Excavations Archives - Page 35 of 93

Weekend Roundup, Part 1

Archaeologists have announced the discovery of a 13th dynasty scarab in a gold ring at Tel Dor.

Excavations begin this summer at el-Araj, a candidate for the site of Bethsaida. Nyack College is participating and inviting others to join them.

The Temple Institute held a public practice reenactment of the Passover sacrifice last week. A few dozen photos have been posted.

Two Israeli Jews were arrested for trying to carry a goat up to the Temple Mount to make a Passover sacrifice.

A senior Egyptian archaeologist has claimed that the Pharaoh of the exodus was not Egyptian.

Paleojudaica provides some analysis.

The 8th-century citadel at Ashdod Yam was vandalized recently by youths who shared photos on social media. The teens who caused the damage have now apologized.

What’s there to see in Ashdod? Aviva and Shmuel Bar-Am lead readers on a tour of the sites.

Wayne Stiles shows you what you’ll see if you walk down the Kidron Valley.

For an CT article, Gordon Govier asks evangelical scholars to weigh in on the recent study that literacy in ancient Israel was more widespread than previously believed.

The full text is online for Lawrence Schiffman’s recent lecture entitled, “In the Valley of David and Goliath: Digging Up Evidence on the United Monarchy.”

Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary eBooks are on sale now for $4.99 each.

Now free online in pdf format: John J. Bimson, Redating the Exodus and Conquest, 2nd ed. Sheffield: The Almond Press, 1981.

A bidding war has resulted in sale of 1,000 historic photographs of the Holy Land to sell for nearly $1.5 million. Note to the loser: we can provide you with more than 1,000 images for half price!
Seth Rodriquez, a long-time contributor to this blog, has been invited to teach a course in biblical backgrounds at the Baptist Theological Seminary of Zimbabwe and he would appreciate your prayer and financial support.

HT: Agade, Joseph Lauer, Charles Savelle

Tagged Discoveries, Egypt, Excavations, Israel's Coast, Jerusalem, Resources, Temple Mount

Weekend Roundup

The oldest known glass production factory in Israel has been discovered on Mount Carmel. High-res photos are available here.

A new study by Tel Aviv University points to widespread literacy in Israel in 600 BC. Christopher Rollston offers a summary and reflections. An op-ed at the Jerusalem Post is entitled “Holy Shards.”

The academic article is available to subscribers here.

Three Palestinians were arrested attempting to smuggle a statue of Herod’s wife Mariamne. A photo of the statue is here.

The Temple Mount Sifting Project will soon be announcing the discovery of a pendant with the cartouche of Pharaoh Thutmose III.

The Big Picture returns to Palmyra.

Dubai’s plans for the world’s tallest skyscraper are inspired by the hanging gardens of Babylon.

Wayne Stiles goes to Ein Harod to learn how to move from fear to faith.

Yale’s “Old Babylonian Period Mathematical Text” is one of the university’s most-reproduced cultural artifacts.

The Iraqi government is turning Saddam Hussein’s palace in Basra into an archaeological museum.

With Passover around the corner, Haaretz looks at indirect evidence of Israelite presence in Egypt before the exodus.

A Passover sacrifice event will be held on Monday on the Mount of Olives.

Luke Chandler notes that the official website for the Khirbet Qeiyafa excavations has been updated.

The summer excavation of Khirbet el-Maqatir is on and applications are being accepted until April 30.

Ferrell Jenkins and Leon Mauldin are traveling around Israel and sharing photos from their trip.

Filip Vukosavovic has resigned his position as Chief Curator at the Bible Lands Museum Jerusalem.

Now free online: The Bible in Its World: The Bible and Archaeology Today, by Kenneth A. Kitchen.

Many people liked the photo we shared this week on Facebook and Twitter of the Mount of Olives
before the churches were built.

HT: Joseph Lauer, Charles Savelle, Ted Weis, Agade

Tagged Discoveries, Excavations, Jerusalem, Jezreel Valley, Mesopotamia, Museums, Resources, Samaria, Syria, Temple Mount

Weekend Roundup

Ferrell Jenkins remembers the events of this weekend with photos related to the crucifixion and resurrection.

Michael Heiser offers some links in response to the perrennial “miracles-are-impossible” stories that surface this time each year.

