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Herodian Quarry: To Preserve or Not to Preserve?

The Herodian quarry in Jerusalem (see previous on discovery, location, and photos) is back in the news, as construction of a school begins on part of the site. An archaeologist notes that there’s no plan currently to turn part of the area into a tourist site, despite a previous agreement. Some portions of the article:

Seligman said that no “concrete” decision has been taken whether to turn the defined archeological area to a tourist site or to set up a back-covering to protect it, adding that the issue needed to be worked out between the Antiquities Authority and the Jerusalem Municipality….
“We have not been consulted on the issue, and it is unclear whether the archeological site is important enough,” said head of the city’s tourism division Ekey Bar-Yossef….
The part of the quarry that has been unearthed is likely only 30 to 40 percent of its total size, but archeologists have no plans to excavate the rest of the area because it is private property….

You can read the whole JPost article here.

HT: Joe Lauer

'Ancient' Forgeries

If you’re interested in forgeries of ancient works, this article in Spiegel, “False Gods: ‘Ancient’ Forgeries Fool Art Markets” has some interesting facts. Among the claims is one that the collection of Elie Borowski, founder of the Bible Lands Museum, consisted of many forgeries.

HT: Joe Lauer

Tagged Forgery

New ASOR Session on Judaism and Christianity

Readers may find this of interest:

Dear Friends and Colleagues, We are writing to inform you of a new session being proposed for the 2008 ASOR annual meeting in Boston that will focus on the archaeology of Judaism and Christianity in the Roman and Byzantine periods. The session chairs are seeking papers that present architectural, art historic, inscriptional, or any type of material discussion of synagogues, churches, necropoleis, and/or their associated communities in either Palestine or the Diaspora. We are also looking for papers that address material evidence for cultural and religious communication among Jews, Christians, and their neighbors. Reports on field seasons are also encouraged where relevant. This new session has not yet been accepted for the 2008 ASOR annual meeting. Before it is proposed, we would like to demonstrate the interest in such a session to the Program Committee by assembling a list of possible presenters. If you are interested in submitting an abstract for this session, please notify us before January 31 by emailing [email protected]. We do not necessarily need abstracts or paper titles by then — only a stated interest and intent to submit an abstract. Please feel free to forward this message to colleagues, students, and others who may be interested in taking part in the proposed session. Thank you for your support. Sincerely, Steve Werlin and Carrie Duncan

Tagged Lectures

Recent Excavations (and Jonah)

If you’ve ever been walking around Israel and seen a hole in the ground and wondered what they found in it, or where you can find out, you’ll likely find your answer in Hadashot Arkheologiyot: Excavations and Surveys in Israel. This annual series is published in Hebrew and English by the Israel Antiquities Authority. Since 2005 the journal has moved to electronic-only format, which makes it easy for anyone to access without having to purchase the volumes or visit a specialized library.

The 2008 issue was just published (HT: Jim West) and it includes reports from 11 excavations, some with illustrations. One of interest to Bible readers is Tel Gat Hefer. Usually spelled Gath Hepher, this is the hometown of Jonah son of Amittai, the prophet who went to Nineveh after being swallowed by a fish (2 Kings 14:25; Jonah 1:1). The report not only describes the recent excavations (only one 5m square), but notes that previous excavations “revealed significant architectural remains from Early Bronze II–III, Middle Bronze II–III, Iron I, Iron IIA–B and the Late Persian period.”

Interpreted, that means that the site was nearly continuously inhabited through the Old Testament period. Jonah lived in the 8th century B.C., which is part of Iron IIB. The Arab village of Mashhad is located on the slopes of the tell and expanding, which will make future study more difficult. One way to raise support for such an excavation would be to hold out promise of finding at sign at the town entrance: Welcome to Gath Hepher, City of Jonah the Prophet. In my thinking, such a sign (and probably a monument) existed for Jonah after his wonderful prophecy of 2 Kings 14 came true. But as soon as he went to Nineveh, the town likely disavowed their favorite son. The town, of course, was right: 30 years later it was destroyed by the Ninevites (cf. 2 Kings 15:29).

If you’re interested in present excavations, you can see that here.

Gath Hepher from southeast

Tagged Resources

Tomb of Jesus, Last Time

About a week ago there was a press release from the Third Princeton Symposium which clearly had Simcha Jacobovici’s hands on it (he’s the guy he made the multi-million dollar video-claim in the first place). Though I had no personal knowledge of the conference, I could smell deceit (well, it wouldn’t be the first time he tried to pull a fast one), so I ignored it here. Others did not (including JPost), so if you were one of those who bought his line that most scholars thought there’s a good chance that Jesus’ tomb was in fact discovered, you should be aware of the scholars that are denying his claim.

The two places to go are the NT Gateway Weblog for a statement by a dozen scholars, and The View from Jerusalem blog by Stephen Pfann that includes the individual statements of other scholars.

In short, there may be a handful of scholars who think that this might be the tomb; the rest of the scholars are rushing to deny the possibility and denounce the misleading press release. For the record, many scholars don’t accept a bodily resurrection of Jesus, but they just don’t think the evidence that this is the tomb is compelling. Hopefully, I’ll never need to say anything else about it here.

Update (1/26): The Jerusalem Post has a lengthy editorial on the conference. The Biblical Archaeology Society has compiled a list of statements from various scholars.

Update (1/28): Organizers of the symposium, have posted a statement on the Princeton Theological Seminary website. They note that the conference papers will be published in 2 volumes by Eerdmans.

Update (2/14): James Charlesworth has an article on “Rebutting Sensational Claims Concerning a Symposium in Jerusalem” on the SBL site. Charlesworth was the symposium organizer and moderator.

Tagged Jerusalem, Tomb of Jesus

"Sounds of Ancient Music" Exhibition

The Archaeology Wing of the Israel Museum is still closed, but the Bible Lands Museum across the street is a worthwhile visit, especially with this new exhibit.

From Haaretz:

Sounds, archaeological finds and scientific hypotheses all play major roles in an exhibition entitled “Sounds of Ancient Music,” which opened last week at the Bible Lands Museum in Jerusalem. Focusing on musical developments in ancient Sumeria, Babylon, Assyria and other cultures of the Ancient Near East, through the periods of the Kingdom of Judea, Greece and the Roman Empire, the exhibition features 137 objects – among them, rare musical instruments that have been preserved from antiquity, as well as full-sized replicas of instruments from those early eras.
Among other items on display are a flute, fragments of which were discovered in a burial cave in the French Hill neighborhood of Jerusalem and dating back to the Second Temple period, as well as the well-known stone from that same period bearing the inscription, “To the House of Trumpeting to the k …,” in a form of the Hebrew alphabet typical of the Herodian period. According to scholars, this was part of the southwestern cornerstone of the Temple compound described by the first-century C.E. Jewish historian Josephus, from which a kohen (priest) blew the trumpet to usher in the Sabbath. According to the Mishna, in those days people blew trumpets, strummed harps and lyres, played the flute and beat the cymbal. It is written that the sounds of the flute and the cymbal were so loud they could be heard even in Jericho.

The story continues here and the Hebrew version has a photo.

UPDATE (1/23): The Jerusalem Post now has an article along with notice that the exhibition will run throughout 2008.

HT: Joe Lauer

Tagged Jerusalem, New Exhibits