Jordan Archives - Page 7 of 35

Weekend Roundup, Part 2

The first-ever discovery of a soldier bearing the title of “Emperor’s protector” was made on a sarcophagus found in western Turkey.

“A 2nd-century funerary altar marking the remains of a 13-year-old girl was discovered in Rome.”

“Hundreds of engraved stones and fragmented bas-relief carvings have recently been discovered in the ruined Tachara Palace” in Persepolis.

“Analysis of Bronze Age daggers has shown that they were used for processing animal carcasses and not as non-functional symbols of identity and status, as previously thought.”

“Lebanon’s tourism ministry inaugurated on Friday a Phoenician museum in the coastal city of Jounieh.”

Pharaoh So is the last of five Egyptian pharaohs in Bryan Windle’s archaeological biography series.

Chris Stantis writes about warriors and warrior burials in the ancient Near East.

Bible History Daily provides an introduction to a current BAR magazine article on dig workers in the Middle East. The article itself derives from more extensive reporting in Allison Mickel’s Why Those Who Shovel Are Silent: A History of Local Archaeological Knowledge and Labor.

“A British tourist could face the death penalty in Iraq after being accused of smuggling artifacts out of the country.”

A new study concludes that the Shroud of Turin is similar to a piece of fabric found at Masada in the 1st century AD.

The Ancient World Online has updated its extensive list of Oriental Institute Open Access Publications.

HT: Agade, Joseph Lauer, Arne Halbakken, Ryan Jaroncyk, Jared Clark, Charles Savelle, Explorator

Tagged Antiquities Trade, Discoveries, Egypt, Italy, Jordan, Lebanon, Museums, Persia, Resources, Turkey, Weekend Roundup

Weekend Roundup, Part 2

A Greco-Roman pottery workshop was recently discovered in Alexandria.

Restoration work is underway on the Ben Ezra synagogue in Cairo.

Mark Janzen and Chris McKinny begin a new series on Egypt and the Bible in the Biblical World podcast.

Jerry Pattengale of the Religion News Service reviews some of the recent controversy related to the claim that Tall el-Hammam was destroyed by a meteoric airburst.

Zoom webinar on April 24: “Preserving Cultural Heritage in Hisban and Umm al-Jimal, Jordan,” featuring Øystein LaBianca, Elizabeth Osinga, and Darrell Rohl.

Philip Boyes writes about the social context of writing in ancient Ugarit. His similarly titled book is available as an open access pdf.

The Jerusalem Post investigates the origins of the menorah etched into the staircase of the Celsus Library in Ephesus.

The 6th-century Imperial Gate of the Hagia Sophia has been vandalized.

“American archaeologist Stephen Miller devoted his entire professional life to uncovering the secrets of Nemea and reviving ancient Greece’s Nemean Games.”

A new exhibition at the Landesmuseum Mainz showcases Roman technology including sewer systems, underfloor heating, and weatherproof concrete.

HT: Agade, Joseph Lauer, Charles Savelle, Arne Halbakken, Paleojudaica

Tagged Discoveries, Egypt, Greece, Italy, Jordan, Jordan Rift, Lectures, Museums, Syria, Turkey, Weekend Roundup

Weekend Roundup, Part 1

Haaretz has an extended summary of an article by Shimon Gibson about the attraction of stone vessels to Jerusalemites in the Second Temple period.

Archaeologists found a rare bronze fork at Chorazin (Korazim).

“An expedition of scientists and artists, adventurers all, embarked on a four-day desert journey. Their goal: to retrace an ancient trade route that connected the Kingdom of Judah to the Kingdom of Edom” (Haaretz premium).

Joel Kramer is interviewed on Digging for Truth about his book, Where God Came Down: The Archaeological Evidence.

The Biblical Language Center, founded by Randall Buth, is offering live video classes this summer in biblical Hebrew and Koiné Greek.

Zoom lecture on April 27: “Tell es-Sultan, Ancient Jericho: Urban Diversity in Palestine,” by Prof. Lorenzo Nigro. Advance registration required.

Hybrid lecture at the Museum of the Bible on May 26: “Tel Shimron: New Research into a Biblical City,” by Daniel Master.

Now online: “Iconography on Hebrew Seals and Bullae Identifying Biblical Persons and the Apparent Paradox of Egyptian Solar Symbols,” by Benjamin Stanhope.

The Volunteer Guide for the Tel Burna Archaeological Project is now online, and they are still accepting applications.

Morris Proctor explains how to find all the relevant maps for a site using the Atlas feature in Logos Bible Software.

Bryan Windle gives a good survey of the possible locations of where Pilate sentenced Jesus to death and concludes with a very reasonable suggestion.

HT: Agade, Joseph Lauer, Charles Savelle, Arne Halbakken, Paleojudaica

Tagged Discoveries, Excavations, Galilee, Jerusalem, Jordan, Jordan Rift, Negev, Shephelah, Weekend Roundup

Weekend Roundup

Renovations at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher have revealed a medieval high altar that once stood in the center of the church.

A Byzantine-era mosaic floor from a Christian basilica in Nahariya has been restored and will be opened to the public. The 500-square meter mosaic includes 87 surviving medallions, with illustrations of flora, fauna, and scenes from everyday life. A video in Hebrew is here. BibleWalks has more photos of the church and the surrounding area.

A family hiking in the Harovit forest in central Israel discovered a beautiful mosaic from the Byzantine period.

The recently vandalized tomb of Joseph in Nablus has been restored.

Two girls were rescued when they accidentally entered a minefield in Nahal Tamar south of the Dead Sea.

Jodi Magness takes Amanda Borschel-Dan on a walking tour of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.