The battle continues over the size of the Kedem Center in the City of David.

Shmuel Browns’ photo of the week is a beautiful shot of the Judean wilderness.

A number of interesting finds have been made in an excavation of a Byzantine church in Gush Etzion.

If you are an American undergrad looking to excavate in Israel this summer, you should apply for a scholarship to join the Tel Burna team.

Wayne Stiles gives three reasons why you should travel to Israel.

The Tel Al-Amarna Visitors Centre has been inaugurated in Minya. Work on the Aten Museum and
Malawi National Museum is on-going, despite rumors to the contrary.

Archaeologists are learning more about ancient watercraft from an Old Kingdom boat excavated in Abusir.

Reproductions of the 50-foot arch that formed the entrance to Palmyra’s Temple of Baal will be erected in New York City and London next month.

The Syrian army is close to re-capturing Palmyra.

John Brown University has received an anonymous gift of $1 million for their Abila Archaeological Project.

The Torlonia collection, with more than 600 statues and sculptures, will be on display in Rome for the first time in decades. An overseas tour will follow.

Described as one of most important recoveries in decades, 45 crates of archaeological material, dating between the 7th century BC to 2nd century AD, has been returned to Italy after being stolen from sites in the 1970s and 1980s.

“Analysis of Herculaneum papyrus scroll fragments reveals the use of metallic ink in Greco-Roman literary inscription centuries earlier than previously thought.”

Bruce and Ken Zuckerman will be lecturing on “Archaeological Photography” on March 28 at the South Bay Camera Club.

Now online: “The Lenkin Family Collection of Photography at the Penn Libraries, as it is now known, comprises over 5,000 original photographs, primarily of Jerusalem and Palestine taken from 1850 to 1937.”

For a limited time, access to the latest issue of Near Eastern Archaeology is available for free without a login required.

Bible Software Review is looking for a new owner-editor.

Going Places with God, by Wayne Stiles, is on sale for Kindle right now for $0.99. It’s at the same price on Vyrso/Logos. The sale won’t last. I recommend it!

Happy 13th Anniversary to Paleojudaica! And Aren Maeir recently celebrated his birthday.

For photos recalling the momentous events of this week nearly 2,000 years ago, check out our posts this week on Facebook and Twitter.

HT: Jared Clark, G. M. Grena, Agade, Ted Weis, Charles Savelle

Tagged Egypt, Excavations, Italy, Jerusalem, Jordan, Judah, Lectures, Photo Resources, Syria, Technology, Tourism

Weekend Roundup, Part 1

A woman hiking on an unnamed archaeological site in eastern Galilee picked up a gold coin with the image of Emperor Augustus. High-res images are available here.

Luke Chandler reports on a new excavation at Khirbet Arai, not far from Tel Lachish. The first week has already revealed two massive structures as well as Philistine pottery.

Douglas Petrovich has done some interesting work related to the Israelite presence in Egypt. He has started a Kickstarter project to raise funds to publish a book on it.

The lyre depicted on Israel’s half-shekel is based on a seal now known to be forged. A larger drawing of the forged seal is online here.

A 19-year-old American spent the night in Solomon’s Quarries to dig for treasure.

The publication of Yadin’s final report from his Megiddo excavations will be celebrated at an event at Hebrew U on April 5.

In Photos: Members of an Israeli historical group dressed up in costume for a three-day hike from Jericho to Jerusalem.

The plan to enlarge the mixed prayer area in the Jerusalem Archaeological Park next to the Western Wall prayer plaza is apparently dead.

Archaeologists are opposing plans to build a hotel and apartment buildings in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Abu Tor, the traditional “Hill of Evil Counsel.”

Ferrell Jenkins shares a photo of one of the best preserved stretches of Roman roads in Israel.

Ashkelon excavation veterans are invited to a closing celebration as the thirty-year project ends.

HT: Charles Savelle, Joseph Lauer, Agade, Ted Weis, Daniel Wright

Tagged Discoveries, Excavations, Forgery, Galilee, Jerusalem, Judah, Philistines, Resources, Shephelah, Temple Mount

Weekend Roundup

IAA excavations in the Schneller Compound in Jerusalem have revealed a Roman bathhouse and a Roman- or Byzantine-era winerpress. High-res photos and a video may be downloaded here.

