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From the Israel Antiquities Authority:

An impressive farm house, 2,800 years old, which comprised twenty-three rooms, was exposed in recent weeks during archaeological excavations the Israel Antiquities Authority is carrying out in Rosh Ha-‘Ayin before the city is enlarged in an initiative by the Ministry of Construction. According to Amit Shadman, excavation director on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority, “The farm, which is extraordinarily well-preserved, extends across an area of 30 × 40 m and was built in the eighth century BCE, the time of the Assyrian conquest. Farm houses during this period served as small settlements of sorts whose inhabitants participated in processing agricultural produce. The numerous wine presses discovered in the vicinity of the settlement indicate the wine industry was the most important branch of agriculture in the region. A large silo, which was used to store grain, shows that the ancient residents were also engaged in growing cereal.”
According to Shadman the building continued to be used during the Persian period (also known as the Time of the Return to Zion) in the sixth century BCE, and in the Hellenistic period as well which began in the country with the arrival of Alexander the Great, one of the greatest military leaders of antiquity. With Alexander’s victory over the Persian army in 333 BCE he embarked upon numerous successful military campaigns. His campaign in Israel did not encounter any special difficulties and the country opened its gates to the great warrior.
[…]
In light of this impressive building’s excellent state of preservation, the Israel Antiquities Authority and Ministry of Construction decided to conserve the structure in situ for the benefit of the city’s residents and the visiting public.

The full press release is here. The story is also reported by the Jerusalem Post. Rosh HaAyin is near the biblical city of Aphek mentioned in 1 Samuel 4:1.

An aerial photograph of the farm house. Photographic credit: Skyview Company, courtesy of the Israel Antiquities Authority
An aerial photograph of the farm house. Photographic credit: Skyview Company, courtesy of the Israel Antiquities Authority
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A reporter visited the Kishle in Jerusalem on its recent opening. The article includes a nice photo and an audio version.

Portions of Jerusalem’s Decumanus have been uncovered near Jaffa Gate.

Leen Ritmeyer notes new building violations on the Temple Mount.

The Temple Mount Sifting Project is seeking volunteers who can assist them in raising money through crowd-funding.

Why should Jews and Christians be denied from praying on the Temple Mount while Muslims are
allowed?

“There is a little corner of Jerusalem that is forever India. At least, it has been for more than 800 years…”

The latest SourceFlix video short: Biblical Cities – From the Air.

A Palestinian archaeologist is claiming to have discovered the church where the martyr Stephen’s bones were buried. The site is near Ramallah (10 miles north of Jerusalem), and the claim is based on an inscription not shown in the article. Perhaps some Byzantines were trying to capitalize on the tourist trade, just as they plan to do to the site in the future.

A fortified site from the time of Persia’s conquest by Alexander the Great has been excavated near
Israel’s border with Gaza.

The laborers at the copper mines in the Timna Valley ate well, according to an analysis of bones from Slaves’ Hill.

Luke Chandler has a report on Yosi Garfinkel’s recent lecture on Khirbet Qeiyafa, including word on two more inscriptions.

Tourism in Israel was down 33% in October from the previous year.

If you can use financial help to excavate next summer at Tel Burna, check out this scholarship opportunity.

Ferrell Jenkins shares a beautiful photo of Mount Arbel and the Sea of Galilee.

HT: Ted Weis, Charles Savelle, Joseph Lauer, Keith Keyser

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A replica of Solomon’s Temple has now opened in Sao Paulo. But since it has the capacity to seat 10,000 people (and Solomon’s could seat exactly zero), one has to wonder in what sense it is a “replica.” This Forbes article has more info and a computer image. Google has more images.

Results of excavations at Tell Jemmeh in southern Israel from 1970 to 1990 have now been published.

G. M. Grena shares a list of lectures and abstracts of interest from the ASOR 2014 meeting in San Diego in November.

Wayne Stiles highlights some ancient tombs in Israel that you can visit.

Bible History Daily has a roundup of articles related to summer excavations.


The Times of Israel has a good collection of photos of mosaics from the Huqoq synagogue.

The NY Times has more on the destruction of the tomb of Jonah in Iraq.

ArtDaily: “Scientists at the Penn Museum in Philadelphia have re-discovered an important find in their own storage rooms, a complete human skeleton about 6,500 years old.”


Haaretz runs a profile on 5,000 years of strife in Gaza: “Gaza’s history reads like an encyclopedia of misery – war, destruction, earthquakes, plagues and floods. It has been destroyed and rebuilt, conquered again and again. But it also enjoyed periods of prosperity, when pagan, Jew and others lived together in harmony.”

