10th Century Archives - Page 10 of 10

Weekend Roundup

Gordon Govier has an excellent article on Eilat Mazar and her work in Jerusalem over the last 20 years. Though sympathetic to this secular defender of the Bible, Govier cites some of her detractors and describes the latest twist.

According to provisional results, the Dead Sea did not receive enough votes to be named one of the New 7 Wonders of Nature.

Donald Brake is writing a series of articles on the life of Jesus in the Holy Land. This week’s article in the Washington Times explains how one can evaluate the accuracy of tradition, specifically in connection with the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem.

Joe Yudin has a good column this week on Mount Gilboa, though I cannot agree that the witch knew the future.

This week’s radio program LandMinds with Barnea and David features interviews with the president of ASOR Tim Harrison, Yisrael “Winky” Medad, and Israel Finkelstein.

Forward reviews the Dead Sea Scroll exhibit currently in New York City.

Dan Bahat explains the political nature of archaeology in an interview with the Canadian Jewish News.

The Hagia Sophia may become a mosque again.

Every day 35,000 tons of raw sewage flow down the Kidron Valley from Jerusalem, according to a video report in the Jerusalem Post.

Israeli scientists are growing trees in the Arabah in order to improve the environment.

The Biblical Archaeology Society has announced its 2011 Publication Awards Winners for Best Scholarly Book on Archaeology, Best Popular Book on Archaeology, Best Book Relating to the Hebrew Bible, and Best Book Relating to the New Testament.

HT: Jack Sasson, Joseph Lauer

Tagged 10th Century, Dead Sea, Jerusalem, Tourism

Weekend Roundup

Jezreel is one of my favorite biblical sites and I’m happy to see that excavations will begin again under the direction of Norma Franklin of Tel Aviv University and Jennie Ebeling of the University of Evansville. A new website has the details.

The Sea of Galilee dropped nearly a foot last month and is now 17 inches below the red line.

Shmuel Browns went on a Photo Walk in Jerusalem and would like our feedback in deciding which image he should submit to the competition.

Browns is also offering a free guided tour of Khirbet Qeyiafa on October 14 at 9 am.

A volunteer at the Gezer excavation this summer writes of her experience on the ASOR blog, noting that they ended the season on what they believe is a 10th-century floor.

The Virtual Amarna Project is now online. “This archive resulted from the 3D digitisation of objects from the ancient Egyptian city of Amarna using a Konica Minolta Vivid 9i system. Data includes images, 3D PDF files, meshes (obj) and point clouds (ascii).”

Another resource is the Amarna Tablet Photograph Database Online where you can view the inscriptions held by the Vorderasiatisches Museum of Berlin.

Aaron Burke is interviewed about the excavations in Jaffa (Joppa) on the LandMinds radio show (part 1, part 2).

Jimmie Hardin will be lecturing on the archaeology of David and Solomon at the University of Mississippi on October 26.

One million visitors viewed the Dead Sea Scrolls in their first week online.

HT: ANE-2, Jack Sasson

Tagged 10th Century, Egypt, Jerusalem, Jezreel Valley, Lectures, Museums, Shephelah

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

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

CNN on Archaeology’s 10th-Century Debate

CNN has a four-minute report on Khirbet Qeiyafa’s contribution to the 10th-century debate. As with most of these matters prepared for public consumption, it is assumed that no one will pay attention to the piece unless the subject is sensationalized, the reporter interrupts the archaeologist, and it begins with a silly unrelated introduction that made me wonder if this is the effect of affirmative action in the TV world. (But does using an Egyptian female for the unintelligent parts help or hurt the cause?)
Garfinkel is on camera claiming that his site is one of only three main cities in the kingdom of David: Jerusalem, Hebron, and Qeiyafa. Don’t believe it for a second.

The CNN title of the video, “Finding the City of David,” and the tagline is inaccurate:
“Archaeologists in Israel believe they have found the remains of the legendary City of David.” The story has nothing to do with the “city of David” (Jerusalem), but is all about one border site which appears to date from David’s lifetime. It is hardly legendary. Since the mistake will increase viewers, I wonder if it was unintentional and I doubt it will be corrected.

There seems to be no way to embed the video, so you’ll need to click through to watch it.

Tagged 10th Century, Shephelah