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Archaeologists found some rock-cut tombs and burial shafts near Queen Hatshepsut’s funerary temple. They also found her Valley Temple.

Ongoing excavations at Saqqara have revealed four mastaba tombs from the 2nd Dynasty and 10 burials from the 18th Dynasty.

Authorities are cleaning the underground spaces of Hagia Sophia in order to make them open to the public.

University College Cork has donated a number of historical objects to Egypt.

A carefully restored coffin of a priestess and musician of Amun is on display in Madrid after a seven-month restoration process.

Two divers looted hundreds of ancient Greek and Roman artifacts from the seabed in Abu Qir Bay near Alexandria, Egypt.”

“A decade after jihadists ransacked Iraq’s famed Nimrud site, archaeologists have been painstakingly putting together its ancient treasures, shattered into tens of thousands of tiny fragments.”

“A newly restored small Aramaic scroll from Qumran called 4Q550 reveals an unexpected text: it contains an Achaemenid Persian court-tale set in the court of king Xerxes I” that was previously unknown. Gad Barnea’s lecture about the text is now online.

Analysis of Iron Age swords from Iran suggests has revealed “modern glue, drill holes, and even a fragment of a modern drill bit embedded in one of the blades, evidencing the carelessness of the forgers” who “altered the weapons to enhance their commercial value.”

Kathryn Kelley, Mattia Cartolano, and Silvia Ferrara write about the invention of writing in Mesopotamia.

“Graffiti, produced by an inmate of an ancient Roman prison in Corinth, Greece, had a chilling message for captors.”

HT: Agade, Gordon Franz, Ted Weis, Joseph Lauer, Arne Halbakken, Explorator

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“A rare, nearly intact 1,500-year-old ceramic lantern was recently uncovered during conservation work” at Sepphoris in Galilee.

Solomon’s copper mines in the Timna Valley did not cause negative environmental and health impacts on the workers.

The Udhruh Archaeological Research Project has been studying a vast and intricate water harvesting system in use during the Roman period.

“A group of four suspected antiquities looters were ‘caught red-handed’ over the weekend attempting to break into an underground area at a Galilee archaeological site associated with olive oil production during the Hasmonian period.”

Turkey’s first underwater museum opened in Side. “It is a museum where 117 sculptures, determined as 5 different themes in the depths of the sea and made by Turkish sculptors, can be seen by diving into the sea.”

Work is underway to create an “Alexander the Great Cultural Route” in northwestern Turkey.

The latest issue of the Journal of Eastern Mediterranean Archaeology and Heritage Studies (subscription required) includes an article about radiocarbon dates at Gezer with many responses from everyone from Dever to Garfinkel to Levy, Maeir, Mazar, and Ortiz.

New on This Week in the Ancient Near East podcast: “Between Death and Taxes in the 8th Century BCE, or Hezekiah’s Beltway Politics.”

New on Thin End of the Wed podcast: “Christopher Jones: Court Politics in the Neo-Assyrian Empire”

Online seminar on Jan 11, hosted by Jerusalem University College: “War & Peace in the Holy Land: Biblical and Modern Perspectives,” with presentations by Elaine Phillips, Charlie Trimm, Matt Lynch, and Jon Kaplan. A recording will be made available to all registrants.

Aaron Reich looks at three places in Jerusalem proposed to be the site of Jesus’s tomb: Talpiyot, Holy Sepulcher, and Garden Tomb.

The James Ossuary is now on display at Pullman Yards in Atlanta.

I will be posting a “top 10” list on Monday, but there will be no roundup next weekend.

HT: Agade, Gordon Franz, Arne Halbakken, Explorator

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“New evidence shows that the well-preserved Roman Imperial Highway crossing the Golan was constructed in the second half of the second century CE.” The underlying journal article is here.

A new study claims that Bar Kochba only joined the revolt named after him in the middle of the insurrection. The underlying journal article is here.

The oldest inscription with the Ten Commandments sold for $5 million to a buyer who plans to donate it to an Israeli institution.

The Tel Dan Inscription is on display at the Jewish Museum in New York City until January 5.

The latest Jerusalem in Brief explores the conflicting accounts of the surrender of Jerusalem in 1917.

Applications are now open for $2,000 dig scholarships offered by the Biblical Archaeology Society.

Biblical Archaeology Society has also posted this year’s excavation opportunities, including summer projects at Hippos, Azekah, and Dan.

New Release: The Capture of Jerusalem by the Persians in 614 CE by Strategius of Mar Saba, by Sean W. Anthony and Stephen J. Shoemaker (University of Chicago; $35; open access)

Ze’ev Meshel, longtime archaeology professor at Tel Aviv University, died last week at the age of 92.

Lois Tverberg explains why she likes our photo collections.

HT: Agade, Gordon Franz, Ted Weis, Mark Hoffman, Arne Halbakken

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Excavations have identified a 2nd-century BC military fortress at Ashdod-Yam.

“Researchers have discovered 50 rare cave pearls, some of which contain ancient Greek artifacts from the Hellenistic era, in an underground water system near Jerusalem.”

Some scholars are questioning whether the oldest copy of the Ten Commandments—scheduled to be sold next week at auction—is authentic.

