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Scientists have discovered evidence for cultivation of three of the “four species” of Sukkot in the plaster of walls at Ramat Rahel.

A model of the Temple Mount made by Conrad Schick in 1872 will be on display next week in the new Heritage Center of Christ Church, Jerusalem.

Leen Ritmeyer has notice of a program to be held on the 20th anniversary of Nahman Avigad’s death.

Yosef Garfinkel is pretty upset with Rami Arav’s review of the first excavation report of Khirbet
Qeiyafa. [Update: The post has been removed. See comment below for detail.]

The world’s largest Israeli flag is now flying over Nazareth Illit.

Joe Yudin suggests visiting some sites from King David’s life when the wildflowers are blooming.

The 50th anniversary of the publication of The Dead Sea Scrolls in English, by Geza Vermes, was celebrated last week at Wolfson College.

Bedouin gunmen in Sinai kidnapped two US tourists traveling from Jebel Musa. They were released when Egyptian police set free four Bedouin who had been in custody.

The first snowfall in Rome in 26 years kept visitors out of the Colosseum, the Forum, and Palatine Hill.

HT: Jack Sasson

UPDATE (2/7): At the request of the sponsors, I’ve removed the link to the invitation to the (private)
presentation at Christ Church.

Ramat Rahel mikveh, tb031905812

Mikveh with plastered walls at Ramat Rahel
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A new study suggests that the Dead Sea nearly dried up in the ancient past.

As of December 1, the water level of the Dead Sea was 1,361 feet (425.36 m) below sea level. The Sea of Galilee is still 27 inches (69 cm) below the red line.

A blogger reports that the Tell el-Hammam team is preparing to announce that their site must be Sodom because it was wiped out in a “heat event.”

Will Varner has posted a PowerPoint presentation of the Messianic Hope of the Hebrew Scriptures.

He utilizes a number of our Christmas-related photos and welcomes readers to use the presentation as they wish.

A 3.8 magnitude earthquake was felt in the Galilee earlier this week.

A medical doctor in western Galilee has been arrested for leading a ring of antiquities thieves.

One group is unhappy with Israel’s plans to develop a national park east of the Mount of Olives.

Leen Ritmeyer has a roundup of recent stories of Jerusalem in the news.

Wayne Stiles expected to be disappointed by his visit to Nazareth Village.

Shmuel Browns explains why hiking is a national pastime in Israel. He gives his recommendations on the best hikes.

Leon Mauldin shares a video of a potter fashioning vessels on the island of Rhodes.

The concrete of ancient Rome is weaker than the modern version, but it lasts longer. One of the secret ingredients was volcanic ash.

Claude F. Mariottini links to ten places to visit in Bethlehem. (Though worthy spots, half of them are not in Bethlehem.)

$12 will get you a beautiful 2012 calendar of the Lands of the Bible.

HT: Charles Savelle, Joseph Lauer, Jack Sasson

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Corrections and Updates to “Identifying Biblical Persons in Northwest Semitic Inscriptions of 1200-539 B.C.E.”

This article updates the cutoff point for the inscriptions treated in the book mentioned in the title, which was mid-2002, to July 31, 2008. It evaluates 32 proposed identifications (IDs) of biblical persons in ancient Near Eastern inscriptions of 1200-539 B.C.E. All 32 IDs or non-IDs are listed and indexed at the end.

Shmuel Browns explains the significance of Khirbet Qeiyafa and concludes with a report of Israel Finkelstein’s paper on the Large Stone Structure and the Stepped Stone Structure in the City of David. He dates the SSS to both the Iron Age and the Hellenistic period.

An ancient shipyard near Rome is being excavated.

Dan Brown and the Grail That Never Was. Paleobabble posts a link to a scholarly article that is “a succinct, readable dismantling of Brown’s bogus history.”

Antioch on the Orontes was a significant city in the early church. Today known as Hatay, the city’s museum boasts some impressive mosaics and other finds. But most is in storage until a new museum is built.

The new museum is to have the capacity to host 800 people at a time and 10,700 square meters of exhibition space.
Visitors who come to the Hatay museum can see around 906 square meters of mosaics at this point, though around 300 square meters are still in the museum’s warehouse due to space shortages. In fact, the museum’s total holdings include 35,433 pieces, but only 1,425 of these are on display due to serious space problems.
With pieces from the Hittite, Hellenic, Byzantine and Roman eras on display, the Hatay Archeologicy Museum was always known as the second most significant mosaic museum in the world, following Tunisia’s Bardo Museum. That is, until last week, when the Gaziantep Zeugma Mosaic Museum opened, and the Hatay Archeologicy Museum dropped to third place for mosaics.

I’m surprised the Medeba Museum in Jordan is not ranked in the top three.

HT: Jack Sasson

Nude fishermen mosaic, 5th c AD, tb122900316

Nude fishermen mosaic in Antioch (Hatay) Archaeological Museum
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Hezekiah’s Pool is now clean, for the first time in decades if not centuries. Tom Powers gives the report and includes many photos. He suggests that the workers found a paved or plastered floor.

(Background here.)

