Dead Sea Archives - Page 27 of 30

Weekend Roundup

The Jerusalem Post has a story on the Eretz Israel Museum in Tel Aviv. If you haven’t been to this one yet, try to get there at the next opportunity.

A preliminary report of the Western Wall Plaza Excavations (2005-2009) is now available at Hadashot Arkheologiyot. Among other things, they’ve uncovered a four(?)-room house from the late Iron Age.

The Khirbet Qeiyafa Vol. 1. Excavation Report 2007–2008 is now available from the Israel Exploration Society. The cost is $72 ($54 to members of the Israel Exploration Society), airmail postage $13. You can contact IES for more information.

Was Qumran home to the Essenes, or was it a fortress? Or maybe a place of manufacturing perfume, or was it pottery? These and other views are considered in an article in the Smithsonian Magazine.

Paleojudaica has an update on the fabric of the Turin Shroud (noted here previously), but it doesn’t seem to clear the air.

I have a very aggressive travel schedule for the next three weeks, so I don’t expect to have much time to post. I have prepared some interesting posts and photos for my absence, and if I see anything of interest (and time permits), I’ll note it here. I’ll start things off tomorrow with my top 9 archaeological discoveries for 2009.

Tagged Dead Sea, Jerusalem, Shephelah, Weekend Roundup

Scribe at Work in Masada Synagogue

Visitors to the Masada synagogue will be able to watch a scribe making a copy of a Torah scroll.

From Arutz-7:

A ritual scribe has begun spending his days behind a glass wall in the famous Masada synagogue – writing a Torah scroll to be installed there.
The young scribe, Shai Abramovitch, moved from the northern city of Tzfat, together with his wife and three young children, to the Negev city of Arad, in order to be able to carry out and complete the project. He will make the 45-minute Arad-Massada trek each morning after immersing in a mikveh (ritual bath) – a customary prelude to ritual scribes’ work – and will return after seven and a half hours of painstaking writing.
His glass-enclosed“office” is in the very spot used as a synagogue by hundreds of Jews who found refuge from the Romans on Masada some 2,000 years ago. Hard at work throughout the day, the scribe can be seen through the glass by the many tourists who visit the famous site.
Rabbi Abramovitch’s job “is not easy,” commented Rabbi Shimon Elharar, director of the closest Chabad chapter, Chabad-Lubavitch of the Dead Sea. “There are at least 800,000 people a year who come through that synagogue, and he will be working in a place designed somewhat like an incubator. It’s a little like working in an aquarium.”
In addition, scribe Abramovitch takes a break a few times a day to come out and explain the holy work of writing Torah scrolls, tefillin, mezuzot and more.

The story continues here.

HT: Paleojudaica

Tagged Dead Sea, Judah, New Exhibits

Field Guides by Hanan Eshel

I’ve been looking forward to these books by Hanan Eshel for some time. It’s risky to say without having read them, but I predict they’ll be the best books on their respective subjects. (I have spent a day with Eshel at Qumran, benefitting from his immense knowledge.) They are available from Eisenbrauns for $22.50 each. Here are direct links:

Ein Gedi: A Carta Field Guide

Masada: A Carta Field Guide

Qumran: A Carta Field Guide

This brief review was published in Haaretz.

Call of the desert

By Aya Horesh

Qumran: Scrolls, Caves, History (Qumran: Megilot, Me’arot, Historia), by Hanan Eshel

Masada: An Epic Story (Metzada: Alilot Gvura), by Hanan Eshel

Ein Gedi: Oasis and Refuge (Ein Gedi: Neveh Midbar U’mistor), by Hanan Eshel

Each of the three volumes is available from Carta Publishing in both Hebrew and English editions.

Each has 144 pages and costs NIS 84 or $25

Many travelers find it hard to deal with tour guides, who tend to think their sense of humor and cloying affability will encourage people to give bigger tips at the end of the trip. Tour guides’ explanations, too, frequently leave something to be desired. At the same time, it is fairly difficult to find travel literature of a high caliber, because why should prominent academics waste their time on writing that does not promote their scientific renown?

The three field guides that Hanan Eshel has written on Qumran, Masada and Ein Gedi are therefore a welcome contribution. Eshel, of Bar-Ilan University’s Land of Israel studies and archaeology department, is one of the most important archeologists and scholars of the Qumran scrolls. He has spent years conducting research along the west coast of the Dead Sea and has earned a worldwide reputation. His familiarity with the area, particularly with the Dead Sea Scrolls, has led to numerous books and articles that have earned him a prestigious place among scholars of ancient Israel.