The Museum of the Bible and DIVE (Digital Interactive Virtual Experiences) will be conducting a virtual tour of the Via Dolorosa on April 20 ($20).

The lead tablet found on Mount Ebal is the subject of discussion in the latest episode of the Biblical World podcast.

“After decades of laying beside the sacred lake at Luxor’s Karnak Temple, a team of Egyptian restorers and archaeologists succeeded in re-erecting the restored Hatshepsut’s obelisk.”

“German researchers have tracked down and documented hundreds of antiquities located in Berlin museums that were looted from the island of Samos, Greece.”

“Scientists have debated the reason why Bronze Age wall paintings at the ancient settlement of Akrotiri on the Greek island of Santorini depict monkeys that existed thousands of miles away in Asia.”

The Jerusalem Post has a short interview with a curator of the Museum of the Bible on the role of biblical archaeology.

Expedition Bible has launched a new YouTube channel. In the first video, Joel Kramer goes to Tell Deir Alla to discuss the Balaam inscription.

Roy Albag has created a number of reconstructions of sites in Israel, including the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, the Herodian Quarter’s palatial mansion, Solomon’s temple, and Herod’s palace in Jerusalem.

New release: Jerusalem and the Coastal Plain in the Iron Age and Persian Periods: New Studies on Jerusalem’s Relations with the Southern Coastal Plain of Israel/Palestine (c. 1200–300 BCE). Research on Israel and Aram in Biblical Times IV. Edited by Felix Hagemeyer (Mohr Siebeck, 119 €).

A number of Eilat Mazar’s publications are for sale, including her excavation reports of various sites in Jerusalem.

HT: Agade, Joseph Lauer, Arne Halbakken, A.D. Riddle, Alexander Schick

Tagged Discoveries, Egypt, Greece, Israel's Coast, Jerusalem, Jordan, Mediterranean Islands, Museums, Negev, Resources, Samaria, Tourism, Weekend Roundup

Weekend Roundup, Part 2

Biblical Archaeology Review seems to have dispensed with its annual “dig issue,” but the first issue of the year has a story about how various archaeologists think COVID-19 may affect the future of archaeology. The full story from the magazine is now online.

What was thought to be a Phoenician harbor in Sicily turns out to be a “gigantic sacred pool in honor of Baal that operated during the city’s Phoenician period, from the 8th to the 5th centuries B.C.E.” The article includes a nice map showing Phoenician colonies throughout the Mediterranean.

The new archaeologist in charge of Pompeii is hoping that visitors will look at the ancient city through the lens of its complex social stratification.

With Purim last week, Judith Sudilovsky writes about the Persian King Xerxes, known in the Hebrew Bible as Ahasuerus.

Tirhakah, the Cushite King of Egypt, is the latest subject of Bryan Windle’s series of bioarchaeographies.

Jordan has a number of important or impressive churches worth visiting.

Zoom lecture on March 23: “Phoenicians’ Cultural Influence in the Levant/Israel,” by Carolina Lopez-Ruiz ($7)

Webinar on April 6-7: Biblical Studies in Memory of Baruch A. Levine. I don’t see the schedule online, but I can forward it to anyone who asks. Or you will likely receive it when you register.

The webinar on “Colossae, Colossians, and Archaeology” that you may have missed because of its Sunday morning timing is now posted on YouTube.

HT: Agade, Joseph Lauer, Charles Savelle, Explorator

Tagged Egypt, Excavations, Italy, Jordan, Lectures, Persia, Tourism, Turkey

Weekend Roundup, Part 2

A cache of embalming materials was discovered in a tomb in Abusir dating to the 26th Dynasty.

A number of museums in Egypt are planned to open or re-open in 2022.

Marissa Stevens looks at structural similarities between two civilizations that had no contact with each other: Egypt’s New Kingdom and China’s Han Dynasty.

An Elamite inscription attributed to Xerxes has been discovered at Persepolis.

Tom Garlinghouse has written a primer on the ancient Persians.

More looting of Palmyra has occurred in recent days.

“The Jordanian Antiquities Ministry and the US Embassy in Jordan held a ceremony in Jordan’s capital, Amman, on Tuesday showcasing the objects that were ‘illegally smuggled from Jordan and obtained by an antiquities collector in the United States.’”

“A shipwreck originating from the Greek island of Rhodes, dating back to the third century AD, was found in the depths of the Gulf of Fethiye.”

Carl Rasmussen shares photos of Vespasian’s Temple of Peace, where Josephus says he placed the golden vessels from the Jerusalem temple.

Tzilla Eshel suggests that there may have been multiple places named Tarshish in biblical times, on the basis of Phoenician inscriptions and the chemical fingerprint of silver.

The Database of Religious History “is intended as a platform for unprecedented academic collaboration, reflecting a commitment to rigorous, scholarly standards and a deep appreciation for interdisciplinary work in the sciences and humanities.” It is free and no registration is required.

ASOR webinar on March 8: “Where Are They Now?: A Preview of 2022 ASOR-Affiliated Fieldwork Projects,” with Michael Given, Xenia-Paula Kyriakou, Stephen Batiuk, Monique Roddy, Kent Bramlett, Friedbert Ninow, and Michael Hoff.

Online lecture on March 9: “How Did Roman Painters Create Frescoes?,” by John Clarke

ASOR webinar on March 20: “Uncovering What is Nubian Beneath the Veneer of Egyptianness: Excavating the Archives,” by Debora Heard.

HT: Agade, Joseph Lauer, Arne Halbakken, Explorator

Tagged Antiquities Trade, Discoveries, Egypt, Italy, Jordan, Lectures, Mediterranean Islands, Museums, Persia, Syria, Weekend Roundup