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Weekend Roundup, Part 2

“Scientists at the University of Chicago are developing a machine learning system that can automatically transcribe text found on ancient clay tablets.”

The Unionville Times offers a guide to virtual tours of museums in Europe and the US.

Colette J. Loll led the investigation into the forged Dead Sea Scrolls at the Museum of the Bible and she offers her assessment of the story.

Erin L. Thompson, a professor of art crime, discusses the cost of forgeries donated to museums.

Appian Media has begun a new podcast entitled “Digging Deeper” and hosted by Barry Britnell and Dan Kingsley. You can check out the trailer here.

“Organising an Empire: The Assyrian Way” is a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) taught by Karen Radner in six teaching units that take about 19 hours to complete. Began yesterday.

The current issue of Biblical Archaeology Review has been opened up for all to read.

Ferrell Jenkins shares “then and now” photos of the “Tomb of the Kings” in Jerusalem. See also Tom Powers’s extended comment about the date of the Pool of Hezekiah.

Israel’s Good Name went for a hike to Khirbet Luza, near Moza, and saw a striped hyena in the wild.

This year’s Infusion Bible Conference has been postponed. “Paul in His Roman World” will be the subject of the conference in June 2021.

Forthcoming: Has Archaeology Buried the Bible?, by William G. Dever

HT: Agade, Ted Weis

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Weekend Roundup, Part 1

In the ANE Today, Alex Joffe looks at pandemics in ancient and modern times.

The Museum of the Bible has begun a video podcast series entitled the “Lonesome Curator.” Episode 8 is on Lachish.

The coronavirus has changed burial practices in the Holy Land.

Church leaders are discussing how to allow some kind of celebration of Easter at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.

There’s a report of illegal digging on the Temple Mount.

The Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture is offering its April lecture series on Pompeii via Zoom.

Google Arts & Culture has created an interesting photo story entitled “Exploring the Phoenician Shipwreck” from an expedition in 2019 off the coast of Gozo, Malta.

Mark Hoffman had some time for blogging yesterday:

Now is a good time to watch “The Week That Changed the World: A Journey through the Passion Week” with Wayne Stiles.

HT: Agade, Ted Weis

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Weekend Roundup, Part 2

Bryan Windle identifies the Top Three Reports in Biblical Archaeology in March 2020.

Christopher Rollston is a guest on the LandMinds video podcast discussing forgeries of antiquities.

Jeffrey Kloha is on The Book and the Spade discussing the “Fake Dead Sea Scrolls at the Museum of the Bible.”

Writing for Haaretz, Ariel David asks whether the assessment that the 16 Dead Sea Scroll fragments are forgeries calls into question the authenticity of the Dead Sea Scroll fragments previously discovered.

Lawrence H. Schiffman will be giving an online lecture entitled “Old Leather, New Ink: Forgery and the Dead Sea Scrolls” on April 1 at 9 pm (Eastern).

Steve Green will return 5,000 ancient papyrus fragments and 6,500 ancient clay objects to Iraq and Egypt.

A new study suggests that radiocarbon dates for the ANE need to be adjusted, with implications for the dates of the death of Tutankhamen and the eruption on Santorini.

Max Price writes about the history of pigs in the ancient Near East.

“The British Museum’s Circulating Artefacts (CircArt) project is a ground-breaking collaborative initiative against the widespread global trade in illicit antiquities, with a current focus on ancient objects from Egypt and Sudan.”

Shiloh is the subject of the latest in John DeLancey’s “Life Lessons” series.

Carl Rasmussen shares some Easter-related photos, including Jesus’s crown of thorns and an unusual photo of a Jerusalem cross.

Mark Hoffman found a Google map of ancient theaters, amphitheaters, stadiums, and odeons in Turkey. (There are more than you might expect.)

Ferrell Jenkins posts a couple of photos of Capernaum from the air.

HT: Agade, Ted Weis, Paleojudaica, Joseph Lauer

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Weekend Roundup, Part 1

The major sites now closed include the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, the Al Aqsa Mosque, the Temple Mount Sifting Project, and the Egyptian Museum in Cairo and all Egyptian tourist sites. It has not been this bad in Jerusalem since the Black Plague in 1349.

