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The Antioch Seminar on Paul and Peter will be held from July 9 to 16, 2023. Mark Wilson is the program director, and the program includes visits to Antioch, Tarsus, Cyprus, Perga, and Antalya. This is a great opportunity to go deeper on an area of Turkey and Cyprus that is not on most tours.

Construction workers discovered a beautiful Roman mosaic in Hatay (near biblical Antioch on the Orontes).

The first four shrines of King Tut are now in their permanent location in the Grand Egyptian Museum.

“An analysis of the remains of a 2,000-year-old Egyptian mummy found that she may have suffered from nasopharyngeal cancer.”

“The reliefs at the Camel Site [in Saudi Arabia] thus provide unique insights into the yearly rhythm of the seasons and their symbolism for Neolithic populations.”

Webinar on August 28: “Columns as Cultural Capital: The Jordanian Practice of Gifting Archaeological Objects,” by Elizabeth R. Macaulay

HebrewPal (the Hebrew Palaeography Album) is a fully-searchable online database of Hebrew palaeography.”

Carl Rasmussen went to McDonalds near Rome in order to see a Roman road branching off from the via Appia. He shares photos. Also, Carl will be leading one large 33-day Bible Study Tour next year, divided into three segments.

Bible Mapper has created more free maps for everyone:

HT: Agade, Joseph Lauer, Arne Halbakken

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Remains of a bridge over the Tiber built by Emperor Nero have been exposed by historically low levels of the river.

“Archaeologists have unearthed the ruins of what they believe was one of the greatest fire temples in Iran during the Sassanid age.”

A recent study of three Roman amphorae taken from a shipwreck revealed how Romans made wine.

Turkish Archaeological News posts a roundup of stories from the month of June.

“The mania for touring sites and treasures along the Nile is nearly as old as the pyramids of Giza. A recent wave of archaeological discoveries and museum openings has made the experience feel novel.” (subscription)

The new Archaeological Museum of Alexandroupolis has opened. The city is located near Greece’s border with Turkey.

The Met is now one of the most expensive museums in the world. The article lists other contenders.

“Two exhibitions at the Getty Villa explore the links between the Assyrian and the Persian Empires, which both revolved around powerful monarchs.” (subscription)

Zoom lecture on July 13: “Riddle of the Rosetta,” by Diane Josefowicz ($7)

New release: Moving on from Ebla, I Crossed the Euphrates: An Assyrian Day in Honour of Paolo Matthiae, edited by Davide Nadali, Lorenzo Nigro, Frances Pinnock (Archaeopress, 2022)

Carl Rasmussen shares photos of four emperor statues that were discovered in the cult room of the Augustales chapel at Herculaneum.

HT: Agade, Joseph Lauer, Explorator

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“An ongoing underwater archaeological project [near Antikythera Island in Greece] most recently recovered a large marble head of a bearded male figure believed to be part of a statue of Hercules.”

Archaeologists discovered granite blocks from the time of Khufu at the temple of the Sun in Heliopolis, along with many other remains.

A study of cattle teeth discovered at Ur sheds light on the economy, health, and diet of ancient Mesopotamia.

Isabella Segalovich gives a brief history of women’s eyebrows in art.

Robyn Ramsden gives workshops on how to create your own Nag Hammadi codex.

“Italy has been so successful in recovering ancient artworks and artifacts that were illegally exported from the country it has created a museum for them.”

“The funerary portraiture from the city of Palmyra, in the eastern Roman Empire, is a rich and heterogenous display of identity dating to the first three centuries CE.”

“A new exhibit at the Israel Museum uses VR technology to bring back to life the rich heritage of the destroyed Great Synagogue of Aleppo.”

New release: The Archaeology of Iran from the Palaeolithic to the Achaemenid Empire, by Roger Matthews and Hassan Fazeli Nashli. Also available as a free download.

New release: A Guide to Scenes of Daily Life on Athenian Vases, by John Howard Oakley (University of Wisconsin Press, 2020). Summarized and reviewed here.

Carl Rasmussen shares photos of the only completely preserved chapel for emperor worship in the Roman world.

Joel Kramer’s latest video is about his visit to Babylon and how the prophecies against the city were fulfilled.

HT: Agade, Joseph Lauer, Arne Halbakken, Paleojudaica

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Carl Rasmussen reports that the Classical Archaeology section of the Istanbul Archaeology Museum has reopened after a long closure, though the all-important upper floor is still not open. On his visit he discovered the “Assos Tablet” that he’s long been looking for.

Babylonian cuneiform texts are shedding light on the life of the ancient Judeans who were living in exile in Babylon.

Emlyn Dodd shares the ancient Egyptian recipe that he used for making olive oil.

A British tourist was given a 15-year jail sentence in an Iraqi prison after picking up a few potsherds as souvenirs.

“New York prosecutors have seized five Egyptian [antiquities] from the Metropolitan Museum of Art as part of an international trafficking investigation involving the former head of Paris’s Louvre Museum.”

