Italy Archives - Page 14 of 36

Weekend Roundup

Ruth Schuster has a photo essay of finds from the summer’s excavations of the temple at Motza (Moza) near Jerusalem.

A new study suggests that the site of Qumran was not a permanent settlement but a place where the Essenes came on pilgrimage once a year (Haaretz premium).

Brent Nongbri has a note about some little-known Dead Sea Scrolls fragments in the Vatican Museums.

Aren Maeir has posted his short summary of the Philistines, written for the Koren Tanakh of the Land of Israel: Samuel.

Ukrainian travel photographer Alexander Ladanivskyy has captured some unique photos of the Great Pyramid of Giza using a drone.

Madeleine Muzdakis writes about the remarkably well-preserved statue of Ka’aper, with its beautiful rock-crystal and copper eyes.

“Ramses the Great and the Gold of the Pharaohs, an exhibition of Ancient Egyptian artifacts opens at the Houston Museum of Natural Science on November 20.”

Appian Media has released a teaser trailer for Trial & Triumph, a feature-length documentary on the seven churches of Revelation.

Phys.org has an article about the underwater archaeological park at Baiae, near Naples, Italy, where villas of the Roman emperors are now submerged under 15 feet of water.

A New York City antiquities dealer has been charged with selling antiquities that he mass-produced.

Philip Zhakevich looks at the ancient evidence for writing and scribes in ancient Israel. For more, see Zhakevich’s recent Scribal Tools in Ancient Israel: A Study of Biblical Hebrew Terms for Writing Materials and Implements. (60% off at Amazon now; my guess is that that price is very temporary.)

The fall issue of Biblical Archaeology Review includes articles on a Canaanite temple at Lachish and a Byzantine church near Beth Shemesh. An article on the importance of public scholarship is based on a recorded Zoom conversation with Eric Cline, Melissa Cradic, and Jodi Magness, available online here.

You can catch up on the top three reports in biblical archaeology for the month of August with Bryan Windle’s overview.

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

Tagged Antiquities Trade, Dead Sea Scrolls, Egypt, Italy, Judah, Philistines, Shephelah, Tourism, Turkey, Weekend Roundup

Weekend Roundup, Part 2

The latest skeleton discovered at Pompeii sheds remarkable light on an individual named Marcus Venerius Secundio.

“A team of Polish researchers has discovered evidence of a well-planned Christian settlement dating to the sixth century in the ancient Egyptian port city of Marea.”

“Archeologists in northwestern Turkey discovered a relief on Monday depicting a war between the Greeks and Persians from the fifth century B.C.” (No photo)

A gouge in the eyes of a coin of Julian the Apostate may have been an intentional “act of erasure.”

Here are much better photos to go with the previously mentioned story abut Egyptians struggling to keep alive their craft of making papyrus.

The theater at Ephesus is reopening to visitors after being closed for the last three years.

Malta is planning to bury ancient cart ruts in order to build a new roundabout.

Jesse Millek asks, “Why did scholars choose 1200 BCE . . . as the year when civilization collapsed in the Eastern Mediterranean?”

The Getty Research Institute interviews Waleed Khaled al-As’ad, director emeritus of antiquities and museums at Palmyra and son of the site’s longtime director, Khaled al-As’ad. They also have a story about the history of Palmyra.

HT: Agade, Arne Halbakken, Andy Cook, Ted Weis, Explorator

Tagged Discoveries, Egypt, Italy, Mediterranean Islands, Syria, Tourism, Turkey, Weekend Roundup

Weekend Roundup, Part 2

A massive boundary stone marking the city limits of ancient Rome in the 1st century AD was discovered near the mausoleum of Augustus during construction work.

“The monumental entrance gate of the Zeus Temple’s sanctuary in the ancient city of Aizanoi, located in the Çavdarhisar district of western Kütahya province, Turkey, was unearthed during recent excavations.”

The latest discovery from the submerged ancient city of Thonis-Heracleion are fruit baskets from the 4th century BC.

Egypt moved the 4,600-year-old solar boat of Pharaoh Khufu from its old home near the Great Pyramid to the soon-to-open Grand Egyptian Museum.

A new study concludes a tablet from the Old Babylonian period is the oldest example of applied geometry.

17,000 looted artifacts were returned to Iraq from the Museum of the Bible and Cornell University.

A 3-min clip from a BBC documentary on the Persians focuses on the ziggurat of Chogha Zanbil, one of the best preserved ancient ziggurats.

Zoom lecture on August 11: “From Sanctuary to Synagogue,” by Robert Stieglitz.

On pre-publication sale at Logos: Biblical Illustrator Treasury

HT: Agade, Ted Weis, Arne Halbakken, Charles Savelle, Andy Cook, Roger Schmidgall, Explorator

Tagged Antiquities Trade, Discoveries, Italy, Lectures, Persia, Resources, Turkey, Weekend Roundup

Weekend Roundup, Part 2

“Researchers in Saudi Arabia have discovered a sixth-century B.C.E. rock carving of the last Babylonian king, Nabonidus” along with a lengthy cuneiform inscription.

“Beneath the murky waves of the Venice Lagoon, researchers have discovered the remains of an ancient Roman road and other possible port facilities, like a dock, that may predate the founding of the Italian city.”

“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.” The photo is apparently not of the newly discovered mosaic.