Archaeologists have unearthed a cemetery in use from the Middle Bronze to the Iron Ages south of Bethlehem. Two journal articles on which the report was based can be read here and here.

A hidden camera reveals for the first time the condition of Palmyra after ISIS terrorists destroyed temples, arches, and tower tombs.

A missing letter in an inscription brings into question whether the Amphipolis tomb really belonged to Hephaestion, Alexander the Great’s beloved friend and general, and may instead belong to Alexander’s mother, Olympias.

The Bethsaida Excavation Project has posted their 2015 season report (73 pages with lots of photos).

Three looted Mesopotamian sculptures were found in a Slovenian refugee camp.

Haaretz runs a story on the mysterious 90-mile long wall in Jordan.

Two UCSD professors are working with the Israel Antiquities Authority to update the Digital Archaeological Atlas of the Holy Land.

An online Neo-Assyrian Bibliography compiled by Heather D. Baker and Melanie Groß is available.

Egypt is seeking to add four archaeological sites in Alexandria and Sinai to UNESCO’s World Heritage List.

Jacob sheep being raised in Canada will be brought back to Israel.

The death of the Dead Sea has probably never been better illustrated than in this multi-media rich “article” at Haaretz. It includes the prediction that within 20 years there may be no access to the shoreline of the Dead Sea.

Clyde Billington and Gordon Govier discuss the latest discoveries on this week’s edition of The Book and the Spade.

Shmuel Browns visits the site of Lifta (biblical Nephtoah) on the edge of Jerusalem.

Minna Silver takes readers on a visit to biblical Haran, once home to the patriarch Abraham.

Eisenbrauns’s Deal of the Weekend: The Horsemen of Israel
Horses and Chariotry in Monarchic Israel, by Deborah Cantrell ($20).

Barry Britnell introduces a new video project entitled “Following the Messiah” and encourages everyone to support the project through their Kickstarter Campaign.

HT: Ted Weis, Gale, Joseph Lauer, Agade, Ferrell Jenkins

Tagged Dead Sea, Egypt, Excavations, Galilee, Jerusalem, Jordan, Resources, Syria, Technology, Turkey

Weekend Roundup

A farmer on a hike with his family near the Horns of Hattin discovered a scarab depicting Thutmose III.

“An ancient canal system used 2,000 years ago to irrigate terraced agricultural plots has been unearthed at an excavation near the Roman-era fortress Metzad Bokek in southern Israel.”

A boat from the Third Dynasty has been discovered at Abusir in Egypt.

A recently uncovered first century AD fresco found in London is described as the earliest one of the earliest surviving frescos from Roman Britain.

A shipwreck from 2000 BC has been discovered by Turkish researchers in Marmaris Hisarönü Gulf in the Mediterranean.

Accuweather has identified five archaeological discoveries preserved by nature, including the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Eilat Mazar says that plans to expand the prayer area near Robinson’s Gate will “absolutely ruin the site.” The Grand Mufti is also opposed. An artist’s rendering is here.

David Ilan will be lecturing on “How Ancient Israel Began: A New Archaeological Perspective” at
Grand Valley State University in Allendale, Michigan, on February 9, 6:00 pm.

Aren Maeir has been appointed to the board of the Israel Parks and Nature Authority. (Now we know who to blame if the parks aren’t perfect!)

Sy Gitin’s eulogy for Trude Dothan is now posted at the Albright Institute’s website. The Biblical
Archaeology Society honors her memory by making 8 articles by and about her free to the public.
Wayne Stiles explains Amos’s sarcastic wordplay on the place name “Lo Debar.”

ASOR has posted a “post-mortem” on the Jehoash Inscription, but I doubt it will convince anyone not already convinced.

Nimrud Rising is a new project that uses “innovative digital technology solutions to create an immersive virtual reality recreation of Nimrud.”

On the anniversary of James Michener’s birthday, Benjamin Glatt explores the origins of The Source.

The Palestine Exploration Fund reveals the identity of the “mystery objects.”

The Associates for Biblical Research has received a $10,000 matching gift pledge towards its excavations of Khirbet el-Maqatir.

HT: Agade, Ted Weis, Pat McCarthy, Charles Savelle, Joseph Lauer

Tagged Discoveries, Egypt, Excavations, Jerusalem, Lectures, Shephelah, Temple Mount, Turkey