Hybrid workshop on July 1: Performing Tutankhamun: One Hundred Years of Retellings

Turkish Archaeological News has a roundup of stories from the month of May.

Clyde Billington is on The Book and the Spade to discuss Jewish perspectives on the exodus, including recent research by Lawrence Schiffman and Joshua Berman.

Accordance Bible Software is offering their best deals ever on graphics collections, including our Cultural Images of the Holy Land and Trees, Plants, and Flowers of the Holy Land. I would also recommend The Virtual Bible: 3D Reconstructions of the Biblical World ($20) and the bundle of five resources (including tabernacle and temple) from Rose Publishing ($40). See all the discounts here.

HT: Agade, Joseph Lauer, Arne Halbakken, Explorator

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“Egypt has unveiled a major new archaeological find of 250 sarcophagi, 150 small bronze statues of gods and goddesses and other antiquities at the Saqqara necropolis.”

One of the more remarkable finds from the excavations of Satala in Turkey is an ornate bronze belt from an Urartian warrior.

Turkish authorities raided sites in 38 provinces in culmination of a yearlong investigation of an antiquities theft ring.

“The lost [Mittanian] city of ‘Zakhiku’ has resurfaced after spending decades underwater in the Mosul reservoir on the River Tigris in Iraq.”

Joel Kramer has found lots of sulfur balls at Numeira, a possible location of biblical Gomorrah.

Elon Heymans looks at the factors that led the use of silver and other precious metals as a form of currency at the beginning of the Iron Age in the ANE.

Greek Reporter: “Antioch on the Orontes, an ancient Greek city on the eastern side of the Orontes River, was one of the most glorious of all the Greek cities in the world.”

The Unsilencing the Archives Lectures from Badè Museum “explore the often-overlooked contributions made by Middle Easterners to archaeological excavations during the period of the British Mandate in Palestine.” The full series of 11 lectures is now online.

A 21-year-old punk broke into the Dallas Museum of Art and caused $5 million in damage, including the destruction of three ancient Greek vessels.

“Like us, the Romans were adept at scrolling — except they used actual, unwieldy scrolls. They would have loved OmnesViae, a handy online route planner, just for Roman roads.”

The Babylon Bee: “Archaeologists Have Just Discovered CONCLUSIVE PROOF Of The Bible.”

New release: Biblical and Ancient Near Eastern Studies in Honor of P. Kyle McCarter Jr., edited by Christopher Rollston, Susanna Garfein, and Neal H. Walls (SBL Press, $99). Free pdf download here (via AWOL).

BibleTelling’s Christian Storytelling Conference is being held in Jacksonville, Illinois, on June 23-25. The Story Concert will be broadcast live on Friday evening.

HT: Agade, Joseph Lauer, Ted Weis, Arne Halbakken, Deborah Hurn

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“A team of archaeologists in Egypt has discovered the 4,300-year-old tomb of a man named Mehtjetju, an official who claimed that he had access to ‘secret’ royal documents.

Images of 46 birds arranged in two rows were discovered at the Temple of Esna in Luxor, Egypt, during an Egyptian-German expedition this month.”

A recently discovered tunnel at Basbük in southeastern Turkey has revealed [Neo-Assyrian] artwork depicting eight gods, three of which were labeled with Aramaic inscriptions.”

“A spectacular ancient mosaic floor that was part of a building from the Hellenistic period is among the important finds from excavations carried out recently at Fabrika Hill in Kato Paphos, Cyprus.”

Lexundria is a digital library of classical antiquity. Although most of the texts on this site can be found elsewhere on the internet, this project aims to make them accessible in a more research-friendly format.”

The Toronto Tribune interviews Steven Fine about the Arch of Titus in Rome.

“Preserving the Biblical Past: A History of Archaeology at La Sierra University” is a 95-minute presentation given at the university’s recent homecoming celebration. Highlights of their decades-long Jordan excavations include the “best-preserved 4-room house” (~17 min), a “King’s House” inscription (~25 min), and the “earliest Moabite national script” specimen (~37 min) resembling that of the Mesha Stele. At the end, they share plans for a new archaeological museum in Madaba.

New release: Pearl of the Desert: A History of Palmyra, by Rubina Raja (Oxford, 2022; $30).

New release: Tall Zirā´a. The 2018 and 2019 Excavation Campaigns. The Iron Age, Hellenistic and Early Roman Period in Area II, The Gadara Region Project (2001–2011). Final Report 9, edited by Katharina Schmidt. (Free download here)

BASONOVA Webinar on May 25: “Sacred Prostitution and the Cult of Aphrodite/Venus in Roman Corinth,” by Barbette Spaeth ($7)

Accordance has a big sale on both OT (5 vols) and NT (4 vols) sets of the Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary ($136 for all).

Recent episodes on Digging for Truth:

HT: Agade, Joseph Lauer, Arne Halbakken, G. M. Grena

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