Biblical Archaeology Society has a brand spanking new blog that includes an RSS feed and welcomes readers with a new 140-page ebook entitled the “Ten Top Biblical Archaeology Discoveries.” The new site also allows readers (upon sign-in) to control which email subscriptions they receive. The blog is part of a complete re-design of the BAS website.

Olof Pedersén has posted his list of ANE Placemarks for Google Earth.

Foreign Policy has posted a photo essay entitled, “Once Upon a Time in Damascus.” More than a dozen photos from the American Colony/Eric Matson collection are featured.

The work of Gustaf Dalman is being celebrated in a program to be held at the Austrian Hospice in Jerusalem on August 18-19. I’ve been working on publishing a Dalman project myself but I will not be finished in time for the 70th anniversary of his death.

Restoration work is scheduled to be restarted at the Stepped Pyramid of Djoser (Zoser) at Saqqara (with photo). The article notes that already a second successor to Zahi Hawass is in office.

The Pantheon in Rome may have been built as a massive sundial.

In recent weeks, Wayne Stiles has visited En Gedi and the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.

CBN News has a 30-second video of the tunnel where they discovered the Roman sword and etching of a menorah. Ynet News posts a two-minute video of the tunnel with English subtitles (to start you may need to click the smaller button on the right side of the screen).

HT: Charles Savelle, Joseph Lauer, Jack Sasson

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Well preserved remains of an ancient ship possibly from the first century has been found in the port that served ancient Rome.

Roman and Byzantine buildings have been discovered in Jiftlik, a Palestinian town near Alexandrium-Sartaba in the Jordan Valley.

“Geography and culture are important.”  Jim Elliff explains why in this bulletin insert that you can download and reproduce for your church.

Infanticide was apparently common in the Roman Empire.

The first phase of the National Museum of Egyptian Civilisation is scheduled to open next month.

The country of Turkey is starting to recognize the value of its Christian sites for bringing in tourists (NY Times).

The Alphabetical list of Open Access Journals in Ancient Studies surpassed 900 titles this week.

Wayne Stiles shares his thoughts (and video) on Mount Arbel and the Sea of Galilee (JPost).

Tour guide Joe Yudin describes his jeep tour of the Judean Desert in a new column at the Jerusalem Post.

As a follow-up to the list of finalists for the 2011 Christian Book Award, it may be noted that the winner in the Bible Reference Category is the Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds 
Commentary, edited by John H. Walton.

Accordance is giving away a Bible a day (to one winner) and offering a big discount for all users, through the month of May.

ICEJ News reports on Israel’s plans to invest in Nazareth: On Wednesday, Israeli tourism minister Stas Meseznikov announced that the government is planning to invest more than NIS 12 million over the next four years in Israel’s largest Arab city, Nazareth, which is also a major tourist attraction due to its status as the town where Jesus grew up, being visited by over 40% of the tourists who arrive in Israel every year. One of the strategies used in order to develop the city is to encourage local residents to open their own businesses, and grants of up to 30% of their start up investments are therefore offered.  “The program to boost development of the tourism industry in Nazareth is part of a 2010 government initiative to encourage development in the Arab sector,” Meseznikov said.

HT: Paleojudaica, Jack Sasson

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Routledge Wall Maps for the Ancient World, edited by Richard Talbert, is available as a set or individually.

From the publisher’s website:

Routledge Wall Maps for the Ancient World provide both students and scholars with detailed and exacting geographic information of the ancient world. Using the world renowned geographic data from the Ancient World Mapping Centre, the sweeping views of the ancient world allow students to understand important concepts such as trade, movement, spatial and cultural relations and to consider how the ancient terrain would have affected them. The maps provide a powerful tool for comprehending how the ancient world worked and also to help re-evaluate out-dated theories in light of precise geographic information.
Those students who are new to the discipline of ancient history will find them invaluable in orientating themselves within the world of the past. How far is Athens from Sparta, what type of terrain did Alexander have to cross on his journeys, how did the valley of the Nile look in 500 BC? Such questions and many more are answered by the maps within this series.

Egypt and the Near East 3000-1200 BCE
Wall Map: 978-0-415-58500-2: $64.95 [$21.80 at Amazon]

Egypt and the Near East 1200 – 500 BCE
Wall Map: 978-0-415-58499-9: $64.95 [$38.35 at Amazon]

Greece and the Aegean in the 5th Century BCE
Wall Map: 978-0-415-58441-8: $64.95 [57.94 at Amazon]

Greece and Persia in the Time of Alexander the Great
Wall Map: 978-0-415-58498-2: $64.95 [57.94 at Amazon]

Italy in the Mid First Century CE
Wall Map: 978-0-415-58440-1: $64.95 [57.94 at Amazon]

The Roman Empire around 200 CE 
Wall Map: 978-0-415-58439-5: $64.95 [57.94 at Amazon]

The World of the New Testament and the Journeys of Paul
Wall Map: 978-0-415-58501-9: $64.95 [57.94 at Amazon]

Professors may request a complimentary examination copy via a link at the Routledge website.  As I write, the publisher’s website is painfully slow, but the links to Amazon work quickly. In many cases, the maps are available from the Amazon Marketplace for even less than the prices listed above.

HT: Jack Sasson

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