Last call for the lowest price on Logos’ Archaeological and Theological Studies of Jerusalem (10 vols.) Some of the works I’m not familiar with, but the two Warren volumes are classics. The  more
who order, the lower the price goes for all of us.

I recommended ScrollTag several years ago, but if you missed it then, you should check it out now.

The program now includes the Trainer, a unique tool that will help you learn (and remember!) Greek
and Hebrew word forms. The package price is a great deal.

HT: Jack Sasson, Charles Savelle

Tell Jemmeh and Nahal Besor view northwest, tb050701349
Tell Jemmeh and Nahal Basor
Photo from the Pictorial Library of Bible Lands,
volume 5
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SourceFlix has a new video with fly-overs of nine important biblical sites.

A Nebuchadnezzar Cylinder recently sold for $605,000. (That’s an interesting number given that Nebuchadnezzar came to the throne in 605 BC.)

BibleX shares a report from the 1880s of a visit inside the traditional house of Simon the Tanner.

Robert Mullins is on The Book and the Spade this week discussing the recent season of excavations at Abel Beth Maacah.

That recently discovered Iron Age gate at Lachish is neither a gate nor is it from the Iron Age. Luke Chandler explains.

Ferrell Jenkins explains the importance of the Tenth Roman Legion in Jerusalem, and he follows it up with a number of photographs.

Five haredim were arrested this week for attempting to block entrance to an excavation site near the Old City.

IAA Director General Yehoshua (Shuka) Dorfman died on July 31 after a long illness.

HT: Ted Weis

Jaffa, house of Simon the Tanner, mat06522
Interior of House of Simon the Tanner
Photo from Northern Palestine
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What do you do when your summer excavation site turns out to be less than 5 miles from a war zone?
The Ashkelon team had to figure matters out on the fly.

Mark Hoffman is inviting everyone to join his free, online course, “Survey of the Lands of the Bible.”

This MOOC begins in September and you can participate as much and as little as desired.

Wayne Stiles has a well-written and well-illustrated article about Ein Parath, where Jeremiah buried his loincloth.

How did archaeologists come to reject the biblical description of Joshua’s conquest? Henry Smith explains. He is interviewed briefly about the article here.

Leon Mauldin takes his readers to the Mamertine Prison in Rome.

ISIS Is About to Destroy Biblical History in Iraq.

Cleopatra’s Needle in New York City is getting a laser cleaning. “In nanoseconds, the soot particles are turned into white-hot plasma.”

The latest issue of ‘Atiqot is online and it includes several articles about an excavation in the Kidron Valley.

Göbekli Tepe excavator Klaus Schmidt died last week.

Amnon Rosenfeld—In Memoriam, by Howard R. Feldman.

HT: Charles Savelle, G. M. Grena, Craig Dunning

110724879tb Egyptian obelisk, aka Cleopatra's Needle
Cleopatra’s Needle, New York City
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Yad HaShmonah and its Biblical Village are profiled in The Times of Israel. Aviva and Shmuel Bar-Am treat their subject honorably.

Wayne Stiles explains the connection between Horeshat Tal National Park and the Bible.

The video of the “Roast and Toast” for retiring Albright director Sy Gitin is now online with handy links to each segment.

Popular Archaeology looks forward to the coming season of excavations in Jaffa, including new work in the harbor looking for ancient shipwrecks.

Progress in the Ashkelon excavations is being reported on the Dig Ashkelon blog.

A summary for week 2 is posted at the Tel Burna excavation blog. Two more weeks remain this season.

Luke Chandler has arrived in Israel to join the new excavations at Lachish. Watch his blog for updates. There’s more information about the Fourth Expedition to Lachish at the website of Southern
Adventist University.

Bible History Daily has published the first of several studio-quality videos about excavations of Tell Timai in the Nile Delta.


The Sacred Bridge is out in a second “emended and enhanced” edition. Eisenbrauns and Carta list it for sale but do not provide details for what has changed. (Anson Rainey died in 2011.)

Suzanne Marchand provides some interesting background on German-Turkish relations in archaeological work and how that was affected by World War I.

A number of scholarly teams are working on archaeology survey maps of northern Iraq.

“Authorities now know that ISIS is partially funded by pillaging ancient artifacts from Iraq and Syria to sell on the black market.” (International Business Times)

Mick Jagger was spotted at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.

The-Samaritans.com website is back online after a lengthy absence.

Amazon is now listing a book I contributed to: Jesus, A Visual History. It is due to be released in November.

HT: Jack Sasson, Craig Dunning, A.D. Riddle

Tabor oak, Horeshat Tal, tb032905182
Tabor oak at Horeshat Tal
Photo from Trees, Plants, and Flowers of the Holy Land
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