discoveries at Khirbet Qeiyafa in 2011

The Spring/Summer 2011 issue of DigSight has just been released by the Institute of Archaeology of Southern Adventist University. The newsletter includes a good primer on biblical minimalism and its shifts in the last two decades. Another article discusses “Evident Silence or Silenced Evidence” in defense of the historicity of Daniel 5.

The lead article summarizes the major tasks and discoveries of the 2011 team:

Completion of excavation of 4th-century BC large building with olive press
Discovery of early 10th-century BC stone quarry that continued in use in Hellenistic and/or Roman times
Excavation of three Iron Age rooms with some partially restorable vessels and a standing stone (signifying a cultic area?)
Discovery of best-preserved example of Iron Age floor at the site.
Significant small finds including a faience scarab seal, a bone seal with lion and man, an iron ring, and a portion of an Aramaic ostracon
Excavation of more than 25,000 pieces of pottery in Area D alone

The newsletter notes that the Institute’s three-year excavation of Qeiyafa has now concluded and the next two years will be used for publishing the final results.

The quality of the newsletter is superb but reading it in the issuu format has its drawbacks. Unlike previous issues, downloading the newsletter in pdf format requires login and the only login I could see to use was Facebook. (And I don’t know yet what adverse effects there may be from that.)

Tagged 10th Century, Discoveries, Excavations, Shephelah

Weekend Roundup

The Associated Press reports on the restoration of the Old City walls of Jerusalem.

The Wadi Rum in Jordan has been designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.

Eldad Keynan refutes Joes Zias’ insinuation that Jacobivici’s nails were used to seal the ossuary of Caiaphas.

Wayne Stiles makes a good case that Lachish was the second-most important city in the kingdom of Judah.

Eric and Carol Meyers will answer questions about their archaeological work, Jewish history, and controversies on the Duke Ustream channel on September 1, noon Eastern Daylight Time.

The Biblical Archaeology Society 2011 Publication Awards Winners have been announced.

Plans for a wastewater reservoir near Gezer are moving forward after a judge rejected a petition by local communities.

On a lighter note, you can see how zoo animals in Jerusalem cool off in the summer. One of the animals even has an air-conditioned home.

HT: Joseph Lauer

Syrian Brown Bear at Jerusalem Zoo

Tagged Jerusalem, Jordan, Resources, Shephelah, Weekend Roundup