Each of these three books, which Carta has published in both Hebrew and English editions, follows an identical two-part format: The introduction provides an overview of the site, describes the archaeological findings discovered there and explains their significance; that is then followed by a field guide that travelers are meant to take with them as they tour the site. This division is especially helpful for those who wish to forgo a hike in the blazing Dead Sea heat and prefer to learn about these sites in the cool confines of their air-conditioned homes. The introductions are succinct and precise, provide a good sense of each place and its importance, and are accompanied by spectacular photographs and maps.

The review continues here.

HT: Joe Lauer

UPDATE: If somebody buys the Masada book before me, let me know if the cover image is credited
to me. It sure looks familiar, but they wouldn’t possibly have used it without asking for permission…

UPDATE #2: James at Eisenbrauns notes in the comments that you can get an additional 20% discount through the end of the month using the Carta order form on this page. Thanks, James!

Tagged Dead Sea, Resources

Weekend Roundup

Last week I noted an article on the Nahal Yehudiyeh. The author, Shmuel Browns, has a website with an expanded version of the article, plus many other interesting articles and beautiful photos. I particularly like his shot of the Dead Sea sinkholes.

A team of archaeologists has created an online map of Israeli excavations in the West Bank. The project won an award last week from ASOR. You can search sites by period, type, or keyword.

Greece is planning to restore the theater of Dionysius at the foot of the acropolis. This theater was first built in the late 6th century BC.

Google is planning to make a virtual copy of the collections of the National Museum of Iraq, to be online early next year. This is good news, since the three official “re-openings” never included entrance to the public and only 8 of the 26 galleries have been restored.

The most famous place in Israel for hummus is Abu Ghosh. Now the owner of the Abu Ghosh
Restaurant is planning to break the record by making a four-ton vat. Come hungry.

HT: Explorator

Theater of Dionysius, Athens

Tagged Dead Sea, Greece, Resources

View from Mount Nebo, Then and Now

What is your favorite view in the Middle East? I have a number of places that I aspire to be on the rare day when the air is crystal clear. Perhaps my top three viewpoints in Israel are Nebi Samwil, Mount Carmel, and Arbel. On the other side of the Jordan River, Mount Nebo ranks first.

Unfortunately, I have never been there on a really clear day.

The photo below was taken in the 1930s, when factories and automobiles were less troublesome to photographers. The view is from Mount Nebo, and you can see beyond the northern end of the Dead Sea to the Judean wilderness and even Jerusalem.

Dead Sea and Judean wilderness, view from Mt Nebo, mat03779

View from Mount Nebo with Dead Sea

I’m linking this photo to the highest resolution available (5200 x 3700 pixels), which will make it a slow download, but those of you with interest will be able to pick out a lot of detail.

For comparison, the photo below was taken from Mount Nebo on a more typical day.

The top photo is taken from the Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan volume of The American Colony and Eric Matson Collection (Library of Congress, LC-matpc-03779). The bottom photo is rotten and will never appear in one of my photo collections.

Tagged American Colony Photos, Dead Sea, Jordan, Then and Now

The Dead Sea, Then and Now

The waters of the Dead Sea rise and fall. You may not know that if you only read the newspapers and not the history books. Climate change has affected the earth as long as we can tell. There’s a great demonstration of the historically changing levels (and therefore shape) of the Dead Sea recently created by A.D. Riddle and David Parker. (After you click that link and read the introduction, click on the “Play” button on the right side and you’ll see the water level rise and fall.)

Evidence of the changing water levels is not so easily seen at the Dead Sea today. There is one spot on the northwestern corner (south of Qumran) where a marker made by the Palestine Exploration Fund in the early 1900s shows the level above today’s current highway.

Another evidence is visible from boat docks. The photo below was taken by the American Colony sometime in the first half of the 20th century, showing passengers embarking on boats on the Dead Sea. Today there is little boat traffic and almost no windsurfers or waterskiiers. That’s not the only thing that has changed, as evidenced by the second photo below.

The photo below is not the same dock, but it illustrates the declining water level. This photo was included in a recent issue of Biblical Archaeology Review in an article making the same point.

Dead Sea dock out of water, February 2005

The top photograph is from the newly published Southern Palestine volume of The American Colony and Eric Matson Collection (originally Library of Congress, LC-matpc-07571). It is one of a series of 65 photos of the western shore of the Dead Sea included in the collection.

Tagged American Colony Photos, Dead Sea, Then and Now