“A rare cache of gold and silver items dated to 3,600 years ago has been found at Tel Gezer, including figurines of the Canaanite counterparts of the Akkadian deities Ishtar, goddess of fertility, sex, love and war; and Sin, god of the moon.”
An arsonist apparently set the fire that damaged Absalom’s Pillar and the Cave of Jehoshaphat in Jerusalem’s Kidron Valley. Ynetnews has a brief video.
Nir Hasson reports on the recent study that dates the Gihon Spring fortifications to the 9th century instead of the Middle Bronze Age.
A group of swimmers swam across the Dead Sea to draw attention to the lake’s declining condition.
A unique Chalcolithic wall painting with an 8-pointed star is on display in Jerusalem for the first time since it was discovered at Teleilat Ghassul in the 1930s.
The Israel Antiquities Authority has issued a press release with an accompanying video (below) describing a rare papyrus dating to the time of Judah’s monarchy and mentioning the name of Jerusalem. The two-line document measures 4 inches long and 1 inch tall and describes jars of wine shipped to Jerusalem. It was written by a high-ranking female official in the time of Kings Manasseh or Josiah. The papyrus was discovered by antiquities thieves working in a cave in the Judean wilderness.
“Two lines of ancient Hebrew script were preserved on the document that is made of papyrus (paper produced from the pith of the papyrus plant [Cyperus papyrus]). A paleographic examination of the letters and a C14 analysis determined that the artifact should be dated to the seventh century BCE – to the end of the First Temple period. Most of the letters are clearly legible, and the proposed reading of the text appears as follows:
[מא]מת. המלך. מנערתה. נבלים. יין. ירשלמה. [me-a]mat. ha-melekh. me-Na?artah. nevelim. yi’in. Yerushalima. From the king’s maidservant, from Na?arat, jars of wine, to Jerusalem
“This is a rare and original shipping document from the time of the First Temple, indicating the payment of taxes or transfer of goods to storehouses in Jerusalem, the capital city of the kingdom at this time. The document specifies the status of the sender of the shipment (the king’s maidservant), the name of the settlement from which the shipment was dispatched (Na’arat), the contents of the vessels (wine), their number or amount (jars) and their destination (Jerusalem). Na’artah, which is mentioned in the text, is the same Na’arat that is referred to in the description of the border between Ephraim and Benjamin in Joshua 16:7: “And it went down from Janohah to Ataroth, and to Na’arat, and came to Jericho, and went out at Jordan”.
“According to Dr. Eitan Klein, deputy director of the IAA’s Unit for the Prevention of Antiquities Robbery, “The document represents extremely rare evidence of the existence of an organized administration in the Kingdom of Judah. It underscores the centrality of Jerusalem as the economic capital of the kingdom in the second half of the seventh century BCE. According to the Bible, the kings Menashe [Manasseh], Amon, or Josiah ruled in Jerusalem at this time; however, it is not possible to know for certain which of the kings of Jerusalem was the recipient of the shipment of wine”.
“Israel Prize laureate and biblical scholar Prof. (Emeritus) Shmuel Ahituv attests to the scientific importance of the document, ‘It’s not just that this papyrus is the earliest extra-biblical source to mention Jerusalem in Hebrew writing; it is the fact that to date no other documents written on papyrus dating to the First Temple period have been discovered in Israel, except one from Wadi Murabbaat. Also outstanding in the document is the unusual status of a woman in the administration of the Kingdom of Judah in the seventh century BCE.’”
The full press release includes more quotes from senior officials.
One assumes that the cave where this papyrus was discovered was thoroughly searched, but no additional fragments were found. Even so, it surely increases hope that more such ancient documents are preserved. Hopefully the IAA will get ahead of the thieves by conducting more excavations. With a tantalizing discovery like this one, I suspect that the public might be willing to support it financially.
I’m trying to think of other papyrus fragments from the time of Jerusalem’s destruction in 586 BC and earlier, and none are coming to mind. The press release does not mention any. If this is unique in that regard, this discovery is all the more remarkable.
UPDATE: Christopher Rollston believes the papyrus may be ancient but the writing a modern forgery. Joseph Lauer has alerted us to high-res photos available here.