NPR has a story on what lies below ground in Istanbul.

“Work has begun to refurbish the old Acropolis Museum near the iconic Parthenon temple and turn it into an exhibition space.”

“Held annually on [Turkey’s] Aegean coast, the Selcuk camel-wrestling festival is part of a nomadic legacy rooted in ancient Turkic tribes.”

“Between the years 193 – 235, the Roman Empire was ruled by a series of emperors who were originally Phoenicians.”

The new director of Michigan State University’s excavations at Isthmia has developed a new website to share both old and new research with the public. The website is here.

The US government has seized the Museum of the Bible’s Gilgamesh Tablet, declaring that it was illegally deported from Iraq.

Death by stoning is not so common these days, especially in the United States. But that’s how a gunman in Texas recently died.

Zoom lecture on August 29: “From Standing Stones to Sacred Emptiness: Textual and Visual Portrayals of Israel’s God,” by Theodore Lewis.

University College London and King’s College London are co-hosting an eLecture series in August, entitled Ancient Near Eastern Languages in Contact (ANELC). The first eLecture will take place on Wednesday 4 August from 16:00 until 17:00 BST (London), when Dr. Ohad Cohen of the University of Haifa will be speaking on “The Canaanite Melting Pot – The Theoretical Implications of ‘Languages in Contact’ to the Understanding of Late Biblical Hebrew.”

New release: The City of Babylon: A History, c. 2000 BC – AD 116, by Stephanie Dalley

HT: Agade, Arne Halbakken, Wayne Stiles, Joseph Lauer, Ted Weis, Explorator, Mark Hoffman, Roger Schmidgall, Paleojudaica

Tagged Antiquities Trade, Arabia, Discoveries, Greece, Italy, Lectures, Mediterranean Islands, Mesopotamia, Museums, Resources, Turkey, Weekend Roundup

Weekend Roundup, Part 2

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A BBC Travel special reveals the scientific explanation to the deadly gases of the Ploutonion at Hierapolis. The story includes beautiful photos.

Excavations are underway at Claros, site of an ancient oracle in western Turkey.

After several years of restoration, the warren of corridors beneath the Colosseum floor has been opened to the public.

My Modern Met tells the story of a massive scale model of Rome that took about 35 years to build. Unfortunately, the Museum of Roman Civilization where it is housed has been closed for many years.

Caroline Wazer summarizes a recent study about slave collars in ancient Rome.

Brent Nongbri has written a guide to bookshops in Rome in the first century.

Greece has announced plans for five new or upgraded museums in Chios, Trikala, Sparta, Thyrreio and Ermioni.

A registry of all archaeological sites in Greece is now available online.

“Russia has begun a project to rehabilitate Syria’s ancient city of Palmyra in its latest efforts to gain a foothold in the country’s vital sectors.”

A CNN video documents the restoration of antiquities destroyed in the Beirut port blast.

“Egyptian police on Thursday arrested a former lawmaker and 17 other suspects on charges of illegal excavation and smuggling of 201 Pharaonic, Greek and Roman artifacts.”

Two people died while illegally excavating near the Giza pyramids.

Episode 1 of Ancient Lives on the Nile premieres on YouTube on July 9 at 5:00 pm Eastern.

Michele Cammarosano and Katja Weirauch explain the value and use of wax boards in the ancient Near East.

“The Painters of Pompeii” is an exhibit of 80 artifacts and artworks shown exclusively by the Oklahoma City Museum of Art from June 26 to October 17.

I found Bryan Windle’s interview of Mark Wilson to be very interesting and helpful.

HT: Agade, Ted Weis, Joseph Lauer, Arne Halbakken, Ferrell Jenkins, Gordon Franz, Charles Savelle, Alexander Schick, Explorator, Paleojudaica, Chris McKinny

Tagged Antiquities Trade, Egypt, Greece, Italy, Lebanon, Museums, Syria, Turkey, Weekend Roundup

Weekend Roundup

An Egyptian farmer discovered a well-preserved stele dating to the reign of Pharaoh Hophra (Apries), ruler of Egypt at the time of Jerusalem’s destruction in 586 BC (Jer 44:30). There is a nice photo here.

An artist in Brazil has created an impressive Lego model of the city of Jerusalem in the 1st century.

“Egyptian-Levantine copper trade was going strong during the Early Iron Age since the analysis of royal Egyptian artifacts of the Third Intermediate Period showed that copper used there was coming from the Arabah region.”

Margreet L. Steiner writes about temples and cult places in Iron Age Transjordan, including some likely dedicated to Milkom, Chemosh, and Qos.

The Jordan Times reports on a recent conference on Edom in the Iron Age.

There is conflict between Israelis and Palestinians at the ancient Israelite capital of Samaria (modern Sebastia).

Italy’s museums have made changes after Covid.

New from Brill: The Arch of Titus: From Jerusalem to Rome—and Back, edited by Steven Fine. This volume is the “final statement of the Yeshiva University Arch of Titus Project.”

In a new podcast episode, Chris McKinny and Oliver Hersey discuss the cultural backgrounds for studying the Bible with several specific examples.

HT: Agade, Joseph Lauer, Steven Anderson, Arne Halbakken, Explorator

Tagged Discoveries, Egypt, Italy, Jerusalem, Jordan, Museums, Resources, Samaria, Weekend Roundup