In a short video, Eitan Klein shows how a band of antiquities thieves were caught in the act, robbing a cave in the Shephelah.

Expedition Bible’s latest video looks at the archaeological evidence for the location of Jesus’s crucifixion.

John DeLancey filmed on location at the Ketef Hinnom tombs in Jerusalem.

Appian Media has released a new short film entitled “Explore Petra” (12 min). I’m curious how they got the drone footage.

Christopher Rollston explains why the Megiddo Mosaic is important on The Book and the Spade.

“New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary held a 10th anniversary celebration for its Museum of the Bible and Archaeology” last week.

Eliezer Oren, longtime Professor of Bible, Archaeology, and Ancient Near Eastern Studies at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, died this week.

Jerusalem University College has announced its online semester courses for the spring, including:

  • Archaeological Methods and Theory, taught by Chris McKinny and Kyle Keimer
  • Introduction to the Modern Middle East, taught by Oded Yinon
  • Jewish Thought and Practice, taught by Rabbi Moshe Silberschein
  • The Book of Revelation and the Seven Cities of the Apocalypse, taught by Chris Vlachos

HT: Agade, Gordon Franz, Alexander Schick, Arne Halbakken, Ted Weis

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A 12-year-old girl found an Egyptian scarab while on a family hike near Hod HaSharon.

A 71-year-old Israeli researcher was killed when attempting to visit an archaeological site in southern Lebanon.

The stone inscription of the Ten Commandments that is up for auction must be put on public display, as a condition of its purchase. The current owner violated that requirement for the last eight years. Another website identifies the owner.

Aren Maeir’s new MOOC on ancient Jerusalem is now online, along with his previous MOOC on biblical archaeology. Both may be taken for free or for a small fee for certification. There’s also a one-minute “behind the scenes” video for the Jerusalem course.

The latest Jerusalem Tracker links to the newest books, book reviews, academic articles, news reports, podcasts, videos, and upcoming events related to Jerusalem.

On Digging for Truth, Scott Stripling reviews the 2024 excavation season at Shiloh. “Discoveries include a city gate, new technologies, sacrificial activity, and even gold.”

In the latest edition of “Discussions with the Diggers,” Bryan Windle interviews Abigail Van Huss (nee Leavitt), assistant dig director for the Shiloh excavations.

The new issue of Biblical Archaeology Review includes articles on monumental churches built to commemorate Jesus’s life, Egyptian statues from Hazor, and the ten lost tribes.

Cambridge University Press has inaugurated a new series entitled Elements in The Archaeology of Ancient Israel. The first volume is Edom in Judah: Trade, Migration, and Kinship in the Late Iron Age Southern Levant, by Andrew J. Danielson. It is available online until December 18.

A new 5-minute video by the Orthodox Union explains why Hebron and the Machpelah is important to the Jewish people. The video includes a few photos from a surreptitious exploration of the underground caves in 1981. Elsewhere Avi Abrams tells the story.

Correction: The Galilee boat on display in the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit at the Reagan Library is only a replica. There is more information about the exhibit in this JNS article.

HT: Agade, Gordon Franz, Arne Halbakken, Ted Weis, Explorator

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Archaeologists have found a hidden tomb underneath the Kazneh in Petra, and unlike other tombs, this one was filled with ancient artifacts and remains of 12 individuals.

A team excavating in Anemurium in southern Turkey uncovered a 2nd-century AD inscription honoring a wrestler.

Archaeologists have discovered one of the oldest church buildings in the world in Armenia.

478 artifacts were uncovered during an excavation expedition in the historic province of Babylon.”

The planting of ancient seeds discovered in the Judean wilderness produced Commiphora, a plant not known to have existed in Israel. Despite hopes, it turns out not to be the legendary afarsimon, but it may be the biblical plant known as tsori. And perhaps it was used as stock for afarsimon.

Antiquities thieves were caught looting Kh. Umm a-Ros in the Shephelah.

The latest issue of Jerusalem in Brief looks at “the construction of Herod’s Temple Mount, maps and plans from Charles Warren, and a reflection on the Gennath Gate.”

Alan Rosenbaum recreates what a pilgrim’s journey to Jerusalem during Sukkot in the first century would have been like.

Norma Franklin writes about the “etrog, a royal Assyrian aromatic purifier.”

The Jerusalem Post has a story about Jordan D. Rosenblum’s new book, Forbidden: A 3,000-Year History of Jews and the Pig.

On Digging for Truth, Scott Stripling considers connections between the Nuzi Tablets and the book of Genesis.

Zoom lecture on Nov 1: “Eye-paints in the Hebrew Bible: Looking for Meaning,” by Dr. Susannah Rees.

Just released: A History of the Ancient Near East ca. 3000–323 BC, 4th ed, by Marc Van De Mieroop (Blackwell History of the Ancient World, $37-$46)

Manfried Dietrich, founder of “Alter Orient und Altes Testament” and “Ugarit-Forschungen,” and Ugarit-Verlag, died earlier this month.

Experience Israel Now has just released Andy Cook’s new book, The King of Bethlehem. The book is loaded with full-color photographs and important historical and cultural background.

HT: Agade, Gordon Franz, Ted Weis, Mark Hoffman, Wayne Stiles

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