Word is out about a ancient papyrus to be presented next week by Shmuel Ahituv. The Hebrew papyrus includes the word “to Jerusalem,” and dates to about the time of King Hezekiah. It was discovered recently in the Judean wilderness and purchased from an antiquities dealer. For information about the conference, see Aren Maeir’s post and his mention of this “VERY
INTERESTING” papyrus.
HT: Joseph Lauer
UPDATE (10/22): The now-deleted reference to the number of lines on the papyrus was based on the mistaken assumption that the article’s photo showed the newly discovered papyrus.
A stone seal discovered this summer at Abel Beth Maacah suggests Israelite presence at the site in the 9th century.
Luke Chandler has collected a number of photos of floor tiles from Herod’s Temple Mount that have been restored by the Temple Mounting Sifting Project. The Jerusalem Post has more details. There are more photos here. A 20-minute video of the press conference is online, with English starting at about 3 minutes.
Archaeologists have uncovered a Byzantine-era stable at Avdat in southern Israel. High school students joined in the sifting of hundreds of buckets of organic material left behind by donkeys, sheep, and goats. Five high-resolution photos are available.
A mosaic from the Huqoq synagogue may depict Alexander the Great meeting the high priest of Jerusalem. Another interpretation is that it shows the battle between Antiochus VII and John Hyrcanus I. The National Geographic article has photos.
Thursday’s Archaeological Conference in the City of David entitled “Digging for Truth — Jerusalem,
Archaeology & UNESCO” may be watched online. Parts are in Hebrew and other parts in English, with the whole lasting 4.5 hours. The program may be viewed here. The Jerusalem Post reports on the talk by Dore Gold.
A high school student found a ballista ball from the Bar Kochba Revolt during recent excavations of Beitar.
Excavators working at Abel Beth Maacah discovered one of the earliest silver hoards ever found.
There’s more information about the excavation of the chariot race mosaic in Cyprus.
To make the looting of Syrian artifacts more difficult, the US State Department announced emergency import restrictions.
“Oxford University researchers say that trees which grew during intense radiation bursts in the past have ‘time-markers’ in their tree-rings that could help archaeologists date events from thousands of years ago.”
Wayne Stiles explains how the Herodium testifies to God’s sovereignty.
If you wanted to know a little more about Enoch’s journey through the world (referenced in
Thursday’s survey results), Paleojudaica explains.
The new NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible is being released on Tuesday. It looks impressive, and you can flip through the entire books of Genesis and Matthew online to see for yourself.
Hundreds of photos, maps, and charts accompany study notes edited by John Walton (OT) and Craig
Keener (NT). The promotional website also includes videos and infographics.
HT: Agade, Ted Weis, Joseph Lauer
Our most re-tweeted photo of the week was this aerial photo taken by Bill Schlegel of Jerusalem from the southwest. The Citadel of David is in the foreground and the Mount of Olives is in the distance.
The Israeli police arrested five members of the Waqf for erecting scaffolding and carrying out structural changes on the Dome of the Rock without authorization.
A new study suggests that there was widespread literacy in the kingdom of Judah in the 6th century BC. The full study is available for purchase or free through Academia.
The Temple Institute is planning to open the first school for training priests to serve in the Jerusalem temple.
Jeremy Smoak compares the silver amulets from Jerusalem with the Ekron temple inscription.
Wayne Stiles: “God inspired metaphors of biblical geography and botany to highlight one of the most important aspects in any healthy marriage.”
The Winter 2016 issue of DigSight is now online and includes stories on Qeiyafa finds, past lectures, and a new exhibit.
An article on the Inspiration Cruises website gives a little history of a Finnish moshav established in Israel in the 1970s and named in memory of Jews surrendered to the Nazis in World War II.
Martin Bachmann, the German Archaeology Institute’s deputy Istanbul director and the head of the Pergamon excavations, died this week at the age of 52.
The BiblePlaces Blog provides updates and analysis of the latest in biblical archaeology, history, and geography. Unless otherwise noted, the posts are written by Todd Bolen, PhD, Professor of Biblical Studies at The Master’s University.