Th Internet Archive has suspended waitlists in order to create the National Emergency Library and make more than 1.4 million books available.

Appian Media is beginning a new, free, 6-week at-home video Bible study class entitled Bible Study without Borders.

With Passover approaching, some rabbis have ruled that extreme circumstances make it permissible to use electronic devices to share a Seder by videoconference.

Wayne Stiles connects Bethany and the raising of Lazarus to the present crisis.

John Baines answers the question, “What is Egyptology?”

A new film documents the story of a Polish Egyptologist who believes he is close to discovering the tomb of Thutmose II.

David Moster explores Babylon in the Bible and Reggae Music (15-min video).

A Biblical History of Israel, 2nd edition, by Iain Provan, V. Philips Long, and Tremper Longman III for sale on Kindle right now for $1.99.

GlossaHouse is offering many language resources at half off as well as a number of digital resources for free.

HT: Agade, Ted Weis, Paleojudaica, Joseph Lauer

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Weekend Roundup, Part 2

Tourist authorities in Jerusalem and elsewhere in Israel are filming guides giving tours of the city and its museum so that those who can’t come to Israel, or otherwise leave their homes, can enjoy the virtual experience.

More than 100 scholars contributed tributes to “He Inscribed Upon a Stone”: Celebrating the Work of Jim Eisenbraun. The volume (free download here) records some of the history of Jim and Merna’s publishing house that has served so many of us so well for so long.

Christopher Rollston: The Forger Among Us: The Museum of the Bible Dead Sea Scrolls and the Recent History of Epigraphic Forgeries

The 2020 issue of ‘Atiqot is now online, including articles on a tomb in Jerusalem and the settlement history of Nazareth.

“A portrait sculpture that has been at a museum in the Mediterranean resort city of Antalya since 1972 was recently found to belong to Greek poet Sappho.”

The Polychrome Hieroglyph Research Project has a new website that displays the results of research “into the use and meaning of colour in Egyptian hieroglyphic inscriptions.”

The Associates for Biblical Research has a new Instagram account.

Israel’s Good Name shares about his day volunteering in renewed excavations of the Montfort Castle in Galilee.

Ferrell shares then and now photos of the house of Peter at Capernaum.

Barry Beitzel is on The Land and the Book with Charlie Dyer, talking about the excellent Geographic Commentary series he is editing.

This 15-minute video is fascinating: “Bread Culture in Jordan.”

HT: Agade, Ted Weis, Joseph Lauer

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Weekend Roundup, Part 1

David Moster gives a 5-minute overview of “Quarantine in the Bible.”

Coronavirus: What We Can Learn from the Bible and the ANE: Reflections of an expert in ancient Near Eastern contagious diseases living through a modern one, by Dr.Yitzhaq Federt.

A new Facebook group: ANE Researcher Quarantine ‘Library’

For shopkeepers and tour operators in the Old City of Jerusalem, COVID-19 is worse than all the wars.

H-Net has created a couple of new resources for scholars affected by the coronavirus:

Wayne Stiles has appropriately re-posted “Where is God in all the chaos?”

Lois Tverberg, one of my favorite authors, has a PhD in biology and she explains why COVID-19 is serious and what followers of Jesus can do about it.

“A plague of locusts the likes of which have been unseen for over 30 years is about to hit Africa and the Middle East.”

“Fearing the end of the world, an Israeli returned a 2,000-year-old catapult stone to the City of David National Park — 15 years after he’d absconded with it.”

John DeLancey will be sharing “Stories from Israel about God’s Sovereignty & Care” in a Zoom session on Sunday, March 22, at 11 am Eastern Time. Pre-registration is required.

Free ebook: The Final Days of Jesus: The Most Important Week of the Most Important Person Who Ever Lived, by Andreas J. Köstenberger and Justin Taylor

HT: Agade, Ted Weis, Joseph Lauer

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About the BiblePlaces Blog

The BiblePlaces Blog provides updates and analysis of the latest in biblical archaeology, history, and geography. Unless otherwise noted, the posts are written by Todd Bolen, PhD, Professor of Biblical Studies at The Master’s University.

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