I may have missed it but I haven’t seen a snow report for Mount Hermon recently. Yesterday I drove up from Jerusalem to take a look. The slopes are open, but the coverage is disappointing from a photographer or hydrologist’s perspective. Watching the skiers on the slopes is rather amusing: at any given time, most of the ones in view are on the ground.

Since excavations began again at Megiddo in 1994, various improvements have been made to the site. These include a modest reconstruction of the northern palace and stables area as well as signs at the major structures around the tell. The latest work is the reconstruction of a single Israelite tri-partite building on the south side of the tell. This should make it easier to explain these buildings to visitors, as until now little could be clearly seen except for some mangers and tethering posts. This photo shows how the building looked in mid-January.

The American excavators identified these buildings as “Solomon’s stables.” Since that time, the stratigraphy has been clarified and most believe these are from the time of Ahab. Scholars do not agree on the function of these buildings, with some holding to the original identification and others insisting they were storehouses. It is one of the most controversial issues in “biblical archaeology” and it is especially surprising that archaeologists cannot agree because so many of these buildings have been found all over the country. Studying the issue out is quite interesting, but if you just want to know the answer, you came to the right place.

Stables.

A date palm that sprouted from a seed found in excavations near Masada continues to grow and is now 14 inches tall. Most of the date trees in the Jordan Valley today come from California, and scientists have hope of learning more about the ancient date that flourished in Israel 2000 years ago.

Solowey, who raised the plant, has grown over 100 rare and almost extinct species of plants. Together with Hadassah Hospital’s Natural Medicine Center, she seeks to use the plants listed in ancient remedies to seek effective uses for modern medical conditions. The Judean date has been credited with helping fight cancer, malaria and toothaches. Solowey was skeptical about the chances of success at first, but gave it a try. “I treated it in warm water and used growth hormones and an enzymatic fertilizer extracted from seaweed in order to supplement the food normally present in a seed,” she said.

Arutz-7 has the full story.

So says the Israel Antiquities Authority in a press release last week. They suggest that the prison be re-located in its entirety so that the early church building discovered there can be more fully excavated and displayed to the public. The Jerusalem Post and Haaretz also published articles on the recommendation.

Here’s an aerial photo that shows the relative location of the prison to the tell of Megiddo.